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February 1-14, 2012
Volume 19 - Number 2
$1
Prolétaires
de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
1) FORD ADMINISTRATION SUFFERS FIRST BIG SETBACK
2) 15,000 RALLY AGAINST 55% WAGE CUT AND LOCKOUT AT
CATERPILLAR
3) SOLIDARITY CAN BLOCK THE ENBRIDGE NORTHERN GATEWAY
PIPELINE
4) BLOCK THE TORY ANTI-ABORIGINAL AGENDA
5) STUDENT PROTESTS PLANNED ON 50 CAMPUSES
6) QUEBEC STUDENTS GEAR UP FOR ANTI-TUITION STRIKES
7) STUDENT PROTESTS SHAKE CHILE
8) 2012: A CRITICAL BARGAINING YEAR - Editorial
9) CONFUSION FROM THE RIGHT - Editorial
10) HOW B.C.'S "FAMILY-FRIENDLY" PREMIER ATTACKS
EDUCATION AND CHILD CARE
11) VSB CENSURES LYING TRUSTEES
12) METIS LAND CASE GOES TO SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
13) DEMYSTIFYING SYRIA: BACKGROUND TO THE CRISIS
14) MUSIC NOTES, By Wally Brooker
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
FEBRUARY 1-14, 2012 (pdf)
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People's Voice deadlines: February 15-29 March 1-15 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, |
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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
February 1-14, 2012, issue of People's
1) FORD
ADMINISTRATION SUFFERS FIRST BIG SETBACK
By Liz Rowley
The hard‑right
administration of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was dealt a big setback on January 17.
After months of protests by community groups and labour, the city's 2012
austerity budget was amended to add $19 million to rescue three homeless
shelters, three child care centres, school nutrition programs, HIV/AIDS
programs, city-owned homes for the aged, swimming and wading pools, recreation
centres, libraries, and other essential services slated for closure,
contracting out, or deep reductions and big new user fees.
Dubbed by
some as a war on children's services, Ford's budget attacked everything from
housing to transit to health and social services, from the arts and libraries
to public assets like theatres and zoos, affecting almost everyone in this city
of 2.7 million. The public rose up in horror, from the trade unions to wealthy
arts patrons and supporters of the library system.
Committees
were formed, including the "Stop the Cuts Coalition", with its 27
neighbourhood affiliates, the "One Toronto" coalition of arts and
cultural communities, and the individuals and organizations which came together
to save libraries, swimming pools, school breakfast and nutrition programs, the
children's zoo, social housing, and child care centres (Toronto has a waiting
list of over 20,000 for subsidized child care spaces). There was wide
opposition to cuts to snow clearing, especially in the suburbs and in higher
income areas.
A truly mass
movement sprung up almost overnight, starting in July after the KPMG audit and
proposed cuts. By September the polls showed support evaporating for Ford and for
Councillors backing his austerity measures.
A campaign of
petitions, demonstrations, meetings, blogs, emails, and phone calls to
Councillors identified with the budget started to get results in early
December. Some of Ford's close supporters began to distance themselves from the
parts of the budget dealing with libraries, child care and transit. The message
was clear: vote for cuts and your political career is over.
Ford and most
of his Council allies represent areas where services were traditionally poorer
and the political representation more conservative than in the downtown core of
the old City of
But Ford's
budget cuts had a big impact on the suburbs, where homeowners and small
businesses hadn't bet on reduced services, only reduced taxes. The proposal to
cut 62 bus routes and increase transit fares by 10 cents would have hurt most
in these areas. More limited access to childcare centres and spaces, and other
services in the suburbs, highlighted the inequity of existing services, and
helped forge broad city‑wide opposition to the budget.
But Mayor
Ford, his brother Councillor Doug Ford, his Budget Chief Mike Del Grande, and
the Executive Committee of hand‑picked right‑wing Councillors,
didn't or couldn't see that their base was narrowing, and opposition was
growing all around them.
They
responded with ham fisted attacks on their opponents, starting with Margaret
Atwood, who called on her twitter following to stop the attack on libraries.
Doug Ford's remarks about Atwood exposed him as boorish and threatening, not
the cultivated image of hard‑working boys from the burbs taking on the
downtown elites.
The huge turn‑outs
to time‑limited public hearings on the budget were slagged as
"communists" and "full‑time agitators", dismissed as
"the same 500 people" by the Mayor and Budget Chief.
Ford's image was further eroded by his
encounters with the CBC's "Marge Delahunty", by his wife's frequent
911 calls charging domestic assault, and by his sister and her boyfriend, who
face charges of attempted murder and breaking into the Mayor's house.
