SPC Newsletter 1st March 2013

[Socialist Party Head Office]

 

The Socialist Party of Canada

 

Secretary’s Report for March 1, 2013.

 

Email report

– Nothing to report.

 

Good of the Movement

• Three Introductory Package requests.

• Preparations for the Spring Imagine are well under way. Any contributions, suggestions, etc welcome. We need a few more people to be included on the contact list. Any volunteers – name and email only.

• Forms and money sent in for Word On the Street, Toronto for September.

• Reminder to all that 2013 dues are due – please send to head office.Thankyou

 

Finances

• Secretary’s expenses for February, $24.89. Donation of $20 received with thanks.

 

Karl’s Quotes

• Socialists hold that the whole of the working class is exploited by thewhole of the capitalist class. Marx writes, “ Moreover, as soon as capitalist production has reached a certain level of development, the equalization between the various rates of profit in individual spheres which produces the general rate of profit does not just take place through the interplay of attraction and repulsion in which the market prices attract or repel capital. Once average prices and the market prices corresponding to them have been established for a certain length of time, the various individual capitalists become conscious that certain differences are balanced out in this equalization, and so they take these into account in their calculations among themselves. These differences are actively present in the capitalists’ view of things and are taken into account by them as grounds for compensation.

The basic notion in this connection is that of average profit itself, the idea that capitals of equal size must yield equal profits in the same period of time. This is based in turn on the idea that capital in each sphere of production has to participate according to its size in the total surplus-value extorted from the workers by the total social capital; or that each particular capital should be viewed simply as a fragment of the total capital and each capitalist in fact as a shareholder in the whole social enterprise, partaking in the overall profit in proportion to the size of his share of capital.” (Capital, Volume III, pp311/312 Penguin Classic edition).

 

Food For Thought

• “ As hundreds fled the advancing armoured cars of riot police officers,Mohammed Mokbel ran forward. A veteran of two years of violent street protests, he pulled on his gas mask and charred protective gloves for another long night at his current vocation: throwing tear-gas canisters back at the riot police” (New York Times, Fen 17 2013). Such is life after the Arab Spring. Another revolution must be won to get rid of the new dictator who replaced the old one. The Arab Spring was a mighty and brave revolution but these results show that it lacked class-consciousness and a socialist understanding that would have showed the path to take to get rid of all dictators once and for all.

• India’s economy is on target to grow just five per cent in the year endingin March, a far cry from the nine per cent plus of the last decade. The country’s per capita income will grow by 2.9% and the slow down and lack of investment will hurt those struggling to get out of poverty the most, as usual. Nothing really changes.

• Due to overfishing of the oceans, humans, at some time this year will,for the first time, begin consuming more farmed fish than wild fish, a sad commentary on the mismanagement of the world’s resources.

• In “The conscience of a Corporation” (Bill Keller, New York Times, asabove) tells us about a corporation led by a Christian, David Green, who founded “Hobby Lobby” stores in the US. It remains closed on Sundays, and promotes faith in all markets. It sticks decals over Botticelli’s naked Venus in its art books and in-house health insurance does not cover contraceptives. Obama’s Affordable Care Act requires companies with more than fifty employees to offer health insurance, including birth control. In a legal case on the matter, in which Hobby Lobby argues exemption on religious grounds, opposition counsel states that it is not a matter of ‘does the corporation pray? Or does the corporation go to heaven?’ Such is life in a religious state! Maybe it would just be better to get health care for all those who need it.

• On January 30^th. employees at several “Best Buy” stores in Ontario,showed up for work at the usual time, to find the doors shut and notices on them informing them that they were unemployed. Rapid developments in the means of communication have meant that companies that sell electronics are losing out to the ‘net’, where goods can be purchased cheaper. As to why the workers were not informed of the impending lay-offs sooner, we can only surmise that the owners feared that they would not work so conscientiously if they knew of their fate. No doubt, the laid-off felt they had been treated unfairly, as indeed they had. But where is it written that life under capitalism is supposed to be fair?

• Last year the government announced that those Canadians born afterMarch, 1958, will have a longer wait for Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS). Instead of collecting at 65, it will be at 67 years of age (even guaranteed pensions are not guaranteed in capitalism!) The government said the changes are necessary because the number of seniors will almost double by 2030 to 9.4 million. So, if you are in a low-income bracket and coming up for retirement in ten years, you may have to work a little longer. Another example of a reform disappearing.

