Friday, September 24, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT LONDON ONTARIO:
THE LONDON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR:
It's another first. Anarchist bookfairs are popping up all over the place, and the latest domino to fall is London Ontario. Here's the announcement of the first anarchist bookfair in that town from Linchpin, the website of the Ontario platformist group Common Cause.
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London, Ontario Anarchist Bookfair
The London, Ontario Anarchist Bookfair and Gathering is scheduled to take place on Saturday October 23rd. This is our first of what we hope will be many annual bookfairs and your participation would be much appreciated. With the attention focused on anarchists recently it is important to offer folks outside of our communities a chance to see what it really is all about and dispel media myths. It is equally important that we gather to further strengthen and build our movements to carry forward with our agendas of radical transformations.
Calling all anarchist distros and publishers! We are not charging anything for tables, but we ask that a small percentage of profits, after expenses, be donated to the bookfair to allow it to sustain itself and grow.
Present a workshop! We are running workshops throughout the day and are excited to hear from you if you have a workshop you’d like to present. We will do our best to accommodate all workshop requests.
Everybody! We have an interest in helping meet your housing, childcare and transportation needs and the venue is accessible. Food Not Bombs will be providing food and we plan on having a social event in the evening including performances by talented anarchists…
Get in touch if you’d like to table, present a workshop, or simply attend so that we can help meet your needs and answer any questions.
-London (A) Bookfair Collective
londonanarchistbookfair@gmail.com
Labels: anarchism, anarchist bookfairs, canadian anarchist movement, events, Linchpin, London, Ontario
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
CANADIAN LABOUR TORONTO:
TORONTO HOTEL STRIKES CONTINUES:
The Toronto International Film Festival is over, but the rotating strikes at Toronto hotels continue as management refuses to bargain fairly. Here's the story from Linchpin, the website of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause.
CLCLCLCLCL
Strike Continues for Toronto Hotel Workers
By Alex Balch
Toronto, Ont - This year’s TIFF festivities may be over, but for the workers of UNITE HERE Local 75, the struggle against multinational hotel conglomerate Westmont Hospitality Group is just heating up.
Many of the over 2,000 members of Local 75 employed by Westmont are currently working without a contract – some of them since February of this year. Workers accuse the company, which owns or operates 13 hotels in the GTA, of trying to lock its employees into a “permanent recession” - despite the fact that the hotel industry has largely bounced back from the economic crisis of 2008.
“The recession is long over for these guys,” says union organizer Amarjeet Chhabra, speaking about the hotel management. “Yet they’re still using the language of the recession while they negotiate a new contract.”
“Our workers can’t put food on the table, even though many of them are doing the work of two people. It’s just not fair.”
The union has been engaged in a series of high-profile one-day strikes since late June, when workers at the Novotel Toronto Center walked off the job just as the French delegation to the G20 was arriving to check in. Since then they have increased the pressure – carrying out eight such one-day strikes during TIFF.
On Friday September 18, dozens of Hilton employees, joined by workers from the nearby Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel and union delegates from CEP and CAW, staged a picket and rally outside the Toronto Hilton, while volunteer drummers from “Rhythms of Resistance” helped to keep spirits high. The striking workers appeared energized by the extra publicity generated by sympathetic actors and tourists in town for the Festival, and vowed to continue on until Westmont grants them a fair new contract.
Chief among the union’s demands is the granting of stable hours, better health benefits and a living wage.
“What Westmont has done is dramatically cut back on hours and staffing levels. This has meant that people have basically had to work twice as hard as before, for the same rate of pay,” said Laura Mestre, a room attendant, shop steward and member of the UNITE HERE negotiating team.
“I have personally been working for three months with a torn muscle in my left shoulder. I have had to apply for ODSP [Ontario Disability Support Payments] in order to help pay for my medical costs. I’ve brought the subject up with management… but they don’t care.”
According to Chhabra, this type of injury is not uncommon.
“Most housekeeping attendants are women, and that’s a position where lots of workplace injuries occur. Attendants at these hotels are expected to clean sixteen rooms per shift. At the same time, the company has recently added extra furniture, such as double beds, to many of these rooms. So this means that room attendants have more work to do, but haven’t been given more time to do it.” The end result is a rise in workplace injuries, as attendants struggle to keep up with their increased workloads.
The attempts by Westmont to frame the negotiation in terms of a contracting economy seem to fit into a larger general narrative – that of a looming “age of austerity”. Across the western world, unions are facing a coordinated attack on the working class. In Canada, the Harper government’s response to the economic crisis has been to allow large banks and corporations to effectively manage their own recovery, despite the massive subsidies they have received from the country's taxpayers. In the hospitality sector, this has manifested itself in the sacking of unionized workers and their replacement with more precarious workers – often employed by third-party temporary staffing agencies.
Westmont’s appeal to the need for belt-tightening measures - despite a return to healthy quarterly profits - is only made more egregious by the fact that two of its primary financial partners, Goldman Sachs and Citigroup Financial, were at the very epicenter of the 2008 global economic crisis, and have between them received over $50 billion in federal funds from the US Treasury.
It is this attempt to play the unfortunate victim of circumstance, and the company's stubborn refusal to renegotiate a fair contract with its employees that Chhabra says has motivated the workers to strike.
“We want to settle… but we also want a fair contract. And we’re prepared to take any action necessary to get it.”
For more information on the hotel workers' ongoing strike, and for a list of potentially affected hotels, see: http://www.uniteherelocal75.org/jm /
To send a direct message to Westmont, contact them at their Toronto headquarters:
5090 Explorer Drive
Suite 700
Mississauga ON
L4W 4T9
Tel: +1 905 629 3400
Fax: +1 905 624 7805
Labels: Canadian labour, labour., Linchpin, strike.hotel strike, Toronto, Unite Here
Monday, September 06, 2010
ANARCHIST THEORY:
ANARCHIST THOUGHTS ON LABOUR DAY:
It's 'Labour Day' in the anglosphere. Elsewhere most of the world ,and many in English speaking countries as well, celebrate May Day as the real Labour Day. Be that as it may here's an interesting and timely article from Linchpin. Linchpin is the site and magazine of the Ontario platformist group Common Cause. Unlike many of the self-congratulatory messages that will be coming forth today this article sees that there are indeed problems with the way labour is organized today, and it points to some possible solutions. I find little to disagree with in what follows though I have to admit that I haven't gone through it with my usual nit-picking comb. What is especially valuable is the suggestion that workers should form organizations seperate from but in sympathy with the unions. Well disposed union leaders may see this as a Godsend as it will "let them off the hook" for actions that are necessary but either outside the scope of unions or perilous for them to undertake. as to those who are not well disposed, well more's the pity. Here's the article.>>>
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It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Organized labour’s confused response to the McGuinty Liberals' attack on Ontario’s working-class
By Ajamu Nangwaya and Alex Diceanu
Organized labour in Ontario will continue to put forth a weak and ineffective response to attacks from the ruling class as long as it continues to ignore the reality of class struggle. A perfect example is its current response to a proposed two-year wage-freeze that the Dalton McGuinty-led Ontario government plans on imposing on unionized public sector workers. The provincial Liberals would like to save $750 million per year from a wage-freeze, so as to help manage the $19.3 billion budget deficit. Readers need not be reminded that this deficit is the result of the risky financial speculations of the captains of finance, industry and commerce that created the Great Recession of 2008.
But it is the 710,000 unionized members of the working class and 350,000 non-unionized managers and other employees who draw pay cheques from the government[1] and the users of state-provided services (and private sector workers) who are being asked to bear the burden of paying for the actions of the corporate sector. At the same time as this attempt to take income from the pockets of government workers, the McGuinty Liberals’ have granted a $4.6 billion tax-cut to the business sector.
The leader of the Ontario New Democrats, Andrea Howarth, has signaled her support for public sector workers’ acceptance of a pay cut. She asserts, "I'm quite sure when they get to the bargaining table they will do their part like everyone else does ... there is a collective bargaining process that has to be respected."[2] Wow! Who said that the working-class needs enemies with “friends” like the New Democratic Party (NDP) and its leader Andrea Horwarth?
However, it is the tame and even puzzling reaction of some of Ontario’s major labour leaders that should be of concern to workers in the public sector. The government called labour leaders and employers from the broader public sector to “consultation” talks on the wage freeze on July 19, 2010. Coming out of the talks, this was what CUPE-Ontario president Fred Hahn had to say, “This is not like the early ’90s, this is not about sharing the pain. That’s all just not true”.[3] He was referring to former NDP premier Bob Rae’s unilateral opening of public sector workers’ contracts and the imposition of public sector wage-cuts accompanied by tax increases for the corporate sector. Was Brother Hahn implying that a wage-freeze would be tolerable, if accompanied by the cancellation of the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cut?
No credible union or union leader should contemplate a zero-wage increase over two years - even if the government rescinds the $4.6 billion tax-cut. There should not have been a tax-cut for the capitalist class. Restoring the tax should not be used as a bargaining chip to escape a wage-freeze on public sector workers.
Not to be outdone was the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, Warren (Smokey) Thomas. We will leave it to you to decipher the implicit message in the following statement by Smokey Thomas. “Just because he [Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan] wants something doesn’t mean he’s going to get it. It’s not a social contract. He can propose (a wage-freeze) but he has to bargain it. He can’t legislate it. He’ll lose.”[4] Is it just us or does that sound like a labour leader who is not really in a fighting spirit and just wants to make a deal?
A simple matter of misguided policy?
However, the critical issue for Ontario’s public sector workers is the extent to which many of our labour leaders seem to be completely unaware of the state and employers’ motives for disciplining labour through wage concessions. Ismael Hossein-zaded of Drake University made the following observation, which is quite applicable to the posturing of labour leaders in Ontario:
Quote:
Viewing the savage class war of the ruling kleptocracy on the people's living and working conditions simply as “bad” policy, and hoping to somehow—presumably through smart arguments and sage advice—replace it with the “good” Keynesian policy of deficit spending without a fight, without grassroots‟ involvement and/or pressure, stems from the rather naive supposition that policy making is a simple matter of technical expertise or the benevolence of policy makers, that is, a matter of choice. The presumed choice is said to be between only two alternatives: between the stimulus or Keynesian deficit spending, on the one hand, and the Neoliberal austerity of cutting social spending, on the other.5
Based on some of the statements coming from labour leaders, they may not have gotten the memo that the attack on the working-class (through the slashing of social programme spending, attacks on private sector pensions and wage freezes) is not about good or bad economic policies. Hossein-Zedad must have been inspired to write his paper after reading the following Keynesian-inspired comment by Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan; “From a policy perspective, it makes no economic sense whatsoever. You’ve got a government saying we need to stimulate the economy. The best way of stimulating the economy is through public-sector workers who spend every single penny of their disposable income in their local communities,”[6] But it’s not about the economy, per se. It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Canada’s economic and political elite have clearly given up the ghost of Keynesian economics, which calls on government to either stimulate or restrict the demand for goods and services based on the state of the economy. In the case of the 2008 crisis in capitalism, these neoliberal players felt forced by the magnitude of the impending financial collapse to pump money into the economy. A not-too-insignificant fact was lost on many observers and commentators who gleefully cheered on the capitalist class’ “Road-to-Damascus” moment. The capitalist state in Canada and other imperialist countries will do everything within their power to maintain a business environment that facilitates the accumulation of capital or profit-making, as well as legitimize the system in the eyes of the people. That is all in a day’s work for the state…no surprise here for class conscious trade unionists and other activists!
Labour’s “Response”
We ought to note that the recent crisis in the economy caught organized labour off-guard and ill-prepared to mobilize the working-class against that monumental failure of capitalism. For decades, Western corporations and governments have been force-feeding the public a steady diet of tax-cuts. Lower taxes on businesses, high-income earners and the wealthy, the widespread slashing of social services and income support programmes, a massive reduction in state oversight and regulation of corporations and the enactment of anti-union policies and legislation have been the all rage since corporations and Western governments abandoned their class-collaborationist pact with organized labour in the 1970s. Yet at the very moment when capitalism experienced a crisis of confidence resulting from a set of policies that had been hailed as perfect ingredients for economic and social progress, organized labour was caught with its pants down. Its leaders didn’t have a class struggle alternative to Keynesian economics – an economic tendency that was never intended to be used as a tool to end wage slavery and the minority rule of bankers, industrialists and the managerial and political elite.
Presently, the labour movement is ideologically and operationally ill-prepared to effectively face down the two-year wage-freeze demand from the McGuinty Liberals. Unfortunately, labour’s leaders have, in the main, focused on narrow economic demands rather than seeking to politically develop union activists and their broader membership behind a class struggle labour movement platform. Union members have been politically deskilled and demobilized in favour of a social service model of trade unionism. These labour leaders have failed to use their unions’ courses, workshops, week-long schools, publications and other educational resources to educate members of the fact that they are a part of a distinct class with economic and political interests that are different from that of the rulers of capitalist society.
Even the most casual of observers understand that organized labour’s raison d’être is to champion the material concerns of the working-class. And yet, ideologically-speaking, most labour leaders in Canada have cast their lot in with capitalism - albeit a more Scandinavian version. This is why a coherent critique of capitalism is notably absent from most union-organized workshops and events. It should therefore not come as a surprise that many union members have swallowed the employers and politicians’ message that Canada is a largely middle-class country and that our collective aspiration should be to remain a member of this class. If the labour leaders, academics and the media say that the majority of Canadians are a part of the middle-class, it must be so. The development of a working-class consciousness becomes very difficult (but not impossible) in this kind of political environment.
The great majority of Canadians are members of the working-class. They sell their labour, exercise little to no control over how their work-life is organized, have no say over how the profit from their labour is distributed and are so alienated from work that the aphorism “Thank god it’s Friday” has its own acronym. One should never define middle-class status as one’s ability to purchase consumer trinkets, live in a mortgaged home or even own a summer cottage. Middle-class status ought to be defined by one’s exercise of power and control and/or the possession of high levels of human capital found among administrative/managerial elites in the private and public sectors, academic elites and independent professionals.
Labour’s Credibility Crisis
The narrow economic obsession of labour leaders was on plain display when Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan revealed the March 2010 Budget. When it became known that the McGuinty Liberals would be seeking a two-year wage-freeze from public sector workers, this news was all that consumed the attention of most labour leaders. Many labour functionaries scrambled around in search of external and internal legal opinions, requesting briefs from senior staff on the impact of a wage-freeze on bargaining in specific sectors and sending out correspondence to members assuring them to “just act as if nothing had happened”, because they’re “already covered by a collective agreement”. Many labour union offices’ and unionized workplaces’ anxiety was centred entirely on the desired wage-freeze by the McGuinty Liberals. Nothing else!
But today we hear labour leaders talking about keeping money in workers’ pockets to stimulate the economy and that their primary concern is maintaining public services at adequate levels. Why didn’t organized labour deploy its resources to educate and mobilize the public against the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cuts, slashing of $4 billion in transportation infrastructure spending from Metrolinx’s $9.3 billion budget7] and the scrapping of the special diet allowance that benefited over 160,000 members of the working-class for the unprincely sum of $250 million per annum and a mere monthly average of $130 per person[8]? The provincial government anticipates that the two-year wage-freeze across the public sector will net a savings of $1.5 billion – yet the previous $8.6 billion effectively stolen from the working class failed to push organized labour into action.
The leaders of organized labour did not have the imagination to energize their members and the broader citizenry in alliance with other social movement organizations over the Budget. They could have exposed the class priorities of the McGuinty Liberals. The government’s main concerns clearly have nothing to do with those of us who are poor, live from pay cheque to pay cheque and do not patronize the golf courses where McGuinty and his friends hang out when they are not screwing the public. Listen up public sector labour leaders: the people will not be fooled by your claims to be advocating for the general interest. The broader working-class just have to simply see where you direct the labour movement’s resources and they will clue into the issues that are being prioritized. Take a look at the poor, working-class and/or racialized areas that are likely to be affected by the $4 billion cut to Metrolinx’s budget:
Quote:
…the austerity moves could affect five planned projects: rapid transit lines for Finch Ave. W., Sheppard Ave. E. and the Scarborough RT, along with the Eglinton Ave. cross-town line and an expansion of York region’s Viva service.[9]
Are we to believe that a class-struggle and anti-oppression informed public education, organizing and mobilization campaign in defense of public services, the social wage and a livable wage would not have had some level of traction with the people of Ontario?
An alternative economic plan or a different labour movement?
In some quarters of the trade union sector, there are talks of presenting an alternative plan to the slash-and-burn neoliberal policies of the provincial government. But, the presentation of Keynesian economic proposals by labour leaders is useless in a climate where the ruling class doesn’t feel threatened by a politically mobilized population, especially without “compelling grassroots pressure on policy makers”.[10] We implied earlier that labour unions have a credibility gap with the broader public if they now assert a desire to “broaden the debate, educate community members and local politicians with a view to engaging in actions that protect public services and build strong communities” as outlined by one union. What would be the purpose of the alternative plans of these labour leaders? The status quo of the 1930s to the 1960s that gave rise to the welfare state is not a transformative option.
There is no such thing as a “contextless” context. Where is the necessary political environment that would force the state to make concessions to the working-class out of fear that they maybe inclined to embrace revolutionary options? When some labour leaders are loosely talking about coming up with an alternative (Keynesian economic plan?) stimulus proposal, they would do well to understand the political implications of the following statement:
Quote:
Keynesian economists seem to be unmindful of this fundamental relationship between economics and politics. Instead, they view economic policies as the outcome of the battle of ideas, not of class forces or interests. And herein lies one of the principal weaknesses of their argument: viewing the Keynesian/New Deal/Social Democratic reforms of the 1930s through the 1960s as the product of Keynes’ or F.D.R.’s genius, or the goodness of their hearts; not of the compelling pressure exerted by the revolutionary movements of that period on the national policy makers to “implement reform in order to prevent revolution,” as F.D.R. famously put it. This explains why economic policy makers of today are not listening to Keynesian arguments—powerful and elegant as they are—because there would be no Keynesian, New Deal, or Social-Democratic economics without revolutionary pressure from the people.[11]
However, when labour leaders shy away from speaking openly about class-struggle and the nature of our economic system, we have a serious problem. It means that they are not in a position to facilitate a class-struggle, democracy-from-below and self-organizing form of trade unionism.
In order fight this attack on the working-class of Ontario, the labour movements’ rank-and-file activists, progressive leaders and principled labour socialists must engage in shop-floor education, organizing and mobilizing that is centred on a class-struggle, anti-racist and anti-oppression campaign. This approach to labour activism must be done in alliance with progressive or radical social movement organizations among women, racialized peoples, indigenous peoples, youth, students, LGBT community, climate/environmental justice, independent and revolutionary labour organizations, anti-authoritarian formations, and radical intellectuals. It must be an alliance based on mutual respect, sharing of approaches to emancipation and resources and a commitment to the value that the oppressed are the architect of and the driving force behind the movement for their emancipation. It is essential that organized labour open up and transform its leadership and decision-making structures to accommodate the full inclusion of its membership, in all their diversity.
