SPC Secretary’s Report, Feb 1 and March 1, 2015

The Socialist Party of Canada

Secretary's Report, Feb 1 and March 1, 2015

Email Report

– WSP New Zealand GAC minutes for December received with thanks.

– WSP India EC minutes for January and February received with thanks.

Good of The Movement

– We are preparing the Spring edition of Imagine. Any suggestions or articles are welcome.

– Dues for 2015 are due. Please send yours in to head office, Victoria.

– Hopefully, the winter weather will have abated soon. Look for a March meeting notice for Toronto.

– One New Member questionnaire successfully completed. We welcome Thomas Troughton of Alberta to the party.

– One Introductory package sent out.

Finances

– Secretary's expenses for January/February, $34.65

Karl's Quotes

– On the economic beginnings of Capitalism, Marx writes, “Landed property presupposes that certain persons enjoy the monopoly of disposing of particular portions of the globe as exclusive spheres of their private will to the exclusion of all others. Once this is given, it is a question of developing the economic value of this monopoly, i.e. valorizing it, on the basis of capitalist production. Nothing is settled with the legal power of these persons to use and misuse certain portions of the globe. The use of this power depends entirely on economic conditions, which are independent of their wills. The legal conception itself means nothing more than the landowner can behave in relation to the land just as any commodity owner can with his commodities; and this idea – the legal notion of free private landed property – arises in the ancient world only at the dissolution of the organic social order, and arises in the modern world only with the development of capitalist production. In Asia, it has simply been imported here and there by the Europeans. In the section on 'Primitive accumulation (Vol 1, Part we saw how this mode of production presupposes on the one hand that the direct producers are freed from the position of a mere appendage of the soil (in the form of bondsmen, serfs, slaves, etc.) and on the other hand the expropriation of the mass of people from the land. To that extent, the monopoly of landed property is a historical precondition for the capitalist mode of production and remains its permanent foundation, as with all previous modes of production based on the exploitation of the masses in one form or another.” (Capital, Vol III, pages 753/754). thus we need to get control of the legislative machinery to get rid of this system.

Food For Thought

– On January 10, it was widely reported in the media that a Saudi Arabian activist had received fifty lashes in a public square in Jeddah. This was the first instalment of a thousand lash sentence to be given weekly over the next five months. He will also serve ten years in prison. His 'crime' was running a web site that criticized senior religious figures in the country that, they claim, violated Islamic values. One can hardly comprehend how humiliating a public flogging must be for anyone. This just goes to show that no matter how technically advanced we have become. Life doesn't really change for many people.. Human rights continue to be trampled on and medieval forms of punishment to cow the working class still exist. Human rights violations can only be addressed in a common ownership society.

– “For Latin America, Growth trumps Climate” states the headline in The New York Times of December 28. It is a statement that says everything about capitalism and the environment. Not only has this mode of production ignored the needs of protecting fragile environments in the pursuit of profit, but now that the damage is beyond repair, it still does not care. The Latin American countries are a case in point. Desperate to catch up to Northern standards and stunned by the recent recession that has stalled that goal, their leaders (and capitalist class) are damned sure they are not going to let a little thing like climate get in their way. Brazil, for example, refuses to protect its indigenous forest and even offers a tax break for those who replace native trees with the more lucrative Caribbean pine and eucalyptus. This is another indication that we must stop this system and the sooner the better.

– Meanwhile, the recent climate meetings in Peru agreed at the last second that two degrees of warming above pre- industrial times is the boundary that needs to be kept. It was preliminary language to be finalized next year and the same that was proposed four years ago and was first proposed in the 1970s. Still we wait action!

– The Ebola crisis should have been easy to handle. Basically, the resources and infrastructure needed to combat it are lacking in vast areas of the world. This is the result of an economic system that creates haves and have nots. A reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone reports that a clinic there that he visited was more like a nurses office with only medicines that could be purchased over the counter in any drugstore and no computer screen blinking away. The virus, he reports is usually shockingly simple to treat despite its horror film reputation. An American infectious disease doctor in New Orleans was quoted as saying, “ It's not rocket science, Ebola is as much about logistics as medicine. The key to defeating it is enough ambulances, enough beds, and a competent way to identify sick people, get them into care quickly before they infect others and then replenish the fluids they lose because of the virus. Obviously, capitalism does not operate on logic!

– American retailer Target came to Canada gung-ho to kick Walmart's ass and is now leaving with its tail between its legs. Yet apologists for capitalism (and we know it needs apologizing for!) tell us that competition is healthy and we all benefit from it – like the 16,000 employees that are being laid off as one hundred and thirty-three stores close, to say nothing about the loss of shopping choice. And we should not forget that when Target took over the Zellers' stores they pink-slipped 27,000 Zellers' workers. As things turned bad for the company, CEO Stienhafel was jetisoned last year but don't feel too sorry for him being the scapegoat, he got $61 million US for his pain and suffering!

– Actor Nicholas Cage recently bought a dinosaur skull for $US one million. Many will wonder about what the million could have been used for such as feeding the hungry but socialists say why is there hunger in the first place, a system with so much inequality needs to be abolished.

– On January 24, The Toronto Star reported that a couple that they called Bob and Brenda, who were approaching retirement in 2007, went to a financial adviser for help. He suggested that they open a home equity line of credit for several hundred thousand dollars with the proceeds to be invested in mutual funds. Furthermore, the grand plan was for Bob to cash out his company pension and invest that as well. The couple were assured that the pay off would be greater than the monthly pension Bob would receive at retirement. As you can guess, the happy couple were wiped out in the crash of 2008. If Warren Buffet says he doesn't know how the stock market will perform, how does anyone else? This tragedy has been and will continue to be repeated over and over. The one certain thing about capitalism is its uncertainty.

– McDonald's, the world's largest hamburger chain, reported falling profits for the last quarter in 2013. This, they said, was caused by economic uncertainty (no kidding!), a food safety scandal in China, and the changing taste of diners. Their executives have risen to the challenge by not opening as many restaurants as planned. Thus many workers will remain unemployed who could otherwise be working for a minimum wage. Yet another example that we, the workers, have to rely on the investment of capital for our jobs and livelihoods. Why wait any longer – look for change.

– The Canadian Government is planning to build a memorial to the victim's of communism. A letter to the Toronto Star commented, “A national Memorial to the Victims of Communism has no place anywhere near Parliament Hill. First of all, communism's ideals – i.e. citizens giving according to their abilities and receiving according to their needs – are laudable. Communism has been proposed and tried, but it has never seen the light of day…the C-word should be changed to Totalitarianism.” We can agree with that, but how about the victims of capitalism – too many names to get on the great wall of China?

– The New York Times reported (Dec 7 2015) that the amount of food lost or wasted amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year, enough to feed the world's population. The idea of the article is to set up sites for food sharing, as Germany apparently has done. Sounds like an idea but the old culprit, capitalist production, escapes again without being mentioned.

– India, according to the pundits, is rapidly emerging as a capitalist super power and therefore its capitalist class want it to be super armed. According to the Washington Post, 14% of all global arm sales go to India who is due to spend $130 billion US on arms in the next seven years. There is a newly increased limit of 49% on foreign investment in the defence industry to encourage sales. On the domestic front, companies had their licence requirements eased to encourage the development of weapons. All this is logical within capitalism's illogical standards. The Indian capitalist class need heavily armed forces drawn from the working class) to protect the wealth they have stolen from the working class (See the irony here?) in case of war over markets and raw materials with other capitalist powers, including some who have sold them the arms to make a profit! Logical?

– In the same country, New Delhi is battling pollution that is so high that foreign embassies are purchasing high end air purifiers to put in employees' homes and the wearing of white masks is becoming as common as in Beijing. Trouble is the government is trying hard to reboot the economy and double the use of coal over the next five years. Delhi's air is the most toxic in the world, in part because because the particulate matter is so small that it penetrates deeply into the lungs and because the burning of garbage, diesel fuel, and coal results in high amounts of toxins such as sulphur, dioxins, and other carcinogenic compounds. Already, an estimated 1.5 million people die in India every year as a result of pollution, about one sixth of the total. Only an insane system would allow such nonsense to continue.

– The overuse of antibiotics over the last few decades is well documented and is known to cause the rise of superbugs. A new strain, NDM1 has arisen in India with tens of thousands of children born with bacterial infections that are resistant to antibiotics. 58,000 died last year and there are indications the bug is spreading around the world. The US and the European Union experience about 25,000 deaths each annually from the same cause. Although efforts are being made to reduce the use of antibiotics, as usual, attempts to close the gate are after the horse has bolted. In a sane world an overall authority such as the UN with real powers would be monitoring such situation from the start and adjusting where and when necessary. Global cooperation under capitalism is still primitive.

– In the good news department, Costa Rica is in the process of regrowing its ancient forest to create carbon sinks to combat global warming. Brazil and Indonesia are making moves to follow suit. This should be a world wide strategy among many others.

– The Toronto Star reported on January 17^th, that 2014 was the hottest year on record. Global temperatures were 0.69 degrees higher than the 20^th. Century average and 0.04 degrees higher than the previous record set in 2005 and 2010. The ten warmest years on record have all occurred since 1997. The news came one day after climate change researchers warned that human activities have pushed the planet to the brink.

– The crossing from North Africa to Europe continues to be a death sentence for many desperate migrants. The deaths are largely predictable and preventable, reports the New York Times of February 22. This year is already shaping up to be worse than last year when 3,200 died on the crossing the Mediterranean on the way to Europe. The ruthless smugglers take some blame but it is the lack of a proper program by the European Union countries that shoulder the greatest blame. British Prime Minister David Cameron's attitude is typical – that if migrants know they are likely to die in the process, they will not set out for Europe. We look forward, as I am sure the migrants would, to the day when we live in a borderless world and anyone can travel and work wherever they choose.

– Greece is in the financial news again and it's the same as before – the imminent bankruptcy of the country. Loans are forthcoming if the Greek government is willing to agree to implement austerity measures that usually target the poor and those in need of assistance. Although the new Greek prime minister and his party won recent elections on the basis of a promise to abolish austerity, the government has bent temporarily to the demands of the country's financial masters. In other words, no matter who runs the country, or any other country for that matter, governments are ruled by capital – that's why we call it capitalism, isn't it? Capital dominates everything.

Reading Notes

– “ It was in the old days, a long time ago, after the clans was broken and scattered at the battle on the moors, and the dead men thrown into the long graves there, and no heather ever grew on those places, never again, for it was dark places they had become and places of mourning. Then, in those days, a darkness fell over all the lands and the crofts of Sutherland. The Bitch-Dutchess was living there then, and it was she who cast a darkness over the land, and sowed the darkness and reaped the gold, for her heart was dark as the feathers of a raven and her heart was cold as the gold coins, and she loved no creature alive but only the gold. And her tacksmen rode through the countryside, setting fire to the crofts and turning out the people from their homes which they had lived in since the beginning of all time. And it was old men and old women with thin shanks and men in their prime and women with the child inside them and a great scattering of small children, like, and all of them was driven away from the lands of their fathers and onto the wild rocks of the shore, then, to fish if they could and pry the shellfish off the rocks there, for food. Well, now, the Bitch-Dutchess walked her castle, there, walked and walked, and you would think God in His mercy would keep the sleep forever from her eyelids, but she slept sound enough when she had a mind to. She was not the one to feel shame or remorse over the people scrabbling over the rocks there like animals and like the crabs who crawl among the rocks in that place. All the lands of Sutherland will be raising the sheep, says the she-devil, for they'll pay better than folk.” An account of the highland clearings from “The Diviners” by Margaret Laurence.

For socialism, John and Steve