Productivity is tyranny

Today I was listening to Helen Lewis's programme about gurus - The New Gurus - on BBC Sounds. The show was about productivity gurus. How can you make the most of your time? You only have 4,000 weeks to live - yikes! It seems there is a guru industry out there with millions of followers on YouTube. Did I learn anything particularly useful about how to be productive? Er...no. Maybe other people did.

But then I have a problem with productivity, and a large part of that is what 'productivity' is really about. Let's go back in time 500 years or so to medieval England. In those days, before the enclosures, your actual 'peasant' didn't have such a bad life. It wasn't as nasty brutish and short as some would have us believe. Productivity then was seasonal, planting seeds, harvesting, grazing livestock, hunting,  and foraging. In midwinter, where we are now, days were short, and you couldn't plant or sow, so people had holidays and celebrated instead. This is their time of the year for wassailing and celebrating the beginning of a new year. It is reckoned that, in those days, they had 150 or so holidays a year, Saints Days, etc. Not bad compared with now eh?

Fast forward to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the industrial revolution had begun, and the common land, used by those peasants had been enclosed by the ruling class. The industrial revolution had begun. People were forced out of the villages into the growing towns and cities, to work in the mills and factories. It was then that productivity, as we know it now was born, capitalists making workers toil for longer hours and fewer holidays to increase the surplus value of their labour.

Although organised labour brought us the eight-hour day, the weekend, and many other benefits we still live in that productivity trap. Although productivity is more than just about the hours we work it's key to making the wheels of capitalism turn. Of course, if you want to spend sixty hours a week chained to a keyboard as one of the gurus admitted he did that's up to you. Me I'd rather be a wassailing! A much better use of my time.😀 🍻🌲🍎

Merry Yule!

What does Xmas mean to me? In a word nothing. I loved Xmas when I was a child. I was lucky enough to have a loving family and a Mum who was a very good cook. The tree, decorations, the presents, and the food were great. It was a time of genuine warmth and celebration, lit by an open fire. Now things are different. I still like to make merry with family and friends as much as possible but I despise the hype and commercialism. 

I’ve never been remotely religious so that aspect had no impact on me. Now, I’m much more interested in the origins of Xmas as a midwinter festival. In the distant English past midwinter was an important festival with days of celebration. Whole communities participated in wassailing. As a sufferer from SAD, the winter equinox, Yule, is an important day for me. The days get longer and lighter. That’s what mainly I’ll be celebrating, and, as I do, I’ll also take some time to reflect on all those who’ve suffered under a dozen years of Tory government. Merry Yule! 🙂🎄

Privatisation is theft!

In 1840 Pierre-Joseph Proudhon famously said, "Property is theft". He was right. The worst event in human history occurred when somebody put a fence around a piece of land and said "this belongs to me". All land should be held in common, and for most of our human history, it has been. In England, hundreds of thousands of acres of common land were stolen from the people by the ruling class during the enclosures. The purpose of the theft wasn't just to gain control of the land but to dispossess the English people, starving them of resources, such as food, grazing land, and firewood,  making them less independent and easier to control and dominate. 

If you want to find out more about this I can recommend two very good books on the commons. The first is  'Who Owns England' by Guy Shrubsole. In his book, he describes how the land was stolen and who now owns most of it. Here is a quote from the review:

 'Two-thirds of land in the UK as a whole – 40m acres – is owned by 0.36% of the population; 24m families, meanwhile, share the “urban plot” of 3m acres'

The second is the 'Plunder of the Commons' by Guy Standing. He describes how it's not just land and resources that have been stolen from us but the wealth that goes with them, and what we can do about it. One of his key references is The Charter of the Forest (Carta Foresta) of 1217. This document is as important as Magna Carta but has conveniently been written out of our history. It establishes the people's rights on common land in England.

So what has this got to do with privatisation? Quite a lot actually. Just as our land has been privatised so have our other natural assets. Water is in the news at the moment. Not only have millions of people been outraged by the water companies dumping raw sewage into rivers and onto our beaches but it's clear that these corporations are screwing us by extracting as much profit as possible whilst failing to invest in much-needed infrastructure. As if that wasn't bad enough they have saddled the companies with £54B of debt whilst extracting £66B in profits!

It's clear that water companies must be brought back into common ownership and that this can happen without any cost. This needs to be done as soon as possible so that the mismanagement of our water can be halted and improvements begun. That won't happen though as long as we have a Tory government that puts profit before people, and the Labour 'opposition' has shown no signs of bringing about necessary reform. 

Of course, the same is true for energy, the railway network, education, and the NHS. Such measures prove popular with voters but our politicians are more interested in the wants of corporations and donors. It's not just a massive expansion of common ownership that we need but taxes on the wealth that the 1% extract from us, a land value tax, the right to roam, and a return to the time of Carta Foresta when the commons are once again ours. Our political system is broken but there are many people engaged in the struggle to bring back the commons and public ownership. Get involved and keep on fighting for it! Oh! - and join a union, support the striking key workers, and fight for decent pay!

#EnoughIsEnough! ✊✊✊

In a rapidly worsening climate emergency solidarity and mutual aid are key.

CoP27, taking place this year in Egypt, is now on the horizon. Our new PM Rishi Sunak has said he won't attend. This is shocking but not surprising, and he may well yet be forced to change his mind*. We are in a position where climate scientists are warning that we won't meet the CoP set target of restricting global warming to 1.5ºC. Despite the fact that we have known about the dangers of carbon dioxide emissions for many decades, they are still rising and fossil fuel companies are still exploring for new oil and gas, as well as making extortionate profits in the process.

