Pass the Poorest

The madness and cruelty at the heart of ConDem austerity policies has been exposed again. The London Borough of Newham in East London, one of the poorest areas in the UK, has a housing waiting list of over 28,000 people. Last year, because of ConDem local government grant cuts, it made £100 million of cuts in services. These cuts are having a terrible effect on some of society’s poorest but more is to come.

The ConDem housing benefit cap has placed further pressure on the council budget as private market rents are above the cap in Newham partly due to the coming Olympic games in the area. This means that the council will lose money each time it places a family on the waiting list in a London house or flat. This is not an incentive to help London’s homeless and in need. Capping the private rental charges makes more sense but goes against 'market knows best' mantras that get more hollow by the day.

Tax is for little people

Britain’s tax-dodging millionaires were officially exposed when new Treasury figures revealed that many are paying a lower rate of income tax than many low-waged cleaners.

The figures, which come as no surprise to tax justice campaigners, show almost one in 10 people earning more than £10 million a year are paying less than the 20% basic rate of income tax.

The Treasury figures also showed that 6% of £10 million-plus earners paid less than 10% in tax and another 3% came in below the basic rate. Fewer than three-quarters (72%) paid more than the higher rate of 40%.

A Treasury spokesperson admitted: “There are currently millionaires paying a lower tax rate than ordinary taxpayers.”

The figures relate to the 575,600 individuals in the UK who earn at least £100,000, with 10,600 of these each earning more than £1 million.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "These are truly shocking figures. For too many of Britain’s super-rich, tax is something for the little people.

"Unfortunately the government is making the mistake of trying to deal with tax reform in a piecemeal way — one day rewarding the very wealthy with a cut in their tax rate, the next trying to unpick their allowances that benefit charitable institutions."

The hatred and fear that stalks Europe

The trial of Anders Breivik in Norway this week has revealed the dangers of resurgent fascism across Europe. His own testimony has shown that he hates the multicultural society in which different communities live together and work together and targets immigration as a cause. He hates Islam, viewing it as a threat to his idea of ‘civilization’, which obviously involves murdering innocent people. Anders Breivik bombed government buildings in Oslo killing 8 then massacred 69 people on the island of Utøya, mostly teenagers attending a summer camp.

The poison of his ideas was matched by his deeds, revealing the problem with allowing fascists to air their racism. When they are allowed to speak and organize, it gives them confidence to attack, terrorize and kill. The trial of Anders Breivik illustrates that the main threat of terrorism comes from the far-right fundamentalists.

"The pull of Galloway" - George talks to The House magazine

George Galloway is perhaps the most experienced ‘newbie’ MP you’ll ever meet. As he walks through Westminster Hall, he urges guests not to step on the plaque to ‘Braveheart’ William Wallace. On the way to the Central Lobby, he points to the statue of Charles James Fox, his favourite parliamentarian (a fellow radical, anti-imperialist with a colourful private life). Up the steps to the Committee Corridor, he identifies the spot where Spencer Perceval was shot dead. And, adding a bit of 20th century history, he even recalls the site where John Reid once threw a punch at him during a row over the first Gulf War.

Like a London cabby showing off his (pre-SatNav era) Knowledge, the newly elected Member for Bradford West certainly knows the nooks and crannies of the Palace of Westminster. He may have a New York radio show, a TV programme in the Middle East, a column in the Daily Record and a new fanbase in West Yorkshire, but the Respect Party MP can’t resist the lure of the House of Commons.

Why people don’t believe main stream politicians

Have you heard the one about the Chancellor, the former Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

You couldn’t make it up!

Last week I was shocked to learn that: the Chancellor, George Osborne didn’t know that lots of rich people actually avoid paying tax. Yea right!

That was closely followed by former Prime Minister, Tony Blair had no recollection of any rendition flights to Libya in 2004. Blimey what is he like eh!

By the end of the week the Labour and official opposition leader, Ed Miliband had skilfully avoided any lessons from the Bradford West bye-election humiliation. Failing completely to ‘get the message’ that Labour had lost an ultra safe seat to a party that actively ‘opposes’ Austerity, War and Privatisation.

And the main stream or more appropriately the lame stream parties wonder why people don’t believe them!

Finally, I believe that trade unions should stop funding him [Miliband] and all the other Labour MP’s and Councils that continually refuse to support trade union policies.


Very eloquently written by Jerry Hicks of Unite the union.

The Bradford Spring: A stunning election victory for the people of Bradford West

This Thursday, 29th March, the people of Bradford West sent a clear message to the leaders of Labour, the Liberals and the Tories: "You can no longer take our votes for granted."

George won 18,341 votes beating Labour by over 10,000 votes.

In a stunning by-election victory, won over less than three short weeks, Respect's George Galloway has shaken up the political 'establishment.' Labour's is vote down, the Tory is vote down and the Lib-Dems are reduced to the fringe. Surely the austerity agenda of the Con-Dem Coalition or the 'austerity-lite' of New Labour fails utterly to address the concerns of everyday people.

The Respect Party intends to take George's victory further in the local elections in May - Bradford deserves Respect in the council as well as at Westminster.

You can help us by joining the Respect Party today.

