The national question and the CLC (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) People's Voice Lead Editorial MANY ISSUES confront organized workers at the Canadian Labour Congress taking place in Montreal this June: jobs, social programs, labour rights, peace, equality, international solidarity, and much more. But one crucial problem needs debate and action: the status of the nations within Canada. Many people are not familiar with that phrase: "the nations within Canada". Especially in English-speaking Canada, "country" and "nation" are widely considered synonymous, and Canada is seen as one nation comprising various ethnic groups, provinces, etc. However, these terms are not synonymous. A nation is an historically-constituted community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, national consciousness and culture, whether or not that people forms a separate independent state. Many countries include two or more nations within their borders, including Canada, which consists of Aboriginal nations, Acadia, Quebec, and English-speaking Canada, within a constitutional structure that emphasizes federal-provincial powers and ignores the unequal relations among these nations. This is not an abstract matter. Starting with the colonial theft of Aboriginal lands and the imposition of an "unequal union" on Quebec, Canada has ignored the rights of national self-determination as recognized in international law. In fact, the federal government has used the "Clarity Act" to specifically deny the right to self-determination. This strategy was hailed by federalists as a "solution" to Quebec independence, but in reality such tactics have only stimulated new separatist sentiments. In 1978, the Canadian Labour Congress recognized Quebec's right to self-determination. This far-sighted decision needs to be renewed and restated, in the interests of strengthening the unity of workers across Canada against the domination of transnational capital. We urge support for resolutions being circulated in the labour movement this spring, calling upon the CLC to carry out an educational campaign recognizing Canada's unresolved national questions, and the need to support peaceful and democratic constitutional reform for an equal and voluntary partnership of all nations. (Back) (Home) CLAC: making collaboration profitable for bosses (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Kimball Cariou ONE OF THE leading voices for workplace collaboration with the bosses is in the news a lot recently. The Christian Labour Association of Canada claims it now has over 28,000 members, including 10,000 in Alberta, where it had just 4,000 in 1998. CLAC seems to be growing rapidly in the Alberta oil patch, where its conservative outlook fits in with the right-wing ideology of that industry. But it's not all sweetness and light for workers represented by CLAC. The Edmonton Sun reported recently that "charges have been laid against a pair of major oilpatch firms two years to the day after two workers were engulfed in a ball of flame while unloading a flammable liquid. Canadian Natural Resources Limited (CNRL) and Dial Oilfield Services could face a total of $3.5 million in fines if convicted in connection with a March 16, 2003, incident." Two workers were horribly burned when fumes from a chemical they were unloading from a truck suddenly ignited while they were refilling chemical tanks at the CNRL site near Edson. The workers had not been warned that the chemical was highly explosive. Dial Oilfield Services was charged with failing to ensure the health and safety of a worker, allowing hot work to be performed where a flammable substance was handled in the atmosphere, and failing to establish safe storage and handling practices for a flammable substance. CNLR was charged with failing to comply with Occupational Health and Safety regulations, failing to ensure an emergency communication system was in place, failing to properly evaluate the potential for an explosive atmosphere to be created and allowing an ignition source near a flammable substance. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of $500,000 or six months in jail. What's the connection? CNLR is one of a growing number of oil industry firms whose employees are CLAC members. Speaking in the Alberta Legislature on March 15, provincial New Democrat leader Brian Mason filled in more of the picture, saying that the "40,000 highly skilled tradespeople represented by the affiliated unions of the Alberta Building Trades Council were recently dealt an unnecessary and unfair blow by this Conservative government." Mason revealed that last Dec. 6, the Tory cabinet issued an order-in-council changing the rules under which the Horizon oil sands project, north of Fort McMurray, will be constructed. The change was granted after a request from CNRL, owner of the Horizon project, without consultation with the affected building trades unions. As Mason said, this provision "allows CNRL to unilaterally negotiate terms and conditions of work outside existing collective agreements. Instead of having to negotiate with the building trades unions, the company can instead use company-friendly unions such as CLAC or the non-unionized Merit Contractors. CNRL will be allowed to bring in lower paid foreign temporary workers without first having to demonstrate that there are no qualified Canadian tradespeople available to do the work." The result, Mason predicted, will be increased job site conflicts, less experienced tradespeople being hired, lower quality work and more accidents. While the oil patch has always been a dangerous work environment, the incident above gives strength to Mason's warning. With oil prices on the rise, more megaprojects are underway in Alberta. By the peak of construction in a few years, an estimated 30,000 skilled workers will be on the job on these sites. The Globe and Mail reported on March 21 that Ledcor Industries Ltd. has won approval from the federal government to bring 680 skilled tradespeople from overseas within the next year. These temporary workers are to be used at Ledcor work sites where it employs members of CLAC, which has been taking jobs away from genuine trade unions in the construction industry. Paul Walzack, representative for Local 488 of the United Association of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, told the Globe and Mail that there is no shortage of skilled workers, and that Ledcor and the companies to which it supplies workers - including Suncor Energy Inc. and Nexen Inc. - are simply looking to hire a more "pliable" work force. Walzack said his union and others will press Ottawa to justify its approval of overseas workers for the oil sands when many of their members in the Atlantic provinces are unemployed. Building Trades Council members usually refuse to work on CLAC construction sites, such as those run by Ledcor. Such companies use this as an excuse to claim that they need to bring in foreign workers, such as ironworkers, pipe fitters and scaffolders. As the energy industry pushes to double oil-sands production to two million barrels a day by the turn of the decade, the guarantees of labour peace and extra profits from CLAC contracts are extremely tempting for the corporations. The CLAC states that workers have "the right to stay out of unions" and that a workplace is "a community rather than a war zone." During its 53 years of existence, just four strikes have taken place at CLAC worksites. The bosses find CLAC's philosophy particularly suitable for their constant drive to increase "efficiency." Since CLAC contracts eliminate union jurisdiction in workplaces, all jobs can be done by any worker, regardless of occupational training and skills. That approach has a simplistic appeal to those who value "harmony" in the workplace above all else. In reality, such collaboration is a tool to allow the employer to increase the rate of exploitation, by maximising the time and efforts of all workers. That's the real truth behind CLAC's smiley-face version of the workplace. Exploitation is the foundation of the entire private profit system. Capitalist enterprises which fail to generate sufficient surplus value through exploitation of workers ultimately fail, usually at the expense of the workers themselves. In an industry experiencing rapid growth and a temporary burst of huge profits, like the Alberta oil sector, class collaboration can sometimes gain a foothold, based on the concept that "workers and bosses are in this together." But when competition gets tougher, workers stuck in "rat unions" like CLAC will find themselves virtually defenceless as employers dump the "collaboration" slogans in favour of lower wages and attacks on working conditions. For the two men engulfed in flames that terrible day in 2003, that day came tragically early. (Back) (Home) Why B.C. voters should reject STV (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By George Gidora, B.C. leader of the Communist Party The lines are being drawn for British Columbia's May 17 referendum on "Single Transferable Voting-BC". While the BC-STV proposal advanced by the Citizens' Assembly has its supporters, the concept has failed to generate a groundswell of public support. BC-STV will likely fall well short of the 60% backing (plus majority support in 48 of the 79 provincial ridings) necessary to be implemented for the 2009 B.C. election. The reason is simple: while a majority of British Columbians are unhappy with the undemocratic "first-past-the-post" electoral system, STV is widely seen as an confusing, flawed alternative. During the Citizens' Assembly hearings last year, there was strong support across the province for some form of mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) system. The Communist Party's BC Committee, for example, called for a system combining the election of 50 MLAs in single-member constituencies, with another 50 to be elected by proportional representation, with a 2% threshold. This system could help broaden the range of political outlooks represented in the Legislature, including parties which advocate working class policies. The Green Party, which won 12.4% of the total vote in 2001 without electing a single MLA, campaigned hard for MMP. Proportional representation also has broad support within the NDP, and in the labour and democratic movements. Instead, the Citizens' Assembly recommended a BC-specific form of the Single Transferable Vote system used in a few other countries. Some analysts think that while MMP was the early favourite among Assembly members, differences over the details opened the way for STV, an alternative favoured by some of the electoral reform specialists who lobbied the Assembly intensively. The result was a complex proposal, giving voters the right to rank their favoured candidates in numerical order. The plan would create some 18 large ridings, each electing from two to seven MLAs. The number of MLAs would remain at 79, a condition set by the Campbell government's legislation setting up the Assembly. No major organization based in the working class, or among environmentalists or other people's movements, has endorsed BC-STV. Many prominent Greens and NDPers are calling for a "NO" vote, and the BC Committee of the Communist Party voted at its March 12-13 meeting to campaign against STV and in favour of a renewed push for MMP as a far more advanced and democratic electoral reform. The advocates of STV put forward several arguments: that any change away from "first-past-the-post" represents democratic progress; that STV would move influence away from political parties, towards voters and independent candidates; that STV would inject a degree of proportionality into the electoral system. But there is nothing clear or straightforward about this proposed system. Far from opening the door to further democratic reforms, adoption of STV would probably mean an indefinite delay in moving towards proportional representation. In fact, if STV proved unpopular in practice, it could result in a return to first-past-the-post. British Columbians could be looking at several provincial elections before PR gets back on the agenda. As for enhancing the role of candidates, this seems doubtful. It is already difficult and expensive for independents and candidates of "non-major" parties to get their message out in ridings with an average of over 30,000 voters. That difficulty will be compounded in ridings several times larger. Already, the debate over STV has turned into a war of competing forecasts over the likely behaviour of parties, candidates and voters. Far from building the struggle for genuine electoral reform, this debate is mired on details such as ballot length - i.e. the numbers of candidates which might or might not be nominated by various parties in a seven-member riding. Then there is the problem of mass confusion over vote-counting. STV supporters say that "it's as easy as 1-2-3," but find it difficult to answer questions about which ballots would be discarded after the first few rounds of transferring votes from less-popular candidates. On May 17, voters should reject this flawed STV proposal, and send the Legislature back to the drawing board. Let's renew the demand for an MMP system that allows voters to elect a local MLA, combined with a strong element of proportional representation. That's the best way to ensure that the views of British Columbians are fairly reflected in the Legislature, and to encourage working class voters to cast more ballots for Communists and other progressives. (Back) (Home) Log exports fuel west coast political fires (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) PV Vancouver Bureau The boom in raw log exports - and the resulting impact on jobs of west coast woodworkers - is becoming a hot issue leading up to B.C.'s May 17 provincial election. Several highly publicized protests have been organized in recent weeks, blocking or slowing down logging delivery trucks. The latest statistics show that under the Campbell Liberals, an incredible 300,000 truckloads of raw logs have left the province over the past four years, taking 14,000 jobs with them. The figures were released in March by the Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS) and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee (WCWC), using information from BC Statistics. Among the findings: The BC Liberals have allowed 14 million cubic metres (a cubic metre is the equivalent of about one telephone pole of wood) to be exported since 2001, or over 300,000 truckloads of wood, almost triple the 5 million cubic metres during the final four yours of NDP rule. The annual log export totals began to climb rapidly under the NDP, rising from 168,141 cubic metres in 1997 to 855,314 the following year, 1,752,442 in 1999, and 2,342,580 in the year 2000. In 2001, when the Liberals took office, exports rose to 2,813,216, followed by 3,973,161 in 2002, 4,050,493 in 2003, and then declining slightly to 3,456,909 in 2004. "When we in BC get less than 1 job per 1000 cubic metres harvested and Washington State gets over 4 jobs, we are doing something wrong here - and that is exporting a raw resource", states former millworker Ken James, Vice President of the Youbou TimberLess Society. The timber mill at Youbou, located for decades on Vancouver's Island's Cowichan Lake, was shut down in 2001 for "lack of supply," even as endless truckloads of logs zoomed by for export. That move cost the jobs of 220 workers. "This is another example of BC Liberal policies that put corporate profits far ahead of BC jobs and the environment. If we're going to decrease the unsustainable rate of cut, but maintain forestry employment levels, we must value-add every tree cut down in BC. Expanding raw log exports takes us precisely in the opposite direction," states Ken Wu, Campaign Director of the WCWC. "Perhaps we should export Gordon Campbell to the USA". The YTS and WCWC both support a total ban on raw log exports from public lands. The groups argue that logs cut on public lands should be made available at regional log markets to be purchased through competitive bidding by value-added wood manufacturers and local mills. This would increase the jobs in the value-added sector, which currently experiences log shortages because most of BC's wood is tied-up with the major forestry corporations with logging tenures, who export raw logs or run them through their own lower-end mills (i.e. less employment per wood volume). According to data in 2002, about half of the raw log exports come from public (Crown) lands, the other half from private lands. Exports from Crown lands require an export permit provided by the BC government, while exports from private lands are governed by federal regulations. Both are subject to "export tests", where raw logs theoretically can only be exported if they are "surplus" to the needs of local mills. Ken James says since a few large corporations control almost all of the wood that is available to smaller, local companies, bullying by the large tenure holders and contractual demands keep many manufacturers from making a bid on the logs the major corporations would like to export. For example, even Rick Doman, former CEO of Doman Industries, has publicly stated that while he wanted and needed logs that TimberWest was exporting, he was contractually obligated not to bid on them. "Forests Minister Mike de Jong likes to point out that raw log exports `only' account for 5% of the coastal cut. That's like saying because only 5% of citizens are victims of car thefts or assaults, it's not a big deal, since another 95% of the people aren't victimized. But let's remember, 5% of the coastal cut being exported is the equivalent of losing 3500 well-paid full-time jobs every year from rural communities on the coast," states Ken Wu. After many years of hard feelings between forestry workers and environmental groups, this issue is turning things around. In February, for example, over 250 people came out in the town of Duncan to hear Sierra Club and the mill workers' union talk about how forest policy changes are affecting communities. The "Raw Logs" event focused on how issues such as raw log exports, deregulation, and corporate mergers are undermining forest communities and damaging the environment. Former Doman Industries CEO Rick Doman said B.C.'s coastal forests and forest communities won't have a future unless major changes are made. Doman noted the U.S. has put in place raw log export restrictions to protect their manufacturing jobs. Bill Routely from the Steelworkers Union (formerly IWA) spoke on the plight of working families in communities across B.C. "I'd like the premier to sit with me in those meetings where a mill has been shut down. Listen to the workers talk about their families," he told the crowd. Sierra Club's forest management specialist, Justin Calof, talked about the set of circumstances that had brought together such historically polarized groups as the IWA and Sierra Club. "Sierra Club and the IWA may still see things a bit differently when it comes to forest management, but we share many of the same values in terms of community health and sustainable jobs," said Calof. "Let's work together to chart a new course for forestry, a course that will benefit B.C. communities and our environment. With the election fast approaching, it's time to start asking your candidates what they plan to do for your community." Speaking to People's Voice, BC Communist leader George Gidora welcomed the upsurge in actions to oppose raw log exports. "The Communist Party has demanded for decades that British Columbia's `green gold' should be used to create jobs and improve living standards, and that the industry should be managed to minimise environmental damage. The focus on quick profits from our forests is destroying jobs, and has done immeasurable damage to the salmon spawning streams which run through our mountains and forests. The resource wealth and the natural beauty of British Columbia are not infinite. We need unity of workers and environmentalists to stop the profiteers and save the future of this province." (Back) (Home) Manitoba farmers march on legislature (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Darrell Rankin After three years of record low farm income across Canada, Manitoba farmers will march on the legislature on April 11. The Keystone Agricultural Producers is invites everyone who has an interest in farming and food to attend (details below). The average "realized net income" (RNI) per farm in Canada for 2003-2005 was $3,734 per year. Farmers are increasingly compelled to find off-farm jobs to make ends meet, or else leave the land. But there is lots of money in agriculture. If you own a large petroleum company, or a railway corporation or a fertilizer/herbicide company there are enormous profits to be made. Monopoly-driven costs for farmers grow, but prices are dropping for most farm commodities as production techniques rapidly become more refined, at the expense of the environment, food industry workers and consumers. In a joint report, The State of Agriculture in the Prairies, the three largest farm producers groups in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba say that prairie farms "are in a crisis mode." The large majority of workers in the cities and rural areas have only a choice between expensive quality foods and food that is produced just for them - uniform, cheap as possible and with little nutritional value. Cheap food for workers means less demand for higher wages, but poor health in the long run. Corporations are constantly attacking the remaining protections for the family farm such as the Wheat Board. World Trade Organization trade talks could deal more blows against agriculture in Canada, doing away with guarantees for the Wheat Board and purchasing policies by governments and their agencies. Just to make up the historical average RNI deficiency for the last three years compared to 1993 to 2002, some $5.7 billion would have to found for farmers. Federal and provincial governments have given next to nothing. These pro-corporate governments, whether they are NDP, Tory or Liberal, have no solution to the farm crisis and the loss of Canada's food sovereignty to mainly U.S. transnational corporations. It is more than 25 years since the famous National Farmers Union-sponsored "People's Commission on the Food Industry" report identified the growing danger of monopoly control over agriculture by a small number of corporations operating in Canada. The latest farm crisis has brought that warning into sharp focus, demanding increased support by people's movements for a solution. These movements must campaign for policies that put family farms, the environment and food quality ahead of the profits of the giant corporations that dominate agriculture today. March for Agriculture, Monday, April 11. Meet 10:45 am at the Forks, march to the Legislature at 11:45 am. Info: Keystone Agricultural Producers, 204-697-1140. (Back) (Home) The airline industry: another private sector failure (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Jason Mann The recent bankruptcy of Jetsgo has left many people in Canada wondering about the future of Canada's privatized and heavily deregulated airline industry. With thousands of passengers stranded, thousands of working people losing their jobs, and fewer areas being serviced, the question must be asked: how successful is the private sector at running airlines? Their record is not so great. Airlines recently closed in Canada include Canada 3000, City Express, Greyhound Air, Intair, Jetsgo, Royal Air, Roots Air, Vistajet and Wardair to name a few. Chalk that up for a total of 30 airlines disappearing in Canada during the last 30 years. More jobs cut, more local services cut. Not such a success record. But at least the price of fares has reduced, right? At least that's what they tell us. Fares have lowered, if you ignore additional surcharges and fees that have skyrocketed. A trip from Montreal to Toronto, for example, booked online one week in advance has a fare of 88 dollars. Not bad, but what is this small print at the bottom: "All fares displayed are in Canadian Dollars, per person, for each way of travel and do not include taxes, fees, or some surcharges." Additional fees and surcharges? What do these add up to? $20 Nav Canada Fee; $10 Airport Improvement Fee; $25 Airport Security Charge; $35 Fuel Surcharge; $10 Insurance Fee. The total? Another $100 in fees and surcharges, adding more than 113% to the price of this ticket. It shouldn't be too much of a surprise for most people that with additional fees and surcharges included, the cost of flying in Canada on average has actually doubled since 1992. This trick of adding hidden access and user fees runs common with other privatized and deregulated industries, such as local telephone services and natural gas. It gives the illusion of lower prices, which market itself will not deliver. My most recent gas bill, for example, had a whopping charge of 77 cents for the cost of gas itself. However, after adding up all delivery charges, taxes and surcharges my bill somehow snuck its way up to $13.75. At over 17 times the price of the gas consumed, it seems that big business doesn't know how to add, it only learned the multiplication table. As Jetsgo bumps up the number of disappearing airlines in Canada from 29 to 30, the failure of the private sector to operate the airline industry is clear. Five major US air carriers flying in Canada are currently under bankruptcy protection, and Canadian air carriers such as Air Canada continue to float in and out of bankruptcy protection. It's only a matter of time before we have another Jetsgo. What is the solution? If the private sector is not capable of running an airline industry, then it must be nationalized and run by the public sector to insure jobs, lower prices and service to rural and northern areas. This means a reversal of the failed privatization of Air Canada, and nationalization of airlines that are not able to continue their operations. Only in this way can we guarantee jobs and air service to all people in Canada by putting the needs of workers above the profits of airlines. (Back) (Home) Food banks: product of capitalist failure (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Michelle Fuller Once upon a time there was something in Canada called a Social Safety Net. This net was spun from taxes paid by all the population according to their ability to pay, and woven from a general public commitment to a "just society" in which nobody was to be denied the basic needs of food, shelter, and healthcare. This vision included equal access to education and a belief that everyone had a contribution to make, no matter what their ability or country of origin. Of course, the "just society" wasn't really that simple. In reality, Canada was always a class-divided country. Our social advances have been won through bitter struggles by workers and the poor. These gains also reflected conscious decisions by sections of the ruling class to surrender some ground in order to head off a shift towards more radical politics by the working class. Still, we achieved remarkable progress towards broad social benefits from the late 1930s until the 1970s. If the social safety net sounds today like a drug-induced dream, you may be of the generation that has been convinced, by a succession of governments who pay court to the powerful transnational corporations who run the global economy, that society holds no responsibility for its members. In the famous words of Margaret Thatcher, "there is no such thing as society", only individuals and the Market. Distribution of goods and services is the responsibility of the Market with the goal of providing a profit to the shareholders of corporations, and the benefits trickle down to (or upon), the population in general. If some are missed, then the poor unfortunates should be grateful for whatever charity can provide for them. There are always surplus products in the Market, including food items past their best-before date, misshapen, off-colour, or overstock. Some is deposited into food banks, not out of generosity to the hungry, but to ensure the distribution system remains free flowing. Food banks also solicit and receive food donations from the public. Even these supplies are insufficient, because the Market system does not work. Or rather, it does work by meeting its main goal of a return to the shareholders, while an increasing proportion of the population is unable to meet their basic needs of food, shelter and healthcare from their employment wages. Every humanly occupied place on earth is challenged to become drawn into the monstrous, capitalist system. Amongst other things, this means lowering real wages and reducing taxes on corporations and wealthy citizens, which in turn reduces revenues for governments to provide essential services. People are forced to pay for necessities such as transportation, education, healthcare and housing out of their food budget, landing them on the doorstep of a food bank. Under such circumstances, a food bank cannot provide a healthy nutritious diet, appropriate to the age and culture of the recipient. People who are forced to rely on the food bank get sick more often, which makes it even harder to maintain employment and family life. Not unlike other provinces, B.C.'s food banks have gone from a temporary measure to deal with an economic slump, to an institutionalized second tier of the welfare system. The reality is that food banks run out of food, cannot guarantee nourishing diets, and have to turn people away. Food banks are unable to solve the problem of hunger. The charity they provide helps shield governments from scrutiny, and shield the public from the severity of the problem. Last year's Hunger Count Report found that 41.7 per cent more children needed emergency food in B.C. in 2004 than in 2003. "In one year, to see that kind of jump, 8,000 more children using the food banks, that's unconscionable in a province like ours," said Carole James (Globe and Mail, Nov. 10, 2004). James blames Liberal policies. The Campbell government has made it tougher to qualify for welfare and to collect benefits for more than two years. Human Resources Minister Susan Brice denies those reforms have increased the demand on food banks. "It's a little misleading for Carole James to basically imply that it's something unique to B.C. It's a North America-wide issue." We cannot expect advances in food security to be made by either of these political parties, which have used the report as a platform for early campaigning. What is being ignored in the media is the obvious. The alarming growth of food bank use in Canada over the past 15 years points to deepening poverty and hunger in one of the world's most prosperous countries. Food banks are indicators and symbols of the ongoing failure of neo-liberal social policies, the state's rejection of people's rights, and proof of the deterioration of Canada's publicly funded social safety net. For everyone who cannot afford safe, nutritious and culturally appropriate foods, the right to food provides a key strategy for overcoming hunger and achieving food security. Gordon Campbell's Liberals and Canada's federal government must be challenged to ensure domestic compliance with Canada's ratification of the UN Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1976) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Both state the right to food and adequate nutrition. B.C.'s deficient income support program and minimum wage policies, combined with scarce social housing and expensive childcare, are explicit violations of Canada's commitment to international law. Food banks exist to house surplus, and to shield governments from their responsibilities. Food banks are growing because the needs of the population are increasing as the gap between the wealthy and poor widens. The clients who visit food banks are everyone. Your