"National Unity" or Class Struggle?

The effects of the trade war with the U.S. are taking their toll as jobless numbers rise and economic uncertainty weighs heavy. It was always going to be the working class that paid the price of the tariffs through layoffs and inflation. Now Carney claims his newly released industrial strategy will “transform” Canada’s economy into a force that can withstand the trade shocks of the Trump administration. Don’t be fooled!

Just as with the disastrous counter-tariff policies, the government’s latest economic plans will prove ruinous for workers and the oppressed. Carney’s strategy is to borrow big and pay later. That means more inflation now and screwing over the generations to come, while doing nothing to improve economic growth. The Canadian economy is rotting and living standards are plummeting as part of the decline of the U.S.-led world order, in which Canada plays the role of a junior partner to Washington. Carney’s promises of jobs through economic diversification amount to plugging a hole on a sinking ship.

The Liberals push the lie that to stand up to Trump, workers must ally with the government and Canadian bosses. The current union leaders completely support this “national unity” approach. Yet the government has launched a blizzard of attacks on labour as well as oppressed minorities. Tens of thousands of federal jobs are to be axed to pay for vastly higher military spending. The borders have been tightened while refugee claimants face severe new restrictions. CSIS and the cops are getting sweeping new powers. The feds and provinces are tearing up labour, safety and environmental regulations and bulldozing Indigenous rights in the name of infrastructure development. And it took the government only a few hours to invoke Section 107 against the Air Canada flight attendants’ strike.

These attacks reflect the priorities of the Liberals: protect big business and the oligopolies while safeguarding the privileged relationship with U.S. imperialism. Carney’s policies, including the One Canadian Economy Act (Bill C-5), may create some jobs and infrastructure, and may lead to somewhat increased trade beyond the U.S. But they won’t fundamentally change Canada’s dependence on the U.S. or address the underlying problems of the economy.

The economy was hollowed out by the previous period of globalization, where the free-trade boon for the ruling class led to the gutting of manufacturing, declining productivity and plummeting living standards. And now that Trump has taken a hammer to the liberal world order in his attempt to shore up the declining American empire, Canada is even more reliant on being a pool of cheap resources. At the same time, deep integration with the U.S. means retooling the economy to align with the interests of U.S. imperialism.

Carney has been making all kinds of concessions to Trump in the hope of getting a deal and ending the tariffs that have devastated the auto, steel and aluminum industries. For instance, to support Trump’s drive against China, the Liberal government has doubled down on the tariffs against Chinese EVs at the expense of the canola industry being hit with counter-tariffs. To prevent the 200,000 jobs linked to canola from going under, he is “investing” hundreds of millions of dollars of borrowed money. This is the same bankrupt strategy of the Trudeau years, where huge sums of money were printed to keep the economy afloat, leading to a cost-of-living crisis. This is yet another proof that the ruling class has no solution for the fundamental problems of the economy and the decaying world order.

Labour Leaders’ Bankruptcy Fuels Right-Wing Reaction

The union leaders claim to be shocked at the depth of Carney’s attacks, but their only answer is to beg him to return to a Team Canada approach. Claiming that workers “want the government to succeed against Trump and his attacks on Canada,” the CLC bureaucrats keep repeating the same mantra: “we’re ready to work with the government.” As workers get crushed even further and the labour leaders continue to plead for unity with Carney, discontent will have nowhere to go but Poilievre—who already claims the Tories are a “workers party.” While this is absurd, it is simply a fact that a large section of the working class has shifted to support the Tories in reaction to the empty liberal “wokism” that accompanied the economic devastation of the Trudeau years. They have also turned away from the NDP, whose years-long support to Trudeau led to their worst-ever election result, as workers in industrial areas like southwestern Ontario opted for the Tories.

Poilievre has no better solutions for the Canadian economy. In fact, Carney is implementing much of what Poilievre would do. The Tories voted for the Liberals’ Bill C-5, with only shades of difference about opposing cronyism. Where they differ is on how to pay for it. To borrow less, Poilievre would impose even steeper cuts and austerity akin to what Trump is doing. And in the name of fighting for the interests of young workers, Poilievre is pushing to axe the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. This gives the illusion of trying to fix the economy that the Liberals broke, while setting up foreign workers to be the scapegoats. With this, Poilievre is both tapping into discontent about the economy and stoking anti-immigrant reaction.

The Liberals themselves have been shedding their “progressive” pretenses and abandoning the groups they claimed to champion, like immigrants and Indigenous peoples. This reversal from previous positions is a response to the collapse of the liberal status quo; as the economic foundations of globalization have eroded, “human rights” policies have become too costly for the ruling class. There is no way for the rulers to satisfy the needs of all Canadians, so they screw over one sector or another.

