BY PAUL KOURI AND NED DEMERSON

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -Following its reelection May 28, the New Democratic Party government of British Columbia declared a freeze on building a series of educational, health, and other facilities the NDP promised during the election campaign.

The NDP is a social democratic party with formal ties to major unions. The BC Federation of Labor, representing over 200,000 unionized workers in this Canadian province, called for a vote for the NDP and organized the distribution of flyers at plant gates in support of its candidates.

The NDP won 39 seats compared to 33 for the Liberals in the 75-seat provincial legislature. The Reform Party, a right-wing populist party, won two seats. At the dissolution of the previous provincial legislature, the NDP held 50 seats to the Liberals' 14.

In October 1995, the NDP trailed the Liberals by 30 points in the polls. Its leader Mike Harcourt resigned. Plagued by scandals, the NDP's record in office disillusioned many of the workers and youth who elected it in 1991 to replace the right- wing Social Credit government.

Initially after the 1991 election, the NDP government repealed reactionary anti-abortion legislation and introduced a new labor code supported by many workers, which included a ban on the use of replacement workers during strikes. It wasn't long however, before it closed Shaugnessey, a major hospital in Vancouver, and arrested hundreds of youth and others protesting its decision to allow clearcut logging in Clayoquot Sound, one of the last remaining watersheds of old growth rainforests.

A year ago, it sent a major police detachment to Gustafson Lake to forcibly remove a group of armed Natives and their supporters who have traditionally practiced a religious ceremony there - the Sundance (see article on page 16). And last fall the NDP government declared that anyone moving to British Columbia from another province or country would have to meet a three-month residency requirement before being eligible for social assistance.

In the spring, Glen Clark was elected as the new leader of the NDP. Seeking to bolster the party's image among working people, Clark went on the offensive against the Liberals. He attacked Liberal leader Gordon Campbell, a former real estate developer, for being on the side of the banks and corporations. Campbell had promised to eliminate the capital gains tax on banks and corporations and cut government spending by $6.6 billion.

During the election campaign the NDP government outlawed the right to strike for hospital and education workers as the possibility for strike action by Surrey school board workers and hospital workers loomed. At the same time, Clark announced short-term freezes on university tuition fees, on car insurance premiums, and on increasing the minimum wage.

As the election date neared it became evident to many workers that large corporate interests were openly backing the Liberals. The Vancouver Sun and the Province, the main bourgeois dailies, published editorials calling for a vote for the Liberals. p> "Many strikers, other workers, and youth saw their vote for the NDP as a vote against the ruler's attacks," noted Dan Grant, Communist League candidate in Little Mountain in Vancouver.

"A Liberal government will pass anti-worker laws and get rid of the anti-scab provisions in the current labor code," said Militant subscriber and Canadian Auto Workers striker Jason Malott, explaining his vote.

Suny West, a United Food and Commercial Workers picket captain at Save-on-Foods in Burnaby, told the Militant she urged members of her union to vote NDP against the Liberals. "They [the Liberals] represent the interests of people like Jim Pattison, who is trying to bust our union." Pattison, a BC billionaire is the owner of Overwaitea Foods. A major drive for concessions by Safeway and Overwaitea led to a province-wide lockout and then a strike by 14,000 UFCW members just days after the election.

"We used our campaign to explain that workers need to rely on our own struggles not voting to advance our interests, which are incompatible with the approach of the NDP to `humanely' manage the capitalist system," explained Grant, who is a production worker at Domtar and a member of the Communications, Energy and Paper Workers Union.

"My union distributed leaflets at the plant gate urging workers to vote NDP. The following week I along with supporters distributed my campaign leaflet at the plant gate. It explained the need to fight for jobs for all by shortening the work week with no loss in pay, to defend affirmative action for women and Natives, to support Quebec's struggle for independence, and to defend immigrant rights. Most workers took the leaflet and a couple bought copies of the Militant, including one who supports the Cuban revolution and wants to get a subscription," concluded Grant.  
 
 
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