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. _________________________________________________________________ Read the Peoples Weekly World Sub info: pww@pww.org 235 W. 23rd St. NYC 10011 $20/yr - $1-2 mos trial sub Return to the top or to the People's Weekly World home page. Tired of the same old system? Join the Communist Party, USA! Info: CPUSA@rednet.org (212) 989-4994 PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS!