18) FIGHT TO SAVE WHEAT BOARD NOT OVER

By Darrell Rankin

The fight to save the Canadian Wheat Board may need to change into a broader fight to save the family farm across Canada.

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The Harper government is claiming victory in its effort to deliver the sale of wheat and barley produced in Western Canada from the control of farmers into the clutches of the giant global grain corporations. A legal challenge in mid-January may still block the legislation, but the Tories are planning to end the few remaining “supply management” programs that protect smaller farms right across Canada by means of new free trade agreements.

Harper’s CWB law ignores the wishes of the majority of farmers who supported keeping the CWB (62%), and the fact that more than 60 per cent of Canadians voted in the last election for parties which respect the views of farmers.

The fight to block the attack on Western Canadian farmers grew since the day after the May 2 election, when Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz reversed his six-week-old promise to respect farmer wishes. By mid-November, friends of the Wheat Board were able to enlist 46 groups to sign a letter urging Ottawa to respect farmer wishes before making any changes to the CWB. The list included the Canadian Labour Congress, and twelve other union bodies. At the end of November, the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba federations of labour issued a joint statement in support of the CWB.

The movement to save the CWB has seen a wide range of tactics, including legal challenges, lobbying, interrupting the House of Commons from the visitor’s gallery, and rallies.

All of these efforts are helping to build the coalitions needed to defeat the Harper Conservatives in the next election, including in the prairie provinces. A longer term issue is the need to develop stronger policies to defend the family farm. Thousands of smaller farms may be wiped out, consolidating the position of larger, corporate wheat farms.

Meanwhile, there have been several suspicious fires destroying property on pro-CWB farms in Saskatchewan. In one case, fires destroyed a pro-CWB sign and later machinery worth a quarter million dollars.

The Communist Party was also attacked in the House of Commons Committee hearings on the CWB bill for handing out leaflets at the large meetings of farmers held last summer.

(The above article is from the January 1-31, 2012, 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.)