Fighting inflation is the economic defence we have for democracy. As the authoritarian right-wing surges across Europe and Latin America, progressives have stood their ground against the trend in Berlin, New York City, and Mexico City, with campaigns built on fighting inflation.
The BC NDP’s campaign has begun to roll out an inflation fighting package targeting the essentials for everyday affordability, including price caps on gas and profit caps on groceries. These are policy weapons that have helped progressives win today and throughout history.
In her forthcoming book, Anti-Fascist Economics, economist Isabella Weber argues that explosive price shocks throughout history have led to far-right electoral victories when policymakers refuse to fight inflation. The US New Deal policy package introduced during the Great Depression is the textbook example of how governments can defend democracy against authoritarianism, helping the economy rebuild by taxing the rich, creating jobs and protecting affordability in the name of fighting rising prices.
Where governments have failed to fight inflation, the far-right wins. This was a key difference between the rise of Nazi Germany and the defence of democracy in the US under President Roosevelt in the 1930s. While policymakers of the Weimar Republic let inflation run its course towards disaster, US Democrats of the day advocated for more active public policy. The policy tools included in Weber’s arsenal include price caps, profit taxes and programs that defend and create jobs.
The beginnings of this kind of program are now being announced by the BC NDP in this snap election campaign. A permanent “price guard” that empowers the BC Utilities Commission to enforce rules and cap industry profits is fundamental for an affordability package with skyrocketing energy prices caused by US aggression against Canada and the world. Another price guard to defend citizens against rising grocery prices through tackling shrinkflation, capping profits on essentials, and enforcing rules on the grocery industry also hit on this suite of policy ideas.
There is still more that can be done to fight for affordability in BC. The BC Greens have also announced inflation fighting measures on rental housing and childcare fronts. Premier Eby on taxing the rich to pay for the healthcare is taken straight out of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum’s playbook in her roll out of universal healthcare coverage. The fight against inflation can be reinforced by taking essential services out of the market, helping to relieve the affordability pressures on the frontlines against higher commodity prices.
A clear program for creating good, long-term, union jobs is also needed, in addition to policies that defend the rights of workers that are currently under attack. New Deal programs of the past, and Green New Deal proposals of today, are packages that build productive infrastructure like expanded public transportation and electrification. These infrastructure pieces are directly tied to citizens and how they see efforts to fight inflation in their everyday lives.
While these policy announcements are certainly welcome on the frontlines of the affordability fight, their success also hinges on whether British Columbians can trust policymakers will follow through. Canadians in general trust labour unions much more on the frontlines of defending jobs in a trade war, and therefore, labour must be a part of the package. There must be accountability and timelines for the roll out of these programs, within the 100 days following election day, as the US trade war nearly concludes its second year.
Most of all, British Columbians need to see the results of policies in their everyday lives. BC has had a long history of defending affordability, from public insurance delivering some of the lowest rates in Canada, to being on the cutting edge of public housing and childcare affordability. These are progressive wins that have survived decades of attrition and which citizens will still go to bat for because they are institutions recognized at the backbone for affordability. Campaigning on an inflation fighting package as a top priority that is here to stay in British Columbia is a good strategy. Making that policy package a reality would go a long way in defending democracy in BC and show the Rest of Canada how to get in the fight.
