People's Voice January 1-15 , 2007

Is Stephane Dion the antidote to Stephen Harper?

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BC Fed rejects two-year conventions

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

Bucking a trend which has taken hold in many union organizations, delegates to the BC Federation of Labour's recent 50th anniversary convention did not approve a proposal to move to biennial meetings. A constitutional resolution on the issue from the BCFL executive received majority support from delegates, but well short of the two-thirds necessary to make the change.

     Originally, the BC Fed's conventions included annual executive elections. That was changed some years ago, so that every second year is now a policy conference. But there remains a strong current of opinion among delegates that this shift transferred considerable decision-making authority from the grassroots of the trade union movement to the top officers. The resulting decline in accountability, according to many labour activists, has weakened the Fed's tradition of militant struggles, in favour of strategies such as the focus on "exit strategies" during events such as the 2004 strike by hospital employees and the two-week teachers walkout in October 2005.

     The Nov. 27-Dec. 1 BC Fed convention, held in Vancouver, saw the acclamation of President Jim Sinclair and Secretary-Treasurer Angela Schirra by over 1,000 delegates.

     The convention also passed a number of important resolutions, including a call for withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan, and a condemnation of the Liberal provincial government and forestry corporations for the rising exports of raw logs while mills are being closed across the province. While stormy weather changed plans for a noon-hour picket at the head offices of Western Forest Products, hundreds of delegates gathered outside the convention venue for a rally to protest forestry job losses.

     That demonstration followed one of the hardest-hitting speeches on the convention floor, from Dave Pritchett, outgoing vice-president of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 500. Pritchett's rousing call for united industrial action by all unions affected by the export of wood processing jobs won a standing ovation.

     The attack on health care was another key issue for the convention, which wrapped up on the same day that the "Urgent Care Centre" opened for business as a for-profit emergency clinic just a couple of kilometers away. Delegates unanimously adopted an emergency resolution condemning this expansion of private health care, and about 200 joined Sinclair and other BC Fed leaders for a demonstration at Vancouver City Hall on Nov. 30.

     One of the hottest debates on the floor came around political action proposals, with a number of delegates challenging the Fed's traditional support for the NDP. Several speakers won loud applause for presenting other options, such as support for a directly labour-based party, or for pointing out the NDP's policy weaknesses and its failure to give consistent support for working class interests. Not surprisingly, given the pro-corporate attacks on labour by the Campbell Liberals, the political action proposals won a solid majority from delegates, and the introduction of all 33 NDP MLAs in the visitor's gallery was met with a standing ovation.

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Wishing you a Red 2007

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Revisiting the new world labour federation

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

In the last issue of People's Voice we had a brief look at the November 1 launch of the new International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), a merger of the World Confederation of Labour and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. We reviewed their formation from a managed split in the World Federation of Trade Unions, which had its origins in the unity gained in the struggle against fascism and the 1945 Allied victory in Europe. Although the split was ideologically part of the attack on socialism and socialist unions, the instrument used was the U.S. Marshall Plan for re-building war ravaged countries. Compliance with the plan's hefty political program was necessary for access to the cookie bowl.

     A lot of water, or perhaps mud, has slid under the bridge from that time to this. The class struggle raged, especially in the post-war years around the national liberation movement, support of which became a defining factor of the WFTU, while the ICFTU was opposed. Both world labour centres expressed abhorrence towards squalid conditions, and supported reforms and the struggle for better quality of life, but the ideological name tags were compliance and resistance. It is necessary to always look at the roots of a tree to determine its strength; the leaves and the branches can and do change with the seasons.

     Another rather large player here was not even on the horizon in the post-war years: the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The OECD is made up of member states which are a close match to NATO, with some additions like Turkey and a couple of previous socialist states who have not yet wheedled their way into NATO.

     To join the OECD, there is a rather long "accession process," presented on the organization's web page (http://www.oecd.org).

     Here we quote from this site, putting some key words in boldface type for emphasis:

     "The process begins when the Council decides to invite a country to engage in discussions with a view to joining the Organization. The Council determines the procedure to be followed and asks the appropriate Committees to examine the country's policies and regulations to ensure that it is ready to assume the responsibilities of OECD membership. Each country must have demonstrated its attachment to the basic values shared by all OECD members: an open market economy, democratic pluralism and respect for human rights. The applicant country must also state its position vis-a-vis the OECD legal instruments (meaning the Decisions, Recommendations and Declarations adopted within the framework of the Organization). In other words, it has to show both the will and the ability to adopt the main principles of the Organization, as well as the legal and political obligations that result therefrom.

     "These instruments (more than 160 in all) are grouped by sector, and the country's position in each sector is examined by a Committee, or by the Secretariat when no Committee has been appointed to this task. Countries are entitled to make reservations regarding instruments (or parts of instruments) that they are unable or unwilling to apply. These reservations are submitted to the relevant Committee which discusses them until a consensus on their application is reached...

     "While many OECD Committees are involved in this process, the Investment Committee plays a fundamental role. It examines how the reviewed country would implement the Codes (the Code of Liberalization of Capital Movements and the Code of Liberalization of Current Invisible Operations)... The Codes are legally binding instruments relating to capital movements, international investment and trade in services. The core principles underlying the Codes are equality of treatment and non-discrimination. This means that a country may not privilege its nationals in comparison to those from other Member countries, nor may it favour one Member country over another. The extent to which a country complies with the Codes is an essential yardstick in assessing its readiness to join the organization."

     To sum up: OECD member states must support an open market economy and democratic pluralism. Applicants must state their position on the "legal instruments" and the "legal and political obligations." The "investment committee" reviews how the applicant would relate to the Code of Liberalization of Capital Movements and the Code of Liberalization of Current Invisible Operations.

     Holy mackerel, what the hell does "invisible operations" entail? The neo-liberal agenda and free trade? What does this have to do with the new ITUC? Well, let's turn the dial a little further to the right and introduce the "Trade Union Action Committee."

     To do this properly and objectively we will quote directly from their web page:

     "The TUAC's origins go back to 1948 when it was founded as a trade union advisory committee for the European Recovery Program - the Marshall Plan. When the OECD was created in its current form in 1962 as an intergovernmental policy making body, TUAC continued its work of representing organized Labour's views to the new organization. The OECD is now changing again, taking in new members and becoming a leading forum for intergovernmental policy making to manage globalization. TUAC's role is to help ensure that global markets are balanced by an effective social dimension. Through regular consultations with various OECD committees, the secretariat, and member governments, TUAC coordinates and represents the views of the trade union movement in the industrialized countries. It is also responsible for coordinating the trade union input to the annual G8 economic summits and employment conferences."

     Rooted in the Marshall Plan, the TUAC today is affiliated and parallel with the OECD. As such it accepts the "basic values, open market economy, legal instruments, Code of Liberalization of Capital Movements and the Code of Liberalization of Current Invisible Operations."

     The first act of the new ITUC was to re-affiliate with the TUAC. The ideological line was trumpeted loudly and clearly by putting this first on the agenda so the boys at the top would not get nervous as the ITUC founding convention and especially some of its more militant delegates condemned the crimes of capitalist globalization. Close reading of official documents will show that condemning the effect of globalization and the crimes of capital is not exactly the same as condemning globalization and condemning capitalism. This is a traditional reformist and social democratic conundrum.

     The ICFTU was a member of the Trade Union Action Committee, as is the new ITUC. The TUAC is not a committee in the true sense of the word. It is a world trade union organization of the OECD, one of the most important central organizations of world capital, neo-liberalism and globalization - imperialism!

     No matter how hard we look through the prism of unity and the desire for international solidarity, those pesky words keep clawing their way to the surface - compliance and resistance. They won't go away because they are objective and historical. Like all dialectics, they have a past and present tense, but also a future tense. They must be dealt with.

     The formation of the ITUC also is objective, because nothing in the dialectical sense can remain still. Motion is perpetual. But while we know where the ITUC comes from, we should not be mechanical in looking at the future tense. The history of the ICFTU and the WFTU are intrinsically linked, just as the historical development of reformism and revolution are linked.

     The WFTU might appear to be weak in this period of time, but where they are strong is where the fight is the sharpest and the resistance is growing. Beware of numbers in this game. The process of international solidarity might be sharpened, the possibilities might be advanced by the formation of the ITUC.

     One thing is for sure, the rumblings from below are growing. There is massive demand for international organization, reforms and resistance. How unity can be developed will have to be an ongoing topic.

     The challenge is for us all. It is here in Canada and it is universal. We need to deepen this discussion on the parallel existence of reformism and revolution within our class, and the possibilities of forming a common front against the onslaught of capital, even around minimum objectives.

     I wish you all a good 2007, and please be very careful of the "Current Invisible Operations." Stay in touch and stay visible!

     (Hammond is the chair of the Communist Party's Central Trade Union Commission. He can be contacted at shammond2@cogeco.ca)

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Pinochet's bleak legacy - Editorial

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Three celebrations in Havana

(The following article is from the January 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
By Susan Hurlich, Havana, 2 December 2006

     Today is a day of celebration in Cuba.

     It is the day that marks the 50th Anniversary of the landing of the Granma Yacht, the day of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), and the day indicated for celebrating Fidel's 80th Birthday.

     All of these events have come together in a Military Parade held this morning in Revolution Square.

     It is also a day of reflection about what the Granma means, and about what Fidel means.

     Fidel wasn't able to attend the parade. And yet he was so present that one was aware of him throughout the morning.

     Like many Cubans, I too was very excited about this parade. During the previous week, which brought together over 1,800 personalities from some 80 countries, much thought and talk has gone on about the significance of the extraordinary human being known simply as Fidel, and about Cuba itself. Organized by the Fundacion Guayasamin, the world's finest intellectuals, poets, writers, actors, musicians, politicians, including Evo Morales of Bolivia, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Ralph Goncalves from St. Vincent and Grenadine, etc. have gotten together to honour the man they call friend, comrade, compatriot, brother.

     And everyone has been looking forward to the military parade, which in and of itself is quite an event, because no one does military parades these days. It's as if they've become things of the past.

     And yet here's Cuba, holding its first high-level full military parade since 1986. And here I am, as excited as anyone to be present.

     This alone - my feeling of excitement - makes me reflect. Like many others, I'm a person of peace. I abhor war and the apparatus that carries it out - the wanton and deliberate waste, the so-called collateral damage, which, as Iraqis and Afghans and others painfully know, means civilian deaths and massive destruction.

     And yet here I am, looking forward to seeing the Cuban military march by...

     What, exactly, is the military that we're celebrating? (I'll get to the Granma and Fidel later, although it's all interrelated.)

     Cuba has never waged a war of aggression against any other people or nation. Nor has it ever occupied another nation. Cuba has responded to the call of other countries for military assistance - as it did in Angola and elsewhere in defense of a country's legitimate independence - and when it's assistance was no longer necessary, it simply packed up and went home, leaving behind no military bases, no military presence. It didn't even leave behind economic investments. It simply did the job, in solidarity, and left, also in solidarity.

     So what kind of army is this?

     First of all, the Cuban military is a defensive force, not an offensive force. And in the fifteen years that I've been living and working in Cuba, I've come to realize that what the Cuban military does best isn't even military.

     FAR has lots of agricultural undertakings where they grow not only their own food, but food for the population. They help with the sugar harvest. They do reforestation. They have a program, which began decades ago, called Plan Turquino that is concerned with comprehensive and sustainable development of mountain communities. Named for Cuba's highest mountain peak - the 1,974 metre-high Pico Real del Turquino located in Granma Province - Plan Turquino treats social and economic development along with conservation of the environment, as part of reinforcing the country's defense system. When people are healthy and well fed, when they're treated as if they matter, they become the best defense that a country can have. Plan Turquino has changed the lives of historically (pre-1959) marginalized mountain communities, who now have roads, electricity, water and food, schools, health clinics and cultural centres.

     And FAR does all this quietly. While certain other countries talk loudly about the need to turn military energies and hardware towards peaceful ends, and yet carry out vicious wars, Cuba just goes ahead and does it, devoting time and resources - both material and human - towards meeting civilian needs, without the need to call attention to it. I've often thought that FAR provides a model that should be more deeply known by many other countries.

     FAR also has one of the finest civil defense systems in the world. People trust it not out of blind faith, but because the trust has been earned by actions and policies that have worked over the years in making people safe, even from natural disasters such as hurricanes.

     I've also heard that FAR has become smaller over the years. Makes sense. If you don't carry out continuous aggressive wars, there's no need for a large army.

     FAR is also an army that carries out no aggression within its own borders. It just hasn't had that kind of history or "manipulative use" by the state. The people do not fear the army. Quite the contrary: the army is the friend of the people, of the Cuban revolution. It was born and grew up in this revolution, along with the overwhelming majority of the population.

     So perhaps it's more honest to say that FAR is an immense army, that it contains the entire population. Because if your standing army is on your side, then wouldn't you be on the side of the army and see them as your natural ally? Indeed, that's what seems to have happened in Cuba. And the result: There's an army of eleven million people!

     And today the army marched - all the people.

     Before Raul spoke - and forgive me that I refer to him with the simple name by which he's known in Cuba, rather than by his formal title of Army General, Raul Castro Ruz, Second Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party, First Vice-President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces - it's a mouthful, and everyone knows it, but here he's just known as Raul...

     Before he spoke, 21 rounds were shot from cannons in honour of all Cuban soldiers who have given the best they have to give - their blood - to fight for their country's independence, and then having achieved this, to continue fighting so that other peoples can also know independence.

     Then the parade started, with companies of infantry troops from the different military divisions of FAR. Regular and reserve troops, cadets from the Camilo Cienfuegos military school, special battalions, the navy, the different militias. And then the combat equipment: armoured cars, trucks, tanks, mobile anti-aircraft artillery, a squadron of Migs and military helicopters.

     But first came the mambise, those brave fighters who, 130 years ago, were the true seeds of the later Rebel Army and FAR. Today we had some 120 mambise mounted on white, brown, cream and chestnut horses, all dressed in white with high black boots and drawn sabres.

     In the morning, at 5 am when I was walking from home to the security checkpoint for journalists, quite by chance I chose a route that brought me to all the horses and riders, waiting in the dark early hours. I stopped and spoke with the front rider, mounted on a beautiful white horse. I took their photo. When the rider asked me if he was beautiful in the photo, I showed it to him and replied that it was hard to say who was more beautiful, he or his horse. We all shared a lovely moment of laughter!

     After the mambise came the Rebel Army. A scraggly bunch, some with wounds and bandages, with the best attempt they were able to make at the time at not-quite-consistent uniforms, marching in straight lines but not quite in step. In the front was a tall young man, a look-alike for Fidel at that age when he and the others first began fighting from the Sierra Maestra.

     What came afterwards brought tears to my eyes: the Granma yacht, the emblematic boat of the Rebel Army and universal symbol of courage and dignity. Surrounded by a sea of 3,000 Cuban children, pioneros waving blue kerchiefs to create the waters over which the Granma sailed into the square. These pioneros had been chosen from every municipality of the city, and during the past week they were involved in many different activities.

     On the yacht, in full uniform and standing at attention and saluting the whole way, was Colonel Norberto Collado. He was the skipper of the Granma during its historic voyage from Tuxpan to Los Colorados, in what is currently Granma Province. Hard to imagine 82 people on this yacht, but they did it. As Fidel said before leaving Mexico: "If I leave, I will arrive. If I arrive, I will enter. If I enter, I will be victorious."

     Like all the other survivors of that day, Collado is now an older man, or, as Fidel calls himself, a man of "accumulated youth". I first met Collado last year, one day at the Museo de la Revolucion. Tall and thin, a quiet-spoken man. He talked about his love for the Granma, his concern that it be well taken care of for the Cuban people. He spoke with a tenderness, as if he were speaking about a lover. And then I realized what he was saying. Because when we love someone, that love can change us in surprising ways, and sometimes in ways that make us better people. And indeed isn't this what the Granma symbolizes? The love of men and women for justice and freedom, for the possibility of seeing their children grow up healthy and strong, of being educated and of having the chance to become all that they might be.

     So the Granma, over the years, has become more than just a yacht. It has become the symbol of sacrifice and dream. For those who fight for freedom are dreamers that a better world is possible.

     And this brings me to Fidel, because this march was also a tribute to his 80th birthday.

     After the military parade, some 300,000 Havaneros, coming from the four neighbourhoods surrounding Revolution Square - Plaza, Cerro, Centro Habana and Habana Vieja - and representing the entire Cuban people, marched in celebration. Many carried handmade placards. As they passed through the square, one could see the desire on their faces to see their Comandante as they all searched the reviewing stands.

     Fidel. A man like any other, he would probably say in his humility, because he is a very humble person. And yet the magnitude of who this person is and what he means not just within Cuba, but to the world community, is awe-inspiring.

     Because for so many, and for so many years, Fidel has been a symbol of courage, humanity and solidarity. He has been a reference point for selflessness, for an untiring commitment to fight for the rights of the simplest of the people, wherever they may be, for generosity of spirit and vision, for his eternal commitment to try to put into practice what he speaks about. His presence and optimism have always given hope, and his deep love of children - the true guarantors of the future - is renowned.

