Lets Learn from Chavez

Venezuela Boom??

A US think tank called the CEPR or the Centre for Economic and Policy Research has come out with some positive noise about Chavez Bolivarian revolution. While the main western governments drown in neo-liberal/pro-capitalist/socialism-is-dead-if-you-cant-beat-em-join-em propaganda, President Hugo Chavez, to the annoyance of right wing commentators everywhere, is turning things around the real social democratic way.

The CEPR isn’t no lefty think tank. Its advisory board consists of respected economic commentators such as Robert Solow and Joseph Stiglitz, ( Nobel Laureate Economists no less).

The first four years of the Chavez presidency were difficult times but he has managed to build the kind of stability envied in many western countries. Since 2003 real GDP has grown by 76%. During the period 1998 to 2006 , social spending per person has increased by 170%. The Morning Star, where I found this report, then goes on to point out that this does not include the state oil company PDVSA social spending, which was 7.3% of GDP in 2006.
If you include this , the amount of social spending is 314% more in 2006 than back in 1998, that is in real terms of social spending per person..

The CEPR has detail of how this has benefited the poor in terms of health and education and in subsidised food. The document also points out how during this time poverty has dropped by 31% during that same period.
Lets now look at the drop in unemployment. A clear drop from 15% in 1999 to 8.3% in June 2007.

Before you say its because of the oil resources just remember that Venezuelas declining public debt, large current account surplus and accumulation of reserves gives Chavez considerable insurance against a decline in oil prices. The Chavez government is also in a stronger position to deal with inflation and the related exchange rate imbalance.

All in all, the harbingers of doom who dribble with excitement at the imminent collapse of Chavez socialist regime will have to wait a bit longer. There might be some on the left sceptical about the Chavez phenomena but ignoring any warts for the moment , you cant deny he has been a success.

Lets give him some support and praise.

Maybe there are a few lessons here for our so called social democratic leaders who currently echo Thatchers TINA approach of 27 years ago.

There is an alternative. Its being tested and it works.

http://www.cepr.net/

CWU to Win. Victory to the Posties

I have shamelessly stolen this speech from the LRC blog. I expect it can be found elsewhere. Billy spoke at a rally in Liverpool on the 21st.

Speech by Billy Hayes (CWU General Secretary) to the Liverpool Postal Rally on Saturday 21st July 2007

In 2004 the Royal Mail Chairman proposed to Government that 51% of Royal Mail should be sold off.The CWU campaigned against this proposal.We even got the Labour Government to carry a commitment in its Manifesto not to privatise Royal Mail.So immediately after the 2005 election, Alan Leighton retreated but still proposed to government that should be a 20% share distribution to staff.
The CWU campaigned against this.
In January 2007, the government, via Alistair Darling, rejected Leighton's proposal.My first point is that this shows we can beat Royal Mail.Despite all their friends in the media and business circles telling us that Royal Mail would be privatised - the CWU defeated management's proposal.
Now we are going to defeat them again through our strike.Since January 2007 management policy has gone into crisis.
They wanted to get a lot of rich mates in to carve up a public service.
Now they can't do that - so instead, they want to squeeze and gouge out jobs, hours and services to the public.Our fight is then a fight for our own jobs, wages, conditions and pensions.
But we are also fighting for the very future of Royal Mail as a public service.
Not only are management squeezing us - they are also cutting down the postal industry to serve big business, at the expense of small business and domestic customers.
They want to have different price zones - for more than 50% of the mail.
So what happens to the uniform price in the universal service then?
They want to reduce the universal service to just cover first and second class stamp products.
So they want the minimum possible universal service position.
Cutting back service - not developing it.And who is going to pay for this universal service?
Royal Mail wants to move "cost based" pricing.So if first and second class mail is the universal service - then this mail will carry the cost of providing that service.
This means, that first class and second class stamps increase dramatically in price.
All the services for larger business will be outside the universal service.
Even though they use the same networkAnd so big business will get the service with dramatically lower prices.
That's the future that management are planning.
That's their business plan - big price increases for small businesses and domestic customers - real price reductions for big business.
And a reduction in services for everybody, except a small number of very profitable business customers.
The CWU says NO to such a business plan.We want the postal service to expand and improve its services to customers - not cut them back.
Home delivery of items - both addressed and unaddressed - is expanding.
We want a service that grows to meet customer demand.
Gordon Brown has announced a plan for 3 million extra homes by 2020.That's an increase of 11% in the total delivery network.
In the course of Royal Mail's proposed business plan, that's an extra 1 million homes.
This alone makes managements projections redundant.When they drew up this plan - at the start of 2006 - they didn't plan for a big growth of delivery points.So, we know that management's policies are in crisis.
It is going to take our actions to solve this.
Management are trying to frighten us with the threat of competition.
Are these the same managers whose policy has cost Royal Mail 40% of its access product?
Postcomm thought that Royal Mail would lose this figure by 2010.But management managed to give it away quicker.
At the current rate – by 2010 – competition will have 70%-80% of the access product.But Royal Mail will be in deep financial crisis before then.
Management has no idea how to solve this.
Other than to get small business and domestic customers to swallow huge price increases.
Well - the CWU rejects this.On Monday, Dave Ward and myself are meeting the Minister – John Hutton.
One of the things that will be explained to him is that we expect the Government to review competition in Royal Mail – in line with a promise already given in Labour's Manifesto.
Inside the EU, the European Parliament has just voted to slow down the general liberalisation of postal services until 2011 at the earliest.
So - the government must consider how to deal with the mess of competition that Postcomm and Royal Mail have created.
A government review will allow the chance to save Royal Mail from falling back into a serious financial crisis.
We expect the government to carry its responsibility for the industry.Every day - certainly our members carry enough responsibility.

