Labor and Capital

IN any business there are two components that are needed: labor and capital. No business venture can take off the ground if there is no capital. There should be raw materials, land, machinery, technology and money to start a business. At the same time labor is needed to process the materials, to run the machines, to apply the technology. This labor is in turn paid by capital. There are some currents of thought, like communism, that view these two components as adversarial. They take advantage of one another so they necessarily clash against each other. But this need not be so because they need one another. No matter how much money one has, no business venture can get off the ground without laborers. No matter how many and skilled the laborers are, they will not be able to work without someone who can put up the capital to run the business and to pay them. The two components are needed and are important.

But which of the two is more important? From the humane point of view, labor has priority over capital. Why? Because labor is people while capital is money and things. People are more important than money. Because in any business venture the laborers are more than those who provide the capital, so the needs and the welfare of the many should get more consideration than those of the few. Because usually the laborers are poorer than those who provide the capital. Therefore, more consideration and protection are to be given to labor.

Is this happening now in the present dominant economic system in the country and in much of the world? No! The government gives more concessions to draw in capital, especially foreign capital (the so-called Foreign Direct Investment), to set up businesses in the country, and many times at the expense of the local laborers.  Thus, to entice capitalists, the wages are kept low, the rights of workers to self-organize are curtailed, humane conditions of work are weakly enforced, and the security of tenure of workers are denied them. The reason why millions of workers are not regularized in their work is that the capitalists do not want to give the benefits due to regular workers such as sick leave, vacation leave, eventual retirement pension and the like. But more especially, they do not like the workers to organize themselves into labor unions for mutual protection and to demand what is due to them. This present system of favoring the rich over the poor, the few over the many, and often, the foreigners over the local people, is unjust and not humane. It will not bring about peace and well-being in the country.

In a way, however, there is reason why the capitalists distrust labor unions. There are also abuses on the part of labor union leaders who are led by the ideology of class struggle. They believe that laborers necessarily should struggle against the capitalists and eventually supplant them. With this ideology, the laborers are incited to go against the capitalists and at times unreasonable demands to the current state of the business venture are being asked for. Eventually the business closes down and the workers are out of work. Poor workers! They are not only being used by the capitalists but also by their labor leaders.

There should be a another option of doing business. This is the worker cooperative. The workers themselves put up the capital and run the business. They themselves provide the labor in the same business that they own. They do not need unions because they are already self-organized and the business is theirs. They cannot struggle against themselves. Because they own the business, they do their work well; any profit from the business comes back to them. They make themselves grow with the growth of their business.

This way of doing business—the worker cooperative way—is yet in its fledging and struggling stage in the Philippines. The government does not understand it and has weak laws to support and encourage it. Many workers are not able to grasp the idea that they can also be owner workers. Their frame of mind is that they are just plain workers. The labor union leaders do not like this because many of them are programed by the ideology of class struggle and they cannot apply class struggle in worker cooperatives since the idea of one class against another disappears; the worker class is at the same time the capitalist class. The capitalists do not like worker cooperatives. They see them as rivals to their businesses and to their need of workers. The worker cooperatives have yet a long way to go but it is a viable way to reconcile labor and capital.

  

The Unstable Sees Destabilizers Everywhere

The accusers of the woman caught in adultery kept pestering Jesus as he bent down writing on the ground. Jesus straightened up and said to them: “Whichever one of you has committed no sin may throw the first stone at her.” (Jn 8:7) The point of this story: instead of pointing accusing fingers to others, look first at yourself. This can be applied to the political situation of our country. Duterte and his cohorts so hastily accuse people of destabilization. Whenever there are serious allegations of wrong doings against them, they easily cry wolf – destabilizations! Let them look at themselves. Maybe they are so unstable in their governance, or they are so unstable themselves, that instead of answering allegations, they readily shot down people and organizations which accuse them. Would it not be better to prove the allegations wrong by rational arguments and proper evidence to the contrary? Perhaps they cannot dismiss the allegations so they resort to counter-accusations.