• Defenders of capitalism argue that competition results in improvements in products and certainly one can point to many examples. However there is another side to capitalism’s tarnished medal. An SPCer recently found his television set had broken down and it was cheaper to buy a new one than get it fixed. Here again, it can be said that improvements have been made. Today, for a price, one can buy TV sets that do just about anything except cook meals. The problem is that the TV had only lasted ten years, which is average these days. TV, like cars and many other products, are not made to last, so one will be compelled to buy a new one; in other words, planned obsolescence. In fact, competition drives the manufacturers to cheapen any product as far as possible in order to compete and we wind up with advanced technology made out of garbage. If you want quality, go for socialism!

• Speaking of television, another SPCer read Sid Caesar’s autobiography. Originally, Admiral Television sponsored his, “Your Show of Shows” and, because it was a smash, the demand for Admiral TV sets skyrocketed. So Admiral dropped its sponsorship as they needed the money to pay for the production of more TV sets. That’s what I like about capitalism; it’s so sane!

• In Guatemala City, cemetery space is so scarce that mummified bodies are exhumed over unpaid cemetery rents. Should a relative come to claim them, they are placed in a mass grave. Even dead, you can be evicted! What a system!

• Recent flooding in Bangladesh and the eastern coast of the US has hammered home to many what we face in the years to come, unless we act on climate change now (don’t hold your breath). Experts expect about 250 million people will be forced to move by 2015. Think of the problems that will cause. Why not prevent it now?

• Ontario’s new premier, Kathleen Wynne (Liberal) said she hopes for cooperation from her rivals Tim Hudak (Conservative) and Andrea Horvath (NDP) in her attempts to solve problems in running the province. She said, “I believe that there is a lot of common ground with the Tories and the NDP…” Sure, the common ground they are all committed to is running the day to day affairs of the capitalist system in the interests of the owning class so no matter who is elected it still spells disaster for the working class, unless it’s the Socialist Party.

• According to Canada’s finance minister, Jim Flaherty, leaders from the G20 nations have made progress in balancing fiscal discipline and economic growth in their Moscow meeting. He said, “Refrain from competitive devaluation and resist all forms of protectionism and keep our markets open.” That should make capitalism work. However, some fear that some are deliberately trying to weaken their currencies to appear more competitive starting a currency war that could derail the global recovery. Japan, the world’s third largest economy, has been accused of trying to lower the yen to stimulate its economy. Doesn’t it make more sense to abolish the system that requires currencies at all?

• A report by McMaster University (Hamilton) and the United Way tells us that barley half the adults in the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton have full-time jobs with benefits and expect to be working for the same employer in one year’s time. The rest work either full or part-time with no benefits or job security or in temporary, casual or contract positions. Insecure or ‘precarious’ work has increased fifty per cent in the last twenty years. There has been a forty per cent increase in temporary work since 1997 and a forty-five per cent increase in self- employment. This is causing major life decisions like moving in with a partner, having children etc increasingly difficult. This, of course, is due to the squeeze on workers to make the workforce more ‘flexible’ to suit the profit makers that is the neo-liberal agenda. We need to educate these people that they do not have to drop living standards to the lowest common denominator and make them class conscious socialists.

 

Reading Notes

• Here is what we are up against in the propaganda war. In “Legacy of Ashes – The History of the CIA” by Tim Weiner, the author writes, “Dulles (i.e. Allen Dulles, Director of CIA in the 1950s) kept in close touch with the men who ran “The New York Times”, “The Washington Post” and the nations leading weekly magazines. He could pick up the phone and edit a breaking story, make sure an irritating foreign correspondent was yanked from the field, or hire the services of men such as “Time’s” Berlin bureau chief and “Newsweek’s” man in Tokyo. It was second nature for Dulles to plant stories in the press. American newsrooms were dominated by the government’s wartime propaganda branch, the Office of War Information, once part of Wild Bill Donovan’s domain. The men who responded to the CIA’s call included Henry Luce and his editors at “Time”, Life”, and “Fortune”, popular magazines such as “Parade”, “The Saturday Review”, and “Reader’s Digest”; and the most powerful executives at CBS News. Dulles built a public relations and propaganda machine that came to include more than fifty news organizations, a dozen publishing houses…” Boy, what we could do with pull like that!

 

For socialism, John

 

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