The climate emergency is an existential threat to humanity and life on Earth. We need to take action now to reduce our dependence on carbon and commit to investment in a green industrial revolution that will involve much more renewable energy and better-insulated homes and workplaces. The latter would be a great help to millions who are suffering in the energy crisis.

The main problem we have is neoliberal governments that dominate western democracies and politicians who are working for corporations and banks rather than citizens. Profit before people. We are getting the usual line from Sunak's government, and the MSM, that there is too much government debt and there is real concern that we are facing another round of Tory austerity at the worse possible time. 

In a cost-of-living crisis, the government should be supporting and bolstering households and public services. That means spending and investing in projects like a green new deal and decent pay rises for public sector workers. It also means higher taxes on the wealthy and corporations. Carsten Jung a senior economist at the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said:

“We face a serious economic situation with inflation running high and people's livelihoods in peril. But spending cuts will not get us out of this crisis. On the contrary, the right policy mix can tame inflation and stabilise the economy at the same time – without spending cuts.  

“The government has significant fiscal space to spend on household support and the economy, if combined with some tax increases and gentle interest rate rises**. The lost decade following the financial crisis has shown us that austerity enduringly harms people and growth. It is wrong to frame cuts as inevitable – they are not." 

So, what has all this to do with solidarity and mutual aid? The sad reality is that our government is unlikely to do anything to really improve the position of households and mitigate climate change. We cannot depend on the Tories to give people the help they need. Increased hardship is inevitable. That means, at a time of crisis, we are going to have to support each other and do all that we can to make our own communities safer and more resilient. The very fact that there are foodbanks in the UK brings shame upon our nation, but the number is growing and many more citizens are supporting their communities and are getting involved in this form of mutual aid. 

In addition, there are a lot of other community projects going on that you can get involved in. These include:

• community land trusts - building homes

• community energy companies - local energy companies supplying renewable energy

• food coops and growing local food

• providing community spaces - for warmth and company

• repair and recycling groups

• retrofitting homes for energy efficiency

• Transition Towns - building community resilience

I've provided some links above to help people get started on the road to building better, stronger communities. There are many local groups and cooperatives all over the UK working on solidarity, mutual aid, and improving community well-being in the face of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency. Can you help your neighbours and make your community a better place? Not only can you help them but you can help yourself and your family to build a better future.

You, me, and us. We have agency and the power to build a better society.

* Not long after I wrote this he did.

** Just to note I don't agree with him about interest rate rises.

Truss has gone but the #Tory horror show continues apace.

What a week! What another grim week! After the Trussonomics mini-budget fiasco, the departure of chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, and the 'resignation' of Suella Braverman because of a row with Truss about immigration, and her security breaches that precipitated the resignation of the PM. 

So now we have Tory chaos, another leadership election in which Bozo Johnson, who has been partying, and has been absent from parliament, having three holidays since he was booted out in July, threw his hat into the ring. He was immediately supported by many conservative MPs including Nadheem Zahawi who had told him to quit only a few months ago. As someone said, an hour is now a very long time in politics. 

But Johnson had to withdraw due to lack of support and now Rishi - eat out to catch covid - Sunak - is the favourite to become the next PM. Tory members may get an electronic vote and it's worth mentioning here that union members have been denied the opportunity to have an electronic vote, another piece of anti-union legislation.

Even half an hour is a long time in politics! Since I started this post Penny Mourdant, who was Sunak's only remaining rival for leader has withdrawn and the richest person in parliament, Sunak is set to be the next anointed PM. So, we're no further forward and still deep in the nightmare of Tory government. I expect that Sunak will cling on for the next two years and try to win in 2024. Will he? I doubt it, but Starmer's Labour isn't offering us much hope. After the expulsion and departure of many socialists from Labour, including myself, there is no viable vehicle for the left in the UK. Enough is Enough is not enough!

The only light in the darkness is that it appears that many Tories are quitting the party because they are racists and don't like the colour of Sunak's skin. Some are saying he's not British. Anything which helps to split the Tory party and potentially weaken it should be welcomed. The hashtag #RishiOut is already trending on Twitter.

We can only hope that Corbyn will stand as an independent at the next election, or preferably as a Peace & Justice Party candidate. I have no doubt he could win his seat and that thousands would join such a party. At the moment that is just wishful thinking. Are we going to get a left alternative to Starmer's establishment party? Try to make it happen if you can. I will.

The most important event in world history

What is history anyway? It's a human creation for sure, stories of happenings from our collective past. Given how old the Earth is our recorded history doesn't go back very far, a few tens of thousands of years, maybe a bit more. Most of the ancient stuff is due to discoveries by archeologists. One of the world's oldest human cultures, the aboriginals of Australia goes back about sixty thousand years, a matter of seconds in the long history of our planet.

But no matter, think yourself lucky because you may just have witnessed the most important event in world history - the funeral of Elizabeth II. Being 'interviewed' on Laura Kuennsberg's new show Sir Lindsay Hoyle, speaker of the HoC said:

"We should not let anything overshadow the most important event the world will ever see and that is the funeral of her majesty"

Wow! Where to start with that? Well, I guess it was predictable from a sycophantic groveller like Hoyle, who has been useless since he became commons speaker. And of course he was roundly mocked on social media - as he should have been.

So what was the most important event in history? Social media provided some contenders - the big bang, fall of the Berlin wall, the French revolution, Einsteins theory of relativity, VE day, the building of the pyramids - the list goes on. Take your pick but I would go with any of those before Lizzie's funeral.

In addition, the BBC had to tell us that vast numbers of Brits watched the funeral on telly. The figure for the average audience was 26.20 million according to Wikipedia. That's a fair bit lower than the 1966 World Cup final as you might expect (32.3) million. I'm not sure where the BBC got their figures from, but I know at least one episode of Eastenders has had a bigger audience - Den serving Angie with divorce papers (30.15 million) - and that was in a time when the UK population was a lot lower than it is now.

What was my most important telly moment? Watching the Moon landing live in 1969 with my Dad and a neighbour, who gatecrashed because he didn't have a TV. This is closely followed by the 1966 World Cup final and Manchester United winning the European Cup in 1968.

If the dinosaurs had been able to keep a record no doubt their most important event would be their demise due to an asteroid hitting the Earth 66 million years ago - the real life Don't Look Up. Thanks to climate emergency, and the failure of governments around the world to address it, maybe, one day soon we'll be able to watch our own demise live on TV. Now that will be the most important event in our world history......... watch this space.

Another day, another death.

The MSM has lost interest in the pandemic, and coverage is poor. Last time I checked about a month ago, deaths from Covid were about 210,000. It's hard to find the latest figures. Deaths may be going down but cases are still going up. Add to that the avoidable deaths* from austerity of about 200,000, and deaths due to the underfunding of the NHS and I'd guess we're nearing half a million deaths due to Tory government mendacity and incompetence. General concern about deaths seems to be receding.

But, last week another death occurred -  ‘our’ monarch died, and if anyone dies it's normal to have sympathy for the person and their family. But the reporting of Elizabeth II’s death has been anything but normal, if entirely predictable. Yes, by all means, mourn if you want to, but the wall-to-wall sycophantic MSM coverage is reminiscent of North Korea as many have noted. The UK’s airwaves have been filled with solemn voices, black ties, and glowing tributes, and there is another week of this to go.

At the moment the media is frantically following the new King, Charles, as he tours the UK, making sure his feet are securely under the table, and there is little time for the population to contemplate change. Proclamations have been read, parliamentarians have grovelled, football has been cancelled, strikes postponed, and the use of bike racks in Norwich suspended! 

We are in an economic and cost of living crisis, so when is parliament going to sit again? When are our 'democratically elected' politicians going to get on and do their actual day jobs?

I'm a republican. I have been for over 50 years. I want an elected head of state, an elected second chamber, and a proportional voting system - in other words, a democratic Britain, not the half-arsed, not fit-for-purpose setup we have at the moment.

Britain is in crisis. Truss's 'fix' for the energy crisis is wholly inadequate and is designed to benefit the better off and the very corporations who are ripping us off, not people and businesses. 

Yes, this is truly the end of an era. Most of us have lived with Elizabeth II as Queen for the whole of our lives. But while the crisis of neoliberalism deepens, as it will, we could just be seeing the end of another era - the end of the monarchy. As the pantomime of prehistoric pageants trundles ever onwards and MSM pundits continue to scrape the bottom of a very worn barrel, more people will become jaded and turned off. 

At the latest count, three people who protested against the monarchy have been arrested by the police (the most recent isn't mentioned in this article). No doubt more arrests will follow. And so, as this dreary shitshow continues I expect many more people will be alienated. 

One of the main barriers to the abolition of the monarchy lies in Westminster. Neither the Tories nor Starmer's Labour is going to allow a referendum on this anytime soon. I think Charles will be less popular than his mother, and we really need to organise and fight if we are to get an elected head of state. We're not good at bringing about real change in the UK, but the tide may just be turning. If you want to help bring that change about you could start by joining Republic.

* yes, the figure is 130,000 but they did say 200,000 by 2020

Solidarity and mutual aid are key for a better future for all of us.

In this blog, I’ve stressed the importance of solidarity, not charity and working at the grassroots to build community wellbeing, provide work and housing and combat climate change through cooperation and mutual aid. These are some of the groups I’ve come across who are actively doing this work. They serve as an example of the positive change people can make in their communities. Here is a quote from The Solidarity Economy Coop which explains why a solidarity economy is necessary:

“Why do we need a solidarity economy?

Whether we understand it or not, the economy is present in all parts of our everyday lives. From the moment we wake up in the morning, we make economic decisions that affect not just us, but the world around us. How we feed and clothe ourselves, where we live, the work we do, and the things we buy all have an impact. As the threat of climate change looms, and we become more aware of how the things we produce and consume can harm people and the planet – from child labour and worker exploitation in the name of fast fashion to the growing amount of discarded plastic in our oceans – it’s clear that something major needs to change.

Whilst it’s positive to see more and more people taking personal action in the areas they care about – like ditching single-use plastic or cutting down on meat consumption – we believe that unless there is a genuine transformation of our entire economic system, it won’t be enough to combat the devastating effects of pursuing profit and growth at any cost.”

The Democracy Collaborative - building community wealth - https://democracycollaborative.org Cooperation Jackson - building a solidarity economy - https://cooperationjackson.org

Solidarity Economy - Growing a solidarity economy for the UK - https://www.solidarityeconomy.coop 

Streets Kitchen - solidarity not charity - https://www.streetskitchen.org

Community Action Groups Oxfordshire - 70 groups across Oxfordshire community lead climate change action - https:// cagoxfordshire.org.uk

Sustainable Hackney - support for local environmental organisations - https://sustainablehackney.org.uk/hackney-fixers 

Carbon Co-op - energy efficiency and tackling fuel poverty - https://carbon.co-op

The Food Works - empowering people to take care of each other - https://the food works.org/community/

Rootstock - investment society for housing coops and worker coops - http://www.rootstock.org.uk

Mutual Aid - setting up food coops across the UK - https://www.mutual-aid.uk

Union Towns - worker-led community powered organising - https://www.uniontowns.org/ 

Clean Slate for Worker Power - building a just economy and democracy - https://www.cleanslateworkerpower.org

Open Collective - building a just economy and democracy - https://opencollective.com

Kaths Place - foodbank in Deptford, London - @PlaceKaths (Twitter).

