Thought for the 'Silly Season' .sx DON'T TRUST THE 'EXPERTS' .sx One feels that in the affluent capitalist world of the G7 the only growing industry is that of experts .sx As fewer and fewer people dirty their hands producing the food we eat more and more experts and consultants ( employed by the ICIs and Fisons , the machine manufacturers and the landowners' agents ) descend on the remaining farmers 'advising'/'instructing' them what to grow and how , to the very last detail .sx And of course the advice/orders are influenced by vested interests of those giving the advice or their masters .sx This approach applies to all sections of industry and now even with the public services .sx Let's face up to it , with some honourable exceptions , all this growing industry of expertise is a racket !sx Unfortunately the media are the worst offenders and have succeeded in brainwashing the public with their own experts and 'authoritative' polls , into accepting that a monopoly of the 'true facts' are held by an elite who also know all the answers .sx In our so-called democracy we only have a capitalist national press just as in the USSR they only had a Community Party press .sx We call ours a free press and that of the USSR unfree .sx For socialists and anarchists they are both unfree .sx If we overlook our mass circulation tabloids ( which also have their 'experts' but on sex problems rather than economies ) the so-called serious broadsheets all have their economics correspondent/editor , their political commentators , their industrial editors and of course the arts have their pontificators .sx They are all presented to us , the serious reading public , as experts .sx And last , but not least , we have the experts par excellence , our politicians .sx They are modest experts in that they surround themselves with the permanent experts in the civil service , and a few freelance economists , journalists , business tycoons , speech writers , make-up experts , speech therapists , fashion experts ( after all , politicians' main public exposure nowadays is on television and your hair-do , dress , etc. , are essential PR attributes) .sx Remember Michael Foot's image in anorak and flowing white mane at the Cenotaph , of all places , lost him thousands of votes say the 'experts' .sx All brainwashing balderdash for which the media are responsible .sx Let us start with government ministers ( and the shadow opposition) .sx Nowadays most of them are either lawyers or economists which it might be argued is an excellent training for twisting the facts .sx We have had in the past three weeks perhaps the perfect example of the art in twisting the facts both from the politicians and the experts in the media .sx The official figures for the June balance of payments showed a swing by over pounds500 million compared with May to a slight surplus of pounds23 million - the first since February 1987 .sx The right wing Independent ( 23rd July ) whose economic correspondent we quote refers to :sx Reflecting factors like weak home demand and a long term improvement in exports of Japanese cars made in Britain , manufacturing recorded a pounds117 million surplus - the first since February 1984 .sx The figures also disclosed that for the second time this year Britain chalked up a small surplus in trade with the European Community .sx .sx And on another Business & City page of The Independent the same author , Hamish McRae , makes sure in his opening paragraph ( rather like the pollsters and the weather experts ) that one cannot be sure of one month's figures - it can be " a deeply misleading pointer to the underlying " .sx .sx But then the poor man sticks out his neck and declares :sx But even allowing for the background noise in the numbers , on the face of it the current account figures seem to signal that the balance of payments problem is over , while the retail sales figures signal that the recession is over .sx The first conclusion is probably right and the second conclusion is probably wrong .sx .sx All the other experts on the serious press reported this surplus in the balance of payments without question , though with some surprise The Financial Times thought it " remarkable and unexpected " .sx It was a " surprise " for The Daily Telegraph and " far better than expected " for The Times and The Guardian .sx But it was left to the editorial writer of The New Statesman & Society ( 26th July ) to drop a bomb on the complacent economic hacks ( experts ) on the dailies .sx To quote :sx What none of the quality financial commentators cottoned on to was the fact that the trade figures would still be in substantial deficit were it not for Britain's mercenaries' endeavours during the Gulf war .sx .sx In other words , the current quarter's 'invisible' earnings include pounds1,200 million in contributions from Germany , Japan and the Gulf States for Britain's mercenary forces' activities .sx And as The New Statesman & Society puts it :sx For June , that adds up to a hidden pounds400 million contribution to the trade balance - or the difference between pounds23 million surplus and a pounds377 million deficit .sx War has been good for the balance of payments .sx .sx But for The New Statesman & Society looking at the small print the expert economic hacks would have got away with it .sx The Guardian 's Victor Keegan in his 'Notebook' acknowledges The New Statesman & Society 's researchers ( not as generously as he should have ) but otherwise no correction has been made by the dailies or Sundays .sx So much for the integrity of these experts .sx Another characteristic of the experts is that they are all so well informed that they can leak the news .sx The Independent on Sunday ( 28th July ) now produced by the same staff as the daily ( for reasons of economy ) splashed over its business supplement :sx picture .sx Unfortunately for The Independent on Sunday the CBI's quarterly survey of industrial trends according to The Guardian the next day ( 29th July ) was all doom and gloom .sx Meanwhile The Sunday Telegraph ( 28th July ) in its City & Business supplement has as its main headline :sx " UK on the Up-Turn - Official " .sx But who takes seriously the utterances of the politicians - in particular government