The Socialist Party of Canada

Secretary’s Report for November 1, 2012

Email Report

–           The Bullet – Spanish State: The Salvaging of Democracy.

–           The Bullet – A Game of Smoke and Mirrors: Canada’s Decision to Cut Ties With Iran.

–           The Bullet – Joining Forces For Another Europe.

–           The Bullet – Waiting For a Walkout : The End of McGuinty?

–           The Bullet – Just the Beginning: Beyond The Quebec Student Strike.

–           Note that the Bullet is not based on scientific socialism but is available to you for information purposes.

Good of the Movement

–           All SPC Members should have received the Fall copies of Imagine. If you have not, or if you would like a few extra copies to distribute in your area, let me know.

–           We were invited to give a talk on socialism to the Political Science class at the Royal Military College. A member was dispatched to fill the request, October 1.

–           Two introductory packages were sent out.

Finances

–           Secretary’s expenses for October, $50.69

Karl’s Quotes

–           While reading Harvey’s excellent book, “A Companion to Marx’s Capital” I came across the well-known passage on the increasing immiseration of the proletariat, a point that is often disputed given the advances in standards of living of workers in the West. So it’s probably worth while repeating just what Marx wrote, “ We saw in Part IV, when analyzing the production of relative surplus-value, that within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productivity of labour are put into effect at the cost of the individual worker; that all means for the development of production undergo a dialectical inversion so that they become means of domination and exploitation of the producers; they distort the worker into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, , they destroy the actual content of his labour by turning it into a torment; they alienate…from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process in the same proportion that science is incorporated in it as an independent power; they deform the conditions under which he works, subject him during the labour process  to a despotism more hateful for its meanness; they transform his life-time into working-time, and drag his wife and child beneath the wheels of the juggernaut of capital. But all methods for the production of surplus-value are at the same time methods of accumulation, and every extension of accumulation becomes, conversely, a means for the development for those methods. It follows therefore that as capital accumulates, the situation of the worker, be his payment high or low, must grow worse. Finally, the law that always holds the relative surplus population or industrial reserve army in equilibrium with the extent and energy of accumulation rivets the worker to capital more firmly than the wedges of Hephaestus held Prometheus to the rock. It makes the accumulation of misery a necessary condition, corresponding to the accumulation of wealth. Accumulation of wealth at one pole is, therefore, at the same time the accumulation of misery, the torment of labour, slavery, ignorance, brutalization and moral degradation at the opposite pole, i.e. on the side of the class that produces its own product as capital. (Capital, Vol. I, pp798-9).

Food For Thought

–           From the Casino of capitalism – The National Stock Exchange of India reported (Toronto Star, October 6, 2012) that fifty-nine erroneous orders prompted a plunge in equities that briefly erased about $58 billion in value, underscoring growing global concern about the integrity of financial markets. Senior managing director of Aquarius Investments that manages about $400 million, said, “ India has joined the big league with this trading disaster. It’s very surprising so many erroneous orders went through. Exchanges and regulators must be one step ahead as systems and technologies upgrade.” No kidding, most people get concerned if they lose a few dollars!

–           On the TV show “Pawn Stars” a guy trying to sell a Colt 45 said, “It’s been known by many names including ‘The Peacemaker’. One wonders what he would call a nuclear bomb, perhaps ‘Humanitarian Intervention. So much for capitalism’s standards of humanity!

–           Ingolstadt, Germany has a problem of too many jobs and too few workers. Unemployment has dropped to 2.2% (New York Times, Oct.7 2012) and is held up as a shining example of Germany’s recovery. Further examination, though, reveals that benefits for the unemployed have been cut and most jobs have no security and low pay. As in the rest of the developed world, the squeeze is on the workers’ salaries and benefits to further enlarge profits and accumulation.

–           When reflecting on the proposed takeover of Astral Media by Bell. Quebec filmmaker, Philippe Falardeau, said, “ Proponents of neo-liberal economics argue that capitalism always has the advantage of ensuring competition. But history shows otherwise.” Takeovers and mergers usually mean layoffs for the workers with all its attendant misery. Competition isn’t what it’s cracked up to be for the ones doing the work .

–           About seventeen per cent of Torontonians between the ages of fifteen and twenty-four were unemployed last year according to a report by the Toronto Community Foundation. The report attributes youth unemployment to the disappearance of mid-level jobs and increased employment among seniors. Under capitalism, it’s a competition at all levels; if some people do well others will do badly. It’s in its DNA.

–           Tim Hudak, leader of the opposition Conservative Party in Ontario is spouting the usual neo-liberal garbage as he sees an opportunity for power now that Liberal Premier, McGuinty, has resigned. Paraphrasing the disastrous (for workers) Mike Harris of the former Conservative government, Hudak is calling for smaller government (read less services), ‘common sense’, ‘straight talk’, and lower taxes (read more money for the capitalist class and, again, less services). No doubt many in the working class will fall for that claptrap again.

–           “Is low-wage coal mining a unique skill?” asks Thomas Walkom (Toronto Star, Oct 13, 2012). Early in the 20^th century, he tells us that when the workers in the gold mines of Northern Ontario went on strike, French Canadians were brought in, and when they struck, the Finns arrived, then the Ukrainians, the Poles, the Italians, and after them, the Cornish miners from England. In each case the tactic was to bring in workers who did not make common cause with those already there and who would work for less. That was one hundred years ago so it’s depressing to hear that the coal mines in BC are bringing in two thousand Chinese workers. They will be dependent on their employer for work visas and so less likely to complain about poor conditions and low pay. Now that the Harper government has allowed temporary migrant workers to go virtually unlimited, this is a scenario that will be repeated often. This just shows that nothing changes in capitalism – the driving force will always to be to produce ever more surplus-value in whatever way it takes.

–           In the business section of the October 6 Toronto Star a headline shouted that the job market was ‘inching upward’. Another said, “ Hudson’s Bay jobs head South to the US”, which tells us that 210 workers will lose their jobs. In addition, 22 000 Zellers workers will be let go as Target and Walmart take over the store leases (for $1.825 billion). There is no security in the capitalist mode of production.

–           Wow! China is a communist country after all. In its attempt to get a share of all that the Arctic promises, it actually stated that the Arctic, “ is the inherited wealth of all humankind”. I wonder if that applies to the Chinese people regarding the wealth of China! Behind the scenes, China is hard at work making trade deals, trying to get a foothold in impoverished Iceland to make her Arctic claims a little more legitimate. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

–           Asbestos in Canada, the world’s foremost exporter of the deadly toxin is in the news again. A motion has been tabled in the federal parliament to take steps to eliminate the industry. Even if all exposure to asbestos were to end today, as many as 2,600 new cases of asbestos related cancers would show up annually. At present about 150 000 workers in Canada  are being exposed to it on a regular basis. But it is very profitable, isn’t it and it creates jobs, doesn’t it? (especially in the undertaking business!)

–           Haroon Siddiqui enlightens us in The Toronto Star of the toxic aftermath of war. Falluja, Iraq, was the scene of two furious bombing campaigns to avenge the capture and mutilation of four American mercenaries. Instead of targeting the estimated 2 000 insurgents, the Marines, knights in shining armour that they are, leveled the city of 300 000. The city of Basra received eight hundred tons of bombs and one million rounds of ammunition in the first Gulf War. Radioactive residue is responsible for babies born with huge heads, eyes, stunted arms, bloated stomachs and defective hearts. Both cities are experiencing a staggering rise in birth defects. In September, 2009, Fallujah doctors reported that one quarter of the babies born there that month died within seven days and seventy-five per cent of them were deformed. In 2010 it was reported that the increases in congenital defects, leukemia, and infant mortality in that city were higher than in Nagasaki and Hiroshima in 1945. In Basra, half the pregnancies between 2004 and 2006 resulted in miscarriages, and birth defects increased 17-fold. War is the absolute worst thing that humans could ever wage against each other. If socialism could eliminate that one thing, it would be worth trying for that alone. That it will come with so many more benefits just makes it all the more desirable. SPREAD THE WORD!

For socialism, John