On Feb. 28, the government of Nova Scotia tabled a budget which contained deep cuts to all types of social programs. In response, a mass movement erupted with high school walkouts and mass demonstrations. In two short weeks, the movement forced premier Tim Houston to apologize and walk back some of these cuts.
The backlash to the budget came from wide layers of the population. Everyone, to one degree or another, will be affected by these cuts. Nearly 1,000 public-sector jobs will be eliminated, funding for education, arts and culture, and support and programming for seniors, the disabled, and Indigenous and African Nova Scotian communities are all gutted. The immediate consensus amongst working-class Nova Scotians has been firm opposition to this budget.
And almost immediately, thousands sprung into action. The Nova Scotia legislature in Halifax has been the scene of repeated protests, some drawing thousands of people. In particular, thousands have demonstrated against Houston’s cuts to arts. Small towns across the province have had their own demonstrations against the budget and Premier Tim Houston was enthusiastically booed at an African Heritage Month Gala.
Most significantly, the cuts gave an impulse to the already-developing student movement in the province, galvanizing support for student strikes which have been in the works since last year. Schools across the province saw student walkouts on March 11 and strike votes have passed at multiple universities. Strike votes have passed at Dalhousie (21,000 students), Saint Mary’s University (6,600 students), Acadia University (3,500 students), King’s College (1,000 students ) and NSCAD (800 students). These campuses are set to strike on the week of March 16. This student strike will be the first of its kind in English Canada in living memory.
In the face of this developing mass movement, Houston appears to have stumbled. On Tuesday, he held a press conference stating that “on some of the decisions, we got it wrong, and for that, I’m sorry.” We must be clear, Houston didn’t have a change of heart, the mass movement exacted this so-called apology from him.
The fact of the matter is that the government fears the movement they provoked and the reinstatement of $53.6 million of grants is merely an attempt to put the genie back in the bottle. But his fundamental plans have not changed. Houston plans on forging ahead with the vast majority of the cuts and layoffs his government originally proposed, while dishing out millions to subsidize the mining, forestry, and fracking industries. For a representative of big business like Houston, cutting social services and the public sector to deal with the record $1.24 billion deficit is completely logical; he aims to make regular Nova Scotians pay for the crisis of government finances.
Houston’s retreat means that he is weak and it is time to press forward until the entire austerity budget is defeated! The student strikes taking place next week are a fantastic opportunity to escalate the movement and increase the pressure on the government. As students in Quebec proved in 2012, when hundreds of thousands of people move into action, nothing can stop us! We must work to spread the movement and shut down every single postsecondary institution.
Worker unions also have a central role to play. Students on their own cannot affect the profits of the capitalists. And Houston, who is a servant of the capitalists, will ultimately only listen if the power of his masters is threatened. We must build a broad movement against austerity and use strike action to force the retreat of this entire reactionary budget.
With governments across the country shifting to austerity to offload the cost of the crisis onto the backs of workers and youth, a victory in Nova Scotia will set the example for other provinces to follow.
Down with Houston’s austerity budget!
Victory to the student strike!
Spread the movement!
Block everything!
