Entertainment, Information, Education, Fun.

      Glasgow, great city that it is, always something going on, at the moment we have the Spirit of Revolt exhibition, The Rent strike, 100 years On”, taking place in the Mitchell Library foyer, running until November 28th. Following on from that we have an eight day festival of events from, “The Only Way Is Ethics”, running from November 29th. To December 6th. This festival has a myriad of events, so I'm sure you will find one or more to grab your interest. If I were to pick a couple that I will certainly be at, then it would be, “Banner Tales of Glasgow” December 1st, Free, from 6pm-9pm. Film, Live Music and Conversation. The other, a must, would be Wednesday 2nd December, “The Man Who Never Died” a Joe Hill Song Night, Live Music, 17:30-23:00, this is shaping up to be a fantastic night, £7, £4 un-waged. Both these events will take place in The Old Hairdressers, 27 Renfield Lane Glasgow G2 6PH. It's events like this that let's us take the council's sterile slogan, “People Make Glasgow” and turn it into a truth, the real people make the real Glasgow.

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THE PRICE OF OUR COMFORT.

        It is easy in our society to fall for the illusion that you can be green and ethical and still fit in somewhere. With modern globalisation practically everything we touch has been produced by brutal exploitation somewhere in some dismal corner of the planet. Social networking, so popular in the developed world, relies on mobile phones and computers, both rather dirty things. That cheap pair of jeans and that cheap cotton shirt, somebody sweated blood for hours to get the raw material. It is very difficult not to be party to that exploitation. Of course we can try and we can campaign for a greener world, a more ethical world, but the bottom line is if we don't change the economic system under which all that merchandise is produced, then the exploitation will just move around the planet.

Photo from HERE:

        Information is the key, if people know the full trail of the things they use, then I'm sure they would see the injustice of such things as migrant workers working 10 hour shifts in blazing sunshine in California’s fruit farms with no reasonable breaks, insufficient water and below the minimum wage, so that your local supermarket can have cheap fruit on their shelves. Also of course producing massive profits for the corporate body and its shareholders. Certainly we should strive for a greener and more ethical world but never lose sight of the fact that it is the economic system that is the problem, not the individual corporate body that does the exploiting. Seeking a more caring compassionate corporate world, is much the same as asking the fox to be a little bit more caring towards the chickens.

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FAIR AND JUST CORPORATISM!!!!

         There are all sorts of pundits spouting what is wrong with the system of capitalism at the moment. Even those who support the system are still critical of the way it is functioning at present. To them the system can be fixed, it is just a bit more regulation and nice ethical CEOs at the top of the corporations, and all will be well. Poverty will disappear and we will all live in abundance. I find this belief in an ethical corporate beast as rather laughable. Corporations buy politicians, politicians move into lucrative positions in the corporate world. A quote from one of these reformers tells us something about the system: Read the full article HERE.

        Our Congress today is a forum for legalized bribery. One consumer group using information from Opensecrets.org calculates that the financial services industry, including real estate, spent $2.3 billion on federal campaign contributions from 1990 to 2010, which was more than the health care, energy, defense, agriculture and transportation industries combined. Why are there 61 members on the House Committee on Financial Services? So many congressmen want to be in a position to sell votes to Wall Street.

Adbusters corporate flag.

        Don't for a minute think that what goes on in the American political/financial circles doesn't go on here and in every country in the developed world. Another quote from the same article perhaps should be taken seriously over here as well as in America: 4) Finally, an idea from the blogosphere: U.S. congressmen should have to dress like Nascar drivers and wear the logos of all the banks, investment banks, insurance companies and real estate firms that they’re taking money from. The public needs to know. Of course, we will never really know, it is a duplicitous system.

I used to be a politician, but I'm in finance now.

          The basic principles of the system has no room for ethics, the rules are simple, maximise your profit margin, increase your market share and reduce your costs. How do you equate this with improving the conditions of the workforce, removing exploitation, improving the health and safety of all workers and workplaces and of course distributing the proceeds of the labour fairly? Capitalism is an inherently unfair system, those with the wealth are always in a position to exploit those without the wealth, there is nothing fair, just or ethical about that. The system can't be overhauled to eradicate these contradictions, it has to be dismantled and an alternative system created in its place. I'm sure we have the imagination and the resources to create a system that sees to the needs of all our people, based on mutual aid and co-operation, a system of fairness and justice founded on sustainability. The only problem is when, time is running out.

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