alanjjohnstone
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Yet another link that may be of use.http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/brain/the-ultimate-class-struggle-how-poverty-can-harm-young-minds/article7882957/?page=all“The genes, in a sense, are listening to the environment,” says Marla Sokolowski, who specializes in genetics and behavioural neurology at the University of Toronto."Researchers have long recognized that not everyone abused or neglected as a child goes on to have problems. In some cases, genes can buffer against environmental effects and allow the brain to develop normally; in others, those that might otherwise be silent are triggered by adversity in early childhood and so influence brain development…Prof. Sokolowski says, by reducing the signals of key genes that guide brain development “like a dimmer switch.” This, in turn, affects cognition and behaviour with consequences that can reverberate through a lifetime."“The brain is not fragile; the brain is adaptive,” Dr. Herztman says. “The question is whether or not those adaptations will allow you to cope with the world you are then going to live in….“It’s a kind of vigilance – the brain is searching for threatening stimuli to thwart,” Dr. Hertzman says. But the epigenetic fine-tuning comes at a cost…The problem is that the developmental signals and the demands of modern society become a mismatch."
Yet again another gradualist approach.http://www.countercurrents.org/candeias240113.htm"Over the medium-term, it is necessary to socialize the investment function, which is an old Keynesian demand…What is needed is financial regulation, the nationalization of “systemically relevant” banks, a network of public banks, and the introduction of participatory budgeting at all levels of society. The socialization of investment and participatory investment decisions are two of the preconditions for a left-wing and socialist project of structural transformation…"
Another link to read. This time, does DNA determine leaders?http://phys.org/news/2013-01-born-leadership-inherited-trait.html#ajTabsAnd even if it does, society has created social measures to thwart it free rein.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/24/asteroid_mining_economy/This article may represent the future…private companies. A return to such companies as the East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company?
For my response see the blog post at Socialist Courierhttp://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2013/01/there-is-enough-food.htmland the reply to David Attenborough on SOYMBhttp://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/2013/01/david-attenborough-is-wrong.html
"next time if you fly the Atlantic and you're half-way across the Atlantic and somebody says, Well, flight traffic controllers in New York have gone into assembly-mode right now and they are going to discuss which airline should get priority landing,"Having worked in air traffic for a couple of years a long time ago at Prestwick, it is indeed a silly argument Harvey is making. Air traffic rules exist and are clearly set down for almost every conceivable eventuality including who goes into a holding stack and those who fly understand that they obey instructions for their OWN safety as well as everybody else's. The rules are surprisingly very basic. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separation_%28air_traffic_control%29Air traffic control is indeed an example of efficient world co-operation. (little known fact that during the Cold War Berlin Airlift, Russian and East German air traffic controllers were assisting the West's flights)I think Pieter Lawrence was endeavouring to answer this issue in his debate upon law that as Harvey probably correctly says, some anarchists fetish "the total freedom" argument rather than accept that there is a limit on an individual's liberty and requires personal responsiblity in accepting certain decisions outwith your expertise or experience and there are rules to be obeyed for the collective well-being. Within the party the real debate if i recall was centred upon the role of sanctions and penalties for breaking the rules.But the counter argument conclusion is probably closer to the truth "In fact, removing the management hierarchy and profit incentive…might not only make a safer world,"
SPEW have had their say on the by-election and are even more upbeat than our own election committee on the result.http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/749/16021/23-01-2013/building-an-anti-cuts-voice-in-council-elections"New Labour-led Lambeth council called the Brixton Hill byelection for 17 January, minimising scrutiny of their cuts programme with a short election campaign period.In near zero temperatures, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition campaign – supported by the local anti-cuts movement – was enormously positive.Despite the short campaign, the whole ward was leafleted with two-thirds canvassed. Unlike many elections, TUSC received coverage in the local press and 80 people heard our candidate speak at a hustings meeting organised by the Brixton Bugle. A complication was that the purely propagandist Socialist Party of Great Britain also stood. However the combined TUSC and SPGB vote was 4.2 %. The campaign raised TUSC's standing. We finished above Ukip, despite that group's continual media coverage. Crucially the campaign has given TUSC authority to call a meeting to coordinate an anti-cuts challenge across Lambeth in the full council elections in 2014."Seems that they depend upon fair-weather socialists for their vote. And we will be facing them again in 2014. No mention of their man and a dog and SPGB member meeting! We are a complication!!
