Mounting Popular Resistance in Alberta to Anti-Social Measures
- Peggy Askin -
"Join the Resistance" townhall in Calgary, November 5, 2019.
After a summer of militant actions across Alberta to
say No!
to Bill 9 and the government's use of dictate, the response from the
working people to Kenney's budget and daily announcements of new
attacks on public services and the workers who deliver them has been
swift. The spirit to "Build the Resistance" is strong. Working
people, youth, women and seniors across Alberta have responded with
fierce determination to the escalating anti-social offensive and
all-out assault on the working people and society being carried out by
the Kenney government. Rallies, pickets, and meetings are taking place.
Unions are organizing together to strengthen their united resistance.
Seniors organizations, women and youth and students are organizing
actions and working out how to be effective.
 Workers
from many unions were out in force at the Alberta Federation of
Labour's "Join the Resistance" town hall in Calgary on November 5 which
was attended by close to 150 people. The spirit of the meeting was one
of determination to do whatever it takes to oppose the anti-worker,
anti-social offensive as well as the agenda for attacks
on the right of unions to organize. Many University of Calgary students
also came to take a stand to oppose the drastic hikes to tuition,
crippling cuts to the universities and rising interest payments on
student debt.
In Edmonton, Indigenous youth took the initiative to
organize a spirited march and rally to the Legislature on November 2,
with several hundred people, mainly youth taking part. There was not a
silent moment from Beaver Hills House Park to the Legislature, as one
person after another took up leading chants expressing their resistance.
A militant noon-hour information picket was held at
South Health Campus of the University of Calgary on November 5.
Organized by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, noon-hour
pickets are becoming a tradition across the province, especially at
hospitals and continuing care centres. Workers join the information
pickets during their
lunch hour and are joined by those on later shifts or a day off as well
as workers from other sectors.
 The
following day, CUPE Local 709, the Calgary Civil Foreman's Union,
hosted a lively information picket and rally at City Hall. About 250
people joined in, including public sector workers, retail workers,
building trades, steel and others as well as concerned Calgarians. They
stood together to say they are standing up and fighting back
against the attacks by Jason Kenney's "United Corporate Puppets" on
public services.
Discussions and planning on how to go forward are taking
place in every sector. Town halls, information pickets, meetings,
rallies and marches are taking place and many more are planned across
the province.
This reality is in sharp contrast with the almost
nightly news carried nationally about an "Alberta separatist movement"
which the monopoly media has conjured up and is desperately trying to
promote. It shows the extent to which the ruling circles and their
monopoly media will go when they engage in such bold-faced distortions.
The resistance of the working people, women, youth and
seniors is exposing the reality of Kenney's claims of jobs and
prosperity and his groveling service to the energy oligarchs who are
also very busy slashing jobs and "cost-cutting" in order to fatten the
dividends paid to the mainly foreign investors. Through the resistance,
by organizing
their collectives and speaking in their own name, the working people
are bringing the question of political power to the fore. Workers'
experience is that the political process blocks them from participating
directly to set the direction of the economy. The new democratic
personality will emerge through resistance to the anti-social offensive
which is
based on the independent thinking, organization and action of working
people.
It Can Be Done! It Must Be Done!
This article was published in
Number 26 - November 13, 2019
Article Link:
Mounting Popular Resistance in Alberta to Anti-Social Measures - Peggy Askin
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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