06) QUEBEC WORKERS SHOW THE WAY

(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2008, 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.)

People's Voice Editorial, May 16-31, 2008

The ongoing barrage of government and corporate attacks against working people calls for an urgent response - not just "getting out the t-shirts," but pulling out all the stops to mobilize the labour movement into action.

     Exactly that happened in Montreal for May Day, when the major Québec trade union centrals organized a massive rally to defend workers rights and public, universal health care. An estimated 50,000 demonstrators gathered for the march, many arriving in bus convoys. Countless union banners and placards were present, as well as all the colourful extras that make such an event memorable, from stilt-walkers to Liberal Premier Jean Charest and his cabinet, represented in giant cartoon heads, bobbing and bouncing down the street. Doctors pushed a small fleet of "patients" on stretchers. There were hundreds of red flags, and masses of people, stretching almost a mile, from Rue Rachel, down St-Denis, and onto Sherbrooke.

     Medicare in Quebec has been under increasing attack, especially since the Castonguay report openly called for dismantling the public system earlier this year. But as Lina Bonamie, Quebec Nurses Federation president, warned Health Minister Philippe Couillard and company: "Health care in Quebec is a right. We'll stand up to protect our rights. We'll block you at every turn if you want to turn health into a commodity."

     Other marchers included the locked out workers at Domtar, the Journal du Québec, and the PetroCanada refinery in Montreal's east end. It was a genuine festival of the working class, perhaps not surprising since May Day rallies have been held in Montreal for decades. It's a tradition of class struggle that should be taken up by the trade union movement and its allies right across Canada.