Daily Headline – 07/03/13

Portuguese at their limit with austerity

The Portuguese are realising that the spending cuts are not working, the people are angry and depressed.

March 2^nd saw huge protests in the capital Lisbon that included people right across the spectrum, young, old, left, public workers and students.

The Portuguese accept that there must be some cuts but the level imposed by its government under the EU bailout terms are too much, too fast.

The EU has praised Portugal’s progress and urges them to continue despite the strong protests.

On March 13-14 there will be strikes by rail workers.
On March 21-23 there will be further strikes by staff at the national airline TAP.

People are calling for the resignation of all austerity-minded government ministers, an end to budget cuts, pay cuts/freezes and unemployment (which now stands at over 16%).

For further details click here.

Daily Headline – 20/02/13

Bitter coffee; 1701 applicants for 8 jobs

The state of things in the UK seem to be going from bad to worse. Costa Coffee (a British coffee chain) is opening up another branch which has created 8 jobs (3 full-time and 5 par-time) and so far they have received over 1700 applications.

Costa said they were shocked at the high number of applicants, it’s unclear why they are shocked, don’t they read the news? Or maybe from the bubble of the elite they are blissfully unaware of the plight of the working class… or maybe they just don’t care.

The applicants are said to include people vastly over qualified for the job such as former retail managers with years of experience and university graduates.

Sales at Costa have risen 7.1% since a boycott of US coffee chain Starbucks took place for not paying any corporation tax in the UK since 2009 and the UK’s Caffè Nero who didn’t pay any tax last year despite profits of almost £40m.

For a better tasting coffee, try an independent café.

Nearly 200 million out of work

By Leon J Williams

The number of jobless people worldwide is on the increase.

It has risen by 4 million in 2012 bringing the total to 197 million which is expected to increase further this year and the coming years according to the UN.

It is clear from the situation we are in that something must be done, and fast. The real problem is that Capitalism is incapable of eradicating unemployment. The only country today that can claim to have ‘0’ unemployment (according to the CIA world factbook for 2012) is North Korea (DPRK) and the only former countries that obtained ‘0’ unemployment were also Communist (such as the German Democratic Republic, GDR or DDR in German).

Full employment (under Capitalism) or full social participation (under Anarchism/Communism) must be considered essential. All people must be able to earn a living, that is to say that all people must be allowed the means to not just survive but ‘live’

Capitalism doesn’t and can’t provide this, this leaves only one answer, Capitalism must be abolished!

Business shafts customers

By Leon J Williams

Failing music retailer business HMV has decided to shaft its customers by not honouring gift vouchers that haven’t currently been redeemed.

HMV is a British multinational company that after 90 years of operation has entered into administration, likely to be soon no more.

Over 4,000 jobs hang in the balance as yet another British High Street retailer collapses under the ongoing economic crisis, the by-product of capitalism.

Last week it was announced that Jessops (a camera retailer) was set to close down, making around 1,400 workers unemployed.

With companies going under left, right and centre where will these people find work, pay their rent and feed their families?

The right-wing British government is also cutting benefits to the disabled and unemployed meaning a downwards spiral for the working class.

Higher unemployment, failing businesses means less tax revenue for the government, which means the UK will find it harder to reduce national debt, which has been seen and admitted by the government when they acknowledged that it will take far longer than previously expected.

‘Austerity’ doesn’t work, we need investing in sustainable jobs not welfare cuts, service cuts, job cuts!

Update

It has just been announced that Blockbuster UK, the video rental chain has also gone into administration putting at risk over 4,000 jobs.

Iceland; Socialism works!

By Leon J Williams

Since the economic crisis Iceland has been on the verge of bankruptcy, it’s banking sector collapsed followed by huge international anger at the government allowing their banks to fail, rather than as with the US and UK which bailed out those banks with taxpayers money.

So since these times how have the three countries fared?

I have taken a little look at unemployment, national debt and tax rates for Iceland, the US and the UK from 2010-2012.

Unemployment
……….Iceland   USA      UK
Peak     9.4%      9.4%     8.1%
Now      5.4%      7.75%   7.8%

Debt (as % of GDP)
……….Iceland   USA       UK
2010     123.8     94.2      82.2
2011      99.1      102.9     82.4
2012      97.3      106.5     88.4

Tax Rates (up to)
…………… Iceland    USA      UK
Income tax      46.24%     15.3%    50%
Corporate tax   20%        39%      24%
VAT             25.5%      0%       17.5%

Movement
……….Tax   Debt   Unemployment
Iceland   ↗       ↘          ↘
USA       ↘       ↗          ↘
UK        ↘       ↗          ↘

Iceland’s unemployment rate has fallen by 4% the most during this period and is the only country of the three whose overall tax has increased and is the only country whose national debt has fallen.

Some will say this is clear that the policy of socialism of increasing taxes for everyone (not just the poor) works and in a sustainable way.

Often the specific type of socialism is referred to as ‘Nordic Socialism’.

Whether or not this is a form of socialism or not it should help put to bed the myth that the right-wing churn out that you must lower taxes so that businesses will employ people which will in turn reduce government debt as less people depend on the state.

Workers set to be even more screwed in 2013

By Leon J Williams

John Philpott an economist over at The Jobs Economist is predicting a torrid time for UK workers in 2013.
As we all know economists are always right and have prevented workers from homelessness, unemployment and general poverty all over the world…
Anyway back to the article, workers are expected to work longer hours with pay seeing no increase. On top of this unemployment is set to rise by 120,000.

Of course this is not just a sign of things to come in 2013 for UK workers, the same could be said for workers in most parts of the world.

When is it enough?

It seems that workers around the world are still willing to take a fiscal beating before they stand up and demand a new way of living, a fairer way.

Is the tolerance level of British workers higher than the average? Again it seems as though you could do anything to the British workforce and still they would roll over and keep on accepting it.

Wake up Britain, you’re being screwed!