Socialists Say “Vote Quebec Solidaire” on March 26

by Barry Weisleder / March 2007

The following statement was issued by Socialist Action/Ligue pour l'Action Socialiste in Montreal on February 25:

Quebec voters will go to the polls on March 26, 2007. The Liberal provincial government of Jean Charest believes that hostility to its pro-business policies has waned. It has indicated its intention, if re-elected, of stepping up the pace of neo-liberal attacks. This means, in education, increasing university tuition, and in health care, further de-regulation following the green light already given to for-profit medicine. Victory for Charest's Liberals would also tend to reinforce Stephen Harper's right wing Conservative federal minority government in Ottawa, which lately has been trying to buy support in Quebec with a flurry of spending announcements and with the empty gesture of an adopted House of Commons resolution 'recognizing' that "Quebec is a nation within Canada".

The opposition Parti Quebecois has seen its support eroding, attributed in the media to the personal quirks of its leader, Andr� Boisclair. In reality, the PQ's problem is that the more it distances itself from sovereignity and embraces the same right-wing agenda as its Liberal rivals, the more it alienates its base of support without at the same time securing any endorsation from Quebec capitalists. Meanwhile, the joker in the neo-liberal deck, Mario Dumont and his Action Democratique du Quebec, have been trying to fan the flames of racist antipathy to immigrants in an attempt to boost that party's fortunes.

Working people in Quebec have no good reason to support any of the capitalist parties. Their collective message is more of the same: further degradation of public services, attacks on union rights, increasing debt loads for the average family, and low wage employment. In our view, efforts to reform the Parti Quebecois from within, as advocated by the PQ ginger group, SPQ Libre, are counter-productive. The allegiance of Quebec's unions to the bourgeois nationalist PQ stands as a major obstacle to the emergence of independent working class political action. Moreover, the PQ grows increasingly reluctant to engage in any form of struggle, even a narrow parliamentary referendum-based strategy, to win Quebec independence.

What of the smaller opposition parties, the Parti Vert du Quebec and Quebec Solidaire?

The great apprehension about climate change undoubtedly favours the Greens in this election. But in common with their counterparts elsewhere, the Quebec Greens lack a working class perspective. They advocate punitive taxes directed at the ordinary consumer and reinforce the false hope that environmental crisis can be averted by trusting in the capitalist market.

Quebec Solidaire grew from the fusion of several forces on the left determined to break with the neo-liberal concensus gripping Quebec politics. There is majority sentiment within QS for Quebec independence. That in itself is a considerable achievement, but it will remain tenous unless QS can forge links with the unions and consolidate a base among ordinary working people.

We believe that socialists should work to build QS, including but not limited to its electoral efforts, while fighting for union affiliation, a working class agenda, and socialist policies that can take the party forward. We call for the biggest possible vote for QS candidates in this election as a way of deepening the dynamic toward working class political independence in Quebec.