Capitalists Fail To Invest In Canada

No tax breaks for corporations until they actually invest all of their capital in productivity; that is workers and technology. Currently they are being funded by tax breaks by provinces like Ontario, Federal tax breaks, unionized pension funds, CPP pension funds, and shucks workers concession bargaining. Instead of investing in productivity, they are hiding their capital away in Income Trusts, which are tax avoidance schemes. All their moaning, groaning and whining is just that.

Canada as a country is failing to equip its workers as well as counterparts elsewhere in the world, and Ontario is a major reason for that failure.The average worker in the OECD will benefit from some $11,200 in new plant and equipment in 2006, and the average worker in the United States will get $13,000.The average Canadian worker, by contrast, will get $9,800 of new plant and equipment, and the average Ontario worker only $8,400. This means that for every dollar of new investment enjoyed by the typical U.S. worker in 2006, his or her Ontario counterpart will get only 65 cents, even less than the Canadian average at 75 cents.Ontario's dilapidated toolbox


Also See:

You Are Worth More Than You Earn



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Right To Work No Thanks

Housefrau and editor of the Financial Post Diane Francis proposes Right To Work laws as a solution to the current labour shortage in Canada. No surprise there, this is typical of the right wing, and you can expect more lobbying from the right for RTW with the Harpocrite government. Already Monte Solberg is expanding the use of temporary worker status for the big Tar Sands companies to break union contracts. But in her article she quotes a union worker from the UK.

What follows is a thoughtful letter from union member John Gilmurray:

The real problem with labour policy in Canada is the union "local" system. On a recent visit to England and Ireland I was surprised that there are no locals, just one trade union congress for each country.

Everybody is hired directly by a construction company based on their resume. There are no grandfather clauses, no middle-aged white guys hanging around a union hall dishing out jobs to friends. Supply and demand are the rule. Thousands in Dublin have vacated jobs as teachers and bank clerks to become carpenters and electricians. No wonder they have one of the the best economies in the world.

What they have in Europe is Industrial Unions, and one should be careful of what one asks for. While Frau Francis may think this is a good idea, she would do well to remember that those of us in the Revolutionary Workers Movement also agree that industrial organizing is better than the outdated craft/trade unionism of the construction and building trades.

One Big Union, is the call to smash the old craft union monopolies in the work place that divide workers and create one big union for all workers. Including those who work in the offices, etc. that are often overlooked by the craft unions. Including temporary and immigrant workers. It was the temporary and immigrant workers exploited by the bosses at the turn of last century that built the most radical union in North America; the Industrial Workers of the World, IWW, the wobblies.

What needs to be done in Alberta is One Big Union of all workers, an end to craft/trade and competing union organizations. Since the orginal Canadian OBU began here in Alberta it makes sense that it should rise again from the ashes during this labour crisis.

Then we could build the General Strike to overthrow capitalism and its state. I don't think that is quite what Frau Francis had in mind though.



Also See:

The Return of Right To Work

Canada's Right Wing Union

This is Class War

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You Are Worth More Than You Earn

Every Canadian is worth $141,000 That is the surplus value you produce regardless of your wages and benefits. So where do we go to claim our bonuses? Why from the corporations who by the by are going into debt faster than the government, despite record profits and increased worker productivity.

Corporations also took on more debt in the quarter putting the brakes on what has been a long downward trend in their debt-to-equity ratio, leaving it at about 59 cents of debt for every dollar of equity. In contrast, the debt-to-GDP ratio of governments continued to edge down to a new 20-year low of 47.2 per cent, as governments as a whole registered another surplus in the quarter, although the size of the surplus eased. Canadians' worth rises to record

So where is all that debt and deficit hysteria of yesteryear?! And why in this boom economy are we being asked to continue to tighten our belts, accept outsourcing, and job losses?

And those who say Marxism is dead, well the corpse of capitalism still shambles on and long as it does Marx will be relevant.


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