A comparison of two systems of employment

Special to the Tribune

MOSCOW — Nothing high-
lights the differences between the

’ socialist and capitalist systems
more than each system’s ap-
proach to the problem of
employment.

Providing all able-bodied
people with a job was one of
socialism’s first tasks and ac-
complishments in the Soviet
Union during the thirties, af a time
when in the capitalist world the
“Great Depression’? was ravag-
ing the fabric of life of working
people.

Massive inditstiializaiion, the
collectivization of agriculture,
and the cultural revolution
guaranteed that unemployment in
the Soviet Union would be
banished forever from that land.
The experience of other countries
in their building of socialism has
yielded the same effect.

Capitalism on the other hand
has never in its history been able
to function without a reserve
labor force waiting in the wings as
both a threat to keep employed

workers in line and intimidated,
and as a weight to keep the gen-
eral price of labor down, so that
maximum profits from the labor
of those employed could continue
to be made.

**Acceptable”’ Levels

Even when the scholars, scien-
tists; and economic spokesmen
for big business talk of. ‘‘full

employment’ they don’t mean a
job for all. They equate the con-
cept with an ‘‘acceptable’’ level
of unemployment which at vari-
ous times has ranged from 2 and
3% to 4 or 5%, and is destined to
rise as the unemployment crisis
deepens.

Part of the reason for un-
employment as the apologists for
capital are quick to point out, is
the effect of the scientific and
technological revolution on pro-
duction, in short as machine-
based mass production develops
it displaces direct labor with new,
more efficient machinery.

The reality of this fact in
Canada is pointedly reflected in
the current battle being waged in
the country’s postal service as the
union fights to preserve the job
security and the rights of future
job re-training for workers being
displaced by automated mail-
processing equipment.

Who Benefits?

Who benefits from these ad-
vances in technology and automa-
tion is crystal clear. With a jump
in unemployment in Canada from
315,000 in 1973 to 800,000 in 1975,
it is obvious that workers are get-
ting the dirty end of the stick. Ad-
ded to the consumer price index
which over the same period
climbed 32.3% bringing it up
50.4% higher than it was 20 years
ago, the profit figures for the same

period confirm labor’s suffering
and point to a virtual bonanza for
big business.

Recently Eric Kierens a former
Quebec and late federal cabinet
minister speaking to a meeting of
the Conference Board of Canada
pointed out that corporate profits
between 1970 and 1975 had in-
creased from $7.7-billion to

$17.8-billion or an increase of
131%.

Guaranteed Work

Unlike capitalism, socialism
plans to advance how to keep
workers who are displaced by im-
proved technology within the
sphere of employment. A. pre-
condition for the introduction of
new technology under socialism
is the guarantee that the workers
who will be displaced will at least
find work of the same quality
commensurate with their skills
and at the same rate of pay. This
however, is a minimum approach,
at the maximum end of the scale
the workers are elevated through
retraining.

At the root of socialism’s
employment policy is the creative
use of labor energy and initiative.
Socialist society links its

employment strategy with the
creation and speeded develop-
ment of production associations
as enlarged economic units. Thus
we see the uniting of enterprises
into a scientific and production

complex so that these economic
organizations can ensure an ever
more intensive  inter-industry
transfusion of manpower and
consequently make easier the
planned concentration of labor
resources in the key sectors of
production.
Active Role

By stressing the efficient use of
each individual’s creative abilities
on the job, all workers become
aware of their active role in the
all-in process of communist con-
struction. This is in fact a major
source of the strength of
socialism.

Under capitalism unemploy-
ment is linked inescapably to in-.
flation. Capitalism wages its bat-
tle for ‘‘full employment’’
through inflationary government
fiscal policies, financing
capitalism’s demands for means
of production and labor, mean-
while containing the growth of
wages compared with the swel-
ling of corporate profits.

The present Trudeau govern-
ment’s plans to use the Un-
employment Insurance Commis-
sion to finance monopoly’s labor

costs, in addition to a long ling of —
_ government

incentives and
financial favors granted big busi-
ness to expand its production,
along with the wage-cutting so
called ‘‘Anti-Inflation Act’? —
Bill C-73 are illustrations of the

-problem by first feeding infil

A sign from the Civil Rights Association demanding the release of loyalist and republican
political prisoners. The attempt to unite Protestants and Catholics against London is also the
line of the official IRA which wants to convert a sectarian struggle into a class struggle.

The unnecessary crisis
of Ireland's economy

By JIM SAVAGE
(FIRST OF TWO PARTS)

CORK, Ireland — The lack of
adequate industrial development in Ire-
land has traditionally been attributed to a
combination of three factors: lack of na-
tive raw materials, lack of capital, and
lack of enterprise.

The first of these three supposed de-
ficiencies — the lack of raw materials —
if it ever held any validity — has been
well and truly knocked on the head in the
last few years with the discovery of a
wide range of mineral resources — espe-
cially metals — which could act as the
basis of a major industrialization pro-
gram in this country. The prospects in
this area have been made all the more
exciting by the discovery of oil and
natural gas off the Irish coast, and’ the
probability of further finds in the near
future.

Given the possibility of using these
various resources in a variety of process-

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 19, 1976—Page 6

7

ing industries such as metal fabrication,
and petrochemicals, it is clear that at
least one limiting factor as regards Ire-
land’s economic development has been
removed. :
A Total Fallacy

The second supposed deficiency —
the lack of capital — is, I would contend,

a total fallacy. It is difficult to credit the

amount of spare cash which has been
available to the Irish economy over the
years. The major problem, of course, has
lain in the manner in which this money
has been used. For example, in the last
four years, the Irish Government has
borrowed over £750-million in long-term
debt from the Irish people.

The vast majority of this money has
gone into current expenditure, such as
unemployment benefit and social wel-
fare, which means that it does not gener-
ate any ability to repay itself. It quickly

_ finds its way back to the shopkeepers and

other petty capitalists for relending to the

government in its next round of never-
never borrowing, as is strains to maintain
its political image by mortgaging the
country’s future.

It does seem preferable to invest this
spare capital in job-providing projects
which will ultimately remove the dole-
queues which this money is now support-
ing.

: Unproductive Investment :

Further dollops of the spare cash in the
Irish economy are being invested in un-
productive areas such as land and build-
ings, again instead of in productive, job-
providing activities. And a lot more is
being invested abroad, in foreign gov-
ernment stocks, office blocks, and pri-
vate companies. It does seem in Ireland
as if concepts such as ‘‘patriotism’’ are
linked only with things such as fighting
and dying. Things such as the way Irish
money is used are carefully excluded.

Apart from the existence in Ireland of
a lot of spare capital, the Irish govern-
ment has proved itself quite adept at lay-
ing its hands on foreign money. Again, in
the last four years, we have managed to
borrow over £500-million from foreign
sources. These are large figures, given
the size of the Irish economy.

ghetto in Derry.

Children 8 to 14 years old stone a British contro! post at the entrances: to

bankruptcy policy of capi ist
economics.

" The failure of capitalist
ernments to solve the econol

to cut unemployment then boo
ing unemployment to . cont
prices, eventually lead to ou
sent crisis where both
employment and inflation
taken off without any apparé
means of controlling them exc
at the expense of workers.

The ‘essential thrust
capitalism’s approach to the pre
lem of unemployment can
summed up as, ‘“‘making
maximum profit with #
minimum number of workers.

Creative Work

Contrast this to Commun ist
which seeks to draw every a0 |
bodied person. into constructil ;
ever more creative work for WF
sake of the development of #
personality.

It is this difference in app
to the employment proble
which in part explains why mé
of the newly-developing count
in the world are tuming
socialism as a preferred system” is
social, and economic devel0? ¢;
ment, while the capitalist path th
being rejected.

Another indication of h¢
socialism sees people as prim

It can be seen, therefo
be no arguments about
for investment in Ireland
in cast-iron projects s
sources represent. The
as I have said, is in the W
available is used. § e
_ An excellent example % .
light recently when it wa5 4
three Irish Banks — the
Allied Irish Banks, and thé
— are providing £30-milli0
Tara Mines for the develé
Navan mine. In the intere
profit, these three banks ©,

Ke pared to help sell the coum”
river. -
If ever there was a case
ing the Irish banks, this
Lacks Inspirat™
This, then, brings us to"
leged deficiency in the Ins?
the lack of enterprise. +”
where in Europe, count
been held up as models 0°
natural resources can be #
personal ingenuity. In
have been handed massiV& Ss
a plate, but can’t seem tO
erly. An Irish governm