UK: Super-Casinos; USA – Stitched-up For Another 4 Years
(November 2004)
(Comments: Tony.Papard@btinternet.com)
UK Gambling Bill:
Personally I don’t see what all the fuss is about concerning this admirable Bill to take fruit-machines and similar gambling devices out of fish and chip shops, etc. where they are a temptation to children, and put them where they belong in licensed casinos.
There seems to be some moral objection to the super-casinos which will be allowed on a limited scale. I don’t understand why. Do we really want Nanny State Britain telling us what we can and can’t do with our money? If people want to gamble, it’s up to them. Most of us enjoy a ‘flutter’ at sometime or other.
Las Vegas style casinos could re-vitalize run-down resorts such as Blackpool, and there is also a place for them in our bigger cities. I don’t think the State should interfere with people’s right to do what they like in their spare time with their own money, so long as they are not hurting anybody else. Needless to say only adults will be allowed into these casinos.
Of course, as a good Socialist, I’d prefer the casinos were run as either coooperatives, so that all the profits were paid back to customers as winnings, as State-owned enterprises so the profits could go towards reducing taxation, or that the profits, like the National Lottery, were used to fund charitable projects and other good causes, but I have no objection to casinos per se.
What I do have a very strong moral and political objection to is gambling with other people’s money, without their permission. This happens on the Stock Exchange and the commodity markets of capitalism every day. In the case of Pension Funds, for instance, people’s contributions are gambled.
In my own case I was told I should be in my employer’s Pension Fund at Amnesty International. I chose the Ethical Fund as the lesser of three evils. There were three ‘choices’, all of which were ‘Hobson’s Choice’ as I didn’t want my pension money gambled anywhere – I wanted it put in a safe place where it wouldn’t lose its real value, but where it wouldn’t earn any interest over and above the rate of inflation. This choice was not on offer – I was FORCED to let the Pension Companies gamble my money on the Stock Exchange.
In the event, over a two year period, I lost tens of thousands of pounds over this sordid practice, which should be made illegal. The so-called ‘Ethical Fund’ not only lost all my pension contributions for a whole year and more, but also all my employer’s contributions, and several thousand more pounds on top. They then had the nerve to come along to a Pension meeting and tell us ‘in the Ethical Fund we don’t invest in oil companies, or anything to do with gambling.’ ‘Excuse me!’ I said when questions were invited: ‘ How come you don’t believe in gambling, yet you gambled away my pension contributions on the Stock Exchange?’ They didn’t have an answer, except to say sheepishly if I felt like that I had no option but to come out of ALL pension schemes, since they all gambled on the Stock Exchange.
But even if the stakes are one’s own money, as with many individual shareholders, they are STILL gambling with other people’s money on the Stock Exchanges and commodity markets. They are gambling with the wages stolen out of the workers’ wage packets. There can morally be no profits or dividends for individual shareholders who make no contribution of their labor power to the goods and services represented in these sordid transactions. Karl Marx showed how all ‘surplus value’, in fact all ‘value’, was produced by the labor of the workers alone, it therefore belongs to the workers who produced those goods and services. Those who receive interest above the rate of inflation, profits or dividends from their financial investments are stealing from the wage packets of the exploited workers in the developing world and the former Socialist countries, where trade unions have not been able to insure they get a decent living wage. All unearned profit from investments is theft/exploitation, and under Socialism it would be outlawed, punishable by imprisonment.
By comparison, casinos where you gamble your own hard-earned cash for the chance of winning a small fortune are just a bit of harmless fun. It is true that many of the people gambling may have acquired their gambling stakes immorally, thru investments in the Stock Exchange or thru common criminal activities, but the same would apply if they went shopping with this money in Sainsbury’s supermarket.
The only restriction I would put on casinos, and other forms of gambling, is that the winnings should be limited so they were never enough for a person to live on for the rest of their life without working (unless they were within 10 years of retirment age). It is not desirable for any able-bodied person not to make a contribution of their labor power to society. Of course, even winning a million pounds on a TV quiz show would not enable you to live a life of sloth and luxury if earning interest on capital over and above inflation were made illegal, as I propose. You would certainly not be able to live on the interest alone as frequently happens now. What this practice means, in effect, is that capitalist society says: ‘OK, you’re now rich, so we give you permission to steal from the wage packets of the poorest people in the world for the rest of your life, so you don’t have to touch your winnings’. The opposite of the ‘Robin Hood syndrome’ – global capitalism steals from the world’s hard-working poor to give to the lazy rich. Disgraceful, immoral and in my view criminal behavior which would be outlawed under Socialism!
U.S. Presidential Election: Stitched Up For Four More Years:
I’m told the ‘W’ in George W. Bush stands for ‘Walker’. I would type that with an ‘n’, George Wanker Bush. This half-wit from Texas has, with the help of grinning ape Tony Blair, managed to murder some 100,000 Iraqi civilians and is still doing so, not to mention those in Afghanistan and troops on both sides.
