Unfettered Use of Executive Police Powers for Privatization
The theft of Ontario's public assets is being carried out at an ever faster rate through privatization decided by governments using executive powers with impunity. Prior governments did this in the form of public-private partnerships (P3s) and other schemes to have the public finance private profit. It removes immense amounts of added-value from the economy and puts it in the hands of the filthy rich who destroy societies to enrich themselves further and maintain their positions of privilege. These "partnerships" have been used to attack the wages and working conditions of the working people. Meanwhile, the government uses its stranglehold on the decision-making power to dictate austerity for the working people in order to steal more funds for its schemes.
In 2014, the Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne announced it would sell off public real estate in Toronto, sell its shares in GM and establish a panel to "review" other government assets -- Hydro One, Ontario Power Generation and the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. It was all part of a plan to raise funds for a so-called Trillium Trust that was created to finance $29 billion in infrastructure and public transit over 10 years. The announcement was designed to sound very noble but of course, what took place under the Liberal government is like what the Ford government is doing now. It is all decided behind the backs of the people who are not party to any evaluation of either the assets or the infrastructure projects.
Opposition to the austerity agenda of one cartel party government after another has been constant since the NDP government of Liberal mole Bob Rae opened the door with his treacherous legislation which imposed a wage freeze on public sector workers and civil servants. He introduced what became known as "Rae days," which required public sector workers to take up to 12 days off per year without pay. The neo-liberal ruling class praised these measures to the sky as generating nearly $2 billion in "savings" for the government of Ontario, without laying off any public sector workers.
This was followed by the Conservative government of Mike Harris in 1995 who unleashed a vicious anti-union onslaught and the sell-off and privatization of public assets. This started the habit of the rich depriving the workers of what belongs to them by right -- wages and working conditions and a retirement commensurate with the standard of living they have created for themselves, as well as the right to health care and education, at the standard society has achieved, for themselves and their families. As for the cost of infrastructure the working people require, it could be readily financed in a manner which is not destructive to the economy and the people if the motive was to do so, and if governments stop paying the rich and increase funding for social programs. The example of the revenue generated by the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) which goes into government coffers shows how it can be done.
By continuing to build on the experiences the workers have already gained in the fight against the anti-social offensive, the working people can continue to establish new landmarks from which to advance their own pro-social program for the society. This fight of LCBO workers against privatization is to defend their own livelihoods and standards of living and working conditions against the attempts to turn all workers into cheap disposable labour. It is also a fight to provide society with a way forward that can guarantee the well-being of all.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 6 - July 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M5400613.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca