From: Zeynep Tufekcioglu <zeynept-AT-turk.net>
Subject: Re: Australia - whats happening
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 22:08:27 +0300


Comrades,

I thought I'd take the chance to repeat, once again, that phenomena ranging
>from the budget cuts to the flexible employment push are the sides of the
same coin.

When profitability is squeezed, the capitalists look for ways to keep more
of the profit. The total surplus is first divided in the workplace between
the worker and the boss. (First distribution, in Marxist terms). Then, there
is a fight to get more of the total social suprlus. 

Hence, the realignments of budgets against all social spending, as the
working class is the main beneficiary of most of social spending of the
state. Also, this is where the whole theory of lowering taxes on profits and
reducing/abolishing capitals-gains tax comes into the picture.

Interest paid on Treasury/government bonds can often be an indirect subsidy
to the capitalists. In Turkey, the biggest corporations make up to 50-60% of
their profits from "fields outside the main area of activity", i.e. treasury
bonds and other interest bearing, often state issued papers. Hence, any
fight against the budget cuts must fight the notion that the budget is like
a family budget, so if there is not enough to go around, everyone will have
sacrifice. We found it very useful to scrutinise the budget numbers very
closely. (I admit it is a very tedious job. One of us read around 5000
pages, including the government's 5 year plan). We found it very effective
to be able to tell the workers how much exactly was going to interest
payments, foreign debt payments. Of course, arms spending is also huge here,
and most of it is hidden in sub-items.

Also, there are many indirect subsidies to watch for. Our research showed up
how some state banks were directing money to the capitalists by "cheap"
loans and subsidies and incentives, etc. (The facts were there, but they
were concealed.) I'm sure a similar detailed inspection and study will turn
up many similar cases in other countries. The examples shock people,
(sometimes we even gasped), and makes the struggle "legitimate", and
counters the bourgeois propaganda that it is just "some sour workers who
don't want to lose all their perks".

When fighting budget cuts, we found it imperative to be able to to explain
how the capitalist state was actually channelling money from the pockets of
the workers to the capitalists. We found it very beneficial to fight the
bourgeois propaganda that "the government was in a tight squeeze, and so the
cuts were painful but necessary". That rhetoric is very effective for
achieving compliance.

By the way, also for newcomers, I have a reputation for "mindless activism".
I believe that the only way to spread a revolutionary influence among the
working class is getting involved in all the fights, directly. The budget is
a working class issue, if anything ever is. In our experience of mindless
activism, the ability to be able to tell the workers exactly why and how the
government was lying, the underlying reasons for it and the ability counter
the bourgeois propaganda case by case, number by number, greatly enhanced
our ability to engage in even more mindless activism.

Zeynep



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