Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
..so much shamefully in contrast..
They are there in a dynamic inter-relationship!
It is wealth that creates poverty!
The corporations don't go into the Third World to start affirmative action..
..and programs to abolish poverty
..to uplift these little brown and black and yellow people
..to the ways of the "wise" white man
They don't go into to do that
Well, they actually talk about doing that..
They don't go into to help the poor..
They go into help themselves
That's what they do
Well okay - Parenti
Capitalism doesn't work so well for the common people..
..in those Third World countries
..but it has given us a good standard of living
Let's now look at that..
Will you give me three minutes to disabuse you of that myth?
That some of you - I won't ask for a show of hands..
..but some of you have held all your life
Let's look at our own North-American society..
Let's put aside the massive inequalities..
Let's put aside the tens of millions who struggle from hand-to-mouth..
Let's put aside the many who call themselves middle-class..
..but who live without any real economic security
Let's put aside the desperate ones at the very bottom..
Let's put aside the attacks and impoverisment on the public sector..
..and the destruction of a liveable enviromment
Let's just put all that aside for a minute..
And let's accept the idea..
..that we live in great material abundance
..and compared to much of the world - we do
Many of us in Canada and the United States..
..live very well, indeed
That's why the victims of Capitalism..
We always hear about the victims of Communism wanting to flee Communism..
Nothing has ever been said about the victims of Capitalism..
I come from a family of victims of Capitalism..
My grand-parents, from both families, came from southern Italy..
..grind in terrible poverty
They were victims of Capitalism..
They came over here to be victims of Capitalism, again..
..but a little less so
..and that's what happens
So let's accept this idea of great material abundance..
But it wasn't Capitalism that gave us a good standard of living..
It was the democratic struggle against Corporate Capitalism that dit it
I mean, why don't Canadians..
..work for fifteen cents an hour..
..as people in Haiti and Indonesia do?
Is it because you're just so much more self-respecting?
So, you just wouldn't do that?
Or is it because you're at a level of democratic class-struggle..
..a historical level..
..that has advanced to a more favorable level..?
You know, the North-Americans used to work for starvation and subsistence wages..
In 1900..
Canada..
..and the United States..
..and the Netherlands..
..and Denmark..
..and France..
..and other countries..
..that are today considered very prosperous..
..capitalist countries..
..western industrial countries..
..and no one uses the word "Capitalist"..
..because no one wants you to think about it that way..
They were all Third-World nations..
..almost half a century before the term was invented
Child-labour was widespread..
Poverty was widespread..
Unemployment - underemployment..
Fourteen hour workdays..
No social services to speak of..
..with the exception of the occassional chuch or charity
..no social benefits
..tyfoid epedemics in Philadelphia and Baltimore..
Tuberculosis..
..other diseases of poverty
..no public housing or public health-services
Very little public education..
Non public libraries..
Advances came not with Capitalism..
Capitalism was reigning..
The Capitalist class..
The Mellons, the Morgans..
The Rockefellers, the Harringtons..
..and all these others..
They were making it in there..
Advances came when we made certain democratic victories..
..the eight-hour day
..the end of child-labour
..worker safety
..right to labour-unions and collective bar-union
..public health-programs
..disability insurance
..old-age pensions
These are things that we have been fighting for..
Still - inadequate..
Still - insufficent..
Still - not universal..
..and yet - these things..
..as inadequate and incomplete as they are..
..are still under siege by the same people..
..who fought against those things
..it wasn't Capitalism that brought these advances..
It was democracy..
It was people acting as the social agents of their own lives..
..fighting and struggling for those things
And the Capitalists..
The rich bankers..
The merchant class..
The corporate class..
The slave-holders..
They all fought against democracy..
They fought against political democracy..
..as well as economic democracy
..in the United States..
..that class fought against the elimination of property qualifications for voters and office holders..
They fought against universal suffrage for working men..
They fought against suffrage for women..
They fought against the abolishment of slavery..
..and Jim Crow
They fought against honest elections..
..and they still do a very good job of that in Florida
They fought against democratic ballot access..
They fought against proportional representation..
..campaign finance reform..
..civil liberties..
..and they are still fighting against these things
They are fighting against every bit of political democracy..
..and every bit of economic democracy
..that benefits the people
So what do you credit..
..the Capitalist..
..with the gains that you made AGAINST the Capitalists..?
Why don't you credit the people who fought tooth and nail..
..and claw and fang..
..AGAINST everyone of these [Capitalists]..
..who are still rolling it back!
..doing it right here - in British Colombia - as you know..
..trying to degrade our standard of living..
Every democratic we've made is under siege..
..[they are] continually figting to drag us back to..
..1900
Why do we credit THEM with giving us a good standard of living..?
If they had their way..
..our kids would be working in those factories..
..fourteen hours a day..
..seven days a week
Credit yourself rather than [them]..
So when we say the Capitalism works..
..or doesn't work..
..we must specify for whom
In one important sense it is incorrect to say..
..that Capitalism doesn't work well..
..in Third-World nations..
..for the Capitalists it works much better..
..in Indonesia..
..than it does in Denmark
The rate of profit and capital accumulation per dollar invested in Indonesia..
..is four, five, six - ten - times higher..
..than it is in Denmark
Obviously - if you can pay people fifteen cents an hour..
..twelve cents an hour
..instead of having to pay them..
..as in Denmark..
..with benefits and all that..
..many, many dollars an hour..
You're gonna be making much more money..
The public sector is smaller..
Regulations are less or non-existent..
..or are very poorly enforced when compared to..
..say, West-European or North-American countries
Their goal is a Third-World-ization of everywhere..
That's the goal of international finance..
..and corporations capitalists
Third-World-ization of everywhere..
Their goal is to get us back to 1900.
I as a corporate Capitalist..
Every dollar I've got to spend..
..on stupid, annoying..
..frivilous and unnecessary things like..
..wages
..health-insurance
..pensions
..and occupational safety
..and environmental protection
Every dollar I've got to spend on something idiotic like that..
..is one less dollar for me
When will it stop!?
When will my oppression stop..?
Now you want seniority rights..
Now you want collective bargaining...
Now you want vacations..
Now you want PAID vacations..
When will this stop?
Until you drag me in to total poverty..?
Until I have nothing left on my estates..?
Okay..
So Capitalism worked much better for the Capitalists..
..in the United States and Canada..
..in 1902 then in 2002..