We see this happening again this week when the henchmen of Duterte, Salvador Panelo, the presidential spokesman, and Dante Ang, the President’s special envoy for international public relations, came out with the “Matrix,” which both claim came from Duterte himself, showing the relationships among the “destabilizers” of the government. This time they are the journalists and groups who investigate his undeclared wealth and his connections to the narcotics trade. There is Bikoy, the unknown person who uploads video clips that show how the Duterte family receive money from the narco trade – all the way from Digong himself, to his daughter Sara and his son Paolo, to Sara’s husband, Manases Carpio, to the President’s partner Honeylet Avencena and daughter Kitty. Bong Go, the senatorial candidate is also implicated. Then there is the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) which exposed the undeclared wealth of Duterte and his family members.

The web in the “Matrix’ includes the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), the Rappler, and such journalists as Ellen Tordesillas, Carlo Almentral, Manny Ayala, Flgencio Factoran, Glenda Gloria, Winnie Monsod, Federico Prieto, and the Vera Files. How all these are related to each other is not explained at all, except by lines that connect them to each one! This is another version of shaming and threatening people like that of the infamous Narco List. Unlike the allegations against Duterte and his family which are backed up by evidence – whether they are true or not is another matter - the “Matrix” and the Narco List are not backed up by any evidence at all! They are pure allegations!

If there are indeed illegal or criminal basis for such claims, let them be charged in the proper courts. If none, what is the point of coming out with the Narco List and the “Matrix”? Are these not libelous accusations which are groundless? For example, what had come out of the Red October Plot and the White Christmas Plot that sounded alarms of destabilization and even revolutions?

Do all these destabilization alarms show instead that the government itself and those who run it are unstable?

Campaign….Campaign….Campaign

After the lull of the Holy Week, if ever there were any, political campaigns for the May 13 elections are on, but now with more heat, since it is the last stretch before the elections. We have barely three weeks to go before that fateful day. With the encouragement of the last CBCP pastoral letter, many lay leaders are now actively involved in campaigning. The bishops made this call: “Christians are encouraged to engage in principled partisan participation. This means that they can campaign for good candidates as an exercise of their Christian faith.” Many lay leaders are now heeding this call. Even with limited resources and experiences, they campaign for the candidates whom they think can make a difference in the present governance of the country. They especially support candidates who advance democratic governance by not allowing themselves to be cowed by fear or used by interests of those who have authoritarian or dictatorial leanings.

In some areas of the country, this is an uphill battle. In a northern province, I was told by a local leader of the opposition that she has a lot of posters but they cannot post them because people are afraid to be identified with the opposition, even by just having posters attached near their homes or offices. They are afraid of reprisals. Fear can have a paralyzing effect. The best way to overcome fear is not by going along with it, but by opposing it and standing up to it. If now we are afraid just because of the threats, what will happen when people are actually led with a semblance of legality because those in power are now in total control? It is now then that we have to stand up and oppose those who use violence and threats.

In all midterm elections the ones in power have the unfair advantage in that they can use government resources, government money, and even government time to campaign for their candidates. This should be illegal! Usually, those in the opposition have not enough resources for their campaigns. Here the lay people who are convinced about the worthiness of their candidates can help. On their own they can tell people whom to vote. This influence is highly effective because it is a one-on-one personal approach. This can also be done in the social media by posting the names and programs of good candidates so that they may be more known. This does not cost any money and does not need much time. If more and more lay people do this, this subtle campaigning that is not caught by survey groups can be very effective.

At this stage of the campaign, let us not be conditioned by survey results and polls. These are part of the propaganda and are meant to condition our votes. Let us remember that elections are different from betting in lotteries or gambling. It is not a matter of betting on winning horses. It is the free expression of our convictions. No matter if my candidate does not have a high rating, my vote for him/her is not wasted even if she/he loses. What is worse is that I vote for a winnable candidate who indeed wins but who is a bad public servant. In this way I have contributed to the ill in society.  Many have regretted their votes in the 2016 elections. Let this be a lesson to us now. Let us be wiser. Let all good people campaign and vote not for winnable people – iyong may mga matunog ng pangalan lang – but for those who really can help in the good governance of the country. Let us make good candidates known. Campaign for them!