January
1-15, 2010
Volume 18 - Number 1
$1
Prolétaires de tous les pays,
unissez-vous!Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
Contents
Printer-friendly articles
1) GLOBAL DIVIDE OPENS FURTHER AT COPENHAGEN TALKS
2) A TALE OF TWO CONVENTIONS
3) YOUNG WORKERS MEET IN HAMILTON
4) NEO-NAZIS IMPLICATED IN CALGARY BOMBING
5) RIGHT-WING TACTICS DISRUPT CFS MEETING
6) BIG LABOUR STRUGGLES FOR 2010 - Editorial
7) MILLIONS FOR WAR, NOT THE PLANET - Editorial
8) MORALES WIN WILL DEEPEN BOLIVIAN REVOLUTION
9) CANADA SHOULD MAKE DOW ACCOUNTABLE
10) A SWEEPING CRITIQUE OF CANADA'S REAL RECORD
11) END TORTURE, END THE WAR
12) "SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY REAL ALTERNATIVE"
13) WHAT'S LEFT
14) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
15) CLARTÉ (en français)
16) THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
17) INTRODUCING MARX
16) REBEL YOUTH
PEOPLE'S VOICE JANUARY 1-15, 2010 (pdf)
WOMEN'S SOCIALIST CALENDAR 2010 (pdf)
Printer-friendly articles
1) GLOBAL DIVIDE OPENS FURTHER AT COPENHAGEN TALKS
2) A TALE OF TWO CONVENTIONS
3) YOUNG WORKERS MEET IN HAMILTON
4) NEO-NAZIS IMPLICATED IN CALGARY BOMBING
5) RIGHT-WING TACTICS DISRUPT CFS MEETING
6) BIG LABOUR STRUGGLES FOR 2010 - Editorial
7) MILLIONS FOR WAR, NOT THE PLANET - Editorial
8) MORALES WIN WILL DEEPEN BOLIVIAN REVOLUTION
9) CANADA SHOULD MAKE DOW ACCOUNTABLE
10) A SWEEPING CRITIQUE OF CANADA'S REAL RECORD
11) END TORTURE, END THE WAR
12) "SOCIALISM IS THE ONLY REAL ALTERNATIVE"
13) WHAT'S LEFT
14) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
15) CLARTÉ (en français)
16) THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
17) INTRODUCING MARX
16) REBEL YOUTH
PEOPLE'S VOICE JANUARY 1-15, 2010 (pdf)
 |
WOMEN'S SOCIALIST CALENDAR 2010 (pdf)
 |
The Spark! |
| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada |
The Spark!The
latest issue of The Spark! theoretical journal, is now on sale for $5 at Communist Party offices (see p. 8) or People’s Co-op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
Articles
include
|
| People's
Voice deadlines: JANUARY 16-31 Thursday, January 7 FEBRUARY 1-15 Thursday, January 21 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net |
People's
Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start"
website, http://www.labourstart.org. We urge our readers to
check it out!
|
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(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau
As this issue of People's Voice went to press on Dec. 15, a tentative truce between rich and poor nations has allowed talks to resume at the Copenhagen climate conference. The summit had appeared on the verge of collapse after developing nations walked out in protest over the failure of wealthy countries to commit to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol.
The talks have emphasized what prominent Third World environmental activist Martin Khor calls "a gaping divide". On the one hand, developing nations want the wealthy to live up to the expectation they would cut emissions by 25-40 per cent by 2020, and to provide finance to help the poor. Meanwhile, many of the developed capitalist countries, including Canada, refuse to move unless the emerging economies take on a crippling share of the investments needed to give the world a chance at limiting warming to two degrees.
"We have to face one reality - there is an ever widening gap between developing countries and developing countries," said Lumumba Di-Aping, the chief negotiator for the Group of 77 developing countries. "And the reason why that gap is widening is because developed countries have accepted that condemning Africa, condemning small island states, condemning small countries to destruction and massive suffering is something acceptable to them."
At a basic level, the dispute is over the legal form of an agreement: whether to have just one treaty or two - the Kyoto Protocol and a second pact that covers all nations, including the US, China and India.
The temporary breakdown between rich and poor came amid speculation that some of the world leaders scheduled to come to Copenhagen before the end of the scheduled talks might pull out failing clear signs of agreement.
China had earlier appeared to offer a lifeline to the summit by saying it had abandoned its demand for funding from the developed world under a deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. In the first major concession by a major player at the talks, Chinese vice-foreign minister He Yafei said financing from rich countries should be directed to poor countries.
"Financial resources for the efforts of developing countries [to combat climate change are] a legal obligation," he told the media. "That does not mean China will take a share - probably not."
Meanwhile, Canada's role at the Copenhagen summit has been dismal. In fact, Canada has been placed near the bottom of 57 countries in the "Climate Change Performance Index." The Index is based 50% on a country's emissions trends, 30% on its emissions level relative to population, and 20% on its national and international policies on climate change.
Matthew Bramley, Director of the Pembina Institute's Climate Change Program, says that "Canada's performance is the worst in the industrialized world - a result of its high emissions, its lack of national policies capable of substantially cutting those emissions, and its unconstructive role to date in international negotiations. Among the world's major emitters, only Saudi Arabia is performing worse.
"Minister Prentice committed earlier this year to come to Copenhagen with a `full suite of policies that relate to all major sources of emissions;' his decision not to fulfil that commitment is one reason why Canada has failed to improve over last year's ranking."
It appears that Stephen Harper will be the only G-7 leader to arrive in Copenhagen without a major national program to support renewable power. New data from Natural Resources Canada reveal that the federal government's support for renewables will effectively end as of January 2010.
The federal government has supported low-impact renewable energy development through the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program since 2007. The initiative has helped to create clean energy and new jobs in every province, and has been important to fostering the growth of renewable power in Canada.
The decision not to renew the ecoENERGY for Renewable Power program or something similar indicates that the federal government has no plans to provide any support to new renewable energy projects in 2010.
"With almost 11,000 megawatts (MW) of projects in the queue for a program designed for 4,000 MW, it is pretty clear that the last few dollars have been spoken for," according to Tim Weis, Director of Renewable Energy and Efficiency Policy at the Pembina Institute. "At the current pace of growth, federal support for renewable power will effectively finish this month."
There has been no signal that the Tory government intends to renew or strengthen its previous commitments to renewable power. In contrast, even the United States has outspent Canada on renewable energy by 14:1 (per capita) in their respective 2009 budgets.
"With Canada's renewable industry on the cusp of a major growth spurt creating jobs while delivering long-term environmental benefits, it is a strange time for the federal government to walk away," said Steven Guilbeault from Equiterre. "This new federal data is yet another illustration of why Canada is lagging here in Copenhagen."
"As reducing emissions becomes increasingly urgent, this government is choosing to subsidize pollution, rather than reduce it," Dave Martin from Greenpeace Canada added. "The tar sands continue to receive billions in subsidies from this government while renewables are left out in the cold."
Canada has the potential to generate at least 20% of its electricity from the wind alone - a feat Denmark accomplished in the year 2000. Combined with other renewables such as biomass, small hydro and geothermal, renewable power needs to play a major part in delivering on the government's promise to achieve 90 per cent of Canada's electricity from non-emitting sources by 2020.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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, leader of the Communist Party of BC
President Jim Sinclair opened the 53rd annual convention of the British Columbia Federation of Labour on Nov. 23 with a very militant speech that articulated the attack on working people. He did not hold back at all, defining the evils of the present crisis and the capitalist system that is responsible.
Looking back at the depression of the 1930's, Sinclair repeated the same lies that, in his eyes, are being paraded out again. He expounded on the callousness of pro-corporate neo-liberal policy: "In 1940 Canadians asked the right question: how could their government find billions of dollars to fight a war after spending most of the 1930s claiming they had no money to help the millions of poor and unemployed? Don't you think that in 2009 the question is relevant again to a whole new generation of Canadians? How did governments find hundreds of billions of dollars for banks, and billions for executive bonuses, after spending decades cutting public services and now refusing to help the growing army of unemployed and the poor?... Is something wrong with this picture? I say fire them all and put half of them in jail."
And further: "This is the fight of our lives, and it's between the vast majority of working people fighting to survive tough times and the corporations and their right wing governments... The corporate tax cuts are so deep, that in 2011 students will pay more in tuition (in BC) than corporations will pay in corporate taxes."
Sinclair's analysis reflected the frustration and anger of BC workers, and it was much better than the "not so bad" executive report. If his militancy divided into several channels of economism preceding the rather hygienic workshops the next day, it still provided a point of departure for expressions of militancy, the criticism of a lack of program and action, and the eventual appearance of a composite resolution late on the third and final day that ended in an "Action Program."
The "Action Program" was probably the offspring of a leadership hearing the anger of the "newly legislated back to work" Paramedics who never got to strike at all, the HandyDart drivers who cannot even get an agreement to compulsory arbitration, the privatized, the underfunded, the dismembered and the disowned.
It was all there on the convention floor. Ken Davidson, Vice President of the Vancouver and District Labour Council, set the tempo, saying he would vote against the Executive Report because it lacked a fightback program. The delegates showed their appreciation.
Angry Paramedics vowed to continue fighting even though their strike was controlled by "necessary service" legislation, and then legislated again in a double whammy to a complete end. Representatives of 500 HandyDart strikers were howling mad at a callous government that privatised their jobs and delivered them into the hands of a profit grinding U.S. transit operation. There are 200,000 public sector workers preparing for bargaining across B.C., facing a pending wage freeze and benefit give-back. Some 10,000 forestry workers are also gearing up for negotiations, facing the massive export of raw logs and the dismantling of processing mills that are being re-assembled south of the border and in low wage areas of the globe.
Dave Pritchett of the Longshore union reflected this collective anger in a militant speech about co-operation between unions to prevent the export of raw logs. "We have to create a crisis of our own," he said, demanding some ground level fightback action. Another delegate said it all: "We have the power, but do we have the will to use it?"
The power and the will to use it was far from the conclusion of guest speaker Linda McQuaig, who did her usual well-researched analyses of evil capitalism, ending with the proposal for good capitalism as existing in the social-democratic Valhalla of Scandinavia. The salvation for Canada's unemployed, hungry and homeless apparently lies somewhere in Norway, not Vancouver. But how do we get there?
The delegates spoke to much more than the resolutions, some of which were good and some quite weak. It didn't matter much, as delegate after delegate used the resolutions as a vehicle to say what was on their minds. CUPE B.C. president Barry O'Neil made a strong and angry speech warning the Campbell government not to bring paramedics from the east, the south or the military to B.C. for the Olympics. He made it clear they would be considered scabs, and the union would not take this laying down. Brigid Kemp from the South Okanagan Labour Council spoke on the hypocrisy of governments which can fund the Afghan war but not hospitals and social programs. Stephen Von Sychowski received approval and respect from delegates when he spoke of young workers and the minimum wage campaign.
The "Action Program" that resulted is a good start. Not perfect, but perfection is not needed as much as determination and a call to arms on several fronts. The Program is militant, it is about youth, First Nations, the homeless, the unemployed and poor. It calls for labour to unite with its community partners to launch defensive and offensive campaigns. In a positive development, it calls for extra-parliamentary labour action with an eye on mobilizing the community, a day of protest and even "job action." It is rather telling of the tensions building within labour and within the NDP that point 2 of the Program states: "The Federation and the affiliates lobby New Democratic Party MLAs and constituency associations to ensure the party and the caucus embrace a progressive economic and social strategy for British Columbia."
The authors think it requires labour lobbying to ensure a "progressive" economic and social strategy from the NDP. It apparently does. The NDP started its biannual convention the day after the BC Fed ended. Even though leader Carol James had the benefit of the BC Fed delegates' feelings, and Jim Sinclair's speech to the NDP convention, she didn't seem to hear.
Perhaps she didn't notice that about 15% of the delegates remained seated during her grand entry to the BC Fed convention, where criticism of the NDP's performance and priorities that blew the May 2009 election was a politely subdued and obliquely expressed undercurrent.
Carol James' perennial courtship of BC business, her stated aim to bring business and labour together, to move the NDP closer to the centre (which is the same direction as to the right) and her complete failure to discuss what went wrong last spring does not bode well for the future.
