A Second Look a the Situation in Mental Health Housing in BC: Why the "Staff" are NOT Workers and Have no Place in the Unions

In a previous article I wrote about how the bureaucrats running the Hospital Employees Union organized the "staff" at mental health housing were organized and the that residents (many of whom are Proletarian, all of whom are Plebeian) were disenfranchised.

I however made what I now consider to be a fundamental error. I assumed that the staff were working class. The fact is the Proletariat do manual labour and produce commodities, unlike the staff at mental health housing. The staff primary function isn't white collar work either. In fact their job is to police the activities of residents in the group homes.

Marxist define the state as armed bodies of men (people would be more politically correct) and other forces of coercion. And the "staff" at mental health housing by their job description are coercive. They are, I think it is correct to say part of the state apparatus. This being the case they have no place in unions and it is a crime that the labour bureaucracy would organize these people. Especially when it involved disenfranchises actual Proletarians. It truly speaks to the labour bureaucracy's utter bankruptcy.

The labour bureacracy organizes a ton of people who they shouldn't. They organize cops and security guards who break strikes. They organize prison guards who terrorizes workers and oppressed people who have been thrown in jail. They organize foremen who police workers on the job. Recently, the Canadian Auto Workers started organizing priests. Just as cops who police the ghettos (and break strikes) and foremen who police the shop floor shouldn't be in unions, "staff" in mental health housing don't belong in unions.

It is the job of revolutionaries Trotskyists to form a disciplined Leninist vanguard which would serve as a class struggle leadership for workers (whether organized or unorganized). Such a leadership would fight tooth and nail to purge the unions of mental health housing "staff", priests, cops, security guards, prison guards, foremen and other anti-working class elements along with the labour bureaucrats who organize them.

Nazism Raises its Ugly Head: Fascist Terror is Not a Question of Free Speech!

It has been reported that the Nazis intend to rally in the Greater Vancouver area. I has been ten years since these vermin dared rally in Vancouver. The fascists pose a threat to all the oppressed including disabled, mentally ill, racial minorities, Jews, Muslims, gays, bisexuals, transgender but their main target is the multiracial proletariat (working class). The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), which criminally champion the "constitutional rights" of fascists will probably do the same again. More recently they have taken it a step further and championed people who actually killed the oppressed such as fascistic bigot Robert Latimer who has the support of outright fascists and sits back and lets them make his case (see. http://thebigotedmurderoftracylatimer.blogspot.com). The BBCLA criminally can't even stomach the idea of opposing forced sterilization of the severely disabled, severely mentally ill and severely mentally challenged on principle.

Lately the fascists have been reaping gains from the fascistic Free Robert Latimer Movement. A movement that has defends the freeing of ablest bigot and fascistic lyncher Robert Latimer who murdered his own disabled daugther. A number of notable leftists, such as NDPer Svend Robinson and the grossly misnamed political bandits known in Canada as the "Trotskyist League" (see. http://spartacistwatch.blogspot.com), have criminally championed Robert Latimer,  and therefore share responsibility for the rise of fascism in Canada.

Like the fascists in Britain the fascists here are probably benefiting from anti-immigrant racism and 9/11 hysteria. The "war on terror" has been criminally support by the likes of the NDP.

Fascist terror is not a question of free speech. They "speak" with the lynch rope, firebombs, guns etc. Revolutionaries much not call on the capitalist state because "hate crime law" will only be used as a pretext to go after the left and rarely go after actual fascists and racist and ablest terrorists. What is need is labour/minority/disabled people rally to smash the fascists and drive them off the streets. The multiracial and neurologically diverse proletariat create labour defence guards to defend minorities, the disabled and mentally ill against lynchings (including "mercy killings"). To do this it is necessary to forge a Revolutionary Leninist Trotskyist Vanguard party to lead the proletariat. Ultimately, in order to eliminate fascism altogether the capitalist system needs to be overturned in international workers revolution and the Bourgeoisie (capitalist class), which always keeps the fascists in reserve as a last line of defence, must be expropriated.

For Workers Seizure of Bankrupt Industries: Companies Demanding Bailout Money Should Open the Books

A little while ago their were bailouts of companies, mainly banks and auto companies so far. Such grotesque bailouts serve to do nothing other than to save the profits of the capitalist and save this venal, decrepid and putrid capitalist system. This all has come at the expense of the working class and the oppressed. The working class has to pay higher taxes to bailout these greedy and rapacious capitalist. More public services are being gutted. Also, taking place have been "restructuring". Basically companies that are being bailed out are require to slash wages, eradite pension and other union benefits.

Criminally the labour bureaucracy and it political arm of the NDP. Jack Layton criminally told workers to have the "courage" to take a cut. Its quite obvious the Proletariat (working class) needs to break with the NDP and he labour bureaucracy. The working class needs a new party, a revolutionary Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard party. Many smaller reformist groups such as Fightback, Socialist Action and the International Socialist continue to foster illusion in the NDP. In doing so they do a real diservice to the working class.

If capitalist companies go bankrupt than workers should seize those factories and run them themselves. If you've seen The Take by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis you'll know what I am talking about. Also, workers must demand that bosses requesting bailouts to open the books so all can see the profits that the capitalist gouge from the masses. However, workers musn't stop there. The working class must be mobilized to take state power by smashing the Bourgeois (capitalist) state. Whereas, a Bourgeois state would seek to overturn working class expropriations of capitalist companies, a worker's state would defend and extend such expropriation. Workers' Revolution in Canada isn't enought. It must take place internationally.

Anti-Olympic Protestors Who Riot: Stupid? Maybe. Criminal. No.

As most people know the Olypmics are currently taking place in Vancouver and Whistler in British Columbia. The games have done nothing but bleed public services in Canada dry. In response to this their have been plenty of protests against these games. There have been allegations by the Bourgeois (capitalist) Press of protestors being "violent". I'm a Marxist, not a Petty-Bourgeois (middle-class, white-collar) moralist and see no reason to be repugnant over "violence".

First of all what's worse, trigger-happy thugs in blue (i.e. cops), who have a monopoly on fire-arms and tasers, gunning down the mentally ill, disabled, natives and hispanics in the ghettos like Downtown Eastside, cops breaking strikes or assualting protestors with tasers, guns, pepper spray, tear gas etc. or a couple of people breaking a few windows?

The multi-racial, neurolocially diverse Proletariat (working-class) must show its uncompromising solidarity with Olympic protestors against cop terror and state repression. Such means as mass strikes, united front demos and labour defense guards should prove affective.

This being said I don't think one should be uncritical of the anti-olympics protestors. Breaking windows is NOT criminal from the standpoint of the revolutionary proletariat. However, such tactics as breaking windows are NOT affective and only give the Bourgeoisie (capitalist class) and excuse to bolster state power. And the Bourgeoisie WILL seize on the opportunity to do so.

Also, none of the groups on the groups, to my knowledge, have sought to mobilize the Proletariat. The Proletariat is not one more layer of oppressed people, but is the only class with the objective interests and means to abolished private property, class society and every last vestige of this decaying, rotting system know as Capitalism. Groups like the Anti-Poverty Committee thinks that cop terror can be eliminated with civilian review boards. But the cops can not be reformed to serve the oppressed. They must be smashed throught workers' revolution.

In order to mobilize the working class what is needed is a revolutionary, Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard party to lead the working class to power. This goes hand-in-hand with breaking the working class from the labour bureaucracy and their political arm the NDP. The labour bureaucracy even agreed to extend labour contracts till after the Olympics to ensure "labour peace" during the Olympics. Criminal indeed. After the Olympics, the province will be so in debt that the government and the bosses they represent will rip apart union contract front and centre.

For a General Strike against the Vancouver/Whistler 2010 Olympics

British Columbia has seen a lot of opposition to the Olympics. From Natives, to the "disabled", to the "mentally ill", to ghetto poor, to immigrant groups to civil liberties groups. The Olympic games have led to the complete ravaging of public services from Healthcare to Education to Social Housing to Legal Aid. However, the force that ultimately must come to bear is the multiracial proletariat (working class). If the entire working class went on strike for the two weeks of the Olympics the came simply could not take place.

This would require a break with the current labour misleaders and for the forging of a Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard to lead the Proletariat. The current leadership even agreed to extend the contracts until after the Olympic games. All to ensure "labour peace". Such "labour peace" serves to benefit bosses, not workers.

Labour must unite "disabled", "mentally ill"  and neurotypical. Natives, Asian, Hispanic, South Asian, White and Persian. Women, men, transgendered and intersexed. Gay, straight and bi. It must champion natives, immigrant, women, the ghetto masses, the "disabled", the "mentally ill" and all the the oppressed whether by the Olympics or otherwise. The working class must fight tooth and nail against the evisceration of civil liberties. It must fight against cuts to healthcare, welfare, education, parks, libraries, legal aid, vocational services, social housing as so forth. They must fight against regressive taxes like the carbon tax and the HST.

The fact is that such ravages are endemic to the capitalist system. Eliminating such ravages requires smashing apart this rotten capitalist system.

The Divide between Staff and Residents: A Tool for the Bosses

When Motivation Power and Achievement Society (MPA - formerly Mental Patients Association), a mental health housing network, started hiring staff. Residents at a group home could vote for a staff person there. That all changed when the Hospital Employees Union came in and stripped residents of their voting rights. Its is reasonable for employees whether public sector or otherwise to be concerned about job security. But the methods employeed by the HEU bureaucracy serves to drive a wedge between staff and disabled and mentally ill residents. Also, considering that an increasing number of workers are disabled or mentally ill, this seeks to divide that working class as well (in fact many MPA residents are working-class).

A good solution would be this:

1) Residence of a group home vote for staff member once a year.

2) If staff member is voted out, he/she is transfered not fired.

3) If a new placement can't be found for them they get leave with full pay and benefits (the pay, benefits etc. they would get for working).

4) The only people who can fire staff are the residences of the houses they work in and in these cases point 2 and 3 apply.

5) The only thing staff can be fired is if they are convicted or murder, abuse, rape or assault or something to this degree.

These could easily be afford by the system. There certainly is enough money. The problem is the majority of the wealth is is private hands. The the labour bureaucracy as loyal lackeys of the capitalist class wouldn't dare touch private property. They share the capitalists view that private property is sacrosanct.

Do to the profits that imperialist capitalist power make from exploiting neocolonies (expanding marking, extracting resources and exploiting cheap labour) they can afford to throw a few scraps to a upper stratum of the labour movement. Thus creating a labour bureaucracy, a privelage stratum resting on top of the labour movement. This caste sees the working class and the oppressed through the lense of the capitalists. It typically adopts all the same prejudices and elitisms of the capitalists. It would sooner pit workers against the disabled and mentally ill than mobilize workers against bosses. Don't forget this is the same bureaucracy that sold out the recent HEU strikes, BCTF strikes and countless other strikes.

The stealing of disabled and mentally ill group homes residents should be seen in context of the time period. If I am not mistaken, this took place in the 1960s and 1970s. This when the trade unions had been fully purged of Communists. The bureaucracy and its political arm the CCF/NDP purged the Waffle, a left-wing social democratic tendency, from the unions and NDP. In 1972 the labour bureaucracy opposed the near-insurrenctionary general strike in Quebec and supported the jailing of its leaders.

Apart from Quebec, BC has the most militant working class in Canada. The labour bureaucracy is desperate to cap that militancy (in order to safeguard their privelages). It channels labour militancy away from class struggle into ablest bigotry, psychosiphobia, anti-immigrant racism, anti-Quebec chauvinism and ties to the NDP.

Despites the crimes of the labour bureaucracy, people in the disabled community must not have illusions in the capitalist class (including their government, cops, courts, press etc.), who are all to eager to pit the mentally ill and disabled ghetto masses against labour. The same capitalist class that brakes strikes, slashes wages and pension also sterilized the mentally ill and disabled, give the killers of the disabled like fascistic lyncher Robert Latimer light sentences or no sentences at all, and slashes services that benefit the mentally ill and disabled like welfare, healthcare and social housing.

What is needed is to break the working class from the labour bureaucracy (including its political arm the NDP), and to forge a Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard that seeks to moblilize the working class, including disabled, mentally ill and neurolically typical to champion the disabled and all layers of the oppressed and ultimately overturn the capitalist system that inevitabley breeds bigotry whether ablism, psychosiphobia or otherwise.