CAW, CEP, and the NDP — Which direction for the new mega-union?

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SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 2012 9 The approaching merger between the Canadian Autoworkers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paper­ workers (CEP) will create the largest private sector union in Canada, with over 300,000 members employed in 22 sec­ tors of the economy. It could profoundly affect the political direction of both the labour movement and Canada.

Thus, the question is posed: what will be the political direction of the new union? In the CAW, the silence on this is­ sue is deafening.

The only thing known for certain is that the question will be answered by the del­ egates to the founding convention of the new union expected next summer. But there are a number of related unknowns. Will the delegates be presented with a policy paper, formulated by staff repre­ sentatives, which sets out the political di­ rection of the new mega-union, and then be expected to rubber stamp it? Or will there be a genuinely democratic, wideopen debate where different political po­ sitions will be presented and a choice be made? Officials are not giving members a clue.

From an historical perspective, the si­ lence surrounding the question of politi­ cal direction and how it will be answered comes as no surprise. The silence is symptomatic of the lack of democracy in the CAW, particularly at the national level, and of the awkwardness for both unions approaching the merger. This is precisely because the current political directions of the CAW and the CEP are at odds, particularly with regard to the New Democratic Party (NDP). They are like oil and water. One position will prevail. The other will be discarded—likely to disap­ pear into an Orwellian memory hole.

For the past two decades the CEP has been affiliated to the NDP. The CEP ac­ tively participated in the life of the NDP, including in the recent contest to elect a federal leader. It supported the unsuc­ cessful leadership bid of Brian Topp, re­ vealing that, while it did not support the Tony Blair-like Thomas Mulcair, it is not inclined to shift the political direction of the NDP to the left.

The CEP’s loyalty to the NDP and its leadership has been unequivocal. This was most vividly displayed in Ontario in the mid-1990s. Back then, the CEP was one of the “Pink Paper” unions in the Ontario Federation of Labour that objec­ tively sided with Ontario NDP Premier Bob Rae’s government during the fight against Rae’s anti-union Social Contract.

In stark contrast to the CEP, the CAW has been politically inconsistent towards the NDP. At the time of the fight against the Rae government’s Social Contract, waged principally by Ontario’s public sector unions, the CAW commendably positioned itself to the left of the Ontario NDP by strongly supporting the pub­ lic sector unions. But that positioning proved to be short lived.

As the 1990s drew to a close, the CAW made a sharp turn to the right. It em­ braced “strategic voting” and warmed up to the federal Liberal Party, and subse­ quently to Ontario Liberal Premier Dal­ ton McGuinty. This orientation towards the Liberals has continued to this day, ef­ fectively making a mockery of the CAW’s past criticism of the NDP from the left.

Indeed, CAW National President Ken Lewenza has gone so far as to openly campaign alongside McGuinty in the last Ontario provincial election, and respond­ ed to McGuinty’s decision to step down as Premier and Ontario Liberal leader by praising McGuinty’s government as one which, Lewenza claimed, improved the lives of many Ontarians. Such praise swiftly followed the McGuinty govern­ ment’s brutal assault on public sector unions and its austerity measures which are clearly worse than those imposed by the Ontario NDP government of Bob Rae. It is noteworthy that in the course of this evolution of the CAW’s politics, the union terminated its affiliation with the NDP.

But now, on the eve of union merger, the CAW will likely find itself affiliated with the NDP once again. Developments in the merger process point in that direction. The CEP appears to be intent on main­ taining affiliation to the NDP. That was vividly demonstrated by the enthusiastic reception for Federal NDP leader Thomas Mulcair at the CEP convention in Quebec City in October. CEP leaders and activists showed they want nothing like the kind of relationship the CAW had with the Lib­ erals in recent years.

On the other hand, no one in the CAW appears to be working to maintain its defacto relationship with the Liberal Party and the policy of “strategic voting” in elections. This means that CAW lead­ ers will be the ones who drop their poli­ tics down the memory hole and become born-again NDP supporters.

This scenario poses additional ques­ tions. If the new union does affiliate with the NDP, what will be the nature of the re­ lationship? Will the new union continue the political legacy of the CEP -- uncritical and unconditional support for the NDP leadership and its policies, making little if any effort to push the NDP to the left? And if so, does this also mean that the new union will revive the approach of the CAW within the NDP prior to the crisis in their relationship prompted by the Social Contract? That approach was essentially to accept the direction set by the NDP leadership and make little if any effort to push the NDP to the left, and even to help the NDP leadership marginalize those who would turn the NDP to the left.

These options pose real challenges to leftists in both the CAW and the CEP. Faced with the growing prospect of a new mega-union affiliated to the NDP, it is imperative that activists not block af­ filiation with the NDP, because NDP affili­ ation would bury the CAW’s embrace of the Liberal Party. For the largest private sector union in the country to ditch the Liberals would be a very significant step forward for the workers’ movement as a whole.

Two equally imperative tasks should be undertaken. One is to initiate a no-holdsbarred debate about past and present po­ litical practices of the CAW and CEP, and the future political engagement of the new union.

The other task is to wage a political struggle within the new union. This must involve a rejection of the CEP’s typically uncritical support for the NDP establish­ ment, and fearlessly taking the NDP lead­ ership to task each and every time it fails to support the interests of workers, and presenting political alternatives at every opportunity.

In short it is imperative to rally opinion in both unions in favour of a decisive turn to the left, in favour of struggle against capitalist austerity, and for the funda­ mental transformation of society. n

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Andres Kudacki / AP (Left) July 13 rally in Madrid protests cutback measures of Spanish government.

cash reserves in the world—some $100 billion— and plans to keep the great majority of it abroad until the U.S. Congress “decides” to change U.S. tax laws to allow Apple to repatriate its blood money under conditions as close as possible to tax free. Apple’s policy is matched by virtually every U.S. multi-national, not to mention the ever-declining number of powerful U.S. corporations that have absorbed their weaker competitors in the ongo­ ing process of the concentration of capital. All pay less and less taxes, if any, while the burden is ever more shifted to a working class less and less able to pay.

We live in a time of great contradictions. The hammer blows struck against workers every­ where have not yet been matched by an equiva­ lent working-class response. Working people increasingly understand from direct experience that they are the victims of a failing system. Yet they retain illusions, in decreasing but still signifi­ cant numbers, that the system will, as before, turn around eventually and restore much of what has been lost.

Serious and massive mobilizations have been on the order of the day in some nations, but they have been far from adequate to reverse the unre­ lenting capitalist austerity drive.

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