As January 17
neared, a centre‑right group of Liberals and some Tories joined with
progressive Councillors to put together a "lifeboat" of important
services. The vote to allow the "lifeboat" motion was the first
signal that the Ford juggernaut could be stopped. When the main motion to use
$15 million from the 2011 revenue surplus of $154 million passed by a vote of
23 to 21, it was greeted by a roar of support inside the packed City Hall
chambers. It was a roar heard across the city.
In response,
the Mayor declared he'd won the budget fight, while del Grande called it a
defeat, and said he was resigning. In fact, it was a partial but very
significant victory for the coalitions and the people, and for democracy.
Partial, because of the deep cuts and job and service losses that were passed.
Significant, because this fight showed many people they could fight and win,
despite another three years with Ford and Co. at the helm.
Outside,
The fight is
not over by a long shot. Many important services, assets including public
housing, theatres and real estate, the
As PV goes to
press, the City has received its no‑Board report, allowing it to lock out
30,000 city workers before the next issue of this paper reaches subscribers.
The Ford
administration is demanding massive concessions, including around job security,
which Ford and Co. have dubbed "jobs for life." The broad coalition
that came together to derail the budget cuts must understand that city services
and city workers go together, and that 15,000 city workers are part‑time,
with few or no benefits, and earning a little above the minimum wage.
The only fat
cats in this fight are on the throne in City Hall, and behind the scenes on
2) 15,000 RALLY AGAINST 55% WAGE CUT AND LOCKOUT AT CATERPILLAR
PV Ontario Bureau
The CAW and
They were
there in a massive show of unity and solidarity with the almost 500 members of
Local 27 CAW, locked out since December 29 by Electro‑Motive
EMC illegally
locked out its employees after they voted to refuse the company's final offer:
a 55% wage cut and deep cuts to pensions and benefits. Workers were told that a
"no" vote would lead to the company relocating its operations to
EMC is owned
by Progress Rail, a subsidiary of Caterpillar, which had global operations and
revenues of $58 billion last year and posted profits of $1.14 billion. Progress
Rail has received an estimated $5 million in corporate tax breaks from the
federal government.
The trade
union movement is warning that a victory for Caterpillar will encourage
corporations across
The OFL and
CAW are demanding that the terms of sale of EMC to Progress Rail under the
Investment
As the
federal and provincial governments across
The Communist
Party of
The Party
also called on the provincial government to be prepared to put EMC under public
ownership and democratic control in the event its owners don't reconsider their
approach to free collective bargaining, and to Canadian workers, Canadian laws
and Canadian sovereignty.
3) SOLIDARITY CAN BLOCK THE ENBRIDGE NORTHERN GATEWAY PIPELINE
Statement by the Central Executive
Committee, Communist Party of
The Joint Review Panel hearings into
the Enbridge Northern Gateway (ENG) pipeline have become a historic clash
between two different visions for the future of
As the vast
majority of submissions to the hearings have proven, the ENG project does not
meet the criteria of being "required" and "in the public
interest." Rather, it is intended to generate huge new profits for the oil
and gas monopolies.
The Communist
Party of
Stephen
Harper hopes to ram the ENG project through by completely ignoring the views of
First Nations, the public and environmental experts. His government regularly
acts in such a dictatorial fashion, wielding its majority in Parliament to
impose the corporate agenda. Ultimately, blocking this pipeline will require
united, massive, and militant mobilizations.
The Enbridge
project is a direct attack on the national rights of Aboriginal peoples along
the pipeline corridor, many of whom have never ceded inherent indigenous title
to their traditional lands and waters. By building the pipeline over the nearly
unanimous objections of these peoples, the Harper Tories and the energy
monopolies would render meaningless any future attempts to reach
nation-to-nation agreements based on justice and equality.
Many
opponents have warned of the strong potential for catastrophic environmental
damage. This pipeline would be constructed across 1177 kilometres, crossing
some 1,000 rivers, streams and bodies of water, bringing crude oil to load onto
supertankers in the narrow Douglas Channel, one of the most environmentally
fragile areas of the west coast. As Enbridge's record of 804 leaks over the
past decade proves, the question is not "whether" leaks will occur,
but the frequency and scale of such disasters.
Ever since
the post-war Liberal government adopted the so-called "Abbott Plan",
vast resources within the borders of the Canadian state have been increasingly
controlled by transnational corporations, effectively denying the peoples of
For decades,
the Communist Party has opposed the policy of exporting unprocessed raw
materials, which strengthens
For all these
reasons, the Communist Party of
We urge the
labour and democratic movements to build united solidarity with the Aboriginal
peoples and environmentalists, both to kill this dangerous project, and to
discuss a genuine people's alternative plan for the economic development of
this country, based on people's needs, not corporate greed!
