Solidarity

There is a growing labour activity within Google.

More than 900 Google workers have signed a letter objecting to the tech giant’s treatment of temporary contractors, in what organizers are calling a “historical coalition” between Google’s full-time employees (FTEs) and temps, vendors and contractors (TVCs).

In March, Google abruptly shortened the contracts of 34 temp workers on the “personality” team for Google Assistant – the Alexa-like digital assistant that reads you the weather, manages your calendar, sends a text message, or calls you an Uber through your phone or smart speaker. The cuts, which affected contractors around the globe, reinvigorated the debate over Google’s extensive use of TVCs, amid a growing labor movement within the company. In recent months, Google FTEs and TVCs have been increasingly vocal in protesting both their working conditions and the ethics of their employer. The TVCs on the personality team describe themselves in the 27 March letter as “the human labor that makes the Assistant relevant, funny, and relatable in more than 50 languages”.

“For years, Google has boasted of its ability to scale up and down very quickly, and vocal in its ability to ‘navigate changes with agility’,” the letter reads. “A whole team thrown into financial uncertainty is what scaling down quickly looks like for Google workers. This is the human cost of agility.”

TVCs make up 54% of Google’s global workforce, and more than half of the people on the personality team, according to the letter. The TVCs on the personality team sit alongside Google FTEs in offices around the world, but they are employed by a staffing agency on contracts ranging from two to six months at a time. On 8 March, about 80% of the TVCs on the team – 34 people – were informed that their contracts were ending ahead of schedule, either on 5 April or, in a few cases, on 31 July, according to the letter.

“During the process, our managers and the full-time workers on our team were silent,” the letter states. “Google told them that offering support or even thanking us for years of work would make the company legally liable. Our teammates were told to distance themselves from us at the moment when we were most in need – just so that Google could avoid legal responsibility.”

The TVCs asked Google to “respect our contracts” by paying out the remaining length of contracts for those whose terms were shortened; “respect our humanity” by allowing FTEs to “openly empathize” with fired TVCs; and “respect our work” by converting TVCs to full-time status. 

Rachel Miller, a TVC, explained, that she did not blame the Google employees but rather the management for creating the two-tier system.
“The fight isn’t contract workers against full-time workers, the fight is workers against the company. We’re all unfairly treated if one of us is.”

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/02/google-workers-sign-letter-temp-contractors-protest

Avoiding Death Taxes

The UK’s super-rich pay half the rate of inheritance tax paid by the merely very rich, according to an analysis of HMRC data that throws fresh focus on how billionaires’ advisers use a “kitbag” of tricks to reduce heirs’ tax bills.

Estates worth £10m or more paid an average of 10% tax to the exchequer in the 2015-16 tax year compared with an average 20% tax paid by estates worth £2m-£3m, according to data released by HMRC following a freedom of information request by asset manager Canada Life.

The law states that estates should pay 40% tax on assets above £325,000 – or above £450,000 if the family home is given to children or grandchildren. But Neil Jones, the market development manager at Canada Life, said the richest of the rich often did not pay anywhere near that rate because they had access to “a myriad of potential solutions in an adviser’s kitbag to help mitigate IHT [inheritance tax]… This difference in the net tax rates paid by estate isn’t always down to the value of the estate or the different type of assets held in an estate,” Jones said. “It’s often about a willingness to plan.”

The heirs of the late sixth Duke of Westminster paid no inheritance tax on the bulk of his £8.3bn family fortune following his death in 2016. Probate records show that Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor, who died aged 64 in August 2016, left a personal estate of £616,418,184 after payment of debts and liabilities.

The rest of his wealth had already been transferred to family trusts which largely passed on to his son Hugh, 28, without incurring inheritance tax. His son also inherited the title, becoming the seventh Duke of Westminster and the world’s 108th richest person with a £9.2bn fortune, according to estimates by Bloomberg Billionaires.

Resolution Foundation research director, Laura Gardiner, said the findings showed that “inheritance tax is no longer fit for purpose”. She said: “Inheritance tax has both a terrible record of raising revenue, despite record levels of wealth across Britain, while still being widely despised, even by people who are never likely to pay it. At the very minimum, there are billions of pounds of worth inheritance tax loopholes that need to be closed. But ultimately we should scrap inheritance tax altogether and replace it with a far fairer lifetime receipts tax [cumulative across a person’s life], which would be harder for the super-wealthy to avoid.”

