(The following article is from the January 16-31, 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

Corporate talking heads continue to talk about "recovery," often pairing that word with "fragile." The only certainty, however, is that the devastation which hit working people in 2009 will continue this year. With apologies to cat-lovers, the phrase "dead cat bounce" comes to mind; virtually anything thrown off a tall building will bounce when it hits the sidewalk. Similarly, the decline last year was so severe that a few months of barely measurable GDP growth does not mean much.

     Most important, there is no sign that the slight upturn in economic activity will improve employment figures in the near future. The thirty biggest capitalist economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are still on track for record post-war levels of some 57 million jobless this year, with tens of millions more surviving on part-time hours. In December, after several months of "growth," the official Canadian unemployment rate stayed at 8.5%, leaving 1.57 million out of work. The picture is worse in the United States, with gloomy implications for the Canadian economy.

     It's also a fact that Canadian workers have lost ground over the last decade, even as corporate executives saw their pay outpace inflation by 70%. Faced with rising debt loads and poor job prospects, working people are in no position to go on a spending spree. And now, the Harper Tories are winding up their totally inadequate "stimulus" package, sharpening the knives to cut social spending in the next budget.

     The details vary but the picture is roughly similar in many other capitalist countries, as right-wing governments focus on protecting corporate profits at the expense of working people. In the current battle against the arrogant Tory prorogation of Parliament, it will be crucial to expand the fight by raising the need for a genuine, pro-worker economic program in response to the "jobless recovery."