These Foolish Things . . . (1995)

The Scavenger column from the November 1995 issue of the Socialist Standard

World domination

“Last year, there were only seven independent countries in the world in which we (America’s B2 stealth bombers) did not operate. Two do not have runways and one is run by a guy named Gadafy.” US Air Force chief of staff, General Ronald Fogleman.

The threat remains

“I have spent the last four years photographing deployed strategic nuclear weapons at sites throughout the United Stales . . . Consider these facts:

Three new Trident submarines are currently under construction. These underwater missile platforms have no ‘dual use’ or conventional role: Congress recently authorised $50 million for ‘long lead’ production of an additional 10-20 B2 ‘Stealth’ bombers at a cost of $1 billion to $2 billion apiece.

A $4.8 billion program is underway to extend the life of 500 Minutemen missiles until the year 2000.”

Paul Shambroom, Minneapolis, Photographer, Star Tribune, August 13 1995.

Economics defeats sense

Slate from northern Spain is being used to roof homes in North Wales even though the region is pock-marked with quarries which have produced high quality slate for more than 200 years. "But it makes no sense at all that material in bulk is transported thousands of miles and that it is still cheaper to put it on a roof here," (Said Bill Henderson, principal planning officer of Snowdonia National Park). Guardian, 17 August.

Slave trade threatened

The ruling that football transfer fees were illegal came from the European Court of Justice and, if it is upheld later this year, many small clubs could go out of business. It would mean players being able to leave clubs at the end of their contracts without the clubs receiving any fee.

The value of big clubs would be destroyed, with millions of pounds being wiped off their books, while smaller ones would be unable to survive without being able to sell talented youngsters. Evening Mail, 20 September.

First things first

The (I.G. Farbcn) combine which fuelled the Nazi war machine, employed an estimated 350,000 slave labourers during the second world war. At its most notorious factory at Monowitz or Auschwitz III, 30,000 people were worked to death. An I.G. Farbcn subsidiary produced the Zyklon-B tablets used to gas concentration camp inmates . . .

A group of critical shareholders have been trying to force I. G. Farbcn and three chemical concerns created from its break-up—BASF, Hoechst and Bayer—to do more to compensate the victims of the Holocaust. But Ernst Krienke, head of the supervisory board, said the company’s first duties were to its shareholders and creditors. Guardian, 10 August 1995.

The Scavenger