On June 2nd, the Ontario Liberal cabinet of
Premier Dalton McGunity secretly passed, without any input from
parliament and
certainly no notice to the working people of Canada, sweeping expansions
to the
Public Works Act. The changes to the act give police forces sweeping new
powers
of search and arrest on a totally arbitrary basis. The public learned
about
these legislative changes only on the eve of the largest protest of the
G20 summits.
[Note, this article was written Friday 25th June, before the events of Saturday 26th. Watch this space for a full report on the tumultous events of the 26th and Fightback's participation]
The leaders of the world’s 20 richest nations are visiting Toronto in
June, and they want your money. They want your job, your home, your
education, your health care, your public transport, your social
services, your pension, and your paycheque. They want to take anything
that makes life even halfway bearable. They want all of these things to
pay for the mess that they, and their capitalist buddies, created. But,
people are not just going to sit and let them.
In lieu of International Women’s Day, it is nice to know that the
Ontario provincial government has a vested interest in women’s issues.
At the beginning of February, Dalton McGuinty’s government announced
that $63.5 million would need to be cut from childcare services in
Ontario. These cuts are part of McGuinty’s attacks on workers as he
tries to balance Ontario’s provincial deficit.
After undemocratically shutting down Parliament for 2½ months, the
federal Conservatives have released their 2010 budget. They said they
needed the time to “recalibrate”; what they actually did was increase
the transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. On the one side, the
budget contains $5-billion per year in tax giveaways to banks and
corporations. On the other side, there are plans for program cuts,
privatization, and attacks on public sector workers. This all comes at
the same time as the Big-5 banks are reporting $5-billion profits in the
1st quarter.
On Saturday 23rd January, up to 20,000 people demonstrated against Stephen Harper’s prorogation of Parliament. Protests spanned the country, from Halifax to Victoria, with crowds numbering 3,500 on Parliament Hill, between 3,000 and 5,000 in Toronto, and over 1,000 in Vancouver. Who would have thought that an issue of arcane parliamentary procedure could bring so many out on the streets? These protests are merely symptomatic of a growing dissatisfaction in society. The question is, who will be able to give voice to this discontent?
The Canadian occupation of Afghanistan is on its last legs. After eight years, the Canadian state and the corporate media have failed in their attempt to convince ordinary Canadians of the benevolence of Canadian imperialism. Despite all of the feel-good stories of Canadian soldiers opening up Tim Hortons and playing pick-up hockey in Kandahar, Canadians have become fed up with the nasty truths coming out of Afghanistan—from propping up the corrupt Karzai government that legalized rape, to the ever-growing number of bodies coming back to Canada. Richard Colvin’s testimony, admitting that Canadian soldiers were complicit in the torture of prisoners (with the knowledge of the Prime Minister’s Office), is the finishing touch.
On September 1st, the Liberal party pulled a 180 degree turn. From propping up the Conservative government they promised to bring down Harper at the first opportunity. The NDP leadership’s recent noises, however, seem to imply they will vote to support a government that is willing to spend billions on corporate bailouts and the war in Afghanistan while unemployed workers have to wait two weeks to receive any support. Alternatively, the NDP leadership may be playing a very irresponsible game which will only breed confusion and cynicism amongst workers and youth.
The world is currently witnessing another reactionary coup d'etat in Latin America, unfortunately the latest in a long line of coups that have deposed popularly elected governments in the hemisphere. Governments around the world, including a half-hearted US government, said that they would not recognize Micheletti's regime and called for the return of President Zelaya. Canada, on the other hand, has stood almost alone on the international stage, going so far as to say that Zelaya should not return back to Honduras. This should not come as a huge shock for Canadians as the Canadian state has been pursuing an increasingly interventionist role in Latin American affairs for a while now.
As women, feminists tell us that we live in a society where men oppress us, and thus, in order to get ahead in life, we need to unite with other women to break free of the shackles that men have placed upon us. This logic presupposes that men are the ultimate oppressor, and that all women have the same interests at heart. However, with the Ruby Dhalla controversy, women must ask themselves how it is that a woman can oppress other women, and if so, do all women have the same interests at heart?
