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December 1-31, 2011
Volume 19 - Number 21
$1
Prolétaires
de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
1) WARSHIPS: MASSIVE WASTE, WRONG PRIORITY
2) THE 99% MOVEMENT: A POPULACE IN ACTION
3) OCCUPY MOVEMENT WON'T BE SILENCED
4) GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS IN VANCOUVER VOTE
5) PAY EQUITY VICTORY AT CANADA POST AFTER 28 YEARS
6) PRPP SCAM ATTACKS PENSION RIGHTS - Editorial
7) SAVE TEZTAN BINY! - Editorial
8) REMEMBRANCE DAY AND THE 99%
9) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker
10) ANTI-IMPERIALIST YOUTH MEET IN PORTUGAL
11) ANTI-LEFT TERROR CAMPAIGN ACROSS BENGAL
12) "THE DEEP CRISIS CONCERNS THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM
ITSELF"
13) GUATEMALA TO BE UNDER "HARD HAND"?
14) SHOW THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT OF ANTI-CAPITALIST SOLIDARITY
15) WHAT’S LEFT
16) CLARTÉ (en français)
17)
THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of
18) INTRODUCING MARX
PEOPLE'S VOICE
DECEMBER 1-31, 2011 (pdf)
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People's Voice deadlines: January 1-31 February 1-14 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, Note to PV readers Publishing
Schedule Change Due to other events and commitments,
our January 1 issue will be published early in the New Year, not before
Christmas. We'll see you in 2012! |
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REDS
ON THE WEB |
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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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(The following articles are from the
December 1-31, 2011, issue of People's
1) WARSHIPS: MASSIVE WASTE, WRONG PRIORITY
Commentary from the Communist Party of
Disguised as
a "jobs and defence program", the Harper Tory strategy to militarize
The National
Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is the largest federal shipbuilding program
since World War II. Halifax‑based
Another $2
billion will be spent on building smaller vessels at other Canadian shipyards,
such as
Not
surprisingly, the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries,
which represents 860 companies, supports the decision to expand the naval fleet
"in a way that mitigates the boom‑and‑bust cycles normally
associated with ship fleet construction."
The
opposition parties in Parliament, which had raised some criticisms of the
process for purchasing 65 heavily‑armed F35 fighter‑bombers, have
been cheerleaders for the warship program. The late NDP leader Jack Layton
campaigned hard for the
The NDP
leadership backs the warship program as a way to create jobs, but also because
it supports the "responsibility to protect" doctrine which allows the
major imperialist powers to intervene militarily across the planet on short
notice. Canada's aggressive participation in the NATO attack on Libya was
endorsed by the NDP caucus, for example.
The Communist
Party of
The $65
billion total price tag for the warships and fighter-bombers could help tackle many
pressing problems faced by working people. These funds could be used to build
hundreds of thousands of low‑income, social, and cooperative housing
units. Invested in the child care program cancelled by the Harper Tories, these
funds could allow working class parents to improve their education and training
and to find employment. Thousands of new buses could be purchased for urban
transit systems, immediately reducing
Nor is it
true that
From this
perspective, the National Shipbuilding Procurement Strategy is a crucial part
of the drive to further militarize
Even the
argument by some that the west coast component of the shipbuilding program
deserves support because of its alleged "non‑combat" character
is untrue. The icebreaker and the coast guard and supplies vessels to be built
in
Given these
facts, we are deeply concerned by the uncritical, even celebratory tone adopted
by much of the trade union leadership regarding the warships. It is true that
this military expansion would provide employment to several thousand workers.
But the labour movement has a responsibility to demand that governments address
the real needs of working people, rather than building expensive weapons
systems which will be used to bomb, occupy and kill our sisters and brothers in
other countries.
As Frederick
Engels pointed out over a century ago, in real terms, military spending is
similar to producing commodities which are then simply dumped into the sea.
Former U.S. President Eisenhower put it another way: "Every warship
launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those
who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in
arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its labourers,
the genius of its scientists, and the hopes of its children."
Rather than
spending $500 billion on militarism over the next two decades, as projected in
the
2) THE 99% MOVEMENT:
A POPULACE IN ACTION
By Michael Parenti, November 9, 2011
Beginning
with
For the first
two weeks, the corporate‑owned mainstream media along with NPR did what
they usually do with progressive protests: they ignored them. These were the
same media that had given the Tea Party supporters saturation coverage for
weeks on end, ordaining them "a major political force."
The most
common and effective mode of news repression is omission. By saying nothing or
next to nothing about dissenting events, movements, candidates, or incidents, the
media consign them to oblivion. When the Occupy movement spread across the
country and could no longer be ignored, the media moved to the second
manipulative method: trivialization and marginalization.
So we heard
that the protestors were unclear about what they were protesting and they were
"far removed from the mainstream." Media cameras focused on the clown
who danced on Wall Street in full‑blown circus costume, and the youths
who pounded bongo drums: "a carnival atmosphere" "youngsters out
on a spree," with "no connection to the millions of middle
Americans" who supposedly watched with puzzlement and alarm.
Such
coverage, again, was in sharp contrast to the respectful reportage accorded the
Tea Party. House Majority Leader, the reactionary Republican Eric Cantor,
described the Occupy movement as "growing mobs." This is the same
Cantor who hailed the Tea Party as an unexcelled affirmation of democracy.
The big
November 2 demonstration in
Time and
again, the media made the protestors the issue rather than the things they were
protesting. The occupiers were falsely described as hippie holdovers and
mindless youthful activists. In fact, there was a wide range of ages, socio‑ethnic
backgrounds, and lifestyles, from homeless to well‑paid professionals,
along with substantial numbers of labor union members. Far from being a jumble
of confused loudmouths prone to violence, they held general assemblies,
organized themselves into committees, and systematically took care of
encampment questions, food, security, and sanitation.
One unnoticed
community protest was Occupy
The Occupy
movement has promulgated a variety of messages. With a daring plunge into class
realities, the occupiers talk of the 1% who are exploiting the 99%, a brilliant
propaganda formula, simple to use, yet saying so much, now widely embraced even
by some media commentators. The protestors carried signs condemning the
republic's terrible underemployment and the empire's endless wars, the
environmental abuses perpetrated by giant corporations, the tax loopholes
enjoyed by oil companies, the growing inequality of incomes, and the banksters
and other gangsters who feed so lavishly from the public trough.
Some
occupiers even denounced capitalism as a system and hailed socialism as a
humane alternative. In all, the Occupy movement revealed an awareness of
systemic politico‑economic injustices not usually seen in
The
mainstream news outlets not only control opinions but even more so opinion
visibility, which in turn allows them to limit the parameters of public
discourse. This makes it all the more imperative for ordinary people to join
together in demonstrations, hoping thereby to maximize the visibility and
impact of their opinions. The goal is to break through the near monopoly of
conservative orthodoxy maintained by the "liberal" media.
So
demonstrations are important. They have an energizing effect on would‑be
protestors, bringing together many who previously had thought themselves alone
and voiceless. Demonstrations bring democracy into the streets. They highlight
issues that have too long been buried. They mobilize numbers, giving a show of
strength, reminding the plutocracy perched at the apex that the pyramid is
rumbling.
But
demonstrations should evolve into other forms of action. This has already been
happening with the Occupy movement. It is more than a demonstration because its
protestors did not go home at the end of the day. In substantial numbers they
remained downtown, putting their bodies on the line, imposing a discomfort on
officialdom just by their numbers and presence.
At a number
of Occupy sites there have been civil disobedience actions, followed by
arrests. In various cities the police have been unleashed with violent results
that sometimes have backfired. In
Where does
this movement go? What is to be done? The answers are already arising from the
actions of the 99%: Discourage military recruitment and support conscientious
objectors. Starve the empire of its legions. Organize massive tax resistance in
protest of corrupt, wasteful, unlawful, and destructive Pentagon spending.
Transfer funds from corporate banks to credit unions and community banks.
Support programs that assist the unemployed and the dispossessed. It was
Coordinate
actions with organized labor. Unions still are the 99%'s largest and best
financed groups. Consider what was done in
We need new
electoral strategies, a viable third party, proportional representation, and
even a new Constitution, one that establishes firm rules for an egalitarian
democracy and is not a rigmarole designed to protect the moneyed class. The
call for a constitutional convention (a perfectly legitimate procedure under
the present
Perhaps most
of all, we need ideological education regarding the relationship between wealth
and power, the nature of capitalism, and the crimes of an unbridled profit‑driven
financial system. And again the occupiers seem to be moving in that direction:
in early November 2011, people nationwide began gathering to join teach‑ins
on "How the 1% Crashed the Economy."
We need to
explicitly invite the African‑American, Latino, and Asian communities
into the fight, reminding everyone that the Great Recession victimizes everyone
but comes down especially hard on the ethnic poor.
We need to
educate ourselves regarding the beneficial realities of publicly owned
nonprofit utilities, publicly directed environmental protections, public
nonprofit medical services and hospitals, public libraries, schools, colleges,
housing, and transportation‑‑all those things that work so well in
better known in some quarters as socialism.
There is much
to do. Still it is rather impressive how the battle is already being waged on
so many fronts. Meanwhile the corporate media ignore the content of our protest
while continuing to fulminate about the occupiers' violent ways and lack of a
precise agenda.
Do not for
one moment think that the top policymakers and plutocrats don't care what you
think. That is the only thing about you that wins their concern. They don't
care about the quality of the air you breathe or the water you drink, or how
happy or unhappy or stressed and unhealthy or poor you might be. But they do
want to know your thoughts about public affairs, if only to get a handle on
your mind. Every day they launch waves of disinformation to bloat your brains,
from the Pentagon to Fox News without stint.
When the
people liberate their own minds and take a hard clear look at what the 1% is
doing and what the 99% should be doing, then serious stuff begins to happen. It
is already happening. It may eventually fade away or it may create a new
chapter in our history. Even if it does not achieve its major goals, the Occupy
movement has already registered upon our rulers the anger and unhappiness of a
populace betrayed.
