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| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the
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The Spark!
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latest issue of The Spark! theoretical journal, is now on sale for $5 at Communist Party offices (see p. 8) or People’s Co-op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
Articles
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(Contents)
(Home)
1) VIOLENCE AGAINST
WOMEN: MOST PERVASIVE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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 International
Women's Day nears the century mark (the first IWD was held in 1911),
women have made enormous progress in many respects. But the present
global economic crisis will have a profound negative impact on women,
and the long struggle to end violence against women remains far from
victory.
For the past
decade, the United Nations has chosen an annual theme to mark
International Women's Day. This year, the slogan is "Women and Men
United to End Violence Against Women and Girls."
As UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said on IWD 2007, "Violence against women
and girls continues unabated in every continent, country and culture.
It takes a devastating toll on women's lives, on their families, and on
society as a whole. Most societies prohibit such violence - yet the
reality is that too often, it is covered up or tacitly condoned."
Facts and
figures from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)
show that this is the single most pervasive human rights violation on a
global scale.
At least one
out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into
sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime - with the abuser usually
someone known to her.
For women
aged 15 to 44 years, violence is a major cause of death and disability.
In a 1994 study based on World Bank data regarding selected risk
factors facing women in this age group, rape and domestic violence
rated higher than cancer, motor vehicle accidents, war and malaria.
Moreover,
studies have revealed that women who experience violence are at a
higher risk of HIV infection: a survey among 1,366 South African women
showed that women who were beaten by their partners were 48 percent
more likely to be infected with HIV than those who were not.
The economic
cost of violence against women is considerable. A 2003 report by the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the costs of
intimate partner violence in the United States alone exceed $5.8
billion per year, including $4.1 billion for direct medical and
health
care services, and productivity losses accounting for nearly $1.8
billion. A recent survey by the American Institute on Domestic Violence
found that domestic violence victims lose nearly 8 million days of paid
work per year - the equivalent of 32,000 full-time jobs.
Women are
more at risk of experiencing violence in intimate relationships, and in
no country are women safe. Out of ten counties surveyed in 2005 by the
World Health Organization (WHO), more than 50 percent of women in
Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Tanzania reported having been subjected
to physical or sexual violence by intimate partners, rising to a
staggering 71 percent in rural Ethiopia. Only in Japan did less than 20
percent of women report incidents of domestic violence. An earlier WHO
study puts the number of women physically abused by their partners or
ex-partners at 30 percent in the United Kingdom, and 22 percent in the
United States.
Based on
several surveys from around the world, half of the women who die from
homicides are killed by their current or former husbands or partners.
Women are killed by people they know and die from gun violence,
beatings and burns, among numerous other forms of abuse. A study
conducted in Sao Paulo, Brazil, reported that 13 percent of deaths of
women of reproductive age were homicides, of which 60 percent were
committed by their partners. According to a UNIFEM report on
Afghanistan, out of 1,327 incidents of violence against women collected
between January 2003 and June 2005, 36 women had been killed - in 16
cases by their intimate partners.
By the year
2006, 89 states had some form of legislative prohibition on domestic
violence, and a growing number of countries had instituted national
plans of action to end violence against women. This is a clear increase
from 2003, when only 45 countries had specific laws on domestic
violence. Yet high levels of violence against women persist.
Limited
availability of services, stigma and fear prevent women from seeking
assistance and redress. This has been confirmed by a study published by
the WHO in 2005: on the basis of data collected from 24,000 women in
ten countries, between 55 percent and 95 percent of women who had been
physically abused by their partners had never contacted NGOs, shelters
or the police for help.
Sexual
violence by non-partners is also common, but estimates of its
prevalence are difficult to establish, because in many societies, such
violence remains an issue of deep shame for women and their families.
Statistics on rape extracted from police records, for example, are
notoriously unreliable because of significant underreporting.
It is
estimated that worldwide, one in five women will become a victim of
rape or attempted rape in her lifetime. In a study of nearly 1,200
ninth-grade students in Geneva, Switzerland, 20 percent of girls
revealed they had experienced at least one incident of physical sexual
abuse.
According to
the 2005 multi-country study on domestic violence undertaken by the
WHO, between 10 and 12 percent of women in Peru, Samoa and Tanzania
have suffered sexual violence by non-partners after the age of 15.
Other population-based studies reveal that 11.6 percent of women in
Canada reported sexual violence by a non-partner in their lifetime, and
between 10 and 20 percent of women in New Zealand and Australia have
experienced various forms of sexual violence from non-partners,
including unwanted sexual touching, attempted rape and rape.
In many
societies, the legal system and community attitudes add to the trauma
that rape survivors experience. Women are often held responsible for
the violence against them, and in many places laws contain loopholes
which allow the perpetrators to act with impunity. In a number of
countries, a rapist can go free if he proposes to marry the victim.
Trafficking
involves the recruitment and transportation of persons, using
deception, coercion and threats to keep them in a situation of forced
labour or servitude. Persons are trafficked into a variety of sectors
of the informal economy, including prostitution, domestic work,
agriculture, the garment industry or street begging.
While exact
data are hard to come by, estimates of the number of trafficked persons
range from 500,000 to four million per year. Although women, men, girls
and boys can become victims, the majority are female. Various forms of
gender-based discrimination trap millions of women and girls in
poverty. This puts them at higher risk of becoming targeted by
traffickers, who use false promises of jobs and educational
opportunities to recruit their victims. Trafficking is often connected
to organized crime and has developed into a highly profitable business
that generates an estimated US$7-12 billion per year.
Trafficking
is usually a trans-border crime. According to a 2006 UN global report
on trafficking, 127 countries have been documented as countries of
origin, and 137 as countries of destination. The main countries of
origin are in Central and South-Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS) and Asia, followed by West Africa, Latin
America and the Caribbean. The most commonly reported countries of
destination are in Western Europe, Asia and Northern America. By 2006,
93 countries had prohibited trafficking.
The victims
in today's armed conflicts are far more likely to be civilians than
soldiers. Some 70 percent of the casualties in recent conflicts have
been non-combatants, most of them women and children. Women's bodies
have become part of the battleground for those who use terror as a
tactic of war - they are raped, abducted, humiliated and made to
undergo forced pregnancy, sexual abuse and slavery. Violence against
women has been reported in every international or non-international
war-zone, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Colombia, Cote
d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Peru, Rwanda,
Sierra Leone, Chechnya/Russian Federation, Darfur, Sudan, northern
Uganda and the former Yugoslavia.
A 2002
UNIFEM-sponsored report on the issue quoted a UN official in Goma,
Democratic Republic of Congo, on the terror of daily life for people in
the region: "From Pweto down near the Zambian border right up to Aru on
the Sudan/Uganda border, it's a black hole where no one is safe and
where no outsider goes. Women take a risk when they go out to the
fields or on a road to a market. Any day they can be stripped naked,
humiliated and raped in public. Many, many people no longer sleep at
home, though sleeping in the bush is equally unsafe. Every night,
another village is attacked. It could be any group, no one knows, but
they always take away women and girls."
Recently, UN
Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes reported that more than 32,000
cases of rape and sexual violence have been registered in South Kivu
Province alone since 2005 - just a fraction of the total number of
women subjected to such extreme suffering.
