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November 1, 2019

Every issue of People's Voice gives you the latest on the fightback from coast to coast. Whether it's the struggle for jobs or peace, resistance to social cuts, solidarity with Cuba or workers' struggles around the world, we've got the news the corporate media won't print.

Communist Party of Canada

Rebel Youth

The Spark!

People’s Voice Archives 2019

October 16-31

August 0-31

People’s Voice Archives 2018

December 1-31

November 16-30

November 1-15

October 16-31

October 1-15

September 16-30

People’s Voice Archives 2017

November 1-15

May 16-31

May 1-15

April 16-30

April 1-15

March 16-31

March 1-15

February 15-28

February 1-14

January 1-31

People’s Voice Archives 2016

December 1-31

November 16-30

November 1-15

October 16-31

October 1-16

September 16-30

September 1-15

June 1-30

March 16-31

2015

2014

2013

People’s Voice November 1-15 (pdf)

1. As in 1959, a call to cut military spending and fund people’s needs

2. Alberta budget: Empty promises, false accusations and corporate giveaways

3. Voters deny Big Business parties a majority – what are the next steps?

4. Music Notes: Waters to Assange, “Wish You Were Here

5. Ending gender oppression means defending trans rights

6. Election results no excuse for national chauvinism

7. Ontario: education workers fighting “more than ever” for students

8. Uruguay, Argentina: A rising Pink Tide

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1. As in 1959, a call to cut military spending and fund people’s needs

Sixty years ago, Communist leader Tim Buck thundered against the myth that military spending creates jobs and prosperity. As Pacific Tribune reported, Buck “quoted figures to show that it was the profit motive and not concern about unemployment that was driving big business spokesmen [sic] to maintain international tensions and mislead the people into supporting their cold war policies.”

Now, as then, this message rings true. According to analysis from the Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, every $1 billion invested in military industry creates approximately 11,200 jobs including direct employment, indirect employment and spinoff jobs. This compares with 26,700 in education, 16,800 in clean energy, and 17,200 in health care. These figures are based on the US economy but will be congruent with experience in Canada.

Figures from the Department of National Defence show that the Canadian government has dedicated nearly $165 billion to military investment by 2037. This money is outside of the formal defence budget. Using the Costs of War Project template this money could maintain up to 1.9 million jobs over 20 years, or about 95,000 in any given year. On the other hand, it could provide as much as 4.4 million jobs – over 220,000 in any year – if it were invested in socially-necessary sectors and industries.

When the labour and progressive movements pressure the minority Liberal government for programs like job creation, expanded health and education, free child-care, and climate justice, they can point very clearly to where the needed money is hidden.

As the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom said in 1979, ““It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need, and the air force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber.”

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2. Alberta budget: Empty promises, false accusations and corporate giveaways

It is a uniquely Canadian tradition that a finance minister wears a new pair of shoes when delivering a budget. While the origins of the tradition are unclear, several politicians have played with it to make a political point: Jim Flaherty resoled an old pair of shoes to symbolize parsimony when he tabled his 2008 austerity federal budget; New Brunswick’s Peter Mesheau ironically wore hiking boots when delivering a provincial budget with tax and user fee increases (“hikes”); and Carole Taylor donned a pair of green shoes to deliver a British Columbia provincial budget she claimed had an environmental focus.

With this in mind, the symbolism of Alberta’s Minister of Finance, Travis Toews, pulling on a pair of cowboy boots before tabling the provincial budget is hard to miss – Travis and the United Conservatives are about to deliver a good old-fashioned shitkicking to Alberta’s working class.

Premier Jason Kenney has committed to ending provincial deficits and achieving a surplus by 2023, but he has also promised deep corporate tax cuts. The result is a budget that aggressively puts corporate interests first, by attacking those of workers, Indigenous people, and the environment.

Toews projects reducing corporate tax from 12% to 8% by 2023. Using the 2017-18 year as a baseline, once implemented this would result in an annual loss of around $1.2 billion in revenue, nearly 3% of the provincial total. To make this up, the UCP will implement deep program cuts and ratchet up user fees. Operating grants for post-secondary education will be cut by nearly 8%, and tuition increases allowed up to 7% per year. Social assistance payments will be de-indexed from the cost of living, and funding to municipalities will be chopped. The government will slash the size of the public service by nearly 8% – more than 2000 jobs – over 4 years. The budget for environmental enforcement is halved, from $14 million in 2018 to $7 million in 2019, and funding for the climate change portfolio is axed by nearly 75% from $103 million in 2019 to only $29 million in 2020.

Funding for the Ministry of Indigenous Relations will be cut by 27% over four years, and funding for consultations and land claims will be reduced by 40%, from $28 million in 2019 to only $17 million by 2021. Notably, the only areas of Indigenous Relations to not face reduced funding are the First Nations Development Fund, funds for the Aboriginal Indigenous Opportunities Corporation, and the Indigenous Litigation Fund, all of which are specifically dedicated to supporting Indigenous communities seeking oil and gas development.

In many spending areas, the government says it will “hold the line” on current funding levels. Ricardo Acuna, Executive Director of the Parkland Institute, noted on Facebook that this is actually a huge funding cut. “The Government’s fiscal tables peg inflation (Consumer Price Index) and population growth in Alberta over the next four years at 18.1%. That means wherever they say they are “holding the line”, it will actually be a cut of at least 18.1%. This is the case for K-12 education – at least an 18.1% cut overall over the next four years, plus some reductions to the per student grant. In post-secondary it will be worse, because there will be a nominal cut of 11.8% over the next four years. Add to that the 18.1% in CPI and pop growth and you are looking at close to a 30% in post secondary education funding. The corporate tax cut will cost $1.1 billion this year and $1.1 billion next year, despite the UCP’s magical assertions that the impact will be well under a billion dollars. Kenney can say all he wants that the cuts are minor, but that’s a lie. A 2.8% overall cut, plus 18.1% in CPI and population is actually worse than the Klein cuts of the 90s in terms of percentage.”

Alberta Communist Party leader Naomi Rankin said this budget, while very aggressive, is not unexpected from the hard-right United Conservative Party. “There are no surprises in this Alberta budget. We already knew that Jason Kenney and his resurrected provincial Tory party were completely in the pockets of the oil and gas monopolies, who have nothing but empty promises and false accusations about the cause of the downturn in employment in their sector. We already knew they were promising endless tax cuts and giveaways to their corporate buddies at the expense of working people’s jobs, livelihoods and government services. And we already knew they have nothing but denial to bring to the global struggle against climate catastrophe.”

Rankin also noted that Alberta’s labour and progressive movements are not prepared to take this attack without fighting back. “We have already also seen the fightback getting underway. The Alberta Union of Public Employees has been organizing information pickets and rallies at various government work sites around the province and held a rally at the legislature last Friday evening, with support from the Alberta Federation of Labour.”

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3. Voters deny Big Business parties a majority – what are the next steps?

By Liz Rowley

Now that the votes are all counted, it’s clear that once again a majority of electors voted defensively, using their ballots to stave off a Big Business majority government. Given the hard drive to the right by the Tories and the Peoples Party, a milquetoast performance by the NDP, a Green campaign that declared itself “neither left nor right”, and a blackout of the Communist Party and its People’s Agenda, this was likely the best possible outcome for working people.

The Liberals’ decline of a million votes and the loss of their majority in Parliament reflects deep anger at their many broken promises from 2015. These include electoral reform, a new deal with Indigenous peoples, action on the environment, and good jobs and improved living standards for working people.

Instead the Liberals purchased the Trans Mountain pipeline for $4.5 billion, overrode Indigenous rights and environmental concerns, negotiated a free trade deal that is directly responsible for the loss of good jobs in manufacturing and for bankrupting small farmers previously protected by supply management, and maintained the First-Past-the-Post electoral system that has kept Liberal and Tory governments continuously in office.

The vote also reflects a rejection of the drive to the right advocated in different measures by the Tories and its split-off, the People’s Party.

In Quebec, the vote also reflected a strong criticism of the Liberals; campaigning from the left while Liberal and NDP incumbents floundered, the Bloc Québecois tripled its seats from 10 to 32. Growing chauvinism in English-speaking Canada, generated by right-wing forces, contributed to the BQ resurgence in defence of Quebec sovereignty. This included defending the National Assembly’s right to pass Bill 21, the “secularism bill”, without federal government interference.

Bill 21 is the Coalition Avenir Québec’s reactionary attack on the rights of Quebec public sector workers to be hired or promoted if their clothing or appearance is considered religious. The bill is opposed by many progressive forces in Quebec, including the Parti communiste du Québec.

People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier was soundly defeated by 6,000 votes in his home riding of Beauce, which he had previously held as a Conservative. In part, this was the result of a campaign organized by Quebec dairy farmers opposed to Bernier’s plan to end supply-management and open agriculture to the free market.

