Goodwill brings violent response at Caledonia

(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

By Sam Hammond

      THE SIX NATIONS blockade at Caledonia has outlasted the 1990 Oka struggle to become the longest First Nations blockade in Canada's history. At times there has been a testy reaction by a very small minority of white extremists, but on the Native side there has been a very firm resolve for disciplined and peaceful pressure on government to win negotiation and solution.

     This land was registered as under dispute and apparently on the federal government's calendar for a hearing sometime in the next 100 to 150 years, going on past practice. This disgraceful situation probably would have continued if the federal government had not added insult to injury by selling the disputed land to a private developer. That's a decision without a hearing - so much for the process of law!

     Knowing that in a few days their land would be lost forever, the people of the Six Nations played their last card, blockading the land, and later Caledonia's main street (part of the disputed land) and the Highway Six by‑pass around the town in response to an early morning raid by the Ontario Provincial Police.

     The response of the population in southern Ontario has been quite calm and there is a growing core of support for the Native people. The weekly counter‑protests are organized by a minority of hotheads with racist tendencies who scream for law and order, yet are determined to bypass legal negotiations and bully the Six Nations into street submission. This will not happen.

     By the Victoria Day weekend, considerable progress had been made, although unfortunately this was not officially reported by the government. This progress included an apparent commitment to return land that houses a defunct and vacant Correctional Facility, originally taken illegally from Six Nations, after an environmental study to establish the condition of the land. It was widely rumoured that there would be a moratorium on the disputed Douglas Creek land and a third party archeological study for graves of Native people.

     This led to a goodwill offer by the Six Nations to open Argylle Street. But on Friday evening, May 19, the anti-protests became more aggressive. When the Six Nations people started to dismantle their barricades on Monday, May 22, the rednecks could not stand the prospect of peaceful resolution without retribution. The baseball-bat armed mob put up their own barricade and the situation degenerated, complete with physical engagements. The Native people threw up a new defensive barricade, dug up the road and prepared to defend themselves. A state of emergency was declared in Caledonia, and people worried that the Canadian Army would be called in.

     Some facts must be stated for the record. During this protest no Native person has attacked a resident of Caledonia even when provoked with racist slurs. When the citizens of Caledonia had a rally at the Fair Grounds, the Native people applauded their right to congregate peacefully. A young Six Nations man was shot just under the eye with a pellet gun; the next day a young intruder was captured within their camp driving erratically and in possession of a pellet gun and military equipment, including a flack jacket. He was handed over unharmed to the OPP. Violence and the threat of violence have only come from the anti‑native minority.

     There is a problem in Ontario. It might be convenient to look at every phenomenon in isolation and to pretend awe, ignorance and wonder when an oppressed people stand courageously on their own behalf. If ignorance is bliss, there are a lot of happy people in government here and they are trying to spread it around.

     But there is a history, with its twists and turns, and also with a common thread. Remember the murder of Dudley George at Ipperwash by the OPP? Remember the lies and subterfuge to protect a red‑neck premier and his cabinet cabal? Remember the OPP riot squad attack on OPSEU members right in front of the Ontario legislature? How about the legions of missing Native women who don't get media attention? How about water you can't drink? How about mercury poisoning? Where the hell is the conscience of the Canadian State? When the police become spectators, as they were when racists stoned Native people at Kahnesetake in 1990, they are supporting the attackers, carrying out state policy.

     The cancer of right‑wing, imperialist and racist thinking explodes around the Native people. Their struggle is a beacon that lights up the political environment and exposes the danger facing all of us. Will the social justice movement face similar violence and retribution when it escalates the very issues the Native people are dealing with now? The issues of water, environment, medicine, living space, the right to exist purely as a condition of birth and being?

     I think the Native people are politically more advanced in many ways because they are forced to deal with these problems, not hide from them. As a student of history, a trade‑unionist and a Hamilton worker, I am not surprised by the calm and peaceful determination of the Six Nations people. Throughout history, struggle develops its own dignity, its own unity. There is nobility in standing your ground, in fighting for justice. That's why Robin Hood is a folk hero and Hitler is not.

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(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

By Kimball Cariou

        THE DEATH TOLL in the B.C. forest industry has dropped so far in 2006, but the labour movement is working hard to prevent a return to the tragic events of 2005, when 43 workers were killed on the job, up from 16 the previous year.

     The main union in the industry, the United Steelworkers, has been holding meetings on Vancouver Island, on the theme of "Stop the Killing: Ending the Culture of Desperation in the BC Forest Industry."

     A number of factors are behind last year's steep jump in deaths, says the union: changes in legislation and regulations, cutbacks in enforcement and regulation, more contracting out, and increased harvest rates.