Platform 6 Coop - crowdsource in cooperative development - https://platform6.coop

Lets Change the Rules - building a more democratic and sustainable economy - https://letschangetherules.org

New Economy Coalition - network of organisations building a future where people, communities and ecosystems thrive - https://neweconomy.net

Incredible Edible - growing local food sustainably - https://www.incredibleedible.org.uk

The #Tories are flushing the UK down the toilet.

I haven't posted on here for a while partly because things are so dystopian and reading the news at the moment is hard work. The situation in the UK seems to deteriorate by the hour, and with the wars, in Ukraine and Yemen, it's pretty bleak elsewhere. Covid is still raging through the population and all protections have been dropped. The NHS is on its knees. I'm the only one in the village still wearing a mask. If it was just covid that would be bad enough but the cost of living crisis continues to damage the lives of millions.

Food banks are already running out of food, inflation hits 10.1%, and this is before two massive hikes in the energy price cap in October and January, which is expected to hit two-thirds (I suspect more) of the UK population. Bills could be as high as £4666 in January. Next, we have the sewage scandal in England. Privatised water companies are being allowed to pump billions of gallons of raw sewage into our rivers and the sea. At peak holiday time many beaches on the South coast and Devon and Cornwall have alerts that tell people not to get in the sea.

Then of course there is the elephant in the room - the climate crisis. England and Wales have been hit by a drought and there are hosepipe bans in the South and Yorkshire. It's hardly rained here in the past few weeks. The water companies are losing billions of gallons of water due to leaks because of underinvestment in infrastructure whilst their executives get massive bonuses, and, as We Own It reported:

"The private companies that were supposed to bring in investment to our water sector instead took out £72 billion in profits and loaded up the water companies with over £50 billion in debt."

We also have the obscenity that is the Tory leadership campaign. While Boris Johnson holidays abroad and at chequers, Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss are trying to out-fascist each other to appeal to the 0.3% of the population who will pick the next PM. They gibber about crushing unions, cutting taxes, and growth, growth, growth - none of which are the answer to our current problems. See also this on proposed charter cities - it's important.

As I write this, RMT members are on strike today. Other unions representing transport staff, postal workers, and bin collectors are also on strike. The postal workers and college lecturers are set to join them soon and nurses may be balloted on industrial action. A new campaign - Enough is Enough - has been set up by the RMT, CWU, Acorn, and others with 5 demands:

1. A real pay rise
2. Slash energy bills
3. End food poverty
4. Decent homes for all
5. Tax the rich

I've read that over 400,000 people have signed up (including me) and I hope this initiative will lead to a political movement that can bring about some real change, given that Labour is still failing to offer effective opposition.

Forty years of neoliberalism including privatisation, deregulation, and lower taxes on the rich have led us to a point where our economy is heading for a collapse. I do hope that angry citizens will spray No. 10 with raw sewage but please wait until Truss is in residence!

I could write a lot more but I'll finish with this. Richard Murphy has come up with proposals to get us out of the crisis we are in and I recommend you read them.

Western culture is toxic and it damages all of our lives

Firstly, I want to start with a disclaimer. This is a short post. But this topic could easily be the subject of a long essay or even a book so I'll just concentrate on what I think are some key points.

Western culture is often seen as arising with the ancient Greeks, with Socrates, Plato, and the others who gave us philosophy, geometry, and democracy. Move forward and we reach the end of paganism and the beginning of organised religion. Christianity gave us original sin. This concept didn't come from Jesus, and although some Christians believe it originated in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, it came from the writings and ideas of St Augustine who was born in 354 AD: 

"Original sin is an Augustine Christian doctrine that says that everyone is born sinful. This means that they are born with a built-in urge to do bad things and to disobey God. It is an important doctrine within the Roman Catholic Church. The concept of Original Sin was explained in depth by St Augustine and formalised as part of Roman Catholic doctrine by the Councils of Trent in the 16th Century."

The very idea that people are 'born bad' leads to the idea that they need to be controlled and punished, something that is still a feature of Western culture today. And along with this comes the patriarchy of Christianity and the subjugation of women.

The Suffragettes: fighting patriarchy for the rights of women 

Fast forward to the 'enlightenment' which is reckoned to have happened during a period between the late 17th century and the early 19th century. Although it stressed reason, logic, criticism, and freedom of thought over dogma, blind faith, and superstition, it also gave us philosophers like Hobbes who wrote about life 'being nasty brutish and short' a pessimistic view of humans who he thought were selfish and only interested in personal gain. The solution? Put a powerful person - a sovereign - in charge to punish people who stepped out of line.

Then we have the 'othering of nature'. This is key because it deems that humans are not part of nature and that the natural environment is something to be owned and exploited. This has led to the rampant destruction of nature and mass exploitation of animals in factory farming which is causing huge damage to our planet:

"From religious texts teaching that God provided humans with dominion over Earth, to futuristic literature pitching nature as our past and human ingenuity and technology as our future, the narrative that humans are beyond – or even superior to - nature is deeply entrenched."

