Basics: No peace in the class war
by Gus Hall
This article was reprinted from the Sept. 6, 1997 issue of the
People's Weekly World. For subscription information see below. All
rights reserved - may be used with PWW credits.
There can be no peace in the class war between labor and capital,
between workers and bosses, because the sole aim of the corporations
is to keep maximizing profits. Maximum profits and labor peace are
absolute, irreconcilable opposites.
Corporate profits come only from one source, from the exploitation of
workers. The more exploitation, the more profits. Thus, the lower the
wages, the more profits. Speedup means squeezing more production in
the same number of hours for the same wages, thus increasing profits.
The lower wages of the "part-time" workers means "double-time"
corporate profits. Downsizing means mass layoffs, while the remaining
workers sustain the same rate of production, increasing the rate of
profits.
Racism is very profitable. Discrimination resulting in lower wage
scales means increased profits for the corporations. The ideology of
racism is based on the economics of profits. Racism was designed to
justify inequality in jobs, wages, hiring and promotion.
Lower wages for women workers means corporations make more on the
labor of women.
Using high technology is more profitable. Under capitalism it means
lower wages and loss of jobs for workers.
Real wages have been declining for some 20 years, while corporate
profits have been going up at a dizzying rate. We have reached the
point where two-thirds of all the wealth of our country is owned by 10
percent of the very rich.
Buying and selling distributes profits, but this process does not make
profits. For example, you can buy a dozen eggs for $2 and sell them
for $3, making $1 on the deal. The buyer and seller exchanged $2 eggs
for $3. In that exchange nothing was made or produced because simply
exchanging things does not add any value.
Where profits come from
In the production process labor power is the key. This is where
corporate profits come from. Bosses add nothing. Management adds
nothing. The stockholders, investors, owners add nothing.
The value of labor power is measured by what it costs to keep
reproducing it - food, housing, clothing, etc. Labor power is the only
facet of the production process that produces more than its own value.
This was one of Marx's greatest discoveries. He spent his life
revealing and scientifically proving that labor power is a commodity,
that is "a source not only of value, but of more value than it has
itself."
Thus, UPS created a lower-wage, two-tier wage system to increase
corporate profits. The wage structure of UPS was $12 an hour for 65
percent of the work force and $19 per hour for the rest, although the
lower-paid workers did the same work, often within the same hours. The
lower-paid workers were the main source of the $1 billion profits UPS
raked in last year.
The working class produces more than it gets back in the form of
wages. And it is the difference between the added value this class
produces and what it is paid back that is the source of all profits.
The less the workers are paid back, the higher the rate of profits for
the bosses.
For example, if a worker produces $24 worth of goods in an hour, the
value of an hour of labor is $24. If the worker is paid only $8 per
hour, the extra going to the boss is $16. The rate of surplus value or
profit is 200 percent.
This process is living proof of the correctness of Marx's statement of
the irreconcilability of the interests of capital and labor and the
law that, "profit rises in the same degree in which wages fall; it
falls in the same degree in which wages rise."
Struggle is over profits
The class struggle is the struggle between the workers and the
corporations. Workers and their unions are locked in battle with
corporate America for a bigger share of the value, the profits, that
workers produce.
The struggle between the two dominant classes also sets the framework
for all political activities in our country. There are other
contradictions, other factors that influence the political picture,
but the most fundamental and long-range influence is the struggle
between the two main classes under capitalism. The power and organs of
government, and most of the laws that are passed, are instruments in
this struggle.
The ideological war - the struggle for the minds of the people - is in
fact a reflection of the class struggle. This struggle is the most
basic influence on all political, social, economic and philosophical
trends.
From the viewpoint of what is "right and just" the workers should get
their wages plus all the profits because they are the only ones who
produce the products and all the wealth of the country.
Capitalism's contradictions
That is the basic contradiction of capitalism - between the social
nature of production and the private ownership of the means of
production and profits.
It is a contradiction that can only be resolved by the working class
when it decides that living under capitalism has become intolerable.
It can only be resolved by a revolutionary transformation of power and
wealth from the capitalist class to the working class, a transition
from a capitalist to a socialist system.
Socialism will do away with this negative contradiction. Under a
socialist system every person would share in the production and the
consumption of all the values labor produces. It is really as simple
as that.
As long as capitalism exists there will be the struggle between labor
and capital. The outcome of the class struggle is inevitable because
the end of capitalism is inevitable. It is also inevitable that
socialism - a system that does away with antagonistic classes forever
- will replace capitalism.
The trade union, rank and file victories in the class struggle during
the past year are big advances toward that new day for the working
class.
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