Thursday, February 17, 2022

The Third Option

Had enough of ideological differences splitting our communities? CLAC was formed 70 years ago to show that there’s a better way forward

Blogs Guide Magazine

By Alex Kuiper, Representative

In the competition for ideologies, two in particular continue to clash and create division and bitterness in society and our workplaces. The first idea, communism/socialism and the social experiments it supports, is increasingly making headlines these days. We see Marxist and socialist ideas being repackaged in myriad ways. The proletariat is no longer one class of people—it’s an infinite number of victimhoods competing for status.

The idea of fighting for economic justice just seems so passé in light of this rehashed social justice. Marxist ideology generally frames itself as the champion of the working class, as the protector of the hardworking proletariat against the evil bourgeoisie. It creates a paradigm of good versus evil, rich versus poor, us versus them.

Communist history is full of its leaders taking up social causes only to use them for their own power grabs, not least of which has been the fight for the rights of workers. The truth is that this ideology has done so little for the actual plight of the working class. We can see in our modern context that the working conditions in communist countries are horrendous, and the elite of those countries strip the freedoms of their people with no accountability.

Human nature is complex, and to assume that a group will spontaneously rise up out of history’s ashes and bestow equity on us all is the highest level of absurdity. History has proven time and again just how much of a failure this idea has been—and the historical record shows just how deadly.

The second idea, neoliberalism, is partly to blame for the current Marxist/socialist movement. Continued and concerted pushes toward greater control of our lives by corporate institutions and their impacts on social structure is naturally going to push disenfranchised people into making bad decisions. We produce managers who can easily explain away responsibility with nothing but the bottom line and the trajectory of their careers as a guiding light. Wages have either dropped or levelled off while inflation has spiked, and the super wealthy have become even more wealthy as a result.

CLAC straddled the void between these polarizing ideologies when it first came into existence 70 years ago. In the early years, CLAC found itself in a very similar political environment as we see today. CLAC’s founders called on both sides to better reflect on the inherent failings of their respective ideologies.

Today, as we celebrate the founding of CLAC in 1952, we need to continue to do the hard work of repairing a society increasingly being torn apart by failed ideologies. We need to expose and confront repacked communist ideas that pit us against one another and create even greater divisions in an endless us-versus-them mentality. We need to further push against mindless materialism and the endless growth and productivity cycle. A cycle that doesn’t do the hard math of including all the associated costs of free-market capitalism.

It can be daunting to stand up and ask questions in an era of cancel culture and threats to people who hold different views. CLAC’s founders were in a similar predicament. But it was because of their bravery to stand against the status quo, to stand against the popular opinions and ideas that they were able to create a third option built on dignity and respect for all people.

As individuals and as a union, we need to find the courage to calmly show people there is a better approach. We need to encourage them to resist bad ideas on either side of the ideological spectrum that exploit workers.

Let’s continue to do the hard work and bravely forge a path forward based on dignity and respect for everyone. In doing so, we can improve the lives of all workers and empower them to build better workplace communities.

The Third Option

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