The Spark!

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1) WE NEED AN INDUSTRIAL TOURNIQUET

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sam Hammond

In the month of June, the hemorrhage of  Canadian manufacturing jobs hit an unprecedented flow rate. Most of the losses, 45,500 family tragedies, were in Ontario, and many were directly or indirectly related to the auto assembly and supply sector. Prior to June, the decline in Ontario auto-manufacturing and auto-parts jobs since 2002 had been 36,000. The full impact is yet to come because the "broken promise" GM corporate double-cross and loss of 3200 jobs in Oshawa is a future event until early 2009.

     There are a myriad of reasons for these disasters, but all can be summed up under that dear old catch-all, capitalism. The victimization of Canadian workers and their families is not only a past or present event, but is certain to escalate. This is the only corporate promise that is guaranteed to be kept.

     The big three, GM, Chrysler and Ford, are working overtime slashing wages and benefits. In the United States, GM is reaping the benefit of the largest concessions ever made by labour, while preparing for threatened bankruptcy protection if even more are not forthcoming. In Canada, the CAW has declared victory while also giving major concessions and being double-crossed into the bargain.

     Over the past few years, GM has received $256 million from the state of Michigan, and GM Hummer $62.5 million from the state of Indiana.

     As the people are fed the myth of unfair off-shore competition and imports, U.S. states merrily continue to finance foreign-owned domestic assembly plants. In the past five years, Honda has received $158 million from Alabama, Nissan $363 million from Mississippi, and Toyota $133 million from Texas.

     This year Volkswagen announced a heavily subsidized plant to be built in Tennessee that will inject 800,000 VWs and 200,000 Audis into the U.S. market by 2011. All these are competing with Chrysler, Ford and GM on their own turf. This orgy of corporate cannibalism and competition drives working conditions and wages in a race to the bottom, and creates millions of human tragedies and a gluttony of hidden profit, deceit and export of capital. Canada and the U.S. are just squares on this global automotive chessboard, and our workers are expendable pawns.

     Both GM and Ford are investing heavily in South America, which is the world's fastest growing vehicle market and critical to the future of both companies, according to their analysts. Ford has built perhaps the world's most advanced plant in rural Camacari, Brazil, an investment of $1 billion. GM has invested over $500 million in Argentina in a smaller version.

     GM and Ford operations are scattered throughout the Mercosul Region (the common market of the south created by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay) and servicing markets throughout the ALADI (Latin American Association for Trade and Integration) region.

     The Ford plant in Camacari can run up to ten different chassis on one line without any delays, and runs parallel production lines that merge with the main assembly line. All suppliers are under one roof. About 6,000 of the 8,000 employees work for Ford, the rest for plant parts companies. There is no inventory in this industrial ballet - computerized planning supplies the parts for every type of vehicle on demand. The main assembly workers are all unionized (a deal struck with the auto union on wages, conditions and benefits before the plant was built), but not all the parts supply workers. All assembly workers are trained in multi-tasking skills.

     The GM operation in Argentina is a smaller version of Camacari. Both corporations received generous subsidies and incentives from both governments for these plants. The Brazilian government even built Ford its own port so it can ship anywhere, including North America. Smaller assembly operations throughout South America allow production to be stopped, slowed or speeded up, while any area can also be easily supplied from outside. Any workforce can be manipulated without market shortages. To quote Ford of South America head honcho Dom DiMarco, "We're not adding shifts. We're adding people and upping the line speed."

     We can use our automotive Knight to hop over a few Rooks and Pawns to Russia, where GM has just signed a $1 billion joint venture with GAZ, Russia's largest carmaker. They will initially produce 300,000 vehicles per year to compete with Fiat and Peugeot in the Russian market.

     GM is also in negotiations with Zhongxing and FAW Corporation, two of China's biggest car manufacturers. GM's Daewoo Corporation in South Korea is churning out Aveo Compacts and Epica Sedans that are sold in North America as Chevrolets. Ford is operating parallel all over Europe, with who knows what capital mergers and investments (they have just sold their Jaguar British operation to Tata of India) and all over Asia under their Mazda label. The Europeans are no slouches either, and the Chinese and Indians are just beginning to flex their muscle.

     So please, shed no tears for Ford and GM as they bewail their North American conditions and cry poverty over falling market shares. The truth is that all the global corporations, no matter where their national bases are, are part of inter-imperialist rivalry, using relative over-production, massive government subsidies, and the smashing of wages and working conditions to enter each others' traditional market zones, capture the third world and dominate economically.

     The neo-liberal genuflection to pure market competition is for the uninitiated and childishly innocent. The $462 million pledged by former Ontario premier Ernie Eves for industrial research and development, and the $369 million re-pledged exclusively to the auto industry on June 25 by current Premier Dalton McGuinty, are part of this global feast on the public purse.

     The amount that GM received from provincial and federal funds almost equal its investment in Argentina. The $29 million pledged by the Ontario government to university research into auto technology can be put on computer discs and transported anywhere hi-tech plants are being built. We pay and pay and pay, but we never own.

     Not one wall or stairwell in any Canadian auto plant is publicly owned, but we sure have paid for a lot of them. We are losing our industry, our assembly pants and the spin-off jobs at ten to one ratio. We have no farm implement industry, the St. Thomas truck plant is closing (another 792 jobs), we don't build our own ships and ferries, there are a glut of wood industry losses, the steel and nickel industries are foreign owned, and there is no Canadian appliance industry.

     We are being transformed into a resource supplier and a purchaser of manufactured goods. Our governments have been the willing architects of this treasonous sellout. Isn't it about time to start talking seriously about extra-parliamentary political campaigning? How long can we sit and occupy ourselves with negotiating close-out agreements and buy-outs? What is the future for our children?

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2) PROFIT GUSHER CONTINUES FOR CANADIAN BIG OIL FIRMS

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

Second-quarter profits were up substantially for Big Oil as fuel costs skyrocketed for consumers. The average global price of oil during April through June was $123/barrel, a 90% climb over the spring quarter of 2007. Natural gas prices in Canada also surged, averaging $9.68 per gigajoule, a 44 per cent gain from 2007. Five of the biggest Canadian-based energy firms racked up a total of $5.3 billion for the three month period, as they ramp up oil sands production and in one case, plans to gain a share in the plunder of occupied Iraq's massive oil fields.

     Husky Energy kicked off the oil patch's quarterly financial reporting season last month, with profits, cash flow and revenues climbing to new records. Husky reported profit of $1.36 billion ($1.61 a share) in the three months ending June 30, an increase of 89 per cent over the same period last year. Even though the company's oil and gas production dropped because of maintenance and weather conditions at its East Coast operations, revenue was $7.2 billion, up 128 per cent.

     Petro-Canada's net income for April-June 2008 rose to $1.5 billion, up 77 percent from $845 million for the same three months of 2007. These results of $3.10 per share beat the expectations of market speculators, who had forecast an average of $2.50/share. Second-quarter revenue for Petro-Canada was $7.6-billion, up 38 per cent from $5.5-billion in 2007.

     Originally publicly-owned, Petro-Canada is now the country's 4th biggest refiner and retailer, with extensive oil sands holdings, and has retooled its Edmonton refinery to run crude derived from such resources exclusively.

     Suncor Energy, Canada's No. 2 oil sands producer, reports that record crude prices boosted its second-quarter profit by 12 percent to $829 million, despite a decline in production levels. At 89 cents per share, the operating profit surpassed analysts' average forecast of 79 cents. Suncor's oil sands project produced 174,600 barrels a day in the quarter, down 14 percent from 2007 levels as a maintenance shutdown dragged on longer than expected.

     EnCana Corp., Canada's largest natural-gas producer, said its second-quarter profit fell 16 percent over 2007. The company had pre-sold much of its current output at last year's lower prices, but Encana's net income was still a startling $1.22 billion, or $1.63 per share.

     Oil producer Nexen Inc. saw quarterly earnings rise 3% to $380 million (70 cents per share) up from $368 million a year earlier. Total sales grew to $2.07 billion from $1.4 billion during the same quarter of 2007,  a rise of 48%.

     Nexen's cash flow exceeded capital investment for the first six months of the year by $500 million, and expects that figure to grow over the balance of the year. The proceeds will be invested, at least partly in Iraq. Nexen is the lone Canadian company among 35 international firms to qualify for bidding rights on eight massive oil fields in the occupied country.

     "We were the only Canadian company to successfully pre-qualify in a group that contains a number of the world's major oil and gas companies," Nexen CEO Charlie Fischer said in a statement. "This builds on our strength in the Middle East and could present us with long term opportunities in one of the world's richest resource basins."

     Nexen, which already owns wells in the Middle East as well as North America, the U.K., and Africa, said additional money would be spent on drilling on gas trapped in shale formations in northeast British Columbia.

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3) "WORKSAFE" NOT WORKING FOR B.C'S YOUNG WORKERS

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Stephen Von Sychowski

In 2005, the Campbell Liberal government changed the working name of the Workers Compensation Board of British Columbia to "Worksafe BC", claiming that it was "a name that more accurately reflects our focus on prevention, customer service, and return to work." The move was largely rejected by labour and progressive movements, including the Communist Party and Young Communist League, as a ploy to place the bulk of responsibility and blame on the victims of workplace injury rather than on employers who provide insufficient or nonexistent training and unsafe or unsanitary conditions.

     The focus of the WCB's message to the workers of B.C. was clear "be careful at work, or it'll be your own fault". But one can only be careful within the conditions provided, which too often include speed ups, lack of training, and exposure to unnecessary risks. Workers are sometimes too afraid to exercise their right to refuse unsafe work, because this often leads to reprimand and even firing.

     Young workers have abnormally high levels of injury especially considering that, if anything, they should logically be the most healthy and agile. But the reality is that many employers see youth as nothing but cheap, dispensable labour for their low paying, non union, insecure and unsafe jobs. Young workers face intimidation and ageism from bosses who want to save a buck by cutting corners and bending rules.

     The number of young workers injured on the job in 2007 was up to 11,540 from 10,980 in 2006; part of an overall picture that saw 173,538 total reported injuries, up from 172,874 the year before and 156,770 in 2004, the year before WCB was re-named and re-programmed as "Worksafe" by the Liberals. Amongst these there were 228 fatalities, up from 223 in 2004.

     Yet almost 4,000 more health and safety inspections were carried out by the WCB, over 5,000 orders were written and almost three times as many penalties were imposed on employers all according to WCB's 2007 annual report. So, isn't "Worksafe" working?

     While these numbers are a positive improvement from the dismal ones of the year before, the numbers of injured workers prove that these activities have been ineffective.

     Some improvement should be seen with the enactment of legislation promoting safe workplaces. "Grant's Law" was won by the BC Federation of Labour and the De Patie family after a young worker, Grant De Patie, was killed on the job at the gas station where he worked. He was chasing a car which was attempting a "gas and go". His employer had illegally told him that if he did not stop "gas and go's" he would have to pay for them out of his own cheque.

     But unfortunately, laws like this are only one part of the solution. As always under capitalism, profits have been put before people. No more parents should have to live with the pain of their daughter or son being disabled or killed at work. No more workers and no more families should be crippled by workplace "accidents".

     With a provincial election around the corner, it's time for workers in B.C. to ask the parties vying for their support what they are prepared to do about this epidemic.

     A tough stance is needed to get results and ensure that there are no more Grant De Paties's in this province. This should include the introduction of further legislation similar to Grant's Law, protecting workers who work after dark or in isolated conditions in all sectors of the economy. It should include a WCB focused on prevention through training, education and strict enforcement of health and safety standards, not just putting the onus on workers and placing the blame on the victims. It should include stiffer penalties for employers who put their workers at risk, including more and higher fines, more inspections and financial, legal and criminal liability for injuries on worksites.

     It also means an end to "Worksafe" and a return to the WCB, programmed around creating and enforcing safe and healthy work environments, ensuring training is provided by employers and so on. It won't be popular with those in power. They will say it's radical, or impossible. But one has to wonder what those 228 workers who are no longer with us would say.

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4) JURISTS CONDEMN ATTACK ON INDIGENOUS GRANDMOTHERS

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

The American Association of Jurists (AAJ), a non-governmental organisation with status at the United Nations Social and Economic Council (ECOSOC), has condemned the use of excessive force by the Canadian Border Services Agency against two Indigenous grandmothers.

     On June 14, two Kanion'ke:haka (Mohawk) women were attacked by CBSA guards at the Akwesasne port of entry between Canada and the US. Kahentenetha Horn (aged) 68 and Katenies (Janet Davis, 43) are grandmothers and the principal editors and managers of Mohawk Nation News http://www.mohawknationnews.com a popular internet site. The site was forced to stop normal operations after Kahentinetha suffered a trauma-induced heart attack during the attack.

