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The Roman Catholic Church and other religious bigots are demanding a
‘conscience’ vote for MPs voting on the embryology bill to regulate stem
cell research. Socialists may wonder why it has taken Labour MPs eleven
years in office to grow a conscience. In reality the bigots want the
right to blackmail Parliament and foist their prejudices on the rest of
us. Kenny McGuigan deals with the ethical and scientific arguments for
and against embryology research.
We are now due another flu pandemic. This is nothing to do with some
evil 'Spooks' style conspiracy but a fact of life. Every 37 years or
so, the flu virus mutates or morphs into a new strain that humans
haven't suffered before. A dilemma for the State - they have spent the past decade whipping us into work, regardless of how ill we were.
The degradation of the environment has consistently grabbed the headlines in the past few years as the way in which the world is arranged threatens the very existence of life on this planet. Mick Brooks, editor of the Socialist Appeal, talks at the Socialist Appeal day school in December on capitalisms contibution to the environmental problems we face today and and what alternative a socialist society can offer.
The press have carried a number of stories over recent weeks about the
discovery of planets outside of our solar system. But what is the
reality behind these "new earths"? Are we about to "boldly go where no
one has gone before" or is it a bit more complicated than that?
During the 1980s
and 1990s, advances in chaos and complexity theory began to demonstrate a fact
understood more than a century and a half earlier by the founders of scientific
socialism, Marx and Engels, that systems which show an apparently high degree
of complexity or “design” do not require the hand of a creator but emerge naturally
from the apparently mundane interacting and contradictory forces at play inside
the system. It may come as a surprise to many then to find that in the field of
cosmology there are respected scientists groping towards the revival of the
mystical idea of intelligent design.
The environmental statistics have been pouring in, and the prognosis
for the planet looks dire: global warming is accelerating, leaving
environmental destruction in its wake. Already we are witnessing some
of its devastating consequences and there are trends
which, if allowed to proceed unchecked, will culminate in humans
huddled around the two poles in search of respite from the heat.
Britain, like all the other capitalist countries, is
dependent on burning fossil fuels as our basic energy source. It is obvious
that fossil fuels must run out one day. It is also well known that carbon
emissions from burning fossil fuels contribute to climate change. One
'solution' put forward to this is to grow your own biofuel.
The way
the computer industry functions today is a perfect illustration of all the
faults and massive inefficiencies of capitalism, where the primary goal is not
serving the interests of society. Developing, improving and distributing
software takes place only where big profits can be made. This stands in sharp
contrast to free software, where human knowledge and the produce of human
labour is used to the advantage all of society.
In
previous centuries, time worked for us, in present times and in modern times,
we work for time. Due to the pressures of the clock, stress levels, mental
illnesses and breakdowns are on the increase. The clock is more and more being
used to hound workers through their everyday lives.
In the course of human history new discoveries,
particularly in the fields of science and medicine, have challenged established
thought. This is now happening again with stem cell research. What could lead
to curing many diseases that up to now have been fatal is coming under a
barrage of criticism because of religious and reactionary prejudices.
A recent six week investigation by the Financial Times found widespread profiteering and fraud in carbon trading, the main mechanism for greenhouse gas reduction proposed by the Kyoto treaty. Many schemes will produce only limited reductions in greenhouse gases and will have little or no effect on global warming.
The Stern Report highlights the problem of global warming linked to the high emissions of carbon. Stern tries to find a solution within capitalism, without understanding that capitalism is actually the problem. The unplanned, chaotic nature of the system, where all is based on immediate profit means no real solution can be found within it. The answer lies in planning and that can only be achieved under socialism.
