End All Taxes on Workers! Tax the Rich!

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By SHANNON SHEPPARD have their desk (shared) and Construction has begun on new And, we need to immediately We plan to move the national the national office secretary! headquarters of SA, the San Francis- The new premises are in the co branch headquarters, the offices same building complex as the of the newspaper, and Walnut Pub- present office, but are almost lishers into a larger space by the twice the size. The meeting hall This is a desperately needed organizer will have a separate have grown in the past year to meet office, and each department will The volunteer newspaper staff is work can be done in quiet. presently crowded into a tiny office And, the new premises will be stuffed with files of periodicals, new on the ground floor (presently computing equipment that makes we are on the third floor) which putting out Socialist Action much makes it possible to have a more efficient, and a laser printer socialist bookstore with display that is used by all departments. The windows facing the street. new space for the SA staff will be All this will cost money, theirs alone, and is more than twice immediately, for the constructhe size of the present cramped quar tion to fix up the place according ters. to our needs, and for a long-term The National Secretary at present lease with increased rent. works in a 6° by 11' office filled The funds to carry out this prowith files that are becoming more ject will come from our fund National Organization Secretary drive to collect $24.000 by Dec. shares a 6' by 18° office with Wal- 15. As you can see from the therinventory of their books, the busi- cracking on raising the pledges ness office of SA (including its label for this drive and collecting darkroom. month we turn to this task with nizer works from a desk in a room Every amount helps. So far, that doubles as the branch meeting we have gotten pledges from room and torum hall. In the same readers that range from 85 to hall, the National Financial Director $1000, Please make your contriand the tinancial director for SA bution now.

In this column, last month and the month before, we saw that the exchange value of all the commodities produced by the workers under capitalism is equal to the average necessary labor time needed for their production, and is measured by money.

We saw that the capitalist owners of the means of production pocket the lion's share of this total exchange value produced by the workers. What they take, called surplus value, is the difference between the total value of all the goods produced by the workers and the wage they pay out to the workers for the food, clothing, shelter, etc., needed for the reproduction of the workers' continued ability to work and for the maintenance of their families, including the raising of the next generation of workers.

Taxes, we saw, come out of surplus value, and are the monies needed to run the capitalist state in the interests of the capitalists. Since the workers create all the exchange value produced in capitalist enterprises, the workers have created all of the surplus value, including that part the capitalists pay as taxes.

We saw that when the capitalist state imposes taxes on workers, those taxes are really not part of our wage, since they are part of surplus value. Our real wage-what we have to buy food, etc.—is what's left over after all the taxes we pay have been deducted. This is fairly easy for us to see in terms of income taxes, since these are deducted from our so-called gross wages before we ever get our paychecks. But things like sales taxes are hidden, and we are not as aware of them.

We discussed government payments to workers like unemployment and social security checks, which are part of the wages of the workers as a whole, and can be called a "social wage."

Taxing bring socialism?

In this column, we want to take up what socialists propose about taxes under capitalism. First, though, we should clarify why we do not think that there is any "tax program" that can lead to socialism.

When the capitalist state imposes taxes on workers, that lowers our real wage in an immediate sense. But we recall that our wages are the money form of the value of the commodity we sell to the capitalists, our ability to work, or labor power. Like all commodities, the value of labor power is equal to the labor time spent in its creation, and in this case that is the value of all the commodities the workers must buy to produce and reproduce their labor power. So while wages are lowered by an imposition of a new tax on workers, over time they will tend to rise back toward their real value.

Conversely, if taxes are lowered for workers, our real wages temporarily rise. But again, over time and under the workings of the capitalist market for labor power, wages would tend to fall back to the real value of labor power.

So raising or lowering our taxes cannot effect any lasting change in the relation between capitalists and workers, as long as the value of labor power remains constant.

Nor do we propose to "tax" the capitalists out of existence. Leaving aside that the capitalist state is never going to do that, taxes go to paying the expenses of the capitalist state whose purpose is to keep the exploited and oppressed in line. We are against a more powerful capitalist state. An example is all the trillions spent by Washington on its huge war machine of mass murder and destruction. Our slogan is "Not one penny for war!"

So it is clear we have no "tax program" that will lead to socialism. Only the expropriation of the present expropriators by the workers and the abolition of the wage system can do that.

The value of labor power With these considerations in mind, let us turn to what we do say about taxes here and now.

The value of labor power represents the value of commodities needed for the maintenance of the workers and their families, and has a component that is determined by the struggle between capital and labor. There is a physical minimum below which it cannot go without destroying the workers and their families (sometimes wages have fallen below this minimum value with devastating consequences).

There is a struggle between the classes about what is "necessary" over and above this minimum for the workers and their families, with the workers seeking to raise their wages and the capitalists seeking to lower them. So what the accepted value of labor power is at any time or in different countries has this component determined by the struggle between the classes.

If taxes are imposed on the workers, and the workers accept them in the sense of being willing to "tighten their belts" for the "national good," then the value of labor power is lowered.

Even if the workers do not accept that their living standards should be lowered by the amount of any new tax, there will be a time lag between when the tax is imposed and when the workers' "gross" wages rise enough to compensate.

Just as in the case when there is inflation, workers are forced into the situation of fighting just to stay even in terms of real wages, when taxes keep rising.

So we are against any and all new taxes on working people for these two reasons, and fight against them.

End taxes on workers!

In general, we are against all taxes on working people as an attempt by the capitalists to lower our real wages and to draw us into accepting responsibility for their state. This means we are against all sales and property taxes, as well as income taxes, levied against workers. After all, even the taxes the capitalists pay come out of the value we have created do we have to be gouged twice?(!)

Our tax program is simple: Get rid of all taxes except a steeply graduated income tax, beginning at a base high enough to exclude workers from paying taxes at all.

This would have the advantage of clarifying for us just what our real wages are, and therefore would help us in our day in, day out struggle with the capitalists over what our wages should be.

This proposal also helps clarify that it is certain people-not abstractions like "corporations"who grow rich off of our labor, and that those who have robbed us the most should pay the most. This can help us explain that maybe they shouldn't be allowed premises for Socialist Action!

first of the year.

move. All national departments new demands. difficult to get to, let alone use. The nut Publishers and a working printer and files), and part of the SA The San Francisco branch orgato rob us anymore at all.

We combine this proposal with our stand against all expenditures for the capitalist instrument of oppression and war, their state.

We are for more government expenditures to help the working class, like public works to fight unemployment, unemployment benefits at union wages, a massive program of creating childcare facilities, raising social security to a living wage for older and disabled workers, etc.

These expenditures should come from the ill-gotten incomes of the rich-and the richer they are, the more they should kick in. After all, that's only getting some of our own back!

In this series of three articles about taxes, we found that to understand taxes we had to begin to delve into aspects of Marxist political economy. This is because to understand what any economic category is all about, whether taxes or any other, we have to dig into the true meaning of these categories that are to be found in the real social relations between classes of human beings.

The kind of economics taught in our schools stays at the level of considering these categories as things in themselves. Marxist political economy lays bare the dynamic of the social relations behind them, and helps workers figure out their own interests and their own way forward.

(Last of a three-part series) files.

bring in someone to help out as will be just that. The branch have adequate office space where mometer, we have to get them November must be the new effort.

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Fund drive will enable Socialist month for sub drive Action to move to new HQ

Learning About Marxism By Sheppara