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May 2, 2012 - No. 63 First Anniversary of Fraudulent
Election of Harper Majority A Defining Moment for Canada Halifax, May Day 2012 First
Anniversary
of
Fraudulent
Election
of
Harper Majority May
Day
2012
First Anniversary of Fraudulent Election of a Harper Majority A Defining Moment for Canada
All across the country people are coming forward to take a stand for the kind of Canada they want, the kind of future they desire for themselves and their children, the kind of world in which all humanity can live in peace and prosperity. Industrial workers in manufacturing and mining are resisting the attempts of the monopolies to extort concessions and destroy their standard of living, working conditions, pensions, communities and way of life. Public sector workers are fighting for their dignity and security and to defend the quality public services Canadians want and need. Quebec students are rebelling against government attacks on the right to education. Everyone together is against the assertion of monopoly right above public right and the destruction of the people's sovereign decision-making power. Owners of capital have the Harper and provincial governments at their beck and call. They have intensified their class struggle against the working class without concern for the disequilibrium, insecurity and dislocation this causes. Canadians and Québécois are showing in practice in their determined resistance to uphold their dignity that they are up for the challenge. If owners of capital and their political representatives refuse equilibrium in relations of production and persist in using the state to fund and serve private interests against the working class and public interests, then the working class and its allies have proven before in times of crisis that they are able to break new ground and raise the level of class struggle to that required to defend their rights and chart a new direction for the economy and society. Equilibrium based on the recognition of the rights of the working class is a solution to the crises in the economy and relations of production. The modern working class refuses to live as slave-labour and watch passively as predatory global monopolies destroy the country built up through its labour. Owners of capital and their governments refuse to acknowledge that fact of life. This is why they face the consequences of having an organized working class movement take Canada in a new direction where equilibrium is established through resolving the antagonistic contradiction between the working class and owners of capital in ways that favour the actual producers. Workers are quite capable of assuming control of their lives and the political and economic affairs of the country. Today we see the beginning of a process of solving all the pent up political, economic and social problems of the modern era without the narrow self-serving interference of owners of capital. One Year AgoOne year ago a clear majority of Canadians did not want a Harper majority in the May 2 Federal election. This was borne out by the 60 per cent of Canadians who voted and did not vote for Harper and the 39 per cent of registered voters who refused to vote. However, due to the anachronistic political system in Canada, the Conservative Party's use of various forms of electoral manipulation, media disinformation which operated to push a Harper majority, and the failure of organized labour to unite behind its own independent demands, Harper was able to capture full control of Canada on behalf of the monopolies with only 23.4 per cent of eligible voters. This is the fraudulent majority he speaks of so often. Canadians are outraged upon learning of the way the election was manipulated using robocalling and microtargetting, all the while the Harper government tells other countries they need to be "democratic." Also shocking has been the clear evidence of government corruption. These revelations on an almost daily basis only make Harper more and more arrogant, not less. With the election of the fraudulent Harper majority government the project to establish a United States of North American monopolies has also been accelerated. Today, the working class faces a consolidated alliance of the monopolies and institutions of the federal governments in both Canada and the United States at their disposal. The presence of U.S. military personnel on Canadian territory has become a norm, reversing the very essence of sovereignty achieved in the War of 1812. Since being elected with a majority, the Harper government has relentlessly transformed the regulation of Canada's economy to serve private monopoly interests and eliminate public interest. What his government had difficulty accomplishing in a minority position has been fast-tracked with his fraudulent majority. The destruction of the Wheat Board and farmers' control over what they produce, use of back-to-work legislation to criminalize workers' resistance and the open destruction of the institutions of what was known as responsible government have become commonplace. The dictatorship of the monopolies over the direction of the economy and political affairs in the service of the U.S. imperialist striving for world hegemony means that Canada has become a base for U.S. "Homeland Security" militarily, economically and politically. Evidence of this is the Harper government's new raison d'etat which justifies everything in the name of Canada's national interest being synonymous with U.S. homeland security. This is definitely a defining moment for Canada in which it is up to Canadians, not the Harper government, to define the kind of Canada they want. Read TML Weekly Information Project on May 5 for coverage on this fraudulent Harper majority government.
May Day 2012 Quebec in Defence of the Rights of All Montreal
Demonstrations and meetings took place in several Quebec cities, including Montreal, Alma, Quebec City and Gatineau, Rimouski.
