April 2, 2013 - No. 42

Increase Investments in Education! Education Is a Right!

Alberta Government Demands Post-Secondary Institutions Uphold Monopoly Right

Increase Investments in Education! Education Is a Right!
• Alberta Government Demands Post-Secondary Institutions Uphold Monopoly Right - Dougal MacDonald
• School Boards Reject Proposed Bargaining Framework - Kevan Hunter

Who Speaks for Alberta?
• Tom Flanagan's Last Stand - Peggy Morton

The Legacy of Ralph Klein
• Alberta as the Proving Ground of the Anti-Social Offensive

Increase Investments in Education! Education Is a Right!

Alberta Government Demands Post-Secondary Institutions Uphold Monopoly Right

- Dougal MacDonald -

On March 23, the Alberta Minister of Enterprise and Advanced Education, who is also Deputy-Premier, issued "letters of expectation," previously called "mandate letters," to Alberta's twenty-six post-secondary education institutions. Almost the same text was sent to each university, college and technical institute with the exception of the listing of the various funding amounts for individual institutions. The letters followed the Redford regime's March 7 provincial budget that made drastic cuts of over seven per cent to operating grants for most post-secondary education institutions, cuts which the Minister arrogantly declared were "non-negotiable."[1] The letters purport to be agreements "regarding high level strategic directions and performance expectations between the Board of Governors of each institution and the Minister," however, the minister's notion of agreement is that all post-secondary institutions must meekly accept his government's predetermined agenda if they want to be funded.

The letters of expectation were issued under the government's "Campus Alberta" hoax that what is required to advance post-secondary education in Alberta is not to continually increase funding to expand and improve education for the public good but to decrease funding, to reduce "program duplication" (defined as where two institutions offer similar programs), and to downsize and centralize administration.[2] This two-pronged attack on higher education combines reduced funding and access with increased control of decision-making by the Minister. Many suggest that the weakened education system will eventually be run by a superboard, similar to that already set up for health care, which would have sweeping powers to administer monopoly dictate over all aspects of post-secondary education. The health care superboard is dominated by representatives of the monopolies, including a former vice-president of oilsands giant Syncrude, and is chaired by the CEO of a trucking monopoly who knows little or nothing about health care.

The letters' contents reaffirm that the Redford regime is the champion of the mostly foreign-owned private energy monopolies and aims at all times to find more ways to hand over to them the human and natural wealth of the province so they can seize and remove vast sums of money from the socialized economy. The letters are rife with phrases upholding monopoly right such as that institutional resources should be "allocated in ways that best achieve the following desired outcomes: Albertans are engaged in lifelong learning [code for retraining to serve industry], Alberta's workforce is skilled and productive, Alberta demonstrates excellence in research, innovation, and commercialization; and Alberta's economy is competitive and sustainable."

Other examples include: "Enhance your work with business and industry," "align your institution's international efforts with...business and industry in support of the objectives and outcomes identified in Alberta's International Strategy,"[3] and "anticipate and respond to labour market demands."

The letters also boast that their content aligns with the province's recently declared "results-based budgeting" (RBB) approach which also serves the monopolies. RBB conceives of everything, including education, health care, and other social programs, as one of twelve "lines of business," all of which must help fulfil seven declared outcomes, including "preserve the province's finances," "innovative responsible resource development," and "build relationships and markets." Each designated line of business is overseen by an eight-member panel consisting of appointed representatives of government and industry, the latter euphemistically called "public members." Specifically in terms of post-secondary education, RBB boils down to the issue that the universities, colleges, and technical institutes must implement fiscal austerity while also concentrating on and filling those programs of study that best meet the needs of the monopolies. One obvious implication is that important programs such as the fine arts will be increasingly downgraded as mere "frills."

Many students, faculty, and support staff and their allies continue to build organized resistance to the cuts and the letters of expectation. Even members of the University of Alberta Board of Governors have stated in an open letter to Premier Redford that the U of A "will be set back many years by the cuts that will have to be made to absorb the decrease in our provincial funding." Rallies, marches, and town hall meetings have denounced the Redford attack on education and have put forth the logical solution that more revenue must be demanded from the energy monopolies and invested in post-secondary education. It is no accident that two of the placards carried by demonstrators have been Increase Investments in Education and Stop Paying the Energy Monopolies. Students, academic staff, support staff and their allies must continue to oppose the Redford regime's plan to further subjugate post-secondary education to the plans of the private monopolies. They must continue the fight for a modern education system that serves the public good as part and parcel of the fight for a new society, a society that guarantees the right to education for all.

Notes

1. Operating grants to Alberta's five publicly funded, private, faith-based university colleges were not reduced.
2. While the government asserts that multiple post-secondary institutions offering similar programs in different parts of the province is "duplication," it has no objection to multiple private oil companies similarly exploiting Alberta's petroleum resources.
3. Alberta's International Strategy is to further sell out the province by increasing direct foreign investment and increasing the export of unprocessed raw resources, especially petroleum resources.

School Boards Reject Proposed Bargaining Framework

- Kevan Hunter -

On March 19, the two largest school boards in Alberta voted against the proposed agreement between the Government of Alberta and the Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA).

The Edmonton Public School Board (EPSB) unanimously voted to advise the Alberta School Boards Association (ASBA) not to endorse the agreement. The EPSB says that it will face a $15 - $18 million shortfall and will not be able to provide the current level of service to students, and that the agreement will likely result in staff reductions. The Calgary Board of Education (CBE) followed suit, releasing an open letter to Calgarians the next day. Both boards object to the role that Alberta Education will play in dealing with issues of teacher workload, and object to an agreement to which the boards were not a party. The Holy Spirit school board (covering Catholic schools in Coaldale, Lethbridge, Picture Butte, Pincher Creek and Taber) also recommended that the ASBA not endorse the agreement.

Individual boards have been asked to ratify the proposed agreement by May 13. The Alberta Teachers' Association will continue to hold ratification votes despite the rejection of the offer by the two largest boards in the province. The government maintains it has the option to simply enforce its will through legislation in the event teachers and/or school boards vote to reject the agreement.

While the two largest school boards in the province are certainly understandably opposed to an agreement made without their input, the claim the boards are making that this agreement benefits teachers and the government but not students is very irresponsible.

Public education funding in Alberta has been frozen by the provincial government for the next three years, while at the same time funding for private schools has actually increased. There will be 11,000 new students in the province, with no new teachers hired to teach these students. The government left school boards with an unacceptable situation.

The CBE and EPSB describe this as an agreement they "cannot afford." In a sense this is correct -- to have more students in classes and not be able to hire more teachers is an unsustainable situation. Instead of laying the blame where it belongs, squarely on the government and its refusal to adequately fund education, the boards are blaming teachers. The two boards both state that their "costs" will go up next year, because teachers are moving up on the pay grid, based on teaching experience and years of education. This is where the boards are confused. Teachers are not a "cost" to be minimized! Without teachers, education cannot take place. Experienced teachers are an asset and as such they have a greater claim on the social product produced by the workers of Alberta. The boards should do their duty and inform students, parents, and the community as to what the austerity budget means to students who will be packed into overcrowded classrooms with too few teachers.

The boards also fail to recognize the value of teachers' expertise and professional judgement. The CBE writes: "We are concerned that the proposed agreement concentrates much of the decision-making for student learning in the teachers' union," and "We are concerned that the proposed agreement gives individual teachers exclusive control over their professional learning."

A recent survey confirmed that teacher workloads continue to rise. A typical teacher in Calgary now works for 61 hours per week. Teachers must be involved in the solution as the status quo is not sustainable.

The ATA explains that the agreement "initiates facilitated dialogue on teachers' assigned workload at the provincial and local levels while establishing a realistic and enforceable expectation that teachers' instructional duties will not expand beyond current provincial norms and in many cases will be reduced. The offer requires the government to consult with teachers through their Association and through a Teacher Development and Practice Advisory Committee on critical policy and regulatory matters that would otherwise be determined without the involvement of teachers. The offer facilitates and provides a budget for local concerns to be addressed through local collective bargaining and establishes an arbitration process to settle remaining issues in dispute."

This part of the agreement does allow teachers to tackle some real problems. For years, teachers have been stating that they need time-consuming non-instructional tasks, such as the CBE's Results Reporting, off the table so that they can focus their finite energy on students and their learning.

But there is no getting around the reality that the budget means fewer teachers while the number of students continues to grow. While teachers welcome even small steps to provide teachers with more say in their working conditions, so long as the schools are being robbed of resources, a solution to the issue of workload will not be found. It is all the more unacceptable that this theft is taking place to provide funds to pay the rich. It is high time the school boards demand that the government provide proper funding, instead of attacking teachers. School boards should join teachers in fighting for public education, starting by setting out what funding is required to sustain current programming, what is required to reduce teachers' workload to a sustainable level, and what is required to guarantee the right to the highest quality education for all.

Who Speaks for Alberta?

Tom Flanagan's Last Stand

- Peggy Morton -

On February 27, 2013, the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs (SACPA) and the University of Lethbridge hosted a talk on the abolishment of the Indian Act with Tom Flanagan. Flanagan is a University of Calgary professor of political science, former advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Wildrose campaign strategist in the 2012 Alberta election.

During the talk, Levi Little Mustache asked Flanagan about a comment made to the student paper The Manitoban back in 2009 in which he stated, "But that's actually another interesting debate or seminar: what's wrong with child pornography -- in the sense that it's just pictures?" Flanagan's response was filmed by Arnell Tailfeathers and posted to YouTube. The video went viral and led to the University of Calgary announcing Flanagan's early retirement, CBC's Power and Politics dropping him as a commentator and the University of Calgary announcing that Flanagan would remain on sabbatical until he retired later in 2013 but would not return to the classroom.

Flanagan was a darling of the media and political class, despite his falling out with Stephen Harper whom he mentored and groomed for his rise to power. His entire academic career centred on opposing affirmation of the hereditary, treaty and constitutional rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit. He has advocated what amounts to forced assimilation through such means as turning aboriginal lands into private property, which can be bought up by the resource monopolies and other private interests. He is the architect of much of Harper's current legislative assault on First Nations' rights. His promotion in academia and the monopoly media as an "expert" on aboriginal questions is a grave insult to First Nations, Métis and Inuit and a disservice to Canadians.

The self-righteous and self-serving condemnation of Flanagan by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Wildrose Party, the Alberta PCs and the media did not extend to his remarks on residential schools. Residential schools were one of the pillars of the Canadian government's genocidal efforts to assimilate First Nations. Children were forcibly removed from their families and nations and violently deprived of their right to be. Many died of neglect, of abuse or while trying to escape these prisons and return to their homes. Children were subjected to sexual and other forms of assault on a wide scale.

Flanagan told the National Post that he was asked a rambling series of questions about aboriginal issues, claiming he had been tricked into making an intemperate remark for which he later apologized. Levi Little Mustache and Arnell Tailfeathers, who filmed the lecture, spoke about what happened on February 27, now being called Flanagan's Last Stand on Indigenous Waves radio. They explained that the majority of those who attended the lecture were First Nations peoples and their allies and supporters, including survivors of the residential schools. During his lecture, Flanagan described residential schools as a "visionary program." "Grand, utopian, visionary changes [to First Nations education] have all failed. Residential schools, that was a visionary program," Flanagan said. Little Mustache asked a very direct question regarding Flanagan's remarks on child pornography, relating it to the sexual abuse of aboriginal children in residential schools. Little Mustache's question brought forward the fact that Flanagan also considers residential schools a "victimless" failed experiment.

The CBC also turned a blind eye when Flanagan openly advocated assassination on the program Power and Politics. "I think that [Julian] Assange should be assassinated, actually. I think that Obama should put on a contract and maybe use a drone or something," he stated on the program.

What the media do not want to discuss is that as a leading ideologue of monopoly right, Flanagan simply does not recognize any other rights, including the right of children not to suffer abuse, especially when it is inflicted by state sanctioned institutions.

It is therefore extremely fitting that Idle No More and First Nations activists have the honour of dispatching Tom Flanagan. That such statements can no longer be made openly is no thanks to the political and economic elite who are now expressing their disgust in a most hypocritical manner. Until this exposure took place, he was given a place of honour whose opinion was sought on the struggle of First Nations to affirm their rights and who supposedly spoke for "Alberta." No monopoly media source has acknowledged that the First Nations and youth were there to oppose Tom Flanagan's arrogant colonial stand.

The honour of bringing to an end Tom Flanagan's media career as an "expert" on aboriginal questions and spokesperson for "Alberta" rightly goes to the First Nations and the students and people of Lethbridge who took a stand.

(Part Two of "Who Speaks for Alberta: Tom Flanagan's Last Stand" will be published next week.)

The Legacy of Ralph Klein

Alberta as the Proving Ground of the
Anti-Social Offensive

Albertans fight against privatization of health care under the Klein government, April 2000.

Ralph Klein, the Premier of Alberta from 1992 to 2006, died in Calgary on March 29, 2013 at the age of 70. Under Klein, Alberta became the proving ground for the anti-social offensive in Canada. The justification used was the need to pay the moneylenders for the debt and deficit, which had been accumulated through handing over billions mainly to the foreign-owned oil, gas and forest monopolies. Funding was withdrawn from social programs and services on which society relied, on the basis that government has no responsibility to look after the well-being of anyone but the most powerful.

