Under the Radar with Rosa Luxemburg

According to Rosa Luxemburg, “Capitalism does not arise from savings and individual effort, but from constant plunder, from slavery and the exploitation of peoples; it is a system soaked in blood and covered in filth.” There is plenty of evidence for that in this week’s Under the Radar. But Gavin Bazunu reminds us that ordinary people can have an impact as he risks his career to boycott the Ireland Israel football match. We need more heroes like Gavin and Asquith Xavier who is finally getting the recognition he deserves for standing up to racism on the railways.

Asquith Xavier – Dominican railway worker and equality pioneer

“Asquith Xavier’s story is a powerful reminder that ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact.” English Heritage senior historian, Howard Spencer. 

Asquith Xavier was born in Dominica in 1920 and came to Britain in 1958 as one of the Windrush generation. He joined British Railways (later British Rail) and worked as a porter, eventually becoming a railway guard at Marylebone Station in London. When work at Marylebone was no longer available for guards, he applied to work at Euston. But these jobs were reserved for white employees. Xavier fought this ruling and contributed to the struggle against racism in the workplace and to the changes made to the 1968 Race Relations Act. 

In 2020, a plaque to honour him was unveiled at Chatham railway station. A train was named after him in 2023, and a celebratory mural depicting his life and legacy was unveiled near a previous home in Chatham, Kent. On 14 August this year, an English Heritage Blue Plaque was unveiled at the home he lived in in West London. His daughter and granddaughter attended the ceremony. 

How toxic is our oat milk?

A fortnight before harvest farmers spray porridge oats with weedkiller in order to kill the oat plants all at the same time, so that they die evenly. This means farmers can drive their combine harvesters through fields growing oats just once instead of the customary three times. 

In the 1980s Scottish farmers began killing standing cereals with glyphosate in order to dry them. Glyphosate has been declared a likely carcinogen by the World Health Organisation. It was banned in the EU, but not in the UK, in 2023.

The weedkiller does not spread evenly throughout the plants and is concentrated in the bran and dries the stalks which are made into our popular oat milk.

Our current licence runs out on 15 December 2026. There is a statutory public consultation this year. The Glyphosate Renewal Group is arguing for the renewal of authorisation in December. Many farmers, backed by the National Farmers Union (NFU), argue it is needed for food security, crop establishment and regenerative no-till farming systems, but there are environmental and health issues. Campaign groups such as the Soil Association and Pesticide Action Network UK are calling for bans or at least strict limits. 

Modern slavery in the coal mines of Baluchistan

One in four people lack access to electricity in Pakistan. The country is heavily dependent on fossil fuels and is vulnerable to global energy prices and impacted by wars. There is a long history of fossil fuel extraction in Pakistan. In February 2023, energy minister Khurram Dastgir Khan said that the country had to return to coal and increase the output because there were difficulties accessing natural gas. 

There are social, environmental and safety issues in the mining industry in Pakistan. In 2020 there were a number of articles highlighting the shameful practices of child slavery in Balochistan. The Guardian newspaper reported on child labour, bonded labour, deaths, explosions, modern slavery conditions and child sexual abuse. For decades working conditions have not improved. . 

In 2022 the Pakistan Central Mines Federation (PCLMF) revealed that the country’s coal sector employed 100,000 workers in 400 coal mines. Miners generally start work when they are 13 years old but become ill or injured and are  “forced into unemployment” by the age of 30. Between 100 and 200 miners die on average every year. In 2024 Pakistan made some effort to eradicate the worst forms of child exploitation and 805 traffickers were convicted. But there are still reports of child slaves between the ages of 8 and 13 working in the mines and of large numbers of refugees working to pay off their debts. However, the world’s press has gone silent and it is rare to read about the dangers, deaths and appalling working conditions in this part of the world. 

UAV Engines Shenstone powering Elbit’s drones and killing Palestinians

For more than a decade, protests, generally organised by South Staffs Palestinian Solidarity, have been held in the small village of Shenstone in Staffordshire at the doors of UAV Engines Ltd, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems. The engines are used in drones and in Israel they kill Palestinians. Arrests of protestors are not uncommon. In August Sarah Wilkinson reported “the biggest march in the tiny UK village of Shenstone to the hellbound gates of the Israeli arms factory Elbit”.

Protests continued this month and recent charges against protestors have a somewhat baffling ring to them.

On 8 September three people were “arrested on suspicion of watch or beset a place of work to compel the abstention of a lawful act” and on 22nd nine arrests were made. The ages of those arresed ranged from 24 years to 77 years old. The reasons for arrest included four on the charge of “lock on to person/object/land to cause serious disruption”. One man was arrested “on suspicion of wilful obstruction on a highway” and four were taken in for questioning on suspicion of both offences.

Police enquiries are continuing and we can be sure protests large and small against arms factories such as Elbit and in support of the Palestinians will be continuing all over the country. The next National March for Palestine in London is on 10 October. 

The cost of energy – consumers paying the price

At the end of August, the Heartlands Tribune posted some information on X which is not well known. “It’s a rigged system, and we’re paying the price.”

According to energy analyst, professor Nick Butler, we are producing more electricity from cheaper wind and solar power, but prices are tied to the prices of the wholesale gas market. This means that we do not benefit from these advances. The profits go to the private sector,  the owners of renewals. 

As for Sizewell C, the cost has leapt from £20billion to £38billion. Some sources maintain that the cost could more than double. The Financial Times reports that the cost could be tens of billions of pounds more, and “could hit £100billion”. The cost would be paid for by increasing our bills, at least for the foreseeable future. The Heartlands Tribune explains Sizewell C ownership:

* UK Government: 44.9% (largest shareholder)
* La Caisse (CDPQ): 20% (Canadian pension fund)
* Centrica: 15% (British energy firm)
* EDF: 12.5% (French state-owned energy company)
* Amber Infrastructure: 7.6% Parent Company: Part of Boyd Watterson Global Asset Management Group (US-based).

“This is not a market; it is corporate welfare disguised as green progress. Until politicians uncouple electricity prices from gas and stop forcing the public to underwrite private risk, energy policy will remain a legalised shakedown of the working class.”

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“Capitalism does not arise from savings and individual effort, but from constant plunder, from slavery and the exploitation of peoples; it is a system soaked in blood and covered in filth.” Rosa Luxemburg.