PSL Statement: Why workers should oppose the far right Canadian ‘trucker’ convoy

Liberation Audio

From its beginning, the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Canada has been a vehicle for the far right to promote their views and press their reactionary demands. Despite being labeled the “trucker protest” by the corporate media, it does not represent the interests of workers in the trucking industry or otherwise. Its leadership from the beginning included far-right political figures and former police and security state employees. If met, its main demand — to end vaccine mandates — wouldn’t improve workers’ lives, but would instead do the exact opposite by sending them back to the job in the “new normal” with less health and safety protections. Some online pundits influential with socialists and progressives have muddied the waters and are praising the protest as some kind of workers’ uprising against the bosses. The Party for Socialism and Liberation opposes the far-right convoy and the broader anti-vaccine movement that imperils the lives of working people. A major police operation began in the early morning of Feb. 18 in Ottawa after weeks of extremely lenient or even openly supportive treatment by police officers that gave the convoy crucial room to grow. This reactionary movement has long since spread beyond Ottawa and may now have the capacity to persist despite the police action. In fact, it has become a worldwide phenomenon inspiring similar actions in France, Belgium and the United States. The Teamsters union in Canada represents 55,000 drivers including 15,000 long-haul truckers. Ninety percent of them are vaccinated. The head of the Teamsters in Canada released a statement titled “The Real Enemy for Truckers is Covid-19,” in which he argued that “the despicable display of hate lead by the political Right and shamefully encouraged by elected conservative politicians does not reflect the values of Teamsters Canada, nor the vast majority of our members, and in fact has served to delegitimize the real concerns of most truck drivers today.” Read the full statement: https://www.liberationnews.org/psl-statement-why-workers-should-oppose-the-far-right-canadian-trucker-convoy/