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September 6, 2010 - No. 145 Labour Day 2010 Fight for the Dignity of the Working Class and Its Decisive Role in Modern Nation-Building  The Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) sends its militant greetings to all workers participating in Labour Day marches, rallies and banquets. Labour Day 2010 marks a new beginning for many workers engaged in battles to defend their rights. Owners of capital, their monopolies, their state and political institutions have launched an antiworker campaign to drive down the Canadian standard of living through concessions, wrecking of manufacturing, destruction of social programs and the public service, and interference in the collective affairs of the working class to undermine the independence of the trade union movement and render it impotent. Within this situation, many workers are finding their way forward by settling scores with the old way of thinking and through building new forms of resistance at the workplace and in the community. Fighting for Dignity at WorkDignity at work comes from acts of conscious participation with fellow workers in a collective struggle to demand an effective say in all affairs that affect the well-being of workers at the workplace. This includes wages, benefits, pensions, working conditions, and health and safety. This requires individual responsibility to participate in arriving at the decisions of the local collective of workers and a determination to carry out those decisions to defend the rights of all in the spirit of one for all and all for one. Collective trade union work
at the modern workplace
demands new forms, methods and actions with analysis that mobilize
workers to participate actively in both deciding the affairs
of their local union and in carrying out those decisions in practice. Trade union activity requires the active participation
of local members in gathering information pertinent to their struggles,
in preparing the views of their collective regarding their
activities, and disseminating those views to all concerned and to the
wider community.      Striking Sudbury Vale Inco workers.   Voisey's Bay Vale Inco workers, on strike for more than a year. To enhance their ability to defend themselves and develop effective tactics, workers at their workplaces should engage in research, investigation, study and analysis of the concrete conditions facing their collectives and industry to broaden their theoretical understanding of Canada's political economy including their own sector and how it relates to other sectors within the overall socialized economy. The Canadian socialized economy is their economy and they must prepare themselves to make it so in practice. Workers find dignity at the workplace through uniting
and finding ways and means to develop collectively their thinking,
tactics and new forms of organization to defend themselves in
the battle with owners of capital.    Xstrata workers in Sudbury hold "Our Resources" rally, March 4, 2010.   Nortel workers and retirees rally for pensions, October 21, 2010, Parliament Hill. (Photos: Marc Lavoie)
 Quebec Common Front mass mobilization, March 3, 2010 in Montreal. Fighting for Working Class Dignity in SocietyWorking class dignity in
society is found today in being
political. Being political means engaging in class
struggle consciously to defend the rights of the working class and
Canada's right to be in the face of monopoly right and
annexation by U.S. imperialism. Being political means
individuals taking up their social responsibility to decide the
economic and political affairs of the nation, to organize collectively
as a powerful political force, a Workers' Opposition that makes
concrete proposals and organizes actions with analysis to solve the
economic crisis and put an end to the disastrous business cycle.      May Day 2010 across Canada. Being political means building a national Workers'
Opposition capable of forcing governments to stop paying the rich and
increase
funding for social programs. It means taking up the task of fashioning
an
anti-war, anti-fascist government that takes up its social
responsibilities to defend the people and public good from the
marauding monopolies and U.S. imperialists that are spiralling out of
control
into open fascism. Being political means fighting to restrict monopoly
right and uphold public right on all matters concerning Canada's social
and natural environments, to stop the descent into state-organized
fascism, and to create the subjective and objective conditions for a
modern state and democratic political system that serves the working
class and public good, and moves society forward to a new
stage of socialized humanity. Workers find dignity in society by
serving its general interests in opposition to the narrow interests of
the owners of monopoly capital. Fighting for Working Class Dignity in ThinkingWorking class dignity in thinking develops from settling
scores
with the existing obsolete thinking. Owners of capital through their
control of economic and political affairs, the state and its
institutions
such as parliament, the education system and mass media impose their
thinking and outlook on the working class. This capital-centred
thinking is accepted as normal within society such as the casually held
notion of labour as a cost of production. These anti-worker notions
distort the political economy of Canada, weaken the working class
movement and cause confusion in its ranks. Rejecting this old thinking
imposed by the owners of capital demands conscious participation in
acts of finding out while participating in class struggle to defend the
rights of the working class and rights of all.   Nation-Building Conference, May 2, 2010, Hamilton. Workers are not a cost of production; they are the
actual producers of all wealth. Their work to transform the bounty of
Mother Earth into use-value creates social product which is distributed
throughout society giving the people a means of subsistence that
sustains human life.
Workers claim a portion of the added-value they produce as wages, benefits and pensions while another claim is made by governments for their state machine and another claim is made by owners of capital as profit of enterprise, interest and rent. Workers, as the actual producers in modern society have first claim on social product. Governments have second claim to meet their social responsibilities to protect the people and the general interests of society while the claims of owners of capital come last. Rejecting such anti-worker notions as the "cost of labour" gives rise to dignity in thinking and provides confidence to the working class in its struggle to defend its rights and the rights of all, and to engage and lead workers and their allies forward to their own nation-building project based on a thinking, outlook, aim and program that workers themselves discover and declare their own. On the occasion of Labour Day 2010, let all workers affirm their determination to fight for dignity at the workplace, in society and politics, and to have their own thinking and play a decisive role in modern nation-building. Long live the Canadian working class and its dignity at work, in society and politics, and in its own thinking gained through battles to defend its rights and the rights of all, and from playing its leading role in modern nation-building! For
more information: workerscentre@cpcml.ca
Read The Marxist-Leninist
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The September 2010 issue “Manufacturing Yes!
Nation-Wrecking No!” is off the press. This issue reports on the steel
industry, auto and mining industries in Ontario and varied struggles in
BC, Alberta and Quebec. It includes a special feature on the Nation
Building Conference held in Hamilton on May 2, 2010.