Georgetti says, "We just have to keep winning" (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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, Chair of the Central Labour Commission, Communist Party of Canada THE 24th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress, held June 13-17 in Montreal, is now history. The convention kits, resolution books, policy papers and all the rah-rah material is filed somewhere, and the delegates are home and toiling away as they were previously.      The universe is still the same and Canada is much the same, but not entirely. Labour is not the same. There were two distinctly new and different phenomena that will be debated until the next convention. First is the challenge posed by Carol Wall to the incumbent presidency of Ken Georgetti. Second, and at least equally important, was the first-time invitation to a parliamentary party leader other than the NDP to address the convention. That leader was Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois.      Monday June 13: the Convention opens with the traditional welcome by Georgetti, with special emphasis on the fact that it was being held in Quebec, the most organized jurisdiction (percentage-wise) in the G8 countries. He spoke of the historic Wal‑Mart breakthrough in Quebec and the joint organizing efforts of the CLC-QFL in putting organizers in the field to assist the UFCW. He praised his "leadership team" and managed to speak for the ghosts of late CLC presidents Claude Jodoin and Dennis McDermott, who transmitted their praise for the current leadership through their medium on earth... Ken Georgetti.      Brother Georgetti pointed out some important information that might not have been well known prior. The CLC, he said, is at the forefront of every struggle that affects working people, its impact is felt everywhere - especially in parliament - and it has been responsible for promoting ground‑breaking legislation on pensions and worker bankruptcy protection in parliament.      According to Georgetti, the CLC now represents 3 million affiliated workers who reflect the Canadian workforce. This positive and refreshing info puts an end once and for all to the weak drivel of Statistics Canada on dropping percentages and shrinking sector density. How could we ever have believed that propaganda? Backed up by his own data (and by Jodoin and McDermott), Georgetti stated in no uncertain terms that our main job was to "just keep winning."      Next, Henri Masse, president of the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ) welcomed delegates to Quebec and also referred to the highest percentage of organization in North America. Then the president of the Montreal Labour Council, Michel Taylor, supplied good information on the grassroots activities of the council.      Maude Barlow made a hard hitting speech on globalization, Canadian sovereignty and the need for massive mobilization to fight back and defeat the corporate global agenda of war and exploitation. Every word in every sentence was important, dynamic and feisty. Her speech was the most militant of the convention and her appeal to labour was right on the mark. Too bad she wasn't running for one of the top positions.      The next day, Jack Layton was introduced by a lot of music and video glitz to a standing response. Layton delivered a pretty good speech, on outsourcing of jobs, training, privatization, pensions, child poverty, EI reform and of course his "better balanced budget" that the NDP wrung out of the Liberals to keep parliament afloat. Criticizing parliament's low level of debate, he struck hard at Liberal ministers for shipping jobs to China, favouring "deep integration" with the US, ignoring chronic unemployment, and allowing privatization of health care.      Layton made a strong pitch to elect more NDP MPs, without referring, even once, to labour's fight-back outside Parliament or what working people should do between elections. Surprisingly, in full knowledge that Gilles Duceppe would speak the next day, Layton did not mention the Bloc or its role in parliament, its position on medicare, Star Wars, etc. Nor did he speak at all on the unity of Canadian workers in the struggle for peace and progress.      Not so Gilles Duceppe. After an enthusiastic introduction where Ken Georgetti asserted that "we have to face the fact that there are now two social democratic parties in parliament", and "there is another ally for labour in parliament", and also "Duceppe is one of us", the Bloc leader went full steam on his favourite subject matter - Quebec independence and the sins of the Liberal party. Woven through his speech were several themes: Quebec must become a country, the Bloc will get massive support, the Liberals must be punished. His pitch to labour went: the Bloc will never drop the ball on EI reforms, we support anti‑scab legislation and pension security, we will resist the court decisions on two‑tier health care.      Duceppe rolled out his theory that a new progressive country in the Americas will protect its workers, and this will be better for all workers in Canada and Quebec. He then turned his sights on Jack Layton. He claimed the NDP was in support of a government headed by two billionaires, and that the NDP budget concessions wrung from the Liberals meant nothing to Quebec, which already has a child care program. Layton was tied to a vision of a centralized Canada which put it against Quebec, he said, while the Bloc represents the interests of workers and Quebec.      Then Duceppe went on to lecture briefly about globalization. "Globalization is not our enemy... it is not bad for working people... we must learn how to use it and not leave it in the hands of capitalists." He received a standing hand from about twenty percent of the delegates, and Georgetti quickly cut off the mike for the first dissenting speaker. I would suggest this phenomenon should be thought out very carefully by the labour left. There are very serious forces at work here that require serious level-headed analyses.      The campaign of Carol Wall for the presidency was a breath of fresh air and revealed a serious ripple of discontent among the rank and file delegates. Wall managed to speak to most of the caucuses and was well received. Her material and her buttons were everywhere. The Action Caucus gave her 100% support, and Action Caucus members devoted most of their efforts to assisting her campaign.      The leadership of the Steelworkers and the CAW were marked by their undemocratic refusal to allow Wall to address their caucuses. I don't know if this was motivated by contempt or fear, but it is very apparent that they regard their delegates as property that may only have access to information of leadership's choosing. This should be a warning to rank and file members, especially CAW members who used to be identified with democracy in the labour movement.      Of there 1740 ballots cast in the Thursday morning election, 14 were spoiled, Carol Wall received 643 votes (37.3%), and Ken Georgetti won with 1084 votes. This was a significant success for Wall, who must have carried several caucuses against the leadership recommendations. She delivered a result that should make Georgetti and the labour brass blink if they remember to think.      If Wall could have gained 200 more votes away from Georgetti, there would have been a more or less even split. Two hundred can happen very fast, especially during a big crisis, which is possible anytime in the highly charged environment of class conflict. Carol Wall and her supporters should be proud that they achieved such results and denied a unanimous mandate to corporate Georgetti.      At the last convention, Hassan Yussuff (Secretary-Treasurer) and Executive Vice-Presidents Barb Byers and Marie Clarke Walker touted themselves as progressives and independents. This time they were recruited to the "Georgetti team", campaigned as such, slid nicely into the labour establishment and gained their re‑elections by acclamation.      This convention ended with more questions than answers. Stay tuned. (Back) (Home) Labour youth inspired by Wall campaign (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 QUESTION OF YOUTH was one of the many challenges faced by the 24th Canadian Labour Congress Convention this June in Montreal. The theme of the convention was "Labour makes a difference." The question of youth is, partly: will labour continue to make a difference ten years down the road?      After talking to many delegates, it appears more and more people, including young workers, are giving a big "yes, but" to answer that question. Yes, labour can and must continue to make a difference, but only with a different kind of CLC, one that is more militant, grass‑roots and activist, living up to the title "labour movement."      When I got to the CLC convention, the thing that struck me as a youth and first‑time observer was the scope of what workers wanted to discuss. Human rights issues, like the Maher Arar case. Workplace safety. Racism. Resolutions on Palestine and Haiti. AIDS. Kyoto. Sweatshops. Killer Coke and Colombia. Queer workers. Women's issues. Medicare. Unemployment. Youth.      That last topic caught my eye. Youth make up one of the most progressive forces in Canadian society. Again and again, it is young people who demand change. Again and again, our energy and bravery help make history.      But it is not an age group which has the power to make the sharp break with corporate rule. The move towards freedom needs a class - the working class, which does have the team strength, numbers and motive to get the job done. The CLC is the leadership of unionized workers, the most organized part of the working people. Looking at the convention agenda, I saw 100 good reasons for youth to unite with labour.      Getting youth involved in the labour movement appears to be a big concern of older workers. But what the trade union foot soldiers on the shop floor see as the right direction hasn't seemed to always translate into the steps leadership is taking.      Case in point. The last CLC Convention in 2002 passed a resolution to set aside youth‑only delegates. Now unions affiliated to the CLC can fill some credentials specifically with "young people" (age defined by the affiliate, but 25 is the age limit for positions like the youth vice‑president who sits on the CLC executive).      The results seem mixed, based on the attendance at the Tuesday evening public youth caucus, packed into a small room with about 50 people. Not all unions apparently made their youth quotas. Other unions must have scrambled to find youth. For example, some delegates were paid staff. Several identified more with the student movement because their employers were universities or colleges.      Most of the UFCW's sizable number of youth delegates were part of a "youth internship programme." Each week of the internship had a theme - this week was the CLC. A few weeks before was a stint at the National Office. Next week they will help in an organizing drive. Many did not seem to have much experience with an organized workplace and came across as bored (hard to blame them, given the orchestrated appearance of proceedings). Some were like students on a mandatory school trip.      So how seriously the CLC and affiliate unions are taking youth is questionable. A good indication of the "token" position of youth is that the convention staff told the Tuesday night youth caucus that they would not provide translators for the youth position elections on Wednesday morning.      On the other hand, I met youth delegates who were new shop stewards and clearly felt tasked with the honour of representation. In one debate about the lack of translation on Wednesday, a brother from the CAW spoke in a nervous but serious voice about solidarity, "the foundation of the labour movement." A sister from CUPE stressed the need for more action from labour youth and called for an organized boycott of the next day's vote.      One debate in the closed caucus was the issue of expanding the age limit of youth past 25. While not a bad idea, it must be coupled with other significant changes like combating business unionism - something that really turns youth off labour and hurts everyone.      Increasing youth involvement was also discussed at the open session. The shining example was Quebec. Here, the FTQ actually hired a full‑time staffer to do youth work, rather than leaving it up to individual unions. That staffer built youth committees not only on the FTQ level, but also with member unions. Having a youth committee is now an expected part of affiliation. The important task, the speaker said, is making the union appear to be something worth participating in by showing that it is fighting for you. Most young workers already support unions, he added, because they would prefer union jobs.      Both the open and closed sessions were noticeable for the number of Carol Wall buttons. Even some UFCW delegates wore them. Many youth were inspired by Wall's courage to challenge Ken Georgetti despite the odds. The lesson here is that the objective conditions of capitalism in its imperialist form create Georgetti-style business unionists. But those very same conditions create resistance and activists like Carol Wall. Things just don't stay the same.      Wall spoke about how "Rhetoric needs to be matched with action," and how youth have a role to play in that activism. But even Georgetti got in on the youth question. In his main address (available on the internet) he spoke for 15 seconds about youth: "These women and men, you know, are the future of our movement, and from what I'm seeing tomorrow's labour movement is going to be in good hands."      If the Wall buttons at the youth meetings are anything to go by, that future labour movement may not be in the hands Ken Georgetti has in mind. (Back) (Home) Telus union starts "Super Service" campaign (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 AFTER FOUR frustrating years of stalled negotiations, the union representing Telus workers has launched a work-to-rule campaign, combined with providing "super service" to customers.      As Telecommunications Workers Union president Bruce Bell said on June 20, despite the safety-first creed adopted by the company and the TWU, "the company is constantly pressuring our people. This sometimes results in members taking shortcuts that result in serious injury. Therefore, effective immediately, we are instructing our members to ensure they obey all safety regulations.      "This means that installation and repair people must ensure that vehicle inspections are up to date; that fluid levels and tire pressure are correct; that lights and safety equipment is in working order; that traffic control, cones and chocks are properly deployed; that their work site is hazard free; that supervisors are using the Global Positioning System properly to monitor their movements; and that they take the safest, not the fastest, route to their next job and that they obey all traffic laws," he emphasized.      "In addition, all employees must be sure that they take the work breaks they are entitled to at the time they are entitled to take them; that they take the e‑learning courses they have been assigned to on company time; that their work stations are set up to accommodate their physical needs; and that they take the necessary time to read and fully understand all company bulletins and emails and respond to them as necessary."      Bell noted the "huge gap" between the company's claim that its customers are its most important asset, and the reality on the ground. He slammed Telus for its "continuing abuse of statistics and its efforts to speed up the pace of work," which is causing stress in the workplace and negatively impacting customer service. Therefore, TWU members will "go the extra mile to provide super service and make sure that customers are happy. This means taking the necessary time to explain service options and doing what is necessary to provide them... Then, if they are handing off the customer to an employee in another department, we are asking our people to stay on line to ensure the customer gets through and is not inadvertently disconnected."      On June 14, Telus released further changes to its "final offer," which Bell called "an insult to all members of the TWU, especially those in predominately female job classifications."      The offer includes an additional $8000 in signing bonuses for about 1500 predominantly male craft employees in Alberta and an additional percentage increase to most craft employees in B.C. and Alberta, but no comparable increase for members in predominantly female classifications.      "The fact is that under the Telus offer, wage parity for clerical and operator service employees would not become a reality until the final months of their offer," said Bell, who chairs the TWU bargaining committee. "Telus is trying to drive a wedge between different groups of our members by offering bribes to some of them. Apparently the company hopes this approach will generate pressure to accept its substandard, ever‑changing contract offer.      "This is just latest in a series of attacks that employees have suffered. With the closing of operator and business offices during Telus' slash‑and‑burn downsizing campaign, female employment at Telus outside of major centres was decimated. Employees in those centres were forced to relocate or resign. This latest move shows they're still at it," Bell insisted.      "This is reminiscent of what happened at Bell Canada," he maintained. "In that contract dispute, the company offered money to craft employees and forced a vote on the contract three times. Each time it was rejected by the membership. So the company kept tweaking their offer until it was finally accepted on the fourth attempt. Then, after the agreement was signed, Bell sold off its operator service division and outsourced the operators' jobs. Not long after that they outsourced the craft work to Entourage and others," Bell related. "Are there parallels here? Yes. The man who was Bell Canada's chief negotiator in that round of negotiations is the person Telus hired to head up its team in negotiations with the TWU."      The company's sexist bargaining position is far from coincidental, judging by information received recently at the People's Voice Vancouver office. A package dropped off anonymously includes a DVD showing "highlights" of a lavish, three-day all expenses paid trip to Montreal for the entire Telus sales team in January 2003. This "team-building event" included a "Telus Idol"-type competition, during which company executives repeatedly made off-colour, sexist comments to female performers.      More recently, according to this inside information, 100 salespeople and directors from across Canada and their partners were treated to a one-week all expenses paid vacation in Paris, complete with a Moulin Rouge performance and an Orient Express trip to the Champagne region.      "Now some folks will say," comments our anonymous informant, "it's the company's purview to spend what they like on spoiling themselves. After all Telus is enjoying remarkable profits and some perks should be expected. Others would say that while the CEOs and VPs make millions more than their predecessors did, Telus is floundering in terms of customer service... What to the employees say? Well they say that they have been without a contract for four-and-a-half years and without a raise for even longer."      The package goes on to detail other problems: the closure of Telus offices in many communities, a wide range of service cuts, constant monitoring and spying on employees, and much more. (Back) (Home) CPC leadership launches Medicare campaign (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) Special to PV  THE RECENT Supreme Court decision opening the door to a major expansion of private health care should be strongly opposed by the labour movement and its allies, said the Central Committee of the Communist Party at a June 18-19 meeting in Toronto.      The CC adopted a wide-ranging policy resolution on the struggle to defend Medicare (see page 6). The statement urges the Canadian Labour Congress to convene a broad emergency conference of all democratic forces which oppose the shift towards a two-tier system. A special campaign on this issue will be launched later this summer, including distribution of Communist Party materials, an appeal to Labour Councils to take action, and stronger participation in existing broad-based coalitions which have played a key role in resisting privatisation and contracting out in the health sector.      Coming immediately after the CLC congress in Montreal, the meeting also discussed important developments in the labour movement, and ways to increase the presence and participation of Communists within the working class.      Sam Hammond, the chair of the CPC's Central Labour Commission, gave a report on the CLC, where the vote for Carol Wall (37.3%) reflected a strong level of dissatisfaction among trade unionists with the weak performance of the CLC Executive, and in particular with President Ken Georgetti. Wall announced her candidacy at an event organized by the left-wing Action Caucus in early May, leaving her supporters just six weeks to mount a campaign. The very positive response, said Hammond, showed that large numbers of trade unionists are seeking a more militant fightback strategy.      Reports by other labour activists on the Central Committee, including delegates and other participants in the CLC Convention, indicated a growing interest in the positions advanced by the Communist Party in the organized labour movement. About one thousand copies of the Party's new Labour Program, "A New World Will Be Born," published in both French and English, was distributed at the convention. The CPC was the only organization which campaigned before and during the CLC for labour to mount a serious defence of Quebec's right to self-determination.      Another area where Communists are playing a more visible political role is the youth movement. Well over 100 youth from across Canada will head to Venezuela this summer for the World Festival of Youth and Students, the CC meeting heard. A report on Festival preparations was given by Pablo Vivanco, who has played a major part in promoting the event among Canadian youth since it was announced a year ago, and Ontario Young Communist League organizer Johan Boyden. The CC passed a motion urging all party organizations to assist with fundraising and other work to send a broad delegation to Venezuela, including a large number of YCL members.      Manitoba Communist leader Darrell Rankin gave an update on recent developments in the legal struggle to amend Canada's undemocratic federal election laws. As the Globe and Mail reported on June 17, the CPC is one of seven parties challenging the "2% law," which annually provides larger political parties with $1.75 for every vote they received in the most recent federal election. Only parties which received a minimum of 2% of the total vote receive this money from taxpayers. This provision violates the spirit of the 2003 ruling on the Communist Party's challenge to the Election Act, in which the Supreme Court stated that legislation which provides benefits only to larger parties must be scrutinized closely.      