The Socialist Party of Canada

 

Secretary’s report for June 1, 2012

 

Email Report

–           The Bullet: Why are they Waging War on the Workers and What to do About it.

–           The Bullet: Alberta Elections – Party of Big Oil Defeats Party of Big Oil.

–           WSPNZ – EC Minutes for April received.

–           The Bullet: Contesting Finance Capitalism in Turkey.

–           The Bullet: Defiant Quebec Students Reject Shabby Govt. Offer.

–           The Bullet: The Triumph of the Radical Left in Quebec.

–           Left Streamed: The Crisis and the Left – Where Does Occupy Lead Now?

–           The Bullet: MI5 – A Look Toward the Future.

–           The Bullet: Stop the Neo-Liberal Crisis Politics and Dispossess the Beneficiaries.

–           The Bullet: Impoverishing Europe.

–           The Bullet: Quebec Govt. Bludgeons Student Strikers with Emergency Law.

–           The Bullet: Quebec Students Mobilize Against Draconian Law Aimed at Breaking Four-Month Strike.

–           The Bullet: NATO Reality Check – Protestors in Chicago Can Fatally Fracture NATO.

–           The Bullet: Red Square Everywhere – With Quebec Students Against Repression.

–           The Bullet: Mexico – Populist Lopez Obrador Moves up in Polls.

–           Left Streamed: Marxism and Feminism – Revisiting and Extending the Dialogue.

–           The Bullet: Govt. Repression of Quebec Student Movement Sparks Massive Protests.

–           Note that The Bullet and Left Streamed are not based on scientific socialism but are available on request for information purposes.

 

Good of the Movement

–           May coffee shop meeting took place on May 24^th. We also took the opportunity to flyer the University of Toronto.

                                   –          June activity not yet decided. Southern Ontario members will be notified.

–           Spring Imagines have been distributed. If I missed anyone out, please let me know.

–           June is General Administrative Committee meeting month. Please send in questions or topics for discussion.

Finances

–           Secretary’s expenses for May, $32.77.  Donations, $10, received with thanks.

 

Karl’s Quotes

–           We all know the importance of time to the capitalist. Get to work before time so you can be at your machine on the dot, no washroom breaks, work until the whistle and leave after time, put a stopwatch on the workers’ activities, etc. The hour was invented in the 13^th. Century, the minute in the seventeenth, and the second and nanosecond recently. Part of that ‘hurry up’ mentality is to turnover capital as fast as possible. Marx comments, “…the time required for the turnover has the effect that the whole capital cannot be simultaneously employed in production. One part of this capital therefore always lies fallow, whether in the form of money capital, stocks of raw materials, finished but still unsold commodity capital, or outstanding debts that are not yet due for payment. The capital that is in active production, active in the production and appropriation of surplus-value, is always reduced by this amount, and the surplus-value that is produced and appropriated is reduced in the same portion (an intolerable situation for the money hungry capitalist – ed). The shorter the turnover time, the smaller is this idle portion of capital compared with the whole; the greater therefore is the surplus-value appropriated, other conditions being equal.” Thus the hurry up system for workers. (Capital, Volume III, page 163, Penguin Classics edition.).

 

Food For Thought  

–           On March 7, the UN envoy to Yemen warned of the growing food crisis in that country. 6.8 million people have been left without enough food during months of political turmoil that has allowed Al Qaeda to gain ground. Three million are in need of immediate assistance and 500 000 children are at risk from malnutrition. Contrast that with the Ford motor company rewarding their CEO with $58.3 million in stock as a reward for improved sales and you get some idea of the crazy imbalance in the capitalist system.

–           The Quebec government is facing some strong people power over their legislation to curtail protest rights. Now protesters from all walks of life are out on the streets, banging pots and pans, taking over intersections, and taking part in impromptu, leaderless marches in defiance of the law. An estimated 400 000 gathered last week at the one hundred day celebration of the students’ strike.

–           On Saturday, May 19, 20 000 activists jammed the business district in Frankfurt to protest the dominance of the banks. Let’s hope they eventually get the message that we can easily get rid of the banks and the whole capitalist paraphernalia that goes with it by electing socialist reps.

–           An article in the Canadian Jewish News focused on the plight of Christians in Iraq and Egypt from where they are emigrating in droves to escape persecution, bombings, and rape. In Egypt, Christians, who had second class status under Mubarak, now are even worse off and ‘face an uncertain future in what may become a theocratic state.’ Socialists are appalled, not because they are Christians, but because they are human beings and members of the working class. Only an understanding of socialism can stop the nonsense.

