A
calendar for the year 2008, dedicated to the struggles of the
international working class for peace and socialism.
Featuring
notable dates, short biographical sketches, plus poetry, speeches, and
writings by
Che Guevara, Clara Zetkin, Norman Bethune, James Connolly, Emiliano
Zapata, Nikos Beloyannis, Dolores Ibarruri, V.I. Lenin, Pablo Neruda,
Gladys Marin, Tim Buck, Nazim Hikmet, Ho Chi Minh, and Salvador Allende.
Available for $10
plus $2 postage from People's Voice, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502,
Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.
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| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the
Communist Party of Canada |
People's
Voice deadlines:
JANUARY 16-31
Thursday, January 10, 2008
FEBRUARY 1-15
Thursday, January24, 2008
Send submissions
to PV
Editorial
Office,
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver,
V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net
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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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A NEW YEAR AND THE
STRUGGLE
CONTINUES
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
By Sam Hammond
Finance capital
and its imperialist
agenda, led by the United States, co-operates politically and
militarily to crush dissent, seeks to destroy alternative socialist
models, prevent the development of potential competitors in the third
world and capture unchallenged control, even ownership, of every
people's resources and markets.
Just as much
a part of this equation is the innate cannibalism and competition
between imperialist states and their state based corporations who fight
over the spoils, thus instituting war, human suffering, deprivation and
ecological disaster as permanent and escalating features of capitalism
in its final stage.
In their
drive for global dominance the imperialist states co-operate and
compete. The offensive of imperialism, its inner contradictions and its
plans for assimilation of Canada, both materially and politically have
created a crisis in manufacturing, an attack on social programs, a
drive for privatization, involved us in imperialist military ventures
and created the social conditions that the Canadian working class and
particularly the labour movement must deal with.
As a junior
partner in the imperialist family the Canadian ruling class has used
our resources, energy and the productivity of our people as their ante
into the imperialist game. Their compliance in this game has given us
Free Trade (NAFTA), laid our resources and diminishing industrial base
open to foreign ownership and control, created a manufacturing
nightmare of lost jobs and de-industrialization, and ushered in a
massive transfer of wealth and profit from the public property and
labour of Canadian people into the coffers of the corporations.
And this is
just the beginning. The plans for deep integration, continental
security, control of ports, an integrated military and TILMA are all
plans of assimilation. The compliance of Canadian governments, and the
most dangerous of them all, the Harper government, is treasonous and
criminal. This is not just one of the cyclical dips, the traditional
boom and bust of earlier capitalism where workers could struggle
through deprivation and try to exist for the next boom. The present
crisis has unique features like relatively high employment actually
leading to relative and absolute impoverishment. Thus the transfer of
manufacturing and well paid service jobs to subsistence and part-time
employment in retail and Mc-service jobs at below poverty level wages.
Amongst the
organized working class this has escalated both resistance and
regressive offers of class peace and co-operation. There are those who
would rather parallel the corporations and adjust to their demands than
risk the danger of refusal. They see the corporations and their
governments as a permanent phenomenon too strong to resist, so they
look to compliance and the "best deals they can get". Most workers are
not entirely committed to either of the poles of resistance or
compliance but will be pulled into the massive struggle which is
pending and will have to decide what their future existence depends on.
There will be
many experiments, much soul-searching many crossovers as people try to
find their way and provide for their families. The present conditions
have created an infant resurgence of the left, but more importantly not
only the conditions for its rapid growth but the absolute necessity for
it.
The welfare
of our people, our sovereignty and the future of the nations within
Canada demand resistance. Only resistance and struggle against the
corporate agenda can protect the gains of generations including a
labour movement that is ours alone, our instrument. If compliance and
partnership become dominant not only will the working class find itself
saddled with a leadership who represent corporate interests but they
will allow the wealth of our country and the labour power of our people
to finance and sustain the military and political agenda of
imperialism, to escalate it. Imperialism must be denied and all the
peoples must be protected. This is the material and pragmatic base of
unity, solidarity and internationalism.
It is against
this backdrop that we have taken such strong positions against the deal
created between Magna Corporation and the leaders in CAW. A deal that
gives up the right to strike and replaces the independent partisan
tradition of adversarial worker representation, of worker control, with
a corporate partnership based on efficiency, productivity and mutual
dedication to the corporate agenda.
We have
watched warily the tendencies toward accommodation with the major
corporations by elements in the leadership of the labour movement, not
by any means restricted to the CAW but even more flagrant in some
areas. We have been critical of the raiding and squabbling amongst most
of the major unions that prevents a united front and unified action. We
have been dismayed by the intransigence of social democracy as played
out in the labour leadership when the Ontario Days of Action were
scrapped and resistance to the neo-liberal Tory and Liberal agenda put
on the back shelf, or when the BC Federation sought to diminish the
militancy of the Teachers and Health Workers strikes and seek
accommodation with the Campbell Liberals. We have expressed our dismay
over the decrease in union membership and the business unionism that
promotes competition, capture and merger as a solution to shrinking
membership rather than organizing.
But we also
have promoted every major campaign that labour has launched. We have
complimented and lauded the militancy and principled resistance of
Ontario and BC teachers and health care Workers, the resistance of
Steelworkers in Hamilton, and hundreds of smaller engagements and
occupations across this country. We have been impressed with the
strength and courage of the Ontario division of CUPE when it stood so
courageously in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Our young left
activists have been very prominent in the campaign for a better minimum
wage and are known in the labour movement for their work. We know that
the preparations for a general labour action in Quebec shook the
government even though it was aborted. We have taken a critical but
complimentary approach to the last round of negotiations in the "Big
Three" where the CAW with some minor flaws managed to bargain honestly
under great duress for their members. We took a strong partisan
position for CN workers embroiled in a very confusing struggle where
their militancy had to counter the CN and deal with raiding and weak
leadership at the same time. We have complimented the CAW for providing
the impetus and the finances for the "Manufacturing Jobs Matter"
campaign which was highlighted by the demo of 40,000 in Windsor. We
have taken the same critical-complimentary approach to the labour
movement that is taken by every progressive labour activist.
It is
necessary to expose the dangers of the "Framework of Fairness"
agreement worked out by some of the CAW leaders with Magna because this
deal could change the direction of a union that was born in rejection
of concessions, a union that by definition expressed for a time the
aspirations and hopes of the labour left and the social justice
movement, a Canadian union built on a firm base of rank and file
involvement and control.
To neutralize
the ideology of the CAW is to deprive hundreds of thousands their own
independent instrument in the struggle for social justice. This is not
about whether or not several thousands of workers get a raise. We want
raises even more substantial for every worker in this country, as does
every critic of the Magna deal. Any experienced trade unionist who has
ever sat on a negotiating committee has been faced with the dilemma of
under what conditions wages are won, of winning gains and at the same
time rejecting corporate bribery that would divide the membership,
penetrate the union and neutralize its shop floor representatives.
Only the
inexperienced could think that this is all about an hourly wage. This
modern economism would sentence the working class to an eternity of
striving to grab that carrot forever beyond their reach. Just look at
how many strikes have been waged over working conditions, health and
safety, or recognition and protection of the union. The union was won
for us by past generations and we must at all costs preserve it for our
future generations.
