Communist Party of Canada

The Pandemic Exposes the Crisis of Capitalism and the Need for Socialism

The public health crisis brought on by the pandem-21 ic exposes, and exacerbates, all of the deep-seated and intractable contradictions of capitalism in its imperialist stage - the class contradiction, marked by increasing centralization of capital and growing social disparities, both between and within countries; the ever-worsening environmental crisis, the food crisis, and the rise of racism and neo-fascism, to name but a few. It brings home, with greater intensity and urgency, the need to vanquish capitalism and to win a socialist alternative for all humanity.

The pandemic has killed over 9,000 people in Canada and infected 145,000 others, by the end of September, with numbers rising rapidly as a second wave descends. Over a million have died around the world, including 200,000 in the US, with whom we share a 5,000 mile long border.

More than 80% of deaths were of elderly people living in long-term care (LTC) facilities, and the healthcare workers who attended to them. Most of these LTC facilities were owned and operated by private, for-profit corporations which operated with minimum standards and part-time staff. This is the main reason why so many in died in long-term care.

The virus spread quickly through these LTC “homes” in large part because healthcare workers were forced to work part-time, in multiple long-term care facilities, in order to make a living wage. Poor working conditions were coupled with poor and deteriorating living conditions for the residents.

At one point the military was brought in to tend to sick and dying patients as a large number of healthcare workers in LTC became sick, and the appalling conditions were detailed in a report made public. Until then, LTC facilities had been locked-down, only accessible by workers and management.

The Communist Party warned that the LTC crisis was caused by private, for profit care, and campaigned with statements, posters, and public online meetings for long term care to be taken over and made part of Medicare, Canada’s public healthcare system, with Canada-wide standards of care, and staffing.

We also campaigned for PPE to be made available to all frontline healthcare workers, and to all frontline workers interacting with the public. We campaigned for employer-paid sick days to be made part of Canadian labour laws. Most of our campaigning was on-line with statements, commentaries, speakers and discussions, and in our press, with postering in public places, and some leaflet distributions where

The healthcare trade unions had raised concerns about condition in LTC as well as the acute shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers in hospitals, LTC, and other healthcare facilities. This included masks, face shields, gowns, ventilators, and other equipment that was being rationed because, as a result of free trade agreements, it was no longer produced in Canada and had to be imported.

Pre-ordered PPE shipments arrived at airports only to be resold on the spot to the highest bidder. Competition was fi erce, as the Trump administration imposed its America First policy, while also threatening companies transporting PPE from China to Cuba, and to other countries. The 3M company which had a contract to supply Canada with N-95 masks, was ordered by Trump to stop delivery in early April. The order was eventually rescinded, but not before the Canadian government decided to start production of the masks and other PPE in Canada. While some small companies were contracted to produce PPE, a public campaign to re-open a closed General Motors car-plant for the same purpose, was successful. Across the country, a cottage industry opened up, with cloth masks for sale everywhere, and 3-D production of masks and ventilators.

The Party campaigned for production of PPE in Canada, as an urgent priority in the pandemic, and as part of the rebuilding of Canada’s value-added manufacturing and secondary industries – not a cottage industry - and the good jobs and wages that go with it. We also condemned US interference in Chinese shipments of PPE to Cuba and elsewhere, and exposed the hypocrisy of Trump’s America First policy in the wake of the just concluded USMCA North American free trade deal. We repeated our call for Canada to withdraw from this imperialist deal, and wrote to every member of Parliament to oppose its ratifi cation on March 13th, with copies to labour and people’s organizations sent on-line.

Transport workers, food-handlers, and other front-line workers and their trade unions were also demanding PPE and action by the employers to protect workers from the virus in the workplace. This included workplace action by transit workers who refused to work until drivers were isolated from passengers, and construction workers who used the right to refuse unsafe work law to stay home. In every case, the Labour Ministry rejected the claims of unsafe work, and workers were forced back to construction sites building condominiums and many other non-essential construction projects.

Beef slaughterhouses in western Canada and Quebec, which employed mainly immigrants and low-waged rural workers on “killing fl oors” and production lines, became centres of infection, and were closed down for 2 weeks, causing a meat shortage across the country.

Temporary foreign workers employed on farms to pick fruit and vegetables, also became infected as a result of poor and cramped living conditions. Workers who complained were deported. Without labour rights, they were essentially indentured labour.

We wrote about these deadly conditions, and reiterated our calls for labour rights and standards, and healthcare, to be extended to all workers, and to dismantle the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and provide a path to citizenship for seasonal workers and non-citizens living and working in Canada.

