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November 17, 2009 - No. 211 Vale Inco's Latest Provocation
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 Sudbury, July 24, 2009: Striking USW Local 6500 and their supporters hold Remove Tony Clement Rally |
Foreign mining monopoly Vale Inco is waging psychological warfare in the mass media against striking workers and their communities. Knowing that it has received full state support for the use of anti-worker mercenaries to restart production, it is spreading rumours that it will escalate its attacks by restarting the Copper Cliff Smelter Complex.
Vale Inco's arrogance of monopoly right was bolstered when the Ontario Labour Board ruled October 20 that it was free and legal to use anti-worker mercenaries (scabs) to perform work of striking Sudbury workers. This ruling is in conjunction with a court enforced injunction prohibiting striking workers from enforcing their right to an effective picket line.
CBC News reported November 11, "Nickel miner Vale Inco Ltd. is training replacement workers so it can re-open a smelter that has been idle since workers went on strike in July... The company reopened its mining operations using non-union staff in October, and is currently training staff to reopen the smelter complex."
CBC quotes Vale Inco spokesman Steve Ball saying, "Could it be interpreted that we are getting ready to start? Yes. Have we made the decision to do so? No, not at this time."
Is this not a form of monopoly terrorism? If not terrorism, it is certainly an attack on the social fabric and peace of the community and should be soundly denounced and opposed. It is akin to a formal declaration of war.
If workers do not have the right to wage an effective strike, what recourse do they have to defend their livelihoods, working conditions and standard of living? The state and Vale Inco monopoly are ganging up on workers and their communities to extort concessions from them. This is mafia style extortion through threats, psychological terror and the line that "might makes right."
The Sudbury community and Northern Ontario cannot accept this criminal extortion of workers and their communities. It must be opposed by rallying around Inco workers and finding a way to stop this state-organized monopoly extortion. This is not just an attack on Inco workers; it is an attack on all Northern Ontario workers and their communities. It is a declaration that Northern Ontario must give up its rights to a Canadian standard living and allow its natural resources to be plundered by the financial oligarchy from all over the world.
This Vale Inco arrogance
and attack has the full
support of the Conservative Party in power in Ottawa and Liberal Party
in power in Toronto that refuse to demand the monopoly live up to its
commitments as a foreign investor that must treat Northern Ontario and
its people with respect and not stomp
on their dignity as if they are serfs or slaves.
The court enforced injunction against an effective picket line and the Ontario Labour Board ruling sanctioning anti-worker mercenaries prove this attack is state-organized. The coordinated attack from the monopoly and state is supplemented with a campaign in the mass media to try to isolate the striking workers and let loose an avalanche of anti-worker hooliganism, gossip and hate.
The reality of the state-organized monopoly attack means that people must consciously defend the rights of all in the face of their negation by state-sanctioned monopoly right. It means that people must rally behind Inco workers and their just strike, and make the picket line effective and meet head-on this mafia extortion using anti-worker mercenaries and psychological terrorism. No good ever came from giving in to mafia extortion. No good ever came from lying down in the face of state-organized monopoly right and arrogance.
Down with state-organized monopoly arrogance and mafia extortion of Vale Inco workers and their communities!
Rally behind the strike for the sake of Northern Ontario and its future!
Victory to the just strike of Inco workers!
Vale's Use of Anti-Worker Mercenaries
Upheld by Ontario
Labour Board
The Ontario Labour Relations Board October 29 dismissed the just demand of striking workers at Vale Inco nickel mine in Sudbury to stop the foreign monopoly from replacing them with anti-worker mercenaries. The strike against the monopoly's unjust demand for concessions began last July 13. In October, the global monopoly restarted some mining using anti-worker mercenaries (scabs).
The United Steelworkers told the Labour Board the company had undercut the effectiveness of the strike by forcing some non-striking members to do the work of picketing employees and had also created an "inherently hazardous workplace."
Vale Inco told the Labour Board that it had the "right" to violate the existing collective agreement and replace USW striking workers because the contract had expired and striking workers no longer had any rights established in Local 6500's collective agreement. The company lawyer told the Labour Board that the monopoly has "the right to replace striking employees however it can, including using non-striking union members." The company lawyer also argued that Vale Inco office workers in Local 2020 do not have a provision in their collective agreement preventing them from doing additional work, so they have no "right" to refuse "to take on the work of their striking colleagues."
