The Spark!

  
(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou

The media spotlight will shine on Montebello, Quebec, when George W. Bush, Stephen Harper, and Felipe Calderon meet Aug. 20-21 for the third annual summit of North American leaders. But their real business has been taking place behind closed doors, away from the eyes of the 450 million inhabitants of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

     The Montebello meeting will be held under one of the widest security blankets in history. The Council of Canadians has been barred from renting a community centre for an August 19 public forum six kilometres from Montebello. The RCMP, the Sureté du Québec (SQ) and the U.S. Army will not allow the Council to rent the Centre Communautaire de Papineauville for a forum on the eve of the "Security and Prosperity Partnership Leaders Summit."

     "It is deplorable that we are being prevented from bringing together a panel of writers, academics and parliamentarians to share their concerns with Canadians," said Brent Patterson, director of organizing with the Council of Canadians. "Meanwhile, six kilometres away, corporate leaders from the United States, Mexico and Canada will have unimpeded access to our political leaders."

     In fact, the RCMP and the SQ will enforce a 25-kilometre security perimeter around the nearby Chateau Montebello. Checkpoints at Thurso and Hawkesbury will turn back vehicles carrying more than five people. Protests will take place in Ottawa and other cities, but at PV press time, it appeared that nothing will penetrate the military barrier around the summit.

     It's a far different story, of course, for the powerful corporate forces guiding the summit agenda. The "Security and Prosperity Partnership" is the most advanced version of the "trade agreements" first floated by the Mulroney Tories in the 1980s, leading to the Free Trade Agreement and NAFTA.

     That process had roots in the post-war Abbott Plan, the far-reaching program launched by Mackenzie King's Liberal government to turn Canada into a supplier of raw materials for U.S. imperialism, with long term negative impacts on this country's manufacturing base and economic sovereignty. Communist Party leader Tim Buck predicted at the time that this shift would transform Canada into a full participant in the U.S. war drive. During the following decades, most federal governments refrained from direct involvement in U.S. wars of aggression, projecting an image of Canada as "peacekeeper." But as U.S. domination of the economy grew, foreign policy shifts became more open, leading to Canada's participation in the NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999. Under the Harper Tories, Canada's foreign policy is fully aligned with that of the USA. Our military mission in Afghanistan clearly has nothing to do with "liberating women," and everything to do with backing the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

     Of course, the continentalist project has met great controversy and even setbacks. There were some controls over foreign ownership during the 1970s, and the Multilateral Agreement on Investments was defeated in the wake of the "Battle in Seattle" and a major revolt by Third World countries.

     Today's crop of North American leaders lack any popular mandate to push through the SPP democratically. George W. Bush is widely detested after stealing two elections and dragging his country into the Iraq war. Stephen Harper won just 37% of the popular vote in January 2006, remaining in office thanks only to a divided opposition. And Mexico's Felipe Calderon is widely believed to have stolen his election victory in 2006.

     Despite all this, continental integration is on the march. As author Linda McQuaig wrote recently, "What's happened is that those pushing for deeper Canada-U.S. integration - principally members of the corporate elite on both sides of the border - have become more sophisticated in their strategy. Rather than loudly trumpeting their agenda, they've made their push largely invisible.

     "Their latest vehicle is the Security and Prosperity Partnership. Since it was officially launched by the leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico in March 2005, it's operated largely under the radar, even though it deals with some of the most important issues a nation faces - national security and energy, as well as trade... The public has been completely shut out of the SPP process. The key advisory body in the SPP is an all-business group called the North American Competitiveness Council, made up of 30 CEOs from the U.S., Canada and Mexico."

     According to the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) website, "The SPP provides the framework to ensure that North America is the safest and best place to live and do business. It includes ambitious security and prosperity programs to keep our borders closed to terrorism yet open to trade."

     That introduction is followed by considerable hype about "three great nations... bound by a shared belief in freedom, economic opportunity, and strong democratic institutions." (Apparently election theft is now a "democratic institution.")

     Getting to the heart of the matter, the website reports that since the SPP listed 300 "priorities" in 2005, the NACC took the opportunity to "focus the process and develop a real priority list."

     With a straight face, the NACC explains "This is a very open and transparent process. Literally hundreds of companies, sectorial associations, and local chambers of commerce have helped prepare our recommendations. No one has ever been turned away." (Well, perhaps nobody from big business.)

     "The three governments established the NACC to collect guidance from the private sector. Members were charged with helping the governments focus their efforts by applying a cost-benefit analysis to the ideas on the table... Together, the NACC members and Secretariats from all three countries have prepared extensive recommendations on such issues as border crossing facilitation, standards and regulatory cooperation, and energy integration."

     The NACC explains that it "provides a voice for the private sector" through regular meetings with Ministers and senior officials - as though big business has never had the ear of North American governments.

     "The NACC is comprised of 30 members with equal representation from each country, with each country [read: each government] determining its own members..."

     In August 2006, the NACC "Report to Leaders" submitted 105 recommendations on such issues as border crossing facilitation, standards and regulatory cooperation, and energy integration.

     So what are these recommendations?

     Part of the SPP agenda involves developing common North American standards on how food is produced, inspected, processed, and transported. Unfortunately, the SPP does not intend to improve these standards in the interests of producers and consumers. The goal is to remove "trade irritants" and deregulate food industries.

     Again quoting Linda McQuaig: "Take the small example of the harmonization of regulations involving pesticides. This harmonizing of standards ... has been underway for more than a decade under NAFTA, but it is now being fast-tracked under the SPP.

     "So, as the Ottawa Citizen reported in May 2007, Canada is raising the limits on pesticide residue permitted on fruits and vegetables, to bring Canadian standards into line with weaker U.S. standards.... Canada's standards are already weak enough. For example, both Canada and the U.S. permit the pesticide permethrin to be used at levels 400 times higher than the European Union permits; we allow methoxychlor at levels 1,400 times above the European limit."

     There are other frightening hints of the full deep integration agenda. Last spring, during hearings of the Commons International Trade Committee, Gordon Laxer, head of Alberta's Parkland Institute, was testifying on the energy implications of the SPP. As he warned that provisions to keep Canadian oil flowing to the United States could leave eastern Canada "freezing in the dark," he was ordered to stop by committee chair Leon Benoit, a Conservative MP. Liberal and NDP committee members overruled Benoit, who stomped out.

     The so-called "no fly" list" is very much a Security and Prosperity Partnership initiative," warns the Council of Canadians. The NACC "Report to Leaders" point 93 states: "Develop, test, evaluate and implement a plan to establish comparable aviation passenger screening, and the screening of baggage and air cargo (for North America)." The list raises enormous privacy concerns, and there is no evidence that it will improve airline security.

     David Dodge, the head of the Bank of Canada, told a Chicago audience that a single currency for North America "is possible." The end of the Canadian dollar would severely limit the ability of governments to guide the economy through monetary policy; several Latin American countries have already switched to the US dollar.

