By Dave McKee
Faced with a pro-corporate blitz from Ontario’s right-wing Conservative government, working people might have expected the opening days of the Ontario Federation of Labour convention to be filled with combative statements.
Well, they were – but the fighting seemed to be all between leadership candidates.
Following weeks of pre-convention acrimony – with members of the outgoing executive engaging in finger pointing, accusations and counteraccusations against one another – convention delegates had a chance to weigh in during executive elections on November 18.
Incumbent OFL president Laura Walton was re-elected in a very close ballot, but the other members of her “Future Forward” slate were defeated. Meanwhile, incumbent secretary-treasurer Ahmad Gaied, who was opposed by Walton’s slate, was handily re-elected.
The message and challenge to the new executive seems pretty clear: stop playing the petty blame game and get on with leading working people’s struggles against Doug Ford. But how to proceed with this is going to be tricky.
Fortunately, a group of workers is promoting a path forward for the federation, based on labour unity around action campaigns.
The OFL Action Caucus argues that the past five years have seen an important upsurge in union organization and militancy, including a level of strike activity not seen in four decades, which providing the labour movement with new energy. “What had for some time been a movement in stagnation and decline is seeing new life breathed into it,” reads an Action Caucus leaflet. “We are regrowing muscles which had long atrophied, and we are winning the respect of the working class as a whole because of it, with support for unions at all-time highs. We have a duty to all workers in Canada to continue this renewal, and to push towards building a fighting, unified labour movement.”
It’s a critical time for this development, with multiple attacks against working people in general and the labour movement in particular. These attacks include a massive increase in state interference in unions’ bargaining rights, as evidenced by governments’ repeated use of Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code and the notwithstanding clause in the constitution.
This is why the threat of internal division in the labour movement is so serious. While the most obvious expression was through the executive election, the Action Caucus notes that this division is rooted in the movement’s move away from an independent political program and a strategic action plan to fight for it. Instead, the OFL and wider labour movement have increasingly focused on electoral strategies, which have involved outsourcing its political work to political parties, especially the NDP.
“By welding ourselves to the destinies of disparate political parties, we have become more vulnerable to the divide and conquer strategies they employ. It turns our attention away from the struggle all working people share, and encourages silos, opportunistic attacks, or the abandonment of the house of labour altogether.”
Within this situation, the Action Caucus is promoting specific action campaigns that have the capacity to build and grow a fighting unity among unions in Ontario. These include campaigns for a Workers’ Bill of Rights, for public ownership and a just transition in the steel and auto sectors, as well as for a unified strike support strategy.
The Caucus’ campaign proposals are rooted in what it calls “principles for a fighting unity.” These include unity in action with class struggle positions and a focus on independent political action; fighting against austerity and job cuts, for full employment and good jobs for all sectors and trades; countering the attacks on labour rights and fighting for a Worker’s Bill of Rights; organizing the unorganized; actively opposing racism, sexism and homophobia; and working-class internationalism with a strong opposition to foreign intervention, the arms trade and a war economy.
Doug Ford and his corporate friends have, no doubt, been enjoying the divisions evident during the early days of the OFL convention. But now that the elections are through, delegates have a chance to reorient the federation into a united, fighting force for working people. The Action Caucus proposals point to the path forward.
[Photo: united labour rally in support of hospital workers, 2024]
Support working-class media!
If you found this article useful, please consider donating to People’s Voice or purchasing a subscription so that you get every issue of Canada’s leading socialist publication delivered to your door or inbox!
For over 100 years, we have been 100% reader-supported, with no corporate or government funding.
