Visit Karl Marx ‘Retirement’ Editorial: Editorial: Dobbs Assails Fishing JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 Online at Means More Pinochet: Chavez Corporate Attack The Seas www.slp.org Work for Most Capitalism’s Man A Socialist? On ‘Middle Class’ To Extinction Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Page 8 Fishing the Seas to Extinction

OR O AB MN L IA By B.B. overfishing where everyone agrees it’s a bad ilies, the children, what will they do?” though not VINCIT tudies evaluating information gathered thing” or banning destructive fishing practices a murmur is heard over factory closings, out- by the United Nations and other in the most sensitive areas. sourcing, etc. So goes such thinly disguised dis- Sresearchers have scientists alarmed over The Sun article hastened to offer news that sembling in the service of capitalist profits. the state of the world’s fisheries. These studies action is being taken. They were referring to the Some conclude that fish farming may be the Published by the Socialist Labor Party Established in l89l suggest that many species of fish have been fact that the World Trade Organization (WTO) salvation of fish species. However, in a docu- depleted to the point where their extinction is a has “moved beyond the consensus that many ment posted to the Internet by the nonprofit VOL.116 NO. 5 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 $1.00 distinct possibility. The number and variety of fishing subsidies lead to overfishing and organization SeaWeb in 2004, all is not well on species threatened are important as food for our destructive practices” and that “At least five the aquaculture farm. According to the SeaWeb own species. countries have submitted detailed proposals on posting, “Ten leading experts…evaluated There is no mystery to the decline. It is direct- eliminating these subsidies.” The government whether farm-raised fish add to the global food Oil Stakes Too High for ly traceable to overfishing. While other factors subsidies were cited as seriously warping the supply…or contribute to the depletion of fish Friedman Got are involved, the primary source of the problem sacred “free market,” thus creating overcapaci- populations worldwide.” They found “that in is that too many fish are being taken from the ty, inhibiting developing countries’ fishing some cases aquaculture does more harm than It Wrong, Marx U.S.Withdrawal From Iraq? oceans. The affected varieties of fish are not able industries, and depleting fishing stocks world- good.” “Many types of aquaculture are pushing to reproduce as fast as they are being harvested. wide. Mr. Sharpless observed, “The world needs us faster towards a worldwide fisheries collapse espite the deteriorating military situa- for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from that war- Some scientists believe that certain threatened to stop making payments that encourage com- through inefficient practices that rely too much Got It Right tion and growing chaos in Iraq, the Bush torn country. As the fourth anniversary of the varieties of ocean fish may not recover to avoid on the ecologically inefficient practice of feeding Dadministration has rejected all proposals U.S. invasion approached, President Bush was extinction unless fishing is sharply reduced or wild-caught fish to farmed fish.” Others are Milton Friedman spent his life extolling the expected to make and announce his decision on completely stopped long enough to allow endan- It should be “destroying [wild] fish habitats and collecting “virtues” of unfettered capitalism. In 1975 he which of several options under consideration he gered species to recover their losses. wild fish to stock fish farms.” wrote There Is No Such Thing as a Free would adopt for continuing the conflict. Costly It should be evident to every sentient being evident to every According to Rosamond Naylor, a senior Lunch, and one year later he was awarded the as the war has been in terms of destruction and that an economic system driven purely by con- research scholar at Stanford University, one of Nobel Prize in economics. When he died in human life, the material and strategic stakes tinuous market expansion with a view to sale sentient being that the experts cited above, “many types of aquacul- November at age 94 some in the capitalist are too great for the U.S. to cut its losses and to and profit will disastrously collide with the lim- an economic system ture are creating unforeseen problems and we press eulogized him as the “greatest econo- let Iraq work out its own destiny. its of finite resources, and with a finite world. seem to be headed for big trouble as a result.” mist of the 20th century.” But it isn’t. Instead, we hear incessant warn- driven purely by Among those problems is feeding ground-up wild According to Friedman, “The most impor- Iraq’s Oil Wealth ings of impending disasters of one sort or anoth- fish to farmed fish—it requires three pounds of tant single central fact about a free market The stakes are summed up in a single word: er and the fundamental social change our age continuous market wild fish to produce one pound of shrimp or [capitalism] is that no exchange takes place oil. Writing for the Los Angeles Times of Dec. 8, demands is totally ignored. expansion with a view salmon. Another degenerating practice is feeding unless both parties benefit.” Antonia Juhasz of the Institute for Policy Stud- In addition to incontrovertible warnings of vegetarian species fish oil and fishmeal to accel- Karl Marx had a different view. Capitalists ies put it this way: global warming, environmental destruction and to sale and profit will erate production. Moreover, habitat destruction and workers have opposing and conflicting “While the Bush administration, the media species loss, we now have another disastrous cat- in terms of hundreds of thousands of hectares of interests. The exchange of labor for wages is and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to aclysm looming on the horizon, a result of capi- disastrously collide coastal wetlands and mangroves, “critical nurs- an unequal one. Capitalism is a “free lunch” explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever- talism gone amuck. According to researchers eries” for wild fish and shellfish, have vanished and much more for those who own the means pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group with the limits of of production and profit off the labor of the who analyzed “fishing data collected by the Unit- because of untreated effluent, feces, antibiotics share no such reticence. working class. ed Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and uneaten feed from fish farms. Rebecca Gold- “Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group finite resources, and Which of these two views is correct? Do “both and other sources,” “marine ecosystems will burg, Environmental Defense senior scientist, report lays out Iraq’s importance to its region, parties”—capitalists and workers—“benefit,” unravel and there will be a ‘global collapse’ of all with a finite world. stated flatly that farm-raised salmon and shrimp the U.S. and the world with this reminder: ‘It as Friedman maintained, or are their interests species currently fished, possibly as soon as mid- constitutes a “net loss of marine resources.” has the world’s second-largest known oil “diametrically opposed,” as Marx maintained? century.” (The New York Times,Nov.3) The inescapable conclusion that must be If you agree that Marx was right you agree reserves.’ The group then proceeds to give very Boris Worm, a top marine biologist teaching mercial fishermen to catch too many fish. drawn from these facts is that the fishing indus- with the Socialist Labor Party and should do specific and radical recommendations as to at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, had a Refreshingly, that proposition has united inter- try dominated by the lecherous hand of profit all you can to support its work by your contri- what the United States should do to secure shocking epiphany. While giving a test to his ests that typically stand with daggers drawn.” and private ownership of the means of social bution to the Press Forward Fund. If you think those reserves. If the proposals are followed, B.B. for The People (Continued on page 6) students, he “analyzed data for the first time on How apt! A better description of capitalist production, that upon which billions of people that Friedman was right here are some facts his laptop” and was astounded to see “just a competition could hardly be found. But now, depend, cannot be allowed to continue. that you may wish to consider. smooth line going down. And when he extrapo- months later, we find that, surprise, surprise, the Moreover, the same must be said for the entire According to a United Nations study lated the data into the future ‘to see where it “daggers” remain drawn! In an article written by industrial complex. It can only be entrusted to released in December, a tiny segment of the ends at 100 percent collapse,’” he came to 2048. Marta Madina, also of Oceana, we are told “a the working class organized within the demo- world’s population control virtually all of the Not believing his eyes, he ran the check again. group of European countries, led by Spain, cratic socialist industrial governmental frame- world’s wealth. Summarizing those findings No More Hunger? The answer was the same. Then he double- France, Portugal and Poland” are “attempting to work embracing all industries, and grounded in December for a British newspaper, The checked his mathematical calculation by hand destroy any initiative taken to stop the deterio- upon the universal societal principal of produc- Guardian, science correspondent James Ran- By Bruce Cozzini 20), the government has claimed a goal of “only” and the result was the same. ration of fish species and marine ecosystems.” tion for use not markets and profit. derson wrote: The U.S. government has ended “hunger.” 6 percent of the population to suffer from hunger, The Baltimore Sun of last March 21, some She goes on to accuse those governments of “The richest one percent of adults in the Good news? Not exactly—the Agriculture but nothing is done to make that happen. months before, had amplified these grave con- ignoring the “warnings given by the scientific world own 40 percent of the planet’s wealth” Department in its annual report on Americans’ But since the problem won’t go away, the gov- clusions in an article by Andrew Sharpless, the community regarding the depleted conditions of and “the richest 10 percent of adults account- access to food has defined it out of existence. ernment is applying the Orwellian technique of CEO of Oceana, an international environmen- fish stocks” and chastises them for requesting ed for 85 percent of the world’s total global Until now, it has used hunger to describe the renaming hunger in the hopes that it will disap- tal group, stating that the U.N. “estimates that “quotas that put the future of fisheries at risk, assets.” On the other end of the scale, “Half the state of those who cannot afford to put food on pear from public consciousness. In George more than 75 percent of the world’s fish stocks especially deep-sea fish species.” Ms. Madina Leaflets to world’s adult population...owned barely one the table. Mark Nord, the author of this year’s Orwell’s 1984 the government of the totalitarian are in jeopardy.” They include fish of “high com- goes on to express outrage that in the face of percent of global wealth.” report, claims that hunger is “not a scientifical- “Oceania,” in accordance with the governmental mercial value: haddock and cod in the North falling fishing fleet catches, down 60 percent Distribute And if you think the spread of poverty is ly accurate term for the specific phenomenon doctrine of “IngSoc,” developed a new language, Atlantic, Argentine hake in the South Atlantic over 2005, the countries cited blithely ignore the confined to the developing world, another being measured.” Rather than hunger, poor peo- “Newspeak.” Its purpose “was not only to provide and most species of tuna.” Orange roughy, blue destruction. study released in December by the Brookings ple now experience “very low food security.” a medium of expression for the world view and • America’s Workers Can Build a Better Institution had this to report: “Each year And lots of them did. As reported by Mercury mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, ling, roundnose grenadier, seabream, splendid What altruistic Oceana, marine biologists, World (SLP National Platform) alfonsino or forkbeards, tusk and deep-sea ecologists and scientists are failing to compre- between 2000 and 2004, the proportion of the News wire services (Nov. 16), the Agriculture but to make all other modes of thought impossi- sharks are also severely threatened with over- hend is what Marx brilliantly referred to as “the • Global Warming: All Talk, No Action U.S. population living below the poverty Department said “12 percent of Americans—35 ble.” (Emphasis ours.) Thus, hunger becomes fishing and extinction. most violent, mean and malignant passions of Worsens Threat line...rose. It leveled off in 2005, such that 38 million people—could not put food on the table at “very low food security.” Just as global warming Moreover, Daniel Pauly, a fisheries scientist, the human breast, the Furies of private inter- • Technology & Job Loss: What Workers million U.S. residents lived in poverty that least part of last year. Eleven million of them has become the temperature neutral “climate offered the example that the once flourishing est.” Indeed, when capitalists sense danger to Can Do About It year, up from 34 million in 1999.” reported going hungry at times.” That all these change” and CIA kidnapping and sequestering seabed beneath the continental shelf off the their profits, they shed their human attributes These facts confirm the Marxist position. workers must go hungry when an abundance of persons for purposes of torture becomes “extraor- Please send me ______copies of each of the The evidence is overwhelming. Capitalism and food is produced is a travesty. But it is no acci- dinary rendition.”And an all-inclusive agency for coast of Maine “is smooth. In many places except and Jekyll-and-Hyde-like are transmogrified above titles. I enclose $2 per 100 ordered to for the tracks left by a few thin worms, the ani- into shark-like predators. They will, in turn, pre- help cover printing and postage costs. its profit motive must be replaced by a new dent. These are workers who must settle for the repression has the cozy name of “Homeland mals have largely left without a trace.…There vail upon their country’s governments to protect system based on collective ownership of the lowest paying jobs, if any. Not only are they Security.” are no fish.” their interests. They will plead, cajole and Name means of production and the sources of life. A exploited like all workers, but they work at the Workers should not be fooled by weasel words. Josh Reichert, an environmentalist of the Pew threaten. Those governments respond accord- socialist industrial democracy of cooperative bottom of the wage scale, and are used by capi- Hunger is a threat only to working people. That Address Charitable Trusts, concurred in Dr. Worm’s ingly, often under the guise of addressing imbal- labor and production for use must replace it. talism as an implicit threat to other workers old expression, “I don’t know where my next assessment, adding that the report is “a kind of ances in the balance of payments deficits, an old Help the SLP and The People spread that whose jobs they could move up to take. Accord- meal is coming from,” is never spoken by the warning bell” that “assumes we do nothing to capitalist refrain. They will raise all sorts of message by contributing generously to the ing to an editorial in The New York Times (Nov. (Continued on page 7) NEW YORK LABOR NEWS Press Forward Fund. fix this…and shame on us if that were to be the smoke screens, including the favorite red her- P.O. Box 218, Mtn. View, CA 94042-0218 case.” Dr. Worm favors eliminating “horrendous ring, “job loss.” “Oh our poor workers, their fam- Visit our website at www.slp.org 2 THE PEOPLE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 THE PEOPLE 7

