Gender: Male
Status: Single
Age: 42
Sign: Taurus
Country: UK
Signup Date:
11/28/06
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Friday, October 10, 2008
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Galaxia, my revolutionary socialist band, relaunched in Manchester
Current mood:  rockin
Category: Music
My Manchester band Galaxia re-formed on Wednesday evening. Despite the fact that two other people said they would come on Facebook, the new line-up of the band just consisted of Jonny Faders and myself. Jonny played an acoustic guitar on "Things Can Only Get Bitter" and piano on "Donovan's Doorway", while I sang on both tracks.
I am still looking for band members; I won't advertise the details of further recoding sessions on the internet since that didn't work on the two occasions I've tried it, but am inviting others interested in joining Galaxia (or doing recordings on a one-off basis) to contact me, and I will personally invite some other people - particularly Konnie Huq who sang brilliantly in "Comic Relief does Fame Academy" and I mentioned I'd like to be Mayor of London in "Things Can Only Get Bitter", inspired by a Facebook group someone else set up at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17282867563.
I'm including the lyrics of "Things Can Only Get Bitter" below; to listen to the recording of it, visit my personal MySpace or Facebook page, or Galaxia's page at MySpace, Facebook or Bebo (see my signature at the end of this message). Free downloads of this and other Galaxia songs can be obtained from http://www.galaxiamusic.org/downloads.html. [You can listen to the songs without needing to sign up/login using MySpace, useful if you are worried about organisations like MI5 keeping track of your internet activities...]
Things Can Only Get Bitter
Inspired by Things Can Only Get Better – D:ream and The World Is Planned – Galaxia/Red Day
Lyrics by Steve Wallis
Music by Steve Wallis and Jonny Faders
Version 2, 8/10/2008
Dedicated to Tommy Sheridan, Rosie Kane, Salma Yaqoob, George Galloway, Tony Benn, Hilary Benn, Melissa Benn, Shami Chakrabarti, David Lammy, Barack Obama, Konnie Huq, Eamonn McCann, the late Terry Fields, Siân Berry, Nicola Sturgeon and Leanne Wood
Things can only get bitter
Things can only get bitter
Tony Blair was not fair
Gordon Brown is feeling down
Tommy Sheridan and Rosie Kane
Both have a great brain
Salma and Galloway swept Labour away
They showed socialists can win
Now support Tony and Hilary's kin
Melissa Benn is better than the men
Things can only get bitter
John Reid was a big hitter
He orchestrated 1984-style dirty tricks
But now he's retiring from politics
Under Jacqui Smith, freedom is a myth
I like Shami and David Lammy
The man with two jags can pack his bags
Things can only get bitter
Things can only get bitter
I want Melissa to be prime minister
She's over 8,000 votes behind a Tory
Winning would be a great story
If she wins, she would be the youngest ever MP
You need to be a middle aged gent (or woman) to be US president
Or as old as McCain - voting for him would be insane!
Barack Obama could make the world calmer
Things can only get bitter
New Labour said "Things can only get better"
Public borrowing makes us a big debtor
To PFI, Scotland has said goodbye
That money we owe - will we pay? No, no!
Things can only get bitter
Things can only get bitter
Fannie and Freddie - capitalism's no longer steady
The credit crunch exposes the bunch
Of big business allies and their MI5 spies
Even the SWP may help us become free
Now John Rees has gone - MI5's number one
Things can only get bitter
Things can only get bitter
The Left had a Convention
Revolution is our intention
Conspiracies are now in our favour
We may even split New Labour
Konnie Huq for London mayor
Ugly men won't have a prayer
Support Eamonn in Derry
Like Militant's Terry and Siân Berry
Nicola Sturgeon - I'm urging
To lead the SNP so Scotland will be free
Leanne Wood - that socialist could
Beat Labour in Wales
She's better than all the males!
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk
Blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
My pages at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1526122651, MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Good Intentions Network: http://www.goodintentionsnetwork.org
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for PR-based Socialism: http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia: http://www.galaxiamusic.net, http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia-a-revolutionary-socialist-band/84310120180, http://www.bebo.com/galaxiamusic.
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net, http://www.myspace.com/reddayband, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
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 to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
For discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, go to http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=89
10:48 AM
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Monday, October 06, 2008
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My band Galaxia reforming in Manchester on Wednesday evening (8th October 2008)
Current mood:  excited
Category: Music
I moved back from Glasgow to Manchester recently and have decided to resurrect my band Galaxia, that first recorded songs in the run-up to the 2005 G8 summit (that took place in Gleneagles, Scotland). I know a female vocalist and a drummer, who will almost certainly attend, but anybody else who agrees enough with my politics (revolutionary socialism with a government elected by proportional representation) is welcome to participate.
I have arranged a session in a recording studio (the Cutting Rooms, Abraham Moss campus, City College, Manchester, nearest MetroLink station Woodlands Road, see the map at
http://www.multimap.com/maps/?qs=abraham+moss&countryCode=GB), starting at 6.30pm on Wednesday evening (8th October) for up to three hours. I decided to go for an evening to make it easy for those who work during the day to attend; perhaps we will do an afternoon session next time to make it easier for those who wish to travel from elsewhere in Britain. Adam from the Cutting Rooms, who performed in the original Galaxia tracks, is otherwise engaged on Wednesday evening, but Johnny who also works there could fill in on guitar, bass or keyboards if necessary.
I would like us to do recordings of my political songs "The World Is Planned", "Things Can Only Get Bitter" and "Feed The World" (which needs improving - the female vocalist I know is African and I'd like her to help me with the lyrics). "Feed The World" is loosely based on the Band Aid song "Do They Know It's Christmas" and it'd be great if we could have several singers in the chorus!
I'd like us to do some love songs as well, particularly "I Wish Cath Was A Folk Rocker (with flowers in her hair)" (updated to say that revolution is once again in the air in 2008, which is certainly the case with the current economic turmoil) and my latest composition "Donovan's Doorway" - soon if not on Wednesday.
For free downloads and lyrics, visit http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk/poetry.htm or http://www.galaxiamusic.net. You can also listen/download the songs from the band's MySpace or Facebook pages, or listen to a selection of songs and my unaccompanied musical poetry from my personal pages on those social networking sites. See my signature below for details.
My Glasgow band Red Day (http://www.red-day.net), which performed other songs including "9/11 Inside Job", may do further recordings in the future when I visit Glasgow.
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk
Blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
My pages at Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1038291480, MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Good Intentions Network: http://www.goodintentionsnetwork.org
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
Founder, Foundation for PR-based Socialism: http://www.PRsocialism.org
Founder, Revolutionary Platform Network: http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net
My revolutionary socialist band, Galaxia: http://www.galaxiamusic.net, http://www.myspace.com/galaxiamusic, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Galaxia/27493549137.
My socialist band, Red Day: http://www.red-day.net, http://www.myspace.com/reddayband, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Day/27468311341
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 to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
For discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, go to http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=89
2:47 PM
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Monday, September 29, 2008
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"Things Can Only Get Bitter" and other new musical poems
Current mood:  optimistic
Category: News and Politics
I've uploaded some new musical poems to my musical poetry page (at http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk/poetry.htm), including "Things Can Only Get Bitter". I nicked the title of that poem from the slogan of the Convention of the Left, which I attended recently (and I have a T-shirt with the slogan on). It is about struggles within and against New Labour, with a brief mention of the US presidential election, and dedicated to the following people: Tommy Sheridan, Rosie Kane, Salma Yaqoob, George Galloway, Tony Benn, Hilary Benn, Melissa Benn, Shami Chakrabarti, David Lammy, Barack Obama, Konnie Huq, Eamonn McCann, the late Terry Fields, Siân Berry, Nicola Sturgeon, Leanne Wood plus a mystery woman!
You can alternatively hear them on my MySpace page.
3:07 PM
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Friday, September 26, 2008
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8 year old Iranian boy and family face deportation after 51 days in a detention centre
Current mood:  angry
Category: News and Politics
I don't normally send messages on the internet about particular campaigns (which some people find rather boring), but this is a particularly important one. I don't just think about the cause for which I am fighting (a form of socialism based on proportional representation), but individual people I care about. I met the sister of child 'M' at the Convention of the Left on Wednesday, and their ordeal of 51 days in a detention centre (essentially a prison) is scandalous. If they are returned to Iran, they could suffer persecution or worse.
It is a good issue to attack the New Labour government when campaigning on, since their criticisms of the Iranian regime makes them hypocrites for wanting to send a family back there. I handed out about 400 leaflets on this issue at the Manchester universities on Thursday, and will hand more out this wekend. I put my Foundation for PR-based Socialism newsletter 4 (see http://www.PRsocialism.org) on the back, and have talked about the need to change society so that injustices like this don't continue to occur. [There is an Asian newsagent in Manchester with very cheap (2p), fast and double-sided photocopiers.] Virtually every Muslim (especially women) who I offer the leaflet to takes it when I mention an eight-year old Iranian boy facing deportation.
I've included the text (and an image) from the campaign's home page below ( http://www.childm.org.uk). Leaflets and petitions can be downloaded from the website, and it'd be great if others would print off copies to campaign on this issue too elsewhere in the UK (or even overseas).
I also urge readers of this message to visit the website of Hands Off the People of Iran (Hopi, http://www.hopoi.org), which supports progressive forces in Iran as well as opposing an imperialist attack on that country. Vicky from the small group Permanent Revolution spoke very well on the issue at a debate during the Convention of the Left.
--
Steve Wallis (Manchester, England)
Preferred email address: revolutionarysocialiststeve@yahoo.co.uk
Blogs: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steve-wallis-socialist-blog,
http://blog.myspace.com/galaxiasteve
My socialist website: http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk
My pages at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve and Bebo:
http://www.bebo.com/SteveW519
Founder, Good Intentions Network: http://www.goodintentionsnetwork.org
Founder, Ethical Capitalism Network: http://www.ethicalcapitalism.net
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 to
http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=156
For discussion of 9/11 conspiracy theories, go to http://www.revolutionaryplatform.net/forum/index.php?board=89
Who is Child M?
Child "M" (who can't be named for legal reasons) is aged 8. He is here in the UK with his mum, brother and sister. They face persecution if they are returned to Iran - they are accused of circulating Salman Rushdie's book 'The Satanic Verses'.
