07) "TIME FOR A UNITED FIGHTBACK STRATEGY"

Special to PV

     As global capitalism continues to flounder, the attraction of radical alternatives appears to be rising. Meeting in Toronto over the April 14-15 weekend, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada analyzed this important development, and how to help strengthen the working class movements. Elected from across Canada at the Party's 36th Convention in 2010, the 20-member CC meets twice yearly.

     One indication of change has been the wave of mass political strikes by workers in Greece, Portugal, and Italy, but also in India and other countries where anger is rising against the so-called "austerity reforms" imposed by pro-business governments.

     In North America, the upsurge in labour resistance was sharpest in Wisconsin, where huge mass protests were followed with a campaign to recall far-right Republican governor Scott Walker. Then last fall, the Occupy movement emerged to challenge the domination of the corporations on a continental scale.

     Just as significant, left and communist alternatives are gaining voter support in some countries. As the Main Report adopted by the CC meeting says, "These struggles in turn have radicalized political thinking, weakened the grip of social democratic and reformist illusions among workers, and increased support for the Communist and revolutionary left forces in these countries." In Greece, the PASOK (social democratic) party is down to about 15% in the polls, while support for the KKE (Communists) and the left in general has risen to nearly that level. Support is also growing for the Left Front in France (which includes the PCF), for the Communist‑led United Left (IU) in Spain, and for the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

     These developments, the Report notes, are linked to the downward spiral of the imperialist system. Despite frantic efforts to stabilize their economies since the outbreak of the crisis in 2008, most capitalist countries still face persistently high unemployment and low growth rates.

     As the Report says, "The political‑economic offensive launched by monopoly and capitalist governments to drive down the price of labour‑power through savage wage cuts, increasing the intensity of labour (`speed‑up'), pension and other benefit take‑backs, and the gutting of public services, has in turn spawned growing labour and popular resistance and fightback."

     In Canada, the CC members pointed to several powerful expressions of this fightback: the Quebec students' mass strike for access to post-secondary education; the battle of BC teachers against the Liberal government's "net-zero" mandate; and the efforts of the Ontario Federation of Labour to build a broad common front of the organized working class and its allies. The move to hold united May Day events in several major cities this year is another important advance. Movements to block the Harper government's attack on pension rights and to stop the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline project are also welcome signs of popular resistance to the corporate agenda.

     But the meeting also noted that unlike in some countries, the leadership of the main trade union body in Canada is doing little to help mobilize a concerted fightback. Over the past several years, the Communist Party and left labour activists have urged the CLC and its affiliates to convene an emergency meeting of the trade unions and key social forces to put together such a united strategy, but the Georgetti leadership has so far refused to take any such initiative.

     The Communist Party will continue to press for an orientation towards mass labour and democratic resistance. With its next Central Convention now set for April 2013, the Party will focus on "identifying and helping to overcome the weaknesses which are inhibiting a more powerful and dynamic resistance movement among broad labour and people's movements, and to build our Party, the YCL and our press in the process."

     Looking at the international situation, the CC meeting warned that today "all three imperialist blocs are mired in a protracted economic crisis of great magnitude." The ruthless austerity measures dictated by big capital are driving down wages, cutting pensions, wiping out social programs, and spreading malnutrition and hunger.

     Most alarming, says the CC Report, is "the stepped‑up drive for militarization and war, and the incessant saber‑rattling by the main imperialist powers ‑ including Canada ‑ for foreign aggression against both Syria and Iran."

     "The drive to war is an inherent feature of capitalism in its imperialist stage," the Report notes, as rival imperialist powers struggle to increase domination over markets, seize natural resources, and re‑divide the world."

     But this "impulse to aggression" has been intensified by the prolonged economic crisis, since militarism is one way in which capitalism seeks to shed "excess capacity" and resuscitate stagnant economies. The ruling classes are whipping up war hysteria, aiming to distract working people from their class‑based grievances against the dominant "1%". The campaign to launch new wars is also being carried out under the pretext of the "responsibility to protect" (R2P) civilian lives.

     In this dangerous situation, the CC stressed, "it is vital that every effort be made to rally the peace movement across Canada and internationally to stave off imperialist aggression, and to support a peaceful, political solution of the Syrian conflict."

     Coming shortly after the Ontario and federal "austerity" budgets presented in late March, the CC meeting concluded that these documents express the "long-term strategic offensive of monopoly capital."

     Despite the Harper government's attempts to "soft‑pedal" its funding cuts, the Report warns that the impact of slashing $5.2 billion in program spending (a 6.9% reduction, or actually more than 10% over three years when inflation is taken into account) will be substantial. The losses will not be the 19,200 job cuts claimed by the government, but more likely 50‑60,000 jobs in total, when the earlier `program review' cuts and the loss of spin‑off jobs are taken fully into account, at a time when the real unemployment rate is well over 10% (and more than 20% for young people).

     These reductions will affect numerous frontline services, covering everything from employment counsellors to food inspectors. Over 5,500 Public Service Alliance of Canada members in 22 federal government departments have already received termination notices. More than 1,500 scientists, veterinarians, engineers, medical doctors and other staff represented by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada also received notices.

     The effect of the budget will fall most heavily on programs and services which the Tories want to target for political and ideological reasons, such as the environment, aboriginal affairs, the CBC, and so on. The changes to the pension system will have the most negative effect on low income earners with the least ability to protect themselves; many will be forced to stay longer in the workforce.

     In condemning this vicious austerity budget, the Central Committee noted that if the government's real intent was to achieve a balanced budget by 2015, "this could have been achieved in other ways, such as by cutting swollen military/security expenditures, by reducing corporate hand‑outs, and by increasing public revenues by reversing the massive cuts in corporate and wealth taxes."

     But in fact, the CC said, "the Tories have used crude scare tactics of looming `economic meltdown' on the scale of Greece and Spain if they fail to curb spending, while at the same time down‑playing this vicious budget as 'cautious' and 'moderate' (swiftly and uncritically parroted by the mainstream corporate press). In this respect, the Flaherty budget is a skilfully cynical and dishonest piece of work, one which fits neatly into... monopoly's long‑term strategic objectives, especially with respect to the role of the Canadian State."

     The Central Committee agreed to organize a public campaign by Party this fall, around the general theme of progressive alternatives to the corporate austerity agenda. The six-week campaign will include a range of materials calling for radical policy changes, and presenting the Communist Party as the most consistent force for fundamental change in Canada.

(The above article is from the May 1-15, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)