italist society to conduct itself humanely, decent- and one copy of Earth Day and May Day.... ly and peaceably as though it were free from the Thanks for publishing the farce of China’s profit motive and free from class struggle. Con- letters to the People government. I heard on Voice of Russia last Stranger Than Fiction sider Mosley’s call for action, for example. Does week that China has published a list of “The he cry out for socialism? No. Does he credit Marx Press Forward an independent contractor. 100 Richest People in China.” Can you believe By Michael James “our culture creates criminality.” for giving us a classconscious, revolutionary, sci- Keep pressing forward! You’re doing a won- A copy flow problem caused a portion of the last it?! I suggest to people to use the runup to the Ever read The Nation? Beware! It is a voice of Bourgeois writers are mystifiers who lead the entific, disciplined and liberating methodologi- derful service to thousands of readers. sentence of the article to be dropped. The complete Beijing Olympics as a good way to use the liberalism, which means it is reformist and working class astray. The implication of cal insight into capitalism? No. Does he make Diane Lorraine Poole sentence is as follows: “ The industrial unions media against the government. often utopian. Consider a recent article that Mosley’s analysis is that U.S. culture can some- clear that capitalism, much like the exploitative Pittsburgh, Pa. involved in the construction of roads and vehicles of Anyway, here’s a check [$15]. Keep the despairs over American culture. how be adjusted and then our social problems economic arrangement of slavery, cannot be [Sent $10.00 contribution to Press Forward Fund.] all kinds will democratically determine how best to change. ¡Viva la Revolución! Bourgeois progressives and reformers love to will be corrected. Laboring without Marx, he reformed and can only be abolished? No. Does serve our needs without the insane drive for profit to Douglas Aaron comment on culture because it makes for a shal- would have a decent and sane culture somehow he inspire members of the working class, the Truckers prod them into foolhardy and dangerous decisions Salem, Ore. low analysis, sparing them the civic dilemma of emerge from an indecent and insane economic class that creates all wealth and the only class There is an error on page 3 of the November- such as those that today jeopardize our safety and The Homeless being viewed as anticapitalist. The writer in arrangement. A proper analysis is that our that can save the world from capitalism, to December issue. “Paying drivers by the hour rather well-being every time we step out of the door.”] I very much enjoy your writing in The People. question is Walter Mosley, identified as a writer material base of capitalism is criminal. Produc- become abolitionists? No. than by the load, which encourages speeding....” There’s something about capitalism that just of mystery novels. Indeed, his article in The tion and distribution are for the benefit of the What is Mosley’s solution? He writes, “Maybe In fact, road drivers are paid by the load and Health Insurance drives me up the wall. It’s this business that the Nation is stranger than fiction. capitalist ruling class. The profit motive poisons if we…cared a lot more.” It is a childish and this “encourages speeding and fatigue when Your article, “Health Insurance: A Leach on homeless need to be rehabilitated so they can be Mosley describes the emptiness of U.S. culture social policy and corrupts human nature. More- utopian sentiment, a magical solution that drivers press themselves to complete a run in Society,” in the November-December People a success in our rotten capitalist system, that with phrases such as “psychic anorexia” and over, from this material base emerges a culture chooses to ignore our capitalist economic con- time to start another....” should be on the front page of every newspaper they must all be winos or druggies or just plain “morally emaciated.” He credits American cul- that can only be sick and depraved, a culture text. As social beings, our nature is to care. How- There is an error on page 6, “Texas Leads,” in the U.S. need religion. It seems very hard for a lot of peo- ture with bringing about a “spiritual famine” and whose essential purpose is to extol capitalism ever, our humanity becomes thwarted and per- etc., inasmuch as the article ends abruptly, mid- The United States has enough money to kill a “barren emotional landscape” characterized by and keep workers blinded and enslaved. verted by an economic system that promotes ple to conclude that there just aren’t enough section. Daniel B. Lazarus more than 100,000 Iraqis, kill more than 2,800 “hopelessness, emptiness and senseless cyni- In Marxian terms, it is base and superstruc- greed, aggression, fear and exploitation. jobs for all of us. Joe Randell Cincinnati, Ohio American soldiers, destroy and rebuild Iraq and cism.” He points to malignant and chronic social ture. The material base of our society is capital- Liberals, at least the sincere among them, aim turn thousands of law-abiding Muslims into Bellingham, Wash. problems such as poverty, war, proliferation of ism, an outdated economic arrangement that at turning capitalism into a just, fair, peaceful [Truckers are compensated in various ways: by terrorists, but doesn’t have the money to grant fast food products and overflowing prisons. allows a predatory owning class to exploit the and sane society. History proves the task is the load, as our reader says; by the hour, as health insurance to every American citizen. Still a Reader I still read with interest each issue of The Mosley is, after all, a mystery writer, so he working class, degrade the natural environ- impossible. From FDR’s New Deal to LBJ’s Great reported by The Dallas Morning News and cited Robert A. Bloomer People. I thought the current issue superior.The correctly figures out that “it is the wealthiest ment and conduct endless wars in pursuit of Society, and including endless other historical in our article; by the mile, or by some combina- Bonnieville, Ky. among us who control Congress, the legal sys- profit. An ideological and cultural superstruc- and contemporary movements before and since, tion of these, depending on whether the driver is China’s Rich writing seemed livelier and more colorful. a full-time employee, unionized or otherwise, or I was struck by the absence of any reference to tem and the presidency itself.” He even goes so ture of rhetoric and values emerges from this have shown it to be a Sisyphus-like labor. Just Please send me 100 Global Warming leaflets far as to challenge the material base of our soci- base. The capitalist superstructure in America look where we are today. Liberals inadvertently the Second Amendment in “Remember Your ety when he complains “television distracts us, is characterized by a lot of meaningless talk confess it every time they bemoan the loss of Three Rs.” Though workers should not cede any and the Lotto is one of the minor faiths under about freedom, liberty and democracy, and by some past “gain,” yet dogmatically insist on try- ACTIVITIES rights to the capitalist class, the overwhelming the greater religion of Capitalism.” Then he values such as individualism, competition, dom- ing to roll the boulder uphill again and again. firepower in the hands of the repressive appara- makes a political and ideological wrong turn inance over nature, consumerism and status, A classconscious worker merely needs to scan ...Hunger tus of the state diminishes the likelihood of that would be funny if it did not have the poten- peppered with antisocial mythology such as The Nation to feel a deep appreciation for the CALIFORNIA success in any resort to armed force, if it (Continued from page 1) tial of luring readers into the futility of reform- Horatio Alger pull-yourself-up-by-your-own- SLP and The People. Mosley wants more caring. San Francisco: Discussion Meeting—Sec- should come to that, in a slave owners’ revolt. ing capitalism and away from the necessity of bootstraps-get-rich-quick stories. Well, the SLP, speaking through The People, tion S.F. Bay Area will hold a discussion meeting on owners of industry.And as more and more well- Defections might do the trick. Saturday, Feb. 17, 1:30–4 p.m., Santa Clara Public abolishing capitalism. He concludes by saying Mosley is essentially dreaming. He wants cap- cares enough to speak the revolutionary truth. paying jobs disappear, as they have lately in I am not sure Hannibal is rightly called a “con- Library, Sycamore Room, 2635 Homestead Rd. (be- auto, airline and other industries, and as more queror” vis-à-vis Rome. He ravaged Italy for 15 tween Kiely Blvd. & San Tomas Expwy.), Santa Clara. jobs are “outsourced,” more workers will have to years, annihilating every army sent against him. contend with the prospect of hunger, even home- In the end, he was defeated at the Battle of Zama greatly to the value of Wage-Labor and Capital. the antagonism between his interests and the OHIO lessness (should we call it “low housing securi- in North Africa after the Romans invaded. The Engels shows the importance of Marx’s concept interests of the capitalist. Profit and wages remain Independence: Discussion Meeting— ty”?). If workers are to free themselves of the Carthaginian Senate called him home, which is of labor power and why what the classical econ- as before, in inverse proportion. If capital grows Section Cleveland will hold a discussion meeting on Marx Online threat of hunger, they have to recognize the what the Romans had hoped for.If I recall he was omists (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, et al.) had rapidly, wages may rise, but the profits of capital Sunday, Jan. 7, 1–3 p.m., Independence Public class nature of the problem, organize to end the successful in Spain, however. This year marks the 160th anniversary of to say about “the cost of production of labor” was rise disproportionately faster.” The growth of Library, 6361 Selig Dr. (off Rt. 21 between Chestnut & capitalist system of production for profit and P.D. Lawrence Karl Marx’s pioneering work on economics, essentially meaningless. In this connection, productive capital results in an intensification of Hillside). For information call 440-237-7933. (Please institute socialist production for use. Fresno, Calif. Wage-Labor and Capital. It is one of several Marx demonstrated that the workers could not the workers’ exploitation, so that “the greater note: No meetings are scheduled in February.) works by Marx that can be read on or down- sell their labor to the capitalist, for “so soon as division of labor enables one laborer to accom- OREGON loaded from the SLP’s website. his labor begins it ceases to belong to him, and plish the work of 5, 10 or 20 laborers.” The work- Portland: Discussion Meeting—Section Port- Cassin; $8 each David W. Geier, Milton A. Poulos, Although this early work of the youthful therefore can no longer be sold by him.” Work- ers are forced to compete against themselves as Marx is frequently described as being less land will hold a discussion meeting on Saturday, Feb. Anonymous; $5 each Albert E. Atwell Jr., Don ers sell their labor power, their ability to work. members of the working class, and as the capi- 17, from 10 a.m.–12 noon, at the Portland Main Library, Funds sophisticated in its analysis of capitalism than Patrick, L. Lela, Robert F. Jensen, Stephan Gra- “Its cost of production, therefore, coincides with talists are forced to exploit the workers on an SW Yamhill & 10th. Topic: “What Do You Know When ham, Walter K. Bagnick; Robert Jensen $4; Robert such later works as Value, Price and Profit and (Oct. 21–Dec. 14) his own cost of production.” The workers sell ever-increasing scale, “in the same measure do You Graduate? A study of corporate influence in the A. Bloomer $3; Ed Musgrave $1. Capital, in a certain sense that is its most im- Press Forward Fund their labor power at its value (by and large). they increase the industrial earthquakes, in the classroom.” For more information call Sid at 503-226- Total: $6,463.43 portant feature. Indeed, Wage-Labor and Capi- However, they must continue working after they midst of which the commercial world can pre- 2881 or visit the section’s website at http://slp.pdx. John O’Neill (In memory of Anne Karp) tal has an a-b-c quality about it that makes it have produced new value equal to that of their serve itself only by sacrificing a portion of its home.mindspring.com. (Please note: No meeting is $1,000; Section Cleveland $500; $400 each Sec- Christmas Box the ideal starting point for anyone seriously labor power. The capitalist keeps, and shares wealth, its products, and even its forces of pro- scheduled in January.) tion San Francisco Bay Area, Section Wayne Richard Ernstein $50.00 (Total) interested in learning what Marxian economics with bankers, the capitalist state, etc., the new duction, to the gods of the lower world—in short, For information about future meetings, visit the Co., Mich.; Mary Buha $300; $200 each Chris Press Security Fund is all about and, for that matter, what capital- value, or surplus value, created by the workers. the crises increase.” section’s website at http://slp.pdx.home.mindspring. Dobreff, Gerald Lucas, Irene F. Schelin, Joan M. Ronald H. Harner $20; Scott M. Sullivan $16; ism is all about. The secret of the capitalist exploitation of the Despite all of capitalism’s belittling of Marx, com or call Sid at 503-226-2881. Davis, Warren & Nancy Carlen (In memory of Anonymous $15; Marotte $10; James E. Larson $7. The reader who grasps the lessons Marx offers workers revealed in the above statement is the beneficiaries of capitalism know or sense that Comrades Albert & Mary Mills); $150 each John Total: $68.00 in Wage-Labor and Capital will be forever shown in detail in Engels’ introduction and in his analysis was correct and that the crises— S. & Rosemary Gale, Robert K. Hofem; Section immunized against such economic nonsense as, the text of Wage-Labor and Capital. The demon- crashes, depression, etc.—he forecast are an Cook Co., Ill., $124.80; $100 each Dr. L. Miles Prisoner Subscription Fund for example, that capitalism is a “consumerist” stration is scientifically accurate and presents inevitable consequence of capitalism’s operations. Steps Raisig, Helen Deneff, Irene S. Louik, Michael J. Michael J. Preston $10; $5 each Richard F. or “consumer driven” society and will learn that the only sound explanation of the process of Read Wage-Labor and Capital online. If you You Can Preston, Roy K. 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James Matuschka $8; $2 series of lectures he delivered to working-class for the working class, namely, the most rapid much light on the workings of the system in You can help provide for the Earle McGue, Harley Selkregg, Robert Ormsby, audiences who knew little or nothing about the growth of capital, however much it may improve these days of globalized capitalism as it did on long-term financial security of Sid Fink & Joe Groelke, William Barry; Lloyd A. each John S. Gale, Douglas Aaron. workings of the capitalist system. He later pub- The People by including a Wright $45; Anonymous $41; Lawrence Hackett Total: $42.00 the material lives of the worker, does not abolish the capitalism of 1847 when it was written. properly worded provision in lished several of these in a newspaper he edited your will, or by making some $40; Jill Cambell & Steve Littleton $35; John SLP Sustainer Fund at the time. Although he did not complete the other financial arrangement Hagerty $30; George E. 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Roger Hudson, Severino Majkus, William O’Ma- Socialist Labor Party basic economic law that determines how wages Please send a free copy of Steps You Can Take to: honey; $15 each Harold Madsen, Maurice Greb; Financial Summary and profits rise and fall, why the interests of the CITY STATE ZIP Name $10 each Ali Ebrahimi, Chuck Fair, Curt Walker, Bank balance (Sept. 30) ...... $ 91,114.58 working class and the capitalist class are dia- Make check/money order payable to The People. Address Diane Lorraine Poole, Dora Ruggiero, Douglas Expenses (Oct.-Nov.) ...... 19,094.77 metrically opposed and what effect the growth City Aaron, E.J. Pacharis, Harry C. Gibson, James Income (Oct.-Nov.) ...... 8,161.35 the People P.O. Box 218, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218 of productive capital has on wages. State Zip Lehner, Joseph Bellon, Keith O’Camb, Marotte, Bank balance (Nov. 30) ...... $ 80,181.16 An introduction by Frederick Engels adds Matthew Rinaldi, Richard F. Mack, Richard H. Deficit for 2006 ...... $ 69,672.10 6 THE PEOPLE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 THE PEOPLE 3 . . . Oil Stakes Too High ...De Leon ‘Retirement’ Increasingly (Continued from page 4) (Continued from page 1) ministration’s conduct of the war.The resounding Year!” is the distant rumbling of that approach- Iraq’s national oil industry will be commercial- defeat handed to the Republican Party and the ing social storm which, when it shall have Defined by Insecurity & More Work ized and opened to foreign firms. electoral success of its Democratic opponents was passed over the head of mankind, will leave By Ken Boettcher pension payments, and returns from 401(k)- up with inflation, but the chances of significantly “ The report makes visible to everyone the ele- generally accepted as irrefutable evidence that behind a social system in which life will be he “golden years” of retirement have type plans that often replace pensions can’t be growing invested funds are not high for most. phant in the room: that we are fighting, killing the overwhelming majority of Americans reject sacred, property its servant, and happiness, not always been a cruel and multifaceted counted on. Participation in a 401(k)-type plan The trend toward fewer and smaller pensions and dying in a war for oil. It states in plain lan- the war and want it brought to an end, if not the stolen privilege of a few, but the inheritance guage that the U.S. government should use every immediately then gradually. However, it is far T illusion for most older U.S. workers. Now, does not mean a worker will be able to build a and more risky and low-return 401(k) plans of all. however, even the illusion can no longer be main- retirement fund, even if an employer matches means work may end only with death for the tool at its disposal to ensure that American oil from certain that the new Democratic majority A Happy New Year! shouts the fighting SLP tained. Corporate public relations machines pro- majority of today’s workers, while economic interests and those of its corporations are met.” will make any effort to impose a major change. of the land to the wage slave wherever found. moting the belief by workers that decades of insecurity grows. Interviewed by Frontline, Intensifying the Conflict docile service to their employers will Notre Dame economics professor Teresa Ghi- Congress created the Iraq Study Group be rewarded with a comfortable retire- larducci observed, “What is the meaning of (ISG) last March to evaluate the deteriorating ment have little fodder left to feed the retirement if the only way you can live is to situation in that country and to recommend ...Parasites myth. Today a lifetime of hard work work? The answer is, there is no meaning to alternatives for resolving the conflict with a earns most U.S. workers only increased retirement anymore....It’s the end of minimum of damage to U.S. imperialist inter- (Continued from page 3) economic insecurity and more hard retirement.” ests. Among