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On
Oct. 1 some 50 people attended a screening of the film “Poor No More”
at the Rebel Films series presented by Socialist Action at OISE U of Toronto. The film’s executive
producer, David Langille, and I commented on the film and engaged in a
broad discussion with the audience. The following is the text of
my opening remarks on the occasion.
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Many
thanks to David Langille for producing this fine film. It puts a
human face on the reality of growing inequality and exploitation. It
provides a very accessible narrative, hosted with charm by TV and
film star Mary Walsh.
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The
documentary has already generated widespread discussion. Most of
all, it shows what is changing in our society for the worse. It shows
how the post-World War II social contract has been shredded. The
reality of the neo-liberal agenda is revealed, even if it doesn’t apply
the same lens to other countries cited in the film.
However,
to be frank, the premise of the film is faulty: namely, that taxation
can abolish poverty; that only a lack of will power condemns Canada to abysmal, growing
inequalities. The truth is that the root of the problem is the economic
system behind the tax man. It is the system of periodic crises,
including the present and persisting global recession, which is
scuttling the remnants of the welfare state.
This is
true not just in Canada, but in Sweden, which is the poster child of
20th-century social democracy. Ireland had its moment in the sun, a
short-lived economic boom built on speculation, and is now is on
life-support, its recent reforms (like free post-secondary education)
currently on the butcher’s block.
In
preparation for this commentary I thought it would be wise to consult a
Swedish socialist, so I wrote to a leader of the Socialist Party, the
section of the Fourth International in Sweden.
This is
what Anders Svensson wrote in response: “The Swedish welfare state was
(it does not exist any longer, as we see it) a very equal society, if
you compare it to other countries. And Sweden still maintains a better
equality than most countries. But it’s eroding very fast because of the
neo-liberal policies from social democratic and right-wing governments
of the last 20 years.
“We
have seen one of the fastest and biggest waves of privatization of
public property in Europe. We have a totally privatized pension system that is
completely dependent on the stock market.
“The
school system has in effect been dismantled since the beginning of the
1990s. The quality of the public schools has deteriorated as a result
of financial starving. Private schools (funded by tax-money) are where
most pupils and students from middle-class and upper-class families
study nowadays. The privatization of public health care is speeding up.
“The
rise of the welfare state was due to the class struggles in the 1920s
and 1930s. Sweden had more strikes and mass
struggles than any other European country. This resulted in a high
level of organization and a class consciousness that survived well into
1970s. But it is rapidly waning and going away.
“There
is no major struggle against cutbacks, privatization, the suffering of
low-wage workers from other countries, and precarious working
conditions.
“It was
also necessary (for the rulers) to keep the welfare state as long as
the USSR existed. Otherwise, the Swedish
capitalist class feared a revolution like the one in 1917. (We had an
uprising/revolution in Sweden that ended with full and equal
voting rights and a social democratic government.)
“The
Swedish welfare state was also heavily dependent on exports, and Sweden still is. What happens in Germany and the U.S. (the biggest trading partners)
is for that reason very important to the Swedish economy.
“The
Swedish transnational companies have always been known for
aggressiveness. The family that owns most of the Swedish transnational
companies (such as ABB, Ericsson, Electrolux, Atlas-Copco, Stora Enso),
the Wallenberg family, is one of the world’s most powerful capitalist
dynasties. They grew to this importance because of the class
collaboration that existed between the end of the 1930s and the
beginning of 1980s.
“The
social democrats guaranteed welfare for the people and profit for the
rich. The price was lowered class consciousness and a paternalistic
society where the social democrats provided benefits as long as you
voted for them. Real class struggle was in reality forbidden, as
strikes have been, and are in fact, illegal since an agreement between
the trade unions and the employers in the 1930s. As a consequence,
class consciousness fell—and the result is not much struggle against
the neo-liberal policies imposed by social democratic as well as right-wing
governments.”
Last
Sunday, parliamentary elections took place in Sweden. Conservatives won a plurality.
The results for the Social Democratic Party were the lowest since the
1930s. The liberal conservative Alliance won 172 seats. The Red-Green
coalition (SDP, Left Party, and Green Party) got 157. The far-right
party known as the Sweden Democrats won 6% of the votes and 20 seats.
It has been able to gain a hearing because of the steady dismantling of
the Swedish social welfare state over the past decade.
