The position of the Internationalist Workers Group

The campaign leading up to the March 26 Quebec elections is taking place in a rather troubled national and international political situation, marked by even more sombre prospects.

1) In the month of February alone, the Quebec economy lost 33,100 manufacturing jobs, a considerable number considering the population of the province is only 7.5 million. These job losses follow thousands of others in every region and in many sectors of activity in the preceding months. We need only mention the case of Shermag in Disraeli, of Goodyear and Gildan in Valleyfield, of Norsk Hydro in Becancour, of Louisiana Pacific in Saint-Michel-des-Saints, of Olymel in Saint-Simon and Saint-Valerien, of Quebecor World in Beauceville, of Diagnocure, Pfizer, Bristol Meyers and many other factories in the forest product industry to get an idea of the extent of the losses. Moreover, in this context, thousands of other workers have suffered important cuts to their wages and benefits on the pretext of saving their jobs. Think of the national media operation, accompanied by a local campaign of blackmail and threats led by the ex Parti Quebecois (PQ) Premier Lucien Bouchard, that overcame the resistance of the 1100 workers at the Olymel plant in Valley-Junction and cut their revenue by 30%.

2) At mid campaign, the media published the main conclusions of the second report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that should be made public next month in Brussels. The assessment that the report makes of the planet’s health is dramatic: “today the climatic changes affect the physical and biological systems on every continent