FIGUEROA LOOKS BEHIND
TURMOIL IN PARLIAMENT
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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
interview with Miguel Figueroa, leader of the Communist Party of Canada
People's Voice: The federal scene
has
been quite tumultuous in recent months. How do you read the
manoeuvrings of the Harper government and the opposition parties?
Miguel Figueroa: It is no surprise
that many Canadians find the bobbing and weaving on Parliament Hill
more than a bit bewildering. Fundamentally, the volatility is being
driven by the desperate attempts of the federal Conservatives to create
the necessary conditions to win a clear majority in the next election,
whenever it comes. The problem they face is that the majority of the
peoples of Canada continue to oppose the main policy lines of their
right-wing agenda. The latest polls show that the Tories are still far
short of the 40% or so to gain their coveted majority. Therefore, they
have been forced to bide their time, introducing as many populist
measures as possible even in a minority situation.
PV: Such as we witnessed in the
recent budget?
MF: Yes, of course. On the surface,
it was hardly the fiscally conservative budget one would normally
expect from these neo-Cons -- some short-term relief for the struggling
auto industry; some token funding for rapid transit, seniors,
post-secondary students, and Aboriginal peoples, etc.
It was a skilfully crafted but
deceitful budget. First, because the allocations don't come remotely
close to what is objectively needed to preserve jobs in the critical
manufacturing sector, to reverse the degradation of the environment, or
to defend (much less improve) vital social programs such as healthcare,
education or childcare. This is inexcusable and irresponsible,
especially as the U.S. economic recession begins to impact on the
employment and real income of working people in this country,
particularly the most under-paid and vulnerable. And second, because
the budget transfers even more wealth - in the form of tax cuts,
credits and the new tax-free savings account program - to big business
and the wealthy. This allows finance capital, in the first place, the
banks and resource-based monopolies, to continue to amass obscene
levels of profit at the expense of the working class and of our
environment.
PV: The Liberals under
Stéphane Dion
had an opportunity to block the budget but instead decided to give it
their grudging support.
MF: They blinked at a crucial
moment
when they could have defeated the Tories and precipitated an election
which might have driven Harper and his wrecking crew from office. The
pundits in the mainstream corporate press have explained this retreat
in narrow electoral terms, on the basis that the Liberals were
unprepared to go to the polls, and that "election-weary" Canadians
would punish them for bringing down the government, and so on.
But there is much more at work
here. The Liberal Party establishment and its coterie of backroom
advisors understand full well that "Bay Street" considers the Tories as
their preferred political tool at the moment. Any move to jeopardize
Conservative control in Ottawa would be harshly judged by those
dominant sections of the ruling class, the class which after all drives
the political course of the Liberals as well as the Tories. This is the
principal reason why the response of Dion and his caucus has been so
tepid and uncertain on critical issues like tax policy, social
programs, the war in Afghanistan, among others. Naturally they pursue
their partisan interests as a political party, but at the end of the
day, they are not prepared to offend their masters in the dominant
circles of capital.
PV: This presumably applies to the
negotiated deal between Harper and Dion over extending the Afghan
mission to 2011 as well?
MF: Without doubt, the Liberals'
retreat on Afghanistan is shameful and indefensible. But we need to
bear the following in mind. As on other vital questions, the inner
circle of the Liberal Party is deeply divided, with people like Bob
Rae, Michael Ignatieff and John Manley among the most ardent boosters
of this illegal and immoral imperialist war and occupation.
Nor should we forget that Harper
and the Tories - together with General Hillier and the
military-industrial complex in Canada and the U.S. - are the main
political force driving this militarist course. What we have said
previously continues to apply: the Harper Tories represent the most
aggressive pro-war interests in Canada, and constitute the greatest
danger to peace, Canadian sovereignty and independence, democratic
rights, and the social and economic rights and interests of working
people. So while we are sharply critical of the Liberal retreats, we
should never lose sight of the fact that the Conservative Party is the
main enemy of the working class.
Finally, we should recall the
opportunist decision of Jack Layton and the federal NDP last April,
when they decided to vote with the Tories to defeat a Liberal motion
which would have set a February 2009 final date for the withdrawal of
Canadian combat forces from Afghanistan. This untied the Liberals from
that firm commitment and set the stage for the current retreat.
PV: The Tories remain quite
vulnerable however because of various scandals in their ranks...
MF: For sure. A number of scandals
and missteps, like the Karlheinz Schreiber affair and the sacking of
Linda Keen, head of the Nuclear Safety Commission, among others have
helped to expose the autocratic and vindictive character of Harper and
the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). But the Chuck Cadman affair will
likely prove to be the most serious of all, not only because it
involves a criminal act of bribery which implicates PM Harper, but
because it reveals the depths to which this gang is willing to go to
gain and hold onto power. Canadians have every right to be furious
about these revelations, and to demand a full and independent
investigation into this crime, and Harper's resignation. If this
incredible story had surfaced in the middle of a spring election
campaign, the Tories would most certainly have been swept from power.
PV: What then are the prospects for
defeating the Harper Tories?
MF: Ever since the election of the
Harper minority in January 2006, we have cautioned against passivity,
or the pinning of hopes on the opposition parties in Parliament to
bring about their defeat. The experience of the last two months
confirms that it is precisely the extra-parliamentary forces - the
labour movement, together with Aboriginal peoples, women, youth, and
other people's movements - which will be the decisive factor in driving
the Tories from office. But to achieve that goal will require building
the unity and mobilization of these broad social forces and the
millions of Canadians they represent.
The organized trade union
movement has a determining role to play in this respect, arising from
its size, its resources, and most of all because of the central place
of labour in the very process of production in society. The upcoming
Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress in May will need to confront
this challenge. Militant and progressive trade unionists need to
intensify efforts to ensure that the CLC shed its lethargy and
undertake the kind of fighting plan of action the times call for. For
our part, the CPC and its members will do everything possible to
encourage and help build that fightback.
CALGARY
ANTI-RACISTS CHALLENGE NEO-NAZI THREATS
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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
An upsurge in neo-nazi
activity in Alberta is meeting increased resistance from community
groups. On March 21, members of the fascist Aryan Guard are organizing
a white supremacist "Pride" march from Millennium Park to Calgary City
Hall, but members of Anti-Racist Action and community groups are
mobilizing to challenge this provocation, set on the International Day
for the Elimination of Racism.
This development comes after a
frightening escalation of neo-nazi threats: two attempted Molotov
cocktail firebombings of Calgary homes on the evening of February 12.
The second attack targeted the
home of anti-racism activists Bonnie Collins and Jason Devine and their
children. That firebomb burned a fence and patio furniture, but luckily
there were no injuries in either case.
Collins and Devine are also
well-known in the labour movement, and Bonnie was the Communist
Party-Alberta candidate in Calgary East for the March 3 provincial
election; Jason has run in federal elections for the Communist Party.
Bonnie Collins told the media
that her work in standing up to local white supremacists was behind the
attack. "They're getting stronger, they're showing their flags," she
told the Calgary Sun, promising to help build the rally against the
March 21 fascist provocation.
Speaking to People's Voice,
Jason Devine talked about the increase in far right activity. A
previous attempt to build the neo-nazi movement in Alberta sputtered
out a few years ago, he says, when the so-called "Western Canada For
Us" was exposed by Anti-Racist Action and other groups. One leader of
that white supremacist formation was fired from his job and later
convicted for hate crimes.
The latest neo-nazi group to
emerge is the Aryan Guard, which Devine says was initiated by five or
six people who moved to Calgary after meeting vocal opposition from
anti-racists in Toronto. This core group has linked up with some young
people around the punk scene in Calgary, and with older Albertans long
involved in the white nationalist movement.
Devine estimates that the Aryan
Guard has about 40 members paying dues of $10 a month, and says that
the group has been visible through postering hate material as well as a
website. Then last fall, wearing ski masks and acting in a provocative
manner, the group organized a protest at City Hall against allowing
veiled Muslim women the right to vote. Anti-racist activists succeeded
in chasing them away, but the incident showed a disturbing rise in
hate-mongering. Following that event, Collins and Devine began
receiving frequent phone call threats at home.
Most neo-nazi groups eventually
split, says Devine, often over leadership differences: "only one person
can be the Fuhrer," as he notes. But so far, the Aryan Guard has
remained united.
Devine says that the violent
neo-nazi nature of the Aryan Guard is perfectly apparent from its
website. The group should be considered armed and dangerous, he points
out, since the site shows them with bats, axes and shotguns, and even
celebrating Hitler's birthday with a cake.
Yet even in the wake of the
threats and firebombings, no charges have been laid against anyone,
either for promoting hatred or for criminal acts. One Aryan Guard
leader went so far as to state that "it's a shame they had kids in the
house, but I wouldn't cry if a couple of commies burned." But the
police seem unwilling to do anything, says Devine, preferring to ignore
the attacks as a "left vs. right" dispute.
This police inaction is part of
a historic pattern. Over the past several decades, Communists in Canada
have been the target of a wide range of attacks from far-right forces,
but charges have never been laid. The list of incidents ranges from a
1970s firebomb at the home of Communist leader Liz Rowley, to the arson
attack which burned down the Party's headquarters on Cecil Street in
Toronto (the building was under reconstruction at the time), and the
1996 death threat at the Party's Vancouver office. In the latter case,
a detailed letter promising to kill anyone entering the building was
dropped through the mail slot on Hitler's birthday - April 20 - along
with a symbolic twenty rifle bullets. The police response was limited
to telling the Party to close its offices.
Following the Feb. 12
firebombing, the Central Executive Committee of the CPC issued a letter
expressing "full solidarity with the Devine/Collins family and with our
comrades in Club Red in Calgary in the face of this violent assault.
Such crude acts of intimidation will not silence our comrades in their
important work to combat racism, fascism and imperialist war, to defend
democratic rights and social justice, and to advance the struggle for
socialism."
The Communist Party is demanding
a full and complete investigation into this incident, and that the
perpetrators of the crime be brought to justice.
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"TAXI DRIVERS WILL WIN OUR
RIGHTS"
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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
interview with Canada Taxi Drivers Association's President, Jamshid
Bagherzadeh.
People's Voice: The just
released findings of the study on the conditions of the taxi drivers in
Toronto paints a grim picture of working people making far less than
minimum wage even while working long hours. Can you tell us a bit of
the background of this report?
Jamshid Bagherzadeh: The history of
the Toronto taxi industry has never been the focus of an serious study.
Of course, there were a few surveys done last in the twenty years to
legitimize the city's attempts to "reform" the industry due to the
drivers frustration and struggle. The last two surveys and studies had
brought about the 1998 Ambassador program. This actually further
divided the drivers as it created a two-tier car plate system and
over-flooded the market. Internationally, standards talk about an
average of 1800 people to one cab. Currently in Toronto, the ratio is
at 500 to one.
There are many serious issues
facing Toronto taxi drivers. We have long been subject to racial
profiling by the police and the law enforcement agencies. Random checks
and multiple ticketing for no reason have always been major concerns.
Excessive ticketing may cause drivers to be taken to the Licensing
Tribunal and have their licences suspended.
Currently drivers work long
hours, making wages way below the minimum standard. Because they are
conveniently labelled as "self employed entrepreneurs," they are exempt
from provincial labour standards, which cover health and safety,
holiday pay, minimum wage, etc.
Last year we sent a delegation
to New York to attend a conference organized by the New York Taxi
Drivers Alliance. We became founding members of the International Taxi
Workers Alliance (ITWA) which has now 31 member organizations around
the world. We immediately started networking with other cities and
exchanging information and local expertise.
A study done by the Los Angeles
Taxi Worker alliance caught our attention. We put a call out in Toronto
to some progressive organizations to help us with a similar study. We
got a great response from three academics at Ryerson and University of
Toronto Osgoode Law School. Aparna Sundar, Sara Abraham and Dale
Whitmore are the principal authors of this report. We helped arrange
for interviews with our members, and we are absolutely thrilled at
their work.
The final report was officially
released on February 13 at City Hall in presence of the media and some
councillors. The response from the media, the public and our members
was overwhelmingly positive.
PV: What are the recommendations
from the report?
JB: Form a drivers' association,
recognized by the City, to represent driver interests and to collect
information and statistics about work conditions.
-
Require brokerages and plate owners to negotiate collectively with
drivers over lease, shift, and brokerage fees.
-
Move existing lease and shift
drivers to owner-operator and/or employee status without further
increasing the total number of taxi plates in Toronto.
-
Conduct a city-sponsored survey, with recommendations, on policing
practises in relation to the taxi industry.
-
Create a taxi worker benefits fund out of revenue earned from fees and
penalties paid by drivers.
-
Study the use of protective shields.
- Resolve the issue of the double standard in airport exemption under a
principle of fairness.
On the last note, let me explain
with two specific examples. The limousine drivers are by law allowed to
pick up passengers from the airport, but the police chose to turn a
blind eye when they picked up passengers from the city to the airport
[which is not allowed]. On the other hand, our drivers are subject to
harassment by the police and the port authority if we take passengers
from the airport on our way back. The law should be for all, but the
police prefer to impose it only on the taxi drivers.
Another example of unfairness of
the system (of which there are many) is when during the major blackout
in North America, the taxi industry lost a lot of income. The city of
Toronto compensated the big taxi companies while totally ignoring the
taxi drivers. This is totally unjust.
PV: How did the city react to the
findings of this report?
JB: (Councillor) Howard Moscoe,
head
of the Licensing & Standard Act Committee, was present at the
release of the report. He said that he agreed with the findings that
taxi drivers are making below the minimum wage and has invited the
authors of the Taxi Report for a private meeting on March 19.
The next challenge is to bring
the taxi drivers up to Ontario Labour Code standards, so that we are
entitled to the basic benefits and retirement fund. We are willing to
work with the City on these issues, but if there are delaying tactics
or unnecessary obstacles, our next stop will be with the Ministry of
Labour, Human Rights Commission and Employment & Immigration Canada
PV: Do you have any last comments?
JB: The system that governs the
City
of Toronto is focusing on petty issues like providing two dollars for
the shift drivers and three dollars for the leasees. The City can deny
all the findings of this report, but the important thing is whether or
not they recognize the taxi drivers association, or whether the taxi
drivers are entitled to benefits. We keep on hearing mutterings from
City officials that our demands are far-fetched. The truth of the
matter is that the taxi drivers association is the main driving force
that struggles for fairness and basic rights for our members. Just
think: after working 20, 30 or 40 years, what do we have for our work
for the city? No health benefits, no pension fund, no social or
economic safety net that would provide for us. That will not be so. We
will fight and win our rights, rain or shine!
PV: Well, we wish you a good
fight, unity amongst your membership and the victory will be yours!
JB: Thank you for the opportunity
to express our voice through your paper.
LABOUR AND PEOPLE'S
MOVEMENTS SLAM TORY BUDGET
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in
Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per
year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to:
People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502,
Hamilton,
ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau
The budget presented in late
February by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty was adopted just days later,
after a minimal debate in the House of Commons. Stephane Dion's
Liberals, who could have brought down the Tory minority government,
sent just a handful of MPs to vote against the budget. At a moment when
public support for the Tories remains mired in the low 30s, a federal
election on the budget or the Afghanistan war could have become a
campaign to drive out the far-right Harper government; instead, the
Tories have gained several more months to push their unpopular big
business agenda.
The Flaherty budget received a
lukewarm response from the corporate media, perhaps reflecting the
desire of the Canadian ruling class for even bigger tax breaks and
giveaways. But the same media ignored the widespread outrage expressed
by the four-million strong labour movement, the major Aboriginal
organizations, environmental groups, and other popular sectors.
The Canadian Labour Congress had
called for the budget to focus on the manufacturing and forestry job
crisis, and to narrow the gap between the corporate elite and working
families. The Congress called for "new manufacturing investment by
supporting sector development strategies in key industries like auto
and forestry" as well as "highly targeted measures to boost real
investment, not more reckless, costly, across-the-board corporate tax
cuts which mainly benefit the booming energy sector and the banks."
The CLC had also argued for
major new spending on basic municipal infrastructure, public transit,
and energy conservation and renewable energy, to meet environmental
challenges while building new industries and creating new jobs.
Instead, the budget featured Tax
Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) "a new tax exempt savings vehicle" which
will eventually remove a high proportion of investment income from
income tax, costing billions in lost revenues while doing little to
help working families. The Budget cut existing programs, and failed to
invest in new job-creation plans.
Most of the 2007-08 federal
surplus of ($10.3 billion out of $13 billion) went to pay down debt,
allocating just $2.7 billion to new spending and tax measures. As Tory
tax cuts take full effect, the surplus will fall to just over $2
billion in 2008-09, and just over $1 billion in 2009-10.
Looking at the TFSA plan, the
CLC notes that high income earners will be able to save $5,000 per year
and to reinvest the resulting income, giving the wealthy yet another
substantial tax benefit. The official estimate is that TFSAs will cost
federal revenues of $3 billion annually in twenty years.
While the gas tax transfer to
municipalities worth almost $2 billion per year was made permanent,
this falls far short of the $6 billion per year called for by cities.
Similarly, the $500 million to support public transit projects in
Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal is peanuts compared to the urgent
transit needs faced by major cities.
On another controversial issue,
the government is moving to separate the Employment Insurance Fund from
the Public Accounts starting in 2009. Any future surpluses will be held
and invested to meet EI program costs by a new crown corporation, the
Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board. However, the new Fund will
start with a mere $2 billion reserve, not the $57 billion surplus in
the existing EI Fund. There is no assurance that the government will
support the new Fund during a serious and prolonged
recession. The
2007 budget had allocated $98 million (over 2 years) to speed up entry
of temporary migrant workers. This policy aims to please corporations
pushing for maximum "labour flexibility" and to undermine the labour
movement. Budget 2008 allocates another $22 million over the next two
years for the "just-in-time" immigration system, the Temporary Foreign
Worker Program. As the CLC points out, "once again, no resources are
allocated to monitoring the compliance of employers in the TFWP", and
the budget "makes no reference to resolving the backlog of over 200,000
applications for permanent residency under the family re-unification
and `Humanitarian and Compassionate' categories of the immigration
system."
Assembly of First Nations
National Chief Phil Fontaine called the federal budget "a bitter
disappointment for First Nations and a missed opportunity for all
Canadians. It is disheartening that this government sets out reducing
the cost of a toaster by a couple cents as a national objective, but
not helping First Nations children finish high school or grow up in
safe homes."
The budget contained very little
in the way of new initiatives for First Nations and relied on
re-announcements and the re--profiling of existing resources, says the
AFN.
"The Conservative government has
repeatedly let down First Nations since they took office," Fontaine
said. "They promised to `put wheels' on the Kelowna Accord. That was
three budgets ago and First Nations are still waiting." He noted a 2007
study by the Canadian Centre for the Study of Living Standards which
found that if investments were made to bring First Nations education
levels up to those of the rest of the population, an additional $71.1
billion would be added to the economy. But under the current system,
First Nations students receive on average $2,000 less than students in
mainstream schools.
"They do not feel any
responsibility to address the third world poverty conditions that exist
within this country," said Fontaine. "It is inconceivable that the
government could have found new ways to spend over a hundred billion
dollars since coming to office, and that none of that would lead
towards a real, comprehensive plan to move First Nations from poverty
to prosperity."
The AFN is planning for a second
National Day of Action, which Fontaine said will be "a day of
solidarity with Canadians, and a day of protest against this
government."
The budget let down Aboriginal
women, according to Beverley Jacobs, the President of the Native
Women's Association of Canada (NWAC), which represents thirteen member
groups.
Jacobs said the budget "included
a few investments for First Nations peoples in Canada, including
improved child and family services on reserve, as well as increased
health and education outcomes. Further, the announcements to improve
access to safe drinking water for First Nations were welcomed; however,
there are over 600 First Nations communities in Canada and the amount
of the investments are no where near what is needed."
"This budget is a far cry from
what is needed," said Jacobs. "What is the point of improving standards
for drinking water on reserve, when there is a housing crisis with no
access to water? When this government chose not to honour the Kelowna
Accord, it promised an alternative plan for Aboriginal peoples. This
budget delivers small investments, but we are still awaiting a
ground-breaking strategy to finally pull the most marginalized segment
of the Canadian population out of its current mire and onto a path
towards prosperity."
The federal budget failed to include real measures to protect the
environment, said the David Suzuki Foundation.
"The federal government has
repeatedly stated that climate change must be addressed and has
consistently refused to do anything meaningful about it," said Dale
Marshall, a policy analyst with the Foundation. "Canada is falling
further and further behind other countries that are taking action on
climate change. Not only is Canada out of synch with the rest of the
world, it's being upstaged by its own provinces that are showing
leadership and taking action on climate change."
FARMERS WIN LEGAL
BATTLE OVER WHEAT BOARD
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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.)
A
potentially crucial legal victory
has been won in the struggle to save the Canadian Wheat Board. On Feb.
26, the federal government's attempt to remove the CWB's single-desk
authority over barley sales was rejected by the Federal Court of
Appeal, setting the stage for further debate in Parliament.
The ruling upheld last summer's
decision by Federal Court Justice Dolores Hansen, who quashed a cabinet
order which would have taken away the CWB's single desk marketing of
barley.
At the time, National Farmers
Union President Stuart Wells said Hansen's ruling "holds the government
to account for that collusion and re-asserts the rule of law and
democracy." He emphasized that by acting through regulatory change,
rather than amendments to the CWB Act, the government was being
unlawful, undemocratic, and unsustainable. At the legal hearing in
Calgary, Wells noted, the government revealed that it had done no
analysis of the legal or economic consequences of its Order-in-Council.
Responding to the latest ruling,
Kyle Korneychuk, an elected CWB director from Saskatchewan, said "I
think it's a victory for farmers, but more so, it's an establishment of
democratic principles. It's not a dictatorship. We're going to have a
vote."
To make the change, the minority
Conservative government must now pass legislation in Parliament, where
the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois all remain opposed.
Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz
has pledged to introduce legislation to change the CWB's mandate. While
the Tories argue the change would give farmers "freedom of choice,"
Wheat Board supporters say the single-desk system ensures grain
producers get fair prices instead of competing against each other for
sales.
In December 2006, the Harper
government fired former CWB president and CEO Adrian Measner for his
public defence of the Board's traditional role. CWB vice-president
Deanna Allen was recently fired by Greg Arason, who was appointed by
the Tory government to replace Measner.
UNITE AGAINST HARPER'S WAR
AGENDA!
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 by the
Central Executive Committee CPC for the March 15 day of peace actions
The
anti-war protests on the
March 15 day of peace action speak for Canada's peace majority. The
protests are in solidarity with the world's peace majority, and with
the majority of U.S. people now engaged in a historic struggle to block
the Bush war machine.
The U.S.-led
imperialist
occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq are a crossroad for humanity. They
are a pivotal world issue. Ending these horrible wars will renew the
prospects to resolve global warming, hunger and poverty.
Bush (and Stephen Harper)
represent the other road: permanent war and occupation in Iraq,
Afghanistan and Iran, torture, renditions, restrictions on civil
liberties, spying, racist fear-mongering, weapons in space, and more
imposed hardships to pay for higher military spending.
A historic task confronts
Canadians who want realistic solutions to the deepening economic and
environmental catastrophe: to block the Harper Tories' drive to war and
reaction. We must strengthen the unity of the anti-war movement and
prepare an action campaign that continues until Harper is blocked or
defeated.
The labour movement, Aboriginal
nations, women, youth and students and all faiths need to work together
against Harper's agenda.
Bay Street - the main centre of
Canada's powerful big business interests - wants to avoid an election
and to help the Bush camp. These goose-stepping corporate fat cats want
to lure all of Parliament's opposition parties to prolong and
collaborate with Harper's minority government.
By blocking a Harper majority
government voters would get tough on the real criminals in Canada - the
assassins of Aboriginal and women's equality, the environment, world
peace, civil rights, manufacturing jobs, public health care, the Wheat
Board and Canadian sovereignty.
Blocking Harper is in the
interest of all nations in Canada. Just as important, driving the
Tories out of office before the presidential election in November can
help the peace majority make a real difference in the United States.
Unity and action by the peoples' movements can make that happen!
Militarism brings fascism
Canada's top general, Rick
Hillier, has claimed that the debate about the occupation is causing
attacks on Canadian troops. He wants to intimidate Parliamentarians to
give unanimous support for the aggressive NATO military mission. But
Parliament must never take orders from the military. Top military
commanders have no business silencing debate in Canada.
Hillier should be fired instead
of being encouraged by Harper to reinforce the drive to war. Militarism
is a threat to democracy, a weapon to scare people into supporting
reactionary causes and a fascist ideology.
Harper and other warmongers in
local and provincial governments are carrying out a powerful campaign
to glorify the military in Afghanistan, targeting children to sign
yellow ribbons, staging rallies for the troops, paying think-tanks and
servile professors for opinion pieces in the corporate media.
All groups that value democracy
need to help expose the Harper government's dangerous propaganda and
the insidious growth of militarism.
Leave the Afghan quagmire
The Manley Commission's report
on Canada's role in Afghanistan showed no comprehension how to escape
this swampy quagmire. Instead, it predictably repeated imperialist
justifications for the occupation, claiming that Canada is bringing
democracy and equality to the Afghan people. This dishonest and
chauvinist lie cannot change the fact that the U.S.-led occupation of
Afghanistan was an illegal and misguided act of barbaric revenge for
the terrorist attacks against New York in 2001.
Harper's hand-picked commission
avoided other inconvenient truths, such as that the Karzai government
controls only 30 per cent of Afghan territory, or that the puppet
regime is full of war criminals and drug lords, or that women had far
more rights and respect under the socialist government overthrown in
1993 by the henchmen of U.S. imperialism. The truth is that resistance
in Afghanistan could force the U.S. into a humiliating retreat from the
country in the near future, perhaps earlier than the extension for
Canadian forces to remain in Kandahar until 2011.
Backsliding in Parliament
Last year, the NDP tragically
voted with the Conservatives to defeat a Liberal motion that would have
ended Canada's military role in Kandahar in February 2009. By propping
up Harper's war agenda, the NDP freed the Liberals from this
commitment, allowing them to reach an agreement with Harper to extend
the mission until 2011.
Such wavering in Parliament
means that the peoples' movements must exert even more pressure to get
Canada's troops out immediately. The Tory PR campaign is not winning
the propaganda battle; in fact, a majority of Canadians still want the
troops out.
Bush's world-wide "war on
terror" is continuing imperialism's ambitions by violent means - the
plundering of resources and re-division of markets to ensure the
domination of finance capital throughout the world. But far from
invincible, the NATO military alliance is badly divided, and Bush is
struggling to retain support. Defeating Harper would further divide
NATO and help to isolate the most war-like members of the alliance.
This racist war can be stopped.
Imperialism can be stopped. Canada must join the anti-war majority of
the world's peoples by defeating Harper!
LONGSHORE WORKERS SHOW THE
WAY - Editorial
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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, March 16-31, 2008
A
resolution adopted by an
overwhelming majority of delegates at the International Longshore &
Warehouse Union's annual Pacific Coast convention has called on
dockworkers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, to express
opposition to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Delegates urged other
unions, including affiliates of the AFL-CIO and the Change to Win
Coalition, to unite in similar events to end the war and bring U.S.
troops home from the Middle East.
One immediate response was a
decision by the 2,700-member Letter Carriers Union in San Francisco to
observe two minutes of silence in all carrier stations at 8:15 am on
May 1, in honour of International Workers' Day, and in solidarity with
the ILWU stop-work action against the war.
This ILWU resolution did
not come out of thin air. West coast longshore workers have a proud
record of militant and radical politics, dating back to the days of
Harry Bridges. ILWU's historic actions include the refusal of Local 10
longshoremen to load bombs for the military dictatorship in Chile in
1978 and military cargo to the Salvadoran military dictatorship in
1981. This time, the union points to even wider dangers, such as the
threat of U.S. air strikes in Iran, or possible military intervention
in Syria or Pakistan.
By vowing to halt the flow of
goods and profits, longshore workers are upping the ante at a crucial
time. We salute their resolution and we urge the Canadian labour
movement to consider similar bold moves to challenge the war-makers in
the Harper Tory government.
THE TERRIBLE COST OF
WAR - Editorial
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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, March 16-31, 2008
One
of the authors of "The Three
Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict"
(published
Feb. 29) says this estimate "probably errs on the low side." Joseph
Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize-winning former World Bank chief economist, is
no radical. But he stresses that the $3 trillion figure applies only to
the United States, and does not reflect the enormous cost to the Iraqi
people, or to the rest of the world.
The toll for U.S. taxpayers
includes privatizing the Iraq war and occupation: contractors can make
up to $400,000 a year while soldiers cost a mere $40,000. The biggest
monetary cost is caring for the health and disability needs of
veterans, projected at hundreds of billions of dollars over the next
few decades. Then there's the economic pain caused by the skyrocketing
price of oil, which was just $25/barrel before the 2003 invasion.
For Canadians, the relative cost
is lower, but $4 billion spent to date on our Afghan occupation is
still a very heavy burden. Shamefully, only one-tenth of that amount
has been spent by Canada on civilian needs in Afghanistan, much of it
stolen by corrupt officials.
Beyond these figures, consider
the suffering inflicted by the warmakers on the families of over 4,000
NATO soldiers and one million Iraqi and Afghan citizens who have died,
or by the destruction of homes, jobs and infrastructure in those
countries during this conflict. And as the latest reports from
Afghanistan make clear (see page 6), the claim that Canada is making
war to "liberate women" is an utter lie.
Our world desperately needs
massive investments in clean water, schools, job creation, disease
prevention, and technologies to drastically reduce carbon emissions.
Instead, trillions of dollars which could help save the planet are
being used to destroy our future. The profit-hungry capitalist system
that drives this insanity is a threat to our very existence. The
imperialist "leaders" who use military might to project this system
into every corner of the world must be defeated, before it's too late.
CONDEMN COLOMBIA'S
AGGRESSION AGAINST ECUADOR!
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 from the
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada, March 6, 2008
In
an illegal incursion into Ecuador
on 1 March, Colombian troops murdered 17 combatants of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP),
including Comandante Raul Reyes, a long-time military commander and
member of the FARC-EP's Secretariat. Among the other victims was the
well-known revolutionary song-writer Julian Conrado.
The cold-blooded attack on the
camp came just days after the FARC had unilaterally released several
prisoners into the hands of Venezuela and the International Red Cross
in a promising move to prompt negotiations for a more generalized
humanitarian exchange of prisoners of war held by the two sides.
This latest provocation shows
once again that the Colombian regime of President Alvaro Uribe has no
intention of seeking a political, negotiated solution to the
decades-old conflict but rather intends to further intensify its "dirty
war" against the insurgency and all those Colombians who oppose its
fascist rule. Its brazen violation of the territorial sovereignty of
its Ecuadorian neighbour - a clear and unequivocal violation of
international law - demonstrates its willingness to destabilize the
peace and security of the region as a whole and provide a pretext for
direct U.S. imperialist aggression directed against Venezuela, Ecuador
and other progressive governments in Latin America.
There can be no doubt that the
Bush Adminstration is pulling the strings behind this whole affair,
using its Colombian puppet to provoke a wider war in the vain hope of
reversing the growing anti-imperialist movements throughout the region.
To cover its imperialist plans, Washington and its flunkies in Bogota
are now churning out all sorts of clumsy and patently false accusations
accusing Venezuela and Ecuador of secretly supporting and financing the
insurgency and even assisting FARC in obtaining uranium to produce a
radioactive bomb. Such fabrications and lies should fool no one.
At this critical juncture, the
Communist Party of Canada calls on the Canadian government and all
peace-loving Canadians to denounce this dangerous provocation, and to
demand that the UN Security Council condemn Colombia's grave
contravention of international law, demand that the Uribe regime and
its U.S. masters respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of
all neighbouring states, end its internal "reign of terror" against
workers, peasants, trade union and human rights activists, to seek a
political solution to end the civil war in Colombia.
The CPC also demands that the
Canadian government remove the FARC-EP and the ELN from the list of
terrorist organizations, and instead offer to facilitate negotiations
between the belligerent parties in Colombia with the aim of achieving a
just and lasting peace in that country.
WOMEN'S LIVES "WORSE THAN
EVER" IN AFGHANISTAN
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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
International Women's Day, a
"celebration" was held inside the Canadian military compound at
Kandahar. For some media outlets in Canada, this was literally the only
IWD event reported as "news." The corporate media here ignored the real
tragedy - that conditions for Afghan women have not improved under
their "protectors", the warlord-based Karzai government.
A recent article by Terri Judd
in The Independent (UK)
reported that "Grinding poverty and the
escalating war is driving an increasing number of Afghan families to
sell their daughters into forced marriages. Girls as young as six are
being married into a life of slavery and rape, often by multiple
members of their new relatives. Banned from seeing their own parents or
siblings, they are also prohibited from going to school. With little
recognition of the illegality of the situation or any effective
recourse, many of the victims are driven to self-immolation - burning
themselves to death - or severe self-harm."
Judd's conclusion is based on
"Afghan Women and Girls Seven Years
On," a new study from the British
organization Womankind. The report finds that 87 per cent of Afghan
females have been victims of violent abuse (half of it sexual), and
that over 60 per cent of marriages are forced. Despite a law "banning"
the practice, 57 per cent of brides are under the age of 16. The
illiteracy rate among women is 88 per cent, with just 5 per cent of
girls attending secondary school.
One in nine women dies in
childbirth, the highest in the world alongside Sierra Leone. More than
one million widows have no rights, left to beg in the streets along
with orphans. Afghanistan is the only country in the world with a
higher suicide rate among women than men.
The banned practice of offering
money for a girl is still rampant, along with exchanging her as
restitution for crime, debt or dispute. The going price for a child
bride is as much as three years salary for a labourer; many grooms take
loans or swap their sisters instead, according to Partawmina Hashemee,
the director of the Afghan Women Resource Centre.
Hashemee says that in Kabul,
there has been greater recognition of women's rights since the fall of
the Taliban. But the capital remains a dangerous environment and female
MPs, activists and journalists still live under constant threat of
death.
INDIA'S 2008-09 BUDGET:
NOT WHAT IT CLAIMS
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 B. Prasant, PV
correspondent in India
India's
2008-09 budget is clearly
aimed at upcoming Parliamentary elections early next year. The budget
is filled with attempts to hide the burgeoning economic crisis the
nation faces, behind a facade of cosmetic measures.
The new Budget admits inter alia
how every important economic and financial sector has started to
stagnate and fall behind targets set during the 2007-08 financial year.
The growth rate itself has gone down from 8.5% to just over 8%.
The Budget has not addressed the
inflationary trends in the economy adequately, especially with regard
to food and fuel prices. The food subsidy is to increase by only about
3.5% over 2007-08, actually a reduction since the Budget assumes an
inflation rate over 6%.
It is clear that the government
does not envisage an expansion of the PDS (Public Distribution System)
to protect the people against rising food prices. While the shift to a
fixed excise duty on unbranded petroleum is a welcome measure, this
will not reduce high fuel prices. Petrol and diesel prices could have
been brought down had there been similar restructuring of the customs
duties on petro products.
A disturbing aspect of Budget
2008-09 is its failure to provide an adequate fiscal stimulus to the
Indian economy at a time when the world economy is poised for a
downturn and the rupee has appreciated against the dollar, adversely
affecting growth and employment generation.
Although the Finance Minister
has budgeted for a 17.5% increase in tax revenues over 2007-08, revenue
expenditure will rise by 12.2%, and capital expenditure (after
adjusting for book transactions) by a mere 8.8%. The opportunities
provided by the rising tax revenues have not been properly utilized.
Budgetary support for the Eleventh Five Year Plan has been increased in
Budget 2008-09 by 382 billion rupees (Can. $9.5 billion) over last
year, far less than the Rs. 600 billion suggested by the Left Parties.
This fiscal conservatism is in keeping with the retrogressive trend for
some decades now in the union (central) government's "liberalisation"
budgets.
As CPI(M) chief minister of
Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently noted, "It is estimated that
there are over 350 million workers in the unorganised sector. The
Budget has helped only a fraction of them through the extension of the
existing insurance schemes. Moreover, while the Finance Minister has
assured that the outlay for the rural employment programme would be
increased in accordance with demand, the outlay has been increased by
around 20% only in Budget 2008-09, when the number of districts covered
under the scheme has almost doubled."
Taxes have been reduced in a
wide sweep for the rich and for the corporate houses. The resulting
shortfall will be collected through indirect taxes that will adversely
affect the mass of the people. Prices of commodities of common
consumption will go up further. With the increase in the per litre
price of petrol and diesel, costs will go up even more as transporters
shift the burden of freight onto the groaning shoulders of the common
people.
The attempt by the finance
minister to bedazzle the nation with a so-called "debt waiver" worth Rs
600 billion for the indebted peasants has to be viewed in perspective.
The peasants comprise close to 70% of India's population. With no
effort to remedy the reasons why peasants' debt is on the rise, a "debt
waiver" is a publicity stunt. Is there appropriate provision in the
budget itself to cover the waiver amounts? The answer is an emphatic
"no". Where will the funds come from?
It has been broadly hinted that
the shares of profit-making public sector undertakings will be sold to
generate "adequate" funds. This is a double-ended ploy typical of our
World Bank-trained finance minister. If the Left objects to the
measure, especially about how the "book transfer" would be subtly
managed, harming the nation's core sectors immensely, the union
government could then gleefully declare that the Left are anti-peasant!
If the Left does not raise hell, then the same charge will be levelled
against it!
There is another dangerous
agenda behind the facade of this scheme. The debt waiver is announced,
but the banks will be reimbursed not in a year, but in three
instalments over three years, minus interest payments. The largest bulk
of agricultural loans comes from the cooperative banks and loan
cooperative societies. These institutions would simply go bankrupt
while implementing the debt waiver, if the entire compensatory amount
of money is not received in full at one time. Most banks - even the
larger ones - do not have the capacity to absorb the three-year-long
loss. Even if some banks do have the capacity, where would they get the
interest on the debt waiver for three years? No way out is mentioned.
Then again, peasants who own
more than a couple of hectares of land, even if it is not adequately
irrigated, would not get the benefit of the waiver. Yet many of the
thousands of peasants committing suicide in states like Maharashtra and
Andhra Pradesh, as procurement prices plunge for food crops, do own
more than two hectares. Also, the proposed debt waiver law would not
cover loans given by money lenders, the biggest source of agricultural
loans in states ruled by the Congress and the BJP.
Finally, kisans who have already
paid back bank loans will be deprived of the debt waiver. The danger of
corruption on a mass scale looms large. Many peasants facing
deprivation from the waiver scheme for paying off bank loans before the
plan was announced are now pleading desperately with the banks to
declare them as defaulters. The smaller cooperative banks which
dominate the banking scene in the Communist-ruled states will become
bankrupt, leaving the peasants in the complete grip of the money
lenders.
In 1977, the Left-supported
Janata Party government implemented a debt waiver scheme under pressure
from the Left. In 2004, the BJP-led central government announced a
waiver of loans worth Rs 140 billion. However, there was no budgetary
provision either in 1977 or in 2004. The CPI(M) called both
announcements "instances of sheer deception."
This time, too, the debt waiver
scheme has been announced without any budgetary provision. The Left
peasant organisations must immediately demand that the funds to
compensate the debt waiver must be made not through sale of shares of
profit-making PSUs, but through taxes on big capital and on the
corporate sector. At the same time, a demand must be raised that
peasants who had paid back bank loans earlier must be brought within
the scheme. The Left peasants' organisations, as veteran peasant
movement leader and CPI(M) central committee member Benoy Konar told
People's Voice, "expect that the Left MPs will become aggressively
vocal on this issue in the Parliament."
URIBE'S COLOMBIA IS
DESTABILIZING A NEW LATIN AMERICA
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 James J. Brittain
and R. James Sacouman, March 4, 2008
A
few weeks after the Ecuadorian and
Venezuelan state called on the Colombian government to respect the need
for peace and negotiation with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP), the administration of President
Alvaro Uribe Velez supported an extensive armed air and land assault
against the insurgency movement - not within Colombia's borders, but
rather on the sovereign territory of Ecuadorian soil.
On March 1, 2008, the Colombian
state, under the leadership of Uribe, Vice-President Francisco Santos
Calderon, and his cousin, Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos,
illegally deployed a military campaign within Ecuador, which resulted
in the deaths of Raul Reyes, Julian Conrado, and fifteen other
combatants associated with the FARC-EP. Such actions are a clear
display of the US-backed-Colombian state's open negation of
international codes of conduct, law and social justice.
The actions of March 1 took
place days before a major international demonstration scheduled for
March 6. Promoted by The National Movement of Victims of
State-Sponsored Crimes (MOVICE), the International Trade Union
Confederation (ITUC), and countless social justice-based organizations,
March 6 has been set as an international day of protest against those
tortured, murdered and disappeared by the Colombian state, their allies
within the paramilitary United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC)
and the newly-reformed Black Eagles. Recently, President Uribe's top
political adviser, Jose Obdulio Gaviria, proclaimed that the protest
and protesters should be criminalized. In addition, paramilitaries in
the southwestern department of Nari+¦o - not far from where the
illegal
incursions were carried out in Ecuador - have threatened to attack any
organization or person associated with the protest activities.
It is believed that the Uribe
and Santos administration is utilizing the slaughter of Commander Raul
Reyes and others as a method to deter activists and socially conscious
peoples within and outside Colombia from participating in the March 6
events. Numerous state-controlled or connected media outlets, such as
El Tiempo - which has
long-standing ties to the Santos family-have been
parading photographs of the bullet-ridden and mutilated corpse of Raul
Reyes throughout the country's communications mediums. Such propaganda
is clearly a tool to psychologically intimidate those preparing to
demonstrate against the atrocities perpetrated by the state over the
past seven years.
Over the past two months,
numerous researchers, scholars and lawyers have supported the call to
declare the FARC-EP a legitimate force fighting against the corrupt
Colombian state. In January 2008, Ecuador's Foreign Minister Maria
Isabel Salvador argued that the FARC-EP should no longer be depicted as
a terrorist organization. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez also
announced that the FARC-EP are far from a terrorist force, but are
rather a real army, which occupies Colombian territory and shares in a
Bolivarian vision for a new Latin America. Mexican deputy Ricardo Cantu
Garza also has promoted the recognition of the FARC-EP as a belligerent
force legitimately fighting against a corrupt and unequal
socio-political system. As prominent US attorney Paul Wolf argued:
"The FARC-EP are a belligerent
army of national liberation, as evidenced by their sustained military
campaign and sovereignty over a large part of Colombian territory, and
their conduct of hostilities by organized troops kept under military
discipline and complying with the laws and customs of war, at least to
the same extent as other parties to the conflict. Members of the
FARC-EP are therefore entitled to the rights of belligerents under
international law ... there is no rule of international law prohibiting
revolution, and, if a revolution succeeds, there is nothing in
international law prohibiting the acceptance of the outcome, even
though it was achieved by force."
From Copenhagen to Caracas,
numerous state officials have denounced the description of the FARC-EP
as a terrorist organization. Progressive officials and administrations
in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela have rather opted for the status of
belligerent or irregular forces to more accurately depict the FARC-EP's
domestic and geo-political stance. Disturbingly, in the face of this
evidence and the FARC-EP's consistent promotion of a humanitarian
prisoner exchange and peace negotiations with the state in a
demilitarized zone in southwestern Colombia, the Uribe and Santos
administration has moved ever farther away from supporting an end to
the civil war within Colombia by opting for systemic violence.
Over the past several years,
different aspects of the FARC-EP's real social, political and cultural
activities for progressive social change have been censored or
marginalized by the private press or governments in support of the
Colombian state. Nevertheless, after researching the FARC-EP and the
country of Colombia for years, independent journalist Garry Leech
argued that, "while there is little doubt regarding the global reach of
terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda, there is no evidence that the
FARC is anything but one of the armed actors in Colombia's long and
tragic domestic conflict."
In actuality, the FARC-EP is an
actor within the strategic confines of Colombian society that aims its
directives at domestic social change. In light of such realities, how
can this insurgency be a terrorist threat to external nation-states?
Coletta A. Youngers, of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA),
responds to this question by describing how: "The U.S. government now
views the Latin American region almost exclusively through the
counterterrorist lens, though the region poses no serious national
security threat to the United States ... little evidence has been put
forward to substantiate such claims, and whatever activity is taking
place there appears to be minimal."
While Youngers does not
trivialize its revolutionary tactics, she clearly argues that the
FARC-EP cannot be correctly framed within the concept and rhetoric of
global terrorism. Youngers argues that the insurgency is not a direct
political threat to administrations within the United States, Canada,
the European Union and any other foreign nation-state in the fact that
the FARC-EP's activities "are targeted inward, not outward," hence,
"applying the terrorism concept to these groups negates their political
projects."
Characterizing the FARC-EP as a
foreign terrorist organization dramatically alters the dynamics of the
peace process in favour of a killer state. Stipulating that the FARC-EP
is terrorist results in the inability for legal peace negotiations to
take place between the FARC-EP and any government that subscribes to
the categorization. According to James Petras and Henry Veltmeyer,
promoting the FARC-EP-and its supporters-as terrorists "puts them on
the list of targets to be assaulted by the US military machine" and
"thus subject to total war."
The terminology of terrorism is
perfect for imperialist ideology and expansionism. It is a very
open-ended reference that "allows maximum intervention in all regions
against any opposition" and "that any group engaged in opposing
militarism, imperialism (so-called `globalization') or local
authoritarian regimes could be labelled `terrorist' and targeted," thus
legitimizing external invasion or attack, say Petras and Veltmeyer.
Internal and external
condemnation of the Colombian state has fallen upon the deaf ears of
the Uribe and Santos administration. After years of increased
violations of civilian human rights, the ongoing suppression of
trade-unionism, assassinations of left-of-centre activists and
politicians, and a political reality that has witnessed 75 governors,
mayors and Congressional politicians alleged or found guilty of having
direct links to the paramilitaries, now the Colombian state has deemed
it necessary to illegally encroach upon those nations that deviate from
their ideological model of political and economic centralization.
Not only has the Uribe
administration criticized its neighbours, but after the actions
realized on March 1 it is clear that the Colombian state, with the full
backing of the United States, will impose its own ideological goals and
values through force, regardless of the democratic rights and
privileges of conventional electoral law and procedure. While the
neighbouring states of Ecuador and Venezuela struggle for peace and try
to assist the people of Colombia in the quest for an end to the civil
war, the Uribe and Santos administration has bypassed judicial
realities and governance to impose its own objectives.
Careful analysts of the
Colombian situation continue to debate whether the Colombian state is
pre-fascist or actually fascist. It is certainly neither humane nor
actually democratic. The current Colombian state must be transformed,
sooner rather than later. Those fighting for peace must condemn the
action of this regime. In solidarity, we must protest the policies of
the Colombian state and raise our voices in support for a New Colombia
that stands for peace with social justice.
James J. Brittain (Assistant
Professor) and Jim Sacouman (Professor), sociologists at Acadia
University in Nova Scotia, have been researching the Colombian civil
war and political economy over the past decade.
A LAWYER'S TALE: HUMAN
RIGHTS IN BANGLADESH
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 William Sloan
"The Army is not a
good school for democracy" - Pierre Eliot Trudeau
I have been a member of the
American Association of Jurists (AAJ) since 1987, President of the
Canadian branch since 1997. The AAJ is a human rights NGO of lawyers,
judges, professors and students of law throughout the Americas, with
consultative status at the UN. It was founded in 1975 in Panama as the
regional affiliate of the International Association of Democratic
Lawyers (IADL).
I left Montreal on Feb. 14,
heading for Bangladesh to observe the human rights situation there,
especially the trials of Sheikh Hasina. The country's Prime Minister
from 1996-2001, Sheikh Hasina faces corruption charges which her Awami
League party says have been trumped up to prevent her from taking part
in elections which were recently postponed.
After 19 hours of travel in
economy class, I arrived in Dhaka at 2 am on Feb. 16. I travelled on a
simple tourist visa because the Bangladesh authorities have a habit of
impeding visits by human rights activists, most notably Asma Jahangir
in 2002.
I was pulled out of the passport
line-up and taken to be questioned. I named two Canadian citizens as
friends, Bengali journalists who sought refuge in Canada during General
Ershad's military dictatorship in the 1980s. I told them that I would
be meeting with Sultana Kamal, winner of Canada's John Humphrey Freedom
Award in 1996.
They expressed concern about the
activities two weeks earlier of Payam Akhavan, Professor of
International and Criminal Law at McGill University. He had come to
Bangladesh as foreign Counsel for Sheikh Hasina. I told them that I had
no clients in Bangladesh, that I would be performing no work-related
activities in Bangladesh. My expenses were paid, but I donated my time
pro bono while continuing to pay my office expenses in Montreal.
I first engaged in this kind of
"tourism" in July 1987, travelling to Chile during Pinochet's
dictatorship one month after the massacre known as "Operation Albania".
I have done it since in Guatemala (4 times), El Salvador, Colombia,
Ecuador (twice), Haiti (3 times), Dominican Republic, Mexico, and
Bangladesh in 2002 and 2005.
I was warned that any
"non-tourist" activities on my part would result in enforcement action
by the government. Members of the Bangladesh Democratic Lawyers
Association (BDLA, an affiliate of the IADL) were waiting to meet me,
and two television reporters wanted to interview me as I left the
airport. I told them that I did not want to comment on the situation
before meeting with the local people, but that I had a mandate from the
AAJ and IADL because of concerns about violations of due process, right
to counsel and judicial independence.
Two days later I was approached
at the door of the hotel by a Major Zakir, an officer of the DGFI -
Bangladesh's much feared military intelligence - to invite me to meet
with his boss, Brigadier Amin. He showed me his official DGFI picture
ID card. I begged off but agreed to meet him in a room in the Hotel
Business Centre.
We had a frank discussion of the
purpose for my visit. He told me that as long as I stuck to due process
issues, he had no problems.
During my time in Bangladesh I was openly and constantly followed by
the DGFI, sometimes with more than one vehicle.
On the afternoon of the 19th, I
arrived for a hearing at the Special Court Emergency Tribunal, inside
the security perimeter of the Parliament buildings. But an officer told
me that he was sorry, that he had orders that I was not to be allowed
inside the court building. As I left the security perimeter, I was
faced with a wall of cameras, microphones and photographers. Television
stations were ordered not to run the audio of this informal press
conference.
I requested a meeting with the government's Law Advisor. I was told
that he had orders not to meet with me.
On Feb. 20 I went to the Supreme
Court building to meet with a few BDLA lawyers in the office of the
Supreme Court Bar Association. As the room filled up we moved to a
larger room, but as word spread of my presence, we moved again to a
large hall where I spoke with about 150 lawyers.
At 4:30 pm on the 22nd, I was to
hold a press conference with the President of the BDLA. As we were
meeting to prepare, the Hotel Sonargaon administration informed us that
the government had cancelled the press conference. The Hotel
apologized, saying this had never happened to them before. I
nevertheless met in my room with the BDLA leaders to prepare a brief
oral statement.
At 3:30 I was told that the
police wanted to see me in my room. I went down to the lobby and sent
an email to the AAJ and IADL. As I finished, a casually clad officer
approached and told me that I had to return to my room and stay there
until my scheduled departure for the airport that night.
I was detained in my room, the
corridor lights dimmed, by up to six casually clad officers in the
corridor and near the elevators, including the service lift. The press
and lawyers who had come for the conference were kept away from the
hotel by a cordon of police. This last I only learned in Montreal by
reading the next day's papers on the internet.
Three police officers travelled
with me in the vehicle to the airport, with three police vans
accompanying us. I was taken directly to the airport Immigration
office, where I was detained until boarding time. I was not informed of
any immigration or other legal proceedings. An ordinary exit stamp was
put on my passport.
I am fearful for the safety of
Monwar Hossain, the young man who was my interpreter/guide during the
trip. I last saw him in the lobby as I was passing through to leave. He
was in police custody and though usually bubbly, he appeared terrified.
A CONVERSATION WITH A
YOUNG SOLDIER
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 Johan Boyden
You meet all sorts of people
travelling on the bus. With over 2,500 Canadian troops in Afghanistan
these days, not surprisingly some passengers are soldiers.
A few days ago, I rode the a bus
with a young guy who had just quit fighting in Afghanistan, leaving his
tour of duty early. I first noticed him when he kept falling sideways,
drifting into sleep and collapsing into the lap of the young woman next
to him. He was wearing a new leather jacket. Later, when he woke up, he
told us he had just hopped off a plane from Kandahar, via London,
England.
Why did you quit the army? we asked. "I'm allergic to bullets," he said.
Although he showed me various
pieces of military and civilian ID as the conversation went on, he
never told me his name - but that isn't important.
The guy grew up in a small
northern Ontario town. His father works at a steel plant, his mother at
a grocery store. Now he is 22. We see a picture of himself, a young
wife, and a cute little daughter in a red santa suit. In high school,
he saw one of his friends get killed by a train. He said it prepared
him for Afghanistan, where he saw many people die. He also said he had
killed three men in a skirmish.
He has seen children walk in
front of tanks. His friend shot an eight year old Afghan child. The kid
had a gun, he said. But he couldn't do that. He couldn't shoot a child.
He didn't like seeing people die. That is another reason he is leaving
the military.
As he mentions the child's
death, he turns around and looks at me directly. His eyes are wide
open, staring out of a skinny young white face, under a short scrub of
blond hair. He looks at me with a hard, lonely, aggressive intensity.
The young woman asks if he will get counselling. No, but he could -
until March 4th, when he officially stops being a soldier and becomes a
civilian.
I'm fine, he says. I've seen people who are a lot worse that me.
He is not a war resister. He is
against the war because he could die. When he joined the military they
said he wouldn't see combat. They trained him to build devices that
could listen into cell phones. It is completely legal he claims, as
long as you are using their frequency for a call. He hopes to use these
skills as a civilian.
In Afghanistan he was stationed
in the south, fighting Al Queda. As far as the military is concerned,
2011 is a done deal. The only question is what we'll be doing. He
didn't know anything about oil pipelines, or visits from former Prime
Minister Chretien to wrap-up business deals involving oil. Not as much
oil in Afghanistan as in Iraq, he said.
In Afghanistan their base smelt
like dirt. It was about three miles from a village. If they put the
base close to the village they would be attacked. Did you speak to the
villagers? No, he said, adding that he doesn't speak Arabic (which is
not widely spoken in Afghanistan, of course).
Most of the time was spent
walking with other soldiers, making sure there wasn't any trouble, guns
at the ready - loaded with hollow bullets. Hollow bullets, he
explained, expand on impact. He turned to the young woman and
pointed
to his cheek. They don't go in leaving a little hole, they rip it all
out. He moved his hand across his jaw.
It was peace keeping, he said.
The best part in Afghanistan was
showing some people where fresh drinking water was. The worst part was
shooting the three men, and when one of his buddies was killed.
I ask him what he would say to
someone considering joining the army. He laughs. I'd do this, he says,
and moves his hand as if to give a hard slap on the face.
YOUTH UNITE! FORWARD
FOR LASTING PEACE!
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 Stephen Von
Sychowski
On
November 10, 1945, the World
Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) was formed at the World Youth
Conference in London. The Conference was organized by the World Youth
Council, an anti-fascist organization formed during the Second World
War and composed of youth from the allied countries. Among the
organizations present was the Young Communist League (YCL) of Canada
(then called National Federation of Labour Youth - NFLY).
The WFDY pledged to fight for
youth unity, to struggle against racism, to seek the elimination of all
traces of fascism from the earth, to build friendship between the
peoples of the world, to forge a just and lasting peace and to
eliminate want, frustration and idleness. They declared that "We have
come to confirm the unity of all youth salute our comrades who have
died - and pledge our word that skilful hands, keen brains and young
enthusiasm shall never more be wasted in war".
For over 60 years the WFDY has
continued this struggle for its goals. It opposed imperialist wars,
most famously those in Korea and Vietnam, and fought for the interests
of youth and students around the world. The WFDY and many of its member
organizations were shaken by the counter-revolutions throughout much of
the socialist world towards the end of the last century, but continued
to fight. In this dark time for the working class movement, the YCL
Canada was liquidated in the midst of an intense struggle within the
movement between Leninist and revisionist forces.
Today the WFDY is growing once
again. In 2005 it held the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students in
Caracas, Venezuela. The WFDY also has consultative status with the
United Nations and operational relations with UNESCO.
Likewise, the YCL Canada, having
been re-founded almost a year ago in Toronto, is growing and continuing
the struggle. In February it again took its historical place as the
Canadian member of the WFDY, when the YCL was voted in as a full member
at the General Council meeting in Lisbon, Portugal. The meeting was
attended by over 40 organizations from all corners of the globe, and
produced a solid political document and several solidarity resolutions.
The growth in anti-imperialist
youth movements is a natural outcome of the imperialist stage of
capitalist development. Youth are under attack! We are being forced to
work at below-poverty level wages, given the debt sentence for trying
to further our education, driven into poverty and homelessness and
recruited to kill and be killed in dirty imperialist wars. We are
victimized by ageism, racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. And
slowly, but surely, more of us are fighting back.
The YCL Canada continues to work
alongside the rest of the WFDY to forge the international youth unity
necessary to help stop and reverse the global offensive of capital. One
of our most important campaigns over the next year and a half will be
to help send the largest and broadest delegation of Canadian youth to
the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students to be held in Minsk,
Belarus, in 2009. Now is an exciting time to join the movement.
Youth unite! Forward for lasting
peace! For more information on the World Federation of Democratic Youth
and the World Festival of Youth and Students please visit http://www.wfdy.org.
WHAT'S
LEFT
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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.)
CROSS-CANADA TOUR
The
ethnic cleansing of Palestine - with Israeli historian
Ilan Pappe,
cross-Canada tour sponsored by Near East
Cultural &
Educational Foundation (NECEF - http://www.necef.org)
and Solidarity
for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR - http://www.sphr.org).
Events include
- Montreal
(March 25, 7 pm, Concordia Univ. Rm.
H-110),
- Toronto
(March 26, 7 pm, Health Sciences Auditorium,6th Floor, 155 College
St.),
- London
(March 27, 7:30,Labatt Hall, Univ. of
Western Ontario),
- Calgary
(March 28,6:30,
ICT 102, Univ. of Calgary), and
- Vancouver
(March 29, 7pm,
Mackay Room, Central Public Library).
NANAIMO, BC
“What
would a Conservative majority mean for you?” - forum with People’s Voice
Editor Kimball
Cariou, 7 pm, Tues., March 18, Malaspina
College Building
255, Room 170. Sponsored by Young Communist League, http://www.ycl-ljc.ca.
VANCOUVER,
BC
Anti-war rally, marking 5th
anniversary of US/UK war against Iraq -
organized by StopWar peace coalition, gather 12 noon, Sat., March 15,
Vancouver Art Gallery, for info visit http://www.stopwar.ca.
March Against Racism - 1 pm,
Friday, March 21, International Day for the
Elimination of Racism, meet at Clark Park on Commercial & 14th,
organized by No One Is Illegal and a wide range of other groups, for
info contact noii-van@resist.ca or call
778-885-0040.
People’s
Voice Spaghetti Dinner - 5:30 pm, Sun., March 30, dinner $10, at
Centre for Socialist
Education, 706 Clark Drive. Followed at same
location by
Left Film Night, 7 pm, featuring “Shut Up
& Sing,” documentary on the
Dixie Chicks
after their criticism of the US invasion of
Iraq, admission free (donations
welcome). For
information on events, call 604-255-2041.
WINNIPEG,
MN
Young
Communist
League-UW campus club meets 1st & 4th Wednesday
each month, 5:30 pm, U of W buffeteria (4th floor top of escalators).
E-mail us at ycl_manitoba@ycl-ljc.ca
YCL movie nights on
U of W campus - to get on the notice list for time, room,
and films, just
e-mail us at yclmovienight@hotmail.com.
World Against War rally - Sat., March 15, starts 1 pm
with march
from Queen’s Park, 2:30 indoor rally at 427
Bloor St. W, contact Toronto
Coalition to Stop the War,
416-795-5863. For Canadian listings
on March 15, see http://www.acp-cpa.ca.
“Sisters’
and Brothers’ Keeper - Cuba and Southern African Liberation” - 45 min. documentary on
Cuba’s contribution to South Africa’s struggle for freedom, Friday,
March 28,
7:30 pm, at 290 Danforth Ave. (west of Chester
subway. Guest
speaker film co-producer Prof. Isaac Saney. For
info, call Canadian-Cuban
Friendship Assoc.
Toronto, 416-654-7105.
MONTREAL,
QC
Vigil against
occupation of Palestine - Fridays, noon to 1 pm,
at Israeli
Consulate, corner of Peel and Rene Levesque. For info: Palestinians And
Jews United, 961-3928.
print
friendly article
People's
Voice deadlines:
APRIL 1-15
Thursday, March 20
APRIL 16-30
Thursday, April 3
Send submissions
to PV
Editorial
Office,
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver,
V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net
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(Contents)
(Home)
$50,000 FUND DRIVE
PEOPLE'S VOICE -
NEWS FOR EQUALITY
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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 appalling corporate
mainstream media
was on full display this International
Women’s Day. Across Canada,
thousands of women and their allies
rallied and marched,
enduring winter storms in many cities. The
Harper government’s blatant attacks against
equality
rights should have made these events headline
news. But virtually
everywhere, their actions received at best a few
seconds of TV
and radio coverage.
What did
most media outlets pick as the number one
IWD story? That’s
right: the so-called “celebration” held under military
guard (i.e.
occupation) at the Canadian armed forces compound
in Kandahar.
Instead of covering IWD as a day of
militant struggles by working class women
for social and
economic equality, we were treated to the
sight of heavily armed troops and
considerable blather about
“defending women’s rights” in Afghanistan.
Not a word was
said about the lack of progress for women in that
country since NATO troops arrived
over six long years ago (see page 6).
For our
part, as we do every year, People’s Voice presented the real story of IWD’s
origins, and used our March 1-15
issue to promote the international
struggles for
equality. We
can do this thanks to the generations of working
people who have
built our press, starting with The Worker in the 1920s. When the ruling class drove
women out of
the factories following the Second World War, the Canadian and Pacific Tribunes kept up the fight for women’s
rights as workers,
not second class
citizens. Contrary to some claims,
International Women’s Day was always
marked across
Canada during those Cold War years, and the
proof is in the pages of our
predecessor publications. Drop by our offices
sometime to
see for yourself!
This spring
we’re keeping up the fight for social
change, whether it’s March 21, the
International Day for the Elimination
of Racism; Earth
Day on April 20; or May 1, the most
important date on the working class
calendar. People’s Voice will be there side by side with the people’s
movements, and
with our readers.
Of course,
to keep doing this, we need your support
for our annual $50,000 Fund Drive.
Donations are
arriving steadily at our business office in
Hamilton, and fundraising events are
being planned
in a number of cities. One of the first is at
the Centre for Socialist Education
(706 Clark Drive,
Vancouver), where the monthly Left Film Night
on Sunday, March
30, will start off at 5:30 pm with a
Spaghetti Dinner organized by the
Vancouver East Club CPC. For just $10,
you’ll get
spaghetti, salad and garlic bread, and a short
documentary on
Venezuela. Then at 7 pm, take in Shut Up & Sing,
the incredible story of the Dixie
Chicks standing up to the Bush regime
and the U.S.
ultra-right for their anti-war statements.
As reported
in our previous issue, we are offering some
material incentives
in return for your solidarity. This year’s “PV Shopping Bag” includes the
following:
- “The
Gruesome Acts of Capitalism,” a 112-page booklet by
David Lester,
full of astounding facts and figures about the
exploitative system which threatens our
planet;
- a
12-month complimentary PV sub (keep it or give it to a friend);
- People’s
Voice 2008 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 get your
choice of one
of these items. For each additional $100, choose another
item from
our Shopping Bag. For a donation of $1000 or
more, take the
entire Shopping Bag, and receive a lifetime subscription
for yourself
or a friend.
Remember - People’s Voice is your newspaper, your
voice in the information wars. Your
donations help
us build it bigger and better!
(The
following article is from
the March 16-31,
2008
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.)
Caracas, Venezuela will be the “World capital of peace and
antiimperialist struggle” during the
World Peace Assembly, from April 8-13. The Canadian
Peace Congress has issued a call for anti-war activists to attend,
with the aim of strengthening the ties of the Canadian peace movement
with the rest of the world.
The World
Peace Conference is open to everyone April 11-12, followed by a day of
open debates in Caracas’ public squares, concerts, and activities in
solidarity with Venezuela, marking the six years since the attempted coup
d’etat and the restoration of people’s power.
Founded in
1949, the World Peace Council will hold also its Assembly April 8-13.
Once the most prominent peace movement in the world following the
Second World War, the WPC has remained strong in countries
with anti-imperialist and socialist governments.
The
Assembly will be an important opportunity for the peace movements of different
regions and countries to overcome Cold War divisions instigated by
decades of imperialist propaganda.
For more information
or to join the Canadian delegation, contact the Canadian Peace Congress at
250-355-2669 or by email at info@canadianpeacecongress.ca.
