SPC Newsletter 1st Apr 2017

March 2024 Forums World Socialist Movement SPC Newsletter 1st Apr 2017

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #85383


    Greetings Everyone,

    We hope you are all well!

    Attached is our April Monthly Report for your interest and review.

    Our Spring/Summer Imagine is being compiled so please send in your draft (or topics for) articles (whatever shape they may be in!) to our GAC for inclusion. Don't be shy, or worried about copy: this is everyone's journal and voice of our entire membership and those of our sympathizers, and we have members who ready to assist with editing and developing the articles the way you intended.

    Please also note once again on our report Comrade Matt Culbert's message to regularly engage our "Imagine Blog" hosted at the SPGB's https://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.co.uk/

    We also have our Twitter acct up and running for uploading your thoughts and views to help us along with the good work of 'agitatiing, educatiing and organizing'! Direct your correspondences to SPC@spc_news - https://twitter.com/spc_news.

    Yours for Socialism,

    John & all GAC members
    Socialist Party of Canada

    #126434

    THE SOCIALIST PARTY OF CANADAGeneral Secretary's Report for April 2017Email Report- WSP (India) EC meeting minutes No. 173, Sunday, March 12, 2017, received with thanks.- WSP (India) Spring School held 4 March, Saturday, 2PM – 8PM & Annual Conference 5 March, Sunday.- Academia.edu WSP (India) growth 36,882,115 academics on May 1, 2016 to 48,973,844 to March 12, 2017: Our sister party states that the "platform [is] very useful for uploading and propagating world socialist ideas which are being viewed by many. So our comrades should make use of this platform."- From the Report of the Proceeding of the Spring School & Twenty Third Annual Conference of the WSP (India): B. Sarkar presented his talk on the scheduled subject: Who’s to blame for capitalism? To begin with, he upheld the Marxian method of evaluating any situation. He analysed the three basic and interrelated principles of Marxism: the materialist conception of history, class struggle and the theory of surplus value. Under any circumstances Socialists – the scientists of the working class – must appropriately apply these principles to get hold of the facts.Without hesitation one must also bring Marx and Engels – the initiators of Marxism – into the focus of this method.B.Sarkar then applied this method to bring out historical implications of the present state of affairs of class struggle, pointing out that the workers of the world are still vacillating to will and organize towards the much necessary World Socialist Revolution because of their utter confusion created and imposed by all capitalist ideologies and all-pervasive propaganda. However, this historical task necessarily rests on the working class and in no way on the capitalist class. Under this circumstance it is an uphill task for us socialists to rouse class consciousness and organize our class. However, he urged, we the socialists have to accomplish this uphill task of emancipation to usher humanity on to the realm of freedom.- Cormade Matt Culbert (SPGB Blog Committee) requests SPC members use our Imagine Blog, as it has been dormant since November 2010. Suggestion is for members to post several times per week, including some of our well appreciated Food for Thought comments from Steve, as the blog is well positioned for internet traffic. Members, please write in and use this free site, which can be found at The Imagine Bloghttp://imaginespc.blogspot.co.uk/- Imagine Winter 2016. Visit our website for downloading https://www.worldsocialism.org/canada/Good of the Movement- Three introductory packages and one member application sent and completed: M/S/C as accepted.- Toronto Branch public meeting held on Wednesday, 29 March from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, Bloor Street Second Cup Coffee House.- Spring socialist discussion meetings until May 2017, Toronto Branch: April 26, May 24, The Second Cup Coffee House, 324 Bloor St., Toronto. Communications to: spctorontobranch@gmail.com– see Toronto Branch Facebook for further details: https://web.facebook.com/Toronto-Branch-Socialist-Party-of-Canada-1120836671294008/ & our website https://www.worldsocialism.org/canada/- Socialist Party of Canada Facebook public page https://web.facebook.com/socialistpartycanada/ & members' page https://web.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012582758245- Migrating of spc@iname.com email to spc@worldsocialism.org with intent to phase out iname account due to plaguing techincal difficulties: M/S/C.- Survey Monkey and/or a similar product being explored to integrate into party general member and GAC voting.- Activation of SPC@spc_news Twitter account administrated via GAC: M/S/C. All Twitter correspondence to https://twitter.com/spc_news.- M/S/C One year Meetup subsription taken out by Toronto Branch to spur meeting networking and advertizing: meetup site: https://www.meetup.com/Monthly-Meeting/; Searching terms: "socialist," "socialism," "Marxism," "socialist party" etc. reveal our meetup to show up in the results.- 5 Socialist Party of Canada .CA domains renewed: Can$67.62.- Letter from Nona Tickner, reporting Larry Tickner's passing: Members with personal reflections about Larry please forward to spc@iname.com for publication in late spring/summer 2017 Imagine.- Imagine Spring 2017: expected distribution May 2017 – (members, please send in your submissions and ideas!).- Socialist education site for redistribution & hyperlinking, S. Shenfield (WSPUS) http://www.whatissocialism.net/Finances – Stationary nil; photocopies $1.82.; post $1.80. Domain renewals $67.62; Meetup one year subscription US$59.94.Dues – Several dues have been paid, but most still stand in arrears. Members in financial circumstances inhibiting dues payment may seek waiver – please contact our treasurer and/or general secretary. Other members please note dues are a modest $25 per year, or $2 per month and are required for post,photocopies, public meeting expenses, and internet services.Food for Thought● Though I haven't been to any comedy clubs lately, I would think comedians would be having a field day cracking jokes about the Toronto Transit Commission. They put machines called The Presto System in subways so passengers can buy their tickets from them and they can lay off workers. The trouble is it ain't exactly, ''Hey Presto I got my ticket'', co's ten per cent of 'em aren't working. On February 22, Toronto's Deputy Mayor, Denzil Minnan Wong, called Presto,''A horrible disaster.'' He didn't call it,''Another capitalist cock-up,'' which would've been closer to the truth. Better to have a system where the profit motive is removed and things are run properly even if the laughs are fewer.● An SPC'er recently made friends with a couple who spent many years in impoverished countries and had seen many children starve to death, (not that it doesn't happen in supposedly affluent ones), but I’ll let Graham tell it:''Pam and I were on a cruise and observed a wealthy couple help themselves to the buffet. Twice they filled their plates and each time took a couple of bites, groaned and threw the food into the garbage. I was so angry I felt like shouting, ''how can you waste food when countless millions are starving?'' The couple might have said they'd paid for the food, therefore could have done what they wanted, but nevertheless it does suggest there is something seriously wrong in an economic system where such glaring contradictions exist.● McDonald's stated on March 1 that it has lost 500 million customers in the US since 2012, and laid out its plans to get some back. These include allowing them to order and pay on their mobile phones. They also said they will more aggressively market items such as coffee and pastries. The chain said it lost some of its loyal customers to other major fast food rivals, instead of newer ones. My, My what a surprise – here is this great global giant, the epitome of what can be achieved in this wonderful economic democracy we live under and now even ''its'' having difficulties. Shades of Eatons going out of business in Canada, which shows that under crapitalism everything is temporary except, except insecurity.● I drive school bus and notice differences between students as they age. The younger ones laugh and chat amongst themselves. The older ones are on their lap tops, playing computer games or listening on their I-pods; there is very little conversation. More and more the synthetic world is becoming the real world to them. A recent study showed one fifth of theplayers in an online game felt the real world was only a place to eat and sleep, that the synthetic world was their true residence. In one respect both groups are similar, social skills are sadly lacking. A friendly, ''Good Morning,'' receives a blank stare – returning something left behind doesn't get a word of thanks. It may be that life under capitalism with its advanced technology is making young students alienated. Imagine what they'll be like as adults.● Trump Junk – You will all have heard, or heard of Trump's speech to the Congress on February 28. To sum it up briefly, what he really said was,'' Look guys, were all in this together. If workers and capitalists forget their differences and pull together we will make America great again.'' Whether Trump is sincere or not is meaningless because the fundamentals of capitalism mean that worker and capitalist have nothing in common economically. Workers struggle to improve their conditions, which means winning some concessions from their bosses who are trying to keep down costs to maximize profits – simple, ain't it? Two more aspects of Trump's trumpeting deserve comment. He proposes a massive $54 billion increase in military spending . The military budget already exceeds the military budgets of the seven highest spending countries combined. Though $54 billion could go a long way if devoted to welfare programs and fighting poverty in general, it wont be, because of capitalism's crazy priorities. Defending their property ownerships and capturing raw materials and markets are paramount to the capitalist class and if the working class have to suffer, so be it. Trump refers to the press as,''the enemy of the people''. Of course he's right, but contextually wrong. What he really means is its the enemy of Donald Trump. Since the  capitalist class own the press and the media as a whole it will reflect the interests of capitalism in a broad general sense. Some newspapers will advocate the particular interests of the owner, but no newspaper, owned by capitalists, will advocate its abolition. The proof of that is the history of the Toronto Star, which has been widely analyzed in these reports. So certainly, the press is the enemy of the people. When capitalists use the expression "free press", they mean freedom to criticize anyone they perceive to be doing an inadequate job for their interests, which is exactly the case now. The fact that Trump isn't highly thought of by his fellow capitalists should not mean anything to the working class, whose main interest should be the overthrow of a society that creates people like him.● We needn't fool ourselves that messing with the environment is a recent thing. Frederick Engels in his work, ''Labour In The Transition From Ape To Man'', had plenty to say about it. ''Let us not , however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature. For each victory it takes its revenge on us. Each of them, it is true, has in the first place the consequences on which we counted, but in the second and third places it has quiet and different, unforeseen effects which only to often cancel out the first. The people who in Mesopotamia, Greece, Asia Minor and elsewhere, utterly destroyed the forests to obtain cultivable land never dreamed that they were laying the basis for the present devastated conditions of these countries, by removing along with the forests the collecting centres and reservoirs of  moisture. When the Italians of the Alps used up the pine forests on the southern slopes, so carefully cherished on the northern slopes, they had no inkling that by doing so they were cutting at the roots of the dairy industry in their region; they had still less inkling that they were thereby depriving their mountain springs of water for the greater part of the year, and making it possible for them to pour still more furious torrents of it on the plains during the rainy seasons. Those who spread potato in Europe were not aware that with these farinaceous tubers they were at the same time spreading scrofula. Thus at every step we are reminded that we by on means rule over nature like a conqueror over a foreign people, like someone standing outside nature – but that we, with flesh, blood, and brain, belong to nature and exist in its midst and that all our mastery of it consists in the fact that we have the advantage over all other creatures of being able to know and correctly apply its laws. Since this has been happening for so long its about time we had a society that will put an end to it.● The International Peace Research Institute in March released figures on the world's arm sales. 37.9% of the world's arm sales comes from the United States: 20.5% comes from Russia, the number two exporter. There's been a 43% increase in U.S. arms sales since Obama took office in 2009. The estimated value of U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia during the Obama administration, was $115 billion. Pretty good for a peace-loving country. Some may argue that arms sales keep the economy working (to whatever extent it does work) and gives employment to lots of people. This must be the most sickening thing about capitalism: for it to work, it has to murder millions of people in the interests of competing sections of the capitalist class. Is there any better argument for capitalism's abolition?● On March 10, Stephen O'Brien, the UN's so called Humanitarian director, said the world faces its greatest humanitarian crisis since the UN was founded in 1945, with more than 20 million people in 4 countries,Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and Nigeria, facing starvation and famine. To quote,''Without collective and co-ordinated efforts, people will simply starve to death and many more will suffer and die from disease. This is a typical example of Capitalism at its cruelest; if food, or anything else for that matter, can't be sold for a profit the people who need it go without. As for those who face death by starvation very soon, they can be saved very soon, by the establishment of Socialism which can come as soon as people want it.● In the TV Guide it said CNN were showing,"The History Of Comedy", so when this twit switched on, expecting to see something about comedy, it was always something about Trump. I may have missed the point, is there a connection? Another, ''unlikely'', connection is, on March 25, at Toronto's Royal York Hotel,  there was a seminar instructing American citizens on how to give up their U.S. citizenship. It was titled, "Make Sure You Renounce the right way." The aim of the organizers, The Moodys Gartner Tax Law Company, is alright as far as it goes, which isn't far enough. It would be a fine thing if everyone gave up their citizenships in every country in the world.It's private property society that divides people into countries, races, nations, in fact, divides people against each other to compete with and fight each other in  wars: all in the interests of the capitalist class in those countries, which are competing with each other over markets and raw materials. By all means, let's give up our citizenships and have one world for all people. As Charlie Chaplin said when asked if he had taken out U.S. citizenship, "I am a citizen of the world."● A recent episode of ,''Museum Mysteries'', mentioned that from the 16th to the 19th centuries 8 million native American who had been enslaved by the Spanish section of the Capitalist Class, died working in their mines through the inhalation of Mercury fumes. Nor can this be dismissed on the premise that it happened years ago; there are still millions of chattel slaves in the World today and millions more wage slaves. Yet still many think Capitalism is the best of all possible systems; wake up and smell the coffee folks.● With its usual reforming zeal the Toronto Star called attention to the plight of seniors in nursing homes, byinforming us, in its issue of March 11 that they are fed on $8.33 a day. Some, run by the province of Ontario are not for profit homes, but nevertheless have to break even. Some of these homes have contracted out to privately run nursing homes which do have to make a profit and therefore have tighter budgets. A 2015 report by the Dietitian Of Canada concluded that Ontario homes are, ''serving cheaper protein foods and fewer fresh fruits and vegetables due to budget constraints. The 320 long term care nutrition managers and registered dietitians surveyed in the report said that improved funding would result in better nutrition, which is a brilliant deduction. Compounding wage slave problems of the 'modern rage'?One can hardly expect the Capitalist Class to give a damn about workers who are no longer productive, though they can always find money to spend on weapons for war. Since money, or lack of is the issue, wouldn't it be better to have an economic system where it wouldn't exist? Then such problems would not exist.