People's Voice

Toronto - The Communist Party's constitutional challenge to important sections of the Canada Elections Act ended Jan.9, after four days of legal arjuments.

Madame Justice Anne Molloy, who last May had granted the Party's request for ballot identification in the June federal election (a decision subsequently overturned in Appeal Court), continued to preside over the case. She is expected to issue a ruling in March.

Leaving the courtroom on the final day, a smiling Communist Party Leader Miguel Figueroa said, "I think we have a very strong case, and I think we're going to win."

"There's a good possibility that justice Molloy will be persuaded on at least the most essential two or three key points of our case. I think there's a good chance we'll win on the 50 (candidates in a general election requirement>, on the name identifier (on the ballot), and on the seizure of assets. And hopefully we'll also win something with respect to the non- refundable part of the candidates' deposit," he said.

The Elections Act requires a registered party to put up at least $50,000 in deposits at each general election. "This discriminates against poor people, impoverished people, working class people," said Figueroa. "We made a very strong case that this is yet another holdover of reactionary, even medieval legislation which only a few years ago restricted the political process to those who owned property, to those that had title."

He went on to say that "In (Justice Molloy's) comments and her queries to both our Counsel and the Crown Counsel it was pretty clear that she sees no justification for the 50 candidate threshold with respect to the registration of parties, and particularly with respect to the (party's) name identifier on the ballot.. .

. . . "And I think there's a good chance she will strike down the non-refundable aspect of the $1,000 deposit, which is $500 unless you get 15% or more of the popular vote."

Meanwhile, a new Private Member"s bill to repeal Section 31, 11-15, and reduce the 50-candidate requirement to 12, has been introduced in the House of Commons by BC Reform, MP Ted White.

Speaking to the media, Figueroa noted that the Bill is similar to one sponsored by ex-Liberal MP Anna Terrana two years ago. "We now have Bills prepared by members of both the government party and the Official Opposition. The BQ opposed the legislation when it was initially being debated. We've had letters from NDP MP's expressing their opposition. Isn't it time now for the government to rid the Elections Act of sections that infringe on democratic rights and freedoms?"

Figueroa called on the labour and democratic movements and on those parties without representatives in Parliament to press MPs of all parties to support White's bill.
(More on these developments in our next issue: Editor.)

There have been few cruder examples of the predatory nature of present-day imperialism than the fate which has befallen South Korea and that looms for other developing countries of East and Southeast Asia.

In the wake of the massive crisis of plunging share prices and currency values that has sent so-called "tiger" economies into whimpering collapse, the big US and European transnational companies are moving in to pick up their stricken industries at bargain basement rates.

At its root, the crisis has grown from the lending policies of the western, and Japanese, financial institutions, the international Monetary Fund (IMF) and the major banks, which encouraged and pressed the Asian countries to rely for development on vast loans. One aim was to enable expansion of the Asian market for western exports, but for the bankers the chief concern, of course, has been reaping the profits from annual interest payments.

The current crisis is primarily a debt crisis. the countries hardest hit - Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines - are those with the biggest foreign debt, which has mounted to the point where the repayment of interest and maturing short-term loans cannot be sustained.

For the international bankers the great fear in this situation is that the affected countries might simply default on their foreign debts. The "rescue" programs hurried forward by the IMF and the major lending powers are designed not so much to prop up the ailing economies as to guarantee that the western financial institutions get their capital and interest back, through providing new "bail-out" funds ($57 billion for South Korea alone) which of course pile on further debts for the future.

If all that was involved was a mere shifting about of capital, the crisis would not be so inflamed, but imperialist finance capital does not operate so altruistically. The Asian countries are made to agree to demands formulated by that chief arm- twister, the IMF. The price is literally to hand over their economies to the western banks and transnationals.

In December the former U.S. Commerce Secretary, Mickey Kantor, told a gathering in London of the Confederation of British Industry that when countries seek help from the IMF, the U.S. and Europe should use the Fund as a battering ram to gain advantages.

South Korea is a prime case for this golden opportunity. IMF, U.S., Japanese and other loan capital had been poured into it but the South Korean government's uses for such capital had not always made the creditors happy. Pursuing right-wing nationalist and protectionist policies, they employed the funds particularly to finance the building up of huge conglomerate industrial groups (the Chaebol) that became major transnational companies -Hyundai, Daewoo, Samsung and others - investing and trading internationally in rivalry with western transnationals. Cars and electronics were the most prominent of these but the trade threat had spread to footwear, steel, shipbuilding, petrochemicals and textiles.

The "tigerish" image of South Korea came particularly from the enormous and reckless expansion of these sectors, from which industrialists and their political patrons could cream off profits without concern for huge indebtedness because the chaebols could always turn for funds to governments, which could always resort to the ready loans doled out by the IMF and western banks. These agencies have notoriously tolerated and made funds freely available to corrupt and irresponsible regimes, so long as repayment is made with interest. There is a crisis when it is not.

It is estimated that South Korea has a foreign debt, public and private, short term and long term, of more than $100 billion. Of this over half falls due within this year, with $25 bullion of short term debt due by the end of January; South Korean reserves were $10 billion. The IMF and western banks rushed to prevent not just a South Korean collapse but hints that it might default on the debt.

A $57 billion "bail out" was literally forced on protesting South Koreans, who resent the onerous terms, which include the scrapping of all the relatively independent, nationalist and protectionist policies that have nurtured the "tiger". When the deal was reluctantly agreed (upon) it was called "National Humiliation Day" by its Korean opponents.

South Korea is compelled to open its capital market and financial system. Foreign banks and investors are now allowed to participate in mergers and acquisitions of financial institutions (meaning a full-scale takeover mainly by U.S. banks). Restrictions on foreign ownership of companies are removed, with foreigners allowed to have 55 percent ownership at first, total control later. Trade barriers are lifted, enabling freer entry of competitive foreign products. The usual IMF terms of drastic cuts in public spending, higher taxes and interest rates, elimination of liberal labour laws, and others must be introduced.

The takeover of South Korean businesses will be devastating for the country's developing national economy. The European Credit Lyonnais Securities reports that only 87 of listed South Korean companies, out of a total of 653 non-financial firms, are sufficiently solvent to be safe from foreign predators.

The steep devaluation of the South Korean won has made companies vulnerable and fire-sale cheap. As the London Times' leading analyst on international finance, Daniel Bush, put it: "The pace that Asian governments have made with the IMF is positively Faustian. They get billions of dollars in the short term but lose control of their destinies. The 'tigers' will emerge from the current crisis declawed and owned by the west."

The worst effects of the crisis are to be borne by South Korea's workers. The western "rescuers" frankly admit that their "reforms" will result in at least one million unemployed. One of the demands of the IMF and the transnationals is for abolishing worker job security by throwing out the labour law, won by hard struggles in the past, that provides virtual lifetime protection from arbitrary firing. The U.S. transnationals moving in for company takeovers want freedom to sack workers for any reason.

The independent 550.000-member Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (to be distinguished from the government-backed Federation of Korean Trade Unions strongly opposes any change in the labour laws. KCTU leader Kwan Young-kie pledged a repeat of the strikes and demonstrations that defeated a similar attempt by the previous right-wing government last year, and called for public hearings to fix blame for the present economic crisis and to punish those responsible.

If the step is taken toward demolishing job security to serve the transnationals, the fight of the militant KCTU is likely to acquire an anti-imperialist character that could have its echo elsewhere in an Asia being taken over by western bankers and big business.

While the mining and forest industries slide deeper into trouble, corporations in other sectors of the economy continue to rake in the bucks. Canada's biggest oil company, Imperial Oil, just announced its highest profits in history, extending a six- year streak of rising earning. Total profits for 1997 were $847 million, almost tripling the $290 million figure from 1993, just four years ago. share prices jumped last year, from the $60 level in late February 1996 to the current $85 range. And who are the shareholders? Mostly Exxon Corp., the U.S. oil giant which owns 69.6 % of Imperial Oil.

Calgary-based Petro-Canada used to belong to a different set of taxpayers: the Canadian people. These days, the federal government owns just 18% of the company, which announced a record of its own in January - $306 million profits, up 24% over 1996. Share prices have slumped a bit lately, but still remain more than 25% higher than a year ago.On a lighter note, here's a contest for our readers. Can anyone name the well-known labour economist related to the CEO/President of Petro-Canada? We'll give a prize to the first reader to send the answer via snail- mail.)

