The Politics of
Protest
When Conservative Premier Mike Harris was elected in 1995, trade
unions and their supporters chanted "Hey Mike, Hey Mike, What do you
think of a General Strike?" Harris wryly commented that there was no
need for a general strike. He knew what the unions could do, but more
importantly he knew what they would do. Nothing. The Days of
Action' proved to be the days of inaction' From defeating the
Tories with a general strike to defeating them at the ballot box, the
unions did neither.
After the Tories easily won re-election in 1999, the unions didn't
even maintain the pretense of militant action - in fact it was only
the resolutionary' left who deluded themselves with calls on
the bureaucrats to "organize a general strike."
One of the more interesting thorns in the government side has been
the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. (See Red & Black
Notes # 9 Anti-Poverty in Toronto)
Although OCAP has often relied on the unions to provide its financing
and for support, the group has always made clear it had its own
tactics and concept of how actions should proceed.
Yet, what was once a gap has now become an abyss. Following the
June 15, 2000 "Riot" at the Ontario legislature where riot police
attacked homeless protesters and anti-poverty activists, many unions,
even the supposedly radical Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) moved to
distance themselves. Following an "eviction" the following summer at
then Ontario Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's office, the CAW broke
with OCAP and forbade its supposedly independent flying squads from
participating in any OCAP actions.
Over the weekend of March 23, the Ontario Progressive Conservative
Party met in Toronto to elect a new leader to replace Harris. On
Saturday, not one but two separate demonstrations were organized to
protest. The respectable labour movement, perhaps reflecting the
ideology of the President and Secretary of Metro Toronto Labour
Council (ex-Communist Party and current communist party members
respectively) organized a "people's rally." The Ontario Common Front,
in which the dominant force is OCAP, organized a march from a
downtown park which had been the site of OCAP's "Safe Park" two years
earlier.
Escorted by a heavy and aggressive police presence, the OCF rally
arrived at the site of the People's rally at 1:45, fifteen minutes
before the scheduled end of the People's rally. The square was empty.
The "people" had come and gone.
An account in the newsletter of the Toronto high school teachers'
union recounted the near frenzy with which the organizers of the
people's rally rushed to finish their events before the OCF parade
got there. Was their belief that the new premier, Ernie Eves would
represent a return to standard operating procedures, rather than the
aberration' of Harris, who brushed aside all opposition?
As it happens, Eves was the finance minister during Harris' so-
called Common Sense Revolution and the architect of much of the
restructuring. The Labour movement and its ideological hangers on in
the social democratic parties, as well as the somewhat smaller
Leninist fringe groups, are the last representatives of Keynesianism.
There will be no return to Keynes.
Of late OCAP has been under attack. Several of their leaders have
been arrested, they were recently evicted from their long time
headquarters and their relationship with the unions is stretched
toward breaking. The last point could be a positive development.
While OCAP have generally realized, unlike much of the left, the
labour bureaucrats could not be trusted to do anything, they have
also seemed the problem as one of bad leadership rather than what
unions do.
As the split between OCAP and the labour' movement deepens,
perhaps OCAP will deepen its critique.
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