‘Canada: ‘Workers need to organize a labor party’

CALGARY, Alberta — “Workers need to organize a labor party based on the unions to fight for the needs of working people and take political power out of the hands of the capitalist rulers,” said Joseph Young, Communist League candidate in the federal parliamentary elections, at a candidates forum here Sept. 29. “The Cuban Revolution is the outstanding example of what workers are capable of.”

More than 200 residents of Calgary Skyview riding attended the event, where six candidates spoke. The Conservative Party incumbent did not attend. The sharpest debate was around the call, supported by the New Democratic Party, for increasing the minimum wage to $15. Liberal Party candidate Darshan Kang spoke against, saying, “It would hurt the small businessmen who are the backbone of the Canadian economy” and that “anyway this measure would touch only 1 percent of the population.” Stephen Garvey of Democratic Advancement said higher wages “would make the Canadian economy less competitive.”

“We need $15 an hour now and not in three years as the NDP proposes and we need to organize all workers into the unions,” said Young. “It’s through our own activity — in the streets, through strikes and other united actions — that workers can defend our interests.”

— MICHEL DUGRÉ