NDP gains in Hochelaga, Quebec workers seek a labour party

On 9th November 2009, a federal by-election was held in the Montreal riding of Hochelaga-Maisonneuve. The results show important gains for the NDP and that Quebecois workers are searching for an alternative to the traditional bourgeois parties. This includes the bourgeois-nationalist Bloc Quebecois, which has dominated this working-class area since 1993. In Quebec, these developments are important because the national question has historically been used to cut across the class struggle, preventing the formation of a genuine labour party.

Jean-Claude Rocheleau was the NDP candidate in the riding. He is also president of Local 121 of the CEP (Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union) that represents the Shell refinery workers, located in a nearby industrial area. The refinery is the largest one that Shell operates in Canada. The workers there have just recently been given news that the company intends on converting it into a storage facility, meaning that layoffs are on the horizon. Rocheleau previously had also campaigned for the defence of the locked-out Petro-Canada workers at a refinery in the same area.

Where is the working class going?

In the Hochelaga by-election, Rocheleau faced off against the Bloc Québécois’ (BQ) Daniel Paillé. The BQ has easily won this riding since 1993. In the last federal election, Rochelau had finished in 3rd place with 14.44%, a gain of 5.53% over the previous election for the NDP. Elections provide an indirect reflection of the balance of forces. Taken alone, these results are not, in and of themselves, worth paying attention to. But, as a partial window into the turbulent process at work under the surface, they can be vital clues.

As the numbers in the table show, the NDP made further strides in the November by-election, rising to 19.5%, a gain of 5.06%. Significantly, the Liberals fell to 3rd place, behind the NDP. Since the Bloc’s formation under the leadership of former Conservative minister Lucien Bouchard, the Liberals have been seen as Quebec’s second party, picking up a significant number of seats in some elections, particularly on the island of Montreal.

The NDP scored a historic breakthrough in the 2008 general election with the victory of Thomas Mulcair in Outremont, traditionally a safe Liberal riding. Outremont became the first seat the NDP has ever won in a general election in Quebec. Muclair’s victory was directly related to the NDP firmly calling for an immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, and this resonating with ordinary Quebeckers. Rocheleau’s strong showing in the by-election needs to be seen in this context. We have to repeat what we have said in previous articles: Thomas Mulcair’s victory was no flash in the pan.

In the context of general attacks against the working class, and now an attempt to make the workers pay the bill for the economic crisis, workers are searching for representatives who can defend their interests. It is in this light that these results must be viewed.

We are seeing the very beginning of this process; we can expect that it will not proceed in a straight line, and that there will be partial steps back along the way. But it is clear that workers are searching for a way forward, though they do so hesitantly. Amir Khadir’s election as Quebec Solidaire’s first deputy to Quebec’s National Assembly, Thomas Mulcair’s election as the NDP’s first Quebec MP, Projet Montreal’s historic gains in the municipal elections, and now Jean-Claude Rocheleau’s serious showing in a through-and-through working class district, all show where Quebec’s workers have been turning their attention: solving the historic problem of the lack of a political party for the Quebecois working class.

Quebec’s workers need a party of their own

Historically, Quebecois workers have been robbed of the opportunity to have an independent political party to represent their interests. The machinations of the petit-bourgeois nationalist Parti Québécois have continued to drag the union leadership along with it, long after it became an openly bourgeois instrument.

In the period of their first government, the PQ banned union donations to political parties in an attempt to safeguard themselves against the involvement of the workers in an organized way on the political plane. More importantly, the PQ also disoriented the working class. The PQ attempted to convince workers that a French-speaking boss shared their interests, and with whom it was possible to unite. For an entire period, the national question cut across the class question. This destroyed attempts by the NDP, or any other party, to unite the working class in Quebec for a whole historical period. We may now be seeing the very early beginnings of the end of this tragedy.

This opportunity can be easily squandered. The NDP can make historic breakthroughs in Quebec, but this requires boldly stating what needs to be said. The workers are not turning towards parties like the NDP and QS to have lower ATM fees, or for the protection of the right of public employees to wear the Hijab (in the case of QS’s latest pet project). They are doing so because they are offered no solution to the economic crisis by the bourgeois parties.