other things, the ISG, led by for- many years by a brutal military dictatorship. work—at lesser pay and with fewer so- Figures reflect that truth. As The New mer secretary of state James Baker, described Recently the daughter of Gen. Than Shwe, the called benefits. York Times reported in 2005, “The steepest the situation in Iraq as “grave and deteriorat- head of the military junta, was married. A leaked According to an article in The New turnaround in labor participation has ing” and recommended a gradual withdrawal Already incoming Senate majority leader Harry 10-minute video clip of the wedding has appeared York Times last year, even at their peak occurred among older men. The percentage of U.S. forces. President Bush has rejected that Reid has indicated a Democratic willingness to on the Internet. The Guardian of Nov. 3 reports in the late 1970s, defined-benefit pen- of men 55 to 64 years old in the workforce option, however, and may decide to send even support a troop “surge” into Iraq. “If the com- that “In the most opulent sequence the camera sions solely covered only 62 percent of all fell...from 87 percent in 1950 to under 65 more troops to Iraq to intensify the conflict and manders on the ground said this is just for a short zooms in on glittering jeweled clusters in the hair active workers. In 1979, 16 percent had percent in 1994. Then it began inching add to the carnage. That is the option being period of time, we’ll go along with that,” Reid said of the bride,Thandar Shwe, then pans down from only a so-called defined-contribution plan back up, reaching 69 percent last year, pushed by the Pentagon, according to a report in December. (Associated Press, Dec. 18) like a 401(k) plan. That left millions out of according to the Labor Department. in the Los Angeles Times of Dec. 13, and this If the American working class wants a world in any kind of plan, but a smaller percentage Among men 65 and older, the participa- “surge” could increase the number of troops by which peace and international harmony will pre- than left out today.Even so, for most recip- tion rate rose from 15 percent in 1994 to nearly 30 percent. vail it will have to do more than flop back and ients of this supposed capitalist largesse, 19 percent last year.” “The size of the troop increase the Pentagon forth between the political parties of capitalism. It her diamond ear-studs to at least six thick strings these plans hardly made life rosy. For These are the miserable and degrading will recommend is unclear,” the Times reported. will have to place its desire to live in such a world of what appear to be diamonds.” “What is not some, however, they made the difference circumstances confronting millions of “One officer suggested an increase of about beyond the capacity of any set of leaders to thwart seen are the gifts, which reportedly include luxu- between eating dog food and eating decent workers after a lifetime of work and 40,000...would be required....There are about their wishes. That can only be done by their con- ry cars and houses worth a total of $50 million.” meals. struggle in the “best of all possible sys- 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.” scious decision to take matters into their own Opponents of Burma’s military regime say that By 2002, according to the Pension Bene- tems,” as defenders of the capitalist sys- hands by organizing their political and economic the spending on the marriage in July was more fit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), the quasi-gov- Bulletin Populaire/LNS tem often describe it. Forced to seek work Contempt for Democracy might to establish a socialist industrial democra- than three times the state health budget. ernment agency that insures most defined- again, and facing a glutted labor market, Last November’s midterm elections were wide- cy through the Socialist Industrial Union pro- One day the world’s workers must finally benefit pension plans, “only about 20 per- older workers able to work and able to find work ly described as a “referendum” on the Bush ad- gram offered by the Socialist Labor Party. become conscious of the nature of capitalist cent of private-sector wage and salaried work- the funds invested by workers with wealth it end up in jobs that pay far less, have fewer bene- exploitation and of their own class interests. ers [were] covered by PBGC-insured defined stole from them in the first place. Some 401(k) fits or no benefits at all. Marital strife, depression, They have it within their power to rid the world benefit pension plans.” investments can be a complete loss, as former alcoholism and even suicide are common results. of poverty-breeding capitalism and to create a According to the conservative Heritage Foun- Enron workers can attest. In a sane society, one in which production was Red Army, the workers were united against it just and peaceful global society in which the dation, as of 2004, “Almost half of all workers In general, the return is not much for most— organized for human needs and wants rather and still determined in their demands. This was proceeds of labor will provide secure, comfort- and up to three-fourths of small-business the main beneficiaries of the fund are often not than for the private profit of a tiny minority, . . .50 Years evidenced by its limited duration. And even able, enjoyable and culturally rich lives for all. employees have no [retirement] plan. Overall, the majority of workers. In an episode of the things could be different. That can only result (Continued from page 5) though the strike demonstrated solidarity it did according to the Employee Benefit Research series Frontline called “Can You Afford to from the revolutionary efforts of the workers, as Similarly, the tactics, easily within the com- not bring the workers any nearer to under- Institute, only 50.9 percent of workers partici- Retire?” aired in November on Public Broadcast- a class, organized politically and industrially to pass of mass understanding, combine political standing how that solidarity could be used to pate in an employer-sponsored [retirement] ing Service stations, a benefits consultant calcu- abolish capitalism, take possession of the nation’s and industrial class action—political action to put an end to bureaucratic despotism. On the NEW EDITION plan. Among firms with fewer than 25 employ- lated investment returns for a 401(k) plan’s par- economy and operate it democratically for the use outlaw capitalist ownership; industrial action to other hand, many a Hungarian worker, reflect- Earth Day ees, only 23.2 percent are able to participate. ticipants. “Say the bottom 20 percent [of employ- and benefit of all society. Then all will be take physical possession of the factories, mills, ing upon the significance of a paralyzed produc- Most workers cannot participate because their ees] had an investment return for the year of 4 assured of economic security and material well- mines, railroads, etc. tion and distribution system, must have seen in and May Day employer does not offer a retirement plan.” percent. The top 20 percent [usually managers] being throughout their lives—straight through Two Views of the Future In short, a working class that knows where it is the general strike a method of achieving chaos. The shift toward defined contribution plans would be anywhere between five and seven the golden years promised but never delivered By Robert Bills going and how it is going to get there requires no The constructive revolutionary act cannot be a and away from defined benefit pension plans is times that number.” Some might be able to keep by capitalism. special set of leaders to show the way. Its collec- strike, general or otherwise. The constructive accelerating as more companies use bankrupt- tive, industrially organized power is invincible. revolutionary act cannot be the negative one of cy proceedings as a tactic to dump their pension leaving the workshops; it must be the positive one plans onto a PBGC that is reportedly already The General Strike of taking them over and locking out the exploiters, $23 billion underfunded. Bankruptcies have (Weekly People, Jan. 5, 1957) be they capitalists or bureaucrats. increasingly provided a legal means for compa- In countries like the United States, which has Producers & Parasites According to the consensus of news observers, $2 postpaid nies to dump their pension obligations. The the 48-hour general strike called by the a Constitution legalizing fundamental social 16 pages potential line for such bankruptcies is long. By Jim Plant from a U.S. capitalist, David Geffen, who is rep- Budapest Central Workers Council for mid- change, this constructive act will follow the Standard & Poor’s reported that so many com- The source of all social wealth is human labor. utably worth $4.5 billion (although this makes night, Dec. 10, was 80 percent effective. That is, destructive—destructive in the sense that it New York panies had fallen behind in their payments that Globally, the working class not only produces all him only the 45th richest man in the United it shut down 80 percent of Hungary’s economic destroys capitalist ownership and dismembers Labor News “S&P 500 defined-benefit plans as a group were social wealth, it produces it in ample quantities States). Mr. Geffen has apparently sold many operations for two days. But as a means of coerc- the state—act of their political arm. The con- PO Box 218 $140.4 billion underfunded for 2005.” to abolish poverty. Yet, tens of millions of people other paintings in recent months, but not ing the Kadar government into granting the structive revolutionary act is one that can be Mtn. View, CA For retirees, the result of this trend can be cat- the world over live in excruciating poverty. because he is short of cash. No, he wishes to workers’ demands it was a total failure. Indeed, performed only by the integral-industrial 94042-0218 astrophic. The PBGC pays out much reduced Increasingly, they are being driven from the become a newspaper magnate, and for starters the strike itself failed to end in a rout only organization of the working class. countryside into depressing slums or shanty- his eye is on the Los Angeles Times. because of its brief predetermined duration. The towns with substandard health care, water sup- The taste for opulence and obscene profligate plies and no way to make a decent living. waste and consumption is a worldwide phenom- BOR OMN LA IA incident illustrates once again the inadequacy, VINCIT inappropriateness and self-defeating nature of Against this background, successful capital- enon in capitalist society.The International Her- The People’s Founded April 5, 1891 the general strike as a revolutionary weapon. ists in the developing world are living out their ald Tribune of Oct. 26 gives an example from The People (ISSN-0199-350X), continuing the Weekly Peo- lives in extreme comfort and privilege, just as India. In the city of Pune lives an Indian capi- First of all, the posture of strikers is that of PRESS FORWARD FUND ple, is published bimonthly by the Socialist Labor Party of petitioners—and this is so even when the “peti- America, 661 Kings Row, San Jose, CA 95112-2724. their counterparts in America and Europe have talist, Yohan Poonawalla. The 34-year-old Mr. tion” is framed in the form of an ultimatum or been doing for generations. Even a rudimentary Poonawalla has a taste for expensive automo- This is my contribution of $ ______for The People’s Press Forward Fund, which will help support Periodicals postage paid at San Jose, CA 95101-7024. Post- demand. Accordingly, the strike is not the act of master: Send all address changes to The People, P.O. Box 218, survey of the press over a few weeks reveals biles, of which he owns “around 30.” Among the SLP’s official journal. (Please make checks/money orders payable to the Socialist Labor Party Mountain View, CA 94042-0218. Communications: Business and many examples, although cases reported are them are eight Rolls Royces, the latest costing a men who are bent on taking that which they or The People and mail to P.O. Box 218, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218.) editorial matters should be addressed to The People, P.O. Box but the tip of an iceberg. mere $940,000. He has a $450,000 Lamborghi- declare is theirs, on wresting it from the class 218, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218. Phone: (408) 280- that has possession. Rather it is an act of men Name 7266. Fax: (408) 280-6964. Early in November, for example, David Mar- ni, plus many BMWs and a Porsche. He also has intent on gaining their end by coercing the Address Access The People online at: www.slp.org. Send e-mail to: tinez, a Mexican capitalist, purchased a canvas a pool of over 20 chauffeurs to call upon. The usurping class into giving in. It therefore tacitly Apt. [email protected]. by Jackson Pollock for a reported $140 million. International Herald Tribune notes that India acknowledges the usurpers’ right not to give in. City Rates: (domestic and foreign): Single copy, $1. Subscriptions: Mr. Martinez, according to the Nov. 3 edition of today has about 300 million people living on less “It is a tacit recognition,” De Leon wrote, “of an State Zip $5 for one year; $8 for two years; $10 for three years. By first- the London Guardian, also recently purchased than $1 per day. existing social order.” class mail, add $4 per year. Bundle orders: 5–100 copies, $16 another painting last June for $15.5 million and One of the world’s poorest countries in terms of (Political contributions are not tax deductible.) Acknowledgments will be made in The People. per 100; 101–500 copies, $14 per 100; 501–1,000 copies, $12 per ❑ ❑ he managed to purchase an apartment in Man- income per head is Burma (Myanmar). It is also The general strike in Hungary was in the Please indicate if a receipt is desired: Yes No 100; 1,001 or more copies, $10 per 100. Foreign subscriptions: nature of a demonstration to the government Payment by international money order in U.S. dollars. hattan for $55 million. one of the most oppressive, being governed for that, despite the bloodbath given them by the Mr. Martinez purchased the Jackson Pollack (Continued on page 6) 4 THE PEOPLE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 THE PEOPLE 5 A De Leon Editorial Lou Dobbs Assails Life v. Property Corporate Attack on ‘Middle Class’ VOL. 116 NO. 5 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 War and its atrocities are inseparable from capitalist “civilization.” Only socialism can put an end to them. By B.B. systems.” Indeed, during the interview Dobbs capitalists, craftsmen and small holders who A HAPPY NEW YEAR! ou Dobbs, anchorman of CNN’s evening qualified his “critique” with the testimonial, “I were dumped into the ranks of the working Pinochet: Capitalism’s Man (Daily People, Jan. 1, 1907) program “Lou Dobbs Tonight” and finan- believe in capitalism, but I absolutely abhor the class. Hence, today, there is no middle class. Thousands of Chileans celebrated in the streets on Dec. 10 upon news of the Once upon a time, in the history of the human race, within the fold L cial journalist, has been on a campaign concept of unfettered capitalism...certainly the Perpetuating the term when the substance death of ruthless dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, U.S. capitalism’s blood- of an empire, the most powerful yet seen on earth and which raised to attacking corporate America for undermining furthest thing from the imagination of our has vanished serves the Dobbsian purpose well. thirsty point man in Chile from 1973 to 1990. the highest pinnacle of perfection the theory “property is more precious and deliberately destroying the “middle class.” Founding Fathers.” It nurtures the illusion of a broad class inde- Within hours, supporters of the former dictator also were in the streets, and than life,” the occurrence was regular of gladiators, chosen to delight His evening homilies seldom fail to chastise Speaking of whom evokes a time when a pendent of the working class and yet not of the some violence broke out between opposing factions. Some 30,000 people the ruling class with their skill at arms and with their dying agonies, politicians for their failure to protect the south- largely agricultural nation consisting of small dominating or ruling class. It stimulates con- reportedly attended the tyrant’s funeral. marching proudly around the arena and, standing at the foot of the ern border or to fling invective against greedy farmers, shopkeepers, craftsmen, stunted facto- ceits on the part of some wageworkers, many of How could anyone be left in Chile who supported the old degenerate? After throne of the emperors, intonate the greeting: “Salve, Caesar, nos mori- employers who drive wages down by using ille- whom fancy themselves a “cut above” and all, tomes have been written that factually recount the gory history of a regime turi te salutamus!”—Hail to you, Caesar, we who are about to die, gal immigrant labor. He berates corpora- separate from ordinary laborers and factory “in which,” as The New York Times succinctly put it upon Pinochet’s death, tions for outsourcing jobs overseas. He workers. It encourages the chimerical vision “more than 3,200 people disappeared or were killed and tens of thousands salute you! inveighs against politicians of both of relief from the uncertainties and precari- were detained, tortured or exiled.” Nigh 20 centuries have rolled over the head of humankind since that Support for Pinochet, in Chile as well as among the foreign sponsors of his spectacle of a despotic property-holding class, and of the despotized Democratic and Republican parties for ousness of wage slavery by ascending to the regime, is all about who benefited from his state terror.As Time magazine said disinherited, agreeing so completely upon the supremacy of property failing Americans on health care and sacred precinct of managerial privilege. It of those who attended Pinochet’s funeral, “Most were from sectors that bene- above life that, as a matter of course, the property-holder accepted the education. He tours the country to lec- retards classconsciousness. fited in some way from the dictatorship, such as the military, business and life of the propertyless as his due, and the propertyless, in turn, poured ture “middle class” audiences on all of Were Mr. Dobbs to change every reference landowning communities.” out its life, as a matter of course, as a meet libation at the wassails of the above, on their impending impover- from “middle class” to “working class” he The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency helped plan the coup d’état that put property. The paganish superstition has not yet wholly vanished. ishment and to promote his latest book, would likely expose himself to red baiting; Pinochet into power. U.S. aid—public and covert—helped keep him there for On this very day “A Happy New Year!” is hardly distinguishable, on War on the Middle Class: How the Gov- hence he resorts to a term he can straddle. 