     Deep integrationists clearly see Canadian water as a North American resource. Discussion of bulk "water transfers" and diversions took place last April 27 at a Calgary meeting of the North American Future 2025 Project (partly funded by the U.S. government).

     As author Murray Dobbin points out, "the meeting based its deliberations on the false notion that Canada has 20 per cent of the world's fresh water. Actual available supply amounts to only around six per cent - about the same as has the U.S. The water (and environment) meeting was preceded by another on April 26 talking about `North American' energy."

     Canadian provinces are pushing ahead with SPP-related projects. As Murray Dobbin writes, the Alberta-BC Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) "is a major piece of the deep integration, deregulation imperative and fits hand in glove with the SPP. There is a similar, though more informal, process evolving in the Atlantic provinces, called Atlantica. And B.C. is now pushing the so-called Gateway Initiative, a kind of regional superhighway project that will see huge and environmentally disastrous expansion of ports, highways and pipelines to further supply the U.S.'s insatiable demand for resources and cheap Asian goods."

     Fortunately, all hope is not lost. Thirteen U.S. state governments have already passed resolutions directing Congress to drop out of the SPP: Idaho, Georgia, Arizona, Missouri, Illinois, Oregon, Montana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah, South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington and Virginia. Part of the opposition is focused on plans for a "NAFTA Superhighway" - a corridor several hundred metres wide including rail lines, freeways and pipelines from Mexico to the Canadian border. From the Canadian and Mexican perspectives, such a corridor can only be seen as a giant straw sucking resources into the U.S., at the cost of industrial employment.

     Opposition within the U.S. itself signals growing realization that unchecked corporate power has dangerous implications for the entire continent.

     The Montebello protests will serve to raise awareness of this danger among Canadians. Sooner or later, the Harper Tories will be forced to go to the polls, and their full-scale drive to integrate Canada into the U.S. empire will be the single most critical election issue. The last time an election was held on such terms was the 1988 "free trade" campaign, when corporate money and fear tactics pulled out a victory for the Conservatives, even though more than 60% of voters backed anti-free trade parties. We can't afford to lose again!

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Six Nations forum calls to restore Carolinian Forest

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Karin Larsen, Hamilton

Imperialism, the dominant socio-economic system, parasitically exploits the Earth and all her species. The times of great ice storms, hurricanes, melting of ancient glaciers and droughts has provoked even scientists in the service of the empire to recognize that a parasite will die if it kills its host.

     While the bourgeois media and state infrastructure bicker over the accounting costs of responsibility for implementing even the most anemic of regulations, working class citizens of all colours, cultures and ancestry are moving away from the destructive behaviours we acknowledge within the present socio-economic conditions.

     The recent Haudenosaunee Environmental Forum, held at Six Nations Polytech, brought together voices from the Amazon Conservation Team (ACT), the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Grand River Conservation Authority and the Six Nations Band Council in a call for unity in action.

     Since initiating the land reclamation of the small patch of land between the Six Nations Reserve and the suburban town of Caledonia, since the infamous OPP attack which drew broad and distant pledges of solidarity with our brothers and sisters on the front line, the bourgeois media have bombarded workers with the message that our wage dependency, in this period of constructed job loss, requires us to do anything that might bolster this rapacious "development" driven economy.

     At the forum, the two presenting organizations funded by the Canadian state offered solid facts and figures identifying specific problems with waste management and water safety, accompanied by specific local actions to stem the tide of destruction. Yet their message remained couched in defeatism, a mindset that we will have to respectfully challenge as we struggle for a united front.

     Incisive speeches from members of the ACT, which works with Indigenous people in conserving biodiversity, health and culture in tropical America, and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, spoke to the need to marry twenty-first century scientific technology with ancestral wisdom of this land that too many still call the New World.

     Organized by the Public Awareness and Education Side-table, part of the Confederacy/Canada negotiations, the Indigenous Elders and Youth Council, and the McMaster University Indigenous Studies Department, the Forum discussed the pressing need for building the same level of love that many Canadians have for the Amazon and directing it towards the reforestation of the Carolinian Forest.

     Looking at computer images of the Americas taken from on high (Google Earth) we can see that the Six Nations Reserve is a small patch of dark green surrounded by yellow crop land, which itself is being lost to the expanding grey concrete jungle. This surviving square of the Carolinian Forest is a home for animals, food and medicine plants that once grew along eastern North America, 80% of which has been destroyed but can and must be brought back. Today 25% of Canada's population lives on the filled swamplands and clear-cut woodlands of the Carolinian Forest. We, in the cities especially, must take up the responsibility of learning to respect, restore and live in harmony with our natural world.

     The ACT presenters, who live in Colombia, explained that they, like the Haudenosaunee in Canada, have semi-autonomous reserves which they are in the process of expanding in a similar reclamation strategy. The next step, which will require the broad support of a united front, is to develop cultural and biological connectivity between these divided territories.

     Anticipating the bourgeoisie's attempts to divide us, the forum was a reminder that if we want our future generations to live to build socialism, we must bring back the Carolinian Forest now.

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(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

As this issue of People's Voice went to press on July 17, thousands of civic workers in B.C.'s Lower Mainland were on the brink of walkouts. CUPE Local 1004, representing some 2,000 Vancouver outside workers, filed 72-hour strike notice with the Labour Relations Board on July 16, criticising the employer's "complete unwillingness" to address key issues. Job action was expected to begin with a ban on overtime work, and could soon escalate to near-complete work stoppages in municipalities across the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

     Earlier in July, CUPE-BC President Barry O'Neill sent a strongly-worded letter to local politicians, warning of the consequences of their refusal to negotiate fair contracts.

     "We are on the brink of a major labour dispute and disruption of civic services in the Lower Mainland that you can prevent," O'Neill pointed out. He noted that the municipalities are collectively paying the GVRD Labour Relations Bureau $2.7 million dollars a year to bargain with the region's 12,000 CUPE civic workers.

     But instead of taking their direction from all elected officials in the Lower Mainland, O'Neill said, "the Bureau's bargaining mandate is more influenced by Vancouver and the Olympics than it is by what is good for your community, vital public services or the workers that actually make your community work. For instance, no matter how remote your community's connection to the Olympics, everywhere your bargainers are stubbornly demanding a 39-month contract, which cynically places civic workers negotiating their next contract precisely when the Olympics ends and the bills start rolling in. Of course, we are resisting this demand."

     CUPE reports that while it maintains "positive relations with some employers" in the region, the Bureau bargainers are seeking takeaways such as sick leave and benefit cuts, or the reduction of seasonal workers' wages by $6 an hour. CUPE members have taken wage freezes and other cuts during previous hard times, and see the takeaway demand in the present economic climate as deeply insulting. Most CUPE locals in the GVRD have won strike votes with well over 90% support.

     The union is also angered that the GVRD bargainers have hired the corporate public relations firm Wilcox Group to "sell" the Bureau's bargaining agenda.

