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September 1-15 , 2011
Volume 19 - Number 15
$1
Prolétaires
de tous les pays, unissez-vous!
Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
1) TORY DRIVE FALTERS IN ONTARIO ELECTION
2) MY CANADA INCLUDES
THE WHEAT BOARD
3) LABOUR-FARMER UNITY NEEDED TO SAVE WHEAT BOARD
4) TRAGIC ANNIVERSARIES:
1973 and 2001
5) EGYPTIAN SPRING, ENGLISH SUMMER
6) LAYTON, TURMEL AND QUEBEC - Editorial
7) LABOUR DAY GREETINGS! - Editorial
8) COPE STRENGTHENS VANCOUVER HOUSING STRATEGY
9) STOP THE WITCH HUNT AND SMEARS IN TORONTO
10) THE CLASS NATURE OF THE DEBT "CRISIS"
11) WFDY MEETING HITS BACK AT CAPITALIST CRISIS
12) INDIAN COMMUNISTS DEBATE TAMIL ISSUE
13) MUSIC NOTES, By Wally Brooker
14) COLOMBIAN UNIONIST MARKS THREE YEARS IN JAIL
15) HUGE PROTESTS DEMAND FREE EDUCATION IN CHILE
16) BUILDING BROAD YOUTH STRUGGLES
17) WHAT’S LEFT
18) CLARTÉ (en français)
19)
THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of
20) INTRODUCING MARX
PEOPLE'S VOICE
SEPTEMBER 1-15, 2011 (pdf)
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The Spark!
The Spark! The latest issue of The Spark! theoretical
journal, is now on sale for $5 at Communist Party offices (see p. 8) or
People’s Co-op Books, Articles include
plus reviews, editorials, and more.
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Theoretical
and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of |
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People's Voice deadlines: SEPTEMBER 16-30 OCTOBER 1-15 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office,
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REDS
ON THE WEB |
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People's Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start" website, http://www.labourstart.org/. We urge our readers to check it out! |
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(The following articles are from the
September 1-15, 2011, issue of People's
PV Ontario Bureau
Tim Hudak's
drive to win a majority in
While ultra‑conservatives
were crowing, the public was not amused. For the first time the juggernaut
seems to be stalled.
As well, the
shenanigans at
Behind privatization
is the attack on unions who deliver the services in
Margaret
Atwood jumped into the fray to defend libraries and public services, mobilizing
her 250,000 Twitter followers to do the same. The July deputations to City
Council numbered about 300, though only 166 were actually heard in a marathon
meeting that finally adjourned at 7 am the next morning.
Georgio
Mammoliti ‑ a member of Ford's Executive Committee and its attack dog ‑
accused deputants of all being communists. Then he upped the ante, accusing
"6 or 7" City Councillors of being Communist Party members who take
their direction from regular lunches with CPC(
The CPC (
The answer to
Mammoliti and the Ford administration is to galvanize public opposition, reject
red‑baiting, and defeat the cuts.
A massive
demonstration will take place at City Hall on the eve of the September budget
vote. Meantime, mass lobbying to pry Councillors away from Ford's budget cuts
is underway. The Labour Council, OFL, CUPE, One Toronto, and a bevy of
community and democratic organizations are involved in the budget fight, as
well as in the bigger battle: will Toronto be a city with or without services,
social housing, child care, old age homes, public transit, and unionized
municipal workers?
Last fall's
love affair with the right‑wing populist Mayor and his cronies is over,
as the real agenda emerges in startling Tory blue clarity.
At Ford's annual
August BBQ, special guest Stephen Harper said he hoped to "complete the
hat trick" and turn
A wise conclusion.
Among other things, the Tories promise to bring "law and order" to
Ontario with new super‑jails, a two‑strike law, prisoner chain
gangs to do the jobs of public sector workers, a lifetime ban on welfare
recipients convicted of fraud, new police powers to remove Aboriginal people by
force from land reclamation sites, social program and public service cuts, and
a new law to prohibit unions from engaging in political and social action.
The Communist
Party has identified the Tories as the main danger to working people in this
campaign. Although the public is justly angry at the Liberals who have
delivered for the corporations and the wealthy while living standards for
working people collapse, "voting Tory to punish the Liberals would be jumping
out of the frying pan into the fire".
The Communist
Party says the best outcome in these circumstances is the election of a
minority government with a strong left ballast, including Communists who will
fight for policies to curb corporate power, create jobs and raise living
standards, reverse the HST and introduce progressive tax policies and tax
relief for working people, and expand civil, social, labour and democratic
rights.
2) MY
By Darrell Rankin
More than two
thousand wheat and barley farmers attended meetings across the prairies in
August to discuss the fate of the Canadian Wheat Board.
They came
despite a threat by the Harper Conservatives to ignore the wishes of more than
68,000 farmers should they vote in a plebiscite to keep the CWB as a single‑desk,
farmer‑run marketer.
The CWB
directors will announce the results of the plebiscite on September 9. Now the
main issue is to maintain the momentum and to stall legislation to kill the
CWB.
The meetings
were organized to give farmers a chance to hear from the elected directors and
to express their views. Those attending were overwhelmingly in favour of
keeping the CWB's single-desk mandate.
"People
around the world will shake their heads if the Harper government destroys the
Wheat Board," said one farmer in
Agriculture
minister Gerry Ritz met with CWB chair Alan Oberg in May, revealing the
Conservatives want to "take their political lumps" early in their
mandate, well before the next election.
This is a
critical time to build a broad coalition of popular forces to defend the Wheat
Board. If all the coalitions and trade unions that defend sovereignty and
Medicare, the CBC and other important Canadian institutions together say
"My Canada includes the Wheat Board," that will be a huge step in
blocking the dictatorial Conservative plan.
The effort
should reach out to all groups that are largely self‑governing, including
professional groups that defend the right to decide how their industry is
governed, and in which farmers play a role, even the Canadian Legion.
