People's Voice December 1-31 , 2006

Women's equality groups call for action

Alliance des femmes de la francophonie canadienne
Canadian Council of Muslim Women
Canadian Federation of University Women
Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action
Canadian Labour Congress
Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women
Canadian Women's Community Economic Development Council
Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada
Fédération des femmes du Québec
National Association of Women and the Law
National Council of Women
Regroupement provincial des maisons d'hébergement et de transition pour femmes victimes de violence conjugale
Womenspace
YWCA Canada/2006

Website for women's equality

A new website has been launched to rally support for Status of Women Canada (SWC) and related issues. Statusreport.ca will house objective information about the federal agency, along with tools and motivation for people to lobby the federal government to revisit changes made to the agency's funding and objectives
http://www.statusreport.ca/

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Right-wing smear unseats Hill, Nemiroff

(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Liz Rowley

Toronto - The Nov. 13 school board election was supposed to defeat a slate of progressive candidates and bust up the Campaign for Public Education, a coalition of parents, unions, and Trustees that has challenged provincial funding cuts, pushed for a new funding formula, and endorsed slates of candidates for the third election in a row.

     At least that was the plan put forward by Paul Christie in a Toronto Sun interview in September. Christie was named Supervisor of the Toronto District School Board when the Harris government took over the TDSB in 2002 after Trustees refused to make $90 million in cuts. Key to that refusal was Trustee Stan Nemiroff, whose mid-term by-election win changed the balance of forces on the Board from 12-10 to 11-11, frustrating the cutters and gutters.

     In the Sun interview, Christie noted the new Liberal government was in the same position as the Tories four years earlier, facing a Board that refused to make more cuts. The "problem in Toronto" he said, was that the janitors (CUPE 4400) and the Communists ran the School Board.

     This vicious call to arms clearly identified the right-wing's targets: smash the CPE, bash the unions, and remove the Board's most progressive core.

     The 2006 cutback budget was finally adopted at an October meeting of the TDSB, where right-wing Trustees led by Tory Patrick Rutledge staged a slanderous attack on CUPE and CPE. After Board chair Sheila Ward threatened to clear the room if even one person heckled, Rutledge asserted that opposition to budget cuts was spearheaded by CUPE's opposition to job cuts, and backed by CPE-endorsed candidates who were "beholden to labour" because of labour donations and participation in CPE. Viewers of televised news reports saw only the allegations, not the response of angry parents, Trustees or CUPE.

     By the early hours of the morning, right wing (Tory and Liberal) Trustees had pressured the Board's progressive Liberals and one NDPer to join them in passing the budget with $84 million in cuts. Only seven were opposed: Board vice-chair Stan Nemiroff, Elizabeth Hill, Irene Atkinson, Stephnie Payne, Chris Bolton, Maria Rodrigues, and Rick Telfer. Among those who capitulated were three candidates endorsed by the CPE and the Toronto & York Labour Council.

     In the campaign, the city's right wing united around Liberal Chris Tonks (son of former Metro Toronto Chair Alan Tonks) in York South Weston, to defeat 18-year veteran Trustee Hill. Likewise, the right backed former Harris Tory MPP John Hastings (supported by Councillor Rob Ford, son of a Harris Tory MPP) against Nemiroff in Etobicoke North. Payne, the only Black Trustee in Toronto, was re-elected by a slim margin of 136 votes, and Maria Rodrigues had to fend off a major challenge by former Liberal Trustee Nellie Pedro. Only Atkinson and Bolton were elected with large majorities.

     Former OSSTF Toronto Branch President Jim McQueen ran in affluent Ward 13 against increasingly unpopular right wing incumbent Gerry Gershon. Missing by just a few hundred votes, McQueen might have won if not for the anti-union smear.

     Throughout the campaign, the media referred to the CPE candidates as bought-and-paid-for by the trade union movement, adding that Hill and Nemiroff were also "Communist Party supported." A poll conducted by the Labour Council two weeks before the vote showed the attack had some legs, but not enough to overturn the Board.

     Three days before the vote, the (socially progressive, but anti-union and anti-communist) Toronto Star devoted half its front page to Rutledge's assertions that CUPE and the teacher federations were on the verge of taking over the Board. The slanderous "story" was also prominent in the Toronto Sun and National Post, which again singled out Hill and Nemiroff as "Communist Party supported."

     The results were predictable. The Liberal and Tory machines overwhelmed the grassroots candidates. With campaigns run from a strip mall and a kitchen, the community base of Nemiroff and Hill was strong and deep enough that it took the combined efforts of three national newspapers, and the very deep pockets of Liberal and Tory backrooms, to defeat them.

     As Nemiroff told supporters on election night, "This is one battle. There will be others. And soon. We need to get back into the community and continue to fight for the things we fought for in this election. I'll be working hard in the Campaign for Public Education, and I'll be here in Etobicoke North - I'm not going anywhere."

     Elizabeth Hill, who served a combined 18 years on the York Board of Education and then the TDSB, also served as a Vice-President of the Ontario Public School Boards Association. On election night, she feared for at-risk students, and for families who need the services and supports for which she fought so hard.

     "Parents and students in York South Weston have high expectations based on their experience. Chris Tonks will have to work hard," she said, noting he will receive five times the salary she was paid as a full-time Trustee.

     "I have a lot of free time now, and I'll be using it to organize `Grannies for a new funding formula!'", she said. "I'll be busy in the CPE. Nothing's changed. The fight for quality public education and democracy will continue stronger than ever."

     Eleven of the incoming Trustees have CPE endorsements, though three voted to balance the budget with cuts. If this group sticks together, the right-wing can be blocked. Some of the eleven are new, including People for Education's Cathy Dandy, who has a long record as a parent activist. Others, particularly those from Scarborough, are less well known. The election of the Board's chair, vice chair, and committee heads at the Inaugural meeting in December will reveal the voting strength of each side. It's to be hoped veteran Sheila Cary-Meagher will remember which team she's on in this contest of agendas.

     In hindsight, CPE's decision to run a full slate of candidates may have unintentionally fed the anti-union, anti-worker frenzy stirred up by Rutledge. The full slate also led to embarrassment when three of the endorsed incumbents voted for cuts. What will other new Trustees do now that they are in the drivers seat?

     The full slate also lead to thin resources on the ground. Many of those who had worked in previous elections for Nemiroff and Hill were elsewhere, stretched over the city's 22 federal constituency-sized wards.

     Hill and Nemiroff will be badly missed by the defenders of public education. Each has received scores of phone calls from distressed parents and students who fear what the future will bring.

     At the Board table, the focus in governance of public education in Toronto, their role was vital and unique. Together they were the goalposts for the progressive forces on the Board, and through OPSBA in the province. Not the most photogenic or the quickest with a media sound-bite, they were the immovable objects who incensed the Toronto Sun by "objecting to any and all cuts". They didn't blink. Liz Hill in particular worked long hours over many years to build a broad-based united front for public education. And in was Nemiroff's election in 2002 that enabled the Board to take an historic stand against provincial cuts and privatization.

     That 2002 Board meeting, which voted to be accountable to parents, students, staff and community, had the sweet heady smell of local autonomy and democracy. They were the only level of government with clean hands that day, as Kathleen Wynn (then a rebel Trustee) said, not long after making a substantial donation to Nemiroff's by-election campaign.

     Today, as the Liberal Education Minister, Wynn is bullying School Boards across the province into making ever deeper cuts. She is in process of putting two Catholic Boards under Trusteeship for refusing to balance their budgets on the backs of kids.

     But Wynn's tenure may be short. Tory leader John Tory will run against her next October, attacking the government for over-spending, for being "soft" on School Boards and unions, and for "discrimination" - refusing to fund private and religious schools.   On the other side, the public will remember the Liberals' unfilled promise to fix the (under)funding formula, the 30% dropout rate, crumbling schools, and cancelled programs and services. Crimes which used to be laid at the Tories' door will be held against the Liberals, Wynn and Premier McGuinty in the first place.     In this scenario, the public could be penned up in the debate between worse and worst.

     Or, a new scenario can be created, in which the decisive question is not "which party", but urgent new policies for better education and public healthcare, child care, affordable housing, jobs, a higher minimum wage, democratic and civil rights, and electoral reform (to name a few), and the need for a government (majority or minority, single party or coalition) to deliver those new policies.

     The struggle continues. In the next issue of People's Voice, we'll look at changes on Toronto City Council and its new powers.

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Resistance and unity at MFL Convention

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The real water scandal in Canada

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Water, war and racism - Editorial

The following editorial is from the December 1-31, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

People's Voice Editorial, Dec. 1-31, 2006

Several seemingly unrelated events in November are actually closely tied together - the war in Afghanistan, the boil water advisory in Vancouver, and Canada's racist treatment of aboriginal peoples.

     As noted on page 3, it's major news when one residents of the biggest urban centres in Canada have to boil their tap water for a few days, but not when a First Nations reserve lacks clean drinking water for years on end. Governments in the Vancouver area are spending $600 million for a new water filtration plant, which might not have been necessary if regional politicians had simply upheld a previous ban on logging in the North Shore mountain watersheds.

     That kind of money could go a long way to help meet the needs of impoverished aboriginal communities, including the shocking 8% of reserves "south of 60" which face inadequate water systems. The federal government says that it has spent almost one billion dollars to upgrade these systems in the past decade, but the problem remains acute.

     And the Afghan link to this crisis? The latest news is that the total cost of Canada's role in the U.S.-led occupation of Afghanistan will reach almost $10 billion by 2009. As of last May, the cost had already hit $2.3 billion, of which over $1.8 billion was for military activities, while just $466 million went to development aid, such as digging wells.

     The Harper Tory government seems to have very deep pockets when it comes to tax breaks for the rich or the so-called "war on terror"; it's time to force them to spend less on killing people and more on providing clean water, here at home and in Afghanistan.

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NGOs expose Harper complicity with U.S. "Rogue State"

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Sparrow campaign wins wide support in Hamilton

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Peace Alliance urges foreign policy focus

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USA: Carrying the victory forward

(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Joelle Fishman, People's Weekly World Newspaper

U.S. VOTERS MADE history Nov. 7. Exhausted and angered from a record number of deaths in Iraq, an economic recovery benefiting millionaires but not workers, and unchecked corruption, the voter upsurge rejected the Bush administration and its right-wing agenda.

     Placing hope above fear, voters in all parts of the country stood up to defend democracy. The dramatic results present new opportunities for the grass roots to move forward a people's agenda and oust the right wing from the White House in 2008.

     After months of conversation with union brothers and sisters on the job, at their doors and on the phone, a resounding 74 percent of union members and their families, one in four voters, joined 88 percent of African Americans, 69 percent of Latinos and record numbers of women and youth voters to end right-wing Republican majority rule of Congress. The wave carried many state and local candidates to victory.

     As voting day arrived across the country, electricity was in the air, with the sense that an upsurge "change" vote to end the war in Iraq and reject the Bush policies was about to sweep the nation.

     It was an upsurge vote big enough and powerful enough to overcome long lines, faulty machines and dirty tricks meant to suppress the vote in many working-class precincts. It was made possible by shifts among independent voters and in some traditionally Republican areas.

     Ten months earlier most analysts predicted that Democrats could not take the 15 seats needed to control the House and certainly not the six seats needed to win the Senate.

     In the end, Democrats picked up at least 28 seats in the House plus the six Senate seats. No Democratic incumbents were defeated. Overall, those Democrats who took strong stands against the war and for universal health care and raising the minimum wage won the biggest confidence of voters.

     When peace candidate Ned Lamont defeated Joe Lieberman in Connecticut's Democratic primary, it sent a signal to candidates across the country that withdrawal from Iraq was a winning issue. Lieberman, who formed his own party to run in the general election, got 70 percent of the Republican vote by quietly sticking with Bush, but had to claim to favour ending the war in order to win by garnering some Democratic votes (30 percent).

     Republicans in close races were forced to distance themselves from Bush. Some joined in the Democratic chorus for Rumsfeld to resign. With some exceptions, the most extreme anti-immigrant and terrorist-baiting attack ads, the ugliest ever seen, lost votes for the Republicans.

     Prominent Republicans mired in corruption scandals went down to defeat while others held on by only razor-thin margins. Some of the most right-wing Republicans will not be returning to Congress, including Rep. J.D. Hayworth (Ariz.) and nine other members of the anti-immigrant caucus in the House, plus Sens. Rick Santorum, James Talent and George Allen.

     The media are attempting to minimize the people's election victory, continuing the biased role they played throughout the election. Claiming there has not been a real shift in public opinion on the issues, they dismiss the election results as a momentary reaction to scandals. Their spotlight on conservative Democrats who won election is an effort to undermine the ability of Nancy Pelosi, who will become the first woman speaker of the House, to advance a progressive agenda.

     To the contrary, this election was a far-reaching rejection of the policies of Bush, whose performance ratings plummeted to 31 percent post-election (Newsweek). This election was a call for a change in direction. The victory gives hope to minimum wage workers, military families, students, seniors, immigrants and all democratic-minded people.

     But the war in Iraq will not end, health care will not become universal, and workers will not achieve the right to organize just because Democrats won control of Congress.

     Their majority in Congress is not large enough or united enough to be veto-proof. There is an ongoing struggle between the conservative and progressive sections of the Democratic Party. The Republican presence remains sizeable, and George W. Bush remains in the White House.

     Yet the new Congress should be greeted because it greatly improves the playing field on which labour and allies can fight. In large part it will be up to labour and allies, the core forces of the alliance against the ultra-right that delivered the election, to build grassroots pressure for Congress to be partisan to the needs of working families. Expanding the shift of independent voters in a progressive direction to win on the issues will require a strong rejection of the divisive anti-affirmative-action, anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, anti-GLBT tactics of the ultra-right.

     Inspired by the election results, the union movement and women's, youth, civil rights and peace groups who pulled out the winning vote in this election are already in motion.

     Military Families Speak Out has called on the new Congress to support withdrawal of troops from Iraq as soon as possible. In response to voter turnout against the war and 162 ballot measures for withdrawal which passed overwhelmingly, Senate Democrats have come out for phased troop withdrawal beginning in a few months. The Bush administration says no. This will be the first big test of the new Congress and the ability of the peace and people's movements to mobilize support.

     For six years in the Republican-controlled House, it was impossible to get debate on any issue that did not have the support of the right-wing "majority of the majority." The change in leadership opens new possibilities.

     The largest ideological caucus in the new Congress will be the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Over half of all House committees and subcommittees will be chaired by members of the Progressive, Black, Hispanic or Asian Pacific Caucuses.

     Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who helped found the Out of Iraq Caucus, says this election is "a vindication of our work - to change the direction of our Iraq policy and bring our troops home."

     In a message the day after the election, she emphasized that oversight of the executive branch will be restored. "The administration will now have to answer some tough questions on its rush to war, its failed arms control and broader foreign policies, its abuse of our constitutional rights and its failed economic and budgetary policies."

     Lee said the Progressive and Black Caucuses will prioritize "helping Katrina survivors return home and rebuild their community and their lives and insisting on a national plan to eradicate poverty ... and creating a government that works for all Americans, not just the privileged few."

     The emergency agenda projected by Pelosi for the first 100 hours of the new Congress includes modest proposals that impact people's lives. It has strong support from labour and allies, from Democrats across the board, and from some Republicans.

     The six points include breaking the link between lobbyists and legislation, passing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, raising the minimum wage, cutting the interest rate on student loans in half, lowering drug prices for Medicare patients, and rolling back the multibillion-dollar subsidies for Big Oil companies and investing instead in energy independence.

     If enacted, this modest beginning can provide the momentum for demanding more far-reaching measures. At the top of the agenda is the Employee Free Choice Act, which would remove barriers for workers to form a union.

     The high union member turnout to elect pro-labour candidates makes labour a key force not only in significantly raising workers' living standards, but in completing the task of defeating the ultra-right.

     This historic election is just the beginning. The struggle now is to organize a grassroots groundswell for a people's needs agenda, and develop tactics in collaboration with the progressives in Congress to pass legislation that is partisan to working people. Winning victories for the people is the best way to assure defeat of the Republican ultra-right in 2008.

     (Joelle Fishman is chair of the Communist Party USA's Political Action Commission.)

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Big lead for Chavez in Venezuela

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There were three; now there are two

(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Sam Hammond

THE CREATION of a new international trade union centre at the beginning of November has stirred up a lot of interest and hope. Questions have been flying around and nobody here in Canada seems to be "in the know," perhaps because the preparations were not much publicized in this country. Some prominent observers have called this unexpected phenomenon the invisible trade union merger.

     The final congresses of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the World Congress of Labour took place on October 31 in Vienna, followed immediately by the founding congress of the International Trade Union Confederation which they parented.

     It may be useful to recall the origins of the players in this merger. The World Congress of Labour was founded in 1920 in the Hague (Holland), originally called the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions. This was hardly a radical organization, but nevertheless was seriously mauled by German and Italian fascism and emerged from the Second World War in rather shaky condition.

     In 1945, before the guns had stopped firing, the World Trade Union Conference took place in London as a preparatory step for a meeting later that year. After the fall of fascism, the First World Trade Union Congress, held in Paris, October 3-8, 1945, established the World Federation of Trade Unions as a product of the working class unity forged in the struggle against fascism.

     The WFTU was, and remains, a class oriented federation. In 1945 it recognized that many of the countries in the United Nations Alliance against fascism had themselves nurtured fascism early on, and had imperialist and colonial possessions. The liberation of colonies and the national independence of peoples was an essential core issue for the WFTU right from the start.

     But the World Congress of Labour (WCL) could not parallel their own "Christian values" with those of the new and historic WFTU. Instead, the WCL decided to pursue an independent course and expand outside Europe. It succeeded in Canada (the origins of CLAC) and South Africa (white-only apartheid unions). Is anyone getting the picture?

     The WFTU may have been better off without the participation of the WCL, but its next challenge was more serious and persists to this day. It may be wise to quote the words of explanation from the present web page of the WFTU:

     "The anti-fascist alliance of states was split and was soon replaced by armed confrontation between two powerful military blocs. The United Nations and all international organizations were seriously affected by the politics of confrontation.

     "Within the WFTU, following the positions taken by the different national trade union centres, acute policy differences arose on important questions. This related to the role of the International Trade Secretariats, attitude to the Marshall Plan, etc.

