ALB

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Viewing 15 posts - 5,836 through 5,850 (of 10,420 total)
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  • ALB
    Keymaster

    Here's most of Socialist Review from Jamaica:http://www.worldsocialism.org/english/socialist-reviewIncidentally, from the WSM site (rather than the SPGB).

    in reply to: Brexit begins #126365
    ALB
    Keymaster

    After Norway and Switzerland, the model arrangement has been relegated to … the Ukraine. Here's Simon Nixon in last Thursday's Times (6 April):

    Quote:
    Ukraine, for example, negotiated an Association Agreement with the EU that covers security and foreign policy, as well as a deep and comprehensive trade agreement. This deal allows Ukraine tariff-free access to much of the EU single market for goods in return for compliance with EU rules overseen by a bilateral commission, but it isn't part part of the customs union, allowing it to strike its own trade deals.
    in reply to: Syria and Chemical weapons #126493
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Apparently, according to the media, the US gave the Russian military one hour's notice of the attack, time for them to move their personnell and to tell the Syrian government to move theirs. Hence, the low number of casualties, mainly civilians living near the base, including childrem. So maybe it was just a one-off, token, shot across the bows. Let's hope so.As a Tomahawk missile is said to cost $1.5 million dollars each, times 59 that makes the cost nearly $90 milliom. The money for destruction is always when the State needs it.Trump in his speech justified it on the grounds of defending the US's "vital national interest'. That would have been inserted by his lawyers to get round the 'ban' on war in that scrap of paper the UN Charter except where 'vital' national interest is involved.

    in reply to: Levellers’ Day 2017 #126543
    ALB
    Keymaster

    As in previous years, West London branch have already booked a stall.

    in reply to: Changing the D of P #126537
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Clause 6 and 8 of the WSPUS's Declaration of Principles are not quite the same as ours. Why should they be, e.g. there is no aristocratic privilege to overthrow in the US?http://www.wspus.org/sample-page/declaration-of-principles/

    ALB
    Keymaster
    in reply to: The PRINCIPLE of HEALTHY & MEANINGFUL LIVING #126021
    ALB
    Keymaster

    I don't think Prakhash bans squandering money on pets, does he?

    in reply to: Syria and Chemical weapons #126470
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Both sides have used (permitted) chemical weapons but it is not that plausible all that the Syrian government would choose now to use sarin (they are not in that desperate a position, in fact the opposite). More plausible is that it was the rebels to discredit the government, egged on or even arranged by the Turkish or some other regime that wants to escalate the war now that the government is winning. After all, they do think they have god on their side and god can do no wrong.A discussion here:http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_SYRIA_CHEMICAL_WEAPONS_ANALYSIS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-04-06-06-53-07

    in reply to: The PRINCIPLE of HEALTHY & MEANINGFUL LIVING #126014
    ALB
    Keymaster

    You forget that cats weren't originally pets. They performed a useful role in homes and in farms of keeping mice and rats (which eat food supplies) down. I can't see why this couldn't be so in socialism, especially on your small-scale farms.

    in reply to: Local Election Campaign 2017 #126125
    ALB
    Keymaster

    THe full name of "The Socialist Party of Great Britain".

    in reply to: Local Election Campaign 2017 #126123
    ALB
    Keymaster

    We now know who are opponents are in Guildford West:Chandler (Tory), Dokimakis (Lab), Purvis (Green), White (LibDem) and Morris (Peace Party).White is the outgoing councillor. There is no UKIP candidate (no point anyway, now they've won the referendum).The Peace Party is a christian-inspired pacificist party, based in Guildford, which regularly contests elections there, including the last General Election. They are on the ballot paper as "The Peace Party – Non-Violence, Justice, Environment".In the rest of Surrey, there is one other candidate using the word "socialist" on the ballot paper: TUSC in Staines.

    in reply to: 100% reserve banking #86965
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Alan is right. If you think "fiat money is made from debt" you haven't been following this thread. But what's the basis for this claim?

    in reply to: Global Resource Bank #125468
    ALB
    Keymaster

    Hey, moderator, can't you do anything about this poncy ponzi? He's abusing our hospitability by making minor changes to past posts so his thread always appears at the top. A mark mof a real obsessive crank-pot

    in reply to: The PRINCIPLE of HEALTHY & MEANINGFUL LIVING #125988
    ALB
    Keymaster
    Prakash RP wrote:
    [ Would like to add the following text to my comment dated 02 April 2017: ' I wish British socialists would NOT fail to take cognisance … ' ] ' We hold that socialism ( or communism, the same thing ) can only come into being when a majority want it, i.e. it depends on majority political action,but you are never going to get a majority behave as you propose. ' [ ALB's comment dated 27/03/2017 ] I'd like to substitute the expressions ' a majority ' and ' majority political action ' in the above quote with respectively ' the majority of the politically active section of the working people ' and ' the political action of the majority of the politically active section of the working people '.

    Now we are getting to the bottom of it. This sounds like a formula for minority political action. Is it?

    in reply to: 100% reserve banking #86959
    ALB
    Keymaster

    I'm reading (or re-reading, can't remember) Rudolf Hilferding's classic Finance Capital from 1910. He clearly understood how banks work:

    Quote:
    As a provider of credit, the bank works with all the capital at its disposal; its own and that of others. Its gross profit consists of interest paid on the capital which it has lent. Its net profit – after deduction of expenses – is the difference between the interest paid to it and the interest, which it pays on deposits. This profit is not, therefore, profit in the strict sense, and its level is not determined by the average rate of profit. Like that of any other money capitalist it arises from interest. The position of middleman that the bank occupies in credit circulation enables it to profit not only from its own capital, like any other money capitalist, but also from that of its creditors to whom it pays a lower interest than it demands from its debtors.(…) The level of interest depends upon supply and demand of loan capital in general, of which bank capital is only a part. This level of interest determines the gross profit. In order to attract the greatest possible amount of money for their use, the banks in turn pay interest on their deposits; and the amount of such capital at the disposal of any bank depends, ceteris paribus, upon the level of interest which it pays on deposits. Competition for deposits compels the banks to pay the highest possible rate of interest. The difference between the interest which the banks receive as creditors and the interest which they pay as debtors constitutes their net profit. (p. 172)

    Of course, some banks also make profits from other activities such as share flotations but this is the investment banking side of the activities and of investment banks, which Hilferding is more interested in. 

Viewing 15 posts - 5,836 through 5,850 (of 10,420 total)