Flats and ghosts

 The i paper (5 February) ran a story about a 70-year-old man who is living in a house with five others, the only way he can survive on his pension. Far more people over 65 now share homes than a decade ago.

Also many properties advertised on flat-sharing sites have no living room, as turning a lounge into a bedroom means more income for the landlord, so the tenants each live and sleep in just one room. Yet there are many ‘ghost homes’ in Britain, expensive new flats that remain empty because few people can afford to buy them.

This is the reality when housing is for profit, not to meet human need.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

Socialist Sonnet No. 222

Eight Billion People

 

Today, eight billion people or so

Did not dispatch drones and missiles to kill

Neighbours, didn’t intimidate or instil

A sense of fear. Mostly they’re content to go

About their lives without any glister

Of gold braid, tittles or honours. Indeed,

It’s only too clear where such awards lead:

A-lister scratching the back of A-lister.

They aren’t trafficers for sex or cheap labour,

Those who exploit the weak and distressed,

Whose only real interest is interest,

Who believe neighbour should exploit neighbour.

Better by far the eight billion would choose

To live otherwise than those in the news.

 

D. A.

Jobs, yes or no?

 

Dignity, hope, resilience. All dimensions of having a job according to the World Bank. Who knew the caring, sharing World Bank was so invested in the health, well-being and emotional welfare of t millions of young people? No, of course it’s not, the WB operates on behalf of the interests of the minority capitalist class in the world. 1.2 billion jobs will be required says the WB to provide employment for the number of young people who will have to sell their labour power in order to live under a capitalist system. The WB didn’t say that of course. Neither did it mention surplus value, exploitation or class warfare.

So where are these jobs going to come from? Unlikely that there will be that many because of retirees or people dropping out of the labour market. What impact will AI have on the jobs which still require actual humans? How many people will the reserve army of labour ‘employ’?

In England from Henry Eight through to James First statutes were enacted that threatened the most severe punishments, up to and including death, for ‘sturdy vagabonds’ and ‘idlers’ who were not involved in labour. ‘Punishment’ included whipping, branding and the cutting off of body parts. Similar laws were enforced in France and the Netherlands also.

When the ‘new’ workforce will have also to compete against AI and new technologies designed to do away with human workers, will capitalism be able to provide jobs that provide ‘dignity and hope’ Those terms are an oxymoron under capitalism. When these jobs don’t materialise will we see capitalism revert to thedraconian laws of previous centuries to force people to accept medieval coercion?

The below is from the Socialist Standard, August 2010

‘Don’t get us wrong. We don’t want to play down the misery of those who have lost their jobs – or the many more who are going to lose their jobs – in the current slump. We know very well what losing your job so often means. Losing your home (well, you thought it was yours!). Even losing your family.

But think. If not being employed was really the problem, wouldn’t you expect everyone without a job to be in misery? But there are many people who don’t have jobs and yet live well enough. People who don’t need jobs.

Native people in the Amazon rainforest, for so long as they manage to preserve their old way of life, don’t need jobs. They have access to land, food, wood, medicinal herbs, other resources they need – to their means of life. When the logging and mining companies move in, they lose access. Sure, then they need jobs.

Most of us in the “developed” countries lost access to the means of life long ago. They no longer belong to us. They were seized by a small minority who claim to own them. These owners allow us access to things we need only in exchange for money. If we can’t pay, they would sooner have things go to waste – sooner leave houses empty, for instance, than shelter the homeless. They allow us access to productive resources only when they hire us to work for them. If we try to get access without their permission, they call us criminals and send their police and jailors to punish us.

These people – the employers, the owners of the means of life – are unemployed, every one of them. But it doesn’t bother them a bit! They live on the income from their property. They too don’t need jobs.

So unemployment is a problem only for people who depend on being employed in order to live. That situation of dependence is what we mean by the real problem.

Some of us try to escape from the situation of dependence by going into business for ourselves. But chances of success are small – even in good times, let alone during a slump. Many don’t seek escape at all but appeal to the government to create more jobs, hoping to go back to slaving away for others.

We socialists don’t appeal for jobs. We don’t want jobs. That doesn’t mean we’re lazy. We thirst for the opportunity to do useful work as free, equal, and dignified human beings – work to satisfy our needs and the needs of others. We want to be rid of an absurd system that artificially creates misery and wastes vast material, natural, and human resources. That is why we demand restoration of access to the means of life – their common ownership and democratic control by the whole community.’

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2010/08/is-unemployment-really-problem.html

Asbestotis for sale

 

One eagle eyed parent was suspicious of the bottles of play sand on sale at the local Hobbycraft so she did a little research. The bottles of sand contained asbestos. The level of asbestos was below the limit of concentration allowed in its country of origin but well above the UK legal level, which in itself is above the danger level. Any asbestos inhalation is considered dangerous and often fatal over the passage of time.

