The Spark!

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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

     The Canadian Labour Congress has responded to news that Canada lost 129,000 jobs in January with a renewed call for the federal government to make urgently-needed improvements to the Employment Insurance program.

     "This is stunning," says Ken Georgetti, president of the CLC. "It's an economic tsunami for Canadian workers and there's more to come. We have now lost 213,000 good full-time jobs in the past three months and the unemployment rate is at 7.2 percent."

     The total number of "officially-unemployed" workers in Canada is now at 1,310,000. Georgetti says many laid-off workers and their families will be left out in the cold because governments have changed the rules for EI, making it harder to qualify and chopping the benefits for those who do.

     "The effects of the government's economic stimulus package won't kick in for months but workers who are innocent victims of this recession need help right now," he warns, adding that unions will keep up the pressure to improve the EI program. "People have paid their premiums believing that they would receive their insurance when they find themselves unemployed. Rainy day funds are supposed to be there for rainy days."

     Senior CLC Economist Sylvain Schetagne notes that the loss of jobs in January is a deterioration well beyond anything seen in the past three decades.  With the loss of almost a quarter of a million full and part-time jobs in the past three months. Canada is now back to levels of employment experienced 15 months ago, in October 2007.

     The unemployment rate increased from 6.6% in December to 7.2% in January, back to the levels of five years ago. The increase would have been even higher if 29,000 workers had not left the labour market during January.

     Most of the jobs lost were full-time (114,000), with the biggest totals in Ontario (71,000), British Columbia (35,000) and Quebec (26,000). The majority of economic sectors, both public and private, saw a decline in employment, with a significant decrease concentrated in manufacturing (100,900).

     Meanwhile, despite the rosy predictions of right-wing politicians and pundits, the International Monetary Fund says the recession in Canada this year will be "much deeper" than projected in the Jan. 27 federal budget, and that next year's hoped-for recovery will be much weaker than forecast by the federal government and the Bank of Canada.

     On Feb. 4, the IMF cut its projections for global growth in 2009 to 0.5 per cent, the weakest performance since the end of the Second World War. It also projected a three per cent recovery next year, weaker than its previous forecast in November.

     "A sustained economic recovery will not be possible until the financial sector's functionality is restored and credit markets are unclogged," according to the IMF, which also increased its projection for global banking losses due to toxic U.S. assets to $2.2 trillion US, up from the $1.4 trillion US anticipated last fall.

     The IMF now predicts the Canadian economy will shrink by 1.2 per cent this year, worse than the 0.8 per cent decline forecast in the Tory budget. For 2010, the Fund predicts a 1.6 per cent recovery, well below the 2.4 per cent projected in the budget and the 3.8 per cent forecast by the Bank of Canada.

     The global outlook could be even gloomier, with a global depression on the horizon if stimulus efforts in the United States fall short, says Robert Ward, director of global forecasting at the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organization to the Economist magazine.

     Ward was in Quebec City recently as a guest of the city's convention centre and the Pele Quebec Chaudiere-Appalaches, an economic development organization. He said the world economy will contract by "nearly one per cent" this year, much worse than the IMF projects.

     The crisis which began in financial markets, Ward said, will now enter the "nastiest bit" with huge job losses.

     His warning coincided with the shocking news of 598,000 jobs lost in the United States during January. This marked the biggest single monthly drop in 34 years, pushing the U.S. unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, up from 4.9 percent a year ago, and the highest level since 1992.

     Ward is also concerned about where the U.S. will borrow the $3 trillion needed to cover its deficit, not to mention the funds for President Obama's stimulus package. China has been using its trade surplus to buy U.S. treasury bonds, he noted, but China is looking to diversify its portfolio into other investments. He forecasts a 4 percent GDP decline this year in the European Union and Japan, and growth of only six percent in China, marking a major slowdown for that country's booming economy. All these factors will likely combine to dramatically cut resource exports from Canada, shredding the relatively optimistic Tory forecasts for the Canadian economy.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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 Kimball Cariou

     As working people face a deep economic crisis, demands are growing for major improvements to the EI system. For many years, right-wing media and politicians have spread the idea that employment insurance is an "easy ride" for jobless workers, a "gift" from "tax and spend governments," a taxpayer-funded program which encourages "laziness" instead of faithful obedience to employers. Unfortunately, there have also been arguments from some on the Left that unemployment insurance should be understood primarily as a ruling class measure to dampen popular struggles.

     The truth is far different, but we need to recall the history of the working class movement to refute these ideas.

     Almost all major capitalist countries adopted jobless insurance plans in the early 20th century. The details vary from country to country, but such plans reflect the reality that capitalism can never provide full employment. Employers actually need a large "reserve army of the unemployed" to depress wages and to limit the ability of workers to organize into a powerful trade union movement.

     In fact, capitalism itself actually generates unemployment. In a nutshell, each competing capitalist (or corporation) strives to maximize profits by reducing labour costs per unit. This can be done by driving down wages, busting unions, lengthening the work day, speeding up production, or investing in new labour-saving technologies. The latter tactic reduces the workforce, driving workers into unemployment. Capitalists who reap relatively larger profits take advantage of their upper hand to keep increasing capital investments, further reducing labour costs. Those who fail to keep up with the competition are driven out of business, throwing more workers into the "reserve army."

     In other words, unemployment is not the result of "imperfections" - it is a permanent, built-in feature of our economic system.

     Unfortunately for the bosses, jobless workers refuse to simply lay down and quietly die of hunger. Using a wide range of tactics - mass demonstrations, strikes, elections - workers have always pressed for a shorter working day, better wages, the right to organize, unemployment insurance, and job creation plans, among other measures.

     This fightback during the 1930s was the most critical such struggle in Canadian working class history. As the Great Depression worsened, unemployment in Canada hit an estimated one-fifth of the workforce. The response of the Conservative government of R.B. "Iron Heel" Bennett was to force thousands of single jobless men into isolated work camps. Paid just twenty cents a day in these "slave camps," the workers formed the Relief Camp Workers' Union, affiliated to the Communist-led Workers' Unity League. Their movement took inspiration from the Soviet Union, where capitalist exploitation had been abolished, and far-reaching social advances were being achieved by workers.

     In the spring of 1935, RCWU members gathered in Vancouver, where residents responded with generous support and huge solidarity rallies. The workers decided to take their struggle for "work and wages" - jobs and a living income - directly to the federal government. On June 3, hundreds climbed onto freight trains to begin the famous "On to Ottawa Trek." The Trekkers gained in numbers and support as they headed east, terrifying the Bennett Tories and the entire ruling class, which feared a socialist revolution in Canada. The Trek was crushed by a brutal police attack in Regina on July 1, 1935, although unemployed workers in Ontario did carry on to Ottawa.

     "Iron Heel" Bennett was defeated later that year, and the Liberal government of Mackenzie King was finally compelled by working class pressure to introduce unemployment insurance in 1940; Canada was the last major Western country to adopt a UI system.

     Since then, the terms of UI have been the subject of a constant battle between the labour movement and the bosses, fought in Parliament and in the extra-parliamentary arena. For many years, workers needed 10 weeks of employment to be eligible for 42 weeks of UI. After changes adopted in 1971, over 80 percent of jobless Canadians were eligible for benefits. Maternity and sickness benefits lasting 15 weeks were also won that year.

     But the demands of employers gained increasing strength throughout the 1970s and '80s, as the agenda of "neoliberal" attacks on the working class took hold. The federal government reduced and then eliminated its financial contribution to UI by 1990. The Mulroney Tories slashed the program, followed by further cuts under the Chretien Liberals and Finance Minister Paul Martin in 1994 and 1996, when it was renamed Employment Insurance. Amendments increased the working time needed to qualify, and benefit rates were reduced to the present miserable 55% of former earnings. Today, only about one-third of jobless workers qualify for EI benefits, and much less in many areas.

     The decline of expenditures resulted in a growing surplus in the EI fund after 1994. The cumulative surplus stood at $54 billion by 2007, while hundreds of thousands of workers are unable to receive benefits.

     By rejecting the demand of the labour movement for improved EI access and benefits, PM Harper takes the same position as "Iron Heel" Bennett over seventy years ago. As always, the Conservative Party stands with the bosses, who use hunger and poverty as a lash to whip the working class into submission during a time of economic crisis. We need to fight back by mobilizing a new and powerful mass movement, demanding jobs and adequate incomes for all, including Employment Insurance at 90% of previous earnings for the full duration of unemployment.

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By Peter Ewart, Jan. 28, 2009

For unemployed workers across Canada, there has to be some cruel irony in the fact that the Federal Government's entire "Economic Action Plan" that was just announced will cost a bit over $50 billion. This $50 billion in the Plan will be used for everything from bailing out banks, to tax cuts, to home renovations. Indeed, it is the federal government's recipe for dealing with the current economic crisis that is sweeping across the country.

     So, what is the irony about this $50 billion? Well, $50 billion is about the same amount that the federal government has looted from the Employment Insurance fund to use for other purposes. This fund was accumulated as a result of worker and employer contributions - there was no government contribution whatsoever. But that did not stop the federal government from scooping the funds.

     Indeed, an argument can be made that the entire Economic Action Plan has been financed on the back of the unemployed workers of the country. That being said, what is in the Plan specifically for these workers? Not a heck of a lot.

     We have entered an economic period that many claim, including representatives of the Federal Government, is unprecedented in our lifetime for the threats it poses to our jobs and economy. The Federal Government is forecasting that this difficult period could last as long as five years, i.e., it is predicting deficit budgets for that long. Clearly, having EI benefits that last for only 45 weeks, as currently the case, is not anywhere near enough.

     So how much will EI benefits be extended for in the Economic Action Plan? Five weeks - for a maximum of 50 weeks. This is outrageous. There are forestry dependent communities across Canada that have been gripped by Depression level layoffs now for several years. And the same holds true for auto industry towns in Ontario and Quebec. What difference will five extra weeks make to a laid off worker in Mackenzie, BC, where all the major mills are shut down, or an auto worker in Windsor, Ontario, where over 20,000 are out of work? Very little.

     EI work-sharing agreements have been extended by 14 weeks to 52 weeks. But again, for workers in many communities that are experiencing catastrophic levels of unemployment, 52 weeks is not enough by a long shot.

     Funds have been increased for EI related training. For example, $500 million is slotted "to extend EI income benefits for Canadians participating in longer-term training" which, according to the Federal Government, will benefit "up to 10,000 workers." But didn't the government check its own unemployment figures? For example, in November of 2008, over 506,000 workers were collecting EI. That number was a 15,300 increase over the previous month alone. Providing funds that will assist 10,000 workers get retrained, doesn't sound like that much when unemployment is galloping ahead at over 15,000 a month. And, as the Toronto-Dominion Bank has suggested, that figure could amount to over 251,000 newly unemployed by the end of 2009.

     It should be noted that another $500 million over two years is targeted towards "individuals who do not qualify for EI training" and for "those who have been out of work for a prolonged period of time." The total number of these workers is hard to pin down, but in some parts of the country, some analysts suggest that there could be as many as 2 or 3 times or more actually unemployed than the number registered for EI. In other words, as many as one million or more additional unemployed workers, for whom there is federal funding to train presumably another 10,000 workers.

     Many people and organizations across Canada called for the Federal Government to eliminate the two week waiting period for EI benefits, to increase the amount of the benefits which are not enough for families to survive, and to extend benefits for up to two years. In addition, they called for structural changes so that regions in Ontario, British Columbia would not be penalized because they had relatively high employment in the past. However, none of these proposals were implemented.

     Recently, the Federal Government pledged to "backstop" the Asset Backed Commercial Paper investors for $1.3 billion. How many investors were there? About 2,000, a lot of whom were wealthy financiers.

     That's about the same amount as the 500,000 to 1,500,000 unemployed workers across Canada will get in the Federal budget to extend and "enhance" their EI payments. It's not hard to see who has the priority.

     (Peter Ewart is a writer, instructor and community activist based in Prince George, BC.)

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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.)

Information from the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women's Equality and Human Rights makes it clear that the Jan. 27 Tory budget does nothing to meet the needs of women. Circulated by Queen's University law professor Kathleen Lahey, this analysis notes that "women make up slightly more than half the population of Canada, and are directly responsible for caring for the majority of minor children in the country on a day to day basis." Lahey notes that "Budget 2009 not only fails to target the most vulnerable, but it seems to have been carefully crafted to exclude women from as much of the $64 billion in new deficit-financed spending and tax cuts as possible."

     For example, no gender equity requirements have been included in plans for infrastructure spending. Little of this spending will go to women, because jobs in the construction, manufacturing and primary industries are overwhelmingly male. None of this infrastructure spending is allocated to new childcare facilities, which are needed to enable women on the economic margins to enter paid work, or to funding existing childcare facilities.

     As announced previously, corporate income taxes have been cut from $6.3 billion in 2009/10 to $4.2 billion in 2010/11. The beneficiaries of these cuts include CEOs, directors, and owners of larger businesses, who are mostly male.

     Similarly, the $2.5 billion home renovation tax credit is available only to those who own a home, and who have enough income to spend $10,000 on qualified renovations in 2009 to get a tax credit of $1,350. Since women's average incomes ($27,000) are much lower than men's ($45,000), this program will widen the gender gap.

     The minor changes to Employment Insurance announced in the budget are only available to workers who already qualify for EI benefits. Since 1996, those working less than 35 hours per week have been denied benefits, affecting more women engaged in part-time, seasonal, contract, and "off market" employment. Nearly three times more men than women qualified for EI during the last reporting period.

     The personal income tax cuts totalling $1.885 billion in 2009/10 provide a $220 increase in the personal exemption, i.e. a tax cut of $33. This benefits taxpayers with at least $10,320 in assessable income in 2009, automatically excluding 40% of all women tax filers, whose incomes are already too low to pay income tax. Similarly, the tax break for higher categories provides less benefits for women, who earn lower average incomes at every level.

     The assortment of business income tax cuts totalling about $500 million annually (accelerated CCA, increased small business corporation limit, mineral exploration tax credits, customs tariff reductions) will benefit women much less than men, who own about 67% of businesses and corporate shares.

     For more information, visit http://www.womensequality.ca or http://www.egalitedesfemmes.ca.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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 Kimball Cariou, Vancouver

The latest controversies around the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler include disputed claims that security forces have "consulted" with opposition groups, and fears that surveillance installed for the Games will be permanent.

     The privacy commissioners of Canada and British Columbia warned on Feb. 2 that hundreds of cameras being installed at Olympics venues must not be used to spy on residents. After the 2004 Olympics in Athens, police turned the cameras into a surveillance network.

     "(Once) the games are over, the surveillance may not disappear, and there may be new ways that are thought up to justify keeping the surveillance apparatus with us," said federal privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart. "That's very, very worrisome."

     Stoddart and B.C. privacy commissioner David Loukidelis spoke at a Victoria security and privacy workshop focused on the Olympics.

     "I can ensure you any plan or proposal or supposition that the City of Vancouver will keep video cameras in the downtown core simply because they are there after the Games, simply doesn't fly with me," Loukidelis said.

     The first Olympic security exercise will take place Feb. 9-13, involving frigates, jets, and hundreds of soldiers and police. An estimated 4,000 Canadian Forces troops will be assigned to Olympic duties in 2010, leading to worries about conflicting demands for helicopters in Afghanistan and Vancouver.

     But those responsible for security measures have already been caught in a blatant lie about meeting with critics of the Winter Games to discuss security plans. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Bud Mercer, who leads the Olympic security team, recently told the media that protest groups are "at the table".

     "Our community relations group actively is reaching out to protest groups that we have identified or that have been self-identified and we'll continue to work with them to determine how we fit, how we can help, how can we can facilitate," said Mercer. The Integrated Security Unit (ISU) is a consortium of local police, RCMP, the Canadian military and other agencies.

     Prior to winning the Games bid, the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC), the government and the ISU pledged to work with residents to make sure civil rights are protected. But none of the groups organizing protests leading up to and during the Olympics have heard from the ISU, which refuses to list those it claims to be consulting.

     Anyone remotely familiar with local politics knows that the main such group is the Olympic Resistance Network, which includes a wide range of Aboriginal people, civil rights defenders, and other opponents of the Games.

     ORN activist Harsha Walia says "It appears that (the security unit) and (Games organizers) are trying to fool the public yet again with their false claims. They want us to believe that Olympics security measures will respect the democratic rights of protesters, when the reality is the stark opposite: Such measures are intended to dissuade... and repress Olympics opposition."

     Activist groups like the Anti-Poverty Committee and No One is Illegal have been labelled "potential" threats, after protests such as egging the Olympic countdown clock - hardly tactics capable of derailing the Olympics. Neither group has been contacted by police, but some members have been approached to become informants. The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs has called for Olympic protests, but Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says the organization has not been contacted by the police.

     The total security budget for the 2010 Games, originally pegged at $175 million, is now estimated at nearly $1 billion. Different levels of government are wrangling over which sets of taxpayers will be saddled with the bill.

