(The following article is from the November 1-15, 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.)

At their October 21 monthly meeting, delegates to the Vancouver and District Labour Council adopted the following resolution on the global financial crisis:

BECAUSE the global financial crisis is triggering an economic recession, which may ultimately spread to the Canadian economy affecting many workers and their families, and BECAUSE the "free market" program of privatization, de-regulation and globalization has so clearly failed workers and their families; and
BECAUSE unregulated market greed and excess are the causes of the current financial crisis and could provide a basis for necessary economic reform and social change if the lessons are properly learned and understood,
THE VANCOUVER & DISTRICT LABOUR COUNCIL WILL:

1. organize educational events and seminars to help workers and the public to understand the current economic situation and develop progressive solutions, and
2. fight any attempt to put the burden of this crisis onto workers' shoulders; and

3. organize coordinated support for the unions that are targeted, if asked to do so by those unions, and promote coalitions between unions and social justice groups to push for the necessary economic and social change to prevent this happening again.