Marami akong mga kakilala na nag-aanyaya sa akin sa mga lakaran, o kaya’y magbakasyon, o sa anumang aktibidad dahil holiday daw ang Mayo Uno. Totoo ngang idineklarang holiday ang Mayo Uno bawat taon pero hindi ibig sabihin nito na bakasyon na tayo. Holiday ang Mayo Uno dahil ginugunita natin ang isang araw bawat taon bilang Pandaigdigang Araw ng Paggawa.Hindi bakasyon ang Mayo Uno pagkat mahigit labinlimang taon ko nang ginugunita ang Mayo Uno kasama ang mga manggagawa, at hindi ako nagbabakasyon sa araw na ito dahil sa dami ng gawain ditto. Nakapagpapahinga o nakapagbabakasyon lamang ako, pati ang aking mga kasama, sa ibang araw maliban sa Mayo Uno, kung paanong abala rin kami sa iba pang holiday tulad ng Araw ni Gat Andres Bonifacio (Nobyembre 30) at Pandaigdigang Araw ng Kababaihan (Marso 8). Bilang pagkilala sa kababaihan sa malaking ambag nito sa lipunan, hindi lamang mga babae ang dapat gumunita nito kundi mga kalalakihan din, paggunita rin ito sa ating inang nagluwal sa atin. Ang holiday na nakapagbabakasyon lamang ako, at ng aking mga kasama, ay ang Hunyo 12, pagkat hindi kami naniniwalang ito’y tunay na kalayaan, kundi pekeng kalayaan ayon sa mga dokumento ng kasaysayan. Ayon sa Acta de Independencia na nilagdaan noong Hunyo 12, 1898, lumaya ang Pilipinas mula sa Kastila upang magpailalim sa “mighty and humaneAmerican nation”.Hindi bakasyon ang Mayo Uno pagkat halos isang buwan din naming pinaghahandaan ang birthday na ito ng mga manggagawa, na siyang gumagawa ng ekonomya ng bansa. Kung walang manggagawa, tatakbo ba ang mga pabrika, mabubusog ba ang mga mayayaman, tutubo ba ng limpak-limpak ang mga kapitalista, uunlad ba ang bansa. Mabubuhay ang lipunan kahit walang kapitalista ngunit hindi mabubuhay ang lipunan kung walang manggagawa.Hindi bakasyon ang Mayo Uno pagkat sa sagradong araw na ito para sa mga manggagawa ay inaalala natin ang mga sakripisyo ng mga martir na manggagawang namatay sa Haymarket Square sa Chicago, Illinois noong Mayo 4, 1886, (ang ikaapat na araw ng welga) para ipaglaban ang pagsasabatas ng walong oras na paggawa bawat araw. Noong Oktubre 1884, isang kumbensyon ang ginanap ng Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions (FOTLU) sa Amerika at Canada at napagpasyahang sa Mayo 1, 1886 ay isabatas ang walong oras na paggawa bawat araw. Noong panahong iyon, labindalawa hanggang labing-anim na oras ang paggawa bawat araw. Noong Mayo 1, 1886, isang malawakang welga sa buong Amerika ang isinagawa ng mga manggagawa bilang pagsuporta sa kahilingang walong oas na paggawa bawat araw. May 10,000 manggagawa ang nagrali sa New York; 11,000 sa Detroit; 10,000 sa Wisconsin, at 40,000 manggagawa sa Chicago na siyang sentro ng kilusang ito. May hiwalay pang welga sa Chicago ang may 10,000manggagawa sa kakahuyan, habang may 80,000 katao naman ang sumama sa welga sa Michigan Avenue. Ang tinatayang sumatotal ng lahat ng nagwelga ay nasa 300,000 hanggang kalahating milyon. Noong Mayo 3, nagkagulo sa Chicago nang inatake ng mga pulis ang mga manggagawang welgista malapit sa planta ng McCormich Harvesting Machine Co., kung saan apat ang namatay at marami ang nasugatan.Dahil sa nangyaring ito, noong Mayo 1, 1889, hiniling ng American Federation of Labor sa unang kongreso ng Ikalawang Internasyunal na Kilusang Manggagawa sa Paris, France, na isagawa ang isang pandaigdigang welga sa Mayo 1, 1890 para sa walong oras na paggawa. Ito’y inayunan naman ng mga kinatawan ng mga kilusang paggawa mula sa iba’t ibang bansa. Ang ikalawa pang layunin nito ay upang gunitain ang alaala ng mga martir na manggagawang nakibaka para sa walong oras na paggawa na namatay sa Haymarket Square sa Chicago, Illinois. Maraming gumunita at kumilala sa Mayo 1, 1890 bilang Pandaigdigang Araw ng Paggawa, kasama na ang iba pang bansa, kabilang ang dalawampu’t apat na lunsod sa Europa, bansang Cuba, Peru at Chile.Hindi bakasyon ang Mayo Uno pagkat kailangan nating ipagdiwang at kilalanin ang sakripisyo ng mga manggagawa sa buong daigdig, at tayo’y makiisa sa lahat ng manggagawa sa mundo para sa pagbabago ng lipunan, kapayapaan, at pagkakapantay- pantay ng lahat. Sa ating bansa, ang unang pagdiriwang ng Mayo Uno ay noong 1903 nang isinagawa ng 100,000 manggagawa sa pamumuno ng Union Obrera Democratica de Filipinas (UODF). Idinaos ito sa Malacañang kung saan isinisigaw ng mga manggagawang Pilipino na “Ibagsak ang imperyalismong Amerikano!”Hindi bakasyon ang Mayo Uno pagkat marami pa tayong dapat gawin upang tiyaking ang lipunang itong kinatatayuan natin ngayon ay tiyakin nating mabago para sa kapakinabangan ng lahat, lalo na ng mga susunod na henerasyon, at hindi ng iilan lamang. Sa ngayon, ang mga manggagawa’y nagiging biktima ng salot na kontraktwalisasyon, o five-months, five-months contract, imbes na dapat ay maging regular na siyang manggagawa. Laganap ang kaswalisasyon at agensy employment upang mapanatiling mababa ang sahod ng manggagawa, imbes na sundin ang living wage provision na nakasaad sa Konstitusyon, at alisan ng batayan ang mga manggagawa sa kanilang karapatang mag-unyon. Winawasak naman ang mga nakatayo nang union sa pamamagitan ng retrenchment, closures o pagpataw ng Assumption of Jurisdiction (AJ) at madeklarang ilegal ang mga welga ng manggagawa. Ang mga regular na manggagawa ay pinapalitan ng mga batang kontraktwal o agency employees na walang mga benepisyong tulad ng regular namanggagawa. At kapag nasa edad na ng 25-taon pataas, over-age na, pahirapan nang makapasok sa pabrika o trabaho. Tulad ng mga naunang gobyernong umiral sa bansa, mas nakatuon ang mga programa’t patakaran ng bansa sa pagsasakatuparan ng mga dikta ng WTO-IMF-World Bank upang pangalagaan ang interes ng uring kapitalista. Sa pamamagitan ng mga polisiyang ito, nagkukumpetensya ang mga kapitalista sa pagpiga sa lakas-paggawa ng mga manggagawa sa pamamagitan ng murang pasahod o murang presyo ng lakas-paggawa.Hindi bakasyon ang Mayo Uno pagkat dapat nang mamulat ang mga manggagawa sa kanilang mapagpalayang papel sa lipunan. Hindi malaman ng manggagawang Pilipino, pati na mga kababayang maralita, kung saan kukuha ng pandugtong ng ikabubuhay kinabukasan. Halos trenta porsyento (30%) ang itinaas ng presyo ng pangunahing produkto tulad ng bigas at langis sa mga nagdaang buwan, habang nananatiling mababa ang sahod ng mga manggagawa. Ngunit mas kalunus-lunos ang kalagayan ng mga walang pinagkukunan ng regular na hanapbuhay. Hindi pa tapos ang laban ng manggagawa pagkat patuloy pa silang inaalipin ng capital. Panahon nang magkaisa ang uring manggagawa at itayo ang kanilang sariling gobyerno. Workers control!!! Ikaw, magbabakasyon ka pa ba tuwing Mayo Uno? Halina’t sa Mayo Uno ng bawat taon, ating kilalanin ang kadakilaan ng uring manggagawa sa buong daigdig. Halina’t sumama sa mga pagtitipon ng mga manggagawa sa Mayo Uno, makipagtalakayan sa kanila, at ipaglaban ang ating mga karapatan. Manggagawa sa lahat ng bansa, magkaisa! Walang mawawala sa inyo kundi ang tanikala ng pagkaalipin!
ni Gregorio V. Bituin Jr
my everyday bloopers,worries,joys and struggles..
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
The capitalist workday, the socialist workday
April 24, 2008 -- As May Day approaches, there are four things that are worth remembering:
1. For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below.
2. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday.
3. The struggle for the shorter workday is not an isolated struggle but is the struggle against capitalist exploitation.
4. The struggle against capitalist exploitation is an essential part but not the only part of the struggle against capitalism.
What I want to do today is to set out some ideas about the capitalist workday and the socialist workday which I hope can be useful in the current struggles in Venezuela and, more immediately, in today's discussion.
The capitalist workday
What is the relation between the work the capitalist workday and exploitation? When workers work for capital, they receive a wage which allows them to purchase a certain amount of commodities. How much is that wage? There is nothing automatic about the wage level. It is determined by the struggles of workers against capital.
Those commodities which form the worker’s wage contain a certain quantity of labour, and those hours of labour on a daily basis are often described as the ``necessary labour’’ of the worker -- the hours of labour necessary for workers to produce the commodities they consume on a daily basis.