The Labour Board, which is a creation of the Ontario government, agreed with Vale Inco and dismissed the demand of the striking workers that Vale Inco stop using office workers in mining, smelting and refining.
This anti-worker ruling raises the serious question: if Vale Inco has the "right" to use anti-worker mercenaries to restart production and that members of Local 6500 have no residual rights from their collective agreement and striking workers according to a court injunction have no right to enforce an effective picket line, where does that leave the rights of workers to defend their livelihoods, working conditions, standard of living and the future of their communities?
Obviously according to the state, monopoly right negates workers' rights and vice versus. The state has come down on the side of monopoly right leaving workers without any legal means to wage an effective strike. Workers cannot accept that their rights are illegal and are prohibited by the state from being enforced. Rights of the people cannot be taken away by the state. Such a situation would be regressive in the extreme and send the workers' movement back to pre-union days of monopolies acting with complete impunity. State-organized denial of workers' rights sanctions the dictum of "might makes right," which is intolerable and cannot be accepted by Canadians.
Canadians must rally behind striking workers at Vale Inco and find ways to enforce an effective strike and uphold their right to defend their livelihoods, working conditions and standard of living. State-sanctioned monopoly right must be defeated!
Workers' rights cannot be denied by the state or any other institution of monopoly right!
Victory to the Vale Inco workers and their just strike!
Steelworkers Demand Tony Clement
Defend Canadians'
Interests
Twenty members of striking USW Local 6500 demonstrated
in front of Federal Industry Minister Tony Clement's Parry Sound
constituency office November 10.
 Sudbury, July 24, 2009: Remove Tony Clement Rally |
The union members have been on strike against Vale Inco since July 13. They were in Parry Sound to protest the fact that the federal government allowed Vale, a Brazilian mining monopoly, to seize control of their Inco mines, smelters and refineries in 2006 and then simply let Vale do whatever it wants, including attacking the workers and their communities through layoffs, wrecking and demands for concessions.
The Local 6500 delegation told the media that Minister Clement is in charge of industry. "It's his legal and moral duty to make sure that foreign takeovers provide a real net benefit to Canadians. Here in Sudbury, it wasn't just Vale, but Xstrata too that came into town," said Bill Belowos, one of the demonstrators. "We see the devastation that it's caused for really good-paying jobs and associated spin-off jobs that go with those jobs."
Belowos said the Steelworkers were there for a rally and to inform the people of Parry Sound about the situation with Vale Inco. Response to the demonstration was mostly positive, he said.
The demonstrators brought their 15-foot-tall "grim reaper" puppet along with them, symbolizing anti-Northern Ontario comments made by Clement earlier this year that Sudbury would have faced a "valley of death" if Vale hadn't bought Inco. The truth of the matter is the opposite. It is the outside monopolies that are turning all of Northern Ontario into a valley of death through their systematic wrecking of the forest industry, mining and smelting and refusal to use the added-value produced in Northern Ontario to develop a self-reliant all-sided economy in the North, which can sustain livelihoods and prosperity for all.
The striking workers also brought along a fake cheque for $4.2 billion, representing the amount of money Vale has made from the Sudbury operations over the past two years, said Belowos.
(Northern Life, fairdealnow.ca)
Discussion
State Monopoly Capitalism
State monopoly capitalism and the necessity of the working class to become organized and conscious of its social responsibility to establish a pro-social alternative
The economic system in Canada and the United States is state monopoly capitalism. Unlike pre-monopoly capitalism, the line between private and state-controlled public enterprise is blurred and the unity of both public and private enterprise and the state is solidified. The interests of the most powerful owners of capital within the financial oligarchy dominate and direct private and public enterprise with the entire whole becoming state monopoly capitalism. The aim of the monopoly capitalist state is to protect and expand the wealth of the most powerful owners of capital and actively fight against the development of a pro-social alternative.
A prominent feature is the
rise of professional
executive managers (CEOs, CFOs etc.) of public and private enterprise
who may not directly own a part of a company but act and identify
themselves as de facto owners and seize sizeable amounts of
realized added-value based on their positions
within executive management and not solely as owners of particular
capital. The claim of executive managers is a claim on profit of
enterprise and falls into the same category as other claims on profit
of enterprise from owners of capital. These claims come out of the
realized added-value of an enterprise produced
or made available by the working class and are objectively in
contradiction with the claims of the working class and the general
interests of society. The claims of executive managers are also in
contradiction with the claims of owners of capital who have a claim on
profit of enterprise. That is one reason the high
bonuses and annual claims by executives are often criticized by the
monopoly capitalist media.