4) BLOCK
THE TORY ANTI-ABORIGINAL AGENDA
Statement by the Central Executive
Committee, Communist Party of
The news of
shocking living standards in Aboriginal communities such as Attawapiskat, where
deteriorating housing conditions have forced members of that northern
In recent decades,
Canadian politicians have consistently refused to make it a priority to improve
Aboriginal living standards. Small steps towards allowing First Nations to
address their urgent needs are invariably followed by refusals to live up to
treaties and campaign promises. The scrapping of the
The treaties
signed by First Nations with
But this
status is not matched by true self‑determination over traditional
territories. Instead, the main direction of the Canadian ruling class has been
to assimilate Aboriginal peoples, to pretend that "everyone is equal"
in
The
assimilationist agenda is clearly seen by the Harper Tory government's plan for
a "First Nations Property Ownership Act", which would transform
Aboriginal lands from the collective property of First Nations into private
property for sale on the capitalist market. Essentially, the Tory plan is to
eliminate the concept of Aboriginal title, a Constitutional communal right deeply
linked to indigenous culture, thus removing an important barrier to unchecked
corporate exploitation of large areas of
Given the
track record of this government, such as its destruction of the Canadian Wheat
Board over the objections of prairie farmers, legislative measures will follow,
disregarding the views of Aboriginal peoples, or even court decisions which are
unfavourable to the Tory agenda.
In fact,
Aboriginal and non‑aboriginal opponents of the land privatization plan will
face accusations that they are "terrorists" or "anti‑Canadian."
The moves taken by PM Harper after he assumed office in 2006 to spy upon any
Aboriginal opposition to his policies is a chilling reminder that his
government will stop at nothing to smear and undermine critics, and even to
criminalize their legal activities.
Behind the
impending attempt to scrap the historic collective ownership of traditional
Aboriginal territories is the hand of the transnational resource monopolies. As
seen in the drive to build a pipeline to bring tar sands oil to the west coast
via the Northern Gateway pipeline, these corporate forces will spend millions
to buy off so‑called "Aboriginal spokespersons" who allegedly
support plans for such projects. The opponents of the pipeline and other
resource projects are already being accused of being "unpatriotic" ‑
a charge which is ludicrous, coming from a party which is in the pocket of U.S.
energy giants and an eager lapdog for Yankee imperialism on the world stage.
The sale and
break‑up of Aboriginal territories will enrich a wealthy handful, at the
expense of the vast majority of those who live on reserves and unceded
indigenous territories. Any hope of receiving sufficient compensation for
economic development on their territories to substantially improve living
standards will be lost in a mad scramble to profit from unchecked
privatisation. We can expect a repeat ‑ on a larger scale ‑ of the
shameful theft of MΘtis lands
in Manitoba and Saskatchewan during the 1800s, carried out on the basis of
unscrupulous tactics such as the issuance of "scrip".
The
It is not the
Aboriginal peoples who drove millions of Canadians into poverty and
unemployment, or who sold out
The Communist
Party of
5) STUDENT PROTESTS PLANNED ON 50 CAMPUSES
Special to PV
Confronting
skyrocketing tuition fees and rising student debt, the Canadian Federation of
Students will hold a cross‑Canada day of action for accessible education
on February 1st. Actions are expected on over fifty campuses from Vancouver
Island to
"The
Education is a Right campaign is the expression of students' collective vision
for a well‑funded, high‑quality, public post‑secondary
education system that builds a fair, and equitable society" says Roxanne
Dubois, CFS Chairperson.
The campaign
follows "12 days for public education" in December which saw
The CFS will
highlight attacks on education across the country, such as:
* Nova Scotia, where the
NDP government just announced that tuition fees will increase three percent per
year for the next three years, while operating grants to universities will be
cut by three percent for 2012‑13, meaning students will be paying more
and getting less;
* Quebec, where
mobilizations against the Charest Liberals will be taking place at the same
time as hundreds of thousands of students vote on a mass strike for accessible
education (see below);
*
Ontario ‑ the province with the highest
fees in the country at $6,640 average undergraduate tuition ‑ where hundreds
of thousands of students in need of aid are being left out of the new McGuinty
Liberal tuition grants;
*
*
British Columbia, where students pay more in tuition
than corporations pay in taxes, but the Clark Liberal government charges the
prime interest rate plus 2.5% on student loans, adding an extra 30.2% of principal
to be repaid on the average student loan, over the standard ten‑year
period.
"The
fight for public education in Canada is part of a global effort to maintain
education as a basic right for all," Dubois says. "Around the world,
governments are tabling `austerity' budgets containing massive cuts to post‑secondary
education and other public services."
In
A joint
statement by the Communist Party and the YCL expressed full support of the CFS
slogan "education is a right" and for the student actions. The
statement calls for all students to step up their struggles against tuition
increases and reactionary governments, especially the Harper Conservatives.
"All
young people are facing a corporate steam roller in the form of tuition
fees," Drew Garvie, a student activist and
The Young
Communist League will be mobilizing for the demonstrations and promoting the
Charter of Youth Rights campaign to unite progressive youth behind fighting
demands, Garvie said. The YCL just concluded a successful student conference in
"Despite
the economic crisis, a militant, united and coordinated struggle across the
country by students and their allies can win" said a YCL statement issued
at the end of the conference. The event also looked at the need to link the struggles
of
"We
fully support this proposal, with the caveat that
"If
capitalist
Boyden added
that students must "escalate, expand and grow the movement with more
large, continued and visible actions - working to create a broad,
powerful and militant unity that cannot be ignored."
6)
PV Montreal Bureau
Québec
students are campaigning against the Charest Liberal government's 75% tuition
fee hikes. Successful actions have been building across the province, and a
major student strike on the national‑level is expected this March,
shutting down campuses in all big cities and regions of Québec.
Strike votes
will be take place in early February. Full‑time student tuition in Québec
is increasing by over $1600, in addition to extra fees charged on campus.
Since
September students have been holding a series of escalating actions, building
pressure against the government. Some campuses saw students staging "paper
storms" after paying tuition, as thousands of bills were thrown from
campus balconies like confetti. Students also built a brick wall overnight in
front of the minister of education's office door, highlighting blocked access
to education.
The most
significant protest was a demonstration of over 30,000 in the streets of
The demo was
the first united student march since 2005 when Québec students rallied with the
labour movement for several weeks, shutting down high schools, colleges and
universities, as well as the port of Montreal, in the largest education
mobilization in Canadian history. That protest halted large fee increases until
now, although it also created controversy, when one block of student unions
broke unity to negotiate a compromise deal without consulting the broader
movement.
In Québec,
student unions hold campus‑wide general assemblies several times a year
to decide important strategic and policy questions. Student unions are
affiliated into three major groups ‑ the left‑wing Association pour
une solidarité syndicale étudiante (ASSÉ), and the Fédération étudiante
universitaire du Québec (FEUQ) and Fédération étudiante collégiale du Québec
(FECQ). There is also a much looser organized TASQ and a large number of
unaffiliated or independent student unions.
"Students are angry and optimistic," Marianne Breton Fontaine, leader
of the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste
du Québec, told People's Voice.
Breton Fontaine pointed to a November all‑student union meeting which
agreed on a basis of unity around accessible education, and also a new
coalition uniting ASSÉ with seven other student unions.
"Already
some campuses have voted yes, but the FEUQ appears to be working on its own
strategy, electing the nationalist Parti Quebecois," Breton Fontaine said.
"In the
electoral struggle is it is not the PQ but Quebec solidaire that is closest to
the demands of the students, but at any rate this question will mainly be
decided on the streets," she said, pointing to the "Red Hand"
coalition (labour, housing and other social activists, as well as many
students) which is calling for a political strike in defence of public
services, free health care and education, and progressive taxation.
"Connecting as many people as possible, linking students' demands with
broader social-economic issues ‑ like the austerity budget and economic
crisis ‑ this is the way forward," she concluded.
7) STUDENT PROTESTS SHAKE
The past year
and a half has seen significant student resistance in the streets in
Most basic
and secondary schools, and most universities in
Not
surprisingly, debts affect 70% of all university students, and most from poor
families drop out. Monthly fees range from $240 to $840 CND; the average
monthly salary in
Protests
started in July 2011, when miners shut down state-owned Codelco copper mines to
protest privatization and demand higher pay and benefits in light of record
global copper prices. The miners walked out on the 40th anniversary of the
"We
believe that the key to a successful student movement is [...] to interweave social
networks with the people, the workers, with social organizations, the trade
unions, and with the youth who did not make it into the University ‑ who
were left kicking stones," said student leader Camila Vallejo, who is also
a member of the Central Committee of the Young Communists of Chile.
In August, a
political strike was launched on the national level by labour, calling to
replace the Pinochet‑era constitution with a new charter guaranteeing
free quality education. Repeated mobilizations saw 82 unions walk out.
"The
truth is I do not know the difference between the political and social, when
social organisations realise that the current institutional framework cannot resolve
the big issues of our country, such as the subject of education,"
Communist Party president and MP Guillermo Teillier said.
A few days
later, 600,000 marchers turned out in a country of about 15 million.