But, in capitalism workers do not just work their hours of necessary labour. Because they have been compelled to sell their ability to work to the capitalist in order to survive, the capitalist is in the position to demand they work longer than this. And the difference between their hours of necessary labour and the total work that workers perform for capital is surplus labour -- the ultimate source of capital's profits. In other words, capitalist profits are based on the difference between the workday and necessary labour; they are based upon surplus labour, unpaid labour, exploitation.So, the more the capitalist is able to drive up the workday, the greater the exploitation and the greater the profit. Marx commented that ``the capitalist is constantly tending to reduce wages to their physical minimum and extend the working day to its physical maximum’’. How true. Marx continued, though, and noted ``while the working man constantly presses in the opposite direction’’. In other words, class struggle: workers struggle to increase wages and to reduce the workday; they struggle to reduce exploitation by capitalists.
Of course, your workday is more than just the time spent between clocking in and clocking out. There is the time it takes you to get to work, the time it takes to buy the food you need to survive, the time to prepare that food -- all this is really necessary labour and part of the worker’s workday. But since this labour is free to the capitalist, since it is not a cost for him, it is therefore invisible to him. So, when the capitalists want to drive down necessary labour by driving down wages (or by increasing productivity relative to wages), it is not the labour he does not pay for that he wants to reduce. Rather, he wants as much free labour is possible, as much unpaid labour as possible.
It is not surprising that workers want to reduce their unpaid labour for capital and to do so by struggling to reduce the capitalist workday. But it is not only the unpaid labour in the workday that is a burden for workers; it is also the paid labour that they are compelled to do for capital. In other words, the problem is not only exploitation. It is the way that capitalist production deforms working people. In the capitalist workplace, the worker works for the goals of capital, under the control of capital and with an organisation of production which is designed not to permit workers to develop their capabilities but, rather, has the single goal of profits. ``All means for the development of production’’, Marx stressed about capitalism, ``distort the worker into a fragment of a man, they degrade him’’ and ``alienate from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process’’. In other words, the process of capitalist production cripples us as human beings. Life in the capitalist workplace is a place where we are commanded from above, where we are mere tools that capital manipulates in order to get profits.
That is why we want to reduce the capitalist workday. That is why we cannot wait to escape. It is not only the exploitation, the unfairness and the injustice in the distribution of income. Time away from capitalist production appears as the only time in which we can be ourselves, a time when our activity can be free time, time for the full development of the individual.
The socialist workday
Firstly, what do we mean by socialism? The goal of socialists has always been the creation of a society which would allow for the full development of human potential. It was never seen as a society in which some people are able to develop their capabilities and others are not. That was Marx's point in stating clearly that the goal is "an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." And this is clearly the point, too, of Venezuela’s Bolivarian constitution where it stresses in article 20 that ``everyone has the right to the free development of his or her own personality’’ and in the explicit recognition in article 299 that the goal of a human society must be that of ``ensuring overall human development’’.
In contrast to capitalist society, where ``the worker exists to satisfy the need’’ of capital to expand, Marx envisioned a socialist society where the wealth that workers have produced ``is there to satisfy the worker’s own need for development’’. So, what is the nature of the workday in a society oriented toward ensuring overall human development?
Let us begin by talking about necessary labour -- quantitatively. There is the labour which is contained in the products we consume daily -- just like before. To this, however, we need to add the labour that workers want to devote toward expanding production in the future. In socialism, there are no capitalists who compel the performance of surplus labour and invest a portion of the profits in the search for future profits. Rather, workers themselves in their workplaces and society decide if they want to devote time and effort to expanding satisfaction of needs in the future. If they make this decision, then this labour is not surplus to their needs; it forms part of what they see as their necessary labour. Thus, the concept of necessary labour changes here.
In a socialist society, further, we recognise explicitly that part of our necessary labour is labour within the household. In other words we acknowledge that our workday does not begin after we leave the household but includes what we do within the household. Article 88 of the Bolivarian constitution recognises the importance of this labour when it notes that labour within the household is ``economic activity that creates added value and produces social welfare and wealth’’.
The concept of necessary labour and our workday within a socialist society also includes the labour which is required to self-govern our communities. After all, if socialism is about the decisions we make democratically in our communities, then the time we need to do this is part of our necessary labour. Similarly, if socialism is about creating the conditions in which we are all able to develop our potential, then the process of education and of developing our capabilities is also activity which is necessary.
When we think about the socialist workday, in short, we think about the workday differently. Our view of the quantity of necessary labour, for example, is not distorted by the capitalist perspective of treating as necessary only that labour for which capital must pay. That is the difference between the political economy of capital and the political economy of the working class. From the perspective of workers, we recognise as necessary labour all the labour that is necessary for ``the worker’s own need for development’’.
But the difference is not only quantitative. In socialism, the workday cannot be a day in which you receive orders from the top (even in strategic industries). Rather, it is only through our own activity, our practice and our protagonism that we can develop our capabilities. Article 62 of Venezuela’s constitution makes that point in its declaration that participation by people is ``the necessary way of achieving the involvement to ensure their complete development, both individual and collective’’. In other words, in every aspect of our lives (the traditional workplace, the community, the household), democratic decision making is a necessary characteristic of the socialist workday; through workers’ councils, communal councils, student councils, family councils, we produce ourselves as new socialist subjects.
