Since the initial announcement of Trump’s tariffs there has been more talk about politics at my workplace than ever before. One day after we finished our work, while hanging out at the shop we spoke about the trade war and what it will mean for workers; what it will mean for our jobs. These workers, who rarely ever spoke about politics before, were putting forward some pretty radical ideas. All of us pretty quickly agreed that the counter-tariffs that the Canadian government were talking about would do nothing to help out workers here in Canada. Instead several people were saying we need a general strike to fight back against the bosses and protect our jobs.
I think this situation reflects something we communists often say: “You may not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.” At some point workers are forced to pay attention to the political situation because their lives and livelihoods depend on it. The trade war that is brewing in the world today threatens workers and is forcing them to think about what they can do to protect their interests. The Canadian government has no interest in defending their own working class, they only care about the profits of the capitalists. The only way we can defend our jobs, our wages, and our lives is to take matters into our own hands.
-Alex M., Edmonton
