The Spark!

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1) NDP FALLS SHORT, CAMPBELL WINS BC ELECTION

(The following article is from the May 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

Despite major opposition from the labour movement and other progressive forces, the Campbell Liberals won a third consecutive victory in British Columbia on May 12. While the NDP's 42% cut into the 2005 Liberal vote lead slightly, the Liberals took 46% and led by 48 seats to 37 on election night, similar to their previous win. The Green party vote fell to just over 8%, leaving them again without any seats.

     The outcome will help the right-wing government to use the economic crisis and the provincial deficit as a club against working people and the poor over the next four years. Key public sector union contracts come up for renewal after the 2010 Winter Olympics next February, and with their new majority, the Liberals are expected to impose concessions and wage freezes. The growing public demand for a minimum wage increase also faces a steeper uphill battle, even though "wealthy" British Columbia has the lowest rates in Canada.

     On another front, the Liberal victory means that the controversial carbon tax will soon rise, taking bigger chunks out of working people's paycheques. The issue divided the environmental movement, with key public figures such as David Suzuki appearing to support Campbell despite his government's track record of turning natural resources over to the corporate sector for a fast buck.

     This "green" fig leaf, combined with an expensive public relations campaign to portray the premier as a man with the business savvy to govern during a recession, were key factors in saving the Liberals from angry voters. The Liberals benefitted from the overwhelming support of the corporate media, especially the CanWest Global empire which completely dominates newspapers, radio and TV on the west coast.

     NDP leader Carole James and her party were unable to take advantage of the fact that a majority of voters saw Campbell as arrogant and out of touch. The NDP strategy to present James as a more caring leader brought some gains, but not surprisingly, the underlying sexist mantra that a "tough guy" like the premier is needed during a recession was reinforced by the right-wing media to considerable effect.

     On a policy level, the NDP used the carbon tax issue effectively in many interior and northern ridings, but possibly at the expense of losing some Green-leaning urban voters.

     The NDP campaigned heavily to "take back your BC" from the Campbell Liberals and the corporations, a slogan which appealed to many who oppose the government's agenda of privatizing services and resources. But by also trying to appease the business sector (James pledged to protect Campbell's corporate tax cuts) the NDP sent out mixed messages, convincing many progressive voters that little would change if they defeated the Liberals. That weakness was clear whenever James spoke to union conventions, where she often spent more time addressing business concerns than working class needs.

     Over the past year, polls showed the NDP within striking distance of the Liberals, even pulling ahead at times. Clearly, the government was ripe for defeat, but the NDP leadership was unable or unwilling to conduct the hard-hitting type of campaign needed to galvanize the working class into action against one of the most pro-corporate governments in Canada.

     Knowing the importance of this election, the labour movement did make a huge effort to get out the vote. Several key unions campaigned hard on the issues - the BC Teachers Federation, for example, spent heavily on advertising to expose the Liberal underfunding of education, and mobilized its membership in support of the NDP more than in previous campaigns. Other unions worked hard to attack the Liberal sellout of BC Hydro and water resources, or to demand more spending on health care and public transit. Each of these campaigns was designed to present the NDP as the positive alternative, and the party did make minor gains, but not enough to overcome the Liberal media advantage.

     In the end, the impressive campaign conducted by the labour movement to defeat the Liberals fell short, mainly because the social democratic NDP leadership failed to present a credible working class alternative.

     Communist Party of BC leader George Gidora noted that with the Liberals back in office, "the labour movement needs to free itself from the concept that political involvement means focusing on getting the NDP elected down the road. The BC Federation of Labour and its affiliates and allies urgently need to develop an independent fightback program, designed to block the next Liberal attacks." If the B.C. economy continues to nose-dive, he said, it may still be possible to stall the Liberal agenda, which can be expected to take full shape with next year's provincial budget and the upcoming public sector negotiations. But if the labour movement goes into a shell to wait for the 2013 election, working people are in for a rough four years.

     On a related matter, support for the BC Single Transferable Vote proposal fell sharply in its second appearance on the ballot, down from 58% to 40% this time. Both the Yes and No sides were provided $500,000 for this referendum, but it appears that the more STV was debated, the more its flaws became apparent to voters.

     The strongest backers of STV were young people, Green Party voters, and residents of Vancouver Island. Each category are sections of the B.C. population which tend to look favourably on electoral reform. However, STV promoters had little but promises to offer, such as the view that the system might generate more proportional results than first-past-the-post, or that it might help elect more women to office. These unproven claims ran up against the reality that BC-STV would create enormous ridings (almost twice the size of federal constituencies, on average) without guaranteeing any representation for smaller parties cut out by first-past-the-post.

     The Communist Party of BC reluctantly urged voters to reject the STV proposal, with the aim of relaunching efforts to win real proportional representation, as called for by most submissions to the 2004 Citizens Assembly.

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2) COMMUNIST CAMPAIGN GENERATES BUZZ IN BC

(The following article is from the May 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 and Johan Boyden

For a small party, the Communist Party had a disproportionate impact in three ridings where its candidates were on the ballot for BC's May 12 election. Not surprisingly, the Communist vote was small (although higher than in 2005), and the party won many friends and new members.

     Party leader George Gidora ran in Surrey-Newton, near where he grew up and went to school. Familiar with local as well as provincial issues, Gidora was well received by voters at the major all-candidate forum where he took part. His message, combining a call to defeat the Campbell Liberals with the need for radical new policies to put the interests of working people first, resonated strongly with voters in this largely South Asian riding. The campaign team circulated 1,000 copies of the Communist Party of BC platform in Punjabi, as well as 3,000 in English.

     George Gidora also received a considerable amount of media coverage, such as an appearance on a popular Vancouver morning radio show. His commentary on the campaign issues was featured on the website of the widely-read Georgia Straight weekly paper, along with those of other party leaders. Early results gave Gidora about double the Party's total in another Surrey riding in 2005.

     Retired health care worker Peter Marcus, a second-time candidate in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, is well known to working people and political activists in his east side constituency. Marcus is a frequent participant in labour and community events, distributing People's Voice and presenting a solid working-class perspective in debates. His preliminary count of about 140 votes was just shy of 1%, also nearly double his tally in 2005.

     Marcus was on the platform for two candidate forums, one at Britannia Secondary School, and another on health issues at the 411 Seniors Centre. Unfortunately, a forum planned for the Carnegie Centre, in the heart of the lowest-income urban neighbourhood in Canada, was cancelled after some other candidates pulled out. Across the province, Liberals avoided all-candidate meetings where their record could be exposed to voters.

     In Kootenay West, Communist candidate Zachary Crispin took 150 votes, about one percent. His campaign was popular among young people, workers and trade unionists, and seniors.

     One major highlight was when Crispin spoke to six classes at L.J. Crow high school, his alma mater, on issues from raising the minimum wage to $16 an hour, to socialism. Youth were impressed by Crispin's demand to eliminate tuition fees. YCL Trail members got out and helped to flyer local malls, standing up to store managers and even police who tried to usher them off the property.

     Crispin's campaign also addressed a meeting of Interior BC peace activists chaired by J.J. Verigin of the Doukhobor community, where the Communist message of "fighting for a better world" struck home. After one public debate, campaign activists overheard several workers and trade unionists quietly praising Crispin's ideas, like reopening the closed mills under public ownership and banning raw log exports.

     Late in the campaign, BC organizer Sam Hammond visited the Kootenays to speak at a public event about the economic crisis and the fight for jobs. The meeting was attended by about twenty people. Hammond also spoke on two radio shows, including one hosted by the President of the Labour Council on Kootenay Coop radio. Crispin also received extensive coverage in the local media, as well as national CBC radio.

     The Kootenay West campaign connected the Communist Party with progressives, local activists, veteran militants, and young people, including new prospective members. Working families dug generously into their pockets to help the campaign, which included almost 50 bright red signs placed on front lawns and road sides, creating a buzz across the region.

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3) BC COMMUNISTS CONDEMN HYDRO SELLOUT

(The following article is from the May 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.)

"The Communist Party of BC condemns the Campbell Liberal government's privatization agenda for BC Hydro," said party leader George Gidora on the evening of May 12, as the Liberals won re-election. "Now that the Liberals are back in office," he warned, "the fight to block the sellout of BC Hydro must continue."

     The legacy of public power in BC in 1961 began with the unanimous passing of Bill 5, the Power Development Act which merged several bodies into what became BC Hydro.

     "This profitable, publicly owned energy utility provides British Columbians with some of the most affordable electricity in all of Canada while generating billions of dollars in revenue for social services such as education and health care," said Gidora in a statement during the campaign. "The energy it produces is renewable and green-house-gas free. Despite this, the Liberal government is currently carrying out a programme of incremental, stealth privatization of BC Hydro."

     The first phase of this programme involved the secretive contracting out of one-third of BC Hydro to Bermuda-based Accenture Business Services. The government then formed the BC Transmission Corporation, removing BC Hydro's responsibilities for the transmission of electricity.

     The Liberals' BC Energy Plan stipulated that no new electricity generation facilities could be built publicly by BC Hydro (with the possible exception of the controversial Site C project on the Peace River). All new energy needs would have to be fulfilled by the private sector. This Plan heralded the start of an energy gold rush, with private corporations scrambling to grab up water licenses for public rivers and streams for the purposes of generating hydro electricity through "run-of-river" power projects. Today there are applications for over 700 points of diversion of rivers and streams, 139 of which have been approved.

     Gidora calls these "environmental disasters which require the construction of thousands of kilometers of transmission lines and roads, clear cutting, damming and diverting rivers, disrupting or destroying wilderness and aquatic species habitat, rock blasting, tunnelling and more. Already BC Hydro is locked into over $30 billion worth of energy purchase agreements with private companies.

     "These agreements will see BC Hydro purchase energy from private sources at prices which as drastically higher than the cost of energy produced by BC Hydro and in some cases are even double the predicted market price. This means BC Hydro will be forced to increase electricity rates by as much as double or face being slowly bankrupted. Either outcome will help facilitate the final privatization of the remaining shell of BC Hydro. Since the profits produced by private power companies return to private hands, the public revenue produced by BC Hydro will be lost. This will further starve BC's social services of funds and open the door to more privatization schemes."

     "The destruction of BC Hydro," says Gidora, "is a get rich scheme for private corporations, who have funnelled over $800,000 to the BC Liberals through campaign donations. For working people, it is a move in exactly the wrong direction at a time when the capitalist system is ridden with crisis and desperately seeking new sources of profit."

     The Communist programme for BC's energy resources would halt this privatization agenda and re-organize BC Hydro as a publicly owned and controlled utility. The party's demands include:

- Cancel the BC Energy Plan and work with communities and First Nations to develop a new plan based on public ownership and development of green, renewable energy.

- Cancel the Accenture contract and return its operations to BC Hydro with no loss in jobs. Launch an investigation into the details of this secretive deal.

- Stop the sale of water licenses for public rivers and streams to private corporations, cancel existing contracts and applications.

- Put existing private power operations under public ownership and control.

- Lift the ban on the investigation and development of new electricity sources by BC Hydro.

- Keep all existing and future transmission lines publicly owned and controlled.

- Promote energy conservation and energy efficient technologies.

- Put all new power developments through a rigorous environmental assessment and public consultation process.

- Rescind Bill 30, which took away the rights of municipalities and First Nations to reject power developments.

- Ban the private export of electricity.

- Create publicly funded university research programs to investigate and develop environmentally friendly technology

- Pull out of NAFTA, TILMA and other "free trade" agreements which compromise Canadian sovereignty with regards to energy, water and other resources.

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4) TORONTO LABOUR HOLDS FIRST STEWARDS ASSEMBLY

(The following article is from the May 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 Dave McKee

More than 1600 union stewards and leaders packed into Toronto's first-ever Stewards Assembly, organized on May 7 by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council in response to the economic crisis.

     The evening began with a presentation by CAW economist Jim Stanford, who pointed out that while the stock markets appear to be rallying, this is largely a paper-based rebound resulting from huge public bailouts to corporations. The Canadian government has provided the banks alone with $200 billion, but the real economy is still sinking. While the stock market is up 30% over the past 6 weeks, unemployment is also up by 30% over the past 6 months.

     "There's no recovery until there's jobs," Stanford said, to wild applause. He cautioned that workers and the labour movement will need to prepare for a coming process of structural adjustment, in which capital will seek to blame and extract concessions from workers in all industries, in both the private and public sectors.

     Following this overview were stories from workers whose workplaces and unions have already been hit hard by the crisis. Amidst the reports of layoffs, outsourcing and offshoring, were tales of resistance and victories: the Hotel Workers Rising campaign, which has seen large scale organizing drives and bargaining victories; the $10 minimum wage campaign in Ontario; and the strike by energy professionals in 2005.

     The lessons? The way out of the crisis is through struggle, and the best way to struggle is through unity, militancy, combining parliamentary and extra-parliamentary action, and solidarity campaigns that link unions, workers and communities.

     One example of these lessons applied over the long-term is the Good Jobs For All Campaign, which was also reported to the assembly. This campaign is the product of community-labour solidarity efforts that began with consultation and planning to prepare for the Good Jobs Summit, held in Toronto last November.

     Currently, the campaign is focused around three areas: Empowering Workers, which has included rallies for EI reform and the campaign for temporary workers' rights that culminated in Bill 139; Green Economy for All, which will include a conference in the fall; and Investing in Social Infrastructure, which links good jobs with accessible social infrastructure such as public education, social services, childcare and public health care.

     John Cartwright, President of the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, introduced the "Solidarity Checklist" to the Stewards Assembly. This checklist is intended to be a roadmap for stewards to help their members understand the economic crisis and to stand together with their co-workers, with other unions, and with their community as part of the fight for progressive, working class alternatives.

     The six points in the checklist are: (1) Don't blame ourselves or other workers, (2) Remember how the rules were changed, (3) Ask tough questions about "the big picture," (4) Put fair rules in place, (5) Work hard to renew solidarity, and (6) Stand together for what we believe in!

     Stewards then discussed the checklist at their tables, with a view to how we could work in our workplaces and union locals to make it a reality. At the end of the assembly, each national and international union present pledged to stand together during this economic crisis.

     The Stewards Assembly represents a big step forward for the labour movement in the Toronto area because it brought together frontline union representatives (workers themselves) to determine how to organize locally for a broad and united movement to block the corporate attack and press for change. All of the key ingredients of a mass movement were identified - community-labour solidarity, unity of all forces for democratic change, the necessity for labour to lead the fight, and the importance of fighting in both the electoral and extra-parliamentary arenas. What is needed now is action.

     For more information on the Stewards Assembly and the Solidarity Checklist, visit http://www.labourcouncil.ca. For information on the Good Jobs For All Coalition, visit http://www.goodjobsforall.ca.

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5) VANCOUVER TRUSTEES ADOPT COMPLIANCE AND NEEDS BUDGETS

(The following article is from the May 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

Vancouver's school trustees have approved two 2009/10 operating budgets - a $484 million "compliance" budget containing $7.12 million in spending reductions, and a $524 million "needs" budget outlining the actual needs of students and staff in the district.

     "It is with regret and under duress that this board approved the reductions in order to balance our compliance budget within our provincially allocated funding, as we are legally required to do," said Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus on April 30.

     But within days of the budget vote, the complex nature of school board finances impacted Grandview Elementary, a low-income east-side school where half the students are Aboriginal. Much to their dismay, parents, students, and staff heard that three "non-enrolling" teachers would be cut, dramatically reducing the school's ability to support special needs students in particular. A protest march and rally was quickly organized for Mother's Day, May 10.

     The layoff news was also a shock to the majority of progressive trustees on the VSB, who are solidly opposed to cuts which affect Aboriginal education. Three of them joined the May 10 demonstration, where COPE's Jane Bouey brought a message of solidarity to the community and pledged that the trustees would continue to make support for special needs students a priority.

     The seven trustees from Vision and COPE on the nine-member board say that to restore programs and services back to 2001/02 levels would require a funding increase of at least $40 million. The situation is similar across the province. While the Campbell government increased education spending in its 2009/10 budget by $84 million, costs for school boards will rise by about $158 million, leaving a $73 million shortfall for this year alone.

     Rather than cut the overall total number of classroom positions, the progressive majority on the VSB found ways to reduce spending on administration, supplies and building maintenance. Some consultants employed in administration will return to teaching duties in schools. Unfortunately, the shortfall does mean that many desperately needed teaching positions will not be filled.

     "Nobody will be getting a pink slip," said Bacchus. "We will manage the reductions through retirement and we won't be filling positions we intended to fill. We had to make the front line our absolute priority. We needed to make sure what we did would have the least impact on children."

     While the COPE and Vision trustees backed both budgets, the two NPA trustees were opposed. The right-wing NPA also resists efforts to advocate for increased provincial funding.

     Earlier this spring, the three COPE trustees had called for a BC budget that puts education front and centre. Bouey, who is also VSB vice-chair, said the provincial budget should concentrate support for social investments such as education. "Our government in Victoria keeps talking about keeping BC strong, but cutting education every year just doesn't make sense," Bouey warned.

     Long-time COPE trustee Al Blakey noted that while the provincial government can pass a law allowing them to run a deficit budget, the VSB does not have the same luxury. And COPE's Allan Wong added, "If today's students are paying for tomorrow's debt, we need to make sure the budget helps their future. A good first step would be putting an end to these annual school board budget cuts."

     Glen Hansman, president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association (VESTA), said "The province's funding formula and chronic underfunding of school boards is hitting ESL students and children with special needs the worst. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the VSB's budget."

    "Teachers in Vancouver do not blame the trustees for this situation," said Hansman. "Unfortunately, what the Ministry of Education provides in grants has not kept up with inflation, nor does it recognize the true costs of running an urban school district with diverse needs like Vancouver."

     Hansman pointed to the Ministry's five-year-cap on funding for ESL students as a major problem. "Per-student funding for ESL students has not increased in 11 years," he said. "And the money that is received is limited to an ESL learner's first five years of support. Not all ESL students are able to master the nuances of the English language in five years!"

     He also noted that the VSB only receives $16,000 per student with autism. That dollar amount has not increased in six years, and only pays for about half a Special Education Assistant.

      "What about the rest of the cost involved with providing children with autism with proper support?" asks Hansman. "The VSB spends twice the amount of special education service than it receives from the government."

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6) ABITIBI-BOWATER CLOSURES: COMPANY NOT LEAVING NEWFOUNDLAND QUIETLY

(The following article is from the May 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

AbitibiBowater has not (been) making any friends among Newfoundland workers by shutting down two paper mills. The closure of the Stephenville mill in 2005 went ahead with little protest from the provincial government. The company justified that move by the mill's small size and cost of shipping lumber from Labrador, but that did not apply to the decision late last year to shut down its much larger facilities in Grand Falls-Windsor. The Danny Williams government reacted strongly by expropriating AbitibiBowater's remaining holdings in the province: "You came in with none of those resources, you leave with none of those resources", said Williams in December 2008.

     Now AbitibiBowater apparently seeks to add insult to injury. Even last December, the company complained bitterly about the nationalization of their property, and announced that they would take retaliatory action via NAFTA protocols which make it illegal for a government to interfere with the holdings of international corporations without providing compensation in the form of "fair market value". As of April 2009, the company is seeking $300 million in compensation.

     The company has also obtained bankruptcy protection in Canada due to debt problems. Closing mills in Newfoundland was one thing, but bear in mind that 11,000 of the company's 16,000 employees are in Canada. How safe is the rest of country from a desperate corporation? If recent events are any indication, the answer is tenuous at best.

     In the midst of this mess, AbitibiBowater has cut off pensions to its former Newfoundland employees. That move has effectively cancelled the income of many retired workers in Grand Falls-Windsor. One 61-year old man mused that he might have to return to work to supplement the comparatively meagre Canada Pension he and his wife receive! As if that were not bad enough, the company has announced that, "for the time being", the remaining $28 million in severance pay would be suspended.

     The union representing the mill workers has said it will fight that decision in court. The provincial government may also make it an issue when it determines what it will pay for NAFTA compensation. The severance packages vary from $40,000 to $100,000, no small amount of money, but necessary to help these now-unemployed workers. Combined with the cancellation of the pensions, young and old workers are both being screwed over.

     AbitibiBowater is behaving in a despicable manner. Because they are losing money, workers are expected to accept their position, and let them do what they "must" to stay afloat. But that would mean forgetting or dismissing people's livelihoods.

     After terminating jobs and spitting in workers' faces, the company has a lot of gall to come back crying for compensation. AbitibiBowater has already lost almost a billion dollars. Is the compensation from Newfoundland's government going to end the recession that put them in such dire straits? It would be laughable indeed to think so! And let us not forget that this search for compensation is through NAFTA. Maybe some eyes have been opened lately to see the true nature of this trade deal - defending the rights of the rich against those of the poor.

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7) UNEMPLOYMENT CLOCK HITS THE ROAD

(The following article is from the May 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.)

     The new "National Unemployment Clock" made its first stop outside the Annual General Meeting of Telus Corp., at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa on May 7. With stops across the country, the clock will reach its permanent home in Vancouver on June 8.

     John Carpenter, Vice President of the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU), said the campaign intends to raise awareness across Canada about the dangers of allowing large international corporations - such as TELUS - to continue to offshore Canadian jobs. This practice, warned Carpenter, is a strong contributor to the unemployment crisis in Canada.

     The Unemployment Clock, which offers a real-time count of job losses, is mounted on a truck for its cross-Canada journey. Along the way, street teams will hand out information brochures, buttons and bumper stickers, and ask citizens to sign a petition to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Minister of Labour Rona Ambrose.

     "We are very concerned about large corporations, such as TELUS, who continue to eliminate jobs in Canada and move them to the Philippines and other overseas locations," said Carpenter, speaking in Ottawa. "The offshoring of jobs is a concern for many Canadians. Unemployment is at a seven-year high and yet big, profitable corporations are still taking jobs away from Canadians. Enough is enough. The message on the National Unemployment Clock truck says it all: If You're Proud To Be Canadian, Shouldn't You Be Proud To Hire Canadian?"

     The campaign's website, http://www.keepjobsincanada.ca, features an online petition, ways to get involved, and contact information for local Members of Parliament. It also includes statistics and facts on unemployment, the ongoing issue of allowing large corporations to offshore jobs, the campaign travel schedule, and an interactive "Track the Truck" map following the road show.

     As of this PV mailing date, the clock has completed its Ontario tour. In western Canada, tentative dates include: May 18, Winnipeg; May 22, Regina; May 24, Calgary; May 25, Red Deer; May 26, Edmonton; May 28, Prince George; June 1, Kamloops; June 2,3 Kelowna; June 5,8 Vancouver.

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8) CANADIAN LABOUR: LATENT THREAT OR SPENT FORCE?

(The following article is from the May 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 Sam Hammond

Our labour movement is a very real and important example of social organization, reflecting the existence of opposing classes in the capitalist stage. It is both historically a result of the creation of a working class which the early capitalists needed to exploit, and a quantitative component of the ensuing class struggle.

     It is necessary to understand the historical need that created the labour movement, because that original historic purpose is essential to measure whether the movement is a quantity of decline, or still a quantity of growth in the competition and struggle between the opposing classes. In the escalating attack on Canadian labour launched by imperialism, the corporate neo-liberal agenda is a weapon wielded by compliant governments and chameleon institutions. Is our labour movement capable of mounting defensive struggle and counter-attacking, or are we a spent force?

     Although the attack is universal it spins out in different ways in the imperialist states, of which Canada is one. We have a highly developed working class that has created a mature and able trade union movement. However, the period from the beginning of the Cold War to the early 1970s, marked by McCarthyism, by the attack on the left and left-led unions, can be looked at in retrospect as a period of attempted pacification of the working class. The purpose of the state (and its allies within our class) was to neutralize the quantity of resistance, of class struggle, and replace it with a quantity of compliance and collaboration.

     Although not completely successful, this offensive destroyed the Canadian Seamen's Union, and wore down the membership of the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers who had given so much to Canadian labour. It was used to justify the expulsion of other left unions from the central labour bodies, and to separate the peace movement and the social justice movements from all but the minority of left unions. Leadership was gradually shifted into the hands of those who rose in position because of anti-communism, not through experience or ability to represent workers needs.

     The recognition of this injustice against the working class and its most militant representatives must be part of the resurgence of labour and its rededication to the needs of all working people. To the credit of the Canadian working class, the victory of capital was never complete. While business trade unionism became dominant at the top, in contradiction to rank-and-file needs, a small but very tenacious left survived and continued to exert considerable influence. The emergence of CUPE, the CAW and CEP were all expressions of continuing creativity and militancy, and the ability of Canadian workers to struggle not only for unionism but for Canadian unions.

     In Quebec the working class also maintained its historic roots, introducing its national character and needs into the struggle, with the CNTU growing as a force and the QFL establishing itself within the CLC as a national labour body.

     The present onslaught, whose central thrust is brutally directed against the CAW, was preceded by more than twenty years of skirmishes and probes. The economic slump of the mid-1980s was a softener. The 1995 election of the Harris Tories preceded an attack on the dispossessed, twinned with an attack on Ontario public sector workers. This Tory agenda was challenged by massive worker support for the Ontario Days of Action, which ended in a split between the CAW and the Ontario Federation of Labour over whether to continue the fight. The right won and the fightback was abandoned. The CAW unfortunately left the OFL in search of go-it-alone solutions that led it to the Liberal party and weakened Ontario labour considerably.

     Ontario's teachers launched an historic political strike in defence of quality education and funding but were failed by weak leadership. In British Columbia, emboldened by weak labour leadership, the Campbell government shamelessly drove back wages and working conditions for health workers, despite their massive public support and the stirrings of a general strike. The same Campbell government, using the Supreme Court as a weapon, was later repulsed and shamed by the courageous stand of the BC Teachers, who put it on the line in a major struggle for teaching and learning conditions.

     In Quebec a few years ago, preparations for massive resistance to the Charest government, including a national work stoppage, were neutralized behind the scenes by the machinations of some major union leaders. But things have changed. On May 11, all the public and para-public sector unions in Quebec announced the creation of their biggest common front in history, representing half a million workers. Despite the economic crisis, unions are demanding a major wage increase of 11.25% over 33 months. Calculated on the average public sector wage level, this means negotiating an increase of over 15% for lower paid employees. The Charest government has reacted by saying that unions must be "reasonable."

     These skirmishes, by no means passive, were not the only ones fought in the recent past. They clearly demonstrate the two main ideological trends in Canadian labour, and their corresponding strengths and weaknesses.

     The rejection of independent labour political action by the right forces in the OFL allowed then CAW President Buzz Hargrove an excuse to implement concessionary thinking, including a semi-alliance with the Liberal party hidden behind programs of strategic voting that were embraced by some Ontario Teachers, most Building Trades unions, and a few others. The OFL went into a deep slumber and became an absentee labour movement. The CLC has also been in "Rip Van Winkle" mode, emerging periodically to check its own shadow. There have been campaigns on paper but not on pavement, with the exceptions of a CAW attempt to put substance into the CLC "Manufacturing Matters Campaign," and the CLC's EI and "Get Real Campaign" that so far has received only token support from the rest of labour.

     Against this backdrop, the CAW leadership made some rather dramatic turns into concessionary bargaining and a failed experiment with a company compliant, collaborationist "Framework of Fairness" agreement with Magna Corporation. The die was cast. Buzz Hargrove no longer looked to the militants in the rank and file, but to the elements of compliance and careerism who could be easily recruited to his agenda. Three years of concessions (small at first but developing into major) and early contract openings with the "Big Three" auto plants in Ontario preceded the vicious attack by the Harper Tories government, the auto companies, and in the background, the Bush presidency. Now labour's "friend in the White House" is demanding non-union parity from the United Auto Workers, with the "Northern Stooge" putting the same to the CAW.

     CAW president Ken Lewenza walked into this cesspool, and has been desperately trying to salvage his members and union from corporate double-cross, government attack and broken promises. A couple of explosions of militant action, reminiscent of the older CAW, have been handled too easily by court injunctions.

     Sold as a way to save jobs in the CAW, concessionary bargaining only whetted the corporate thirst. The present onslaught was bolder because of this sign of weakness. The jobs have disappeared and the union is left without a "Plan B". The demands of the capitalist state and the corporations were not retarded or lessened by a resistance campaign, or even a condemnation of the attack. In fact, Ken Lewenza has mistakenly complimented the two levels of government for their injection of public cash into the corporations, approved the takeover of Chrysler by yet another foreign corporation (Fiat of Italy), and failed to raise the possibility of nationalizing what we have already paid for to launch a real Canadian vehicle, transportation and farm implement industry. He is no doubt desperately searching for a way to save his members and his union. This deserves respect, but it is not the way.

     The labour movement is in rather deep hibernation, but it is not a spent force. The most mauled, the CAW, is still intact. It has the members and the traditions to regroup, to sustain itself and counter-attack. This cannot be done by one union alone, and it is a compliment to Ken Lewenza and his union that they are going back into the Ontario Federation of Labour even if the horse is out of the barn.

     Hopefully this will spur some militant fightback in Ontario, where the OFL and all workers need the CAW presence in the central labour body as an alternative voice to wake up the Rip Van Winkles. Ken Lewenza is not the architect of concessionary bargaining, and hopefully he will learn that there are other roads.

     The victims of the global crisis include one in ten of Canadian children who eat out of food banks, the 75% of workers who cannot access Unemployment Insurance, auto workers deprived of wages and benefits, the unemployed from 67 idle wood processing mills in British Columbia, the Quebec workers ejected from Bombardier, relocated Maritimers all over Canada, teachers wrestling with education funding cuts, the Hamilton Steelworkers, the locked-out Hamilton Steel Car Workers, striking BC Paramedics. All these citizens and their children are wondering how to pay rent and mortgages, how to eat, how to heat, how to hold families together. For them there is no sleep.

     The Canadian Labour Congress, the Quebec Federation of Labour and the CNTU cannot sit in their respective solitudes while the Canadian working class is dissected piecemeal. There must be early and urgent meetings to plan a counter-offensive that includes the social justice movements. Coalition building led by organized labour is the order of the day. No group or strata is strong enough to repulse the tactics of the offensive by capital and the state. With the organization and experience of labour in the pivotal position, coalitions will rush together to turn the tide and win public support. This is the lesson of France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Guadeloupe, and other recent struggles.

     As long as there is exploitation and as long as working people have needs, the labour movement will be the most important part of the fightback, the latent threat of massive resistance, the training ground of tactical struggle, and the potential army of a political movement of the left that will destroy this treadmill of gain and loss and give our hard won gains constitutional permanence.

     Canadian Labour is not a spent force. It remains to be seen if the present leadership of labour is a spent force.

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9) A DECADE OF RECESSION?

(The following article is from the May 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

The recent uptick on global stock markets has right-wing pundits and politicians buzzing; apparently the economic spiral has made a U-turn, and happy days are here again for capitalism!

     Not so fast. As CAW economist Jim Stanford told a recent meeting of Toronto-area shop stewards, this rally is a "paper-based rebound" resulting from public bailouts to corporations. After all, Canadian taxpayers, thanks to the Harper Tories, just gave the big banks $200 billion, enough to goose share prices temporarily. But while the TSE is up since early April, unemployment has jumped 30% over the past six months. And a close look at the "rise" in job creation shows that most new jobs are various forms of self-employment, a precarious foundation on which to build a recovery.

     Meanwhile, Nobel laureate in Economy Paul Krugman says the U.S. could face a decade of zero growth if more aggressive incentives are not rolled out. Another Nobel winner, Joseph Stiglitz, also predicts a lengthy economic crisis. Krugman says the United States is following Japanese methods from the 1990s, helping banks survive without reversing the long-term decline trend. He warns that this approach is inadequate to stimulate economic revival, particularly since the main 19 U.S. banks still lack sufficient capital to confront a possible worsening of the recession.

     As the Wall Street Journal pointed out last fall, eight of the ten best single days in history for the Dow Jones took place during the first four years of the Great Depression. A bigger economic stimulus could produce similar results, but in the long run, the global imperialist system faces far more serious structural difficulties. Simply put, in a world where billions of people lack the incomes to purchase goods and services, and where the big imperialist powers waste trillions on militarism rather than clean water, housing, medical care and other necessities, capitalism is in deep trouble. That won't change anytime soon, unless working people succeed in winning fundamental change. As we have said before, the present weakness of capitalism is also an opportunity to win big victories for workers.

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10) THE BLOODBATH IN SRI LANKA

(The following article is from the May 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

The bloodbath continues in Sri Lanka, where the death toll of non-combatants in the brutal civil war keeps mounting. As of mid-May, an estimated 50,000 civilians were trapped in the last pocket of rebel territory, with another 200,000 in overcrowded refugee camps. Many more civilians will die needlessly during and after the last days of the war. The Red Cross, which rarely issues public statements, calls the situation "catastrophic". Protests by the Tamil population in Canada have increased pressures on Parliament to take diplomatic and political action.

     This conflict between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil nationalist LTTE has a long and sorry history, dating back to the denial of equal rights for the minority Tamil population and the subsequent armed struggle to form a separate Tamil state in Sri Lanka. Short periods of ceasefire have repeatedly ended with new outbreaks of extremist violence from both sides, making a political solution to the conflict harder to achieve.

     But such a political solution remains the only realistic option for Sri Lanka. Attempts to impose military victory can only harm the civilian population of the country, and the cause of peace in the entire region. Tamils and Sinhalese in Sri Lanka must find ways to overcome the tragic record of this conflict. The warring parties must be pressed to cease hostilities, so that comprehensive and transparent negotiations can begin, involving all the social and political organizations representing the Tamil people, the Government of Sri Lanka, and the leading civil and social forces throughout the country. Such negotiations should aim to bring a definitive end to the armed conflict, and to address the legitimate national rights of the Tamil minority.

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11) MILLIONS MARCH ON MAY DAY ACROSS PLANET

(The following article is from the May 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 combined sources

The U.S.-based National Immigrant Solidarity Network reports that May Day events and rallies were held in at least one hundred cities across the country, although fear spread by the corporate media about the H1N1 (swine flu) virus resulted in lower turnouts than in recent years. Hundreds of May Day events took place across the world, drawing tens of millions of participants.

     Many U.S. actions called for legalization of undocumented workers, and an end to the wave of anti-migrant raids and deportations which has also been growing in Canada.

     Perhaps the largest march was in Milwaukee, where over 20,000 people came out on May 1. The march was organized by Voces de la Frontera (Voices of the Border), a local immigrant rights group, with the support of trade unionists and student groups.

     In Los Angeles, nearly 10,000 hit the streets on May 1, mainly from the Latin American communities, unions, and campuses. Chicago, the birthplace of May Day, saw a march of over 5000 despite rainy weather. There were large marches in Oakland, San Francisco and San Jose, and demonstrations in cities such as New York, Washington, Miami, Houston, Denver, Minneapolis, and many others.

     May Day demonstrations and gatherings took place in at least half a dozen Canadian cities. Several thousand rallied on May 2 in Toronto, where the arrests and deportations of undocumented workers have roused widespread anger.

     About 300 trade unions and supporters turned out at the Maritime Labour Centre for the first May Day event organized in several years by the Vancouver and District Labour Council. Earlier that day, over 200 people marched through the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in support of migrant workers rights.

     Union-backed May Day actions were also held in Calgary, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Montreal.

Latin America

About 10,000 Chileans marched in Santiago on May 1 in a protest organized by the Unified Workers Confederation (CUT), the country's largest labour confederation. CUT president Arturo Martinez demanded "a new law that distributes the wealth," the right to strike without the threat of firings and scabs, and an end to mass layoffs.

     Some 100,000 Argentine unionists gathered in Buenos Aires on Apr. 30 for an early May Day event that was in effect a rally for President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, whose populist Justicialist Party faces serious challenges in June congressional elections. "What is being debated is not the form of a model of government," said Hugo Morano, president of the General Workers Confederation (CGT). "What is being debated is the fundamental question, and it's [whether] to snatch away from us the victories we have reached in recent times. The choice is to support a national, people's model that has as its objective dignifying humans, or we go back to the decade of the '90s, where they robbed us and took everything from us."

     In Brazil, thousands of workers participated in celebrations in the main cities on May 1, with performances by musical groups and speeches by union leaders calling for economic policies to stimulate the economy in response to the crisis.

     Bolivian President Evo Morales marked May 1 by signing a decree nationalizing the local subsidiary of British aviation fuel supplier AirBP at a ceremony before a massive crowd in La Paz. Morales ordered the military and state oil company Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) to take over AirBP, which owns 12 jet fuel service stations at airports across the country. He also extended workers' benefits, requiring employers to provide mandatory severance pay after 90 months of continuous work and to provide social security coverage for temporary employees.

     Thousands of workers marched in Ecuador's main cities carrying signs with slogans such as "Let the gringos pay for the capitalist crisis." At the Quito march, Edwin Bedoya, vice president of the Unified Workers Front, praised some of the changes made by the government of leftist president Rafael Correa. "But we criticize others," Bedoya said, "like the layoffs at Petroecuador", the state-owned oil company.

     In Colombia, unions and retirees' organizations mobilized thousands of workers with slogans against unemployment, President Uribe's bid for reelection and the ongoing violence against unionists. Marchers also called for a negotiated settlement to the armed conflict with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). "We believe that peace with social justice has to be developed here," Unitary Workers Central president Tarsicio Mora said in Bogota, calling the government's neoliberal economic model a failure.

     Unions supporting Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez held a massive march in Caracas. Addressing the crowd, Chavez said, "There's no socialism without the working class... solid, conscientious, and committed to what is being born in Venezuela, which is Socialism." Beginning on May 1, a 10% increase in Venezuela's minimum wage came into effect. Another 10% increase will be implemented later this year, and Chavez also confirmed on May 1 that teachers would also receive a wage increase.

     Thousands of workers marched in 11 cities in Honduras with slogans against the US-sponsored Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

     Half a million Cubans took part in the traditional May Day march, headed by President Raul Castro, to the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana. Slogans included calls for economic efficiency and support for the government. The marchers included 40,000 students from all educational levels and from the Union of Young Communists.

     Mexico's Congress of Labour, the independent National Workers Union, and the Mexican Union Front called off May Day activities in Mexico City following recommendations from health officials trying to control the spread of the H1N1 influenza. But more than 30,000 Mexicans marched on May 1 despite the suspension of activities in Mexico City. The largest was in Puebla, capital of the eastern central state of Puebla, where 25,000 people from 15 unions and campesino and activist groups marched to city's zocalo.

     Haitian riot police used tear gas to disperse several hundred students, teachers, unionists and others a few blocks from the National Palace in Port-au-Prince. The marchers, organized by the Collective for Another May 1 around demands to raise the minimum wage, regrouped later in the capital's main plaza, where the government was holding an agricultural and crafts fair around the theme: "solidarity between employers, workers, peasants and artisans to reinforce national production."

     In the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, some 20,000 people marked May 1 with a celebration of the 44-day general strike that won an increase in the minimum wage and price reductions for basic necessities earlier in the year. The demonstrators marched to Petit-Canal, the burial site of unionist Jacques Bino, who was killed on Feb. 17 in a night of violence during the generally peaceful strike. This was the first united May Day march for the island's leading labour organizations: the General Union of Guadeloupe Workers, the General Confederation of Labour of Guadeloupe, and the United Workers.

     In Puerto Rico the Broad Front of Solidarity and Struggle, a coalition of 22 unions, held a one-day general strike and a march to protest a plan by Gov. Luis Fortuno to respond to the economic crisis by laying off 30,000-60,000 public employees and privatizing essential public services. About 30,000 people participated in demonstrations in San Juan.

Europe

    In Turkey, 150,000 demonstrators marched in the capital, Ankara. The government had declared May Day a public holiday this year under pressure from unions.

     Transport strikes disrupted bus, train and ferry services across Greece, as well as flights by Olympic Airlines. Twenty people were injured and five arrested after police clashed with demonstrators at a labour rally in Linz in northern Austria.

     There were also marches in big cities in Spain, burdened with the highest unemployment rate in Europe. More than 10,000 people gathered in the centre of Madrid in a demonstration organised by the country's two largest trade unions.

     In Italy, union leaders shifted rallies from major cities to the earthquake-stricken town of L'Aquila as a sign of solidarity with thousands who lost their jobs after last month's deadly quake.     About two million Russians took part in celebrations of May Day, which is now officially called "Spring and Labour Day". Activities were held in over 1,000 cities and towns. Many of these events were not political, but several thousand demonstrators gathered at the statue of Karl Marx in Moscow waving banners and red Soviet flags.

     In France, eight labour federations joined for united May Day demonstrations to protest government and corporate policies on the economic crisis.

     "Labour is changing; for the first time in perhaps decades, we are in agreement at the core," said Francois Chereque, secretary general of the Confederation Francaise Democratique du Travail. "There is a strong unity among the unions."

     Labour unrest is on the rise in France, as seen with demonstrations, general strikes, and "bossnappings," where workers hold company executives hostage to force negotiations on job cuts and plant closings. The Confederation Generale du Travail (CGT) estimated 1.2 million people marched in 283 demonstrations on May 1, five times as many as in 2008.

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12) SWINE FLU CRISIS LAYS BARE MEAT INDUSTRY POWER

(The following article is from the May 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 Mike Davis, The Guardian (UK)

The Spring Break hordes returned from Cancun this year with an invisible but sinister souvenir.

     The Mexican swine flu, a genetic chimera probably conceived in the fecal mire of an industrial pigsty, suddenly threatens to give the whole world a fever. Initial outbreaks across North America reveal an infection rate already traveling at higher velocity than the last official pandemic strain, the 1968 Hong Kong flu.

     Stealing the limelight from our officially appointed assassin - the otherwise vigorously mutating H5N1, known as bird flu - this porcine virus is a threat of unknown magnitude. Certainly, it seems far less lethal than SARS in 2003, but as an influenza, it may be more durable than SARS and less inclined to return to its secret cave.

     Given that domesticated seasonal Type-A influenzas kill as many 1 million people each year, even a modest increment of virulence, especially if coupled with high incidence, could produce carnage equivalent to a major war.

     Meanwhile, one of its first victims has been the consoling faith, long preached in the pews of the World Health Organization (WHO), that pandemics can be contained by the rapid responses of medical bureaucracies, independent of the quality of local public health.

     Since the initial H5N1 deaths in Hong Kong in 1997, the WHO, with the support of most national health services, has promoted a strategy focused on the identification and isolation of a pandemic strain within its local radius of outbreak, followed by a thorough dousing of the population with anti-viral drugs and (if available) a vaccine.

     An army of skeptics has rightly contested this viral counter-insurgency approach, pointing out that microbes can now fly around the world (quite literally in the case of avian flu) faster than the WHO or local officials can react to the original outbreak. They also pointed to the primitive, often nonexistent surveillance of the interface between human and animal diseases.

     But the mythology of bold, preemptive (and cheap) intervention against avian flu has been invaluable to the cause of rich countries, like the U.S. and Britain, which prefer to invest in their own biological Maginot Lines, rather than dramatically increase aid to epidemic frontlines overseas - as well as to Big Pharma, which has battled Third World demands for the generic, public manufacture of critical antivirals like Roche's Tamiflu.

     The swine flu, in any case, may prove that the WHO/Centers for Disease Control (CDC) version of pandemic preparedness - without massive new investment in surveillance, scientific and regulatory infrastructure, basic public health and global access to lifeline drugs - belongs to the same class of Ponzified risk management as AIG derivatives and Madoff securities.

     It isn't so much that the pandemic warning system has failed as it simply doesn't exist, even in North America and the EU.

     Perhaps it is not surprising that Mexico lacks both capacity and political will to monitor livestock diseases and their public health impacts, but the situation is hardly better north of the border, where surveillance is a failed patchwork of state jurisdictions, and corporate livestock producers treat health regulations with the same contempt with which they deal with workers and animals.

     Similarly, a decade of urgent warnings by scientists in the field has failed to ensure the transfer of sophisticated viral assay technology to the countries in the direct path of likely pandemics. Mexico has world-famous disease experts, but it had to send swabs to a laboratory in Winnipeg (which has less than 3 percent of the population of Mexico City) in order to identify the strain's genome. Almost a week was lost as a consequence.

     But no one was less alert than the legendary disease controllers in Atlanta. According to the Washington Post, the CDC did not learn about the outbreak until six days after the Mexican government had begun to impose emergency measures. Indeed, the Post reported, "U.S. public health officials are still largely in the dark about what's happening in Mexico two weeks after the outbreak was recognized."

     There should be no excuses. This is not a "black swan" flapping its wings. Indeed, the central paradox of this swine flu panic is that while totally unexpected, it was accurately predicted.

     Six years ago, Science dedicated a major story (reported by the admirable Bernice Wuethrich) to evidence that "after years of stability, the North American swine flu virus has jumped onto an evolutionary fast track."

     Since its identification at the beginning of the Depression, H1N1 swine flu had only drifted slightly from its original genome. Then, in 1998, all hell broke loose.

     A highly pathogenic strain began to decimate sows on a factory hog farm in North Carolina, and new, more virulent versions began to appear almost yearly, including a weird variant of H1N1 that contained the internal genes of H3N2 (the other type-A flu circulating among humans).

     Researchers whom Wuethrich interviewed worried that one of these hybrids might become a human flu (both the 1957 and 1968 pandemics are believed to have originated from the mixing of bird and human viruses inside pigs), and urged the creation of an official surveillance system for swine flu. That admonition, of course, went unheeded in a Washington prepared to throw away billions on bioterrorism fantasies while neglecting obvious dangers.

     But what caused this acceleration of swine flu evolution? Probably the same thing that has favoured the reproduction of avian flu.

     Virologists have long believed that the intensive agricultural system of southern China - an immensely productive ecology of rice, fish, pigs, and domestic and wild birds - is the principal engine of influenza mutation: both seasonal "drift" and episodic genomic "shift." (More rarely, there may occur a direct leap from birds to pigs and/or humans, as with H5N1 in 1997.)

     But the corporate industrialization of livestock production has broken China's natural monopoly on influenza evolution. As many writers have pointed out, animal husbandry in recent decades has been transformed into something that more closely resembles the petrochemical industry than the happy family farm depicted in schoolbooks.

     In 1965, for instance, there were 53 million American hogs on more than 1 million farms; today, 65 million hogs are concentrated in 65,000 facilities, with half of the hogs kept in giant facilities with 5,000 animals or more.

     This has been a transition, in essence, from old-fashioned pig pens to vast excremental hells, unprecedented in nature, containing tens, even hundreds of thousands of animals with weakened immune systems, suffocating in heat and manure, while exchanging pathogens at blinding velocity with their fellow inmates and pathetic progenies.

     Anyone who has ever driven through Tar Heel, N.C., or Milford, Utah - where Smithfield Foods subsidiaries each annually produce more than 1 million pigs as well as hundreds of lagoons full of toxic shit - will intuitively understand how profoundly agribusiness has meddled with the laws of nature.

     Last year, a distinguished commission convened by the Pew Research Center issued a landmark report on "industrial farm animal production" underscoring the acute danger that "the continual cycling of viruses...in large herds or flocks [will] increase opportunities for the generation of novel virus through mutation or recombinant events that could result in more efficient human-to-human transmission."

     The commission also warned that promiscuous antibiotic use in hog factories (a cheaper alternative to sewer systems or humane environments) was causing the rise of resistant Staph infections, while sewage spills were producing nightmare E. coli outbreaks and Pfisteria blooms (the doomsday protozoan that has killed more than one billion fish in the Carolina estuaries and sickened dozens of fishermen).

     Any amelioration of this new pathogen ecology, however, would have to confront the monstrous power exercised by livestock conglomerates such as Smithfield Foods (pork and beef) and Tyson (chickens). The Pew commissioners, chaired by former Kansas Gov. John Carlin, reported systemic obstruction of their investigation by corporations, including blatant threats to withhold funding from cooperative researchers.

     Moreover, this is a highly globalized industry, with equivalent international political clout. Just as Bangkok-based chicken giant Charoen Pokphand was able to suppress investigations into its role in the spread of bird flu throughout Southeast Asia, so it is likely that the forensic epidemiology of the swine flu outbreak will pound its head against the corporate stone wall of the pork industry.

     This is not to say that a smoking gun will never be found: there is already gossip in the Mexican press about an influenza epicenter around a huge Smithfield subsidiary in the state of Veracruz.

     But what matters more (especially given the continued threat of H5N1) is the larger configuration: the WHO's failed pandemic strategy, the further decline of world public health, the stranglehold of Big Pharma over lifeline medicines, and the planetary catastrophe of industrialized and ecologically unhinged livestock production.

     (Davis is the author of City of Quartz, Planet of Slums, Monster at the Door and other books. He is professor of history at the University of California, Irvine. His latest books are Buda's Wagon, a Brief History of the Car Bomb, and a collection of essays, In Praise of Barbarians.)

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13) MILITARY HYPOCRISY IN EAST ASIA

(The following article is from the May 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, from South Korea

There has been a lot of "fallout" from North Korea's satellite launch early in April, namely another round of condemnation towards the country. Of course, North Korea's enemies could not care less if it was a satellite or a missile, nor that the U.S. intelligence chief said it was most likely a satellite. Even Russia, which is far from being a socialist ally of North Korea, was content with the official statement from Pyongyang that a space vehicle was being launched.

     However, South Korea's media went on and on about the UN Security Council's prohibition of North Korean missile development and testing. Of course, South Korea, Japan, and the US are not held to the same standards. This hypocrisy is blatant when reading the news here. One editorial condemning the pending launch also claimed that North Korea's low quality technology would prevent a successful test. The following day, a new editorial read: "N. Korea Winning the Missile Race". So one day, North Korea's missiles are junk, and the next South Korea is falling behind? That is quite a disconnect.

     South Korea strives to present itself as the paragon of peace and justice in the region, so it's a little odd that a South Korean newspaper would come right out and say that there is indeed a "missile race", or that South Korea is doing something militarily to challenge North Korea. Even the large-scale war games involving the South Korean military and US forces are referred to as "training exercises", not as invasion practice. The editorial complained that the South's missiles cannot even reach North Korea's north, where the long-range missiles are launched from.

     But does South Korea even need such strike capability? Their annual military budget amounts to almost $30 billion, plus they are supported by Japan and especially by the US.

     That military power is all focused on a country that spends about $5 billion on defense and has no real allies to rely on. Most of the North's equipment is old, and it has limited resources to develop new equipment. One may justly ask, who is threatening whom?

     Then there is the matter of Japan and its relations with the two Koreas. Korea was brutally occupied and colonized by Japan for decades, from 1911 until 1945. By the 1930s Korean culture and language had been made illegal. There were many other abuses, including the notorious use of Korean women as sex slaves for the Japanese military. No self-respecting Korean would think highly of Japanese interference in their country, then or now. In North Korea, the post-war leadership was made up of people who had fought the Japanese in guerrilla warfare throughout the 1930s. They were also communists, so the country they founded was based on strong anti-imperialist principles. Those who had worked with the Japanese were expunged.

     Matters were quite different in the South. Whereas the Soviet administration of post-war North Korea worked to integrate locally established "people's governments" into the framework of an upcoming North Korean state, such organizations in South Korea were crushed. Instead of relying on local populist leaders, the US administration basically imported Americanized Koreans like Syngman Rhee. The developing South Korean state was to be based on principles of anti-communism. South Korean and U.S. leaders employed former Japanese collaborators in the government and military, causing enormous resentment among the people.

     The most poignant example can be seen in the Jeju Uprising of 1948-1953. Jeju is Korea's largest island, located just off its south coast. On April 3, 1948, a demonstration was held there commemorating the anti-Japanese struggle. Police fired shots into the crowd, and in retaliation the citizens attacked about a dozen police stations, as well as polling stations for the upcoming elections. Over one hundred people and police officers were killed. The Rhee government dispatched over 3,000 soldiers and an anti-communist paramilitary youth organization to Jeju, that harassed women and stole land. The island was soon in outright rebellion, forming a ragtag militia which by October of 1948 was flying North Korean flags. Most of the fighting was over by the following spring, but not the misery. When war began with North Korea in 1950, thousands of supposed leftists were "preemptively apprehended" and sent to Jeju, where many were shot by firing squads. The exact number of people massacred in the Jeju Uprising is thought to be anywhere from 20,000 to 30,000, and about 70% of the villages were burned to the ground. Until the mid-1990s, to even mention the Jeju Uprising was a crime punishable by torture and prison.

     Apparently South Korea's government sees no problem with Japan's current military plans. Indeed, the newspapers seem to be encouraging close cooperation between the two countries with regards to North Korea in particular. In recent years, Japan has been trying to find ways to expand its military role in the world, including attempts to amend its constitution which bars its forces from deployment abroad.

     Not surprisingly, Japan likes to use North Korea as an excuse for expanding its military. A North Korean launch in 1998 prompted Japan to pursue a missile defense system, and the latest launch is leading to a massive increase in the military budget, which presently stands at almost $50 billion.

     In a twist of irony, Japan is planning to put up its own satellites. Unlike North Korea's simplistic broadcasting devices, these will be military-purpose satellites intended to detect missile launches. The plan is to launch thirty-four such devices over 2009-2013, each costing nearly $5 billion - almost as much money as North Korea spends on its entire military for a year. The $30 million that North Korea is estimated to have spent on its latest rocket is chump change. Japan is rapidly militarizing, and that should not be applauded by anyone, not least South Koreans who would do well to remember a little history and beware the dangers of imperialism.

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14) SACP WELCOMES ANC ELECTORAL VICTORY

(The following article is from the May 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.)

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) was the big winner in South Africa's April 22 general elections, receiving 65.9% of the 17.6 million votes cast, and 264 of the 400 National Assembly seats. The right-wing Democratic Alliance took 16.6% of the vote and 67 seats, and the pro-business Congress of the People, which broke from the ANC last year, won just 7.4% and 30 seats. Others represented in the new Parliament include the Inkatha Freedom Party (18 seats), the United Democratic Movement, Freedom Front Plus, and Independent Democrats (4 seats each). A range of smaller parties won a total of nine seats, including one for the Pan Africanist Congress.

     The ANC also won majorities in eight of South Africa's nine provincial elections, including KwaZulu-Natal, where the Inkatha Freedom Party saw vote fall to 22% compared to the ANC's 64%. The exception was the Western Cape, where the DA received 52% of the vote, followed by the ANC with 33% and Cope with 7%.

     According to the Independent Electoral Commission, 77.3% of South Africa's 23.18 million registered voters cast their ballots, one of the highest turnouts in the world.

     Commenting on the results, the South African Communist Party, a key ANC partner along with the Congress of South African Trade Unions, released the following statement:

     On 22 April, millions of our people came out in numbers to cast their votes in the fourth democratic elections of our country. The outcome reaffirmed the overwhelming confidence that our people have in the ANC.

     The ANC has amidst all manner of pessimisms, including sustained negative media publicity, emerged with a renewed mandate to work together with our people to transform the South African society for the better.

     Just as it happened in the run up to Polokwane and during the persecution of the ANC President, the media is licking its wounds with this resounding victory for the ANC. The DA's racist campaign was seen by our people for what it is and was rejected. The fugitives from the Polokwane democracy, the eternal opportunists calling themselves COPE, have faced their day. The people of South Africa have rejected the elitist campaign to demonise the ANC and its President.

     Our people have reaffirmed their trust and confidence in the ANC! Our people have heeded the call to defend the legacy of Chris Hani. Hani's legacy and indeed that of the many heroes, heroines and martyrs of our revolution remain an inspiration to the majority of our people who came out in their numbers yesterday and "Did it For Chris Hani!". This victory indeed is a great way to honour the sacrifice and commitment of our leaders like Oliver Tambo, Joe Slovo, Dora Tamaana, Ncumisa Kondlo and Esther Barsel.

     The SACP commits itself to deepening the political organisation of the working class to play its rightful place as the leading motive force to deepen and consolidate our democracy. In our election campaign, as communists we interacted with millions of our people who have raised with us genuine challenges and problems relating to service delivery. We do not have the luxury of time on our side, but to move with speed to attend to the water and roads problems in Itsoseng township in the North-West, the total absence of sanitation facilities in sections of Bethal in Mpumalanga, attending to the backlog of land and agrarian reform and the conditions of the farmworkers in South Africa's countryside, and many other challenges identified during this campaign.

     To do this, we ought to remain true to our commitment to working together! The SACP calls on our people not to demobilize but to utilize the momentum that has been generated by the elections campaign to form street committees to fight against crime and corruption, to form people's health committees to attend to the challenges of provision of quality health for all, establish local people's education committees to eradicate illiteracy and make education a societal issue, establish people's land committees to deal with the issue of land reform and attending to issues of food security in order to fight hunger and establish public transport committees for safe, accessible and reliable provision of public transport services.

     We need to continue with the momentum to deepen community participation in various platforms set for them to influence decisions of government especially at a local level. This victory should be a declaration that nothing should be done to communities without their participation!

     The working class and the poor have scored a major victory today and should benefit immensely from their effort. When we started the second decade of our democracy we declared that the first decade indeed benefited capital more and that the second decade of freedom should be a decade of the workers and the poor. Half way that journey, we are at a pole position to accelerate our efforts to make this, the second decade of our democracy the decade of the workers and the poor.

     The SACP congratulates the ANC and the rest of the Mass Democratic Movement on this resounding victory. We wish Cde. Jacob Zuma and his leadership collective all the best in the next administration and guarantee them of our support.

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15) CHALLENGES AT THE POLLS - AND AFTER

(The following article is from the May 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 Fightback column, by Johan Boyden

It's a tale of two elections. Nova Scotians are beginning the brisk walk to the polls. On the other side of the country, BCers have just cast their ballots for a new government.

     What's at stake here for young workers and students?

     The new context is the economic tsunami. The economic crisis is connecting young people's struggles, sharpening awareness of a common threat, while not hitting everyone the same way.

     On the east coast, the crisis comes after the collapse of fisheries and a mass exodus of workers to western Canada. Nova Scotia's unemployment is third highest in the country, second only to PEI and Newfoundland. For many young workers, prospects of even raising a family in their home province are bleak.

     In BC, corporate purses have swollen with the Olympics construction boom. It is a false economy. No matter how much relief this has granted (temporarily) to some young workers, the cost of living is extortionate and minimum wage is the same or lower as the Maritimes. And there are countless untold personal work-place disaster stories.

     Take the young man I met yesterday. He works in the technology sector. A few months ago his employer's doors were locked. Everyone was fired, but the company is still trading on the stock exchange.  On the street we would call this criminal. On the other side of the gilded doors at the top of the elevator, the suits call it "venture capital." The company's entire goal was to capture investment, not sales.

     Consciously or not, young voters are grappling with these challenges when they decide to hit the polls - or stay home. Vancouver youth can name more Canucks players than politicians, but that isn't the main point. From conversations I've had during the BC election, there is a polarization. If it were up to most young people, Campbell's Liberals would be out of the playoffs. It would be bizarre to ignore that sentiment.

     I suspect similar winds are blowing across Nova Scotia. In both these elections the main danger is from political parties which express the interests of the ruling class. Electorally, the only force that might block them is the NDP - which has so compromised itself that, despite all rhetoric, it is difficult to even call them a party of the left.

     This is an inadequate configuration for the militant kinetics of people's politics needed to advance a pro-people agenda with the teeth to confront big business. For that we need something new, building from the existing struggles in the streets, and reaching towards a broad powerful people's coalition with labour at the core, with an electoral "reflection."

     From Nova Scotia to British Columbia, that process will be a complex fight, building unity through struggle. This is already true of the young worker's demands for a higher minimum wage, or the student's struggle for accessible education.

     In Nova Scotia (with the highest tuition in Canada) only the Conservatives have so far released a specific election platform on student issues. They dangerously call for tax credits to support students.

     In BC, the Canadian Federation of Students has condemned the Liberals. Since taking office in 2001, tuition fees have skyrocketed from $2,500 to over $5,000. BC ranks dead last in the provision of non-repayable student financial aid. Per-student funding in BC is now 14% below 2001 levels.

     In this context, the BC CFS sensibly stated that the NDP's tuition freeze proposal "does not go nearly far enough." Just look to Manitoba. Students are mobilizing en masse to block significant tuition hikes; even when an NDP government campaigns on a tuition freeze, it does not necessarily deliver.

     The many honest NDPers and sympathizers in the youth movement, aspiring to a socialist vision, will have to decide: continue playing by the rules their party sets with its claim of a monopoly of the left, or unite with other progressive forces, including labour, the women's movement, Aboriginal peoples, Communists, and progressive Greens, including in the electoral arena.

     As a Young Communist League member, I speak as an unabashed red and a supporter of the Communist Party. But whatever your affiliation, we as youth and students can never surrender our independent banners and "contract-out" all our political work to one political party.

     However we read the political topography after these elections, that's our challenge.

     (Boyden is the General Secretary of the Young Communist League of Canada.)

 

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(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)












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.


The Economic Crisis, public forum with Communist Party of Canada leader Miguel Figueroa - Thursday, May 21, 7:30 pm, Greek Hall, 290 Danforth Ave. (between Chester and Broadview subways). Call 416-469-2446 for info.

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(The following article is from the May 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

    

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•  a 12-month complimentary PV sub (keep it or give it to a friend);

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•  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.

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