Thus, when we look at the workday from the perspective of socialism, we see that the simple demand for reducing the workday is a demand from within capitalism. Its message is simple -- end this horror! This is an ``infected’’ conception of the workday. It starts from a view of labour as so miserable that the only thing you can think of doing is reducing and ending it.
When we think about building socialism, however, we recognise that the demand is to transform the workday -- to recognise all parts of our workday explicitly and to transform that day qualitatively. Rather than only ``free time’’ being time in which we can develop, from the perspective of socialism it is essential to make the whole day time for building human capacities.
In short, there are two ways of looking at the demand for the reduced workday: one way talks simply about a shorter work week and thus longer weekend vacations; in contrast, a second way stresses the reduction of the traditional workday in order to provide the time on a daily basis for education for self-managing, for our work within the household and our work within our communities. In other words, it is the demand to redefine and transform our workday.
The first of these is simply a reform within capitalism. For socialists, May Day should be the day to struggle for the whole worker's day, to struggle for the socialist workday.
Michael A. Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class and Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century. This article was presented as initiating remarks to the ``Roundtable Discussion on the Reduction of the Workday’’ held on April 24, 2008, at the Centro International Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela. The event brought together leaders from different union federations and currents, as well as a representative from the women’s movement, to discuss the importance of the demand of the reduction of the workday in the lead up to May Day. The event was organised by the program ``Human Development and Transformatory Practise’’ coordinated by Lebowitz, at the Centro Internacional Miranda.
1. For workers, May Day does not celebrate a state holiday or gifts from the state but commemorates the struggle of workers from below.
2. The initial focus of May Day was a struggle for the shorter workday.
3. The struggle for the shorter workday is not an isolated struggle but is the struggle against capitalist exploitation.
4. The struggle against capitalist exploitation is an essential part but not the only part of the struggle against capitalism.
What I want to do today is to set out some ideas about the capitalist workday and the socialist workday which I hope can be useful in the current struggles in Venezuela and, more immediately, in today's discussion.
The capitalist workday
What is the relation between the work the capitalist workday and exploitation? When workers work for capital, they receive a wage which allows them to purchase a certain amount of commodities. How much is that wage? There is nothing automatic about the wage level. It is determined by the struggles of workers against capital.
Those commodities which form the worker’s wage contain a certain quantity of labour, and those hours of labour on a daily basis are often described as the ``necessary labour’’ of the worker -- the hours of labour necessary for workers to produce the commodities they consume on a daily basis.
But, in capitalism workers do not just work their hours of necessary labour. Because they have been compelled to sell their ability to work to the capitalist in order to survive, the capitalist is in the position to demand they work longer than this. And the difference between their hours of necessary labour and the total work that workers perform for capital is surplus labour -- the ultimate source of capital's profits. In other words, capitalist profits are based on the difference between the workday and necessary labour; they are based upon surplus labour, unpaid labour, exploitation.So, the more the capitalist is able to drive up the workday, the greater the exploitation and the greater the profit. Marx commented that ``the capitalist is constantly tending to reduce wages to their physical minimum and extend the working day to its physical maximum’’. How true. Marx continued, though, and noted ``while the working man constantly presses in the opposite direction’’. In other words, class struggle: workers struggle to increase wages and to reduce the workday; they struggle to reduce exploitation by capitalists.
Of course, your workday is more than just the time spent between clocking in and clocking out. There is the time it takes you to get to work, the time it takes to buy the food you need to survive, the time to prepare that food -- all this is really necessary labour and part of the worker’s workday. But since this labour is free to the capitalist, since it is not a cost for him, it is therefore invisible to him. So, when the capitalists want to drive down necessary labour by driving down wages (or by increasing productivity relative to wages), it is not the labour he does not pay for that he wants to reduce. Rather, he wants as much free labour is possible, as much unpaid labour as possible.
It is not surprising that workers want to reduce their unpaid labour for capital and to do so by struggling to reduce the capitalist workday. But it is not only the unpaid labour in the workday that is a burden for workers; it is also the paid labour that they are compelled to do for capital. In other words, the problem is not only exploitation. It is the way that capitalist production deforms working people. In the capitalist workplace, the worker works for the goals of capital, under the control of capital and with an organisation of production which is designed not to permit workers to develop their capabilities but, rather, has the single goal of profits. ``All means for the development of production’’, Marx stressed about capitalism, ``distort the worker into a fragment of a man, they degrade him’’ and ``alienate from him the intellectual potentialities of the labour process’’. In other words, the process of capitalist production cripples us as human beings. Life in the capitalist workplace is a place where we are commanded from above, where we are mere tools that capital manipulates in order to get profits.
That is why we want to reduce the capitalist workday. That is why we cannot wait to escape. It is not only the exploitation, the unfairness and the injustice in the distribution of income. Time away from capitalist production appears as the only time in which we can be ourselves, a time when our activity can be free time, time for the full development of the individual.
