{"id":6488,"date":"2023-01-04T01:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T06:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/?p=6488"},"modified":"2023-04-14T16:18:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-14T20:18:46","slug":"beyond-the-rituals-of-class-compromise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/beyond-the-rituals-of-class-compromise\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Rituals of Class Compromise"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"6488\" class=\"elementor elementor-6488\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-41dac2fb elementor-section-height-min-height elementor-section-content-top elementor-section-stretched elementor-section-items-bottom elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"41dac2fb\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{"stretch_section":"section-stretched","background_background":"classic"}\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-724e5263\" data-id=\"724e5263\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-31da338b elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-hidden-mobile animated-slow elementor-view-default elementor-invisible elementor-widget elementor-widget-icon\" data-id=\"31da338b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-settings=\"{"_animation":"fadeInDown"}\" data-widget_type=\"icon.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon-wrapper\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon\">\n\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fas fa-angle-double-down\"><\/i>\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1d76cc83 elementor-section-full_width elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1d76cc83\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-3fb3bade\" data-id=\"3fb3bade\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-385395f1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"385395f1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/X-4NYxVZ4R0\" target=\"_blank\">Photo: Maxime Gilbert\/Unsplash<\/a><\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-795ba3ff elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"795ba3ff\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-a21b443\" data-id=\"a21b443\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d54ae8a elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"d54ae8a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<h3 style=\"text-align: right;\">1. 4. 2023<\/h3><h1>Beyond the Rituals of Class Compromise<\/h1><h3 style=\"text-align: right;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><br \/><a style=\"color: #000000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/tag\/john-clarke\/\">John Clarke<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/h3><hr \/><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>Working-class people face intensified attack on a range of fronts. The inflationary upsurge that has produced a major global cost of living crisis is considerably more stubborn than <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/10\/13\/business\/economy\/high-inflation.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">initially expected<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If \u201csupply shocks\u201d underlie this economic instability, we must suppose that there are a great many more of them to come.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Intensifying global rivalry will undermine the flow of trade to an ever greater extent. Moreover, the efforts of the United States to defend its hegemonic position dramatically increase the risks of major armed conflicts. The rivalry that marks this period is already producing results that are profoundly economically disruptive. It is likely that much worse lies ahead.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pandemic has had dramatic impacts on the world\u2019s economy, and it is clear that the factors that created this global health emergency are entirely unresolved. The scientific mainstream has now fully accepted that we live in what can be referred to as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lanplh\/article\/PIIS2542-5196(20)30305-3\/fulltext\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pandemic era.<\/span><\/a><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over and above all of this, we face the sharpest of all expressions of capitalism\u2019s inability to develop a sustainable relationship with the natural world: the accelerating climate crisis. Its effects are already being seen in a variety of ways, including the proliferation of extreme weather episodes. This element of the present multi-layered crisis brings with it the most destructive impacts and the most economically disruptive results of all.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such conditions of crisis in society starkly pose the question of who will shoulder the burden. The driving up of interest rates by central banks internationally makes clear that the hawkish advocates of class war and \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/springmag.ca\/the-class-war-of-interest-rates?fbclid=IwAR31oADAo_BZkH0_o14E--KohMDAl4Wh7kCDXwz4vqVKOMxTBgi7bVmCu2s\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">creative destruction<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are dominating policy directions, and that they see wage cuts and reduced living standards, even at the risk of a major global slump, as the route to stability for their system.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the same time, hopes for a turn away from the agenda of austerity have been cruelly dashed. A recent study by a group of NGOs looked at 267 International Monetary Fund (IMF) country reports that map out plans for a major<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterfire.org\/article\/the-intensification-of-global-austerity\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">international austerity assault<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Unquestionably, this attack is playing out here in Ontario, as the Ford Tories take the knife<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/socialistproject.ca\/2021\/06\/doug-ford-and-the-pcs-plan-another-decade-of-austerity\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to public services<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those who would characterize this period as one marked by working-class passivity are quite wrong. The last few years have seen a rising working-class anger struggling to find effective expression. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked an upsurge<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/2020\/07\/03\/us\/george-floyd-protests-crowd-size.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of historic proportions<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on US streets, one<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that reverberated internationally. A rebellion in the workplace is brewing: here in Ontario, there has been a dramatic increase<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/socialistproject.ca\/2022\/07\/growing-turmoil-ontario-labour-relations\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> strike activity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The recent struggle <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/breachmedia.ca\/doug-ford-underestimated-the-power-of-workersbut-so-did-union-leaders\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">taken up by education workers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in this province, its massive contradictions notwithstanding, is further evidence that working-class people are looking for the means to fight back.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet these inspiring indications shouldn\u2019t be a source of unrealistic optimism. There is a huge reservoir of anger and an appetite for effective resistance, but it is not yet taking the form of durable movements and winning struggles. This problem must be overcome, if the leap in thought and action that this period demands is to be achieved. People learn relatively little by getting kicked and a great deal more from fighting back.<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such positive lessons are urgently needed.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For masses of people to take the path of social mobilization, they must be convinced it can prevent cuts in real wages and the gutting of vital public services. This means moving beyond the rituals of token protest and embracing forms of resistance that are defiant and hugely disruptive.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2>Mechanisms of compromise<\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though vital struggles take place at the community level, the greatest power of working-class people lies in our ability to shut down the production and flow of goods and services by employing the strike weapon. For this reason, trade unions remain decisive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After World War Two, employers and the state fought hard to prevent an organizing breakthrough by workers in North America, but it could no longer be held back. In this situation, a strategy of containment rather than direct confrontation was adopted. The state-brokered mechanisms of compromise between capital and labour that developed in this period constituted a tactical retreat. Unions were recognized and granted significant rights that, in the economic boom years following the war, ensured gains in wages and working conditions. However, the system of legally enshrined \u201clabour relations\u201d that was put in place set limits that had been unknown in the more rough-and-tumble class struggle conditions that had previously existed.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now, in return for their new rights, unions negotiated with employers in a regulated process that limited and compartmentalized workers\u2019 struggles. Strikes during the life of collective agreements were banned, and the bulk of disputes were now settled by way of a legalistic process of grievance and arbitration. Solidarity strikes to support other groups of workers and united struggles around broader political demands were also prohibited by law.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is hardly surprising that such a regulated and tightly supervised form of class conflict had a major effect on the unions themselves. Though strike battles were still fought, a great deal of the representative role that unions played was now in the hands of experts and specialists. Bureaucratized forms of struggle engendered bureaucratized unions and significantly demobilized their rank and file.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These mechanisms of compromise were developed in a period of relative economic buoyancy, when employers and governments were making concessions to working-class people. Economic downturn and falling rates of profit in the 1970s, however, led to a changed strategy that would become known as neoliberalism. This included an assault on unions to drive down wages and the gutting of the social infrastructure.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this situation, the class compromise arrangements of the post-war years became an impediment. Workers were still adhering to agreements that limited their ability to struggle, but the other side was no longer ready to give anything back in return. The ruling-class attack, while severe, was nonetheless incremental enough for the \u201cdeal\u201d to hold while union membership and working-class living standards declined.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The present crisis-ridden period is accelerating the pace of the attack to such a degree that the consequences of limiting working-class resistance have become dramatically worse. To confine the strike weapon to individual contract disputes is a recipe for disaster that renders effective working-class struggle impossible. Breaking out of these limitations becomes a life-and-death question.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2>The need for defiance<\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the neoliberal decades, working-class defiance has sometimes emerged when governments have seriously accelerated the ruling-class attack. The Ontario <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogto.com\/events\/remembering-metro-days-action-toronto\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Days of Action<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> against the provincial Tory regime in the 1990s were a case in point. Faced with an unprecedented assault on workers and communities, there was a limited effort to break out of the constraints of regulated class compromise.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While the campaign involved city-wide strikes that broke the rules and provided an inspiring indication of working-class power, the union leadership of the time engaged in these tactics with considerable reluctance. No plan to escalate the struggle to winning levels was ever advanced, and after the momentum of the actions had been lost, the whole effort was abandoned.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Very similar factors played out in Ontario education workers\u2019 recent struggle. The Ford<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> government\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/breachmedia.ca\/doug-ford-underestimated-the-power-of-workersbut-so-did-union-leaders\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bill 28<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> created a situation where CUPE and its Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) could avoid the humiliation of an imposed concessionary contract only by responding defiantly.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With this blunder, Ford brought on an \u201cillegal\u201d strike by education workers and the threat of a wave of sympathy actions by other unions. That such a fightback could be made ready is no small matter, but the rapidity with which CUPE accepted Ford\u2019s offer to repeal the legislation, in return for the suspension of strike action, was enormously telling.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once the union leaders had something on the table that could justify a return to the mechanisms of compromise they had been schooled in, they were ready to grab it. This retreat led to a deal that failed to address the cost of living crisis, and that ended the generalized movement of working-class resistance that was emerging in that moment.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Certainly, the top leadership of CUPE carries the major responsibility for that concession, <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">while<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the OSBCU leaders were <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/breachmedia.ca\/the-inside-story-of-how-education-workers-beat-back-doug-ford\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">obviously more reluctant to concede<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. However, no force within the union was able to resist the pressure to draw back. The tragic curtailment of this struggle poses huge questions about the kind of movement we need at this time.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is of decisive importance that the strike weapon be freed from its present constraints. It must become a form of generalized working-class struggle that advances broad political demands. As Rosa Luxemburg stressed in her study of the mass strike, such a course is capable of inspiring and mobilizing a huge portion of the population.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As Luxemburg <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/luxemburg\/1906\/mass-strike\/ch06.htm\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">put it<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, \u201cEvery real, great class struggle must rest upon the support and cooperation of the widest masses, and a strategy of class struggle which does not reckon with this cooperation, which is based upon the idea of the finely stage-managed march out of the small, well-trained part of the proletariat, is foredoomed to be<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a miserable fiasco<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u201d Clearly, such a course of action would have to be taken up over the indignant objections of the Ontario Labour Relations Board.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though strikes are of central importance, it is also true that very powerful forms of community-based action are entirely possible. In Canada, the lessons to be drawn from Indigenous-led resistance are particularly vital in this regard. The country-wide wave of solidarity action <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">with Wet\u2019suwet\u2019en<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> land defenders in 2020 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/spectrejournal.com\/the-global-supply-chain-neoliberalisms-weak-link\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">unleashed major economic disruption<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and created a deep political crisis for those in power. Linked to massive strikes and advancing fighting demands, such forms of resistance could be incredibly powerful.<\/span><\/p><p>\u00a0<\/p><h2>Rank-and-file independence<\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Obviously, the mass action that the present situation demands will require organizational forms that make it possible. Trade unions have a vital role to play, but for this to happen, a rank-and-file movement is indispensable. The<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.marxists.org\/archive\/draper\/1941\/04\/stewards.htm\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">shop stewards committees<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that were formed in Britain during and after World War One are instructive as models of this form of organizing. They were able to challenge collaborationist union leaders, initiate independent action when necessary, and forge links with community-based forms of working-class struggle.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While such major rank-and-file initiatives are not in place today, we are seeing initiatives that are building power at the base within unions. Teachers in the US have provided particularly compelling examples, raising the level of militancy among their fellow workers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/rethinkingschools.org\/articles\/you-need-rank-and-file-to-win-how-arizona-teachers-built-a-movement\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">through their organizing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Biden\u2019s recent attack on rail workers was rendered possible because of the collaborationist leadership within the rail unions. However,<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.labornotes.org\/2022\/12\/what-would-it-take-rail-workers-win\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Railroad Workers United<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (RWU), rooted in the rank and file, has emerged as a force challenging that leadership.