Julius Arscott is a public sector work and an active member of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU), currently serving as a member for the Toronto region on its executive board. He is also one of the founders of an organization called the Workers Action Movement (WAM), which brings rank and file militants from different unions together to push for changes in the direction of the labour movement. Scott Neigh interviews Arscott about grassroots left politics in the labour movement and about the activities of WAM.
There was a time in the history of the Canadian labour movement when it was common to see organized rank and file pressure on the leadership of the movement to be more militant, more politically radical, more tactically creative, and more expansive in their solidarity. It has been a long time since the presence of that kind of opposition was the norm, especially in any kind of sustained way, but it is a grassroots impulse that has never entirely disappeared. WAM is an initiative to re-build such militant, rank and file, left opposition within the labour movement.
Arscott was politicized as a high school student during the global justice movement, with his participation in things like the massive protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas in Quebec City in 2001. As a college student, he became interested in socialist politics and in labour activism. In his time in OPSEU, he has served as a steward and then as the vice-president and president of his local before he joined the union’s executive board.
The initial formation of WAM happened in the aftermath of the 2014 campaign for the presidency of the Canadian Labour Congress – the central body which brings together most of Canada’s unions – by long-time activist Hassan Husseini. Though it was not successful, it generated considerable grassroots enthusiasm, and some of the organizers who were involved decided that they wanted to take the opportunity to found something that would provide a more enduring outlet for the values championed during the campaign.
After an initial period of activity, WAM went through a dormant phase, then became active again in 2017 leading to a formal re-launch earlier this fall. For the moment, the group is still quite small and Toronto-centric. The bulk of their membership is within OPSEU, but they have members in other unions as well and they are working on establishing chapters in other cities. WAM’s website identifies it as being “a movement of rank and file militant trade unionists” who want the labour movement to be “a class struggle movement.” To that end, they “are committed to building an organized left wing, a class struggle caucus within … all unions.”
Their key goals include an end to consessions bargaining, greater democracy and transparency within unions, more active solidarity both with non-unionized workers here in Canada and with workers and oppressed peoples around the world, and greater grassroots mobilization and militance by the labour movement both in relation to employers and in relation to reactionary governments.
They are attempting to build their organization through a combination of visible participation in public events like rallies and protests, and organized political interventions within the labour movement. This includes encouraging WAM members to run for elected office in their unions and in the broader movement, and organizing to get locals, labour councils, and conventions to pass resolutions and policies on specific issues. They hope that their willingness to speak up publically for a different set of priorities for the labour movement will attract fellow workers who are dissatisfied with the status quo.
Along with working on starting new WAM chapters in other cities, the organization’s current priority is organizing in support of the idea of holding an emergency convention of the Ontario Federation of Labour to consider how the labour movement should be resisting the Conservative provincial government of premier Doug Ford. So far, a resolution in support of such a convention has been passed by a number of union locals and by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. A similar step was taken in the early days of the government of Mike Harris in the mid 1990s as part of building towards a major labour fightback in that era, and Arscott sees such a convention today as an important first step in labour doing more to resist Doug Ford.
Image: The image modified for use in this post is a photograph taken by Bill Badzo of one of the Detroit Industry Murals painted by Diego Rivera in the 1930s.
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Talking Radical Radio brings you grassroots voices from across Canada, giving you the chance to hear many different people that are facing many different struggles talk about what they do, why they do it, and how they do it, in the belief that such listening is a crucial step in strengthening all of our efforts to change the world. To learn more about the show check out its website here. You can also follow them on FaceBook or Twitter, or contact [email protected] to join our weekly email update list.
Talking Radical Radio is brought to you by Scott Neigh, a writer, media producer, and activist based in Hamilton (formerly Sudbury), Ontario, and the author of two books examining Canadian history through the stories of activists.