The socialist workday
Firstly, what do we mean by socialism? The goal of socialists has always been the creation of a society which would allow for the full development of human potential. It was never seen as a society in which some people are able to develop their capabilities and others are not. That was Marx's point in stating clearly that the goal is "an association, in which the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." And this is clearly the point, too, of Venezuela’s Bolivarian constitution where it stresses in article 20 that ``everyone has the right to the free development of his or her own personality’’ and in the explicit recognition in article 299 that the goal of a human society must be that of ``ensuring overall human development’’.
In contrast to capitalist society, where ``the worker exists to satisfy the need’’ of capital to expand, Marx envisioned a socialist society where the wealth that workers have produced ``is there to satisfy the worker’s own need for development’’. So, what is the nature of the workday in a society oriented toward ensuring overall human development?
Let us begin by talking about necessary labour -- quantitatively. There is the labour which is contained in the products we consume daily -- just like before. To this, however, we need to add the labour that workers want to devote toward expanding production in the future. In socialism, there are no capitalists who compel the performance of surplus labour and invest a portion of the profits in the search for future profits. Rather, workers themselves in their workplaces and society decide if they want to devote time and effort to expanding satisfaction of needs in the future. If they make this decision, then this labour is not surplus to their needs; it forms part of what they see as their necessary labour. Thus, the concept of necessary labour changes here.
In a socialist society, further, we recognise explicitly that part of our necessary labour is labour within the household. In other words we acknowledge that our workday does not begin after we leave the household but includes what we do within the household. Article 88 of the Bolivarian constitution recognises the importance of this labour when it notes that labour within the household is ``economic activity that creates added value and produces social welfare and wealth’’.
The concept of necessary labour and our workday within a socialist society also includes the labour which is required to self-govern our communities. After all, if socialism is about the decisions we make democratically in our communities, then the time we need to do this is part of our necessary labour. Similarly, if socialism is about creating the conditions in which we are all able to develop our potential, then the process of education and of developing our capabilities is also activity which is necessary.
When we think about the socialist workday, in short, we think about the workday differently. Our view of the quantity of necessary labour, for example, is not distorted by the capitalist perspective of treating as necessary only that labour for which capital must pay. That is the difference between the political economy of capital and the political economy of the working class. From the perspective of workers, we recognise as necessary labour all the labour that is necessary for ``the worker’s own need for development’’.
But the difference is not only quantitative. In socialism, the workday cannot be a day in which you receive orders from the top (even in strategic industries). Rather, it is only through our own activity, our practice and our protagonism that we can develop our capabilities. Article 62 of Venezuela’s constitution makes that point in its declaration that participation by people is ``the necessary way of achieving the involvement to ensure their complete development, both individual and collective’’. In other words, in every aspect of our lives (the traditional workplace, the community, the household), democratic decision making is a necessary characteristic of the socialist workday; through workers’ councils, communal councils, student councils, family councils, we produce ourselves as new socialist subjects.
Thus, when we look at the workday from the perspective of socialism, we see that the simple demand for reducing the workday is a demand from within capitalism. Its message is simple -- end this horror! This is an ``infected’’ conception of the workday. It starts from a view of labour as so miserable that the only thing you can think of doing is reducing and ending it.
When we think about building socialism, however, we recognise that the demand is to transform the workday -- to recognise all parts of our workday explicitly and to transform that day qualitatively. Rather than only ``free time’’ being time in which we can develop, from the perspective of socialism it is essential to make the whole day time for building human capacities.
In short, there are two ways of looking at the demand for the reduced workday: one way talks simply about a shorter work week and thus longer weekend vacations; in contrast, a second way stresses the reduction of the traditional workday in order to provide the time on a daily basis for education for self-managing, for our work within the household and our work within our communities. In other words, it is the demand to redefine and transform our workday.
The first of these is simply a reform within capitalism. For socialists, May Day should be the day to struggle for the whole worker's day, to struggle for the socialist workday.