     Bud Mercer is now talking about creating "protest parks": "What we're suggesting is that we'll work with you and try to designate a place where you can get your message out and it'll be a place that you may be more comfortable with than standing on the sidewalk." The reality is that such "protest pens," as they are called here, will be far from Games sites and mass media coverage - for "security reasons" of course.

     This trial balloon is simultaneously quite transparent and absurd. Despite their $1 billion price tag, the ISU are probably incapable of uncovering or preventing any serious attempt to attack the Games. Knowing this, the ISU hopes to fool the public by pointing a finger at grassroots opposition movements.

     Groups such as the ORN have already disrupted several public relations stunts held by the Olympic promoters and their corporate sponsors. ORN activists will continue to embarrass the Games organizers by finding creative ways to publicize issues such as homelessness, poverty, and the theft of Aboriginal lands in British Columbia. But as decades of experience in Vancouver has shown, the only real violence related to such protests will come from heavy-handed police and military attacks on demonstrators.

     To head off any resulting public anger, Mercer and other ISU spokespersons are cultivating the impression that they have "bent over backwards" to meet with protest groups. Organizations which refuse to accept the "protest pens" will automatically be labelled "violent trouble-makers". The ISU can then wash its hands of the inevitable state violence, proclaiming that "we tried to ensure peaceful protests."

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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

Last August, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada met days before a snap federal election campaign, which was jolted mid-way by the global stock market crash.

     For the first time since that crisis broke, the CC gathered in Toronto over the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 weekend, amidst a very different political scene in Canada and around the world. Gone are illusions about the "success" of neoliberal capitalist policies, while working class interest in a people's alternative and in socialism is on the rise. The coming year, the CC members agreed, will be a time of sharp challenges for the working class, and tremendous new opportunities to build the Communist Party.

     A wide-ranging political report adopted by the CC analyses of the international situation and the fightback across Canada, and ongoing work to strengthen the mass movements and to build the Communist Party.

     As Party leader Miguel Figueroa said, "This Central Committee meeting comes at an extraordinarily critical moment in the struggle for peace, jobs and the social and political rights of the working class in Canada and internationally. It is also a critical meeting for our own Party, which faces huge challenges with limited resources, but also under circumstances that offer significant opportunities for the growth and development of our Party and of the fightback movement as a whole."

     Figueroa's report, presented on behalf of the Central Executive Committee, provided a wide range of data on the global situation. For example, on Jan. 21, the World Health Organization released a disturbing report on "The Financial Crisis and Global Health", warning the "the world risks the most serious economic downturn since the 1930s. The impact of earlier increases in the cost of food and fuel are estimated to have tipped more than 100 million people back into poverty. The challenge facing the world now is to prevent an economic crisis becoming a social and a health crisis.... Shortages of food and consequent malnutrition predispose individuals to disease and thus act in vicious concert with the economic downturn."

     Rejecting arguments that the present downturn is "just another cyclical crisis," Figueroa's report stressed that "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." While speculation has always been a component of  capitalism, it now penetrates all aspects of the economy and politics, not only stocks and enterprises, but also national currencies, to the point where international financial markets dictate national economic policies.

     Despite some divisions, Figueroa noted, "What unites the ruling class is the desire to overcome the crisis at the expense of the working class - both directly through lowering the cost (price) of labour, the principal target of which is the organized labour movement... and indirectly, through the use of public revenues (the bulk of which come from the pockets of working people) to insulate investors from losses and prop up sagging profits. The differences between the two camps revolve around tactics, not any shift in fundamental policy."

     For the working class, he concluded, "neither prescription is acceptable. With respect to so-called `stimulation' financed by public revenues and/or deficits, the issue is not `stimulation' as such, but rather what types of stimulation, whose interests they serve."

     Figueroa emphasized that the CPC "wholeheartedly concurs with the position of the Greek Communists, which was summarized in their intervention at the International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties this past November: `In our opinion, what the bourgeoisie considers a threat to its economic and political stability is a hope for labour and the people's forces, as long as the communist parties and the anti-imperialist movement do not lose sight of the only way out... We should utilize this situation to the maximum in order to promote the process of unity among the working class as well as its social political alliance with other popular strata..."

     The report was sharply critical of the tendency by some labour and social democratic leaders to yield concessions rather than to mobilize for a stronger fightback. Figueroa pointed to the recent statement by CAW head Ken Lewenza, who signalled that his union is prepared to reopen union contracts to grant wage and benefit concessions because "we can't ignore the precarious financial state of these (auto) companies." On a similar note, NDP leader Jack Layton, speaking to the Toronto Board of Trade in January, said "It's that courage of the Canadian people which makes our country strong. Let's match that quiet courage with smart investment for the future... It's that kind of courage workers will need to take a pay cut so your friends at the plant can keep their job."

     On the contrary, said Figueroa, "Canadian workers need to replicate the examples set recently in Europe where millions have taken to the streets across Greece, France, Germany and elsewhere with one unifying message: `We did not create this economic crisis, and we're not going to pay for it!'"

     With unemployment skyrocketing, the most immediate critical challenge will be the struggle to restore access to Employment Insurance for the two-thirds of Canadian workers who are denied EI by restrictive regulations, and to improve the terms of benefits. The Central Committee decided to launch a special campaign on the issues of jobs and EI, including public actions, forums, leaflets, and other efforts designed to deepen understanding of the capitalist crisis and the attack on jobs and social programs. The Party will also give full support to the efforts of the labour movement to improve EI.

     This public activity will be complemented by a stepped-up program of party educational work. A growing influx of new members means that a majority of Canadian communists have joined since the early 1990s. Many are from immigrant communities, bringing powerful traditions of class and revolutionary struggles from their homelands. To take full advantage of the improved conditions for recruiting, the CC stressed, more work is needed to help improve the level of activity and organization in party clubs, the base of the CPC. These efforts will help to strengthen and build the Party heading into its 36th Central Convention, which is planned for February 2010.

