SPGB Meeting TONIGHT 14 February 2025 1930 GMT ZOOM

 

HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS? (ZOOM)

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Event Details

• Date: February 14, 2025 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm

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Discussion of recent events
Host: Dougie McLellan

To connect to a Zoom meeting, click https://zoom.us/j/7421974305

Socialist Sonnet No. 181

Commercial Property

 

Commercial bids, sealed of course, are invited

For this intractable tract of land, freed

By eviction, coming with guaranteed

Vacant possession. We are delighted,

As appointed agents of the present

Administrators, this prime real estate

Is offered to those who negotiate,

On their own behalf, with the sole intent

Of maximising profit potential.

Partial demolition, but site clearance

Requires completion. Such a golden chance

Rarely comes to market. Need for quick sale!

While there’s unquestioned viability,

Vendors can’t accept liability.

 

D. A.

London By-election' Write In'

 

Below is the text from leaflets that The Socialist Party will be distributing in three London local by-elections.

On this occasion The Socialist Party will not be putting up candidates but is encouraging voters to cast a ‘write in’ vote.

What matters – profits or people?

All the parties standing in this by-election support capitalism (the profit system) and are squabbling over which of them should run the administrative side of it here at local level. So, there’s no real choice.

They think the profit system can be made to work in the interests of the majority. But it can’t, and they end up having to do the system’s dirty work of saving money on public services so that taxes on profits can be kept down.

Profits first, people second, that’s the way the profit system works. It’s the only way it can work. Which is why Socialists say it must go. Support for any of the parties that want to run the profit system is a vote for more of the same: more insecurity, hardship and cuts, while the rich can afford the best of everything.

What’s the alternative?
If we are going to put an end to this we must act for ourselves, without professional politicians or leaders. We’re going to have to organise ourselves to bring about a society geared to meeting people’s needs – without a price tag – not profits.

But the only basis on which this can be done is common ownership and democratic co-operation. In a word, socialism.

The Socialist Party is not contesting this by-election but you can still say NO to a system based on profit, privilege and competition and YES to one based on equality, co-operation and meeting needs by writing “I vote for socialism” on your ballot paper.

Election? Cancelled

Churchill said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others. In socialism there will be true democracy but no 'governments'

For The Socialist Party's view on achieving socialism through using the democratic system even with its imperfections see the SPGB pamphlet, What's Wrong With Using Parliament? Available to read online.

https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/product/whats-wrong-with-using-parliament/

The chutzpah of the Ukrainian 'leader', see below, in providing reasons why elections are cancelled there 'During this war, our population are against elections and, having an election would require martial law to be lifted. if we suspend martial law we will lose our army, he said, explaining that Kiev would not be able to keep the troops on the front lines otherwise.'

In the UK nine Council elections have been cancelled leaving more than five million people unable to vote in them this year.

The excuse given by Angela Rayner, The Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, is a reorganisation to unitary authorites.

Social media is seeing an increase in people who, as a protest, say they will stop paying their council tax. Whether this 'protest' will be as large, or as effective, as the one against the ex Conservative Prime Minister and her attempts to introduce a poll tax, remain to be seen.

As has been said, if voting changed anything they would abolish it.

The only solution for the many ills within a capitalist system, whether it be assault on democratic rights, exploitation or involving innocents in devastating wars is the replacement of the minority benefiting system by socialism.

To quote William Morris;

'One man with an idea in his head is in danger of being considered a madman: two men with the same idea in common may be foolish, but can hardly be mad; ten men sharing an idea begin to act, a hundred draw attention as fanatics, a thousand and society begins to tremble, a hundred thousand and there is war abroad, and the cause has victories tangible and real; and why only a hundred thousand? Why not a hundred million and peace upon the earth? You and I who agree together, it is we who have to answer that question.'

'Holding an election during the conflict between Russia and Ukraine would be a disaster for Kiev for a number of reasons, ranging from popular disapproval to running the risk of losing its army, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, Keith Kellogg, said Washington would like to see Kiev hold presidential and parliamentary votes before the end of the year. Elections have been suspended indefinitely by Zelensky, due to martial law.

According to Zelensky, having an election would require martial law to be lifted. We suspend martial law we will lose our army, he said, explaining that Kiev would not be able to keep the troops on the front lines otherwise.

People will come back home and will have every right to return home, he said, adding that those who do not would still lose their combat capability and morale.

Elections in Ukraine at this time would only benefit Russia, the Ukrainian leader claimed in an interview with ITV News. The topic of elections has been brought up by Russians, he said.