Food prices increased sharply as fears of shortages spread. As second quarter fi nancial statements were made public this summer, it was obvious the big grocery store chains had all racked up enormous profi ts during the pandemic’s fi rst wave. This profiteering included price-gouging consumers, while also eliminating the $2 an hour “pandemic pay” promised to their employees almost as soon as they’d announced it.

The Ontario provincial government also promised We also campaigned in two provincial elections a $4/hour wage increase for front-line healthcare that took place during the pandemic specifi cally workers, dubbed “healthcare heros” by governments calling for increased funding for much smaller classand media. Some healthcare workers are still wait- es, more teachers, more custodians (cleaners), more ing to receive those funds, while others have been assistants. Our Party issued statements, held ontold they have to return it. Police have received their line public meetings, while also campaigning in the own COVID top-up, amounting to $78 per day – an labour movement, among parents and students, in amount two and a half times greater than frontline protests. healthcare workers, and fi ve times greater than gro- Teacher contracts were being negotiated in sever-cery store workers. al provinces before and during the pandemic, along

The Communist Party called for government and with healthcare and other public sector contracts in corporations to “pay up”, while also demanding per- Quebec. Many of these negotiations got knocked manent wage increases for workers, and increased sideways as a result of the pandemic, and the ubiqfunding for healthcare, housing, education, cities, uitous refrain “We’re All in This Together”. It was due and public services like transit, and social programs to the strength and determination of teachers, that like childcare. cuts to education funding were less than demand-

Women in particular became the face of the pan- ed by right-wing governments, but more than the demic, as they fought to keep their jobs, wages, demic, as they fought to keep their jobs, wages, unions had anticipated. pensions and seniority, while working from home, pensions and seniority, while working from home, home schooling their children when schools closed home schooling their children when schools closed in March, and caring for infants and toddlers aft er in March, and caring for infants and toddlers aft er childcare centres closed their doors. The gender pay childcare centres closed their doors. The gender pay gap, meanwhile, costs women workers nearly $150 gap, meanwhile, costs women workers nearly $150 billion per year in Canada – a huge transfer of wealth billion per year in Canada – a huge transfer of wealth to corporations, and a key element in the reproducto corporations, and a key element in the reproduction of capitalism.

The women’s movement raised alarm bells about The women’s movement raised alarm bells about work and wages for women, as well as childcare cenwork and wages for women, as well as childcare centres facing permanent closure – not from the virus, tres facing permanent closure – not from the virus, but from lack of government funding. This alarm but from lack of government funding. This alarm expanded to include many parents as summer led expanded to include many parents as summer led to plans for possible school re-openings in the fall, and the need for smaller classes and more teachers, classrooms, and custodians became very clear. The education unions pressed for more government funding to make the re-openings safe, but were refused in most cases, leaving teachers with large classes in schools, and large classes on-line as well. With COVID once again resurgent, infections are starting to appear in schools now.

Mass action to support the demand for immediate housing for the unhoused in Toronto

Across the country, the pandemic hit hardest at the poorest in the population: those forced to live in cramped and over-crowded housing, in tenements, with poor health or chronic illness, with low or no incomes, precarious workers, part-time workers, and those in unsafe workplaces.

Meanwhile the top twenty billionaires in Canada increased their wealth by $37 billion over the course of the pandemic, and twenty-fi ve of the S & P’s most profi table corporations will pay out $387 billion to their shareholders in 2020. Half a billion of the world’s population has been pushed into poverty in the fallout, according to Oxfam.

At the beginning of the global pandemic, the Canadian government and media had little to say, other than noting its catastrophic path through Asia and Europe. Little was done to prepare for the pandemic which was racing towards North America. Suddenly cases appeared, followed by widespread

24 confusion and conflicting public health information.

This included the suggestion by some doctors that masks were a bad thing because they would spread infection through handling. This was compounded by the shortage of masks for healthcare workers (as well as the public) who were asked to use and reuse masks – or do without – in consequence. In the US, Sinophobia reigned as the Trump administration pressed forward with its racist, anti-China, anti-communist, anti-people attacks. These crossed over into Canada, and were taken up by right-wing fringe groups, as well as by Conservative politicians who echoed Trump’s attack on the World

Health Organization, and challenged the patriotism and loyalty of Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer,

Theresa Tam, who is of Chinese-Canadian heritage. Mass layoffs began in March, with over 7 million unemployed in April, and a further 1.4 million working less than 50% of the hours worked before the pandemic. The big corporations used the pandemic to reorganize production with fewer workers – something they couldn’t have done easily before the pandemic, because of collective agreements with trade unions, labour laws, and public scrutiny. In Canada, 30% of the workforce is unionized, including almost all public sector workers, but less than 15% of workers in the private sector. Employment Insurance (EI) was set up in 1940 following a mass struggle led by the Communist Party during the Great Depression of the 1930s. EI was a fund made up of contributions by workers, employers and governments, to provide income to unemployed workers during periods of unemployment. By 1996 it had a surplus of $57 billion, which neo-liberal governments seized to use for corporate tax cuts. Only $2 billion was returned in 2008, in time for the last great recession. Rules were changed eliminating government contributions to the fund, and making workers’ access to benefits much more difficult. Today less than 40% of workers who contribute to the fund, have access to EI benefits when they are unemployed. As a result, the federal government acted quickly during the pandemic’s first wave to introduce new financial supports for workers, plus bail-outs for businesses. The supports for workers were designed to be short-term and temporary, not the meaningful reforms called for by the Party to make EI non-contributory and accessible to all the unemployed and under-employed, for the full duration of unemployment, at 90% of previous earnings.

The bailouts for businesses included commercial rent subsidies to corporate landlords; interest-free loans to small businesses, and low-interest, long term loans to Big Businesses, plus a direct subsidy of 75% of employees’ wages to employers who agreed not to lay-off their employees while receiving the subsidy. These “supports” exclude the as yet unknown amounts that will bail out the oil and gas industry that is central to Canada’s petro-economy; the airlines; the auto industry so damaged by free trade; and other sectors yet to be identified.

Supports to small and medium business were mainly contingent on the cooperation of Big Business which was more interested in gobbling up smaller competitors than aiding them. The biggest fish ate the small fish and the bigger fish, as the concentration and centralization of capital rapidly proceeded.

Some supports for workers also took shape, with amendments to the EI program that temporarily increased benefits and expanded access so that precarious and part-time workers would be eligible for benefits in the short-term.

As well, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) paid out $500 per week to 8.4 million recipients at the height of the pandemic. The program was slated to end in June, but was extended through September, while mass protests and demonstrations over the police murder of George Floyd raged across the country, the continent, and the globe. There is no doubt that the capitalist class in Canada was frightened by this upsurge of mass protest and struggle by Black, Indigenous and racialized people, and their allies in Canada and the US in the first place. The labour and democratic movements, the Communist Party, the social democrats, many Greens, and a majority of working people supported or sympathized with the protests against police murders, assaults, systemic racism and violence, and the demands to cut police budgets, to demilitarize police forces, and to put police under strict civilian controls.

These are urgent issues in Canada, and the protests continue across Canada, as they do in the US, because police racism, violence and killings of Black, Indigenous and racialized people continue to take place across Canada and the US. The Communist Party has been an active participant in these protests and demonstrations, which have included marches, sit-ins, occupations, and campaigns to cut municipal police budgets,

Police killings are connected to the continuing growth and activity of the far-right and fascist movements in Canada, which continue to target Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), as well as Muslims, Jews, immigrants, women, and 2S/LGBTIQ people. There is a clear overlap between far-right and fascist groups and the Canadian military and police forces.

Another front in the struggle for equality in Canada is the multi-national character of the country, and the chauvinism directed towards Quebec, the Acadians, and francophone minorities across the country. This too is being fanned by the far-right, and by Conservative politicians with ties to these movements.

The struggle for civil, democratic and equality rights will not abate, and could join with the struggles of the unemployed and the working class to win fundamental social, political and economic change in Canada.

Labour’s role in organizing the unemployed and the unorganized will be decisive in uniting the working class for the struggles ahead, and already upon us. In this regard, Communists work for a sovereign, independent and united trade union movement, with a class struggle orientation and focus on mass action.

Most regrettably, the trade union movement in Canada is split with most unions affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress, while the largest private sector union in the country – UNIFOR, formerly the Canadian Autoworkers union, has split off on its own, and is recruiting workers from all sectors. Both are reformist union centrals, dominated by right-wing social democracy and heavily influenced by the governing Liberal Party.

Communists are active in the trade union movement, and have spent much of the pandemic working to unite the left in the labour movement, to challenge the rightward drift of the labour leadership in Canada, and to project a new direction in which labour moves onto the offensive against capital – ending the tripartite collaboration advocated by the government, business and labour, in the perfidious slogan “We’re all in this together”. Indeed, if the capitalists in Canada are successful, millions of unemployed workers will be sacrificed on the alter of profits, while the rest will be forced to pay off the deficits and debts incurred during this crisis through new rounds of austerity and cuts to wages and living standards.

A number of meetings have taken place in which its clear that Communists are not the only ones with these aims and goals. The period ahead will provide ample opportunity for an organized left in the trade union movement to stake its ground, organize, and build its influence. This is a time for qualitative change, as the working class comes under heavy and sustained attack.

