Raw Capitalism.

         I'm always surprised when people are shocked when companies take every opportunity to cut wage bills and increase profit margins. After all, that is the basic mechanism of capitalism. Increase market share, reduce costs and increase profit margins, its what they do. We should all have seen the wonderful opportunity that large companies would have through Copvid19 crisis. It would be a case of gloves off and get tore into raw capitalism. Grasping every opportunity to reduce wages and slash working conditions, and say with sad eyes, as if they cared about the staff that they have milked for years, how difficult these decisions are. Basically they don't give a shit about their workers and would gladly dump the lot if they could mechanise all their operations.

The following extract is from a BBC news article:

       British Airways staff who have accepted voluntary redundancy say they had felt "forced" into it. BA wants to cut 12,000 job roles and says 6,000 staff have volunteered.
       Carol - not her real name - said BA had told her if she did not accept the offer of voluntary redundancy she would have to apply for a job and if she did not get it she would only receive a statutory redundancy payout. She says the airline's conduct was "a slap in the face".
      Carol, who had worked for BA for 23 years, told the BBC: "They [BA] said 'If you don't take the offer, you'll go into the fire-and-rehire phase', but if we aren't hired, we'll get only statutory redundancy."
      Those BA cabin crew who did reapply for their jobs on a new contract are expected to find out later on Friday whether or not they lose their jobs. Carol, who worked on the long-haul fleet, said it was a foregone conclusion that the airline would not re-hire older cabin crew members.
      "Even before I had accepted the voluntary redundancy offer, I had a message on my roster from BA: 'Thank you for your service. Good luck'. That is all I got from them after 23 years.
       "It's a slap in the face, but it shows they knew who they were getting rid of," she said. She says she will be forced to sell her home since her redundancy payment won't cover her mortgage. "It's actually age discrimination, we were forced out."

Read the full article HERE:
       I have every sympathy for those who find themselves moving along on the end of a corporate boot, it's called capitalism.

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True Caspitalism.

        Across the world in developing countries we hear of brutal and draconian actions against workers who organise and act in solidarity to try to better their conditions. However here in civilised Europe we do it differently, (oops I forgot, according to our lords and masters, we are no longer Europeans) We do have dialogue and in most cases if the workers are organised enough, we get a compromise, occasionally a victory. In Germany, that so called democratic country, in one particular dispute with workers who are being treated unfairly, the gloves are off. Instead of trying to reach a compromise the bosses have decided to sack a group of workers and threatened 800 more with lay-off, if the struggle continues. Obviously the bosses feel strong enough to take on the union and confident enough to know that they will get the backing of the state if this struggle escalates. At times like this it is incumbent on all workers to stand up and show their support and solidarity with the workers at the receiving end of this brutal profit before people policy, of this capitalism with the gloves off. We surely can also stand up and take our gloves off in defence of our living conditions. When bargaining ends, real struggle begins.

This from Labour Start:

      Workers at Ameos in Germany, a private for-profit hospital corporation, are demanding fair wages, secured by a collective bargaining agreement. In the federal country of Sachsen-Anhalt in the east of Germany, for example nurses receive up to 500 EUR less than comparable employees in other hospitals. But Ameos refuses to sign a collective bargaining agreement with the union, ver.di. After massive short-term strike action in November Ameos has fired 14 workers without previous notice and has threatened 800 lay-offs should industrial action continue. The workers have now started an open-ended strike. They are fighting for better wages. Adequate payment will also help to find more people for the health professions. Adequate health care services for the region must be the priority, not ever higher profits. The workers need your support in their struggle. Please join us in sending protest emails to the regional CEO Frank-Ulrich Wiener and the Chairman of the Ameos board, Dr. Axel Paeger.

Click HERE to send email: 

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The Savage March Of Raw Capitalism.

      The previous post was on the insane savage destruction of the Amazon forest, however, it's what capitalism does, destroys. Destroys communities, environments eco-systems, fauna and flora, defacing the earth, all in the name of profit for the few. The 21st. century juggernaut capitalism, raw capitalism, capitalism with the gloves off, people and communities can be cast aside, villages removed, every action assessed as how it will show up on the financial statement of the corporate world. When and where does it stop, when the last tree has been logged, the last green spot concreted? 

Part one of a two-part Shoal report from Germany.

Hambach mine: destroying communities

             The bus stops remain, but the buses don’t call any more in the little rural village of Manheim in Nordrhein-Westfalen. The pub is still there, but permamently shut. The same with the shops. The village church is still standing but was desanctified in May this year and will never host another service. Only a handful of houses show any signs of occupation. The rest are deserted, boarded up, surrounded by bleak wastelands of rubble where once stood family homes.

 

 

        Manheim is, in fact, in the process of being completely demolished. Why? It is the latest human settlement to get in the way of the massive Hambach opencast lignite mine, which is busily laying waste to 85 square km of German countryside to extract “brown coal” used for fossil fuel power stations. Trees, wildlife, communities – nothing can ever be allowed to get in the way of industrial capitalism and its insatiable need to destroy all that is living.
       Operator RWE, whose entire executive board joined the Nazi Party en masse on May 1 1933, knows that electrical and political power always go hand in hand and thus far has been given free rein by the authorities, despite much local opposition. The human beings whose homes got in the way of their profits have been resassigned to Manheim-neu, a new settlement 7km away on the other side of the A4 motorway. 

      Just as clear-cut forests can apparently safely be replaced by planting saplings on a different site, so can people’s lives be neatly rearranged to suit the financial needs of the ruling industrial capitalist elite. An environmental activist who has been visiting Manheim for several years told me of his sadness at the death sentence imposed on the community. “You really saw the decline of the village. At some point you could not buy bread any more. People were really depressed. They said their grandparents were born there, their parents as well, they had lived there all their lives.
      “There are not a lot of old buildings in Germany because so many were destroyed in the wartime. Where I live, you need permission to paint your house – not just the colour but the kind of paint. “Here, 60km away, they are destroying whole villages. It all depends on who is wanting to do what”.
       There were attempts to protect Manheim. As well as residents determined to defy the compulsory purchases, supporters squatted some houses but were rapidly evicted and the buildings immediately rased to the ground to stop them coming back. RWE and the authorities insist that that the destruction of Manheim, with all the human trauma it involves, is for the “common good”. 

 

    Passers-by we spoke to didn’t seem to agree. One referred to RWE as “criminals”, while another preferred to describe them as “the mafia”. He noted that they ruthlessly threw people out of their homes in Manheim and then adopted a “human” approach when it came to the question of destroying Hambach Forest, arguing that the jobs were good for the local “community”. The political situation has shifted a little in Germany in 2019. Rising awareness of climate change, and the environmental crisis in general, means there is currently a question mark over the ongoing expansion of the Hambach mine. But nobody seems to have have told the people demolishing Manheim. We watched as their bulldozers tore into the walls of a place that somebody once called home. Before long, even the firm soil it stood on will have been ripped away by RWE’s enormous and brutal machineries. Is this what progress looks like? Replacing a community with a massive hole in the ground?

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Solidarity Forever.

      Something that a lot of people, especially among the young, seem to take for granted are lunch breaks, paid holidays, etc. they seem to accept them as a given, probably given by that kind employer. Of course the young people in the "gig" economy, they know different, they are being slapped in the face with with raw capitalism. No holiday pay, no lunch break, no health and safety, no guaranteed wage, no fixed working week, just used as needed. What all of us must remember is that whatever conditions we have, we wrestled them from the employers, through solidarity and struggle. Sometimes those involved in that struggle paid with the loss of their employment and/or their freedom, some paid for them with their lives. Not one of the benefits we have, were ever give by the employer, nor legislated for by the government, without that long and bitter struggle by the ordinary people. 

     The employer class at the moment feel they can now, with the aid and protection of the government, claw back lots of those hard won benefits. Once again we must turn to solidarity, across all work places, to protect what little benefits we have, and to struggle to end the exploitation of people by capital.

     The following is a little reminder of our need for solidarity, the weapon that can defeat the greed driven class of capitalist exploiters.

This from The zine formerly known as “The Call” Issue 4, –May Day 2018: 

Read PDF ll Print PDF

Solidarity Forever!

