SPC Newsletter 1st March 2014

The Socialist Party of Canada

Secretary’s Report for March 1^{st., 2014}

^{Email Report}

^{– WSPNZ GAC meeting minutes for January received with thanks.}

^{– WSP India minutes of Annual Conference received with thanks.}

^{Good of the Movement}

^{– Articles for the Spring Imagine are being typed and readied for the}

^{printer. Any contributions, suggestions, or comments are welcome.}

^{– Application has been made to be present at the 2014 Word on the Street}

^{Fair, Sunday, September 21. Those in our area are urged to try to be available for this event.}

^{– A successful questionnaire has been received. Welcome to new member}

^{Brockett in Quebec.}

^Finances

^{– Secretarial expenses for January, $8.39}

^{Karl’s Quotes}

^{– The capitalist system has developed many innovations to keep production functioning and growing. Commercial capital, for instance enables the producer to have continuous production as follows, " If the linen producer had to wait until his linen had really ceased to be a commodity, until it had passed to its final buyer, the productive or individual consumer, then his reproduction process would be interrupted. Or, in order not to interrupt it, he would have to restrict his operations, transform a smaller part of his linen into yarn, coal, labour, etc., in short into the elements of productive capital, and retain a greater part of this as a monetary reserve. This would make it possible for one part of his capital to be present on the market as a commodity, while another part carried on the production process, so that when this latter part entered the market as a commodity, the other part would flow back in the money form. This division of his capital is not abolished by the intervention of the merchant. But, without the latter, the part of the circulation capital that exists in the form of a money reserve would always have to be greater in proportion to the part employed in the form of productive capital, and the scale of reproduction would be accordingly restricted. Instead of this, the producer can now regularly apply a greater part of his capital in the actual production process, leaving a smaller part as a money reserve." Thus production is made much more continuous with the help of merchant capital. Note, however, "Commercial capital is nothing more than capital functioning within the circulation sphere. The circulation process is one phase in the reproduction process as a whole. But in the process of circulation, no value is produced, and thus also no surplus-value." (Capital volume III, pages 387 and 392).}

^{Food For Thought}

^{– The latest movie that fans are raving about is "American Hustle" and it is predicted to sweep the upcoming ‘let’s promote business’ awards, otherwise known as the Oscars. The most commendable aspect is some great acting by Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence. The plot is that a pair of con artists is caught in the act by an FBI agent, who promises them immunity if they help to catch other fraudsters. There are no admirable characters in this movie. It’s simply set a thief to catch a thief and shows capitalism at its most corrupt. In fact the one honest character is hell bent on furthering his career. The audience is asked to empathize with the original hustlers. The trouble is they’re not worth it, like the economic system they believe in.}

^{– A recent report issued by Freedom House that has ranked national trends  in civil rights since the 1970s, said it was worried by ‘a new trend in totalitarianism’. Civil rights and liberties have declined for the eighth year. This included another Egyptian military coup, South Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Central African Republic, and Yemen. According to the Washington-based research group, fifty-four nations showed declines in political rights and civil liberties. They are rights that have been fought for and won, however temporarily, after years of struggle in which many of those fighting for liberty were murdered. They would have been better advised to fight for a world where would be no ruling class to take away those rights.}

^{– A recent fire in a retirement home in Quebec that killed about thirty residents has highlighted the lack of sprinkler systems and adequate staff in these facilities. The sprinklers would have put the fire out and adequate numbers of staff would have been able to evacuate all residents in time. Both are tied to the money aspects as they are run by for-profit organizations and underline the stupidity and heartlessness of our economic system.}

^{– Toronto will host the 2015 Pan-American games. The organization recently fired the CEO who earned a salary of almost $400,000 and collected a severance package worth over half a million dollars. How does this compare with the wages of those workers who construct the facilities. One would think they would be worth something similar but will just get the boot when the work is finished. Time to get boot the wages system.}

^{– A paper written by two eminent medical researchers is calling for restrictions on the production and use of neurotoxins, industrial chemicals that affect brain development in children, to say nothing about the rest of us. Conditions such as ADHD (up 88% in the US in the past decade) and autism (up 600% in twenty years and now present in one out of eighty-eight children) are cause for concern. Since 2006, the number of neurotoxins, such as lead and methyl mercury, have doubled and there are believed to be many more as yet unrecognized. A sane society would surely act on this to prevent any further damage. Sorry, I forgot, this isn’t a sane society!}

^{– Chinese activist, Xu Zhiyong, has led a call for more information about the wealth of China’s capitalists who are not required to publicly disclose their assets. However, investigative journalists have found that between $1 trillion and $4 trillion in untraced assets have left China since 2000. The rich are invited to join any one of a dozen new polo clubs in China where fees are $165,000 and they can even buy a mansion on the club grounds for as little as $90 million! Twenty-two thousand have taken advantage of offshore tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands. Xu Zhiyong and the organization he represents probably mean well but would do better to work for a society where accumulation of such wealth alongside widespread poverty would be unknown and unattainable.}

^{– Meanwhile the Star statisticians reported that China’s rich are getting wanderlust – no national loyalty there. In a survey of 393 Chinese millionaires, it was found that 64% have emigrated or are planning to do so. Thirty-three per cent of the super rich (more than $16 million) have homes elsewhere. Eighty per cent want their children educated abroad mostly in the US or Britain, 772 received American investor green cards (given to people who invest more than one million dollars) in 2010 and that number grew to 6,124 in 2012. Conclusion – the rich act the same the world over – do anything anywhere anytime that money will allow you to do}

^{– The recent extinction of the Mangarahara cichlid fish that was native to Madagascar, may not be an earth shattering event, However it does assume greater significance when one relates it to the deforestation, pollution, overfishing, and habitat loss threatening so many species in the island off Africa’s east coast. Furthermore, Madagascar is a mere part of the world that the rapacity of capitalism’s drive for profits is destroying.}

^{– As many as 250,000 people are threatened with eviction as Brazil prepares to host this year’s World Cup competition and the 2016 Olympics. The World Cup games will be played in twelve cities creating road construction, airport renovation, and stadium construction. In response, Amnesty International founded a campaign called, "Enough forced eviction", and Brazilian activists began "The National Coalition of People’s World Cup Committees." These groups sent a report to the UN Human Rights Panel last year that, until now, has been ignored. This action by the Brazilian government is just one act in a long history of governments taking land from people to further the interests of the capitalist class. It will continue until all land is the common heritage of all humankind.}

^{– We were reminded about what the Olympics and other international competitions are really about by the article in The Toronto Star (Feb 15, 2014) entitled, "Canada’s winners in the Personal Brand Olympics. It goes on to rank Canada’s top prospects for advertising companies and corporations to reel in the greatest amount of money while NOT plying their specialties. The most telling part is the "great endorsement because" section. For Alex Bilodeau, for example, gold medal in moguls skiing competition, it says, " What athletes can do really well is also share a social message, which he does when he talks about the challenges of his brother (Frederic, who has cerebral palsy)…He definitely has proved his worth to corporate Canada in a number of ways". Please meet the money- grubbers and hangers-on of the capitalist world otherwise known as entrepreneurs.}

^{– Sears Canada has existed for over sixty years and kept going while Eatons, Simpsons, and the Bay went under. Now the future doesn’t look so rosy with the liquidation of five major stores in major population centers. To quote a spokesperson, " On February 9th. hundreds of associates will be laid off." That’s a fancy way of saying the word ‘worker’. Call it what you will, unemployment equals hardship. A guy who doesn’t mince words is Mark Cohen, Sears Canada CEO from 2001 to 2004, " The company in Canada has been treated like an ATM machine by its corporate owner." This is a Sears holding based in the US that declared the five stores unprofitable. In the retail wars there will be winners and losers like all capitalists competitions but in the end, it’s the workers, or should we say associates, who will pay the price as always.}

^{– Many American ambassadors get their position by donating money to a political party, the more the donation, the better the location. But what bang do you get for your buck? Margaret Carlson (Toronto Star, Feb 22 2014) asked the question, " how stupid can you be and still be a US ambassador?" George Tsunis, Obama’s appointment to Norway didn’t even bother to look that country up on Wikipedia to find out that it is not a monarchy. He also managed to call the Progress Party, part of the ruling coalition, an extremist group with fringe elements. Mercifully, he was stopped by senator McCain before he created an international incident. He is an ace at fundraising, however and brought in almost one million dollars for Obama in 2012. Thirty-seven per cent of his appointees are not career diplomats narrowly trailing Ford and Reagan who weighed in at thirty-eight per cent. The cost of plum positions is going up, however. George Bush sent Henry Catto to London in 1989 for contributions in the low six figures. Nowadays, appointees to Rome, Paris, and Stockholm raised a total of $5 million. Just another sorry side of our system.}

^Quotes

^{– "As a woman, I have no country…As a woman, my country is the whole world" Virginia Wolfe.}

^{For socialism, John}