     O'Neill points out that "this PR firm prides themselves in the `Olympic media relations' they provide to their corporate clients. The Wilcox Group is also well known for their work on privatizing B.C.'s health care and cleaning services as well as for their work for Telus during the drawn out lockout. Who authorized the hiring of the Wilcox Group and how many hundreds of dollars an hour are taxpayers paying these PR consultants, rather than negotiating?"

     CUPE 1004 President Mike Jackson says that as well as a fair wage increase, the union is seeking wage adjustments for trades positions, improvements for temporary full-time workers, and whistleblower protection for its members.

     "There are problems recruiting new workers and retaining experienced workers, yet the employer won't deal with these issues," says Jackson. "For example, they won't talk about trades adjustments, vacation and benefit improvements, including benefits for retirees. Instead of recognizing the employees who have provided years of service to the city, by providing promotions and training opportunities, this employer is willing to hire off the street, or from other employers, and allow those new workers better opportunities for jobs and more vacation."

     Meanwhile, CUPE 389, representing close to 800 workers at North Vancouver's Recreation Commission and the District of North Vancouver issued 72-hour strike notice at the same time as CUPE 1004.

     But in Vancouver, the employer succeeded in convincing the Labour Relations Board to compel 2500 inside workers, members of CUPE Local 15, to vote on a "final offer." CUPE opposed the move, arguing that by emailing one-sided propaganda directly to CUPE 15 members, the city has bargained in bad faith. At the same time, CUPE 15's longstanding access to the city email system was removed, cutting members off from access to their union.

     The city's application for a final offer vote came on July 9, just five minutes after the end of a meeting at which the employer tabled an "amended" offer which included concessions the city had tabled previously.

     The same tactic was used by the municipality of Delta, where CUPE 454 members overwhelmingly voted down the "final offer."

     In another development, CUPE has released a report proving that municipal library workers are underpaid compared to other municipal workers, and to workers in other public libraries and in other municipal libraries in the country.

     The study compares wages in eight municipal library systems in the GVRD with other public sector libraries in the province - including those at schools, colleges, and universities - and across Canada. Librarians in the GVRD make $7 per hour less than librarians at the Toronto Public Library, who have received pay equity adjustments. Senior librarians at the GVRD receive between $3 and $10 per hour less than senior librarians in academic libraries. Similar wage discrepancies exist in non?librarian positions.

     CUPE maintains that the discrepancies reveal wage discrimination against female workers. Municipal library workers have not received any pay equity adjustments over the last 20 years.

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(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Stephen Von Sychowski

Increasing numbers of Canadians are coming to realize the overall negative impact of the tendency towards privatization. Everywhere can be seen lost jobs, profits leaving the country, attacks on unions, U.S. control of Canada's economy, and the loss of sovereignty and independence resulting from this ongoing anti-people, anti-Canada campaign.

     But rarely when people speak out at events or demonstrations against privatization of water, Medicare, etc. do they call for its antithesis - the slogan of nationalization.

     In most such cases, nationalization simply hasn't crossed their minds, or they don't believe it is possible. Many don't even know what it is. Such activists are our allies in the struggle. But there are also right-wing social democratic or labour "mis-leaders" who spread the belief that nationalization is undesirable, or even impossible.

     For example, Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, and Director of Concert Properties, has been quoted saying that "It's just the old tired attitude that if you believe in labour or social democracy, you have to be against capital and profits."

     Concert Properties is the largest developer of rental housing in Western Canada. It is also a member of the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships, Canada's largest lobby group for P3s, a form of privatization. It's no wonder that such individuals take an overly "cautious" approach and even suggest that we cannot "turn back the clock" on privatization. These mis?leaders aim to present a progressive face to garner the support of the people, while taking a reformist path that is ultimately acceptable to their bourgeois masters (or in some cases, for their own class as they are personally capitalists on their own merits).

     Their argument is false, as proven time and time again in countries which assert their national sovereignty and/or build socialism. This is becoming more and more popular in Latin America, with the well known recent examples of Venezuela and Bolivia.

     It is easier for many to fight when their back is against the wall, to go on the offensive when they are attacked through privatizations. But due to the relative weakness of progressive and revolutionary forces in our society, and the influence of ruling class ideology and right-wing social democracy, the working class and the people in Canada have rarely taken the offensive in recent history. In thinking about privatization, there is a disconnect between the problem and the solution.

     Take Medicare: in the United States it is available to those who can afford it, or those lucky enough to have a health plan. Many have no protection. In Cuba, by contrast, every citizen is guaranteed full, free and health care which is vastly more comprehensive and accessible than in the United States. Here in Canada, which direction are we headed? Private clinics are springing up to replace the public system, which is being purposely run into the ground by the federal and provincial governments.

     Then there's the question of the sellout and "privatization" of our natural resources to U.S. hands. What will Canada gain by handing over our water and raw logs? As logs are shipped away to be processed, our mills at home shut down, throwing thousands of Canadians out of work and making us further reliant on imports of manufactured products.

     So why are we pursuing policies that enrich only foreign investors and a small minority at home? The ruling class is anti-Canada! The proof is all around us. The United States controls vast areas of our economy, chipping away at our sovereignty with the complicity of those in power who aim to continue reaping the benefits of their share in the exploitation of Canada's workers and military adventures abroad.

     We cannot blame all our woes on U.S. domination, for our own home-grown capitalist class is helping to hasten the process and growing rich off the spoils. Their interests are one and the same; to increase their own profitability.

     This means finding new sources of profit, new "markets", including all of our public services and natural resources. Their greed comes directly into conflict with the interests of the working class and the vast majority of Canadians. Capitalism can't be trusted to protect our jobs, services and resources. All workers, all youth, all patriotic Canadians must enter the struggle against these plans to wreck our country.

     Communists have always fought for socialism, where the workers have real ownership and control of the economy. Under capitalism, state ownership puts the nationalized entity under the control of a government still dominated by the ruling class. Still, this reform is preferable to the alternative of full private ownership, providing benefits to the working class and the majority of the people by safeguarding social services, creating jobs and defending sovereignty. Even under capitalism, we must struggle for nationalization, for the highest possible level of public control extractable from the ruling class, while continuing to fight for socialism.

     If privatization is the problem, then nationalization is the solution. Today the struggle takes a defensive character, trying only to halt new privatizations. The erosion of Canadian sovereignty can be slowed by resisting the moves of Harper and the ruling class as a whole to sell us out to U.S. imperialism. But sovereignty can only be ultimately safeguarded and re-built by ousting the anti-Canada Tories, fighting for, and winning, a People's Alternative for Canada and eventually, socialism.

     We must start by raising the demand for the re-nationalization of privatized assets such as Petrocanada, Air Canada, and CN Rail, and for the public ownership and democratic control of key sectors such as energy, natural resources and banking. The fight against privatization and sell off of Canada's resources is at the frontlines of the struggle for sovereignty and independence. We should take this position with us wherever we go amongst those fighting against privatization. We have not only something to fight AGAINST; we also have something to fight FOR - nationalization and the restoration of our independence.