     Essentially, west coast forestry workers are being forced to become contractors and "buy their own jobs." Logging truck drivers are increasingly paid only by the volume they can haul. Fallers and others in the bush are killed and maimed because contractors have sacrificed basic safety standards to cut costs.

     The industry has been changed dramatically in recent years by global competition and lower prices. Forestry in B.C. has lost 20 per cent of its workforce since 1999. The number of workers who cut and fall trees has plummeted from 31,000 to 21,000, and even those numbers may be inflated by the race to harvest trees before they can be destroyed by the spreading pine beetle infestation.

     The provincial government has assigned a special coroner to deal exclusively with forest industry deaths, and a year-old safety council has assigned an ombudsman to act as a sounding board for workers in this dangerous business. The safety council is also launching certification programs for an industry that has rarely provided formal training.

     But forestry workers will be convinced by results, not government and industry promises. Many compare the situation to the pre-union era, the Dirty Thirties. After the International Woodworkers (who merged into Steel a few years ago) succeeded in organizing the industry in the 1940s, safety conditions gradually improved dramatically. Logging crews worked side by side in the woods, within earshot of their partners. Now, they work with loud whistles pinned to their overalls. When injuries do hit, partners are often so far apart that they cannot call in helicopter assistance within the first critical hour, when chances to avert death are greatest.

     The number of employees represented by a union, and receiving an hourly wage, has declined from 80 per cent of workers in the forests to 20 per cent today. The majority of logging in B.C. forests is now done by one‑man contractors, paid by volume, not salary. Instead of working in one area for many years, building up seniority and security, loggers now go from one short-term contract to another across the province.

     Don Dahr, the forestry compliance officer with WorkSafe BC, the provincial agency that monitors job safety, blames the shift to small-time, money-cutting small contractors for much of the change. "Big companies had the resources to look after safety. Now, you have all these one‑, two‑, three‑man operations, and they don't have the money, time or knowledge to do it right," he recently told the media.

     When Dahr's agency sent all its inspectors into the field last year, they found that "Contractors had safety written into their contracts, but with a lot of them, it wasn't being done at all."

     While the situation has been developing for years, it got worse after 2002, when the  newly-elected Campbell Liberals revised the Forest Act to create a "results‑based" model, spurring the move to contracting out.

     At the same time, a provincial government mediator imposed a labour agreement that eliminated five‑day, 40‑hour work weeks won through bitter labour struggles in the post-war era. Shifts often stretch to 11.5 hours now, and over weekends. Workers are sometimes going around the clock for the first time in over 50 years.

     Some key players in British Columbia still don't get the seriousness of the situation. A recent editorial in the Victoria Times-Colonist stated that "It's going too far to suggest that the forest industry shut down for a day of mourning every time someone dies on the job."

     That suggestion comes from the Steelworkers, who are also calling for more timely investigations of deaths and serious accidents; mandatory coroners inquests; a committee involving management, labour and government working together to ensure regulations are implemented and enforced; and more WCB monitoring and enforcement.

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(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

People's Voice Editorial, June 1-15, 2006

        With each passing week, the scope of the Conservative government's far-right agenda becomes more apparent. In the latest development, Prime Minister Harper is sabotaging 15 years of global efforts to head off catastrophic climate change.

     Representatives of more than 160 countries gathered in Bonn, Germany, for another round of UN‑sponsored talks on global warming in mid-May. According to Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) and other reliable sources, instructions were given to Canadian diplomats to paralyse the process.

     "Canada will not support agreement on language in the work programme that commits developed countries to more stringent targets in the future [after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012],"

according to the telexed instructions from Ottawa, released by FoEI. "Canada does not support a continuation of the status quo beyond 2012, and has no preconceived view on how a new commitment

period might be structured," the instructions said, noting that Canada would "resist any pressure to take on a more stringent target" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

     Stephen Harper was elected by just 36% of Canadians who went to the polls. His minority government has no mandate to reverse crucial policies such as Canada's Kyoto commitment. What he does have is the full backing of the US-controlled energy industry. We've seen what such oil politics means south of the border - rampant imperialist aggression and complete denial of the deepening environmental crisis.

     We cannot afford to watch complacently while this disastrous government hammers Medicare, childcare, labour and equality rights, the environment, and much more. We urge every trade union, every environmental group, every popular movement in Canada to come together to form one powerful campaign against Harper's corporate gang!

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(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

People's Voice Editorial, June 1-15, 2006

     Around the world, support has poured in for the Six Nations at Caledonia. Even the UN has criticized Canada's inaction on the Six Nations land claims and other aspects of the shameful treatment of Aboriginal peoples.

     The Communist Party has expressed 100% support for the Six Nations, calling on federal and provincial governments to negotiate an early and just settlement of all outstanding Aboriginal land claims. CPC members from across southern Ontario have made frequent trips to the blockade to express solidarity. On May 13, the Ontario Committee of the Party delivered $300 in groceries, diapers and baby food to the Six Nations blockade, along with a statement calling on the two levels of government to permanently end construction at Douglas Creek, to protect those occupying the site, and to start negotiating the land claim now. 

     The Ontario Committee CPC has called on the labour and democratic movements to use their muscle to demand an immediate peaceful and negotiated settlement, policing to protect the site from racist and vigilante assaults, and a commitment by the federal government not to inflame the situation and endanger life by using troops.

     "A negotiated political settlement is what is needed now, and decisive steps in this direction are essential from the federal and provincial governments," said an Ontario Committee statement issued on May 23. "Nation to nation negotiations must move to just settlements. Further, an end to violence against the peaceful occupation by Six Nations peoples is vital. The people of Ontario and Canada must defend these rights, and in the process defend their own civil and democratic rights."

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(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

By Sam Hammond

      The Canadian Teachers' Federation, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and the Federation des syndicats de l'enseignement (CSQ) have performed a very important service to the people of Canada and in particular the working class, with their study "Commercialism In Canadian Schools: Who's Calling The Shots?" This 42 page document is a must read for social activists, anti-privatisation campaigners and everyone who cares about democracy and education.

     Most analysts who are not Marxists, even the most enlightened, view our educational system on a classless basis, seeking "universal norms" to explain or justify phenomena. Marxists view the educational system as a product of historical development motivated by the internal contradictions in any social formation, from primitive communal society through the exploiting societies and into modern socialism. In street lingo, the class struggle.

     From this admittedly simplistic launch it is easy to arrive at the point that education has a different meaning and value depending on where you view it from and what your social needs are. That applies to the ruling elite, and to their smaller brown-nosing accomplices. It also applies to the majority of exploited wage earners who must wring concessions while toiling away in plant, office or classroom.

     For the non-exploiting majority - the working class and social strata that merge and float around it - universality has been an essential part of the struggle for education. Any system has little value to a working family without accessibility. To the capitalist class in a capitalist state, education is also viewed through the lens of self‑interest. It is quite logical for them to ask: what does it do for me, my interests, my children and my state?

     Since the two dominant classes in our society have very different needs, the educational system is a mosaic of conflict and sometimes co‑operation. It reflects the unity of the two classes, bound together at the point of production, and their conflict over who will eventually own the means of production and for what purpose.

     Egerton Ryerson, one of the prominent founders of the public school system in Canada, wrote in 1829: "On the importance of education generally we may remark, it is as necessary as the light ‑ it should be as common as water, and as free as air."

     He was expressing the needs of both classes at that time and place. A British colony starting to populate itself with native-born, seeking to create an economic base of manufacture and supply and to hold off the expansion of the young bourgeois republic to the south, needed to devise a system that could provide literate capable labour for the means of production at that time. This was compatible with the needs of the people, many of whom had fought hard for these things in other countries and still nurtured that struggle within themselves.

     In the city of Hamilton, where I grew up, there were very good technical schools and courses, with high levels of applied mathematics, printing trades, architecture and building trades. This was because industry from pre‑war to post-war was hungry for literate workers with the ability to interpret instructions and meet the demands of a looming leap in productive methods. High speed social industrial production was the order of the day. Assembly lines could have no weak links. The educational system was geared for this, and only a very few achieved university level.

     Capitalism has moved on and the scientific and technological revolution is a fact. Modern production has a whole new set of demands for the workers. Post-secondary levels of education are necessary to master the engineering and technical demands of computerized robotics. This ushers in a whole new set of relationships at the point of production: the proletarianization of entire engineering and technical stratas of the population who are now salaried workers in high tech plants. The large groupings of proletarians moving like a co‑ordinated organism have broken up into smaller teams. This process is of course political as well as functional. The working class hasn't reshaped its organization entirely, hasn't re‑tooled politically enough yet to meet these challenges. But we will, just as sure as god made little race horses.

     The authors of this fine report have delved rather thoroughly into the application of the neo‑liberal agenda, which is really a global attack on the working class and their allies, as it applies to education. Accessibility, commercialization, corporate intrusion and privatization are all weapons of mass destruction, viewed from the portal of public working class need. That is because our fight, planted here by immigrants originally, recreated and carried on by generations and fought on our behalf by those who carry the proud title "Teacher," has and will be over accessibility, public non-profit ownership, universality and related directly to quality of life, of access to all human knowledge.

     The ruling classes have always tried to dole out education according to their own needs, sometimes denied it altogether, sometimes used it for reward and compliance. They own the rod and reel, they pay the line out and they reel it in.

