Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been, A Member Of The NDP?

http://youtu.be/BkWOfOqS4Ms Someone I know in Vancouver posted this video on Facebook yesterday. It is an obvious piece of NDP propaganda- that said, it raises a number of interesting questions. It is also a perfect introduction to sharing some of what I have learned about the United Steelworkers union (USW) over the past few months…

The video is from a hearing held on Wednesday at the House of Commons’ Finance Committee. The speaker who is being introduced is Erin Weir, an economist who works for the USW. His speech starts-off labelling the C-38 budget bill as an ‘Omnibus’, the first hint that he is coming to the discussion with a political filter. Like it or not, C-38 has less pages than budget bills of recent years– but, the NDP loves to label bills as Omnibus these days, building off of the momentum behind their (valid) efforts to stop the recent C-10 crime bill. Conservative MP Randy Hoback is shown in the video asking Mr Weir to clarify his political standing- “Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the NDP?” Granted, he could have chose better wording- but, his question was a valid one. And, if the tables were turned, would you doubt an NDP MP would have asked a similar question?

That said, he should have been asking Mr Weir about his affiliations with Marxist organizations. Leo Girrard, a Canadian who is head of the International United Steelworker’s works directly with the Communist Party and believes that mines should be nationalized and turned into collectives.

Then there’s Carolyn Egan– the powerful president of the USW’s local 8300 in Toronto. Carolyn’s a close affiliate of Judy Rebick, a prominent member of the International Socialists, highly-active in the NDP, and known to be a person behind the scene at Occupy Toronto- pulling the strings of people like our friend Dave Vasey. The International Socialists are a prominent power behind the NDP’s Socialist Caucus.

So, Mr. Hoback’s question makes a very valid point. Erin Weir was not only speaking on behalf of the workers of the USW, he is coming with a long history behind his ideas- one that stretches back to the days of the Waffle. The discussion they were having was about foreign ownership of Canadian mining operations. The Conservatives want to allow this, and the Marxist factions of the NDP want to nationalize all mines. Erin Weir is a Marxist who is often covered in the Socialist Worker newspaper. If you have any doubts on his standing on nationalization of Canadian mines, just read his article in Rabble.ca where he states that privatizing potash mining was a mistake. His position is much more based on an ideological basis than it’s based on today’s needs of the people his union represents. I was rather naïve about Canadian unions before I started to study and write about them here. I knew that there was something wrong- but, like most others, I wrote-off the gap between union execs and rank-and-file union members as being based on greed. Well, there’s some greed, of course, but the real issue is that Canadian union leaders are primarily Marxists. Their advocacy for the needs of Canadian labourers appears to come a distant second.

Most members of the Steelworkers are middle-class folk with 2 cars, a house in the suburbs, and perhaps an RV they use for their summer vacation. Only a small minority are Marxists, and I’d bet the majority would be horrified if they understood the goals of their leaders. The word Communist still has negative connotations out in the suburbs. I’ll be writing an open letter to members of the USW soon, pointing out the goals of their leaders. If any of my readers have suggestions on how to frame the situation to them, or where I can reach the most people in the USW, please share. Hopefully we can get the word out to them that their leadership are guiding them down a slippery slope to a world they don’t want to see…