For the
Conservative Party, this finishes its 19th century "National Dream"
to colonize
Within the
Conservative Party, the voice of farmers is gone, replaced by resource and
energy corporate interests which see no value or importance in Canadian
agriculture, including their prairie heartland. The millions here and abroad
who depend on Canadian wheat have a different view.
3) LABOUR-FARMER UNITY NEEDED TO SAVE WHEAT BOARD
The Communist
Party is urging a broad and strong fight to defeat the dictatorial Conservative
Party plan to demolish the Canadian Wheat Board. Thousands of farmers turned
out at meetings across the
In an Aug. 14
statement, the Party's Central Executive said that "Strong Labour‑Farmer
unity is needed now to save the family farm, to protect Canadian food
sovereignty and to help end the domination of the global grain trade by the
handful of corporations now responsible for mass famine and death throughout
the world.
"Destroying the Canadian Wheat Board as a single‑desk seller of
wheat and barley will be a fatal blow to thousands of family farms in
"Most
importantly, the main beneficiaries are the handful of corporations which now
dominate the global grain trade. Removing the democratically‑run CWB from
the global grain trade will be an added incentive for global grain corporations
to act as a monopoly‑cartel with price‑setting and hoarding of
stocks.
"These corporations
put profit ahead of the starving and malnourished millions. Cereal grain
consumer prices are at a record high this year, matching those of 2008/09 when
the top five grain corporations made a combined $266 billion profit, a
year with food hunger riots in 26 countries.
"The
main fight now is to save the Canadian Wheat Board. But should the Harper
Conservatives value their corporate accomplices more than millions of newly
roused and informed voters in Western Canada, we will support efforts to
establish provincial marketing boards in provinces such as
"The
Communist Party welcomes the petition launched by the
"In this
hour of need for the family farm and global food security, the labour movement
must step forward. Since the defeat of Farmer‑Labour governments in
"As a
Party that has been part of the struggle for 90 years, we say the need for
labour‑farmer unity has never been greater.
"If you
are a doctor or a lawyer or any other professional, governments mainly leave it
up to you and your colleagues to figure out what happens in your industry. Not
so with farmers. That is because an enormous amount of money made from
agriculture ends up in the pockets of the big corporations.
"Farmers
are working people, many with jobs off the farm. Sometimes these jobs are
unionized. Since commercial farming started in
"After
the First World War the Progressive and other farmer political parties won
power across Western Canada and in
"Such
unity today will bring similar needed advances. This is the time to return to a
strategy that worked in the past. It is the only strategy that has ever worked!
"The
labour movement knows what it would be like if the federal government ripped up
every collective agreement in Canada on the grounds that workers need to market
their skills to a wider variety of employers. Many labour bodies have passed
resolutions of support for the CWB and single‑desk selling.
"This is
a strong basis for unity in the fight for the Canadian Wheat Board.
"The
enormous fraud and rigging by the Conservative government in past Wheat Board
related votes should never be repeated. This is a government that betrays its
agenda by dropping smaller farmers from the voter rolls. It is a government
that is moving to `One Corporation ‑ One Vote' at home and `One Tank, One
Vote' abroad.
"We
support the idea of `One farmer ‑ One Vote' and votes for those who work
the soil. Why should farm corporations be on a voter roll? We do not allow
corporations the vote in other elections. All who work the soil should be able
to vote on marketing issues."
4) TRAGIC
ANNIVERSARIES: 1973 and 2001
People's Voice commentary
This issue of
People's Voice marks the anniversary of two highly significant events which
took place on September 11: the U.S.-backed fascist coup against
In each case,
the progressive and democratic movements in
Over the past
38 years, during the military dictatorship and then decades of neoliberal
governments, Canadians have continued to express solidarity with the people's
movements in
The
mainstream media will instead focus on the 2001 attacks against the World Trade
Centre and the Pentagon. Once again, the official message will be that the 3000
who died in those attacks were heroic victims of terrorism, while the millions
killed and wounded by the
One result of
the events of Sept. 11, 2001, was a massive flowering of anti-war and
anti-racism movements. A wide range of forces - trade unions, faith groups,
social justice organizations, students, women, racialized communities and many
more - came together in the days and months after 9/11 to resist the drive towards
war, racism and fascism. The largest single day of public action in human
history took place on Feb. 15, 2003, as some 15 million people took to the
streets around the world to condemn the build-up for war against
But the
post-9/11 years have been a decade of aggressive attacks by imperialism. Faced
with deepening economic and social crises, and by mounting popular opposition,
the
Unfortunately, many social democratic parties and governments succumbed to this
reactionary agenda. But some political forces stood by their principles,
despite intense pressures to retreat or keep silent.
A look back
at the immediate response to 9/11 by the Communist Party of
Like its fraternal
parties in other countries (such as
At the same
time, the CPC stressed the reality of "growing anger and resentment around
the world. Three‑quarters of humanity
are forced to tolerate the rampaging
spread of mass poverty, economic plunder and social disparity in their
respective countries; and they must do so under conditions imposed upon them by
a handful of dominant imperialist powers led by the United States, and
including Canada and the other leading capitalist countries. When countries and
peoples have refused to succumb to dictates from
The CPC
warned against the "grave danger that ... the
"The CPC
will strongly oppose any attempt internationally or domestically to use this
tragic episode as a justification to limit democratic rights including the
rights to assembly, privacy, legal due process or extend repression
against the people," the statement continued. "The Communist Party
condemns tendencies in the mainstream press to `scapegoat' Arab Canadians in
the wake of these terrorist acts, and will strenuously combat any and all
attempts to victimize or marginalize any national, ethnic, religious or
political minority or community in
As the
Communists warned, less than a month later, Canada joined the United States in
launching the deadly occupation of Afghanistan, which has extended to the
horrific "drone war" against Pakistan. While public opinion blocked
the Chretien Liberals from full participation in the 2003 invasion of
Back in
On September
11, Canadians will have much to consider. This is not a day to praise our
"heroic troops". It is a day to demand to bring the troops home, to
protect and expand democratic freedoms, and to reverse the accumulation of
wealth and power conducted by the ruling class under the cloak of
"fighting terrorism."
5) EGYPTIAN SPRING, ENGLISH SUMMER
By Sam Hammond
In the wake
of uprisings and riots this year, from
Most people
think that alienation is the result of neglect. That can indeed be the case,
such as an indifferent parent or a negligent friend. But social alienation in
its most general sense is a phenomenon with roots in the relations of class and
strata within exploiting society.
A stand‑alone
feature of exploiting societies, basic alienation is the separation of the
producers from the products of their labour. Slave, serf or worker, only the
form changes.
If this is
so, then there must be "alienators" and "alienated", each
with a class identity. Social strata can and do form sections of classes, are
classless, or can bridge classes with feet planted on either side, in a fluid,
shifting, economically propelled movement from acquisition to dispossession.
The
separation of human beings from what they produce requires a complex package of
historically developed instruments of economic coercion, fear, imposed
ignorance, and a set of laws enforced by the ruling class instrument, the
state.
To maintain
this kind of control and alienation in capitalist society, and also to have a
domestic market, the exploiting class must pay wages to purchase the labour
power of the working class, so it can purchase its means of subsistence back
from them. Simply stated, re‑purchasing what you have produced and what
has been expropriated from you.
This very
simple and correct analysis is the basis of the finite social relationships and
complexities of modern imperialism, and the complex expressions of alienation
between classes and strata in society. It is also true that the producers can
never buy back all that they produce, so as a market they are too small to
sustain their capitalists. Witness the historical appearance of colonialism and
imperialism to capture cheap labour and expanded markets.
Because of
the phenomena of relative "overproduction" and
"financialization" under advanced imperialism, the alienation of
youth is escalating at a completely predictable pace. The irreconcilable
contradiction that defines capitalism - the inability of the masses to purchase
the goods they produce - has almost destroyed the "real" economy of
manufacturing and commodity production.
Real wealth
can only come from a real economy. The transfer of investment in real
production to the trading in paper, in interest, in the purchase and sale of
debt itself, has brought us to this stage of imperialism, to privation, hunger,
disease and war. Hundreds of millions of workers have become surplus, unwanted
humanity with no hope, no future and no purchasing power.
When millions
of workers are surplus, the most experienced are maintained as a reserve core,
and some youth are recruited for "McJobs" at less than subsistence
wages. Even fewer are highly trained and well rewarded technicians. The
majority are in the surplus pool. For older workers this is where they have
arrived.
To understand
the intensity of the alienation of youth and its "so‑called"
anti‑social behaviour, it must be understood that millions of youth do
not arrive at unemployment, privation, homelessness and social redundancy; they
start there. The hopelessness of being born into a world that has no real place
for you does not breed compliance, social responsibility and worship for the
laws of the capitalist state. You cannot alienate, subjugate, disenfranchise,
disallow and demean people, then expect them to behave like ladies and
gentlemen at a bourgeois tea party.
Millions of
youth have been alienated from the means of production itself, from the
mainstream of social existence, even from the class that most of their parents
belong to. This is not the alienation of parental neglect, but the objective
disposal by the ruling classes of surplus labour, the expulsion of our own
children from the economic lever, strength and nurturing that working people
employ in their mutual struggle to survive.
This is a
dangerous separation, because classless people quickly lose the culture of
class consciousness and the pragmatism of class unity and struggle. Add to this
strata of classless youth the elements of the ruined petty bourgeois, the
victims of cannibalistic monopoly capital who have no cultural loyalty to the
workers and no tradition of disciplined struggle. The mix can produce exactly
what we are witnessing in
It all
depends on time, place and the class forces at work: who leads and who follows.
The hypocrisy
of the English Prime Minister, miffed about a shortened holiday, lecturing
about social responsibility and the preservation of property, is laughable.
Witness the selected flunky of the ruling class, backed by the media lecturing
the victims on their social behaviour.
The British
capitalist class and their bankers, like their compatriots everywhere, have
plundered the coffers of their own state to the point of bankruptcy. With their
imperialist partners (including
Their answer
is to release the paramilitary forces they have been preparing, and the army if
necessary, to extend their rule during periods of social awakening. The symbol
of their repression, recruited from our ranks, wears helmet, bullet-proof vest,
body armour, gun belt, Plexiglas shield and truncheon. The symbol of revolt is
the hoodie.
The state
will temporarily prevail in this one‑sided contest, because they are at
war with a strata and not a class. But the explosion is inevitable. Even if the
activities of the rioters range from craven to heroic, objectively the
responsibility lies with the bourgeois state that itself is doomed, unable and
unwilling to provide subsistence and dignity to millions of young people.
It is not
acceptable to sit in judgment of those who plunder and burn at home while
honouring those who do so as an instrument of imperial policy on a grander
scale in the third world. After all, they do not cannibalize like their
masters. The spread of their activities from city to city, described as a
plague by hired wordsmiths of capital, is really an act of youth solidarity. It
is completely logical for the struggle to expand. The capitalists globally are
not in a panic yet, but if they had any brains they would be.
What is
needed everywhere is the leadership of the working class to give tactics,
strategy and discipline to this struggle. This requires an objective and a
program of escalating demands that can be fought for and organized around,
eventually making the possibility of a socialist world not utopian but real. To
adjust demands to what the capitalists say is available will leave the youth
where they are now: surplus humanity. To comply is to be recruited to the
parameters of the state and become an accomplice in the control mechanism.
