(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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

The New Year may see a major escalation in the level of working class mobilization across Canada. Already, some heroic struggles are being carried out under difficult circumstances - the Steelworkers on strike against Brazilian transnational Vale, for example, and HandyDart drivers in B.C. battling a vicious U.S. employer.

     These and other recent strikes show that workers in Canada have the capacity to stand up against the right-wing attack, despite an unfortunate shortage of militant leadership at the highest levels of the labour movement. But much wider struggles are needed to move from sporadic local actions to a truly powerful resistance movement led by the organized working class.

     The recent Ontario Federation of Labour convention, which elected a new leadership and heard that the CAW is coming back to the OFL, is a welcome sign that the situation is improving. But the main impetus for change may come from Quebec and British Columbia, where contracts will soon expire for public sector workers.

     In Quebec, unions representing 475,000 members have united to issue common demands such an 11.25% pay increase over three years, improved retirement plans, and support for workers' family commitments. Despite right-wing claptrap about "overpaid government workers," Quebec's average public sector wage of $36,000 lags behind the private sector by 7.7%. The Common Front is the largest since 1972, when the Quebec working class launched an historic general strike.

     Some 200,000 public sector employees in B.C. are also entering negotiations, facing the Campbell Liberal government which wants to impose a pay freeze and rollbacks of important collective agreement provisions.

     Add to the mix the reality that the capitalist economic crisis continues to clobber private sector workers, and it becomes clear that the situation is critical. The entire labour movement must find ways to extend solidarity to all workers engaged in struggle this year, and to reach out to every sector of the population hit by cutbacks, privatization, and other neoliberal policies. The challenge for 2010 is enormous, but the potential does exist for a mighty upsurge that can force governments and employers to retreat.