(A response to Sue Webb opinion in People’s World on January 4, 2016)

Dear Editor:

In Sue Webb’s opinion piece which appeared in the January 4, 2016 edition she implies that all that is needed in the USA is for us to change the word “capitalism” to “socialism” and everything will fall into place. Of course, this is pure fantasy, the words of a person who is satisfied with the capitalist system of greed and corporate control, what we used to refer to as the “dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.” Ms. Webb is, indeed, bourgeois and her oversimplifications show that.

Her slanders of the USSR and socialism are particularly disturbing. She writes “[socialism] – has been tainted by much of what happened in the Soviet Union and some other countries. But there’s nothing in socialism that equates to dictatorship, political repression, bureaucracy, over-centralization and commandism, and so on. Those features of Soviet society arose out of particular circumstances and personalities. But they were not “socialist.”

Ms. Webb never objected the to the USSR when, in an act of great proletarian internationalism, the Soviet Union and the socialist community of nations led an international movement to save the life of Angela Y. Davis. Now that there is no more USSR thanks to the counter-revolutionary activities of Mikhail Gorbachev and those around him that promoted the concept of socialist “markets” and private enterprise, Ms. Webb all of a sudden finds fault with the socialism of the 20^th Century, calling it dictatorial, politically repressive, bureaucratic, and over-centralized, with a command style structure. And what dare I ask, was the USSR when they supported the CPUSA and its fight against racism and its political anti-monopoly program? So soon she forgets! Ms. Webb never objected when the Soviet Union supported the Cuban economy and the development of Cuba. She never objected when the USSR supported the national liberation movements in Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the Congo. All during the existence of the Soviet Union, the world witnessed the greatest fighter for world peace and socialism. Real socialism. To deny that is the worst kind of right opportunism.

As her alternative to scientifically planned economic socialism, Ms. Webb describes how we in the USA have many publicly owned electric utilities. That’s nice. We also have private utilities Sempra Energy, Pacific Gas, and Electric (PG&E), and Edison International for example, that endanger our environment and public health, cause great disasters like the natural gas explosion in San Bruno, California, the natural gas leak in the Porter Ranch neighborhood of Los Angeles, and the financial manipulation of energy prices by companies like Enron. What is the plan of the social-democrats to deal with these privately owned conglomerates in a socialist economy?

Ms. Webb says that Bernie Sanders is a democratic socialist because he rejects the idea of a planned economy. Great! So we should continue living with the chaos we live in now, where material goods are produced not for the benefit of the people, but to continue the system of private profits and exploitation at any cost? She speaks like a typical believer in American exceptionalism. As long as we have markets for goods everything will be OK. She even says it would be OK to operate private businesses that continue to exploit workers, a kind of touchy, feeley, nice capitalism!

Gus Hall, the great American Communist leader, said many times that there is no “socialist model but that there are general concepts and economic laws of socialism that cannot be ignored. When they are cast aside as Sue Webb suggests we should, the result is counter-revolution and an increase in anti-worker activity. As long as there is a bourgeois class and that class holds the levers of power, it makes no difference who is President of the United States. We have two Americas. A capitalist America, and a working class America. The class war intensifies more every day. We will never have socialism unless and until the workers themselves take power and own the means of production and write their own ticket. They don’t need a Democratic Party messiah to do that. They need a real trade union federation like the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), another contribution to humanity from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries.

So what is socialism? In any country, in any language, socialism is the intermediary step toward a communist society. Socialism is defined as follows: “The social order which, through revolutionary action by the working class and its allies, replaces capitalism. It is “the first phase of Communist society, as it is when it has just emerged after prolonged birth pangs from capitalist society” (Marx). It is the social order in which the exploitation of man by man has ended because the toiling masses own the means of production. In contrast with the higher phase of Communist society, where “each gives according to his need,” in Socialist society “each gives according to his ability, and receives according to the amount of work performed”.

Contrast this with Democratic Socialism, *which is the general term for reformist and opportunist parties in their “theory” and practice in the Labor Movement [in sharp contrast with class conscious, anti-imperialist trade unionism of the WFTU]. Social-Democracy’s history is marked by timidity, legalism, “respectability,” capitulation to the influence of the capitalists, and consistent betrayal, of the working class.

Time to ask yourselves, which side are you on?

*Marxist Glossary, L. Harry Gould, Sydney. Australia 1948

Joe Hancock

PCUSA, Los Angeles

http://www.wftucentral.org/present-struggles-mitsos-paparigas-greece/

http://www.wftucentral.org/wftu-remains-side-people-venezuela/

DECLARATION

 

World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU)

XII th World Congress of Trade Unions of Public Service Employees and Allied (TUI-PSEA)

 

Social Functions of the State — in the service of the workers and people

In defense of rights of the Public Service Employees

The workers and peoples of the world have been confronted with the profound consequences of the worsening of the crisis of the capitalist system, which in the recent past has had its greatest expression since the 1930s, as a result of the intensification of exploitation and growing financialization of the economy. Processes that are the direct and intrinsic result of the development of capitalism, along with intensification of tendency in the decline of profit rates and concentration of capital.

