Wade Rathke: Chief Organizer Blog » canada

Anne Coulter: It Must be You

jstuart — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 13:00:45 +0000

Toronto Big news all over the Canadian papers featuring the wild mouthed commentator, author, and right winger, Anne Coulter, and her 3-city tour to speak at Canadian universities and promote her books. I imagine she is happy as a tick on a dog because of all of the publicity, but she seems to be spewing off message about Canada and why she ran into problems with an invitation to the University of Ottawa.

Her talk was canceled after an initial crowd of 1000 that then swelled to 2000 students trying to get into the smaller auditorium led to a cancellation. The night before in London, Ontario she had suggested an Islamic student who was offended by her comments about riding back there on a “magic carpet,” should “take a camel” instead. After her Ottawa rain-out, she was quoted with one slap at the university after another saying she had spoken at a 100 schools and Ottawa was “bush league.” She’s claiming she will file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission in Canada because she didn’t like being warned about “hate” speech under Canadian law.

Canada, being Canada, is now having a debate about pride in free speech, though Coulter is so far off message that she is not part of the dialogue, though I’m afraid it’s all about her.

I was at George Brown College in Toronto yesterday and then later at McMaster University in Hamilton and the day before at York University in Toronto, and felt nothing but the love. The questions at George Brown and York were to put in simply, amazing in every way and advanced the discussion and my thinking on organizing community based organizations and unions among informal workers. There was a line of students at George Brown signing with Judy Duncan to volunteer to work with ACORN Canada and one person after another from Buenos Aires and several countries in Africa trying to figure out how to expand ACORN International.

Seems if you don’t attack the diversity of Canada but actually talk to them and listen to them, there is a fierce warm glow in Canada.

I’m afraid the problem is simply Anne Coulter and not Canada.

I’m loving the Canada!

Urgent Need for New Labor Strategies

jstuart — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:46:35 +0000

Toronto Before Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada Head Organizer, and I went to York University to address Dr. Stephanie Ross’ class on Worker Organizations, we me with a friend for a pleasant hour who was a senior executive of one of the largest unions in Canada. We often had this dialogue about where labor stood and future strategies for building a labor movement.

The conversation was more sobering than usual.

He shared with us the results of a regular semi-annual poll on the attitudes of Canadian workers on a whole number of subjects, but most telling in this case were the polling results concerning attitudes of unorganized workers to joining unions. I was shocked at how low the numbers had fallen.

The percentage of workers polled who indicated that they would vote for a union if there were a representation election in their workplace had fallen to only 8% or 1 out of ever 12 workers. If there were no opposition to the union being approved, only 18% of the polled unorganized workers were likely to vote yes. Remember, that’s without opposition.

Among existing members of unions the sentiment was going exactly the opposite direction. If a Canadian worker was in a union, 76% of them were happy about it compared to only 24% who were less satisfied. These were the best numbers in a score of years, obviously prompted by the impact of the recession. The recession has essentially made workers even more petrified of shaking the boat in any way thereby increasing their fear of change if it means voting for a union, but if they are members of a union, they are thankful during this recession that they have real protection!

Looking at the graph, it was clear that these numbers did not appear overnight, but were part of long developing trends where the support of unions by unorganized workers was steadily declining.

The conclusion seems simple. Strategies and tactics have to change. We cannot rebuild the labor movement, even in Canada where concentration is 2 ½ times what it is in the United States without a “majority unionism” strategy similar to what I discuss in Citizen Wealth. Canada, remember, is where labor law and protections for union organizing are still relatively good, especially when compared to the United States where they are abominable! Yet, not even here is there much hope that going the straight ahead route is going to reverse the trend and restore the labor movement.

Our friend echoed our own fears as we got up to leave, saying he hoped his union, even though losing members, would “come to their senses” and change their course, while they still had enough members and resources to make the change, rather than realizing they had to change when it was too late.

Our friend was right on target, but all we could hope is that we could help, and that he and others within his union would eventually be able to win the debate while they still could make a difference.