Now - my congratulations to the Officers and members of the Merseyside Amal Branch for organising this Rally.
We need to take every opportunity to explain our case to the public.
We need to discuss amongst CWU members what we need to do to resolve this dispute.
A big responsibility falls upon us - this dispute will shape the future of the postal service.
But we cannot walk away and find other well-paid jobs – unlike management.
This is where our livelihood resides.
That is why we must promote the policies to protect our employment and the future of the industry.
Thank you for listening - together we will win.

Save the Health and Safety Executive.

This link to my local paper shows how easy a dangerous situation can occur that would endanger the lives of workers. Luckily no workers were injured in this disaster but it could easily have been different.

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/latest/display.var.1577061.0.controversy_rages_on_as_refinery_fire_dies_down.php

It is not as if the main Oil Companies cant afford better Health and safety , as the links below show.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6919363.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6319577.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6320933.stm

But it is worrying that in their relentless pursuit for more profit , corners are being cut. At Fawley refinery , I have spoken to a number of workers there, Esso employees and contractors, who believe that corners have been cut. They tell me this refinery makes around £1.2 million a day. That wouldn’t surprise me at all. They also tell me that a US management team , who have since left, came in , in the early 2000’s to turn ‘a struggling’ refinery around. Their safety message can be found here.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/corporateresponsibility/casestudies/esso.pdf

(A fifth of the Uk’s oil comes through Fawley. ‘Jobs a good un’ )

So what did happen at Fawley this week?

What I do know and what I hear many workers there tell me is that we need an HSE with teeth. An HSE that will tackle bad employers with haste. An HSE that will be decisive in its punishment to the Employers that flout H&S law. My next link shows the problems we face with the current situation the HSE is in.

http://www.hazards.org/commissionimpossible/safetychips.htm

Sadly I cant see things turning in workers favour with an Employer friendly government that is keener on getting the ‘balance’ right rather than supporting the requests of the Unions that pay them so much money at election time.

http://www.tgwu.org.uk/Templates/News.asp?NodeID=93263

Bob Blackman of Unite, in this link, is a person who knows better than anyone else the huge risks in construction . I believe that if not more money is invested in the HSE we will see a sharp rise in workplace casualties.

The Government has to wake up, take notice and act now.

Sadly I think they wont.

25 years to save manufacturing in the UK

Commendable campaign launched by Unite.

A lobby of the Labour conference is planned in September. This is part of an ongoing campaign to drag the New Labour leadership into the real world. While some European countries have seen the decline in manufacturing halt and even rise slightly, the ex Blairite , Brown junta still hang on to the 'let the market decide' mantra promoted in the past by Thatcher and Keith Joseph.

The faces may change but the poison remains the same.

http://www.tgwu.org.uk/Templates/News.asp?NodeID=93560&int1stParentNodeID=42438&int2ndParentNodeID=42438&Action=Display

If Capitalism is so successful why is it that..........?

A question some of the free marketeers in the Labour Party should ask themselves after I found this report on the BBC site this morning;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/6277176.stm

Waiting for some form of economic prosperity to liberate the poor is a false hope for the millions on or below the poverty line. Yet western 'democrats' still promote the hope that it is free enterprise/ the free market, that will lift the people as represented here in the reports, out of prostitution and into a decent standard of living. For many the only choice is between this and working in some shoddy' victorian' sweatshop making trainers or cheap T shirts to sell at knock down prices in european supermarkets. The talk of a Thai multi millionaire takeover of Man City FC shows that there is incredible wealth in that region but kept in the hands of a tiny minority and in turn protected by military style regimes that keep the huge majority of the poor in check.

Greed is Good

The race to the bottom in wages and conditions that you see happening now in the advanced capitalist countries will throw millions into the type of barbarism you see happening in countries such as Thailand and Cambodia.The new Russia after years of communism anthen the introduction of capitalism, has been steadily seeing poverty pushing women and kids into the sex trade. No amount of Blairite tinkering with capitalism to give it a 'human face' will stop this process.

As Brown and his team consolidate their grip we look with interest not just how they treat their foreign policy with regions such as those outlined in the report but also how they manage their own capitalism. Where we see huge abuse of the poor by undiluted capitalism are we going to hear calls for intervention, whether it is economical or military, such as what has happenned in Afghanistan or Iraq.

I think not.

Shameless promotion of what really is an outdated economic system which naturally evolves to meet the modern day demands will never solve the question of what to do with the worlds poor and unemployed. We are more likely to win the lottery than to hope for a leader or party with the guts to challenge the 'free economy'.Together with the destruction of our climate, an area where capitalism has been also found to be lacking, this is the agenda that needs to be taken to the mass of the working population of the world economies.

In the UK, Live8 or Live Earth will only sell more CDs. A debate on Socialism will sell a future.