Members' statements. The Member for Beaches East York. Thank you, Speaker. In two apartment complexes at Beaches East York alone, the people in 50 households are in imminent danger of eviction because they got sick, lost jobs or income during COVID and have had trouble paying their rent. The Crescent Town complexes are among the communities that have been the hardest hit by COVID, mostly BIPOC and newcomer folks who are either front-line workers and low-paid jobs they can't afford to lose and that don't have benefits. So there's no sick leave if you get COVID or have to miss work for a test or whose jobs have disappeared outright, whose income has been slashed. These are the folks who heeded the Premier's advice to hold their rent if they didn't have enough money to both eat and pay rent. He promised he would spare no expense to take care of them. And now, at the end of November, on the cusp of winter, people in 50 households are on the verge of homelessness. Speaker, there are already 1,000 more people on the streets of Toronto than there are beds and shelters, respite centers, drop-ins and shelter hotels. Front-line workers tell me there is nowhere, literally nowhere for people to go. This situation is playing out across the city and across the province. We are in desperate need of a moratorium on residential evictions and rent relief for people whose income has been lost to COVID so that we don't see a tsunami of evictions and thousands more unhoused people. We need it now. We need zero COVID evictions in Ontario. Thank you. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Mississauga-Malcolm. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, Diwali is a festival of light, celebrated with excitement across the globe. Last year, I still remember, I celebrated with Diwali with family and friends gathering for large meals and grand festivities. Mr. Speaker, on the contrast this year with rising COVID cases, I celebrated Diwali only with my immediate family at home. We virtually connected and prayed with Ram Mandir and along with that, with family and friends. Truth be told, Mr. Speaker, it wasn't the same. I was missing the excitement and the personal touch, the laugh and the emotions. However, our experience wasn't unique. Thousands of families across Ontario did the same thing and it is the right thing to do. Self-discipline and sacrifice are our best friend in this challenging time. With the festival season fast approaching, I urge all Ontarians to stay in and stop the spread. At the same time, Mr. Speaker, I want to press that COVID cannot take away our spirit to celebrate. I encourage every Ontarian to support our local small businesses by buying and ordering food online and to celebrate the festivals and buying and exchanging the gifts to help our government has created the $57 million digital main street platform so that over 22,000 Ontarian businesses can create and enhance their online presence while generating 1,400 jobs. Mr. Speaker, let's keep our celebrations virtual to stop the spread of COVID-19 so that we can go back to celebrating our festivals in person as soon as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Member Statements, the Member for Kitchener Centre. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise as the anti-racism critic for the official opposition because I find it astounding that government after government have heard from indigenous communities asking for something as basic as clean drinking water or houses free of mold and done nothing. It's astounding that a land-backed camp in my riding of Kitchener Centre set up camp in Victoria Park on June 20th where they remained for 122 days before moving to Waterloo Park where they've been for 26 days and the provincial government remains silent on the plight of urban indigenous communities. And today when land defenders at 1492 Landback Lane in Caledonia are fighting against colonial powers that think the forcible removal of Haudenosaunee people from their own lands is a viable option to support developers despite the rights of the Haudenosaunee people to that very land which are enshrined in the Haldemann Treaty of 1784. I am astounded that this government can even speak about reconciliation and speak well at night. And so to the constituents emailing my office and to the advocates both federally and provincially who consistently speak truth to power. I see you and like you, I will not stop speaking out. Not today, not ever. And to the land defenders at 1492 Landback Lane the Haudenosaunee Confederacy Chiefs Council and the six nations elected council. I stand with you in your demand for a moratorium on all development to allow for a respectful nation to nation negotiation. Thank you very much. Member statements, the member for Scarborough Agent Court. Good morning, Mr. Speaker. We all want the best for our loved ones. And we especially want to be sure they are in safe modern space where they can receive the best quality of care. COVID-19 has emphasized the need for long-term care to be repaired, rebuilt and modernized. That's why our government has been taking historic steps to add capacity and upgrade Ontario's long-term care homes. When we began our work, many projects were being delayed due to an updated funding model. That's why in July, Premier Ford and Minister Fullerton announced a modernized funding model. One designated to support more new developments and the upgrading of older homes to higher and more modern standards. Through the new funding model, our government is investing an additional 761 million to accelerate 70 for development projects across the province. This will help create closer to 11,000 safe modern space sooner for residents to call home. Last Thursday, I was proud to join my Scarborough colleagues at the E-Honk Center in Scarborough's Finch campus to announce additional investment to build 224 beds. In addition, the Hellenic home, we received more funding to build 128 beds. So far, our government has committed to build 352 beds in Scarborough. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the member for Brampton Center. Thank you and good morning, Speaker. Speaker, I'd like to start off by thanking all of our frontline workers, especially in the Peel region. We're home to many manufacturing and logistics hubs and those folks have been working in our warehouses, in retail and in our trucking industry to make sure that folks across the province continue to receive goods. But, Speaker, what's concerning is that Brampton is becoming and is a hotspot in the province of Ontario. Our COVID-19 numbers are increasing daily. However, the bigger concern here is that we just simply don't have the healthcare capacity to manage the surge in cases that is happening. As is no surprise to anyone in this chamber, Brampton has been underfunded and neglected by previous governments and this government and we're still waiting for another hospital. We've been in code gridlock since the day that we opened and this is continuing throughout the pandemic. Speaker, the provincial average provides 2.19 beds per 1,000 residents across the province. Brampton only has 0.96 beds per 1,000 residents. That means for a population of well over 675,000 people, we simply do not have the capacity to serve those patients. Why is that still happening? When we know that for decades Peel hasn't received its fair share in mental health services and our healthcare services, why is this government not committing to invest in our hospital? We've heard it from the mayor, we've heard it from council and so I'm going to ask this government when is Brampton going to finally see the investments we need in our healthcare system? Thank you. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the member for Simcoe Gray. Speaker, next week I will be introducing a private members resolution asking the government to continue to support planning work for the redevelopments and construction of both the Collingwood General Marine Hospital and Stevens Memorial Hospital in the town of New DeCumseh. As I've said many times in this house, these are old outdated buildings that have seen virtually no upgrades since they were built more than half a century ago. Modern state of the art hospital facilities in Collingwood and Alliston are vital to the sustainability of healthcare in one of the fastest growing regions of our province. These projects are essential to meeting the government's goal of modernizing Ontario's health system and they will help end hallway medicine. While the current facilities have served my riding well for the last 60 years, both are housed in overcrowded buildings without dated systems. In Collingwood, the General Marine Building is beyond reuse. Its deficiencies are innumerable. It needs to be rebuilt on a new greenfield site. The emergency department at Stevenson was designed to serve 7,000 patients annually. It now sees close to 40,000 every year. The population of its service area will grow by almost 35% over the next decade. I would also like to point out that during my 30 years as an MPP, all of the hospitals surrounding my riding have either been extensively redeveloped or had new builds. To date, Stevenson Memorial has received stage one approval and has been given the green light to move to stage two. Collingwood Hospital is still waiting to hear on their stage one submission. Mr. Speaker, next week I hope all members will see fit to support my private members resolution in support of the hospitals in my riding. Thank you. Thank you very much. Member's statements. The member for Brantford-Brandt. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I apologize for the confusion. I rise today to recognize the truly amazing work and people from the Brantford Blessing Centre in my riding of Brantford-Brandt. During COVID-19, we have seen many exemplify the Ontario spirit. And when I think about my riding, the Brantford Blessing Centre is just another example of this. Speaker, since 1982, through a partnership and collaboration between 14 local churches and many volunteers, the Brantford Blessing Centre has not only acted as a food charity serving the poor and those in need with food for their bellies, but with food for their souls as well. The Brantford Blessing Centre is an effective, longstanding and necessary program in our community under the umbrella of Operation Blessing, an outreach program that provides aid to the poor and marginalized in various cities, including in Brantford. The Blessing Centre has become a well-known and safe place in Brantford for anyone to enjoy a hot meal, warmth, and fellowship. Six days each week, groups of dedicated volunteers prepare, cook, and serve food to those in need. When anyone walks into the Blessing Centre, they are greeted with friendly warmth, a hot meal, and the love of Jesus Christ. Pre-COVID-19, the Brantford Blessing Centre would serve roughly 1,700 people a month. And now during the pandemic, that number has climbed to 2,400 people. For those who wish to donate, fundraise, volunteer, or get involved with the Blessing Centre, please visit www.brantfordblessingcenter.org, backslash, get involved, or by calling<PHONE_NUMBER>. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the Member for Davenport. Mr. Speaker, while we collectively deal with the challenge of COVID-19, the climate crisis is looming. In my writing of Davenport, the impacts of a changing climate are increasingly felt year after year with flash flooding and damage to homes. But instead of fighting climate change and taking action to protect our communities, this government is taking things from bad to worse, shamefully using the cover of a public health emergency to hand over vast tracts of sensitive wetlands to developers. The recently tabled Budget Bill includes measures that weaken our conservation authorities, hindering their ability to fulfill their mandate to protect watersheds and communities, and issue my constituents are deeply concerned with. The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority has said that what is proposed in Bill 229, and I quote, would serve to diminish the effective integration of the legislative tools and undermine the ability of conservation authorities to meaningfully contribute to our collective responsibility for public safety and natural resource management. They also note that the amendments were encountered to the very recommendations of the government's own flood advisor. The work of the Conservation Authority directly impacts residents in my community, protecting them from the ravages of climate change and extreme weather. By continually putting the interests of developers and insiders ahead of the interests of ordinary people, this government is putting my community at risk. On behalf of the people of Davenport and the majority of Ontarians who want to see action on climate change, withdraw these harmful changes and work with us to protect our vital watersheds and our local communities. Thank you. Thank you very much. Member Statements. The member for Haldeman Norfolk. On February 28, 2006, the Douglas Creek Estate subdivision was occupied by force. Over the past 14 years, area people and their institutions of policing, justice and government have done everything in their power to right this wrong without success. The use of force is not rewarded in a democratic society. Although occupied, ownership of Douglas Creek Estate lies of the people of Ontario, a fact guaranteed by the rule of law courts and all three levels of government. Regrettably, defending the right for ownership of this subdivision has subjected my constituents on all sides of the issue to 14 years of violence, intimidation, lost economic activity and social disruption. In light of further blockades in this year's occupation of the Mackenzie Meadows subdivision, conjunctions have now been granted, in this case with the support of the Ontario government and dozens of arrests made which have resulted in court appearances. In Kuga court proceedings, Justice John Harper noted, there are several ways indigenous people can address their concerns through land claims tribunals, direct negotiations and getting involved in court cases. The federal government through Crown Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett has indicated its commitment to continuing to work collaboratively to address six nations' historical claims and federal issues. By addressing these issues, the federal government can bring resolve and clarity, not only to the members of six nations, also to my constituents. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements. The member for Chatham, Kent Leamington. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You know, for over 25 years, I traveled across Canada and the United States doing motivational speaking to many different business sectors, hoping to inspire them to lead better lives at work as well as at home. And I developed the reputation of being known as the Enter Trainer. But who would have ever thought that a worldwide pandemic would hit us? This pandemic has created stress, anger, frustration, loneliness, fear, anxiety, I could go on. But instead, I want to offer hope to those who need it. As bad as we may believe that our situations in life may seem, understand it could be worse. It's important to stay positive, especially during uncertain times. Don't focus on yourself. Rather, focus on the needs of others. You see, hope is to believe things will get better, especially when it seems otherwise. Hope helps people stay calm and peaceful when something less desirable emerges. Hope believes you will get through it. Hope remembers the times you made it through. Hope teams with faith and beliefs in the impossible. Here is an acrostic that I developed for hope. The H stands for help others. That actually helps you as well. The O, develop an optimistic heart.  The P stands for patience and perseverance, never give up. And the E stands for expect the best, prepare for the worst, and capitalize on whatever it results. Remember, you have been designed for accomplishment, engineered for success. You've been endowed with the seeds of greatness. You've been born to win. So friends, all I ask is that you think on these things. I believe it will make your life easier to cope. Hope will give you that belief. And oh, by the way, while you're at it, keep looking up. Thank you. Thank you very much. That concludes our member's statements for this morning. I understand the member for Sudbury has a point of order. Thank you, Speaker. I believe we have unanimous consent for the House to observe a moment of silence to acknowledge the passing of Sudbury's Alex Trebek. I want to say Speaker Alex was one of Sudbury's favorite sons. Like Sudbury, Alex was bilingual, humble about his success, and was best known for being friendly and polite. Thank you. The member for Sudbury is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to observe a moment of silence in memory of a great Canadian, Alex Trebek. Agreed? Agreed. Agreed. Thank you very much. Member for London West has informed me she has a point of order. Thank you very much, Speaker. I seek unanimous consent of the House for the official opposition to stand down our leads in question period. Member for London West is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to stand down the leads of the official opposition to lead questions. Agreed? Agreed. Heard some no's.


The book was co-authored with my wife, Kassil Dejeta, who is in the audience, so I have to get that out right, right off the bat. I'm not gonna try to summarize the book in five minutes, so I'm just gonna talk about the most central question that we ask in the book, which is, why is sex such a big deal for human beings? Why is it such a problem? We know it's a problem, right? Look in the newspapers, look on the TV, you see it's a problem everywhere we turn. So the standard narrative of human sexual evolution posits that since the beginning of time, men have been trading goods and services for sexual fidelity from the female, right? As a way of assuring their paternity, so their investment in these children is safe. They know it's my child that's getting this meat and this protection and this shelter and whatever it is that I'm investing. Now, if we evolved the way the standard narrative argues in these nuclear families, then we shouldn't be having a big problem with sex. What Cassilda and I argue in the book is that in fact, our ancestors evolved in the context of sperm competition, which will not be an event at this year's Olympics. I just wanna make sure everyone understands. Sperm competition refers to when the, let's say the field of battle on which men struggle for the access to females for the right or the ability to fertilize a female and pass their genes on is shifted from the individual male to the sperm cells. So the field of battle moves from the outer world that we all live in to the woman's reproductive tract. If several different males have sex with any given female in an ovulatory cycle, the sperm cells themselves will battle out to see who gets to which genes go on into the future. In the chart here, you can see very briefly, I won't talk about too much here, but you can see on the right side of the chart, you've got gorillas, orangutans and gibbons which are not promiscuous breeders. Look at the size of those testicles and look where they are, they're inside their body.  Sorry if there are any gorillas in the audience, I just, it's true. On the other hand, you've got promiscuous breeders like chimps, bonobos and human beings if you follow our logic, who have much larger testicles. The testicles of chimps and bonobos are roughly the size of AAA chicken eggs. Obviously humans aren't quite up to chicken egg standards but our penis, good news, is the longest and thickest of any of the primates. So these are anatomical indications of sperm competition in our past. Another indication is behavioral. Look at human sexuality, look at how wasteful it is. Our sex act to birth ratio is about 1,000 to one. For those of you whose ratio is under 1,000 to one, other people in the room are making up for you, don't worry about it. The gorillas sex act to birth ratio is about 10 or 15 to one at best, right? And that's more typical of mammals. Mammals generally don't have sex unless the female's ovulating because it's dangerous.  So biologically it doesn't make sense to be having all this sex.   So what's going on? The point is that we evolved not to have sex be primarily about reproduction. Human sexuality is primarily about establishing and maintaining complex social networks. That's what human sexuality is about. That's what bonobo sexuality is about. That's what dolphin sexuality is about. So this is something that's common in highly intelligent, highly social species. So it's not as radical an idea as it may seem. Now we see in fashion, what does that look like to you? To me, that looks like swollen chimpanzee genitalia, okay? Maybe that's just me. And it's not isolated in 19th century British fashion, either, this is the butt bra. What is going on here?  Tell me we're not animals. Okay, and if the chart was a little dry for you, here you have the gorilla, the bonobo, and the Italian. The Italian, I have to tell you, I have 47 seconds left, quick story. The Italian is a good friend of ours who lives in India. And I always say in presentations, oh, he'll never know, right? A few days ago he sent me an email, he said, I watched your presentation in Australia, you used my picture! It's fine, it's fine. Anyway, he's obviously closer to the bonobo than he is to the gorilla, that's all I'm saying. The final thought I wanna leave you with is that our book does not argue, and I'm not here today to argue that long-term sexual monogamy is a mistake. What I'm trying to say is that it's like vegetarianism. It can be ethical, it can be healthy, it can be wonderful for the environment, it can be great in so many different ways, but the fact that you've chosen to be a vegetarian does not mean bacon suddenly stops smelling good. Thank you.


Seriously, where are my taxpayer dollars going if my kids kindergarten teacher has to buy her own supplies ask us for donations But somehow we have fancy business districts coming up in the same areas where public schools are struggling the conversation comm Didn't investigation into 10,300 city budgets and whoa at two words for you tax Abatements it's a giveaway that cities do to attract economic development, but it ends up being that Corporations don't have to pay property tax, but who needs the money that comes from these property taxes public schools I'm paying higher property taxes for a good school district, but that's not where the money is going Kansas City, Missouri $1,700 per student diverted from public schools in East Baton Rouge That means a very classroom doesn't have a playground. They do have a cement slab for recess, but Exxon mobile has received nearly $600 million in tax abatements Atlanta public schools have a teacher shortage students without housing But somehow the city is giving nearly a hundred million dollars of tax abatements to corporations But here's the kicker the majority of these corporations will tell you they would have picked these locations anyway Even without these special tax breaks same thing is going on around the country probably where you live So to find out more go to the conversation comm


Okay, so the question, will there be a boom when in last year there's a lot of talk about whether the decade ahead We're gonna see a return to the so-called roaring twenties and the sun ruining class analysts said well You know tens of millions of people died a century ago with the Spanish flu epidemic And then afterwards you had very strong economic growth or at least you did in the USA And they say so perhaps the decade ahead will look very similar And this is actually what the CEO of Barclays said to the World Economic Forum at Davos early this year It's clearly very superficial kind of thinking. It's really very very wishful thinking But he was he was answered by HSBC senior economic advisor He said well, yes the 1920s did roar for some, you know It was the rich at the top the great Gatsby types and so on but they actually all entered in tears in 1929 with the Wall Street crash and the Great Depression. So be careful what you wish for Now it's true that there's definitely a rebound in the economy across the world Overall, the world economy is expected to grow by six percent this year following a three point two percent drop last year And that's such lots of people at the top are getting very excited about a return to kind of so-called prosperity And there's this idea that once the pandemic is over or at least under control around much of the world Economic growth is again going to skyrocket due to the unleashing of what they call this pent-up demand Now it's true that there is a significant amount of this pent-up demand that's come about as a result of the pandemic It's thought that during the first year of the pandemic alone There's a layer of people around the world who combined save a total of an extra five point four trillion dollars Which amounts to six percent of world GDP? now of course that's extremely uneven like most of this was saved by the richest layers around the world and it's primarily in the advanced capitalist countries But it's true that as economies open back up from the pandemic You know a layer of some portion of this money has indeed and will be spent So whereas last year many economists were worrying themselves about the prospects for a deep depression across the world Now many are worried about the economy going too far the other way. They're worried about it overheating Now there's many factors behind this Not least the huge stimulus packages that have been enacted by governments around the world Essentially to keep the system from collapsing It's these are totaled over sixteen and a half trillion dollars so far Not much of this money was effectively just simply created by central banks through what they call quantitative easing Are you it's effectively created out of nothing? It's really the modern equivalent of simply just printing more money and it amounts to what we understand as fictitious capital I guess money or currency with with no real value behind it to actually back it up So for example in in the USA the m2 money supply increased by four trillion dollars over the course of 2020 Which is a 26% increase, which I think is unprecedented now at the same time There's significant supply blockages across the world economy due to a whole range of factors including you know a mix of Disruption to production seeing factories having to shut down due to lockdowns and also now more recently due to energy price rises The supply chain bottlenecks due to worker shortages, you know, we've seen the increasing demand that's outstripping Supply in or productive capacity in a number of different industries So for example most obvious is the semiconductor industry. There's been some chemicals plastics and other things You only really have to go into a supermarket today to see the effects of all this kind of empty shelves are now kind of the norm and This really all together is a recipe for massive inflation Are you a generalized increase in prices? Since there's now a much higher effective demand chasing a limited supply of goods Now already inflation in the USA has jumped to over 4% which is the highest level since 2008 Prices of some something so like steel shipping rates as a semiconductors Now energy have all risen very dramatically and of course There's been a massive inflation of things like speculative assets things like shares on the stock exchange Cryptocurrencies real estate these kind of things Now there's some including kind of the US Federal Reserve who are saying that you know, don't worry This is all gonna just be temporary and that it's inevitable for prices to rise after such a shock like the pandemic Which actually saw prices of a number of commodities actually fall across the world But there's another Another layer of economists such as Larry Summers who was a former kind of US Secretary of the Treasury Who actually sounding the alarm about this runaway inflation Now his real worry which has echoed by many across the financial press is that into the cure to this inflation Will actually be far worse than the disease itself So for example, if we have really high inflation It's going to require central banks to step in and increase or significantly increase interest rates in order to try and Cool the economy down The problem is though that the world economy is hooked on ultra cheap credit on these are extremely low interest rates So for example, I think the base rate in Britain is 0.1 percent. It almost couldn't be lower Now millions of indebted households and companies will be tipped over the edge if they see their interest payments rise There's hundreds of thousands of zombie companies across the world Which would be made bankrupt by such a move and of course money would then flood out of things like the stock exchange And these other speculative bubbles into safe havens including these you know massively inflated bubbles to burst Now overall, we can't say exactly how these things will pan out. We of course don't have a crystal ball But what we can says that the world economy is an extremely complex system You know it's conditioned by all sorts of factors coming together including and not least political decisions and of course, you know, how the pandemic continues to unfold as well It's still much a very kind of unknown quantity We can clearly see a rebound is taking place to a degree across the world But there are many warning signs that things are already beginning to slow down So for example, the number of new jobs that were created in the USA recently has come in well below expectations There's the slowdown of the the Chinese economy, which is actually not not something new but has been taking place over years There's the impending default of property developer ever grand in China, which has the potential there to snowball into a major crisis There's also the energy crisis in Europe, which is already causing heavy industries to shut down and it's going to tip millions of people into further poverty For us though, the real question is what is the nature of the period that we're in and where is capitalism heading? Will there be a boom like in the period after World War two or things going to look more like the interwar period with stagnation and decline? And flowing from that, what impact will this have on the consciousness of the classes and what will it mean for the development of the class struggle? I think to answer this, it's not enough to look at just simply the kind of the most recent developments But as Marxist, we take the longer view of history and we have to try and understand the nature of crises or of cycles under capitalism And also why capitalism goes into crises and also how it gets out of one Now it's worth bringing in here a concept developed by Leon Trotsky in the early 1920s Where he discussed something called the curve of capitalist development Now he introduces that speech to the communist international. It was at the third Congress in 1921 And at that time there was still a fairly large kind of ultra left layer within the international I kind of just thought that the First World War was somewhat automatically just bring about a final crisis of capitalism And they thought that all the contradictions of capitalism were brought to the surface by the war and that The crisis that followed this would kind of just automatically lead to the collapse of the system and the victory of the world revolution Now it's true that the war did indeed result in a serious crisis for capitalism And it led to the working class taking power in Russia as we all know There were revolutions on mass movements across Europe including in Germany, Italy and even Britain But it was due to the betrayal of these movements by the reformist leaders of the working class mass Organizations in these countries that capitalism was able to kind of stabilize itself and recover Now that at that time there was a lot of excitement within the ruling class about the prospects for a new boom at that time And that led to some confusion within the communist movement Some people were thinking well is this it then you know is that it are our perspectives for revolution shattered You know if we're about to experience a new boom Does that mean this there's kind of revolutions off the cards and Trotsky answered by pointing out well Capitalism doesn't develop just in a kind of simple straight line But actually develops in a zigzag manner through kind of continual ups and downs and that the fact that the economy was experiencing a revival Was of course providing this this basis for these apologists of capitalism to think that everything was going back to normal And the capitalism would develop helpfully from then on but Trotsky pointed out and I quote that it was otherwise in reality He said the fact that capitalism continues to oscillate cyclically after the war merely signifies that capitalism is not yet dead That we're not yet dealing with a corpse He said so long as capitalism is not overthrown by the proletarian revolution. It will continue to live in cycles swinging up and down Crisis and booms were inherent and capitalism is very birth and they will accompany it to his grave Be concluded to determine capitalism's age and its general condition To establish whether it's still developing or whether it's matured and whether it's in decline One must character Characterized the character of the cycles once I'm almost diagnosed the character of the cycles The key point though that he was getting is that these cycles of boom and slump are intrinsic to the capitalist system But as well as the kind of normal cyclical movement of the economy through these kind of boom and bust cycles You know what is typically referred to as the business cycle The system as a whole ends up going through different phases That these short-term oscillations sit on top of a much broader long-term curve Which indicates the nature of the epoch that capitalism is in Which is one of either general assent stagnation or decline And now this has important political consequences He developed this argument in a later letter where he developed the concept of the curve of capitalist development in more detail And he points out that if you only had the periodic repetition of the business cycle Capitalism will simply go around in circles. You know, there'll be no development But in reality you find periods in capitalism's history where the boom periods are stronger than the slumps So despite these ups and downs the curve of development is generally going upwards And these correspond to periods in history where the productive forces in society are being developed Are either there's like more factories are being built the productivity of labor is being increased You know society is generally moving forwards But likewise if the booms cancel out the slumps you have a period of stagnation And if the destruction of the slumps is greater than the upturn in the booms then the system as a whole is in decline Trotsky pointed out that of course the business cycles themselves do have an important bearing on politics Are you things like unemployment wages the revenues of the of the ruling class the state budget and so on All these things are conditioned by whether the economy is undergoing a boom or a bust And also at what point along the cycle the system is in And that ultimately these developments will find a reflection in the rise and fall of different political formations So for example, it's not by accident that the Tory coalition that came to power in 2010 You're soon after the 2008 crash enacted a massive program of austerity But as well as these cyclical developments, you would expect to find significant developments in the what we call the superstructure of capitalism So things like kind of politics, law, philosophy, culture and so on And he said that these differences would also correspond to the different kind of longer term epochs of capitalism Of either kind of upswing stagnation or decline Now, of course, this is an extremely complex relationship by no means a rigid or direct or mechanical one And Trotsky's also stressed that it is in the transition between these different epochs That you tend to find the greatest convulsions within the class struggle and also between the states Now this this was the point he was trying to stress to the communist international That you know despite the temporary ups and downs that the economy was experiencing after the war That capitalism was actually transitioning to a new epoch of one of decline And actually this would have significant implications for this class struggle and for prospects for revolution And actually in hindsight you consider this was indeed born out And you consider the revolutionary crisis in Germany in 1923 Or the chinese revolution of 1925 to 27 The british general strike of 1926 The wall street crash of 1929 and the great depression Or the rise of the nazis in germany the spanish revolution in the 1930s And the explosion of the class struggle in the usa The fact that none of these events resulted in the working class taking power in any of these countries Was ultimately due to the failed policies of the leadership of the working class And also the disastrous impact of the starland's degeneration of the communist international But that of course is beyond the scope really of this lead of Now as well as answering the ultra lefts in the communist international Trotsky also explicitly in his 1923 letter on the curve of capitalist development He also set out to counter the ideas of soviet economist nikolai kondratiev and his theory of long waves Which was being picked up by many at that time Now kondratiev was one of these so-called red professors Who was ultimately someone who was like a fellow traveler of the revolution And he was very sympathetic To the revolution but someone who never really absorbed the method of marxism dialectical materialism Now kondratiev put forward the argument that as well as the regular business cycles that capitalism goes through Which you see on average every kind of seven to 11 years or so There existed longer 50 year cycles of what he called waves Now it is true that if you look back throughout history you can observe distinct periods within capitalism each of their own character So for example the period of 1894 to 1914 was one of profound upswing where the productive forces were being developed And it was this really that provided the the basis for the reformist degeneration of the second international In contrast the period of 1915 to 39 was one of decline and depression Reflected an extremely turbulent period politically with wars revolutions and counter revolutions 1945 to 74 though was the the greatest upswing in capitalism's history with the post war boom Which came to an end with the crisis in the mid 70s Now of course kondratiev had pointed out the existence of such different epochs in the history of capitalism And I think that such epochs exist is pretty much beyond dispute Although of course a lot of people don't agree on the exact timings on the on the turning points between these epochs But that really doesn't doesn't matter The point that what kondratiev was attempting to do though Was just trying to explain the existence for these epochs as being the product of a 50 year cycle of investment And he tried to draw a parallel between marx's analysis of the business cycle and apply it to these longer periods in history Now marx explained how the mechanism for the kind of average business cycle of capitalism Is conditioned in part by the periodic reinvestment of fixed capital Which in marx's time took approximately 10 years or so Now kondratiev took this idea and he tried to then kind of explain the existence of these kind of 50 year Cycles as being determined by what he argued was the replacement and incrementation of something called the basic capital fund Which he said consisted of the capital required to invest in big industrial installations and major infrastructure Now he argued that The replacement of such a fund was not a continuous process but occurred in big leaps And this was though something he never actually explained but only really asserted Now this actually bears very little relation to how investments and innovations really take place under capitalism It's not true that this a large capital fund simply exists, which requires decades to to build up and replace In reality the renovation of capital takes place all the time and this is necessary due to depreciation You know not only due to machines kind of physically wearing out but also due to them becoming obsolete You know the bosses can't wait decades to replace their machinery if their competitors Invest in more productive machinery themselves Now one of the reasons I mentioned kondratiev Is that his ideas still pop up from time to time today? There's actually a whole industry of investment fund managers who attempt to use his theories in order to guide their investments And in order to try and predict the exact timings of beams and slumps But there's also some of the reformists left. You still see his ideas getting an echo For example, Paul Mason in his book post capitalism He said that we should be about to experience a new upswing of capitalism because a fifth kondratiev wave is due Although he said actually to his credit that this is stalled He said because workers wages and organizations are so downtrodden that kapless have no incentive to invest in new technology But instead rely on super exploiting the working class But you know kondratiev's ideas are popular amongst kapless and reformists alike Since if you actually take them to their conclusion They imply that capitalism will always recover to healthy conditions of boom that no matter how severe a crisis It doesn't mean that capitalism needs overthrowing since good times are kind of automatically just around the corner Because another long wave is just about to arrive Now to answer this it's very useful to contrast kondratiev's method of analysis with that of of the marxist one And as I said kondratiev was sympathetic to the revolution But he never really absorbed the method of marxism His whole method was what we call formalism and reductionism I need to put forward a more or less arbitrary hypothesis on the basis of a few selected facts And then attempt to justify it by kind of selecting the data that fits Now he also treated the kapless system as effectively a simple linear system which operates in a mechanical fashion And implicit in this is the idea that there's some kind of natural equilibrium to which the system strives Now by contrast the method of marxism attempts to avoid putting forward kind of sweeping generalizations a priori Are yes the result of kind of pure thought or abstraction Instead marxist attempt to get a full picture of what is going on around us from all the available data And then by careful examination draw out the general processes and laws Now on the question of kapless equilibrium Trotsky pointed out that and I quote from him again Kapless equilibrium is an extremely complex phenomenon Kapless and produces this equilibrium Disrupts it and when stores it anew in order to disrupt it anew Concurrently extending the limits of its domination And in the economic sphere these constant disruptions and restorations of the equilibrium take the shape of crises and booms In the sphere of interclass relations the disruption of the equilibrium assumes the form of strikes lockouts and revolutionary struggle In the sphere of interstate relations The disruption of equilibrium means war or in a weaker form tariff wars economic wars or blockades He concluded capitalism thus possesses a dynamic equilibrium one which is always in the process of either disruption or restoration So that rather than being a simple linear system capitalism is a chaotic system One that means through events such as crises class struggle and revolution Now Trotsky of course mentioned that capitalism goes through different historical periods Where the productive forces are either being developed stagnates or decline But he denied that these had a cyclical character i.e. that the result of a repeated mechanical process Simply linked to an investment cycle Instead he pointed out that there were the product of a whole range of circumstances Many of which were not in fact economic but political Now it's true that marxists have always asserted that in the final analysis The development of the productive forces is decisive in conditioning the historical process But marx and engels were also at pains to stress that this doesn't mean that we're crude economic determinants That everything is just simply reduced to economics And that the relationship between the economic base and the kind of superstructure of society You know things like politics ideology law culture and so on It's as i said, it's not a simple one-way mechanical process But it's a very complex and dialectical one And in many cases the political structure superstructure can we actually react back on the economic base Either speeding up its development or holding it back according to what policies are pursued So you consider for example that the stultifying effect of the catholic church on the economy of feudal europe Or even today the policies of the torii parties such as brexit Which from the standpoint of british big business is an absolute disaster Or consider even the torii's handling of the pandemic, you know, which is is resulting in absolutely economic chaos Events as well such as wars, military conquests, scientific discoveries And even accidents can play a role in shaping the development of an economy These things are not determined by a repeating 50 year cycle of investment But they develop according to a whole range of overlapping factors For example, it's not possible to explain wars and revolutions by simple economic reductionism Take for example the first world war It was impossible to tell exactly how it would play out in advance And it dramatically shaped the character of the economy and politics in the aftermath Now it's worth here. I think briefly explaining why does capitalism actually go into crisis and why are crises inevitable under capitalism? Now marx of course explain this in the three volumes of capital But you don't need to read capital in order to understand the fundamentals of capitalism's crises Look at what marx and engels said in the communist manifesto They explained that the conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth that's created by them So it's clear here. They're talking about a crisis of overproduction Which is a crisis where too many things are produced and let's be clear It's not too many things produced to satisfy people's needs That's of course not the case but too many things to be profitably absorbed by the market And this is inevitable under capitalism since production is only for profit That leads us to ask well, where does profit come from? Well, as marx explained the amount of value that you produce as a worker Is not at all the same amount of value that you're paid in your wages Instead you receive enough to keep you alive at a certain standard of living Which actually for millions of the working class around the world is barely enough to just keep you alive Therefore the working class has only paid a fraction of the value that it produces The risk goes a surplus value to the ruling class in the form of profit interests and rent The problem is though that the capitalist can only realise this profit if they actually sell what is produced Therefore there must be a market for these commodities But if workers are only paid a fraction of the value that they create Where will the demand come from on the market to buy back all these commodities? You know, there's clearly a big gap You could ask well, if that's the case then why isn't capitalism permanently in crisis if there's always this shortfall? Well, there's several ways around this for the capitalists Firstly, if their market at home is insufficient They can just export their commodities abroad Such as done by capitalists today in in china or germany for example But of course that doesn't really solve the problem It just kind of shifts it around the world because not all countries can be net exporters Now secondly the capitalist themselves use a part of the surplus Produced by the working class in order to reinvest back in expanding production So for also a lot of the demand comes from you know the capitalist buy more machines more buildings infrastructure and so on So but in order for the capitalist to actually kind of use these more these new means of production and use them profitably They of course ultimately have to use them to produce more commodities Which actually then again just sets up this problem, but on an even higher level The main way they get out of the problem is to try and use credit Which is really to I try and artificially expand the purchasing power of people today But of course it comes at the cost of of restricting it tomorrow because of course credit has to be paid back and paid back with interest So over the time this contradiction builds up, you know, you see goods going on sold companies going bust Credit drying up and at a certain state a general crisis will break out Now this phenomenon of overproduction is key to understanding all crises under capitalism Especially that the the crisis of the 1930s Because the depression wasn't like the normal kind of boom and bust cycles that had gone on before it Although there were partial recoveries throughout that decade, you know capitalism continued to breathe as Trotsky put it They didn't restore things to their previous condition. So you had persistently high unemployment throughout that decade and investment levels remained low It's what we refer to as an organic crisis of capitalism It's a product of the fact that capitalism was no longer able to develop the productive forces in the way that it could do in the past And the constraints of private ownership of the productive forces and the nation's state had become massive barriers to the further development of capitalism And as such the curve of capitalist development had reached downward phase and it was reflected in the extremely turbulent period political developments of that period Now there was enormous overproduction on the world scale Which couldn't kind of easily be eliminated without an enormous amount of destruction of the productive forces And this really was a recipe for huge conflict between the classes And also clashes between nations in the struggle to re-establish a new economic equilibrium But as Lenin Trotsky also explained there's no final crisis of capitalism until it's consciously overthrown by the working class And until that happens, it's true capitalism will always get out of a crisis The question though is yes, but what cost? Now let's be clear It wasn't the Keynesian policies of Roosevelt's new deal that ended the great depression But it was in fact the impact of world war two Which involved the destruction of whole continents and tens of millions of people being killed Had a similar effect to a deep economic slump where the excess Productive capacity of the productive forces is wiped out Now as this that cleared the ground for the post-war boom Which was the longest and most powerful of upswings in