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June 5, 2012 - No. 84
Harper Government's Anti-Worker,
Nation-Wrecking Social Policy
The Workers' Opposition Must Occupy
the Space for Change
Harper
Government's
Anti-Worker,
Nation-Wrecking
Social Policy
• The Workers' Opposition Must Occupy the Space
for Change - Jim Nugent
• Fisheries Workers Denounce Changes to
Employment Insurance
• Courtenay Rally Against Harper Dictatorship's
Omnibus Budget Bill
Argentina Restricts
Monopoly Right
• Canadian Mining Interests Openly Interfere in
Argentina's Internal Affairs
Harper Government's Anti-Worker,
Nation-Wrecking Social Policy
The Workers' Opposition Must Occupy
the Space for Change
- Jim Nugent -
The Harper regime's attack on social security and other
social programs is opposed by workers and their organizations across
the country. These changes harm workers who rely on these programs and
this harms the entire working class that cherishes the principle, "An
injury to one is an injury to all!"
In defending these social programs, workers also uphold
the role they play in harmonizing regional differences and remediating
regional disparities. Working class opposition to the smashing of
social programs is nation-building. It blocks Harper's path of
inflaming regional differences and nation-wrecking.
 The Harper government's
retrograde path is plain for all to see in the changes it is
implementing in the Employment Insurance program (EI). Some of these
changes are targeted very narrowly at eliminating benefit payments of
300,000 fishery and other seasonal workers in the Atlantic Provinces,
many of whom rely on EI benefits
for part of the year and will face punitive new rules for collecting
EI. Most of these workers are employed in remote rural areas. It will
be impossible for many rural unemployed workers to meet the new EI
requirements and they will be cut off. Eliminating these benefits will
also damage the regional economies.
A recently published report on rural workers in Nova
Scotia, which is also applicable to the other Atlantic Provinces, shows
how deeply the problem of seasonal employment is embedded in the rural
areas of the region. Any attack on the social support system for many
localities throughout the Maritimes creates
a serious problem for workers, the regional economies, the continuity
of their way of life and viability of their communities. Harper's
attacks on social programs do not open a path forward to renew their
regional economies and communities but rather may simply destroy them
altogether.
In Nova Scotia, the unemployment rate varies from 9.1
per cent in the summer to 13 per cent in the winter, double the
national seasonal variation. As well, the average age of workers
remaining in the rural areas is very high by national standards, with
20 per cent of unemployed workers more than 55-years old, which
makes finding other jobs even more difficult.
The wrecking of manufacturing that has occurred across
the country also has a particular rural character in the Atlantic
Provinces. Between 2005 and 2011, rural areas of the Maritimes lost
26,000 net jobs compared to a net manufacturing job loss of 1,000 in
urban areas.
 The nation-wrecking agenda of
Harper displayed in the EI changes was also laid bare on the question
of federal health and social transfers this past year. In December,
federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unilaterally imposed a new social
and health transfer arrangement on the provinces, which puts a cap on
future federal transfers abandoning the concept of cost-sharing. It
also included per capita funding allocations that do not acknowledge
regional differences in health and social programs. Like EI changes,
the new funding transfer arrangement hit the Atlantic region hard.
Per capita costs of providing health care in the
Maritimes are higher because of such factors as lower economies of
scale, low population density and the outmigration of younger,
healthier workers. Outmigration of 5,000 mostly younger workers from
the Maritimes every year has resulted in the four Atlantic
Provinces having the four highest median ages in the country. None of
these factors has been taken into account by the Harper government and
no responsibility assumed to ensure a universal high standard in health
care across all regions of the country.
Nation-Building Requires the Affirmation
That People
Have Rights by Virtue of Being Human
As the Harperites aggressively push forward the
interests of the monopolies they represent, they are trampling on the
rights of all to a livelihood, to health care, to dignity in old age
and other rights people have by virtue of being human, regardless of
their region.
 The Harperites arrogantly
brush aside politicians who are not aligned with them, attempting to
dominate and put all political and economic affairs in the country in
the service of the private interests they represent. They often
characterize their neoliberal measures as common sense and pragmatic.
To empty rural
Canada by cramming everyone into Canada's largest urban centres is
considered rational in Harper's view and the natural progression of the
capitalist system towards economies of scale where the largest
monopolies can more easily exploit the people with the lowest costs.
Their narrow considerations to serve the
private monopolies deny that such irrational concentrations of
populations are unsustainable and in contradiction with the necessity
to humanize the social and natural environment.
To destroy existing communities is also linked to
putting pressure on workers to become "boomers" and work in the current
hot centres of resource development such as Plan Nord, Ontario's Ring
of Fire, the oil sands and BC's northeast. Those areas are mostly not
planned as permanent settlements or communities
with vibrant culture, complete amenities and public services for all
ages and a diverse and sustainable economy but rather organized for
certain monopolies to make the highest profit in the fastest possible
time with no concern for the social and natural environment and the
rights and well-being of workers.
Harper Snubs Quebec and the Premiers
When the premiers of the provinces and Quebec held their
annual first ministers meeting in Victoria, BC in January -- the
Council of the Federation -- it was boycotted by Stephen Harper.
Instead of meeting with the Premiers, he went on national television to
push his austerity agenda and
to complain that he did not want to meet with the Premiers because
"they always ask for more money" for health and social programs.
Harper's attitude toward the Victoria first ministers'
meeting followed a similar arrogant approach at the meeting of federal
and provincial Finance Ministers a month earlier. That meeting had been
called to negotiate a new federal-provincial health and social funding
agreement to replace the accord that expires
this year. Instead of negotiating, federal Finance Minister Jim
Flaherty plunked down a new funding agreement at a breakfast meeting
and told the Finance Ministers of the provinces and Quebec to take it
or leave it. At both of these meetings, most of the Premiers and
Ministers denounced the Harper government for
its unilateralism and "violation of the principles of federalism" by
refusing to negotiate federal transfers.
In recent days, most of the Premiers and Finance
Ministers from the provinces and Quebec have come out against Harper's
changes to EI. Premiers of the Atlantic Provinces, who view EI payments
to unemployed workers as a federal transfer to the region, strongly
denounced the EI changes as "an attack on the
Maritimes."
Occupying the Space for Change with a Pro-Social Agenda
 The denunciations of the
Harperites by the provincial politicians show that the Harper
government's nation-wrecking including his reckless disregard for
regional differences is isolating his dictatorship in the Atlantic
Provinces and other
regions of the country. Space is opening up to oppose the Harper regime
for its nation-wrecking. Workers have to occupy this space for change
with their own pro-social agenda, which is also a nation-building
agenda. The working class organizing, fighting and winning its demands
for improved universal health,
social security and other social programs goes a long way towards
strengthening nation-building and reconciling regional disparities.
Only the working class has the interest and capacity to carry these
struggles to a successful conclusion and give the economy and country a
new pro-social direction.
Fisheries Workers Denounce Changes to
Employment Insurance
 One of the groups of workers who have been
specifically targeted by the Harper regime's changes to the Employment
Insurance (EI) system are fishery and other workers whose employment is
affected by the seasonal nature of their industries. The government
attack on these workers has also been accompanied
by a campaign in the monopoly media unjustly defaming these workers as
some kind of freeloaders on the national economy and a burden on the EI
system.
In these attacks, the benefits paid to workers are
well-documented but their contributions ignored. Fishery workers
contribute directly to the national economy through $2 billion in fish
landings, $1 billion in aqua farming output and another $4.5 billion in
fish processing. They also contribute indirectly in local
economies from the spin off from their fisheries. Also ignored is the
role of EI payments as regional transfers to meet the federal
government's responsibility to even out regional disparities and ensure
a standard Canadian livelihood in all regions of the country.
