April 12, 2011 - No. 58
Election 2011
Leaders' Debates and the Need for
Practical Politics
Election 2011
• Announcement - MLPC
• Leaders'
Debates and the Need for Practical Politics
• Bogus Talk About Planned Deficit Reduction
Toronto Day of Action in Defence of
Public Services
• No to Anti-Social Offensive of Ford Regime
and the Wrecking of Toronto
• Who Should Claim the Value Created by Mass
Transportation, Part Two
- Workers' Centre, CPC(M-L)
Announcement
- Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, April
12, 2011 -
The MLPC is pleased to
inform you that it has nominated 70
candidates for this election. The MLPC candidates are dedicated to the
renewal of the political process so that Canadians can exercise control
over all aspects of political, economic and social life and establish
an anti-war government.
More than seventy per cent of the candidates are active
or retired
workers in the auto, steel, energy, mining, telecommunications and
transportation sectors, and in the public sector including health,
education, social work and postal services.
(The MLPC withdrew five of its candidates in the public
sector due
to onerous conditions imposed on them by legislation governing the
ability of public sector employees to run in elections).
Another twenty percent of the MLPC candidates are in the
arts, law,
translation, sales, journalism and publishing. Youth and students
comprise 14 per cent of the total and women 34 per cent. This is better
than the Canadian average but lower than the 50 per cent the MLPC would
like to see.
On the occasion of their successful nomination, Party
leader Anna Di
Carlo congratulates the candidates and their teams and thanks them for
their letters and messages informing the MLPC of their work. The
support the candidates receive when they go door to door and the
contempt they find for the so-called
major political parties convince them that if there were an even
playing field in Canada the vote of the MLPC in an election would be
considerable.
"Our participation in the election, along with that of
the other
small parties, certainly raises the most important issue of the
character of the system called free and fair elections and who they
serve," Anna says.
In this election, besides the so-called major parties
and the Green
Party, thirteen small parties are fielding from one to 70 candidates as
in the case of the MLPC. Also more than 50 independent and
non-affiliated candidates are participating for a total of more than
1500 candidates in 308 ridings. The final list
of confirmed candidates will only be released by Elections Canada
Wednesday April 13. The MLPC will issue another announcement at that
time.
The MLPC wishes all the candidates and their teams
success in their work.
Leaders' Debates and the Need for Practical Politics
The "Leaders' Debates" tonight and tomorrow and the
continued interest in the work of the MLPC have something is common --
they both bring to the fore the need to develop practical politics for
the creation of new arrangements!
Nothing will highlight the need for the workers to
develop practical politics more than their absence in tonight's
"leader's debate" as well as the "French debate" which will be held
tomorrow. A more embarrassing spectacle of self-aggrandizement is hard
to conceive as each party competes to score points.
The existing political
process necessarily divides the polity on every conceivable basis. The
"major" political parties are organized to do precisely that. They
could debate ideological and political matters between themselves and
raise the level of this discussion so that the entire country could
participate. No matter what a person's ideological or political
persuasion, they could participate in seeing what is at stake, in
setting the direction of the economy and in deliberating on fundamental
questions which pertain to war and peace, security, how to provide
rights with a guarantee, and so on. However, these political parties
take their propaganda against one another to the broad masses of the
people and split them on the basis of which side they should take.
The MLPC thinks that this problem is not settled by
dismissing these attempts as the fraud they are but by engaging in
practical politics to actually provide the problems people face with
solutions.
Bogus Talk About Planned Deficit Reduction
There is a lot of media
chatter about the claims of the so-called
major parties about what budget they will adopt if elected. Instead of
pointing out that the positions of these parties on the budget are
totally idiotic and why, the media chatter not only popularizes their
idiotic statements, but actually tries to give
them credibility, as if they were in any way sensible.
Harper pats his government on the back for the great job
it claims
to have done with the economy while together with the Liberals and NDP
sparring is taking place over who will eliminate the deficits,
when.....each claiming that Canadians can trust it to bring the deficit
under control better, faster or, if not faster,
more reliably. The fact that when there is a deficit, it means the debt
is increased by that amount, on top of the interest charges on the debt
which continue to accrue, is of course not spoken about.
More significantly, however, is the basic premise of the
parties and
media -- that "there is no alternative" to this "deficit-fighting
course." While they are very much opposed to even the suggestion that
we could have a "planned economy" when it comes to putting the claims
of Canadians on the economy in first
place -- they say the very suggestion is a communist crime against
freedom, liberty and the rights of humankind -- all these parties claim
their government will attain a "zero-deficit" on a planned basis! Go
figure!
Of course their entire discussion is just a diversion.
Even though
their targets are presented as a "plan," they depend on assumptions
such as continued low interest rates, besides the anti-social
offensive. Why don't the media question these "plans?" What is the use
of their chatter about the "savings" which will
be achieved if the deficits are reduced faster or slower? Usually, this
chatter seeks to either justify deficits in the name of funding social
programs, or eliminating social programs in the name of the need to
eliminate deficits!
All of it is designed to divert the attention of the
people from the
fact that they exercise no control over the direction of the economy or
fiscal policy. The basic economy is not in the service of Canadians but
of the handful of monopolies which use their ownership of the main
means of production and control
over the government to pass self-serving legislation and budgets. The
lynchpin of "modern" economics has become the medieval practice of
usury and the destruction of any notion of a society whose main
responsibility is to fulfill the needs of its members.
There is an alterative to the anti-social agenda of the
governments
at all levels and that is to pursue a pro-social agenda. Such an agenda
would include budget policy which puts the claims of Canadians on
society in first place. Instead of getting caught up in speculation
about the effectiveness of the "deficit-fighting
course" of the political parties vying for votes, Canadians must
condemn it as a starting point and work out the arrangements which must
be put in place which will make a pro-social program a reality.
Toronto Day of Action in Defence of
Public Services
No to Anti-Social Offensive of Ford Regime
and the Wrecking of Toronto
On April 9 about 10,000 people filled Dundas Square in
Toronto demanding an end to the attacks on public services and the
wrecking of Toronto. Toronto public sector workers and other public
sector workers, residents of social housing, workers from many other
unions and sectors of the economy stood together
to oppose the privatization and dismantling of public services and
social infrastructure and the arbitrary abuse of power being exercised
by Mayor Rob Ford. They were joined by large numbers of public sector
workers from communities across the province and the country who, in
the name of eliminating deficits,
have become the latest targets of attack by governments nation-wide.
The Day of Action was organized by
the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, the Ontario Federation of
Labour (OFL), the Canadian Labour Congress, the Canadian Federation of
Students-Ontario and ACORN Canada, a national
organization of low and moderate
income families. Representatives from some of these organizations,
including Sid Ryan of the OFL and John Cartwright of the Toronto and
York Region Labour Council addressed the opening Rally for Respect at
Dundas
Square, along with Bob Kinnear of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local
113 and social housing activists,
who all denounced the anti-social offensive being waged by the Ford
Regime and highlighted the importance of public services for a modern
city like Toronto.
Large contingents of city workers came out -- members
of CUPE Local 416 and CUPE Local 79. They were joined by many other
CUPE locals and
many more members of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union
representing public sector workers from other communities who declared
"Working People
Are Not the Problem!" Services such as garbage collection need to be
organized publically to ensure that they are done properly, safely and
in a manner that defends the environment, one city worker told the
rally
in Dundas Square. It is with great pride that he works for
the public, he said.
A large contingent of Toronto transit workers --
members of ATU Local 113 -- were especially prominent during the
actions.
Toronto transit services were recently
declared an "essential service" and barred from striking by legislation
passed by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and
his government at the behest of Mayor Rob Ford. This unjust legislation
attacks the workers' struggles which are integral to the defence of the
transit service. It is aimed at unleashing a broader wrecking of all
public services. Transit workers
from other communities, including Brampton and Ottawa and from as far
away as Edmonton joined in to defend their fellow transit workers.
The Ontario Nurses
Association was there along with teachers from many unions, and members
of the Public Service Alliance of
Canada, who added their voices to the
calls to defend public services and end the attacks on public
sector workers. Members from the Canadian Union of Postal Workers
locals in Toronto and Scarborough, themselves the target of attack by
the federal government through its Modern Post demands for concessions
and threats of privatization, joined the Toronto city workers to reject
this anti-social wrecking.
Activists from the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L)
sold and distributed the April issue
of Workers' Forum and engaged participants in discussion on
their concerns about these attacks on the public sector workers in
Toronto and the wrecking of public services.
The march flowed onto Yonge
Street, a river of flags flying brightly in the sun, placards and
banners boldly stating their demands. The steelworkers from Local 1005
at U.S. Steel in
Hamilton led calls of "Whose Economy? Our Economy?", "Who Decides? We
Decide?" They handed out postcards
inviting everyone to join them on Parliament Hill
on May 1 to demand that
governments uphold public right, not monopoly right.
