Black Like Me

When Senator Biden made his gaff about Barack Obama he hit on the unsettling subtext in the American psyche; was Barack Obama really 'black'.

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

Well of course he is. But what is really being said is that Obama is not the N word.

African Americans are openly asking whether the first-term Illinois senator is "black enough."

But in order to court the black vote he will need to win the Democratic nomination, he must be careful not to raise any flags among a white electorate, which so far feels unthreatened by him.

"When you hear about his background, you hear Hawaii, Kenya (where his father was born), or Kansas (his mother's home state). You don't hear Alabama," says Ronald Walters, president of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland. "It's not strange at all that blacks would view him with a little suspicion. When somebody presents themselves, you want to look them over and if they don't share your background you might withhold judgment."

Debra J. Dickerson, a black author and essayist, broke the "not black enough" debate into the open in salon.com, last month, arguing Obama would be the great black hope for president, except he isn't black.

She argues that "black" in U.S. culture means those descended from West African slaves.

Biden's choice of words clean, ( a slip of the tongue he probably meant to say clean cut) articulate, knowledgeable, mainstream etc. all could be referenced back to Americas popular culture of racism.

Obama is middle class he represents those class values regardless of race. Or because of it, since race politics in the United States has been dominated by the grievances of the ghetto.

The N word is the new iconography of pride of current hip-hop black gangsta rap culture which currently dominates the cultural self-image of blacks in the United States.

It is the same issue with Tiger Woods, who is Thai and Black. His blackness was questioned like Obama's is. But it wasn't really about his mixed race it was because he was light skinned he was not N enough. Until his father started making his presence seen.

You never saw his Thai mother of course, ostensibly because she was the little woman at home and not a golfer. You saw his father who was a golfer, but one who didn't make it in the white segregated golf world because he was 'black' an African-American, despite also being of mixed race.

Tigers dominance and race breakthrough in golf was his fathers goal and victory, and it was a victory for all black's whether grandchildren of slaves or newly arrived from the Caribbean. But his race was still used against him no matter how light his skin.

Like Tiger, Obama is also mixed race, so he is lighter skinned, and he was brought up in Hawaii and abroad. He is not N enough, for some American blacks. He has not suffered their ghetto life is the subtext of their comments.

Well neither has Rev. Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. But they speak for those folks, you see. That's their politics, the politics of the disposed, the politics of the ghetto. And the resentment of slavery deeply underlies that politics.

Like Quebec's Nationalism, the resentments run deep, and the old grievances of reparation underlie pre-Obama politics of blackness.

In reality Tiger and Obama are the beneficiaries of the Great Society, they are part of the rising black middle class that has benefited from affirmative action, equal rights, voting rights, civil rights.

They represent the new generation of middle class blacks seeking to assimilate into American culture. They are the post Colin Powell, Condi Rice generation, just as they are the post Jackson/Sharpton generation.

It was Oprah, the black multimillionaire media mogul and voice of the black middle class that pushed Obama to run. He speaks for her generation and class.For a different kind of blackness in America, one that leaves behind the grievances of the ghetto and looks towards integration into the American melting pot.

Tiger and Obama cannot say they fought to get where they are. But they can appreciate the fight that got them where they are. Hence Obama's announcement today from the hometown of Abraham Lincoln.

Republican Lincoln, emancipator of the slaves, in one fell swoop Obama takes out the Republicans, who no longer are the party of Lincoln, in Democrat country, felling the Dixiecrats and Tammany Hall Democrats, and uses the great iconography of the Great emancipator and the emancipation to launch his campaign.

Lincoln was not a conservative or a neo-con, he too was a an anti war activist and pro labour, a social democrat. This is often forgotten by the current crop of Republicans that refer to him as if their party is His party. It isn't.

And Obama can appeal to both Democrats and Republicans as he can independents with his message of a politics of hope. That is why the Democratic establishment is wary of him. As they are of his populist base and politics.

His campaign will coincide with the fortieth anniversary of Robert Kennedy's run for the presidency. His campaign is grassroots, being driven by a popular push to have him run just as Kennedy's was.

The younger Kennedy's presidential bid in 1968 was a wild, people-driven ride, and it is not surprising that reporters who cut their teeth on it now look back on that summer with awe.

On the surface, Obama's embryonic campaign has some qualities that Kennedy's had. He too has hesitated publicly before subjecting himself to the fray. He too attracts vast audiences, full of hope, because he promises the future not the past. He has an ease with the language that sets him apart. And, merely by joining the race, he is rewriting the odds.

The race echoes 1968 too. Then, as now, a failed war dominated an anguished national campaign. Then, as now, the war compelled candidates, not least Kennedy, to get off the fence and adapt to anti-war concerns. Back then, though, it was the Republicans who had the last laugh. The hopes of the Kennedy and Eugene McCarthy campaigns ended with the election of Richard Nixon.

As for his blackness, it has nothing to do with skin colour or race but more to do with how Democrat black politics has played out in the United States. No major black American candidate for the party's leadership has had such a broad base of public support.

To some it is disconcerting that he appeals to white voters, to women, to other ethnic minorities and yes to blacks.He appeals to the fictional self-identified American middle class and their myth of the American Dream. So did Robert Kennedy. The similarities are striking.

He truly is a black man running for President, as the cheering crowds in Kenya attested to. He is more African, than those who criticize him as an Uncle Tom.

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NOW Public AP

I belong to Now Public which originates from Vancouver, B.C. and is a source for the news media of 'citizen journalism' or as they call it crowd powered media. They have announced that they will be officially part of the AP wire service.

Which shows that contrary to the contrarians blogging does have an impact on the main stream media. It is being integrated into the mainstream media as news and opinion just as the MSM have added blogs to their own online services.

Another example proving Time Magazine was right in selecting YOU as the person of the year.


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Blogs




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Union Drive USA

This law will be the New Deal of the 21st century if it is passed.

Employee Free Choice Act Hearings Begin in Congress

But the right wing is mobilizing to oppose it.

"Under current law, an employer can already agree to collective bargaining with the union on behalf of his workers when a majority of them have signed union authorization cards. But if the employer wants to make sure that his workers weren't pressured into signing the cards, or if he wants to try to convince them that they will have more flexibility without a union or even that the union may end up destroying jobs, he can insist on an open campaign period followed by a secret ballot election.

The new bill, on the other hand, would force the employer to recognize the union solely on the basis of cards collected by union organizers, collected before the employer even has a chance to make his case to the employees".

Linda Chavez is president of Stop Union Political Abuse.

Linda Chavez is a former Bush appointed Secretary of Labor. What a friend the bosses have in Linda. And like a reformed smoker there is nothing worse than a former union porkchopper and labor fakir, that is someone who has been appointed a union bureaucrat and not elected by the members. Such was Chavez's role in the American Federation of Teachers. Now she attacks unions from her position of privilege. Once a labor fakir always a fake unionist.

If employers want to make their case to their workers they would have insured they had good wages, benefits and working conditions, a grievance procedure, profit sharing, etc. etc. But they won't until forced to.

The right wing pro boss lobby in the U.S. is ramped up attacking this new bill as anti democratic. Really. What about the Right To Work laws that the U.S. government passed that even after workers vote to join a union, those opposed don't have to they get to be free riders.

It was the right wing who brought in the Taft-Hartley Act which limited workers democratic rights and favored the bosses. Since then so called democratic votes have been rigged in favour of the boss. This is the act that Chavez and her ilk defend and claim is the very essence of American free choice and democracy.

That's not choice that's union busting.

Currently, workers do not have “free choice” when going through the NLRB petition and election process, Sweeney said. Instead, he said, the petition “triggers a bitter, divisive and often lengthy anti-union campaign designed to chill or destroy union support.”

He continued, “The NLRB process may be called an ‘election,’ but it is nothing like any democratic election held in any other part of our society.”