Into the fall
and winter, students held negotiations with the government, as well as hunger
strikes, occupations, disruptions of the Senate, and many more peaceful
demonstrations, often facing police water cannons, tear gas, beatings and
hundreds of arrests. Neo‑fascists also burnt the offices of the Communist
Party of
The
demonstrations have taken place on a backdrop of indigenous land reclamations,
environmental protests against damming of Patagonian rivers, and protests by
gay and lesbian activists, earthquake victims, and the homeless and the poor
against high gas prices. "This is no movement that comes of
spontaneity,"
"Not
since the days of Zapatistas' Subcomandante Marcos has Latin America been so
charmed by a rebel leader,"
"We do
not want to improve the actual system, we want a profound change ‑ to
stop seeing education as a consumer good, to see education as a right where the
state provides a guarantee,"
8) 2012: A
CRITICAL BARGAINING YEAR
People's Voice Editorial
"Labour
unrest" will mark this year, according to the Conference Board of
Right-wing and
even NDP governments hardly need such lies to slam workers in both the public
and private sectors. Time after time in recent years, greedy corporate bosses
have used their wealth and power to hammer wages, pensions and working
conditions; Vale
Union density
in the private sector has been pushed down to about 16% in
As the saying
goes, workers must hang together, or we will be hanged separately. Without
united labour resistance, 2012 may become a year of historic defeats. We urge
the leadership of the CLC, and the
People's Voice Editorial
These are
complex and turbulent times, a period in which movements which take consistent
stands in defense of working people are often relatively weak. Ultra-right
forces posing as "progressive" sometimes take advantage to penetrate
and mislead the resistance against corporate domination.
One example
in
In the United
States, despair at the failure of the Obama administration to work for truly
progressive change has opened the door for libertarian Ron Paul to attract
support from some opponents of the corporate agenda. But we must not be fooled
into believing that Paul's criticism of
The Ron Pauls
and "Radical Presses" of the world do not offer any future beyond
blind hatred. What we need instead is to expand our patient efforts to build
broad unity around the immediate and long-term needs of working people: jobs,
democracy, social equality, global peace, protection of the environment.
10) HOW
B.C.'S "FAMILY-FRIENDLY" PREMIER ATTACKS EDUCATION AND CHILD CARE
Extracts from the Main Political
Resolution adopted by the 39th BC Provincial Convention of the Communist Party
of
B.C. Liberal
Premier Christy Clark claims to head a "family friendly" government.
But a look at the realities of public education and child care tell a different
story.
In 1931 the
BC Tory government under pressure from the "business community" funded
a study on how to improve the provinces finances during the depression. The
"Kidd Report" launched an attack on education that was so odious and
vicious that even the Tories could not implement it. Nevertheless it was
admired by the BC "business community" and formed the bedrock of
decreased funding, cutbacks and teacher bashing that has guided the political
agenda of the BC capitalist class and their successive Social Credit and
Liberal governments ever since.
Except for a
brief respite, far from perfect, during NDP terms, the battle lines in BC have
been drawn between a business culture with little respect for education and far
less for educators and the needs and aspirations of working people.
Business sees
education as a preparation for their labour requirements, the conditioning of
working class youth to whatever the present mode of production or service
demands.
Teachers and
parents see education as a possible liberator, a social institution expanding quality
of life and a quantity for social change.
In a period
of rapid technological advancement and a general acute crisis in capitalism,
why should billions be spent on educating people who are basically surplus
labour? Why not design an elitist system that can "cherry‑pick"
the brightest for high tech needs, steal immigrants trained at someone else's
expense, introduce private "for profit" schools for the elite and
downgrade the public system as a holding apparatus for those destined for cheap
manual labour and "McJobs". This whole scenario is an attempt to roll
back the clock on the accomplishments of educators, primarily teachers, and the
evolution of education as an institution of the people.
The
skirmishes and engagements fought by BC teachers are significant and
courageous, reflected in the public support they have had and their victories
in the Supreme Court. The people, including organized labour with teachers at
the front, progressive school board members and the social justice movement,
are locked in a struggle over education fought out over funding, or more
precisely the lack of funding. The control of public money is the hangman's
noose tightening around the school boards and their ability to protect and
deliver the wages and programs the educational system needs.
The massive
transfer of money from the working population into the corporate sector,
accompanied by a huge reduction in corporate taxes to keep it there, and income
tax breaks for the wealthy, is paralleled by equally massive cut‑backs in
funding for all social programs with health care and education at the top of
the list.
In five of
ten provinces, teachers are paid from $14,000 to $18,000 more than B.C.
teachers who once were the best paid in
In 2010‑11
there were 3,627 classes with over 30 students, in violation of the School Act.
In the same period there were 12,000 classes with four or more special needs
students, when the Act limits the number to three. Who is enforcing regulations
and the rule of law in BC?
From 2001 to
2009 there were 176 school closures, more than any other period in B.C.
history. The government claim that there are 73 new schools is false.
Forty-seven were replacement schools, 24 were from the capital plans of the
previous NDP government and only four were proposed and initiated by the
Liberals. There is no net gain, only loss.
ESL student
numbers are up; the numbers of teachers needed to service them are down.
Special needs students are up; teachers are down. This is the pattern. The
education system needs more funding. K-12 funding from 1991 to the present, as
a share of the provincial budget, has dropped approximately 11%. If the
corporate tax rate was restored to 2000 levels, there would be almost $2
billion to spend on social programs and education. Clearly education funding is
tied to general tax reform.
Senior levels
of government in
In 2008 there
were 567,000 children under the age of twelve living In B.C., and 358,000 of
these children's mothers were in the paid workforce. Yet in 2011 there are only
97,000 licensed child care spaces. The average provincial cost of infant care
is $900 per month and over $1000 in the Lower Mainland. According to UNICEF and
the OECD, the worst policy approach for child care is where public funds are
delivered to private providers through vouchers or subsidies for which there is
little accountability. The largest proportion of the B.C. child care budget
goes to such subsidies, directly into the profits of private providers who are
increasingly invading the market.
The strongest
child care systems are those that are publicly funded, owned and operated.
"For profit" child care is the poorest quality, most costly and most
inefficient. In B.C. the child care budget is only $300 million, of which $80
million is from federal transfers. (The new roof for BC Place cost $563
million.) The Minor Capital Grants that provided up to $5000 for emergency and
building maintenance were cut to $2000 in 2009, and then abolished entirely.
The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC proposes a
"Community Plan for a Public System of Integrated Early Care and Learning"
that addresses not only the needs of children and working parents, but improved
wages and conditions for child care specialists. The plan is a publicly funded,
and operated proposal that would establish child care for as little as $10 per
day, and free for families with an income of less than $40,000 per year.
The
government's priorities are clear, and Christy Clark's family rhetoric is a
cruel sham. For the Communist Party of BC, this will be a major issue during
the May 2013 provincial election.
11) VSB
CENSURES LYING TRUSTEES
PV Vancouver Bureau
In a rare development,
two right-wing school trustees who cooperated with homophobic groups during
last November's civic election were held to account at the Jan. 16 meeting of
the
Vision Vancouver
trustees supported a two-part motion by COPE trustee Alan Wong, to reaffirm the
Board's standing anti-homophobia policy, and to censure NPA trustees Ken Denike
and Sophia Woo for misrepresenting the Board's policies.
This was the
Board's first meeting since the discovery of YouTube videos showing Denike and
Woo speaking to groups which strongly oppose measures to protect gay, lesbian,
bisexual, trans, and questioning youth (and school employees) from the impact
of bigotry. The two NPAers told their audiences that the VSB has no special
policy on LGBTQ issues, but that there was a "threat" along these
lines posed by queer activists like Vision Vancouver's Ryan Clayton and COPE
trustee Jane Bouey. In fact, the Board's groundbreaking LGBTQ policy was
adopted in 2004, and drafted largely by Bouey, who is a frequent target of
right-wing attacks.
Denike and
Woo have given contradictory explanations for their claims on the videos. But
they were clearly trying to ride a wave of fear spread last year in
neighbouring
However,
Denike was re-elected in
Normally
witnessed by a handful of representatives from partner groups, this meeting was
packed. Among the defenders of the Board's current policy were dozens of
parents, students, teachers, and community activists. Many braved a deafening
barrage of vicious insults from about 20 opponents as they rose to speak to the
issue, despite efforts by VSB chair Patti Bacchus to encourage a respectful
discussion.
Clayton was
one of the most powerful speakers, calling on Denike and Woo to apologize to
people impacted by their actions - including the conservative Christians to
whom they lied about the VSB's policies. A secondary student won wild applause
when she urged the NPA trustees to resign. Former NPA trustee Eleanor Gregory
informed the crowd that early in the 2005-08 term, she had urged Denike to help
make sure that the anti-homophobia policy was not ditched by a newly-elected
NPA majority. (Gregory later broke ranks with the NPA over several issues.)
Opponents of
the Board made a series of bizarre claims, stating that sex education is a
tactic to raise government revenues from the sale of condoms, or that those who
object to anti-homophobia policies will be imprisoned.
These forces
are led by the spokesperson for a group called "Culture Guard", Kari
Simpson, who is connected with anti-choice, anti-Jewish and even fascist
elements. Simpson even accuses the "Out in Schools" program, which
has done effective anti-homophobia education for many years, of "inviting
kids to porn parties."
All of this
could be dismissed as the ravings of a handful, since trustees and parent
groups have been deluged with messages demanding to protect the anti-homophobia
policy, but virtually none asking for its removal.
But Simpson
and her backers are pushing the demand for "parent rights" to remove
children from any classroom discussion of LGBT relationships or sexuality.
Cloaked in rhetoric about "free speech" and "protecting cultural
values," this tactic aims to eliminate the secular and science-based
content of public education, and to smash the unions of teachers and other
school employees.
The Jan. 16
motion adopted by COPE's Alan Wong and the Vision majority on the VSB is a
powerful statement on defending equality in
12)
An historic
court case is examining a 140-year dispute between the federal government and
The land deal
was part of the
"The
argument is that
The Métis are
not seeking damages, but are instead asking the Supreme Court to "declare
that
"This
case represents the unfinished business of Confederation. The Métis' strong
sense of community shaped the west. Now is the time to tell the Métis
story," David Chartrand, president of the MMF, said in a statement.
Tom Berger,
the aboriginal rights lawyer who will represent the MMF, said the case
represents an opportunity to correct a historic wrong.
"It's
important for us to get right with our history," Berger told the Canadian
Press. "We have to remember our history and we have to remember that the
Métis didn't go away. They're still here."
The Métis,
who first launched their lawsuit 30 years ago, argue that Macdonald's
government assumed responsibility to appropriate 1.4 million acres of farmland,
and then distribute it to the 7,000 children living at the settlement. That
distribution was delayed for more than a decade and about 1,000 of the children
never received any land. In many cases the land that was eventually handed out
was chosen by lottery, and was often far from their traditional family land
along the Red or
Meantime, non‑Métis
settlers were lured by the promise of free land for homesteaders, and the Metis
were marginalized. As many as half the Métis population actually left
"A lot
of our people went into hiding," Chartrand said. "Some of them, if
they were white enough and spoke French, they said they were French‑Canadian
so they could protect their children."
According to
a Métis legal team which spent two years doing archival research, statements by
Macdonald and his
On May 2,
1870, Macdonald told the House of Commons that the grant was "for purposes
of settlement by their children." Two days later, he reiterated that
"No land would be reserved for the benefit of white speculators, the land
being only given for the actual purpose of settlement."
A year after
that, Cartier said "Until the children came of age the government were the
guardians of the land, and no speculators would be suffered to get hold of
it."
That
sentiment was echoed by the government of Alexander Mackenzie, who succeeded
Mackenzie.
The Supreme
Court of
13) DEMYSTIFYING
By Salim Kassem
Two
relationships have long been at play behind the stability of the Syrian regime.
The first is an economic relationship, in which the regime would put back into
national production just enough to create jobs and produce cheap national goods
to keep the working population in steady or, better yet, improving living
conditions.
The second is
a political relationship, in which the regime must raise its repression and pan‑Arab
rhetoric, as more power, control and wealth become concentrated in the hands of
the ruling military elite and its adjunct bourgeois class. As the recent
popular uprising has come to show, serious distortions have been incurred in
both relationships, which are also, under more realistic conditions,
inseparable.
The
distortion to the economic process began with
Up until
2002, the reforms were circumscribed to promote private investment with some,
albeit very little, erosion to the subsidies and the basic consumption bundle
delivered to the working population.
The initial
reforms did not pay off, and the investment rate as a whole declined. In the
uncertainty and geopolitical risk engulfing
In 2006, the
second‑generation of intensive neoliberal reforms were born. There was a
lifting of price controls on basic commodities, a lifting of tariff barriers, a
relative freeing of capital accounts, and soon, lifting of subsidies on certain
essential commodities. The price of staples rose, and initially, the inflation
rate jumped to more than 10 percent a year. When inflation tapered down, it did
so at still higher costs to employment.
In the
absence of autonomous trade unionism, the corresponding rise in wages was
torpid. It was a prolonged and calculated shock therapy, which formalised the
hold of the state bourgeoisie on the economy, desocialised land tenure, widened
the income gap, dealt a blow to national industry, and promoted import-led
growth.
But this was
no ordinary liberalisation. It was meant for a class that deployed absolute
political authority to extract wealth at every juncture of the circuit of
capital.
Less and less
was paid into health, education, or wages. A state sponsored merchant was free
to mark up prices. The Central Bank would stabilise the local currency with
nationally owned reserves so that locally accrued rents could be converted into
dollars and sent abroad. The dollar peg unequivocally eroded the efficacy of
monetary policy and, subsequently, the economy was dollarized.
In the
uncertain environment of
The growth in
income was driven by higher oil prices and by "geopolitical rents",
which bring us to the distortion incurred to the political relationship.
But for the
Syrian working people, the anecdote was that ours is a regime that signals to
the left but turns to the right. There was a certain predictability when
dealing with the regime, based on the premise that the interests of a small
ruling clique forms the context for decision making. But the ruling clique
itself did not predict the wave of Arab revolts shattering the fear barrier,
the frustration of a dispossessed working population subjected daily to the
ostentatious display of nouveau riche
wealth, or that the distance it kept from Iran was no longer tolerable by the
US.
The regime
had survived because it knew what distance to keep from war and peace, which
made a best friend out of an enemy. The left ignored its transgressions on
human rights because
But
The regime is
faced with a choice between resistance - aligning a broad spectrum of social
classes integrated and empowered in a reformed political process - or dissolution.
Capitulation is not an option. Discrete sectarian lines and forty years of
authoritarian rule have dimmed the possibility of sacrificing a president to
save a social class.
The regime's
reaction has not been to embark on serious reforms, although the most recent
developments may signify a shift towards real political reforms. Earlier, it
raised salaries as if it these were handouts to subjects under an absolute
monarch, and lifted the ban on niqab‑wearing teachers to appease a
minority of ultra fundamentalists, measures that do not amount to reform.
Appointing
Islamic bankers in the government will not redress inequities. The Arab
protests are about the right to political participation and decent living
conditions. In 2008, a basket of eggs, a principal protein provider for
children, costing three to four times the price of two years earlier.
There was an
active and purposeful act of pauperisation of the Syrian working population,
which also compromised national security. The fate of
The answer to
this remains to be seen in the concessions that are going to be made to the
Syrian working class, as opposed to the US and "moderate" Arab
regimes and in the political position vis‑a‑vis
the Arab-Israeli conflict.
On the
economic side, a re‑socialisation of the economy has to be undertaken.
Reinstituting land reforms, which had made
On the
political side, the matter can be easily settled with the smallest glitch over
the border in
INTERNAL STRUGGLE, IMPERIALIST
AGGRESSION
Despite its relatively small size,
Nor have they
had the chance to produce a shift in political power to dislodge
The external
dimension of the political crisis in Syria involves not only U.S. and European
imperialists, but also U.S. client regimes in various Arab countries, most
notably the Gulf emirates; so much so that Syria can be characterized today as
an arena of an Arab Civil War. Some of these Arab countries played an active
role in the occupation of Iraq, publicly supported Israeli aggression against
Lebanon and Palestine (Gaza 2008‑09), actively schemed against the
Egyptian uprising, supported the crushing of the Bahrain uprising, and most
recently supplied weapons and mercenaries to topple the Libyan regime.
After a
number of false starts, US‑backed Syrian opposition groups managed to
ride a wave of popular protests and immediately started a campaign of
destabilization using assassinations, killings of security personnel and, as
government claims go, even protestors. The drive to "militarize the
uprising" has greatly weakened its popular base, and ensured that
This has
further enabled the extreme right‑wing to take charge of the uprising and
sideline leftist and nationalist groups, and set the stage for calls for foreign
intervention a la
14) MUSIC
NOTES, By Wally Brooker
Three songs
for Bradley Manning
Several well‑known songwriters have
rallied to the cause of Bradley Manning, the 24‑year‑old
PJ Harvey's
anti‑war album
English singer‑songwriter and
composer PJ Harvey is receiving accolades for her 2011 album "Let
Woody
Guthrie centennial update
The International Folk
Raffi calls
for muting Don Cherry
Renowned children's singer and long‑time
hockey fan Raffi Cavoukian has started a Twitter campaign to mute Don Cherry's
"Coach's Corner" segments on "Hockey Night in
Tribute
concert for Cornelius Cardew
The 75th birthday of British composer
Cornelius Cardew (1936‑1981) was observed Dec. 17 with a
STUDENT
RALLIES
Wed., Feb. 1, for details of Canadian Federation of Students actions in your
area (see story on page 7), visit www.educationisaright.ca/en.
Jose Marti
Celebration, sponsored by Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association-Vancouver, 1 pm, Sunday,
Jan. 29, Chilean Housing Co-op, 3390 School Ave. Music, poetry, refreshments,
donations welcome. Info: contact CCFA c/o Ray Viaud, 604-254-1350.
Left Film
Night, 7 pm, Sun., Jan. 29, Centre for Socialist Education,
Haiti
Through the Lens of Wikileaks, forum with
Kim Ives, editor of Haiti Liberté weekly, Monday, Jan. 30, 7
pm, Harbour Centre, Room 7000, 515 W. Hastings, organized by
COPE
Annual Meeting, Sunday, Feb. 19, 2-4
pm, 154 E. 10 Ave. (
Afghanistan:
the war is not over, film and
discussion, Sun., Feb. 19, 7 pm, Rhizome Cafe,
317 E. Broadway, organized by StopWar,
Day of
action “Public, For the people!”, Wed., Feb. 1, 1 pm,
Rally at the Legislature to reduce student debt, increase funding, reduce
tuition, support equality for International Students, increase access for
Aboriginal Students, and restore democracy and autonomy to campuses.
Information: Canadian Federation of Students-Manitoba, 783-0787.
Celebration
of Life for Tom Bull, Sunday, Feb. 5, 2 pm, GCDO Hall,
Annual
Norman Bethune Dinner, Sat., Feb. 25, 7 pm,
at 290 Danforth Ave. Tickets just $5, available across Canada from supporters
of media sponsor People’s Voice. Door prize: all-inclusive trip for two
to
Palestinians
And Jews United, boycott/disinvestment/sanctions
picket, every Saturday, 1-3 pm, outside Israeli shoe store “NAOT”,