UNIFEM says
that "Protection and support for women survivors of violence in
conflict and post-conflict areas is woefully inadequate." Access to
social services, protection, legal remedies, medical resources, and
places of refuge is limited despite the efforts of local NGOs to
provide assistance. A climate of impunity further exacerbates the
situation, and serves as an incentive to ongoing violence.
UN Security
Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, adopted in 2000,
calls for women's equal participation in peace and security issues. But
almost a decade later much more effort is needed to strengthen
mechanisms to prevent, investigate, report, prosecute and remedy
violence against women in times of war, and to ensure their voices are
heard in building peace.
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2) HOW THE FEDERAL
BUDGET FAILS WOMEN
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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.)
A week prior to
the Jan. 27 federal budget, the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality
and Human Rights sent an Open Letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
calling for measures that would strengthen the economy by strengthening
the equality of women in Canada. But every key proposal raised by the
Coalition was ignored in the budget.
First, the
Tories maintained their opposition to pay equity, refusing to rescind
Finance Minister Flaherty's anti-equity proposal in the November
economic statement. As the Coalition said, "In the 21st century,
women's equality is not, and should never be, a bargaining chip. It is
irresponsible to continue to impose discriminatory wages upon half the
population by ignoring the remedy, particularly in a time of economic
crisis. Equal pay for work of equal value is one of the `fundamentals'
of a healthy economy."
Next, the
budget did nothing to advance a Canada-wide child care program, based
on the principles of quality, universality, and accessibility. Noting
that people's access to the labour market would be greatly facilitated
by dependable child care services, the Coalition warns that "soaring
child care costs and lack of spaces keep many women who choose to work
unemployed or underemployed."
On the
critical issue of Employment Insurance, the Coalition pointed out that
"although women pay into EI, most women don't qualify for benefits. 70%
of part-time workers are women and almost two-thirds of minimum wage
earners in Canada are women. With wages far below the poverty line
already, many women can't live on 55% of their salary, even for a short
period of time." The Open Letter called for improved access to EI and
higher benefit levels for part-time, contract and self-employed
workers, none of which is in the budget.
Finally, the
Coalition called for a stimulus package which includes investment in
social infrastructure: affordable housing, anti-poverty programs, green
technologies and environmental incentives, and improved conditions for
Aboriginal people across the country.
Although the
Jan. 27 budget paid lip service so some of these social infrastructure
proposals, in general it ignored the real needs which concern member
groups of the Ad Hoc Coalition.
(For more information, see http://www.womensequality.ca)
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3) A MASSIVE CAMPAIGN
ON EI IS NEEDED
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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, Chair of the Central
Trade Union Commission, Communist Party of Canada
When Canada's
first Unemployment Insurance Act was implemented in 1940, it was the
last such plan adopted in all the developed countries, and seriously
flawed from the outset. The exclusion of workers in agriculture,
horticulture, forestry, fishing, public sector workers, nurses and
teachers narrowed its scope to less than half the work force. New
claims required 20 weeks of insurable earnings, and renewal of expired
claims required from 12 to 20 weeks, depending in which of the 58
regional statistical areas one lived in. Benefits were paid at about
55% of earnings, applied against a maximum of $780 per week, and lasted
from 14 to 50 weeks depending on the unemployment rate of your region.
While there
have been slight improvements over the years (limited coverage for
sickness or pregnancy, etc.) numerous Task Forces and Commissions have
recommended to a succession of governments restricted qualification and
cutbacks in benefits. One exception was the government of Pierre
Trudeau, which implemented the 10/42 formula and payments for maternity
and sickness leave. The 10/42 formula provided a renewal of benefits
after 10 weeks of contributions for 42 weeks; the first claim still
required 20 weeks with a minimum of 15 hours per week.
The most
serious attack on workers (especially women) came in 1997 when the
Liberal government changed the name to Employment Insurance, arrogantly
declaring that an overhaul was needed because too many workers were
working just to qualify for benefits. They brought in "reforms" that
set up the biggest expropriation, theft or fraud (choose your term) of
workers' money in our history, and simultaneously disqualified millions
from eligibility to collect from a plan to which they are forced to
contribute.
This
resembles the extortion protection rackets of organized crime, but on a
bigger and more "professional" level. The previous 20 weeks at 15 hours
qualifier was converted to qualifying hours with an estimated 35 hour
week. What had previously been 300 hours over 20 weeks now became 700
hours to qualify. This change set off the present disgraceful area
disparity, gender discrimination, massive disqualifications,
impoverishment of workers and the accumulated theft of $54.4 billion
that should have been paid out to the unemployed.
It would be
possible to study statistics for a long time in Canada's 58 EI regions,
since each has its own formula that determines eligibility, and
duration and amount of benefits. For approximately 70-75% of workers
this is incidental, because they do not qualify.
The plan
discriminates against women big time, because it does not take into
account their social existence, the way they are forced to earn a
living, and the double-duty responsibilities of motherhood and
nurturing society in general, mostly for free. In the last three
decades there has been a tremendous influx of women into the workforce,
up to a level about equal in numbers with men. While this was
happening, workplace and employment conditions changed radically,
especially under the onslaught of Free Trade, de-industrialization,
union busting and deregulation. In short, the neoliberal corporate
offensive, where every part of your body, your labour-power, your
family, culture and genetic composition become commodities to be sold,
traded or stolen.
Of all the
men, women and children toiling in Canada at the present time, 39% are
employed in "precarious" jobs: short term contracts, permanent
part-time, casual part-time, etc. This is institutionalized
instability, dangling by a weak thread that can snap at any minute,
affecting more women than men.
There are
also thousands of women who must leave employment to nurture children,
or to look after family members and the elderly. They don't even rate a
statistical category.
It is almost
impossible for casual or part-time workers (2.1 million women and one
million men last year) to qualify for EI. Things are bad and getting
worse. There is a Revenue Canada provision that if less than $2000 is
earned in a year, the victim can reclaim monies extorted from their
earnings by EI. In 2002, 656,870 such workers earned less than $2000.
The federal
government is holding $54.4 billion stolen from disenfranchised
workers, extracted weekly from the wages of those working, stolen from
the 70% who will pay and not qualify. In the case of women workers, and
especially younger women, as many as 80% may never collect from the
fund they sustain. Even if everyone qualified, benefits are inadequate
at a maximum of about $429 per week. Only about 50% of those collecting
get that maximum, after a two week waiting period with no income at all.
Genuine
Employment Insurance reform is a fight the labour movement must take
up. More than any other, this is the fight we can win, the foot in the
door, the thin edge of the wedge. Universal qualification and payments
of 90% of wages, starting the first week and lasting for the duration
of unemployment, would be the best stimulus our crumbling economy could
have.
Together with
fully public Medicare, childcare and education, this is the basis of
the social safety net the people of this country deserve, providing the
ability to spend in the domestic market, to provide for children, to
live our lives with dignity and respect.
This fight
would recruit the entire working class, especially the youth, and
replenish the labour movement both ideologically and with millions of
new members. It was the struggles of the dispossessed and unemployed
which led to massive recruitment into the ranks of labour in the 1940s,
after fifteen years of depression and war.
Hopefully the
54 labour leaders who met in Ottawa in mid-February will deliver on
their welcome promise of massive campaigning. Hopefully they will
forget their suggestion of a summit meeting of labour, business,
government and community leaders - a stacked deck card game where they
will be outnumbered and recruited.
Such a summit
should be with our social justice partners, with Aboriginal peoples,
with trade union activists, not with the capitalist class that brought
us to this crisis. We should look to the militancy of the French, the
Greeks, and other struggles sweeping across Europe.
There were
126,000 jobs lost in January 2009 and a predicted 400,000 more by
year's end. These workers and their families can be organized into a
massive force for change; labour must lead them.
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4) LABOUR LEADERS
PLEDGE TO "MOBILIZE FOR CHANGE"
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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.)
Commentary
by People's Voice editor Kimball Cariou
Two different
themes emerged from a recent labour gathering in Ottawa - a welcome
call for a mass mobilization to campaign for people's needs, but also
an appeal for a "summit" involving business, labour, and government.
The February
meeting convened by the Canadian Labour Congress brought together
leaders of 54 trade unions, along with presidents of provincial and
territorial federations of labour. In total, the unions represent 3.2
million members, although not sections of the Quebec labour movement
which are not affiliated to the CLC.
A statement
following the meeting said that "Canada's labour leaders have given a
resounding thumbs-down to the economic stimulus package presented in
the federal budget. While it may address some of the difficult
circumstances that working families face, they say it is fundamentally
flawed and fails to address the problems faced by the hundreds of
thousands of people who are losing their jobs."
The union
leaders pledged to provide the resources necessary to wage a campaign
for change, "one that would mobilize Canadians to demand that the
federal government do more for the victims of the recession while
continuing to provide the economic stimulus that's needed to save jobs
while building the infrastructure we need to remain prosperous."
"We can do
better for the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have and who will
lose their jobs because of what has happened to our economy. They did
not cause the economic crisis that has robbed them of their
livelihoods. Neither did the thousands who have seen their life savings
and their dreams for a comfortable retirement taken away because of the
rampant greed that right-wing governments unleashed and let run wild in
the financial markets. We can do more for them. We must do more for
them," said CLC President Ken Georgetti, who chaired the meeting.
Aiming to
"amplify the voices of the innocent victims of this crisis until our
governments hear them," the campaign will include mass rallies and
demonstrations, as well as an education and advocacy campaign "to give
people an outlet for their anger and frustration."
"There's
anger out there and tremendous frustration," said Georgetti. "It is an
anger that needs to be given a voice and a face for the government to
really see them, so it can understand that it is not doing enough and
needs to change its program. It is also an anger that needs to be
focussed on finding solutions so the mistakes and flawed politics that
lead to this crisis are not repeated again."
But at the
same time, the labour leaders called for a "National Summit of labour,
business and community leaders to discuss those solutions to the
economic crisis facing workers and their families."
"We need an
economy that values a healthy private sector and a vibrant public
sector working together for the benefit of all," said Georgetti.
The Congress
is calling for improved access and an increase in Employment Insurance
benefits, and more training and adjustment programs to laid-off
workers. Another key part of the CLC plan is major public investment in
infrastructure, manufacturing and public services, a Made-in-Canada
procurement policy, and government contracts to promote a strong public
sector, unionization and inclusion of women and workers of colour in
good jobs. The Labour Congress urges "sector renewal strategies
designed to save jobs and promote successful restructuring in hard-hit
industries such as auto and forest products," as well as strategies to
support cultural industries, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.
Not least, it calls for maintaining equalization and other transfers to
provinces and cities for public infrastructure, public services and
social programs.
However, it
remains to be seen exactly what form the CLC-led campaign will take.
The policies advocated by the Labour Congress would take Canada in a
very different and positive direction, in sharp contrast to the Harper
Tory budget. But the "National Summit" can only be seen as a revival of
the old "tripartism" concept, leaving labour and its allies outgunned
around the table by the big corporations and one of the most right-wing
federal governments in the capitalist world, the very forces whose
neoliberal policies helped pave the way for the economic crisis.
If the CLC
chooses to focus on such a "Summit", efforts to mobilize working people
for different policies would inevitably suffer. On the other hand, if
the Summit proposal turns out to be a sideshow, a labour-led mass
campaign may well be in the cards.
One way to
help turn events in this direction is to keep the heat on at the
grassroots level, building stronger local demonstrations and fightback
alliances. Two of the largest people's coalitions to emerge during the
1980s - the Action Canada Network and the Canadian Peace Alliance -
both grew out of such local efforts, building to the point where the
CLC and other cross-Canada organizations were drawn into the struggle.
But the fight
for pro-working class policies will be at the heart of this process. We
don't need "solutions that help everybody," if that means prioritizing
the profits of corporate shareholders. Now more than ever, we need
solutions that include public ownership of key industries and
resources; anything less leaves the economy in the hands of
corporations, at the expense of Canadian sovereignty and working class
needs. No "business-labour Summit" will ever agree to such an approach
- let's not waste time going down that dead end road.
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5) NORTH AMERICAN AUTO
PACT NOT THE ANSWER
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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
Liz Rowley
Disastrous news in
the auto industry has left autoworkers scared and confused as they fear
for their jobs, their living standards and their future.
Massive
layoffs and plant closures and the threat of more to come, wage and
benefit cuts, evaporating pensions, and the highest trade deficit (far
more imports than exports), threaten not only the 40,000 Ontario
workers employed directly by the auto companies, but also everyone who
has one of the 7.5 indirect and spin-off jobs dependent on the auto
assembly jobs.
Auto is the
engine of the Canadian economy, the heart of the manufacturing sector.
What happens with auto will have an enormous impact on what happens to
Ontario in particular.
To the push
for concessions, the CAW has linked its response to its demand for a
national strategy on auto by the federal and provincial governments.
Part of that strategy, says the CAW, should be government support for a
North American auto pact.
The Canada-US
auto pact that guaranteed Canadian jobs for almost 40 years was signed
in 1962. It provided the US automakers with access to the Canadian
market in exchange for guaranteed assembly jobs and plants in Canada.
Autoworkers here made cars, trucks and vans for Canadians and even more
for export. For these workers, who were guaranteed permanent, high paid
and unionized jobs, the Auto Pact did the trick. Whether the plants
were Canadian or US-owned seemed immaterial to most workers.
But in 2001,
the World Trade Organization struck down the Auto Pact as an unfair
trade barrier. Unfair, that is, to other foreign automakers who wanted
unfettered access to the Canadian and North American market, free of
encumbrances such as job and investment guarantees. US automakers, who
had enjoyed a monopoly on the Canadian market, suddenly had competition
from Asian and European carmakers with better products, and in Canada
at least, union-free workplaces. US car plants started moving south.
Since 2003, over 300,000 manufacturing jobs have been lost, many of
them in auto or related sectors.
Now the
economic recession and credit crisis are thinning out the auto
companies, and workers are being asked to bailout the hardiest with
wage cuts, job cuts, and cuts to pensions and benefits. According to
the federal government, bailing out the survivors, with conditions, is
the way to protect auto jobs and the auto industry.
The CAW has
come up with a proposal for a new North American auto pact that would
protect the North American jobs of the Big Three automakers from Asian
and European competitors. They advocate this as a way to protect
Canadian jobs.
But the
original auto pact was a stop-gap, a band-aid that worked for a time
before being wiped out by free trade and the global reach of the
transnational corporations.
