Polling Day is upon us. Today is YOUR chance to help MAKE GREED HISTORY by voting for the SSP. We have a brilliant team - all with principles that would shake Europe - none of our candidates want to join the gravy train that has seen Gordon Brown's Government rocked - and the Tories exposed as the money grabbing party we all knew them to be.
Read the post below to see how YOU can help!
Showing posts with label make greed history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label make greed history. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
HOW TO MAKE GREED HISTORY!
Registered voters should have received a polling card with polling station details.
Mark Callaghan is the local candidate in the Bishopbriggs South by-election. Let the greedy "main parties" know what you think of them by voting for CHANGE!
Mark on Woodhill Road, Bishopbriggs South on Wednesday during a whole day of campaigning.
Mark's Press Release as featured in the Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs Herald:
I'm a 43 year old activist, who will challenge the greed agendas of the main parties.
YOU CAN STILL VOTE WITHOUT A POLLING CARD.
The ballot paper is made up of party lists; name of party and list of candidates.
You vote ONCE for your choice of party
Once you have been given a ballot paper, look for the Scottish Socialist Party.
Listed next to the party name are our candidates;
1. Colin Fox
2. Angela Gorrie
3. Johanna Dind
4. Nick McKerrell
5. Raphael De Santos
6. Felicity Garvie
Vote ONCE for the Scottish Socialist Party
If you have any time to spare on Today it could potentially make a big difference to our vote if you can encourage and possibly facilitate members of your family, workmates and friends to vote. If people haven’t voted before it can be quite an intimidating experience and having someone on hand who knows the procedure can be helpful.
Whatever the result, due to be declared in Edinburgh on Monday 8th, the SSP would like to thank all of our members and supporters who have made the Make Greed History campaign a huge success, particularly those socialists in USA, Switzerland, England, Wales and the North of Ireland who have contributed to the fantastic response to our financial appeal (we are not a party of or for millionaires - so donations from ordinary people keep us able to fight FOR ordinary people - to donate, please text a pledge to 07810205747).
Mark Callaghan is the local candidate in the Bishopbriggs South by-election. Let the greedy "main parties" know what you think of them by voting for CHANGE!
Mark on Woodhill Road, Bishopbriggs South on Wednesday during a whole day of campaigning.Mark's Press Release as featured in the Kirkintilloch and Bishopbriggs Herald:
I'm a 43 year old activist, who will challenge the greed agendas of the main parties.
Privatisation con-tricks -PPP/PFI -have been used to build several local schools. Bishopbriggs now has fewer schools and the school buildings are owned by private firms.
This means EDC is hugely mortgaged. For the next 30 years WE will pay millions to giant companies. I am committed to ending this rip-off. I want big business out of schools and hospitals.
This would free up millions to invest in health, housing and education.
I support a wealth tax that will create 80,000 jobs in Scotland with an average wage of £25,000; insulate Scotland’s homes; ensure no schools close; upgrade existing schools; reduce class sizes to 20 and less and pay for free school meals.
The Labour Party and it's Councillors are closing schools - tearing the heart out of communities and cramming children into huge "superschools". The SNP seem powerless to stop this -or don't want to. I will fight this wrecking of our education system.
I will fight the privatisation of Royal Mail. It’s profits (2008-£323m) should be for hospitals and schools and not for shareholders in private companies like TNT.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
There Must Be An Alternative
Bill Newman, a retired City of London Banker, witnessed the greed and corruption of the Capitalist system at first hand. He explains why the greed MUST be made history…
The media continues, with total justification, to forecast more economic doom and gloom to come. And many commentators, with equal justification, identify these economic woes with a collapse of our current version of the capitalist dream (or should that be nightmare?). But if, as so many now agree, the overwhelming greed of financiers was an inevitable result of the capitalist system, then why do none of our major parties offer a socialist alternative?