     But these things develop a life of their own, and control is only relative, not absolute. The people have the ability to defend and extend what we have won. We need education like we need medicine. It is life. It connects us with our ancestors, it preserves our traditions of struggle, our achievements, it actually defines what and who we are. We must not let it be expropriated, commercialized, consumerized, corporatised and gobbled up. We must fight hammer and tong for accessible public education from primary to the highest university levels. We must fight for our teachers, expand their ranks. Every additional teacher hired is a unit of victory for the working people.

     If the State thinks they have control of the education system, they should think again. The teachers are ours. Members of our labour movement, of our class. The working people will show in time that the ruling elite may have a fish on their line that they can never land. Perhaps they should learn to swim.

     I urge everyone to access this report at http://www.policyalternatives.ca, and to use it in the struggle against privatization and for quality public owned universal education.

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(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

By Johan Boyden

     THE DRIVE TO STOP the P3 privatization plans of Ontario's hospitals took another step forward on May 13th as two more cities voted overwhelmingly to keep their hospitals public.

     Close to 25,000 "yes" votes were cast in Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie demanding a hospital 100% publicly funded, financed, owned, administered and operated. Together with earlier plebiscites in St. Catharines, Woodstock, North Bay and Hamilton, over 80,000 Ontarians have now voted against health care profiteering in the past year.

     The community‑driven plebiscites are coordinated by local health coalitions working with the Ontario Health Coalition. They are the largest community actions since the Harris "Days of Action" in the mid‑90s, where protesters and strikers marched in cities across Ontario.

     Each vote is run out of a small and busy local campaign office. Three or four workers spend over a month finding polling locations, holding media events, and mobilizing hundreds of volunteers - seniors, trade unionists, doctors, nurses, political activists, and concerned patents - for the vote.

     Staffed polling stations are set up at neighbourhood centers, corner stores, and malls, while other volunteers stand on busy streets. Every voter signs a pledge to vote only once, and registers with their name and address. Vote counts are then scrutinized by prominent citizens like doctors, councillors, MPs, and labour leaders.

     The effect of the plebiscites and other actions by the Health Coalition is showing. Through this struggle the scope of the deals is emerging: P3 hospitals will be decades‑long deals which will bust unions, siphon taxes into the hands of corporate shareholders, and fundamentally undermine any steps towards a socialized healthcare system.

     In response to public back‑lash against P3s, the McGuinty Liberals have re‑camouflaged hospital privatization, no longer speaking of P3s (public private partnership) but AFPs (alternative financing and procurement). However, doctors, nurses, trade unionists, international analysts, the Toronto Star editors and even the Canadian Council on P3s have all stated that AFPs are simply a new brand for privatization. As McGuinty claimed he would stop hospital privatization before his election, it is clear his Liberal government has no mandate, and their walk has lost a certain confidence.

     The tremendous success of the coalition plebiscites shows the broad and deep support for public health care, and against health profiteers, among Ontarians.

     "We know of other communities that want to hold plebiscites" said Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health Coalition in a press release. "We will continue holding the McGuinty government's feet to the fire to pressure him to keep his election promise to stop the P3 privatization of our hospitals."

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(The following article is from the June 1-15, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

PV Ontario Bureau

        The Canadian Council of P3 partnerships, the powerful privatization lobby group, should re‑do their website. When People's Voice visited http://www.pppcouncil.ca on May 20, it still flashed a photo of the Central North Correction Center in Penetanguishene, Ontario, and the words "EFFICIENT."

     Not true! Last month the Ontario government pulled the plug on the Penetanguishene P3, the first private jail in Canada. They announced the contract with a Utah‑based company would not be renewed since a similar publicly‑run facility performed better in key areas such as security, health care and reducing re‑offending rates.

     "Our members are dedicated to public services, not making profits for private companies," Ontario Public Service Employees Union President Leah Casselman said. OPSEU, which represents both facility's employees, campaigned for years to repatriated the jail to public hands.

     The victory over this flawed first P3 jail, however, should not lull people into thinking the privatization agenda will just cave in because P3s are day‑light robbery. In fact, recent health care developments threaten grave consequences for working people.

     Until now, the Canada Health Act placed certain limits on privatizers. The biggest sphere of health profiteering is pharmaceuticals, showing the need to nationalize this industry under democratic control. Other profiteering in health care has been mainly restricted to lucrative contracts to build new P3 hospitals, or the contracting‑out of laundry and food services. Tax dollars boost private profits, while the wages of health workers are driven down.

     But with the Supreme Court's Chaoulli decision and the election of the Harper Conservatives, the waters are shifting. The appointment of former Harris Tory health minister Tony Clement (who won his riding by only 28 votes) as federal Health Minister, sent a clear message that the Canada Health Act will not be strengthened or even enforced at this critical moment.

     Provincial governments are also moving further to the right, just when a complete end to P3s and all other forms of privatization and contracting‑out of public services is essential. Instead of new laws stopping a private parallel system, "third way" schemes have been essentially announced in Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia.

