ALB
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“Irish PR” , ie the single transferable vote, also applies for local elections in Scotland. I don’t think the party has contested an election under this system as when we contested elections in Northern Ireland that was before the system was introduced there. It would be interesting— but might turnout to be embarrassing — to see to which other parties our second, third and other preference votes would go since I wouldn’t have thought many would strictly follow our advice to just “plump” for our candidate.
Revealing reaction of business and the media to Johnson’s bluster and bombast in his opening shot in the negotiations with the EU on a future trade deal.
He made a faux pas when he said that he would rather have tariffs than have to follow trading rules decided in Brussels. At the very mention of the word “tariffs” the pound sterling immediately fell against both the dollar and the euro.
It was just rhetoric as the EU is not demanding that the UK should simply follow rules it sets. It is demanding a “level playing field” to prevent unfair competition from UK goods whether through state subsidies or lower regulatory standards. But there are other ways in which this can be achieved eg by the two sides mutually recognising each other’s standards as being equivalent or by the UK unilaterally adopting the same or equivalent standards. As the Times put it on 3 February in its editorial,
“Mr Johnson’s objections to following EU rules have less to do with what these rules are and more to do with whose rules they are.
It is hard to believe that his government really believes that two birds in the bush are worth more than one in the hand and would be so irresponsible from a capitalist point of view to release the one they have got to go after two (or more) in the bush. But then there is the cock-up theory of history.
Interesting but essentially scaremongering on the part of the sectional capitalist interests involved.
What you have pointed out in the case of Sanders applies equally to Warren:
”On various US progressive websites I have argued that a Sanders presidency would face a united opposition of Republicans and Democratic parties in Congress – he would be an orphan president.”
The President does have fairly wide powers but passing laws is not one of them. That’s up to the House of Representatives and the Senate. So to implement their vote-catching programmes (at the moment only aimed at Democratic Party supporters) Sanders and/or Warren would need majorities for them there too. As of course would a mass movement in the US for real socialism as a stateless, wageless, moneyless society, at least in the House.
A contributor to the Socialist Standard has drawn attention to what the Indian government is recommending to deal with this:
As the article says:
“If it weren’t for the Dalai Lama recently telling his followers to chant a mantra as protection, India’s purported tips to fend off the coronavirus might be the least effective advice offered yet. Now, the two will have to battle for that top spot”
At least the Chinese government isn’t relying on “traditional Chinese medicine” which they have been known to promote in general. They are not so stupid when things are serious.
Looks as if we should take a look in more detail at their pamphlet on workers cooperatives mentioned in the thread on that. So here’s some extracts:
“In order for Irish society to have a fair, functioning economy which works for workers and our communities, ownership must be shared. Sinn Féin is serious about addressing inequality in our society, and we are therefore serious about dealing with the inequality of ownership which exists in our economy. That is why Sinn Féin is committed to developing an economy in which workers have a greater share of ownership through Worker Co-operatives (WCOP’s). These are businesses in which the workers of the enterprise own at least 51% of the shares. (…)
An economy that works for workers
Today, Ireland has an economy which does not work for its workers. Despite experiencing high levels of GDP growth (World Economic Forum, 2018) as well as increased levels of productivity (WEF, 2018), gross levels of inequality continue to rise (CSO 2016, TASC, 2019, Social Justice, 2019). (….)
Sinn Féin believes that this wealth inequality is a result of our economy being detrimentally ‘short-termist’ in its outlook – with private firms, through financial intermediaries, weighing near-term profit outcomes too heavily at the expense of longer-term sustainability. This has become the hegemonic strategy for private enterprise. The reality is that ownership shapes purpose. If we allow our economy to be owned and controlled by a small group of elites whose objective is that of profit, then that will be the purpose of our economy. If, however, we agree as a society that our preference is to establish an economy based upon productivity, sustainability and equality then ownership of our economy must be equitably spread across society. This new economy can be achieved through alternative models of business ownership. Sinn Féin believes that the Worker Co-operative Model offers an exciting and innovative alternative.”
