SPC Newsletter 1st Aug 2016

[Socialist Party Head Office]

The Socialist Party of Canada

Secretary's Report for August 2016

Email Report

– WSP (India) EC meeting minutes of July 2016 received with thanks. The WSP (India) reports it is continuing to upload on the free web-service Academia.edu.

– Please note the Socialist Party of Canada's new mail address is now: PO Box 31024,Victoria, British Columbia, Canada,V8N 6J3.

Good of the Movement

– Welcoming two new members, Larry Tickner (a long time SPC member reinstating), and Richard Pearce.

– One introductory package and two membership application questionnaires sent out.

– Southern Ontario (Toronto Branch) July socialist meeting held. Toronto members will also be attending Toronto's book fair, “Word on the Street,” in late September.

– Toronto Branch email (new) June 2016: spctorontobranch@gmail.com

– Summer socialist discussion meetings (Toronto) – see our web site for details.

– Social(ist) media ad hoc committee: two additional members joining to work and advise on new Facebook, gmail, Google hangouts, Tweet, and YouTube accounts.

– September Google Hangouts ad hoc meeting proposed. Members wishing to participate and add suggestions to this meeting with the ad hoc committee members please let us know at spc@iname.com to add you to the list.

– Discussion of party app – seeking member volunteer(s) to advise and create.

– Spring issue of Imagine available – http://www.worldsocialism.org/canada/

– S. Shenfield WSPUS: new socialist education website – http://www.whatissocialism.net/

Finances

– Expenses: Introductory package (hard copy) photocopying, envelopes, postage: total $3.75.

Outstanding Constitutional matter: Members, we need to collectively decide when we will be running our headquarter location and future General Administrative Committee-elect election. A conference call amongst ourselves could facilitate this and future elections.

Our Constitution reads: That every two years, in even numbered years, headquarter's location and General Administrative Committee-elect be determined by Party Conference or general vote of the membership, as per Rule 17 (a), (b), (c), (d).

Secretary's recommendation: All Party members should guide this process by close of summer September 21, 2016 so the election of these internal, housekeeping matters can take place.

Note: Our Constitution calls for elections in first half of December, terms beginning the first of January following, about five months from now.

Food For Thought

• • There's not a lot of wonderful things happening lately. In Britain the Brexit vote caused stock markets to plunge trillions of dollars. Five cops were shot dead in Dallas. Suicide bombers killed 36 at Istanbul airport. In the U.S. they seem ready to elect a racist moron as president. In Venezuela starving people were shot dead as they stormed grocery stores to get food which their fellow working class people produced. In Africa and Asia women are being violated by the armies of war lords. Global warming continues unabated. Doesn't it occur to anyone that something is fundamentally wrong in society and that being such something should be done about it – fundamentally.

• • The vote in Britain to leave the E.U., in other words Brexit, caused a variety of reactions. Let us, dear reader, look at some.

Many who voted in favour of leaving, did so because of the insular British fear of foreigners. As one so delicately put it, “We don't want no more bloody foreigners coming 'ere taking our jobs.” Yet most of their fellow members of the working class who have emigrated there are from commonwealth countries. Furthermore it's been clearly shown where there is high unemployment immigrants reduce it. They have the same needs as everybody else.

One Muslim writer in the Toronto Sun, June 28th, thought some who voted leave, were worried terrorists might come into Britain, if they stayed. Some voted leave because they said: “Why should we take orders from Brussels? We want to take them from London.” As if it matters who exploits a worker. Mostly his/her orders will be from the bosses' office.

The majority of the leave vote was cast by the older people who were retired, or didn’t have long to go. This angered the young who felt they wouldn't be able to work in the E.U.

In Scotland, where 62 per cent voted to stay, there is talk of another referendum on whether or not to stay in the U.K.

The Toronto Star of July 9th reported the Canadian government are now worried the trade deal that they had been recently negotiated with the E.U. will not go through.

In the Toronto Metro News of June 27th, it said Britons who had businesses in Europe were worried about losing them. As one pub owner in Spain said, “we're very scared, because I've been here 23 years. I've got my house, my kids were born here, they went to a British-Spanish school, I've got a bar, I've got a lot to lose.”

In the same newspaper a young Canadian woman in London, whose goal was to acquire an E.U. Passport, thought she wouldn't be allowed to work there. To quote, “I cried. It just signals a society that is full of fear and intolerance and hate and no longer aligns to my personal values.” Those feelings certainly played a part in the leave vote, especially as the fascist U.K.I.P. were extremely vocal in favour of leaving, as were many parties on the left, 14 in fact. So one must clearly wonder if there is any differences between parties of the left and right, especially when they all stand for the continuation of capitalism.

Though we don't know how this whole matter will play out regarding the details, we can be sure it will still be business as usual for the capitalist class, which means continuing exploitation and poverty for the working class.

The effects of Brexit were immediate, causing trillions of dollars, pounds, yen and marks to be lost on the world's stock markets. Look at all the above and what does it show? Problems for most people. If any find themselves better off, it will only be marginally so.

All of the above problems can be swept away easily as anything by the establishment of a society without markets, without buying and selling, without money, where we would all be better off. So why not vote to leave capitalism, to leave it behind.

• • Climate change has claimed its first victim!

Australia researchers said rising sea levels have wiped out a rodent that lived on the Great Coral Reef. The Bramble Cay melomys was so called because it lived on Bramble Cay, an atoll on the northern part of of the reef. The seawater destroyed the animal's habitat and food source. So destruction of species has begun and will until we do something about it – and “we” doesn't include capitalists who pussyfoot around with their treaties which, as the most, slow it down. Each group of politicians are responsible to the capitalist class of their countries, all of which want the maintenance (an ironic word) of capitalism because it simply means profit. Only an economic system which doesn't contain the profit system can stop and reverse the effects of global warming.

• • An article in the Toronto Star of June 18th focused on just how insane things can get under capitalism. Lulu Island is a five kilometre long, man made island running along the coast of Abu Dhabi. In the 1980's Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer planned to make it a leisure park. His planned attractions included an aquarium, conference centre and marina. None of these were built and when plans to build them were revived they were quashed by the economic downturn. Now the place is closed to the public.This doesn't mean its uninhabited. No sir. We live under capitalism where anything is possible. It's home to 165 stray cats. According to Susan Aylutt, who leads the aid group, Animal Welfare Abu Dhabi, “the flora and fauna live in harmony with each other and everything lives in harmony with the cats.” Let's just be pleased that somewhere there is harmony under capitalism.

• • On June 20th the United Nations Refugee Agency released their annual global trends report which contained the startling news that 65.3 million people have been forcibly removed from their homes. This is an all time high record and it means one in every 113 people is a refugee. The causes are due to ongoing persecution, human rights violations and war. In 2015 more than 1 million reached Europe, fleeing conflict and persecution in Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan.

If this 65.3 million were a nation it would be the 21st largest in the world. It doesn't take a genius to figure that it is difficult, to say the least, for the governments who accept them to find them jobs and homes. Though this is bad news, don't be glum chum 'cos the good news outweighs it. For years people have been telling me that if a socialist society were established it would soon degenerate into chaos. So lets be of good cheer and be glad we live under dear old capitalism, with all is minor faults like the above war, global warming, destruction of the environment – meaning land, sea, air, and rivers – unemployment, genocide, poverty, famine, epidemics, breakdown of the family life, high suicide rate, etc. Etc. Just think of it – if we lived in a socialist world, we would really have problems – life might be chaotic!

• • Ottawa is investing an extra $606,000 to create more summer jobs in Toronto neighbourhoods plagued by a recent spike in gun violence. The money, they think, will create 105 jobs for youth between the ages of 15 and 20 in the city's troubled northeast area. In 2013 there were 22 gun deaths for the entire year. There were 27 each in 2011, 2014, and last year. This year there were 10 in January alone, and so far have been 22. The thinking is, “Poverty creates crime, so if we can find them jobs there will be less crime.” Once again the political upholders of capitalism squirm to get out of a mess caused by the very effects of an economic system so dear to their hearts. The most they can achieve is to slightly reduce poverty and crime. What about an economic system where neither exist.

• • An article in the Canadian Jewish News of June 23rd mentioned the plight of the Yazidis, and ethnic group whose existence most people aren't aware of. 750 years ago there were 23 million Yazidis. Now there are 2 million, half of whom are living in the middle east, mostly Iraq. Their religion does not allow them to kill anyone unless that person is on their doorstep, by which time it's too late. This certainly explains why, in the volatile middle east, their ranks have grown thinner.

According to reporter, Michael Diamond, the Yazidis are “. . . . under constant attack. Their men are being killed off, their boys kidnapped and forced into becoming Jihadists, their women and girls, raped and enslaved, by ISIS and other radical(?) Islamists who regard them as the worst from of infidels.”

Diamond shows clearly the governments of the world are doing next to squat to help them. The Canadiangovernment is the best of a bad bunch by allowing entry into Canada of a grand total of nine – nine! When did the capitalist class and its political stooges give a damn about human suffering?

One's mind recoils in horror at such atrocities and asks, when will it all end? The answer will not be found within the present day society whose very nature pits man against man. Only when the world's working class realize they have no enemy, including the capitalist class, but do have and enemy in the capitalist system and work for its abolition, will such atrocities stop.

• • As we are all aware over the last 30 years the governments of the major industrialized countries have, little by little, taken away many of the gains in rights and benefits workers fought for years to achieve. Typical examples are Thatcher's assaults on the unions and watering down of medicare in the U.K. The Harris government in Ontario bringing back the 60 hour work week which an employer can force someone to work. The Bush government's blatant introduction of laws to violate the average citizens' privacy.

Nor is it governments alone stealing workers rights. Many companies have shipped their manufacturing plants to third world countries where people will work for less and are more quiescent. Besides creating unemployment at home it dilutes the power of the unions and reduces the percentage of workers belonging to unions. More companies employ temps who work for less with no job security or benefits, some employ “interns” who they don't even pay.

So it should not be surprising that the powers that be should begin to reduce workers electoral rights. An article in June's Socialist Standard, the journal of our companion party in the U.K., focused on such actions in the U.S. http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb

According to author ALJO, it applies to “those without I.D.s, those convicted of crimes, those that need to work, those that can't afford childcare, those that can't travel, and often this disenfranchisement is deliberate” — no kidding! Also, “the American Civil Liberties Union noted new restrictions on voting will affect up to 80 million . . .” 

In some states it costs $25 bucks to get I.D. Imagine an unemployed guy, whose wife works for a pittance at Walmart, paying $25 to vote if the kids are starving – fat chance. Some states say a birth certificate will be O.K., but not everyone has them and again one has to buy them. There are other restrictions, and the curious are advised to ALJO's article, but one fact is crystal clear, none of this affects the wealthy.

Nowhere at any time has the vote been handed to the working class on a plate. In the states it was a bribe offered by the emerging capitalist class, if the fledgling working class (mostly farmers) would fight for them, in their attempts, to drive out the British. From the start of the Chartist Movement in the U.K. in the 1830s, until women got the vote on equal terms with men in 1928, there were a near century of partial victories, each grudgingly given.

There is no reason to think this is as far as it will go. If the capitalist class succeed in the U.S. others willfollow suit. Our critics on the left will sneer and say, “see we told you socialism could not be established through the franchise. If the capitalist class thinks it necessary they will suspend the ballot.” They might, but if they do, the working class can organize their own ballot and present it to the capitalists as “fait accompli.”

One thing's for sure, when enough people become socialists, nothing the capitalists can do will avail them.

• • Recently many mourned the passing of Muhammad Ali. With his incredible speed, footwork, and coordination Ali cut through his opponents like butter and won the world's heavyweight title. He defended it many times brilliantly and was, in the early days of his reign, the personification of the great American (hence capitalist) dream. One thing about dreams is eventually one has to awake from them. Ali got hooked up with the Black Muslims who leeched off of him and made him fight for at least six years past his best. After the “Thrilla in Manilla” against Joe Frazier in 1975, it would have been time to retire, however he was good propaganda material for the emerging black capitalists and had about 100 people living off him. 

At the end Ali was a pathetic shadow of what he had been; too many blows to the head had taken their toll. Near the end he couldn’t speak and his fortune was gone. Muhammad Ali was a man who lived first the dream and then the nightmare – in that sense perhaps he was the most single representative American in recent history.

• • The Associated Press announced on July 9th the British government is lifting a ban on women serving in front line combat in the army. David Cameron said, “It's vital that our armed forces are first class and reflect the society we live in.” They already do Dave – a horribly violent one!

So what a wonderful thing for equality between the sexes – women are now free to participate with men in killing fellow members of the working class to defend and further their bosses' interests. There is only one kind of equality worth fighting for – a society where everyone will stand equal in relation too the means of life.

• • At the NATO leaders summit conference in Poland on July 8th Prime Minister Trudeau said that he would send 1000 Canadian troops to Latvia. Germany, the U.S. and U.K. are also sending troops to Poland, Lithuania and Estonia. They all say they will stay as long as necessary. This is in response to a military threat from Russia, which the Russians have denied (no kidding). To sum up – the Cold War has begun again. That's what I like about capitalism – nothing changes.

• • Canadian manufacturing lost 13,000 jobs in June with a complete loss of 30,000 over the last year, according to statistics Canada’s latest report, July 8th. As always the apologists for capitalism try to put a brave spin on things. The report said, “the loonie took a hit again on the back of the weak jobs report. Increased demand for Canadian goods caused by the cheap dollar, economists believe, will eventually boost the long-suffering manufacturing sector and recoup factory jobs.” So far there is little evidence to suggest that will happen.

And how about this beaut from Ontario's Finance Minister Charles Sousa: “Despite the slight decline in the last months job numbers for the province is on the right track.” He didn't say what he meant by right track, because any track the political upholders of capitalism are on leads nowhere.

It's time for these people to face the truth, which is capitalism is a market economy which cannot be controlled and the only way to eradicate the problems it causes is to abolish it.

Karl's Quotes

In June media coverage was given to the attempts, largely successful, of the Canadian mining company Hudbay to drive Native Indians off their land in Guatemala so they could mine nickel there. There is nothing new in this type of thing, but why should one froth on when Marx said it better?

 

“Another point which has not received enough attention in the history of manufacturing industry is the disbanding of the numerous retainers of the feudal landlords. The lower grades of these retainers became vegabonds before going into the workshops. The creation of the workshops was preceded, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by almost universal vegabondage. Another powerful aid to the workshops was provided by the large number of peasants who, driven from the land by the conversion of fields to pastures, and by the progress of agriculture for cultivation, flocked into towns during whole centuries. The expansion of the market, the accumulation of capital, the changes in the social position of different classes, a multitude of people who found themselves deprived of their source of income: these were so many historical conditions for the establishment of manufacture.”

The Poverty of Philosophy (1847)

For socialism, Steve and John.

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