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| Theoretical and Discussion Bulletin of the Communist Party of Canada |
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The Spark!
The latest issue of The Spark! theoretical journal, is now on sale for $5 at Communist Party offices (see p. 8) or People’s Co-op Books, 1391 Commercial Drive, Vancouver.
Articles include
- “Introduction to a General Theory of Culture” (Barry Lord);
- “Political & Economic Realities Behind Colombian Labour Relations” (Sacouman, Moore & Brittain);
- “Treaty Process & Indian Nationalism” (Ray Bobb);
- “Lenin: Heritage of the Socialist Market Economy” (C.J. Atkins);
- “Nature of the State Under Bush & Harper” (Stephen Von Sychowski);
- plus reviews, editorials, and more.
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People's Voice deadlines:
NOVEMBER 16-30
Thursday, November 4
DECEMBER 1-31
Thursday, November 19
Send submissions to PV Editorial Office,
706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, V5L 3J1, pvoice@telus.net
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People's Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start" website, http://www.labourstart.org. We urge our readers to check it out!
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(Contents)
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1) FORD DEMANDS MORE CONCESSIONS IN US, CANADA
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Ontario Bureau
At PV press time, Ford workers in the US were voting on a tentative agreement between the UAW and Ford, the only one of the Detroit Three not to go into bankruptcy last spring.
Ford was able to secure sufficient credit to avoid bankruptcy. But the company is demanding the same deep concessions the union gave to Chrysler and General Motors, arguing that without them, it will be at a cost disadvantage.
In the US, the UAW leadership bought the argument, and UAW members are being asked to accept two-tier wages. That would pit older and younger workers against one another as they do the same work on the same lines in the same plants, for vastly different pay. They are also being asked to accept a six year no-strike deal, which means the company will be able to dictate the terms of the next collective agreement three years down the line.
Ford workers in the US have reacted angrily about these concessions and others recommended by the union leadership. Some say they will vote down the agreement, asking what they need a union for if this is the best they can get.
In Canada, CAW leader Ken Lewenza has said the union is prepared to negotiate concessions in exchange for guarantees that the company's production "footprint" here will not be further reduced. This would secure future jobs in Canadian plants, as Lewenza sees it.
To date Ford has not changed its plans to close the St. Thomas plant in 2011. The plant produces vehicles sold for fleet use to police and taxi companies. Ford is also publicly mulling about closing its operations in Oakville.
But some in the union point to GM's promises to keep open its Oshawa plant (the most productive in North America) in exchange for concessions. Just three weeks later, GM announced it would close the plant, sparking huge protests and a plant occupation that lasted until GM signed a severance agreement that provided payouts to all its unionized and non-unionized employees.
In fact the CAW has been extremely busy over the past two years negotiating severance packages for its own members, and others in non-union plants, but has been unsuccessful so far in stopping a closure, though it has negotiated delays.
What's the price of a job? In a unionized auto plant, it can be $100,000 plus a car. But when it's gone, it's gone for good, as happened in Oshawa and countless other Ontario cities and plants.
People like retired CAW staffer Herman Rosenfeld are calling on Ford workers in Canada to reject concessions and set a new pattern for bargaining in auto, one that can reverse the concessions imposed by GM and Chrysler Canada in the 2012 negotiations.
It's a good call, but to be successful workers will need the full support of the labour movement, especially if Ford workers in the US ratify the agreement this week.
The CAW needs to get back into the Ontario Federation of Labour and participate in building a fightback plan for the whole labour movement, situating its own fight with Ford, GM and Chrysler within that big picture. And the OFL needs to lay down the welcome mat to help the CAW come back in. The OFL and its affiliates need the CAW just as much as the CAW needs the broad labour movement. The struggle against corporate greed and the economic and social impact of the global economic crisis requires a united struggle, and a political struggle. No concessions! An injury to one is an injury to all! Unity, Solidarity and Struggle! These slogans say it best.
On the political front, without the Auto Pact, the only way to secure jobs and plants is to start building a publicly owned and democratically controlled Canadian auto industry, producing a Canadian car that's small, affordable, fuel-efficient, and environmentally sustainable, and developing a public transportation industry that builds rolling stock for mass rapid transit and inter-urban rail service across Canada, and for export.
Nationalization of the Canadian operations of the Detroit Three last spring, in exchange for assuming legacy costs of workers' pensions and benefits in Canada, would have set the stage for the development of a Canadian car, and retooling plants to build public transit and inter-city rail rolling stock.
That's the only way to guarantee auto and manufacturing jobs for Canadian workers and an automobile and transportation industry for Canada in the long haul. These are the demands over which the union and the Detroit Three will surely part ways, but that may open new channels for unity and solidarity with Canadian workers and their unions, as well as US workers and their unions. And that can't come too soon.
2) ONTARIO'S ECONOMIC UPDATE: WOULD YOU LIKE WAGE RESTRAINTS WITH THAT TAX CUT?
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Liz Rowley, leader, CPC (Ontario)
In his October 22 economic update, Ontario Treasurer Dwight Duncan told us how well the Liberal government is handling the global economic crisis. Then he got to the nub of things: 205,200 jobs lost in the first 7 months of the year, an official unemployment rate projected to rise to 9.9% this winter, the continuing decline of manufacturing and secondary industry, forestry, mining, and construction. For working people, that means falling incomes, more personal bankruptcies, and a huge uptake in Ontario Works (social assistance). Seriously under-funded social programs and public services will no longer be paid from the corporate and personal income taxes which have sustained them for 60 years. Social programs will now be paid for (or not) out of revenues generated by the HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) which will be introduced in July 2010.
Why is this happening? Because corporate profits fell 49.7% in the last year, and corporate tax revenue fell 48.1% in the same period. According to the Liberals, it's up to the public to bail out those corporate profits by cutting the Marginal Effective Tax Rate by 50% (from 32.8% to 16.2%), to make Ontario one of the lowest corporate tax jurisdictions in the industrialized world for new investment.
How will they do it? By eliminating the Capital Tax (a tax on capital, not labour), by reducing the Corporate Income Tax (CIT) by $4.5 billion a year, and by rebating $4.5 billion in Input Tax Credits to corporations which, under the HST will pay a fraction of the sales tax they pay today. That's why corporations support the HST.
The cut to the provincial CIT from the current 14% to a bargain basement 10%, combined with Harper's cut to the federal CIT to a new low of 15% by 2012, will result in a combined 25% CIT rate. That's lower than most corporate tax rates in the industrialized world, and 15 percent lower than the US Great Lakes states with which Ontario competes.
Who will pay then?
The public of course. The Liberals have cut a deal with the Harper Tories to legislate a 13% HST on all goods and services sold in the province, with a few exceptions. The HST will add another 8% to many necessities currently taxed at 5%. Like other VAT (value added) taxes levied in Europe and elsewhere, the initial rate increases over time. The 13% HST will almost certainly do the same. It's a shell game that will see working people take on almost 100% of the tax load, while corporations see their sales tax shrink to almost nothing. To sweeten the deal, the Liberals will send three cheques worth up to $900 to each Ontario household. That shows just how important this tax shift is to Big Business.
And that's not all.
NEW PROGRAM/SERVICE CUTS
The update also states that "The Treasury Board/Management Board of Cabinet will conduct a rigorous strategic spending review focused on high impact areas to ensure continued relevance and effectiveness of government programs and services and the way they are funded."
In other words, a new round of cuts is on the way, despite the fact that hospitals, health care, public and post-secondary education, transportation, housing, social services, and public services are already grossly under-funded and accumulating big (and illegal) deficits.
Ontario's Children's Aid Societies have already gone public to say they cannot carry out their mandate to protect children without more funding. Same message from Ontario's hospital boards, school boards, municipalities, colleges and universities.
When prodded about how the government will balance the budget and reduce the $24.7 billion deficit, Premier McGuinty again raised the possibility of "Dalton Days" - a reference to the Rae Days introduced by the NDP government in the early '90s, which forced public sector workers to take 12 unpaid days off to reduce payroll costs and the deficit.
