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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.










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Who Should Claim the Value Created by
Mass Transportation?

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.

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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.)

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