Empty electoralist promises or self-delusion? To be fair probably the latter, but it doesn’t matter as it wouldn’t work and won’t even be tried on any large scale.
In any event, the increased support for SF would seem to be more a vote against the previously established parties (which also have names derived from the Irish Civil War, i.e Tribe of the Gaels and Soldiers of Destiny) than for what it says it stands for.
It’s the same over here. Because they can’t build houses on their land (Green Belt), in Surrey landowners put their land to another use:
Info here on golf courses in rest of Britain too.
In the days before political correctness this sort of thing used to be called “Asian flu” but it wasn’t a joke:
Revealing quote from President Bolsonaro of Brazil in this article (about how even “progressive” governments in Latin America, as in Venezuela and Bolivia, have been forced to cut down forests by capitalist pressures):
“If we continue with protected areas and indigenous regions, agribusiness ends in Brazil and if agribusiness ends, so does our economy.”
Under capitalism, this is a perfectly logical position for a state to take: agribusiness is profitable and taxing it brings in money for the state, therefore it must be protected and allowed to continue and expand. As is his statement to the UN General Assembly in September that:
“It is a fallacy to say that the Amazon is the heritage of humankind.”
Agreed, it is a fallacy. The Amazon is not the heritage of humankind but it should be, only it never will be under capitalism.
Also, in Brazil, it seems to be like in the US. They put Amerindians on reservations but when the land is required to make a profit they want to kick them off it.
That quote from Connolly was from the period when he had not yet gone completely reformist, but he couldn’t half waffle when he wanted to.
The article was praising the words “sinn fein” not the organisation of that name of which he is critical:
“Thus the Sinn Féin body of the Argentine Republic, as recorded in the Gaelic American, states that Sinn Féin demands freedom for Ireland on the basis of the Act of Renunciation in 1782. This is absurd. The act by which the English Parliament renounced the right to make laws binding on Ireland left untouched the power of oppression, political and economic.”
Of course in the end he was executed for his leading role in a failed bid to set up a capitalist republic in Ireland which also “left untouched the power of oppression, political and economic” and for which he is a “national hero”.
Watched the deluded idiots in parliament square last night as they waved the union rag and sang god save the queen and imagined that they had just won freedom and independence. They hadn’t, only some sections of the capitalist class had.
But there’s hope yet. Not all Leave voters are that stupid. Here, according to Katy Balls in today’s i paper, is what focus groups have found about what those in the north and midlands who switched to voting Tory:
”When it comes to these new voters, there is a sense from focus groups that a lot of them hear conversations on trade deals and feel as though it doesn’t help them personally — it’s a preoccupation of the rich.”
Pity they didn’t realise earlier that the whole Brexit saga was essentially about trade arrangements and so just “a preoccupation of the rich.”
Why should we worry who the Democratic Party’s candidate for the presidency is going to be? Let them stop Bernie if they want. Why should we care!
Writing in today’s Times one of their columnists Philip Collins, once Tony Blair’s speech-writer and who doesn’t normally talk sense, put it rather well:
”In the course of their everyday lives most people are not going to notice Brexit either way. They will have a blue passport and a coin and Brexit will retreat to the list of questions to which the British public pay little attention even though, as the trade talks unfold, there is a lot more Brexit to come … Brexit has been a pathetic spectacle which has encouraged and stoked the worst in British politics. It will be a pleasure to see the back of it.”
Doesn’t Sinn Fein also claim to be “socialist” in some sort of vague way, based on advocating workers cooperatives as “an economy that works for workers”:
https://www.sinnfein.ie/files/2019/Workers_Co-operatives.pdf
Incidentally, their basic policy implied by their name of We Ourselves on our own has been adopted by the British government and comes into force this evening (even if, ironically, SF were in favour of Britain staying in the EU).