While the Tories failed to form a government, they increased their seats by twenty-nine, mostly at the expense of the Liberals in western Canada, and secured the largest portion of the popular vote. Aided by Tory premiers Jason Kenney in Alberta and Scott Moe in Saskatchewan, who stoked public fears of job losses and falling living standards in the oil patch due to the Liberals’ carbon tax, the federal Tories staked their future on western alienation and the “Wexit” movement. This is another indicator that right-wing populism and far-right political movements are far from dead.

It’s also an indicator of the just fears and demands of working people in these resource-rich provinces, that the costs of transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy cannot be laid on their backs. Resistance to unemployment, consumption taxes, and cuts to social programs and public services – which have just been downloaded onto the public in the Alberta provincial budget – are to be welcomed. But they need to be focused on the real villains: the energy and natural resource corporations who are calling the shots in these provincial capitals and in Ottawa. Given NDP leader Rachel Notley’s defence of the energy monopolies during her time as Alberta Premier, it’s no surprise that working people in Alberta are having difficulty identifying their real enemy, and that some have succumbed to the old, crude and right-wing ‘solution’ of western separatism.

Similarly, the argument by Kenney and Moe that equalization is a tax grab on Alberta and Saskatchewan is a red herring aimed to stoke alienation and western separatism. Equalization is a revenue measure aimed at guaranteeing that universal Medicare and social programs are equally accessible to all people in every part of Canada.

Addressing western alienation requires more than any party in Parliament is willing to give, because it means addressing unequal development across the country, the power of the energy and natural resource corporations, the climate crisis, and austerity policies that have driven down wages and living standards for almost 40 years.

The Communist Party offered a path forward on all these issues in its election campaign, starting with public ownership under democratic control of energy and natural resources, guarantees of jobs at equivalent wages for all workers displaced by closure of the tarsands, an end to fracking, and legislation and action to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030, and 100% by 2050.

We called for the development of environmentally sustainable secondary industry and manufacturing, the construction of 1 million units of social housing, a national transportation policy to build a publicly owned electric car and mass public transit, inter-urban rail service, and nationalized aerospace industry.

We proposed to cut military spending by 75%, converting military to civilian spending and transforming Canada’s foreign policy from one of war, aggression and regime change to a one of peace and disarmament. We campaigned to double the corporate tax rate, restore the capital tax, tax capital gains at 100% of the gain, and introduce wealth and inheritance taxes on the wealthy.

We proposed a new equal and voluntary partnership of Indigenous nations, Quebec, Acadians, and English-speaking Canada, based on the right to self-determination up to and including secession, as the only way forward to a just solution to national inequality and genocide in Canada.

We campaigned to raise wages and living standards and create good jobs for all, including a $20 minimum wage, substantially increased pensions a guaranteed annual livable income, and a 32-hour work week with 40 hours pay. We called for expanded EI to include all unemployed and with benefits at 90% of previous income. We proposed expanded Medicare, to introduce pharmacare, vision, dental, mental health, and long-term care; free post-secondary education; expanded social programs; and a system of universal, quality and free public childcare.

Our 30 candidates fought hard to put these ideas on the table, despite frequent efforts to exclude them from candidate debates, and a widespread media blackout of the Communist Party’s candidates and campaign.

Arguments for exclusion focused on equating the Communist Party with the far-right People’s Party, as two extremes that should be excluded from public debate – though the People’s Party was included in the leaders’ debates in both English and French.

The comparison is ignorant and slanderous, since any objective comparison shows the Communist Party’s history is intertwined with that of the working class and labour movement. The Communist Party has championed the struggles of working people and has been in the front lines of the fight against fascism and hatred in Canada and internationally since 1921. The People’s Party, on the other hand, has a clear record of promoting hatred against immigrants, Muslims and racialized people, while advancing candidates and organizers who are members or admirers of racist, far-right and fascist movements. The Communist Party and the People’s Party are polar opposites.

Everywhere, Communists advanced policies to address urgent immediate needs and build toward the long-term goal of socialism, and they were very well received.

What’s new in this campaign was the receptiveness of working people to the Communist Party’s message. While not reflected in the vote, this was seen in the number of new recruits, friends and supporters that were won across Canada.

The Road Ahead

Looking forward, the challenge will be for the labour and people’s movements to pressure the Liberals to not cooperate with the Tories on such items as corporate tax cuts, ratification of the USMCA free trade deal, and cuts to social programs. Given a looming international economic recession, such pressure is urgent.

Unity of the labour and people’s movements will be critical to press for decisive action on climate change, cuts to military spending and an end to illegal regime change operations, for progressive policies that welcome immigrants and refugees; on the urgent issues of higher wages, pensions and living standards, and an emergency program to build 1 million units of social housing; on universal, quality, free public childcare; on free post-secondary education and wiping out student debt; on implementing the recommendations of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, adopting into law the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, on just settlement of land claims, and on funding for Indigenous health, education, social programs, housing, infrastructure, and job creation.

Crucial to this unity is resolving the split between Unifor and the Canadian Labour Congress.

Class struggle policies and actions that can unite the whole labour movement in English-speaking Canada and Quebec are the way forward. A strong and organized left at the CLC Convention next May will be vital.

Whether the next election will be in 4 years or sooner is less important than developing the strength to challenge the Big Business parties when the election is called – and win. The next months must be spent building the unity and strength of the labour and people’s movements, and their capacity to fight in the streets as well as on the shop floor and at the bargaining table.

In this, working people can count on the Communist Party to be present and actively involved in the struggles ahead.

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4. Music Notes: Waters to Assange, “Wish You Were Here

By Wally Brooker

More than a thousand Julian Assange supporters cheered as Australian journalist and filmmaker John Pilger introduced Roger Waters at a September 2 demonstration outside the British Home Office. The rally called for an end to the unlawful detention and persecution of the Wikileaks publisher. Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd and well known for his solidarity with Palestine and opposition to neoliberal regime change wars, told the crowd that he was “ashamed to be an Englishman” after Assange’s extraordinary rendition from the Ecuadorian embassy to the British government last April. “To see all you people here today is deeply, deeply moving”, he said. While introducing “Wish You Were Here,” the title track from Pink Floyd’s 1975 chart-topping album, Waters quoted the line “would you exchange a walk-on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?” and asked: “how do we put ourselves in the position of a Julian Assange in solitary confinement?” After “serenading” UK Home Secretary Priti Patel with an acoustic rendition of the song, he thanked those assembled and called out, “Julian Assange we are with you! Free Julian Assange!”

Assange was jailed by the UK government last April following his expulsion from the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He’d been given sanctuary there for seven years. Ecuador dropped its protection following the ascendancy of Lenin Moreno to the presidency, a development that has seen that country return to the status of neo-colonial vassal after an eight-year period of relative sovereignty and progressive rule under former president Raphael Correa. Assange is being lined up for extradition from the UK to the US, where he will face charges under the Espionage Act for his alleged conspiratorial role in the 2010 leaks by US Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, currently imprisoned again after having served her prison sentence for exposing US war crimes in Iraq. US officials are attempting to force Manning to testify against Assange.

The Communist Party of Australia, in an April 13 statement, called for the government of Australia to ensure that Assange is released and returned to safety in his homeland. The CPA statement declares that Assange was arrested “on trumped up charges based on politically-motivated judicial processes.”

Update: Assange’s extradition hearing remains February 25, 2020 after a disturbing October 21 hearing at Westminster Magistrate’s Court where Assange’s legal team’s arguments for a 3-month extension date were dismissed by magistrate Vanessa Baraitser. Witnesses described the presence of seven US officials advising the prosecuting attorney, noted with alarm the fragile state of Assange’s physical and mental health, and called for Amnesty International to declare him a political prisoner. In an October 24 interview on RT’s Going Underground, Waters declared that the UK and US are “trying to kill” the Wikileaks publisher.

The Highwomen: riding high in the charts

Country music supergroup The Highwomen is riding high in the charts with their debut album, a collection of original songs with strong feminist and working-class sentiments. The Highwomen was released on September 6. It immediately registered at #1 on Billboard Magazine’s country music and Americana/folk charts. The band was formed last April and made its debut at a Nashville birthday celebration for 87-year-old singer Loretta Lynn. In July, still without a record out, they headlined at the Newport Folk Festival. Amanda Shires, Brandi Carlile, Maren Morris, and Natalie Hemby are award-winning singer-songwriters in the world of country and Americana music.

The group’s name pays homage to The Highwaymen, a popular 1980s and 90s supergroup of country music icons Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson. The idea of creating The Highwomen began with Amanda Shires. She’d been closely monitoring country music radio stations, gathering evidence of the lack of representation of women artists. When she called a station one day to a request a song by a woman, she was directed to apply to a Facebook page lottery system! On the advice of her producer, David Cobb, Shires called Brandi Carlile, and the project to create an all-women supergroup was launched. The four have declared that their band is not just for themselves but will include support for fellow women artists.

Lovers of country music who are frustrated by the influence of contemporary pop music on the genre will be pleased with the classic sound of The Highwomen. The album’s signature opening song, “Highwomen”, adds new lyrics by Shires and Carlile to Jimmy Webb’s song, “The Highwayman”, a massive hit in 1985 for Cash, Jennings, Kristofferson, and Nelson. The Highwomen’s version celebrates the indomitable spirit of women’s resistance, from victims of Salem witchcraft trials, to Mississippi freedom riders, to Honduran refugees at the US border. In the final verse the four women sing: We are The Highwomen / Singing stories still untold / We carry the sons you can only hold / We are the daughters of the silent generations / You send our hearts to die alone in foreign nations / And we’ll come back again / And again, and again, and again.

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5. Ending gender oppression means defending trans rights

Becky Buhay

A few years ago, a friend of mine posted a beautiful graphic on her Facebook feed. It said, amongst other things, that “Transwomen are Women” – something she didn’t think was contentious. She was totally unprepared for the onslaught of hateful messages, some from people she knew, but mostly from complete strangers. She had posted it publicly and was ganged up on, including by hundreds of people from outside of Canada. Not part of the feminist or queer community, she had been unaware of the vitriolic, incendiary debate she had inadvertently waded into.

In 2019, there are now few in Canada, especially if they frequent social media, who aren’t aware of the “debate” around who is a woman. This debate has developed into a hate campaign against trans people. I know many trans rights activists who have received so many online threats that they have had to close their social media accounts.

The danger is not just online. The number of violent attacks on and murders of trans folk, especially Indigenous and racialized transwomen, is rising rapidly in many countries, including Canada. These numbers are underreported, as often trans folk are misgendered. This summer the American Medical Association declared it an “epidemic of violence” and has developed a plan to educate the public, legislatures and law enforcement.

Why are violent attacks on trans folk, especially women, on the rise?

The queer community and their allies have fought for and won rights. These victories have made some people, particularly those who hold rigid views of gender, uncomfortable. However, by and large, in Canada relatively few people publicly oppose the rights of gays and lesbians to get married, and be free of discrimination in the workplace, etc.

Right-wing religious groups, far-right, and fascist organizations have realized that one area where there is greatest discomfort is the right to freedom from discrimination on the basis of gender expression and identity.

This fear and discomfort have been particularly evident in the arena of public education. After long, protracted advocacy by students, teachers, parents, and the queer community, many school districts and, later, a few provincial governments enacted policies to make schools safer and more welcoming for all students. These policies included prohibition of harassment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Research and student testimony indicated that bathrooms and change rooms were places that all students, but particularly trans students, felt most unsafe. Therefore, policies often called for the rights of students to gender neutral bathrooms, and to use the gendered bathroom and change rooms that matched their gender.

These education policies are about much more than simply bathrooms. They include other steps to improve the learning environments in schools for all students. Research by academics such as Catherine Taylor, at University of Winnipeg, and Elizabeth Saewic, of the University of BC, overwhelmingly indicate that steps to make schools safer for queer students make schools safer and better places to learn for all students and improve the health of everyone.

However, the myth of “bathroom danger” continued to grow, despite the fact that these are often attacks on trans folk and that the vast majority of attacks in bathrooms are by cisgendered folk (people whose sense of personal identity and gender corresponds with their assigned birth sex). The spread of this and other transphobic myths frequently occurred when there was a combination of pre-existing assumptions, no (or inaccurate) translation of policy into various languages, and a right-wing which seized upon this policy as a way to whip up fear and hate in new immigrant and right wing religious communities.

In 2017, after several years of unsuccessful attempts, the federal government finally enacted Bill C-16, which amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to include gender identity or expression as grounds protected from discrimination (just like race, religion, age and sexual orientation). It also amends the Criminal Code of Canada to include “gender identity or expression” as a category that distinguishes an identifiable group in Canadian society, protecting trans folk from hate propaganda and hate based offences. These offences include promoting genocide, inciting and promoting hatred, and offences motivated by bias, prejudice or hate.

The opponents of Bill C-16 included the usual right-wing forces, but also some women’s organizations, many with progressive reputations. They opposed the bill because they believed that the legislation would be a threat to spaces reserved for what they term “female-born women.” Many also believe that the trans rights “agenda” will mean that women will no longer exist. These groups see it as part of a patriarchal medical industrial complex agenda, which inflicts violence upon women and will bring about the genocide of women. Their rhetoric often uses anti-capitalist formulations, sometimes even Marxist-like language, which leads some to see them as progressive, radical feminists.

There has long been a tendency in the feminist movement, often termed “radical feminists”, for whom the greatest enemy of women is men. Since 2017, many of these feminists who reject trans inclusion have begun to work with far-right and fascist groups. In the USA, Hands Across the Aisle is an organization that connects radical feminists with anti-LGBTQ groups to campaign against trans rights. The Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) is funded by far-right think tanks. Just as in Canada, these trans exclusive feminists are willing to fight side by side with those who would deny their reproductive rights.

The Southern Poverty Law Centre has documented a campaign, by the Christian Right, to separate the “T” from LGB.

Even where there is no direct coordination, the combined attack by the religious right, and those who consider themselves feminists and are trans exclusive, has been at times overwhelming for trans rights activists – many of whom are feminists themselves. These groups spread myths and disinformation, and fan hate. It is true that globally, a handful of trans- or trans-identifying folk have committed crimes against women. These few cases are trotted out as proof of danger. Why would society deny the rights, and even the existence, of all, because of the actions of a few? None of us would have any rights if that were the standard.

The program of the Communist Party of Canada makes clear that when we refer to women, we include all women. We reject the gender binary, recognizing that scientifically there have always been more than two genders. We recognize that “women’s” bodies and “men’s bodies” have more similarities than differences, and that embryos all start out the same. Gender is a combination of many elements, chromosomes, anatomy, hormones, psychology and culture. We also reject the notion that patriarchy has always existed. Gender oppression is a key feature of capitalism. It arose with the advent of private property. As the program says, “Eradicating gender inequality will be crucial for putting capitalism altogether behind us and advancing to a higher stage of history.”

We reject the non-class based, unscientific notion that all women are sisters, oppressed equally, and united in an ability to bear children. Margaret Thatcher was never our sister.

The ending of gender oppression is fundamental to the liberation of all humanity. The Communist Party is proud to have trans and gender variant members. Together we join movements to end all forms of oppression – including racism, Islamophobia, transphobia, sexism, national chauvinism, and colonization. We are united in overthrowing capitalism, building a socialist society, and fighting for a future for our planet.

(Becky Buhay is the pseudonym of a long time feminist and member of the Communist Party’s Women’s Commission and Pride Commission.)

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6. Election results no excuse for national chauvinism

Dave McKee

As the votes were being counted on October 21, it quickly became clear that the NDP was not going to see its much anticipated (and expected) breakthrough in Toronto. For the last two weeks of the campaign, polls consistently suggested that New Democrats were on track to win in the downtown ridings of Toronto Danforth, Parkdale-High Park, and Davenport. In the end, it wasn’t even close – the Liberals won the first two ridings by 8000 and 10,000 votes, respectively, and held Davenport by a close-but-comfortable 1500.

Across Ontario, the NDP won only six seats – less than half of what it was projected to take. It was an outcome that the pundits explained, very quickly, as arising out of strategic voting. Ontarians, it seems, are pragmatists who did what they thought they needed to do, in order to block a surge from Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives.

The NDP was blanked in Saskatchewan, losing all of the three seats it had won in 2015. This was immediately explained to be the result of voter anger and anxiety over a lack of attention and sympathy for the province’s resource-based economy. The pundits quickly pointed out that the Conservatives, who won every seat in Saskatchewan and 87% of the seats in the three prairie provinces, were merely benefitting from their pro-pipeline policies.

In British Columbia, the NDP had been expected to retain the 14 seats they won in 2015, but only managed eleven. The narrative here was that the Dippers had become tangled with the Greens in a fight for progressive support, allowing the other parties to benefit from a split vote.

And this brings us to Quebec. Upon seeing that the NDP had been reduced to a single seat, CBC anchor opined, “It is fair to also ask whether Quebec was ready for a person of colour to be leading a party.” When Chantal Hebert pointed out that the Bloc Quebecois “ate [all of] the Liberals, the Conservatives and the NDP,” Barton quickly moved to another question. Whereas elsewhere in the country, the NDP’s poor results were packaged into somewhat understandable or even supportable excuses, its near wipeout in Quebec was immediately attributed to racism.

Never mind that Maxime Bernier, leader of the ultra-right racist People’s Party was trounced in the Quebec riding he’d held since 2006. Never mind that a key issue for Quebecers is supply management in agriculture, a system the Bloc squarely committed to defending. Never mind that the same CBC election broadcast included a clip of an anglophone Canadian saying of Jagmeet Singh that “people aren’t ready for his [points to her hair] religion.” And never mind the numerous incidents of racism that Singh directly encountered in English-speaking Canada, virtually all of which were celebrated as examples of the NDP leader’s “principled response” rather than condemned as examples of xenophobia.

