An Interesting Response from Barry Weisleder, Canadian Federal Secretary of Socialist Action, located in Toronto

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I just had an interesting experience with a Socialist Action Conference held online at the 4:00 session: 

There were three presenters at the 4:00 session: Lisa Kreut (Hospital Employees Union in British Columbia), Corey David (machinist and member of the Municipal Socialist Alliance) and Julius Arscott, former executive member of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union). Other than the presenters, the video and microphones of attendees were muted, but the chat was enabled.

I asked a couple of questions on chat while Lisa was presenting (more or less as follows):

  1. What do socialists do to show the limitations of collective bargaining and collective agreements?
  2. [Lisa referred to public ownership at one point]: Can public ownership not involve exploitation and oppression just as much as in the private sector?

I also asked, as a supplement, whether social reformers and social democrats do not tend to idealize the public sector.

Barry Weisleder, federal secetary of Socialist Action Canada, then replied that public ownership is a step forward and that workers could advance through their struggles against both public and private employers. I then replied that this sounds contradictory since the conclusion that public ownership is a step forward does not follow logically from the idea that workers in both the public and private sectors could advance their struggles in both sectors.

Barry then quickly replied that this is not a debate but a socialist conference; I had little time to read any more of what he actually wrote since he booted me off not only chat but off of zoom.

Had I known that we could not engage in debate, I would have simply asked my questions and left it at that. No one indicated any rules for the “conference.” I thought that I could ask what interested me. I guess not.

I will let the actions of Socialist Action in general and Barry Weisleder in particular, speak for themselves. Is this an example of what people in a socialist society would act like?

As an addendum, I went on my Facebook account later on; Julius Arscott has removed me from his “friend” list. Interesting.

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I come from a working-class background. My lost paid job was a teacher, substituting for a number of years before obtaining a permanent position. I obtained my doctorate in 2009. I am an unapologetic critic of capitalism and the way in which various institutions and ideologies reinforce it.

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