The Marxist-Leninist Daily

British Columbians in action to hold the government to account for abdicating its duty to defend the public interest.

Crisis of Party Government and Necessity for
Political Renewal

Mike de Jong, new Finance Minister and House Leader of the Liberal Party in BC announced September 13, the cancellation of the fall session of the BC Legislature. "Absent an unforeseen event ... it is unlikely the House will sit this fall," he said.

A seven-week session of the Legislature had been scheduled to open October 1. His reason for the cancellation: "We've got a new cabinet, new ministers in virtually every portfolio.... The government will be preoccupied over the next number of months in terms of the preparation of the budget blueprint and continuing what began in the summer, reaching out to British Columbians."

The BC Legislature has only sat 47 days this year, rising on May 31 after a flurry of legislation was passed extremely quickly. One new bill made Translink riders pay their fines or lose their driver's license. It was so flawed it had to be rewritten retroactively. The next session is scheduled for February when the new Finance Minister will bring forward a budget.

The same day Mr. de Jong cancelled the fall session of the Legislature, he announced that new austerity measures would be implemented by executive order. This includes a hiring freeze across government and a wage freeze for public sector managers.

Describing the directives de Jong said, "Call these austerity measures -- they are designed to immediately curtail spending in areas where government has some discretion."

An excuse proffered for this "austerity" is the sharp decline in natural gas prices, which have fallen from more than $6 per gigajoule (GJ) in 2008 to about $2 a GJ today because of the abundance of shale natural gas extracted by fracking. During de Jong's quarterly financial report where he announced the closure of the fall session, he said the government now predicts a $1.14 billion deficit, up $173 million from what had been previously forecast.

Premier Christy Clark refused to say that the fall session was cancelled because of the alleged financial crisis or for any other political reason. Indeed the lie was put to all of de Jong's explanations, including bringing "new ministers up to speed," when it was revealed the Premier did not even plan to stay in Victoria to train the replacements for the three ministers who recently resigned and will not run in next spring's election: Kevin Falcon (Finance), George Abbott (Education) and Blair Lekstrom (Transportation).

Clark made that clear last May when she told the National Post, "When the House rises [May 31], you're never going to find me in Victoria... I'm going to be travelling the province for the next year. This is my home base. I try never to go over there [to the Legislature]. Because it's sick. It's a sick culture. All they can think about is government and there are no real people in Victoria [she clarified that she meant in the Legislature], and you get captured by this inside-the-beltway debate, and it's really unhealthy." For its own reasons, the National Post did not publish these remarks until September 18.

More than 10 of Clark's MLAs, some 30 per cent of her caucus, have announced they are not running in the election scheduled for May 14, 2013. Perhaps this is also due to the "sick culture" described by Clark but most say it is for personal reasons.

The opportunism of Clark's apolitical posturing was caught out by an editorial in The Straight Goods on September 19. The article quoted Clark's remarks when she herself resigned from the Legislature in 2005 to take a radio host's job. She did not refer to the Legislature as sick at that time. Instead she said, "I have a deep, deep love of politics. I love question period. I love debate. I love the people I've met. I even love the protesters. I love politics."

Back in 2005 there was considerable speculation that she resigned because of the police raid on the Legislature and the ongoing cover-up of the scandalous BC Rail sellout to the CNR, in which she and her husband had been implicated. That whole matter was finally whitewashed with the government paying the $6 million legal bills of David Basi and Bob Virk who pleaded guilty to minor charges in October 2010. The rail sellout scandal continues to be an issue in BC politics.

Clark's May 2012 remarks about the "sick culture" in the Legislature also contrast sharply with her 2011 comments made when she sought the leadership of the Liberal Party and hence the Premier's job. At that time she told reporters, "As you know, I love question period and I hate to miss it."

The monopoly media have criticized her cancellation of the fall session. Evan Solomon, host of CBC Radio's The House, editorialized on September 15, "Citizens ... want their leaders to focus on key issues and reaching out [...] while being held accountable in their own Legislature." He contrasted her disregard for the Legislature to the alleged craving for western democracy in Libya and Egypt. Noting her absence while on a trade mission to China, he compared that absence with what he called China's lack of democracy. He called on her to "fill the 85 empty chairs" in the Legislature.

Both the Vancouver Sun and the Globe and Mail also criticized her. The Globe commented: "The public of BC will be without its representative body for eight months. Moreover, in the past two centuries, the examination and passage of legislation have become integral parts of the governing process in democracies. Any notion that there has been a shortage of legislative business is unpersuasive. Before the adjournment on May 31 'until further notice,' the MLAs of BC consented to a number of substantial bills in unseemly haste." The Globe concluded that the long absence of the Legislature "suggests political weakness" and an "extended pre-election campaign" in the "hopes of turning the Liberals' fortunes around before the Legislature returns briefly in February, 2013, to be followed by the election in May."

The BC NDP opposition spokesperson on the cancellation, John Horgan, MLA for Malahat-Juan de Fuca, wrote on September 13 on his party website, "This is a government that has no plan. Cancelling the fall session is simply an excuse to avoid accountability and not answer the questions that British Columbians have been asking." He added that the cancellation meant private members bills would not be heard and other proposed government legislation such as changes to municipal elections would be dropped.

What is the polity, especially the working class, to make of all this? One thing is certain: the Legislature and the party system that controls it, marginalizes the overwhelming majority of the polity, especially those who produce material wealth and provide services to society.

The two party system in BC, now the Liberals and NDP, is said to represent the "right" and the "left." The two parties, governed by their own nomination rules and procedures, determine amongst themselves almost everyone elected to the Legislature. Only one independent MLA, Viki Huntington in Delta South was elected in 2009, the first independent elected to the BC Legislature since 1949. She defeated the Liberal, Wally Opal, by 32 votes in a judicial recount. All other 84 MLAs were picked by their parties, with the government comprising a closed circle of several key ministers, dictating the entire political agenda.

Huntington has since been joined by Bob Simpson, Cariboo North MLA who was expelled from the NDP caucus in the fall of 2010 by former NDP leader Carol James. Since his expulsion, Simpson has strongly advocated for independent MLAs to be elected. The reaction of both Huntington and Simpson to the cancellation of the fall sitting was to call a "twitter" town hall meeting to discuss democratic reform.

Huntington said of the present Legislature: "The level of ability for an MLA to contribute effectively in the Legislative Assembly is very limited and it needs to change. MLAs have to be able to effectively represent their people otherwise there is an incredible frustration among the public that their voice cannot be heard.... The party system requires the MLA to fall in line with cabinet policy and the policy of their leader. There is no opportunity for an MLA belonging to a party to publicly represent the people of their riding if that means they have to criticize their own party publicly." She also noted that legislative committees no longer meet. "Crown Corporations [committee] hasn't met in years. Environment committee hasn't met in years. Energy committee hasn't met in years. How do MLAs become involved in any of the serious public issues with any hope of influencing decision making?" Huntington asked.

Bob Simpson wrote in his blog March 28, "There is power in being an Independent MLA -- power that comes from being unfettered from the partisanship and power politics that permeates the party system. It takes a lot more work to maximize the power this freedom brings, but I've found my work as an Independent MLA infinitely more rewarding than when I was working for a political brand."

A large number of BC citizens are also critical of the system of party government called a representative democracy. Politically conscious residents ask many important questions about the degenerating economic, political and social situation in BC. Who determined that taxes to corporations and the rich should be reduced? Who decided to give the dominant U.S.-owned forest companies everything they wanted resulting in the wrecking of manufacturing? Who decided to hand over the natural gas licenses to corporations to flip and otherwise use for speculation? Who decided to hand over BC natural gas and electricity to Shell Oil to produce liquid natural gas for export to Asia? Who decided to reduce investments in education and health, degrading social programs in the province? Who is responsible for BC policies giving rise to the highest child poverty rates in Canada or for not overseeing the safety of mill workers, loggers, and others resulting in 142 BC workers killed at work sites last year?

It is becoming ever clearer that private interests made these decisions. These private interests had their wishes implemented through control over a handful of politicians to usurp the decision-making power. When their political capital is spent, they are handed corrupt political placements as in the case of Gordon Campbell who is now High Commissioner in London or they end up in the boardrooms of the monopolies as in the case of former premier Glen Clark who is now president of the Jim Pattison Group.

The cancellation of the legislative session by Christy Clark is further proof that the present system of governance is in deep crisis. The criticisms of the media and official opposition are not profound or intended to achieve political renewal. They merely reiterate their dogmatic faith in, as the Globe says, a 200 year old system of democracy. But that obsolete political system is long past its purpose. Today, a modern, highly educated polity with access to instant mass communication and who work in an interrelated socialized economy require institutions which enable them to make the decisions which affect their lives.

The working class knows its voice is always silenced at the work place, even though more often than not, its practical, direct experience in production and providing services gives workers far more insight into problems facing operations than the owners and their managers who are mostly hidebound by tradition and the single-minded aim of squeezing out the highest profit in the fastest time. The working class also knows that its voice is even more profoundly silenced when it comes to politics and the old party-dominated Westminster system. The collective aspiration of the actual producers to create a human-centred society that defends the rights of all is blocked by the present anachronistic political system.

The cancellation of the fall session of the Legislature underlines that political renewal is a necessity to solve BC's pressing problems. Citizens need to select directly the candidates as opposed to their selection being the manipulation of party cliques and bureaucracies dedicated to preserving the status quo. Citizens need to have direct input into the legislative agenda, and broadly debate public issues, such as how to reverse the decline in manufacturing, how to increase investments in social programs, and give a new direction to the economy. The polity needs to exercise its sovereign will politically and turn its public will into a legal will. It needs to be political and that the governing system encourage it to be political, whereas today the opposite is the case. Private monopoly interests dominate government and the last thing they want is for the people to be political and to demand accountability.

The polity needs the political capacity to hold all elected representatives to account, with full ability to recall them, if they violate the programs on which they are elected. Empowerment of the electors, and most especially the electors who daily produce the material goods and provide the services to BC society, and their flowering as political people directly concerned and consciously active in governing the province and country, remains a most pressing political issue as BC heads towards the May 2013 election.

Hospital and Seniors' Care Workers Reject Government's Anti-Social Austerity Mandate

Workers in hospitals, seniors' residences and emergency services are members of the largest grouping of BC public sector unions currently involved in contract negotiations with the government. Commonly called "support workers," as if their work is optional, these workers do everything from bedside nursing to the installation and maintenance of complex electrical systems and all equipment and information technology systems. They also perform duties that ensure the smooth functioning of the overall system, all building maintenance, laundry, cleaning and the preparation and delivery of meals. The unions' Facilities Bargaining Association (FBA), which has been trying to negotiate with the Health Employers Association of BC (HEABC) for over eight months, represents 46,000 workers.

Earlier this month, the FBA bargaining committee spokespersons met with union members throughout the province to report on negotiations. They reported that the HEABC is operating under the "cooperative gains" anti-social austerity mandate decreed by the provincial government for all public sector negotiations. This dictate negates free collective bargaining in violation of the rights of workers.

The anti-social austerity offer includes a 2 per cent wage increase over two years only on the condition that workers return the wage increase by paying for a portion of the premiums for extended health and dental care and an agreement to restrict their right to access jobs. The anti-social austerity mandate insists that hospital and seniors' care workers not only give back important gains made in the past and agree to increased workloads and stress but should also agree to open the door to further concessions down the line.

In bargaining conferences held in the fall of 2011, delegates representing all workers covered by the FBA took a firm stand that after years of declining wages due to a rising cost of living and the 15 per cent across the board wage cut imposed by the Campbell government in 2004, it was time for a wage increase. They were equally firm in their determination to resist further concessions and, very specifically, to protect benefits. With falling real wages and increased workloads alongside increasing rates of workplace injury and related illness, health benefits are more than ever recognized as not a luxury but an essential part of the claim of hospital and seniors' care workers on the important value they create for society. Those past claims for wages, benefits and job security have been fought for and won as part of the struggle of the Canadian working class to achieve a recognized Canadian standard of living.

Health care workers during the meetings throughout the province once again expressed their conviction that the anti-social concessions being demanded by government are an assault on their rights and on the important services they provide, and a refusal to recognize the value they add with their work to the well-being of the people and general interests of society. The cuts to services that have already been imposed have not solved any problem in the health care system; they have given rise to greater hardship and injuries for workers and deteriorating standards in hospitals and seniors' care.

The bargaining committee reported on October 12 that three further days of negotiations had resulted in no progress. It is anticipated that strike votes will be held in the near future.

Situation of Community Health and
Community Social Service Workers

Striking Community and Social Services workers at Premier Christy Clark's constituency office, October 16, 2012.

There are over 100,000 health care workers in BC. Most of the contracts covering these workers expired at the end of March and negotiations for different sectors are at different stages. Besides the largest group, the workers in facilities (hospitals and seniors' residences), there are almost 30,000 workers who work in other aspects of health care. One section, Community Social Service, work in group homes and transition houses and other temporary or permanent residential care settings. The other major group is Community Health workers who provide nursing and support in people's homes and community-based agencies including mental health and addictions counselling and other services. These workers, alongside those in hospitals and seniors' residences, are standing up to the anti-social austerity program of the provincial government and are in different stages of preparation for job action to back their demand for wage increases and their rejection of the concessions demanded by government and employers.

These workers are covered by two separate collective agreements, the Community Social Services contract (about 15,000 workers) and the Community Health contract (about 14,000 workers). Both expired March 31, 2012. Negotiations to renew both contracts have taken place for several months. Earlier this year Community Social Services workers took strike votes -- job actions started October 16. More recently Community Health workers took strike votes.

Community Social Services Workers Begin Strike Action October 16

The Community Social Services Bargaining Association (CSSBA), an association of ten unions representing 15,000 workers, has announced targeted job actions starting October 16. Strike votes were conducted earlier this year with the results announced July 23, with an 85 percent strike vote in General Services and 90 percent in Community Living Services.

The CSSBA states: "Your bargaining committee has not taken the decision to strike lightly, but believes that job action is necessary to send a message to the BC government: Stop putting the squeeze on community social services! We need a fair and reasonable deal, including a wage increase."

Targeted job actions began with a protest at Christy Clark's constituency office in Vancouver at 3615 West 4th Avenue October 16 from 10 am to 1 pm. A one-day job action in Kamloops followed on October 17. Another is scheduled for Prince George October 18 with further actions to be announced.

In over six months of negotiations with the Community Social Services Employers Association (CSSEA) representing 220 agencies, there has not been a monetary offer, only an insistence for concessions. Negotiations are being conducted under the "cooperative gains" austerity mandate of the provincial government, which demands concessions from BC workers. Workers point out that the government's anti-social austerity mandate is in violation of the right to free collective bargaining.

Community Social Service workers work in group homes for mentally challenged adults and homes for troubled youth and day programs. The work of General Service workers includes drug counselling, transition houses, homeless shelters, child care, counselling for abused women and children.

In its strike actions, the union is targeting the government as opposed to the agencies. The union wants to make the point that the social responsibility of government includes proper investment in services for society's most vulnerable members and others in need. This social responsibility of government includes the claims of workers providing the services. Those claims must be agreeable to workers themselves and commensurate with the important work they perform. Workers also insist that the government uphold its social responsibility to make investments to ensure safe and secure working conditions so that workers can properly perform their important duties.

Workers in this service sector have received virtually no wage increase for over ten years and have lost benefits including accumulated sick leave. While the wages of the workers have declined and their working conditions have deteriorated through cutbacks of social programs, the needs of the youth and vulnerable adults they serve have rapidly increased, creating an impossible situation. Community Social Service workers are the lowest paid in the entire public sector. In most classifications, their starting wages have actually been reduced. In 2003, for instance, the starting wage for a residential care worker was $16.83 and now it is $15.54, while the cost of living has risen over the last decade by 18.1 percent.

An October 12 fact sheet accompanying the CSSBA's press release is entitled "Where do vulnerable families fall on BC Government's list of priorities? Last." The association points out, "since coming to power in 2001, the BC Liberal government has launched an unrelenting assault on community social services, the workers who provide them, and the vulnerable families who rely on them most."