         “What force on earth is weaker than the feeble strength of one?” A revolution is the product of the combined determination of individuals. Capitalism uses isolation as a tool to steal the empowerment of the people, driving a wedge between the individual and their sense of community. The ruling class knows there exists power in unity, and in that power, a threat to their system of hierarchy and inequality. Solidarity is the greatest weapon possessed by the people. Through solidarity and struggle, workers demanded and won their rights, and through solidarity greater obstacles will be conquered. “In our hands is placed the power greater than their hoarded gold. Greater than the might of armies magnified a thousandfold

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A Very Volatile Future.

         Anybody who looks around them must be aware that the political landscape is changing rapidly and the "far right" is on the rise. This should not surprise us, as every time the capitalist system starts to sink into one of its cyclical "crises" some how, from some where, the far right is released from its sewers, and slithers across the land. We have been here before. What might be surprising is the rapid rate at which this "far right" epidemic of vicious authoritarianism has spread. I believe we are in for a very volatile future, how it pans out will depend on how well the ordinary people organise to defend the meagre handful of rights they have, how much they wish to live in freedom, or how much they will buckle under to the bare knuckles of raw capitalism. As always, the future has still to be written.

An Appeal from Its Going Down:

Donate Here

        On the evening of Friday, January 20th, a comrade of ours was shot in the stomach in the most public place on the University of Washington’s campus in Seattle – a place called “Red Square” for the color of its bricks rather than its politics.
        This Fellow Worker (what members of the IWW call ourselves) and Defender (for GDC members) is a longtime anti-fascist and dedicated activist, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the General Defense Committee of the IWW. He’s currently in critical condition at Harborview Hospital in Seattle. They have a Level One Trauma center, so it’s likely he is receiving the best quality care available, for which we are deeply grateful.
      How do we respond? We are building an expanded anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist, anti-racist, anti-sexist, and anti-fascist presence in Seattle, and this person was spearheading that effort. Will others are willing step up and replace his effort while he heals? Our response will help determine that.
          There is a limited amount of time for us to make clear to the world what is clear to us: we are under armed attack. The fascist right knows where to find us – protests such as anti-Donald Trump events, or actions against police brutality. In the Twin Cities, the trial has just begun of Allen Scarsella, one of the white supremacists who came to the Fourth Precinct in Minneapolis in November, 2015 and opened fire, shooting multiple people.
        We don’t have confirmation that the person who shot our comrade was a counter-protester angry at those protesting Milo’s hateful white nationalist misogyny. We do know that he turned himself into the police several hours later, claiming ‘self-defense.’ This, of course, is exactly what Scarsella did as well.
        Our friend will have enormous hospital bills and undoubtedly some legal costs as well. There will be a significant loss of income. Let’s raise him so much that he won’t have to worry about that angle of things. Please give. All money will be controlled directly by them and their partner; none will go to any other cause, excepting any fees associated with the fundraising service used.
        Please don’t just give; please tell your friends and families and organizations to give. That may sound daunting, but here’s why they should:
         This isn’t just about one guy. Your friends and families know that the situation has changed dramatically. They know that things are changing fast, and have heard the word fascism a lot since Trump was elected. They may even suspect that the breakneck pace of media revelations and executive decisions is intended to distract them and make them feel helpless.

Continue reading:

Donate Here

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Modern Slavery.

An appeal from Walk Free:

“The situation of migrant rights in Thailand continues to be deplorable... The case is unjust and unfair and I’m fighting it for myself and also for Thai campaigners who face the same sort of legal harassment.” (Andy Hall, following his court hearing)1

On Monday, British activist Andy Hall was indicted for criminal defamation and computer crime in a case brought about by Thai pineapple company Natural Fruit. This follows two years of persecution, after Natural Fruit took the decision to target Andy for researching alleged labour abuses at one of their factories rather than investigate the claims.

We’re horrified by this decision, which not only violates Andy’s right to free expression but also undermines wider research into labour rights abuses in Thailand and the work of other activists.

We’re doing everything in our power to try to help him: last week, the Walk Free community sent over 300,000 emails to the Thai government, urging the authorities to do everything they can to get these charges dropped. We also delivered over 180,000 signatures calling for Andy’s release to Thai officials in Thailand and the UK.