Retirees from the Canadian Auto Workers who travelled
from Ingersoll near London added their voices to that of all others in
defence of public services.
"We are not for sale," was the call of the tenants of
the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC), over which Mayor Rob
Ford has declared his absolute dictate, voicing his intention to
privatize this entity, along with every other public asset that "isn't
nailed down." He has replaced the board of the TCHC, including
community-elected members,
with one of his close associates who has begun to identify housing
sites to be sold.
Other slogans demanding an end to the attacks on the
public services rang out along the march -- "Whose Toronto? Our
Toronto?", "Let's Take Our City Back!", "Public Services Under Attack.
What Do We Do? Rise Up! Fight Back!" and "Working People Under Attack.
What Do We Do? Stand Up
Fight Back!"
Contingent after contingent rolled into Nathan Phillips
Square for a closing rally outside Toronto City Hall. Participants were
encouraged to sign postcards with five demands to defend public
services: that City Hall put in place services and programs that serve
every resident and community such as
libraries, child care and recreation centres; that TTC is accessible
and available to all neighbourhoods; that City Hall provide
environmental leadership for climate change; that City Hall keep public
control of public services such as garbage removal; that City Hall
safeguard public assets such as housing -- no privatization;
and that City Hall respect good jobs for all and the fundamental rights
of workers. Outside City Hall, organizers presented postcards to two
Toronto City Councillors, who agreed to present these to City Council.
The organizers called on everyone to take these demands to
their workplaces and communities and
demand that their local city councillors take a stand.
The closing rally was told that two critical questions
are coming before City Council in the near future -- the "Core Services
Review" and the May 17-18 Council meeting where the privatization of
waste management services will be presented. They called on everyone to
demand that their councillors
represent the wishes of Toronto residents.
Who Should Claim the Value Created by
Mass Transportation?
- Workers' Centre, Communist Party of
Canada (Marxist-Leninist) -
Part Two
The Expansion of Mass Transit and Other Public
Services and Their Relation to the Market Price of Land
TML is
posting below Part Two of "Who Should Claim the Value Created by Mass
Transportation?" Part One was published in TML Daily, April 5, 2011 - No. 54.
***
The extension of mass transportation greatly boosts land
prices
along its routes and in the opened up suburban areas. Why should this
occur, and if allowed, who has legitimate claim to this increase in
land prices, which in effect is a transfer of value from public
infrastructure construction and operation to the
owners of land? What gives land speculators and other owners of capital
the right to seize the increased value generated from investments in
mass transportation and other public services? This value created from
public investments is taken out of the socialized economy as higher
land prices and ground rent and goes
directly into the coffers of a few. That is not just or sustainable.
The municipal and provincial governments must claim as public income
the value created by investments in public infrastructure. Under no
circumstances must value from public services be seized by landlords
and real estate speculators. The Workers'
Opposition should discuss and come up with a practical method for
governments to guarantee that value from public services remains in the
public domain and serves the public good.
Land Has No Value in
Political Economy
Land itself has no value in political economy. Value
arises from
work-time. Economic value is a measurement of the quantity and quality
of work-time. Land is a gift from Mother Nature as are air and water.
Their value in political economy comes from their transformation into
use-value through work-time.
Gravel is dug out of the earth and used to make cement; water is
gathered in reservoirs, purified and delivered to homes and businesses;
structures are constructed on the land; irrigation systems and public
infrastructure are built. Gravel, delivered water, structures,
irrigation systems and public infrastructure have economic
value equivalent to the average work-time required to produce them.
If people are fortunate to live in an area with abundant
trees,
fish, fertile soil and adequate rainfall, then the value of those
forest, agricultural and other products from the land or sea when
harvested are less valuable in political economy, as they require less
work-time than products of similar quality from less
abundant or remote areas. But still an acre of land in that naturally
fertile area has no value, just as an acre of infertile land or vacant
land in downtown Toronto or Inuvik has no value. If a structure is put
up on that land in Toronto then the work-time in the structure creates
value but the land itself still has none.
The structure can command rent for its use in relation to its value and
an average rate of return but not the land.