capitalism's history And therefore the organic crisis of the 1930s had been transformed into its opposite, which was one of a profound boom But it's important to remember though that that boom was only made possible due to the role played by the reformist And the Stalinists at the end of world war two Who actually scuppered the potential of the revolutionary wave which swept Europe and a lot of the world at the end of that war That's they created the political conditions for capitalism to be able to restabilize itself So it wasn't due to any long wave that saw this prolonged period of upswing following the war As Ted Grant, who was one of the founders of the IMT explained at that time The post-war boom came about due to a whole range of factors coming together And significant among these was the massive increase in world trade Due to the international balance of forces that emerged from the war There was enormous scope for profitable investment rising from the reconstruction In order to kind of rebuild from the devastation of the war But also to invest in All sorts of new discoveries so technologies that have been discovered during the war You know things like investing in chemicals, plastics, nuclear weapons and so on nuclear power There was also the elements of nationalization and planning that had been kind of brought in during the war out of necessity But were kept on or even extended after the war itself And there were other political considerations For example, the USA was forced under the threat of revolution to effectively banquet Western Europe through martial aid And as such capitalism saw high levels of investment, you know high growth rates and a strong development of world trade in this period And it's considered in hindsight the golden age of capitalism You know things like full employment, decent welfare states, at least in the advanced capitalist countries And it was that that profoundly shaped the consciousness of millions of people who lived through it Because many came to believe that capitalism could in fact kind of be made to work for them However, of course, this could not last forever. You know as Marx explained overproduction is inherent in the system So even if an element of balance is is achieved between different sections of the economy It inevitably produces a greater imbalance on a higher scale further down the line So it was actually the very strength of the development under the post world boom Which created the conditions for a massive crisis to break out And this is eventually what happened with the worldwide crisis that broke to the surface in 1973 to 74 And the result of that was mass unemployment, a huge upturn in class struggle And even revolutionary developments in a number of countries including Greece, Portugal and Spain However, as before capitalism was allowed to limp on due to the conduct of the reformists and Stalinist leaders In the in the labor movements of various countries Capitalism then restabilized itself in the 80s and 90s kind of due to a whole range of factors Chiefly among them, I think with the wholesale attacks against the working class in order to restore profitability So you know by things like smashing the trade unions driving down wages and conditions And this was combined with the opening up of massive areas for profitable investment Due to the privatization of most of state-owned companies across the world And significantly you saw the collapse of Stalinism in the USSR in Eastern Europe And also the opening up of China to the market which gave capitalism a certain breathing spell All the while there was actually a massive increase in credit So both government corporate and household which served to kind of extend capitalism to its very limits But the very factors that drove this expansion forward Inevitably turned into the opposite at a certain point You know the credit that helped drive this boom forward became a suffocating barrier when this actually reached its limits And the system entered into crisis in 2008 And ever since then the system has kind of more or less stagnated With you know various mines minor ups and downs, of course But rates of growth have kind of hovered around the 2% level for the advanced capitalist countries since then And productivity stagnated or even declined in much of the world All the while debt levels continued to go up and up to absolutely eye-watering levels And tensions between nations increased you know with the development of protectionist tendencies Now I said the pandemic has served to accelerate many of these processes which were already kind of in development before And all of the contradictions of the system have really been brought to the surface There's been a further explosion of debt as governments around the world have rushed to bail out the system As well as as I mentioned the colossal amounts of fictitious capital that's been pumped into the economy Which brings us back to what Trotsky said about the curve of capitalist development Is that despite capitalism's ups and downs, so the key thing is to determine capitalism age and its general condition To establish whether it's still developing or whether it's matured or whether it's in decline And I think it's clear that despite the current uptick in the world economy I think the system as a whole is profoundly sick So although production can't keep up with demand for some commodities The general picture overall is is still one of profound overproduction This is evidenced by the fact that capacity utilization in the advanced capitalist countries Hovers between 75 percent in the usa 83 percent in the euro area, but as low as 60 percent in russia And if you take steel which is one of the most important commodities in the whole global economy There's an estimated excess capacity of 606 million metric tons Worldwide which which is actually three times the eu's total steel making capacity And they would take decades to absorb all this steel profitably on the market So we're therefore continuing to see very low levels of investment in the economy Which really is the main engine for for growth under capitalism as fields for profitable investment are still very few and far between If you take britain for example business investment is still 13 percent below where it was before the pandemic These are not the conditions for a profound upswing of capitalism as experienced in the post world boom I'll say that they're rather the conditions of capitalism in its senile decay So whilst capitalism is experienced a rebound after the pandemic We shouldn't expect this to last No, of course capitalism will continue to move in ups and downs But the overall curve of development will likely be a continuation of what we've seen since 2008 Which is one of overall stagnation or even decline Now I think we can say for sure that we're not about to experience a new roaring twenties No, condrative wave is going to come and magically save the world economy And all of this is going to have profound consequences for the class struggle As Trotsky pointed out in the 1920s All the attempts by the ruling class to try and restore the economic economic equilibrium Will have the effect of disrupting the social equilibrium And you can see this already governments are placing the bill for the pandemic onto the shoulders of the working class I mean bosses are driving down wages through tactics such as fire and rehire And inflation is increasingly going to eat away at workers living standards But already we're seeing the beginnings of a backlash In britain tens of thousands of people joined trade unions over the past year as workers are forced into struggle In the usa we've seen what's being referred to as strike tober this month with over 100 000 workers voting for strike action this month alone There's many more examples from all over the world that I don't have time to list But the important point is that the period we're in is one of upheaval turbulence and stormy class battles And now this isn't new, you know, this is we've already experienced a decade of crisis and austerity And that has already led to a deep politicization Like deep polarization and radicalization around the world There's a whole generation now that has grown up knowing nothing except capitalism and crisis And this has an important bearing on the development of consciousness You know, it's not an accident that communism and marxism have viewed increasingly favorably by the younger generations And this fact has the ruling class extremely worried In the years ahead millions of workers are going to be forced to enter into struggle And already they're coming up against the limits of the reformist leadership in the labor movement Who are being put to test on the basis of events In one way or another millions will be forced to draw the conclusion That there's no way forward on the basis of capitalism And so the conditions are being prepared for revolution in all countries of the world Really it's our task therefore to prepare for these tumultuous events In order that when these mass movements do break out The working class can find the necessary ideas and organization Required to put an end to capitalism and begin the worldwide socialist revolution So I say join us in that task and together we can change the world


Hello and welcome to the session. Let us understand the following question which says find 1.3 multiplied by 10. Now let's proceed on to the solution. When a decimal number is multiplied by 100,000 then digits in the product remain the same. So we write here 1.3 multiplied by 10 is equal to 1.3 because digits remain the same. But the decimal point in the product shift to write by as many number of places as there are zero. So there are 10 so it shifts to one place. Therefore the product will be 13.0. Hence the required answer is 13. I hope you understood this question. Bye and have a nice day.