The rise of the concept of the individual through Goethe and Mill to the present has also caused damage by helping to undermine the community. We are social animals first and foremost, we depend on our families, friends, and community - something the Covid crisis reminded us of. A person growing up in the middle ages in England would have thought of themselves as part of a community, not an 'individual' in the sense that we do now. Without the cult of individualism, Margaret Thatcher would never have been able to say "There is no such thing as society". When our culture focuses on 'me', 'my happiness', and 'my wealth' we have a toxic recipe for exploitation and repression.

The age of Empire in which European countries such as Spain, France, Holland, and Great Britain built empires around the globe, brought us a new wave of problems. Whatever you may think of empire it was (and still is) the looting and pillaging of natural resources and people from foreign countries. It has led to mass death, environmental destruction, and rampant racism throughout the globe. If you are going to subjugate peoples, enslave them, and steal their property and resources it's a whole lot easier to do it if you see them as being inferior to the (white) colonists. Empires such as Britain's also helped to spread homophobia around the world. Countries that hadn't previously discriminated against gay people in a formal way, through the law, began to do so.

These are some of the key reasons why racism, misogyny, homophobia, and an obsession with criminalising and punishing people are so prevalent in Western societies and other places around the world.  The climate and biodiversity crises are the direct result of the 'othering of nature' and threaten the future of our species and life on our planet. 

As I write this a new variant of Covid is ripping through communities and hospital admissions are going up. But most of the people I know are flocking to indoor events with poor ventilation without taking any precautions such as wearing a mask. Whilst this is to some extent understandable given the restrictions of the past two years it's also an example of Western exceptionalism, something that comes from the history and concepts I've been describing. In the far east, in places like Japan, people think nothing of wearing a mask. It's part of their sense of community and protecting themselves and others.

So how can we move away from our toxic and harmful culture towards one which equally respects all people and the nature that we are a part of? Well, we can learn much from indigenous societies that see themselves as one with nature. Such societies account for only 5% of the Earth's land mass but 80% of its biodiversity. Not only that but many indigenous societies have much more civilised ways of dealing with gender and sexual orientation than we do. In indigenous culture:

"It wasn’t until Europeans took over North America that natives adopted the ideas of gender roles. For Native Americans, there was no set of rules that men and women had to abide by in order to be considered a “normal” member of their tribe.

In fact, people who had both female and male characteristics were viewed as gifted by nature, and therefore, able to see both sides of everything. According to Duane Brayboy, writing in Indian Country Today, all native communities acknowledged the following gender roles: “Female, Male, Two Spirit Female, Two Spirit Male and Transgendered."

There is much we can learn from indigenous communities and their cultural concepts need to be much more widely appreciated and implemented. We don't have to live the way we do with our narrow and toxic view of gender, our obsession with criminalising people, our rampant destruction of nature, and the primacy of the individual over all the rest of us. Time is running out. We need to get on with it!

Rail strike: Mick Lynch shreds the MSM hacks

Yesterday, 21st June, was the summer solstice. It was also Mick Lynch day. Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT was on the picket line with his members on the first day of the national rail strikes. He and his members are fighting for a decent pay rise in the face of 9% inflation, worsening terms and conditions, and redundancies, which the rail employers are trying to push through at the behest of Boris Johnson's government.

But he also spent much of the day on television being 'interviewed' by mainstream media hacks such as Kay Burley from Sky TV. The questioning Lynch faced was predictably hostile but also largely inane. The sort of 'political' inanity that 'journalists' routinely get away with in the UK. Stupid questions designed to embarrass and undermine someone standing up for workers taking industrial action. 

Richard Madeley, on GMB, kicked off by asking Lynch if he was a Marxist. Apparently, this came from a Tory MP. Lynch replied that Madeley was talking "twaddle" much to his questioner's dismay. I doubt that the MP or Madeley have a clue what Marxism is but this is a routine line of attack used by the hard right to undermine leftists and trade unionists.

Then we had Burley interviewing Lynch on a picket line. He was standing in the sunshine with half a dozen pickets. She asked him if he was "flustered", an odd question when he was clearly calm and collected, and then referred to the miner's strike as if the peaceful picket behind him was the Battle of Orgreave. " I can't believe this line of questioning" - he dealt with her superbly, stuck to the facts, and left her looking flustered.

One of the many highlights of the day was a session with Chris Philp, Minister for Technology, on Newsnight. Like all Tory ministers, Philp lied about the strike and Lynch told him he was a liar repeatedly. Top marks for that!

Mick's superb performance was lauded by many thousands on Twitter and he's still trending today. It was an object lesson in how to deal with the billionaires' kiss-ass 'journos'. A new term has now entered the English language - "A Mick Lynching". From now on 21st June should be known as Mick Lynch Day and be added to our calendars as a new bank holiday. Superb stuff! 😊

Rail Strike: The Government Can Afford Decent Public Sector Pay Rises

Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) are taking strike action over pay, conditions at work, and proposed redundancies. Predictably there has been a mainstream media fest of attacks on the striking union. We are told that many are being inconvenienced including students taking their exams, but what we’re not being told is that we have the highest personal tax in sixty years, the highest inflation in forty years, and a record number of people using foodbanks.

Meanwhile, the government is milking the strike for all it’s worth as a distraction from Boris Johnson’s #PartyGate crisis and the likely by-election losses in Wakefield and Tiverton on Thursday. Grant Shapps, who should be trying to resolve the strike, and could if he chose to, called the strike a stunt and refused to meet the RMT, even invoking the ghost of Harold Wilson to justify doing nothing.