To bring labour to the table in co-operation with business means she must move labour to the right, and that will cause a split that leaves her alone with business. BC doesn't need two business parties. Jim Sinclair might have been trying to bring some sanity to the NDP Convention when he said, "The real problem we have in this party, the real challenge we have, is we don't have enough working people on side. That's what this party is about, making British Columbia a better place for the working people, the vulnerable and the poor." Carol James and Jim Sinclair have different priorities.
Two conventions. One wants to organize resistance, the other appeasement. One wants to win the next election, and the other seems determined to throw it away again. This is not a Tale of Two Cities, but it is a Tale of Two Conventions, and the choice is yours.
BCFL Program of Action
The Delegates of the Federation endorse the following Program of Action:
1. The affiliates and the Federation jointly produce popular education materials, including videos, written materials and course materials for use by affiliates, locals, activists, schools and the public to promote a progressive economic and social agenda based on the recommendations in the two papers discussed by workshops.
2. The Federation and the affiliates lobby New Democratic Party MLA's and constituency associations to ensure the party and the caucus embrace a progressive economic and social strategy for British Columbia.
3. The Federation and affiliates work to build a province-wide movement with our community partners to escalate opposition to stop the Liberal Government cuts to services and restore funding, including developing a unified message, co-ordinated advertising campaigns and regional actions leading to a province-wide day of action.
4. The Federation continue to work with public sector unions to co-ordinate collective bargaining strategies, to reject any attempts by governments to strip conditions from collective agreements and impose back-to-work legislation. This includes solidarity actions regionally and provincially up to and including job action.
5. The Federation develop a co-ordinated fight back campaign against the HST and for fair taxes and the funding of public services. The Officers of the Federation develop a full scale campaign against the tax.
6. Affiliates and the Federation work with community partners, including First Nations, to hold a Summit on Poverty in 2010 which will develop a comprehensive strategy and plan to reduce poverty.
7. Affiliates and their Federation support the Young Workers Committee and their work to create a low wage worker network to organize non-union workers to fight for their rights, including a $10 minimum wage.
8. The Federation organize immediately a strategic planning meeting of all affiliates to implement the Action Plan. Each affiliate will commit to participate on the Planning Committee for the implementation of the Action Plan.
9. The Affiliates and the Federation focus campaigns in targeted ridings to build a capacity to defeat the Liberal MLA in 2013, or earlier through recall, if feasible.
10. Provide a complete report to delegates at the 2010 Convention on the implementation of the Action Plan and how best to use our resources to increase our capacity to organize against anti-worker politicians, defeat the Liberal government and to elect and keep accountable politicians who are supported by the Labour movement, municipally, provincially and federally.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Ontario Bureau
The youth continue to be hard-hit by the so-called "jobless recovery" facing the working class in Canada, a new report from Statistics Canada has found. The unemployment rate for young workers under 25 remains at a record high at of over fifteen per cent, with close to half a million youth looking for work. In British Columbia alone, youth unemployment is up over 56 per cent since this time last year.
The report comes at the same time as a UN study warning of a double-dip recession if stimulus funds stop. Firms have mainly begun to restock inventories, rather than respond to stronger consumer or investor demand, the study said.
"It is going to be a cold winter soon. A lot of people will be trudging through the snow because they can't afford a car, turning the heat down because they can't afford the bills. All while homelessness among youth is rising," said Johan Boyden, General Secretary of the Young Communist League.
"I think many people will be angry to read this report, like me. Of course the fightback needs more than anger - but we cannot tolerate this. These are not just numbers. They are our friends, our relatives. Some we are not related to by birth or by marriage, but they are our family, they are the sisters and brothers of our class," Boyden said.
These topics were up front and center at a conference of young workers organized by the Young Communist League at Hamilton's Solidarity House in late November. The conference, attended by about twenty young workers (most of who were unemployed) heard reports from young union activists, community organizers and other young workers about fighting back against the economic crisis.
Presenters discussed the situation of temp workers, efforts to organize campaigns for higher minimum wages and affordable housing, organizing the unemployed in Hamilton, as well as the Ontario Days of Action and a brave story about young workers organizing hotel workers.
Another aspect of the impact on the crisis is debt, Boyden said. "We are `generation credit,' we are sent letters at the age of 18 requesting we purchase credit cards, and we are encouraged not to think of heavy personal debt as a major problem - when in fact this is insanity," he added. The heavy debt burden that many young people are facing is at record levels. (The Canadian student debt clock has reached $13,389,090,000, for example).
Jeff, a young grocery worker and presenter at the conference from the Ontario YCL Committee, talked about his situation and the broader fightback. "The workload [in my store] is sickening on some nights, and you basically have to hurt and exhaust your body just to get the stock up," he said. "Intimidation and guilt-tripping is quite common, particularly when requesting particular nights of the week off. In fact, I had booked this weekend off, and they put me on the schedule."
"The YCL demands an income that allows all people to more than meet their basic needs, under safe working conditions with full benefits including pensions, health and dental care, statutory holidays, time off with pay for training programs, and so on. As young Communists, we believe that only socialism can guarantee meaningful employment - but we don't insist that everyone we work with share out long-term view," he said.
"Joint struggle for our future is the best atmosphere in which to discuss our ideas about building a better Canada. The Young Communist League links these demands for jobs to the right to peace, education, quality-leisure time, an end to racism, sexism and national oppression, and the right to participate in decision making. We think that this will unite different sections of youth across Canada with others fighting against monopoly capitalism: workers, women, the peace movement, other student and youth organizations and many others."
"United, real progress can be made," he added. "Unity is the best trait we can have in a society, because it creates a mutual responsibility for each of us to look after each others interests as a whole."
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Kimball Cariou
There has finally been a break in the escalating violence generated by a racist gang which has been active in southern Alberta for the past few years. A leading member of the Aryan Guard is on the lam, accused of bombing the home of a fellow neo-Nazi, and the group has officially disbanded.
As reported in People's Voice, anti-racist activists Jason Devine and Bonnie Collins, who are also Communist Party members, have been among the main targets of the neo-Nazis. Their northeast Calgary home was firebombed in 2008, and attackers recently smashed their windows and painted swastikas and other nazi graffiti. Members of the neo-Nazi group have committed many other criminal acts (see PV, Nov. 15-30, 2009).
These crimes have usually been treated as the isolated actions of individuals. Spokespersons for the Calgary police expressed little concern, calling the violence simply part of a struggle between anti-racists and the local Aryan Guard. Police even hinted that a previous bombing against an Aryan Guard member was probably the work of anti-racists. This claim was denied by Devine and other members of Anti-Racist Action, and by other progressive and democratic movements in Calgary.
Then on November 23, police issued warrants for Aryan Guard member Kyle Robert McKee, and for an unnamed 17-year-old male. Both men face charges of attempted murder, possessing, making or controlling explosives, and possession of a weapon or imitation weapon for a dangerous purpose. The teenager is under arrest, but McKee has apparently headed east to escape the charges.
On Nov. 21, police had responded to a complaint of gunfire in the Rundle neighbourhood in the city's northeast. They found that a pipe bomb had been detonated in a parking lot between two apartment buildings. Nearby residents were evacuated, and a second detonated bomb was found nearby. The intended victims had heard noises on their balcony, and spotted McKee lighting the devices, which they tossed away moments before the resulting explosion. Police called it a targeted attack, since McKee and the victims know each other and share similar beliefs.
In the wake of the charges, a statement was posted on the neo-Nazi "Stormfront" website, announcing the disbanding of the Aryan Guard following internal disputes.
"Over the past six months," the statement concludes, "the group continued to degenerate, falling further from the ideal the main membership body strived for the group to become... It's sad to say that in the final months the membership body dissolved, leaving only one founding member, one associate and a few new faces striving for membership in something that they could be proud of... With this, The Aryan Guard is officially disbanded."
Unfortunately, this bizarre episode may not be the end of the neo-Nazis in Calgary. Subsequent website comments indicate that some members may try to reorganize under another name. But in future, it will be more difficult for the police to ignore violence carried out by this group of racist thugs.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Youth Bureau
Debates around the future of the Canadian Federation of Students, English-speaking Canada's largest student organization, came to a head at its semi-Annual General Meeting last month. Held Nov. 24-28 in Ottawa, the AGM was attended by over 300 delegates from about eighty student union locals.
The meeting took place in the context of thirteen organized defederation campaigns at colleges and universities affiliated with CFS campuses this semester.
"These moves are been vocally supported by the Conservative Party," B.C. delegate Zach Crispin told People's Voice. Crispin pointed to a series of cross-Canada workshops bringing together Conservative youth and attended by sitting Members of Parliament, previously reported in PV last spring.
"We know the Conservatives have been trying to disrupt the work of progressive organizations on campus, like Public Interest Research Groups and Palestine solidarity committees. This semester we've also seen malicious calls for impeachment of anyone on a students' union board who is seen as left-wing," Crispin said.
Of the ninety motions on the floor at the AGM, a large majority were proposed by locals where defederation campaigns were taking place. While a few of these motions publicly intending to "re-shape and reform" the CFS passed, Crispin told PV, "many of these would break collective agreements with the CFS's unionized employees, force elected leaders of the student movement to earn the minimum wage, and institute procedures such as leadership by lottery."
"In my opinion, delegates from a number of student unions attended the meeting in hopes of disrupting the process and stifling regular discussion," Crispin said.
Kwantlen Student Association, the Graduate Students' Association of the University of Calgary, the Concordia undergraduates and graduates, and the Post-Graduate Students' Society of McGill University repeatedly put forward filibusters, were ruled out of order by the chair, and on one day delayed discussion until 5 am. When it appeared clear a vote would not be cast in their favour, a fire alarm was pulled.
According to Andrew Brett, a student activist and writer for Rabble.ca, the McGill Graduates sent three representatives who were not members of their student union. "One of them was Jose Barrios, a University of Victoria defederation activist flown in from British Columbia; another was Dean Tester, a conservative student at Carleton University and owner of http://www.alwaysright.ca a right-wing blog, according to Brett. The third delegate was a student at Concordia who is also leading a defederation campaign.
Last month, Brett and Crispin were among over sixty signers of an "Open letter from progressive students" calling for critical support of the CFS. "Those claiming the CFS can't be reformed and must be destroyed don't address the objective necessity for students to have a cross-Canada organization," the letter stated, adding "After smashing the CFS, what's next? We would wake up with a horrible hangover and have to rebuild."
"At best, the defederation campaigns are an incredible waste of time and distraction; at worst they make all students, well beyond CFS members and including the Quebec's student unions, incredibly vulnerable to the right's agenda," it said.
While the letter was widely reprinted on the web, the editor of the Concordia student newspaper claimed it was evidence of conspiring between Communists and former CFS employees.
"I think that claim is ridiculous," Crispin said. "the fact that they had to single out myself and a few other former Communist Party candidates who signed this letter - together with leaders of the Young New Democrats, anarchists, and host of other progressives, including many who formerly and currently have elected positions within the CFS - that just shows how afraid the Conservative youth are of real debate. They have to go back to the 1950s and the cheap anti-democratic tactics of McCarthy."
The CFS AGM also responded to the defederation campaigns, supporting a motion proposed by the Carleton graduate students to change the rules around local student unions leaving the CFS. Future campaigns now have to collect double the number of signatures (20 per cent of the CFS local's membership) within the first two months of the school year. Referendums can now only be held once every five years, and only two membership referendums can be held a year. The resolution passed with two-thirds majority support.
Despite fractious debate, delegates worked hard to get regular business achieved. Dave Molenhuis, former CFS national treasurer, was elected new National Chairperson. Delegates also heard a presentation by Malalai Joya, outspoken Afghan anti-war parliamentarian.
By closing plenary the AGM had passed a number of resolutions, including solidarity statements with students in California (where students have launched a mass actions aimed at stopping a 30 per cent tuition increase and despite heavy-handed measures by police) and Iran.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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
The New Year may see a major escalation in the level of working class mobilization across Canada. Already, some heroic struggles are being carried out under difficult circumstances - the Steelworkers on strike against Brazilian transnational Vale, for example, and HandyDart drivers in B.C. battling a vicious U.S. employer.
These and other recent strikes show that workers in Canada have the capacity to stand up against the right-wing attack, despite an unfortunate shortage of militant leadership at the highest levels of the labour movement. But much wider struggles are needed to move from sporadic local actions to a truly powerful resistance movement led by the organized working class.
