OFL's Responsibility to Develop the Protest Movement and Take It FurtherThe call of the OFL Convention for coalitions to be formed across the province whose aim is to "deliver an NDP government in Ontario in 2021" poses a serious concern for the workers. Since the Days of Action against the Harris government, the OFL wants to run from its responsibility to develop the protest movement and take it further. It does not want to completely withdraw from the movement but rather orient it towards the fulfilment of the aims of one of the cartel political parties which claims to represent the interests of labour, the NDP. In this respect, the NDP has long since emerged as a disruptive and splittist force in the movement because it pushes its own sectarian aims. While the workers have been rejecting this splittist aim in favour of resolving the crisis in a manner that favours them, the OFL vacillates, trying to steer its focus towards the role of the NDP more than to the role of the trade unions. The NDP has its own self-serving aim, which is to come to power, and it tells the people that the solution is to vote to bring the NDP to power. That is all that they need to do, the people are told.
The idea that the working people have a choice between one party and another through elections has been debunked time and time again. The workers want real problems to be solved and detest the splitting of the movement on the basis of party politics. The workers' movement against the anti-social offensive has an aim which is to defeat the anti-social offensive. This is achieved in a practical way by winning victories for a pro-social program which the working people work out themselves as they are doing every day through the struggles they wage to affirm what belongs to them by right. This aim to defeat the anti-social offensive has to be taken through to the end. It means that as the workers' collectives deliberate on their actions, they must pay attention to not allow the aim of the movement to be put in a secondary position; they should not permit it to be subordinated to narrow aims such as the aim to elect the NDP. Time and again the NDP shows that it is interested in coalitions only so long as such coalitions agree to submit to its aim. The call of the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) is to stick with the aim of the movement. The issue is not whether workers support CPC(M-L) or the NDP or something else. The issue is to realize the aim of the movement.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The aim of the
trade unions established in the past, and of
their associations like the OFL, was never to
radically transform the situation. However, the
conditions today are calling for the workers to
play a political role by realizing their
striving for empowerment so that they can
control the decisions which affect their lives.
Should the OFL take the movement further than
its narrow trade union aim what would be exposed
is that the sectarian, disruptive and
self-serving role of the NDP is the real
problem. It is one of the parties which form a
cartel party system to keep the people out of
power. It competes to be a force that brokers
who will occupy the positions of premier or
prime minister, the cabinet ministers, the
secretaries and the top echelons of the civil
service and so on. This brokering is used to
divert the attention of the workers from the
need to stick with the aim of their class.