BY SUSAN BERMAN AND AL CAPPE
"Working people and youth are looking for a way out of the deepening economic and social crisis," said John Steele at a recent meeting launching his campaign as the Communist League candidate for Ontario provincial parliament in the Fort York riding. "This is why fighters around the world are attracted to revolutionary Cuba as an example of how to fight against capitalism and organize a society based on human solidarity."
Steele, 51, is an assembly line worker at Ford Electronics. He and his supporters had just wrapped up a successful day of campaigning on street corners, at a meeting to organize against racist attacks on immigrants, and at a rally opposing violence against women.
The Progressive Conservative (Tories) and Liberal parties are the main contenders seeking to replace Ontario's New Democratic Party (NDP) government headed by Premier Bob Rae. Both parties blame the economic crisis on government spending and the deficit. All three try to convince working people to take responsibility for the government's budget problems and accept cuts in social programs.
The Tories propose implementing "workfare," forcing up to 400,000 people into government work projects in order to qualify for welfare benefits. Liberal leader Lyn Macleod and Tory Michael Harris both call for cutting welfare benefits.
Harris is also taking aim at affirmative action. Both parties say they will gut Law 40, known as the antiscab law, put into place under the Rae government. They also call for tax cuts.
Discontent with NDP
There is widespread discontent among working people with
the NDP. When elected in 1990, many workers expected it
would defend working people. Instead it carried out deep
cuts in social programs. Premier Rae implemented what he
called the "Social Contract" under which public sector
workers' contracts were torn up and their wages were cut;
health care, education, and other services were reduced.
Workers' experiences with NDP governments over the last few years led to the lowest vote ever for the New Democrats in the last federal elections. Some opposed the NDP because of the cuts. Others saw no discernible difference between the NDP's proposals and the other major parties. A layer of workers voted for the right wing capitalist Reform party.
This has precipitated a big discussion within the leadership of the unions. Union officials at the Metro Toronto Labour Council were unable to come up with a common list of candidates to support. Officials of the United Steelworkers of America, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union and others are urging support for the NDP. "As organizations who represent working people in Ontario," states a tabloid distributed in workplaces, "we unions don't really expect to be happy with everything the government does-Basically we want a government that is fair. We think we already have such a government." The tabloid points to Labor Law 40 as an example.
Public sector unions and leaders of the Canadian Auto Workers say they oppose a blanket vote for the NDP. They urge workers to only vote for candidates who opposed the "Social Contract" and are for a "strong public sector." As the elections near, however, they are increasingly campaigning against the Tories and Liberals. For instance, at the Ontario Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) convention, a noon-time rally was organized to "protest Lyn McLeod's and Mike Harris' plans to gut Ontario's labour law."
"They (the union leadership) say don't vote Tories or Liberals. I'm not stupid. They want us to vote NDP. I think all the parties stink," one delegate at the CUPE convention told a Militant reporter. A young woman teaching assistant from York University explained, "I know the NDP hurt us. But I guess they're saying at least they'll defend Labor Law 40 and we need that. I think we should vote NDP."
"It's good that there's been some discussion in the trade unions on the experience with the NDP government," said John Steele. "But neither wing of the union officialdom presents a real alternative to the procapitalist perspective being put forward by all the parties, including the NDP."
In an interview on cable television, Steele remarked, "Every one of my opponents say the problem we face is the deficit. This is a lie. The deficit is their problem and we should take no responsibility whatsoever for it. Their campaign against the deficit is a scam to get us to agree to concessions - to give up basic rights like healthcare, unemployment insurance, and quality public education."
Steele rejects the scapegoating of welfare recipients. He calls for extending social security at union-scale wages to those unable to work.
Steele is campaigning to advance a struggle by the labor movement to shorten the workweek with no reduction in pay; defend affirmative action; and cancel the Third World debt. "Fighting around demands like these will help us overcome the divisions the employers use to get us competing with each other instead of defending ourselves as an international class," Steele explained.
On radio and television interviews, Steele encouraged others to join him at the upcoming Women's March against Poverty in Quebec. "Actions like this are important in advancing our struggles today and building a fighting labor movement," he explained.
He also is campaigning to build participation in the upcoming "Cuba Lives" festival taking place this August in Havana and other provinces in Cuba.
Al Cappe is a member of the International Association of Machinists. Susie Berman is a member of the Canadian Auto Workers union.