January
16-13, 2010
Volume 18 - Number 2
$1
Prolétaires de tous les pays,
unissez-vous!Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
Contents
Printer-friendly articles
1) HARPER OUT OF OFFICE NOW!
2) OFL DELEGATES DEMAND UNITY AND ACTION
3) THE DEAD CAT BOUNCE? - Editorial
4) SINGING THE PROROGATION BLUES - Editorial
5) "ARYAN GUARD" VOWS NEW VIOLENCE
6) OLYMPICS GRASSROOTS NEWS
7) "NO SECURITY WITHOUT HUMAN RIGHTS," WARNS CUPW PRESIDENT
8) LILIANY OBANDO TRIAL TO RESUME IN FEBRUARY
9) MARX IN COPENHAGEN
10) CHILEAN COMMUNISTS RETURN TO CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
11) HUMANITY'S RIGHT TO LIFE
12) WHAT'S LEFT
13) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
14) CLARTÉ (en français)
15) THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
16) INTRODUCING MARX
17) REBEL YOUTH
PEOPLE'S VOICE JANUARY 16-31, 2010 (pdf)
WOMEN'S SOCIALIST CALENDAR 2010 (pdf)
Printer-friendly articles
1) HARPER OUT OF OFFICE NOW!
2) OFL DELEGATES DEMAND UNITY AND ACTION
3) THE DEAD CAT BOUNCE? - Editorial
4) SINGING THE PROROGATION BLUES - Editorial
5) "ARYAN GUARD" VOWS NEW VIOLENCE
6) OLYMPICS GRASSROOTS NEWS
7) "NO SECURITY WITHOUT HUMAN RIGHTS," WARNS CUPW PRESIDENT
8) LILIANY OBANDO TRIAL TO RESUME IN FEBRUARY
9) MARX IN COPENHAGEN
10) CHILEAN COMMUNISTS RETURN TO CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES
11) HUMANITY'S RIGHT TO LIFE
12) WHAT'S LEFT
13) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
14) CLARTÉ (en français)
15) THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
16) INTRODUCING MARX
17) REBEL YOUTH
PEOPLE'S VOICE JANUARY 16-31, 2010 (pdf)
 |
WOMEN'S SOCIALIST CALENDAR 2010 (pdf)
 |
The Spark! |
| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada |
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, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
Articles
include
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| People's
Voice deadlines: FEBRUARY 1-28 Thursday, January 21 MARCH 1-15 Thursday, February 18 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net |
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 article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Communist Party of Canada Central Executive condemns proroguing of Parliament, Jan. 7, 2010
The decision of Stephen Harper's minority Tory government to prorogue Parliament for the second time in twelve months demonstrates profound contempt and loathing for both Parliament and the millions of Canadians who are demanding genuine action to end the economic crisis and the occupation of Afghanistan. Harper is escalating his attack on democracy to a new and dangerous level.
The Communist Party of Canada condemns this action, and urges all Canadians to take part in the January 23 protest rallies across the country. With the strong participation of the labour movement and all progressive forces, this movement to "get Parliament back to work" can help spark a powerful campaign to block and defeat the Harper Tories. Such a movement can lead the fight policies to defend the interests of working people and move Canada in a fundamentally new direction.
Imposed during the holiday season, the prorogation of Parliament until March is a machination to escape further public scrutiny of Canada's complicity in the torture of Afghan detainees, and more broadly the disastrous failure of the imperialist war and occupation in Afghanistan. The fabricated pretext of a "breathing space" to craft updated economic and social policies is absurd; the Conservatives intend to slash social spending, leaving millions of Canadian workers and their families facing another desperate year during the worst capitalist crisis in decades. Instead of "working," the Tories will be posing for the cameras at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, which have taken over $6 billion from people's needs to host this massive party for the rich on stolen native land.
Carried out by a far-right government - one rejected by nearly two-thirds of voters - the prorogation is a direct attack on Parliament itself, wiping out the work of an entire session and halting the work of parliamentary committees.
Even more significant, this is not an isolated step. It is part of a deliberate, conscious strategy by the Harper Tories to impose the deeply unpopular corporate agenda by undemocratic means. Their goal is to transform the Canadian state, using every possible measure to wipe out the achievements of past struggles by working people, and instead to transfer ever more wealth into the coffers of the corporate rich and to strengthen the oppressive state apparatus: the military, prisons, police and spy agencies.
Democracy in Canada has already been gravely weakened by "free trade", capitalist "globalisation" and the erosion of Canadian sovereignty, by the tight corporate grip on the mass media, and by an electoral system which restricts any serious debate of progressive alternatives to the neoliberal agenda.
In pursuit of this agenda, the Harper Conservatives are using the levers of power to stack the Senate, the courts and public service with their supporters. They have stifled dissent within the civil service, violated laws, ignored resolutions adopted by the majority of MPs, gutted accountability laws and promises, and further concentrated power in the Prime Minister's office. At every stage, they hurl McCarthy-style accusations to vilify and terrorize critics. It is no exaggeration to warn that these demagogic, dictatorial tactics are designed to block any possibility of eventually reversing their right-wing policies.
Unless the Harper Tories are defeated by a powerful movement of opposition, they pose a real and present danger to the future of Canada. The duty of all Canadians who support civil rights, democratic liberties, universal social programs, equality, peace, sovereignty and environmental sustainability is to join the struggle to drive this government out of office, the sooner the better.
All out on January 23rd! Bring the troops home from Afghanistan NOW! Drive out the pro-corporate Harper Conservatives, and step up the fight for a People's Alternative!
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Liz Rowley
Delegates to the 10th Biennial Convention of the recent Ontario Federation of Labour made themselves heard loud and clear: the new OFL leadership has to lead an all-in fight against the corporate/government assault that is driving down wages and living standards, eliminating jobs, and devastating the province. The 25-plus pages in the Action Plan were little more than a recitation of OFL policy, combined with calls to more vigorously lobby, consult, and study the issues. Delegates were united in their estimate that much more would be needed to win the battles at hand and those ahead.
An ETFO (Elementary Teachers) delegate put it best. It was too late in the Convention to do much with the Plan, she said, other than impress the new leadership with the need for immediate and broad-based action to counter the corporate attack.
"They're here, and if they don't do it we'll slap them," she said to enthusiastic applause. "And it won't be a friendly slap". Her comments situated this Action Plan, prepared personally by outgoing President Wayne Samuelson, on the periphery where it belonged. The issue was not about how much lobbying to do, but how to fight and win.
Regrettably, the stacked agenda left delegates little opportunity to debate that issue. The first three days of the Nov. 23-27 Convention were devoted almost exclusively to a change of leadership, after twelve years of an administration dominated by right-wing business unionism.
Though he was forced to give tacit support to mass action in order to secure the handful of votes with which he won election in 1997, Samuelson's administration killed the Ontario Days of Action shortly afterwards. A candidate of the USWA, Samuelson was also closely identified with the NDP. He was OFL President while the CAW was outside the CLC, and (it is now clear) was an obstacle to bringing the CAW back into the OFL and reuniting the labour movement in Ontario.
After years of inaction, in the face of an economic hurricane, this convention was all about changing that direction.
On the second day, delegates heard from an uninvited guest: Ken Lewenza. The CAW president told delegates that while his union and the OFL had been separated for a number of years, it was a separation not a divorce, and the CAW was coming back in a transition to be worked out with the new leadership. Adding that the CAW also had its "boneheads", Lewenza received several ovations when he spoke about the unprecedented attack by corporations and their governments. He stressed the need to close ranks and develop the kind of fight led by labour and its allies that would mobilize workers, women, youth, communities, all those under attack, to defeat the corporate assault. This ringing call to action resonated with delegates, who clearly supported the plan to reunite the labour movement in Ontario and to mount a colossal fightback.
The next day, CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan was acclaimed the new President of the OFL, to the relief of many public sector and progressive delegates, who had feared that the right-wing would nominate a candidate from the floor. The right-wing, in and out of the labour movement, has viciously attacked Ryan for his support of the Palestinian cause and sanctions against Israel following the Israeli attack on Gaza.
In exchange for not opposing Ryan, the right-wing expects to be able to clip the new President's wings, as well as seeing its candidate Marie Kelly (USWA) acclaimed as Secretary Treasurer.
But Ryan's speeches to the Convention were not low-key. His call to action following the acclamation gave hope to delegates who have been waiting a long time for an OFL leader who's ready to lead a fight.
Ryan and others elected to the OFL leadership (including Action Caucus member Stephen Seaborn, the new VP for Pride and Solidarity) will need to harness the energy and push of the left and centre forces in the OFL and its affiliates. Otherwise, the Convention's clear directive for mass united action could be swept under the table, and its new leadership cut off at the knees.
Further, the sooner the CAW is back in the fold, the better. United, the OFL can mobilize a fight. Divided, the working class is in even deeper trouble.
The Action Caucus, which played an important role on the floor of the convention, can play a big role in the days ahead by remaining active and involved in mobilizing union members to press for implementation of the Convention directives.
As 2010 begins, working people have something to work for and work with in Ontario. This convention didn't end the struggle, it started it. Now relief will have to turn to action to deliver the goods.
(Liz Rowley is the Communist Party's Ontario leader.)
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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
Corporate talking heads continue to talk about "recovery," often pairing that word with "fragile." The only certainty, however, is that the devastation which hit working people in 2009 will continue this year. With apologies to cat-lovers, the phrase "dead cat bounce" comes to mind; virtually anything thrown off a tall building will bounce when it hits the sidewalk. Similarly, the decline last year was so severe that a few months of barely measurable GDP growth does not mean much.
Most important, there is no sign that the slight upturn in economic activity will improve employment figures in the near future. The thirty biggest capitalist economies in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development are still on track for record post-war levels of some 57 million jobless this year, with tens of millions more surviving on part-time hours. In December, after several months of "growth," the official Canadian unemployment rate stayed at 8.5%, leaving 1.57 million out of work. The picture is worse in the United States, with gloomy implications for the Canadian economy.
It's also a fact that Canadian workers have lost ground over the last decade, even as corporate executives saw their pay outpace inflation by 70%. Faced with rising debt loads and poor job prospects, working people are in no position to go on a spending spree. And now, the Harper Tories are winding up their totally inadequate "stimulus" package, sharpening the knives to cut social spending in the next budget.
The details vary but the picture is roughly similar in many other capitalist countries, as right-wing governments focus on protecting corporate profits at the expense of working people. In the current battle against the arrogant Tory prorogation of Parliament, it will be crucial to expand the fight by raising the need for a genuine, pro-worker economic program in response to the "jobless recovery."
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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
It's nice to see Stephen Harper caught between a rock and a hard place - both largely of his own making. The minority PM, loathed by millions of Canadians, has clung to power in part by turning politics into a blood sport, heaping abuse on his opponents and critics. The Tory strategy is not to reach out to Canadians, but rather to hold their narrow base while driving millions of non-supporters away from any desire to vote or take part in political action.
It's a ploy that brought some Tory gains in the 2008 election, which saw a record-low voter turnout. But now this approach is backfiring. Having harangued the public for many years about the evils of overpaid, lazy politicians (remember his vicious record as head of the so-called National Citizens Coalition?), Mr. Harper has now incurred the wrath even of his own supporters by casually shutting down Parliament for a two-month holiday. The vast majority of Canadians who understand the daily hardships of working for a living have little sympathy for this cynical maneuvre. Popular anger may well rise a few more degrees as Tory cabinet ministers enjoy the Winter Olympics rather than stay in Ottawa to deal with the economic crisis.
Anger is the right response to Stephen Harper's utter contempt for the norms of Canada's stunted form of democracy. Long-time Communist leader Tim Buck warned that if fascism ever came to Canada it would be installed by the Conservatives. Buck's words seem prescient these days, as a far-right prime minister with no popular mandate schemes to shift power from the elected Members of Parliament into his own hands. For example, what would happen if Parliament was divided next year over the promised troop withdrawal from Afghanistan? Does anyone doubt that Harper would consider another prorogation to keep Canadian troops in Kandahar? Think about it, and join us at the anti-prorogation rallies on January 23rd!
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Accused pipe-bomber Kyle McKee (see our Jan. 1-15 issue) was arrested on Dec. 16 in Winnipeg, after a two-hour standoff with police at a North End home. The 24-year-old neo-nazi faces two counts of attempted murder, related to a failed attack against two of his fellow fascists last November 21 in Calgary. McKee is also charged with possession of explosives, and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
The incident led to the announcement that the Calgary-based Aryan Guard group had disbanded in the wake of severe internal divisions. There is speculation that the tip which led police to McKee's hide-out may have come from another disgruntled neo-nazi.
But there are also indications that some of this notorious gang may be preparing to renew their criminal activities in southern Alberta.
A recent statement was posted on a fascist website by a "Hans Krieger", claiming to speak for the Aryan Guard. "Krieger" says that the dissolution was made only by "a few rogue ex-council members" who no longer represent the group. "If anything," he says, "we will function far more efficiently without the bureaucratic, half-assed diplomacy of three tired old farts who have no stomach for street life."
Acknowledging "some recent inconveniences," the message claims that "the bulk of the Aryan Guard is still here, and still able and willing to carry on the march of salvation."
From there, the message descends into vile, racist threats, including a pledge to treat Third World immigrants as "unwelcome, alien invaders."
"Krieger" also promises that the "final days are at hand" for "those who hate the White race, be you communists, anarchists, or various other forms of deluded, hateful scum..."
"Every time you seek to strike a blow against us, the blow shall be dealt back ten thousand fold," continues "Krieger." "You will crumple to your knees and expire, drown in pools of your own filthy blood, crumble away to dust and be completely forgotten by generations to come..."
This bombastic message is a clear attempt to intimidate anti-racist activists, including Communist Party members Jason Devine and Bonnie Collins, who have been prominent in efforts to alert residents to the violent racist organization active in the city. Devine and Collins (and their young children) have been the target of frequent phone and email threats, and their home has been hit with a molotov cocktail, cinder blocks, and nazi graffiti.
Now, "Krieger" has promised to retaliate against opponents of the Aryan Guard, essentially by murdering anti-racists in Calgary. The fact that this threat was issued while Kyle McKee is in police custody is evidence that the danger is far from eliminated.
The Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada has responded with a letter to the Calgary Police Service, the RCMP, and the local, provincial and federal governments, demanding quick action to ban the Aryan Guard in whatever form it resurfaces, and to lay criminal charges against whoever posted the latest threats.
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler will be used to draw international attention to native poverty, according to Squamish Chief Bill Williams, chair of the Four Host First Nations, which has worked to promote the Olympics. The same message was given by Leonard Thomas, president of the BC First Nations Forestry Council, in letters to government officials.
"The time for plain talking is now upon us. Our forest-dependent first nations communities are no longer willing to quietly sit back and wait for actions that never come," Thomas said in a recent letter to B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell. "The fact that your government and its federal partner are spending $3 billion to stage the Winter Olympics is merely exacerbating the frustration and anger felt by our communities as they continue to be told that there is no money in the pot to address their situations, which, as you are fully aware, are of a most desperate nature."
"There's going to be some 14,000 media people running around [at the Olympics]," Williams told the Globe and Mail. "Some of them are already contacting us. They want to know, `What's it like to be an Indian in today's world? How do you live?' We are going to start letting those reporters know the reality of the poverty we face."
Since our previous issue, concerns over transportation and travel during the Winter Olympics have continued to increase. Signs have sprouted across the city warning of widespread street closures and parking bans, with the potential for chaos for hundreds of thousands of residents who need to get to work, school, and appointments. VANOC officials have done little to ease fears, despite their cheerful speeches urging everyone to take public transit. Even VANOC now admits that SkyTrain stations will be jammed, forcing commuters to wait two hours or more to get on a train during "peak periods" (we aren't making this up) such as morning, afternoon or evening. At other times, waiting periods will apparently be less than an hour. Nor are cyclists immune from the transportation nightmare. Several key cycling routes have already been blocked by Olympic venue restrictions.
Even as Olympics officials target Vancouver schools with pro-Games propaganda, some students are paying an extra cost for hosting the event. Students at Elsie Roy elementary school in the Yaletown area, near the BC Place Stadium, have been deprived of their playground for most of the 2009-10 school year. The playground has been taken over by a security firm since last fall, and will remain occupied for months after the conclusion of the Games, forcing students to remain indoors during recess and lunch breaks. This agreement was concluded without the knowledge of Vancouver school trustees,
Security and city officials promise that protests will be allowed during the Games, with one caveat: such actions must abide by the law. Given the record of reckless police disregard for legal restrictions on their authority, this leaves protest organizers and participants somewhat nervous. Will police use excuses such as "littering" (distribution of leaflets) or "disturbing the peace" (use of megaphones) to crack down on demonstrations? At this point, it's anybody's guess. We can only hope that the presence of some 14,000 Canadian and international media representatives will encourage the army of security personnel to show restraint.
Unfortunately, such good sense has been lacking in certain quarters at City Hall. The obliteration of a well-loved mural on downtown Beatty Street, near several Olympic venues, has resulted from the ongoing campaign to "clean up" the city for our Olympic guests. Why an ugly blank wall is an improvement over a colourful scene of children playing remains a secret known only to Vancouver bureaucrats.
Plans are well underway for a "global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence against the 2010 Olympic Games." The Convergence organizers have called on "all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents."
The event will include a Conference and People's Summit on Feb. 10-11. On Feb. 12 (the day of the opening ceremonies) a wide range of groups are holding special Welcome at the Vancouver Art Gallery. This family-friendly festival kicks off at 3 pm with "Free Games, Free Speech, and Free Food", followed by a parade and non-confrontational protest to BC Place Stadium.
Various "autonomous days of action" are being planned for Feb. 13 and 15, including anti-corporate actions, rallies to oppose militarization, and more. For more details on these and other events, see www.olympicresistance.net.
On Sunday, February 14, activists will take part in the 19th Annual Women's Memorial March to honour all the missing and murdered women in the Downtown East Side. This is not an anti-Olympic protest, and organizers are attempting to cooperate with security officials to establish a route which will allow participants to honour the missing and murdered women at various locations throughout the neighbourhood.
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Speech by Denis Lemelin, President, Canadian Union of Postal Workers, at an Ottawa public meeting to mark International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, 2009
Thank you for inviting me here. But I want to say that I am the voice of all Canadian Union Postal Workers (CUPW) members who did work around human rights for the last 45 years. Our Union has always stood up to defend social justice and human rights. It is part of our history.
Our members know that we cannot have security if people who live amongst us are subject to arbitrary detention and arrest. They know that we cannot have security if people who are arrested do not have the right to see the evidence against them. They know that our security is not improved when people from countries with large Islamic populations are targeted and are subjected to Islamophobia.
For CUPW, the denial of human rights to any person leads to an environment where the human rights of all people are in jeopardy.
This is why we are standing in solidarity today with Mohamed and Sophie Harkat and with other security certificate detainees and their families.
At CUPW we believe that the basic principle of natural justice has to apply to everyone. Our Union and the entire labour movement have struggled for some level of fairness in the workplace. This means that when our members are subjected to discipline, their Union advocate has the right to see the information that the Employer has on them and their Union advocate has the right to show this and share this with the member involved.
The labour movement has fought for this right for years. And now to have the government of Canada say that it is legitimate to imprison people on the basis on unseen allegations is dangerous.
But as activists, we know that we are living in a capitalist world and we know that the system has put in place mechanisms to protect itself and the labour movement has a long experience of it.
Now, I want to share with you the experience of CUPW. In a very small way CUPW knows what it is like to be watched by the RCMP and their friends. We know that the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) spied on CUPW and CUPW activists for many years. The Vancouver Local of CUPW was under constant surveillance by the RCMP from 1965-1984. In 1987, CSIS bugged the telephone system at the CUPW National Office.
There is documented evidence that CSIS agent John Farrell looked into the banking records of union activists, illegally broke into cars of CUPW activists in Toronto and was authorized to intercept every piece of mail delivered to the homes of targeted union leaders. While most mail wasn't necessarily opened, photocopies were made of both sides of each piece. Information from this was used to "mine contacts" at credit card agencies and banks. The garbage of targeted CUPW leaders was routinely stolen and inspected. CSIS even gave some of the targeted leaders special garbage bags on the pretence that they were part of a special recycling experiment.
The RCMP and CSIS viewed CUPW as a National Security threat. It was wrong to say CUPW was a national security threat and it is wrong to see Mohamed Harkat and the other security certificate detainees as threats.
Twenty years ago, the system did it to protect itself internally and it continues to do so. Now it is doing the same thing to protect itself from the outside, on an international basis.
For CUPW this security certificate regime represents several dangerous trends: I will talk about three of them.
The first one is about the criminalization of dissent. If you do not hold or do not appear to hold majority views, you and your ideas are criminalized. We are seeing this locally, nationally, and internationally. About a year ago CUPW had agreed to have the Justice for Mohamed Harkat committee use our boardroom for a press conference. The day before the meeting, members of the Canada Border Services Agency visited our office. They were wearing bullet proof vests, and were armed. The message they were sending was that if you were a supporter of Mohamed Harkat, they were going to intimidate you.
The second one is about Islamophobia. The men who are or who have been held under these security certificates have all practised the Muslim Faith. The Runnymede Trust in Britain defined Islamophobia as "unfounded hostility towards Islam." It refers also to the practical consequences of such hostility in unfair discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities, and to the exclusion of Muslims from mainstream political and social affairs. This practice builds inequality and discrimination, at a time when unity is needed.
The third one is about denial of human and civil rights. CUPW believes that the arrest of Mohamed Harkat, the torture of Maher Arar, the institution of the no-fly lists etc. serve to weaken our collective security. For CUPW the issue is clear. Our security does not lie with measures that strip away our democratic and human rights. Our security is about solidarity and justice.
The arrest and jailing of Mohamed Harkat and the other security certificate detainees has not resulted in CUPW members feeling more secure.
Here are some items that would make CUPW members more secure: an end to the security certificate regime; the unconditional freedom of Mohamed Harkat and all the other security certificate detainees; a strong emphasis on protecting human and civil rights, locally, nationally and globally; the complete withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan. If the Federal Government was serious about a war on terror those would be some of the key elements.
Looking toward future challenges, we have to fight for a different society:
* a foreign policy that puts justice, and dignity and fair trade above that of free trade. An example of the latter is the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Colombia.
* an emphasis on a strong public sector, including universal services, both here and internationally.
* a focus on job creation, not corporate greed. We have to link the fight for security and human rights with the building of a new society.
This so-called "war on terror" which is really a war on Human Rights has reminded me about courage. It takes courage to withstand being arrested and jailed without charges and without knowing the allegations against you. It takes courage to stand up and say the security certificate regime is unjust and undemocratic. And, it takes courage to live every day under the harsh and invasive eyes of CSIS and Canada Border Services.
So on behalf the 54,000 members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers I want to thank Sophie and Mohamed Harkat for their courage.
We know that today, or next week or next year any of us here - trade unionists, human rights defenders, peace activists just to name a few - could all be threatened when human rights and natural justice are on the chopping block. Our own experiences with CSIS and the RCMP keeping CUPW and its activists under surveillance have led CUPW to recognize the need for solidarity with Mohamed Harkat and all those who become victims of secret security campaigns. We know that the best way to be part of the struggle against the secret information society is to make a new world possible.
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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 "rebellion" trial of Liliany Obando, the labour and human rights activist imprisoned by the Colombian regime, is slated to continue in February. Liliany was recently once again denied "home arrest" so that she can care for her two children, Camilo and Laura.
Meanwhile, solidarity continues to build in Canada and other countries. A very successful fundraiser was held on Jan. 9 at the Tranzac Club in Toronto to help with her legal defence. In other news, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) will send a two-person delegation to Bogota next month to visit Liliany and monitor the legal proceedings.
On December 10, 2009, United Nations Human Rights Day, the International Network in Solidarity with the Colombian Political Prisoners (INSPP) issued a statement in support of Liliany Obando and all political prisoners, calling attention to "the violation of the human rights of Colombia's political opposition and its supporters. The Colombian government is waging a campaign to criminalize critical thinking - a campaign that paves the way for transnational access to Colombia's resources, underwritten with more than (US) $7 billion in the US funded Plan Colombia.
"Of special concern is the case of Liliany Patricia Obando Villota, undergoing her trial process at this very moment. She was jailed the very week she released a report on the murders of more than 1,500 members of Fensuagro, Colombia's largest union of farmers and farm workers.
"Liliany is the first person to be arrested and stand trial as part of the farc-politica. This is a process attempting to connect members of the political and social opposition to the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) based on evidence contained in computers allegedly belonging to Commandant Raul Reyes. The Colombian military claims it recovered these computers after a bomb attack killed Reyes and more than 20 others. The computers were in the hands of the Colombian police for over a week before being turned over to the international police agency, INTERPOL.
"INTERPOL says that tens of thousands of the files contained therein showed signs of tampering by Colombian authorities. Police Captain Roy Hayden Coy Ortiz, who oversaw the initial investigation, testified in court that the computers contained no emails, only Word documents. Alleged emails are the foundation for the charges against Liliany.
"Liliany's case is important for two main reasons. First, while an acquittal would be a final blow to the whole farc-politica, a conviction would revive it and open the way for broad repression of dissent. A conviction would also strengthen government efforts to destroy Fensuagro by providing a spurious link with the FARC.
"Liliany and her family have been victims of a series of threatening emails and phone calls. Similar emails have been received by the INSPP. The internationalization of farc-politica intimidation has taken place at all levels. In a trip to Canada earlier this year, President Uribe accused unionists and solidarity activists visited by Liliany of being cells of the FARC. In a violation of Colombian sovereignty and international law, Australian Federal Police officer David Nelson, accompanied by two Colombian officials, visited Liliany in prison, trying to get information about unionists she had contacted in Australia. She refused to cooperate....
"As we prepare this report, Liliany is trying, for the 8th time, to get home detention during her trial. This is a right that is commonly given to persons in many circumstances, especially women, who like Liliany, are single mothers and sole providers for their children... The right to home detention is frequently provided to those sentenced for all kinds of crimes, including convicted members of paramilitary death squads - yet Liliany has been denied this right seven times.
"The International Network in Solidarity with the Colombian Political Prisoners calls on all its supporters to demand that the Colombian government implement a Humanitarian Exchange of prisoners as a first step in the political solution to the deep social and complex armed conflict in the country.
- Demand that the Colombian Attorney's General Office grant Liliany Obando home detention to allow her to care for her children.
- Demand that the Colombian government guarantee the safety of Liliany and her family.
- Request that human rights organizations monitor the safety of Liliany and her family.
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By W. T. Whitney Jr.
"Goodbye Africa, goodbye South Asia; goodbye glaciers and sea ice, coral reefs and rainforest; it was nice knowing you." Such was UK Guardian writer George Monbiot's dismay as the recent Copenhagen Climate Conference ended.
La Jornada newspaper blamed "a web of interests that are the main obstacle to reaching a serious accord," including "governments and their accomplices in the corporation and financial world." The profligate burning of fossil fuels has fostered consumption, corporations' economic expansion, accumulation, and profit. Capitalism "imposes what is in effect a scorched earth strategy," writes Monthly Review analyst John Bellamy Foster.
The Copenhagen debacle recalls markers of other capitalist crises, the 1914 war over empire, for example, and the 1930s world depression. This time, capitalism is putting humankind on the road to hunger, migrations, rampant disease, and die-off. Harking back to Marx, Samir Amin asserts, "The accumulation of capital destroys the natural bases on which that accumulation is built: man... and the earth." (Monthly Review, 59:9. pp. 7, 20)
The Copenhagen gathering followed years of scientific recommendations, negotiations, and wrangling, beginning with the 1992 Earth Summit. With Washington opting out, industrialized nations accepted the 1997 Kyoto Protocol calling for modest, but legally binding limits on emissions. To keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees C, scientists have called for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from the present 385 parts per million to 350ppm.
Before the Copenhagen meeting, the UN issued guidelines accepting a temperature rise of 2 degrees C. By 2020, industrialized nations were to have reduced greenhouse gas emissions to 45 percent of 1990 levels, to 80 percent by 2050. The European Union had promised a 20 percent cut; the United States, in effect, a four percent cut. China, exempted from Kyoto requirements, offered an ambiguous plan tying emissions cuts to units of GDP rise.
No agreements were in sight when world leaders arrived at the meeting's end. President Obama met with Chinese, Indian, Brazilian, and South African representatives, later with those of 25 industrialized nations. He then issued a press conference announcement of an "agreement" affecting 194 nations. Participants learned of it via television.
Legal commitments under the Kyoto Protocol morphed into a political agreement lacking commitments and time tables. Reaching out to nations individually, not collectively, it focused on monitoring and backed the two-degree limit on global warming.
A leaked UN scientific report predicting a 3 degrees C global temperature rise under UN-recommended emissions limits was ignored. "Shock Doctrine" author Naomi Klein saw bribery in Secretary of State Clinton's $100 billion offer from unspecified sources to help underdeveloped nations cope with climate disaster. Danish police arrested over 1000 peaceful protesters under a new "pre-crime law."
Speaking for the G-77 group of 134 underdeveloped nations, Sudanese diplomat Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping demanded a 1.5 degree C limit on global warming and 60 percent emission reductions by 2020. "I will not accept the total destruction of my continent, her people, in Copenhagen," he declared.
That's where a Marxist approach comes in. The struggle, defined by class interests, continues. And just as the labour theory of value provides a material basis for unified struggle by industrial workers, Marx's distinction between use value and exchange value does likewise for victims of natural resources pillage. Use values, taken together, become the public's wealth that, in abundance, benefits all. The sum of exchange values constitutes private riches, promoted through scarcities.
Capitalists want use values to be absorbed into the exchange value category opening them up to engineered scarcities and accumulation. Or, according to Marx, quoted by Foster: "The earth is the reservoir from whose bowels the use values are to be torn." Climate change sets the stage for profiteers to look covetously at food and fuel shortages, high technology energy fixes, and carbon trading. Working people, inhabitants of small islands, and poor African farmers - among others - fight to protect wealth held in common.
And under a socialist banner: "Socialism is designed in terms of a society founded on use value, not exchange value," claims Samir Amin, who specifies, "Socialism should be ecological, indeed can only be ecological."
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and President Evo Morales of Bolivia came to Copenhagen with a message from the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA). "We cannot consider climate change without thinking about changing the system," it said. "The capitalist production and consumption model is taking life on the planet to a point of no return."
Chavez reminded assembled leaders of "socialism, the other spectre Karl Marx spoke about, which walks here too... Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet."
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 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
In a historic development, three members of the Communist Party of Chile were elected to the country's Congress of Deputies in elections held on December 13. The first round of the presidential race was held at the same time, with a run-off between the two leading candidates set for January 17.
This marks the first time Communists have entered the Chilean parliament since the Pinochet fascist coup of 1973. During the post-dictatorship period, Communists and their partners in the Junto Podemos Mas ("Together we can") coalition were unable to win seats at the national level, due to an electoral system tilted against smaller parties. The breakthrough was made possible by agreements with centrist forces to cooperate against the right.
CP of Chile chair Guillermo Teillier is one of the new Communist deputies, along with Hugo Gutierrez and Lautaro Carmona. Teillier told the media that "There is a new mood... After so many years of struggle we achieved results and success in our goals. We have said we need a dialogue with all those willing to reach a minimum agreement for the country."
Leading the presidential race with 44% after the first round was multi-millionaire Sebastian Pinera, candidate of the traditional right wing. Pinera is backed by Renovacion Nacional and Union Democratica Independiente, the party which inherited the mantle of Pinochet and is linked to reactionary elements of the Catholic Church.
In second place (30%), was Christian Democrat Eduardo Frei, president from 1996-2000, running for the centrist Concertation alliance. Frei was also backed in the first round by the Socialist Party and smaller social democratic groups.
Third place (20%) went to "independent" Marco Henriquez Ominami, son of the founder of the MIR ("Movement of the Revolutionary Left") which was sharply critical of the left-wing Popular Unity coalition government during 1970-73. While Ominami made some populist, anti-corruption promises in the campaign, there were questions about his links with certain elements on the political right and business sectors.
Finishing fourth with 6.2% was Jorge Arrate, a former cabinet minister in the post-dictatorship coalition governments of Alywin, Frei and Lagos. Last March he broke with the Socialist Party and joined the Junto Podemos coalition led by the Communists. Arrate conducted a strong campaign against privatization of copper, water and other resources, and for democratic reforms.
Arrate and Junto Podemos announced an agreement to support Frei in the second round, and to avoid running competing candidates against each other in local elections. Frei carried out many neoliberal policies during his term in office; in this campaign, he has called for expanded social welfare programs and other progressive reforms.
While the right-wing had a slight lead in the Dec. 13 voting, the centre and left parties will continue to hold a majority in the bicameral Congress, in part because only half of the Senate seats were up for re-election. But the most recent opinion polls put Pinera in the lead for the Presidency.
In another important development, striking copper miners have won new contracts at both the state-owned copper company, Codelco, and Anglo-Swiss multinational Xstrata. Negotiations continue for 280 miners at Codelco Norte and 500 more at El Teniente.
Some 5,600 miners at Chuquicamata, located in Chile's northern region, ended a two day strike on January 5 after accepting a pay rise of 4% and a bonus totalling US$24,280. The workers also won a US$6,000 interest-free loan. Miners voted by 2,610 to 1,203 to accept the deal. The union had sought a 7.5% pay increase and a US$28,000 bonus, stressing the high cost of living in the north.
The vast Chuquicamata complex produces around four percent of the world's total copper supply, and the short strike boosted global prices to a 16-month high.
Mineworkers at Xstrata's Altonorte copper smelter agreed to contract terms, following a week of industrial action that ended on January 4. The settlement includes a two percent increase to base wages, a bonus of US$5,000, and an annual production bonus of US$1,500. Altonorte employs 660 workers and treats raw copper and other mining by-products to obtain copper anodes. Xstrata is the fourth largest copper producer in the world.
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Reflections by Fidel
Climate change is already causing enormous damage and hundreds of millions of poor people are enduring the consequences. The most advanced research centers have claimed that there is little time to avoid an irreversible catastrophe. James Hansen, from the NASA Goddard Institute, has said that a proportion of 350 parts of carbon dioxide by million is still tolerable; however, the figure today is 390 and growing at a pace of 2 parts by million every year exceeding the levels of 600 thousand years ago. Each one of the past two decades has been the warmest since the first records were taken while carbon dioxide increased 80 parts by million in the past 150 years.
The meltdown of ice in the Arctic Sea and of the huge two-kilometer thick icecap covering Greenland; of the South American glaciers feeding its main fresh water sources and the enormous volume covering the Antarctic; of the remaining icecap on the Kilimanjaro, the ice on the Himalayan and the large frozen area of Siberia are visible. Outstanding scientists fear abrupt quantitative changes in these natural phenomena that bring about the change.
Humanity entertained high hopes in the Copenhagen Summit after the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997 entered into force in 2005. The resounding failure of the Summit gave rise to shameful episodes that call for due clarification.
The United States, with less than 5% of the world population releases 25% of the carbon dioxide. The new US President had promised to cooperate with the international effort to tackle a new problem that afflicts that country as much as the rest of the world. In the meetings leading to the Summit, it became clear that the leaders of that nation and of the wealthiest countries were maneuvering to place the burden of sacrifices on the emergent and poor countries.
A great number of leaders and thousands of representatives of social movements and scientific institutions, determined to fight for the preservation of humanity from the greatest risk in history, converged in Copenhagen on the invitation of the organizers of the Summit. I'd rather avoid reference to details of the brutality of the Danish police force against thousands of protesters and invitees from social and scientific movements who travelled to the Danish capital. I'll focus on the political features of the Summit.
Actually, chaos prevailed in Copenhagen where incredible things happened. The social movements and scientific institutions were not allowed to attend the debates. There were heads of State and Government who could not even express their views on crucial issues. Obama and the leaders of the wealthiest nations took over the conference, with the complicity of the Danish government. The United Nations agencies were pushed to the background.
Barack Obama, the last to arrive on the day of the Summit for a 12-hours stay, met with two groups of invitees carefully chosen by him and his staff, and in the company of one of them met at the plenary hall with the rest of the high-level delegations. He made his remarks and left right away trough the back door. Except for the small group chosen by him, the other representatives of countries were prevented from taking the floor during that plenary session. The presidents of Bolivia and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela were allowed to speak because the Chairman of the Summit had no choice but to give them the floor in light of the strong pressures of those present.
In an adjacent room, Obama brought together the leaders of the wealthiest nations, some of the most important emerging States and two very poor countries. He then introduced a document, negotiated with two or three of the most important countries, ignored the UN General Assembly, gave a press conference and left like Julius Caesar after one of his victorious wars in Asia Minor that led him to say: "I came, I saw, I conquered."
Even Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, had said on October 19: "If we do not reach a deal over the next few months, let us be in no doubt, since once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement in some future period can undo that choice. By then it will be irretrievably too late..."
Brown concluded his speech with these dramatic words: "We cannot afford to fail. If we fail now we will pay a heavy price. If we act now, if we act together, if we act with vision and resolve, success at Copenhagen is still within our reach, but, if we falter, the Earth will itself be at risk and, for the planet, there is no Plan B."
But later he arrogantly said that the United Nations could not be taken hostage by a group of countries like Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Tuvalu. At the same time, he accused China, India, Brazil, South Africa and other emerging countries of being lured by the United States into signing a document that throws the Kyoto Protocol in the wastebasket without a binding agreement involving the United States and its wealthy allies.
I find it necessary to recall that the United Nations Organization was born hardly six decades ago, after the last World War, when there were no more than fifty independent countries. Today, after the hateful colonial system ceased to exist thanks to the resolute struggle of the peoples, it has a membership of over 190 independent nations. For many years, even the People's Republic of China was denied admission to the UN while a puppet regime was its representative in that institution and in the privileged Security Council.
The tenacious support of the growing number of Third World nations would prove indispensable to China's international recognition and become an extremely significant element for the acceptance of that country's rights at the UN by the United States and its NATO allies.
It was the Soviet Union that made the greatest contribution to the heroic fight against fascism. More than 25 million of its people perished while the country was terribly devastated. It was from that struggle that it emerged as a superpower with the capacity to partly balance the absolute domination of the US imperial system and the former colonial powers to plunder the Third World countries unrestrictedly. Following the demise of the USSR, the United States extended its political and military power to the East - up to Russia's heart - and enhanced its influence on the rest of Europe. Therefore, what happened in Copenhagen came as no surprise.
I want to insist on how unfair and outrageous were the remarks of the Prime Minister of the UK and the Yankee attempt to impose as the Summit Accord a document that was at no time discussed with the attending countries.
During his press conference of December 21, Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez made a statement that cannot be disproved. I will quote from some of its paragraphs: "I would like to emphasize that no agreement of the Conference of the Parties was reached in Copenhagen, that no decision was made as to binding or nonbinding commitments or pertaining to International Law; that simply did not happen. There was no agreement in Copenhagen."
"The Summit was a failure and a deception for the world [...] the lack of political will was left in the open..."
"...it was a step backward in the actions of the international community to prevent or mitigate the effects of climate change..."
"...the average world temperature could rise by 5 degrees..."
Right then our Foreign Minister adds other interesting data on the likely consequences of climate change according to the latest scientific research.
"...from the Kyoto Protocol until today the developed countries' emissions rose by 12.8%... and 55% of that volume corresponds to the United States."
"The average annual oil consumption is 25 barrels for an American, 11 barrels for a European, less than 2 barrels for a Chinese and less than 1 barrel for a Latin American or Caribbean citizen."
"Thirty countries, including those of the European Union, are consuming 80% of the fuel produced."
The fact is that the developed countries signatories of the Kyoto Protocol increased their emissions dramatically. Now, they want to replace the adopted bases of the emissions from 1990 with those of 2005. This means that the United States, which is the main source of emissions, would be reducing its emissions of 25 years ago in only 3%. It is a shameful mockery of the world public opinion.
The Cuban foreign minister, speaking on behalf of a group of ALBA member countries, defended China, India, Brazil, South Africa and other important emerging-economies states. He stressed the concept adopted in Kyoto that "common but differentiated responsibilities mean that the responsibility of the historical accumulators and the developed countries, who are the culprits of this catastrophe, differs from that of the small island states and the South countries, above all the least developed..."
"Responsibility means financing; responsibility means technology transfer on adequate terms. But, at this point, Obama resorts to a game of words and instead of talking of common but differentiated responsibilities, he speaks of `common but differentiated responses.'"
"...he then leaves the plenary hall without taking the trouble of listening to anybody; he had neither listened to anybody before taking the floor."
In a subsequent press conference, before departing from the Danish capital, Obama had said: "There has been a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen. For the first time in history, the largest economies have come to jointly accept responsibilities."
In his clear and irrefutable presentation, our Foreign Minister said: "What does it mean that `the largest economies have come to jointly accept responsibilities'? It means that they are placing a large part of the burden of financing the relief and adaptation of countries, mostly the South countries, to climate change on China, Brazil, India and South Africa. Because it must be said that in Copenhagen we witnessed an assault, a holdup against China, Brazil, India and South Africa, and against every other euphemistically called developing country."
These were the resounding and undeniable words used by our Foreign Minister to describe what happened in Copenhagen.
I must add that, when at 10:00 a.m. on December 19 our Vice-President Esteban Lazo and the Cuban Foreign Minister had already left, a belated attempt was made to resurrect the Copenhagen cadaver as a Summit Accord. At that moment, practically every head of State had left and there was hardly any minister around. Again, the denunciation by the remaining members of the delegations from Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua and other countries could defeat the maneuver. That was the end of the inglorious Summit.
Another fact that should not be overlooked is that at the most critical moment of that day, in the wee small hours, the Cuban Foreign Minister, together with the delegations waging the honourable battle, offered UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon their cooperation in the ever harder struggle being fought as well as in future efforts necessary to preserve the life of our species.
The environmental group Wild World Fund has warned that if emissions are not drastically reduced climate change will go unchecked in the next 5 to 10 years.
But there is no need to prove the substance of what is said here that Obama did.
The US President stated on Wednesday, December 23, that people are justified in being disappointed about the outcome of the Summit on Climate Change. In an interview with the CBS television network, the President said that "instead of a total collapse if nothing had been done, which would have been a huge step backward; at least we could remain more or less where we were..."
According to the press dispatch, Obama is the target of most criticism from the countries that nearly unanimously feel that the result of the Summit was disastrous.
Now, the UN is in a quandary since many countries would find it humiliating to ask others to adhere to the arrogant and antidemocratic accord.
To carry on with the battle and to claim in every meeting, particularly in those of Bonn and Mexico, humanity's right to life, with the morale and the strength that truth provides, is in my opinion the only way to proceed.
Fidel Castro Ruz, December 26, 2009, 8:15 p.m.
(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2010, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers and overseas readers - $50 per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
VANCOUVER, BC
COPE Fundraiser with Rafe Mair - Monday, Jan. 18, 6:30-9:30, Sala Thai Restaurant (3364 Cambie St), tickets $50, email COPE at cope@cope.bc.ca.
Politics in the Ring, author Dave Zirin (see page 10) forum on the Olympics - 6:30 pm, Wed., Jan. 20, Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St., $10 suggested donation, Olympics Resistance Network, StopWar and other groups.
Not Ready to Retire, fundraiser for People’s Co-op Books - Friday, Jan. 22, 7:30 pm, WISE Hall, (Adanac & Victoria), $10 advance/$15 door. Call 416-469-2446 for tickets & info.
Left Film Night - Sunday, Jan. 31, 7 pm, screening “H2OIL”, documentary on the tar sands and climate change, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Admission free, donations welcome, organized by Vancouver East Club CPC, YCL, and Centre for Socialist Education. Call 604-255-2041 for information.
Olympic “Welcome Rally”, family-friendly rally to oppose this massive waste of resources - 3 pm Friday, Feb. 12 (Friday), Vancouver Art Gallery, with march to BC Place at 4:30 pm.
Annual Women’s Memorial March - Sunday, Feb. 14 gather 12 noon, Carnegie Centre, Hastings & Main.
WINNIPEG, MB
Manitoba-Cuba Solidarity Committee monthly meeting - Mon., Jan. 18, 7:30 pm at 280 Smith St., Workers Organizing Resource Centre. Info 783-9380.
Climate change teach-in - Mon., Feb. 1, 7 pm keynote speech kick-off; Tue., Feb. 2, 9 am to 4 pm discussions and workshops. Convocation Hall, Univ. of Winnipeg, Info 943-4836.
Marxism course, classes begin in February. Pre-register at 586-7824 or cpc-mb@mts.net.
TORONTO, ON
Gala Dinner for Communist Party of Canada’s 36th Convention - Sat., February 6, 7 pm, USWA Hall, 25 Cecil Street. Speakers: Miguel Figueroa and Guests. Live music and entertainment, call 416-469-2446 for tickets.
Norman Bethune Day social - Sat., Feb. 27, 2010, at the GCDO, 290 Danforth Ave. Tickets $5, door prize one week all-inclusive trip for two to Cuba. For tickets or info, call media sponsor People’s Voice, 416-469-2446.