François Legault’s CAQ is the most unpopular Quebec government since records began. And they are preparing to spend their final year in power in an all-out offensive against the working class.
Public sector layoffs, attacks on the unions, austerity, the elimination of environmental standards; this party once known as the “party of change” has let its mask fall. In pursuing this program they are simply continuing on the path laid out by the Liberals and the PQ since the 1990s.
Legault has even talked about waging “war” on the unions. Unfortunately, so far, the labour movement has been slow to answer.
But the situation is urgent. We need a mass movement to stop the CAQ. If they want war, they will have it!
Attacks
On Sept. 11, the CAQ showed its true colors with a cabinet reshuffle, promising a “shock treatment” of government spending cuts. The results were not long in coming.
They cut 134 jobs at the Ministry of the Environment, as well as 200 at the Ministry of Transport. A total of 1,200 positions have already been cut since the spring, and the CAQ is saying openly that it wants to cut 6,000 jobs over three years. This is already on top of massive cuts to the education system—which the CAQ only partially retreated from.
Legault also announced his intention to accelerate economic projects and put certain environmental protections “on hold.” These are policies designed to benefit big business.
It is also unsurprising that Legault has said he wants to review how unions operate to prevent them from using their funds for “social movements that are not directly related to representing their members,” even making part of union dues optional.
He also passed Bill 89 this spring, which limits the right to strike. On behalf of the bosses, Legault is trying to weaken the unions to eliminate opposition to his agenda.
As we have already explained, Quebec’s capitalist class has long sought to cut back the welfare state, weaken unions, and make the economic climate more conducive to private investment at the expense of workers and services. The CAQ is now doing the dirty work in high gear.
Where are the unions?
The CAQ was already the most unpopular ruling party in the history of Quebec, being marred with mismanagement scandals – such as the SAAQ-Clic website which ended up costing one billion dollars, or the hundreds of millions of public money given away to the failed multinational Northvolt. They have presided over a deterioration of public services, and generally overseen a steep increase in the cost of living.
Therefore, this government is in fact weak and through mass mobilization, the labour movement can stop the attacks.
But so far, union leaders have not offered any real resistance. The two most prominent cases are Bill 89 and the education cuts.
Bill 89 gives the government the ability to break strikes without even a vote in the National Assembly. Faced with such a draconian law, there have only been a few small demonstrations and the bill was passed without much opposition. Despite the trade unions saying that “mobilization will continue,” nothing has been done since it was passed in May.
When it comes to education, union leaders have equally abdicated their responsibility to use their resources to organize the resistance.
When the $540 million in cuts were announced last June, parents and individual teachers spontaneously began to organize under the banner “Uni-e-s pour l’école” (United for Schools).
The outcry forced the CAQ to partially back down on the cuts, but everything indicates that schools are being forced to work with extremely limited budgets. Protests against austerity in education have continued in recent weeks.
However, union leaders remain completely on the sidelines. They are content to say that this must be a “citizen” movement and that the unions will be there to “support” parents, but nothing more. As a result, the struggle is being led by activists that are dedicated, but who lack the resources and mobilization capabilities of the unions.
Their reaction to the CAQ’s recent announcements is not much better. Éric Gingras, president of the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, says that “the unions are not at war with the government” and that Legault should act like a “real premier” and unite Quebecers “instead of dividing them.”
Similarly, rather than preparing a fight back, Caroline Senneville, the president of the CSN, said that “when we look at voting intentions and the election deadline, fortunately, there is a light at the end of this great darkness.”
Such passivity will get us nowhere. We can’t just let the CAQ run roughshod over everything for a year while we wait for the election.
It is all the more important because the Parti Québécois, which is likely to take power in the next election, will certainly not repeal the CAQ’s regressive measures. The PQ itself is already talking about reducing state “bureaucracy” and has a long history of passing anti-worker measures when in power—such as the back-to-work order to break the nurses strike in 1999 or the construction strike in 2013, to give just a couple examples.
In many ways, the situation is reminiscent of Jean Charest’s Liberal government in 2011-2012. It was deeply unpopular after nine years in power, and they decided to impose massive cuts to the post secondary education system in the form of increasing tuition by 75 per cent. This was only stopped by one of the largest mass movements in the history of Quebec in the form of the student strike. This heroic movement eventually brought the Charest government down.
We need a similar movement this time around. Only a broad mobilization of the working class, with mass demonstrations and strikes, can stop the government’s offensive.
The union leadership must get to work and use their vast resources and mobilizing power to make such a movement possible to stop the attacks from the CAQ. Let’s show them how to “use our funds” for “social movements”!
