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	<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; SPGB</title>
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	<copyright>Copyright &#xA9; World Socialist Party (US) 2010 </copyright>
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		<title>World Socialist Party (US) &#187; SPGB</title>
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	<itunes:author>World Socialist Party (US)</itunes:author>
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		<title>Inequality or Equality?</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/11/inequality-or-equality/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/11/inequality-or-equality/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:48:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2292</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[From a long-term historical point of view, the current highly unequal societies are exceptional, since the vast majority of humans have lived in extremely egalitarian societies. Now the gap between those at the top of society, and the rest of us, is actually getting bigger. Reports from other countries suggest that this is a general trend in capitalism throughout the world. Clearly there are a lot more poor than rich: and since the majority could easily overcome a small minority, why do they not take such an obvious step to put an end to such manifest unfairness? The answer, of course, is the unremitting barrage of propaganda to persuade everyone that rich people are rich because they are in some way better than the rest of us. But in recent years that has been challenged and undermined by the perception of the undeserved wealth of the greedy bankers and financial speculators in the City and Wall St. If we didn&#8217;t know it already, the recession should have taught us that capitalism is simply not a &#8220;fair&#8221; system. There are many more important criticisms that can be levelled against capitalism, but the idea of &#8220;fairness&#8221; – the assumption that the society [...]


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		<title>Drug Dealers</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/11/drug-dealers/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/11/drug-dealers/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:47:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2290</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Independent (UK) today reports on the story that SPGB previously reported upon in June of how the pharmaceutical industry preys on the poor to trial new drugs. Clinical trials for new pharmaceutical drugs are a sensitive business. But tests can be expensive. If they go wrong, companies are liable for compensation. No surprise, then, that in a globalised economy this business – like many others – is being outsourced to countries such as India where costs are far lower. In a country of 1.2 billion people, where more than half the population lives in chronic poverty according to a recent UN report, the supply of people willing to take part in tests for very modest fees is inexhaustible. Compensation payouts are a fraction of what they would be in the West. Since restrictions on drug trials were relaxed in 2005, the industry in India has swollen to the point where today more than 150,000 people are involved in at least 1,600 clinical trials, conducted on behalf of British, American and European firms including AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Merck. Some estimates suggest the industry may be worth as much as £189m. The relationship is so exploitative that some believe it represents a new colonialism. [...]


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		<item>
		<title>This Land is Our Land</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/11/this-land-is-our-land/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/11/this-land-is-our-land/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 17 Nov 2011 04:52:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2295</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[There was a time when &#8216;land&#8217; used to refer to those parts of our habitat that were cultivated for food, grazed by animals for hide, wool, meat, milk and fertilisation, and to forests from which timber, firewood and food were collected and also to where communities lived sharing the common wealth. Now, as with everything else one can imagine, land is just another commodity to be bought and sold at the best possible price and to be acquired whatever the consequences for long-term incumbents. So too is everything it can offer – food, fuel, minerals and water – with the added bonus of investment and speculation. The phenomenon of &#8216;land-grab&#8217;, well known now, was originally seen as a way for food insecure and rich countries such as Saudi Arabia and China to gain access to foreign farmland in order to meet the food needs of their own populations. Then came the big push for biofuels following targets agreed by governments at a succession of meetings on climate change. The Worldwatch Institute recently reported that rural populations have been pushed off prime land in 25 sub-Saharan countries for the production of biofuel crops for foreign nations. In other examples, food is [...]


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		<title>Crisis: the stories so far</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/06/crisis-the-stories-so-far/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/06/crisis-the-stories-so-far/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 04 Jun 2011 05:14:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Books]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Capitalism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Crisis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Economics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2283</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Business As Usual: The Economic Crisis And The Failure Of Capitalism by Paul Mattick. Reacktion Books: 2011. Just yesterday, we were all supposed to believe that the globalisation of capitalism and free markets was the route to freedom, peace and prosperity for all. Then, with barely an explanation, and somewhat out of the blue, the story changed. Now we are to believe that, due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control, prosperity will have to give way to austerity. The good times are over. It is characteristic of crises that the stories we are expected to believe suddenly change. But how can we understand the change? And might there not be better stories than the rather grim and gloomy one we’ve been ordered to swallow? Paul Mattick Jnr’s short book is just such an alternative. For him the crisis signals the complete bankruptcy and destruction of mainstream economics. Why crisis is impossible Why did the crisis appear as a bolt out of the blue? Why was it not expected or anticipated by any economist or mainstream commentator? In short, because there is no place in the standard economic story for crisis, any more than there’s a place for wizards and interstellar travel [...]


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		<title>Class against class</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/06/class-against-class/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/06/class-against-class/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 02 Jun 2011 22:55:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Class]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2277</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s exploitation that causes workers’ problems. On an ultra-simplistic level we could say that capitalism in the persona of capitalists uses capital (in its basic form, money) to make a profit. By utilising capital in the form of property, equipment, machinery, investment or speculation the capitalist needs to employ members of the working class in order to increase the original capital for the benefit of the capitalist. This can only be done if the workers agree knowingly or unknowingly to their own exploitation. Why exploitation? In the monetary world society we live in everyone has a need for money on a regular ongoing basis in order to secure the essentials of life. By accepting employment workers undertake to work (knowingly or unknowingly) part of the time for their own remuneration and part of the time in order to meet the capitalist’s need for reinvestment in their business and to augment their accumulation of profit. There are three elements to the capitalist’s expectation in relation to employees. First, workers must be paid sufficient remuneration to keep them returning to work; the terms and conditions of work may change depending on the available source of labour. Second, the capitalist’s own ongoing costs [...]


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		<title>Union Maid</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/05/union-maid/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/05/union-maid/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 May 2011 07:59:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2267</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Guardian makes an interesting comment upon the the head of the IMF&#8217;s alleged rape of his hotel&#8217;s chamber maid, &#8221;&#8230;it is likely that Strauss-Kahn&#8217;s alleged victim might not have felt confident enough to pursue the issue with either her supervisors or law enforcement agencies, if she had not been protected by a union contract.&#8221; The housekeepers at the Sofitel are members of the New York Hotel Workers’ Union. There is job security. It is illegal for an employer to fire a worker for reporting a sexual assault. However, it is completely legal for an employer to fire a worker who reports a sexual assault for having been late to work last Tuesday or any other minor transgression. Since employers know the law, they don&#8217;t ever say that they are firing a worker for reporting a sexual assault. They might fire workers who report sexual assaults for other on-the-job failings, real or invented. All the countries of western Europe afford workers some measure of employment protection, where employers must give a reason for firing workers. Workers can contest their dismissal if they think the reason is not valid, unlike the United States where there is no recourse. Imagine the situation of the hotel [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Capitalism – barrier to useful work</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/05/capitalism-%e2%80%93-barrier-to-useful-work/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/05/capitalism-%e2%80%93-barrier-to-useful-work/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 20 May 2011 23:29:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Labor]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Work]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2249</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Many are suffering the misery of unemployment while much useful, necessary work remains undone. One of the contradictions of capitalism. We want free time, to reduce the working day so that we can move beyond the tyranny of survival into free and creative mutual activity. Both employment and unemployment are capitalism preventing our human development in this direction. The problems of unemployment are huge – worldwide problems affecting millions in some countries and billions globally if we include the massive numbers of &#8216;informal&#8217; workers, those recognised as outside of the system, many of them non-persons living on the very edge of existence with no access to even the basic services. What is this strange system that grants &#8216;remunerated employment&#8217; to some who produce nothing worthwhile or useful for themselves and others whilst totally rejecting others who have the skills and ability to grow food, to build houses, to recycle others&#8217; rubbish, to contribute all manner of useful work? Why such a seeming imbalance between the work we can all see needing to be done but left undone and actual available work? Given the way the world economic system is structured, we recognise the logic that requires a surplus of labour, [...]


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		<title>Poverty is Being Poor</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/05/poverty-is-being-poor/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/05/poverty-is-being-poor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 16 May 2011 16:21:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2246</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The number of American people living in poverty has soared to record-high levels. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 47 million Americans out of a population of about 310 million live in poverty in the Unites States. In January, figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau stated that one in five children in the United States live in poverty, with almost half of them living in extreme poverty. Another report released found a job doesn&#8217;t always pay enough for families to be self-sufficient. Despite full-time employment, many still rely on food stamps, subsidized child care or other types of government assistance to make ends meet. &#8220;Poverty persists because &#8230; we have a lot of lower-paying jobs,&#8221; said Philip E. Cole, executive director of the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies, which commissioned the analysis. Of Ohio&#8217;s 10 largest occupations, only one pays enough for a family of three to pay for food, housing and other basic needs (that was nursing) The two annual reports yesterday, &#8220;The State of Poverty in Ohio 2011: A Path to Recovery,&#8221; and &#8220;The Self-Sufficiency Standard for Ohio 2011.&#8221; note that 1.7 million Ohioans &#8211; 15.2 percent &#8211; live below the federal poverty level, the highest [...]


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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Seeing the Trees and the Wood</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/04/seeing-the-trees-and-the-wood/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/04/seeing-the-trees-and-the-wood/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 04 Apr 2011 06:21:37 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Environment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[World Socialist Perspective]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2234</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A tree surgeon reflects on why no business can give due regard to the needs of workers and the environment I am, I suppose, a businessman; not, I should say, from choice but more from the need to follow a prescribed and necessary course; necessary, because, were one not to, inevitably the business would fail and fall by the wayside. I say businessman, now, but thirty years ago I would have called myself a ‘tree surgeon’, or ‘woodman’ without the slightest feeling of inadequacy or embarrassment. Admittedly the term ‘tree surgeon’ does sound rather more grand than the reality of the work, pruning, cutting and working with trees, and certainly does not have the prerequisite of six years’ intensive study at one of the country’s finest universities. Nevertheless a tree surgeon is what I was and work with trees is what I did. I have often thought back and wondered why I found myself in this industry. The reasons, actually, are quite simple. I loved working outdoors and with my hands; I loved practical problem solving, such as one comes across when dismantling a large tree using ropes in a confined space or in a dangerous condition; I love trees [...]


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		<item>
		<title>Libya: brutality and hypocrisy</title>
		<link>http://wspus.org/2011/03/libya-brutality-and-hypocrisy/</link>
		<comments>http://wspus.org/2011/03/libya-brutality-and-hypocrisy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 Mar 2011 06:07:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>SPGB</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Mid-East]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[News]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://wspus.org/?p=2227</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When the popular movements against long-standing despots in the Arab world spread from Tunisia and Egypt to Libya the Western powers thought that something they had long wanted – regime-change in Libya – was about to be handed them on a plate. But they didn’t have the same control over Gaddafi as they did over Moubarak and Ben Ali and so could not arrange for him to bow out. His own man, and true to form, Gaddafi chose to try to brutally repress the movement. With the support of mercenaries and some sections of the population armed with superior military power, it was looking as if he might succeed. Faced with this prospect, the Western capitalist powers have decided to play the military card too and have launched a series of bombing and missile raids against the armed forces loyal to Gaddafi. Since, under the UN charter, wars not authorised by the UN are “illegal”, they have had to present their action as being to protect the civilian population against the very real exactions of the Gaddafi regime. Even so, when claiming that the military intervention is motivated by humanitarian concerns, British Prime Minister Cameron has always added that it [...]


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