     So the three celebrations come together. Granma, as the symbol of the courage to dream and to try to make this dream a reality. FAR, for the humanity of its military mission, a humanity that provides a model of how one can transform a potential force of death into a force of life. And Fidel, who is both a light, and whose very example encourages others to make their own lights in the name of dignity, justice, equality and love.

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Students need more than tolerance says Egale

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What's next for the Bolivarian Revolution?

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What do these Canadians have in common?

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Thoughts on nations - Editorial

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What's Left

NANAIMO, BC

The Crisis of Homelessness - panel forum, 7:30 pm, Monday, Feb. 26, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Hall, 4236 Departure Bay Road, with John Horn, Chair of Nanaimo Group on Homelessness; Jonnie Tunnell, Coordinator of Nanaimo Crisis Services; and Melanie Morton, Samaritan House Shelter.

VANCOUVER, BC

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

Close Guantanamo rally - speak up for human rights, Sat., Jan. 13, 1 pm, assemble at US consulate, E. side of University Ave, S. of Dundas. Bring your lungs, your friends, warm clothes. Details at http://www.noexceptions.ca or Amnesty International, http://www.amnesty.ca.

Communist Party Convention Social- evening of Friday, Feb. 2 - call 416-469-2446 for location and full details.

Annual Jose Marti Dinner and Dance - Canadian-Cuban Friendship Assoc., Sat., Feb. 3, 7 pm Dinner, 8:45 pm Cultural Program, at Bloor St. United, 300 Bloor St. W. Live Band "Pablo Terry & Sol De Cuba", door prize, raffle, cash bar. $25 advance ticket (includes dinner), $10 dance only (after 9 pm). Limited dinner places - sold out last year. Cheques to CCFA Toronto, PO 743, Stn F, Toronto, ON. M4Y 2N6, tel. 905-951-8499.

OTTAWA

NOWAR-PAIX Assembly - for all individuals and groups against Canada's role in the war in Afghanistan. Bring your ideas and concerns to:

NOWAR-PAIX Assembly
Monday, 8 January, 7 pm
123 Simard Hall,
University of Ottawa

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.

CROSS-CANADA: MARCH 17

March 17 Day of Action - against occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan marking 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Help is needed to mobilize powerful actions in every community. Find your local peace group through the Canadian Peace Alliance website, http://www.acp-cpa.ca or call 416-588-5555.

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Poverty and debt growing, studies find

Poverty and debt are growing in both Canada and the world, said the authors of two separate studies on wealth released in early December. The reports, produced by Statistics Canada and a UN agency, respectively, paint the all-too familiar picture of the widening gap between rich and poor in society.

"An uncomfortably large proportion of Canadians are living so close to the line that they are unable to save for retirement," said Hugh Mackenzie, research fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) about the Statscan study. "Economic insecurity is on the rise."

The study found that the concentration of wealth at the "high end" continued to grow from 1999 to 2005, with 80% of Canadian families holding around 30% of the total net wealth in Canada.

Debt also increased during this period, and at a faster rate than net worth. More than 6.5% of Canadian families literally operate with negative net worth. In fact, over the past six years the median debt load for families has risen from $32,300 in 1999 to $44,500 in 2005 - an increase of 38%.

"Despite our retirement income system's heavy reliance on private pensions and RRSPs for retirement income, nearly 30% of Canadian families have no retirement savings at all," says Mackenzie.

The crisis isn't limited to Canada. According to a new report from the World Institute for Development Economics Research at the UN University, the poorer half of the world's population own barely 1% of global wealth - but the richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all household wealth.

The report deals with all countries in the world - either actual data or estimates based on statistical analysis - and examines what people own, less what they owe (most previous research has looked at income).

Not surprisingly, wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and some countries in the Asia Pacific region, such as Japan and Australia. These countries account for 90% of household wealth.

Some citizens of the rich countries have more debt than assets - making them, the report says, among the poorest in the world in terms of household wealth. (However, they are presumably better off in terms of what they consume than many people in developing countries.

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Protests hit private emergency clinic

Public pressure forced the BC Liberal government to put the brakes on the privately-owned Urgent Care Centre (UCC), which opened on Dec. 1 in Vancouver. The emergency treatment facility is part of the False Creek Surgical Centre, a for-profit clinic specializing in medical treatment for the wealthy.

But the announcement that this clinic would expand into the emergency treatment area - charging $199 for immediate access to a doctor, and further fees for a wide range of services - sparked an angry response from the labour movement, the BC Health Coalition, and many other groups. The BC Federation of labour passed a resolution condemning the move, and some 200 delegates rallied at Vancouver City Hall on Nov. 30 to demand that City Council take action to block the opening.

The next day, the newly-formed "Group for the Security of the People's Health" organized a picket protest. The Group takes its inspiration from the famed surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune, who founded the Montreal Group for the Security of the People's Health in 1936 to campaign for socialized medical care.

A statement from the Group pointed out that Bethune's call to "take the private economic profit out of medicine," supported by political leaders like Saskatchewan premier Tommy Douglas, finally prevailed with the establishment of Medicare, which ensures that necessary medical care is provided free of charge to all Canadians through a public system.

"Today those principles are under constant attack by the profiteers who seek to create a two-tier system, in which the wealthy are first in line for quick access to all the best medical help, while the rest of us are left with an increasingly under-funded public system. The motive of private profit is once again becoming a dominant force," says the statement.

"The push to impose for-profit health care is more advanced in British Columbia than in any other province, according to the Fraser Institute, which favours this shift. The opening of the Urgent Care Centre, which provides emergency treatment for hard cash as part of the False Creek Surgical Centre, is the latest step towards a two-tier system...

"Having received their training in Canada's taxpayer-funded public education system, the physicians and other care-givers in such private clinics are now using their expertise for their own private benefit, effectively reducing the level of services available to the public through the Medicare system.

"The Vancouver Group for the Security of the People's Health demands that the federal and provincial governments take immediate action to shut down the False Creek Surgical Centre and the Urgent Care Centre. These operations are blatant violations of the Canada Health Act. The spread of for-profit private medicine must be reversed, before it's too late. The security of the people, not the wealth of the few, must once again become the priority!"

Moving quickly to put out a political firestorm, the Campbell Liberal government forced the UCC's owners to announce that they will bill the public health system for emergency services rather than charging fees directly. But the issue is far from resolved, since the UCC is demanding to be paid on a higher - more profitable - level than the scale for public emergency health facilities.

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How rising drug costs swallowed my Health Care

The Fraser Institute's third annual report on the financial sustainability of provincial health insurance found, to no-one's surprise, that "health care financing, as it is currently structured in Canada, is not financially sustainable" and that reform is needed to increase privatization of the system.

But their approach is highly faulty. it extrapolates 60 years ahead based on recent averages, and it doesn't confront the fastest growing component of health care - the rising cost of drugs.

The study took the most recent five-year annual average for provincial health care spending for each province, and projected that rate of growth 60 years into the future. It then measured "sustainability" by comparing this to similar projections for provincial revenues and GDP. They claim that health care spending is on track to bankrupt all provinces within 60 years.

There is no doubt that provincial health care costs have increased at a significant pace, increasing by an average of about seven per cent in the past 10 years. if these rates stay higher than revenue or GDP growth over the long-term, they are unsustainable. But the last five to 10 years have not been typical.

After years of neglect, federal and provincial governments have re-invested substantially in health care over the past decade. In particular, the 2004 Health Care Accords helped support additional provincial health spending. But this major accord is not mentioned in the report.

Worse, their study doesn't analyze that major factors have caused increases in health care costs.

This analysis would have shown that prescription drug costs have grown at the fastest rate of all components of provincial health spending. Provincial spending on drugs has increased an annual average rate of 11.9 per cent during the past five years and by 10.3 per cent over the past 10 years. This compares to an annual average increase in total provincial health care spending of 7.2 per cent during the past five years and 6.3 per cent over the past decade.

Using the Fraser Institute's paying more, getting less approach, we would find provincial spending on drugs would cost $6.7 trillion by 2065, if it continued to increase at the present five-year annual average rate of 11.9 per cent. This would amount to 113 per cent of the provinces' total health care spending in 2065 if it also increased at its most recent five-year annual average of 7.2 per cent.

Using these same growth rates to extrapolate over 100 years, provincial spending on drugs would amount to almost 400 per cent of Canada's GDP by 2105.

This illustrates two things: It is absurd to use atypical five-year growth rates and extrapolate them over 60 years, and the rising cost of drugs is clearly the most unsustainable part of provincial health care spending and needs to be controlled.

A national pharmacare program would control the rising costs of drug spending by establishing a national formulary and controlling the escalating prices that drug companies are charging.

The Fraser Institute report doesn't call for controlling drug costs. Instead, they suggest that spending on pharmaceuticals should be increased.

