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Will OFL join IPSEU to fight
Ontario cuts?
When
Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan declared Oct. 22 that his
Liberal provincial government faces a $24.7 billion deficit this year,
it was a signal that a major assault on public service wages and programmes for the poor is in the works.
This
is the major challenge facing delegates at the biennial convention
of the Ontario Federation of Labour, Nov. 23-27 at the Sheraton Centre in Toronto.
Firebrand
CUPE Ontario leader Sid Ryan is set to replace retiring OFL President
Wayne Samuelson. Many labour activists wonder
whether this will mark a shift towards mass action to challenge labour concessions, disappearing pensions and
benefits, and rising unemployment (expected to stay above 9 per cent,
officially, in Ontario for the next three years).
A
Workers’ Agenda is urgently needed to oppose the coming attacks on the Ontario public service, and to
support the strike of the Vale Inco workers,
now in its fourth month at Sudbury and Port Colborne, Ont., and in Labrador. Required is a programme to reject further labour
concessions in the auto sector, to nationalize industry instead of
dishing up corporate bail-outs, and to demand steeply progressive taxation
of big business and the rich.
A
good place to start would be a commitment to mobilize labour’s strength in numbers alongside the 115,000
member Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union as it takes on the Liberal McGuinty government’s likely targetting
of wages, jobs and vital public services.
OPSEU
President Warren (Smokey) Thomas issued a statement on Oct. 23. Here
are some excerpts: “Finance Minister Dwight Duncan promised a ‘sweeping
review’ of government spending. Premier Dalton McGuinty
would not rule out unpaid days off for the million Ontarians who earn
their bread in the provincial public sector. And the spectre of privatization now looms over every
public service worker.
“The
Liberals’ plan is to make us pay. … Dwight Duncan won’t have much luck
looking for waste in public services (except, of course, for the
hundreds of millions he’s throwing away on private consultants). We
already had a ‘sweeping review’ from 1995 to 2003. It was called the
Common Sense Revolution (of Tory Premier Mike Harris), and public
services still haven’t recovered from the brutal trauma of those years.
“As
far as unpaid days off, a lot of us remember [then-NDP Premier] Bob
Rae’s ‘Social Contract’ all too well. But much has changed since the
Rae days. For one thing, the Social Contract would be struck down by
the courts today. In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that (British Columbia) Premier Gordon Campbell
was wrong to tear up the collective agreements of health workers in
that province. Since then, collective bargaining has been recognized as
a protected right under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
“McGuinty can’t legislate his way out of this. If he
wants to use public employees to buy Ontario out of the recession, his
two main options are: (a) privatization, and (b) mass layoffs.
“Privatization
is a stupid idea. It cuts services, it destroys jobs, and it usually
comes with major cost overruns. And from a budget standpoint, selling
off assets like the LCBO [Liquor Control Board of Ontario]—which
right-wingers are already barking for—would kill the goose that lays
the golden eggs.
“As
for more layoffs, they can only weaken local economies, destroy the
services people need, and generate headlines the Liberals really don’t
want to see.
“So
what’s their plan? My guess is, they think
that just the threat of layoffs and privatization will force public
employees to agree to the wage cuts or ‘Dalton Days’ he wants.
“How
is it fair that a part-time secretary at a community college, who makes
maybe $27,000 a year, should be the one paying off the deficit when the
Bay Street banker is not? Which is
more important, providing professional help to a child with a mental
illness, or giving income tax breaks to profitable corporations and
obscene bonuses to their CEOS?
“Public
services aren’t just for public employees. They exist because we all
need them. And that’s why saving them is not the responsibility of
public employees alone.
“We
chose careers in public service not to get rich, but because we
care—for people, for families, for communities. It’s time our
commitment got the respect it deserves. We are already planning a bold
strategy to fight the coming attack. It will take courage, commitment,
brains, resources, and leadership.
“Working
together as we have done so many times before, I know we will do
whatever it takes”, Smokey Thomas concluded. Will the Ontario
Federation of Labour do whatever it takes?
Will OPSEU undertake mass job action, and invite all workers and allies
to join the struggle? Therein hangs a
tale.
Manitoba NDP chooses new premier
According
to the business media, Manitoba Finance Minister Greg Salinger, 58,
became NDP provincial Leader and Premier-elect by defeating a challenger
from the left, MLA Steve Ashton, 53. “Race for top job in Manitoba pits centre against left”,
read a headline in the Toronto Star.
Not
so, according to long-time socialist Harry Paine. He was one of the
2003 delegates who packed the Winnipeg Convention Centre on Oct. 17 for
the party leadership vote. The difference wasn’t left versus right. The
issue was who is best able to keep the labour-based
NDP in government in Manitoba, the prairie province
(population 1.2 million) just north of Minnesota and North Dakota.
In
a report to the NDP Socialist Caucus, Paine wrote: “More significant
for anyone attempting to gauge the level of consciousness of the NDP
membership and consequently how that reflects the consciousness of
Manitobans was the fact that the first candidate out of the gate,
Andrew Swan (a younger cabinet minister), chose to drop out of the race
after a couple of weeks. There was some speculation that the Third Way
(neo-liberal) machine that had been running the party for the last
couple of decades had been grooming Swan to wear the mantle of Gary
Doer (the 10-year Premier who left office to become Canada’s ambassador
to the United States), but the first few NDP delegate selection
meetings indicated a much stronger intervention by community activists
and Swan was unable to get more than a handful of delegate supporters.
“In
the few short weeks of the campaign leading up to the delegate
selection meetings the membership more than doubled and therein was the
first serious controversy. The Steve Ashton campaign was accused of
signing up hundreds of new members from within ethnic communities, many
of whom had little or no real loyalty to the NDP. This raised the whole
question of voting process and the ugly head of ‘One Member, One Vote’
arose once again.
“Ashton
tried to present as the more traditional left candidate, but surrounded
himself with some questionable and opportunistic public face
supporters. The Chair of his campaign committee was maverick City Councillor Russ Wyatt who has joined, and quit, the
party depending on his need for assistance from the NDP electoral
machine. Main union support came from the Firefighters Union, which is
often just as comfortable supporting Tory candidates as it is backing
the NDP.
“Greg
Selinger was able to garner support from a
much wider sector of the working-class organizations that included
almost all of the MLAs, the Manitoba
Federation of Labour, the Canadian Centre for
Policy Alternatives staff and most of the constituencies’ traditional
activists. He was seen as a leader who could bring the party together
into the ‘Renewal’ mode.
“Before
being elected to the Legislature, Selinger
had a history of being a popular City Councillor
and a key contributor to CHO!CES, a coalition
of leftist independent community activists. As Finance Minister he has
brought in ten fairly progressive and balanced budgets and was seen as
largely responsible for Manitoba being relatively able to
fend off the effects of the current global financial crisis. He also
instituted an open community consultative process in the period leading
up to budget production.
“‘Renewal’
was the slogan adopted by the Provincial Executive going into this
Leadership Campaign and that was probably an accurate choice as the
departure of Doer marks a shift to a greater involvement of community
based influences in the party and the government. How that will reflect
itself in policy is hard to say at this time.
“Poverty
is still a big issue in Manitoba especially in much of the
rural farm areas, for those on a fixed income, and in almost all of the
First Nations reserves and communities. At the same time there is a
shortage of skilled labour and fairly
dramatic population growth. While the effects of the latest crisis of
Capitalism have not been felt as much in Manitoba as other provinces, there
is considerable nervousness and discussion among those looking for
answers.
“Community
activism that doesn’t pose a clear socialist alternative is little more
than a band-aid solution to cover the open sores of capitalism and make
life a little more tolerable. On the positive side there is a growing
consciousness that there needs to be a fundamental structural change in
the distribution of wealth in society. Interest is renewed in the
lessons of the past, and Marxism is very much on the discussion
agenda.”
I
asked Harry Paine about grassroots involvement. He responded,
“Activists in Manitoba are not so much in political party life, as they
are involved in community organizations. I think that is becoming
somewhat universal as capitalism declines dramatically; the working
class has to rely more on its defensive organizations. The challenge
for socialists is how do we integrate the transitional demands of a
socialist program into the pragmatic concerns of these defensive
community organizations?
“Manitoba has one of the highest
rates of volunteerism in North America. One in three Manitobans
volunteer in their community. Of course that includes sports coaches
and Girl Guide leaders, but there are huge numbers who are working with
the homeless, the aged, in food banks, and so on.
