In the News May 4

Ontario Election

The Urgent Need Is for the Working Class to Provide Itself With a Political Aim of Its Own

Today the Ontario general election was launched, to be held on June 2. The media have quoted Premier Doug Ford saying the election will provide the government with a post-COVID-19 recovery mandate.

Whose mandate will it be? The urgent need in this election is for the working class of Ontario to provide itself with a political aim of its own, not one adopted for them by others over which they exercise no control.

Even a cursory review of events since the last Ontario election confirms the workers are fighting. Thanks to their fight in defence of their own claims for what belongs to them by right as the producers of all the goods and services we depend on for our living, we have shared a common cause and experience.

This cursory review also shows that irrespective of which political party is in power, they all pursue the same anti-social, nation-wrecking aim to pay the rich, no matter what high ideals they spout. Nonetheless, the view is peddled that this or that agenda of this or that party will mitigate the devastating effects of the economic crisis.

On this basis, efforts are made to turn the workers into a vote bank for a political party which allegedly has a better agenda than that of the party in power or to split votes so that the ruling party can stay on for another term. A lot of deal-making takes place behind the backs of the people, including concerning the selection of candidates said to represent them. It has become an increasingly sordid affair designed to discourage the workers into simply dropping out.

The attempt is to divert the movement of the workers in defence of their interests into becoming an active or passive reserve of whatever the rulers decide.

The world view of the rulers is that the workers constitute a mere productive force. They have no role whatsoever in participating in arriving at the decisions which concern their lives or the lives of the polity of which they are members. They have even been deprived of their right to participate in setting the policy of their own collectives.

Ontario is richly endowed with natural resources, with advanced means of production and an educated work force in abundant supply. While the process of production is social, the means of production are private. This state of affairs is enforced by relations of production that create a class of rulers and a class of those who are ruled and have no say except to submit to their rulers’ dictate.

The role of the democracy and the “democratic process,” including the electoral part, the legislatures and other institutions is to make the entire thing credible, as if the rule serves everyone. Of course, the more it reveals its dictatorial features, the less credible and legitimate the system becomes.

This is precisely what has happened during the mandate of the Ford Government which is paying for the massive restructuring of the economy on the backs of the people by paying billions to the rich, privatizing more of the social assets, and trampling underfoot the hereditary rights of Indigenous peoples, migrant workers and international students, among others.

The people do not accept the choice of toeing the line, nor do they accept the massive restructuring and destruction which the bourgeoisie is carrying out in order to make the monopolies competitive in the global market.

All of this points to the necessity for the working class to establish its own political aim. It must vocally reject the attempt to keep it chained to the political aim of this or that party which has another aim. This flies in the face of the experience of all Ontarians, which is that whether an agenda has been touted as right-wing or left-wing, it is corporate.

The struggle today is between the forces of the New and the forces of the Old. There are two worlds in combat and the working people are the majority as well as the decisive force which can turn things around in their favour, not in favour of the rich and their dangerous war agenda.

In this Ontario election, let the working class resolutely take up its own political aim and end the situation whereby it is marginalized as a result of diverting its struggle into electing this or that representative of a racist, corrupt ruling class, no matter what they may call themselves.

Ontario Political Forum, posted May 4, 2022