SPC Newsletter for 1st October 2014

The Socialist Party of Canada

Secretary’s report for October 1, 2014.

Email Report

– WSPNZ GAC minutes for July received with thanks.

– WSP India EC minutes for July received with thanks.

Good of the Movement

– The Fall issue of Imagine is finished and on its way out to members.

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

– The party had a booth at Word on the Street, Toronto on Sunday,

September 21. A lot of socialist material was handed out and a reasonable amount of booklets sold. Thanks to Mehmet, Joshua, and Ronnie for helping out and giving support.

Finances

– Secretary’s expenses for August, $

Karl’s Quotes

– Credit has been a powerful influence on the development of capitalist production. Marx writes, " If the credit system appears as a principal lever of overproduction and excessive speculation in commerce, this is simply because the reproduction process, which is elastic by nature, is now forced to its most extreme limit; and this is because a great part of the social capital is applied by those who are not its owners, and who therefore proceed quite unlike owners who, when they function themselves, anxiously weigh the limits of their private capital. This only goes to show how the valorization of capital founded on the antithetical character of capitalist production permits actual free development only up to a certain point, which is constantly broken through by the credit system. The credit system hence accelerates the material development of the productive forces and the creation of the world market, which is the historical task of the capitalist mode of production to bring to a certain level of development, as material foundations for the new form of production. At the same time, credit accelerates the violent outbreaks of this contradiction, crises, and with these the elements of dissolution of the old mode of production." (Capital, volume III, p 572 in the Penguin Classics edition.). Credit has now assumed such an important role in capitalism that it’s safe to say without it, the system could not function in any meaningful way.

Food For Thought

– On September 12, Statistics Canada said in a report on household debt that Canada’s debt to disposable income rose to record levels in June. To put it bluntly, Canadians owe $1.63 for every dollar they earn. However, don’t think that this applies to all Canadians at all income levels – the report also found that half of all wealth is owned by the richest ten per cent of Canadians while the poorest ten per cent see their debt levels grow. The survey said, " Most Canadians feel they are living paycheque to paycheque, saving less, and falling further behind." The most telling comment was, " After three years of modest improvements in Canadians’ attitudes towards their finances, this year’s results represented a fairly significant reversal." This shows once again that while sometimes things can be relatively good under capitalism, it won’t last long! Insecurity is the name of the game.

– The federal governing Tories are up to their old tricks again. A left wing think tank that produces an alternative budget every year, The Centre for Policy Alternatives, is the target of tax audits by The Canada Revenue Agency. While the rules state that all charities can be subject to audits, over the last few years, those that disagree with the government or apply for an Access to Information request appear to have received special attention. Like all governments, this one touts its ‘transparency’ at election times. Time to do away with them all and get some real honesty.

– Young migrants trying to get to England race through the streets of Calais when they hear news of a ferry leaving in what Heather Mallick in the Toronto Star (6/09/14) calls ‘the Olympics of Despair’. Police fire water cannons to hold them back because they are trying to do what all human beings do – find food, shelter, and work. Bring on the day when this ugly system that produces such scenes is gone.

– Regular readers of Food for Thought know how gloomy most of the items are because capitalism isn’t exactly ‘the land over the rainbow’. However, here we have some good news – the Bombardier Rail plant strike in Thunder Bay, Ontario, that we have commented on, (see the Fall issue of Imagine, page 4) is over. Their union, Unifor local 1075, claims victory, saying the three-year deal maintains the plant’s defined pension for current and new hires. The company wanted the pension plan to be denied to new hires and retiree benefits to be denied to anyone hired after December 31, 2010. Wages at the plant will remain stable for the first year of the contract with raises of ten cents an hour in each of the following years plus cost of living adjustments. All well and good, one may think, but let’s watch and see if the company sets up a plant somewhere else where wages are lower and the work force is more ‘flexible’ and what happens after three years.

– In an article entitled "What the Poor Need, Business Gets, Edward Keenan (Toronto Star, 06/09/14) tells us that despite food banks, emergency shelters, education, job grants, minimum wages, mental health interventions, etc., we still have poor people and we still have homeless people. But if we give poor people money and if we give homeless people homes, poverty and homelessness would no longer exist. He then asks if this would be an extravagant fantasy, do we have the money? Given that last year the provincial government gave $220 million to a tech company to locate its headquarters here that could have bought a condominium for every person in the city of Toronto counted as sleeping on the street. In the 2014 Liberal budget, a $2.5 billion Jobs and prosperity Fund was announced to give companies grants to create jobs (compared to the $92 million for poverty and homelessness) that would go a long way to fighting poverty. Perhaps a nice idea from a caring person, but we know that it could never happen in the capitalist system but would happen in common ownership/free access society.

– From the industrial revolution to today, people have, through economic and political pressure, been forced off the land their families have lived on for generations. An article in the Toronto Star, September 6, focused on the plight of miners in West Virginia who have become unemployed. This is due to declining reserves, a cheaper influx of competing gas, and environmental regulations. More than 10,000 miners have lost their jobs in the last two years, though the Star says, " Even amid an economic recovery, certain segments of the work force are being shut out." If we are indeed in an economic recovery, one shudders to think what The Star would consider an economic downturn. The United Mineworkers of America have received grants from the Department of Labour to train for work elsewhere. Some can get jobs straightaway in Arizona or New Mexico but don’t want to be uprooted from their homes. The executive director of The West Virginia Centre on Budget and Policy stated, " This is where you grew up. You can fish, you can hunt. Land is cheap. Chances are your grandfather owned that property, so leaving that to go somewhere else, where you’ll be stuck in Toledo, doesn’t sound very attractive." Having traveled through Wrest Virginia, this writer can understand anyone wishing to remain there, but be that as it may, we live under capitalism, shit happens.

– Germany is expecting to generate 30% of its energy from renewables and countries are watching all over the world to see what happens. Many poor countries that had opted for coal fired power generation are thinking again about skipping the fossil age for clean fuel. The consequence is the collapse of profits for power generation. The scramble for better power generation will always be about money in capitalism and never for the greater good of us all.(New York Times)

– A report on child poverty in Toronto, the result of research by a coalition of community activists and social agencies, revealed that the problem had reached epidemic levels – 29% of children, almost 150,000, live in low -income families. Almost 40% of Toronto’s 140 neighbourhoods have child poverty rates of 30% or more. The most disturbing part is that after decreasing from 32% in 2004 to 27% in 2010, it is again on the rise. In such well-to-do neighbourhoods like Leaside and Lawrence Park, it is 5%. The groups in the coalition are pressuring mayoral candidates to sign a pledge in support of the city council’s motion in April to develop a poverty-reduction strategy for Toronto by 2015. Unfortunately, this has been done before with predictable results. Think outside the box – get rid of the cause, capitalism.

– Naomi Klein, the left wing writer has a new book out about climate change (This Changes Everything) in which she pits the climate versus capitalism. So far, so good. As usual, it turns out to be a redistribution of wealth and technology to address core inequalities – an impossibility under the present system, of course.

– Canada lost 111,000 jobs in August according to The Toronto Star’s business section on September 6, but went on to say, " Given other signs the economy is picking up steam – housing sales an starts, along with exports, all rose in July – economists had been forecasting a moderate 10,000 job gain for August." Further down it continues, " A closer look at Friday’s job report shows that full time employment fell for the fourth time in the past five months, by 2,300 net jobs, but part-time employment, that has been an area of strength, also fell by 8,700 jobs last month." So part-time work was an area of strength! Try telling that to those on part-time who have to pay full-time bills. The only area of strength that makes any sense within capitalism is the spread of socialist understanding that aims to abolish it.

– The outbreak of the Ebola virus and the struggle to contain it has been hampered by the usual capitalist problem – lack of funds going to the public good so profits can keep rising. The New York Times (September 14) stated, " The WHO (World Health Organization), assigned in its constitution to direct international health efforts, tackle epidemics, and help in emergencies, has been badly weakened by budget cuts in recent years, hobbling its ability to respond in parts of the world that need it the most. Its outbreak and emergency response units have been slashed, veterans who led previous fights against Ebola and other diseases have left, and scores of positions have been eliminated – precisely the kind of people and efforts that might have helped blunt the outbreak in West Africa before it ballooned into the worst Ebola epidemic ever recorded." If this were the only problem to solve, the fix would be easy – refund the program. Unfortunately, this underlying problem of lack of funding to important social agencies is endemic to the system and the reason we say the system must go.

For socialism , john