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Thats Capitalism (WS 45)
358 billionaires in the world have a net worth of
$760 billion, equal to the wealth of 45% of the
world's population. The 200 largest multinational
corporations control over 25% of the planet's
economic activity. Meanwhile, according to the
international Labour Organisation, 30% of the
planet's workforce - 820 million people - are
either underemployed or unemployed.
Bernie Cahill, executive chairperson of Aer Lingus,
presided over job losses and wage freezes in the
national airline. He hammered his message home;
nobody should expect a steady job or a reasonable
wage. Of course such rules don't apply to him. As
well as his Aer Lingus job, he is the chairman of
Larry Goodman's massive Irish Food Processors and
has gone for the hatrick by also being chairman of
Greencore, the state sugar company.
Right in the centre of the "free world" state
labour inspectors reported earlier this year that
they had found over 2,000 sweatshops in New York
City. Mostly exploiting non-English speaking and
illegal immigrant workers, the average pay was
?1.67 per hour for a 12 hour day. No overtime is
paid, underage labour is common. Fire exits are
often padlocked and sprinkler systems unmaintained.
The authorities have no plans to add to the just 20
inspectors employed to investigate, nor to increase
the maximum fines of ?1,000 (first offence)/?2,000
(subsequent offences) for employing 'off-the-books'
workers in these near slavery conditions.
Children in Dublin's Inner City have to wait up to
six years for some dental treatments, according to
the Inner City Teachers Group. They revealed that
one 12 year old found by the school dental service
to need braces was told that there is a six year
waiting list and that he would be 18 before he gets
them. The teachers group complained that there are
also six year waiting lists for children needing
treatment for cleft palates.
The School of the Americas (SOA) is the unlikely
name given to a military training academy set up by
the US government in 1946 to "promote democracy in
the Americas". Since that time 'graduates' from
the academy have played brutal havoc with the human
rights of people throughout south and central
America. One example deserves mention. The UN
sponsored Truth Commission,which looked into
atrocities carried out in El Salvador during the
civil war there, found:
? Romero assassination: two of the three officers
cited as being ringleaders were graduates of SOA.
? El Mozote massacre of Salvadoran civilians: of
twelve officers cited, ten were from the SOA.
? Massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper
and her daughter: of 27 officers cited, 19 were
from the SOA.
Allied Irish Bank gave its five executive directors
a 35% pay increase. Each of them earned an average
of ?626,000 last year. These are the people who
refused to pay bank staff their 6.5% claim three
years ago and tried to break their union, the Irish
Bank Officials Association.
Raoul Cedras, formerly of Haiti, has moved to a
beach home in Panama courtesy of the US government.
The former dictator will have his rent paid by them
for the next year. After that Cedras will have to
fend for himself. But to make things easy, the US
government is freeing the assets he stole and
siphoned off to the USA during his period of power
in Haiti. Who says crime doesn't pay?
No recession for the directors of Cement Roadstone,
which has recorded a pre-tax profit of ?116 million
(up 52%). Last year they were paid an average
?532,664 each, an increase of almost 48%. Of
course none of their staff got rises like that.
The people who do the work were limited to the 3%
PCW increase.
Cholera is a disease caused by poverty and poor
sanitation. Get rid of poverty and cholera usually
disappears in turn. What is surprising, however,
is that it is making a comeback in countries where
it has been unknown for most of this century - like
the Ukraine, Romania and Albania. Recent reports
indicate that the disease is most widespread in
Romania, but in the Ukraine last October it killed
20 people and put another 800 into hospital. Most
commentators put the return of this deadly disease
down to the collapse of the health services in
those countries. With privatisation all the rage,
nobody wants to take over the 'unprofitable'
business of keeping people healthy through basic
sanitation. So much for the 'free market'.
600 Northern Bank staff in the six counties are to
have their pay cut by up to ?5,000 a year. The
IBOA has described the cuts as "outrageous at a
time when the bank is showing such strong
profitability"
According to the Centre for Economic Investigation
for the Caribbean, the minimum cost of living for a
Dominican family of four in 1993 was $276 per
month. Westinghouse, one of the major US
multinationals operating in the Dominican
Republic's Free Trade Zone, was paying its workers
$99 per month during this period. During the
period 1980-92, real wages declined by 46% under
austerity programmes applied to the Dominican
Republic by the IMF and USAID (a branch of the US
government).
The World Bank's 'World Development Report' for
1993, entitled Investing in Health, reports that
life expectancy in at least eleven African
countries has declined since 1986 when 'Structural
Adjustment Programmes' of the World Bank were first
applied. In Tanzania alone, female life expectancy
has dropped six years over the period of reform.
Last year the slaughter in Rwanda hit the
headlines. But one aspect of the violence that
received less attention than might have been
expected was the involvement of the Catholic
Church. The United Nations Centre for Human Rights
in Kigali has indicated that there is "strong
evidence" that at least a dozen priests were
involved in murder. Two priests and two nuns are
already in prison. Other are accused of
"supervising" gangs of killers that marauded,
killing Tutsis. One Tutsi priest has been quoted
as saying that "the bishop and the archbishop could
have stopped the killing, but they didn't speak
out".
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That's capitalism [WS 46]
Cholera is a disease caused by poverty and poor
sanitation. Get rid of poverty and cholera usually
disappears in turn. What is surprising, however, is
that it is making a comeback in countries where it has
been unknown for most of this century - like the
Ukraine, Romania and Albania. Recent reports indicate
that the disease is most widespread in Romania, but in
the Ukraine last October it killed 20 people and put
another 800 into hospital. Most commentators put the
return of this deadly disease down to the collapse of
the health services in those countries. With
privatisation all the rage, nobody wants to take over
the 'unprofitable' business of keeping people healthy
through basic sanitation. So much for the 'free
market'.
In Ireland the rich are having a ball. In 1965 wealth
and property taxes represented 25% of the total tax
take. By 1990 this had shrunk to just 5%. Although the
European Union suggests 30% as a minimum figure for
corporation tax, firms here get away with paying a
maximum of 10%. And if the bosses don't want to pay
these minimal sums, no bother. Nobody has ever served a
jail sentence in Ireland for tax evasion.
According to the Centre for Economic Investigation for
the Caribbean, the minimum cost of living for a
Dominican family of four in 1993 was $276 per month.
Westinghouse, one of the major US multinationals
operating in the Dominican Republic's Free Trade Zone,
was paying its workers $99 per month during this period.
During the period 1980-92, real wages declined by 46%
under austerity programmes applied to the Dominican
Republic by the IMF and USAID (a branch of the US
government).
In the last tax year only 5,000 self-employed admitted
to incomes over ?25,000 a year. There must be an awful
lot of poor shopkeepers, doctors, architects, dentists,
auctioneers and consultants out there.
The World Bank's 'World Development Report' for 1993,
entitled Investing in Health, reports that life
expectancy in at least eleven African countries has
declined since 1986 when 'Structural Adjustment
Programmes' of the World Bank were first applied. In
Tanzania alone, female life expectancy has dropped six
years over the period of reform.
Last year the 26 county economy grew by 7% (and the
government expects it to grow by 5% in 1995). This
level of growth is the highest in the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation & Development. Exports grew by
13.9% last year, while imports only rose by 11.9%. A
healthy picture? No, just for the rich. The government
expects official unemployment figures to also rise, to
278,400 this year.
Last year the slaughter in Rwanda hit the headlines.
But one aspect of the violence that received less
attention than might have been expected was the
involvement of the Catholic Church. The United Nations
Centre for Human Rights in Kigali has indicated that
there is "strong evidence" that at least a dozen priests
were involved in murder. Two priests and two nuns are
already in prison. Other are accused of "supervising"
gangs of killers that marauded, killing Tutsis. One
Tutsi priest has been quoted as saying that "the bishop
and the archbishop could have stopped the killing, but
they didn't speak out".
Allied Irish Banks, who tried to break the IBOA bank
workers union and get out of paying a 6.5% rise in 1992,
have just declared yet another increase in profits. In
the six months up to June 30th their profits jumped 10%
to ?161.7 million.
In Clinton's USA a white minor accused of drugs offences
has a 1 in 70 chance of being transferred to an adult
court (which can hand down a harsher sentence). A black
minor has a 1 in 18 chance.
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** What a waste! **
We're commonly sold the lie that poverty and suffering
are the result of there not being enough resources to go
around. Yet the United States has spent $4 trillion on
its nuclear weapons program over the past 50 years,
according to a report "Atomic Audit: What the U.S.
Nuclear Arsenal Really Cost," published by 'The U.S.
Nuclear Weapons Cost Study Project'.
The $4 trillion represents between one-quarter to
one-third of all 'defence' spending since World War II.
It includes most, but not all, of the program's direct,
indirect and overhead costs.
Spending on the nuclear weapons program has dropped but
$25 billion annually is still being spent on nuclear
weapons and about $250 billion overall on war
preparations.
- ******************************************************
** Liars caught out **
EL SALVADOR A regional American newspaper, the Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, reported in June that U.S. Army
commandos killed 83 leftist guerrillas in El Salvador in
1985 in a secret raid. The report confirms what had
long been suspected: that U.S. military personnel were
actively engaged in combat operations during El
Salvador's long civil war. The newspaper said that it
based its report on interviews with an ex-Ranger who
took part in the raid, a former Army special operations
officer and a former government official involved in the
cover up. The US government has always denied that it
sent troops to help the Salvadorean dictatorship in its
terrorist campaign against the rebels.
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** Looking after No.1 **
While the US authorities slash welfare payments to
single parents and their children, they are giving
enormous handouts to their rich pals. $10 billion was
spent last year on subsidies to people with mortgages in
excess of $250,000, what might be called a 'mansion
subsidy'. Another $200 million in subsidies went to big
farmers who have incomes over $5 million a year.