Mary’s Vote for Health Care Reform

jstuart — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:16:33 +0000

Washington On the eve of the dramatic and historic health care vote, I got a letter from a friend, Mary Rowles, who is also a labor official in British Columbia. She had been sick all week with pneumonia and equally ill reading with consternation the mis-characterizations of what reform might mean south of the Canadian border. Perhaps everything that can be say, has been said, about the urgent need for reform, but Mary’s clear and simple story of what life might come to mean for ordinary people is worth remembering to root us all more in reality than fearful rhetoric.

It is so distressing watching the hysterical reaction of those opposed to a national health care program. I thought I would share my own experience if you ever need to pull out of your pocket an anecdote about what it is really like if you get sick in Canada.

I called my doctor on a Monday morning, after being sick for a week with a flu that didn’t seem to be getting any better. I got to see her first thing Wednesday morning. No charge. She was concerned and sent me for a chest x-ray at the clinic in the next building. After 20 minutes, I had my x-ray in hand. No charge. I also had to stop at the lab for blood work. I waited 30 minutes before I was seen. No charge. I returned with the “evidence” to the doctor who declared I actually had pneumonia and wrote out a prescription. No charge for this second consultation.

I’m supposed to see her in a couple of days to make sure the drugs are working. There will be no charge for this visit.

So how much does an individual pay for health care here in BC? We may be the only province still using premiums to finance the system , instead of a payroll tax on all employers. The rates?. The Medical Services Plan charges 57$/month for a single person; $102/month for a couple and $114 /month for a family of three or more.

There are no disqualifications for pre-existing conditions.

A large number of workers do not pay the MSP premiums-they are employer-paid workplace benefits. And at least low income workers are subsidized. If household income is less than 22,000 annually your premiums are 100% subsidized. Even at $33,000 annually you get a 20% discount.

The drugs were not free-they would have been if I was in hospital, but I’m not that sick. Fortunately for me I have an extended health plan through my employer that will pay the $71. This is one of the major flaws that advocates want fixed through establishment of a national pharmacare program. We aren’t getting anywhere with this.

There are problems with the system of course, but on balance we receive delivers good healthcare, when we need it, at no charge.

There is no way to get there without taking the step forward from where we are, and hopefully that will happen on Sunday.

Mary ended her note by saying, “Feel free to circulate to any who might need it.”

Thank you, Mary, I have. Get well soon!

Local Leaders Rule

jstuart — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:11:07 +0000

Vancouver A phone call from Springfield, Massachusetts early in the morning and then a morning spent with more than 100 local leaders in the southeast region of British Columbia, who were activists and stewards in the British Columbia Government Employees Union (BCGEU), reminded me how transcending, essential, and transforming the development of great local leaders is to building democratic and powerful organizations. It is certainly what we all say and believe, but there is nothing so moving and humbling as being reminded how local leaders change when they gain an organizational voice and how they change the lead the organization.

The call was an out-of-the-blue inquiry from a reporter from the Springfield Republican who was writing a little piece on the events 40 years ago in mid-October involving the Springfield Welfare Rights Organization I had put together. He read me a quote from Carmen Rivera, one of the great leaders of the Puerto Rican community of young, fiery women who led the organizing in Springfield’s North End, when I was starting there. She was still active and vibrant 40 years later in her community. He asked me how to contact Vera Smith, a great and courageous leader from in Hill area, and when I said I had lost contact with her over these many decades and for all I know she might be back in Tuscaloosa, Alabama where I remembered she was from, he quickly corrected me and said, “no, she ran for city council in Springfield several years ago.” What!?! I’ve spoken before of Barbara Rivera (not related to Carmen) who had also been a great organizer and leader in welfare rights who went on to found a large and effective service organization in the north end and whose daughter has been an elected legislator from Springfield for some years.

Just as these events in Springfield were life changing for me and set me on a straight path as an organizer for the last more than 40 years, the rest of the story and in fact, the real story, is the difference that organization building and campaigns had in changing the way silent, unknown women on welfare were allowed to see their role in the community and find voice to continue to lead and direct the community over all of these years. What a story! Hearing of them again was both humbling and swelled me with pride to think of what they had done after our short six months together in 1969.

Talking to local leaders of BCGEU in Kamloops gave me the same feeling. I challenged them to lead a revival of labor and its purpose not only in the workplace but also in the community and, joined by Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada’s head organizer, and John Anderson, the ACORN Canada sparkplug for BC, we told stories of old campaigns discussed in Citizen Wealth and new efforts around living wage fights in BC and informal worker organizing in India where we were partners with BCGEU. I was lobbying them from the stage, so to speak, to change the paradigm for labor organizing in the same way that they had led the way in British Columbia so often. When we got to the questions throughout the sessions over and over again, thoughtful, serious local leaders were musing over their points and feelings, as they probed for new directions, and I could almost feel the gears grinding to some new places and challenges for some of the leaders. One particularly blew me away by standing up and turning not to Judy and me, but to her colleagues in the room, and essentially repeating the challenge and grasping it with two hands and embracing the future in part of the stewardship and contribution that BCGEU is so unique in being able to offer. Her words were better and more inspiring, but that was the gist of what she said. And, she was not alone, as others throughout the morning repeated similar themes and told stories of courage, commitment, and, real leadership that had put them in the room and without mentioning it had made their union the powerhouse in British Columbia that it has become.

Getting to Vancouver after a pleasant drive through the mountains and the Frazer Valley, a score of us stood in my friend Joel Solomon’s living room (thanks to him and Dana!) with the gorgeous view across the water, talking about Citizen Wealth. BC ACORN leaders Dave Tate and Canada Drouin were there. Canada at the end of some short remarks and questions, talked about her own reaction and thoughts on the work and her thoughts on having read my book. You could hear in her quite conviction and passion the same torch being lit in Vancouver to be carried forward into the future, as many of us become shadows along the wall and distant memories within the bosom of our friends and families, the arc of our work and the changes it creates in so many lives reaches forward into time in a way that transcends memory itself.

Spending a morning this way in Kamloops and such an evening in beautiful Vancouver was one of those rare gifts that an organizer gets from time to time, if they are as lucky as I have been, that can propel you past hard times and hard work because it reminds you how life changing, dramatic, and powerful the impact of our collective work and small contributions in transforming peoples’ lives and communities. I’m ready to finally go home after a month on the road now! I may be tired and beat up, but another bunch of Canadian gifts sucked the whine out of my psyche and put enough fuel in the tank for another long run.

Wild Ride of Cowboy Canada

jstuart — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:55:42 +0000

Kamloops After 12 hours in New Orleans my daughter dropped me at the airport for the milk run to Kamloops through Chicago and then Calgary. I’m caught in a culture warp between Thailand, India, and now North America. On the TV is the OLN (Outdoor Life Network) which is running a show filmed in beautiful west coast surf where they are proving the “plasticity of barnacle penises.” Don’t ask, but it seems barnacles are hermaphrodites and when they have to mate depending on the proximity of the next barnacle the equipment expands…you can imagine the rest. Anyway while I’m writing this, I’m actually wondering if they would even allow the show to be shown in some countries….

I’m not sure I have ever been in Calgary, but think of a gleaming city sprouting up on the western plains with the Canadian Rockies majestic in the distance to the west, a mini-Denver, just newer and more compact, and you have the visual imprint. Quite dramatic with a newish, confusing four concourse airport and the statues of wild horses and the rest of what sends those of us with western roots wondering how cold are the winters and what the price of real estate might be. Leaving for Kamloops over the ridge, the propeller pilot lets us know that there may be cloud cover in which case they will bring us back to Calgary, but we get there fine. His next announcement is that there is a “traffic jam,” so we’ll need to wait on the runway for a bit because the two gates are both filled up. We have a minute to look at the dry, brown mountains outside the small propjet windows.