In most of our unions and locals, this means starting from the beginning and we can use this current crisis to take those first steps. There is a lot of frustration among union members and community activists over the inaction of labour’s leadership in the face of this attack - and a desire to do something about it. That frustration and desire can be channeled into building cross-union “fight back committees” that bring together trade union and community activists in a city or town, such as members of the Greater Toronto Workers Assembly have already begun to do in that city. The “fight back committees” can give us a capacity to act independently from organized labour’s leadership. And probably our first acts should be to organize general assemblies in our locals and town hall meetings in our communities to promote a working-class view of the economic crisis and to mobilize our fellow workers and neighbours around militant, grassroots resistance to the McGuinty government and all the forces promoting a new round of austerity for the working-class.
Nothing less than a self-organizing, class-struggle approach to trade unionism will put labour in a position to fight in the here-and-now, while building the road we must travel on our way to the classless and stateless society of the future.
Alex Diceanu is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 and a graduate student at McMaster University. Ajamu Nangwaya is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Locals 3907 and 3902 and a graduate student at the University of Toronto. Both authors are members of the Ontario anarchist organization, Common Cause.
________________________________________
[1] Walkom, T. (2010, March 26). Liberals aim at easy targets. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785616--walkom...
[2] Brennan, R. J. & Talaga, T. (2010, March 26) Hudak cut wages deeper. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785343--hudak-cut-wages-deeper
[3] Benzie, R. (2010, July 20). Dwight Duncan’s wage-freeze pitch gets frosty reception. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/837872--dwight-duncan-s-wage-freeze-pitch-gets-frosty-reception
[4] Benzie, July 20
[5] Hossein-zaded, I. (2010, July 23-25). Holes in the Keynesian Arguments against Neoliberal Austerity Policy—Not “Bad” Policy, But Class Policy. Retrieved from http://www.counterpunch.org/zadeh07232010.html
[6] Benzie, July 20.
[7] Hume, C. (2010, March 29). Transit still not a priority. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ttc/article/787317--transit-still-not-a-...
[8] The Canadian Press. (2010 April 1). Ontario asked to restore special diet allowance. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/04/01/diet-allowance.html
9] Goddard, J., Rider, D. & Kalinoski, (2010, March 26). Miller outraged as budget sideswiped GTA transit. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/785573--miller-outraged-as-budget-sideswipes-gta-transit
[10] Hossein-zaded, I, Holes in the Keynesian arguments against neoliberal austerity policy.
[11] ibid
It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Organized labour’s confused response to the McGuinty Liberals' attack on Ontario’s working-class
By Ajamu Nangwaya and Alex Diceanu
Organized labour in Ontario will continue to put forth a weak and ineffective response to attacks from the ruling class as long as it continues to ignore the reality of class struggle. A perfect example is its current response to a proposed two-year wage-freeze that the Dalton McGuinty-led Ontario government plans on imposing on unionized public sector workers. The provincial Liberals would like to save $750 million per year from a wage-freeze, so as to help manage the $19.3 billion budget deficit. Readers need not be reminded that this deficit is the result of the risky financial speculations of the captains of finance, industry and commerce that created the Great Recession of 2008.
But it is the 710,000 unionized members of the working class and 350,000 non-unionized managers and other employees who draw pay cheques from the government[1] and the users of state-provided services (and private sector workers) who are being asked to bear the burden of paying for the actions of the corporate sector. At the same time as this attempt to take income from the pockets of government workers, the McGuinty Liberals’ have granted a $4.6 billion tax-cut to the business sector.
The leader of the Ontario New Democrats, Andrea Howarth, has signaled her support for public sector workers’ acceptance of a pay cut. She asserts, "I'm quite sure when they get to the bargaining table they will do their part like everyone else does ... there is a collective bargaining process that has to be respected."[2] Wow! Who said that the working-class needs enemies with “friends” like the New Democratic Party (NDP) and its leader Andrea Horwarth?
However, it is the tame and even puzzling reaction of some of Ontario’s major labour leaders that should be of concern to workers in the public sector. The government called labour leaders and employers from the broader public sector to “consultation” talks on the wage freeze on July 19, 2010. Coming out of the talks, this was what CUPE-Ontario president Fred Hahn had to say, “This is not like the early ’90s, this is not about sharing the pain. That’s all just not true”.[3] He was referring to former NDP premier Bob Rae’s unilateral opening of public sector workers’ contracts and the imposition of public sector wage-cuts accompanied by tax increases for the corporate sector. Was Brother Hahn implying that a wage-freeze would be tolerable, if accompanied by the cancellation of the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cut?
No credible union or union leader should contemplate a zero-wage increase over two years - even if the government rescinds the $4.6 billion tax-cut. There should not have been a tax-cut for the capitalist class. Restoring the tax should not be used as a bargaining chip to escape a wage-freeze on public sector workers.
Not to be outdone was the president of the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union, Warren (Smokey) Thomas. We will leave it to you to decipher the implicit message in the following statement by Smokey Thomas. “Just because he [Minister of Finance Dwight Duncan] wants something doesn’t mean he’s going to get it. It’s not a social contract. He can propose (a wage-freeze) but he has to bargain it. He can’t legislate it. He’ll lose.”[4] Is it just us or does that sound like a labour leader who is not really in a fighting spirit and just wants to make a deal?
A simple matter of misguided policy?
However, the critical issue for Ontario’s public sector workers is the extent to which many of our labour leaders seem to be completely unaware of the state and employers’ motives for disciplining labour through wage concessions. Ismael Hossein-zaded of Drake University made the following observation, which is quite applicable to the posturing of labour leaders in Ontario:
Quote:
Viewing the savage class war of the ruling kleptocracy on the people's living and working conditions simply as “bad” policy, and hoping to somehow—presumably through smart arguments and sage advice—replace it with the “good” Keynesian policy of deficit spending without a fight, without grassroots‟ involvement and/or pressure, stems from the rather naive supposition that policy making is a simple matter of technical expertise or the benevolence of policy makers, that is, a matter of choice. The presumed choice is said to be between only two alternatives: between the stimulus or Keynesian deficit spending, on the one hand, and the Neoliberal austerity of cutting social spending, on the other.5
Based on some of the statements coming from labour leaders, they may not have gotten the memo that the attack on the working-class (through the slashing of social programme spending, attacks on private sector pensions and wage freezes) is not about good or bad economic policies. Hossein-Zedad must have been inspired to write his paper after reading the following Keynesian-inspired comment by Ontario Federation of Labour president Sid Ryan; “From a policy perspective, it makes no economic sense whatsoever. You’ve got a government saying we need to stimulate the economy. The best way of stimulating the economy is through public-sector workers who spend every single penny of their disposable income in their local communities,”[6] But it’s not about the economy, per se. It’s the class struggle, stupid!
Canada’s economic and political elite have clearly given up the ghost of Keynesian economics, which calls on government to either stimulate or restrict the demand for goods and services based on the state of the economy. In the case of the 2008 crisis in capitalism, these neoliberal players felt forced by the magnitude of the impending financial collapse to pump money into the economy. A not-too-insignificant fact was lost on many observers and commentators who gleefully cheered on the capitalist class’ “Road-to-Damascus” moment. The capitalist state in Canada and other imperialist countries will do everything within their power to maintain a business environment that facilitates the accumulation of capital or profit-making, as well as legitimize the system in the eyes of the people. That is all in a day’s work for the state…no surprise here for class conscious trade unionists and other activists!
Labour’s “Response”
We ought to note that the recent crisis in the economy caught organized labour off-guard and ill-prepared to mobilize the working-class against that monumental failure of capitalism. For decades, Western corporations and governments have been force-feeding the public a steady diet of tax-cuts. Lower taxes on businesses, high-income earners and the wealthy, the widespread slashing of social services and income support programmes, a massive reduction in state oversight and regulation of corporations and the enactment of anti-union policies and legislation have been the all rage since corporations and Western governments abandoned their class-collaborationist pact with organized labour in the 1970s. Yet at the very moment when capitalism experienced a crisis of confidence resulting from a set of policies that had been hailed as perfect ingredients for economic and social progress, organized labour was caught with its pants down. Its leaders didn’t have a class struggle alternative to Keynesian economics – an economic tendency that was never intended to be used as a tool to end wage slavery and the minority rule of bankers, industrialists and the managerial and political elite.
Presently, the labour movement is ideologically and operationally ill-prepared to effectively face down the two-year wage-freeze demand from the McGuinty Liberals. Unfortunately, labour’s leaders have, in the main, focused on narrow economic demands rather than seeking to politically develop union activists and their broader membership behind a class struggle labour movement platform. Union members have been politically deskilled and demobilized in favour of a social service model of trade unionism. These labour leaders have failed to use their unions’ courses, workshops, week-long schools, publications and other educational resources to educate members of the fact that they are a part of a distinct class with economic and political interests that are different from that of the rulers of capitalist society.
Even the most casual of observers understand that organized labour’s raison d’être is to champion the material concerns of the working-class. And yet, ideologically-speaking, most labour leaders in Canada have cast their lot in with capitalism - albeit a more Scandinavian version. This is why a coherent critique of capitalism is notably absent from most union-organized workshops and events. It should therefore not come as a surprise that many union members have swallowed the employers and politicians’ message that Canada is a largely middle-class country and that our collective aspiration should be to remain a member of this class. If the labour leaders, academics and the media say that the majority of Canadians are a part of the middle-class, it must be so. The development of a working-class consciousness becomes very difficult (but not impossible) in this kind of political environment.
The great majority of Canadians are members of the working-class. They sell their labour, exercise little to no control over how their work-life is organized, have no say over how the profit from their labour is distributed and are so alienated from work that the aphorism “Thank god it’s Friday” has its own acronym. One should never define middle-class status as one’s ability to purchase consumer trinkets, live in a mortgaged home or even own a summer cottage. Middle-class status ought to be defined by one’s exercise of power and control and/or the possession of high levels of human capital found among administrative/managerial elites in the private and public sectors, academic elites and independent professionals.