And the argument Chavez and her ilk make that workers are not joining unions because they have no interest in doing so, of course denies the reality that the bosses are anti-union period. They will use any means possible to stop unionization of their companies. And the laws in the U.S. favour the boss not the workers. Thus the so called democratic vote of all workers is rigged in favour of the boss not the unions. It allows the bosses time to organize an anti-union drive.

The idea behind EFCA is simple. Most any American can join a group -- a church group, the PTA at their child's school, or the National Rifle Association -- by signing a card and paying dues. With EFCA, if a majority at a workplace wants to build a union, they sign cards and the employer recognizes their wishes. Negotiations for a labor contract begin soon after.

Hey don't forget the NRA.

And let's look at how the bosses convince workers NOT to vote union.

The University of Illinois at Chicago's Center for Urban Economic Development released a study in December 2005 that found outrageous instances of employer resistance when workers decide to form a union: 30 percent of employers fire pro-union workers; 49 percent of employers threaten to close a worksite when workers try to unionize; 82 percent of employers hire union- busting consultants to fight organizing drives; and 91 percent of employers force employees to attend anti-union meetings one-on-one with supervisors.

But right now tens of millions of workers can't join unions even when they want to. The Bush administration, which is anti-union to its dying breath, controls federal agencies like the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees labor disputes between workers and their bosses.

This means that Bush-appointees don't settle disputes fairly, but automatically favor companies and typically refuse to protect workers' rights.

But even when Bush appointees aren't tipping the scale to hurt workers, the system of arbitration and labor relations always favors the companies. Even when a majority of workers at a shop or business sign union membership saying they want their union to represent them in collective bargaining, companies have the power to refer the dispute to an NLRB election. This referral gives them something like 6 weeks to change the workers' minds.

And they really go to town on the workers. Threats and harassment are all too common. Bosses will even stage mandatory meetings of workers where they feed the workers a lot of anti-union propaganda like claims that unions will either strike or force the shop to close.

Surveys indicate that more than half of all bosses threaten – illegally – to shut down the workplace and move out of the area or country if the workers decide to join a union. As many as 25 percent of workers who are trying to start a union at their workplace are either fired or threatened with being fired – illegally.

In Canada several provinces have this labour legislation in place, including binding mediation on a first contract. The result has been less first contract strikes and union busting.

In Alberta, the only 'Republican' lite province in Canada, we do not have this legislation we are far closer to the American style labour laws. The result has been long drawn out strikes not only for union recognition but for a first contract. If this law passes in the U.S. it will leave Alberta one of last bastions of right wing anti-labour laws in North America.



See

Unions

Labour

OBU

IWW


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Deforming The Senate

Reforming the Senate is a waste of time.

But Harper is pushing Senate reform , actually its more like deform, his proposal is that provinces hold Senate elections during Federal elections and then the PM would appoint the 'elected senators' thus avoiding a constitutional change, read constitutional amendment, is another Alberta innovation.

Quebec will never agree, Que. says no to Harper's senate plan even though Alberta has already done this, which leaves eight other provinces open to electoral reform through the back door. And it is being rejected not only by Quebec but Canada's biggest province, Ont. minister dismisses Harper's Senate-reform plan

And it is being rejected even by the other Western Canadians; If the Senate mattered

The Triple E Senate originated in Alberta, and was a key platform demand of the Reform Party it is Harpers sop to his Alberta base the only province that has held Senate elections. And even those elections have lacked popular support, garnering as many spoiled ballots and abstentions as votes.

And who wants Link Byfield in the Senate, he and his whole family are representatives not of Alberta but the loony right.

That Harper continues to attempt Senate Reform by edict, misses the whole point of the Reform Movement in the West. It was about reforming the parliamentary system, but under Preston Manning it only went part way with the concept of the Triple E Senate.

Like vestigial useless wisdom teeth the Senate is the home of non-representative democracy, the last vestige of aristocracy, modeled as it is on the House of Lords. It represents the early parliament of landowners. You need to own property and be over the age of thirty to sit in the Senate, or to even run for the Senate.

We don't need to reform the Senate we need to eliminate the Senate and replace it with Proportional Representation, and a greater say in Ottawa. Senate Reform itself was realpolitik of the Manning reformers, they didn't think they could radically change Canadian parliamentary politics perse so they used Senate Reform as their hobbyhorse.

The reality has changed since the eighties and nineties, and PR is now on the agenda for the NDP and Greens and even members of the Liberals, Conservatives and BQ.

So instead of Senate Reform let's abolish the Senate and talk about real parliamentary reform including PR, recognition of municipalities as political bodies that pre-date provinces thus entitled to federal recognition as provinces are, recognition of Aboriginal Self Government, and a new federalism based upon constituent assemblies.

Now that would be radical reform.

The true sociological doctrines of modern times can be summed up in a few words: Recognizing that, in the political and temporal order, the only legitimate authority is the one to which the majority of the nation has given its consent; that are wise and beneficial constitutions only those for which the governed have been consulted, and to which the majorities have given their free approbation; that all which is a human institution is destined to successive change; that the continuous perfectibility of man in society gives him the right and imposes him the duty to demand the improvements which are appropriate for new circumstances, for the new needs of the community in which he lives and evolves.

1867 Speech of Louis-Joseph Papineau at the Institut canadien

See

Senate Reform

Abolish the Senate 1

Democracy Is Messy

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Brain Scan For The Election

Scientists Claims They Can Read The Secret Intentions In The Brain

Let's scan Harper, Dion, Duceppe, and Layton to find out when the election will be.




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American Union Bosses

Here is an perfect example of why we need autonomous democratic Canadian unions.

Conductors at Canadian National Railway Co., the country's largest railroad, won't strike immediately after a midnight deadline even if labor talks today don't produce an agreement, a union official said. The United Transportation Union chapter, which represents Canadian National's 2,800 conductors and yard workers, needs to apply for strike authority from its Cleveland-based headquarters, Frank Wilner, a union spokesman, said in an interview today.

It's not the workers who decide to strike but the 'union bosses' ,as the Sun newspapers call 'em , in the U.S. This is the real meaning of International Unions operating in Canada, they are American business unions run by union bosses rather than by the members.

CN workers are represented by three different unions, which just goes to show that they need One Big Union of all the workers, run by the workers.

And here is another reason for Federal Anti-Scab legislation.

The company has said it will continue its freight operations across Canada during a strike, with management personnel performing the UTU-represented conductor and yard-service jobs.

This is just another CN disaster in the making, refusing to negotiate while raking in record profits and subjecting its workers to speed ups and accidents.

See

Independent Unions

This is Class War

Unions




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Harper Flashback

Another broken promise.

"When I'm prime minister I will not whip our cabinet,"Harper said

Well I guess that's technically true he whips the whole caucus, and has even used the triple whip ,which even the Liberals didn't use, leading to a cabinet minister stepping down.



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A Year Later Get Over It

Following up on my post about folks who need to get over it, the Liberals need to get over blaming the NDP for forcing the election last year. Martha Hall Findley brought up this tired old canard on Mike Duffy Live yesterday. Sigh. Enough already.

First the Liberals planned to commit political suicide in the spring of 2006 anyways. The winter election simply hastened their imminent demise. Really does any Liberal really believe that Canadians were not going to turf them out?

Second, Paul Martin ran a pathetic tired old campaign. He failed to fight the good fight, he knew it, the Liberals knew it, Canadians knew it and so he fell on his sword for the good of the Party. It was a campaign fraught with mistakes. But even if it had been picture perfect the Liberals were doomed anyways. Canadians were out to punish them for their moral turpitude.


Finally they had the opportunity to win the NDP's support. They could have simply agreed to look at the NDP proposals to strengthen the Canada Health Act to preclude privatization, an opportunity they were offered and rejected. Rejected arrogantly at the time. The same week they suffered the leak to Bay Street on Income Trusts. Which was the straw that broke the camels back.

In their arrogance the Liberals committed political suicide pushing aside the only party left propping them up with an attitude of a schoolyard nyah, nyah dare ya.

The Liberals lost the election just as they lost the NDP's support because they were arrogant. Pure and simple. So lets quit blaming the NDP when the blame falls squarely on Paul Martin, his handlers and his cabinet.



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13 Years Later ,Get Over It

The New Conservative Government of Canada likes to get up on its hind legs in parliament when questioned and bark out; You had 13 years and what did you do?

While not one to defend the Liberals let's remember who was Her Majesty's Official Opposition.Why the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives who are now Her Majesty's Minority Government.

It always takes two to tango in government.

When Martin cut transfer payments to the provinces, which the Harpocrites remind us created the mess we are in when it comes to Medicare, wait times, post-secondary education etc.

What did they want the Reform/Alliance/Conservatives want the government to do? Cut faster and deeper.

And when they talk about the Liberals doing nothing on the environment, what was it they said when they were in Opposition, why that they opposed signing Kyoto and said they would do everything in their power to scuttle it. Which they are now doing.

And what did they say about social program spending cuts made by the Liberals?
Why they didn't go far enough of course which is why they have cut those programs now that they are in power.

And lets not forget either that the reason they paid off Maher Arar was to avoid him including the Conservative Party in his suit, since they repeatedly called him a terrorist when they were Her Majesty's Official Opposition.

So can we drop the 13 years crap already, the Conservative were across the aisle and they wanted to do far worse things, like lead Canada into war. Oops they did that too.


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Green Baird

The only thing Green about the new Conservative Environment Minister John Baird is his tie. No carbon tax, international carbon trading, Baird says

See:

Baird

Environment

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Goose Gander Newfoundland

What's good for the goose is not good for the the gander in Newfoundland.

Noseworthy's annual audit showed that a legislative committee approved an increase in constituency allowances in May 2004, mere days after the house pushed through an austerity bill that froze civil service wages for years.




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Made In Alberta Green Plan

CTV's David Akin notes that what was to be an open meeting between Conservative Government of Canada Ministers in Alberta to talk about the environment with their counterpart in Alberta suddenly was canceled by the powers that be. Another leak from the good ship of state in Alberta.

And more secrecy from the PMO and the Alberta Government. Why?

Because they were discussing the Harpocrites real green plan, which isn't, intensity targets. Intensity targets are mirage, a game of three card Monte err Monty, where the environmental cost of production is estimated based on per item produced rather than total industrial output of Greenhouse gases.

It's what Alberta has been doing but which has not decreased GHG's in the province. Which is why the media was shut out of the meeting, because they would ask uncomfortable questions.

Alberta Environment Minister Rob Renner met behind closed doors with two senior federal ministers to plead for intensity-based targets in the oilsands, regulated exclusively by his provincial government.

"From that perspective, I think we're in line with the federal government," said Renner, following a series of hour-long meetings with Environment Minister John Baird and Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn.

"Obviously, this is a priority for (Baird) as much as it is for me. He's newly appointed by his prime minister. I'm newly appointed by my premier, and it sounds like our marching orders were very, very similar."

And the result of this cozy confidential tete a tete between the two Parties of Alberta? Well duh oh;Alberta has environment model: Stelmach

Baird says meeting Kyoto would lead to 'collapse'

Auto industry, Alberta warn Kyoto dangerous for business

Alberta must join Harper's Ottawa on climate action

At this point, Renner and Premier Ed Stelmach say they'll replace voluntary emission cuts with mandatory targets, and that's an important start. Without mandatory targets, it is difficult for oil companies to justify to shareholders any major spending on carbon-reduction measures. Their job isn't to be environmental nice guys, but they're happy to meet industry-wide regulations.

Those mandatory targets will be based on emission "intensity" -- the amount of greenhouse gases produced with each barrel of oil. But while oilsands production increases, emissions will likely continue to rise under the intensity model, only at a slower rate than they would otherwise have done.

