It’s a news story that you might’ve missed, but on Friday, someone bought all the cocoa. All of it.

At least in Europe anyway: a chocotastic total of 241,000 tonnes of cocoa beans, something which sent er, ripples of chock through the galaxy, in a move that some are already dubbing the ‘credit crunchie’, honest.

There’s something very shady about all of this: someone, in the space of one day, was able to buy up the whole supply of a commodity in an entire continent. Stock-trading like this is nothing unusual in itself: it’s part and parcel of the capitalist economic system, where stock-traders and investors try to make as much money as possible by doing precisely fuck all. It’s pretty clear what the intentions of the mystery trader who bought all up the cocoa is though: to force the price high, monopolise the market, and then, yes, make lots of money. This is what we call “free trade”.

It’s already had the effect of pushing cocoa to its highest price since 1977 – which won’t take long to translate into, brace yourselves… higher chocolate prices for everyone. While a few pence extra on the price of a bar of chocolate is maybe nothing to get your snickers in a twist about, it’s scary the way the price of anything can be manipulated by nothing more than the insider machinations of a few investment bankers and stock traders who’ve never set eyes on a cocoa bean in their life. This is what we call “capitalism”.

What is unusual about this case though is that the buyers have take physical delivery of the cocoa beans – meaning that they’re now sitting in warehouses under the control of the buyers, which again can be used to force the price up by creating an artificial shortage of cocoa!

The only beneficiaries of this are, of course, the parasitical stock traders who now own the stuff. The farmers who actually grow the cocoa – largely in Uganda and the Ivory Coast, are unlikely to see any ‘trickle down’ effect, as they’ve already sold the crop at fixed prices. Prices fixed by middle-men, chocolate companies and these very same investors, you understand. It’s the curly wurly (milky) way of a (cadbury cream egg) twisted economic system.

Greek food is tasty, but under workers' control it's DELICIOUS

As Greece continues to face revolt from the working class at the IMF/EU takeover of their country, in the northern city of Thessaloniki, restaurant workers have decided to take things a step further at their work.

The workers at the Barthelonika restaurant were told at the start of last month by the owner that he had decided, due to the poor economic situation, to close the place down over the summer, leaving them without any income, and that he would decide if they were to have a future working for them in September.

The workers responded that the restaurant was making a profit and there was no reason for the closure. The only reason the owner wanted to close the place was that it wasn’t making ENOUGH money – for him.

So, instead, the workers took the place over. Realising that the boss was in fact, like all bosses, just creaming a profit off the top of their labour, they decided they could run the place better themselves. Now the restaurant is working as normal, but with no bosses, no hierarchical relationships and all decisions being made collectively and democratically by the whole workforce. So far it’s been working out great. They’ve even been able to make sure they still get a holiday in August, and this Sunday instead of working in the restaurant they’ll be putting their skills to work feeding participants in an anti-racist festival.

Below is a translation of a text issued by the workers themselves explaining their actions. It’s unlikely that many SSY members will be in Thessaloniki any time soon, but if you are, you know where to get your tea!

“AGAINST THE CLOSURE OF THE RESTAURANT BARTHELONIKA

LET’S SUPPORT THE SELF-MANAGEMENT OF THE RESTAURANT BY ITS WORKERS

Since Monday the 7th of June we, the workers at the restaurant Barthelonika, have run the restaurant ourselves and for this reason, ask for the help and the support of all the workers of Thessaloniki.

Two weeks ago the owners of the restaurant announced to us that the establishment was not going well and that it would close down for the three summer months – and further, that it was uncertain whether it would reopen in September and how many of us would work – and under what working conditions. They also announced to us that all the workers at the restaurant would be fired immediately while firing compensations would only start to be paid out in October… that is, of course, if they had any money to pay the compensations out.

As workers in the food industry we know well that a firing in today’s circumstances of deep economic crisis and tough anti-workerist attacks would mean our throwing out in the cold. For this reason we decided as workers at the restaurant not to bow our heads and to take matters in our own hands. We demanded and achieved from the management of the restaurant to pay some expenses for the establishment and our own insurance – and we now have taken on the management of the restaurant for the following two months (June and July) while in August we have achieved to have our holiday as normal.

As workers at the Barthelonika restaurant we are determined not to allow the restaurant where we work to close but also, not to allow any restaurant to close and no co-worker to be fired. For this reason we stand in solidarity with the just struggle of our co-workers at the Banquet restaurant.

The restaurant Barthelonika will be under our control, through our general assembly. Decisions concerning its running will be taken by majority and will be respected by all us co-workers. Whatever remains from profit after expenses will be distributed equally among all co-workers. All of us co-workers will work the same hours, at the same positions where we were before.

We have also decided to offer a 30% reduction to all customers of the restaurant.

We call for all workers, the youth and the people of Thessaloniki to actively support our effort to run the restaurant, in order to save our jobs and not to be thrown out to unemployment and misery.

The restaurant Barthelonika is in the centre of our city, at 3 Venizelou Str in the Rogoti Arcade, 1st floor, tel. 2310 225 242

Opening hours: 11 am to 1 am. Closed on Sundays.

THE WORKERS OF THE RESTAURANT BARTHELONIKA”

SMASH THE PLATES OF CAPITALISM!!!

Two scientists have now resigned from a group charged by the Food Standards Agency with having a “public dialogue” about genetically modified foods.

Last week Dr Helen Wallace, who is part of the think tank Gene Watch UK, resigned from the steering group for the project, and Professor Brian Wynne, who was the group’s Vice Chair, resigned yesterday.

