Wednesday, July 16, 2025

Labour - the problems pile up


What a mess the Labour government is in. The problems just pile up – proposed welfare cuts followed by a humiliating U-turn, a lot of its active supporters hacked off by its outlawing of Palestinian Action, the court system bursting at the seams, the small boats that keep coming, and now doctors threatening to strike over pay. They just can’t do right for doing wrong.

But that’s the fate of all governments of capitalism. True, it’s happening sooner than most for this one. But getting a system riven with contradictions and at the mercy of ‘market forces’ to work in a way that keeps them popular with the electorate is doomed to failure, and usually ends in electoral defeat.


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



Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Francesca Albanese upsets USA Capitalists

 

The tensions inherent in capitalism mean that the condemnation of individuals by one state toward the leaders, population or others of another competing state are a ‘normal’ activity.

The demonisation of the individual listed below appear to us to be taking things to an entirely different level.

‘The basis for the action instigated by the American State department appears to be the perceived threat to the economic interests of the American state

From an internet search:

On July 2, 2025, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, presented her report titledFrom economy of occupation to economy of genocide" during the 59th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The report highlights the deep entanglement of corporate, academic, and financial entities in sustaining Israel's occupation and alleged genocide in Gaza. It calls for international criminal responsibility for companies and their executives involved in enabling these actions.

  • Key Findings: The report identifies major corporations such as Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon as complicit in providing tools, technologies, and logistical support that have fuelled the use of force against the Palestinian civilian population. It also criticises universities for their role in perpetuating the apartheid regime through research and collaborations with Israeli military and tech firms.

    Corporate Involvement: The report emphasises the role of the military-industrial complex, technology sector, financial system, and academic institutions in supporting the Israeli occupation. It specifically mentions companies like Palantir, Caterpillar, and Volvo for their alleged contributions to the conflict.

    Academic Complicity: Universities, including MIT and the Technical University of Munich (TUM), are highlighted for their partnerships with Israeli institutions, which the report claims contribute to the development of surveillance, crowd control, and military technologies used against Palestinians.

    Financial Support: The report also points to international financial institutions and banks, such as BNP Paribas and Barclays, which have underwritten Israeli treasury bonds, thereby supporting the war effort.

    Calls for Accountability: Albanese urges the international community to hold corporations, universities, and financial institutions accountable for their roles in enabling the occupation and genocide. She emphasises that international law imposes obligations to prevent and disengage from activities that fuel serious crimes, including genocide.’

Francesca P. Albanese 1977) is an Italian legal scholar and expert on human rights.

On 1 May 2022, she was appointed United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories for a three-year term, which was then renewed for another three years. She is the first woman to hold the position.’ Wiki

.Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide  Convention defines genocide as:

... any of the following acts committed with intent to destroyin whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group
On 9 July Marco Rubio, American Secretary of State issued the following:
‘Today, I am imposing sanctions on Francesca Paola Albanese, the United Nations Human Rights Council “Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967,” pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order 14203, “Imposing Sanctions on the International Criminal Court.” Albanese has directly engaged with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in efforts to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute nationals of the United States or Israel, without the consent of those two countries. Neither the United States nor Israel is party to the Rome Statute, making this action a gross infringement on the sovereignty of both countries.

‘The United States has repeatedly condemned and objected to the biased and malicious activities of Albanese that have long made her unfit for service as a Special Rapporteur. Albanese has spewed unabashed antisemitism, expressed support for terrorism, and open contempt for the United States, Israel, and the West. That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

She has recently escalated this effort by writing threatening letters to dozens of entities worldwide, including major American companies across finance, technology, defence, energy, and hospitality, making extreme and unfounded accusations and recommending the ICC pursue investigations and prosecutions of these companies and their executives. We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty.

The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare, to check and prevent illegitimate ICC overreach and abuse of power, and to protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.
Albanese is being designated pursuant to Section 1(a)(ii)(A) of Executive Order (E.O.) 1420’

https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2025/07/sanctioning-lawfare-that-targets-u-s-and-israeli-persons/



Monday, July 14, 2025

World Socialist Radio - Farage - Opportunist Supreme

 


pod.link/1819552886

With characteristic opportunism, Nigel Farage, sniffing political power, is seeking to present himself as the leader of a kind of neo-Labour Party who will fix everything Labour has always promised to fix for workers but never has. In the end however, he is only an extreme example of the opportunism inherent in all capitalist political leaders as they seek to control a system that breeds economic chaos, poses the constant threat of war and environmental degradation and can only ever offer workers at best a few crumbs from the table of the rich.Adapted from an article from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.World Socialist Radio is the official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all productive resources – land, water, factories, transport, etc. – are taken into common ownership, and in which the sole motive for production is the fulfilment of human needs and wants.To read more news, views, and analysis please visit: worldsocialism.org/spgbor, for a free three-issue subscription to The Socialist Standard: 

Worldsocialistradio.com

Friday, July 11, 2025

SPGB Meeting TONIGHT 11 July 1930 (GMT +1) ZOOM

 

THE RISE AND FALL OF SOLIDARNOSC IN POLAND IN THE 1980S (ZOOM)


Event Details

  • Date:  – 

Speaker: Richard Botterill

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

Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Sea monsters

 ‘If you’re feeling fearful right now, possibly because Labour wants to cut your welfare to pay for fighter planes, you won’t be consoled to learn that superyachts are getting bigger. One yacht owner helpfully explains why, for example, these floating 5-star hotels need huge kitchens to provide gourmet fare: “If you are used to eating well, not everywhere [in the world] are there restaurants good enough.”’

How tiresome for the poor lambs. Globally, 733 million are not used to eating much at all, and 9 million a year starve to death. Yet when you point to capitalism’s monstrous inequality, caused entirely by the rich exploiting the poor, the rich are the first to accuse you of the politics of envy.'


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



Socialist Sonnet No. 198

Penny Pinching

 

Treasuries are empty vessels.

Chancellors, in a parlous state

Of limited means, must wrestle

With demands as they inflate.

 

More for defence and more for health,

More for increasing benefits;

Meanwhile, the wealthy guard their wealth

Or money markets take the hits.

 

Every penny capital pays

Whether as salaries or doles,

If taxes rise so must wages,

 

Too much by capitals’ gauges

And it’s then the stock market falls:

So, back again, to crisis days.

 

D. A.

Tuesday, July 08, 2025

World Socialist Radio - Labour in Sickness and Health


World Socialist Radio

The Socialist Party of Great Britain

Official podcast of The Socialist Party of Great Britain. We have one single aim: the establishment of a society in which all... more

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Labour in Sickness and Health

Healthcare under capitalism and socialism. Article from the July 2025 edition of The Socialist Standard.Featuring music: 'Pushing P (Instrumental)' by... more

06 Jul 2025 · 7 minutes