     Young Communist League General Secretary Johan Boyden reported to the CC on the activity of the YCL and the work of Communists among youth across Canada. Since its refounding convention in 2007, Boyden said, the YCL has increased its membership and overall level of activity, and YCL members play important roles in a number of labour and student organizations.

     The CC meeting also adopted several special resolutions, including a call for full participation in anti-war demonstrations this April to mark the 60th anniversary of NATO. Another resolution salutes the 90th anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike, which took place in May-June 1919 and had a historic impact on the Canadian labour and revolutionary movements.

     The full documents of the Central Committee meeting will be posted on the Communist Party's website, http://www.communist-party.ca. Printed copies will be available from the CPC's central office as well as provincial and local organizations.


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(The following article is from the February 16-28, 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.)

"Sandra" (not her real name) is a student activist at the University of Toronto. She is a member of the Fight Fees 14, a group of students who organized a sit-in at the President's office demanding action on tuition fees last March. As People's Voice reported, the students were later arrested and slapped with restrictive bail conditions. Sandra spoke to PV about how the case against them is now collapsing.

PV: What is the current situation with charges?

Sandra: Of the fourteen people charged, nine have had their charges and their University code of conduct investigations dropped. For the remaining five, one is under age so his charges are expected to be dropped soon. For others, we will have to wait and see but we expect them to be vindicated soon. The case against us is crumbling. But it is crumbling slowly.

PV: They made you sign a peace bond?

Sandra: Yes. The nine basically can't attend any demonstrations in certain buildings for the time we signed on. We donated $100 to a charitable organization of their choice. If we break these conditions we pay a $500 fine. We considered not signing. But we were scared of the student code of conduct charges - scared in the sense that since they didn't get their way in court, it seemed likely they would try through the student code of conduct. And we can now talk to whomever we want.

PV: Why are the charges being withdrawn?

Sandra: It is two-fold - we've been going to court since April. By law, 35 days after our arrest we should have received "full disclosure," explaining why we were guilty. We haven't received that, we still haven't got the police notes from the time of our arrest, and it seems the crown keeps delaying.

     But the real reason was to stop us organizing. After our arrest we had bail conditions to abide by, including who we associated with, where we could go on campus, what we could do. They tried to exhaust us, but they really had nothing against us.

     And it wasn't that effective. For example, over 200 people rallied and marched down from the U of T, to the court building beside city hall. We had a garden party in front of President Naylor's house, right on his lawn. We went to the Alumni Association AGM and almost took over the meeting, bringing in proxies.

     When Oriel Varga graduated, she made herself a gown and embroidered "I spent a night in jail for U of T's crackdown on student dissent." [Varga was told to leave the ceremony by police, but had brought her lawyer and so received her Masters in Education on stage]. Since they laid the charges against us, we've had at least eight demonstrations. So we organized despite the bail conditions.

PV: Would you have expected what you went through?

Sandra: No. The U of T has tried to hide that history, but it has had occupations before. But I believe this is the first time in fifteen years the university has gone to this extent. While we were worrying about exams, we got the calls from 52 Division of the Toronto Police. The police said they would come into our exams and arrest us. If you walk into an exam at U of T and write your name on the paper and then get arrested half-way through, you automatically fail. That's the rules. It was really tough.

     So I've learned that laws in Canada are not made for us. The police kept us in custody in little cold rooms. While we were there, the officers were on the phone with the administration asking them what kind of bail conditions they wanted. It was shocking.

PV: What would you say to other young activists?

Sandra: I think being arrested is a risk with every kind of protest. You don't have to take over a building. At the York University CUPE 3903 strike, students were arrested on the street. Going through the legal system is not easy, so you should know your rights. You should also expect to have your emails hacked, and police officers follow you - we had police officers follow us to the subway and randomly on campus.

     But I am no longer ambiguous, I know that this is the same institution that basically wants to crush students who question the status quo. Once you know about the system, I speak for myself, but I would rather be one of the people who act than remaining silent. I guess it is a choice people need to make.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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

We join wholeheartedly in celebrating the collapse of neoliberal dogma, the bizarre idea that feeding profit-hungry capitalists with every conceivable tax break and privatisation scheme will result in eternal growth and riches for all. But it would be wrong to believe that neoliberalism itself is the cause of the present global downturn.

     In the short term, neoliberal policies pursued by all the leading imperialist states accelerated the accumulation of capital, temporarily countering the historic tendency for the rate of profit to decline. But the growing gap between real and paper wealth eventually had to give way to a new crisis.

     Other structural contradictions of capitalism have emerged, such as the staggering annual total of $1.2 trillion in military expenditures. Or consider the cost of environmental devastation. A recent WWF study, The Living Planet, reports that every year 30% more resources are being consumed than the Earth can replenish, leading to deforestation, degraded soils, polluted air and water, and dramatic declines in numbers of fish and other species. The planet is running up an ecological debt of $4-5 trillion dollars every year - double the estimated losses faced by the world's financial institutions.

     The deepening global depression is not the result of free trade, deregulation, privatization, anti-labour employment policies, etc. Rather, it is the inevitable outcome of the systemic crisis of capitalism itself. As long as this destructive system continues to dominate the planet, humanity will face recurrent, ever more severe crises. The alternative must be spoken clearly: build a powerful people's resistance to drive a final stake through the heart of neoliberalism, and move forward to socialism, the only hope for survival.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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 infamous Guantanamo Bay concentration camp is finally being closed down, yet Prime Minister Stephen Harper stubbornly refuses to lift a finger for Omar Khadr, the only Canadian remaining in this hellhole. Khadr was simply a 15-year-old child soldier when he was captured by US troops in 2002, and mounting evidence suggests that he did not throw the grenade which allegedly killed a US soldier. Yet he continues to rot in jail.

     One of President Barack Obama's first acts was to put the brakes on the war crimes system created by the Bush administration on occupied Cuban territory at Guantanamo Bay. These trials would be deemed illegal if held in the United States or Canada, so why does our federal government do nothing to secure the release of a Canadian citizen from his cell?

     When one Guantanamo trial finally began in the last days of the Bush regime, a U.S. interrogator testified that Khadr had placed Maher Arar in al-Qaeda locations. That testimony was shot down when the facts showed that Maher Arar was in North America at the time. As if more proof were necessary, this sorry episode proves that "intelligence" gleaned under conditions of torture and psychological abuse is utterly worthless. The Harper Tories, of course, refuse to admit that the U.S. is a torture state, perhaps because Canadian troops have turned many Afghan detainees over to the Karzai government, well known for torturing captives. In other words, Canada is knee-deep in blood, so our Prime Minister prefers to avoid the whole topic. Stephen Harper is indeed a man of "principle" - full support for the murderous so-called "war on terror." He would do well to consider that his conduct could someday land him in the dock for war crimes.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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

An international campaign is underway to demand the release of Sean Garland, a former leader of the Workers' Party of Ireland, who was arrested at the request of Washington on Jan. 30 outside his party's head office in Dublin. The United States wants to extradite Garland to stand trial on charges related to trumped-up accusations of involvement in counterfeiting; the case is part of George W. Bush's so-called "war against terror" launched world-wide against a vast range of opponents of US imperialism.

     Current Workers' Party President Michael Finnegan condemned the arrest as a "heavy handed and blatantly political act," stressing that "Some time ago Sean Garland had been in touch with gardai (Irish police) through his legal representatives and had made it clear that he was willing and available to speak to them at any time. There was absolutely no need to arrest Sean Garland outside the party offices and the decision to do so only serves to reinforce the political nature of this arrest. Sean Garland has made it clear previously and again now that he will fight any attempt at extradition to the United States through the Irish courts."

     Finnegan said on Feb. 3 that outgoing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice personally signed the extradition request in the dying days of the Bush administration. He called on the new Obama administration to drop the request.

     "Many of us were encouraged by the words of President Obama in his inauguration speech two weeks ago in which he declared that his government would not follow the same discredited path as Bush and Cheney," said Finnegan. "The continued pursuit of a 74 year old, suffering from diabetes and cancer, and who has spent a lifetime fighting for justice and against division and sectarianism on this island, is both vindictive and inhumane. The allegations against Sean Garland are both preposterous and without foundation. We have no doubt whatsoever that Sean Garland will be vindicated at the end of this process. However, given Sean's medical condition and the conditions in the prison in which he is being currently held, we believe that in the meantime his health will suffer irreparable damage. I therefore call for an end to these pointless proceedings and for Sean's immediate release."

     Garland's family and fellow WPI members have been heartened by the continuing messages of support and solidarity they are receiving from at home and abroad.

     This is not the first attempt to railroad Garland, who was arrested in 2005 while attending a WPI conference in Northern Ireland at the request of the US government and with the active collaboration of the British authorities. Garland was not charged with any criminal offence, but the Bush government sought to extradite him to face U.S. "justice".

     Sean Garland has spent a lifetime of resistance to imperialism. Born in Dublin in 1934, he joined the Irish Republican Army in 1953. On instructions from the IRA leadership, he joined the British Army to secure information for a successful arms raid on a British barracks. Soon after he became a fulltime IRA officer, participating in a number of major operations from 1955-56. He was imprisoned in Dublin's Mountjoy Jail from 1957 to early 1959, and then in Belfast's Crumlin Road Jail until August 1962.

     Garland became part of the group within the IRA which sought to turn from military struggle to socialist political activity, and was a strong supporter of the historic campaign for Civil Rights in Northern Ireland in the sixties. In the IRA split of 1969/70 he was a foremost opponent of the narrow nationalism which some elements sought to impose on the organisation. Over the following years he consistently worked to curtail the military activities of the Official IRA, which at times had degenerated into terrorist activity. He was successful with others in securing the Official IRA Ceasefire of May 1972. In March 1975 he was nearly assassinated by those who opposed the political road, but survived to become General Secretary of Sinn Fein-The Workers' Party, as it became known in 1977, and later The Workers Party.

     Over the 1970s and '80s Sean Garland was very active in developing and expanding the party's international activity. He played a major role in solidarity campaigns with Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, South West Africa, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Greece, and Palestine. He also took part in developing fraternal relations with many parties in the former Socialist countries of Eastern and Central Europe. For decades he has been a vocal and active critic of United States foreign policy.

     Rejecting opportunist pressures during the early 1990s to abandon socialism as their goal, Garland and other leaders of the Workers' Party maintained friendly relations with Communist Parties which have upheld their Marxist ideals. The WPI attends the annual meetings of Communist and Workers' Parties which were hosted by the Communist Party of Greece for a number of years, and which was held last November in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

     Messages of protest should also be sent to the Irish authorities:


     Send copies to the Workers' Party at 24 Mountjoy Square, Dublin Ireland, email wpi@indigo.ie. For updates, visit the website http://www.seangarland.org.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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.)

In a historic development, South African dock workers have refused to offload a ship from Israel scheduled to dock at the port of Durban on February 8. This follows the decision by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) to strengthen the campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Apartheid Israel.

     COSATU says that "The pledge by Satawu (South African Transport and Allied Workers Union) members in Durban reflects the commitment by South African workers to refuse to support oppression and exploitation across the globe."

     Satawu's action is part of a history of worker resistance against apartheid. In 1963, four years after the Anti-Apartheid Movement was formed, Danish dock workers refused to offload a ship with South African goods. When the ship docked in Sweden, Swedish workers followed suit. Dock workers in Liverpool and, later, in the San Francisco Bay Area also refused to offload South African goods.    Backing this new international campaign, Western Australian members of the Maritime Union of Australia resolved in late January to boycott Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or going to Israel.

     COSATU and a coalition of solidarity groups has called on the South African government to sever diplomatic and trade relations with Israel. The coalition held a week of action starting Feb. 6, building on marches and rallies held throughout the country over the past month involving tens of thousands of South Africans.

     On Feb. 6, participating groups protested outside the offices of the South African Zionist Federation and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, which fully supported the Israeli attacks against Gaza. The rally was addressed by Satawu General Secretary Randall Howard, and former cabinet minister Ronnie Kasrils, a prominent veteran of the anti-apartheid struggle.

     Other actions included a picket outside parliament in Cape Town joined by a number of MPs, and mass rallies with speakers including Cosatu General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi and South African Council of Churches General Secretary Eddie Makue.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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.)

January 24 statement by the Canada Haiti Action Network, on the fifth anniversary of the overthrow of elected government in Haiti

This February, the Haitian people will commemorate the fifth anniversary of a seminal date in their long and proud history. But it won't be a celebration. They will mobilize in angry protests to condemn the overthrow of the elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide on February 29, 2004. They will also condemn the decades of foreign domination that has brought the country to ruin; made all the worse since 2004.

     The illegal coup of 2004 has had an extremely negative impact on Haiti's social fabric - breakdown in government services, including education and health care; increased poverty; decline of agricultural production; increased violence by pro-coup gangs and by foreign military forces and the Haitian National Police; an increase in emigration of educated Haitians; and heightened tensions within families as a result of all of the above.

     Haiti's crippled economy was dealt further blows when a series of hurricanes struck the island last summer. Several thousand died and agricultural production was dealt a heavy blow. The city of Gonaives, the fourth largest in Haiti, still lies under several feet of dried, rock-hard mud.

     Some $100 million was pledged by foreign governments in relief following the storms. Almost nothing has been received. This follows the pattern of the past five years whereby the United Nations and participating countries have spent hundreds of millions of dollars each year on their 9,000-member military mission while spending next to nothing on social and economic development.

     Canada supported the overthrow of the government of President Aristide and thousands of other elected officials in 2004. Troops from the U.S., France and Canada joined with Haitian rightists to consolidate that illegal act. The three big powers got a stamp of approval from the United Nations Security Council. An appointed regime of human rights violators ruled Haiti from 2004 to 2006 and ran the country into the ground.

     Today, a 9,000-member foreign police and military force, including the aforementioned Big Three, patrols the country with the endorsement of the UN Security Council. These powers have a preponderant role in the financing of the Haitian government and thus in its policy decisions.

     The Canadian government and its Canadian International Development Agency say they are providing $110 million per year to assist Haiti. But little of that money reaches ordinary Haitians. Most of it is used to prop up institutions of foreign domination, including NGOs and propaganda agencies that supported, or were silent in the aftermath of, the 2004 coup.

     Political persecutions dating from the 2004 coup are continuing. These include Ronald Dauphin, still imprisoned after five years, and political rights leader Lovinsky Pierre Antoine who was "disappeared" on August 12, 2007 and whose whereabouts remain unknown. Incredibly, his case was not even mentioned in the 2007 report of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances.

     One of the ideological pillars of the 2004 overthrow in Haiti was the doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect." The doctrine is increasingly used today to justify military intervention against many of the world's poorer countries - from Venezuela and Cuba to Sudan and Zimbabwe. Thus, the lessons of Haiti have an added importance for the world's people.

     Haitians are fighting to retake the sovereignty of their country. Just one month ago, on December 16, tens of thousands marched and rallied in Port au Prince and in other cities across Haiti to reaffirm their opposition to foreign occupation.

     The Canada Haiti Action Network will hold public events in at least seven cities across Canada to commemorate the 2004 coup d'etat in Haiti, featuring speakers or films. In late March, we are sponsoring a delegation of trade union activists to Haiti for one week. We continue to assist in sending medical supplies to health providers. We invite you and your organization to join us at anniversary events. Become a co-sponsor. Join us in the work of our projects. We encourage local and national media to join us in examining the conditions in Haiti today.

     WE DEMAND:

     Reparations to the Haitian people for all the damage of the past five years caused by foreign occupation.

     An investigation of the raids by United Nations military forces into Cite Soleil on July 6, 2005 and December 22, 2006. The UN stands accused by residents of "massacres" that cost dozens of lives. To date, not a single international human rights group has undertaken a serious investigation of the community's allegations.

     Free all political prisoners, including Ronald Dauphin.

     End the grisly overcrowding in Haiti's prisons.

     The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) must conduct an independent investigation into the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine.

     An independent inquiry into Canada's role in the overthrow of Haiti's elected government in 2004. This inquiry must release the full documentation of the "Ottawa Initiative on Haiti" meeting held in Meech Lake, Quebec on Jan. 31-Feb. 1, 2003 that sketched plans for the overthrow of Haiti's government. It must conduct a comprehensive assessment of Canada's aid programs in Haiti, including the extensive involvement in Haiti's persistently dysfunctional justice system and national police service.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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.)

Resolution adopted by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, January 31 - February 1, 2009

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is one of imperialism's most dangerous weapons against peace and national sovereignty. The leading imperialist countries formed the military alliance in 1949 as an aggressive alliance against the socialist countries, especially the Soviet Union.

     At the time, it was an alliance of imperialist countries which controlled much of the world by direct colonial rule. Countries such as Britain and France fought to keep their possessions while the United States attacked the sovereignty of countries by invasions and CIA subversion.

     It was a leading tool of imperialism to roll back the democratic advances created by the defeat of fascism in World War Two - not just the United Nations Charter, which it violated by its formation as a regional military alliance, but as an alliance set up to preserve and regain colonial rule and oppose a new, progressive international economic order.

     Since the beginning, NATO has been dominated by the United States' aggressive military doctrines, compelling NATO countries to maintain massive, well equipped armies and the most dangerous nuclear weapons in Europe, aimed at the Soviet Union and Eastern European socialist countries.

     NATO includes three countries with nuclear weapons (US, France, and UK). It has a "first use" doctrine of these weapons in a conflict.

     Since the overthrow of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe nearly twenty years ago, NATO has never ceased working as an instrument helping the leading imperialist countries to dominate the global economy.

     NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia in 1999 was a savage, unilateral and criminal blow to the sovereignty of Europe's last country with a declared goal of socialism.

     In the middle of the Yugoslavian bombing campaign, NATO held a gala 50th anniversary celebration in Washington. The member states changed NATO's mandate, allowing it unilaterally to start "preventive" wars anywhere in the world, well beyond its original "North Atlantic" territory.

     The new mandate reflects the most aggressive, criminal military doctrines of the Bush administration; it is a mandate that totally violates the most basic international laws. The mandate allows NATO to carry out campaigns like the one in Yugoslavia, which violated its own original charter.

     Since 2001 in support of U.S. imperialism, NATO has been carrying out a war of plunder and domination in Afghanistan. Successive Liberal and Conservative governments made Canada into one of George Bush's keenest bootlickers in this blood-soaked occupation, presenting proposals in the U.N. Security Council and, along with NATO's dominant states, pressuring the other members to supply more and more troops.

     NATO is seeking to expand its membership, especially recruiting countries around Russia, and to coordinate with countries that surround China, both countries with rich resources and which at times resist the hegemony of the core countries of NATO.

     As seen by the U.S.'s "green light" for Georgia's aggression against Russia in 2008, NATO is seeking to provoke a war with Russia, a country that now has a low threshold for the "first use" of its own nuclear weapons. China is being provoked by the growing number of encircling U.S. military bases and targeted military exercises.

     The Communist Party of Canada believes it is more important than ever to build an effective, broadly based campaign against NATO, focusing on Canada's immediate and total withdrawal. Pulling Canada out of NATO is an essential step in winning an independent foreign policy of peace and disarmament for Canada.

     The 60th anniversary of NATO which will be marked in April this year will be timely for mass actions against NATO across Canada. The Communist Party of Canada will work for the success of such efforts already being planned in the peace movement and on initiating more activities right across Canada.

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(The following article is from the February 15-28, 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.)

There are new fears for the safety of Native American political prisoner Leonard Peltier. Incarcerated in various prisons for over thirty years, Peltier has reportedly been victimized since being transferred to U.S. Penitentiary Canaan in Pennsylvania on January 14.

     Shortly after arrival, he was jumped and brutally beaten by gang members, none of whom he knew. He was subsequently put in solitary confinement in the "hole" and on restricted meals, endangering his diabetic condition, and is being allowed only one telephone call per month. He is being prevented from meeting face-to-face with his lawyers.

     Convicted in the late 1970s for allegedly murdering two FBI agents, Peltier has never been given a fair trial. U.S. federal authorities have quashed or destroyed thousands of pages of evidence that might have freed Peltier decades ago.

     The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee points out that "Documents show that although the prosecution and government pointed the finger at Peltier for shooting FBI agents at close range during the trial in 1976, for three years the prosecution withheld critical ballistic test results proving that the fatal bullets could not have come from the gun tied to Leonard Peltier. This trial also denied evidence of self defense."

     During subsequent oral arguments, the prosecutor stated: "We can't prove who shot those agents" and the Eighth Circuit Court found that "There is a possibility that the jury would have acquitted Leonard Peltier had the records and data improperly withheld from the defense been available to him in order to better exploit and reinforce the inconsistencies casting strong doubts upon the government's case."

     Judge Heaney who authored the denial, now supports Peltier's release, stating that the FBI used improper tactics to gain the conviction.

     Now 64 years old, Peltier is suffering from diabetes and a other serious ailments brought on by his decades in prison. He has great-grandchildren he has never seen.

     A new international petition for Peltier's release says in part, "The gross miscarriage of justice in the case of Leonard Peltier has gone on long enough. He should be released immediately. Since he is a member of a sovereign Native nation, I ask that President Obama work `nation to nation' with the Turtle Mountain Chippewa to bring Peltier home to North Dakota. Furthermore, Peltier has been a model prisoner for decades. He is long overdue for parole, but the FBI is improperly intervening to prevent his release. At a time when the government is seeking to restore its international reputation by moving to close down the prison at Guantanamo, Leonard Peltier has been languishing unjustly in the U.S. prison system for decades longer than the Guantanamo prison has existed. Release Leonard Peltier now!"

     The petition can be signed online at http://www.iacenter.org/native/leonardpeltierpetition. For more information, go to http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info.

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(The following article is from the February 15-31, 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.)



Celebration of the lives of Rosaleen Ross and Bill Mozdir - 2 pm, Sunday, Feb. 15, Centre for  Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Call BC Committee CPC for information, 604-254-9836.

Women’s Memorial March, remembering murdered and missing women - 1 pm, Sat., Feb. 14, from Main & Hastings.

Valentine’s Day Fundraiser, sponsored by Latino Club CPC - 6 pm-midnight, Sat., Feb. 14,  Peretz Centre, 6184 Ash St. For tickets and information, contact BC Committee CPC,  604-254-9836.

Celebration of the lives of Rosaleen Ross and Bill Mozdir - 2 pm, Sunday, Feb. 15, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Call BC Committee CPC for information, 604-254-9836.

Corporate attacks on free speech, panel forum - Tue., Feb. 17, 7 pm, Room 1700 SFU Harbour Centre, sponsored by Seriously Free Speech Committee.

Left Film Night- Sunday, Feb. 22, 7 pm, at the Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Featuring “North Country,” free admission (donations welcome), call 604-255-2041 for details.

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.


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.

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