George Galloway, Respect: 18,341 (55.9%)
Imran Hussain, Labour: 8,201 (25%)
Jackie Whiteley, Conservative: 2,746 (8.4%)
Jeanette Sunderland, Lib Dem: 1,505 (4.6%)
Other: 2,021 (6.2%)
Turnout: 50.8%

Majority: 10,140


Time to go, and end this disaster

The occupation of Afghanistan stands on the brink of disaster. It's time to get out.

That was the response of George Galloway to the latest grim news from Afghanistan - the shooting dead of 16 civilians, nine of them children, in a nighttime killing spree by a US soldier. That follows the deaths last week of six British soldiers from Yorkshire, Lancashire and Cheshire, and widespread protests and killings last month at news that US forces had burned copies of the Koran at Bagram airbase.

"We now stand at a immensely dangerous tipping point," says Galloway, who opposed the Afghan adventure from the beginning and is taking that message to the voters of Bradford West, where he is a candidate in this month's by-election.

"We were told over a decade ago that this would all be over by Christmas. But 11 Christamases have come and gone and the killings are soaring - Afghans, British, Americans and others. We were told that all this was necessary because there was no chance of talks and negotiations. But the US is talking now with the Taliban, who have opened an office in Qatar not far from the American Centcom headquarters from which this war and the invasion of Iraq were launched.

"So what can the politicians who led us into this - from all three establishment parties - say to the grieving relatives in the unemployment blackspots of Britain or the devastated villages of Afghanistan? No good purpose can possibly be served by any longer fighting this losing occupation. This is now about face-saving for those who blundered us into this war, just as they did into the catastrophe of Iraq.

"And time is of the essence. The news that a US staff sergeant, who served three tours of duty in Iraq, has run amok is spreading through every village and town in Afghanistan. Tragically, we must expect even more dogged and deadly reactions from Afghans who have made it so clear that they want an immediate end to the occupation of their country.

"How many more must die on both sides? Far worse is to come if the British government does not change course and, like so many other European countries, pull our troops out now. Instead, David Cameron is beating the drum of war against Iran. But Iranian influenced forces in the west of Afghanistan have so far held back from outright fighting. All that will change if Iran is attacked. And the people who will pay the price will be Afghans and ordinary British soldiers who thanks to our leaders now face enormous hostility in the hottest of hot spots in Afghanistan which they were plunged into as part of the US surge.

"It is time to end this, to announce the swiftest possible withdrawal and to close this chapter of 10 years of catastrophic foreign policy, begun under Tony Blair and continued under Cameron and Clegg. If the British government do not change course, outright disaster beckons - and all the crocodile tears in the world will not wash away their responsibility for it."

UK UN-EMPLOYMENT

Let’s look at the unemployment figures ahead of the announcement of latest figures by the Office for National Statistics. The first quarter of 2012 is likely to see the prospects for UK jobs take a significant hit.

This is because a new report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has shown that the three-month period is set to be the most difficult in the employment sector since the economic downturn.

According to the study, an increasing number of businesses will be looking to get rid of UK jobs - which could lead to unemployment figures totaling 2.85 million by year-end.

It was demonstrated that the difference in numbers between employers planning on taking new staff and the amount set to let workers go is currently at its highest since 2009.

Gerwyn Davies, public policy adviser at the CIPD said: "This will exert yet more pressure on a jobs market that is buckling under the strains of contractions in economic growth."

The jobless total increased to 2.68 million last month and is expected to rise again when the figures are announced on Wednesday. Surely the figures will give us the false impression of unemployment because they will only take into consideration the people who are out of work.

However according to the TUC study, the actual number of unemployed people in the UK could be 6.3 million, the highest since early 1990s.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "The headline unemployment figures are bad enough, but the true scale of joblessness is even worse. Over six million people are either out of work or under-employed. Tackling this crisis should be the Government's number one priority.”

"Our jobs crisis is not confined to those out of work. Nearly two million people are being forced to take low-paid, insecure, short hours jobs because of the lack of proper full-time employment. This means people are taking home much less pay, which is putting a real strain on family budgets.”

"When ministers say there are plenty of jobs out there, they are ignoring the sheer numbers of people looking for work, as well as the suitability and location of the jobs available. Rather than seek to blame unemployed people for being out of work, the Government should start helping them by putting proper resources into employment schemes."

End of war fought for US power

So, the Yanks are going home. Apart from the thousands of their servicemen and women whose life-blood they are leaving in the sands of Iraq. And the tens of thousands too maimed or otherwise damaged to make it back to home and hearth. And minus the trillions of dollars in treasure they have expended on destroying an Arab country (which may have lost a million souls and seen three millions off into exile), fanning the flames of fanaticism, and unleashing a wave of sectarianism throughout the Muslim world.

Nice work, but hardly "Mission Accomplished" as the melancholy valediction delivered by President Obama at Fort Bragg this week made clear to the discerning. The more he talked about what he once called the "dumb war" the more obvious it was that his was the task of holding the dipped banner of defeat. And the crew of thick-necked servicemen straight out of central casting roaring their approval at his description of their success could not quite drown out the sound of the Last Post. This is the death knell of American empire. Like Ozymandius history, which hasn’t ended after all, will invite us to gaze upon its ruined works and tremble. But instead we will rejoice, rejoice. For the Project for the New American Century it will be never glad confident morning again.

