OCTOBER 21, 1997 – The one-day general strike in Windsor was incredibly successful. Not since the Toronto shutdown in October 1996 and the Hamilton shutdown in February 1996, has there been such an impressive display of working class power in the province. But it was successful in spite of very little enthusiasm from top labour leaders. The number of buses mobilized to bring supporters in were numbered in dozens, not the hundreds which descended on Toronto and Hamilton.[1] And most significantly, at this writing, there are no further public plans for days of action, let alone a province-wide general strike.…
Comments closedAuthor: Paul Kellogg
I am a writer and teacher with a focus on political economy (international and Canadian), social movements (with a focus on labour) and 20th century political movements.
OCTOBER 8, 1997 – On October 17, Windsor Ontario will become the eighth Ontario city to be shut by a one-day general strike in the “Days of Action” campaign against the province’s Tories. If it is anything like the general strike in North Bay on September 26, it will again display the deep anger and willingness to fight in the Ontario workers’ movement. On Friday September 26 in North Bay, many workplaces were shut down by picket lines and an estimated 3,000 demonstrated at Memorial Gardens. On Saturday between 15,000 and 20,000, including 180 busloads of protesters, marched through the…
Comments closedNOVEMBER 27, 1996 – The numbers game has loomed large in the wake of the days of action in Toronto. Toronto cops came up with the ludicrous figure of 40,000 for the demonstration on October 26, a figure so unbelievable that they had to increase it to 75,000.[1] The Toronto Star contributed to the nonsense by having “experts” count heads of an aerial photograph of the demo at Queen’s Park. They arrived at a figure of 52,800 for the crowd size.[2] But the problem is that the crowd took hours to march to Queen’s Park. At any one time, only…
Comments closedCAW – ‘We’re occupying to save our jobs’ OCTOBER 16 – A six-hour occupation of the Fabrication plant by 150 striking members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), has stopped GM from trying to move equipment across the picket lines. After picket lines went up two weeks ago, management tried unsuccessfully to remove 75 dies from the Fabrication plant so it could keep using them to manufacture components. When striking members of CAW Local 222 refused to lift their lines so the machines could be moved, GM sought an injunction against the union. But after only a few hours of…
Comments closedOCTOBER 2, 1996 – The term ‘jobless recovery’ perfectly describes the state of the Canadian economy. There is statistical growth, but unemployment is stuck at obscene levels. But even if the current recovery is jobless, it does create better conditions for workers to wrench gains from both employers and the state than existed in the early 1990s. During the desperate slump of 1989-1992, every day brought news of factory closings and layoffs. The situation is different today. There are still layoffs. There is still high unemployment. But there are also plants putting on more shifts, hiring more workers. Chrysler announced,…
Comments closedJUNE 18, 1996 – June 24, thousands of workers from the Peterborough area will bring much of the area’s economy to a halt. Peterborough will be the fourth Ontario city in six months to be brought to a halt by a one-day general strike. Organizers expect most municipal services to be shut down. Early morning pickets will be thrown up to shut down the locks. Thousands of supporters will come in from cities in the province. It will be the largest protest ever seen in the area. And now we have an opportunity to move from city-wide actions to a…
Comments closedMAY 14, 1996 – One of the strongest poles inside the NDP is formed by the so-called “pink paper” unions. Leaders of 12 major unions – a grouping nick-named “pink paper” because of the colour of the paper on which they printed a statement at the 1993 OFL convention[1] – co-signed a document August 30 last year titled “Toward the renewal of social democracy in Canada.”[2] These unions include the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees International Union (HERE), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and the United Steelworkers of America (USWA).…
Comments closedAPRIL 1, 1996 – A planned Toronto fund-raising party for the five-week old Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) strike last Saturday, turned into a celebration. The 500 strikers and supporters who turned out at the Music Hall were there to celebrate the solidarity which had forced the Tories to back down. The tentative agreement, reached hours before, had been ratified by an overwhelming 95% of the OPSEU members who voted.[1] On the Monday, contingents of strikers formed up outside their workplaces, marching into work as a bloc with their heads held high. This was not the outcome the Tories…
Comments closedMARCH 4, 1996 –If day one of the Hamilton Days of Action was a smash success, day two, Saturday February 24, was awe-inspiring. Organizers anticipated an anti-Tory demonstration of between 50,000 and 70,000.[1] Either figure would have made it the largest ever anti-Harris demonstration in Ontario. Wayne Marston, president of the Hamilton and District Labour Council, wouldn’t predict a number, except to say that it would be “broader” than the events in London.[2] By the end of the day, somewhere between 100,000 and 120,000 had tramped through the mud and streets of an eerily quiet downtown Hamilton to vent their…
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A documentary from Mars
Published January 6, 1997 by Paul Kellogg
JANUARY 6, 1997 – Review – Mars Attacks, director Tim Burton This film is supposed to be a comedy. Maybe. I’m convinced it’s really a documentary in disguise. Let me make the case. The night I watched it, there were very few moments of laughter. Except when the Martians fried Congress. The audience loved that. And anyone who knows the politics of the current, Newt Gingrich congress in the U.S., couldn’t help but love it too. (There is a strong case to be made, in fact, that Newt hails from the Red Planet. But that’s another story). Mars Attacks seems at…