The narrative that “Quebec is the racist core of Canada” is not confined to CBC or other media pundits. It has, unfortunately, been echoed by some on the political left, with comments ranging from a smug tsk-tsk to outright bigotry against Quebecers. Much of this discourse seeks cultural evidence by pointing to Quebec’s “Law on the Secularism of the State”, Bill 21, which bans most public workers from wearing or displaying religious symbols and is widely understood to be focused on Muslims. But the legislation has received a lot of opposition within Quebec. The Parti communiste du Québec, which is a distinct entity within the Communist Party of Canada, wrote that Bill 21 is “secular in name only” and is political cover to hide “the true nature of the Legault government, that of a fundamentally reactionary, identity-based and nationalist government.” The PCQ argued that “the real purpose of this law is not only to divide, but to trivialize, legalize and institutionalize oppression and marginalization, of which Muslims are already the first victims.” Other organizations, including some unions and civil rights groups, opposed the law with analysis along similar lines.

Painting all Quebecers with the Bill 21 brush not only ignores the facts, but promotes a distorted view of Quebec which, like Bill 21 itself, serves to minimize the realities of national inequality and, ultimately, to divide the working class.

The NDP’s poor electoral result may not something to cheer, but analyzing it requires examining the complicated context that includes the limits of bourgeois democracy, the dynamics of the multi-national reality of Canada, and the overall political weakness of the NDP itself. And while it also includes an examination of racism and xenophobia, that is certainly no excuse for a wave of anti-Quebec bigotry. That the election result has so quickly opened such commentary is an indication of the widespread national chauvinism in English-speaking Canada, and how close it lies to the surface.

Key issues like the climate crisis, the danger of militarism and war, and increasing social and economic precarity received distressingly short shrift in this election. The working class is staring down the barrel of a severe, multi-faceted crisis and the only way to confront it is through a massive united struggle that is forged through national, gender and racial equality.

The task of progressives in English-speaking Canada is to fight big-nation chauvinism, not to find excuses for peddling it.

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7. Ontario: education workers fighting “more than ever” for students

From the depths of the attic room where it was hidden from public view during the federal election campaign, Doug Ford’s Conservative government appears to have been backing away from much of its aggressive neoliberal austerity agenda.

Last year, the government was positioning itself for a major attack on the province’s already pitiful social assistance programs. Armed with a handily-revised financial report that showed Ontario’s deficit was larger than reported, and a review of social assistance that could have been penned by Ebenezer Scrooge, then minister Lisa MacLeod to cut $1 billion from Community and Social Services.

Surprise, then, that after a quiet but utterly sweeping cabinet shuffle, the government retreated from many of MacLeod’s planned cuts including the elimination of the Transitional Child Benefit.

The Tories have also blinked in other areas, including the hugely important education sector.

First up were 55,000 education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions includes educational assistants, custodians, early childhood educators, office administrators, library workers, tradespeople, instructors, IT specialists, child and youth workers, psychologists, social workers, and speech-language pathologists.

The government has pushed for cuts to services and programs, as well as a 1% cap on wages, pensions and benefits for education workers and teachers. In response, the unions have organized mass outreach campaigns to engage the public in the defense of public education. Parent and community activists have organized regular “walk-ins” at schools – solidarity pickets with teachers and education workers before school starts. The result was a rapid and strong growth in community support for the unions, and a widespread sense of mistrust in the government. Workers, it seems, have a better sense of defending public education than politicians elected to do just that.

Plagued by plummeting popularity, the last straw for Doug Ford may have been the threat of a strike by CUPE. With parent and community support for the union, and with school boards across Ontario declaring that they would close schools in the event of a strike, the Tories seem to have realized that they would be clearly carrying the blame for any disruption.

In the end, while they didn’t beat back the 1% wage cap, CUPE pushed back on most government demands and even won some gains. The union secured 1300 new jobs, maintained the sick leave and short-term leave plans, won an additional holiday (Family Day) for all members, increased training, and new funding for community use of schools.

The CUPE deal forms something of a template for the teachers’ unions, who are in bargaining as of press time. Here, the biggest single issue is perhaps the government’s moves to increase class size, an attack that is felt particularly harshly at the secondary level. Increasing class size directly impacts hiring for teachers, and it also results in drastic cuts to school funding.

So far, the three main teachers’ unions – ETFO, OSSTF and OECTA – have kept pace with one another during negotiations and appear to be maintaining a united demand that the government must remove the proposals to increase class size and remove class size caps in local contracts. The unions will likely be in a strike position around November 20.

Speaking with People’s Voice, a representative of one of the unions said, “this time around, bargaining is more than ever about students. The level of services is incredibly uneven across the province, depending on the school board and what resources it has. At the table, we’re trying to negotiate improved standards in the services and programs offered to students. Services for students shouldn’t depend on your postal code.”

