“Fightback”: Reformists Who Lie

Some 10,000 unionists at the University of Toronto and York University waged a month-long strike in March against poverty wages and a lack of job security. U of T teaching assistants, members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902, voted down two lousy tentative agreements. But with the administration hardlining it, they finally voted to accept binding arbitration and went back to work on March 27. CUPE 3903 at York settled a few days later, extracting some modest gains from the administration.

On the picket lines and in our press (see “Victory to Toronto Campus Strikes!”, SC No. 184, Spring 2015), Trotskyist League supporters argued that a victory for both strikes hinged on a perspective of shutting down the campuses. We called on both students and the other campus unions to respect and join the CUPE pickets. This well-known fact did not prevent Alex Grant, the central leader of the reformist Fightback group, from brazenly lying on his Facebook page that we were scabbing on the strike. We print below our letter of protest, which was sent to Fightback as well as the two striking CUPE locals. Later the same day, Grant retracted his lie and deleted his post.

21 March 2015

To: Fightback

Fightback leader Alex Grant has despicably smeared the members and supporters of the Trotskyist League and Spartacus Youth Club. On March 17 he posted on his Facebook page the bald-faced lie that we “are continuing to hold events behind CUPE 3902 picket lines” at the University of Toronto and are “Fucking scabs.” Within hours, three people responded with the easy-to-know truth, that flyers and emails for our publicly advertised March 19 class clearly stated, “In case of a strike on campus, class will be held off-campus. Picket Lines Mean Don’t Cross!” Our event was indeed held off-campus.

On the picket lines and at strike support events, our supporters have argued for students to boycott classes and campus facilities in solidarity with CUPE 3902. We have also argued that to win this strike means that all the unions at U of T—including the other CUPE units and locals, the USW, skilled trade unions and others—should be honouring CUPE 3902’s picket lines. One out, all out! As it is, the leaders of the other campus unions have left CUPE 3902 to go it alone.

We first learned of Grant’s post late on March 19, and protested his outrageous smear when we encountered Fightback supporters at a CUPE 3902 and 3903 solidarity rally earlier today. To date, Grant has neither deleted nor retracted his slander. His social-democratic hatred for the revolutionary Marxists is clearly so great that he will maliciously and recklessly disregard the truth.

The lie that we are scabs sets us up for physical attack. We demand that Fightback publicly repudiate this slander.

Angela Swanson
Trotskyist League/Ligue trotskyste
cc: CUPE 3902 and CUPE 3903

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