Economics for Everyone: CAW's Ken Lewenza: A throwback?

Monday, October 27, 2008

CAW's Ken Lewenza: A throwback?

By Michael Hammond, Record staff

I thought it would be a shame not to post this photo of Canadian Auto Workers president Ken Lewenza from Thursday's labour rally in front of Kitchener-Conestoga MP Harold Albrecht's office in Kitchener. The photo was taken by Record photographer Mathew McCarthy. I was struck by how easily Lewenza went from calm to passionately loud in half a second (I was right beside a speaker, so maybe it just seemed loud to me). Lewenza then proceeded to deliver a 12-minute speech completely off the cuff. Whether you agree with his politics or not, anyone that has heard this guy speak would be hard pressed to argue that he isn't an effective voice for a certain point of view. It kind of struck me today that he is a speaker along the lines of the labour leaders of decades gone by. He is passionate and not afraid to go on the attack. He really strikes me as a throwback to the firebrand union leaders of decades past.

In the photo, you can see a few kids beside him, one trying his best to shield Lewenza from the rain. Lewenza, ever the shrewd leader, insisted the kids accompany him on the stage, which was the back of a pickup truck. The reason? He said he fears for their generation because the manufacturing industry is disappearing at an alarming rate. The banner behind him says "Manufacturing Matters." Having seen his predecessor Buzz Hargrove speak a number of times, it's not difficult to see why the CAW chose Lewenza as their new president. This guy is intense.

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Canadians Have Rejected Harper's Vision, says CAW President

October 15, 2008, 1:41 PM EST

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CAW President Ken Lewenza congratulated the majority of Canadian voters who did not support Stephen Harper's uninspiring right-wing vision for the country and held him to a minority government.

"Despite shamelessly manipulating all the powers of incumbency, including pre-election spending announcements and breaking his own law on fixed election dates, Stephen Harper failed to achieve the majority mandate he and his party were looking for," said Lewenza.

"A large majority of Canadians oppose his vision for this country," Lewenza added. "This election has proven that Canadians do not endorse his vision, which means Stephen Harper and his Conservatives will have to work with the opposition parties, focusing on issues that matter most to Canadians."

Lewenza also congratulated CAW members Malcolm Allen who won for the NDP in Welland, Luc Desnoyers who won the seat for the Bloc Quebecois in Rivière-des-Mille-Îles, just north of Montreal and NDP MP Peter Stoffer who won in the Sackville-Eastern Shore riding in Nova Scotia. Lewenza also thanked former NDP MP Peggy Nash for her two and a half years of service and progressive voice in the House of Commons, especially most recently as the industry critic for the NDP.

Lewenza noted that Harper ran an incredibly negative campaign which failed to inspire Canadians, remarking that voter turn-out was at an all-time low.

The CAW campaigned hard to prevent a Harper majority in this election, with rallies, protests, newspaper ads and mass leaflet distribution. The union urged Canadians to vote for the candidates with the best chance of defeating a Conservative. This strategy resulted in CAW support for specified candidates from all four of the opposition parties - including NDP candidates, some Liberals, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and Bloc Québécois candidates in Québec.

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Ray Stevenson... working class leader

Remembering Ray is like looking into an historical era in the life of Canada, but not only in Canada, because Ray left his mark internationally as well. He is remembered and will always be remembered as a dedicated fighter for a principal cause from which he never ever wavered. His devotion to the cause of Socialism, peace, brotherhood of man is something that all of us can learn from, and cherish. Not all of us will be able to accomplish what Ray did in his lifetime, accomplishments that no doubt, eventually will be in history books of Canada for the future generations to learn from, admire, emulate and dedicate themselves to the struggle for the emancipation of mankind from oppression and wars.

Ray was a great friend of Socialism and the Soviet Union, and therefore was involved with the Canadian Friends of Soviet People, and he was one of the founders and the Associate Editor of Northstar Compass journal that is read in 78 countries of the world, with an English and French edition.

Ray is remembered in the world for his activities on behalf of the World Peace Congress. He was a staunch trade union organizer, activist and leader in Canada. Ray was also a great Marxist who fought against any deviation from Marxism-Leninism which he saw as a guide understanding problems and as a guide to action. As a member of the Communist Party of Canada, in its Central Committee and on many of its Commissions, Ray struggled strongly against the CPC’s tendency towards deviation and revisionism and away from real Marxism-Leninism...working in its ranks for more than 60 years. While recognizing the need to struggle against deviations and revisionism in the Communist Movement, Ray also recognized that these tendencies were quite natural as people often looked for "quick fixes" and "shortcuts" to socialism which he pointed out usually ended up being the longest and most difficult path, if these paths ever lead to socialism at all... and, as Ray always pointed out, none of the revisionist roads never has.

What distinguished Ray from many on the "left" was that he understood the importance and centrality of the Communist Club in the mines, mills, factories and working class communities and always participated as an active member of a Communist Party Club where ever he worked and lived... if there wasn't a Communist Party Club, which Ray considered the brains and the heart of the working class movement, he would get together with like-minded workers and build a Communist Party Club because he understood that these Communist Party Clubs were the "think-tanks and action-centers" which guided the working class and progressive movements... to Ray Stevenson, the Communist Party Club was to the working class movement what each cell is to the human body... neither can function without these very basic components that are the "foundational building blocks" for everything else. A strong , vibrant Communist Party Club is to the working class movement what a healthy cell is to the human body... and this is why Ray Stevenson fought so hard for a healthy Marxist ideology to guide the working class in action... hence, Ray Stevenson found Marxism to be "the politics and economics of livelihood." Ray was fond of pointing out that the concept of the Communist Party Club was something very unique to Marxist-Leninist working class ideas and among his proudest activities and most notable accomplishments in the working class movement was his involvement in building powerful Communist Party Clubs which gave direction to his activities in the labor and peace movements and a variety of community struggles from fighting against poverty to protecting the environment.

Because of the gross distortions of working people by the mainstream media, one does not often associate a hard rock miner like Ray Stevenson with defending Mother Nature... but, Ray was always quick to point out that the capitalist class was about as respectful of Mother Nature as towards the workers being exploited and working people had as much right to live in safe and healthy communities as they had to work in safe and healthy conditions in the mines and it was impossible to be concerned with one without being concerned with the other, lest we kill ourselves off.

The biography of Ray Stevenson spans a lifetime of working class struggle and resistance to capitalism while advocating socialist solutions to working class problems.

Ray was always quick to point out to working people that, "The capitalists make all the profits and leave the working class with nothing but poverty and problems."

His early years were spent on a farm in Southwestern Manitoba, near Woodworth.

Ray was a product of the 1930’s drought crisis conditions that affected the prairies. He began his working-career as a miner in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec and Ray remained associated with the mineworkers for forty years until 1978.

Ray became very active in the Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers’ Union and took part in the seminal union recognition strike (1941-1942) in Kikland Lake, Ontario. This was followed by assigned and voluntary work in Northeaster Quebec for the union, and coupled with his political activities for the Canadian Total War Committee. He joined the Canadian Army in 1942 and served in it until 1946, gaining the rank of Captain and was honourably discharged in 1946. In the capacity as a Captain, he acted as a leading Information and Education Officer for the Armored Corps of Canada.

On his discharge, Ray was appointed Educational Director for the Worker’s Co-op of Northern Ontario and then to the post of Regional Organizer for the Labour Progressive Party until 1950, when he returned to the underground nickel mining in the Sudbury area. During 1952 Ray was placed on a full-time staff and served in many functions, including Editor of "Local 598 News". As the elected member of the original autonomous Canadian National Executive Board that was established in 1955, he was in charge of the organizational work and other leadership roles during half the decade. After the 1960’s Ray became the Editor of the union’s "Mine-Mill Herald"" and the national educational director, conducting trade union stewards leadership schools from coast to coast and also in the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

With the merger of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers Union with the United Steel Workers of America in 1967, Ray edited the popular "Information Magazine" for the union until 1972 when he was appointed "Acting Public Relations Director" for that union in Canada by the Canadian Steelworkers’ Union director W. Mahoney. But, for political reasons, this appointment was never confirmed by the US Steelworkers’ Headquarters and he was banned by the U.S. Government from entering the United States. The anti-communist Cold War hysteria and McCarthyism was in full swing in the trade union movement as well.

In 1978 Ray accepted a posting as the Canadian Secretary for the World Peace Council in Helsinki, Finland – also carrying out the responsibility for the global policy of the US peace movement relations. In this capacity as the World Peace Council Trade Union Commission Secretary, Ray gave central assistance to the establishment of the very important "Roundtable of Trade Unionists for Peace", and at the 1980 world-wide Sophia, Bulgaria "Parliament of Peoples for Peace". At that gathering, there were more than 300 active trade unionists from seventy different countries that took part in laying the basis for the "International Union Committee for Peace and Disarmament", also called the "Dublin Committee."

In his final years Ray Stevenson engaged in researching and writing a manuscript entitled: "A Worker’s Memoir and Survey of 2oth Century History". His general line was "Globalization and Armageddon in the Workplace"… Failing health and advancing age prevented its completion, although a major part of it is now in the Toronto’s York University Archives, where more than 9 meters of archival materials have been placed as the "Ray Stevenson Fonds", Inventory #167.

Ray Stevenson understood that there were no concepts and no ideas too complex for working people to understand no matter how much and how hard the capitalist bosses tried to sow confusion through lies, deceit, outright distortions and misinformation in order to prevent a united working class movement from changing the world to a better place for all people to live and work in cooperation and peace in harmony with nature free from exploitation, war, racial, ethnic and national animosities and hatreds.

Ray Stevenson understood the need for a mass labour party and helped to build the New Democratic Party of Canada while understanding the need to simultaneously build and strengthen the Communist Party of Canada; a concept that has not widely been understood in North America.

This blog is dedicated to Ray Stevenson for his lifetime of commitment and struggle in the working class movements for the rights and livelihoods of working people, for peace, social & economic justice and socialism.

Communists from the United States, Canada, Ireland, Italy and Finland meeting in Republic, Michigan felt that it would be good, given the problems in the working class and Communist Movement that we highlight the life and work of Ray Stevenson as a way of getting back to some fundamental class struggle basics.

Now that we are in a "Marx moment" with capitalism on the skids to oblivion; the thoughts, ideas and work of Communists like Ray Stevenson, of which there are many such heroes our class enemies and adversaries--- and those with revisionist ideas in our working class movement--- would rather we forget about; it becomes even more important to remember, to understand and to learn from these unsung heroes like Ray Stevenson.

Yours in the struggle............

Alan L. Maki,
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council

Economics for Everyone

Monday, October 27, 2008

CAW's Ken Lewenza: A throwback?

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Ray Stevenson

Ray Stevenson... working class leader

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