Our third record-breaker and profiteer of the month for January is another recently privatized chunk of the Canadian economy. CN Rail racked up profits of $403 million last year, up almost a third over its 1996 figure of $310 million. CEO Paul Tellier credits "a buoyant Canadian economy, internal cost cutting, and significant productivity increases." Unfortunately, Tellier can't bring himself to spend some of that money on improved safety for train crews.

Have you ever noticed that capitalists never talk about capitalism? The word has a bad smell about it. The current more palatable euphemism is a "free market" economy. The former socialist countries are now presumably "democratic" because they have "free market" economies.

The things that human beings need in order to survive have always been socially produced. To distribute these socially produced goods to the general population, a method of distribution and exchange is needed - such as a market.

So, what is a "free" market? Apparently one that works automatically, without any outside controls. Capitalist propagandists conjure up an image of the market in the village square where supply and demand and haggling between buyers and sellers sets prices.

But we no longer live in a world of villages, and today's worldwide capitalist market can't exist without controls. Capitalists, of course, say they prefer to regulate the market themselves. That's what they mean by a "free" market. But government interference in the capitalist market is as old as capitalism, and it was in fact instituted by capitalists themselves. They have always known that their own greed, f uncontrolled made an absolutely free market too chaotic to be workable. They have always needed governments to set some ground rules for the game. And notice that they have no hesitation in calling on the power of the state to help sell their goods abroad. note "Team Canada" junkets to Asia and Latin America.

However, using the term "free market" helps fool people into believing that the economic system we live in is simply a system for the exchange of goods. Not so. Feudal societies had markets. And even socialist societies made some use of market mechanisms.

No, the nature of capitalism is not to be found in the way that goods are exchanged. The heart of capitalism lies in its system of ownership. Specifically, ownership of the means of production - those facilities and machines needed to produce the society's goods. And all the talk about markets is designed to keep working people from examining our system of ownership.

Capitalists will tolerate and even institute a great deal of government control of the economy. But they will not tolerate any tampering with their unfettered fights to ownership. Their ownership gives them their profits, but also their power. In bargaining with their workers, the power to pick up their property and move it is always their ultimate weapon. and today, in the era of global capitalism, that power means the power to move anywhere.

Maple Leaf workers have felt this power with the shutting down of the Edmonton plant they have struck. The plant's machinery was moved out under police escort, emphasizing the state"s commitment to the inviolability of private ownership.

The Maple Leaf workers are putting up a brave fight, and a nationwide boycott, which deserves all our support, will help. But ultimately there is no help for their situation and the siltation of all workers until the question of ownership is tackled The right of private ownership of the production machinery and plants upon which all our lives depend has to be challenged. Those facilities must be brought under social ownership, that is, they must be owned by the people who depend upon them - the workers who produce the goods and the population who consume them, and managed for their collective benefit. that's called socialism. There just is no other solution

The Communist Party of Canada is now established again in Montreal. this is timely, considering the doubts raised in the minds of thousands of public sector workers in Quebec by the tough measures adopted by Premier Lucien Bouchard.

Previously, there was a taboo that condemning the Parti Quebecois government would jeopardize the solution to the national question in Quebec. But recent developments show that workers are less afraid to criticize Bouchard, and the independence option is in the realm of confusion. The CPC is increasingly in a position to propose its program, including a Constituent Assembly and the recognition of Quebec as a nation.

Communists know that hatred spread in English Canada objectively helps Bouchard to remain on top of the wave. On the other hand, the majority of people in Quebec remain indifferent or opposed to the Calgary Declaration, which does not consider Quebec as a nation equal to English Canada. In fact, the question for polls here should be: "Do you agree to the status quo?" The answer speaks for itself.

Our chief goal is to achieve unity of the working class of Canada, from coast to coast. The moment that French-Canadian workers perceive equality, they will join this movement for a new Canada. First Nations people will surely share this attitude, once recognition of their right to self-government and other inherent rights is agreed upon.

Altogether, such a new Canada could bring real independence, prosperity and . . . why not, a certain sense of collective happiness. The Communist Party of Canada cannot realize this by itself. Progressives in English-speaking Canada, such as New Democrats, should study this project. But at present, the NDP administrations of two provinces seem slightly oblivious to their stated position in the 1997 election, when they declared that "Quebec is different from other provinces. . . We understand that Quebec . . . can have different aspirations."