The
corporations can do this with social democrats, but never with communists. The
responsibility for this leadership rests historically with the working class
and their most organized section, the unions. The responsibility for injecting
this consciousness of historical necessity into the class struggle rests with
the Communist Parties.
6)
People's Voice Editorial
The sudden
death of Opposition Leader Jack Layton has shocked Canadians. While we
frequently disagreed with Mr. Layton, he was seen by millions of NDP supporters
as a voice for working people in a Parliament dominated since Confederation by
the parties of big business. We extend our condolences to his family and
colleagues at this difficult moment.
A review of
the NDP's record under Jack Layton may come later, but this is a suitable time
to comment on the reaction to his final decision - the appointment of popular
Québec trade unionist Nicole Turmel as interim NDP leader. The election of 59
NDP MPs in Québec did not reflect a truly fundamental shift in the outlook of
working people, since the NDP and the Bloc Québecois have long shared many
elements of a social democratic approach. Coming on the heels of the NDP's
remarkable gains in Québec,
However, some
of the response to Turmel's appointment in English-speaking
Such
McCarthy-style attacks against those who do not share the Tory/Liberal
federalist view of
7) LABOUR DAY GREETINGS! -
Editorial
People's Voice Editorial
Many working people
across
But Labour
Day also has a political side, even though its origins lie in attempts to
undermine celebrations of May First, the international day of the worker. Many
Labour Day picnics and parades express solidarity with workers engaged in
strikes and other struggles against the bosses.
This year's
Labour Day is a moment to weigh up the serious battles which lie ahead. The
attack on the Postal Workers by Stephen Harper's Tory majority shows that
working people face four years of escalating corporate/government assaults on
labour rights. The aim of the Harper Tories is to smash the ability of workers
to resist the corporate agenda in the workplace and in the legislative arena.
Their ultimate goal is to lower union density in
Our response
must be to build broad unity of organized labour with its allies: unorganized
and unemployed workers, farmers, Aboriginal peoples, the movements of students,
women, immigrants and seniors, anti-war and environmental groups, the
Communists and other progressive forces, and other sections of the people
fighting back against neoliberal policies. Only a fightback which draws all
these forces into joint action can block the Harper Tories, and open the door
to a wider struggle for a real People's Alternative to the corporate agenda.
8) COPE
STRENGTHENS
PV Vancouver Bureau
Debates this
summer over a proposed ten-year housing and homelessness strategy for
Housing remains
a critical issue facing the Metro
Homelessness
advocates were encouraged by the recognition in a July staff report to
This would
help address the reality that
Responding to
the staff report,
"This
report represents a good first step," said Woodsworth, adding that key
initiatives to drive affordability were lacking. "Working class families,
seniors, and young people just can't afford to live in
"If this
is going to be an aggressive plan to return real affordability to our city, we
need to know how tools like inclusionary zoning and a city‑run housing
authority could work here," said Cadman. "Imagine a
Woodsworth
called for Vancouver to lead a charge with other large cities to call for a
joint federal, provincial, municipal campaign on housing issues. "This is
the biggest homelessness and affordability crisis seen since the great
depression. We need to treat it with all the urgency this situation
demands."
On July 28,
City Council passed two key amendments to the ten-year plan, put forward by
Woodsworth and Cadman.
"We
needed to see a real commitment to investigate innovative policies that drive
affordability," said Cadman. "We've done just that today with Council
agreeing to look at inclusionary zoning, a city run housing authority, and
increased funding for land purchases."
Cadman's
amendment also directs staff to compile best practices for dealing with the
preservation and creation of affordable housing from other jurisdictions, such
as Toronto, New York, and
Woodsworth
successfully called for Mayor Robertson as newly elected chair of the Big
Cities Caucus to take a leadership role on a national housing campaign.
"We've
been hearing for years how we as a city cannot get this job done without long‑term
Federal and Provincial funding commitments," said Woodsworth. "This
amendment is the first step in seeing that happen."
Both
councillors said the July 28 meeting shows the strength of cooperation and
thoughtful discourse that has become the hallmark of COPE's approach to major
challenges facing the city.
However, NPA
councillor and mayoralty candidate Suzanne Anton voted no to the strategy.
"First it was `no' to bikes, then `no' to the environment," said
Woodsworth, commenting on Anton's voting record. "Now it's `no' to
affordable housing. It's shocking."
9) STOP THE WITCH HUNT AND SMEARS IN
Statement from the Communist Party (
The Communist
Party is considering legal action, including a complaint to the Ontario Human
Rights Tribunal regarding Toronto City Councillor George Mammoliti's witch‑hunting
at City Hall, and his attack on the public's right to free political expression
and association - rights guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Mammoliti is
a member of Mayor Rob Ford's Executive and an aggressive advocate for Ford's
agenda of privatization and confrontation with the city's labour and democratic
movements.
Mammoliti has
attacked more than 300 City Hall deputants, asserting they were members of the
Communist Party, after they stayed through the night and into the early hours
to oppose the KPMG proposals to eliminate "gravy", including the
closure of libraries, old age homes, 2,000 subsidized child care spaces; ending
funding to cultural and arts groups including Caribana and Pride events, ending
AIDS related funding, increasing transit fares and reducing service, and more.
Mammoliti has
attacked Councillors who also oppose the cuts, alleging they are members of the
Communist Party and that opposition to the KPMG cuts stems from Communist Party
membership.
While the
Communist Party is opposed to the cuts and is fighting them, opposition to this
agenda includes members of almost all parties, save the Tories, and people who
are not members of any party. Suggesting otherwise is a smear - something
Mammoliti is expert at.
This is a
witch‑hunt aimed to intimidate widespread and growing public opposition to
the levelling of public services and programs in the city, and to frighten
Councillors into silence and stampede them into voting for deep cuts and
privatizations against the demonstrated wishes of the public.
