19 October 1999
Bravo for the University of Victoria senate body!They just refused to confer an honourary degree upon Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corp., and the richest man in the world.
It's a brave move on their part. While admittedly the institutions of higher learning fit neatly into the economic framework to churn out well educated wage slaves, it does take some gumption to reject the dangling golden carrot of a few million dollars that Mr. Gates would probably bestow on the university in gratitude. It must have been a difficult decision in these days when funding for universities is becoming increasingly more difficult to obtain.
Bill Gates has a net worth of about $100 billion. He's an example of capitalist "success". However, it begs the question - Where did Bill Gates the money in the first place?
For some apologists, Bill Gates is a "self-made man". And in the tradition of the long line of capitalists before him (including Carnegie and Rockefeller) he portrays himself as a philanthropist. He claims that he intends to give his profits to charity. Indeed, in September 1999, Microsoft Inc., created a $1 billion scholarship fund in the United States for "minority students" to be distributed over the next 20 years thus giving back, in small spurts, a tiny part of what he took from the working class in the first place.
His company, Microsoft is a smooth operator when it comes to "educating" the working class.
In 1998, Microsoft offered university professors $200 if they mentioned or used its programming tools in presentations. The year previously it changed its software licensing rules causing colleges and universities to pay more for company products. Students had to shell out money - forced to buy its exclusive products..
While Bill Gates may be an intelligent man and may have worked hard in his younger days, the fact remains that his empire was built by using and exploiting the labour of thousands of other people. He didn't earn $100 billion by working 10 million times harder than the rest of us.
Universities, as with all institutions under capitalism, must in the end submit to the rule of capital. Everything is judged by money. That's the bottom line. Those who lack it are considered "losers".
Those who have a lot are considered a "success" and showered with degrees and titles to confer legitimacy on their class power. Another example being Canada's Southam Press magnate Conrad Black's pathetic attempt to grasp title as a member of England's House of Lords.
The sad fact is that under capitalism money reigns supreme, confers power and privileges.
So, kudos go out to the university from this socialist for taking the stand
that it did. Meanwhile, the necessity remains to build a new society, one
not judged by money, where the creative abilities and energies of each and
every individual is given free reign. That means scrapping a system based
on the exploitation of wage labour and abolishing the money creed. That's
the society we call Socialism.