The government made devastating cuts to health care, education and social programs, an attack which forms an enduring legacy today. Layoffs, closures of nursing schools, cuts to medical school enrollments and failure to hire and train new staff created a huge deficit in the crucial assets that society needs. The Calgary General Hospital was literally blown up, and the Holy Cross and Grace Hospitals were handed over to private interests. Thousands of beds were closed and a disastrous reorganization imposed. Similar brutal cuts took place in education, social assistance and many other social programs and public services. Public assets were handed over to private interests, removing all public control over these services and handing over revenue sources to owners of capital. Public sector workers were forced to take a five per cent cut in wages and suffered from the loss of benefits, unsustainable workloads and insecurity.

Klein, a radio and TV personality, was elected mayor of Calgary on October 15, 1980. As Mayor, he became infamous for attacking the youth from across the country who went to Alberta for work.

A former Liberal Party supporter, Klein entered provincial politics as a Conservative in the 1989 general election. Following the resignation of Premier Don Getty, he was elected leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party and became the Premier of Alberta on December 14, 1992. He resigned in 2006 after receiving a low vote in the PC leadership review.

Today, Klein's fraudulent electoral majorities are used as proof of his "great popularity" with Albertans. But facts speak louder than words about these majorities. In the 1993 election, Klein won 51 of the 83 seats in the legislature and about 45 per cent of the popular vote. Both the number of seats and the percentage of the popular vote increased in the next two elections. In 2004, the PCs took 62 seats and 47 per cent of the popular vote. However, looking at voter turnout suggests a quite different conclusion, one that reflects the marginalization of people from the political process, which intensified during the Klein era. In 1993, the PCs received a total of 439,981 votes. In 2004, despite the fact that the population of Alberta had increased by 637,000 people to 3,201,895, the number of votes the Tories received was 417,092 or about 22,000 fewer than in 1993. Overall in 2004, almost 100,000 fewer people voted than in 1993.

In the 2012 election campaign, the PCs were forced to declare "this is not Ralph Klein's Conservative Party" in order to distance themselves from the broad wrecking that characterized the Klein years. Despite this, now they are revealing how desperate they are by claiming Klein's vicious anti-social offensive is a lasting achievement carried out by a premier with "immense personal popularity." Prime Minister Stephen Harper summed up this view writing, "Alberta and Canada have lost a unique and significant leader. While Ralph's beliefs about the role of government and fiscal responsibility were once considered radical, it is perhaps his greatest legacy that these ideas are now widely embraced across the political spectrum."

The Edmonton Journal ran an editorial entitled, "Ralph Klein legacy still endures" on the day following Klein's death stating, "It's true that we have a deficit again, but it is Klein's enduring bequest to the province that raising taxes is now almost beyond the pale, that Albertans instinctively view such troubles as a spending problem, not a revenue one, and that the relatively small amounts of red ink have become a major political problem for the Redford government."

Salesman for the Monopolies

The lead article in the Calgary Herald on March 30 focussed on Klein's role in selling out the oilsands. The item reads, "As a politician, Ralph Klein may never be remembered as a statesman, but he was the salesman the oilsands needed in the 1990s....By implementing a generic oilsands royalty in 1997 and an unprecedented focus on Washington to promote Alberta as the long-term solution to the U.S.'s long-sought security of oil supply, Klein's government helped alter the course of oilsands development. Along with the advances in horizontal drilling and steam injection technology that took the industry beyond open pit mines and tailings ponds, it set off one of the biggest oil booms in history.

"When Klein became premier, oilsands production was 375,000 barrels a day. By the time he retired in 2006 it was more than 1.1 million. This year, oilsands production will surpass two million barrels a day."

Missing in such a discussion is the neo-liberal agenda imposed on the peoples all over the world beginning with free trade in 1987, how U.S. imperialism converted Alberta into its annexed territory and secure source of oil for its war machine and how Ralph Klein facilitated this. It seems the intent is to convince Albertans that it was the popular will translated into the legal will which demanded this wrecking of society, not the monopolies for whose benefit this destruction has been carried out.

Even more significant is how the resistance of the workers and people of Alberta is disappeared from the narrative, both during the Klein years and today when they continue to learn from their experience. Albertans gained rich experience in acts of resistance against the anti-social offensive, which gave rise to the demand for political renewal, a pro-social program and a new direction for the economy.

The Working Class Must Lead With its Independent Program

An enduring lesson from this period is that the working class must lead with its independent program and politics. The pressure exerted on the resistance at that time was to conciliate with the pay-the-rich agenda and accept that cuts were necessary but should be orderly and planned. The full force of the organized resistance of the working class was thus unable to assert itself, despite the magnitude of the opposition.

For the people, the Klein era stands as a reminder of the necessity for the independent politics of the working class and the necessity to end the domination over the economic and political affairs of Alberta and Canada by the oil, gas, oilsands and other monopolies such as the banks with whom they are merged.

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