Economy Booms, Labour Sags

An odd thing happened on the way to the bank. Wage-earners found themselves a little short, while corporate elites couldn't stuff their bonuses fast enough into already-groaning accounts. Profits are in boom-mode across a wide range of corporate producers, affecting countries within continental Europe, Australia, the United States, Japan and Europe, according to newly released data from the Bank for International Settlements, based in Switzerland.

This is an upward surge reflecting the monumental speed of technological advancement enhanced by another surge in investment capital. So protesters against the onset, and now the inevitability of global capitalization, the internationalization of economies and production were expressing deep forebodings for the future of the working class. All of which point directly to the reduction for labour in their bargaining capacity.

In Canada the results of the pressure on government to sign onto the North American Free Trade Agreement can now be clearly seen. It is those very large corporations and their tight-fisted CEOs who have become the major beneficiaries and their employees who have taken the brunt of the fall-out, according to the Canadian Institute for Policy Alternatives, marking the 20th anniversary of the first Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

Labour unions, left-leaning economic think tanks, nationalists and the vulnerable wage earner all had their doubts which they expressed loud and clear. None of which came even close to stopping a Conservative-led government headed by a former corporate head in the higher echelons of both business and politics from dragging Canada into a doomed relationship linking it inextricably to U.S. interests and the final word of the U.S. Congress in trade disputes.

The entrails of the sacrificial chicken have now been read and the story revealed; while profits among Canada's largest corporations has soared, jobs have been cut, fewer workers labouring mightily to achieve what greater numbers once did, while earnings have remained static. The companies represented by the Canadian Council of Chief Executives have seen their combined revenues increase by about 20%.

Average Canadian wages, on the other hand - adjusted for inflation - have not grown since 1980. "This is the first time the average real hourly wage has failed to grow since 1914, when data were first collected", according to the recently released report by the CIPA. "Average labour productivity on the other hand, has continued to grow steadily since 1987, as it had in the three previous decades when wages were rising in tandem."

The take-home pay of the top Canadian CEOs have burgeoned, with the country's top 100 such elite earners wallowing in $9-million in 2005 alone, representing earnings 237 times greater than what the average Canadian wage-earners carries home. And it doesn't look as though things are going to change much, from the view we're getting into the near future. Not while that same Canadian Council of Chief Executives keeps exhorting government on to bigger and faster ties with the U.S.

The North American Security and Prosperity Partnership, already darkly looming on the horizon, already well entrenched in the determination to close the deal promises even better returns for the few, and fewer returns for the many. Going one hell of a lot further than mere wages in its intent and trajectory; bringing Canada ever closer and deeper into integration and harmonization with U.S. rules and regulations, wiping out our own as though they're mere irritations.

For it will then not only be our economy, but our entire political system that will be subject to alteration to "fit" the U.S. model. Harmonization will include our economy yes, but then go on to include also our national security, our military resources, social and environmental policies, our best-practises, regulations and national institutions. Doesn't leave much to autonomy, national pride and initiative and resolution, does it?

But it's full speed ahead, the economy continues to lead us into the future, as though it represents the most important element in the health of a country. It's true Canada's economy is in robust health, with few signs of a true slow-down in the near future, despite the slow-down pangs due to the sub-prime debacle in the United States. Why don't we just stop right there, consider what we've got, determine what we really need and pull back?

Not with a government determined to bond us - and the governments we've had, whether Liberal-led or Conservative, have all demonstrated their willingness to be complicit in selling Canada short - to U.S. decision-taking. None have recognized our need to protect our own interests, our sovereignty, our ability to make our own home-grown decisions, despite the fact that we have all that it should take to be, and remain, true to ourselves.

We lack in nothing. Our geography is immense and powerfully diverse, crediting us with vast forests and countless fresh-water sources. Our mineral deposits are second to none, our agricultural and production capabilities on full steam. Our population is highly educated, motivated and capable. We engage fully in trade with other interests and other countries. We do have a long contiguous border with a neighbour, but that needn't bind us irrevocably to that neighbour's interests at the cost of our own.

We suffer a national neurosis of insecurity, quite obviously. Pity, that.