By People's Voice Editor Kimball Cariou

     The March 2007 federal budget presented by Conservative Finance Minister Flaherty has been widely analysed and dissected, but few observers have expressed its full significance.

     On the right and in the mainstream corporate media, the pundits have focussed on Harper's attempt to win support in Quebec, or on so-called "big spending increases." But these approaches miss the forest for the trees, perhaps deliberately so.

     Among the labour and progressive movements, most observers have been closer to the mark, criticising Flaherty's budget for a long list of reactionary measures. The Tories have been roasted for their strategy of appearing to act on crucial issues such as the environment, while doing virtually nothing of importance.

     The Canadian Labour Congress, for example, correctly notes that the budget "unfairly channels more money to wealthy individuals and profitable corporations.... (and) greatly erodes the federal government's capacity to improve the quality of life of working people...." The CLC laments that corporate tax cuts implemented since 2000 now cost $10 billion per year, funds that could finance Canada-wide childcare and pharmacare programs.

     Condemnation of the Harper government's backtracking on a genuine childcare program has been the focus of criticism from many other groups, such as Code Blue. Similarly, the shocking omission of any funding to expand low-income housing has been attacked by virtually every organization and movement dealing with the exploding crisis of homelessness across Canada.

     But these are not just the shortcomings of a right-wing government. These are far-reaching and deliberate policy decisions which illustrate the true nature of Harper's agenda. The Tories are determined to reverse the historic struggle to compel the capitalist state to bear some responsibility for the well-being of Canadians. If Harper's gang have their way, the role of the state (although not its fundamental nature) will be drastically altered.

     By using tax breaks as virtually the only tool to shape social policy, for example, the Conservatives are attempting to appeal to working people who face declining real incomes. But the reality is that these changes transfer a larger share of the economic pie baked by working people to the wealthy and the corporations. Any benefits to low and middle-income earners are small and likely transitory, especially if the Tories win a majority in Parliament.

     Even more fundamentally, this policy shift is intended, not just to restrain public social programs, but to tear the social safety net to shreds. Families will increasingly be forced to rely on their own dwindling resources and on "charity" to care for young children and elderly parents, and for all family members with health problems. Women in particular face the prospect of even stronger pressures to retreat from the public sphere of employment, back into the home. If this recalls the fascist slogan of "kinder, kirke, kuche" (children, church, home), it is not coincidental. These values are is widely shared by the U.S. ultra-right, which has close ties with the Harper Conservatives.

     The other side of this policy shift is an increasing emphasis on the authoritarian side of the capitalist state - the military, prisons and police. This is the so-called "crime and terror" agenda, an attempt to win votes by fanning the fears of ordinary Canadians.

     As a few groups have pointed out, one of the most significant spending increases by the Tories is another huge boost in military spending, which is on the way to the $20 billion-plus range within a few years. An extra $200 million is earmarked for Canada's part in the NATO military occupation in Afghanistan. Another $106 million is to be spent on federal jails, and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service budget will be topped up by a further $80 million.

     No, this is not just another budget aimed at winning an election, although the Tories are clearly pleased that the corporate media has put this spin on their efforts. This is a budget to speed up the dismantling of any progressive features of the Canadian state, and to pour taxpayers' dollars into bullets, bombs, jails and spies.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

     While the pages of Canada's daily papers have been filled with positive responses to the March 19 Tory budget issued by big business, the trade union movement took a decidedly negative perspective.

     Speaking for the 3.2 million-member Canadian Labour Congress, President Ken Georgetti pointed out that Jim Flaherty's second budget "unfairly channels more money to wealthy individuals and profitable corporations... (and) greatly erodes the federal government's capacity to improve the quality of life of working people, families and communities."

     "The real giveaways are for people with lots of money and they will get them immediately," said Georgetti. "The rest of us will have to wait next year to get a few hundred dollars."

     The CLC noted that the budget increases the lifetime capital gains exemption for business owners by $250,000 immediately and maintains the tax cuts previously scheduled for corporations. Most of the measures to help students, workers, and families will take effect next year.

     The CLC called the new capital cost allowance write-off for manufacturing investments "a good first step to address the crisis in the goods producing sectors," and supported the announcement of $500 million for labour market training, which would take effect next year, while saying that "more needs to be done urgently."

     "What is in this budget for workers who recently lost their jobs in the manufacturing sector? Or fear that their job is at risk?" asked Georgetti. "What is in this budget for newcomers in Alberta looking for affordable housing? What is in this budget for young families who cannot find decent reliable and affordable child care? In all three cases, the answer is nothing."

     He went on to say that the budget measures "coming on top of the previously-scheduled corporate tax cuts implemented since 2000, now costing $10 billion per year, will make it harder to finance a national pharmacare program, sectoral development, child care and early learning and other critical priorities."

     Calling it "a budget structured to avoid an election," Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove said the budget "recognizes problems but fails to address them. There is a nod here and a wink there, but no real solutions."

     Hargrove called the tax supports for manufacturing investment "a bandaid to the hemorrhaging manufacturing sector" which will only last 18 months. "It does nothing to stem the loss of manufacturing jobs - some 200,000 manufacturing jobs have disappeared in Canada over the last two years. It does nothing to address our growing trade deficit in manufactured goods."

     He slammed the budget for doing little to help Canadians escape the poverty trap, for example by providing a few hundred dollars in tax credits but not introducing a $10 minimum wage and a national child care program.