17 years. He was the darling of the American conservative movement, praised the lips of many of the modern disinherited, from the essence of greet- ernment, Big Business, and Special Inter- Presumably,he believes in a benevolent cap- by former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and British prime minister est Groups are Waging War on the Ameri- italism in which the competitive forces and Margaret Thatcher, free-market economic ideologues Milton Friedman and ing vouchsafed the caesars by the gladiators about to die. On the lips can Dream and How to Fight Back (2006). compulsions that drive the capitalist system Friedrich Hayek and other defenders of capitalism as one of their brethren, a of many of the modern disinherited, and on the ears of all holders of hero for their free-market cause. property, “A Happy New Year!” but means a continuation of conditions One such tour brought Mr. Dobbs to function like a system are magically sus- That brings us to the fundamental point to be made upon the occasion of typified by the gorgeous Christmas tree, “laden with sausages, ham together for an interview with Rod pended. Thus he states, “Republicans and Pinochet’s death. He was foremost a defender of capitalism—then a dictator. bones, juicy chicken and other delicacies” given last Christmas by the Dreher, an editorial writer with The Dal- Democrats and their corporate masters are Chile’s capitalist class was furious with reforms enacted by Salvador society belle Miss Nannie Sloan of Baltimore to her dogs Lady, a grey- las Morning News. In the course of their not looking at the United States as a great Allende—the democratically elected president that Pinochet deposed in hound; Billy, a fox terrier; and Tramp, a pug, while the life of the pro- question-and-answer dialogue, Dobbs nation. They’re looking at us as the great- 1973—that nationalized Chile’s vast copper resources, among other industries ducers of all wealth, “sausages, hams, juicy chicken and other delica- stated, “The Forbes 400 list this year has est consumer market in the world.And...at and services. Popular unrest, no small amount stirred up by the CIA, threat- cies” included, slowly ebbs in misery. nothing but billionaires on it, at a time Americans first as consumers, as units of ened bourgeois rule. And yet, uneradicable as the superstition is with property, and slow when real wages have been falling for the labor, rather than as fellow citizens. And I Pinochet, his regime and its international sponsors responded to the threat past six years for working people and their say to hell with them.” to local and international capitalist interests by doing away with the threat to eradicate as it is from the mind of wide layers of the disinherited, families. Our middle class has been devas- Such invective “butters no parsnips,” and anyone who might possibly support it. the superstition is fast losing ground. With a powerful minority of the He was a defender of capitalism in the same sense that Hitler was, that propertyless in the civilized world today—a minority big with the tated, and the middle class is the founda- for to send a real message to the capital- Franco was, that Mussolini was. They were all capitalism’s men. They all jet- future, a future that is at hand—the superstition is dead, and cast to tion of our country.” ist class requires the united action, the tisoned the facade of bourgeois democracy when capitalism in their country the winds of oblivion. With this minority, on the grave of the death- Apart from the fact that real wages have D. Cooper for The People solidarity, the classconsciousness of the faced possible collapse and the threatened ascendancy of the ruled class. dealing superstition of old a life-bringing principle is reared—life is been falling for decades, coupling “middle working class acting as a multimillion-person That is the lesson that this occasion affords. more precious than property. On the lips of this minority “A Happy class” and “working people and their fami- majority, organized as an integrated union As Daniel De Leon wrote in the Daily People of April 24, 1912, “Ruling class- New Year!” preserves not a vestige of the meaning it breathed on the lies” is an oxymoron. The term middle class to ry owners and a relative minority of wagework- equipped to take, hold and operate the productive es are at best veiled autocrats. So long as the corresponding ruled class does lips of the Roman gladiator. Exactly the reverse. On the lips of this describe the working class creates confusion. ers constituted a majority of what might have wealth of the nation while banishing the entire not yet feel its historic mission to overthrow the ruling class throb in its veins, swelling minority of the today, the full-throated wish “A Happy New Middle class is an ill-defined term surrepti- been termed the “middle class,” a term that system that is driving humanity to disaster. the veil is kept unlifted from the face of the rulers. In the measure that the tiously introduced by pandering academics try- never took root in America because there were Confounding wageworkers with the anachro- ruled class does begin to feel its historic mission throbbing in its breast, the (Continued on page 6) ing to best Marxian social analysis by defining veil begins to be lifted. The nearer to a crisis, the stronger is the need felt by no serfs or feudal nobility. There was no in- nisms such as “middle class” fogs the issue of the the rulers for autocratic measures.” class by income level rather than by its rela- between class. The subsequent broad industri- age, which is “thrive with socialism or die with Ironically, the only permanent solution to this threat and the only hope to what is socialism? tionship to the means of production. The same alization that took place in the 19th and early capitalism” and contributes to the pall envelop- avoid it—is to do precisely what the ruling class fears most—build a revolu- crystal ball gazing that characterizes bourgeois 20th centuries virtually wiped out the petty ing the whole question of social development. tionary movement that will consolidate the latent political and economic Socialism is the collective ownership by all the people of the factories, mills, mines, sociology generally inspires it. Thus medium to power of the working class and enable it to replace strife-ridden capitalism railroads, land and all other instruments of production. Socialism means production to high income falls into medium to high “middle with the economic democracy of socialism. It is a race against time that work- satisfy human needs, not as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means class,” whether such definitions totter on credit direct control and management of the industries and social services by the workers 255075100 years ago ers can ill afford to lose. —K.B. through a democratic government based on their nationwide economic organization. and defaulted mortgages or not. Similarly, low Under socialism, all authority will originate from the workers, integrally united in incomes are ostensibly those who occupy the Socialist Industrial Unions. In each workplace, the rank and file will elect whatever com- mittees or representatives are needed to facilitate production. Within each shop or office lower class–or, heaven forbid, the working class. Leaders and Socialist Revolution The Socialist Industrial Union program, formu- ‘Socialist’ Chavez? division of a plant, the rank and file will participate directly in formulating and imple- Obviously, such terms mean nothing. (Weekly People, Jan. 5, 1957) lated by the great American Marxist, Daniel De menting all plans necessary for efficient operations. The origin of the term middle class arose in It is an instructive commentary on the primi- Leon, and promulgated by the Socialist Labor Hugo Chavez, reelected president of Venezuela in December, is winning Besides electing all necessary shop officers, the workers will also elect representatives support both at home and abroad among those who believe that what he is to a local and national council of their industry or service—and to a central congress rep- the period of the revolutionary overthrow of feu- tiveness of the workers’ councils that sprang up Party, shows the way. A ruthless, lawless, desper- resenting all the industries and services. This All-Industrial Congress will plan and coor- dalism by the capitalist class, wherein they in Hungary, and took over the leadership of a ate ruling class can kill or kidnap individuals— building in Venezuela is, as Chavez claimed after his election, “the kingdom dinate production in all areas of the economy.All persons elected to any post in the social- of love, of peace; the kingdom of justice, of solidarity, brotherhood; the king- ist government, from the lowest to the highest level, will be directly accountable to the were styled as the class in between the feudal previously leaderless uprising, that they were but it cannot kill or kidnap the whole working dom of socialism,” in short, the “kingdom of Christ.” rank and file. They will be subject to removal at any time that a majority of those who serfs and nobility. Then the middle class was highly vulnerable to paralysis through the arrest class. It can cripple a movement in which action is What Chavez may build in Venezuela remains to be seen. He has done elected them decide it is necessary. synonymous with the capitalist class, or the of their leaders. The Kadar regime shrewdly con- improvised and dependent on the decisions of the Such a system would make possible the fullest democracy and freedom. It would be a soci- nothing that makes it likely he will build anything more than a variant of ety based on the most primary freedom—economic freedom. bourgeoisie, the owners of capital and produc- centrated on arresting workers’ council mem- individual leaders—but it is helpless to cope with state capitalism or bureaucratic state despotism. One thing is certain. If he For individuals, socialism means an end to economic insecurity and exploitation. It tive wealth. In France, they were referred to as bers, knowing that this would throw the rebel- a movement in which, at the least, a substantial builds the kingdom of Christ it won’t be socialist. means workers cease to be commodities bought and sold on the labor market, and forced the Third Estate. lious workers into confusion. The trick apparent- section of the working class is clear upon the revo- Jesus was no Socialist because the material conditions prerequisite for the to work as appendages to tools owned by someone else. It means a chance to develop all individual capacities and potentials within a free community of free individuals. It means That which differentiated them as a class was ly worked. Where formerly the councils concen- lutionary goal and clear upon the tactics. Such a building of socialism didn’t exist 2,000 years ago. There was no socialized pro- a classless society that guarantees full democratic rights for all workers. a clear economic distinction: their relationship trated on the demands that Russian troops get movement possesses inner springs of intelligent ductive apparatus capable of producing an abundance for all. Socialism does not mean government or state ownership. It does not mean a closed party- The “program” of Jesus, if you will, was that the misery of the world should run system without democratic rights. Those things are the very opposite of socialism. to the economic system, which in turn imparted out of Hungary and Imre Nagy be admitted to action. It requires central direction to coordinate, be shared so that no one suffers alone; all must suffer equally. That was as “Socialism,” as the American Socialist Daniel De Leon defined it, “is that social system orientation as to their class interests. Similarly the government, now they found themselves but it does not rely upon leaders to lead, which is under which the necessaries of production are owned, controlled and administered by the with the growing class of wageworkers, or pro- to say, to decide what is to be done. In short, the humane a “program” as could then be had. The lack of socially developed, people, for the people, and under which, accordingly, the cause of political and economic absorbed in a struggle of far lesser scope—the large-scale means of production meant that not enough could be produced to despotism having been abolished, class rule is at end. That is socialism, nothing short of letariat, that is, those owning no productive struggle to effect the release of their leaders. movement of working-class and social emancipa- end the misery of all. Today an abundance for all is possible; real socialism can that.” And we might add, nothing more than that! Remember: If it does not fit this descrip- wealth and compelled to sell their labor power There is a lesson here of prime importance to tion—the Socialist Industrial Union—is invulner- be built upon the massive socialized means of production organized under the tion, it is not socialism—no matter who says different. Those who claim that socialism existed and failed in places like Russia and China simply do not know the facts. to the highest bidder, another clear economic the working class whose historic mission it is to able to ruling-class blackmailing attempts at par- industrial development of capitalism. Socialism will be a society in which the things we need to live, work and control our own distinction that also imparted orientation to terminate class rule and reconstruct society on alyzing it by inactivating its “leaders.” But it can’t be built by decree, or from the top down, by any “leader,” lives—the industries, services and natural resources—are collectively owned by all the their class interests. Thus arose between these socialist lines. The movement that is to effect this The goal of the Socialist Industrial Union is a people, and in which the democratic organization of the people within the industries and including Chavez. It is a touchstone of socialism that “The emancipation of two classes incessant class warfare centered on revolutionary change is doomed before it starts if system in which all means of social production will the working class must be achieved by the working class itself.” services is the government. Socialism means that government of the people, for the peo- ple and by the people will become a reality for the first time. the division of the wealth that the wage work- it is immune to paralysis through the assassina- be socially owned and administered democratical- Fundamental social transformations of the past have been carried through To win the struggle for socialist freedom requires enormous efforts of organizational by minorities at the head of unconscious masses. The transformation from and educational work. It requires building a political party of socialism to contest the ing class alone produced. tion, arrest or incapacitation in any way of its ly for the benefit of all the people by a Socialist capitalism to socialism can only be achieved when the majority of workers power of the capitalist class on the political field and to educate the majority of workers Confusing terms is the stock-in-trade of capi- elected representatives. Therefore, such a move- Industrial Union government. This is not a com- know what is at stake and why they must act. Without this knowledge they about the need for socialism. It requires building Socialist Industrial Union organizations talist pseudo-sociology.Such media apologists of ment must be so ordered that whatever the “pro- plicated concept. It can be easily grasped by a to unite all workers in a classconscious industrial force and to prepare them to take, hold cannot build a society they can run democratically in their own interest. and operate the tools of production. capitalism as Mr. Dobbs glibly absorb and slavery rebels” of capitalism may do to these rep- classconscious working class. And, once grasped, it Spreading around oil money does not a Socialist make—however Christ- You are needed in the ranks of Socialists fighting for a better world, to end poverty, mechanically repeated those confused terms. resentatives will fail to halt the tide of revolution. renders the workers’ movement proof against rul- like it may make Hugo Chavez feel. —K.B. racism, sexism, environmental disaster and to avert the still potent threat of a cata- They are true believers of the misconceived But how can the organization of the working ing-class trickery and compromise. strophic nuclear war. Find out more about the program and work of the Socialist Labor Party and join us to help make the promise of socialism a reality. adage that capitalism is “the best of all possible class function without leaders? (Continued on page 6) 4 THE PEOPLE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 THE PEOPLE 5 A De Leon Editorial Lou Dobbs Assails Life v. Property Corporate Attack on ‘Middle Class’ VOL. 116 NO. 5 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 War and its atrocities are inseparable from capitalist “civilization.” Only socialism can put an end to them. By B.B. systems.” Indeed, during the interview Dobbs capitalists, craftsmen and small holders who A HAPPY NEW YEAR! ou Dobbs, anchorman of CNN’s evening qualified his “critique” with the testimonial, “I were dumped into the ranks of the working Pinochet: Capitalism’s Man (Daily People, Jan. 1, 1907) program “Lou Dobbs Tonight” and finan- believe in capitalism, but I absolutely abhor the class. Hence, today, there is no middle class. Thousands of Chileans celebrated in the streets on Dec. 10 upon news of the Once upon a time, in the history of the human race, within the fold L cial journalist, has been on a campaign concept of unfettered capitalism...certainly the Perpetuating the term when the substance death of ruthless dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet, U.S. capitalism’s blood- of an empire, the most powerful yet seen on earth and which raised to attacking corporate America for undermining furthest thing from the imagination of our has vanished serves the Dobbsian purpose well. thirsty point man in Chile from 1973 to 1990. the highest pinnacle of perfection the theory “property is more precious and deliberately destroying the “middle class.” Founding Fathers.” It nurtures the illusion of a broad class inde- Within hours, supporters of the former dictator also were in the streets, and than life,” the occurrence was regular of gladiators, chosen to delight His evening homilies seldom fail to chastise Speaking of whom evokes a time when a pendent of the working class and yet not of the some violence broke out between opposing factions. Some 30,000 people the ruling class with their skill at arms and with their dying agonies, politicians for their failure to protect the south- largely agricultural nation consisting of small dominating or ruling class. It stimulates con- reportedly attended the tyrant’s funeral. marching proudly around the arena and, standing at the foot of the ern border or to fling invective against greedy farmers, shopkeepers, craftsmen, stunted facto- ceits on the part of some wageworkers, many of How could anyone be left in Chile who supported the old degenerate? After throne of the emperors, intonate the greeting: “Salve, Caesar, nos mori- employers who drive wages down by using ille- whom fancy themselves a “cut above” and all, tomes have been written that factually recount the gory history of a regime turi te salutamus!”—Hail to you, Caesar, we who are about to die, gal immigrant labor. He berates corpora- separate from ordinary laborers and factory “in which,” as The New York Times succinctly put it upon Pinochet’s death, tions for outsourcing jobs overseas. He workers. It encourages the chimerical vision “more than 3,200 people disappeared or were killed and tens of thousands salute you! inveighs against politicians of both of relief from the uncertainties and precari- were detained, tortured or exiled.” Nigh 20 centuries have rolled over the head of humankind since that Support for Pinochet, in Chile as well as among the foreign sponsors of his spectacle of a despotic property-holding class, and of the despotized Democratic and Republican parties for ousness of wage slavery by ascending to the regime, is all about who benefited from his state terror.As Time magazine said disinherited, agreeing so completely upon the supremacy of property failing Americans on health care and sacred precinct of managerial privilege. It of those who attended Pinochet’s funeral, “Most were from sectors that bene- above life that, as a matter of course, the property-holder accepted the education. He tours the country to lec- retards classconsciousness. fited in some way from the dictatorship, such as the military, business and life of the propertyless as his due, and the propertyless, in turn, poured ture “middle class” audiences on all of Were Mr. Dobbs to change every reference landowning communities.” out its life, as a matter of course, as a meet libation at the wassails of the above, on their impending impover- from “middle class” to “working class” he The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency helped plan the coup d’état that put property. The paganish superstition has not yet wholly vanished. ishment and to promote his latest book, would likely expose himself to red baiting; Pinochet into power. U.S. aid—public and covert—helped keep him there for On this very day “A Happy New Year!” is hardly distinguishable, on War on the Middle Class: How the Gov- hence he resorts to a term he can straddle. 17 years. He was the darling of the American conservative movement, praised the lips of many of the modern disinherited, from the essence of greet- ernment, Big Business, and Special Inter- Presumably,he believes in a benevolent cap- by former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger and British prime minister est Groups are Waging War on the Ameri- italism in which the competitive forces and Margaret Thatcher, free-market economic ideologues Milton Friedman and ing vouchsafed the caesars by the gladiators about to die. On the lips can Dream and How to Fight Back (2006). compulsions that drive the capitalist system Friedrich Hayek and other defenders of capitalism as one of their brethren, a of many of the modern disinherited, and on the ears of all holders of hero for their free-market cause. property, “A Happy New Year!” but means a continuation of conditions One such tour brought Mr. Dobbs to function like a system are magically sus- That brings us to the fundamental point to be made upon the occasion of typified by the gorgeous Christmas tree, “laden with sausages, ham together for an interview with Rod pended. Thus he states, “Republicans and Pinochet’s death. He was foremost a defender of capitalism—then a dictator. bones, juicy chicken and other delicacies” given last Christmas by the Dreher, an editorial writer with The Dal- Democrats and their corporate masters are Chile’s capitalist class was furious with reforms enacted by Salvador society belle Miss Nannie Sloan of Baltimore to her dogs Lady, a grey- las Morning News. In the course of their not looking at the United States as a great Allende—the democratically elected president that Pinochet deposed in hound; Billy, a fox terrier; and Tramp, a pug, while the life of the pro- question-and-answer dialogue, Dobbs nation. They’re looking at us as the great- 1973—that nationalized Chile’s vast copper resources, among other industries ducers of all wealth, “sausages, hams, juicy chicken and other delica- stated, “The Forbes 400 list this year has est consumer market in the world.And...at and services. Popular unrest, no small amount stirred up by the CIA, threat- cies” included, slowly ebbs in misery. nothing but billionaires on it, at a time Americans first as consumers, as units of ened bourgeois rule. And yet, uneradicable as the superstition is with property, and slow when real wages have been falling for the labor, rather than as fellow citizens. And I Pinochet, his regime and its international sponsors responded to the threat past six years for working people and their say to hell with them.” to local and international capitalist interests by doing away with the threat to eradicate as it is from the mind of wide layers of the disinherited, families. Our middle class has been devas- Such invective “butters no parsnips,” and anyone who might possibly support it. the superstition is fast losing ground. With a powerful minority of the He was a defender of capitalism in the same sense that Hitler was, that propertyless in the civilized world today—a minority big with the tated, and the middle class is the founda- for to send a real message to the capital- Franco was, that Mussolini was. They were all capitalism’s men. They all jet- future, a future that is at hand—the superstition is dead, and cast to tion of our country.” ist class requires the united action, the tisoned the facade of bourgeois democracy when capitalism in their country the winds of oblivion. With this minority, on the grave of the death- Apart from the fact that real wages have D. Cooper for The People solidarity, the classconsciousness of the faced possible collapse and the threatened ascendancy of the ruled class. dealing superstition of old a life-bringing principle is reared—life is been falling for decades, coupling “middle working class acting as a multimillion-person That is the lesson that this occasion affords. more precious than property. On the lips of this minority “A Happy class” and “working people and their fami- majority, organized as an integrated union As Daniel De Leon wrote in the Daily People of April 24, 1912, “Ruling class- New Year!” preserves not a vestige of the meaning it breathed on the lies” is an oxymoron. The term middle class to ry owners and a relative minority of wagework- equipped to take, hold and operate the productive es are at best veiled autocrats. So long as the corresponding ruled class does lips of the Roman gladiator. Exactly the reverse. On the lips of this describe the working class creates confusion. ers constituted a majority of what might have wealth of the nation while banishing the entire not yet feel its historic mission to overthrow the ruling class throb in its veins, swelling minority of the today, the full-throated wish “A Happy New Middle class is an ill-defined term surrepti- been termed the “middle class,” a term that system that is driving humanity to disaster. the veil is kept unlifted from the face of the rulers. In the measure that the tiously introduced by pandering academics try- never took root in America because there were Confounding wageworkers with the anachro- ruled class does begin to feel its historic mission throbbing in its breast, the (Continued on page 6) ing to best Marxian social analysis by defining veil begins to be lifted. The nearer to a crisis, the stronger is the need felt by no serfs or feudal nobility. There was no in- nisms such as “middle class” fogs the issue of the the rulers for autocratic measures.” class by income level rather than by its rela- between class. The subsequent broad industri- age, which is “thrive with socialism or die with Ironically, the only permanent solution to this threat and the only hope to what is socialism? tionship to the means of production. The same alization that took place in the 19th and early capitalism” and contributes to the pall envelop- avoid it—is to do precisely what the ruling class fears most—build a revolu- crystal ball gazing that characterizes bourgeois 20th centuries virtually wiped out the petty ing the whole question of social development. tionary movement that will consolidate the latent political and economic Socialism is the collective ownership by all the people of the factories, mills, mines, sociology generally inspires it. Thus medium to power of the working class and enable it to replace strife-ridden capitalism railroads, land and all other instruments of production. Socialism means production to high income falls into medium to high “middle with the economic democracy of socialism. It is a race against time that work- satisfy human needs, not as under capitalism, for sale and profit. Socialism means class,” whether such definitions totter on credit direct control and management of the industries and social services by the workers 255075100 years ago ers can ill afford to lose. —K.B. through a democratic government based on their nationwide economic organization. and defaulted mortgages or not. Similarly, low Under socialism, all authority will originate from the workers, integrally united in incomes are ostensibly those who occupy the Socialist Industrial Unions. In each workplace, the rank and file will elect whatever com- mittees or representatives are needed to facilitate production. Within each shop or office lower class–or, heaven forbid, the working class. Leaders and Socialist Revolution The Socialist Industrial Union program, formu- ‘Socialist’ Chavez? division of a plant, the rank and file will participate directly in formulating and imple- Obviously, such terms mean nothing. (Weekly People, Jan. 5, 1957) lated by the great American Marxist, Daniel De menting all plans necessary for efficient operations. The origin of the term middle class arose in It is an instructive commentary on the primi- Leon, and promulgated by the Socialist Labor Hugo Chavez, reelected president of Venezuela in December, is winning Besides electing all necessary shop officers, the workers will also elect representatives support both at home and abroad among those who believe that what he is to a local and national council of their industry or service—and to a central congress rep- the period of the revolutionary overthrow of feu- tiveness of the workers’ councils that sprang up Party, shows the way. A ruthless, lawless, desper- resenting all the industries and services. This All-Industrial Congress will plan and coor- dalism by the capitalist class, wherein they in Hungary, and took over the leadership of a ate ruling class can kill or kidnap individuals— building in Venezuela is, as Chavez claimed after his election, “the kingdom dinate production in all areas of the economy.All persons elected to any post in the social- of love, of peace; the kingdom of justice, of solidarity, brotherhood; the king- ist government, from the lowest to the highest level, will be directly accountable to the were styled as the class in between the feudal previously leaderless uprising, that they were but it cannot kill or kidnap the whole working dom of socialism,” in short, the “kingdom of Christ.” rank and file. They will be subject to removal at any time that a majority of those who serfs and nobility. Then the middle class was highly vulnerable to paralysis through the arrest class. It can cripple a movement in which action is What Chavez may build in Venezuela remains to be seen. He has done elected them decide it is necessary. synonymous with the capitalist class, or the of their leaders. The Kadar regime shrewdly con- improvised and dependent on the decisions of the Such a system would make possible the fullest democracy and freedom. It would be a soci- nothing that makes it likely he will build anything more than a variant of ety based on the most primary freedom—economic freedom. bourgeoisie, the owners of capital and produc- centrated on arresting workers’ council mem- individual leaders—but it is helpless to cope with state capitalism or bureaucratic state despotism. One thing is certain. If he For individuals, socialism means an end to economic insecurity and exploitation. It tive wealth. In France, they were referred to as bers, knowing that this would throw the rebel- a movement in which, at the least, a substantial builds the kingdom of Christ it won’t be socialist. means workers cease to be commodities bought and sold on the labor market, and forced the Third Estate. lious workers into confusion. The trick apparent- section of the working class is clear upon the revo- Jesus was no Socialist because the material conditions prerequisite for the to work as appendages to tools owned by someone else. It means a chance to develop all individual capacities and potentials within a free community of free individuals. It means That which differentiated them as a class was ly worked. Where formerly the councils concen- lutionary goal and clear upon the tactics. Such a building of socialism didn’t exist 2,000 years ago. There was no socialized pro- a classless society that guarantees full democratic rights for all workers. a clear economic distinction: their relationship trated on the demands that Russian troops get movement possesses inner springs of intelligent ductive apparatus capable of producing an abundance for all. Socialism does not mean government or state ownership. It does not mean a closed party- The “program” of Jesus, if you will, was that the misery of the world should run system without democratic rights. Those things are the very opposite of socialism. to the economic system, which in turn imparted out of Hungary and Imre Nagy be admitted to action. It requires central direction to coordinate, be shared so that no one suffers alone; all must suffer equally. That was as “Socialism,” as the American Socialist Daniel De Leon defined it, “is that social system orientation as to their class interests. Similarly the government, now they found themselves but it does not rely upon leaders to lead, which is under which the necessaries of production are owned, controlled and administered by the with the growing class of wageworkers, or pro- to say, to decide what is to be done. In short, the humane a “program” as could then be had. The lack of socially developed, people, for the people, and under which, accordingly, the cause of political and economic absorbed in a struggle of far lesser scope—the large-scale means of production meant that not enough could be produced to despotism having been abolished, class rule is at end. That is socialism, nothing short of letariat, that is, those owning no productive struggle to effect the release of their leaders. movement of working-class and social emancipa- end the misery of all. Today an abundance for all is possible; real socialism can that.” And we might add, nothing more than that! Remember: If it does not fit this descrip- wealth and compelled to sell their labor power There is a lesson here of prime importance to tion—the Socialist Industrial Union—is invulner- be built upon the massive socialized means of production organized under the tion, it is not socialism—no matter who says different. Those who claim that socialism existed and failed in places like Russia and China simply do not know the facts. to the highest bidder, another clear economic the working class whose historic mission it is to able to ruling-class blackmailing attempts at par- industrial development of capitalism. Socialism will be a society in which the things we need