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OFL DELEGATES SOUND WARNING TO LEADERSHIP
By Liz Rowley
(This article is from the December 1999 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
TORONTO - A sharp warning to the right-wing was sounded Nov. 23, when delegates to the Ontario Federation of Labour re-elected President Wayne Samuelson over Oakville Labour Council President Willie Lambert by a narrow margin.
Lambert, who received 433 votes to Samuelson's 620, captured the mood of delegates with his sharp criticism of the incumbent leadership and his campaign to re-ignite the Ontario Days of Action. Close to half the Labour Council presidents in Ontario threw Lambert their support, as did the CAW convention caucus. Over 300 delegates did not vote, meaning Samuelson won with the support of less than half of the almost 1,500 registered delegates.
Shortly after the results were announced, former OFL Presidents Cliff Pilkey and Gord Wilson were seen striding to the stage. According to one observer, the message they delivered was that Samuelson had two years to turn it around or he was finished.
That was the message delivered by delegates throughout the Convention, as they badgered their leadership to grasp the importance of mobilizing a province-wide fightback against the Reform/Tory agenda.
At the heart of the pressure was the recently reorganized Action Caucus, whose spokespersons insisted that labour must lead with its own fighting agenda to pull together the mass mobilizations necessary to beat back the neo-conservative assault.
"We reject the view that workers are no longer interested in mass action and mass protests," said Caucus Chair Helen Kennedy. "With a renewed assault by the Harris Tories on social programs and public institutions, just now revealed in the secret plans for massive privatization and over $1 billion in additional cuts, it seems to us that the lack of leadership by the Ontario Federation of Labour is the main obstacle. We need a fighting plan of action around labour's agenda to put people before profits, and we need it now."
A resolution calling on the OFL to rekindle the Days of Action passed after fiery criticism of the leadership by old-time CAW member George Steplocke. Denouncing the Executive Board for abandoning a directive from the last convention to organize escalating province-wide action leading to a general strike, Steplocke told cheering delegates that leaders who abandoned those who elected them, should themselves be abandoned and recalled.
Jim Bridgewood, another long-time CAW delegate, went further, calling on the OFL to make May Day 2000 a Day of Strikes and Mass Action, as part of the world-wide labour campaign against corporate globalization being organized on that date.
Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti picked up part of Bridgewood's suggestion in his remarks, committing the CLC to mass action next May Day, but short of the militant strike action sought by many delegates.
Regrettably, some leaders of the most militant public sector unions were not present for much of the debate. Teachers' leaders were mobilizing their members and supporters in the fight against Tory plans to cut $800 million from public education budgets. (See p. 5 - Ed.)
CUPE Ontario leader Sid Ryan was hospitalized for much of the convention, while CAW leader Buzz Hargrove was involved in airline negotiations, and other leaders were organizing support for the CAW occupation of the Molson's Brewery in Barrie. Many CUPW leaders were also in negotiations.
As a result, some of the most effective and powerful speakers for independent labour political action were not heard. Some right-wing spokespersons tried to hint that this indicated a lack of will and commitment by those absent from the debate.
OPSEU President Leah Casselman even suggested that only those present at the Convention were interested in Days of Action or any form of action. Workers have developed a taste for tax cuts, she said, asking cynically "Do any of you really give a shit about what's happening today in Ontario?"
That cynicism reflected the OFL leadership's dismal assessment of the political situation in the province, their politically-blinkered view that the NDP's miserable showing in the June election signalled a shift to the right by working people, who no longer have a will to fight back.
Yet the convention opened by welcoming the successful occupiers of the Gallaher Paper Mill in Thorold as delegates, by noting a continuing occupation in Sarnia, and by taking busloads of delegates to support the Molson Brewery CAW members in Barrie.
(Look for further details of the OFL Convention and a report on the BC Federation of Labour policy conference in our next issue.)
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