     In Ontario, although the "third way" is not openly declared, each month this year has seen growing fights against the privatization agenda pushed by banks, insurance firms and large construction agencies. While Ontario's manufacturing capital prefers the lower costs of Canadian Medicare compared to the US, imperialism has used NAFTA to kick wide open the gates to cheaper, third world production. With mega‑profits in sight, class solidarity is bound to kick in here with assaults on Medicare such as P3s and competitive bidding.

     The first assault came in January and February, when the McGuinty Liberals aggressively pushed through new legislation to create deceptively named "Local Health Integration Networks." These are fourteen massive areas that divide communities (the southeast LHIN cuts into Toronto, starting at Scarborough, and then stretches beyond Peterborough to Haliburton county) governed by crown agencies. The sick and elderly could be expected to travel hundreds of kilometres for care within these LHINs, with no guarantee their costs will be covered.

     The ensuing fightback united several health care unions as CUPE, ONA, OPSEU and SEIU (and some CAW locals) worked in joint action. On Feb. 14, thousands of members picketed over a hundred Ontario hospitals, long‑term care and community‑based social service workplaces demanding "Stop LHINs." While the government's steamroller ultimately gave few concessions, the united actions of these unions was a step forward.

     With LHINS, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care now hold major powers to order restructuring and contracting out. For a start, the LHINS are fundamentally anti‑democratic. Provisions for community control are non‑existent and LHIN boards (made up of political appointments by cabinet) can hold meetings "in camera" at the sole discretion of cabinet.

     The legislation also allows the Cabinet to order wholesale privatization of non‑clinical services, with no protection of public delivery of services. In fact, the Minister can now order public services closed down, but cannot do the same to for‑profits services. Nor is there protection from OHIP cuts, competitive bidding, or corporate influence on LHINs boards and staff. The principles of the Canada Health Act are not included in the legislation.

     Then in late February, another struggle erupted when long‑time editor‑in‑chief John Hoey and deputy editor Anne Marie Todkill of the Canadian Medical Journal were fired by the Canadian Medical Association, which owns the Journal. Hoey had had previous run‑ins with the CMA, but the straw that broke the camel's back was a story initially published online and then removed, with the headline "Two‑tier Tony Clement appointed new minister of health."

     A few weeks after the firings, replacements Stephen Choi and editorial fellow Sally Murray quit. Two doctors also learnt they were not welcome on the new CMJ, including McMaster University's P.J. Devereaux, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics who has written several articles analyzing the higher mortality rates of private hospitals compared to public hospitals. Hoey and Todkill's firings have been condemned by the Lancet, a leading British medical journal, and the two have been awarded the World Press Freedom award from the National Press Club of Canada.

     In March, 80 doctors released an open letter condemning P3s.  "The McGuinty government has gone further than any other government in Canada in privatizing formerly public and non‑profit hospital assets and services through P3s," the doctors wrote, adding that  "Hospital construction and services must be publicly funded and hospitals must remain fully publicly managed and serviced." Another letter was released in May with the signatures of over 800 nurses.

     More recently, in late April, the McGuinty Liberals responded to widespread public pressure and announced $222.5 million for a short list of targeted items to reduce wait times. While welcoming more money, labour and democratic movements sounded the alarm about the price‑based competition or competitive bidding the wait time strategy uses.

     "Hospitals that bid under certain price levels will get the funding for procedures while hospitals that do not bid under this price levels do not," the Ontario Health Coalition stated in response. "As a result, services are removed from local communities and centralized in regional centers. This means patients will pay by having to travel further for services." The Coalition predicts that administrative costs will rise dramatically, as they have with similar funding policies in the UK.

     In the midst of all this, the Ontario Federation of Labour is planning a large protest on June 3 in Queens Park against P3 privatization. While the rally is welcome, the larger action plan by the OFL (whose leadership toured Britain researching P3s a few years back) against privatization isn't very clear. Is there a strategy? Or are Wayne Samuelson, Irene Harris and other leadership just letting off a bit of steam, hoping to keep the powder dry before the upcoming provincial election in 2007?

     Certainly the battle for Medicare is far from over, and the time for a strategy to block the corporate offensive is essential. The Communist Party urges all Canadians to stand up for our rights and force governments to preserve and improve the public health care system!

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THE NARROW APPROVAL of the Harper government's motion to extend Canada's military mission in Afghanistan will not forestall growing public opposition to the war, the Communist Party declared in a statement released by its Central Executive following the May 17 Parliamentary vote.

     "The Conservatives know full well that public opinion is swinging rapidly against this aggressive mission. If Prime Minister Harper and his government think this cynical and undemocratic manoeuvre - forcing a snap Commons debate on 36‑hours notice - will silence the growing anti‑war sentiments of the Canadian people, they are deluding themselves."

