Sting in the Tail: Summits of impotence (1995)

The Sting in the Tail column from the August 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard

Summits of impotence

Here, John, did you see that the G7 leaders had another Summit up in Nova Scotia? They tackled some very big international problems like how to increase world trade, save the environment, tilings like that.

Well, OK, it’s true that they fell-out a lot because they all put their own economic and political interests first, but be fair, John, the Americans couldn’t let Japan import all its luxury cars into the States without opening up its own home market, could they? And Helmut Kohl had to give John Major a bollocking for agreeing that Shell could dump Brent Spar in the Atlantic, because that was very unpopular in Germany.

But the good news is that they’ll all be putting their heads together again next year at a Summit on unemployment! No, John, must admit I didn't know they’ve already had two Summits on that last year and came up with Sweet Fanny Adams, but d’you really think that the only result of them putting their heads together will be an exchange of dandruff?

Asking for it

"How they distrusted and for the most part disliked him, yet clung to him. lie was the only possible leader . . . It was true, of course, that [he] was an electioneering asset. In the constituencies his appearance was much admired. Women especially found him impressive."

This could be a summary of what many Labour Party members feel about Tony Blair, but the leader in question was Ramsay MacDonald in 1930 and the quotation is from Malcolm Muggcridge’s book The Thirties.

No doubt many in the Labour Party distrust and dislike Blair, They know he can treat them how he likes and this was painfully obvious when, having won the vote to change Clause Four at the special conference in April. He said “Now, about the party’s name,” and when they gasped in horrified anticipation, added “it stays as it is.”

How they must have squirmed at being so openly toyed with, but those who need a leader must accept being led, even when it is by the nose.

Relative surplus value

A letter in the Guardian (12 June) aired a familiar complaint. The writer cited a prediction made by an American scientist many years ago that computers would eventually do much of humanity’s work and also reduce working hours. He then contrasted this with today’s “long working hours culture” plus the growth of unemployment and asked “what went wrong?”

That American scientist was not alone in making ill-founded predictions about what technology’s advance would bring. There were, for example, TV programmes like Tomorrow's World which had robots doing everything, even the housework, and leaving us all to lead lives of leisure.

None of these crystal-gazers understood that capitalism isn’t concerned with reducing work but only with reducing COSTS in order to boost profits, and it does this, not through idealistic work-sharing, but by simply dumping as many workers as possible and screwing more work out of those who remain.

It stands to reason

One of the daftest economic theories around is that the economy can be “talked into” recession. Only a few years ago the Director General of the Institute of Directors blamed the “Jeremiah voices” who he claimed were guilty of this.

Now the Institute of Chartered Surveyors has criticised Professor Doug Wood for his recent prediction that house prices would stay low for the next twenty years. The ICS branded this as “a self-fulfilling prophesy” which, they said, had caused house prices to fall even further.

How, then, do they explain the fact that for years building societies and estate agents have been talking-up house prices without this having the slightest effect? If it were so easy for “Jeremiah voices” to talk the economy or any market into recession then it should be just as easy for the super-optimists to talk it back out again.

The exploitation party

All rent, interest and profit is derived from the surplus value that the working class produce. The difference between the wealth the worker produces and what she or he receives in the form of a wage or salary' constitutes this surplus value.

This is true throughout the world. It is true whatever political party is currently running the capitalist system. So it is with some interest that socialists look at what the British labour Party plan to do if they form the next government.

Under the headline “Labour Unveils Its Economic Blueprint” the Labour Shadow Chancellor let us know what is in store for us in the event of Labour forming the next government.

"Mr Brown said the strategy would aim to increase savings and investment. Wages would have to rise by less than productivity" (Independent, 28 June).

So there you have it, fellow' workers. The Labour Party wants to increase the surplus value wrung from our hides.

Bon voyage!

Did you know that the aircraft on which we travel may well contain inferior parts which could cause them to crash? Such crashes have already occurred and Panorama (BBC1, 12 June) revealed that there is an extremely lucrative, world-wide trade in counterfeit and even scrapped parts.

The airlines and the civil aviation authorities deny this, but Panorama proved that counterfeit parts backed by false documents are rife in the airline industry, and one American counterfeiter described US government inspection as “a joke”.

All of this is hardly new because a similar TV programme a few years ago showed that not only fake parts are available but so are major assemblies such as entire undercarriages made from inferior materials.

Why does this happen? Well, the genuine parts are expensive because of the high specifications involved, and capitalism will always provide both motive and opportunity for money to be made no matter the consequences. Flying to the Med or Florida for your hols this year? Safe journey!