families, neighbours, women, men and children, the working poor, those on assistance and disability, and at times the homeless. Twenty years ago we did not have food banks, but this should not imply that people did not go hungry. Food banks were spearheaded by those concerned for the hungry in a political atmosphere that has led to an increase in isolation and a lessening of community. Even today there are individuals who have excess food from their gardens, orchards, and trips to the market but are either unaware or unwilling to aid their neighbour. Food banks are not a necessity, only a product of a failing capitalist system. Grassroots movements are important: community kitchens, buying co-ops, gleaning programs, and community gardens all help reduce food insecurity. However, food insecurity and the multitude of connected problems will never disappear until the private ownership of the means of production also disappears. (Back) (Home) Global actions condemn U.S. occupation in Iraq (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Kimball Cariou Two long and terrible years after an illegal war was unleashed against the people of Iraq, the world still says "NO" to this criminal aggression. While the corporate media did its best to ignore this truth, large and widespread anti-war actions were held in dozens of countries on March 19-20. Just days earlier, the government of Italy, one of the few sizable allies of the US and Britain in the occupation of Iraq, announced that its troops would pull out later this year. Since then, Italian leader Silvio Berlusconi has tried to renege on this promise, but time is obviously running out for the occupation. Perhaps most important, hundreds of thousands of U.S. citizens protested against the war on March 19, and not just in major cities with well-established peace movements. Anti-war groups counted demonstrations in almost 800 communities, living proof that the peace movement is deeply rooted in every corner of the U.S., and growing stronger with every crime committed against Iraq and every death of another U.S. soldier. The largest Canadian demonstrations were organized in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver, each in the range of about 3,000 to 5,000. The Toronto Coalition to Stop the War rally featured a wide range of speakers, from veteran activists to Afnan Al-Hashimi, a 14-year-old student of Iraqi descent who attends Beverley Acres Public School. In Vancouver, the StopWar.ca coalition organized a march across the Burrard Street Bridge to hear speakers at Sunset Beach, including: Father Cortina, one of the few progressive Jesuits to survive the fascist Salvadoran hit-squads of the 1980s; anti-globalization leader Walden Bello; and Baghdad-based web journalist Dahr Jamail. About forty more peace actions were held across Canada, most on March 19. Reports on these protests are on the Canadian Peace Alliance website, http://www.acp-cpa.ca. In many cases, the rallies were easily the largest recent political protests in these communities. Other demonstrations were highly visible expressions of resistance in areas where such actions are rare. For example, in the Nova Scotia town of Annapolis Royal (pop. 550) "we had 20 people in a rally at the town's only lights. We then went to the local Arts Council and viewed a display of our signs and anti war art... photos, drawings, sculpture and quotable quotes against war and especially the war in Iraq." Another typical rally: "On yet another bitterly cold day in Halifax, 400-500 people turned out for a spectacular rally and march organized by the Halifax Peace Coalition. A banner of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (guess who?) painted by one of our members led the parade as we marched through the main streets. A stop was made outside the office of SNC Lavalin to let them know that we did not appreciate their continuing manufacture of bullets for the US. We then proceeded to the building housing the American Consulate where a `die-in' was performed by a dozen people wrapped in blood-stained sheets. Each one represented an innocent Iraqi - their individual stories were told to a respectful crowd. In what is becoming a nasty trend, CBC once again ignored us in their national coverage." Rallies in the United States drew 15,000-20,000 in cities such as New York, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. In San Francisco, Trent Willis, President of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, reported that "When I looked back from near the front of the march, I couldn't see the end. It looked like 30,000 people or more from the stage in Civic Center. I was very pleased with the march, especially with the rain and other obstacles." Local 10 voted to hold a stop-work meeting on March 19, shutting down Bay Area ports for the day. United For Peace and Justice, the broad-based U.S. anti-war coalition, reported that "Bad weather throughout the country didn't deter people from taking to the streets for peace. Sister Bay, Wisconsin, saw a doubling in the number of local residents willing to protest publicly against the war, as six people braved a snowstorm to display peace signs to passing cars. Despite pouring rain, more than 300 people took part in a two-mile anti-war march in Tucson, Arizona. "There were courageous acts of civil resistance: Thirty-five people occupied the office today of Congressman Tom Allen in Portland, Maine, to protest his recent vote in favour of the $82 billion war appropriation. Seventy people shut down a military recruiting center in Eugene, Oregon, for an entire day. In New York City, thirty people were arrested at simultaneous civil disobedience actions at military recruiting centres in Brooklyn and Manhattan. "Many events featured family members of active-duty soldiers, veterans of this and previous wars, and relatives of slain servicepeople, all speaking out against the continued U.S. military occupation of Iraq. In Fayetteville, North Carolina, the home of Ft. Bragg, more than 4000 people joined military families and vets to say real support for the troops means bringing them home. It was the largest protest there since Vietnam." In other parts of the world, the largest protests took place in London (150,000), Rome (over 100,000) and Brussels, where an estimated 80,000 people took part in a combined rally against the war and to oppose right-wing economic changes being imposed in the European Union. (Back) (Home) Can you not keep a secret? (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Johan Boyden Shhh. Listen up. I want to tell you a story that Mr. Moneybags and his corporate media doesn't want you to hear. But you're going to have to make a promise: promise to tell ten people this secret, so maybe it won't be so secret anymore. No, this isn't Amway. We don't push crap around here, you are reading a worker's paper and we're about repeating what really happens in this country. This is a first hand account about what really happened on March 19th in one Canadian city: Toronto. When we rounded the corner and came out of the shadow of the old city hall, a crowd that filled the square greeted our eyes. Banners and signs and placards. We'd started marching about twenty minutes ago - this was the student feeder march, beginning at Young and Dundas square. That square is a concrete desert. It's surrounded by dull glass walls and towers of big box stores, giant TVs and billboards. If nobody stood up to developers and the Chamber of Commerce did all the planning, more of our city might be like this sickening expression of corporate America. So we looked out of place in our own country, under all that branded muck. But the speakers drew out the class connection between those who benefit from war and those own these giant monopolies. Then we headed to the main demonstration. I want to stress a point here. When we got to the big rally, we did not find a crowd of people muttering "Why did I come here?" We did not find a crowd saying "This isn't going to do anything. This sucks." Not at all. Literature and flyers were getting passed around. Speakers were talking about the victory against Star Wars. The message was clear: public pressure works! After more speeches the march headed out onto the streets and shut down a lane of traffic. We passed the U.S. consulate. Union flags flew high in the sky. OSSTF, Steelworkers, CUPE. We rounded the corner at College. High school peace groups, raging grannies, citizens coalitions for disarmament, community groups from across the city and across Ontario - all these banners turned the corner. The YCL brought out a giant rainbow banner with a peace emblem and slogans for the World Festival of Youth and Students. "Globalize the Struggle," we declared. "For Peace and Solidarity, We fight against Imperialism and War!" All sorts of people came and joined us to hold the sheet, young and old. In front was our red banner. There is something exciting about marching with a huge crowd down a city street. You get a feeling of what power the people have. You get a sense of the strength of unity. For a moment, as you move together, you learn a little lesson about the people being a progressive political force. And the crowd grew. Teenagers, grandmothers, dog walkers and Saturday window shoppers. We yelled and chanted in the spring sun all the way down Yonge street. Our voices echoed of the skyscraper walls. I searched the Internet next Monday for some sort of commentary. I searched CBC. I searched the Globe and Mail. There was nothing. It was as if the town squares and city streets had been empty and silent two days ago. Mr. Moneybags owns almost every newspaper selling on Canada's news stands. He owns the radio stations too, and the TV channels. His buddies like to shape the school curriculum and make sure the whole state follows his way. Regarding protests, Mr. Moneybag's line boils down to this: don't bother. Don't bother protesting, don't get active, don't be concerned - you can't do a darn thing. That's a stinking lie, and it has the stinky stench of fear. The smell of a ruling class fearing for its life, because it knows the people uniting, fighting for their rights and winning is bad news. More democracy is bad news. Bad news for Moneybags and his war machines and military profits. Good news for us. So stand up for Peace. Tell your sister, your brother, your co-worker, your neighbour. Tell your union. And let city hall and all the government and also your boss know. March 19th was a success and we need to keep fighting for Peace. Don't keep it a secret. (Back) (Home) City of Winnipeg tries to stifle labour picket at Junos (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Darrell Rankin (Note added April 6/05 : Here is an article on the labour dispute at the MTS Centre, originally intended to urge attendance at last weekend's cancelled picket at the Juno awards. The MFL call for the picket was withdrawn on Thurs, March 31, just before I left town for a few days. Before sending it I could not add this note explaining the change. The call was withdrawn because the union requesting support from the MFL (IATSE Local 63) said help was no longer needed since it accepted a new offer to negotiate an agreement with the Centre. The article still explains the issues behind the dispute and the IATSE's goal in the negotiations now taking place. The dispute will continue until the talks are successful. But until that happens, I think it would be an act of solidarity by class conscious workers to avoid the Centre until the dispute is settled. Given the record of the Centre so far, we may still see a massive picket and other efforts. DR) At the Juno Award ceremonies on April 3, the Manitoba Federation of Labour is supporting an information picket organized by the 220 member IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees) Local 63. The union has a dispute with the recently opened MTS Centre, where the Junos are being held. The City of Winnipeg has set up a protest free "red carpet" zone, with barricades keeping picketers away from view of all media. A street closure permit issued also prevents access to sidewalks. At press time, IATSE was exploring legal action against the closure. The dispute is about the Centre's contract with Nasco Services Inc., a B.C.