     The incident began when violent procedures were used to arrest Katenies on questionable warrants arising from a charge in 2003, when she was accused of running that same border after she thought she had been waved through. Katenies questioned the jurisdiction of the Canadian court, and since then has faced a procedural morass.   Katenies lives in Akwesasne, a Mohawk settlement established in the 1740s straddling the Thousands Islands section of the St. Lawrence River, an area occupied by her ancestors since time immemorial. Both Canada and the United States routinely violate the territorial integrity of Akwesasne. Because of the borders imposed on them, the people of Akwesasne are forced to deal with the jurisdictional claims of both countries, as well as sub jurisdictions claimed by Ontario, Quebec and New York State. As a result, Katenies must travel from Akwesasne (Quebec), where she lives, via Akwesasne (N.Y.) and through Canadian border controls to visit her daughter and grandchildren who live a few minutes drive away in Akwesasne (Ontario). Katenies' daughter, Teiohontateh, had to abort a child because she was forced by CBSA to pass under a dangerous x-ray machine for trucks, when pregnant.

     In the 1920s, the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy (including Kanion'ke:haka/Mohawks) petitioned the League of Nations to protect their right to jurisdiction over their own land and people, but this issue has always been denied a hearing both within Canada and internationally. They never consented to become part of Canada or the United States or to the border later drawn through their community by the 1794 Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States. The Jay Treaty guaranteed the right of Indigenous peoples to travel and trade between Canada and the United States.

     As a successor state to Britain, Canadian law includes the well established "Honour of the Crown" doctrine reflected in such instruments as the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which oblige the state to protect Indigenous peoples. Section 35 of Canada's Constitution Act of 1982 also recognizes and affirms "existing aboriginal and treaty rights."

     Border charges against Akwesasne residents have escalated since 2001, when Canada's Supreme Court decided in Mitchell v. the Minister of National Revenue that the people of Akwesasne do not have a right to trade freely within their community across the border.

     Canadian courts have consistently refused to prove their jurisdiction when Indigenous people question their authority. In December 2007, Lester Howse, aged 64, was hospitalized because he was brutalized by three Brantford Ontario police after he was expelled from a courtroom where he had questioned the jurisdiction of a Justice of the Peace to try a Six Nations man.

     The AAJ warns that "These incidents suggest a pattern of violence to intimidate Indigenous people and avoid legal consideration of the jurisdictional issues they raise... Canada's shameful refusal to sign the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People reflects its refusal to recognize and respect the Indigenous Nations, contrary to the recommendations of both the United Nations and Canada's own 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples."

     The AAJ has called on the Canadian government to refrain from using force to resolve legal issues, to respect the human rights guaranteed by the international treaties and accords that it has signed, and to respect the terms of the Jay Treaty and the Constitution Act of 1982. The AAJ also urges a full investigation into the police and Border Service assaults, and a negotiated alternative to border controls that interfere with normal rights to privacy, home, family and community life of Indigenous people.

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5) NEWFOUNDLAND HEALTH WOES SPARK MASS RALLY

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sean Burton

The province of Newfoundland and Labrador has been wracked by problems in its healthcare system, particularly during the past year. A scandal has been rocking the Eastern Health authority over flawed cancer tests which may have resulted in dozens of unnecessary deaths. The commission of inquiry into the issue has gone after certain officials with particular zeal, including premier Danny Williams, who had remarked that the pressure being placed on health and government officials has been very great. Several pathologists have already resigned under that pressure, further undermining the quality of healthcare services.

     The latest issue is unfolding in central Newfoundland, where overworked doctors in the region's two main hospitals in the towns of Grand Falls-Windsor and Gander have been leaving. This is hardly surprising. The Central Health authority announced a plan in May to compensate for the departure of two of the region's four obstetrician-gynecologists. The plan calls for alternating obstetric care between the two hospitals, upsetting many residents who fear, quite rightly, the extra distance to be travelled. The towns are an hour apart on the Trans-Canada Highway, but the distance will be even greater for those living in coastal areas also serviced by Central Health.

     Fed up with the way the province handles healthcare, over a thousand people staged a protest at the Central Newfoundland Regional Health Centre in Grand Falls-Windsor on July 3. Members of the community want the province to be more active in recruiting and retaining doctors.

     A crowd of this size is considerable by Newfoundland standards, Grand Falls-Windsor having a population of about 16,000. The people realize the dangers facing healthcare, but it remains to be seen whether they will link those problems to Newfoundland's political realities.

     Provincial Health Minister Ross Wiseman was in town, but declined an invitation to the July 3 rally. His snub is a tell tale sign of how the government really feels about healthcare.

     Medical specialists are rare in Newfoundland. Many serious injuries or health problems have to be sent either to the capital, St. John's, or out of the province to Halifax or beyond. Even certain cancer treatments can only be done in St. John's, at Memorial University's health science centre.

     This has always been the case, but the recent cancer test scandal and the protest in Grand Falls-Windsor have made the problems more acute. It remains to be seen whether or not the "Progressive" Conservative government of Williams will take serious action. Newfoundlanders and Labradorians expect it of him, but Williams does not have a history of improving public services. If anything, the opposite is the case, as his crackdown on a public sector strike in 2004 revealed.

     Williams owes his popularity to the nationalist bent of his economic policies, but such a card can't be played forever, and it hasn't stopped many people from seeking work out of the province.

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6) WINNIPEG CIVIC POLITICS HEATING UP

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Darrell Rankin

A new centre-left political group is entering Winnipeg's civic arena, bolstered by a founding meeting attended by close to 200 people on June 16. The Winnipeg Citizens Coalition has no plan yet to run candidates in the 2010 elections, but it will push for action on issues such as the need for rapid transit, Aboriginal housing and development issues.

     The coalition is supported by a wide range of individuals and groups, including public sector unions. Mayor Sam Katz and his supporters on City Council need to be given credit for bringing the coalition together, because of the right wing agenda they have imposed since their election in 2006.

     Elected on a promise to eliminate the business tax, Katz is closing or cutting hours at swimming pools, libraries and community centres. He has no plan to replace the large revenues that will disappear when the business tax is gone.

     The most right-wing members of City Council are demanding the privatization of almost every city service, with Katz following along.

     People are realizing that this agenda must be opposed. The Winnipeg Labour Council organized large town hall meetings before the March 26 city council meeting on the civic budget. That meeting also featured a rally against cuts and privatization by the group Winnipeg Is Not For Sale.

     All the activity has helped to involve people. The WCC's founding meeting was attended by five city councillors who have been the firmest opponents to Katz. Although the coalition is officially non-partisan, the Winnipeg Free Press dutifully reported about the ties of the elected co-chairs to the NDP and Liberals.

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7) RAMPANT ABUSE OF POLICE POWER

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, August 1-31, 2008

The litany of abuse against civilians by various Canadian police forces keeps mounting ever higher. But despite demands for justice, right-wing politicians and the corporate media keep giving the cops a free ride, with the occasional slap on the wrist for the sake of appearances.

     The July 22 Taser death of a Métis teenager in Winnipeg and taser assault against another Manitoba teen (see page 3) reconfirm that racism often lurks behind such attacks. When Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski was killed by taser-wielding cops at Vancouver airport last November, we wrote that such cases were not exceptional. Now an internal RCMP report has found that in 2006, only one-third of shootings by its officers met the RCMP's own standards for the use of deadly force. This is little consolation for the family of Ian Bush, shot in the back of the head after a confrontation over an open can of beer by a B.C. RCMP officer who was absolved of any blame.

     Trigger-happy cops are also keen to use other weapons. Some were on the job July 24-25 in Toronto, using pepper spray two nights in a row to attack young people without warning on Queen Street during the Beaches Jazz Festival.

     Equally serious is the scandal of illegal wiretaps installed by the Ontario Provincial Police on the cellphone of indigenous protester Shawn Brant in the summer of 2007. The resulting transcripts of phone calls reveal a bullying OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino threatening to "destroy" Brant's reputation.

     This list could be extended for many pages. Canadian police forces regularly use their weapons and their power to bully, intimidate, torture and even kill people who have not been convicted or even charged with any crime. It's time to treat the boys in blue as criminals when they break the law. Instead of "investigating" and absolving each other of wrongdoing, all police forces must be placed under democratic, public control and oversight.

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8) FROM SUPERPROFITS TO MEGACRISIS?

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, August 1-31, 2008

Pop quiz! Guess the source of this viewpoint on the world's major capitalist state: "Primordial fear will be slow to set in as everyone still believes in the Goldilocks (read Pollyanna) future. Millions of Americans will undergo cutbacks in salary, others will lose jobs.... Foreclosures and bankruptcies will reach all-time records. Overproduced, overconsumed luxury items will hit the market, each competing in price-dropping to find the bottom first. The mutual plotting society within the financials and world banking will exhaust all efforts at propping up an unsustainable false picture of the economy. When they crack, CRASH! Then the markets will revert to a barbaric equilibrium. Tremendous wealth will be destroyed across all spectrums of society."

     A Marxist pamphlet? Hardly. It's from a January 2008 article in the London Financial Times. All signs indicate that the U.S. economy is wobbling closer to crisis. From early 2004 until mid-2007, for example, the seven big Wall Street investment banks made $250 billion in profits. Since then, they have written off $107 billion, but still paid $32 billion in executive bonuses. In spite of the "stimulus package" adopted by Congress, the U.S. economy has lost half a million jobs in the past year, yet the rich get richer every day, their greed fuelling the impending disaster.

     Closely tied to the U.S., our country will not escape. Already, overall Canadian economic growth is minimal, all increases in disposable income go to the wealthy, unemployment and personal debt loads are sneaking higher, and housing starts are falling. While working people suffer from skyrocketing fuel prices, the big energy monopolies reap tens of billions in windfall profits.

     Hold onto your hats. Capitalist crisis is about to make a comeback, and it won't be a pretty sight.

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9) GUYANESE SOLIDARITY WITH CANADIAN SEAMEN

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Labour History by Norman Faria

It is April 1949. The night is thick with darkness as a group of Political Affairs Committee (PAC) members and supporters climb into a small rowboat on the east bank of the Demerara River in Guyana near where the Pegasus Hotel is today. They row towards one of the several freighters anchored in mid stream off the Georgetown docks. It is the Canadian cargo vessel the SUNAVIS, then in Guyana to load ore for Canadian aluminum making plants.

     In the bottom of the rowboat, carefully wrapped in crocus bags and canvas, is a quantity of food, including freshly baked bread, some ground provisions, salt fish, chicken and rice. Perhaps a bottle or two of good Guyanese rum. It is all destined for the striking Canadian seamen on board the 10,000 tonne ship.

     In the boat are two of the PAC leaders, young Janet and Cheddi Jagan. Every now and again, as Mrs. Jagan related to this writer in an interview in the 1980s, those on board the small boat would duck down as the searchlight beams from the ship's owners security personnel swept across the anchorage.

     The Guyanese people and their leaders were showing their solidarity with the seamen, then part of a just international strike organised by the progressive Canadian Seamen's Union (CSU) trade union. It affected the whole Canadian-flagged merchant marine fleet, then the fourth largest in the world, wherever they were moored. Ships were tied up in England, South Africa and Cuba.

     Aside from the extraordinary (the PAC central committee must have diverted logistical resources from areas of work) practical assistance, the solidarity action undoubtedly stemmed from two main, but connected, understandings.

     One was the need to defend democratic peoples' organisations, regardless of where they were in the world. Not only were the CSU and like-minded unions worldwide fighting to deepen the already beneficial achievements for their members.There was also an ideological struggle. It was the "Cold War" period at the end of the World War II. Company unions and others were started to undermine "red-led" unions, as the established media described progressive, democratically run trade unions.

     It was not that these company unions and other bodies such as groupings within the American Federation of Labour (AFL) could provide better representation and rank and file democracy than the "red-led" unions. The CSU, for example had the support of the majority of Canadian seamen. These were among the poorest sections of the Canadian working class (many went to sea in their early teens during this period). The Canadian Encyclopedia described the CSU as "effective, well supported". It had won significant benefits for the workers within an archaic exploitative sector with its low wages, long hours and poor working conditions, as reliable history accounts describe the conjuncture.

     The leaders of the PAC, which would within a year evolve into the People's Progressive Party (PPP), took all of this into account. Another important reason for the solidarity was that the CSU stood for democratic traits which those in the PAC were themselves striving to establish for the Guyanese people: multiracial democracy and unity.

     According to the book, Against the tide: The story of the Canadian Seamen's Union, by Jim Green (Progress Publishers, 1986), the CSU was formed in 1936. Waterfront unions had merged with it. Among its members were Japanese immigrant fishermen who were based at ports in the Canadian western seaboard province of British Columbia. It was a time when Asiatic people in Canada were still being discriminated against, though as Canadian democracy deepened this would change. In 1949, at the time of the CSU strike, the apartheid system had been institutionalised. But the CSU insisted that any ships being manned by its members would have black and white crews while visiting South Africa.

     Looking at photos of crews in Green's well researched book, there are clearly CSU crew members with African and Hispanic features. These were probably from the Caribbean countries including Cuba where Canadian shipping lines like Saguenay called. In fairness, part of the contracts signed by the shipping firms for hauling cargoes in the circum-Caribbean region and Guyana was the stipulation that a certain percentage of local crew be hired. This tradition was in existence up until the mid 1960s when this writer signed on as a deckhand with other Caribbean seamen on the German-owned and largely crewed freighter BRUNSLAND which was among of Geest Line ships carrying bananas from eastern Caribbean islands to England.

     In his book The West on Trial, Dr. Jagan explained that the support action with the Canadian seamen had been organised "as a matter of principle".

     He gave more details: "Our job was to take care of the men - not an easy task; of the 70 men involved, nearly half were ashore and had to be fed and lodged... The major problem was to feed the men on the ship. This was quite a problem as the shipping company's security guards had blockaded the harbour front..."

     In a 2001 article found on her website, Janet Jagan wrote: "I remember the period well... It was a heady period and the seaman were strong and courageous men, loyal to their union. We (in the PAC) learned a lot from them."

     According to Green's book, warrants were issued by the colonial authorities for the arrest of the SUNAVIS crew. But the strikers also got the backing of the British Guiana and West Indies Federated Seamen's Union and well as the British Guiana Trades Union Council.

     Green argues that a just concluded strike by unionised sugar workers at Plantation Enmore on shore also helped the seamen. When the police went out to the ship and met resistance, the colonial  Governor, anxious to avoid more bloodshed, told the police to let the Canadians be.

      When the TUC withdrew its support in May, the seamen became more isolated. They were put in jail for 16 days after giving themselves up. Legal representation had been organised by PAC. After attending a party thrown in their honour by Cheddi Jagan, they were flown back to Canada.

     Due partly to rising Cold War hysteria in the early 1950s, the CSU went under soon after the strike. The union's 12,000 membership base was undermined by a quasi-company union, the Seafarers International Union which was affiliated to the AFL. In a few years the Canadian merchant marine fleet was sold off leading to much unemployment. The legacy of the CSU's seminal work however continued with members and leaders going into other labour bodies and peoples' organisations.

     The solidarity action by the fledgling democracy and anti-colonial driven PAC, which soon evolved into one of the Hemisphere's longest established and representative political parties, should not of course be looked at in isolation. It should be placed in context along with other internationalist and multi- racial and religious actions and campaigns including those in support of liberation struggles in Southern Africa. The historic show of support by Guyanese people of all races for Canadian seamen nearly 60 years ago is part of our wider collective memory. It is a memory we need sometimes to refer to as we reflect on the roots of Guyana's present striving and healthy democracy.

     (Norman Faria is Guyana's Honourary Consul in Barbados)

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10) ATROCITIES AND GENOCIDE CONTINUE IN PALESTINE

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Stephen Von Sychowski

In 2002 construction began in Palestine on what will go down in history as one of the most striking symbols of oppression produced by the capitalist system in modern times; the Apartheid Wall. Apologists claim the wall is necessary as a measure to ensure security for Israelis. But the reality caused by the construction of the wall can be considered no less than a drastic new stage in Israel's decades-old genocidal policy towards the Palestinian people which has in turn generated the violence cited as reasons for the Wall.

     Construction of the Wall, which has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice and United Nations, has been marked by theft of land, destruction of property, violence and even murder. The Wall is being constructed not on what would be considered "Israeli territory" by international law, but rather within Palestinian land. This has led to over 2% of Palestinian territory, including several illegal Israeli colonies, being swallowed up into the borders of the Israeli Apartheid state. In its wake, the wall has led to the demolition, without reparation, of Palestinian homes, stores and infrastructure. It has cut off Palestinian families from their water supplies, fields and other necessary means of sustenance.

     Not surprisingly, this has fueled anger, protest and resistance in Palestine and has led to the growth of an international anti-Israeli Apartheid movement. But protest against the Wall has been met with further bloodshed and atrocities committed by Israeli occupation forces.

     On July 21, the BBC reported that Palestinian human rights group B'Tselem had released footage of a Palestinian protestor, blindfolded and being held by an Israeli soldier, being shot with a rubber bullet in the West Bank village of Ni'lin. The terrifying footage was available for viewing and remains in circulation on the internet. While the Israeli defense minister condemned the act as "a grave and wrong one," the only difference between this and any other day along the Apartheid Wall construction zone was that a heroic 14 year old Palestinian girl had captured it on film. The soldier who fired on the Palestinian man was detained for one day, and then returned to active duty.

     The protest had begun the day before in Ni'lin, one more in a long string of acts of resistance to the wall, spanning the six years since construction began. When hundreds of Palestinians marched to protect their land from construction they were met with sound and gas bombs, physical attacks and threats from Israeli military forces, but they had halted the bulldozers... for now.

     The attacks against Palestinians have not only been by military forces. Illegal Israeli settlers have frequently carried out violent attacks, sometimes with the help of military forces. In May, fields belonging to Palestinians in the village of Asira al-Qibliya were torched by Israeli settlers. When Palestinians attempted to put out the flames they were blocked by Israeli soldiers. At least one Palestinian was handcuffed and beaten. In June, B'Tselem released footage showing masked, stick wielding Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian farmers in the West Bank.

     Yet in May 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper gave a speech for Israel's 60th Anniversary in which he referred to the Israeli state as "a symbol of the triumph of hope and faith" and an "inspiration" with a "commitment to the universal values of all civilized peoples: freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law". He aimed to tar those who oppose and resist Israel's racist Apartheid system as anti-Semites who "hate the Jewish people"; a common tactic of switching victim for oppressor. And he concluded by stating that he "can foresee no dark force, no matter how strong, that could succeed in dimming the light of freedom and democracy that shines from within Israel."

     But that light of freedom and democracy couldn't be much dimmer if you're a Palestinian facing Israeli occupation and oppression on their own, stolen, land. For that matter, it hasn't been this dim in Canada for quite some time either until now, under the Harper regime. So just as Harper has declared himself Olmert's partner in genocide, lets declare ourselves, Canadian workers, youth and students, as partners of the Palestinian people in liberation. Let's support campaigns against Apartheid and for boycott and divestment of Israel, and continue to fight for the removal of the ultra-reactionary, pro-Apartheid Harper government from power.

     For more information: Canada-Palestine Support Network (http://www.canpalnet.ca) and Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign http://www.stopthewall.org.

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11) MPs DEMAND JUSTICE FOR CUBAN FIVE

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Cuban News Agency

On the initiative of Francine Lalonde, Bloc Québécois MP for La Pointe-de-l'Ile and Foreign Affairs critic, 56 Members of Parliament have signed a letter demanding justice for the Five Cubans imprisoned in the United States and for their families. Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, organized the letter signing within the New Democratic Party.

     The letter explaining the case of the Five was signed by 40 BQ and 16 NDP MPs. In late June, the letter was forwarded to Foreign Affairs Minister David Emerson, U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and David Wilkins, U.S. Ambassador to Canada.  

     The letter indicates that Fernando Gonzalez Llort, René Gonzalez Sehwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo and Ramon Labanino Salazar, known internationally as the "Five" and imprisoned in the United States for more than nine years, have undergone an unfair trial and conditions of detention which contravene the Constitution of the United States and international law. The letter cites Amnesty International, the United Nations Working Group on arbitrary detentions, and a group of 110 British members of Parliament who denounced the trial and the imprisonment.

     The letter also mentions that the Five are held in separate maximum security prisons and kept for long periods in isolation cells; two of them have been denied their right to family visits. It also states that, since the Atlanta Court of Appeal declared that the verdicts against the Cuban Five were invalid, nothing justifies their imprisonment any longer or the arbitrary situation that is extremely painful for the Cuban Five and their families.

     In 1998 the Cuban government gave to U.S. authorities a thick report which showed that terrorist acts were being plotted on American soil by anti-Cuba groups living primarily in Miami. The information was gathered largely from data collected by the Cuban Five who had infiltrated these groups; but rather than acting on this information, it was the Cuban Five who were arrested on September 12, 1998.

     The Canadian Network on Cuba and the Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba welcomed the BQ/NDP joint call for justice, adding that "We will continue in our joint efforts to bring justice for the Five by making their case known to the public of Québec and Canada and also in collaboration with other justice seeking organizations in the United States and elsewhere in the world."

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12) UE LEADERS CALL FOR RANK AND FILE UNIONISM

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Excerpts from "Rank and File Activism: A Viable Alternative," an article in Labour Portside by John Hovis, president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) since 1987, and Chris Townsend, UE Political Action Director since 1993.

     Over time, fads come and go, yet for organized labour certain basic principles hold true. In the "big picture" search for answers to the problems faced by labour today, outspoken contemporary labour leaders and well-meaning academics either inadvertently overlook, or chose to dismiss, the obvious reality: namely, there is likely to be no meaningful revival of the labour movement until rank-and-file members have a fundamental role in running their unions. Those who ignore - or choose to ignore - this truth, instead promoting union mergers, creating gigantic mega-locals, forging "partnership" agreements with employers, or continuing to pursue failed political strategies - will not find the path to revival. They are looking in the wrong direction.

     The ongoing destruction of good paying unionized jobs and the current anti-worker political climate have set back a generation of working people and their unions, sentencing the next generation to a poorer and more difficult life. This crisis begs for a map to guide us forward, yet we find little comfort in the direction prescribed by the self-proclaimed masterminds endeavouring to define labour's agenda today. The absence of any appreciable membership input into the highly-charged "debate" about the future of our movement over the past several years leads us to conclude that we are not alone in our skepticism.

     We suggest that an alternative approach exists to build strong unions. We call it "rank-and-file" unionism, but there are other names for the same thing. This form of unionism has always existed, and was often the dominant form during the times when unions grew and developed most rapidly. Rank and file unionism - as opposed to "business unionism," where the conduct of union affairs is patterned on a corporate model - constantly pushes member involvement and fosters a higher understanding of the political and economic context in which we live...
    
     Our objective is to offer constructive alternatives to those being put forward by others; proposals that our years of experience in the movement lead us to conclude are a better way forward. Our path to a stronger labour movement is based on two crucial ingredients we find absent from those proposed by others, namely enhanced union democracy, and a deeper involvement of the rank and file in the affairs of their union. We propose strengthening, rather than diminishing, internal union democracy and activism. We suggest expanded education and training to develop rank-and-file leadership as the way to build real union power...

The Failure of Business Unionism

     In recent decades any number of labour's leaders have perfected the art of applying failed solutions to the wrong problems. Their response to the crisis in organizing is a prime example. The inability, failure, or outright refusal of union leadership to devote time and money to organizing has led to the pooling of resources through the merging of often-time incompatible organizations. More often than not, these union mergers lack legitimate purpose, serving merely as salary and pension protection for top officers and staff. They are justified by "bigger is better" sloganeering, regardless of the reality. While this trend toward administrative centralization has yielded a number of mergers and combinations, the ability of the movement to organize on the vast scale required still does not exist. In fact, with some small exceptions, union membership continues to decline as employers skillfully destroy existing unions faster than new members can be organized by whatever means, traditional or avant-garde.

     An equally disturbing phenomenon is the combining of already large local unions into mammoth statewide or multi-state units. While such combinations may afford some administrative efficiencies, those efficiencies have come at significant cost. Workers rarely organize and form unions with the primary objective of creating cost-efficient organizations bereft of democracy or on-the-job representation. "Local" unions made up of tens or even hundreds of thousands of members stretching over vast geography makes it all but impossible for members to participate in any practical way in the functioning of their union...

     Most destructive of all, however, is that rather than being viewed as a strength, democracy is today seen by many business unionists as an inefficient hindrance to both setting internal union policy and building new union organization. One national union leader recently proclaimed, "What good is democracy if union density is only 12 percent?" The curtailment of democracy and member involvement has become a calculated objective in the much publicized "new direction" for labour. Unfortunately, what a number of the new breed of union leaders are asking workers to accept is little more than a rehash of the centralized, top down, and stagnant structures that existed in many AFL craft unions prior to the inception of the Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO)...

The Rank And File Alternative

     Finding solutions to the multiple crises facing the labour movement today is not easy. Finding a way forward begins by recognizing that leadership does have a critical place in the functioning of any union, but there is also no substitute for active, informed members. In particular, those seasoned rank-and-file activists who understand the value of unified action to engage both the employer in the workplace and political opponents in the community and the political arena. Building a strong organization requires much more than selecting a high profile contract negotiation or political issue to generate short-lived press coverage through an expensive staff or consultant generated media campaign.

     Elected rank-and-file leadership is key, including shop stewards. Building an effective organization requires people who encourage and empower members to grow and develop by providing educational opportunities, support, and the inspiration for members to step out of their comfort zone and advance to a new and higher level of responsibility. Leadership means fostering an environment that encourages the rank and file to tackle increasingly more difficult and challenging aspects of our work...

The Road Ahead

      In summary, the problems facing working people, and by extension the labour movement, are many. We are increasingly under attack from employers and government agencies alike, while in apparent possession of a diminished desire and ability to resist. Member involvement and mobilization is therefore indispensable to tackling and resolving the vast majority of these problems. We see internal union democracy and education as critical to encouraging this process. Member activism enhances the probability of successful collective bargaining and new organizing, which in turn increases the much needed political effectiveness of our movement.
    
     For too many years individual union leaders have viewed union democracy and member involvement as a threat and liability, rather than an asset. Open, frank discussion is stifled and constructive criticism is often equated with disloyalty. And despite recent rhetoric about the need for "change", unfortunately it's been mostly just talk. Until the labour movement critically reassesses its operations from within, little progress will be made.

     Organized labour will attain greater strength when its leaders get back to their roots as the elected representatives of the working class. Economic and political gains for members and nonmembers alike will be won when the labour movement commits itself to a more involved, more active membership...

Ignoring Labour History

     There is a clear and present danger in ignoring our history. The search for a substitute for rank-and-file involvement, or completely ignoring it as an option, is on its face a denial of labour's rich history. Answers will not be found in the rehash of "old hat" failed policies, or in new-age technical shortcuts, such as video conference membership meetings or call centers to report grievances...

     The aversion to militant struggle among many in labour is obvious, and costly. Recently the president of a large public employee local stated that unions have become ineffective because they are considered "troublemakers" and "creators of problems." His recommendation that even greater cooperation with the boss was the "solution" is nothing more than a suggestion that workers surrender and hope for favourable treatment at the hands of their employer. He went on to say that when it comes to strikes, "nobody has really won". We would not be so quick to dismiss the victories of those tens of thousands of autoworkers who sat down and struck General

Motors factories from Georgia to Flint, Michigan during the incipient CIO period. It would be just as wrong to write off the more than one million workers in the auto, steel and electrical industries who took to the picket lines in 1946 to recoup wages lost during wartime wage controls. Labour victories by the United Mineworkers against the Pittston Coal Company and by the Teamsters at UPS were not won by labour leaders seeking "cooperation" with belligerent employers. These and other battles were won by working people who were mobilized in organizational structures led by leaders who understood the value and necessity of activism. Those workers deserve our praise, not a rewriting of union history to conclude their sacrifices were made in vain. Turning one's back on our history does not open the door to the future.

     Strikes are not the only weapon. When conditions have precluded the use of a strike, other forms of direct, militant actions by workers have won more battles and settled better contracts than "cooperation" and "partnership" has, or ever will. To believe otherwise is to fail to understand our movement. Employers settle with unions on terms favourable to the membership because they fear imminent or widespread disruption to their day-to-day operations. Period. Offering to surrender on whatever terms tendered has never scared a boss into submission...

     As a longtime UE leader once said when referring to the role of rank and file union leadership, "Our job is to get something for the members, not to get something from the members."

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13) DEMONSTRATIONS SHOW SOUTH KOREANS' "BEEF" WITH LEE GOVERNMENT

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sean Burton

South Korea has been experiencing massive street protests over the country's plans to resume beef imports from the United States. Over 100,000 people took to the streets of Seoul on June 11, and thousands more took part in protests on June 29. The widespread fear is that importing cattle will mean importing mad cow disease, despite assurances from the UN and the US that American beef is safe.

     Those assurances have had little effect. South Koreans are bothered by the beef imports, but the demonstrations are just as much a means to express discontent toward the government of Lee Myung Bak.

     When Lee was elected in December 2007, he vowed to "deal" with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (the DPRK, or North Korea) and work towards "closer relations" with the US. Lee has called this the "MB doctrine" (MB for his initials) which calls for, among other things, enhancing the military, expanding markets, reducing government spending in the name of "efficiency" (including an emphasis on private education), and developing stronger ties with the US. Lee insists that he wants to reduce US influence over the South Korean military, though it remains to be seen if that will ever bear fruit. And in any case, the US still holds powerful economic ties. Naturally, the beef import deal is a part of Lee's plan to improve those ties.

     Lee has come under considerable attack for those policies. Teachers have accused him of trying to make education more appealing to the rich by turning into a sort of free market. Furthermore, many cabinet appointments have been wealthy individuals chosen from regions with strong support Lee's Grand National Party (Hannaradang). Corruption charges have abounded among his cabinet, and several ministers have already resigned. Lee's foreign policy has also been criticised as too pro-American, and his desire to "get tough" with the DPRK has damaged North-South relations.

     It is little wonder that Koreans have begun protesting the beef deal. Lee was forced to publicly apologize twice in June for not consulting public opinion on the matter. Now he is seeking "amendments" to the deal that would limit imports to meat from cattle under 30 months of age. Protesters have insisted that the deal must be scrapped entirely, and more demonstrations are being planned.

     The government has already begun cracking down on protests, and police have raided the offices of two civic groups which played a major role in organizing the demonstrations, the Korea Solidarity of Progressive Movements, and People's Action for Countermeasures against Mad Cow Disease. Documents and computers were taken, but no one was arrested. The police have also been blocking attempts to register future vigils. The South Korean Prosecutor General claims that the raids are justified due to police injuries at the protests. These actions have only increased the level of discontent, and many protests have taken place in July in defiance of the government.

     For its part, the DPRK government has expressed solidarity with the protesters, indicating their own dislike for US economic interests being supported by Lee. For that, and the fact that Lee has undermined North-South relations, the North has labelled him a traitor and a US puppet. The Korean Central News Agency has also referred to the police actions as acts of fascist violence.