The British government has refused their asylum claim and tried to deport them - most recently locking-up the whole family in a detention centre - for 51 days! They have just been released and allowed to return to Manchester.
There have been recent reports in the press highlighting the harmful effects of detention on children. Detention can, "significantly impair a child's mental and physical health," (BID Report into the Detention of Children, March 2008). The Children's Commissioner called it, "an inhuman process," (Children's Commissioner, September 08). Home Office guidance says that children should not be detained in this way.
The family is making challenges in the High Court - but it is not enough to put their faith in the law. So they have started a campaign - "Child "M" Must Stay!". Download a leaflet here. Child "M" and his family must not be removed from Britain and returned to Iran. It will be too dangerous for them.
"Child M, like the many other minors detained by the UK authorities in a clear breach of their human rights, has committed no offence - other than being born in a country which seeks to deny freedom of speech, then coming with his family to the UK where they believed their rights would be upheld. An immigration centre is no place for a child and the Green Party is calling on the Home Office to immediately end its policy of incarcerating innocent young people, as well as to allow Child M and his family to remain in the UK."
Caroline Lucas MEP
11:04 PM
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
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SWP’s John Rees overthrown, Labour conference, Convention of the Left & surveillance state
Current mood:  happy
Category: News and Politics
The latest Weekly Worker has just gone on-line. For the third week in a row, I've had a latter published (drastically edited this time but making some important points and not distorted by editor Peter Manson - I sent it yesterday so that letters editor Steve Cooke didn't edit it first). The headline Peter chose for my letter is "Staying power".
Incidentally, John Bridge and Jack Conrad are both pseudonyms for the CPGB's leader; I had previously pointed out in a letter that Peter also published that an article of Peter's had said that Conrad had repeated the same point several times. The overthrow of Conrad/Bridge, the Stalin character in the CPGB, could transform the organisation just like the SWP is getting much better with John Rees' fall from leadership of Left Alternative (the SWP's splinter from Respect), although I have heard that Rees is still on the SWP's Central Committee.
I attended three days of the Covnention of Left in Manchester, as well as handing out my Foundation for PR-based Socialism newsletter 4 (with newsletter 1 on the back of some copies) - each of which is downloadable from http://www.PRsocialism.org - to those attending the Labour Party conference, including Charles Clarke MP, James Purnell MP, David Lammy MP, Daniel Finkelstein (of The Times) and Tony Woodley (general secretary of the trade union Unite). [I recognised them all, which Finkelstein pointed out that this forced him to take my leaflet.] I have now moved to Manchester from Glasgow (although I may visit Glasgow again for a week or so in the near future).
Those of you on Facebook may be interested in groups I have set up to call for Nicola Sturgeon to become First Minister of Scotland (Nicola, the current Deputy First Minister, is much more left-wing than Alex Salmond and as health minister is introducing a minimum price for alcohol in supermarkets which will massively help the problem of binge drinking) and Melissa Benn to be prime minister of the UK.
Melissa's speech was the highlight of last year's Labour conference in my opinion; it even persuaded grandfather Tony (now President of the Stop the War Coalition) to try to stand for parliament again. Melissa is not currently an MP, and would become the youngest ever MP if she overcomes a 8000+ Tory majority. [Electoral law stated you had to be 21 to stand at the time of the last general election, despite being able to vote at 18 - clearly a measure to try to stop young radical people from transforming parliament, just like you have to be 35 to be US president; I don't recall any legislation being passed to change the law (imagine the radicalising effect of publicising such an ageist law especially with the granddaughter of Tony Benn seeking election) so I thinkit was quietly decided to be changed anyway! In the current and worsening economic climate, Melissa could well win her seat bucking the national trend of a swing from Labour to the Tories, if she puts forward a democratic (i.e. non-Marxist) revolutionary socialist position in the election - but if there is a left-wing split from Labour in the meantime, she could well join it! I didn't meet Melissa in Manchester, but she is a friend of a friend of somebody I talked to at the Convention so she will probably find out about the group soon.
Search for "Nicola Sturgeon" or "Melissa Benn"at Facebook if you want to browse/join one of the groups.
Anyway, I've included below the unedited letter I sent to Peter. Download the whole newspaper - it looks really good this week with a front-page headline "Bush administration rushes to save sick financial system with trillion dollar bale-out. Drip-feed capitalism" - by going to http://cpgb.org.uk/worker/738/WW738%20WEB.pdf. It should be available in HTML soon at cpgb.org.uk.
In "Knitting" (September 18), Robbie Rix says "we had 15,566 readers last week - a bit of a drop from our previous high of over 40,000 and something I can't really explain."
One reason for the fall could be the lack of articles on the Socialist Workers Party and concentration on the miniscule and largely irrelevant Alliance for Workers' Liberty. The main article last week with "SWP dumps John Rees" as the front page headline could rectify the situation". I tried selling your paper at the Convention of the Left and somebody took the mickey out of having that headline with the massive economic crisis going on. I showed my letter "Crisis" which rectified that ommision.
Actually the SWP dumping of John Rees is far more important than any points on the economy that the ridiculous and obfuscating Hillel Ticktin could have made! You (editor Peter Manson) told me that the sound quality on the interview with Ticktin was too bad to include it).