The pact
worked out between Buzz Hargrove and Magna does not give CAW a foot in
Magna so much as it gives Magna a foot in the labour movement.
Criticism of the Magna deal and the support of Buzz Hargrove for one of
the founding bourgeois parties is not an attack on the CAW. It is part
and parcel of the fight to maintain independent trade unionism at the
service of the working class, and it is in harmony with the powerful
and principled voices from within the CAW who have vowed to bring their
union back to its constitutional fundamentals and historic membership
democracy.
The Magna
deal was signed without membership input or approval and those that
demand a membership discussion should put that demand first and
foremost to the CAW leadership. The Magna deal is not just another
contract, it is a fundamental change in policy that will alter the
direction of the CAW and open the door for corporate demands in every
workplace and union in this country.
That is why
800 delegates at the Ontario Federation of Labour Convention
unanimously passed a resolution critical of the CAW-Magna deal and
warning employers and government that interference in the
administration and independence of their unions would not be tolerated.
That is why this deal has sparked a debate in the labour movement that
goes far beyond the deal itself, a debate that has reached into the
past as well as the present, because rejection of Magna is not enough,
the conditions that led to it must be understood and its rejection must
provide alternatives that are achievable.
When it
shelved the fight-back against the Tories in Ontario the OFL took a
sleeping pill that lasted until the present. Even right-wing trade
unionists who promoted Wayne Samuelson and withdrawal behind the plant
gates, a rebuttal of the CAW and its action program, its integration
with the social justice movement and outreach, lately have joked
privately about the absentee labour organisation.
The Canadian
Labour Congress also has managed to snooze through the greatest plunder
of manufacturing jobs and the haemorrhage of ruined families this
country has ever seen. There have been great research projects and
briefs by the carload, but the street level political campaigning to
put them to use has been absent. The CAW-Magna deal is not isolated
from the lack of labour action amidst the crisis the working class
finds itself in. The CAW was allowed, even pushed, into isolation from
the mainstream of labour, and in the vacuum leap-frogged over the
others into a dangerous experiment.
But where is
the solution to this dilemma? Many workers and trade unionists, faced
with the immensity of the attack and the ineffectiveness of their
organizations, are overwhelmed and in despair of finding a way out.
This will certainly lead to more retreat and more Magna deals if there
appears to be no alternative. The necessity of growing the emerging
left, including the Communist Party, becomes a pivotal point for the
recruitment of hundreds of thousands in the struggle for control of our
lives and social environment. The question isn't "if" but "how".
For the first
time in a decade debates have broken out in the labour movement that
give an insight into where people and ideas are situated, to measure
the possibility of alliance and fightback. The present debate is
propelled by rejection of the partnership model that was threaded
through the CAW Council on Dec. 7. But it will leave behind a more or
less defined left that has already embarked on organizational form and
program within the union.
The ensuing
conflict is the property of CAW members but will have an effect on the
larger searching within the working class that is the property of us
all. If the subject matter of the alternative remains in the debate
stage it will stagnate. It must develop substance and program, and it
must be expansive enough to attract diverse sections of the population
into mass action. It would be wrong to start off narrow and then get
narrower. The vision of another world, of emancipation, of social
justice and defeat of our exploiters must be part of this debate but
the immediate proposals must start with some very practical achievable
objectives that will change the political map in Canada.
The CAW has
committed to keeping "two tier" wages out of Canada in the next round
of "Big Three" negotiations this fall. Regardless of feelings over the
Magna deal this must become a priority for the entire labour movement
and its allies in the social justice movements. The CAW is absolutely
correct in this, and the pressure will be immense after the UAW fiasco
and concessions in the US.
There can be
no excuse for sectarianism here; it is very practical to disapprove of
Magna but support the union in every instance where it defends the
rights of workers. We need more maturity and expanded unity, especially
around the fight against two-tier wages which will sell out the youth
and eventually separate them from the union. If the CAW loses on this
issue it will set the stage for a general corporate offensive against
wages, benefits and working conditions.
It is
possible to re-awaken the fight against free trade and develop higher
the struggle against SPP, Atlantica and TILMA. These are already
underway and ripe ground for alliance and unity. The fight to maintain
Canadian industry and manufacturing must be framed in the demand for
repossession of resources, basic industry, manufacturing,
transportation and ultimately public ownership. We have to educate our
youth on what we have lost, recruit them in the struggle to regain our
country for the people, for them. We must manufacture farm equipment,
develop transportation grids and the rail and heavy machinery to travel
on them, we must manufacture marine equipment, we must develop a host
of environmentally sound energy programs.
There is no
reason we should be the permanent victims of foreign-owned auto
companies, whose interests are only profit and who will abandon us when
the profits are easier to acquire elsewhere. In the short term we need
another auto pact, and in the long term we need a publicly-financed,
owned and built in Canada automobile suitable for our needs, our
weather, propelled by safe non-polluting energy and designed for the
needs of our people and market. The near future will be difficult and
the tasks are immense, but labour has the history and ability to lead
and the working people have the strength to hold and counter-attack.
(print friendly article)
CANADIANS SEE THROUGH LIES
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
People's Voice Editorial, Jan. 1-15,
2008
Despite years of
corporate media
brainwashing, the majority of Canadians hold views more in line with
the anti-war movement than the Harper Conservative government. The
results of a new opinion survey show that 33% of Canadians think the
decision not to join the Iraq war was our country's greatest foreign
policy achievement, compared to just 10% who give that status to the
military mission in Afghanistan.
One thousand
Canadians were surveyed from Dec. 6-9 by the Strategic Counsel for The
Globe and Mail and CTV. Asked to name the biggest threat to the world
today, 36 per cent chose climate change, followed by the rich-poor gap
(14 per cent). "Terrorism" was picked by 11 per cent, US foreign policy
by 9 percent, and weapons of mass destruction by 4 percent.
Tellingly,
25% said the biggest influence on Canadian foreign policy was our
relationship with Washington, but just 5% said this relationship should
be primary. Thirty-nine percent said that Canadian foreign policy was
less independent than 50 years ago, while only 25 per cent said it was
more independent. When asked about Afghanistan, 37 per cent said that
Canada became involved "because the United States wants us there."
Right-wing
historian Jack Granatstein called the poll "dispiriting" proof that
Canadians "forget we live in a world of carnivores." What Prof.
Granatstein simply cannot comprehend is that millions of Canadians
realize that U.S. imperialism is the most dangerous carnivore, leading
a pack of ravenous corporate interests which are prepared to destroy
the planet in search of maximum profits.
For the
anti-war movement, this survey is welcome proof that the pro-war
propaganda drive has not shifted the underlying views of the people.
Now we must build on this high level of popular awareness to mobilize
tens of thousands of Canadians into the streets on the March 15 global
day of anti-war action.
(print friendly article)
POVERTY AMIDST RECORD PROFITS
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
People's
Voice Editorial, Jan. 1-15,
2008
The year 2007 ends
with news that
should make every working person see red - rising poverty rates even
while corporate profits keep going through the roof.
According to
the latest reports, provincial welfare rates are lower now in real
terms than they were in 1986, forcing 720,230 Canadians to use food
banks in 2007, including 280,900 children. Despite a booming economy,
British Columbia reports the highest provincial child poverty rate at
15.2%. Even in Alberta, 64,000 children live in poverty, as do another
345,000 in Ontario, the largest province. Among recent immigrant
families, 49% of children live in poverty. The figure is 28% for First
Nations children, 34% for children in racialized families, 28% for
children with disabilities. The average low income family survives with
$9-11,000 less than Statistics Canada's Low Income Cut-off.
But wealthy
shareholders certainly aren't suffering. Pre-tax corporate profits hit
$213.7 billion during the third quarter of 2007, up from $201.9 billion
in the same period of 2006. That's almost $100 million in profits every
single hour of the day!
Among the
biggest winners were Canada's six biggest banks, which reported 2007
profits totalling a record $19.5 billion. Three of the six banks
reported their best-ever annual earnings, despite some big writedowns
related to the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Service
fees (largely gouged from working class and poor families) make up
about five percent of total annual bank revenues, totalling $3.7
billion in 2007. That would sure buy a lot of hot meals and new homes
for Canada's poverty-stricken children!
(print friendly article)
CANADA'S DEBACLE IN
BALI: NOW,
DEFEAT THE HARPER ECO-CRIMINALS!
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Statement
by the Central Executive
Committee, Communist Party of Canada, Dec. 15, 2007
By resisting
progress towards
desperately-needed world action against the impact of catastrophic
climate change, the Harper Conservatives are rapidly giving Canada a
global reputation as a country governed by eco-criminals. It is no
exaggeration to state that by attempting to sabotage the United Nations
Climate Change Conference (held in Bali from Dec. 3 to 14), PM Harper
and Environment Minister John Baird were committing a grave crime
against humanity. Fortunately, a massive outpouring of anger by
Canadians and the international community compelled Baird to withdraw
formal objections to the conference call for 25 to 40 per cent cuts in
greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions by wealthy countries by the end of the
next decade.
Most of the
190 countries represented at the Bali Summit came to hammer out an
agreement on stopping catastrophic climate change. But instead of
cooperating in this historic task, the Harper Tories joined the United
States, Japan, Saudi Arabia and a handful of other countries in efforts
to prevent agreement on meaningful emission reductions. Canada even
received the global "fossil" award as one of the worst countries in the
world on climate change.
Despite their
minority position in Parliament, and with total contempt for the views
of Canadians and the rest of the world, the Harper Tories respond only
to the demands of the big oil monopolies and US imperialism. Harper's
position has been that Canada will not accept any meaningful targets
for reducing GHG emissions unless all developed and developing
countries are on board. This hypocrisy is simply a ruse to evade
Canada's responsibilities by blaming the problem on others. The UN
Development Program recently described Canada as an "extreme case" of
"all talk and no action," noting that Canadians leave the second
largest "carbon footprint" per capita in the world after the United
States. And at the latest Commonwealth meeting in Uganda, Stephen
Harper blocked a draft agreement calling for developed countries to
meet greenhouse gas targets.
While
emissions are growing rapidly in some developing countries, developed
capitalist countries have caused the problem over the past two
centuries, and have benefited most from GHG emissions. By supporting
the all-out expansion of the Alberta oil sands and the export of this
vast energy resource to the U.S., the Harper government is locking
Canada into the U.S. war machine. Their policies mean vast profits for
the big oil, but devastating consequences for the environment and
working people.
The Harper
government's spin on climate change at the Bali talks continues its
ludicrous claim at the recent APEC meeting in Australia, that Canada is
a "world leader" on this issue. The truth is that the Tory "strategy"
of increased energy intensity (using less energy per unit of gross
domestic product as GDP grows) simply will not reduce GHG emissions.
Since the
APEC Summit, Australian PM John Howard - one of Bush's few allies - has
been defeated by voters angry about his lies and failure to act on
climate change.
Stephen
Harper must also be defeated! The Communist Party of Canada will
continue to help mobilize popular resistance to the Conservatives and
their anti-environmental, big business agenda. We urge the
Parliamentary opposition parties to defeat Harper now, so that his "big
oil" government can be removed from office by the voters as soon as
possible.
(print friendly article)
BILL C-3 - PURVEYOR OF
HUMAN MISERY
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
By
Bill Sloan
The decision by
the Supreme Court last
February in the Charkaoui case told the Harper government to go back to
the drawing board because the Security Certificate process in the
Immigration law is just not fair. The Conservatives have responded with
Bill C-3, which makes things worse, not better.
Old King
Louis used to send people to the Bastille with a lettre de cachet, and
that's basically what Bill C-3 empowers federal Ministers to do with
their Certificates. A Federal Court judge can then review the
Certificate to see if it is reasonable. "Reasonable" means that the
conclusion flows logically from the evidence. The problem here is not
only that the evidence is presented to the judge in secret, but that it
is not only fact but opinion. Bill C-3 uses the terms
"information and
other evidence." When someone is detained for "national security"
reasons, either the whole world knows why, or CSIS does.
In recent
years, Immigration ministers have presented the opinions of police
officers to "prove" that young immigrants are members of gangs, and
thus subject to deportation without any appeal. The Immigration Board
bases itself on police "opinion" as evidence, and the Federal Court
finds such a process completely legal. The Minister bases a Security
Certificate on a CSIS, FBI, CIA or other secret police opinion. If this
process was found acceptable for youngsters who have committed no more
than petty theft, why expect the Federal Court to rock the boat when
National Security is the stated issue? After all, CSIS and their ilk
never lie and are never wrong. Just ask Maher Arar.
Secret
evidence will remain secret under C-3, though a "special advocate" gets
to look at it. But the detainee still won't know what is in the file,
because the "special advocate" is not even allowed to talk to his
lawyer, except by the specific permission of the judge, who can also
fire the "special advocate" without reason. Why, if not to assure
compliance?
C-3 provides
for an appeal of the judge's decision, if that self-same judge decides
to allow the detainee to appeal by "certifying a question". In
practice, that means no real appeal. Why? Because the judge can only
certify questions of law, and the reasonableness of the certificate is
a question of fact. The use of CSIS opinions as evidence might have
been a question of law for appeal, if the detainee knew about it, but
they've already decided that it was OK.
Remember also
that all nine Federal Court judges who ruled on the Charkaoui cases
thought the process was fair (9-0), while the higher Supreme Court went
(0-9) the other way. We are not dealing with a group of civil
libertarians, yet the minister and the courts are basically given the
power to police themselves. And speaking of police...
Both police
and Immigration officers can re-arrest a person who has been released
from Security detention. The officer must have reasonable grounds to
believe that the person has or was about to violate bail conditions.
That translates as suspicion leading to an opinion on a speculative
occurrence. If someone tells the officer that they smelled marijuana
smoke on the released person' street, that would be enough to
re-arrest. A judge will review the detention within 48 hours, but the
danger of police opinions as evidence appears again. The same "Appeal"
is available on detentions, again only on questions of law, when the
issue is one of fact - whether the person did or was about to do or not
do something.
What is
missing from C-3 is habeas corpus,
which allows a person to challenge
their detention. Anything else is a sophisticated dressing up of
arbitrary detention, based on secret opinions of the secret police.
Kafka would be shaking his head.