     The budget's environmental proposals are "inadequate or wrongheaded," said Hargrove. He pointed out that with just $30 million over two years, the program to get older vehicles off the road "won't retire many vehicles."

     "Instead of providing an incentive to made-in-Canada green automotive products that would strengthen our most important industry," said Hargrove, "the Vehicle Efficiency Incentives will instead open the door even wider to imports from countries which limit access to their markets."

     The budget contained lots of talk but little action for working people, said B.C. Federation of Labour Secretary-Treasurer, Angela Schira.

     "Childcare tax breaks for corporations should have been invested in building real spaces," Schira said. "Corporations don't have a great track record when it comes to childcare." She added that the $250 million in childcare funding announced last year only works out to $33 million for BC. Before the Conservatives axed the childcare plan, BC was set to receive over $150 million this year. "Those dollars should have been provided to licensed, mostly non-profit, providers to increase spaces now."

     The "working income tax benefit" of $500 for individuals and $1,000 for low-income families does little for families struggling to find affordable housing, Schira stated, calling for a $10 federal minimum wage.

     "The new packaging of the Conservatives should not fool Canadians," said Paul Moist, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. "Underneath these new promises is their true agenda: to weaken national social programs and diminish the role of public services in Canada. The government is abandoning its leadership role by having no conditions or federal accountability requirements linked to the additional transfers. This budget takes it one step further and encourages greater privatization of public services."

     Moist warned that cash-starved municipalities will get no relief unless they agree to public-private partnership (P3) schemes: "The federal government is attempting to bribe provincial and municipal governments with a promise to top up infrastructure funding costs by 25 per cent - if the municipality or province ties the project to a P3. Essentially we are talking about public financing of private profit."

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

     The March 19 Tory budget has stirred up a storm of protest among Aboriginal peoples across Canada.

     "Today's budget was supposed to contain something for all Canadians, but today, First Nations are beyond disappointment," said Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. "We don't see any reason to believe that the government cares about the shameful conditions of First Nations."

     Fontaine called it "encouraging" that the government has renewed programs such as the Aboriginal Justice Strategy and the Aboriginal Skills and Employment Partnership initiative. However, he said, "the investments in Budget 2007 fall far short of a comprehensive plan" especially to solve the pressing need for social housing.

     "Nowhere is the fiscal imbalance more apparent than in the critical under-funding of First Nations health, child welfare, education, housing and infrastructure," said Fontaine. "No other Canadian citizen has had to endure a two-percent cap on funding that has now lasted for over a decade. Our population continues to grow and the poverty gap continues to widen. Today's budget only contributes to the imbalance by providing $39 billion over seven years to the provinces, without any comparable attention to First Nations.

     Referring to title of the recent Senate Report on specific claims, Negotiation or Confrontation: It's Canada's Choice, Fontaine warned of the consequences of failing to deal with "the huge debt to First Nations in the form of outstanding land claims."      Other Aboriginal leaders were even more direct. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs is threatening not to co-operate on new hydro dams or forestry projects. AMC Grand Chief Ron Evans said he was "reeling" from the budget, which included only about $70 million in new spending for Aboriginals out of total new spending of $10 billion.

     "This budget only allows for enough money to continue the management of our own misery," Evans said.

     Evans, who was a Liberal candidate in Churchill in the 2004 federal election, is also upset with Manitoba NDP premier Gary Doer, and is preparing to block provincial as well as national projects.

     "What surprises me is the premier was very happy with the budget and yet he was one of the champions of Kelowna," said Evans, pointing to the now-defunct, $5.1-billion Aboriginal accord reached in 2005 to increase funding for housing, education, health care and economic opportunities.

     He said that if governments ignore First Nations issues, the response may include blocking construction of new hydro lines or dams, or preventing the exploitation of valuable northern forests and minerals.

     "As sure as spring follows winter, Stephen Harper's Budget 2007 shall trigger a summer of Aboriginal protests from one end of this country to the other," predicted Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.

     "In our view, this latest deliberate attack against Aboriginal people represents `strike three' for the Harper government. First it was the complete rejection of the Kelowna Accord, second it was Canada's refusal to support the United Nations' Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People and now we have the announcement of $21 million in new spending for Aboriginals in the face of a $9 billion dollar surplus," added Grand Chief Phillip. "Enough is enough. Our communities have long since reached their breaking point."

     "Let's be clear," he said. "We do not need more Federal government welfare payments. What we do need is for the Government of Canada to fully meet its Constitutional and lawful obligations in the area of outstanding land rights issues... We need the Government of Canada to recognize and accommodate our Aboriginal and Treaty entitlements to the lands and resources within our respective territories. Further, economic development needs to become a major priority within Federal Government spending."

     "Obviously the Government of Canada is not listening," he concluded. "Perhaps a summer of barricades, balaclavas and burning tires will serve to draw attention to the urgency of the desperate situation of the Aboriginal people of Canada."

     David Chartrand, President of the Manitoba Métis Federation and Minister of Finance for the Métis National Council (MNC), expressed disappointment that less than one percent of federal spending on Aboriginal peoples is directed to the 350,000 Métis who live in Canada.

     "The gap continues to widen between the expectations of Canadians and the realities of the struggling Métis," said Chartrand. "Over time this exclusion will inevitably result in a much wider gap with rising costs to be borne by future Canadians in future budgets. This is not just a Métis issue - it is a Canadian issue. We will all pay for this budget's missed opportunity."

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

People's Voice Editorial, April 1-15, 2007

A preliminary look at the March 26 election in Québec shows lots of bad news, but also some good.

     The overall results are disastrous for working people. The bitterly anti-labour Jean Charest, remains in office, and the official opposition is now Mario Dumont's reactionary ADQ. The Parti Québecois under André Boisclair suffered heavy losses, finishing third. Already the corporate media has proclaimed that voters supported more social cuts and privatization (and that Québec sovereignty was defeated - a line we've heard many times before).

     But there are other ways to read the results. The Charest Liberals were hurt by powerful public opposition to their right-wing policies. However, the PQ refused to pledge to repeal the Liberal changes to the labour code or to renegotiate contracts imposed on public sector workers. The PQ was endorsed by the Québec Federation of Labour, and the CSN urged its members to defeat the Liberals, but there was little real working class enthusiasm for the PQ campaign.

     Faced with this wretched choice, 145,051 voters (3.65%) turned to Québec Solidaire, which campaigned for a left alternative program. QS won nine percent of the vote in central and east Montreal ridings, emerging as a major force. Congratulations to QS candidates Amir Khadir, who took 8303 votes (29.4%) to finish a strong second in Mercier riding, and Francoise David, who placed second in Gouin riding with 7913 votes (26%).

     The Green Party also won 154,367 votes, meaning that 300,000 voters - one in thirteen - lack any voice in the National Assembly. Proportional representation would have elected four or five candidates from the QS and the Greens. In the meantime, the battle for progressive policies in Québec will continue in the workplaces, campuses and communities.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

People's Voice Editorial, April 1-15, 2007

The danger of war against Iran is once again rising, with the potential for catastrophic consequences going far beyond the horrors of the Iraq war.

     The full truth of Iran's seizure of British sailors will no doubt emerge soon. Even now, we must ask: why should Britain, the major accomplice of the U.S. in the illegal war of aggression in Iraq, have any right to board and search Iranian merchant vessels? This incident follows on the heels of provocative claims that Iran is directly involved in arming insurgent forces which are fighting the occupation troops in Iraq, and that Iran is supposedly "on the verge" of building nuclear weapons.

     A familiar pattern is emerging. Desperate to justify the imperialist campaign to control Mideast energy supplies, Washington and London are hurling a barrage of accusations at Iran. Now, the lives of brave U.S. and British soldiers are threatened, requiring swift and decisive action - and please don't ask why those troops are in the region in the first place.

     There is no doubt that the Iranian government is a reactionary, fundamentalist regime, controlled by leaders who are willing to gamble the lives of the people to stay in power. Much the same can be said about the Bush regime itself. We are confident that the people of Iran, given time and genuine international solidarity, will restore their country to the path democracy and freedom. Attempts to "create a crisis" and set the stage for military aggression can only set back this process.

     The current dangerous situation calls for coordinated, responsible and united action of all peace supporters. We urge all peace forces in Canada to demand negotiations, not confrontation, and to support respect for international law and the sovereignty and independence of nations.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Sam Hammond

In a previous issue of People's Voice, we commented on the CN Rail strike by Canadian members of the United Transit Union, and the explosive situation developing between the four Canadian Chairs (comprising the negotiating committee) and the International Office in Cleveland (UTU president Paul Thompson). Since the CN Rail workers went on strike Feb. 9, there have been weird and not so wonderful developments.

     Rex Beatty, the main spokesperson of the negotiating committee, and the three other regional chairpersons, were all arbitrarily removed from office by Thompson. Negotiations were handed over to Canadian Vice-Presidents John Armstrong and Bob Sharpe. This was only part of a tightly bundled series of events happening almost concurrently. The militant strikers (97% strike vote) were pulled to and fro while they tried to maintain a united face to CN Rail and figure out just what the hell was happening to their union. The Canadian Industrial Relations Board was in session dealing with a contention by CN Rail that the strike was not sanctioned by the international union, which took the identical position that the strike is not sanctioned and therefore illegal. Stick-handling through the process of compliance with Canadian labour law, the CIRB has no choice but to declare that since the negotiators had complied with the law, from their point of view the strike was legal. In the background, the Harper cabinet prepared back-to-work legislation. Minister of Labour Jean-Pierre Blackburn told the media that the legislation was hours away, and the NDP declared openly in the House that they would not support a back-to-work law.

     The negotiating committee won at the CIRB, but lost when the international President removed them from office. The two Canadian Vice Presidents negotiated a tentative agreement spanning one year with a signing bonus of $1000 and a 3% pay increase. A back to work protocol allowed for a ratification vote to be counted by March 26, resulting in either acceptance or a return to negotiations and possible strike. Because so many members did not receive their memorandum of agreement and their ballots, the vote count was delayed to April 9.

     Rex Beatty, who looked like a beleaguered Canadian thwarted by the International, (indeed this writer leaned strongly in that direction), emerged as something less than saintly by openly becoming the lynchpin of a raid on the UTU's Canadian membership by the Teamsters Union. Deposed but by no means departed.

     One of the International's strongest contentions against Beatty was that he had a hidden agenda and was manipulating towards a raid on behalf of the Teamsters. He vehemently denied this right up to the minute he made the charges valid by doing exactly what he was accused of. The much maligned Paul Thompson, although unwise and clumsy in his handling of all this, emerged as not so evil as previously seen.

     So where the hell are we now? Most importantly where are the Canadian CN workers who belong to UTU? This is much more deadly then a child trying to figure out a divorce, with Mom or Dad's suitor lurking in the background. This is business trade unionism with its corporate mentality - fighting over possession of workers, fighting over a dues base. Any morality here is very hard to find.

     Only a year or so ago, the Teamsters pulled off a raid against UTU Canadian members employed by CP Rail, managing to capture about three thousand of them. This opened a financial wound in the International, who already were spending more in Canada than they were collecting. Not unusual, and not decisive, but definitely a rub. CN Rail, for their part, pushed the envelope by settling with the CAW but leaving virtually everything on the table with the UTU, almost guaranteeing a strike. The International seemed to fall into the trap and allowed Rex Beatty to manipulate in the 11th hour instead of inserting the Canadian Vice presidents into the melee earlier. Perhaps they couldn't help it.

     Meanwhile the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, fresh from the capture at CP Rail, apparently were steering Rex Beatty all the time. The only other conclusion that can be drawn is that Brother Beatty was so impressed with the International's accusations that he adopted them as a personal operating agenda. At this time Brother Beatty is asking UTU members to reject the tentative agreement and sign cards with the Teamsters.

     The members have some very hard decisions to make. If they accept the tentative agreement, will that be measured as vindication of the International and satisfaction with the agreement? Many will accept the agreement to buy another year in which to straighten out their union and also to keep them out of the clutches of "Final Offer Settlement Arbitration."

     If many members reject the tentative offer, will it be construed as an invitation to the Teamsters? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the dilemma faced by the rank and file. In fact, neither vote has a universal meaning of compliance or rejection of the UTU or the Teamsters. The danger is that the Teamsters will read it the way they want to justify an acceleration of the raid. They have fired the first shots, and an offensive is imminent.

     Shame, shame, shame. Shame on the business model of trade unionism that makes workers into chattels to be used, traded or captured. Shame on the business model of trade unionism that feeds on what's left of a workers life after the capitalists have taken their generous share. Shame on the Canadian Labour Congress, which oversees this internecine warfare and does not fight for policies that would prevent it. Shame on the professional trade unionists who go to CLC Conventions and interrupt their raiding for a few days to sing Solidarity Forever as a theatrical display for the rank and file, and then resume their activities on the following Monday morning.

     The only bright part of this whole fiasco is the militancy of the CN workers, who almost unanimously chose to fight rather than fold. Theirs is the unenviable task of voting on an agreement that is fraught with danger either way. Their only hope is the unity and militancy that brought them into this struggle. Only this can bring them through. Good luck to you, brothers and sisters.

     The militancy of Canadian workers must somehow find expression in a housecleaning that will restore some of the fundamentals of our labour history and put control back into their hands, no matter what union they choose. Workers need to reorganize Canadian Labour so that it can unite instead of raid, unify around the needs of all Canadian people, and unite with the social justice movement - a Canadian Labour movement to be proud of and without an international border running through it.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

Commentary by the Lower Fraser Club, Communist Party of Canada

Three farm workers were killed and fourteen others injured in a traffic accident in B.C. on March 7. These contract labourers were being driven to work in a van that had been illegally modified to accommodate more passengers than it was licensed for and was further overloaded.

     Unfortunately this is an old and familiar story in the Fraser Valley, where contract labourers are subjected to the worst working conditions with very little consideration for health and safety. In spite of the current circumstances no charges have yet been laid.

     There is the usual political back-pedaling with both parties in the Legislature pointing fingers at each other. WorkSafeBC (the former Workers' Compensation Board) and Insurance Corporation of BC (ICBC) are busy washing their hands of any responsibility. Some say the responsibility lies with the farm labour contractor who owns the unsafe vehicle, or even with the workers who "willingly" entered the van, even though this was their only way to make it to work. Since the workers as well as the contractor are of the Indo-Canadian community, racist undertones have made their way into the debate.

     What nobody has said so far is that under capitalism this is business as usual. The history of capitalism since the earliest days of the Industrial Revolution has demonstrated over and over again that the health and safety of the workers will always rank far below the pursuit of profit. Workers have had to struggle all throughout history to win concessions from the bosses for safe work places, healthy work environments, humane treatment and fair compensation for their labour. Communists have historically supported and helped win those struggles.

     Today many jobs are safer because of these labour struggles, but the workplace is still a dangerous place, especially if you are young, inexperienced or have no protection through a union agreement or minimal government regulations. Workers are still hurt, maimed, killed and suffer industrial diseases because of unsafe conditions, poor training and poor enforcement of existing regulations. Fines and other penalties are considered a "cost of business" by profit-hungry employers.

     Farm workers have even less protection under existing labour legislation than other workers. Year after year we witness these workers becoming ill because of pesticides and poor living conditions, and being at risk because of dangerous transportation practices. This is in addition to the many exploitative practices such as being paid less than minimum wage, getting paid late or not at all, not getting paid for overtime, and so on.

     Because many of these workers are immigrants or migrants, they are very vulnerable to the actions of unscrupulous businessmen. In 1970 Employment Standards were amended to include these workers, but the Campbell Liberal government removed many of those provisions when they stripped the Employment Standards Act in 2003. This was undoubtedly meant to facilitate the workers exploitation by the private sector.

     Guaranteed workers rights must be the responsibility of the state, and it is clearly the bailiwick of the Ministry of Labour to ensure that all existing regulations are being enforced. It is further clear that it is necessary to include farm workers in all existing labour legislation, and to improve this legislation.

     The BC Federation of Labour has been issuing a number of recommendations following this latest tragedy but it is still too reactive, rather than putting these issues on top of its agenda at all times. What is needed is concrete political action by the trade union movement aimed at bettering the lot of farm labour.

     Putting the pursuit of profit ahead of the health and safety of workers lies at the core of the problem. We can struggle and win reforms to labour laws and health and safety regulations, but in the final analysis these rights can never be guaranteed under the capitalist system, for which profit is its raison d'etre.

     Only a system that puts workers' needs ahead of private greed can provide the conditions to ensure that workers will not be killed, maimed or struck ill because of unsafe or unhealthy work. This system is socialism, and the working class in this country needs to understand the absolute necessity of changing the economic system we live in.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

     ACORN (the Association of Community Groups for Reform Now) is criticizing the Ontario government for "monumental stalling" on raising the minimum wage.

     "The Ontario government seems to have had no problem with raising their own salaries over the Christmas holidays," says ACORN member Imran Butt. "But when it comes to the low and moderate income families who need a raise most, Premier McGuinty would rather wait through another two elections before raising the minimum wage in 2010."

     While it only took the government just eight days to give themselves a 25% raise, says Butt, they expect Ontario's most impoverished to wait three years for 20%.

     Finance Minister Sorbara has released a study which warns of widespread job loss if the minimum wage is raised immediately. But ACORN notes that his government paid an economist for the answer they wanted to hear: that raising the minimum wage is scary.

     In contrast, dozens more economists disagree with this view. In a statement signed by 86 Ontario economists on raising the minimum wage, the point was made that "There is a common, but incorrect, assumption that higher minimum wages destroy low-wage jobs and increase unemployment among those they are most intended to help. Modern economic research has indicated, however, that the negative employment effects of minimum wages are negligible and can be overwhelmed by the positive impacts of minimum wages on labour force participation and consumer spending. In other words, it is more likely that higher minimum wages are associated with enhanced employment and income opportunities for low-wage workers."

     In the US, over 650 economists (including 5 Nobel Laureates) supported raising the minimum wage there from $5.15 to $7.25 in 2005. At current exchange rates that would be an increase of nearly $2.50 CDN, comparable to raising the minimum wage in Ontario to $10.50. The US economists called raising the minimum wage "an important tool in fighting poverty" and said that "a modest increase in the minimum wage would improve the well-being of low-wage workers and would not have the adverse effects that critics have claimed."

     The US economists pointed to research which shows that "most of the beneficiaries are adults, most are female, and the vast majority are members of low-income working families." They supported wage indexing to protect against inflation.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

In the days leading up to the annual salary increase for provincial MLAs, advocates are calling for the province to increase Alberta's minimum wage to $10 per hour and to index it to inflation.

     "Why should low-income people have to wait years for increases to their wages when politicians automatically get their raise every April 1st based on the average weekly earnings index," asked Bill Moore-Kilgannon, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta. "Our provincial Living Wage consultation and research shows that with the skyrocketing increases in rents and other costs of living, people are not able to earn a basic living at less than $10 per hour, even if they are able to work a full 40 hours per week."

     A new study by Stuart Murray and Hugh Mackenzie of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Bring Minimum Wages above the Poverty Line, shows that Alberta's seven dollar minimum wage is significantly below the Statistics Canada Low Income Cut Off (LICO) and loses value each year. Alberta's minimum wage reached its peak in 1977 when its value in 2005 dollars was $9.31 per hour.

     "This study clearly demonstrates that the one in five workers who earn less than $10 per hour have not been benefiting from Alberta's economic boom," said Caron Lawson, Chairperson of Public Interest Alberta's Living Wage Task Force and a social worker at a hospital in Calgary. "You see the impact on people and their families who work long hours to make ends meet. It is hard to see so many families who do not have the means to provide the basics, let alone cover unexpected health expenses or save for their children's education or their retirement."

     The CCPA study shows that women are more likely than men to earn less than $10 hour and that a large percentage of low-wage workers are over the age of 25. Of all women earning less than $10 hour in Canada, 52% are more than 24 years old.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

The fourth anniversary of the US-led aggression against Iraq was met with huge anti-war protests in the United States, and demonstrations in many other countries. Across Canada, actions were held in at least 37 cities and towns.

     One of the largest Canadian rallies saw about 3000-3500 people in the streets of Toronto, organized by the Stop the War Coalition. Speakers included 15-year-old student Afnan Al-Hashimi, Niaz Salimi (Canadian Muslim Union), Anton Wagner (Hiroshima Day Coalition), Kabir Joshi-Vijayan (Toronto Haiti Action Committee), Nadia Daar (Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid), and Ali Mallah, member of the Canadian Peace Alliance steering committee and vice-president of the Canadian Arab Federation.

     Ottawa saw a "spirited, loud, creative and visual" rally of 500 people, despite snow and a damp, chilly wind. After music from the activist choir Just Voices, speakers included United Church minister Brian Cornelius, CUPW National President Deborah Bourque, Pierre Ducasse (NDP Candidate for Hull-Aylmer), Canadian Labour Congress vice-president Marie Clarke Walker, Brent Patterson of the Council of Canadians, and Rosa Kouri, Director of the Sierra Youth Coalition.

     In Hamilton, about 170 people marched through downtown, receiving many honks of support from passing motorists. Participants included the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War, the Hamilton and District Labour Council, and a range of other solidarity and progressive groups.

