Controversy over Health Canada firings (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 firing of three senior Health Canada scientists has aroused a storm of controversy, leading many observers to warn that the action seems based on political interference. On July 14, Gerard Lambert, Margaret Haydon, and Shiv Chopra were dismissed by the agency. The three scientists have raised concerns about genetically-modified Bovine Growth hormone (rBGH), a drug later banned in Canada. They questioned the safety of veterinary antibiotics cabadox and Baytril and suggested possible links to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Long before the first case of "mad cow" disease hit this country, they had warned that Canadian safeguards against Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) were inadequate. Haydon and Chopra won a September 2000 Federal Court of Canada case after they were reprimanded for speaking publicly about risks posed by certain veterinary drugs. In its ruling, the court stated: "Where a matter is of legitimate public concern requiring a public debate, the duty of loyalty cannot be absolute to the extent of preventing public disclosure by a government official. The common law of duty does not impose unquestioning silence." The National Farmers' Union immediately called on the federal government to launch a judicial inquiry into the firings. Such an inquiry, said NFU President Stewart Wells, is needed both to gain justice for the scientists, and "to investigate allegations of political interference, bribery, industry meddling, and improper drug approvals within Health Canada." "The firing of these scientists is certainly tied to their years of speaking out in the public interest," said Wells. "It appears that a government that prides itself on making decisions based on 'sound science' has decided that it needs to get itself more submissive scientists." The Council of Canadians also called for an independent and public investigation into the firings. "Canadians are very concerned about the safety of our food, and want to know that Health Canada scientists are free to speak publicly about the safety of any product that may pose unacceptable risks," said Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. "We worked closely with these scientists in the fight to stop Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH) from being approved in Canada, and we feel that all Canadians owe them a debt of gratitude for having the courage to speak out." Barlow added, "this will be an important test for the new Martin government to send a clear signal that civil servants have a responsibility to speak out to defend the public interest. If we do not have an investigation into this, Canadians' confidence in the safety of our food may be at stake." The Council, along with the Canadian Health Coalition and the Sierra Club, intervened in the legal case when Health Canada tried to gag Chopra and Haydon after they spoke publicly about rBGH. The Council argued that freedom of expression must also protect the right of the public to receive information which makes it possible to make decisions and participate in public dialogue. (Back) (Home) Ontario Health Coalition hits Tory conspiracy (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) Bringing for-profit MRI clinics back into the public system will save money and reduce wait times, says Ross Sutherland, spokesperson for the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC). "The Conservative hypocrisy on these issues is stunning," said Sutherland. "In the dying days of their government they pushed through five-year private deals to transfer public health care dollars to private corporations with no accountability. Despite evidence from across Canada and around the world that these clinics would cost more they went ahead and now have the nerve to blame the current government for trying to fix their bad policy direction." "The Conservatives promised that these private clinics would not take staff from the public system," said Patty Rout, member of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union representing MRI technologists. "Most private clinics poached public hospital staff often forcing the public hospitals to cut the hours they could run their MRI machines. We are extremely pleased that the staff poaching and irrational use of resources will be stopped. We are looking forward to the formal confirmation of the fulfilment of this election promise to protect our universal one tier health system." According to the OHC, bringing Ontario's private MRI clinics back into the public system will: * provide more MRI and CT scans for the same money, and reduce wait times. * integrate services, making better use of machines and staff. This will improve efficiency and decrease cost. * make accountability possible by removing the cloak of business confidentiality, to monitor how health care dollars are being spent. * remove the threat of two tier imaging services. * stop the skimming of easier and more lucrative tests from public hospitals by private clinics. "The Conservative policies of promoting for-profit home care and private MRI-CT clinics drove up the cost of health care unnecessarily," said Sutherland. "Reestablishment of public control over the clinics is the first step towards restoring and strengthening the public system. Now the Liberal government needs to cancel the costly P3 hospitals." The OHC and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions have launched the "Trojan Horse Tour." Symbolic of the false gift of hospital privatization, a giant horse is stopping at public events, demanding that Premier McGuinty honour his promise to stop private P3 hospitals. The schedule includes Oakville Jazz Festival (Aug. 6), Campbellford Seymour Agricultural Fair (Aug. 7), Pembroke Waterfont Festival (Aug. 8), Gananoque Festival of the Islands (Aug. 13), Oshawa Jazz and Blues Festival (Aug. 14), Chemong Causeway Festival (Aug. 15), Brampton Blazin Summer Weekend (Aug. 20), Markham Jazz Festival (Aug. 21), CKCU Folk Festival, Ottawa (Aug. 27) and more. For details, contact the Ontario Health Coalition, 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305, Toronto, M3C 1Y8; http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca; tel. 416-441-2502. (Back) (Home) Wal-Mart resists Weyburn union drive (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) Wal-Mart, the world's largest employer, went to the Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench court on July 13 to challenge the authority of the provincial Labour Relations Board. Ironically, the company wants to use the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to prevent employees at its store in Weyburn from joining Local 1400 of the United Food and Commercial Workers of Canada. The challenge has temporarily halted SLRB hearings which began in May, after a majority of employees signed cards with Local 1400. Under Saskatchewan law, this means certification is automatic. "It's bad enough that Wal-Mart doesn't respect its own employees, said UFCW Canada's national director Michael J. Fraser, "but now it's decided to include the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board. It is ludicrous that The Charter which is meant to guarantee the rights and freedoms of Canadians is now being used as a weapon by Wal-Mart against its own workers. nothing happens in Wal-Mart without direction from the corporate office in Arkansas. It is an insult to all Canadians that Wal-Mart corporate bosses in Arkansas are trying to re-write our Charter of Rights and Freedoms." Wal-Mart made its Charter application in the wake of an SLRB subpoena for materials used by the company to counter union activity. The subpoena followed testimony by a manager confirming that such training materials were used by the company. "Wal-Mart is arguing the regulatory powers of the SLRB infringe on its freedom to communicate with its own workers during an organizing drive," according to Paul Meinema, president of UFCW Local 1400 which has organized the Weyburn employees. "What about the freedom to join a union without fear? What about the right to respect from your employer? Wal-Mart only respects one thing: its own agenda. Obviously that now includes Wal-Mart rewriting our labour laws to its own satisfaction," said Meinema. "What Wal-Mart is really challenging is the right for the labour board to grant certification resulting from employer interference. Something the union believes has happened in this case." The Labour Relations Board hearing is scheduled to resume on Aug. 17, depending on the outcome of the Queen's Bench decision. UFCW Canada has also applied for union certification for Wal-Mart employees in North Battleford, Saskatchewan; in Terrace, B.C.; in Thompson, Manitoba; and in Jonquière, Quebec. On July 21, Canadian Labour Congress President Ken Georgetti sent a copy of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to Wal-Mart head office in Arkansas, saying the mega-retailer should give it a good read. "It's nice to see Wal-Mart has finally discovered that people have rights in Canada, however, it still needs to realize that this includes its employees," wrote Georgetti, whose e-mail to Wal-Mart included links to the Charter's text and fact sheets prepared by the Department of Justice Canada. "Asking the courts to extend Charter protection to employers' union-busting campaigns is a new low, even for Wal-Mart," said Georgetti. "If they truly believe in the rights that Charter gives to everyone in Canada, they would respect the choice those workers at Wal-Mart Weyburn have made rather than using it to take their rights away." (Back) (Home) Remembering Hiroshima: an inter-cultural commemoration and concert (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) A message from StopWar.ca Fifty-nine years ago, Japan's imperial aggression in Asia came to a cataclysmic end with the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Today the world again is ravaged by war and faces an increasing risk of nuclear holocaust. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has breathed new life into the forces of global militarism. The U.S. senate recently passed a $447 billion dollar military budget including millions for research on a nuclear "bunker buster" and on "mini-nukes". Israel, Pakistan and India have developed nuclear arsenals and the nuclear regulation regime has been severely compromised. At the same time, the Federal government appears determined to further integrate Canada into a provocative U.S. "ballistic missile defence" system that is unnecessary, unproven, unsustainable and a first step in the weaponization of space. But there is hope. The anti-war movement that came to life with the invasion of Iraq continues to build. The lessons of Hiroshima and Nagasaki can and should be passed on to a younger generation and the campaign for the total abolition of nuclear weapons must continue. Join us in making Hiroshima Day an inter-cultural, inter- generational commemoration and celebration of life, of hope and of our determination to prevent nuclear war. You can help revive Hiroshima Day by joining us in memorializing the victims of wars,s past and present, and in paying tribute to Hiroshima survivors. Admission is free for this event, which is sponsored by Vancouver City Peace and Justice Committee, World Peace Forum Society, and StopWar.ca. It takes place at 7:30 pm, Friday, August 6, at the National Nikkei Heritage Centre, 6688 Southoaks Crescent, Burnaby, BC (near Kingsway and Sperling, underground parking available). As well as a concert, the programme includes a welcome by Burnaby Mayor Derrick Corrigan, a message of peace from Kimuko Laskey, Hiroshima survivor and anti-nuclear activist, a proclamation by Vancouver deputy Mayor Fred Bass, and a message by Cara Ng, UBC student and a member of the Vancouver Peace and Justice Committee. (Back) (Home) Musings on the US election (The following editorial is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) It's the summer of US political conventions, complete with vast armies of riot cops and kilometres of barbed wire, Isn't democracy wonderful? The democrats are annointing their Kerry/Edwards slate in Boston, amid much rhetoric about protecting the common people against the wealthy Republicans. In actual fact, the Democratic leadership defends the same capitalist system as their Republican rivals. On many key issues, their differences are vanishingly thin. But we caution against tendencies to write off Kerry and Bush as "identical." As several reports in our pages show, the worrisome trend towards weakening electoral rights continues to creep forward under the Bush regime, which represents the most ultra-right, pro- fascist elements of the US corporate elite. Another stolen victory by the Bush ticket (would) roll back rights and freedoms for which US working people have shed enormous amounts of blood and tears. There are other reasons to hope that Bush goes down to defeat on November 2, starting with his illegal wars of aggression against Iraq and Afghanistan. War criminals should be brought to trial for their crimes, and this is certainly less likely while they remain in office. Not least, the Democrats and Republicans have important differences over social issues such as women's reproductive rights, where the Republican policy is dictated by fanatical religious bigots. This is not a minor matter - it is a crucial question of women's freedom. More Bush appointees on the US Supreme Court could spell disaster, with grave implications for Canada as well. Nobody expects that a victory for Kerry would mean a swing to the left in US politics. But it would set back the most dangerous political forces on the world stage today. That's an outcome which could give time for the growing people's movements to move back to the offensive before US imperialism destroys our planet. (Back) (Home) Build ferries in BC (The following editorial is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) Even tame Liberal backbenchers are outraged at the latest move to attack jobs and economic benefits by BC Ferries. The company, now controlled privately after decades of providing vital services within the public sector, wants to contract out new ferry construction worth $500 million to bidders in Finland and Germany. That cuts highly skilled westcoast shipyard workers out of the picture, costing the Vancouver-area economy dearly in terms of employment and spending. Observers can only speculate at the reasons behind this decision. Some point to the "fast terries" fiasco under Glen Clark's NDP government, when over $400 million was spent to build three vessels which proved unsuitable for the Georgia Strait, arguing that this "proves" that ship-building is best done offshore. But the facts point towards the problem of trying to direct a ferry fleet from the premier's office in Victoria. Both in the fast ferry case and today's dispute, the skills, talents and knowledge of the organized workforce are seen as secondary to other agendas. No doubt, the Campbell Liberals are loathe to provide work for BC trade unionists. And there may be other factors. Revelations of hugely expensive trips by BC Ferry executives to "study" shipbuilding in Europe certainly raise questions about the fairness of thew entire process. The basic question here has come up in similar ways across Canada in recent years. In city after city, region after region, Canada is being stripped of highly skilled jobs in the manufacturing sector. Unemployment rates shift up and down, but overall, pay rates and working conditions are declining, and communities are being wiped out. The real lesson is that unplanned capitalist decision-making may help some corporations make a million, but the price paid by working people is enormous. (Back) (Home) CSIS, torture, and human ethics (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 Kenneth Higham, Montreal Does Canada use intelligence information derived from torture? The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS)l would shout its innocence from the rooftops if this were not the case, but Ward Elcock, Director of Canada's spy agency up to May of this year, is being very evasive. He says he doesn't know if his service has ever benefited from torture information. If Elcock knows so little, we are left wondering how on earth he could have been in charge of a spy agency. What were we paying him for? Either the man is stupid, another in a long list of Liberal Party patronage appointments, or is he lying to us. Elcock insists, furthermore, that what little he does know he will not divulge for reasons of security. He admits that CSIS does use information from all sources in order to "prevent terrorist attacks" in Canada. To put his slippery gibberish in a nutshell, CSIS does not know the sources of its intelligence, but even if it did, he would not tell us. If we don't ask CSIS these kinds of questions, we will get lied to. Is it more patriotic to lie than to ask questions? While Nazi scientific research done in concentration camps was in the main quite useless and often merely sadistic, there were limited areas where some research data was produced. This can lead us to ask another question. Should Canadian researchers make use of this information? By not absolutely ruling out the use of information derived through torture, Elcock allows a dangerous example for scientific researchers to follow. If some good reason can be found to use Nazi data accumulated while using torture, the argument goes, it ought to be used. To further develop this line of reasoning leads to another question. If it is alright to profit from torture, is it not alright to torture for profit? Mr. Elcock has certainly stepped in a real mess! One area where Nazi research proves useful is in hypothermia and frostbite. While no ethical researcher would lower body temperature to less than 36 degrees for fear of harming the person being examined, Nazi researchers felt no such constraint. Experiments on animal body temperature are not as accurate, and because of the widely varying heat tolerance of various species, such data can only approximate the human condition. The Nazi hypothermia research data was derived from experiments done exclusively in the Dachau concentration camp. The same can be said for frost-bite research. Nazi researchers deliberately froze victims and then thawed them out again, experimenting with different methods. The meticulous records derived through so much human suffering could provide valuable information on how to treat frost-bite. Why should Canada not benefit from information derived through torture, in Syria, Israel or elsewhere, and yet not benefit holocaust data on hypothermia and frostbite? What hypocrisy! While not condoning the use of torture, Canada is prepared to benefit from it being performed. Perhaps we will never be able to prove that CSIS has had nothing to do with contracting out interrogation procedures to other countries or to private torture-for-profit companies, but we certainly have no difficulty believing it. The Liberals blew another assured majority when the Auditor General's report came out, convincing Canadians that the government was corrupt and dishonest. Part of this general picture is the shady side of the intelligence gathering of our spy agency. That our CSIS could consider using information extracted through the use of pain is disgusting. If we just shake our heads and do nothing about this shocking discovery, we will encourage the world's torturers to continue to develop these Gestapo-like attitudes. If we find a means to justify today's tortures, we justify all torture, including even that of the Nazis. If torture can help us to "prevent terrorism," then hypothermia data extracted from victims who died with thermometers shoved up their rectums can help us in scientific research. If Canada has started to contract out torture, how much longer until we have our own made-in-Canada torture chambers? Some would argue that our government has already crossed that line, violating human ethics and principles. (Back) (Home) U.S.  tortures children at Abu Ghraib (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 William Rivers Pitt The biggest story of the Iraq war is not about missing weapons of mass destruction, or about deep-cover CIA officers getting their covers blown by vengeful White House agents, or even about 900 dead American soldiers. These have been covered to one degree or another, and then summarily dismissed, by the American mainstream news media. The biggest story of the Iraq war has not enjoyed any coverage in America, though it has been exploding across the international news media for several weeks now. The biggest story of the Iraq war is about the torture of Iraqi children. A German TV magazine called Report Mainz recently aired accusations from the International Red Cross, to the effect that over 100 children are imprisoned in U.S. controlled detention centers, including Abu Ghraib. "Between January and May of this year, we've registered 107 children, during 19 visits in 6 different detention locations," said Red Cross representative Florian Westphal in the report. The report also outlined eyewitness testimony of the abuse of children. Staff Sergeant Samuel Provance, who was stationed at Abu Ghraib, said that interrogating officers had gotten their hands on a 15-or-16-year-old girl. Military police only stopped the interrogation when the girl was half undressed. A separate incident described a 16-year-old being soaked with water, driven through the cold, smeared with mud, and then presented before his weeping father, who was also a prisoner. Seymour Hersh, the New Yorker reporter who first broke the story of torture at Abu Ghraib, recently spoke at an ACLU convention. He has seen the pictures and the videotapes the American media has not yet shown. "The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the sound-track, of the boys shrieking," said Hersh. "And this is your government at war." Hersh described the prison scene as, "a series of massive crimes, criminal activity by the president and the vice president, by this administration anyway," and that there has been, "a massive amount of criminal wrongdoing that was covered up at the highest command out there, and higher." Reports of abuses at Abu Ghraib and other American prisons have been public knowledge since the release of the Taguba Report. Recently, however, some 106 annexes to the report, previously classified, have also been released. U.S. News and World Report detailed the sum of what is contained in these annexes in an article titled "Hell on Earth." In it, the U.S. News says, "The abuses took place, the files show, in a chaotic and dangerous environment made even more so by the constant pressure from Washington to squeeze intelligence from detainees. Riots, prisoner escapes, shootings, corrupt Iraq guards, unsanitary conditions, rampant sexual misbehaviour, bug-infested food, prisoner beatings and humiliations, and almost-daily mortar shellings from Iraqi insurgents - according to the annex to General Taguba's report, that pretty much sums up life at Abu Ghraib." According to coalition intelligence officers cited in a Red Cross report from last May, between 70 percent to 90 percent of Iraqi detainees held in these prisons were arrested "by mistake." That means they were innocent. The orders to treat prisoners in this fashion were not manufactured by the few "bad apples" we have heard about, but came from up on high. Brig. Gen Janis Karpinski, former commander of Abu Ghraib and now scapegoat for the abuses, says the truth about where the orders came from would be revealed in the trials of the accused soldiers. Memos ordering the abuse of prisoners were signed off on by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. The Justice Department and Mr. Bush's senior legal advisor went out of their way to craft arguments justifying this, claiming that torture isn't really torture and that the president is basically above the law. Mr. Hersh will revisit this issue within the next several weeks. In the meantime, the American news media has a obligation to report on this situation., Photographic and videotape evidence of this torture is currently in the hands of the New Yorker, the Washington Post, the U.S. Congress and the White House. It must be released. We invaded a country based upon the false claim that Iraq was allied with al Qaeda. We invaded a country based on the false claim that there were weapons of mass destruction which needed to be destroyed. We promised freedom and democracy, and instead installed a CIA-trained strongman named Allawi who has all but created a dictatorship in Iraq, and who has been accused of killing Iraqi prisoners by his own hand. Nine hundred American soldiers have died so we could do this. We took thousands of innocent civilians off the streets in Iraq and threw them into hellhole prisons, where they were beaten, raped, and killed. This story has faded from public view because no new pictures of the abuses have come out in the last several weeks. those pictures are out there, and they show the rape and torture of children. The international redia is reporting on it. Coalition ally Norway may be preparing to flee Iraq because of the allegations regarding these children. Where is the American news media? Where are the pictures? Who is responsible for this abomination? Torturing children in the name of freedom? Is this what we have become? (William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and international bestselling author of two books, War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition is Silence. This article appeared on his website, http://www.truthout.org.) (Back) (Home) Stop thief! Demand grows in U.S. to safeguard 2004 vote (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 Tim Wheeler, People's Weekly World Newspaper A request for United Nations observers to prevent the theft of the 2004 elections has sparked an outpouring of support in the face of Republican attacks. Florida Rep. Corrine Brown, one of 13 House members who asked the UN to send observers, has been flooded with messages of support since July 15 when Republicans stripped from the House record her speech accusing George W. Bush of stealing the 2000 election and scheming to do it again in 2004. The uproar came when Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) introduced and the House approved a measure barring any federal official from requesting UN observers to monitor U.S. elections. The gag order was in response to a July 1 letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requesting UN observers to prevent a repeat of the 2000 election debacle. Brown angrily addressed the Republicans on the House floor. "I come from Florida where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'État," she thundered. "We need to make sure it doesn't happen again. Over and over after you stole the election, you came back here and said, 'Get over it.' No, we're not going