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Alberta Government's Assault on the Polity Throne Speech Proclaims Alberta "Open for Business" It is indeed true that the people of Alberta want democratic and economic renewal. It is their greatest need and desire. But what Jason Kenney is doing will not satisfy this want. It will in fact resolve none of the problems facing the economy and polity in Alberta and only make matters worse. At present, the polity plays no role in deciding the policies of the cartel parties and their candidates contending for power in Alberta or elsewhere in Canada. Democratic and economic renewal for working people is their striving for political empowerment and the power to change the direction of the economy. The changing of the cartel party in power in Alberta continues the dominance, class privilege and regime of the financial oligarchy and has nothing to do with renewal. Kenney's seizure of power of the Progressive
Conservative Party in Alberta and formation of the United Conservative
Party was a coup by the Harperites centred in Calgary to regain control
of the province from the Wildrose conservatives in the rural areas and
the NDPers centred in Edmonton. The regime change consolidates and
continues the rule of the financial oligarchy to pay the rich and the
previous government's campaign to allow global private interests to
exploit the natural resources without restriction while intensifying
the dog-fight amongst competing sections of the ruling circles. The
anti-social offensive, the attacks and the disinvestment in social
programs continue, including an open assault on the public education
and health care systems and measures to make life more difficult for
the working class and its organizations. The Throne Speech paints a picture of an Alberta "beset
by severe external political and economic constraints, and consequently
saddled with serious internal fiscal challenges requiring urgent
action." By describing these "severe external political and economic
constraints," the Throne Speech does not analyze the actual material
conditions of Alberta, Canada or the world. The "serious internal
fiscal challenges" previously blamed on the NDP government are
now portrayed as "external political and economic constraints." In
other words, now Alberta is said to be the victim not only of economic
forces beyond its control but a conspiracy to "landlock its oil." This
self-serving view, largely shared by the Notley NDP government when in
power, positions Albertans to take sides in the vicious inter-monopoly
fight that fraudulently pits the natural environment against the
economy and divides Canadians on an irrational basis. The Throne Speech promises to "create jobs, growth, and economic diversification" and "show the world that we are open for business to restore investor confidence, while carefully restoring balance to our province's finances." Is Kenney serious? What can he do when a global financial oligarchy owns and controls the main sectors of the Alberta economy and his government has no intention to change these arrangements? The recurring economic crises reflect that global dominance and how little, if any, power the Alberta Legislature or Alberta's cartel parties have over the situation within the U.S.-led imperialist system of states. The Kenney government's anti-social legislative agenda
reduces the minimum wage for youth from $15 to $13 an hour. It targets
the public system of education and health care and social programs for
further privatization and destruction. It will further eliminate
regulations that restrict those it calls "the job creators." That is
what Kenney calls job creation and economic renewal. The heavy burden
of $2 an hour, the social programs, regulations and red tape are lifted
from the backs of the rich oligarchs who in turn toast Alberta being
"open for business." For the state to serve private interests and provide
everything the financial oligarchy needs to pursue its plunder of the
natural resources and expropriation of the value workers produce is
reckless and contributes nothing to solving the problems of either the
economy or the democracy. Economic renewal for Kenney and his ilk means
rejecting any consideration of the consequences of economic activity
except the only one that matters -- the rate of profit on invested
private wealth. Nothing must interfere with the motive of production of
imperialism, which is the greatest profit in the fastest time. What democratic renewal can working people expect from
the gods of plague when even the labour laws are stacked against the
workers to keep them from forming defence organizations at the
workplace? In the construction sector the law permits "double
breasting," where companies can transfer work to their non-union arm,
and where laws favour the recognition of the business-led Christian
Labour Association of Canada, as well as other tricks to deprive
workers of the right to organize collectively. Under the previous
government, while boasting of tweaking labour laws in favour of the
working class, not a single workplace has been able to negotiate an
essential services agreement without which strikes are illegal.
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The spring session of the
Alberta Legislature began May 22 with the
Speech from the Throne delivered by Lieutenant-Governor Lois Mitchell.
Based on the usual claim that the people have spoken and the government
now has a mandate to pay the rich and impose its anti-social agenda,
the Throne Speech declared the election "reflects a
movement towards democratic and economic renewal."
The resurrection of the
slogan "Open for Business" can hardly be called renewal. It has been
dragged from the pit of disgrace that was the Mike Harris anti-social
offensive in Ontario in the 1990s, and copied by the Ford government in
Ontario, the Legault government in Quebec and now Kenney in Alberta.
The cartel parties and
governments are put into power and removed
at the bidding of the financial oligarchy, so any talk of democratic
renewal has to begin somewhere other than in their backrooms and press
releases. The working people themselves have to gain power through
their own efforts and organizing, through their own empowerment
and speaking for themselves. Only then can they experience genuine
democratic renewal and march out on a path of economic renewal with a
new motive of production that guarantees the well-being and rights of
the people as a first priority and strives to humanize the social and
natural environment.
