The Old Left Vs. The New Left in Canadian Labor

I came across some interesting Reddit Posts regarding the ongoing Labor Strike with PSAC that really highlights the struggles that the old classic Liberal is going to have to contend with the Post Modern Liberal.

Transcript

Russell: Alright, and we're back. Russell here with the Canadian conservative. Thecanadianconservative substac.com. I thought I would start by talking a bit about kind of the old left versus this new postmodern left. And when I say that I went on to reddit, which I don't recommend to anyone, it's cesspool, but if you do go on there, there's a subreddit called Our Canada Public Servants. And on here, this is kind of where the public sector of Canadian workforce goes to discuss all sorts of different things. It's a pretty left leaning subreddit overall. It's kind of an interesting way to see what's going on in the Canadian Federal Public Service. What their complaints are, what's working, what isn't. And of course, it's all anonymous accounts unless people choose to identify who they are. And as people know, there is a current ongoing labor action with PSAC, Canada's largest federal public service union. I came across a really interesting post. Now this post, I'll read it out, it says can we maybe get a thread going called Story Time or something similar? What I have in mind is a safe space for people to talk about the reason they are choosing to continue to work during a strike. We all have a story that's deeply personal and we have struggles that our work peers are not aware of. And not everyone has the luxury of a support system. I like to be able to build a compassionate and kind place for us to share stories that we can't share in the workplace. I am the only woman working in my team of 20 ish men with a female manager who is more interested in building friendships with the men. I am the only one continuing to work and I know for certain I will not be treated kindly when this is over. I have my reasons, but this is not the place to discuss it anyways. I just thought maybe folks could use a place to find community support without judgment. First comment is no. No, we cannot. None of us are interested in your reasoning for turning your back on us and weakening our bargaining stance. If you're looking for support without judgment of your scabbing, you should look for work in another industry. I have another one here. Why are people saying to report scabs? There's nothing that can be done to them? Are you not going to work with them when the strike is over? Unfortunately, you don't have a choice and have to do your job no matter who you work with. And the comment underneath that, I will not help anyone who I know is scabbed. After an agreement is made, I will only work communicate with them as necessary to do my job. These people are getting the benefits of the negotiated CBA, although they are making it weaker for everyone by crossing the line. If anyone is remotely thinking of crossing the line due to financial difficulties, talk to your union, bank, family maybe eliminate some unnecessary expenses, make better financial decisions. There will be retro pay coming if a loan is necessary. Just don't be a scab. You will see feel the difference in attitude towards you when this is over. And underneath that, never forgive, never forget. And underneath that, some people are insanely militant about this and are taking it personally, I guess, hardliners everywhere. I'm so incredibly disappointed with the infighting and lack of maturity. I've seen people in these comments equating scabbing with being against LGBT rights, being a Nazi or being a racist. How broke do you need to be to think that people running out of money and scabbing are the same as Nazis? Someone says, when scabbing affects the deal, I will get. Of course it is personal. They can lose their union membership. Sure, you have to work with them, but networking is a huge part of moving up in the government. If no one networks with them, their career will suffer. If someone chooses not to network with someone based on this, then they are extremely small minded, easily swayed by propaganda, and most certainly the type of person that one would want to associate with in the first place. People getting offended by scabs are similar to convoy members who were offended by those wearing masks. And why are scabs so entitled and fragile about the social consequence of their decisions? Why are you so entitled to your coworkers being friendly and social with you? Why do you think anyone would recommend you for a job after you demonstrated a fuck you, I need to take care of myself attitude? A choice to wear a mask doesn't affect anyone. A choice to scab actively undermine the sacrifices we're making by striking. You made your choice to scab, be an adult and accept the consequences. Well, there you have it. It is very clear that there is an old left that is saying, basically scabs, they don't get any respect in the workplace, they're not going to be treated kindly. And there's this new postmodern left and you can tell because they throw the buzzwords in there and they're saying, oh well, they're quitting scabbing with being a Nazi and a racist now. I mean, it's the left eating itself overall, but at least the old school classical liberal leftists, they're willing to forego a paycheck for a raise and probably a classic liberal, someone that's been through a strike before, someone that understands the actual suffering that can happen when a labor union chooses to go on strike. They've been saving money, they've been setting stuff aside, they've been cutting costs, they've been talking to their family saying, listen, we might be going on strike. We need to cut back finances because these things don't happen in a vacuum. All right? People are told months in advance, as far as I know with PSAC, they had tons and tons of information sessions and voting, even though only about a third of the people actually came out and voted in favor of a strike, you have this new postmodern left, well, fuck you, I got to get mine type thing. Well, if you want to be a leftist and you want to be part of that culture, part of that culture is collective suffering. You're going to give up your individuality and your individual needs and wants for the suffering of the group. And so you see these classic liberals that they're going to stand by and they're going to stand by their stance on things. And you have these new postmodern liberals and they can't stand the idea that just not up for debate, it's not up for discussion. They're saying, oh, we need to open up a safe space. And they're like, no, hell no. We're not opening up a safe space to scabs. And this is the dichotomy, I think, of showcasing what a classic liberal attitude is like versus this new neoliberal, where they want to have all the buzzwords and all the talk about being a liberal, but they also want to get what they want above all else. The buzzwords aren't going to work here telling people you're this or you're that for not appreciating me. Scabbing it's not going to work when it comes to labor action, labor dispute stuff. So I think there's a lot of young people in the public service now that are going to learn pretty quick about what it means to take a collectivist stance on things, especially when it comes to a labor action and a strike action. Now just to cover really quick, the strike itself doesn't seem to be a lot of public support for it. Not a lot of public sentiment is in favor of the people on strike. Think that people are seeing some parallels between the shutdown Ottawa sort of thing they got going on and the freedom convoy. And a lot of the stuff that happened in the freedom convoy is happening right now with PSAC. Now PSAC put out a statement saying that they wanted the freedom convoy to end and a lot of people, conservatives and people on the right and even some leftists are saying, hey PSAC, you wanted the freedom convoy to end. You wanted that movement to be quashed, but now you want people to support your movement. My stance on it is this would be a great time for the freedom convoy to come back to Ottawa to showcase their support for the striking PSAC workers. If anything, in my opinion, it would be a brilliant move if there was a return of the convoy to Ottawa right now. It would just be a perfect mishmash of confusion getting everyone upset for all the right reasons and wrong reasons, I guess too. It would put even additional pressure on the federal government, which may actually work in PSAC's favor, but it could also work in favor for people to get their voices heard as well. Now PSAC won't want to associate with the Freedom Convoy members that choose to go to Ottawa. If that was to happen, think they would probably end up not opposing them being there. They don't want to be associated with them, but if it's going to put additional strain on the federal government for their strike, you can see this whole enemy of my enemy is my friend or Frenemies or whatever the hell they call it these days. So lots of dynamics going on there. It's really interesting. It's like a sociology experiment to just kind of see how this old classic liberal left that is yeah, you're a part of a union. You're part of a collectivist organization that might have group suffering to advance our cause with these postmodern neoliberal leftists that want to use the skeleton of the left to pursue things that they want. That's my thoughts on that. It's going to be interesting to see how long the strike continues. Talking with a friend of mine and they were saying, oh, what do you think? What do you think? And I'm like, well, if it isn't over by Monday, and when I meant Monday, I meant like the 22 April, then I think they're going to be on strike for a long time. And they're like, really? You really think so? And I said, well, we just have this government right now. They just don't like being told what to do. They like to tell everyone else what to do. They do not like anyone, whether it be on their side, their opponent's side, anyone telling them what to do, or forcing their hand into a decision or even trying to negotiate a decision that they don't like. They don't like that. They didn't like it with the Freedom Convoy, they didn't like it with all sorts of other things. They're using OICs, which is another topic I'm going to talk about another day to circumvent democracy, to get the things that they want passed. It's a very weird government we have, and they're willing to take all sorts of autocratic measures. So I could easily see PSAC being on strike for two months. All right, and that's all I got for today, folks. Russell, here thecanadian conservative podcast, thecanadianconservative substac.com. If you want to check out my writing, that's where I'm at. And just to let everyone know, I don't really solicit donations or subscriptions all that much, but it is there. You can subscribe, help me out a little bit. Everything I do is all independent and it's a one man show. So I make the podcast, I do the research, and I publish everything self published. All right, everyone, thanks again.