The report also doesn't mention the U.S., which follows the privatized prescriptions that the Fraser Institute advocates for Canada. South of the border, health care spending has increased by eight to nine per cent a year. Total spending on health care in the U.S. was equal to $5,274 per person - 137 per cent higher than in Canada - in 2002 (latest international comparisons from the World Health Organization).

Government spending on health care in the U.S. was equivalent to $2,374 - 52 per cent higher than in Canada. Health care administratiive costs in the U.S. are 300 per cent higher than in Canada.

The future of Canada's health care system needs serious consideration to strengthen public health care and make it sustainable over the long-term. But this report by the Fraser Institute is a shoddy attempt to support their corporate agenda of privatization.

To elaborate on an expression attributed to Mark Twain: "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damn lies ands statistical extrapolations based on short-term trends." Virtually all mutual funds are sold with the disclaimer that "Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results." This report should have included that disclaimer as well.

(Toby Sanger is an economist with the Canadian Union of Public Employees.)

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The role of Communists today

Excerpt from the Draft Political Resolution for the 35th Central Convention of the Communist Party of Canada, which will be held February 1-4 at the Steelworkers' Hall on Toronto's Cecil Street.

Heading into the next federal election, Canada is truly at a crucial moment, even more significant than the "free trade" campaign of 1988. There may be some new elements in this campaign, such as the possibility that the new leadership of the Greens will make that party a bigger factor in the struggle for votes. The fight for democratic electoral reform remains crucial to efforts to break the monopoly of the "big parties" in Parliament; in this regard, it will be important to conduct a major battle for proportional representation in the upcoming review of electoral reform in Ontario. A breakthrough for PR in Canada's most populous province would be a major victory for democracy.

The goal of the Communist Party will be to help defeat the ultra right Harper Tories - who are now the preferred party of finance capital - and in the process to shift the balance of political forces within Parliament and in the country as a whole. This struggle can become an important step towards initiating a broader campaign for a progressive agenda. For this reason, Communists will be on the ballot in as many cities as possible, to expose the right-wing agenda and to win support for the policies outlined in our People's Alternative. The Communist Party will campaign to put people's needs before corporate greed, presenting a strategy to defeat neoliberalism and block the threat of fascism and war. Our candidates will link the battles around immediate issues with the perspective of a People's Coalition government, which can open the door to a socialist transformation of Canada. This is the special contribution of Communists as we campaign shoulder to shoulder with the people's movements to defeat the Tories.

While the election outcome may help improve the political terrain, the class struggle in the coming period will revolve mainly around the ongoing fight by the working class for better wages and working conditions, and around the struggles of the peoples of Canada to defend and improve social programs and equality rights, to defend our sovereignty, and to pull Canada out of the imperialist US war machine, Our aim will be to make a much greater contribution to these struggles, by building a larger, more effective Communist Party, within the ranks of the working class, and among all the movements of the people for a better life.

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"It is our duty to save our species"

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Tehran bus union leader re-arrested

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Decline in Israeli workers rights

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Historic land reform victory in Bolivia

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

LA PAZ - At midnight on Nov. 28, Bolivian President Evo Morales signed into law a bill for the expropriation of tens of thousands of square kilometres of unproductive (idle) land from wealthy families, after political manoeuvring that left the opposition dazed.

At the same time, in the city of Sucre, the constituent assembly, in which delegates of the governing Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) and their allies hold 151 out of 255 seats, approved a controversial rule establishing that a simple majority of votes is needed to pass proposed amendments to the constitution, rather than the two-thirds majority demanded by the opposition parties.

The Opposition had boycotted the Senate, in which MAS does not have a majority, to block the bill. But after Morales threatened to impose the law by presidential decree, three opposition senators (including two alternates) joined with the 12 MAS senators to reach the 14-seat quorum needed to meet.

The Senate then passed the new land reform law, the contracts in which the government negotiated the nationalisation of Bolivia's natural gas reserves, which were signed a month ago by 10 foreign oil companies, a reformulated budget, and an economic cooperation agreement with Venezuela.

On Nov. 20, the opposition pulled out of the 27-member Senate in an attempt to block the ambitious land reform bill that will involve the seizure of rural property left idle in the wealthier eastern lowlands region for redistribution to poor landless farmers, and to protest the adoption of the simple majority rule in the constituent assembly, which is rewriting the constitution.