Dalton McGuinty, like his adopted brother Bob Rae, has no trouble contemplating wage cuts in the public sector. This may be a trial balloon to gauge reaction to another attack on the public sector in the midst of a deep recession and in the wake of the 2009 "gun to the head" negotiations in auto and in the municipal sector.
A RUNAWAY TRAIN
The Liberals contend (like the Tories) that what's good for Business is good for Ontario. That couldn't be further from the truth. This government is actually turning off the lights, delivering a flat tax in the name of "tax reform", opening up Ontario's industry and resources to exploitation by the highest foreign and domestic bidders, and abandoning public services to be paid for by consumption taxes and subsequent privatization.
It will take a mighty movement led by labour to stop this runaway train, which many don't yet see has come unhinged. Some responsibility for this lies with economists like Hugh Mackenzie, son of former NDP Labour Minister Bob Mackenzie, whose October 26th Toronto Star column mocks "the left" for demanding that corporations should pay the freight when it comes to the delivery of social programs and public services in Canada.
This is the policy advocated by the labour movement over many decades. So we have to ask: why is Mackenzie moving away from this position, and advocating the boss's line in the Toronto Star?
The OFL Convention meets this month, and could brace the labour movement for a fight on the HST and corporate tax cuts, linking it with the struggle for good jobs, wages, pensions, and strong universal public services. These are gains that workers fought for and won, and that we must mobilize to defend now.
PROGRESSIVE TAX REFORM
Progressive tax reform means scuttling the HST and reversing federal and provincial corporate income tax cuts. It means raising corporate taxes, introducing taxes on inheritances over $500,000, eliminating taxes on incomes under $35,000, eliminating regressive sales taxes, removing education from the property tax, and more.
Progressive tax reform also means funding for Medicare, education, social programs, and affordable housing that Canadians want and need. It means sustainable economic development, social and cultural investments, job creation, and action to protect and restore the natural environment.
This fight is about the future, for ourselves, our children, and our country.
Note: The Communist Party (Ontario) is campaigning this fall to "Axe the Tax", rescind corporate tax cuts, and for progressive tax reform based on ability to pay. Call 416-469-2446 for more information.
3) CUPE DELEGATES PRESS FOR STRONGER FIGHTBACK
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Jim Cameron
Two steps back, one step forward? This is perhaps the best spin a reporter could give to the October 2009 CUPE National Convention in Montreal.
As a public sector union, CUPE has not been hit (as of yet) as hard as manufacturing and resource unions by recent events. But there have certainly been harbingers of more difficult times ahead. Most obviously, the pummelling of private sector unions with closures and concessions. Just prior to convention, concessions were beginning to leak into CUPE's territory with very difficult municipal strikes in Toronto and Windsor, where the cities demanded concessions and received loud support from the corporate media. Sensing the new situation, governments in New Brunswick and British Columbia have also indicated that they would impose wage freezes on public sector workers.
So it was with some disappointment that the left received the leadership's Strategic Directions convention policy document. Like the private sector unions currently being flayed by employers, the draft document did not lay out new directions to deal with the new realities. Or rather, what new directions it did lay out, would lead us back into deeper trouble.
Much like the CAW with its decidedly unsuccessful attempt to find a kinder, gentler side of business, the Strategic Directions draft suggested working with the business class to develop a new economic policy. Delegates were left scratching their heads - what possible sign is there that business is willing to help workers? Indeed, with business laying off hundreds of thousands, reneging on pension promises, pushing privatization, extending `free trade' with friends of labour like the government of Colombia, and backing hard right political leaders, the indications are very much opposite.
The ideology of tripartism (where labour follows a policy of cooperation with business and government) has been around for many years, famously being debated (and sharply criticized) at the Canadian Labour Congress' 1976 convention. The oddity is that such an approach is much more remote from the actual activities of business and capitalist governments today than it was in the 1970s. For the private sector unions in deep, deep trouble, tripartite or bipartite initiatives are, perhaps, an understandable, but misguided response. For a union (like CUPE) that is not in crisis, that is sharply opposed to corporate privatization, and that has been more progressive, and more fighting than many other unions, this is a troubling initiative indeed.
Part of the context for this development is the walk-out of Ontario delegates from the tail end of the 2007 convention in Toronto over the funding of illegal, political strikes. Following the convention, an agreement was eventually reached which allowed better access to funds for illegal strikes, mollifying Ontario. So at this convention, Ontario delegates pulled in their horns and subdued their criticisms. Nevertheless, deep tensions remain. Notably, during the convention a constitutional resolution from the BC Division was repeatedly put on the order paper that would, if passed, have changed the rules of quorum and made a walkout of conventions by Ontario much less effective. In the end, with peace holding, the resolution (and others like it) was not debated.
As a result, the responsibility that fell to the Action Caucus, a long-standing group of left-of-centre trade unionists, was redoubled. They led the charge to dump the references to tripartism and alliance with business. They also noted that while the Strategic Directions document criticized privatization, there was no reference to a strategy for expanding public services, flagging in particular the extensive section in the draft document on green jobs, which failed to mention public sector green jobs.
A key leader in the Action Caucus, Stephen Seaborn, asked "Is this part of a strategic alliance with business? If so, I'm thinking we sure don't need it! How could we rely on corporate Canada to build a green alternative. Let's not be naive here!"
"As public sector workers we have no choice but to play the leading role in green job development if we're to have any hope for a sustainable future. Focusing on public sector green jobs has got to be central to our union's economic emergency action plan.
"And as CUPE members, we've got to move on rebuilding community-union alliances and then together insist on good green jobs for all. For sure, the urgency of green job creation is much too important to concede to so-called `green corporations'. And if the corporations don't like that, well too bad!"
Even more troubling was the near silence over the proposed four year public sector wage freeze in BC and two year public sector wage freeze in New Brunswick. These proposals would seriously erode public sector working conditions, and could easily expand into other provinces. Yet the strategic plan on this matter was missing, as was any sense of urgency.
Also absent was much discussion of a sectoral approach to bargaining and CUPE's broader policy work. CUPE locals cannot deal with the rising level of attacks in isolation; a sectoral approach has the most likelihood of effectively bringing workers together and putting them in a stronger position to fend off attacks.
There were some positive signs, however. The key points of CUPE's fight back remained even in the draft Strategic Directions document. Moreover, while there is some doubt as to the actual policy of the union, the Action Caucus was able to win the removal from the document of explicit references to alliance with business, and also to add in the idea that the public sector must play a key role in the expansion of green jobs.
And very importantly, Helen Kennedy, a left wing feminist and president of the CUPE Toronto District Council, was recognized with the Grace Hartman award, giving a stirring speech to the 2,500 delegates on the often daunting responsibilities and struggles of women trade unionists. She called for a much bigger struggle for equality and peace. Indeed, Kennedy single-handedly made peace an issue at the convention:
"One of the things that I learned from Grace was the need to fight for peace. We need to oppose war in all its manifestations. We need as a labour movement to re-commit our fight for peace both as a labour movement and as individual activists and I urge us all when we go back home to take up the fight against war."
Kennedy's full speech is available at You Tube; simply search "Helen Kennedy leftvids" from the You Tube site.
4) ANOTHER FASCIST ATTACK IN CALGARY
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau
At 5:38 am on the morning of October 3rd, Calgary Anti-Racist Action (ARA) members Jason Devine and Bonnie Collins awoke to the sound of glass breaking. A cinder block had been thrown through the front window of their house, as well as a smaller projectile through the bedroom window of their three sleeping children. The front door had been tagged with graffiti: a red spray-painted "C-18" and a swastika. "C-18" is a reference to Commando 18, a British-based fascist group.
The attack occurred just a week before an October 10 rally in the city's Bridgeland neighbourhood to alert residents about the increasing neo-Nazi activity in the community.
Jason and Bonnie have been targeted before, first in February 2008 with a molotov cocktail thrown at their house, and again last summer on the morning before a local anti-racist rally. They have also received numerous insults and threats over the internet. Many Calgarians believe the attacks are the work of the Aryan Guard, a neo-nazi movement which has been extremely visible in the city for several years.
Refusing to be intimidated, the couple issued a statement stressing that "this is a clearly not a random act of violence but a direct target to us and our family, other anti-racist activists, and all who are against racism, with a clear message: neo-Nazis are violent, have no regard for human life, especially children, and they are clearly a terrorist gang."
ARA members held their Oct. 10 rally as planned. Speaking to participants, Devine warned the racists that "You're not wanted here. Nobody wants you here, nobody wants you in the neighbourhood, nobody wants you in the city.... Racism is wrong. It's horrible. We're not going to accept it. We're never going to accept it. We're never going to back down."
He urged those who are worried about protesting publicly to take other forms of action, such as writing letters to city hall and to the police department to demand an end to racist violence.
5) HARPER IGNORES THE OBVIOUS
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
People's Voice Editorial, Nov. 1-15, 2009
When the Canadian people finally settle scores with Stephen Harper's Tories, his government's stubborn foot-dragging on climate change will surely be one of the key factors.
The latest news on the environmental front is grim. Ice sheets in the Arctic, Antarctic and Greenland are melting twice as fast as projections from a couple of years ago, which will lead to a one metre rise in sea levels by the end of this century, enough to wipe out many islands and coastal areas. The rapid melting of glaciers threatens to deprive over a billion people of clean drinking water. Extreme weather events like severe droughts are on the rise. Scientists warn that even with greenhouse gas emission cuts currently planned, the world's average temperature may rise over three degrees Celsius by 2100.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Press service reports that the Harper "government's push to abandon much of the Kyoto protocol prompted dozens of developing countries to walk out on Canada's address during recent climate talks in Thailand..." Joanne Yawitch, a South African negotiator at the Bangkok talks, told interviewers that the Canadian position risks ending up with "something that might be considerably weaker."
"Something weaker" might well include moves to tilt the board towards the energy industry's cherished "intensity-based targets", which allow for continued growth of carbon emissions on the excuse that the industry is becoming "more efficient."
The world cannot afford to slide back to such a disastrous strategy. Congratulations to the tens of thousands of Canadians who rallied on Oct. 24 to pressure the Harper government to change course immediately. Let's keep the heat on the Tories!
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
People's Voice Editorial
The western media is gearing up for a round of back-slapping and champagne to mark November 9th, the 20th anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. The cheerleaders of capitalism may be slightly more restrained this year, given their system's recent near-death experience. But their bravado still requires a factual reply.
Despite all the propaganda about "freedom", the historic record shows that the Wall was built to block the conscious destabilization of the German Democratic Republic's socialist economy. No expense was spared by the U.S. and the Federal Republic to lure highly trained professionals to West Berlin, a "brain drain" with obvious goals. Many Berliners took advantage of low rents and free social programs in the city's socialist east while working in the capitalist west, a completely untenable situation. The open border between the two halves of Berlin gave the imperialist powers an easy path to meddle in the internal affairs of socialist eastern Europe.
Conversely, the removal of the Wall is still resented by millions of people. For east Germans themselves, the past two decades have been a period of massive unemployment, destruction of their historic industrial and social progress, the return of huge gender inequality, and life as second class citizens within the larger German state. No wonder that socialist candidates were the biggest winners across much of eastern Germany in the latest elections. In another sign of changing times, the three-day festival of Unzere Zeit [Our Time], the weekly newspaper of the German Communist Party, was attended by 50,000 people last June.
The Berlin Wall is part of history, unlikely to be repeated. But 20 years later, socialism is increasingly seen as humanity's hope for a future, while capitalism is in serious crisis.
7) SFL CANCELS LABOUR MINISTER'S INVITATION
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Darrell Rankin
In a rare gesture, the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour's executive withdrew an invitation for provincial Labour minister Rob Norris to speak at the Fed's annual convention in Saskatoon, October 21-23.
"Based on his past performance and posture against the labour movement, there would be nothing positive (Norris) would provide," said SFL president Larry Hubich.
Without the pretence of consultation or public hearings, Premier Brad Wall's Saskatchewan Party government has been imposing anti-labour laws since it was elected in November, 2007. The right-wing Fraser Institute recently called Wall's government the second most anti-union government in Canada and the U.S. combined.
Citing serious concerns about Wall's privatization agenda, the SFL is backing the newly-formed "Save our Saskatchewan Crowns" coalition to educate people about the importance of keeping hydro, telephone, insurance and water under public ownership.
Last year, Wall's government cancelled the right to strike for hundreds of thousands of workers with an "essential services" law. Bills 5 and 6 "make organizing new unions next to impossible," said Hubich. Unions are challenging these bills in four Charter cases and an International Labour Organisation appeal.
Bill 80, now before the Legislature, will destroy the closed shop in the construction industry and allow the rump Christian Labour Association (CLAC) to organize in the province.
United on stepping up resistance against the right-wing policies of the Wall government, delegates voted to hold a large rally on May 1 next year at the Legislature to defend workers' rights, and also to mark May 1 with rallies and events across the province.
About 300 people rallied at the site of the convention on Oct. 21 to protest against former U.S. president George Bush, who spoke in the same building as the SFL meeting.
"We have a very special opportunity today to raise our voices against the key architect of the economic meltdown and war criminal in the eyes of many," said Hubich. Many delegates joined the rally, which was already underway at the lunch break. SFL executive member Gary Schoenfeldt gave greetings on behalf of the Federation.
8) 5,000 NORTEL PENSIONERS CONVERGE ON OTTAWA
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Ontario Bureau
Close to 5,000 employees of the bankrupt Nortel Networks arrived on Parliament Hill October 22, to protest the loss of their pensions and to demand government action to protect workers' pensions and severance in bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings.
Specifically, they wanted the federal government to amend the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act to put employees and pensioners at the top of the list of creditors, instead of the bottom after banks and corporate creditors have taken out all the cash and remaining assets.
Supported by unionized workers, including Local 1005 of the Steelworkers at US Steel in Hamilton who went through bankruptcy courts when Stelco was first liquidated, the demonstrators carried signs - many of them home-made - to demand action. Many had worked for years at Nortel, investing their pensions in company stocks, leaving them with nothing but anger and fear of an impoverished future.
"Nobody is safe, unless you are working in there, I guess," Bob Dowson, who retired from Nortel's Brampton office after 32 years, told media as he pointed to the Parliament Buildings behind him.
Unlike severance, pensions are deferred wages and are a debt the company owes to its pensioners and employees, along with accrued interest.
Hundreds of thousands of Ontario workers in workplaces big and small have to fight to secure their pensions, benefits, and severance, often winning partial settlements which end dreams of a secure and happy retirement.
The Nortel demonstration on Parliament Hill followed an earlier demonstration at Queen's Park. Only the NDP speakers called for a national public pension plan covering all workers, guaranteed by the government.
This is a demand which the Communist Party also makes, along with the demands for an immediate, substantial and across the board increase to pensions, and to reduce the voluntary pension age to 60. The Communist Party and People's Voice were also present at the demo, and the CP banner got a friendly reception from surprised Nortel workers who hadn't expected the Communists to support them. For many it was the first time they'd met the CPC.
On the other hand, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff was booed when he spoke about his party's concerns about pensions (but no plans or demands on Harper), and again when he told demonstrators they'd done their civic duty and it was now time to go home and leave things to Parliament.
Nortel workers might have been demonstrating on Parliament Hill for the first time last month, but it doesn't look like it will be the last - Ignatieff's patronizing and unwelcome advice notwithstanding.
9) TRILATERAL PEACE CONFERENCE MEETS IN TORONTO
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Special to PV
The Second Trilateral Peace Conference of the World Peace Council was held in Toronto from October 2-4. Involving the Canadian Peace Congress, the United States Peace Council and the Mexican Movement for Peace (MOMPADE) - representing the peace movements of the three countries in NAFTA and the SPP (Security and Prosperity Partnership) - the event was a continuation of the First Trilateral Conference held in Puebla, Mexico in 2004.
Special guests included Socorro Gomes, President of the Brazilian Peace Committee (CEBRAPAZ) and also President of the World Peace Council, and Jose Ramon Rodriguez, President of the Cuban Movement for Peace (MOVPAZ) and regional coordinator for the WPC.
The focus was an examination of current imperialist developments in the Americas, and proposals for common action among the peace committees. The opening session on "Current Realities, Concerns and Challenges for the Peace Movements" was followed by a series of panels that explored imperialist economic integration, imperialist wars and anti-war movements, the current economic crisis, and nuclear disarmament and the arms trade.
The final day was spent discussing and adopting a Final Declaration from the conference, which expressly rejected the imperialist vision for the region and proposed common action in key areas. These will include building the coalitions to end the wars and occupations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti and Palestine; opposing threats of military action against Iran; building the Network to End Foreign Bases and working to dismantle the US Fourth Fleet; mobilizing for the international Disarm Now! conference in May 2010 and increasing work to abolish nuclear weapons; and building anti-imperialist solidarity, including support for the struggles of Aboriginal peoples. The declaration also expressed commitments to organizing a Third Trilateral Peace Conference.
10) REALITIES, CONCERNS AND CHALLENGES FOR THE PEACE MOVEMENT
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
Excerpts from the welcoming remarks to the Trilateral Peace Conference, held Oct. 2-4 in Toronto, by Canadian Peace Congress President Dave McKee
The theme of this conference, as outlined in the call jointly prepared by the Canadian Peace Congress, MOMPADE and the US Peace Council, is "For Unity in Action of the Peoples of Mexico, Canada and the USA - for Peace, Sovereignty, Anti-Imperialist Solidarity and the Rights of the Working People." I will use this theme as a lens through which to examine the current realities, concerns and challenges for the peace movement in Canada.
Our organization, the Canadian Peace Congress, was formed 60 years ago as an anti-imperialist peace organization and it has, for that same period of time, been affiliated to the World Peace Council. Our work has been rooted in the awareness that the struggles for peace, sovereignty and self-determination, workers' rights and liberation, and international solidarity and cooperation are all intimately interconnected in the overall, comprehensive struggle against imperialism. That awareness continues to guide our work today.
...Through the years many peace-oriented organizations developed and grew across the country - in specific economic or professional sectors, within the faith communities, in the labour movement.
Much of this growth occurred in direct response to the dangers of nuclear war that loomed during the Cold War. While many of these groups ascribed equal culpability for the arms race to the United States and to the Soviet Union - which could make for a difficult working relationship with the Congress - these movements represented a rapidly growing voice within Canada against the nuclear arms race and related policies. So, under the slogan that "Peace is Everybody's Business" the Canadian Peace Congress worked with others to unite the many elements of the Canadian peace movement under the umbrella of the Canadian Peace Alliance. The Alliance was formed in 1985 and today it remains the largest umbrella peace organization in Canada....
Through the 1990's, following the "end of the Cold War," the nuclear arms race which had given so much focus and energy to the Canadian peace movement fell quickly from public discourse and the movement as a whole declined in activity and profile, and the strength of the networking among different groups was severely reduced. During that same period, the Canadian Peace Congress fell into a period of very low activity and nearly disappeared altogether, which meant that we were much less able to promote either a clear political and tactical position for the broader peace movement, or broad unity in action of the movement as a whole.
That weakness became apparent in 1999, during NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia. As a result of ideological softness - deliberately engineered by painting the conflict as a humanitarian mission against an aggressor state (Yugoslavia) that was pursuing a genocidal campaign against a national minority (Kosovo) - the imperialist camp, including Canada, was able to play sections of the people's movements against one another and obscure the real basis of the conflict, which was also the real basis for mass unity against NATO's aggression. Lost among the public debate, at least here in Canada, was the fact that the conflict was about smashing the infrastructure of the last socialist-oriented state in Europe, about forcibly reorienting the Yugoslavian economy toward Western neoliberalism, and about the inter-imperialist rivalry over who would gain the spoils of victory.
When placed this way, it is easy to recognize the aggressive and expansionist nature of NATO's campaign, and also the extreme danger that that inter-imperialist rivalry represented. Unfortunately, and without diminishing the very real and sustained efforts made by specific organizations and communities, an awareness of this reality is not what guided the response of the Canadian peace movement as a whole. Generally, the outcry was brief and tepid, the mobilizations small and fractured.
However, within four years, the situation had changed greatly. The US-led invasion of Iraq quickly galvanized the peace movement in Canada, reuniting it with the labour movement and uniting it with much of the new "anti-globalization" movement. The lead-up to the 2003 invasion was so blatant in its aggressive focus on control over oil resources that this cut through much of the ideological weaknesses and ongoing organizational fractures within the peace movement. The result was some of the largest peace mobilizations ever achieved in this country - in February 2003 some 80 communities responded to a united call for demonstrations against the war, with huge turnouts (over 100,000 in Montreal; 80,000 in Toronto; 40,000 in Vancouver; 18,000 in Edmonton; 5,000 in Halifax), and this despite -30 Celsius temperatures in many of these areas.
This level mobilization was echoed all over the world. Here in Canada, it provided a sustained period of time during which the profile of the peace movement was quite high, active networking and cooperation among various groups resumed, affiliation of progressive movements to the peace movement was increased, and the formation of new groups against the war occurred in virtually every community across the country.
And yet, to be honest, we have to admit that in relative terms, organizing a mobilization in Canada against an aggressive war led by George W. Bush, in which Canada played no direct role, was a simple task. The challenge was (and continues to be) to organize against the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, which had begun almost two years prior and in which Canada has assumed a prominent role from the start.
The war in Afghanistan represents many developments in Canada's role in the imperialist camp. Beginning in 1999, if not earlier, serious discussions occurred within the state structure - involving government, military, and industrial representatives - that were focused on Canada's international role and its relation to Canadian trade and economic interests. One specific area of concern was the Caspian Sea Basin, which was identified as a region of strategic interest to Canada economically (first) and, consequently, politically. The emerging consensus was that for Canada to secure its interests in this region of the world, it had to exert itself diplomatically and militarily, and more intimately tie its international policy to that of the United States. Further, the pursuit of Canadian interests should be done both unilaterally and through active support for US policy.
So when the debate arrived in 2001 about invading Afghanistan, under the ruse of retaliation for the terrorist actions in the US in September of that year, the Canadian government responded with enthusiasm. The media was flooded with stories about the Taliban regime, about the direct link between the government in Afghanistan and terrorism, about the human rights abuses and the severe repression of women specifically, about the importance of assuming our humanitarian duty to force regime change in Afghanistan, about Canada's commitments under NATO's mutual clause to respond militarily to an attack on a member state (the US).
Very little was said about oil and gas reserves, about pipeline routes, about the strategic importance of establishing a Western military presence in the region, about encirclement of China, about inter-state rivalry over control of oil resources and supply routes, or about the evolving role of NATO in the world. In fact, when progressive analysts raised these questions, they were confronted with an immediate and multi-sided attack which quickly and effectively marginalized these realities. As a result, mobilization against the war in Afghanistan was weak for an extended period.
This is not to say that the Canadian public supports the war. Despite aggressive communications campaigns from all sectors of the state apparatus, opinion polls consistently show that a majority of Canadians are opposed to the war, and that the opposition is growing.
There have been demonstrations and education campaigns from 2001 to the present. But the initial response was sporadic and fractured and has taken a long time to build: it was very difficult to locate a basis of unity among the various peace forces, let alone to build a coordinated response. Some sectors of the peace movement even held up the situation in Afghanistan as a positive counterposition to the war against Iraq, pointing to the UN Security Council resolutions on Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) as examples of the humanitarian and multilateral justification for the invasion. This view represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of the war in Afghanistan and of the comprehensive nature of this regional campaign that also includes the invasion and occupation of Iraq and the role of Israel in the Middle East.
Nonetheless, while the level of mobilization of the Canadian population remains comparatively low, the war in Afghanistan has now come to assume a central place in the work of most sections of the Canadian peace movement. Ending Canadian involvement in this war is without question the number one objective priority for the peace and progressive forces in this country, and we will push that point until we have achieved that goal.
Canada made heavy commitments to ISAF, and Afghanistan became Canada's largest military deployment, by far. The war has cost Canada over $17 billion (to March 2009) and extending the war to 2011, Canada's current date for withdrawal, will cost an additional $11 billion.
In terms of NATO's role, Canada played a particularly shameful part. The military alliance had been scrambling to find a new role in the world, to justify its existence, and it had clearly overstepped its own mandate by engaging in a conflict that was outside of the North Atlantic theatre. To its discredit, it was the Canadian government that suggested and facilitated the takeover of ISAF command by NATO, which was accomplished in 2003.
As to its strategic economic interests, in 2002 - shortly after the large commitment of Canadian troops to the ISAF - a Canadian energy corporation was invited to join the consortium building a Caspian Basin pipeline through Kazakhstan. The Canadian Prime Minister who had made the troop commitment became the foreign relations adviser to this same corporation a year later.
Canada's role in Afghanistan has propelled more fundamental changes to Canadian military and international policy. These shifts are perhaps best described through an examination of the Conservative government's foreign policy doctrine, called Canada First Defence Strategy (CFDS), which was unveiled in 2008. As the Canadian Peace Congress stated in 2008: "CFDS is the manifesto of the most aggressive, chauvinistic and reactionary circles of Canadian finance capital seeking with a bigger military budget to strengthen its influence at the imperialist round tables in Washington and Brussels...
"CFDS is profoundly undemocratic and was implemented without seeking Parliamentary approval and commits $492 billion over 20 years on top of the $5.3 billion already allocated in 2006 approaching 2.2% of GDP all to guarantee the profits of defence contractors and investors. The Canadian government policy of the rapid militarization of the economy is the only job creation project the Government has to offer the youth, the unemployed and the underemployed. CFDS cannot be implemented without sacrificing the needs of public health care, pensions, child care, senior's needs, low cost housing and the peaceful development of the country."
Virtually all of the recent developments I have mentioned are an outgrowth of the intimate link between the economies and policies of Canada and the United States. We need to consider, that as the current economic crisis continues, and as the economic and political strength of the US (specifically) and, perhaps, North America in general, declines relative to other centres, there is a very real danger of increasing war due to inter-imperialist and inter-state rivalry. We need to be aware of the potential responses from the US to this reality, and we need to ask what will the response from Canada be? Will the Canadian peace movement achieve the level of unity and organization necessary to confront the challenges ahead? The answer, of course, is that we must - through the deliberations this weekend, we expect to make progress on how that goal can be reached.
11) UK TORIES LINKED TO LATVIAN FASCISTS
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Kimball Cariou
The ties between the British Conservative party and reactionary political forces in Europe are coming under new scrutiny. Two leaders of ultra-right parties spoke at the latest Conservative congress in Britain, and these parties have formed a grouping in the European Union parliament.
One recent episode reveals interesting parallels with the proposal by ultra-right groups in Canada to build an anti-communist monument in Ottawa.
According to an Oct. 14 commentary by Efraim Zuroff in The Guardian newspaper, "if anyone needed additional proof of the unsuitability of the Latvian For Fatherland and Freedom party as a partner for the British Conservatives, their response to a ceremony held yesterday in Riga to honour the Soviet soldiers who liberated the city in 1944 should be a stark reminder of the lack of shared values between the two parties."
For Fatherland and Freedom condemned Riga mayor Nils Usakovs for placing a wreath at the Victory Monument which commemorates the liberation of Riga from Nazi occupation, and for taking part in a rally to mark the event. The party called Usakovs' presence at these events "an insult to the victims of Communist terror and a glorification of the Soviet troops."
However, For Fatherland and Freedom is well known for honouring Latvia's Waffen-SS veterans who fought for Third Reich and Nazi domination of Europe. As Usakovs stated, "had Riga not been liberated from the Nazis in 1944, there would be no independent Latvia today [and therefore] it is our duty to thank those who fought against the Nazis."
In Zuroff's view, the positions taken by the Fatherland and Freedom leader Roberts Zile and other ultra-right politicians "are hardly exceptional in their home countries... (In) eastern Europe, numerous local collaborators volunteered to participate in the mass murder of Jews and played an integral role in the annihilation process, which in many countries - especially in the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine and Croatia - took place nearby, not in the death camps, all of which were in Poland. Baltic death squads such as the Latvian Arajs Kommando and Lithuanian Ypatingas Burys and 12th Auxiliary Police Battalion were among the most deadly and the Croatian Ustasha earned notoriety for their savagery and cruelty."
By joining forces with Fatherland and Freedom and Poland's Law and Justice, says Zuroff, "the Conservatives are granting important legitimacy to a false narrative that seeks to whitewash war crimes and erase the heroic victory of those who saved the world from Hitler and the Nazis."
The UK-Latvia link is not an isolated phenomenon in Europe, where right-wing forces in many countries are pressing for bans against Communist political activity.
Here in Canada, the federal Conservatives have hitched their wagon to a similar attempt to falsify history. Stephen Harper and Tory cabinet minister Jason Kenney have both encouraged the groups which initiated the proposal for a "monument to the victims of communism" on the grounds of the National Capital Commission.
Historically, such efforts have always been part of a much wider effort by the ruling class and the big monopolies to crush working class resistance. The aim of the capitalist state and "independent" pro-fascist groups is to isolate and destroy the most militant fighters for revolutionary change - the Communists and their allies.
The struggle to expose such fascist campaigns is vital for the future of the entire labour and democratic movement. As the Cold War period in North America showed, the largely successful attempt by the ruling class to remove Communists and other left-wing activists from the leadership of the trade unions was a vital step towards blunting the ability of the working class to fight back against right-wing policies.
Workers in Canada and the U.S. paid a heavy price for that setback. The Ottawa monument proposal is part of a present-day campaign to whip up a new wave of anti-communism at a time when millions of working people are questioning the crisis-ridden capitalist system and looking for radical alternatives.
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Sean Burton
When considering the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989-90, many people think of German "reunification." But it was not a "coming together" between the capitalism of the Federal Republic of Germany and the socialism of the German Democratic Republic. The FRG simply absorbed the East and dismantled its system; to this day there exist significant differences in living standards.
Now to Korea. Korean reunification, if it ever happens the way Seoul sees it, is not likely to be much different. Any visitor to the South or to the Demilitarized Zone will hear much ado about Koreans' yearning for reunification. That is both a sentimental statement and a statement of propaganda. The local news gives a more accurate picture. Always, the media reports that the government must have some plan or other for reunification. The powerful right-wing rags often put forward such plans or make demands of the government, and Seoul is certainly listening.
One such demand, elaborated in an editorial some months ago in the Chosun Ilbo, was that Seoul should be preparing a "new North Korean elite" to run the region after reunification. It is an obvious "plan"; if the DPRK ever were absorbed by the South, it certainly will not be regular North Koreans running affairs. But advocating such a plan is an affront to anyone familiar with what happened in Eastern Europe. These countries have come to be dominated by people trained or raised in the west, who frequently ignore the demands of the majority of their people; consider the mass opposition to the US missile shield in the Czech Republic or Poland that both governments eagerly endorse. Now imagine North Korea being run by a former Hyundai CEO like Lee Myung Bak!
Another frequent demand is to better integrate North Korean defectors into South Korean life. Some North Koreans did actually defect in the sense of betraying their country, but the majority of the handfuls that trickle in every now and then do so from sheer economic desperation, not unlike some Cubans during the 1990s. Though Seoul "rewards" people for moving south, there exist many difficulties in adapting to the new lifestyle. Problems include a language barrier, since South Korea has adopted a large number of foreign words, and the social stigma of being from the North.
Stories occasionally pop up about how former North Korean citizens are faring badly in the South. According to a recent Korea Herald article, over half of all defectors are avoiding employment. A cynic might say that the DPRK's socialist system made them lazy workers. The hard truth is that getting a job would mean giving up unemployment benefits. In the survey, 38% said that doing so would deprive them of a liveable income, and others did not want to lose their state-provided health care.
Clearly, many of these people are just getting by, despite often having specialized skills. The survey was conducted at the behest of Hong Jung-wook, a member of the ruling Grand National Party, who stated that former North Koreans should not be the dropouts of society.
One may well wonder what Hong thinks of the many "normal" South Koreans who cannot make ends meet. A labour project for the "underprivileged" that started in June 2009 has employed 255,500 people in social maintenance projects that will last only into November. These few months will not solve anything for the poor of South Korea. Furthermore, an inspection has revealed that over 15,000 participants in the program are not only unqualified, but also the relatives of government officials. And that is only in Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi province.
The main opposition Democratic Party elaborated on the numbers. Some 4500 participants were said to possess "excessive wealth". About 46% were over the age of 60, and numerous accidents and injuries have occurred because workers were dispatched regardless of labour capacity or age, according to opposition representative Shin Hak Yong.
Clearly Seoul has trouble taking care of its own people now, so it takes no stretch of the imagination to see what awaits the people of the DPRK if their country is defeated and taken over. Yet the media does not see any connection between the south's social problems and the system advocated by the North. It is always discussed in a cynical, hateful way. Much has been made lately of reports that the DPRK has revised some of its constitution. In particular, communism has apparently been deleted as the guiding ideology, replaced with Kim Jong Il's Songun (military first) policy along with Juche, Kim Il Sung's self-reliance ideology. A clause was also inserted insisting on "regard for and the protection of human rights", the Chosun Ilbo reported. The editorial went on the usual rant against communism, claiming that it never existed in the DPRK or the USSR, and that it never will exist. It further claimed that the differences between typical North Koreans and the county's military elite far outstrip the "imbalances" of capitalism. Adding insult to injury, the editorial called the North's constitution "useless" and argued that it was being amended to appease international pressure.
There is nothing new in this. Juche and Songun have been the DPRK's primary guiding philosophies for years; direct references to Marxism-Leninism were removed in a previous constitution. As for condemning communism, no one has ever claimed that such a social--economic formation existed anywhere in the last century, and saying it never will exist is typical propaganda. And to refer to the vast inequalities and injustices of capitalism as simple "imbalances" is despicable. Data readily available in the South has demonstrated just how vast the gap is. South Korea does not need to train a new elite for the North; they have always existed in the South and they have always been leading the charge. Just as there was no equality in German unification, there will be no quarter given in Korea either.
13) CUBAN FIVE MEMBER RESENTENCED TO 22 YEARS PRISON
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
PV Vancouver Bureau
Antonio Guerrero, one of the "Cuban Five" anti-terrorist fighters jailed in the United States, has been handed a new sentence by Federal Judge Joan Leonard - 21 years and ten months in prison. This is down from a previous life term, but longer than the 20-year sentence agreed to between Guerrero's lawyers and U.S. prosecutors.
Judge Leonard claimed that Guerrero had committed "very serious offences" and showed no statement of contrition. At the same time, she admitted that "the government did not present evidence that the defendant obtained top secret information."
Attorney Leonard Weinglass, who represented Guerrero, said the outcome was not what he expected.
"I'm surprised with this decision," said Weinglass. "We negotiated an agreement with the government in good faith. Hopefully, he will be at home in seven years."
The Cuban Five - Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Fernando Gonzalez - were arrested in 1998 and convicted three years later. Guerrero, 50, is an airport construction engineer by training born in the United States to Cuban parents.
An appeals court earlier found the original sentences for the Cuban Five were excessive. Judge Leonard has accepted requests from the lawyers representing the other prisoners to delay their re-sentencing pending a probe into the extent of so-called "damage" caused by their activities, which consisted of working to obtain information about anti-Cuba terrorist actions planned by US-backed exile groups in Florida.
Last June, the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal against the convictions, which were reached in Miami during a period of intense hostility against Cuba, making a fair trial impossible.
Following the re-sentencing, a joint declaration was issued by several U.S. solidarity groups, including the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five and the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five.
"With our declaration we reaffirm our unwavering commitment to maintain and strengthen our efforts to demand the immediate freedom of our Five brothers: Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and René Gonzalez, as they are innocent of the charges that the U.S. government has convicted them of...
"Independent of the court process and the decisions that are issued by the court, we maintain our steadfast demand for the immediate freedom of the Cuban Five. The judicial case prosecuted against our Five brothers has nothing to do with justice. This is, and always has been, a political case.
"Since the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, every administration of the U.S. government has maintained a policy of permanent aggression against the Cuban people. A fundamental part of this policy of aggression has been the use of violence against the Cuban people. For decades the U.S. administrations have been directly or indirectly involved - through terrorist organizations of the Cuban American extreme right wing in the United States - in countless terrorist attacks against the Cuban people, causing the deaths of 3,478 Cuban men, women and children, and injuring 2,099 Cubans. The peace, security and well-being of the Cuban people have been tragically affected.
"In the interest of defending its people - as any other responsible government would do--the government of Cuba assigned to the Five the task of infiltrating the terrorist organizations of the Cuban American extreme right wing. Everyone in this city knows full well that the terrorist organizations have carried out campaigns of death and terror against the Cuban people for decades. Stopping terrorism was the mission of the Cuban Five.
"Instead of arresting the terrorists and prosecuting them for their crimes, the U.S. government, participant of these nefarious campaigns of death and terror, arrested the Five 11 years ago this past September. Since then it has kept them arbitrarily imprisoned.
"It is for these reasons that today in Miami we reaffirm and make known to our Five brothers, to their families and all our sisters and brothers in the U.S. and international movement to Free the Five, as well as the Cuban people, our unalterable decision to continue and strengthen our struggle for their immediate freedom."
Miami, October 13, 2009
14) BOOK TELLS THE STORY OF INDIA'S GADAR REVOLUTIONARIES IN CANADA
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Gurpreet Singh
A new book on the Indian revolutionaries who were active in Canada was released in Surrey on Thanksgiving Day. Authored in Punjabi by Sohan Singh Pooni, Canada De Gadri Yodhay (The Gadar combatants of Canada) is the biographies of 41 freedom fighters, mostly associated with the Gadar Party, a revolutionary group that believed in armed struggle against the British occupation of India.
The book release ceremony proved a major crowd puller at the Grand Taj Banquet Hall. The venue was packed with visitors, and with descendants of the revolutionaries. The book was released by Dr. Hugh Johnston, retired professor at Simon Fraser University, who has also authored a book on the struggle of the Sikhs against racism in Canada. Among those honoured on the occasion were the relatives of the Gadar heroes. However, the presence of the politicians belonging to the NDP, Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties was ironic, as the Gadarites were anti-establishment.
Though the Gadar Party was formally established in the U.S. in 1913, the Gadar movement had its roots in Canada where the Indian immigrants had to endure racism. It was the discriminatory attitude of the Canadian establishment that partially made these men politically aware of the need to fight against foreign rule back home.
Most of these men came to Canada in the beginning of the twentieth century as British subjects. Their dreams for better living were shattered as the Canadian government systematically discriminated against them by restricting their immigration, family reunions and disfranchising them. As a result a need for struggle for both social justice and freedom arose. The Gadar Party was a byproduct of this abusive environment that motivated about 300 people in Canada alone to become members of this militant group, according to Pooni, who took nine years to complete his work.
His research took him to India and across the border, where he visited archives and other places to lay hands on rare documents and pictures, and to interview the descendants of these men.
The common thread between these men was that they were mostly rural Sikhs from Punjab, some of whom had served in the British army. Most came to Canada as British subjects and were disillusioned by the fact that the British Empire was not treating all its subjects fairly. They had to pay heavily to travel to Canada. Initially, they tried to challenge the "continuous journey law", the bar on bringing their families and institutional racism through petitions and appeals. But they soon realized that their slavery was the root of these problems, and to end that an armed resistance was necessary. Subsequently, these men became members of the Gadar Party. Most returned to India in hopes to initiate a rebellion that was supposed to be the sequel of the Gadar (mutiny) of 1857, only to face the gallows or life imprisonment.
Among them were prominent ideologues like Bhag Singh, Tarak Nath Dass, Hussein Rahim, Harnam Singh Sahri, Balwant Singh Khurdpur, Karam Singh Daulatpur, Bhagwan Singh Dosanjh and Munsha Singh Dukhi. The book reveals their connection with Canada. Apart from leading the Gadar movement to set India free from British rule, these men participated in different struggles for the rights of immigrants in Canada.
Realizing that the misery of their compatriots in India was to be blamed on the lack of education, they helped to build schools in Punjab. Despite challenges from the orthodox and conservative social environment of India, they resolved to encourage female education. Some of them later turned into communists.
Bhag Singh was the first Indo Canadian martyr, shot in 1914 by Bela Singh, the agent of an infamous immigration officer, William Hopkison. The leader of the Khalsa Deewan Society that governed the oldest Sikh temple of Vancouver, Bhag Singh was instrumental in encouraging former Sikh soldiers to burn their medals and certificates to break loyalties with the British Empire in 1909. This wasn't an easy task, as the Sikh preachers in India were pro-British and prayed for the long life of their English masters. The book begins with his biography, followed by the profile of Badan Singh, who had also died with Bhag Singh after being hurt in the shootout. These killings were avenged by Mewa Singh, who assassinated Hopkinson and was hanged for the murder. His profile suggests that he may have done this at the instructions of the Gadar leaders.
The biography of Hari Singh Soond, who killed Bela Singh in India, is also a part of the book.
The book gives a detailed account of the activities of Hussein Rahim, who was in the forefront of the fight for the right to vote and the struggle to let the passengers of the Komagata Maru set foot on Canadian soil. The ship was turned back on July 23, 1914, under the racist immigration law. This incident added fuel to the fire and strengthened the foundation of the Gadar movement.
Despite being Sikhs, some devoutly religious Gadar heroes mentioned in the book were liberal and secular. After all, one of the objectives of the Gadar Party was to keep apart politics and religion and to promote unity. Some of these men who returned to India saved Muslims from Hindu and Sikh fundamentalists during the partition of India and Pakistan on religious lines in 1947. These men did not buckle under pressure from the religious zealots and helped Muslims in reaching safe destinations. These details will help in understanding the secular indoctrination of the Gadarites.
The book ends with the biography of Darshan Singh Canadian, a communist leader of Punjab, who was murdered by the Sikh separatists in 1986. He had spent several years in Canada before India's independence, taking part in the struggle for right to vote and the labour movement.
The huge attendance of Indo Canadians at the event suggests that their interest in the history of the Gadar movement has largely been overlooked by the mainstream historians of India and Canada. Book release ceremonies in the Punjabi community hardly ever generate curiosity of this level.
15) HEALTH CARE IN THE GREAT WHITE NORTH
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
November 12 will be the 70th anniversary of the death of the famous Canadian communist Dr. Norman Bethune in China. To mark this date, we publish the following commentary by Norman (Otis) Richmond.
The Canadian health care system is clearly more humane than the US system; however, all is not well in the Great White North.
A recent report from Member of Parliament Olivia Chow revealed: "Presently, four million Canadians are unable to find a family doctor and nurses continue to be overburdened. In fact, each patient that is added beyond a nurse's capacity increases patient mortality by 7 per cent while citizens who are unable to find a general practitioner go undiagnosed and minor illnesses become life-threatening."
Before coming to Canada in 1967, I honestly knew of only two Canadians - Harry Jerome and Norman Bethune.
Jerome was an African born in Canada and a world-class sprinter who competed in the 1960, 1964 and 1968 Olympics. One of my schoolmates from Fremont High School in Los Angeles, Richard Stebbins, competed against Jerome in the 1964 Olympics. At one time in my arrested development I even believed Jerome was the only Black person in the Great White North.
I knew about Bethune because Chairman Mao Zedong mentioned him in The Quotations of Chairman Mao Zedong. I must confess many of my neighbors in South Central Los Angeles were aware of Mao, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De and other leaders of the 1949 Chinese revolution.
Bethune (March 3, 1890-November 12, 1939) was a Euro-Canadian doctor in the 1930s who was a pioneer in socialized healthcare. He also worked in Spain and China to assist struggles against fascism in those countries. He was a medical innovator and developed the first mobile blood-transfusion service in Spain in 1936. Many feel that Bethune is as important to health care in Canada as Tommy Douglas.
Born in Gravenhurst, Ontario, Bethune was to the left of Douglas.
There is a wide body of work both in film and books on the life and times of Bethune. The National Film Board of Canada and Hollywood also have work about him.
Many progressives recommend Ted Allan and Sydney Gordon's volume, The Scalpel, the Sword: The Story of Doctor Norman Bethune. This work was published in 1952, revised in 1971 and reprinted in 1981. A Canadian film, Bethune: The Making of a Hero, was made in the 1990s.
Adrienne Clarkson, a Chinese Canadian and former Governor General of Canada from 1999 to 2005, has attempted to repackage Bethune and present him merely as a humanitarian in her new book, Extraordinary Canadians: Norman Bethune. Bethune was for the total transformation of the Canadian society and the world.
I and millions who have had children born in Canada are in debt to Bethune. My son was born on November 10, 1987. He wasn't due until March of 1988. I was preparing for a trip to Africa when he was born prematurely. The child weighed in at one pound, nine ounces or 710 grams. He jumped the gun after only 26-and-a-half weeks. He stayed in Women's College Hospital until April 4, 1988. I was only $6 dollars out of pocket for my wife's telephone calls.
The issue of health care is the most burning question in the United States at the moment. President Barack Obama is under attack by the right for his stand on health care. President Obama seems to have taken single payers off the table in the current debate.
Bruce Dixon, Managing Editor of BlackAgendaReport.com, has pointed out: "President Obama seems to have changed his promise from health care to coverage, not care. He's turned the crusade for health care into a crusade for universal health insurance."
When President Obama was a senator from Illinois, he spoke forcefully for a single payer system and said it should be a human right. Not so in 2009. President Obama has repeatedly said he is not a socialist. The hard right has repeatedly said that he is a Marxist who follows Karl and not Groucho, Harpo or Chico.
However, socialism's obituary was prematurely written. Venezuela and other nations have joined Cuba and are opting for what they call 21st Century socialism.
Denzel Washington gave a splendid performance in the film, John Q, which was filmed in Toronto. However, Hollywood did not reward him for his role in this film. Many observers feel that Washington was punished for playing in a film that points out the contradictions in the health care system in the United States. He was rewarded for portraying a corrupt Los Angeles policeman in Training Day, which garnered Washington an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Once again a voice from the left is correct on the health question. Single-payer is the only way forward for humanity. The Canadian born Bethune hit the nail on the head when he opined at the "Symposium on Medical Economics" in 1936: "Twenty-five years ago, it was thought contemptible to be called a socialist. Medical reforms, such as limited heath insurance schemes, are not socialized medicine. They are a bastard form of socialism produced by belated humanitarianism out of necessity". The good Doctor was right then and he is right now.
Norman (Otis) Richmond can be contacted Norman.o.richmond@gmail.com
16) MERCHANT MARINERS ASSISTED IN VICTORY OVER FASCISM
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
By Norman Faria
Last September 3rd marked the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II which pitted the world's liberal-democratic nations (the "Allies") against the fascist regime of Adolf Hitler and other countries (the "Axis"). It lasted until August 1945 when Japan's militarist rulers finally capitulated.
Traditionally, Remembrance Day ceremonies are held world wide in November to remember the ultimate sacrifice of enlisted Allied servicemen and women.
In recent years, the contribution of merchant mariners, including those from Canada, have also been recognised. Those are the mainly men who served in freighters (or "cargo boats" as they are sometimes called) bringing vital war materials and basic necessities like food and medicine across the oceans.
I was deeply honoured to be invited to the unveiling of the Seamen's Monument in the Military Cemetery on the shores of Carlisle Bay, just outside the Barbados capital Bridgetown. Among the names of the Barbadian seafarers inscribed thereon is the father of one of Barbados' national heroes, Sir Garfield Sobers. Another name is de Wever, who was an immigrant to the island from then British Guiana.