     The Communist Party has consistently opposed the unjust war and subsequent occupation of Afghanistan ever since the U.S.‑led aggression was launched in October 2001.

     "This war has nothing to do with rendering `humanitarian relief' or defending `freedom and democracy' in Afghanistan," said the statement. "In fact, Canada is propping up a corrupt and illegitimate regime of warlords and heroin traffickers. What's more, this `mission' is helping to carry out Washington's dirty work in the entire region, freeing up U.S. forces for its continued bloody occupation in Iraq.

     "The Bush Administration is now preparing to launch aggression against Iran - a country sharing a lengthy border with Afghanistan - raising the real possibility that Canada will be drawn into a fresh round of aggression and war.

     "Mr. Harper and the Conservative Party want to drag our country into even closer collusion with U.S. imperialism's drive for economic and strategic domination around the world, under the hypocritical pretext of `fighting terrorism.' That's why they are in such a hurry to extend the `mission' in Afghanistan, to substantially increase military spending, to redraft the NORAD treaty, and to reverse Canada's non‑participation in missile defence.

     "But the vast majority of the Canadian people reject this increasingly aggressive, militarist shift in Canada's foreign policy, and they will have the final word, notwithstanding Harper's pyrrhic victory.

     "The Communist Party urges all peace‑loving Canadians to continue speak out and organize against the war in Afghanistan, and to intensify pressure on all parties in Parliament to immediately end this aggressive `mission' and bring Canadian troops back home."

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By B. Prasant, PV Correspondent in India

     The colour is Red. 

     For the seventh time in succession, the people of Bengal have ushered in the Left Front, and with a massive electoral mandate.  The Left Front has won 235 seats of the 293 seats in the fray, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) which won 176 seats. The CPI(M)'s other Left Front partners won a total of 59 seats, including 23 for the Forward Block, 20 for the RSP, and 8 for the Communist Party of India.

     The Bengal opposition was left far behind, floundering in the wake of the popular win. Despite the media‑hype about a "silent revolution" wrecking the chances of a return to office of the Left Front, the Trinamul Congress could only win 29 seats, less than half its total in the 2001 Assembly polls. The Pradesh Congress fared little better with 21, down from 26 in 2001.

     The 2006 assembly elections were held in novel circumstances, marked by voting carried out in five phases, a massive deployment of 60,000 paramilitary forces and 264 Observers, a ban imposed on all sorts of election campaigning including graffiti, the deletion of millions of genuine voters on supposed grounds of their being "dead," moved or other reasons. Despite these maneuvers by the Election Commission and provocations by the opposition, the polling itself was free, fair, and peaceful as it always has been under the Left Front governance. The results show that the CPI(M) and the Left Front are winning ever greater confidence of the people of Bengal.

     Addressing crowded media conferences at the Muzaffar Ahmad Bhavan, Bengal Left Front chairman and secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M), Bima Basu said that it went to the credit of the democratic, conscious, and patriotic people of Bengal in making the polls free, fair, and peaceful. 

     Critical of the role of the Election Commission, Biman Basu said that a small segment of the EC officials including some observers were not familiar with the ambience of peace and fairness evolving in Bengal and had behaved in a manner that smacked of rank inexperience.

     Biman Basu was also critical of also of a segment of the central paramilitary forces deployed whose behaviour occasionally crossed decency and propriety. He pointed out that many central paramilitary personnel expressed surprise at the peaceful ambience prevailing in Bengal, and confessed that they had been fed different ideas about the conduct of elections being a daunting task in the "difficult province of Bengal."

     Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee also congratulated the people of Bengal for the splendid victory of the Left Front, and said the win "has further increased the responsibility of the Left Front government towards implementing programmes of development."

     Socialism was historically inevitable, said Buddhadeb, pointing out that developmental thrusts organised by the Left Front government needed investments. Noting that the Left Front government never ceased in its strident opposition to liberalisation, Buddhadeb said that new ideas, pro‑people, pro‑poor, and pro‑development, were a welcome addition to the outlook of the Left Front governance.

     In the days ahead, said Buddadeb, the seventh Left Front government would consolidate the gain made by Bengal in agriculture, and further accelerate the pace of industrial development.

RCMP backs murderous Haitian police force

By Tim Pelzer

        SINCE THE US/Canadian/French-backed overthrow of elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide on Feb. 29, 2004, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have been training and supervising police in Haiti who are killing residents in poor neighbourhoods.

     Two different RCMP officers have been in charge of the United Nations Police Mission (UNPOL): David Beer, who came to Haiti directly from Iraq in May 2004, where he was teaching counter-insurgency tactics, and Graham Muir, who replaced Beer in mid‑2005.

