The ‘Tariff and Taxation’ plank from the Communist Party’s 1928 national election program.

‘Tariff and Taxation’ from The Platform of the Class Struggle: 1928 National Platform of the Workers (Communist) Party. Workers Library, New York, 1928.

Tariff and Taxation.

The propaganda agencies of the bosses are spreading the fallacy that the workers do not pay taxes. In reality the workers and working farmers are the classes of society which bear the burden of the bulk of all taxation.

Direct and indirect taxation and tariff revenues weigh down upon the shoulders of the working masses. The taxes are the basis of public expenditures. Public expenditures, however, are nothing but the costs of maintenance of the state apparatus of big business. The collection of taxes from the masses is a method by which the exploited are forced to pay the expenses for the upkeep of the system of exploitation and oppression.

Both parties of big business have been vying with each other for years to lighten as much as possible the burden of taxation for the big capitalists, transferring the burden of taxation to the backs of the workers and exploited farmers. The various tax-reduction plans of the government have had only one signal aim: to cut the taxes of the rich and to cut even more the taxes of the richest. Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, who himself is one of the richest men in the country, is brazenly following the policy of cutting down the super-tax on high incomes, and declares that he is against tax exemption of low incomes, on the ground that the payment of taxes creates for people with low incomes “a sense of part ownership in the government.” The most outrageous privileges are enjoyed by the parasitic owners of federal, state and municipal securities. This rentier class, which is completely divorced from the process of production and whose only connection with industry is coupon-clipping, owns today no less than 16 billion dollars of such securities, which are wholly exempt from all taxation.

The most vicious form of indirect taxation is the tariff. The tariff raises the cost of living for the working class, and increases the price of industrial goods bought by the farmers. The United States has the highest tariffs in the world, despite the fact that the industries of this country are the most highly developed and enjoy the strongest position.

Trust monopoly and tariff go together. The chief function of tariff is to secure unlimited monopoly to the trusts. The tariff helps to exclude foreign competition. It makes it possible for the trusts to raise the prices of their products to the buyers of this country by an amount nearly equal to that of the tariff. At the same time it makes it possible for the trusts to sell their goods below cost price in foreign countries, thanks to the surplus profits they make in this country.

Trust monopoly and high tariff are the most dangerous factors working for new imperialist wars. The larger the territory “protected” by tariff the greater the amount of super-profit. The trust monopolies, therefore, have a tendency to expand the territory of the United States, to occupy new regions.

The high tariff wall around this country forces the other countries likewise to “protect” themselves by tariff walls. This hinders or even prevents the export of American products to other countries. But accumulation of capital is going on with increasing speed, and American big business, instead of exporting goods, is exporting capital on an ever-greater scale. The next step is again the “defense” of the investments of American bankers in foreign countries. A strong army and a “second to none” navy are necessary. War threats, war danger, and wars are the order of the day. The “protective,” “defensive” tariff is in reality the most offensive weapon in the hands of big business.

The tariff policy of both parties of big business exposes the emptiness and unprincipledness of their so-called struggle against each other. The republican party was originally the party of tariff, because it represented the growing manufacturing interests of the North. The democratic party was originally the party against tariff, because it expressed the interests of the large plantation owners of the South. But with the change in economic conditions both parties are altering their positions on tariff. The industrialization of the South has created a section of the democrats to come out as advocates of high tariff. On the other hand, the international bankers of the North who have invested billions in Europe and are afraid that Europe will not be able to pay her debts if sha can not export industrial products to this country, are now in favor of the lowering or abolition of the tariff and are making their influence felt more and more in the high councils of the republican party which they dominate.

The interests of the working class are against high tariff. At the same time it would be an illusion to think that “free trade” would be a permanent relief for the toiling masses.

Free trade under capitalist conditions is as much a capitalist institution as high tariff.

Demands.

1. Abolition of all indirect taxes.

2. Exemption from all kinds of taxation for all wage-earners.

3. Tax-exemption for all working and exploited farmers.

4. Graduated income tax, starting with incomes above $5,000 and increasing gradually, so that all incomes over $25,000 per year are confiscated.

5. All tax exemptions on bonds, stocks and securities must be abolished.

6. All tax-exemptions on bonds, taxes on great fortunes must be introduced.

7. Tariff on all necessities of the working class and on all goods used by the farmers must be abolished

Workers Library Publishers replaced Daily Workers Publishers as the main pamphlet printing house of the Communist Party in 1927. International Publishers was originally meant to translate works into English, but became the CP’s main book publisher.

Access to full pamphlet: https://palmm.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/ucf%3A5310/datastream/OBJ/download/The_platform_of_the_class_struggle__National_platform_of_the_Workers__communist__party__1928.pdf