Universal social programs like EI can harmonize
differences amongst people with different circumstances but they also
have the potential to harmonize regional disparities that exist because
of the vast geography of Canada and uneven development arising from the
capitalist mode of production. Rather than realizing
this potential of social programs for harmonizing regional differences,
Harper is recklessly inflaming regional differences in his
single-minded determination to serve the powerful monopolies he
represents. The Harperites' anti-worker wrecking of universal social
security programs should also be characterized as nation-wrecking.
Fisheries Workers Denounce Changes to EI
The changes in the EI
system that the Harper government has announced have been denounced by
workers and their organizations across the country. This includes
fishery workers and the organizations of fishery and other seasonal
workers on both coasts.
These workers have taken a stand against the Harper government's EI
changes because they are both an attack on fishery and other seasonal
workers and an attack on the regions where they live.
Irvin Figg, president of the United Fishermen and Allied
Workers Union (UFAW) has denounced the changes to EI as an attack on
workers and the coastal communities of BC. UFAW is organizing a
campaign to rally people in the coastal cities and communities against
the federal government's EI plan. Earle
McCurdy, president of the Fish, Food and Allied Workers (FFAW)
denounced as "a real backwards step" the three tiers of eligibility the
new EI regulations impose. "It's almost as though seasonal
workers are kind of third-class citizens with respect to the EI
program," McCurdy
said.
Lana Payne, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador
Federation of Labour (NLFL), said the proposed changes, along with
other changes to social programs like Old Age Security, are attempts of
the Harper government to drive down Canadian workers' standard of
living. Payne said, "It'd be really nice if
the Harper government actually attacked unemployment instead of
unemployed workers, because that's what we got out of this. There's a
blame game going on. They're blaming seasonal workers because they work
in seasonal industries. They're blaming the unemployed because they've
been put out of work, and
they're saying, 'By the way, you need to be prepared to take a job that
pays you on average 30 per cent less.' And so the end result of all of
this, in my opinion, is we're going to see a downward pressure on
wages."
Atlantic seasonal workers are also slandered as
receiving benefits way out of proportion with other regions. In fact,
the EI benefits for all workers (seasonal and non-seasonal) in the
Atlantic provinces amount to $2.8 billion a year, which is less than 10
per cent of the more than $30 billion total national cost of
the EI program. Besides supporting the livelihoods of an average of
300,000 workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own, this
amount also represents a significant federal transfer that supports the
entire Atlantic regional economy.
Maritime Politicians Speak Out Against Harper's Attack
on EI
Because of the importance of this federal transfer of
funds to the region, the EI changes have also been denounced by
politicians of all political stripes in the Atlantic Provinces, where
workers in fisheries and other seasonal sectors make
up a large proportion of the work force. Provincial politicians are
denouncing the Harper government for unilaterally abandoning federal
support for the goods producing industries in the region.
Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) Premier Kathy Dunderdale
made several national and local media appearances immediately after the
announcement of the changes by federal Minister of Human Resources and
Skills Development (HRSDC) Diane Finley. Dunderdale denounced new
regulations on EI claims
by seasonal workers as unfairly targeting the people of NL, which is
the province with the highest number of workers employed in seasonal
fishery work and other seasonal employment.
"There seems to be a real disconnect between what the
federal government is trying to achieve and the reality of peoples'
lives in rural parts of the country -- particularly here in
Newfoundland and Labrador," Dunderdale said.
With a half-million people spread out over a vast,
coastal area, she says it just isn't feasible for people to pick up and
move to another community to chase work. When the industry closes down
because the season has closed then there isn't anywhere to travel to
for work.
Dunderdale also denounced the federal government for
imposing changes that will have a profound effect on NL without any
consultation with the NL government. She said that none of the
provincial premiers had been consulted in advance of the announced
changes despite the fact that fishery and seasonal workers
have been on the table of federal-provincial discussions for many
years. When questioned by reporters about Dunderdale's accusation,
HRSDC Minister Diane Finley admitted that there had been no
consultation with provincial premiers.
Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter and Prince Edward
Island Premier Robert Ghiz have also spoken out against the changes to
EI and the negative effects they will have on the large numbers of
seasonal workers in their provinces and on their overall provincial
economies.
 Ghiz said the federal
government is not taking regional
differences into account and "needs to realize that not every province
and every jurisdiction is the same. I am asking that they realize that
in January in Prince Edward Island we are not growing potatoes and
we're not catching lobsters, which are two of
our largest industries."
For his part, Dexter said, "These are significant and
troubling announcements by a federal government which doesn't seem to
really understand what it will mean for those rural communities." He
further said that the federal government has a "misunderstanding of
rural Canada, which I find astounding."
Universal social programs like EI and Old Age Security
need to be enhanced to help ensure the livelihoods of all at a Canadian
standard. In this way the interests of individuals and collectives in
society can be better harmonized and a path opened for a more humane
and democratic society. The potential of universal
social programs for evening out regional disparities also needs to be
developed not eliminated as the Harper government is trying to do. The
money from social programs going into rural areas where a seasonal
economy dominates is crucial to support those regional economies and
provide opportunities for other
developments. The anti-worker, nation-wrecking offensive of the
Harperites is dangerous and has to be stopped.
Courtenay Rally Against Harper Dictatorship's
Omnibus Budget Bill
More than 150 people, workers, seniors and youth,
protested outside the Vancouver Island North
constituency office of MP John
Duncan on June 2. The Conservative MP is the Minister of
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development. Protestors were opposed
the omnibus budget bill, C-38, and
demanded that Duncan do his duty to uphold the public interest,
especially
that of his constituents, and take a stand against the
anti-democratic methods of the Harper government and the anti-social
content of the
bill. Similar actions took place across the country at Conservative
MPs' offices.
Speakers included a Department of Fisheries and Oceans'
worker (a member of the Public Service Alliance of Canada), a marine
biologist and a member of Comox Valley Water Watch, who all spoke about
the dangers to the land, water and fish if this bill is passed. The
President of the Campbell River, Courtenay
and District Labour Council condemned the Harper government's attacks
on workers' rights in the public and private sectors and invited
everyone to participate in the Town Hall Meetings to discuss Bill C-38
on the initiative of NDP MP Nathan Cullen -- June 12 in Campbell River
and June 13 in Courtenay.
Several youth spoke to express their determination to
resist the Harper government's attacks on the youth, and called for
solidarity with the students, workers and everyone in Quebec who are
resisting the Charest government's attacks. Still other workers and
activists spoke out to oppose the Raven Coal Mine
and provincial government's attempts to muzzle opposition to
multinational fish farms whose operations threaten the wild salmon.
Demonstrators
marched several blocks to the office of local Liberal MLA Don McRae, to
also hold the provincial Liberal government to account for its
anti-social activities. The enthusiasm of the protestors' music, chants
and the banging of pots was warmly received by passers-by.
At the close of the action, everyone was invited to join
in actions against governments which do not serve the public interest
and refuse to negotiate but
only dictate, and in support of the right to organize and resist
including the fight against the Special Law in Quebec. There will be a manif
de
casseroles Wednesday June 8 at 8:00 pm Cumberland, Courtenay,
Comox and Campbell River, as well as many other smaller communities on
the north of Vancouver Island.
 
Argentina Restricts Monopoly Right
Canadian Mining Interests Openly Interfere in
Argentina's Internal Affairs
Canadian mining companies that exploit mineral deposits
in Argentina have begun a campaign to denounce the country's
government. This open interference in Argentina's internal affairs in
concert with the European imperialists appears to be an attempt to
prepare and bring about regime change.
