CN workers - bent but far from broken
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
By Sam Hammond
The 80% rejection of the proposed one year settlement at CN Rail by members of the embattled United Transit Union was an act of courage under extreme duress. That is obvious, a given.
What is unknown is how it will express itself in the present melee. Will it be marshalled by any of the suitors? Are there forces within the ranks who have the ability to nurture and protect this militancy, who have a larger view of what a union is, what leadership responsibility must be, and where a collective agreement or a strike fits into the present and the future?
The UTU members are like a stag surrounded by snarling dogs while facing an armed hunter in the person of CN Rail. Make no mistake about it. The main antagonists in this mess are CN Rail (the corporate expropriator-plunderer) and the UTU running trades workers, fighting up from ground zero for working conditions and wages that will allow them a small piece of the life that every human deserves as a minimum condition of survival, as a bequest from our ancestors. These two antagonists, capital and labour, are surrounded by a pack of hounds, each with a similar agenda but different tactics. The hounds could attack the hunter, the stag, or both.
The stage for this struggle was set in Canadian history, when past governments formed a publicly owned corporation from the manors of the warring and failed Railroad Barons. In order to resist the booming republic to the south, the new Dominion of Canada had to intervene with public funds and take possession. After years of trampling on the rights of First Nations people from coast to coast, stealing land and resources, grinding the bone and flesh of immigrant workers into the railbeds, the CN developed as a Canadian icon.
Then it was given back to private capital. As a private enterprise, CN still enjoys the benefits of past plunder and government subsidy. It has broadened its operations through the heart of middle America as far as Texas, acquiring an American management who express almost complete disdain for Canadian needs, Canadian Labour Codes, and most of all Canadian health and safety legislation.
The present CN Rail strike is the result of this backdrop. The shameful activity of rival unions is a complicating factor that may lose this strike, or give it away. But that is not the main issue, no matter how the corporation or the Canadian Government try to portray the matter as they prepare to crush the hopes of railroaders families under their corporate greed and their neo-liberal agenda.
This is a class struggle, with all the complicating factors of capitalism in Canada: our escalating foreign takeover, de-industrialization, deep integration into US imperialism and involvement in global imperialist military ventures. It represents the lap-dog acquiescence led by the Tories, and the dilemma of Canadian workers - how to resist, and with what kind of ideological and political weaponry.
At the moment of writing, the CN workers are being called upon by a discredited UTU leadership to carry out rotating strikes, by the Teamsters to ignore their union and join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (where almost 3000 of their brothers and sisters went last year at CP Rail), and by CN Rail to go back to work and sign regional agreements.
The Harper cabinet's back to work legislation was passed by the House of Commons (with the Liberals in favour and the NDP opposed), then quickly approved by the Senate and given immediate royal assent.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Industrial Relations Board is considering a request by the Teamsters to legalize their raid and declare an open period. The leadership of the UTU has lost touch with the membership and therefore lost control, the Teamsters are salivating for new members, the CIRB is considering legalizing back-stabbing, and the Tory cabinet will probably impose "Final Offer Settlement" or something with a similar moniker.
Unfortunately, sisters and brothers, this may be a sign of things to come. The real splits here, the major contradictions, are ideological. First and foremost is the antagonistic relationship between two classes, complicated by the ideological gerrymandering of the trade union movement - the modern face of reformism and social democracy, with its business unionism and corporate structural model. Instead of organizing, the growing tendency is to raid, capture dues bases, consolidate, compete and merge. For some, a fraternal organization weakened in the struggle is a good opportunity for a raid. All these conditions make unity in action very difficult to achieve.
But these conditions and this corrupt ideology are not yet dominant. There is still plenty of morality and class consciousness in the trade union movement. There are still plenty of leadership elements who will fight for unity. The lower "non-commissioned officers" of the movement are still by and large selfless volunteers who fight the good fight on a day to day basis. The shop stewards, local union executives and officers of unions are really the catalyst, the heart and soul of resistance.
There is a growing tendency for every major strike to evolve into a political struggle that cannot be won on the shop floor, by the simple withdrawal of labour. The anti-labour, anti-worker agenda of the corporate political hacks at every level of government will move in this direction.
In response, labour unity and labour independent political campaigning are absolutely necessary. The option of "whether or not" is fast disappearing. This demands a resurgence of left ideology armed with a program of labour unity, extra-parliamentary resistance, unity with the social justice movements, and unity between the working class in all the Canadian nations. The realization of these needs is in itself the beginning of the solution, of left ideology. We must talk more of this.
Good luck to the brave workers at CN Rail. No matter what you end up wearing, no matter what legislation is forced on you, please don't lose heart. In the words of Muhammad Ali, "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." Your road is uphill today, and it seems hard to see the trees for the forest, but the good green healthy trees are there. Your troubles are transient. You may be bent but you will never be broken.
May Day 2007: What kind of fightback is needed?
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
Excerpts from the Political Resolution adopted by delegates at the recent 35th Central Convention of the Communist Party of Canada
What kind of fightback is needed? As the neoliberal agenda unfolds at both the federal and provincial levels, more and more sections of the people are coming under fire, giving rise to protests, demonstrations, strikes, and other forms of resistance. The powerful two-week strike in October 2005 by the BC Teachers showed that with militant leadership and broad public support, labour can take on right-wing governments. The near-general strike in Quebec, the Six Nations occupation in Caledonia, the recent mass demonstrations by farmers, and the growing mobilization to defend women's programs, show that the mood of popular resistance remains widespread.
Perhaps most significant is the "Troops Out Now" campaign, which includes anti-war coalitions in both Quebec and English-speaking Canada, the Canadian Labour Congress, key sections of the Muslim community, environmentalists, the Council of Canadians, student groups, and many other organizations. The majority of Canadians support the call to withdraw the troops, compelling the NDP to call for removal of troops engaged in military operations...
It is imperative that these threads of resistance be drawn together into a united, coordinated fightback. This will not happen spontaneously; it will require the conscious efforts of all those involved in the struggle, based on recognition that the only way to block and defeat a single, comprehensive right-wing agenda is through "unity-in-action", through the building of the broadest possible, comprehensive and united fightback. Only by moving thousands and hundreds of thousands of people into the streets and onto picket lines will it be possible to force the Tories into retreat, to stiffen opposition in Parliament, and lay the basis to defeat this government and then to press for progressive change.
Broad unity does not imply, and should not entail, setting aside specific concerns and interests of respective movements and constituencies. On the contrary, all these concerns and demands need to find expression in a united fightback. We should not settle for "lowest common denominator" unity, but rather strive for unity based on our shared common interests in defeating this right-wing threat, and informed by that classic labour slogan: "An injury to one is an injury to all!" Experiences in many other countries around the globe and in Canada itself convincingly show that "in unity there is strength."
All of the social movements and organizations, from all sectors - labour, aboriginal peoples, peace groups and coalitions, women's organizations, seniors, youth and student organizations, visible and national minorities, anti-poverty groups, environmentalists, LGBT activists, political organizations - must have both the opportunity and the shared responsibility to help build a united fightback movement. Indeed, its very success depends on the inclusion and active participation of all these forces to achieve the "critical mass" needed to block the Tories.
In order to build such a strong and united fightback movement, each of its many component parts must in turn be strengthened, and our Party and its members should work without fail to support and help build each of these movements. This includes (among others) our work among Aboriginal peoples against their racist oppression, police/state harassment, and in defence of their national rights; among immigrants and national monitories in the fight against racism and "anti-terror" victimization; in the women's movement and in particular the efforts to rebuild a labour-backed pan-Canadian women's organization; among youth and students in the high schools, post-secondary institutions and the workplace; in the environmental movement; in struggles at the civic level, including support for municipal reform candidates and movements; and not least, in the crucial anti-war and anti-imperialist movements.....
Heading into the next federal election, Canada is truly at a crucial moment, even more significant than the "free trade" campaign of 1988. There may be some new elements in this campaign, such as the possibility that the new leadership of the Greens will make that party a bigger factor in the struggle for votes. The fight for democratic electoral reform remains crucial to efforts to break the monopoly of the "big parties" in Parliament; in this regard, it will be important to conduct a major battle for proportional representation in the upcoming review of electoral reform in Ontario. A breakthrough for PR in Canada's most populous province would be a major victory for democracy.
The goal of the Communist Party will be to help defeat the ultra-right Harper Tories - who are now the preferred party of finance capital - and in the process to shift the balance of political forces within Parliament and in the country as a whole. This struggle can become an important step towards initiating a broader campaign for a progressive agenda.
For this reason, Communists will be on the ballot in as many cities as possible, to expose the right-wing agenda and to win support for the policies outlined in our People's Alternative. The Communist Party will campaign to put people's needs before corporate greed, presenting a strategy to defeat imperialism and block the threat of fascism and war. Our candidates will link the battles around immediate issues with the perspective of a People's Coalition government, which can open the door to a socialist transformation of Canada. This is the special contribution of Communists as we campaign shoulder to shoulder with the people's movements to defeat the Tories.
ALCAN ruling: a move to privatize resources
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
By George Gidora
The privatization of Canada's energy resources has taken a big leap forward with a BC Supreme Court ruling that awards multinational aluminum giant Alcan the right to sell electricity to BC Hydro.
In the 1950s, the BC government allowed Alcan to divert massive amounts of water from the Nechako River, drilling massive tunnels through entire mountains. Water from the "Kemano Project" could be used to generate electricity only for the purposes of smelting aluminum and creating jobs at Kitimat. But in the early 1990s, Alcan revealed plans for the "Kemano Completion Project" (KCP) to divert even more water from the Nechako and expand the electrical generating facilities.
The original project flooded much of the traditional territory of the Cheslatta aboriginal nation and severely damaged salmon spawning habitat. Environmental groups, the United Fisherman and Allied Workers Union, and the Cheslatta fought the KCP, which was halted by the NDP provincial government in 1995. In return, Alcan was awarded a monthly payment of $1 million from BC Hydro to compensate for "lost revenues" which would have been realized through selling electricity.
The purpose of KCP was to generate electricity to sell for profit, since Alcan had sufficient existing generating capacity for its Kitimat smelter. Alcan is now more brazen than ever; since the BC Liberals have passed legislation forbidding BC Hydro to develop new sources of electrical generation, the utility must now buy power from privately owned concerns.
The town of Kitimat took Alcan to court to stop an upgrade to Alcan's smelter which would cost 500 jobs. The company plans to shift its main emphasis to electrical production which will further reduce the number employed at the smelter, from 5500 jobs at the peak, to 1500 today. Kitimat has the fastest shrinking population in BC, falling from 14,000 to 8900 in about 20 years.
The BC Supreme Court ruling is interesting, because the plan to sell electricity to BC Hydro was nixed recently by the BC Utilities Commission as too expensive for the province. At that time it was revealed that Premier Gordon Campbell owned shares in Alcan, of which he claimed to be unaware.
Alcan has now dropped its appeal of the Commission's decision, in favour of "revamping" its proposal. BC Hydro and Alcan both say discussions on a new deal are "going well" and agreement is expected soon. In other words, the details are being tweaked, and Alcan will soon be able to sell its "surplus" electricity for a windfall profit.
The incessant drive for more and more profit is fueling the government-approved process of using public resources to generate private wealth. Nothing is permitted to get in the way; aboriginal rights, environment protection, people's jobs and security - all fall aside in the wake of this drive.
In the upcoming federal election, people need to remember these things and cast their votes appropriately. A vote for candidates of the Communist Party of Canada would send a strong message that we are fed up with the mayhem and destruction that occurs when private profit is constantly put ahead of public need.
(George Gidora is the British Columbia leader of the Communist Party, and the Communist candidate in the riding of Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.)
Communists campaign in Manitoba election
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
Statement of the Manitoba Committee, Communist Party of Canada, April 24, 2007
Seeking a third mandate and with the slogan "Forward, not back", Manitoba NDP Premier Gary Doer has called an election for May 22. Most commentators expect that the NDP will be re-elected, although with a reduced majority.
The Communist Party is nominating five to six candidates and will campaign on a solid working class approach and platform, seeking to elect genuinely progressive candidates and to unite working people to block the election of an even more pro-Big Business party, the Progressive Conservatives.
The CPC will campaign for every vote we can get, advancing policies to put people and nature before profit. A communist in the legislature would make a real difference, and we have every intention of improving our share of the vote.
Like the official opposition PCs led by Hugh McFadyen, the NDP is campaigning to represent Manitoba's corporate ruling class. The platforms of the two parties are remarkably similar. The Doer governmentÆs budget in April included tax cuts for the corporations and was silent on how to end Manitoba's "low wage" economy.
The NDP has worked hard to win the support of Manitoba's corporate elite, such as Doer's endorsement of the federal Conservative budget and his public defiance of the federal NDP's position of ending Canada's occupation of Afghanistan.
The NDP's accommodation with capitalism is hurting workers and the needy, especially Aboriginal people, women and youth who often face a desperate struggle to survive. For example, Winnipeg's food banks distribute emergency food to 18,126 children each month, up from 5,512 ten years ago.
A McFadyen PC government would be an even greater threat. Bitter experience has shown that the PCs cannot be trusted to keep their election promises, such as not to privatize Manitoba Telephone System (MTS) in the 1990s. A PC government would deepen social inequalities, impose harsh anti-labour measures to crush efforts by unions to raise wages, and do nothing to change the racist unemployment and poverty of Aboriginal peoples in Manitoba.
The stakes in this election are high. Hunger and poverty must end. More and better jobs are needed. Genuine action to prevent the death of Lake Winnipeg must take place. Real change on all of these issues would benefit all working people and the needy, but particularly Aboriginal peoples in Manitoba.
(For more information on the Communist candidates and platform, contact the party's Winnipeg office, 204-586-7824.)
May Day and class struggle - Editorial
(The following editorial is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
People's Voice Editorial, May 1-15, 2007
Communists are sometimes accused of (or applauded for!) "inciting class struggle." May Day is a useful occasion to think about this concept.
Suppose the supporters of a particular political philosophy were said to be responsible for "inciting the weather." That would be absurd - winds, rain, clouds, and sunlight are natural phenomena which occur regardless of any ideology.
Class struggle is also a natural component of all class-divided societies. Throughout recorded history, conflicts have been a constant feature of the relationship between master and slave, lord and serf, boss and worker. Slave revolts, peasant uprisings, and working class rebellions came long before the Communists emerged as an organized political force in the 19th century. On a less visible scale, resistance against the bosses is an everyday reality, a shop-floor combat over every minute of working time, every nickel on the paycheque, every measure to protect the lives and limbs of those who produce the profits.
But the most effective forms of class struggle are those which unite large numbers of workers and their allies around immediate goals and long-range aims. The eight-hour day, for example, was won by the collective efforts of millions of workers, using strikes, demonstrations, and other tactics over a period of decades. This victory had nothing to do with appealing to the consciences of capitalists, and everything to do with a conscious struggle led by the trade unions, and by the Communists and other left forces.
On May Day 2007, we salute the workers of all countries who are carrying forward the struggle for better pay and working conditions, for defence of social programs and equality, for peace and disarmament - and for a socialist future in which the guiding principle is the collective interest of the planet, not the greed of transnational corporations.
The Dion/May agreement - Editorial
(The following editorial is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
People's Voice Editorial, May 1-15, 2007
The federal election kaleidoscope shifted again in mid-April. Anything could still happen, such as new parliamentary eruptions around the Afghanistan fiasco and environmental policies. But the revelations about Stephen Harper's psychic "image consultant" (paid for by the public) make a spring campaign less likely.
The recent deal between Stephane Dion and Elizabeth May is also worthy of consideration. Their agreement not to field candidates in each other's ridings has outraged media pundits and some members of their parties, as well as the federal NDP, who argue that all voters must enjoy the full range of electoral options. In reality, the only way to allow every Canadian the right to vote for all options (including the Communist Party) is proportional representation. We hope Ontario voters will support PR this fall, despite the unfair 3% threshold being proposed. This would help to thwart the perpetual strategy of big business for right-wing majority governments elected by a minority of voters.
In the Dion/May case, widespread public cynicism about the electoral process may benefit their parties. While the media calls the deal a "sign of weakness," most Canadians agree that the electoral playing field is unbalanced and undemocratic. Many voters may welcome this agreement as a rare signal of willingness to put the interests of the country ahead of partisan politics.
On the other hand, Jack Layton's NDP, who rejected a similar Green offer, may come across as opportunist partisans. That will be more likely if the NDP continues to direct much of its fire on the Liberals and Greens. While there is much to criticise in the platforms and records of those parties, the NDP would do well to put the main focus on the extreme danger posed by the Harper Conservatives.
John Graham back in court May 17
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
By Kimball Cariou
The next step in John Graham's battle against extradition to the United States is set for Thursday, May 17. The John Graham Defense Committee is urging supporters to be at the Vancouver courthouse (800 Smithe Street) at 9 am that day for the legal hearing.
Graham, a 48-year-old Tuchone Indian from Whitehorse, Yukon, was arrested in Vancouver in December 2003, on a U.S. indictment, accused of the murder of Anna Mae Aquash, a fellow activist in the American Indian Movement.
Aquash was last seen alive in late 1975, at an AIM safe house near the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. During that period of time, dozens of AIM members and supporters were killed by the FBI and goon squads linked to the corrupt tribal leadership. Not long before her disappearance, Anna Mae said that she had been detained and threatened by FBI agent David Price, who told her she would not live out the year if she did not become an informer.
Early in 1976, Anna Mae's body was found on the reservation. The initial cause of death was listed as "exposure", by a coroner who "missed" the bullet hole in the back of her head.
There has been speculation for years, encouraged by the FBI, that Anna Mae was killed as a suspected informer, allegedly by John Graham. But those who have looked into the matter in depth conclude that there is no evidence of such an execution.
In fact, as Vancouver journalist and researcher Rex Weyler states "There is no evidence of which I am aware that AIM ever dealt with informers by `executing' them. It is unheard of. In the cases of Douglas Durham, Bernie Morning Gun, Virginia `Blue Dove' DeLuce and dozens of other informers, when AIM discovered them, they simply exposed them. AIM leaders even supported Norman Brown, a teenager at the time, whose mother begged him to cooperate with in fabricating evidence. There exists zero public evidence that AIM ever executed any informer: ever, anywhere.
"There is evidence that the FBI snitchjacketed activists and framed people for bogus crimes. The `snitchjacket' technique is to make movement insiders believe one of their own is an informant."
At the time of Graham's arrest, AIM leader Leonard Peltier warned that "I fear that John will not receive a fair trial in the U.S. anymore than I did. I must remind you, it is court record that the FBI lied to extradite me back to the U.S." Peltier, who was arrested in Canada and charged with the murder of two FBI agents, has remained in U.S. jails for over thirty years after a trial riddled with errors and lies.
On Feb. 21, 2005, BC Supreme Court Justice Bennett ruled that Graham should be extradited to the United States to stand trial for the murder. No real evidence presented by U.S. authorities to indicate that John Graham committed the crime for which he stands accused. Justice Bennett was critical of the weaknesses and inadequacies of the case against Graham, but she ultimately decided she could not rule against the extradition request, which relied largely on hearsay testimony.
Since then, Graham and his lawyers have been working on an appeal, and he has been living under house arrest in east Vancouver. Last year, the legal team made a formal appeal to federal Minister of Justice Vic Toews, urging him to intervene based on a number of legal arguments. While Toews ruled that he would not intervene, the lawyers plan to appeal the minster's decision.
The Justice Minister's explanation does refer to the fact that "hundreds of people have written in support of Mr. Graham. It is commendable that Mr. Graham is so highly regarded and enjoys the support of so many." Knowing that such pressure is making an impression, the Defense Committee has continued to gather letters of support in Canada and abroad.
As the Defense Committee points out, "The worldwide forceful confiscation of native lands for mineral and other resources has a long and bloody history - as is reflected in the matter facing John and its connection to the uranium-rich native lands of South Dakota - a struggle which continues to this day. Around the world, aboriginal people are striving to retain their heritage and their connection to the land; be it on the shores of eastern Taiwan where the Amis tribe is working to reclaim their age-old ceremonial site under the threat of tourism development, or on the shores of arctic Alaska where the Gwich'in people are striving to protect the sacred caribou calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from oil and gas development. The case against John Graham reflects all such struggles and the atrocities which are often committed in such confiscation of sacred lands.
"In recent years, the United States government has shown itself to be largely unconcerned with the sovereignty of foreign countries and has demonstrated grave human rights abuses. It is therefore alarming that the Canadian government implemented an Extradition Act in 1999 which allows extradition of Canadian citizens to the US with merely a summary of evidence, while disallowing any examination of that evidence to ensure it is sufficient, accurate, and not fabricated.
"In John's case, it has already been shown that key witnesses and evidence are not available (or never were), bringing a cloud of suspicion over the United States' entire case and judicial process - it seems the US government would prefer the Canadian justice system were blind, deaf and mute to their true intentions."
For more information on the case, visit the Defense Committee's website,
http://www.grahamdefense.org. Excerpts from Rex Weyler's 1981 book on the war against indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere,
Blood of the Land, are available online. Other excellent source books are Peter Matthiessen's
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and Johanna Brand's
The Life and Death of Anna Mae Aquash.
Salute Asian-Canadian labour pioneers in B.C.
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
By Kimball Cariou
Relatively little has been published about the history of union organizing among the Chinese-Canadian community in British Columbia, but a
People's Voice reader recently brought some interesting items to our Vancouver editorial office.
Several faded clippings and photos give some insight into the work of pioneer Chinese-Canadian activists, including Chan Kwan and Roy Mah.
The clippings are from
The People, the weekly communist paper published in Vancouver during the Second World War, later renamed the
Pacific Tribune. Both men are featured in the June 17, 1944 edition of
The People, in an article headlined "Two Unions Appoint Chinese Organizers."
Roy Quock Quon Mah later became famous as the founder, editor and publisher of the Chinatown News, the first English-language publication aimed at Canadian-born Chinese, and as an early organizer of Chinese New Year celebrations in Vancouver.
But in 1944, as a 22-year-old former university student, he was appointed by the International Woodworkers of America as a special organizer to bring Chinese-speaking workers into the IWA. The article noted that Mah had already signed up over 200 sawmill workers, and that in every camp he visited, almost every Chinese-speaking worker joined the union. Thanks in part to Mah's work, 1200 of the estimated 2000 Chinese-Canadian workers in the industry had been organized into the IWA. Among his other responsibilities, Roy Mah was the editor of a Chinese edition of the IWA's paper, the B.C. Lumberworker.
Chan Kwan is a lesser-known figure, but one who was directly associated with the left in the labour movement, with a background in progressive groups and union struggles. One undated photo shows Kwan seated on top of a boxcar at the front of a group of about twenty men, riding through what appears to be the Fraser Valley or perhaps the area around Kamloops. This was probably taken on June 4, 1935, the first full day of the On to Ottawa Trek organized by the Relief Camp Workers Union. (As a side note, Chinese-Canadian cafe owners showed solidarity with the Trekkers along their route, helping to feed them in towns such as Moose Jaw.)
Kwan took an active part in the famous 1938 Blubber Bay strike by Chinese quarry workers and other members of the IWA. Later that year, he was among the unemployed workers who occupied the Vancouver Post Office to demand jobs. During the war, he found employment in a Vancouver shipyard, becoming a shop steward with the Dock and Shipyard Workers' Union.
The April 10, 1943 edition of
The People reported on contributions for the newspaper's press drive within the local Chinese community. "Chan Kwan, Chinese shipyard worker, was being acclaimed this week as a one-man press drive committee," begins the story. Within a few days, Chan Kwan had collected $114.75 in donations towards the paper's annual fund drive. "Every cent of that money has been collected from among Chinese workers and small merchants in Vancouver's Chinatown, most of it in 25 and 50-cent pieces."
Chan Kwan had prepared a small Chinese-language poster for this effort, explaining that "
The People defends the rights of all minority groups in BC; supports the fight of the Chinese people against Japanese fascist aggression, and calls for greater unity between China, the Soviet Union and the other United Nations."
Speaking to staff at
The People, Kwan said, "It was not hard when I explained to them what the paper stands for. Many Chinese workers are now in trade unions and know how the labour press helps get them better conditions."
By the following spring, Kwan was appointed as an organizer for the Fish Cannery, Reduction Plant and Allied Workers Union. During his first month on the job, he as responsible for organizing 200 Chinese cannery workers who had never before held union cards.
Such campaigns, like similar efforts by Indian-born Darshan Singh Sangha, did much to help break down the racism fanned by employers to divide west coast workers.
A fascinating feature ny Cynthia Carter in the May 15, 1943 edition of
The People, "Vancouver's Chinese Seek Unity in Labour," traces the record of efforts by the employers to turn white and Chinese workers against each other in British Columbia. As soon as Chinese immigrants began to join unions and other organizations, she reports, the "yellow peril" cry was raised.
"It was a huge campaign, partly planned, partly unconscious, to slander the oriental workers, and for a while it worked," continues the article. "Now it is beginning to fail, for two obvious reasons," Carter writes: the "magnificent fight" against Japanese fascism by the people of China, and the growing economic role of Chinese-Canadian workers. "Of the 8,000 Chinese in Vancouver, more than 3,000 work in sawmills, pulp and shingle mills. Four hundred work in the shipyards, a number are in the army, and hundreds more have small farms of their own."
Carter pointed to important signs of growing working class unity. At Vancouver's huge May Day parade earlier that month, a shop steward read a message from all Chinese shipyard workers, stating in part that "On this May Day, the great anniversary holiday of labour, workers from every branch of industry have come to show their solidarity with their fellow workers in all lands. We Chinese workers of the city are also pleased that we are taking part in this great celebration. Today the working people fight a common enemy, fascism, whether it be German, Italian or Japanese.... Long live the workers of the world!"
Stronger unity among all British Columbia workers paid off in the post-war years with major gains, ranging from pay increases to establishing the 40-hour work week as the standard in most industries. To mark Asian Heritage Month during May, we pay tribute to the heroic contributions of Asian-Canadian labour pioneers, who played a crucial role in achieving these gains.
Extradite Posada to Venezuela, says CNC
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
On April 17, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled that former CIA operative Luis Posada Carriles can be released on bail and will not have to wait in jail for his trial on immigration fraud charges in May.
Those charges are really a smokescreen for Posada's actual crimes, which include his role in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (exactly 46 years earlier to the day) and, more tragically, plotting from Venezuela the bombing of flight 455 of Cubana de Aviacion on October 6, 1976 that killed the 73 people on board.
The Canadian Network on Cuba (CNC), an umbrella organization of 25 member groups representing more than 55,000 people across Canada, has been following and documenting Posada's career and finds his release and trial a "complete miscarriage of justice". "It is disturbing that Mr. Posada is on trial for illegally entering the U.S. when he should be on trial for terrorist activities", said Nino Pagliccia, the CNC Campaigns co-chair.
Venezuela is joined by Cuba in demanding that Posada Carriles be extradited to that country to continue his trial interrupted 20 years ago when Posada fled the country. "There is no evidence whatsoever that Posada will be tortured there as the U.S. government claims," Pagliccia said. "This is just a case of protection of an ex-CIA agent that might reveal the agency's involvement in terrorist activities."
Posada Carriles' career spans four decades until the year 2000 when he was arrested and later pardoned in Panama for the attempt to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro. His name is connected to several controversial activities including the Iran-Contra Affair in the 1980s.
His activities have also impacted Canada. An Italian tourist resident in Montreal, Fabio Di Celmo, was killed when a bomb went off in a hotel in Havana in 1997. In an interview to the New York Times in 1998, Posada "proudly admitted authorship of the hotel bomb attacks."
"It is sad that someone is dead, but we can't stop," he added. "That Italian was sitting in the wrong place at the wrong time."
The CNC has launched a campaign that seeks the extradition of Posada Carriles to Venezuela where there is now an order for his arrest for 73 murder charges; he is also a fugitive from justice.
"President Bush has to live up to his famous statement `if you harbor a terrorist, you are as guilty as the terrorist'," said Pagliccia.
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
Special to PV
One of the most famous Latin American revolutionary singer-songwriters, Daniel Viglietti is performing across Canada this month, with concerts scheduled in Vancouver, Ottawa, and Calgary.
Born in 1939, in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, Daniel Viglietti comes from a family with a strong musical tradition. His mother, Lyda Indart, played piano; his father, Cédar Viglietti, was a guitarist and student of folklore; and his uncle played piano at night clubs and hotels. From an early age he came into contact with classical and popular music, forming a duet called Los Serranos and later joining a group known as Lavalleja. In the 1960s, Daniel Viglietti was a student at the Uruguayan National Music Conservatory, studying guitar with masters Atilio Rapat and Abel Carlevaro.
He soon became one of the most powerful figures in the
Nueva Cancion (New Song) movement which swept Latin America during the Sixties, reflecting influences such as the Cuban Revolution and the rise of the Popular Unity coalition which won power in Chile in 1970. In 1968, Viglietti's record
Canciones para el hombre Nuevo (Songs for the New Man) won the grand prize at the Charles Cros Academy in France.
During the 1972 fascist coup d'etat in Uruguay, Daniel Viglietti was incarcerated by the military, and then exiled to Argentina and later France. Daniel Viglietti en vivo, a recording of one of the first shows after his imprisonment, shows the depth of his commitment and talents. Alone with his guitar, Viglietti performed
Por todo Chile, (described by one reviewer as "the voice of a generation"),
Nuestra bandera ("a veritable national anthem of unbridled anger"), and
Cielito del calabozo ("a luminously elegant poem that begins in an unaccompanied whisper and thickens into a ferocious stampede").
In 1984 Viglietti returned to Uruguay, and in 1995 the government gave him an award for his contribution to popular music. During his long career, his records have sold large numbers across the world, and his has given concerts in many countries.
On October 6, 2005, Daniel Viglietti shared his music and his thoughts about current events in Uruguay with an audience of students, professors and community members at York University in Toronto. The event included social and political analysis, anecdotes, and a sing-along.
Viglietti delighted the audience with classics such as
Bandera nuestra, Cielito, América latina esta gritando, and his most famous song,
A desalambrar (Tear Down the Fences), which became an anthem throughout the region for social forces struggling for land reform. He spoke about the origins of his music, and about the challenges that face Uruguay following the November 2004 election of the Frente Amplio, a centre-left coalition government which prioritizes measures to tackle poverty, unemployment, and marginalization.
Many struggles led to the Frente Amplio victory, including a successful campaign for a constitutional amendment to declare access to water and sanitation as a fundamental human right. "A drop is too little, but when it joins with other drops it turns into rain," said Viglietti, closing the final public event for the "YES to Water Constitutional Reform" campaign in October of 2004.
Viglietti was among the prominent artists, musicians and intellectuals invited to Fidel Castro's 80th birthday celebration, held last December while the Cuban leader was recovering from health problems. A gala concert at Havana's Karl Marx Theater featured South African Miriam Makeba, Chile's Pancho Villa, Argentinean Piero, Uruguayan Daniel Viglietti, Puerto Rican Danny Rivera, Dominican Victor Victor and Cubans Silvio Rodriguez and Pablo Milanes, among others.
Most recently, Viglietti was the headline performer at the massive March 9 rally in Montevideo to protest George Bush's trip to Uruguay and other Latin American countries.
At the age of 68, Daniel Viglietti is still a powerful force in the culture and politics of Latin America. Readers are urged not to miss this unique opportunity to hear him live in concert.
Violent anti-union repression continues in Iran
(The following article is from the May 1-15, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)
PV Combined Sources
The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) condemned the Iranian authorities on April 18 for their intensified attacks on independent trade unions in the country. Hundreds of leaders and members of teachers' organisations have been arrested, along with bakery workers' leader Mahmoud Salehi from the city of Saqez in Iran Kurdistan. The crackdown was believed to be linked to government attempts to prevent this year's May Day activities.
The intensified repression of the teachers' organisations began on March 7, when protests around the country took place against the failure by the Parliament to pass a much-anticipated Pay Parity Bill which would have improved the dire economic situation of the education workforce. Security and Intelligence Ministry agents raided the homes of over 20 union leaders in a coordinated action around midnight on March 7, detaining several of them and removing them to secret locations. While some were released the following day, many were re-arrested.
At a conciliation meeting set for March 13, the Education Minister failed to appear as planned. Instead, Intelligence Ministry and armed forces agents turned up and threatened the teacher representatives, three of whom were unable to attend the meeting due to their arrest and detention the night before.
On March 14, some 300 teachers were arrested at a demonstration outside the Parliament. Fifty were taken to the notorious Evin Prison, where 14 were kept in jail for two weeks despite a ruling from the head of Iran's judiciary that they had simply been exercising their legitimate rights and ordering their immediate release. The government also ordered all schools in Tehran to close early before Norouz, the most important holiday in Iran's calendar.
The renewed attacks on the "Saquez Seven" bakery workers' leaders focused on Mahmoud Salehi, who has spent more than five years in prison since the mid-1980s due to his union activities, having been detained in 1986, 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2001. On May Day 2004, Salehi and six others were arrested and charged with organising trade union activities, including holding a May Day rally. The arrests took place just two days after they met with a visiting delegation of the ICFTU, and the prosecutor in court referred repeatedly to their contacts with the international trade union group.
Sentenced to five years' jail and three years internal exile in 2005, Salehi and others sentenced with him successfully appealed against the verdicts. Then in 2006 further charges were brought in the Saqez Revolutionary Court against him and his colleagues. At their next appeal, on March 11 of this year, the Presiding Judge was replaced at the last minute with the prosecutor who had led the original case against them. No official verdict was issued from this appeal, but on April 9 Salehi was again detained by security forces and is now being held in prison in the heavily militarised city of Sanandaj. A demonstration on April 16 against the repression of the Saqez Seven met with violent repression by the authorities, with several participants injured as a result of attacks with batons and gas sprays.
"These latest attacks by the Iranian authorities are of the deepest concern," said ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder. "Any government which conducts a campaign of judicial subjugation and violent repression against workers who are simply trying to get decent treatment and a living wage should be utterly condemned for betraying the interests of its own people,"
