
The Socialist 30 June 2010
Only one choice... Fight Back!
Only one choice... Fight back!
Western strategy on Afghanistan in tatters
From stimulus to austerity at dizzying speed
Academies: Fight the Tories' offensive on state education
Opposing the slash and burn budget
Unison general secretary election: Prentis vote falls despite Con-Dem attacks
Tube workers ballot for action
Thousands of jobcentre workers threatened with dole
United for Education day of action 21 June
Students say no to rip-off graduation ceremony
National Shop Stewards Network conference: An urgent call for united working class action
France, Italy: Workers struggle against savage austerity cuts
Australia: Gillard replaces Rudd but Labour's right wing policies remain
Trotsky admirer copies his idol
Challenging the global warming sceptics
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Fast news
Oil plans
WITH BP's oil spill disaster continuing to pollute the Gulf of Mexico, executives of the big five oil companies - BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell - recently appeared in front of a US Congressional hearing to defend their oil spill response plans.
BP's plan for the Gulf, dated June 2009, looks to have been cut and pasted from a plan to deal with oil spills in the Arctic.
The plan lists, for example:
- Cold water mammals including walruses, sea otters, sea lions and seals as "sensitive biological resources". None of these animals live anywhere near the Gulf. The last time walruses used the Gulf of Mexico as home was three million years ago! This ludicrous reference was shared by three other oil companies' plans.
- The plan also listed a professor, who died in 2005, as a national wildlife expert. The professor's phone number also appeared in two other companies' response plans!
- The website listed for Marine Spill Response Corp. - one of two firms that BP relies on for equipment to clean a spill - links to a defunct Japanese-language page.
The report was rubber-stamped by the US government's compromised and much criticised regulatory body - the Minerals Management Service (see The Socialist, issue 627).
Profits not safety
The big five oil companies amassed nearly $289 billion in profits over the last three years. They spent $39 billion to explore for new oil and gas. Yet the average investment in research and development for safety, accident prevention, and spill response was a paltry $20 million a year, less than 0.1% of their profits.
According to Ed Markey, the Democrat senator for Massachusetts, oil companies are drilling for free in the Gulf of Mexico on leases that equate to more than $50 billion in lost government royalties.
Abortion rights
THE ARGUMENTS for further reducing the time limit on abortions were discredited by a report published last week. It conclusively showed that connections in the brain are not fully formed until 24 weeks' gestation, meaning that no pain can be felt before then. The study also found that even after this stage the foetus is kept in an unconscious state in the womb.
A separate report on abortion concluded that it would be impossible to compile a list of conditions which count as 'serious handicap' because the long term effects on the child and family cannot be predicted. This report was commissioned in response to the claim that women regularly abort foetuses with only minor conditions.
Reports like these show that the scientific evidence clearly supports those who fight for the universal right to free and safe abortion on demand.
Sarah Wrack
In this issue
Only one choice... Fight back!
War and occupation
Western strategy on Afghanistan in tatters
Socialist Party editorial
From stimulus to austerity at dizzying speed
No Job Cuts
Academies: Fight the Tories' offensive on state education
Opposing the slash and burn budget
Socialist Party workplace news
Unison general secretary election: Prentis vote falls despite Con-Dem attacks
Tube workers ballot for action
Thousands of jobcentre workers threatened with dole
Socialist Party youth and students
United for Education day of action 21 June
Students say no to rip-off graduation ceremony
National Shop Stewards Network
National Shop Stewards Network conference: An urgent call for united working class action
International socialist news and analysis
France, Italy: Workers struggle against savage austerity cuts
Australia: Gillard replaces Rudd but Labour's right wing policies remain
Socialist Party review
Trotsky admirer copies his idol
Global Warming
Challenging the global warming sceptics
Home | The Socialist 30 June 2010 | Join the Socialist Party
Related links:
Libya: Civil war and chaos follow interventions by world and regional powers
Shell pays £0 corporation tax, and plans huge hike in fossil output
Drone attacks on Saudi Arabia: Tensions ratcheted up
Oil firms spend $1bn fighting climate laws: 'Green New Deal' needs socialist policies
Ten years since Lindsey strike: when militant action stopped the 'race to the bottom'
Poland: Mass protests against abortion ban
Cardiff East Socialist Party: Abortion rights
Mass union mobilisation needed to counter anti-choice group
Waltham Forest: mobilisation needed to defend abortion rights
Build student unions and walkouts to fight climate change and Trump!