After almost a month on the road my bag was stacked with a dozen magazines that needed to be plowed through to catch up on what’s been shaking. A half-dozen Newsweek’s produced a cartoon reprint of a Cleveland Plain Dealer political cartoon of Obama appointing Eliot Spitzer as his “new prostitution czar” to “investigate ACORN.” Ha-ha. More thought provoking was a piece by Ellis Cose in another issue entitled “ACORN, Heal Thyself: The group’s problems like within” in which, regardless of the points he gets both right and wrong, hits the mark in the final sentence: “But in the end, ACORN’s ruin may not be the radical right, which can hurt its funding but can’t take away its 400,000-plus members. Its biggest problem may be itself, and its inability to see its own potential.” I keep rereading the sentence throughout the trip and wondering how much of the membership is being protected in ACORN’s current bunker mentality and meltdown especially given the contradiction of what also seems an mystery attack on the strong New Orleans membership.

The other Newsweek piece I found myself tearing out and re-reading asked the question: “Was Russia Better Off Red?” Clearly they were reaching for reaching for relevance and trying to stir some controversy with research done by Ian Yarett from sources at ILO, UNESCO, WHO, and even the Russian government itself, none of which were lefty folks with a vantage point to sell. Three years a delegation from the Organizers’ Forum had visited Moscow and St. Petersburg, and this had been one of the questions we had heard raised repeatedly by Putin critics, some scared for their very lives with good reason.

The list:

Then Now

Population: 147 Million 142 Million

Life Expectancy 67.8 67.5

Divorces 639,200 703,400

Disease Diagnosis 91,296,000 109,571,000

Hospitals 12,600 6,800

Economically Active 76,174,000 73,248,000

Recorded Crimes 2,761,000 3,210,000

Ag Land (acres) 520,403,933 414,148,619

Forestland (acres) 1,999,116,140 1,998,090,660

Drinking Per Person 7.5 liters 10.5 liters

Cinemas 2337 1510

Time to go out and beat the dawn and see how early a place called “Cowboy Coffee” opens so I can keep from scratching my head too often before visiting with my union friends in a couple of hours here in Kamloops.

Baucus Bummer Bill

jstuart — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:34:12 +0000

New Orleans Another reason it was good to be in Canada last week, is that I heard everyone’s views on Canadian healthcare, while missing a lot about the new bill being rolled out to almost no applause by Senator Baucus of Montana.

The kindest thing people seem willing to say is that the bill doesn’t really pass as comprehensive health care reform at all, nor does it seem to pretend to be. It’s a head scratcher to try and understand why the White House seems to be pushing this sack of stuff down the legislative highway?

It seems only yesterday that President Obama was speaking to both Houses of Congress and I swear I heard him say that there needed to be a so-called “public option.” Such an option doesn’t exist in this bill by any stretch of the imagination. And, it goes without saying that immigrants are invisible in this bill as they are supposed to be in our society (though surely not in our economy!).

In fact reading some of the more thoughtful reports by health experts, they seem to nail the bill as a huge giveaway to big Pharma and a full and overflowing plate serving to the insurance companies themselves. One fellow noted that the Baucus bill would allow insurance companies to charge 5 times cost to older folks being covered! This isn’t a granny death watch, but an elderly unemployment plan since it would seem to totally encourage workplace discrimination by letting insurers soak employers who happen to have some older and wiser hands on board. Others have belittled the “trigger” to a public option being pandered in an effort to pick up a stray Republican as only ensuring that there will NEVER be a public option.

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this.

The right and the Republicans seem intent that they do NOT want a comprehensive health care bill period, so slapping something sorry together doesn’t get any love from them, since they have already announced that they are going to oppose Christmas this year.

The progressives and good Democrats wanting to finally move the USA into the rank of modern industrial nations (like Canada, eh?) are showing no love for this Baucus concoction. Mike Lux in a well written piece in fact argues that the White House may be allowing civil war within the Demo ranks to break out over this mess.

The 47 million folks without health care now in America are not going to be happy with this, nor are any of the rest of us going to be able to paint a smile on ourselves or lipstick on this pig.

