The Spark!

   
(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

No to War! No to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America! Joint call to action from the Canadian Peace Alliance and Échec à la Guerre

     On August 21 and 22, at Chateau Montebello, in the Outaouais region of Québec, the third meeting of the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico - Harper, Bush and Calderon - will take place to discuss the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). The Canadian Peace Alliance and Collectif Échec à la guerre denounce this partnership among the top business and political leaders of all three countries, because it will not improve the security and prosperity of the people but will work against their aspirations. We call all peace supporting organizations and individuals to protest war and the SPP this August.

     The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was signed by Prime Minister Paul Martin and Presidents Vicente Fox and George W. Bush on March 23, 2005. Then came the second summit in Cancun, in March 2006, where Stephen Harper represented Canada.

    Media reporting of these meetings ignored the crucial issues at the heart of this "partnership": the accelerated extraction and delivery of Canadian oil and water resources to the US economy; a deepening of economic partnership with the US conditional to a war driven foreign policy; the pretext of "national security" to justify the secrecy surrounding the precise nature of the discussions and the deals made.

     In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, George W. Bush declared "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists". That year, the only directive given to Paul Celluci, as he became US ambassador to Canada, was to do whatever he could to bring about a major increase in Canadian military spending. During his term, he repeated relentlessly that, for the US, "security trumps trade". The message was clear: unless Canada adopted the same "security" agenda as the US, our trade relations would suffer.

     It is in this context that in January 2003 the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) launched its North-American Security and Prosperity Initiative, in which it takes a stand in favour of the "smart border", the secure flow of Canadian energy resources to the US, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), a major increase in military spending and interoperability of Canadian and US armed forces. In April 2004, in a policy document entitled New Frontiers: Building a 21st Century Canada-United States Partnership in North-America, the CCCE wholeheartedly embraced Bush's credo: "The way that we and other countries respond to the relentless threat of terrorism and rogue states has vital implications for global economic growth just as it does for Canada's future ... In short, for Canada and for the world as a whole, economic security and physical security have become inseparable." In April 2003 and 2004, the CCCE held its spring meetings in Washington, inviting several US military and political leaders to participate.

On to War!

     Changes in the international role of the Canadian Forces towards offensive operations in partnership with the US military have taken place gradually over the last 15 years, without any public debate or awareness. In February 2005, it was made official in the Liberal government's budget, announcing the greatest increase in military spending since the end of World War II ($12.8 billion over five years). The following month, echoing the demands of the powerful Canadian corporate lobby and adopting their proposals almost to the word, the SPP was signed. The real significance of this "partnership" would become clearer over the following months.

     On April 19, 2005, the new International Policy Statement (IPS) of the Martin government announced its intention to increase regular forces by 5,000 members and reserves by another 3,000, as well as to double the rapid deployment capacity of the Canadian military for missions abroad. And in July 2005, it was announced that the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan would move from Kabul to Kandahar, and that starting in February 2006, an extra 1,400 soldiers would be sent to that area. This news was accompanied by declarations by the new Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier, rejoicing at the thought of hunting down terrorist "scumbags" and to see the Canadian Forces finally doing their real job of being "able to kill people".

Anti-democratic policies

     Granting the wishes of Canada's largest corporations - those who also benefit the most from military and "security" contracts - the Government of Canada has forced on the people a warmaking foreign policy that the majority continues to reject. Furthermore, as was revealed a few months ago, in the name of that same partnership, the goal of increasing fivefold the production of oil in the Alberta tar sands by 2030 has been decided. This makes even more ludicrous the recent Conservative government statements of seriously wanting to address the issue of greenhouse gases and to follow the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. On this issue, the gap between government policies and the will of the people is even more obvious.

     This third SPP summit will bring together a US president whose policies are backed by hardly a quarter of his own people, a Mexican president whose election is highly disputed, and a Canadian Prime Minister heading a minority government. The deals they will make in Montebello, with no parliamentary debate or public discussion, will have no legitimacy. The Canadian Peace Alliance and Collectif Échec à la Guerre therefore call on the people of Québec and Canada to reaffirm their opposition to the warmongering, anti-environmental and anti-democratic policies of the Security and Prosperity Partnership and to protest the SPP summit.

     No to the wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan!

     No to the accelerated destruction of our planet!

     No to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America!

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Jason Mann

     Vancouver labour economist Emil Bjarnason used to tell a story about a man named Stanford Kingsley Claunch.

     Claunch was best known for pioneering his own idea of medicine. His theory was that disease was a person's best friend. The purpose of germs, he argued, was not to cause ill health, but to produce the diseases that cured illness. He was especially fond of malaria which he claimed was "guaranteed to burn up all the poisons that make people sick," provided that an ignorant doctor didn't prescribe medicines that would interrupt the fever before it had done its job.

     Fortunately, this nut was discredited before he could harm anyone.

     Unfortunately, the Bank of Canada is putting Dr. Claunch's theory into practice. Instead of dealing with the crisis in manufacturing jobs, the Bank of Canada is fighting a made up bogeyman: "out of control inflation". Their suggested cure? Increase interest rates to create job losses.

     As part of the twisted logic of capitalism, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) recently celebrated this Dr. Claunch style strategy of creating a manufacturing jobs crisis to reduce inflation.

     "The Bank of Canada, eying an economy operating above its non-inflationary speed limit, will welcome the dampening influence of an even stronger currency on both economic growth and inflation. A couple hundred thousand additional factory job losses, while far from derailing domestic economic growth, might be a route to opening up a bit of slack in today's ultra-tight labour market, forestalling a more serious wage threat."

     Another way to say this is:

     "The Bank of Canada will be happy that the skyrocketing loonie will cause more factory closures and job losses because this may dampen inflation. Throwing another 200,000 manufacturing workers out of a job, far from being a bad thing, is a good thing because far too many workers still have a job, and this will help us reduce wages."

     Another 31,000 manufacturing jobs were lost in April and May. If the big banks like CIBC get their way, another 200,000 are to come.

     Although he never got much respect in the medical community, it appears that the Bank of Canada is dedicated to keeping the name of Dr. Stanford Kingsley Claunch alive.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, July 1-31, 2007

     Canadians often pride ourselves on being a country which defends human rights and civil liberties. But this Canada Day, a good look in the mirror is needed.

     Residents of Kitigan Zibi (north of Ottawa) awoke on June 21, National Aboriginal Day, to find their cultural centre covered with swastikas and "white power" grafitti. A rash of similar racist attacks in recent months have targetted mosques, Muslim student centres, synagogues and other sites.

     On June 26, indigenous anti-uranium mining activist John Graham lost his appeal against extradition to the United States, where he is accused by the FBI in the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. US prosecutors have presented only the flimsiest evidence against Graham, but judges have ruled that Canada's extradition treaty with the US leaves them no grounds to reject the request.

     Canadian military forces in Kandahar turn over "suspects" to the Afghan government, after which they often face abuse and torture. Canada has lined up with one group of reactionary warlords in Afghanistan - those currently aligned with the United States - in the name of "liberating women." There is virtually no progress towards gender equality to show for this effort, but thousands of civilians and 60 Canadians have been killed in the process.

     Five years after his arrest, Canadian child soldier Omar Khadr languishes in the Guantanamo Bay concentration camp, even after charges against him have been dropped twice. The government of Stephen Harper - so quick to pose as defenders of children - refuses to lift a finger to demand his return to Canada.

     We could fill every page of this newspaper with similar examples. Canada a shining defender of human rights? That reputation gets further from the truth every day.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, July 1-31, 2007

     Another 58,000 private sector jobs disappeared in May, 12,000 in the manufacturing sector, according to Statistics Canada. Under pressure from the rising Canadian dollar, manufacturing has shed 64,000 jobs since January, and over 250,000 over the past five years. This is a crisis with grave implications.     The number of Canadians who wanted to work in May but did not have a job stood at 1,083,600. The economy is losing higher-paying, full-time jobs, forcing workers into lower-paying, insecure, part-time employment, usually in sales and services. The declining quality of work is affecting millions of Canadian families.

     What are the solutions to this crisis? Speaking for the bosses, the Bank of Canada claims that the economy is operating "above capacity," and plans to raise interest rates. The federal government is expanding its temporary foreign worker program. Both policies will increase the "reserve army of the unemployed," with the goal of driving down wage levels to increase corporate profits. Some in the labour movement argue for more government subsidies to industry - a call for "more capitalism" to address a crisis created by capitalism. Such handouts may bring temporary benefits to certain sectors, but with a long term cost: capitalists will always use higher profits to invest in new labour-saving technologies.

     The real answer lies in a combination of policies for immediate and long-term change, starting with laws to prevent plant closures and protect workers' wages and pensions, and a two-year notice of mass layoffs. We need expanded public ownership of industries and resources (respecting Aboriginal land claims), reversal of "continental integration" into the USA, and reduction of foreign ownership levels.

     Without such policies, Canada will inevitably be reduced to a supplier of raw materials for the US imperialist war machine. But we are confident that a powerful struggle for progressive change, led by the working class and its allies, can turn Canada in a positive direction.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Pride 2007 Statement from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League of Canada

     Together with our allies at dozens of Pride events across Canada this summer, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, two-spirited persons, and queer and questioning youth are celebrating important struggles to achieve equality and social justice. These events are refreshing and important demonstrations of the kind of unity which is essential to all the progressive movements of Canada.

     It's just this kind of unity which is required if we are to block an insidious right-wing agenda intent on promoting hatred and divisions among us. The Communist Party of Canada lends its enthusiastic and full support to queer and all progressive struggles.  We send our best greetings to all those taking part in LGBTT Pride events.

     We all know that the gains of recent years for LGBTT communities will face dramatically sharper challenges if Stephen Harper were to win the next federal election. Although the corporate-controlled media wants Canadians to believe that Harper and his cohorts have "mellowed" and have retreated from their hardline positions against LGBTT workplace equity, legal equality and reproductive rights, they actually pose a direct threat to the future of Canada, including our advances toward social equality.

     While key sectors of big business (both domestic and global capital), argue that the Conservatives need a majority "to make Parliament work", it is very clearly time to drive out the Conservatives.  

     Alarmingly, Harper and his advisers are already shifting many policies, through quiet administrative moves and by their dangerous drive towards "deep integration" with the United States. To improve his electoral chances, Harper is keeping a lid on outspoken MPs, but this is a waiting game and will end if he wins a majority. The election of an even larger number of fundamentalist, bigoted MPs would dramatically enhance the power of the minority who want to restore the patriarchal nuclear family as the only "acceptable" family model.

     Stephen Harper's personal anti-equality positions are clear. He has voted against every piece of same-sex marriage legislation. He has pledged that a Conservative government would not raise the abortion issue "in its first term" - leaving his options open if re-elected. Last summer he snubbed the international AIDS conference held in Toronto.

     And most Canadians have noticed a deluge of danger signals from the Tories:

* proposals to give authorities wide access to monitor phone calls and email

* the new "no-fly" list and other violations of civil liberties

* the expansion of CSIS and the RCMP (which both have a history of homophobia)

* the appointment of anti-choice, anti-gay judges to provincial courts;

* the presence of "Focus on the Family" zealots within the top circles of Tory advisors

* the so-called "Defence Of Religion Act" to allow wider promotion of hatred

* tax changes to promote the patriarchal family model

* the moves to gut Status Of Women Canada

* the end of government funding to promote equality

* legislation to criminalize youth by raising the age of consent from 14 to 16

* regulations to limit young people's access to condoms and abortions.

     The Harper and Tory positions reveal that homophobia remains a powerful force within the Canadian state, despite the cultural and legal shift in favour of equality and diversity. Police and prosecutors are still reluctant to press for stiffer punishments against those who commit homophobic hate crimes, raids on gay bathhouses continue, and Canada Customs is still seizing literature ordered by bookstores which serve the LGBTT community. Homophobic regulations against blood donors remain in place.

     And there are many other important issues being raised this summer, such as:

* the need for stronger action to defend the rights of queer and questioning youth by pressing politicians, school trustees, administrators and teachers to follow the example of those across the country who have shown strong leadership. Queer youth and students still face prevailing heterosexist attitudes, harassment, and even homophobic violence despite the welcome growth of gay-straight alliances in schools.

     The urgency of more school boards taking positive and systemic steps towards protecting LGBTT students and staff in the face of resistance at every level (note the B.C. Liberal government's recent vote against a proposal to include an anti-homophobia clause in a "school conduct codes" bill.

* the conscious targeting of immigrant and religious communities by groups which spread hatred. The use of the so-called "war on terror" to promote "racial profiling" to strip away civil liberties for the Muslim and Arab communities in North America.

* the need to act on the concept that "an injury to one is an injury to all" with the knowledge that our democratic freedoms can only be protected by standing together, united in our diversity against hatred and war.

* our fight to defeat those who would turn back the clock, such as candidates whose nominations are backed by fundamentalist groups and their aim to turn Parliament into a weapon against reproductive rights and LGBTT equality while serving corporate interests, destroying democratic rights, rolling back gender equality, gutting social programs, privatizing all public assets and splintering the public school system, in their drive for profits. (Note that in the name of "traditional family values," such candidates are adopting the U.S. Republican strategy of using "wedge issues" to promote the politics of hatred.)

     Like racism, sexism, and national chauvinism, homophobia and transphobia are weapons used by ruling classes to divide working people across Canada.  Unfortunately, even within our labour and people's movements much more work is needed to ensure that defending the rights of LGBTT members and citizens is a priority, not an afterthought. The good news is that a growing and clear majority, especially younger Canadians, support full equality rights. The key to our progress will lay in building broad coalitions committed to fighting for a genuine People's Alternative to this neo-liberal agenda, based on unity between labour and our people's movements of youth and students, women, seniors, environmentalists, peace activists, our LGBTT community,  aboriginal people, immigrants and other racialized communities, farmers and very many others.

     Ultimately, this kind of wider social struggle will lead us all towards full social emancipation.  Achieving genuine people's power in a future socialist Canada, will allow us to build an economy which is both socially owned and democratically controlled; to eliminate all forms of exploitation and oppression; to defend our sovereignty and protect the environment; to ensure that hatred and bigotry become relics of the past; to create a society in which, as Karl Marx wrote, "the free development of each is the condition for the development of all."

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

PV Vancouver Bureau

     About nine thousand civic workers in several BC Lower Mainland municipalities are gearing up for strike action as soon as the beginning of July.

     Since last December, most of the Lower Mainland's 12,000 civic workers (members of CUPE) have been working without a contract. Across the region of two million people, talks have stalled as GVRD bargainers refuse to make meaningful progress, forcing CUPE civic workers to prepare for job action to achieve a fair contract.

     In Vancouver, CUPE reports that "the employer has aggressively attacked union wage and working conditions with a proposed wage freeze for some of the lowest paid workers, reduction of sick pay and vacations among other take-aways. In Delta, the employer has refused to continue bargaining and instead is forcing their civic workers into mediation. At other bargaining tables, GVRD bargainers are pursuing reductions in a range of areas including benefits, callout, sick leave and more."

     Speaking to People's Voice, a spokesperson for CUPE 1004 (Vancouver outside workers) said that as prices skyrocket, his members increasingly find it difficult to work where they live. Fed up with years of minimal pay increases at best, many are ready to look for better-paying jobs if they cannot win a better contract.

     Civic workers here include a wide range of occupations, from planners to plumbing and building inspectors, water operators, pavers, cleaners, garbage collectors, and rec centre, swimming pool and library workers. Their work is vital heading towards the 2010 Winter Olympics, which is proving to be a gold mine for developers, yet they are faced with demands for concessions.

     On June 25, a record 97 percent of Vancouver's 790 library workers (CUPE 391) became the seventh group to vote in favour of strike action.

     "We are dismayed," says Ed Dickson, CUPE 391 Bargaining Committee Chair. "There is no justification for the shameful demands the employer is making - demands to establish lower wages, demands to cut our benefits and access to sick leave. Vancouver's library workers deserve a fair contract. Not a single library workers' issue has been addressed in the days of talks that took place." The library workers are seeking to address pay equity concerns, fair treatment of part time and auxiliary staff, benefit improvements and protection against contracting out.

     CUPE says responsibility rests on Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan to seek a political solution to avert a strike that could affect everything from Olympic construction to tourism. Civic workers in Vancouver face some of the most regressive take-away demands, like the demand to freeze the wages of 150 building service workers until after the Olympics.

     "Mayor Sullivan holds the key," says Paul Faoro, President of CUPE 15, Vancouver inside workers. "All Mayor Sullivan needs to do to avert a strike is to instruct bargainers to stop demanding to take away worker rights, wages and benefits and negotiate fair contracts with the public employees that make Vancouver work."

     A few days earlier, Vancouver's outside workers, including garbage workers who receive trash from across the GVRD at the Vancouver Landfill, voted 96 percent in favour of strike action.

     "During hard economic times, city workers have sacrificed and taken zeros, but now it is time to honour that sacrifice with fair contracts that improve workers lives - not contracts that make it even more difficult for workers to take care of their families and make ends meet," says CUPE BC President Barry O'Neill. "Without fairness, there will be no labour peace in the Lower Mainland this summer."

     On June 13, Burnaby's 2000 city workers became the fifth group of civic workers to register a high strike vote (93%) in response to proposed take-aways and stalled negotiations with GVRD Labour Relations Bureau.

     CUPE 23 President Rick Kotar said his frustrated members are prepared to take action to achieve a fair contract.

     "We had high hopes for a positive round of negotiations, but when we got to the table we found an employer being led by the GVRD to take a hard line," said Kotar. He points to a booming economy in a city that is reaping windfall tax revenue from rapidly increasing property values as reason to hope for smooth negotiations.

     "Hopefully this vote will let the city know that we are serious about getting a fair deal... Before that can happen, city council needs to stop listening to the GVRD, and start negotiating with the people who make Burnaby work."

     CUPE 23 has been at the bargaining table since October 2006. They have not met with the employer since March 2, 2007.

     Other civic groups which have taken strike votes include Vancouver inside workers (CUPE 15), Delta public employees (CUPE 454), North Vancouver District workers (CUPE 389) and North Vancouver Recreation Commission workers (CUPE 389).

     For information on how to help CUPE members win fair contracts in this dispute, visit www.supportyourcivicworkers.ca.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

From an address by Stephen Seaborn to the international solidarity forum at CUPE Ontario's 44th annual convention in May. Seaborn, a CUPE member since 1979 and VP-Political Action of CUPE Toronto, is a founding member of the union's National Committee on International Solidarity.

Why internationalism? Why us? Why now?

     Concrete expressions of solidarity across borders, by members of our union, began long before we might think. In the late 1800s Toronto city workers were among the May Day marchers demonstrating outrage at the brutal repression against American workers and their demands for an 8-hour day.

     Through the Dirty Thirties, the members of civic employee unions in Calgary and Toronto and hydro worker unions in Central Canada were also friends and members of progressive internationalist movements of the day, including those who were members of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, the Workers Party and the Communist Party.

     Later, our sisters and brothers were certainly providing direct support and solidarity in the fight against Fascism during the Spanish Civil War.

     Less than 30 years later, at the height of the Cold War, CUPE was born through a merger of two very different unions. A deep-seated ideological divergence between CUPE's founding unions revealed itself starkly during the union's convention debates concerning statements of solidarity with workers in foreign lands facing the imperial interests of international capital.

     And we can be quite certain that there were members of our founding unions who were at the table when the peace and nuclear disarmament movement took shape across Canada in the late 50s.

     Our young union joined with this country's churches and the growing anti-Apartheid movement in helping to shape, guide and fund the hugely influential "Banks Divestment Campaign" of the 1970s and 80s, drawing the explicit link between Apartheid's impact on South Africa workers and Canadian corporate interests.

     The under-the-radar role of successive Canadian governments complicit in the oppression of working people in Vietnam, Cuba, Chile, Guatemala, Grenada, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela were each the subject of contentious convention debate both inside CUPE and within the Canadian Labour Congress.

     Not so long ago, the CLC was actively dissuading unions from hosting South African healthcare workers. These workers had been brought to Canada by the ANC and SACTU primarily because they were (and are today) in an open alliance with the South African Communist Party.  Happily, CUPE healthcare workers defied the CLC and hosted the South Africans.

     When members of the US-deposed popular movements of Grenada, including the Bank and General Workers Union, toured Canada, the CLC again advised us against meeting with the delegation. And again CUPE locals sat down and learned first hand of these workers' struggle in the face of US imperial might. (Note that a similar face-off is looming this fall as the CLC presses for anti-boycott union reps to address CUPE's national convention being held October 14-20 in Toronto.)

     In short, CUPE's internationalist track record was already pretty firmly established at the membership and local union level when, at the 1987 National convention, we fought on the floor to establish a committee of members to ramp up the visibility and centrality of our union's solidarity with international struggles.

     The National union's working committee of members (which was formed in 1989) began to provide legitimacy to our global solidarity work. CUPE members started to take note as we initiated a union-to-union solidarity alliance with health, civic and education workers of our South African sister union, NEHAWU. In 1990 a healthcare sister from this same South African union addressed the CUPE Ontario convention and in meetings with union activists urged us to form an Ontario international committee of members so as to widen our solidarity work. Nine years later this committee was established.

     Based on our direct experience (and in line with the educational focus of the initial 1987 convention resolution), CUPE's national committee guided our international solidarity resources into the area of member-to-member and local-to-local training exchanges. Other agencies in the non-governmental sector (it was reasoned) specialize in humanitarian aid and charitable deeds. And more than one Canadian union had already established Humanitarian Funds which sent members' dues to Third World community projects. But as public sector workers we in CUPE were unable to see the effectiveness of NGO development assistance or drought relief.

     We really wanted our efforts to be unique and direct. And more importantly, based upon our common interest as working people. So: we in CUPE would do "solidarity not charity." We'd deal with working people, not war-relief. We'd engage in strategic actions not in emergency responses. We'd specialize in social change, but not in unrelated humanitarian aid. CUPE's outreach would continue to be both internationalist and reciprocal.

     Our experience as workers through this last century has put CUPE firmly on the path of membership-based international relations designed for the sharing of survival strategies in a rapidly globalized (and privatized) economy and world-wide job market. By building concrete global alliances between members of the working class we are learning from each other how to support our individual and collective struggles, how to maintain and develop services that respond the needs of the people, not of the profiteers, and, essentially how best to outwit global capital.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Special to PV

     Meeting in Toronto over the June 23-24 weekend, the new Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada focused its attention on signs of increased working class action across the country, and the need to defeat the favoured party of big business - the Harper Conservatives. The meeting also set plans for building the Communist Party during the second half of 2007, on top of some encouraging growth in the first six months of the year.

     Elected in February at the party's 35th convention, the 25-member CC includes members from Nova Scotia to the west coast. Reflecting the party's working class outlook and base, eleven of the 25 are labour activists, holding a range of leadership positions in their unions. Nine CC members are women, and several are involved in movements working for LGBT equality rights. Two CC members are Aboriginal, and five are from Quebec. As the Communist Party's highest body between conventions, the body meets twice-yearly.

     The meeting kicked off with a report on the current global and domestic political situation. Party leader Miguel Figueroa gave an overview of the dangerous developments in Central Asia and the Middle East, as US imperialism and its allies continue to stoke tensions, from the "hot wars" in Afghanistan and Iraq, to the occupation of Palestine and the threats of aggression against Iran. Looking at the Canadian scene, Figueroa noted the contradictions in the current "booming" economy, which generates vast wealth while destroying industrial jobs and expanding poverty.

     Figueroa's opening remarks were followed by a wide-ranging discussion on the state of the labour movement and other democratic struggles across Canada. In virtually every part of the country, CC members noted a growing mood of public resentment as the gulf between rich and poor widens, and as corporate profiteering means stepped-up attacks on wages and working conditions. There are growing examples of workers challenging the corporate assault, such as the two strikes by railway workers this year.

     On the other hand, the CC noted, the ruling class is using every possible tactic to suppress and weaken working class militancy, from its control of the mass media, to legislative and police attacks against strikes. Another major factor holding back many struggles is the refusal or inability of some leaders in the trade union movement to mobilize a more powerful resistance. Many strikes and other actions have taken place with strong support from grassroots union members and mid-level labour activists, but in most cases, these struggles have remained somewhat isolated.

     In this situation, other aspects of the fightback against the right-wing agenda have come to the forefront, notably the widespread demands to get Canadian troops out of Afghanistan, and the powerful upsurge by Aboriginal peoples. The Communist Party has urged full support for actions taking place on and around June 29, the National Day of Action called by the Assembly of First Nations in response to government foot-dragging on land claims and the shameful levels of poverty on and off reserves.

      During their first 18 months in office, the Tories have carried out parts of their right-wing agenda, but lacking a majority, they have been compelled to compromise or delay other initiatives. Trying to turn this to his electoral advantage, PM Harper has soft-pedalled unpopular reactionary policies and kept a gag order on outspoken far-right MPs. But the big business agenda is advancing rapidly, such as around military spending and the North American integration project, which will receive another boost at the US-Canada-Mexico summit at Montebello in August. The Tories are also using ministerial authority to implement policies such as gutting the Canadian Wheat Board, doing an end run around Parliament and public opinion. On Afghanistan, the Tories have used divisions in the opposition to their advantage, leaving room to extend the occupation past the current deadline of February 2009.

     For all these reasons, the Central Committee voted to launch a special campaign to "Drive out the Harper Tories." The two-phase campaign will begin over the summer, with the wide use of stickers, poster and buttons designed to raise awareness of the Tory menace and to showcase progressive alternatives proposed by the Communist Party. Starting in September, the campaign will shift into pickets of Tory MP offices and other public actions, and a series of public forums.

     Special reports on some key current issues were discussed by the CC, including support for the National Day of Action, and plans for protests against the North American summit. The CC also condemned the June 21 racist attack against the Kitigan Zibi Cultural Centre (north of Ottawa), and agreed to initiate celebrations marking the 90th anniversary of the October Socialist Revolution this fall.

     Plans were elaborated for a 2007 Party Building Campaign tied into the "Drive out the Tories" actions. Already this year, dozens of new members have joined the CPC across the country, a Communist club has been formed in Windsor for the first time since the 1970s, and paid subscriptions to People's Voice have grown by ten percent. Sam Hammond, the chair of the party's Central Trade Union Commission, outlined detailed proposals for strengthening communist work in the labour movement over the next several months. The meeting also heard a report on the recent re-founding convention of the Young Communist League, presented by YCL general secretary Johan Boyden, the youngest member of the CC.

     Upon adjournment, several CC members headed to the airport, leading the first official Communist Party of Canada delegation to Cuba in several years (see report in our next issue). Others joined with YCLers to take part in the Toronto Pride Day parade; the contingent drew loud cheers with their rainbow/peace flag and "smoke `out' the Harper Tories" stickers handed out along the route.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Kimball Cariou

     On June 21, residents of Kitigan Zibi, a First Nations community 130 kilometers north of Ottawa, awoke to find their cherished cultural centre defaced with swastikas and racist graffiti. Police think the crime may have been committed by residents of the nearby town of Maniwaki, Quebec. A recent successful land claim resulted in restoring a piece of property in Maniwaki to the Kitigan Zibi First Nation. The land is to be made into a park honouring the community's first chief.

     In an urgent public message, Claudette D. Commanda said: "On this day when we are to celebration the great and rich heritage and culture of the aboriginal peoples, we, the members of Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg Algonquin First Nations, have become victims of a hate crime. I am deeply sadden by this - I have no words to describe the sorrow that my spirit and heart are carrying at this moment. My heart is wounded, but my spirit is not broken. I appeal to you for help.

     "As a community member, as a mother, as a grandmother, to you my brothers and sisters in culture and spirit, I am seeking your help - sometime during the night, my community, Kitigan Zibi Anishinabeg has become the victim of a hate crime, our Cultural Centre has been vandalized, with huge black paint swastika signs and with the wording `White Power' written completely around the entire building, furthermore, picnic tables and tents have been destroyed. Just as our community was preparing for its aboriginal day celebration today, there is no celebration, our community is in tears, and I must say that this heinous crime also raises the issue of our safety and security of our people, our community.

     "Please, I am asking you as brothers and sisters, to get this message out to media, to the public... I thank you for your attention to this message and for any help you can provide."

     Meeting in Toronto over the June 23-24 weekend, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada voted to condemn this racist action, one of a growing number of attacks directed at aboriginal peoples, Muslims, and other minority groups.

     CPC leader Miguel Figueroa said, "The Communist Party has warned repeatedly that the so-called `war on terror' is aimed at whipping up hatred and divisions, to promote Canadian involvement in imperialist wars and to attack democratic rights and civil liberties by the Canadian state. The listing of indigenous groups as `terrorists' in an armed forces training manual, and the warnings of state attacks against the aboriginal National Day of Action, are ominous warnings that the struggle by aboriginal peoples for justice is regarded as a threat by the Harper Conservatives and other reactionary forces. Like the attempts to incite violence against the Six Nations at Caledonia, the hate crime at Kitigan Zibi shows that racist and fascist elements are being stirred into action. We urge all labour and democratic movements to condemn this rise in racist and fascist activity, and to stand in solidarity with the aboriginal peoples and other minority groups."

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Compiled from the news services by David Tymoschuk

WHITE COLLAR

     Rodney Arnold Barton stole over $1 million from the Bank of Nova Scotia. As reported in The Chronicle-Herald, the National Parole Board says that Barton could potentially reoffend. Yet he was approved for parole five months into his three year jail sentence. You see, Rodney Barton was a former manager with the bank. Things would be different if he was a blue collar worker who held up a gas bar.

     Jeffery Skilling, the CEO of Enron, was sentenced to 24 years in jail back in October 2006. Let's not forget the fact that $2 billion in pensions were wiped out. Skilling's actions ruined many lives.

     Dennis Koslowski, former head of Tyco, is serving up to 25 years for stealing $1 billion from the corporation. But his minimum prison term is just over eight years. Taking money from a corporation can be good news, but Koslowski was no Robin Hood, just a greedy boss. His wife, who still enjoys the good life, wants a divorce. So much for love.

     A few such scapegoats were sent to prison, but after September 11, prosecutors in the United States slacked off on white collar crooks, as reported by the New York Post and the Christian Science Monitor last September. Why? Maybe too busy jailing suspicious "terrorist looking" types?

     Here's another case. A person placed print ads for loans: "bad credit no problem." Those who phoned and took the bait had to pay a fee of a couple hundred dollars to get their loan. The poor became poorer, because they never received a thing. The operator of the loan company picked up $1.1 million. He was sentenced to just two years probation and a $1000 fine.

BLUE COLLAR

     Here's a serious crime: building a cabin.

     Roberta Keesick, a Grassy Narrows hunter, clan mother, blockader, mother, and grandmother, is engaged in building two cabins on her people's traditional hunting grounds. These cabins are used for shelter and storage during the cold winter season, and as a base from which to hunt, fish, and pick berries and medicines to provide for her family and live the Anishnabe way of life.

     Recently, Roberta received a summons indicating that she is being charged with three offenses for building on public land without a work permit. Her response: "I got permission from the creator who put us here and made our people a part of the land. I can't bring myself to ask for permit. We have always been here and we have never needed permission." Funny how homesteaders could build on "free" land, yet a Clan Mother cannot build on her own traditional territory. Public land - except for people from Grassy Narrows. Her court case is coming up soon.

     As reported recently in People's Voice, Elder Harriet Nahanee passed away one month after she was sent to jail on January 24, 2007. Madame Justice Brenda Brown sentenced Nahanee, age 72, to fourteen days incarceration for contempt of court for disobeying the Eagle Ridge Bluff injunction. Jailed under unacceptable conditions at Surrey Pre-Trial Center, held in a cell with tens of other inmates and subject to racist treatment, Harriet Nahanee contracted pneumonia. She was hospitalized within a week of her release, and passed away within another week.