Obviously, the vacant land in Toronto and Inuvik do not
exist
separately from the surrounding land. When land generally in a city is
improved through public services then landlords attempt to seize that
additional value for themselves. They declare that since the value of
the city in general has been increased
this should result in an increase in the value of the part of the land
they own. But that is false. Their part of the land is still worth
nothing. The value that has been built as public infrastructure is not
theirs; it belongs to the people and their city. The public as a whole
invested in those public services to improve the
city for all its residents and not just a privileged few such as
landlords and speculators. The rise in value of the city generally must
go back into the city generally and not into the particular pockets of
landlords and speculators. This is a serious problem that the Workers'
Opposition must discuss and address with
a program of action to change the current corrupt practices of a few
manipulating public services for private gain.
Ground Rent Is an Outmoded
Concept
If land has no value, this raises the question why land
is such a
hot commodity under capitalism. The answer is quite simple: the ruling
elite in almost all capitalist countries decided to continue the
practice of keeping most land as a private natural monopoly and
charging ground rent for its use. The practice of
charging ground rent is a hangover from the former economies of petty
production, an outmoded practice that has no objective basis in a
modern socialized economy of industrial mass production.
The feudal landlords and other dominant classes in the
previous
petty economies simply declared their control of land as a natural
monopoly right coming from God or usurped by force. This monopoly right
demanded ground rent (payment in kind, money or work-time) for the use
of the land. This obsolete practice
of monopoly right to control land and charge ground rent continues
under the socialized economy of today with the added destructive
feature of treating land as a speculative commodity to be bought and
sold with impunity regardless of the harmful consequences.
Ground rent is extremely damaging to the socialized
economy and to
small business in particular. For many of the over one million small
enterprises in Canada, the payment of ground rent is the single biggest
drain on their revenue. Ground rent in malls and along busy commercial
roads is one of the biggest
obstacles to workers in small enterprises claiming a Canadian-standard
wage and benefits.
Monopoly Right over Land
Modern control of land and its ownership or tenure in
Canada was
usurped through force. British and French colonial powers invaded the
continent and seized the land through military force despite the
hereditary rights of Aboriginal First Nations to Turtle Island.
The Canadian state historically recognized ownership and
control of
land as a matter of proof of settler possession and loyalty to the
Crown. In legal terms, this is permission from the Crown to hold land
either as outright ownership or through tenure. Most of the best land
ended up in the hands of the Family
Compact and Château Clique, especially in and around the larger
centres.
In opposition to this arbitrary dictate based on force,
Aboriginal
First Nations continue to fight for their hereditary right to the land.
The working class also is developing its social consciousness and
organized opposition to ground rent, which necessarily includes a just
resolution of the hereditary rights of all the
First Nations to the land of their forebears and a modern definition of
land ownership.
Monopoly right over land and the arbitrary practice of
putting a
value on land, buying and selling it and charging ground rent disrupts
the socialized economy and causes confusion and misconceptions of value
and the enormous contribution of quality public services to the
collective well-being of the people. Monopoly
right to own and control parts of Mother Earth plays a central role in
political corruption and abuse at the municipal and provincial levels.
After WWII, land just outside Toronto in Scarborough,
Etobicoke,
North York and beyond to Vaughan, Markham, Mississauga, Pickering and
Brampton was mostly used as farmland. Monopoly right to own and control
some of this farmland was still held by remnants of the Family Compact,
the original British
colonial ruling elite. With the growth of Toronto through immigration
after the Second World War, the land surrounding the city became a
battleground of monopoly right to amass fortunes from rising land
prices. A battle was on to win control of this land and by extending
public services, especially mass transit,
water, sewer, highways and roads and subdividing the farmland make
millions simply from a higher market price for land and ground rent.
Toronto Today
The first subway line built under Yonge Street was
opened in 1954
with 12 stations. Expansion of the public subway system soon led to
four lines with 69 stations on 70 kilometres of track. By 2010, an
average 948,100 passenger subway trips are taken each weekday. Along
with the subway, bus, streetcar and
light rail routes, Toronto construction workers built an extensive
system of public roads, highways, bridges and other public services.
One after another, workers completed construction of the cross-town
Highway 401, the Don Valley Parkway, the Gardiner Expressway, Highways
427 and 409, the
Queensway, Highway 403 to Mississauga,
Highway 410 to Brampton and others.
"Within the GTA, highway 401 alone passes several major
shopping
malls including Yorkdale Shopping Centre, Scarborough Town Centre and
Pickering Town Centre and has an annual average daily traffic flow of
431,900 with up to 500,000 vehicles passing over it on some days. This
makes it the busiest roadway
in North America. The just-in-time auto parts delivery systems of the
highly integrated auto industry of Michigan and Ontario have
contributed to the highway's status as the busiest truck route in the
world, carrying 60% of vehicular trade between Canada and the U.S."
(Wikipedia)
Transit map of today's Toronto:
(Click to enlarge)
Map of 1916 Toronto:
(Click to enlarge)
Construction workers have created enormous value for
Toronto with
the building of the mass transportation system and other public
services. Operating and maintenance workers add even more value on a
daily basis. To the detriment of the people and economy, those who
control or own the land opened up and
daily serviced by public transportation and other public services
siphon off value as ground rent and high land prices. This monopoly
right has resulted in skyrocketing market prices for land in the
Toronto area and prohibitive ground rent especially for residents and
small businesses.
Many of the post-war richest individuals in the Toronto
area have
seized their fortunes from higher market prices for land and ground
rent, which comes almost entirely from the value created by surrounding
newly-built public services. This practice of stealing public service
value under the hoax of land ownership
is a great drain on the public treasury, socialized economy and people
in general, and must be stopped. This practice is a source of enormous
corruption within the larger cities where specific routes of the mass
transportation system and changes in zoning can result in enormous
wealth for certain individuals. Little
wonder that the authority in most large cities and provinces has close
links with landowning and real estate monopolies. This also blocks the
people from solving the housing question. The Workers' Opposition has
the responsibility to put an end to this corruption and the link
between wealth and privilege with public
office.
Under the present relations of production, ownership and
control of
land bestows a natural monopoly upon the owner. The owners can declare
the land off limits to others with signs such as "Private Property or
No Trespassing," which are enforced by the ruling authority. Without
producing or selling anything,
ground rent can be demanded from someone simply for being on the land.
The authority in power must stop this outmoded practice of monopoly
right. The Workers' Opposition must step up its activity to defend
public right on the issue of land.
Monopoly right over land has nothing to do with
residents enjoying
the privacy and security of their home whether in an apartment or
detached dwelling. In fact, as everyone has seen in the U.S. since
2008, monopoly right over land has given rise to great insecurity of
home ownership for millions of residents
and turned the economy and their lives upside down.
Discussion of Ownership of
Land
Workers must discuss the issue of land ownership without
preconceived notions. Land ownership and the corrupt practice of
speculating in land must be addressed by a Workers' Opposition. Land
should no longer be manipulated as a monopoly right to siphon value
from the socialized economy. The value generated
by public services should remain in the public realm and used to build
other quality public services, strengthen the socialized economy and
contribute to the general interests of society. One suggestion to begin
the process to bring land ownership into the twenty-first century would
be to establish public control over
the transfer of land. This could be accomplished with public control
over the trade in land.
Under feudalism, the landlord class would seize any
improvements the
tenant farmers would make to the land and its structures, such as an
irrigation system or a new barn. When the tenancy was up for renewal,
the landlord would take into consideration the improvements made by the
tenant farmer and raise
the rent! This unjust practice continues to this day by the new
landlord class that seizes the improvements to the land as public
services in the surrounding district and both raises the rent and the
price of land. This must stop! The only value the landlord owns arises
from actual improvements to the land in question.
The value of the land itself remains zero while the value of the
improvements should mirror the price of production for whatever those
improvements may be such as a structure. The value of the property
reflects the work-time required to build the structure and all the
material that went into it. The landlord does
not own the surrounding public services and has no right to profit from
them. The ground rent should be replaced with rent for the improvements
such as the structure and be set publicly according to an average
return on the value invested in the past and present improvements.
Sale of land could be done through a public institution
that sets
the market price according to the price of production of the structures
on the land and any other improvements done directly to the land taking
into consideration decreased value from wear and tear (depreciation).
The initial investment in public services is a
responsibility of the
socialized economy as a collective whole, which must come from
government. The benefits from the added-value created from building
public services must likewise go to the socialized economy as a whole
and serve the public good. The Workers'
Opposition must uphold public right on the issue of land. Discussion of
the issue in a serious manner is a great beginning.
(To be continued
Part Three: the obvious
claimants of mass transportation value -- who
should have a say on the amount going to the claimants and the
important issue of whether they are justified or not.
Part Four: the hidden
claimants on mass transit value within the
basic sectors of the economy and the issue of whether those hidden
claimants should return their claim to the public treasury either
through a mass transit tax on those big corporations serviced by mass
transit or some other method.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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