Instead of increasing investment in this sector, including raising the wages of the workers and hiring more to meet the growing need, the government through the CSSEA insists on cutbacks, concessions and to remove any improvements previously negotiated. This unacceptable!

Regarding the strike actions beginning October 16, the CSSBA says, "We are focusing our strike efforts on the BC government because we need a commitment from Victoria to recognize the vital role community social services -- and the workers who provide them -- play for vulnerable families and communities across the province."

Community and Social Services workers rally to demand funding be restored to women's support services, at Prince George constituency office of BC Minister of Justice and Attorney General Shirley Bond, October 2, 2012.

Community Health Workers Vote for Strike Action

The 14,000 Community Health workers throughout BC represented by the Community Bargaining Association have voted 85 percent in favour of strike action to defend their rights. Results of the province-wide balloting were announced on October 2.

The vote in favour of job action came after six months of failed negotiations with the Health Employers' Association of BC (HEABC), bargaining on behalf of two hundred agencies, companies and Health Authorities. No substantive progress has been made during negotiations.

After a two-year wage freeze and several previous years of falling real wages, Community Health workers are seeking a wage increase and improvements to benefits and job security. Community health workers perform vital tasks such as personal care, nursing, cleaning, laundry, cooking and serving food, as well as mental health and addictions counselling in communities.

During the past month while the strike vote was underway, rumours began to circulate that layoffs and restructuring would take place if the workers voted to strike. The source of the rumours is unknown but workers remember that over the last 10 years, officials of the provincial government, which holds the purse strings and calls the shots for HEABC, have consistently used similar threats to pressure health care workers into agreeing to concessions and on one occasion, a signing bonus instead of a compounded wage increase. The vote for strike action despite the government threats and anti-social austerity agenda is proof that health care workers will not be intimidated and are determined to win an acceptable contract.

Member unions of the Health Services and Support-Community Subsector Association of Bargaining Agents include the BC Government and Service Employees' Union, Hospital Employees' Union, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Canadian Union of Public Employees, Health Sciences Association and the United Steelworkers of America.

BC's Education Funding Needs to at Least Match National Average (Excerpts)

On three key measures, British Columbia falls far short of the Canadian average in our commitment to funding public education.... BC's public education funding as a percentage of GDP.... Operating expenditures [are below] the national average.... But the most telling measure is the Student Educator Ratio [SER]. BC had the worst SER in Canada in 2009-10, the most recent year for which national data is available from Statistics Canada. To bring our ratio of students per teacher up to the national average, BC would have to hire 5,800 more teachers....

Given the freeze on education funding announced in the BC Budget 2012, the situation in BC schools will only worsen unless there is a significant change in policy....

The number of students with special needs increased by more than 1,500 in the last decade. At the same time, BC schools lost over 750 special education teachers. Similarly, the number of English Language Learners has grown by more than 1,800, but there are 340 fewer ELL teachers. The number of counsellors dropped by 117 over the past decade, while students are coping with increased stress. Teacher-librarians have also declined by 30%, even as information literacy becomes ever more complex and important....

How can we pay for these improvements? Not by reducing other public services, but by restoring previous taxation levels for large corporations and high-income earners....

For eight years in a row BC had the highest child poverty rate in the country, a harsh reality that teachers confront in our classrooms every day in communities across the province.

Adequate funding for quality public education is good for society. It provides economic, social, and cultural benefits, and reduces expenditures in health, justice, and social services.

That's why teachers are urging the government, as a start, to make a plan to bring education funding in BC up to par with the rest of Canada, and to make the taxation decisions needed to implement such a plan....

Crisis of Party Government and Necessity for Political Renewal

Crisis of Party Government and Necessity for Political Renewal

Hospital and Seniors' Care Workers Reject Government's Anti-Social Austerity Mandate

Situation of Community Health and Community Social Service Workers

Community Social Services Workers Begin Strike Action October 16

Community Health Workers Vote for Strike Action

BC's Education Funding Needs to at Least Match National Average (Excerpts)

Crisis of Party Government and Necessity for
Political Renewal

Crisis of Party Government and Necessity for
Political Renewal

Situation of Community Health and
Community Social Service Workers