Figueroa tour to urge
unity against Harper Tories
(The
following article is from
the January 16-31,
2008
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
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Special to PV
Communist Party of Canada leader
Miguel Figueroa will be on the road in eight provinces over the next
two months, bringing the party's message of unity to defeat the
Tory/corporate attack on working people. The tour will include media
outreach and several public events, as well as meetings with CPC clubs
and members across the country.
Although the
federal political
situation remains in turmoil, an election is widely expected sometime
during 2008. As Figueroa noted at the December Central Committee
meeting of the CPC, the party's general characterization of the
minority Harper Conservative government as utterly reactionary and
anti-democratic "continues to hold true."
Harper and
his inner circle of
advisors have been "looking for the right moment to force an election
in order to secure enough seats to gain a majority in Parliament,"
noted Figueroa. These forces thought that they "had all the stars in
proper alignment when the federal by-elections in Québec on
September
17 handed the Liberals a humiliating defeat, provoking a crisis over
Stéphane Dion's leadership. With their standing in opinion polls
edging
toward 40%, and the Opposition benches in disarray, the Tories tried
unsuccessfully to provoke an election by manoeuvring to have their
October 16 Throne Speech defeated in an non-confidence vote. Although
carefully crafted to include some populist plums like tax breaks for
`middle class' Canadians, the Throne Speech set forth a dangerously
reactionary program."
On closer
examination, the
Throne Speech revealed the far-right Tory agenda - extending Canada's
role in the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan, wide-ranging attacks on
civil and democratic rights, refusal to achieve real reductions of
greenhouse gas emissions, and steps to eliminate any federal role in
social programs. In short, Harper's goal is to militarise the Canadian
state, and to remove "social redistribution" functions achieved through
generations of working class struggles.
But since
October, the political
momentum has started to swing back to the opposition parties. The
corruption affair involving Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney, the
shameful role played by the Harper government at the Bali climate
change summit, rising poverty and manufacturing job losses, and the
Tories' defeat in the Ontario provincial elections, have all helped to
put the Harper Conservatives back on the defensive.
"These
developments improve the
prospects for defeating the Tories at the polls in 2008," says
Figueroa. His tour will aim to help strengthen the popular struggles
against the war in Afghanistan and the drive towards integration with
US imperialism, and the movements to preserve Medicare, public
education, pensions and other vital social services.
"Jobs,
peace, democracy,
equality - these are the real issues facing the Canadian working class
today," says Figueroa. "The primary arena for all these struggles will
continue to be in the workplaces, and in the streets and communities of
this country - in other words in the arena of extra-parliamentary
struggle. The trade union movement is always pivotal in this regard,
because of workers' decisive place in the production process and the
creation of value. Labour can and must play in drawing all of the
thread of people's resistance together into a united fightback, a
movement which can drive the Harper Tories out of office and open the
door to a wider struggle for progressive change."
Figueroa's
tour begins in
Toronto on Jan. 17 with a 7 pm forum at the Greek Hall (290 Danforth
Ave.), followed by Ottawa (Jan. 28), Winnipeg (Jan. 30-31, call
204-586-7824 for details of public forum), Saskatoon (Feb. 1), Alberta
(Feb. 2-4), Kelowna, BC (Wed., Feb. 6, call 250-860-6108 for details of
public forum), Vancouver (Thursday, Feb. 7, public forum 7:30 pm at the
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive), Montreal (Feb. 9-10),
Nova Scotia (Feb. 15-17), and Newfoundland (Feb. 18-19). Other Ontario
events will take place in late February and early March.
For more information on the tour, call
the central office of the Communist Party, 416-469-2446.
Found at:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint10/Figueroa_tour_to_urge_unity_against_Harper_Tories.html