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| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the
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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
- “Introduction to a General Theory of Culture” (Barry Lord);
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- “Nature of the State Under Bush & Harper” (Stephen Von Sychowski);
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(Contents)
(Home)
1) AUTOWORKERS
ACCEPT 3RD CONTRACT IN 12 MONTHS
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist
newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited.
Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for
U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35
CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133
Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Liz
Rowley, Ontario leader of the Communist Party
Punishing cuts that will reduce labour costs by another $15 an hour, on
top of the $6 already taken by GM in March, have been accepted by 86%
of the 7,500 CAW members who work for GM Canada last month.
The agreement, the third the CAW has been
forced to sign "with a
cannon to the head" in the last 12 months, will freeze wages and COLA
(cost of living allowance) until 2012. Workers will lose one week
annual vacation; $1700 Christmas bonus; $3500 in one-time holiday pay;
tuition reimbursement; semi-private hospital coverage, and will receive
reduced dental and healthcare coverage, while paying a new $30 per
month healthcare fee. New employees will pay $1 an hour into the
pension plan. Retirees will see their COLA and benefit improvements
frozen until 2015 and will pay $15 a month health care fee.
The deal puts GM's labour costs on a par with
non-unionized
workers in the auto industry, undermining free collective bargaining
and the closed shop in Canada.
Workers who voted for the concessions were
grim, some weeping, as
they accepted the deal in late May. They were told that the alternative
to the concessions being forced on them by GM, the Canadian and Ontario
governments, the US government, and various creditors and bondholders,
was corporate bankruptcy and the loss of everything: jobs, pensions,
benefits, and the domino effect of catastrophic job losses up to seven
times greater in the spinoff jobs.
The federal and Ontario governments threatened
to pull bailout
funds if the workers didn't accept the concessions. A massive campaign
attacking autoworkers' comparatively higher wages, pensions and
benefits was orchestrated across Canada in media talk-shows and
editorials.
Drowned out in this mass vilification of
workers and the CAW, was
the fact that Canadian banks received $200 billion in bailouts just a
few months ago, twenty times more than the government's gift to General
Motors.
Also drowned out were the terms: the bailouts
bought no guarantee
to keep GM plants in Canada operating, and no guarantees against
further layoffs or further wage cuts. With GM planning 20,000 more
layoffs and eleven more plant closures, this should have been the
essential condition for bailout funds.
Further, the terms of the deal require the
federal and provincial
governments to sell their shares in the company by 2018: 30% in
three
years; 65% in six years, and 100% by 2018. The US government on the
other hand can keep their shares or sell them when the price is high:
their choice.
The only concession Canada got was a qualified
offer to keep 16%
of GM production here until 2016, except in the case of "major
corporate events or transactions", when GM retains the right to do
whatever it wants.
Is it really likely that GM and its new
partner, the US
government, would lay off 20,000 US workers and close eleven or more US
plants, instead of closing up shop in Canada?
The Canadian bailout of $10.6 billion has
given us the outside
date for the wrap up of GM operations in Canada; it could be earlier.
The Ontario government refused to take
responsibility for the GM
pension shortfall of $6.5 billion (which it deliberately allowed GM to
underfund). But the union was successful in embedding in the deal a
"filter" arrangement, whereby the government bailout will be directed
into the pension fund, and GM will repay the remaining shortfall over
the next 10 years. Short of this piece, 25,000 GM retirees would have
lost 60% of their pension; deferred wages in fact, owed to them by this
company.
The Communist Party is calling for the
nationalization of the auto
companies in Canada, demanding that the federal and provincial
governments step up to really protect Canadian industrial jobs and the
Canadian economy.
Taking over these operations would allow for
the development of a
Canadian car, one that is small, affordable, fuel-efficient, and
environmentally sustainable. This should be partnered with the
development of public transit, light rail, and inter-urban transit
systems that can make use of alternate sources of energy, and provide
good jobs to Canadians.
In exchange for the plants and property, the
Canadian government
should take over responsibility for the legacy costs: pensions
and
benefits to Canadian autoworkers.
Canada is the only advanced industrialized
country in the world
without a national automobile industry. For the first time, auto jobs
have dropped below 100,000 in Canada, with the just published reports
on the first quarter of 2009.
Meanwhile, Frank Stronach has moved to buy a
majority stake in
GM's German Opel unit, and plans to expand assembly and production of
Opel into Ontario within 24 months. A close friend of PM Stephen
Harper, Stronach plans to sell and export the new Canadian-made Opel
all over Canada and the US.
But the Opel plants in Canada will be
union-free, just like the
Magna auto parts plants. A supporter of the right-wing Austrian Freedom
Party, Stronach said in recent Toronto
Star article that "there is
still too much of an adversarial and confrontational environment... We
need the right structure and (entrepreneurial) environment. The key is
if you're not competitive you won't make any monies. Then business
wouldn't be a benefit to society. In fact you would become a liability
to society as we see now."
Stronach offered to let the CAW organize his
parts plants two
years ago, but without either the right to strike or union
representation in the plants or on the shop floor. Worries that the
Magna deal would set conditions that would work their way into the
assembly plants now seem to be well-founded.
From union stronghold to union-less or
union-free, the auto sector in North America is changing rapidly.
So is Canada. Without a strong auto sector,
Canada loses its
economic engine, and the largest part of the manufacturing sector.
Nationalization is looking like a better and
better option for workers, for trade unions, for Canada.
2) ONE IN 12 NOW JOBLESS
AS ECONOMY SINKS
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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
Another 42,000 jobs were wiped out across the
country during May,
as the official measure of unemployment hit 8.4%, an 11-year high mark.
In total, about 400,000 jobs have been lost since last October, and
1,548,400 Canadians are jobless, an increase of 34.5% during that
period. The news that one Canadian worker in 12 is out of a job stands
in stark contrast to recent headlines claiming that "the worst of the
recession is over."
The most concentrated job losses are in the
manufacturing sector.
Goods-producing industries employed 66,000 fewer people in May, while
services saw an increase of 24,200. Once again, the worst news came in
Ontario, where new auto sector layoffs pushed the provincial
unemployment rate to 9.4%, the highest in 15 years.
Since October, Ontario's employment has fallen
by 3.5%, or 234,000
jobs. Ontario accounts for 39 per cent of the Canadian workforce, but
64 per cent of the recession's job losses. Manufacturing employment in
Ontario declined by a stunning 58,000 in May, bringing losses since
October to 186,000 jobs, or 9.4 per cent in just seven months. There
are now only 778,000 factory workers in Ontario, the lowest since the
1970s, down from 1.1 million as recently as 2002.
Other provinces hit by steep increases in
unemployment during May
included Newfoundland (up to 15.1% from 14.7% a month earlier), Prince
Edward Island (13.1%, up from 12.4%), and Alberta (up to 6.6% from
6.0%.)
Youth and students looking for summer jobs are
also suffering. The
unemployment rate for workers aged 15 to 24 neared 15% in May; for
students in the 20-24 years bracket, the unemployment rate was 18.3%,
up from 15.4% in May 2008. Compared to 2008, student employment in May
was down 59,000 full time positions, and the participation of these
students has fallen to 68.6 per cent from last year's 75.2 per cent.
A typical response from the corporate sector
was reported in the
Globe and Mail, which gave
this viewpoint from Stewart Hall, economist
for HSBC Canada: "While the Canadian goods sector has been bearing the
brunt of the economic restructuring, part two of the Canadian
employment picture is perhaps some element of a service sector
restructuring... Some right-sizing of service sector capacity in
keeping with the overall theme of recession would not necessarily be
out of place."
Such baffle-gab about "right-sizing" rarely
touches on a critical
question: how to survive on part-time work. Since October 2008, 406,000
full-time positions have been eliminated from Canada's job market, a
contraction of 2.9 per cent, including 59,000 full time jobs in May.
Part-time work has increased 1.4 per cent during that time.
Responding to the latest statistics, Canadian
Labour Congress
President Ken Georgetti said the Employment Insurance program must be
improved to protect workers, their families and communities from the
worst economic crisis in a generation.
"We have now lost 406,000 full-time jobs since
October 2008, and
1.55 million Canadians are unemployed," Georgetti said. "Forecasts are
that the unemployment rate will continue to increase over the next 12
months and a lot of Canadians without work will be left to fend for
themselves. The Harper government has to fix Employment Insurance now."
According to Georgetti, only 46.8% of
unemployed workers were
actually receiving EI benefits during March. "This is a scandal," he
said. "These workers contributed to Employment Insurance in good faith
and now they are being left to fend for themselves. They will not be
able to take their kids on a holiday this year or send them to summer
camps, and when families don't have money to spend the entire community
feels the pinch."
He also noted that the Harper government has a
$57 billion EI
surplus but is downloading the costs of unemployment to provincial
taxpayers, when those workers have already paid for EI through their
premiums.
The CLC is working with the Toronto and York
District Labour
Council and the Good Jobs For All Coalition to mobilize a mass rally in
Toronto on June 13. Starting 1 pm that day at Metro Hall, the
demonstration will demand to "fix Ei and protect pensions."
The Labour Congress wants Parliament to
provide regular EI
benefits on the basis of 360 hours of work, no matter where people live
and work in Canada, to make all workers eligible for up to 50 weeks of
EI benefits, and to raise benefits immediately to 60% of earnings
calculated on a worker's best 12 weeks of earnings.
3) COPS HARASS
ANTI-OLYMPIC CAMPAIGNERS
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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
With just eight months to go before the 2010 Winter Games open in
Vancouver, the Games security apparatus is putting the heat on local
anti-Olympic activists. Early June has seen about a dozen visits by the
Vancouver Integrated Security Unit and VISU's Joint Intelligence Group
(JIG) to the homes and workplaces of Olympics Resistance Network
members. The cops lowball their motives, claiming they want to "help
ensure that protests are peaceful", but behind this rhetoric is
the
threat of police and military repression before and during the Games.
The recent police visits are not technically
an illegal tactic by
the state, and VISU/JIG have engaged in this tactic for some time. In
one case, they went so far as to visit a progressive bookstore in
Victoria, unsuccessfully probing the staff for information.
But this form of harassment has suddenly
become so frequent that
ORN organizers are preparing a letter to VISU/JIG, to inform the
security forces that all correspondence (including attempted visits)
must go through a designated representative. The activists are working
with civil rights lawyer David Eby to elaborate their collective
response to this police tactic. People who have been involved in
opposition to the Olympics are advised that they do not have to provide
information or speak to the VISU, unless the police have a subpoena or
a warrant.
In one typical case, an ORN activist was
contacted via cellphone
by someone saying, "Hi, this is the RCMP" and asking to meet and talk.
Another person was sitting on the porch waiting to go to school when
two VISU-RCMP officers pulled up in a van, introducing themselves as
Intelligence Investigator Chuck Kolot and Andrew Matwick.
And yet another anti-Olympics campaigner
reported that "two VISU
agents came to my house again. They flashed their badges to my
neighbour and were using high pressure tactics asking her what I do..."
Garth Mullins, a Vancouver activist who has
been involved in a
wide range of democracy struggles since the APEC protests of 1997,
reports that a neighbour told him that two plainclothes police officers
came looking for him at home. He was "ambushed" later that day outside
his workplace by two plain clothes police, Greg Smith of the RCMP and
Ken Stoarchuk of the Vancouver Police Department. "Very quickly,"
according to Mullins, "they appeared on either side of me. However,
it's no great trick to sneak up on a blind guy on a crowded street."
This latest incident, says Mullins, follows an
official public
information meeting about "transportation and operation plans for the
2010 Winter Games" at the Japanese Language Hall in east Vancouver. He
and others used the meeting to ask how police would treat protests, a
question which invariably meets with waffling non-answers by the police
and Olympics representatives.
But this harassment campaign certainly
increases fears that the
2010 Games will include a high level of state repression of visible
protests. Some 4,000 Canadian military personnel will be based here as
part of the security forces, along with thousands of RCMP officers and
city police from around the province, at a cost now estimated at about
$1 billion.
Hundreds of security cameras are being
installed to monitor the
public during the Games, with no guarantees that this highly intrusive
tactic will end with the closing ceremonies. Large areas of downtown
Vancouver will become virtually armed camps for weeks before and during
the Games, making it difficult for residents to buy groceries, use
recreation facilities, or get to medical appointments, work, or school.
In one shocking case, students at a central Vancouver elementary school
will be deprived of their playground for the 2009-10 school year, as a
result of an agreement between the city and Olympics officials.
The escalating cost and disruption of the
Games have led many
formerly supportive Vancouverites to fear that the negatives of hosting
the Olympics outweigh any positives. Many of the promised benefits have
been drastically scaled down, such as the bid book pledge to turn much
of the athlete's village into social housing. If a second referendum on
the city's Olympic bid was held today, the "No" vote would be likely
higher than the 37% racked up in 2003.
The Olympics Resistance Network is the most
militant expression of
this growing opposition to the Games. As well as pointing out the
horrendous economic, social and environmental costs of the Games, the
ORN stresses that this huge project is taking place on unceded
indigenous territories - at a time when the Campbell Liberal government
of BC hypocritically continues to talk about "reconciliation" with
First Nations.
By targetting prominent ORN activists, the
security forces hope to
accomplish two related goals. First, they aim to divide the
anti-Olympic movement by seeking to sow suspicions among its
participants. Second, the police want to send a message to the public
that the anti-Olympic movement is somehow engaged in illegal
activities, rather than fighting to protect civil rights and free
speech. The latest harassment campaign makes it clear that the full
force of the state will be used to block and isolate expressions of
protest during the Winter Games. Behind all the glitz and glamour,
scary times are coming for British Columbians next winter.
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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
Hungry for power, Liberal leader Michael
Ignatieff is helping the
Harper Tories to pass Bill C-15, under which people convicted of
"serious" drug crimes will automatically face prison terms of six
months or longer. But as the expert witnesses called to speak to this
legislation pointed out, the law will simply jam more people into
over-crowded prisons, while doing nothing to address the health crisis
related to drug abuse.
Ignatieff's move has angered many Liberals who
understand the
facts about drugs and the legal system. But Iggy seems terrified that
he might be called "soft on crime."
Anyone who still thinks that mandatory
incarceration will reduce
drug abuse should look south of the border, where 100,000 more
non-violent offenders rot in jails than in the entire European Union.
The "war on drugs" has certainly padded the profits of the drug lords -
but it hasn't reduced drug use.
And consider the health implications of C-15.
Research shows that
the incarceration of injection drug users is a factor driving Canada's
worsening HIV epidemic. The number of HIV cases in Canadian prisons has
risen by 35 percent in the last five years, and a recent study found
that 21 percent of all HIV infections among Vancouver injection drug
users may have been acquired in prison. Expanding the prison population
is a sure-fire way to accelerate the spread of HIV and hepatitis C in
Canada.
How about the financial burden of C-15? Every
study comparing
treatment to incarceration shows that the cost of treating HIV and
hepatitis C as a health problem is far cheaper than the expense of
locking up drug users for lengthy periods.
Some still believe that society can simply
lock up the "bad guys"
and throw away the key. But it won't work, and it will cost far more
than treating drug abuse as a health matter. C-15 is another step
toward a society where the state has sweeping powers to jail entire
sections of the population. That's called fascism, and Michael
Ignatieff must be reminded that C-15 is not acceptable.
5)
NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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 all know that July 1 is Canada Day, and many non-Quebecers remember
that June 24 is the Fete National du Québec. But one measure of
the
distance yet to travel towards the goal of genuine social, economic,
political and cultural equality among the nations within Canada is that
fewer non-Aboriginals can name June 21 as National Aboriginal Day. On
the other hand, this date was made official in 1996 by the federal
government, reflecting the inherent colonial and oppressive nature of
the Canadian state.
Still, June 21 is an occasion to extend
greetings of solidarity
to the Aboriginal peoples - the First Nations, the Innu and the
Métis.
For centuries, the Aboriginal peoples have
struggled to overcome
the legacy of poverty imposed by the colonizing powers. Today, there
remains a wide inequality gap in employment, incomes, employment,
education, housing, and access to health care. Dozens of Aboriginal
reserves and communities remain without the "luxury" of clean drinking
water. First Nation youth face an unemployment rate of 38% on reserve
and 27% overall, even though the resource wealth of Canada is extracted
from the lands and waters of the indigenous peoples.
This inequality is not in the interests of
working people. Our
common fightback against right-wing governments and corporate
domination will be strengthened immeasurably through unity in action.
To be effective, such unity must include understanding among the
workers of English-speaking Canada - the oppressor nation - of the
multi-national character of this country. June 21 is a day to remind
ourselves that the struggles of the Aboriginal peoples for true
self-determination must be given the full support of the labour
movement and all democratic and progressive forces.
6) QUESTIONS REMAIN
AFTER TSB REPORT SLAMS CN
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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
Three years after two railway workers were killed in a crash near
Lillooet, BC, a Transportation Safety Board report has linked CN Rail's
practices for several serious accidents since the company took over BC
Rail. That takeover, part of the Campbell Liberal government's sellout
of public assets to private interests, remains highly controversial.
The stench of corruption lingers over the deal, reaching into the
Premier's office, but the judicial inquiry into the sale has taken so
long that many voters paid little attention to the scandal during the
recent provincial election campaign.
Released on May 28, the TSB report suggests
that imposing CN's
operating practices onto BC Rail, and the failure to follow its own
safety rules, were factors in several accidents.
The report blames the June 2006 crash on CN
Rail's decision to
switch to locomotives with an inadequate braking system following the
takeover. Ignoring employee concerns, CN did not carry out a risk
assessment before replacing BC Rail locomotives equipped with "dynamic
braking". Instead, the company changed to older locomotives equipped
with friction brakes.
"Dynamic braking" is designed to limit the
speed of a locomotive
going down steep grades, which are extremely common in British
Columbia. Friction braking uses only the friction of brake shoes on
wheels, a design suitable for the prairies, but not on mountain
inclines.
The Lillooet crash involved a four-axle
switching locomotive and
one fully loaded lumber car, each weighing about 130 tons, descending a
steep grade. When the crew could not slow the train using the
locomotive brakes (the car air-brakes were found to be not operating
properly), they applied emergency brakes and decoupled the lumber car.
The conductor climbed up to make his way to the lumber car's hand brake
at the far end, but the car derailed on a sharp curve while travelling
at about 80 kilometres per hour, killing the conductor. Travelling even
faster, the locomotive left the rails on another sharp curve, sliding
down a mountainside. The trainman was killed, and the engineer was
severely injured.
The TSB says the accident could have been
avoided had the
locomotive been equipped with dynamic braking. The report also says
that when CN Rail made its switch, no consideration was given to the
steep grades on the line, and no formal risk assessment was done.
Four CN main-track derailments occurred on the
Squamish
subdivision south of Lillooet between August and December 2005. The
most serious was in August 2005, when a long, heavy train derailed on a
sharp curve, spilling 40,000 litres of caustic soda into the Cheakamus
River, causing enormous losses to the fish population.
"Peeling back the layers of the onion, the
fact that this business
decision was taken to remove locomotives equipped with a supplementary
braking system from this territory becomes particularly important," Dan
Holbrook, Western Canada manager of the TSB's rail-pipeline
investigations branch, told the Globe
and Mail. "We know the decision
was a financially motivated decision but what's important to the safety
board and from a safety-accident investigation perspective is that they
didn't perform the required risk assessment, required by their safety
management system before making this significant operational change,"
Holbrook said.
The company says that employee concerns were
not raised prior to
the Lillooet accident, a claim which was accepted at face value by the
TSB report but widely ridiculed by railway workers. CN has also claimed
a 31-per-cent reduction in main-track accidents between 2007 and 2009,
and a 29-per-cent reduction in non-main-track accidents.
But as one post to the Globe and Mail website noted,
"this
reduction is based on a highwater mark of a 75% increase in 2005. If
the accidents went down 29%, that is still a 46% increase over 2004."
Meanwhile, the Island Tides newspaper reports that
"It is rumoured
that on the fifth anniversary of the BC Rail sale (July 14, 2009), CN
can purchase BC Rail's waterfront lands for one dollar. No details are
available, because the documentation of the deal has never been made
publicly available."
7)
FLAHERTY BLAMES UNEMPLOYED FOR FEDERAL DEFICIT
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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 Peter Ewart and Dawn Hemingway
The news is pretty grim. In what appears to be another fit of confusion
and disarray, the federal government has announced that it has
recalculated the deficit figure for this year. Instead of the original
$34 billion predicted just four months ago, the deficit is expected to
climb to $50 billion, which, in total dollars, will amount to the
largest deficit in Canadian history.
There is one detail that is particularly
interesting. According to
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, a large part of this deficit has been
caused by the rising number of Employment Insurance claims being
submitted by laid-off Canadians.
But in his "analysis" of the cause of the
deficit, Flaherty is
keeping a certain fact hidden. However, just like a "bad penny," that
"certain fact" will keep coming back to haunt him and his government.
What is this "fact"? Contrary to what Mr.
Flaherty says,
unemployed workers and their EI payments have not plunged this
government into deficit. Rather the opposite is the case. Over a number
of years, a huge surplus amounting to $55 billion was built up in the
EI fund by contributions from both workers and employers. However,
instead of saving this money for a "rainy day" - as any responsible
financial planner could have told them - both Flaherty's Conservative
government, and the Liberal government that preceded it, looted the
fund and used it for other purposes to make themselves look good.
Flaherty and his government are like the
banker who gambles away
all the deposits in his bank and then argues that the bank is failing
because too many people want their money back. "If you pesky unemployed
people wouldn't be demanding your money back, then there wouldn't be
such a bad problem," he appears to be saying.
There is a name when bankers do such things, and it is called
embezzlement.
However, now that the EI fund of $55 billion
has disappeared down
the government "memory hole," Flaherty believes he can get up on his
pulpit and point fingers.
Implicit in his statements about the cause of
the deficit is the
idea that somehow unemployed people are a big part of the problem. This
is part of a disturbing trend by governments and big business to blame
the wages, pensions, and other benefits of workers as being the cause
of much of the current economic difficulty and a main obstacle in the
way of economic recovery.
The problem is not the reckless behavior of
the banks and
financial institutions that have destroyed the livelihoods of millions
all over North America. It is not the lack of reinvestment and the
stubborn refusal to innovate by the auto and forest company giants. It
is not the hollowing out of the manufacturing sector in North America
as a result of government and corporate policy. It is not the handing
over by government of the country's resources to a piratical elite of
international financiers who care less about people and communities.
No. According to the logic of Flaherty and his
ilk, the problem is
the wages and pensions of that auto worker or that mill worker. The
problem is that unemployed worker living "high off the hog" on EI
payments or that family forced onto welfare. The problem is the great
mass of ordinary Canadians who have too many demands and expectations
for health, education and social services. In short, the problem with
Canada is its people.
The irony in all of this, of course, is that
the wealth of the
country and the revenue of government ultimately derives from the
labour of millions of Canadian workers acting on nature, a fact about
which Mr. Flaherty appears to be completely and abysmally ignorant.
Back when the financial crisis was just
beginning, Flaherty made
the claim that the Canadian economy was as rock solid as the "Canadian
Shield" mountain range and that the crisis would only have a "modest"
effect.
Well, the Canadian Shield has been crumbling
for the last few
hundred million years - something that Mr. Flaherty should know about
given that he lives in that part of the country. Far more alarming, of
course, is that the Canadian economy appears to be crumbling as each
day goes by.
Indeed, it appears that the only thing that
may stay truly rock
solid in the midst of this growing crisis is Mr. Flaherty's head.
(This
article has appeared on several websites. Peter Ewart is a
college instructor, and Dawn Hemingway is a university professor and
writer. Both are based in Prince George, British Columbia.)
8) THE STEREOTYPE OF
"DANGEROUS YOUTH"
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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.)
"YOUTH IN ACTION" column by Johan Boyden
What was his profile? "Sketchy." "Quiet."
"Reclusive." An
"outcast," who "rarely showed up for school." "Students also say he
didn't have a large circle of friends." He is "like something off the
American television news."
These quotes from the corporate media buzz
like a tag cloud around
a story that broke in early June. That's when Vancouver police arrested
a Grade 12 Templeton Secondary School student. A hasty press conference
featured weapons seized from the student's home - knives, a gun,
ammunition - together with the announcement that he had a 117-name
Facebook "hit list."
The profile of this "potential Columbine-type"
killer has become a
matter of broad public debate. But almost on the same day, another news
story about a BC "young offender" hit the front page. In May 2005,
Victoria teen Willow Kinloch was arrested for public drunkenness. She
was eventually handcuffed and tethered to a padded cell - hogtied for
four hours. She was 15.
Now 18, Kinloch has just been awarded $60,000.
A public hearing will take place.
Here then is a second profile: the delinquent
youth. Luckily, the
police videotape of her assault was not erased. Why else would anyone
have believed her?
I found myself in the unusual position of
agreeing with the
Victoria Times Colonist
editorial that being "drunk in public [is] not
the issue." But let's not forget that Willow is a young white woman.
And so lurking in the background is a third form of profiling.
What about Stephanie Warren's profile?
Stephanie, as Rebel Youth
blog reported in March, was arrested, assaulted with racial slurs and
physical abuse, and thrown in jail overnight. She wasn't drunk. She was
just an aboriginal youth hanging around a donut shop in Winnipeg's
North End.
Or Filipino youth Charle Dalde, who was
stabbed less than a year
ago in an untargetted killing. Assuming Dalde's killing was gang
related (a claim later proven false) Richmond RCMP handcuffed his
parents and brother at gunpoint, searched their apartment and later
denied the family access to Charle in hospital, where he died.
"We see [this] as another case of racial
profiling towards a
family of colour" the Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance said in a
statement.
Similar incidents are perpetrated against
youth of colour and
Aboriginal youth across Canada on an almost daily basis. It's not a
question of provincial or city police vs. RCMP. It goes beyond the cops
vs. "the civilians" (as if police were an army of occupation).
Even a casual survey of Canada from the
increasing willingness of
police to use armed force, to broad cultural symbols, to the security
arrangements for the BC Olympics, and even Canada's foreign policy,
shows a fetish of violence, a quasi-militarization of society.
Glorified violence directly contradicts what
students learn in
school, yet it also surrounds youth. Which moral reality is correct?
Which brings us back to the first profile, the
Templeton student.
The initial wave of media on the "hit list" painted him as a loner. As
more accurate reports emerged, it became clear that he actually had a
definite social circle.
In a new book on the Columbine shootings,
journalist David Cullen
argues that murderers weren't a "Trench Coat Mafia." They were bright
students who hated Marilyn Manson's music and were actually far more
accepted than many of their schoolmates, hanging out with a tight
circle of close friends and partying regularly on the weekend with a
wider crowd.
They were also psychopathically fascinated
with violence.
Call it a vicious circle. Not to say that the
police were wrong to
step in at Templeton (how the police use of media theatrics helped
isn't clear, other than justifying their own existence). But are these
social stereotypes valid, or just another in a host of devices or
mirages that cultivate fear and erode social solidarity of the people
against the forces that create oppression and injustice?
Beware bands of teenagers, Goth kids,
aboriginal youth, or youth of colour - they must be a gang. They're not
one of us.
Fox News is but the crassest expression of
this kind of
fear-mongering which fuels the fires of the right. On our side of that
debate, progressive-minded youth must keep pointing to the political
and social roots of violence. Nobody is born criminal, and youth must
not be profiled into the "other."
We are all just human beings created by
society.
9) FUNES
INAUGURATION A HISTORIC MOMENT FOR EL SALVADOR
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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
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Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Tania Portillo
After 20 years of right-wing power under the Republican National
Alliance Party (ARENA), the left-wing Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front (FMLN) has formed the government of El Salvador for
the first time. On March 15, FMLN candidate Mauricio Funes and
vice-president candidate Salvador Sanchez Ceren won the elections by
51%.
The anticipated inauguration day, June 1, was
a symbol of struggle
and joy for many Salvadorians. The celebration started off on May 30,
with the arrival of presidents and vice-presidents from around the
world, including Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua, Michelle Bachelet of
Chile, Lula da Silva of Brazil, Esteban Lazo of Cuba, Rafael Correa of
Ecuador and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela.
On June 1, at 10 am, the swearing-in of
Mauricio Funes and
Salvador Sanchez Ceren began, which only lasted a few minutes. It was
an historic moment when ex-ARENA president Antonio Saca handed over the
presidential sash to Mauricio Funes. The audience cheered and chanted
"the people united, will never be defeated" as Funes approached the
podium for his first speech as the new president.
The platform which Funes campaigned on fell
under three main
categories: eliminate the economic and social crisis in El Salvador,
direct the country to development, and finally, construct and
consolidate democracy and the rule of law.
Maurico Funes touched many subjects which are
causing a crisis in
El Salvador. Priorities for the FMLN include employment, wages,
delinquency, health care, improvement of the water and electricity
system, and education. Starting the next school year, February 2010,
uniforms, textbooks and bus transportation will be free for students
who attend public school. Registration of students may increase as much
as 500,000.
The celebration of the people was held at the
Cuscatlan stadium,
which has a capacity of 65,000. Outside there were food and merchandise
vendors, and line ups of people trying to enter. The celebration
started at 1 pm with different performers showing their solidarity with
the FMLN. The stadium was filled with supporters, and many had to
remain outside. By 6 pm, vice-president Salvador Sanchez Ceren made his
way to the stadium, and one by one, other presidents arrived for the
celebration. After hours of waiting to catch a glimpse of Mauricio
Funes, the new president arrived at 7 pm, and loud cheers echoed
through the crowd. Each president gave a speech, starting with Correa.
When the Cuban vice-president took the podium,
he congratulated
the Salvadorian people for their hard work and stated that a document
was just signed by himself and Funes, which will expand relations
between the two countries. The Salvadorian government had broken ties
with Cuba after the 1959 revolution. Although the ARENA government did
not want relations with Cuba, Shafik Handal (previous commander of the
FMLN) and Fidel Castro maintained closed relations. Through this great
friendship, hundreds of Salvadorian youth were given the opportunity to
study medicine in Cuba. One specific goal is to open a Salvadorian
embassy in Cuba, where Salvadorian students currently have to go
through the Guatemalan embassy, which causes delays.
Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega touched the
subject of the
absence of presidents Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. In so many words, he
stated that both planned to attend this historic day, but through Cuban
and Bolivian intelligence learned that it was unsafe for them to travel.
In his speech, Maurico Funes touched the
hearts of everyone in the
stadium, and even brought tears to many. He started by thanking
everyone for their great support and patience for his arrival.
"18 months ago, when I made my first speech as
candidate," Funes
said, "I made a promise. I promised that a right-wing president would
have to hand over the presidential sash to the left-wing party." This
statement caused an uproar and chanting of "yes we can!" from the crowd.
The celebration lasted until 9, ending with
fireworks and music
from a famous Salvadorian group, Los
Guaragous, whose music was banned
during the civil war.
The current standard of living in El Salvador
unfortunately has
not developed because of the greed and corruption of the right-wing
government. The people have a lot of hope and trust in the FMLN to
improve their lives. They fully understand that El Salvador will not
drastically change in just one five year term. The process of tackling
the crisis in El Salvador will be slow, but they know that they will
see positive change in the near future.
(Tania
Portillo was among the Canadians who travelled to El Salvador for the
inauguration of President Mauricio Funes.)
10)
POLITICAL UNEASE IN KOREA
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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 Sean Burton, South Korea
Due to a number of events in the last week of May, the Korean peninsula
is an interesting place to be these days.
The first was the suicide of Roh Moo Hyun,
president of South
Korea from 2003-2008. Roh jumped from a cliff behind his estate near
the city of Busan on May 23. A public funeral was held on May 29, parts
of which I saw on television. It was an emotional event, which some
foreigners found rather surprising since support for Roh and his party
had declined significantly by 2007. Polls at the time suggested that
Roh had only 10% support from the population.
Why was there so much grief over his passing?
Whatever one thought
of his presidency, Roh was a man who could be admired. Roh came from a
poor farming family and never attended university. He passed the bar
exam in 1975 after years of studying law on his own. He made himself
known for defending the victims of South Korea's military dictatorship
and actively opposed the government of General Chun Doo Hwan. When he
ran for president, Roh incorporated anti-U.S. sentiment into the
campaign, promising not to bow to the USA. Such credentials were
obviously more endearing than those of current president Lee Myung Bak,
whose claim to fame is his business savvy.
It was also a source of grief that Roh
committed suicide in the
midst of a corruption scandal involving some members of his family.
Roh's elder brother has already been sent to prison for influence
peddling, and Roh and his wife and son were recently being investigated
on suspicion of taking approximately $6 million in bribes from a
business friend. It is not hard to imagine that this weighed heavily on
Roh, a man who campaigned against South Korea's traditional corruption.
When his suicide became known, recognition of his life accomplishments
seemed to combine with pity over his latest circumstances, as well as
hatred for Lee Myung Bak.
On the day of Roh's funeral, the news reported
many people
accusing President Lee of influencing the corruption investigation and
increasing pressure on Roh as an act of political revenge. Roh and Lee
were bitter rivals, and Roh's office had even filed a libel suit
against Lee and the Grand National Party in 2007. As result, Lee was
not welcomed warmly at the funeral ceremony in Seoul. Many people
booed, and members of the opposition shouted out at him. Others defied
the police and staged small anti-government protests in which seventy
people were arrested. The opposition Democratic Party has since called
on Lee to apologize for Roh's death and dismiss the justice minister
and prosecutor-general.
Roh was also known for continuing former
president Kim Dae Jung's
"Sunshine Policy" of reconciliation and cooperation with North Korea.
Both Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun visited Pyongyang and met with North
Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Because of the ideological differences, such
a policy was not going to facilitate reunification any time soon.
Rather, it created a more cordial relationship, and that was better
than nothing. But Lee Myung Bak has abandoned that policy. His pro-U.S.
attitude and neoliberal economic policies have earned him the ire of
North Korea.
It is symbolic that within days of Roh's
death, the North tested a
nuclear bomb and unilaterally withdrew from the 1953 armistice
agreement. It has also been testing missiles of various types, and
conducting military exercises. The catalyst for these moves was the
South's decision to join the US-led Proliferation Security Initiative,
a plan which would permit the South Korean navy to seize North Korean
vessels suspected of shipping weaponry. The North has stated that it
will respond with military force if such an event occurs. The UN
Command in Korea insists that the armistice is still in force and
binding on all sides. Clearly someone is working on flawed logic.
However, rather than admitting that North
Korea may have
legitimate grievances regarding the Proliferation Security Initiative,
or any other South Korean/US policy, the media prefers to make up
fantasies based on hearsay. It is now widely being claimed that
everything North Korea is doing is related solely to Kim Jong Il and
his eventual successor. The story goes that Kim Jong Il's youngest son,
26-year-old Kim Jong Un, has been officially selected to become the
next leader. Allegedly, Kim Jong Il needs to carry out these
provocative acts in order to make his family look strong and determined
in the eyes of the North Korean military elite, the ones who are really
in power.
That is a cute little story, but as with
almost everything written
about North Korea in the South, there is little evidence to support it.
Is it true? At best we can say "maybe". Kim Jong Il succeeded his
father, so there is a precedent for hereditary succession. But the
story is too neat and tidy, and the details are contradicted by other
stories about North Korea. Kim may be all-powerful in one article, but
in the next he is really just fighting to maintain the military's
favour. There have even been some claims that the regime would not
tolerate another hereditary succession. The same media that calls North
Korea the most mysterious and closed country in the world seems to act
like it knows everything.
North Korea is set to test more missiles in
June. The South Korean
military and US forces in Korea are on alert. For the first time since
I arrived in Korea, I feel worried. I hope nothing comes of it. Many
people here think the North would never attack because they would
ultimately be annihilated. That might be true, but such sentiments are
full of bravado. And besides, why assume the North would attack first?
11) NO SANCTIONS ON
KOREA, SAYS PEACE CONGRESS
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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.)
Statement issued on June 5, 2009, by the Canadian Peace Congress
The Canadian Peace Congress calls on Prime Minister Harper to work for
an immediate halt to the aggressive and provocative policies of illegal
economic sanctions, regional interference and military build-up by the
United States in the Korean Peninsula. Furthermore, the Congress calls
on the Canadian government to work through the United Nations to
normalize relations between the United States and the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), based on non-interference,
cooperation and peace.
The belligerent and confrontational actions
that the US has taken
toward the DPRK expose the failed policies of US imperialism, which
remain at the root of instability in the Korean Peninsula. The Obama
administration has fanned the flames of global nuclear weapons
escalation, which further destabilizes all international relations,
particularly with China, and leads to a greater likelihood of future
wars - including nuclear war. Through these positions, the United
States has seriously threatened peace and the established, working and
stable armistice in the Korean Peninsula. In its statement on October
13, 2006 the Canadian Peace Congress warned of such an outcome:
"The Bush Administration's policy toward the
DPRK is regime
change. Branding North Korea as part of an `axis of evil', the Bush
Administration demands a free hand to punish a member state of the
United Nations by economic blockade and war. At the same time, the US
administration declares the DPRK has no right to self defence. Given
such options, it is not surprising that the DPRK has resorted to
nuclear weapons tests."
In addressing the current crisis,
international criticism needs to
be focused on the continuing threats and escalating provocations by
South Korea and the United States, which have propelled North Korea's
recent nuclear test and missile launches.
The actions of the United States in the
lead-up to the present
crisis have been particularly hypocritical, inflammatory and
irresponsible. In February 2009, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
stated publicly that "the Obama administration will be willing to
normalize bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's long-standing
armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty and assist in
meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean
people." But actions speak louder than words: within a month of those
comments the United States reneged on its 2008 commitment to provide
food aid to a World Food Program in the DPRK, after delivering only one
quarter of the pledged food supplies and less than 5% of the pledged
financing. Subsequently, in April 2009 the US sponsored a United
Nations Security Council resolution against the DPRK in response to the
launch of a communications satellite, even though Pyongyang had
announced the launch in February.
Furthermore, the United States has continued
to aggressively
pressure South Korea into joining the Proliferation Security Initiative
(PSI), a highly secretive creation of George W. Bush. The PSI executes
a vigilante brand of operations - which include stop and search of sea
and air vessels, port inspections and disruption of financial networks
- against targeted states under the pretext of stemming the development
and flow of weapons of mass destruction. While taking great pains to
claim otherwise, the PSI and its Statement of Interdiction Policies are
an outright violation of international law, including Article 51 of the
United Nations Charter. Blockades, forced inspections and seizures are
acts of war against a sovereign country.
The DPRK is a main target of PSI operations
but South Korea long
resisted participating, citing concerns that such provocative action
would result in a deterioration of Korean relations. This position
changed with the election of Lee Myung-bak as President of South Korea
in December 2007.
Immediately after his election Lee introduced
much more aggressive
policies toward the North. These moves have been heavily criticized by
South Korean political analysts and diplomats for being provocative and
for having destabilized North-South relations. Lee's position is
clearly based on his desire, buttressed by US policies and actions, to
provoke a change of government in the DPRK and to achieve significant
economic profit for the South in the process.
The basic threat to peace in the Asia Pacific
region is not from
the DPRK, but stems from the continued provocative interference by US
imperialism. The United States was the first state to develop nuclear
weapons; it remains the only state to have used nuclear weapons against
a population and is the only state to deploy nuclear weapons outside of
its own borders. It is the United States which deploys 250,000 military
personnel in the Pacific region, including nearly 30,000 who routinely
practice ground invasions of the DPRK, in order to protect its economic
and security interests. And, it is the United States who has refused to
follow through with its commitment to dialogue with North Korea and
instead raised the spectre of sanctions, regime change and now,
military confrontation.
All claims by the US government to the
principled right to speak
on the question of peace are erroneous. Until the United States removes
all of its foreign bases and dismantles its nuclear weapons stationed
on foreign soil, halts its nuclear weapons development programs,
reduces its nuclear arsenal, removes all of its nuclear armed
submarines from international waters, lives up to its commitments of
international non-proliferation agreements, renounces its "first strike
policy" and ceases the deployment of its missile defence shield, all
alleged US morality on the question of peace is suspect. The fact of
the matter is that until the United States reduces its stockpiles of
weapons of mass destruction and normalizes relations with other
nations, based on cooperation and non-interference, the logical outcome
will be increased weapons proliferation.
The Canadian Peace Congress remains committed
to its longstanding
policy of non-proliferation of nuclear arms. However, the issue of
non-proliferation cannot be divorced from that of abolition. For many
decades peace organizations, peace and security analysts, and diplomats
have argued that a global scheme in which a small club of nuclear
states is maintained and counterposed to the majority of "have-not"
states is unfair, naive and untenable. It is, in fact, the possession
of nuclear arms by even a single state that promotes proliferation. As
the World Peace Council noted at its 2008 Assembly:
"The so-called North Korean nuclear crisis
also has clearly
established the discriminatory nature of the NPT regime. With
development and perfection of nuclear technologies and delivery systems
by imperialism, the possibility of establishment of Nuclear Weapon Free
Zones has become completely redundant. Elimination of nuclear weapons
is an urgent task for all humanity... The WPC demands that all
countries having nuclear weapons take concrete steps for abolishing
their nuclear arsenal towards the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review
Conference."
The Canadian Peace Congress demands that the
Government of Canada:
- oppose the use of sanctions or a blockade of any kind against North
Korea, which will only escalate the present crisis;
- oppose moves by any country - and especially by the United States,
South Korea, Japan or Australia - toward a military build-up in the
region;
- take concrete steps to bring existing nuclear arsenals - in
particular that of the United States - onto the immediate agenda of the
United Nations, with a commitment to dismantle those arsenals in
preparation for the Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in 2010;
- immediately cease its participation in the Proliferation Security
Initiative and promote the dissolution of that operation;
- promote immediate UN-sponsored assistance to the DPRK, in the spirit
of international cooperation and respect for sovereignty and the right
to self-determination.
(For more
information, visit http://www.canadianpeacecongress.ca)
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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.)
Reflections by Fidel Castro
President Rafael Correa of Ecuador, in a visit to Honduras on the eve
of the OAS meeting stated: "I think that the OAS has lost its reason to
exist; perhaps it never had a reason to exist." The news carried by
ANSA adds that Correa "predicted `the death' of that organization
because of the many errors it had committed".
He stated "that because of geographic
conditions the countries on
the American continent cannot `all be lumped together", and for that
reason several months ago Ecuador proposed the creation of the
Organization of Latin American States.
"It is not possible that the region's problems
are discussed in
Washington; let us make something that is our own, without countries
alien to our culture, to our values, obviously including counties that
were inexplicably separated from the inter-American system, and I refer
to the specific case of Cuba ... it was a real embarrassment and shows
the double standards existing in international relations'". Upon his
arrival in Honduras, both President Zelaya and Correa declared that
"the OAS ought to be reformed and reincorporate Cuba or it would have
to disappear".
Another dispatch from the DPA Agency states:
"Reintegrating Cuba into the Organization of
American Status (OAS)
has moved from being a subject per se of the General Assembly of the
body in the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula to become, yet again, the
excuse for a struggle of interests that go far beyond the limits of the
Caribbean island and could question (again) the state of hemispheric
relations.
"The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, put
it perfectly clear
when he described the hemispheric meeting starting this Tuesday in
Honduras in quasi military terms.
"It will be, he said, an `interesting battle'
where if it is shown
that the OAS `continues to be a ministry of the colonies' which isn't
changing to `subordinate itself to the will of the governments making
it up', it will be necessary to consider `exiting' from the body and
creating another alternative."
"`Latin America is making Cuba the litmus test
for the sincerity
of the Obama administration's true rapprochement' in the region, Julia
Sweig, the Cuba expert of the Council of Foreign Relations in
Washington, declared to The Washington Post on the eve of the encounter
in Honduras."
By resisting the aggressions of the most
powerful empire ever to
exist, our people struggled for the other sister nations of this
continent. The OAS was an accomplice to all the crimes committed
against Cuba.
At one time or another, every one of the Latin
American countries
was victim of interventions and political and economic aggressions.
There is not one that could deny it. It is naive to think that the good
intentions of a president of the United States could justify the
existence of that institution that opened the doors to the Trojan horse
that supported the Summits of the Americas, neoliberalism,
drug-trafficking, military bases and economic crises. Ignorance,
underdevelopment, economic dependency, poverty, the forced return of
those who emigrate in search of jobs, the brain drain, and even the
sophisticated weapons of organized crime were the consequences of the
interventions and pillage coming from the North. Cuba, a tiny country,
has demonstrated that it is possible to resist the blockade and move
forward in many areas, even to cooperate with other countries.
The speech given today by President Manuel
Zelaya of Honduras at
the OAS General Assembly contains principles that may go down in
history. He said admirable things about his own country. I shall limit
myself to what he said about Cuba.
"At the Assembly of the Organization of
American States starting
today in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, we must initiate the process of
making wise repairs to old errors committed.
"We, Latin Americans here present, a short
while ago, a few weeks
or months ago, had a great summit meeting of the Rio Group in Salvador
de Bahia, Brazil. There we entered into a commitment. That commitment,
taken down in writing and by the unanimity of all of Latin America, is
that in this San Pedro Sula assembly, by majority of votes or by
consensus, that old and time-worn error committed in 1962 to expel the
people of Cuba from this organization should be redressed.
"My fellow dignitaries, we should not leave
this assembly without
abolishing the decree of that eighth meeting which sanctioned an entire
people for having proclaimed its socialist ideas and principles, the
very same principles that today are being practised everywhere in the
world, including in the United States and in Europe (Applause). Today,
the principles of seeking different development alternatives are
evident in the change that has occurred in the United States with the
election of President Barack Obama...
"We cannot leave this assembly without
redressing that error and
that infamy because based on this OAS resolution which is now more than
four decades old, this sister nation of Cuba has been kept under an
unfair and useless blockade, precisely because it hasn't served any
purpose, but it has indeed shown that over there, a few miles away from
our country, on a small island, there are a people ready to resist and
sacrifice for their independence and sovereignty.
"...to not do so would make us accomplices of
a resolution in 1962
to expel a state of the Organization of American States simply because
it espouses other ideas, other thoughts, and because it proclaims the
principles of a different democracy. And we are not going to be
accomplices to that.
"...We cannot leave this assembly without
abolishing what was done in that era.
"José Cecilio del Valle, an exceptional
Honduran and one of our
national heroes, who was called Wise Man Valle in our country, said on
April 17, 1826, in his famous article Sovereignty and Non-intervention,
`we had just declared our independence from Spain: The nations of the
world are independent and sovereign. Whatever their territorial size or
the number of inhabitants, a nation must treat others in the same way
it wishes to be treated by them. A nation does not have the right to
intervene in the internal affairs of another nation.'"
With these words spoken by Cecilio del Valle
and mentioning
Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus Christ, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln,
Morazan, Marti, Sandino and Bolivar, he concluded his address.
Minutes later, at the press conference
following the opening of
the assembly, he answered questions and reiterated principles. He then
gave the floor to Daniel Ortega who was the author of one of the most
profound and articulated presentations at the OAS assembly. By
invitation of Zelaya, the following also spoke: President Fernando Lugo
of Paraguay and Rigoberta Menchu, both expressing themselves in the
same vein as Zelaya and Daniel.
The assembly has been in session for hours. At
the moment I am
finishing this Reflection, practically night-time, there is still no
news of the decision. We know that Zelaya's speech had an influence.
Chavez chats with Maduro and urges him to be firm on the fact that no
resolution can be passed that places conditions on the repeal of the
unfair sanction against Cuba. Never had so much rebellion been seen. It
is certainly a tough battle. Many countries depend on the index finger
of the hand of the U.S. government, the one pointing to the Monetary
Fund, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank or any other
outfit to punish rebellion. Having waged this battle is in itself a
heroic deed of those who are the most rebellious. The date of June 2,
2009 will be remembered by future generations.
Cuba is no enemy to peace, nor is it reluctant
to exchanges or
cooperation between countries with different political systems, but it
has been and will be uncompromising in its defense of its principles.
Fidel Castro
Ruz, June 2, 2009, 6:56 p.m.
13) "CUBA
WILL NOT RETURN TO THE OAS"
(The following article
is from the
June 16-30, 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.)
Declaration of the Revolutionary Government of Cuba, June 8, 2009
In an act of unusual historic significance, the OAS has just formally
buried the shameful resolution which excluded Cuba from the
Inter-American System in 1962.
That decision was despicable and illegal,
contrary to the declared
aims and principles of the OAS Constitution. It was, at the same time,
consistent with the trajectory of this organization; with the motive
for which was created, promoted and defended by the United States. It
was consistent with its role as an instrument of U.S. hegemony in the
hemisphere and with Washington's capacity to impose its will on Latin
America at the historic moment in which the Cuban Revolution triumphed.
Today, Latin America and the Caribbean are
experiencing another
reality. The decision adopted at the 39th session of the OAS General is
the fruit of the will of governments more committed to their peoples,
with the region's real problems and with a sense of independence that,
unfortunately, did not prevail in 1962. Cuba acknowledges the merit of
the governments that have undertaken to formally erase that resolution,
referred to in that meeting as "an unburied corpse."
The decision to rescind Resolution 6 of the
8th OAS Meeting of
Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs constitutes an
unquestioned disrespect for the U.S. policy on Cuba followed since
1959. It pursues the aim of repairing a historic injustice and is a
vindication for the Cuban people and peoples of the Americas.
Despite the last-minute consensus achieved,
that decision was
adopted against Washington's will and in the face of intensive moves
and pressure exerted by governments in the region. In that way, it
dealt imperialism a defeat using its very own instrument.
Cuba welcomes with satisfaction this
expression of sovereignty and
civic-mindedness, while thanking those governments which, with a spirit
of solidarity, independence and justice, have defended Cuba's right to
return to the organization. It also understands the desire to free the
OAS from a stigma that has remained as a symbol of the organization's
servility.
However, Cuba once again confirms that it will
not return to the OAS.
Since the triumph of the Revolution, the
Organization of American
States has played an active role in Washington's policy of hostility
against Cuba. It made the economic blockade official, ruled on the
embargo of weapons and strategic products, and stipulated member
countries' obligatory breaking off of diplomatic relations with our
revolutionary state. Despite the exclusion in place, over the years it
even tried to keep Cuba under its authority and to subject it to its
own jurisdiction and that of its specialized agencies. This is an
organization with a role and a trajectory that Cuba repudiates.
The Cuban people were able to resist the
aggressions and the
blockade, overcome the diplomatic, political, and economic isolation,
and face, on their own, without yielding, the persistent aggressiveness
of the most powerful empire known to the planet.
Today our country enjoys diplomatic relations
with all the
countries of the hemisphere apart from the United States. It is
developing broad links of friendship and cooperation with the majority
of them.
Moreover, Cuba has won its full independence
and is marching
unstoppably toward a society that is more just, equitable, and full of
solidarity every day.
It has done so with supreme heroism and
sacrifice, and with the
solidarity of the peoples of the Americas. It shares values that are
contrary to those of neoliberal and egotistical capitalism promoted by
the OAS, and feels that it has the right and the authority to say "no"
to the idea of joining a body in which the United States still
exercises oppressive control. The peoples and governments of the region
will understand this just position.
Today it can be understood more clearly than
in 1962 that it is
the OAS that is incompatible with the most pressing desires of the
peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean, that it is incapable of
representing their values, interests and genuine yearning for
democracy; it is the OAS that has been unable to solve the problems of
inequality, disparities in wealth, corruption, foreign intervention,
and the predatory actions of transnational capital. It is the OAS that
has remained silent in the face of the most horrendous crimes, communes
with the interests of imperialism, and conspires against and subverts
governments genuinely and legitimately constituted with demonstrable
popular support.
The speeches and declarations of San Pedro
Sula have been more
than eloquent. Well-founded criticisms of the organization's
anachronism, given its divorce from continental realities and its
disgraceful record, cannot be ignored.
The demands to end, once and for all, the
criminal U.S. blockade
of Cuba reflect the growing and unstoppable sentiment of an entire
hemisphere. The spirit of independence represented there by the many
that spoke is the one with which Cuba identifies.
Aspirations for the integration and
coordination of Latin America
and the Caribbean are increasingly manifest. Cuba is actively
participating in, and proposes continuing to do so, the representative
regional mechanisms of what José Marti called "Our America,"
from the
Rio Grande to Patagonia, including all of the Caribbean islands.
Strengthening, expanding and harmonizing those
bodies and groups
is the path chosen by Cuba; not the outlandish illusion of returning to
an organization that does not allow reform and that has been condemned
by history.
The response of the people of Cuba to the
ignominious 8th Meeting
of Consultation of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the OAS was the
Second Declaration of Havana, approved in a mass assembly on February
4, 1962 by more than one million Cubans in the Plaza de la Revolucion.
The declaration textually affirmed: "... Great
as was the epic of
Latin American independence, heroic as was that struggle, today's
generation of Latin Americans is called upon to engage in an epic which
is even greater and more decisive for humanity. For that struggle was
for liberation from Spanish colonial power, from a decadent Spain
invaded by Napoleon's armies. Today the call for struggle is for
liberation from the most powerful imperial metropolis in the world,
from the most important force in the imperialist world and to render
humanity an even greater service than that rendered by our predecessors.
"For this great humanity has said, `Enough!'
and has begun to
march. And its march of giants will not be halted until they conquer
real independence, for which they have died in vain more than once."
We will be loyal to these ideas which have
made it possible for
our people to maintain Cuba free, sovereign and independent.
(The following article is from the
June 16-30, 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.)
VANCOUVER, BC
3rd Annual Women’s Housing March -
Sat., June 13, 1:30 pm, join the Power of Women Group march for housing
and against poverty, starts from Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, 302
Columbia (corner of Cordova, just west of Main).
Solidarity with Afghan women -
Friday, June 19, 7:30 pm, Unitarian Sanctuary, 949 W. 49 Ave., speaker
Sonali Kolhatkar, co-director, Afghan Women’s Mission, organized by
Vancouver StopWar Coalition, co-sponsored by Vancouver Unitarians
Social Justice Committee.
17th Annual People’s Voice Victory
Banquet - starts 6 pm, Sat., June 20, Russian Hall, 600
Campbell Ave., tickets $10-$20 sliding scale, call PV office,
604-255-2041.
Security Certificates
and Secret Trials, speaking tour with Adil Charkaoui, Moroccoborn
permanent resident of Canada who was arrested under a security
certificate in May 2003 - Fri. June 26, 6:30 pm, rooms 1420-1430, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings, limited seating, sliding scale $0-20, organized by No One Is Illegal.
WINNIPEG,
MB
28th annual Peace Walk, Sat. -
June 13, meet 12:30 pm at the Manitoba Legislature. For information:
Peace Alliance Winnipeg, 774-2889.
Rally to reform Workers Compensation -
Mon., June 15, Injured Workers group, for details of location and time,
call Rick 783-6244.
Manitoba Peace Council
meeting - Tue., June 23, 7 pm, Workers Organizing Resource Centre, 280 Smith St. Info 792-3371.
SASKATOON, SK
Political discussion & beer, all welcome to join Saskatoon CPC
members - third Monday of
every month, in the tv room at Amigo’s, 632-10 St. East.
TORONTO, ON
Good
Jobs for All Rally - Sat., June 13, 1 pm, at Metro Hall, 55 John St., organized by CLC, Toronto & York Region Labour Council, Good Jobs for All Coalition, call 416-441-3710 ext. 223.
Report
from World Federation of Democratic Youth - GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth, Sat., June 13, doors 5 pm, food and drinks available. $20 for employed, $10 students and low-income. Proceeds to YCL Toronto.
CCFA
Toronto Island Cruise, celebrate Moncada Day - Sat., July 25, check in 11:30 am, disembark by 4 pm. Live Cuban Music with Pablo Terry & “Sol de Cuba”, lunch included, for info/tickets call Sharon, 905-951-8499.
Our Vancouver Editorial Office will be closed June 29-July 19.
$50,000
FUND DRIVE
Fighting media stereotypes
(The following
article is from the June 16-30, 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.)
On page 6 of this
issue, our “Youth Fightback”
column looks at the
right-wing corporate media stereotypes
of “dangerous youth.” In
fact, People’s Voice works to
expose
a wide range of such stereotypes - the wild-eyed radical, the greedy trade unionist, the
subversive communist,
the ungreateful immigrant,
etc. The labour and democratic
movements in Canada are
grappling with critical problems and working to organize around policies to turn this country away from destruction. But all too often, the corporate media shuts out these voices, or paints them as “fringe” movements and “professional protesters.”
To combat this
caricature, People’s Voice
features a wide range of
articles and commentaries, not just
from the Communist movement, but
from our friends and allies
who need to get their messages out
across the country. That’s a
major reason why the working class press is crucial to the struggles for justice and equality, and why we need your support in this year’s Fund Drive for $50,000.
We made
good progress in the past two
weeks, bringing in another $5,947.
Our new total is $36,325,
or 72.6% of our target.
Ontario continues to hold the lead,
with $19,599 raised, or 89%%
of their $22,000 target, followed by Alberta, with $1928 turned in, or 80.3% of their $2400 goal. Manitoba is now at 67% ($1615 out of $2400), and Saskatchewan is next with 62.5% ($500 out of $800). Much of our remaining target will come from British Columbia, where the Fund Drive was put on hold during the recent provincial election. BC has now reached 53.5% ($11,018 raised out of a $20,600 target).
Part of the
BC target will be raised at
our 17th Annual PV Victory Banquet,
set for Saturday, June 20, at
the Russian Hall, 600 Campbell
Ave., Vancouver. The Banquet
Committee has announced that
the programme will start at 6 pm,
with dinner served at 7 pm. They
promise over 20 door prizes, cabaret-type
entertainment, live music,
“food of the world” (including vegetarian options), and “the best company in the Lower Mainland.” This year’s guest speaker will be Sam Hammond, BC provincial organizer of the Communist Party. Tickets for this extravaganza are on a sliding scale, $10-$20 for adults (children under 12 free). You can pay at the door, or pick up advance tickets at the PV Editorial Office, 706 Clark Drive, tel. 604-255-2041 or 604-254-9836.
Details of
the PV Walk-A-Thon, organized
every July in Surrey’s Bear
Creek Park by the Lower Fraser
Club, will be announced soon.
See next issue for details!
As you know, we are once again offering something in
return for your
generous solidarity. This year’s “PV Shopping Bag” includes the
following:
- a 12-month complimentary PV sub (keep it or give it
to a
friend);
- People’s Voice
2009 Calendar;
- People’s Voice
“Karl Marx” Tshirt (tell us what
size);
- a surprise music CD - pick classical, oldies, or
folk.
Here’s
how it works. For a $100 donation, you will receive your choice of one
of these items. For each additional $100, you can choose another item
from our Shopping Bag. For a donation of $1000 or more, take the entire
Shopping Bag, and we will also give a lifetime subscription to you or a
friend.
Remember -
People’s Voice is your
newspaper, your voice in the information wars. Your contribution helps
us build it bigger and better!
Here's
my contribution to the PV Fund Drive!
Enclosed please find my donation of $_____
to the 2009 People's Voice Press Fund
Drive.
Name __________________________________
Address ________________________________
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Prov. ________ Postal Code _______________
Send to: People's Voice, 133 Herkimer St.,Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P
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