The recent Ontario Federation of Labour convention, which elected a new leadership and heard that the CAW is coming back to the OFL, is a welcome sign that the situation is improving. But the main impetus for change may come from Quebec and British Columbia, where contracts will soon expire for public sector workers.
In Quebec, unions representing 475,000 members have united to issue common demands such an 11.25% pay increase over three years, improved retirement plans, and support for workers' family commitments. Despite right-wing claptrap about "overpaid government workers," Quebec's average public sector wage of $36,000 lags behind the private sector by 7.7%. The Common Front is the largest since 1972, when the Quebec working class launched an historic general strike.
Some 200,000 public sector employees in B.C. are also entering negotiations, facing the Campbell Liberal government which wants to impose a pay freeze and rollbacks of important collective agreement provisions.
Add to the mix the reality that the capitalist economic crisis continues to clobber private sector workers, and it becomes clear that the situation is critical. The entire labour movement must find ways to extend solidarity to all workers engaged in struggle this year, and to reach out to every sector of the population hit by cutbacks, privatization, and other neoliberal policies. The challenge for 2010 is enormous, but the potential does exist for a mighty upsurge that can force governments and employers to retreat.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
People's Voice Editorial
While the Harper Tories whine about the "high cost" of reducing carbon emissions, a new report for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives by defence analyst Bill Robinson shows that military spending will be $21.185 billion in 2009-2010. That puts Canada 13th highest in the world, and number six among NATO's 28 members. The government spends twenty times more on "defence" than on the federal Environment Department, which has a budget of just $1.064 billion. Even the $1.8 billion increase in military spending for 2009-10 nearly doubles the Environment Department budget.
Canada has spent $23.1 billion in successive increases to military spending since 2001. About half of that has been spent on the Afghanistan war. In historical terms, military spending today has surpassed the Cold War 1989 figures by 22%. The misnamed "Canada First Defence Strategy" calls for an extra $130 billion to $155 billion for the military over the next 18 years. That could nearly triple Canadian overseas development assistance, enabling Canada to meet or exceed the 0.7% foreign aid target and to provide additional resources for climate change.
Meanwhile, war remains highly profitable. The Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade reports that Canadian military exports have gone to 62 countries with troops engaged in foreign wars and/or major internal armed conflicts, and that Industry Canada continues to give generous financial support for military manufacturers and exporters.
Meaningful action on climate change is primarily a matter of political will. Canada has the resources to help tackle this crisis - but the Tories have instead decided to crank up the war machine. It's a criminal policy, and it must be changed!
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau
Bolivian President Evo Morales vowed to increase state control over the economy and strengthen political power for indigenous groups, after he was re-elected on Dec. 6 in a landslide.
Jubilant supporters waving Bolivian flags jumped up and down in La Paz's central Murillo square after polls closed, chanting "Evo! Evo!" In a booming victory speech punctuated by fireworks from the balcony of the presidential palace, Morales called on all sectors of society - including the opposition - to unite behind him.
"We have the enormous responsibility to deepen and accelerate this process of change," he said.
Morales won about 63 percent of the vote, more than 35 percent points ahead of his closest challenger, rightist former Governor Manfred Reyes Villa. The president's Movement Toward Socialism party also looked likely to win two-thirds of the seats in both houses of Congress, leaving his divided conservative opposition with little power to oppose revolutionary reforms during his five-year second term. Reyes narrowly led in the opposition bastion of Santa Cruz state in the eastern lowlands with 50 per cent, compared to 43 per cent for Morales.
The three political parties that dominated Bolivian politics for decades have now been all but erased. The last survivor was the National Union. Its presidential candidate, Samuel Doria Medina, a cement magnate, got just 6 per cent of the vote.
Morales, an Aymara Indian, is Bolivia's first indigenous president. He is hugely popular among the Indian majority that also supported a constitutional reform earlier in 2009 to allow him to run for a second consecutive term.
"Bolivians have given us an enormous responsibility to deepen this transformation," he said after his victory. "Bolivians have punished the people who are traitors of this process."
"Evo Morales has a mandate unlike any other president in the hemisphere, including Barack Obama," said analyst Jim Shultz of the non-profit Democracy Center in Cochabamba. "This is the fifth national election in four years and his margin of victory has only increased each and every time."
By taking two-thirds of Congress, the MAS could call for new referendums to amend the constitution. The result also gives Morales control of judicial appointments, reducing the chances the opposition could successfully challenge his policies. Morales will have greater political power to expand on radical changes he already has made, such as indigenous autonomy and land reform.
The re-election to a new five-year term comes under the new constitution which "refounded" Bolivia as a "plurinational" state, allowing self-rule for the country's 36 native peoples.
Twelve of Bolivia's more than 330 municipalities voted on indigenous autonomy, which would allow them to restructure in favour of traditional governance based on consensus-building. Still to be defined by the new Congress are larger territorial autonomies for indigenous groups that could redraw the political map and redefine how government funds are disbursed.
During his first term, Morales launched a state takeover of the energy industry, and raised taxes on foreign companies in Bolivia, bringing a windfall to fund popular social programs. The government now issues cash payments to school children, mothers and pensioners, reaching a quarter of Bolivia's 10 million people.
"For the first time in Bolivia's ... history, the state is reaching every home," he said during the campaign. "It's not a solution, but for many families it's a big relief."
Morales has already given Indian communities more authority over investment in natural resources in their territories. The new constitution enshrines traditional religions and practices after centuries of harsh discrimination since the Spanish conquest.
During this campaign, he pledged to launch state-run paper, cement, dairy and drug companies and develop iron and lithium industries to help Bolivia export value-added products instead of raw materials.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez congratulated Evo Morales, calling his landslide electoral win a victory for all of Latin America.
"Yesterday there was jubilation throughout the continent," Chavez said on Dec. 7 during his speech at the First International Conference celebrating ten years since the adoption of the Bolivarian Constitution of Venezuela.
Chavez said he was sure Morales would continue "fighting without rest to diminish poverty" and improve the welfare of his people, "based on indigenous philosophy."
Chavez said that governments like that of Morales embody a social movement which he dubbed "popular constitutionalism," that exists throughout Latin America is also promoted by the governments of Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (Brazil) and Cristina Fernandez (Argentina).