But the strategy fell through when the government negotiated behind the scenes to draw three opposition senators - of the rightwing Podemos coalition and the centre-right National Unity party - back to the Senate.

At midnight, the agrarian reform bill and the natural gas contracts were approved with little debate, while the opposition maintained that bribes were paid to the three legislators who voted with MAS to form a majority, allegations that are denied by the governing party.

Approval of the bills and contracts in the lower house of Congress was less complicated, because MAS holds a majority there.

Some 4,000 indigenous people from the highlands and from the country's tropical jungle region marched on la Paz to press for passage of the new land reform law.

Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, cut short a tour of several countries, returning from the Netherlands for 12 hours before heading out again, to Nigeria.

The indigenous protesters, wearing traditional multi-coloured woolen ponchos and hats, and worn sandals, poured into the government palace on Nov. 28, filling the central courtyard and waving Andean flags to the rhythm of traditional songs played on the bamboo flutes, charangos, guitars and drums that cheered them on their 22-day march.

On signing the new law, On signing the new law, Morales said: "The latifundium (large landed estate) is over in Bolivia. We now have the legal instrument to put an end to the large landholders of eastern Bolivia."

The new legislation replaces law 1715, passed in 1996, that only led to the redistribution and formal land titling of 10 percent of the country's 107 million hectares of arable land, according to the National Institute of Agrarian Reform (INRA).

It is not yet clear what proportion of arable land will be confiscated and redistributed, because first it must be determined which lands are unproductive (idle). After that, a team of experts will inspect the redistributed parcels every two years to make sure they have not been sold off for profit.

Article 28 of the new law states that land whose use goes against the collective interest will be confiscated without indemnification, while article 33 says the amount of compensation paid for expropriated land will take the market value into account.

Between 60 and 70 percent of the country's farmland, located in the plains of the eastern provinces of Santa Cruz, Beni and Pando, are owned by a handful of families who are protected by business organisations, said Rural Development Minister Hugo Salvatierra.

After signing the law, Morales immediately announced other measures like recovering state control over large tin mines administered under concession by private Bolivian companies and cooperatives.

On May 1, the government decreed the re-nationalisation of Bolivia's vast natural gas reserves - the second-largest in South America after Venezuela's - and in October it signed new contracts with 10 foreign oil companies and an agreement for supplies to Argentina, which authorities say will raise energy revenues up to four billion dollars a year in the next three years.

That is the equivalent to nearly 50 percent of Bolivia's current gross domestic product of 9.3 billion dollars, in a country where the minimum monthly wage is just 55 dollars.

However, the amount of royalties and taxes that will flow into the state coffers depends on calculations of output, investment and repayments which have not yet been set by the contracts.

The army was called out to back up the nationalisation of the country's gas fields. But army chief Freddy Bersatti has announced that his force will not take part in the expropriation of land, which he said would be carried out peacefully under the new law.

"The land will never again be sold over the Internet," Deputy Minister Of Land Alejandro Almaraz said emphatically, referring to the on-line sale of property already inhabited by Guarani Indians in the southeast.

"The march has cost us sacrifice and tears," said Adolfo Chavez, a member of the Confederation of Indigenous People of Eastern Bolivia.

He recalled the deaths of Macadeo Choque Arco, 26, and Betzabé Flores, 23, who were run over by a car in strange circumstances on Nov. 14 on the highway between Santa Cruz and Cochabamba in central Bolivia. Another woman was killed when she was struck by lightning while marching in the highlands region.

Agribusiness interests "will never again dominate our territories. Their power to wrest so much land from indigenous people is finished," said Chavez.

Indigenous people in the east were the first to demand amendments to the constitution that would enable them to recover their land, when they marched 600 km between the cities of Trinidad and La Paz in June 1990.

Wearing traditional dress, indigenous leader Martin Condori said in a speech that the "decolonisation" process had begun.

"Now it is our turn to work the idle land in the east and live in harmony and happiness," he said, to applause and shouts of "jallalla Evo" (Viva Evo, in Aymara).

President of the Senate Santos Ramirez defended the strategy used to obtain a quorum and majority support for bills.

"We are doing the right thing," he said in defense of the new law and the simple-majority rule in the constituent assembly, which he said would apply to the approval of each article, although the final text of the new constitution will require a two-thirds majority before it is adopted.

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January 1-15, 2007 Volume 15 - Number 1 $1

January 1-15, 2007
Volume 15 - Number 1
$1