|
CPS May Day Statement 2013 Also: Communist Party of Canada May Day Statement and the World Federation of Trade Unions May Day Statement  Don Currie, Chair CPS, Editor Focus On Socialism April 30, 2013  Dear Friends Below are the May Day statements of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU). These statements promote a class struggle line for organized labor to confront and throw back the attempt of finance capital to make all workers, organized and unorganized “temporary” all wages sub-standard and all working conditions of all working people everywhere, regardless of their origin or homeland, 19th century. Today Canadian workers can be found labouring in many countries and on all continents.  And workers from all continents labour in Canada. There is only one working class and as Marx asserted, it has no homeland because the entire international working class, organized and unorganized wherever it finds itself within the system of global capitalism, is exploited by state-monop0ly capitalism.  That is the class basis for internationalism. The movement of workers all over the world seeking work is a growing phenomenon.  The phenomenon, loosely defined by bourgeois economists as “labour mobility”, is an objective state monopoly capitalist (imperialist) economic process associated with the extreme internationalization of finance capital in the 21st century which in its practice of war and exploitation ruins entire economies creating masses of unemployed stateless and desperate workers seeking a market for their labour power. Whether finance capital plans it or not is immaterial.  In the interests of maximizing profit capitalists take advantage of workers thrown out of work and compelled to seek a living where there is work. State monopoly capitalist governments, such as the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, enact laws, alternatively criminalizing workers or turning a blind eye to employers that mercilessly exploit defenceless workers that arrive in our country.  The Conservative government seeks to attempt to regulate the movement of labour in the interests of employers but does nothing to protect the workers once they are here. Not satisfied with making high profits out of low wage temporary labour in Canada, bankers, industrialists and investors exploit low wage labour in other countries.   The tragedy that unfolded in Bangladesh is traceable to every G7 capital including the PMO in Ottawa and to the office of every Canadian bank and corporation that does business in low wage jurisdictions.  The Bangladesh tragedy is also traceable to the academics and think tanks in our country funded by these same banks and corporations who are paid well to spin theories about the superiority of the global market economy and its benefits for investors. Whether in Canada or Bangladesh, workers are compelled to sell their labour power to live.  Wage labour, whether high paid or low paid creates value in the production process which the private owners of the means of production appropriate.   When labour is low paid without benefits under slave like conditions it makes super profits for private investors. Academics would soon get to know what unemployment is, if they were to have the courage to trace how many mutual funds, stocks and investor groups fatten every year out of tragedies such as occurred last week. Capitalism has no conscience, no moral code no redeeming pretty face. The capitalist requires human labour to profiteer.  It is purchased in the market place for as cheaply as it can be had.  Capitalism as a system ceases to be the profit system without exploitable labour.  There is no such thing as a fair wage.  Wages in itself is a symptom of a grossly unfair system. The capitalist buys labour power not labour in general, and buys in the market place as any other commodity for use in production.  The capitalist buys labour power for a defined number of hours a day.  Part of the day workers receive wages, just enough so they can work again.  The rest of the day they work for nothing for the purchaser of their labour power and in the process of production create surplus value during the period of unpaid labour that the bosses appropriate and realize  as profit through the sale of commodities in the market.  Surplus value becomes realized in the market as profit part of which the capitalist and their hangers on, use to live lavishly, idly and parasitically and another part becomes capital that is reinvested to ensure continuous production. Capital, created by unpaid labour time, is used by the private owners of the means of production to build factories, pay for wear and tear on machines, purchase raw materials all of which is continuously consumed in the production process. No new value is created without labour. Workers under capitalism create all of the wealth, all of the wages, all of the capital, all of the state and governmental revenues.  Everything that is socially useful and necessary is attributable to labour and unpaid labour time.  Finance capital, the merger of bank and industrial capital, is the beneficiary of capitalist production solely because of the private ownership of the means of production and the wealth it produces. The economy would continue to exist without capitalists.  Where and when it does, is called socialism. Capitalists do everything in their power to prevent the rise of socialism and to stamp it out where it emerges for one overriding reason, they cease to be a class of capitalists and disappear from history when they, the expropriators are expropriated. The NDP erasing the word socialism from the preamble of its constitution did nothing to erase it from history. These truths are what the capitalist class and its apologists seek to obscure.  The main way they do it is through the ideological propaganda fog of the ideology of classlessness endlessly promoted by the mass media. Unable to homogenize society into a classless equal opportunity myth the propagandists of capitalism now attempt to homogenize society into one middle class. The working class is not the middle class as the Liberals the NDP and even some labour leaders assert. The middle class stands between the working class and the capitalist class.  It is an historically evolved class often both owner and producer, sometimes professionally trained to serve the system, sometimes including workers who have acquired property and can live more on investment than wage labour.  The middle class is often ruined by state monopoly capital, is heavily taxed and often driven down into the ranks of labour.  There it becomes once again wage labour. Capitalism in its monopoly stage as the Communist Manifesto predicted 165 years ago has become polarized: “Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however this distinctive feature. It has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other – bourgeoisie and proletariat.” Chapter One – Marx and Engels – Communist Manifesto.                  The modern working class seeks to unite with all anti-monopoly middle class forces, to unite all people who are exploited by monopoly and in the first place farmers who work the land, the self-employed, small businesses, intellectuals and professionals who contribute to society. Canadian workers, men women and youth from all provinces and regions, hand in hand with workers who have come to Canada in search of a better life, just as our forbears did, are resisting the attempts of finance capital to rob them of their dreams of happiness and well being. Today, in the House of Commons, the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, acting for a small elite of wealthy Canadian and foreign investors outlined its latest anti-people program of austerity, mass unemployment, cuts to social programs, so as to continue to spend without limit on “ IMF bank-in schemes” and readiness to participate in the next US-NATO war. The Conservative Government, upholding the parasitism and idleness of the rich colludes with the likes of US Steel that has locked out a thousand Hamilton Ontario Canadian steelworkers and plans to transfer their jobs to the USA. http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/04/28/hamilton-nanticoke-lockout.html At the same time the Conservative Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has restricted unemployment insurance benefits now available to only 40% of unemployed workers with the aim of forcing out of work Canadians to accept jobs that pay 15 to 30% less of their previous wage. http://www.canadianlabour.ca/news-room/statements/clc-supporting-protests-against-harmful-ei-changes-austerity The Conservative Government of Prime Minister Harper acts for wealth and privilege against the working class and the urban and rural middle classes.  The Prime Minister does so on behalf of the system he so faithfully serves, state monopoly capitalism imperialism. The answer to the Prime Minister and the finance capitalist interests he represents is outlined in the statements below. On this May Day, as in all of the May Days past and in the May Days to come workers will continue to raise the banner of class defiance, for a peaceful and rational and just development of the economy for all, for genuine and lasting peace, for friendship and solidarity with workers everywhere, irrespective of national, racial origin, gender or religious conviction who want and struggle for the same goals - a new system without human exploitation. United we will win! Don Currie, Chair, CPS Editor Focus on Socialism
LABOUR AND PEOPLE’S UNITY CAN DEFEAT AUSTERITY On May Day, the International Workers’ Day, the Communist Party of Canada extends warmest solidarity to all those in struggle against capitalist austerity and war. The systemic crisis of capitalism in Canada and internationally continues to deepen, reflected in ever‑widening social disparity, intensified economic and social attacks against the people, fresh assaults on labour and democratic rights, the further degradation of the national and global environment, and increasing militarism, aggression and war. The austerity policies pursued by ruling circles in the leading imperialist states, including Canada, to resuscitate economic activity and profits on the backs of the working class and working people in general, have failed miserably. The economies of the U.S., Europe and Japan ‑ the “tripod” epicentre of this global crisis ‑ remain stagnant or in decline. The crisis and the intense, all‑sided offensive launched by the ruling class are exacting a heavy economic, social, cultural physical, psychological and environmental cost on all humanity. The main target of this anti‑social offensive of capital is the working class, especially its organised section, the trade union movement. It is also falls heavily on women, youth and students, indigenous peoples, immigrants and migrants, pensioners and the elderly, peasants and small farmers, the extreme poor and marginalized sections of the people, and on all those reliant on the social functions and services of capitalist states ‑ benefits won through many decades of hard struggle. This capitalist offensive is creating an atmosphere of insecurity and desperation among wide sections of the working class and the people, but it is also giving rise to increased resistance. Labour and mass democratic struggles across Europe have been marked by countless general strikes, mass demonstrations and factory occupations. Millions have come out into the streets of Greece, Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Italy, Cyprus and elsewhere to demand jobs, decent wages and pensions, to defend labour rights, to insist on the restoration of health, education and other public services, and to denounce the austerity policies dictated by the EU at the behest of European bankers and monopolists. The counter‑offensive of labour and people’s movements is also growing across Canada. The historic Québec student strike and social struggle which took place in 2012, and the Canada‑wide “Idle No More” protests of Aboriginal peoples and their supporters are particularly significant. These and many other mobilizations in defence of labour, social and equality rights, and the environment, signal a qualitative change in the mood of the working class and its allies to fight back against the austerity agenda of capital and its governments. Today, the issue of working class unity has become critical, as the big corporations attempt to pit sections of workers against each other. Even as the ruling class removes any barriers to the mobility of capital and investments, new obstacles are erected against the legal rights of workers to move across borders in search of better employment opportunities. Instead, the Harper Conservatives have dramatically boosted the Temporary Foreign Workers’ Program, aiming to provide cheap labour for employers, and keep overall wage levels low. At the same time, right‑wing forces fan the flames of racism, blaming migrants for high unemployment and declining living standards. The enemy of Canadian workers is not our sisters and brothers from other countries, but rather the anti‑worker policies of the federal government and the big corporations. May Day 2013 should see a powerful rejection of this racist divide‑and‑rule capitalist strategy, and a call for unity of all workers ‑ employed and unemployed, organized and unorganized, Aboriginal and non‑Aboriginal, young and old, of all genders and national origins, including migrant workers. The shift to the use of temporary, non‑unionized workers, paid minimal wages and benefits, is part of a wider reactionary agenda which the Harper government, and its pro‑corporate counterparts at the provincial and municipal levels, are carrying through on behalf of finance capital. Their goal is to accelerate the accumulation of capital through every conceivable means (privatization, state-restructuring, corporate tax cuts, etc.), and to weaken and suppress working class and popular resistance. Lest we forget, the first target of the new Harper majority after the 2011 election was organized labour (CUPW, the Air Canada and CP Rail workers, etc.). Harper’s “war on labour” in the federal jurisdiction gave a green light to right‑wing provincial and municipal governments to demand that workers yield concessions or face the legislative hammer, such as Ontario’s attack on the bargaining rights of teachers. Since 1982, federal and provincial governments in Canada have passed 199 pieces of legislation to restrict, suspend or deny collective bargaining rights. What is qualitatively new is the speed, ferocity and punitive nature of these legislative attacks. At its core, this offensive aims at crippling and ultimately destroying the organized labour movement. The federal passage of C‑377, requiring unions to disclose salaries, time spent on political activities and expenses, was only the beginning. There are now ominous signals that the Harper Conservatives are preparing to impose “right‑to‑work” legislation on all workers under federal jurisdiction. From the perspective of the ruling class, the weakening of the trade union movement is the key to reducing the cost of labour‑power, and not only among organized workers. They know that such reductions will put tremendous downward pressure on the wages and incomes of all workers, most of whom have no union protection. Finance capital realizes that the labour movement ‑ because of its size, resources and ability to take job action ‑ is the only social/class force capable of uniting broad sections of the people against its offensive. The struggle against rampaging militarism, aggression and war must also be a central focus of the labour and people’s fightback. As this May Day approaches, threats of fresh imperialist aggression against Syria, Iran and the DPRK are escalating. We are called upon to oppose this growing war danger, to defend the national sovereignty of all countries, and to condemn the drive to militarization, along with the chauvinist, “anti‑terror” rhetoric used to justify it. This May Day, we express unwavering solidarity with socialist Cuba, the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela and with all progressive and anti‑imperialist forces and movements around the world! The labour movement is the key to building broad struggles for the rights of all workers, for jobs and improved living standards, in defence of social services and programs, for gender equality, for justice for Aboriginal peoples, for young people’s right to an education and a future, for genuine environmental protection, and for a foreign policy based on peace and disarmament. But the overall state of labour’s fightback has so far been insufficient. More than five years into the current crisis, the CLC under Ken Georgetti (and the leaders of some important unions) have yet to draw the entire labour movement and its social partners together into a broad labour‑community “common front” against austerity. Instead, the CLC is focussing on organizing “political action” conferences to line up labour participation in the NDP’s electoral machine for the 2015 general election. The Communist Party urges the CLC and its key national affiliates to act now to build the extra‑parliamentary fightback by convening an emergency “labour & people’s summit”, bringing together the entire trade union movement (including the non‑affiliated labour centrals in Québec) and its social partners ‑ Aboriginal peoples, women, youth & students, peace, environmental and LGBTQ activists, seniors and other mass democratic movements. Recent experiences show that it is quite possible to build a stronger labour resistance against the corporate offensive, and to win broad support from community allies. Despite the adverse conditions and subjective weaknesses, many labour and popular movements are becoming ever more vibrant and militant. New forces are coming into the fightback. Militant tactics and coalition‑building can move labour from a defensive posture towards a fighting strategy of mobilizing the entire working class and its allies to block the right‑wing agenda and to move onto the counter‑offensive. While situations elsewhere cannot be mechanically replicated in Canada, militant, class struggle trade unionism seen in Greece and other countries should inspire union activists here. A Canada‑wide common front against the corporate/government attack in turn can win wider support for the goal of a labour‑led People’s Coalition to unite broad sections of the people’s movements, not around a nostalgic return to a “rosy” Keynesian past, but rather around a platform of radical progressive demands, and for a fundamental challenge to the economic and political hegemony of finance capital, both domestic and international. As we salute the struggles of workers in all countries on May Day 2013, the Communist Party of Canada is confident the labour and people’s unity can defeat austerity and war!
Contact the
Communist Party of Canada May Day Statement of World Federation of Trade Unions - 2013 The World Federation of Trade Unions appeals to all the trade union organizations in the world to organize on the occasion of May Day 2013 rallies and activities in all countries, in all continents, honoring the International Workers’ Day and the martyrs of the working class. The WFTU proposes, based on its resolution at its Presidential Council Meeting on March 7-8,2013 in Lima Peru, the slogan: “CHICAGO SHOWED US THE WAY” to be used next to the respective slogans of each union organization. The international trade union movement bears great responsibility to protect and defend the International Workers Day from the efforts of capitalist governments, employers, various institutions and non governmental organizations to vanquish this day or completely alter its meaning. The May Day is for the international working class a SYMBOL of the irreplaceable role that the workers hold in the society and the production, of the important and the victorious achievements of the class struggles historically, of the fact that all the rights are the fruit of bloody struggles. Nothing was handed over to the working people. The May Day is a DAY OF MEMORY AND TRIBUTE to the martyrs of the working class who sacrificed themselves in the crucial and decisive strikes of the American workers in Chicago (1886) demanding 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation, 8 hours of rest, as well as the struggles for the working hours in many countries all over the world before and after the Chicago strikes, throughout the history of the class struggle until today. We pay tribute to the martyrs of the working class who were killed, tortured, imprisoned and were forcibly disappeared by the anti-popular and anti-labor governments of the capital in all continents. The May Day is a LESSON FOR THE NEW GENERATIONS that includes the principles of the working class such as the proletarian internationalism, the class unity, the irreplaceable value of the decisive struggles with class-orientation. Most of all, the May Day is a DAY OF STRUGGLE where the International Working Class meets in the streets of the fight for the contemporary labour and social rights. For the right to less working hours with dignified salaries which was realistic in the 1880’s and cannot be unrealistic in the technological progress of the 21st century! Nowadays, while capitalism being in its deep crisis exposes in all the spectrum its barbaric, brutal and ruthless face confiscating any ounce of right from the working class and the popular strata; Nowadays that the competition of the monopolies creates more battlefields and new imperialist interventions; Nowadays that the state violence, repression of social and labour struggles and the violation of the trade union freedom escalate internationally let’s move: - Chicago showed the way – NO to the contemporary capitalist slavery - We fight for a world without exploitation of men by men - On May Day, the WFTU expresses its internationalist solidarity with the people of Cuba, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Mali, Colombia, Venezuela etc.  at its Presidential Council Meeting on March 7-8,2013 in Lima Peru, the slogan: “CHICAGO SHOWED US THE WAY” to be used next to the respective slogans of each union organization. The international trade union movement bears great responsibility to protect and defend the International Workers Day from the efforts of capitalist governments, employers, various institutions and non governmental organizations to vanquish this day or completely alter its meaning. The May Day is for the international working class a SYMBOL of the irreplaceable role that the workers hold in the society and the production, of the important and the victorious achievements of the class struggles historically, of the fact that all the rights are the fruit of bloody struggles. Nothing was handed over to the working people. The May Day is a DAY OF MEMORY AND TRIBUTE to the martyrs of the working class who sacrificed themselves in the crucial and decisive strikes of the American workers in Chicago (1886) demanding 8 hours of work, 8 hours of recreation, 8 hours of rest, as well as the struggles for the working hours in many countries all over the world before and after the Chicago strikes, throughout the history of the class struggle until today. We pay tribute to the martyrs of the working class who were killed, tortured, imprisoned and were forcibly disappeared by the anti-popular and anti-labor governments of the capital in all continents. The May Day is a LESSON FOR THE NEW GENERATIONS that includes the principles of the working class such as the proletarian internationalism, the class unity, the irreplaceable value of the decisive struggles with class-orientation. Most of all, the May Day is a DAY OF STRUGGLE where the International Working Class meets in the streets of the fight for the contemporary labour and social rights. For the right to less working hours with dignified salaries which was realistic in the 1880’s and cannot be unrealistic in the technological progress of the 21st century! Nowadays, while capitalism being in its deep crisis exposes in all the spectrum its barbaric, brutal and ruthless face confiscating any ounce of right from the working class and the popular strata; Nowadays that the competition of the monopolies creates more battlefields and new imperialist interventions; Nowadays that the state violence, repression of social and labour struggles and the violation of the trade union freedom escalate internationally let’s move: - Chicago showed the way – NO to the contemporary capitalist slavery - We fight for a world without exploitation of men by men - On May Day, the WFTU expresses its internationalist solidarity with the people of Cuba, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Mali, Colombia, Venezuela etc.   |