April
11, 2012 - No. 51
Election 2012
• The Wrecking of Public Opinion
• Wildrose Alliance: Harper's
Fifth Column in Alberta? - Dougal MacDonald
Demands in this
Election
• Use the Election to Fight for a
New Direction for the Economy! - Peggy Morton
• Health and Safety Is a Right! -
Andre Vachon
• Private, For-Profit Health Care Is
Unsustainable! - Rita Soto
Election 2012
The Wrecking of Public Opinion
In this election, once again, it is the people's
striving for
empowerment which is negated. The electoral process is organized to
block the people from having any say whatsoever on the direction which
is being set for Alberta. For the last 41 years it has been the
Progressive Conservative Party which has ruled
on behalf of private interests, putting all the assets of society at
the disposal of the oil, gas and other energy monopolies first and
foremost.
The stakes are so high that while the rulers have agreed
to keep the
monopoly of the decision-making power firmly in their own hands, the
scramble for the spoils is getting increasingly frenzied. How else to
explain the excitement over what the media call a race between the
Tories and Wildrose Alliance Party, with Wildrose in the lead poised to
end the Tory dynasty or both parties "neck and neck"? Most people would
consider
both to be right-wing parties with right-wing agendas which stand for
an anti-worker, anti-social offensive which will get rid of all public
institutions in the fields of health and education in favour of private
interests and continue selling out
Alberta's resources to the highest bidder. If anything, Wildrose is
seen to be and understood to be "more right-wing." Why the scramble for
one reactionary anti-worker, anti-social party to replace another
reactionary anti-worker, anti-social party?
Two parties representing the interests of the dominant
oil, gas and
construction monopolies are now described as being the front-runners.
Thus the election is presented in the most facile way, as if it were a
choice between Coke or Pepsi -- people are basically being told that
their
"choice" is to vote PC to block Wildrose, vote Wildrose to punish the
arrogant Tories or stay home.
As the working people participate by defending their
rights, they
will find out who and what interests are behind the promotion of
Wildrose as an
"antidote" to Alison Redford's PCs. Their campaign is being
masterminded by the creators of the Reform Party, who with funding from
U.S. oil
money marketed Harper as the one who
would bring accountability and honesty to governance. It represents the
Harper government's anti-social offensive in its most virulent form and
an attempt to impose this variant of the anti-social offensive -- the
politicization of private interests and the depoliticizing of the
public good. And this is supposed to be the
alternative.
What happened to the concerns of the people? People are
very
concerned about the dictate of the oil and gas monopolies and
integration into U.S. homeland security. Albertans do not support
giving private interests carte
blanche to wreak havoc on the
environment and to trample the hereditary rights of the First
Nations. The Workers Opposition is demanding an end to the export of
raw bitumen and jobs with it down the pipeline, the lowering of living
standards, attacks on rights, slashing of royalties and all the
pay-the-rich schemes, while health care, education and the whole range
of
public services are destroyed by
starving them of funding.
What happened to the
demands of seniors and the broad
support
throughout society for quality, publicly funded and delivered long-term
care? What about the fact that the Tories have been forced to draw back
time and again their stealth agenda for two-tier health care and
now people are supposed to be
going wild over Wildrose which openly calls for privatization and
two-tier medicine. The fight of students, parents, teachers and
communities for quality public education and public control of their
schools represents the popular will of the people of Alberta.
What we are seeing is another electoral coup. Today,
even the
pretence of presenting an election as an exercise to convert the
popular will into the legal will in the form of party government is
crassly presented as the clash of private interests over control of the
decision-making power and the state apparatus.
The wreaking of public opinion is one of the aims of these private
interests because they are not interested in electing a legislature
which represents the public and its opinion. Within this, the role of
the people is
to divide themselves between these competing interests or stay home.
