SPC Newsletter for 1st July 2014

[Socialist Party Head Office]

The Socialist Party of Canada

 

Secretary’s Report for July 1, 2014

 

Email Report

• WSPNZ GAC meeting notes for June received with thanks.

 

Good of the Movement

• Two introductory packages sent out.

• Meeting was held June 26^th, at Toronto.

 

Finances

• Secretary’s expenses for June, $57.64

 

Karl’s Quotes

• Marx described the process of globalization of production one hundred and fifty years ago and saw the direction it would take…”And instead of producing for the individual merchant or for particular customers, the weaver now produces for the entire world of commerce…Trade now becomes the servant of industrial production, for which the constant expansion of the market is a condition of its existence. An ever- increasing mass-production swamps the existing market and thus works steadily towards its expansion, braking through its barriers. What restricts this mass production is not trade (in as much as this only expresses existing demand), but rather the scale of the capital functioning and the productivity of labour so far developed. The industrial capitalist is constantly faced with the world market; he compares and must compare his own cost prices not only with domestic market prices, but with those of the whole world. Previously, this comparison was almost exclusively the task of merchants and ensured commercial capital its mastery over industrial.” (Capital, volume III, pp 454/455). In other words, in order to exist, production must be constantly expanded. When capitalism consisted of small pockets of industrialization in Western Europe, expansion was indeed manageable but as the scale of capitalism covered the whole world, such expansion necessarily has great and irreversible impact on out environment, totally unnoticed by capital.

 

Food For Thought

• Brazilian artist Paulo Ito captured the mood at the world cup when hedrew a picture of a starving child sitting at a table with nothing on his plate but a soccer ball – kind of puts things in perspective!

• Is there any difference between mainstream political parties? In Ontario’s recent provincial election – forced when the minority centralist Liberals tabled the most progressive budget in years but was not supported by the leftist NDP. During the election campaign, the Liberals occupied the Left, the NDP the center, and the Conservatives veered far right and shot themselves in the foot by promising to fire 100, 000 public servants. The Liberals won a majority and promise to bring in the same budget. The position switching says it all – there are no real party policies or differences.

• In contrast to the green image being pushed by the oil companies re the Alberta Tar Sands, Archbishop Desmond Tutu commented after a helicopter flight, “The fact that this filth is being created now, when the link between carbon emissions and global warming is so obvious, reflects negligence and greed. Oilsands development not only devastates our shared climate, it is also stripping away the rights of First Nations and affected communities to protect their children, land and water from being poisoned”. Too right, Desmond.

• The Red Door, a vital 106 bed shelter for Toronto’s homeless may be forced to close owing to a legal battle between Toronto diet doctor, Sidney Bernstein and his wealthy neighbours, co-owners of the facility. A court order put Red Door into receivership when an investigation found that $2.4 million in mortgage funds was diverted from the business partners without the knowledge of all partners. The dispute means the Red Door facility will remain closed and not service people in need while the money problem is sorted. In capitalism, money comes before need every time.

• Residents of Ramones in NE Mexico are now finding cracks in their cinder block walls caused by tremors from fracking. The Mexican government has reformed its laws to allow foreign companies to drill for oil and gas for a portion of the profits. Fracking injects a high- pressure mix of water, sand, and chemicals into rock to get to the oil and gas. This may not seem like a wise thing to do in a country that has experienced major earthquakes, but where profit is concerned, common sense goes out of the window.

• An SPC member recently had a chat with a lady who works for a newspaper in Burlington. She said the entire layout department had been let go and the work was outsourced to India, quite possible and common in our electronic age. It doesn’t mean good luck for the workers there either because of very low wages, the only reason they have the chance of work. Under capitalism, everyone loses except the capitalist class and that is why we must have a world-wide worker response.

• An article in the Toronto Star re power cuts in India revealed the fact that the impoverished state in question, Uttar Pradesh, has never had enough electricity to service its 200 million population. However to some 63% of homes it doesn’t matter – they have no access in any case – a snapshot of ‘booming modern India”.

• On May 22, the state of Tennessee passed a law allowing the elctrocution in the event that drugs for lethal injections were not available. A European ban on the drugs has made them hard to get. The legislation passed 23 to 3 in the state senate and 68 to 13 in the house. However it is done, the death penalty is in force. It’s amazing that society makes someone a criminal then kills him/her for being one. We look forward to a society where crime is virtually non- existent and the death penalty is not on the agenda.