This highlights just how little the health of consumers is viewed under capitalism. No matter whether it’s food and drink, cladding for dwellings or children’s toys, the contents are often a secret not shared with buyers.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

Socialist Sonnet No. 221

Change

 

Neither gods nor leaders! It is people

Who make and remake societies.

Therefore, within human reason power lies

To discern and dismiss all the feeble

Commonplace political panjandrums,

Officers of state, that prestige deranges,

Under whose guidance nothing changes,

While capital keeps on doing its sums,

Totting up all the profits and losses,

Profits being what labour of workers yields,

Workers whose losses scatter battlefields

At the self-serving behest of bosses.

However things are presently arranged,

When people decide, then things can be changed.

 

D. A.

Non-stop

It’s been non-stop this year under Trump. The US has removed Maduro, said it wants to run Venezuela, tried to claim Greenland, killed protestors, put the head of its Central Bank under investigation, set up a ‘Board of Peace’ with Trump as its self-appointed leader….

What next? Some say it’s the end of democracy for the US and perhaps more widely. But we see it as capitalism just going on its merry unpredictable way. What doesn’t change is workers’ lives continuing to depend on finding an employer to sell their energies to. Instead of this, the world needs a different system of society – moneyless, cooperative, where we all freely contribute according to our abilities and take according to our needs.

 https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/

True then, Still true.

 

From the Socialist Standard February 1944

‘Once upon a time there was. a strange world called Bluuderland. In this world there was a palace in which there lived Baron Butrich. He wore the most costly clothes, and adorned himself with bejewelled rings on his fat fingers, and a sparkling tie-pin in his expensive necktie. Neither by hand nor by brain did he toil, yet bags of gold he had in plenty. The choicest foods and rarest wines were served to him by an under-nourished man-servant. His pet dogs, too, were fed with the richest morsels.

Baron Butrich owned many large buildings in which were huge machines. He called these buildings his factories and boasted that he derived his many bags of gold from them.

But Baron Butrich told a lie when he said it was his factories and machines that brought his riches, for the machines were worked by hundreds of poor people who lived in small, old and crumbling houses, and it was really these people who made the Baron’s wealth.

These people had no bags of gold to buy the food they needed, and they would have starved, but Baron Butrich said to them:

"Come into my factory and work my machines, and make with them the costly clothes that my wife and I will wear. Make, too, the shoddy suits and dresses that will cover your thin bodies. Come and make the beautiful expensive toys that will amuse my children. Create, also, the cheap, trifling little gadgets with which your offspring will play. Come into my factory, and, from the pulp of rags, make the newspapers that will bear praise to me, and glorify the things that give me, Baron Butrich, my favoured place in this world. Do all this and 1 will give each.of you a piece of gold with which you will be able to buy bread to eat, clothes to wear, and will pay for the hire of a place to dwell in."

And to the poor there was nothing to do but go into Baron Butrich’s factory and make the many things that were needed by the Blunderian people. Only in that way could they get the money that would pay for their food, clothing and shelter.

So the poor went into the factory and worked the machines. Beautiful and costly raiment they created for the Baron and his wife; cheap and shoddy garments they made, too, and knew, as they were not rich enough to buy the sort of garb worn by the Butrich’s, that they were fated to wear these inferior clothes. Expensive and intricate toys they made for the Baron’s children; simple little gadgets for their own offspring.

Pulp was made into paper, which was turned into newspapers that told on their pages how rich and grand was this world of Blunderland.

For six days the poor worked in this way, and at the end of that time Baron Butrich said to them:

"You have worked for six days, and here are the pieces of gold I promised you—one piece for each person. Tomorrow you need not work m my factory, but the day after to-morrow come and work for me for another six days and I will give you another piece of gold.”

And the workers took home their pieces of gold and rejoiced that they could now buy food and clothing. But before they had bought all the things they needed they found that their money was spent. And so, to get the gold that buys these needs, the poor were forced to work in the factory for another six days.

So it went on, and priceless things were made for Baron Butrich, who called a small number of new workers to his side. And to these new workers he said:

“Sell these goods for me—sell them for as high a sum as you can get, and I will give each of you a piece of silver."

And the articles were sold, and Baron Butrich became richer and richer.

As for the workers, although they received their pieces of silver each week they did not get any richer, for the silver was gone by the time they had paid for their food, clothing and shelter. But these poor Blunderians were simple folk, and did not realise that nearly all of the great riches they made were being taken from them by the Baron.

Indeed, they praised and blessed Baron Butrich, who lay in his beautiful bed, and grew fatter and fatter.

And in the castle there were to be seen even richer carpets and costlier furniture, whilst an even greater number of jewels flashed upon the fingers of the Baron as he said to the Baroness:

“How lucky we are that the Blunderians are simple people. Let us reap a rich harvest from their toil, for one day they may discard their simplicity, and there will be nobody to make our wealth.”’

F. Hawkins

https://socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-modern-fairy-tale-palace-in.html