The SWP's leadership has always been dominated by infiltrators on the side of big business (eg in MI5 but perhaps sometimes outside the realm of the state) sabotaging the struggle for socialism. I once met "comrade" Rees and his manner (as well as speech at a meeting) confirmed your assessment of him as a "control freak" and mind as an agent of big business.
There are many good and genuine rank-and-file SWP members particularly in Manchester but their deeply hierarchical structure enables agents like Rees to rise to the top and stay there, like Bob Labi and Niall Mullholland of the CWI and Stalin, Lenin and Trotsky in the USSR. Could your Jack Conrad/JOHN BRIDGE be similar?
Maybe the SWP will transform itself into a genuine democratic revolutionary socialist party - or maybe that is too optimistic! We'll see!
Another reason for the decline in on-line readership could be the massive extension of the surveillance state under New Labour (the latest example of which is numberplate data from speed cameras being kept for five years evne for those who haven't been speeding), which is trying to prevent a socialist revolution from ever standing a chance of happening. The economic turmoil and Brown's pathetic speech in Manchester will ensure that New Labour doesn't get away with it. I have a lot more accesses to my websites from other countries than the UK, even though I largely talk abour UK politics; my Revolutionary Platform Network Forum always gets more hits from the USA (over 100,000 one recent month) than anywhere else - Vietnam, Latvia and now Argentina (the latter having a socialist president, Cristina Kirchner) have been second!
People in the UK may have been scared of MI5 finding out that they are radical! I even have the point of view that mind control could effectively turn them into robots....
8:41 PM
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Friday, September 19, 2008
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My letter on economic crisis published in Weekly Worker
Current mood:  pleased
Category: News and Politics
I include below the full contents of a letter I sent to the Weekly Worker newspaper yesterday on the economic crisis. The paper's editor, Peter Manson, cut quite a lot for the published version (with heading "Crisis" at http://cpgb.org.uk/worker/737/letters.html) but kept the most important points. [Peter edits letters sent on Wednesdays; letters sent before then are edited by the letters editor (Steve Cooke) first.]
There is one serious point I got wrong (which I think is a common misconception), according to the BBC2 programme "Working Lunch" today - if you have a mortgage or loan with a bank that goes bust, you don't get it for free! I suppose capitalists had to come up with some sort of system that allows a bank to fail without such a favourable outcome for working and middle class people! The consequence of this seems to be that letting a bank collapse and using money from mortgage/loan-payers to help pay the compensation would seem to be an option (although I haven't investigated the procedure by which this happens). Therefore a Tory government could let a bank fail rather than nationalise it...
As chancellor, Gordon Brown claimed to have ended the cycle of boom and bust, which is of course impossible under capitalism. The New Labour government borrowed heavily to prolong the boom and we are now entering a severe recession. Big business and its New Labour allies are trying to make working class people pay for their crisis – escalating food and fuel prices and a housing slump, with big cuts in living standards unless we go on strike.
The credit crunch is mainly blamed on "subprime" mortgages in the USA , sold to people with a poor credit history and with high interest rates starting low. This caught many ordinary people out, since most US mortgages are at a fixed rate for the entire term, which (due to high inflation) could lead to many banks around the world that have lent the money for such "prime conforming" mortgages facing bankruptcy.
On Sunday, Lehman Brothers, the world's fifth biggest investment bank, went bankrupt and Merrill Lynch, another huge US bank, was taken over. The repercussions are immense – RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland ), Barclays, Bradford & Bingley and especially HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland ) have suffered huge falls in their share values. HBOS has been saved from disaster with the probable takeover by Lloyds TSB and Barclays' shares have risen again on news that it is to buy some of Lehman's assets for what is probably a bargain $1.75 billion. The Bank of England is lending £20 billion more to banks, on top of £50 billion earlier in the year – gambling that they will stay solvent with taxpayers' money. Meanwhile, banks don't trust each other – the inter-bank lending rate LIBOR rose to 6.8% this week, compared with a Bank of England rate of 5% (if it reduced interest rates by 0.25% to limit the effect of the recession as some politicians and commentators are calling for, this would just help the banks at the expense of the rest of us and have very little effect on mortgage rates). Even more dramatically, the dollar overnight lending rate between US banks rose above 10% at one point, despite the official interest rate being 2%. The US Federal Reserve has just lent $85 billion to AIG, the largest insurance company in the world and sponsors of Manchester United, to save it from bankruptcy.
Big business used to make huge amounts of money very easily by gambling on the stock market, from the work carried out by working and middle class people. That era is over – for good! The FTSE 100 (measuring the share values of the 100 biggest UK companies) has fallen to its lowest level for over three years. Individual companies' share values have fallen even more considerably - AIG's market value fell in a year from $173.5bn to $12.8bn. Speculators are even having difficulty making money from commodities, that have risen considerably recently – oil that had nearly reached $150 a barrel has fallen below $100 – which the September 16 International Herald Tribune said was "on expectations of a global economic slowdown".
At the time of the run on Northern Rock, savers were only promised compensation for the first £2,000 and 90% of the next £33,000. Now we are promised the full £35,000 (which the Tories are offering to help New Labour raise to £50,000 by cooperating with quick legislation) by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). I strongly recommend visiting its website (www.fscs.org.uk) if you want to know how a bank's collapse would affect you. The website points out that levies from financial institutions only raise a maximum of £4.1 billion a year, which is chicken feed compared to the assets and liabilities of the big high street banks. The government would be forced to stump up any shortfall, presumably by increasing borrowing, if a major high street bank goes under – failure to do so would risk massive demonstrations and possibly even a general strike raising the prospect of a socialist revolution!
The Tories have previously suggested that they would not bail out a bank in trouble (in a Sunday Herald article) but in reality, they would also be forced to nationalise. Letting a big bank go under would give millions of ordinary people a free mortgage or loan!
If socialists get our act together, the economic crisis will lead to socialist revolutions in many countries of the world. A new more ethical capitalist world, where rich people are forced to pay their fair share of tax with the abolition of tax havens and loopholes (a measure that the Liberal Democrats have talked about at this week's conference as well as nicking the Tories' policy from the last election of promising tax cuts paid for by abolishing waste in the welfare state), may be on the cards. Bill Gates has talked about retiring and giving all his wealth away to charity. The Convention of the Left will be a marvellous opportunity for left-wingers inside and outside the Labour Party to prepare the ground for a revolutionary anti-capitalist party – which in the current economic climate could even win the next general election, if there's not a revolution first!
3:08 AM
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
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"The World Is Planned" & my other musical poems
Current mood:  triumphant
I've included below the lyrics of a new version of what is undoubtedly the most important song/poem I have ever written, called "The World Is Planned", as fetched from the web page http://www.galaxiamusic.org/lyrics/planned-3.html.
Although I am now in a band (Red Day), which has four songs available for free downloading from http://www.red-day.net, we do not meet up very often and I couldn't wait before putting some of my songs on-line. I therefore recorded eight more items of musical poetry yesterday including this song, with me singing/talking unaccompanied, the details of which are at the bottom of this message
You can alternatively play the new songs/poems, with the new ones (apart from "The World Is Planned" which I've put at the start because it is so important) at the end of a playlist of some of my other songs, from my MySpace page (http://www.myspace.com/galaxiasteve) or my new Facebook page (http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1038291480). [Note that my previous Facebook account was deleted due to posting the same message on too many different groups' discussion boards/walls.]
The World Is Planned
Written by Steve Wallis
Version 3, 17/9/2008
CHORUS:
Can you understand
That the world is planned?
But free will has a hand
In the struggle for every land!
There are conspiracies on each side
One ensured that Princess Diana died
She could have become a bride
Of a Muslim, turning the tide
Against hatred and war
And oppression of the poor
Don't be fatalistic
Be bold but realistic
We can all affect society
And help put an end to misery
CHORUS
To get the rich off our backs
Try to force them to pay tax
The loopholes are very lax
Let's open up the cracks
Conspiracies are now in our favour
We may even split New Labour
CHORUS
Our trust is being abused
Computer modelling is used
By forces good and bad
Let's get even not just mad
The press is conducting a campaign of hate
Big business does not want an independent Scottish state
It'd be a step towards a socialist society
A reversal of the bosses' daylight robbery
They promote gambling with the National Lottery
And made money out of us very easily
But gambling on the stock market
No longer always makes a profit
CHORUS
The tables are turning
The working class is learning
The middle class is also yearning
For a change our rulers are spurning
We won't put up with it any more
Let's end poverty, environmental destruction and war!
Life for some is grey
But we all have a say
We are on our way
To a brighter day
CHORUS
They controlled the weather
Let's defeat them together
If good Muslims, Christians and Jews
Unite with other good people, we can't lose
Muslims believe Jesus was great
So oppose those who spread messages of hate
Whether they are politicians, fascists
Or religious fundamentalists
CHORUS
Note that the first version of this song, which I wrote and recorded in March 2007, was badly flawed because it suggested that the world was entirely planned with no scope for the free will of individuals to affect society. The second version corrected that flaw and brought it up-to-date. This version puts control of the weather in the past tense, because bad conspirators are in too weak a position to manipulate it to suit their purposes (as shown by the escalation of the economic crisis in September 2008). I have recorded this version of the song as a musical poem, in MP3 format.
The following are all the new songs (the links below don't work, but you can go to http://www.socialiststeve.me.uk/poetry.htm and click on them to download tracks or view lyrics):
In September 2008, I made the following recordings in MP3 format (these are all less than five minutes long and all files are below 4.5MB in size):
The World Is Planned – MP3, lyrics
Optimism – MP3, lyrics
Even Jesus Needed A Lover – MP3, lyrics
Fairground Attraction – MP3, lyrics
A Revolutionary Swede – MP3, lyrics
Socialist Chameleon – MP3, lyrics
Transsexuals Of The World Unite – MP3, lyrics
Fast Car – MP3, lyrics
10:09 PM
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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Lehman bankrupt - HBOS, RBS, Barclays, B&B, AIG next?
Current mood:  catalyzed
I'm distributing this message widely, including to forums where it is off-topic, because the escalation of the economic crisis with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the fourth biggest investment bank in the US (and fifth biggest in the world) is very important - and millions of ordinary working and middle class people are undoubtedly rightly concerned that their savings may be at risk.
First, a confession: I had wrongly thought that legislation had not been passed to compensate the first £35,000 of your savings (in an individual bank). At the time of the run on Northern Rock last year, only the first £2,000 and 90% of the next £33,000 was covered. However, I noticed that many of the national newspapers today said that the first £35,000 is fully covered. I have checked the website of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) - http://www.fscs.org.uk - which confirms the £35,000. [If a national newspaper lied on a matter as important as this and were found out, their reputation would be in tatters and they could presumably be sued.] I would strongly recommend you checking that website (if you live in the UK) rather than taking my word on how the crisis may affect you.
However, the website also points out (on http://www.fscs.org.uk/industry/funding) that the levy on financial institutions yields a mere £4.10 billion a year. This is chicken feed compared to the vast sums owned or borrowed by the big banks. The Bank of England, which had previously pumped £50 billion in the markets was pumping another £20 billion today. Meanwhile, there are strong rumours (including on the front page of the Financial Times and even the Sun) that AIG, one of the world's biggest ensurers and best known as the sponsors of Manchester United, could be next. The FT front page article mentions that they are getting an emergency $20 billion loan (and I read elsewhere that they asked for $40 billion). Loans to banks that may end up failing, risking taxpayers' money (or greater government borrowing that taxpayers are ultimately liable for), could be regarded as a scandal - but central banks and politicians have little choice if they want the capitalist system to continue!
The Tories today are calling for the compensation scheme to increase the guaranteed amount to £50,000, offering help to get quick legislation through parliament - which I suppose shows that the sort of people they are most interested in protecting are those with savings over £35,000 (who can't be bothered to divide their money across different banks or put it in a building society, Northern Rock or the government's National Savings & Investments, to be on the safe side).
But if your bank goes under, how quickly would you get your money back? One of the problems of the previous scheme was that it could have taken many months, but I can't see any proof (on the FSCS website for example) that that is not still the case.
The Tories have previously suggested that they would not bail out a bank in trouble - but this point was in a Sunday Herald article that many would have missed, and they would really have little choice but to nationalise any high street bank that goes under. Investment banks are different in not directly affecting millions of ordinary people. If a New Labour, Tory or Liberal Democrat government allowed any large high street bank to collapse, they would have to compensate savers - with the prospect of huge demonstrations and possibly a general strike, forcing action with the real possibility of a socialist revolution if they didn't. And realistically, nationalisation is a much better option from a government's point of view than letting a bank go under, because it avoids the windfall that borrowers, including mortgage holders, would receive by not having to pay the money back to a bankrupt bank! [Many US banks have already gone under, and I read today that half the banks in the USA are expected to follow them or be taken over in the wake of Lehman's collapse, so the situation is different there.]
Anyway, according to falls in stock market share prices yesterday and today, HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland) is most in danger of all the UK banks. At one point yesterday, HBOS shares were down 36%, and they ended 17.55% down; they fell another 30% today (and are 28.17% down at the time of writing this, as revealed by a quick internet search). RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) shares fell 10% yesterday and are currently 14.20% down today. Barclays shares fell 9.84% yesteday and are 15.26% down today. These are all in the top 100 companies on the UK stock market (the FTSE 100) which has fallen to its lowest point for three years. In the past, big business investors were almost guaranteed to make huge amounts of money from the work of ordinary people, and the best news from all this market turmoil is that that period is over - permanently! Of the minor banks not in the FTSE 100, Bradford & Bingley did worst yesterday, falling 15.44%, but it is only 6.35% down today.
I generally prefer to give links to articles in the mainstream press, sometimes including text of articles, where required to justify my assertions. I read left-wing sources too, but my analysis tends to be better than theirs (in my not-so-humble opinion) and some of their points are unrealiable, sometimes obviously completely wrong. To what extent it is clumsiness rather than infiltration to damage an organisation's credibility, or over-exuberance, is a matter of opinion. I will however give a link to an article on the Scottish Socialist Party website about the collapse of Lehman Brothers (which amazingly is now accessible without putting the "www." at the start of the web address!) at http://scottishsocialistparty.org/economic-crisis/september2008.html. It is probably better than most analyses made by socialists because it is written by Raphie de Santos, former head of equity derivatives research and strategy at Goldman Sachs International. As a warning, I read today an earlier article by him in the Scottish Socialist Voice (in issue 329, 15-28 August that is not on-line) which said "If the world's population were all to consume as much petrol as the average citizen of the United States then the known global oil reserves would last four days!" A quick calculation: with the population of the USA about 250 million and the world 6.5 billion, if only people in the USA used oil, it would run out in 104 days! It is contradicted by a later claim that "the reserves of extractable oil are known. There will come a point in the future where peak oil production will be reached and after that the demand will far outstrip demand [sic: he obviously meant supply] - the range of estimates for this to happen are between five and ten years." What is annoying about most articles in the left-wing press is a lack of references to back up claims like these.
Economic crisis will provide opportunities to put socialism on the agenda
As chancellor, current British prime minister Gordon Brown claimed to have ended the cycle of boom and bust, which has proved impossible under capitalism. The New Labour government borrowed heavily to prolong the boom and we are now entering a severe recession. Big business and its New Labour allies are trying to make working class people pay for their crisis – escalating food and fuel prices and a housing slump, with big cuts in living standards unless we go on strike.
The credit crunch is mainly blamed on "subprime" mortgages in the USA , sold to people with a poor credit history and with high interest rates starting low. This caught many ordinary people out, since most US mortgages are at a fixed rate for the entire term, which (due to high inflation) could lead to many banks around the world that have lent the money for such "prime conforming" mortgages facing bankruptcy. New Labour would probably bail other banks out like when it nationalised Northern Rock (and like the US government recently did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac which guarantee only prime conforming mortgages) or lent £50 billion without revealing to whom, but other governments may adopt a different approach.
[On the day I finished writing this document, the US government indeed failed to step in to save Lehman Brothers, the fifth largest investment bank in the world, and it went bankrupt. This is having a big knock-on effect on shares in other banks around the world, with the shares of HBOS (Halifax Bank of Scotland ), RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland ) and Barclays particularly collapsing, despite the Bank of England pumping another £5 billion into the market today. Barclays reportedly tried to launch a takeover for Lehman before it collapsed; we can speculate whether its takeover attempt was an indication that Barclays has a lot of spare money to spend on the takeover, a bluff (to pretend it is not in financial difficulties) , a panic measure (perhaps because it has lent Lehman a lot of money that it could now lose with the bankruptcy) or a desperate attempt to improve its balance sheet with public money (the denial of which caused the takeover attempt to collapse). Whatever the cause, the big fall in Barclays' share price today will knock confidence in its solvency. If I had savings in HBOS, Barclays or RBS, I'd withdraw them ASAP! The adage that such institutions are "too big to fail" now seems out-of-date, and even if New Labour nationalises more UK banks (which the Tories say they wouldn't do), shareholders can expect little or nothing for their shares. The collapse of a high-street bank would entail many waiting months for compensation for their savings (if indeed they don't lose them); New Labour has promised an improved compensation scheme but legislation for it has yet to be passed and banks have refused to finance it in advance. Those with mortgages in a collapsed bank wouldn't have to pay it back, so some working class people will gain from this financial chaos!]
The economic crisis will therefore be much more severe than most analysts are predicting. To avoid imposing massive tax rises or making massive cuts in public spending, most capitalist governments will probably try to borrow their way out of the crisis. New Labour's net borrowing has rocketed to around £40 billion a year during the boom, and is on course to rise much higher still as we enter recession. This makes a mockery of Brown's claims to have been a "prudent" chancellor and his allegations that there is "a black hole in the Tories' spending plans" (with them promising tax cuts for the rich at their 2007 conference). The Tories and Liberal Democrats are hypocritical too in condemning Brown's handling of the economy when they plan the same level of borrowing if they came to power.
So how should socialists respond to the economic crisis? Merely pledging a series of reforms that involve greater public spending (such as improving public services, increasing pensions and other benefits or increasing wages) is both an insufficient response to the scale of the problem and could easily be argued against (by pointing out that such reforms could not be afforded without much greater borrowing than already planned by mainstream parties). In my view, we need to point out the need for a sudden and thorough change of society – i.e. a socialist revolution (a term that many socialists are reluctant to use even if they agree with it, but I am less reluctant than most and even include "revolutionary socialist" in my main email address).
8:28 PM
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Foundation for PR-based Socialism newsletter 4
Current mood:  accomplished
I've included below the contents of the latest newsletter of the Foundation for PR-based Socialism (where PR stands for proportional representation not public relations). Anyone can download the newsletter in Micro$oft Word or PDF format to print out if they wish, from the Foundation's website ( www.PRsocialism.org). It is particularly intended for the Labour Party conference, anti-war demo and Convention of the Left which all take place in Manchester (from Saturday). I had intended to publish a draft first, but there isn't much time; I could nevertheless do a new version if important issues arise.
Foundation for PR-based Socialism
Forum: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/PRsocialism Website: www.PRsocialism.org Newsletter 4 (15/9/08)
Struggle for real democracy and socialism – inside and outside the Labour Party
Labour is in crisis, with Gordon Brown and the entire New Labour project deeply unpopular and many demanding a change of leadership and/or policies.
Brown claimed to have ended the cycle of boom and bust – impossible under capitalism. He borrowed heavily to prolong the boom and we are now entering a severe recession. Big business and its New Labour allies are trying to make working class people pay for their crisis – escalating food and fuel prices and a housing slump, with big cuts in living standards unless we go on strike.
The credit crunch is mainly blamed on "subprime" mortgages in the USA , sold to people with a poor credit history and with high interest rates starting low. This caught many out, since most US mortgages are at a fixed rate for the entire term, which (due to high inflation) could lead to many banks around the world that have lent the money for such "prime conforming" mortgages facing bankruptcy. New Labour would probably bail other banks out like when it nationalised Northern Rock (and like the US government recently did with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) or lent £50 billion without revealing to whom, but other governments may adopt a different approach.
The problems of capitalism are so severe that mere reforms (entailing greater government borrowing) are insufficient; we should point out that a complete change of society is needed. We should also fight for real democracy – proportional representation, under capitalism or socialism (see below).