Mammoliti is
attempting to do what Joe McCarthy did in 1950s
With this in
mind, the Communist Party is exploring legal action including a complaint to
the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, and is urging the labour and democratic
movements and all those who support democratic and civil rights to speak up and
demand an end to the witch hunt.
10) THE CLASS NATURE OF THE DEBT "CRISIS"
By Anna Pha, from the Guardian, weekly
newspaper of the Communist Party of
The world's
largest financial institutions are waging an all out assault on what is
commonly referred to as the welfare state, on the sovereignty of governments,
on democratic and workers' rights. The vehicle being used to slash welfare
payments and pensions, cut health and other services, sack public servants,
reduce their wages and working conditions is the "debt crisis".
Governments
that have amassed large debts are now being stood over by global financial
monopolies (the most powerful, corrupt, speculative and parasitic form of
capital) to wind them back. They are being subjected to credit squeezes and
threatened with downgradings by private, unaccountable rating agencies. In the
The European
Central Bank, the International Monetary Fund, financial institutions and the
ratings agencies are placing demands on Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and
Italy to make savage budget cuts to social spending.
The battle
and concessions made to gain
There is no
doubt a number of these governments have accumulated large debts which have
become a drain on the public purse to continue servicing. In part, the debts
are due to the multi‑billion dollar bailouts of financial institutions
and corporations during the global financial crisis and subsequent economic
crisis. According to Michael Hudson, the
But the
bailouts are not the only contributing factor. Military budgets have remained
quarantined from serious cuts, in particular in the
It is no
accident that the actions being directed by the financial institutions and
ratings agencies, without exception, fail to address the causes of government
indebtedness and focus on austerity measures.
The very
agencies that caused the global financial crisis, that governments bailed out,
are now standing over governments to make pensioners, workers and their
families pay yet again. Private debt was converted into public debt during the
crisis, and now the public are expected to repay it to the criminals who
brought on the crisis. Pension and other cuts will see millions impoverished,
homeless, jobless and with no access to basic health care.
Instead of
increasing the taxation of corporate profits and the rich and cutting military
expenditure (which would make the world a safer place), cuts are being imposed
on ordinary working people and their families. The cuts are highly
contractionary. They will reduce the spending power of workers and pensioners,
and will only drive economies deeper into recession with many more workers
losing their jobs.
Every one of these
governments has other options to reduce their debts. Yet they are putting up
little or no resistance. Consistent with their adherence to neo‑liberalism,
they are all too readily bowing to the market gods.
The standover
tactics of financial institutions, dictating to elected governments how much to
repay and what cuts to make, is an outright attack on the sovereignty of nation
states and a further restriction on their democratic processes.
The
sovereignty of nation states has already been severely undermined by free trade
agreements, privatisation of key public assets and financial deregulation.
Capital is becoming bolder and more direct in its global domination and
dictatorship. For decades the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have dictated
economic policy to
The
"debt crisis" assault is the next big step in a process commenced
under Thatcher, Reagan and in
In
The struggles
against the anti‑people, budgetary cuts have reflected the strength of
left forces in the labour movement, in particular the strength of communist
parties.
Under the
leadership of the communist‑led All Workers Militant Front (PAME) and the
Communist Party, millions of people have been brought out onto the streets
against the cuts across
Communist
Parties in Greece, Portugal and other EU countries are fighting for
expansionary economic policies based on job creation, higher wages and
pensions, nationalisation, controls on foreign finance and imports. They are
calling for reductions in military budgets, an end to involvement in overseas
wars. They are looking at increasing the taxation of financial institutions and
other corporations. Their policies are expansionary, pro‑people and pro‑environment,
and involve the abandonment of neo‑liberalism.
11) WFDY MEETING
HITS BACK AT CAPITALIST CRISIS
Special to PV
This summer,
youth organizations from across the European and North American region of the
World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) gathered in
Sixteen youth
organizations, including the YCL‑LJC
The meeting
condemned the NATO attacks on
"The
current aggression forced upon the working class by transnational capitalism,
under the pretext of liquidity attacks on the European public sector, was one
of the main matters of discussion," Carlos Bracons told People's Voice. Bracons attended the
meeting as a representative from the YCL‑LJC
"The
delegates from Greece, Portugal and Spain enumerated in detail the widespread
theft of public assets by capitalism and imperialism, and the associated social
spending cuts aimed to push workers out of the public health and education
system in order to privatize health care, pensions, and post‑secondary
education," he said.
Most of the
measures described by the youth organizations did not aim to reduce the public
deficit but "to please big capital and the forces behind the speculative
attacks on debt titles," Bracons said, adding that "the governments
sided with big capital, over-indebting themselves for years by recklessly
wasting money on weaponry, the Olympic Games, and various other non‑profitable
infrastructures. This is now giving grounds to the current attack on democracy
and the welfare state."
A final
statement by the WFDY following the meeting said "In the context of the
crisis of the capitalist system, in practically all countries the situation is
similar: under the excuse of the `lack of money' or `deficit reduction',
workers and young people are having their rights destroyed, facing the
privatization of education, the increase of unemployment and the generalization
of precarious, temporary and flexible forms of work."
The YCL‑LJC
described the dangerous outcome of the last Canadian federal election and the
struggles of the YCL in response. Delegates were interested in learning about
the fight‑back in
The group
decided to support several days of action in favour of Free Public Education,
against the imperialist war in
The meeting
was hosted by the SDAJ (Socialist German Worker's Youth) of
An Asian
Pacific regional meeting of WFDY was held in
The 18th
General Assembly of the World Federation of Democratic Youth will take place
this November. Hosted by the Portuguese Communist Youth under the slogan
"Fortify WFDY, strengthen the anti‑imperialist struggle, for a world
of peace solidarity and revolutionary social transformation!", the meeting
will review the past four years' work and elect a new leadership. The YCL‑LJC
encourages all Canadian youth to bring proposals to take with us to the General
Assembly.