The news that the Communist Party of Canada has reestablished its presence as the CPC (Quebec) did not take long to spread in the left. In a coming issue, we will report in more detail on the Party's initial activities.

"The big banks did not cut chequing fees or interest on credit cards after their first year of record profits in 1995," pointed out White in a news release. "They didn't rush to expand credit to small business owners after their second year of record profits in 1996. After their third year of record profits, the big banks didn't leap to fatten the pay packets of their average employees - many of whom may lose their jobs from this merger."

White ridiculed claims that the merger will "stabilize" the banks. " 'Stability' like the top ten banks worldwide? The top ten banks are Japanese. Their size hasn't prevented them from experiencing serious financial trouble."

The merger will boost already outrageous bonuses for top executives, White concluded, noting that their stock rose by $3.9 billion within 24 hours of the announcement. "There is no proof that this merger will improve the lot of the average Canadian, even just a little. So why should the Finance Minister approve it?", he asked.

Justice Ronald Holmes of the BC Supreme Court ruled Jan. 23 that the University of British Columbia acted illegally when it raised student tuition fees in 1997. At least one million dollars will now be refunded to UBC students, the first significant victory against recent tuition increases in Canada.

Four UBC students went to court to argue that 1997 increases are illegal under the BC government's "tuition freeze act". Evidence submitted to the court and cited in the judgement showed that UBC recognized that the fees were illegal and sought dispensation from the NDP government. Correspondence between Moe Sihota, former BC Minister of Education, and ex-UBC president David Strangway was used by the university's lawyers to argue that they had "exemption" from the law. But Holmes ruled that a Minister's letter has no "statutory force" and cannot be used to break the law.

The NDP government did not intervene in the case, and did not attempt to protect UBC students against the illegal tuition hike. Premier Glen Clark's promised "investigation" never occurred.

The four students argue that the court victory is a message to UBC that it is not above the law, and to the NDP government that it encouraged UBC to break the law.

The case involved contested "ancillary fee" increases that the students argued were frozen by the "tuition freeze". The university had claimed that the ancillary fees are not "pure tuition". This court decision establishes an important precedent that such fees cannot be a "backdoor" around government tuition freezes.

The "tuition freeze" does permit BC universities to raise fees for international students. The four UBC students argued that these increases were also illegal because UBC unfairly failed to consult students as promised in their University Policy Handbook. On this point, the court found in favour of UBC's legal arguments.

However, the court did find that "The administration's failure to better communicate and comply with the directed policy unfortunately created an atmosphere of hostility and mistrust for which it must shoulder the responsibility."

The students hope that this court victory will signal an end to the UBC administration's arrogant practice of making tuition fee decisions unfairly and illegally.

Life for people on welfare in Winnipeg was never easy, and it is quickly getting harder. Last year, welfare rates were slashed and City Council cut $1.2 million from the food and clothing supplement to children on welfare.

Doctors' notes regarding disabilities are being challenged, and recipients are sent on fruitless, expensive searches for signatures to complete job search forms. Many employers refuse to sign the forms because so many recipients come calling.

Pressures on the poor mounted over the last two months yet again. Bus tickets have gone up for most fares: 75% for children and seniors paying cash fares, and 6.25% for ticket fares for children and senior.

The Manitoba Society of Seniors protested the fare increase, along with the union representing bus drivers. True to the City's past censorship of employees, Transit officials banned drivers from handing out cards asking passengers to take complaints about the increases to city councillors or Winnipeg Transit.

People living in Manitoba's 17,000 public housing units, many on social assistance, received a list of harsh rules in December. One violation of the rules will result in evection with no right of appeal, and the rules apply to family members and guests.

And for the fourth time since 1993, proposals for a Winnipeg library card fee have been made, this time by the library's Board. The fee would be a large deterrence to young and poor working class families using the library.

These recent changes and proposals are signs of an intensified campaign against the poor. Manitoba has some of the worst poverty statistics in Canada; Winnipeg has had the highest child poverty rate among Canadian cities.

The first two articles in this series linked the rise of the right-wing militia movement in the US to a strategy first unveiled at a Mountain Shadow resort in Arizona, and further elaborated and institutionalized at a meeting in Estes Park, Colorado. Using the model of Central American death squads, individuals in the US intelligence community advocated the forming of armed civilian militias in North America. Within a half-dozen years, the militia movement grew from a mere handful to several hundred units. Many of these militia groups are intimately connected to white supremacist, neo-Nazi, Christian Identity, anti-Communist, and anti-abortion fundamentalist organizations....

The right-wing militia movement in the United States is wide-spread, violent, well organized, and well financed. In many ways, it is the leading edge of extremist reaction in the United States today, and poses a serious and on-going threat to democracy and social progress. Given the intimate connections between other sectors of the far right in the USand Canada, the important and necessary question arises: What is the extent of militia activity in this country?

The evidence for militia influence in Canada is difficult to assess. There are few resources for monitoring the Canadian militia movement, and few organizations prepared to undertake such a project. Direct reporting of actual militia activity is certain to underestimate its true extent, since these formations tend to be organized on an underground basis. There is undeniably far less militia activity in Canada than in the US at this time - probably no more than a handful of active units engaged in little more than sporadic paramilitary training.

Still, what evidence does exist suggests some disturbing trends. Bev Collins, during the time when she was the western organizer for Glen Kealey's Canadian Institute for Political Integrity, wrote pro-militia articles. A phone call to her Nelson, BC office substantiated a link to US-based militias: Collins' assistant maintained that what Canada needed was for the Texas militia to come up here and help us straighten things out.

Not long before the 1997 federal elections, Collins attended and spoke at a secret meeting of the Texas Light Infantry, one of the earliest militias to be set up after the Estes Park gathering. Subsequently, Collins ran for parliament as a candidate of Paul Hellyer's Canada Action Party.

Interestingly, in 1996, Collins was approached in her Nelson office by two men claiming to want contact with US militia groups. One of these men has recently moved to the Okanagan region of BC, where he has begun to spread militia ideology, to sell US militia tapes and books, and to sponsor speakers advocating a number of conspiracy theories.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the low-level promotion on militia-related ideas and propaganda materials that appears to be taking place throughout rural Canada. A stack of militia booklets was seen for sale beside the cash register of a truck-stop diner in northern Alberta. Conspiracy advocates meet in private homes to sell their wares and spread their message. Murray Gauvreau, who has been connected to the Freemen in Montana, sells Militia and racist Identity books and tapes through a catalog service in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Tax revolt activists, travelling throughout the West, advertise Militia materials at their book table. It is impossible to gauge the extent of these activities, but the evidence seems to indicate widespread distribution.

In Saskatchewan, an Internet web-site promoting a well-armed and well-organized militia has been operating since 1995. There are reports that some disaffected farmers have begun to succumb to us militia ideology. According to a private communication from Klanwatch (the US-based agency that monitors militia and white racist activity) there is a string of well-established safe houses across the prairies and BC, where members of US militias can seek temporary refuge from American law enforcement agencies.

The cache of weapons and Identity literature discovered in Smithers, BC, in 1996, may be connected to this right-wing underground network. In 1993, Thomas Lavy attempted to cross the border from Alaska to the Yukon with a large number of weapons, $80,000 in cash, Identity literature, and a sizeable pouch of ricin, a deadly biological toxin. Lavy's probable destination was north or central BC. Lavy was known to have connections to survivalist and militia organizations.

Such activity is not restricted to western Canada. In Ontario, in 1996, the Northern Ontario Militia released a statement urging its members to purchase smuggled and stolen firearms and ammo on the underground market, and recommending their burial in subterranean storage systems for future use.

According to a private US source, a joint US/Canadian Militia activity was held at an undisclosed location in Michigan on Nov. 25, 1997. It was announced by Mark Koernke as a "Family Holiday Event" for American and Canadian Militia members and their families. Koernke, widely known as Mark from Michigan, and leader of the Michigan Militia at Large, is one of the major propagandists of the movement. His videos and shortwave radio program have repeatedly advocated lynching as the preferred form of punishment for his enemies. Members of Koernke's security team have been arrested with assault rifles, gas masks, and night- vision binoculars.

As a final indicator of militia strength, a statistical analysis of government Customs reports can be used to determine the relative amount of militia-oriented material crossing the border. In general, the Customs and Excise Prohibited Articles Division reviews about 300 - 500 items annually. The majority of this material from 1990 to the end of 1997 has been neo-Nazi and Holocaust-denial in nature. Militia-oriented books, articles, and tapes constitute only a small fraction of the reviewed material, but far greater actual numbers of items enter the country without being intercepted by Customs.

For the present purpose, however, the relative proportion of militia items actually reviewed is more important than raw numbers. There was a 900% increase in militia material between 1990 and 1995, and a 400% increase between 1994 and 1995 along. Since 1995, that figure has dropped again, stabilizing at about half the 1995 figure, indicating a continuing interest in militia materials by the far right in Canada. The majority of intercepted material was from the Militia of Montana, one of the earliest and most prominent Militia organizations, and from Mark Koernke's Michigan Militia.

Despite the evident inroads of militia influence in Canada, and its potential for growth, there are significant differences and conditions between this country and the US which would suggest a different political direction for reactionary populist resentment. The militia movement in the US is deeply embedded in an interpretation, no matter how false, of the second amendment to the US constitution involving the right to bear arms and to organize a citizens' militia. The US militia movement also attempts to link its reactionary politics to the heroic fighters of the American Revolution. There is no such equivalent constitutional issue or tradition in Canada.

Bur far more to the point is the rise of the Reform Party in Canadian politics. In the US, there is no third party of any strength capable of organizing extreme right-wing populist reaction; to a real extent, the militia movement fills that vacuum. In Canada, on the other hand, the Reform Party's relative success has largely been the result of organizing the disaffected and alienated sectors of the rural middle and working class, combined with an appeal to religious fundamentalists, bigots, homophobes, sexists, and racists. In short, precisely the elements most likely to join militia units in the US. The Reform Party and the militia movement spring from identical soil.

The militia threat is real. Underestimating its significance would be an error. It is important to monitor its support, especially within white supremacist and quasi-fascist circles. But the most important danger lied in the potential of mutual influence between the unorganized activity of the militia and the highly organized threat to social gains posed by the policies of the Reform Party. Given that their fundamental goals and ideologies are strikingly similar, such an alignment is neither impossible nor unlikely.

Driven by necessity, Cuban agriculture has been forced to abandon standard power farming practices and is applying sustainable soil and crop practices. This has aroused interest of progressive agricultural associations in the United States. Last year, Food First and the Institute for Food and Development Policy, using a grant from the C.S.Mott Foundation, put together a delegation of 26 American farmers and agricultural researchers to study the new Cuban farming methods. Their report is summarized in Minnesota's Land Stewardship Letter,April/May 1997.

In 989, the USSR stopped delivering crude oil to Cuban refineries in exchange for Cuban sugar. At the same time Cuba found itself unable to import chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Such imports dropped by 80 percent. The U.S. anti-Cuban embargo has cut off most normal agricultural inputs. This forced Cuba to literally plunge into an agricultural conversion affecting the nations's entire crop.

When gasoline for farm tractors became scarce, Cuban agriculture could turn to 100,000 oxen, "leftovers"(which) survived Cuban farm mechanization. Since then by castrating many existing bulls and a nationwide breeding campaign, the number of oxen working the Cuban land has risen to 400,000. This has required the production of a whole line of cultivators, seeders and harvesters suitable for ox power.

Cuba's pest reduction program does not depend on chemicals any more. More than 230 locally controlled and operated Centers for the reproduction of Entomophages and Entomopathogens (CREE) create nontoxic pest controls. One such CREE is located at an Agricultural High School where students scout the fields to determine infestations, raise the bugs, do the releases and monitor the results.

Another centre known as Pasture and Fodder Research Institute, is guided by the principle that diversity leads to stability. Instead of trying to concentrate the maximum number of cows in a factory type of operation, they study the best ratio of livestock to horticulture per hectare (2.47 acres).

This admittedly involves much human labour but Jose Suarez of the institute says: "Yo vivo enamorado con mi trabajo." (I am in love with my work.) The one demonstrative hectare for which he is responsible has an amazing array of fruits, vegetables, herbs, grains, living fences and indigenous forage plants. Suarez explains that they are trying to learn what regimen will yield the highest return of human needs.

One can argue whether Cuba's program is progress or retreat to more primitive agriculture. Hector Bouza, director of the Cuban Mechanizing Institute, affirms that most machine cultivations of the soil damage the microorganisms. Microorganisms that live in the shade die in the sun and vice versa. Excess stirring of the soil raises havoc with soil life. While making a good seed bed it also promotes weed growth.

A conclusion drawn by the visiting farmers and researchers is that Cuban agriculture today is demonstrating an agriculture that is friendly with the natural world and is also the best way to meet Cuba's urgent food needs.

The cost to Cuba is excess human labour. But if the nation is fed and Cuba survives, it is labour well spent. No one expects that oxen will remain the permanent source of Cuba's farm energy, but as a temporary measure for survival as long as normal channels are closed due to the criminal embargo, it stands as witness to the fierce determination of a nation to remain free from foreign domination.

After a roller coaster of events at the Han Young factory in Tijuana, Mexico, in recent months, it appeared in mid-January that the Han Young workers had taken an important step toward victory. On January 15, the factory management finally signed over a contract with the Union of Steel and Allied Workers (STIMAHCS, affiliated with the independent FAT labour federation). The Han Young maquiladora workers produce chassis for Hyundai Precision America. Their victory had positive implications for workers at other factories in the Tijuana area.

Under Mexican labour law, when one union replaces another at a factory, management signs over the old contract to the new union. Collective bargaining begins on the basis of negotiating changes in the old contract rather than negotiating a new contract from scratch. STIMAHCS won a union certification election on Dec. 16, but Han Young management had initially refused to sign over the contract.

The signing over of the contract came as a result of a second intervention by Mexican federal labour authorities, after local labour officials and government-affiliated unions refused to recognize the union's certification despite two election victories.

The Jan. 14 agreement requires that government-affiliated union representatives cease their presence at the Han Young maquiladora and withdraw their claims against the workers' independent union.

The Mexican government was feeling heat from various sides. Human rights advocates around the world were poised to flood Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo's office with phone calls, faxes and e-mails on Jan. 16 and to hold public meetings on Feb. 7. Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives had pressed for Mexican federal intervention when the Tijuana labour board, under pressure from Baja Governor Teran and the maquiladora industry association, refused to certify the union's October victory.

In addition to collective bargaining rights for STIMAHCS, another victory with historic implications came out of the events. Mexican federal officials saw to it that Baja state officials granted registration to a second independent union, formed to speed up the process where by workers at other Tijuana factories can gain independent union recognition via a certification election.

In our view, the fight for jobs must be the top priority, since high unemployment is a capitalist tool to drive real wages down and increase profits, and to weaken working class unity and its ability to resist. Employers, acting as a class, have been seeking to use the high structural unemployment created through increasing labour productivity to transform the workplace, reducing secure, full-time and reasonably paid jobs in favour of part-time, temporary or contract positions with lower wages, less benefits and no job security. This is what is behind the corporate slogan of "increasing labour flexibility."

To counter this pro-corporate strategy, which is a corner-stone of the whole neo-conservative agenda, Labour must demand instead the introduction of a shorter work week with no loss in take-home pay. A shorter work week would ensure that working people garner a more fair share of the benefits of higher labour productivity, while at the same time creating more jobs for the jobless and under-employed. A legislated 32 hour work week, in conjunction with a ban on mandatory overtime, longer paid vacations, and earlier voluntary pension age (without penalty) would alone increase full-time employment by upwards of 400,000 jobs.

Such reforms, combined with steps to increase minimum wages for the poorly-paid, extend benefits to part-time workers, reverse welfare cuts, and bring in a wide range of direct job creation measures would dramatically reduce unemployment, especially for young people, and combat rising poverty and increase living standards for working people.

Every month this corner will present a list of five films that are useful for progressive activists in events such as educationals, discussions, public events, as well as for good and enjoyable private entertainment. One way or the other, all films listed are available on video. Enjoy!

Germinal, by film-maker Claude Berri, France, 1994, (feature fiction); depicts the struggles in miners in late 19th century France.

Frida, by Paul Leduc, Mexico, 1985 (feature fiction); the life of progressive artist Frida Kahlo.

Reds, by Warren Beatty, USA, 1981 (feature fiction); American communist John Reed during the Bolshevik Revolution.

A Vision in the Darkness, by Sophie Bissonette, Canada (National Film Board), 1992 (feature documentary); Quebec veteran communist, feminist, union organizer Lea Roback.

Daniel, by Sidney Lumet, USA, 1983, (feature fiction); The frame- up and execution of the Rosenbergs.

People's Voice - February, 1998