The
conservative/liberal Alliance coalition pushed through a
neo-liberal agenda, in spite of the international crisis. It lowered
taxes and slashed unemployment benefits, diverted more tax money to
private health-care companies and private schools, privatized publicly
owned apartment buildings and residences, and even instituted
U.S.-style workfare programs, where people with disabilities are forced
to seek jobs in order to retain their benefits.
The
traditional left parties—the Social Democrats and the Left
Party—disappointed voters by refusing to put forth any kind of
resistance to these cutbacks. But this is hardly surprising since the
Social Democrats originated many of these same programs in the 1990s.
The
Sweden Democrats played on the fears of ordinary working Swedes upset
at losing social benefits and worried about the effects of a global
crisis that shows no signs of improving. The party was helped by the
attention it got from mainstream papers, which refused to name the
Sweden Democrats for the racists and fascists they are, but instead
treated them as simply another voice in the debate.
The
Green Party gained votes and seats in the Riksdag—a positive sign that
a left-of-center party new to the national political scene could make
gains. However, the Greens have proven willing to work with the Alliance at the municipal level.
What
can we learn from all of this? The Swedish welfare state is not based
on an enduring consensus, a neutral state or the virtues of modern
efficiency. The welfare state was the product of intense class
struggle, including the threat of revolution.
Major
concessions by Capital were frozen into generations of class
collaboration—until system-crisis caused the arrangement to thaw.
During the growth years, Capital continued to profit handsomely. But
the political independence, organizational strength, and solidarity of
the working class eroded steadily. That opened the door to the
undermining of benefits, while Capital had a relatively free hand to
accumulate profits from both domestic and foreign exploitation of
labour and resources.
Sweden is an advanced capitalist
society. It is an exporter of capital, which profits from the labour of
others. In other words, Sweden is an imperialist state, albeit
a small one.
Another
lesson is that a welfare state sustained by imperial profits is neither
just nor sustainable. Welfare provisions at the expense of Third World poverty have many unintended
effects, one of which is mass immigration. Poor immigrants become an
easy target for racists. North-South unequal exchange is a feature of
capitalism/imperialism. The system puts humanity on an endless
treadmill of suffering and conflict. The only way off the treadmill is
to change the system.
Taxation
is a tool in the struggle against inequality—provided that it is progressive
taxation. User fees, road tolls, gas taxes, sales taxes are all
regressive. They penalize low-income people much more than high income
people.
While
some NDP leaders, and even some of our friends in the Socialist
Project, call for road tolls and the like, or even defend the HST,
revolutionary socialists oppose all regressive taxes. We call for the
abolition of property taxes on primary residences, and advocate a
steeply progressive tax on income, profits, and capital gains.
“Poor
No More” doesn’t present a tax model. But even if progressive taxes
replace all the other taxes of today, they will not be a panacea.
Taxation
collects and potentially shares wealth. Today it is mostly working
class and small business wealth that is re-distributed to the state,
business, and the military. But even the best progressive tax system
under capitalism will never transfer power to the working class from
the corporate elite. The super-rich remain in power; the majority
remain powerless, notwithstanding the right to vote in our super-loto
dollar democracy.
Taxation
does not alter the capitalist boom-bust business cycle. Taxation
does not chart a course away from environmental catastrophe. It
does not respect aboriginal sovereignty, or the right to
self-determination of any oppressed nation. It does not
preclude the reversal of welfare rights, the removal of social
benefits, not even the mutation of progressive taxes into increasingly
regressive ones. Most of all, taxation will never end poverty.
In the context of recession, it will not even reduce it, short of
revolution.
But let
me be clear. Progressive taxation is worth fighting for. The demand for
progressive taxation linked to transitional demands like full
indexation of wages to the cost of living, shorter hours without loss
of pay and benefits, and nationalization of the banks, auto, and big
oil under workers’ control are even more so worth the fight.
All of
these demands culminate in the struggle for socialism, for a radical
transformation of our wasteful and inhumane society, and for its
replacement by a cooperative commonwealth. We invite you to join
us in that effort. It’s the best thing you can do with the rest of your
life.
At the
same time, part of the struggle for revolutionary change is the
struggle to defend the past gains of the class struggle. “Poor No More”
helps to illustrate what some of them are, and for that we again thank
its producer.
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