Professor Wynne is an expert on public engagement with science, and said the dialogue programme, which was set up by the previous government, was in fact little more than propaganda for the companies responsible for developing GM food. He added that the Food Standards Agency, which is supposed to act as an independent watchdog that protects the public, had a “dogmatically entrenched” position in favour of GM.

Dr Wallace has similar concerns, arguing:

“It has now become clear to me that the process that the FSA has in mind is nothing more than a PR exercise on behalf of the GM industry. In my view, this would be a significant waste of £500,000 of taxpayers’ money. A process that was barely credible has become a farce.

“Taxpayers’ money should not be wasted on a PR exercise for the GM industry.”

Campaign groups have argued that the whole exercise, which is going to be outsourced to another organisation, will in fact just be used to gather information to allow better marketing and political propaganda efforts as part of an effort to make the public accept GM food.

The last government set up the project to explore the public’s views on the possible wider use of the technology. In the late 1990s GM foods were introduced throughout Britain, including in Scotland, with virtually no public consultation. This led to many massive campaigns, of which the SSP played a key part in several. Now, although GM crops are still grown in the UK, many supermarkets promise not to stock them because of the pressure.

GM protester pulls out crops

Socialists have argued for years that the drive to introduce the technology was coming from massive private companies with an interest in making more money from food, and agricultural products like pesticides and fertilisers. Chemical companies like Monsanto have worked hard to genetically alter organisms so that they will be able to cope with poisons intended for pests being sprayed on them. However, there are concerns that once new genes are introduced into the natural environment they have been shown to spread to other organisms and crops, with unforseen consequences for environmental and human health.

But perhaps most worryingly, these new technologies are not being developed by innocent scientists just interested in advancing knowledge. They are being designed and developed by for-profit corporations, whose sole interest is in making more money. So once a company has altered the genes of an organism, it can claim that this living thing is now their work, and patent it. This means that whenever someone uses that crop or animal in farming, they will have to pay the company for the privilege. In fact, many farmers have been forced to pay who weren’t growing genetically modified crops, after company scientists discovered that what was predicted had happened: their genetic modifications had cross pollinated, and you could find altered genes in non GM crops. Instead of seeing this as a concern, companies like Monsanto see it as a way to make more money, by making these unfortunate farmers pay.

The ultimate consequence of this would be the privatisation of our food supply, so that a few huge corporations would be able to control the seeds and technology necessary for the world to feed itself, and we would have to pay them ransom to survive. One of the most terrifying examples of the way these companies think was the attempt to develop “Terminator” seeds (their name!), which would produce crops that would not themselves go on to produce any seeds. If the companies were ever able to get this product widely used, then farmers would be unable to collect seeds from the previous years’ crops for replanting, meaning they would be completely dependent on seeds bought from the company that owned the patent on Terminator crops.

The resignation of these two scientists follows on from the complete discrediting of the previous government’s relationship with science, after it reclassified cannabis as a Class B drug despite the advice of its own scientists not to, and then rushed through a ban on mephedrone with no concern for real scientific evidence. It remains to be seen whether the ConDems will have a better relationship with the scientific community, but given their support for the mephedrone ban we won’t hold our breath. The Food Standards Agency says it will ask the new government before going ahead with the GM food consultation.

Eating this can not be a good idea

The fact of the matter is, the idea that we need GM crops to end world hunger is a myth peddled by people looking to make money for themselves. The world is more than capable of producing enough food to feed the human race through sustainable, ecological and organic agriculture. The problem isn’t the food we produce so much as the way its distributed. When so much of the land on Earth is dedicated to producing crops and meat for the rich countries, it’s hardly surprising those who live elsewhere go hungry.

Bonus: Check out this article, ‘Can Ecological Agriculture Feed Nine Billion People?‘ (If you can’t be arsed reading the whole thing, the answer’s yes.)

The far right BNP are hated by socialists, anti-fascists and anyone that isn’t white, straight and mental.

But today it emerged they’ve made a powerful new enemy. The makers of Marmite have announced they are to sue the BNP, after they used the images of the spread in their party election broadcast.

As you can see below, the inclusion of Marmite in the broadcast is pretty bizarre and inexplicable. I can only guess the floating image of a Marmite jar was inserted on to the screen to evoke a sense of “Britishness.” It’s in a shot which also features Nick Griffin sitting at a desk in front of a picture of Winston Churchill (leading the to the astonishing outcome of Churchill not being the ugliest person on screen) and a display case of medals that Nick Griffin has never been awarded.

The broadcast hasn’t been on telly yet, and Marmite makers are trying to get an injunction to have their product removed before it is. It was previously up on the BNP site, but has been taken down. Marmite say they support no political party, and didn’t give permission to use its image.

A spokesman for Sandwich Fillings Against Fascism said: “We’re delighted that Marmite has taken this stand to stop the BNP spreading hate. We think their attempt to focus on bread and butter issues will not distract from their message of racism. We believe their chances in this election are toast. You’d have to be crackers to vote for the BNP.”

“Like Marmite on a slice of Mother’s Pride, we call on black and white to unite and fight.”

“While we applaud the stance taken by Marmite, we demand to know the position of other spreads on the rise of the far right. Are Nutella, Philadelphia and Vitalite  with them in their stand for a non racist democracy, or will they allow the fascist BNP to sandwich their spreads into their message of hate?”

Below you can see the offending broadcast. I’m sorry for embedding a fascist video here, but this actually has to be seen to be believed. Actually, seriously, why is there a picture of Marmite there? It makes no sense!