Richard Millett KC, said the risks that led to the June 2017 fire at Grenfell Tower were ‘well known’ by many of the organisations and ‘ought to have been known’ by all of them: ‘Each and every one of the deaths that occurred in Grenfell Tower, on the 14 June 2017 was avoidable’… the building industry companies were blaming each other ‘in a merry-go-round of blame’ (bbc.in/3UAFKFc).
Greed was a key motivator and private sector organisations involved in the refurbishment had shown ‘a callous indifference to anything – morality, honesty, life safety – that was not related to the bottom line of the business’, said Imran Khan KC (bit.ly/3EvquEg).
Capitalism, doncha just love it?
Worried about bills? Spare a thought for the continuing suffering in Sri Lanka (bit.ly/3WfVgaG). According to Save the Children two-thirds of families are now struggling to feed themselves (bit.ly/3FpQO3p).
Parents have begun leaving their children in care homes as they can no longer feed them (bit.ly/3sEsLWX). Teachers say children are fainting in class because they’ve come to school hungry.
The tragedy is that the world could easily feed all the people in it. If it wasn’t for capitalism siphoning all the wealth into the bank accounts of the super-rich.
Catastrophe unfolds in Somalia.
Unicef says half-starved Somali children are being admitted to clinics at a rate of one a minute, with many more not reaching a clinic: ‘we are facing the death of children on a scale not seen in half a century’ (bit.ly/3Sv2bdb).
Climate change, Covid, civil war and the Ukraine war have resulted in widespread food insecurity for tens of millions in the region. The UN estimates 300,000 Somalis will face famine by December.
When a 2011 Somali famine killed 250,000, governments swore never again. But it’s always never again, until next time.
Since 1979, the Islamic republic’s response to dissent has been ruthless suppression.
Women have suffered ‘gender apartheid’, and are getting beaten to death over how they wear hijabs. Now public rage has boiled over into open confrontation.
What does the state do? It shoots young women and schoolchildren.
Will Iranian workers succeed in throwing off the yoke of the ayatollahs? We hope so, for their sakes. The World Socialist Movement can do no more than express our sympathy and solidarity with the women and men of Iran in their struggle for more freedom. (More on this here).
On Monday 17 October Jeremy Hunt admitted something we’ve been saying forever, that ‘No government can control markets’ (bbc.in/3yMdtml).
He went on to say ‘…but every government can give certainty about the sustainability of public finances’. But markets determine whether government can administer these state functions. Those markets are driven by the profit motive. When Hunt talks about restoring confidence, he means capitalists’ confidence, not yours.
Remember this next time politicians promise to manage the profit system. They won’t. They’re liars or they’re deluded. For more on this see Why capitalism will not be controlled.
