SPC Report 1 January 2014

[Socialist Party Head Office]

                                            The Socialist Party of Canada

 

Secretary’s Report for January 1, 2014

 

Email Report

–          Minutes of the GAC meeting of WSPNZ for October received with

thanks.

–          Communication from Bigboy Musema re the state of slavery in the

world today and calling for its abolition (as would naturally happen with the establishment of socialism.

 

Good of the Movement

–          Four introductory packages sent out.

–          Welcome to new member Meghann Coughlan from BC.

–          Party dues are due in January or as soon as you can – still only $25 (just $2 per month), it’s what we rely on to keep the party running. Thanks.

 

Finances

–          Secretary’s expenses for November, $26.49. A literature order and $50 donation received with thanks.

 

Karl’s Quotes

–          On productivity, Marx writes, “ The value of a commodity is determined

by the total labour-time contained in it, both past and living. The rise in labour productivity consists precisely in the fact that the share of living labour is reduced and that of the past labour increased, but in such a way that the total sum of labour contained in the commodity declines; in other words the living labour declines by more than the past labour increases. The past labour embodied in the value of a commodity – the constant portion of capital – consists partly of the wear and tear of the fixed capital and partly of the circulating constant capital that goes completely into the commodity; raw and ancillary materials. The portion of value deriving from raw and ancillary materials must fall with the [rising] productivity of labour, since, as far as these materials go, this productivity is precisely expressed in the fact that their value has fallen. And yet it is precisely a characteristic of rising labour productivity that the fixed portion of the constant capital should experience a very sharp increase and with this also the portion of value that it transfers to the commodity as wear and tear. For a new method of production to prove itself as a genuine advance in productivity, it must transfer a smaller additional share to the individual commodity for depreciation of the fixed capital than the portion of value that is deducted because less living labour is spared; it must in other words reduce the value of the commodity.” (Capital Volume III, pages 369/370). This process is a key to successful capitalist production – the constant striving for productivity to reap not just surplus-value but relative surplus value in addition, i.e. that s-v that is won by the first enterprise to use particular method of production before his competitors catch up. It is just one more alienation of labour from the product.

 

Food For Thought

–          “Taxi dispatching is a vanishing job” said Workopolis that based

its findings on evolving technology. Jim Bell, the president of Diamond Taxi, ‘credits’ the automated system with, “…more efficiency. We are able to match up a customer and a driver much quicker. Also on Workopolis’s endangered list are grocery cashiers, postal workers, word processors/typists, and social media experts. Evolving technology that in s socialist society would mean greater leisure time for all, is, under capitalism, a means of throwing people out of work to reduce labour costs and greater profits.

–          In the year since the shootings at Sandy Hook elementary school,

twenty-five more school shootings have occurred killing seventeen and wounding twenty-four. No progress whatsoever has been made in tightening gun laws due to the power of the gun lobby, but eighty state laws to arm school staff have been passed. Sounds like a good business proposition for the gun manufacturers, arming even more people.

–          A study on global pensions by The Organization for Economic

Co-operation and Development (What? Co-operation within capitalism?) concluded that Canadians over sixty-five are well-off compared to most others in the thirty-four-country group of advanced economies. The average poverty rate for seniors in Canada was 7.2% which was among the ten lowest and better than the 12.8% average. The inference is that for this the Canadian seniors should be grateful, or, perhaps, we should create more poverty among seniors so we are at the average! One wonders how satisfied the compilers of the report would be if they lived in poverty, that is especially desperate for the elderly who have passed any chance of earning more to supplement pensions. From cradle to grave ever becomes more of a struggle unless we are prepared to change things.

–          Our federal government under the Harper regime continues to quietly to

stifle anything that it doesn’t like. Recently, the Toronto Star reported on just two of many (December 22). The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre will

shut its doors this month after years of fund cutting by the government. Prime Minister Lester Pearson proposed the first peace-keeping force that moved the world back from war in the 1956 Suez crisis for which he was awarded a Nobel prize. Since that time Canadians have been front and center in the UN peace-keeping missions. This government has moved our foreign policy more toward armed combat. Secondly the House of Commons recently shocked many Canadians by demanding its employees sign a confidential gag order with draconian sanctions for any breach. This follows funding cuts and similar demands on the scientific community suggesting the government is more concerned with concealing rather than revealing the truth, but that’s nothing new to socialists.