to live, work and control our own distinction that also imparted orientation to terminate class rule and reconstruct society on alyzing it by inactivating its “leaders.” But it can’t be built by decree, or from the top down, by any “leader,” lives—the industries, services and natural resources—are collectively owned by all the their class interests. Thus arose between these socialist lines. The movement that is to effect this The goal of the Socialist Industrial Union is a people, and in which the democratic organization of the people within the industries and including Chavez. It is a touchstone of socialism that “The emancipation of two classes incessant class warfare centered on revolutionary change is doomed before it starts if system in which all means of social production will the working class must be achieved by the working class itself.” services is the government. Socialism means that government of the people, for the peo- ple and by the people will become a reality for the first time. the division of the wealth that the wage work- it is immune to paralysis through the assassina- be socially owned and administered democratical- Fundamental social transformations of the past have been carried through To win the struggle for socialist freedom requires enormous efforts of organizational by minorities at the head of unconscious masses. The transformation from and educational work. It requires building a political party of socialism to contest the ing class alone produced. tion, arrest or incapacitation in any way of its ly for the benefit of all the people by a Socialist capitalism to socialism can only be achieved when the majority of workers power of the capitalist class on the political field and to educate the majority of workers Confusing terms is the stock-in-trade of capi- elected representatives. Therefore, such a move- Industrial Union government. This is not a com- know what is at stake and why they must act. Without this knowledge they about the need for socialism. It requires building Socialist Industrial Union organizations talist pseudo-sociology.Such media apologists of ment must be so ordered that whatever the “pro- plicated concept. It can be easily grasped by a to unite all workers in a classconscious industrial force and to prepare them to take, hold cannot build a society they can run democratically in their own interest. and operate the tools of production. capitalism as Mr. Dobbs glibly absorb and slavery rebels” of capitalism may do to these rep- classconscious working class. And, once grasped, it Spreading around oil money does not a Socialist make—however Christ- You are needed in the ranks of Socialists fighting for a better world, to end poverty, mechanically repeated those confused terms. resentatives will fail to halt the tide of revolution. renders the workers’ movement proof against rul- like it may make Hugo Chavez feel. —K.B. racism, sexism, environmental disaster and to avert the still potent threat of a cata- They are true believers of the misconceived But how can the organization of the working ing-class trickery and compromise. strophic nuclear war. Find out more about the program and work of the Socialist Labor Party and join us to help make the promise of socialism a reality. adage that capitalism is “the best of all possible class function without leaders? (Continued on page 6) 6 THE PEOPLE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 THE PEOPLE 3 . . . Oil Stakes Too High ...De Leon ‘Retirement’ Increasingly (Continued from page 4) (Continued from page 1) ministration’s conduct of the war.The resounding Year!” is the distant rumbling of that approach- Iraq’s national oil industry will be commercial- defeat handed to the Republican Party and the ing social storm which, when it shall have Defined by Insecurity & More Work ized and opened to foreign firms. electoral success of its Democratic opponents was passed over the head of mankind, will leave By Ken Boettcher pension payments, and returns from 401(k)- up with inflation, but the chances of significantly “ The report makes visible to everyone the ele- generally accepted as irrefutable evidence that behind a social system in which life will be he “golden years” of retirement have type plans that often replace pensions can’t be growing invested funds are not high for most. phant in the room: that we are fighting, killing the overwhelming majority of Americans reject sacred, property its servant, and happiness, not always been a cruel and multifaceted counted on. Participation in a 401(k)-type plan The trend toward fewer and smaller pensions and dying in a war for oil. It states in plain lan- the war and want it brought to an end, if not the stolen privilege of a few, but the inheritance guage that the U.S. government should use every immediately then gradually. However, it is far T illusion for most older U.S. workers. Now, does not mean a worker will be able to build a and more risky and low-return 401(k) plans of all. however, even the illusion can no longer be main- retirement fund, even if an employer matches means work may end only with death for the tool at its disposal to ensure that American oil from certain that the new Democratic majority A Happy New Year! shouts the fighting SLP tained. Corporate public relations machines pro- majority of today’s workers, while economic interests and those of its corporations are met.” will make any effort to impose a major change. of the land to the wage slave wherever found. moting the belief by workers that decades of insecurity grows. Interviewed by Frontline, Intensifying the Conflict docile service to their employers will Notre Dame economics professor Teresa Ghi- Congress created the Iraq Study Group be rewarded with a comfortable retire- larducci observed, “What is the meaning of (ISG) last March to evaluate the deteriorating ment have little fodder left to feed the retirement if the only way you can live is to situation in that country and to recommend ...Parasites myth. Today a lifetime of hard work work? The answer is, there is no meaning to alternatives for resolving the conflict with a earns most U.S. workers only increased retirement anymore....It’s the end of minimum of damage to U.S. imperialist inter- (Continued from page 3) economic insecurity and more hard retirement.” ests. Among other things, the ISG, led by for- many years by a brutal military dictatorship. work—at lesser pay and with fewer so- Figures reflect that truth. As The New mer secretary of state James Baker, described Recently the daughter of Gen. Than Shwe, the called benefits. York Times reported in 2005, “The steepest the situation in Iraq as “grave and deteriorat- head of the military junta, was married. A leaked According to an article in The New turnaround in labor participation has ing” and recommended a gradual withdrawal Already incoming Senate majority leader Harry 10-minute video clip of the wedding has appeared York Times last year, even at their peak occurred among older men. The percentage of U.S. forces. President Bush has rejected that Reid has indicated a Democratic willingness to on the Internet. The Guardian of Nov. 3 reports in the late 1970s, defined-benefit pen- of men 55 to 64 years old in the workforce option, however, and may decide to send even support a troop “surge” into Iraq. “If the com- that “In the most opulent sequence the camera sions solely covered only 62 percent of all fell...from 87 percent in 1950 to under 65 more troops to Iraq to intensify the conflict and manders on the ground said this is just for a short zooms in on glittering jeweled clusters in the hair active workers. In 1979, 16 percent had percent in 1994. Then it began inching add to the carnage. That is the option being period of time, we’ll go along with that,” Reid said of the bride,Thandar Shwe, then pans down from only a so-called defined-contribution plan back up, reaching 69 percent last year, pushed by the Pentagon, according to a report in December. (Associated Press, Dec. 18) like a 401(k) plan. That left millions out of according to the Labor Department. in the Los Angeles Times of Dec. 13, and this If the American working class wants a world in any kind of plan, but a smaller percentage Among men 65 and older, the participa- “surge” could increase the number of troops by which peace and international harmony will pre- than left out today.Even so, for most recip- tion rate rose from 15 percent in 1994 to nearly 30 percent. vail it will have to do more than flop back and ients of this supposed capitalist largesse, 19 percent last year.” “The size of the troop increase the Pentagon forth between the political parties of capitalism. It her diamond ear-studs to at least six thick strings these plans hardly made life rosy. For These are the miserable and degrading will recommend is unclear,” the Times reported. will have to place its desire to live in such a world of what appear to be diamonds.” “What is not some, however, they made the difference circumstances confronting millions of “One officer suggested an increase of about beyond the capacity of any set of leaders to thwart seen are the gifts, which reportedly include luxu- between eating dog food and eating decent workers after a lifetime of work and 40,000...would be required....There are about their wishes. That can only be done by their con- ry cars and houses worth a total of $50 million.” meals. struggle in the “best of all possible sys- 140,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.” scious decision to take matters into their own Opponents of Burma’s military regime say that By 2002, according to the Pension Bene- tems,” as defenders of the capitalist sys- hands by organizing their political and economic the spending on the marriage in July was more fit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), the quasi-gov- Bulletin Populaire/LNS tem often describe it. Forced to seek work Contempt for Democracy might to establish a socialist industrial democra- than three times the state health budget. ernment agency that insures most defined- again, and facing a glutted labor market, Last November’s midterm elections were wide- cy through the Socialist Industrial Union pro- One day the world’s workers must finally benefit pension plans, “only about 20 per- older workers able to work and able to find work ly described as a “referendum” on the Bush ad- gram offered by the Socialist Labor Party. become conscious of the nature of capitalist cent of private-sector wage and salaried work- the funds invested by workers with wealth it end up in jobs that pay far less, have fewer bene- exploitation and of their own class interests. ers [were] covered by PBGC-insured defined stole from them in the first place. Some 401(k) fits or no benefits at all. Marital strife, depression, They have it within their power to rid the world benefit pension plans.” investments can be a complete loss, as former alcoholism and even suicide are common results. of poverty-breeding capitalism and to create a According to the conservative Heritage Foun- Enron workers can attest. In a sane society, one in which production was Red Army, the workers were united against it just and peaceful global society in which the dation, as of 2004, “Almost half of all workers In general, the return is not much for most— organized for human needs and wants rather and still determined in their demands. This was proceeds of labor will provide secure, comfort- and up to three-fourths of small-business the main beneficiaries of the fund are often not than for the private profit of a tiny minority, . . .50 Years evidenced by its limited duration. And even able, enjoyable and culturally rich lives for all. employees have no [retirement] plan. Overall, the majority of workers. In an episode of the things could be different. That can only result (Continued from page 5) though the strike demonstrated solidarity it did according to the Employee Benefit Research series Frontline called “Can You Afford to from the revolutionary efforts of the workers, as Similarly, the tactics, easily within the com- not bring the workers any nearer to under- Institute, only 50.9 percent of workers partici- Retire?” aired in November on Public Broadcast- a class, organized politically and industrially to pass of mass understanding, combine political standing how that solidarity could be used to pate in an employer-sponsored [retirement] ing Service stations, a benefits consultant calcu- abolish capitalism, take possession of the nation’s and industrial class action—political action to put an end to bureaucratic despotism. On the NEW EDITION plan. Among firms with fewer than 25 employ- lated investment returns for a 401(k) plan’s par- economy and operate it democratically for the use outlaw capitalist ownership; industrial action to other hand, many a Hungarian worker, reflect- Earth Day ees, only 23.2 percent are able to participate. ticipants. “Say the bottom 20 percent [of employ- and benefit of all society. Then all will be take physical possession of the factories, mills, ing upon the significance of a paralyzed produc- Most workers cannot participate because their ees] had an investment return for the year of 4 assured of economic security and material well- mines, railroads, etc. tion and distribution system, must have seen in and May Day employer does not offer a retirement plan.” percent. The top 20 percent [usually managers] being throughout their lives—straight through Two Views of the Future In short, a working class that knows where it is the general strike a method of achieving chaos. The shift toward defined contribution plans would be anywhere between five and seven the golden years promised but never delivered By Robert Bills going and how it is going to get there requires no The constructive revolutionary act cannot be a and away from defined benefit pension plans is times that number.” Some might be able to keep by capitalism. special set of leaders to show the way. Its collec- strike, general or otherwise. The constructive accelerating as more companies use bankrupt- tive, industrially organized power is invincible. revolutionary act cannot be the negative one of cy proceedings as a tactic to dump their pension leaving the workshops; it must be the positive one plans onto a PBGC that is reportedly already The General Strike of taking them over and locking out the exploiters, $23 billion underfunded. Bankruptcies have (Weekly People, Jan. 5, 1957) be they capitalists or bureaucrats. increasingly provided a legal means for compa- In countries like the United States, which has Producers & Parasites According to the consensus of news observers, $2 postpaid nies to dump their pension obligations. The the 48-hour general strike called by the a Constitution legalizing fundamental social 16 pages potential line for such bankruptcies is long. By Jim Plant from a U.S. capitalist, David Geffen, who is rep- Budapest Central Workers Council for mid- change, this constructive act will follow the Standard & Poor’s reported that so many com- The source of all social wealth is human labor. utably worth $4.5 billion (although this makes night, Dec. 10, was 80 percent effective. That is, destructive—destructive in the sense that it New York panies had fallen behind in their payments that Globally, the working class not only produces all him only the 45th richest man in the United it shut down 80 percent of Hungary’s economic destroys capitalist ownership and dismembers Labor News “S&P 500 defined-benefit plans as a group were social wealth, it produces it in ample quantities States). Mr. Geffen has apparently sold many operations for two days. But as a means of coerc- the state—act of their political arm. The con- PO Box 218 $140.4 billion underfunded for 2005.” to abolish poverty. Yet, tens of millions of people other paintings in recent months, but not ing the Kadar government into granting the structive revolutionary act is one that can be Mtn. View, CA For retirees, the result of this trend can be cat- the world over live in excruciating poverty. because he is short of cash. No, he wishes to workers’ demands it was a total failure. Indeed, performed only by the integral-industrial 94042-0218 astrophic. The PBGC pays out much reduced Increasingly, they are being driven from the become a newspaper magnate, and for starters the strike itself failed to end in a rout only organization of the working class. countryside into depressing slums or shanty- his eye is on the Los Angeles Times. because of its brief predetermined duration. The towns with substandard health care, water sup- The taste for opulence and obscene profligate plies and no way to make a decent living. waste and consumption is a worldwide phenom- BOR OMN LA IA incident illustrates once again the inadequacy, VINCIT inappropriateness and self-defeating nature of Against this background, successful capital- enon in capitalist society.The International Her- The People’s Founded April 5, 1891 the general strike as a revolutionary weapon. ists in the developing world are living out their ald Tribune of Oct. 26 gives an example from The People (ISSN-0199-350X), continuing the Weekly Peo- lives in extreme comfort and privilege, just as India. In the city of Pune lives an Indian capi- First of all, the posture of strikers is that of PRESS FORWARD FUND ple, is published bimonthly by the Socialist Labor Party of petitioners—and this is so even when the “peti- America, 661 Kings Row, San Jose, CA 95112-2724. their counterparts in America and Europe have talist, Yohan Poonawalla. The 34-year-old Mr. tion” is framed in the form of an ultimatum or been doing for generations. Even a rudimentary Poonawalla has a taste for expensive automo- This is my contribution of $ ______for The People’s Press Forward Fund, which will help support Periodicals postage paid at San Jose, CA 95101-7024. Post- demand. Accordingly, the strike is not the act of master: Send all address changes to The People, P.O. Box 218, survey of the press over a few weeks reveals biles, of which he owns “around 30.” Among the SLP’s official journal. (Please make checks/money orders payable to the Socialist Labor Party Mountain View, CA 94042-0218. Communications: Business and many examples, although cases reported are them are eight Rolls Royces, the latest costing a men who are bent on taking that which they or The People and mail to P.O. Box 218, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218.) editorial matters should be addressed to The People, P.O. Box but the tip of an iceberg. mere $940,000. He has a $450,000 Lamborghi- declare is theirs, on wresting it from the class 218, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218. Phone: (408) 280- that has possession. Rather it is an act of men Name 7266. Fax: (408) 280-6964. Early in November, for example, David Mar- ni, plus many BMWs and a Porsche. He also has intent on gaining their end by coercing the Address Access The People online at: www.slp.org. Send e-mail to: tinez, a Mexican capitalist, purchased a canvas a pool of over 20 chauffeurs to call upon. The usurping class into giving in. It therefore tacitly Apt. [email protected]. by Jackson Pollock for a reported $140 million. International Herald Tribune notes that India acknowledges the usurpers’ right not to give in. City Rates: (domestic and foreign): Single copy, $1. Subscriptions: Mr. Martinez, according to the Nov. 3 edition of today has about 300 million people living on less “It is a tacit recognition,” De Leon wrote, “of an State Zip $5 for one year; $8 for two years; $10 for three years. By first- the London Guardian, also recently purchased than $1 per day. existing social order.” class mail, add $4 per year. Bundle orders: 5–100 copies, $16 another painting last June for $15.5 million and One of the world’s poorest countries in terms of (Political contributions are not tax deductible.) Acknowledgments will be made in The People. per 100; 101–500 copies, $14 per 100; 501–1,000 copies, $12 per ❑ ❑ he managed to purchase an apartment in Man- income per head is Burma (Myanmar). It is also The general strike in Hungary was in the Please indicate if a receipt is desired: Yes No 100; 1,001 or more copies, $10 per 100. Foreign subscriptions: nature of a demonstration to the government Payment by international money order in U.S. dollars. hattan for $55 million. one of the most oppressive, being governed for that, despite the bloodbath given them by the Mr. Martinez purchased the Jackson Pollack (Continued on page 6) 2 THE PEOPLE JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 THE PEOPLE 7

