[rad-green] Trudeau’s mythical middle class

*https://johnclarkeblog.com/node/20 <https://johnclarkeblog.com/node/20>*

*11/25/2019*

*Trudeau’s mythical middle class*
*by John Clarke *

[image: The Middle Class Dream]

   Over the last few years, people in Canada have grown somewhat used to
the way in which the Trudeau Liberals blur the line between affairs of
state and public relations. The Prime Minster has never quite managed to
get the role of drama teacher out of his system and his appetite for
contrived and even rather cheesy antics is considerable. Now, however, he
has outdone himself with a little escapade that is his most shallow and
preposterous offering yet. He has appointed nothing less than a Minister of
Middle Class Prosperity.
<https://www.fin.gc.ca/comment/mmcpamf-mpcmmaf-eng.asp> Though it’s an
unpleasant task, I’d like to try and unravel the layers of cynicism and
duplicity that this package is wrapped in.

   The Minister herself, Mona Fortier, comes into the job unable to
articulate what the middle class actually is, although she does feel that
enrolling your children in hockey
<https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-new-minister-of-middle-class-prosperity-declines-to-provide-clear/?fbclid=IwAR03OVjC75-wCQKTwWTrlO132gCWCHZyXALfXBg9pCI9rcjYVjnn_n00gHY>
is
one significant indication that you are part of this nebulous entity. It
seems a bit of a tall order to bring prosperity to a social grouping you
can’t quantify or define so, forewarned as we are that the Liberals are a
slippery bunch, we need to try and get to grips with just what is going on
here.

Interests of the Rich

   The first lie we need to expose, before we consider what Trudeau and his
friends are really up to, is the very notion that prosperity is in the
works for anyone other than those who are already enjoying a massive
helping of the stuff. The newly re-elected Liberals have announced a
‘middle class tax cut’ that supposedly enriches the kind of people who have
a modest home in the suburbs, 2.3 children and a dog named ‘Spot.’ However,
the claim is entirely false and a look at what is actually unfolding shows
that the measure, in addition to furthering an austerity agenda by slashing
government revenue, is actually another shameless giveaway to the very
rich. It follows a previous $14 billion handout to corporations that
Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, made available and continues down the same
path
<https://pressprogress.ca/yet-again-federal-liberals-middle-class-tax-cut-overwhelmingly-benefits-well-off-canadians/>
.

   In fairness to Justin Trudeau’s Liberal regime, they didn’t invent the
false construction of a middle class, even if they are milking it with
particular enthusiasm. A ‘middle class’ that folds in everyone who is not
very rich or part of the undeserving, poor and highly racialized
‘underclass,’ has a long and very ugly pedigree, especially in North
America. The reality of two major social classes, a small but very powerful
capitalist class and a working class that makes up the great majority of
the population, with common interests that are antagonistic to those of the
capitalists, is conveniently obscured with this distorted image. A middle
class of better paid workers, professionals and even some business owners
is a false construction that blunts the class struggle, sows divisions
among working class people and encourages docility. If you accept this view
of society, you may never be one of the very rich but you are still part of
the hard working ‘salt of the earth’ and you view with disdain ‘those
people’ who rank below the mythical entity you have been fooled into
thinking you are part of. For a reactionary institution like the Liberal
Party, this is a falsehood well worth promoting for all its worth. The
fight to establish a sense of working class identity is fundamental to
challenging the status-quo and power structure that Justin Trudeau
exemplifies.

   The Liberal myth making effort was at full throttle during the last
election. They issued a manifesto called ‘Forward: A Real Plan for the
Middle Class
<https://www.liberal.ca/liberals-move-forward-with-a-real-plan-for-the-middle-class/>’
defined as those who ‘do the heavy lifting in our economy.’ There is little
point in closely examining the details of this dubious plan. It’s purpose
was to attain enough credibility to win the election, while thinly covering
over the real agenda of the Liberal government. The Trudeau regime is the
quintessential representative of the neoliberal centre. It may claim to
represent middle income people but it is one of the two main political
institutions of the capitalist class in Canada. As we have already seen,
its ‘middle class tax cut’ turned out to be a handout to the rich. In the
interests of the decidedly non middle class owners of the mining companies
headquartered in Toronto and Vancouver, the Liberals have supported and
assisted the blood soaked coup in Bolivia. To the benefit of oil and gas
interests, they press ahead with an environmentally disastrous pipeline
expansion that rides roughshod of the rights of Indigenous people. Their
ode to the middle class is false and rotten to the core.

War on the Poor

   The Liberal manifesto, while enticing and flattering the middling sort
in society, offers some solace to ‘the people working hard to join (the
middle class).’ It thereby offers a condescending nod to those who are not
yet worthy but who aspire to be part of the deserving and hard working
‘backbone of society.’ A great deal is revealed here. The government that
Justin Trudeau leads has no desire or ability to lift any major portion of
the poor into the middle ranks of society. The complete opposite is true.
The drive to increase the size and vulnerability of the low wage precarious
workforce is intensifying. The degrading of income support programmes
continues relentlessly, throwing people ever deeper into poverty. The
developer led housing bubble ensures that precarious housing and
homelessness are permanent features of life. The racial hierarchy that
determines who will be poor and in what proportions is carefully preserved.
‘Reconciliation’ remains a shallow lie and Indigenous people experience
pervasive poverty and social abandonment. The ‘middle class dream’ is off
limits to the expanding ranks of the poor and the Trudeau government is
devoted to keeping it that way.

   The mythical middle class that the Liberals pay false homage to is a
concept that punishes the poor and prevents somewhat better paid workers
from understanding who their allies are and where their interests lie. It
divides those who should be united against a common enemy and serves the
interests of precisely that enemy, the capitalist class that the Liberals
really represent in government. We should reject Trudeau’s duplicitous
Minister of Middle Class Prosperity initiative with complete contempt and
focus our efforts on defeating the political agenda of neoliberal austerity
this sham provides a cover for.

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