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/03/inheritance-tax-loopholes-allowing-super-rich-to-pay-lower-rates

A Vote for Socialism

Voters in the Harbour ward of Folkestone, Kent will have their fourth opportunity in six years to vote for Socialism, when they go to the polls to re-elect the District Council on 2nd May.

Previously they have been able to vote for Socialist Party candidates for the UK and European parliaments, the last District poll in 2015 and most recently in 2017, when most of Folkestone was contested by the Party in the county council election.

In fact, the 4000+ Harbour ward electors will be able to vote twice for Socialism on 2nd May, as we are also standing for the Town Council in the same ward. Andy Thomas is our candidate for both contests. Attached is a copy of our election leaflet.

There are also posters available for anyone who lives in the vicinity

Donkeys and Elephants

Changes are taking place in American political life. Signs are indicating the beginning of a revolt against the Democratic Party officialdom. However, a definite class ideology by no means exists as yet. Our task still remains the struggle for a class movement of the workers. Ever more expressions of militancy present evidence of working-class exasperation and deep-rooted grievances, a rebellion against increased attacks against our class. They foreshadow a more definite class position towards a class movement and indicate the great possibilities becoming available for a more intensive class war.

Nevertheless, the working class is still completely bound within the capitalist political party system which serves as a powerful brake upon it. Unquestionably, there is a mounting anger and discontent but they have not yet assumed concrete forms. There remain illusions of capitalist charity bestowing crumbs in a trickle down as a solution still prevail. The working-class political ideology has not yet reached beyond the boundaries of the capitalist parties but still swings back and forth, switching allegiance from the Republicans to the Democrats in hope of receiving the better reforms.

The Democratic Socialists of America have recently been engaged in greater activity than before. It is attempting, with some success, to sow its ideas in favorable soil. The DSA is very consciously trying to “radicalize” a more receptive audience but, in essence, it is merely adding partial demands for partial objectives to an already plethora of palliative platforms.

WHO WAS IT WHO KILLED BABY P?

WHO WAS IT WHO KILLED BABY P?

Since then, the Government has continued to underfund Care Services.

Who was it who killed Baby P,

The Government's hypocrisy?

Whose policies caused it to slash,

The Children's Care Department’s cash.

Who was it who killed Baby P?

The Ministers who knowingly;

Scapegoated the Case Workers deeds,

Whilst deaf to their financial needs.

Who was it who killed Baby P?

Child carers in a quandary,

Excessive case loads were their cry,

But still they were blamed from on high.

Who was it who killed Baby P?

The Council whose forced strategy;

Kept children at home with a prayer,

With no funds to put them in care.

Who was it who killed Baby P?

The Sun in all its trumpery;

Whose readers threatened Council Staff,

And said they'd kill them for a laugh.

Who was it who killed Baby P?

His family and friends savagery;

And also, maybe, some of us,

Who only after--made a fuss.

© Richard Layton

The shame of hunger in the UK

Children in low-income families suffer social exclusion and a sense of shame because they do not have enough food to eat, according to research published by the Child Poverty Action Group.

Many do not qualify for free school meals; even when they do, the lunches can be insufficient for teenagers, and some children from families who have no recourse to public funds because of their parents’ immigration status do not eat at all during the school day.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/apr/02/children-in-low-income-families-suffer-shame-and-social-exclusion

Poisoning the people of Flint

U.S. District Court Judge Judith Levy noted the plaintiffs had shown the allegations against Snyder and his fellow co-defendants "plausibly describe 'conscience shocking' conduct" as the people of Flint were stripped of 14th Amendment protections from bodily harm or injury.

The plaintiffs, Levy wrote in her ruling,

"Plausibly state that the Governor acted indifferently to the risk of harm they faced, demonstrating a callous disregard for their right to bodily integrity. This indifference manifested itself in two ways. Initially, the Governor was indifferent because instead of mitigating the risk of harm caused by the contaminated water, he covered it up. In private, he worried about the need to return Flint to DWSD water and the political implications of the crisis. But in public, he denied all knowledge, despite being aware of the developing crisis."   

As a result, plaintiffs were lured into a false sense of security. They could have taken protective measures, if only they had known what the Governor knew. Instead, the Governor misled them into assuming that nothing was wrong. Governor Snyder's administration even encouraged them to continue to drink and bathe in the water."

The complaint submitted to the court alleged that Snyder and his staff were aware of the health risks associated with the city's transition to Flint River water, including the risk of Legionnaires' disease, for months before an official announcement was made and that they concealed this information from the public. Overall, the lawsuit charges that officials from the state of Michigan, the city of Flint, Genesee County, and two private engineering firms created the public health crisis and did so while making calculated decisions that "deliberately exposed" residents of Flint to the harmful health effects of lead and other toxins. 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/04/01/citing-conscience-shocking-conduct-federal-judge-reinstates-former-gov-snyder-flint

World Population Projections

World demographics of the recent past are explicit, detailed and straightforward. The 20^th century was the most rapid world population growth in human history. Although dramatic declines in mortality and fertility levels have taken place, the growth of world population continues but at a slower pace than the recent past. It is evident that world population will soon reach 8 billion and will continue to increase well after that demographic milestone.

In the late 1960s the growth rate of the world’s population peaked at 2.1 percent and has since declined to approximately half that level, or 1.1 percent. The annual addition to the world’s population also peaked in the late 1980s at nearly 93 million and is now about 82 million per year. The primary reason for lower levels of world population growth is the decline in fertility rates or the average number of births per woman.

At the beginning of the 20^th century average global fertility was still about six births per woman. By 1950 world fertility had declined only slightly to five births per woman, with less than a handful of countries having rates below the replacement level. During the second half of the 20^th century, however, birth rates dropped relatively rapidly across most countries, resulting in today’s world fertility level of about 2.5 births per woman.

Powerful forces, which continue to operate today, brought about the declines in fertility primarily during the second half of the 20^th century. Particularly noteworthy among those forces were lower mortality, increased urbanization, widespread education, improvements in the status of women and modern contraceptives.  Survival of the young, migration from rural areas to urban centers, education and employment of women contributed greatly to the desire of couples, especially women, to delay, space and limit childbearing.

The availability of the oral pill and other modern contraceptive methods permitted couples to gain control over the number and timing of their births. The ability for both women to determine the timing and number of births is certainly a major achievement having enormous demographic, social, economic and political consequences. Although mortality levels continue to play an important role in the growth of world population as it has throughout human history, fertility rates constitute the critical determinant of the future size of world population.

The populations of some 50 countries are projected to decline during the 21^st century, according to the medium scenario. Moreover, 30 of those countries are expected to experience population declines of at least 20 percent over the current century. Japan, for example, is projected to have its population decline by 34 percent over the 21^st century, from 128 million to 85 million. China, the largest population among this group of countries, is expected to see its population of 1.3 billion in 2000 drop to 1.0 billion by 2100, a decline of 20 percent. The most rapid population declines during the 21^st century of approximately 50 percent are projected for Bulgaria, Latvia and Moldova.


If fertility rates continue their decline and move to the replacement level of about two births per woman, which is the United Nations medium variant, world population is projected to be 11.2 billion in 2100.  A half child below the replacement level yields a world population of 7.3 billion, at the close of the century.

A Corporate Giant

The scale of Aramco dwarfs every other corporation in the world.

Saudi Arabia’s state oil company has emerged as the most profitable business in the world, racking up profits of $111.1bn (£84.7bn) in 2018 to overtake Apple.

It means the company made more than four times the profits of other oil industry rivals last year, including the Anglo-Dutch company Royal Dutch Shell, which made $23bn, and the US firm Exxon Mobil, which made $21bn.

The Gulf state has prepared the company for a stock market flotation that would have valued it at roughly $2tn, twice the value of Apple, but it then put the plan on hold last year.

It is also among the most secretive, under the ownership of the Saudi state. It is the largest oil supplier on the planet and has exclusive access to nearly all of Saudi Arabia’s vast hydrocarbon reserves, which are among the world’s largest. UK regulators said they would waive some corporate governance rules.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/01/saudi-aramco-oil-world-most-profitable-business-apple-exxon

Hunger levels to climb

The global threat of hunger is growing again after years of progress in reducing it, the United Nations says in a new report from the World Meteorological Organization, because of the effects of climate change.

It says this is just one aspect of a wider acceleration in the pace of the changes wrought by the world’s unremitting consumption of fossil fuels and the consequential rise in global temperatures..

