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Barry Weisleder / Socialist Action tion. As you know, Canadian Forces are in Afghanistan, and Canadian police are part of the foreign occupation in Haiti. It also means billions of dollars in public bailout money for domestic firms in trouble, until those firms decide to move abroad.

Canada and the United States have experienced a cer­ tain de-industrialization. This is happening to steel­ works and diesel engine plants in southern Ontario. In the process, workers lose their jobs, lose their compa­ ny pensions, and face a retirement in poverty. Where some jobs are kept, new hires are paid less, with fewer benefits.

Meanwhile, the rich fund political parties that form governments that break strikes. Three major strikes were broken by government in the past year: at Cana­ da Post, at Air Canada, and at Canadian Pacific Railway. Sadly, the Canadian Labour Congress, and the leaders of the biggest unions, have failed to respond in a mean­ ingful way. A one-hour rally of 20,000 workers, here or there, is not enough when a general strike is sorely needed, just for starters. Our labour leaders negotiate concessions to capital, and then they advise us to wait three or four years to elect a New Democratic Party (NDP) government.

The NDP is a social democratic party organically linked to the unions in English Canada. It is consider­ ably to the right of SYRIZA. On May 2, 2011 the NDP became the Official Opposition, with 4.5 million votes, which was over 31 per cent of the total cast. The Con­ servatives won a majority of seats in Parliament, with only 39 per cent of the votes. The historic party of capitalist rule in Canada, the Liberal Party, fell to third place.

So, the political situation is polarizing. The hunger for change, for greater equality, for a cleaner, sustain­