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(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, Aug. 1-31, 2007

The structural crisis in the Canadian economy continues to deepen, with rising tide of manufacturing job losses and foreign takeovers, and now higher interest rates.

     Bank of Canada governor David Dodge suggests that displaced workers seek employment in other industries and regions. Manufacturers shed another 31,000 jobs in June, mostly in Ontario, bringing the losses nationally over the past year to 103,000. Most of these workers are forced to seek lower-paying employment, and many will sink ever deeper into debt. Dodge's right-wing policies only hasten the inevitable moment when the "booming" economy hits a crisis, possibly doubling the present number of 1.5 million unemployed. Perhaps then Mr. Dodge will drop a helpful hint to these workers and their families about where to search for jobs and housing.

     The governor seems similarly unconcerned about the impact of foreign takeovers. Over time, he claims, this process will increase jobs and production. "What matters is that they make the investments that are necessary to take advantage of global opportunities," according to Dodge. Meanwhile, the Harper government set up a five-member panel to review foreign investment and ownership rules, just hours after the Rio Tinto Group agreed to buy Montreal-based Alcan for $38.1 billion US, the largest takeover in Canadian history.

     That panel will study the "net benefit" to Canada of foreign ownership. But we find it highly unlikely that their scales will be truly balanced. After all, federal governments in recent decades have always claimed to work for the benefit of all - and yet we now have record high corporate profits, real wages at a thirty year low, and a wealth gap expanding at a staggering rate. All this suggests that if selling out resources and jobs creates a "net benefit" to the rich and powerful, not much will change under Harper's Conservatives.

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(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, Aug. 1-31, 2007

Time and again, the practice of allowing Canada's police and military to "investigate" themselves over allegations of serious wrongdoings has proven tragic. On rare occasions, the truth in such cases comes to light, despite - not as a result of - this self-serving process.

     The latest example comes from the coroner's inquest into the shooting death of Ian Bush by an RCMP officer in Houston, BC. The officer was given several months to prepare for an RCMP interview, which consisted of a short series of bland questions supplied well in advance. In contrast, Ian Bush's friends were interrogated almost immediately, some still in shock after hearing of his death. The RCMP made no effort to conduct a forensic study of blood spatters and other physical evidence of the shooting. Bush's parents were able to hire a lawyer and to obtain such evidence, which proves that the officer's version of the shooting is completely unbelievable, and that the RCMP has covered up a homicide by one of its own. Appallingly, the inquiry report avoided any such conclusion.

     In another BC case, an inexperienced RCMP officer recently pepper-sprayed aboriginal adults and children celebrating a soccer tournament victory in Sechelt. This racist incident is yet another example of police acting with the arrogant certainty of complete power over those whom they are sworn to protect. For any worker, such shocking conduct would result in immediate firing. We will see what happens in the Sechelt case; even if there is an internal investigation, the historic pattern is that the officer will get a slap on the wrist and a transfer to a new detachment.

     If every such case was dealt with by an impartial outside body, police officers would think twice about abusing their authority. It's time to end the cover-ups!

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TD's big green chair - not so comfy now   

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Ontario Bureau

Sudbury - If you bank at TD-Canada Trust, you'll have noticed the big green comfy chair that figures prominently in their ads. The message is that TD-Canada Trust does everything for their customers. That might be true if you're a mine-owner. But if you work there, bring your own chair, even if you have a disability and a doctor's note, as one bank teller did.

     That, and the notoriously poor wages, pensions and working conditions, are the main reasons why 110 workers here, mainly women, decided to get themselves a union. Certified 18 months ago, they are Local 2020, United Steelworkers, the only organized banking workers in North America.

     A one year contract followed certification, and most of the workers figured they were on the way to better wages and some dignity, rights and respect. Sudbury is, after all, a union town, where workers tend to stick together. Everybody knows which side they're on when it comes to bosses and corporations. And banks.

     But TD-Canada Trust wasn't about to let Sudbury set the pace for bank workers in Canada. After losing the fight to prevent the certification, the bank used the modest first contract to attack the union and find soft spots where they could dig in for a decertification drive.

     They found two employees more than happy to help. While the union was working on a set of demands for the second contract, workers found themselves facing a Labour Board decertification vote in May. Defeating the union was a goal supported by the banking establishment across Canada, and lots of time and money went into the campaign.

     But the workers rallied, and 70% voted to keep their union.  For some, it was as simple as coffee breaks which were never permitted before the union demanded the bank obey Ontario's labour laws. For others, it was the lies about the pension plan - a defined benefit plan - which the bank told workers they didn't need to buy back. "They lied and lied to us."

     Local 2020 tabled their contract demands for $1.50 raise across the board in a three-year contract, a pension and benefits package, and an end to the salary caps that leave many workers earning $30,000 or less after 30 years. The average bank teller, handling millions of dollars every year, is paid between $11 and $14 an hour. If s/he works 30 years, s/he'll get $15. Many won't even get that. More than half of the workers are "casual" or part-time, after working for 10, 20, or 30 years. That's another reason why workers are willing to fight, and strike if need be.

     Their boss, on the other hand, the CEO of TD Canada Trust, makes $12 million a year, plus options.

     The company responded with an offer of 35 cents over three years. The workers hit the bricks running in early June, and haven't looked back. The bank is telling the media that they're ready to negotiate anytime, but the union can't get them near the bargaining table.

     It seems the bankers are in the big comfy chair, waiting out the workers, and aiming to bust their union. But they've underestimated these women and men, who have dug in for the long haul.

     On the picket lines, they describe themselves by their job titles (you suddenly feel like you should be sitting up straight filling out a form), but don't be deceived. They've found a little bit of power during this two-year battle. It's the power of the many, united, organized, and in struggle. And they have friends. A lot of them: the miners' unions of USWA and CAW, the public sector unions, the Labour Council, OFL and CLC. The public is supporting them. Horns are honking and the donuts are arriving, with cold drinks 'cause it's hot. Picket signs, shorts, and hats. Eight bank branches, eight picket sites.

     This is David vs. Goliath. Show your support! Send your greetings and solidarity to Local 2020, USWA, c/o the Sudbury & District Labour Council, 109 Elm St., Sudbury, ON, P3C 1T4.

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Loading the dice for Ontario referendum

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Elizabeth Rowley, Leader, Communist Party of Canada (Ontario)

After July 10th, you won't be able to read the views of any political party, candidate or incumbent on the subject of Ontario's October 10 referendum on Mixed Member Proportional Representation - an electoral reform proposed by the Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform.

     You won't see anything in candidates' or parties' election material either. There will be nothing on their websites and nothing in their campaign advertising.

     That's because the McGuinty government has issued Regulation 211 (an implementation directive from the government to Bill 155 on the Referendum) making it illegal for political parties and their candidates to "campaign to promote a particular result in the referendum."