All public sector workers are suffering

It’s not just the striking rail staff who are suffering from the cost of living crisis, all public sector workers are, including teachers and nurses, with some of the latter having to use food banks. Rising rents, fuel costs, energy bills and 9% inflation have produced a cost of living crisis which is hitting millions of workers very hard. So why isn’t the government giving workers a decent pay rise? The government and the Bank of England tell us that raising workers’ pay will push inflation higher but workers’ pay isn’t causing inflation. The main factors are: firstly, the fall in the value of the pound since Brexit has increased the cost of imports including fuel and other imported goods; secondly, energy and fuel costs have increased partly due to the Ukraine crisis but mainly due to profiteering by the fossil fuel companies. The impact of increasing pay will have little effect compared to these factors. As Richard Partington states in the Guardian:

“Despite the warnings of wages fuelling the inflationary fire, there is little sign of a wage-price spiral taking hold. The Bank of England reckons average pay growth across the economy, excluding bonuses, is between 4% and 6%. Although well in excess of pre-Covid rates, that is hardly shooting the lights out. With record job vacancies and unemployment the lowest in five decades – as well as the highest inflation for 40 years, which is heading to 11%, according to the Bank – it is perhaps more surprising wages haven’t spiralled significantly higher already.”

There is no money?

The other old excuse that the government gives us is that it can’t afford to raise public sector pay to meet workers’ needs – the old ‘there is no money’ argument. But this simply isn’t true. If the government were to give all public sector workers a decent pay rise of say 10%, most of that money would be returned to it. The reality is that the public sector pay rise will largely pay for itself. How? Because a significant percentage of that pay rise will be returned to the government through income tax and national insurance and, as the increased wages are spent and that money circulates around the economy, it is taxed further – it’s called the fiscal multiplier. For a fuller explanation of the affordability of public sector, pay rises see Richard J Murphy’s account here. The key point Murphy makes is that we can afford to pay for a decent pay rise for public sector workers without having to raise taxes.

Last October Boris Johnson told the Tory Party conference that Britain was on the path to a high-wage economy under his leadership. Not only is that not true but it’s likely that under his leadership the UK is heading for a recession. So much for levelling up. So, with the government’s mismanagement of the economy and indifference to workers’ struggles to put food on the table, it looks like we are facing a summer of discontent. We should get behind striking workers in the fight for a more equal society and a better economy for all.

*This article was first published in Critical Mass Magazine 0n 21/06/22

Boris Johnson the lame duck PM will cling on as long as possible

On Monday 6th June Boris Johnson won a no-confidence vote of Tory MPs. The vote was triggered by submission of letters by 54 or more Tory MPs to the 1922 committee. Many, including the MPs themselves were surprised by the outcome. Johnson 'won' with 211 votes to 148. That's 59 - 41%. The result was a disaster for Johnson who, despite what he thinks, is now a lame duck PM. 

Of course, after the vote was announced Johnson was back with the ususal blether and bluster saying he'd won and it was time to "move on". I couldn't help wondering how many cabinet ministers voted against him - assuming the ballot really was secret enough to keep their intentions safe.

So where do we go now? Johnson is safe for now but there are two byelections in Wakefield and Tiverton coming up on 23 June which the Tories are expected to lose. Will that be enough to spark another rebellion? I think it will, and I've no doubt that plotting to remove him is happening as I write this and that, next time, it will be much more effective. There are also ongoing investigations into Partygate which will damage Johnson further.

I'm confident that Johnson will be gone by the next general election but who will replace him? No doubt Jeremy Hunt will fancy his chances, and Liz Truss has been named as a favourite to be the next leader (!). The problem is that there are no obvious outstanding candidates and whover gets the job we can expect very little to change.

The Tories are devoid of any useful ideas that can help to improve conditions for people in the UK. They have already started blethering about tax cuts which is about all they can think of, but tax cuts will not solve the cost of living crisis, nor any othe other multiple crises we face.

Johnson's latest 'vote winner' is a plan to allow a right to buy for tenants who live in housing association properties. This is a barmy idea which will further reduce the stock of social housing and is unlikely to resonate with the electorate. 

The good news is that Johnson is going and that he has fucked up his career yet again. The bad news is that any replacement is unlikely to be better than him and could potentially be worse, not to mention the fact that we have nothing that could be desrcibed as an 'oppostion' in the UK.

The struggle for economic justice and equlaity goes on!

Rage Against The Tories! Join The TUC Demo On 18th June!

It is high time we demonstrated our rage against the Tories. The TUC has called a national demo on June 18th. This lying, cheating, corrupt government partied while millions were locked down and thousands died. Now they do nothing while energy giants enrich themselves on the back of war in Ukraine.

TUC Demo

Hedge fund speculators are driving up the cost of living. And now, when workers are fighting back, the Tories want to legislate against the rail unions in order to keep their gravy train running. So full marks to the union leaders for condemning the latest attack on our fundamental rights. Now it is up to us to build the national demo called by TUC.

Workers’ Rights

As part of Brexit, we had been promised a Bill of Rights for workers to replace our EU protections. Instead, the legislation in the Queen’s speech on 9th May was more like a Bill of Wrongs. Trade union disappointment turned to anger when it became clear that in addition to broken promises on employment protection, the government had no plan to protect us against the inflation crisis.

When workers began to take action for themselves, and some of us started winning, the government response was a continuation of decades of attacks on the right of workers to have union protection. So, on Sunday, Transport Minister Grant Shapps announced he intends to introduce legislation to require ‘minimum staffing’ on the railways if rail workers strike. The announcement came as the RMT is balloting its 40,000 members on strike action because of concerns about job security, pay and conditions.

Manuel Cortez, the General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association said: “What we are seeing here is desperate nonsense from the Tories, who have chosen to attack working people in our union who kept the railways running every day of the pandemic. What the Government should be doing is putting in place measures to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.”

All this comes at a time when the government is planning to gut the rail system with cuts of £3 billion and thousands of job losses.

At the same time, it was reported that the Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, was ‘planning to loosen the grip of trade unions on schools’ by ‘bolstering’ the rights of teachers who choose not to join a trade union’ by allowing non-union members to be accompanied to a grievance or disciplinary hearing by a lawyer or other representative.

Thatcher’s Legacy

The UK has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in the developed world, a claim which has been rejected by the government but which was supported by Full Fact. The attack on unions began in earnest under Margaret Thatcher’s premiership in the early 1980s. Thatcher, who famously described the miners specifically and the labour movement more generally as “the enemy within,” went on to introduce heavy restrictions on the unions.

Downing Street papers from 1983, released under the 30 year rule, show that the true intention was to “neglect no opportunity to erode trade union membership,” in established industries and make sure that, “our new legal structure discourages trade union membership of the new industries.”

The Blair/Brown Labour government of 1997-2010 had every opportunity to repeal the Thatcherite legislation but failed to do so. Thatcher went on to describe Blair as her ‘greatest achievement’.

Join A Union

At a time when we are experiencing a cost-of-living crisis only strong, independent trade unions can protect workers’ rights and standards of living. Critical Mass supports the TUC Demo on June 18th, but we also recognise that it is trade union bureaucrats who have often been the barrier to strike action. Strong, independent trade union organisation can only be effective if it is organised at the grassroots level. The working class cannot rely on politicians or bureaucrats to fight our battles. We have to organise ourselves to defend and extend our rights.

*This article was first published on 25/052022 in Critical Mass Magazine. Thanks to MIke Stanton for his contribuion.

Footballer Jake Daniels Comes Out As Gay

Today, as I write this, it's May 17th, the International Day against homophobia, transphobia, lesbophobia, and biphobia (#IDAHOBIT2022), and I’m reading about Jake Daniels, the 17-year-old Blackpool footballer who has come out as gay. Daniels is the first UK footballer to do this since Justin Fashanu in 1990, and his announcement has been greeted with an overwhelmingly positive reaction. The Guardian reported on the praise and support he has received from players, ex-players, and pundits:

“Massive credit to you and the way your friends, family, club, and captain have supported you,” wrote the Tottenham and England forward, Harry Kane. “Football should be welcoming for everyone.”

While it’s good to see the backing Jake has had, we should be asking why in 2022 does anyone need to do this? Why indeed is it headline news and is it really of such interest whether anyone is gay or not? It was much more difficult for Fashanu thirty years ago and his life ended tragically with suicide in 1998 after he was accused of sexual assault.

While we must hope that Jake’s bravery in coming out will have a positive effect and encourage others we know that the LGBTIQ community remains under attack, and is suffering from a lack of government support in the UK. Whilst the Tories announced in the Queen’s speech a bill that would ban conversion therapy for gay people they failed to also include a conversion ban for trans people despite the fact that they had promised to do so.

The recent exposure of the pending Roe v Wade supreme court decision to ban abortion in the USA has sparked fears amongst the LGBTIQ community that they will be the next target with a ban on gay marriage. In Hungary, LGBTIQ citizens have been under attack by the Orban government which has tried to conflate homosexuality with pedophilia. In April the government held a referendum that asked voters whether:

“they supported four things: the ‘teaching of sexual orientation’ in schools without parental consent; the ‘promotion of sex reassignment therapy’ for children; the exposure of children to ‘sexually explicit media content’; and showing ‘media content on gender-changing procedures’ to minors.”

After a campaign by LGBTIQ groups and NGOs the referendum was declared invalid because 1.6 million people spoiled their ballots and, as a result, less than 50% of voters cast valid ballots. Whilst this is a notable victory for the community, the referendum was only called to back up an anti-LGBTIQ law that had already been passed.

In recent times, trans women have been a particular target for abuse and attacks on social media, and gender-critical ‘feminists’ have been actively campaigning against trans women being regarded as women. There is clearly some confusion between biological sex, male and female, and gender, women and men, the former is biology, and the latter being a purely social construct is about gender. The key problem here is the toxic nature of western culture which, although many like to regard it as fair and even sophisticated, is narrow-minded, backward-looking, and causes real harm to individuals and communities.

The indigenous people of America celebrated five genders in their societies. Instead of a dichotomy of male and female, they had a spectrum:

“In addition to the conventional male and female, the Native American people also recognised Two Spirit female, Two Spirit male, and Transgendered identities. Each tribe has their own word for these gender variants, but the concept remains the same throughout the Native American community.”

Not only are the gender concepts of these indigenous peoples much more sophisticated than our own, but there was also no prejudice directed at people who were not of the male and female genders or were homosexuals.

I wish Jake all the best and I hope he has a successful career. As for the inadequacies of western culture and the hate directed at people who do not conform to our narrow-minded view of humanity in terms of sexual orientation and gender, I’m not holding my breath. But, like many others, I’ll be working to build a better society where individuals of all genders and sexualities are respected and accepted as equals.

*This article was first published on 18/05/2022 in Critical Mass Magazine

Cost Of Living Crisis: Millions are Missing Meals

New data released today by The Food Foundation shows the shocking impact on families of the cost of living crisis, with millions of families going without regular meals. The data, based on a survey carried out between the 22-29 April, shows:

• a 57% jump in the proportion of households cutting back on food or missing meals altogether in just three months
• In April, 7.3 million adults live in households that said they had gone without food or could not physically get it in the past month, which includes 2.6 million children. This is compared with 4.7 million adults in January
• Food banks are reporting that users are increasingly requesting products that do not need cooking, as the cost of living crisis bites deeper and families cannot afford energy bills.

As the massive 54% increase in energy bill costs, raising the annual price for a typical home to £1,971 a year, hits families hard, the Foundation expects a further increase in fuel insecurity. And, as if this was not bad enough, energy bills are set to rise further in the autumn, as the energy price cap is set to rise again. In response to this, Keith Anderson, the CEO of Scottish Power said:

“Ten million poorer households needed bill discounts of £1,000: five times more than the government plans to offer in October”, and, “on our forecast, we could see the cap in October going to £2,900.”

Many people heard about a London pensioner, Elsie, when Susanna Reid challenged Boris Johnson about her predicament on GMB. The 77-year-old has one meal a day and travels on buses during the day to keep warm. Johnson, the former mayor of London, failed to provide any satisfactory answers but tried to take personal credit for the freedom bus pass for the over 60s, which he mistakenly thinks is a 24 hour pass when it is not currently valid before 9 am. Most of the credit for the recent scheme is in fact due to Gordon Brown, and it is paid for by the London boroughs.

Elsie is far from being the only person in dire straits. The Guardian reported today that folk in Downham Market, which has the highest proportion of over 65s in the country, were having to use the local library as a resource to keep themselves warm:

“This winter the library introduced free Keep Warm and Go bags packed with everything someone may need who was struggling to keep the cold away, including gloves, thermals, a scarf, blanket, and a hat.”

Fran Valentine, the library’s manager, said it had proved popular. “We’ve had a lot of people coming in and picking them up,” she said.”

As the crisis deepens, there is no indication that the government is going to take the actions necessary to alleviate it. The fossil fuel companies, Shell and BP, are reporting record profits, but there is no sign of a windfall tax or any further action from the government in the wake of Rishi Sunak’s paltry £200 loan and £150 council tax rebate.

The government needs to take urgent action now by taxing excess profits, raising benefits in line with inflation, increasing the minimum wage, expanding the provision of free school meals, raising the winter fuel allowance, and ensuring that a realistic rebate is provided across the board on energy bills. Will any of that happen? Despite the poor showing for the Conservatives in the recent local elections, there seems little prospect of Boris Johnson’s government taking any meaningful action.

* This article was posted on 10/05/2022 in Critical Mass Magazine

Roe V Wade Leak Sparks Outrage Across The USA

The Supreme Court of the USA (SCOTUS) draft majority opinion on Roe v Wade has been leaked to Politico. The leak sparked outrage and protests outside the supreme court building. Politico reported:

"The draft opinion is a full-throated, unflinching repudiation of the 1973 decision which guaranteed federal constitutional protections of abortion rights and a subsequent 1992 decision – Planned Parenthood v. Casey – that largely maintained the right. “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” [Judge Samuel] Alito writes.

“We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled,” he writes in the document, labeled as the 'Opinion of the Court.' “It is time to heed the Constitution and return the issue of abortion to the people’s elected representatives.”

The Roe v Wade SCOTUS ruling occurred in 1973 when Norma McCorvey ('Jane Roe'), a resident in Texas, challenged the state's ban on abortion. Wade was her local district attorney and McCorvey's lawyers filed a lawsuit alleging that the ban was unconstitutional. They won in Texas, but the state appealed to SCOTUS which ruled 7-2 that the constitution has a 'right to privacy' which protects a woman's right to choose an abortion.

Ever since that judgement, religious and right-wing groups have been working to overturn it. In recent times, since Joe Biden's win, Republican-lead state legislatures have introduced draconian anti-abortion laws. CNN reports that 13 states have enacted 'trigger laws' designed to come into effect if Roe v Wade is overturned by SCOTUS. Ohio is a state planning to bring in a law which would not allow a woman or a girl to have an abortion even if the child was conceived through rape or incest. Some states are even planning to prevent a woman travelling to another state for an abortion.

The assault on women's rights is not unexpected and it has been facilitated by Republican presidents, most recently Donald Trump, packing SCOTUS with conservative judges. But the Democrats also bear responsibility for the situation. In his 2007 election campaign Barack Obama promised to codify the right to have an abortion into law but failed to do so, despite having a majority in congress. In theory it is still possible for the Democrats to codify abortion if they remove the filibuster, but this looks very unlikely.

Unsurprisingly, many Twitter commentators are comparing the probable end of a woman's right to choose abortion to Margaret Atwood's book ‘The Handmaids Tale’, in which women are subjugated and forced to bear children for others. Atwood herself has commented, "It is really a form of slavery to force women to have children that they cannot afford, and force them to raise them".

What this judgement and the proposed bans show is that the right's 'concern' for the unborn child doesn't extend to children who have been born. Once they have been born, they can be abandoned to lives of hardship and poverty. If only they cared as much about children and adults as they appear to do about embryos and foetuses. Make no mistake, the right-wing groups that are attacking and undermining women's rights are Christian fascists with a patriarchal vision of society. If they succeed, what will be their next target? Expect further attacks on the LGBT community and PoC.

* This article was first posted in Critical Mass Magazine.