* Canada These labour leaders openly support purging critics and want to produce a centrally controlled OL-NDP alliance. This strategy was played out at the OFL convention when Leaders of the largest public sector union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), had it's leading progressive and critical voice to the NDP pushed out by the OF slated candidate, supported by the pink slip "gang of five". Every action called by the OF since its convention has been based on opportunistic relationships with social movements, a lack of alliances with trade union movements in other provinces or with Quebec's labour movement which is tied to the bourgeois nationalist Bloc Quebecois Party.
The Ontario Federation of Labour under the leadership of Gord Wilson called for another day of action against the Harris government, in Hamilton, Ontario. This was overment in Hamilton. Ontario. This was the largest labour demonstration in Ontario and even in North America, 25,000 came on Friday 23rd and over 120,000 on Saturday 24th to protest the Tory Party convention being held in Hamilton. These days of actions or strike days are impressive and invigorating but still limited and defensive. Nor are they tied to the similar struggles underway in the Maritime provinces, British Columbia, Alberta or Quebec. The labour leadership has no real strategy nor support for a broad based united fightback, and would rather wait four years, then try to elect a new NDP government.
What does all of this mean for the 67,000 Ontario government workers who voted in a two to one margin strike vote in mid February? The Tories have promised to cut up to 27,000 government jobs. Under Bill 7, the Tory labour law, the government has the right to take away "successor rights" (the right to keep jobs), unions and collective agreements when services are contracted out or privatized. At the same time the Tories gave themselves the right to unilaterally re-classify jobs and cut wages. The Tories slashed a pension entitlement of OPSEU members laid off before reaching early retirement. The Tories aim is to roll back seniority, job security and anything that is a barrier to privatization and the restructuring of provincial health, social, or welfare services. The only gain made under the NDP labour law that was left under Bill 7 was the right for OPSEU to strike. The current OPSEU leadership is in a very real bind. They are negotiating their terms of surrender rather than make real gains for their members. However, the union has the real potential to galvanize broad based support against the overall Harris agenda. Since the strike began there have been strike support demonstrations across the province. Over 90% Of OPSEU workers are on the
34 International Viewpoint April 1996 picket lines.
The challenge now is to link the fight for OPSEU members' jobs with the fight to defend union rights, welfare, and health care — Metro Toronto Hospital Workers are in the middle of negotiations and facing an 18% cut in pay with 12 hospitals being threatened to close. We need a united front strategy. Socialist and labour activists should work to bring a range of forces together to make an impact both within labour movement and in the various social movements we are active. We mustn't let the labour bureaucracy derail a real grass rooted political movement to bring down Power in the union the Harris government — as the OPSEU slogan goes: "No justice, no peace!" * Notes
Julia Barnett is a member of Socialist Challenge/Gauche Socialist, the Fourth International section in the Canadian State, and a member and activist in the Canadian Union Public Employees (CUPE) Local#840. 1. This includes Quebec. 2. The Ontario NDP was in power for the first time between 1990-1995 with a majority. 3. In the mid 1970's and 1980's OCAC was one of the key mass action pro-choice feminist organizations responsible for striking down Canada's Federal Abortion Law. 4. United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), Service Employees International Union (SEU), United Steel Workers of America (USWA), Canadian Electrical Power (CEP), and the International Association of Machinists (IAM).
J. Melton watched as 120,000 demonstrators marched past the Hamilton
Convention Centre, where Ontario Premier Mike Hariss' Tory party was meeting.
Riot cops had secured the building. The Convention Centre - apparently a product of the "bunker nouveau" architectual school - was now revealed to have been a smart tactical choice by the Tories. I found the place where the parade route passed the Convention Centre's semi-underground entrance. Parade marshals in orange-skull-caps formed a line there. Big guys. About six metres behind them were piled gargantuan concrete blocks, like tank traps from Stalingrad. And behind that cement, rows of bulletproofed riot cops with POLICE emblazoned on their chests peered out. I asked the orange-caps why they were there. "We're just trying to keep anyone from getting hurt," one told me. "We're Hamilton Steelworkers and we're just trying to protect Hamilton." And they practiced a comradely sort of crowd control, laughing and joking with people as they asked them to leave the cops alone. In a few minutes, the march came into sight: "Hey Mike! Hey Mike! How'd you like a general strike?" The riot cops all stopped talking and stood very straight. Most marchers didn't realize what they were passing at first. But one glimpse of the riot police made it clear: here were the Tories holed up. This was it. The marchers - teachers, nurses, students, factoryworkers, the unemployed -
"Over there," he pointed. The shouted at the police behind the Steelworkers: "Look at
OPSEU section of the parade those assholes!" "Traitors!"
had stopped. Just like that As a
"You're jobs are next!" "Join single, disciplined unit, OPSEU us!" "Shame! Shame! Shame!"
halted on the proverbial dime. It was about 30 feet from the
The Steelworkers let them thin-orange-line. The parade voice their anger, as long as sections in front of OPSEU they kept moving — which was continued, leaving a big gap.
the key to calm, they told me.
