BY ROBERT SIMMS
TORONTO - "I am campaigning to get the truth out about
NATO's war against the people of Yugoslavia and the Canadian
government's participation in it," said Rosemary Ray, speaking
at a campaign rally here May 29. Ray is an auto parts worker
and member of the United Steelworkers of America. She is the
candidate for the Communist League in the York West
constituency in the June 3, Ontario Provincial Elections.
"Many people who stopped by my campaign table expressed the view that Ottawa, even though it is participating in the bombings, is at least trying to help by bringing 5,000 people from Kosova here," she said. "I explained that this government's so-called humanitarian efforts are just a cover for a war that is only in the interests of the employers here, in the United States, and in other imperialist countries."
"Workers from around the world passed by the table. A good number said there are more rights for people in Canada, because Canada is a `multicultural country.' I explained that Canada, like the United States, is ruled by a small class of wealthy capitalist families and that Ottawa's official multiculturalism was used to hide this reality."
Ray reported that five people picked up copies of the Militant that day and one bought New International No. 8, which discusses the political contributions of Cuban leader Che Guevara to that country's socialist revolution. Several people left their names and phone numbers for possible subscriptions.
Polls suggest that Conservative premier Michael Harris will be returned for a second term in office. Elected four years ago under the banner of his right-wing "Common Sense Revolution," the Harris government has led a massive assault on the social wage of working people, cutting health care, education, and other social services needed by working people and restricting the rights of workers to unionize and strike. Opposition to Harris is divided between those voting for the Liberals - a capitalist party -and those voting for the New Democratic Party (NDP), a social democratic party with links to the unions.
In a taped session to be aired on Rogers Cable TV, Ray responded to questions dealing with heath care, education, and other questions being addressed by her campaign.
"For working people, public education and free, quality health care should be right," said Ray. "We see this in practice in revolutionary Cuba today where the government defends the interests of workers and farmers. The Saskatchewan nurses showed the way to defend our rights in their recent strike. They defied back-to-work legislation and court injunctions, and they are ready to walk out again against the NDP government in that province to defend their union and health care."
Ray also underlined the importance of the fight against the U.S.-led NATO war against the people of Yugoslavia. This war is the flip side of the employers' war against working people at home, Ray explained. "The aim of Washington and its allies is to impose the capitalist profit system on the working people of Yugoslavia by force. We should fight to get Canada's CF-18 bombers and all of NATO out of Yugoslavia, and support the struggle for self-determination for the people of Kosova," she said.
At a May 15 Militant Labor Forum where Ray launched her campaign, one worker asked why her campaign doesn't support the "strategic voting" tactic being advanced by a wing of the union officialdom. Ray explained that officials of the Canadian Auto Workers union, teachers, nurses, and other public sector unions are telling working people to vote for either NDP or Liberal candidates, whoever has the best chance of defeating the Conservatives. Officials of the Steelworkers, United Food and Commercial Workers, and other unions are urging a straight NDP vote.
"The Communist League does not think that the governments of any of these parties, including the NDP, will defend the interests of working people," said Ray. "But where workers cannot vote for the Communist League, if they do vote, they can vote against the Liberal and Conservative boss parties by voting for the NDP because it is organizationally linked to our unions."
The defense of workers' rights takes place on the picket lines and in the streets, Ray explained. "This is why I joined the picket line of the National Steel Car strikers in Hamilton. I invite you to participate in the Communist League campaign along with the Young Socialists by getting the Militant newspaper into the hands of fighting workers and youth and also convincing them to buy and read Pathfinder's latest book Capitalism's World Disorder: Working-Class Politics at the Millennium, which explains that capitalism is the root cause of the crisis working people face and how we can organize to get rid of this system."