In just a few weeks Andy will have to return to court where he will be charged and possibly detained pending bail. Will you join the international outcry in support of Andy and send a message to challenge this injustice?

Call on the Thai government to drop the charges against Andy Hall now.

In solidarity,

Zoe, Jamison, Jayde, Leena and the whole Walk Free team

P.S. If found guilty, Andy faces 7 years in jail and charges of $11 million. Sonja Vartiala, executive director of Finnwatch, the organisation that released the report Andy provided the research for, has warned that, “At this point, the prospects for Andy Hall to receive a fair trial are looking grim.”2 Take action to demand that these charges are dropped NOW.

1 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11819811/British-campaigner-indicted-in-Thailand-over-report-which-alleged-abuses-at-fruit-juice-business.html

2 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/thailand/11819811/British-campaigner-indicted-in-Thailand-over-report-which-alleged-abuses-at-fruit-juice-business.html

movement of people everywhere, fighting to end one of the world's greatest evils: Modern slavery.

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A FAIR DAY'S PAY---????

        Every where you look there is evidence that we are all in this together. As most of us see our standard of living nosedive, either through wage cuts/freeze, redundancy or inflation, or perhaps even a hit from at least to of these measures being forced on us by our millionaire lords and masters, it is puzzling how a certain group seem to manage quite well in spite of the “crisis”. Take the directors of the Footsie 100 companies for example, while they go on about hard times and how difficult decisions have to be made they still manage to award themselves a whopping 43% pay increase over the previous year's salary. Perhaps if we look at it as “all in this together” means US not THEM, it all begins to make sense.

 

I have to make some very difficult decisions.

       To give you some idea of how our captains of industry are suffering in these hard times, take a wee look at the earnings for last year.

Mick Davis(Xstrata) £18,426,105.

Bart Becht (Reckitt) £17,879,000.

Michael Spencer (ICAP) £13,419,619.

Sir Terry Leahy (Tesco) £12.038,303.

Tom Albanese (Rio Tinto) £11,623,162.

Sir Martin Sorrell (WPP Group) £8,949,985.

Todd Kozel (Gulf Keystone Petroleum) £8,913,223.

Don Robert (Experian) £8,601,984.

Edward Bonham Carter (Jupiter Fund Management) £8,530,871.

Dame Marjorie Scardino (Pearson) £8,003,641.

        Not a bad wee packet for a day at the coalface, and remember these are the sweaty palmed greed parasites that sit in board rooms directing plans to cut your wages and conditions, who plan to make you redundant to increase their share of the loot that they cream of your labour. This is capitalism, screw you, I'm all right Jack. It is now raw capitalism, open and blatant exploitation of unimaginable proportions. They see nothing wrong in this greed feast, as far as they are concern the system is working just fine.

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RAW CAPITALISM - PEASANTS BEWARE.

    

        Capitalism doesn't change it's spots, it is a system of exploitation of the many for the advantage of the few. At the end of WW2 and the existence of the Soviet Union creating a threat of Communism across Europe, and other places in the world, capitalism modified slightly. In the West it made concessions to the working class and the middle class, grants to higher education, a health service, social housing, a welfare system, to help the poorest etc.. With the collapse of the Soviet Empire and Thatcher's subsequent destruction of the trade unions, the threat of communism had gone. The need to appease the workers no longer existed. Capitalism could get back to its true form, it was time for raw capitalism with the gloves off. What we are living through is the system of capitalism mounting an all out attack on the working class and the middle class. For the majority real austerity will be the order of the day, with education an expensive luxury for the rich, a health service that will cater for those with the most money, charity your only hope of social services. Bankers, CEO and their sidekicks will live in ever increasing luxury. Our billionaire landed gentry and nobility are back in full control, peasants beware.

         Our children will be denied a decent education, without which it will be impossible to understand the complexity of the geopolitical system that is draining their lives, let alone organise to change its structure. Society will be fragmented with petty crime on the increase, communities will become ghettos. A rather frightening picture but the only out come from an unchallenged system driven by one overriding desire for profit, a system where human beings are no more than expendable resources. The gap between the ordinary people and the billionaire ruling class will be unimaginable. The answer for the majority of people on this planet does not lie in capitalism and time is of the essence.

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