It is hardly surprising that the Conservative Party and the neo-conservatives of New Labour should want to protect their chums in big business. Given Vince Cable's capable analysis of the stupidity and avarice of the bankers who got us into this mess, it might be expected that the LibDems would offer some radical alternative for the future. Not a chance! Nor is any alternative on offer from the Scottish National Party. It might reasonably be thought that with a substantial swathe of our financial institutions on nominal public hands, at least some modification of banking philosophy and behaviour would be evident. No such evidence exists and all New Labour wants is to hand ownership back to the very kind of people who bought their institutions to disaster. Almost unbelievably, in this context, privatisation of Royal Mail is still being pursued.
So will it be business as usual for bankers and financial traders once their bail-out has enabled them to continue to print their own money again? Tighter domestic and international banking regulations (incredibly slow in emerging) might curb some more outlandish financial gambling, but the very nature of capitalism will ensure that greed will be resumed with merely a tactical nod towards the common good. There may now be few who will proclaim openly that "greed is good", but the basic operation of capitalism rests on such greed.
Of course, politicians and financial supervisors are guilty for letting bankers feather their nests with an absolute minimum of interference. Senior bankers were naturally more than happy to be left to their own devices. Indeed, in my own experience in banking, I witnessed the progressive diminution of risk analysis. Both those with responsibility for credit analysis and the structures within which they worked were steadily down-graded, while internal auditors changed from being individuals feared by colleagues to unnecessary irritants.
The obvious alternative is socialism, and the Scottish Socialist Party offers such a rational alternative for a Scottish public proud of its radical political history. Nor could it be thought that the SSP in anything but internationalist in its outlook, for strong links continue to be forged with burgeoning socialist parties throughout Europe.
An alternative is available and a vote for the SSP in the European elections gives an opportunity to reject the incompetent opportunism of the mainstream political parties, none of whom are willing to challenge the system which got us into this crisis.
The media continues, with total justification, to forecast more economic doom and gloom to come. And many commentators, with equal justification, identify these economic woes with a collapse of our current version of the capitalist dream (or should that be nightmare?). But if, as so many now agree, the overwhelming greed of financiers was an inevitable result of the capitalist system, then why do none of our major parties offer a socialist alternative?
It is hardly surprising that the Conservative Party and the neo-conservatives of New Labour should want to protect their chums in big business. Given Vince Cable's capable analysis of the stupidity and avarice of the bankers who got us into this mess, it might be expected that the LibDems would offer some radical alternative for the future. Not a chance! Nor is any alternative on offer from the Scottish National Party. It might reasonably be thought that with a substantial swathe of our financial institutions on nominal public hands, at least some modification of banking philosophy and behaviour would be evident. No such evidence exists and all New Labour wants is to hand ownership back to the very kind of people who bought their institutions to disaster. Almost unbelievably, in this context, privatisation of Royal Mail is still being pursued.
So will it be business as usual for bankers and financial traders once their bail-out has enabled them to continue to print their own money again? Tighter domestic and international banking regulations (incredibly slow in emerging) might curb some more outlandish financial gambling, but the very nature of capitalism will ensure that greed will be resumed with merely a tactical nod towards the common good. There may now be few who will proclaim openly that "greed is good", but the basic operation of capitalism rests on such greed.
Of course, politicians and financial supervisors are guilty for letting bankers feather their nests with an absolute minimum of interference. Senior bankers were naturally more than happy to be left to their own devices. Indeed, in my own experience in banking, I witnessed the progressive diminution of risk analysis. Both those with responsibility for credit analysis and the structures within which they worked were steadily down-graded, while internal auditors changed from being individuals feared by colleagues to unnecessary irritants.
The obvious alternative is socialism, and the Scottish Socialist Party offers such a rational alternative for a Scottish public proud of its radical political history. Nor could it be thought that the SSP in anything but internationalist in its outlook, for strong links continue to be forged with burgeoning socialist parties throughout Europe.
An alternative is available and a vote for the SSP in the European elections gives an opportunity to reject the incompetent opportunism of the mainstream political parties, none of whom are willing to challenge the system which got us into this crisis.
SSP European Election Rally - Glasgow
Date: Tuesday 26 May 2009
Time: 19:30 - 22:30
Location: Piper in the Square (previously Chambers Bar)
Street: George Square
Town/City: Glasgow
Scottish Socialist Party candidate Nick McKerrell (see Video below) will be speaking alongside a Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaigner and Joaquim Reymond, a member of the recently formed New Anticapitalist Party NPA, French Anti Capitalist Left
Time: 19:30 - 22:30
Location: Piper in the Square (previously Chambers Bar)
Street: George Square
Town/City: Glasgow
Scottish Socialist Party candidate Nick McKerrell (see Video below) will be speaking alongside a Glasgow Save Our Schools Campaigner and Joaquim Reymond, a member of the recently formed New Anticapitalist Party NPA, French Anti Capitalist Left
Friday, 22 May 2009
How would a "Greed" Tax work?
Europe: The Greediest Corner of Our Planet
By Raphie de Santos
By Raphie de Santos
Europe has been officially declared the greediest continent on the planet. A report* published in 2003 showed that Europe had more US dollar ($) millionaires than any of the world’s continents. Europe had 2.6 million (m) such individuals followed by the United States with 2.2m and Asia pacific with 1.8m. These are individuals who have over $1m in liquid wealth – essentially assets that can be disposed of at short notice which excludes homes.
A modest, one-off wealth tax of just 10 per cent on these millionaires would generate a trillion dollars to create eight million jobs across Europe.
Scotland’s share of that tax would amount to £6.5 billion – enough to create and sustain 80,000 jobs over the next three years, with an average annual salary of £25,000.
We could build tens of thousands of new homes to rent and turn empty buildings and homes into social housing. We could reduce class sizes by employing thousands more teachers and learning assistants. We could insulate every home in Scotland.
Call it a ‘Wealth Tax’, call it a ‘Crisis Tax’ – or even call it a ‘Greed Tax’. It would be a mighty step out of recession, paid for by those who caused the crisis.
The one off wealth tax could be repeated with annual tax of 5% on the liquid assets of these millioniares. This would give them 20 years to adjust to a more normal lifestyle!
Is such a tax justifiable? Most of this wealth has come from goods and services. These goods and services have been made by the majority of the population with their manual and mental labour. The millionaires can then only make money if we the majority buy these goods and services. Essentially through a greed tax we are only getting our money back.
Of course greed does stop at the super wealthy rich. There has been a massive redistribution of wealth in favour of the top half of society. In the UK the bottom 50% of the population has gone, in three decades, from owning 12% of the liquid wealth to owning 1%!
Tax all household incomes over £50,000 a year at 100%. A fundamental of capitalism is privilege, authority and deference, and behind personal power is economic power. This measure would collapse luxury industries like high fashion, grotesquely expensive restaurants and the market for Mercedes – in other words undermine obscene waste and conspicuous consumption. More rational forms of green consumption would follow.
In the UK the richest 10% of households have an average income of £100,000**. Such a wealth tax would generate an extra £9 billion pounds per year for Scotland. Across Europe this would be a trillion Euros!
In Scotland the extra 9bn is equivalent to a third of the entire Scottish budget for 2009/2010. It could fund a whole new health service for Scotland. Alternatively every year with the money we could build 600 new schools or 150 new hospitals or provide 100,000 extra homes. What we would do with the money would be decided by the needs of the majority of the population in a democratic fashion. It would be a society based on meeting people’s needs and not the obscene greed that we now have.
*World Wealth Report, Merrill Lynch Global Private Client Group New York.
** Office of National Statistics.
A modest, one-off wealth tax of just 10 per cent on these millionaires would generate a trillion dollars to create eight million jobs across Europe.
Scotland’s share of that tax would amount to £6.5 billion – enough to create and sustain 80,000 jobs over the next three years, with an average annual salary of £25,000.
We could build tens of thousands of new homes to rent and turn empty buildings and homes into social housing. We could reduce class sizes by employing thousands more teachers and learning assistants. We could insulate every home in Scotland.
Call it a ‘Wealth Tax’, call it a ‘Crisis Tax’ – or even call it a ‘Greed Tax’. It would be a mighty step out of recession, paid for by those who caused the crisis.
The one off wealth tax could be repeated with annual tax of 5% on the liquid assets of these millioniares. This would give them 20 years to adjust to a more normal lifestyle!
Is such a tax justifiable? Most of this wealth has come from goods and services. These goods and services have been made by the majority of the population with their manual and mental labour. The millionaires can then only make money if we the majority buy these goods and services. Essentially through a greed tax we are only getting our money back.
Of course greed does stop at the super wealthy rich. There has been a massive redistribution of wealth in favour of the top half of society. In the UK the bottom 50% of the population has gone, in three decades, from owning 12% of the liquid wealth to owning 1%!
Tax all household incomes over £50,000 a year at 100%. A fundamental of capitalism is privilege, authority and deference, and behind personal power is economic power. This measure would collapse luxury industries like high fashion, grotesquely expensive restaurants and the market for Mercedes – in other words undermine obscene waste and conspicuous consumption. More rational forms of green consumption would follow.
In the UK the richest 10% of households have an average income of £100,000**. Such a wealth tax would generate an extra £9 billion pounds per year for Scotland. Across Europe this would be a trillion Euros!
In Scotland the extra 9bn is equivalent to a third of the entire Scottish budget for 2009/2010. It could fund a whole new health service for Scotland. Alternatively every year with the money we could build 600 new schools or 150 new hospitals or provide 100,000 extra homes. What we would do with the money would be decided by the needs of the majority of the population in a democratic fashion. It would be a society based on meeting people’s needs and not the obscene greed that we now have.
*World Wealth Report, Merrill Lynch Global Private Client Group New York.
** Office of National Statistics.
Wednesday, 20 May 2009
Monday, 4 May 2009
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Henchmen Purcell and the reason why he puts Profit before Glasgow + how the budget affects YOU
Make Greed History by Making Capitalism History
By Raphie de Santos
The unacceptable face of capitalism was a phrase coined by the Conservative leader Edward Heath in the 1970s to describe the bribing of African leaders by the “entrepreneur” Tiny Rowland. It became a phrase to describe the worst excesses of the 1970s property boom and bust. Today is greed the unacceptable face of capitalism or is it inherent in the capitalist system rather than in people themselves?
At end of 2006 there were 946 billionaires with a combined wealth of 3.5 trillion dollars that’s $US 3,500,000,000,000! The world’s population is around 6.6 billion
The majority of who live in varying degrees of poverty and squalor. It would take $80 billion a year for ten years to meets the entire planet’s population’s basic needs: safe housing, nutritious food, clean drinking water, primary education and healthcare.
Put another way 0.000014% of the world’s population has enough money to provide the planet’s entire population with a sustainable and enriching way of life for 44 years! Is that an acceptable face of capitalism or pure obscene greed?
This increasing inequality has manifested itself in the UK. Since 1976 the liquid wealth of the bottom half of the population has fallen from 12% to 1% in 2003. At the same time the richest 0.01% of the UK’s population has seen their incomes increase by 500% over the same period.
In a similar vein the International Monetary Fund have estimated that global banks will have written off over 4 trillion US dollars by the end of 2010. A credit think tank KKW have estimated that US banks alone need one trillion US dollars of capital in the next few months to act as a buffer against further losses. In 2005 during the make history campaign we were asking the world’s banks to write off the 182 billion US dollars owed to them by the planet’s poor countries. So far they have written off nothing. Is this the acceptable face of capitalism or sheer greed?
In the UK Darling and co are looking to borrow over 700 billion pounds to cover the money, our money, that was given to bailout the banks. This is a large underestimation of what he needs as there will be further bank losses – we are liable or another one trillion pounds through the toxic asset insurance scheme alone. His view of the state of the UK economy is dishonestly optimistic – he’s predicting a shrinkage of 3.6% in 2009 but as was announced last week the UK economy shrank by 1.9% in the first quarter of 2009. This means that tax revenues will be lower and social security payments higher. In other words a larger deficit than predicted by the government.
How will he find the money? One route is through issuing government bonds (gilts) – a sort of government IOU. But no one wants to touch these IOUs – as a borrower we are now rated alongside Portugal and Greece. He will then be forced to make huge cuts in public expenditure – much larger than he was forecasting in the budget.
He will use his local henchman like Steven Purcell and lackeys such as the SNP and the Liberal Democrats who will say there is nothing we can do about the global crisis and its London’s fault. The £3.5 million that the Glasgow council hope to save by closing schools and nurseries will be the shape of things to come right across Scotland as central government cuts back on block grants. These public sector cuts will be put through under the guises of efficiency savings. But they are effectively taking our money and throwing it at the rich bankers to bail them out whom they encouraged in the first place on this mad binge of greedy speculation.
The second place they are going to pay for this bailout is through increased taxation. But it will be us who face a heavier tax bill and not the rich bankers. Darlings’ proposal to tax earnings above £150,000 at 50% has caused the City and Fleet Street to squeal with horror. But as most tax experts have said this gang of spongers do not pay tax on their total incomes. They are paid a basic salary below £150,000 and receive a bonus on top which is paid in such a way as to avoid paying tax.
These people are parasites in a parasitic system. Most of the capital raised by corporations comes from our pensions and insurance funds – over 70% of the world’s shares and bonds are owned by us through these funds. The money is invested through financial markets and these bankers hang around like vultures to speculate and pick up the crumbs from our cake.
The time has come to squeeze them until they squeak and howl and make all this capitalist greed history by making capitalism itself history.
Raphie de Santos is the co-author of the just published book “Socialists and the Capitalist Recession” which is available from the Wee Red Book Shop, Wordpower or Amazon.com
Raphie has drafted a brief summary of Darling's Budget...
Alistair Darling• Budget is to pay for bail out of banks
• Unable to raise money on financial markets because our IOUs (Gilts) are worth nothing – in line with Portugal and Greece
• Deficit for 2009 at over 12% biggest of the G20 countries
• Big cut in public spending and over the near term and medium and long term
• Tax rises after next election for the poor and middle incomes
• Darling’s growth expectations laughed at by all – IMF reckon economy will shrink by 4.3% this year while Darling has us at 3,5% and IMF been behind the curve
• Darling expects recovery to start at end of 2009 – likely that economy will bottom out in mid 2010 with no recovery because of lack of credit from banks for individuals and corporations
• Budget assumes recovery and no more bailouts for banks – likely to be more money for bailouts and no recovery
• Global economy from Europe too US to Japan shows that the recession continuing at same pace and quickening up after a lull in February
• World ex China will effectively be in depression by end of 2010
• We are liable for another trillion pounds because of insurance of toxic assets
• Britain effectively bankrupt
• No money for stimulus programmes
• In summary we are going to pay a huge price for speculation and greed of the bankers and the neo-liberal dream
• Huge battles lie ahead over jobs, homes and public services around the world
Q1 GDP Numbers Show the Hollowness of Darling's Forecast
The quarter one GDP figures released today showed the UK economy shrank by 1.9% just two day after Darling had predicted a 3.6% decline for the whole year. This shows how far off the market he was and was generally trying to deceive the mass of the population. This means that the public cuts will have to be much larger than announced in the Budget. The GDP number was much worse than consensus expectations and the UK now has had the largest two successive declines in GDP since the days of Thatcher in 1980.
The UK is on track for a decline of at least 6% in GDP for 2009 with it technically entering a depression sometime in 2010. The Q1 decline shows that the IMF’s prediction of a 4.2% decline for the UK in 2009 is well short of the mark. This has been par for the course for the IMF which has consistently underestimated the scale of the recession.
The news from Germany was even bleaker where Axle Weber the Bundesbank (equivalent of the Bank of England) president said that German GDP shrinkage would be over 3% in Q1. This stands in sharp contrast to a prediction by the IMF of 4.1% for the whole year. Germany is being particularly hard hit by being heavily dependent on exports to the US and the UK.
In the US previously owned homes sales fell in February and half off these were the sales of distressed mortgages and house prices fell 12% in the calendar year. Credit experts KKW have estimated that US banks alone need another $1 Trillion to stay afloat.
Outside of the US, governments will be unable to cover deficits and the cost of bailouts from the issue of government bonds as international investors downgrade the credit worthiness of major economies – Britain is now rated on a par with Portugal and Greece.
This will mean they will have to make massive public sector cuts and raise taxes for the low and middle incomes. This will only deepen the recession and prolong it.
We are all going to pay a very high price for capitalism’ reckless follies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)