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Author Topic: B.C. Solidarity Caucus Speaks Out
robbie_dee
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 195

posted 02 August 2004 01:16 PM      Profile for robbie_dee     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
The Solidarity Caucus is a BC-based grassroots activist group whose intent on turning unions from atrophied old boys clubs into fighting organizations. This is their message.

It's time to start changing our unions into fighting organizations that can meet the escalating attacks that have been coming our way for many years now. Doing that will require more than voting out one set of leaders and voting in another. This text intends to kick off the necessary discussion about what has been wrong for too long and what some real alternatives are.

BC's labour movement has been crippled by a lack of vision, a lack of analysis, and bad internal and external politics. This was proved once again by the tragically unnecessary May 2 defeat of 43,000 courageous and defiant health workers along with tens of thousands of other workers who were poised (or already striking) to give them effective support IN ACTION. But it wasn't just a defeat. It was a sell-out by leaders committed to an inadequate and therefore failing strategy.

The stakes in this fight were merely the Medicare system, the public sector's right to strike, thousands of union jobs, and large-scale union-busting.

Oh yes, and looking beyond the immediate battle, there was also the continuing unimpeded ability of right-wing corporate and government attackers to further ravage health care, crown corporations, union rights, social services, public education, the elderly, children at risk, women, the poor, Native people, etc., etc., etc.

On May 3, most British Columbian workers awoke asking why the fight had been called off. How could we NOT stand and fight with such a clear-cut battle and such widespread and growing solidarity?

The how and why of this retreat and of many less dramatic failures to fight back in recent years are contained in the analysis, vision, and internal/external politics which have governed the leaderships and infrastructure of BC trade unions for decades. It runs like this:


Read the rest:A New Direction for B.C. Labour


From: Iron City | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
robbie_dee
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 195

posted 02 August 2004 01:18 PM      Profile for robbie_dee     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We are sending you a copy of the Fightback Solidarity Caucus Statement of Purpose (above).

This document calls for a profound transformation of the trade union movement in British Columbia. Its signers believe that unless we begin to reconstruct our unions as organizations that are democratic, that are accountable to their memberships, and that actually fight for the interests of working people, then we will continue to see betrayals like the May 2 sellout of the members of HEU.

If you find that you are in agreement with the vision set out in this text, we encourage you to add your name to it. Please contact us at [email protected] and let us know that you would like to sign the statement. Please include your union and local, the positions you hold (eg, steward, executive member, committees, etc.) and the city or town you live in.

You can also help by doing any or all of the following:

Distribute this statement -- send this out by email to all your friends and workmates, and to anyone else you know who you think might be interested in supporting it.

Put it up in your workplace -- post it on bulletin boards; hand it out to individual co-workers who might be sympathetic.

Post it in your union -- send it to your union's newspaper and web site, and to your local's newsletter. Circulate it at your local meeting. Forward it to other locals in your union and ask them to do the same.

Become a delegate to the Fed convention -- run for delegate to the November Fed convention as an open supporter of this statement.

Keep in touch -- send us your email address. We want to create a network where activists can pool information on what's going on in their workplaces, their unions and their communities, where we can discuss and debate strategy, where we can collectively prepare for the upcoming Fed convention, and where we can begin to lay the basis for an organized current fighting to democratize our unions and turn them into effective and militant organizations. Write to us at [email protected] .

We hope you will join with us in beginning the campaign to return the B.C. union movement to its roots. The stakes are enormous, and every hand is needed.

An injury to one is an injury to all,

Solidarity Caucus supporters

The 29 individuals whose names appear below are supporting the views contained in this statement of purpose in a personal capacity. Organizations and unions are listed for identification purposes only

Maryann Abbs—member, CEP 468; community activist, Vancouver

John Ames—executive officer, BCGEU component 5, local 503; Vancouver and District Labour Council delegate; member Vancouver GMB IWW, Vancouver

John Black—former president, Malaspina Faculty Association (CIEA), Malaspina College, Nanaimo

Jim Brown—member, Telecommunication Workers Union local 30, North Vancouver

Gretchen Dulmage—vice-chair, HEU/CUPE Childrens and Womens Hospital local 6010; VDLC delegate; member, VDLC executive, Vancouver

Claudio Ekdahl—executive member, BCGEU local 603; VDLC delegate; international solidarity and grassroots activist, Vancouver

Gordon Flett—union activist, Vancouver

Sandra Giesbrecht—shop steward and trustee, HEU Royal Jubilee Hospital local, Victoria

Ken Hiebert—member, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, local 500, Vancouver

Paul Houle—shop steward and executive member at large, BCGEU local 603, Vancouver

David Maidman—member, Ironworkers local 712, New Westminster

Andy Mathisen—member, IWA local 1-3567, New Westminster

Jack McCamy—2nd vice president, CEP local 298, Kitimat

Gene McGuckin—editor, The Pulper, CEP local 1129, chair of bargaining committee, Vancouver

Michele Mishler—member, HEU, Richmond Hospital

Will Offley—B.C. Nurses Union member and activist, Vancouver

Jeff Pazik—member, IWA local 1-3567; president, Woodworkers for a Fair Forestry Policy Society, Richmond

Darrell Pinkney—HEU chairperson and representative, HEU Equity Standing Committee, Nanaimo

Bob Peacock—chairperson, HEU Broadway Pentecostal Lodge local; member of HEU Provincial bargaining committee; former member of provincial executive, Vancouver

Susan Roth—member, IWA Canada local 1-85; elected official and chairperson, Beaver Creek Improvement District, a local public corporation, Port Alberni

Susanne Shaw—member, CEP local 514 and CUPE local 873, Port Alice

Sharyn Sigurdur—member, United Food and Commercial Workers Union; founding member, Members for Democracy (MfD), Mission

Bob Smith—editor, New Routes, CAW local 111, Vancouver

Gregg Steele—shop steward, HEU Royal Jubilee Hospital local; solidarity and grassroots activist, Victoria

Rick Tait—member, Teamsters local 155, Vancouver

Dan Tkachuk—member CUPE 382, Greater Victoria School Board

John Tregilges—former chairperson, BCGEU local 503, Vancouver

Bob Wilson—member and trustee, CEP local 468; delegate to Victoria Labour Council

John Yano—member, HEU, St. Vincent's Hospital local, Vancouver

[email protected]



From: Iron City | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged

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