     Regulation 211 defines all written commentary on the Referendum as third party advertising. Parties are banned from putting their positions forward, and candidates who want to express an opinion in their election material, campaign ads, or website, must register as Registered Referendum Campaign Organizers under the law. They will be required to act as third parties as well as candidates, will be required to raise and spend funds as third parties; will be required to file financial reports with Elections Ontario as third parties. This is in addition to the Elections Act requirements for candidates and parties to file audited financial returns for the election period with Elections Ontario.

     Clearly the intent of Regulation 211 is to ban political parties, and gag candidates, from participating in the very significant and important public debate on MMP leading up to October 10. This is an extraordinary and possibly unconstitutional limit on free speech and public debate. In fact, broad and probing public debate is exactly what is needed in considering the proposed change to our electoral system. The public has a right to know where the parties and candidates stand before they vote; and the parties and candidates have a responsibility to state where they stand.

     In view of the fact that the government and the official opposition voted together last spring to require a super-majority of 60% for the referendum to pass, the public has a particular interest in knowing where these two parties stand.

     Subsequently, the government has worded the referendum question in a confusing way so that the only possible answer is "yes", as in "Yes I support this", or "Yes I support that." That's why opponents of MMP argue that there isn't a No campaign. Literally true perhaps, but cynical, political double-speak nonetheless.

     In fact, concerns about a well-financed media campaign against MMP in the weeks leading up to October 10 are well founded. There are no spending limits for third parties campaigning in the referendum, and no real time disclosure of financial contributions to those campaigns. Corporations and individuals opposed to electoral reform are likely to have very deep pockets, and there is nothing to prevent them from using the limitless contribution rule to purchase big media ads in the last weeks of the campaign. But the public won't know who financed the big ad campaigns until six months after the vote is over.

     Meanwhile, voting in the referendum is about to get very difficult for 650,000 students, many of whom will be first-time voters or on campuses. Those living away from home will find it hard to get on the voters' list, and to get their referendum (and election) ballots, despite the hype about getting out the youth vote. New requirements for voter identification put the onus on voters to prove their eligibility to vote, while old requirements refusing students living on campus the right to vote on campus, leave students the option of going home to vote in advance polls or giving their proxy to someone else. Expect long line-ups at polls, as young and not-so-young voters try to get their ballots.

     So what is this really about? Why so many obstacles? The answer is that the Liberals (who claim to be neutral) and the Tories (who claim not to have a position) do not want to be seen as opposing a popular electoral reform that, if passed, could sharply reduce the number of Legislative seats each will have in future.

     The heart of the matter is that MMP will distribute Legislative seats on the more democratic basis of the popular vote that each party receives. This will end the century-long practice of majority governments elected by a minority of voters. It will open the door to coalition government and a more productive Legislature. And, despite the 3% threshold, it means many more votes will be counted, opening the door to small parties with big ideas, such as the Green Party and the Communist Party, neither of which is currently represented.

     Polls show that the public supports electoral reform in Ontario (and nationally). Leading into the election, Ontario's Liberal government and Tory opposition want to appear to support democratic reform. But their actions don't support their words.

     Facilitating democracy would mean rescinding Regulation 211 which gags candidates and parties, rescinding the super?majority required for the referendum to pass, capping third party spending and requiring real time disclosure so that contributors financing the referendum campaigns would be publicly known before the vote, requiring spending on lawn signs to be included in candidate and party election spending limits, introducing new rules to allow young people to vote where they live on election day, and replacing new voting ID requirements with regular enumeration and voting cards.

     Post-script: Elections Ontario has just effectively raised spending limits for candidates in the October 10 election, without even a whisper in the Legislature or the media. Worth ten to twenty thousand dollars to Liberal and Tory candidates, election lawn signs purchased and planted on or before September 9 will be excluded as an election expense because the Writ period begins September 10. In a 29-day election campaign, money counts. Democracy, not so much.

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"Next time, let's go with Ovide's dream"   

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By C.E. Carr, Winnipeg

At the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers in Winnipeg there is a development called "The Forks." It is a national heritage site, historically significant as a meeting place where the communities of St. Boniface and Winnipeg were established. For thousands of years the people have been meeting here for trade, ceremonies and socializing.

     On this site the powers that be have constructed a mall and some fun places to hang out. They did this without consulting the Aboriginal people, whose meeting place and history was usurped. When there was protest, they did what our governments often do: stuck some extras on at the end to mollify the Indians.

     This is why on the June 29 Day of Action we found ourselves at the Odena, Tyndall stones shaped in a rough circle to look like ancient ruins. Whose ruins we don't know, because the Aboriginal people did not have structures like this, and no one knows what Odena means, because it isn't one of our words.

     So the Aboriginal population may use this place but it is totally wrong for the job. The ground is paved with brick which is too hard and uneven for moccasined dancing feet. There is no shade. We cannot erect an arbor - a shaded ring of grasses that protects dancers from the sun at outdoor powwows. The Odena is off to the side of the site, and if you were at the Forks to shop you would never notice anything going on over there.

     The Day of Action on First Nations Treaty Rights was proposed by a Manitoba Chief, Terrance Nelson, through a resolution at the December 2006 meeting of the Assembly of First Nations. Chief Nelson proposed to "get between the White Man and his money" by actions of resistance such as road and rail blockades. While the Chiefs agreed to this proposal, they by and large preferred to "protest" politely with parade permits and site bookings.

     This is why 500 of us showed up at the Forks. For months the mainstream and Aboriginal press had been covering the story, in a frenzy to denounce any agitators and derail any real protest before it could happen.

     For people who voted to have a day to take action, the Chiefs sure were quiet. By their calls for moderation in the media and the lack of outreach to their own people, you'd wonder whose side they were on. I had joined a couple of groups who were making plans for the day and contacted several organizations of Aboriginal people to find out what was planned. Many of the First Nations people I contacted did not know there was a day of Action and had not been asked to participate. The non-Treaty people I spoke to were either not aware or said they did not feel welcome. Many people seemed to feel it wasn't their issue.

     When I got to the site I found many people I knew. I had been told I could not give out People's Voice until the Grand Chief gave permission. Many people asked me for the paper and I told them I could not give them one. Every one of them laughed and said "f... that, it's a day of resistance" and grabbed a paper.

     Women lined up at the foot of the stage area. As I went by they grabbed me. "We're going to get the Chiefs to let us speak. You come and make a statement." I brought some students over and introduced them. "They should speak, too. There's no one representing the youth."

     An official paper had been handed out with the day's speakers and performers on it. It was a jam-packed three hours which stretched much longer. But women and youth were missing from the list. The women remained lined up for a couple of hours. They were told they would be put on the agenda, but many had to leave before that could happen. Only Phil Fontaine's granddaughter was recognized, and she introduced women who had walked from The Pas with the message that people needed help to survive. Women leaders, women's groups and students were not included. Several men on the program did speak of the "beautiful Aboriginal women" and how important they are to the culture. Not important enough to speak for themselves.