• The city of Mississauga (near Toronto) that for years was thought of as a Prosperous, well-run city is no longer considered so. For decades, constantly in the black, no property tax increases and the mayor returned with a ninety per cent majority. Then the province started downloading services to the municipalities and Mississauga, like many towns and cities, could not cope. In 2013 it went into debt and raised property taxes. Under capitalism prosperity and security can be very fleeting for cities as well as for workers.

• In a rare endorsement of science, specifically vaccination, Prime Minister Harper said, “ Don’t indulge your theories; think of your children and listen to the experts” A commendable sentiment as science and vaccinations have saved millions of lives. However, it goes against his recent actions regarding science and facts – cuts to research funding for the Department of Justice, massive closures of libraries, including loss of collections of Health Canada, and even restrictions on the ability of meteorologists to use the words ‘climate change’, part of his sustained efforts to muzzle scientific work in general.

• Global warming can create big problems for animals farmed for food, the experts say. Turkeys are vulnerable to heat that makes their breast meat mushy and unappetizing. Disease can spread through a chicken coop and severe weather can wipe out entire herds of cattle. According to Gale Strasbourg, a professor of food and nutrition at Michigan State University, “ Within a day or two after a heat wave you will go from no problem at all to forty per cent of turkey breasts having a problem.” Ian Miller, ex-principal climate specialist for the World Bank said,” The US Department of Agriculture approach to climate change is like trying to promote driver safety while helping the car industry make faster cars.” Scientists who are working to create new breeds of animals that can cope with a warmer climate argue that they too are focused on depleting resources. Of course, nowhere do we see a concerted effort to get to the root of the problem – the way we produce the goods needed for society and the ways in which that is done.

• As an example of the above, California is entering its third year of drought. In many areas farming has come to a standstill and farmers and their workers are suffering economically. The Toronto Star described a scene, “ The two field workers scraped hoes over weeds that weren’t there. “Let us pretend we see many weeds.” Francisco Galvez told his friend Rafael. That way, maybe they would get a full week’s work.” A Mormon missionary has been visiting Francisco and his family. He says they all say the same thing, “If your mind is right you can talk to God and he will tell you what to do.” Given the enormity of the problem it seems like God is not talking.

• They are not the only desperate people. Many from North Africa are trying to flee poverty and cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. 600,000 are waiting to make the journey and so far this year 42,000 have reached Italy. The risks they take to escape their poverty are high, often using unseaworthy boats causing the deaths of 170 so far this year. Such a system that causes and allows this to happen should be trashed and soon.

• Recently, pope Francis has been ranting about the devil and his evil ways, “Look out because the devil is present.” His holiness is concerned because satanic cults are spreading like wildfire on the net. Vito Mancuso, a Catholic theologian, complained that, “ He is opening the door to superstition.” As if the more ‘respectable’ religions aren’t based on superstition. ”The sad truth is that there are many bishops and priests who do not really believe in the devil”, commented reverend Gabriele Amorth, a priest and exorcist. The sad truth is that while people look to any cult, including Christianity, to solve their problems, they are deceiving themselves. Only in throwing overboard all forms of superstition including belief in an afterlife and a supreme being and organizing for socialism and sense, and security for all can they accomplish that.

• On May 23^rd, 150 employees of the Heinz Ketchup factory in Leamington, Ontario, were let go. At the end of June, another 350 were forced to leave. This will leave 250 working for substantially lower wages. This has come as a shock to many because the company has been there for 105 years and many have spent their whole working lives there. Ever since Warren Buffett and the Brazilian private equity firm, 3G Capital, bought Heinz in 2013, there was talk of downsizing but no one suspected how bad it would be. The plain brutal fact is that no matter how long a company may exist within capitalism, change is the constant factor according to the market and profitability and it will always be the worker who gets the worst of it.

Reading Notes

• From Taylor Caldwell’s “Captains and The Kings” about the American Civil War, “My dear Mr. Francis, who do you honestly believe rules the nation? The apparent rulers, or the real ones behind the scenes who manipulate a nation’s finances for their own benefit? Mr. Lincoln is as helpless as you and I. He can only, unfortunate man, give his people slogans, and slogans, it would appear, are what people want. Tomorrow you will meet some of the gentry I have spoken of, most congenial and tolerant men, who have no nationalistic prejudices at all, and no allegiances even to their own countries but only to each other and their banking interests.”

 

For socialism, John

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