     "Analyzing the developments of that period, Louis Saillant, the then WFTU General Secretary, wrote: `One must not try to foist the views of a national trade union centre on to a united international trade union organization, as the American unions wanted to do with regard to the Marshall Plan.' We proposed at the time, since we had different points of view, that we should simply take note of the existence of the Marshall Plan, and that the WFTU should not be put in the position of having to adopt a decision for or against. This attempt was made, in spite of everything, to impose a decision, even though there was a majority against the Marshall Plan in the WFTU. We did not ask for this majority to be used. But there were some people who were seeking to see the majority vote used in order to provoke a split."

     The split came in the shape of a letter from the British TUC, read out by its President Arthur Deakin at the WFTU Executive Bureau meeting in Paris on 19 January 1949, demanding "suspension of all WFTU activities for a period of 12 months". If this was not accepted, he warned, the British TUC would withdraw from the WFTU. James B. Carey from the United States was more blunt: "It is no use pretending that the WFTU is anything but a corpse. Let us bury it."

     The motion was rejected as it did not fall within the competence of the Executive Bureau. The matter was referred to the Executive Committee and to the next WFTU Congress. Following this, Deakin, Carey and E. Kupers (Netherlands) walked out of the meeting.

     Soon afterwards, several organizations withdrew from the WFTU. The split was formalized. In December 1949, those who withdrew met in London and formed the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).

     The organizations which now constitute the WFTU never intended to divide the world trade union movement. They have always been striving to promote the unity of workers the world over.

     But the Cold War victimized international trade union solidarity. The McCarthyite spin-offs in the United States and Canada were a crippling influence on workers' organizations and their ability to find unity in the face of capitalist exploitation and attack. Born out of this split, the ICFTU has historically been identified among anti-capitalist trade unionists for its compliance with capitalism.

     However, this does not preclude the ability of the international working class to struggle in any environment or to forge new alliances in the face of adversity. Many people in this world are better-looking than their parents. The fact is that this new formation was top-created with very little grassroots involvement. But the leadership of the "Christian" and social-democratic global unions are not immune from the immense pressure building everywhere for unity in the face of global exploitation, the neo-liberal agenda, war, and the wonders of "free market" misery.

     From the new web page of the new global trade union organization, we quote:

     "The Confederation is inspired by the profound conviction that organization in democratic and independent trade unions and collective bargaining are crucial to achieving the well-being of working people and their families and to security, social progress and sustainable development for all.

     "It has been the historic role of trade unionism, and remains its mission, to better the conditions of work and life of working women and men and their families, and to strive for human rights, social justice, gender equality, peace, freedom and democracy.

     "More than ever in its history, confronted by unbridled capitalist globalization, effective internationalism is essential to the future strength of trade unionism and its capacity to realize that mission.

     "The Confederation calls on the workers of the world to unite in its ranks, to make of it the instrument needed to call forth a better future for them and for all humanity."

     It is of interest to note in this lofty message that the call is not quite for the workers of the world to unite, but rather to "unite in its ranks". Is this an ominous call to further isolate the WFTU? Hasty judgement might be unwise at this time.

     By the way, the new ITUC is not merely a merger. It includes about ten national labour centres who were previously not affiliated to any international body. Perhaps we need an article dedicated to the forming convention, its resolutions, officers, affiliations and stated policies.

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New terrorism by Israel - Editorial

(The following editorial is from the December 1-31, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

People's Voice Editorial, Dec. 1-31, 2006

CONTINUING ITS POLICY of official state terrorism, the Israeli occupation government has carried out yet another slaughter of eighteen civilian women and children at Beit Hanoun in Gaza. Despite its "explanation" that the killing of Palestinians by tank fire was a "technical failure," the latest massacre is part and parcel of Israel's continuous aggression against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

     Proof of this reality is Israel's warning that it will continue its military operations against Palestinian militants, which Prime Minister Olmert freely admits will likely result in further "mistakes."

     Between the start of the new Israeli war against Gaza on June 28 and the end of October, Physicians for Human rights reported 155 civilian deaths in the territory, including 57 children, and another 996 people wounded, with 337 of those being children.

     Many countries have condemned Israel's escalation of hostilities. Even Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary of Tony Blair's pro-Israel government said it was "hard to justify" the Israeli action in Beit Hanoun. But here in North America, the blame the victim game continues. The White House calls for "restraint" from Palestinians under bombardment from Israel, and Canada's Conservative government refuses to express any criticism of the Zionist regime.

     Once again, we demand that the Harper government end its policy of complete support for Israeli aggression, and its shameful participation in the boycott of the elected government of the Palestinian Authority, a policy which brings death and destruction, not peace and justice. There will never be peace in the Middle East until Israel is compelled to withdraw from all territories occupied during and since the 1967 war, tears down its apartheid wall, and accepts the United Nations resolutions which can become the basis for ending its criminal occupation of Palestinian territories.

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What's Left

VANCOUVER, BC

Political Prisoner's Art: Jacobo Silva and Gloria Arenas - Nov. 29 to Dec. 3, Gallery Gachet, 88 E. Cordova, Wed. thru Sundays, noon to 6 pm.

Left Film Night - 7 pm, Sunday, Dec. 3, at the Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive, "A State of Mind", 2004 documentary on North Korea. Co-sponsored by Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, Vancouver East Club CPC, call 255-2041 for details.

StopWar.ca - peace coalition meetings on 2nd & 4th Wednesdays, 5:30 pm, Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St., see http://www.stopwar.ca for updates.

TORONTO, ON

Defending Medicare, Ontario Health Coalition forum - Friday, Dec. 1, 7 pm, St. Andrew’s Church (King and Simcoe Streets), with Maude Barlow, Naomi Klein, and Natalie Mehra. Info: 416-441-2502.

Fair Trade Holiday Shopping Festival - Thursday, Nov. 30, 10 am to 3 pm, Fleck Atrium, Rotman School of Management, 105 St. George St., call 416-946-3818.

Six Nations Benefit Concert - Friday, Dec. 1, 8 pm, NOW Lounge, 189 Church St., $12 door ($10 with a camp donation), presented by Humanist Centre of Cultures and Songwriters Unite to support Six Nations reclamation camp in Caledonia.

Housing, Homelessness, and Health - Thur., Dec. 7, 10 am-Noon, St. Joseph's Health Centre, 30 the Queensway, Education Centre A&B - 1st floor Barnicke Wing, call Sandi, 416-530-6000 ext. 3596.

Picket of Canada Pension Plan HQ - Wed., Dec. 13, 5-6 pm, 1 Queen Street East (at Yonge), to protest CPP investment in militarist and unethical corporations, contact ACT for the Earth, 647-438-7068.

MONTREAL, QC

Vigil against occupation of Palestine - every Friday, noon to 1 pm, at Israeli Consulate, corner of Peel and Rene Levesque. For info: Palestinians and Jews United, 961-3928.

HAMILTON, ON

"We Can't Afford Private Healthcare" Tour - organized by Ontario Health Coalition, Monday, Dec. 4, 7-9 pm, Lakelands Centre, 180 Van Wagner's Beach Road.

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Put the Communist Party on your holiday gift list

A donation to the Communist Party is the best gift you can give for Peace this holiday season.

The Communist Party is campaigning to stop the war in Iraq, to pull our forces out of Afghanistan and Haiti, and to win an independent Canadian foreign policy of peace and disarmament. We stand in solidarity with workers resisting the corporate attack on wages and working conditions, and with the crucial battle to defend Medicare.

You can help the CPC spread this message with a tax creditable donation, that will generate a tax rebate of 75% on the first $400 donated, a further 50% on the next $350, and another 33.3% on the next $550 donated.

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Help us reach young workers and trade unionists, Aboriginal peoples, new Canadians, women, students and seniors, with the message that a better world is possible - and necessary!

Any donation, from $50 (costing you just $12.50) to $5,000 (costing you $3,108), will strengthen the Communist Party's campaigns for Peace, Progress and Socialism.

Send donations to: CPC, 290A Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON, M4K 1N6. For more information, call the Party's central office at 416-469-2446)

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The refusal to adopt federal pay equity legislation

For more information:
http://www.nawl.ca
http://www.canadianlabour.ca

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Greetings to BC Fed convention delegates

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CPC 35: Capitalism: the ugly contradictions remain

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"Struggles are drawing millions into action"

ENCONTRO INTERNACIONAL
DE PARTIDOS COMUNISTAS E OPERÀRIOS
INTERNATIONAL MEETING
OF COMMUNIST AND WORKERS' PARTIES

Sixty-three parties, including the Communist Party of Canada, took part in this year's International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, held on Nov. 10-12 in Lisbon. Hosted by the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP), the theme of the conference was "Dangers and potentialities of the international situation. The strategy of imperialism and the energy issue, the struggle of peoples and the Latin America experience, the prospect of socialism."

In a statement assessing the event, the PCP said participants warned of the great threats posed by imperialism, but also "expressed confidence in the capacity of peoples to force imperialism to retreat in is hegemonic designs and achieve new advances, on the path of social progress, peace and socialism."

The statement listed some of the topics which drew attention: the struggle for control and distribution of energy supplies; the wastage of resources by the unbridled consumption that characterizes capitalist societies; the need to intensify the struggle against militarism and occupation; the extreme-right attack against democratic freedoms; the spread of xenophobia, racism, religious fanaticism and anticommunism.

