Labour Day 2016
• The Working Class – An Independent Organized Force for the Defence of Rights and a Pro-Social Future - Workers' Centre of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
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Labour Day 2016

The Working Class -- An Independent
Organized Force for the Defence of Rights
and a Pro-Social Future

- Workers' Centre of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) -

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Labour Day 2016 brings with it the necessity for the working class to organize itself as an independent political and social force. The current situation is characterized by the refusal of the ruling imperialist elite to recognize the rights of the working class and enforce an equilibrium in class relations. This has given rise to a state of anarchy in which the monopolies consider themselves sovereign and entitled to take unilateral decisions and impose them on the workers. Governments and state institutions facilitate this in the name of economic prosperity and stability.

The corollary of anarchy is violence. Once accepted norms are discarded, the working people have no recourse to sort out the problems they and society face. When they uphold their rights, their resistance is criminalized. The state resorts to dealing with them on a crime and punishment basis. Instead of solving problems on the basis of what is called free collective bargaining between the working class and those who own and control the socialized productive forces, governments are imposing arbitrary limits on what the workers can and cannot do. In an attempt to keep up appearances, this process of imposing the anti-social austerity agenda is called democratic.

The recent Supreme Court decision is a good illustration of what is happening. The Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge of a 2009 Parliamentary law that retroactively changed the collective agreement of federal public employees negating their negotiated wage increases.

The Supreme Court upheld the ruling of the Quebec Court of Appeal that employees have no constitutional right to challenge budget decisions of cabinet. "Assuming the Act [2009 Expenditure Restraint Act of Parliament] undermines the freedom of association, it is justified," Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Nicole Hesler wrote in the ruling the Supreme Court upheld. "It is acceptable legislation in a free and democratic society," she added.

The ruling confirms a similar case involving members of the RCMP who negotiated a wage increase only to see the government Treasury Board unilaterally reduce it. It means that whatever governments dictate on behalf of the monopolies now has the force of law. It gives "free collective bargaining" an entirely new meaning.

The working class has learned through direct experience and its accumulated wisdom in class struggle that only when it acts as an independent organized force can it defend its rights, strengthen its ranks and engage in planned actions which bring into being a new pro-social direction for the country. How to accomplish the feat of organizing and building public opinion in opposition to the wrecking and anarchy of the ruling elite is the order of the day.

Build the New!

Independent working class organizations and institutions are needed. They must be built as champions of rights and social justice and bastions which oppose the negative actions and influence of the ruling imperialist elite. Without its own voice and institutions on every front of life, the working class movement leaves itself vulnerable to the anti-working class propaganda and actions of the ruling imperialist elite and their agencies which uphold monopoly right.

The official recognition of rights by virtue of being human is missing. Instead, their limitation on the basis of criteria which defend private monopoly interests is leading to the increasing concentration of political power in fewer and fewer hands. This is accompanied with a constant din of anti-worker anti-social propaganda. All of it underscores the necessity of building our own working class mass media, research institutions and advocacy. This work permits the working class to occupy the space for change and expand it. It defends the rights of all on a mass basis and prepares the working people to lead the country in a new pro-social direction.

The ruling elites would like the working class to reduce itself to a role of constantly pleading with them to change their ways. They want the workers to plead for condescending saviours. How can the workers create their own working class leadership, especially amongst the youth, if they constantly look to the political, economic, social, cultural and charity institutions of the ruling elite to defend their well-being and rights? The ruling elite are not going to change their aim of defending their own private interests. The institutions based on class privilege, exploiting the working class and empire-building do not constitute rule by, for and of the people in any way. To change their aim, they would have to change their economic, political and social condition, which they have no desire to do and are not capable of doing.

The ruling elite have put monopoly right and empire-building in control of Canada. Evidence is the negation of Canadian nation-building within free trade agreements controlled by the global monopolies, and the increasing political, military, social and cultural suffocation of Canada within a United States of North American Monopolies and its U.S-led empire-building replete with recurring economic crises and constant wars.

We have witnessed in stark relief the rise to power of monopoly right and empire-building of the most powerful global monopolies within the U.S.-led imperialist system of states where the rights of all, including small property rights are under attack.

Rights in a capitalist civil society premised on property rights and nation-building have been overwhelmed by monopoly right and empire-building. They cannot be resurrected or rescued in their old form. The defence of human rights in opposition to monopoly right requires a broad popular movement led by the working class. The aim is to renew the democracy premised on the affirmation of the human factor/social consciousness and nation-building based on control of the socialized productive forces by the actual producers, by those who do the work and their organizations.

How can this possibly happen if the working class movement does not grasp in a profound way that it needs its own leadership, thinking, organizations and institutions that are strong enough to deprive the ruling imperialist elite of their power to deprive the people of their rights? The social responsibility to make this happen rests with the working class and its leadership.

On the occasion of Labour Day 2016, the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) salutes all the workers and their organizations across the country, which are fighting for their rights and social justice. The Workers' Centre pledges to step up its work to strengthen the independent politics of the working class and build the organizations and institutions that the working class movement needs to provide itself with the required thought material. As a contribution, the Workers' Centre will publish Workers' Forum on a weekly basis, and hold regular meetings and exchanges of information on matters of concern to the workers' movement. To join this work, contact the Workers' Centre at: workerscentre@cpcml.ca.

All Out to Defend Rights by Virtue of Being Human and Build a
Modern Nation with a Pro-Social Direction!
Stop Paying the Rich, Increase Funding for Social Programs!
Manufacturing Yes, Nation-Wrecking No! Uphold the Dignity of Labour!
Our Security Lies in the Fight for the Rights of All!