September 4, 2023 - No. 49
Labour Day 2023
Speaking In One's Own Name Is the Starting Point to Establishing a Way Forward
On Labour Day 2023 the Workers' Centre of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends its greetings to working people across the country who are using this occasion to hold marches, picnics, meetings and other events which honour the decisive role of workers and of unions today and give voice to their claims on society at this time.
While Labour Day was established by the ruling class in the U.S. and Canada to try to deprive the workers of their revolutionary May First traditions, today Labour Day has become an important occasion for working people to gather together and speak in their own name about their conditions and demands for an economy that serves the people, not the rich. This itself shows that try as they might the rulers cannot silence the voice of the working class. The fights workers have waged over the past year hold high the dignity of labour. They make their mark in many important ways which will, the stronger the voice of the workers becomes, eventually turn things around in a manner which humanizes the natural and social environment and in this way favour the interests of the working people.
At
this time, the bourgeoisie is attacking society with a
vengeance,
targeting in particular the forward-looking view that society
should
provide for the well-being of all its members. The bourgeoisie
is not
merely defending the status quo and refusing to move forward. It
is not
merely refusing
to extend the provision of public health care and education and
other
needs such as daycare, old-age security and housing. It has
destroyed
the very conception of justice, fairness and the good of all. It
denies
that governments have a social responsibility to do their duty
towards
members of the
polity.
By passing legislation based on the medieval view that every individual should fend for themself, even the limited conception of social responsibility that had become the norm in Canada in the post-war arrangements has been trampled underfoot. This is amply illustrated by the lack of responsibility for the prevention of and control over natural disasters. It is seen too in the disasters which result from the profoundly anti-social measures which permit narrow private interests to regulate health and safety matters related to highways, railways, mines, and industrial and agricultural concerns and in terms of all aspects of life.
These developments which are taking place reflect the deep crisis of state monopoly capitalism. This is a crisis in which the capitalists and the state as the private treasurer of the capitalist class as a whole cannot generate the levels of revenue that are required to service the insatiable demands of the oligopolies for investments and for the specific types of infrastructure they require at this time. This is why the ruling circles do not adequately fund those areas of spending which are related to the health, education and social welfare of the people.
In the same way, no matter how much richer the rich become as a result of governments' pay-the-rich schemes, the workers are submitted to intensified exploitation and union-busting in the name of "prosperity," "national security" and "peace." Meanwhile, the policies of cartel parties of the establishment are inseparable from the aim of preserving a constitutional order and institutions which no longer function. Whether they call themselves "Conservative," "Liberal," "Social-Democrat," or by another name, the objective developments compel the cartel parties to become open spokespersons and agents for social retrogression and state attacks against the people in the name of national security and war.
The allocation of
billions of dollars of public funds for schemes
which further integrate Canada's economy into the U.S. war
economy
ensures that the people are deprived of the benefits of new
developments
in science and technology. Only the working class has an
interest in
harnessing the
technological advances to serve a human-centred society. The use
of
police powers to force people to submit to the dictate of the
rich or
be targeted as a threat to the economy and national security is
another
matter of concern which must be tackled by the working people by
speaking out in defence
of the rights of all.
The need for publicly funded social programs to provide for
the
people's needs is objective. To be human in the 21st century
means
concretely providing those programs that ensure good health,
education
for the youth, security in retirement and a bright future for
the
youth, to meet the needs that belong to us by virtue of being
human. In
the same way, the claims of the working people for the
conditions they
require to do their work cannot be readily dismissed because
they are
just; they uphold the dignity of labour and they protect the
rights of
all. It is the workers, not the rich, who are essential. It is
their
work that produces all the value and provides all the services
that
permit society to not only function but reproduce itself. This
in turn
means they have a right and a duty to decide what society needs
and how
its payment can be met, what investments are needed and how they
can be
paid for.
Around the world the workers are asserting that their voice must be heard, recognized and respected as only they have an interest in providing the pressing economic and social problems with solutions.
On the occasion of Labour Day 2023 one of the greatest challenges the workers face is to establish mechanisms for discussion and deliberation amongst their peers so that they can share their experiences as they organize to address their conditions. The situation today is such that the workers cannot afford to simply adopt pre-established positions fed to them by others, but must work out their own positions and provide themselves with their own information which can reveal what must be done next.
This is a constant and ongoing process in which the workers inform and empower themselves to decide the matters that affect their lives and reject sideline commentators, critics and apologists for the status quo. Speaking in their own name and refusing to authorize others who are not their peers and who do not share weal and woe with them to speak for them provides the workers with confidence. The more they take up the role of educating the educators, the more educated they will become in what is needed to turn things around.
This Labour Day let our demands on society ring out loud and clear. Speak out and take action in defence of the rights of all, demand that governments stop paying the rich, increase investments in social programs and make Canada a zone for peace! Let's make sure that as working people we take measures to represent ourselves and deprive the cartel parties of any platform to claim a mandate to pay the rich, privatize, sell out our resources, carry out racist attacks against Indigenous Peoples and minorities including the current sinophobia, perpetuate violence against women and children and the most vulnerable as part of making the working people disposable or engage in warmongering, the further militarization of culture and the integration of the economy into the U.S. war machine.
The Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) will continue to be at the disposal of this work as workers come forward to speak for themselves. Let us make the coming year one in which the workers can proudly say that they speak in their own name!
Holding High the Dignity of Labour
Ontario education workers force the
Ford government to rescind Bill 28, November 2022.
Throughout the year
actions continue demanding status for all.
Demonstration in Quebec City,
September 16, 2022, (top) and Trois Rivieres, February 8,
2023, demand right to housing be recognized
Action by health care workers at Quebec National
Assembly, December 13, 2022.
Nurses in Drummondville
protest untenable conditions of work, February 26, 2023.
Telus
workers in Edmonton and across the country hold information
picket
lines to back their demands, January 2023
Quebec Federation of Labour
discusses future of the trade union movement, January 18,
2023
Windsor Salt
workers hold the line, February-August 2023
Picket line in National
Capital Region on first day of federal public service workers
strike,
April 19, 2023
Federal public service
workers picket in St. John's, Newfoundland, April 22, 2023
Striking port workers rally in
Vancouver, July 9, 2023
Picket line of National Steel Car
workers, on strike for wage increase and workplace safety, July
13, 2023
Workers for 27 Metro grocery stores in the greater Toronto area strike July-August 2023 to back demands for wage increases.
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca