On 1 Apr, 12:27, nospam <nos...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> The Fiat systems are closing the trap. The New World Order arrives.
>
> On Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:01:13 -0700 (PDT), Dave <dwickf...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >On 29 Mar, 17:06, warcryst...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
> >> Sending this message out on Wednesday may well have led to a near 6%
> >> fall in the share price of Citigroup, the world's biggest bank!
> >> Oppenheimer & Co analyst Meredith Whitney, who predicted more losses
> >> in the credit crunch and precipitated that fall, may well have read
> >> the message. Or perhaps other investors read it, and the fall that
was
> >> attributed to her statement was partly caused by myself...
>
> >> An edited version has appeared in the letters page of today's Herald
> >> (one of the two Scottish broadsheet
newspapers:http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/letters/display.var.2156088.0.foo...
> >> - you can comment on it there).
>
> >> On the 25th of February, the World Food Programme (WFP), the United
> >> Nations agency responsible for distributing aid from donations by
> >> governments around the world, announced a $500 million budget
> >> shortfall due to soaring fuel and particularly food prices. The
prices
> >> of the staple food items distributed by the WFP had risen by an
> >> average of 40% since June last year.
>
> >> Since making that announcement, the WFP re****ted that food prices had
> >> risen by another 20% in three weeks. The WFP had changed to buying
> >> food locally to cut costs, so this massive further acceleration of
> >> food inflation is particularly severe in the "third world" and
> >> probably reflects panic buying and the hoarding of food by those
> >> worried about rising prices and/or shortages in the shops. The only
> >> thing preventing food prices rising even more rapidly than they are
> >> already is poor people around the world consuming less because they
> >> cannot afford the higher prices or because of shortages.
>
> >> The WFP only distributes aid to around 70 million people and
obviously
> >> a huge number of people now require aid who previously didn't, to
> >> avoid starving to death. Meanwhile, the WFP is warning that if it
does
> >> not receive more government funding by the 1st of May, it might cut
> >> "the rations for those who rely on the world to stand by them during
> >> times of abject need".
>
> >> Food prices have risen sharply in the West too, albeit to a lesser
> >> extent due to the huge profit margins in the supply chain (by 17% in
> >> the last year for "a basket of staple food items" according to an
> >> article by Emma Lunn in the Business & Money section of the 23rd of
> >> March Scotland on Sunday newspaper). A Tory re****t has estimated that
> >> butter has risen 37%, a dozen eggs 34% and bread 28% in the nine
> >> months since Gordon Brown became prime minister.
>
> >> The demand for food is massively outstripping supply, mainly due to a
> >> lot of land being used for biofuels (to supposedly reduce global
> >> warming) and people in some countries (such as China) consuming more
> >> meat and dairy products, both of which require much more farmland (by
> >> a factor of eight for meat) than that required for vegan diets.
> >> Additionally, there is a problem with a fungus destroying wheat, and
> >> floods and droughts are affecting harvests.
>
> >> There have already been demonstrations and riots in many countries as
> >> a result of the food crisis. The challenge for political activists
> >> such as myself is to channel the anger of ordinary people in a
> >> positive direction, and to provide practical solutions. Abandoning
> >> biofuels may help a lot, but many will have to switch to wholly or
> >> mainly vegetarian/vegan diets, either voluntarily (which would
> >> probably only happen in a socialist society) or through compulsion by
> >> a form of rationing.
>
> >> I called for a worldwide general strike in the run-up to the 2005 G8
> >> summit in Gleneagles , Scotland , when the Make Poverty History
> >> campaign and Live 8 concerts made "third world" poverty a big issue.
> >> There is massive scope for coordinated strike action in many
countries
> >> of the world this year, because food and fuel price increases are
> >> hitting ordinary (particularly working class) people in the West too.
>
> >> Additionally, income tax has doubled for some low-paid people in the
> >> UK (with the abolition of the 10% rate in Alistair Darling's first
> >> Budget, hardly mentioned in the media), and mortgage interest rates
> >> (for homes declining in value) are rising.
