2019 Fightback congress discusses Indigenous struggle: Revolution not reconciliation!
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More than 160 revolutionaries gathered in Toronto, May 18-20 for the 19th congress of Fightback and La Riposte Socialiste, the supporters of the International Marxist Tendency in Canada. The three-day congress brought attendees from Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Victoria, Waterloo, Hamilton, Ottawa, Oshawa, as well as international guests from Britain, Sweden and the United States. The energy during the weekend was electric as the congress marked impressive advances for the Marxist movement in Canada and Quebec. On the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Third Communist International, the forces of Marxism are on the march and putting revolutionary socialism back on the agenda.
Looking at recent electoral results in Canada and Quebec, it is not just in the Game of Thrones universe that winter has come. Following the election of Doug Ford’s Conservatives in Ontario in June last year, the United Conservative Party of Jason Kenney took power in Alberta this past April 17. In the Maritimes, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island also saw the Conservatives recently form minority governments. And Quebec is no different with the election of its home-grown conservatives, the CAQ, in the election last fall. At the federal level, the polls place the Conservatives and Andrew Scheer ahead of the federal Liberals with the elections just around the corner in October of this year
In May and June of 1919, workers in Winnipeg fought the bosses to win union rights. In doing so, they challenged the very authority of the capitalist state to run society. Today, the corporate media and the creators of public opinion try to present Canada as a peaceful land where class struggle has played no role. The fact is that workers in the past have fought, and even died, to gain their rights and will do so again in the future.
This week, delegates arrive for the Canadian Union of Postal Workers’ 2019 convention in Toronto. Postal workers will be deciding the direction of the union after yet again being legislated back to work. Sadly, a huge opportunity to defy this legislation was missed in 2018. The union needs to elect a leadership that is vocally critical of the lack of defiance last year, and is committed to defy in the future.
On May 8, GM and Unifor jointly announced the loss of 2,300 out of the 2,600 unionized jobs at the Oshawa Assembly Plant. After five months of negotiating, GM will not reverse its decision to end vehicle manufacturing at the plant by the end of 2019, promising only a $170 million investment after that. This is a slap in the face to 2,600 skilled unionized workers who produced billions in profits for the company over the years.
Ignored for 36 years, Canada’s Greens may now have reason to celebrate. On May 6, Green Party candidate Paul Manly swept the by-election in Nanaimo, BC, placing 12 points ahead of the second place Tories. Manly now joins Green Party leader Elizabeth May in Ottawa, until now the sole Green MP since 2011.