Tell me then, why are we wasting time with Baucus rather than schooling him on reality and pressing for a real healthcare bill?

Health Care Fire Storm

jstuart — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:29:00 +0000

Niagara Falls Waking up after a long and productive training dialogue with Judy Duncan, ACORN Canada’s head organizer, for their talented lead organizers, I was reading The Globe and Mail. The comment page included a column by David Shribman, the executive editor of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trying to explain the messy health care fireworks to a head scratching Canadian audience. I identified with the effort, having tried various answers to scores of questions on my ACORN Canada fundraising tour for my book, Citizen Wealth.

Shribman did a good job actually. I hope he is as clear spoken in Pittsburgh as he is in Toronto. He nailed the issue on the head as not really being about health care at all, and it is easy to forget that right-left and middle all to agree that the system is not a system and is badly broken. He zeroed in on the fact that the firecrackers and the fight are all about power. Power and pent up anger at war, bailouts, and Bush.

The conservatives are unhappy that they are losing power and are desperately fighting back.

He quotes a Professor Sandel of Harvard in this way: “This is the standard debate about the role of government in ensuring fundamental rights and equal opportunities for all citizens, but it is also a frustration with government that goes beyond the debate about markets and gets to a sense of powerlessness. People sense that the forces that govern their lives are beyond their control, and I think this sentiment – a persistent theme in American politics – is not ‘right’ or ‘left.” It was reinforced in recent times by the financial crisis and the bailout and the sense of outrage about the help given to the wealthiest institutions and the wealthiest Americans.”

Real wisdom and insight as Canada looks at the USA from a higher plane and a good safe distance.

I’m taking a deep breath as I come back to America after a week with my Canadian friends.

Finding New Ways to Organize

wade — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:13:39 +0000

Toronto   Some of the most interesting meetings in my several days in Toronto were with our friends in the Canadian labor movement in Ontario, especially at the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), SEIU Canada, and the Steelworkers. There’s a hunger to organize in most of these unions even though several of them are getting hammered by the current economic implosion and watching membership plummet. Nonetheless the organizers are open and anxious to talk about new ideas, innovations, and other things that might work in the future.
   Our friend, Colin Heslop, who heads the skilled trades department of the CAW, was interested in developments in New Orleans where he and his people had helped us build houses, but it was also fascinating to catch up with him on the organizing developments in the unusual and groundbreaking deal that former CAW President Buzz Hargrove had made with Magma auto parts. Despite the fact that the staff and national executive board had approved this very “different” kind of arrangement with Magma including the no-strike provisions in order to organize more than 30,000 workers, predictably this “concession” had been an issue in the election for Buzz’s successor. All that was old news now, but the agreement with Magma had only netted about 1200 workers of the expected yield to date for various reasons.
   SEIU Canada continued to be heavily engaged in pulling together the building service sector with growing campaigns in Ottawa and emerging efforts in Vancouver. We had a fascinating discussion about living wage campaigns that are heating up in both areas and how this could feed into service-based organizing, as well as the usual wide ranging discussion about targets and opportunities.
   With our friends at Steel, we visited briefly with Canadian USW president Ken Neumann, and then hunkered down with his EA, Ken Delaney, to continue another chapter in the discussions about new innovations in organizing that we had had with him over the years. We caught up on the work with domestic workers which had interested us last year as well as other drives with taxi drivers and university workers which have solid legs. Ken wasted no time recognizing that the last six months had been a blur where most of the time and energy had focused on stopping the membership losses in the mounting recession and blunting their impacts. This had been like the classic “lost weekend,” where time had stopped since our conversations last summer and only now were our friends focusing on organizing again.
   Saying all of that it was exciting to start making plans and brainstorming with our friends and allies again in Canada. They were also interested and supportive of the informal worker organizing we are doing with ACORN International and the lessons we have learned from organizing along “majority union” lines in Wal-Mart. I’m still predicting big things for labor in Canada in the months and years to come.