Written by Fightback Editorial Board - www.marxist.ca
Tuesday, 28 April 2009
The Fightback Editorial Board is presenting this draft document for discussion amongst Canadian workers, youth and revolutionaries. Here we explain how Canada is not immune to the crisis of capitalism. The task of this document is to gauge the impact of the economic crisis on consciousness and politics so that revolutionaries may orientate their forces for maximum effect.
The present economic crisis, through its sheer scale and reach, is bringing about a wholesale change in the consciousness of working people the world over. It is the poor, the oppressed, and the workers who shoulder this weight in order to hold up the privileges of the rich. There is no portion of the working class that has so greatly and extensively borne this affliction than working women.
Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff has just declared his intention to support the Conservative budget. In response, an angry Jack Layton said that the NDP-Liberal coalition has been replaced by a Liberal-Conservative coalition. Jack is correct; however, we don’t know why he is so angry. This line of development was entirely predictable. When the NDP leadership bailed out the Liberals through the unprincipled coalition they gave the Liberals the opportunity to save the Conservatives. The actions of the Jack Layton leadership of the NDP are directly responsible for saving Harper and his reactionary clique in Parliament. Layton should go.
Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has just shut down Parliament until the end of January. However, it appears that this blatantly undemocratic act is popular across the country. Why? Because the maneuvers of all the parties have completely disgusted Canadians. The sell-out deal between Dion and Layton was completely incapable of raising any enthusiasm amongst the working class.
On Monday 1st December, just before 5pm, Dion, Layton and Duceppe presented their agreement for a Liberal-NDP coalition government backed by the Bloc Quebecois.
1) Troops remain in Afghanistan. 2) The $50-billion corporate tax cuts stand. 3) No NDP member to have any influence over Finance. 4) Prime Minister Dion selects which 6 NDP MPs will enter cabinet.
Written by Alex Grant - Fightback Editorial Board www.marxist.ca
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
After a nasty 6-week campaign, Canada has another minority government. Both the Conservatives and the union-supported New Democratic Party increased their support at the expense of the Liberals, who suffered their worst level of popular support since 1867. However, none of the parties were able to give any answer to the financial crisis that dominated the last 2-weeks of the campaign. Faced with a lack of real solutions, workers stayed home in historic numbers with only 59% coming out to vote. The polarization in the electorate is an indicator of increased class struggle as the world heads into economic turmoil.
C’est le temps de casser les liens avec les partis du patronat, qu’ils soient francophones ou anglophones. Que ça soit au niveau national ou fédéral, on doit surmonter les différences nationales, refuser d’être divisé et insister pour un seul mouvement socialiste, uni partout au Québec et au Canada. Seul un mouvement uni et internationaliste peut renverser le capitalisme et établir des fondations pour un Québec socialiste et vraiment libre.
The International Marxist Tendency in Quebec has released the following statement on the federal election. "It’s time to break with the parties of the bosses, in French and in English. Whether at the provincial or federal levels, we have to rise above national differences, refuse to be divided, and insist on a single, united socialist movement across Québec and Canada. Only a united, internationalist movement can overthrow capitalism and lay the basis for a truly free, socialist Québec."
Whether studying at Simon Fraser University (SFU), the University of Toronto (UofT), Concordia University, l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), or any other educational institution in this country, we are faced with the same harsh reality; debt, soaring costs of living, and rising tuition.
Written by Fightback Editorial Board - www.marxist.ca
Monday, 08 September 2008
October 14th will be Canada’s 3rd election in just four years. After an entire year of speculation that the government could fall at any minute, it was Stephen Harper who broke his own fixed election date promise and pulled the plug. We are facing harder and harder times but do any of the parties have a solution to the problems workers face?
On Tuesday, March 25th over one hundred protesters gathered outside of the offices of University of Toronto’s President David Naylor to voice their opposition to a 20% residence fee hike and to police measures used against students during a similar protest the week prior.
***STOP PRESS: MANY STUDENTS BEING CHARGED BY THE POLICE! DETAILS TO FOLLOW***
This is a draft document for discussion amongst supporters of Fightback in Canada. Perspectives are a guide to action and it is through creating a dialogue with working class militants that we hope to increase the authority of Marxist ideas in the Canadian Labour movement.
Today, Liberals and Conservatives will be uniting to prolong the Canadian mission in Afghanistan until the end of 2011. At the same time as the government is endangering thousands of lives and wasting billions of dollars in Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of Canadian manufacturing jobs are being destroyed. Industrial workers are walking into unemployment without support, but there is no shortage of money for imperialist adventures.
Like a bully on the playground Stephen Harper and his Conservative cronies have set an ultimatum to the people of Canada. Prior to the NATO conference set to be held in April, Harper's minority government plans to hold a vote to extend the combat mission in Afghanistan until the end of 2011.
On October 27th thousands of people will be marching across Canada against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In this article, Julian Benson explains how war is a product of capitalist imperialism and how the only way to truly put an end to war is to put an end to capitalism.
From August 19th to 21st, the warmonger George Bush and fraudulently elected Mexican president Felipe Calderón will be guests of Canadian Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper. During this period thousands will protest against their "Security and Prosperity Partnership" which promises increased exploitation and militarism. Fightback activists will be distributing the following text and organizing a public meeting in Ottawa on August 19th against the SPP.
Written by The Fightback Editorial Board - www.marxist.ca
Thursday, 21 June 2007
At each stage of the class struggle, it is necessary for the activists to take stock of the general situation. This is not simply an academic exercise. The purpose is to uncover the processes at work in society, in order to facilitate the work of labour militants who have no intention of being spectators of history. The goal is to understand and anticipate the direction of the class struggle. By uncovering the broader processes at work in society we can approximate in which sector the best gains are likely for the working class cause. The following article comes out of the discussions held at the 2007 Fightback conference and is part one of a three part document meant to orient the action of Canadian revolutionaries in 2007. See part 2 and part 3.
From all corners of Canada, supporters of the Marxist Fightback gathered in Toronto on 5th and 6th May to discuss how to build towards a socialist revolution in Canada and internationally. The conference was a huge success and shows how the forces of Marxism are well prepared for the coming movements in Canada.
In the past few years, it seems as though all eyes are turned towards children and their inability to have decent, nutritious meals. Recently, NDP MP Olivia Chow has proposed a national food program for children under the age of eighteen that would provide a healthy snack, breakfast or lunch. However, the Tories would prefer do dole out tax cuts that would do very little for poor working class families. Although Chow's plan is a good first step, it does little at addressing the roots of malnutrition and poverty -- the problem of capitalism.
On 7th February, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) organized their annual “day of action” across Canada to protest against rising tuitions fees. In Toronto, over 2000 post-secondary school students from all over the province of Ontario gathered at the University of Toronto. For over a decade, the CFS has organized this same rally every 7th Feb. and for over a decade, they haven’t quite been able to navigate their way to their destination.
The Communist Party of Canada (CPC) and the Young Communist League (YCL) have recently launched a discussion of party policy in preparation for the upcoming party congress in Toronto in February 2007. The Communist Party, largely due to the history attached to its name, still attracts many young revolutionaries with an honest desire to fight for socialism. Unfortunately, the political positions promoted by the cadres of the Communist Party threaten to waste the potential of those that have sought out the party as an organ of struggle against capitalism.
At the time of writing, over 140 western troops have been killed in Afghanistan, including 42 Canadians. While you are reading this, the figure is undoubtedly higher. Increasingly, public opinion in Canada is turning against the war. The most recent poll revealed that 59% believe Canadian soldiers "are dying for a cause we cannot win," while just 34% disagreed with that statement. Significantly, the union-supported New Democratic Party (NDP) has officially called for troops to be pulled out of Afghanistan. This is a huge step forward for the anti-war movement and comes from the pressure of the rank-and-file of the NDP and the wider working class. However, if we are to achieve the goal of ending the war, the NDP and the anti-war movement must adopt anti-imperialist slogans and analysis.
We are publishing the links to a couple of interesting articles that were recently published in The Arthur, the main student newspaper at Trent University. Both articles were written by Julian Benson, a regular contributor to marxist.ca.
When Canadian troops were first sent to Kandahar to fight the Taliban, the country was less than enthusiastic. Opinion polls consistently showed that the majority of Canadians opposed the war. That’s no surprise. People are getting more and more frustrated with the state of the world. One war seems to flow into the next one and nobody can even give a straight answer to what they’re all about.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephan Harper has clearly sided with the “rights” of Israeli imperialism, even after a Canadian family of seven was killed by an Israeli attack on Lebanon this past weekend.
The situation in Mexico is approaching a critical point. As hundreds of thousands of people take to the streets to protest the results of the recent election, leftist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has now laid formal charges of electoral fraud against the Mexican state. While the bourgeois media, both in Mexico and internationally, tries to denounce the claims of fraud, the evidence against the State continues to pile up.
The Canadian mission in Afghanistan suffered another bitter dose of reality this weekend as Canadian troops in Kandahar conducted operations in a Taliban-controlled area. Canadian troops face a guerrilla war in an entirely hostile territory and a mission that is mired in sand and blood with no way forward and no way out. This reality is one that Cpl. Anthony Boneca, and numerous others, should never have had to face.
In the past year we have seen the beginning of a mass mobilization of workers and youth against imperialist intervention in Venezuela, and now, Bolivia. In the United States, over 400 people gathered to create the Venezuela Solidarity Network and here in Canada, nearly a dozen labour councils and labour federations, including the Ontario Federation of Labour, have endorsed the Hands Off Venezuela campaign. Much of the mobilization has been with the US in mind, but we must be prepared for the real possibility of Canada playing a lead role in an intervention in Latin America.
Please click here to listen to an interview with Alex Grant of Fightback. Alex was interviewed by a London (UK) radio station on the recent terror arrests in Toronto.
On the evening of Friday June 2nd, Police and Security Forces arrested 17 men in the Greater Toronto Area on terrorism charges. These arrests have ignited a media frenzy and a wave of racism against Muslims. For Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the arrests come at a convenient time when support is slipping for the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan. The corporate media and right-wing politicians are attempting to use the fear of terrorism to erode civil liberties in Canada. This article attempts to point a way forward for workers and youth seeking a world without war or terror.
We are publishing our annual perspectives document which outline the dominant trends within the Canadian labour movement to give youth and worker militants a guide to action.
Stephen Harper’s shift to the right has taken many off guard. After all, he did everything he could to play up the moderate side of the Conservative Party, interested solely in cleaning up corruption and making government “open and accountable”. But all of this has proven to be nothing more than a big lie to get votes. Now the Canadian working class is faced with the challenge of defeating the conservative agenda.
With Iraq as the focus of world opinion, Canada, Germany, France and Italy are quietly conducting an imperialist war in Afghanistan. The increasing death toll for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan highlights the need to oppose the intervention.
After 13 years in government, the Liberal Party of Canada has finally been kicked out of office. Weighed down by a series of corruption scandals and increasing class polarization, the Liberals ran out of answers. By default, the Conservatives must attempt to lead an even more fractured minority Parliament while there is little support for right-wing policies. The Canadian elite want a strong majority government to push through attacks on the working class. But the good showing by the union-backed New Democratic Party, and the continued presence of the separatist Bloc Québecois, mean the Canadian political crisis will continue until the fall of this weak government.
Public broadcasting is one of many sectors whose funding has been slashed by the stooges of big business in government. As a result, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has taken the same approach to cost cutting as used in all sectors; they have chosen to attack the benefits and security of the workers. Management is trying to force through a new contract on their employees - a contract eliminating restrictions on the broadcaster's ability to contract out work instead of hiring full-time employees.
Canadian cattle producers are being told they have reason to celebrate. According to Alberta Agriculture Minister Doug Horner, “the light at the end of the tunnel just got bigger” with the June 24th discovery of a BSE-infected cow in the United States (Edmonton Journal, June 25, 2005). Sure enough, the 2 year-long ban on Canadian cattle has cost the industry $7 billion, and the argument against Canadian cattle has been based on the U.S. being free of BSE, better known as mad cow disease. If the infected cow proves to be of American origin (which so far seems to be the case), “the argument is not valid” says Canadian Cattlemen’s Association head Stan Eby. The idea that anybody would see a case of Mad Cow as a “light at the end of the tunnel” is glaringly absurd, and it highlights the complete inability of the capitalists to address serious questions of food safety or to solve the problems facing farmers on either side of the border.