Labour’s Credibility Crisis
The narrow economic obsession of labour leaders was on plain display when Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncan revealed the March 2010 Budget. When it became known that the McGuinty Liberals would be seeking a two-year wage-freeze from public sector workers, this news was all that consumed the attention of most labour leaders. Many labour functionaries scrambled around in search of external and internal legal opinions, requesting briefs from senior staff on the impact of a wage-freeze on bargaining in specific sectors and sending out correspondence to members assuring them to “just act as if nothing had happened”, because they’re “already covered by a collective agreement”. Many labour union offices’ and unionized workplaces’ anxiety was centred entirely on the desired wage-freeze by the McGuinty Liberals. Nothing else!
But today we hear labour leaders talking about keeping money in workers’ pockets to stimulate the economy and that their primary concern is maintaining public services at adequate levels. Why didn’t organized labour deploy its resources to educate and mobilize the public against the $4.6 billion corporate tax-cuts, slashing of $4 billion in transportation infrastructure spending from Metrolinx’s $9.3 billion budget7] and the scrapping of the special diet allowance that benefited over 160,000 members of the working-class for the unprincely sum of $250 million per annum and a mere monthly average of $130 per person[8]? The provincial government anticipates that the two-year wage-freeze across the public sector will net a savings of $1.5 billion – yet the previous $8.6 billion effectively stolen from the working class failed to push organized labour into action.
The leaders of organized labour did not have the imagination to energize their members and the broader citizenry in alliance with other social movement organizations over the Budget. They could have exposed the class priorities of the McGuinty Liberals. The government’s main concerns clearly have nothing to do with those of us who are poor, live from pay cheque to pay cheque and do not patronize the golf courses where McGuinty and his friends hang out when they are not screwing the public. Listen up public sector labour leaders: the people will not be fooled by your claims to be advocating for the general interest. The broader working-class just have to simply see where you direct the labour movement’s resources and they will clue into the issues that are being prioritized. Take a look at the poor, working-class and/or racialized areas that are likely to be affected by the $4 billion cut to Metrolinx’s budget:
Quote:
…the austerity moves could affect five planned projects: rapid transit lines for Finch Ave. W., Sheppard Ave. E. and the Scarborough RT, along with the Eglinton Ave. cross-town line and an expansion of York region’s Viva service.[9]
Are we to believe that a class-struggle and anti-oppression informed public education, organizing and mobilization campaign in defense of public services, the social wage and a livable wage would not have had some level of traction with the people of Ontario?
An alternative economic plan or a different labour movement?
In some quarters of the trade union sector, there are talks of presenting an alternative plan to the slash-and-burn neoliberal policies of the provincial government. But, the presentation of Keynesian economic proposals by labour leaders is useless in a climate where the ruling class doesn’t feel threatened by a politically mobilized population, especially without “compelling grassroots pressure on policy makers”.[10] We implied earlier that labour unions have a credibility gap with the broader public if they now assert a desire to “broaden the debate, educate community members and local politicians with a view to engaging in actions that protect public services and build strong communities” as outlined by one union. What would be the purpose of the alternative plans of these labour leaders? The status quo of the 1930s to the 1960s that gave rise to the welfare state is not a transformative option.
There is no such thing as a “contextless” context. Where is the necessary political environment that would force the state to make concessions to the working-class out of fear that they maybe inclined to embrace revolutionary options? When some labour leaders are loosely talking about coming up with an alternative (Keynesian economic plan?) stimulus proposal, they would do well to understand the political implications of the following statement:
Quote:
Keynesian economists seem to be unmindful of this fundamental relationship between economics and politics. Instead, they view economic policies as the outcome of the battle of ideas, not of class forces or interests. And herein lies one of the principal weaknesses of their argument: viewing the Keynesian/New Deal/Social Democratic reforms of the 1930s through the 1960s as the product of Keynes’ or F.D.R.’s genius, or the goodness of their hearts; not of the compelling pressure exerted by the revolutionary movements of that period on the national policy makers to “implement reform in order to prevent revolution,” as F.D.R. famously put it. This explains why economic policy makers of today are not listening to Keynesian arguments—powerful and elegant as they are—because there would be no Keynesian, New Deal, or Social-Democratic economics without revolutionary pressure from the people.[11]
However, when labour leaders shy away from speaking openly about class-struggle and the nature of our economic system, we have a serious problem. It means that they are not in a position to facilitate a class-struggle, democracy-from-below and self-organizing form of trade unionism.
In order fight this attack on the working-class of Ontario, the labour movements’ rank-and-file activists, progressive leaders and principled labour socialists must engage in shop-floor education, organizing and mobilizing that is centred on a class-struggle, anti-racist and anti-oppression campaign. This approach to labour activism must be done in alliance with progressive or radical social movement organizations among women, racialized peoples, indigenous peoples, youth, students, LGBT community, climate/environmental justice, independent and revolutionary labour organizations, anti-authoritarian formations, and radical intellectuals. It must be an alliance based on mutual respect, sharing of approaches to emancipation and resources and a commitment to the value that the oppressed are the architect of and the driving force behind the movement for their emancipation. It is essential that organized labour open up and transform its leadership and decision-making structures to accommodate the full inclusion of its membership, in all their diversity.
In most of our unions and locals, this means starting from the beginning and we can use this current crisis to take those first steps. There is a lot of frustration among union members and community activists over the inaction of labour’s leadership in the face of this attack - and a desire to do something about it. That frustration and desire can be channeled into building cross-union “fight back committees” that bring together trade union and community activists in a city or town, such as members of the Greater Toronto Workers Assembly have already begun to do in that city. The “fight back committees” can give us a capacity to act independently from organized labour’s leadership. And probably our first acts should be to organize general assemblies in our locals and town hall meetings in our communities to promote a working-class view of the economic crisis and to mobilize our fellow workers and neighbours around militant, grassroots resistance to the McGuinty government and all the forces promoting a new round of austerity for the working-class.
Nothing less than a self-organizing, class-struggle approach to trade unionism will put labour in a position to fight in the here-and-now, while building the road we must travel on our way to the classless and stateless society of the future.
Alex Diceanu is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 and a graduate student at McMaster University. Ajamu Nangwaya is a member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Locals 3907 and 3902 and a graduate student at the University of Toronto. Both authors are members of the Ontario anarchist organization, Common Cause.
________________________________________
[1] Walkom, T. (2010, March 26). Liberals aim at easy targets. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785616--walkom...
[2] Brennan, R. J. & Talaga, T. (2010, March 26) Hudak cut wages deeper. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/ontariobudget/article/785343--hudak-cut-wages-deeper
[3] Benzie, R. (2010, July 20). Dwight Duncan’s wage-freeze pitch gets frosty reception. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/837872--dwight-duncan-s-wage-freeze-pitch-gets-frosty-reception
[4] Benzie, July 20
[5] Hossein-zaded, I. (2010, July 23-25). Holes in the Keynesian Arguments against Neoliberal Austerity Policy—Not “Bad” Policy, But Class Policy. Retrieved from http://www.counterpunch.org/zadeh07232010.html
[6] Benzie, July 20.
[7] Hume, C. (2010, March 29). Transit still not a priority. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/ttc/article/787317--transit-still-not-a-...
[8] The Canadian Press. (2010 April 1). Ontario asked to restore special diet allowance. Retrieved fromhttp://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/04/01/diet-allowance.html
9] Goddard, J., Rider, D. & Kalinoski, (2010, March 26). Miller outraged as budget sideswiped GTA transit. Toronto Star. Retrieved from http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/785573--miller-outraged-as-budget-sideswipes-gta-transit
[10] Hossein-zaded, I, Holes in the Keynesian arguments against neoliberal austerity policy.
[11] ibid
Labels: anarchism, anarchist theory, Canadian labour, Common Cause, labour, Linchpin, Ontario, platformism, tactics
Saturday, June 26, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS TORONTO:
G20 PROTESTS BEGIN:
After the conclusion of the G8 summit in Ontario cottage country the G20 summit in downtown Toronto has begun. From what I can glean from the media the G8 summit was a non-event. The media seems much more interested in covering protests than they do the photo-ops and weaselly statements of the assembled leaders of the G8. In any case there has long been speculation that the G8 is outmoded. What this means is pretty plain in that the host country Canada is far less of a major players in the world economy than many non-members who will be at the G20. An era has passed. Anything concrete would have to come out of something like the G20.
The assembled G8 missed the Québec/Ontario earthquake to my great chagrin. I would have loved to see coverage of the spooks (security) running around in a panic shooting each other in the ass thinking it was some sort of mega bomb. Ah well we can hope for aftershocks.
Meanwhile demonstrations that have been ongoing in Toronto were ratcheted up a notch yesterday as the Toronto Community Mobilzation Network held their preliminary demonstration. The Mobilization Network also has a facebook page where you can get a lot of the news that won't be in the mass media. The Toronto Media Co-op also has a specific subpage, the G20 Alt Media Centre, where news of the protests is updated practically to the minute. Please check out these resources if you want the latest coverage on what is happening...from the protesters' point of view.
In any case a 'large crowd' marched in downtown Toronto yesterday. If you want the definition of 'large' I cannot provide it. Generally the best way to come close to the truth of these things is to take the largest estimate and divide it by two. Then take the low estimate and double it. Average the two and you get close to reality. Yes, the sides that I might personally be in favour of are just as prone to manipulating numbers as the "opponents". That's life. Whatever the numbers may have been it was enough for the bosses in charge of security at the meeting to jump the gun and impose the security zone lockdown of the summit area a day earlier than planned.