With the annual season of events organized by the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities about to begin, the CC adopted a special resolution titled "Celebrate LGBT Pride, Demand Full Equality!". The statement will be distributed at pride parades and other events this summer.      The CC also discussed important organizational matters, including recent problems in the Parti communiste du Québec, the Québec section of the CPC. The meeting confirmed the disciplinary actions taken by the CEC in late April against a factional group which had tried to impose a right-opportunist, nationalist political line on the PCQ, and which had illegally expelled a number of leading members in the process. The factional group, headed by former PCQ leader André Parizeau, has announced that they will soon formalize their departure from the CPC. Meanwhile, the PCQ has resumed its activities and is rebuilding with solidarity from the party's central leadership.      This struggle, said CPC leader Miguel Figueroa, proves the need for stronger efforts to ensure the political unity of the CPC around its Marxist-Leninist ideology and the policies laid out in its program. A report from the Central Executive Committee, presented by Figueroa, noted that frustration and impatience arising from the difficult conditions faced by the communist movement provide "fertile soil for the growth of both opportunist and sectarian tendencies." The CC endorsed proposals for improved educational work around these issues, and other actions to help unite the party. (Back) (Home) Emergency: Defend Medicare Now! (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) Resolution on the defence of Medicare, adopted by the Central Committee CPC, June 18‑19, 2005 THE JUNE 9 Supreme Court decision to strike down a Quebec law banning private insurance for services covered under Medicare threatens grave consequences for working people in Canada. The Chaoulli case ruling runs counter to the strong support of Canadians for single-tier health care, with service based on need rather than ability to pay.      Unless a powerful mass campaign is launched to protect Medicare, the shift to a "two‑tier" system will gain increasing momentum. We urge the Canadian Labour Congress to take the initiative for such a campaign, by convening a broad emergency meeting of all democratic movements which oppose the attack on Medicare. Since the Chaoulli ruling was based on the concept that the Charter of Rights guarantees access to prompt medical treatment, the "notwithstanding clause" should be used to overturn this ruling, and governments must be compelled to ensure prompt medical treatment for all Canadians.      It is not "fear‑mongering" to warn that a shift to two-tier health care will impact millions of people. Private health care will inevitably draw many of Canada's talented doctors and health care workers into the private sector. The result will be better service for the wealthy minority, while working people and the poor are left with an understaffed, underfunded and overcrowded system. In fact, right-wing governments have deliberately created a health care crisis to lay the groundwork for "reforms" which will actually dismantle the system.      The Supreme Court decision is just the latest and most dangerous episode in the struggle over health care. Before Medicare, one person's suffering was another's profit. As Frederick Engels stated 160 years ago, capitalist society commits "social murder," by placing workers "under conditions in which they can neither retain health nor live long." This was absolutely true for decades in Canada, where health care was a commodity, bought and sold in the market, leading to campaigns for universal health care by Dr. Norman Bethune and Tommy Douglas. It took the "Battle of Saskatchewan" in the summer of 1962 to achieve Medicare in that province. This victory was soon extended to the rest of Canada, thanks largely to political actions by the labour movement and its allies, thus narrowing the health market for wealthy physicians, the insurance companies, and the pharmaceutical industry.      Today, Medicare is under fire from many sides. Insured services such as chiropractors and opticians are being delisted and for‑profit clinics and hospitals are springing up across the country. Some funding has recently been put back into health care, but the federal and provincial governments cut $250 billion in health spending over the period of 1996‑2003, while waiting lists grow longer and shortages of physicians and nurses persisted. The federal government blames the provinces for this situation, but refuses to use its powers to punish provinces which allow the rapid expansion of the private system.      The ideological battle against Medicare is led by corporate think tanks such as the C.D. Howe Institute, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, and the Fraser Institute, which advocates a system in which public medical insurance would cover only catastrophic illnesses. Behind their arguments is the view that all egalitarian ideas and policies must be eliminated, to allow the widest possible sphere of profit‑making economic activities. The same business forces which fought tooth and nail against Medicare forty years ago are on the offensive again, and the so‑called "free trade" agreements are being used as a tool to force governments and courts to remove barriers to this process.      The arguments in favour of privatizing health care are based largely on the concept of "individual freedom" to spend money on surgery, just like a new home or vehicle, or a trip to Disneyland. But freedom is not simply an abstract notion. The reality is that allowing the wealthy minority to purchase tickets to the front of the line has a negative impact on the health care of millions of other Canadians. In other words, more "freedom" for a few means depriving the majority of our Charter rights.      This drastic policy change mirrors the economic and social agenda being imposed by neoliberal governments in virtually every capitalist country. Working people and their families around the world are increasingly unable to afford access to medical care. The people of Africa are suffering a massive HIV/AIDS crisis, even while transnational corporations reap huge profits from the sale of medicines. The former Soviet Union pioneered the world's first comprehensive and free medical care system, and social rights such as full employment, low rents, gender equality, and free education; these gains are being eliminated by right‑wing governments intent on protecting the interests of big capital at the expense of workers, women, youth, students, farmers, and pensioners.      Until now, the Canada Health Act and the principles of Medicare have placed certain limits on the privatizers. Profiteering in health care has been mainly restricted to areas such as lucrative contracts to build new P3 hospitals, or the contracting‑out of laundry and food services. Tax dollars are boosting private profits, while the wages of health workers are driven down.      The biggest sphere of health profiteering has been the pharmaceutical industry. On one side of this parallel private system, big pharma‑corporations and drug lobbyists are reaping enormous profits, while those without coverage face skyrocketing prescription costs.      Now, this Supreme Court decision takes the whole process much further, despite the findings of lower courts and numerous studies which have found that private health care is ultimately more expensive and inefficient than the public system.      For example, the Supreme Court majority refers to a survey of foreign systems prepared by Michael Kirby, who headed a 2002 Senate investigation which did not reject private health care. Yet even Kirby's survey notes problems in other countries where the wealthy can buy a spot at the head of the queue, violating the principle of equal access. In Australia, for example, doctors are increasingly moving into private practice in the most profitable surgical specialties, and many doctors no longer accept new patients who can't pay extra. By next January, the people of Holland will have to buy private medical insurance, which will provide minimum coverage and a price ceiling for providers, but at triple the current premiums.      When the rich start buying their services outside the public system, they demand and usually win tax reductions for their expenditures, depriving governments of crucial revenues. The result is a declining public system which serves only the poor, giving new impetus to the shift towards private health care.      This cycle will widen economic inequality, which is the main underlying cause of class differences in health. Even when most citizens gain better access to medical care, significant inequalities in health persist, despite factors such as smoking, diet, and physical exercise. Social factors such as education, employment, and especially income are the key to explaining such inequalities. For example, Canadian men in the top 20 per cent income bracket live on average six years longer than those in the bottom 20 per cent. Low‑income families have higher infant mortality rates, and higher rates for the four leading causes of death: tumours, respiratory tract diseases, circulatory system diseases, and accidental injuries.      Unemployed people suffer more problems related to distress, anxiety and depression. An average of about 1,000 Canadian workers are killed on the job each year, and another one million suffer workplace injuries, a shocking indictment of poor health and safety standards in one of the world's richest countries.      Environmental degradation is an increasing factor in health problems. The rising incidence of cancers and other illnesses is linked to the spread of toxins and chemicals in our food system and the environment, placing a growing strain on the health care system. The smog crisis in southern Ontario, a direct result of capitalism's failure to improve public transit and reduce private vehicle emissions, has caused a sharp rise in asthma and related health problems.      Therefore, better health for working people in Canada depends on several factors: defence and improvement of the current Medicare system, measures to reduce income inequalities, improved health and safety conditions, and better environmental standards.      The Communist Party of Canada stands for a comprehensive set of policies to save Medicare and improve the health and living conditions of working people, including: * Strengthen and enforce the Canada Health Act and laws that prohibit a private parallel system. * Begin to switch from the current fee‑for‑service system to a system of salaries for doctors. * Use the "notwithstanding clause" to overturn the Chaoulli decision, and compel governments to respect the Charter of Rights by ensuring prompt medical treatment. * Impose heavy penalties on provincial governments which allow private clinics and services. * Force governments to act quickly to reduce surgery waiting times; faster recognition of the credentials of foreign‑trained doctors, nurses and other health professionals, and expand the number of medical school positions. * Scrap the Drug Patent Act (which guarantees mega‑profits for the big pharmaceuticals, and high costs for health care), and nationalize the pharmaceutical industry under democratic control. * Introduce universal eye‑, pharma‑ and denti‑care. * Substantially increase and re‑establish tied funding to provinces for health, education, social housing and welfare, and enhance all-Canada standards, while ensuring that Quebec retains control and administration of its own programs. * End P3s and all other forms of privatization and contracting‑out of health, education and other public services.      The Communist Party also advocates a wide range of social reforms which would improve the health of working people, by narrowing the growing gap between rich and poor and improving working conditions. Such measures should include: * a universal minimum livable income. * an improved and expanded public pension system. * a 32‑hour work week with no loss in take‑home pay and no loss in service to the public. * ban compulsory overtime; raise statutory paid vacations to four weeks. * guarantee benefits for part‑time, home‑based and contract workers. * raise the federal minimum wage to $12/hour. * set Employment Insurance benefits at 90% of previous earnings to cover all unemployed for the duration of unemployment. * increase tax rates on corporations and the wealthy, and eliminate the GST and taxes on incomes under $35,000/year. * full pay and employment equity for working women. * publicly funded, accessible, quality abortion services in every province and territory. * guarantee the right of workers to organize, strike and bargain collectively, and to take collective political action. * strengthen and enforce labour standards. * strict environmental controls on all "factory" farms and ban in-ocean fish farming. * reduce the use of antibiotics, fertilizers, pesticides, and other potentially harmful farm inputs. * labelling of genetically‑modified food products as a first step towards reducing the scale of the GMO food system. * take action to improve air quality.      Despite the Supreme Court ruling, the corporate drive to turn health care into a commodity faces strong resistance. Last year, the public voted Tommy Douglas the greatest Canadian of all time, and Dr. Norman Bethune was also on the list. The battle of Medicare has not ended yet. We urge all Canadians to stand up for our rights! (Back) (Home) Celebrate LGBT Pride, demand full equality! (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) 2005 LGBT Pride Statement, adopted by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, June 18-19 AS A WIDE RANGE of Pride events begins across Canada this summer, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered communities and their allies can celebrate important new steps towards equality and justice, although much more still needs to be accomplished. These progressive struggles are an integral part of the overall movement to defeat the right-wing agenda, which relies on promotion of hatred and divisions to weaken the unity of the working class. The Communist Party of Canada gives full support to all such struggles, and sends greetings to all those taking part in LGBT Pride events.      We deplore the unprincipled maneuvering by the Martin government, which appears to have retreated from its pledge to ensure passage before the summer Parliamentary adjournment of Bill C-38, legislative approval of equal marriage rights. This can only be considered a surrender to the Harper Tories, and to the fearmongering efforts by fundamentalist groups attempting to derail Bill C-38. It will take further struggle to ensure Parliamentary victory on this front, although the court rulings in favour of equal marriage rights in most provinces, won through years of organizing and education by many individuals and groups, reflect a growing view among Canadians that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is no longer acceptable. The historic gains for same-sex marriage rights in Canada, Europe and several U.S. states point the way to a future in which the choice of family forms will be freed from economic pressures and social norms which make the patriarchal nuclear family the only "acceptable" model in capitalist society.      Similarly, there have been both gains and setbacks in other areas, such as within the school system. A growing number of school boards across Canada are taking positive steps towards LGBT equality rights. For example, the COPE-led Vancouver School Board has taken a series of pioneering measures to ensure safety and acceptance for queer and questioning students and staff, moving from words into actions such as diversity training for principals and teachers. But next door, the North Vancouver school board is appealing an important legal ruling which found the board legally liable for the failure of its schools to stop a vicious homophobic campaign against a student. Across Canada, hatred against queer and questioning students, and heterosexist biases in curricula and attitudes, are still prevalent in many schools. We urge all school trustees, administrators and teachers to follow the example of boards which have shown leadership on this issue.      Despite the cultural and legal shift in favour of equality and diversity, gay-bashing remains widespread in our society. As the sentences in the Aaron Webster killing showed a few months ago, police and prosecutors are still reluctant to press for stiffer punishments against those who commit homophobic hate crimes. The Calgary raids on gay bathhouses and the ongoing Canada Customs seizure of literature ordered by bookstores which serve the LGBT community are further proof that homophobia is still pursued aggressively within the Canadian state.      Just as worrisome is the conscious targeting of immigrant and religious communities by groups which spread hatred. At this moment in history, when ultra‑right and even fascist forces are using the so‑called "war on terror" to promote "racial profiling" as a tactic to strip away civil liberties for the Muslim and Arab communities in North America, we must act on the concept that "an injury to one is an injury to all." Our democratic freedoms can only be protected by standing together, united in diversity against hatred and war.      This means defeating those who would turn back the clock, such as the growing number of Conservative and Liberal candidates for the next federal election whose nominations were achieved by bigoted fundamentalist groups. In the name of "saving traditional family values," such candidates are adopting the U.S. Republican strategy of using "wedge issues" to gain election through promotion of the politics of hatred. Their dangerous goal is to turn Parliament into a weapon against reproductive rights and LGBT equality, serving the corporate interests which aim to destroy democratic rights, roll back gender equality, gut social programs, privatize all public assets, and splinter the public school system, all in their drive for profits.      Like racism, sexism, and national chauvinism, homophobia and transphobia are weapons used by the ruling classes to divide working people. Even within the labour and people's movements more work is needed to ensure that defending the rights of LGBT members and citizens is a priority, not an afterthought.      The good news is that a growing majority of Canadians, especially in younger age groups, support full equality rights. The key to progress lies in building broad coalitions toward a genuine People's Alternative to the neoliberal agenda, based on unity between labour and the popular movements of youth and students, women, seniors, environmentalists, peace activists, the LGBT community, farmers, aboriginal people, immigrants, and many others.   Ultimately, this wider struggle can lead towards full social emancipation and genuine people's power in a future socialist Canada, where our economy will be socially owned and democratically controlled. In such a society it will finally become possible to eliminate all forms of exploitation and oppression, and to defend our sovereignty and protect the environment. This process will help turn hatred and bigotry into relics of the past, and allow us to create a society in which, as Karl Marx wrote, "the free development of each is the condition for the development of all." (Back) (Home) McGuinty and Hydro One (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) Special to PV WHILE THE LEADERS AND OWNERS of the biggest corporations in the country bemoan the lack of tax breaks, subsidies and grants so that they "can provide the high tech jobs that this country needs to maintain its standard of living," they join with their friends in government to do exactly the opposite. What they really want is to maintain their own lavish standard of living, sometimes referred to as the "Clitheroe‑Parkinson standard," after that of the former and the present CEO. The method is two-tier pay rates, reduced benefits and 10% longer hours for no increase in pay.      Hydro One was defended from the privatization chopping block in a dramatic show of force when, in 2002, Ontarians rallied to the lead of the popular Ontario Electricity Coalition, and unions such as CEP and CUPE Ontario. This year Hydro One provided service to the public and profits in the hundreds of millions of dollars to government coffers. So why, in a year in which Hydro One's profits Are so high, is the McGuinty government not acting to end the strike in the face of a situation which could lead to a multi-billion dollar disaster like the blackout of August 2003?      The answer can be found in an examination of the McGuinty Liberal government. After running on the basis of saving the public Hydro system, they have been even more effective than their Conservative friends across the floor in ensuring the death of public power. Under the euphemisms of "public‑private partnerships", "attracting investment", "giving incentives", "creating price stability" and "environmentalism", this government is rushing Ontario into energy dependence on their business friends. The strategy mirrors the Liberal attacks on nursing services, hospital care and ownership, auto insurance, electricity generation, education, housing and childcare.      One interesting roles is that of the leadership of the Power Workers Union. The former president of the PWU, John Murphy, negotiated a contract that sold out many of his members in 1999-2000. Within weeks, he crossed the bargaining table to become Vice President of Human Resources for Ontario Power Generation. He now sits in that position, likely plotting a similar strategy for the workers in that public asset. The current PWU president, Don McKinnon, is on the Board of Hydro One, which is refusing to mandate settlement of the strike.      In this so‑called new era, Government and Business are pronouncing that electricity is now being valued at "real cost." What they don't say is that the public is being hosed over at least thrice.      First, the public is paying for the debt part of the former Ontario Hydro's capital. The Harris government claimed that the debt was to be turned over to the private sector, but what the private sector really got was the assets, such as Ontario Hydro Research, hydroelectric plants, and the use of Bruce Nuclear plants. All the public gets is an extra line on their bills that talks about debt retirement.      The second hosing is that the public is now going to pay even more exorbitant rates, to private electricity generators that are said to be essential to save the public from pollution. The public will also pay the gas companies to update their (privately owned) infrastructure to accommodate the big new demand for gas by private electricity generators. We do this even as we shut down publicly owned plants that should be updated and filtered. The public is even subsidizing the privately-run Bruce Power to increase its nuclear output, using publicly-owned plants, while the profit goes into private hands again.      And the third hosing comes in the fact that the price increases are going to be mitigated by ("blended with") the (regulated) public OPG generator prices; although prices are going to be higher than we've ever seen, it will be less than it might be, by an amount that we subsidize it from public assets! And with all the above, the increases are going into private pockets.      This is not the last word on this issue. The McGuinty Government and its Hydro One Board and Managers are promising a long strike, regardless of the high costs (double-time managers' salaries, bonuses, helicopters, undone maintenance, delayed system upgrades, safety studies not done) and the even higher potential cost of a blackout or safety compromise. And all the time they keep the workers out it serves their additional purpose of giving an opportunity for private companies to put a foot in the public energy door.      Keep watching.      (The author is a member of the CPC's Public Sector Workers Club in Toronto) (Back) (Home) Challenges ahead for Chilean Left (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 Ardis Harriman Julia Urquieta is a small, dynamic woman with a winning smile. To look at her, you might not guess that she is a human rights lawyer, a political leader and a human rights defender who has dedicated the last 20 years to the cause of justice in Chile.      Urquieta and a team of lawyers have been tracking down those responsible for the horrifying human rights abuses that occurred during the Pinochet dictatorship. She also worked along side the late Gladys Marin when the first charges were laid against Pinochet for the disappearance of Jorge Munoz, Marin's husband. This landmark case opened the door for other families of the disappeared, for torture victims and for all those whose rights were violated during that dark era.      Impunity is what characterizes Chile today, says Urquieta. Thanks to the efforts of these valiant people, some of those responsible have been punished. But the courts, the politicians and the three Concertacion Presidents have simply lacked the guts to ensure that Pinochet and his gang are put behind bars.       Julia is also a member of the left political alliance called JUNTOS PODEMOS (literally, Together We Can Do It), which will be a major player in the Presidential and parliamentary elections later this year. She was recently on tour in Ontario and Quebec, and in a meeting at Toronto's City Hall, she said that PODEMOS is different than other alliances, because it is a broad movement consisting of political parties as well as social movements, well-known personalities and progressive organizations. In other words, PODEMOS is truly a broad popular front.      On June 5, PODEMOS held the National Assembly for Democracy and Popular Sovereignty. Tomas Hirsch of the Humanist Party was elected as the PODEMOS candidate for the December 2005 Presidential elections.      Guillermo Teillier, President of the Communist Party of Chile, then addressed the assembly, emphasizing that it is essential to put an end to the social and political exclusion of millions of Chileans through the current binominal electoral system. This still exists thanks to the shameful consensus between the right wing parties and the centrist Concertacion.      Teillier went on to describe the dismal state of old age pensions in Chile: "Three or four transnational corporations manage pension funds of more than 6 billion dollars, and have increased their profits by using the savings of millions of workers. This means 3.5 million workers, or 55% of that population, will have a pension of about 70,000 pesos (approximately $150 CAD) when they retire. This is extremely serious because by the year 2010, more than 1 million Chileans will be over the age of 70, most on minimum incomes."      He characterized the current right and Concertacion parties as "adorers" of the neoliberal system. He said that by the year 2010 minimum wages will be eliminated and replaced by a new flexible labour law with the sole purpose of reducing salaries and making way for the contracting of cheap labour. "It will be," he said, "a little bit less than slavery, but still maximum exploitation for Chilean workers."      Teillier spoke of the government's unfulfilled promises for reforms in education and health for the poorest sectors. He noted that most of the educational system has already been privatized and is available only to those who can pay.      He also spoke of the inequality of ethnic minorities and the sexually diverse population. "They are not only excluded but are discriminated against in terms of human rights. Although there have been advances in international agreements, and laws adopted concerning women's equality and family violence, a system still exists which discriminates against women in the workplace. Their wages are as much as 30% lower than those of men, unemployment is higher for women, they suffer humiliation at work and funds for child care are hopelessly inadequate."      The members of JUNTOS PODEMOS know that there are many challenges ahead. They need more than a million votes to be considered a real force to protect people from the abuses of power. As Tomas Hirsch said in his acceptance speech, "Chile will not be the same if it has a solid, unified left capable of demanding and mobilizing its forces to control power whoever might have it. We must all participate and keep on working for this great social and political movement beyond [the elections in] December."      Meanwhile, Augusto Pinochet is to be tried for fraud and not for the crimes he committed, just as Al Capone, one of the greatest criminals in history, was accused of various murders but was finally condemned for the most trivial of all his offences: tax evasion. (Back) (Home) Talking peace - practising intervention (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) Commentary by Don Currie, chair of Canadians for Peace and Socialism PRIME MINISTER PAUL MARTIN declares that "we are in the midst of a major rebalancing of global power" in which Canada runs the risk of being swept aside unless Canadian foreign policy adopts a more aggressive and interventionist stance in international affairs. In a five booklet document, dealing with an Overview, Diplomacy, Defence, Development and Commerce, the Liberal government while purporting to "set our own course" in international affairs in fact aligns Canada's foreign policy more closely with the USA. It does so at a moment when the Bush Administration's New American Century of pre‑emptive war and regime change is rejected by a majority of Canadians and world public opinion.       The policy statement is intended to prepare Canadians for the shock of shifting Canadian foreign policy away from its international image as "honest broker and peace maker" to an aggressive interventionist role as a NATO and US military accomplice. The targets of Canadian interventionist policy are euphemistically defined as "rogue states", "failed and fragile states", "international weapons syndicates", those who proliferate weapons of mass destruction and "terrorists". The statement declares, "where necessary the Canadian forces stand ready to participate in military missions against terrorist networks or states  (our emphasis) who harbour them". None of these potential transgressors are identified or defined.      The Canadian government accords to itself an international interventionist role into the affairs of other states that it would not tolerate were such a policy directed against Canada. The policy statement implies that the Canadian state has reached a stage of development, stability and political perfection that entitles it to a judgmental role in international affairs that it shares exclusively with a club of G8 states that Prime Minister Martin magnanimously declares he would like to expand to 20. Considering there are at least 125 sovereign UN states not in the exclusive club it provides wide scope for Canada to practice its new interventionist policy.      Prime Minister Martin cannot claim not to know that the Bush administration has identified several sovereign UN states as "an axis of evil" others as harbouring terrorists and others as economic and political threats because they refuse to adopt the US capitalist model. Discussing "state failure" the document states, "The adequate provision of health and education services and a vibrant private sector  (our emphasis) are essential building blocks for peace and stability". Ruling out non‑capitalist, socialist paths of development erects an ideological barrier to relations with China, Cuba, North Korea, Viet Nam and many nations such as Venezuela, Bolivia and Uruguay that are considering alternatives to capitalism in their path of economic, political and social development.      The statement attempts to legitimatize illegal actions engaged in by Canada in the NATO bombing of Belgrade in 1998‑99, its interdiction role on the high seas on behalf of the US in the first US Gulf War, and its current surreptitious collaboration with the US in the War in Iraq. Canada's intrusion into the internal state elections in the Ukraine and its current suppression of the pro‑Aristide forces in Haiti its policing role in Kandahar Afghanistan on behalf of US occupation forces are the type of actions envisioned for the Canadian armed forces in the future.      The government's invitation to Canadians to accept more self-interested alliances devoid of legal or moral constraints is tinged with imperialist ambition. Without public interjection, Canada is destined to lose its credibility as an independent liberal-democratic middle‑power claiming to uphold the principles of the UN Charter and international law. Carried into practice, the policy will involve Canada and its youth in more US‑NATO wars directed against popular, liberation and revolutionary movements wherever they may arise.      The document purports to defend Canadian sovereignty over the geographical boundaries of Canada and in particular the North. The statement declares that Canada will renew its participation in NORAD in 2006 and endorses NorthCom, the joint Canadian‑US defence planning committee that accords to the US military an overlord role in continental defence. The policy statement concedes that Canadian sovereignty and independence over our own territory is legitimately subsumed in US strategic planning for the "defence" of all of North America.      At the heart of this betrayal is continued Canadian government support for NAFTA. While alluding to the overwhelming US advantage in the NAFTA, the government nonetheless clings to the fiction that by appeasement it can control the current overtly hostile and predatory actions of the Bush administration towards Canada. The Bush Administration tacitly supports US corporate attempts to destroy the Canadian Wheat Board, the beef industry, the soft wood lumber industry, while insisting that Canada continue to supply US needs for electrical power, and take the lion's share of Canadian oil and gas resources.      The shift in Canadian government foreign policy away from principle and towards expediency is ominous and gamble's Canada's future on the dubious premise that the USA will triumph in its quest for global hegemony. It occurs at a moment when the US economy is in serious crisis.      The policy statement is a formula for Canadian isolation, tailism and irrelevance in diplomacy and foreign policy and compromises Canada's opportunities for trade and commerce with newly emerging markets by subordinating Canada's international vision to the global ambitions of the USA.       The document CANADA'S INTERNATIONAL POLICY STATEMENT can be read on‑line at http://www.international.gc.ca (Back) (Home) Don't discard peace buttons... (The following editorial is from the July 1-31/2005 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, July 1-31, 2005 IF YOU HAVE a few "No Star Wars - Keep Canada Out" buttons kicking around, maybe it's time to start wearing them again. The CBC reported on June 17 that the topic is "back on Ottawa's political radar, with U.S. defence giant Raytheon Company confirming it wants to install a radar system in Happy Valley‑Goose Bay" in Labrador.      Raytheon has been given a five‑year, $260 million U.S. contract for logistical support for installing "Forward Based X-Band Transportable radars," which are the "eyes" of the so-called ballistic missile defence shield. Raytheon will not comment formally on the issue, but says Happy Valley‑Goose Bay is a preferred location, and that Ottawa could accept the X‑band station as part of its commitments through NORAD.      As always, federal Liberals are trying to dance around this hot potato. Defence Minister Bill Graham says the issue remains "speculative," claiming that "there's been no approach to the government of Canada. There's been no official suggestion by anyone, so at the moment there's nothing to react to." But Graham does say that information collected for NORAD will be used for missile defence purposes.      Steve Staples, an expert on defence issues with the Polaris Institute in Ottawa, points to the Raytheon missile defence contract and says the government is trying to have it both ways.      "We're already hearing it from Bill Graham who's trying to justify it because of our involvement in NORAD, as how our involvement in missile defence is going to be snuck in the back way by the Liberals," Staples says.      For decades, Liberal and Tory politicians have done their best to bow to their imperialist masters in Washington, while trying to conceal this posture from the Canadian people. Let's keep telling our MPs - we voted against parties which support "Star Wars", and we will again. Canada should pull out of NATO and NORAD, and adopt a foreign and defence policy based on independence, sovereignty, and the pursuit of disarmament. That would be a real contribution to saving this planet from destruction. (Back) (Home) Racism in the labour market (The following editorial is from the July 1-31/2005 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, July 1-31, 2005 ALONG WITH the annual celebrations of National Aboriginal Day during June comes more information showing that oppression and inequality remain a fundamental feature of the Canadian imperialist state. A study released on June 13 reported that Aboriginal people in Western Canada face jobless rates more than twice those experienced by others, despite the recent upswing in the capitalist business cycle.      According to Statistics Canada, aboriginal people living off reserve in the West have an unemployment rate 2.5 times that of non‑aboriginal people. The share of off‑reserve aboriginal people with jobs in the West was 57.2 per cent in 2005 (up from 54.2 per cent in 2001) compared with the 65.2‑per‑cent employment rate experienced by non‑aboriginal people.      The official figures conceal greater inequities. For example, the jobless rate among aboriginals this year is said to be 13.6 per cent (down from 16.7 per cent in 2001), compared to 5.3 percent among non‑aboriginals.      These statistics do not include people who have given up looking for work. Huge numbers of aboriginal people are driven out of the capitalist labour market by racist discrimination, and by the state's failure to provide equal education opportunities. Labour economists estimate that the true unemployment rate for the entire population is likely at least 50% higher than the StatsCan numbers; for aboriginal people, the true jobless rate is probably at least double the official numbers.      Under capitalism, unemployment means lower incomes, more illness, higher death rates, and lower life expectancy. All the boasting in Ottawa about Canada being the "greatest country in the world" will remain empty rhetoric until this shameful racist reality is changed forever. (Back) (Home) Good things happening in Venezuela (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 Michael Parenti Even before I arrived in Venezuela for a recent visit, I encountered the great class divide that besets that country. On my connecting flight from Miami to Caracas, I found myself seated next to an attractive, exquisitely dressed Venezuelan woman. Judging from her prosperous aspect, I anticipated that she would take the first opportunity to hold forth against President Hugo Chavez. Unfortunately, I was right. Our conversation moved along famously until we got to the political struggle going on in Venezuela. "Chavez," she hissed, "is terrible, terrible." He is "a liar"; he "fools the people" and is "ruining the country." She herself owns an upscale women's fashion company with links to prominent firms in the United States. When I asked how Chavez has hurt her business, she said, "Not at all." But many other businesses, she quickly added, have been irreparably damaged as has the whole economy. She went on denouncing Chavez in sweeping terms, warning me of the national disaster to come if this demon continued to have his way. Other critics I encountered in Venezuela shared this same mode of attack: weak on specifics but strong in venom, voiced with all the ferocity of those who fear that their birthright (that is, their class advantages) was under siege because others below them on the social ladder were now getting a slightly larger slice of the pie. In Venezuela over 80 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. Before Chavez, most of the poor had never seen a doctor or dentist. Their children never went to school, since they could not afford the annual fees. The neoliberal market "adjustments" of the 1980s and 1990s only made things worse, cutting social spending and elimination subsidies in consumer goods. Successive administrations did nothing about the rampant corruption and nothing about the growing gap between rich and poor, the growing malnutrition and desperation. Far from ruining the country, here are some of the good things the Chavez government has accomplished: - A land reform program designed to assist small farmers and the landless poor has been instituted. Just this month (March 2005) a large landed estate owned by a British beef company was occupied by agrarian workers for farming purposes. - Education is now free (right through to university level), causing a dramatic increase in grade school enrollment. - The government has set up a marine conservation program, and is taking steps to protect the land and fishing rights of indigenous peoples. - Special banks now assist small enterprises, worker cooperatives, and farmers. - Attempts to further privatize the state-run oil industry (80 percent of which is still publicly owned) have been halted, and limits have been placed on foreign capital penetration. - Chavez kicked out the U.S. military advisors and prohibited overflights by U.S. military aircraft engaged in counterinsurgency in Colombia. - "Bolivarian Circles" have been organized throughout the nation, neighbourhood committees designed to activate citizens at the community level to assist in literacy, education, vaccination campaigns, and other public services. -The government hires unemployed men, on a temporary basis, to repair streets and neglected drainage and water systems in poor neighbourhoods. Then there is the health program. I visited a dental clinic in Chavez's home state of Barinas. The staff consisted of four dentists, two of whom were young Venezuelan women. The other two were Cuban men who were there on a one-year program. The Venezuelan dentists noted that in earlier times dentists did not have enough work. There were millions of people who needed treatment, but care was severely rationed by the private market, that is, by one's ability to pay. Dental care was distributed like any other commodity, not to everyone who needed it but only to those who could afford it. When the free clinic in Barinas first opened it was flooded with people seeking dental care. No one was turned away. Even opponents of the Chavez government availed themselves of the free service, temporarily putting aside their political aversions. Many of the doctors and dentists who work in the barrio clinics (along with some of the clinical supplies and pharmaceuticals) come from Cuba. Chavez has also put Venezuelan military doctors and dentists to work in the free clinics. Meanwhile, much of the Venezuelan medical establishment is vehemently opposed to the free-clinic program, seeing it as a Cuban communist campaign to undermine medical standards and physicians' earnings. That low-income people are receiving medical and dental care for the first time in their lives does not seem to be a consideration that carries much weight among the more "professionally minded" practitioners. I visited one of the government-supported  food stores that are located around the country mostly in low income areas. These modest establishments sell canned goods, pasta, beans, rice, and some produce and fruits at well below the market price, a blessing in a society with widespread malnutrition. Popular food markets have eliminated the layers of middlemen and made staples more affordable for residents. Most of these markets are run by women. The government also created a state-financed bank whose function is to provide low-income women with funds to start cooperatives in their communities. There is a growing number of worker cooperatives. One in Caracas was started by turning a waste dump into a shoe factory and a T-shirt factory. Financed with money from the Petroleum Ministry, the co-op has put about a thousand people to work. The workers seem enthusiastic and hopeful. Surprisingly, many Venezuelans know relatively little about the worker cooperatives. Or perhaps it's not surprising, given the near monopoly that private capital has over the print and broadcast media. The wealthy media moguls, all vehemently anti-Chavez, own four of the five television stations and all the major newspapers. The man most responsible for Venezuela's revolutionary developments, Hugo Chavez, has been accorded the usual ad hominem treatment in the U.S. news media. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle described him as "Venezuela's pugnacious president." An earlier Chronicle report (30 November 2001) quotes a political opponent who calls Chavez "a psychopath, a terribly aggressive guy." The London Financial Times sees him as "increasingly autocratic" and presiding over something called a "rogue democracy." In the Nation (6 May 2002), Marc Cooper, one of those Cold War liberals who nowadays regularly defends the U.S. empire - writes that the democratically-elected Chavez speaks "often as a thug," who "flirts with megalomania." Chavez's behaviour, Cooper rattles on, "borders on the paranoiac," is "ham-fisted demagogy" acted out with an "increasingly autocratic style." Like so many critics, Cooper downplays Chavez's accomplishments, and uses name-calling in place of informed analysis. Other media mouthpieces have labeled Chavez "mercurial," "besieged," "heavy-handed," "incompetent," and dictatorial," a "barracks populist," a "strongman," a "firebrand," and, above all, a "leftist." It is never explained what "leftist" means. A leftist is someone who advocates a more equitable distribution of social resources and human resources and human services, and who supports the kinds of programs that the Chavez government is putting in place. (Likewise a rightist is someone who opposes such programs and seeks to advance the insatiable privileges of private capital and the wealthy few.) The term "leftist" is frequently bandied about in the U.S. media but seldom defined. The power of the label is in its remaining undefined, allowing it to have an abstracted built-in demonizing impact which precludes rational examination of its political content. Meanwhile Chavez's opponents, who staged an illegal and unconstitutional coup in April 2002 against Venezuela's democratically elected government are depicted in the U.S. media as champions of "pro-democratic" and "pro-West" governance. We are talking about the free-market plutocrats and corporate-military leaders of the privileged social order who killed more people in the 48 hours they held power in 2002 than were ever harmed by Chavez in his years of rule. When one of these perpetrators, General Carlos Alfonzo, was hit with charges for the role he had played, the New York Times chose to call him a "dissident" whose rights were being suppressed by the Chavez government. Four other top military officers charged with leading the 2002 coup were also likely to face legal action. No doubt, they too will be described not as plotters or traitors who tried to destroy a democratic government, but as "dissidents," simple decent individuals who are being denied their right to disagree with the government. President Hugo Chavez whose public talks I attended on three occasions proved to be an educated, articulate, remarkably well-informed and well-read individual. Of big heart, deep human feeling, and keen intellect, he manifests a sincere dedication to effecting some salutary changes for the great mass of his people, a man who in every aspect seems worthy of the decent and peaceful democratic revolution he is leading. Millions of his compatriots correctly perceive him as being the only president who has ever paid attention to the nation's poorest areas. No wonder he is the target of calumny and coup from the upper echelons in his own country and from ruling circles up north. Chavez charges that the United States government is plotting to assassinate him. I can believe it. (Michael Parenti's recent books include Superpatriotism and The Assassination of Julius Caesar. His latest work, The Culture Struggle, will be published this fall. For more information, you can visit Parenti's website: http://www.michaelparenti.org.) (Back) (Home) Greek unions call general strike (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) A three-week bank strike in Greece was set to expand into a 24-hour general walkout on June 24, to protest attacks on pension and labour rights. The government says it will push ahead with a pensions overhaul and the introduction of short-term civil service contracts. The general strike is being organised by the main Greek union - the General Confederation for Greek Workers - in association with the largest bank union, OTOE. The unions say pension payouts will drop by half, the retirement age will rise and jobs will be lost. The 15-month-old conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Caramanlis said it would continue with its plans, despite the planned 24-hour walkout. Draft legislation to reform bank workers' pensions is already being reviewed in the Greek parliament. The government also plans to introduce changes to public-sector contracts and to remove employees' permanent-job status in the public sector. OTOE leader Dimitris Tsoukalas said his members were "determined to continue our protest, no matter what". Over the first three weeks of June, long queues formed at the country's banks. Another 24-hour general strike was held in March 2005 amid fears of rising unemployment and inflation. (Back) (Home) Mozambique unions demand higher minimum wage (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) The main Mozambican trade union federation, the OTM, has warned that it may call a general strike to defend workers' interests. The OTM wants the government to show "good sense" and reopen negotiations on the statutory minimum wage. The unions regard the 14 per cent increase in the minimum wage announced in mid-June which brings it to 1,277,138 meticais (53.3 US dollars) a month, as grossly inadequate. "We know that the government is aware of the situation", said OTM chairperson, Amos Matsinhe. "We would not like to come to the point of resorting to force, because that does not dignify our trade union movement. But if it becomes necessary for us to opt for a strike, then we will do so... What happens is that both the government and the employers want only the workers to make sacrifices. But sacrifices should be borne by both parties, not by the workers alone." A general strike called in 2000 by the trade unions was cancelled after the government and employers caved in, agreeing to increase the minimum wage by 26 per cent, not the 16 percent originally offered. The Confederation of Business Associations (CTA) has claimed that even a 14% wage raise will affect the viability of Mozambican companies, particularly the small and medium sized ones. CTA chairperson Salimo Abdula says that the ideal wage rise would be 7.7 per cent, less than last year's inflation rate of 9.2 per cent. (Back) (Home) OAS stands up to U.S., supports Venezuela (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 W.T. Whitnery Jr., People's Weekly World Newspaper, June 16, 2005 "Madam Secretary, democracy cannot be imposed," said Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister, in reply to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the 35th General Assembly of the Organization of the American States (OAS). "Latin America has its own identity," he said. "It has recuperated its dignity - not to confront the United States, but to confront imperialist politics." That was the kind of roughing up Bush officials faced at the first OAS meeting hosted on U.S. soil in 31 years, this time in Ft Lauderdale, Fla. The OAS was set up in 1951, and shortly became an instrument of U.S. cold war politics. The Assembly turned aside U.S. proposals directed against the Hugo Chavez government in Venezuela, as it passed declarations supportive of both national independence and a common front against the region's social and economic devastation. Only a month earlier, in an unprecedented move, the OAS had rejected Washington's choice for OAS leader in favour of Chilean diplomat Jose Miguel Insulza. Speaking to reporters, Secretary of State Rice, apparently alluding to the need to intervene in Venezuela, declared, "The OAS has intervened in the past," adding, "It is a matter of intervening to try and sustain the development of democratic institutions." In an address to the Assembly June 7, President Bush said, "We must replace excessive talk with action." The U.S. government offered a "Declaration of Florida," which would have authorized OAS-sponsored military interventions in member countries on behalf of "democracy." The Assembly ultimately voted 28-6 to back a watered-down version of the resolut ion, holding that OAS interventions would have to wait on an invitation from an elected head of a targeted government. The OAS Assembly passed eight out of nine resolutions introduced by Venezuela. One of them, offered in response to the U.S. interventionist proposal, stated that "for there to be world peace there must be respect for sovereignty." Another condemned media concentration and rejected "support of hate" in the media. Still another called for member nations to "commit themselves not to support terrorists that are wanted for crimes in other countries," a clear reference to U.S. sanctuary provided to Cuban-exile terrorist Luis Posada Carriles. Delegates backed the social and economic rights of Latin America's estimated 240 million poor. As Venezuelan Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez noted: "In these conditions quality of life simply doesn't exist, adding, "Where the calamities of hunger and poverty exist, democracy is in doubt and human rights are a fiction." The Assembly's final declaration incorporated a Venezuelan resolution calling for adoption of a "Social Charter of the Americas." Roger Noriega, U.S. Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, staged a "temper tantrum," in the words of one reporter. Apparently reacting to Washington's failure to have its way, Noriega proclaimed that Venezuelan money and influence were behind unrest in Bolivia, a charge immediately dismissed by the Venezuelans. Secretary of State Rice met June 5 with Maria Corina Machado, head of the Venezuelan group Sumate, accused of bringing in National Endowment for Democracy funds in the efforts to defeat Hugo Chavez at the polls. Machado took part in the 2002 coup attempt against Chavez, and is reportedly preparing to oppose him in the 2006 presidential election. The week before, Machado met with President Bush in the White House. By contrast, Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to Washington, has been waiting two months to meet with U.S. State Department officials. Outside the Assembly, police from 26 agencies stopped delegates' cars at roadblocks, searching them with dogs and metal detectors. The Mexican daily La Jornada reported that journalists required a State Department escort to approach OAS delegates. Some 20 Secret Service agents detained Venezuelan reporter Lyng-Hou Ramirez. She came under suspicion when police, searching her bag, found an OAS document on human rights. Agents reportedly refused to verify her credentials with the OAS. After all, they said, "They don't make the rules, we do." (Back) (Home) Sweeping anti-strike ban may hit Australia (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 Anna Pha, from The Guardian, weekly newspaper of the Communist Party of Australia The Howard government is now considering proposals to completely outlaw all strikes and other industrial action in the oil, gas and power industries and other essential service industries. The government is mounting a multi-pronged attack on the rights of workers, without openly declaring its aim of banning all forms of industrial action. The proposed new laws place iron fisted restrictions on the rights of workers. They expose individual workers as well as their unions and union officials to massive compensation claims from anyone who claims to have been affected by their actions. There would be NO cap on the amount a court could order be paid by workers or trade unions as compensation to any person found by a court to be affected. In addition there are provisions for crippling civil penalties of up to $22,000 for individual workers and $110,000 for trade unions. This would see workers facing the loss of their homes and other personal belongings. The Building and Construction Industry Improvement Bill 2005 sets out to retrospectively (from March 9, 2005) outlaw industrial action taken by unions in pursuit of a new agreement before the previous agreement has reached its nominal expiry date. Workplace Relations Minister Kevin Andrews made the government's intent very clear in his Second Reading speech to Parliament: "no industrial action can take place during the life of an agreement" on a construction site. The anti-strike proposal for the energy industries was put together by a business task force with advice from law firm Clayton Utz. The Business Council of Australia and Keven Andrews conducted meetings behind closed doors, essentially briefing him on what the corporations expect when the government gains control of the Senate on July 1. Furthermore, there are plans to force workers and unions into automatic "mediation" when an enterprise agreement expires. (Back) (Home) World military spending tops $1 trillion (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) From