(The following article is from the April 16-30, 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

In February, the only food bank in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the most poverty-stricken urban neighbourhood in Canada, was closed. A community meeting of organizations struggling for economic human rights was held in response on April 5, to demand that the food bank be re-opened, along with higher welfare rates, homes for all, and cancellation of the 2010 Winter Olympics hosted by Vancouver.

     A statement from the meeting organizers (including the Anti-Poverty Committee) said, "The right to eat with justice and dignity must be fought for and won. Hunger is a crime of capitalism. In this country, a million people are forced to subsist from food banks. In Vancouver, food bank visitors number

25,000 weekly. In a society of such extreme wealth, hunger is one of the most vulgar contradictions.

     "Food banks are meant to prevent starvation. Most food banks are not government-funded - rather, they are controlled by organizations that function very much like the State they serve under. Although fundamentally flawed, food banks distribute much-needed necessities to individuals and families abandoned by their government. Donations include not only staple foods but diapers, tampons and other over-priced essentials as well.

     "We struggle for the day when our communities will be sustainable and healthy. Community gardens will flourish where once stood jails. We know that in our capitalist society food is wasted while people are hungry. Our government's economic policies directly dictate the amount of food that is allowed into the `free market' and how much is destroyed as surplus. These actions are crimes against humanity...

     "The fight for the food bank to be re-opened is a struggle against systematic racism and the oppression of poor people. For a movement of poor people to organize to defeat this government it must be strong and healthy. Although food banks are only crumbs, they are a necessity in this starvation economy. And until this economy is overthrown the right to eat with peace is an economic human right that must be won at all costs."

     The closure was also condemned by the Vancouver East Club of the Communist Party of Canada, which works in the same area. A statement from the Vancouver East Club backed the call to re-open the food bank as a necessary emergency measure.

     The statement also demanded a series of urgent reforms to address the crisis of hunger and homelessness in Vancouver, including a $15/hour minimum wage, an immediate 50% increase in social assistance rates, a crash program to build thousands of low-income and social housing units, and free public transit.

     "Vancouver today is living proof that capitalism concentrates wealth in fewer private hands and impoverishes working people," said the Vancouver East Club. "The food bank closure is a criminal act against working people, whose labour for generations has built this city and generated huge profits. Yet those in government and corporate boardrooms who are ultimately responsible for this crime remain free to continue plundering British Columbia. We demand that the wealth created by working people be used to address our urgent economic and social needs, not wasted on tax breaks for the rich and Olympic celebrations."