It was also large enough that it convinced the bosses to push the "go button" and begin targeted arrests of the leadership cadre of the various groups protesting (see later). The scoops showed that the police/csis actually have very good intelligence. It's one thing to be able to identify "individuals of concern" in open-to-the-public groups where identity has never been concealed. That is almost as easy as identifying clandestine groups who think they are incredibly sneaky even when they have multiple informers implanted in them. In those cases the spooks keep much better paperwork. What impresses me is not the who who were arrested but the where as it seems that the police keep pretty good tabs on the movements of the individuals they have targeted. It's something to be considered, though I know that there is ideological opposition to considering such things.
In any case here's a report from the mass media (CTV) about what occurred yesterday.
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Police get special arrest powers for duration of G20
Date: Fri. Jun. 25 2010 8:31 PM ET
Police temporarily shut the gates to the G20 security perimeter early Friday evening, as they attempted to head off the largest in a string of demonstrations to protest the international meeting.
Anti-poverty demonstrators had attempted to march south towards the security zone where the G20 summit will take place. But they were turned back when police with shields blockaded University Avenue.
Instead the protesters backtracked, marching east towards the park where the demonstration originated, trailed by police in full riot gear.
"I'm not a hell-raiser but I want my voice to be heard," one woman told CP24, adding that she decided to join the demonstration in response to the large number of police on the city's streets. "I thought I lived in a democracy and I don't think I do any more."
The protests led the Integrated Security Unit to close the security fence around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the G20 summit will be held. A gate was later reopened at Yonge Street and Wellington Street, apparently to allow residents and business-owners inside the security zone to pass through.
As the march wound down, organizers said they would set up a collection of tents in Allan Gardens, camp there overnight, and join another large G20 protest to be held at Queen's Park on Saturday afternoon.
The demonstration attracted some 2,000 people at its peak, in spite of a heavy police presence and news that Ontario had quietly passed legislation that allows police to question and arrest anyone walking within five metres of the security fence in the city's financial district.
The crowd was the largest in a string of demonstrations in the lead-up to the G8 summit, which began Friday in Huntsville, Ont., and the G20 summit that starts Saturday in Toronto. But by 7 p.m., the number of protesters in the march has since dwindled to a few hundred people, CTV Toronto's Naomi Parness reported.
One image showed a group of people clad in black masks among the demonstrators. Reports had suggested that a radical group may split off from the main demonstration and move towards the security fence around the Convention Centre, but that never occurred.
Another image showed a sizable group of helmeted police, standing six officers across, and stretching back down a shaded alley.
The demonstration was for the most part peaceful, aside from one incident in which a protester was reportedly arrested by police.
An immigrants' rights group called No One is Illegal also reportedly released red and black balloons into the air, in an apparent attempt to challenge restrictions on the city's airspace during the summits. (Authorities have banned kites and hot air balloons in the vicinity of the Convention Centre.)
Organizers used social media sites such as Twitter to post updates as the demonstration unfolded.
The Toronto Community Mobilization Network, a collection of protesters from different groups, said that police were searching people as they entered Allan Gardens park where the demonstration originated.
John Clarke, with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, called the large police presence "offensive."
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Here's a report from G20 Alt Media Centre about the arrests that followed the demonstrations yesterday.
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House raids, warrants and arrests
by Tim Groves
Three house where G20 protesters have been staying were raided last night; activists staying at the houses were arrested. Six or more arrest warrants were issued and at least four of the people named in the warrants have been arrested and charged with conspiracy.
"The people arrested were involved in Indigenous sovereignty organizing, environmental organizing, and anti poverty organizing," said Mac Scott, a member of the Movement Defence Committee, which provides legal support for activists. They "believe this is an abrogation of Section 2 of the [Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom]," which guarantees Canadians' fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of association and freedom of thought.
Police arrived at a house where 15 activists were staying at approximately 4:45am.
"They did not have a warrant, we asked for a warrant. They asked for identification, they asked us questions, we refused. People were detained, people asked to call legal council. We were refused to be allowed to call legal council," said Niki Thorne, a resident of the house. Even when a warrant was later provided, those being arrested were not allowed to fully read the warrant before it was taken away from them. "They were kicking people out of bed, kicking people awake," she added.
"I was in a tent in the backyard. We got woken up by two cops and put in cuffs, and there were probably at least six or eight police in the house," said Marya Folinsbee, who was staying at the house and is a friend of the man who was arrested. "They were trying to identify people. They had a big stack of papers with names and face of activists, some were organizers and some were people just doing child care for the protests."
The upstairs neighbours, a family with a young baby, were also visited by police.
"The neighbours who were not connected to the protest had a gun held to his head when he woke up. It's so fucked it's so fucked," said an shaken Folinsbee. "They put neighbours who lived in the building in cuffs."
One of the activists staying in the house was taken in his underwear into a paddy wagon waiting outside. The others in the house gathered on the front porch and sang loudly so that he could hear.
Another house had its door kicked in and a warrant left on the table. Two activists who live in the house have been arrested and a third person staying at the house was also been arrested, according to sources at the Toronto Community Mobilization Network.
Another unit in the same building also had it door kicked in.
Two other activists have been informed that there are warrants out for their arrest, and it is believed that they will be turning themselves in to police.
According to a tweet from the Movement Defence Committee the arrests were of "key organizers."
"We have a message to all those today: rights have never been granted or given, they have won," said Scott on behalf of the Movement Defence Committee.
Supporters of those arrested will gather outside the Toronto Film Studios starting at noon to provide solidarity. The film studios have been converted into a temporary jail. They are located at 629 Eastern Ave.
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Finally here's an item from the Ontario platformist site Linchpin about the aftermath of the massive security overkill at the G20 and what it means for civil liberties in Canada in the future.
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G20 prompts expanded police power... permanently
By Paul M.
The global protectors of capitalism will descend on Toronto this June to discuss how to best increase corporate profit rates while simultaneously selling belt tightening measures to societies already ravaged by a global recession. Imperialist wars, global poverty, and environmental destruction are massive problems that affect billions of people across the globe. How can we be sure that such important people as the leaders of the G20 will be protected from the vindictive mob of labor activists, environmentalists, immigration rights and anti-poverty organizations who will seek to hold them accountable?
Well, apparently the recession hasn’t put a dent in the security budget - now pushing $1 billion - needed to protect our vaunted leadership from the baser instincts of the public at large. Security fences, á la Quebec circa 2001, have been erected. RCMP, OPP, and Toronto Police, have been supplemented by thousands of officers from forces across Canada as well as the military. Together they form the Integrated Security Unit (ISU) in a spectacle of state power meant to effectively manage and/or crush all dissenting voices. A fenced-off film studio ostensibly geared towards mass detentions lends credence to a police strategy bent on enforcing a ludicrous free speech zone few will likely obey.
What seems to be clear is that this massive show of force will leave lingering marks on our civil liberties and a stronger police state in its wake. One obvious intrusion is the much talked-about 77 new CCTV police cameras installed in downtown Toronto, which city and police officials assure will be “mostly” taken down after the summit leaves town. Toronto Public Space Committee spokesperson Jonathan Goldsbie put it well when he rhetorically asked the Globe and Mail why anyone would spend countless thousands for high-tech cameras only to let them “languish in a storage area.” The Toronto Police Service’s claim to the CCTV cameras’ temporary nature sounds oddly similar to statements made by the Vancouver authorities in the run up to the Olympics, in which they announced that they would sell off CCTV cameras after the Games. The cameras used in Vancouver are now part of the city’s permanent “redeployable” arsenal - available at police discretion.
Certainly public scrutiny of police funding is a clear casualty of the summit, with the Toronto police taking the opportunity to update to encrypted radios at enormous taxpayer expense. In addition to their $35 million price tag, the radios mean journalists and concerned citizens will lose the capacity to monitor police activity. At the very least, some level of public oversight made cops more honest in the application of unjust laws - but now racial profiling, the surveillance of social justice groups, and continued harassment of the poor will fly under the radar of concerned citizens.
New abuses are also in store for summit protesters, who are now slated to become guinea pigs for the latest in police technology. Toronto Police have acquired four Long Range Acoustic Devices (LRAD) - more appropriately dubbed sound cannons – for the summit, which are known to cause moderate to serious hearing damage, including permanent loss of hearing. These weapons are being categorized as “communication devices”, but the unwillingness of police to disable their dangerous “alert” function at the request of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) demonstrates their real intention come summit day, and beyond. The willingness of the cops to use this dangerous weapon can perhaps be gauged by LRAD use during the last G20 summit in Pittsburgh, or, for that matter, by the general level of concern that cops always show to social activists. Ear plugs don’t cut down the decibel level enough to protect you from prolonged exposure to the cannon, but might buy you time to get out of range - and you can call me paranoid if you want, but I’m buying some.
While the rest of the public sector is being asked to brace themselves for wage freezes and service cuts, the Toronto Police have managed to turn the 5% reduction in operating costs requested by the city budget officer into a 5% increase. Doubtless the grand excuse of G20 security will be leveraged to secure special treatment for police state infrastructure, which remains the thin blue line separating the public from the wealthy minority determining their lives. The $45 million addition to the police budget is a pittance for the long term social control it affords, as poverty rises in a global recession and the propertied classes need bigger and more well-equipped guard dogs.
As the G20 begins, and activists gear up for yet another protestival, it is worth noting that the accompanying police state infrastructure is here to stay, and will certainly affect the ongoing work of day-to-day organizing so crucial for building a mass movement. The fight for a truly just and sustainable world must be fought everyday, in our workplaces and communities – lest we concede defeat to the global leadership we so rightly seek to protest.
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Molly has to say that the results of these protests will be interesting. The security measures that have been taken place this event in an entirely different ballpark than anything that has happened before in Canada including the Olympic Games security. The bill, however, for a mere three days is so fantastic that it is a rock solid guarantee that such things could not be repeated across the country. But, as the last item above mentions there will be a residual effect of increased police powers. This bears scrutiny.