     Dancers from 2 to 70 years-old, over-dressed in their beautiful regalia, waited patiently in the heat to dance on the bricks. Likewise "Shingoose" Curtis Johnnie also waited to perform Treaty Rights, a song he wrote near the beginning of his career 30 years ago. Nothing has changed in all those years. They only performed when most of the audience and the politicians had gone.

     Politicians had chairs in front of the stage and were spoken of as great friends of the Aboriginal people. Many were there as invited speakers. The message was loud and clear: "We're doing great things for the people, and given a little more time everything should be great. Don't trust the Conservatives."

     Except of course for MP Steven Fletcher, personally invited by Grand Chief Ron Evans, who helped rescue him from the car crash that left him paralyzed. As Fletcher put it "Aboriginal people saved my life and now I am in a position to help them." Fletcher did not, however, say that he actually would help them or what form that help might take. Much was made of NDP MP Pat Martin getting an eagle feather and an Indian name. NDP Premier Gary Doer at one point shouted a response to the speaker who was complimenting him: "get them to vote for me."

     Nearing the end of the day, Gail Asper was invited to speak about the Human Rights Museum. Her father, the late Izzy Asper, had envisioned a Holocaust Museum at the Forks, but was reminded that indigenous peoples had suffered a holocaust on our native soil, and thus it was transformed  into the fabulous Canadian Human Rights Museum complete with federal funding. Asper commented how happy she was to be outside with us as her office air conditioning was like the Arctic. Not noticing the crowd response, she went on to outline the whole museum concept, including how Louis Riel would welcome the visitor into the Canadian experience, something I am sure he would have trouble doing even if he were alive, considering the treatment of the Métis people by Canadians over the last 136 years. But we may have misunderstood her. After many hours in the hot sun, we were getting visions of our own. She ended by telling the now sparse crowd who came to protest dire living conditions and lack of jobs to "send money as we need your donations." And then she went straight back to her office.

     It was not until the dignitaries went home that Ovide Mercredi rose to speak. He was not so complimentary, not so kind as the others. He spoke of how as a young man he had been among the protesters for Aboriginal rights. He gave an excellent overview of the treaties and the rights they covered. One student approached him afterward and said he explained in a few minutes what her prof had trouble doing in eight months. The treaties are an agreement to share the land between autonomous people. The Aboriginal People have always kept their side of the bargain. The payments to Aboriginal people are due to them because of the treaty. Education, housing, health are all guaranteed. If you rent a house and decide you don't want to pay the landlord you can't just stop, there's a lease.

     Mercedi was eloquent, and the few who stayed to listen were inspired. Memories of Martin Luther King Jr. arose when he said: "I have a dream that when a Grand Chief calls and asks the people to come out in support (of Aboriginal rights), that all the people will come out of their homes, their offices, their government offices and say to one another: `I want the treaties honoured.' When they come out in their thousands and thousands and thousands, then the government will have to listen."

     He is right. Yet the Chiefs did not make alliances among non-Status Indians, Métis and Inuit. They did not ask the people who are most affected by the lack of funding to speak. They gave voice to those who should have come to listen, and they praised people who have better things to do than stick around.

     Next time why not put out the call without apologizing in advance? Hold the action on a day when people are not at work. Why not hold the protest in a public place where everyone can see it? Bring in bus loads from the reserves? Get the unions, the churches, the immigrant associations, women's groups, students, and activists? Next time skip the politicos and the opportunists and let Ovide Mercredi speak to a packed house. Set up a real place for dancers and give the people shade. Next time, let's go with Ovide's dream.

     (C.E. Carr is a member of the Aboriginal Peoples' Commission of the Communist Party of Canada.)

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Wage share of economy lowest in forty years 

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

Real wages for Canadian workers have been stagnant for the past 30 years, despite economic growth and productivity gains. That's the conclusion of the a new study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, which says that if workers' real wages had increased to reflect improved productivity and economic growth, they could be earning an average of $10,000 more each year on their paycheques (in 2005 dollars).

     Rising Profit Shares, Falling Wage Shares (see http://www.growinggap.ca) finds that Canada's economy grew steadily and workers' productivity improved by 51 per cent in the past 30 years, but workers' average real wages have been stuck in a holding pattern.

     The study finds that Canadian workers' wage share of the economy is now the lowest in 40 years. Labour compensation as a share of national income is now at about 63%, a drastic fall from the 1992 level of just under 70%.

     Instead, corporations have been banking the benefits of economic growth and improved productivity.

     "Corporate profit shares are the highest they've been in 40 years ? and we're not talking peanuts here," says CCPA senior economist Ellen Russell. "In 2005, corporations banked $130 billion more in gross profits than they would have if the profit share had remained at 1991 levels. Sharing those earnings with workers could have gone a long way to reducing Canada's growing income gap."     Looking at the figures another way, Canadian families are putting in more work time, but 80% of them (those earning under $100,000) are getting a smaller share of the economy, while the richest 10% of families get richer.

     Another recent CCPA study, The Rich and the Rest of Us: The Changing Face of Canada's Growing Gap, looks at the earnings and after--tax incomes of Canadian families raising children under 18, comparing families in the late 1970s and those in the early 2000s.   The study found that in 2004, the richest 10% of families earned 82 times more than the poorest 10% - almost triple the ratio of 1976, when they earned 31 times more. In after?tax terms the gap is at a 30-year high.

     Between 1976-79 the bottom half earned 27% of total earnings. Between 2001?04 that dropped to 20.5%, though they worked more. Up to 80% of families lost ground or stayed put compared to the previous generation, in both earnings and after-tax terms.

     All but the richest families are working more weeks and hours in the paid workforce (200 hours more on average since 1996), yet only the richest 10% saw a significant increase in their earnings - a rise of 30%.

     The studies disprove the argument by bourgeois economists that "a rising tide lifts all boats."

     "Productivity gains are important because they are closely connected with changes in real wages over the long run," Statistics Canada claimed in a June 2007 report.

     But as Russell points out, "Canadians are constantly being told they need to improve their productivity and grow the economy - which is exactly what they've done ? but their paycheques aren't growing to reflect their work efforts."

     Statistics Canada reports that Canadian companies posted a record operating profit of $63.8 billion in the first three months of 2007, as rising commodity prices boosted results in the petroleum, coal and metal-related industries. Corporate profits rose 13.0% during the January-March quarter, following a dip of 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2006. This raised their share of nominal GDP to 13.9%, slightly below the record set at the end of 2005, but well above the historical average of 10.3%.

     However, there is some bad news for the ultra-rich. It seems the year 2006 saw a temporary halt to the run of ever-escalating salaries for CEOs in Canada. Robert Gratton of Power Corp. took home $173 million in 2004, and Goldcorp's Robert McEwen pulled in $95 million in 2003. But the top earner for 2006, Research In Motion's Jim Balsillie, took home a mere $54 million, enough to top the list in only one of the previous six years.

