Prolétaires de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite!
Contents
*Unite against racism!
*The right way and the wrong way to fight back
*BC Communists campaign for jobs
*Ottawa's UI scam - Editorial
*Canadian failure vs Cuban success
*Stop Ontario Hydro sell-off
*Quebec labour debates sovereignty partnership
*Red Deer rally supports Fletcher's workers
*CPC: Always in the struggle against racism and fascism
*People's Summit Rejects FTAA
Red Deer Rally Supports Fletcher's Workers
-by Kirk Michaelian and Doug Meggison650 members of UFCW Local 1118 may be in for a protracted strike against Fletcher's Fine Foods in Red Deer, Alberta. A rally on June 20 brought 300 union supporters from Edmonton, Calgary and other areas.
The strike began May 4 at this very modern plant, at which the workers are capable of processing 900 hogs an hour. Scabs are in the plant, brought in by five school buses in the heavily fenced parking lot, but workers on the picket line say they are "only doing half speed of what we do."
The mood on the picket line was buoyant after seven weeks out, following a virtual 100% strike vote and subsequent lockout by the Vancouver-based company. In contrast to the seven-month strike in 1988, when the company shut down the plant, Fletcher's is now feverishly trying to complete a planned large expansion using non-union labour. The expansion is to be completed by August. Terry, a lead hand with 13 years experience at the plant, says "the sooner the expansion is finished, the sooner they need us."
UFCW strategists do not want to be provoked into picket line trouble, which (would) probably lead to an injunction to severely limit plant gate picketers. Alberta labour law also provides for a forced vote on stalemate negotiations, so the UFCW is planning to squeeze the company hard, not choke it.
Local 1118 president Albert Johnson told the rally that if upcoming negotiations are not productive, the union will kick off a boycott campaign. Union delegates have already visited Fletcher's shareholder meetings in Vancouver, and a sister local has leafleted the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, which owns a controlling 45% interest in Fletcher's. The company made a declared after-tax profit of $6 million in 1997, on sales of almost $400 million.
Anti-fascist Resistance. . .
CPC: Always In The Struggle
Against Racism and Fascism
-by David LethbridgeThe Communist Party of Canada came into existence in 1921, just as fascism was taking hold in Europe. The Party was born into a Canada rife with English privilege and Anglo-Saxon prejudice and racism. Among its first struggles were those against the racist Toronto police establishment which sought to prevent public speeches in any language other than English, denying foreign-born workers the right to an open forum.
With the capitalist crisis of the 1930s, fascist and Nazi groups sprang up across the country. In 1934, just after Hitler seized power in Germany, William Whittaker's fascist Nationalist Party began provocative attacks against workers in Winnipeg. Whittaker, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, had the support of Winnipeg's police and civic authorities.
Against this background, Whittaker's brownshirts decided to hold a rally in Market Square, the traditional meeting place of organized labour in Winnipeg. When 75 of the fascist thugs arrived in the Square, they found it already occupied by 2000 members of the communist-led Anti-Fascist League singing the Internationale. At a prearranged signal the fascists drew out blackjacks and lead pipes and began an assault on the workers.
The unarmed workers fought back, completely routing the fascists. Whittaker fled for his life. When the police arrived, most of the fascists had already escaped to the protection of the City Hall. The communists had won the day.
The struggle against fascism reached a boiling point in 1938. Despite the fact that Hitler's anti-Semitic racial laws were already in place, with concentration camps and the Gestapo torture chambers already in operation, Prime Minister Mackenzie King invited the Nazi ambassador to his house for an evening's entertainment, and happily sang songs with him around the piano. King wrote in his diary that "I believe the world will yet come to see a very great man in Hitler."
Meanwhile, in Toronto, Adrien Arcand, the Nazi leader in Quebec, organized a mass meeting at Massey Hall to forge the Unity Party, a national coalition of fascists. Member organizations included the Manitoba-based Canadian Nationalist Party, the Ontario-based National Party, and the Quebec-based National Socialist Christian Party. The Toronto police promised full protection for the fascists both at Massey Hall, and at the hotels where they were staying.