–           More details continue to come to light in the Harper government’s budget Bill. Employment insurance is paid by all workers yet only 40% of the unemployed are eligible (26% in Toronto). That was done by the previous Liberal government but a new attack ensures that those who are eligible must be prepared to take a 30% wage cut or lose eligibility. The attack on the worker is being stepped up.

–           Toronto City council’s new garbage fees for charities and non-profit – groups will take food from the mouths of the homeless. It will bring $2.9 million to the city, deeply in debt, but, according to Angie Hocking, Outreach coordinator, the fees would take $5 000 out of her $14 000 food budget. Under capitalism, someone always loses.

–           On May 5, an article in the Toronto Star focused on people at New Delhi’s Ghazipur landfill who ‘live’ on a trash pile, “On Trash Mountain, families earn $1 to $2 a day slogging through waist-deep muck. But ‘residents’ also marry, have children, pray, and celebrate life’s other milestones.” Let’s speed the day when we can put capitalism on the trash pile where it belongs.

–           The police were up to old tricks before the recent NATO summit in Washington. Three men were arrested ahead of the protest and charged with possessing weapons, a charge denied by the three. Their lawyer said, “This is obviously an attempt to chill dissent ahead of the NATO demonstrations.” So much for democratic rights if the denials are true.

–           An article in the Daily Beast, an American news reporting site (http://www.dailybeast.com) bleated, “Why can’t Obama bring Wall Street to justice?” The reporters were enraged that the corporate kleptomaniacs who brought down the global economy are getting away with it. They answer their own question by adding that Wall Street contributed heavily to Obama’s presidential campaign. Another good reason to abolish money – real democracy.

–           In a ruling in April, judges at a special court for Sierra Leone at The Hague found former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, guilty of eleven counts of war crimes by assisting rebels in Sierra Leone. The war ended in 2002 with 50 000 dead. The rebels atrocities included public executions, amputations, displaying decapitated heads at checkpoints, the killing and public disembowelment of a civilian whose intestines were stretched across a road to make a checkpoint, public rapes of women and girls, and people burned alive in their homes. Taylor said, “What I did…was done with honour. I was convinced that unless there was peace in Sierra Leone, Liberia would not be able to move forward. One must wonder to what depths humans can sink in this dog eat dog world.

–           The Harper cabinet erupted in indignation this week when a UN ‘Right –to- Food envoy, Olivier de Schutter criticized Canada for turning a blind eye to poverty, inequality, and hunger in the country. Too bad they didn’t erupt in indignation at the facts – almost one million Canadians rely on food banks; three million Canadians, including 600 000 children live in poverty and the numbers are growing. Obviously they are embarrassed it got a public forum. These are problems that are endemic to the capitalist system, of course, although no one is saying that.

–           King Juan Carlos of Spain recently had a hip replacement after suffering  an injury while elephant hunting in Botswana. According to an editorial in “EL Mundo”, hunting elephants sets a bad example when the economic crisis is so dire. Apparently, it transmits an image of indifference and frivolity that a head of state ought not to give. What it shows is that royals are just part of the world capitalist class that suffers little or not at all in a recession, and they couldn’t care less.

–           Most soccer clubs in Columbia are millions of dollars in debt and the national team failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup. In the game’s heyday, Columbian drug capitalists used teams to launder money, boost their image, and flaunt their wealth in a process called narco-soccer. That money helped the national team climb to fourth place in world rankings. Things changed after the US war on drugs cut the flow of millions of dollars from organized crime to soccer. Capitalism corrupts everything it touches, even an otherwise healthy and skillful sport like soccer.

–           Coral Gardens which is off the coast of Komodo, Indonesia, used to be one of the world’s most spectacular undersea areas, teeming with damselfish, bassets and hawksbill turtles, but not any more. The area has been destroyed by illegal fishermen who use explosives and cyanide to kill their prey. The fact that it’s illegal means nothing considering the objective is the same as any legal business – making a profit.

–           On April 20, the G20 group of nations pledged $430US billion to the International Monetary Fund to protect the world economy from the impact of the Eurozone’s debt crisis. According to Craig Alexander, chief economist for the TD Bank, “The number one financial crisis is the European fiscal mess. I think that financial markets will be encouraged that the IMF has more firefighting capability. “ What is interesting is what Mr. Alexander did not say, that the majority of the world’s population will continue to live in poverty, and what will happen when no government committed to capitalism has the ability to bail out their partners in crime.

 

                        For socialism, John