a report from Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL)
Against privatization and price increases: ONLY THE STRUGGLE PAYS!
On April 1st 2010, some 15,000 people descended on the business district in Montreal at the call of more than 95 unions, popular, feminist and student groups. Is this the first stage of a response against the Liberal budget? Only time will tell. In any case, it was a nice demonstration--a popular grand procession, very diverse and militant (at least in discourse).
We now know that the budget tabled on March 30th by Minister Bachand introduced a host of measures, each more regressive than the one before. The introduction of new fees for healthcare or the rapid growth of sales tax (QST) are examples. The rich will fare quite well, as usual. Nothing in this budget calls into question their privilege and their little schemes to stash their money in tax-free havens. Again, we are required to sacrifice for them. Enough!
Two weeks before the American presidential election, there was a labor rally in Washington, DC, the ill-named Million Workers March (MWM). With the possible exception of the organizers, members of Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), few would call the event an unqualified success. The turnout was smaller than hoped for, there were organizational problems (detailed below), and the crowd was dominated by the already politicized. That is, it was really not the massive “workers” march that was billed and hoped for.
We are all active organizers and participants of the upcoming protests surrounding the IMF and World Bank on April 9 -17. For us, these institutions are beyond reform. In addition to simply being "undemocratic" in themselves, they play a key role within a global capitalist system that must be abolished outright. That is why we are working with all our energy to bring the most effective resistance possible against them to the streets of Washington, DC.
