There is a new mood in the Canadian labour movement – the mood to resist. This was the propellant at the May CLC Convention, where incumbent president Ken Georgetti was narrowly defeated, and a groundswell replaced the inertia of rest with the demand for action. The winner, Hassan Yussuff, was successful after adopting the action program of Hassan Husseini and the “Take Back the CLC” movement which captured the discontent that has been maturing for years. The defeat of Georgetti, moving Hassan Yussuff to the helm, the re-election of Barb Byers and Marie Clark Walker, and adding prominent CUPW activist Donald Lafleur, was the delegate mandate for militant action.
In Ontario, following the dormancy of the Samuelson years, the OFL under the leadership of Sid Ryan displayed concretely what can be accomplished if labour takes the bull by the horns and implements independent political action. There is no doubt that the decisive defeat of the Hudak Tories in the Ontario election was due in large part to the campaigning and mobilization of the labour movement. This was not just a defeat for a political candidate, but for the reactionary agenda of the “Right‑to‑work” pro-corporate movement. The blow struck by Ontario labour will weaken the whole anti‑labour agenda. Nevertheless labour is under siege across the country. From the BC teachers to Québec municipal workers to the Nova Scotia nurses, the pattern is the same. The corporate sponsored attack on social programs, pensions, education and Medicare is an assault on those who provide and defend those programs. Labour must not rest to relish success. The Ontario fightback should be a game plan for a major defeat of the federal Tories in 2015.
The attack on workers which ushered in almost thirty years of relative wage stagnation in Canada was escalated after the 2008-09 recession, as the corporate elite escalated their offensive and plundered wages, working conditions, government treasuries and public property to refinance their own coffers and maintain their super‑profits. Under the guise of mutual necessity, they re‑tooled their manufacturing and replaced their bank accounts at taxpayers’ expense, put thousands out of work, forced concession bargaining and escalated the commodification of human lives and labour.
Preceding this attack, the disastrous “Free Trade” agreements led by NAFTA cost 557,000 jobs in manufacturing alone between 2002 and 2013. The current and more dangerous CETA pact with the European Union has been stalled by elements in the German Parliament balking at the complete corporate control and dispute mechanisms within it. This unfortunately is just a temporary respite.
The dedication of the Harper Tories to the corporate agenda is so complete that in 2008, to kick off the CETA negotiations, they co-hosted a meeting of Canadian and European corporations to set down a “wish list” around which to formulate the content of the giveaway. Of course at the time this was kept secret, but has emerged through the revelations of the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and several trade union research papers. CETA will effectively put the economic activities of all levels of government under the control of transnational corporations, governed by a corporate dispute mechanism residing outside the country, with more authority than Canadian courts and elected bodies. According to the clauses in NAFTA, it will have to be revised to ensure a level exploitation field. Say goodbye to what’s left of sovereignty.
This is only the tip of the iceberg, as the global corporate agenda applies its tactics to each country in the quest for empire, led by the United States with NATO as its military arm. The foreign policy of Canada becomes increasingly pro-war, reflected domestically by the attack on democratic institutions, social justice organizations, equity groups, environmental movements, and most intense of all, the trade unions. To ensure the continued existence of a historically redundant capitalist system, it is necessary to destroy the institutions of the people, and switch from a hegemony of bribery and concessions to a hegemony of war and brutalization. The attack on Gaza and the revival of fascism in Ukraine are dress rehearsals for all of us.
Organized labour in Canada, even after a ten percent decline in density since the 1970s, is still better situated than our American sisters and brothers to mount defense and fight back. Our 32% organized (17% in private sector), compared to the collapse of US labour to 12% (6% in private sector), gives us a better springboard if we do not allow our leadership spectator status.
Labour has not yet attained unity in the face of attack, but unity is growing despite those who feel threatened by it. Unity is not an abstract dream, but a concrete necessity that can only be achieved around program and mutual goals. The very concept of “an injury to one is an injury to all” is a political class concept that extends ideologically beyond economics and plant floor issues. It is a rejection of narrow “business trade unionism”. It is a concept of social being that in its very nature must deal with social existence. In the here and now, this means it must deal with class struggle, with recognition of the need for class struggle. The capitalists understand this very well. In the words of the ridiculously wealthy Warren Buffet, “Of course there is a class struggle and our class is winning it.”
The reality of the class struggle, for something and against something, demands the concept of a future alternative. If this concept is not inherent in the struggle, to what end and what strategy are our tactics formulated? We know where we’ve been, but where are we going?
From June 30 to July 2 an important “Ant‑Imperialist International Trade Union Conference” was held in Bolivia, hosted by the Bolivian Workers Central, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the government of Evo Morales. It was attended by over 1000 delegates from every corner of the world.
The impressive final Document should be studied. The following quote from Evo Morales sets the tone for all of us: “I want to propose something that concerns the social movements of this world: how can we, in a united fashion, confront capitalism? I am convinced that we must elaborate a new thesis to save the planet, a doctrine in support of life.”
The North American media do everything in their power to obscure the vision of Evo Morales, the fact that our dilemma is global, that the attack on our labour movement is part of a global attack, that the resistance is seething, that millions are fighting the same dragon.
The confrontation with capitalism is the socialist alternative. The harnessing of capital and its ultimate replacement is a necessity for the protection of habitat and humanity’s advance to a higher level free from war, hunger, disease and terror.
Solidarity and Unity to all workers in all countries this Labour Day 2014!
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada