SPC Newsletter 1st February

[Socialist Party Head Office]

The Socialist Party of Canada

Secretary's Report for February 1, 2016

Email Report

– WSP India EC meeting minutes received with thanks.

– WSP India Annual Conference and Spring School Schedule received with thanks.

Good of the Movement

– Meeting scheduled for January 28 – see web site for details

– We are accepting submissions and suggestions for the Spring edition of Imagine. Please send to our email address, spc@iname.com.

– One introductory package sent out.

– Annual dues are due. They are the usual $25 and it's what we rely on for funding our activities. Please send them in to head office at The Socialist Party of Canada, PO Box 4280, Victoria, BC V8X 3X8.

Finances

-Secretary's expenses for January, $11.01

Karl's Quotes

– On necessary and surplus labour time, Marx writes, "We started with the supposition that labour-power is bought and sold at its value. Its value, like that of all other commodities, is determined by the working-time necessary to its production. If the production of the average daily means of subsistence of the labour takes up 6 hours, he must work, on the average, 6 hours every day, to produce his daily labour-power, or to reproduce the value received as the result of its sale. The necessary part of his working day amounts to 6 hours, and is, therefore, caeteris paribus, a given quantity. But with this, the extent of the working day itself is not yet given. Let us assume that the line AB represents the length of the necessary working time, say 6 hours. If the labour be prolonged 1, 3, or 6 hours beyond AB we have 3 other lines: A

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B—C, A

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B

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C, A

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B

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C representing 3 different working days of 7, 9, and 12 hours. The extension of the line BC of the line AB represents the length of the surplus-labour. As the working day is A +B+C, or AC, it varies with the variable quantity BC. Since AB is constant, the ratio of BC to AB can always be calculated. In working day 1, it is 1/6, in working day II it is 3/6, and in working day III, 6/6 of AB. Since further, the ratio surplus working-time : necessary working-time determines the rate of surplus-value, the latter is given by the ratio of BC to AB. It amounts in the three working days respectively to 16-2/3%, 50%, and 100%. On the other hand, the rate of surplus-value alone would not give us the extent of the working-day. If this rate, e.g., were 100%, the working-day might be of 8, 10, or 12 hours, or more hours. It would indicate that the two constituent parts of the working-day, necessary-labour and surplus-labour time, were equal in extent, but not how long each of these two constituent parts was." (Capital Volume I as reported in "The Marx-Engels Reader, second edition"). The reduction of the necessary time is the process of productivity and can be as little as one hour or less today. In other words, we work the vastly greater part of the day for profit's sake!

Food For Thought

– A while back, many economists thought that BRIC (an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, and China) would soon be the leading and most prosperous capitalist states. However, under capitalism prosperity is fleeting, especially for the workers, and, as far as Brazil is concerned, there is already trouble in paradise. It's economy lost one million jobs last year; police clash with students on the streets of Sao Paulo over school closings; the president, Dilma Rousseff is facing impeachment proceedings owing to accusations she used funds from state banks to cover budget shortfalls; the speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, who started the impeachment proceedings, is fighting calls to resign over undisclosed Swiss bank accounts and charges that he accepted millions of dollars in bribes in connection with Petrobras, the state oil company. Forty per cent of the 594 members of congress are facing charges of one type of or another. Four members of the highest court in the land are under investigation. Isn't capitalism wonderful?

– Countries are becoming increasingly walled in. At the end of WWII, the number of borders blocked by fences and walls could be counted on one hand. Today, sixty-five borders are sealed off. Republican candidate in the US, Donald Trump has endorsed completing a fence between his country and Mexico, a distance of 3,200 kilometres. Many European countries are erecting razor wire to keep migrants fleeing war, oppression, and poverty out. In capitalism, this could be a good thing as the shares in and production of wire takes off. Let the concept of one world, one people become a reality asap.

– While business interests may be salivating over Iran's re-emergence into the world economic community, especially over oil and the aircraft industry, a large area in southern Iran is experiencing a severe seven-year drought. Seventy per cent of Iran's ground water has been used up in the last fifty years and drying rivers and desertification of lakes is common. While much will be made of the oil and its potential for profit, little seems to be done about the water crisis. It is a problem that needs urgent world-wide attention, the type of solutions that can never materialize in a divided and competitive world.

– Meanwhile, in Western China, scientists are busy tracking the melt rate of the Mengke glacier. Between 2005 and 2014, the glacier melted 16.5 meters a year, twice the average rate of the previous decade. This is causing the opposite effect to that in Iran, i.e., too much water causing floods, erosion, and mud slides. Temperatures in China are expected to rise 1.3 to 5 degrees Celcius by the end of the century, faster than the global average. Between 2008 and 2010, sixty-two per cent of Chinese cities experienced flooding. As above, the solution is well beyond the scope of one country.

– An SPCer recently asked a friend whose daughter had graduated from Ryerson University, Toronto, how she was doing. He said she works in human resources and is the only one in her department that the company has not yet fired. Each individual is required to train someone in India through the internet to do their job. When training is completed, the trainer is fired. However, the company isn't all bad – they send the ex-employee home in a taxi. The moral is to expect the worst under capitalism and it will happen!

– A member recently attended a party where a guest was showing on his computer that, because of the CO2 we are putting in the atmosphere, the air could be unbreatheable in fifty years (try telling that to the inhabitants of Beijing or New Delhi – its unbreatheable now!) It may have been an overstatement but the message is clear – abolish capitalism before it abolishes humanity!

– Maybe not an overstatement – The Toronto Star (Jan 2 2016) contained an article, "In China, India, Pollution is the Price of Growth." New Delhi's highest court gave a directive on December 3, ordering the Indian capital to immediately devise a plan to reduce severe levels of air pollution in the city, saying, "It seems like we are living in a gas chamber." In China, an estimated 1.6 million die prematurely each year from air pollution, or 4,400 people a day, seventeen per cent of all deaths.

– And if that's not enough poison, there is always the water. In Flint, Michigan, the city decided to switch water sources from the Detroit system to use the Flint River instead for financial reasons. Unfortunately, there was inadequate water treatment for water from the river and lead leached from the old pipes. Officials of the city were aware of the problem long before it became obvious but kept quiet! Not surprisingly, lead levels in children were found to be elevated. Municipal services around the world continue to deteriorate while profits continue to rise. In other words, our economy is ever larger and the portion going to the vast majority is ever smaller.

– Here's another marker of capitalism – the same issue of the paper reported on Donald Trump and his former debt. In 1991, Trump had $900 million in personal liabilities and his corporate debt ran into the billions. The New York Times noted, "Having billions of dollars of debt is a powerful bargaining chip." One could only say that in a lunatic economy!

– We are frequently seeing an advertisement on TV to boost membership in C.A.R.P. (Canadian Association of Retired Persons). The ad shows an old man faced with a terrible dilemma – he has to choose between buying food or the medicine he needs. CARP may protest this situation vigorously but it would be insane to think they can solve the guy's problem. Under capitalism, only money counts, human needs do not. Let's work for a society where food and medicine and other needs are freely available to all.

– Another of capitalism's wonderful necessities is war. The New York Times book review of the Iran-Iraq conflict of the 1980s ("The Iran-Iraq War" by Peter Razoux) tells us that the eight-year conflict killed one million people. In one brief offensive in 1983, the Iranians are believed to have sustained 7,000 dead; thousands of men were electrocuted while wading across a swamp; Saddam Hussein sacrificed a whole battalion to test out a new nerve gas; the Ayatollah Khomeini ordered a southern Iraq city to be 'a Persian Stalingrad'; Hussein commissioned a toy company to manufacture gold-colored plastic keys that children could wear around their necks "as a reminder that their detonation by mines or slaughter by machine gun fire would unlock the gates of paradise." Clearly we are still in a very primitive state when lunatics like this can command and rule a country. Only a social and political revolution will rid the world of this type of behaviour.

– If you think things could not get worse, economically, just reflect on these three cheering captions from the Toronto Star of December 30 – "Dupont will cut 1,700 jobs in its home state of Delaware and thousands more globally as it prepares for its merger with Dow Chemical", "If the trans-Pacific Partnership is ratified in 2016 it could lead to the loss of 20,000 jobs in Canada",. Those who think they have a secure job aren't getting off lightly, either. The University of Guelph's food institute said that with rising food costs and the sinking loonie, the average household in Canada will see an increase of $345 on their grocery expenditure in 2016. So, Crappy New Year, everybody. There is no such thing as security for the worker in capitalism where profit trumps people every time.

– Three cheers for McDonald's Restaurants. Across Asia, in many big cities, the twenty-four hour restaurants have become home to an underclass of homeless people. Mr. Ding in Beijing said he liked the warmth and peace of McDonald's where he has lived for several years. He commented, "My family has begged for food since the Ming Dynasty." By night, the restaurants become sanctuaries of the downtrodden who pounce on half-eaten hamburgers and stale fries. A spokesperson for the global chain said that McDonald's welcomes everyone to visit our restaurants anytime. So you see corporations do have a heart and capitalism takes care of everybody in its own special way (???)

– Once again the power of capital and the scramble to claim as much as possible of it has raised its ugly head, this time in the plains of Tanzania. Dr. Craig Packer, one of the world's foremost authorities on African lions, has run The Serengeti Lion project. His work on animal behaviour has shaped much of the world's scientific thinking regarding the big cats. But the esteemed scientist ran afoul of the Tanzanian wild life officials who withdrew his research permit accusing him of 'tarnishing the image of the government of Tanzania' by making derogatory statements about the trophy hunting industry in emails. Dr. Packer has been trying to get new laws to protect the animals for decades. Now, however, he has clashed with the interests of big money in the trophy industry. Profits before science is as insidious as profits before people, it seems. Making money never let truth and science get in the way!

– Toronto's city council may shut down two 24-hour drop-in centres for the homeless because of budgetary concerns. One councillor said that the centres are needed for the people on the streets and council cannot let them down. Good to see someone standing up for those in need but we all have to realize that money for social programs comes from profits and therefore is kept to the bare minimum. Better to aim for a society where such needs are non existent and free access to all we need is in place for all.

– Just as in the Arctic, the sharks are circling Antarctica. It's not just for scientists now. Although there is a treaty banning mining on Antarctica, a continent larger than Europe, many nations are getting ready by establishing bases. Russia has built an Orthodox Church there (maybe recruiting penguins for the pews!) and has blocked efforts to create one of the world's largest ocean sanctuaries. India, Turkey, China and Iran have all built or will build bases there and it's not for the sunshine. The sub heading to the title of the article in The New York Times says it all, "Nations Compete on a Continent rich in Oil, Gas, and Minerals." Since the days of the great explorations in the sixteenth century, competing nations have carved up the earth for their capitalists to benefit from the riches available and been ready to go to war for it. It's more than past due to put into reality the common sense idea that the worldès resources belong to everyone on Earth.

 

For socialism, Steve and John

　

　

　

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