12) INDIAN COMMUNISTS DEBATE TAMIL ISSUE
An urgent
political solution is still needed to protect the right of Sri Lankan Tamils to
live with dignity and equality; this was the conclusion of a special convention
held by the Tamil Nadu state committee of the Communist Party of
The CPI(M)
and the Communist Party of India received 1.6 million votes in last May's
elections in Tamil Nadu, about 4.4% of the total. The two parties are part of
the AIADMK coalition which swept that election. Sri Lanka's Tamils were largely
brought from Tamil Nadu by the British as labourers, only to endure historic
discrimination as a minority on the island.
At the CPI(M)
convention, Prakash Karat, the party's general secretary, noted that the armed
conflict ended two years ago, but the Sri Lankan government has failed to
tackle the problems of the defeated Tamils. Instead, President Rajapakse has
used delaying tactics while strengthening the process of militarisation.
Referring to
the atrocities committed on innocent people during the last phase of the armed
conflict, Karat demanded a high level enquiry with authority to hold
accountable the responsible authorities. However, the Sri Lankan government is
in a "denial mode", even though a UN panel report has reported on
atrocities committed by both sides.
During the
last phase of the armed conflict, more than 40,000 innocent Tamils were killed
by the Lankan army, which bombed hospitals and even Red Cross vehicles. More
than 5000 youth are still held by the army, and over 60,000 persons are in
relief camps. The UN report has also noted human right violations by the Tamil
Tigers (LTTE), such as the use of innocent people as human shields.
At this
juncture, Prakash Karat pointed out, a key question concerns the rehabilitation
and resettlement of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees who are unable to return to their
homes. The major barrier to settlement is the failure to dismantle emergency
rule in the affected areas, where the army plays an important role in the
administration.
This issue
has become a concern for all democratic forces in
The leader of
the Tamil National
Premachandran
gave a chilling account of atrocities committed by the Lankan armed forces in
the last phase of the armed conflict against the LTTE when the media was not
permitted in the war zone. Since then, the armed forces have started
encroaching the land, leaving many families with no livelihood. More than
100,000 families are to be resettled, and there is no information about many
Tamils abducted during the armed conflict.
Prakash Karat
announced that on August 9, mass rallies in Tamil Nadu will call for a
democratic political solution. There will also be demonstrations outside the
parliament in
A special
resolution adopted by the CPI(M) convention stresses that "right from
1948, Sri Lankan governments have practised a discriminatory approach against
the Tamils." The resolution calls for "an independent and honest
inquiry of international standard" into the human rights violations and
war crimes; the release of all Tamil youth being illegally held; the merger of
the Northern and Eastern provinces with greater autonomy; equal treatment
regarding language and religion; and a federal system of government to replace
the presidential system.
13) MUSIC NOTES, By Wally Brooker
Rovics to
play Ottawa Tahrir Benefit
Revolutionary singer‑songwriter
David Rovics, one of the outstanding troubadours in the USA these days, will
give a concert at the University of Ottawa's Alumni Auditorium Oct. 2 to raise
funds for the Canadian Boat to Gaza. Rovics is an activist musician who tours
constantly, playing for audiences large and small at cafes, pubs, universities,
churches, union halls and protest rallies. His music has been featured on
Democracy Now!, BBC and Al‑Jazeera. The 200+ songs he makes freely
available on the web http://davidrovics.com
have been downloaded more than a million times. Among the concert's sponsors are
the Communist Party of Canada (Rosa Luxembourg Club), Carleton University CPC,
the YCL, Students for Palestinian Human Rights (University of Ottawa), Students
Against Israeli Apartheid (Carleton University), Independent Jewish Voices, and
the Ottawa anarchist group Exile. Tickets are $10‑$20 (sliding scale).
The show starts at 7 pm. For more info e‑mail Larry Wasslen at cpccarleton@yahoo.ca.
Gary
Cristall's folk music history
The history of folk music in this land
is closely connected to the struggles for labour rights, social justice, and
peace.
Media
watchdog rules
A ruling by
Before there was Gil Scott‑Heron,
rap and hip‑hop, there was jazz poetry. This hybrid art genre was
popularized in the 1950's by "Beat" poets like Jack Kerouac and
Kenneth Rexroth, but those artists were working in a field first explored by
the great African‑American poet Langston Hughes (1902‑1967). A
generation earlier Hughes had been one of the central figures of the "
Jazz great
Ahmad Jamal a terrorist?
Eighty‑year‑old African‑American
pianist Ahmad Jamal, a native of Pittsburgh and long‑time jazz luminary,
came under suspicion in June. US authorities mistook him for Jamal Ahmad
Mohammad Al Badawi, a fifty‑year old Yemeni wanted by the FBI for helping
to plan the USS Cole bombing,
which killed 17 American sailors back in 2000. US authorities froze the $10,000
that the Festival da Jazz in
14) COLOMBIAN UNIONIST MARKS THREE YEARS IN JAIL
By Kimball Cariou
A Colombian
trade union activist well-known to many Canadians has passed the three-year
mark in a
In a powerful
statement released on August 8, the third anniversary of her imprisonment,
Liliany Obando vividly describes her ordeal: "I am a woman among more than
7,500 Colombian political prisoners, both men and women, who suffer and resist
with dignity the harshness of a judicial system, prisons and a state that
denies us and disqualifies us, calling us `terrorists' and which seeks to annul
us as individuals and break us as social and political activists."
Obando is one
target of the so-called "FARC-politics" legal assault, which accused
a wide range of democratic and labour activists of being supporters of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of
"This
personal nightmare", as Obando describes it, began on March 1, 2008, when
the armed forces of
Computers,
removable hard drives and USB sticks were seized by the Colombian soldiers.
