In the News
More Pay-the-Rich Schemes
Ontario Public Funds Handed to the ArcelorMittal
Global Steel Cartel
No end to the corruption of pay-the-rich schemes and the infighting and violence they bring
Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced on February 15 that $500 million in provincial public funds will be given to the global cartel ArcelorMittal. The massive worldwide company with headquarters in Europe seized the century-old Hamilton Dofasco steel mill in 2006.
Last year the Trudeau Liberal Party in power gave $400 million in federal public funds to ArcelorMittal to modernize the Dofasco Hamilton mill. ArcelorMittal accepted the money but said at the time that without additional funding from the province the modernization would not proceed, thus implying that Dofasco steel production in Hamilton would be imperiled without more public funds.
The project to replace Dofasco’s aging blast furnaces and coke ovens with electric arc finances and natural gas is estimated to require an investment of $1.8 billion. With the additional provincial money, the $900 million in public funds makes up half the investment while the global oligarchs retain complete private control and ownership. With the extortion of public funds now assured, ArcelorMittal said the project will proceed.
Premier Ford is facing an Ontario election this coming June with two rival cartel parties vying for control. Ford turned the Hamilton pay-the-rich announcement into an election rally for his cartel party hailing it as a saviour of jobs and the environment.
The imperialist media focussed on the green transformation that the new production process will bring. Pollution from steel production in Hamilton has long been a concern for both steelworkers and residents. The oligarchs in control of ArcelorMittal insist the people face two choices to deal with the problem of pollution from its operations in the city: shut down steel production or have the federal and provincial governments give the private global cartel half the money needed to modernize the production process.
People are discussing these two options as essentially one corrupt form to extort public funds for private use. The rival cartel parties that form governments at the provincial and federal level are wholly immersed in this corruption and intrigue. They fight amongst themselves to gain control over the public purse for the benefit of the oligarchs they represent, to further their own careers and to silence the voices of the people for a new direction.
A consequence of the infighting and rivalry among gangs of oligarchs and the battles they are waging for control of governments and the public purse is the anarchy and violence that we are now witnessing with the antics of the Freedom Convoy occupations and blockades, and the Trudeau Liberal Party in power invoking the Emergencies Act to make sure everything is at the disposal of the police powers exercised by the federal cabinet without interference of any other level of government, let alone from the claims the people are entitled to make on the society they depend on for their living.
Hamilton steelworkers, others directly affected and many in the environmental movement who strive to humanize the natural environment have taken note of the corruption of giving public money to the oligarchs. They are speaking out against the corrupt electoral process which bring party governments which serve private interests to power.
(Workers’ Forum, posted February 17, 2022)
