Comment on the Public Sector and Its
Crucial Role in the Economy

Alberta public sector workers create enormous value, which greatly benefits those who own and control the enterprises in the energy and other major sectors of the economy. Those who own and control the enterprises that benefit from the value public sector workers create refuse to recognize and realize (pay for) the value in a proper exchange using the value the workers in their enterprises create. The failure to do so must be addressed so that the value from social programs and public services can be realized and reinvested back into them for their extended reproduction. If this were done, the "lack of money" fraud could not be used to cut social programs and public services, and to attack the rights of public sector workers.

The refusal of other sectors and enterprises to pay for the public sector value they consume in a proper exchange of value creates a constant crisis of underfunding for social programs and public services. The lack of funds fraud is then used to cut social programs and to attack the right of public sector workers to negotiate wages and working conditions acceptable to themselves.

The words and actions of the former NDP government have failed to address this serious problem in the economy and in the relations of workers to their employers. Instead, the previous government used the lack of funds fraud to excuse similar anti-worker antics, which were touted as being softer and more suitable in times of crisis. Softer or harder misses the point that a new direction in the economy is necessary and the rights of the people are inviolable and cannot be negated no matter what the excuse.

Current NDP opposition Labour critic Christina Gray, who in the previous NDP government was Labour Minister, commented that the Kenney government is "playing a dangerous game." and that "It's incredibly frustrating to see her former government's approach to good-faith bargaining thrown under the bus when it led to zero-per cent pay increases and a good deal for taxpayers during a recession. That approach is immediately being rejected, and these workers are being disrespected through the actions of the government."

What is the great difference between the two governments other than that the words of Christina Gray are blatant hypocrisy and misleading, while those of Kenney are grossly backward and in your face?

Both Jason Kenney and Gray are gravely mistaken if they think Albertans will accept lock, stock and barrel the line of the financial oligarchy that "there is no money," as a pretext to deprive workers of their rights and to step up the anti-social offensive and continue to attack Alberta's public services, social programs and the workers who deliver them. Of course, there is no money when those in control of the economy and its main enterprises refuse to pay in an equivalent exchange for the social value their enterprises consume, and instead, take the new value workers create out of the economy and province.

Alberta has everything it needs for a vibrant economy that could meet and guarantee the well-being and rights of all without recurring economic crises. The problem lies in its control by a handful of global oligarchs and their representatives who cannot escape their privileged social being and refuse to step aside.

Working people want a new pro-social direction for the economy; they want their claims on the economy and society recognized and rights upheld without fail. The government and official opposition are pandering to the demands of the mainly foreign oligarchs who control the energy and other major industries and enterprises in Alberta. This clash of contending interests shows the time is now to organize and prepare the subjective conditions to build the New.


This article was published in

Volume 49 Number 20 - June 1, 2019

Article Link:
Comment on the Public Sector and Its Crucial Role in the Economy - K.C. Adams


    

Website:  www.cpcml.ca   Email:  editor@cpcml.ca