August 1-31, 2009
Volume 17 - Number 13
$1

Prolétaires de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
Contents
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PV Fund Drive
Walk-A-Thon: Sunday, August 9
1) END THE COUP IN HONDURAS! CANADA MUST ACT NOW!
2) SUDBURY MINERS TAKE ON A BIG FOE
3) WINNIPEG WATER CHANGES "A MONUMENTAL ROBBERY"
4) CANADA'S EI BENEFITS WELL BELOW OECD AVERAGE
5) ABOUT THAT "BUMPY RIDE" - Editorial
6) NEW AND IMPROVED? - Editorial
7) CPP REFORMS - PUNISHING WORKERS WHO RETIRE EARLY
8) 2010 OLYMPICS UNDER INCREASING CRITICISM
9) LILIANY OBANDO TRIAL SET FOR AUG. 27
10) IN DEFENSE OF THE MOVEMENT OF IRANIAN PEOPLE FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
11) TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN HUGH MULZAC
12) HONDURAN OLIGARCHY: "THE WAR IS AGAINST CHAVEZ"
13) WHAT'S LEFT
 14) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
15) CLARTÉ (en français)
16 THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
17 INTRODUCING MARX
20) REBEL YOUTH


PEOPLE'S VOICE AUGUST 1-31 (pdf)


SOCIALISM IS THE ALTERNATIVE



The Spark!
Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada

The Spark!

The latest issue of The Spark! theoretical journal, is now on sale for $5 at Communist Party offices (see p. 8) or People’s Co-op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.

Articles include
  • “Introduction to a General Theory of Culture” (Barry Lord);
  • “Political & Economic Realities Behind Colombian Labour Relations” (Sacouman, Moore & Brittain); 
  • “Treaty Process & Indian Nationalism” (Ray Bobb);
  • “Lenin: Heritage of the Socialist Market Economy” (C.J. Atkins);
  • “Nature of the State Under Bush & Harper” (Stephen Von Sychowski);
  • plus reviews, editorials, and more.

People's Voice deadlines:
SEPTEMBER 1-15
Thursday, August 13
SEPTEMBER 16-30
Thursday, September 3
Send submissions to PV Editorial Office,
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net





People's Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start" website, http://www.labourstart.org. We urge our readers to check it out!

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1) END THE COUP IN HONDURAS! CANADA MUST ACT NOW!

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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.)

Statement of the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada, July 27, 2009

One month has passed since the June 28th coup d'etat in Honduras which drove elected President Manuel Zelaya from office and into exile, installing one of the coup leaders, Roberto Micheletti as "Interim President" in his place. And yet despite street protests and general strikes inside the country, and unanimous international condemnation, including Honduras' suspension from the Organization of American States (OAS), the coup leaders remain in control.

     Canada and the other imperialist states ‑ the United States in the first instance ‑ were forced at first to publicly disassociate themselves from the coup. But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Harper government in Ottawa are refusing to insist on the return of Zelaya to power, and economic trade and aid grants continue to flow. As one commentator said recently, "if the Obama Administration really wanted to end the coup, they could do it with one phone call"!

     Indeed, the claim that the U.S. government was not intimately involved in the coup holds no water. Most of the Honduran army command and other high state officials were trained in the U.S. (including at the notorious "School of the Americas"); the U.S. military/intelligence apparatus knows everything that goes on in Honduras and other weak, neo‑colonial states in the region; and the U.S.‑sponsored, terrorist ex‑Cuban mafia based in Miami have extensive ties with the Honduran oligarchy, including involvement in the lucrative drug trade.

     Imperialism is playing an elaborate shell game: making verbal pronouncements against the coup but privately applauding the coup leaders and shielding them from real concerted international pressure, thus giving the putchists time to snuff out domestic resistance and consolidate their unconstitutional grip on power.

And the reason is simple: Honduras is a training ground to work out new tactics to depose socialist, anti‑imperialist and other progressive or left‑leaning governments in Latin America under present‑day conditions, compared to those of the 1950s, 60s and 70s when U.S.‑backed and engineered coups proliferated  across this Hemisphere.

     President Zelaya lost favour with the Honduran ruling class and its U.S. backers when he began to embrace more independent and pro‑people policies, came out strongly against the privatization of HonduTel and other public utilities, expanded diplomatic, economic and political relations with Cuba, Venezuela and other progressive states, and then moved to join the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA). When the oligarchic circles within the state (the Honduran Armed Forces, the court system, and the Congress) concluded they had lost effective control over Zelaya, and that a mass constituency of workers, peasants and the poor was beginning to take shape, they decided the time had come to act. 

     The Communist Party of Canada joins with labour, progressive and other democratic organizations in clearly and unambiguously condemning the coup d'etat in Honduras and demanding the immediate re‑instatement of President Manuel Zelaya, and the arrest and punishment of the coup leaders. We also demand that the Government of Canada condemn the regime's brutal attacks against workers, youth and other progressive Hondurans opposing the coup d'etat, and demand that the coup leaders immediately surrender power and restore the democratically‑elected President to his rightful office, without conditions. These demands must be combined with the following actions:

* halting all direct and state‑supported aid programs to Honduras that benefit the oligarchy;

* ending diplomatic relations with Honduras and declaring its Ambassador to Canada persona non grata; and

* imposing comprehensive economic, political and military sanctions against Honduras

     Nothing short of these measures will suffice, if Canada's words are to be matched by real deeds. We remain confident that the Honduran people, with the support and solidarity of the people of the world, will succeed in overturning this coup d'etat, defeating this and other machinations of the oligarchy and its imperialist backers!
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2) SUDBURY MINERS TAKE ON A BIG FOE

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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, Chair of the Central Trade Union Commission, Communist Party of Canada

Vale Inco, a subsidiary of Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD), was founded by the Brazilian government in 1942. Just seven years later, it was responsible for over 80% of Brazilian iron ore exports. As a publicly owned company, CVRD had access not only to government capital but to all the vast resources of Brazil. By 1970 CVRD was the major stakeholder of the Carajas Mine, which still has reserves of 1.5 billion tones of iron ore, and had become the biggest exporter of iron ore in the world. During its time of public ownership CVRD (Vale) had developed ownership and investment in transportation (railroads), built ports for the export of ore, and branched out into hydro electric and steel.

     In 1997 the Brazilian federal government, in a much disputed political decision, allowed the privatization of Vale. The company was delivered to the lusting hands of the "Brazil Consortium" formed and led by the National Steel Company (CSN). This privatization of course transferred huge profits from the public purse to the bank accounts of Brazil's wealthy investors. It also gave considerable geography and access to natural wealth that was previously controlled by a public company into the hands of a private industrial/investment cabal.

     Between 2000 and 2007 the huge and varied holdings of Vale were sold off. The company consolidated itself using $4.9 billion of its now privatized capital to purchase outright most of its competitors, which gave it ownership of 85% of Brazil's iron ore and virtual 100% ownership of all Brazilian iron ore exports. The consolidation of Vale into a mining-only company set the stage for Vale to release itself from its dependency on the price of iron ore and to diversify into non-ferrous metals.

     In 2006 Vale acquired Inco, Canada's second largest mining company, paying $17.7 billion in cash and assuming Inco's $1.2 billion in debt. This was a major part of the transfer of Canadian extraction, manufacturing, transportation, energy and forest industries into foreign ownership and control, a process very advanced but not yet complete. With the acquisition of Inco, Vale boosted the output of non‑ferrous metals to 34% of its world output and broke its dependency on the iron ore market, although iron ore is still 64% of its business.

     Just prior to the Inco grab, Vale's largest customer, Arcelor-Mittal (the worlds largest steel producer), purchased Canada's second largest steel mill (Dofasco) located next door to the largest (Stelco) which was soon consumed by U.S. Steel. These three purchases passed a huge part of the Canadian economy into foreign hands, allowed access to cheap Canadian energy, and gave control of iron ore and precious metal mining to South American, Eurasian and U.S. capital.

     Vale owns six mines in the greater Sudbury area, a refinery in Port Colborne, Ontario, two mines in Manitoba, and the very rich Voisey's Bay mine in Newfoundland/Labrador. They have made more profit in Canada in the last two years than Inco made in the last ten years of ownership. They have launched what can only be described as an attack, not only on the Steelworkers in Sudbury and Port Colborne, but on the communities that depend on the wages and benefits of these workers for economic sustenance and stability.

     Under the guise of the current economic crisis, Vale has attacked the "Nickel Bonus", which is important to even out the effect of world market prices that dictate the level of mining activity or lay‑offs, directly affecting the yearly income of miners. Vale demands concessions on contracting out, and introduction of a two‑tier pension program - including switching to a defined contribution plan that would become a money maker for the company and condemn retirees to lives of dependency on international finance capital, the architects of the present global crisis debacle. Vale wants to interfere with the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) by refusing to roll it into the base hourly rate annually, thus effectively freezing wage rates so the COLA becomes a transient add‑on that does not affect pension programs, holiday pay, overtime rates or any other program that is based on wages.

     All this sounded familiar to the striking civic workers in Toronto and Windsor, where municipal administrators must have attended the same labour relations classes as the corporate yap dogs of the global neo‑cons. Vale offers the Steelworkers contracting out, two‑tiered wages and pensions, using the global crisis as an excuse to attack future generations of our youth, weaken our unions, ruin our economy and run with the profits to offshore low wage enterprises and "money as a commodity" financial investments.

     The municipal leaders attacking CUPE workers offered the same cup of hemlock. But here there is no surplus value, only acquiescence with the neo‑liberal agenda that impoverished our cities in the form of tax cuts to the corporations while cutting transfer payments to the provincial and municipal governments. The recipients of the tax cuts include the foreign based monopolies like Vale. So the monopolies prosper at the expense of the municipalities (where 90% of our population lives), while municipal leaders react to a poverty of government funding by attacking the wages and pensions of public sector workers. Not satisfied with super profits and low taxes, the monopolies attack private sector workers for a double whammy of profit to invest in the global financial casinos.

     Sudbury miners, whether the CAW descendants of the Mine Mill and Smelter Workers or the presently embattled Steelworkers, have a reputation for standing firm in the face of adversity. The militancy of these workers, the massive support for their leadership and their ability to rouse the entire community, can win against Vale and can recruit global solidarity with international labour. Vale is a foreign corporation trying to impose its agenda on Canadian workers.

     A Steelworkers victory in Sudbury and Port Colborne will have a strengthening effect on all public and private sector workers standing against the same drive to impose two-tiered injustice for the future generation and a demeaning loss of quality‑of‑life for the present. In the environment of a vicious attack on Ontario Autoworkers and the foreign-rigged tragedy of Hamilton Steelworkers, the working class in Ontario very badly needs to win.

     The Ontario Federation of Labour cannot remain relatively passive. It must lead a massive campaign to recruit public support for these strikes. The OFL should welcome, without conditions, the re‑entry of the CAW, whose militancy and organization could be a decisive factor in the emerging solidarity and labour unity.
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3) WINNIPEG WATER CHANGES "A MONUMENTAL ROBBERY"

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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 Manitoba Bureau

Ignoring demands for public hearings and widespread opposition to privatization, Winnipeg City Council voted 10-6 on July 22 to create an "arms length" municipal water corporation with the authority to sell water outside City limits and to privatize some of its services.

     The Communist Party called the changes "a monumental, undemocratic robbery" and a giant betrayal of Winnipeg, especially the core area which has some of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods. "The polite fiction that provincial parties should stay out of civic politics needs to be set aside on an issue of this magnitude and urgency," said the Party.

     The sale of water outside Winnipeg will alter the region's development for decades to come, yet its effect on housing in the core and throughout Winnipeg was essentially ignored. Constantly denying that privatization was proposed, Mayor Sam Katz and his supporters manipulated the debate to avoid the housing issue.

     Urged on by people like David Angus of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, Council voted for the proposal with slight amendments. Angus argued the debate was purely ideological and capable of being decided without reference to any facts. But the day will come when Mr. Angus' chamber of commerce in a hollowed-out, impoverished Winnipeg will be smaller than the one outside the city.

     The water corporation will privatize up to 49 per cent of "new wastewater treatment infrastructure services," which will just be the start. Dozens of organizations spoke against privatization, defending wages, jobs and democratic control of the utility.

     The Communist Party further pointed out that "access to water and development are intimately combined" and that the proposal failed to study the impact or reveal who would benefit outside the city.

     "I cannot imagine a more unpatriotic measure by a City Council," said Darrell Rankin, Manitoba leader of the Communist Party. "No one wants a City Council that supports giant, private land speculators outside the perimeter at their expense. Mayor Katz stated he does not want elected politicians to control the new water corporation. We don't need a corporation that gives sweet deals to major corporate customers and subsidizes the cost of new water lines to new developments outside of Winnipeg. Residential water bills are going to skyrocket. We need democratic control of water."

     The vote signifies that land developers outside Winnipeg have more sway than those inside, which is essentially being abandoned. About four large land development corporations dominate the market in the region. Major new industrial and housing developments outside Winnipeg will devastate the city as a whole. The plan will not help existing rural dwellers with better water services.

     "With one vote, City Council will erase all the housing improvements in Winnipeg's core area. (This) will show their true attitude to the thousands of families looking for decent, affordable housing in Winnipeg," said Rankin. The vote would break decades of promises by all levels of government "made to Aboriginal organizations, housing coalitions and anti‑poverty groups" to end the housing crisis.

     In an earlier statement, the Communist Party urged people to "protest the proposal and vow to defeat any City Councillor voting in favour of the measure" and for other provincial parties to set out their views, calling for the Manitoba legislature to hold an emergency session "to prevent any privatization or corporate model."

     Acting in contempt of democracy, Katz and his supporters on Council released the new corporation's business plan on June 26, less than a month before the vote. On July 15, nearly 30 groups and citizens expressed opposition at a meeting of Council's executive policy committee. An opinion poll released on July 21 said that 67 per cent of the public wanted to delay the vote to allow more time for study and improvements to the plan.

     Nearly fifty people rallied against the proposal at a July 15 protest organized by the Winnipeg Labour Election Committee, which announced a second rally to be held the day before the vote. Nearly 300 attended the July 21 rally which featured a broad range of speakers.

     An essential step in the efforts to overturn this decision will be to unite the unions which fought the privatization of the water utility with a broad coalition of forces that will protect housing and industrial development in Winnipeg. This will be even more important than relying on the provincial government to block this dangerous proposal.
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4) CANADA'S EI BENEFITS WELL BELOW OECD AVERAGE

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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

A new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) reports that fewer unemployed workers are receiving regular EI benefits now than during previous recessions.      Released on June 30, the study by economist Lars Osberg also finds that in terms of access, benefit duration, and income replacement levels, EI in Canada falls far below most other OECD countries.

     In January 2009, the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Canada was 7.7%, the same rate as in February 1990, near the start of the early‑1990s recession. But only a bit over half as many of the unemployed are getting unemployment benefits in 2009, compared

to 1990. Perhaps not surprisingly, the International Monetary Fund in its World Economic Outlook of October 2008, argued that Canada's system of adjusting benefits to local unemployment levels should be emulated worldwide.

     The CCPA notes that until the late 1980s, unemployment insurance in Canada - as in most other OECD nations today - was an unemployment benefits program; its costs were the UI benefits it paid to unemployed workers and its revenues came from a payroll tax (the premium income collected from employers and employees).

     Over the last two decades, however, the federal government has shifted training expenditures, employment service and benefit costs from its Consolidated Revenue Fund expenditures to the EI Account. As well, throughout the late 1990s, premium income greatly exceeded expenditures, allowing the Chretien Liberal government of that time to use the surplus in EI revenues to reduce Canada's general government deficit.

     "In this global recession, the weakness of Canada's EI system has become a glaring federal policy omission," says Osberg. "Now that they need a social safety net, many Canadians are discovering they do not have much of one."

     According to the study, the inadequacies of EI - combined with weakened provincial social assistance programs - have produced a massive risk shift, the burden of which is being borne by Canadian families who have fallen victim to the global recession.

     "Since low‑wage individuals are especially likely to experience unemployment, the downloading of recessionary risk is having its biggest impacts on disadvantaged Canadians," Osberg says. "These impacts will only increase as EI benefits are exhausted in the coming months."

     The study warns that benefits for current EI recipients will run out sometime before February 2010, when the OECD estimates that employment will be 10.5% - substantially higher than it is now.

     The study recommends reforms such as the easing of entrance requirements, and a "second tier" of unemployment benefits to address the problems of those who are unemployed for long durations.
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5) ABOUT THAT "BUMPY RIDE"

(The following editorial is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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

While public attention is focused on the vagaries of the Canadian weather, warning signals keep flashing about an impending fall election. The Harper Tories are happy to read the recent crop of news reports about the "end of the recession". This is a classic case of counting unhatched chickens, based mainly on "data" such as consumer confidence - which unsurprisingly reflects the desire of the corporate mass media for a return to economic normalcy. In reality, the capitalist world remains mired in the worst downturn in industrial production and international trade in decades.

     Part of this bigger picture is that some two to three million Canadians remain unemployed, depending on one's choice of statistical evaluation. Of those, less than half have access to EI, and the level of unemployment benefits in Canada is far below the average for other OECD countries.

     And yet the Harper Tories remain determined to leave Canadian working families in the lurch. The Ignatieff Liberals let the Tories off the hook in June, agreeing to take part in a committee to study this issue. But the work of the committee is already stymied by the categorical statement of Tory MP Pierre Poilievre that his government will never agree to proposals to reduce the number of hours employees must work before qualifying for insurance payments.

     For hundreds of thousands laid off in recent months, EI benefits will soon start to run out. A cynic might wonder if Mr. Harper hopes to force a fall election before the reality of this unemployment crisis become fully apparent in mid-winter. Whatever the case, the job of the labour movement is to step up the campaign to expand EI access and benefits. It will soon be a matter of life and death.
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6) NEW AND IMPROVED?

(The following editorial is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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

Wow - talk about not getting it. Even as demands rise for tighter restrictions or outright banning of "conducted energy devices," Taser International has announced the "Revolutionary New Multi‑Shot TASER Device With Precision Shaped Pulse Technology."

     People's Voice was one of the lucky recipients of this news on July 27. At first we assumed it was a tasteless joke - this came via email, after all. But it turns out that the "Next Generation TASER X3" has indeed been unveiled at the annual Taser Conference in Fountain Hills, Arizona.

     For those still struggling to understand why Canadian, U.S. and British police (and others around the world, no doubt) often use Tasers as the weapon of choice to incapacitate people, the details of this upgraded device are startling and appalling. The first new form of Taser since 2003, the X3 is capable of firing three cartridges without reloading, using "a revolutionary Pulse Calibration System(tm) to constantly monitor and calibrate electrical output to provide more consistent effects on the target and to provide enhanced safety over the current proven and widely accepted TASER(r) technology."

     Think about that for a moment. For years, long before the RCMP killing of defenceless Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver Airport, the top guns at Taser called these weapons safer than anything this side of oven mitts. But now, "the most sophisticated handheld weapon ever developed" will improve effectiveness and safety? Even with the capability of attacking three victims, not just one?

     Somehow, this reminds us of TV ads which extol the "new, improved flavour" of Chewy Bits. Usually, this is a subtle admission that the old Chewy Bits were wretched.

     And so it is with the new improved Taser. The original product should be banned, and police forces are simply not to be trusted with a new version that can attack three times as many people.
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7) CPP REFORMS - PUNISHING WORKERS WHO RETIRE EARLY

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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 Voices" column, by Larry Brown, National Secretary-Treasurer, reprinted from National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) website

Our federal government, the uber‑specialists in spin, have spun out some changes to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) that were described in glowing terms as enhancing fairness and allowing employees greater flexibility. One newspaper dutifully, if incorrectly, talked about a "sea change" in CPP policy.

     What the changes really mean, unpacked from the spin, is that employees in Canada that want to retire early are going to be hit hard by a further reduction in their CPP benefits, a reduction that will last the rest of their lives. And workers will be heavily induced to continue working even after reaching 65.

     It is abundantly clear that the level of CPP benefits is too low. It is equally clear that for over six million Canadians, without workplace pensions or RRSPs, the CPP is their only real source of retirement income.

     Rather than address this issue, the proposal coming from the Harper government is to tinker with the rules so that in fact CPP payouts would be driven even lower for some workers, workers with the temerity to retire earlier than 65.

     These would be disguised reductions, hidden by the fact that workers would be able to start collecting CPP at 60, and still work and make payments into the plan.

     But any employee in Canada hoping or planning to retire before 65 should know that the decrease in CPP pension payments will go from a current maximum 30% decrease at the age of 60 to a maximum 36% decrease. That is, for employees who work to 65, their pension would be 36% higher than if they were to retire at 60, a very heavy inducement indeed to keep on working.

     The 36% reduction will last the rest of their lives. This works out to an extra 6% lost for early retirement - a 16% increase in the permanent cost of early retirement.

     That's not the end of it. Workers who want to retire early will also have a heavy inducement to work at least part‑time after that. For every year they work they will get back some of that retirement penalty. And even at 65 workers will be encouraged to keep working. If they work until 70 the value of their CPP will keep increasing by an elevated amount.

     Who benefits from these changes, which are so obviously aimed at inducing most people to work until at least 65 and preferably longer? Well, some employees who want and are able to work past age 60 will appreciate the fact they'll be able to do so while collecting (greatly reduced) CPP benefits. But the biggest benefits go to employers.

     Employers will face a lot less pressure to recruit younger workers, or pay older workers a fair wage. Under either of these announced changes, from ages 60 to 70 a person can receive CPP and keep working. That employee will already be receiving a CPP payment, needing less employment income. This will benefit employers because they will feel even less inclined to pay reasonable salaries to seniors still working.

     The net effect is that seniors would be subsidizing their employers by using their CPP benefits to supplement their lower incomes. Meanwhile, the pool of workers available to employers would be considerably larger than it is now, when retirement at 60 is a reasonable option.

     No wonder the most enthusiastic endorsements of this new idea have come from employer oriented think tanks. It's a potentially lucrative gift to employers from their older employees.

     The Harper government has also cloaked these changes in the rhetoric of "responding to the current economic crisis." Yet the fact is that these changes will not occur until 2012. So how does this help people today who don't have a workplace pension, who don't have adequate CPP benefits, who don't have private retirement savings or have seen them recently hammered by the stock market meltdown?

     Some countries have openly increased their normal retirement age, allowing for public debate on the issue. In Canada, where spin is everything for our federal government, they are using CPP changes to increase the pressure on workers to stay in their jobs till at least 65, and calling it "progress, flexibility and fairness."

     Look past the spin, and the result is less employee choice about when to retire.
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8) 2010 OLYMPICS UNDER INCREASING CRITICISM

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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 Kimball Cariou

The 2010 Winter Olympics set to begin next February in Vancouver and Whistler are coming under sharper criticism from a wide spectrum of public opinion. Residents of Whistler, for example, are increasingly alarmed at the whopping tax bills which will accompany their town's brief moment in the international spotlight.

     But the most volatile situation is in Vancouver, where the promises of more social housing, improved recreation facilities and other improvements which were used to gain public support for the bid are fading faster than Jamaica's hopes for a bobsledding gold medal.

     It appears likely, for example, that the social housing component of the Athletes' Village - already cut drastically by the NPA-dominated City Council during its 2005-08 term - will be fully transformed into expensive condominiums. A new strategy to use the profits from this shift to build low-income housing could take years, while thousands of Vancouverites remain homeless.

     Many such concerns were summed up in a recent statement from the Council of Canadians, which "views positively the Olympic goal of friendly international competition between athletes who excel in their respective sports" but raises alarms at "the increasing evidence that these worthy aspects are being overwhelmed, if not totally supplanted, by an `Olympic industry' focused on real estate development and massive corporate marketing opportunities."

     In particular, the Council of Canadians "believes the February 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler will leave a negative legacy contrary to the goals set forward during the application and approval process to host the games. There is now no doubt that the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) and its affiliated partners will fail to meet their commitments with regard to the environment, social programs and fiscal accountability."

     The Council of Canadians is working with activists who are highlighting the negative aspects of the 2010 Games, which are being held on un‑ceded First Nations territories and are providing mining, resort, real estate and energy developers with opportunities to expand projects on indigenous territories throughout the province.

     "As well," says the CoC, "we are concerned that the civil liberties of local communities and those who have a critique of the Games are being undermined by an unnecessary security presence. The security budget for the games has ballooned to $1 billion, while security and law enforcement agencies have identified protest groups as the most significant threat to the Games. Over 4,500 Canadian military troops will be deployed to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics ‑ twice the number Canada has in Afghanistan."

     Civil liberties groups, anti-Games activists, social movements, and Coalition of Progressive Electors members of Vancouver City Council have all condemned the threat to privacy and protest rights arising from the installation of new surveillance cameras and draconian security measures, including constant harassment of protesters months before the Olympic flame is lit.

     Large areas around Olympic-related sites will be turned into "security zones", with anyone seeking access subject to intrusive search procedures. Residents of Whistler, site of the nordic and downhill venues, already live in a "security zone," and hikers and mountain bikers are finding wilderness trails in that area blocked by mysterious military operations.

     "As an organization focused on global justice," says the CoC, "we are especially concerned that the 2010 Olympics are providing a prime `green‑washing' opportunity for corporations involved in the most egregious threats to the survival of humanity and the earth through their active participation in the privatization and commodification of water and massive environmental degradation exemplified by the exploitation of the tar sands. A Worldwide Olympic Partner, Coca Cola (also a sponsor of the Torch Relay), is notorious for depleting groundwater in areas of India and Latin America with scarce water resources. Furthermore, Coca Cola is a

leading promoter of water commodification as one of the largest producers of bottled water in the world. The Council of Canadians is actively promoting bottled water bans in communities across the country, and has grave concerns about the impact of Coca Cola's sponsorship on public water infrastructure support in Vancouver and Whistler.

     "EPCOR, an Official Supplier for the games, has been working to privatize the water utilities of municipalities across the country, including BC. Epcor tried to bid on the privatization of waste water treatment in Whistler in 2006. The bid was successfully overturned as a result of efforts by the Council of Canadians and community members in Whistler.

     "General Electric, another Worldwide Olympic Partner, is a major financier of private power projects in BC, including the enormous Bute Inlet proposal through its subsidiary Plutonic Power. The Council of Canadians has taken a stand against private power projects in British Columbia through the `IPP' model.

     "The Royal Bank of Canada and Petro Canada, both National Partners for the 2010 Games, are directly involved in the Alberta tar sands, one of the most environmentally destructive projects in the world. The Royal Bank is a major financier of tar sands projects and is also a sponsor of the Torch Relay. Ironically, their ad campaigns for the relay ask individuals to make a `green pledge' by volunteering to carry the torch. The Council of Canadians is campaigning for no new approvals in the tar sands and a halt to any development infrastructure designed to increase the capacity of tar sands exploitation.

     "Dow Chemical is also an Olympic sponsor. Currently Dow is suing the Government of Canada for $2 million, through NAFTA's Chapter 11 investor‑state dispute process, as part of a  challenge to a Quebec ban on the use of lawn pesticides. Dow claims that the ban has amounted to an unfair expropriation of Dow's Canadian pesticide business. The Council of Canadians has long campaigned against NAFTA and Chapter 11's harmful impact on public regulation.

     "At a time of economic crisis when federal, provincial and municipal governments should focus on public projects that create a lasting positive social and economic foundation the 2010 Games appear set to leave a legacy of social and environmental destruction and massive debt that will hobble our ability to make positive change and respond to the serious challenges facing communities across the province and the country."

     Vancouver City Council has now passed a large package of new bylaws supposedly "necessary" to facilitate the Games. The bylaws create extensive areas in which the City can dictate massive security screenings and curtailment of free expression.

     As the BC Civil Liberties Association pointed out, "In a sorry effort to mask the rest of the by‑laws' failings, Council deleted one blatantly unconstitutional provision which would have allowed the removal of signs on city streets that `promote an idea.' The fact that this provision made it through to Council's rushed hearing on the matter shows how little care went into reading and thinking through the whole thing."

     Robert Holmes, President of the BCCLA, notes that "Vancouver City Council has passed a bylaw saying that anyone who causes a disturbance that affects the enjoyment of an Olympic event commits an offence. When the crowd booed the hapless judging of the skating competition in Salt Lake City in 2002 that saw the Russian team wrongly given gold when the Canadians deserved it, they were
voicing freely their opinions. Under Vancouver's new bylaw, at VANOC's behest, the police will be expected to arrest anyone who does likewise. That is simply wrong. We deserve better from our elected officials."

     At the same meeting, Council refused to confirm that political speech, banners and signs will be permitted along the Vancouver leg of the Olympic Torch relay.

     When Council purports to empower itself with laws prohibiting persons causing a "disturbance or nuisance" on city land, says the BCCLA, "there's a pretty good bet that while pro‑Olympics screaming and wailing at whatever decibel will be given a pass, everything else, from criticisms of bad calls by Olympic judges to criticism of some participating countries will find themselves declared a `disturbance'. These bylaws exempt signs `celebrating' the Olympics from sign prohibitions, so it's not rocket science to figure out that this is going well beyond the stated purpose of protecting the commercial interests of licenced sponsors."

     The new bylaws allow the City Manager to make additional rules at whim, without accountability or oversight. Assurances that such decisions will protect citizens' rights appear to have no legal weight. The BCCLA notes that "these laws are ripe for constitutional challenge for violation of freedom of expression, association, assembly, security of the person and the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure."

     COPE councillors Ellen Woodsworth and David Cadman cast the only two votes against the bylaw, citing its implications to civil liberties and freedom of expression. Their questions focused on the timeline and locations of street closures, whether the changes were developed with a reading of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the unclear procedure for dealing with free leaflets and newspapers, how "creating a disturbance or public nuisance" compares to the Criminal Code, and what the City is doing to ensure freedom of expression along the torch relay route.

     According to Woodsworth, "it is crucial that we have a clear timeline and a sunset clause and that all bylaws are reviewed by the COV legal department to ensure they comply with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms."
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9) LILIANY OBANDO TRIAL SET FOR AUG. 27

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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.)

From the U.S.-based Campaign for Labor Rights

In August 2008, Liliany Obando was arrested on trumped up charges by the Colombian authorities for "managing money for a terrorist organization", and "rebellion." She was arrested on the basis of emails allegedly found in a computer belonging to FARC Commander Raul Reyes when the Colombian military bombed a FARC camp in Ecuador that was working out details for a prisoner release.

     This "evidence" has been widely discredited. The Colombian Police Captain, Ronald Hayden Coy Ortiz, who oversaw the initial investigation of the computers has said under oath that they contained no emails, only Word documents which are easily manipulated. The international police agency, INTERPOL, said the evidence could not be authenticated and "did not conform to internationally recognized principles".

     Liliany was arrested the same week that a report was released that she authored detailing the murders of more than 1,500 members of the FENSUAGRO rural farm workers union by the Colombian military and paramilitaries.

     Liliany goes to trial on August 27. Her defense team feels confident that it can show that the money she raised was legitimate and traceable and went to the rural workers union. (Many Canadian trade unionists and solidarity activists are familiar with Liliany's work on behalf of FENSUAGRO during her visits to this country.)

     However, the second charge "rebellion" is particularly worrisome. As Carlos Cuevas, speaking for the International Network in Solidarity with Colombian Political Prisoners has noted, "Trade unionists get charged with rebellion. Community organizers get charged with rebellion. So it's a very difficult situation when the government creates legislation that criminalizes dissent."

     And as Liliany's lawyer, Eduardo Matyas noted, the charge of "...Rebellion is very difficult to defend. The charge is highly political ‑ not really a legal matter." The best defense to such a political charge is a political defense ‑ the mobilization of international opinion denouncing these sham charges and demanding Liliany's freedom.

     Liliany's case is especially important because she was the first person to face trial in what is called the "farc‑politica" process. This process is being used to investigate, intimidate and marginalize a variety of unionists, journalists, academics, and opposition political figures.

     Her case will set an important precedent: if she wins, then the whole "farc‑politica" house of cards will come falling down. But if she loses, then her loss will represent a whole new level of repression against dissent in Colombia.

     The Campaign for Labour Rights is urging organizations in North America to support freedom for Liliany Obando. A resolution can be found on the Web at http://www.clrlabor.org/wordpress/wp-content/lilianyresolution.pdf.

     The Campaign is also seeking short handwritten letters protesting the political nature of this case and calling for Liliany's freedom, which will be turned over to Liliany's lawyer. Letters should emphasize the discredited "evidence" against Liliany, and the reality that the case is a thinly veiled attempt to widen the repression of dissent in Colombia. Such letters should be sent to "Liliany Defense Letters," c/o Campaign for Labor Rights, 1247 E Street SE, Washington, DC 20003.

     Finally, contributions are needed to support Liliany's two children, a 5 year old girl and a 15 year old boy. There are some 90 women political prisoners being held with Liliany, many of them in the same condition, with children struggling to get by.

     You can make an online contribution by going to: http://nicanet.org/?page_id=341. Scroll down and mark the option that says "Other: Enter Name" and in the space provided, put "Lily Obando". Cheque or money order contributions made out to the Alliance for Global Justice can be sent to: AFGJ/Lily Obando Fund, 1247 E Street SE, Washington, DC  20003.

     For more information, see the July issue of People's Voice, or visit the Campaign for Labor Rights website: http://www.clrlabor.org/wordpress.
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10) IN DEFENSE OF THE MOVEMENT OF IRANIAN PEOPLE FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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.)

Editorial from Nameh Mardom, central organ of the Central Committee of Tudeh Party of Iran, July 6, 2009 (excerpts)

It is now more than three weeks since the presidential election was held in Iran, in which Mahmud Ahmadinejad, the candidate of dark‑minded and anti‑people forces, was claimed as the winner, through extensive vote rigging and fraud, and the broad and organized intervention of military-security circles at every stage of the election process. The protest of the popular movement of our nation against this outrageous fraud in recent weeks has been one of the most extensive campaigns of the anti‑despotic struggle in the past three decades.

     Millions of ordinary citizens, including the working people, the middle strata of society and supporters of democracy and human rights in Iran poured into the streets and, through their peaceful and nonviolent demonstrations, demanded the annulment of the election outcome and the holding of a new and fair election. People around the world witnessed an unequal battle on their TV screens, between masses of people on one side and the military and paramilitary forces of the regime on the other. As a result of the shooting by the regime's security‑military forces, at least 20 people were killed and hundreds were wounded.

     Also, launching one of the broadest assault operations, the regime's mercenary hit squads arrested more than a thousand activists of the protest movement, prominent figures in the election campaigns of the reformist candidates, activists of the students' and women's movement and pro‑reform journalists, and sent them to the torture chambers. The forced confessions of these torture victims in front of TV cameras are now being used to frame some of the leaders of the reform movement and even individuals who at one point were considered among the "inner circle" of the regime.

     Similar confessions to these were planned and executed during the 1980s against a number of leaders of our party and other dissident and political organizations in the country to subdue the progressive and popular parties and ban them. Recent events remind us of the gruesome and bloody suppression that was inflicted on our nation by the dictatorial `regime of the Supreme Leader' during the 1980s, and which culminated in the "National Catastrophe" in which thousands of political prisoners, including a large number of the most prominent intellectuals, writers, labour movement leaders and activists, patriotic military officers, activists of the women's movement and many others, were massacred.

     In recent weeks, the genuine and freedom‑seeking popular movement of the Iranian people and its heroic struggle for democratic reforms has been the centre of world public attention and has enjoyed solidarity from across the globe. Few people can be found that, having witnessed the brutal confrontation of the military‑security forces of the murderous ruling regime with the unarmed and hopeful people of Tehran and other cities of Iran, would not support the women, youth and working people who bravely defy the troops of ignorance and dark‑mindedness.

     The reality is that the `regime of the Supreme Leader' and its installed government have wasted away a large part of the natural and human resources of Iran in the past four years by employing anti‑popular and reactionary policies. Iran, a country rich in oil and gas, has been plunged deeply into poverty, social and economic crisis, prostitution and corruption. The adventurous foreign policy of the regime has forced Iran into unprecedented international isolation and, given the current balance of power in the world, has put the political sovereignty and integrity of Iran under serious threat from the war‑mongering circles of imperialism.

     It is clear that, given the state of the people's struggle and also the focus of the world on recent events in Iran, no political force can remain impartial and neutral concerning this situation. One must either stand in support of the people's struggle or stand by a regime that is politically, economically, socially, ideologically and culturally reactionary, backward‑looking and anti‑people.

     ...The political position of all progressive, left, democratic and pro‑reform forces in Iran is aligned with the defense of the genuine movement of people and total condemnation of the policies of the regime. Even the supporters of the regime have split under pressure from the undeniable realities of recent developments and as a result of witnessing the enormity and extent of the popular movement; and sections of them have seriously criticized the performance of Ahmadinejad's administration and admitted that a change in direction of the development of the society is necessary.

     World‑wide, the vast majority of progressive and democratic forces, including communist parties, have stood beside this popular uprising. They have expressed their support for the broad campaign of protesting women, youth and masses, and have condemned the bloody suppression of the protest movement.

     Regrettably... some forces in the world have fallen into the calculated and cunning trap of the ruling regime of Iran, which is desperately trying to characterize this genuine popular struggle for peace, democracy, human rights and social justice as a move influenced by foreign machinations. The disbelief and scepticism of some forces towards the genuineness of this popular movement, and their belief that the slogans and demands of this marvellous uprising of the Iranian people is under the influence of the foreign powers, first and foremost stems from their inflexible and dogmatic perception and their lack of a comprehensive and thorough understanding of imperialism and the anti‑imperialist struggle. Also, it can not be ignored that such stances, rather than being based on knowledge, are reflections of the lack of awareness and knowledge of these forces, their narrow perception of the true nature of struggle and also the deceitful and populist slogans of the ruling religious `regime of Supreme Leader'.

     Also, it is important to note that in recent months, the regime heavily invested in this venture. Some examples are: launching the international broadcast of the "Press TV" network, in whose programs some of the figures from the left and peace movement have been featured; running certain internet sites that under the guise of "left" and seeking justice, make every effort to beautify the hideous visage of the dictatorial regime; premeditated contacts of the regime's embassies with communist and left parties around the world; calculated investment in the trade‑economic‑diplomatic relations of the regime with some Latin American countries and attempts to mobilize some of the left‑wing states to intervene in order to lessen and soften the harsh criticism of the left movement against the policies of the theocratic regime.

     By utilizing their economic and diplomatic leverage in some countries, the leaders of the regime in Iran have been able to avoid serious reaction by certain political forces in those countries to recent developments in Iran.

     One of the issues that became clearly obvious in recent weeks was the impact of such relations on the stance of countries that, in the final analysis, will act within the narrow framework of their own national interests. For a variety of reasons, although not ideological, Iran has close relations with some of the Latin American countries and with Venezuela in particular. These include trade and economic agreements. Due to their progressive and independent policies, most of these countries are threatened by the United States and its allies. Therefore, it seems natural that they should look for allies around the world in order to break the imperialist blockade. Furthermore, Venezuela's position in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, is similar to that of Iran. Therefore, it is only natural that, from the standpoint of inter‑governmental relations, Venezuela and other such countries in Latin America would hold positive views toward the ruling regime of Iran.

     The progressive forces of Iran and the world view the resistance of these countries against the imperialist plots as an esteemed struggle and support it. However, to us and to other progressive forces of the world, the national and anti‑imperialist struggle of these countries does not mean that we can approve of their contradictory diplomatic positions and their give‑and‑take dealings with... the `regime of the Supreme Leader'. The progressive and democratic forces in Iran can not withhold their concern and discontent about the positions of the official authorities of some of these countries, and in particular those of the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, in support of the Iranian regime and its flagrant confrontation with the popular movement. Because of their trade and diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, these countries are unfortunately closing their eyes to the realities of recent developments in Iran, and in practice are standing against the popular movement in Iran. While appreciating the difficulties that Venezuela has in protecting itself against the attacks of imperialism and its political decision to have trade and economic dealings with the ruling regime of Iran and its reactionary president, we advise the leaders of the Venezuelan government to shun inappropriate and shallow speculation about the nature of the present developments in Iran, not to misrepresent it and not to doubt the authenticity of the popular movement of our nation.

     The ruling regime in Iran (and its government led by Mr. Mahmud Ahmadinejad) neither has the power to play a role in the struggle against imperialism nor are its policies in line with this. The conflicts and disputes of US imperialism and its European allies with the Islamic Republic of Iran are about dividing their spheres of influence in the Middle East. Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran considers itself a powerful country in the region and demands its own special advantages and sphere of influence. When the Islamic Republic of Iran finds imperialist interventions to its advantage, it formally and extensively collaborates (as has previously done so) with US imperialism and its allies. The crucial and vital collaboration of the Islamic Republic during the military aggression of the United States against Iraq and Afghanistan and its occupation of these two countries are two revealing examples of this. The leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran have admitted that they collaborated with the American forces and their allies during the military aggression of the United States against Afghanistan in 2001 and, for example, permitted US fighter jets to use Iran's airspace in order to launch attacks on strategic targets inside Afghanistan.

     Also, in preparation for a military strike against Iraq in 2002 and 2003, US‑supported forces, such as the "Iraqi National Congress", headed by Ahmed Chalabi, operated via Iran's territory at the western borders of the country, with the financial support and full knowledge of the United States. The official representatives of the regime at the Munich Security Conference in February 2009 made a formal public statement addressed to Javier Solana, chief secretary of the EU and responsible for EU Foreign and Security Policy, Joseph Biden, Vice‑President of the United States and Robert Gates, United States Secretary of Defense, declaring that if the interests of the Islamic Republic were protected, Iran would be willing to take a role in the political stabilization of Afghanistan and to cooperate with imperialist plans.

     The extent of "opposition" of the `regime of the Supreme Leader' in Iran to imperialism is similar to figures such as the reactionary Bin Laden, the fascist dictator Saddam Hussein and Omar Bashir, president of Sudan, the extent of whose compliance and interaction with imperialism is dependent on their short‑lived interests. It is a fact that these forces, regardless of their fleeting problems with some imperialist plans, have acted in unison and coordination with `Satan' in his most vicious plots against the interests of nations.

     The economic and social policies of the ruling regime in Iran have nothing in common with genuine anti‑imperialist struggle. All the economic data reveal that the government of the IRI has been adamantly following and implementing a comprehensive plan dictated by the IMF and the World Bank.

     Today, from the standpoint of the class base, the forces that are ruling our country are associated with the grand mercantile bourgeoisie and bureaucratic capitalism, which has grown within the deeply corrupted state apparatus. An unemployment rate of close to 20%, an inflation rate of 25%, millions of Iranians living below the poverty line, who account for about 15 million people as admitted even by the regime's officials, together with widespread corruption and prostitution in the society, are all logical results of the regime's policies. Extensive privatization, the executive order of the Supreme Leader for moving towards elimination of Article 44 of the constitution [that defines the economic system of Iran as consisting of three sectors: state, cooperative, and private], which is one of the achievements of the popular revolution of 1979, the brutal attack on labour organizations and trade unions, deterioration in working conditions and the violation of the rights of the working people, are all aligned with the policies of the theocratic `regime of the Supreme Leader'. The leaders and activists of the trade union movement are being tortured in prisons. Communists and true left forces are banned and under the most repressive measures.

     Can any true anti‑imperialist force have such anti‑people and reactionary characteristics?

     Our answer to this question is negative. Bearing in mind the natural complexities and intricacies of the current developments in Iran and avoiding drawing crude and simplistic conclusions, we must stand together with the communists, the left, the democrats and progressive forces of Iran and, in a united manner, keep the flag of support for the movement of the Iranian people raised, the movement in which the widest strata and classes of Iran's society have participated.

     The support of broad sections of progressive and left forces and the world communist and labour movement for the struggle of Iranian people, i.e. workers, women, students and youth, writers, religious‑national forces, and especially the forces in the communist‑workers' movement of Iran, is a powerful manifestation of the worldwide anti‑imperialist and internationalist struggle of the world workers' and communist movement.
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11) TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN HUGH MULZAC

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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 Norman Faria

Many working seamen from the Caribbean area signed on ships and came to the US when their vessels docked there. The majority who settled undoubtedly contributed along with other immigrants in building up that nation. One was Captain Hugh Mulzac, a merchant marine captain who was born in 1886 in Union Island, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in the Eastern Caribbean. He emigrated to Baltimore in 1918.

     Mulzac was an important person in the early US civil rights struggles of "people of colour" which included Hispanics, Asiatics and native Indian ("Amerindian") peoples. He was the first African-American to obtain a Master's License, This was the rank of Captain which qualified him to skipper an ocean-going cargo ship.

     More importantly, he was a leader in obtaining better wages and working conditions for seamen of all races. Captain Mulzac, who today has a Vincentian Coast Guard vessel named after him, assisted immeasurably in opening the doors for a more equitable and just working environment in the merchant marine service. This was in the early 1940s when the only jobs at sea for ethnic minorities were cooks and stewards ‑ in contrast with today when many large US navy and "cargo boats", as islanders refer to merchant marine vessels, are captained by non‑white officers and also women.

     Captain Mulzac's early days in the US were frustrating. The US cargo boat (and liner) was much larger than today. He got a job as a Mate (second in command) on the aging tramp steamer Yarmouth, belonging to Marcus Garvey's all-black owned and crewed Black Star Line. That line went on the rocks in 1922 because of institutional opposition to the firm's owners, Garvey's United African Improvement Association. Captain Mulzac went back to cook and steward jobs whenever they came along. It was hard as he had a wife and four children to support.

     At that time, the seamen had a fairly democratic system where they were hired through the union halls. The late Guyanese President Dr. Cheddi Jagan witnessed this when he was studying in the US in the 1940s and praised it. Captain Mulzac got involved with the National Maritime Union (NMU) through a Communist Party USA leader in Baltimore , Al Lannon.

     There was a democratic dimension to this trade union which was formed in 1937 in the hectic labour upsurges of the period by Joseph Curran (1906‑1981) an early progressive who later took reactionary positions.

     Part of this dimension was its multi‑racial policies. Both black and white seafarers were apparently treated equally by the labour body. Such a remarkable progressive outlook for the conjuncture (some of the seamen's and waterfront workers' unions were led by corrupt Mafia types even before the 1950s of Marlon Brando's movie On the Waterfront) did not extend to the hiring practices of most shipping companies. The NMU's Vice‑President was a black Jamaican seaman named Ferdinand Smith who, like Captain Mulzac who was probably a member, was sympathetic to the CP. The party was then very influential, being active in other civil rights campaigns such as demanding release of nine black young men (The Scotsboro Boys) accused in 1931 of raping two white women.

     It was easy for Mulzac to support multi-racialism. Not because his grandfather, who once cultivated cotton on Union island, was white. A sensitive man, Captain Mulzac undoubtedly observed the injustices and discriminatory practices against people of colour in the US at the time. There was a shameful racist incident when the young (aged 21) Mulzac tried to attend church when his ship called at Wilmington, North Carolina. He was refused entry because of his colour. His involvement, which he always defended as his democratic right in the great traditions of the US, with the "white" CP and the union channeled this hatred of racial discrimination along a constructive trajectory, working for the unity of all the races.

     While the work of Captain Mulzac, Smith and other outstanding individuals are noted, there were, in fairness, other fronts on the civil rights campaign. The NMU for example supported the meeting between President Roosevelt and black railway porters union leader A. Philip Randolph, who demanded a Fair Employment Practices legislation which led to defence industries (such as the ship building firms) hiring more people of colour.

     In October 1942, as the USA got more involved in the Allied effort to defeat Hitler's facist regime, Captain Mulzac was given command of the freighter Booker T. Washington. At first, in keeping with the times where crew on both naval and cargo boats were segregated, the authorities wanted to assign only a black crew to the ship. Captain Mulzac refused to sail with what he called a "Jim Crow " arrangement. As he wrote in his autobigraphy, A Star to Steer By: "I wanted the most experienced crew the NMU could supply". For Mulzac, this meant a mixed race crew.

     The Booker T., carrying vital war supplies such as tanks, aircraft and ammunition to the European front, made 22 successful round trips across the North Atlantic. Partly by skill and partly by luck, those on board managed to avoid being torpedoed by the German submarines. The subs sunk hundreds of other cargo boats with the loss of many equally courageous and hard working sailors as those in the navy. The efficient operation of the ship was a model for others to emulate.

     In 1947, ater the war ended, the ship's owners laid up the vessel. Captain Mulzac was out of work. Then 61, he tried his hand at painting maritime scenes and also started a wall painting business. At this time, the anti‑democratic and anti‑left current in US politics known as McCarthyism unjustly blacklisted Mulzac along with many others for their involvement in progressive and democratic causes.

     For example, Mulzac ran as a candidate for President of the New York City borough of Queens under the American Labor Party ticket. He lost but received a relatively high 15,500 votes. The New York based party was much like the social democratic Labour Party in the UK and later the Caribbean islands, though the left like the CP urged people to support it.

     For this and other perceived indiscretions, he was blacklisted and his Master's license revoked. He could not get a job when the Korean War broke out, because he was deemed a "security risk". He fought back and in 1960 a federal judge restored his license along with others. He was then 74, but was able to find work as a night mate. He died in New York in 1971.

     I had read Mulzac's fascinating book during the 1980s, kindly given to me by Vincentian Renwick Rose (now Coordinator of the Windward Islands Farmers Association) and I in turn gave it away to the office of the National Union of Seamen (NUS) in Barbados. While I was in New York last September I tried to get onto any of Mulzac's relatives for an interview, but time ran away from me and I couldn't reach them.

     We must remember the example of Vincentian‑born Captain Hugh Mulzac. Not only becuase of his sterling pioneer work in the US civil rights struggles, but to remind us that immigrants to all countries are good and beneficial additions especially in the area of integrating among the receiving people and working with them for a better all round society.

     (A former seaman on the Geest Line, Norman Faria is Guyana's Honorary Consul in Barbados. Responses to nfaria@caribsurf.com)
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12) HONDURAN OLIGARCHY: "THE WAR IS AGAINST CHAVEZ"

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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.)

July 10, 2009, by Ricardo Daher ‑ Aporrea (from Venezuelanalysis.com)

The Honduran de facto government and private media insist on denying the coup d'etat and say that they accept the mediation of Costa Rican president Oscar Arias, but exclude any conversation over the return of Zelaya to the presidency.

     At the same time they sustain that they are the spearhead of a "war" against the "dictatorship of Hugo Chavez."

     The daily newspapers, Heraldo, Tribuna and La Prensa, lead the way in defending the coup d'etat and repeat, almost in the same words, the accusation against the Venezuelan president for his supposed interference. They also promote the withdrawal of Honduras from the ALBA accords, because they claim, "it has only benefited the left."

     The headlines of these newspapers and the declarations of the current leaders of the State are a copy of the anti‑communist manual of the press campaigns in the decades of the sixties and seventies in the last century.

     With contrived arguments, the Honduran media promotes a campaign accusing the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez of interfering in the country and provoking the confrontations last Sunday near the surrounds of the Tegucigalpa International Airport, when 200,000 people waited for the return of the constitutional president.

     By extension, they sustain that the UN and the OAS are manipulated by Chavez, and that the presidents of Argentina, Cristina Fernandez, of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega and the Honduran president himself, Manuel Zelaya, also obey the orders of the Venezuelan president.

     Even the highest authorities of the Catholic Church have joined the campaign.

     The Honduran oligarchs continue ignoring the demand of the people for a return to institutionality and to allow Zelaya to finish his term. "We have communicated with president Arias to tell him that we are prepared for any dialogue, always and when it is not for the return of president Zelaya, but rather when it is to hand him over to the justice tribunals," Roberto Micheletti, the defacto president, said. He insisted, "we are not going to negotiate anything, we are going to dialogue." "We are clear that everything that has happened here was within the framework of the law and the Constitution of the Republic, here what there was, was a constitutional situation," the dictator concluded.

     At the same time, the de facto president continued naming new authorities in the cabinet and substituting governors and mayors.

Legislator, Mauricio Reconco, of the Liberal Party, defended the legality of the overthrow of Zelaya, "we know what was done was best, if not we would have been in a worse situation," he said. Immediately he went on to attack Chavez, "in this moment we are seeing internationally that Honduras has shown it is a country that has put a block in the path of Hugo Chavez. The war is no longer against ex‑president Zelaya, but against Hugo Chavez."

     "It is lamentable that in organisations such as the UN and the OAS, Hugo Chavez continues to have strength and power, he has chess pieces ‑ such as these presidents, Correa, Lugo, Kirchner, Mel Zelaya and Daniel Ortega ‑ who he manoeuvres at his whim," he concluded.

     Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez, after defending the coup d'etat and criticising the protests calling for the return of the constitutional president, attacked the Venezuelan president: "We totally reject the interference of the Venezuelan president, we are a small but sovereign country, since he came to insult us in the month of August, that Mister has been trying to put his hands in here, he should leave us in peace, he should dedicate himself to governing his own country".

     Meanwhile, the rightwing movement Generation for Change, continues holding mobilizations in support of the coup, as they did previously against president Zelaya, and they repeat the same arguments of the old rulers. Luis Colindres, one of the youth leaders said during an event on Tuesday, that a dictatorial system exists in Venezuela, and that "if Zelaya Rosales returns the same thing could happen in our country."

     The Retired Officials of the Armed Forces Association mobilized together with the "youth" of the Generation for Change. At the same time as they defended what they claimed was a legal presidential substitution, they criticised the OAS, which they considered to be biased in favour of Zelaya and through a communique condemned the intervention in internal affairs by said organization.
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13) WHAT'S LEFT

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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.)
VICTORIA, BC
Hiroshima Day, Thur., Aug. 6 - Women in Black Vigil for a world without war, noon-1 pm, on Government St. below Tourist Office. Lantern ceremony, Craigflower Park/Kosapsom, Saanich, lantern making 7:30 pm, words and songs of peace at 8 pm, sponsored by Victoria Raging Grannies, Physicians for Global Survival, Council of Canadians, Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society. Call Rosa 250-665-7788.

SURREY, BC

Annual People’s Voice Walk-A-Thon - Sun., August 9, starts 11 am at Bear Creek Park, near parking lot at 140 St. & 88 Ave. For details see ad on page 2 or call Harjit, 604-543-7179.
VANCOUVER, BC

Russian Hall Banquet - Sat., Aug. 8, with delegates to convention of Federation of Russian Canadians, call 604-881-2007 for tickets and info.

Memorial for Nat Sherlock, celebrate the life of our late comrade, who was the head mailer for Pacific Tribune and People’s Voice mailer for many years - Friday, Aug. 14, 12 noon, 706 Clark Drive. Call 604-255-2041 for info.

Under the Volcano, 19th annual festival of art and social change, visit People’s Voice & Communist Party table at the Info Fair - Sun., Aug. 9, 12 noon-6 pm, Whey-Ah-Wichen/Cates Park, North Vancouver.

Left Film Night - at the Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Sunday, Aug. 30, 7 pm, MILK, starring Sean Penn. Info: 604-255-2041.
WINNIPEG, MB

Hiroshima Day, Thur., Aug 6 - Lantern making 7:30-8:30 pm, ceremony 8:30 pm. Memorial Park. Information: 775-8178. Peace Alliance Winnipeg,  Project Peacemakers, Manitoba  Japanese-Canadian Citizens Association.

Let them stay! Support U.S. war resisters - Sun, Aug 9, 7 pm at Crescentwood Fort Rouge United Church, 525 Wardlaw.

Panel discussion and screening of Sir! No Sir!. Panel includes war resister and author Joshua Key. Info War Resisters Canada Winnipeg http://www.resisters.ca.

SASKATOON, SK

Political discussion & beer, all welcome to join Saskatoon CPC members - third Monday of every month, in the tv room at Amigo’s, 632-10 St. East.

HAMILTON, ON

Solidarity House classes - at 779 Barton St. East (parking at rear). Wednesdays 7-9, Introduction to Spoken Spanish, $10 suggested donation - bring your dictionary! Saturdays 12-2 - Das Kapital, video & discussion.
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$50,000 FUND DRIVE
Walk-A-Thon: Sunday, August 9

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 2009, 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 political pace slows down a bit in July, including reports on our annual Fund Drive. But we do have some information to update the drive, which is now at $41,320, or 82.6% of our $50,000 target.

Ontario remains in the lead, with $20,390 turned in, or 92.7% of their $22,000 provincial target, and most of the rest ready to submit. Alberta is in second place at 85.5%, or $2053 out of $2400 raised, ahead of Saskatchewan’s 82.5% ($660 on their $800 target).  British Columbia supporters have donated another $1160, reaching a new total of $14,787, or 71.8% of their $20,600 goal. That doesn’t yet include funds raised at the very successful Moncada Day picnic organized by our supporters in Nanaimo, attended by our circulation manager Sam Hammond. Manitoba is next at 67.2% ($1615 out of $2400). Another $1815 has been raised by readers in Quebec, the Maritimes, Newfoundland, and elsewhere.

Our biggest fundraiser of the year takes place on Sunday, August 9 - the Walk-A-Thon at Bear Creek Park in Surrey; see the ad on this page for details. We urge supporters across the Lower Mainland region to join us and to bring a donation to help take BC over the top.

Contributions will also be welcome on Friday, August 14, 12 noon, when we meet for an informal gathering at the Centre for Socialist Education to celebrate the life of the late Nat Sherlock, who was instrumental in organizing the mailing of People’s Voice for several years after our launch in 1993.

PRICE INCREASE
We regret to inform readers that the relentless increase in costs of production and mailing have finally compelled us to raise our rates. As of Sept. 1, a one-year subscription in Canada will cost $30, and a two-year sub will be $50. The rate for low-income readers will rise to $15 for one your. For our friends in the US and overseas, a one-year subscription will now cost $50 in Canadian funds. The cover price for newstand and bookstore sales will be raised to $1.50.

       As you know, we are once again offering something in return for your generous solidarity. This year’s “PV Shopping Bag” includes the following:
  •  a 12-month complimentary PV sub (keep it or give it to a friend);
  •  People’s Voice 2009 Calendar;
  •  People’s Voice “Karl Marx” Tshirt (tell us what size);
  •  a surprise music CD - pick classical, oldies, or folk.
    Here’s how it works. For a $100 donation, you will receive your choice of one of these items. For each additional $100, you can choose another item from our Shopping Bag. For a donation of $1000 or more, take the entire Shopping Bag, and we will also give a lifetime subscription to you or a friend.

    Remember - People’s Voice is your newspaper, your voice in the information wars. Your contribution helps us build it bigger and better! 

 
 Here's my contribution to the PV Fund Drive!

Enclosed please find my donation of $_____
to the 2009 People's Voice Press Fund Drive.

Name __________________________________

Address ________________________________

City/town ______________________________

Prov. ________ Postal Code _______________

Send to: People's Voice, 133 Herkimer St.,Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3


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