The war which was waged, yes for oil and yes also for Israel, was waged above all to terrify the world (especially China) with American power. It turned into the largest boomerang in history. For what has been demonstrated instead are the limits of near bankrupt American power. Far from being cowed, America’s adversaries and its enemies have been emboldened. With shock and awe the empire soon dominated the skies over Iraq to be sure. But they never controlled a single street in the country from the day they invaded until this day of retreat. One street alone, Haifa Street in Baghdad became the graveyard of scores, maybe hundreds of Americans. Fortresses like Fallujah entered history alongside Stalingrad as symbols of the unvanquishable power of popular resistance to foreign invasion. Crimes like Abu Ghraib prison where Iraqis were stripped naked and humiliated forced to perform indecent acts upon each other and videotaped doing so for the entertainment of their torturers in the barracks afterwards entered the lexicon of the barbarism of those who invade others, flying the colours of their "civilising" mission.

As Chairman Mao once said; "sometimes the enemy struggles mightily to lift a huge stone; only to drop it on its own foot". In an America where a third of the population according to the Census Bureau are living in poverty or terrifyingly near it and where imperial hubris met its nemesis on Haifa Street, China now knows it has nothing to fear from this paper tiger.

Almost nobody in Britain or America any longer believes a word their politicians say. This profound change is not wholly the result of the Iraq War, but the war and the militarised mendacity which paved the way to it was, when it moved into top gear. In America this malaise has fuelled both the Tea Party phenomenon and the Occupy movement alike. And from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf the plates are moving still...

Working class are paying for the war budget

Over the last year public sector workers, pensioners and students as well as other sections of the working class have been identified as those who must bear the brunt of the austerity measures. It is us who will pay for the chaos created by the insane and uncontrollable banking system.

EMAs removed, student fees increased, wage freezes, cuts in the welfare supports and the change in the indexation of pensions and benefits from RPI to CPI have, together with the huge increases in unemployment, ensured that all know that the government priorities are to protect their class and squeeze the rest.

The increasing impoverishment of the old, the poor, the sick and the young has developed with a stark rapidity. No democratic mandate. No debate about options. Just a list of all that they can do to suck any margins from those who have so little.

Yet meanwhile the war budgets are sacrosanct. Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2001/2 announced the open budget for the war - the government would spend whatever was required for the military budget, again with no debate. While pensioners are finding that winter fuel payments are slashed, the expenditure on drones, weapons, Humvees and the forces continues.

Whilst the state retirement pension is still substantially below the poverty line, with £102 per week and over 2.5M living in poverty today (only Cyprus, Latvia and Estonia in Europe paying lower pensions) the war budgets can swell if NATO decides to institute a no fly zone in Libya. No questions asked.

While the top earners in the country – the top 0.1% - take over 6.5% of GNP and the average pay of the 350 FTSE directors increased their earnings by 73% at a time when share prices fell by 5% and the directors of the large companies take pensions averaging £175000 pa there is no drive to tax the wealthy as part of the anti austerity drive. As the rich get richer and the poor poorer, in Britain and the US, war budgets are untouched. Britain has been spending around £7 billion pa on Afghanistan and Libya and £2 billion annually on the “upkeep” of Trident.

Each year the US Congress pours $120 billion + into the Afghanistan operation. This constitutes over $100 million per day for military purposes and other NATO countries put in $7 million a day for non military aid. Britain spends over £6 billion each year on the military operations.

Since October 10th 2001 the US, UK and others has been conducting a constant war against the Taliban and others. But they also claim that development and reconstruction are also integral to their anti-insurgency operations. Today there are still over 200 000 “coalition forces” together with 250000 contractors, many more commonly known as mercenaries, but the claim is that the troops will leave in 2014. (If the US wants to maintain their presence and if the Turkmenistan – Afghanistan - Pakistan – Indian pipeline is to start in 2012 and be completed by 2014 this leaving date may be postponed).

Given the injection of inconceivable sums of money what is the result after 10 years?
War and occupation! This means large numbers of deaths, injuries and traumas amongst the Afghan population. Civilians slaughtered, “insurgents” killed; and a constant bloody toll of occupation troops which is now hardly mentioned in the western media. A society torn apart; corruption, violence, torture, instability, suicide bombings in the “safe” areas of Kabul, drone attacks on areas under insurgent control and through the Pakistan / Afghanistan border areas, and widespread opposition to the puppet Karzai government.

The Red Cross reports that Afghanistan is a more dangerous country than it has been over the last 30 years, as described by Afghan activist Malalai Joya:

"Ten years ago the US and NATO invaded my country under the fake banners of women’s rights, human rights and democracy. But after a decade Afghanistan still remains the most uncivil, most corrupt, and most war torn country in the world. The consequences of this so called war on terror have only been more bloodshed, crimes, barbarism, human rights and women’s rights violations which has doubled the miseries and sorrows of our people". Monthly Review Oct 7th 2011