italist society to conduct itself humanely, decent- and one copy of Earth Day and May Day.... ly and peaceably as though it were free from the Thanks for publishing the farce of China’s profit motive and free from class struggle. Con- letters to the People government. I heard on Voice of Russia last Stranger Than Fiction sider Mosley’s call for action, for example. Does week that China has published a list of “The he cry out for socialism? No. Does he credit Marx Press Forward an independent contractor. 100 Richest People in China.” Can you believe By Michael James “our culture creates criminality.” for giving us a classconscious, revolutionary, sci- Keep pressing forward! You’re doing a won- A copy flow problem caused a portion of the last it?! I suggest to people to use the runup to the Ever read The Nation? Beware! It is a voice of Bourgeois writers are mystifiers who lead the entific, disciplined and liberating methodologi- derful service to thousands of readers. sentence of the article to be dropped. The complete Beijing Olympics as a good way to use the liberalism, which means it is reformist and working class astray. The implication of cal insight into capitalism? No. Does he make Diane Lorraine Poole sentence is as follows: “ The industrial unions media against the government. often utopian. Consider a recent article that Mosley’s analysis is that U.S. culture can some- clear that capitalism, much like the exploitative Pittsburgh, Pa. involved in the construction of roads and vehicles of Anyway, here’s a check [$15]. Keep the despairs over American culture. how be adjusted and then our social problems economic arrangement of slavery, cannot be [Sent $10.00 contribution to Press Forward Fund.] all kinds will democratically determine how best to change. ¡Viva la Revolución! Bourgeois progressives and reformers love to will be corrected. Laboring without Marx, he reformed and can only be abolished? No. Does serve our needs without the insane drive for profit to Douglas Aaron comment on culture because it makes for a shal- would have a decent and sane culture somehow he inspire members of the working class, the Truckers prod them into foolhardy and dangerous decisions Salem, Ore. low analysis, sparing them the civic dilemma of emerge from an indecent and insane economic class that creates all wealth and the only class There is an error on page 3 of the November- such as those that today jeopardize our safety and The Homeless being viewed as anticapitalist. The writer in arrangement. A proper analysis is that our that can save the world from capitalism, to December issue. “Paying drivers by the hour rather well-being every time we step out of the door.”] I very much enjoy your writing in The People. question is Walter Mosley, identified as a writer material base of capitalism is criminal. Produc- become abolitionists? No. than by the load, which encourages speeding....” There’s something about capitalism that just of mystery novels. Indeed, his article in The tion and distribution are for the benefit of the What is Mosley’s solution? He writes, “Maybe In fact, road drivers are paid by the load and Health Insurance drives me up the wall. It’s this business that the Nation is stranger than fiction. capitalist ruling class. The profit motive poisons if we…cared a lot more.” It is a childish and this “encourages speeding and fatigue when Your article, “Health Insurance: A Leach on homeless need to be rehabilitated so they can be Mosley describes the emptiness of U.S. culture social policy and corrupts human nature. More- utopian sentiment, a magical solution that drivers press themselves to complete a run in Society,” in the November-December People a success in our rotten capitalist system, that with phrases such as “psychic anorexia” and over, from this material base emerges a culture chooses to ignore our capitalist economic con- time to start another....” should be on the front page of every newspaper they must all be winos or druggies or just plain “morally emaciated.” He credits American cul- that can only be sick and depraved, a culture text. As social beings, our nature is to care. How- There is an error on page 6, “Texas Leads,” in the U.S. need religion. It seems very hard for a lot of peo- ture with bringing about a “spiritual famine” and whose essential purpose is to extol capitalism ever, our humanity becomes thwarted and per- etc., inasmuch as the article ends abruptly, mid- The United States has enough money to kill a “barren emotional landscape” characterized by and keep workers blinded and enslaved. verted by an economic system that promotes ple to conclude that there just aren’t enough section. Daniel B. Lazarus more than 100,000 Iraqis, kill more than 2,800 “hopelessness, emptiness and senseless cyni- In Marxian terms, it is base and superstruc- greed, aggression, fear and exploitation. jobs for all of us. Joe Randell Cincinnati, Ohio American soldiers, destroy and rebuild Iraq and cism.” He points to malignant and chronic social ture. The material base of our society is capital- Liberals, at least the sincere among them, aim turn thousands of law-abiding Muslims into Bellingham, Wash. problems such as poverty, war, proliferation of ism, an outdated economic arrangement that at turning capitalism into a just, fair, peaceful [Truckers are compensated in various ways: by terrorists, but doesn’t have the money to grant fast food products and overflowing prisons. allows a predatory owning class to exploit the and sane society. History proves the task is the load, as our reader says; by the hour, as health insurance to every American citizen. Still a Reader I still read with interest each issue of The Mosley is, after all, a mystery writer, so he working class, degrade the natural environ- impossible. From FDR’s New Deal to LBJ’s Great reported by The Dallas Morning News and cited Robert A. Bloomer People. I thought the current issue superior.The correctly figures out that “it is the wealthiest ment and conduct endless wars in pursuit of Society, and including endless other historical in our article; by the mile, or by some combina- Bonnieville, Ky. among us who control Congress, the legal sys- profit. An ideological and cultural superstruc- and contemporary movements before and since, tion of these, depending on whether the driver is China’s Rich writing seemed livelier and more colorful. a full-time employee, unionized or otherwise, or I was struck by the absence of any reference to tem and the presidency itself.” He even goes so ture of rhetoric and values emerges from this have shown it to be a Sisyphus-like labor. Just Please send me 100 Global Warming leaflets far as to challenge the material base of our soci- base. The capitalist superstructure in America look where we are today. Liberals inadvertently the Second Amendment in “Remember Your ety when he complains “television distracts us, is characterized by a lot of meaningless talk confess it every time they bemoan the loss of Three Rs.” Though workers should not cede any and the Lotto is one of the minor faiths under about freedom, liberty and democracy, and by some past “gain,” yet dogmatically insist on try- ACTIVITIES rights to the capitalist class, the overwhelming the greater religion of Capitalism.” Then he values such as individualism, competition, dom- ing to roll the boulder uphill again and again. firepower in the hands of the repressive appara- makes a political and ideological wrong turn inance over nature, consumerism and status, A classconscious worker merely needs to scan ...Hunger tus of the state diminishes the likelihood of that would be funny if it did not have the poten- peppered with antisocial mythology such as The Nation to feel a deep appreciation for the CALIFORNIA success in any resort to armed force, if it (Continued from page 1) tial of luring readers into the futility of reform- Horatio Alger pull-yourself-up-by-your-own- SLP and The People. Mosley wants more caring. San Francisco: Discussion Meeting—Sec- should come to that, in a slave owners’ revolt. ing capitalism and away from the necessity of bootstraps-get-rich-quick stories. Well, the SLP, speaking through The People, tion S.F. Bay Area will hold a discussion meeting on owners of industry.And as more and more well- Defections might do the trick. Saturday, Feb. 17, 1:30–4 p.m., Santa Clara Public abolishing capitalism. He concludes by saying Mosley is essentially dreaming. He wants cap- cares enough to speak the revolutionary truth. paying jobs disappear, as they have lately in I am not sure Hannibal is rightly called a “con- Library, Sycamore Room, 2635 Homestead Rd. (be- auto, airline and other industries, and as more queror” vis-à-vis Rome. He ravaged Italy for 15 tween Kiely Blvd. & San Tomas Expwy.), Santa Clara. jobs are “outsourced,” more workers will have to years, annihilating every army sent against him. contend with the prospect of hunger, even home- In the end, he was defeated at the Battle of Zama greatly to the value of Wage-Labor and Capital. the antagonism between his interests and the OHIO lessness (should we call it “low housing securi- in North Africa after the Romans invaded. The Engels shows the importance of Marx’s concept interests of the capitalist. Profit and wages remain Independence: Discussion Meeting— ty”?). If workers are to free themselves of the Carthaginian Senate called him home, which is of labor power and why what the classical econ- as before, in inverse proportion. If capital grows Section Cleveland will hold a discussion meeting on Marx Online threat of hunger, they have to recognize the what the Romans had hoped for.If I recall he was omists (Adam Smith, David Ricardo, et al.) had rapidly, wages may rise, but the profits of capital Sunday, Jan. 7, 1–3 p.m., Independence Public class nature of the problem, organize to end the successful in Spain, however. This year marks the 160th anniversary of to say about “the cost of production of labor” was rise disproportionately faster.” The growth of Library, 6361 Selig Dr. (off Rt. 21 between Chestnut & capitalist system of production for profit and P.D. Lawrence Karl Marx’s pioneering work on economics, essentially meaningless. In this connection, productive capital results in an intensification of Hillside). For information call 440-237-7933. (Please institute socialist production for use. Fresno, Calif. Wage-Labor and Capital. It is one of several Marx demonstrated that the workers could not the workers’ exploitation, so that “the greater note: No meetings are scheduled in February.) works by Marx that can be read on or down- sell their labor to the capitalist, for “so soon as division of labor enables one laborer to accom- OREGON loaded from the SLP’s website. his labor begins it ceases to belong to him, and plish the work of 5, 10 or 20 laborers.” The work- Portland: Discussion Meeting—Section Port- Cassin; $8 each David W. Geier, Milton A. Poulos, Although this early work of the youthful therefore can no longer be sold by him.” Work- ers are forced to compete against themselves as Marx is frequently described as being less land will hold a discussion meeting on Saturday, Feb. Anonymous; $5 each Albert E. Atwell Jr., Don ers sell their labor power, their ability to work. members of the working class, and as the capi- 17, from 10 a.m.–12 noon, at the Portland Main Library, Funds sophisticated in its analysis of capitalism than Patrick, L. Lela, Robert F. Jensen, Stephan Gra- “Its cost of production, therefore, coincides with talists are forced to exploit the workers on an SW Yamhill & 10th. Topic: “What Do You Know When ham, Walter K. Bagnick; Robert Jensen $4; Robert such later works as Value, Price and Profit and (Oct. 21–Dec. 14) his own cost of production.” The workers sell ever-increasing scale, “in the same measure do You Graduate? A study of corporate influence in the A. Bloomer $3; Ed Musgrave $1. Capital, in a certain sense that is its most im- Press Forward Fund their labor power at its value (by and large). they increase the industrial earthquakes, in the classroom.” For more information call Sid at 503-226- Total: $6,463.43 portant feature. Indeed, Wage-Labor and Capi- However, they must continue working after they midst of which the commercial world can pre- 2881 or visit the section’s website at http://slp.pdx. John O’Neill (In memory of Anne Karp) tal has an a-b-c quality about it that makes it have produced new value equal to that of their serve itself only by sacrificing a portion of its home.mindspring.com. (Please note: No meeting is $1,000; Section Cleveland $500; $400 each Sec- Christmas Box the ideal starting point for anyone seriously labor power. The capitalist keeps, and shares wealth, its products, and even its forces of pro- scheduled in January.) tion San Francisco Bay Area, Section Wayne Richard Ernstein $50.00 (Total) interested in learning what Marxian economics with bankers, the capitalist state, etc., the new duction, to the gods of the lower world—in short, For information about future meetings, visit the Co., Mich.; Mary Buha $300; $200 each Chris Press Security Fund is all about and, for that matter, what capital- value, or surplus value, created by the workers. the crises increase.” section’s website at http://slp.pdx.home.mindspring. Dobreff, Gerald Lucas, Irene F. Schelin, Joan M. Ronald H. Harner $20; Scott M. Sullivan $16; ism is all about. The secret of the capitalist exploitation of the Despite all of capitalism’s belittling of Marx, com or call Sid at 503-226-2881. Davis, Warren & Nancy Carlen (In memory of Anonymous $15; Marotte $10; James E. Larson $7. The reader who grasps the lessons Marx offers workers revealed in the above statement is the beneficiaries of capitalism know or sense that Comrades Albert & Mary Mills); $150 each John Total: $68.00 in Wage-Labor and Capital will be forever shown in detail in Engels’ introduction and in his analysis was correct and that the crises— S. & Rosemary Gale, Robert K. Hofem; Section immunized against such economic nonsense as, the text of Wage-Labor and Capital. The demon- crashes, depression, etc.—he forecast are an Cook Co., Ill., $124.80; $100 each Dr. L. Miles Prisoner Subscription Fund for example, that capitalism is a “consumerist” stration is scientifically accurate and presents inevitable consequence of capitalism’s operations. Steps Raisig, Helen Deneff, Irene S. Louik, Michael J. Michael J. Preston $10; $5 each Richard F. or “consumer driven” society and will learn that the only sound explanation of the process of Read Wage-Labor and Capital online. If you You Can Preston, Roy K. 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James Matuschka $8; $2 series of lectures he delivered to working-class for the working class, namely, the most rapid much light on the workings of the system in You can help provide for the Earle McGue, Harley Selkregg, Robert Ormsby, audiences who knew little or nothing about the growth of capital, however much it may improve these days of globalized capitalism as it did on long-term financial security of Sid Fink & Joe Groelke, William Barry; Lloyd A. each John S. Gale, Douglas Aaron. workings of the capitalist system. He later pub- The People by including a Wright $45; Anonymous $41; Lawrence Hackett Total: $42.00 the material lives of the worker, does not abolish the capitalism of 1847 when it was written. properly worded provision in lished several of these in a newspaper he edited your will, or by making some $40; Jill Cambell & Steve Littleton $35; John SLP Sustainer Fund at the time. Although he did not complete the other financial arrangement Hagerty $30; George E. 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Francisco Bay Area: Bill Kelley; Helena Stevens tions of wages and prices and how both are $20 each Bill Conklin, Charles Saunders, Ewald $15; George T. Gaylord Jr. $2. determined. He explains the nature of capital, $9 for a 1 year sub by first-class mail Socialist Labor Party Nielsen, James A. Barr, Karl H. Heck, Michael A. Total: $2,157.00 shows how it grows and explains the relation of NAME PHONE P.O. Box 218 Ogletree, Orville Rutschman, Richard Edgar, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218 wage-labor and capital. He also explains the ADDRESS APT. Roger Hudson, Severino Majkus, William O’Ma- Socialist Labor Party basic economic law that determines how wages Please send a free copy of Steps You Can Take to: honey; $15 each Harold Madsen, Maurice Greb; Financial Summary and profits rise and fall, why the interests of the CITY STATE ZIP Name $10 each Ali Ebrahimi, Chuck Fair, Curt Walker, Bank balance (Sept. 30) ...... $ 91,114.58 working class and the capitalist class are dia- Make check/money order payable to The People. Address Diane Lorraine Poole, Dora Ruggiero, Douglas Expenses (Oct.-Nov.) ...... 19,094.77 metrically opposed and what effect the growth City Aaron, E.J. Pacharis, Harry C. Gibson, James Income (Oct.-Nov.) ...... 8,161.35 the People P.O. Box 218, Mountain View, CA 94042-0218 of productive capital has on wages. State Zip Lehner, Joseph Bellon, Keith O’Camb, Marotte, Bank balance (Nov. 30) ...... $ 80,181.16 An introduction by Frederick Engels adds Matthew Rinaldi, Richard F. Mack, Richard H. Deficit for 2006 ...... $ 69,672.10 Visit Karl Marx ‘Retirement’ Editorial: Editorial: Dobbs Assails Fishing JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 Online at Means More Pinochet: Chavez Corporate Attack The Seas www.slp.org Work for Most Capitalism’s Man A Socialist? On ‘Middle Class’ To Extinction Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 4 Page 5 Page 8 Fishing the Seas to Extinction

