Text for a presentation, Socialist Action conference,
Toronto, May 22-24 2009
Quebecs labour and left movements:
A shadow of hope after the collapse
Graph 1
Graph
2
Ministre du travail du
Qubec
From the hope of the Marche des femmes, in the fall of 2000, to the capitulation of the public sector union movement in December 2005
The
beginning of the new millennium saw a surge of the fightback movement
The
March of women (Fall 2000), a world event initiated by Quebecs women
The
anti-FTAA counter summit of people of the Americas (April 2001)
The
world Irak anti-war demonstration (March 2003), especially large in Montreal
The main
characteristics of the first phase of this surge were political and
internationalist, the consequences of the 1999 Seattle protest and of the first
World Social Forum in 2001. It put Quebec on the left world map.
The downside of this surge was a weaker implementation as far as social
struggles (labour, housing, environment) are concerned. But labour
struggles did increase (see graph 2). The issue was more positive
electorally speaking. The astonishing electoral results (24%) of the
April 2001 by-election in the Mercier riding (in the centre of Montreal) for a
broad left candidate revealed the potential for a left political party.
The second
phase of this surge, from the fall of 2003 to December 2005, was mainly social
but with a positive though problematic political development. As
dramatically shown by graph 2, after the increase of the first phase, there was
another increase in 2005 due to many one day uncoordinated strikes in the
public sector (all teachers, all hospital workers, all civil servants).
This increase is relatively small compared to the 60s and 70s as graph 1
demonstrates. But it does not show the largest and largest student strike
ever, in 2005. It also does not show an important mobilization of the
ecology movement in that period. And, especially, it does not show the
occupation, in 2004, of an Alcan aluminum mill for almost a week by the workers,
backed by the local population (in the Saguenay area), and finally quashed by
the top brass of the FTQ (Fderation des travailleur(e)s du Qubec).
That
upheaval, lead by the unions of the public sector, ended abruptly in December
2005, not by a defeat after a fierce battle, but by a total capitulation to the
Liberals special law. Graph 2 shows the drastic decline in struggles in
2006, still not recovered by 2008 and early 2009. It is not so much that
the unions top brass went into the fight divided, to the point of engaging in
raiding each others`members, but more importantly that they stuck to the
concertation (class collaboration) strategy institutionalized by the Parti
qubcois (PQ) in socio-economic summits of the late 90s. And they adhered to
this fatal strategy even after the Liberals had stated in non-ambiguous terms
that there would not be this time a last minute deal in the middle of the
night.
That the
concertation was the main problem, not the lack of unity which was more of a
consequence, was proven by the relatively successful student strike. It
was the more radical but smallest student association, lASS, which started
the strike forcing the two main pro-PQ associations to follow in their
steps. It is true that having joined the movement, the two pro-PQ
organisations took control of the negotiations and accepted a minimally
victorious deal, blocking the governments plan but not improving the
status-quo, and not linking the strike with the ongoing teachers strike for
which the union top brass is mainly responsible. In that sense, the lack
of militant unity became a problem which lead to a not so positive balance
sheet: why such a long and deep strike for so
little ?
The first
phase of the 2000-2005 surge was the mother of Qubec solidaire, the new left political
party founded in February 2006, as a merger of Franoise Davids (leader
of the March of women) Option citoyenne, without a program and a strategy, with
the political party Union des forces progressistes (UFP), with a anti-liberal
program (and a electoral experience). The assets brought to the fusion by the
UFP were completely ignored to the point that Qubec solidaire still has no
program after more than three years of existence.
Nevertheless,
the positive aspect in the balance sheet of the 2000-2005 surge is certainly
the founding of a socially significant left party after the promising but
abortive trials of 1905-07 and of 1944-47. It is often said that in the imperialist world, only the
USA, Irish and Quebec nations did not have a social-democrat or labour type
party. Maybe this problem is in
the process of being solved in Quebec even if the membership and electorate of
Qubec solidaire remain small and stagnating since its founding (3.8% of the
vote in the elections of the spring of 2007 and in the fall of 2008).
But this
founding had also a father, the second phase with its strategic defeat of December 2005. The
negative aspect is the electoralism of Qubec solidaire and its expression in
lack of leadership accountability (verticalism), early bureaucratization and
programmatic social-liberalism, recently sugar-coated with a half baked
anti-capitalist discourse (in Le Manifeste du premier mai) a lot milder than
that of the German Left Partys and radical left neo-Keynesian Oskar
Lafontaine.