"It's the ones who know how to
It became clear why OPSEU move as a group you have to workers were to be taken worry about," one said, indicseriously: Unlike the drunken, ating the passing Canada's atomized crowds I'd dealt with
National Student Organization.
in concert security, these
They were chanting in perfect people were organized. And all unison and slowed to jeer. But eyes were on them.
the rather frail-looking youth didn't present much of a chall-
It was the dramatic moment of enge to the Steelworkers. And the entire Days of Action. It they soon passed.
was the message. The
Steelworkers understood
"What we're worried about is everything implicit in it. The
OPSEU," one said. His broth-
Steelworkers knew that, with ers strained their necks to look up street for the banners of the one word, that unit could have
OPSEU [civil service union].
accelerated over that 30 feet,
"They are fucking angry.
made a hard right turn right
They're going on strike through the thin-orange-line tomorrow. And the governand probably run right over the riot cops. (Not that they'd get to ment's going to use scabs to replace them. That's who we're any Tories, there were many really waiting for."
more cops inside, choking off the far narrower bottlenecks,
I nodded politely and pretenlike stairs and halls. I'd seen ded to study the police camera atop CityHall. But I was really them through windows, loitwondering how I was suppoering in stairwells.)
sed to take seriously a bunch
Having cocked the revolver, of angry office workers. I used and stood there holding it, to work concert security. I lear-
OPSEU returned the hammer ned how to tell who was a to rest. And marched on.
threat and who wasn't. I doubt
"The fuckers," the Steelworkers an OPSEU worker would have overly concerned me...
laughed a little nervously. And then everyone settled down for
"Oh fuck," a voice came from a gentle good time around behind. A Steelworker nudged
Copps Coliseum. * me. "OPSEU", he wispered.
Networking
The editor's selection of Internet news, addresses and debates.
Pentagon monitors Peacenet
Internet users beware, David Corn writes in The Nation (March 4,
1996). A report by Charles Swett, from the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity
Conflict suggests using the Internet for the routine interception of global e-mail, for covert operations and propaganda campaigns, and for tracking domestic political activity, particularly that of the left. Swett reports that the "Internet could also be used offensively as an additional medium in psychological operations campaigns and to help achieve unconventional warfare objectives."
A significant portion of the report is devoted to the San Franciscobased Institute for Global Communications, which operates several computer networks, such as PeaceNet and EcoNet, that are used by progressive activists. I.G.C. conferences that might be considered noteworthy by the Pentagon, including those on anti-nuclear arms campaigns, the extreme right, social change, and "multicultural, multiracial news." "Although it is clearly a left-wing political organization, without actually joining I.G.C. and reading its message traffic, it is difficult to assess the nature and extent of its members' actual realworld activities," writes Swett. "We must be doing something right," reacts George Gundrey, program coordinator of I.G.C. 's PeaceNet. "But it is interesting that all of these examples [in the Pentagon report] are the most left-wing items [on our network]." Swett proposes that the Pentagon and intelligence services conduct "routine monitoring of messages originating in other countries" in the search for information on "developing security threats." The data will be fed into filtering computers and then, if it contains any sensitive keywords, forwarded to the appropriate analyst. Another growth area is the dirty tracks department. Noting that government officials, military officials, business people, and journalists all around the world are online, Swett envisions "Psychological Operations" campaigns in which U.S. propaganda could be rapidly disseminated to a wide audience. He adds, "The U.S. might be able to employ the Internet offensively to help achieve unconventional warfare objectives."* Swett does point to a few potential problems. The Internet is chockfull of chit-chat of no intelligence value. Retrieving useful nuggets will require monumental screening. [...] And opponents of the Pentagon might try to exploit the Internet for their own devilish ends: "If it became widely known that the Defense Department were monitoring Internet traffic for intelligence or counterintelligence purposes, individuals with personal agendas or political purposes in mind, or who enjoy playing pranks, would deliberately enter false or misleading messages." The study ends with a series of vague recommendations - to be carried out "only in full compliance with the letter and the spirit of the law, and without violating the privacy of American citizens." Swett's office — the Pentagon's dirty tricks shop - is a newcomer to the 'electronic warfare' scene, according to David Banisar, a policy analyst for the Electronic Privacy Information Center. Banisar's group has been helping international human rights groups use encryption to protect their global e-mail, "so the spooks don't listen in" Either the left has made much more progress in cyber-organizing than the right and "harmless" fringe groups [like the UFO-watchers], or Swett, true to institutional tradition, is overwrought about the use of the Internet by a certain parties. In any case, the would-be watchers in the defense establishment ought to be watched closely - especially if Swett's report reflects broader sentiment within the Pentagon. David Corn is the Washington editor of The Nation magazine (tel. (800) 333-8536). If you have any comments or leads for follow-up stories, please contact the author at tel. (202) 546-2239 fax (202) 546-1415 E-mail <[email protected]>. The Pentagon document cited in this article can be downloaded from (http://www.fas.org/pub/gen/fas/sgp/.) Send your contributions and questions about this column to ‹[email protected]> oorts.
Portugal: Youth Camp
The 13th annual youth camp of organisations in solidarity with the Fourth International will be held in late July 1996 near the town of Amarante in northern Portugal. We asked Jorge Costa of the PSR (Revolutionary Socialist Party,
Portuguese section of the Fourth International News Ret about the preparation of the camp.
• What are the reasons for organising the camp in Amarante?
This is where the PSR has one of its most longstanding groups. We have good relations with the municipal council. And by holding the camp here, we hope to develop the local youth section of the party. But in any case, we don't have that many branches in provincial towns.
• Why did you propose to host the camp in Portugal?
The youth of the PSR have, over the last four years, won an important role within certain layers of young people. Not only among students but also in wider layers, through our campaigns on some specific political themes. Our campaign for the legalisation of drugs, our intransigent anti- militarist stance and above all our participation in the students associations - both in the universities and secondary schools - in an unprecedented period of mobilisation from 1992-
95 have made the PSR a political reference point for young people seeking an alternative outside the traditional political forces.