Michael A. Lebowitz is professor emeritus of economics at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, and the author of Beyond Capital: Marx's Political Economy of the Working Class and Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century. This article was presented as initiating remarks to the ``Roundtable Discussion on the Reduction of the Workday’’ held on April 24, 2008, at the Centro International Miranda, Caracas, Venezuela. The event brought together leaders from different union federations and currents, as well as a representative from the women’s movement, to discuss the importance of the demand of the reduction of the workday in the lead up to May Day. The event was organised by the program ``Human Development and Transformatory Practise’’ coordinated by Lebowitz, at the Centro Internacional Miranda.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
The worst market crisis in 60 years
The current financial crisis was precipitated by a bubble in the US housing market. In some ways it resembles other crises that have occurred since the end of the second world war at intervals ranging from four to 10 years.However, there is a profound difference: the current crisis marks the end of an era of credit expansion based on the dollar as the international reserve currency. The periodic crises were part of a larger boom-bust process. The current crisis is the culmination of a super-boom that has lasted for more than 60 years.Boom-bust processes usually revolve around credit and always involve a bias or misconception. This is usually a failure to recognise a reflexive, circular connection between the willingness to lend and the value of the collateral. Ease of credit generates demand that pushes up the value of property, which in turn increases the amount of credit available. A bubble starts when people buy houses in the expectation that they can refinance their mortgages at a profit. The recent US housing boom is a case in point. The 60-year super-boom is a more complicated case.Every time the credit expansion ran into trouble the financial authorities intervened, injecting liquidity and finding other ways to stimulate the economy. That created a system of asymmetric incentives also known as moral hazard, which encouraged ever greater credit expansion. The system was so successful that people came to believe in what former US president Ronald Reagan called the magic of the marketplace and I call market fundamentalism. Fundamentalists believe that markets tend towards equilibrium and the common interest is best served by allowing participants to pursue their self-interest. It is an obvious misconception, because it was the intervention of the authorities that prevented financial markets from breaking down, not the markets themselves. Nevertheless, market fundamentalism emerged as the dominant ideology in the 1980s, when financial markets started to become globalised and the US started to run a current account deficit.Globalisation allowed the US to suck up the savings of the rest of the world and consume more than it produced. The US current account deficit reached 6.2 per cent of gross national product in 2006. The financial markets encouraged consumers to borrow by introducing ever more sophisticated instruments and more generous terms. The authorities aided and abetted the process by intervening whenever the global financial system was at risk. Since 1980, regulations have been progressively relaxed until they have practically disappeared.The super-boom got out of hand when the new products became so complicated that the authorities could no longer calculate the risks and started relying on the risk management methods of the banks themselves. Similarly, the rating agencies relied on the information provided by the originators of synthetic products. It was a shocking abdication of responsibility.Everything that could go wrong did. What started with subprime mortgages spread to all collateralised debt obligations, endangered municipal and mortgage insurance and reinsurance companies and threatened to unravel the multi-trillion- dollar credit default swap market. Investment banks' commitments to leveraged buyouts became liabilities. Market-neutral hedge funds turned out not to be market-neutral and had to be unwound. The asset-backed commercial paper market came to a standstill and the special investment vehicles set up by banks to get mortgages off their balance sheets could no longer get outside financing. The final blow came when interbank lending, which is at the heart of the financial system, was disrupted because banks had to husband their resources and could not trust their counterparties. The central banks had to inject an unprecedented amount of money and extend credit on an unprecedented range of securities to a broader range of institutions than ever before. That made the crisis more severe than any since the second world war.Credit expansion must now be followed by a period of contraction, because some of the new credit instruments and practices are unsound and unsustainable. The ability of the financial authorities to stimulate the economy is constrained by the unwillingness of the rest of the world to accumulate additional dollar reserves. Until recently, investors were hoping that the US Federal Reserve would do whatever it takes to avoid a recession, because that is what it did on previous occasions. Now they will have to realise that the Fed may no longer be in a position to do so. With oil, food and other commodities firm, and the renminbi appreciating somewhat faster, the Fed also has to worry about inflation. If federal funds were lowered beyond a certain point, the dollar would come under renewed pressure and long-term bonds would actually go up in yield. Where that point is, is impossible to determine. When it is reached, the ability of the Fed to stimulate the economy comes to an end.Although a recession in the developed world is now more or less inevitable, China, India and some of the oil-producing countries are in a very strong countertrend. So, the current financial crisis is less likely to cause a global recession than a radical realignment of the global economy, with a relative decline of the US and the rise of China and other countries in the developing world.The danger is that the resulting political tensions, including US protectionism, may disrupt the global economy and plunge the world into recession or worse.
By George Soros
The writer is chairman of Soros Fund Management
By George Soros
The writer is chairman of Soros Fund Management
Saturday, April 26, 2008
The Worker's Maypole
World Workers, whatever may bind ye, This day let your work be undone:
Cast the clouds of the winter behind ye,
And come forth and be glad in the sun.
Now again while the green earth rejoices
In the bud and the blossom of May
Lift your hearts up again, and your voices,
And keep merry the World's Labour Day.
Let the winds lift your banners from far lands
With a message of strife and of hope:
Raise the Maypole aloft with its garlands
That gathers your cause in its scope.
It is writ on each ribbon that flies
That flutters from fair Freedom's heart:
If still far be the crown and the prize
In its winning may each take a part.
Your cause is the hope of the world,
In your strife is the life of the race,
The workers' flag Freedom unfurled
Is the veil of the bright future's face.
Be ye many or few drawn together,
Let your message be clear on this day;
Be ye birds of the spring, of one feather
In this--that ye sing on May-Day.
Of the new life that still lieth hidden,
Though its shadow is cast before;
The new birth of hope that unbidden
Surely comes, as the sea to the shore.
Stand fast, then, Oh Workers, your ground,
Together pull, strong and united:
Link your hands like a chain the world round,
If you will that your hopes be requited.
When the World's Workers, sisters and brothers,
Shall build, in the new coming years,
A lair house of life--not for others,
For the earth and its fulness is theirs.