Recent Alberta elections have seen record levels of
absenteeism but
this is no bother. There is no role envisioned for the people except as
spectators who may be permitted to complain "within reason." This means
that they can be tolerated so long as their complaint remains
ineffective in blocking the monopolies
from achieving their rape and plunder of the land and labour.
What is passed off as reporting on this election is
aimed at having
people lose their bearings and covering up what is behind the scramble
for power. Far from permitting this, the situation calls for the
workers, seniors and youth to actively participate in discussing what
is taking place, the significance of the election
results and how they can defend their interests within the situation.
Public
Right,
Yes!
Monopoly
Right,
No!
Wildrose
Alliance
Harper's Fifth Column in Alberta?
- Dougal MacDonald -
More and more information is coming to light as to how
Alberta's
fledgling Wildrose Alliance Party, founded by 2008 merger, is
closely connected to the federal Harper dictatorship and its potential
for acting as Harper's fifth column in the province. First, many
individual connections exist. The Wildrose's
campaign chairman is U.S.-born Tom Flanagan, Harper's former number one
political advisor. Flanagan is a member of the so-called Calgary
School, a small group of neoliberal academics from the University of
Calgary's political science, economics and history departments.
Flanagan and other
members of the group played
a key role in promoting and expanding the Alberta-founded Reform Party,
finally facilitating its takeover of the old Progressive
Conservative Party in 2003 to create the federal
Conservative Party that Harper, a Calgary MP, now leads. Interestingly,
Flanagan was hired by the University of Calgary in
1968 during the height of the youth and student movement by the first
chair of the political science department, U.S.-born Edgar Burke Inlow,
who himself was hired in 1961 directly from his intelligence job with
the U.S. Department of Defense. It seems that the fifth column in
Alberta may operate at more than
one level.
Flanagan is not the only interconnection between Harper
and
Wildrose. There is constant movement back and forth between the two
political parties by many other individuals. Vitor Marciano, now a
Wildrose candidate in Alberta's so-called Senate election, was Chair of
the National Conservative Policy Committee
from 2006-08, as well as campaign manager for two of Harper's federal
candidates and a volunteer for the 2004 Harper leadership campaign. Two
former members of federal Conservative MP Rob Anders' advisory group,
Andrew Constantinidis and Tim Dyck, are now Wildrose election
candidates. James Johnson,
the former Alberta regional organizer for the Harper Conservatives, is
now chief researcher for the Wildrose Legislative caucus. Candice
Malcolm, once communications aide to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney,
now tweets for Wildrose. Many other individual examples can be given.
In addition, the federal Conservative
and Wildrose parties use several of the same "political contractors,"
e.g., pollster Abingdon Research and the "Ethical Oil" front group,
founded by Alykhan Velshi, a former aide to Jason Kenney and a big fan
of George W. Bush.
Having a closely allied party in power in Alberta would
be very
advantageous to the Harper dictatorship. Under Canada's Constitution,
the federal and provincial governments have exclusive jurisdiction over
certain areas. This division of powers can block the federal government
from carrying out certain policies
because such actions would violate the Constitution. A key area that
provincial governments exercise exclusive control over is social
programs, e.g., health care, education and social welfare. Should the
Harper dictatorship wish to privatize health care systems across the
country, an allied Alberta government could
help initiate the process by enacting necessary provincial legislation.
Wildrose leader Danielle Smith has already called for "more competitive
health care," which is code for a two-tier system. The same applies to
education. Should the Harper dictatorship wish to privatize profitable
aspects of education across the country,
an allied Alberta government could also initiate that. The Wildrose
candidate for Edmonton-South West, Allan Hunsperger, is a pioneer in
the establishment of Alberta's private schools and the founder of
Heritage Christian Schools. The privatization of social welfare
services could also be brought about, as has been
done in the U.S., e.g., leading U.S. defence contractor Lockheed Martin
not only manufactures substandard jet fighters for sale to Canada but
also "delivers" social welfare to U.S. citizens!
Another key area of
provincial jurisdiction is Crown
lands and
natural resources. This also has a number of important ramifications.