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a great need to take such forms of organizing within the unions much further, but also to look for broader organizational forms that could unite workplace struggles with community-based resistance. The stubborn struggle that has been waged in Sudan against that country\u2019s military regime and its harsh social spending cutbacks has been advanced considerably by<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/spectrejournal.com\/the-future-of-the-resistance-committees-in-sudan\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the resistance committees<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that have emerged. The development of such dynamic, participatory forms of local organization can contribute enormously to a sustained and effective capacity to fight back in the present period.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the 1930s in Canada, the interventions of the Communist Party played an enormous role in taking forward the militant struggles of the unemployed. Though much was wrong with the way those interventions were carried out, the existence of a significant left party at that time supported powerful working-class action during the Great Depression.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today, there is no single socialist organization that could match the influence of the CP in the \u201930s. An effort to organize at the base and create conditions for winning forms of struggle would likely require a working alliance of leftists and rank-and-file militants. While it is much easier to propose such an undertaking than to set it in motion or sustain it, the need for such forward movement is clear and obvious.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It would be preposterous to try to provide any organizational blueprints or detailed plans of action for such rank-and-file initiatives, but it would be worth considering the role they could have played in two of the situations I have described.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During the Ontario Days of Action, there was a strong sense among leftists and militants that the momentum of the campaign was being held back. As those who lived through the period will doubtless recall, \u201cCity by city is way too slow. Let\u2019s shut down Ontario,\u201d was a chant commonly heard at rallies. There was, however, no means of making this vision a reality.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such was the top-down form of the movement\u2019s organizing that a relative handful of union leaders were able to haggle and improvise as they saw fit. When another city was eventually chosen as the next site of struggle, a local committee of unions and community organizations was nominally given the power to direct the events of the day. However, they could really only follow a tight script addressed to their own community and had no say over the provincial initiative as a whole.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Had those communities and the rank and file of the unions been organized and properly orientated, the local committees could have developed a capacity to act beyond their one-day mandate, ensuring actions would be taken on a wider front than the city-by-city approach permitted. A campaign that escalated to the level of a province-wide strike was possible, but the union leaders clearly wished to prevent it.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the case of the recent education workers\u2019 strike, things are even more clear-cut. A major united working-class struggle was emerging, and it was called off once the union leaders decided that it was possible to do so. A rank-and-file movement with a solid influence among those workers would have made an edict to demobilize impossible. The membership\u2019s strong reluctance to accept a substandard deal could have been transformed into a determined effort to defeat it.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important to understand how deeply entrenched in the union structures are the failed rituals of compromise, and how committed to them are the bulk of the leadership. An effective rank-and-file movement will certainly have to be very much more than a means of applying some pressure on those at the top. It will have to make demands and, where necessary, act independently and defiantly to ensure that the necessary methods of resistance are taken up.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We are now in a situation where, to contain the present inflationary surge, a systematic global effort is underway to reduce the bargaining power of workers and drive down real wages. This attack may very well generate conditions of global slump. We are dealing with a class-war offensive by employers and governments, and yet the rules of engagement that we are expected to observe don\u2019t allow us to fight fire with fire. If we are to avoid crushing defeats, breaking free of outmoded rituals of class compromise is an absolute necessity. Finding the means to do this is the most pressing political task we face in these extraordinary times.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-100c086c elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon elementor-view-default elementor-widget-divider--element-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"100c086c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon elementor-divider__element\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fas fa-sun\"><\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-18e4ff12 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"18e4ff12\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>John Clarke is a writer and anti-poverty activist in Toronto. He was an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) for almost 30 years.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-1c03daaf elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-hidden-phone\" data-id=\"1c03daaf\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-434916a4 elementor-hidden-tablet elementor-hidden-phone\" data-id=\"434916a4\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-20e59724 elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"20e59724\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\"><div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-default orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.midnightsunmag.ca%2Fbeyond-the-rituals-of-class-compromise%2F&text=Beyond%20the%20Rituals%20of%20Class%20Compromise&via=midnightsunmag\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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O\u2019Brien on family abolition and the communizing of care as political horizons worth fighting for. A conversation with Midnight Sun editor David Camfield.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/moments-of-vast-possibility\/\" class=\"crp_link post-5937\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Moments of Vast Possibility<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> Solidarity Winnipeg\u2019s Jesslyn Best and Leslie Ep discuss utopias, popular uprisings, gender and sexual freedom, communist politics, and speculative fiction with M.E. O\u2019Brien and Eman Abdelhadi, the authors of the new book Everything For Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052-2072.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/storm-clouds-over-capitalism-in-canada\/\" class=\"crp_link post-6053\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Storm Clouds Over Capitalism in Canada<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> Todd Gordon and Geoffrey McCormack on the deepening crisis in Canadian capitalism, how we got here, and how social movements in struggle will shape what\u2019s next.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/class-politics-for-times-of-deepening-global-crisis\/\" class=\"crp_link post-7680\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Class Politics for Times of Deepening Global Crisis<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> David Camfield on how we should understand the working class today, and why that understanding matters for building solidarity and power.<\/span><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"crp_clear\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-31be5025 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"31be5025\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-490024e0\" data-id=\"490024e0\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6e7e123d elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"6e7e123d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\"><div class=\"shariff shariff-align-flex-start shariff-widget-align-flex-start\"><ul class=\"shariff-buttons theme-default orientation-horizontal buttonsize-medium\"><li class=\"shariff-button twitter shariff-nocustomcolor\" style=\"background-color:#595959\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.midnightsunmag.ca%2Fbeyond-the-rituals-of-class-compromise%2F&text=Beyond%20the%20Rituals%20of%20Class%20Compromise&via=midnightsunmag\" title=\"Share on X\" aria-label=\"Share on X\" role=\"button\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"shariff-link\" style=\"; 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background-color:#999; color:#fff\"><span class=\"shariff-icon\" style=\"\"><svg width=\"32px\" height=\"20px\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 32 32\"><path fill=\"#999\" d=\"M32 12.7v14.2q0 1.2-0.8 2t-2 0.9h-26.3q-1.2 0-2-0.9t-0.8-2v-14.2q0.8 0.9 1.8 1.6 6.5 4.4 8.9 6.1 1 0.8 1.6 1.2t1.7 0.9 2 0.4h0.1q0.9 0 2-0.4t1.7-0.9 1.6-1.2q3-2.2 8.9-6.1 1-0.7 1.8-1.6zM32 7.4q0 1.4-0.9 2.7t-2.2 2.2q-6.7 4.7-8.4 5.8-0.2 0.1-0.7 0.5t-1 0.7-0.9 0.6-1.1 0.5-0.9 0.2h-0.1q-0.4 0-0.9-0.2t-1.1-0.5-0.9-0.6-1-0.7-0.7-0.5q-1.6-1.1-4.7-3.2t-3.6-2.6q-1.1-0.7-2.1-2t-1-2.5q0-1.4 0.7-2.3t2.1-0.9h26.3q1.2 0 2 0.8t0.9 2z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"shariff-text\">email<\/span> <\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-3a1d1a9e elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3a1d1a9e\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-2686dcba\" data-id=\"2686dcba\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-55b4db83 elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"55b4db83\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\"><div class=\"crp_related crp_related_shortcode crp-text-only\"><h3>Related:<\/h3><ul><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/what-we-mean-by-community-is-our-yearning-for-communism\/\" class=\"crp_link post-7485\"><span class=\"crp_title\">What We Mean by Community is Our Yearning for Communism<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> M.E. O\u2019Brien on family abolition and the communizing of care as political horizons worth fighting for. A conversation with Midnight Sun editor David Camfield.<\/span><\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.midnightsunmag.ca\/moments-of-vast-possibility\/\" class=\"crp_link post-5937\"><span class=\"crp_title\">Moments of Vast Possibility<\/span><\/a><span class=\"crp_excerpt\"> Solidarity Winnipeg\u2019s Jesslyn Best and Leslie Ep discuss utopias, popular uprisings, gender and sexual freedom, communist politics, and speculative fiction with M.E. 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class=\"crp_clear\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Clarke on the need to move beyond the demobilizing compromise between capital and organized labour that developed in the post-war period, with its rules of engagement that no longer serve the working class.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6490,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[283,119,71,33,297,77,54,61,65],"class_list":["post-6488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","tag-cupe-ontario","tag-education-workers","tag-john-clarke","tag-labour","tag-ontario-days-of-action","tag-organizing-strategies","tag-organizing-tactics","tag-pandemic","tag-unions","entry","has-media"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Beyond the Rituals of Class Compromise – Midnight Sun<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"John 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