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8. Uruguay, Argentina: A rising Pink Tide

Nino Pagliccia

In a political environment of unrest and protests from progressive sectors against neoliberal policies in Chile and Ecuador, great expectations have been focused on two Latin American countries that had presidential elections on October 27: Uruguay and Argentina. We are seeing a tendency towards a rebirth of the Pink Tide in the region.

With almost 100% of the votes counted there is no clear winner in Uruguay. Daniel Martinez of the governing leftist Frente Amplio coalition took a considerable 40.7% of the votes and Luis Lacalle Pou of the conservative Partido Nacional took 29.7%. According to electoral law a winner is declared with 50% plus one of the votes. They will go to a run-off election on November 24.

Martinez is a socialist activist and if he becomes president, he will follow in the political footsteps of current president Tabaré Vázquez, who has popular appeal and is considered politically progressive. Domestically Vázquez has been able to maintain a strong coalition and internationally he has established good regional relationships, including with Cuba and Venezuela.

Lacalle is pro-business and promised austerity measures during his campaign. His chances in the run-off will depend largely on how much support he can get from the other smaller parties. Both candidates will put a lot of effort into garnering that support over the next few weeks.

Argentina, on the other hand, has a new president assuming office on December 10, replacing right wing Mauricio Macri who has conceded to Alberto Fernandez.

Argentinian voters have clearly voted against the neoliberal policies of Macri and have chosen Alberto Fernandez and his vice-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (CFK) with 48% of the vote, compared to 40% for Macri. Only 45% was needed to avoid a runoff vote.

The election was mostly decided around economic issues. The ballot was a rejection of Macri’s neoliberal model that imposed an austerity program that has been in place for the last four years. Under that model Argentina has been on the verge of an economic recession while it’s dealing with a reported $50 to $100 billion debt, which has been a contributing factor to the 50% inflation rate, and increased unemployment and poverty levels. Thirty-five out of every one hundred Argentinians are estimated to have been pushed into poverty.

Alberto Fernandez came to centre stage in politics on May 18 when CFK, who was expected to launch her candidacy, surprisingly announced that Alberto Fernandez would be the presidential candidate for the Frente de Todos (Front for All) party and that she would be the vice-president. The Front for All is a progressive coalition of unions and social movements. The party is politically aligned with Peronism, named after the ideology of former president Juan Domingo Peron, based on social justice, economic independence and political sovereignty.

Alberto Fernandez himself has politically conservative roots; however, he was able to work with supporters of Peronism by rejecting IMF-imposed austerity measures and eventually became chief of staff in the Nestor Kirchner administration (2003-2007). When Cristina Fernandez, Kirchner’s wife, became president Alberto Fernandez turned critical of her administration. His criticism, though, was considered to be healthy self-criticism and not in contradiction with the overall progressive political stance.

Given CFK’s popularity in Argentina she may be considered the driving force behind the electoral success. However, her presidency (2007-2015) was not void of controversy. Some of her most contentious policies, such as increased taxation for agricultural exports and a fiscal austerity program, did not go through in the face of popular opposition. But she can also be credited for her policies to reduce poverty, including a universal child allowance program for parents in precarious economic situations. A UNICEF report attributed the reduction of extreme poverty by 30.8% and general poverty by 5.6% to this program.

The main reason CFK is considered a progressive president and part of the “Pink Tide” in the region is her foreign policy. She put Argentina’s sovereignty above IMF demands and consistently fully aligned herself with progressive leaders like Luiz Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff in Brazil, recently re-elected Evo Morales in Bolivia, Hugo Chavez and Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador.

Unlike Fernandez, CFK has a proven track record; but the two were brought politically closer through their opposition to Macri’s neoliberal policies. However, their once-different political positions raise questions about their future as a team in government. For the time being we have to believe that their common goal will be to work for a cohesive center-left administration. After December 10, when Fernandez will be sworn in as president, we will see how strongly they adhere to their progressive reputation.

The regional sentiment for a continued strong relationship with Argentina and rekindling of Latin America progressive movement is fully expressed in the congratulatory statement from the government of Venezuela, which says in part, “It is a triumph that expresses the hope of the Argentine people to walk the path to rescue social justice, economic independence and political sovereignty in their country. The massive electoral participation reinforces the legitimacy of the election process and sends a clear message from the Argentine people in rejection of the imposition of the criminal economic neoliberal policies of the International Monetary Fund, imposed without mercy in recent years by the authorities in office.” It also expresses the desire to “strengthen the integration mechanisms of Latin America and the Caribbean” as an indirect reference to Macri’s rejection of that integration.

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