The First of May
Symbol of a New Era in the Life and Struggle of the Toilers
In the socialist world, the first of May is considered the Labor holiday. This is a mistaken description that has so penetrated the lives of the toilers that in many countries that day is indeed celebrated as such. In fact, the first of May is not at all a holiday for the toilers. No, the toilers should not stay in their workshops or in the fields on that date. On that date, toilers all over the world should come together in every village, every town, and organize mass rallies, not to mark that date as statist socialists and especially the Bolsheviks conceive it, but rather to gauge the measure of their strength and assess the possibilities for direct armed struggle against a rotten, cowardly, slave-holding order rooted in violence and falsehood. It is easiest for all the toilers to come together on that historic date, already part of the calendar, and most convenient for them to express their collective will, as well as enter into common discussion of everything related to essential matters of the present and the future.
Over forty years ago, the American workers of Chicago and its environs assembled on the first of May. There they listened to addresses from many socialist orators, and more especially those from anarchist orators, for they fairly gobbled up libertarian ideas and openly sided with the anarchists.
That day those American workers attempted, by organizing themselves, to give expression to their protest against the iniquitous order of the State and Capital of the propertied. That was what the American libertarians Spies, Parsons and others spoke about. It was at this point that this protest rally was interrupted by provocations by the hirelings of Capital and it ended with the massacre of unarmed workers, followed by the arrest and murder of Spies, Parsons and other comrades.
The workers of Chicago and district had not assembled to celebrate the May Day holiday. They had gathered to resolve, in common, the problems of their lives and their struggles.
Today too, wheresoever the toilers have freed themselves from the tutelage of the bourgeoisie and the social democracy linked to it (Menshevik or Bolshevik, it makes no difference) or even try to do so, they regard the first of May as the occasion of a get-together when they will concern themselves with their own affairs and consider the matter of their emancipation. Through these aspirations, they give expression to their solidarity with and regard for the memory of the Chicago martyrs. Thus they sense that the first of May cannot be a holiday for them. So, despite the claims of "professional socialists," tending to portray it as the Feast of Labor, the first of May can be nothing of the sort for conscious workers.
The first of May is the symbol of a new era in the life and struggle of the toilers, an era that each year offers the toilers fresh, increasingly tough and decisive battles against the bourgeoisie, for the freedom and independence wrested from them, for their social ideal.
In the socialist world, the first of May is considered the Labor holiday. This is a mistaken description that has so penetrated the lives of the toilers that in many countries that day is indeed celebrated as such. In fact, the first of May is not at all a holiday for the toilers. No, the toilers should not stay in their workshops or in the fields on that date. On that date, toilers all over the world should come together in every village, every town, and organize mass rallies, not to mark that date as statist socialists and especially the Bolsheviks conceive it, but rather to gauge the measure of their strength and assess the possibilities for direct armed struggle against a rotten, cowardly, slave-holding order rooted in violence and falsehood. It is easiest for all the toilers to come together on that historic date, already part of the calendar, and most convenient for them to express their collective will, as well as enter into common discussion of everything related to essential matters of the present and the future.
Over forty years ago, the American workers of Chicago and its environs assembled on the first of May. There they listened to addresses from many socialist orators, and more especially those from anarchist orators, for they fairly gobbled up libertarian ideas and openly sided with the anarchists.
That day those American workers attempted, by organizing themselves, to give expression to their protest against the iniquitous order of the State and Capital of the propertied. That was what the American libertarians Spies, Parsons and others spoke about. It was at this point that this protest rally was interrupted by provocations by the hirelings of Capital and it ended with the massacre of unarmed workers, followed by the arrest and murder of Spies, Parsons and other comrades.
The workers of Chicago and district had not assembled to celebrate the May Day holiday. They had gathered to resolve, in common, the problems of their lives and their struggles.
Today too, wheresoever the toilers have freed themselves from the tutelage of the bourgeoisie and the social democracy linked to it (Menshevik or Bolshevik, it makes no difference) or even try to do so, they regard the first of May as the occasion of a get-together when they will concern themselves with their own affairs and consider the matter of their emancipation. Through these aspirations, they give expression to their solidarity with and regard for the memory of the Chicago martyrs. Thus they sense that the first of May cannot be a holiday for them. So, despite the claims of "professional socialists," tending to portray it as the Feast of Labor, the first of May can be nothing of the sort for conscious workers.
The first of May is the symbol of a new era in the life and struggle of the toilers, an era that each year offers the toilers fresh, increasingly tough and decisive battles against the bourgeoisie, for the freedom and independence wrested from them, for their social ideal.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Haymarket square massacre: this is we're it all started.
In 1884, the U.S. Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions had passed a law declaring that, as of May 1, 1886, an eight hour workday would be the full and legal workday for all U.S. workers – the ruling class had that much time to recognise this new law and put it into effect.
The owners refused.
On May 1, 1886, workers took to the streets in a general strike throughout the entire country to force the ruling class to recognise the eight-hour working day. Over 350,000 workers across the country directly participated in the general strike, with hundreds of thousands of workers joining the marches as best they could.
In the months preceding the strikes, the Chicago Police Department, the city at the heart of the labor movement, had its ranks increased and equipped with the most advanced weaponry available (including a $2000 machine gun – an extremely rare weapon in that era).