The continuing revelations of the Gomery inquiry have unearthed the corruption in Canada’s “democratic” system. Canadians are getting sick of stories of government money being used for kickbacks to the Federal Liberal party. However, the collapse in support for the Liberals has not resulted in any major enthusiasm for the opposition Conservatives. The common opinion is that all politicians are corrupt. This reflects the crowing crisis in the ability of the capitalist parties to rule. Such swindles are seen as a cost of doing business under the present political system. Canadian voters are wishing a plague on both the Liberal and Conservative Houses. If the NDP is going to avoid being lumped in with the capitalist con-men it must adopt a radical program now.
Eight months into their minority government, the federal Liberals have tabled a budget that serves one main aim – survival. Their right-leaning budget aims to please everybody, or more accurately in typical Canadian fashion attempts to offend nobody, and in so doing shows the weakness of Canadian Liberalism. This weakness expresses the contradiction between the needs of Canadian capitalism and the opinion of the Canadian population. One way or another, the centre cannot hold. (March, 2005)
It is with great happiness that we welcome the reprinting of Ian Angus' book Canadian Bolsheviks. First printed in 1981, this book details the birth, growth, and eventual Stalinist degeneration of the Communist Party of Canada covering the period from WWI to the mid 1930s. Angus provides an excellent antidote to both the Stalinist "official" history and to dry academic histories that see Marxism and Leninism as identical to Stalinism. Most importantly the book details the lessons learned by the early communists while building the most successful revolutionary party in Canada's history. In the words of Angus, "They have a lot to teach us." (January, 2005)
The owners of the 30 NHL teams have locked out professional hockey players, probably dooming the 2004/2005 NHL season. Although professional hockey is largely ignored in the United States, it is a welcome diversion for the Canadian working class who flock to bars and pubs in order to kill the long Canadian winter. However, the corporate nature of the game is quickly killing that joy. It is too easy to dismiss this dispute out of hand. As Marxists, we realize that professional sports are a continuation of the famous Roman practice of bread and circuses, but a socialist society cannot be devoid of amusement and entertainment. For better or for worse, hockey is something that Canadians are passionate about. Rather than ignoring it or hoping that it goes away, we must present a real workers’ alternative to the NHL lockout. (November, 2004)
The Liberals were reduced to a minority government, the Conservatives failed to cash in on this, and NDP, although doing relatively well failed to pick up the potential among the workers because they tried to be too much like the Liberals, too frightened to mention the "S" word - Socialism! The many abstentions indicate that huge numbers of workers and youth are disillusioned with this set up and are looking for an alternative. (June, 2004)
The 2004 Canadian federal election is looking to be the closest race since the 1970s. The Liberals seem to be set to lose their majority, while on the left the NDP (the Canadian Labour Party) after leaning leftwards seems set to make gains. The mobilisation of the Canadian workers over the past period will find an expression in these elections. (June, 2004)
Paul Martin and Gordon Campbell aren't sleeping well these days. With elections on the horizon, both the Federal and BC Liberal Parties are down in the polls. Scandals have rocked all levels of government. From large sums of tax-money being given away to corporations, to drug money in BC, it seems that everyone has their fingers in dirty money. (March, 2004)
On December 23, 2003 the US government officially acknowledged the outbreak of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) in a herd of cattle in the state of Washington.This is officially the first case of mad cow in the US, but is in reality the second case of an outbreak in the integrated Canadian and US cattle industry. The farming and cattle crisis is at root a reflection of the crisis of capitalism worldwide and a result of "globalization". (January, 2004)
It’s no secret that Alberta Premier Ralph Klein is the mouth piece of US imperialism in Canada. This was particularly evident when the Tories opened their anti-Kyoto campaign in the name of their oil and gas industry friends. (May, 2003)
As the New Democratic Party selects a new leader, capitalism is in crisis. With the economy crumbling, the US is once again preparing for war. Here in British Columbia, we’ve seen tens of thousands in the streets against the government and the BC Federation of Labour just passed a resolution at their convention that “authorizes the Federation Officers to mobilize support for workplace and community action up to and including job action by sector, region or province-wide and/or general strike”. However, amidst all of this there is no credible left candidate running for the leadership of the NDP. (January, 2003)