to get over it and we want verification from the world." Buyer demanded that her words be stricken from the record and the Republican-controlled House complied. Brown returned to the House floor the next day. She called the deletion of her remarks "just another example of the Republican Party's attempt to cover up what happened in the 2000 election" and hide "their preparations for stealing this year's election as well." In Duval County, which she represents, 27,000 ballots were thrown out in 2000, mostly in heavily Black precincts of Jacksonville, Brown said, part of an illegal, unconstitutional purge of voting rolls. "I saw what happened in my district," she said, "and there remains a dangerous possibility that we may see a repeat of the flagrant violations of civil rights in the upcoming 2004 election." Brown called for a "neutral party, like the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe - to oversee and monitor our elections in an unbiased manner." The courageous stand of these lawmakers recalls the "We Charge Genocide" petition exposing U.S. government-sanctioned lynching and systematic oppression of African Americans. David Simon, Brown's press secretary, told the World, "Since her speech, our office has been flooded with calls 90 percent or more supporting Congresswoman Brown. The messages are coming not only from her Florida constituents but also from California, Texas, and many other states." Sandy Wayland, legislative chairperson of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, echoed Brown's warnings. Direct recording electronic voting machines (DREs) that provide no verifiable paper record have been installed across Florida. Her coalition mobilized statewide against Florida Senate Bill 3004, which would have blocked recounts on touch-screen voting machines, Wayland told the World. "We mounted such a strong effort that the language was removed." But Gov. Jeb Bush and his secretary of state, Glenda Hood, imposed the ban on vote recounts through an administrative rule. Said Wayland. "They want to eliminate recounts, period. We are demanding audits of all these machines in Florida's Aug. 31 primary. We want to address this issue before the Nov. 2 election, not after." Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has announced formation of a network of lawyers and election experts in every state to monitor the vote Nov. 2. Speaking to thousands of NAACP convention delegates in Philadelphia july 15, Kerry said, "A million African Americans disenfranchised in the last election - well, we're not just going to sit there and wait for it to happen. On Election Day in your cities, my campaign will provide teams of election observers and lawyers to monitor the elections and we will enforce the law." Newsweek revealed that DeForest Soaries, Republican director of the federal Election Assistance Commission, wants Congress to grant Bush power to "cancel or reschedule" the Nov. 2 election in the event of a "terrorist" attack. This plan to seize dictatorial power is not new. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 52, authorizing the mass detention of 400,000 people in the event of "civil unrest" protesting a U.S. invasion of Central America. It was part of a plot, code-named Rex-84 Alpha, cooked up by the National Security Council under the direction of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North. It called for suspending the Constitution, placing the nation under martial law and cancelling the 1984 election. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was to work with 34 other agencies, running the nation as an open police state. FEMA actually carried out a secret dress rehearsal of this fascist-like operation from April 5-15, 1984. During the Iran-Contra hearings, Rep. Jack Brooks (D-Texas) attempted to ask North about Rex-84 Alpha, also called "Operation Garden Plot." Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), chair of the hearings, reminded Brooks, "We agreed not to get into that subject." (Back) (Home) More tricks ahead on Nov. 2? (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 Top US Republicans seem willing to use any trick in the book heading into the November 2 presidential election. As in the 2000 election, their tactics include depriving as many African- Americans as possible from the right to vote. The Miami Herald reported on July 23 that Florida governor Jeb Bush has eliminated paper applications for felons seeking to recover their civil rights. This will prevent tens of thousands of potential voters from casting a ballot, in a state where over 400,000 are already banned from voting. This follows a unanimous ruling by the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee that state prison officials must provide newly released felons the necessary paperwork and assistance to get their full civil rights back. That would include a one-page application for a formal hearing before the Florida Clemency Board (composed of the Governor and the Cabinet), the only way an estimated 85% of felons will ever get their rights restored. Instead of providing the application, Bush announced on July 21 that felons will now have to contact the Office of Executive Clemency to apply for a hearing to have their rights restored. Groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and the Florida Justice Institute sued the state in 2001, saying the Department of Corrections violated the law by not helping felons to make such applications. They took the state to court to change the policy, winning a victory before Bush changed the rules. "You have to hand it to the governor. It's a very clever legal tactic and even more clever propaganda," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU in Florida. "It's done under the guise of trying to simplify the process and eliminate paperwork, but it just shows his true character. It's completely disingenuous." Florida is one of just six states that permanently strip felons of the right to vote. Meanwhile, a Republican politician in Michigan has stated that his party will fare poorly in this year's elections if it fails to "support the Detroit vote." State Rep, John Pappageorge, (Republican-Troy) acknowledged using "a bad choice of words" but said his remark shouldn't be construed as racist. Pappageorge was quoted in July 16 editions of the Detroit Free Press as saying, "If we do not suppress the Detroit vote, we're going to have a tough time in this election." Buzz Thomas, a Democratic state representative from Detroit, told reporters, "That's quite clearly code that they don't want black people to vote in this election." Blacks comprise 83 percent of Detroit's population, and the city routinely gives Democratic candidates a substantial majority of its votes. Another Democratic member of the Michigan legislature, Rep. Alexander Lipsey, said "This is the endgame strategy the Republican Party has decided to utilize. They are strategizing, 'How can we get those folks we don't care about from going to the polls?"' A different threat - tampering with computerized voting results - is also becoming widely feared. As Doug Saunders wrote in the Globe and Mail last March 2, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent to remedy the debacle of the 2000 presidential election, on touch-screen voting machines that leave absolutely no physical evidence. Covering the U.S. primary elections, Saunders wrote (about) "...technologically savvy voters in California's Silicon Valley region, one of the thousands of places hurrying to implement the touch screens. Yesterday, a good number of those voters showed up at the Santa Clara County elections office in order to avoid having to vote by computer." He interviewed Kai Frazer, who develops computer programs for industrial application. "I came out here early because I want to put a real mark on a real piece of paper," said Frazer. Because he understands the technology behind the voting machines, Frazer sought out an advance-voting ballot form, the kind where you put an X on paper. In January, reported Saunders, touch-screen machines used in a Florida country election failed to register 134 votes in a race won by just 12 ballots. Recent studies have found flaws that could allow hackers to break into machines and alter voting data undetected. One found that any high-school student with intermediate computer training would be able to use off-the-shelf equipment to forge cards used to initialize the voting machines and identify voters. The machines are especially unpopular in Democrat-dominated counties, because Ohio-based manufacturer Diebold Election Systems has close ties to the Republican Party. Diebold says its security systems have improved, but last year, the company's president, Walden O'Dell, sent out a fundraising letter for President George W. Bush's re-election campaign, saying his company was committed to "helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes" for Mr. Bush. The first time Diebold machines were used in a major election, in Georgia in 2002, two