Who pays for the crisis? – September 2020 Newsletter

Make the bosses pay for the crisis they created!

Who pays for the crisis? For the oil barons and Jason Kenney who serves them, the answer is clear. They say, “make the working class pay!” And they are trying to make us pay, not just in dollars but in blood. They are threatening public health privatization and healthcare layoffs in the middle of a pandemic. Despite all the warnings of experts, they sent kids back to school without reducing class sizes or hiring new janitorial staff. There have already been 35 outbreaks in schools because of this. And, because the UCP rightly fears the working class fighting back, they have gutted union rights and the right to protest. And this may only be the beginning. Kenney has promised a, “fiscal reckoning.” Meanwhile, the UCP has been helping the oil barons loot the state. He has lowered oil royalties and given billions in handouts to oil companies. To make matters worse, no economic recovery is in sight for Alberta.

It has become clear that the continued existence of capitalism threatens the continued existence of human life. We are facing catastrophe layered upon catastrophe with climate change, the pandemic, and the economic crisis. But there is a way out. Workers and students must say, “no to austerity! Make the bosses pay!” And we must back that up with militant action. If the unionized working class organized a general strike, and appealed to un-unionized workers to join them, the UCP would be stopped in their tracks. This is where the real power of the working class lies—not at the ballot box but in the streets. Withholding our labour is the best leverage the working class has to fight back.

We do not need to beg for scraps, see our living standards fall by the day, and watch society crumble around us. The working class has the power to completely shut down production—to shut down the profits of the bosses—until our demands are met. The potential is there. We can and must make the bosses pay for the crisis they created.

Boilermakers’ Lodge 146: Defend the picket, oppose Bill 32!

HAYLEY BROWN ★ SEP 10, 2020

The CESSCO workers have been locked out for three months. They have been picketing every day since. But, scandalously, they are required to let scab busses cross their picket line! This requirement is just one of the many reactionary measures introduced by the UCP’s Bill 32. The struggle of the boilermakers shows that Bill 32 will devastate the labour movement if it is allowed to stand.

COVID-19: A sharp need to Canada’s housing bubble

MARCUS KATRYNIUK ★ SEP 22, 2020

Even before COVID-19, Canada had the largest housing bubble of any G7 country – even bigger than one that triggered the 2008 crisis. And COVID-19 could very well pop that bubble. Even if it doesn’t, it will pop sooner or later, and when it does, the economic consequences will be disastrous. Yet, despite the rapidly expanding housing bubble, which is making housing unaffordable in most major Canadian cities, we have 5.5 homes for every homeless person. Capitalism remains the biggest barrier to providing high-quality, affordable housing.

What position should socialists take to Trudeau’s throne speech?

ALEX GRANT ★ SEP 24, 2020

Justin Trudeau’s throne speech has put the NDP into a tricky situation. Many of the “reforms” he proposed will never materialize. Others, like his proposed $1600 unemployment benefit, are counter-reforms. In response, the NDP has demanded paid sick leave, and no cuts to help for unemployed Canadians. But to get their way, they really have two options, neither of which are good. Either they fail by voting against Trudeau’s throne speech and take the unpopular road of triggering an election in a pandemic, or they fail by propping up the Liberal government, which is cutting benefits to the unemployed while giving billions in handouts to corporations.

But how did the NDP get into this situation in the first place? What position should socialists take to Trudeau’s throne speech?

US Election 2020: The socialist case against “lesser evil” politics

SOCIALIST REVOLUTION, USA ★ SEP 3, 2020

Many on the left have put forward the idea that Biden is the “lesser of two evils”. They say that socialists must vote for Biden over Trump. As Marxists, we understand that elections under capitalism only give workers the right to choose which representative of the bosses is to repress them for the next few years. But although we understand the limits of electoral politics, we also understand that we must participate in elections. However, “lesser-evil” politics is not the way forward for the working class. Socialists must fight for a working class alternative to the capitalist Democratic Party.

Breonna Taylor – there can be no justice for the majority under capitalism

SOCIALIST REVOLUTION, USA ★ SEP 26, 2020

In March, three police officers broke into Breonna Taylor and her boyfriend’s home and fired 32 shots. Breonna Taylor was killed. But in a recent ruling, the courts decided not to indict the officers who murdered her. This ruling brought tens of thousands back onto the streets in the US. But despite the size and heroism of the BLM movement, it has not stopped police violence against racialized people. So how can the working class end police terror?

A world on the brink: revolution looming

IN DEFENCE OF MARXISM ★ SEP 3, 2020

We are living at a decisive turning point in history. COVID-19 has triggered an unprecedented global economic crisis. All over the world, the ruling class is trying to make the working class pay for the crisis. The poor and the working class are desperately looking for a way out. The present situation is a preparatory period for world revolution. It is no exaggeration to say that revolution is inevitable. Sooner or later the masses will take the revolutionary road. But although revolution is inevitable, victory is not. It depends on the actions of individuals. That’s why revolutionaries must prepare.

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