Two weeks on the line (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Kimball Cariou BRITISH COLUMBIA'S 38,000 public school teachers returned to the classroom on Oct. 24, strongly united for the next round of battles for the education system. Members of the BC Teachers Federation voted 77.6% (23,632 to 6,795) to support their leadership's call to accept settlement terms proposed by mediator Vince Ready.      Over the course of two weeks on strike, the teachers and their allies mounted the most powerful challenge to the Campbell government since the Liberals came to power four years ago. Crucial solidarity came from other unions, but many forces joined the fray, leaving the government increasingly isolated. While the Premier and his cabinet ministers desperately repeated their mantra of "no negotiations with lawbreakers," public opinion made it possible for talks to begin through Ready.      The BC Teachers' Federation was compelled to walk out on Oct. 7, after Bill 12 ended collective bargaining with the BC Public School Employers Association (BCPSEA). Some 25,000 members of CUPE and other support staff unions (such as Operating Engineers and BCGEU) refused to cross the BCTF picket lines. The Liberals calculated that the walkout would crumble when the courts ordered an end to the strike and cut off the teachers' $50 daily strike pay.      But the opposite happened. By vilifying teachers for the past several years, the Liberals had crafted their own image as bullies. While BCTF leader Jinny Sims repeatedly called for talks with the government, the Premier and Labour Minister Mike de Jong came across as threatening and arrogant.      Instead of abandoning the BCTF, large sections of the labour movement rallied in support. According to observers close to the BC Federation of Labour executive, there were divisions at that level, but CUPE in particular called for active solidarity. Since contracts will expire soon for tens of thousands of public sector workers across BC, the significance of such solidarity was obvious.      One turning point came on Tuesday, October 11, when an estimated 3,000 teachers and supporters rallied at Vancouver's Trade and Convention Centre, home to top-level provincial government offices. It was the biggest protest in years at that location, raising spirits and proving that grassroots labour activists were determined to give full support to the BCTF.      Other rallies were organized across BC, in communities such as Campbell River, Courtenay, Cranbrook, Dawson Creek, Duncan, Gibsons, Kamloops, Kelowna, Kitimat, Penticton, Port Alberni, Prince George, Quesnel, Sooke, Terrace, Victoria, and Salmon Arm.      Over the next few days, opinion surveys confirmed the street-level anecdotal evidence that most parents backed the teachers. Polls showed that 57% of respondents supported the teachers, compared to just 34% for the government, indicating that even many Liberal voters were unhappy with the attack on the teachers.      There was also a growing backlash by the direct employers of the teachers - British Columbia's sixty school boards. During the first few days of the strike, several boards called on the government to repeal Bill 12 or to resume negotiations. After two weeks, 40 boards, representing 84% of the provincial school population, had taken similar positions. The BCPSEA (which receives over 60% of its funding from Victoria) was left looking like a toothless puppet of the BC Liberals.      Similarly, dozens of parent groups expressed criticism of the Liberals. Rallies by parents and students across the province overwhelmingly supported the teachers, putting education underfunding at the top of the political agenda.      The power of the BC Fed came into play on Monday, Oct. 17, when much of Victoria was shut down by a union walkout and rally at the Legislature. An estimated 15-20,000 teachers and supporters turned out in heavy rain, sending a strong message of unity and solidarity to the Campbell government.      Rotating walkouts and protests followed around the province. In Prince George, a one-day job action on Oct. 18 was preceded by a huge rally at the office of Liberal MLA Pat Bell. As the local daily reported, "An estimated 1,000 people lined East Central Street and the grassy boulevard up to the bypass, dancing to songs like We're Not Going to Take It and Raise A Little Hell to show support for striking teachers."      Organized by the local Labour Council, the rally drew support from virtually every union in the area. United Steelworkers‑IWA representative Frank Everitt told the rally that his union had sent the BC Federation their endorsement of a total walk‑off by unionized workers in the province.      Thousands of private and public sector union members were off the job on Oct. 19 in East and West Kootenays towns such as Trail and Nelson. "From mines, to mills, to municipal halls ‑ the tremendous demonstration of the labour movement today should not be ignored by the Liberal government," said BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair. "There is an opportunity here for some real bargaining to take place and I strongly encourage the government to take it."      That set the stage for major rallies called by CUPE for Oct. 21 in Vancouver and Surrey. Meanwhile, in response to the rising demand for action, the government suddenly expanded Vince Ready's role in the dispute, from reviewing the overall negotiations process, to facilitating in the current strike.      When Ready's proposals were issued by the afternoon of Oct. 20, the BCFL leadership announced that the next day's rallies were cancelled. But CUPE-BC, which had called these events, announced that they would take place unless the BCTF asked otherwise. All unions involved in the struggle agreed that job actions on Oct. 21 would be limited, and warned that nobody should picket the regional transit system. That appeal was ignored by a handful of people, who shut down a few bus lines and prevented some supporters from getting to the Vancouver rally.      Nevertheless, close to 10,000 people jammed into the Pacific Coliseum on the 21st, and thousands more turned out a few hours later in Surrey. It was a dramatic show of unity between the BCTF and CUPE, with strong support from several other unions. Many members of the Longshore Union were present, spreading the word that the port of Vancouver was operating at minimum levels with just a skeleton crew of workers.      BCTF President Jinny Sims drew a huge response from the crowd at the Coliseum, announcing that the union executive would recommend acceptance of the Ready report, on condition that the government put its acceptance in writing. Hours of wrangling followed, with the labour minister finally issuing a letter attempting to weasel around the terms of acceptance. Premier Campbell did state the next day that his government gave unconditional support to the report.      On Oct. 22, the BCTF executive urged its members to vote yes, stressing that it was time to get back to work and begin a new stage in teachers' advocacy for public education.      Announcing the results the next evening, Jinny Sims said, "Teachers have voted by a large majority to end our campaign of civil disobedience and to return to work tomorrow. We will do so with our heads held high, and our hearts touched by the many gestures of kindness and solidarity we have experienced in the past two weeks."      Sims promised that teachers will work hard to help students make up for lost time, but warned that rebuilding working relationships between teachers and the province will be more difficult, since the government has now enacted six pieces of legislation targeting teachers' rights and profession.      She said teachers will hold the government accountable for its promises to amend the School Act to include firm class‑size limits for students in Grades 4 through 12, and to address the serious issues of class composition and support for students with special needs.      The next day, four BCTF representatives attended the first meeting of the Learning Roundtable in Victoria. The next stage of this battle has just begun. (Contents) (Home) How's this for contempt? (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Sam Hammond IN 1872 Sir John A. Macdonald, apparently in one of his more sober moments, introduced a "Trade Unions Act" that said when workers banded together to fight for better conditions it was not to be considered an illegal conspiracy. Macdonald was reacting to a massive surge of working class activity that saw 1500 workers down tools and march through the streets of Hamilton for the nine hour day, and Toronto printers strike the Globe newspaper. The nine hour movement was sweeping the country, workers and farmers were in conflict with the railroads, the industrial revolution was transforming class relations and the "owls and mice" of Marx's Communist Manifesto were emerging into Canadian daylight.      Macdonald knew that an uncontrolled brawl in this new sprawling country could unite all the disparate elements of the population who were being coerced and dispossessed into the new Canadian state. It would be a dangerous situation if the first nations, the farmers, the Quebecois and the fledgling trade union organizations, all with grievances, were to find common ground. If the "owls and mice" had irreconcilable interests, better to regulate the struggle, contain it and confine it, keep it localized and maintain control. After all, the mice have the advantage of numbers and labour power, so the owls must have the state, the courts, the police and the army to control them.      This is a good example of how the class struggle shapes even the capitalist state. The checks and balances develop as response mechanisms designed to maintain control for one class over another. The formalization of these checks and balances, the rules and regulations needed to ensure the machine runs every day, is called law. Law is the imposition of rules that dictate the limits of activity within the state, and law is expressed through a sophisticated court system and enforced by the police and military.      The history of democratic struggle for a thousand years at least by slaves, feudal serfs and the modern working class, has been to violate legal bondage and force more favourable changes to the state laws of the period. The violation of law and the courts has been an absolute necessity for social advance, quality of life and human rights within the capitalist state. The legal beagles, the great minds of jurisprudence would have us believe that liberal thought of legislators has been the vehicle of enlightenment. Hogwash. Through three distinct forms of exploiting society, the struggle of the masses of the people has been the engine of enlightenment. The compromises from the exploiting states were purchased with the heroism of the people's struggles and many millions of casualties.      It is the recognition of the forces at work and an understanding of the state that identifies the players, even the different ideological and tactical trends within the working class. What abets the process of democracy, and what retards it? What takes us closer to liberation and what holds us back. What is progressive and what is reactionary?      This puts the British Columbia teachers strike in perspective. The long tradition of progressive law defiance in this country has given us our heros and our legends: the Iroquois resistance, Tecumseh, Poundmaker, Riel, William Lyon Mackenzie, Papineau, Annie Buller, Slim Evans and the other "On to Ottawa Trek" leaders, the heroic women who fought for rights and equality. All their necessary and courageous struggles were waged against legal bondage and the instruments of law... the courts.      There is also an old tradition of support for others from outside who have sought refuge here from oppression - the Sioux nation after the Little Big Horn, black Americans fleeing slavery, the Viet Nam draft resistors, Chileans fleeing Pinochet, U.S. soldiers resisting the Iraq occupation, and hundreds of thousands of workers and peasants who fled here from the tyranny of unjust laws, many carrying the scars of conflict. If anything is common to our culture from shore to shore in this vast country, it is this. If we have more justice than some other states, it is because of the struggles of these people.      The court calls the defiance of the teachers contempt. That just might be the understatement of the year. The Campbell cabal calls for adherence to the law. That just might be the biggest joke of the year. In the last three years, the International Labour Organization, an agency of the United Nations, has condemned the BC government a total of nine times for violation of international labour standards that Canada and all provincial governments have sworn to uphold. The Liberals have embarrassed BC'ers by collecting more ILO complaints than any other province in the agency's 84 year history.      The Campbell tyranny has used the power of the legislature to violate international covenants and free collective bargaining, ripped up legally negotiated contracts and refused to implement decisions of its own arbitrators. This government has usurped the integrity of the courts by making them into instruments of enforcement, not instruments of justice. The head honcho, Gordon Campbell, went to someone else's country and earned himself a criminal conviction for drunk driving. Not exactly an act of legal reverence, huh Gordy?      This is a really dangerous situation. The BC government has used the Supreme Court to virtually seize a labour union, its books, bank accounts, records and assets, to place a monitor in the BCTF offices to oversee its operations, with the discretion to decide if any of its activities are in contempt of court and then to pay itself directly out of the BCTF funds. Is this contemptible? Understatement. This might require new adjectives; perhaps English teachers could work on this.      The government has also appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the possibility of criminal charges against the teachers. Why a special prosecutor? Because the crown prosecutors in British Columbia, who belong to the BC Crown Counsel Association, accuse the Campbell government of bargaining in bad faith. Twice the government has ignored binding arbitration awarding wage increases to Crown lawyers and then imposed a legislated settlement. As a result, the Crown prosecutors are currently suing the government and have a conflict, so they cannot prosecute teachers who have violated in exactly the same way.      Apparently this government isn't really playing with a full deck, a prime example of trying to substitute sheer angst for intellect. What a shame there are only two feet to shoot when there are six bullets in the gun. Oh darn. Keep at it Gordy, you do have other body parts.      The BC teachers, the entire labour movement, the working class and the majority of BC citizens have illustrated to our country and the world a magnificent lesson in tenacity and solidarity. Virtually every teachers' organization in the world has sent messages of solidarity. Public workers and their private sector allies have held our banner high for all the world to see. The ghosts of all those who have resisted, all who form the ribbon that stretches from there to here, can sleep easy in the comfort of knowing that during these October weeks, this end of the ribbon is safely in the hands of good people, the working people of British Columbia.      There is an old story of a woman in court who has had several caustic exchanges with a judge. The judge says, "Madam, are you showing contempt for this court?" She answers, "I'm trying my best not to, your honour." I'm having the same problem, how about you? (Contents) (Home) Congratulations to BC teachers (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By George Gidora, BC leader of the Communist Party BC teachers showed tremendous courage and determination in the face of all the intimidation the Campbell government could bring to bear. The teachers held their ground with the solidarity of a large section of the labour movement, in particular the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who stood shoulder to shoulder with their sisters and brothers on the picket lines.      The unity forged between CUPE and the BCTF was evident at the massive CUPE-sponsored rally on October 21. CUPE National President Paul Moist, in his address to the rally, made many references to this solidarity and to the efforts of the BCTF to defend the rights of collective bargaining in BC. Most CUPE locals will enter the next round of negotiations in 2006, and this is a crucial issue with them.      It was to an overwhelming standing ovation that Jinny Sims was introduced at the rally. It was clear from her remarks that the BCTF executive felt that the Vince Ready recommendations would be the best deal they could get at this time.      We agree with her assessment, as did 77.6% of teachers who voted over the following weekend. This outcome was not a defeat, despite the way some observers are trying to spin it. This was clearly a victory on the main issue that sparked the teachers' job action. In the words of Jinny Sims, "They tried to take away our collective bargaining rights but we bargained anyway!"      She is right. The BCTF forced the government to back away from the precipice and bargain through the intervention of Vince Ready. The huge turnout by the entire labour movement on Oct. 17 in Victoria and the continued public support frightened the corporate bosses who pull Gordon Campbell's strings. They must have been alarmed at the prospect that citizens may come to realize that by acting together in solidarity they can bring about progressive advances in defense of workers' rights.      I can imagine the worried phone calls from Howe Street to the Premier's Office, ordering him to find away out of this mess before it gets out of hand. He did the only thing he could and sought a compromise. While the result is not everything we wished for, it is clearly a victory and we shouldn't be shy about saying so.      There is only one troubling aspect about the conclusion to this momentous action - the Oct. 20 decision of the BC Federation of Labour to pull Its support for the next day's rally, when they must have known that the Ready report would be accepted. One more day of solidarity would have meant a lot to the BCTF and CUPE in terms of labour unity in BC. Delegates need to weigh up this struggle, building on all that was positive and creative about the role of the Federation, and asking why that solidarity was not fully carried through to the end. (Contents) (Home) The Stelco drama is far from over (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Sam Hammond IN JANUARY 2004 the giant corporation Stelco filed for protection under the Company Creditors Arrangement Act (CCFA). This raised the curtain on a multi‑act drama that has been twisting and turning for 22 months, with no end in sight. During this whole fiasco the plot has bounced between the ridiculous and sublime with shameless abandon.      Previous PV articles have covered some of these bourgeois escapades and their danger to Stelco employees, pensioners and the Canadian public. We watched the opening hysteria complete with experts emerging from all the hidden pockets of capitalist think tanks, university economics departments, bankruptcy judges and insolvency institutes. We discovered a world of spider-web financial transactions that spanned oceans. We got darting glimpses of shadowy phantoms of finance that control our lives and hold the mortgage on our labour and the future labour of our children. We viewed this panorama of indignity against the backdrop of 230,000 American steelworker retirees who had been stripped of medical benefits and pensions, downsized into poverty by the same forces at work here. We watched the Canadian steel locals as they moved solidly and stubbornly across the chess board, thrusting, defending and avoiding the "checkmate" that experienced international vulture capitalists could never seem to deliver.      Early in the drama, under Justice Farley of the CCFA court, Stelco's then admitted major bondholder Deutsche Bank did themselves a rather large favour by shaping up a minimum financial plan that bidders would have to at least match to even be on the game board. Needless to say, this plan looked after the bondholders quite nicely, but left the pension plan underfunded by $1.3 billion, and would have also sought major concessions from steelworkers.      Right from the start, the union went to court to prove that Stelco was not bankrupt, that its assets were far beyond its liabilities. The company was in fact making a profit, and the whole manoeuvre was just a giant steal from its workers, pensioners and shareholders. The court did not agree, and the drama unfolded further. Almost every month, the court has set firm deadlines which have been ignored or lifted at the eleventh hour, allowing the drama to play out into absurdity.      The plot has moved from the original image of corporate destitution, through a long period where suitors from all over the capitalist world entered so‑called secret bids of purchase to be opened at a pre‑destined time when we would know wether our new masters were Americans, Russians, Germans or (god forbid) Canadian investors. It was pure theatre. At the last minute Stelco announced that all bidding was off, because steel prices had risen so dramatically the unexpected windfall profits would allow it to manage its own restructuring. This set off a whole new round of speculation and intrigue. The union locals still held firm and were able to say "I told you so".      Unfortunately the restructuring plans did not include replacing the $1.3 billion owed to the pension plan. The Ontario government jumped into the act and laid down the law: the restructuring plans must address the pension deficit. At the time, we said this meant in street language "you're not dropping this ball in our court."      Meanwhile, there had been a drifting apart in the tactics of the steel locals. Rolph Gerstenberger, president of the 3000-member Hamilton Local 1005, had demanded from the start that his local had an unexpired agreement which must be honoured, nothing less. He refused to take part in behind the scenes consultations and comparisons with different would‑be purchasers or potential investors. He did not see the role of the union in that light.      Others, most prominently Local 8782 (Nanticoke near Hamilton), Local 5328 (Stelwire), Local 3258 (Stelfil) and 5220 (Alta Steel) were dealing with expired or soon to be expired contracts and developed a different approach. These locals, perhaps guided by Ron Bloom, special assistant to USWA president Leo Gerrard, entered into negotiations with several consortiums but finally supported a restructuring plan by Brascan. This plan was originally opposed by Stelco, but the union pressure and the Ontario government's offer of $100 million to the pension plan swung the deal into the bankruptcy court's favour.      The rough outline went like this: Stelco must sign a deal with Brascan for $450 million in new financing and reach new labour agreements with two United Steelworkers locals. In return the Ontario government will lend $100 million for the pension plan deficit, and Stelco must match it with $300 million of its own. The province will receive warrants that can be converted to Stelco shares, and Stelco has the option to pay the annual 1% interest in shares. If the $100 million is paid back in ten years, $25 million could be a forgivable loan. The shareholders will be wiped out, and unsecured creditors and bondholders will be paid off in new Stelco shares to be issued. They might be able to convert these to cash or they might be holding a lemon, it depends on the fortunes of the steel industry. The creditors and bondholders have threatened to kill the deal unless major concessions are made to their interests.      The bondholders, it must be remembered, are truly vultures who buy up debt at a fraction of the cost and hope to collect the full amount plus interest. They are speculators in misery and misfortune, a gigantic global version of the street thugs who are known as collectors, the bone breakers and limb crushers of pavement finance.      The two locals mentioned have tentative agreements. Only Local 1005 is opposed to the plan. Rolph Gerstenberger has been the subject of a lot of media invective; even retired right wing staffers and past presidents have been called out of the woodwork to criticize him. Why would he stand alone among local presidents and the international in opposition to this deal?      Perhaps it is because he alone has carried, from the opening shots, a position that the steel industry must remain in Canadian hands as an integral part of Canadian sovereignty. Perhaps it because the plan is loaded with financial obligations that feather the nest of Brascan and provide a continuous drain on resources that should go into the pockets of steelworkers. Perhaps it is because even in the implementation Brascan will receive costs, fees, and expenses that run into the millions. Perhaps it is because the plan does not address the problems that brought Stelco into this mess in the first place.      Part of the deal is that Stelco's three profitable operations - Stelwire, Stelfil, and Norambar - will be sold to Mittal (headquartered in Luxemburg) for $175 million. If this is not done, Stelco must raise $175 million in loans to fill the pot up to the rim. Mittal plans to reduce the workforce by 890 in those three plants. The loss of these profitable operations will further undermine the amount of contributions going into the pension plan, shave Stelco down to bare bones and perhaps pave the way for a re-entry into bankruptcy protection again in a few years. Brascan doesn't care: they can build a Disneyland on the property and Hamilton workers can dress up like Goofy and Daffy Duck for minimum wages.      All of the steel locals have been tenacious in defence of their members. Their difference in the application of tactics has not been a major stumbling block to unity but rather an irritant. They have refused to take concessions and they have been able to maintain major working conditions and pensions. So far, so good. Gerstenberger is drawing a longer bow.      It might be useful to take a little closer look at Mittal Steel, which bought ISG, which had previously bought up major U.S. steel companies under bankruptcy protection. Wilbur Ross, the American speculator who formed ISG, bought up distressed steel companies under bankruptcy protection, screwed 230,000 retirees out of their pensions and benefits, and got concessionary bargaining from the United Steelworkers, sold the whole bundle to Mittal and made 1000% on his investments. Apparently the restructuring agreement agreed to by the USWA includes a clause that eliminates workers' right to strike in favour of binding court arbitration, a clause inherited by the purchaser Mittal.      When steel contracts expired this August, Mittal used the arbitration clauses and is currently using them to stall unresolved issues into infinity. So far Canadians have not gone down that road, but beware brothers and sisters, the players are here and the game has begun. We should not be too hasty to condemn those who are trying to exercise a longer vision, after all there are plenty of warnings. Sticking one's head in the sand may bring a short term sense of security, but it can play hell with the ability to see. (Contents) (Home) Tough struggle for first contract at Lakeside (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) Special to PV THE DIFFICULT labour struggle in Brooks, Alberta, took a tragic turn on Oct. 20, when a highway traffic accident claimed the lives of two strikers and injured four others. According to media reports, two vehicles collided, one leaving the picket line at Lakeside Packers, the other heading towards the line. Picketing was suspended the next day by members of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 401, while production and profit-making continued inside.      Just a few days earlier, several managers and a former owner of the plant were charged with dangerous driving, when union local president Doug O'Halloran was injured after being forced off the road by another vehicle. Apparently, their "defense" is that they were trying to serve O'Halloran with a copy of a labour board order.      Lakeside was purchased in 2001 by Tyson Foods, the Arkansas-based meat-processing company infamous across the United States for labour standards violations and anti-union policies. As People's Voice reported last fall, persistent efforts to organize the plant finally succeeded in August 2004. The next step was even more difficult: the struggle to achieve a first contract.      A notable feature of this story is the diverse workforce at Lakeside, where about 60% of the 2,400 employees are immigrants from Sudan and other countries. Over the years, both before and since the Tyson purchase, the owners have attempted to divide and conquer by hiring a workforce with many different backgrounds and languages. What they did not realize was that many immigrant employees come from countries with long and militant labour traditions.      As time passed, this southern Alberta town became increasingly multi-cultural, and a stronger sense of working class unity emerged. The UFCW was certified again last year, and received a 70‑per‑cent strike mandate in its efforts to reach a first contract. One racist twist to this story came when the RCMP printed a pamphlet in English, Arabic, Spanish and French to "help workers understand acceptable behaviour during labour disputes," presumably such as opening the gate politely when scabs drive up to take away your job.      The union was ready to strike in July, until the province imposed a Disputes Inquiry Board to talk to both sides, halting any job action for 60 days. The non-binding board report was accepted by the workers, but rejected by Lakeside Packers last month.      The strike began on October 12, when hundreds of workers set up picket lines to block busloads of scabs from entering the plant. When buses tried to drive straight through the picket lines, some scuffles broke out. The company quickly applied for injunctions to limit pickets, and to allow access for the scabs, and for cattle and feed supplies. Some processing has been taking place.      Responding to the charges against Lakeside officials after Doug O'Halloran was injured, Alberta Federation of Labour President Gil McGowan said, "You expect to see this kind of vigilante action only in movies like Mississippi Burning. This proves that Tyson thinks it can do whatever it wants. This is just the latest in a long string of arrogant and outrageous actions by this employer. We've heard stories of intimidation, threats and bullying. And now, apparently, they're willing to put someone's life at risk."      McGowan blamed the government for doing nothing to try to resolve this dispute, despite repeated calls from the union, community leaders and the AFL.      "Alberta's labour laws create an environment where employers think they can get away with any action in the name of busting a union ‑ because Alberta's labour law does nothing to stop them," notes McGowan. "The Lakeside strike is living proof that Alberta needs first contract arbitration," a process of binding arbitration in cases where a group of workers are attempting to get their first contract with an employer and there is a stalemate.      Tyson is the largest beef and pork producer in the world, and has a track record of aggressive union‑busting tactics. Tyson employees have historically had high turnover rates, an average of 73 percent over 84 plants in 21 U.S. states in 1998. Most Tyson employees earn $7 to $8 (US) an hour, or $14,000 to $16,000 a year. The company's record of legal violations includes: * Fined almost $500,000 in Kentucky and Maryland for violations of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. * Facing charges in Federal U.S. court for violating U.S. employment standards law. Could face fines up to $600 million * Condemned in a 2005 Report by Human Rights Watch for violations of worker rights and health and safety laws. * Ruled to be in Contempt of Parliament during the BSE crisis for refusing to cooperate with the House of Commons Agriculture Committee. * Found numerous times by the Alberta Labour Relations Board to be in contravention of the Labour Code. * Breached U.S. Security Commission rules by providing "misleading disclosures" related to benefits and perks given to CEO Don Tyson, including $700,000 worth of vacations, boats and a house in England      The AFL warns that a lengthy strike could seriously harm Alberta's beef industry, still struggling to regain its feet after the Mad Cow crisis. The federation is calling for Ralph Klein's government to intervene to ensure a first contract is signed. The government's options include personal intervention by the Premier to help settle the strike, as he did during the Laundry Workers strike in 1995; the Cabinet can use Section 112 of the Labour Relations Code to impose working conditions for a set period of time in emergency situations; the Legislature can reconvene to pass a law allowing for first contract arbitration, or to require Final Offer Arbitration on the parties in this dispute.      The AFL is asking trade unionists and supporters across the province to call their MLAs to take action to help provide a first contract for Local 401 members. (Contents) (Home) The Finnish socialists at Webster's Corners (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) By Eila Rauma-Male ON JULY 9TH, the one-hundredth anniversary of the Finnish Socialist Settlement at Webster's Corners, BC, was observed at the local school.      Those pioneer settlers named the community "Sammon Takojat" which means "forgers of the Sampo" - the magic mill which produces salt, grains and coins, featured in the Finnish epic poem Kalevala. The Sampo Hall built 90 years ago is still standing, minus the former stage, but is not being used at this time.      Those first settlers had left Sointula on Malcolm Island, off the coast of northern Vancouver Island, where immigrants began arriving in the 1880s and '90s from Finland. There they had established a utopian settlement in 1901, led by Matti Kurikka. They were young and idealistic, but after many difficulties and a tragic fire that took eleven lives, the project disbanded.      Many Finns remained in Sointula, but others began to seek another place to settle. On January 1, 1905, the first settlers arrived at their new home, by horses and wagons with supplies. A shingle bolt operation left by Chinese workers was repaired so that the families could join their menfolk at the 159-acre site. There was much hardship but they struggled on, and one acre of land was reserved for a hall site.      The original Sampola house and barn were given to the Finnish Socialist Club, the first organized in the area, with headquarters in Toronto, where the Finnish Society had been established in 1901. Ten years later, it was established as the Finnish Organization of Canada (FOC), which eventually had about 70 halls and 80 locals across the country. The majority of the immigrants at that time were already members of the Finnish Socialist Party and later joined the Socialist Party of Canada.      In 1912, after mismanagement and disagreements, the Sammon Takojat was dissolved and the land sub-divided amongst the families and bachelors. Other residents were drawn from Sointula, Vancouver, Ontario, Finland, and from Vancouver Island miners who had been blacklisted in their attempts to form a union. When a new family arrived, the first building to go up was the essential sauna, and later the home.      In the summer of 1915, after three years of planning, fund-raising and much sacrifice, the new hall building was started. As with their homes, the hall was built according to how much they could afford at the time.      On January 1, 1916, the opening ceremonies were held. What a day it was! Additions were built later, but at last they had their own activity centre. Programs every Saturday evening always ended with a dance, music being supplied by the various residents, children joining in with parents, the youngest ones asleep in a buggy, the others on chairs, cushioned by coats. There was a variety of activity - drama presentations, a mixed choir, voice and instrumental soloists. There were gymnastic groups for the men, women and children, who provided displays for variety in the Saturday evening program. There was also a wrestling club, a softball team, basketball games, and a lacrosse box was built on the hall property. These sports involved other young people, not just the Finns.      In summer, picnics and festivals were held, with guests arriving from near and far. Numerous weddings and funerals were also held. The Hall served as a classroom for a few years, and as the school's auditorium for gym classes and Christmas concerts, night school classes, and whist drives. Various political leaders and activists spoke there on the topics of the day. The Hall had a well-stocked library, with subscriptions to various newspapers.      Everyone farmed, and when the men found work in logging camps, lumber mills and mines, the women were burdened with looking after the farm and children. There was a cooperative waterworks company which supplied water from Kanaka Creek (named for the Hawaiian immigrants who later melded with the Native population). They also has a cooperative egg hatchery. In 1932 property for a co-op store was purchased. A feed warehouse and later a mill were added. The grocery store and general store grew and flourished for a time but not for long.      The 1918 civil war in Finland split the Finnish community in North America, which has taken decades to recover. During the time of the "Karelian fever," Finnish immigrants and residents of Finland went to build a socialist community in the Soviet region of Karelia. Some stayed, but most returned from Karelia.      In 1941, a second co-op, the Webster's Corners Co-op Exchange, initially called "People's Store," was started. A feed store and cold storage lockers were added in 1945, but poor management and supervision led to bankruptcy. The first co-op store carried on but was closed in 1966.      In June 1941, the federal government proclaimed the War Measures Act. All the so-called "left wing" halls, including those owned by various ethnic groups across Canada, were nailed shut and could not be used. The library was moved to our home, where my mother acted as "librarian." During those war years, meetings were held in private homes. Funds were raised for war victims and orphans, and the "Aid to Finland" involved the entire North American Finnish community. We could not communicate with our relatives, and Finland suffered heavy losses.      After the War Measures Act was rescinded, the hall was returned in deteriorating condition. The stage section was torn down as it would have been too costly to repair. Adding insult to injury, the FOC local was forced to pay retroactively the property taxes for the years when the hall was closed. Socials, fundraisers and donations paid those taxes. But most of the activities were discontinued except for the Saturday night dances, summer picnics, and occasional social evenings and birthdays. In 1958, the FOC local disbanded and the hall was transferred to the Vancouver branch.      Women members of the FOC formed a "Peace Club." They held monthly meetings in their homes, raising funds for worthy causes such as aid to the civilians of Vietnam. The last meeting was held at my home in 1991, when it was decided to disband.      Over several years a picnic fundraiser was held in aid of the Pacific Tribune's annual press drive. In later years the combined libraries of the Webster's Corners and Vancouver locals were shipped - free of charge - by a Soviet freighter to the Universities of Turku and Helsinki.      In 1979, the first-ever three day Finnish festival in the West was held (usually these events had been in Ontario). This memorable occasion included concerts in Vancouver and at the local Garibaldi High School, and a salmon dinner at the Sampo Hall. The 75th anniversary of the arrival of the settlers and the 65th anniversary were observed in 1980. In May 1981, the 70th anniversary of the FOC was celebrated in Toronto, and again in September at the Hall.      The Hall was rented as a day care for a few years to Priya and Alex Kucher, who purchased it in 1984. The following year, a memorial stone was unveiled, honouring the Sammo Takojat. Several Communist Party summer classes were held at the Hall during the 1990s. Both of the Kuchers died in 2004, so their son Len inherited the Hall.      When the Vancouver FOC local disbanded, the proceeds were donated to various causes, such as the peace movement, aid for Cuba, the Finnish rest home in Burnaby, and the FOC head office in Toronto. The FOC is still functioning after 104 years, and publishes a newsletter called Kaiku-Echo.      The centennial of the Websters Corners Finnish settlement was marked by the Maple Ridge Historical Society, the Webster's Corners Community Association, and a small Finnish committee. This was the fourth annual Websters Corners Day, held at the school, with the Association doing the bulk of the planning and arrangements.      For the entire month of June, the Historical Society arranged a display of Finnish objects at the local library. During one afternoon, the museum curator and I gave a well-attended presentation. My "lecture" began with the history of the Finnish people, in particular how the events of the past century affected the local Finnish community. The curator showed slides of the early beginnings of the settlement. On July 9th, a reception was held for about 150 guests at the school, where the Historical Society arranged an interesting photo display around the walls. Finnish and Canadian flags were displayed, and delicious refreshments of course included "pulla," a coffee bread. The Finnish community of Burnaby and Vancouver contributed with a musical program and in other ways.      Some descendants of those first pioneer families still reside in the district, such as the Skytte family in their sixth generation. We pay tribute to those far-seeing, idealistic pioneers who opened the path for future generations with their hard work, self-reliance, and love of family and community. We celebrate their culture, their activities in the peace, labour and other movements to better the human race, and last but not least their "sisu," meaning the tenacity and courage which gave them the fortitude to make a new life in a new country.      (Eila Sauma-Male's father arrived "off the boat" in 1926, and the family came to Webster's Corners in 1937. She first sang at the Hall at the age of five, and has been a lifelong activist in the Finnish and progressive movements.) (Contents) (Home) Week of action to condemn sham elections in Haiti (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) PV Vancouver Bureau TWO NEW FILMS being shown to audiences across Canada are giving momentum to the campaign for solidarity with the forces for democracy in Haiti.      U.S.-based filmmaker Kevin Pina, whose documentary Haiti: Harvest of Hope informed North Americans about the emergence of the Lavalas movement during the 1990s, is touring with his latest film, Haiti: The Untold Story. This shocking documentary includes recent footage of brutal murders and repression committed by the UN "peacekeeping" forces in Haiti. Another documentary making the rounds at film festivals, Aristide and the Endless Revolution, by Nicholas Rossier, shatters the imperialist myth that President Aristide and his Lavalas movement were driven out of power by the Haitian people for committing "electoral fraud".      The Canada Haiti Action Network, an umbrella group for solidarity organizations in six cities, has called for a Pan-Canadian Week of Action against Canada's disastrous policies in Haiti. With a launch on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at 1 pm on November 12, Haiti solidarity organizers in Halifax, Montréal, Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver will hold demonstrations and other activities through to Nov. 20 to condemn Canada's official support for the sham elections, currently planned during the period of Dec. 11-18 after two earlier postponements.      The Network has raised several demands, including that the federal government: * Withdraw the support of Elections Canada and all other bodies from any elections held under current conditions of repression, which include hundreds of political prisoners, police killings and terror, and the exclusion of the poor from participation; * Demand the immediate release of Amnesty International prisoner of conscience Father Gerard Jean‑Juste, former Prime Minister Yvon Neptune, folksinger Annette Auguste, and all other political prisoners; * Discontinue all RCMP training and logistical support for the human rights‑abusing Haitian National Police, and withdraw all Canadian logistical support for the UN "peacekeeping" mission-turned repression operation; * Support the position of the Caribbean community countries (CARICOM) and the African Union, which are demanding an investigation into the circumstances of President Aristide's removal; * Withdraw and withhold recognition of Haiti's coup government until President Aristide is returned to oversee the holding of fair elections without repression.      A statement from the Network points out that the deeply-impoverished country of Haiti is in the midst of a major human rights crisis, following the coup d'état sponsored by Canada, the US, and France on February 29, 2004.      At the time of the coup, Canadians were told that Haiti's former President, Jean‑Bertrand Aristide, had resigned from the elected government he led. In fact, Aristide was coerced by US marines to leave the country, forced onto a plane, not told where he was going, and dumped into the French‑controlled dictatorship of the Central African Republic. At the request of the US and France, the UN Security Council quickly sanctioned the illegal coup and launched a "peacekeeping" mission that evolved into a military occupation force.      Canadians were also told that Canada would be working with the "international community" (the US and France, Haiti's former colonizers) to deliver aid to Haiti and help rebuild it. Instead, Canada and the other two coup-backers have overseen the establishment of an unelected government that is facilitating a brutal military occupation that features untold thousands killed, more than a thousand political prisoners, police executions and shootings of unarmed demonstrators, UN military assaults on poor neighbourhoods, journalists murdered and arrested for investigating police abuses, and the poor majority being disenfranchised in a sham election process. The cost of living has skyrocketed, and the turmoil has left the population far worse off than before the coup.      As the Network says, "For corporate elites in Canada, the US, and Haiti itself, this disaster is already paying dividends. Having failed to overcome President Aristide's resistance to the privatization of Haiti's major state enterprises (telephone, electricity, water, etc.), the economic plans being laid for Haiti by the coup government and the World Bank are set to turn the country into an even more easily exploited sweatshop zone, where Canadian and American corporations can extract even greater profits without fear of interference from a Haitian government interested in protecting its population. A few Canadian companies, such as Gildan Activewear and SNC‑Lavalin, have already begun to cash‑in on the new, more business‑friendly environment established following the coup. Share prices for these companies are flying while Haitians are dying."      The Canada Haiti Action Network is calling for an immediate end to these abuses, and the return of Haiti's constitutionally elected government. The Network rejects the deployment of Canada's own Chief Electoral Officer, Jean‑Pierre Kingsley, to lead the "monitoring mission" appointed to bless this sham election. Kingsley is in a clear conflict of interest, given his position on the Board of Directors of IFES, a US‑funded NGO with direct links to the International Republican Institute and other groups that worked to undermine Haiti's democracy and foment the coup.      Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN) includes Haiti Action Halifax, Hamilton Haiti Action Committee, Haiti Solidarity BC, Haiti Action Montréal, Ottawa Haiti Solidarity Committee, and Toronto Haiti Action Committee, with similar groups forming in other locations.      Groups from all social justice movements are invited to endorse the pan-Canadian Week of Action; contact Canada Haiti Action Network at 613-864‑1590, or email kskerrett@cupe.ca. For more information, see www.canadahaitiaction.ca or www.outofhaiti.ca. (Contents) (Home) Canada's disarmament disgrace (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) People's Voice Editorial, Nov. 1-15, 2005 Learning about the long record of U.S. opposition to any progress on disarmament often comes as a shock to people who are just starting to realize the dangers of U.S. imperialism. With few exceptions over the last sixty years, the U.S. routinely rejected the mildest disarmament proposals in the United Nations.      As one of the few NATO governments that dared resist the U.S. in that body, for the last five years Canada voted for the "New Agenda" disarmament resolution that calls on nuclear weapons powers to "unequivocally undertake" negotiating total nuclear disarmament. The resolution has the overwhelming support of most governments.      Canada was the only NATO member among the group of countries sponsoring the New Agenda resolution. But last month, after the United States sent a diplomatic note to U.N. member states that it was opposed to the resolution, Canada dropped its role as a co-sponsor of the resolution.      This marks yet another disgraceful retreat by the Martin Liberal government and a further accommodation of Ottawa to U.S. imperialism's designs. It is move out of step with Canada's "peace majority" that supports an independent foreign policy opposed to war and the arms race.      With imperialism still ruling much of the world's economy, most governments want to achieve peace through arms control and disarmament. But the present U.S. military build‑up can only be called a general preparation to achieve global domination by war, including with weapons aimed at the earth from space. That is precisely why pressure must be put on the Martin government to speak out in favour of disarmament. (Contents) (Home)   What's Left (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706  Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) PARKSVILLE, BC Water For Life - Not Profit - public forum with Maude Barlow, chairperson of the Council of Canadians, 7-9 pm, Tue., Nov. 8, Seaview Auditorium, 132 Jensen Ave. East. For free bus ride from Port Alberni or the Comox Valley, call 334-9756 or 724-7308. VANCOUVER, BC Unthinkable, undrinkable: Coca Cola in India - public forum, Sat., Oct. 29, 2-5 pm Room 1600 SFU Harbour Center (515 W. Hastings). Speakers: Alfredo Porras (Coca Cola union organizer in Colombia), Harsha Walia (activist in struggles in India against corporate globalization). Sponsored by South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy. Art of the City - activist posters from the Downtown Eastside, 29 West hastings, Oct. 21 thru Nov. 6. A DTES Community Arts Initiative and Heart of the City Festival event. Public Health Care: A Basic Human Right - public forum with CPC leader Miguel Figueroa, 7:30 pm, Wed., November 2, Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive. All welcome, for info call BC Committee CPC, 604-254-9836. October Revolution Banquet -  Sat., Nov. 5, doors open 5:00 pm, dinner 6:30 pm, Russian Hall, 600 Campbell Ave. Includes report-back on World Festival of Youth and Students, and guest speaker Miguel Figueroa. Tickets $15 waged/ $8 unwaged, for details and tickets, call BC Committee CPC, 604-254-9835. Aristide and the Endless Revolution - Tue., Nov. 8, 7:30 & 9 pm, at Pacific Cinematheque, 1131 Howe St, $5 admission. Co-sponsored by StopWar.ca and Haiti Solidarity BC. Israel's Wall: Law, Peace and Justice -  forum organized by The Wall-Must-Fall campaign, 7 pm, Wed., Nov. 9, Unitarian Church (49th and Oak). Demonstrate to Save Medicare - Friday, Nov. 11, 9 am, in front of the Hotel Vancouver, where the Fraser Insitute and other enemies of Medicare will speak at a conference organized by the Canadian Independent Medical Clinics Assn. Protest Ariel Sharon's Visit to Canada - Monday, Nov. 14, 5:30 pm at Vancouver Art Gallery (Robson side), organized by Palestine Soldiarity Group. KELOWNA, BC Public Health Care: A Basic Human Right - public forum with CPC leader Miguel Figueroa, 7-9 pm, Thursday, Nov. 3, Mtg. Room 3, Second Floor, Campus Activity Centre, Thompson Rivers University. For info call 604-254-9836. SASKATOON People's Voice Discussion - Monday, Nov. 21, Saskatoon & District CPC Club invite People's Voice readers to an evening at "Amigos" (10th & Dufferin) to discuss recent articles in the paper, 6-7:30 pm, over supper in the back room. WINNIPEG MB Global Justice Film Festival - Nov. 4-5, U of Winnipeg, programs available at Assiniboine Credit Unions, Mondragon (91 Albert St.) Public Health Care - A Basic Human Right - 07:30 pm, Mon., Nov. 7, forum with Sam Hammond, Chair of CPC Trade Union Commission, at 595 Pritchard Ave. (at McGregor). The meeting will be preceded at 6:00 pm by a dinner celebrating the Russian Revolution; sickets $10 ($6 low income). Call the CPC office (586-7824) for info or to reserve a ticket. Post-Gaza Realities: Is there a way out of the conflict? -  Thur., Nov. 10, 7:30 pm, with Jeff Halper, coordinator of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, $5 admission, at Planetarium Auditorium, 190 Rupert St. (at Main). Sponsored by United Jewish Peoples Order & Canadian Jewish Outlook Magazine. TORONTO, ON CCFA Café Cuba Musica - Tue., Nov. 8, 7:30 pm, fundraiser at Ellington's, 805 St. Clair West. Three talented artists: Honey Novick (award winning soloist, composer and poet), Charles Roach (lawyer and artist), and "Hurricane Harold" Hosein (writes calypso lyrics and motivates through song). Donations only, quality coffee, light sandwiches, cakes and cookies. Sponsored by Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association-Toronto, 416-410-8254. Rally Against Occupation of Palestine -  every Friday, 5-6 pm, picket at the Israeli Consulate at Avenue Road/Bloor West. Organized by Jewish Women Against the Occupation and Coalition for Just Peace in Palestine. OTTAWA, ON Canadian Peace Alliance Annual Conference - "Challenging Canada's Role in Empire," West Block and Wellington Building, Nov. 11-13, with workshops on movement strategies, and info sessions on war, militarization, imperialism and civil liberties. Registration $75 ($40 unwaged/students), subsidy & childcare available. Contact Canadian Peace Alliance, cpa@web.ca, 416-588-5555, http://www.acp-cpa.ca. REDS ON THE WEB http://www.communist-party.ca (Contents) (Home) SFL wants "better life for vulnerable workers" (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) PV Prairie Bureau In a recent submission to the Commission on Improving Work Opportunities for Saskatchewan Residents, the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour advanced proposals to better the lives of vulnerable workers. The SFL submission  points out that "The minimum wage in Saskatchewan is so low that even working a full 40-hour week would not being a person up to the Statistics Canada Low Income Cut-Off for a single person living in Regina. Could any of you survive on less than $16,000 a year?" The SFL recommends increasing the minimum wage to at least $10 an hour, adjusted annually to keep pace with inflation. This would greatly improve the well-being of vulnerable workers and their families, and take some pressure off social programs, which must fill the gap when wages are set too low. "Whenever it is suggested that the minimum wage be raised," the submission says, "many from the business sector claim that the higher minimum wage will destroy low-wage jobs and increase unemployment among those that the increase is supposed to help. This is an incorrect and unsupported assumption. In fact, in 2003, eighty-five economists and labour policy experts, including, for example, the former chief economist at the Toronto Dominion Bank,  signed a document that stated: "There is a common, but incorrect, assumption that higher minimum wages destroy low-wage jobs and increase unemployment among those they are most intended to help. Modern economic research has indicated, however, that the negative employment effects of minimum wages are negligible and can be overwhelmed by the positive impact of minimum wages on labour force participation and consumer spending." The SFL goes on to say that "The lack of pay equity contributes to the low wages of women in the Province. In fact, according to CUPE, Saskatchewan women working full-time made an average of $11,400 less than their male counterparts in 2002... The New Democratic Party said it would introduce pay equity legislation during the 1991 provincial election. Former Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow repeated the promise in 1997, saying legislation would be introduced before he retired. The women of Saskatchewan are still waiting." Another controversial issue in Saskatchewan has been the debate around "most available hours" legislation, which the SFL says should be reintroduced in a revised and improved form over the rescinded legislation. "We maintain," says the SFL, "that the Most Available Hours legislation has the potential to make a significant difference for the better in the lives of economically vulnerable residents of Saskatchewan (by establishing) a system of fairness, in which senior, qualified part-timers who want additional hours will be offered the hours, eliminating any favouritism or discrimination as a factor in those decisions. Most Available Hours will allow schedules to be arranged so that as many employees as possible can get as many hours as they want to a weekly maximum, without the employer hiring yet another person for just a few hours a week. It will also assist those who are currently working at multiple part-time jobs in order to meet their expenses... "The previous Most Available Hours Bill was flawed. For example, it was applicable only in worksites with 50 or more employees. There should be no such restrictions in a revised MAH bill. Though there were problems with the rescinded Bill, these problems could have been resolved, and there were trade unionists prepared to work them out. Labour questions the decision to throw out the baby with the bath water." (Contents) (Home) Greetings to SFL delegates (editorial)   (The following editorial is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) People's Voice extends greetings to the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour convention, which meets in Saskatoon starting on Nov. 2. The 26-day strike by 1,600 Regina civic workers ending in September shows again that the trade union movement in Saskatchewan is alive and gearing up for the struggle ahead. The central feature of today's struggle is the aim of Corporate Canada to make workers pay for the entire cost of a deepening economic crisis. In all parts of Canada and in nearly every industry workers can expect further serious attacks, as corporations downsize and demand huge concessions. Workers in this province can expect a hard struggle to get government action and prevent corporations having their way. The Saskatchewan government's imposed 0-1-1 wage mandate on government workers is an unfriendly act, similar to the BC Campbell government's imposed contract on teachers that led to strike action. Sooner or later, imposed concessions lead to resistance. If these pro-corporate governments seriously wanted to be "fair" they would increase corporate and wealth taxes in Canada. By imposing contracts on workers, these governments are just protecting corporations in Canada that made a record $204 billion in profits last year. Readers of this paper are aware that government has never been an impartial body administering affairs with unchanging ideas of justice, applied equally to all social classes. In Saskatchewan, as elsewhere, working people must challenge attacks by government, even when parties such as the NDP are in office. The trade union movement today is facing one of its most serious challenges in a long time, as signs of economic crisis mount and as Canada jumps on the U.S. war bandwagon. It will take struggle and unity to win the support of millions of people for Labour's agenda. We send best wishes to delegates at the SFL Convention and to all 90,000-plus members of SFL affiliates as you take on this challenge! (Contents) (Home) What did the (B.C.) teachers gain?   (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) PV  Vancouver Bureau While the proposals of Oct. 21 fell short of the initial goals of the B.C. Teachers Federation, such as the demand for a well-deserved general pay increase, the recommendations by facilitator Vince Ready did provide some important gains. The BCTF website provides some details and analysis of these recommendations. Ready called for "harmonization" of the complex of salary grids, in response to wide pay inequities among different school districts. The report calls for $40 million towards harmonization, to be negotiated with the BC Public School Employers Association, and then resolved by Ready if agreement is not reached by March 31, 2006. The result will be to "bring to the provincial average all grid categories not already at or above the average for minimum and maximum salaries." Another $40 million payment will go to the Salary Indemnity Plan (SIP) fund, as a direct payment to teachers. This amount is equivalent to 95% of the BCTF's original proposal on this issue, and represents an average of about $1,000 per teacher. Ready's report includes a study of existing benefit plans to be completed by Feb. 28, 2006, following which the two sides would attempt to "harmonize" the various benefit plans through negotiations in the next round. The BCTF says that "there is no money committed at this point to bring about harmonization of benefits as there was in the case of the salary grids. This may pose a risk of averaging of benefit levels." One important recommendation will improve incomes for Teachers on Call (TOCs), the lowest-paid teachers in the province, mainly those who have entered the profession in the past few years. The current average daily rate of $165 is to be raised to $190/day for assignments from 103 days, with $5.2 million committed to achieve this improvement. Existing rates greater than $190/day will be preserved. TOCs will accrue seniority in the same manner as regular employees, and will apply that seniority in accordance with the provisions of the local agreement. These recommendations will take effect next April 1, after the collective agreement imposed by the Liberals in 2002 expires, but before the end of the contract imposed by Bill 12. As other observers have pointed out, several of Ready's recommendations take advantage of this expiry date gap to provide some gains for certain categories of teachers. Regarding class size and composition, the report recommends that teacher representation be increased at the province's "Learning Roundtable," so the voice of teachers can be more clearly heard. When the province refused to provide written guarantees that the School Act would be amended by next June to address class size limits for grades 4-12, the BCTF leadership expressed its disappointment, and pledged to keep the heat on the government to act on this crucial demand. (For more details, see http://www.bctf.ca) (Contents) (Home) Over 1 million jobs lost in South Asian quake   (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) The International Labour Office (ILO) says that urgent steps are needed to create employment in Pakistan, where over 1.1 million jobs may have been lost after the October 8 earthquake. Over 40,000 people were killed in the 7.6 magnitude quake in Pakistan, while over 1,400 died in India. "The livelihoods of millions of people are threatened or have been destroyed," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia in a report released in Geneva on Oct. 18. "As humanitarian and reconstruction efforts proceed, we must begin working immediately to ensure that initiatives are established to monitor and create decent and productive employment and rebuild peoples' livelihoods." The earthquake destroyed infrastructure and shops in the affected towns in the region, including the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. There were also heavy losses of livestock and agricultural implements required for income generation in the rural areas. Compounding the devastation was the fact that the areas hit are amongst the poorest in Pakistan. The ILO estimates that total employment in the affected areas was around 2.4 million, Over two million of these workers and their families were living below the poverty line with less that $2 per person per day before the disaster struck. Each employed person in the region also supported on average more than two additional dependants. "This means that the 1.1 million workers who lost their employment not only provided their own livelihoods, but also the livelihoods of an additional 2.4 million people, over half of whom were estimated to be under the age of 15," Somavia said. "By losing their employment, even for a short period of time, workers in the affected districts have likely already fallen into extreme poverty." Before the quake, over 1.4 million workers in the area were engaged in agricultural activities, an estimated 40 per cent or more of whom are now without work. Livestock which provides essential dairy products and the animal power to cultivate the land has also suffered badly. The towns in the area that provided jobs and incomes to almost a third of the population lie in ruins, and the informal economy where most people worked in the urban areas has also been destroyed. Rebuilding the minimum of assets to revive the urban informal economy requires urgent support, the ILO said. (Contents) (Home) A fatally flawed "election" (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) Here are some of the reasons why the popular movements in Haiti, and international Solidarity groups, call the upcoming elections in that country a sham. All presidential candidates were required to register in person by Sept. 15, but Lavalas candidates were in jail. Rev. Gerard Jean-Juste, widely believed to be the most popular potential candidate, was arrested without a warrant on July 21. He is being held on trumped-up charges, despite a call for his release by 29 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and hundreds of religious, community, and human rights leader throughout the world. Yvon Neptune, Haiti's last constitutional Prime Minister, has been in prison since May 2004. Former U.S. Ambassador James Foley, before leaving Haiti, called Mr. Neptune's detention "a violation of human rights, an injustice, and an abuse of power." An unlikely 54 candidates from 45 parties have filed, indicating a widespread belief that the vote may be so undemocratic that almost anyone might win. The announced candidates include top officials of past dictatorships, a paramilitary leader identified as a drug trafficker by the United States, and an American citizen running despite a Constitutional ban on such candidates. The government has cleansed electoral rolls by discouraging voters through political persecution and by imposing hurdles against poorer Haitians. Only about 2.5 million of Haiti's 4.5 million eligible voters have registered, despite incentives including making voter registration a requirement for obtaining a national ID card, passport, or driver's license. Haiti's former democratic governments provided over 10,000 voter registration offices and polling places, but the Interim Government plans to install only about 600-800, meaning that peasants in most areas will have to walk for many hours to cast a ballot. By mid July, half-way through the registration period, there were three registration offices in the upscale suburb of Petionville, three in the entire Central Plateau department, a large rural district, and none in Cite Soleil, a poor, urban neighborhood of 300,000 inhabitants. On Sept. 17, the Interim Government issued an order banning all demonstrations until October 2, targetting a large protest planned for Sept. 30, to mark the anniversary of the first coup d'etat against President Aristide in 1991. (Contents) (Home) Media killings "will haunt USA" (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) The killings of journalists in Iraq by the U.S. military will haunt the United States until it carries out independent inquiries into the deaths, said the International Federation of Journalists following the news that Spain has issued warrants for the arrest of three soldiers. The IFJ says that 18 journalists and media staff have died at the hands of U.S. soldiers since the invasion of Iraq. One of those cases involves ITN Cameraman Fred Nerac who was killed almost three years ago, but whose body was never found and whose death was confirmed recently by French authorities. Nerac, along with reporter Terry Lloyd and translator Hussein Osman, were killed in a fire fight near Basra on March 21, 2003. On April 8, 2003, a US tank fired on the Palestine Hotel, a media centre in the heart of Baghdad, killing Spanish cameraman Jose Cuoso and Reuters journalist Taras Protsyuk. An earlier attack on the offices of Al-Jazeera television killed reporter Tareq Ayyoub. Those events were highlighted on Oct. 19 when Spanish judge Santiago Pedraz called for the extradition of three soldiers to face charges of murder and a "crime against the international community." "This decision is a victory for those campaigning for justice and the truth behind the killings of media staff," said Aidan White, IFJ General Secretary. "There must be an end to the arrogant disregard by the United States authorities of the outrage felt by many in journalism over the sense that these deaths have not been fully explained and that the responsible authorities have not been made accountable." The arrest warrants have been issued against Sgt. Thomas Gibson, a tank commander, and his superior officers Captain Philip Wolford and Lt. Colonel Philip D. Camp, all of them assigned to the 3rd  infantry division which carried out the attack. "Although this court action only concerns the death of Jose Cuoso," said White, "every journalist and media worker killed or injured in all of these incidents has a stake in the demand that the United States comes clean about every case in which there are unanswered questions." For the past two years world-wide protests have been organised by journalists' unions on April 8th over the US failure to carry out independent and extensive inquiries into the media deaths. (Contents) (Home) Canada must demand: end US blockade of Cuba (The following article is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) The Communist Party of Canada has sent the following letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin and Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew: The blockade imposed against Cuba by the government of the United States has now lasted for more than 40 years, in spite of resolutions against the blockade every year since 1992 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. In 2004, 179 countries voted in favour of the resolution, with only four opposed: the United States, the Marshall Islands, Israel and Palau. The blockade has prevented Cuba from importing food and medicines, directly affecting the Cuban people, including children. This cruel and indiscriminate form of harassment against the Cuban people also results in billions of dollars in real financial losses for the country, affecting all areas of society, including education, culture, trade, and science. It is only thanks to the determination and commitment of the Cuban people and their government that basic nutrition and health standards have been maintained. Not only does this blockade infringe on Cuba's right to self-determination and independence, the application of blockade-related U.S. laws and policies are a frontal attack on Canada's sovereignty and on the rights of Canadian individuals, institutions, governments and businesses to conduct trade and other forms of bilateral relations with Cuba. At the 60th Session of the UN General Assembly this fall there will be yet another vote on the "Necessity of ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo Imposed by the United States of America against Cuba." The overwhelming majority of countries, including Canada (which has maintained diplomatic and trade relations with Cuba despite decades of U.S. pressures), are expected to vote again in favour of this resolution, yet the U.S. government remains deaf to this demand. Therefore, the Communist Party of Canada calls upon the Canadian government to vigorously exert all diplomatic means to demand the U.S. government end this cruel and vindictive policy, which has caused decades of human suffering, and which threatens Canada's trade and relations with a long-time and valuable economic partner. -Central Executive Committee CPC, Oct. 21, 2005 (Contents) (Home) The school of corporate corruption University Inc. The Corporate Corruption of American Higher Education, by Jennifer Washburn. New York: Basic Books. 2005. ISBN: 0-465-09051-6, $36.95 Can., 326 pages (The following review is from the November 1-15/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) Reviewed by Steve Gilbert In November 1998, the University of California at Berkeley signed a controversial contract with Novartis, a Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant specializing in the production of genetically engineered crops. Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis gave Berkeley $25 million, in exchange for the right to license the results of Novartis-funded research as well as certain taxpayer-funded research. Berkeley also took the unprecedented step of giving Novartis two of five seats on a university research committee which controlled how the money would be spent. Novartis stood to make money from the deal.  So did U.C. Berkeley. Is there something wrong with that? Yes. What's wrong is that the University made money by selling the results of scientific research to a private drug company. This research should have been in the public domain, not the private property of Novartis, which hoped to realize a huge profit on its investment. A graduate student group at Berkeley, Students for Responsible Research, blasted the contract for being "in direct conflict with our mission as a public university." The student newspaper published a five part series protesting the growing privatization of the university. A coalition of public interest groups charged that the contract would "disqualify a leading intellectual center from the ranks of institutions able to provide the kind of research - free from vested interest - that is the hallmark of academic life." Most faculty members objected that the deal would have a negative effect on academic freedom, impede the free exchange of ideas and erode Berkeley's commitment to research in the public interest. In an editorial titled "Is the university-industrial complex out of control?" the prestigious journal Nature wrote: "the Novartis-Berkely deal can all too easily be portrayed as an institution undermining its trustworthiness to provide an impartial view of the most contentious technologies of our time - genetically modified crops." But a university is not a democracy. In spite of widespread opposition, the deal went ahead as planned. In University Incorporated, journalist Jennifer Washburn details many such alliances between universities and private corporations in both the U.S. and Canada. According to Washburn, corporate influence on university research has accelerated alarmingly during recent decades. Traditionally, the results of scientific research were in the public domain and freely available to all interested researchers. Most scientists believed that patenting their discoveries was inconsistent with a university's commitment to the dissemination of knowledge. This commitment was expressed by  Jonas Salk, discoverer of the polio vaccine. When newscaster Edward R. Murrow asked Salk who owned the patent on his vaccine, Salk replied: "Well, the people, I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" By the mid 1980s," writes Washburn, "such an attitude would seem touchingly quaint." Ironically,  shortly after Salk's death in 1995, a private research company which he had co-founded (Immune Response Corporation) was involved in a lawsuit over the right to publish test results of Salk's experimental AIDS vaccine. IRC ended up suing U.C. San Francisco for ten million dollars. After long and acrimonious legal machinations, the court decided against IRC. Washburn reports that lawsuits over the right to publish results of research are becoming common. "These days," she writes, "it is not only individual professors who have allowed themselves to be 'captured' by the drug industry, but medical colleges as well. Consider what happened recently at the University of Toronto, a school that has been aggressively pursuing academic-industry alliances along the U.S. model." Washburn then cites the case of U of T medical professor Nancy Olivieri. In 1996 Olivieri supervised clinical trials of the drug deferiprone, manufactured by Canadian drug company Apotex. Olivieri found evidence that deferiprone was not only ineffective but probably harmful. When she published her findings, Apotex shut down her trial and terminated her research contract. In October 1998, the Canadian Medical Association Journal speculated that the University was motivated by the fact that it was courting Apotex for donations which could total as much as $55 million. Details of the Olivieri case were leaked to the press and soon became a scandal. The U of T received a flood of letters from prominent academics and Olivieri was subsequently reinstated. Washburn also describes the case of psychiatrist David Healy, who accepted an offer of employment at the University of Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Soon afterwards, Healy gave a lecture in which he expressed concern about a possible causal connection between Prozac and suicide. A few days later the Centre's chief physician, David Goldbloom, informed Healy that his university appointment had been cancelled. Goldbloom gave no reason for his decision, but Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of Prozac, had given the Centre $1.5 million. Healy sued the University for violating his academic freedom and was subsequently reinstated. Other Canadian universities are caught in the web of corporate corruption. In a recent issue of the University of Guelph student publication, The Peak, Scott Gilbert cites a long list of corporations which have donated money to the University of Guelph in exchange for influence and profits: Monsanto (manufacturer of agent orange, PCBs, and genetically engineered seeds); DuPont (producer of weapons of mass destruction, including chemical warfare agents); Bayer (producer of chemical warfare agents and poisons such as chlorine gas); Dow Chemical (producer of napalm, and purchaser of Union Carbide, responsible for Bhopal - the largest chemical disaster in history). These partnerships with industry result in an increase of research devoted to manufacturing products that can be patented quickly and sold with total disregard for ethical considerations. In the words of Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations President Michael Doucet, these partnerships "destroy university autonomy and chart a troublesome course for the province's higher education system." (Contents) (Home)

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