This
negative aspect of QS is due to a wrong balance sheet of the 2000-2005
fightback surge, namely, that demonstrations and strike movements end in
defeats while elections give unexpected positive results exemplified by the
election of an MNA (in Mercier). In fact, both the women`s movement and
the mouvement populaire (called anti-poverty in Ontario), from which come the
bulk of the membership of Quebec solidaire, have not mobilized at a significant
level, contrary to the union, student and ecological movements, in the second
phase of the 2000-2005 surge and since then. Their defeats, especially
for social housing and an anti-poverty legislation, led them to quit la rue
(the street) for les urnes (the ballot box).
This is
especially true in the aftermath of the march of women. (The Fdration des
femmes du Qubec (FFQ) is now trapped in a divisive and sterile debate of their
own making on the Islamic veil instead of mobilizing to defend Philippina
domestic workers an issue which is publically discussed following an apparent
scandal involving a federal MP.) This important organization of women
stopped mobilizing in 2000 for the very popular demand of a minimum wage
of 8.50 $ after the PQ government insulted them with a 10 raise from
6.90 $. They then made an electoralist turn, especially the main
group around Franoise David, now the almost undisputed leader of Qubec
solidaire.
As for the
main groups of the anticapitalist left — Gauche socialiste (Fourth
International), International Socialists (linked with the British SWP) and the
Parti communiste du Qubec (PCQ) (a split from the Party communist of Canada on
the independence issue) — they became recognized as collectives of
Qubec solidaire after having been scrutinized by a long and thorough
bureaucratic process and after having renounced the organization of an
anti-capitalist tendency openly critical and offering an alternative
programmatic pole as, for example, in the German Left Party. This
tactical alliance with the social-liberal and electioneering leadership was
accepted on the basis of a one-sided and rather complacent analysis of the
reason for the existence of Qubec solidaire. To use my previous
analogy : for them, Qubec solidaire had a mother but no father. Their (Gs`s and IS`s) happy
go lucky lengthy analysis of the political situation in early 2006 to explain
the founding of Qubec solidaire completely ignored the strategic defeat of
December 2005, not even mentioning it.
A new
rebound after the catastrophe ?
As shown by
graphic 2, the December 2005 capitulation threw the fightback movement into the
doldrums. But the graph also shows a resumption of struggles, albeit
weak, from 2006 to 2008 and maybe 2009. One can notice some victories
against non-Qubcois bosses (Petro-Canada and the CSNs Hotel
coordinated negotiations), a very hard, long and loosing fight against
Qubcor on the issue of the restructuring of their tabloids newspapers and a
winning streak of strikes of University teachers and teaching assistants since
2007 (Concordia, Laval), 2008 (Universit du Qubec Trois Rivires) ending
with the very militant and media reported seven weeks strike at
Universit du Qubec Montral in 2009 backed by sporadic student strikes.
The one
year lock-out at the Petro-Canada Montreal refinery ending in late 2008 was
especially noticeable as the company refused to apply the Canadian pattern to
its Quebec workforce. Hence, this lock-out had a clear chauvinistic aspect
that went unnoticed by the left, Canadian and Qubcois, even if the Canadian
workers did financially back their Qubcois fellow-workers. One can only
guess if the national contradiction reinforced the class contradiction in the
remarkable hotel coordinated negotiations organised by the CSN ( Conseil des
syndicaux nationaux) and involving 40 unions of which two are still on the
picket lines to this day. The strategy of striking together in the summer
time, the heavy tourist season, first by one-day warning strike then with an
unlimited one is especially efficient in this mainly non free-trade affected
sector. (A similar strategy is being tested in the food sector with 38
stores.)
Qubcors
one year lock-out of the tabloid Le Journal de Qubec in 2007-2008 and the
actual one of Le Journal de Montral started in January 2009 are horses of
another colour. This jewel of Qubec Inc. is infamous for its hard line
against unions whether in Qubec or in the USA and in France. The Journal
de Qubec workers managed the remarkable feat of publishing an alternative
daily on paper for the duration of the lock-out with the backing of the
population and even some merchants. But the conflict was lost because the
union top brass failed to organize that spontaneous sympathy. As for the
on-going and more important Journal de Montral lock-out and considering that
Qubcor also own the Sun tabloids in Canada and use their employees as
strike-breakers for some tasks, would it not be possible for the Canadian left
to intervene in some ways? As for now, the lock-out employees are
publishing a daily web paper. But
they seem to be isolated.
