The Best Party to Represent the Needs of Labour?
This question has been asked since the fall of the Barrett NDP government in 1975. The NDP government's failure to resolve labour unrest by passing Bill 146 (back-to-work legislation and the 90-day 'cooling off' period) left the labour movement in B.C. feeling uncertain whether we had been betrayed by those politicians that we had helped get elected.
Certainly, the NDP had been insightful in creating well-crafted laws. ICBC to reduce, then maintin reasonable provincial motor vehicle insurance, the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) which assured future generations of secure farmland that would stay as farms, in spite of land speculators wishing to rezone that land to build grant housing projects, and the unionizing of government employees (to name a few). Many of these successful pieces of legislation gave working people initial hope, as B.C. coped with double-digit inflation and a world recession.
But our resource-based economy, dependent on our export industries (MacBlo, etc.), and upon world economic conditions, coupled with increasing taxation on the working middle class, plus government wage and hiring freezes, brought about labour's disillusionment with the NDP. The 'final straw' saw 17,000 workers out on strike being legislated back to work.
The Barrett government became reviled by workers, and the following elction saw the rise of the political right, uniting under the Socreds, defeating the NDP experiment in socialist/labour government.
And 18 years later, after three successive Socred mandates, another NDP government led by Premier Harcourt, and then Premier Clark, rekindled fears among right-wing politicos of the socialist/labour experiment's return. Labour is concerned that another betrayal by "our" political representatives may place working men and women in political limbo -- again!
B.C.'s economy is in decline compared to the rest of the Canadian economy, as the federal Liberal government off-loads its debt onto the Provincial governments, making its own fiscal budget look rejuvenated. But how has the NDP government responded to our huge deficit, as B.C. contends with a slumping East-Asian market for our export goods?
Our government has overspent on bailing out Skeena Cellulose and, possibly, other pulp and paper mills due to the over capacity of production for the amount of our forestry wood stocks and the decline in demand from overseas markets. The government has done this in order to bolster the flagging economic situation in the northwest region of B.C. But can this economic gamble really solve the woes of that area? Not unless a modernization and restructuring of the pulp and paper industry takes place, and a diversification of locally manufactured products brings a strengthened financial base.
The government has made some attempt at an enlightened forest renewal policy. However, such policy requires more than just modifying forest practices, tinkering with the life of forest communities. Policy must give rise to economic support based upon the sustainable yield of our forests. Truly reformed forestry practices require that silvaculture and fisheris/aquaculture are not pissing in each others' cups. If forest practices are destroying fish-bearing streams, while the NDP government tries year after year to come up with some kind of a salmon treaty with the USA, well, you just have to look at this year's estimates of coho salmon stocks to realize how foolish is the argument over which fishers can, or cannot, be permitted to fish for coho. If a fish licence buyout by the government results in fewer, larger, better equipped vessels buying the available licences, without reducing the complex array of electronic fish-finding and fish0landing gear, then fewer fish of all species will be the inevitable result.
First Nations land claims are again being stalled in order to prevent the government having to deal with our provincial paranoia at possibly losing supposed ownership of our Crown lands. The government has made no budgetary contingencies for the settlement of any land claims, while First Nations peoples are frustrated having spent millions of dollars and too many years in the courts. Some large businesses refuse to invest in B.C. while the land claims issues remain unsettled. This process must be speeded up if B.C.'s economic future is NOT to languish in limbo!
Our B.C. economy is in recession due to an adverse world economic climate. Government regulations and increased taxation have been followed by government policies on de-regulation and tax reductions for big businesses. Wage restraints, reminiscent of the Socred's labour policies under Bennett, are mirrored by this NDP government's use of Employers' Associations. These government-initiated bodies place wage 'guildelines' (read: controls) on all public sector employees when trying to conclude a freely-bargained collective agreement with their employers. The labour movement is in turmoil over the NDP's failure to truly represent the working person. Strikes are festering throughout the province, from the resouce sector to the public sector, to doctors in the private sector.
Is this deja vu all over again? Have British Columbians reached that point of "dis"-ease with their government?
Many labour supporters say that the only alternative to the right-wing agenda is siding the the NDP. That unless 'we close our eyes and hold our noses' to vote for the 'lesser of two evils' ...labour will be left to the mercy of a right-wing coalition (similar to what happened to the Barrett government in 1975).
But what if there were an alternative to the NDP? Would creation of an alternative party that Labour could feel represented our perspective be so bad? The outstanding issues of pay equity, promoting 'fair trade' (rather than free trade in a race to the economic bottom), a comprehensive program on environmental protection and social justice issues, are just a few of the reasons to consider another party (including human rights abuses by countries with whom we now trade).
Some might shout, "Foul!", that anyone might dare to think of abandoning a "tried" political party for another "untried" political entity that may be too far left for any labour-oriented interests to maintain political power in this province. "Better the devil you know!" or "this could even split the left-wing vote, allowing the righ-wing coalition to take control!"
Just look at Ontario and Alberta under premiers Harris and Klein as examples of rampant right-wing autocratic rule. These provincial governments have sold out the majority of the electorate and their needs by bringing tax relief to the rich and tax incentives to big businesses that relocate to their provinces. The end result is labour legislation that allows unions to be broken, the needy to rely on food banks because of cuts in services, and a lowering in employment standards.
The present situation in our province raises the question: "Are we willing to return to the years of big business gaining profits while services in our province are reduced?" Do the short term gains for government coffers mean organized and unorganized workers must squabble amonst themselves for ever-shrinking wage packages to offset tax incentives that might attract big business investment to B.C.?
Rafe Sunshine
Local 459