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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1) SUPPORT MAY 29 PROTESTS!

(The following article is from the June 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 of the Central Executive Committee and the Aboriginal Peoples' Commission of the Communist Party of Canada

Reflecting the rising strength of grassroots Aboriginal movements, a second annual "National Day of Action" has been called on May 29 by the Assembly of First Nations. The AFN's Call reflects the just demands of Treaty-status nations on reserves. For us, the Day is a welcome opportunity to support the AFN's Call and to raise a larger discussion involving all Aboriginal peoples in the land called Canada, status and non-status alike.

     The NDOA comes at a critical moment in the growing struggles by Aboriginal peoples to defend their traditional territories and to end racism and poverty. The Communist Party of Canada urges wide participation by the labour and democratic movements in the NDOA and all Aboriginal struggles. We vow to amplify our call for the genuine equality of all nations within Canada, and for resolving the just demands of Aboriginal peoples, including swift settlement of lands claims based on full recognition of inherent Aboriginal title. We demand that Aboriginal peoples be able to legally enforce an end to resource exploration and all other development on their tradition lands pending settlement of claims if they so choose.

     Over five hundred years after the genocidal beginning of imperialist colonization, the indigenous peoples of the Americas are increasing their resistance today with growing strength and unity. We salute the historic political advances of the working class in Latin America, such as the election of Evo Morales in Bolivia, which are based in large part on the powerful struggles of indigenous movements against US imperialism and its local allies.

     Canada is not isolated from this process, just as Aboriginal peoples in this country suffer from the same oppression as in the rest of this hemisphere. The shameful truth is that unemployment and poverty rates are far higher for Aboriginal peoples than any other group in Canada. The suicide rate among Aboriginal youth is estimated at nearly ten times the rate in the wider population. Among First Nations children, 43 per cent lack basic dental care. Over 100 Aboriginal communities have been under "boil water" advisories for years, a situation which would not be tolerated in other areas. Overcrowding among Aboriginal families is double the rate of that for all Canadian families, and mould contaminates almost half of all First Nations households. Asbestos, pesticides and mine tailings are a particularly deadly problem for Aboriginal communities.

     Decade after decade, these appalling numbers rarely shift. But instead of taking decisive measures to improve living conditions, the Harper government scrapped even the Kelowna Accord's limited fiscal supports, and rejected the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

     Forced by public opinion to make at least a token gesture towards equality, PM Stephen Harper has announced plans for an "apology" for the genocidal history of the residential schools. But more Aboriginal children are separated from their families today than ever before, and the murders of hundreds of Native women remain unsolved and unrecognized.

     At the same time, the Tories and their police agencies are criminalizing Aboriginal youth, claiming for example that opposition to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver is driven by "Native terrorists." This lie follows last year's revelation that a Canadian Armed Forces manual lists Aboriginal resistance movements among so-called "terrorist" groups, clearly targets for military attack. In Ontario, the KI Six and Ardoch Algonquin spokesperson Robert Lovelace remain in jail for the "crime" of opposing corporate exploitation of their traditional territories. The racist policies of the Harper Tories and provincial governments are setting the stage for new police attacks on Aboriginal peoples, with the tragic potential for future Ipperwashes.

     Those who refuse to accept injustice and oppression are not "terrorists" or "criminals." The real criminals are the corporations and governments which profit by the theft of Aboriginal lands while families live in desperate poverty.

     The truth is that the Canadian state was founded on the theft of Aboriginal territories. Most of the land Canada occupies was simply stolen from Indigenous people for settler use. Wherever nation-to-nation treaties were in fact signed, the colonizing powers soon violated these agreements to further encroach upon Aboriginal lands. While these lands and resources have been exploited to generate vast wealth for the domestic and foreign transnational corporations which dominate the Canadian economy, Aboriginal peoples continue to suffer intolerable levels of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and disease.

     Now, the time has come to pay the rent. The First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples are demanding an end to decades and centuries of agony and countless national humiliations. The Six Nations land reclamation at Caledonia, the struggles of the Tyendinaga Mohawks, the KI resistance against mineral exploration on their traditional territories, the Grassy Narrows blockade in northwestern Ontario, the rising protests against Olympics-related resort development on unceded aboriginal lands in British Columbia - these are among the warnings that the racist and criminal denial of Aboriginal rights will not be accepted. Despite legal setbacks, the Manitoba Métis continue their struggle to reverse the theft of their lands at the time of Confederation.

     The Communist Party condemns the racist policies of the Harper Tories, and expresses full solidarity with the May 29 National Day of Action and with all Aboriginal struggles being conducted across Canada. We will continue to do our part to help mobilize full support for all these actions.

     We want equal and just relations among all nations in Canada. We want a new, democratic constitution based on an equal and voluntary partnership of the Aboriginal peoples, Quebec, and English-speaking Canada, recognizing the national rights of Aboriginal peoples and Quebec to self-determination, up to and including secession. We want swift and just settlement of Aboriginal land claims, including over natural resources, and for emergency action to improve living conditions, employment, health and housing of Aboriginal peoples.

     No process of achieving these aims can work without respecting the full national rights of Aboriginal nations, especially the right of self-determination and existing treaty and constitutional rights.

     We are proud of our party's vision for Canada. The growing interest by Aboriginal people in the Communist Party of Canada comes after many decades of fighting for genuine national equality and for the goal of a socialist Canada which will make these policies a long overdue reality. Nothing less can end the tragic consequences of five hundred years of racist colonial oppression. We will never rest until this terrible legacy is erased!

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2) CORPORATE TAX CUTS INCREASE REGIONAL GAP

(The following article is from the June 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.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

The Harper government's proposed corporate tax cuts will widen the regional and industrial inequalities in Canada's economy, says a new study released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

     The study, by economist Jim Stanford, analyzes the distribution of corporate profits across provinces and 16 major industries. It finds that the big winners from corporate tax cuts will be oil-producing provinces, and the oil and finance sectors. Industries and regions which are struggling will receive very little benefit.

     The Tories plan to reduce corporate income tax rates over the coming four years by almost one-third. The statutory rate will fall by over 7 percentage points, from 22.12% in 2007 (including the federal corporate surtax) to 15% by 2012. Finance Canada estimates these cuts will reduce federal revenues by just under $15 billion per year (or about $450 per year per Canadian) once fully phased-in. The corporate tax cuts will reduce the federal government's total revenue base by about 6%, at a time when federal deficits may be looming again.

     "Despite what Finance Minister Flaherty says, corporate tax cuts are an especially uneven policy tool," Stanford says. "These corporate tax cuts constitute a significant net fiscal shift in favour of Alberta, and away from Ontario and every other non-oil-producing province."