One example relates to Alberta's water, a subject of much discussion
lately. Should the Harper dictatorship wish to open the door to the
inclusion of water in the NAFTA Agreement,
an allied Alberta government could establish that precedent by
authorizing Canada's first shipment of bulk water to the U.S. But the
major example related to natural resources is, of course, that the
Alberta provincial government has jurisdiction over the bulk of
Canada's petroleum resources, including the oilsands.
The Harper dictatorship is more and more bringing Canada under the
control of the U.S. Although claiming that tough economic times mean
less government spending on the services Canadians require, it is
handing over tens of billions of dollars to monopolies involved in war
production via projects to establish
an integrated military system under the command of U.S. imperialism.
Oil is the world's most strategic military resource and the U.S. is
manoeuvring for a "secure" supply, with Canada as a primary option. An
Alberta government closely allied with the Harper dictatorship could
help streamline the process of "guaranteeing"
oil to the U.S. military.
It would surprise no-one if the Harper dictatorship were
to have a fifth column in Alberta. Harper has already implied
that his big dream is to have Harper-like governments in power at all
three of the federal, provincial and municipal levels right across
Canada. Prior to the last Ontario election
at an August 2 barbecue held by sycophantic Toronto Mayor Rob Ford,
Harper called for a "hat trick," i.e., for his brand of Conservatives
to run not only the country and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) but also
the province of Ontario. Harper's hopes were dashed by the provincial
election results. BC Liberal premier
Christie Clark is already in the Harper camp and is hiring his
ex-minions, such as Ken Boessenkool, Harper's former senior policy
advisor and an Enbridge lobbyist, in a desperate attempt to hold power
in the 2013 BC election. In a January 15, 2011 CTV interview, Clark
joined the Harper dictatorship and "Ethical Oil"
in decrying "foreign meddling" in hearings into Enbridge's proposed
Northern Gateway Pipeline. It is also very important to note that by
the end of 2014, Harper will have a rare "trifecta" of power in federal
government. By that time, he will have appointed a two-thirds majority
of Supreme Court justices to go along
with the majorities his party already holds in both the House of
Commons
and the Senate.
Demands in this Election
Use the Election to Fight for a
New Direction for
the Economy!
- Peggy Morton -
Rejecting the phony "choices" which the rich are
putting forward in this election means putting forward the alternative
to slavish subservience to the energy monopolies. Who decides how the
energy resources should be exploited and for whom they should be
exploited is a central election issue
in Alberta. The Workers' Opposition upholds the rights of First
Nations, of Mother Earth and of the workers who produce the wealth by
demanding that society must recognize the claims that all are entitled
to make upon it by virtue of being human according to the wealth at its
disposal. It
demands that governments ensure that when our resources are exploited,
they satisfy the needs and wants of the people in the first place. To
speak of benefiting society when the people who make it up do not
exercise control over the decisions concerning the wealth they produce
is nonsense.
Whether it is the Harper government, the Redford
government or the Wildrose Party, they are all united on one thing --
to defend the capital-centred outlook of the monopolies who demand that
their bottom line is the only thing that counts. The Workers'
Opposition fights for a human-centred society in which the aim is first
and foremost to provide human rights with a guarantee. This includes
giving pride of place to the hereditary rights of First Nations and the
sustainable development of Mother Earth.
The Workers' Opposition is putting forward
alternatives which would develop the energy resources in Alberta as
part of Canada's nation-building project. Making Canada self-reliant in
energy, putting an end to the export of raw bitumen and reversing the
wrecking of manufacturing
are all important aspects of a new direction.
More than 50 years ago, Canada adopted what came
to be known as the National Oil Policy. An imaginary north-south line
was drawn running through the Ottawa Valley and Kingston, Ontario.
Markets east of the line would be served by imported oil and those west
of
the line by oil from
western Canada. This policy was favoured as the most profitable
arrangement by the dominant oil monopolies such as Imperial Oil (Exxon)
and exists to this day for the same reason. From that time until today,
the oil cartels have been given free rein to dictate this crucial part
of Canada's energy
policy.
Canada now exports about two-thirds of its oil to
the United States, while importing about half of the oil used in Canada
from other countries. Quebec and Atlantic Canada import 80 per cent of
their crude oil, paying about $20 more per barrel than the price for
synthetic crude from
the oilsands at the U.S. oil hub in Cushing, Oklahoma. Newfoundland has
one refinery at Come By Chance. A small part of its
production supplies Newfoundland and the rest is shipped not to
Canadian markets
but to the U.S., while the Atlantic provinces buy oil mainly from Saudi
Arabia, Africa and Venezuela. Even much of the oil used in Ontario and
Quebec is first refined in the U.S. and Canadians pay significantly
higher prices for gas at the pump than people in the U.S. As well as
continuing to import
foreign oil instead of using oil from Alberta and Newfoundland, Shell
closed its refinery in Montreal, throwing the workers out on the street
and carrying out further nation-wrecking.
TransCanada pipelines recently announced that it
is considering building a pipeline to carry oil from Alberta to
refineries in Ontario and possibly to eastern ports. TransCanada is the
builder of Keystone XL, the proposed extension of its Keystone pipeline
to ship unprocessed bitumen
to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which has faced significant
opposition in the U.S. This is being pitched as an alternative to
Enbridge's Northern Gateway Pipeline which also faces massive
opposition.
TransCanada says that tanker exports could then take the crude to
Europe or Asia.
Does this mean that Canada will finally
put an
end to being so subservient to the dictate of these huge monopolies
that it has to import oil? Far from it. What is astonishing about this
proposal is that the proposed destination is either tankers on the St.
Lawrence to ship oil to Europe
or Asia or American refineries via Portland Maine. It does not even
contemplate putting an end to the ridiculous situation where
Canada is a major oil producer but has to import oil. To add insult to
injury, imported oil fetches a higher price than the price received for
Canadian oil in the
U.S.
TransCanada considers the proposal a solution to
two concerns of the oil monopolies in the oilsands -- that
they will be boxed in with no markets and that pipelines sending
natural gas from Alberta to Ontario will be half-empty. TransCanada's
mainline natural gas
pipeline is made up
of a series of parallel pipes and the proposal would convert about
3,000 kilometres of under-used natural gas pipeline and build
about 600 kilometres of new pipeline from Alberta to the mainline in
Saskatchewan, then from Cornwall to Montreal and from Montreal to
Quebec City.
There is an alternative! Responsible stewardship
of the environment, respect for the rights of First Nations and
Métis,
together with a plan to make Canada self-sufficient in oil, to refine
and
upgrade oil in Canada and develop the petrochemical industry from oil
and gas
by-products can contribute
to the development of manufacturing and nation-building. It can be done
-- it must be done!
Health and Safety Is a Right!
- Andre Vachon -
Pipeline workers are very concerned about the
situation facing their sector of the construction industry in Alberta's
oil patch. This is an election issue! Governments have a social
responsibility to establish the standards needed to safeguard
construction workers' health and safety and to hold
the construction companies accountable.
Calgary
April 28, 2011 Day of Mourning for
Workers killed and injured on the job. (CDLC)
|
In February of this year, another pipeline worker
was killed on the job. He was crushed when the machine he was
operating, a side boom tractor, flipped over into the ditch. The
tractor he was operating was an older type, not equipped with a roll
bar as the newer tractors are. This
was the second side boom operator to die on the job on an Alberta
pipeline project in the last few years. When a fatality occurs on a
pipeline construction project, Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety
takes over the scene. They effectively shut out the workers from giving
any
input or information,
let alone providing the means through which workers can play any role
in determining a future course for the better, one that
would prevent such fatalities from ever occurring again. The issue of
safety is multifaceted and many factors come into play that
will ensure a safe and secure
work environment. There is almost no training for new employees and so
how are they to know what is a safe move and what is not. How is a new
worker to pipeline construction to know exactly where dangers lie?