"This process that I dare to call constitutionalism is a new force," and "I say with humility that the initial outbreak began here in Caracas," he said, referring to the adoption of the new constitution in 1999, which many refer to as the beginning of the Bolivarian revolution.
He stressed that more needs to be done to deepen this social process across Latin America "with the variations of each case, of each country... to build a new path in peace...The other way would be to take up arms. I think that is what the bourgeoisie wants but they are at a disadvantage even though they count on the support of the Empire."
Chavez pointed out that when the president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, proposed to consult the people about the possibility of convening a Constituent Assembly, he was deposed in a military coup. The threat of a coup also exists in Bolivia and Ecuador, said Chavez, in order "to stem the rising tide" of independent governments.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Gurpreet Singh
As Canada gears up for the Winter Olympics 2010, activists involved in helping the victims of Bhopal - the worst incident in the history of industrial disasters in India - have stepped up their campaign against the US-based Dow Chemical company.
In December 1984, there was a massive gas leak at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, instantly killing about 5,000 people. The number of the dead later rose to 20,000. Union Carbide is now owned by Dow Chemical, one of the official corporate sponsors of the 2010 Olympics.
Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson was charged and arrested for the deaths in India, but was allowed to flee the country back to the United States.
The activists who are helping the victims families and those who became visually impaired for the rest of their lives organized a candle light vigil in Vancouver on December 3 to mark the 25th anniversary of the episode. The vigil was held not only to draw the attention of the world to the sufferings of the victims, but also to seek a ban on Dow from the Olympics.
Satinath Sarangi, the prominent leader of the Bhopal victims, who visited Vancouver a few years ago, had asked the Canadian government not to let Dow Chemical to participate in the event. Likewise, Rachna Dhingra who earlier worked for Dow and is now working with the victims of the Bhopal tragedy, feels that the company is both legally and morally responsible to fix the problem after buying Union Carbide, and should clean the water system in the affected area. According to several studies, the underground water of Bhopal is still contaminated.
The Bhopal activists feel that the Indian establishment lacks the will to get Anderson extradited from the USA and to make Dow Chemical accountable. Both the ruling Congress party and the right-wing opposition BJP have accepted favours from Dow, which is also accused of bribing Indian officials. India's Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the matter. India's Ambassador to the USA, Meera Shankar, has named Dow Chemical among other companies which reportedly paid bribes to Indian ministries and staff.
At the time of the mishap, Madhya Pradesh province, where Bhopal city is located, was governed by the Congress. The government did nothing to relocate the Union Carbide plant despite warnings of a possible disaster. T.R. Chauhan, the former plant operator and the author of Bhopal: The inside story believes the company was also involved in cost cutting measures and possibly compromised safety. He also says that Union Carbide and Dow are involved in double standards, as they have been more careful towards public safety in the USA, but do not care when it comes to the safety of the people of a poor country like India.
Twenty-five years later, the BJP government of the province tried to underplay the issue by claiming that the drinking water of the city is clean. Apart from facing the allegations of protecting Dow, the two big national political parties should also take blame for recklessly opening the doors to foreign investors at the cost of peoples' life and liberty.
Rachna Dhingra alleges that Dow is one of the donors to the BJP, while the company is represented by a lawyer aligned with the Congress Party. How the rich multinational companies get away by befriending the political forces in developing and poor countries can be understood from the Bhopal episode. Not only has the Indian government failed to press the USA to hand over Warren Anderson, but a meagre compensation has been paid to the victims.
Canada can at least make Dow answerable be cancelling its Olympic sponsorship. Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who recently visited India to improve trade relations with that country, should intervene to get justice for the victims of the tragedy. A national daily of India, The Hindu, has already set an example by cancelling the associate sponsorship of Dow Chemical for its Friday Review November Fest 2009.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Review by Tim Pelzer: The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, by Yves Engler, Fernwood Publishing, 285 pages, $24.95, ISBN: 9781552663141
The Harper government's failure to condemn the US sponsored military coup against Honduran President Manuel Zelaya should surprise no one. As Yves Engler demonstrates in The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, Canada has a long track record of supporting dictatorships, overthrowing democratically elected governments and backing US interventions abroad.
Since the early 20th century, Canadian Conservative and Liberal Party governments have supported repressive regimes across Latin America, Asia and Africa where Canadian mining, oil companies and banks had substantial business interests. This included brutal regimes such as Somoza's Nicaragua, Pinochet's Chile and Mobutu's Zaire (now renamed the Congo).
While publicly denouncing South Africa's former apartheid regime, Canadian governments helped prop up the racist system. Canada opposed international sanctions, allowed companies to invest in and sell arms to South Africa, and helped the regime develop nuclear weapons. Only after mounting protest did former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney impose sanctions against the regime in 1986, but even then trade between the two nations continued.
In pre-revolutionary Cuba, Canada enjoyed friendly relations with corrupt dictator Fulgencio Batista. Canadian banks and insurance companies became central players in the country's economy, and Prime Minister John Diefenbaker's conservative government appreciated Batista's support and protection of foreign investment. When Fidel Castro's rebel army overthrew Batista in 1959, Canada opposed the country's new revolutionary government. However, the US State Department urged Diefenbaker to continue trade and diplomatic relations with Cuba to allow it to gather intelligence information for the US. A secret listening post in Canada's Havana embassy has been evesdropping on Cuban leaders' conversations since 1959, according to Engler. Pentagon and State Department sources have lauded Canada for providing the best intelligence on the island nation, especially in regards to the Cuban military. Engler reveals that the Harper government is targeting Cuba for destabilization under the guise of promoting democracy.
Prime Minister Jean Chretien's Liberal government conspired with the U.S. and France to destabilize and overthrow democratically elected President Jean-Betrand Aristide's center left government of Haiti. The Aristide government was committed to improving conditions for the poor majority, undertaking such reforms as doubling the minimum wage and setting up social welfare programs. In 2003, the Chretien government organized a meeting with U.S. and French officials in Ottawa where they decided that Aristide must be removed and Haiti placed under UN trusteeship. Canadian-funded non-government organizations, along with those from the U.S., created and funded opposition groups to wreak havoc and make the country ungovernable. When US forces kidnapped Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004, Canadian commandos secured Port-au-Prince's airport to allow a US plane to land and then fly the elected president to the Central African Republic. The U.S., Canadian and French governments then installed an intern government drawn from opposition groups they created. With the help of U.S. and UN soldiers, the regime initiated a campaign to kill and terrorize supporters of Aristide's Famni Lavalas Party, which enjoys broad support. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police took over training and leadership of the Haitian National Police which did the brunt of the killing. Engler provides evidence that Canadian forces participated in the repression.
While Canada publicly opposed the US invasion of Iraq in 2001, it quietly permitted Canadian companies to sell weapons and supplies to U.S. invading forces. Canadian military planners helped the U.S. army develop its campaign to defeat the Iraqi army, and Canadian naval vessels were sent to the Gulf zone to support U.S. naval forces. Canadian officers and soldiers on exchange trips with the U.S. military took part in the invasion. Canadian pilots flew U.S. air force AWAC radar planes that guided air attacks against the Iraqi military. Former U.S. ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci commented at the time that, "Ironically, the Canadians indirectly provide more support for us in Iraq than most of those 46 countries that are fully supporting us."
According to Engler, Jean Chretien told Bill Clinton: "Keeping some distance will be good for us. If we look as though we were the fifty-first state of the US, there's nothing we can do for you internationally, just as the governor of a state can't do anything for you internationally. But if we look independent enough, we can do things for you that even the CIA cannot do." According to former Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham: "Foreign Affairs' view was there was a limit to how much we can constantly say no to the political masters in Washington."
A major defect in the book is Engler's tendency to insert block quotations to support his assertions without mentioning who made them. One has to look in the chapter end notes to learn who is being quoted. But The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy is a persuasive, well researched, sweeping historical critique of Canadian foreign policy.
The former vice-resident of the Concordia Student Union in Montreal, Engler has also published Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical and (with Anthony Fenton), Canada in Haiti: Waging War on The Poor Majority.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
A number of Canadian Peace Alliance affiliates have held various actions to condemn the US/NATO escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and recent confirmation of Canada's role in turning over detainees who were tortured by the Karzai regime's police and military units. The CPA has issued the following statement:
The testimony of Richard Colvin shows that the highest levels of the Conservative Government are complicit in war crimes. As many as 600 detainees, many of whom were just innocent bystanders, were handed over to Afghan law enforcement agencies by the Canadian forces. Torture by the Afghan police forces is known to be widespread.
Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay are challenging the credibility of Colvin, saying that he is listening to "Taliban propaganda" Yet it is the Harper government that totally lacks credibility on this issue. It is hard to believe that they didn't see multiple memos and reports from one of the top diplomats in Afghanistan. It would represent a radical departure from standard procedure for any government.
And even if the memos didn't circulate to the political masters in the Conservative party, there were countless reports from international agencies such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, School of Law of New York University, Center for Human Rights and Human Rights Watch which all said that torture of detainees was widespread. The Tories must have known this information or they showed a woeful lack of knowledge about their main foreign policy plank.
Once the issue of detainee torture hit the media in early 2007, the Harper Government worked to both discredit the reports and to allay fears with a new detainee transfer agreement. That agreement has not stopped the torture of innocent Afghan civilians.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission released a report in April 2009 that interviewed people who had been detained by Afghan police and army. The results were staggering. According to their findings, 98.5% of detainees said that they were tortured. They have concluded that torture "is a commonplace practice in Afghanistan's law enforcement institutions," and add that "torture is also perpetrated by the parties to the armed conflict in Afghanistan, including the international security forces."
According to Afghan MP Malalai Joya, "It is an open secret that this happens. The Canadian government is still supporting this."
An inquiry into the torture of detainees is long overdue but given the obstructionist nature of the Conservatives, we are unlikely to get a full accounting of these scandalous revelations. Peter MacKay, who earlier this year called for a Parliamentary discussion on the future role of Canada in Afghanistan, has decided to cancel that debate, likely because he fears any scrutiny on the torture issue. Complicity in war crimes is too serious an issue to be swept under the carpet. There must be a parliamentary debate on ending Canada's complicity in the crime of the Afghan war.
Torture is part and parcel of this occupation and the so-called "war on terror." Right now, the U.S. is expanded the prison at Bagram Airbase in what Afghans are calling a 'new Guantanamo.' Only by ending this occupation can we ensure an end to Canadian complicity in torture. We need to bring the troops home immediately.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Statement adopted by the 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers's Parties, New Delhi, Nov. 20-22
This 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties, held to discuss "The international capitalist crisis, the workers' and peoples' struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement":
- Reiterates that the current global recession is a systemic crisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits and the need for its revolutionary overthrow. It demonstrates the sharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between its social nature of production and individual capitalist appropriation. The political representatives of Capital try to conceal this unresolvable contradiction between capital and labour that lies at the heart of the crisis. This crisis intensifies rivalries between imperialist powers who along with the international institutions - the IMF World Bank, WTO and others - are implementing their `solutions' which essentially aim to intensify capitalist exploitation. Military and political 'solutions' are aggressively pursued globally by imperialism. NATO is promoting a new aggressive strategy. The political systems are becoming more reactionary curtailing democratic and civil liberties, trade union rights etc. This crisis is further deepening the structural corruption under capitalism which is being institutionalised.
- Reaffirms that the current crisis, probably the most acute and all encompassing since the Great Depression of 1929, has left no field untouched. Hundreds of thousands of factories are closed. Agrarian and rural economies are under distress intensifying misery and poverty of millions of cultivators and farm workers globally. Millions of people are left jobless and homeless. Unemployment is growing to unprecedented levels and is officially expected to breach the 50 million mark. Inequalities are increasing across the globe - the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. More than one billion people, that is one-sixth of humanity go hungry. Youth, women and immigrants are the first victims.
True to their class nature, the response of the respective capitalist governments to overcome this crisis fails to address these basic concerns. All the neo-liberal votaries and social democratic managers of capitalism, who had so far decried the State are now utilising the state for rescuing them, thus underlining a basic fact that the capitalist state has always defended and enlarged avenues for super profits. While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public expense, the benefits accrue to few. The bailout packages announced, are addressed first to rescue and then enlarge profit making avenues. Banks and financial corporates are now back in business and making profits. Growing unemployment and the depression of real wages is the burden for the working people as against the gift of huge bailout packages for the corporations.
- Realises that this crisis is no aberration based on the greed of a few or lack of effective regulatory mechanisms. Profit maximisation, the raison d' etre of capitalism, has sharply widened economic inequalities both between countries and within countries in these decades of `globalisation'. The natural consequence was a decline in the purchasing power of the vast majority of world population. The present crisis is thus a systemic crisis. This once again vindicates the Marxist analysis that the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden. Capital, in its quest for profits, traverses boundaries and tramples upon anything and everything. In the process it intensifies exploitation of the working class and other strata of working people, imposing greater hardships. Capitalism in fact requires to maintain a reserve army of labour. The liberation from such capitalist barbarity can come only with the establishment of the real alternative, socialism. This requires the strengthening of anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly struggles. Our struggle for an alternative is thus a struggle against the capitalist system. Our struggle for an alternative is for a system where there is no exploitation of people by people and nation by nation. It is a struggle for another world, a just world, a socialist world.
- Conscious of the fact that the dominant imperialist powers would seek their way out of the crisis by putting greater burdens on the working people, by seeking to penetrate and dominate the markets of countries with medium and lower level of capitalist development, commonly called developing countries.
This they are trying to achieve firstly, through the WTO Doha round of trade talks, which reflect the unequal economic agreements at the expense of the peoples of these countries particularly with reference to agricultural standards and Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA).
Secondly, capitalism, which in the first place is responsible for the destruction of the environment, is trying to transfer the entire burden of safeguarding the planet from climate change, which in the first place they had caused, onto the shoulders of the working class and working people. Capitalism's proposal for restructuring in the name of climate change has little relation to the protection of the environment. Corporate inspired `Green development' and 'green economy' are sought to be used to impose new state monopoly regulations which support profit maximisation and impose new hardships on the people. Profit maximisation under capitalism is thus not compatible with environmental protection and peoples' rights.
- Notes that the only way out of this capitalist crisis for the working class and the common people is to intensify struggles against the rule of capital. It is the experience of the working class that when it mobilises its strength and resists these attempts it can be successful in protecting its rights. Industry sit-ins, factory occupations and such militant working class actions have forced the ruling classes to consider the demands of the workers. Latin America, the current theatre of popular mobilisations and working class actions, has shown how rights can be protected and won through struggle. In these times of crisis, once again the working class is seething with discontent. Many countries have witnessed and are witnessing huge working class actions, demanding amelioration. These working class actions need to be further strengthened by mobilising the vast mass of suffering people, not just for immediate alleviation but for a long-term solution to their plight.
- Imperialism, buoyed by the demise of the Soviet Union and the periods of boom preceding this crisis had carried out unprecedented attacks on the rights of the working class and the people. This has been accompanied by frenzied anti-communist propaganda not only in individual countries but at global and inter-state forums (EU, OSCE, Council of Europe). However much they may try, the achievements and contributions of socialism in defining the contours of modern civilisation remain inerasable. Faced with these relentless attacks, our struggles thus far had been mainly defensive struggles, struggles to protect the rights that we had won earlier. Today's conjuncture warrants the launch of an offensive, not just to protect our rights but win new rights. Not for winning a few rights but for dismantling the entire capitalist edifice - for an onslaught on the rule of capital, for a political alternative - socialism.
- Resolves that under these conditions, the communist and workers parties shall actively work to rally and mobilise the widest possible sections of the popular forces in the struggle for full time stable employment, exclusively public and free for all health, education and social welfare, against gender inequality and racism, and for the protection of the rights of all sections of the working people including the youth, women, migrant workers and those from ethnic and national minorities.
- Calls upon the communist and workers parties to undertake this task in their respective countries and launch broad struggles for the rights of the people and against the capitalist system. Though the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden, it does not collapse automatically. The absence of a communist-led counterattack engenders the danger of rise of reactionary forces. The ruling classes launch an all out attack to prevent the growth of the communists and the workers' parties to protect their status quo. Social democracy continues to spread illusions about the real character of capitalism, advancing slogans such as `humanisation of capitalism', `regulation', `global governance' etc. These in fact support the strategy of capital by denying class struggle and buttressing the pursuit of anti-popular policies. No amount of reform can eliminate exploitation under capitalism. Capitalism has to be overthrown. This requires the intensification of ideological and political working class led popular struggles. All sorts of theories like `there is no alternative' to imperialist globalisation are propagated. Countering them, our response is `socialism is the alternative'.
We, the communist and workers' parties coming from all parts of the globe and representing the interests of the working class and all other toiling sections of society (the vast majority of global population) underlining the irreplaceable role of the communist parties call upon the people to join us in strengthening the struggles to declare that socialism is the only real alternative for the future of humankind and that the future is ours.
(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2010, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers and overseas readers - $50 per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
VANCOUVER, BC
Left Film Night - Sunday, Jan. 31, 7 pm, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Film details to be announced early January, call 604-255-2041.
WINNIPEG, MB
Communist Party Holiday Open House - Monday, Dec. 28, 3-7 pm, 387 Selkirk Ave. (North End Socialist Centre) (at Salter; buses 16 or 38 from downtown)
Marxism Course - classes begin in February. Pre-register at 586-7824 or cpcmb@mts.net.
TORONTO, ON
New Year’s Eve Celebration, with the United Jewish Peoples Order and Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association, music by Pablo Terry and Sol de Cuba - Winchevsky Centre 585 Cranbrooke (east of Bathurst, north of Lawrence). Dinner (vegetarian advance request only), cash bar, entertainment, complimentary wine toast at midnight! Tickets $45 advance, $55 if reserved to pay at door. For info/tickets: Maxine at UJPO, 416-789-5502 (Visa or M/C), or Sharon at CCFA, 905-951-8499.
Gala Dinner for Communist Party of Canada’s 36th Convention - Sat., February 6, 7 pm, USWA Hall, 25 Cecil Street. Speakers: Miguel Figueroa and Guests. Live music and entertainment, call 416-469-2446 for tickets.
Norman Bethune Day social - Sat., Feb. 27, 2010, at the GCDO, 290 Danforth Ave. Tickets $5, door prize one week all-inclusive trip for two to Cuba. For tickets or info, call media sponsor People’s Voice, 416-469-2446.