The companies are bailed out while workers are locked out. Workers are looking for representatives of their own. They ask, where’s our bailout? And now, as the crisis gives way to a jobless recovery, they will be asking, where’s our recovery? Attacks are only going to intensify; privatizations and cuts are already Jim Flaherty’s prescription for balancing the federal deficit. The NDP needs to win over the support of the workers in Quebec and in Canada, uniting them for a fight back against these attacks.

But the party can’t achieve any of this without a clear position on the national question, which it has unfortunately made serious mistakes with in the past.

Uniting the workers across national lines

The NDP leadership have often vacillated on this question, playing an opportunist game with the question of Quebec. The NDP must make clear that it has no interest in unity by force. It must guarantee Quebecois workers the right to self-determination, up to, and including, separation should they choose it. They need to reject the so-called “Clarity” Act that attempts to place conditions on this democratic right. Officially, the party opposes the Clarity Act, but Jack Layton has previously come out in favour of it, for example. The NDP leadership attempted to play to Canadian chauvinism in the prairies, a dangerous game which has cost the party dearly in Quebec.

This is a very important question, and cannot be dealt with in an opportunist manner. The unity of the working class in Quebec and across Canada is at stake, and what is needed is not the cheap kind of “unity” bought with meaningless political gestures or repression. What is needed is a real unity, for a united struggle against the bourgeoisie and their offensive against the workers, in Quebec and in the rest of Canada.

But the party’s approach to the question has been confused and dangerous. From playing to Canadian chauvinism, they have recently attempted a “quick fix” by opportunistically jumping on the question of English schooling in Quebec and introducing a motion supporting limitations on the right to education in the language of one’s choosing.

This is a concession to bourgeois nationalism in Quebec. It is no solution, but is merely repeating the party’s previous mistakes, turned inside out. The bourgeoisie is looking to stir up the language question in order to paint immigrant workers as a threat to the nation, and the French language. The real threat to Quebecois workers comes not from the immigrant working class, but from our own bosses, who are preparing an assault on our standards of living to pay the bills for the bailouts.

Quebecois workers have nothing to gain from forcing immigrants to learn one language or another; this is the project of the bourgeoisie, who are attempting to distract the workers and set them against one another. Only the abolition of capitalism can remove the economic pressures responsible for forcing English schooling on immigrant families. Only a program of free education, up to and including university in a single united Quebec education system, can remove the barriers which create cultural ghettos and mutual distrust.

The party has to also make clear that Canadian workers have no interest in the oppression of the Quebecois workers, but need their help to overthrow their common enemy, the Canadian capitalists and their state. An NDP majority government, carrying out a socialist program, would in this way be able to democratically win the trust of the Quebecois working class, and help establish a voluntary socialist union of Quebec and Canada.

Only such a vision based on socialist internationalism can cut through the nationalism of the BQ and PQ, and finally blast apart the historic walls that have prevented Quebec’s workers from finding their way to a political party of their own.

For a socialist program

The NDP needs to put forward a fighting socialist program to lead workers out of the misery that will be presented by the so-called recovery. It is ideas such as Jean-Claude Rocheleau’s proposal to nationalize the fossil fuels industry that have attracted workers, but more is needed. We feel the need to repeat here what we previously said when Rocheleau and a whole slate of union leaders where elected to lead the Quebec NDP:

“We can’t stop here, these new leaders, and the labour militants who have joined the NDP with them, should put forward a program to nationalize the banks and the major industries under workers’ control, without compensation, and implement a democratic, rational, socialist plan of production.

“Only then can we control our destinies, without being slaves to the blind play of market forces. We can use the profits to bring about free, quality, accessible education, universal public healthcare, a massive program of job-creating public works, a livable minimum wage and a 6 hour day without loss of pay. This would be received like a breath of fresh air by the workers of Québec, so used to the attacks, privatization and nationalist demagoguery of the traditional parties.”