The following post by John Clarke, former major organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), was posted in mid-January 2024:
When rights and freedoms are reduced to abstractions and the context in which they are exercised is removed from consideration, completely absurd conclusions are always drawn.
Two people may each have the right to enter a department store and examine the items for sale. One, however, has empty pockets and the other an unlimited line of credit. Their equal rights are rendered meaningless by their totally unequal capacities to act upon them.
Whether we speak of the right to free expression, to assemble or to engage in the political process, wealth and all the power and influence it brings with it, tilt the scales decisively. That is why a formally democratic system and a society dominated by an exploitative ruling class are completely compatible. That is why all real gains and, certainly, fundamental change rest on the collective against of the exploited social class.
If we are allowed to enter the store, so much the better, but we have to act together if we want to do more than look at all the products we can’t afford.
As far as it goes, the post does point out the hollowness of political rights that are not backed up by the economic and political power to realize such rights. However, references to exploitation without explaining what is meant are likely to ring hollow for many workers, citizens, immigrants and migrant workers. How many take seriously that they are exploited–to the extent that they organize to abolish it?
Furthermore, vague references to exploitation are powerless against the rhetoric of many unions–such as the rhetoric that unions negotiate a fair collective agreement or fair contract (see for example Fair Contracts (or Fair Collective Agreements): The Ideological Rhetoric of Canadian Unions, Part One: The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) or Fair Contracts or Collective Agreements: The Ideological Rhetoric of Canadian Unions, Part Three: Unifor (Largest Private Union in Canada))–will hardly convince anyone.
The radical left needs to elaborate at every opportunity what is meant by exploitation and how it is necessary or inherent in a society characterized by the class power of employers.
The Abolitionary 