(Bill Sloan
is a Montreal lawyer who frequently deals with immigration and civil
rights cases.)
(print friendly article)
REJECT "SECURITY
CERTIFICATES" -
DEFEAT C-3!
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Resolution
adopted by the Central
Committee, Communist Party of Canada, Dec. 8-9, 2007
The Communist
Party of Canada condemns
the Conservative government's Bill C-3 as a move to reintroduce
"security certificates," one of the key so-called "anti-terrorism"
procedures which trample on civil liberties and democratic rights in
Canada.
Last
February, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously ruled that "Security
Certificate" provisions violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and
Freedoms, which states that "Everyone has the right to life, liberty
and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof
except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice."
Security Certificates allow the Canadian state to indefinitely imprison
foreign nationals as "suspected terrorists" who are not even allowed to
hear the case against them. In the wake of the February 2007 ruling,
most of the five men detained under Security Certificates - Hassan
Almrei, Mohammad Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohamed Harkat and Adil
Charkaoui - have finally been released from "Guantanamo North" (the
Kingston Immigration Holding Centre), but only under extremely
restrictive bail conditions, including onerous house arrest rules.
Unfortunately, rather than abolish Security Certificates, the Supreme
Court gave Parliament one year to adopt a procedure which does not
violate the Charter. Eight months later, the Harper Conservatives have
done what they consider the bare minimum necessary to meet the Court's
requirements to protect the legal rights of accused persons. C-3 would
create "special advocates", a category of lawyers allowed to see the
secret evidence against accused detainees, and to apply to a judge for
permission to meet with these clients, but still without the ability to
disclose the details of the accusations to detainees. In a transparent
move to weaken potential opposition to C-3, the Conservatives have
introduced the legislation first into the Senate rather than the House
of Commons, counting on the willingness by many Liberal Senators to
support measures which remove or restrict civil liberties and
democratic freedoms.
The Communist
Party of Canada joins with many other organizations which continue to
campaign for an end to state attacks on the rights of immigrants and
foreign nationals living in Canada. We demand the withdrawal of C-3 and
the abolition of "security certificates" in any form, since these
measures constitute an unacceptable removal of human rights and civil
liberties for racialized minorities in Canadian society. We demand
immediate freedom from all conditions for the five security certificate
detainees, who must receive fair and open trials. We call for an end to
deportation proceedings against the five; no more deportations to
torture; and closure of Guantanamo North.
The
Conservative government, with the support of many Liberals, is
attempting to make the widespread violation of civil liberties and
democratic rights an "acceptable norm". This process of scapegoating
certain sections of society undermines and weakens the rights of all
who live in Canada, including workers, Aboriginal peoples, immigrants
and other racialized groups, and opponents of the right-wing policies
being carried out by neoliberal governments in the interests of the big
corporations. Make no mistake - if "security certificates" are not
abolished, this scope of this draconian measure will eventually be
expanded to allow the state to arbitrarily imprison Canadian citizens
on the basis of "secret evidence" and accusations.
This attack
must be resisted by every supporter of democracy and freedom. We urge
all parties in Parliament to reject C-3 as an unacceptable attempt to
preserve the Security Certificate regime. If C-3 is adopted by
Parliament, it must be contested in court as contrary to the Charter of
Rights and Freedoms. Leading up to and during the federal election
expected in the near future, every possible pressure must be brought to
bear against MPs and Senators who support C-3, and then to defeat the
Harper Tories, the driving force behind this attack on civil rights and
democratic liberties.
(print friendly article)
BRAMPTON P3
HOSPITAL TARGET OF
COMMUNITY UNREST
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
By
Natalie Mehra, Ontario Health
Coalition director
Brampton's new
hospital was supposed
to be the cause of celebration. Instead, after being open for only one
month, it is mired in controversy. Last weekend [Dec. 8] thousands of
people took to the streets to protest two patients' deaths which the
public is attributing to inadequate beds and lengthy waits. Today, the
provincial government appointed a supervisor to take over the hospital
to "restore public confidence".
The hospital
is the province's first - and largest - P3 (public private
partnership). A group of multinational corporations built the hospital
in return for a contract that pays them not only large profits for
putting up the money for the building, but also gives them a guaranteed
25-year contract to take over the hospital support services and lands
to run them for profit. The Brampton P3 hospital features the deepest,
longest-term for-profit privatization of any hospital built in Ontario
since the inception of Medicare.
Since major
cost escalations across all Ontario's new P3 hospital deals have
rendered unbelievable the claim that P3s come in "on time and in
budget", the McGuinty government's new line is that P3 privatization
has nothing to do with service cuts. But the government's own documents
show that the size of the planned hospital was reduced to contain the
costs escalations of the for-profit consortium. From the outset of
negotiations with the private consortium when the hospital was
projected to cost $350 million, to the end of negotiations when the
hospital cost $550 million, the negotiated size of the hospital shrunk
from 608 to approximately 350 beds. In response to community pressure,
the government gave another $100 million early this year and the bed
total was increased to 479.
Bottom line?
For almost double the original cost ($350 to $650 million) the hospital
has 3/4 of the promised beds (608 to 479).
Independent
experts who have looked at the contracts have raised serious concerns
about the costs of the scheme. The interest rates for the private
consortium were about 120 basis points higher than government financing
rates. The difference means that the deal is $174 million more
expensive than if the province had financed the hospital through its
own means. In addition to the extra interest costs, the private sector
is taking exorbitant profits out of the hospital. The equity investors
are receiving $260 million in dividends plus the return of their
initial $61 million investment. ($260 million is enough to build en
entire new community hospital. It is an extraordinary amount in profits
on a hospital that was originally supposed to cost $350 million.)
The contract
is ultimately paid from the Ministry of Health budget. So every dollar
that has been siphoned off for the management fees, dividends and
consultants' profits (none of which would exist if the hospital was
publicly financed) is a dollar less that should have gone to health
care - doctors, nurses, support services, beds.
In all new
hospitals, local towns are expected to raise a percentage of the costs.
Here, because the costs doubled, the community fundraising portion
increased from an original reported target of $100 million to more than
$230 million. For months community members have been alternately
cajoled and threatened with service cuts by hospital officials and the
local press, as the hospital has struggled to raise money for the local
fundraising share. The Punjabi community, in particular, has been the
target of a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign for the hospital.
But fundraisers and the government never told the community that large
sections of the hospital are privatized and run for profit. According
to newspaper reports, the family of Mr. Harnek Singh Sidhu, one of the
patients who died in the hospital in recent weeks, gave the hospital a
donation of more than $20,000, for example.
Cost is not
the only problem. So too is loss of control over vital hospital
services to private interests. All the hospital support services are
managed by the private sector for their own profit for the 25 year
duration. If there are quality issues such as increases in infection
rates or loss of patients' records, the hospital must follow an
arbitration and legal process set out in the P3 contract in order to
assert their control. For example, if the private companies lose a
patient as they transport her around the hospital, the hospital's only
recourse is set out in the "project agreement". They can seek a fine
from the private company: so much if the patient is missing for a
certain number of hours, more if she is gone for longer etc. If the
private sector refuses, everyone has to bring in their lawyers to fight
it out. At every step of the way the hospital has to decide whether it
spends its remaining money on doctors and nurses or on lawyers and
arbitrators.
No wonder
Standard and Poors (credit rating agency for the financial industry)
has considered P3s to be low risk investments in which the private
sector takes on little real risk while reaping more-than-healthy profit
margins from public taxes. After all, the interests of the government
and hospital board require them to keep open a functioning hospital
while the profit-seeking mandate of the private investors hold them to
no such scruples. They can sell off their interest in the hospital at
any time and walk away with the windfall.
Ultimately,
the Brampton P3 hospital will cost us at least $3.5 billion with the 25
year service deal and equipment included. Residents of Brampton and
Ontario will have to pay the high costs of the scheme, whether we like
it or not. But we should not do so without requiring the provincial
government to answer for why they have committed the next generation to
paying out $3.5 billion for a gain of only about 130 new hospital beds.
And they need to clear up whether additional monies will be given to
the private sector to get the bed totals up to the promised numbers.
The people of
Brampton never asked to be guinea pigs in an experiment about an
expanded role for profit-seeking companies and financiers in our
hospitals. In fact, both the Harris/Eves and McGuinty governments have
gone out of their way to confuse the community about the nature of the
P3 deal, even going so far as to deny the obvious privatization and
rename the P3s as "Alternative Financing" or "Alternative Procurement"
as cover up. This strategy of denial and obfuscation must stop. A
proper evaluation of the policy must be made and private interests must
not be allowed to trump the public interest. For at stake is a huge
hospital building program covering dozens of new hospitals.
A clear
public plan must be put into place to provide the support that the
hospital needs to provide adequate services to the community and get
the bed totals up to promised levels. The provincial government must
provide these. Brampton's hospital needs financial aid and human
resources recruiting help. It is time that the province evaluate and
learn the lessons of the Brampton P3, including a full audit by the
provincial auditor. For their part, the local hospital must stop the
secrecy and come clean with the community about how many beds are
actually open and operational, how much of a budget deficit they are
facing, and what the consequences of these shortfalls are. The
fundraising drive must not be allowed to eclipse public accountability
and sound democratic practice. We are citizens not customers and should
be treated as such. And as community members, who fund the hospital
through taxes at multiple layers of government and local fundraising,
and who require hospital services as a matter of life and death, we
have a right to at least this minimal level of public accountability.
(print friendly article)
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Special
Resolution, Central Committee,
Communist Party of Canada, Dec. 8-9, 2007
This meeting of
the Central Committee
of the Communist Party of Canada condemns the Dec. 6 extradition of
Aboriginal activist John Graham to the United States as an appalling
violation of his civil liberties and legal rights, and an unacceptable
attack on the sovereignty of Canada and of Aboriginal peoples.
For the past
four years, John Graham and his family and supporters have courageously
resisted the FBI demand that he be sent to the United States to stand
trial for the brutal 1975 murder of American Indian Movement member
Anna Mae Aquash. It has become increasingly obvious that the charges
against John Graham are based on utterly tainted evidence, and that the
FBI is engaged in a sleazy attempt to refute longstanding and
well-founded accusations that by "snitch-jacketing" Anna Mae (spreading
false rumours that she was a police agent), the Bureau itself is deeply
implicated in her tragic death.
As many legal
experts and defenders of civil liberties have warned, changes to
Canada's extradition laws adopted by Parliament in 1999 virtually
eliminated any power by Canadian judges to reject an extradition
request from the US. In effect, Canadian courts can no longer exercise
this country's sovereign right to require that a minimal level of
genuine evidence of guilt be presented to grant approval for such an
extradition request. US prosecutors were unable to present any credible
evidence linking John Graham to the murder, yet the courts in British
Columbia approved the extradition request, and then rejected Graham's
appeal earlier this year.
Since then,
the John Graham Defense Committee and other groups have worked
constantly to urge federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson to block the
extradition, and a final appeal was forwarded to the Supreme Court of
Canada. Tragically, that appeal was denied on Dec. 6, and within
minutes, without even a chance to speak with his family, John Graham
was being transported from his prison cell to the U.S. border. Through
their deliberate inaction, Nicholson and his colleagues in the Harper
Tory government have become accomplices in the decades-long murderous
campaign by the US state and the FBI to wipe out the American Indian
Movement, just as the Liberal government of the time refused to lift a
finger to block the 1976 extradition of AIM leader Leonard Peltier from
Canada.
Now that this
shameful extradition has been carried out, the campaign for justice for
John Graham has entered a new stage. The Communist Party of Canada
demands a fair trial for John Graham, something which has been denied
to Leonard Peltier, who has now been wrongly imprisoned for over thirty
years. We will join with others to help expose the racist US police
frame-up against John Graham. We urge all those in the labour and
democratic movements who support the Aboriginal peoples' struggles for
justice, and who oppose the destruction of Canadian and Aboriginal
sovereignty, to join this fight to win the freedom of John Graham and
Leonard Peltier.
(print friendly article)
COMMUNIST PARTY
LEADERSHIP LOOKS AT
CHALLENGES FOR WORKING CLASS IN 2008
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Special
to PV
The political
whirl often slows down
in December, but not this year. The eyes of the world were on Venezuela
and Russia on December 2, and then on Bali, where the UN Climate Change
Conference kicked off the next day. Here in Canada, the big news
included Karlheinz Schreiber's scandal testimony in Ottawa, and the
Dec. 7-8 CAW Council meeting in Toronto, where the union leadership's
controversial deal with Magna was endorsed despite some sharp
opposition during a day-long debate.
Meanwhile,
over the Dec. 8-9 weekend, the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Canada held its second meeting of 2007. The CC members also took
part in a celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Great October
Socialist Revolution of 1917 at the Toronto Steelworkers' hall.
The Central
Committee meeting began with a report on the global and domestic
situation, presented by party leader Miguel Figueroa. The report noted
important recent working class struggles, such as the widespread strike
movements in France and Egypt, and the successful campaign to defeat
Australia's right-wing prime minister, John Howard.
These events,
Figueroa pointed out, take place in the context of serious rumblings
within the U.S. domestic economy, with implications for the rest of the
world.
"The
liquidity crisis which broke out into the open in August was initially
characterized as a localized phenomenon based in the U.S. domestic
mortgage market," Figueroa recalled. Since then, losses from the
resulting credit contractions have been estimated at up to $500
billion, and the number of U.S. homes in foreclosure has climbed
rapidly. The U.S. dollar continues to lose its dominant status, and "a
crisis and recession on some scale is now virtually unavoidable."
Turning to
the Middle East, Figueroa warned that the latest peace talks are
unlikely to succeed unless the conditions for a just and enduring peace
in the region are satisfied, including the withdrawal of Israel from
all occupied territories, the removal of Israel's "apartheid wall" and
its settlements in the West Bank and Gaza; the release of Palestinian
political prisoners and the right of return for those displaced since
1948; the return of East Jerusalem or a joint "open city"
administration; and other measures to allow a viable, genuinely
independent and sovereign Palestine.
Calling for
more active solidarity with the Palestinian people, Figueroa emphasized
that "We must demand that the sharp pro-Israel turn in Canadian foreign
policy be reversed."
Regarding the
political turmoil in Pakistan, Figueroa said the Communist Party
supports the demands of progressive forces in that country for the full
restoration of democratic rights and genuinely free elections.
Figueroa
outlined the complex situation in Russia, where Putin's United Russia
party manipulated the Dec. 2 election to secure over 64% of the vote
and 315 seats in the Duma; the Communist Party of the Russian
Federation finished second with 11.6% of total votes.
The Putin
regime, Figueroa said, "primarily represents the dominant sections of
the Russian bourgeoisie which amassed its fortunes through the plunder
of the people's wealth following the overthrow of socialism." The
government, he continued, "on one hand actively seeks inclusion within
imperialist circles, while at the same time opposes what it rightly
senses are U.S. hegemonic intentions towards Russia."
Figueroa
called the narrow defeat of Venezuela's constitutional amendments on
Dec. 2 a setback for the Bolivarian Revolution, but hardly the "fatal
wound" claimed by US imperialism. The constitutional package had
included a wide range of progressive measures, such as free universal
education, a 36-hour work week, and greater status for community-based
"people's power" bodies and "workers councils."
The outcome,
he said, "confirms the analysis of the Communist Party of Venezuela,"
which gave strong support to the "Yes" campaign while cautioning that
some of the proposals were poorly formulated. In the PCV's view, the
Bolivarian Revolution is presently in a primarily democratic and
anti-imperialist stage.
Turning to
domestic issues, Figueroa warned that Canada will be heavily impacted
by any generalized crisis in the U.S. economy, "especially in the
manufacturing sector which is already reeling from de-industrialization
over the past several years." Almost 300,000 manufacturing jobs have
been lost since 2002.
While
official unemployment rates remain low and commodity exports are
rising, he said, the composite index of ten leading economic indicators
has been falling since early 2007, hinting at difficult times ahead.
Most of the increased employment is in the form of low-wage, temporary
and part time-work, and the gap between the rich on the one hand, and
working class and poor Canadians, is accelerating quickly.
Figueroa
noted that the phenomenal growth of the energy sector in western Canada
will have "a highly significant long-term impact" on the regions
affected, the economy of the country, and on the natural environment.
This subject will be the focus of a special report for the next CC
meeting, likely in the spring of 2008.
Looking at
the federal scene, Figueroa said that "much has changed since October"
and that "the swagger amongst the Harper inner circle has gone." The
Schreiber/Mulroney scandal, together with the abysmal Tory record on
the environment, the failing military mission in Afghanistan, and
"reports of spreading poverty, manufacturing job loss and collapsing
urban infrastructure, while corporate profits are surging, have all
contributed to putting the Tories back on the defensive."
Figueroa's
report slammed the rising expressions of racism and xenophobia across
the country, including the manufactured uproar of "veiled voting" and
the "reasonable accommodation" debate in Quebec, which has become a
forum for bigots.
A key section
of the CC report, covering the situation in the labour movement, was
presented by Sam Hammond, chair of the party's Central Trade Union
Commission. (See page 6 for excerpts.)
This section characterized the
deal signed by the CAW leadership with Magna Corp. as "a deal that
gives up the right to strike and replaces the independent partisan
tradition of adversarial worker representation of worker control, with
a corporate partnership based on efficiency, productivity and mutual
dedication to the corporate agenda."
Hammond's
report welcomed the current debates in the labour movement, and the
increased visibility of the left-oriented Action Caucus at the recent
Ontario Federation of Labour convention. Urging Communist and left
trade unionists to develop substance and program around alternative
strategies for labour, Hammond noted that the 2008 negotiations between
the CAW and the Big Three automakers will be a crucial test for working
class unity in the all-out fight against concessions.
The main
report closed with an overview of the year's work to build the
Communist Party, including a rise in on-line applications to join the
CPC, and the establishment of several new party clubs. Figueroa
stressed that "the Party's growth and development must be seen as the
most essential task" in advancing the class and democratic struggles.
He reported on plans to launch a membership drive, to raise the
circulation of the party press and to renovate its website, and to
prepare for the federal election widely expected in 2008. The party's
public campaign to "Drive Out the Harper Tories" will carry on into
2008, with new materials to be issued in January.
Over the
following two days, the 25-member Central Committee held intensive
discussions on the report, particularly the international situation and
developments in the labour movement. The report was adopted
unanimously, reflecting the high level of party unity around key issues
facing the working class and people's movements.
Another key
report to the CC focused on youth work and the growing activities of
the Young Communist League, presented by YCL leader Johan Boyden. The
party's 2007 central convention placed a high priority on efforts to
help build the YCL, which continues to recruit and form new clubs
across Canada. Boyden reported that YCL members are playing an
increasing role in movements of students and young workers, such as
campaigns to raise the minimum wage, and the recent militant struggle
of Quebec students against higher tuition fees.
A series of
special resolutions was adopted by the CC, including a call to defeat
Bill C-3 and to rescind "security certificates" and all so-called
"anti-terror" legislation; a statement condemning the recent outbreaks
of anti-immigrant and racist expressions; a demand for a fair trial for
Aboriginal activist John Graham, who was recently extradited to the
U.S. on trumped-up murder charges; and a letter to the Manitoba
Métis Federation, expressing the CPC's solidarity against the
recent court ruling which denied the Métis land claim in the
Winnipeg area.
Another
resolution urged all Communist Party clubs and members to mobilize for
the March 15 protests marking the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led war
against Iraq. The resolution stressed the urgency of building labour
participation in the campaign against Canada's military role in the
Afghanistan occupation, and called for a large Canadian contingent to
the World Peace Conference taking place this April in Caracas,
Venezuela.
(print friendly article)
JAN. 26 ACTIONS AIM TO
PRESSURE
PARLIAMENT ON WAR RESISTERS
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
By
Robert Lanning
Recent weeks have
brought bad and good
news for the campaign to welcome war resisters into Canada. In
mid-November, the Supreme Court rejected leave to appeal lower court
decisions denying refugee status to two anti-Iraq war resisters, Jeremy
Hinzman and Brandon Hughey. Then on Dec. 6, a committee of the House of
Commons called on the federal government to let US war resisters stay
in Canada.
It has been
40 years since the Canadian Parliament was pressed to provide
legislative support for war resisters from the U.S. In the late '60s,
community groups, religious organizations, university students and
others organized to end discriminatory practices against military
deserters seeking refuge in Canada. Young men "dodging the draft" had
less difficulty as they often brought with them university education
and in some cases professional credentials. Desertion was another
matter and largely concerned a different class of people. It was often
a stigma carried by working class youth who were drafted into or
volunteered for military service in a war that was an act of aggression
serving the needs of the powerful with the blood of those coerced to
proxy for those interests.
Like the war
against the Vietnamese, the war in Iraq has become a quagmire, where a
key element of military strategy is humiliating, brutalizing and
murdering civilians. In protest, a growing number of men and women have
openly deserted their military ranks. But another crucial factor making
resisters out of many has been recruiters' promises of training that
never materialized, tours of duty in Iraq that have turned into
extended deployments, and re-deployments shortly after returning home.
Like the
Vietnam era, the burden of filling the war ranks has fallen on young
men from poor economic backgrounds, often visible minorities and those
from rural areas. Unlike then, recruitment of women is up, but so is
their resistance.
United for
Peace and Justice http://www.unitedforpeace.org,
Code Pink http://www.codepink4peace.org
and Iraq Veterans Against the War http://www.ivaw.org are among
many organizations in the U.S. providing
information to counter recruitment drives and to give resisters a sense
of collective struggle.
In Canada,
many of the same organizations that supported Vietnam draft dodgers and
deserters have come to the aid of these new resisters. The War
Resisters' Support Campaign http://www.resisters.ca has
provided material
and legal support for resisters, especially for their efforts to obtain
refugee status. This is the campaign recently quashed by the Supreme
Court.
On December
6, Parliament's Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration met
to discuss the issue of war resisters. Presentations were made by
support groups such as the Mennonite Central Committee and the Canadian
Friends Service Committee (both very much in the forefront during the
1960s and '70s), along with resister Phillip McDowell.
The result
was the recommendation of the Committee that Parliament pass the
following motion:
"The
Committee recommends that the government immediately implement a
program to allow conscientious objectors and their immediate family
members (partners and dependents), who have refused or left military
service related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations and do
not have a criminal record, to apply for permanent resident status and
remain in Canada; and that the government should immediately cease any
removal or deportation actions that may have already commenced against
such individuals."
Introduced by
Jim Karygiannis (Liberal, Scarborough-Agincourt), the motion passed by
7 to 4, as Liberal, Bloc Quebecois and NDP MPs on the committee
outvoted the Conservative members.
The task now
is to convince members of all opposition members, and Conservatives
with a conscience, to vote for this resolution when it comes before the
House.
To further
this effort, the War Resisters' Support Campaign is organizing a
Pan-Canadian Day of Action on Saturday, Jan. 26, to pressure Parliament
to pass this resolution and to cease deportation proceedings against
resisters. The Campaign's website provides details on this effort.
Many who
refused to fight against the Vietnamese have made significant
contributions to Canadian society since that time. The new resisters
deserve the kind of support outside and inside Parliament that will
allow them to do the same - an effort that will be one more
demonstration of popular support to put an end to this war.
(print friendly article)
CARACAS TO BE "WORLD
PEACE
CAPITAL" IN APRIL
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Meeting
in Hanoi, the capital of
Vietnam, on Nov. 19-20, the World Peace Council (WPC) Executive
Committee announced plans for major peace activities in Caracas,
Venezuela.
During the
dates of April 8-13, Caracas will be declared "The World Capital of
Peace and the Anti-Imperialist Struggle." Under this slogan, the WPC
will hold a meeting of the outgoing Executive Committee on April 8,
followed by its World Peace Assembly (the highest decision-making body
of the WPC) on April 9-10, and an open broad World Peace Conference on
April 11 and 12. The final day, April 13, will be dedicated to the
peoples who are in struggle for sovereignty against foreign
interference, coinciding with the sixth anniversary of the restoration
of peoples' power in Venezuela, after the defeated coup d'état
attempt in 2002.
The WPC
expressed its appreciation for the assistance of the Venezuelan
government and its institutions, which have warmly welcomed the WPC
activities. The Committee for International Solidarity (COSI, the WPC's
affiliated organization in Venezuela) and a National Preparatory
Committee will do the groundwork for the April events.
Announcing
the news, the WPC said it "is proud to be able to share the aspirations
and struggles of the peoples of Latin America, considering the
political developments in the region as very encouraging and promising.
Holding our Assembly in Caracas, for the first time in South America,
we write a new chapter in the glorious history of the WPC, opening a
new phase for the development of the anti-imperialist peace movement
world wide. The WPC is entering with the next Assembly in a new period,
where we have all to demand more from ourselves. We shall make our WPC
stronger, based in even more countries, more visible and useful tool
for the coming difficult struggles of the world peace movement."
(print friendly article)
WORLD AGAINST WAR
ISSUES CALL FOR
MARCH PROTESTS
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Over 1,200
delegates from the global
anti-war movements came to London in early December for the World
Against War International Peace Conference. Videos of speeches at the
event can be seen at the Stop the War UK website, http://www.stopwar.org.uk.
Delegates
from 26 countries addressed the conference, reported on developments in
their regions and discussed strategy for the movement. There was
unanimous agreement to organise demonstrations for "Troops out of Iraq
and Afghanistan" and against an attack on Iran in every country, around
the fifth anniversary of the attack on Iraq between March 15 and 22.
(The Canadian Peace Alliance has called for demonstrations on March 15.)
Delegates
adopted the following declaration:
This
conference of delegates from peace, anti-war, anti-imperialist and
liberation movements across the world declares its opposition to the
"endless war" prosecuted by the US government against states, peoples
and movements in all parts of our planet.
We oppose the
interference of the US and its allies in sovereign states, and assert
the right of all peoples to self-determination. We support all people
fighting for peace and against imperialism.
In
particular, we demand:
- An immediate end
to the illegal
military occupation of Iraq, which has caused hundreds of thousands of
deaths and displaced millions of people, a withdrawal of all foreign
troops and the full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi people and
their representatives.
- A halt to all
preparations for an
attack against Iran, and a commitment to solve any issues through
exclusively diplomatic means.
- A withdrawal of
foreign troops from
Afghanistan, allowing the Afghan people to determine their own future.
Justice for the
Palestinian people,
and an end to Israeli aggression throughout the Middle East.
- An end to plans
for US missile
defence, and that all states actively pursue nuclear disarmament.
We affirm the
solidarity of all those fighting for peace, social justice and
self-determination worldwide, and commit ourselves to strengthening our
unity and developing new forms of co-operation.
We therefore
designate the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq as a worldwide day of
action in support of the demands NO ATTACK on IRAN and TROOPS OUT OF
IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN and call on all national anti-war movements to hold
mass protests and demonstrations on that day.
(print friendly article)
OPPOSE RACIST CAMPAIGN
AGAINST
IMMIGRANTS
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
Resolution
adopted by the Central
Committee, Communist Party of Canada, Dec. 8-9, 2007
The Central
Committee of the Communist
Party of Canada views with grave alarm the recent attempts to whip up
racist and anti-immigrant hatred across the country. Some expressions
of this campaign have emerged recently during the "Reasonable
Accommodation" hearings in Quebec, around the fabricated issue of
voting by veiled Muslim women, and from a few amateur sports officials
who want to ban athletes who wear head coverings for religious reasons.
Racist and
anti-immigrant concepts are increasingly advanced under the guise of
defending secularism and the equality rights of women. In reality, such
positions serve only to isolate and marginalize racialized groups,
including the women of colour who are supposedly to be protected, by
seeking to impose the "superior cultural values" of "mainstream
society" upon such groups.
For example,
no Muslim group has demanded that veiled women be given the right to
vote without revealing their faces (a right which already exists for
those Canadians who vote by mail). But this non-existent "problem" has
been used to obscure the real scandal that the changes to voting
regulations and procedures in recent years (such as the requirement to
show photo ID with a street address) has created a crisis in which as
many as one million Canadians would not be allowed to cast a ballot if
a federal election was held today. Similarly, there is no logical
reason to conclude that a head scarf poses any danger to soccer players
or other athletes, and there are no rules against such head coverings
in most sports, but a few referees and judges have taken it upon
themselves to promote hatred and divisions by arbitrarily ejecting
Muslim athletes from competitions.
In Quebec,
the urgent need for dialogue about racism and sexism has been misused
by some participants during the "Reasonable Accommodation" process to
promote the racist concept that "backward" groups such as Muslims
should adopt the "culture of the (white) majority" and to advance the
false idea that "reason" is the property of the state. Preoccupation
with the "problem" of a small number of veiled women has deflected
attention from the pervasive influence of racism and sexism within the
larger society. The media in English-speaking Canada has seized on
these expressions to spread the false claim that racist ideology is a
problem exclusive to "backward" Quebec. Yet racism remains just as
prevalent outside Quebec; we note the longstanding reality of
Canada-wide police brutality against Aboriginal peoples and immigrants,
and the denial of inherent national rights of Aboriginal peoples, for
example.
The Communist
Party of Canada has a long and proud record of advocating the
separation of church and state, including the position that public
funds should not be used to support private religious school systems.
We stand for policies which advance the goal of greater inclusion and
equality within Canadian society, including promotion of the rights of
oppressed and racialized groups and women. We view the emergence of
racist and anti-immigrant forces as an extremely dangerous development,
which can only divide working people and weaken our collective
resistance to the corporate-driven attack on social programs and
equality rights. Far from advancing equality, attacks on the personal
decisions by some people to wear head coverings or religious symbols
open the door further for the imperialist drive towards war and
repression.
The Communist
Party of Canada urges the labour movement and all progressive and
democratic forces to mount a powerful and united response to this hate
campaign, and to instead demand urgent action to tackle the pressing
problems of poverty, violence, criminalization and racism faced by
racialized groups and women of colour in Canada today.
(print friendly article)
"A BATTLE HAS BEEN LOST,
BUT NOT
THE WAR"
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
From
Tribuna
Popular,
Caracas
Secretary General
of the Communist
Party of Venezuela (PCV) Oscar Figuera, paraphrasing Che Guevara, said
that "from a defeat more can be learned than from victories." During
his weekly press conference on Dec. 3, Figuera gave a preliminary
analysis of the results of the Dec. 2 referendum on Constitutional
reform proposed by the President of the Republic, Hugo Chavez Frias.
Figuera
indicated that results and events experienced by the Venezuelan people
must lead to their extracting the great lessons that will strengthen
the Venezuelan revolutionary process. He explained that "what happened
yesterday is a new episode of the class struggle, of the intense
ideological combat that is developing in our country in relation to its
transformation, to the advance of the revolution and the interests of
our people," adding that "a battle has been lost against imperialism,
but not the war."
The PCV views
the electoral experience as a clear example of the confrontation of the
different visions of the country that exist in Venezuelan society.
"That is what was at stake yesterday," said the PCV leader.
On one side
was the national oligarchy with its objective to maintain its
capitalist and exploiting regime, which used lies to manipulate the
results, operating through mass media in its service, "with an entirely
relentless offensive, manipulating old and ancestral fears and
historical prejudices," emphasized Figuera.
He added that
"a proposal directed to deepen democracy, with an ever more popular
content, of transformation of the State, redistricting of the
territory, all to elevate the quality of life of our people, was faced
with a campaign where this was falsely presented as a threat to
personal property, a threat to the family and a threat to religion,
three traditional values of capitalist society."
One of the
elements which filled the Communist Party of Venezuela with
satisfaction was that half of the electorate who participated, did so
with a deep consciousness of the advance to socialism: "In spite of the
results of referendum, we have made an immense qualitative advance in
the popular consciousness; it is far from negligible that more than 4
million Venezuelans have chosen socialism, within the framework of an
infernal media campaign," said Figuera. He reminded us that eight years
ago that level of development of the collective consciousness did not
exist.
According to
the PCV's analysis, the 3 million voters who abstained, and who make up
the difference between the total vote obtained in the 2006 presidential
election and the Dec. 2 vote, "continue to trust Chavez, because they
did not vote against Chavez, but were simply not convinced of the value
of the Constitutional Reform and were neutralized by fear."
From the
lessons of the election the PCV selects some, within the framework of a
preliminary evaluation, said Figuera: "The Communists will persist in
deepening the ideological battle that aims at dissolving historical
fears... We must eliminate oversimplified slogans and deepen the
ideological battle in the heart of our people."
Another
lesson that the Venezuelan Communists draw is that "In every
revolutionary process, the existence of a political and revolutionary
instrument and a unified collective leadership that leads the
revolution is necessary and irreplaceable." The PCV "will continue
working in that direction," Figuera said, "because history demonstrates
that to confront the ruling class's army the construction of the
political instrument of the revolution is necessary and irreplaceable."
A third
element from this experience is that in the end the opposition
recognized and made its own the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic
of Venezuela. "This is a step forward, after they confronted this
Constitution in 1999 and the following years, that this opposition came
to recognize that this Constitution is the most advanced in the world,"
said Figuera.
But he warned
that apparently this defence of the Constitution was merely an excuse
to reject the advances and deepening contained in the reforms, since
General Baduel (former defense minister who broke with the Bolivarians
and with Chavez) in his speeches talks of a new Constituent Assembly,
which "leaves us perplexed that they defended the 1999 Constitution and
they accepted it as a national project, but today they no longer find
it useful." Figuera added "It appears that what is involved is the
attempt to raise a slogan that maintains an atmosphere of
destabilization."
(print friendly article)
WHAT'S
LEFT
(The
following article is from
the January 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.
VANCOUVER,
BC
PV
Labour
Correspondent Sam Hammond -
public forum on the challenges
faced by labour today, Thursday, Jan. 17, 7:30 pm, Centre for Socialist
Education, 706 Clark Drive. For details, call 604-254-9836 or
604-255-2041.
Frank Paul inquiry
resumes - rally 12 noon, Monday, Jan. 7, Federal Court Building,
701 West Georgia (at Granville), organized by Indigenous Action
Movement.
StopWar.ca
coalition - next meeting Wed., Jan. 9, 5:30 pm, Maritime Labour
Centre, 1880 Triumph St. See www.stopwar.ca for updates.
PV Labour
Correspondent Sam Hammond - public forum on the challenges faced
by labour today, Thursday, Jan. 17, 7:30 pm, Maritime Labour
Centre Conference Room, 1880 Triumph. For details, call
604-254-9836 or 604-255-2041.
Pan-Canadian
Day of Action in Support of US War Resisters - rally Sat., Jan.
26, 1 pm, Public Library, 300 W. Georgia; see page 5 for more
info, or
visit www.resisters.ca.
Pan-Canadian
Day of Action in Support of US War Resisters - rally Sat., Jan.
26, 1
pm, Bloor St. United Church, 300 Bloor St. W, for more info visit
www.resisters.ca
or call 416.598.1222.
MONTREAL,
QC
Vigil against
occupation of Palestine - Fridays, noon to 1 pm, at Israeli
Consulate, corner of Peel and Rene Levesque. For info: Palestinians And
Jews United, 961-3928.
(print friendly article)
People's
Voice deadlines:
JANUARY 16-31
Thursday, January 10, 2008
FEBRUARY 1-15
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Send submissions
to PV
Editorial
Office,
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver,
V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net
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