The only thing that can be said in favor of his re-election is that, compared to the 2000 result where the ballot in Florida was clearly rigged for Bush by his relation Jeb, and where George W. lost the popular vote by over half-a-million, the 2004 Election was ‘fair’. However Bush should never have been allowed to even stand, nor should any of his cronies, nor Blair or his cronies in the next British General Election. All these people are war criminals and should be locked up in prison for many years, not allowed to contest elections.
However, like it or not, USA and the world are now saddled with Bush for another four years. Of course he is not in charge; this half-wit President elected by ignorant, prejudiced people like himself across hick-land America, is not intelligent enough to run a country. He is merely a puppet of people like Cheney, Wolfowitz and Perle, who themselves represent big business corporations.
Many of the people who voted for Bush are so-called born-again Christians with little or no knowledge of international politics. Many have never ventured beyond their own State line, let alone abroad. The majority, I am convinced, think Saddam Hussein attacked the World Trade Center. Most probably don’t even realize that Osama Bin Laden is another person, nothing to do with Iraq or Saddam Hussein, but hailing from their ally, the Saudi Arabian regime, which is as autocratic and oblivious of human rights as Saddam’s Hussein was.
Of course these arguments are far too sophisticated for Bush and most of those who voted for him: they have very little knowledge of countries beyond the borders of the USA. Many probably think Iraq and Afghanistan are the same place, like one hick from the Deep South who asked: ‘What part of England is Germany in?’ This type of ignorant American not only can’t distinguish between England, Britain and the United Kingdom, but also gets confused between Europe and England – after all they both begin with a capital ‘E’ and are somewhere abroad.
That the world, and sophisticated multi-cultural Americans in the big cities around the coasts and the Great Lakes, should be tied to another four years of Bush’s wars, to disregard for global warming, the UN and international treaties, is intolerable. At home he’ll try to ban abortion - some of his supporters even want it subject to capital punishment! He’ll continue to give the rich tax concessions, pollute the atmosphere and squash gay rights. He’ll also insure the US Supreme Court has a right-wing panel of judges for a generation.
We can’t interfere in internal USA elections (though USA has no such qualms about trying to insure anyone it doesn’t like is deposed abroad, even if elected democratically as in Allende’s Chile). The world can, however, make it very difficult for the US Bush regime by not cooperating with it. Blair and his cronies are the worst examples of this. Like the current Iraqi regime, they are little more than puppets of the US regime. Substitute Erich Honecker for Tony Blair, and Leonid Brezhnev for George W. Bush, and you get the picture. At least Blair was elected by the British people (God help us!). The current Iraqi leader has no more legitimacy than Gustav Husak, the Soviet-installed Czechoslovak leader after the invasion of 1968.
We now have a strong EU whose population greatly outnumbers that of the USA. China also has a huge population to dwarf that of America. We should all join together to isolate the USA’s adventurous and anti-social policies. We can’t force the USA to sign the Kyoto treaty, or to acknowledge the authority of the International Criminal Court, but we can make it very difficult for them. We certainly shouldn’t support any more of their criminal, genocidal invasions. If human rights are being abused anywhere in the world, it is thru the United Nations that appropriate action should be taken.
USA and UK are not the world’s self-appointed policemen – they should look to preserving their own human rights before lecturing others. For a start, release all the uncharged, untried political prisoners in Guatanamo Bay, Belmarsh and other concentration camps they control. All these people are innocent until proven guilty by a fair trial in a constitutional court of law. I would even extend that privilege to George W. Bush and Tony Blair, though the evidence of their crimes is plain for everyone to see. Just look at the mangled bodies of men, women and children piling up daily in Iraq!
Four more years of George W. Bush, but he is not really the main problem. He is merely a puppet of even more reactionary forces. If he weren't President, in the present political climate an even more distasteful Republican leader would take his place. Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz, etc. are pulling the strings at the moment, but they are always waiting in the wings to take over if necessary. 'A heartbeat away' from the top job, so to speak.
Some Americans have half-jokingly asked if they can apply for political asylum abroad, as they don’t want to suffer another four years of Bush’s America. We can only sympathize with them, but we ALL have to suffer because of what the ignorant majority of the American electorate have inflicted on their fellow-citizens and the world. It is probable that ignorant Brits, following the advice of gutter-tabloids like The Sun, will also re-elect Butcher Blair and his gang in the next General Election, since there is no credible Opposition.
The trouble with USA is its sole super-power status since the demise of the Soviet Union. It needs taking down a peg or two, and a united EU standing in opposition to Bush’s policies in tandem with China, Canada, Australia, India, Latin America and other states could make things very uncomfortable indeed for the arrogant and ignorant Bush regime.