In his interview, Zelensky maintained that Russia only wants to see elections in Ukraine to bring about destabilization. He also claimed that the people do not want to have an election, and that he is absolutely not afraid of them.

During this war, our population is against elections, all people are against it.

According to Zelensky, having an election would require martial law to be lifted. We suspend martial law we will lose our army, he said, explaining that Kiev would not be able to keep the troops on the front lines otherwise.

People will come back home and will have every right to return home, he said, adding that those who do not would still lose their combat capability and morale. Ukraine launched a massive mobilization campaign after imposing martial law, following the start of Russian military operation in February 2022.

Kiev has faced criticism over its heavy-handed approach toward mobilization. Numerous videos have appeared on social media showing Ukrainian conscription officers chasing potential recruits in the streets and subjecting them to abuse.

The mobilization campaign was also marred by widespread draft dodging, corruption, and desertion. Last year, the elite 155th Mechanized Brigade made headlines after around 1,700 members reportedly fled the unit without firing a single shot.

According to Zelensky, having an election with the troops still in the trenches is not fair. He also described it as nearly impossible logistically, with around 8 million Ukrainians now living abroad. Earlier in the interview, he called on Kiev and Western backers to first provide Ukraine with security guarantees and economic aid sufficient to convince people who have fled the country to return.'

A boot and a face?

 

Party members and supporters of the SPGB do not wear tinfoil hats. The complete opposite in fact, socialists are very aware of how capitalism operates and the lengths it goes to control the majority who run capitalism on behalf of the minority.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean to say their not out to get you but the SPGB has never worried about the buff file on a Whitehall desk, or wherever the spooks live. As a political party the SPGB has always been fully clear and open about its purpose and aims ever since 1904.

The naïve, it has to be said, stupid individual who thinks the state is there to benefit them, and who says, if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear, is dangerously wrong in that belief. Read the Martin Niemölle poem, First They Came.

They are too many examples to list of states and governments, historical and contemporary, attempting, or being successful, in coercion and clamping down on free speech.

Below are two penlights shining into the dark pit. News sites are reporting 'legally, the order notice cannot be made public.'

Did someone in the Liebour government discover George Orwell?

From June 2024:

EU Commission is allegedly considering a major expansion of surveillance practices in the bloc that could potentially affect every single EU citizen, German news website t-online reported citing confidential draft recommendations it had seen.

A 28-page document, reportedly drawn up by a group of experts on behalf Brussels, lists a total of 42 suggestions of possible tighter surveillance measures in what the media outlet described as “unprecedented privacy limitation.”

The paper, titled: “Recommendations from the High-Level Group on Access to Data for Effective Law Enforcement” demands app developers create “backdoors” for the law enforcement agencies to get to any content they need.

The investigators should be able to circumvent end-to-end encryption in messenger services like WhatsApp or Telegram using some sort of a “general key” provided by the developers, t-online reported. Companies that would fail to meet such demands should face penalties, the document reportedly states.

The list of suggestions is not limited to messaging apps, though. The proposed changes also target the Internet of Things, calling for “greater standardization” of various home apps and devices, including “all forms of connectivity.” The measure is expected to particularly affect home assistants like Google Home, Alexa or the Apple assistant as well as anything up to smart refrigerators, allowing authorities to obtain data collected by such devices.

The paper also calls for the introduction of data retention, according to t-online. A data-retention regulation requires providers of telecommunications and Internet services to store the traffic data on all its users for a specified period of time and to be able to pass them to law enforcement if needed. Such data could include IP addresses, phone contacts or location data.

Germany’s Federal Administrative Court – the nation’s highest judicial body ruling on administrative law cases – had previously classified groundless and indiscriminate data retention to be a violation of EU law and banned it in Germany. Now, this may change if the EU Commission follows through on these recommendations, t-online warned.

The document reportedly justified the proposed mass surveillance approach with the need to “ensure effective prosecution” of cases related to organized crime and terrorism activities and in particular to identified terrorist-attack plots at an early stage.

A digital expert, Anja Hirschel, who is also a member of the German Pirate Party advocating digital privacy rights, warned that such plans represent “an unprecedented… leap right into a fully monitored society.” “Everything we do, where we go and who we communicate with, will be visible at any moment and without any barriers,” she told t-online.

Brussels has not commented on the report about the draft surveillance recommendations.

Last year, a Dutch MEP Sophie in ‘t Veld already warned that EU governments were using “totalitarian methods” to spy on journalists. She was commenting on allegations that some EU nations were using the Israeli Pegasus malware to surveil an editor of an EU-based Russian news site.'