–          Sears Canada Inc. announced in November that it will sell the leases on

five of its stores including the Toronto Eaton’s Centre for $400 million. The company suffered a loss of $48.8in the third quarter of the year, hence the downsizing. The Sears spokespeople never mentioned the affect of competition from Walmart and other retailers but that’s how capitalism functions. In the mad dash to make profits some are left behind, go under and respond with worker lay-offs. You can bet the investors are taken care of while the unlucky workers will have to scramble to make ends meet. Things will never change unless we organize for socialism.

–          Following the article in the Fall Imagine re railway safety, the federal

Government has new regulations on dangerous shipments. But that information will only get to select information who are sworn to confidentiality and then only after the fact. That means the new regulations are virtually useless. The reasoning is that information cannot be made public for security reasons. Fred Miller, a US consultant on railroad transportation responded, calling the reasoning ‘complete nonsense’. He further remarked that Tank cars are already marked to show what they are carrying allowing ‘any half-assed terrorist’ to find out that information. As usual, the regulations do nothing to rein in companies and make them do the right thing. What would you expect a government to do in a profit system?

–          In December, garment workers in Bangladesh will get a eighty per cent

Pay increase as the government tries to end the wave of strikes that has taken place since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in May. The new wage deal includes allowances for food, rent, transport, and medical care. That the employers can grant these concessions and still make a profit shows how intensely the workers were exploited. It also shows what workers can achieve when they stand united. However fine this may seem it is merely an improvement within capitalism, (likely to be lost or diminished in the next recession) a system that condemns the majority to work to make a profit for the minority and live in squalor. Better they stand united for socialism where they can set their own standards.

–          In what the Toronto Star calls “the dirty underbelly’ of electronics

(Dec 15) it is revealed that a world e-waste map has been produced and the results are staggering. In Canada, for example the average person generated twenty-four kilograms of e-waste in 2012, 860,000 tonnes for the country or the equivalent of 1,700 fully loaded Boeing 747s. The biggest producer of e-waste was the US with twenty-nine tones per person or 9,359,000 tonnes nationally. These figures are expected to increase 33% by 2017. The map also delineates rich and poor countries. Haiti and Afghanistan, for example are the lowest e-waste producers with just 8,000 and 19,000 tones annually. This is another disaster waiting to happen that is typical of the current economic system. The mantra is to rush out every new device possible and grab all the sales you can without regard to what is going to happen at the end of the line. Just like manufacturers and the mining industry, when you have finished, just walk away and leave the problems to someone else!

–          Ice on the Arctic Ocean shrank last year to its lowest levels since satellite

Observations began in the 1970s and many experts expect that by mid century the ice will vanish in the summers due to climate change. As the ice thaws, ships are using a short cut between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and competition is intensifying for arctic oil and gas. US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, said, “ Us military will evolve its infrastructure and capabilities and will keep defending US sovereignty in and around Alaska.” The US has around 27,000 troops there with ski-equipped C-130 aircraft and nuclear submarines. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin has described the arctic as crucial to Russia’s economic future and said that Russia will re-open a Soviet-era military base. This is part of a drive to make its northern coast a global shipping route and secure the region’s vast natural resources. Here we have a conflict in the making and a clear cut example that wars are caused by the competition for resources by the capitalist classes of various countries. A cooperative world would share the resources for all mankind while safeguarding the environment.

 

Reading Notes

–          The capitalists may often feel that they are plying their economic system

without the rest of us noticing. It is not the case. In “The Wettest County in the World” by Matt Bondurant, a book about producing illicit liquor during prohibition, he writes, “ … the rising tide of industrial greed that pushed man away from their work benches and their craft to become part of the machine. Progress. It turned them into simple parts, expendable, replaceable, cheaply made as if their hearts were constructed of tin with shears.” And, talking about the newly rich salesmen of capitalism, “ The ambassadors of the new America, the captains of capitalism. Peddling their cheaply manufactured wares while the craftsman stands alone in his garrett, up to his knees in wood chips and no understudy, all the young men moving out of the towns and into the urban meat grinder. The love of trade, the value of the craft; all going, all gone.” A time for reckoning will come.

 

For socialism, Happy New Year to all, John

                      

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