A block away from the Hall, several hundred Communist-led anti-fascists organized a protest. Within minutes, the police arrived on horseback, smashing into the protesters, knocking them onto the ground, and forcing the crowd to escape down the streets. Outside the Hall, the police continued to turn back the Communist anti-fascists, while inside Nazi salutes split the air.
At the same time that communists were combating fascists in Canada, others were in Spain fighting with the Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade against Franco. While the fascists sent their armies to back Franco, the Canadian government did its best to prevent communists and other progressives from going to Spain's defence. But they went anyway and fought with courage and tenacity. A third of them never returned.
Among the greatest heroes of the Spanish Civil War was Dr. Norman Bethune, who developed a mobile blood transfusion unit to serve the wounded at the front. Bethune, like other Canadian communists, understood that if fascism was not defeated in Spain, it would spread to a world war.
When the Canadians returned from Spain they were treated with contempt by their own government. The RCMP had a file on every man. They even made it difficult for the veterans of Spain to enlist when WWII erupted in Europe. But again they went, and again they fought fascism.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, communists working in the mines around Sudbury, Ontario, found themselves in struggle not only with the mine management, but with the thugs hired by the mine owners. According to RCMP reports, the mine owners had imported "considerable numbers" of ex-Nazi storm troopers and Hungarian fascists to beat and assault the miners and to smash their union. Patrick Walsh, second in command of Ron Gostick's anti-Semitic Canadian League of Rights, and an RCMP informant, was attempting to destroy the union from within. There were fascist instigated riots in the streets of Sudbury outside the union hall. The workers did their best to preserve their union, but the forces against them were too great.
Just as the Communist Party fought fascism, it joined in the struggle for the national rights of Canada's indigenous peoples. Party resolutions going back to 1937 demanded an end to the physical and cultural genocide of native peoples. In the decades following, party programs called for an end to all forms of discrimination aimed at aboriginal peoples. A 1959 party statement condemned the racist actions of the RCMP against the Iroquois and insisted on the full right of First Nations to self-government, the first such statement by a political party in Canadian history.
Today, People's Voice continues the fight against racism and fascism. The paper consistently reports on the people's resistance to the extreme right, detailing both defeats and victories. Across the country, the Communist Party of Canada unites with many organizations in reaching out to the people in their communities, trade unions, schools and universities, to build the broadest possible antifascist front. The struggle continues... The Communist Party of Canada came into existence in 1921, just as fascism was taking hold in Europe. The Party was born into a Canada rife with English privilege and Anglo-Saxon prejudice and racism. Among its first struggles were those against the racist Toronto police establishment which sought to prevent public speeches in any language other than English, denying foreign-born workers the right to an open forum.
With the capitalist crisis of the 1930s, fascist and Nazi groups sprang up across the country. In 1934, just after Hitler seized power in Germany, William Whittaker's fascist Nationalist Party began provocative attacks against workers in Winnipeg. Whittaker, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, had the support of Winnipeg's police and civic authorities.
Against this background, Whittaker's brownshirts decided to hold a rally in Market Square, the traditional meeting place of organized labour in Winnipeg. When 75 of the fascist thugs arrived in the Square, they found it already occupied by 2000 members of the communist-led Anti-Fascist League singing the Internationale. At a prearranged signal the fascists drew out blackjacks and lead pipes and began an assault on the workers.
The unarmed workers fought back, completely routing the fascists. Whittaker fled for his life. When the police arrived, most of the fascists had already escaped to the protection of the City Hall. The communists had won the day.
The struggle against fascism reached a boiling point in 1938. Despite the fact that Hitler's anti-Semitic racial laws were already in place, with concentration camps and the Gestapo torture chambers already in operation, Prime Minister Mackenzie King invited the Nazi ambassador to his house for an evening's entertainment, and happily sang songs with him around the piano. King wrote in his diary that "I believe the world will yet come to see a very great man in Hitler."
Meanwhile, in Toronto, Adrien Arcand, the Nazi leader in Quebec, organized a mass meeting at Massey Hall to forge the Unity Party, a national coalition of fascists. Member organizations included the Manitoba-based Canadian Nationalist Party, the Ontario-based National Party, and the Quebec-based National Socialist Christian Party. The Toronto police promised full protection for the fascists both at Massey Hall, and at the hotels where they were staying.
A block away from the Hall, several hundred Communist-led anti-fascists organized a protest. Within minutes, the police arrived on horseback, smashing into the protesters, knocking them onto the ground, and forcing the crowd to escape down the streets. Outside the Hall, the police continued to turn back the Communist anti-fascists, while inside Nazi salutes split the air.
At the same time that communists were combating fascists in Canada, others were in Spain fighting with the Mackenzie-Papineau Brigade against Franco. While the fascists sent their armies to back Franco, the Canadian government did its best to prevent communists and other progressives from going to Spain's defence. But they went anyway and fought with courage and tenacity. A third of them never returned.
Among the greatest heroes of the Spanish Civil War was Dr. Norman Bethune, who developed a mobile blood transfusion unit to serve the wounded at the front. Bethune, like other Canadian communists, understood that if fascism was not defeated in Spain, it would spread to a world war.
When the Canadians returned from Spain they were treated with contempt by their own government. The RCMP had a file on every man. They even made it difficult for the veterans of Spain to enlist when WWII erupted in Europe. But again they went, and again they fought fascism.
In the 1950s and early 1960s, communists working in the mines around Sudbury, Ontario, found themselves in struggle not only with the mine management, but with the thugs hired by the mine owners. According to RCMP reports, the mine owners had imported "considerable numbers" of ex-Nazi storm troopers and Hungarian fascists to beat and assault the miners and to smash their union. Patrick Walsh, second in command of Ron Gostick's anti-Semitic Canadian League of Rights, and an RCMP informant, was attempting to destroy the union from within. There were fascist instigated riots in the streets of Sudbury outside the union hall. The workers did their best to preserve their union, but the forces against them were too great.
Just as the Communist Party fought fascism, it joined in the struggle for the national rights of Canada's indigenous peoples. Party resolutions going back to 1937 demanded an end to the physical and cultural genocide of native peoples. In the decades following, party programs called for an end to all forms of discrimination aimed at aboriginal peoples. A 1959 party statement condemned the racist actions of the RCMP against the Iroquois and insisted on the full right of First Nations to self-government, the first such statement by a political party in Canadian history.
Today, People's Voice continues the fight against racism and fascism. The paper consistently reports on the people's resistance to the extreme right, detailing both defeats and victories. Across the country, the Communist Party of Canada unites with many organizations in reaching out to the people in their communities, trade unions, schools and universities, to build the broadest possible antifascist front. The struggle continues...
As this issue of People's Voice went to press, organizing for a massive march and rally against racism was in high gear across the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Dozens of multicultural, ethnic, anti-racist,labour and other groups have put up 35,000 posters and distributed over 50,000 flyers for the event, which begins at 1:30 pm, Sunday, June 28 in Surrey. Marchers will gather at the King George Skytrain station (a change from the Surrey Central Skytrain as previously planned), before heading to hear speakers and music at nearby Bear Creek Park, where the rally will begin at 3 pm.
The broad coalition, Communities Against Racism and Extremism (CARE), came together after five neo-Nazi skinheads were charged with the beating death of Nirmal Singh Gill, caretaker of the Guru Nanak Sikh temple in Surrey. Gill's murder is widely seen as the most recent example of the rising tide of ultra-right extremist actions in British Columbia.
Although the June 28 events are officially non-political, support has come from a wide range of members of the Liberals, New Democrats and other parties, including the B.C. Communist Party and other groups on the left. As B.C. Communist Party leader George Gidora told People's World, "It is absolutely vital to make this rally as large as possible, to show that the vast majority of British Columbians reject the racist and fascist movements organizing in this province."
Despite massive public support for the events, Surrey civic officials and police have demanded $17,000 from the coalition as a condition for issuing a permit for the march from the Skytrain to Bear Creek Park. At a June 16 organizing meeting, planners agreed to proceed with or without a permit, since the event is a legal activity. A news conference was being planned for June 25 to inform the public about the permit issue.
Many CARE organizers see the permit problem as an attempt by police and politicians to keep down the number of participants in the rally. Several Vancouver-area groups have recently been hit with huge bills from the police for holding public events, such as the local International Women's Day coalition, which was invoiced for $6,000 by the police for this year's IWD march.
In a related development, over 400 anti-fascists took part in a June 19 protest against a meeting of Doug Christie's "Canadian Free Speech League" at the Colwood Library in Victoria. The rally was the latest sign of growing public opposition to the use of Victoria public libraries by Christie and other neo-fascists.
(See pages 10 & 11 for more reports
on the struggle against racism and fascism.)
The federal Liberals are looking like the biggest white-collar crooks in recent Canadian history, as the shocking scale of their UIC ripoff becomes known.
Over a year ago, People's Voice was one of the first media to point to the enormous surplus in the Unemployment Insurance (now called "Employment Insurance"!) account. Finance Minister Paul Martin has been plundering $5 billion a year out of the account to "balance" his federal budgets. The Canadian Labour Congress points out that 45% of his "deficit reduction" has come out of the pockets of the jobless. The Liberals have pushed the unemployed UI rolls even faster than Mulroney's Tories did a decade ago. Less than 36% of unemployed Canadians receive UI/EI today, down from 75% at the start of this decade, and their cheques are smaller, too. Thanks to the UI/ED rules brought to us by "Choker" Chretien and Lyin' Brian, most part-time workers, women and youth have virtually no recourse to UI when the boss kicks them out the door, or if they quit rather than face more abuse and exploitation.
This year's UI/EI surplus is projected to hit a record $8 billion. That's about $500 million more than it would take to restore benefits to the former level of 60% of weekly earnings, and to allow 70% of the jobless to actually receive benefits.
Recent protests by unemployed workers in Vancouver and Victoria demanded an end to this ripoff. More such protests are needed right across the country. The labour movement needs to do more than issue news releases, particulary since Preston Manning is getting most of the news coverage about this issue, with his call for reduced UI premiums. More unions have to get serious about supporting the unemployed movements. With the next capitalist economic crisis gathering force, it may not be long before unemployment goes shooting through the roof again. The time to build a huge campaign to restore UI/EI benefits is now, not later!
With British Columbia workers facing the worst unemployment levels in many years, the Communist Party of B.C. is taking the road to call for new job creation policies. The recent provincial convention of the party decided to make the campaign a priority for the latter part of 1998. Public events will be held in 20 to 25 communities around the province, together with efforts to win coverage of the CP's policies in the mass media, and to distribute the policies at plant gates and union meetings.
At the heart of the campaign will be pamphlets and flyers outlining immediate steps which could be taken in forestry and other key industries. The materials will also point to the deepening crisis of global capitalism as the cause of rising joblessness, driving home the need for socialism as the only lasting, long-term solution.
This summer, provincial leader George Gidora will be travelling to Vancouver Island communities hard hit by the growing crisis in the wood industry. People's Voice editor Kimball Cariou will be in the Kootenays with a similar message July 7-10. (See What's Left column on page 19 for details.)
A resolution calling for mass united action by labour and the public to block the break-up and sale of Ontario Hydro was passed unanimously by the Ontario Committee of the Communist Party, meeting in Toronto June 12th.
"The break-up of this valuable and profitable public asset, owned by the people of Ontario since 1902, is the prelude to one of the biggest public firesale and giveaway to the transnational corporations in Canadian history," the statement said. "It's a direct consequence of NAFTA, a costly preview of the MAI, and a notice of motion that Canada's natural resources are all up for sale....
"An extensive government propaganda campaign aims to convince the public that privatized hydro will result in lower residential consumption rates... Residential rates may fall briefly, but the really deep rate cuts will go to the corporate sector who will be deeply subsidized by residential consumers. The rate cuts will also be paid for with mass layoffs in the newly privatized corporations, environmental and safety "short-cuts" from associated deregulation; reduced security and reliability of supply and maintenance, to public institutions and residential consumers; the virtual elimination of public accountability; foreign ownership and control over key Canadian nuclear and natural resources."
The Power Workers Union, led by John Murphy, has signed an agreement with Hydro Chair Bill Farlinger, removing key obstacles to privatization in the collective agreement, in exchange for successor rights in the newly privatized units of Hydro. CP Organizer Hassan Husseini called the agreement a blow to the fightback, but not fatal.
"The IBEW faced a similar situation with the privatization of Nova Scotia Power, and they chose to fight the privatization," he said. "Privatization in Australia, New Zealand and in the UK was also fought by the labour movement as a whole. That's the direction we need to move here. With the experience the international labour movement now has with privatization and neo-conservatism, and with the MAI just a heartbeat away, we can work towards winning this battle."
Husseini dismissed the support of Energy Probe for privatization, noting that Ontario Hydro was one of Energy Probe's biggest financial donors. "Energy Probe's objectivity is being questioned everywhere," Husseini said, "and for good reason. Privatization is clearly NOT in the public interest. That is evident in even the most cursory look at the financial and environmental balance sheet. It's a lose-lose situation for the public, and the only way to change that is to stop Hydro's break-up and privatization."
Public hearings will be held over the summer, a chance for the labour and democratic movements to mount opposition. The Bill will come back to the Legislature in the fall.
Further cracks are showing in Quebec labour's support for the Partenaires pour la souveraineté (Partners for Sovereignty). As reported in the May PV, the CEQ, the main Quebec teachers federation, headed by Lorraine Pagé, has pulled out of the pro-sovereignty coalition for a variety of reasons, including disagreements within the union over the issue, and the fact that the teachers are entering into negotiations with the Parti Québecois.
Now the debate has been taken up in the Conseil central des Syndicats (CSN). The June/July issue of the Quebec communist paper La nouvelle Forge reported that the question of support for the coalition was on the CSN's agenda for June. The CSN has been a major force in the Partenaires, providing much of the coalition's financing and support.
The issue was pressed by the Montreal council of the CSN, which almost unanimously urged its national body to pull out of the coalition, against the urgings of the CSN president. The Montreal resolution was followed by similar actions from the CSN's health federation, and the CSN's South Shore and Quebec City labour councils.
When the CSN's Conseil Confederal, its leading body between conventions, met in mid-June, the Montreal resolution to withdraw was a major topic of debate, together with the CSN executive's contrary resolution on the same issue. Eventually the Montreal resolution was amended to include the executive resolution, but in a manner which completely reversed the latter. The resulting resolution to withdraw from the Partenaires was adopted by a majority of almost 70%.
Speaking to People's Voice, Daniel Morel of La nouvelle Forge stressed that these developments do not mean an end to support for the sovereignty or independence option among Québecois trade unionists. What is behind the shift, he said, is the growing view that this option should be subordinated to urgent social issues, and the need to build unity against the move to the right by the PQ government.
(More details will be reported in upcoming issues.)
RedFem Report
State Funding for Women's Equality:
Canadian Failure vs Cuban Success
-by Helen KennedyThe central issue at the annual general meeting of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women, held June 5-7 in Ottawa, was the demand that the federal government restore core funding to NAC and the women's movement.
The AGM confirmed that NAC's priority campaign for the coming year will be protest actions against Ottawa's changes to the Women's Program Fund. The federal Liberals have cut this funding from $12 million to $8.1 million since they first came to office. In addition, Status of Women Canada, supposedly the government department charged with protecting the status of women in this country, has recently introduced new guidelines that change the funding from core to project based.
The decision of the NAC executive to fight the federal government on the funding issue was resoundingly endorsed by the AGM. Delegates expressed confidence in the incoming executive to develop an effective strategy to implement the priority campaign. Jane Bouey, representing the Women's Commission of the Communist Party of Canada, urged the executive to ensure that the campaign is tied into the broader issues facing women today, including globalization and the battle of aboriginal women against Bill C-31.
"There is a danger of narrowing the campaign to the funding issue," said Bouey. "We must always see the importance of why it is we need this funding."
In a very interesting comparison, Maria Cedeno Rodriguez from the FMC (Federation of Cuban Women) reported on the remarkable achievement of women in socialist Cuba. Her detailed facts of women's place in Cuban society, politics and the economy gave concrete evidence of how much further women's equality will advance under socialism. Some of the most telling statistics included the following: women make up 49.9% of the total population of Cuba; 52.6% of the 1996 graduates from university; 42.5% of the total labour force; 65% of the highly technologically skilled workers; and 45% of workers in the field of science.
The contrast of the gains of women in socialist Cuba, who have the full support of their state, with the fight of women in capitalist Canada, who battle the state for funding, reinforced the need to tie in the funding issue with the broader fight for a people's alternative. Canadian women, and indeed women around the world, should set their sights on the advances of women in Cuba as achievable goals. For example, when asked about alternatives to globalization, we should start with the Cuban model - free access to health care, education and a myriad of other social programs - as the base from which to build.
Another significant contribution was made at this year's meeting by young women. For the first time at NAC, a Young Women's Caucus met, and their influence and enthusiasm were noted throughout the weekend. While a proposed resolution granting young women a seat on the executive board was ruled out of order, it was accepted as a notice of motion for next year's AGM.
A labour caucus was held during the AGM, with over thirty women attending. In addition, Nancy Riche from the Canadian Labour Council addressed the delegates at the President's Lunch on June 7. "We should be lobbying the IMF," said Riche, to an appreciative response.
Riche also gave an update on the CLC's NAC Defence Campaign. Trade union women will be urged to get more involved with NAC, by sending money and delegates to NAC meetings. Women are also urged to strengthen the ties between NAC and labour at the local level.
There is potential for NAC to engage in some key coalition building efforts over the coming year. The struggle for state funding will be an ongoing battle, as governments see a strong, activist women's movement as a threat to their implementation of the neo-liberal agenda. Focused work in the regions to keep the funding campaign "political" will help build a strong, independent women's movement, with links to the broader labour and social justice movements.
(RedFem Report is a monthly column from the Central Women's Commission of the Communist Party of Canada.)
This past April, the Second Summit of the Presidents of the Americas, including all countries of the continent except Cuba, took place in Santiago, Chile. The Summit launched negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), proposed to take effect in the year 2005.
At the same time, more than 1,000 delegates participated in an alternative meeting, the Cumbre de los Pueblos de America (The Summit of the Peoples of America). Coordinated by the Chilean Action Network for a People's Initiative, the People's Summit organizing committee included Canada's Common Frontiers, the Canadian Labour Congress, the Quebec Network on Continental Integration, as well as the Regional Committee of the International Labour Organization (ORIT), the Central Unitario de Trabajadores de Chile (CUT) and CUT Brazil.
The People's Summit brought together social, environmental and women's groups, representatives from aboriginal peoples of both continents, trade unionists, educators, parliamentarians and many others. Delegates met in 10 workshops based on themes related to the free trade issues which are of greatest concern to people of the Americas. They did not just reject everything related to free trade, but sought viable alternatives to the current neoliberal economic model.
