Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s Thanksgiving. It’s a happy day for me because I love food like you can’t imagine. But as we celebrate the harvest today, we have a lot to be thankful for.

If you’ve got a big old bird in the oven, remember to be thankful to the farm workers who raised it, the workers in the slaughterhouse who prepared it, the truck drivers who brought it to the store, and the store clerks who put it on the shelf and sold it to you!

Be thankful that in a few short months we’re finally going to get rid of the dumbest President the United States has ever had and replace him with someone with a brain in his head.

Be thankful that, for the moment at least, the political momentum in the U.S. has shifted, and we’re no longer drifting rightward but finally toward the left.

So there’s a little bit of “food for thought” while you’re whipping up some “food for gut”. Hopefully I’m not the only one who thought of this. My head is buzzing with ideas so I will probably make a better post here in the next couple days, so stay tuned.

Spreading the wealth around?

During the Presidential campaign, during the whole Joe the Plumber show, Barack Obama’s economic policies were summed up as “spreading the wealth around”. Of course, the right seized on this as an example of “socialism”. As I’ve pointed out previously, that’s not socialism, except maybe by the most vague idea of what socialism is. I would now go further; that Obama’s policies, or even real socialism, aren’t even really spreading the wealth around at all.

If you go to work at a factory, an oilfield, a mine, a McDonald’s restaurant, whatever, the owner of the enterprise you work for is taking the wealth you create away from you. Your labor is what creates profit for capitalists. The thing that turns materials into commodities is human labor, and that’s what gives them value. If a capitalist buys a bunch of lumber, nails, glue, paint for $100, he can’t turn around and sell them all again for $300 (unless he is very successful in market speculation). But if he hires you to turn them into a table, he can. Your human labor has created a commodity of increased value for the capitalist.

So, if you work for 8 hours making a table, and the owner writes you a paycheck for $100, pays $100 for the materials, and sells the table for $300, that leaves a $100 balance. That’s called surplus value. You created that surplus value with your labor and the capitalist has taken it away from you, having done little or no work himself, but simply by virtue of the fact that he owns the table factory and you don’t. Despite the fact that you created the wealth, you had no say in how much of it goes into the pocket of the bourgeois owner. He took the money from you without even asking.

Now, suppose the government taxes the capitalist. Then they turn around and give you health insurance, energy assistance, and education subsidies. If you’re low income, maybe they give you food stamps, housing subsidies and childcare assistance. Or, maybe they just cut your income taxes. That’s not spreading the wealth around. That’s returning the wealth to its rightful owner!

What’s wrong with that?

Goin’ to School!

Hey everyone. I’m off to Young Communist League School in Knoxville, TN. I’m leaving for Missoula in about 30 minutes or so; the drive is going to suck because it dumped a bunch of snow everywhere. I hope I make it there alive! Anyway, don’t trash the place while I’m gone.

No More Bailouts

Working people are pissed. Some of our nation’s biggest enterprises, the ones that form the backbone of our economy, are faltering. Now the government is pondering what to do about it, and they’re framing the question as a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” scenario. We can throw some more taxpayer money at the people who ran their companies into the ground, or we can suffer far worse consequences, ones that will sink our economy into even deeper depression. When framed this way, we are supposed to reluctantly hand over our cash to these CEO’s – like the officers of GM, Ford and Chrysler who flew into Washington to beg for a handout on their own private jets — out of fear of deepening our economic crisis and losing our jobs or homes.

In other words, the bourgeois are holding the country for ransom.

What the people on the Hill are failing to mention is that there is a third way to go about it. We don’t have to let these companies, the ones at the very core of our economy fail, but we don’t have to pour our money down the drain either. What we need is a government that has the balls to stand up to the giants and say, “OK, we’ve got the money to get you back on your feet, but if you want it, you’ve got to do things our way.” I’m talking about nationalizing the auto industry, or at least putting some very strong conditions on any bailout.

First, let’s sack the management team of every enterprise bailed out by the government. I say that in a time of economic crisis, the first people to get a pink slip should be the assholes that ran the economy into the ground in the first place. Put in their place a state-appointed management team that gets paid a salary that isn’t quite so sickening. There’s a lot of talk about how the problem with the auto industry is that UAW auto workers get paid too much. How about the bosses who get paid six grand an hour? That’s the biggest source of waste and inefficiency in the company; throw out the executive officers and find someone who’s willing to take a salary that is more in proportion to the amount of work they do.

Second, retool the company so that it makes products that people actually want and/or need. People would rather drive a Honda than a Chevy? Find out what it is about the imports that people like and make your product better. It’s called competition. That’s what this “free enterprise” system is supposed to be about, although in our age of Monopoly Capitalism we’re more about propping big business up at all costs and removing competition from the picture as much as possible. If you can’t beat the competition, then get into a new market. Start making Chevy bicycles, Chevy buses, Chevy subway trains. Hell, make a Chevrolet toaster for all I care. Something that is useful, that there is a market for. Save the jobs of your workers, save the company from going under, and provide something that people will buy.

This is not a radical idea. Ever heard of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy? The idea behind Chapter 11 is that it is often better for the economy to let the courts restructure a company so that it can continue operating but in a way that is profitable, instead of letting it fail all together. This happens all the time. That’s the only reason we still have K-Mart stores and Converse shoes. But remember, these are your taxpayer dollars on the line. Don’t you think that if the government is going to give them away they should have the balls to stand up and demand something in return? What’s so radical about that?