As the PCP statement said, "The exchange of opinions demonstrated the incapacity of capitalism to provide solutions for the urgent problems confronting the workers and peoples, and the threats to which capitalism exposes the future of the planet. Socialism increasingly emerges as an alternative to capitalism and as a condition for the survival of Humanity itself."

Various initiatives were proposed to strengthen the solidarity and joint action of the Communist and Workers' Parties, and other progressive and revolutionary forces, including: campaigns to end the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, to dissolve NATO, and to abolish foreign military bases; missions of solidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples; a week of joint actions in solidarity with Bolivia; struggles against the whitewashing of fascism around significant dates such as September 11, 1973, in Chile; and stronger resistance against the neo-liberal offensive to dismantle workers' rights and achievement.

Participants agreed on the importance of using international events to hold meetings and coordinate the activity of Communists, and to stimulate cooperation on a regional basis and on specific issues.

In the spring of 2007, the PCP will host a European meeting of Communist Parties, in connection with the Portuguese presidency of the European Union.

The documents of the Lisbon Conference are available on the international communist website, http://www.solidnet.org.

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U.S. peace movement tells new Congress: bring the troops home!

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The Blood on Canada's Corporate Doorstep:
War Profiteer L-3 Wescam

(The following article is from the December 1-31, 2006 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

By Matthew Behrens of Homes not Bombs, http://www.homesnotbombs.ca

It appears that Canadian technology built in Burlington, Ontario, contributed to another cowardly act of mass murder from the skies last month. Some 80 Pakistani school kids, most under the age of 15, were murdered October 30 when, according to numerous on-the-ground reports, an unmanned U.S. Predator drone, employing a targetting device designed and manufactured at Burlington's L-3 Wescam, shot a Hellfire missile into the students' school.

The destructive power of a Hellfire hitting your local school is best illustrated by the fact that Hellfires are meant to slice through heavily armoured tanks. The rationale used for the attack was that a "bad guy," a "legitimate target," was in the area, and that if civilians don't want to get hurt, they should just stay away from bad guys. It is no small irony that Wescam, which might be considered a legitimate military target or bad guy by any country at war with Canada, is located right next door to an elementary school.

The October 30 missile strike was another illegal act in the endless wars (the Hague Convention's Article 25 states: "The attack or bombardment of towns, villages, habitations or buildings which are not defended, is prohibited."). Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq, to name a few are simply like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and so many others before them, testing labs for warfare, and all the new hi-tech gimmickry coming out of the "aerospace" market is being honed and refined "in theatre," as the generals like to say.

"We are going to kill the wrong people sometimes"

And what of those murdered kids? As then White House deputy counter-terrorism director Roger Cressey told UPI in 2001: "We are going to make mistakes. We are even going to kill the wrong people sometimes. That's the inherent risk of an aggressive counter-terrorism program."

This latest atrocity provided one more compelling reason for folks in Ontario to attend rallies and nonviolent civil disobedience at the entrance to L-3 Wescam.

Burlington police recently told Homes not Bombs organizers that Wescam executives have been ordered by their corporate masters at L-3 Communications in New York to refuse our request for dialogue. A refusal to speak with us, however, will not deter us from trying to bring evidence of war crimes complicity to the front door of Burlington's biggest war manufacturer.

Evidence of the October 30 attack would not represent the first time that the blood of Afghanis or Iraqis could be laid at Wescam's doorstep. On February 4, 2002, a Predator drone fired a Hellfire missile at "three tall men" believed to be Al Qaeda members because they were wearing long robes. Despite Pentagon insistence that the men were "suspected militants," they were in fact poor folks scavenging for metal. The Afghan Islamic Press identified the three dead men as Munir Ahmad, Jehangir Khan and Daraz Khan. "They were standing and chatting when hit by the missile," said village elders.

Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark, when confronted with that reality, stated: "We're convinced that it was an appropriate target... [although] we do not yet know exactly who it was."

According to Professor Marc Herold - who has diligently documented atrocities the Pentagon would just as soon forget - on May 6, 2002, a Predator fired a Lockheed missile at a convoy of cars in Kunar province, seeking to assassinate an Afghan "warlord," but succeeded only in destroying a school and killing at least 10 nearby civilians.

Extrajudicial executions

Perhaps most famously, the U.S. carried out an extrajudicial execution using Wescam technology when six "suspected extremists" were blown to bits while driving in Yemen in November, 2002. There were no arrests, no charges, no trial, no appeal. Just silence, then death. U.S. officials have admitted that on other occasions the Predator has been used to attack people mistakenly thought to be Osama bin Laden.

In an age when concepts like international law are viewed as an antiquated nuisance for those who would wage war, such incidents are becoming quite common.

On January 31, 2006, Amnesty International wrote a letter of protest to George W. Bush "to express its concern that between 13 and 18 people were killed on 13 January 2006," when Hellfire missiles were fired into three houses in Damadola in Bajaur Agency from an unmanned Predator drone probably operated by the CIA. As per usual, the excuse for the terrorist bombing was that a high-ranking Al-Qaeda official was "in the area."

In the related press release, Amnesty International said it was concerned that a pattern of killings carried out with these weapons appeared "to reflect a US government policy condoning extrajudicial executions. Amnesty International reiterated to the US President that extrajudicial executions are strictly prohibited under international human rights law. Anyone accused of an offense, however serious, has the right to be presumed innocent unless proven guilty and to have their guilt or innocence established in a regular court of law in a fair trial."

Amnesty also pointed out that "the fact that air surveillance, witnessed by local people, took place for several days before the attack indicates that those ordering the attack on the basis of this information were very likely to have been aware of the presence of women and children and others unconnected with political violence in the area of the attack."

L-3 now Canada's #1 warmaker

While hundreds upon hundreds of Canadian companies are reaping huge profits by enabling the murder of human beings in these testing grounds for war (supplying everything from the bullets, machine guns, and grenade launchers to the base material for depleted uranium bullets and light-armoured vehicles), L-3 Communications Canada (Wescam's parent) was recently named the #1 military firm by the Canadian Defence Review.

L-3, which has grown into one of the largest weapons firms in the world, plays a major role in all parts of the so-called war on terror: interdiction of refugees seeking safety, supply of interrogation teams implicated in torture of Iraqi detainees, provision of the tools of repression utilized by police to smash demonstrations, and key components for major weapons systems.

Here in Canada, two of those major systems rely on L-3 Canada technology; the unmanned aerial vehicle Predator, and the Stryker Light armoured Vehicle.

According to the U.S. Air Force's strategic vision planning document, the future of warfare is the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, naming the Predator as a system that "evolved into a formidable combat support and was involved in every major military operation" between 1996 and 2004. Armed with Hellfire missiles, the Predator is described as "one of the military's most requested systems, assisting in the execution of the global war on terror by finding, fixing, tracking, targeting, engaging, and assessing suspected terrorist locations."

The UAV is viewed as a "major component of the Army Future Combat System," especially since unmanned vehicles mean increased air time, hovering time, and an ability to operate in "environments contaminated by chemical, biological, or radioactive agents." The Pentagon admits that politically, using UAV's piloted with video screens based on the US cuts the domestic cost created by bodies coming home.

"arming the RQ-1 Predator with hellfire missiles can be compared to the mounting of guns on biplanes early in the last century," gushes the Air Force document.

Increased lethality

L-3 Canada has also taken over the old Rexdale, Ontario, Litton plant, infamous for 1980s cruise missile production. Now called L-3 Electronic Systems, the division is currently manufacturing for General Dynamics Land Systems multiple assemblies for the Stryker Brigade Combat Team (BCT)."

General Dynamics describes the Stryker as "the Army's highest-priority production combat vehicle program and the centerpiece of the ongoing Army Transformation.... Stryker is an eight-wheel armored vehicle that is changing the way warfare is conducted on the battlefield.... Stryker is an essential element of the Army's effort to transform itself into a more agile, deployable, survivable and lethal force... Stryker fulfills an immediate requirement to equip a strategically deployable and operationally deployable brigade capable of rapid movement anywhere on the globe in a combat-ready configuration."

So while a majority of Canadians oppose the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is little doubt that they will continue until we confront the economic engine that is driving these wars, the corporations that make a living from killing (along with the many other tentacles of the war complex, from recruiting in schools to the investment of public pension funds in war profiteers).

The workers at these factories need not lose their jobs. War must become as socially unacceptable as smoking. Both are profitable, and both kill. But now that smoking has been recognized for the grave health hazard it poses (along with huge health care bills), governments now subsidize farmers who used to grow tobacco to plant something else. And so it can be in the hi-tech sector - instead of pumping billions into bombs, why not provide funding to transform their operations, so that the warlords of the world, from General Hillier on down, are forced to disarm and seek nonviolent means of conflict resolution?

One step in that process is continued pressure on corporations like L-3. Drop a line to Wescam President John Dehne, urging that he meet with Homes not Bombs representatives to transform his business. His fax is 9905) 633j-4100, or send an email from this site: http://www.wescam.com/contacts_1_sales.asp.

(Slightly abridged)

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December 1-31, 2006 Volume 14 - Number 21 $1

December 1-31, 2006
Volume 14 - Number 21
$1