See:

Stelmach

Baird

Environment



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Fudging The Books

It's what you get when you privatize. If Air Canada had remained a nationalized airline howls would be heard in the halls of parliament over this accounting jiggery pokery.

For the full year, Air Canada recorded operating income of $259 million, down from $318 million in 2005 amid a 16 per cent rise in fuel costs.

Full-year operating income was $522 million, excluding one-time charges, compared with $455 million in 2005.

Huh?



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Alberta's Leaky Ship Of State

The new CEO of Alberta Ed Stelmach has certainly made his mark on the one party state in this province. While we have suffered from a democratic deficit for thirty five years and regime of paranoid confidentiality, in less than a month since his appointment as Premier his regime has been plagued by leaks.

The good ship of state is a leaky boat.

There was the leak about his son being offered a promotion, which was squashed once it became known.

There was the leak about the $5000 dollar a plate dinners with Ed and his cabinet. Calgary fundraiser offers $5000 access to Premier 11 Jan 2007

Which was canceled once it was public.
Stelmach cancels $5000-a-ticket fundraiser 12 Jan 2007

Then this week there was the leak that the Alberta government was looking at offering online gambling.
Alberta considers betting on online gambling 7 Feb 2007

Which was squashed the next day once it became public.
Alberta Not Considering Online Gambling 8 Feb 2007

And Stelmach was caught in little white lie when he claimed Alberta had reduced green houses gas emissions. Ed was contradicted by his own Energy Department which said the province had only reduced intensity emissions, while greenhouse gas emissions had in fact increased.

This is definitely no longer Ralph Klein's Alberta.

The only slips of the lip allowed under Ralph were Ralph's.

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Stelmach



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Harpers Buzz Off

So as Chrysler Canada announces two thousand job cuts, the PM refuses to meet or take phone calls from Buzz Hargrove, President of the CAW.

Hargrove expressed disappointment that Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn't find some time to meet with him Thursday, especially given the dire circumstances in the auto sector. The prime minister's officials said they had no record of a request from Hargrove to meet.

Gee thats strange since Buzz called, left messages, was in Ottawa, and the NDP and Liberals knew he wanted to meet with Harper. Both parties raised Harpers refusal to meet with Buzz during question period.

Automobile Industry

Hon. Scott Brison (Kings—Hants, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, with massive layoffs pending at Chrysler, why has the government cancelled labour market partnership agreements that could have helped many of the 2,000 Chrysler workers and why is this Prime Minister, the first in 40 years, refusing to meet with the head of the CAW?

Hon. Monte Solberg (Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, the member should know that the government announced its intentions to strengthen labour market initiatives in “Advantage Canada”. We are in constant contact with our provincial partners on all of these issues.

We will certainly put in place all the measures necessary to ensure that we have the strongest possible economy, something that is already happening under the leadership of the Prime Minister.

Hon. Scott Brison (Kings—Hants, Lib.):

Mr. Speaker, we have a minister who is laissez-faire and a Prime Minister who does not care.

The Liberal government partnered with the auto industry to create thousands of new jobs. Canada's neo-Conservative government has done almost nothing and we are losing thousands of auto workers jobs.

Will the Prime Minister meet with the head of the CAW, take action, and reintroduce the previous government's auto strategy that was working and creating jobs here in Canada?

[Translation]

Hon. Maxime Bernier (Minister of Industry, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I would remind my hon. colleague that we tabled the Advantage Canada plan, a plan that will enable the automobile industry and all other industries to enjoy competitive tax conditions.

We will continue to lower taxes, to limit paperwork and regulations interfering with the productivity of Canadian business in the automobile sector, and we are proud of what we are doing.

Harper is the first PM not to meet with Buzz. But maybe he didn't need to meet with Buzz.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says the looming job losses at Chrysler have nothing to do with federal government policy.

Except that Canada is negotiating a bilateral trade deal with Korea, home of Hyundai.

And considering that Buzz and Stephen agree on the need to go slow on emission regulations you would think Harper would take a call from Hargrove.

Buzz Hargrove, head of the Canadian Auto Workers' union, told the committee that too-tough efficiency standards could result in plant closures.

No sooner had Buzz said that then this happened.

Buzz Hargrove fears major job cuts at Chrysler
OTTAWA – As many as 2000 of Canada's workers with DaimlerChrysler could lose their jobs, Canadian Auto Workers leader Buzz Hargrove suggested Thursday. ...

And suddenly Buzz is doing as I have said Canada's labour movement would have to do, accept the global market and demand Fair Trade agreements.

Hargrove calls for 'fair trade' deal with Asia to curb auto job losses

Automobile Industry

[Table of Contents]

Hon. Jack Layton (Toronto—Danforth, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, today's news that Chrysler is going to eliminate 2,000 jobs in Canada makes it very clear that we have to get down to helping out our auto industry. Consumers want fuel efficient cars, but the government stands by and does absolutely nothing about it.

That is why the NDP put forward a green car strategy in 2003, supported by Greenpeace and the CAW. Too bad the Liberals would not adopt it because it would have transformed our industry and we would have been in the forefront of protecting jobs and creating new jobs as well.

Does the Prime Minister not understand that when it comes to building green cars, either we get it done or China, Japan and Korea will do it?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, while we are obviously concerned by the announcements that we expect from Chrysler, this is a global company that is making global decisions. These are not related to policies in our country, as the member well knows. At the same time, we have seen a growth in other parts of the auto industry.

I appreciate some of the suggestions the leader of the NDP has made. They are much more positive than the motion tabled last week by the Leader of the Opposition, which would effectively propose that we cut emissions from the auto sector, from all sectors, by one-third in the next four and a half years. I wonder if he has any idea how that would devastate the Canadian auto sector.

Hon. Jack Layton (Toronto—Danforth, NDP):

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister is wrong about the impact of his own actions. The workers in the auto sector are worried and rightly so. Their jobs are on the line. As people look for more efficient cars, they will not find them manufactured here because there has been no action.

The government says that it is a global marketplace, that the market will take care of it, but the market is not fair. Those other countries can sell their cars in Canada without limit, but we cannot sell good Canadian cars, built right here, to countries like China, Korea and Japan.

Is that why the Prime Minister thinks it is a good idea to sign a free trade deal, signing away our auto industry to Korea?

Right Hon. Stephen Harper (Prime Minister, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, the government has been pursuing negotiations with South Korea and with others for the express purpose of opening up Asian markets to Canadian products. I am glad to see that Buzz Hargrove seems to have completely reversed himself and now suggests that is exactly what we should be doing, trying to open Asian markets. The government will work hard with the industry to do that.

The government has ongoing consultations with the energy sector. There are some happening this very day. We think it is important to consult with industry before telling it to simply slash one-third of its production, as the opposition would.

Ouch! Of course that is not what Buzz is saying, but that's the spin the Free Traders will make over Fair Trade. Until the labour movement and its political allies spell out the difference.

What we need is a national industrial ecology strategy, not just tax cuts and credits for the industry. And that does not mean that industries in Canada have to be Canadian owned either. Sovereignty is not determined by corporate ownership but by the working class, having autonomous Canadian unions, and eventually in joint ownership of industry in Canada.

As recent negotiations with CAW and Falconbridge's new owners Xstrata PLC have shown.

Each of the past three bargaining rounds between the Canadian Auto Workers and previous owner Falconbridge Ltd. were marred by bitter confrontations and each ended in dispute. Workers were off the job in 1997, 2000 and in 2004.

Things were so bad, that after members voted to end a particularly acrimonious seven-month strike in February, 2001, the CAW was still hurling public insults at Falconbridge's front office.

"The previous owners seemed willing to spend a million dollars to save a dime. These people, the new owners, seem to recognize the value of a dime. That's different. It's going to require us to adjust our style as well. So we've made a commitment to try to work on the relationship over the life of the agreement and that was part of our settlement. How do we communicate better and how do we get things done in a positive way?" Mr. Mitic said.

See

Hargrove

CAW



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