The Need
for a New Direction for the Economy Media Talk Covers Up Need for Political Action by Worker Politicians
- K.C. Adams - Talk
about a looming economic crisis as a result of massive deficit
spending, unemployment and underemployment and how the pandemic is
being dealt with goes round and round. Most of it is descriptive or a
matter of opinions about how more should be done in this or that
direction but the reference points are generally directed at getting
working people to accept the current disastrous direction of the
economy. It is directed at depriving working people of an outlook of
their own which permits them to organize an alternative self-sufficient
economy which puts the human factor/social consciousness at the centre
of its endeavours. Demobilizing the working class and ensuring working
people are blocked from taking actions with analysis in their own
interest is a full-time preoccupation of the cartel parties and
spokespersons of the narrow private interests which dominate both the
economy and the political system. It is the working class together with
all concerned, that are interested in solving problems in a manner that
provides a new direction for the economy and politics that serves the
people and not the global oligarchs and their outmoded aim for maximum
private profit. Workers need to put forward politicians from their own
ranks who actually speak in their own name, not in the name of a system
of cartel party government whose main aim is to keep the people away
from the decision-making power. The
December Statistics Canada report on the large number of
unemployed and underemployed workers and drop in workforce
participation rate is an example of talk that goes round and round.
(The January report has now been issued.) Following
its release economist Armine Yalnizyan told The Hill
Times that she expects job numbers, as
well as the workforce participation rate, to continue to
decline. Yalnizyan said she has been keeping a close eye on
participation rates in the labour force. "In the United States, we've
had a cautionary tale that four times as many women as men have been
dropping out of the labour market entirely. There can be all sorts of
reasons for that, but the biggest reason has been other unpaid work
demands, primarily caring for children who need to be homeschooled
because of remote learning due to unsafe conditions or lack of child
care. We are seeing that in Canada," Yalnizyan said. She added
that the drop in workforce participation has implications for
the economy. "If fewer people are earning money, they have less to
spend, and if they have less to spend, the recovery is being dragged.
It doesn't matter how early you try and open things up to bring things
back to normal -- if women are not getting back in, and are dropping
out, you have a bigger problem on your hands," she said. However,
the issue goes beyond "having less to spend." The drop in the workforce
participation rate plus the large number of unemployed and
underemployed mean a loss of potential social value for the country.
The workers not working in the socialized economy are not producing
social wealth. As Workers' Forum pointed out in its
February 2 issue: "The refusal of
the ruling elite to organize universal free childcare and early
learning for all children is a block to the economy meeting its
potential. "The refusal to challenge monopoly right
and its expropriation of the added-value workers produce drains needed
social value from the economy and country that could be used for
increased investments in social programs and public services.
"The refusal to challenge monopoly right to realize (pay for)
the social value they consume from educated and healthy workers as
social reproduced-value but instead allow the oligarchy to expropriate
it as private profit deprives public education, health care and other
social programs of the funds they require to meet and guarantee the
needs and rights of Canadians." Leah Nord, the
senior director of workforce strategies at the Canadian Chamber of
Commerce said, in a press release concerning the December report,
"We're not through the storm. We're not going to be able to weather
this storm -- these second waves [of COVID-19] are going to affect
labour markets, among other things. Within that darkness lies a concern
over December's dropping labour force participation rates, mostly
comprised of male youth and working women, likely frustrated by the job
search and staying home to take care of suddenly homebound children,
respectively. The enduring impacts of the increasingly long-term
unemployed and workforce drop-outs will cast a long shadow upon the
recovery, as re-entry into what will assuredly be a very different
labour market presents significant obstacles." "Nobody
has a crystal ball -- we have a lot of great data out there -- but we
are really going to have to cull this labour market by sectors, but
also by communities," Nord added ominously. Earlier
this year, Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter told The
Hill Times that the current decline in workforce
participation and employment "wasn't any surprise for us," and that his
concerns "predated Statistics Canada's December report." He said, "We
saw a lot of smaller retailers in Toronto have had to close their
doors, so naturally we're going to have job losses." "The worry is,
since then we've had wider shutdowns in Ontario and more shutdowns in
other provinces, and I think we'd be extremely lucky if we don't see an
even bigger decline a month from now," Porter said. "I think we all
have to realize that there is a very heavy price to be paid in terms of
people's livelihoods when we start calling for big new restrictions on
businesses... There is a trade-off here -- we [the banks] get accused
of putting profits ahead of people, and I don't see it that way. I
think it's livelihoods and not profits, but I see it day-by-day, calls
for even more intense restrictions, and I wonder if it's really
achieving what people think it's achieving. It's definitely coming at
an economic cost," Porter said. NDP Member of
Parliament and finance critic Peter Julian was quoted in The
Hill Times as saying the StatCan December labour force survey
reveals "devastating numbers, but I'm not surprised." Julian said,
"Going into the pandemic, Canadian families already were at the highest
level of debt in the industrialized world, so we've seen a real
deterioration in our standard of living, with Canadians struggling to
make ends meet. The devastating impacts of the pandemic have magnified
that -- we're seeing people that are unable to put food on the table,
people who are unable to keep a roof over their head... So when you see
the employment numbers and then see the devastating financial and
economic impacts that existed prior to COVID, you can see that there is
an economic crisis that is brewing and that is very profound...
Billionaires have increased their wealth by over $50 billion [during
the twin crises]. We're seeing record levels of profits in the banking
industry despite [the sector] getting [billions] in supports, [and the
banks] have done very little to address the needs of small businesses
or people, [so] what we have is a perfect storm where regular families
are being absolutely hammered financially, and the wealthiest are
getting away with massive profiteering."
This article was published in
![](http://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/TMLMonthlyMasthead-Small.jpg)
Volume 51 Number 2 - February 7, 2021
Article Link:
Media Talk Covers Up Need for Political Action by Worker Politicians
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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