Workers'
interests briefly coincided with the interests of the US carmakers, to
produce cars in Canada, but not for long, and not for much. A more
lasting solution then, and now, was for a Canadian car industry, not
private, but publicly-owned and controlled.
The bail-outs
should be rejected in favour of nationalization under public democratic
control, and the production of a Canadian car that's small, affordable,
fuel-efficient, and environmentally sustainable.
This one step
would set the stage for a transportation policy that would involve the
building of a mass public transit industry in Canada, including light
rail for urban and inter-city transit, a machine tool-industry,
ship-building, and more.
We need a
different approach today. Our approach to the auto industry should
signify what kind of overall strategy Canada really needs, and what
will benefit workers today and tomorrow.
- Liz Rowley is
the leader of Communist Party (Ontario).
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6) JOB LOSSES AND
PROTESTS KEEP MOUNTING WORLD-WIDE
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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
Clarence Torcoran
Worldwide job
losses from the recession that started in the United States could hit a
staggering 50 million by the end of 2009, according to the
International Labor Organization.
High
unemployment rates, especially among young workers, have led to
protests in countries as varied as Latvia, Chile, Greece, Bulgaria,
Iceland, and the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, and contributed
to strikes in Britain and France. Unemployment in Britain is expected
to rise to 9.5 percent by the middle of 2010, from 6.3 percent now,
according to Peter Dixon, an economist with Commerzbank in London.
Germany's jobless rate could rise to 10.5 percent from 7.8 percent, he
added.
The
government of Iceland, where the economy is expected to shrink 10
percent this year, collapsed and the prime minister moved up elections
after weeks of protests against soaring unemployment and rising prices.
Pro-capitalist forces in Eastern Europe fear that the crisis might
further weaken support for their "free-market" policies.
Meanwhile,
the new United States director of national intelligence, Dennis C.
Blair, told Congress that instability caused by the global economic
crisis had become the biggest security threat facing the United States,
outpacing terrorism. The slowdown has already claimed 3.6 million jobs
in the United States.
The
International Monetary Fund expects that by the end of 2009 year, the
developed capitalist countries will see a two percent economic decline.
In Asia,
relief at having escaped losses on U.S. subprime debt has been erased
by a plunge in sales among major exporters. On Feb. 11, Pioneer of
Japan said it would abandon the flat-screen TV business and cut 10,000
jobs worldwide in response to sagging demand for consumer electronics.
Millions of
migrant workers in mainland China are searching for jobs as factories
shut down. In Taiwan, exports were down 42.9 percent in January,
compared with a year ago, the steepest plunge in Asia.
Here in
Canada, an estimated 213,000 jobs have been lost since last October,
when the Harper Tories were still claiming that the economy was
"fundamentally sound." This includes a record one-month decline of
129,000 in January. The biggest hits have come in the manufacturing
sector, which has already seen one in seven jobs wiped out over the
last five years.
One sign of
the changing times is the rising layoff of migrant workers. In Alberta,
many businesses have imported skilled and unskilled foreign workers in
recent years. There were 37,527 temporary foreign workers in Alberta in
2007, according to the most recent government data. Now, these workers
are usually the first to be laid off.
"The sky has
started to fall on all construction workers in Alberta, but it's fallen
first and fastest on the temporary foreign workers. There's no doubt,"
says Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour.
The Centre
for Newcomers in Calgary has been hearing from anxious temporary
foreign workers since the Alberta economy started to go downhill, said
Renato Abanto, who co-ordinates the centre's temporary foreign worker
settlement program.
"They don't
have a source of income. They cannot pay the rent. They don't have
food, so sometimes what we do is we refer them to the food bank or some
housing agencies," Abanto said.
Some workers
are simply cutting their losses and going back home. Under Canada's
temporary foreign worker program, employers are required to pay the
plane fare home for unskilled labourers who have been let go, but not
for skilled engineers, designers and other professions.
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7) MINE MILL LOCAL
FIGHTS 700 LAYOFFS IN SUDBURY
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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
Seven busloads of
angry miners arrived at Tony Clement's door on Feb. 23, demanding the
federal government intervene to stop 700 illegal layoffs at Sudbury's
Falconbridge mines, announced Feb. 9 by Swiss mining company Xstrata.
Dwight
Harper, President of CAW Local 598 Mine Mill, said Xstrata has violated
the terms of the 2006 agreement whereby Investment Canada approved the
takeover of Falconbridge in exchange for guarantees of no layoffs for
at least three years.
Xstrata will
also close three mines in Sudbury, citing low commodity prices for
nickel and high operating costs - the usual reasons given by mining
companies for layoffs and closures in the hardscrabble boom-bust cycle
of life in Ontario's mining towns.
Industry
Minister Tony Clement, who approved the company's decision to break the
2006 agreement, is thought to have done so at a meeting with the
company a week before the announcements.
The union is
demanding transcripts of the meeting, along with a copy of the original
agreement with Investment Canada that opened the door to the sale.
Falconbridge and Inco were sold to foreign-based companies respectively
in the last five years. The takeovers sent shock waves across Canada,
marking another huge step in the foreign takeover of the country's
nickel and natural resources.
Forcing the
company to adhere to the July 2009 date for any layoffs would provide
workers with an additional seven weeks of pay and seniority. This
demand is supported by local NDP MPPs, Labour Councils in Sudbury and
Huntsville (where Clement's office is located), and by workers facing
the bleak prospect of indefinite layoffs in a single industry town.
The Communist
Party also supports the union's demands, but is further demanding that
the federal government intervene to stop the layoffs altogether. "Not
now, and not in July" said Communist Party (Ontario) leader Liz Rowley.
"There's no reason for layoffs except falling profits - corporate greed
in other words, and that's no reason to throw a community overboard. In
fact, these layoffs will deepen the recession in Canada and threaten
workers and communities across northern Ontario. And they'll send a
message to Inco that governments in Canada roll over on demand."
"It's time we
looked at nationalizing the nickel companies, putting them under public
ownership and democratic control," said Rowley. "It's pretty clear the
interests of these transnational corporations are at odds with the
interests of the country as well as the community and the workers."
"And it's
time we had plant closure legislation that would force these
corporations - including the transnational mining companies - to
justify layoffs and closures before public tribunals that have the
powers to stop and prevent them," she said. "Xstrata needs to get the
message that workers and communities aren't disposable."
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8) "THE FEAR OF
DEPORTATION IS ALWAYS LOOMING"
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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.)
Farrah Miranda is
a young activist with Toronto's No
One Is Illegal group of
immigrants, refugees and allies who fight for the rights of all
migrants to live with dignity and respect. PV spoke with her about the
ongoing fight for women fleeing gender violence to have shelter,
sanctuary and status.
People's Voice: What is Immigration
Enforcement doing in women's shelters?
Farrah Miranda: In the past year or
so they have been approaching
women's shelters,
waiting outside or knocking on the doors, to search for women without
immigration status in the hopes of deporting them. This has been
happening across the GTA. So far there have been cases of unsuccessful
attempts to enter and apprehend women, in one instance immigration
officials pretended to be social service workers to get in through the
door. In other cases they have apprehended women just outside of the
shelter.
PV: You have criticism of the
Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Farrah Miranda:
The nature of the immigration and refugee determination process is
similar to a lottery. The board members, politically appointed by the
party that is in power - they are not elected - have very little
understanding of the countries the applicants are from. The rejection
rate for refugee applications is about sixty per cent. Women who have
fled gender violence, or people who have fled violence based on their
sex or gender, are often not recognized as real refugees. In past years
we've worked with numerous women in this situation.
For example,
we worked with Isabel Garcia, a single mother and survivor of domestic
violence. She and her children were denied their claim for asylum and
told it was safe for them to return to Mexico despite violent attacks
they have endured, and death threats. We were told that they can
receive protection by Mexican police. The statistics are that four
women in Mexico are murdered daily, that these murders are often
uninvestigated, and that perpetrators are not caught.
Mexico has
the highest number of refugee claims. Mexicans are the community that
has the highest rejection rate. This is not a coincidence. Look at
NAFTA. Millions of people have been displaced, left with no choice but
to migrate. Now they're being turned down as refugees. The only option
to stay is to live and work in deplorable conditions, under the table.
Despite
tremendous public pressure, hundreds of signatures, and a lobby by 120
women's organizations nationally for Isabel Garcia, the Ministry refuse
to intervene in her case. Isabel and her two children are presently
living underground, struggling everyday to survive.
PV: Have you seen changes with the
Harper Conservatives?
Farrah Miranda: We
have seen similar statistics in terms of rejection of refugee claims,
but there has been a massive rise in enforcement, and a shift in the
types of tactics - waiting outside shelter doors, arresting children in
schools, waiting outside schools, doing workplace raids, this is a sign
of heightened enforcement activity, one that needs to be met with
significant community mobilization and outreach.
PV: This mobilization is building
for International Women's Day?
Farrah Miranda:
Anti-violence against women advocates, shelters, crisis centers,
assault centres, trade unions, organizations that provide direct
support, we will mark International Women's Day by calling for shelter
sanctuary status and status for all, to stand up for survivors of
violence in our communities, demanding Immigration Enforcement get out
of shelters, and an end to violence against women.
PV: What does all this say about
Canada's Immigration policy?
Farrah Miranda:
Canada's immigration policy is set up to prohibit poor and working
people from having a real chance to get permanent status. It's designed
to create an ever increasing pool of cheap exploitable labour. I see it
as a revolving door. Workers are shipped in and shipped out and this
revolving door maintains a system of fear. It intends to keep workers
silent in the face of low wages and bad working conditions. The fear of
detention and deportation is always looming.
I think we're
seeing with the implementation of Bill C50 a shift towards less even
fewer avenues for permanent status - like increasing temporary work
programmes. We see an increased willingness of corporations to
important a supply of cheap labour because they can't force people with
Canadian citizenship to work under these conditions.
(A YouTube can be found by searching the site for "Shelter Sanctuary
Status")
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9) GM PLACE WORKERS
WANT DIGNITY AND JUSTICE
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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
Next time you
shell out eight bucks for a beer or a hot dog at General Motors Place,
remember that the profits from those outrageous prices go to Orca Bay
(owners of the Vancouver Canucks) and to global food service contractor
Aramark, which employs the GM Place workers.
Without a
contract since December, 750 concessions and other food service workers
at GM Place are demanding respect from Aramark, which rings up $13
billion annual sales. Their union, UNITE HERE Local 40, reports that
the company is trying to stall bargaining, but workers are determined
to see their contract settled before the end of the hockey season.
"The average
Aramark worker is an immigrant woman of colour juggling 2-3 jobs in
order to live in Vancouver and support a family," says UNITE HERE.
"Many Aramark workers also work as caregivers, as housekeepers or in
other food service jobs, in addition to their jobs at GM Place. Many
are long term GM Place workers yet they are not treated with respect.
85% of Aramark workers use public transportation. Some commute up to
two hours to and from work for a four hour shift. Aramark currently
refuses to administer - at no cost to the company - a transit pass
program that would give employees a 20% discount on transit costs that
eat up as much as one-quarter of a shift's wages."
The GM Place
workers are fighting for decent wages, healthcare benefits, job
security and respect. But the company wants to cut the current 4-hour
minimum shift to a 2-hour minimum. GM Place is a 2010 Olympic hockey
venue, but Aramark refuses to guarantee work for its long term food
service employees during the Games. More than half of Aramark workers
who qualify for medical benefits aren't receiving them.
This contract
struggle also includes an important demand for equal treatment. Aramark
refuses to provide secure and dignified changing room facilities for
500 women workers, who must use 250 lockers while crammed into a tiny
changing room, while 250 men have 250 lockers and ample room to change.
UNITE HERE is
holding a support rally for its GM Place members on Friday, Feb. 27, on
the Abbott Street side of the arena at 4:45 pm. Look for coverage in
our next issue.
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10) STILL TIME TO BRING
TROOPS HOME
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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
While it's way too
soon to predict the full impact of Barack Obama's election, his brief
visit to Ottawa hinted at some of the potentials and pitfalls. Most
Canadians are optimistic that the new President will steer away from
his predecessor's drive to war and fascism. But the challenges facing
President Obama and the U.S. people are daunting indeed, not least the
powerful grip of the military-oil-industrial complex over their country.
We share the
hope that after a million deaths, the long nightmare of US occupation
in Iraq is nearing an end, and we welcome Obama's admission that a
military solution to the problems of Afghanistan is not possible.
Parliament should act accordingly and begin removing Canadian troops
from this quagmire immediately, not in 2011. Such a move would
strengthen the anti-war forces in the United States, helping to dispel
illusions that the "Afghan surge" will somehow bring "positive results."
On another
topic related to the President's visit, his focus on "clean energy" and
the serious impact of climate change was an important break from the
Bush regime. This shift allows new options for Canada to move away from
the Tory/Liberal policies of continental integration and "shared"
energy resources. The time has come for a widespread genuine debate
around public ownership of energy as the key to simultaneously reducing
environmental destruction, rebuilding Canadian industry, and abrogating
the NAFTA deal which drastically reduces Canadian sovereignty.
These and
other issues which arose during Obama's brief visit show that the
momentum for real change is growing. Here in Canada, success depends on
building a powerful people's movement to drive out the Harper Tories,
and to establish a People's Alternative Coalition based on people's
needs, not corporate greed. Yes, we can do it - if we have the
political will!
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11) REPRESSION WON'T END
DRUG WARS
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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
The latest
outbreak of gang-related shootings in the Vancouver area has sparked
calls for a massive police crackdown, stiffer jail sentences, and new
powers to allow government surveillance of private emails. The grief of
families and friends of innocent people caught in the crossfire of
violence is completely understandable. But such repressive measures
will do little to resolve the problem. We have only to look south of
the border to see that such strategies bring no real decrease in
criminal violence, despite a huge rise in the numbers of prisoners,
especially from racialized communities.
The root of
gang violence, in BC and elsewhere, is quite simple. We live in a
capitalist society, where investors seek to maximize profits. The "war
on drugs," far from reducing drug abuse, mainly serves to increase the
price of illegal commodities, and the profit margins for capitalists
who control this industry. This newspaper is certainly not the first to
draw parallels with the Prohibition era, when bootleggers of illegal
alcohol made fortunes which were later invested in "legal" enterprises.
Only the end of Prohibition halted the violence associated with these
gangs.
As with
alcohol - sold legally by the government and private vendors - drug
abuse inflicts enormous damage on individuals, families, and society as
a whole. But this is a health and social problem, not one which can be
solved primarily using the blunt tools of law enforcement. A
health-based approach is the key to removing the enormous profits and
the resulting violence from the drug trade. Instead of pouring billions
of dollars into more police, courts, and jails, we need to create jobs,
provide free education and training for youth, build more affordable
housing, and provide treatment facilities and programs for all those
who need them. The "war on drugs" has failed. It's time for a new
approach.
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12) WHAT CAUSED THE
ECONOMIC CRISIS?
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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.)
Excerpts
from the report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of
Canada, Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2009.
The most
significant development since our last meeting in August 2008 is the
deepening global economic crisis that had been maturing for several
years, but which erupted in force with the stock market crashes in
early October and which has been unfolding in the material (goods and
services) economy with ever-greater intensity and rapidity since. The
early signs of the impending crisis emerged in the US financial sector
in August 2007, but as predicted at our December 2007 CC meeting, it
soon grew to encompass the entire US and world capitalist economies. At
latest count, most of the leading capitalist countries - the U.S.,
Germany, Japan and Canada among them - are now `officially' in
recession, but even these statistics mask the universal breadth of the
global crisis.
No domestic
economy will be spared its devastating impact. Even the humming Chinese
economy is now sliding into a major downturn as exports plummet and
factories have begun laying off workers in the millions. The latest
International Labour Organization report has recently predicted global
job losses this year alone will exceed 50 million, but even this is
likely a conservative estimate. Third world economies will be
especially hard-hit as commodity prices plunge, global demand for
manufactured goods slumps, and as advanced capitalist countries cut
back on foreign aid and direct foreign investment.
In such a
situation all of the contradictions plaguing the global economy, and
social disparities within each of the countries, will be further
exacerbated. The working class, peasantry and the marginalized in the
poorer countries will be hardest hit because the `social safety net' in
such countries is much weaker or virtually nonexistent....
The
manifestations of the crisis are readily apparent everywhere; what is
critically important for the working class and for our Party however is
an understanding of its basic causes, its roots. Big Business interests
and their governments, and even reformists from the camp of social
democracy, have vested interests in keeping the real nature of the
crisis well hidden, because bringing the truth to light would lead
working people and other oppressed and exploited segments of the people
to question the very nature of the dominant system, and ultimately to
organize and fight for a fundamental socialist alternative to monopoly
capitalism, to imperialism.
If one were
to listen and believe the recent comments of, for instance, British
(Labour) Prime Minister Gordon Brown or U.S. President Barack Obama,
one would be led to conclude that the real culprits responsible for the
current economic meltdown are a handful of `irresponsible' bankers and
investment brokers. Naming a `fall guy' is a tried-and-true method to
steer the working class away from making a systemic critique of the
inner `boom and bust' workings of capitalism.
Cyclical
crises under capitalism are nothing new - they are in fact an inherent
and recurring feature of the capitalist mode of production. What
distinguishes the current crisis from previous ones are those features
which have come to play a dominant role in the process of capital
accumulation, in particular the role of speculative capital...
Governments
are not the only victims of spiralling debt. As we noted in December
2007, the prolongation of the `growth phase' leading up to the current
meltdown was achieved by maintaining mass consumption at artificially
high levels for a protracted period through the extension of more and
more paper credit. "What is new in the current situation is not the
extension of credit per se, but rather the scale of that credit
extension. This development reflects the increasingly parasitical
character of finance capitalism in today's world," our Central
Committee concluded.
Such
objective dynamics in the development of monopoly capitalism have been
in turn spurred on and exacerbated by the neoliberal policies pursued
by all the leading imperialist states. While they succeeded in the
short run in accelerating the accumulation of capital and overcoming
the general tendency, as Marx and Engels noted, for the rate of profit
to decline, the `debt bubble' and the growing gap between real and
paper wealth eventually had to give way. Other structural
contradictions of the systemic crisis of capitalism, such as increasing
and permanent militarization and the impact of environmental
degradation have combined to give rise to a `perfect storm,' as even
some bourgeois economists have come to describe it.
These
structural aspects of the systemic crisis of global capitalism are
staggering. Take the impact of growing militarization, for instance.
According to a report issued by the Stockholm International Peace
Research Institute, by 2006 world military expenditures had reached
$1,204 billion, a 37 per cent increase over the 10-year period since
1997. The USA was responsible for about 80 per cent of the increase and
its military expenditure now accounts for almost half of the world
total.
Add to this
the cost effect of environmental devastation. A recent World Wildlife
Fund study, The Living Planet, reports that every year 30% more
resources are being consumed than the Earth can replenish, which is
leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and
dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. As a result, we
are running up an ecological debt of $4 - $4.5 trillion dollars every
year - double the estimated losses made by the world's financial
institutions as a result of the credit crisis. The figure is based on a
UN report which calculated the economic value of services provided by
ecosystems destroyed annually, such as diminished rainfall for crops or
reduced flood protection.
It is
therefore important to emphasize that the current crisis is not the
result of the implementation of neoliberal policies such as free trade,
deregulation, privatization, and anti-labour employment policies, etc.;
rather, it is the inevitable outcome of the systemic crisis of
capitalism itself. That said, distortions wrought by neoliberal policy
have certainly intensified the reach and severity of the global crisis.
(Next issue: different approaches to addressing the crisis.)
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13) REVELATIONS OF US AND
BRITISH TORTURE CONTINUE
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice,
Canada's
leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the
source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low
income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers
- $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business
Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Special
to PV
New revelations
about torture techniques and policies in U.S. and British jails
continue to expose the true nature of the so-called "war on terror".
On Feb. 18,
the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released previously
classified excerpts of a US government report on interrogation
techniques used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, detailing
repeated use of torture and even prisoner deaths. The documents contain
a report on Defence Department interrogations, by Vice Admiral Albert
T. Church.
Church
specifically calls interrogations at Bagram Air base in Afghanistan as
"clearly abusive, and clearly not in keeping with any approved
interrogation policy or guidance."
On the same
day, Freedom of Information documents released by three other human
rights groups revealed that the Pentagon ran secret prisons in Bagram
and Iraq, and that it cooperated with the CIA's "ghost detention"
program.
"[Prisoners]
were handcuffed to fixed objects above their heads in order to keep
them awake," reads one document relating to two particular cases.
"Additionally, interrogations in both incidents involved the use of
physical violence, including kicking, beating, and the use of
`compliance blows' which involved striking the [prisoners] legs with
the [interrogators] knees. In both cases, blunt force trauma to the
legs was implicated in the deaths. In one case, a pulmonary embolism
developed as a consequence of the blunt force trauma, and in the other
case pre-existing coronary artery disease was complicated by the blunt
force trauma."
Other
documents concerned "the homicide or involuntary manslaughter" of
detainee Dilar Dababa by US forces in 2003 in Iraq. The prisoner was
subjected to torture at "The Disco", located at Mosul Airfield in Iraq.
"The abuse consisted of filling his jumpsuit with ice, then hosing him
down and making him stand for long periods of time, sometimes in front
of an air conditioner; forcing him to lay down and drink water until he
gagged, vomited or choked, having his head banged against a hot steel
plate while hooded and interrogated; being forced to do leg lifts with
bags of ice placed on his ankles, and being kicked when he could not do
more."
Meanwhile,
the UK Guardian newspaper reported on Feb. 16 that "a policy governing
the interrogation of terrorism suspects in Pakistan that led to British
citizens and residents being tortured was devised by MI5 lawyers and
figures in government."
A number of
British terrorism suspects detained without trial in Pakistan say they
were tortured by Pakistani intelligence agents before being questioned
by MI5. In some cases their accusations are supported by medical
evidence.
The existence
of an official interrogation policy emerged during cross-examination in
the high court in London of an MI5 officer who had questioned one of
the detainees, Binyam Mohamed, a British resident currently held in
Guantanamo Bay. Mohamed is expected to return to Britain soon after
ending a five-week hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay, where he was being
force-fed.
Mohamed told
his lawyers that before being questioned by MI5 he had been hung from
leather straps, beaten and threatened with a firearm by Pakistani
intelligence officers. After the meeting with MI5 he was "rendered" to
Morocco where he endured 18 months of even more brutal torture,
including having his genitals slashed with a scalpel. Some of the
questions put to him under torture in Morocco were based on information
passed by MI5 to the US.
The Guardian
reported that the interrogation policy was directed at a high level
within Whitehall (British foreign office headquarters).
A number of
British terrorism suspects have been questioned by British intelligence
officials, including MI5 officers, after periods of alleged torture by
Pakistani interrogators. Last year Manchester crown court heard that
MI5 and Greater Manchester police passed questions to Pakistani
interrogators for Rangzieb Ahmed, 35, from Rochdale. By the time Ahmed
was deported to the UK 13 months later, three of his fingernails had
disappeared from his left hand. He says they were removed with pliers
while he was being questioned about his associates in Pakistan, the
July 2005 terrorist attacks in London, and an alleged plot against the
United States.
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14) FIGUEROA TOUR TO
LAUNCH COMMUNIST CAMPAIGN
(The
following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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 demand for job
creation and improvements to Employment Insurance will be at the heart
of a cross-Canada political campaign launched by the Communist Party
this month. Party leader Miguel Figueroa will soon be on the road,
speaking at public forums and other events on this issue, starting in
British Columbia.
As the
Party's Central Committee pointed out last month, "among the Federal
Budget's worst features is the almost complete government inaction on
(un)Employment Insurance (EI). Instead of extending coverage to all of
the unemployed, and increasing benefit levels and claim periods, the
budget keeps virtually all of the current miserly and exclusionary
regulations firmly in place. The $2 billion for retraining jobless
workers is a tiny fraction of the $54 billion stolen from the
unemployed over the years through Liberal and Tory cuts. The federal
minimum wage remains unchanged and the budget does nothing to protect
and raise pensions or to improve social assistance.
"The failure
to act on EI reform is no accident or oversight; on the contrary, it is
quite purposeful. As unemployment rises (the latest figures for January
2009 show that another 129,000 jobs have been lost, resulting in a
spike in `official' unemployment to 7.2%, from 6.6% in December), so
does what Marx described as the `surplus army of labour.' This `army'-
especially when insufficiently-protected through unemployment coverage
or other forms of social assistance - is an invaluable tool in the
hands of the capitalist class, used to increase the fear and insecurity
among those still working so that employers can more easily extract
wage and benefit concessions from the workers. That is why the struggle
around EI and other direct improvements to the real incomes of the
working class is such a central question in the overall fight to
prevent the cost of paying for the crisis from being placed on the
backs of the people."
Miguel
Figueroa will speak at the Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark
Drive in Vancouver, at 7 pm, Sunday, March 15, as part of a visit to
British Columbia. From there, he heads to Alberta (March 18-19), and
then to Saskatchewan and Manitoba. For full details, contact the
Communist Party's central office, 416-469-2446.
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15) WHAT'S LEFT
(The following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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 solidarity events
The Canada Haiti Action Network is
organizing activities in cities
across Canada in late February and March, marking the 5th anniversary of the imperialist overthrow of the elected government of Haiti.
Journalist and filmmaker Kevin Pina lived
in and reported from Haiti
for many years. Now resident in the U.S., he continues to report for Pacifica Radio Network and
through the Haiti Information Project.
In
British Columbia, Kevin Pina will speak at several upcoming events:
* Victoria: Sat., Feb. 28, time and location
to be announced, organized by
Victoria Peace Coalition, 250-478-6906.
* Vancouver: Sunday, March 1, 2 pm, Harbour Center, 515
W. Hastings St.
* Also on March 1, at 5:45 pm, Kevin Pina
will speak in Delta, BC, at
the South Delta Baptist Church, 1988-56 Street.
* The director’s cut of Pina’s new 80-minute
film on Haiti, We Must
Kill All the Bandits, will screen on Sat., March 14, 10 am at
the Social Justice Film
Festival in Port Coquitlam, Trinity United Church, 2211 Prairie Ave.,
* and again on Sunday, March 29, 2 pm at SFU Harbour Center, hosted by Haiti
Solidarity BC.
* Pina will speak and screen his film at the
University of Calgary, March
2, time and location tba.
* In Fredericton, New Brunswick, We Must Kill All the Bandits will be screened on Friday, Feb. 27, 7 pm,
presented by Cinema Politica
at Conserver House, 180 St. John St.
* An evening with Kevin Pina will take
place at the Saskatoon Public Library, 311-23 St. East, on
Tuesday, March 3, 6 pm, call 306 955-0894
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IWD EVENTS
CALGARY, AB
Thursday,
March 5, 5:30-10:30 pm, IWD celebration and potluck - organized by
Women’s Centre of Calgary and
the Women’s
Committee of the Calgary District Labour
Council, at
the Carpenters’ Hall, 301-10 St. NW.
HAMILTON, ON
Sat.,
March 7, “When Sistahs Get Together” - all-day conference with guest speakers
and entertainment,
Staybridge Suites
Hotel, 118 Market St.
KINGSTON, ON
Sun., March 8, IWD Rally - starts 12:30 pm at Grant Hall,
43 University Ave., march at 1:30,
info fair
2:30-4:30 at 400 Elliott Ave. Organized by
International Women’s Week Coalition.
NOVA SCOTIA
Sat., March 7, 8 pm, “Song Enchanted Evening” - musical celebration of IWD,
proceeds to Juniper House Women’s
Shelter, at
the Osprey Arts Centre, Shelburne, NS, tickets
$15.
SASKATOON, SK
Sat., March 7, 6:30 pm, “Viewing Saskatoon Through the Lens of Immigrant Women” - celebration to support
women around
the world, at Mendel Art Gallery, 950 Spadina
Cres. East.
Organized by International Women of Saskatoon, 306-978-6611.
Sun.,
March 8, noon to 4 pm, “Voicing Our Strengths and Moving Forward Together” - drumming, speakers,
creative activities,
organized by United Nations Association, at
Mendel
Art Gallery.
SURREY, BC
Sat., March 7, 12:30-4 pm, Surrey’s 15th annual trade union-organized IWD event -
entertainment, refreshments, door prizes, children
welcome, at Queen
Elizabeth Secondary, 9457 King George
Highway, call 604-597-4358.
VANCOUVER, BC
Haiti
Today - Sunday, March 1, 2 pm, journalist Kevin Pina speaks at SFU Harbour Center, 515 Hastings St. W., on the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of the Aristide government. Organized by Haiti Solidarity BC, 604-338-2558.
