Council of Canadians' Maude Barlow rips feds at Hamilton conference
Barlow criticizes Ottawa's handling of U.S. Steel bankruptcy, new CETA trade deal with Europe
Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians, is furious with the federal government and how it’s handled two key Hamilton issues: the U.S. Steel shutdown and the new trade deal with Europe. Now, she’s counting on Hamilton’s "fighting spirit" to change the government during next year's election.
The Council, a nonprofit and self-described non-partisan group — "We reserve the right to be angry at any political party, of any stripe, when its policies are this bad," Barlow said — is holding a weekend conference called Forging Solidarity. Government officials, including international trade spokeswoman Shannon Gutoskie, call the group "anti-trade."
CBC Hamilton spoke with Barlow on Friday as the conference began. The conversation has been condensed, but you can listen to the full interview here.
Why did you want to hold the event here in Hamilton?
Maude Barlow (MB): "We really feel that Hamilton is an example of a community that's been built by workers and by communities coming together with the unions to forge a really wonderful community.
I wasn’t surprised at all. I was really sad, and really angry.- Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians on the U.S. Steel bankruptcy
It's very much a union city. And this conference is very much about forging solidarity between working people and civil society groups: environmental, youth, First Nations and so on.
But also we were watching the situation with U.S. Steel … we feel that it's a metaphor for what’s happening across the country and of the Harper economic and political policies that say it’s just fine for corporations to come in and do what they want and it’s just fine. I think Stephen Harper serves corporations, particularly foreign corporations, and not Canadian workers and communities."
What are the biggest challenges facing this city?
MB: "Hamilton, like many Canadian cities, has been gutted by, I would argue, the combination of free trade and privatization and deregulation — the policies that I call of the one per cent, for the one per cent, by the one per cent — and people are struggling here. Youth are struggling here.
I think because it was so dependent on the steel mill, the plant and all the spinoff work from it, it’s just been devastated.
So it’s really important for us to come here and say 'working people matter.'
We need to have people stand up and say 'working people who fight for good wages and decent pensions and working conditions are not just fighting for themselves. They’re fighting for everybody.' And so we need to forge solidarity and not let those splits come between people with unionized jobs and nonunionized jobs, which is what the Harper government is banking on."
Do you think the story of Hamilton is well known outside of Ontario?
"That’s a good question. I think probably in Ontario it is, and certainly with working people. Hamilton is kind of like the bad example. It is a beautiful city, it really is an absolutely beautiful city, but it’s struggling.
I think people know there are parts of the country … that have been particularly hard hit by the change in the economy and the flight of jobs. Maybe part of why we’re here is to help tell Hamilton's story as itself, and also a metaphor for other communities."
What do you make of the U.S. Steel bankruptcy filing?
"I wasn’t surprised at all. I was really sad, and really angry. Because they not only didn’t fulfill their promises under the net benefit agreement, they not only didn’t protect the workers, but I really feel that they just dumped their losses on their Canadian operations to protect the American parent. They just left people high and dry.
I think it’s important for people to know that the net benefit agreement did not include protection of workers. They didn’t have to put any profit into pensions or worker benefits or protecting their jobs, so they were always going to be the first to go.
It’s such a story of what not to do. And how not to allow a wonderful Canadian institution to be destroyed piece by piece and have the workers treated the way they were.”
Where do you see the story going next with U.S. Steel?
“We need to have an emergency task force come together with federal, provincial and municipal governments, plus the workers, to come up with an economic plan and to come up with an alternative.
There are examples in the U.S. where workers have taken over abandoned steel plants and said ‘we can do it, we know how to run this thing.’ Whether or not that’s viable, I think it should be on the table.
Here we run into this Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with Europe, which is one of the other things we’re fighting. Because for the first time in this CETA agreement you’re not allowed to bring in local economic programs or protect local jobs.
“What’s needed in Hamilton … is a plan that would protect local jobs. But you’re going to have a real hard time doing that under CETA.”
The Council has spoken out about the ramifications of CETA in the past. If this city can’t find a way to opt out of it, what’s at stake?
"It’s any procurement. If you’re a local school, or local hospitals saying 'we want to promote local food and out local farmers,' no, there are big food service companies in Europe that would challenge that as a barrier to trade."
(After the publication of this story, Gutoskie contacted CBC Hamilton to clarify the CETA procurement chapter excludes procurement "in respect of agricultural goods made in furtherance of agricultural support programs or human feeding programs," which means institutions like hospitals, schools and senior's homes could purchase food from local producers without violating the agreement.)
"I argue it’s not a left, right issue. I argue it’s an issue of democracy. That we, individually, have the right in our municipality's, provincial and federal policies to make the laws that we think are right for us.
Locally, it will be much harder for Hamilton to recover from (the U.S. Steel bankruptcy) if they’re not able to promote a plan of local economic development.
I just don’t understand why there hasn’t been more of a concern about it.”