Convention of the Left
Saturday 20 – Wednesday 24 September, Manchester
For details, visit www.conventionoftheleft.org
The Labour Party conference takes place this month in Manchester . Meanwhile, the Convention of the Left will bring together activists from a wide range of organisations inside and outside the Labour Party simultaneously in the same city. It would be premature for socialists to leave Labour now, with struggles for the direction of the party just beginning, but the Convention could play a big role in the creation of a new socialist party capable of challenging for power at the next general election. If we fail, the Tories will almost certainly win it (perhaps leading to an independent Scotland , the SNP splitting and socialism could start in Scotland ). Come along to debate the way forward.
Campaign for renewable sources of energy – and point out the need for socialism
In these difficult economic times, it is unsurprising that many ordinary people give higher priority to maintaining their living standards than saving the planet. Since thousands are likely to freeze to death this winter due to not being able to afford to heat their homes, it would be inhuman to ignore their plight. We are rightly cynical about politicians who sometimes talk green but help polluting companies or use "climate change" as an excuse for building more nuclear power stations – with by-products needed for nuclear weapons, and those politicians supposedly worried about terrorism. [Would they allow a terrorist attack on a nuclear power station, to excuse such a severe clampdown on civil liberties that a socialist revolution would become impossible?]
Capitalist politicians use talk of climate change as an excuse for divide-and-rule, with some ordinary people more concerned about the problem than others. Some fly across Britain while others use trains or coaches; politicians serious about climate change would tax flights to subsidise public transport.
With Scotland having just had the coldest Easter for 46 years (and China the coldest winter for 50), cynicism about global warming is understandable. Even if it isn't mainly caused by mankind, investment in renewable sources of energy would still be preferable – due to the pollution of carbon fuels (highlighted by the smog in Beijing before the Olympics) and the fact that such resources are running out (shortage of supplies have caused recent price hikes). Also, it's better to be on the safe side than risk disastrous global warming.
Tidal and wind power are probably most suitable for the British climate, but solar power is ideal in African deserts. An EU committee recommended concentrating solar power (CSP) plants in Africa, that focus sunlight onto a tower to drive a turbine, to provide Europe 's power. The dangers of unstable African regimes or terrorist attacks on power lines may make it unfeasible in the current unethical capitalist world – but we should use that as a reason for socialist revolution, rather than merely suggesting minor reforms that do little to solve the world's energy problems or help the struggle for a better world.
For the single transferable vote (STV) form of proportional representation
Marxists argue for hierarchies of committees based on workplaces (that were called "soviets" in the USSR ) backed up by a "workers' militia" to enforce the rule of just the working class – "the dictatorship of the proletariat".
Hierarchies enable those with bad intentions (including infiltrators from the secret services) to reach and stay in positions of power, because only those on the same committees know who such people are and what they are up to.
STV, where voters specify preferences for different candidates, is the fairest form of PR, since it eliminates the need for tactical voting.
8:17 PM
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Saturday, September 06, 2008
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Prime mortgage crisis and the end of capitalism
Current mood:  animated
Category: News and Politics
I sent the following message far and wide on Thursday evening (which may have had some influence on the 2.3% FTSE stock market fall in the UK yesterday, making the week's fall 7% which was the worst, from investors' point of view, since 2002):
I've been catching up on my post after a visit to the Earth First! Gathering in Norfolk, where I interacted mainly with (non-violent) anarchists, plus a solitary Marxist from the tiny group Permanent Revolution. I had previously said that I would not submit any further letters to the Weekly Worker after they refused to print a long submission from me in full - but I've generally found it absorbing reading and cannot resist contributing to debates taking place in that newspaper; consider this message a submission to it (and I'll trust its editors to decide how much they want to publish). The fall in web readership from 45,000 at the height of its popularity last summer to 15,000 now is clearly a sign of the weakness of Marxism, which is (in my opinion) partly of their own making with strong attacks on other Marxist organisations - particularly the Socialist Workers Party, although they have concentrated recently on the Alliance for Workers' Liberty after its leader Sean Matgamna has (to some extent) come out in support of an Israeli nuclear attack on Iran. I have (perhaps more consciously) contributed to the demise of Marxism, arguing instead for a form of socialism with a government elected by proportional representation.
I find anarchists better allies than reformists, and thus think the initiative by the French LCR of a revolutionary anti-capitalist party (to be launched in January 2009) a positive development in the wake of the problems experienced by the various broad socialist organisations (and some so broad they also welcome non-socialists), such as the Scottish Socialist Party, Solidarity, Respect Renewal, the Left Alternative (the new SWP front organisation after the split in Respect) and the Campaign for a New Workers' Party.
However, for a far left formation to take off, it needs to be seen by the electorate as credible, which probably requires splits in mainstream parties (specifically Labour in Britain, with the Convention of the Left during the upcoming Labour Party conference being an ideal opportunity to prepare for such a split, or the Scottish National Party in an independent capitalist Scotland which is highly likely if the Tories win the next general election) as well as a severe enough economic crisis.
Economists and other commentators differ in their predictions of the severity of the credit crunch and how long it will last. However, they all seem to disregard a vital factor - banks are in massive difficulty due to "prime" mortgages in | | |