Wed.,
March 4, 5-9 pm, “Celebrating Women’s Achievements Past and Present” - with speakers, music, light
refreshments. Free, open to all, at
the Alice
Mackay Room, Vancouver Public Library, 350
West Georgia
St. Organized by Oxfam, Amnesty
International, WeCan and other groups.
Friday,
March 6, celebrate women’s achievements, and stop violence, racism, and sexism.
Organized
by India Mahila Association, a
women-only, alcohol-free
event at Fraserview
Hall, 8240 Fraser St., doors open 6 pm,
welcome speech
and entertainment at 7 pm, dinner and dance
starting 8:30.
For tickets and info call 604-321-7225.
Sun.,
March 8, “A Woman’s Place is Everywhere!”, a century of women and work,
visual works by contemporary Canadian artists - workshop 2 pm, reception 4 pm, W2
Launch Pad,
116 W. Hastings.
Left Film Night - Saturday, March 14, two films on
women in
the Spanish Civil War (in Spanish, w. English
subtitles):
- 7 pm,
Carol’s Journey (“El Viaje de Carol”),
- and 9
pm, Freedom Fighters,
(“Libertarias”), at the Centre for Socialist
Education, 706
Clark Drive. Call 604-255-2041 for details.
The
Fight for EI and Jobs, public forum with Communist Party leader Miguel Figueroa
- Sunday,
March 15, 7 pm, Centre for Socialist
Education, 706 Clark Drive. Call
604-254-9836 for details.
Spaghetti Dinner - 5 pm, Sunday, March 29, Van East Club
CPC annual
fundraiser for People’s Voice, followed by film at 7 pm, at 706 Clark
Drive. Tickets $12, call 604-255-2041.
WINNIPEG, MB
Wed., March 4, 7 pm, IWD readings with poets Joanne Arnott, Rosanna
Deerchild, and Katherena Vermette - at Convocation
Hall, U of
Winnipeg.
Sun., March 8, IWD March - starts 1:00 pm at York
and Waterfront,
by the site of the Human Rights Museum at
the Forks,
to U of W Bulman Centre for “feminist fair”
resource tables
and speakers.
Sun.,
March 8, 6 pm, annual IWD awards dinner - Jam Koon Garden Restaurant, 257
King St.,
tickets $50 from Grassroots Women, 488-3380 ext.
204.
TORONTO, ON
Norman
Bethune Day celebration - Sat.,
Feb. 28, 290 Danforth Ave.,
tickets $5, door prize one
week all-inclusive trip for
two to Cuba, for details and
tickets, please call PV
Ontario Bureau, 416-469-2446.
Thursday,
March 5, 7-9 pm, Women’s College Hospital presents Eve Ensler, a first
hand account of mass rape and femicide in The Congo - at MaRs Discovery District
Auditorium, 101
College St. Tickets $12.50 for community members,
416-978-8849.
Sat., March 7, IWD Rally - starts 11 am, OISE Auditorium,
252 Bloor
St. West (St. George Subway Station), march
leaves 1
pm, to info fair starting 1:30 at Ryerson, 55 Gould
Street.
5th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week - lectures, films, and actions
at
University of Toronto, Ryerson, and York
University. Prominent
guests include Omar Barghouti,
Palestinian researcher, commentator
and human
rights activist, and South African
anti-apartheid leader Ronnie Kasrils.
For full schedule
with speakers, locations, times, check
http://www.apartheidweek.org.
Almighty Voice and His Wife,
play by Daniel David Moses, director Michael Greyeyes - at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson
Ave. The
Davenport Club CPC invites you to the
April 4 performance, 8 pm. For tickets ($20), please contact
Dave at
416-535-6586 or mckee.dave@sympatico.
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(Contents)
(Home)
May Day ads - part of
our PV Drive
(The following
article is from the March 1-15, 2009, 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 May Day 2009
approaches, the global
economic and political landscape
has shifted dramatically. Working
people face the deepest and
most complex crisis in decades: spiralling unemployment, sharper attacks on wages, pensions, and working conditions, continued cuts to social programs, the rising threat of militarism and
environmental catastrophe.
Everywhere, workers are
saying, “we didn’t cause this
crisis, and we refuse to pay
for it.” The demand is rising
to decisively scrap the neoliberal
agenda, in favour of policies
that put people’s needs ahead
of private greed.
Not
surprisingly, the corporate media
tries to obscure and confuse this
situation. The same right-wing politicians
and talking heads who spent
2008 denying the impending crisis
now tell us that “we’re all in May
Day ads - part of our PV
Drive the same boat.” Maybe
so, but it resembles
the Titanic: the rich are scrambling
into lifeboats built by the
working class, which is waging a
desperate fight for survival.
The good
news is that this struggle is
picking up momentum in many countries.
The recent wave of huge strikes
in Europe and the “Yes” vote
in the Feb. 15 referendum in Venezuela
are just two examples. Here
in Canada, the labour movement is
playing an important role in efforts
to block the hated minority Harper
Tory government. Workers are
stepping up the fight for jobs, improvements to EI, massive investments in low-income housing and vital social programs, renewal of the Canadian manufacturing sector on an environmentally-sustainable basis, and public ownership of key industries.
But we can’t rely on the corporate misinformation outlets to report these struggles. We need our own media to provide a truthful, coherent picture of the campaign for a people’s alternative to the capitalist crisis.
People’s Voice
has been doing this since our
first issue in March 1993,
just as The Worker, the Tribune, and others did for the previous seventy years. The labour and people’s movements have a powerful advocate in People’s Voice, which seeks to unite the struggles for peace, jobs, democracy, equality, social justice, and the environment, into a powerful coalition which can bring fundamental socialist change to our society.
Carrying on our working class traditions, we will again print May Day greetings from a wide range of trade unions and other people’s organizations in our May 1-15 issue. By publishing a greeting this spring, your organization will send a message of solidarity to all working people in the struggle for real change, and help People’s Voice
to continue improving and expanding. All greetings will count towards provincial targets for our annual $50,000 Fund Drive, which has just begun. See the information on this page for details of sizes, cost, etc.
The Editorial Board of PV thanks all organizations which have placed greetings in previous years for your ongoing solidarity. We look forward to reporting on the campaigns of the labour and people’s movements during the critical year which lies ahead!
Here's
my contribution to the PV Fund Drive!
Enclosed please find my donation of $_____
to the 2009 People's Voice Press Fund
Drive.
Name __________________________________
Address ________________________________
City/town ______________________________
Prov. ________ Postal Code _______________
Send to: People's Voice, 133 Herkimer St.,Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P
2H3
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MAY DAY 2009
GREETING ADS
To mark May Day 2009, People's Voice will print
greetings from a wide range of labour and people's
organizations in our May 1-15 issue, which will be
distributed at events across Canada. The deadline for
camera-ready ads is April 19; if PV is preparing the
layout, the deadline is April 17. Please check with us
about the format if your ad is being sent electronically.
Ad rates (based on 5 column page):
Send greetings to People's Voice at:
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, V5L 3J1
Fax (604)254-9803 E-mail: pvoice@telus.net
One column-inch.......................................$10
One column x 2 inches..............................$20
Two columns x 2 inches............................$35
Two columns x 3 inches............................$50
Two columns x 5 inches............................$75
Three columns x 4 inches....................... ..$90
Two columns x 7 inches...........................$100
Three columns x 7 inches........................$150
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