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
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| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the
Communist Party of Canada |
People's
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APRIL 1-15
Thursday, March 20
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(Contents)
(Home)
DEFEND EQUALITY RIGHTS,
DEFEAT THE TORIES
(The
following article is from
the March 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).
IWD 2008 statement from
the Communist Party of Canada
On the
occasion of International Women's Day 2008, the Communist Party of
Canada sends greetings of solidarity to all who resist exploitation,
oppression, violence and war.
For
almost a century, IWD has been a day to unite and mobilize for the
right to vote, reproductive choice, labour rights, protections against
violence, improved social programs, and opposition to homophobia,
racism and xenophobia. But today, decades of hard-won gains are under
fire from profit-hungry corporations, fundamentalist groups, and
right-wing governments. The defence of women's equality rights is an
essential part of the struggle to stop the Tory/corporate attack on
working people and to defeat the Harper government at the polls.
The
war against equality
Across
the planet, women face rising unemployment, ecological crises,
imperialist bombs, and regional conflicts. Women work an estimated
two-thirds of the world's working hours and produce half of its food,
but earn only 10 percent of global income and own less than one percent
of property. 70% of people living in abject poverty in the world are
women. Yet today we see a global war against equality, led by Harper's
closest ally, the Bush Administration.
The
"biggest lie" of the Harper Conservatives is their claim that our
military is in Afghanistan to defend women. The truth is that seven
years after the defeat of the Taliban, "liberated" Afghan women still
face threats and violence for working outside the home, and female MP
Malalai Joya has been expelled from Parliament for challenging the
warlord-dominated Karzai regime. 87 percent of Afghan women are
illiterate, and just 30 percent of girls have access to education.
An
estimated one million Iraqi civilians, mainly women and children, have
died under the illegal US-led occupation. The Harper Tories cut off
humanitarian aid to Palestine, deepening the economic and social crisis
which imposes a terrible daily burden on Palestinian women and families.
The
Bush White House and patriarchal religious forces continue their
offensive against women's reproductive rights. After the restoration of
capitalism in the former European socialist countries, women face a
stark choice between ghettoized low-wage jobs, or entry into the global
capitalist sex trade.
The
Tory attack
Here
in Canada, the corporate media spreads the myth that women have
achieved full equality. But the reality is very different.
Official data show that 8.3 million women are in the lowest income
groups ($0-30,000), compared to 5.6 million men. Among the wealthy
(over $100,000 annual income) there are 660,000 men and just 196,000
women. Almost one in five Canadian women (2.8
million) live in
poverty; 56% of lone parent families headed by women are poor, compared
with 24% of those headed by men; 49% of single, widowed and divorced
women over 65 are poor; the median employment income for a disabled
woman is $8,360, compared to $19,250 for disabled men; for every $100
earned by men, women earn $30 less; even women with post-secondary
degrees are paid less than 70% of what their male counterparts earn for
full-time, full-year work.
Yet
the Harper Tories slashed the operating budget of Status of Women
Canada by forty percent, and changed the funding criteria for women's
groups, barring them from "equality advocacy". Harper's government
scrapped progress towards a Canada-wide child care system; the
$100/month tax credit does nothing to help families desperate for child
care. The ongoing shift towards "home care" for the sick and elderly is
forcing women to leave their jobs to care for relatives.
Violence against women remains widespread. Women make up over 80% all
victims of spousal homicide, and there are 500 missing or murdered
aboriginal women across Canada. Yet funding for women's shelters, rape
crisis centres, and women's organizations has been virtually wiped out.
The
double burden of capitalism
It was
no coincidence that International Women's Day was begun by socialist
women's organizations, since the attack on equality rights comes from
an economic system based on private ownership: capitalism.
Only
capitalists benefit from the systematic oppression of women and
minority groups. The transnational corporations super-exploit women as
workers, reaping extra profits by paying them lower wages. Women of
colour and Aboriginal women face even higher unemployment rates and
lower incomes, as well as racist discrimination by the legal system and
police. Millions of women are caught in part-time and temporary jobs in
the service industry, or home-based jobs difficult to organize into
unions. Some male workers think they benefit from this pattern, but
their wages and working conditions are also dragged down by the
oppression of female co-workers.
Women
still also do the bulk of domestic labour. While such unpaid labour is
not directly part of the cycle of capitalist exploitation, it is
essential in the process of raising each new generation of workers.
This double burden is a key form of oppression of women under
capitalism.
The
struggle for equality
The
entire working class movement must step up the struggle to defend and
expand women's rights. We must all combat the sexist, racist,
homophobic, anti-immigrant and militarist views promoted by the
corporate media and culture.
Above
all, the trade union movement must build on its historic record of
defending the social and workplace rights of women. That means more
efforts to organize part-time, temporary and contract workers, and the
unemployed, so that these workers can raise their living standards and
expand their political and economic action. By consistently combating
scape-goating, the labour movement can help unite all sections of the
working class.
The
women's movement remains a vital force in the battles for pay equity,
affirmative action, fully paid parental leave, reproductive choice,
universally accessible child care, social assistance, and housing for
all.
The
Communist Party believes that our daily struggles must be integrated
into a long-term strategy. We call for stronger unity of all
progressive forces in our communities, schools and workplaces, between
and during elections, to help build a People's Coalition. Full women's
equality must be a crucial element of the policies which unite such a
coalition.
This
strategy could open the way towards a socialist Canada, where the
principal means of producing and distributing wealth will the common
property of all, and the exploitation of labour will be abolished.
Ecological degradation will be replaced by measures to protect the
natural environment. Poverty, insecurity and discrimination will be
ended. Socialism will finally realize a new society based on
solidarity, equality and emancipation.
On
IWD 2008, the Communist Party of Canada demands:
* reverse
the federal attacks on equality rights.
* end all
Canadian participation in the U.S.-led "war on terror."
*
solidarity with the women of Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Haiti, Palestine,
Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Philippines, Korea and other countries
resisting imperialist occupation and threats.
* reject
capitalist globalization "treaties"; cancel the external debts of the
Third World.
* full
funding for quality, public healthcare, education and social welfare
systems.
* a
universal minimum liveable income.
* a
universal, affordable, non-profit childcare system with Canada-wide
standards.
* a shorter
work week with no loss in pay and no reduction in public services; full
benefits for part-time workers.
* intensify
efforts to organize part-time workers and female dominated workplaces.
* restore
and extend employment and pay equity legislation; expand job creation
programs, especially for disadvantaged young women; remove barriers to
EI coverage; expand parental leave benefits to 52 weeks.
* emergency
federal action to save working farm families.
* reinstate
and expand core funding for equality-seeking women's organizations;
full funding for grassroots, feminist services to deal with violence
against women.
* enshrine
within the constitution the rights of Aboriginal peoples, Quebec, and
Acadians to self-determination and self-government, and guarantee the
full economic, social and political equality of Aboriginal women.
* safe,
public, accessible abortion clinics in all parts of Canada.
* allocate
1% of the federal budget to the creation of social, affordable and
subsidized housing.
* establish
a fair and just immigration and refugee policy.
* protect
and expand equality gains by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered
people.
* replace
the student loans program by student grants; phase out post-secondary
tuition fees.
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THE LISBON TREATY: A
VERY REAL DANGER
(The
following article is from
the March 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3).
By Sam Hammond
The
European Union identifies its origins in the Treaty of Paris (1951/52)
that formed the "European Coal and Steel Community". In fact, the first
formal discussions and plans for the European Community were laid down
October 3, 1940, when representatives of the German Industrial
Employers Confederation met with one of Hitler's senior directors from
the Ministry of Finance, Dr. Gustav Schlotterer, an ardent Nazi and SS
officer. The subject of the meeting was the European Community that was
to be formed after Fascism won the war and reorganized Europe on a
Corporate State model. The German corporations, already implementing
slave labour and concentration camps into their productive process,
needed a plan for the new Europe and Asia delivered to them by the
Luftwaffe and the Panzers. In the words of Dr. Schlotterer: "...we want
to create a rational division of labour in agriculture and industry
because we want to achieve the lowest possible production costs within
greater Europe..." and further "...in our view the economy of
Greater
Europe will be generated by the initiatives of the business
community..."
Does
this sound familiar? If it wasn't for the mountains of corpses and
genocide these people created, we might be fooled into underestimating
the real consequences of these words. The Partisans, the Allied powers,
and primarily the Soviet Union put a serious delay into the plans of
the European capitalists who were French (Vichy) and Italian as well as
German.
The
next round came with the assistance of United States and British
capital which recruited their former enemies, launched the cold war
against the socialist states, and orchestrated a split in the new World
Federation of Trade Unions with the assistance of the AFL-CIO and the
British Trade Union Congress. The class struggle was up and running at
full tilt, as capital desperately tried to break up the unity and
solidarity formed in the fight against fascism and diminish the
national liberation movements supported by the socialist states.
Anti-communism was the decisive weapon to split and divide the
international working class, and unfortunately the social democratic
leadership in general climbed on the bandwagon.
The
existence of the socialist states and the strong Communist and Workers
Parties who had won massive support in the fight against fascism, and a
resurgence of desire for a better post-war world, put serious obstacles
in the way of the European capitalists and their new US sponsor. With
the rebuilding of Europe using the Marshall Plan, the United States was
able to be the main mover and shaker; the new political hegemony was
expressed militarily in the formation of NATO.
There
followed a series of Treaties that were actually probing steps on a
path leading to the establishment of single European market, with a
uniform level of wages, cross-border labour mobility and the gradual
decrease in the authority of parliaments and laws of nation states,
their social programs and their labour
movements. The consolidation
of capital and its control over nations was sold on the basis of each
state having veto power. In reality, each treaty expanded the power of
the EU while decreasing the authority of consensus. The big move was
made in 2004, when a treaty establishing a constitution for the whole
European Union was signed in Rome and put out to the member states for
ratification.
This
would have been the largest blow to the working class throughout Europe
to date. It was supported by opportunist left, social democratic and
trade union leaders and organizations, and resisted by coalitions of
Workers and Communist Parties and sections of trade unions. Voted down
in referenda in France and Holland in 2007, the treaty was effectively
derailed, a real setback for the corporations and their plan for a
single European imperialist state. The citizens of France and Holland
expressed massively the views of workers across Europe, most of whom
had been denied democratic referenda, especially in the former
socialist states, whose new capitalists are prepared to deliver their
people into the cauldron for crumbs falling from the imperialist table.
The shocking rebuttal drove capital into a strategic "period of
reflection" to lick their wounds and consider their next step.
The
latest "Treaty of Lisbon" is a cynical affront to the democratic
expression of the European peoples. It will not be voted on except in
countries like Ireland, whose constitution demands a referendum.
We
quote from the statement issued by 28 Communist, Workers', left wing
and progressive parties: "This Treaty is impregnated with neo-liberal
policies that will further jeopardize economic and social gains of the
workers and the peoples, whether through the liberalization of markets,
the primacy of competition or the monetarist policies that do not take
into account growth and employment; or by dismantling and privatizing
public services, in keeping with the interests of the big economic and
financial groups."
Especially dangerous are the so-called "reforms" in labour law,
referred to by Giorgos Toussas, a member of the Communist Party of
Greece and the European Parliament, as "a middle ages for the working
people" in his presentation at a meeting in Guimaraes initiated by the
Communist Party of Portugal.
Preceded by a "Green Paper" study titled "Modernizing Labour Law to
meet the challenges of the 21st Century," the Lisbon Treaty enshrines
the essential aim of the monopolies to suppress the collective rights
of working people. It moves to replace these rights with individual
work contracts and complete mobility across borders of the member
states - but working under wages and conditions of the country of hire.
The
future European worker will be subject to permanent training and
testing to achieve maximum production, quality and productivity to
ensure maximum profits. This will be paralleled with a privatized
educational system completely dedicated to this end. The destruction of
collective agreements and their replacement with individual agreements
will usher in the institutionalization of labour brokers who will hold
the individual contracts, importing workers from the member countries
with the lowest wages and poorest conditions. The new treaty will
provide police and security forces to ensure safety of movement within
the EU (scab herding and strike-breaking) under the new "flexicurity".
This will have a lot of "flex" but not much "curity."
This
subject needs much more inspection, especially when viewed within the
parameters of Canadian de-industrialization, the haemorrhage of
manufacturing jobs, deep integration, Atlantica, TILMA, and the
European/US/Asian squabble over our industry and resources. The
European Union is not a passive regional apparatus. It is imperialist
and neo-liberal, promoting massive privatization and a frontal assault
on the public sector. The privatization of services, education,
communications, postal and railroads are woven into the Lisbon
agreement, and will become European law if it is ratified. The European
corporations grasping for Canadian resources, energy and manufacturing
will aggressively import these agendas into our social life and social
programs.
I
would urge reading of the website of the Communist Party of Greece http://inter.kke.gr,
which links to other very useful sites on this
struggle. I also have a document presented to the November 2007 meeting
of Communist and Workers Parties by Peter Cohen on behalf of the
Communist Party of Sweden; I would be happy to e-mail a copy to readers
on request.
(Sam Hammond can be contacted by email at shammond2@cogeco.ca)
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CASTONGUAY REPORT:
NEW ATTACK ON HEALTH CARE
(The
following article is from
the March 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 Health Reporter
Big
business is launching another attack in the corporate "surge" against
Canada's public health care system, this time through the Castonguay
Report, Quebec patients rights groups and trade unions are warning.
Newspaper headlines have called it "a bombshell in the health care
system." The report, entitled "Getting Our Money`s Worth," was
commissioned as part of a working group established by the Quebec
Finance Minister to find new ways of funding health care.
From
the outset the report was expected to be an endorsement of privatized
medicine. Claude Castonguay was once described as the father of modern
Quebec medicare, a Tommy Douglas. In the 1960s and 70s, as Liberal
Health Minister, he travelled Quebec preparing the background for the
province's first health-insurance laws. But times have changed. After
leaving elected office, Castonguay went into the insurance business and
made a name for himself again, calling for a parallel private health
care system.
His
report, compiled with two appointees from the Parti Québécois and
the
ultra-right Action
démocratique du Québec, calls for sweeping
changes,
such as raising provincial sales tax by one percent to finance health
care, and creating a health care "premium" where people pay extra
income tax if they use the system more than a certain number of times.
Castonguay's insistence that this is not a "user fee" has been met with
incredulity by most. Within hours of its announcement, Quebec Health
Minister Philippe Couillard said the report was headed to the shredder,
while Finance Minister Monique Jérome-Forget dismissed the call
for
higher taxes.
Other recommendations, however, Jérome-Forget called "very
interesting [and] progressive."
"It is
the proposals that the government has not rejected immediately that are
the most dangerous and insidious," Pierre Fontaine, leader of the
Communist Party of Quebec, told People's
Voice. "It is not so clear
where the Charest Liberals stand on these recommendations!"
That
includes the suggestion that Quebec should be the first province in
Canada to legalize the sale of private medical insurance for areas
already covered by the Canada Health Act, and also to allow doctors to
practice in both public and private systems - and even be allowed to
rent hospital facilities after hours for private patients.
"If
you transfer resources like nurses and physicians to the private sector
you will have a two-tier system," Fontaine, who is also a front-line
health care worker, said. "We already have a lack of staff in the
public system. This will make it worse."
All of
Quebec's major labour centrals have come out against the report, as
well as Québec Solidaire.
The employer and business association Conseil
du Patronat du Québec, on the other hand, has called for
the rapid
implementation of Castonguay The two groups squared-off as over a
hundred protesters braved the bitter cold to stage a loud demonstration
outside the downtown hotel where Castonguay was addressing the Board of
Trade.
The
Coalition solidarité
santé (Health Solidarity Coalition) noted that it
is actually expenditures in drugs and medical technologies, where the
private sector dominates, which are out of control, and that Castonguay
had no recommendations to address these inflationary industries.
Castonguay "proposes a new commercial social contract in health" based
upon neoliberal policies, the group said.
Any
amount raised from the health care tax would only be equivalent to
recent tax cuts in last year's budget, the Coalition stated. "Our best
insurance is a public system of health" they added, noting that an
attack on the public delivery of health care is also an attack on
public insurance.
Commentators have noted that the government's vocal rejection of some
aspects of Castonguay was a calculated response, given the broad and
strong public behind public health care in Quebec - and an new
willingness of the minority Charest Liberals to distance themselves
from the opposition ADQ. (Mario Dumont, leader of the ADQ, originally
called the commission's creation "a move to respect the ADQ's ideas."
He has vowed to champion the cause of Castonguay.)
While
the PQ has criticized some aspects of Castonguay, all three parties in
the National Assembly supported his explicit criticism of the Canada
Health Act as an obstacle to the evolution of provincial health care
systems. Like the Chaoulli decision, which allowed for private
insurance for cataract, hip and knee surgery (highly profitable
operations), the Castonguay report reflects Quebec's indignation
towards national inequalities in the Canadian state, and the openness
to Quebec-driven solutions. No doubt this will resonate beyond Quebec's
borders providing, as the Toronto
Star said, "heavy artillery to the
proponents of privatization." The
National Post endorsed the report,
calling for its implementation Canada-wide.
Quebec
now has over 60 private clinics and, according to The Gazette, the
highest rate of private health care spending in Canada, at 30 percent.
While Ontario officially stopped allowing doctors to opt out of
medicare in 2004 after enormous public pressure around the Copeman
Clinics, Quebec has let the number of doctors going private triple in
the past decade. The Gazette says
the public sector is short 800 family
doctors and 650 specialists. In violation of the Canada Health Act,
Quebec refuses to give Ottawa data on extra-billing or user fees in
health care.
Clearly Castonguay is swinging a wrecking ball at the Canada Health Act
and the public delivery and insurance of health. His report makes the
continued call for federal enforcement of the Act, banning private
clinics and P3 privatization, and the expansion of public health care
urgent, timely and worth fighting for.
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ONTARIO SUSPENDS
HOMECARE COMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCESS
(The
following article is from
the March 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 Ontario Bureau
Public
pressure from the trade union movement and the Ontario Health Coalition
(OHC) has led to a province-wide suspension of competitive bidding in
homecare, People's Voice has learned. In February, PV reported on
public protests in Hamilton that brought together 1,500 people in a
town hall meeting, in response to what demonstrators called the
McGuinty Liberal government's move to wipe out "over 100 years of
non-profit home care."
Homecare was a non-profit public service in Ontario until 1996. That's
when the province introduced competitive bidding, under which private
for-profit corporations compete for contracts against non-profit
providers - community agencies controlled by a locally elected Board of
Directors. According to the OHC, 80 to 90 percent of the costs for
providing homecare are nurse and homemaker salaries and benefits. In
2004, under broad public pressure, the province put a moratorium on
bids until fall 2007.
Recent
protests were also organized in Sarnia, Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Guelph
after a December ruling in a competitive bidding process found that the
Victorian Order of Nurses and St. Joseph's Home Care were not eligible
to submit requests for proposals to provide home care services in
Hamilton. The two organizations are the largest not-for-profit agencies
in the region, providing about 80 percent of home nursing care.
According to the Health Coalition, this would disrupt service,
particularly for the elderly. "Homecare nursing and support are a vital
part of the health-care system [and] should be treated as a
professional public service rather than a commodity bought and sold for
profit" the Coalition stated in a release. Unions have also pointed out
that competitive bidding undermines decent working conditions.
The
province first suspended competitive bidding in Hamilton and then
extended it province-wide. Health Minister George Smitherman has now
issued a letter calling for consultations with the community and
providers across Ontario.
The
call for more hearings has left some commentators saying "we have been
through this before," as Derrell Dular of the Older Canadian's Network
said in a release. The Eleanor Caplan hearings several years ago
previously addressed competitive bidding. At the time, several unions
and community groups were critical of Caplan's limited mandate,
producing a costly and time-wasting report with no major results.
"Competitive bidding was introduced by the Harris government to axe the
grants to the Victorian Order of Nurses and the Red Cross and bring the
for-profit multinationals into homecare," Natalie Mehra, Director of
the Ontario Health Coalition stated. "It fragments rather than
integrates care, turning providers into competitors who refuse to share
information. It costs more and leads to all kinds of unnecessary
duplication. It has reduced the scope of public coverage, it is a
disaster for staffing shortages, it is for-profit clinical health
care," she added.
Labour
and community groups are now meeting to map out an action plan.
Representatives from SEIU, OPSEU, CUPE, ONA as well as local health
coalition, seniors' organizations and others are expected to demand
solutions such as provision of care by more local community-controlled
not-for-profit providers; removing the prohibition against direct
provision of care by the Community Care Access Centres; restoring
democratic community governance of homecare services; establishing
terms of employment that are equal to other sectors; and the complete
end of competitive bidding.
"This
is not just a victory for home care, but also health care," CUPE
researcher Doug Allen told People's Voice. "It clearly shows that
competitive bidding and the market delivery of health care doesn't
work, wastes money, and is inefficient." After years of fighting on
this issue, Allen said he is left with the feeling "we were right all
along."
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YOUNG WORKERS RALLY
FOR $10 MINIMUM WAGE
(The
following article is from
the March 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).
Report from the Vancouver &
District Labour Council Young Workers Committee
On Feb., 15
the Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC) Young Workers
Committee organized a rally in front on Premier Gordon Campbell's
office to support the B.C. Federation of Labour's $10 NOW Campaign. The
rally called for an increase of the minimum wage to $10 per hour, with
another increase one year later to $11 and indexing of the wage to
inflation. It also called for the elimination of the ageist $6
"training wage" which targets and takes advantage of new and young
workers.
The
rally was attended by around 150 participants. Guest speakers were Jim
Sinclair (BC Federation of Labour), Shamus Reid (Canadian Federation of
Students), Emily Ottewell (VDLC Young Workers Committee), Andy Ross
(Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union - local 378) and
Kevin Bell (Retail Workers Union). The rally was kicked off with a
recognition of the First Nations Land on which we were rallying by
Phillipa Ryan (Grassroots Women) who also spoke on the effects of the
minimum wage of youth and Aboriginal peoples.
Tamara
Kamachi, a member of the VDLC Young Workers Committee and Co-Chair of
the COPE 378 Young Workers Committee was MC for the event.
With
clear skies and the BC FED "airforce" flying above, towing a massive
$10 NOW banner, the speakers slammed Gordon Campbell's Liberal
government for refusing to provide a living wage for B.C. most
vulnerable and exploited workers including youth and students. The
participants echoed these sentiments, chanting "Six Bucks Sucks!" and
"What do we want?... $10... when do we want it... NOW!".
The
organizers collected several petitions and handed out buttons, stickers
and information kits on the $10 NOW campaign. "We're happy this rally
was such a success," said VDLC Young Workers Committee Chair, Stephen
Von Sychowski. "But we aren't stopping here, we are going to keep
working with our sisters and brothers in the BCFED on this campaign
until we win a living wage for all workers."
The
rally was endorsed by the B.C. Federation of Labour, Vancouver &
District Labour Council, Canadian Federation of Students, Canadian
Office and Professional Employees Union local 378, Vancouver Elementary
School Teachers Association, Communist Party of Canada, Young Communist
League, Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance and Fightback. Also in
attendance was Vancouver Hastings MLA Shane Simpson (NDP).
The
Young Worker's Committee's next $10 NOW action will be a picket at
McDonalds (Commercial & Broadway) on Saturday, March 1 beginning at
1 pm.
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COMMUNIST
PARTY-ALBERTA CONTESTS MARCH 3 ELECTION
(The
following article is from
the March 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).
Two women Communist candidates are on the
ballot for Alberta's March 3 election.
In
Edmonton Mill Creek, Naomi Rankin is on the ballot. A computer
programmer who has lived in Edmonton for many years, Naomi has been a
political activist in peace, women's and social justice groups since
the age of 15.
Bonnie
Collins is the Communist candidate in Calgary East, where she has lived
for nine years with her spouse and their four children. Bonnie is a
telecommunications worker and is Vice President of her union local as
well as an anti-racist activist.
Alberta workers are under attack, warns the Communist campaign message,
which goes on to say:
"Alberta's economy is distorted by rapid and uncontrolled growth with
record profits for financial speculators, oil profiteers and resource
monopolies. We are told there's an abundance of jobs and a shortage of
labour. We are told that our quality of life depends on the success of
oil companies. We are told that Alberta is a land of plenty.
"What
is the situation for workers? Longer hours, worsening working
conditions, larger debts, higher rents, under-funded health care,
increasing tuition, over-crowded classrooms, not enough schools and
lack of affordable childcare. Low paid workers working two, three and
four jobs. Students who should be studying are working more hours to
pay for education. Children are entering the workforce in greater
numbers to help with family living costs. All this while big oil
companies continue to post record profits!
"And what is Premier Stelmach's response? More of the same `lease, dig
and dump'.
"Don't
touch the brake," has been dressed up in a new suit - `sustainable
growth' for the big engineering, construction and oil companies. While
the most vulnerable workers labour without
union
protection, oil executives and speculators sell our resources to the
highest bidder. Instead of talking with workers, Stelmach is sent by
Harper to Washington DC to assure Big Oil that their profits are safe
with the Conservatives."