What's going on everyone? Sam here with Leighton Sports Guards. We are doing 21-22 Penini Donner's Optic Basketball Choice 5 box break number 6 random team style. Here is a look again at your random results. As always you can find these links in chat as well as on the results tab of the website. Here we go guys. Let's do it. Numero uno. So we're looking for one auto per box. We're looking for one choice exclusive as well as one like numbered card usually to 88. I guess sometimes they might be numbered to eight as well. I know they do that in prism choice but I'm not a hundred percent. I've not seen a green come out of here yet. Jalen Johnson. Hello rookie. Got nice. Chris Duarte on the optographs. Going to the Pacers. It's got Indiana. That would be Michael T. Congrats Michael. Nice hit there man. Love the Chris. Love Chris Duarte's game. Got Ben Simmons. That is the choice exclusive going to the Sixers followed by Tyrese Halliburton. That is 69 out of 88 going to the Kings. And we've got Trey Murphy the third and Kessler Edwards. That is Pelicans and Nets. Box number two. Terrence Mann on the hollow or autograph is going to be legend. That is Tony Allen. Congrats on that one there. Celtics. Defense legend. And who's got this team. Dude this is a combo hit. This is nasty this next one. We've got going to Derek J with the sons in the combo. How about a dragon scale. Devon Booker. Boom. Let's go dude. That's nasty. Devon Booker on the super short printed dragon scale. There you go Derek. You've got nice. How about Steph Curry 68 out of 88 going to the Warriors. Congrats Golden State. Nam cue. Mariners kind of are America's team for us. I agree with you there. We've got nice. Scotty Barnes rookie. That's going to the Raptors. Now there's Jeff saying go Mariners. Joshua Primo for the Spurs on the rookie as well. Nice ones there. All right we got Isaac Acoro Hollow autograph. Lamar Odom. There you go. Congrats on that one. Lakers. Tony Allen and Lamar Odom on our auto. Some legends going up there. Nice. Got Lonzo Ball. Nice one there. Congrats. Bowls on the choice exclusive. I believe that's Eric W. Yep Eric W with the Lonzo. Got ring forbs 41 out of 88. That's going to the Spurs on your mojo exclusive. Got Trayman rookie and Isaiah Todd rookie both going to the I don't know we got Isaiah Todd to the Wizards and Trayman going with Thunder. Thanks Jake. This year's team destiny could be. They have to have like a moment though for us. You know what I mean? They have to have like a dignified moment. That's all good for us. I already anticipated the worst. So we're the are we the only AL East team in the playoffs right now. Wow. Got Santee Aldema rookie auto is going to be James Booknight. There you go. Congrats on that one. Charlotte. Shane. Is it the me Yankees or Mets? Got to be the Yankees. Shane. Got to be the Yankees baby. James Booknight with the Hornets. That is going to Peter R. You've got Dragon Scale Isaac Okoro on the shorter prints. There you go. Congrats on that cabs. That is Harper B. Nice. Jason Tatum 72 out of 88 going to the Celtics. We've got rookies Charles Bassey and Kai Jones. I guess that's true. That's a good point. That's a good point for us. Good point. So is an eight run comeback. Okay. Also true. Yep. They're the team of destiny this year. You just proved me wrong. They are the team of destiny this year. Absolutely. We've got Colin Sexton. Hello. Paul Pressey. That's cool. Is that a Nebula? Yeah. We got a Nebula. Ooh. We got a Nebula. So nasty dude. Let's go. Paul Pressey going to the Bucks. It's a it's pretty solid honestly. We got Davey on Mitchell going to the Kings and we've got a Nebula. Who's got them? Ryan B. D'Angelo Russell. Oh dude. That's so I love Nebulas. They're so freaking cool man. So that's so nasty. Let's go. We got Sharif Cooper and Isaiah Livers on the rookie. Let's do a quick recap man. That was a good break. That was a really solid break right there. All right. We've got Isaac Acoro, Dragon Scale. Paul Pressey for the Bucks. Lamar Odom Lakers. Tony Allen Celtics. Chris Duarte for the Pacers. James Book Knight going to the Hornets. We had Devin Booker on the Dragon Scale. Not numbered. Super short print or a short print. I mean we pulled three in ten boxes. So probably just a short print at this point. And then how about the Devin Booker. D'Angelo Russell. One-of-one Nebula. Congrats again on that one. That is Ryan B. with the Timberwolves. That'll do it for the break there guys. Thanks again for the fail. Next up NT Basketball. Let's get it rocking and rolling.