     According to the study, the oil-producing provinces of Newfoundland & Labrador, Alberta, and Saskatchewan, which account for 15% of the population, generate 36% of corporate profits, will reap a large share of the benefits of corporate tax reductions. On a per capita basis, companies operating in these provinces can be expected to receive three times as much benefit from the tax cuts as companies in the rest of the country.

     The share of profits already amounts to 32% of GDP in Newfoundland's case, and 22% for Alberta and Saskatchewan, reflecting the unique profitability of the petroleum industry. Across the oil-producing provinces, before-tax corporate profits average 23% of GDP.

     For Canada as a whole, before-tax corporate profits accounted for 13.7% of GDP in 2006 (a record high share). In non-oil-producing provinces, however, the profit share averages 11.2% of GDP, ranging from a low of 9.2% in Nova Scotia to 12.7% in Manitoba.

     The three oil-rich provinces already enjoy higher economic growth, thanks to the surge in global oil prices and industry profits and investment activity. In Newfoundland and Alberta, before-tax corporate profits equal almost $16,000 per resident. Saskatchewan generates over $10,000 per resident.

     (While Stanford's study does not examine the living standards and working conditions of workers in these provinces, readers should remember that the benefits flowing to the corporations do not trickle down to much of the population. Housing costs are sky-high, for example, and social programs remain badly underfunded in the oil-rich provinces. Hundreds of thousands of workers are forced to survive on wages at or near the minimum, despite the high cost of living.)

     In the non-oil-producing provinces, on the other hand, before-tax corporate profits average $4500 per capita, less than one-third the levels in oil-producing provinces.

     Stanford's study reports that before-tax profits equal almost 20% of the petroleum industry's total sales. In 2006 (when the data was assembled) this equaled over $300,000 for every employee in the industry, and undoubtedly more since then. Profits per worker in the oil and gas industry are 17 times higher than in the Canadian economy as a whole (just over $18,000 per worker).

     The finance sector is the second most profitable industry, with before-tax profits exceeding 20% of operating revenues, or more than $100,000 per employed worker, five times higher than the Canadian average. Three other industries also enjoy high profit levels: mining, utilities, and real estate. Together these five sectors (concentrated in resources and finance) accounted for over 45% of all before-tax corporate profits in 2006, reporting average profits per worker of $107,000.

     All other industries in Canada, on the other hand, reported profits per worker of just $10,800, or one-tenth as high as the super-profitable resource and finance sectors.

     Measured as a share of industry revenues, profits in Canada's hard-hit manufacturing sector equal just 6.59% of revenues in 2006 (and probably lower now, given the challenging economic conditions facing Canadian manufacturing). Profits are even lower for a range of economically important service industries.

     "Finance Minister Flaherty is `picking winners' as surely as any other Finance Minister - including Ontario's," says Stanford. "Surprisingly, the `winners' he's picking are the provinces and industries that are already doing very well indeed."

     The study also questions the economic impact of corporate tax cuts. Despite the dramatic decline in corporate tax rates this decade, business spending on capital equipment and R&D has been remarkably sluggish.

     (Picking Winners: The Distorting Effects of Federal Corporate Tax Cuts, is available on the CCPA web site at http://www.policyalternatives.ca.)

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3) VANCOUVER BECOMING MILITARY CAMP FOR OLYMPICS

(The following article is from the June 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 Kimball Cariou

When Vancouver voters backed the city's 2010 Winter Olympics bid by an underwhelming 63% majority, they were promised the Games would bring social housing, new recreation and transit facilities, and a party that would bring the world to our doors. Five years later, the social housing has been scaled way back, skewed transit "improvements" are costing taxpayers some $3 billion, and preparations are underway to turn the city into an occupied military camp. "Security costs" are expected to balloon past the one billion dollar mark.

     The latter issue is in the headlines, after the Vancouver Olympics Organizing Committee (VANOC) offered over $300,000 to the Britannia Community Centre to use its skating rink as an Olympic hockey practice venue. Since the east Vancouver neighbourhood voted against the Olympic bid, many residents who were already highly skeptical of the Games "benefits" now have new fears.

     Britannia's Board will vote on the controversial offer in June, but most residents expressed vocal opposition at a recent forum. Among the sharpest concerns is that police and military will put up barriers around the Community Centre to block protests. Since the complex includes the local library, a major swimming pool and other recreation facilities, and both an elementary and a secondary school, residents could be cut off from these important community resources for weeks or even months.

    Those who scoff at this scenario should look at the Trout Lake Community Centre, just 20 blocks south, where the ice rink was slated for replacement. In 2004 VANOC offered $2.5 million (half the estimated cost) towards the replacement in exchange for its use as a practice venue before and during the Games. Since entering into this agreement, the project cost has more than tripled to $15.9 million. VANOC refuses to provide any additional funding, despite the inflationary construction market the Olympics have helped create. Trout Lake is responsible for the extra costs. Trout Lake has also learned that it may be surrounded by a "security perimeter", which could force cancellation of all programming in the fall of 2009 and winter 2010.
   Another concern is a huge influx of police and soldiers into the neighbourhood. Already, indigenous and Latino youth in the area are subject to constant police harassment and racialization, and many predict that racist attacks will increase around the Games.

     The neighbourhood's worries are heightened by a spate of news reports, such as a May 20 Canwest News Service story which said, "Canadian security agencies are planning to use planes, tanks, ships, and thousands of military and police personnel to secure the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games and will consider their job a success if the public hardly notices their presence."

     The overall plan was initiated by none other than Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier, the driving force behind the Canadian Armed Forces combat mission in Afghanistan, who wrote a June 2006 document authorizing the military to assist the RCMP's Olympic plans. Military planners say it will be the largest security operation in Canadian history. Their boast that Canadians "will hardly notice" the operation is an attempt to reassure the public at a time when opposition to the Olympics is becoming more organized. Nearly 13,000 RCMP, military and other security personnel will be stationed to Vancouver, a force which will inevitably be highly visible.

     The security plans are also highly intrusive, including hundreds of closed-circuit cameras, electronic sensors, and unmanned aerial vehicles, leading sociologist David Lyon of Queen's University to call Vancouver 2010 "the Surveillance Games." Each Olympic venue will use face-recognition technology to track people on the streets.

     B.C. privacy commissioner David Loukadelis has been told the images from those cameras will be available only to "key people." But he fears the cameras might remain after the Games, infringing on privacy rights, as happened in Sydney and Atlanta.

     "Forces and other dangerous individuals or organizations may seize this moment to further their aims using violence," Hillier wrote in his 2006 document. "Canadian security forces, and the CF, must therefore be poised to detect, deter, prevent, pre-empt and defeat threats and aggression during the period of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics while respecting, as much as possible, the spirit of the Olympic Truce."

     In another chilling memo, Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais wrote in October 2006 that "There are a number of terrorist groups that maintain a presence within Canada. While much of their activity is related to fundraising, some of these groups are assessed as having the capacity to undertake terrorist acts."  

    David Pugliese wrote in the Ottawa Citizen (May 10) that the North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) will be deeply involved in the 2010 Olympics "with potentially everything from fighter aircraft to sophisticated surveillance planes."
     NORAD has been given the job of providing air protection (from what threat is unclear) and monitoring the airspace over the Olympics, with the full capabilities of the US-dominated military body to draw upon.

    At this point, Pugliese says, the military's Joint Task Force Games headquarters in Victoria has around 25 personnel, expanding to over 200 by 2010. Already, Canadian navy divers are mapping out the seafloor of the Vancouver harbour, and Aurora patrol aircraft are flying missions to collect images of various areas.

     These scare tactics recall the situation in Vancouver a decade ago. During the 1997 APEC Summit, police used pepper spray, kilometers of fences and other security tools to block and attack protesters. Their justification at the time was similar - the potential for terrorist attacks, for which they claimed undisclosed evidence. It later turned out that police agencies tried to infiltrate anti-APEC protest groups, and that their "evidence" of the threat of violence consisted of a single blasting cap found lying on the ground under the Arthur Laing Bridge near the airport.

     In actual fact, much of the current opposition to the 2010 Games is emerging from two sources: poor people and the Aboriginal community.

     Anti-poverty organizations have been consistent opponents of the Olympic bid. Since the bid was launched, homelessness in the Vancouver region has jumped from several hundred to nearly 2,000. Promises to build new social housing as part of the bid have been dramatically reduced, even as hundreds of single-room occupancy housing units are closed in the Downtown Eastside. Developers and landlords are licking their chops in anticipation of even steeper increases in the value of properties in this neighbourhood. Rents and housing purchase costs alike are skyrocketing across the Lower Mainland, as predicted by anti-poverty groups from the start.

     Despite some minor announcements from the provincial Liberal government (such as the purchase of a number of Downtown Eastside hotels), the housing crisis has become much worse. Poor people are outraged that billions of dollars are being poured into the Olympics instead of homes. It's a recipe for larger and angrier protests. And given the history of police violence against anti-poverty movements in Vancouver, the winter of 2010 may well see escalating attacks against demonstrators.

     The second main issue raised by anti-Olympic forces is that the Games facilities and other recreation and tourism facilities are being developed on "stolen Native land" - unceded First Nations territories. Several band councils have become official "Olympic partners," but these bodies remain contentious within the grassroots Native population, most of whom were not consulted about the process.

     In spite of enormous pressures to "grab a piece of the Olympic pie," many traditionalist and grassroots Aboriginal people refuse to join the celebration. One of these was the late Harriet Nahanee, a long-time activist who died after being jailed for her role in resisting the expansion of the highway to Whistler through forests north of Vancouver. On several occasions, prominent chiefs have been presented with bags of apples by indigenous activists, signifying contempt for those who collaborate with VANOC.

     Aligned with these groups are various environmentalist and left political forces, composing a wide-ranging, loose coalition of those who consider the Olympics one of the causes of the deteriorating economic and political situation for working people, the poor, and Aboriginal peoples in British Columbia.

     The Olympic Countdown Clock in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery now shows about 600 days left before the 2010 Winter Games begin. Tensions will continue to mount as the city is increasingly turned into a war zone. The eyes of the world will be on Vancouver and Whistler in just twenty months, but the sight may not be a pretty one.

     (Cariou is the organizer of the Vancouver East Club of the Communist Party of Canada.)

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4) JAILED ALGONQUIN LEADER BEGINS HUNGER STRIKE

(The following article is from the June 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 released by Ardoch Algonquin First Nation, May 15, 2008

On Feb. 15, Ardoch Algonquin First Nation (AAFN) spokesperson Robert Lovelace was sentenced in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Kingston to 6 months in maximum security, plus crippling fines, for peacefully protesting uranium mining in the Ardoch homeland. Chief Paula Sherman was fined $15,000 and given until today to pay the fine, failing which she will be jailed.

     On March 17, a Superior Court judge in Thunder Bay sentenced six leaders of the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) to six months after they were found in contempt of court in a dispute which is virtually identical to that of the Ardoch Algonquins.

     The jailing of respected, law-abiding community leaders has had a devastating impact on our communities, particularly on the families of those incarcerated. The indifference shown by the McGuinty government towards the rights of First Nation communities and the imposition of long jail terms and crippling fines in the name of the rule of law has further eroded respect for both the legal system and the government of Ontario in the eyes of First Nations people in this province.

     The cases of the KI Six and Robert Lovelace are strikingly similar. In both cases Ontario gave approvals to mining companies to conduct aggressive mineral exploration on land claimed by First Nations as their own. In both cases this approval was given without any consultation with affected communities, forcing the First Nations to take action to end the illegal exploration when the government refused to act. In both cases the mining company sought and obtained court injunctions to end the peaceful protests of the First Nations, while lawyers representing Ontario supported the mining industry's legal manoeuvres at every stage.

     For the first month of Bob Lovelace's incarceration, the government of Ontario said nothing, remaining indifferent to this travesty. Since the jailing of the KI Six, and public outcry which followed, the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Michael Bryant, has told the media that he has bent over backwards to try to resolve the disputes which led to the incarceration of seven First Nations leaders from our two communities. He also claims that he wishes to see the incarcerated communities leaders freed from jail.

     We want to set the record straight.

     In fact, there has been no response from Minister Bryant to any of our proposals for peacefully resolving the dispute. Minister Bryant's staff also has not responded to several calls and emails seeking a response to our proposals. To put it bluntly, Michael Bryant is a liar.

     Bob Lovelace is now entering his fourth month in jail while the KI Six are about to begin their third month of incarceration. They are prisoners of conscience, jailed by the government of Ontario to send a message that the interests of the mining industry will trump Aboriginal rights and the environment of Ontario.

     Lovelace, who turned 60 in jail, announced that he will begin a hunger strike tomorrow [May 16] to press the government to respond to Ardoch's request for good faith negotiations. "I do not want my children and grandchildren to have to go through what we are going through," he said. "Starting tomorrow I will consume only water in the hopes that our cry for justice will be heard by Mr. McGuinty and Mr. Bryant."

     Chief Paula Sherman said: "I will soon be going to jail because I cannot and will not pay this unjust fine. I am a single mother with three dependents whose only crime is the defense of our land. Like Bob Lovelace and the KI 6, I would rather go to jail than take food out of my children's mouths or let our land be destroyed."

     Acting Co-Chief Mireille Lapointe added, "We are sickened by the hypocrisy of the McGuinty government. While honest, conscientious community leaders languish in their jails for peacefully protecting our land from uranium mining, all these politicians care about is their public image. They are lying when they say they are trying to resolve these disputes. They have done nothing at all and continue to show total indifference. They do not even respond to our letters, calls and emails asking for negotiations, meanwhile claiming they care about us and our land."

     Ardoch and KI remain committed to resolving these disputes peacefully, through negotiations which lead to responsible, cooperative land use planning. We call on all citizens of Ontario to support the unconditional release of our leaders and negotiators by joining us at Queen's Park on May 26 at the Gathering of Mother Earth's Protectors.

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5) NATURAL DISASTERS AND SOVEREIGNTY

(The following article is from the June 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, June 1-15, 2008

It appears that the pace of natural disasters is becoming more frequent and destructive. Climate change is forecast to result in more hurricanes, droughts, floods, storms and a rise in sea levels. Whenever earthquakes occur in populated areas, the loss of life and the destruction of property is immense. But most governments are not yet implementing urgent measures to change the situation.

     There are notable exceptions, such as Cuba's highly-organized preparations for the hurricanes which often sweep across the island, and the massive reaction to the devastating earthquake in China. In both cases, swift government action has been matched by the collective spirit of the people. Compare this to the totally inadequate response of the government of Myanmar after the recent cyclone, or the Bush administration when Katrina devastated New Orleans. Closer to home, the collapse of schools in China reminds us that hundreds of schools in earthquake-prone British Columbia are decades away from seismic upgrades, thanks to the failure of governments to make protection of children and teachers a priority.

     Those who invoke the so-called "responsibility to protect" to call for "smashing down the doors" into Myanmar - including U.S. politicians - conveniently forget that the people of New Orleans were left to suffer for days, while international offers of assistance, including from nearby Cuba, were arrogantly rejected.

     Instead, the imperialist powers are playing politics with natural disasters, taking advantage of the failures of the government of Myanmar to promote the view that national sovereignty of countries can be trampled whenever the U.S. and its allies choose. This threat to "do as we say or face the consequences" is a dangerous colonialist mentality which must be rejected.

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6) $50 BILLION FOR WAR TOYS

(The following article is from the June 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, June 1-15, 2008

 The Canadian Forces are slated to spend between $45 billion and $50 billion on equipment between now and 2028, says Lt.-Gen. Walter Natynczyk, the vice-chief of defence staff. On May 12, during a news conference on the Canada First Defence Strategy in Halifax, PM Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Peter MacKay presented $30 billion as the "total investments we're making in the military in the next generation". That $30 billion, however, is just the Department of National Defence (DND) budget projection for 2028, based on a 2 per cent annual increase that starts in 2011.

     "What we're going to invest between now and (2028), and further on beyond that, is that $45 billion to $50 billion," a senior military official explained. "These are two different numbers. They mean two different things."

     The Tory minority government's long-range plans include a schedule for the purchase of new fighter jets (2017), destroyers (2017) and frigates (2024), with new ships eating up more than half of the equipment budget. At the same time, the military appears to be scaling back its commitment to coastal patrols and search-and-rescue operations. The shift is clearly towards an expanded Canadian role in the global strategy of U.S. imperialism. The Tory focus is on increasing the ability of the Canadian armed forces to take part in offensive wars around the world rather then protection of Canada's borders and citizens.

     The price tag for sending Canadians to kill and die around the world in the service of the big oil and resource monopolies is enormous. More war toys for the Armed Forces means fewer social services, less spending on decaying infrastructure, insufficient resources to respond to natural disasters, and higher unemployment. This is certainly one of the main reasons to vote the Harper Tories out of office at the first opportunity.

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7) YOUNG PEOPLE VS. TAR SANDS DESTRUCTION

(The following article is from the June 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.)

Buried below the Boreal Forest of northern Alberta is a source of oil known as the tar sands. Companies are now producing over a million barrels of oil per day from the tar sands, and this number is constantly increasing. Oil from the sands has to be heated with steam in order to be fluid, requiring the use of immense amounts of power and water.

     Environmental, labour and Aboriginal activists have all raised serious concerns over current government policy towards the tar sands and the impact on the ecology, society, and energy sovereignty. The Federal government gets royalties amounting to onlyone percent of the price of each barrel, and Harper's Tories have recently extended an federal Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance tax break to tar sands projects until 2010.

     Mike Hudema is a former student leader, activist, long-time Edmontonian, and author of a short book entitled An Action a Day Keeps Global Capitalism Away. He currently works for Greenpeace in Edmonton and is helping coordinate the Stop the Tar sands campaign. PV correspondent Johan Boyden spoke to him about this work.

People's Voice: What should people know about the Tar sands?

Mike Hudema: People should be aware of the tremendous social and environmental impact of the Alberta tar sands. In 2020, the Tar sands will have produced more greenhouse gasses than all of Canada's cars and trucks combined. This is single-handedly changing Canada's Kyoto goals, and changing Canada's stance in international negotiations and agreements on the environment. Tar sands production causes 40 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent to be emitted every year - ensuring that Canada cannot meet its Kyoto targets.

     There is also the issue of ground water depletion and pollution. The tar sands are the largest user of ground water in Alberta, and this is having a huge impact with pollution on health, especially in down-stream communities, such as Fort Chippewan, where we've been seeing rare forms of cancer. In addition to carbon dioxide, tar sands also emit nitrogen oxide, sulphur oxide, and volatile organic compounds.

     The Tar sands are an area the size of Vancouver Island. The actual area available for leasing - the first step before development - is about the size of Florida. We are seeing the complete destruction of habitat in these areas.

What is Greenpeace calling for?

     The main demand is that since this process is so destructive, and given global warming, now is not the time to expand the development of unconventional sources of oil.

     What is happening in Alberta is a fundamental change in the act of oil extraction. We're talking about huge strip-mines - over a hundred meters deep. This is fundamentally different than the pumps and jack wells that Albertan's have traditionally seen.

     So we are calling for Alberta to make an ecological U-turn in its environmental and energy policy. Alberta is one of the best places in Canada to build a renewable energy economy. It has the most wind in the country, more sunlight, and excellent sources of geothermal energy. There are also the capital and financial resources.

Tell us about the campaign.

     It's definitely been a very active campaign to get the images out of the tar sands destruction to the Alberta public, and also across Canada and internationally. We've organized a wide-range of community meetings and thirty-nine groups in Alberta have signed onto the campaign.

     We were active during the provincial election, following Premier Ed Stelmac as well, and have organized two larger scale actions. In November, on the opening day of the Alberta legislature, four Alberta activists dropped a forty-foot banner off the High Level Bridge, downtown close to the legislature. And about two weeks ago during the Premier's fundraiser dinner, where he was launching essentially a twenty-five million dollar campaign to convince the world that the tar sands problem didn't really exist, we dropped a large banner behind him saying "The Best Premier that tar sands money can buy."

How are youth contributing to the campaign?

     Young people are making a huge contribution to our campaign - many of our volunteers are youth and justifiably so, because it really is the young peoples future that is at stake. There are an important part of our volunteer base, researching, making reports, and outreaching as well.

     To get involved, or to just sign the petition, go to http://www.nonewapprovals.ca or http://www.greenpeace.ca/tarsands.

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8) HOW BILL C-50 ENCOURAGES DISCRIMINATION

(The following article is from the June 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.)

This commentary by Harsha Walia is reprinted from the Vancouver Sun, May 21, 2008

Recently the Conservative government introduced amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, buried in the Budget Implementation Bill C-50. By making it a matter of confidence, the government forced opposition parties to accept them or call an election.

     Despite being opposed to the Bill, the Liberals chose to safeguard their own electoral interests over the principles of justice and fairness. Immigration Minister Diane Finley has attempted to downplay Bill C-50's significance by characterizing it as "small changes to modernize the system"; while launching an unprecedented multimillion dollar advertisement campaign, largely running in 'ethnic' media only and containing very few substantive details. The ads are the first time that Citizenship and Immigration Canada has launched an ad campaign to promote  legislation that Parliament has not yet passed.

     Under the proposed changes, even if someone meets the necessary - already stringent criteria for a visa (such as a permanent resident visa), the ministry can arbitrarily reject the application. Humanitarian and Compassionate applications no longer have to be examined if the applicant is outside Canada. The ministry will have the power to decide the order in which applications are processed, regardless of when they are filed.

     The minister will also have the power to issue quotas and restrictions on the country of origin and category of person. This modification would sanction racism similar to the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act or the 1911 Order in Council prohibiting the landing of "any immigrant belonging to the Negro race."

     The government says there will be no discrimination as the Charter of Rights and Freedoms will be respected; however the Charter does not apply to potential immigrants. Furthermore, the government says the instructions will be transparent; however this publication will occur after the Bill comes into effect and will not be subject to any consultation or approval process.

     The government says these amendments will not give them power to intervene in individual cases. However, the very nature of these changes is to allow for discretion in rejecting or discarding applications that meet the existing criteria.

     The government has said that the changes will not affect family reunification. However, the bill includes the power to issue restrictions in the Family Class category and overseas Humanitarian and Compassionate claims.

     The government says these changes will not impact refugees. However, refugees will be affected by the withdrawal of the legal right to permanent residence if they meet the requirements of the law and the elimination of the right to have an overseas Humanitarian and Compassionate application examined.

     The main justification the government is providing for Bill C-50 is that it will fix the backlog. However, instead of getting rid of the inexcusably long waiting list by easing immigration bureaucratic controls, their solution is to give themselves the power to simply kick people off the list.

     An array of organizations have expressed their opposition, including the Canadian Bar Association, Canadian Council for Refugees, Canadian Arab Federation, Canadian Labour Congress, African Canadian Legal Clinic, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and the Chinese Canadian National Council.

     The major lobby for Bill C-50 comes from business organizations who want immigration policy to meet labour market needs, meaning immigrants are disposable other than their value as labour. The Conservative government says they are "welcoming record numbers of newcomers" but the reality is that migrants are not welcome unless they are wealthy, super-professional, or are willing to work as temporary workers without basic legal protection. In Canada today, the number of people admitted each year on temporary worker visas is greater than the number admitted as permanent residents.

     What motivates the Canadian government and businesses to recruit temporary workers is that they are essentially indentured servants. A 2006 North-South Institute study documented systemic abuse amongst migrant workers, including low wages, long hours with no overtime pay, unsafe working conditions, discrimination, and being tied to the "importing" employer.

     Bill C-50 and the Safe Third Country Agreement creates a "Fortress Canada" by disallowing up to 40 per cent of asylum seekers, and the North American Security and Prosperity Partnership sanction the favouring of migrant workers as labour market commodities while creating an increasingly hostile climate to family class immigrants, refugees, and displaced migrants.

     At the same time, the Conservative government has hypocritically and opportunistically made announcements to acknowledge the Komagata Maru tragedy and allocated money to commemorate the Ukrainian-Canadian internment and the Chinese Head Tax. Yet these historical injustices are being perpetuated through racist, exploitative, and restrictive policies such as Bill C-50.

     (Harsha Walia is a member of No One Is Illegal.)

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9) CZECH STATE AND FASCISTS STEP UP ATTACKS AGAINST KSM

(The following article is from the June 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.)

On May 14, the Czech Communist Youth Union (KSM) released the following information on the latest attacks against their organization.

On March 19, a Municipal Court of Prague rejected the administrative protest delivered by the KSM against the decision of the Ministry of Interior of Czech Republic on the dissolution of the Communist Youth Union (KSM). The official reason for banning of the KSM was its programmatic goal to replace private ownership of the means of production with collective ownership, and also its work to convince young people about the necessity to struggle for another society not based on capitalist principles. This attack is a culmination of a lengthy anti-Communist campaign.

     The state power, represented by the police, also took the next steps towards the fascization of our society. On May Day, a group of Communist Youth Union activists during a May Day celebration in a city of Brno was attacked by the police, who confiscated materials and flags with the KSM logo. The Czech media reported this scandalous step of the state repressive policy.

     Two weeks ago, a non-communist artistic group, Guma Guar, officially opened an exhibition against the KSM ban in a gallery in Prague's historic Old Town Hall. This group strongly rejected the ban as an attack against fundamental democratic rights and presented in the Gallery the campaigns of the KSM, expressions of solidarity with the KSM received from a vast number of foreign organisations and individuals, and a movie about the KSM. A video report from the exhibition can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYN5K5rqzrY. Precisely and symbolically on the May Day this exhibition was destroyed by a brutal attack of anti-communists who wore black clothes and balaclavas covering their faces. The director of the Prague Gallery kept silent about this violent anti-communist attack for 4 days. The artistic group wanted to reopen the exhibition after the attack, but the Gallery decided to abolish the exhibition.

     We are witnessing anticommunist oppression both by the state and by various fascist and extreme rightist groups, as well as a number of physical attacks against KSM activists in the streets.

     The KSM appeals to all democratic forces to oppose the banning of the KSM by the Ministry of Interior and the anti-Communist and anti-democratic tendencies of the current state power. In spite of the bans and persecutions, the KSM assures all its members and friends that the young communists will not back off their struggle for the interests of the majority of the young generation, the students, apprentices, young workers and unemployed people, and the struggle for socialism.

     - Veronika Pazderova (Sykorova), vice-chairperson of the KSM.

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10) U.S. 4th FLEET WAVES NUCLEAR CLUB AT LATIN AMERICA

(The following article is from the June 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.)

The U.S. 4th Fleet was re-established in late April, commanded by Rear Admiral Joseph D. Kernan. The Fleet will be responsible for U.S. Navy ships, aircraft and submarines operating in the Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) area, which encompasses the Caribbean, and Central and South America and the surrounding waters.

     The original U.S. 4th Fleet was established in 1943, with a specific World War Two mission to protect against raiders, blockade runners and Axis submarines in the South Atlantic. In 1950, the U.S. 2nd Fleet took over responsibilities in this geographic area.

     The 4th Fleet's stated mission is to direct U.S. naval forces operating in the SOUTHCOM area, and to "interact with partner nation navies within the maritime environment." Its operations include "counter-illicit trafficking, Theater Security Cooperation, military-to-military interaction and bilateral and multinational training. "

     "Reconstituting the Fourth Fleet recognizes the immense importance of maritime security in the southern part of the Western Hemisphere, and sends a strong signal to all the civil and military maritime services in Central and Latin America," said U.S. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, making the official announcement.

     That "strong signal" is widely seen as a warning by U.S. imperialism to the progressive forces reshaping the region's politics and economies.

     Socorro Gomes, the Brazilian President of the World Peace Council, condemned the move as "designed to engage in aggressive naval missions in the Caribbean, Central and South America" and as "a severe threat to peace, security and sovereignty to all peoples and nations of Latin America."

     "By endorsing the Colombian military action in Ecuadorian territory," continued Gomes, "the government of the United States attempted to apply to our continent the principles of preventive war, a fascist doctrine at service of State terrorism. Now, as the Fourth Fleet is reestablished, the United States brings to the continent militarization, arms race and nuclear threat - for the Fourth Fleet will be equipped with nuclear aircraft carriers. Such a measure deserves our most vehement rejection. That is also what we are expecting from progressive governments, popular movements and patriotic leaderships in the whole region.

     "Our concern and protest are extended to joint naval exercises held in the Brazilian coastline with the participation of the United States, Argentina, and Brazil in the occasion of the 49th UNITAS operation. During 12 days nuclear-powered and nuclear-equipped U.S. ships will perform military exercises in Brazilian territorial waters being headed by the George Washington, the nuclear aircraft carrier that is considered the greatest weapon of

the United States, loaded with nuclear torpedoes, Tomahawks and high-depth nuclear bombs, as well as aircrafts loaded with six to ten nuclear bombs. Our patriotic conscience cannot accept such exercises as routine acts. They are aggressive in character. Their existence and frequent operation tarnish the sovereignty of the countries that take part in and provide the backdrop to those exercises.

     "The reestablishment of the U.S. Fourth Fleet as an aggressive interventionist force and the military exercises practised in the South Atlantic Ocean are part of the United States' imperialism and war policy, against which rises the democratic, independent and pacifist conscience of Latin American peoples, as well as the peace movements in the region and all over the world."

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11) RURAL POLL SETBACKS FOR BENGAL'S LEFT FRONT TO BE ANALYZED

(The following article is from the June 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 B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India

The results of May 18 voting for Bengal's three levels of rural elected bodies were still coming in when the state's governing Left Front chair Biman Basu answered a barrage of questions thrown at him by media-persons of the corporate houses, all in high spirits.

     Some of the questions were deliberate attempts at provocation, while others were dully repetitious. The senior Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader exuded patience and tolerance while standing his ground on some of the most delicate questions.

     Biman Basu began as he does usually by reading off the latest figures in voting for the Gram Panchayat (GPs, or village councils), the Panchayat Samity (PS, rural blocks covering dozens of villages), and the Zillah Parishad (ZPs, or districts). Bimanda mostly focussed attention on the main trends.

     In the 748 ZPs, the LF won 418, the Congress 97, and the Trinamul Congress 122, with the right-wing fundamentalist BJP winning in a couple of seats. SUCI (Socialist Unity Centre of India) won in six, Jharkhandis in two and there was an independent winner (in Bankura).

     At the Panchayat Samity (PS) level, the LF won in 189, the combined opposition in 131, and another nine were still uncertain.     Of the 3220 Gram Panchayat seats, results were known for 2899. The LF walked away with 1514, the combined opposition winning 1283, and 111 remaining either undecided and/or tied or dominated by independent candidates who were yet to declare their political loyalties.

     Answering the chorus about what had "gone wrong," Bimanda merely pointed to the detailed review that must be awaited before he could respond adequately to the media's happy curiosity about the "LF debacle." As the CPI(M)'s Bengal secretary, he could only highlight a few points in a rough, preliminary estimate, such as:

* Lack of adequate enhancement of the political consciousness of the rural populace.

* Gaps in implementation of rural development programmes.

* Weaknesses in the mass contact work among the rural populace of the Communists and the Left.

* Imponderables like the inability to keep everybody satisfied, and to succeed in tying down the last tidy knot in every rural development project in a class-divided society.

* Any deviations from the responsibility which the Left is expected to bear for popular welfare.

* Instances where self-confidence was substituted by self-satisfaction and even by egoistic behaviour.

* The expectation and demand of the people of the Communists and the Left.

* The lack of unity among the Left Front parties in certain areas.

     Was the vote against the industrial policy of the Bengal LF government? The answer is "no," simply because the statistics speak a different language. In Purulia, where 10,000 acres of fertile and fallow land was taken over for industrialisation, the LF won 30 of the 35 ZP seats. In Midnapore West, where more than 8,000 acres of fertile and mixed land was acquired for industrial purposes, the LF walked away with 57 of the 62 GP seats. In Bankura district, where 3,000 acres have been acquired, the LF won 64 of the 67 ZP seats.

     Then, persisted the scions of the corporate media, "it must have been the swing away of the religious minority vote that cost the CPI(M) and the LF so dear in the poll verdict."

     An unperturbed Bimanda unfolded another sheaf of papers and stated how a large number of districts, including the Congress stronghold of Murshidabad, where the Muslim population exceeded 60% or more, the LF had emerged the winner at the ZP level. At Punisole, at the border of the Onda and Taldangra subdivisions of the Bankura district, reputed to be the largest village of Asia, and where the population overwhelmingly belonged to a religious minority, the LF had emerged a handsome winner.

     Simplification and calculation to suit one's pejorative aim would never get the media anywhere, Biman Basu advised. He concluded by stating that anything new, like any employment-generating, pro-poor industrial policy based on a solid and diversified agricultural sub-structure, took time to grow roots of confidence amidst the people. The Luddites, said Biman Basu, referring to Marxist classics, had finally stopped breaking up machinery in England and elsewhere, only after they had been taught by the experience of that wonderful thing called struggle for life and livelihood that machines would never replace people, even as productivity would go right on increasing, benefiting even the Luddites themselves.

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12) KOREAN WAR ATROCITIES REVEALED

(The following article is from the June 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.)

After being denied for over half a century, the scope of atrocities committed by South Korean troops during the Korean War is finally being acknowledged. A recent Associated Press article, for example, reports that "Grave by mass grave, South Korea is unearthing the skeletons and buried truths of a cold-blooded slaughter from early in the Korean War, when this nation's U.S.-backed regime killed untold thousands of leftists and hapless peasants in a summer of terror in 1950."