Another example of the human face of a new but different type of capitalism. It begins with the idea that it is the middle way between reformism and violent revolution yet would lead to a fundamental change in society. Whats the plan? Nationalise the banks leading to the eventual public take-over of the large corporation. Build non-profit community co-ops. Create an Americn version of NHS universal health-care. 19th C "Municipal socialism" with cities owning utilities and businesses. The article denies it is advocating "state-socialism" but something new yet what else is it despite the usual caveats of decentralisation , democratisation and what-not ?http://www.alternet.org/economy/6-economic-steps-better-life-and-real-prosperity-all?paging=off
Maybe this articles content may be of interest.—-If the Nazis exterminated well over 70% of diagnosed schizophrenics yet a generation later that nation had a higher rate of incidence of new cases of schizophrenia than did surrounding nations and accepting that those diagnosed with schizophrenia and other "seriously disabling mental disorders," like bipolar and major depression, have markedly lower reproductive rates compared with the general population, but the prevalence of these disorders throughout the industrialized world has increased, shouldn't we be asking questions about heritability?Instead of focusing on nature vs. nurture causes of mental illness, it's time to consider whether certain phenomena are really symptoms of pathology, or instead are inextricable aspects of our humanity. By pathologizing behaviors the pharmaceutical industry's antipsychotic drug bonanza is now more than $18 billion annually in the US alone. If we accept that hearing voices is not evidence of illness, but actually within the normal range of human experience, then, just as in the case of homosexuality, depression and life-sacrificing altruism, neither genocide nor lower reproductive rates will affect its prevalence. In other words, if phenomena are inextricably part of our humanity, to eliminate such phenomena, all human beings must be eliminated.http://truth-out.org/news/item/13851-what-happened-after-a-nation-methodically-murdered-its-schizophrenics-rethinking-mental-illness-and-genetics
I'd drop reference to the journalist…why single out one profession. An appendix should be added detailing the specific rules you cite. "voluntarism is not autonomism" – bit jargonese to be easily understood i think Anyways i agree that the party should take th opportunity to make an agreed statement about the party organisation and its internal democracy but widen it so that although using the SWP as a springboard, it includes other Trots out , and not just the anarchist alternative
Over three-quarters of the electorate didn't bother to vote. That's where we should be targetting our campaign message. How? Well, I'll delegate that to the elections committee
Another example of "new capitalism" by John Perkins of Economic Hitman fame.http://realchangenews.org/index.php/site/archives/7410"I think what we need is to create a new goal for business. Businesses should make a decent rate of return for investors, but only within the context of being socially and environmentally responsible. ..We need to create a new economic model and a new goal for businesses, one that says, “Yes, you need to make a decent rate of return for your investors, but only while serving the public interest.” That should be the role of corporations."
Chinese state banking – too much cash !!The Postal Savings Bank was founded in 2007 when the government split off the savings accounts from the country’s 36,000 postal outlets. It is the nation’s fifth-biggest bank by deposits with $724bn.But it has lent out only a fraction of that cash. Its loan-to-deposit ratio stands at less than 20 per cent, compared with a Chinese industry-wide average closer to 70 per cent.Sitting on so much underused cash, some bank managers are alleged to have provided loans at rates well below the prevailing cost of money in the open market in return for kickbacks. Bound by tight restrictions, it was expected that the Postal Savings Bank would have many more deposits than loans on its books for years to come.China Development Bank, a state-owned bank with a mandate to fund infrastructure construction, is the sole provider of acquisition financing to CP Group. CDB does not take deposits and its main source of funding is to sell bonds to other banks. As a government-backed, gold-plated borrower, debt is cheap for CDB and it is sitting on a pile of unused cash.Non-bank sources of credit, including bonds, exceeded bank loans in the second half of 2012, an important step towards a diversified financial system. But there is a catch. Economists at Citigroup estimate that about 70 per cent of all non-bank financing in China is in fact only the off-balance-sheet activities of traditional banks.http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c4466c7a-5f02-11e2-8250-00144feab49a.html#axzz2I87H7c6G
Much the same as the Socialist Courier blog concluded…"The strike would be seen by many as simply another day’s pay lost. The government would have little to fear from a 24-hour stoppage and it would just be a matter of "business as usual" the next day…An ill-prepared or poorly supported general strike could be an enormous self-inflicted defeat for the working class. Empty sloganeering gets us nowhere. If we are to build towards a general strike, we need to lay foundations in every workplace and every community and we need to ensure that no one is under any illusions that this will be an easy fight… it should be noted that 24 hour general strike would be evidence of the potential power and organisation of the working class and the level of organisation beforehand that would be required to make it a carrying it off a success would indicate a rise in political consciousness to independently organise…But after 24 hours everyone would have to go back to work and the question would be "What now?" An indefinite general strike to challenge for political power in one form or another? Who really believes the working class is currently in a position to issue such a challenge and prevail?…"http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/2013/01/all-out-or-all-for-socialism.html