     Today, Muir commands a 1,600‑strong UNPOL contingent that includes 100 RCMP and Quebec Provincial Police officers, under the mandate of the Brazilian led‑UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), which is responsible for training and overseeing the Haitian National Police (HNP). As UNPOL Commissioner, Muir takes part in all high‑level planning and strategy meetings, be they military or policing.

     Canada is also involved in other ways with the HNP. The Canadian International Development Agency hired retired Montreal Police Chief Claude Rochon to work closely with the HNP high command to create a new "strategic framework" for policing in Haiti.  

     According to a University of Miami Law school report, Haiti: Human rights Investigation, released in 2005, the HNP has degenerated into a murderous force under the RCMP‑led UNPOL. Arbitrary arrests and extra‑judicial murder of suspects and witnesses are routine Haitian police practices, states the report's author, human rights attorney Thomas Griffin.

     Griffin and other University of Miami Law school investigators spoke with HNP officers who agreed to be interviewed only on conditions of anonymity because they feared reprisals from fellow police. These unidentified officers were frustrated and angry because since the overthrow of Aristide, honest, well trained officers are passed over for promotion. Only former soldiers without police training have been promoted to high command positions. In turn, these officers only promote other former soldiers.

     Now, former soldiers occupy most municipal police chief positions, reports Griffin. Officers expressed frustration working with ex‑soldiers because of their lack of police knowledge and skills. The Haitian police officers also complained that their commanders are often corrupt.

     Aristide's government disbanded the Haitian military in 1995 because of its brutal history of killing, torture, extortion and coups. Many of Haiti's military officers graduated from the Georgia-based School of the Americas (renamed in 2001 as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), where the US military trained many of Latin America's most notorious human rights abusers.

     During HNP operations in poor neighbourhoods, unidentified officers told investigators, their superiors order the killing of suspects as well as witnesses. Former Police Chief Leon Charles ordered officers to suppress opposition demonstrations, states Griffin.

     "One officer stated that many good officers (defined by the officers interviewed as those who refuse bribes, are well trained, love their work and country, and refuse orders to commit summary executions) would like to speak out but cannot out of fear for their jobs and their lives," writes Griffin.

     Reports from the International Catholic Institute (ICI) and Amnesty International support the Miami Law school's report. According to the ICI, "many of the 5,000 strong [HNP] force have links to the previous military or have been involved in drug rackets, kidnappings, extra‑judicial killings or other illegal activities." An Amnesty press release says "there are serious problems with the ... functioning of the police," and accuses HNP officers not only of summary executions, but also illegal and arbitrary arrests, torture and rape.

     Even MINUSTAH head Juan Gabriel Valdes stated at a UN Security Council Meeting in March that newly elected President Rene Preval will not be able to make any changes in Haiti until, among other things, the HNP is reformed. He said many police officers have committed grave human rights violations.

     However, critics charge that MINUSTAH, whose military forces accompany the HNP during raids into poor neighbourhoods, shares responsibility for the HNP's abuses. Doctors Without Borders, the Haiti Information Project News Agency, and numerous independent journalists have also reported that independent MINUSTAH operations in poor neighbourhoods have resulted in dozens of civilian deaths.

     Last November 15, human rights groups in Washington, DC, filed two petitions with the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights seeking legal redress from the US and Brazilian governments for human rights violations. While the HNP is responsible for killing thousands of innocent civilians, argue the groups, they would not have been able to undertake these killings without arms supplied by the US and the assistance of Brazilian led‑MINUSTAH.

     UNPOL head Muir stated in an interview on September 27, 2005 that "rogue elements within the HNP" are responsible for murder and other human rights violations. He said that UNPOL is trying to weed out these "rogue elements."

     Brian Concannon Jr. of the Oregon-based Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti said that Muir is only partially right, and contends that MINUSTAH and the RCMP‑led UNPOL share responsibility for the murderous direction that the HNP has taken.

     "Some of the killings are done by rogue elements of the Haitian police," stated Concannon. "But many of these rogue elements were intentionally integrated into the force, without public objection from MINUSTAH or UNPOL. Starting in 2004, General Herard Abraham (former minister of the interior and retired head of the Haitian armed forces) started integrating former soldiers into the force, bypassing the regulations for police recruitment and promotion. These new officers were not loyal to the police hierarchy and system, because that is not how they got their posts. They were disproportionately involved in the killings. MINUSTAH and UNPOL did not object to this practice.

     "Also, MINUSTAH and UNPOL share some of the blame because they failed to live up to their own Security Council mandate to protect civilians from imminent harm. Several times MINUSTAH, including UNPOL officers, watched as the HNP shot into peaceful demonstrations. MINUSTAH provided backup to deadly HNP operations."

     Concannon said that MINUSTAH has also carried out several massacres. The most recent occurred on July 6, 2005, when UN troops entered the poor Cite Soleil neighbourhood and indiscriminately sprayed houses with gunfire, killing and wounding many men, women and children.

     Anthony Fenton, co‑author of Waging War on the Poor Majority: Canada in Haiti, said that, "by shifting blame onto `rogue elements' within the HNP, Muir attempts to deflect the mounting documentation of direct involvement or complicity of the UN military and police in countless atrocities. It is far easier to perpetuate racist stereotypes of Haitians as inherently violence prone than to be held accountable for helping to oversee a continuous campaign of repression which began with the arrival of foreign occupiers after the February 29, 2004 coup d'etat."

     Fenton noted that "Muir neglects to mention that the HNP recruits, who are being trained and supplied with arms by the US, are not being vetted ‑ as per the supposed UN mandate ‑ for human rights abuses. Given Muir and the Canadian government's obvious desire to deny accountability for their actions, we have to ask ourselves who the real `rogue elements' are in Haiti."

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(The following article is from the June 1-15,2006 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)


StopWar coalition meeting - Wed., June 14 & 21, 5:30 pm, Maritime Labour Centre, 111 Victoria Ave. See http://www.stopwar.ca for info.

Left Film Night - 7 pm, Sunday, May 28, at the Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive. "The Waiting List" (Cuba) and "Social Genocide" (Argentina). Free admission, donations welcome, co-sponsored by Vancouver East Club CPC, YCL, and Centre for Socialist Education, call 604-255-2041 for details.

14th Annual PV Victory Banquet - Sat., June 3, doors open 6 pm, dinner at 7, Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave. Guest speaker: PV Business Manager Sam Hammond. Tickets $18 ($8 low-income), call 604-255-2041 or from PV Editorial Office, 706 Clark Drive.

Quebec Today - forum with Montreal human rights lawyer and political activist Bill Sloan, 7 pm, Sunday, June 18, Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive, call 604-254-9836 for details.

Anti-Imperialism and Peace - Seminar with Canadian and international speakers in conjunction with World Peace Forum, 10am-5pm, Sunday June 25, Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive, call 604-254-9836 for details.
Full info on Forum at http://www.worldpeaceforum.ca


NO to P3s - rally at Queen's Park, Sat., June 3, against P3s and privatisation of public services, organized by Ontario Federation of labour. Ontario Health Coalition members will gather at southern part of the circle in front of Queen's Park at 12:30 pm.

PV Theatre night Fundraiser - "Cringeworthy", by Planet 88 in association with Theatre Passe Muraille, Wed., June 7, at Theatre Passe Muraille, Wed., June 7, at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave. (runs north from Queen St. one block east of Bathurst). Tickets $25, must be purchased in advance. Performance 8 pm sharp, arrive by 7:30 to pick up tickets from People's Voice rep. Contact Dave at 416-535-6586 or leapfwd@sympatico.ca to order tickets.

Latin Jazz, benefit in support of the Cuban Five - with the Wally Brooker Quartet, 7:30 pm, Monday, June 19, Lula Lounge, 1585 Dundas Street West (1.5 blocks west of Dufferin). Door collection for the Freedom Fund: $10. For best seating make dinner reservations at 416-588-0307. Sponsored by Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association Toronto, 416-410-8254, info@ccfatoronto.ca.

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  (The following article is from the June 1-15,2006 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

With a recent generous donation from a long-time reader in Halifax, our supporters on the East Coast become the first area to go over the top in the 2006 People's Voice Fund Drive. The Atlantic provinces have now raised $1250, or 104.2% of their target. Congratulations and many thanks! 

With about $6000 raised since our previous issue, we now stand at $33,402, or 66.8% of our $50,000 goal. Saskatchewan is in second place at 80.6%, and Ontario has made good progress to move into third, with 71.2%. Several other provinces are neck-and-neck not far behind.

In Toronto, part of the price of tickets sold to PV readers for a June 7 performance of "Cringeworthy," by Planet 88 in association with Theatre Passe Muraille, will go towards the Fund Drive. For details, call Dave at 416-535-6586.

Che's birthday will be celebrated again this year by our Hamilton area supporters. This year's PV Solidarity Festival and Dance takes place starting 7 pm, Saturday, June 17, at St. Stephen's Church Hall in Hamilton, 625 Concession St. See the ad on page 12 for complete information.

In Vancouver, Saturday, June 3, is the 14th Annual PV Victory Banquet, at the Russian Hall (600 Campbell Ave.). Doors open at 6 pm, with dinner at 7, followed by special guest speaker Sam Hammond, our Business and Circulation Manager. Tickets are $18, or low-income $8, available from the PV Editorial Office (706 Clark Drive, 604-255-2041) and press clubs in the Lower Mainland.

Also coming up in early July is the annual Lower Fraser Club Walk-A-Thon, which always raises in the range of $2,000 for People's Voice in the Surrey area. Watch for details in our next issue.