Labels: canadian anarchist movement, Canadian politics, civil rights, current events, G20, G20 demonstrations, G20 Toronto Mobilize, Linchpin, Ontario, protests, Toronto
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
CANADIAN POLITICS LONDON:
IS A POSTER "PROPERTY DESTRUCTION" ?:
While the police forces of Ontario and a good part of the rest of Canada are being drained to put on the massive show of force in downtown Toronto (who cares if there are a few more murders and a lot more robberies as long as those 'goddamn protesters' can be intimidated ?)the police in one other southern Ontario city, London Ontario, have been busy doing their little bit to stop the collapse of civilization. That is they were arresting two individuals for the heinous crime of putting up posters opposing the G20 summit in Toronto.
Now Molly knows that London Ontario is hardly unique in this regard. There are moves afoot by one city councillor here in Winnipeg to have postering outlawed, and there are numerous other cities where it is already illegal. This "crime" of course defies enforcement. One can only imagine the outrage if a city has to waste resources on a "poster police" to go around and tear down every single ad for stray cats on power poles and every single garage sale sign on boulevards. Quite frankly whenever I visit a different city I find these unauthorized signs infinitely more interesting than the legally permitted commercial advertising.
Down in London Ontario the anal retentive absurdity is somewhat less as the enforcement is targeted ie enforced against political opponents of the G20, part of the campaign to create paranoia that Canadian governments are obviously engaged in. Some in that city are not going to stand for this persecution. Here's a press release from the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause about what happened and the 'mass postering' response to the ham handed attempt at censorship.
♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦♦
June 22, 2010
For Immediate Release:
-----------------------------------------------
LONDON ACTIVISTS TARGET OF POLICE INTIMIDATION
The recent arrests of two London activists for “promoting disturbance” represent yet another dramatic escalation in the Canadian state’s ongoing attempts to criminalize dissent.
We denounce these arrests as the shameful police intimidation tactics they are, and declare our solidarity with the two individuals arrested - including our organization’s youngest member, Andrew Cadotte.
It is clear that politicians and police officers in this country are more than willing to bend the rules to try and intimidate those seeking to challenge the continued domination of the poor by the rich.
By referring to postering as “property destruction”, the police are attempting to build a psychological connection between lawful dissent and violence where no such connection exists.
The police cited the “negative message” of the posters as grounds for holding these individuals overnight in jail. But the true “negative messages” plastered around the city are in the sexist advertisements that promote women as emotionless commodities, and on the countless billboards that sell apathetic consumerism as a way of life.
Public space should belong to the community, not to corporations, and should be a space where we can freely express our ideas as part of the democratic process. This freedom must be regularly exercised and vigorously defended, or else it will be trampled on by the repressive nature of the state.
This is why several of our members joined with the direct action on Thursday, June 17th that covered our city’s downtown core with the very posters our comrades were arrested for putting up two nights earlier.
As anarchists and social justice activists, we have every intention to continue “promoting disturbance” of the capitalist status quo, guided by our undying commitment to international class struggle and, ultimately, revolution.
Common Cause - London
Common Cause is an anarchist organization with branches in London, Hamilton, Toronto and Ottawa.
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Common Cause
P.O. Box 347, Station E
772 Dovercourt Rd.
Toronto, ON, Canada,
M6H 4E3
Email: commoncauseontario@gmail.com
Web: http://linchpin.ca
Online Forum: http://anarchistblackcat.org/viewforum.php?f=61
Labels: censorship., Common Cause, G20, Linchpin, London, posters, protests
Friday, May 21, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-ONTARIO:
BOMBS ARE NOT THE WAY:
The recent firebombing of a Royal Bank branch in Ottawa has been headline news for the last few days. These sort of tactics come to the surface at various times and places, and they present a typical chicken and egg problem. Are they symptoms of a movement in decline, driven to desperation by its gradually shrinking relevance or are they a direct cause of such decline. The answer is actually both. I do not mean by this that "anarchism" is a declining movement. Quite the contrary. The actual anarchist movement, true to its heritage of libertarian socialism, continues to grow and develop. What is declining is the fashionable "activist culture" that has been popular over the last two decades. The rent-a-riots get smaller and smaller. The police pretty well perfected their methods of control of such things while many of the present participants were in diapers. This "culture" is "anarchist" only in the sense that anarchism is one of an almost endless laundry list of "isms and anti-isms" that participants are expected to profess their belief in. The historical heritage of organization for class struggle and a classless society is pretty well absent from the "activist" world view.
Regular readers of this blog know my opinion of this sort of petty childish attempt at terrorism. I expressed it as recently as a couple of days ago when I opined on events in Greece. I'll have more to say later. For now all that I will reiterate what a stupid irresponsible act committing arson in an urban area is. Especially when it accomplishes sweet bugger all. To avoid the deaths of innocent victims the firebombers depend on the omnipotence of the fire departments. Fire departments are certainly better than in the old days when whole cities could burn down. They are not, however, invincible, and many innocent people can be killed by arson. This sort of thing, however, doesn't seem to register in the minds of the true believers.
Well, I'll say more at another time. For now here's another opinion, from the Linchpin website of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause, that points out the difference between real anarchism and actions such as those of the Ottawa firebombers.
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Anarchists scapegoats for RBC arson
May 21, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Despite widespread claims by the media, there is no indication that the recent "firebombing" of an RBC bank branch in Ottawa was carried out by "anarchists".
Nowhere in the statement or video that was published online was it claimed that those responsible were anarchists.
For the media to claim that this is the work of anarchists without any evidence is the worst sort of red-baiting and gets a F grade in basic journalism.
We have no idea what the politics of those who did this are. We also can’t rule out the possibility that this act was carried out by agent-provocateurs.
"This act should also be put in the context of the significant violence that is perpetrated on a daily basis by the state capitalist system such as the violence of war, poverty, colonialism and environmental destruction. While we seek to build resistance based on mass movements of working and oppressed peoples, we understand why people are angry at the banks”, says Common Cause Ottawa member Kyle James.
Anarchism is not about violence and chaos. Anarchism is about creating a highly organized and democratic society, free of hierarchy and exploitation.
As anarchists, we support the building of revolutionary, democratic, mass movements that will challenge capitalism directly through labour and community organizing and mass direct action such as strikes, picket lines and occupations.
We believe in the power of millions of working-class people standing together against the bankers, bosses, and their states. We need unlimited general strikes of all workers across Canada and internationally to defeat the attacks on the working class by the capitalists.
Workers, including bank workers, have nothing to fear from anarchists. Together the working class has the power to shut this entire capitalist system down and work for our own needs instead of the profits of the bosses.
Common Cause is an Ontario anarchist organization with branches in Ottawa, London, Toronto and Hamilton.
A french translation of this press release can be obtained here.
Anarchists scapegoats for RBC arson
May 21, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Despite widespread claims by the media, there is no indication that the recent "firebombing" of an RBC bank branch in Ottawa was carried out by "anarchists".
Nowhere in the statement or video that was published online was it claimed that those responsible were anarchists.
For the media to claim that this is the work of anarchists without any evidence is the worst sort of red-baiting and gets a F grade in basic journalism.
We have no idea what the politics of those who did this are. We also can’t rule out the possibility that this act was carried out by agent-provocateurs.
"This act should also be put in the context of the significant violence that is perpetrated on a daily basis by the state capitalist system such as the violence of war, poverty, colonialism and environmental destruction. While we seek to build resistance based on mass movements of working and oppressed peoples, we understand why people are angry at the banks”, says Common Cause Ottawa member Kyle James.
Anarchism is not about violence and chaos. Anarchism is about creating a highly organized and democratic society, free of hierarchy and exploitation.
As anarchists, we support the building of revolutionary, democratic, mass movements that will challenge capitalism directly through labour and community organizing and mass direct action such as strikes, picket lines and occupations.
We believe in the power of millions of working-class people standing together against the bankers, bosses, and their states. We need unlimited general strikes of all workers across Canada and internationally to defeat the attacks on the working class by the capitalists.
Workers, including bank workers, have nothing to fear from anarchists. Together the working class has the power to shut this entire capitalist system down and work for our own needs instead of the profits of the bosses.
Common Cause is an Ontario anarchist organization with branches in Ottawa, London, Toronto and Hamilton.
A french translation of this press release can be obtained here.
Labels: anarchism, canadian anarchist movement, Common Cause, current events, Linchpin, Ontario, Ottawa
Sunday, May 09, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-HAMILTON:
THE HAMILTON ANARCHIST BOOKFAIR:
Coming up for its third kick at the (black) cat...the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair will be happening this June 5 at the Westdale Highschool, 700 Main St. West, Hamilton Ontario. Here's the promo. For more information on what will be happening see the "Events" section of the Linchpin website.
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Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair
June 5, 2010
10am-4pm
Westdale Highschool
700 Main Street West,
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 1A5
It is time again to join us for our third edition of the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair. Please come in big numbers. Vendors from across Ontario and beyond will be present again providing a variety of literature. We will hold several workshops this year with the main theme being the G8/G20 summit and links to local struggles.
Again this year free childcare and free food will be provided. The space is ramp accessible with all events on the main floor and a bigger bathroom is available. A gender neutral bathroom will be available. The event will be advertised as a scent-free space. We do try to make this event as accessible as possible for everybody so if you have any specific needs, please contact us at hamiltonanarchistbookfair(at)gmail.com.
Come learn about anarchist ideas for the first time or deepen your knowledge. Meet local organizers and connect with local struggles. Stick around for the after party!