     While repeating the absurd lie about "North Korean invaders push(ing) down the peninsula" (how can an army "invade" their own country?), the article notes that "With U.S. military officers sometimes present... the southern army and police emptied South Korean prisons, lined up detainees and shot them in the head, dumping the bodies into hastily dug trenches. Others were thrown into abandoned mines or into the sea. Women and children were among those killed. Many victims never faced charges or trial."

     The mass executions of at least 100,000 people out of the 20 million in the southern part of Korea were "the most tragic and brutal chapter of the Korean War," says historian Kim Dong-choon, a member of a government commission investigating the killings. That estimate is based on projections from local surveys and is "very conservative," said Kim, who thinks the true toll may be twice that or more.

     U.S. military reports of the South Korean slaughter were stamped "secret" and filed away in Washington. Reports of the atrocities by independent journalists and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea itself were dismissed as lies.

     Photos of one massacre, taken by an Army major and kept classified for a half-century, show white-clad detainees - bent, submissive, with hands bound - thrown down prone, jammed side by side, on the edge of a long trench. South Korean military and national policemen then stepped up behind, pointed their rifles at the backs of their heads and fired. The bodies were tipped into the trench.

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13) FARC COMPUTER ALLEGATIONS EXPOSED

(The following article is from the June 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 Carlos Martinez and Pascual Serrano, Rebelion

Last March 1, the Colombian Army attacked a FARC camp in Ecuadoran territory. The army supposedly captured three laptops, three flash drives and two external hard disks. And it must be said "supposedly" because said evidence was not obtained under established police or judicial procedures, but rather through military aggression in a foreign country, making any evidence obtained thereby illegal and unusable in any judicial procedure.

     In order to give validity to this "evidence," the Colombian authorities asked Interpol to produce a report certifying the "authenticity" of the archives contained in the equipment. A reading of the report calls attention to the following conclusions:

     First, a reference is made to "data classified as ULTRA SECRETO" (Page 20) when part of the data was already published in the El Pais newspaper.

     The most important is that the report itself acknowledges in its "Finding 2b" (Page 30) that the Colombian authorities manipulated the computers and storage devices and that "Access to the data contained in the eight FARC computer exhibits... did not conform to internationally recognized principles for handling electronic evidence by law enforcement."

     The study commissioned by the Colombian government acknowledges that: "Direct access may complicate validating this evidence for purposes of its introduction in a judicial proceeding, because law enforcement is then required to demonstrate or prove that the direct access did not have a material impact on the purpose for which the evidence is intended."

     For example, further on in the document, Interpol says that: "The operating systems of the three seized laptops all showed that the laptops had been shut down on 3 March 2008 (at different times, but all three prior to 11:45 am, the time of receipt by the forensic computer examiners of the Colombian Judicial Police). The two external hard disks and the three USB thumb drives had all been connected to a computer between 1 and 3 March 2008, without prior imagine of their contents and without the use of write-blocking hardware."

     That is, the Colombian Army used and modified the archives contained in the computers, USB memory and hard disks, before delivering them to the Colombian police.

     For example, on page 31, the report says: "83. Seized exhibit 26, a laptop computer, showed the following effects on files on or after 1 March 2008":

* 273 system files were created

* 373 system and user files were accessed

* 786 system files were modified

* 488 system files were deleted

     The report says that user documents (Word and the like) are authentic, because they were not modified between March 1 and the date of the examination. However, the same report acknowledges the limits of this statement because in Exhibit 31, there are:

* 2,110 files with creation dates ranging between 20 April 2009 to 27 August 2009

* 1,434 files which show as having been last modified between 5 April 2009 and 16 October 2010

     It concludes that "these files were originally created prior to 1 March 2008 on a device or devices with incorrect system time settings. (Page 33)

     What this means is that any user changing the time on the operating system can create a document with any date they please, either a prior or even a future one.

     It must be stressed that in regard to the forensic conclusions, the report literally says: Without revealing the content of the data, INTERPOL can state the following with regard to the user files contained in the eight seized FARC computer exhibits:

* 109 document files were found on more than one of the exhibits

* 452 spreadsheets

* 7,989 e-mail addresses

* 10,537 multimedia files (sound and video)

* 22,481 web pages

* 37,872 written documents (such as Word documents, PDF files, text format documents)

* 210,888 images

     Of the above, 983 files were found to be encrypted. (Page 27)

     In other words, nowhere in the seized computers is there a reference to them containing emails. Remember that the reports from El País referred to emails and published the files under the headline "Emails captured from Raul Reyes computer." Therefore, where did they get those emails? Or did they simply not exist in the seized computers?

     Finally, the report concludes (Page 35 and beyond) with seven pages dedicated to recommendations to police in member countries, telling them how electronic evidence should be treated, recommendations that were probably made because this case serves as an example to police for how not to collect information technology (IT) evidence. The only way in which one might ensure the authenticity of documents contained in IT archives is to obtain them under judicial direction and from the outset, when they come into custody of jurisdictionally independent authorities; doing forensic testing on only one exact copy of the contents of the hard disks and memory.

     As it is, Interpol's own report only casts more doubt on the origin of the computer archives published by El País in order to attack Venezuela and Ecuador.

     This has also been pointed out by the U.S. academics Miguel Tinker-Salas, Professor at the University of California (Pomona) and Forrest Hylton, Professor at New York University (NYU), who warned that the information found in the computers said to be those of Raul Reyes, had been misused by the Colombian government and Interpol.

     Miguel Tinker-Salas, an expert on Latin American subjects, indicated that there are number of politically motivated misinterpretations assigned to the contents of the computers. "One must recall that Interpol can only say whether manipulation took place. But it cannot say whether the elements it found are original and it cannot certify the information."

     Moreover, he pointed out the problem inherent in the fact that the report was disseminated from Colombia, since this demonstrates that Interpol is defending the interests of Alvaro Uribe's government, supported by the United States.

     Forrest Hylton, of NYU, expressed the need for the contents to be verified by an institution with a greater degree of independence. "It's likely that the computers did survive the Colombian bombing, but the problem is that we don't know anything more, nor how they were treated," he said.

     The reality is the Colombia did manipulate the FARC computers. The media, the Colombian government and Interpol's managers have stressed the elements that interest the media who headline their reports, "Interpol Finds Documents Sourcing From Raul Reyes' Computer to be Authentic," or "Police Agency says Venezuela Financed the FARC" (El País). The most eloquent evidence that these headlines are lies is that the Interpol report, in order to ensure its impartiality, was done by IT technicians who don't speak Spanish and didn't have a political understanding of what the files said. That's what one report said: "The experts come from outside the region and didn't speak Spanish, which helped eliminate the possibility that they might have been influenced by the contents of the data they were analyzing." A report from an IT technician who doesn't understand Spanish cannot possibly say that Venezuela financed the FARC, because s/he wouldn't have understood a single word of what the files said.

