(The following article is from the June 1-15, 2009, 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.)

On May 19, dozens of people responded to a call from the newly formed Winnipeg Labour Defence League to protest the latest visit to the city by Stephen Harper. The Prime Minister was the star speaker at a gala fundraising dinner for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

     In a flyer distributed earlier at factory gates, hospitals and campuses, the Defence League condemned the Harper government for ripping up the Auto workers' collective agreements in Ontario and declaring war on Labour rights across Canada.

     Workers didn't cause unemployment, war, racism, hunger, or the destruction of the earth, says the flyer, but right wing governments are forcing the workers to pay for the economic crisis: "Billions of dollars are spent on the banks and wealthy, while workers are laid off, communities and families are destroyed, pensions disappear, children go to food banks. No worker lives far from utter poverty and ruin. Many people were already in crisis before the recession, not helped by social programs gutted after decades of cuts. These governments have turned Unemployment Insurance into a cruel joke for most. Youth, Aboriginals, women and immigrant workers pay premiums, but rarely get benefits."

     Instead of being doormats for the corporations and wealthy, says the Defence League, "we can join the fight for decent jobs, universal unemployment insurance, and a better world! We need decent jobs for everyone and to lift the burden of the crisis from the backs of workers."

     The Defence League also circulated information on the organization which invited Harper to Winnipeg:

     "Wonder why Stephen `I hate Labour' Harper is the star guest at a gala fund-raising dinner for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy, $150 a plate?

     "Supported by dubious facts, poor logic and pompous professors, the Centre emits an unrelenting ooze of reactionary policy ideas designed to boost the fortunes of the millionaire big shots who already have the government's ear.

     "The Centre elevates greed as humanity's highest and only aim. Its policies would grind the needy into the dirt. Its aims are far from benevolent. Yet the government has given the Centre charitable status, so it can give expensive tax receipts to its wealthy backers, paid for by Jane and Joe worker/taxpayer.

     With the Frontier Centre and its professors, rent controls would be gone, public housing would be sold off, labour rights would be curbed, giving corporations more power to crush unions.

     The FCPP wants: privatized child-care; a frozen minimum wage; privatized utilities for Hydro and Water; a "flat tax" where those with lower incomes pay the most; even more tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations; no pay equity for women or other discriminated groups; no marketing boards such as the Wheat Board to protect farmers and consumers from the big Agri-monopolies.

     The FCPP has a special place for Aboriginal peoples. In a racist way, it constantly attacks "poor governance" in Aboriginal nations, forgetting the truly massive scale of corporate sleaze and corruption. Failing to recognize the colonial theft of Aboriginal land, it promotes the illusion that Aboriginal peoples are on a level playing field with the non-Aboriginal corporations that own and dominate Canada's land and resources. It attacks the very concept of `national rights,' rights which are fully enjoyed by the Canadian state, but whose denial relegates Aboriginal nations to a position of inequality, humiliation and subjection.

     Are these policies that would help the large part of the working class that lives in perpetual misery from day to day?

     Would these policies lead to a society where everyone receives what they need and contributes what they are able?

     The answer is obvious. The FCPP is a front for the corporations and the wealthy. The FCPP has too much influence over government policies already! They got us into our present mess.