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Moore's Sicko a must see for Canadians  

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Health Reporter

The United States of America is the most powerful and wealthy nation in the world - but its citizens are dying as medical bills bankrupt families, insurance corporations swindle their patients, and those who can't pay are just dumped in skid row. Other countries have embraced an alternative vision: solidarity and humanity through public Health Care. Why can't the USA?

     This is the question Michael Moore asks in Sicko, a devastating documentary on the systemic (but avoidable) crisis in the US health care. In a politically astute more, Moore focuses on the problems faced by people who are insured - taking it right to the "middle class." The film begins with the agonizing stories of families fighting insurance companies, then travels to Canada, Britain, France, and Cuba look at alternative models of "socialized medicare."

     People's Voice readers should organize viewings of Sicko as soon as it hits DVD. Described as "adrenaline for health care activists," the movie shows how public health care is an incredibly important victory. Actor Shirley Douglas and the Canadian Health Coalition have already called upon the Harper Conservatives act on the film's message by enforcing the Canada Health Act and stopping those who are trying to make billions by destroying single?tier health care for the American model.

     Sicko is not supposed to be a balanced portrayal of the Canadian health system. "That's for a Canadian director," Moore said in a recent interview. "My job was to show Americans one basic truth about your system ? if you need health care, you'll get it."      But for a multi-million dollar budget production coming out of the US, Moore points the finger boldly close towards the capitalist system. In Britain, Moore actually visits Marx's grave, and hears "old Labour" leader Tony Benn's musings about democracy, reform and revolution (all of which could be an good kick-off for discussion after the movie). Moore has said his film is his strongest critique yet about the US economic system.

     Perhaps the hottest debate Moore takes on is the anti-communism in the debate about public health care in the US - first by exposing the claim that public Medicare will lead to the collapse of American values, and then by taking 9/11 victims to get health care in socialist Cuba, where the drugs they need cost a fraction of their price in the US.

     Moore's humanitarian act has landed him in hot water back in the US, where he is being investigated for travelling to Cuba in violation of the trade embargo. Sicko, which grossed over $5 million by the beginning of July, has also become part of a hot battle for single payer health care that may make history.

     Promoters of the film have already organized a march on the headquarters of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association in Chicago, and sent Moore into New Hampshire, the first primary state, to demand pledges of support from presidential candidates. The film joins with a broad labour-led coalition movement that is uniting more and more people behind the demand for single payer medicare in the US.

     "It's being run like a war," Moore said in a TV interview. "We're in a battle with these corporations who want to maintain their position. They don't want to give an inch on this, and we're out to upset the apple cart."

     The stakes are high. Let's wish them early victory.

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Communist Party leader interviewed by Granma

(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

During the recent visit to Cuba by a delegation of the Communist Party of Canada, CPC leader Miguel Figueroa was interviewed by the Cuban newspaper Granma.

     In the interview, published on July 5, Figueroa said the CPC had historically considered the relationship between Canada and the USA as a sort of "antagonistic partnership"; a unity and contradiction at the same time.

     "This situation began to change in the 1980s, when Canadian monopoly and the Canadian government began handing over more and more of the country's sovereignty to the United States in exchange for greater access to its market. This is quite evident in the North American Free Trade Agreement signed between the two countries and Mexico in 1993. The new Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement, signed in 2005 between the three governments, would carry the integration process still further, especially with regard to security, defense, and energy, water and other resources."

Q: Military and also energy security?

A: Yes, this integration involves trade and investment, customs and immigration, foreign policy, etc. But it also directly relates to control over the resources of Canada and Mexico, like oil, petrochemicals and others. Water is a very important issue, because Canada is the world's largest reservoir of fresh water and the United States is facing a growing water crisis, one which will only get worse in the future with the impact of global warming.

Q: What does your country represent in as far as the energy security of the United States?

A: We export oil, coal, natural gas and hydroelectric power to our neighbour and the North-South energy grid (including new pipelines, etc.) is being rapidly expanded. It should be noted that presently Canada is the most important foreign energy source of the United States.

Q: And what about the environment?

A: Canada signed the Kyoto protocol, but now the minority Conservative government argues that it is impossible to meet the accord's objectives, another reflection of the shift towards more overt support of Washington's stance.

Q: Other consequences?

A: For many decades [Canadian] workers fought to improve job security, win free and universal health care, and other social benefits. The Canadian public healthcare system, for instance, is very different from what exists in the United States, as is shown in the new film by Michael Moore, where he talks very favourably about the Canadian health system.

    However there are forces, including specialists who control the Canadian Medical Association, the private insurance companies, the pharmaceutical monopolies and big business in general, that are pressuring to privatize the health system.

    Of course they can't do so openly because recent polls show that almost 90 percent of the population opposes the privatization of those services.

    Nonetheless, they are moving to gradually erode and undermine the system through a thousand small cuts. User fees are being introduced and medical services delisted. In the province of Ontario, for example, it was decided recently that eye exams would no longer be considered an essential health service, so people now have to pay up to $100 or more for such necessary tests. Vision is no longer a right, it seems, but instead a privilege for those who have money.

    There is an effort to create a climate of crisis in the healthcare system to undermine the people's confidence in public healthcare, and then try to sell them on the idea of "two-tier" creeping privatization of the system....

    Regarding jobs and employment, official statistics talk about 6 percent unemployment, that still means that 1.5 million persons are without work. Most important is the question of what jobs are being created, and what types of jobs are disappearing. Since 2002, over 250,000 factory jobs have been lost, and highly skilled and unionized workers forced onto the streets; while job creation is mostly in the service sector, jobs that are often part-time, temporary and usually low-wage.

Q: What impression of Cuba do you take with you?

A: Since 1959, Canada's relations with Cuba have been guided by a foreign policy different from that of the United States. Currently, some 600,000 Canadians visit the island each year and there are business, diplomatic, cultural and other types of relations that function well. But there is growing pressure from Washington and right-wing circles in Canada to undermine these positive relations, and our Party and others in the Cuba solidarity movement are actively combating those anti-Cuban pressures.

    During this visit we have seen the tenacity of the Cuban people to defend their social achievements, despite the continuing blockade. We were especially impressed with the visit to the Latin American School of Medicine, a unique and outstanding testimony to Cuba's internationalism.

    The governments of Canada and the other rich, imperialist countries should feel ashamed, because while they export bombs and troops, Cuba, a small country, sends doctors and nurses to save lives in other nations.

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(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

The newly formed Committee for the Defense of Iranian People's Rights (CODIR)-Canada has issued a wide appeal to political parties, unions, women, students, GLBT groups, First Nations, peace organizations and all Canadians concerned with human rights.