     "Fascist" might be too strong a word, but there is no doubt that Lee is an outstanding representative of the capitalist class in Korea, doing what they do best: selling out their own people. South Koreans know a bad deal when they see it, and will continue resistance.

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14) RAUL CASTRO: WE WILL PRESERVE THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE REVOLUTION

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

A Cuban News Agency article on July 11 reported on President Raul Castro's recent speeches to the country's Parliament, stressing that "with the joint and conscious effort of all the people, Cuba will produce the necessary food and will preserve the main achievements of the Revolution, while it will continue to advance without disregarding its defense one single minute."

     Raul Castro said that the new draft bill on Social Security, raising the retirement age by five years, reflects the realities of rising life expectancy and birthrate levels which have remained low for several decades. He noted that Cuba's demographic situation has changed since May 1963, when the Revolution guaranteed social security for all workers and their families. Over 238,000 youths reached working age in 1980, while last year that figure was 166,000, projected to decline further to 129,000 by the year 2020. By 2025, 25% of Cuba's population, more than anywhere else in Latin America, will be over 60 years old, and there will be 770,000 fewer people in the working age population.

     Noting that 13.8% of the Cuban budget now goes towards social security and assistance, Raul said today it is necessary to extend the working age. There may also be changes in part-time work, to allow Cubans to hold more than one labour contract and receive the corresponding salaries.

     The draft bill legislating these changes will go through extensive public consultations before being finalized and submitted to the next session of the Cuban parliament by the end of 2008. The new system will be gradually implemented over the next seven years to protect workers arriving at their expected retirement age under current legislation.

     Raul Castro also called on teachers and professors who are no longer working to return to their profession. Before the upcoming school year, the parliament will allow teachers to return to their jobs at full salary, without affecting their retirement pensions.

     The Cuban President spoke about the need for workers to feel themselves as owners of the means of production, without depending solely on theoretical explanations. Workers' incomes must match their output and their workplace's fulfilment of its social purpose and the reason for its creation, he said, in order to improve productivity and provide services.

     On another issue, Raul Castro said that "Cuba has to reverse, once and for all, the trend of the decreasing cultivated land area, which between 1998 and 2007 was reduced by 33 percent, a fact that greatly influenced the limitations imposed by the economic crisis."     "In other words," he added, "we have to go back to the land! We have to make it produce!"

     In the future, Raul said, legal regulations will be approved to start giving idle land to those capable of making it produce immediately, among other measures to increase food production.

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15)WHAT'S LEFT

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

BURNABY, BC

Hiroshima Day Lantern Ceremony - Central Park south pond, 7:30 pm, Wed., August 6, sponsor Veterans Against Nuclear Arms.

Islamophobia, free forum Friday - Aug. 22, 6:30 pm, with Dr. M.I. Elmasry, Khurram Awan, and Derrick O’Keefe, at Masjid Al-Salaam, 5060 Canada Way.

VANCOUVER, BC

Vlogging Resistance, screenings and discussion on new alternative media - Friday, Aug. 22, 7 pm, Rhizome Cafe, 317 E. Broadway.

Left Film Night - Sunday, Aug. 31, 7 pm, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, call  604-255-2041 for details.

WINNIPEG, MN

Hiroshima Day Lanterns for Peace - Wed., Aug. 6, Memorial Park, 8:30 pm, Peace Alliance  Winnipeg.

Manitoba Peace Council renewal meeting - Sat, Aug 9, 11 am-2 pm, Workers Organizing  Resource Centre, 280 Smith St. Info 792-3371.

EDMONTON, AB

Edmonton Young Communist League - meets regularly at Remedy Cafe, 8631-109 St., 5 pm on the second Friday each month. Discussion topics and suggested readings on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3559215104.

TORONTO, ON

“Silence is Golden,” documentary on Canadian mining activities in Africa - Tuesday, Aug. 12, 7 pm, Innis Town Hall, U of T, donation $10.

13th Annual Toronto-Cuba Friendship Day - Sat., Aug. 23, 1-8 pm, Nathan Phillips Square.

Labour Education Centre course: Globalization, Imperialism and World Inequality, open to all - September 2008, classes at OISE UT. For cost and other information, see  http://www.laboureducation.org.

Support public health care - mass protest Sat., Sept. 27 11 am, at Metro Hall Square (Wellington  & John St), for info call Ontario Health Coalition 416-441-2502.

CALEDONIA, ON

Peace & Friendship Gathering for Haudenosaunee and allies - August 22-24, Chiefswood Park, hosted by Six Nations of Grand River.

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$50,000 FUND DRIVE
Alberta First as Drive Passes 82%

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

One of the most successful People’s Voice Walk-A-Thons in the six-year history of this event raised another $3,000 for our Fund Drive, which has now passed the 82% mark.

About sixty people turned out in perfect summer weather for the Walk-A-Thon, held on July 20 at Bear Creek Park in Surrey, B.C. After the usual half-hour walk around the park, everyone  settled in for a delicious South Asian picnic lunch, followed by several of Linda Chobotuck’s  working class folk songs and a short speech by PV editor Kimball Cariou. This year’s top  fundraisers from the Lower Fraser Club include Nazir Rizvi, Krishna Syal, and leading the way, Harjit Daudharia. Many thanks to all those who helped out, especially Evelyn Suprun and Gurcharan Talewalia, who arrived very early that morning to reserve tables!

Alberta has now officially topped its provincial target, raising $2010 to become the 2008 Fund Drive race winners. Not far behind is Ontario, with $19,050 raised, or 95% of their provincial  target. British Columbia has taken a big step towards the finish line, with $17,890 achieved, or 89.5%.

The Maritimes and Newfoundland are now at 60% ($715 raised), and nearly $1000 has arrived from Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Including donations from supporters outside Canada, we have received $41,040.

Remember that this year’s “PV Shopping Bag” includes the following:

•  “The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism,” a 112-page booklet by David Lester, full of astounding facts and figures about the exploitative system which threatens our planet;
•  a 12-month complimentary PV sub (keep it or give it to a friend);
•  People’s Voice 2008 Calendar;
•  People’s Voice “Karl Marx” Tshirt (tell us what size);
•  a surprise music CD - pick classical, oldies, or folk.
  

For a $100 donation, you get your choice of one of these items. For each additional $100, choose another item from our Shopping Bag. For a donation of $1000 or more, take the entire Shopping Bag, and receive a lifetime subscription for yourself or a friend.

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