File spoon-archives/marxism-general.archive/marxism-general_1996/96-11-25.072, message 20


Date: Mon, 18 Nov 1996 09:18:53 +0100 (MET)
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-G: Canadian "Socialist Action" Leader Caught Scabbing


>     The following article is from the 8 November 1996 issue of
>"Workers Vanguard", the Marxist working-class biweekly of the
>Spartacist League.  A one year subscription to "Workers Vanguard"
>is $10.00 (includes English-language "Spartacist", "Women and
>Revolution", and "Black History and the Class Struggle").  Make
>checks payable/mail to:  Spartacist Publishing Co., Box 1377 GPO,
>New York, NY 10116.

>Canadian "Socialist Action" Leader Caught Scabbing
>
>TORONTO--Jack London once wrote that a scab was the lowest form
>of life, but there's one even lower: the scab who calls himself a
>"socialist." Such is Barry Weisleder, an Executive Board member
>of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). He is also
>leader of the Canadian Socialist Action group, which is allied
>with the U.S. organization of the same name and the United
>Secretariat of the late Ernest Mandel. As Walk/Talk (6
>September), the strike bulletin of the Ontario Public Service
>Staff Union (OPSSU), reported in an article titled, "He Talks
>Like a Socialist, But He Walks Kinda Funny": "Region 5 EBM Barry
>Weisleder showed up at the Ministry of Labour office at 400
>University Avenue in Toronto for a day of scabbing."
>     Weisleder tried unsuccessfully to force his way through 20
>strike pickets, members of the OPSSU, which represents 239
>clerks, secretaries, negotiators and other workers for OPSEU.
>Weisleder later denounced these striking unionists for trying to
>"paralyze the normal work" of their employer, namely himself! The
>OPSSU members walked out after the "socialist" Weisleder and his
>fellow union bureaucrats tried to shove a clawback contract down
>their throats. The proposed contract would have laid off over 20
>percent of the staff and called for millions in givebacks!
>     While trying to muscle through the picket line at the
>Ministry of Labour, Weisleder launched into a filthy anti-union
>tirade. Walk/Talk reported that Weisleder screamed that "he
>didn't make $50,000 a year and didn't see why anybody else
>should"! Weisleder raved on in this "fiscally responsible" vein
>for 45 minutes. All the while, "the circle of pickets slowly
>moved Barry from the doorway down to the pavement, while he
>continued to try to get in to do his scabbing."
>     Strikebreakers cross picket lines, militant unionists--not
>to speak of socialists--defend them. Period. Speaking out of the
>other side of his mouth, Weisleder authored a piece in the U.S.
>Socialist Action (September 1996) calling to "Shut Down Toronto"
>during last month's "Day of Action." And during last winter's
>pivotal five-week OPSEU strike against the job-slashing Ontario
>Conservative government, Weisleder waxed on in the Canadian
>Socialist Action (Spring-Summer 1996) about how "Tens of
>thousands of women and men, most first-time picketers, held the
>line through the bitterest winter weather in years." But when it
>comes to pickets by his "own" workers, this "socialist"
>bureaucrat sings a different tune, arrogantly defending his
>scabbing. Thumping the Steward's Handbook, he declared that the
>OPSSU picket line wasn't a picket line at all, just a "political
>demonstration" (Union Report, September 1996). Clearly worried
>that "his" members would honor the lines, this unprincipled
>wretch sobbed, "Thank goodness [the pickets] didn't precipitate
>premature or unnecessary strikes at the work places concerned"!
>     Weisleder and his social-democratic friends at Socialist
>Action have always had a tough time telling who's on what side of
>the class line. For example, Weisleder supports the presence in
>OPSEU of prison guards, a key component of the armed fist of the
>capitalist state. Last spring, following the defeat of the OPSEU
>strike, Weisleder even claimed the racist, scabherding Toronto
>cops as union allies who were "friendly to OPSEU" and "in many
>instances acted as benign [!] mediators" (Socialist Action,
>Spring-Summer 1996). The capitalist state is the enemy of workers
>and the oppressed. We say: Cops and jail guards out of the
>unions!
>     Weisleder's gross anti-union acts were also noticed by his
>pale-pink cousins in the International Socialists (co-thinkers of
>the American International Socialist Organization). Their
>Socialist Worker (21 September) chided Weisleder for opposing the
>OPSSU strike. What they don't criticize him for is trying to
>cross a picket line, because they do it all the time. And
>Socialist Worker was even more profuse than Weisleder in praise
>of "militant" prison guards during the OPSEU strike.
>     The kind of class-struggle leadership needed by workers and
>the oppressed facing all-sided capitalist attacks won't come from
>scab "socialists" who chatter about "solidarity" and then act
>like the Junior Chamber of Commerce. We need a revolutionary
>workers party forged on the basis of an anti-capitalist program
>and genuine working-class principles--not least, the
>understanding that picket lines mean don't cross!




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