>
> >> The New Labour government is attempting to get public sector workers
> >> to accept three-year pay deals at no more than 2.5% per year, not
just
> >> because inflation is already much higher than officially recognised
> >> but because inflation is massively rising in these turbulent economic
> >> times.
>
> >> We cannot wait until the time of the next G8 summit (in Toyako ,
> >> Japan , from the 7th to the 9th of July); the crisis is getting
> >> exponentially worse and is unsolvable without overthrowing
capitalism.
> >> I have written two very im****tant songs mentioning the food crisis;
> >> recordings of both will soon be recorded by my new band Red Day:
"Feed
> >> The World" (which may become a charity single) and "Global Warming
> >> Bluff". In the meantime, you can read the lyrics atwww.red-day.net.
>
> >> The food crisis impacts the other major crisis of capitalism - the
> >> credit crunch. The problem to date has largely been of "subprime"
> >> mortgages (particularly but not just those in the USA), with flexible
> >> interest rates that massively increase after starting low, sold to
> >> people with poor credit records. However, some commentators have
> >> recognised that the collapse of the big US bank Bear Stearns shows
> >> that there is a crisis with other mortgages (called "prime") as well!
>
> >> A BBC TV programme on the credit crunch pointed out that people got
> >> caught out with subprime mortgages largely because mortgages are
> >> usually a fixed rate for their entire term, unlike in the UK where
all
> >> mortgages have flexible interest rates that can be changed by banks
> >> and building societies. With (real) inflation going through the roof,
> >> many more financial institutions are bound to go to the wall.
>
> >> Rather than just a slowdown, recession or slump, we are heading
> >> towards a massive possibly terminal crisis of unethical capitalism
> >> like in 1914. On that occasion, stock markets around the world were
> >> closed for several months to avoid a complete meltdown.
>
> >> There will need to be a complete reorganisation of the world economic
> >> system to resolve the situation. Maybe there could be a more ethical
> >> form of capitalism, in which I would argue that rich people must pay
> >> their fair share of tax and there must be a fair electoral system as
> >> well as there being ethical approaches to farming, the environment,
> >> animals and poor people via fair trade. Maybe banks and building
> >> societies would return to concentrating on savings and loans.
>
> >> I would argue however that there should be genuine democratic
> >> socialist societies, in particular countries if not throughout the
> >> world. What happens will largely depend on what ordinary people
> >> striving to change society do, as well as the effects of politicians,
> >> stock market investors and big businesspeople. Economists can't model
> >> the free will of individuals, so their relatively optimistic economic
> >> forecasts are largely speculative and will be proven false by events.
>
> >> --
> >> Steve Wallis (Glasgow, Scotland)
> >> For im****tant/urgent communications, please email:
> >> warcryst...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> >>
Blogs:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,http://blog...
>
> >> My socialist website:http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
> >> My socialist musical
poetry:http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk/poetry.htm
> >> (and at my MySpace and Multiply pages)
> >> My pages at MySpace:http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve,
Facebook:http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=731729407andMultiply:http://socialiststeve.multiply.com
>
> >> Founder, Good Intentions Network: http//www.goodintentionsnetwork.org
>
> >> Funder, Ethical Capitalism Network:http://www.ethicalcapitalism.org
> >> Founder, Foundation for PR-based Socialism:http://www.PRsocialism.org
> >> Founder, Revolutionary Platform
Network:http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
>
> >> My socialist band, Red Day:http://www.red-day.net
> >> Author, "Revolution Destroyed? Have I ensured that a world socialist
> >> revolution will never happen?":http://www.revolutiondestroyed.net
>
> >> For discussion of the credit crunch, go
tohttp://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
>
> >Seems like you're fi****ng. Most socialists seem to live very
> >comfortably. Real poor people are too busy working to worry about
> >politics, so hopefully employers will pay them just enough to keep
> >them sustained for work to stop them rioting.
>
> The more I know, the more I know - I don't know.
Yeah, one time a namesake (near enough) was shot to death for no
reason at all. They can get whoever they like when they like.
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