In Quebec City, the Québec and Chaudière-Appalaches Coalition Opposed to Privatization and User Fees for Public Services organized a demonstration at noon against the Jean Charest Liberals' anti-social offensive. Under the theme "Defend Our Rights, Celebrate Our Victories," close to 1,000 workers, retirees, students and people from all walks of life as well as their organizations marched in defence of the dignity of labour and in support of the student struggle. All along the march speakers presented the demands Quebeckers hold dear: to retire in dignity, for the right to organize, for a decent wage, against poverty, for universal and high quality public services, against the tuition fee increase. The government's intimidation was also denounced. In Assomption in the Lanaudière region, more than 200 laid-off Aveos workers and unionized workers from the household appliance manufacturer MABE, who will be laid off in the next two years, joined the Electrolux factory workers whose doors will close in 2013. They rallied in front of the factory to denounce the closures. They marched in the streets of Assomption to demonstrate their opposition to the destruction of the socialized economy for the profits of the monopolies. In Montreal, more than 2,000 workers rallied in the evening at Molson Park to celebrate May Day. The students set the tone for the demonstration. Speaking before the start of the march, the spokespersons from the Broad Coalition for Student Union Solidarity (CLASSE), the Quebec Federation of University Students (FEUQ), and the Quebec Federation of College Students (FECQ) reiterated that the struggle the students are leading against the tuition fee increase is a struggle in defence of the rights of all in Quebec and is part of the Quebec people's struggle for an alternative. They spoke with one voice saluting the great battles the people of Quebec have waged throughout their history that have forged the Quebec of today. "All the social gains we have for the new generation -- health care, education -- were a result of past struggles." One representative pointed out: "I recently went to Alma, where there is a lockout. There are other labour conflicts in Quebec and I think that we can win by everyone sticking together, students, workers, citizens." The speaker continued: "There were those before us who took to the streets not only on May First, but all year long to fight for what they believed in, and this year, very humbly, this generation of youth have perhaps succeeded in giving a bit of hope for a Quebec that needed it, that another Quebec is possible." The speaker added that the students' fight today is also in solidarity with the workers, to permit the sons and daughters of the workers to have access to the education they were promised. "It's to permit everyone, all across Quebec to dream of more." "The Quebec government is trying to silence the dream of a more just and equitable Quebec. We are not fooled Mr. Charest, we know that this attack on education is but one of many to transform the society. What you promise us is the collective plunder of our education, our natural resources, our society. This society is ours and we will fight and resist because we are the masters of Quebec. We in this mobilization are the living democracy, we are the bearers of equality, of social justice and of projects for society. We are the society, our resistance is our strength."
At 4:30 pm, the more than 1000 people, mostly youth, who rallied at Champ de Mars metro for an anti-capitalist demonstration were mercilessly attacked by the police. Right from the start the police mobilized with dogs, on horseback, bicycles and with so many cars filled with armed police it was almost impossible to see the demonstrators. Less than one hour after it started, the police declared the demonstration illegal, which is their cue to start mass arrests of anyone who fails to disperse. Some 100 people were arrested in a despicable show of contempt for civil rights. Throughout the day the Quebec people stood for their
demand for a new direction for Quebec and through actions and
demonstrations they are raising their voice: Our future lies in the
defence of the rights of all! Montreal
                     Quebec City     Sept-Iles; Sherbrooke
  St-Jerome; Shawinigan   (Photos: TML Daily, CSN, FTQ, S. Deschenes) Alma Workers Mark May Day with "Energy March" to
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Today we mark one year
since the election which brought Stephen Harper's fraudulent majority
government to power. Since the election this government has
used its majority, achieved with only 23.4 per cent of the eligible
vote
in Canada, to speed up the nation-wrecking agenda on all fronts. One
thing is clear -- it is not the kind of
Canada people want.
The Rio Tinto Alcan
workers, locked-out by Rio Tinto
Alcan since December 31, held a rally at 8:00 am, launching their
Energy March to the Quebec National Assembly. These workers, members of
the Syndicat des Métallos, Local 9490 (Alma), will march
non-stop in a relay across the 209 kilometres separating them from
Quebec City to denounce the fact that Rio Tinto Alcan continues to
exploit the dams and sell excess energy from the illegal lockout
decreed more than four months ago by the company to Hydro-Quebec.
The head banner, bearing the
word "Nous" (Us) in bold
letters, opened the march followed by contingents of students, workers,
teachers, families, organizations in defence of rights, as well as from
the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ), Quebec Solidaire and
others. The demonstrators marched from Beaubien and Iberville Streets
to Rosemont Avenue, greeted by people on their balconies and from their
businesses and honked at by motorists. At the end of the march the
speakers showed how the society and the Quebec people are under an
attack against the common good by the Charest government's brutal
anti-social offensive, and that the economy must serve the society. 
At noon, the Alma workers
hosted a May Day Rally and
lunch in which over 400 people from the whole Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean
region participated. There were both private and public sector workers,
organized in the Steelworkers Union (USW), the Communications, Energy
and Paperworkers Union (CEP), Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), the
Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU), teachers' unions and
others, and students turned out in a sizable number. The speakers were
Marc Maltais, Jean-Marc Crevier, regional director of the Quebec
Federation of Labour and Engelbert Cottenoir, president of CNTU's
Central Council in Saguenay-Lac-St-Jean.
