The mobilizations come in the wake of weeks of rallies, strikes, and marches by working people in British Columbia (B.C.) held to condemn attacks on public workers unions and budget cutbacks in health and education. This week members of the Hospital Employees Union (HEU) continued their actions in at least 60 locations against attacks on health care and their union in B.C., despite the Labour Relations Board ruling illegal a five-hour strike planned by the union.

The B.C. Federation of Labour (BCFL) and the B.C. Health Coalition are organizing a mass rally February 23 at the provincial legislature in Victoria--four days after the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell presents its budget which is expected to contain further attacks on social services.

Indicating the direction the Canadian rulers want to push in attacking health care for working people, Roy Romanow, former New Democratic Party (NDP) premier of Saskatchewan and now head of a federal commission on health care, said February 7 that among the alternatives that the commission is considering are "charging co-payments or user fees" and "more private-sector participation" in the health-care industry.

The B.C. provincial government, headed by the Liberal Party, has announced it will impose a 50 percent hike on health-care premiums May 1. Finance Minister Gary Collins added that health-care premiums may have to go up by 60 percent to 70 percent, blaming a 11.3 percent pay raise granted doctors by an arbitration panel for the additional increase.  
 
Teachers strike in Alberta
Members of the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) went on strike to win wage increases, including big hikes for new teachers. The strike affects about half the student population in the province. Another 1,000 teachers may begin strike action February 11.

Another demand of the teachers is for a reduction in class sizes in the early grades. One recent survey found that 41 percent of Alberta's elementary classrooms have 25 or more students. Over 620 elementary classrooms have 30 or more students. Junior and senior high classrooms are larger, giving Alberta the highest student-teacher ratio in the country. Since teachers are fighting to improve education, they have won support from both students and parents.

On February 8, 4,000 angry teachers, students, and parents rallied at the provincial legislature in Edmonton to demand more government funding for education. "Our fight is with the people in this building who have refused the proper funding for education, and they need to hear that message," ATA president Larry Booi told the crowd.

Teachers are holding a similar rally in Calgary February 11, where Catholic school teachers are already on strike and 6,000 public school teachers will vote the next day on strike action. Lyle Oberg, Alberta's education minister, has threatened to legislate teachers back to work within two weeks.

The decision of the B.C. provincial government to impose a contract on 45,000 teachers led to rallies, meetings, and marches by 35,000 teachers from one end of the province to the other January 28. In several school districts 100 percent of the members of the British Columbia Federation of Teachers (BCTF) participated in these actions. In many regions, members of other unions attended as well.

After imposing the settlement on B.C. teachers, the provincial government announced it would not provide full funding for the raises it legislated. Now, as the BCTF had been warning, local school boards may enlarge class sizes and hire fewer specialty teachers such as librarians, special-needs experts, and ESL teachers. Many teachers are continuing to refuse to perform extracurricular activities.

In addition to the protest actions by hospital workers, there are almost daily news reports of demonstrations being organized by local groups against the Campbell government's cuts.

Over the last decade university fees have gone up by as much as 150 percent in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. The cost of an undergraduate arts degree in Nova Scotia, for example, jumped to $4,732 in 2001 from $2,201 in 1991. In Ontario, the same program cost $4,062 in 2001, up from $1,785 in 1991. After four years of university, the average student graduates with $25,000 of debt.

On February 6, thousands of post-secondary students in at least 25 cities across Canada participated in a national day of protest called by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS). Actions also took place in Montreal and St. Jean in Quebec where tuition fees are the lowest in Canada as a result of struggles to improve the education system having been part of the battle against the national oppression of the Quebecois. According to the CFS, several studies in the last 18 months show that "participation rates in college and university for low and middle-income families are down sharply."  
 
Students occupy bank
In Halifax, about 200 students occupied the largest branch of the Royal Bank--a focus of anger because it oversees Nova Scotia's student loans program. In Ontario, 4,000 students rallied at Queen's Park in Toronto to demand that the government halt tuition increases. More than 1,000 demonstrated in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

In Victoria, 2,000 students marched in the rain to the provincial legislature. The Liberal government is expected to announce an increase in tuition fees that have been frozen in B.C. since 1995. After the rally, some students pitched tents on the lawn in front of the legislature to continue their protest against tuition fee hikes and recent cuts by the Campbell government to welfare and Pharmacare.

"I don't want to be arrested, but I will make that decision when it comes," University of Victoria graduate student Melissa Moroz told the Victoria Times Colonist. "I've written a lot of letters and it doesn't seem to do anything." Now christened Camp Campbell, the tents are expected to stay up until after the February 23 rally sponsored by the B.C. Federation of Labour.

Beverly Brown works as a meat packer.  
 
 
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