The government of Argentina led by President Cristina
Fernandez has introduced certain restrictions on mining and other
monopolies. Argentine law now stipulates that monopolies must purchase
machinery, equipment and supplies from internal producers. Foreign
monopolies are also restricted in their removal
of profits out of the economy and country. In a broader practice, the
government has placed controls over all capital movement into and out
of the country. These measures came in response partly to a disruptive
flight of capital from the country last year. They are also aimed at
the destructive practice of many companies
that buy machines, equipment and suppliers from outside Argentina from
foreign sources with which they have business connections, and at their
refusal to invest profits internally to reproduce their operations or
to develop and sustain other sectors of the Argentine economy.
Protest by Central
Americans and their allies against Goldcorp, Vancouver, May 2, 2007.
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Canadian mining companies,
which are broadly connected with U.S. finance capital, are exploiters
of Argentina's vast mineral deposits including gold and copper. Mining
monopolies admit they have been using revenue from their Argentine
mines to finance global takeovers and expansion of operations in other
countries. Canadian owner of capital Rob McEwen of McEwen Mining Inc.,
which is connected with Goldcorp of Vancouver, complained publicly that
Argentine restrictions of movement of revenue out of the country
"threatens its cash flow" and will delay expansion of his company's El
Gallo project in Mexico.
Speaking recently about Argentina's measures to restrict monopoly
right, McEwen said the company's "ability to internally fund was now in
question. To develop El Gallo and build the company without [taking
money out of] Argentina, we would have to go back to the market and
look for about $150-million."
Canadian mining monopoly Barrick Gold Corp. is also
active in Argentina. It controls the Veladero gold mine in northern
Argentina as well as Pascua-Lama, the neighbouring gold project that
straddles the Andes Mountains with Chile. Another Canadian mining
capitalist Geoff Burns of Pan American Silver,
which also controls Argentine mines, threatened unspecified actions
against the present regime of President Fernandez "until the investment
climate clears." Hinting at sponsoring and forcing regime change, he
added ominously, "I am confident the environment will improve, I don't
know when, but I know it will
improve."
These complaints reveal not only the intent of monopoly
capital to control the politics of those countries where they invest
but also its narrow private aim that does not include the well-being
and equilibrium of the economy of the host country or any use of
revenue to solve the broader problems facing the people
and their socialized economy. The words of the mining capitalists also
come in the context of President Fernandez leading the country's
renationalization of its largest energy producer YPF SA, removing it
from the control of Spanish monopoly Repsol. Formerly a public
enterprise, YPF was privatized in 1993 and
sold to Repsol in 1999 in the neoliberal frenzy that led to Argentina's
economic collapse in 2001. Repsol has been accused of refusing to use
its Argentine revenues to reinvest in the Argentine energy sector and
of removing from the country value produced by Argentine workers
transforming the nation's resources
into useable products.
Aided by the monopoly-controlled media in Spain, Repsol
has started a hysterical campaign in Europe to vilify the Argentine
government and call for regime change. It has also resorted to economic
terrorism, cancelling its contract to supply Argentina with liquefied
natural gas (LNG). Even though it is blessed
with significant energy resources, Argentina at this time relies on LNG
imports to meet between 20 and 30 per cent of domestic natural gas
consumption. Repsol's hostile moves are coupled with the continuing
British imperialist military occupation of Argentina's Malvinas Islands
and seizure of nearby underwater
oil and gas fields.
"YPF is Argentina's"
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Mining and other global monopolies oppose any government
restrictions on their operations and their movement of capital and
purchasing practices. They are known to use their vast wealth and their
political, military and social connections to force governments to
conciliate with monopoly right and to politicize
their private interests in opposition to public right and public
interest. Monopoly right and the politicization of private interests
bring disequilibrium and insecurity to the economy.
Argentina is not without international allies in this
struggle. In addition to the goodwill and solidarity of the Canadian
working class and anti-imperialist activists, neighbouring countries in
South America and the Caribbean have expressed support for Argentina's
practical politics of restricting monopoly right.
A growing movement throughout Latin America is developing momentum to
defend public interest in opposition to the narrow private interests of
the global monopolies and to uphold the sovereign duty of governments
to exercise control over the resources and economy for the good of the
people and development
of a diverse self-reliant economy.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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