“These
people often support the NDP because it is a lot easier to get grants
and legislation passed with them than it was with the Tories in
government. The fact that community representatives are listened to and
consulted does more to keep our membership figures up than anything.
“For
instance, I am president of the Manitoba Society of Seniors, and was
appointed by the Cabinet to the Council on Aging as an advisor to the minister
and on the boards of half a dozen other community-based organizations
and as such have access to all the relevant ministers and their
departments even though I am constantly reminding people that I am a Trotskyist, and believe the only real answer is to
overthrow capitalism.
“Last
year I was the Campaign Manager for our MLA Rob Altemeyer
and ran the most successful campaign, next to Greg Selinger’s
in St. Boniface. I publish an on-line community newsletter that goes to
most of the local NDP members once or twice a week, which has some
pretty radical stuff in it sometimes, and I have never been challenged
because of my leftist slant. Actually I get lots of fan mail from
people who think that is the strength of the NDP riding association.
“In
spite of his popularity, Gary Doer was seen as being inaccessible and
out of touch with this growing and powerful sector of activists. There
are some members who are concerned and upset because they feel
abandoned by big daddy, but most members feel honoured
that he was chosen as ambassador and will do a good job. Then again,
there are a lot of us who believe that either there [Washington], or in the [appointed
Canadian] Senate, is where Doer properly belongs.”
What
about Ashton’s so-called leftist stance, including his pledge to
freeze/reduce university tuition and ban strikebreakers?
“Ashton’s
base was to some extent in the northern areas of the province where he
comes from, although Selinger cut into that
with support from First Nations’ delegates. Community activists seem to
be divided into those who basically support the NDP and those who stand
aside and are somewhat cynical about politics; the latter provided the
main active base of Ashton’s support. Some were traditional leftists,
but for the most part were an unprincipled combination.
“As
for his ‘left’ policies, for the most part it was seen as posturing. It
is easy to talk about strikebreaking legislation in a province that
hasn’t seen a scab situation in years and where strikes that last more
than a few days are pretty rare. Unions haven’t suggested anti-scab
legislation and only the Firefighters and the Steelworkers from
Thompson (the area Ashton represents in the Legislature) supported him.
The main bulk of the Manitoba Federation of Labour
supported Selinger. Students were divided
about 52/48 for Selinger. I don’t think they
really believed Ashton was serious about his program.”
The
Manitoba NDP convention was over in three short hours; no policy
debate, no election of officers. The leadership vote was Selinger 1317 and Ashton 685. The regular annual
party provincial convention will occur in the spring. By then, in the
face of the deepening global economic crisis, the direction of the new
NDP Premier may be clear. The question is: what will the new crop of
Manitoba NDP members have to say about it?
Economic recovery?
Wishful
thinking usually dominates the financial pages, especially after an
economic crash. So goes the coverage of the current ‘recovery’. Yes, in
September, Canadian house sales jumped 17 per cent from a year ago. The
Conference Board of Canada predicts the economy will grow 2.9 per cent
next year, and up to 3.6 per cent in 2011. There’s just one catch. The
gains, as in the U.S., are largely the result of
government stimulus programmes—which
governments are now rushing to reel in.
Auto
sales in the United States plunged 10.4 per cent in
September. Overall retails sales were down 1.5 per cent, the worst
decline since retail sales fell 3.2 per cent last December. A record
number of U.S. homeowners were forced into foreclosure in the third
quarter. More than 930,000 homes received a default notice or were
repossessed, a jump of 23 per cent from the year before. Job losses
rose another 263,000 in September, pushing America’s official unemployment
rate to 9.8 per cent, and that’s not counting the 571,000 workers who
simply gave up and stopped looking for work.
The
number of Canadians filing for bankruptcy in August was up 17 per cent
compared to the same period last year. Factory sales in Canada dropped
2.1 per cent in August, due largely to declining automobile shipments.
Canadian exports and imports fell in August, and the trade deficit rose
(for the fifth consecutive month), now at $2 billion. New housing
starts dropped 4.6 per cent in September.
So,
while investors and brokers are cheering recent market gains, some
observers are wondering out loud: Is it too good to be true, given the
fragile state of the economy? Indeed, is this another wake up call ...
for socialist measures?
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