Republican congressmen won surprise upset victories. California and other states have demanded printers that leave a verifiable physical record of the vote, but these will not be available until 2006. While election officials say that the various layers of security on voting machines would deter all but the most determined of fraud artists, these are precisely the criminals who cause the most concern. California regulators have demanded that counties station armed guards near machine, that they back up all data and that other armed officers supervise the delivery of the machines' hard- drive cartridges to vote-counting centres. But computer experts point to flaws in the California system. When the machines are sealed, officials do not bother to record the serial numbers on the seals. And even if they were found to be broken after a night of voting, the votes would likely still be counted, officials have acknowledged. "They could solve all this if they just had us write our votes down and used the machines to count them," Kai Frazer said, "but that wouldn't mean as much money for the people in the voting-machine business." (Back) (Home) Israeli wall ruled illegal (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 In a decision hailed by supporters of peace and justice in the Middle East, the International Court of Justice ruled July 9 that the wall being built by Israel in the West Bank violates international law. The ICJ called on Israel to tear it down and compensate Palestinians harmed by its construction. "Israel is under an obligation to terminate its breaches of international law; it is under an obligation to cease forthwith the works of construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, to dismantle forthwith the structure therein situated," said the ruling, read by the court president, Judge Shi Jiuyong of China. The court's non-binding advisory on the legality of the fence called on the United Nations Security Council to consider "further action" to stop construction. Israel's security does not merit construction of the barrier, said the court, stating that it "cannot be justified by military exigencies or by the requirements of national security or public order." The case began last December when the UN General Assembly agreed to a Palestinian request to seek a World Court opinion on the legality of the wall. The court found that the barrier could become tantamount to annexation of Palestinian land if it is completed and that it impeded the Palestinian's right to self-rule. "The Court considers that the construction of the wall and its associate regime creates a 'fait accompli' on the ground that could well become permanent, in which case, and notwithstanding the formal characterization by Israel, it would be tantamount to de facto annexation," the court said. "That construction, along with measures previously taken, thus severely impeded the exercise by the Palestinian people of its right to self-determination." Fourteen of the 15 justices supported the decision, with the single objection from the U.S. judge, Thomas Buerghenthal. Thirteen judges also stated that all countries "are under an obligation not to recognize the illegal situation resulting from the construction of the wall and not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by such construction." Only Buerghenthal and Judge Pieter Kooijmans (Holland) rejected the call for all countries to act against the project. The completed wall, 90% of which is being built on Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war, would cut off more than 230,000 Palestinians from their surrounding areas. Entire towns and villages and being enclosed, and many farmers are being prevented access to their fields. The court said that this violates international humanitarian law by infringing on Palestinians' freedom of movement and freedom to seek employment, education and health. Just days later, on July 20, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution condemning the wall, with 150 nations voting in favour of the draft. Only six countries (the United States, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Palau and Australia) voted against the resolution, while Canada was among ten abstaining. A last-minute compromise struck between the European Union nations and the Palestinian sponsors of the resolution enabled the entire EU bloc to support the draft. Palestinian UN observer Nasser al-Kidwa drafted the resolution, based on the ICJ decision. Kidwa said the resolution was the most important one ever discussed by the UN General Assembly. Under the resolution, the assembly demands that Israel comply with the ruling that the barrier built on Palestinian land was illegal and should be torn down. The draft also demands that Israel pay reparations for damages caused by construction of the barrier. The Assembly vote, like the opinion of the ICJ, is not legally binding, but both have symbolic value as statements of support for the barrier's destruction and as major steps towards peace in the Middle East. As the highest court of the United Nations, the ICJ's opinion carries enormous political weight, especially given the near-unanimity of the ruling by its highly respected panel of judges. The decision also helps to strengthen the argument that international law and human rights - not the "might makes right" doctrine of the US and Israel - are central to peace in the Middle East. For example, the court confirmed that Israel's settlements and its annexation of East Jerusalem are all illegal, and that the Geneva Convention applies to the Occupied Territories. Communist Party of Canada leader Miguel Figueroa welcomed the ruling, calling it "a major victory by the Palestinian people in their struggle against Israeli occupation. Ever since Israel began construction of the apartheid wall, world public opinion has condemned this illegal action. By dividing the entire West Bank into small pieces of land, Israel aimed to permanently block the development of a viable Palestinian state." Figueroa also condemned Canada's abstention in the July 20 UN vote as "an outrageous act, a shocking rejection of the near-unanimous conclusions of the international court. This decision of the Liberal government simply panders to Israel's flaunting of international law in pursuit of its Zionist, annexationist aims. Canadians are rightly telling Prime Minister Martin that it is completely unacceptable for our country to abstain on this issue. We need to join the rest of the world in demanding that Israel end its occupation of Palestine once and for all." No country in the world, pointed out Figueroa, has violated decisions of the United Nations as often as Israel, which has the solid backing of the United States. "If any country deserves the designation of 'rogue state,' it's Israel," said Figueroa. "Instead, the Bush Administration, with the support of allies such as Britain and its friends in Ottawa, is allowed to use such terminology to justify 'regime change' through imperialist pressure, subversion and open military aggression. As long as the U.S. is allowed to arbitrarily declare some countries as targets for attack, while others which thumb their noses at the UN and international law receive massive amounts of military aid, the world will continue to become more dangerous. Canada needs a foreign policy which rejects the Bush doctrine in favour of the rule of international law and peaceful settlement of international disputes." (Back) (Home) Fatalities in Palestine and Israel (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) Here are some figures on casualties in the conflict between Israel and Palestine, from Sept. 29, 2000 (the beginning of the second Intifada sparked by Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to the Al Aqsa mosque) to July 12, 2004. * 2,683 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces in the Occupied Territories, of whom 533 were minors under the age of 18. Of these, 102 were under the age of 12 years old. * At least 149 of these Palestinians were assassinated by Israel, 90 of them by the Israel Air Force and 59 by ground forces. In the course of these assassinations, 100 additional Palestinians were killed, 90 of them minors. * 32 Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians, and ten foreign citizens were killed by Israeli security forces. * 207 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians, 34 of them were minors under the age of 18, including fourteen under the age of 12. * Seven foreign citizens were killed by Palestinians. * 201 members of the Israeli security forces were killed by Palestinians within Israel itself during this time. * 49 Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories were killed by Israeli security forces. * 408 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories, including 75 minors under the age of 18, of which 23 were less than 12 years old. (Source: Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories) (Back) (Home) Strikers occupy South Korea refinery (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) Striking workers occupied facilities of South Korea's second- largest oil refiner, LG Caltex Oil, after the company rejected demands for higher wages and shorter working hours. The occupation began July 19 with unionists taking over six out of 29 key facilities which control the refining process at a plant in the southern port of Yeosu. Masked workers also mounted pickets at the plant's gates, monitoring traffic in and out of the complex. The joint venture between South Korea's LG Group and US oil major Chevron Texaco, however, was operating at more than 70 percent of capacity, a company official told AFP. "Workers have allowed the plant to run at more than 70 percent of capacity despite their threat to stage a full walkout," he said. "We hope a deal will be made because union leaders have not ruled out new negotiations." Blaming the company's "insincere attitude," the plant's 1,096- member union launched a partial strike on July 16, demanding a 10.5 percent wage hike and a reduction in working hours. The company has proposed a 4.1-percent increase in basic monthly salaries and a bonus equivalent to two months' pay. The plant supplies a third of South Korea's oil needs, such as gasoline and diesel. It also produces naphtha and other petro- chemical products. (Back) (Home) California labour: "end the occupation" (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 California Federation of labor, AFL-CIO, has voted in favour of "an immediate end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and to support the repeal of the Patriot Act and the reordering of national priorities toward the human needs of our people." The largest state labor federation in the US, representing more than 2 million members, met in San Diego July 13 for its 25th biennial convention. The antiwar resolution, proposed by the San Francisco Labor Council, came out of the resolutions committee with the word "expedient" instead of "immediate." Federation Vice President Nancy Wohlforth took the floor and argued for the restoration of the original language. Her motion passed overwhelmingly by an overwhelming voice vote of the 44-plus delegates. The California AFL-CIO also adopted a resolution demanding transparency and accountability but the AFL-CIO in its international programs. It urged both the AFL-CIO and its Solidarity center to "exercise extreme caution in seeking or accepting funding  from the U.S. government, its agencies and any other institutions which it funds." One such governmental funding source is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The California federations's resolution warned that accepting NED or other funding could "give the appearance, if not the effect, of making the AFL-CIO appear to be an agent of the U.S. government and its foreign policies" which may "taint the good reputation of the Federation - and draw into question the motivation and true independence of the Federation in its international affairs." The convention called upon the AFL-CIO to fund its international programs with membership-and-affiliated-generated funds. (People's Weekly World) (Back) (Home) Peace  Walk organizers contest charges (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 Manitoba Bureau Police have issued charges against volunteer parade marshal Nick Ternette, as a result of his participation in Winnipeg's 23rd annual Peace Walk on June 19. The No War Coalition (Manitoba) which organized the walk issued a statement demanding that the charges be dropped. Peace Walk organizers have always received a parade permit, and walks have been peaceful. Organisers are not aware of a right of appeal or of any criteria used by the Chief of Police to issue a parade permit. Over 300 people participated in the June 19th Walk. At the half-way point, police officers stopped all participants for a considerable amount of time. Ternette was invited into a police car and asked questions about the parade and unrelated political involvements. Officers then decided to accompany walkers to complete the route as if the parade was lawful. Four days later, Ternette was charged with holding or taking part in a parade not permitted by the Chief of Police (a maximum fine of $81,000), personally obstructing traffic (maximum fine of $80) and disobeying police orders (maximum fine of $220). "We applied for a permit to inform the fire, ambulance and public transit systems about the parade, not to receive political approval," said Darrell Rankin, one of the organizers. Four days before the Walk, police informed Rankin that they would not issue a permit because of a military parade scheduled to end at 11 am. The No War Coalition statement points out that Ternette was not one of the organizers and that police arbitrarily charged Ternette. The Coalition views the Peace Walk as a fundamental right protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. (Back) (Home) A young Communist candidate speaks out (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) During the recent federal election campaign, the Communist Party of Canada had the highest percentage of candidates under 25 among all registered parties. One of the Communist youth candidates, Jason Devine, was running for a second time in the riding of Calgary East, where he won over 200 votes. We reprint here his speech at an all-candidates forum at the Woods Community Centre on June 6, when he was interrupted twice by applause from the audience. The Calgary East campaign also distributed over 8500 platforms, and Devine did twice as many interviews and forums as during the last election. First, I want to thank everyone in attendance and the fine people who organised this forum. The Communist Party's slogan this election is "People Before Profit!" This slogan encapsulates the essence of the CPC's electoral platform. When the CPC talks about taxes, we are talking about a shift in the distribution of this nation's wealth. Our election platform calls for "legislating a truly progressive tax system, based on ability to pay". For example, we want to: "Increase the corporate tax rate to 19%, and tax all capital gains, both realized and unrealized. End tax loopholes and shelters; collect deferred corporate taxes and tax the speculators. Impose a special windfall profit tax on large oil and other resource companies. Jail terms for corporate tax evaders! Eliminate taxes on incomes under $35,000/yr and scrap the regressive GST." We pride ourselves on being a wealthy nation. We must ask ourselves what is the purpose of our nation's wealth? Is it to increase the value and profit of giant corporations, or is it to meet the various needs of our country such as health, education and the protection of our environment? We can't afford to be apathetic or cynical towards these questions about our future. It's our country and our future. That is why the Communist Party of Canada is calling for an independent foreign policy of peace, global disarmament and social justice. At a time when the government of the United States sees a need for war at every turn, when after years of environmental exploitation and degradation, when the government and many major corporations of the USA look towards Canada's still plentiful natural resources with a greedy eye, we feel that now more than ever it is imperative to maintain an independent, sovereign stance in relation to the US. Instead of drawing closer and subordinating ourselves to the USA, we must maintain an independent pro-people stance. According to the Conservative platform, under the demand for better security, the Conservative party wants to "Enhance our NAFTA relationship with the United States by moving towards harmonized tariffs, eliminating rules of origin, and moving beyond trade to pursue enhanced common labour, environmental, and security standards." Common environmental standards? Many big names in the US Republican Party are against the US Endangered Species Act. They feel they should have the right to hunt what they want. How much clear cutting has occurred in the USA in the last 50 years? And let's not forget the notorious practice of dumping waste into lakes, rivers etc. If that is what the Conservatives want, Canadians must remind them that this country is for all to enjoy not just for a few. Canada has always and will always pride itself on its high environmental standards, we must not let that change by shacking up with the US. Common security standards? Does this mean that the Conservatives believe that Canada could and should attain a military the size of the USA? Maybe not, but according to the Conservative platform "A Conservative government led by Stephen Harper will: Inject an immediate $1.2 billion per year into the military for equipment replacement, with a longer-term goal of moving toward the NATO European average as a percentage of GDP." That's 1.2 billion less for what Canadians really want: better health care and better education. That's 1.2 billion invested unproductively. For armies consume, they do not produce. But more money towards education, for example, a rolling back of tuition fees for post-secondary education, with a view to eventual elimination of these fees, such as the Communist Party calls for in its election platform, would lead to more people furthering their education, gaining more skills; this would lead to a betterment of Canadians' living standards. For getting rid of the spectre of large debt which inhibits many from furthering their education, is clearly more pro-people than any increase in the number of weapons of death and in the number of people trained in their application. In the Liberal platform, they also say they want to improve the army, and boast of achievements, noting that "more needs to be done." The Liberals also agree to getting closer with the USA through such measures as NAFTA and the "Free Trade Area of the Americas". If you go over the two respective parties, you will see that the Conservatives and Liberals agree on many things. The Liberal platform boasts of job creation: "There is no more meaningful result of Liberal economic policies than the increasing number of Canadians who are working. Since the beginning of 1994, Canada has generated over 3 million net new jobs. Problem is that they don't state what type of jobs these are. To the average Canadian a job is not just a job. A position as a sales clerk making less than $8/hour is not the same as working in a factory for $12/hour. And in fact what are we facing in this country? More plant closures and the multiplication of low-paying positions at Wal-Mart. A real pro-people policy is the one the Communist Party is advancing: for example we want to legislate a 32-hour work week with no loss in take-home pay and no loss in service to the public; ban compulsory overtime and raise the federal minimum wage to $12/hour. When you work for $8/hour full-time, not many people would call that a livable wage. The aim of our nation must not be to increase the profit margins, but the continual growth and standard of living. I would encourage you all to take a look at the different political parties' platforms and ask yourself: Whose policies are geared to the needs of the working majority and whose policies are geared towards the profit of corporations? Whose policies stand for an independent, sovereign Canada and whose policies stand for foreign owned, economically subservient Canada. Take a look and compare and I am sure that you will see that it is the Communist Party of Canada which truly puts "People Before Profit! (Back) (Home) A new evil  as old as capitalism (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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.) A new evil as old as capitalism The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade, by Victor Malarek, ISBN 0-670-04312-5, Viking Canada, $36 Can. Review by Steve Gilbert In The Natashas, Canadian journalist Victor Malarek tells the appalling story of impoverished girls from the former Soviet Union who are forced into prostitution by criminals posing as representatives of legitimate employment agencies. For many young women, jobs as nannies, domestics, waitresses and models in developed countries seem like the only way out of the economic chaos and unemployment left in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Girls who accept such offers are provided - often illegally - with passports, visas and work permits, and sent all over the world. When they arrive at their destinations, they are forced to work as prostitutes. If they resist, they are beaten, raped, tortured, and confined. For most, escape is impossible. They are illegal immigrants with forged passports in countries where they cannot speak the language. Police treat them not as victims, but as criminals. And so it is, according to Malarek, that "innocent women are stigmatized and victimized over and over again." Malarek cites amazing statistics. Last year over 175,000 women from the former Soviet republics were lured into the sex trade. Every year the number becomes larger. Together with drugs and weapons, sex trafficking is one of the three most profitable illegal activities in the world, earning more than $12 billion per year for pimps and organized crime. A trafficked woman can be bought for $2,500. She can earn between $75,000 and $250,000 per year for her pimp, who gives her but a small part of the total income. Malarek has interviewed trafficked women, pimps and police officers in many parts of Europe and the former Soviet Union. He reports that "cash and free sex are the driving forces. As long as there are cops with their hands out and cops with their pants down, the trade will continue to flourish." He cites numerous examples. For instance, three years ago a Greek newspaper in Thessaly reported that local police officers who were operating a prostitution procurement racket had trafficked some 1200 Eastern European women into Greece, making a profit of over $100 million. One of the women testified that police frequented the club where she worked and were rewarded with "gratis services." In Israel, according to Malarek, "police corruption is at the very core of the trafficking trade." Israeli human rights lawyer Nomi Levenkron writes than many Israeli police "cooperate freely with pimps and traffickers. Furthermore, many policemen are regular clients of brothels. This keeps trafficking victims from complaining against their assailants, since they see this as cooperation between the assailants and the authorities, leaving them no option of escape." A lethal side effect of sex trafficking is the global spread of AIDS. Prostitutes run a high risk of infection but, as Malarek points out, the UN and world governments spend billions of dollars on AIDS treatments while doing nothing to protect trafficked girls who are forcibly infected. He writes: "We need to launch an all-out war against the trafficking trade. Until we do, the epidemic will continue to spread unchecked." What can be done? The trafficking industry has been the subject of innumerable conferences, discussions, and reports which continue to pile up while the problem persists. According to UN high commissioner for human rights Mary Robinson, "attempts to deal with trafficking have, thus far, been largely ineffective... More people are being trafficked than ever before." In December 2000 the United Nations adopted a "Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children." Forty countries must ratify the protocol before it is enforced, but to date only 27, including Canada, have done so. Neither the United States nor most countries of the European Union have signed. According to Malarek, the problem of trafficking should be addressed on several levels. Criminals and corrupt police involved in trafficking must be prosecuted. The economic and social conditions which force girls to leave home in search of work must be addressed, and legitimate jobs must be created for them. Instead of jailing or deporting trafficked girls, an effort must be made to help them. These are worthy proposals, but after reading Malarek's accounts of the entrenched corruption, apathy, indifference and sexist prejudices of police and politicians, one might wonder whether such proposals will ever be implemented. The root of the problem, as Malarek points out, is economic. Young women who have legitimate job prospects at home are not motivated to look for work in foreign countries. But Malarek fails to put the problem in historical context. The trafficking of women today is part of a long history of the economic and sexual exploitation of women in capitalist countries. In the words of Marxist historian Kenneth N. Cameron, "Prostitution will continue as long as capitalism exists. It will disappear only as the general social evils of capitalism are eradicated with the eradication of the economic base that sustains them. Only then can true monogamy, with equal rights for men and women, emerge." (Back) (Home) U.S.-Canada Mine Mill workers prepare for strike (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 Over 5,000 miners and steel workers may be on the picket line on July 31 unless agreements are reached in Ontario, Michigan and Minnesota. Almost 2,000 U.S. taconite (iron ore pellets) miners and 2,900 steel workers at Algoma Steel, Canada's third largest steel maker in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Algoma workers, members of USWA Local 2251, voted 96 per cent in favour of strike action to back demands for wage and benefit improvements. Workers "want to share in the company's good times," said a statement issued by the local on July 13. The statement noted that steelworkers have responded to company requests in time of need, referring to wage and jobs cuts during company crises in 1992 and 2002. Algoma Steel has responded by hiring security services "to protect company assets" in case of a strike. The U.S. taconite miners work for Cleveland-Cliffs, the largest taconite producer in the U.S. Much of its production is shipped to Canada. Another 575 Cliff miners in Wabush, Labrador have been on strike since July 5, resisting demands for concessions. The Wabush miners, members of the USWA, voted 99 per cent to strike. Local president Jim Skinner says Cliffs wants to "starve us back to work with the concessions on the table." In Minnesota newspaper ads, Cliffs warned it may use scabs to run four mines in Michigan and Minnesota. Not since 1907 have scabs been used in the Minnesota "iron range." Some state legislators have signed a letter to the governor that they "heard ugly rumours that the (scab) companies involved ... may bring in paramilitary type personnel to the Range." Cliffs is demanding concessions which may involve massive job and benefit cuts. If the U.S. miners strike, steel and CN rail workers in Canada would have to decide to process or ship Cliff's taconite used at the Stelco (Hamilton) and Algoma steel plants. (Back) (Home) Bush Administration issues "guidelines for postponing November election (The following article is from the August 1-31/2004 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 Michel Chossudovsky "... Credible reporting indicates that Al Qaeda is moving forward with its plans to carry out a large-scale attack in the United States in an effort to disrupt our democratic process... This is sobering information about those who wish to do us harm... But every day we strengthen the security of our nation." (DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, 8 July 2004) Does this announcement by Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge entail a code red emergency scenario of "closing down the country" (prior to the November elections) as conveyed by secretary Ridge in a previous statement: "If we go to [code] Red ... it basically shuts down the country," (22 December 2003, emphasis added). Homeland Security and the White House no doubt have several "scenarios" in mind to "win" the presidential elections in November. (See Steven Moore, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO407A.html). Recent developments suggest that Homeland Security is indeed contemplating a code red alert. At the same time, the Bush Administration is also maneuvering cautiously behind the scenes, with a view to embedding formal "guidelines" into federal election procedures, which would allow for the cancellation or postponement of an election in the event of a terror attack. To reach their objective, the Bush Administration is using the jurisdiction of one of its bogus federal agencies, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), established in 2003 under the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). Concurrent with Homeland Security's statement regarding the possibility of a large scale "9/11 type attack", EAC director DeForest B. Soaries, a Bush appointee, has hinted to the need for: "establishing guidelines for cancelling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again". "Look at the possibilities. If the federal government were to cancel an election or suspend an election, it has tremendous political implications. If the federal government chose not to suspend an election it has political implications... Who makes the call, under what circumstances is the call made, what are the constitutional implications?...I think we have to err on the side of transparency to protect the voting rights of the country... I'm hopeful that there are some proposals already being floated. If there are, we're not aware of them. If there are not, we will probably try to put one on the table... The states control elections, but on the national scale where every state has its own election laws and its own election chief, who's in charge?" (quoted in AP, 8 July 2004, emphasis added). What is important in this new initiative, is that if these so- called guidelines were to be adopted, the Administration would technically be able to postpone or cancel an election, "with the stroke of a pen", and without resorting to far-reaching emergency procedures and/or martial law. A temporary postponement might be considered by Republican strategists as a (desperate) propaganda ploy, for swinging votes away from the Kerry-Edwards ticket. Whether these guidelines will be accepted prior to November by the Democrats is, at this stage doubtful. The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is described as a "clearinghouse of voting information and procedures". The statements and news coverage seem to suggest that if guidelines on the postponement or cancellation of elections are to be formulated, they should emanate from the EAC, which has a (bi-partisan) mandate under the US Congress to oversee federal voting systems, rather than the DHS. But the EAC is an "informal arm" of the Department of Homeland Security. Both the DHS and the White House are indelibly behind the proposed "guidelines" initiative, calling the shots from behind the scenes. EAC Director Reverend DeForest "Buster" Soaries, a former Baptist minister, is a handpicked appointee. He was New Jersey Secretary of State under Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, who is a political crony of Sec. Tom Ridge, going back to their days as GOP governors of the neighbouring states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Todd Whitman was appointed by the Bush Administration to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and has since then worked closely with Tom Ridge in the domestic war on terror. The press reports suggest that DeForest "Buster" Soaries took the initiative on his own accord, acting on behalf of a federal governmental body. He has even complained: "that he was rebuffed when he wrote to Ridge seeding to discuss election security, including how to handle rescheduling the election if it were to be disrupted by an attack." (Associated Press, 9 July 2004). Secretary Tom Ridge has said that he is "against the guidelines." What he does not say is that various procedures have already been carefully worked out by Homeland Security analysts, who have simulated precise red code alert scenarios including situations, implying the cancellation or postponement of elections. (See http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CH0402A.html). Ridge says that "he doesn't agree with all of the conclusions in Soaries' letter, but the department is working on constitutional and security questions, and Soaries will be involved in the process." (AP, 9 July 2004) Homeland Security is intent on establishing entrenched procedures under the EAC. The "guidelines" to postpone or suspend the elections could then be presented as a means to "protecting democracy" in the case of a terror attack. The setting of so-called "guidelines" at the level of an official body, the Election Assistance Commission (EAC), would establish a "trigger mechanism" under the jurisdiction of a federal commission. A code red alert would contribute to activating the guidelines, although the latter could indeed by activated without resort to "the highest" terror alert level. E-Democracy of Electoral Fraud? The EAC has also been pushing for the establishment in several states of the Diebold electronic voting system. Diebold is a black box system which very conveniently does not leave a paper trail. In other words, it does not leave a paper record of the vote. In fact: "all three black box computer manufacturers are Republican -led corporations actively involved in Bush's re-election campaign." (Steve Moore, July 2004, http://globalresearch.ca/articles/MOO407A.html). In June 2004, Diebold Inc, which is backing the Bush campaign, congratulated EAC Chairman DeForest Soaries for assisting Diebold in marketing its E-election system. "We welcome the opportunity to provide input on these important issues and pledge our strong support to the EAC," said Mark G. Radke, director of marketing for Diebold Election Systems, Inc. "This initiative by Chairman Soaries and the EAC will further increase voter confidence in the election process as election practices and procedures transition to more efficient, accurate technology,," said Walden W. O'Dell, chairman and CEO of Diebold, Incorporated, the parent company of Diebold Election Systems." (Diebold News Release, http://www.diebold.com/news/newsdisp.asp?id=3083). Diebold's CEP Walden O'Dell confirmed in a subsequent interview that: "he has been a top fund-raiser for the Republican president, but said he intends to lower his political profile and 'try to be more sensitive' in light of the national criticism he has faced. ... Because the fund-raising revelations fell closely on the heels of security questions raised about Diebold's machines in a later- questioned Johns Hopkins University study, O'Dell's critics began to suggest that Diebold should not be allowed to be involved in elections." (The Plain Dealer, 16 September 2003). (This article is from http://www.globalresearch.ca, July 2004. Michel Chossudovsky is the author of War and Globalization, the Truth behind September 11, Global Outlook, 2004.) (Back) (Home)

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