Last week, it was announced that for the first time in years, voters in Quebec will have a chance to vote for a party not tied to big business.
The Rassemblement pour un alternative politique (RAP) decided at a weekend conference that it will become a political party by next fall.
Jacqueline Hakpazo, the group's spokeswoman, said the move is motivated by a "general disgust for the ruling government parties, equally with the Parti Québécois and the Liberal Party, without even mentioning the ADQ [Action démocratique du Québec]. There is really a need for a left-wing party in Quebec today."
RAP originated in a split from the PQ, led by left-wingers and union members who were appalled at the Tory policies being carried out by Bouchard.
Their decision to openly challenge the PQ should be welcomed by all in the labour movement.
Since the 1970s, the trade unions in Quebec have had their hands tied by supporting the PQ, a nationalist split from the Liberals.
Like the Liberals, the PQ is fundamentally a party of big business.
For workers to be able to support a party that is not tied to business, and has some base in the workers' movement, is a real step forward.
Workers' action is the key
There are some who will be turning to the RAP for the wrong reasons.
The labour movement in Quebec, as we report on page 10 of this issue, has just taken a big step backward.
There were plans for general strikes this fall by the three big public sector unions.
But by a narrow margin, workers voted not to participate in strike action.
There are many who will now despair at seeing gains made through mass workers' action, and will put their hopes in voting for the RAP at election time.
While RAP should be supported at election time, we know from bitter experience with the NDP, that elections do not bring us any gains.
In English Canada we have had NDP governments in BC, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario in the 1990s. In office, they are a prisoner of a conservative state machine, and have easily been made to implement anti-worker policies.
We can only win by basing our politics on mass workers' action.
The general strike did not fail because of passivity in the rank and file, as some claim.
It failed because of demoralization which set in when union leaders sold out the nurses strike.
The nurses' illegal strike had massive support.
But the nurses' union leaders refused to keep the picket lines up, even though nothing had been won.
And the Common Front union leaders did absolutely nothing to build solidarity.
Not surprisingly, thousands of public sector workers saw the nurses' debacle, and stepped back from strike action, fearing the same would happen to them.
The lesson is not that workers won't fight, but that the workers' movement needs a new, fighting leadership. We need a political party that breaks from the bosses, as RAP has done, but that looks not to elections, but to rebuilding workers' fighting capacity on the ground.
We can build English-French solidarity
In Quebec and English Canada, there is a third element required to rebuild the workers' movement -- solidarity between English speaking and French speaking workers.
One of the reasons Quebec workers have been imprisoned so long in the hold of the PQ, is because of the appalling record of the NDP in English Canada when it comes to building solidarity with Quebec's struggle against national oppression.
There is a divide between English and French workers, stoked by the far right and pandered to by the terrible policies of the NDP.
But we saw last week that this division can be smashed to pieces when workers' interests are brought to the fore.
On Thursday of the week-long CUPE National Convention, delegates heard from rank and file members of CUPE 302. These workers have been on strike since October 1, 1998 in the city of Verdun in Montreal. The Verdun city council is determined to squeeze concessions out of the municipal workers.
The president of local 302, Maurice Rolland, addressed convention delegates in French explaining the viciousness of the employer, the fight on the picket line and the implications for other municipal workers.
After the presentation, during which Rolland himself squeezed back tears, a delegate went to the microphone calling on other delegates to show the strikers "what this union is all about."
He pledged more than a thousand dollars to the strikers. But suddenly the floodgates opened and hundreds of delegates began lining up at the microphones.
Small locals pledged money, other committed to raising more money at home, larger locals pledged larger amounts.
Aboriginal workers took up a collection and handed money over on the spot.
One delegate, after hearing about the hardship caused by the strike and how strikers had to explain to their children why there was no Christmas dinner last year and perhaps none for this year, reached into his pocket and pulled out a $50 bill to present to that same striker.
Some locals with very little money pledged their per diems.
The outpouring was incredible. Locals from Penticton, BC to St. John's, Newfoundland dug deep into their pockets.
Many delegates attempted to speak in the French language while delivering their pledge.
It took the better part of two hours to hear all the pledges coming forward from delegates throughout the country, and although the presentation was cutting into the lunch break, there was not even a suggestion of breaking for lunch.
The room was electric. The appetite for solidarity was palpable. Strikers and delegates alike were wiping tears from their eyes.
When the pledges finished, Rolland attempted to return the solidarity by speaking in English. One rank and file striker called the outpouring of financial support "Union Thanksgiving." In the end, over $150,000 was pledged, with a promise of more to come.
If we break from the bosses' parties, look to workers' struggle from below, and base ourselves on the politics of solidarity, we have a power that nothing can stop.
Those wishing to support the CUPE 302 Strike Fund can send cheques care of: 545 Crémazie Blvd. E., 12th Floor, Montreal, Quebec, H2M 2V1.