The Imperialist Fraud of BalanceFinding a supposed balance between two diverse but related phenomena is a common imperialist fraud to promote narrow private interests. One of the most common is to find a balance between the economy and environmental concerns to divert people from exposing and thinking about the absence of politics of social responsibility. This imperialist practice distracts attention away from the necessity to find solutions to problems in both the economy and the environment. Those problems have their own particularities that need to be studied and solved with investments while at the same time taking into account their relation with other phenomena. The imperialists say a balance must be struck between the needs of developing the economy and protecting the environment. This fraud avoids the truth that both the economy and environment have their own particular aspects and problems that need to be solved as well as those that are interrelated. Within this refusal to take up the concrete analysis of concrete conditions and find real solutions to real problems is the motive of production to make as much money as possible in the shortest time. This motive of the ruling imperialist class blocks the solving of problems that arise in both the economy and the environment as a consequence of the development of the modern productive forces of industrial mass production. The motive of the rich compels them to take money out of the economy instead of reinvesting it back into the economy to solve the problems that inevitably occur as the productive forces become more complex and vast, such as hydraulic fracturing for oil. This is particularly evident in the problems that arise in the environment where no immediate profits can arise from solving problems but on the contrary require added-value be devoted to finding solutions for environmental degradation and the necessity for remediation along with broader issues such as climate change. The motive of the rich is too narrow to tackle problems as they present themselves. Pragmatic considerations to expropriate profits in the moment preclude the following of principles and long-range scientific planning within a motive in conformity with the modern productive forces and the necessity for social responsibility. A glaring example has been the development of nuclear energy and the refusal of the imperialists to find solutions to the problem of radioactive waste. Another is the abandonment of mines, oil rigs, drill sites etc. and the need to clean up industrial sites such as pulp mills that have spilled mercury into northern lakes and rivers, and places like century-old Stelco steel-producing land in Hamilton and other facilities that have either exhausted their productive life or for one reason or another are considered no longer able to produce maximum profit for private interests in their present state and are wanted for another purpose. Investing in environmental remediation can divert money from private profit and that violates the imperialist motive of production. Companies generally cast off their unwanted property through bankruptcy protection or demand public funds to repair damage before any action is taken. The absence of the politics of social responsibility is clearly related to the imperialists' motive of production and their control over it, and their contention that private property trumps human rights. Regarding the review of the Trans Mountain Pipeline project, the National Energy Board (NEB) report says, "The Board has undertaken this Reconsideration in accordance with the requirements of the NEB Act" that requires the NEB "to weigh and balance the overall benefits and burdens of the Project." This is a fraud in the sense that the project itself must find solutions to the problems the development poses and not dismiss them in such a cavalier manner. The project cannot be justified if it violates the rights of the people or refuses to recognize and solve the problems presented within the environment in the here and now and future. Human rights cannot be minimized, ignored or marginalized, as they belong to people by virtue of being human and cannot be violated for any pragmatic or other spurious reason. Solutions to the problems of guaranteeing the rights of all, including those of the Indigenous peoples, and solving the problems of "burdens" on the environment must become part of the overall value of a project. This overall value would necessarily increase the price of production and the market price of the commodity in question, heavy oil. The increased price of production would go in part towards environmental remediation or solving the problems that industrial mass production poses. This would of necessity reduce the rate of profit of the enterprise with added-value going towards humanizing the social and natural environment and guaranteeing the rights of all rather than fattening the pockets of the already bloated global oligarchs. This reminds everyone that the modern economy is comprised of the struggle for production, scientific experimentation and class struggle. The leading aspect at this time in history is class struggle, which essentially means to bring the relations among people within the economy, along with the social class in control and its prevailing motive of production, into conformity with the level and character of the modern socialized productive forces. The antagonistic dialectical relation between employer and employee is in contradiction with the socialized productive forces and must be resolved, not balanced, so that a new synthesis representing the actual producers comes into being and asserts its control, along with a new motive of production, to guarantee the rights, security and well-being of all and to humanize the social and natural environment.
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The practice of
finding a
concocted balance instead of
real
solutions to real problems exposes the unwillingness of the
imperialists to recognize and solve problems as they pose
themselves, objectively, both in the economy and environment. The
imperialists invoke the fraud of balance to avoid analyzing,
discussing and investigating the concrete problems and finding
solutions that require investments of the added-value they want
to expropriate as private profit.
In weighing and
balancing
the benefits and burdens of
the project, "the NEB recommends that the Government of Canada
find
that (the adverse effects or burdens) can be justified in the
circumstances, in light of the considerable benefits of the
Project and measures to minimize the effects."