These materials were turned over to prosecutors, but only after thousands of
electronic files were manipulated. The files became the basis for the
"FARC-politics" charges.
As Obando
writes, "To my surprise, I heard my name on the lips of prosecutor Iguaron
next to those of renowned personalities from politics, academia and journalism.
Among those mentioned were Polo Democratico Alternativo [Democratic Pole]
congress members Gloria Ines Ramirez and Wilson Borja, Liberal Party Senator
Piedad Cordoba, former minister Alvaro Leyva Duran, journalists Carlos Lozano
Guillen, William Parra and Lazaro Viveros, the American academic James Jones
and the Venezuelan parliamentarian Amilcar Figueroa... The common factor among
those who were included in this line was the commitment taken up in the different
areas of work of each one of us, some of us from the political opposition, to
the defence of human rights, the search for scenarios of peace and humanitarian
accords.
"...My
life until then had passed between my professional work as a sociologist, my
commitment to defending human rights, women's and labour rights, my membership
in the left as a political option; my academic pursuits in the Masters in
Political Studies at the National University of Colombia (I was preparing my
graduate thesis), and raising my children (4 and 15 years) as a single
mother...
"On
August 8, 2008, while reading news online one item caught my complete attention
‑ it was regarding the arrest warrant issued against me. Hours later my
home was raided and I was led into the cells of the DIJIN and then to the
Women's Prison in Bogota where I remain still, 36 months later, with the status
of CHARGED, waiting for justice to be done in my case and a clear abuse of pre‑trial
detention.
"In the
raid, heavily armed police (DIJIN) succeeded in intimidating my elderly mother
and my little children. At the site, they seized documents, including some
belonging to my mother and children, which are among the evidence being used
against me.
"Leading
the raid was the same captain of the DIJIN, Ronald Hayden Coy Ortiz, who had
participated in Operation
"The
prosecutor laid charges of rebellion and managing resources for terrorist
purposes against me, based on the alleged information obtained from the
computing devices of the late leader of FARC, Raul Reyes. Charges I did not
accept and consciously I prepared to subject myself to a trial to prove my
innocence. The prosecutor then decided to issue a security measure against me
by placing me in a prison facility. I was denied the benefit of home detention
despite having fully demonstrated my status as a single mother. Later I would
be denied the benefit a further nine times, being considered a `danger to
society' ‑ something that does not happen to white collar criminals who
are granted this benefit without any obstacle..."
On May 18,
2011, Colombia's Supreme Court of Justice (Criminal Division) issued a writ in
the case against former congressman Wilson Borja, declaring that the physical
evidence obtained in Operation Phoenix has no legal validity in any of these
cases. On August 1, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Justice
unanimously upheld the May 18 ruling.
Based on the
ruling, Prof. Miguel Angel Beltran was released on June 3, and the extradition
to
As she
writes, "Fortunately, since many people unfairly linked to this process
have been acquitted, only Joaquin Becerra and I are still deprived of our
freedom. Meanwhile my days are spent in a high security cell isolated from the
rest of my fellow political prisoners, but with dignity, high morale and
standing tall. We continue to fight for the freedom of all Colombian political
prisoners. Someday it will be possible, and I will continue working freely once
more for a truly democratic country enjoying political inclusion, social
justice and peace."
She concludes
by thanking "each and every one" of her supporters and members of her
family, signing off as "Liliany Obando, political prisoner; survivor of
the genocide against the Patriotic
(To read the full text of Liliany Obando's statement, visit the website of the
International Network in Solidarity with Colombian Political Prisoners, www.inspp.org.)
15) HUGE PROTESTS DEMAND FREE EDUCATION IN
PV Vancouver Bureau
Students and
their supporters have taken to the streets of
Five days earlier,
police attacked a banned march and arrested nearly 900 young protesters. The
arrests sparked riots and attempts by protesters to break through police
barricades blocking the way to the presidential palace. Officers unleashed tear
gas into huge crowds and later deployed tanks armed with water cannons.
"The
results have shown one more time that the organisers do not have control of the
marches," Chilean Interior Minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter declared. But the
overwhelming majority of protesters had heeded organisers' call to march in a
"massive, peaceful manner."
Writing in
the Australian Green Left Weekly,
one journalist described the scene: "As I walked out of the tercera
comiseria (police station) on August 4, it hit me what had transpired on this
incredible day. All I could hear were the sounds of the cacerolazo, people
beating pots and pans in protest, every street corner occupied by protesters
who had erected barricades and lit bonfires. The echo of an updated song from
the time of the Pinochet dictatorship sounding through the streets. The police,
who spent most of the day throwing tear gas canisters and beating the shit out
of people, could only look on as the people took control of the streets. The
central store of La Polar, a giant chain of department stores implicated in a
huge fraud of investors and customers, had been burnt to the ground."
The student
revolt has been building since May. At one point, more than 180 schools and
university campuses were occupied by students, who were often violently evicted
by police and security forces.
Officially,
The student
struggle has seen protests every Thursday, as tens of thousands of
schoolchildren and university students take to the streets. Tactics have been
diverse, from a mass kiss‑in for education, to unfurling a huge Chilean
flag with "free education" written on it during a key soccer match,
to putting up barricades and burning tires in the middle of
Hoping to
crush the movement, the government banned the August 4th march called by the
FECH (Student Federation of La Universidad de Chile), which announced the march
would go ahead. Interior minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter declared that if anyone
died or was injured, it would be the fault of FECH President Camila Vallejo.
Police were
deployed to prevent students from gathering along the
Organised
public‑sector staff and copper miners have announced their intention to launch
industrial action in support of the students' demands.
In July, as
his approval rating fell to 26%, President Pinera announced a massive reshuffle
of the cabinet. But protest actions sparked by poverty and inequality keep
growing, and demonstrations have become a daily occurrence in
Starbucks
baristas recently held a two-week hunger strike. In late July, a group of
commuters, mainly builders and domestic workers, took over buses to protest
against price hikes which force many to pay US$320 for monthly passes.