3) OCCUPY
MOVEMENT WON'T BE SILENCED
Guest editorial from the Morning Star,
Britain
Official
explanations for the crackdown and dismantling of protest camps in various
Everyone can
imagine the response that would have emanated from London and Washington if the
Ukrainian authorities had acted in a similar manner by sweeping their poster
woman Yulia Tymoschenko and her pro‑democracy forces from Independence
Square in Kiev in 2004 as they protested against ballot rigging and, on
occasion, launched forays into parliament to intimidate MPs.
If there were
indeed fears for health and safety, cleanliness or public sanitation regarding
the Occupy Wall Street camp in New York's Zuccotti Park, the Frank Ogwaza Plaza
camp in Oakland or similar settlements in Oregon, Vermont, Colorado, Utah and
Missouri, the answer lay in the authorities' own hands.
They could
have replicated what they did in
If such a
sterling effort was good enough for pro‑democracy campaigners half a
world away, surely it should be offered to US citizens in their own backyard to
enable them to point out that the American Dream is turning into a nightmare
for too many of them. However, it seems that, for
The
authorities should come clean and admit that they are embarrassed by the
presence of these witnesses to the injustice of the capitalist system and to
the system's defence of the interests of society's richest 1 per cent over
those of the other 99 per cent.
Capitalism's
defenders are happiest when they deal in cliches and generalisations about
freedom and democratic rights. They are less confident when protesters
highlight specifics and draw attention to the vast rewards gained by the tiny
elite in the face of hardships and tumbling living standards assailing the
dispossessed majority.
After initial
paralysis in the face of the mass protests in
Egyptian
popular sentiment against the dictatorship was echoed by angry denunciations of
US citizens
and Europeans launching their own mass protests against being treated as pawns
by bankers don't languish under similar brutal dictatorship that oppressed
Egyptians. But their economic and democratic complaints are valid and should
not be silenced by authoritarian repression.
4) GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS IN
PV Vancouver Bureau
The good news
from
On the
positive side, over 140,000 Vancouverites went to the polls (a relatively high
turnout of 34%), blocking this city's version of the Rob Ford gang in
For working
people, the negative result was the defeat of the Coalition of Progressive
Electors at every level. Only one of COPE's four incumbent candidates was
re-elected: Allan Wong, who won a fifth consecutive term as school trustee. The
other COPE incumbent trustees, Al Blakey and Jane Bouey, both went down to
defeat, despite winning about 52,000 votes, a gain of 4,000 over their 2008
results, as the NPA and Vision candidates scored even larger gains.
At City
Council, COPE incumbent Ellen Woodsworth missed the tenth and final seat by
just 91 votes to the Green Party's Adriane Carr (although the Greens' Stuart
Mackinnon lost his position on the park board). COPE's Tim Louis lost his bid
to regain the city council seat he held from 1999 to 2005, finishing 17th with
43,926 votes, almost 5,000 behind Carr. The other COPE council candidate,
first-timer R.J. Aquino, was 19th with 39,054 votes.
The results
left the NPA with two council seats, three out of nine on the School Board, and
two on park board. These gains may help the flagging fortunes of the city's
historic favoured party of big business, but the NPA will have little direct
influence over the next three years. Politically, however, many observers fear
that the NPA gains and the losses by the left-oriented COPE may tempt Vision's
council caucus to shift to the right in an attempt to maintain their hegemony
at City Hall.
The
post-mortem of COPE's setback began immediately, but it will take time and
studies of poll-by-poll results to gain a clearer picture. Some quickly blamed
COPE's electoral agreement with Vision for the losses, accusing the governing
party of failing to do enough to encourage its supporters to also vote COPE.
They argue that COPE members should have backed an alliance with the Greens or
smaller parties and independents which have been sharply critical of Vision.
But
"what-ifs" are no substitute for a more in-depth analysis. For example,
some pundits claim that if COPE had teamed up with the newly-formed
Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable
Perhaps more
to the point, the COPE/Vision alliance reflected the determination of the
labour movement and other progressive groups to avoid a split which could have
handed City Hall back to the NPA. In the wake of the Harper majority won with
just 39% of votes last May, that nightmare scenario was key to the decision by
most COPE members to support the agreement with Vision.
Rejection of
the agreement would have cost COPE much of its $340,000 campaign budget, as
well as sharply dividing the city's centre and left voters. An anti-Vision
campaign would probably have meant less votes for COPE, not more as actually
happened on election night.
The biggest
lesson may be that campaign budgets determine the overall outcome of
Another
factor which hurt COPE was the voter suppression strategy conducted by the NPA,
which tried to deny ballots to large numbers of poor people in the Downtown
Eastside.
"This is
not a time for COPE to look inward or backwards," says Jane Bouey.
"This is a time for COPE to focus on grassroots issues, to strengthen our links
with working people and progressive movements. If we can put COPE at the heart
of community struggles, we'll be in a much better position to elaborate a
winning electoral tactic when the next campaign arrives."
5) PAY EQUITY VICTORY AT
Twenty‑eight
years after their case was filed, members of the Public Service
The union
first filed a complaint over "unequal pay for work of equal value" in
1983 on behalf of women clerical workers in the CR classification, who were
paid much less than male employees in other jobs. This practice, argued the
union, was contrary to the anti‑discrimination provisions of the Canadian
Human Rights Act.
The Canadian
Human Rights Tribunal compared wages between 6,000 mainly female clerical staff
and the predominantly male postal operations group. More than a decade of
hearings took place, over 410 working days between 1992 and 2003, to consider
and quantify the work done by male and female workers. The tribunal ruled in
2005 that
Together with
interest, the award totalled about $150 million. That amount, of course, does
not compensate for the other half of the wage gap over decades, nor for the resulting
lost pension income.
The
corporation continued to use every possible legal avenue to have the Tribunal
overturned. The Federal Court of Appeal later set aside the tribunal's
decision, saying the finding of discrimination could not be supported. "In
our respectful view, the tribunal became confused, and therefore fell into
error," Justices Sexton and Ryer wrote for the majority on the appeal
court.
The Supreme
Court unanimously backed the original Tribunal ruling. In a rare move, the Nov.
17 decision was released directly by Chief Justice Beverly McLaughlin, sending
a powerful signal that the Federal Court got it wrong.
Meanwhile,
the Harper Tory government has moved to deny workers any legal avenue to
redress pay equity claims. In 2009, the Conservatives pushed through
legislation requiring workers to secure pay equity during collective bargaining
rather than in courts and tribunals. Given the tendency for the new
Conservative majority to interfere in labour negotiations on behalf of employers,
it appears that opportunities to correct such inequities in future may be
severely limited.
Ginette
Chartrand was one of the women who filed the original case in 1983. Speaking
from the Supreme Court, she reflected on the victory: "I attended all of
the hearings in the last few years. We believed in our case. But we did not
expect a decision so quickly. I cried."
Helene
Arbique shared similar sentiments. "At first was hard to believe. Then the
euphoria set in - we won after a 30 year battle."
Anyone who
worked as a CR at
"Today
we celebrate a hard‑won victory for equality," said Patty Ducharme,
National Executive Vice‑President of PSAC. "But the fact that this
took 28 years is completely unacceptable.
PSAC says it
will push
6) PRPP
SCAM ATTACKS PENSION RIGHTS
People's Voice Editorial, Dec. 1-31,
2011
The Canadian
Labour Congress was right to quickly slam the Harper government's "Pooled
Registered Pension Plans". The PRPP is no "solution" to the
pensions crisis; it's a deliberate attempt to sabotage the public pension
system in the interests of finance capital. As the CLC says, PRPPs would reward
banks, insurance companies and mutual fund companies instead of offering secure
retirement options for all Canadians.
Anyone who
thinks the PRPP sounds like a good idea should look a bit closer. Unlike the
The
Conservative plan ignores the discussions held by provincial finance ministers
in December 2010, when the majority of provinces pressed
Instead, the
PRPP takes Canadians in the opposite direction, towards replacing the CPP with
private pensions. The result will be a massive growth of poverty among seniors,
and an equally rapid boost in profits for finance capital. It's a trend
sweeping the capitalist world, and it must be met with determined resistance by
the labour movement and its allies across
People's Voice Editorial, Dec. 1-31,
2011
The struggle
over Teztan Biny (
As reported
in this issue, Taseko Mines has submitted a "revised" proposal for a
gold and copper mine on the Chilcotin Plateau in northern
This dispute
raises two crucial questions. First: just because a mineral deposit has been
discovered, should corporations be allowed to "develop" such
resources in the interests of their shareholders, regardless of consequences?
In our view, the clear answer must be "No." The future of our world
depends on halting the unchecked capitalist plunder of natural resources in
pursuit of private profits. The rights of human beings and the natural
environment must trump the greed of corporations.
Second: like
most of
8) REMEMBRANCE DAY AND THE 99%
Excerpts from
a Remembrance Day 2011 commemoration at the Association of United Ukrainian
Canadians' hall in Toronto, by David Abramowitz, Co‑President of the
United Jewish People's Order of Canada
My attitude
to Remembrance Day has changed over the years. At school we were indoctrinated
to honour those soldiers who died protecting our freedom ‑ truly a noble
cause where it applies.
But as I
matured I began memorializing all those innocent civilian relatives of mine,
killed in the first and second world wars. During WW 1, in
In my
mother's family, tragedy struck in 1918. Zlotchev, where my grandparents came
from, (then part of the Austro‑Hungarian Empire) was under siege by the
Austrian army fighting the advancing Polish army. My grandparents only lived a
few kilometers away, in Olesko, known locally for its famous
My
grandfather went to help the Jews, only to return a few days later (the end of October)
with significant wounds in his leg. Gangrene set in, incurable in those days,
and he died on November 11, 1918, Armistice Day, when my mother was 11 years
old. The Poles won the war in that region, so it became part of
During the
mid-1930's my mother, her sister and two brothers applied three times to bring
their mother and her youngest daughter to
World War II
intervened and some in my mother's family in
During her
vigil she noticed Nazis storing arms in a bombed out building. Somehow she acquired
two grenades and went near that cache of arms. With the first grenade she
partially blew up the building and finished the job with the second. She
apparently didn't duck and was shot from behind by a hidden Nazi sniper. As she
lay dying from loss of blood a soldier, wounded at the front, and in Kyiv for
rehabilitation before returning to the front, witnessed this and went to see if
he could help. This sounds like fiction, but he was from Olesko, knew my
grandmother and her family; his sister went to school with my mother! He stayed
with my grandmother while she told him the story I've just relayed, till she
died from loss of blood. He wrote of this "miraculous meeting" to his
sister in
Today, the
loss of my grandparents and their families would simply be depersonalized and
called "collateral damage". Thus the capitalists, who are responsible
for the wars in the first place, have desensitized several generations from
seeing and understanding the true cost of war on all humanity.
But are we
reminded of the millions of innocent civilians who have been slaughtered so
brutally by wars in the 20th century alone? A few brave journalists and
societal observers/commentators have written about it, though these issues are
not widely reported upon. Even General Romeo Dallaire wrote about the travesty
of the genocide in
And the top
1% couldn't care less. They have what they want so let the rest go to hell. And
there is no single leftist movement which now can provide inspiration and
guidance to the masses.
In the movie Network the broadcaster ranted
"I'm fed up and I'm not going to take it any more!" It's taken 30
years or so but the public, the other 99%, are awakening and beginning to take
up the cry. Among them are conservationists, environmentalists, opponents of
agri‑business and large conglomerates, and many, many people disgruntled
with their indebtedness but no idea how they will escape it. Students with huge
university loans have no job prospects to pay them off. Families in mortgaged
homes with cars bought on credit where the breadwinner(s) have lost their jobs
as corporations moved their operations "south or offshore" to save on
salaries and make more profit. And their greed denies them the decency to share
some of their cost savings by lowering prices.
So this year,
on Remembrance Day, I also thought about those who are at war with the 1%, with
the rabid capitalists, even though many may not realize it ‑ yet. I
mourned for more than 100 of my father's family and more than 70 of my mother's
who died in the holocaust. I was grateful that all my enlisted family members
returned home safely. And I mourned for all those recently killed Canadian
soldiers who thought they were fighting to preserve our freedom.
When I hear
our politicians talk about our wonderful country, though in some contexts it
still has some merits, I want to paraphrase Churchill by saying, "Some
Freedom! Some democracy!"
When our
founders came to a
Our battles
aren't yet over as the struggle to retain and improve our social safety net
continues. It's not for us but for those who, inspired by the Occupy Wall
Street movement, are now occupying many major city spaces in Canada, the U.S.
and world-wide, and from which some are now being forcefully removed.
We must
support them; join with them in their demonstrations; and, as some of us may
find it difficult to march with them, let's meet them at their destination and
mingle amongst them. Help enlighten those with whom we come in contact, and
prove to the 1% that this isn't just a movement of a disgruntled bunch of
youngsters blowing off steam. Let the cameras record that it's a movement of
all, young AND old, who want a truly free, peaceful and prosperous world where
ALL are entitled to a decent piece of the pie ‑ and until that happens
that the movement will build (above or underground) till, in one united voice
it says, we say, "We're all really mad, and we're not going to take it
anymore."
Our campaigns
of the past have to become a part of the foundation of this emerging
international movement.
And should
some in this movement also become victims of the "war against the
masses", on future Remembrance Days, we will also remember their
sacrifices, just as we legitimately remember those veterans who fought against
fascism, dictatorships, genocide, oppression, slavery, capitalism, bondage,
racism, anti‑Semitism, homophobia and the like. Then their sacrifices
will not have been in vain. Then we can proudly say we have done our share to
make this a better world where justice and democracy will also be the victors.
9) MUSIC
NOTES, By Wally Brooker
Hawaiian
musician stages APEC protest
Hawaiian guitarist Makana sang his
anticapitalist song "We Are Many" to Barack Obama, Stephen Harper, Hu
Jintao and other Pacific Rim leaders at the APEC Summit's gala dinner in
Honolulu on Nov. 12. Hired to provide instrumental music to the assembled heads
of state, Makana revealed a t‑shirt bearing the words "Occupy with
Aloha" and calmly began singing his song, repeating the lyrics for 45
minutes. "We Are Many" opens with the "many" telling world
leaders "the time has come for us to voice our rage," and concludes
with the lines "we'll occupy the streets, we'll occupy the courts, we'll
occupy the offices, till you do the bidding of the many, not the few." To
download a free copy of "We Are Many" visit http://makanamusic.com/.
Anti‑capitalist culture jammers the Yes Men facilitated the action.
See their news release at www.yeslab.org/APEC#video.
Music
celebrities spread OWS message
Some might argue that the presence of
well‑known musicians is a distraction from the serious work going on at
NPR opera
host under attack
Non‑profit
U.S.
musicians support René Gonzalez
Rock musicians Bonnie Rait and Jackson
Browne joined folk artists Pete Seeger and Si Kahn and actors Susan Sarandon,
Danny Glover and Elliott Gould, in an open letter to President Obama calling
for the immediate return of Cuban Five prisoner René Gonzalez to Cuba. The
letter was the latest action by Actors and Artists United for the Freedom of
the Cuban Five. Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando
Gonzalez, and René Gonzalez were convicted of espionage in 2001 by a kangaroo
court in
Calle 13
sweeps Latin Grammys
Puerto Rican urban/hip‑hop duo
Calle 13 dominated the 12th annual Latin Grammys in
10)
ANTI-IMPERIALIST YOUTH MEET IN
Special to PV
Representatives of youth organizations from around the world gathered Nov. 8-13
in
The Assembly
of the World Federation of Democratic Youth was hosted by the Young Communists
of
Delegations
from 82 youth organizations were present at the largest meeting of WFDY in over
two decades. The Assembly was held a year after the successful 17th World
Festival of Youth and Students in Tshwane, South Africa, the first festival
ever held in sub‑Saharan Africa.
"There
was vigorous discussion and debate about the economic crisis and the nature of
the imperialist system today," Johan Boyden (who represented the Young
Communist League of
"We are
in a difficult time but with significant potential. Everywhere, young people
are redoubling their resistance," Boyden said. "Developments like the
Arab uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the
`spontaneous' mobilizations of the youth across Europe and North America with
the Indigenous and
A statement
issued by WFDY noted that the meeting underlined the world federation's anti‑imperialist
character and reaffirmed that the struggle of the youth, together with the
workers, in each country, is the only way to overthrow imperialism.
"The
present crisis is not just a "bad moment" or the result of a
"bad administration of the system," said the WFDY statement, but
rather "the only possible result of a system based on exploitation. Capitalism
was never, is not, and won't ever be capable of responding to the needs of
humankind as whole, as it is based on inequality when sharing resources and
wealth."
"I think
the WFDY showed great determination by laying out that it is the capitalist
system, in its highest imperialist phase, that is responsible for the
tremendous inequalities and injustices in the world, and war," Boyden
said. "As numerous delegations said, there are many different global
charities, humanitarian groups, and liberal‑oriented organizations but
WFDY is the only anti-imperialist youth federation."
The Assembly
expressed its full solidarity with the peoples of Palestine, Western Sahara,
Cuba, Korea, and "all those who fight against imperialism" adding
that "this is a daily struggle and demands courage and determination,
despite the clear advantage that imperialism has to fight the peoples."
The meeting
was also an important step forward for the YCL
The YCL
The Assembly
also elected a new leadership for the Federation. The communist youth of
The WFDY's 35‑member
General Council includes the General Union of Palestinian Students, the
Communist Youth of Syria, the United Progressive Youth of Egypt, the Japanese
League of Socialist Youth, the Youth Federation of Nepal, the youth of the MPLA
Angola, the KSM of Czech Republic, the Communist Youth of Greece, the Young
Socialists of Brazil, the Young Socialists of Mexico, and the YCL USA.
The closing
ceremony of the Assembly was held at Voz do Operario (Voice of the Worker),
where a rally organized by the JCP
Delegates to
the Assembly also marched in a massive general strike of 180,000 Portuguese
public sector workers against IMF and EU reforms being forced on the country.
Videos of the
demonstration and the Assembly are online at the YCL's site www.Rebelyouth‑magazine.blogspot.com.
11) ANTI-LEFT TERROR CAMPAIGN ACROSS
By Kimball Cariou
In the months
since the May 2011 electoral defeat of
A recent
letter to the Prime Minister from the Left Front - a coalition of ten
communist, socialist and progressive parties, the largest of which is the
Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) - outlines the wide scope
of the attacks against its supporters.
Most of the
killings and assaults have been the work of thugs from the Trinamul Congress
(TMC) which won the May election in part by creating an atmosphere of
intimidation and fear. The new state administration, headed by Mamata Banerjee,
has concentrated its post‑election offensive against the CPI(M),
which had been at the forefront of decades of struggles to defend the interests
of peasants and other working people in
One result
may be a greater impetus for the disintegration of
A 100‑page
summary of the violence unleashed against the Left from the Assembly elections up
to August 15 is highly revealing. During this time, thirty Left Front leaders
and workers (28 from the CPI‑M and two from the Revolutionary Socialist
Party) were killed, and another seven driven to commit suicide. Assaults
against women totalled 684, including 23 rapes. A total of 3785 people had to
be hospitalized for injuries inflicted by their attackers, and others were
prevented from seeking treatment or lodging complaints with the police. There
were 2064 reports of arson and looting of houses, and 14,081 persons were
evicted from their homes. Thousands more have been compelled to pay off local
TMC leaders to avoid being driven out or attacked. According to a conservative
estimate, the total of extorted funds could exceed Rs. 277.7 million ($5.6 million).
A wide range
of offices and buildings used by trade unions, political parties and other
organizations have been attacked. The summary counts 758 such premises as being
ransacked, burnt, forced to close or taken over by TMC goons. In 77 cases, student
union offices have been captured, with elected leaders driven out or forced to
resign. Student activists have been threatened against taking exams,
effectively driving them out of their schools.
There has
also been a widespread attack on the peasantry, with 3418 denied the right to
cultivate their own lands, amounting to over 9000 acres. Another 26,838 rural
tenants and sharecroppers have been forcibly evicted.
Thousands of
Left Front activists face trumped-up legal charges, often accused after weapons
were allegedly "found" in their homes or offices. The campaign
extends to attacks on freedom of the press; 241 public display boards featuring
the pages of the CPI‑M daily Ganashakti
have been dismantled, thousands of copies have been burnt, and its vendors
often beaten up to disrupt circulation.
The terror
extends to disruption of the widespread network of local institutions of self‑government
built up during the Left Front period. Physical attacks, threats, and orders of
the new government have shut down many panchayats
and other forms of local administration, as well as elected bodies on
university campuses. In some areas, teachers and other staff are not allowed to
enter their institutions.
12) "THE DEEP CRISIS CONCERNS THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM ITSELF"
From a statement from the Communist
Party of
A government
of the front of the parties of capital is being formed, of capital itself, with
the EU in the role of chief maestro, in order to impose the interests of Greek
and European capital in conditions of crisis and competition, to deal with the
friction in the EU and to subjugate the people. Ostensibly the EU pressured ND
and PASOK to form this government. In reality the pressure is being turned
against the people. We state with certainty that this government is not going
to deal with the debt or the deficits or the depth of the crisis, is not even
going to deal with the possibility of an uncontrolled bankruptcy.
The avoidance
of uncontrolled bankruptcy in the following months or years does not depend on
the formula of political management, which the various bourgeois governments
implement, nor whether it will be a coalition or single party government. The
question as to whether there will be more parties in the coalition, is chiefly
related to the disciplining and subjugation of the people, because the problem
of the crisis is deeper: it concerns the capitalist system itself and not its
management.
The people
must know the following: that what it has experienced in the previous period it
will experience now. To begin with they will take anti‑worker anti‑people
measures. Afterwards the instalment will be paid and we will begin the new
cycle of instalments of the new memorandum. We do not believe in the slightest
that the initiative of Papandreou to proceed with a "Euro or Drachma"
referendum is what led to the formation of the coalition government. They had
been preparing it for a long time. Of course this was the opportunity.
Capital in
our country and the EU wanted to impose a dynamic and strong government. It did
not want to have ND as an official opposition. It wanted a unified alliance
government.
A large
section of the people feel humiliated by the interventions of the EU and the
statements of Merkel and Sarkozy. If they want to be liberated from this
humiliation they must, first of all, be liberated from the power of the
monopolies in our country, to disengage from the EU. Otherwise such
humiliations will remain and we reiterate that they will be even worse.
Contemporary
patriotism for us is this: Socialisation of the monopolies, working class‑people's
power, disengagement from the EU, which in today's conditions also entails the
unilateral cancellation of the debt.
This
government will not be for a few weeks only. They intend to drag it on for as
long as possible. But even if it is for a few weeks it will take measures which
concern the life, the living standards and the rights of the people for at
least 10 to 15 years.
Indeed, the IMF talks about a two‑year
government. We call on the working class, the popular strata to cast down this
government with their struggle as quickly as possible, to make its life
difficult, to utilise whatever difficulties the new alliance government has and
to shorten its stay as far as possible, before final decisions are made, and to
impose elections. Of course what is needed here is an unprecedented struggle
and particularly that the workers, the popular strata who still believe in
PASOK and ND, should not have any inhibition about this. They must not hope
that this alliance will bring about something better...
The people
have an additional weapon today, not only their just cause and experience which
they have acquired in the past and recent period, but also the fact that the EU
is experiencing serious difficulties. The governments of the EU cannot manage
the crisis.
The people
must not be anxious about the weaknesses of the bourgeois system. The debts,
the deficits, the memoranda, the medium‑term programs, whether they will
be passed or not, is the anxiety of the ruling class of our country and the
parties which serve it. The people must be anxious about one thing: how it will
be able to prevent and overthrow measures, how it will be able to be
victorious.
They are
threatening the Greek people that they will expel
It is not
impossible; it is possible that in the following years the EU might not look as
it does today. Countries might be expelled from the Eurozone, from the EU, the
EU might be split, and something else might appear in its place. Indeed there
was a discussion to transform the EU to an organisation like the
As regards
the question Euro or Drachma, our answer was that there are sections of
capital, not only in Greece but in other countries as well, which are
interested in Greece remaining in the EU and leaving the Eurozone because their
economic position in the system is appropriate for speculation.
However our
answer is: disengagement. We will not take sides with the speculators of the
Euro or the Drachma. The people's interests will not be served by a general
"anti‑memorandum" front, no matter if it is called progressive,
patriotic or left. Until now ND classified itself amongst the forces against
the memorandum and you see where it has ended up.
The front we
need today must not be simply an "anti" front. It must say where the
people should go. We are talking about a social popular front for the overthrow
of the power of the monopolies, for their socialisation, for the workers' and
people's control, for the disengagement of Greece from the EU and NATO and of
course all these entail the cancellation of the debt. We do not want the anti‑worker
policy either with the Euro or with the Drachma.
From this
point of view any fronts against the memorandum like these are not only
temporary - they will split sooner or later - but they also constitute one of
the ramparts to protect the bourgeois class, which on the one hand wants a
clear reactionary conservative front, but at the same time it can utilise a
front for struggle as a form of protection. Anyone who fights within the
framework of the EU in terms of negotiation and changes in the political
formula does not constitute a threat to the system...
We believe
that fronts of struggle must develop immediately. The forthcoming budget will
cut expenditures even further, it does not leave anything for education,
healthcare, welfare, nurseries, for the elderly, for the persons with special
needs, for the special problems of women and youth, for unemployment...
The fronts of
struggle arise from the people themselves in the neighbourhood, in the factory.
Consequently we need to immediately use all forms of struggle - strikes,
demonstrations, people's committees and social alliance at the ground level.
There cannot be any factory or people's neighbourhood without centres for
action and struggle. All of these must gather together in a massive torrent for
the overthrow of the power of the monopolies. There is no other alternative
solution today.
13)
By Emile Schepers, People's World
Guatemalans
went to the polls on November 6 for a runoff presidential election between a
military man who promised to rule with a "hard hand" ("mano
dura") and a businessman who promised to carry out public executions. With
a choice like that, it is perhaps not surprising that turnout was low, about 50
percent.
The Patriotic
Party's General Otto Perez Molina, the one with the hard hand, won with 53.7%
over the execution‑happy Manuel Baldizon of the LIDER Party, who got
46.3%.
In a region
where the left has considerable strength, how did it come about that the runoff
was between two right wingers? Perez Molina is credibly accused of involvement
in massive human rights abuses during the long period of US‑supported
military dictatorships that began with the CIA's overthrow of left‑wing
President Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. Baldizon, besides his enthusiasm for public
executions, has been accused of having ties to drug cartels.
In the first
place, the main centre‑left political alliance, the National Unity of
Hope‑Grand National
Further to
the left, the "Broad Left" alliance consisting of the Winaq, URNG‑MAIZ
and Alternative New Nation organisations ran Nobel Peace Prize winner and
indigenous Maya rights activist Rigoberta Menchu. However, she only got about
three percent of the vote on September 11. Given Menchu's fame and the fact
that the organisations backing her candidacy were, in part, derived from the
old guerrilla movement, which at one time had considerable grassroots support,
such a low figure may seem surprising.
But although
the wars that were set off by the 1954 coup were "settled" by
negotiation in the 1990s, Guatemala is still the land of impunity, where the
rich and powerful rule the impoverished majority by violence and fear. Rural
Guatemalans especially are vividly aware that political activism on the left
can get you killed.
The major
reason for the move to the right, however, is the consternation generated among
the Guatemalan people by a massive increase in violent crimes during Colom's
tenure as president. This is a regional phenomenon, seen also in
Gangs like
the infamous "Zetas" eliminate anybody who gets in their way. Very seldom
are any of the murderers brought to book. Evidently there was a feeling that
Colom's government was inadequate to the task of dealing with this crime wave.
Perez Molina
promises that he will use the same methods of dealing with crime as former Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, in spite of the
fact that in both cases a military approach (supported materially by the
The new
president is likely to get support from the 158 seat unicameral Congress. In
the September 11 general election, his Patriotic Party picked up 26 new seats
(for a total of 56), while Colom's National Unity of Hope‑Grand National
How hard will
the hard hand be? Among the first cabinet appointments by Perez Molina was
Colonel Mauricio Lopez Bonilla as Minister of Interior, in charge of internal
security. Lopez Bonilla was an advisor to dictator Efrain Rios-Montt, who ruled
So chances
are the "hard hand" will be very hard indeed.
14) SHOW
THE
The past twelve months have seen intense political, economic and social
confrontations across the planet. From the battles in
But power
yields nothing without a struggle. And the working class never makes lasting advances
without a revolutionary contingent which can help elevate spontaneous
fightbacks into a conscious, united
movement for radical change.
The Communist
Party warned a year ago that the corporate attack on labour and democratic
rights, on women, workers, youth and racialized communities would be sharper
than ever during 2011. Since then, the economic recovery has been exposed as a recovery for profits, while working people
pay the price with escalating wage cuts, job cuts, collapsing living
standards and insecurity. As capitalism
wobbles on the brink of yet another meltdown, the situation demands
urgent action, mass political struggle, and an alternative and progressive
vision for the future.
While many
voices criticise the crimes of capitalism, only the Communist Party of
A small party with big ideas, the Communist Party is
In the spirit of anti-capitalist solidarity, please show your solidarity this
holiday season. Your tax deductible donation will
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290A
Left Film Night, screening
of “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up,” 7 pm, Sun., Nov. 27, Centre
for Socialist Education,
Celebrate 90 years of the Communist Party, Sat., Dec. 3,
Palestinians And Jews United, boycott/disinvestment/sanctions picket, every
Saturday, 1-3 pm, outside Israeli shoe store “NAOT”,
Occupons la fete! Occupy the party!
Tomemos la Fiesta! Seasonal
party and celebration at the end of a historic year of struggle, organized by
the Ché club Of the PCQ. Features a
delicious meal by a professional chef from one of