Third, we need something for the working class. There’s no point in giving money to the corporations so they can continue producing commodities that people don’t want or can’t afford. The problem with these bailouts is that they’re trying to treat the effect (failing companies) and not the cause (lack of consumer buying power). Maybe if we put some more money in the consumer’s pocket he or she could afford to go buy that Chevy and put some gas in it, instead of driving a Hyundai.

More stimulus checks would be nice but we need some revolutionary changes in the way our country does business. Going back to people who complain about the UAW being overpaid, why isn’t anyone pointing the finger at the Wal-Marts and the union busters who beat down their workers and try to squeeze every last penny possible from them? These anti-worker companies drive wages down for everyone. I hear working-class people all the time bitching about unionized workers being overpaid and underworked and it blows my mind. People have this mentality that instead of fighting to raise their own standard of living, they should bring that of their fellow workers down to their level. These folks work hard for a shitty wage and little or no benefits, and they wear it like a badge of honor that they’re willing to stand there and take that sort of abuse without complaint. Then they berate others who aren’t. I’m sorry, but that’s not honorable, it’s stupid!

Giving people more tax rebates isn’t a bad idea – hey, I’m not going to complain if Uncle Sam wants to send me a few extra bucks – but it’s a temporary solution. Let’s make it easier, or even mandatory, for workers to form unions. Let’s cap CEO salaries and put a heavy tax on stock dividends. Even better, let’s have a Communist revolution and get rid of the CEO’s all together. Well, maybe I’m getting a little ahead of myself, but you get the point. We need to change the way we’re doing things so that workers across the board have more spending power and can afford to go buy American goods and services.

But first and foremost, we need to get rid of this “corporate welfare”. Working class people can’t afford to be giving the bourgeoisie handouts with no strings attached. They’re coming to us to beg us for help. Don’t we hold all the cards? Why our are supposed “representatives” so afraid to tighten the screws on these jerks? I think it’s vital that we keep these companies afloat, but if they need our help to stay in business, they need to give something back to us. It’s only fair.

The Battle is Not Over.

Things have gone well. Obama won the White House with a massive electoral vote blowout and the Democratic Party has strengthened its lead in both houses of congress. Some races that were initially feared lost still have at least a glimmer of hope: in Alaska, Mark Begich is within 4,000 votes of ousting Republican Ted Stevens, the Senate’s longest serving member and it’s only convicted felon, with over 40,000 votes left to count. Al Franken’s bid to capture one of Minnesota’s Senate seats has fallen just 500-some votes short, well inside the margin for a recount. There is hope that they could pick up another seat or two. And, of course, we can take pride in knowing that — much to the chagrin of many out there — our country has elected its first African-American President. These are all good things.

For communists, though, our intention was never just to elect as many Democrats as possible. Our goal is to defeat the ultra-right. In this election, progressive and centrist forces have gained the upper hand against the ultra-right, however, the battle is far from over. We don’t want to turn the corner only to allow them to come back with a vengeance a couple years down the road.

No, the battle to defeat the ultra-right is not over. The battle is not just to relegate them to a large minority party; the battle is to utterly smash the right-wing movement as a political force and render it incapable of ever playing a major role in American politics again. This may seem like a radical thing to say. Well, I am a radical after all. But so are the ultra-rightist that have been dominating Washington. Make no mistake about it, there are plenty of very radical elements within the Republican Party, and if Americans want real qualitative change in their daily lives, we need to shift the framework of the political spectrum far enough that the Republican ideology in general is relegated to the position it belongs: the fringes. It is my hope that, in the future, voting for a Republican will sound as ridiculous as voting for a Communist sounds today.

There is bound to be plenty of celebration on the Left today after last night’s election results, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In order to accomplish our goals, we need to keep the pressure on. This election could be a turning point. Or it could be the point where we fall asleep at the wheel. The choice is yours.

Butte Election Day Update!

I swung by the Civic Center just to see how things were going (having voted absentee about a week ago) and everything appeared to be running fairly smoothly, from what I can gather. There were a lot of people there, but the lines were short enough that everyone could fit in the building, which is good considering it started dumping snow at about 1:30! If you’re putting off voting because you’re afraid you’ll have to wait in the snow, don’t! Go now! DO IT!

UPDATE 2:50 PM: So those crazy text messages have been going around Montana, apparently. People have been texting messages around that say, “DUE TO LONG LINES, OBAMA VOTERS ARE ASKED TO VOTE TOMORROW”. Anyway, hopefully this should go without saying, but it’s a joke. Don’t show up to vote tomorrow.

UPDATE 8:00 PM: Obama has taken a nearly insurmountable lead. I’m not going to call it yet but if he wins one more battleground state, Obama will nail it down. We’ll see!

Montana YCL Blog

Great news, for those of you looking to add a new blog to your list: the Butte-Helena Young Communist League has launched its new, official, shiny and clean blog. Check it out right here: http://montanaycl.wordpress.com/

In addition to posts by yours truly, it will have some updates from our other comrades, as well as official club news and views. It’s a little sparse right now but stay tuned.