The way news gets reported, you'd think that jobs cut themselves and that inflation fell from the sky, untouched by human hands...

    On Monday we heard that "unemployment" had increased to 5.2% and that for 16-24 year-olds it had gone up to 16.1% in December. This is the highest number of jobless youth in more than a decade - and higher than the EU average.

    In fact this statistic is really a measure of the lack of jobs. But, according to what's said on radio and TV, this rise in joblessness isn't the bosses' fault, i.e., those who're entirely responsible for creating the jobs..!

    Nope. After blaming the unemployed themselves, the bosses blame taxes. They say they can't employ workers because the Employers' National Insurance rate is "too high" at 15%! Not that it's never been at this rate before. It was 15% under Boris Johnson in 2022!

    And second, these bosses claim the minimum wage is also too high. Yes, at £12.71/hr for 21 years plus from April, and just £8/hr for under 18s and apprentices! And "worse" they say, the government now plans to pay 18-21s the full "whack" - which, of course, is anything but a "whack": a max of £500/w.

    Wouldn't it make a change to hear these anti-social employers condemned for causing unemployment?! And for refusing to pay a small extra sum towards essential public services (NHS, roads, public transport, etc...) But the bosses' main targets - Starmer and Reeves - are the last ones to dare say a word against them!

    Of course, bosses have been getting away with forgoing their social duty and screwing all workers forever. Today they only rarely employ anyone on a permanent, full-time contract! Indeed, they can be congratulated for generalising precariousness so effectively!

    And then there's the constant refrain over the general "UK tax burden" which is at a "70-year high", at 37%. But it's measured as a proportion of GDP. And nobody points out that if GDP (reflecting economic growth) is at an all-time low, then the tax "burden" is proportionally higher! Which is precisely the case. What's more, this "horrific" burden is below the EU average and much lower than in many of Britain's European counterparts...

    Then we come to "inflation", another measure the bosses hide behind. Never mind that it rises simply because they raise their prices! And if it stops going up so fast, it's only because they've stopped increasing prices so fast. On the other hand, if it does go down, it's because they aren't increasing prices as fast as they did the previous month! And certainly not because they've actually lowered prices! Perish that thought!

    Maybe, instead of measuring inflation, the statisticians should announce the ever-rising rate of exploitation of the working class. Because that's what job cuts and 1 worker doing 2 workers' jobs, is all about - and don't we know it! We also know that all these measures just reflect the inbuilt faults of a capitalist system that needs to be overthrown, ASAP.

The new round of US-Iran negotiations in Geneva is already over. Military muscles were flexed. But despite the media fuss over naval drills by Iran's Revolutionary Guard, to prove they could close the Strait of Hormuz, the military strength is totally one-sided: the US sent the largest aircraft carrier in the world, USS General R Ford to the Arabian Sea, joining several destroyers and another aircraft carrier. No wonder Trump says a deal "will be struck"!

    Of course, this show of US military might has nothing to do with any concern over the protestors killed in January, nor the many arrests - including of doctors and others who helped the wounded. Over 7,000 deaths have already been verified by Human Rights activists.

    No, this build-up of force in the Gulf is ostensibly all about forcing the regime to abandon its uranium enrichment programme - and to destroy its armoury of ballistic missiles. The irony is that it was Trump who tore-up the EU/US/Iran 2015 Nuclear Treaty. Ever since then, tighter sanctions have been imposed on the country. It's obviously the lifting of these draconian sanctions which the Iranian regime desperately needs. But Trump is also now intercepting oil tankers bound for China, which buys 80% of Iran's oil.

    Today Iran's economy is barely functional. Inflation has reached over 50%. Food prices were already up by 70% in December. It was the cost of living and the sudden devaluation of the currency/cuts to subsidies which drove the massive December/January protests which threatened to topple the regime.

    For now, Trump says he prefers a negotiated agreement, rather than perpetrating another bombardment - although that's still the preferred option of his local henchman, Netanyahu. Anyway, the current regime has proven (once again) that it has the capacity to keep Iran's 93 million-strong population - and its huge and militant working class - under control.

    However, in the long term, neither Trump, nor Ayatollah Khamenei's repressive Islamic forces will be able to keep a lid on the mobilisation of Iranian youth and workers, men and women alike. Every successive protest has proved this: "A luta continua"!