The claims of executive managers are classified as salary generally, and similar to profit of interest and rent, are considered tax deductible with regard to a company's income tax. Executive managers direct their particular enterprises in a manner that is consistent with all monopolies to compete for their narrow interests and advantage within the socialized economies at home and abroad in antagonistic contradiction with the working class and the general interests of society. The aim of state monopoly capitalism is to protect and expand capital as much and as fast as possible regardless of the social and natural consequences. Professional executive managers with similar outlook and claims on realized added-value are found at the head of all monopolies in all sectors whether they are listed on stock markets or not and whether they are state public enterprises (Post Office, urban transit companies, federal, provincial or municipal enterprises and bureaucracies), quasi-public enterprises (Canada Pension Plan, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec etc.) or a combination of these such as public-private-partnerships.
Rodney Mott CEO and His Big Score in Canada
Rodney Mott, a professional
executive from the United States is an example of an executive manager
directed by monopoly right to serve a very specific purpose, who
claimed for his brief services an enormous amount of realized
added-value. Brookfield
Asset Management and other owners of monopoly capital seized control of
Stelco while the steel producer was under bankruptcy protection
(2004-2006). Brookfield asked Mott to act as Stelco CEO during the
2006-07 period of further stripping the company of its assets and
preparing it for sale to U.S. Steel. Upon
completing the sell-out of Stelco to U.S. Steel in a little over one
year, Mott seized around $80 million in realized added-value for his
brief visit to Canada and promptly returned to his residence in North
Carolina along with his booty.
Other examples abound of CEOs using their positions to claim huge amounts of added-value even in the face of bankruptcy or large company losses. The U.S. has the most extreme examples as it is the centre of an imperialist system of states, which it controls and profits from through exploitation of workers and oppressed and occupied peoples, unequal terms of trade, dollar hegemony and continual war. The tribute U.S. owners of monopoly capital extract from U.S. workers and oppressed peoples abroad forms the basis for the stupendous amounts doled out to executive managers and all other members of the financial oligarchy and their closest political and ideological allies. The Wall Street Journal reports that major U.S. banks and securities firms are on pace to pay an undisclosed number of executive managers and "top salespeople" about $140 billion for 2009, a year of economic crisis, insecurity and hardship for many U.S. workers and continuing U.S. wars and preparations for war abroad through military spending and expansion of its global network of military bases. By way of comparison, the U.S.$140 billion for members of one section of the financial oligarchy is more than the combined budgets of the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency and more than half of the entire Canadian federal budget of $240 billion.
The State and Monopoly Capital Are Hand in Glove and in Antagonistic Contradiction with the Canadian Working Class and Its Allies
The full power and resources of
the state are consistently used to prop up the enterprises and
investments of the ruling financial oligarchy. Owners of monopoly
capital and their monopolies by themselves cannot protect and expand
their capital without using the resources and power of the state and
its military, 
financial and ideological
resources. Owners of capital by
themselves cannot even guarantee their continued existence, as the
internal contradictions of the capitalist
system and competition from the egocentric greed of other owners of
capital wreak havoc with their return on investments and threaten their
very existence as can be seen in the current economic crisis.
Contemporary life demands a pro-social alternative that can harmonize relations between the socialized forces of production and the way people relate to one another in the workplace, a pro-social alternative that can mobilize the power of modern mass production for the common good and general interests of society.
The U.S. today is running a $1.4 trillion annual federal public deficit. This deficit alone amounts to more than 10 percent of the annual gross domestic product. Most of this deficit and budget is geared to pay the rich in such programs as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), monopoly bailouts to save the rich (GM, Chrysler, AIG, etc.) and to service the military and its ongoing wars and hundreds of military bases throughout the world. The monopoly capitalist state through the military and its control over international institutions such as the International Monetary Fund protects the international investments of owners of capital and is essential in the global inter-monopoly competition for sources of raw material, markets, places to invest and peoples and their nations to exploit and plunder and to prevent the rise of a pro-social alternative in the consciousness and actions of the working class and its allies.
Public deficits, debt and debt servicing allow the financial oligarchy to skin the ox many times over by making available public assets to pay the rich and by using the debt instruments as sources of steady guaranteed investment income.
"Too Big to Fail"
State claims on realized added-value from all levels of government are around forty percent. These public monies are then used to perpetuate the monopoly capitalist state and defend the interests of owners of capital globally. Some public money is handed out to the most powerful owners of capital in various pay the rich schemes to protect and expand their capital. Capital-centred ideologues have even coined a phrase "too big to fail" to describe the necessity of the state paying the rich and propping up their monopolies. Monopoly capital cannot maintain its aim to protect and expand its capital without integration within a state machine powerful enough to suppress the working class movement for emancipation and a pro-social alternative, keep enslaved the oppressed peoples within the imperialist system of states, pool public resources to save the rich and their monopolies when they fail or when their rate of return on investments falls, and to defend the interests of the most powerful monopolies and investors against their capitalist competitors.
To be continued: exploring other features of state monopoly capitalism, such as the role of the state in propagating an official capital-centred ideology amongst the people especially the youth: please send TML your views, research, discussion and examples from your workplace, educational institution or area of state monopoly capitalism and the necessity of the working class to become organized and conscious of its social responsibility to establish a pro-social alternative.
Mexico
Historic National Day of Action in Defence of
Rights and National Sovereignty
Mexico City, November 11, 2009
On November 11, hundreds of thousands of workers, peasants, intellectuals and students heeded the call of the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) and the National Assembly of Popular Resistance by participating in a national day of action.
The aim behind the National Day of Action was to
mobilize
unconditional support for the 44,000 electrical workers thrown onto the
street without any consideration during the October 11 forced
liquidation of the Fuerza y Luz del Centro, the state enterprise
responsible for providing electricity to Mexico
City. Through its support for these thousands of workers, the movement
has developed its opposition to the government of President Felipe
Calderón's most
recent
neo-liberal policy measures and misappropriations of the country's
agricultural, national and energy resources. (See TML Daily, November
4, 2009 - No. 202).
Actions were organized in numerous Mexican states
including
Puebla, Mexico, Morelos, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Chiapas, Jalisco
and
Oaxaca. The day's activities and the huge march organized in Mexico
City brought together more than 300,000 participants.
 Mexico City, November 11, 2009: "For a free and sovereign country." |
The demands put forward include:
- the immediate annulment of the decree liquidating the
Fuerza y Luz del Centro, the re-hiring of the SME workers and the
upholding of
constitutional law;
- national, food and energy sovereignty;
- improved free and secular public education, social security, wages
and decent employment;
- defence of the national and cultural heritage;
- equality for migrant workers;
- respect for the rights of Native Peoples and the San Andrés
Larráinzar Accords (agreements reached in 1996 between the
Zapatista
National Liberation Army and the Mexican government granting autonomy,
recognition and rights to the indigenous population of Mexico);
- an end to repression, freedom for political prisoners, no to the
criminalization of the struggle for social rights and for the eviction
of the army from neighbourhoods
- fair investments in agriculture, state enterprises, education, social
security and health care.
Other demands include the immediate dismissal of Alfredo Elias Ayus, Director of the Federal Electricity Commission, the resignation of Labour Secretary Javier Lozano and the relinquishing of power by President Calderón.
The movement's leaders also denounced the collusion between those in power regarding the refusal of the Supreme Court of Justice to consider a request from the SME to appoint a commission to investigate possible violations of legal guarantees resulting from the dissolution of the Fuerza y Luz del Centro company. The dissolution of the state enterprise was carried out using a legal technicality that allows only the national executive, the union's governors and Congress to undertake such an action.
The historic character of the national day of action stems from the fact that for the first time in Mexico's recent history, the movement has reunited the various opposition parties on the left and their deputies and senators, the main trade union organizations, all the education unions at all levels and in all sectors, the organized movement of former mayor of Mexico City Lopez Obrador, the Zapatista Movement with its Other Campaign (La otra campaña -- undertaken by the Zapatistas in 2006 intended to create connections among the Zapatistas and pre-existing resistance groups throughout Mexico) as well as popular organizations, all united in action in defence of rights and national sovereignty. The quality emerging from that movement is the determination to organize workers and all sections of the people to further their demands and defeat the monopoly-government-business-media bloc responsible for attacks on the national heritage, the Constitution and the Mexican people's well-being, including provocations, slander and disinformation campaigns against workers in struggle.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca