March
16-31, 2010
Volume 18 - Number 5
$1
Prolétaires de tous les pays,
unissez-vous!Otatoskewak ota kitaskinahk mamawestotan!
Workers of all lands, unite
Contents
Printer-friendly articles
1) ANOTHER PRO-BUSINESS TORY BUDGET
2) YES, WE DO HAVE CHOICES - Editorial
3) AFGHAN WAR VS. DEMOCRACY - Editorial
4) "TO STATE THE FACTS IS NOT ANTI-SEMITISM"
5) 2010 BC BUDGET: MORE AND MORE OF THE SAME
6) BC COMMUNITY COALITION CALLS APRIL 10 RALLY
7) WASN'T THAT A PARTY... BUT LOOK AT THE MESS
8) ONTARIO MINISTRY OF EDUCATION ADOPTS PRO-GAY MEMORANDUM
9) RIDEAU CANAL BUILDERS DENIED HISTORIC RECOGNITION
10) MORE GENERAL STRIKES AGAINST GREEK "AUSTERITY"
11) DESCENT INTO BARBARISM: US AND NATO WAGE WAR ON THE WORLD
12) THE MOSSAD HIT AND ISRAEL'S PATH OF SELF-DESTRUCTION
13) WHAT'S LEFT
14) PV FUND DRIVE: $50,000 IN 2010
15) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
16) CLARTÉ (en français)
17) THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
18) INTRODUCING MARX
19) REBEL YOUTH
PEOPLE'S VOICE MARCH 16-31, 2010 (pdf)
WOMEN'S SOCIALIST CALENDAR 2010 (pdf)
Printer-friendly articles
1) ANOTHER PRO-BUSINESS TORY BUDGET
2) YES, WE DO HAVE CHOICES - Editorial
3) AFGHAN WAR VS. DEMOCRACY - Editorial
4) "TO STATE THE FACTS IS NOT ANTI-SEMITISM"
5) 2010 BC BUDGET: MORE AND MORE OF THE SAME
6) BC COMMUNITY COALITION CALLS APRIL 10 RALLY
7) WASN'T THAT A PARTY... BUT LOOK AT THE MESS
8) ONTARIO MINISTRY OF EDUCATION ADOPTS PRO-GAY MEMORANDUM
9) RIDEAU CANAL BUILDERS DENIED HISTORIC RECOGNITION
10) MORE GENERAL STRIKES AGAINST GREEK "AUSTERITY"
11) DESCENT INTO BARBARISM: US AND NATO WAGE WAR ON THE WORLD
12) THE MOSSAD HIT AND ISRAEL'S PATH OF SELF-DESTRUCTION
13) WHAT'S LEFT
14) PV FUND DRIVE: $50,000 IN 2010
15) PODCAST OF PEOPLE'S VOICE ARTICLES
16) CLARTÉ (en français)
17) THE SPARK! (Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada)
18) INTRODUCING MARX
19) REBEL YOUTH
PEOPLE'S VOICE MARCH 16-31, 2010 (pdf)
 |
WOMEN'S SOCIALIST CALENDAR 2010 (pdf)
 |
The Spark! |
| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada |
The Spark!The
latest issue of The Spark! theoretical journal, is now on sale for $5 at Communist Party offices (see p. 8) or People’s Co-op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
Articles
include
|
| People's
Voice deadlines: APRIL 1-15 Thursday, March 18 APRIL 16-30 Thursday, April 8 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net |
People's
Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start"
website, http://www.labourstart.org. We urge our readers to
check it out!
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(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
PV Commentary
Corporate media outlets and business groups have hailed the Throne Speech which ended Stephen Harper's prorogation of Parliament, as well as Jim Flaherty's federal budget. But as feared by the labour and people's movements, the budget uses the federal deficit as a smokescreen to offer goodies to the corporate sector. For working people, that means major spending cuts. Federal public service workers will bear the brunt of $6.8 billion in cuts to their departments through job losses and a three year pay freeze.
As the Canadian Labour Congress pointed out in a response to the budget, "deficits are not a problem when the total government debt today is the lowest of the advanced industrial countries (53% of GDP in 2008-2009 compared to 102% in 1995-1996), and interest rates are at an all-time low. The federal debt is just one-third of GDP, and the cost of servicing that debt is just 2% of GDP. The federal deficit is still less than 4% of national income, far lower than it was in the early to mid-1990s."
Despite the "deficit scare", corporate tax rates will continue to decline, from 22% when the Tories took office, down to 15%, the lowest rate in the G7 countries. This will cost the treasury a whopping $9 billion in the coming fiscal year alone. The budget will benefit the business sector by reducing tariffs on manufacturing inputs, although this will make things even more difficult for the beleaguered Canadian manufacturing industry. Deregulation of the telecommunications and uranium mining sectors, and expansion of so-called "free trade" have big business applauding. The biggest winners appear to be transnational corporations, eager to expand their role in the Canadian economy.
This aggressive neo-con economic policy is matched on the political side with a combination of flag-waving, war memorials, and a so-called "law and order" agenda designed to take public attention away from the fact that over 1.5 million Canadians remain unemployed.
Overall, the Throne Speech and the budget confirm the minority Harper government's intention to govern as though they had a majority in Parliament to push their far-right agenda. The reluctance of the Opposition parties to block this strategy may allow the Tories to shape political debates heading into an election widely expected later this year.
The Opposition parties have argued that more should have been done to create jobs and combat poverty, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff will allow the Tories to stay in office, waiting for his party's polling numbers to rise.
NDP leader Jack Layton has been critical of the Tories on some economic issues, but without advancing any substantial alternative. Early in the recession, Layton spoke to the Toronto Board of Trade, praising workers who had the "courage" to accept pay cuts. NDP governments in Manitoba and Nova Scotia continue to implement economic policies which are nearly identical with the big business parties.
Several key trade union leaders came down hard against the Tory budget and the Throne Speech.
"All political parties should vote to bring this government down now," said Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers, Canada's largest union in the forestry sector.
"Yet another budget, filled with rhetoric and platitudes, that does nothing for workers, families and communities in hundreds of forest-dependent communities," said Coles. "We saw the same show in last year's budget. In fact, in the past year, the Conservatives made many announcements about aid to the forest sector, yet we saw a record number of bankruptcies."
Coles warned that the budget contains "nothing for pensioners who are paying the price for the federal government's inaction, as companies facing bankruptcy seek to finance their debts with employee pension funds."
In past budgets, the CEP called for a national strategy to help rejuvenate the forest sector through investment in new products and the creation of value-added jobs. The Throne Speech made reference to this, said Coles, but "it's a case of too little, too late. Without loan guarantees to keep mills alive, who will produce these new products?"
The Harper government should be defeated on its plans to sell off key telecommunications and broadcasting industries, said the CEP, which also represents many media workers.
"Telecommunications is now an integrated industry with the rest of the media; the sector is key for our cultural sovereignty and national security," said Peter Murdoch, the CEP's media vice-president. "It is incumbent on all opposition parties to draw a line in the sand on this issue. The cultural community has been of one voice on this issue, but where are the opposition parties? We need something more than rant and rhetoric."
The largest union of federal public-sector workers will mobilize against cuts in public sector programs and operations.
"This budget is a clear attack against quality public services," said John Gordon, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. "The freeze on public-sector operation budgets, combined with an increase in deregulation and free trade, will further weaken the economy and hurt Canadians."
In a pre-budget news conference with other labour leaders, Gordon called for continued stimulus spending refocused on social infrastructure such as poverty reduction and expanding child and elder care. He also called for improving retirement security for all Canadians.
"What do we get instead? Seniors' Day," said Gordon. "This budget does nothing for workers in Canada. Investing in social infrastructures and in quality public services would have ensured job creation and economic growth. But this government failed in that direction."
Gordon has asked to meeting with the leaders of the opposition parties, calling on them to support his union's position.
"This budget does little to help Canadian workers secure their footing during a period of severe economic instability and is rooted in government-destroying, deeply ideological values," CAW President Ken Lewenza said.
A CAW statement says "the budget shifts the Conservative government policies further in favour of businesses and corporations, to the detriment of average Canadians."
Taking credit for old news, the Tories re-announced the $19 billion already planned for stimulus projects in 2010. What Canada needs is not "one-off" projects, Lewenza said, but investment in renewable energy projects, public transit improvements and other initiatives to spur sustainable and `green' economic development.
Despite widespread demands to improve EI eligibility criteria for all workers, the Tories did virtually nothing on this issue.
Since October 2008, almost 500,000 permanent, paid jobs have been lost as the manufacturing and forest industry crisis spread to other sectors. The Budget estimates that the stimulus package has saved or created 130,000 jobs. But unemployment is projected to average 8.5% this year, and 7.9% in 2011. The real rate of unemployment - counting people who have been forced into part-time jobs or have given up looking for jobs - is over 12%.
Only half of all unemployed workers qualify for benefits, and their average weekly benefit is just $343. The more than 800,000 unemployed workers now on EI qualify for an average of just 38 weeks of benefits, and tens of thousands who lost their jobs in the early stages of the crisis have exhausted their claims. EI benefits have been temporarily extended for five weeks for workers who file claims before September 11, 2010, but provincial social assistance caseloads are already starting to rise rapidly.
"This is a tragic failure of our federal government at a time when many Canadian workers are looking for leadership in protecting their jobs and their communities," said Ken Neumann, United Steelworkers National Director for Canada.
"Protecting Canadian communities should be the first order of business of our federal government. However, in the Throne Speech, Mr. Harper has indicated he is going to further abdicate his responsibility to ensure communities are the net beneficiaries of foreign ownership."
The Throne Speech emphasized that the government intends to "open Canada's doors further to venture capital and to foreign investment in key sectors."
"It is outrageous that this government has refused to side with Canadian communities and workers as foreign multinational after foreign multinational buy up Canadian companies and end up devastating our resource communities," said Neumann. Instead of putting more teeth in the Investment Canada Act, he said, the government will add insult to the injury communities like Sudbury and Hamilton are experiencing.
He stressed that foreign takeovers by companies like Vale Inco and Xstrata have failed to be a "net benefit" to Canada as the law requires. Rather, these takeovers have resulted in thousands of lost jobs, the closing of vital plants and mills, and the transferring of industrial production outside our borders. The Harper government has failed to make those companies live up to their lawful requirements, and have even refused to make public the promises made by these companies.
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
People's Voice Editorial
Mired in the polls, with grim economic times still looming, the Harper Tories are trying to revive their fortunes with a classic right-wing formula - a combination of chest-thumping militarism, "family values" rhetoric, racist immigrant-bashing, and scare-mongering about debts and deficits. The reluctance of the federal opposition parties to tackle some of these "wedge issues" may well give Harper an advantage heading into an election. This makes it more crucial than ever for the labour and democratic movements to expose Tory demagogy and present progressive alternatives.
Take the debt/deficit bogeyman, for example. It's important to point out that the debt to GDP ratio in Canada is just 53%, half the levels of the mid-1990s. Servicing the federal debt requires just 2% of the annual Gross Domestic Product. This is hardly a "crisis" forcing an end to the minor economic stimulus measures adopted a year ago. And in case anyone has forgotten, studies of the "debt crisis" back in the '90s found that nearly half of the accumulated federal debt at that time was due to tax cuts for the corporate sector and upper-income earners.
This is a long-term trend. Sixty years ago, individual income taxes accounted for a slightly higher proportion of federal revenues than corporate taxes. Today the ratio is nearly 4 to 1. As a percentage of GDP, revenue from corporate taxes has fallen from about 6 percent in the early 1950s, to 2.1% today. The next corporate tax cuts (1.5% drops in 2011 and 2012) will give Canada the lowest rates in the G7 countries. The first cut alone will take $9 billion from federal revenues desperately needed to build low-income housing, expand EI coverage and benefits, and protect social programs.
Contrary to the neo-con pundits, we do have choices. The Harper government has chosen to keep widening the gap between rich and poor. We must choose to drive the Tories out, and to fight for people's needs, not corporate greed.
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
People's Voice Editorial
The NATO war of occupation in Afghanistan is clearly headed for defeat. Sooner or later, the end will be marked by withdrawal cloaked in a "power sharing" agreement between the rival political forces within that country. In the meantime, civilians continue to die under NATO bombs, innocent victims of the latest anti-Taliban offensive.
The breaking point has come for some NATO countries. The coalition government of the Netherlands collapsed in February, after refusing a NATO request to extend its military role in Afghanistan. Instead, Dutch troops will begin withdrawing this August, as planned.
This huge victory should give new inspiration to the anti-war movement in Canada. Only mass extra-Parliamentary pressure can help block a possible treacherous move by the Harper Tories to extend the Kandahar mission.
Make no mistake, despite their claims that Canada's military role will end next year, the Tories badly want to extend the war. For four years, they have cultivated the political terrain, making "support for the troops" the litmus test for public office. That refrain will be hard to keep up if the armed forces aren't busy suppressing insurgents.
But even now, the latest gyrations over the torture of Afghan prisoners undercut Tory credibility. By refusing to reveal the terms of reference of the Iacobucci review into secret documents related to this matter, PM Harper has again signalled that Parliament should keep its nose out of affairs of state. That may suit the immediate interests of the clique in the PMO, but it does fresh damage to democracy in Canada. For the sake of both Afghans and Canadians, this war must end now.
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
The Communist Party of Canada (Ontario) has issued a statement against a motion on "Israeli Apartheid Week," moved by Tory MPP Peter Shurman (Thornhill), and passed "unanimously" by about 30 MPPs in the Ontario Legislature on Feb. 25.
The motion reads: "In the opinion of this House, the term `Israeli Apartheid Week' is condemned as it serves to incite hatred against Israel, a democratic state that respects the rule of law and human rights, and the use of the word `apartheid' in this context diminishes the suffering of those who were victims of a true apartheid regime in South Africa."
As the CP (Ontario) statement says, "In fact, Israeli Apartheid Week is recognized in South Africa, in Canada, and around the world as a week of public events and activities focusing on peace in the Middle East and the main obstacle to peace in the region: Israeli expansionism, and Israel's refusal to abide by United Nations resolution 242 which calls for Israel to withdraw its troops to its pre-1967 borders, and for the creation of a Palestinian state.
"Also recognized around the world is the shameful US - and now Canada's - role in supporting Israel's flagrant and long-standing flaunting of this and many other UN resolutions, as well as the continuation and escalation of Israel's policies of war, occupation, assassination, kidnapping, torture and detention, partition, economic de-stabilization, starvation, the withholding of water, the bulldozing of homes and shops, and the targeting of civilians generally and particularly in the bombing that levelled Gaza.
"These are war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by successive Israeli governments against the Palestinian people, against Israeli citizens, against the peoples of the Middle East and the world's peoples.
"Canada stands virtually alone on the global stage in its unconditional support for Israel, to the shame of millions of Canadians who look to their legislatures for political solutions that will lead to a just and lasting peace in the region - not threats and intimidation here at home.
"Canada's role in supporting these crimes against humanity is disgraceful and it is to the credit of the youth and academics on Ontario campuses, to the labour and democratic movements, and to progressives in some secular institutions, who were among the first (but by no means the last) to speak up for peace, democracy, and justice in the Middle East, and for democracy, truth, and justice in Canada.
"To state the facts and to demand a change in Canadian, US and Israeli policy is not anti-semitism, it is the fresh air of democracy. The anti-semites are those who would equate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism, thus ascribing to all Jews an intrinsic or inherent support of Israeli government policy. But the truth is that many Jews in Israel, in Canada and elsewhere around the globe, do not support Israeli government policy and growing numbers are speaking out and becoming active and involved in campaigns such as the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign. These campaigns are also supported by anti-apartheid veterans such as COSATU and the ANC in South Africa.
"While it's no surprise that the Tories in Ontario are a small echo of their extremist and reactionary federal cousins, it is shocking and disturbing that the Ontario NDP also supported this resolution which threatens free speech and assembly here at home, while distorting the truth of Canada's foreign policy supporting war crimes and crimes against humanity abroad.
"The NDP should disavow itself of this motion, and clarify its policy on the Middle East and on free speech and free assembly here at home. As things stand, the NDP caucus accepts that criticism of Israel is hate speech in Ontario. Is this new NDP policy?
"For our part, the Communist Party is proud to sponsor and participate in the numerous events being organized this week, that will help Ontarians learn more about the causes of the crises in the Middle East and in the process help build the movement for a just political solution as laid out in UN resolution 242, for lasting peace and mutual security in the region."
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
By Sam Hammond
It's the first week of March, an early spring in British Columbia, and the corporate feeding frenzy on the backs of athletes and the BC population called the Olympic Games is somewhat abated. BC still holds the gold medal for the highest child poverty rate in Canada, the lowest minimum wage, the most homeless, the lowest corporate tax rate in the G7 countries (and still plunging). The Campbell Liberals are leading in the race to the bottom in inadequate funding for education and almost everything that can be called a social program.
It's more and more of the same in the 2010 provincial budget introduced on March 2 by Finance Minister Colin Hansen.
The Harmonized Sales Tax, touted as "revenue neutral" by the Liberals, is apparently partisan to the business community, who will reclaim all that they pay and pocket what they used to pay. The pockets of the working population, the homeless and the poor, will be emptied by the imposition of taxes on goods previously exempt and the need to fund the higher costs of social services.
The HST is actually "revenue negative," because the government will actually lose $113 million on it in 2010/11. They will also lose $69 million on the carbon tax because they went too far on personal tax cuts (to who?). This adds up to $182 million in losses.
The Forests and Range budget is cut by 37%, because the Liberal crystal ball has told them they won't have to fight forest fires for the next two years.
Capital expenditures for major corporate-friendly projects have been raised 124%. This will generate a debt service cost that in itself is $417 million more than the entire budget for the Ministry of Children and Family Development, which will receive a modest 1.2% increase this year and nothing for the next two years. Housing and Social Development will receive 1.9% this year followed by cuts in the next two years.
But the most beautiful stroke of reverse financing was begun by Colin Hansen's predecessor. Carole Taylor introduced a three-year phase-out of the Corporation Capital Tax, which used to bring in over $100 million annually, mostly from the big banks. This was in response to the federal Harperite's incentive offer of $48 million over two years to compensate for looking after our big bankers, who now pay almost nil into the BC treasury. Trading income of $100 million a year for a one time incentive of $48 million only makes sense if elected representatives are really closet corporate thieves.
Taylor justified this act of treachery by introducing the Financial Institutions Minimum Tax, which was to kick in this year when the phase-out of the Corporation Capital Tax was complete.
Guess what. In this budget, Colin Hansen cancelled the Financial Institutions Minimum Tax. The dirty deed is complete and Carole Taylor is now on the board of directors of the TD Bank. Unfortunately Colin Hansen is still with us; keep a tight hand on your wallet.
The Liberals came into office in 2001 with huge tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations, and attacks on workers and social spending. This budget is the same bad news for working people. Lower corporate taxes, higher health premiums, new HST taxes, overcrowded schoolrooms, public service wage freeze, privatization, contracting out, higher unemployment, cancellation of re-training for dumped civil service workers, more poor children, closed women's shelters and an almost complete meltdown in most of the resource based interior areas. Isn't capitalism wonderful?
(Hammond is the BC leader of the Communist Party.)
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
In a welcome sign of a broader struggle against the Campbell government's latest round of cutbacks, a Community Coalition to Build A Better B.C. has been formed by community groups, cultural and arts organizations, and unions. The first major action of the new alliance will be a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, starting 11 am, Saturday, April 10.
The groups are joining together to call on the provincial government to stop eliminating public and community services, and to work in consultation to provide "adequate, fair, and consistent funding to support public services and community groups."
A statement from the coalition says, "The strength of British Columbia is our people. We each contribute in unique and different ways, through our talents, ideas, and hard work to build a better BC. Building communities where every woman, man and child is treated with fairness, dignity, and respect is a shared responsibility. When government singles out groups of individuals - by cutting services they depend on, raising fees inequitably, and unfairly shifting taxes - it diminishes all of us. It doesn't bring us together. It divides us.
"The purpose of the Coalition to Build a Better BC is to bring us together. The public, community, and cultural services that we have built together over the years contribute greatly to a vibrant and diverse BC. They help to ensure that every British Columbian can participate and share in a quality of life that is recognized around the world.
"Public, community, and cultural services are essential cornerstones of a civil society. They are a critical component of our economic well-being, especially in difficult economic times. A strong public sector to support, build, and regulate the private sector is vital to the social, environmental, and economic health of the province.
"Due to drastic funding cuts, chronic underfunding, and misaligned political priorities, many of these services are at risk of disappearing, and putting our way of life and the environment at risk. Many of the cuts affect the most vulnerable people in our communities, particularly women, children, isolated seniors, and those with the lowest incomes. It is unacceptable for government to take more from those who have the least, in order to give more to those who have the most."
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
By Kimball Cariou
The Paralympics are still coming to Vancouver, but the dust is starting to settle after the much bigger Winter Olympics. It's time for a preliminary look at the impact of the Games on the people of Vancouver.
Despite claims that the Olympics would "pay for themselves," taxpayers had to shell out most of the $8 billion to host this corporate festival. That includes assets like the Canada Line, but it also leaves taxpayers with a debt burden which will last for many years.
Even critics did enjoy the superb level of competition and the spirit of most of the athletes. Sports like speed skating, snowboarding, and hockey offer an incredible dramatic spectacle.
For every elite athlete from a privileged background, there is a Clara Hughes, who emerged from the hard streets of Winnipeg to win medals in both summer and winter Olympics. Hughes donated the $10,000 cash bonus for her 5,000 meter speed-skating bronze medal to the "Take A Hike" program at John Oliver Secondary, an east Vancouver school which suffers from low rankings by the right-wing Fraser Institute. This program helps students with addictions and other problems to take part in "adventure-based" learning.
And for every athlete who parrots the "family values" line, there's a Johnny Weir, courageously taking on bigots who sneered at his figure skating costumes. Jon Montgomery, the Calgary car salesman and auctioneer, shattered Alberta stereotypes by celebrating at the LGBT Pride House in Whistler after winning his gold medal in the men's skeleton event.
On the downside, politicians took full advantage of all the flag-waving. Stephen Harper turned up everywhere during the final days of the Games. (At some east Vancouver restaurants and pubs, the PM was booed when his face appeared on TV.)
Both the B.C. and federal governments tabled 2010 budgets just after the closing ceremonies. The same politicians who broke open the piggy bank for a 17-day Olympic party are now giving the finger to working people stuck in a lingering economic meltdown.
That reality is on the minds of groups such as anti-poverty activists, and Vancouver teachers and students.
As the Games began, housing advocates and homeless people established a "Red Tent" village on property owned by Concord Pacific, one of western Canada's biggest developers. But on Feb. 28, the final day of the Games, police removed this visible evidence of a massive housing crisis. Civic authorities found places to live for about 35 tent village campers, but denied that any political efforts had been necessary to achieve this outcome.
That's news to the Pivot Legal Society and Streams of Justice, groups which helped organize the tent village. Despite this minor victory, over 2,000 residents of Vancouver remain without a place to call home.
The real success was showing the world that poverty is a burning problem in the wealthy city which hosted the 2010 Games. That message was driven home on Feb. 27, when activists wrapped the entire block around Canada's Olympic Pavilion with giant red tarps calling for action on housing.
On March 1, just 24 hours after Sidney Crosby's "golden goal" set off celebrations across the country, elementary and secondary teachers rallied at the office of provincial education minister Margaret Macdiarmid, demanding that the Campbell Liberals tackle the staggering funding shortfalls faced by B.C. school boards. In Vancouver alone, funding for the 2010-11 school year will be $17 million less than costs, out of a $450 million budget. Just before the Olympics, 800 teachers were sent notices of potential layoffs, as required by their collective agreement. Vital programs are in danger, and school closures are possible. Until now, progressive Vancouver trustees have found ways to keep the main impact of Liberal cuts out of the classroom, trimming administration and fighting for better funding. But there's no fat left to trim.
On another front, Olympic organizers and politicians claimed credit for moving huge crowds with relatively few problems. It's true that widely expected chaos did not materialize. But far from proving that the region's public transportation is a success story, the Games showed just how inadequate the system really is. Olympic organizers did manage to keep thousands of private vehicles out of the downtown for three weeks, by operating the transit system well beyond normal capacity for that entire period. Today, traffic counts are back up, and the region remains about 500 buses short of what's needed to function adequately. Just as bad, fares are going up again on April 1, making public transit even less affordable.
Then there's the matter of the billion-dollar security crackdown before, during and after the Games. The cops generally avoided attacking protesters during the Olympics. However, it took months of hard work by civil rights defenders to beat back initial threats to block any critical actions. Since the global media left town, several opposition organizers has been the targets of police harassment, a tactic which was also used before the Games. Questions also remain around the "Black Bloc" action on Feb. 13; it seems likely that some of the "masked anarchists" may have been police provocateurs.
The closure of the Tent Village, while media attention was focused on the men's hockey final and the closing ceremonies, shows that the police continue to enforce the rules established by the ruling class. From this perspective, the Games were a golden opportunity for the capitalist state to rehearse the massive security operations which may be required when popular mobilizations against the corporate attack become much larger.
And the "Olympic boom" predicted by Premier Campbell? As expected, many downtown hotels and restaurants did a roaring business during the Games. But others even a couple of blocks from the action missed out, and sales slumped badly in many neighbourhoods during February.
To paraphrase a famous Tom Paxton song: "Wasn't that a party? But look at the mess I'm in."
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
By Michael Oosting
As of February 1, LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students in Ontario will have less to worry about. The Ontario Ministry of Education, finally acting upon the extreme harassment faced by LGBT youth in schools, has replaced Memorandum No. 145 of the Ontario Education Act, the policy which governs how school boards must deal with promoting an accepting environment in schools.
The previous version of the memorandum, which came into effect in October 2007, was put in place as a framework for dealing with prejudice and hatred among students. However, it lacked any protocols on the subject of homophobia or heterosexism. While the issues of racism and sexism encompassed several pages, there was nothing on issues faced by LGBT people in schools.
These problems have now been brought into the limelight with the new and revamped policy. Previously harassment because of a student's sexual identity was often overlooked by school board employees. It is now law that staff must report any incident involving discrimination based on sexual orientation, even minor incidents such as homophobic slurs or graffiti.
Also, the memorandum reads that all school board staff must support students who wish to participate in gay-straight alliances; previously, the principal of a school was able to prevent such an organization from being formed, which is quite the opposite of the Ministry's call for equal education for all. This means that Ontario is now the only place in the world where Gay-Straight alliances are supported by law, a milestone in the struggle for gay rights.
Now school faculty will be able to provide more support than ever to LGBT students, and the next generation will receive and education that teaches acceptance regardless of sexual orientation. LGBT activists hope that other provinces will follow the example set by Ontario.
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
By Kimball Cariou
A decision to deny commemoration for the labourers who built the Rideau Canal has stirred up controversy in the Ottawa area.
An application for recognition of the labourers was submitted to the Historic Sites and Monuments Board, which turned down the proposal last December. The Board, which honours Canada's historically significant people, places and events, said it did not dispute the hard work of the canal labourers. However, it claimed, they did not meet the bar of "national historic significance," because their work "represented a typical and common form of labour at the time, and that it was not unusual, nor was it remarkable."
The request was put forward in 2006 by labour activist Kevin Dooley, a member of the Canal Workers Commemorative Group which succeeded in getting Parks Canada to place interpretive plaques honouring the workers along the Canal.
About 1,000 manual labourers died between 1827 and 1832, digging the 202-kilometre Canal out of rocks, forests and lakes between Ottawa and Kingston. Many were Irish immigrants or French Canadians, who used picks, shovels, and axes, working under conditions of poverty, disease and danger.
"Terrible working conditions. Taking your life in your hands every day: rockfalls, drownings, explosions, malaria," Dooley told the Ottawa Citizen. "When you look at building a pioneer country - tens of thousands of destitute people coming from Ireland, building up that infrastructure that would build up that country - it reflects that this country was built on blood, sweat and tears."
"We do understand the suffering and the loss, but there were a lot of large-scale construction projects going on at the time, and how do we distinguish one from the other?" said Julie Dompierre, executive secretary of the board. "Workers worked in similar conditions across the country. What's the story we're trying to tell here that makes this one nationally historically significant? And they did not see that emerge."
Many of the labourers were Irish immigrants, bringing little more than the clothes on their backs, forced to build their own shelters in work camps. Their strikes helped set the stage for the rise of unions during the expansion of industry in Canada, as Parks Canada historian William Wylie wrote to the Board.
Wylie noted the canal was designated as a National Historic Site in 1925 and Colonel By, appointed by Britain to head the construction, was named a National Historic Person in 1954.
"The present nomination turns this emphasis on its head by highlighting the labour-intensive nature of the project and focusing on the role of the people who did the actual physical work," Wylie wrote. "At great personal cost, they did all the backbreaking and dangerous work. In this respect, the Irish labourers, together with the French Canadians and others, made a significant contribution to Canadian history and one that typifies the contributions of canal construction workers generally in the first half of the 19th century."
In a Feb. 16 editorial, the Ottawa Citizen criticized the Board's decision, pointing out that the Rideau Canal played a critical role in blocking schemes by the United States to take over Canada from Britain.
"Building the Rideau Canal today would be a major undertaking, but to have done so in 1827, when Canada was but a collection of rocks, trees and water, was miraculous," continues the editorial. "The historic dimension of this project needs hardly be argued anymore. Indeed, the canal is already a National Historic Site of Canada and, of course, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Even more impressive is that the canal remains a working waterway. How many highways have come and gone and been repaved in the time the Rideau Canal has been operating? How many bridges and overpasses have been rebuilt? Roads are eroded by water but the canal is actually water. Its stonework and walls have withstood the pressures of moisture and freezing decade after decade. The Rideau Canal is a story worth telling, again and again."
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
PV Vancouver Bureau
The Greek Parliament has caved in to imperialist pressures, announcing a budget that raises taxes and cuts pensions and public sector salaries. But the struggle against the so-called "austerity measures" continues. A second general strike in nine days shut down much of the country on March 5, as the Communist-led trade union PAME and the civil service ADEDY union workers walked off the job, closing banks, schools, public transit, flights and reducing hospitals to skeleton staff.
A third general strike has been announced for March 11, backed by the General Confederation of Employees of Greece (GSEE), Greece's largest umbrella trade union group for the private sector, and the civil servants' union ADEDY.
The March 5 strike saw an estimated two million workers take part in a 24-hour stoppage. Tens of thousands of protestors filled Syntagma Square in the centre of Athens and spilled out beyond, led by unions, activist groups, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) and Syriza, the smaller left coalition.
Beginning in the northern inner area of Athens around Omonia Square, the march came down Stadiou Boulevard, taking more than an hour to reach the city centre. More than 40,000 protesters chanted "We won't pay for their crisis" with radical songs blaring from speaker vans coming behind.
The strike and protests came as officials from the EU, the IMF and other financial bodies arrived in Athens at the invitation of Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou to advise on further efforts to impose austerity measures on the country, in a bid to restructure its economy in line with EU requirements. Essentially, the strategy of Papandreou and his PASOK (social democratic) party is to impose the costs of the country's financial difficulties on the working people, while blaming the European Union.
Financial rating agency Fitch downgraded the ratings of the four major Greek banks, in response to what it said was the banks' "weakening asset quality due to anticipated fiscal adjustments in Greece." The decision will in turn raise yields on Greek bonds, further increasing the deficit.
"We don't deny there is a crisis," KKE MP Yanis Ghiokas told the Morning Star newspaper. "However it is not our crisis and we shouldn't pay for it. While Papandreou has talked about tax evasion, the corporate tax rate has been lowered from 45 percent to 25 percent. We want it raised back to make up the shortfall, and reduce reliance on indirect taxes."
Ghiokas also rejected widely publicised claims that Papandreou enjoys up to 70 percent support for the measures.
"People are polled and they are asked `does something need to be done,' and they say Yes. That is then taken as support," he laughed ruefully.
This view is backed by the wide participation of unions in the strike movement. On March 2, for example, 30,000 taxi drivers across Greece protested against new laws that would force them to provide receipts and keep accounts in order to increase tax income and eliminate fraud. Even tax inspectors have decided to take industrial action against the government's plans, calling a 48-hour strike of their own.
In response, Papandreou has increasingly resorted to fear tactics. Greece risks bankruptcy if it does not take radical measures, he warned on March 2, saying the country was in a "wartime situation."
The measures being proposed by his government include a 2-per-cent increase in value-added tax, freezing public sector wages for 2012, a further fuel tax hike, a new tax on luxury goods and further raising the retirement age from 65 to 67.
March 16 is the deadline for the European Union to respond to the Greek government's strategy, deciding whether to provide financial assistance.
The KKE has called the success of the strikes "another response to the anti-people measures announced by the social-democrat government of PASOK such as wage and pension reductions, and increase of retirement age. The workers turned their backs on the call of the government to consent `in order to save the country' from the crisis. They have shown that Greece is not in danger of bankruptcy and that big capital is responsible for the deficits and the debts. Before and during the crisis, big capital has made fabulous profits blackmailing the working and popular strata and placing the burden of the crisis on their shoulders."
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
By Finian Cunningham, Global Research, February 9, 2010
The argument is won: capitalism as an effective system to organise society and provide for human needs has expired. The evidence is conclusive. Trillions of dollars to kickstart the economy in the US and Europe may have given an ephemeral lease of life to the financial class to spin the casino wheel once again, but it is more apparent by the day that the tentative "recovery" has spluttered to a standstill. Gridlocked by unprecedented levels of personal and national debts, the engine of production - the real economy - is in a state of rigor mortis.
This collapse has been a long time in the making. Decades of easy credit was up to now a way for the ruling class - government, corporations, financial institutions - to let the majority of workers subsidise the chronic loss in their livelihoods, which have been drained since the mid-1970s by the oligarchy's self-aggrandisement from wage cutting, regressive taxation and public spending cuts. The political class - whether liberal or conservative, right or left - have facilitated this giant wealth-siphoning process.
However, the point is that the economic system is now objectively shown to be moribund. And it is impossible for so-called mainstream politicians to think of any other way of doing business. They are ideologically blind. Recall former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's arrogant assertion: "There is no alternative". Likewise, US President Barack Obama insists on throwing billions more dollars at the banks and financiers on Wall Street. But that won't kickstart an economy in which millions of workers are without jobs and homes or who are on crumby wages and up to their necks in debt. The profit system has hit an historic dead-end and this gridlock is a result of deep trends to do with the decline in capitalism as a mode of social production (falling wages and profits and the concomitant explosion in financial speculation and debts).
Widespread poverty and human misery is now seen on a massive scale in the so-called developed world. Some 40 million Americans, for example, are subsisting on food stamps. The distinction between "developed" and "developing" economies (always a myth anyway) is blurred. The ranks of the world's long-suffering poor are swelled with dispossessed blue and white-collar workers and their families from across the US and Europe. Together more than ever, they stand shut out from those gated havens of obscene wealth for a global minority.
Similar historic junctures have been witnessed before when capitalism floundered from its inexorable tendency to make the rich richer and the poor poorer. Disturbingly, the release valve for the system and its bankruptcy has always been war. Death and destruction is the lender of last resort to an economic system that - despite itself - inevitably polarises wealth to an unworkable degree. The First and Second World Wars - claiming more than 70 million over a period of less than 10 years lives - were effectively the ultimate, grotesque bailouts.
In our time, war, it seems, has already begun. The US oligarchy and its NATO allies are waging a veritable war on the world: killing, disappearing and incarcerating millions of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan - a war that is expanding into Yemen, Somalia and the rest of the Horn of Africa, with the militarisation of sea lanes and oceans and the setting up of "forward projecting" military and missile bases in every continent (see Rozoff, ditto). On top of ordinary poverty and misery, the world is truly seeing another historic descent into barbarism. Given this war-mongering dynamic, the growing US antagonism with Iran, Russia and China is far from an idle threat. It is the logical next step for a deeply illogical economic system. But history is not inevitable. We are not necessarily programmed to repeat its horrors. A combination of global communications among citizens and political and social consciousness may be enough to prevent a military conflagration and overthrow the misrule of the oligarchy. What is needed is a) a widening of the recognition that capitalism as a system of social production is finished; and b) the case has to be confidently made that an alternative is very possible. That alternative is socialism (the subject of a further article). To those who remain skeptical, they should bear in mind the stark choice that Rosa Luxemberg foresaw for humanity: that is, socialism or barbarism. And we already have the latter.
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
By Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada
The assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas official in Dubai, almost certainly by a death squad dispatched by Israel's Mossad, is by no means the first such aggression against the sovereignty of another state. While Israel has literally gotten away with murder thousands of times, was this one killing too far?
Israel has a long, bloody history of murder, sabotage and outright terrorism all over Europe, in Beirut, Tunis, Amman, Damascus and now Dubai. And that is just what we know about. All of this is allegedly in "self-defence" against "terrorism" even though the Zionist movement in Palestine invented the sort of modern terrorism for which the Middle East became known.
It started with countless Zionist bomb attacks on Palestinian civilians from the 1930s, often in markets and cafes, the bombing of the King David and Semiramis hotels in Jerusalem in the 1940s claiming dozens of innocent lives, and the murder of UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte.
These crimes, on top of the long history of massacres of Palestinians, Lebanese and other Arabs over the past six decades, were all worn as badges of honour by Zionist leaders including Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir who later became prime ministers.
Current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who according to reports personally approved the killing of al-Mabhouh, must have thought it would be a great achievement celebrated by the "civilised" world that is engaged still in a "war on terror." The so-called "international community," after all, has helped Israel isolate Hamas and labels it a "terrorist" organisation despite Hamas' diplomatic overtures, repeated offers of truces and ceasefires, and the mandate it won at the ballot box.
But it is not working out that way this time. Counting on the usual international complicity was not that unrealistic on Israel's part. Indeed there has been no clear condemnation of the act of extrajudicial execution of al-Mabhouh, in a hotel room, apparently by electrocution and smothering with a pillow according to The Daily Mail (UK). What has been greeted with indignation is the forging of passports and identity theft.
Meeting in Brussels, EU foreign ministers strongly condemned the abuse of passports, but did not have the courage to publicly name Israel even though several governments including the UK and Ireland had already summoned their Israeli ambassadors. The British and Irish foreign ministers even directly confronted their Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, who was also in Brussels.
Mossad, the Israeli intelligence and international murder agency, has a long history of using fake and stolen passports of countries including Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany (and now Australia). It notoriously used fake Canadian passports during the attempted murder of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Amman in 1997. Countries view their passports much like their currencies - their credibility and value must be defended. The lives of their citizens may well depend on it; an Irish, British or German citizen has to be able to travel all over the world without fear that he or she will be suspected of being a Mossad assassin.
Several years ago, New Zealand, a country of three million people, broke off diplomatic relations with Israel over the use of its passports by Mossad. But apart from that example, most countries have been too timid to confront Israel. That Lieberman refused to provide any additional information or even acknowledge an Israeli role in the Dubai attack when he met with the European foreign ministers is a sign that Israel still feels safe displaying arrogance and lawlessness, because it knows the "international community" has never dared to hold it accountable.
This time, however, Israeli arrogance may have exceeded the limits of what has been tolerated so far, and turned what was supposed to be an "heroic" act into a scandal with far-reaching consequences. There are some specific and general factors that contribute to that. First, the crime was committed on the territory of a moderate Arab country whose support for peace with Israel has been practically translated into unofficial bilateral relations.
A high-level Israeli delegation had been in the country only days before the Mossad hit squad arrived. Showing so much contempt for a leading moderate Arab state gives a very bad example for any other state that might consider softening its position toward Israel (as the United States had been demanding as "confidence-building measures" for the "peace process").
A second factor is that Israel mostly used stolen identities of living people, whose very public shock and fear at waking up to find their names splashed over the newspapers and linked to a murder, could not easily be hidden.
A third factor is that the Israeli adventure in Dubai carries the traits of just the kind of terrorist act the world has been mobilising to fight. Improvements in passport security were introduced in recent years to stop terrorism, but here is a country violating and sabotaging these security measures in order to commit murder.
We cannot assume that the assassination in Dubai will be the straw that breaks the back of Israeli immunity and impunity, but we can be sure that the general erosion of Israel's standing as a result, particularly of its aggressive recent wars on Lebanon and Gaza, means that what was tolerated by the world more easily five or ten years ago, is less tolerated now. Global public disgust at Israeli actions has reached levels that may require governments who normally prefer complicity and silence than action.
And when there was a "peace process," Israel's crimes particularly against Palestinians were ignored in the interests of not damaging relations or slowing momentum toward the hoped-for successful conclusion. But no one today - except the most naive or delusional - believes that there is any peace process. Despite Israel's efforts to blame the Palestinians, only the most pro-Israel extremists deny that Israel's aggressive colonisation in Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as the siege on Gaza, is what killed any prospect of a negotiated solution for the foreseeable future.
Consider that just days before the passport affair broke out, Israel was once again pressuring Britain to change its laws to protect Israeli officials from arrest for war crimes should they visit London. Although British officials had publicly expressed shameful enthusiasm to tailor British law to meet Israeli needs, they may now face real public opposition if they attempt to change it. What interest does the UK have to protect the likes of Tzipi Livni from arrest if the facts and evidence make it necessary?
The truth is that as it becomes desperate, Israel is turning ever more wild and dangerous, not only for its neighbours but for world peace, security and prosperity. Without constant pressure from the Israel lobby, there may have been no invasion of Iraq. Today, it is Israel and its apologists who are constantly inciting confrontation and war against Iran when most of this region wants peace and good relations.
Even if the countries harmed by Israel's latest brazen act do not hold it properly and adequately accountable - as they must and should - it appears that it is on a path of self-destruction. The great fear is how much more harm it will do to others on the way.
(Hasan Abu Nimah is the former permanent representative of Jordan at the United Nations.)
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers and overseas readers - $50 per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
VICTORIA BC
Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid,
book launch with author Yves
Engler- Thursday, March 25, 7:30 pm, University of Victoria, 105
Hickman Bldg., sponsored by Victoria Peace Coalition, UVic Social
Justice Studies, Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.WILLIAMS LAKE, BC
World Water Day - Monday, March 22,
4 pm, Cariboo Memorial Recreation,
525 Proctor St., join the Tsilhqot’in National Government and Council
of Canadians on World Water Day to defend Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from
proposed Taseko Mines project. For travel pool info, email hgrewal@canadians.org.NEW WESTMINSTER, BC
International Day for Elimination of
Racial Discrimination, rally
against neo-Nazis - Sun., March 21, assemble 11 am at Braid
Skytrain
Station.VANCOUVER, BC
International Women’s Day Celebration -
Sat., March 13, Britannia Ctty.
Centre Cafeteria (near Commercial @ Napier St.), program 6-9 pm, dance
& live DJ 9-11:30 pm. Free admission, international food, cash bar,
songs by Solidarity Notes choir. Info: IWD Organizing Ctee.,
604-345-4765.War resisters speak out - Sunday, March 21, 1-3 pm, Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St., with Ron Kovic (speaking from Los Angeles), Rodney Watson (from his sanctuary in Vancouver), and Jeremy Hinzman (from Toronto), presented by Vancouver War Resisters Support Campaign.
People's Voice Pasta Dinner, proceeds to PV Drive - Sun., March 21, 5 pm, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. Organized by Vancouver East Club CPC, tickets $12, vegetarian option available, call 604-255-2041 for information. Followed at 7 pm by screening of Michael Moore's “Capitalism: A Love Story.”
Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid, book launch with author Yves Engler - Wed., March 24, 7 pm, W2 Community Media, 112 W. Hastings, tour sponsored by Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights and Independent Jewish Voices.
EDMONTON, AB
Take
Back the Night - Sat., March 27, 7-10 pm, women & girls only,
gather at Alberta Ave. Community League, 9210-118 Ave. Demand an end to
violence against women! Candle-lighting ceremony at 8 pm. May Day Cabaret - Saturday, May 1, 7 pm, Ukrainian Centre, 11018-97 St., featuring Notre Dame des Bananes choir and Maria Dunn, tickets $15 ($8 low-income), call Naomi, 465-7893.
WINNIPEG,
MB
Marxism course, classes underway; new
students still welcome. 586-7824 or cpcmb@mts.net.TORONTO, ON
People’s Voice Fund Drive launch - Sat., March 27, 7 pm, GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth (Chester subway). Cash bar, food, live music, greetings from PV Editor Kimball Cariou. Info: 416-469-2446.
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers and overseas readers - $50 per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)
Leonard Asper may be gone, but we’re still here. After years of piling up debts, Asper has resigned his position as CEO of CanWest Global Communications, Canada’s biggest corporate media empire. As the feeding frenzy begins for control of lucrative chunks of CanWest Global, the potential investors never utter a word about the interests of thousands of media employees, or the subscribers to CanWest stations and newspapers. Their only “lens” is profits, not real news and information.
People’s Voice isn’t here to make profits, but we are here to provide our readers with reliable facts and analysis from a different perspective, using the lens of working class interests. For example, when the corporate media reports on “reform policies” in a country such as Greece or Iceland, you can safely assume that these “reforms” are meant to protect the vital interests of finance capital. But when we report on reforms, we’re talking about the movements for employment insurance, job creation, the shorter work week, universal social programs, progressive taxation, defense of the environment, reductions in military spending.
Last year we achieved our Fund Drive target of $50,000 to keep publishing People’s Voice. It wasn’t easy, and it took a bit longer than we wanted, but we did get there. This year, we need to raise the same amount, and donations are already coming in. Thanks to all who have sent early contributions!
As a mark of appreciation for your generosity, we are once again offering supporters complimentary gifts. For each $100 in donations, you can choose one of these black and white portraits, mounted on card, matted and ready for framing: Che Guevara, Clara Zetkin, Augusto Cesar Sandino, Bhagrat Singh, Gall (Sioux), Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Louis Riel, Jeanne Corbin, or Gladys Marin. Other choices include music CDs or a copy of our 2010 Women’s Socialist Calendar.
Two fundraising events will help kick off this year’s PV Drive. On Sunday, March 21, the Vancouver East Club CPC invites all readers in the Lower Mainland to their annual Pasta Dinner, starting at 5 pm, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver. Tickets are just $12, all proceeds to the Fund Drive. The dinner will be followed at 7 pm with a showing of Michael’s Moore’s biting documentary, Capitalism: A Love Story. Call 604-255-2041 for details.
The Ontario fund drive campaign will start with a lively social event on Saturday, March 27, starting 7 pm, at the GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth Ave., Toronto. The evening will feature live music, good food and refreshments, and greetings from PV Editor Kimball Cariou. For more information, call 416-469-2446.