It is
possible to explain the small upturn in militancy by a good employment
situation, as shown by the unemployment rate curve on graph 2, at least until
the fall of 2008. Even since then, the economic crisis has hit Qubec
less than Canada, especially Ontario because of its auto/steel industrial
collapse and the importance of its financial sector. In Qubec, the traditional
textile/clothing sector has been in crisis since the creation of the WTO in the
early 90s, the forestry sector since the solving of the USA-Canada lumber
dispute, the drastic reduction of the demand of newspaper and the plundering of
the forests. The on-going agony of Abitibi-Bowater is perhaps its last
chapter. For now, the important but stagnating Montreal pharmaceutical
sector does not seem to be affected but on-going mergers might reduce
employment later on. The software sector seems unaffected for now, and
the same for the mass transit (bus, subway cars, locomotives) industry which
might even benefit from government investments. But the very important
aviation sector is being hit hard as too is the aluminium industry. As
for the financial sector, it is not that big compared to Ontario.
Finally, the large hydro-electric projects coming on line for export purposes
soften the effects of the crisis. Thus the relative diversification of
the Qubec economy, compared to the Canadian, provides something of a cushion
against the crisis al least for now.
But the on-going relative indebtness of consumers even as the crisis
unfolds might be a time bomb.
The crisis
has hardened the attitude of the bosses. Of the eleven conflicts going on
in mid-May, seven are lock-outs. What will most affect the left-right
correlation of forces in the near future will be what happens in the public
sector where global collective agreement has to be renewed in 2010. After
the collapse of December 2005, starting in 2007, it was the university
teachers, teaching assistants and other workers, not included in the global
collective agreement, that went into battle with some success. In fact,
the militancy of the seven weeks UQAM teachers strike, backed by strikes of various
length by the majority of UQAM students, from February to April 2009, surprised
everybody including the strikers. Not only did they win a good wage
settlement, better than the imposed collective agreement of the public sector,
but they won the hiring of 145 new teachers and this in the middle of a major
financial crisis at UQAM. Again, it was possible to perceive an element
of national oppression in the background of this strike because of the
under-financing of UQAM, a State teaching university without much endowment,
compared to McGill or even the less prestigious Anglophone university,
Concordia.
The happy
ending and combativeness of this strike seems to have provoked a sense of
optimism that served as a prelude to the announcement on May 11 by the unions
top brass of a reconstitution of the historical Front commun of 1972, even
larger because it comprises almost everybody, with a solemn no-raiding
commitment. Lacking in their announcement, based on a superficial but
correct balance sheet of the 2005 catastrophe, is a commitment to break away
from la concertation and thus to prepare for a major confrontation. It
is nave to promise a quick settlement before the end of the present collective
agreement, which almost never happened in the past, with a relatively important
wage increase of 11% over three years plus a productivity bonus while the
crisis is provoking wage and pension freezes and reductions and creating
unemployment. Maybe they believe that the crisis will be over by 2010,
like some pundits predict, disregarding the unchanged income inequality and the
mountain of debts to be digested by the system, both of which portend a long
depression after the end of the crisis when it ends.
It must be
said that the analytical emphasis on the lack of unity as the main problem of
the last round of the public sector negotiations, including by analysts of the
anticapitalist left who should know better, does not help to focus the
attention on the class collaboration issue. Fortunately, perhaps stung by
the founding of the French Nouveau parti anticapitaliste (NPA) whose radical
anti-crisis emergency program is starting to be known in Qubec and is such a
contrast to Qubec solidaire`s mild neo-Keynesian response, Gauche socialiste
has just begun to seriously criticize the bureaucratic union leaders,
especially after their praise for the last Liberal budget of March 2009,
and also to criticize the recent pro-capitalist Manifeste du premier mai
issued by the QS leadership and published without even minimal discussion
by the rank and file.
Lets hope
that the ideological anticapitalist collectives of Qubec solidaire will start
soon talking about the necessity of preparing a political general strike to
create the winning conditions of a victorious Front commun, which would
necessitate a drastic fiscal and budget reform driving towards a substantial
increase in public services and social programs. It is easy to realize
that such a left turn would require that the people of Qubec, to avoid a
gigantic flight of capital, acquire the power to expropriate the banks, the
economic core of federal oppression, which receive the bulk of
government aid even in Canada where they are in no trouble at all.
This means putting lindpendance at the centre of the anti-crisis
strategy. Should not the labour and popular movements talk about that in
a renewal of les tats gnraux which launched, in 1967, the huge
mobilizations leading to the 1972 Front commun?