vol. 3, no. 4, APRIL 2010, $ 1.00
Foreword: many thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca, who not only edits this column, but teaches English language to this author. Please note that at the bottom you will find the link to an English selection of the french daily communist newspaper L'Humanité, published in Paris.
Si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/
Since the electoral defeat of the politically buoyant Parti Québécois (PQ) government, reactionary circles in Québec have placed their hopes on Jean Charest centrist Liberal Party to block left wing efforts to move Québec on to the road of social progress. It did work at the beginning. Now, after declining living standards for working familie
s and constant increases in prices for goods and services such as electricity, Liberals are declining rapidly in popularity.
s and constant increases in prices for goods and services such as electricity, Liberals are declining rapidly in popularity.Neither did they halt public demands for political change in the status of Québec within Canadian confederation: the right to self-determination up and including separation if people choose.
Ironically, any proposal made as well to the PQ leadership and several of its militant members, even independence, does not seem acceptable to them, as long as they don’t lose their grip on the Québec society. It raises an important question. What is their secret agenda? Democracy, côté jardin, is it not madame Pauline Marois?*
(Photo: Arrival of demonstrators to the Montréal March).
Recently, the right –that did not put all its eggs in the same basket- received support from former PQ Premier Lucien Bouchard, who called for a hike in University tuitions for Québec students, according to the Montréal daily La Presse on February 24. Bouchard spoke on behalf of a group of “experts” at a press conference.
Two weeks later, the newspaper Métro reported that University students protested when Education Minister Michelle Courchesne, “hesitated’ about “how she would use the 35 M$ given as a supplement to Québec by Ottawa in the framework of the Canadian Program of Student Bursaries”. While students want to use this federal money to ameliorate the bursary’s system, the minister is not 
too clear yet. The Montréal Regional Coalition of Students, organized demonstrations and other actions, supported by the Montréal University Student Federation. Québec Young Communist League took part in the protests, according to provincial leader Marianne Breton-Fontaine in a phone interview with La Vie Réelle.
too clear yet. The Montréal Regional Coalition of Students, organized demonstrations and other actions, supported by the Montréal University Student Federation. Québec Young Communist League took part in the protests, according to provincial leader Marianne Breton-Fontaine in a phone interview with La Vie Réelle.(Photo: several French-Canadian workers protest regularly against the constitutional status quo, denying their right to self-determination).
To force the provincial government to protect public services and negotiate in good faith with its 475 000 State employees, the trade union movement, people’s associations and Québec solidaire party organized a big demonstration in Montréal on March 20th, that drew over 75 000 workers (even construction workers attended). “Québec people want to preserve gains of the past, which they struggled for with sacrifices: such as access to quality public services”, according to a QS statement. The Party’s representative in the National Assembly, Amir Khadir, affirmed a few days beforehand that, “Banks, mining corporations, the ultra-wealthy must share the load”. Communist party of Québec members (PCQ) appeared at the demonstration with a new issue of their newspaper Clarté. The PCQ was well received and collected enough donations to pay half of the paper’s print run; it attracted many people, especially the locked-out employees of the daily newspaper Journal de Montréal.
The Research Institute in Contemporary Economy (l’Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine) charged that the government “must tax the wealthiest rather than raise the tariffs and allow the private sector to administer services”. They stressed that the “tax system must be revised and the contribution of the well-to-do and business should be increased.” Institute Director Robert Laplante questioned government spending billions of dollars in military expenditures while there are cutbacks in the health sector and increases in education fees.
Something noteworthy: Communists or would-be communists are more visible than ever even. Among them, the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) is the o
nly progressive political party that has branches all over Canada and enjoys relations with Communist and worker’s parties across the world (including France and the USA). Today, there is a new generation of political and social activists ready to show that there must be “a life with a future for the youth”.
nly progressive political party that has branches all over Canada and enjoys relations with Communist and worker’s parties across the world (including France and the USA). Today, there is a new generation of political and social activists ready to show that there must be “a life with a future for the youth”.(Photo Marianne Breton-Fontaine: Québec communists denouncing IMF, WTO and WB during the demonstration).
* Pauline Marois leads the PQ. Severity is an euphemism when you deal with her leadership within her party and during her interventions in the National Assembly.
