This article by Benoît Renaud for the Socialist Worker discusses what is needed to solve the simmering conflict between premier Charest and the working class of Quebec.

We need a general

Here are a few symptoms, among many, indicating that the level of anger in the Quebec working class is unusually high.

· Thirty thousand demonstrated in Quebec City against the Liberal government on November 29 at the call of CSN (Confederation of National Unions). 110 buses carried protesters to the event from Montreal, more than double the number that were used in the great Quebec City protests against the FTAA in 2001. Seven thousand had protested two days earlier at the call of FTQ (Quebec Federation of Labour) and CSD (Democratic Unions Center);

· Two days later, Charest and his Health Minister were prevented from giving a media conference at a Montreal hospital by a demonstration of a few hundred union members, most of them affiliated with FTQ but including some CSN members;

· Also on December 1, the offices of the liberal MNA who is Speaker of the National Assembly were occupied and damaged by a group of angry members of CUPE;

· In a series of local speeches given to large crowds of union members, Henry Massé, the president of FTQ, has been telling the Quebec prime minister he can "eat shit" if he thinks he can get away with passing all his anti-unions bills;

· CSN has called for a "day of disturbance" for December 11 which may end up being very close to a general strike of its 200,000 members in the public sector, on the same day as a protest closure of the public day care system (CPE, Centres de la petite enfance);

· The 850 lawyers who work for the government on drafting bills and defending the government in court are threatening to go on strike over wage parity with crown prosecutors.

Many people have been comparing this growing movement to the struggles of the early 1970s. The labour minister from the first Bourassa governments has been invited repeatedly to give his "expert advice" on how the government should deal with the opposition of the unions. His opinion: the government should be careful and not underestimate the amount of trouble a frontal conflict with the union movement can cause!

The potential for determined mass mobilization is there for anyone to see. A recent meeting of FTQ affiliated unions in the Health sector was discussing the possibility of getting strike mandates in the very short term. Before calling their "day of disturbance", CSN leaders played with the notion of a general strike. Anyone who was in the November 29 demo in Quebec City would agree that such a call would have been answered positively.

There already is something like a Common Front including most public sector workers in the context of the negotiations taking place this year.

But this loose coordination is not yet leading to a coordinated response to the government’s projects.

Why? Because twenty years of more or less bitter defeats and very small gains – involving strong back to work laws and anti-union rhetoric from both PQ and Liberal governments – has led to many bad habits in Quebec’s union movement. Even in 1972, when unity as well as militancy were at their strongest, it took a bitter struggle from below to force the unions leaders to agree on a common set of demands and a common plan of action.

We will need such a struggle this time, because we need greater unity. It is fantastic that two demos in one week drew 37,000 people onto the streets. But according to Chad Lubelsky writing in Alternatives, "one CSN organizer told me that if the unions had managed to work together, there would easily have been 100,000 people marching through Quebec City." More than ever, Quebec workers need to organize themselves across the artificial boundaries of union affiliation and independently from the bureaucracy.

November 29, while using his strong language to attack the government, Henry Massé was also implying that the best thing workers could hope for is to "express" their opposition, give the government a warning, and then "remember" if Charest goes ahead anyway. This implied that the only way to defeat a (liberal) government was to inflict on them an electoral defeat … at the hands of the PQ.

We can’t count on these leaders to channel the true power of the organized working class. Even in 1972, they backed off after receiving strike votes that they considered too weak in the face of strike-breaking laws. And only the spontaneous revolt of the rank and file, after their leaders were put in jail, started the 500,000 strong unlimited general strike.

As mobilization grows and spreads, the National Assembly is discussing at least seven simultaneous pieces of legislation attacking unions and public services.

Gutting article 45 of the Labour Code – which protects unions from the consequences of contracting out and other changes in ownership of their workplace – and forcing the complete reorganization of the Health Care system including forced mergers as well as splits of union locals are only the most obvious ones.

Charest has declared his intention of using all necessary means to get all of these laws passed before the holidays, even if it means using his majority to prematurely end debates.

Union leaders have been right to denounce this government for promoting a Quebec of cheaper labour and less union rights, with more user fees and privatized services and less social justice.

Those who want to defeat Charest and his bosses’ government now need to call for the only tactic capable of stopping them in their tracks: a province wide unlimited strike including hundreds of thousands of workers from all unions of both public and private sectors. This doesn’t seem to be likely to happen in the next few days, but the struggle against this government will continue even if the bills are passed and, as we say in Quebec: "Y’est jamais trop tard pour bien faire" (It is never too late to do the right thing) and also "Y’a rien d’trop beau pour la classe ouvrière!" (Nothing is too good for the working class!).

from http://www.web.net/sworker/416-12-quebec.html