Each workshop questioned the undemocratic nature of the new FTAA and such things as economic alternatives and the profound inequality which exists throughout the Americas. They also dealt with such issues as growing unemployment, the precarious and informal nature of continental labour relations, the increase in working hours, the lowering of wages, problems facing women, education, child labour and poverty, the destruction of the environment and quality of life as well as the permanent and growing violation of human rights and the rights of aboriginal people to their own land and culture.
I attended the summit on behalf of the Toronto Chilean Society and participated in the forum of "Alternatives to FTAA and Economic Integration". The main concerns of this workshop were such things as the protection of labour under international trade, wages, environmental issues and technological education. We also considered the role of the big banks, control of foreign capital and speculation, issues surrounding patents and intellectual property, problems of private and public debt. The MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments) was rejected and characterized as an attack on state sovereignty. It was agreed to propose that future commercial agreements should be approved through plebiscites.
The closing remarks of the People's Summit, directed to the Presidential Summit, stated that "our common position is in favour of a social, economic and cultural integration which would truly benefit all people of the Americas and be something more than a mere commercial framework which up until now has only benefited the governments."
After four days of debates, the Peoples' Summit agreed to establish an alliance among all sectors of society from both continents, to flesh out an alternative proposal to American integration, based on principles of equity, democracy and sustainability, and to create centres for information and training of all citizens.
The final declaration stated that the social concerns put forward by governments will coninue to be treated as tokens of exchange in commercial negotiations. Programs for the privatization of education and social security are continuing in all the major cities of the continent. Further, the delegates said, "We are convinced that America does not need free trade but needs a just trade agreement, regulated investment and a policy of conscientious consumption which favours our national proposals for development."
The declation concluded that "the processes of commercial integration must be built on principles of participatory democracy, equality, social justice, respect for cultural and ethnic diversity, and ecologically sustainable social development."
The Summit was not without controversy, generated in part by limiting the participation of representatives from national organizations such as a Chilean human rights group and the CUT, which were not involved in the preparation of the event due to organizaitonal problems. The dominance of ORIT and free trade unions from the United States was notable, especially in the preparation of discussion themes and in the direction of the debates. When Chilean leaders proposed in a trade union workshop that a statement be made regarding the exclusion of Cuba from the Presidential Summit, Luis Anderson (a Venezuelan) and Victor Baez (a Paraguayan), both ORIT representatives, prevented them from speaking.
In spite of limitations, the agreements reached at the People's Summit reflected a desire for continental social action which could be an effective counter-balance to the Presidential agenda, if what was agreed upon is followed up and put into practice.
LABOUR IN ACTION
The Right Way and the Wrong Way
to Fight Back
-by Liz RowleyTwo unions, two responses, to Tory legislation that is rapidly transforming Ontario and Canada.
First, consider the Power Workers Union, representing close to 15,000 workers employed by Ontario Hydro, which the Tories are putting up for sale this summer. Led by John Murphy, the Power Workers had effectively fought privatization of the 92 year old utility, mobilizing public opinion with media advertising and exposure of the privatization agenda. Then in late June, Murphy and the Power Workers leadership cut a deal with Hydro chair Bill Farlinger and the Harris government.
The agreement gives the union a small wage increase and successor rights that (theoretically at least), will ensure that the new owners of pieces of Ontario Hydro get the union and the current collective agreement. In other words, the new owners won't be able to leave the union behind, though they will be able to renegotiate the agreement without fear of a strike once they take over.
In exchange, the Harris government, representing the people of Ontario who've built and paid for this valuable public asset since 1902, gets a new flexibility to move employees around. Seniority and bumping are virtually unrecognizable now. Even more important, the Tories get the union's public support for the privatization of Ontario Hydro.
What a deal!
The successful OPSEU strike in 1995 was fought largely on the issue of successor rights. No doubt about it, successor rights are important, faced with a government determined to destroy free collective bargaining.
But it's a fact that thousands of OPSEU workers have lost their jobs through corporate downsizing and government gutting in the three years since. Nobody's had a raise in almost 8 years. And negotiations for new collective agreements covering college teachers, hospital workers, municipal workers and workers in the hospitals and health care sector look like they're going nowhere fast.
So what did they get? They got to keep their organization. That's vital, but only if it's a union that will stand up and fight, at the bargaining table and in the political sphere. Otherwise, it's in grave danger of becoming just a clearinghouse for organizing the employers' (public and private) downsizing and take-backs - paid for by the workers who are the victims of these vicious policies.
Nobody asked the Power Workers if they thought privatization would be good for their members, or dare we say it, for the people of Ontario. After all, this is capitalism, so why ask unions and workers what they think?
But did the Power Workers' leadership really need lessons to know that support for privatization will do far-reaching damage to the best interests of their union and their members, and to the public, for decades to come?
How strong will their union be, pieced off into tiny bargaining units with little clout and dozens of agreements to negotiate, all with employers whose main goal is to get out of the bargaining units they've inherited from Hydro?
How long will they be able to stand up to these employers, given the repeal of Bill 40 (the NDP's anti-scab legislation), the introduction of Bill 31 (overturning existing collective agreements), and Bill 22 ("Prevention of Unionization Act"), not to mention the wholesale gutting of the Ontario Labour Relations Act still in the works.
How long can the newly successored Power Workers' locals continue to exist in political, economic and social conditions being created in Ontario? How long before these locals are decertified in Harrisland?
Could it be that Murphy and the rest of the Power Workers' leadership missed the forest for the trees? It certainly fits the pattern of agreements signed by others in the so-called Pink Paper Unions - those opposed to militant class struggle politics in the labour movement and reduced to election day mobilizations for the NDP.
Here's a different approach. The building trades unions in Ontario, not well known for their progressive views, have also run headlong into the neo-conservative agenda. Bill 31, popularly known as the Wal-Mart Bill, was introduced, read three times, and made law in less than two weeks. Officially known as the Economic Development and Workplace Democracy Act, the legislation has three parts.
First, it allows for the negotiation of no-strike, no-lockout "project agreements" which will override existing collective agreements and set rules regarding hours of work, wages, etc. on major industrial job sites. Some months ago, construction trades unions had perhaps unwisely agreed to this, as part of a trade-off to create needed work. But they never agreed to parts two and three of the legislation.
Part two overrides the power of the Ontario Labour Relations Board to grant automatic certification to workers who have suffered intimidation by an employer fighting a union organizing drive. This is the Wal-Mart decision, in which the OLRB granted automatic certification to Wal-Mart employees in Windsor, after a majority had been intimidated into voting "No" to the union.
Part three allows "non-construction employers," such as school boards and other public sector employers now legally obliged to employ unionized tradespeople, to contract out this work to non-union contractors. This is being done in the name of "saving taxpayers' money." But in reality, it was the TD Bank which pushed for this, having unsuccessfully fought the current legislation right through to the Supreme of Court of Canada in the early '90s. According to Toronto Star columnist Ian Urquhart, Guy Giorno, one of the lawyers for the TD Bank at the time, is now Director of Policy in the Premier's office and a chief Tory political strategist.
The Building Trades Unions have opted to fight the new law. Pat Dillon, Business Manager for the 100,000 member Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, told the media, "The devastating effects that the bill has in its current form leave us no alternative but to act." He said the Provincial Council will step up its publicity campaign, and is meeting with the OFL to discuss job actions.
Toronto Building Trades Council Business Agent John Cartwright went further, calling for a province-wide strike of building trades workers to coincide with a one day province-wide general strike being called by the OFL for October/November.
The Building Trades are drawing the right conclusions: the fight is a political one, and for Ontario workers to win, they must be united, coordinated, and in the streets.
It may just be the Tories and the neo-conservative agenda that will bring the trade union movement together in mass struggle against government policy. If the building trades can do it, the struggle is there for the winning.