OR O AB MN L IA By B.B. overfishing where everyone agrees it’s a bad ilies, the children, what will they do?” though not VINCIT tudies evaluating information gathered thing” or banning destructive fishing practices a murmur is heard over factory closings, out- by the United Nations and other in the most sensitive areas. sourcing, etc. So goes such thinly disguised dis- Sresearchers have scientists alarmed over The Sun article hastened to offer news that sembling in the service of capitalist profits. the state of the world’s fisheries. These studies action is being taken. They were referring to the Some conclude that fish farming may be the Published by the Socialist Labor Party Established in l89l suggest that many species of fish have been fact that the World Trade Organization (WTO) salvation of fish species. However, in a docu- depleted to the point where their extinction is a has “moved beyond the consensus that many ment posted to the Internet by the nonprofit VOL.116 NO. 5 JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2007 $1.00 distinct possibility. The number and variety of fishing subsidies lead to overfishing and organization SeaWeb in 2004, all is not well on species threatened are important as food for our destructive practices” and that “At least five the aquaculture farm. According to the SeaWeb own species. countries have submitted detailed proposals on posting, “Ten leading experts…evaluated There is no mystery to the decline. It is direct- eliminating these subsidies.” The government whether farm-raised fish add to the global food Oil Stakes Too High for ly traceable to overfishing. While other factors subsidies were cited as seriously warping the supply…or contribute to the depletion of fish Friedman Got are involved, the primary source of the problem sacred “free market,” thus creating overcapaci- populations worldwide.” They found “that in is that too many fish are being taken from the ty, inhibiting developing countries’ fishing some cases aquaculture does more harm than It Wrong, Marx U.S.Withdrawal From Iraq? oceans. The affected varieties of fish are not able industries, and depleting fishing stocks world- good.” “Many types of aquaculture are pushing to reproduce as fast as they are being harvested. wide. Mr. Sharpless observed, “The world needs us faster towards a worldwide fisheries collapse espite the deteriorating military situa- for a withdrawal of U.S. forces from that war- Some scientists believe that certain threatened to stop making payments that encourage com- through inefficient practices that rely too much Got It Right tion and growing chaos in Iraq, the Bush torn country. As the fourth anniversary of the varieties of ocean fish may not recover to avoid on the ecologically inefficient practice of feeding Dadministration has rejected all proposals U.S. invasion approached, President Bush was extinction unless fishing is sharply reduced or wild-caught fish to farmed fish.” Others are Milton Friedman spent his life extolling the expected to make and announce his decision on completely stopped long enough to allow endan- It should be “destroying [wild] fish habitats and collecting “virtues” of unfettered capitalism. In 1975 he which of several options under consideration he gered species to recover their losses. wild fish to stock fish farms.” wrote There Is No Such Thing as a Free would adopt for continuing the conflict. Costly It should be evident to every sentient being evident to every According to Rosamond Naylor, a senior Lunch, and one year later he was awarded the as the war has been in terms of destruction and that an economic system driven purely by con- research scholar at Stanford University, one of Nobel Prize in economics. When he died in human life, the material and strategic stakes tinuous market expansion with a view to sale sentient being that the experts cited above, “many types of aquacul- November at age 94 some in the capitalist are too great for the U.S. to cut its losses and to and profit will disastrously collide with the lim- an economic system ture are creating unforeseen problems and we press eulogized him as the “greatest econo- let Iraq work out its own destiny. its of finite resources, and with a finite world. seem to be headed for big trouble as a result.” mist of the 20th century.” But it isn’t. Instead, we hear incessant warn- driven purely by Among those problems is feeding ground-up wild According to Friedman, “The most impor- Iraq’s Oil Wealth ings of impending disasters of one sort or anoth- fish to farmed fish—it requires three pounds of tant single central fact about a free market The stakes are summed up in a single word: er and the fundamental social change our age continuous market wild fish to produce one pound of shrimp or [capitalism] is that no exchange takes place oil. Writing for the Los Angeles Times of Dec. 8, demands is totally ignored. expansion with a view salmon. Another degenerating practice is feeding unless both parties benefit.” Antonia Juhasz of the Institute for Policy Stud- In addition to incontrovertible warnings of vegetarian species fish oil and fishmeal to accel- Karl Marx had a different view. Capitalists ies put it this way: global warming, environmental destruction and to sale and profit will erate production. Moreover, habitat destruction and workers have opposing and conflicting “While the Bush administration, the media species loss, we now have another disastrous cat- in terms of hundreds of thousands of hectares of interests. The exchange of labor for wages is and nearly all the Democrats still refuse to aclysm looming on the horizon, a result of capi- disastrously collide coastal wetlands and mangroves, “critical nurs- an unequal one. Capitalism is a “free lunch” explain the war in Iraq in terms of oil, the ever- talism gone amuck. According to researchers eries” for wild fish and shellfish, have vanished and much more for those who own the means pragmatic members of the Iraq Study Group with the limits of of production and profit off the labor of the who analyzed “fishing data collected by the Unit- because of untreated effluent, feces, antibiotics share no such reticence. working class. ed Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and uneaten feed from fish farms. Rebecca Gold- “Page 1, Chapter 1 of the Iraq Study Group finite resources, and Which of these two views is correct? Do “both and other sources,” “marine ecosystems will burg, Environmental Defense senior scientist, report lays out Iraq’s importance to its region, parties”—capitalists and workers—“benefit,” unravel and there will be a ‘global collapse’ of all with a finite world. stated flatly that farm-raised salmon and shrimp the U.S. and the world with this reminder: ‘It as Friedman maintained, or are their interests species currently fished, possibly as soon as mid- constitutes a “net loss of marine resources.” has the world’s second-largest known oil “diametrically opposed,” as Marx maintained? century.” (The New York Times,Nov.3) The inescapable conclusion that must be If you agree that Marx was right you agree reserves.’ The group then proceeds to give very Boris Worm, a top marine biologist teaching mercial fishermen to catch too many fish. drawn from these facts is that the fishing indus- with the Socialist Labor Party and should do specific and radical recommendations as to at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, had a Refreshingly, that proposition has united inter- try dominated by the lecherous hand of profit all you can to support its work by your contri- what the United States should do to secure shocking epiphany. While giving a test to his ests that typically stand with daggers drawn.” and private ownership of the means of social bution to the Press Forward Fund. If you think those reserves. If the proposals are followed, B.B. for The People (Continued on page 6) students, he “analyzed data for the first time on How apt! A better description of capitalist production, that upon which billions of people that Friedman was right here are some facts his laptop” and was astounded to see “just a competition could hardly be found. But now, depend, cannot be allowed to continue. that you may wish to consider. smooth line going down. And when he extrapo- months later, we find that, surprise, surprise, the Moreover, the same must be said for the entire According to a United Nations study lated the data into the future ‘to see where it “daggers” remain drawn! In an article written by industrial complex. It can only be entrusted to released in December, a tiny segment of the ends at 100 percent collapse,’” he came to 2048. Marta Madina, also of Oceana, we are told “a the working class organized within the demo- world’s population control virtually all of the Not believing his eyes, he ran the check again. group of European countries, led by Spain, cratic socialist industrial governmental frame- world’s wealth. Summarizing those findings No More Hunger? The answer was the same. Then he double- France, Portugal and Poland” are “attempting to work embracing all industries, and grounded in December for a British newspaper, The checked his mathematical calculation by hand destroy any initiative taken to stop the deterio- upon the universal societal principal of produc- Guardian, science correspondent James Ran- By Bruce Cozzini 20), the government has claimed a goal of “only” and the result was the same. ration of fish species and marine ecosystems.” tion for use not markets and profit. derson wrote: The U.S. government has ended “hunger.” 6 percent of the population to suffer from hunger, The Baltimore Sun of last March 21, some She goes on to accuse those governments of “The richest one percent of adults in the Good news? Not exactly—the Agriculture but nothing is done to make that happen. months before, had amplified these grave con- ignoring the “warnings given by the scientific world own 40 percent of the planet’s wealth” Department in its annual report on Americans’ But since the problem won’t go away, the gov- clusions in an article by Andrew Sharpless, the community regarding the depleted conditions of and “the richest 10 percent of adults account- access to food has defined it out of existence. ernment is applying the Orwellian technique of CEO of Oceana, an international environmen- fish stocks” and chastises them for requesting ed for 85 percent of the world’s total global Until now, it has used hunger to describe the renaming hunger in the hopes that it will disap- tal group, stating that the U.N. “estimates that “quotas that put the future of fisheries at risk, assets.” On the other end of the scale, “Half the state of those who cannot afford to put food on pear from public consciousness. In George more than 75 percent of the world’s fish stocks especially deep-sea fish species.” Ms. Madina Leaflets to world’s adult population...owned barely one the table. Mark Nord, the author of this year’s Orwell’s 1984 the government of the totalitarian are in jeopardy.” They include fish of “high com- goes on to express outrage that in the face of percent of global wealth.” report, claims that hunger is “not a scientifical- “Oceania,” in accordance with the governmental mercial value: haddock and cod in the North falling fishing fleet catches, down 60 percent Distribute And if you think the spread of poverty is ly accurate term for the specific phenomenon doctrine of “IngSoc,” developed a new language, Atlantic, Argentine hake in the South Atlantic over 2005, the countries cited blithely ignore the confined to the developing world, another being measured.” Rather than hunger, poor peo- “Newspeak.” Its purpose “was not only to provide and most species of tuna.” Orange roughy, blue destruction. study released in December by the Brookings ple now experience “very low food security.” a medium of expression for the world view and • America’s Workers Can Build a Better Institution had this to report: “Each year And lots of them did. As reported by Mercury mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, ling, roundnose grenadier, seabream, splendid What altruistic Oceana, marine biologists, World (SLP National Platform) alfonsino or forkbeards, tusk and deep-sea ecologists and scientists are failing to compre- between 2000 and 2004, the proportion of the News wire services (Nov. 16), the Agriculture but to make all other modes of thought impossi- sharks are also severely threatened with over- hend is what Marx brilliantly referred to as “the • Global Warming: All Talk, No Action U.S. population living below the poverty Department said “12 percent of Americans—35 ble.” (Emphasis ours.) Thus, hunger becomes fishing and extinction. most violent, mean and malignant passions of Worsens Threat line...rose. It leveled off in 2005, such that 38 million people—could not put food on the table at “very low food security.” Just as global warming Moreover, Daniel Pauly, a fisheries scientist, the human breast, the Furies of private inter- • Technology & Job Loss: What Workers million U.S. residents lived in poverty that least part of last year. Eleven million of them has become the temperature neutral “climate offered the example that the once flourishing est.” Indeed, when capitalists sense danger to Can Do About It year, up from 34 million in 1999.” reported going hungry at times.” That all these change” and CIA kidnapping and sequestering seabed beneath the continental shelf off the their profits, they shed their human attributes These facts confirm the Marxist position. workers must go hungry when an abundance of persons for purposes of torture becomes “extraor- Please send me ______copies of each of the The evidence is overwhelming. Capitalism and food is produced is a travesty. But it is no acci- dinary rendition.”And an all-inclusive agency for coast of Maine “is smooth. In many places except and Jekyll-and-Hyde-like are transmogrified above titles. I enclose $2 per 100 ordered to for the tracks left by a few thin worms, the ani- into shark-like predators. They will, in turn, pre- help cover printing and postage costs. its profit motive must be replaced by a new dent. These are workers who must settle for the repression has the cozy name of “Homeland mals have largely left without a trace.…There vail upon their country’s governments to protect system based on collective ownership of the lowest paying jobs, if any. Not only are they Security.” are no fish.” their interests. They will plead, cajole and Name means of production and the sources of life. A exploited like all workers, but they work at the Workers should not be fooled by weasel words. Josh Reichert, an environmentalist of the Pew threaten. Those governments respond accord- socialist industrial democracy of cooperative bottom of the wage scale, and are used by capi- Hunger is a threat only to working people. That Address Charitable Trusts, concurred in Dr. Worm’s ingly, often under the guise of addressing imbal- labor and production for use must replace it. talism as an implicit threat to other workers old expression, “I don’t know where my next assessment, adding that the report is “a kind of ances in the balance of payments deficits, an old Help the SLP and The People spread that whose jobs they could move up to take. Accord- meal is coming from,” is never spoken by the warning bell” that “assumes we do nothing to capitalist refrain. They will raise all sorts of message by contributing generously to the ing to an editorial in The New York Times (Nov. (Continued on page 7) NEW YORK LABOR NEWS Press Forward Fund. fix this…and shame on us if that were to be the smoke screens, including the favorite red her- P.O. Box 218, Mtn. View, CA 94042-0218 case.” Dr. Worm favors eliminating “horrendous ring, “job loss.” “Oh our poor workers, their fam- Visit our website at www.slp.org