Organized by Common Cause
commoncauseontario@gmail.com
This event is not endorsed by the HWDSB. The space is only rented to the organizers.
Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair
June 5, 2010
10am-4pm
Westdale Highschool
700 Main Street West,
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 1A5
It is time again to join us for our third edition of the Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair. Please come in big numbers. Vendors from across Ontario and beyond will be present again providing a variety of literature. We will hold several workshops this year with the main theme being the G8/G20 summit and links to local struggles.
Again this year free childcare and free food will be provided. The space is ramp accessible with all events on the main floor and a bigger bathroom is available. A gender neutral bathroom will be available. The event will be advertised as a scent-free space. We do try to make this event as accessible as possible for everybody so if you have any specific needs, please contact us at hamiltonanarchistbookfair(at)gmail.com.
Come learn about anarchist ideas for the first time or deepen your knowledge. Meet local organizers and connect with local struggles. Stick around for the after party!
Organized by Common Cause
commoncauseontario@gmail.com
This event is not endorsed by the HWDSB. The space is only rented to the organizers.
Labels: anarchism, anarchist bookfairs, announcements, canadian anarchist movement, events, Hamilton, Hamilton Anarchist Bookfair, Linchpin, Ontario
Friday, April 23, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-OTTAWA:
SPYING IN OTTAWA:
The following item is from the Ontario platformist site Linchpin/Common Cause. It seems that in the run-up to the upcoming G20 meeting in Toronto that the police in Ontario are doing what police always do ie gather intelligence and try to intimidate protesters. that is hardly "news", though the fact that they have been caught in at least one visit is. One more item about the violation of civil liberties in Canada to add to the tremendous list. I may think that what follows is both very true in some aspects and the result of unsupported speculation in other parts as to how the secret police proceed. The general advise, however, is quite sound. Nobody should answer questions from the usual fishing expedition on the part of the police unless 1)they have at least 40 years experience in radical politics, 2)they are at least 25 or 30 years older than the cop(intimidation factor), 3)they've been visited at least once before, 4)they have immediate access to a hidden recording devise, 5)the cops will agree to come by at a reasonable time of day and agree to the presence of witnesses and, perhaps most importantly, you have a plan in place to say nothing while continually questioning the agent.
To say the least all these items rarely (ever ?) come together at once. Therefore the advise to "say nothing" is the best that can be given. Here's the Linchpin item, corrected for English punctuation ( Don't get me started on this item-Molly ).
LPLPLPLPLPLPLPLP
Heads up: Cops visiting Ottawa activists
On Thursday morning, an Ottawa-area activist was visited at their home by two plainclothes police who said they were RCMP from out-of-town.
The previous night, after a public event on diversity of tactics, some activists present suspected the event was under surveillance when men in a white van were seeing watching from outside the venue.
So perhaps more people will be visited in the future? We've seen these kinds of strategies before, most recently in the lead up to the olympics in Vancouver, where activists involved in anti-Olympics organizing were visited, followed, and surveilled.
The visits are surely intended to gather intelligence and to intimidate.
Ottawa activists should be aware that this is going on. learn how to protect yourself, don't let yourself be tricked. guidelines on how to deal with police visits are posted on the anti-G8/G20 mobilization website, attacktheroots.net: http://www.attacktheroots.net/node/38
During such a visit, they may say that they are there to help you and your group/cause, trying to secure real information which they can distribute to others (cops and non) who may be less appreciative or understanding of what you are doing than they, the visitors, are.
They may say they are supportive of your cause, they know you're not out to do anything bad, they believe that the progressive victories in our society are in large part due to the kind of work you and others are doing and have done.
They tell you they're dressed in plainclothes, no official car, so that people won't see you speaking with the police and think that you're stabbing the movement in the back.
They may ask you to go for coffee or meet in some other way.
They may assure you that they do talk with other activists and that there is no unofficial 'activist policy' to not speak to the police.
They may mention pieces of your personal information, just so you know they know more about you than they should.
They may speak to your interests - the importance of unions, the problems of corporate media, whatever moves you/them.
They say they want to help you in what you're trying to do and that good communication and communication channels will benefit all involved.
They may tell you about their personal convictions, their background, how they agree with your values and about instances of their work where they are modeling these values.
They may be gathering intelligence through observation of you, your behaviour, anything you might say - even if you try and keep quiet.
They may be intimidating (but probably not explicity, they're probably trying to come across as friendly and an ally).
They may not even directly mention the upcoming G8/G20 summit/protests.
Again, see the info/advice posted on http://www.attacktheroots.net/node/38
Labels: anarchism, canadian anarchist movement, Linchpin, Ottawa, secret police, spies
Saturday, April 10, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT- ONTARIO:
LINCHPIN APRIL 2010:
Linchpin is the online (and occasional print) newsletter of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause. Their April 2010 edition is now available. Here's the announcement. Go to the website to read the full articles.
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Linchpin.ca - April 2010
**With the Ontario budget recently announced Ann Stuart analyzes at the devastating cut that eliminated the "Special Diet" supplement from social assistance in Ontario and argues that the Cut to Special Diet isn't about health.
**Bringing the view from the street, Mick Sweetman reports on a defiant and rowdy public meeting by poor people in East Downtown Toronto that was held just a day after the cuts were announced.
**In response to federal cuts to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation 6 women were arrested at sit-in at Chuck Strahl’s office. Ottawa correspondent Greg Macdougall reports on the hypocritical policies that see Stephen Harper's government apologize for horrors of residential schools then cut the funding to help the survivors of them.
**Meanwhile in Montreal, over 15,000 people protested against the Quebec provincial budget there and we are proud to reprint a statement by Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL) against privatization and price increases as well as a photo essay and video from the mobilizations.
**Northern Ontario correspondent Scott Neigh continues to bring us great stories this time taking us inside the first time Israeli Apartheid Week hit Sudbury, Ontario last month.
**Last but not least we are happy to to welcome Sara Falconer and 4strugglemag to our pages as we reprint an interview with An Interview with Laura Whitehorn on The War Before. A book by and about the life-story of former Black Panther and U.S. Political Prisoner Safiya Bukhari.
Thanks for reading and check our website regularly for more breaking labour and community news from Linchpin.ca
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Contribute!
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Labels: anarchism, anarchist publications, canadian anarchist movement, Common Cause, Linchpin, Ontario
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS-OTTAWA:
SIX ARRESTED AT SIT-IN AT INDIAN AND NORTHERN AFFAIRS OFFICE:
According to the CBC our "beloved" Prime Munster Sneaky Stevie has "granted" aboriginal leaders from across the country a private meeting today, the day when funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation is ending. An emergency debate last evening in the House of Commons proved unable to dissuade the government from this action. SS's previous "apology" to native people for the residential schools scandal rings a little more hollow today. Or maybe he thinks that all the healing is done. Meanwhile protests, petitions and pressures have sprung up across the country in favour of keeping the Foundation going. One was in Ottawa where 6 women briefly blockaded federal Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs Chuck Strahl's office. Here's the story from the Ontario platformist site Linchpin.
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6 women arrested at sit-in at Chuck Strahl’s office
Six women activists, shortly after staging a sit-in against cuts to aboriginal healing and then being arrested, charged and released, March 29. PHOTO: Greg Macdougall
by Greg Macdougall
Ottawa - On Monday March 29 - two days before the federal government's funding cuts to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) take effect - six women from Montreal staged a sit-in outside of Indian and Northern Affairs minister Chuck Strahl's office in Ottawa.
“By cutting the funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and having us arrested for protesting these cuts, Harper is denying effective services to thousands of residential school survivors,” said Maya Rolbin-Ghanie, a member of the Montreal-based grassroots group Missing Justice who was arrested in the protest.
They pledged to remain there until a decision was made to restore funding to the AHF, but police arrested and removed them within an hour, charging them with trespassing.
“Harper and Strahl’s budget cuts affect 134 organizations across Canada, including the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal,” said Monica van Schaik, another Missing Justice member who was arrested.
The AHF programs have been providing cultural healing services to Aboriginal Peoples that address the inter-generational impacts of the Canadian Indian residential school system along with other issues.
“That Strahl would have us arrested less than an hour after our sit-in began shows that this is something he doesn’t want the public to talk about,” van Schaik added.
A group of supporters from both Montreal and Ottawa gathered outside the building, steps from Parliament Hill, with signs, banners and a megaphone, protesting the funding cuts.
“It’s been less than two years since Prime Minister Harper’s apology to survivors of the residential schools, yet the Conservative government is ready to shut down programs specifically aimed at helping the healing the Prime Minister spoke about,” Rolbin-Ghanie said before her arrest.
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa helped get people in Ottawa out to the action.
There was also a separate press conference held by First Nations leaders on Parliament Hill, demanding that the government continue to support the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Manitoba MP Niki Ashton was requesting an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the issue.
ALSO SEE:
http://www.missingjustice.ca
http://ineedhealing.wordpress.com
http://mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/3155
http://mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/3154
ONLINE PETITION:
http://www.petitiononline.com/fundAHF/petition.html
6 women arrested at sit-in at Chuck Strahl’s office
Six women activists, shortly after staging a sit-in against cuts to aboriginal healing and then being arrested, charged and released, March 29. PHOTO: Greg Macdougall
by Greg Macdougall
Ottawa - On Monday March 29 - two days before the federal government's funding cuts to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF) take effect - six women from Montreal staged a sit-in outside of Indian and Northern Affairs minister Chuck Strahl's office in Ottawa.
“By cutting the funding to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and having us arrested for protesting these cuts, Harper is denying effective services to thousands of residential school survivors,” said Maya Rolbin-Ghanie, a member of the Montreal-based grassroots group Missing Justice who was arrested in the protest.
They pledged to remain there until a decision was made to restore funding to the AHF, but police arrested and removed them within an hour, charging them with trespassing.