The
Communist campaign calls for alternative policies to replace the
corporate agenda with a people's agenda, using the tremendous wealth
created by Alberta workers for the workers' own needs.
Policies in the Communist platform include:
* Reduce
the cost of shelter. Fund CMHC insurance costs for first time home
buyers; impose rent controls; build 25,000 provincially subsidized
houses; halt condominium speculation; review all condominium fees;
reduce utility costs.
* Provide
quality healthcare. End health care premiums; end all user fees; fund
dental care, prescriptions, eye care and home care; increase staffing,
reduce wait times.
* Create
free childcare programs. Fully funded childcare and before- and
afterschool, care programs, a nurse in every school.
* Fund all
public education. No parent fees for school trips, school supplies,
sports, cultural programs or text books; more teachers
and special needs professionals; reduced hours for teachers; more
apprenticeship training; no post secondary school fees; free public
transportation to and from schools; free lunch programs in all public
schools.
* Repeal
barriers to unionization.
* Raise
minimum wage to $15 an hour.
* Implement
a 32 hour work week with no loss in take home pay.
* Provide
full rights for foreign workers to unite, not divide workers.
* Enforce
strict environmental controls.
* Enact a
major program of publicly funded research into alternate energy and
non-polluting oil sands extraction, with public ownership of patents.
* Acquire
public ownership in energy corporations.
* Increase
energy royalties immediate to at least average world rates.
* Diversify
sales of energy resources to domestic and foreign customers pledged to
peaceful use.
* Use a
portion of oil revenues to diversify the economy, end dependence on
energy extraction.
* Research
and development in post-carbon technologies.
* Labour
rights are human rights!
* Pay
equity legislation.
* Human
rights protection on sexual orientation written (not read) into Code.
* First
Nations community rights to self-government, environmental protection,
and economic development.
*
Proportional representation: make every vote count.
* Public
funding of all parties.
For more information on the Communist Party-Alberta campaign, visit the
website http://www.communistparty-alberta.ca.
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"MY SPOKEN WORD IS A WAY
TO EDUCATE"
(The
following article is from
the March 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
interview by Johan Boyden
"Honestly,
I wish it was a whole year," Alicia Murrin tells People's Voice. "A day
is wonderful, there are a lot of events where you can come together -
but it should be a whole year."
Alicia
is talking about International Women's Day. A young spoken word artist
in Toronto, she's been writing since 11 or 12, but started performing
just a year ago. Now she's done events like Toronto's Mayworks Festival
and the CAW youth poetry slam. This February she opened for Angela
Davis at the Toronto Women's Bookstore.
"Everything I write is from experience," Alicia says. "A lot of
politics. Whether that is women's issues, First Nations issues, or
student issues."
It's a
reflection of the world. "I wrote a poem to young women - I talk about
the media, how the media always says beautiful girls are the skinny
ones. I wanted to let young women know that they don't have to be
skinny to be beautiful."
Her
poetry also talks about work. "A lot of young people take on jobs where
they know they'll get hired. Once you get there it is not what you
thought it would be. People do take advantage of you and step on you.
Youth stay there because they say `where else will they hire me? I'm
only 15.' I was stuck in a job like that for like five years."
"I've
been talking a lot about land disputes and violence. Mainly I take a
First Nations perspective. I've been talking about the Aboriginal women
who are still missing. There are more than 500 aboriginal
women missing in Canada. And nobody seems to care! You have to wonder
why. Why are their names not mentioned? Why is this still happening?
Why are women still being murdered and raped? I think these are
complicated issues to do with racism, social issues, for women as
well," she says.
Alicia
grew up mainly in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland. Nine years ago she moved
to Toronto. "Cornerbrook is a completely different lifestyle" she says.
"There is one main reserve in Newfoundland and there are off-reserve
bands."
Now
she is in her last year at Ryerson, working at the Aboriginal Student
Services centre. "We do potlucks every month, traditional events,
workshops," Alicia says. She has also served as Aboriginal Students'
representative with the Canadian Federation of Students in Ontario.
"There are barriers within the education system for aboriginal women."
"On
reserve there are basic water issues, food security - off reserve you
get more racism and sexism," she says. "It is not as if we are being
assimilated into residential schools, but we go to university and get
assimilated. Do you respect our world views, do you respect our
literature? It is still happening."
"I
have one poem where I talk about land issues - it is kind of an angry
poem. I talk about when Europeans first came, how they were received,
what happened after that." But, she adds, "I'd rather write a poem
that's angry than hurt somebody! It is an emotion that needs to be
expressed in a constructive way."
"My
spoken word is a way to educate. To let people know how I see things,
what we can do about it." She gets different feedback. "Some people are
offended, which is cool. Mostly white people. But it isn't directed
personally at them, it is directed at a group of people who did things
in the past. They should recognize that certain events did happen, and
educate themselves about it, instead of being offended."
But a lot of people ask for copies of her poems.
"The
truth is, I'm kind of bad at verbal communication," Alicia says.
"Poetry is my outlet. When people first wanted me to perform, I thought
`This is weird! This is just my therapy!'" She remembers her first
poetry reading. "I was nervous - I still get really, really, nervous. I
just remember my heart was beating so fast I couldn't breathe. I just
did it. And that was it."
Now she enjoys it.
"I'm
pretty quiet. But sometimes in my poetry I'm angry. I think sometimes
people are surprised by that." If a young woman wants to be a spoken
word artist, "I would tell them to go for it, if you are writing about
important things that should be shared with others honestly, that's how
people learn."
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SALUD, FIDEL AND RAUL! -
Editorial
(The
following article is from
the March 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, March 1-15, 2008
After
decades of heroic leadership of the Cuban Revolution, Comrade Fidel
Castro has stepped down from his official posts. Others have been
elected to leadership positions in Cuba, including Raul Castro,
sparking a bizarre wave of speculations in the western capitalist
media: is Cuba about to collapse? Will the "oppressed" Cuban people
rise in revolt against their "dictators"? Will Raul jettison the
socialist country's basic policies and surrender to capitalism?
The
answer to such nonsense is simple, but only for those who care enough
about Cuba to listen to the voices of its people. Time after time over
the past fifty years, the overwhelming majority of Cubans have made it
clear that they support their socialist revolution, that they have
confidence in their chosen leaders, and that they have no interest in
returning to the status of vassals of the Yankee master. As for the
tired slander that Fidel and Raul are "dictators," one need only
consider the source - U.S. administrations elected by barely half the
population, most recently in contests blatantly rigged to ensure
victory for the far-right Republican gangsters in the White House.
Cuba
has become an example to the world, an island of sustainable
development, combining an economy which meets the basic needs of its
citizens with the imperative to preserve the natural environment.
President Raul Castro has restated what all Cubans know, that their
socialist society is one with many shortcomings as well as these
historic achievements. As we send our deepest thanks to Fidel Castro
for all his contributions, and our best wishes to Raul Castro on his
new responsibilities, we also express our conviction that Cuba's
leadership and its people will meet the challenges of this era.
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MOBILIZE FOR MARCH 15! -
Editorial
(The
following article is from
the March 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, March 1-15, 2008
The new
Tory-Liberal accord which extends Canada's military role in Afghanistan
until 2011 highlights the need for large protests to get Canadian
troops out on March 15, a global day of action against the occupations
of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The
accord ensures that Harper's minority government will eventually fall
over another issue, such as the budget or the youth-bashing "law and
order" legislation. But as much as the two big business parties want to
push Afghanistan out of the way as a major campaign issue, the war
remains a key reason why we should have an election now, not later.
Large protests on March 15 will help to set a tone for the campaign
which could already be underway.
The
Tory-Liberal accord could help the NDP, a party perceived by many to be
staunchly against the war. It is not widely known that the NDP's own
parliamentary motion last year was to "begin withdrawing" troops, an
even worse position than the present accord since it lacked a deadline.
At that time, the NDP opportunistically joined the Conservatives to
defeat a Liberal motion for Canadian military action in Afghanistan to
end in 2009. The further we get from those Parliamentary votes, the
worse the NDP's actions seem. By voting with the Conservatives rather
than with the Liberals (or even simply abstaining on the Liberal
motion), the NDP effectively prolonged Canada's bloody occupation for
over two more years.
From
this perspective, the March 15 protests will serve to let all parties
in Parliament know that Canadians want the troops out of Afghanistan
now! We urge readers to visit the Canadian Peace Alliance website for
details of actions in your area: http://www.acp-cpa.ca.
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PUBLIC
SERVICE UNIONS CAMPAIGN: "WATER, WOMEN, WORKERS"
(The
following article is from
the March 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
"Water,
Women, Workers" is the theme of a campaign this month by the Public
Service International, a federation of public sector unions. Starting
on International Women's Day and ending on World Water Day (March 22),
the campaign will highlight the importance for women of quality public
services in health, water and education. Campaign materials can be
downloaded at http://www.psiwater.org.
The
PSI campaign drives home several key messages: universal access to safe
water as a human right; the influence of climate change on clean water
supplies and sustainable development; the negative impact of water
privatisation, which disproportionately affects women; and a call for
governments to publicly own and manage water supplies.
We all need water to live. Access to water is fundamental to efforts to
reduce poverty, promote gender equality, improve reproductive and
maternal health, and reduce child mortality. Access to water is the
basis for social inclusion and a dignified, productive life. As the PSI
points out, women particularly suffer from lack of clean water, which
is central to household and caring responsibilities which are done
mainly by women around the world.
Because of the interdependency between the right to water and other
social, economic and cultural rights, access to water is essential to
the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) adopted by
the United Nations.
One
such Goal set by the UN is to reduce by 50% the proportion of the world
population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic
sanitation by 2015. The UN General Assembly also proclaimed 2005-2015
as the International "Water for Life" Decade for Action. 2008 is the
International Year of Sanitation, complete with international
conferences.
But
these declarations have not been accompanied by decisive action.
According to the 2007 UN Millennium Goals report, if current world
trends continue, population increases will almost cancel out the
reduction in the proportion of people lacking basic sanitation. With
millions migrating from the countryside to towns and
cities in search of a livelihood there will be an ever-increasing load
for urban water and sanitation services in developing countries. It is
predicted that 3 billion people will be living in countries facing
severe water shortages by 2025.
In
many countries, the lack of universal access to sufficient, safe and
affordable water is a factor in creating humanitarian crises that rob
poor people of their health, hinder economic development and prevent
advances towards gender equality. If women only have time to focus on
daily survival, they cannot build the necessary skills to help move
their families into a more stable life.
For
example, pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers need safe,
affordable and sufficient water at work and at home. Dehydration can be
dangerous for the health of women and their unborn child. Women working
outside and in warm climates are particularly at risk without access to
water. Mothers who are not breast feeding need access to safe,
affordable and sufficient water to prepare infant food formula.
Progress on these issues is all the more difficult without global
action on climate change. Floods and droughts in those countries least
able to cope with them will create extra burdens on women. The
increased incidences of extreme weather events is making traditional
environments and agricultural practices more fragile. In most
countries, this will have the worst impact on girls and women who are
responsible for fetching water. Forced to walk ever further for poorer
quality water, they will have less time for school, to earn a
livelihood, or to participate in politics, community involvement or
leisure.
Water
is not just another commodity, says the PSI, arguing that "capacity to
pay should not determine access. It is unethical that persons or
institutions get rich from the sale of water while 1.8 million children
die each year because they don't have access to safe water and
sanitation. Most governments lack the capacity to regulate big
business, and water is too important to rely on corporate
self-regulation."
In
recent years, the mobilisation of women, workers, unions and "civil
society" have slowed down the pace of water privatisation, which had
raced ahead during the 1990s. But water corporations are developing new
strategies to enter the water "market".
The
World Bank policy of imposing water privatization on Tanzania - one of
the world's poorest countries - in return for debt relief, was a costly
failure.
In
2003 Tanzania's government privatised its water system, and handed
control in the capital, Dar es Salaam, to a British company, arguing
that a private sector operator would provide improved service. The
British company benefited from a non-competitive contract process and
the World Bank's financial backing. But in fact mismanagement and
deteriorating service led the Tanzanian government to seize control
back in 2005, resulting in a legal suit.
A London tribunal threw out the case brought by the private sector
operator at the start of 2008. Citing World Bank evidence, it found
that water and sewerage services had deteriorated under the company's
management and it awarded 3 million pounds in damages to DAWASA, the
Tanzanian public sector water utility, and half a million pounds in
costs.
There
is a lengthy list of other water privatisations that went wrong. In
Cochabamba, Bolivia, water privatisation caused a tariff increase of
200%, sparking a successful public uprising which helped set the stage
for the election of left-wing President Evo Morales.
In
England, privatisation of water meant that approximately 25% of the
workers were fired. This resulted in increased rates of occupational
accidents, delays in services and serious environmental problems.
Water
privatisation in Conakry, Guinea, was followed by a tariff increase of
500%. In Colombia, South Africa and the Philippines, when water
services were suspended due to non-payment of bills, women were forced
to use contaminated water again. In France, water tariffs have
increased by 150% following privatisation.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), in order to meet the
2015 MDG target for water, an additional 260,000 people per day need to
gain access to improved water sources. The United Nations estimates
that an extra investment of US$ 10 billion per year, for the next seven
years, is needed to reach that goal.
The UN
also estimates that if the global water and sanitation target is met,
$7.3 billion per year would be saved on health-related costs, and the
annual global value of working days gained because of less illness
would total almost $750 million.
Can the world afford such a large initial investment to create these
benefits?
The
truth is that far greater sums are spent on war, which destroys
valuable infrastructures such as water and sewer systems. The illegal
US-led war in Iraq is costing American taxpayers $100 billion annually,
not including expenses such as medical costs for injured troops.
This
enormous waste could also help achieve universal literacy (cost $5
billion a year), immunize every child in the world against deadly
diseases ($1.3 billion a year), and provide developing countries with
enough money to fight the AIDS epidemic ($15 billion per year).
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INDIA SIGNS NUCLEAR
DEAL WITH FRANCE
(The
following article is from
the March 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).
B. Prasant, PV
correspondent in India
In the
familiar "European" way, French President Nicolas Sarkozy almost put
his solicitous arm around the shoulders of Pratibha Patil, his Indian
counterpart, while drawing her attention to a fly past of aged
Dassault-built Mirage fighter aircraft overhead. The gesture more or
less revealed the subtext of Sarkozy's visit at India's 59th republican
day celebrations in New Delhi on January 26. The French president was
here to cajole a few deals to bolster the sagging economy of France, le
Société Générale scandal having embarrassed
him on the eve of his visit
to the sub-continent.
Sarkozy wanted to tap into the high 8.5% growth rate of the Indian
economy (even as the deep divide between rich and poor becomes a chasm,
and thousands of farmers commit suicide because of low crop prices),
and in this he was hardly a failure.
A
France-India nuclear deal was agreed upon but not signed, thanks
chiefly to the intense opposition that CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat has
applied on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "liberal westernization" on
matters nuclear. But the joint statement that was later circulated
leaves little doubt as to the nature of the "cooperation". India is
prevented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from buying
fuel for atomic reactors and related equipment, because of its nuclear
weapons tests conducted in 1974 and 1988.
The
proposed bi-lateral deal for "development of nuclear energy for
civilian purposes" would "form the basis of wide-ranging bilateral
cooperation from basic and applied research to full civil nuclear
cooperation, including reactors, fuel supply," and crucially,
"management." With India declaring its intention to "go beyond
buyer-seller relationship with France on defence deals," it was little
wonder that Sarkozy offered to "look after" Indian interests at the
level of the IAEA.
Under
the deal between the Department of Atomic Energy of India and the
Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA), India shall be "allowed
participation" in the Jules Horowitz Recherché Réacteur
to be
constructed at Cadararche in south France. Sarkozy declared that the
French consortium Areva was "ready to build" twenty "pollution free"
nuclear plants in India, but would not answer questions on the
financial and political costs involved. "India needs at least 30
nuclear reactors," was the cavalier French leader's off-the-cuff
estimate.
The
imperatives of the India-France deal include more opening up of the
Indian market to French imports (chiefly consumer goods); "technology
transfer" (more dependence on French high-end technology, putting
Indian research and development endeavours on the backburner in several
sectors); space research (India putting satellites with French
componential "add-ons" to French-built rockets taking off from French
territories); and finally, a lucrative (for France) deal to sell
Dassault Mirage 2000 H multi-role fighter jets (1978 vintage) to India
at a rate higher than bids by Russia and China.
Nicolas Sarkozy also managed to extract a promise that France will be
allowed to "upgrade" India's existing Mirage F1 fighters (1973 vintage)
for a "mere" US$3 million each. The total cost to India is likely to
exceed 1.5 billion euros.
Surprisingly, the French Euro Consortium's earlier bid to sell 197 NH90
helicopter gunships to India for US$600 million had to be scrapped on
the eve of delivery, when it was revealed that middle-men on the French
side had hiked up the prices considerably. One of the biggest buyers of
sophisticated weapons in the world, India plans to purchase over US$30
billion worth of military hardware in this year alone.
Following the footsteps of visiting British prime ministers and US
presidents, Sarkozy also assured PM Manmohan Singh that France would
"seriously" back India's efforts to obtain a permanent seat on the UN
Security Council; the pronouncement was passé and so was the
reaction
among the Indian ruling classes. Sarkozy's visit would benefit France
alone, making India that much more dependent on a staunch European ally
of Bush's USA.
The
visit paradoxically was une folie de grandeur for Sarkozy personally.
"Niki" is reeling from bitter attacks for his description of the young
men and women of the Paris banlieues (suburbs) as "vulgar rabble" (the
same hate-loaded phrase racaille was used by Charles de Gaulle during
the late 1960s), and for his utter failure to ameliorate race relations
in France.
The
French establishment had looked to this Indian sojourn for a grand
gesture on the controversy around the wearing of the Sikh turban in
France; after all, fellow Bush-worshipper Manmohan Singh is himself a
turban-wearing Sikh. But Nicolas Sarkozy, a hard-boiled conservative,
hemmed-and-hawed his way out of a budding impasse.
The
French media was not pleased. Even the hard centre Le Monde commented
in a very adverse manner, not to speak of the commentaries carried by
le Nouvel Observateur and Libération, or their counterparts in
the
Indian-language press. The mercantile Sikh community, many of whom
engage in multi-lateral trade with both France and Canada, take the
turban controversy very seriously. They have started to send signals to
Manmohan Singh to go slow on the India-France trade agreements. Can we
look forward to another free-fall of popularity for the newly-married
"Niki"?
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"SORRY" - ONE WORD
HEARD
ACROSS AUSTRALIA
(The
following article is from
the March 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3).
From The Guardian,
weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia
The Central
Committee Executive of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) welcomes
the apology by Prime Minister Rudd to the Stolen Generations in Federal
Parliament on February 13. The CPA sees this as a first step towards
compensation, restoration of stolen wages, democratic election of an
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisation and land rights, on
the basis of genuine consultation and co-operation.
The
"sorry statement" was a significant moment in Australian history which
was welcomed with joy and tears by very many Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander people and their supporters around Australia. This was
their victory.
Prime
Minister Rudd was responding to an overwhelming demand, expressed in
the intense and broad struggle which swept him and the Labor Party to
power in last November's federal election.
Kevin Rudd said: It is not sentiment that makes history; it is our
actions that make history.
And later he stressed that nothing concrete can be achieved without an
absolute premium on respect, cooperation...
These
are excellent principles. The National Aboriginal Alliance called in
November last year for the establishment of a representative Aboriginal
voice at the national level.
But
the Rudd Government's commitment to these principles cannot be trusted
while his government continues to support police and soldiers occupying
Northern Territory Aboriginal communities and the continuing theft of
Aboriginal title to their lands and resources.
Rudd's commitments will remain empty promises until people power forces
real change.
The
Prime Minister spoke of the need to close the gap between Indigenous
and non-Indigenous Australians on life expectancy, educational
achievement and employment opportunities.
He set
targets: within a decade to halve the widening gap in literacy,
numeracy and employment outcomes and opportunities for Indigenous
Australians, within a decade to halve the appalling gap in infant
mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children and,
within a generation, to close the equally appalling 17-year life gap
between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in overall life expectancy.
Central to the fulfilment of these aims is the possession by Aboriginal
communities of communal and inalienable title to their land, including
the minerals and other natural resources.
Conservative forces will continue to deny the history of invasion and
genocide, refuse to recognise the Aborigines and Torres Strait
Islanders as the original occupiers and owners and, above all, will
fight to limit, delay and, if possible, demolish the land claims of
many Indigenous communities.
For the ruling class of capitalist Australia private property is
sacred, not any concepts of justice or what is right.
Decades of struggle by the people of Australia, Indigenous and
non-Indigenous, brought about the "sorry statement". The struggle must
continue to ensure that Rudd's commitments become reality - including
voting in the new kind of government that will actually implement them.
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OUR MANDATE IS TO
STRENGTHEN THE REVOLUTION
(The
following article is from
the March 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3).
From the
address by Raul Castro Ruz, President of the State Council and the
Council of Ministers, to Cuba's National Assembly of People's Power,
Feb. 24, 2008, "Year 50th of the Revolution"
Comrades:
As
comrade Fidel alerted us in his fundamental Reflection of last January
14th, the people's mandate to this legislature is very clear: to
continue strengthening the Revolution at a historical juncture which
demands from us to be dialectic and creative.
The
composition of the State Council, which has just been elected by this
Assembly, raised much expectation both in Cuba and abroad. The most
significant was clarified by comrade Fidel in his Message of February
18th. There is very little that I can add to what he said except to
express to our people, on behalf of the Revolution's Leadership, our
appreciation for the innumerable expressions of serenity, maturity,
self-assurance, and the combination of genuine sadness and
revolutionary determination.
I take
on the responsibility entrusted to me deeply convinced that, as I have
often said, there is only one Commander in Chief of the Cuban
Revolution.
Fidel
is Fidel; we all know it very well. Fidel is irreplaceable and the
people shall continue his work when he is no longer physically with us;
although his ideas will always be with us, the same ideas that have
made it possible to build the beacon of dignity and justice our country
represents.
The
Communist Party, a sure guarantee of the unity of the Cuban nation, is
the sole worthy heir to our people's confidence in its leader. It is
the top leading force of our State and society as provided in Article 5
of our Constitution approved by referendum by exactly 97.7% of the
voters.
This
conviction shall become especially significant when as a fact of life
the generation that founded and forged the Revolution is no longer
present.
Fortunately, it is not that moment we are living today. Fidel is here,
as always, with a very clear mind and his capacity to analyze and
foresee perfectly intact and strengthened now that he can dedicate to
studying and analyzing the countless hours he previously used to tackle
the daily problems.
Despite his steady recovery, his physical condition will not allow him
those endless working sessions - often separated by hardly a few hours
of rest - that characterized his work practically from the moment he
started the revolutionary struggle, the same that grew in intensity
through the long years of the Special Period when he did not take one
single day off.
Comrade Fidel's decision, a new contribution enhancing his example,
ensures as from now the continuity of the Revolution and is perfectly
consistent with a life guided by Marti's precept that: "All the glory
of the world fits in a kernel of corn."
Likewise, his determination is unchangeable with regards to his
decision to continue making his contribution to the revolutionary cause
and to the most noble ideas and objectives of mankind, while he has the
strength to do so...
Comrade Deputies:
I am
aware of my responsibility to the people as I take on the task
entrusted to me. But I am also convinced that as it has been the case
until today, I can count on the support of those holding positions of
responsibility at various levels, and even more importantly, I can
count on the support of my compatriots without which a society like
ours could not succeed....
During
the first 15 years of the Revolution, the State structures inherited
from capitalism were adjusted as we went along to undertake the tasks
imposed by the radical economic, political and social changes.
The
1960's institutionalization process, however imperfect, enabled us to
structure an articulate system corresponding to those circumstances. We
were then able to put ourselves on a level with the socialist
countries, in terms of both good and bad experiences.
Finally, in 1994, the most critical moment of the Special Period,
considerable adjustments were made leading to the reduction and merging
of institutions as well as to the redistribution of the tasks
previously entrusted to some of them. However, these changes were
undertaken with the rush imposed by the necessity to quickly adapt to a
radically different, very hostile and extremely dangerous scenario.
In the
fourteen years that have passed since then, the national and
international scene has noticeably changed. Today, a more compact and
operational structure is required, with a lower number of institutions
under the central administration of the State and a better distribution
of their functions. This will enable us to reduce the enormous amount
of meetings, coordination, permissions, conciliations, provisions,
rules and regulations, etc. It will also allow us to bring together
some decisive economic activities which are presently disseminated
through various entities, and to make a better use of our cadres....
In my
visit last December to the Santiago de Cuba district that elected
comrade Fidel a deputy, I said that the massive support enjoyed by the
revolution demands from us that we question everything we do in order
to improve on it.
I also
said that if the people are firmly united behind a single party, this
must be more democratic than any other, and so must be the entire
society. This society, of course, can be improved, as any other human
work, but it is undoubtedly full of justice and everybody in it has the
opportunity to express their views and, better still, to work for the
materialization of whatever we all agree.
There
is no reason to fear discrepancies in a society such as ours, where its
very nature precludes the existence of antagonistic contradictions,
since the social classes that make it up are not antagonistic
themselves. The best solutions can come from a profound exchange of
differing opinions, if such an exchange is guided by sensible purposes
and the views are uttered with responsibility.
That's
how the majority of Cubans have acted, from our best scientists,
intellectuals, workers, farmers and students to the most humble
housewife.
At
different stages of the Revolution, including the present, when
objectively assessing both the strategic issues and the difficulties of
their everyday lives, they have all set an example of political
maturity and awareness of realities. Meanwhile, they are increasingly
convinced that the only source of wealth for the society rests with the
productive work, above all when man and resources are efficiently
employed.
The
international doomsayers forecasting the death of the Revolution tried
to capitalize on the criticisms made during the study and discussion of
the speech made on July 26th in Camaguey. They overlooked the fact that
it was debate and criticism within socialism. This was confirmed way
over, a few months later, by the results of our electoral process which
concluded last January 20th.
It is
also true that some people are inclined to talk before being properly
informed. These make demands without thinking whether they are talking
rationally or irrationally. As a rule, they agree with those who claim
rights without ever mentioning duties. As Fidel put it in his
Reflections of January 16th: "...they expect miracles from our
determined and dignified Revolution."
We do
not deny their right to expression, provided they do it with respect
for the law. In the face of such an expression we can neither be
extremists nor naives. When the motivation is despair due a personal
problem or the lack of information, we should be patient and offer the
necessary arguments.
But if
anyone intends to put pressure motivated by their wishes to be in the
limelight or by ambition, demagoguery, opportunism, simulation,
arrogance or any other human weakness of a similar nature, we must face
them resolutely, avoiding offense but calling a spade a spade. We
should never forget that the enemy never sleeps, that it is always
willing to use our carelessness to do us harm, even if some are bent on
ignoring it.
We
shall not avoid listening to everyone's honest opinion, which is very
useful and necessary simply because of the sometimes ridiculous noise
made every time a citizen of our country says something that the very
noise makers would pay no attention to if they heard it anywhere else
on the planet.
We are
aware that such messages are intended to mislead or at least to create
confusion; but in case anyone has had the outlandish notion to scare us
off with them, I shall say that the reason we are still here - and we
will continue to be here - is that our people and its Revolution have
always faced up, without fear or hesitation and with the truth, all
sorts of aggressions by the greatest military and economic power in the
world...
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LEGAL ATTACK AGAINST
HUNGARIAN COMMUNISTS CONTINUES
(The
following article is from
the March 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
Hungarian Communist
Workers' Party (HCWP) reports that the state attack against the party's
leadership is continuing.
As
reported in the Oct. 1-15, 2007 People's Voice, the government's legal
actions come in the wake of the HCWP's 2005 congress, which expelled
its former vice-president Attila Vajnai for his support of the
government's neoliberal policies. Vajnai challenged his expulsion in a
Budapest court, which ordered his reinstatement, in a blatant case of
interference in the HCWP's internal affairs. The HCWP leadership
characterized the court decision as a political judgement, and a form
of revenge against the Party for its role in organizing a successful
public referendum against the privatisation of hospitals.
Last
fall, Gyula Thurmer (President of the HCWP), Magda Karacs and Janos
Vajda (vice-presidents), Peter Szekely, Laszlo Kerezsi, Sandor Urban,
and Pal Kollat (current and former members of the HCWP presidium) were
all charged with "public libel" for calling the decision of the
Budapest Court a "political sentence."
On
Nov. 6, the City Court in Szekesfehervar sentenced all seven communist
leaders to two-year suspended sentences. This means that if they commit
any crime during the coming two years, they would go to prison. After
the HCWP appealed to a higher court, the public prosecutor asked the
County Court to confirm the sentence of the City Court. This hearing
will take place on March 11 in Szekesfehervar.
Many
communist and other left parties, as well as a large number of European
and Czech MPs and senators, have expressed their solidarity with the
Hungarian communists.
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(The
following article is from
the March 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 Stephen Von Sychowski
On March
11, 1973, Tim Buck passed away quietly in Mexico at the age of 82. He
was one of the most well known Communists in Canadian history, and from
1929-1962 was the General Secretary of our Party. Thirty five years
later, many comrades in the movement are too young or too new to have
ever met Tim Buck. Nonetheless, he should be remembered as a selfless
fighter for peace, democracy and socialism, and one of the leaders who
helped build the Communist movement in Canada.
Tim
Buck, a machinist, was born in Beccles, England and migrated to Canada
in 1910 where he quickly became involved in working class struggles of
the time. Like many workers in those days, he was inspired by the Great
October Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1921, he participated in the
founding convention of the Communist Party of Canada in a barn near
Guelph, Ontario. From that moment on he dedicated his life to the
interests of the working class in Canada and internationally.
He was
an important figure in the Communist Party's work to build Canada's
labour movement; the Trade Union Education League (TUEL), Labour
Defense League and Workers Unity League (WUL) as well as the Communist
press. During the 1920s he played a key role in the Bolshevization of
the party and the defeat of opportunist tendencies of both the left
(Trotskyite) and right (North American Exceptionalist) variety. This
helped lead to his election as General Secretary in 1929.
The
1930s were a tumultuous time for the Party and the working class as a
whole. While the Party and its mass organizations fought against the
terrible effects of the Great Depression which had swept the capitalist
world, the capitalist class sought to smash the revolutionary movements
and save their collapsing system. Naturally, they targeted the
movement's leaders, many of whom were arrested, harassed, attacked,
deported and even murdered.
In
August 1931 the Party office in Toronto was raided by the RCMP. Tim
Buck and other leaders were arrested, charged with sedition and
sentenced to hard labour. But Tim Buck, a true Communist and natural
organizer, couldn't be stopped so easily. He organized in prison, and
during a protest against terrible conditions shots were fired into his
cell. The shots missed and only further fuelled the fight for his
freedom led by the Communist-led Canadian Labour Defense League. When
the state was forced to free Tim Buck in 1934, he was greeted by a huge
crowd at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
He
went on to lead the party's struggle for a united front against
fascism. The Communists organized the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion
which fought for freedom, democracy and socialism against Franco's
fascist hordes in Spain. Under Buck's leadership, the Party continued
its fight against Hitler fascism during World War Two, despite being
made illegal in 1939.
After
the war Tim Buck and the Communist Party were again subject to an
intense propaganda war as imperialism aimed to close in for the kill
and smash the progressive and revolutionary movements in Canada and
around the world. In these early decades of the Cold War, Tim Buck
helped lead the party through some of its most difficult days, while
carrying on our principled struggles for peace, democracy, independence
and socialism.
In
1962 Tim Buck stood down from his long held position as General
Secretary and took on the position of Chairman. He was succeeded as
General Secretary by two other celebrated leaders of our movement,
Leslie Morris and later William Kashtan.
As we
mark 35 years since the passing of Tim Buck we should be reminded of
the importance of knowing the history of our class and our movement in
Canada and internationally. Thirty five years later the struggle
continues against fascism and imperialist war, and for peace, jobs,
education, democracy, independence and socialism. It is our struggle
today, just as 35 years ago it was the struggle of Tim Buck. We will
continue to fight in the spirit of those before us, with our eyes to
the stars and our feet on the ground.
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IWD: A MILITANT CELEBRATION
(The
following article is from
the March 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).
Excerpt
from an article by prominent Bolshevik leader Alexandra Kollontai,
originally published in Mezhdunarodnyi
den' rabotnitz, Moscow, 1920.
Women's Day
or Working Women's Day is a day of international solidarity, and a day
for reviewing the strength and organization of proletarian women.
But
this is not a special day for women alone. The 8th of March is a
historic and memorable day for the workers and peasants, for all the
Russian workers and for the workers of the whole world. In 1917, on
this day, the great February revolution broke out. It was the working
women of Petersburg who began this revolution; it was they who first
decided to raise the banner of opposition to the Tsar and his
associates. And so, working women's day is a double celebration for us.
But if
this is a general holiday for all the proletariat, why do we call it
"Women's Day"? Why then do we hold special celebrations and meetings
aimed above all at the women workers and the peasant women? Doesn't
this jeopardize the unity and solidarity of the working class? To
answer these questions, we have to look back and see how Women's Day
came about and for what purpose it was organized.
Not
very long ago, in fact about ten years ago, the question of women's
equality, and the question of whether women could take part in
government alongside men was being hotly debated. The working class in
all capitalist countries struggled for the rights of working women: the
bourgeoisie did not want to accept these rights. It was not in the
interest of the bourgeoisie to strengthen the vote of the working class
in parliament; and in every country they hindered the passing of laws
that gave the right to working women.
Socialists in
North America insisted upon their demands for the vote
with particular persistence. On the 28th of February, 1909, the women
socialists of the U.S.A. organized huge demonstrations and meetings all
over the country demanding political rights for working women. This was
the first "Woman's Day". The initiative on organizing a woman's day
thus belongs to the working women of America.
In
1910, at the Second International Conference of Working Women, Clara
Zetkin [3] brought forward the question of organizing an International
Working Women's Day. The conference decided that every year, in every
country, they should celebrate on the same day a "Women's Day" under
the slogan "The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle
for socialism".
During
these years, the question of making parliament more democratic, i.e.,
of widening the franchise and extending the vote to women, was a vital
issue. Even before the first world war, the workers had the right to
vote in all bourgeois countries except Russia. [4] Only women, along
with the insane, remained without these rights. Yet, at the same time,
the harsh reality of capitalism demanded the participation of women in
the country's economy. Every year there was an increase in the number
of women who had to work in the factories and workshops, or as servants
and charwomen. Women worked alongside men and the wealth of the country
was created by their hands. But women remained without the vote.
But in the
last years before the war the rise in prices forced even the most
peaceful housewife to take an interest in questions of politics and to
protest loudly against the bourgeoisie's economy of plunder.
"Housewives uprisings" became increasingly frequent, flaring up at
different times in Austria, England, France and Germany.
The
working women understood that it wasn't enough to break up the stalls
at the market or threaten the odd merchant: They understood that such
action doesn't bring down the cost of living. You have to change the
politics of the government. And to achieve this, the working class has
to see that the franchise is widened.
It was
decided to have a Woman's Day in every country as a form of struggle in
getting working women to vote. This day was to be a day of
international solidarity in the fight for common objectives and a day
for reviewing the organized strength of working women under the banner
of socialism.
The
decision taken at the Second International Congress of Socialist Women
was not left on paper. It was decided to hold the first International
Women's Day on the 19th of March, 1911.
This
date was not chosen at random. Our German comrades picked the day
because of its historic importance for the German proletariat. On the
19th of March in the year of the 1848 revolution, the Prussian king
recognized for the first time the strength of the armed people and gave
way before the threat of a proletarian uprising. Among the many promise
he made, which he later failed to keep, was the introduction of votes
for women.
After
January 11, efforts were made in Germany and Austria to prepare for
Women's Day. They made known the plans for a demonstration both by word
of mouth and in the press. During the week before Women's Day two
journals appeared: The Vote for Women in Germany and Women's Day in
Austria. The various articles devoted to Women's Day - "Women and
Parliament," "The Working Women and Municipal Affairs," "What Has the
Housewife got to do with Politics?", etc. - analyzed thoroughly the
question of the equality of women in the government and in society. All
the articles emphasized the same point: that it was absolutely
necessary to make parliament more democratic by extending the franchise
to women.
The first
International Women's Day took place in 1911. Its success succeeded all
expectation. Germany and Austria on Working Women's Day was one
seething, trembling sea of women. Meetings were organized everywhere -
in the small towns and even in the villages halls were packed so full
that they had to ask male workers to give up their places for the women.
This
was certainly the first show of militancy by the working woman. Men
stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives, the
captive housewives, went to meetings. During the largest street
demonstrations, in which 30,000 were taking part, the police decided to
remove the demonstrators' banners: the women workers made a stand. In
the scuffle that followed, bloodshed was averted only with the help of
the socialist deputies in Parliament.
In 1913
International Women's Day was transferred to the 8th of March. This day
has remained the working women's day of militancy.
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WHAT'S
LEFT
(The
following article is from
the March 1-15,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.)
VANCOUVER,
BC
Celebrate
the life of Bill Stewart - 1 pm, Sat., March 1, Centre for
Socialist
Education, 706 Clark Drive. For info, call BC Committee CPC,
604-254-9836.
Celebrate Women in the Struggle -
Sunday, March 2, 12 noon, IWD lunch at
the Cooperative Kaslo’s Community Room, 2765 Cooperative Way (Slocan
and Grandview). Organized by FMLN Vancouver Women’s Bureau,
604-876-6749.
Remembering Haiti, forum with recent
visitors to Haiti, marking 4th
anniversary of the ousting of President Aristide - 7 pm, Tue.,
March 4,
Spartacus Books, 319 W. Hastings, organized by Haiti Solidarity BC,
778-858-5179.
International Women’s Day Rally -
4 pm, Sat., March 8, Oppenheimer Park
(Powell St. and Jackson Ave.), followed by 5:30 pm dinner and 6:30 pm
IWD Forum at the Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell, events organized by
Grassroots Women and May Day Organizing Ctee.
Anti-war rally, marking 5th
anniversary of US/UK war against Iraq -
organized by StopWar peace coalition, gather 12 noon, Sat., March 15,
Vancouver Art Gallery, for info visit http://www.stopwar.ca.
March Against Racism - 1 pm,
Friday, March 21, International Day for the
Elimination of Racism, meet at Clark Park on Commercial & 14th,
organized by No One Is Illegal and a wide range of other groups, for
info contact noii-van@resist.ca or call
778-885-0040.
$10 Minimum Wage
Now! - rally
Sat., Feb. 16, 1
pm, Gordon Campbell’s
constituency office, 3615 W. 4th Ave.
Organized by Vancouver &
District Labour Council Young Workers
Committee, for
info call Stephen, 778-231-4635, email vs.stephen@gmail.com.
WINNIPEG,
MN
Peace Alliance Winnipeg, meeting to plan
March 15 protest - Tue., March 4, 7 pm, 280 Smith St.
International Women’s Day Afternoon
of Solidarity - Sat., March 8,
11:30-4:30, Park Theatre and Movie Cafe, 698 Osborne St. Free
admission, films and info on labour campaigns. Info MFL Women’s
Committee, CLC and Winnipeg Labour Council, 947-1400.
IWD Awards Dinner - Sat.,
March 8, 6:00 pm, tickets $50 (some low-income
solidarity tickets available), Kim Koon Garden Restaurant, 257 King
St., organized by Grassroots Women, 299-4707.
May Day Committee, planning meeting -
Sun., March 9, 12 Noon, 280 Smith St. Info 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).
Next meetings Feb. 27, March 5. E-mail us at ycl_manitoba@ycl-ljc.ca
YCL movie nights on
U of W campus - to get on the notice list for time, room,
and films, just
e-mail us at yclmovienight@hotmail.com.
CALGARY, AB
Women Shaping the Future - IWD
celebration and potluck dinner, 5:30-9
pm, Thursday, March 6, Carpenter’s Hall, 301-10 St. NW, hosted by
Calgary Women’s Centre and Labour Council Women’s Committee.
EDMONTON,
AB
HAMILTON, ON
Peace Film Festival, including discussions
on the impact of war against
women - Sat., March 8, 11 am-6 pm, hosted at Solidarity House
(779
Barton St. East), with support from the Halton Peace Network,
905-529-1461.
TORONTO,
ON
Norman Bethune Day celebration -
7 pm, Sat., March 1, 290 Danforth Ave,
media sponsor People’s Voice. Tickets $5, door prize one-week
all-inclusive trip for two to Cuba. Info: 416-469-2446.
Decline of the American Empire:
what’s behind the spreading economic
crisis? - with speakers C.J. Atkins and Dan Goldstick, 4 pm,
Thursday,
March 6, Sid Smith Room 1080, University of Toronto, info 416-964-3894.
International Women’s Day -
Sat., March 8, rally 11 am at OISE
Auditorium (Bloor St. W. & St. George subway), March 1 pm through
downtown to Info Fair, 3-5 pm at Ryerson Univ. Student Centre (hosted
by Ryerson Women’s Centre). All events free.
World Against War rally, troops out
of Afghanistan and Iraq - Sat.,
March 15, 1 pm, location TBA, conctact Toronto Coalition to Stop the
War, 416-795-5863. For Canadian listings on March 15, see http://www.acp-cpa.ca.
MONTREAL,
QC
Vigil against
occupation of Palestine - Fridays, noon to 1 pm,
at Israeli
Consulate, corner of Peel and Rene Levesque. For info: Palestinians And
Jews United, 961-3928.
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People's
Voice deadlines:
MARCH 16-31
Thursday, March 6
APRIL 1-15
Thursday, March 20
Send submissions
to PV
Editorial
Office,
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver,
V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net
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