In September, the Liberal government worked hard to force a federal election on the country. They did this because they are a minority government, and because they knew that the austerity measured being demanded by the banks, the corporations, right-wing media and think-tanks, and by the Conservative opposition in Parliament would lead to austerity and serious pain for working people. Fearful of the potential consequences of mass unemployment, and mass protests, and hoping to get ahead of what will be a winter of deep discontent, the Liberals acted quickly to extend financial aid to the unemployed for an additional 26 weeks, through to the end of March and Canada’s bitter winter. Under pressure from the social democrats (the NDP), the government maintained the benefits at $500 / week, after initially proposing to cut benefits by 20%. The increase also applied to Employment Insurance.

But the Canadian economy has not recovered, nor will it in this extended and global capitalist crisis.

Many of the 5 million unemployed (about 25% of the workforce) will not go back to work, or be hired somewhere else. They will become part of the growing surplus army of unemployed, that the corporations will try to use as a battering ram to drive down the wages and living standards of the employed and unionized workers.

A desperate public heaved a huge sigh of relief with the announcement of the new benefit programs, faced with the prospects of no job or income without them. But the income benefits and EI are temporary, while unemployment is permanent. Further, the cost of living in Canada for 82% of the population who live in cities is much higher than the meager benefits on offer. A one bedroom apartment in Toronto cost an average of $2,240 in March, down from $2,299 in January. These benefits won’t even cover rent.

Housing struggles have been a growing arena of struggle since before the pandemic, and especially now with widespread layoffs. We have campaigned with posters, statements, leaflets, posters for an end to evictions and utility cut-offs due to unemployment, strike, or lock-out. We have called for rent

26 roll-backs and real rent controls, all of which have been well received by tenants and homeowners, but not by big landlords, real estate tycoons, or governments. We say housing is a human right, and that no-one should have to pay more than 20% of their income for shelter. Meanwhile, evictions are increasing. But so is resistance, which our members are also actively involved in, as they were during the last great depression.

What’s ahead is widespread hunger, mass evicWhat’s ahead is widespread hunger, mass evictions, , loss of savings, and more protests, demonstrations, and actions. That is the future in Canada for millions of people, short of the People’s Recovery the Communist Party is campaigning for.

The main elements of the campaign for a People’s Recovery are immediate action to amend the EI legislation to make Employment Insurance non-contributory, and accessible to all of the unemployed and under-employed for the full duration of unemployment, at 90% of previous earnings; and a full employment policy, including construction of one million units of social housing for rent and for sale in the next 5 years, expanding social program and public services and reversing privatization; expanding Medicare to include drugs, dental, vision and eye care, long-term care, and mental health care; enacting a universal system of quality public childcare, free to users; enacting a 32 hour work week with 40 hours net pay; expanding value-added manufacturing and secondary industry; building a Canadian car that’s electric, environmentally sustainable, and aff ordable; public ownership of energy, closure of fossil fuel industries with jobs and wages guaranteed in renewable energy industries; nationalizing the banks, insurance companies and transportation to build free public transit, and retrofi t public infrastructure and housing.

A people’s Recovery also means raising wages and incomes, starting with a $20 minimum wage and substantial raise in pensions at age 60. We call for 14 employer-paid sick days, annually. We support a Guaranteed Annual Livable Income, not the subsistence income advocated by some, to provide everyone with a life of dignity.

We call for progressive tax reform based on ability to pay, which would shift the tax burden onto the corporations, and off the backs of the working class.

We call for pay and employment equity for women, racialized peoples, and 2S/LGBTiQ people, enactment and enforcement of anti-hate laws, and laws against discrimination in employment and housing.

Labour, democratic, civil, social and equality rights must be strengthened, to protect national rights of Quebec, Acadians, francophone minorities, and Indigenous Peoples who must be guaranteed free, prior and informed consent on development, as well as just settlement of land claims, including protection of inherent rights.

A People’s Recovery also means deep cuts to military spending, and a foreign policy of peace, disarmament, and withdrawal from NATO and NORAD.

It means action on climate change, for climate justice.

The Communist Party of Canada is a small party, on the verge of celebrating its 100 years of existence, and struggle. Our history is the history of working class struggles in Canada and internationally. It is a history of which we are very proud, and which we draw on continuously.

We are small, but we are growing, Our Party has not changed its fundamental views and orientation, but the world has changed, and the working class has also changed its view of capitalism – and socialism. A survey conducted in Canada last year showed that a majority of those surveyed had a positive view of socialism. Following the global economic crisis and its consequences, and the catastrophic developments in the US with the Trump administration, the pandemic, this is a view that can only grow larger.

As the pandemic permits, our struggles on the ground among the people will increase. We Communists must be in the thick of working class struggles. We will carry through our responsibilities to the working class and working people across Canada and internationally, faithfully and diligently.

Our time is coming.