An Outbreak of Truth
Edwina Currie the former Under Secretary of Health had to resign because she upset a powerful section of the capitalist class.
Her comment on ITV 3rd December, '88 that "most of the egg production in this country is now infected by salmonella" caused an uproar among that section of the capitalist class who have their capital invested in egg production. As sales, and of course profits, fell they mounted a campaign to get rid of her.
Now socialists have no sympathy with capitalist lick-spittles like Currie. Her insulting remarks on workers dying of hypothermia (lack of food and warmth) — "they should knit themselves woolly nightcaps” — recall the "let them eat cake" of the pre-revolutionary French aristocracy.
But her forced resignation is really somewhat unique. She had to resign because she told the truth!
An outbreak of truth in the Houses of Parliament would certainly be extremely refreshing. Say Nigel Lawson admitting that capitalism controls governments and not the other way about. That he is powerless to control slumps and booms. Or Neil Kinnock admitting that he is opposed to socialism and just wants to run the buying and selling system.
Alas, it appears that truth is less catching than salmonella and Edwina Currie's case is an isolated one.
Lake Plonk
A search through a European Atlas will not reveal its location. But it's there somewhere . . . unchartered, its location unsuspected.
It's Surplusland, a European country with a weird geography. We know something of its topography from newspaper reports. It has Beef Hills, Butter Mountains and a Wine Lake.
In The Independent 24 January ' 89 we were given some of the details of the Wine Lake.
There were 250 million gallons of surplus alcohol (distilled wine alcohol) for disposal last year. Another 118 million gallons is expected this year. A further 92 million gallons is due for disposal Inside of the next three years.
Why not give it away?, you ask. Well to those of you who fancy a couple of free glasses of wine with your Salmonella Chicken Supreme, the Select Committee on European Legislation (Third Report) has the answer.
In practice there appears to be little demand for wine alcohol as such which reflects the cost of production .
In other words — it's not profitable !
A society that produces and stores surpluses of beef, butter, wheat and wine while millions starve is an absolute obscenity.
It's not Cricket
Annoyed at the cricketing authorities' decision to ban players from the England Test team If they played in South Africa, Mr. Norris McWhirter of the Freedom Association has attempted to take action through the courts.
The Independent 25th January, 1989 referring to the Association's defence of Zola Budd and its recent cricket legal case, stated:
The inevitable conclusion is that it must support the race policies of the South African government but this is not so. Both cases the association says, concern the freedom of individuals to carry out their business or affairs as they chose without interference from bullying authorities.
Mr. McWhirter's organisation makes great play of defending a sportsman or woman's right to go anywhere they wish in their sporting careers irrespective of politics.
This apparent disinterest in politics seems a little strange when one recalls that the same McWhirter wrote to British athletes prior to the Moscow Olympics urging them not to go to that country because of Russia's invasion of j Afghanistan.
Writing to Linsey MacDonald, the Scottish runner, he referred to athletes who didn't win medals and said:
. . . having gained no medals you will have earned the contempt of millions of your countrymen.
Such a letter to a sixteen year old schoolgirl is as good an example of bullying as we’ve come across.
The whitewash attempt of The Independent should fool no one. The Freedom Association is just another bunch of well-heeled toffs anxious to protect their class privilege against any real or imagined threat.
Its deep involvement in the Grunwick dispute of 1976, its anti-trade union stance recently against the postal workers proves that "freedom" to the quaintly named "Freedom Association" means freedom to exploit and grow fat on the unpaid labour of the working class.
What's up Doc ?
David Mellor, the Minister of State for Health, is concerned at the long hours worked by junior hospital doctors.
But not too concerned, for according to The Independent 25th January 1989:
But he confirmed the government's intention to oppose the backbench Bill scheduled for debate In the Lords tonight setting a 72 hour maximum legal limit on the junior doctor's working week.
After a survey in Bristol of junior doctors Dr. Ruth Gilbert (quoted In The Independent same day) said :
Suffering from sleep deprivation, Junior doctors are likely to perform monotonous tasks badly, make mistakes over drug dosages and experience mood changes that will make them less sympathetic to their patients.
When asked about the worst aspects of their work 85 per cent of the men and 95 per cent of the women said "exhaustion and hours of work" followed by "acting as dogsbodies doing unrewarding work."
In February 1848 a pamphlet written in German was published in London. It referred to the position of doctors inside capitalism. It stated:
The bourgeoise has stripped of its halo every occupation hitherto honoured and looked up to with reverent awe. It has converted the physician, the lawyer, the priest, the poet, the man of science, into its paid wage labourers.
The pamphlet was The Communist Manifesto. The authors were Karl Marx and Frederick Engels.
1 comment:
That's the March 1989 issue of the Socialist Standard done and dusted.
Post a Comment