ministers ?sx A " great improvement " in the economy in the second half of the year was predicted by the Prime Minister ( The Guardian , 20th July) .sx A week or so later the Chancellor Norman Lamont claimed " dramatic progress " in cutting inflation but further dampened hopes of a sudden end to the economic recession ( The Guardian , 29th July) .sx Then we had more 'sensational' news .sx The car industry had exported a 'record' number in June ( 45% more than a year ago , said The Independent on Sunday , 28th July) .sx By Monday it was being pointed out that this was just an exceptional month , that the Germans were having trouble with their market and this was a one-off .sx And to add to the gloom was the forecast by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders that it was expected that another 30,000 jobs would go in the next twelve months bringing the total for the two year period ending next summer to 70,000 .sx What is especially alarming for the white-collar employees and professionals is that unemployment is now hitting them hardest :sx The human cost of recession in Britain's wealthiest region was revealed today as the Employment Department announced that 300,000 people in London and the South East have lost their jobs in the last 15 months .sx .. But nowhere has been harder hit than London and the commuter belt where unemployment had leapt by a record 88% since March 1990 .sx There are now 639,000 people out of work in the South-East - up more than 25,000 on the May figure .sx Of the 299,600 who have joined the dole queues since the figures started to rise , almost 137,000 were in London .sx ( The Evening Standard , 18th July ) .sx And unlike the unemployed manual worker who can always make a few pounds as a bricoleur ( see The Employment Question by Denis Pym , Freedom Press , pounds2 ) , what can unemployed bank or insurance company employees from managers downwards , or shop assistants hope to find to tide them over until their skills are again in demand ?sx As all white collar jobs are being mechanised and computerised ( even management is being taken over by computers ) unemployment in this sector , in our opinion , will continue to increase .sx Only last month IBM , the world's largest computer company , announced that it was shedding 17,000 jobs , presumably many of the jobs being taken over by more sophisticated computers ?sx In our modest opinion ( since we do not presume to be experts in capitalist economics - our only interest being to abolish the system ) the recession will not 'bottom out' in the near future for one simple reason :sx that the existing industrial productive capacity exceeds demand .sx Since 'demand' in a capitalist world depends on means , and most of the world's people haven't the means to buy all the 'goodies' that the consumerist society produces ( and that the third world is producing more and more of but not being able to afford ) the only salvation for capitalism is to make some gestures for re-distribution of wealth towards the have-nots .sx Up to now every government , Tory or Labour , has managed willy-nilly to ensure that the rich have got richer and the rest poorer .sx The present government in its twelve years has beaten all records for the number of homeless , unemployed and social security claimants , not to mention record 'crimes' against property - a sure indication of real poverty ( in spite of treating the forces of law and order most generously) .sx A future Labour government promises a minimum wage for the low paid and to make the rich pay an extra 10% on their ill-gotten gains as well as raising the limit on National Insurance .sx These are peanuts and they know it .sx The politicians - all of them - are out for votes and power at any price .sx The bosses - the CBI - are concerned with profits .sx Their gloomy quarterly forecast ends with the expected demand for at least a 1% reduction in interest rates .sx As Freedom has pointed out time and time again , all this will do is increase their profits .sx It will not influence investment in industry , nor in more jobs .sx To give an example :sx ICI have announced higher than anticipated profits , of pounds507 million .sx In the same breath they are proposing to axe another for to five thousand jobs in addition to the ten thousand already axed in the past twelve months .sx Needless to say the top executives get their salary increases above the inflation rate as well as bonuses even on trading results which might have been worse !sx .sx As anarchists we have no illusions that capitalism will stop seeing profit as its guiding star .sx Neither do we have illusions that starry-eyed socialists ( most of them with large incomes ) will somehow tame the beast , or that the rich will willingly give up their privileges and wealth for the common good .sx Alas , if we do want to change society we must be prepared for struggle and sacrifice .sx The underprivileged third world is setting the example without much help from us in the West .sx We seem to have lost the power to protest in depth .sx 100,000 people braved the rain in Hyde Park to hear ( over loudspeakers ) and see ( on video screens ) the tenor Pavarotti , yet with three million unemployed there has not yet been one mass demonstration against the iniquities of capitalism .sx When will we wake up ?sx BIG DEAL .sx The Government's Citizen's Charter ( costing pounds8 million and paid for by the taxpayer ) is a pathetic propaganda exercise for the Tories , and the critics could well ask how it is that it has taken twelve years to produce , just in time for the next elections !sx .sx It might be said that Major is not Thatcher .sx But the Charter is so typically a consumerist document and Mrs Thatcher epitomised the consumerist , confrontational society .sx Mr Major is also committed to the privatisation of all the public services .sx Various ministers have reiterated that railways , postal services and the mines will be privatised at the earliest possible moment , thereby clearly indicating that the Charter is a purely political document quite unconcerned with the practical consequences of such actions .sx Anarchists do not see nationalisation as a panacea or as the only alternative to privatisation .sx