     The appeal says, "The life of people in today's Iran is probably comparable to what can be imagined as the harshest. The rate of employment is one of the lowest in the contemporary history: widespread poverty, corruption at all levels of government, the social problems such as drug trafficking and substance abuse, prostitution, wide range of child abuse, and oppression against women, gays and lesbians are at record high and still rising. Social security is at its lowest level and phenomena such as robbery and murder has become extremely common. Nepotism and favouritism and abuse of the `power of money', for those who have it, have left people in utter desperation. The clampdown on media and the dissident groups and individuals, violation of freedom of speech and freedom to organize, ethnic and religious discrimination and also discrimination based on gender have turned the living conditions even more intolerable...

     "For those familiar with the recent history of Iran existing conditions should not be surprising. This is the natural consequence of 28 years of complete neglect and the most destructive policies of the regime of the `Supreme Religious Leader' (Velayat-e faqih). These policies remain intact only by the imposition of brute force by one of the mob factions within the ruling circle and have singular purpose to retain their hold on power and fill their own pockets with billions of dollars appropriated from the people of Iran.

     "The `election' of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad in the rigged and fraudulent presidential election of 2005 was a significant turning point in the life of Iranian regime. Faced with a vast and popular reformist movement, which had come out against all these hardships to outright challenge the regime's power, the regime decided to use its heavy hand to strike a blow with the intention of wiping out the reform movement.

     "Since his `election', Ahmadi-Nejad has missed no opportunity to accomplish this task and has shown extreme persistency in striking against the women, youth and students, intellectuals and the workers. Not a day passes by without activists in various social groups being beaten up, getting disappeared, arrested and convicted for crimes they never committed.

     "Unfortunately the international situation is not in favour of the Iranian people either. The threat of war, while Afghanistan and Iraq are already occupied by foreign occupiers, led by the United States, only exacerbates the situation. The people of Iran have no doubt that if a war starts against them, as seen in the case of Iraq and Afghanistan, their lives will worsen further.

     "Beside the threat of war, the U.N. sanctions are making the already bad living conditions even worse. The most immediate effect of the sanctions could be seen in the inflation and the rise of prices. In the past few months, people are facing a hyper inflation unprecedented even in the life of the Islamic Republic. The rising prices have put the basic living necessities out of reach for even more people and have created a state of despair and helplessness.

     "Under these circumstances and in the spirit of solidarity that we in CODIR-Canada are writing this letter to introduce ourselves and to let our aims be known:

     "CODIR-Canada campaigns to raise the Canadian public awareness of peace, human rights and democracy issues in Iran. It strives to provide truthful and unbiased information and analysis about the reality of life in Iran.

     "CODIR-Canada advocates for peace and struggles to eliminate the risk of war and tensions in and around Iran, and generally in the Middle East region.

     "And CODIR-Canada campaigns to abolish the brutal violation of human rights and all limitations to true democracy in Iran. Among many other rights, it promotes democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of media, freedom to organize, protecting the rights of minorities, and the right of people to elect and be elected at all levels of government.

     "In today's globalized world, the effect on nations' lives is also globalized more than ever before in the human history. The collective power of individuals and groups in the humanist traditions can have a significant impact on the lives of other nations. We reach out for your solidarity with the people of Iran."

     (Readers are urged to visit the organization's website, http://www.codir.net)

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(The following article is from the August 1-31, 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, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Johan Boyden

Their faces look a little tired, but excited. A line of about sixty young people is snaking towards the airline desks on the upper levels of Toronto's Pearson International Airport. They've just got off a bus which left New York at five in the morning. Outside, its humid and hot.

     The parade moves slowly. They all have their hands full. Big red wheelie suitcases, green leather pouches, sports bags, little purses. But several are kicking their bags forward, and instead clutching brown cardboard boxes tightly in their arms. On their precious box tops are big black letters: CONDOMS FOR CUBA!

     In 1912, the same year as the genocidal "race war" in Cuba, the miracle of the modern condom was invented. Today, condoms are still illegal in countries like the Philippines. In Cuba, doctors welcome condoms, which are in short supply because of the US economic blockade.

     In Canada, condoms (while not as accessible as cigarettes) are not hard to find. But studies show that although condoms are in all drug stores and many convenience stores, they are often not clearly marked. In fact, teenagers asking for help finding or buying condoms often get resistance or condemnation from clerks - girls 27 percent of the time (!) and 10 percent for boys. The Allan Guttmacher Institute's 2001 "Survey of Sexual and Reproductive Behaviour," reports that condom access and sex education in Canadian schools, "while improving, remains inconsistent and varies from community to community."

     Thus, a new feature of capitalism's law of uneven development - unequal condom access.

     Teen sexuality, like all human health, falls easily into the deep rifts of class and national oppression. According to the Guttmacher study, over a five year period 18% of teenage women in Canada living in households with an income less than $30,000 reported a pregnancy. For teenage women living in households with incomes above $30,000 the rate was only 4%! Risks for aboriginal youth are also seen in teen pregnancy and STD rates that are four times higher than among non-aboriginal populations.

     Back in the airport line-up the young Americans are talking about their upcoming trip. They are part of the Venceremos Work Brigade, first organized in 1969. A big highlight will be visiting the National Centre for Sex Education (Cenesex), led by sexologist Mariela Castro Espin. The institute has started a debate in Cuba over a new set of proposals to update the country's Family Code to include legal recognition of same-sex relationships and transgender people. Supporters are hoping that the National Assembly will approve the reform package later this year.

     A recent article in the US newspaper People's Weekly World reported on this debate: "Cuban law does not currently recognize gay or lesbian couples. According to Castro, the proposals include recognizing same-sex couples and extending to them all the same rights and privileges that opposite-sex couples enjoy, including inheritance and adoption rights. `One cannot continue perpetuating discrimination and exclusion as a value,' she said.

     "The rights of gay and lesbian people who are not legally registered as a couple would also be recognized, as would those of opposite?sex unregistered couples. Cenesex drafted the reform proposals. Castro said the reform proposals are being debated in the National Assembly's standing commission for judicial and constitutional matters, as well as among lawyers and other sectors of the population. She said the proposals are drawing both support and opposition. ... Despite the resistance to the proposed changes, Castro said, `There is the political will to eliminate all forms of discrimination in our laws.'

     "Castro said the reform package also recognizes the rights of transgender persons, people who for various reasons identify with a gender identity that differs from their original physiological and psychological status. The law would give Cuban men and women the legal right to change their sex after a medical diagnosis. She said that sex-change operations, including hormonal treatments, are already being carried out in Cuba, and medical personnel are being trained to carry out such procedures.

     "If the Cuban Communist Party and National Assembly support the reform package, Cuba will become the first country in Latin America to accept same-sex couples and extend to them the same rights and benefits enjoyed by opposite-sex couples."

     Through movies like the 1996 Butterflies on the Scaffold (which documents the real-life creation of a drag nightclub) the world is beginning to see a different picture of sexuality and social acceptance in Cuba. Many of these drag shows are sponsored by the local Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and play to large and wildly enthusiastic audiences.

     In future issues, People's Voice will report more about the experience of the Venceremos and the Canadian Che Guevara Work Brigades.  

(printable article)

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