Environmentalists have marched against a plan to build a big hydro‑electric
plant in
The era of
economic growth under the neoliberal model has also meant a vast widening of
the gap between working people and the rich in
16) BUILDING BROAD YOUTH STRUGGLES
Comment by Johan Boyden, General
Secretary of the Young Communist League
The other
day, I was talking with a passionate youth activist about Walmart, which first invaded
Canada with the 1994 purchase of the Woolco chain, closing all non‑union
stores. Since then, Walmart has been locked in a hard battle with the labour
movement. There are now over 200 Walmart discount stores and 124
"Supercenters."
In many cases,
not only does the labour movement try to organize Walmarts, but also to block
construction of new stores, working with coalitions of local activists,
community groups and small business owners. For a time, these campaigns were a
flashpoint issue in the youth and student movement. After all, as a moral
representative of monopoly capitalism, Walmart is a weak link.
But in these
campaigns, could there be a danger for labour and working‑class people?
Sooner or
later, the point is made that shopping at Walmart is not such a good thing.
Youth and students, often brave but with limited experience, can be sucked into
the idea that Walmart shoppers are ignorant but complicit schmucks.
Never mind that
the cost of living is going up while wages stagnate. The anti‑working
class idea slips in that Walmart shoppers are also the problem. Why don't they
just buy local!
On the other
hand, how often have these small business owners advocated for working class
issues like raising the minimum wage? When the Postal Workers' negotiations
broke down over pensions, wages and benefits, the Canadian Association of Small
Business wrote an open letter to
And what
about rightward thinking social democrats in such coalitions, who invariably
try to bring the unity of the movement down to the bottom line demands, at the
expense of working people?
So the call for
caution when working people fight with other groups, strata or classes in
society, like small business, is not unjustified. Maybe truly progressive youth
activists should restrict or focus our alliance work to just trade unions?
It might seem
a logical application of Marxist analysis to identify the working class forces
within a movement, and propose that they be pitted against the non‑working
class elements. The mistake, however, often made honestly and with good
intentions, is to confuse the class with the movement.
Marxists
define a person's class according to the individual's relationship to the means
of production: do they own the tools, equipment, machinery, natural resources,
etc. used in making goods and services?
The working
class majority do not own any means of production and must work for a living.
Those who own the economy, and can survive without working themselves, are the
capitalists. But these two main classes are not the only ones ‑ there are
also intellectuals, professionals, small business owners, farmers, etc.
Today, it is
difficult to find a people's struggle, other than the labour movement, which is
not in some way a class mix. As big business dominates all aspects of social
life, and attacks even basic democratic rights, most struggles are "cross‑class"
‑ the peace movement, the student movement, or the women's movement.
A movement
has a specific grievance and goal. Because of its diverse identity (in terms of
age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, etc.) the working class embraces all
progressive movements. The interest of the working class ultimately includes
its liberation from and the defeat of capitalism by socialism.
Moreover, the
working class learns from such alliances. Few progressive movements can truly
win a profound victory over capital without socialism ‑ even if the
movement itself does not advocate for socialism. Rather this is the role of
voices like the communists, who put forward an immediate agenda for unity and
struggle ‑ to help overcome organizational shortfalls, to build unity by
convincing people to set aside minor differences and just sweat the big stuff,
to help create the political will for action, and to side with the working
people.
In practice,
the sectarian route ‑ extending the class war into the people's movements
‑ would be disastrous. It would undermine the fighting unity of these
forces, orienting the struggle inward instead of against the main enemy.
Campaigns
like the Young Communist League's "Charter of Youth Rights" branch
out in the opposite direction, seeking the kind of broad, powerful unity that
is needed to defeat the Harper government and win a new, progressive direction
for
An evening of your
favourite songs, with
musicians Tom Hawken, Linda Chobotuck and Joyce Holmes, plus full turkey dinner
and dessert, Sat., Sept. 24. Doors 6:30 pm, Program 8 pm,
Labour Day Festival, 11-3, Monday, Sept. 5,
COPE policy and
nomination meeting, Sunday,
Sept. 18, registration starts 8:30 am, Coast Plaza Hotel,
0400 or www.cope.bc.ca.
Annual Women’s
Housing March, Sat.,
Sept. 17, 1:30 pm, from Cordova and Columbia, organized by Downtown Eastside
Women Centre Power of Women Group.
Left Film Night, returns with “GASLAND”,
documentary on the impact of natural gas “fracking” industry, 7 pm,
Sun., Sept. 25, Centre for Socialist
Education,
Indigenous Young Women:
Speaking our Truths, register
by Sept. 9 deadline for this Nov. 18-21 conference. Info: 1-888-948-1112 or Natasha@girlsactionfoundation.ca,
or google “Girls Action Foundation”.
Radical BookFair &
DIY Fest, Friday
Sept. 23, 7 pm, panel discussion in Mondragon, and music show. Sat., Sept. 24,
11 am-5 pm, book tables on
workshops in nearby spaces.
STOP FORD'S CUTS, Sat.,
Sept. 10, 1
pm, Dufferin Grove Park, 875 Dufferin (north of College). Mass meeting to lay
out a People’s Declaration set of demands to deliver to City Hall. Monday, Sept. 26, 5:30 pm, rally at City Hall
to defend communities, public services, and good jobs!
Meet the Communist
Candidates in
Globalization and world
inequality, ten-week
study course, Mondays, 7-10 pm, Sept. 27-Dec. 6 at the Labour Education Centre
(LEC), cost $120, for info visit www.laboureducation.org or www.mlec.org.
Palestinians
And Jews United, boycott/disinvestment/sanctions picket, every Saturday, 1-3
pm, outside Israeli shoe store “NAOT”,