The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Ford Motor Company have been engaged in contract talks, scheduled to resume formally on October 26. Ford is demanding that the union give up the same package of concessions that workers at GM and Chrysler gave up last spring, as part of the conditions of those companies receiving government aid. The union is demanding that Ford commit to maintain a specific proportion of investment in Canada as a condition of agreeing to concessions.

Before I even read Alice Klein’s two rabble.ca columns on auto collective bargaining issues I was inundated with calls from friends and colleagues to respond. Most were really angry at what they considered to be criticisms of autoworkers and the CAW that were “beyond the pale,” coming from progressive sources.

Speculation about a spring election had been in the air for the better part of a year, ever since Jean Chrétien announced that he would be stepping down as leader of the Liberal Party and as prime minister. Over this period, anti-capitalist groups throughout the country had been having numerous internal discussions about how they should participate in these elections or whether they should participate at all.

In the end, most neither viewed elections as the be-all and end-all of democracy, nor did they dismiss elections as irrelevant.