Private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands, partly because of competition among the capitalists, and partly because technological development and the increasing division of labor encourage the formation of larger units of production at the expense of the smaller ones. The result of these developments is an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organized political society. This is true since the members of legislative bodies are selected by political parties, largely financed or otherwise influenced by private capitalists who, for all practical purposes, separate the electorate from the legislature. The consequence is that the representatives of the people do not in fact sufficiently protect the interests of the underprivileged sections of the population. Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education). It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.
The situation prevailing in an economy based on the private ownership of capital is thus characterized main principles: first, means of production (capital) are privately owned and the owners dispose of them as they see fit; second, the labor contract is free. Of course, there is no such thing as a pure capitalist society in this sense. In particular, it should be noted that the workers, through long and bitter political struggles, have succeeded in securing a somewhat improved form of the "free labor contract" for certain categories of workers. But taken as a whole, the present-day economy does not differ much from "pure" capitalism.
Production is carried on for profit, not for use. There is no provision that all those able and willing to work will always be in a position to find employment; an "army of unemployed" almost always exists. The worker is constantly in fear of losing his job. Since unemployed and poorly paid workers do not provide a profitable market, the production of consumers' goods is restricted, and great hardship is the consequence. Technological progress frequently results in more unemployment rather than in an easing of the burden of work for all. The profit motive, in conjunction with competition among capitalists, is responsible for an instability in the accumulation and utilization of capital which leads to increasingly severe depressions. Unlimited competition leads to a huge waste of labor, and to that crippling of the social consciousness of individuals which I mentioned before.
This crippling of individuals I consider the worst evil of capitalism. Our whole educational system suffers from this evil. An exaggerated competitive attitude is inculcated into the student, who is trained to worship acquisitive success as a preparation for his future career.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals. In such an economy, the means of production are owned by society itself and are utilized in a planned fashion. A planned economy, which adjusts production to the needs of the community, would distribute the work to be done among all those able to work and would guarantee a livelihood to every man, woman, and child. The education of the individual, in addition to promoting his own innate abilities, would attempt to develop in him a sense of responsibility for his fellow-men in place of the glorification of power and success in our present society.
The Spies for Peace was a group of anti-war activists associated with the Committee of 100 who publicized government preparations for rule after a nuclear war. In 1963 they broke into a secret government bunker, Regional Seat of Government Number 6 (RSG-6) at Warren Row, near Reading, where they photographed and copied documents. The RSGs were to include representatives of all the central government departments, to maintain law and order, communicate with the surviving population and control remaining resources. The public were virtually unaware what the government was planning for the aftermath of a nuclear war until it was revealed by the Spies for Peace.
They published this information in a pamphlet, Danger! Official Secret RSG-6. Four thousand copies were sent to the national press, politicians and peace movement activists and copies were distributed on CND’s Easter march from Aldermaston.
The pamphlet said it was “about a small group of people who have accepted thermonuclear war as a probability, and are consciously and carefully planning for it. ... They are quietly waiting for the day the bomb drops, for that will be the day they take over.” It listed the RSGs and gave their telephone numbers. Most of the pamphlet was about RSG-6, which the Spies for Peace described in detail. They said that “RSG-6 is not a centre for civil defence. It is a centre for military government”, and they listed the personnel who were to staff it. The pamphlet described emergency planning exercises in which RSG-6 had been activated, including a NATO exercise in September 1962, FALLEX-62. Spies for Peace asserted that the exercise demonstrated the incapacity of the public services to cope with the consequences of nuclear attack and that the RSG system would not work. The exercise, they said, “proved once and for all the truth of the 1957 Defence White Paper that there is no defence against nuclear war.” In a hint at the source of their information, the Spies for Peace said that FALLEX-62 “convinced at least one occupant of one RSG at least that the deterrent is quite futile”. The pamphlet claimed that at the time of the Cuba Missile Crisis, a month after the NATO exercise, RSG-6 was not activated. The pamphlet objected strongly to the fact that the RSG network had not been publicly debated, that its staff were unelected and that they would have military powers.[1]
The 1963 Aldermaston issue of the CND bulletin Sanity included the Spies for Peace revelations and several hundred demonstrators left the Aldermaston route and headed for RSG-6 where they set up a picket. The Spies for Peace made front page news but the press was later prevented by an official “D-Notice” from saying any more about the matter. The police tried to prevent any further distribution of the information but failed to do so. RSGs in Cambridge and Edinburgh were also picketed.
Although several people were arrested, the original spies were not identified or caught. Since the death of Nicolas Walter it has been revealed that he was one of the Spies for Peace.[2]
Even though “[t]he beheading issue has always been a source of tension between Saudi Arabia and the international community,” the international community is not satisfied with this new approach. Having a whole bunch of people stand in front of a man, look directly at him as others are watching, and fire directly at him, is just so passé and, in the final analysis, not just inhumane, but also (please don’t let any children who watch CNN read this next word) graphic. Why can’t the Saudi Government kill in a civilized manner like the U.S. government does, with drones. Let someone else clean up the mess. And you don’t have to face your victims (and their families/neighbors/walkers by) after killing them. The Mideast policy preferences of the two countries almost mirror each other, so why not take them a step further? After all, what can go wrong with killing criminals and terrorists?Read the full article HERE.
Recently, however, this controversial practice was taken to a new level. The Police published photos of four youths arrested on robbery and terrorism charges.
Three of those arrested, as presented in the first set of images released by the Police
When reporters and members of the public pointed out that the photos had evidently been photoshopped, and rather crudely for that matter, the Police finally released several unaltered photos of those arrested. In the second set of photos, it was revealed they had been brutally beaten.
Read the full article HERE:
The same three, in the second set of images
What one did not hear from any senior member of the Argentinian hierarchy was any expression of regret for the church's collaboration and in these crimes. The extent of the church's complicity in the dark deeds was excellently set out by Horacio Verbitsky, one of Argentina's most notable journalists, in his book El Silencio (Silence). He recounts how the Argentinian navy with the connivance of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, now the Jesuit archbishop of Buenos Aires, hid from a visiting delegation of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission the dictatorship's political prisoners. Bergoglio was hiding them in nothing less than his holiday home in an island called El Silencio in the River Plate. The most shaming thing for the church is that in such circumstances Bergoglio's name was allowed to go forward in the ballot to chose the successor of John Paul II. What scandal would not have ensued if the first pope ever to be elected from the continent of America had been revealed as an accessory to murder and false imprisonment.Read the full article HERE:
Amnesty International UK After 40 years of ‘inhuman’ punishment, conviction overturned for third time
The only freed member of the Angola 3
Legal proceedings were begun in London recently against British Foreign Secretary William Hague, over possible British complicity in CIA drone strikes.Also this:
Britain’s GCHQ – its secret monitoring and surveillance agency – is reported to have provided ‘locational evidence’ to US authorities for use in drone strikes, a move which is reportedly illegal in the United Kingdom.
One psychiatrist told researchers that many of his patients experience ‘anticipatory anxiety,’ a constant fear that they might come under attack. The report goes on to note that:
"Interviewees described emotional breakdowns, running indoors or hiding when drones appear above, fainting, nightmares and other intrusive thoughts, hyper startled reactions to loud noises, outbursts of anger or irritability, and loss of appetite and other physical symptoms. Interviewees also reported suffering from insomnia and other sleep disturbances, which medical health professionals in Pakistan stated were prevalent.’---"
The FNV Bondgenoten is taking action in support of their members' demand for decent transfer conditions for service workers scheduled to be outsourced. Their terms and conditions under the new employer, catering and service giant Sodexo, will be severely degraded. Many of these workers, employed in catering, cleaning, security, and reception are long-serving Unilever employees. The union is demanding safeguards and compensation for being tossed on the outsourcing scrapheap - support their struggle. Sign up to the IUF campaign by clicking here to send a message to Unilever.In another 8 days we're closing down the 3rd annual LabourStart survey of trade union use of the net. Fillling in the survey will only take you a couple of minutes and will provide invaluable information not only to us, but to the international trade union movement. Please fill in the survey here.Finally, we need just over 500 more of you to send your messages of protest to the Turkish government following raids that resulted in the arrests of over a hundred trade union leaders. If 500 of you send off your messages today, that will bring the total up to 10,000 -- a number which we hope the Turkish government will not ignore. Please help us grow this campaign and spread the word in your unions.Thank you for your support.
Eric Lee---
Which campaigns have I missed? Click here to find out.
Read the full article HERE:The destruction of good-paying private-sector jobs and the current assault on the public sector is further evidence of the failure of capitalism. In many ways, this is a historical epoch as we witness the utter bankruptcy of a system where the global super-rich have bled the people dry and now seek to gut what remains of the public sector. Those efforts are being met with tremendous resistance, however, as millions work together in search of a better way.Perhaps most instructive is the burgeoning cooperative movement where workers and communities make do without owners or bosses and instead produce cooperatively based on need. Such workplaces are mainstays in places as diverse as Argentina and Greece and shine much-needed light on how people around the world might free themselves from the clutches of corporate predators.
