Cost of living crisis
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Incidentally, Movimento, not all those here are Socialists — this forum is mainly to discuss or be read by with those who aren’t yet — and we do have a forum just for Socialist Party members.
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I am talking about Spintcom , it should be a private forum like the WSPUS who has an internal and private forum for members. Many personal information is leaked thru that forum, and our enemies can use it against us, even more, we should not be talking about the personal information of our members, that is violation of our personal privacy, and there are some members who wanted to act like leaders or chief of this organization and we do not have a leadership or a central committee either. I do know that this forum is open to everybody like the old yahoo forum of the World Socialist Movement
We shouldn’t really be discussing this question of the violation of personal privacy on this thread. One of us should start a new thread on this in the World Socialist Movement section.
Some people think — apparently — that the wages-prices-profits system is the best way of producing and distributing the things people need to live.
Under it, people have to have money to buy what they need. Most people get this by doing paid work or getting some hand-out from the government (a tiny minority get enough to live well on as unearned income such as profits and dividends). Wages are intended to keep the person in working order; hand-outs to ensure that they don’t fall below some arbitrary poverty line.
But look what happens when the cost of living suddenly rises dramatically, as described by Professor Engin Kara of Cardiff University in this weekend’s i paper:
“In times of cost of living crisis, households can reduce luxury spending but not the demand for basic necessities. In fact, such a crisis would switch spending towards basic necessities and increase demand for such goods even more. Strong demand enables producers to pass the increase in costs to consumers.”
So, the effect of a sudden rise in the cost of living is to increase yet further the price of basic necessities. So not only are people forced economically to buy crappier stuff but they have to pay the same price as the less crappy stuff they bought before.
So the members of the Royal College of Nursing have rejected their officials’ recommendation to accept the government’s pay offer (by 54% to 46% of the 61% of the members who voted).
The government can’t really complain. They have always said that their offers should be put to a vote, in the expectation of course that they will be accepted. Well, in this case it hasn’t been and now they are faced with a dilemma. If they up their offer this will encourage other workers to vote against what they have been offered, in the expectation of getting more. If they don’t, they will be faced with more strikes. They’ll probably try “divide and rule” tactics since the members of other unions have voted to accept.
The officials of the RCN also face a dilemma. To try to get round the vote or to accept and carry out the wish of their members. So far they have interpreted the vote as a vote to carry on with strikes, taking their orders from the membership (which is as it should be).
It’s a strange but instructive evolution for the RCN, originally set up under royal patronage as a professional body for nurses. Now it is a militant trade union — more militant than the TUC (and Labour Party) affiliated UNISON. It is affiliated to neither. Nurses are wage-workers just like the rest of the working class.
The British Medical Association has undergone a similar evolution. But they have evolved into more of an old-fashioned craft union where you have to had gone through an apprenticeship to join. But “junior” doctors too are wage-workers. Today I passed their pickets outside a nearby hospital. Naturally I tooted and gave them the thumbs up.
The government took the nurse’s union to court and managed to lessen their planned strike this weekend.
https://www.rcn.org.uk/news-and-events/news/uk-england-nursing-strikes-legal-challenge-latest
An example of how governments act to defend profits. In this case not to have to increase taxes on them to pay state employees more or to spend the money on something more in the general UK capitalist interest — like sending arms to Ukraine.
Don’t be taken in. A Labour government, under Sir Chief Scammer, would have behaved the same. And will do. Just wait and see.
OMG! The unions are going to strike on the FA cup weekend and inconvenience traveler’s getting to work but their action will also affect Eurovision. Eurovision! I mean it’s the last straw. Diabolical unions, what an absolute disgrace.
I’m so filled with indignation, that I will be writing to the Times.About 700,000 UK households missed rent or mortgage payments last month.
Wherefore no surplus value?
The stark reality of the “only game in town”—
“Only gamers” might dole out equal-handed sympathy for those beneficent capitalists whose capital is not playing by the rulebook of “the only game in town”.
“Only gamers” might shed tears for those:
- generous landlords who are struggling to collect their “only game” entitlement — an honest month’s rent;
— - magnanimous bankers who are struggling to collect their “only game” entitlement — an honest month’s repayment on outstanding loans.
But then “the only game in town” never plays by its sanctified academic rulebook.
The ‘only game’ will come to an end – along with civilisation, as a result of either nuclear annihilation or a natural/climate catastrophe!
In the meantime keep sucking on your dream pipe, Trev! 🙂
The ‘only game’ will come to an end – along with civilisation, as a result of either nuclear annihilation or a natural/climate catastrophe!
In the meantime keep sucking on your dream pipe, Trev!
___________________________Then you might just as well be a socialist as you’ve got nothing to lose. As individuals, there is only so much we can each do. However infinitesimally small one´s contribution, the world is a better place for having one more socialist and a worse place for having one more supporter of capitalism spouting its rancid ideology of nationalism or bending the knee to royalty. Or whatever.
I can never quite understand the mentality of religious type believers in the inevitability of the Coming Apocalypse such as yourself. If you are so cynical about the prospects of socialism, what precisely are you doing here? It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy you are engaging in and such negativity is not good for your health.
I would far sooner aspire to a better society even if it is unlikely to come in my lifetime
I would far sooner aspire to a better society even if it is unlikely to come in my lifetime
So would I, and I do. Unfortunately there are far too many idiots who don’t.
Robbo:
—I would far sooner aspire to a better society
— even if it is unlikely to come in my lifetime.
Lizzie45:
—So would I, and I do.
No you can’t, and no you don’t!Your Thatcherite TINA-ism denies a better society, and mocks aspiring to it. Your “aspiration” is disingenuous.
Lizzie45:
—Unfortunately there are far too many idiots who don’t
—[aspire to a better society].So, I’m copping out. Don’t blame me for my attitude. It’s the fault of “far too many idiots” with aspiration well-and-truly belted out of them.
Not so!
Everyone has normal aspirations for righting perceived social wrongs, and is raring to deliver—incredulous that nobody ever thought of it before—a solution.
- If only they [or “we”] would do this; if only they [or “we”] had done that, capitalism would be marvellous.
For socialists, who seek to transcend the “only game in town”, normal human aspiration is the seed of revolutionary comprehension.
For socialists, disingenuous TINA activism is the stuff of dreams of a pipe smoker.
“For socialists, disingenuous TINA activism is the stuff of dreams of a pipe smoker.”
____________________________Well said TWC..
The absurdity of TiNA activists like Lizzie45 is that they should even bother to be active in the first place, let alone come on a forum like this to preach their dismal doctrine. If they genuinely believed there was no alternative why bother? Why not just go on a hedonistic binge or, alternatively, cut your wrists and be done with it.
I have never considered socialist activity to be a waste of time even if I will never get to see a socialist society in my lifetime. Just by being a socialist, I am helping to make the world a better place RIGHT NOW. For instance, to the extent that we are able to as individual socialists, we are making it a little bit harder for the capitalist establishment to get away with their dangerous warmongering by opposing their rancid nationalism. Similarly, we are contributing to the effectiveness and militancy of the working class by raising the profile of class consciousness.
What we do right now might not count for much in the grand scheme of things given our small numbers but at least what we are doing is positive and a step in the right direction. Cynicism, by contrast, serves a reactionary agenda
Why not just go on a hedonistic binge or, alternatively, cut your wrists and be done with it.
I’m already on a hedonistic binge – and loving it!
Coming here is merely one of my many excesses. 🙂 🙂 🙂 - generous landlords who are struggling to collect their “only game” entitlement — an honest month’s rent;
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