The B.C. NDP: Selling Out The Teachers

No one can say he was rewarded for his work, can they? Paul Martin chose him as Liberal candidate in Vancouver with large fanfare. Dosanjh was made a cabinet minister in Martin’s government immediately. That wasn’t payoff. That was recognition for above- average ability. Of course. Third. Carole James took the leadership of the NDP in B.C. with banal statements about being concerned with public policy, not with confrontation, and murmured (incredibly) about wanting to work with the Campbell government to make good legislation. But let us begin at the beginning. Dave Barrett, Mike Harcourt, Glen Clark, and Joy MacPhail, just for instance, were passionately concerned with public policy, good law, and effective legislation. To suggest anything else is to slander them. They knew, however, that in B.C. with a corrupt press, highly questionable courts, and far right – dirty – politicians, confrontation is often necessary. Proof that they were concerned with excellent legislation is screamed into Carole James’ ear by the simple facts that the Gordon Campbell reactionaries, got power, tore NDP legislation to shreds – even violating solemn contracts, sold out low-pay workers, hospital employees, and seniors and ravaged standards in care places wherever the defenceless could make no resistance. The Gordon Campbell reactionaries refused to grant the 2 person NDP Opposition formal status in order to rob it of necessary Opposition support funds. The Gordon Campbell reactionaries tried to sell off B.C. Hydro and B.C. Ferries – the latter, in its new, not-real form becoming more and more accident-prone and unreliable under its fast-appointed, highly-paid U.S. citizen president who had hardly ridden on a ferry before Gordon Campbell handed B.C. Ferry Corporation to him to dismantle, destroy, and auction off as fast as he could. The Gordon Campbell government dirty-sold – lying all the way – potential long-term revenue gatherer for the Province, B.C. Rail. If B.C. had an RCMP that was something else than deeply suspect, a B.C. Supreme Court that was of unchallengeable integrity, and a press that was not almost wholly corrupt, complete information about the B.C. Rail debacle, entangled with phony bulk Liberal Party Membership buying, and allegations of drug money used in that activity, and more – would all have been before the B.C. population before the last election. Instead, somehow, information about the criminal and other activities used to sell B.C. Rail is still not fully before the B.C. public. I believe that – by intention or by foolish incompetence – Carole James needlessly lost the 2005 election. All the dirty, illegal, dishonest things the Campbell Liberals have done (only a few mentioned above) were there to focus on, responsibly; to take before the voters, boldly and fairly; to insist repeatedly upon “the Liberal record” – do these things, win the election. Carole James avoided almost all the central issues of the election – AS A PLANNED STRATEGY. Fourth. Has Carole James shown courageous understanding of and clear support for the B.C. teachers? She has not. The speech of my MLA on the issue – he is Joy MacPhail’s replacement – was weak and embarrassing. Doubtless the kind of speech Carole James wants to hear. The role of the NDP on this issue was to fight against the Liberal education guillotine bill. It was to fight it boldly, courageously, imaginatively, loudly, and unendingly – with perfect decorum and decency. It was to filibuster with every Public Relations trick available. It was to prevent passage of the Bill to the last possible minute. In her attitude to Opposition, Carole James was not ordering (as we are asked to believe by the CanWest Monopoly Press) “decent behaviour”. She was ordering surrender to a dirty political group bent on robbing democratic freedoms and human rights from British Columbians. To Oppose, as I have suggested, would be to involve what Carole James calls “confrontational actions.” Exactly. Carole James could have ordered complete civility from her caucus even as she stationed collapsible cots outside the Chamber door so that the NDP Opposition could filibuster until the Campbell Liberals were forced to close the legislature down to pass their hateful legislation. The NDP could have been firm, hard-hitting, and unshakeable. Carole James is asking the British Columbia public to confuse Opposition with Surrender. When a group of parliamentary thugs is hijacking the democratic process to force injustice upon a large segment of the population, confrontational action is absolutely necessary to protect democratic principles and the people under attack. But concerted resistance by the NDP has another, equally important function: to communicate with the people of B.C. Who is best able to tell the B.C. population what the Gordon Campbell government is trying to do? The NDP Opposition, of course. That Oppositon faces a press and media monopoly in B.C. that backs the Gordon Campbell government with an on-going breach of journalistic ethics. The NDP has to fight for fair coverage. It is only fairly covered by the CanWest Reactionary Press Monopoly when that Monopoly is forced to do fair reporting. For those reasons – to reach the B.C. population, to inform it, and to get past the CanWest journalistic monopoly that consistently manipulates news – the NDP had to hold up the education bill to the very last moment. Journalistic reporting would have had to go on about an endlessly sitting legislature. The reasons would have had to be repeated over and over. The NDP Opposition would thereby give the teachers support and give them time before the Campbell government, in league with the fake Labour Relations Board and the Big-Capitalist supporting B.C. Supreme Court, uses every despotic instrument with which to beat the injured teachers. What did Carole James do? She waved a jelly-like finger at Gordon Campbell and said: “It’s time for the premier to change his attitude….” Can anyone believe she really said that? To a man who has lied, broken contracts, repeatedly sold out the Province, been among the people involved in the criminal activity to sell B.C. Rail, and then some? Then Carole James did just what the Liberals wanted her to do. She ended the filibuster early. The Campbell Liberals came into power in 2001 and broke the existing contract with the teachers. Then they named teaching an “essential service,” a non-strike service, though Campbell pretends the teachers can still strike. In 2002 the Campbell Liberals refused to let the teachers negotiate class size, class composition, or specialty teachers needed, and forced a contract on the teachers to that effect, hitting them, always, financially. In June 2004 a new bargaining period began in which the Campbell Liberals didn’t have the slightest intention of bargaining. In October of 2005, after 16 months of non-bargaining, the Campbell Liberals rammed though a piece of legislation to manacle teachers to an imposed settlement, continuing a condition of work that is insupportable. “It’s time,” said Carole James, “for the premier to change his attitude…” Carole James becomes less and less credible with every word she utters. It is not enough to say she is new to the job. Her pattern is absolutely consistent – surrender to the Campbell Liberals. If she is headed for a position beside Ujjal Dosanjh in the federal Liberal cabinet, the NDP caucus had better figure that out very quickly and get a new leader. Now. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 12, 2005]