Poilievre’s polling lead amongst union members results from the frustration with the governing Liberals, the inability of the NDP to offer an alternative and the strategic positioning of Poilievre. This troubling trend speaks to the need for a fighting labour movement outside the confines of parliamentary politics.
Ontario is in crisis. The stakes are high. We can’t afford inaction, which will only demoralize workers, but open the door to right to push an even more reactionary agenda. We can either roll over and let the bosses win or stand up and say Enough is Enough!
The left’s response to the OPSEU scandal must counter the big business narrative that unions and union leaders are inevitably corrupt. We have to aim to build the confidence and capacity of rank and file members to not only assert themselves in their unions, but to take on the bosses. The best way to prevent union corruption is to build class struggle unionism from below.
The year ahead will see a stark choice about who pays for the current crisis and opportunities for our side to shape the response. The lessons of 2022 is that change can be imposed from above or can be inspired from below.
On Friday, 55,000 Ontario education workers with CUPE walked off the job in an “illegal” strike. They were joined by OPSEU education workers, who also…
Our rights in the workplace, our rights to organize and have access to basic protections and benefits as workers, are the product of working people taking action – oftentimes in the face of repressive laws and physical violence from the state and employers.
With a strike deadline possibly weeks away, it’s crucial to use every moment between now and then to build broad public support for Ontario’s education workers. If education workers win, we all win, and every other fight with the Ford government will be stronger for it.
CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions represents 55,000 education workers in Ontario. They are fighting for higher wages and better working conditions. Currently members are in the midst of a strike vote. Spring recently spoke with Laura Walton, the President of OSBCU – CSCSO, about how education workers are organizing to fight for decent wages and a fair contract.
Unions have an opportunity to put the Tories on their back foot and break the back of Bill 124. This can unite workers across sectors, and push back on the broader privatization agenda. The time is now to build the confidence of workers to take on the Tories and fight for higher wages.
Being a socialist organizer means building the confidence, capacity and leadership in those around you to engage in struggle. It means being a militant where you are at.
Faced with high inflation the ruling class is driving us into a recession and fomenting unemployment in order to preserve profits. To justify this they fear monger about workers’ wages leading to a wage-price spiral. This is simply a diversion from the fact that capitalists are out to protect their profits.
Churchill is a symbol for the continued project of imperialism, colonialism and capitalist rule. Underneath the charming and quirky portrayals we are fed in the media lies a politician who supported almost every reactionary cause of his day and whose crimes in service of the empire extended across the globe.