-->
In what they would later call the Haymarket riots, during the continuing strike action on May third in Chicago, the heart of the U.S. labor movement, the Chicago police opened fire on the unarmed striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works, killing six workers and wounding untold numbers. An uproar across the nation resounded against the government and its police brutality, with workers' protest rallies and demonstrations throughout the nation set to assemble on the following day.
On May 4, Chicago members of the anarchist IWPA (International Working Peoples' Association) organized a rally of several thousand workers at Haymarket Square to protest the continuing police brutality against striking workers on the South Side. As the last speaker finished his remarks that rainy evening, with only 200 of the most dedicated workers remaining at the rally, 180 armed police marched forward and demanded the workers to disperse. Then, deep within the police ranks, a bomb exploded, killing seven cops. The police opened fire on the unarmed workers – the number of workers wounded and killed by the cops is unknown to this day. Eight anarchists were arrested on charges of "inciting riot" and murder. The retaliation of the government was enormous in the days to follow, filling every newspaper with accusations, completely drowning the government murders and brutality of days past.
Eight workers were convicted as anarchists, were convicted of murder, and were convicted of inciting a riot. Only one of the eight men accused was present at the protest, and he was attempting to address the crowd when the bomb went off. In one of the greatest show trials in the history of the working-class movement no evidence was ever produced to uphold the accusations, though all eight were convicted as guilty. Four of the prisoners – Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fisher – were executed, Louis Lingg committed suicide, and the three remaining were pardoned due to immense working class upheaval in 1893.
On May 1, 1890, in accordance with the decision of the Paris Congress (July 1889) of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs, mass demonstrations and strikes were held throughout Europe and America. The workers put forward the demands for an 8 hour woring day, better health conditions, and further demands set forth by the International Association of Workers. The red flag was here created as the symbol that would always remind us of the blood that the working-class has bleed, and continues to bleed, under the oppressive reign of capitalism.
"As I write these lines, the proletariat of Europe and America is holding a review of its forces; it is mobilized for the first time as one army, under one flag, and fighting for one immediate aim: an eight-hour working day."-->
From that day forward (starting in 1891 in Russia, by 1920 including China, and 1927 India) workers throughout the world began to celebrate the first of May as a day of international proletarian solidarity, fighting for the right of freedom to celebrate their past and build their future without the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist state.
The owners refused.
On May 1, 1886, workers took to the streets in a general strike throughout the entire country to force the ruling class to recognise the eight-hour working day. Over 350,000 workers across the country directly participated in the general strike, with hundreds of thousands of workers joining the marches as best they could.
In the months preceding the strikes, the Chicago Police Department, the city at the heart of the labor movement, had its ranks increased and equipped with the most advanced weaponry available (including a $2000 machine gun – an extremely rare weapon in that era).
-->
In what they would later call the Haymarket riots, during the continuing strike action on May third in Chicago, the heart of the U.S. labor movement, the Chicago police opened fire on the unarmed striking workers at the McCormick Reaper Works, killing six workers and wounding untold numbers. An uproar across the nation resounded against the government and its police brutality, with workers' protest rallies and demonstrations throughout the nation set to assemble on the following day.
On May 4, Chicago members of the anarchist IWPA (International Working Peoples' Association) organized a rally of several thousand workers at Haymarket Square to protest the continuing police brutality against striking workers on the South Side. As the last speaker finished his remarks that rainy evening, with only 200 of the most dedicated workers remaining at the rally, 180 armed police marched forward and demanded the workers to disperse. Then, deep within the police ranks, a bomb exploded, killing seven cops. The police opened fire on the unarmed workers – the number of workers wounded and killed by the cops is unknown to this day. Eight anarchists were arrested on charges of "inciting riot" and murder. The retaliation of the government was enormous in the days to follow, filling every newspaper with accusations, completely drowning the government murders and brutality of days past.
Eight workers were convicted as anarchists, were convicted of murder, and were convicted of inciting a riot. Only one of the eight men accused was present at the protest, and he was attempting to address the crowd when the bomb went off. In one of the greatest show trials in the history of the working-class movement no evidence was ever produced to uphold the accusations, though all eight were convicted as guilty. Four of the prisoners – Albert Parsons, August Spies, George Engel and Adolph Fisher – were executed, Louis Lingg committed suicide, and the three remaining were pardoned due to immense working class upheaval in 1893.
On May 1, 1890, in accordance with the decision of the Paris Congress (July 1889) of the Second International to commemorate the Haymarket martyrs, mass demonstrations and strikes were held throughout Europe and America. The workers put forward the demands for an 8 hour woring day, better health conditions, and further demands set forth by the International Association of Workers. The red flag was here created as the symbol that would always remind us of the blood that the working-class has bleed, and continues to bleed, under the oppressive reign of capitalism.
"As I write these lines, the proletariat of Europe and America is holding a review of its forces; it is mobilized for the first time as one army, under one flag, and fighting for one immediate aim: an eight-hour working day."-->
From that day forward (starting in 1891 in Russia, by 1920 including China, and 1927 India) workers throughout the world began to celebrate the first of May as a day of international proletarian solidarity, fighting for the right of freedom to celebrate their past and build their future without the oppression and exploitation of the capitalist state.
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