Call for Workers and Youth to Reject the Lie that
Wage Increases Contribute to Price Inflation
Serious Crisis Already Upon Us
The ruling elite and their mass media are spreading the disinformation that wage increases contribute to price inflation. Those who own and control the economy and much of the mass discourse are attempting to wreck public opinion. Their disinformation is aimed at making sure working people do not unite to defend their claims on the social wealth they produce but become defensive about their demands for wage increases. What is the truth of the matter?
This past week, the Bank of Canada raised what is called its trendsetting interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point. The media called it a move by the central bank "in its mission to rein in runaway inflation." The bank's rate impacts the rates that consumers and businesses get from their banks on things like mortgages, lines of credit and savings accounts. The Bank of Canada's rate is now set at 3.25 per cent. That is the highest level for the bank's rate since early 2008, before the financial crisis.
The
interventions by the central bank in the economy are the most
self-serving measures to make sure the rich come out of the
crisis
unscathed and on the contrary they make more money. To hell with
what
happens to the people and society. First the bank cut its rate
to near
zero in 2020 in the
name of stimulating the economy in the early days of the
pandemic.
Reports now declare that "Canada's central bank has moved
aggressively
to raise lending rates to try to cool red-hot inflation, which
has
risen to its highest level in decades." In other words, we are
to
believe that people must
suffer to cool "red-hot inflation."
While Canada's inflation rate eased somewhat last month from its 30-year high of 8.1 per cent, the bank noted in its decision that most of that decline was due to gas prices, while the rest of the economy still saw "a further broadening of price pressures, particularly in services."
That persistent underlying inflationary pressure is a big reason why "the policy interest rate will need to rise further," the bank said, noting that it "remains resolute in its commitment to price stability and will continue to take action as required to achieve the two per cent inflation target."
Meanwhile, the ruling elite and their mass media are spreading the disinformation that wage increases contribute to price inflation.
Under the guise of a speech dealing with surging inflation, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem demanded employers not raise wages for their workers. Many question why a Bank of Canada Governor would openly and brazenly attack the claims of the working class when he is supposed to be dealing with inflation and other problems in the economy.
Far from being defensive or apologetic, the class struggle to defend what belongs to workers by right is crucial for the well-being not only of workers themselves but the society as a whole. By collectively defending their wages, benefits and working conditions, workers can also lead and develop the struggle for new relations among humans and with nature.
A
concrete analysis of concrete conditions reveals the specific
historical juncture at this time which calls on the workers to
set a
new course for the economy and society as a whole. The
transformations
of the process of production as a result of the scientific and
technical revolution have
escaped the grasp of the productive powers, despite the mania of
narrow
private interests to create governments of police powers to
assert
control over them. This has given rise to a new situation in
which the
constitutional order and forms from the past no longer function
while
the new forms have
yet to be brought into being by the working class and people.
The
developments attest to the fact that the human productive forces
can no
longer control their own productive powers.
What is required today is the work to transform the whole of society into another whole -- a whole of human society fit for the human species. The capitalist class has become superfluous. A society based on the defence of private property has lost its moorings because private property itself is being destroyed at an increasingly rapid rate by those who are set on destroying whatever they cannot control. One of the achievements of the transformations of the process of production as a result of the scientific and technical revolution is that it has made the very conception of private property obsolete.
The material conditions for the ruling elite to operate within the bounds of the old constitutional order no longer exist. The striving to uphold a rule of law nationally whose aim is to defend relations based on the preservation of private property within the borders of that nation and an international rule of law and institutions which defend that order internationally has become irrational at a time narrow private interests operate on a global basis and their mission is to dominate come what may or destroy what they cannot control.
This is what the disinformation of the ruling class and its retinues seek to cover up. The more the crisis will deepen, the more they will attack the working people, blame them for their own failure to control the productive powers and continue with their projects to pay the rich in the name of high ideals.
Workers organizing on the basis of their own independent politics, set by working out their own vantage points within each situation, can turn things around in their favour. In fact, it is up to the working class to rally the people to humanize the social and natural environment in a manner which favours them. In the face of the assaults against them during the current serious economic crisis, the situation calls on them to defend their claims on the new value they produce.
It is a necessary feature of preparing the people in their entirety to change the economic, political and social conditions to bring them into conformity with the need of socialized forces of production to bring their productive powers under the control of the people. The disinformation that higher wages and benefits for workers create price inflation is meant to disorganize the working class and block it from defending its claims and rights, and from engaging in "the work to transform the whole of society" on par with the call of history.
This article was published in
Volume 52 Number 18 - September 26, 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmld2022/Articles/D520181.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca