The world has never been richer. So why are so many still poor?

Did you hear those two cheers last week from the unlikely direction of progressive economists and their admirers? Who could blame them?

Since 2010, austerity devotees had loudly hailed a study by two Harvard economists, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff, that concluded that excessive debt in any country would lead to a catastrophic collapse in growth. Here was the latest excuse for those who lusted after smaller governments and shrunken public expenditures to continue doing what they were doing anyway.

Caterpillar and Rio Tinto lockouts force unions into underdog fight against global capital

In Alma, Quebec, and London, Ontario, workers are standing together on picket lines against the cold and winds of January. They have strong unions and solidarity to raise their spirits -- but these workers are underdogs against massive economic power and the ruthless force of global capital.

How it goes for them will shape economic outcomes for many other Canadians.  But not just labour relations hang in the breach of these first labour battles of 2012.  The reaction to these conflicts by Canadians will set a tone for the social and political climate well beyond this “Winter of Discontent.” 

In both cases these fights are picked by the employer -- lockouts.  Perhaps not so coincidentally, they throw down the same challenge to Canadian labour.  They are each foreign owned global corporations with a history of confronting and breaking union power, and their lock outs are to force substantial concessions that will result in lower wages and lesser benefits.

Significantly, these two situations are also linked because each foreign owner recently purchased the Canadian operations and required approval from the Harper government that their acquisition was in the Canadian interest.