There is a burning need for reindustrialization, rebuilding infrastructure, shoring up social programs, constructing affordable housing and so on. But it will take struggle against the Liberal government by the working class to get conditions that meet their needs. The current labour leaders won’t mobilize to do this because, in one way or another, they support the government’s “nation-building” plans. Not only are they paralyzing struggle by lining up behind the ruling class, they are also paving the way for right-wing reaction.

The national unity pushed by the union leaders is in fact creating divisions among the working class and oppressed, weakening the unions and undermining labour’s power. It is crucial for the left to offer an alternative strategy based on joint class struggle against the Liberals. This means showing at every step that all workers have a direct interest in defending oppressed groups, since the brutal oppression of one section of society is always used as a battering ram against the conditions of others. And it means that to allow oppressed groups to face the reactionary offensive alone only undermines the fighting capacity of the whole working class.

Fight for Jobs and Indigenous Rights!

The poisonous effects of the capitalists’ “divide and rule” schemes can be seen clearly in the reaction to Carney’s Bill C-5 and Ontario premier Ford’s parallel Bill 5. This “infrastructure” legislation aims to make resources in areas like Northern Ontario’s mineral-rich Ring of Fire available for U.S. imperialism, allowing for “special economic zones” where Indigenous rights will be trampled underfoot along with labour, safety and other regulations.

First Nations leaders have rightly denounced the laws as an assault on their treaty and other rights. In contrast, labour organizations like the CBTU, representing 600,000 construction workers, support the legislation in the name of creating jobs and the “national interest.” Other labour groups oppose the laws but have no means to address the very real concerns about jobs. The Ontario Federation of Labour states that Bill 5 “violates First Nations sovereignty, guts workers’ rights, and greenlights corporate overreach” (ofl.ca, 6 June). True enough. But the OFL’s liberal appeal for governments to “honour reconciliation” with Indigenous peoples does nothing to add jobs nor advance social conditions for anyone.

Both the CBTU and OFL positions lead to defeat because they don’t challenge the ruling-class framework that sows divisions among workers and minorities: native-born vs. immigrant, labour vs. First Nations, English Canada and Indigenous peoples vs. Quebec, old vs. young, etc. The starting point for any successful struggle must be to emphasize the common interests of the oppressed against the big-business parasites. From the impoverished Indigenous communities to the big cities there is a massive need to build homes, infrastructure, public works, etc. But the biggest obstacles to this—and to the hundreds of thousands of construction and other jobs that would come with it—are the big contractors and real-estate speculators, for whom the profit motive drives all investment decisions. A serious fight for decent housing and services for everyone requires taking on these parasites and their government backers.

The OFL’s appeal to the Liberals for “reconciliation” is also a dead end for Indigenous peoples. Indigenous dispossession and oppression, rooted in the history of British colonialism, is maintained by the Canadian state to this day. The Attawapiskat and Neskantaga First Nations in Northern Ontario, whose lands are part of the Ring of Fire, have not had potable water for 30 years, despite promise after promise from Liberal and Tory governments. The nearby Victor Diamond Mine generated huge profits for the DeBeers mining company before its closure in 2019—and pumped contaminated water from the open pit into the water system, causing dangerously elevated mercury levels.

The Liberals always try to cover up their crimes with fine words about justice. But “reconciliation” with the Canadian state and the British Crown will not bring Indigenous liberation. The fight for Indigenous rights, including whatever treaty rights that can be wrested from the government, requires a confrontation with the ruling class. The union leaders’ feel-good tokenism and crawling before Carney are obstacles to united class struggle, without which workers and the oppressed are left to squabble over the ever-diminishing crumbs that fall from the bosses’ table.

The labour movement must defend treaty rights for First Nations peoples, along with sovereignty/full regional autonomy where there is a land base. It must oppose all forms of discrimination and assimilation attempts while fighting for jobs and massive public works projects under union control. These struggles go hand in hand, but they require a new leadership that mobilizes for class struggle against the government, not “reconciliation” or “multiculturalism” with the ruling class!

Resisting Trump Means Resisting Team Canada

The profit-gouging bosses are not going to just hand over the things we all desperately need. Neither will Liberal, Tory or NDP governments. They can’t be made to be allies in the struggle against unemployment and economic crises, nor for defending the oppressed, Indigenous peoples, immigrants, women, LGBTQ+ and more. Only class struggle, against both Trump and the Canadian capitalists, can strengthen the unity of all working people and improve the conditions for everyone.

There will be more attacks as the U.S.-led world order breaks down, dragging Canadian capitalism in its wake. And unless the current collaborationist labour leadership is challenged and replaced, there will more defeats. Forging a class-struggle alternative to these labour traitors is the central task facing the left today.