| The Heads of State of the G-20 will meet in Cannes, France, November 3-4, where Bill Gates, billionaire monopoly capitalist, head of the Gates foundation and founder of Microsoft, will present a report. The aim of the report, commissioned in April by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, is to make proposals on how the G20 could finance "development" in "innovative ways." A "technical report," summarizing what Gates will propose was leaked to the media in late September and included a Financial Transaction Tax. The monopoly media have been promoting this reform, referring to it as a Tobin Tax, a policy objective that according to Adbusters would "slow down some of that $1.3-trillion easy money that's sloshing around the global casino each day." The media have given the Tobin Tax a new Hollywood cachet, calling it the Robin Hood Tax, to broaden its appeal. It is suggested that it would benefit poor countries at the expense of the rich, while in fact it would further institutionalize the imperialist system of states dominated by the U.S. Empire. Policy objectives to reform and strengthen the imperialist system of states generally have two features. The first is to divert people from organizing themselves to challenge monopoly right directly to the point where actual restrictions are put on the monopolies, imperialism weakened and the working class movement for its emancipation strengthened. The second feature is to bring in reforms that strengthen the most powerful sections of the international financial oligarchy as opposed to some rogue elements that may be operating on the fringes. To divert the people from organizing and gaining strength as a powerful Workers' Opposition that becomes effective enough to restrict monopoly right has always been a central tactic of the ruling elite. Bringing into being reforms that strengthen the imperialist system of states and disguising them as positive for the people goes hand in hand with undermining a Workers' Opposition. The aim of the Tobin Tax is to strengthen the international financial oligarchy by implementing certain measures against what are considered rogue capitalist elements, divert the working class and its allies from challenging the authority of the imperialist system and prevent the Workers' Opposition from developing its own agenda, organized unity and determination to defend the rights of all and fight for an alternative. The Harvard trained U.S. economist James Tobin and his mentor, John Maynard Keynes or Baron Keynes of Tilton as he preferred to be called, were both convinced that the working class had to be stopped from seizing the initiative of devising its own agenda and bringing in an alternative. They also saw themselves doing battle for "good speculators and capitalists" against "bad speculators and capitalists." Keynes in particular was an avid "good speculator" who used all his considerable skills to combat "bad speculators" and in the process made a fortune trading stocks, bonds, currency and anything else that could be bought and sold for a big score. The Tobin Tax on currency transactions would affect most all international trade and capital movement within the imperialist system of states. Each time one currency is exchanged for another a 0.5 per cent or some other amount of duty would be imposed. Tobin realized that for such a tax to be effective in discouraging short-term currency exchange, the "bad speculators," would have to be regulated through an international institution controlled by the financial oligarchy. He suggested this be done by both the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, which are controlled by the U.S., the most powerful states of Europe and Japan. The over one-half trillion dollars raised annually through the Tobin Tax would then be funnelled through the IMF and World Bank to finance its anti-social projects. The money collected from the hard work of the world's working class and other working people would become an additional source of wealth under the control of the international financial oligarchy to bribe and coerce the weaker countries into accepting the dictate of the big powers, which is exactly the role of those two hated institutions today. The Tobin Tax would further concentrate power in the hands of the most powerful imperialists and weaken the movement in defence of the sovereignty of nations and the right of the people to govern their own affairs. The Tobin Tax further removes the people from taking decisive measures to change the prevailing unequal terms of trade, the anarchy of capital movement in and out of their own countries and the annexation of their economies to the big powers. Importantly, it diverts the people from taking the banking system of their own countries out of the hands of both the "good and bad speculators" and in the process creating a public not-for-profit banking system that serves nation-building. The Tobin Tax policy objective blocks people from discussing crucial reforms such as putting wholesale trade, including imports and exports and the pricing of commodities under the control of public institutions and within the realm of social consciousness. The Tobin Tax diverts people and even prohibits them from taking sovereign decisions on what their countries should be producing, what they trade with other countries and how those transactions are settled. The world is awash in U.S. dollars that are routinely used to settle international trade. Trapped within the imperialist system of states, most countries have to change their own currencies into U.S. dollars or Euros when they sell or buy commodities internationally. Some countries have tried to opt out of the trading of currencies dominated by U.S. dollar hegemony and instead exchange goods for mutual benefit using a barter system or by calculating the value of the goods exchanged and using that amount for future purchases and sales with their trading partners. Libya was attempting to do this with African countries and came under U.S.-led NATO military attack and regime change. The members of the ALBA group including Cuba and Venezuela are attempting alternative trading forms for mutual benefit outside the imperialist system of states but they are all under serious threat of military and other attacks from the big powers, especially the U.S. Empire. A big social responsibility of the working class in the imperialist heartland is to fight to establish an anti-war government that does everything it can to stop the warmongers from committing crimes against the peace. A Tobin or Robin Hood Tax further institutionalizes the imperialist system of states dominated by the U.S. Empire and should be denounced as retrogressive. An aim of the Workers' Opposition is to restrict monopoly right, not reform imperialism so that it becomes even more powerful and dangerous. http://www.cpcml.ca/Tmlw2011/W410154.HTM |