June 2009 archive

For Are Fearless Leaders

TOUGH TIMES  

The average annual income in Japan slid ¥106,000 in 2007 from a year earlier, to ¥5.562 million, according to a survey by the labor ministry. An increasing number of workers taking retirement was supposedly the main culprit.

A poll conducted by Nippon Keidanren revealed that summer bonuses at Japan’s top companies will be down about 20 percent this year, to an average of ¥754,000-the biggest drop ever recorded.

A Nomura Securities survey revealed that 78 percent of investors would vote against executive pay bonuses at annual shareholders’ meetings this year.

The National Police Agency reported that the number of purse snatching cases declined from 52,919 in 2002 to 19,145 last year. However, there has been a 13.9 percent increase in such crimes in the first quarter of 2009, probably because of the recession.

Disgraced Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie and his cohorts have been ordered to repay ¥7.62 billion in damages to shareholders who lost money on manipulated share prices. “Just hang on a minute while I hit an ATM…”

Original article, an open letter, via socialistworker.org.uk:

Here’s the letter, and some thoughts after:

Gordon Brown’s government is in meltdown after the MPs’ expenses scandal and the disastrous Labour vote in last week’s elections.

Labour trailed in behind the Tories and UKIP, with just 15 percent of the overall vote.

This is a shocking result for a party in power, but one that is wholly understandable. Labour’s vote has haemorrhaged during its time in office.

The party has abandoned ordinary people and gone on the offensive against them.

It has handed over billions to the rich and the bankers, yet we are expected to put up with cuts in pensions, services, pay and jobs.

All of this has opened the door to the right.

The Tories, the fascist British National Party and UKIP didn’t do well in last week’s elections because millions of people suddenly decided to vote for them.

They made gains because Labour’s vote collapsed.

We have to come together to fight the Nazis, and to stop the government and the bosses making us pay for the crisis.

But we need something more too.

None of the mainstream parties reflect the views of millions of people in Britain. Most people want to see higher spending on health and education, an end to privatisation, a better deal for pensioners and an end to war.

But who speaks for them in parliament?

There is a desperate need for an alternative. The absence of a credible left group to vote for means that people remain without a choice when it comes to elections.

Many people wonder why the left can’t unite together to provide a stronger, more credible alternative to the pro-war and neoliberal policies of the major parties.

There is real potential for a united left group to make a real impact-not just by winning votes but also in helping to pull people together to build resistance on the ground.

We need to fight to make that potential a reality.

Note:  © Socialist Worker (unless otherwise stated). You may republish if you include an active link to the original.

 

Bradley Graham has a lengthy article, nearly 8,000 words, on the “Decline and Fall” of Donald Rumsfeld in Friday’s Washington Post. The article is adapted from his forthcoming book, By His Own Rules: The Ambitions, Successes, and Ultimate Failures of Donald Rumsfeld.

A few anecdotes leap out that I found telling. Such as, Rumsfeld was afraid of Condoleezza Rice and sent people in his stead to inform her of decisions he made that he knew she would not like rather than in person to avoid her ire.