From February 2025:

'The UK government has issued a “technical capability notice” to Apple, compelling the tech giant to create a backdoor to its encrypted iCloud service, the Washington Post reported. The move would enable UK law enforcement and security agencies to access encrypted data stored by Apple users worldwide, according to the newspaper.

The UK’s Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), referred to by critics as the “Snoopers’ Charter,” grants authorities the power to mandate that tech companies permit access to users’ data for investigative purposes. It also makes it a criminal offense to reveal that the government has made such a demand. The recent notice requires Apple to provide a means for decrypting user data. It is currently protected by end-to-end encryption, ensuring that only users can access their information.

Creating such backdoors could weaken overall security and set a dangerous precedent, according to Daniel Castro, vice-president of the US-based Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. In a statement he has described the UK’s move as an “unjustified over-reach that threatens the security and privacy of individuals and businesses around the world.”

Last March, in a submissionto the a parliamentary committee, Apple expressed concern that the IPA could be used to force companies to “break encryption by inserting backdoors into their software products.” Apple asserted that it “would never build a backdoor” and would rather withdraw “critical safety features” from the UK market affecting the security of British users’ data.

Ross McKenzie, a data protection partner at law firm Addleshaw Goddard, told The Guardian that the UK order could lead to a clash with the EU, potentially affecting agreements that allow the free flow of personal data between the UK and Europe.

UK security officials argue that encryption can hinder efforts to combat crime and terrorism. “Maintaining proportionate, lawful access to such communications in the face of ever-more prevalent encryption is sometimes our only means of detecting and understanding these threats,” Ken McCallum, head of the UK’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, stated last October. He believes that “privacy and exceptional lawful access can coexist if absolutist positions are avoided.”

The UK Home Office has declined to confirm or deny the existence of the notice, stating, “We do not comment on operational matters,” according to The Guardian.

Apple has long defended the encryption of its operating systems, notably challenging the FBI in court in 2016 over a demand for a “backdoor” to access the iPhone of a suspect in the San Bernardino, California, terrorist attack. In legal filings, Apple argued that the US government was requesting something it did not possess and that creating such a tool would be “too dangerous.”

The FBI eventually unlocked the phone using an Israeli spy tool, though it reportedly found nothing of value. Later revalations showed that other Israeli spyware, called Pegasus, had been used to hack tens of thousands of iPhones worldwide, targeting journalists, dissidents, and even heads of state.'

Mr Underwood continues to profit

Further proof that capitalism sees wars and military conflicts as a profit generating bonanza and cares not for the human suffering it engenders.

‘Washington is sending obsolete weapons to Kiev and replacing them with new systems ordered from private contractors, the Ukrainian leader has claimed

The Ukraine conflict has been a bonanza for the US defence-industrial complex, which has benefited from massive contracts for weapons meant to supply Kiev and replenish domestic stockpiles, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has said.

In an interview with British journalist Piers Morgan Zelensky argued that a significant portion of the billions the US has allocated to Ukraine has in fact circulated back to boost US domestic arms production.

“Part of the money that people in the US talk about was actually financing production in the US,” the Ukrainian leader said. “The companies that were producing weapons [for Kiev] received this money… American companies now have contracts for these arms at the highest prices in the last 50 years because there is such huge demand due to the Russian offensive.”

A significant part of the funding went to “specific companies, specific plants, making profits for specific people. It went toward the salaries of US citizens working in those companies,” he added.

According to Zelensky, the campaign to support Ukraine has also helped the US renew its arsenal, as Washington has in many cases supplied Kiev with relatively obsolete weapons produced in the 1970s and 1980s. He added, however, that Ukraine is grateful for the help, despite earlier criticizing the West for delays and the amount of weaponry being sent.

On top of this, Zelensky argued, “the US received from Ukraine the experience of modern, large-scale land warfare. Americans and Europeans – but Americans in the first place – have all the information… on what in American weapons works and what does not.”

Up our game?

 

'Chris Philp MP reckons that ‘we have got [to] be competitive and it means we have got to work hard. As a country we need to up our game’. What he meant was ‘we have to get you plebs to work even harder’ so that the owning class can up their game on the international market.

Nine million working-age adults are currently not working, he said. You might think this has something to do with unemployment and the state of the job market. But politicians naturally lay the blame on those who are suffering and have no say in the economy.

Our advice to you: tell the owners that the game’s up and help us to abolish the wages system!'

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