Near the end of their term, and more unpopular than ever, the CAQ has nothing left to lose and is going on the offensive against the workers. In addition to cuts to health care and education, it is directly attacking unions with Bill 14, which permits the government to greatly limit the right to strike, and Bill 3, which aims to interfere in the operations and finances of the unions.
Although it is leading the charge, the CAQ is not alone in this attack. Unsurprisingly, the Liberal Party of Quebec, widely regarded as the main party of the bosses, supports the offensive. The same goes for Éric Duhaime’s Conservative Party, which is vociferous in its hatred of unions. What may surprise some, however, is the Parti Québécois’ attitude toward the labour movement in recent weeks.
The PQ, which is leading in the polls, boasted earlier this year that it still maintains “a favorable bias toward workers,” referring to René Lévesque’s famous phrase.
But these words ring hollow in light of the recent Montreal transit strikes. Claiming that the “hostage situation” had gone on long enough, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon (PSPP) said he was prepared to work with all parties to fast-track Bill 14 and thus break the strike as quickly as possible. Magali Picard, president of the FTQ, recently spoke of how her members wanted to “tear the head off” PSPP for these remarks.
Recently, the PQ also denounced her for “daring” not to shake hands with Labour Minister Jean Boulet during a parliamentary committee meeting. On Nov. 25, the PQ together with the CAQ presented a motion to that effect. PSPP then said at a press conference: “I note that in recent days, the FTQ has used words such as ‘paralyze Quebec’, ‘social strike’, ‘war,’ ‘quasi-extreme right-wing dictatorship’, and so on. And we do not agree with this approach.” PSPP even boycotted the FTQ convention to which he was invited!
The cat is out of the bag. The party has a “favorable bias toward workers”… as long as they don’t fight too hard for their own interests.
This is a glimpse of what awaits the working class under a PQ government: a party that claims to support workers, but sides with employers when it really counts. The PQ has just joined the other parties in opposing a motion by Québec solidaire opposing rent increases above inflation.
But there is nothing new in all this.
The PQ first came to power in 1976 during an epoch of mass mobilizations of the working class. In the absence of a genuine workers’ party in Quebec, the PQ managed to channel the prevailing anger and win the support of union leaders by presenting a program of reforms. In order to buy class peace ahead of their upcoming referendum, the party made certain concessions to the labour movement.
But soon after the 1980 referendum, when a huge economic crisis hit, the bourgeoisie demanded that all governments implement cuts and other pro-business measures. The PQ said “yes” and made workers pay for the crisis.
The same René Lévesque who claimed to have a “favorable bias toward workers” went on to implement vicious austerity measures in the early 1980s and imposed the infamous “Baton Law” in January 1983 to break a teachers’ strike—one of the most repressive back-to-work laws in the history of Quebec.
Union leaders, having placed their trust in the PQ, and having failed to build a party of their own that could represent the interests of the working class, left the field open for them to attack the working class.
Since then, the PQ has become fully integrated into the Québécois capitalist establishment. From Lucien Bouchard’s brutal austerity of the 1990s, with his “zero deficit” program, to back-to-work legislation to break the nurses’ strike in 1999 and the construction workers’ strike in 2013, the PQ’s record is clear. The party defends the interests of the capitalist class against the working class.
PSPP, like Lévesque, Parizeau, Bouchard, and Marois before him, seeks to reassure the big capitalists that his party, despite its independence agenda, is trustworthy when it comes to managing capitalism. Recently presenting a section of the PQ’s “Blue Book” for Quebec, PSPP explained that it wants to “make Quebec’s tax system more competitive” and build “one of the most attractive business environments in the world.” He also mentioned the need to “reassure” the financial markets. The party has also been talking for some time about wanting to reduce government “bureaucracy”.
We are familiar with this language. It is that of the ruling class. It is the same language spoken by the CAQ and the Liberals, which translates into gifts for big business, austerity measures, and attacks on unions. In a context of economic crisis, there is no other avenue available under the capitalist system: a PQ government will have to continue what the CAQ has started.
For a long time, the unions gave explicit or tacit support to the PQ, which only served to disarm the union movement. To this day, the Quebec working class still does not have a party of its own. Québec solidaire had the potential to be that party, but it has instead become a pale imitation of the PQ which holds almost no appeal for workers.
Even today, illusions are being perpetuated about the possibility of a PQ government taking the side of the workers. Even after the party clearly stated its support for trampling on the strike rights of STM employees, Magali Picard insisted that workers contain their anger in order to maintain “dialogue” with the PQ—and even the Liberal Party!—in view of the upcoming elections. This is a mistake.
We have entered an era of irreconcilable struggle between the bosses and the workers, in which the former will no longer accept any compromise. What the CAQ is currently serving up is just a taste of what is to come as the crisis of the capitalist system deepens. The labour movement will never win if its leaders wait for capitalism and its representatives to be favorable to it.
We are at war. The labour movement must maintain complete independence from capitalist parties and stop entertaining the illusion of reaching some sort of “dialogue” with them. The task of building a genuine party of and for the working class is still highly relevant today.
Above all, there is an urgent need to arm ourselves with the perspective of overthrowing the capitalist system and fighting for the only solution that can improve the lives of workers: socialism.
