Mahatma Ghandi, when trying to free his people from British corporate colonialism, said: “first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win!”
If we accept Ghandi’s logic for social change then the recent opinion section in the Free Press May 2 edition signals the end for Bill Bennett in the Valley. I guess when all else fails, personal attacks on character are the last resort. And while I could descend into mud slinging with the mountains of ammunition left lying about from the Liberal’s war on the working class, I think it better to raise the discussion back into the political sphere and discuss the problems facing our democratic society.
In the last decade or so under the Liberals, corporations have flourished under unusually low taxes and become fantastically rich as a direct result. Consequently big business has purchased both the Liberals and most of the media. They have begun dismantling unions through legislation and are using the media to convince people that what’s good for big business is good for workers. They have now begun the move to privatize all of our (working people’s) public assets including everything but the air we breathe. This is really just an attack on the middle class where the majority of the wealth belongs in a healthy society. Look no further than the privatization of education in the Elk Valley where funding cuts have closed schools and created the need for private education. Once all core services are private then “free market economics” take over and scarcity drives profits. Think about what that means for education and healthcare – the more rare something is, the greater its value and hence profit. That’s why these core services were made public to begin with! Education and healthcare is our society’s level playing field. No matter the economic class an individual is born into, we should all get the same chance as we start life. It’s called social democracy. Since when do we abandon the next generation of our own species in exchange for short-term quarterly profits?
We need to stop this greedy assault on our social democracy! Norma Blissett understands this and that’s why I’m voting for Norma and the NDP. I have no problem hiring an honest math teacher to replace a lawyer, any day of the week.
Alex Hanson
President USW Local 9346