The worsening of the crisis of the capitalist system laid bare once again its irremediable contradictions, and its now confronted with long periods of economic stagnation, fall in investment in production and deceleration of prices. The rapid growth in unemployment, reaching historic levels in various regions of the world, is reflected in a mass of unemployed workers, the majority of which without social protection. A situation that serves the interests of capital, that uses the threat of unemployment to blackmail workers, lower wages, withdraw labor rights, and weaken negotiating power in collective bargaining.

Faced with unprecedented levels of unemployment — mostly in the capitalist poles —, economic retrocession, and increases in public and private debt, capital and the government in its service have found a new opportunity to deepen the offensive against workers and the popular masses, imposing a social and civilizational retrocession with successive attacks on rights, collective contracts and the class based trade-union movement, enlarging the already the substantial sectors of the population who live in the risk of poverty and worsening misery and social exclusion.

The reconfiguration of the State and the destruction of public services

The reconfiguration of the State, increasingly placing it in the service of big capital, is clearly one of the great objectives of capitalist governments. The so-called “social State”, created after World War II as a response to the progressive advances in the Soviet Union towards building socialism, and which guaranteed important advances in the social and economic development in the countries where it was installed, rapidly became a target to kill after the fall of the USSR.

The social functions of the State — including Education, Health and Social Security —, and the principles of universality, solidarity and non-payment, are the result of the will, demands and struggle of workers and populations and are therefore their inalienable right. These principles allowed widening access of basic and non basic education to the popular masses, and the access to the highest levels of education to the children of workers; allowed universal access of the population to quality health care in case of disease, but also improvement in its prevention, in public health, and in the development of health sectors that potentiate the general improvement of living conditions; the replacement of wages in case of their loss due to disease, maternity, unemployment and old age, guaranteeing that no one who found himself in a situation of total or partial loss of wages were left to live in misery. To the social functions of the State one can also attribute the responsibility of disseminating and democratizing culture, art, improving mobility, aid in housing, aid in childhood, old age and the handicapped with public equipment, although with some insufficiencies given the population in need. Globally, the social functions of the State allowed important social and economic developments, representing a key role in decreasing the existing social inequalities, and its destruction has implied a civilizational set backwards and worsening the living conditions of workers and peoples.

The destruction of these worker’s and people’s conquests, despite being framed in a process that has been occurring for more than two decades, has had new qualitative and quantitative advances in the last years, using as arguments the sustainability of the social security systems, budget consolidation and the reduction of sovereign debts. In the case of the European Union countries, the approval of treaties and directives that are deeply against the interests and aspirations of peoples has served to crush their rights and conquests in benefit of big companies, with their respective governments handing over national sovereignty on a platter to an antidemocratic and neoliberal directorate.

The privatization packages have been horizontal to all countries in retrogression. First, with the privatizations of strategic sectors of the economy and development, like the energy sector (electricity, gas, fuels), the communication sector, including the postal service and telecommunications, the transport sector (air, rail, maritime and road transportation , as well as their respective infrastructures). The privatization of these public services meant that State monopolies were transferred to private monopolies (or almost monopolies), guaranteeing the accumulation of colossal profits to their shareholders, frequently foreign. The total dependence of populations upon the goods and services rendered — electricity, gas, telecommunications, etc. —, and the enormous investments already made by the states (and paid by taxes) in order to install and, more recently, modernize their distribution networks (with levels of coverage of the populations that can vary from country to country), in addition to having guaranteed profit, also allows that capital freely decide rate increases, reduction in coverage of services and decay in their quality, and to reserve services to those who can pay high bills.

But capital did not want to merely possess the strategic sectors of the sovereign economies. Therefore, governments opened the doors to the social functions of the State: health, education and Social Security.

The governments of capitalist countries have sought to deteriorate these social functions through progressive and substantial cuts in their budgets, by closing infrastructures (schools, hospitals, health centers, offices) and proximity services, with serious losses to populations, specially those far from the great urban centers. Children now travel dozens of kilometers to attend public school; the sick take more than an hour to reach the nearest emergency services. Social benefits have suffered significant reductions, and increased bureaucracy is used  as an obstacle to access benefits: note the low the coverage of unemployment benefits given the high number of workers without a job.

In Europe, particularly in countries that suffered the intervention of the Troika (IMF, ECB and European Commission), the essential public services have begun to rupture as the result of constant budget cuts, and lack of human and material resources. The emaciation of public services also occurs through profound attacks upon the Public Administration workers. The decrease in the number of workers, either by lay-offs, either by not renewing retired workers; the withdrawal of rights, with wage cuts, frozen career progressions, blocks to collective bargaining and contracts, and limitations on the right to strike (considering that in many countries the right to strike is totally denied to public employees); in increase in working hours and work overload; the precariousness of thousands of workers with temporary contracts while performing permanent functions are some of the offensives of governments. Simultaneously, the aim to demonize work in in public careers, passing responsibility of poor service onto the workers, in order the divide the working class and the people — when in reality the public employees and public companies are doubly penalized with the monthly pillage of their wages and will less, worse and more expensive public services.

There is no doubt that the decay of the social functions of the State is singularly aimed towards its privatization. The governments that crush the financial, human and material resources in health and education, that crush social benefits, are the same that then say that public services are unsustainable and incapable of responding to the needs of the population, in order to then hand them over to private companies — leaving the more disfavored at the mercy of charity and assistentialism.

The transformation of the State into a minimal state for the workers and peoples and maximum state for capital, a state always ready to financially sustain big banks and multinationals, with either direct injections of cash or with multiple tax benefits that allow them to be exempt from any taxation. The reinforcement of the instruments and mechanisms of repression — the remanescente function of the neoliberal State —, the large packages of privatizations (expunging the State of its instruments for economic intervention), the gradual but accelerated process of loss of sovereignty and national independence, the vast body of legals norms that penalize the working class; call rights, guarantees and liberties into question; and aim to satisfy the insatiable hunger for more exploitation and more profit.

The role of the class trade union movement in defense of public services

The class trade union movement, deeply committed with the struggle of workers in defense of their rights and public services, plays an irreplaceable role against the advance of capital. The bosses, using all the instruments at their disposal, will deepen the exploitation of workers, attacking conquests, liberties and guarantees of the peoples in order to maintain their dominance and fatten their pockets.

The reinforcement of the unity and cohesion of workers in their mass and class trade unions in the work place, as well as in their regional and international structures within the WFTU, is therefore fundamental to the development of demands, struggles and the consciousness of the working class, and in particular the workers in the public services and companies. This reinforcement also presupposes the unity in action of all workers and the struggle against reformism and bourgeoisie ideology.

Regarding demands, the actions of trade-union organizations affiliated in the TIU-Public Services, should involve, while respecting the particularities of each country:

1. The demand of modern, efficient, quality, universal and free public services that answer the real needs of workers and the populations, against their externalization or privatization, recusing their use towards the accumulation of profits by an oligarchy;
2. The demand to recall all the norms damaging  the rights of public administration workers in the countries were they were imposed;
3. The demand for improvement in the working and living conditions of the public administration workers, namely by improving their wages and work schedule, making them compatible with their personal and family life;
4. The end to precariousness of work contracts and for guarantees of stability in public jobs that guarantee its independence relative to capitalist governments, either in the central, regional and local administration, wither in the state business sectors;
5. For the rights to exercise trade-union freedom (of association, reunion, demonstration, participation, etc.) in all the workplaces and the right to collective bargaining and contracts;
6. For the implementation of social policies that respond to the interests of peoples and workers for a more just distribution of wealth, with the rejection of social assistentialism;
7. For the rejection of all neoliberal and austerity policies that in several parts of the world aim to destroy labor and social rights of workers and peoples;
8. For the struggle towards peace and internationalist solidarity, against war, militarism, aggressions, interferences and blockades that attack the interests of workers and peoples — in defense of national sovereignty, so that peoples freely decide their destiny.

The newly elected leadership of the TUI must meet and put forward a plan of action of solidarity and support of the struggle of public service workers all over the work, that will be based on the guidelines of this document voted by the XII Congress of the TUI of Public Service Workers and Allied.

Kathmandu, February 2015

WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS

Class oriented – uniting – democratic – modern – independent – internationalist! 40, ZAN MOREAS STREET, ATHENS 11745 GREECE TEL. (+30) 2109214417, (+30) 2109236700, FAX (+30) 210 9214517 www.wftucentral.org E-MAILS : info@wftucentral.org, international@wftucentral.org 1 AL 16/02/2015

Athens, Greece – February 16, 2015

SOLIDARITY WITH CANADA RAIL WORKERS

The World Federation of Trade Unions representing 90 million workers in 126 countries extends its solidarity with the Rail workers on strike in Canada.

The strike by locomotive engineers and other train workers began late Saturday after contract talks failed.

The WFTU denounces the proclamation of the Government of Canada in violation with the right to strike that the workers struggles for better wages, for safer and better working and living conditions is a “threat to the economy”.

The working class which is the engine of the economy producing all wealth in the society should be able to satisfy its contemporary needs according to the scientific and technological progress.

The WFTU joins its voice with the workers struggle and asks that their demands must be accepted and implemented not only to protect themselves but also the passengers.

THE SECRETARIAT