Among those at the ceremony was Lt.Col. Florence Gittens (now retired) of the Barbados Defence Force.
"The merchant marine seafarers during the war faced just as much danger as the enlisted forces. Indeed, if you compare names of Barbadian seamen with the enlisted you will find more of them died..." said Lt.Col. Gittens when I phoned her to be appraised of preparations for this year's services.
When the war broke out, Britain had a relatively large merchant marine navy. A total of 2,524 British registered freighters and tankers were sunk by enemy action during the war. Some 30,248 seafarers died, 4,654 went missing and 4,707 were wounded.
The maritime battlefront was an important one. Noted shipping historian Richard Woodman in the September 2009 edition of the Telegraph newspaper of the Nautilus British seaman's trade union: "Victory for the Allies hinged entirely on command of the seas, and the shipping of supplies either across the Atlantic to Britain by convoy or across the Pacific to the Allied battlefield by the Fleet Train."
Tony Lane, the author of the book The Merchant's Seaman's War, was also quoted: "Without an unbroken flow of imported food, raw materials and armaments, the British government would have been obliged to accept a humiliating peace settlement of the kind imposed on the French."
Aside from Britain, this reliance on shipping was also true of other countries including then British Guiana and colonies in the Caribbean. The peoples there assisted in the war against German and Italian fascist dictatorship and Japanese militarism in several ways. One was enlisting in the Home Guard and the South Caribbean Force, and giving assistance to servicemen brought in from Allied countries. (There were about 30,000 US servicemen in Trinidad at one time.)
Secondly, Caribbean men and women enlisted in Allied armies. One of Barbados' Prime Ministers, Errol Barrow, was a navigator on a Royal Air Force (RAF) bomber.
Caribbean (and Guyanese) people also served on some of the merchant ships carrying vital supplies to North America or Europe. Ship captains or owners agents must have signed on some local seafarers as crew while the vessels visited the Caribbean and Guiana, even if it meant they were hired as stewards or cooks because of the companies' discriminatory practices at the time. The Allied war effort needed, for example, large quantities of aluminum to build airplanes and other items. Among the countries from which the ore was sourced was Guiana (as was rice and sugar). Tellingly, German submarines (the "U-boats") were sent to patrol places like the Guyanese coast to sink freighters leaving the Demerara River with the alumina ore. Tankers bringing oil and gas from Trinidad and Aruba and Caracao were also targeted. The actual ships were from several countries. At the time, the US and Canada also had sizeable merchant marine fleets and their vessels were also U-boat victims.
Even on the wider front of ships bringing supplies across the Atlantic, not all had crews from the country of the ship's registration. In the case of Britain, by 1939, some 27 per cent of seafarers on British ships travelling to foreign ports were from other countries. Most non-British crew were from China or India, then a British colony. Significantly, five per cent were "Arabs, Indians, Chinese, West Africans or West Indians domiciled (resident) in such British ports as Cardiff, Liverpool and South Shields" (quote from Tony Lane in Telegraph newspaper). Among the shipwrecked sailors in lifeboats drifting onto Trinidad shores and other islands were Chinese and Indian sailors.
We must also take into account those who served on the inter-island wooden schooners. They brought food and other necessities to smaller islands and hard to reach communities. Some U-boat logs mention the shelling of such schooners (after crews took to lifeboats).
One of the schooners which traded in the early part of the war was the Gloria Colita, a big 178 tonne three-master. Among its tramping routes was carrying rice from Guiana to Cuba and then lumber to the US. It was owned and skippered by the father of Sir James Mitchell, former prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
In May 1941, the Gloria Colita was found adrift and abandoned in the Gulf Stream near New Orleans. Neither Captain Mitchell or any of the crew were ever found. One theory is that Captain Mitchell was kidnapped and forced into service on German U-boats as a pilot. This is hardly likely - the first U-boat didn't come to the Caribbean until the following year.
We must continue to honour those enlisted servicemen and women who died. The ceremonies should be taken seriously by all citizenry to remind us of the necessity of people of all races and religions to always stand up to those who would try to conquer democratic minded people and impose a fascist dictatorship.
All glory to those brave Allied soldiers and air and naval personnel from several countries (including the Americans and the Soviet Union, without whose mighty Red Army Hitler's forces would never have been defeated) who gave their lives so that future generations can continue to deepen our democratic way of life. Glory too to members of the Resistance movements such as in France and even in Germany itself under Hitler's brutal repression. The sacrifice of those from many lands who gave their lives serving in the merchant marine must also be remembered.
(Norman Faria is Guyana's Honorary Consul in Barbados, nfaria@caribsurf.com)
(The following article is from the November 1-15, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers and overseas readers - $50 per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)
BURNABY, BC
War Resisters Wine and Cheese Benefit - Fri., Nov. 13, 7 pm, featuring the music of Shari Ulrich, tickets limited by space, $50/person, 390 North Springer Ave., reserve by calling 604-251-3439.
VANCOUVER, BC
You, Me and the SPP - Thursday, Nov. 5, 7 pm at Fifth Avenue Cinema, followed by Q & A with filmmaker Paul Manly. The film’s full tour schedule is online at http://www.youmespp.com.
Revolution Celebration, with guest speaker Miguel Figueroa, CPC leader - Friday, Nov. 6, 7 pm, Chilean Housing Co-op, 3390 School Ave. (off Kingsway & Tyne). Donations welcome, refreshments and light lunch available. Sponsored by BC Committee, Communist Party of Canada, 604-254-9836.
1929-1939, From Crash to Catastrophe, World Peace Forum teach-in - Nov. 7-8-11, Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St. For full details, visit http://www.worldpeaceforumbc.ca.
Left Film Night, “The War on Democracy”, dir. by John Pilger - Sunday, Nov. 29, 7 pm, Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive. For info, call 604-255-2041.
WINNIPEG, MB
Day of Action for Poverty-Free Manitoba - Thur., Nov. 5, rally at the Leg 12:30 pm. Marches/rallies begin at Univ. of Manitoba (11:30 am) and Univ. of Winnipeg (Noon). Information: Canadian Federation of Students, 783-0787.
90th Anniversary of the Winnipeg General Strike, dinner, music, speakers - Sat., Nov. 7, doors open 5:30, Ukrainian Labour Temple, 591 Pritchard Ave. Advance tickets only, for details see ad on page 7, or call Manitoba Committee CPC, 586-7824.
TORONTO, ON
Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution - Sunday, Nov. 8, 1 pm, Friendship House, 280 Queen St. W. (east of Spadina), speakers, cultural performance, food, raffle. Sponsored by Northstar Compass and Canadian Friends of Soviet People, 416-977-5819.
Stars of Ballet, featuring dancers from Ballet Nacional de Cuba, with Artistic Director Alicia Alonso - Tue., Dec. 8, 7 pm, Living Arts Centre, 4141 Living Arts Drive, Mississauga. Tickets $25-90, contact 1-905-306-6000 or 1-888-805-8888.
SASKATOON, SK
Political discussion & beer, all welcome to join Saskatoon CPC members - third Monday of every month, in the tv room at Amigo’s, 632-10 St. East.
*****
Joya Book Tour Afghan woman MP Malalai Joya, an outspoken critic of the NATO occupation, is touring Canada to launch her new book, “A Woman Among Warlords.” Her itinerary includes:
VANCOUVER: Sat., Nov. 14, 7 pm, book launch at St. Andrew’s Wesley Church, 1022 Nelson St., organized by StopWar.ca.
VICTORIA: Sunday, Nov. 15, 2 pm, book launch at University of Victoria, David Lam Auditorium, MacLaurin Bldg. Hosted by Victoria Peace Coalition.
WINNIPEG: Monday, Nov. 16, 7 pm, University of Winnipeg, Convocation Hall, organized by Peace Alliance Winnipeg.
TORONTO: Nov. 18-20. Details TBA.
HALIFAX: Nov. 21-22. Details TBA.
MONTREAL: Nov. 23-24. Details TBA
OTTAWA: Thursday, Nov. 26, 7 pm, Centretown United Church (507 Bank St), Ottawa Peace Assembly.