Stockholm Peace Research Institute World military expenditure in 2004 is estimated to have been $975 billion at constant (2003) prices and exchange rates or $1035 billion in current dollars. This is just 6 per cent lower in real terms than at the 1987-88 peak of cold war world military spending. As a global average, 2004 world military expenditure corresponds to $162 per capita and 2.6 per cent of world GDP. However, there is a wide variation between regions and countries. The average annual rate of increase in world military expenditure over 1995-2004 was 2.4 per cent in real terms. This average encompasses two distinct trends: the post-cold war reduction in military spending which culminated around 1998; and an increasing trend since 1998, accelerating to an annual average increase of around 6 per cent in real terms over the period 2002-2004. The USA accounts for 47 per cent of the world total. US military expenditure has increased rapidly during 2002-2004 as a result of massive budgetary allocations for the "global war on terrorism," primarily for military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. These have been funded through supplementary appropriations on top of the regular budget; for 2003-2005 this extra spending amounted to $238 billion, exceeding the combined military spending of Africa, Latin America, Asia (except Japan but including China) and the Middle East in 2004 ($193 billion in current dollars), that is, of the entire developing world. While regular military spending has also increased, the main explanation for the current level of world military spending is military operations abroad by the USA, and to a lesser extent by its coalition partners. In 2004 there was a growing debate related to the sustainability of the current military efforts of the USA. Questions were raised about the contribution of military expenditure to the growing fiscal deficit and its future impact on economic growth. A related concern is whether military expenditure will crowd out non-military government expenditure. The debate has been exacerbated by uncertainties over future trends in expenditure for military operations in Iraq. (Back) (Home) Alvaro Cunhal (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) One of the outstanding figures of the 20th century revolutionary movement, Alvaro Cunhal, former leader of the Portuguese Communist Party, died on June 13, at the age of 91. The Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada has sent condolences to the PCP, honouring the outstanding contributions made by comrade Cunhal to the cause of socialism. His funeral was declared a special state ceremony by the Portuguese government. Alvaro Cunhal spent nearly 35 years underground or in jail for his role in building the Communists into the only well-organized opposition to the dictatorship of Antonio Salazar and then Marcelo Caetano. Born into a middle-class family, he studied law and secretly joined the outlawed Communist Party at Lisbon university, where he graduated first in his class. In 1960, while incarcerated in the dictatorship's top security Peniche prison, he and nine other political prisoners escaped by tying bed sheets together. After fourteen years in exile, Cunhal was a national hero when he returned to Lisbon after the bloodless 1974 army coup known as the Revolution of Carnations. When Cunhal returned from exile, the PCP's 20% vote in elections propelled him into ministerial posts in four provisional military-led government. He retired in 1993. During the upheavals of the early 1990s, he was among those who stood firm in the communist movement for revolutionary principles and defence of the socialist cause. Hundreds of thousands of people took part in Cunhal's funeral on June 15, forming a procession which stretched five kilometers. Cunhal was "a great man whose life is connected with the history of the 20th century,"Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio said. "He has his place among us in the fight against the authoritarian regime, in the revolution and the consolidation of Portuguese democracy." (Back) (Home) Bolivia on the boil (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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 Jayati Ghosh, from People's Democracy (India) The current political turmoil in Bolivia is part of a wider movement in Latin America, of people rejecting not only corrupt politicians, but also - and more importantly - the neoliberal economic policy paradigm that enriched a few at the expense of the vast majority. Bolivia is the poorest country in Latin America, with more than 70 per cent of its population estimated to be living below the official poverty line. In rural Bolivia the incidence of poverty is reckoned to be as much as 90 per cent of the population, and there is almost no access to basic amenities such as electricity and sanitation. For most farmers in the country, until recently, the only thing that stood between them and starvation was cocaine cultivation, which was banned under pressure from the United States. Urban areas have been impoverished by massive job cuts because of privatisation and more mechanisation in the mining industries. Paradoxically, Bolivia is also one of the richest countries in Latin America, in terms of its natural resources. the huge natural gas reserves are second only to those of Venezuela in the region, and the country also has large deposits of tin, silver and gold. The story in Bolivia, as in many other countries similarly rich in natural resources, is of decades of plunder by a small elite, ably assisted by multinational mining corporations and watched over by US imperialism. Again like much of Latin America, the economic reality has its counterparts in social, political and even racial divisions. The ruling elite is inevitably white, belligerently right-wing and closely intertwined with imperialism, as well as openly contemptuous of democracy when it does not serve its own interests. More than 60 per cent of the population is of "indigenous" origin. Some others can be described as of "mixed race". These groups constitute the political base of the increasingly more radicalised left, which is currently making demands for public ownership of natural resources and public responsibility for basic services that strike at the very heart of the imperialist neo-liberal model. To understand the current crisis, a little background is necessary. Two crucial issues have dominated the contested terrain in Bolivia, as indeed they are likely to do in the world as a whole in the years to come: energy and water. The neo-liberal model was imposed in a drastic form in Bolivia from around the mid-1980s under the close supervision of the   IMF and World Bank. This involved not only the usual elements of fiscal contraction and high interest rates, but also privatisation of energy extraction and distribution (and) also of water and other utilities, resulting in huge increases in prices and disconnecting supplies to poor people who could not pay. However, around five years ago, social movements and protesters, led among others by the indigenous peoples' leader Evo Morales, began to reassert their position. The Cochabamba Water War of 2000 became internationally famous when several weeks of violent conflicts between protesters and the military led to the expulsion of a consortium controlled by the American transnational corporation, Bechtel. The government of Bolivia has been forced to pay heavy compensation to Bechtel. Now there is another such war under way, in the shantytown of El Alto close to the capital La Paz. From late last year, similar protests against the privatisation of the public water and sewerage system paralysed the city and led to the termination of the contract held by the private consortium Aguas del Illimani on January 13, 2005. This was a particular blow to international donors, who had actively pushed this contract as being "pro-poor". However, the issue is still not finally resolved and the conflict has even intensified. This is because there is still tremendous pressure upon the Bolivian government from the World Bank, which became an associate of Aguas del Illimani through its private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, which owns 8 per cent of shares. If the contract is cancelled, the Bolivian government will have to pay a large compensation, and now the World Bank has direct interest in guaranteeing the investment and will be the judge of the likely forthcoming lawsuit through its agency the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes. One of the major demands of the current struggle is nationalisation of the oil and gas extraction industry, since the practice of the past and currently is to export the country's gas to the benefit of a small local elite and the large MNCs  (Multi National Corporations).This was a promise made in the "October Agenda" of former president Carlos Mesa, who took power in 2003 after the hated and murderous regime of Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada was displaced by public uprising. That Agenda also promised a new Constituent Assembly providing for more regional autonomy and representation to indigenous peoples. This immediately came up against a strong rightwing reaction, especially from the region of Santa Cruz which enjoys a massive concentration of land and valuable natural resources in the hands of a few. Now Mesa has himself been evicted by mass protests, because of failure to keep to these promises. The new acting president Enrico Rodriquez is the former head of the Supreme Court, who has so far been unable to stop the chaos. He has promised fresh elections within six months, and these are definitely likely to provide more power to the Left, which now has several leaders of rapidly growing public stature, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has described the current crisis in Bolivia as one more sign that the "poisoned medicine" of free-market democracy imposed by the US is being rejected by Latin America. But of course US imperialism, however distracted it may be by its travails in Iraq and Afghanistan, is unlikely to let so much popular upsurge in its backyard go completely unchallenged. What happens next in that region is of great concern to everyone in the developing world, not only for the ability to confront imperialism, but also in terms of building feasible social and economic alternatives. (Back) (Home) VOLUNTEER IN CUBA (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) Join the 13th CHE GUEVARA WORK BRIGADE * Spend three weeks in Cuba doing agricultural or other work alongside Cubans *Connect with Cubans to learn from each other *Gain a personal and intimate understanding of Cuba's achievements and resistance Cost: CAN$1,699 for 3 weeks (includes return airfare, room, lodging & more). Dates: Departure from Toronto: July 31, 2005 Return: August 21, 2005 Non-profit project endorsed by the Canadian Network on Cuba and other organizations For more info: www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/brigade che_guevara_brigade@yahoo.com 604-831-9821 / 604-254-4635 / 204-334-0136 (Back) (Home) Help send delegates to the Youth Festival! (The following article is from the July 1-31/2005 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.) Financial support is needed  to send the Canadian delegation to the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students in Caracas, Venezuela this August. Contributions made out to "Festival Preparatory Committee" can be sent c/o People's Voice, 290A Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON,  M4K 1N6 (Back) (Home)

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