“Harper and Strahl’s budget cuts affect 134 organizations across Canada, including the Native Women’s Shelter of Montreal,” said Monica van Schaik, another Missing Justice member who was arrested.
The AHF programs have been providing cultural healing services to Aboriginal Peoples that address the inter-generational impacts of the Canadian Indian residential school system along with other issues.
“That Strahl would have us arrested less than an hour after our sit-in began shows that this is something he doesn’t want the public to talk about,” van Schaik added.
A group of supporters from both Montreal and Ottawa gathered outside the building, steps from Parliament Hill, with signs, banners and a megaphone, protesting the funding cuts.
“It’s been less than two years since Prime Minister Harper’s apology to survivors of the residential schools, yet the Conservative government is ready to shut down programs specifically aimed at helping the healing the Prime Minister spoke about,” Rolbin-Ghanie said before her arrest.
Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement Ottawa helped get people in Ottawa out to the action.
There was also a separate press conference held by First Nations leaders on Parliament Hill, demanding that the government continue to support the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. Manitoba MP Niki Ashton was requesting an emergency debate in the House of Commons on the issue.
ALSO SEE:
http://www.missingjustice.ca
http://ineedhealing.wordpress.com
http://mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/3155
http://mediacoop.ca/newsrelease/3154
ONLINE PETITION:
http://www.petitiononline.com/fundAHF/petition.html
Labels: aboriginal, Aboriginal Healing Foundation, arrests, Canadian politics, Linchpin, petitions, protests, sit-ins
Thursday, March 04, 2010
CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-ONTARIO:
LINCHPIN MARCH 2010:
Linchpin is the (online and sometimes printed) journal of the Ontario platformist organization Common Cause. There's a new online issue out for March 2010. Here's the details.
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Linchpin.ca - March 2010
In this month's edition of Linchpin.ca Chris Shannon places the federal and provincial budgets, both of which are expected to have deep cuts to social programs, in the context of the resistance to the devastating cuts of the 1990s and asks today's working class activists “Are we ready for the cuts?”
Linchpin's State Repression Columnist Jeff Shantz writes from Vancouver reflecting on the historical role of policing protests.
Frank Liberto takes a hard look at gentrification and urban sprawl in the Rust Belt city of Hamilton and questions it's effects on local ecology and the class composition of the urban working class.
Rounding out this issue is an article on recent developments regarding Barriere Lake after a Supreme Court decision in February that paves the way for the Federal government to impose the hated section 74 of the Indian Act and impose new elections on the community against their traditional leadership selection process.
Also, be sure to attend the upcoming speaking tour by South African writer and activist Michael Schmidt, co-author of Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism.
Michael Schmidt will be in several Ontario cities between March 15 and March 21 to promote and discuss this important new book on the global history of anarchist movements and ideas. The tour, organized by Common Cause with support from AK Press and several local sponsors, is scheduled to pass through Waterloo, London, Hamilton, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.
For detailed information on each tour stop, please visit http://linchpin.ca/
To promote the tour Common Cause has also produced a short video which can be seen here.
To get in touch with the tour organizers please contact us at commoncauseontario@gmail.ca
For more information about Black Flame please see the AK Press website.
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Labels: anarchism, anarchist publications, canadian anarchist movement, Common Cause, Linchpin, Ontario
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
CANADIAN LABOUR-QUEBEC CITY:
PUBLIC SECTOR COMMON FRONT VERSUS THE QUEBEC GOVERNMENT:
Down in the province of Québec public sector workers have formed a 'Common Front' for negotiations with the provincial government. To say the least this is a necessary tactic if the workers are to avoid being picked off one by one, and this sort of thing should be broadly imitated. The negotiations are "heating up", and last Monday 3,000 union members demonstrated in Québec City to put pressure on the government. here's the story from CTV Montréal.
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Public sector workers demonstrate in Quebec City
Some 3,000 public sector workers demonstrated in Quebec City on Monday as they near the end of their five-year contract and continue contract talks with the government.
The unionized workers are calling on the Charest government for a salary increase of 11.25 per over three years, while the province is offering seven per cent over five years.
The last contract was imposed by a government decree, but union leaders say relations with the government have improved since then.
"I still believe that Jean Charest and his people would prefer to have a collective agreement agreed with the unions than impose another decree," said Michel Arsenault, president of the FTQ.
Arsenault said Quebec needs to pay salaries comparable to other public sector workers in other parts of Canada.
"They are hiring people and two years after these people are leaving the government and going to the private sector because there's more money there," Arsenault said.
He also said workers are also frustrated about the increased use of private company employees in public service.
"It's a shame to see contractors making 120 to 125 per cent more than our own people and doing the same job. It makes no sense."
While both sides appear to want to have a deal by March 31, the unions are planning another – and larger – demonstration for March 20 in Montreal.
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Here, from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is more on what is at stake in the recent bargaining.
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Quebec Common Front: "Time is running out!"
Following last Friday’s meeting between the Common Front and Treasury Board President Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, spokespersons for the Common Front - Lucie Martineau of the Secrétariat intersyndical des services publics (SISP), Claudette Carbonneau of the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) and Michel Arsenault of the Québec Federation of Labour (FTQ) - have asked the government to step up negotiations and give some tangible signals so that the talks can move forward.
They stress that "with just thirty-eight days remaining, everything must be done to try to reach a deal by the time the collective agreements expire on March 31. However, it is clear that, if this is going to happen, a serious change of course is required on the part of the government."
The Common Front unions want to intensify the discussions in order to ensure progress. They do not want to see negotiations bogged down because of a few sticking points at the sectoral tables.
The unions have agreed on a deadline of March 20 for a new appraisal stage in the negotiations. Until then, they will make every effort to resolve the impasse at the negotiating tables and will negotiate diligently and in good faith.
In the workplace, employees in the public and parapublic sectors are displaying a sticker to remind the government that “Time is running out” and to show solidarity with the 3,000 representatives who have gathered in Québec City during the negotiations.
The Common Front is asking for a three-year employment contract with salary increases of 3.75% per year, which would protect the workers’ purchasing power and narrow the wage gap between public sector employees and other Québec workers. The union organizations believe that the government's proposals are insufficient, because they would leave state employees on the road to impoverishment and exclude any possibility for salary catch-up or participation in collective wealth.
The Common Front includes all the major unions in the public and parapublic sectors in Québec, including unions grouped together in the SISP (CSQ, FIQ, SFPQ, SPGQ and APTS), the CSN (FSSS, FEESP, FNEEQ and FP) and the FTQ (CUPE, SQEES, COPE and UES).
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What is the 'Common Front' ? Here's a good explanation from Nicolas Phébus, published last December at the Ontario platformist site Linchpin.
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Quebec public sector unions unite in a "Common Front"
By Nicolas Phébus
Quebec correspondent
On Oct. 30, the public sector unions in Québec made their central demands for the negotiations with the province. Under the banner "together for public services", they are demanding a negotiated agreement that includes better pay, improved retirement plans and accommodation of workers family commitments. The demands are backed by a “Common Front” of unions representing 475,000 workers in health care, social services, education, public service and government agencies. While the mobilization is not yet impressive, and may never become, some unions and activists are taking positive steps for wider grassroots participation.
As the unions put it in their collective bargaining statement, "our working conditions are increasingly difficult, and in many sectors there are real problems in attracting new workers and keeping the employees we already have".
"We are concerned", they say, "because our pay is often less that the going rates in the private sector and many people prefer to work elsewhere rather than serve the citizens of Québec." Actually, recent studies from the government’s own agency show that the average public sector wage of $36,000 lags behind the general population by 7.7%.
The unions are demanding an 11.25% wage hike over the next three years. But wages are not everything, they are also pressing for improvement to the government retirement plan. But the major issue could be what they call "conciliation travail-famille", which is an issue that is rising to prominence all over Quebec. It calls for accommodation for workers to deal with family commitments, such as taking some time off work if their kid is sick. This is especially relevant in an industry where 75% of the workers are women and a full third is precarious, working irregular hours. In addition to adjustments in the collective agreements, unions are demanding a law that would apply to the whole working class.
Today's public sector Common Front is the largest since the infamous 1972 Common Front which led the whole working class into an illegal general strike that took an insurrectionary character. While not exactly the same mood, the 2009 Common Front is impressive because it's taking place after a major split in the public sector unions following the 2005 negotiations which ended in a repressive government decree. The bargaining strategy of the Common Front is also "historical" in a way. The demands were ready and made on the very day the negotiations could legally start, 5 months before the government decree will expire. The labour leadership clearly wants fast negotiations and that's why they limited the demands. Actually, their biggest demand is probably this: a negotiated agreement. Anything would do, as long as the unions can get away without having another decree that limits their activity stuffed down the throats of their members. If they succeed it would be the first time since 1999.
For the moment, the mobilization is not yet impressive on the ground. There was a successful provincial tour to present the demands to the members and 2000 people attended a gathering in Québec City to deliver the demands. But according to many activists, the mobilization has not yet reached the workplaces. People are still bitter from the last negotiations and are in a mood "not to be fooled again". Some unions and activists are taking positive steps to get some grassroots input. One example of this is the Confederation Des Syndicats Nationaux which is using the web in a more creative way. They decided to open up communication by creating an open publishing website with the common "web 2.0" features --including a blog-- where every member (and the public) can create an account to post comments and even their own stories. To date grassroots activists have been trained in 200 different unions to use this new tool. So far, some 101 stories have been posted to the "news" section of the web site by its users. Hopefully, this is only a sign of things to come.
Labels: Canadian labour, Common Front., CTV Montreal, CUPE, demonstrations, labour, Linchpin, Nicolas Phebus, Quebec, Quebec City, tactics
