"Every six seconds a child on this planet dies of hunger. We've had industrial revolutions in the West and more recently in China and South Asia; budding revolutions in super jumbo aircraft and plug-in electric cars; and Seinfeld episodes that can be downloaded onto cell phones worldwide." So begins an article in the Toronto Star (15 Nov 09) by David Olive.
In it he cites Jacques Diouf, of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, who thinks we can feed everyone but we are missing the political will. Olive applauds Melinda and Bill Gates foundation that last month gave $120 million to small-scale farmers in the developing world and writes that it is an example to be followed. How can otherwise intelligent and apparently sane people totally miss the point in all this that is capitalism 101 to all socialists?
In good times the worker has to demand higher wages and benefits because in slump times, he will surely be under pressure to relinquish those gains. This of course is well documented in the auto industry where unions were forced to accept massive cuts in wages and benefits won over the last decades. Now it is the turn of public sector employees. In a Toronto Star article (7 Nov 09) by Thomas Walkom, "Next Under Attack: Public Sector Unions", he writes, "Governments used the recession of the 80s to curb wages. They used the recession of the 90s to gut social programs. The theme of this recession promises to be a concerted assault against unions. Note it is governments that lead the charge on behalf of the capitalist class." Several provincial governments have announced plans to cut back on the number of employees, or their benefits so they are no longer, "…sheltered from recessions."
That this is generally done with the support of the working class in general who are prodded to envy anyone with more benefits than they have, is an indication of the low level of class- consciousness of the workers and the amount of work we socialists have to do. John Ayers
In it he cites Jacques Diouf, of the UN Food and Agricultural Organization, who thinks we can feed everyone but we are missing the political will. Olive applauds Melinda and Bill Gates foundation that last month gave $120 million to small-scale farmers in the developing world and writes that it is an example to be followed. How can otherwise intelligent and apparently sane people totally miss the point in all this that is capitalism 101 to all socialists?
In good times the worker has to demand higher wages and benefits because in slump times, he will surely be under pressure to relinquish those gains. This of course is well documented in the auto industry where unions were forced to accept massive cuts in wages and benefits won over the last decades. Now it is the turn of public sector employees. In a Toronto Star article (7 Nov 09) by Thomas Walkom, "Next Under Attack: Public Sector Unions", he writes, "Governments used the recession of the 80s to curb wages. They used the recession of the 90s to gut social programs. The theme of this recession promises to be a concerted assault against unions. Note it is governments that lead the charge on behalf of the capitalist class." Several provincial governments have announced plans to cut back on the number of employees, or their benefits so they are no longer, "…sheltered from recessions."
That this is generally done with the support of the working class in general who are prodded to envy anyone with more benefits than they have, is an indication of the low level of class- consciousness of the workers and the amount of work we socialists have to do. John Ayers
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