Clash of Rights

The serious problems and issues facing forestry workers and their communities represent a clash of rights: the human rights of the people to control their work, means of production, forests and the social wealth they produce and its distribution versus the property rights of the big forestry companies and their oligarchs and political representatives to defend and expand their private social wealth and class privilege through the control of the work of the working class, means of production, forests and the social wealth workers produce and its distribution.

Wildly fluctuating market prices and supply and demand seemingly out of control, the recurring downturns, the aggressive U.S. tariffs that block Canadian softwood lumber from the U.S. market, automation that only favours the rich oligarchs and others in control, the removal of the produced social wealth from the local economy leaving it bereft of strength and any hope of extended reproduction into other sectors to guarantee the well-being and security of the people, and the environmental damage from modern production methods are all problems related to the system which vests decision-making power in the hands of what is called a person of state which is controlled by narrow private interests. This is why the people's striving for empowerment is all about speaking in their own name, not handing over the right to speak in their name to others who, in fact, are beholden to that person of state. In the 21st century, how to provide the problems which plague the economy with solutions is not rocket science. Solutions exist, but the ruling elite are just interested in making a killing in any way they can. Their class privilege and the domination of property right over human rights must be challenged because they no longer provide society with a nation-building aim and the productive forces and their communities are targeted for destruction on a mass scale.

For example, the problems of pollution and climate change do not arise from any inevitable conflict between the economy and the environment or something innately wrong with the modern productive forces. These and other unresolved social and natural problems arise from an absence in the aim of the economy of social responsibility and active suppression on the part of the ruling elite of the human factor/social consciousness and a modern aim for society which guarantees the well-being and rights of the people and humanizes the social and natural environment. The lack of politics of social responsibility in the aim for society and the current suppression of the human factor/social consciousness that favour only the ruling elite and their power, class privilege and property right must be challenged in the court of public opinion.

Political renewal strives to bring the modern socialized conditions of production in conformity with the rights that people have by virtue of being human. The working people must discuss these matters without preconceived notions and lead the way in finding solutions and a way forward in a new direction. This discussion empowers them by becoming decision-makers on all issues that affect their individual and collective lives and the social and natural environment.

(Photos: WF)

This article was published in

Number 22 - June 13, 2019

Article Link:
Clash of Rights

    

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