     An extreme example in Leandro Andrade, who is serving 50 years in a California jail for stealing nine VHS cassettes. Whose life did he ruin except his own? And did he ruin his own life? No, the justice system, part of the capitalist state, helped Leandro along in ruining his life. The draconian "three strikes" law is clearly a mockery of justice.

     In Avon Park, Florida, kindergarten student Desre'e Watson was arrested last April and charged with a felony. What charges? Battery on a school official, and resisting a police officer. Does a six-year old really deserve a criminal record?

     In 2000, the St. Petersburg Times reported that charging children is normal in Florida: "Kids as young as seven spend the night in detention centers. Kids as young as 10 are sent away for a year or more. And in a very few cases, children enter the justice system at even younger ages, such as a 5-year-old St. Petersburg boy charged this year with burglary; and incredibly, a preschool arson suspect who went through a pretrial diversion program in South Florida at age 3."

     Freedom of movement? On April 24th, Immigration officers armed with M-16 rifles raided a shopping mall in Chicago. The entire mall was closed while officers forced shoppers and workers to sit on the floor.

     The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been conducting Operation Return to Sender and Operation Wagon Train, signs of growing xenophobia and intolerance by the U.S. government. During a raid in March at the Michael Bianco company in New Bedford, Mass., a factory that makes leather military gear, officers forcefully separated babies from nursing mothers before any undocumented workers were arrested. Last December, raids at six Swift meatpacking plants arrested more than 1200 workers. In some cases children were left to fend for themselves for varying lengths of time after parents were picked up in the raids.

     Two police officers in Atlanta plea bargained in the 2006 murder of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston. The murder charges were dropped, and the officers will get 10 and 12 years in prison. A raid on Johnston's address occurred when an informant lied to police about cocaine being inside. Obtaining a no-knock warrant, officers busted into the home with no advance warning. Johnston was armed (this is the U.S.), and seeing armed people in plainclothes, she fired one shot in defence, inflicting no injuries. Police returned fire (39 shots), handcuffed the bleeding woman (shot 6 times), then conducted a search of the premises while she died. No drugs were found, so they were planted.

     An informer tipped off reporters who broke the story. The informer was picked up by the police officers, who then attempted to force the informer to confess to purchasing drugs at Johnston's address. The mere idea of a 92-year-old drug kingpin is a good case to not cut old age pensions! Having to sell street drugs to pay for prescription medication is not too far off.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

     On June 25, members of the Grassy Narrows and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug (KI) First Nations, with help from Rainforest Action Network and Christian Peacemaker Teams, erected a 30-foot painted teepee reading "Native Rights Now" in Queen's Park across from the Ontario Legislature. The communities and their allies are calling on Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to honour moratoria declared by Grassy Narrows and KI prohibiting industrial activity without consent in their traditional territories in Ontario's threatened boreal forest.

     For the last decade, Grassy Narrows leaders have repeatedly called on Weyerhaeuser Corporation, Abitibi Consolidated and all levels of government to halt logging and procurement from their traditional lands without consent. Provincially licensed clear-cut logging is a violation of  their right to hunt, trap and fish, as guaranteed in Treaty 3 of 1873. In December 2002, the Grassy Narrows community began the longest running peaceful Native road blockade in Canadian history to halt the degradation of their land and culture.

     In February 2006, KI found a drilling company operating on behalf of Aurora, Ontario-based Platinex Inc. on their traditional territory without consent. The community held a peaceful protest, and the drilling crew eventually pulled out. Platinex then filed a 10 billion dollar lawsuit and filed for an injunction to remove  community members from its drilling operations. KI had issued a moratorium on all activities until their treaty land entitlement and the Crown duty to consult and accommodate were met. The province continued to grant Platinex drilling permits even though the company had failed to meet the Supreme Court requirement that it consult with First Peoples prior to commencing industrial operations on Indigenous lands. KI's position is that the McGuinty government acted illegally by failing to meet Supreme Court standards of consultation and by not dealing seriously with the outstanding land claims.

     For more information, visit www.FreeGrassy.org.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Stephen Von Sychowski

     On December 24, 2006, Ethiopia launched an unprovoked military assault on Somalia, with full U.S. backing. Ethiopian troops were largely used as cannon fodder and as a cover to make a much bigger imperialist occupation of Somalia look like a smaller conflict between two African nations. The occupation has been largely ignored by all corporate media outlets, obviously on purpose. So what is going on in Somalia?

     The goal of the attack and occupation was to topple the popular Islamic Courts Union (ICU). The ICU had brought the Somali people the first taste of national identity, independence and legitimate government, based on the widespread support of the people that they had seen since the overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre over 15 years ago. An end to over a decade and a half of war, chaos, violence, economic insecurity, poverty, and rule by warlords and interference by imperialism seemed possible. This is why the majority of Somali people rallied around the ICU.

     But this was not acceptable to U.S. imperialism, who saw the ICU as a threat to their interests in the region. Why? It could be the large reserves of natural resources such as iron ore, copper, salt and more. It could be the 3,025 km long coastline which links the Red Sea, African Ocean and Suez Canal. But more than likely, its oil... again. The World Bank listed Somalia as one of the most promising areas in the region for oil development in 1992. The very warlords who were puppeteered by U.S. imperialism were suddenly driven out by the ICU, whose leader, Sheik Sharif Shaykh Ahmed had stated that the ICU "was established to ensure that Somali people suffering for 15 years would gain peace and full justice and freedom from the anarchic rule of warlords."