     The media misrepresentation has continued while the Interpol report summary says: "The verification of the eight seized FARC computer exhibits by INTERPOL does not imply the validation of the accuracy of the user files, the validation of any country's interpretation of the user files or the validation of the source of the user files."

     El País headlined its report from Maite Rico and Pilar Lozano, "Interpol Certifies that the FARC Computers Were Not Manipulated," with the subtitle: "Police Organization Says the Laptops Belonged to Raul Reyes."

     On the other hand, in passing supposed contents of the computers that implicated Venezuela and Ecuador through the filter of a friendly press, Colombian authorities showed the world that they were more interested in criminalizing these governments than in allowing judges and security forces to work. If they're so interested in transparency, it would be good to know what information the FARC had about paramilitary crimes and the members of the Uribe administration implicated in paramilitarism. Surely there were was plenty of that in the hundreds of gigabytes that are said to be contained in the disks.

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17)WHAT'S LEFT

(The following articles are from the June 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.)

HAITI BOOK TOUR

The Politics of Containment in Haiti - book launch tour with Peter Hallward, author of  “Damning the Flood: Haiti, Aristide, and the Politics of Government.”

MONTREAL, Sat., May 31, (French) 3 pm, Centre culturel Simon Bolivar, 394 rue de Maissoneuve ouest, (English) 7:30 pm, Cafe Culturel Volver, 5604 avenue du Parc, tel. 514-618-2253;

OTTAWA, Sunday, June 1, 2 pm, Public Library Auditorium, tel. 613-864-1590; TORONTO, Monday, June 2, 7 pm, Oakham House, 63 Gould St. (Ryerson U), tel. 416-731-2325;

VANCOUVER, Sat., June 7, 7 pm, Public Library, 350 W. Georgia, tel. 604-338-2558. For details, see http://www.canadahaitiaction. ca. Victoria,

VICTORIA, BC.

Goods for Cuba campaign fundraiser - 5:30 pm, Sunday, June 1, BCGEU Hall, 2994 Douglas, admission $15 employed, $10 unemployed &  students.

VANCOUVER, BC

Women’s Housing March against Poverty - 2 pm, Sat., June 14, organized by Power of Women Group, starts at Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre.

People’s Voice Victory Banquet - 6 pm, Sat., June 7, Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave.,  tickets  $15, call 604-255-2041.

Salvador Allende Tribute, marking centenary of his birth - 7:30 pm, Sat., June 21, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, for info contact Gladys Marin Club CPC, 254-9826.

Left Film Night -, returns July 27 to the Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, call  604-255-2041 for details.

WINNIPEG, MN

The Triple Truth - Fri., May 30, 8 pm, by the acclaimed Turtle Gals Performance Ensemble, the  history of Aboriginal people at work through story, song and movement. Circle of Life  Thunderbird House, info/reservations at 989-2400.

Annual Peace Walk - Saturday, June 14, starts 12 Noon at the provincial Legislature. For further information, contact Peace Alliance Winnipeg, tel. 479-7026

Young Communist League-UW campus club  meets 1st & 4th Wednesday each month, 5:30 pm, U of W buffeteria (4th floor top of escalators). E-mail us at ycl_manitoba@ycl-ljc.ca

SASKATOON

Political discussion & beer, all welcome to join Saskatoon CPC members, 5:30 pm, Monday,  June 16, and the third Monday of every month, in the tv room at Amigo’s, 632-10th St. East.

EDMONTON, AB

Edmonton Young Communist League - meets regularly at Remedy Cafe, 8631-109 St., 5 pm on the second Friday each month. Discussion topics and suggested readings on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3559215104.

TORONTO, ON

CCFA annual meeting - Thursday, May 29, 7 pm refreshments, 7:30 pm program (annual report, finances, elections), guest speaker Lauriano Cardoso, Cuban Consul General, and the documentary One Man’s Story, Cuba and the CIA, interview of Philip Agee.

Housing Not War Fundraiser Concert, organized by Toronto Disasater Relief Committee - 9 pm, Sat., May 31, Cecil Street Community Centre, 58 Cecil St., tickets $10 advance/$15 at the door, call 416-599-8372.

CCFA Toronto Island Cruise - Sunday, July 27, Noon-4 pm, lunch included, live band, to reserve tickets ($35) call CCFA Toronto 416-410-8254 or Sharon 905-951-8499.

Second Annual Cuban Film Festival - June 6-10 at the GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth Ave., see story page eleven for details.

Celebration of Life for Bill Stewart - Sunday, June 8, 2 pm, at the GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth Ave. For information, call the Communist Party at 416-469-2446.

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$50,000 FUND DRIVE
People's Voice at the CLC

(The following articles are from the June 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.)
 
As this issue goes to press, People’s Voice business manager Sam Hammond and other volunteers are busy at the Canadian Labour Congress 25th Convention in Toronto - distributing papers, selling books, and watching the debates with keen interest. We’ll have coverage and analysis in our next issue.

Unfortunately for this report, preparations for the People’s Voice display at the CLC required considerable time and energy, at the expense of all the work necessary to calculate the latest report on our 2008 Fund Drive. We have now gone over $30,000, passing 60% of our target, but the detailed provincial breakdown will have to wait until next issue.

In the meantime, tickets are on sale for our 16th Annual Victory Banquet at Vancouver’s Russian Hall (600 Campbell Avenue) on Saturday, June 7, doors opening at 6 pm. Our guest speaker this year will be Stephen Von Sychowski, a leading member of the Vancouver & District Labour Council Young Workers Committee and the union-led campaign to raise the B.C. minimum wage.

Also on the west coast, the annual PV Walk-A-Thon, organized by the Lower Fraser Club CPC, will take place in Surrey on Sunday, July 20. Gather by 11 am at the 140 St. entrance picnic area of Bear Creek Park for the usual walk around the park, followed at 12 noon by a delicious international potluck lunch. The cultural program and speakers will start at 1 pm. It’s an event you don’t want to miss! For details, call Harjit at 604-543-7179, or Krishna at 604-940-0420.

Remember that this year’s “PV Shopping Bag” includes the following: - “The Gruesome Acts of Capitalism,” a 112-page booklet by David Lester, full of astounding facts and figures about the exploitative system which threatens our planet;

•  a 12-month complimentary PV sub (keep it or give it to a friend);
•  People’s Voice 2008 Calendar;
•  People’s Voice “Karl Marx” Tshirt (tell us what size);
•  a surprise music CD - pick classical, oldies, or folk.
  

For a $100 donation, you get your choice of one of these items. For each additional $100, choose another item from our Shopping Bag. For a donation of $1000 or more, take the entire Shopping Bag, and receive a lifetime subscription for yourself or a friend.

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