What It Means to Be "Open for
Business"
Workers Reject the Ruling
Elite's Politics
of Being "Open for Business"
 Representatives of
the
monopolies and governments in their service promote the slogan
"open
for business" as the sine qua non guide for all economic
activity. It was introduced by Mike Harris in Ontario in the mid
nineties and is now the mantra of the Ford government in Ontario
of the
Legault government in Quebec. Workers reject the outlook,
politics and
practices underlying
such a slogan.
The notion of being open for business begins from
the
false premise that businesses are the creators of social wealth.
In the
socialized economy, the collective act of workers, working on
means of
production other workers have already produced, creates all
social
wealth.
Although workers neither control nor own the
social
wealth they create, the truth cannot be denied that they are the
creators of it. Social wealth is expropriated by huge private
interests
that possess immense means of production workers have produced,
on
which the economy, people and society depend. To declare big
private
interests the
creators of wealth for whom economies and societies should be
"open for
business" and should serve their narrow interests is not only
unscientific and false but ludicrous and irrational.
At the present time, the world is witnessing an
unprecedented destruction of the social wealth of human
collective work
in the form of famines, the displacement of entire populations,
the
destruction of regional and national economies, wars to destroy
what
the imperialists cannot control, and other calamities.
Just recently in Ontario, the sudden announcement
of
the illegal closure of the Oshawa GM plant reveals to all that
those
who created the social wealth in the form of means of production
are
not those bent on destroying what workers created. The destroyers
are
those same investors for whom the politics of "open for business"
suits
their narrow private interests but generates havoc in the lives
of
working people and the economy.
The irrational slogan mystifies the reality of
the
socialized economy in hopes of keeping the working class in a
subordinate position, incapable of fulfilling its mission of
defending
the rights and well-being of all and providing those rights with
a
guarantee through setting a new direction for the economy under
the
control of working people and their allies.
"Open for business" signifies a multiplication of
pay-the-rich schemes. Swaths of social wealth are poured into the
coffers of the rich and squandered at their whim. Here too the
people
have witnessed the outcome. Billions of dollars of public funds
were
paid to GM in Canada and the United States in 2009. Now a brutal
closure not only deprives thousands of workers of their
livelihood at
the Oshawa plant and its supplier network of other facilities,
but will
greatly damage the interconnected local economy. The huge sums of
social wealth in the form of public funds paid to GM are no
longer
available to the society but have been absconded with by those
same
private interests so keen on the economy being open for business.
What
takes place could more properly be described as "open for
plunder." The public social wealth lost in the global
machinations of
GM, and the private social wealth in the fixed social wealth of
means
of production in southern Ontario are being denied to the economy
and
people to move life forward in ways that would ensure the rights,
security and well-being of all. This must not pass!
 Proponents of the
"open for
business" politics exhibit a mortal hatred towards any regulation
of a
prescriptive nature, any state arrangement that provides a
measure of
health, safety or work standards to workers. For example, the
Ford
government in Ontario passed a law, in its mania to make Ontario
"open
for business," which weakens Ontario's minimum labour standards,
notably with regard to hours of work and pay. Further, it wants
to pass
legislation to de-unionize construction work in public
institutions,
thereby forcing those who work in construction in those sectors
to work
without the protection of a union or a collective agreement.
Elsewhere, successive Liberal and Conservative
federal
governments have deregulated the rail industry, under the slogan
that
companies are the ones that know their businesses best. This
abandonment of the public authority has led to tragedies, one of
which
happened on February 4, with the tragic deaths of three CP
railway
workers whose
train plunged into the Kicking Horse River. Workers reject with
contempt the fact that, in the name of being "open to business,"
they
and their communities are being delivered to chaos and
insecurity.
Hidden behind the slogan "open for business," is
the
ruthless desire of rich oligarchs and their governments to
deprive
workers of the means to organize collectively and legally in
defence of
their rights and the rights of all. The politics of "open for
business"
is meant to criminalize the struggles of workers for their
rights.
Truth is turned on its
head, with workers portrayed as enemies of the economy and the
production of social wealth. Workers are looked upon as intent on
keeping certain "privileges" obtained as a result of being an
organized
collective force. Those "privileges" and collectives must be
dismantled, cry the oligarchs and their governments, so that
everyone
is placed at the
mercy of the reckless adventures of the rich in the service of
their
private profit and empire building.
Workers have not waged their mass struggles in
defence
of their rights and to move society forward only to accept a
repugnant
slogan and politics that repudiate all that they have fought for
in the
past and aspire for in the future. Workers are not opposed to
business being done, so long as it contributes to the well-being
of
all, with production
based on modern standards approved by the workers themselves and
defended by a public authority under their control.
This article was published in
Number 6 - February 21, 2019
Article Link:
What It Means to Be "Open for
Business": Workers Reject the Ruling
Elite's Politics
of Being "Open for Business"
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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