Yet again, the BC Liberal government has moved to attack the collective bargaining process and generate confusion and chaos across the provincial public education system. The Communist Party of BC condemns Premier Clark’s “partial lockout” of BCTF members, which marks a serious escalation of her relentless attack against teachers and other education workers, and in fact against students, parents and the entire public school system in British Columbia. We call for full mobilization of the labour movement and its allies in defence of the BCTF. The recent protests by students in Chilliwack and other cites against the lockout, and the wave of public anger against the BC Liberal education cuts across the province, are indications that a wider resistance can be mobilized to defeat the government’s agenda. Such a broad fightback can and should become the starting point for a powerful struggle to roll back the entire Liberal assault on public services.
It would be tempting to portray this latest struggle as just another chapter in the long-term vendetta by Premier Clark against the teachers of BC and their elected union leadership. The truth is that Christy Clark was the education minister in the early years of Gordon Campbell’s
Liberal government, which imposed devastating education cutbacks and illegally ripped up the collective bargaining agreements negotiated by the BCTF. In her political and broadcasting careers, Clark has consistently demonized public school teachers and their union, in a blatant but mostly unsuccessful attempt to turn parents the against education system. Clearly, there is a strong personal motive behind the Premier’s actions.
But this explanation misses the wider point, which is that the entire public health and education sector is under ruthless attack, not only in BC and Canada, but across the entire capitalist world. In country after country, austerity policies have been imposed on an unwilling population, with devastating results for employment and the quality of public services. All this is being done as part of a broader attempt to
shift wealth produced by working people into the hands of transnational corporations and their wealthy shareholders. The cry by the BC Liberals that “there is no money” for schools is exposed by the fact that their taxation cuts for the rich and the corporate sector have cost the public treasury of this province over two billion dollars annually for the past twelve years. There is in fact considerable wealth in this province to reverse the underfunding of education and the health care system, to give a desperately needed 50% increase in social assistance rates, to build housing for all the homeless living in our streets, and to do much more to improve the lives of working people and the poor. The decision not to take these steps is purely a political choice by the Liberals, similar to governments everywhere which act in the interests of the 1 percent, against the vast majority of working people.
Instead, the Premier and her friends in the corporate sector aim to destroy our high-quality public education system, deliberately creating crisis after crisis, even ignoring the courts and public opinion as they attempt to wipe out the BCTF and the entire collective bargaining process. Their true agenda is shown by the ever-increasing amounts the Liberals pour into private schools. Their ultimate goal is clearly to reduce the public school system to a shadow of its former self, the last resort for the poor to educate our children, while the rest of the population are compelled to pay ever increasing fees to profiteering private school operators.
This must not be allowed to happen! We urge every parent, every student, every school trustee, everyone who is concerned for the future of our province to join the teachers on their picket lines. Our message must be: roll back the education cuts! Negotiate a fair collective agreement with BC teachers, including salaries in line with other provinces, and smaller class sizes!
May 26, 2014, Communist Party of BC
706 Clark Drive
Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1
604-254-9836
cpinfo.bc@gmail.com