[R-G] Liberal-NDP coalition is no solution

[Anthony Fenton]

Liberal-NDP coalition is no solution
By Sebastian Lamb
| December 3, 2008
http://rabble.ca/news/liberal-ndp-coalition-no-solution

There is no question that Stephen Harper's Conservatives are fervently  
committed to serving big business. Their cuts and attempts to hold  
federal government workers to pay increases below inflation and  
suspend their right to strike prove this yet again. But the fact that  
the Conservatives are aggressively right-wing doesn't mean that a  
coalition of the right-wing Liberals and the NDP is any kind of  
progressive alternative.

The Liberals are one of the two historic parties of Bay Street. As  
Naomi Klein has put it, in the 1990s they "continued and deepened  
Mulroney's neo-liberal economic program." They did "exactly what  
Harper has just done, in terms of using an economic crisis for a neo- 
liberal about turn."

They implemented NAFTA and supported the FTAA - the deal that drew  
tens of thousands of global justice protestors to Quebec City in 2001.  
They also sent Canadian troops to take part in the occupation of  
Afghanistan and passed repressive "national security" legislation.

One reason for the Liberals' past success has been their skill at  
talking as if they actually care about working people, as if they  
weren't a party of big business. But that's what they are, and whether  
or not they're in a coalition with the NDP they will only govern in a  
way that's acceptable to most of the capitalist class.

The coalition's document, "A Policy Accord to Address the Present  
Economic Crisis," makes this clear: "This policy accord is built on a  
foundation of fiscal responsibility." "Fiscal responsibility" means  
keeping government spending within the limits that major capitalists  
are willing to tolerate.

Make no mistake: a Liberal-NDP government will be a government whose  
efforts to "manage the economy" during this worsening global economic  
crisis will be mainly geared to helping corporations, not employed and  
unemployed workers.

In a coalition government with the Liberals, the NDP will be forced to  
support unacceptable measures. A Liberal-NDP coalition will also  
strengthen the most conservative elements in the NDP, those who want  
the NDP to embrace neoliberalism more enthusiastically than it has  
already and to pay even less attention to labour and community  
activists. Such a coalition will weaken the little that remains in the  
NDP of past efforts by activists in Canada to build a political party  
independent of Bay Street.

There is also a real danger that many people could end up tolerating  
government policies that hurt working people because they come from a  
Liberal-NDP government rather than from the more blatantly pro- 
business Tories. We see this in the US, where many people swallow  
reactionary measures brought in by Democrats that they would reject if  
implemented by Republicans.

What should we do?

Relying on a Liberal-NDP government to deliver what people need is a  
recipe for disappointment. If a coalition government is formed (or if  
it isn't), everyone who believes that people shouldn't suffer because  
of a crisis we didn't create needs to mobilize. Now is the time to get  
organizing in unions, community groups and on campuses. Now is the  
time to start planning forums where people can come together and  
discuss campaigns that put demands on the federal government.

We should build campaigns to demand genuine reforms such as a full- 
scale pro-worker overhaul of EI, the construction of non-profit  
housing and better public transit systems, the strengthening of public  
pensions, tough regulations to slash greenhouse gas emissions, status  
for all, and the nationalization of the banks. Vigorous efforts are  
needed to oppose every effort to scapegoat unions or immigrants for  
the crisis, and to call for the immediate withdrawal of Canadian  
troops from Afghanistan.

In addition to such campaigns, there is also an opportunity for  
popular education about capitalism. The economic crisis has dealt a  
huge blow to confidence in the system. Many people are open to  
discussing the crisis, capitalism and alternatives. Supporters of  
radical social change shouldn't miss this opportunity.

Sebastian Lamb is an editor of New Socialist, where this article first  
appeared.