-based firm which charges the Centre union rates, but then hires low wage temporary workers. For more than 50 years IATSE represented workers at the Winnipeg Arena, now replaced by the MTS Centre as the city's premiere entertainment complex. The Winnipeg Arena, a publicly owned facility, was replaced by the MTS Centre with the support of all levels of government. The MTS Centre's private owners got public funds from the federal, Manitoba and Winnipeg governments after promising to support the community and continue existing relationships from the Winnipeg arena. This ownership switch is a graphic example of privatization promoted by neo-liberal governments in recent years. It is a rip-off of workers and taxpayers alike, benefiting a small handful of wealthy corporate bosses with close ties to the government. After 23 months of bargaining, just weeks before the Centre's opening, management told IATSE to "screw off" and other unprintable language. This corporate disrespect has touched a nerve in wide sections of the labour movement in Manitoba. But so far the pro-business Mayor of Winnipeg Sam Katz is the only government leader to say he has urged the Centre settle with the union. Altogether more than $45 million of public funds have gone to build the Centre. Tax breaks and forgone gambling revenue will add another $256 million to the Centre's coffers over the next 25 years, according to the pro business Canadian Taxpayer Federation. The labour backed Crocus venture capital fund is a founding partner of the Centre's private equity group, contributing $5.2 million to the $134 million project. It will take solidarity, unity and dedicated political work by Manitoba's labour movement to compel the MTS Centre to revoke the contract with Nasco and carry out serious negotiations with IATSE Local 63. It may take more pickets, a massive public information campaign and boycotts of one form or another, but the union will win with the public's support. This is an important battle in the political struggle for the dignity and rights of workers. It is time to end the corporate neo-liberal policies that have brought misery and hardship to workers in Manitoba. It is time for policies that put people before profit (Back) (Home) Fund Drive nears one-third (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) The last two weeks have seen another $4,018 turned in towards our target of $50,000 for the 2005 People's Voice Fund Drive. That brings us up to 32.8%, just shy of one-third of our goal after less than one month. It's a great start, but we need to keep up the pace! British Columbia readers have moved that province into the lead, with $10,059 raised, or 45.7% of the west coast target. Quebec is second at 40%, followed closely by Alberta (38.6%), and Saskatchewan (32.5%).  There has been some promising progress in other provinces, but they have some distance to go before closing in on the leaders. (Note by online editor: My math gives Alberta 48% - first place.)         *************** PV FUND DRIVE: March 23 report Area--------------------Target------------Raised-------------Percent BC--------------------$22,000-----------10,059---------------45.7% Alberta----------------$1,700---------------816---------------48.0% Saskatchewan----------$800---------------260---------------32.8% Manitoba--------------$3,000---------------645---------------21.8% Ontario---------------$20,000-------------4,268---------------21.3% Quebec-------------------$500----------------200--------------40.0% Atlantic Canada------$1,200---------------125---------------10.4% Other----------------------$800---------------100---------------12.5% TOTAL-----------------$50,000----------16,423---------------32.8%         *************** As always, we have received some very generous donations early in the Fund Drive. In our next issue, we will present special thanks to supporters who have donated from $500 to $1,000. Anti-war rallies were held in over 40 communities across Canada on the March 19-20 weekend, and People's Voice was circulated at the majority of these actions. Bundles of the paper went quickly – at least until the rain started to pour in some areas! Thanks to all for the excellent work! A number of fundraising events are coming up, including the 13th Annual People's Voice Victory Banquet in Vancouver. This year the banquet takes place at the Russian People's Hall, 600 Campbell Ave., on Saturday, June 11. Watch our next issue for details. Readers in Vancouver have the opportunity to watch and discuss The Motorcycle Diaries at the next left Film Night, 7 pm, Sunday, April 10, at the Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive. Admission is free, but donations towards the Fund Drive will count toward the Vancouver East Club's target. PV Editor Kimball Cariou will be on the road a couple of times this spring. At the end of April, Kimball will travel to Manitoba, to meet with readers and supporters, and to speak at a PV forum on the lessons of the progressive civic reform movement in Vancouver. He will also take in the annual May Day banquet in Winnipeg. Call 204-586-7824 for details. Then in late May, Kimball will meet with club press directors and take part in other events in Southern Ontario. For information on that trip, call the Ontario People's Voice Bureau, 416-469-2446. (Back) (Home)  Union applies to certify Gatineau Wal-Mart   (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) The United Food and Commercial Workers union has filed applications to certify workers at a Wal-Mart store in the old Hull section of Gatineau. UFCW-Canada tabled two certification applications with the Quebec Labour Relations Commission to represent workers in the main section of the Wal-Mart store on Boulevard du Plateau, as well as in the store's Tire and Lube Express shop. The same union earlier filed certification applications for three other Wal-Marts in Quebec – one in Jonquière, one in Saint-Hyacinthe, and one in Brossard. Wal-Mart has since announced that the Jonquière store would be closed because it didn't make money – a claim the union called nonsense. In February, the company was found guilty of harassing employees during an organizing drive at its store in Ste-Foy, outside Quebec City. “We salute the courage and the determination of these workers who, despite Wal-Mart's intimidation tactics, are asserting their right to unionize,” said Guy Chenier, president of UFCW Canada Local 486. An attempt to certify a union at a Wal-Mart in Windsor, Ont., suffered a setback earlier in March when workers voted against forming a union. The union has filed unfair labour practice charges in this case, accusing Wal-Mart of intimidation. (Back) (Home) BC Communists nominate four candidates in May 17 vote  (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) The Communist Party of BC, which is registered as an official provincial party for British Columbia elections, has nominated four candidates for the May 17 election. Party leader George Gidora, a long-time activist in the labour and people's movements, will be the candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway, a riding with a strong working class population and a diverse ethnic mix. The Chilean Housing Co-op, located in the riding, has been a focal point of progressive Latin American activities for over 20 years in Vancouver-Kingsway. Retired hospital worker Peter Marcus will run in Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, location of the Communist Party's BC office. The community includes part of the left-leaning Commercial Drive neighbourhood, as well as the historic Strathcona community and most of the Downtown Eastside, one of the poorest urban areas in Canada. Marcus was one of many Hospital Employees' Union members forced to take early retirement by the Campbell government's anti-labour policies. He has been active for many years in the Coalition of Progressive Electors and in transit issues. Harjit Daudharia, editor of Darshan, the recent book of writings by and about Darshan Singh Sangha, the early IWA organizer who was later an elected Communist in the Punjab, will once again contest the riding of Surrey-Green Timbers. Daudharia is well-known in Surrey as a cultural worker, an anti-war activist and a defender or the rights of senior citizens. The fourth and youngest Communist candidate is Steven Roebuck, in the riding of Kelowna-Mission. Roebuck is a student activist at the Kelowna campus of the Okanagan University Collete. To volunteer for the Communist campaign, or to get further information, contact the BC office of the Communist Party, at 604-254-9836, email cpbc@telus.net. The campaign headquarters is at 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, B5L 3J1. (Back) (Home) No to "deep integration" (The following editorial is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) As reported elsewhere on this page, leading political and business figures are calling for new steps towards “deep integration” of Canada into the US Empire. All possible pressure must be placed on Parliament to reject this continentalist agenda. In last year's federal election, Canadian voters made it quite clear that most do not support the right-wing policies pushed by Stephen Harper's Conservatives, including his pleas to back the Bush White House on every major issue affecting our planet. By giving the Martin Liberals a minority government, voters sent a signal that Canada should pursue independent policies based on the interests of working people, not the demands of corporations for maximum profits. If anything, that sentiment has deepened over the last several months, as the U.S. Administration chooses to ignore trade deals in its relations with Canada. Instead of more sellouts to U.S. Imperialism, we need to abrogate NAFTA, pull out of NATO and NORAD, and design a trade and foreign policy based on defence of Canadian sovereignty, improved living standards, and environmental protection. That's an agenda that would win wide support among Canadians. If a federal election is suddenly called this spring, the labour and democratic movements across Canada must mobilize to demand such a shift in direction! (Back) (Home) Bay Street's annexation initiative (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) Other Voices On March 14, business leaders and former politicians from the U.S., Mexico and Canada held a news conference to promote the idea of continental “cooperation”. Speaking on CBC Radio the next day, Murray Dobbin, a Vancouver author and a member of the Council of Canadians, warned that the idea goes much further than cooperation: Canada's elites have never been more out of synch with ordinary Canadians. And if you want proof, they have come up with the most comprehensive plan to change this country since the free trade deal of the late 1980s. The plan talks of a North American security perimeter, the elimination of tariffs and a common energy policy. Others have given it a name: the annexation initiative. At the end of 10 or 15 years Canada as we know it – a sovereign nation whose institutions reflect our unique values – could well be on the way to disappearing. The Canadian members of this task force are the elite of the elite. The Canadian co-chair is John Manley, quite likely the next leader of the federal Liberals. Michael Wilson, former Tory finance minister and former Quebec Premier Pierre Mark Johnson are also members, as is Tom D'Aquino, whose Canadian Council of Chief Executives first hatched the scheme. Among the most controversial recommendations of the task force would be the elimination of the current NAFTA exemption for culture. Another would expand the egregious energy provisions of NAFTA to electricity. And NAFTA already guarantees the U.S. An ever-increasing percentage of our gas and oil production Yet another could see the eventual diversion of Canadian rivers to the U.S. In effect, this is what Canada will have to put on the bargaining table to receive in return what we were supposed to get with the free trade deal: unfettered access to the U.S. Market. The promoters of this annexationist plan believe that the only way Canada will not be hurt by U.S. Security concerns is to adopt those concerns as our own, and redefine ourselves as North Americans. To accomplish this will take an unprecedented social engineering project including changes to the education system designed to get young Canadians to accept the idea that they are, actually, North Americans. The report states, and I quote”: “Participants agreed that progress on this front will require effort within the education system [including] supplements to the standard curriculum.” Canadians are now more conscious and more proud of the things that distinguish them from their imperial-minded neighbour than at any time in the past 50 years. We do not want to be North Americans because common sense tells us that that would really mean becoming increasingly American – culturally, socially and in our foreign policy. But Canadians' desires and values clearly count for nothing in the planning of the annexationists. Both the Conservative Party and federal Liberals support the plan, and promoters hope Paul Martin will broach the topic at next week's Canada/US/Mexico summit. The next move will depend on ordinary Canadians. (Back) (Home) Unions resist EU privatization (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) More than 50,000 demonstrators marched in Brussels on March 19 against a proposed European Union directive to open up public service markets. Unions warned that the move would drive down social and labour standards and threaten jobs, by opening wider opportunities for government to privatize all public services, including education and health. John Monks, secretary general of the European Trade Union Confederation, said the protest was designed to send a powerful message to EU leaders. That message was heard the next week when government leaders voted to send the directive back to the drawing board. The huge crowd in Brussels chanted “Stop Bolkestein!,” referring to Dutch former EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein, who first introduced the measure as a key plank in the “Lisbon Agenda” strategy, designed to make Europe the world's “most competitive society” by 2010. “The European Union is not only about capitalism, but about workers and the 19 million without jobs,” said a banner carried by a group of marchers from Slovenia. “In a market where everything is liberalized, we are an anomaly, we the public service workers,” said French demonstrator Bernard Soula. The Bolkestein directive would allow service providers to compete anywhere in the 25-member EU and its market of 456 million people. It contains a “country of origin principle,' which would allow a business to operate in another country under the laws of its own. This would drive standards and wages down to the level of the poorer countries and encourage businesses to set up their headquarters in countries where the laws are weakest. Discontent over the directive threatens to block approval of the proposed European constitution, which is subject to popular referendum in several countries. The country of origin principle has also been criticized by governments in several member states with highly developed social welfare structures, including France, Germany, Belgium and Sweden. In France, unions have held big strikes this winter against threats to public services, and polls indicated that French voters may reject the constitution in a May 29 vote. EU leaders tried to rescue French President Jacques Chirac on March 23 by retreating on Bolkestein bill. The European Commission executive was told to revise its draft to meet the requirements of “the European social model” with high standards of labour and consumer protection, a decision widely seen as a setback to plans for wider privatization and deregulation. At their two-day summit, the 25 leaders also agreed to ease the bloc's budget deficit rules and stepped back from targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (Back) (Home) India-wide strike cripples financial services (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) Financial services were crippled across India on March 22 by a strike against the government's move to allow foreign investment and mergers in the sector. The strike was especially effective in Mumbai, India's commercial capital, but it covered most public, private sector, cooperative and rural banks. Nearly one million bank employees, members of nine unions which comprise the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), joined the one-day strike while Left party leaders in parliament attacked the government's banking policy. The government proposes to merge large banks into four or five entities and allow up to 74 percent foreign direct investment. Union members held noisy demonstrations outside bank branches, vowing to intensify protests if their demands were not met. Most public sector banks wore a deserted look with cheque clearance, cash withdrawals and deposits suspended. The workers extended their action to ATM machines, which had undermined previous financial strikes. ATMs adjacent to banks were closed, and pickets were organized at many stand-alone ATMs in urban areas. The only ATMs that escaped the unions' dragnet were some in rural areas. “The strike is a wake-up call to the government. If it doesn't reverse its anti-people and anti-economy decisions, we will be forced to intensify our agitation,” Harvinder Singh, vice president of the All India Bank Officers' Confederation, told the media. “The government's policy of merger and acquisitions and higher foreign investment will destroy the public sector character of the banks. Many banks would be forced to close down branches.” In the Lok Sabha, Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta warned that the strike would be prolonged if the government did not give up its proposal. Cautioning the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government against taking its supporting parties for granted, Dasgupta warned that “if the UPA follows the same footsteps as the previous (right-wing) government, then we shall confront you in Parliament and on the streets.” On March 23, eighty thousand employees of India's four public sector general insurance companies began a two-day strike against the proposed increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) ceiling in the insurance sector, and to demand higher wages and an end to the “outsourcing' of health insurance. (Back) (Home) China is single and indivisible (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Jose Reinaldo Carvalho, Vice-President of the Communist Party of Brazil (abridged) The National People's Assembly of the People's Republic of China, meeting on March 14, unanimously passed the Anti-secession Law. The document summarizes a historical position, principle and desire of the Chinese people, its government and the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice criticized the law, affirming that “It will increase the tension in Asia.” In Taiwan, local supreme authority, Chen Shuibian, defender of separatist theses, has promised to organize massive demonstrations against the law. What does the Anti-secession Law declare? “The Law is written according to the Constitution – as affirmed in Article 1 – to restrain and fight against the secession of Taiwan from China by secessionists in the name of 'Taiwan's independence', promoting peaceful national reunification, keeping peace and stability in Taiwan Strait, safekeeping China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, defending the fundamental interests of the Chinese nation”. How did the Taiwan issue appear, and what are the origins of the separatist threats? Taiwan Island, called Formosa by the Portuguese, is an indisputable part of China. By the end of World War II, as Japan surrendered, China recovered Taiwan the the Penghu Islands. China's sovereignty over Taiwan had been interrupted in 1895, when Japan imposed the Shimonoseki Treaty on the Qing dynasty, taking Taiwan by force. A February 2000 publication by the Office of Taiwanese Issues and the Office of Information of the State Council of the People's Republic of China presented legal grounds that support the thesis of China's sovereignty over Taiwan and the acceptance of that political and juridical fact by the international community: “In July 1937, Japan started a generalized war of aggression against China. In December 1941, the Chinese government announced ... in its Declaration of War against Japan that China annulled all treaties, agreements and contracts regarding relations between the two countries, including the Shimonoseki Treaty, and that the country would recover Taiwan. The Cairo Declaration signed by the governments of China, United States and England in December 1943, declared that Japan should return China's Northeastern region, Taiwan, the Penghu Islands and other usurped Chinese territories. In the Potsdam Declaration, signed in 1945 by China, the United States and England (and later by the Soviet Union), it was reiterated: 'The terms of the Cairo Declaration must be met.' In August the same year Japan surrendered and in the Articles regarding its rendition  Japan compromised to 'fully respect the obligations listed in the Potsdam Declaration'. On October 25, the Chinese government recovered Taiwan and the Penghu Island and retook the exercise of sovereignty over Taiwan.” On October 1, 1949, the Government of the People's Republic of China was proclaimed, replacing the Government of the Republic of China as the single legal government of all China and the single legitimate representative of China in the world. It is a matter of substituting an old power with a new one inside the same unchanged subject of international law, as the original sovereignty and borders of the Chinese territory do not suffer any change. The People's Republic of China enjoys full sovereignty and exerts it all over its territory, including Taiwan. The Kuomintang forces, under the leadership of Chang-Kai Shek, retreated to Taiwan after their defeat in the civil war and then called that part of Chinese territory the “Republic of China.” This does not change the fundamental notion that the central government of the People's Republic of China has the right to exert sovereignty on Taiwan. That is why Taiwan has been considered a rebel province and its “leaders” are viewed as “local authorities in Chinese territory”. The Anti-secession Law is based on the principle that “there is only one China in the world” (Article 2) and proclaims “The State will not tolerate secessionist forces that seek 'Taiwan's independence' to separate Taiwan from China under any name or any form.” In respect to Taiwan's options, the Law says: “After the fulfillment of the peaceful reunification of the country, Taiwan may apply systems that are different from those of the continental part and enjoy a high degree of autonomy” (Article 8). The Anti-secession Law defines in Article 6 a set of measures aimed at keeping peace and stability in the region of the Taiwan Strait and promoting relations between both sides. In 1971, the UN General Assembly approved resolution 2578, expelling the Taiwan representative and reestablishing the position of the People's Republic of China in the UN. Since then, there have been clear advances in the international community's understanding of the Taiwan issue and acceptance of the principle that there is only one China in the world. In 1972, China and Japan reestablished diplomatic relations, and in 1978 the United States recognized that  (the) 'Government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government of China”. The U.S. Authorities declared that they “recognize China's position, that is, there is only one China and Taiwan is part of China”. Based on those grounds, China and the United States reestablished diplomatic relations in December 1978. The People's Republic of China now maintains normal and stable diplomatic relations with 165 countries. Despite such advances, lately there have been some setbacks that led the Chinese authorities to adopt the Anti-secession Law. In Taiwan, the secessionist threats have increased with efforts made by pro-separatist local authorities to use a “constitutional reform” to achieve some sort of “independent sovereign State”. Despite formally respecting the terms of three joint communiqués made with the Chinese government where it committed to comply with the policy of a single China, the United States is in practice acting in the contrary, making it difficult to achieve the conditions necessary to a peaceful reunification. In such circumstances, the Anti-secession Law passed by the People's National Assembly grants the Chinese State the right to use “non-peaceful means and other measures necessary to protect China's territorial sovereignty and integrity” in case the secessionist forces provoke the “secession of Taiwan from China or the occurrence of important incidents that imply the secession of Taiwan from China, or in case there is no possibility of a peaceful reunification'. Critics of the Anti-secession Law, especially the leaders of U.S. Imperialism, are obscuring the efforts made by China to achieve a peaceful unification. This is understandable, since there is a clear disquiet in U.S. ruling circles over the progress made by China and its growth in the international scene. Elementary as it is, a nation and a people deciding to reach the last consequences when it is a matter of defending their sovereignty and integrity of their territory is also understandable. (Back) (Home) India: unions demand right to employment (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India Unemployment continues to spiral upward in India, especially amongst youth, now exceeding a total of 120 million jobless. The Congress of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has decided to organise a countrywide movement for the right to work to be enshrined in the Constitution. The campaign was debated at a national conference of over 110 CITU delegates, held on March 12-13 at the Yuva Bharati stadium at Salt Lake, Kolkata. Opening the event, all-India president of the CITU, Dr. M.K. Pandhe, said that the United Progressive Alliance government's job security promises are not reflected adequately in its employment guarantee bill. (The UPA, which defeated the right-wing communalist BJP government in the last election, is led by the centrist Congress Party.) The CITU, said Dr. Pandhe, would organise a countrywide movement, together with students, youth, kisans (farmers), and women, to compel the UPA government to guarantee employment and to enshrine the right to work in the Constitution. Dr. Pandhe stressed that capitalism was responsible for the rampaging unemployment that affects the country, and that capitalist exploitation meant that workers and employees do not receive proper wages and salaries. What follows is the drastic reduction in the rate of production as well as productivity, and new employment is not generated at all. Dr. Pandhe pointed out that in a capitalist society, the right to work must be earned through struggles and movement; in a socialist society, the right of work is always given proper recognition. Stringently critical of the UPA government, Dr. Pandhe said that the employment bill did not reflect the promise given in its Common Minimum Programme (CMP) that minimum wages and employment would be guaranteed for 100 days for at least one member per family across the country. The bill does not talk of minimum wages, does not mention the urban unemployed, and remains silent on unemployment among the lower echelons of the middle class. The financial burden for carrying out employment guarantees has been cleverly downloaded onto the shoulders of the state governments. Unemployment, said Dr. Pandhe, formed a breeding ground for the criminalisation of society, as youth lost direction. He concluded that the right to employment was very much integrated with the right to life, and that the UPA government must be compelled through a united movement to change its stance on the issue of employment and to live up the CMP. All-India general secretary of the CITU, Chittabrata Majumdar, said that globalisation meant that unemployment was always on the rise, and that labour-intensive industries are declining. Laws on the eight-hour working day and minimum wages are being watered down and even eliminated. Identifying the unemployed as the army of potential workers, Chittabrata Majumdar pointed out that unless trade unions involve them in movements and struggle, the forces of reaction would utilise the unemployed to strike at democratic movements. Referring to reports published by the ILO, Majumdar said that 25% of the total potential working population are in the 15 to 24 age group, among whom unemployment runs at 47%. The total number of unemployed youth in India is nearly 90 million. With little progress made at the all-India level in terms of effective land reforms, Majumdar noted, the potential employment in rural areas is held down as kisans are deprived of land. The development of the rural market, he said, would have also pushed up urban employment figures. Even those with jobs, said Majumdar, face falling wages and salaries, and the trend towards part-time work. In the export processing zones, industrial units do not pay even minimum wages, and layoffs face those who try to organise trade unions. Protections for labour-intensive small and medium industries are being withdrawn in favour of big industries, including those run by the transnationals. Majumdar was critical of the notion that foreign investment will mean higher production and greater employment. Foreign investors are mainly interested in purchasing established units in the banking, insurance, telecom, and petroleum sectors, showing no interest in the manufacturing sector. Their efforts actually result in shrinking employment opportunities as more and more employees are thrown out of work, he said. (Back) (Home) FBI agent admits: no case vs. Cuban 5 (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By W.T. Whitney Jr., People's Weekly World Newspaper There was no evidence the Cuban Five posed a threat to the U.S., the lead FBI investigator in the case has admitted. In May 1998 Hector Pesquera led the FBI's efforts in Miami to formulate a criminal case against the five men, who had infiltrated anti-Cuban paramilitary groups in the U.S. The five – Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, René Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez – hoped to warn the Cuban government about terrorist plots against it. The FBI arrested the men in September 1998. They were tried and convicted on various charges, including, in three cases, conspiracy to commit espionage. In January of this year, two of Pesquera's friends – one said to be an FBI informant, the other reportedly part of a 1997 campaign of bombings in Havana – interviewed him on Radio Marti, the U.S.-funded station that broadcasts right-wing propaganda to Cuba. They asked the now-retired Pesquera, “Do you believe that at some moment the security of the United States was in danger or that they had access to some intelligence information that could be valuable to the enemies of the United States? “No,” he answered. “For example, in the case of Guerrero, a retrospective study of the information that he had taken was made; the investigation was unable to determine if he had such intelligence information.” The prosecution apparently never shared this information, favourable to the accused, with his defense team. The extent to which the prosecution failed to share evidence is unknown. But such a failure could constitute prosecutorial abuse, and could lead an appeals court to invalidate the trial, some legal experts suggest. After 17 months of solitary confinement and a trial rife with judicial flaws, a federal judge gave the five severe sentences, including life for three of them. At the trial, U.S. Military officers and security experts testified that the men had done nothing to harm U.S. military preparedness or security interests. Pesquera told another interviewer in 2003 that just before the arrests, “others in the Justice Department didn't want to touch this.” He said then (that) Attorney General Janet Reno, in particular, was reluctant to arrest the men. Commenting on the revelations, the Rev. Lucius Walker of Pastors for Peace said, “The world can be thankful that a former FBI official, who was primarily responsible for the arrests, has stated on the record that the Cuban Five posed no threat to the United States. Perhaps this will be an opening for justice for the five anti-terrorists.” Geoff Bottoms, a leader of the British campaign to free the five Cubans, said, “All along it has been obvious that this was a political trial in which the FBI acted in the interests of the Miami Mafia with the full complicity of Washington.” “With the appeal judges in Atlanta expected shortly to announce their decision on the case of the five, this further nail in the coffin of the prosecution should bring the day forward when these five Cuban heroes receive justice at last,” he said. (Based on a March 15 report by Jean Guy Allard in Granma Internacional.) (Back) (Home) Anti-scab law faces vote in Commons (The following article is from the April 1-15/2005 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) PV Vancouver Bureau The Public Service Alliance of Canada, in partnership with the Canadian Labour Congress, is stepping up its campaign in support of Bill C-263, an amendment to the Canada Labour Code that would make it illegal for employers to hire scabs during strikes or lock-outs in the federal sector. This includes the banking sector, transportation, communications and all workplaces north of the Sixtieth parallel, other than Territorial and Federal government. Bill C-263, a private member's bill introduced by Roger Clavet, Bloc Québecois MP for Louis-Hébert, will come before the House of Commons on April 7 for a final vote. This amendment was lost by a slim margin the last time it was introduced; with enough pressure on MPs, it could pass this time. The CLC and PSAC argue that legislation to ban scabs and so-called “replacement workers” is essential to ensure relative equality in the bargaining power relationship between workers and management. Otherwise, management often simply ignores the rights and interests of striking workers, choosing to replace them by lower-paid, less skilled employees who are much more subject to pressure from the boss than are unionized workers. In provinces where such legislation has been adopted, it helps tend to minimise violence, injuries and even death on the picket line during lengthy labour disputes. Currently there are two provinces with anti-scab legislation. Quebec introduced such legislation in 1977 in response to a number of violent strikes in that province. In Quebec, the average number of working days lost to labour disputes dropped from 39 days in 1976 to 32 days two years after the bill was passed. By 2001, with the laws still in place, the average number of working days lost dropped to 27.4 days. From 1992 to 2002, the number of days lost for every thousand employees under the Quebec Code was 121 and under the Canada Labour Code, it was 266 days. BC passed anti-scab legislation in 1993 with a similar reduction in time lost due to strike. The amount dropped by 50% in the year following the introduction of the law which continues in effect even with a change in government. Ontario outlawed scabs in 1992, but this was overturned by the Harris Tories a few years later. While these figures might be interpreted to reflect a decline in labour militancy, a better explanation may be that depriving management of one of its most vicious weapons forces companies to bargain more seriously and to agree more quickly to enough union demands to settle disputes. A classic illustration of the dangers of using strike-breakers came at the Royal Oak Mine in Yellowknife, where a bitter strike turned into violence when management decided to attempt to destroy the union by hiring replacements. Nine scab miners were killed by an explosive in the mine on September 18, 1992, an act blamed on a frustrated striker. In June 2002, a security worker hired by International Truck (Navistar) in Chatham, Ontario to break a CAW strike, drove over a picketer and injured four others. The strike was die to Navistar's demands for concessions and their determination to use London Protection Inc. to break the strike. Vidéotron's dispute in Quebec in 2002-2003 was under federal laws and lasted 10 months. It involved 2,200 workers. Scabs were used and the company facilities were vandalized. Over 350,000 days of work were lost in a strike prolonged by the use of scabs. As a private member's bill, C-263 must be voted on after two hours of debate. The first hour of debate took place last Nov. 25, with all parties in Parliament taking part. Raymond Blais (Bloc Québecois, Gaspésie-Iles-de-la-Madeleine) told what it was like when scabs took his job. “At first, I was simply a man who went on strike on October 20, 1982, knowing full well that the dispute would mean that there were difficult times ahead, especially considering that there was no federal anti-scab legislation and that radio stations are under federal jurisdiction... The length of labour disputes depends on the balance of bargaining of power. When there is no anti-scab legislation, as is the case in Canada's history, disputes last for an extremely long time. “I had to go through a 38-month strike. Others have been locked out. Others in the same sector, especially in Quebec – I am thinking of the people from Télé-Métropole – were locked out for about two years. I also remember people I knew from the CKML radio station in Mont-Laurier who had to go through similar labour disputes. “I went on strike thinking it would only last a few weeks. It lasted 38 months... Imagine what almost four years of strike can do. Some people go through severe depressions. We were 123 employees at the radio station and as many were replacing us. As a matter of fact, we were picketing every day and we could clearly see those people passing by because they did not come in buses or vehicles with tinted windows. Those people were members of the management staff or scabs. We could also see them elsewhere because some of them lived in our community. This can create uneasy situations and even very serious problems within families or communities.” Dave Christopherson (NDP), Hamilton Centre) said, “We are talking now about situations, which have existed in this country, unfortunately, far too often, where workers are on a legal strike but they do not have the protection of a law like this. After workers have been out for days and weeks and months, it does not take long before every morning they see those buses going in, with the scabs inside, and the windows covered over with newspaper, or even painted, going in and taking their job, their ability to earn a living, pay the bills and put food on the table and provide for their children...” On the other hand, David McGuinty (Liberal, Ottawa South), said that “The current provision concerning replacement workers is a compromise like so much Canadian legislation. During the proceedings of the Sims task force, in 1995, the unions were asking for a complete prohibition of replacement workers during legal work stoppages, but the employers refused all limitation of that order. The task force came to the conclusion that a reasonable solution could be found halfway between these two extremes. That solution was to allow the use of replacement workers provided the union can lodge a complaint with the Canada Industrial Relations Board if it deemed replacement workers were being used to weaken its capacity to fairly represent its members.” Not surprisingly, Ed Kimarnicki (Conservative, Souris-Moose Mountain), told the Commons that “A complete prohibition of replacement workers would force the parties to bargain in a closed environment, one which would not account for the economic realities of the marketplace, especially as we face them today. There are economic considerations both for the employer;s benefit and the employee's benefit that require not only the preservation of the property, but the preservation of the business and the economic realities that it faces... “It is not fair or accurate to say that the current law allows replacement workers in total. It allows them to the extent necessary and as long as it is not abused. So far employers have not been abusing that provision...” In reality, since all wealth is produced by workers, there is no reason why bosses would have any right to arbitrarily dismiss employees or to replace them by scabs. Every time this happens, it is an abuse. CHECK THESE WEBSITES: www.psac.com/issues/anti-scab/scab_index-e.shtml www.canadianlabour.ca/antiscab.html (Back) (Home)

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