     It's no wonder that the U.S. imperialists were shaken, but they could do nothing to reverse the changes peacefully. The ICU was an objectively anti-imperialist force. They now constituted the new governing force of Somalia; the only answer for the empire was invasion and occupation.

     Their pretext would be to back up the "Transitional Government" set up two years ago through a UN sponsored conference. This government was made up of pro-U.S. warlords led by Abdullahi Yusuf and based in the town of Baidoa. It lacked all real authority, legitimacy and power. To most Somalis, it didn't exist. The ICU, meanwhile, would be painted falsely by their enemies as "Al Qaeda linked" and "terrorists," often the fate recently of those who oppose imperialism.

     The ICU, despite its control of most of Somalia and its widespread support, was no match for the might of the U.S. military and its Ethiopian allies. As a result, the ICU was rapidly forced from power and made to withdraw from the frontlines to wage a protracted guerilla war against the invaders.

     Meanwhile all traces of progress have been wiped out. Like their Iraqi, Afghan and Haitian counterparts, Somalis are far worse off now than before the invasion of their country. The occupation government has carried out a campaign of violence, censorship and Islamophobia. For example, a ban on the wearing of the Hijab has been implemented and enforced in Somalia, a predominately Islamic country. Unknown numbers of people have perished in the ongoing fighting and in massacres by occupation forces. Somali radio and media have been censored and forbidden to report on the violence and conflict.

     Currently, the occupation force does not include Canadian troops. The people of Canada should beware of any attempt by the reactionary Harper Tories to change this.

     For now, however, the U.S. seems to be happy with their own troops and those of some of their puppet governments. But it should be noted that other than Ethiopia, only Uganda seems prepared to fulfill its part of the African Union's pledge to send an 8,000 troop force to Somalia. Leaders of other countries are reluctant to send troops to take part in this debacle, despite American and European pressure.

     Progressive and democratic people must cast aside the racist myth carried on by the imperialists and their hangers-on, that Africans and other "Third World" peoples are incapable of governing themselves. This myth is only a cover for imperialist intervention each time that a government interferes in the interests of imperialism, and especially in cases where these governments and peoples begin to go down a path of social justice, national liberation, independence, and their biggest fear... socialism. In such cases, imperialism sees fit to declare that the government represents a "failed state" or "terrorists," and implements regime change. The overthrow of governments like that of Lavalas in Haiti and the ICU in Somalia, and the attempted coup in Venezuela, are recent proofs of this.

     The ICU, of course, has never been a socialist organization. But despite this, it has constituted a force for national liberation and against the U.S. Empire. They represent a people struggling for self determination, just as the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Colombia, the Philippines, and so on. We must demand that U.S., Ethiopian and all foreign forces leave Somalia immediately, so that the Somali people may settle their internal affairs independently and choose their own government without interference. This is the right of all nations.

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(The following article is from the July 1-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

     Projections of world grain supply and demand for the coming crop year 2007/07, released in May by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), predict supplies will plunge to a 53-day equivalent, their lowest level in the 47-year period for which data exists.

     "The USDA projects global grain supplies will drop to their lowest levels on record. Further, it is likely that, outside of wartime, global grain supplies have not been this low in a century, perhaps longer," said National Farmers' Union research director Darrin Qualman.      Most important, 2007/08 will mark the seventh year out of the past eight in which global grain production has fallen short of demand. This consistent shortfall has cut supplies in half - down from a 115-day supply in 1999/00 to the current level of 53 days.

     "The world is consistently failing to produce as much grain as it uses," said Qualman. "The current low supply levels are not the result of a transient weather event or an isolated production problem: low supplies are the result of a persistent drawdown trend."
    
Global fisheries are also faltering. Reports in the respected journals Science and Nature state that one-third of ocean fisheries are in collapse, two-thirds will be in collapse by 2025, and ocean fisheries may be virtually gone by 2048. "Aquatic food systems are collapsing, and terrestrial food systems are under tremendous stress," said Qualman.

    Demand for food is rising rapidly. There is a worldwide push to proliferate a North American style meat-based diet based on intensive livestock production; turning feedgrains into meat in this way means exchanging 3 to 7 kilos of grain protein for one kilo of meat protein.

     Meanwhile, 2.5 billion people will join the global population in the coming decades. "Every six years, we're adding to the world the equivalent of a North American population," said Qualman. "We're trying to feed those extra people, feed a growing livestock herd, and now, feed our cars, all from a static farmland base. No one should be surprised that food production can't keep up."

     Qualman said that the converging problems of natural gas and fertilizer constraints, intensifying water shortages, climate change, farmland loss and degradation, population increases, the proliferation of livestock feeding, and an increasing push to divert food supplies into biofuels signal the opening phase of an intensifying food shortage.

     He cautioned that there are no easy fixes. "If we try to do more of the same, if we try to produce, consume, and export more food while using more fertilizer, water, and chemicals, we will only intensify our problems. Instead, we need to rethink our relation to food, farmers, production, processing, and distribution. We need to create a system focused on feeding people and creating health. We need to strengthen the food production systems around the world. Diversity, resilience, and sustainability are key."

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