Cannes Summit of G20: The Tobin or Robin Hood Tax

Photos from the Toronto Days of Action against the G20, 2010

By K.C. ADAMS*

THE HEADS OF STATE 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 and different “public policy” and “alternative policy” NGOs 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.

For Your Information: Tobin Tax

JAMES TOBIN first proposed his tax in 1972 following the ending in 1971 of the Bretton Woods system of international monetary management, which had been greatly influenced by his mentor John Maynard Keynes. August 15, 1971 U.S. President Richard Nixon unilaterally announced that the U.S. dollar would no longer be convertible to gold, effectively ending the post-war system. This action created U.S. dollar hegemony and its role as the sole reserve currency within the imperialist system of states.

Shipbuilding: Militarization of Canadian industrial production and workplaces

THE federal government has now officially announced that for the next 20 to 30 years the Halifax Shipyards, owned by the Irving billionaire clan from New Brunswick, will be building $25 billion worth of warships for the Canadian navy.

The deafening propaganda carried out for months in anticipation of this decision immediately went into high gear. From the CBC to the Halifax Chronicle Herald to the Postmedia chain of newspapers, the emphasis is to hype the self-serving logic of the monopolies about how the long-suffering industrial workforce and working families of Nova Scotia have now been “ensured stability of employment” for the next 20 to 30 years. This will then be used to dictate their working conditions and deprive them of the right to resist this dictate.

The way they speak in the USA – ‘with God on our side’

A RECENT SPEECH by republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney proclaiming his belief in American exceptionalism led Andrew Bacevich in a Los Angeles Times Op-Ed titled “America: With God on Our Side” to marvel at how entrenched the doctrine is in American politics.[1] Where do political and religious people get the notion that God has reserved a special destiny for the United States? “The Hebrew Bible provides no evidence to support this proposition,” writes Bacevich, a practicing Roman Catholic. – “Nor do the teachings of Jesus Christ and his disciples.” – “Yet the American Bible incorporates a de facto Third Testament, which validates this assertion of American uniqueness. That testament, fashioned from a carefully tailored rendering of the 20th century, recounts the story of a new chosen people serving as God’s instrument of salvation, leading humankind onward to the promised land.”

Humanity’s mission: Cuba’s medical internationalism in Haiti

Public lecture on Cuba’s Medical Assistance to Haiti

by Dr. Jorge Tomas Balseiro Estevez, Member of Cuba’s Medical Mission to Haiti

7 p.m., Wednesday, October 19

Room 303, Dalhousie Student Union Building, Dalhousie University, 6136 University Avenue, Halifax

A free event sponsored by the Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC),  Nova Scotia Cuba Association (NSCUBA) and the Nova Scotia Public Interest Research Group (NSPIRG).