     Typical of anti-war actions in smaller centres, about 25 people gathered in Leamington, Ontario, for a Christian Peacemaker Team prayer vigil and procession, including four CPT members who have spent time in Iraq. The group walked through downtown Leamington singing hymns and carrying banners reading "Disarm, Live In Peace" and "Christian Peacemaker Teams - Getting In The Way".

     Braving pouring rain, 250 people were out on the streets in Victoria, "chanting the whole time, with brief stops at the downtown recruiting centre, and then at the federal building." Speakers talked about the racist war of terror at home and the historic colonial role of the Canadian State, the invasions of Iraq and Aghanistan, and the need for a broader pan-Canadian and international anti-war movement.

     Late winter rains also pounded Vancouver, where about 1,000 people took part in a march organized by the broad-based StopWar coalition (not the "Mobilization Against War and Occupation," which circulated emails and posters claiming to be the organizers). StopWar co-chair Derrick O'Keefe gave a rousing anti-war speech, and Valhalla Wilderness Society director Colleen McCrory linked the horrors of war with the deepening global environmental crisis.

     Peace Alliance Winnipeg organized a demonstration of about 250 people, followed by a panel discussion. A large number of high school students from Kelvin, Maples and River East Collegiates took part; for some it was their first demonstration. March 17 capped a week of activities in Winnipeg, including a screening of the documentary Why We Fight, a debate on the question "Afghanistan: Is this Canada's War", and an Anti-War Fest organized by the Student Christian Movement, the War Resistors Support Campaign and Mondragon Bookstore.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

Speech by CUPW Prairie Director Cindy McCallum to the March 17 anti-war forum organized by Peace Alliance Winnipeg

I am pleased to participate here with you during this international day of protest against the invasion and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

     I do not claim to be an expert on Canada's role in propping up the US agenda nor on the details of the war. I am here because as a woman, and as a member of the working class in Canada, I have an obligation to women and to the working class of those countries to speak out against the terror and oppression that they face because of our assault against them. They are my sisters and brothers and they are dying because my government has chosen to attack them. I am here to express outrage at my nation's role in this international tragedy and to demand the Harper government immediately remove Canadian troops from combat.

     My union, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, is active in many community protests today in Canada and Quebec. Our national office issued a bulletin to our membership to remind them why their union is committed to participating in the peace movement's call for peace and the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

     CUPW reminded our members that this war has a direct effect on our membership in many ways. Firstly, the Harper government is wasting our resources in having a military presence in Afghanistan when those resources would be better spent providing healthcare, social services and real international support. Secondly, if we fight this key policy of the Harper government, we will better mobilize to defeat other policies like the attack on women's rights and childcare. Thirdly, it is a struggle against privatization in Afghanistan which is a major struggle by our Union in this country. And finally, it is working people who are being sent to fight and die and kill other working people.

     As a feminist, I am particularly concerned about the plight of women in these countries, who are raped, beaten and oppressed. On IWD this year, the Iraq Freedom Congress called upon women and men who value equality to protest the occupation and the violence of sectarian gangs because of the terrible consequences against women.

     They claimed "In Iraq where destruction and lawlessness are dominating society, women are the ones who pay the heaviest price on her dignity and life." They further state "the occupation forces have opened the doors widely to human rights violations and women's rights in particular."

     Both the Iraq Freedom Congress and Amnesty International raise the issue of the imprisonment and execution of women who are accused of participating in armed resistance to the occupation. Amnesty identified three of these women scheduled to be killed by the state despite the fact that they were not allowed legal counsel during their trial nor to appeal the conviction. Two of these women (Liqa Muhammad and Wassan Talib) have extremely young children with them in prison. These children can thank George Bush and the occupying force for murdering their mothers.

     As a trade unionist I am equally concerned about the safety of trade unionists in Iraq and Afghanistan. The world is a dangerous place these days for those who stand up for workers rights in the face of ever growing corporate power. The ILO recognizes the right of workers to organize and participate in Unions, yet the systematic silencing of trade union leaders through assassination goes on without public outrage.

     The Trade Union Congress of Britain has released a new book called Hadi Never Died, commemorating the torture and murder of Hadi Saleh, the International Secretary of the (now) Iraqi Workers Federation when he tried to rebuild the trade union movement that had been violently suppressed by Saddam Hussein for 40 years. Hadi's murder sparked a wave of assassinations of trade union leaders and members. Iraqi teachers appear to be specific targets to prevent the social justice and stability unions are striving for.

     The Iraq government has done nothing to change the reality of Saddam's ban on unions and in fact has increased the oppressive tactics to ensure workers power to defend themselves and fight for justice and equality is extremely restricted.

     Abdullah Muhsin of the Iraqi Workers Federation said "Iraq's economy was pulverised by Saddam's wars, bled by sanctions and further devastated by the invasion, looting and rampant corruption. Iraq's economy needs emergency investment and widespread reconstruction. Free and independent unions will play an important role in making sure investment in Iraq provides quality jobs and decent public services.

     "But unions are also important in forming Iraq's democratic future and national identity. Unions are an antidote to the sectarian poisons of extremism in Iraq," he concluded.

     However, it appears that equality for people is not the concern of the invasion/occupation forces. They are clearly more interested in the unrestricted access to resources and creating an economy that they can exploit.

     In Iraq, no one disputes the fact that oil is the key. Iraqi workers want to ensure oil remains a public asset but the invaders are not going to allow that. Oil is their prize but the rebuilding of destroyed infrastructure and then controlling those assets are other jewels in the occupation treasure chest. They do this through privatization - a corporate tool used around the world to rob the people of their assets.

     In Afghanistan, a housing scandal occurred because of the manipulation of western funds for reconstruction. Instead of building homes for the poor, instead of fixing the tragedy of watching as hundreds of shelterless Afghan people freeze to death each winter, instead of building small inexpensive homes for the people; cabinet ministers and friends of the government took the liberty of awarding themselves prime land and building villas under the protection of NATO forces.

     Corruption is alive and well in Afghanistan. NATO forces may be protecting the elite in Afghanistan but they have been the direct cause of civilian deaths. And those casualties and deaths get very little attention in the Canadian media.

     And the war is causing Canadian deaths. Young men and women who are being sacrificed in an old man's game. How many more bodies will we wrap in a flag and send home to devastated families. I say enough!

     Canada once had a reputation as a peace keeping nation. Our UN role gave us honour and friendship around the world. Our refusal to simply adopt American foreign policy allowed us to take pride in our independence. But Stephen Harper has reduced us to be one of the western thugs and bullies by changing our role in Afghanistan and pacifying his American masters.

     The people of Afghanistan never acted against Canadians - they are not our enemies.

     The war in Iraq was based on a premise of greed, control and manipulation. It is illegal and immoral and can not be condoned.

     Canadians should not be part of an agenda that imposes an unwanted reality on an unwilling people. The federal government has no right to continue this travesty and now must take action on our collective call to withdraw from Afghanistan and stop supporting the US in Iraq.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Kimball Cariou

Quoting from a survey about to be released by the Senlis Council think tank, Globe and Mail correspondent Doug Saunders reported on March 19 that "Afghan civilians are increasingly turning against Canadian troops and their country's government and toward support of the Taliban."

     A team of 50 researchers polled 17,000 Afghan men in randomly selected districts in the southeastern Afghan provinces of Kandahar (where Canadian troops are fighting), Helmand (British troops) and Nangarhar (U.S. forces) between March 3 and March 12. The survey finds that Afghan men say they are being driven to support the Taliban because of disillusionment with the NATO military effort and poverty created by the continuing conflict.

     "Across the south, the majority of survey respondents both worry about being able to feed their families, and do not believe that the Afghan government and the international troops are helping them," the Senlis report concludes. "Afghanis in southern Afghanistan are increasingly prepared to admit their support for the Taliban, and the belief that the government and the international community will not be able to defeat the Taliban is widespread in the southern provinces."

     The Senlis Council is a Brussels-based think tank that began as a European drug-policy organization, but has become heavily involved in Afghanistan, where it argues in favour of allowing Afghans to continue growing opium poppies for medicinal purposes.

     The survey shows that 27 per cent of Afghans in the south now openly support the Taliban. The surveyors said the number is likely higher because some respondents are wary of admitting support to a Westerner.

     When asked, "Are the international troops helping you personally," only 19 per cent answered yes (in regions with U.S. soldiers in control, only 6.5 per cent said yes). And 80.3 per cent say they worry about feeding their families.

     "The widespread perception of locals is that the international community is not helping to improve their lives," the survey concludes. "The Taliban has been able to easily and effectively capitalize on this by providing protection from forced eradication [of poppy crops] and employment to many."

     The study found that 72 per cent of men in the region know how to fire a weapon, making them potential Taliban recruits. The average annual income in the region of $747 (U.S.) is equivalent to two months pay for a Taliban fighter.

     Only 48 per cent of southern Afghans now believe that their government and NATO are capable of defeating the Taliban. Similar surveys taken at the end of 2001 showed overwhelming faith in the success of the war against the Taliban.

     The report notes that the military effort to defeat the Taliban has eclipsed, and often undermined, efforts to improve living conditions for Afghans and rebuild their government and civil society. Earlier in March, Gordon Smith of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, a Calgary-based pro-war think tank, concluded that the "vital" military operation is failing because it is inadequately supported by humanitarian efforts.

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(The following article is from the April 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

What the Cubans are saying and doing today, other hungry peoples in Latin America are going to be saying and doing tomorrow. - C. Wright Mills, 1960

By Manuel E. Yepe, Havana, March 2007

Forty-seven years ago, in 1960, a book published in the United States, Listen, Yankee, warned the government of that nation about the great historical mistake it was committing due to its inability to understand the outreach and meaning of the Cuban revolution.

     The worthiness of the warning derived from the fact that it came from one of the leading sociologists of the time in the US, Charles Wright Mills (1916-1962).

     In January 1959, when the victory of the Cuban revolution took place, Wright Mills was already an outstanding scholar for his works The Power Elite; White-collar (The American Middle Classes) and The Sociological Imagination, among others. Considered an acute analyst of everyday life in the United States, his sharp comments in relevant publications frequently triggered harsh polemics. He warned about the degradation of democracy through the social control exercised by the oligarchies, the bureaucratization of industrial society and the techniques applied for the control of workers.

     Wright Mills also studied the role played by the media by means of adulterating information and manipulating public opinion in order to profit the elites, while debasing the public scenario by simulating a democratic debate. He was probably the first author in the United States stating that the overflow of information does not favour communication but, on the contrary, creates a real problem of assimilation.

     It was acknowledged that C.W. Mills had an amazing sense of anticipation in his analysis, which validated his sociological arguments. The soundness of this assessment is confirmed by Listen, Yankee in light of the present situation in Latin America.

     Three and a half days of conversations with then-Prime Minister Fidel Castro, five or six more days with the delegates of the Ramon Vallejo National Institute for the Agrarian Reform, and interviews with many other Cuban leaders and a number of peasants, workers, students and housewives, in August 1960 supplied the arguments in the book.

     Readers find a warning to American society, rather than to the U.S. government, that the Cuban revolution might not simply be an isolated accident, but the beginning of a succession of similar scenarios in the entire underdeveloped world, especially in Latin America.

     Wright Mills presents eight successive letters from a figurative Cuban revolutionary protagonist who, sometimes with arrogance, other times with serenity, but always with pride, voices the feelings that the author gathered in our country.

     One of these eight letters proclaims that "we Cubans are part of Latin America - not of North America. Our history is not part of your history; it is part of Latin American history. And Latin America is 180,000,000 people, growing faster than you are growing, and scattered over a territory more than twice as large as the USA. Like all of Latin America, we're fed up with what your corporations and what your governments do down here. They've dominated us long enough, we've said it to ourselves now. Your government supported Batista right up to the last minute of his gangster regime. But now Cuba is not just another island in the Caribbean. The Caribbean is not a North American lake. All that, that's over."

     Wright Mills reasons in the initial note to the reader that: "The voice of Cuba today is the voice of revolutionary euphoria. It is also an angry voice. I am trying to explain something of all this along with the Cubans' reasons for it. For their reasons are not only theirs: they are the reasons of the entire hungry world."

     He shows an exact understanding of the Cuban political situation when he speaks his mind about the electoral option promoted by US media, and the internal counterrevolution which Washington was trying to provide oxygen.

     In his final note to the reader Wright Mills declares: "I share the view of every competent observer that in any election the victory of the fidelistas will be overwhelming. But what seems to me more relevant to the question is that no matter how elections were organized, and no matter how they may be supervised by an international agency, such a victory would be quite meaningless. To have meaningful elections it is necessary to have at least two political parties and it would be necessary for these parties to campaign on some range of issues. The only issue in Cuba today is the revolution, conceived by the Cuban government primarily as economic and educational construction and as military defense of Cuban sovereignty. Any party that campaigned today against the revolution and against the present Government's management of it would probably be set upon by the majority of the people of Cuba. So I think it must be faced up to: a real election is an impossible and meaningless idea. It will only be made meaningful by deliberately giving institutional form to the counterrevolution, and that today would be unacceptable to the immense majority of the people of Cuba. The absence of elections signifies absence of democracy only on the formal assumption that the electoral process is at all times and in all places indispensable to democracy. But be that as it may, an election in Cuba is at the present time an impossible and meaningless demand."

     Fifteen years later, in 1975, Cuba institutionalized its major social and political revolutionary achievements in a new Constitution discussed and approved by all its citizens, as well as a self-developed electoral system, truly democratic and participative, very different from the US system. The ideas expressed in the book were confirmed: the US electoral model is not a valid paradigm for the underdeveloped countries.      

     Wright Mills clearly identifies the historical antecedents, economic roots and universal outreach of U.S. imperialism expressed in its Cuban policies, when the Cuban revolutionary character states that "there cannot be peace - by which we mean real understanding - between North and South America as long as these Yankee corporations own the riches of our countries. Because with this kind of ownership goes the real control of the politics of our countries... That's not ideology. That's just a plain fact that we have lived in Cuba, and that most of Latin America is still living."

     In his own final observations, Mills prefers not to go so deep into the question and states that "the policies the United States has pursued and is still pursuing against Cuba are based upon a profound ignorance, and are shot through with hysteria."

     The shamelessly declared imperialist objective to bring democracy to Cuba was also rejected by the "Cuban revolutionary" created by Wright Mills 47 years ago when he says: "We don't know what you mean by the word `democratic' but if what we are doing isn't democratic, then we don't want democracy. And if you identify a free society with what you have in North America, please know that we don't. We've tried that kind of political system in Cuba. Maybe it works for you - that's your business; it certainly did not work for us."

     C. Wright Mills did not have a formal political militancy and he was neither a communist nor an anticommunist. He had studied and written about Marxism, and evidently he felt attracted by the Cuban revolution. "Were I a Cuban, I have no doubt that I would be working with all my effort for the success of my revolution. But I am not a Cuban. I am a Yankee."

     And, as an American, he formulated a recommendation to the government of his country in the words of the protagonist of his book: "You ought to use Cuba as The Case - The Case in which to establish the way you are going to act when there are revolutions in hungry countries everywhere in the world."

     Recently, Cuba was visited by the famed U.S. writer Gore Vidal, accompanied by other fellow citizens among whom I recognized Saul Landau, an outstanding writer, political scientist, filmmaker and journalist who, as a very young and bright intellectual, worked with Charles Wright Mills in the days of Listen, Yankee. He could have been the one who attracted Mills to the studies of the Cuban revolution.

     At the beginning of 1960, they and many other excellent intellectuals created the Fair Play for Cuba Committee in New York. Not without serious risks to their lives, they pronounced themselves against a policy that, as they foresaw and advised, would sink their country in dishonour.

     Sadly, the message was never listened to.

     (Manuel E. Yepe is a lawyer, economist and social scientist. He is a professor at the Raul Roa Higher Institute of International Relations in Havana, and Secretary of the Cuban Peace Movement.)
   

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