(The following article is from the November 16-30, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.

Resolution adopted by the BC Committee, Communist Party of Canada, Nov. 11, 2007

With one year to go before municipal elections across British Columbia on Nov. 15, 2008, it is clear that local governments are an increasing arena of struggles for housing, the environment, democratic rights, and other important issues in our province. At the recent annual meeting of the Union of B.C. Municipalities, delegates backed the labour movement's demand to raise the BC minimum wage to $10, and called on the Campbell Liberals to remove local governments from the terms of TILMA, the corporate-driven Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement. Many civic governments are fighting to protect the environment for their citizens. These struggles emphasize the importance of stronger involvement by the labour and people's movements, including the political left, in the 2008 civic election campaigns.

     For the left, the 2008 campaign in Vancouver has particular significance. The right-wing NPA majority on City Council suffers from internal divisions and widespread public anger over their role in forcing the longest civic workers strikes in Vancouver history. But the opportunity to defeat Mayor Sam Sullivan and the NPA could easily be lost in a scramble by various centre and left forces to nominate competing slates. That could almost certainly allow the NPA to cruise to victory next November.

     For decades, Vancouver has been home to the strongest labour-left electoral formation in Canada, the Coalition of Progressive Electors. In 2002, COPE won control of City Council, School Board and Park Board in Vancouver, sweeping out the discredited pro-business NPA and carrying out a wide range of progressive changes over the next three years.

     Of course, big business forces moved quickly to put maximum pressure on the new council, finding ways to divide the COPE majority on several major issues. Those who were vulnerable to such pressures eventually broke away from COPE to form the centrist Vision party. Understandably, this split created deep wounds within the wider alliance which had defeated the NPA in 2002, putting the brakes on the progressive agenda which voters backed in 2002, and contributing to huge setbacks for COPE in 2005.

     Most COPE  members have concluded that broad unity is necessary to prevent a repeat of this debacle at the polls. The COPE executive elected in the spring of 2007 is strongly committed to seeking such unity.

     But others believe that the left in Vancouver must stand alone, regardless of the potential outcome in civic elections. Their view is that there is little or no difference between the NPA and Vision (which have taken very different positions on many key issues on Council). Some go so far as to consider the leadership of the Vancouver labour movement as enemies of working people and the poor for advocating unity against the NPA. Recently there have been signals that some of these forces are preparing to back another slate for 2008, led by mayoralty candidate Betty Krawczyk.

     At the same time, some Vision supporters want their group to adopt a "go-it-alone" strategy by nominating a full slate for Council, and candidates for School Board and Parks Board, without regard for cooperation with other anti-NPA forces.

     In short, the potential exists for three competing anti-NPA slates for Council in the 2008 election, and divisions in other races - great news for Sullivan and the NPA, but a recipe for electoral disaster for the left and the working class.

     The Communist Party, which played a vital role in the formation of COPE, and which continues to give full support to COPE, urges all those who oppose the NPA to avoid this divisive scenario. The historical record shows that despite inevitable difficulties and contradictions, unity of left and centre forces is the essential condition for defeating the NPA and opening the door to progressive reforms at the local level in Vancouver.

     Those who criticise unity efforts all argue that only "their" group has the ability to advance the progressive agenda in Vancouver. Such arguments can only help the NPA. At this time of enormous and wide-ranging corporate assaults on the people and environment of this area, such an outcome would be catastrophic, to say the least, especially given the critical role played by Vancouver in the Greater Vancouver region.

     As preparations for the next campaign heat up, we appeal for all anti-NPA forces to find ways to build cooperation and unity. We believe that such unity is possible around key issues where there is already broad agreement: the need to build thousands of social and low-cost housing units to tackle the homelessness crisis; improved relations with civic unions; no more waste of taxpayers' dollars on the ever-ballooning costs of the 2010 Olympics; a focus on health-based solutions to the epidemic of drug abuse; democratic and civilian control over the police; reversing the NPA's drive to shift municipal taxes away from business and onto homeowners; pushing aggressively for more buses and lower fares to ease the regional transportation crisis; strong action to cut greenhouse gas emissions and protect the environment; defense of the public education system, including demands for adequate provincial funding; opposition to TILMA.

     It would be counter-productive to demand full agreement in advance on every detail of these policies. The real question is to find ways to avoid vote-splitting by three different anti-NPA slates. Otherwise, the NPA will win easily, making it extremely difficult to win progress on any of these issues, at least until the following election in 2011, by which time enormous damage will be done. The conclusion is obvious: we must not allow our partisan differences to stop us from working towards common anti-NPA slates for City Council, School Board and Park Board. Hard as this may be, the alternative is simply not acceptable.