Month: August 2010

26 posts
Read More

Is “human nature” a barrier to socialism?

The world is a mess. War, poverty, and oppression are now part of the daily lives of billions round the globe. Even during the last boom 80% of the world’s population - 5.4 billion people - lived on less than $10 a day. Now that the world is in the midst of this crisis even the head of the World Bank has said it will result in “a human and developmental calamity… the number of chronically hungry people is expected to climb over 1 billion this year”. The wars in the middle east, enviromental destruction and worsening economic turmoil are only the most recent striking examples of the crises facing humanity.

Read More

NAMA, billions for the rich – Zero for disabled, sick and struggling homeowners!

The contrast between how the government treats the wealthy developers and bankers who are in trouble and ordinary people never fails to shock. While thousands were forced out onto the streets to protest against cuts in the health budget which have resulted in the closure of essential respite services for the families of those with intellectual or physical disabilities, the government continues its kid glove treatment of those who helped cause the economic crisis.

Read More

“Why I joined the Socialist Party”

After my mother, Susie Long, died in 2007 after waiting seven months for a potentially lifesaving diagnostic procedure which private patients were receiving within days at the same hospital I naturally became concerned about the link between income inequality and inequality in health in our society.

Read More

Love Parade catastrophe was preventable

Did the organizers stop at nothing for profits?

20 people died in the horrific stampede at the July 24 Love Parade festival in the German city of Duisburg, 500 were injured and, for a time, over 1 000 people were officially listed as missing. The revellers panicked at a tunnel entrance. But, already in the build up to the parade many thought there was a risk of mass panic developing.