● On March 10 Stats-Canada said 15,300 new jobs were added last month and the Unemployment rate is down to 6.6%. Economists were quick to mention it was a sign the economy has picked up steam. As Ben Reitzes, senior economist at the BMO said, ''One more piece of evidence the economy has turned the corner''. Anyone would think we should all go out, rejoice and be exceedingly glad. There is still unemployment, which there will always be as long as Capitalism lasts, as to what extent isn't a moot point because even a low level of it means hardship for some. Furthermore the real figure will always be higher than the official ones. There are always people who have used up their EI allowance and others who can only get part time work. The time to rejoice will be when a majority of the working class has eliminated the cause of unemployment.● Toronto Housing prices continue to soar; February prices were 27.7 per cent higher than this time last year, and there seems no end in sight. The average cost of a detached home has reached the 1.5 million mark. Be that as it may, a stress test done by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation found that house prices could fall as much as 30 per cent if mortgage rates were to rise by 2.4 per cent over the next two years. This is what happened between 1989 and 1996, when Toronto house prices fell by 40 per cent. It's a bubble and like all bubbles, its just waiting to be burst and after it is those who bought homes at inflated prices will be very upset. So why go through all this nonsense? Why not opt for a world where all will have a nice place to live without any price tags on them?● Trump is preparing to roll back one of Obama's policies. His intention is to free big companies from regulations on pollution and climate change. On March 14th, he announced his plan to abandon Barack Obama's commitment on car fuel economy standards. This is not to say that Obama's plan would have solved the problems concerning environmental destruction. However, it would have been better than nothing. The point being that governments can pass reform measures that do some good, but the next government can rescind or change those measures. So obviously, reforms just don't "cut it". No reform ever attempts or ever will attack the most fundamental aspect of capitalism; ownership of the tools of production by a small minority. It's not reforms we need, but revolution.● You are all aware of the cock up at the Academy Awards. The media had a field day with it so there is hardly anyone who isn't aware. Yet over the years their have been approximately 2000 individual presentations and this is the first screw up! That doesn't seem so bad. Could it be the Capitalist media used it to divert attention from all the terrible things happening these days? Maybe I'm wrong, but I wouldn't put it passed them.● Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown, demanded, on March 7, to be informed by Education Minister, MitzieHunter, exactly how many Ontario schools are going to be shut down. He believes more than 600 schools across Ontario are being threatened with closure. Hunter replied, "I'm not going to provide you with an arbitrary number based on the question you asked." Patrick said, "After thirteen years of waste and scandal after scandal, the Wynne Liberals are trying to balance the books on the backs of our students by fast-tracking school closures." Once again, it boils down to money, or lack of. That's capitalism, folks.● The American Government said, on March 7, it had begun deploying an advanced missile defence  system, [if one can call it defence], in South Korea, prompting the Chinese to warn of a new atomic arms race in the region which is on edge over North Korea's drive to build a nuclear stockpile. The US announcement came the day after the launch of 4 missiles by North Korea into the waters just off the Japanese coast which they said was a drill for striking American bases in Japan. Tensions are mounting as Capitalists on both sides want to control the South China Sea. Though we don’t know how things will play out, we do know that the Working Class in North and South Korea, China and the US have no stake in the matter.● As all of you are aware racist attacks have, recently, become rampant. The worse place being Germany where an influx 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015 have caused a backlash and a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment. There were 3,500 attacks in 2016, which led to 560 people being injured; 43 of them were children. Capitalism is a divisive system and there is no reason to think it will stop. As long as members of the Working Class blame each other for their misfortune they will not organize for the solution of a great world wide co-operative commonwealth called Socialism.● Quote of the month -"It's very shameful that people are dying of hunger in 2017. There's just too much wealth in the world and this famine situation could have been easily prevented." This was from, a Toronto resident, Hassan Ibrahim, commenting on the famine in Somalia, brought on by the on-going drought. Of course, he is perfectly right, but no one will find an answer in present-day society. The quote was from Toronto Metro News, March 28, 2017.Socialist literature for your interest & edification- WSP (India) History of Economics: A Scientigfic Investigation into the Political Economy and Its Swindler'Economics' published. 50.00 Rupees/CD$1-1.50.Contact E-mail: wspindia@hotmail.com; Website: http://www.worldsocialistpartyindia.org for more information to purchase.- Red Lion Press (re)publishing Bill Pritchard's autobiography, entitled Revolutionary Socialist: Lifeof the Socialist Party of Canada and the OBU, 1910-1922. Fred Casey's Thinking: An Introduction To Its History and Science. Method in Thinking: An Introduction to Dialectics.Costs: $3 for Pritchard, $6 each for the Casey's plus postage costs.Contact E-mail: redlionpress@hotmail.com – for more information to purchase or enquire with the publisher: https://web.facebook.com/search/more/?q=Larry+Gambone&init=public 

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.