In the words of the report: “Exposure of the agriculture sector to climate extremes is threatening to reverse gains made in ending malnutrition. New evidence shows a continuing rise in world hunger  after a prolonged decline, according to data compiled by UN agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme. In 2017, the number of undernourished people was estimated to have increased to 821 million, partly due to severe droughts associated with the strong El Niño of 2015–2016."

The WMO report also singles out the plight of those forced by climate change to leave their homes and become refugees, either within their own countries or abroad. Out of 17.7 m people classified as internally displaced persons (IDPs) tracked by the International Organization for Migration, it says, by September 2018 over 2 m people had been displaced by disasters linked to weather and climate events. 

According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR’s Protection and Return Monitoring Network, about 883,000 new internal displacements were recorded between January and December 2018, of which 32% were associated with flooding and 29% with drought.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees were affected by what the UN calls “secondary displacement”, caused by extreme events, heavy rain, flooding and landslides.

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/as-climate-change-accelerates-so-does-global-hunger-report-reveals/

Mothers Day

Some 1.9 million single mothers are affected by the government's decision to continue the benefit freeze.

A lone parent who is not in employment is around £900 a year worse off due to the freeze.

Benefits – including tax credits, universal credit, child benefit and jobseeker’s allowance – generally rise every year in line with inflation. However, as part of ongoing austerity measures, they have been frozen since 2016, leading to a decline in their real term value while inflation rises. In April 2016, the Conservative Party froze most working age benefits for four years – including jobseeker’s allowance, employment and support allowance, income support, housing benefit, universal credit, child tax credits, working tax credits and child benefit.

According to the analysis, the benefit freeze means that a lone parent who is not in employment with one child is around £900 a year worse off and a parent with two children is just over £1,200 a year worse off, whether in the legacy system or the universal credit system. It found a lone parent in employment with one child is £810 worse off in the legacy system and £895 worse off in the universal credit system. While a lone parent with two children who is in employment is nearly £1,000 worse off in the legacy system and £1,200 worse off in the universal credit system.

New government data published on Thursday showed 14 million people in the UK are living in absolute poverty. This includes 3.7 million children – 200,000 more than last year. 

Helen Barnard, deputy director of policy and partnerships at the independent Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said: “It goes against what we stand for as a country to see so many lone-parent families locked in poverty. Currently, there is a lone-parent penalty, which means nearly half of children in lone-parent families live in poverty compared with one in four of those in couple families. Lone parents are also twice as likely to be locked in persistent poverty, and living in poverty for long periods of time is particularly damaging..."

Alison Garnham, the chief executive of Child Poverty Action Group, argued, 

"To have almost half of lone parents’ children in poverty is unacceptable in a society that believes that every child deserves support,” she said. Ms Garnham added: “Lone parents have been hit particularly hard by cuts to universal credit – with big losses of on average £2,380 per year, affecting their gains from work. Some 68 per cent of lone parents are working but as the annual poverty statistics published yesterday show, 47 per cent of their children are living under the poverty line.”  

A lone parent working full-time on the “national living wage” is now 20 per cent (£74 per week) short of what they need to achieve a socially acceptable minimum standard of living, as defined by the public.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/benefit-freeze-single-mothers-austerity-a8846246.html

April the 1st - But we are no fools

WORLD SOCIALISM

Socialism and nothing less is our aim

 It is true to say that the Socialist Party has not garnered any credible political support. The Socialist Party harbour no illusions that we will get a seat in parliament in the near future. The support for revolutionary politics in the UK is at a low level at present and we are well aware that the vote for ourselves will be tiny, but we feel it necessary to state our views on how revolutionaries should treat parliament and parliamentary seats. Elections provide a snapshot of the political scene and relationship of class forces. Under capitalism, elections permit a periodic measuring of the condition, the will, the combativity, and the political development of the working class. This is usually shown in votes for candidates.

To remain at home and not vote is insufficient. In certain circumstances, people express themselves politically, not by direct voting, but by write-in campaigns, ostentatiously blank ballots, or abstentionism. These apparently negative expressions of opinion can, under certain circumstances, be on the contrary very positive indeed, and such has been the case in some of our own election campaigns.

 Let no worker be deluded by the liberal rhetoric of politicians. The capitalist class and the profit system have not changed their character. Neither have capitalist politicians changed theirs. We must use our ballot to vote out private profit, discarded to join the equally cruel systems of chattel slavery and feudal serfdom of the past.