Training for new workers consists of a three-hour orientation session.
Predictably,
more young workers are injured and killed on the job than any other age
group.
A pipeline construction worker works a minimum of
10 hours a day, six days a week. However, the days can and usually are
longer. Also, one can be made to work seven days a week for months on
end.
Some workers, mechanics for instance, often work over 100 hours a week,
week in, week
out. This fact alone calls into question the notion of worker safety.
How can one work safely when one's faculties are impaired by
exhaustion and lack of sleep? The hours pipeline construction workers
put in are
determined by the "requirements" of the job, not by their safety and
well-being.
Adequate physical and mental rest are factors affecting
the safety of pipeline workers. These are busy times
in our sector. The oil and gas monopolies, as well as the big
construction companies bemoan the fact that there is a shortage of
qualified workers in the industry, a shortage
that will become more acute in the coming years, due to demographic and
other factors. There is no comprehensive plan anywhere that deals with
the issue of proper training for pipeline workers. But the danger of
being badly injured or killed is ever present, showing the real need
for training of
pipeline construction workers.
The construction industry is notorious for
injuries and deaths. It accounts for approximately one-third of all
workplace fatalities. According to Alberta government statistics, in
the years 2004 to 2008 alone, 253 construction workers were killed on
the job.
Over the years, many pipeline construction
workers have been killed on the job:
- A welder's helper was working with an electric
grinder. A lace on his jacket got tangled in the spinning disc, the
grinder was instantly pulled back towards him, cut his jugular vein and
he bled to death in seconds.
- A worker was in the trench when that trench
collapsed and pressed around him from all sides. Although he was only
buried to mid-waist and conscious, the pressure was so great that he
soon lost consciousness and died.
- An operator was performing a bit of servicing on
his side boom when his heavy winter clothing became tangled in the
controls for his machine's counterweight and he was instantly crushed
to death.
Construction workers deeply mourn the loss of all
workers who are killed on the job. It is the deep desire and demand of
all workers and their families that this tragic loss of life come to an
end and yet the loss of life continues. The excuses given for this
situation
are many and varied but
the underlying reason is always the same, these corporations are
motivated by maximum profit not workers' health and safety.
How to deal with this intolerable situation?
Hackneyed statements from the employer about "concern for workers'
safety" do nothing to rectify the situation. Governments have refused
to deal with such an intolerable situation and need to be held to
account. Instead, they facilitate the oil and gas companies' plunder of
the natural resources which
belong to the people and the exploitation of our
construction workers. The solution to the problem will not come from
government, nor from the construction companies. The solution will come
from us. Workers
must develop their organization to a sufficient level as to be able to
enforce proper safety measures and proper training.
We need to develop enough strength to ensure that our workplaces remain
workplaces and stop becoming places where workers are slaughtered. In
my opinion,
we the workers have to see to it that all measures necessary to ensure
our safety on the job are enforced.
Mike McCauley, the side boom operator killed on a job
site close to Fort McMurray in late February while
working for Banister Pipelines, was 57-years old. Surely the man had
dreams of finally retiring, of enjoying
his later years with his
family and loved ones. All that came suddenly to an end one morning
when a mechanical problem on an obsolete machine took his life. This is
not the way things ought to be and pipeline construction workers and
the entire Workers' Opposition must make sure that this slaughter comes
to an end.
The slogan "We Need a New Direction for the
Economy" has special meaning indeed for the pipeline construction
workers!
Private, For-Profit Health Care Is Unsustainable!
- Rita Soto -
The demand of the people for high quality, free,
publicly-delivered health care remains an election issue. The public
health care system in Canada is in many ways still in its infancy.
Canadians have been very tenacious in fighting to hold on to what has
been achieved: a system where physicians'
services, acute care in hospital and some care for frail seniors is
publicly funded and mainly publicly delivered. In recent years much of
this fight has involved opposing the pressure from private interests to
open acute care services as their "market" and source of profit. From
the fight against Bill
11 in 2000 to Ralph Klein's ill-fated Third Way and the secret plans
for two-tier medicine that followed, the Tories have tried
again and again but have pulled back each time in the face of strong
opposition from Albertans.
A great deal more needs to be done to provide the
right to health care with a guarantee. Seniors have launched their
campaign to go beyond acute care and are demanding publicly funded and
delivered long-term care. But owners of capital oppose strengthening
social programs which
benefit the working class and people. The control and domination by
private interests is holding back further development and humanization
of health care in Canada. The political parties representing these
interests have either an open or hidden agenda to further wreck public
services and attack
the workers who deliver these services.
This is why
political parties in the service of
the rich continue to rant about how public health care is
unsustainable, inefficient and so on. The dominant position of the
monopolies allows them to refuse to acknowledge that No means No! when
it comes to two-tier health care and to
keep pushing their so-called "debate" about the need to open the market
for the insurance companies, private clinics and, down the line,
U.S.-style HMOs. Of course it is no debate at all because the issue is
settled as far as the people are concerned and the "arguments" put
forward by those in the
service of owners of capital so ridiculous that they cannot even be
discussed. How do you discuss something as absurd as the claim that
"everyone knows that you can't fix the health care system by throwing
money at it." This phrase appears like clockwork in the monopoly media.
What does it mean?
Is there some other way to build hospitals and long-term care homes and
staff them? The irony is that what is true is that health care can't be
fixed by stuffing public funds into the pockets of private interests as
profit.
It is monopoly control which is unsustainable
and
an unacceptable barrier to progress. Humanizing society requires the
further development of high quality, public, socialized health care.
Consider the domination of the pharmaceutical industry, which rakes in
record profits every year.
A system in which people can obtain a prescription but have no means to
actually acquire the medicine because they cannot pay the cost
is truly irrational. But the lack of a publicly-funded pharmacare
program
is only the tip of the iceberg. Not only is the supply of drugs which
are essential
to recognized treatment regimes available or not at the whim of the
monopolies, but decisions about what drugs are developed are not based
on the public good but what will bring the biggest score. Most serious
research is carried out in publicly-funded institutions, mainly at the
universities, but
it is private interests that reap the benefits.
Just one example, the way antibiotics are used,
illustrates how unsustainable monopoly control and ownership is.
Infection control specialists are extremely worried about the growing
threat of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. One of the causes
is the utterly irresponsible promotion
and sale of antibiotics to increase growth in animals, which is highly
profitable for the drug companies and agribusiness but deadly for
society. As well as drug-resistant disease, the widespread use of
antibiotics is also responsible for tragedies such as outbreaks of Clostridium
difficile
in hospitals, which have caused so much suffering, serious illness and
death.
A host of problems are looming for which modern
science can provide solutions and there is no lack of people willing
and able to solve them. But the human factor/social consciousness is
blocked by the imposition of the profit motive and the politicization
of private interests in place
of the public good. Anything that can't be patented and turned into
private "intellectual property" is of no interest to the drug
monopolies or the Harper government for that matter. Innovative
alternatives such as phage therapy have been known for almost a century
but have been sidelined because
they are not as profitable as marketing broad-spectrum antibiotics. The
World Health Organization reports that hundreds of thousands of people
die every year as a result of drug-resistance. Yet most of the biggest,
richest, drug companies do no research whatsoever into new antibiotics
because
it is not profitable enough, while drugs of questionable safety are
regularly introduced.
All out to block the anti-social offensive of the
Smith Wildrose Alliance Party which is being egged on by the Harper
dictatorship! All out to block the anti-social offensive of the Redford
Tories! The right to health care and the right of seniors to live in
dignity must be provided with
a guarantee!
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Marxist-Leninist
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Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca