Unity and militancy, not raiding and turf wars (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) Labour Day 2004 message from the Communist Party of Canada IN THE TWELVE months since last Labour Day Canadian working people have seen an escalation of an already dangerous corporate drive towards capitalist globalization, privatization, union-busting, and de‑industrialization.      US Imperialism, using their so‑called war on terrorism as a pretext, threatens to pull our country deeper into the attack on civil liberties, involvement in Star Wars Missile Programs, control of our borders, and US global military dominance.      By the end of 2004 there will be no appliance manufacturing left in Canada. The last Quebec auto plant has already closed, and three plants have closed and 20% of autoworkers have been laid off in Ontario. Basic Steel is threatened by vulture capitalists who will integrate it with corporate global plans. The west-coast shipbuilding industry is threatened by the decision to build new ferries offshore. NAFTA denies us the tariffs and duties we need to protect jobs, standards and Canadian sovereignty, denies us the right to be masters in our own house, and demands the right to make our culture, including our social programs, healthcare, and education, into commodities to be marketed to those who can afford to purchase it. The FTAA, described as "NAFTA on steroids", aims to make these deals irreversible, although the timetable for this deal has been dealt severe blows by opposition across the Americas.      As work becomes more precarious, and as wages stand still or even fall, workers' living standards and purchasing power are declining at a rapid rate. Life is becoming harder, not better for working class families, the unemployed, and the poor. The Ontario government will shortly abolish retirement age so that exploitation of workers can continue longer into old age. This will mean that the 80% of the workforce unorganized in English‑speaking Canada and the 60% in Quebec can be squeezed even more by the "Mc‑Jobs" employers and the contracting out vultures, who seek to use workers longer into their old age while denying youth the jobs they need to survive.       The past year has witnessed a rise in militancy, dissatisfaction and unrest in the labour movement. Many workers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of leadership and mass action by labour, by challenging the influence of right wing business unionism and by attempting to restore membership control and class struggle policies to their unions.      Last spring the Canadian section of the OPEIU became the latest group of workers to leave their US based union, and seek membership in a militant, Canadian union which they expect to oppose concessions and fight for strong collective agreements and progressive social policies. Changes made at the 2002 CLC convention, which anticipate Constitutional changes in 2005 to democratize the restrictive structure of the central labour body, especially in English-speaking Canada will strengthen membership control of unions in Canada ‑ national and international. Workers must have the right to belong to the union of their choice and not be held as chattels by organizations which  have not represented them properly.      At ground level the militancy and determination of organized workers has been impressive, from the seizure and operation of a plant in Quebec, to the massive resistance of public sector workers in Newfoundland, the refusal of workers to concede to blackmail and extortion at Stelco in Hamilton Ontario, and the unprecedented spontaneous unity around the healthcare workers in British Columbia.      Generally the right‑wing leadership of the CLC and in most provincial federations of labour have vacillated and acted as arbitrators at best, or been completely absent like the OFL in Ontario, or engineered a sellout like the BC Federation. Raiding and turf wars have generally taken the place of united, militant struggle and organizing the unorganized at the leadership level. Labour in Quebec has been much more militant and united, and the fightback is much better organized and has had a greater impact as a result.      Organized workers in the coming year must fight to win the inter‑related objectives/goals of re‑creating a dedicated class struggle leadership, defeat raiding and organize the unorganized, implement a drive for more inner democracy and reach out into the entire population for alliances to fight for policies on behalf of all the people.      These policies include: * An independent Canadian foreign policy of peace and disarmament ‑ No to National Missile Defence. * A multilateral trade policy ‑ Fair Trade, Not Free Trade! Out of NAFTA! No to FTAA! * protect civil and democratic rights ‑ rescind anti‑democratic "anti‑terrorism" laws * rescind the Clarity Act and fight for Constitutional recognition of the right to self-determination for Quebec and Aboriginal peoples. * Create jobs! Introduce a 32 hour work week with no loss in take home pay; build affordable social housing now; rebuild secondary industry and manufacturing; restore Canada's ship‑building, machine tool, and agricultural implement industries; save auto and steel jobs and pensions; nationalize energy and natural resources; make exports value added by processing raw materials at home; * Restore provincial and municipal infrastructure ‑ build a national child care program, and expand social programs - invest in public health care and public and post‑secondary education * Raise the minimum wage to $12/hour. * Lower the retirement age to 60 and substantially increase and index pensions. * Make UI cover all unemployed at 90% of previous earnings, for the duration of unemployment. * Guarantee the right to strike, picket and organize in a Labour Bill of Rights. * Defend the equality rights of women, immigrants, Aboriginal peoples, and the LGBT community.      To quote the Program of the Communist Party, "the trade union movement must become sovereign, united and independent, with the highest level of coordinated strategy and action. It must be governed by the principle `an injury to one is an injury to all,' at all times placing the interests of the movement as a whole above the sectional interests of individual affiliates. It must oppose raiding, and resolve jurisdictional disputes in the interests of affected workers. ....It must also cement the class unity between the workers in Quebec and workers in the rest of Canada and between Aboriginal and non‑aboriginal workers....."      The Communist Party salutes the history and militancy of Canadian workers and their most organized section, Canadian labour.      In unity and in solidarity with workers everywhere in the world, the struggle continues, for peace, socialism and justice. (Back) (Home) Venezuela's victory (The following editorial is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) AS OTHERS have said, the victory of the Venezuelan working people in the August 15 recall referendum may someday be seen as a turning point in history.      On one level, the resounding support for President Hugo Chavez marks a stinging defeat for US imperialism and its hangers-on in Latin America. Such outcomes are rare, though certainly not unprecedented. In this case, the result weakens the attempts by the Yankee Empire to dictate their corporate agenda across the hemisphere. There is no way, for example, that the Free Trade Area of the Americas will be completed by its 2005 deadline, if at all. Instead, prospects for regional economic cooperation plans such as MERCOSUR are now much brighter. Canadians resisting the capitalist juggernaut can take heart as we struggle to abrogate the "free trade" deals which sold out our sovereignty.      Perhaps even more important, Venezuela is proving that progressive governments can keep their promises to improve living standards, promote literacy, and renew democracy from the grassroots up. This marks a crucial shift from defensive battles to a sweeping offensive for a whole new society. There is a growing possibility that Cuba will not have to stand alone in the western hemisphere as a society based on the interests of workers, not big capital.      There is a long and complicated road ahead for the Venezuelan people towards that goal, but it is not just a dream. Solidarity with Venezuela and Cuba, with FARC-EP and other popular forces in Colombia, and with all those who stand for freedom and justice across the hemisphere, is absolutely vital in the times ahead! (Back) (Home) BC Ferries sellout draws more fire (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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   IN CONTRAST to the rest of Canada, most of British Columbia has been through a sweltering heat wave this summer. And for the Campbell Liberal government, things have been even hotter following the decision to build three new Super-C Class ferries overseas rather than at home.      Shipyard workers and other opponents of the move rallied in North Vancouver on August 11, even joined by Bill Vander Zalm. The presence of the right-wing ex-premier showed that the government has alienated a wide spectrum of voters, forcing it to resort to tactics such as alleging that "safety" is a key reason for sending the work abroad.      According to the BC Shipyard General Workers' Federation, the now-privatized ferry service is forfeiting $200 million by building the ferries in a European shipyard, including a federal government contribution worth up to $75 million.      A federal non‑repayable contribution of up to 15% of the purchase price is payable for ships built in Canada, meaning that up to $75 million could be saved on the reported cost of $500 million, said George MacPherson, president of the Federation. The federal Structured Financing Facility program of Industry Canada makes the contribution to encourage Canadian shipbuilding, he said.      At the same time, BC Ferry Services will have to pay the federal government a 25% import duty on the foreign‑built ships, which would amount to an additional $125 million.      "How much clearer can it be?" asked MacPherson. "BC Ferry Services can build three ships in BC, create 2000 direct jobs, keep a $500 million investment here at home and get the federal government to pay us $75 million for building them in Canada. That means we get three new built‑in‑BC ferries worth $500 million for $425 million."      Instead, the corporation will spend $500 million creating thousands of jobs in Germany or Finland and then pay an additional $125 million duty on top of that for importing foreign‑built ships, for a total cost of $625 million.      Already faced with steadily rising fares and long waits on many weekends, ferry customers and BC taxpayers will be stuck paying an extra $200 million for creating jobs in a foreign country.      The Federations calls it "extremely unlikely" that BC Ferry Services will have its request for federal import duties to be waived, pointing out that this would set a precedent for other Canadian companies, including Canada Steamship Lines, owned by Prime Minister Paul Martin.      Just days after the rally, Attorney General and Richmond Steveston MLA Geoff Plant responded to a disgruntled constituent by citing "passenger safety" as the rationale for excluding local shipbuilders from competing to build the new vessels.      The letter was revealed to the Shipyard Workers on a confidential basis on Aug. 17.      "Every ship in the BC Ferries fleet but three has come from a BC shipyard," said MacPherson. "Our safety record is above reproach and Mr. Plant has added insult to injury by denigrating local industry in this way."      Plant's letter also states that if BC could build ships like the proposed Super C‑Class ferries, they would "have more business than they know what to do with."      But MacPherson noted that BC shipbuilders have won two international contracts in the past 18 months, despite "the irresponsible and damaging comments" by Plant and others in the legislature and BC Ferry Services.      "When a high ranking government official says buying locally is bad business, we have a big governance problem," said MacPherson, calling this the latest in a series of falsehoods being circulated by the provincial government to cover up for the controversial bid process.      The first phase of the process led to expressions of interest from a variety of international shipbuilders including British Columbia‑based Washington Marine Group, which operates Vancouver Shipyards and Victoria Shipyards. That bid did not make it past the initial phase.      Demanding to know if the process was designed to guarantee the failure of local bidders, the Federation has filed a Freedom of Information request on Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon,      At the August 11 rally, B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair said, "The reason the BC Liberals don't want (the ferries) built here is because the real agenda is to sell off BC's public assets."      The NDP opposition has revealed that BC Ferries plans to send American CEO David Hahn to a November conference in the Bahamas, where he intends to promote the sale of smaller routes to private operators. (Back) (Home) Shut down Radio Poubelle (Garbage Pail Radio) (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 Kenneth Higham     Freedom of speech is on the minds of Quebecois these days. The CRTC has ordered CHOI-FM, a highly popular Quebec City radio station, off the air after August 31.      This decision has political parties and other organizations scrambling to take positions. The Communist Party of Quebec (PCQ) has a position and knows which side of the barricade it is on. True to its underlying principle of being the party of the people, the PCQ's stand is with the people. It is debatable whether its position is the most popular, but true justice is not a matter of popularity contests.      The PCQ is, to date, the only political party to openly take a position in favour of the CRTC ruling. The Communist Party supports all oppressed people, be they first nations, people of colour, immigrants, handicapped, homosexuals, unionists or leftists. CHOI-FM has attacked and slandered each one of these groups in its turn.      CHOI does have its group of friends, however, and it is interesting to see who they are. They are from influential business circles, pro‑free trade interest groups, the right wing and the ill-informed.      Look who is sharing the same bed: Quebec Premier Jean Charest, Mario Dumont of the right‑wing Action Démocratique, and even the New Democratic Party! As these parties mouth the expected well‑worn platitudes about free speech, the Communist Party proudly reminds them that the Communists are always one of the first victims of anti-free speech campaigns. When the PCQ takes a stand on an issue such as this, it does so from experience, such as the period of the Padlock Law under Duplessis, which forbid Communists from renting meeting halls. Communists have been locked up fighting for the freedom to be free, but yet are the first to oppose those who encourage crimes against humanity such as child pornography, racial hatred, homophobia, sexism and religious intolerance.      What does a typical CHOI-FM weekly morning radio broadcast consist of? Aside from its mediocre bathroom humour and habitual sexual obscenities, such as calling for fellation contests, there are remarks about "hunting down Indians," the size of a woman's breasts being in direct inverse proportion to her cranial capacity, and that Laval is one of the biggest North African universities.      The radio station refuses to clean up its act. It has ignored repeated warnings and called the CRTC's bluff. Even now, it thinks that by pulling a few strings in high places, it may be able to worm out of this ruling.      The CRTC says it received 47 complaints about CHOI-FM between 1999 and 2001. But CHOI-FM is unrepentant. It does not care about freedom. It cares about its ratings and advertising revenue. By being obscene, racist, hateful and insulting it has built itself from a third‑rate radio station into one of the most popular in Quebec; it is the ideal capitalist success story.      The Communist Party of Quebec says, "Shut it down!" But here in People's Voice we give you the facts so you can decide. Here is an example.      During the CRTC hearings in February 2002, a recording was played of comments made by CHOI's Jean‑Francois Filion regarding Tracy Latimer, the Saskatchewan girl whose father claimed that he had killed his severely handicapped daughter out of compassion. Here is a translation of Filion's on-air remarks: "Anyways, she wasn't anything but a garbage pail that spewed out shit from both ends. Feeding her just made her shit. So it was expensive to maintain her."      This says it all! This is obscene. A human tragedy of a family and a very sick little girl has been exploited for ratings. Shut down CHOI-FM! (Back) (Home) Privatised Co-op forces Calgary workers to strike (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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  ALTHOUGH IT HAS NOT had much play in the local newspapers, a very fractious, difficult, and acrimonious strike is taking place in Calgary.      Since 11 am, August 13, Local 987 (Warehouse, Hardware and Foodware and Traffic workers) of the Teamsters has been on strike against the Federated Co-op's warehouse distribution company.      The Co-op, which at one time was an example of how ordinary people could join together to reduce the cost of staples by co-operative bulk buying, has recently been privatized. By so becoming the Co-op has taken on the worst aspects of capitalist oppression of the working class, refusing to negotiate with the strikers and policing the picket line with fine‑toothed legal scrutiny.      The workers have been offered a pitiful $0.90 wage increase over the next four years - less than 25 cents a year. The bosses have refused to listen to demands for a better averaging of benefits and are completely unsympathetic to requests for humane policies on maternity, sick, and injury‑related leaves.      The strike was triggered by deliberate work slowdowns during which workers were laid off; these slowdowns were followed by speed‑ups resulting in forced overtime and 12‑hour days.      The original offer presented by management was rejected by 96% of Local 987 members. After the two‑week cooling off period, 98.3% of the 270 members voted to strike. This is a powerful and courageous move in union‑bashing Alberta, where decertifying a union would be seen as a true victory for conservative ideology.      Local newspapers have been threatened with the withdrawal of advertising should they print stories concerning this strike.      (The strike location is the Federated Co-op building at 2626 10th Ave. NE, behind Franklin Mall and beside the Calgary Casino. People's Voice readers in Calgary are on the picket lines and working to build solidarity. To help out or for more information, call Rick Collier at 246‑8246.) (Back) (Home) Palestinian and Israeli educators in Canada (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 Darrell Rankin, Winnipeg   MORE THAN 70 students enrolled in a Winnipeg university course in July to learn about the realities and problems of education in Israel and its Occupied Territories. During their stay, Palestinian and Israeli educators spoke at public meetings about pervasive racism in Israel's school system and the challenges facing Palestinian educators.      Dr. Nurit Peled‑Elhanan of Hebrew University, said the main Israeli textbooks present a single perspective of Israel that ignores why Jews returned to Israel and focuses on present‑day Israel. Palestinians are portrayed in four ways: as a "problem," as terrorists, as Arab refugees and as non‑entities. Accurate depictions of Palestinians are omitted.      Dr. Sami Adwan, dean of the education faculty at Bethlehem University, described the struggle for education under occupation. The Israeli military targets education by detaining students at checkpoints, jailing, fines and shootings, long curfews, the destruction of schools and the uncertainty that accompanies all this repression. The occupation imposes a heavy emotional and psychological toll on Palestinian youth.      Asked "what do you want us to do?", Adwan said "everyone must take action and (quoting the Prophet Mohammed) `You have to support your brother, whether he is an oppressor or if he is oppressed.' Well, how can I do this? If he is an oppressor I must tell him stop. Stop the humiliation. Stop the theft. Stop the killing. If he is oppressed I must give him support. I must treat him humanely."      According to Kalil Bader, a high school teacher from East Jerusalem, "To be under occupation is to be far away from anything good you can imagine to have. Under occupation the only thing we can achieve is education. Education is a very wide door to open us to all human feeling."      The Palestinian goal now is to use a common curriculum to replace the Jordanian and Egyptian which have been used since 1948.  The new curriculum has been prepared for elementary grades.      However, in areas still under direct Israeli control such as East Jerusalem, when teaching the Palestinian curriculum, said Bader, "if there is a picture of the Palestinian flag, they (Israelis) will remove it. If there is a poem about Palestinian identity, they will remove it... The geography of Palestine cannot be taught."      The visit demonstrated the importance of education to Palestinians in preserving a future where they will be free. New connections with the Palestinian struggle have been established in conditions of intensifying Israeli repression in the Occupied Territories, and the visit has helped break the pervasive pro-Zionist media propaganda in Canada. (Back) (Home) Mine, smelter strikes in Labrador, Quebec (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 Darrell Rankin Close to 4,000 mine and smelter workers in Labrador and Quebec, members of USWA, are on strike to block concession demands from some of the largest mine companies in North America, including Rio Tinto (owner of Iron Ore Company of Canada, IOCC), Alcoa and Cleveland Cliffs. In Labrador City and Sept-Iles, Quebec, 1,400 IOCC workers have been on strike since July 19, opposing demands to strip health care and pensions, freeze wages and introduce a form of psychological profiling of workers on which to base discipline. "What the company wants is truly an indecent proposal," said USWA rep Yvon Clement. Over 700 Cleveland Cliffs iron ore pellet miners have been on strike since July 5 in Wabush (close to Labrador City) resisting contracting out demands. Four other U.S. Cliffs mines are operating, after settling without a strike in late July. In Betancour, Quebec, more than 800 aluminum smelter workers have been on the picket line since July 7, after voting 92 per cent in favour of a strike. The main bargaining dispute is over workplace rules at the smelter, built at a cost of $l.65 billion. Meanwhile, close to 3,000 workers at Algoma Steel, Canada's third largest steel producer, voted to accept a settlement on July 30, avoiding a strike deadline the next day. The three-year deal increases wages 7 per cent and adds $10,000 in advance "profit sharing." Pensions, health benefits, meal and boot allowances are also improved. The workers are members of Locals 2251 and 2624, United Steelworkers of America. (Back) (Home) Wal-Mart workers in Quebec win certification (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.) A Wal-Mart located in Jonquiere, Quebec is on its way to becoming the only unionized Wal-Mart in North America after a ruling by the Quebec Labour Relations Board (QLRC) to grant employees union certification with UFCW Canada (United Food and Commercial Workers Canada). The union accreditation was issued by the QLRC after a majority of employees at the Saguenay-region store, about 220 kilometres north of Quebec City, signed UFCW Canada membership cards. A hearing was scheduled for Aug. 20 to finalize the makeup of the bargaining unit, following a statement by QLRC adjudicator Jocelyne Houle that no matter the definition of the unit, "the applicant is representative, as required by law." "This is (a) great victory for the workers in Jonquiere, and for Wal-Mart workers everywhere," said Michael J. Fraser, UFCW Canada's national director. "Wal-Mart is on the record stating they support workplace democracy," said Fraser. "The majority of workers in Jonquiere have spoken, so we expect Wal-Mart to listen and get down to negotiating a first contract without delay." Since the company stated that it would not close the store because of a union, says Fraser, "Wal-Mart workers should stop believing the rumours their stores will close if they exercise their right to form a union. What's happened in Quebec can happen at any Wal-Mart store in North America. Jonquiere is only the first of more to come." Currently UFCW Canada has other applications pending for Wal-Mart stores in Weyburn and North Battleford, Saskatchewan; in Terrace, British Columbia; and in Thompson, Manitoba. UFCW International has also been working to organize Wal-Mart in the United States. (Back) (Home) NFU gives "conditional support" for NAFTA challenge (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 National Farmers Union (NFU) is offering conditional support to a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the U.S. government launched by a group of cattle producers in western Canada. The legal challenge, announced in mid-August by a group calling itself Canadian Cattlemen for Fair Trade, is being issued in an attempt to force the U.S. to reopen the border to Canadian live cattle exports. Under Chapter 11 of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), damages can be sought by investors who have incurred losses due to a trade action by another country. The group estimates total damages to livestock farmers in Canada at $2.2 billion. NFU President Stewart Wells said while the Farm Union supports the producer-led initiative, the Canadian government should be leading the legal challenge. "We've always maintained that if the shoe was on the other foot, the Americans would have launched a NAFTA lawsuit immediately, and then used it as a lever in the negotiations. Our government shouldn't be forcing financially hard- pressed farmers to assume the burden of legal costs." Wells warned that even if the legal challenge is successful, it could take months or even years to work its way through the court system. "This won't solve the short-term problem of a glut of calves coming onto the market this fall," he pointed out. "And in the long run, an open border won't solve our long-term problem of packer concentration in the industry and over-dependence on a single export market." NFU Livestock Committee Chair Don Mills agreed the federal government must follow the farmers' lead and challenge the US action under NAFTA. "If we as a nation are going to bind ourselves to these sorts of trade deals, then all parties have to be accountable," Mills stated. "Obviously, in this case it appears the United States is not playing by the rules of the trade deal." Mills said the federal government should also put in place a floor price for stocker cattle so farmers can sell to feedlots this fall and be assured of a reasonable return. "The Alberta Auditor- General's report clearly shows that the packers are making good money out of this crisis and can afford to pay an equitable price for cattle," he said, adding the BSE crisis has clearly shown the flaws in the current marketing system and the need for structural changes. "Opening the border will help, but it won't bring about long-term stability. We need independently-owned domestic packing capacity." (Back) (Home) No free speech for fascists (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 CHOI-FM case has sparked considerable debate over free speech. This is an increasingly complex problem, given that anyone with access to computers now has the ability to post images and ideas for all the world to view. But the fundamental issue should not be obscured by the basic principle that there is no absolute "fight to free speech" for fascists whose goal is to incite violence. While these people sometimes pose as "defenders of the little guy," their targets are invariably those who are oppressed, exploited and scapegoated in our capitalist society. By their constant filthy stream of ridicule and hatred, such forces create an atmosphere which legitimizes brutal attacks against women, gays and lesbians, immigrants, First Nations, and people facing mental or physical challenges. As the CRTC correctly ruled, by violating their agreement not to permit on-air employees to engage in hate speech, the owners of CHOI-FM have given up their "right" to pollute the airwaves. This is not to argue that the capitalist state should crack down on dissent, such as against those who call for expanded political freedoms and social equality. But democracy and free speech are not abstractions. Real freedom means that those without wealth and power (the working class and poor) must have genuine access to the mass media, and it also requires that the media not be used as a tool to whip up violence. The world has seen too many cases where demagogues succeeded in placing the blame for society's problems on minorities, with tragic consequences. That's why we stand with those who declare that fascism must not pass. (Back) (Home) "Plan Patriot" failing in Colombia (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) Statement to the relatives of the soldiers, non-com officers and lower rank commissioned officers, from the Secretariat of the Central General Staff of the FARC-EP, Mountains of Colombia, July 2004 "Plan Patriot", one of the largest military operations in history launched by the Colombian and US governments against the FARC-EP, is continuing its advance toward inevitable and total failure. Since February, when battles began in earnest in the south of the country, to date, the official army has suffered more than a thousand casualties counting those dead, wounded and mutilated. An important operational commander is among the dead in combat. Demoralization has begun to wreak havoc in the aggressor army and has grown due to the ongoing guerrilla military response, the floods, condition in the rainforest and the calamities of weather. Many soldiers and officers are requesting discharge from the ranks because they do not want to share the fate of their comrades in the jungle. We offer our heartfelt condolences to the relatives of the soldiers who have fallen in this fratricidal war imposed by the Colombian oligarchy and the gringos. The mothers of the soldiers need to demand of Mr. Uribe Velez the immediate return of their sons, because it is unacceptable that they continue being cannon fodder of the President's warmongering obstinacy that obsesses him even more than his ambition for re-election. To the soldiers and officers, we send the Bolivarian call that they resist being used as blind instruments of the U.S. government's geopolitics, the aim of which is not only the elimination of the resistance of the peoples to their policies of domination, but to use the soil of Colombia as the base for neo-colonial assault and aggression on the whole continent as well. It humiliates military honour that Colombian officers have to act as second class subalterns of the general of a foreign power, Mr. James Hill, chief of the yankee army's southern command. In these circumstances which offend dignity and patriotic sentiment, to demand discharge is to act with dignity. Many soldiers and lower ranked officers would not want their service in the Armed Forces to contribute to propping up a regime of repression and misery like this one that continues closing public hospitals, colleges and universities, throwing people out of work, inventing new taxes that no one can stand, clawing back the pensions of our elderly, privatizing the little that remains of profitable state enterprises, handing over sovereignty to the gringo capitalists and generals, approving repressive laws against the people and showering "affection" on their paramilitaries. If the purpose of the military is to act against the interests of the people, and not in defense of social rights, independence and sovereignty - as the Liberator exhorted in his last proclamation - it is preferable to leave the field of battle and return to the barracks and from there to the warmth of home and family. For quite some time, President Uribe has been trying to sell the illusion of a military defeat of the guerrilla movement to a sector of Colombian society and to the world as well. This is not possible because the reason for the armed uprising is the inextinguishable desire for social justice, sovereignty, freedom and real democracy that inspires the people. With the highest morale, that of the commanders and fighters of the FARC who are resisting in the south of Colombia and in the rest of the country against the warmongering assault of the Washington and Bogota governments, we reaffirm that the political solution of the conflict is the road that must be taken. This is the most important banner of the FARC and of a people that has never been taken into consideration by the ruling oligarchy. With a new government, we are ready to undertake the titanic task of building peace with social justice, with the participation of the people and as the privileges of the powerful give way to the common good. (Back) (Home) Thousands cheer Chavez victory speech after referendum (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 Robin Nieto, http://www.Venezuelanalysis.com Caracas, August 16: Outside the presidential palace, thousands listened to President Hugo Chavez' victory speech shortly after the country's electoral authority (CNE) gave preliminary results of the referendum which show that Venezuelans voted to keep Chavez as President of Venezuela. CNE President Francisco Carrasquero announced that the pro-Chavez side won 58.25 per cent of the popular vote while the opposition received 41.75 per cent. Waving Venezuelan flags and wearing red clothing, supporters crowded outside Miraflores, the presidential palace, to listen to Chavez guarantee the constitutional rights of all Venezuelans and even the rights of foreign companies to operate in the country. He called the vote a "victory of the people of Venezuela and a victory of the Bolivarian constitution." Amid chants of "volvio, volvio, volvio," meaning "he returned," Chavez congratulated the people of Venezuela. "You have shown today that you are truly victors," he said, adding that today's victory is not only Venezuela's, but a "victory for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean who are struggling for their freedom." Chavez said to the cheering crowd as a light early morning drizzle turned into a rainfall, "you have given me a rainfall of love and you have given me the support to continue serving you, to give a country to our people, to our children, to our grandchildren." "Venezuela has changed forever, there's no going back to the past, the fourth republic [of the pre-1999 constitution] has died," Chavez said to cheers of "no volveran!" or "they will not return!" "My respectful salute to those Venezuelans who do not agree with us 100 per cent to join us. We respect them and I invite them all, the opposition, and the independents, to come with us and begin this new chapter. I invite those that call themselves our adversaries to see the positive accomplishments of the Bolivarian revolution, like the Mision Robinson [literacy program] and like Barrio Adentro [community health care clinics], and call for them to respect the wishes of the majority of Venezuelans." "Today's victory is not just for the people Venezuela," Chavez said, but for the people of Latin America and the Caribbean who are struggling for their freedom." To the world, Chavez announced that his government seeks the stability of the country, Latin American integration, and the stability of oil markets. "This government guarantees the stability of Venezuela as no other could," Chavez said. This government guarantees the cooperation with the governments and people of Latin America for the integration of Latin America and the Caribbean. My government also guarantees the stability of the oil market." According to Chavez, those who voted "Si," or YES to revoke his mandate should not feel defeated and also recognized the fact that they also waited in long lines to practice their constitutional rights and invited them to accept this as a "national victory that also includes them," expressing his hope that the opposition will accept the results. Chavez said he hoped the U.S. would respect the people and the government of Venezuela after this democratic victory and said mockingly that his victory is a gift for the Bush administration, "a gift that landed in the middle of the White House." Referring to a Venezuelan folk tale that had become the pro-Chavez campaign theme, in which the devil and a character named Florentino engage in a musical contest, Chavez said to thousands of cheering supports, "Florentino has won, we have defeated the devil." He concluded by calling for a paid holiday for all Venezuelans, who had been waiting in line since the previous morning at dawn. (Back) (Home) Colombia: 30 unionists killed this year (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 army's killing of three trade union leaders from Colombia's Arauca department last month brings the number of unionists murdered in the first eight months of 2004 to over 30. In a letter to President Alvaro Uribe Velez, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) expressed strong doubts about the government's version of the event, which occurred on August 5. According to senior military officers, the three trade unionists belonged to the left-wing guerilla Ejercito Nacional de Liberacion (ELN). Hector Alirio Martinez and Jorge Eduardo Prieto Chamusero, regional presidents of a farm workers' union (ADUC) and a hospital workers' union (ANTHOC), had been placed under the protection of a Inter-American Commission on Human Rights' special programme in 2002, a structure of the Organization of American States (OAS). The third victim, Leonel Goyeneche, was the Treasurer for Arauca's regional branch of Colombia's largest trade union confederation, the CUT. The ICFTU reported the latest murders to the UN's International Labour Office (ILO), plus information on the killing of ten other unionists since May 2004. The ICFTU also denounced seven cases of arbitrary or illegal detention, eleven cases of physical attack or threats, 17 cases of severe physical injury and two disappearances. The complaint to the ILO describes the severe repression suffered by agricultural communities at the hands of the Colombian Army and paramilitary forces, such as the army's involvement in the killing of 13 campesino (agricultural worker) leaders on May in four localities in Arauca. Since 2002, seven hundred campesinos have been murdered in the area, largely by the 5th Mobile Brigade. The ICFTU says that, "far from receding, violations of trade union rights have continued unabated during the period concerned, in flagrant contradiction with the Government's repeated allegations that the situation has markedly improved since President Uribe has taken office." The complaint describes assassinations, arrests and dismissals of trade union members in a variety of industrial sectors. These include public services, agriculture and the food industry, telephone services, the mining and oil sectors, health, social security and the teaching profession. The majority of violations of trade union rights in Colombia, says the ICFTU, take place in the midst of collective bargaining, strikes and other legitimate trade union activities, and not - as the government claims - a mere coincidence or side-effect of the internal armed conflict. In several cases over the last few months, the government, including the President, have issued statements hostile to human rights organisations, in effect accusing them of supporting terrorism and the guerilla movement. Many Colombian trade union activists similarly branded by the government over the years have been killed as a result. These issues will be on the agenda of a major international trade union conference to be held in Colombia this month. The "International Trade Union S.O.S. for Colombia" is being co- organised by the country's four national union centers: the ICFTU- affiliated CTC, the CUT, the CGTD (affiliated to the World Confederation of Labour), and the CPC. (Back) (Home) Ninety thousand protest jobless benefit cuts in Germany (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's unpopular economic plans met with rejection on August 17 as more than 90,000 people took to the streets in scores of cities and towns. In the largest protest march, as many as 20,000 protesters marched in Magdeburg in eastern Germany, RTL Television reported. "I'm a well-qualified school teacher, I'm over 50, I'm out of work," one woman told a TV interviewer in Magdeburg. "I'm fed up." The scene was repeated in communities large and small across Germany in what analysts termed a key turning point in the national debate over Schroeder's controversial economic and social policies. The turnout was far larger than the 40,000 protesters who marched a week earlier in eastern Germany. The Aug. 17 protests also included cities in western Germany, such as Cologne, Dusseldorf, Stuttgart and Hamburg. For the first time in the new wave of weekly Monday actions, protests occurred in Berlin as well, where 10,000 protesters marched past government ministries. The largest rallies took place in cities throughout eastern Germany, where unemployment is running twice the national rate of 10.5 percent, and in many places nearly 50 percent. Aside from Magdeburg, 15,000 turned out in Leipzig, marching under the banner "We are the People", which was the rallying call of anti-communist marches on Monday evenings in Leipzig 15 years ago. The rallies were not halted by moves to reduce the severity of planned cuts to unemployment benefits. Schroeder's Social Democratic government, battling record opinion poll lows as Germany continues three years of economic stagnation, had hoped that tinkering with the jobless benefits law would defuse further protests. The bill slashes payments for the long-term unemployed and introduces means testing for the first time in Germany. (Back) (Home) VW workers strike in Mexico (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) Volkswagen workers went on strike Aug. 19 in Mexico, rejecting a 4.5 percent salary increase. The strike was expected to cripple the sprawling car plant in the mountains of Puebla, located 105 kilometres southeast of Mexico City. The plant is the only producer of the New Beetle and one of the biggest employers in the Mexican auto industry. The strike shuts down daily production of 1,300 Jetta and New Beetle automobiles. Workers began walking out around 11 am local time, waving strike banners and demanding a greater share of the company's profits. The union is pushing for a 8.5 percent salary increase for the plant's 19,500 workers. A union leader, Jose Luis Rodriguez, said employees voted against the 4.5 percent increase despite the fact that union negotiators had endorsed the pact. Volkswagen's Mexican workers last year accepted a 5.25 percent raise and agreed to a reduced workweek to avoid about 2,000 layoffs proposed by the company as weak U.S. demand curtailed production. While Volkswagen has seen a drop in sales and announced plans this year to cut its work force, the Mexican plant has not been largely affected by cutbacks. The company even said recently it planned to increase production in Puebla. Three years ago, workers at the same plant went on an 18-day strike before accepting a 10.2 percent salary raise. Volkswagen's net profit for 2003 was US$1.4 billion. (Back) (Home) Six thousand deaths a day (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 Organization estimates that 2.2 million people die from work-related causes every year: 750,000 women and 1,500,000 men. The difference in the figures for men and women is mainly due to the distribution of the two sexes within dangerous jobs. However, the large number of women working in agriculture in developing countries makes them particularly vulnerable to work-related infectious diseases. Experts also point out that the statistics in any case underestimate the real situation, given the lack of information and reporting in many countries. But by any standards, six thousand deaths a day - one every fifteen seconds - add up to more than the ravages caused by war each year. Of these deaths, almost 350,000 occur during work accidents. The rest are due to work-related illnesses, including more than 400,000 deaths caused by exposure to chemicals. Such exposure is also responsible for 35 million of the 160 million cases of occupational sickness recorded worldwide. Every year, one thousand new chemicals come on to the market, and more than 100,000 different ones are used each day. Many of them, if handled incorrectly, constitute a hazard. More than 300,000 cancers per year are due to dangerous substances. Health and safety in the workplace are the sole responsibility of the employer. While some employers draw competitive advantage from enforcing safety rules, many put short-term profit first. How else can we explain the fact that millions of workers are still exposed to asbestos fibres which kill more than 100,000 people each year? This is clearly negligence on the part of employers and governments who persist in using this substance. Negligence, too, by those governments who appear to be in no hurry to ratify and implement the international Convention adopted by the ILO in 1986, banning some kinds of asbestos. To date, this Convention has been ratified by only 27 of the ILO's 177 member states. "Asbestos is already banned in 25 countries, but that means that almost 150 other ones are still using it," says Jukka Takala, head of the ILO's occupational health and safety work. "Although asbestosis is not an infectious disease, it is tempting to call it an epidemic. This is especially true of mesothelioma, a cancer of the pleura or the peritoneum, caused by asbestos." Another clear sign of negligence is that every year 22,000 school- aged children die at work, despite a whole arsenal of international conventions, declarations and legislation. "We want to see more serious penalties imposed on employers who violate safety measures," says the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers. Its sectors are known for their dangerous conditions and their high rate of occupational accidents and diseases. Out of the daily toll of 300 asbestos victims, most are in the construction sector. "We work to live, but work still means death." So says the food, agriculture and allied workers' international IUF. Of the 270 million work accidents recorded each year worldwide, a large proportion are in agriculture. It accounts for more than half of all fatal accidents: 170,000 in 2003. This led governments, employers and unions to adopt, in 2002, a new international Convention on safety and health in agriculture. It would give workers the right to refuse tasks that would put their lives at risk. Many countries have brought in legislation to tackle the most obviously negligent attitudes to work safety. But the penalties are often derisory. And yet, worker health and safety is a good thing for companies. In the US alone, work accidents cost employers tens of billions of dollars. Insurance premiums go up. Compensation has to be paid to victims' families. Workers have to be replaced and the public assistance provided to the developing countries. One of the trends is that industrialized countries are exporting their hazards to developing countries where labour is not only cheaper but also significantly less protected. Dirty and difficult jobs are left to the South, such as mining. While the mining diseases commonly known as pneumoconiosis, including silicosis, have disappeared in the industrialized countries, they are still claiming fresh victims every day in the developing world. Current estimates show 10 million workers at risk from silicosis, and the death-dealing dust causes 5,000 fatalities every year. In Vietnam, it is the source of 90 per cent of compensated occupational illnesses. In India, more than two million miners are exposed to this hazard, plus six million in Brazil and almost two million in Colombia. In Latin America, according to an ILO report for the annual April 28 Day of Mourning for Workers Killed and Injured on the Job, 37% of miners suffer from silicosis - a figure that rises to 50% for miners aged over 50. The statistics also show that the social and economic burden of work-related accidents and illnesses is not evenly distributed. Mortality rates in various parts of the Middle East and Asia can reach four times the level of those in the industrialized countries. Similarly, social coverage for occupational safety and health varies greatly from one part of the world to another. Workers in the Nordic countries have almost universal coverage, whereas only 10 per cent or even less of developing country workplaces are covered in any way. (Abridged from a report in the June 2004 issue of Flashes from the Trade Unions, published by the World Federation of Trade Unions.) (Back) (Home) Iraqi unions keep workers' hopes alive (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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 Richard Bagley, excerpted from Morning Star LONDON - In 1963, when Subhi Abdullah Mashadani was a railroad worker, he was arrested by Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party because of his political activism and imprisoned for eight years. He was one of the many progressive Iraqis forced to  operate underground inside their country before the fall of the regime. Last year Mashadani was elected as the first general secretary of the Iraqi Federation of Trade Unions (IFTU). He recently attended two trade union meetings in Britain and gave an interview to the daily Morning Star, describing how the fledgling labour federation is fighting to defend its space in a country under occupation. Mashadani describes the occupiers' attitude toward the IFTU as "negative," adding that then U.S. viceroy Paul Bremer had refused a request to unfreeze the federation's assets so that it could carry out trade union work. "We said: 'It is not Bremer's money, it is not CPA money - it is our money,'" he recounted. The federation never heard back from Bremer, said Mashadani. "What we received after that meeting with them was their forces raiding the IFTU headquarters in Baghdad and arresting eight leaders." The eight were eventually released. "We continued to organize and we now have 12 strong national unions," he said. Lack of security and the interlinked occupation, which is designed to cement the U.S. presence in this highly strategic, mineral-rich region, have combined to hinder IFTU activities. "The [Iraqi] Governing Council issued a decree recognizing us as a legitimate body. Again Bremer did not agree or adhere to that," he said. "But we weren't deterred." Of the twelve unions in the IFTU, six have already held conferences and elected a host of regional committees. The other six are unable to hold theirs because of a 1987 law passed under Saddam Hussein banning trade union organization in state companies such as the oil sector and the railways. That law is still being enforced. Despite this, explained Mashadani, "these unions managed to impose their legitimacy (in the workplace) because they were supported by the workers." He is hopeful that the current tortuous political process inside and outside Iraq will bring a positive result - but he has reservations and sets out IFTU demands. He said: "We call for Iraq to have real and full sovereignty. We call for the withdrawal of troops and at the same time a full and accountable elected government for the people. Crucially, the United Nations should now have an active role." Mashadani added: "We are campaigning for trade unions to be able to play a role in the institutions of civil society that would make a future government." The IFTU has representatives involved in the process to establish a transitional government. Mashadani is confident that this role will be respected despite the heavy U.S. influence in Iraq. The transitional administrative law governing the current period safeguarded the position of trade unions and the right to protest. However, doubts were raised when the UN resolution on the "handover" of sovereignty, which sought to legitimize continued occupation but also set out a framework to bring about nationwide elections, failed to mention the transitional law. Mashadani points out that Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has said "openly, that his government should adhere to the transitional law. If the government or anybody restricts our work to organize and to have representation we shall campaign against it. We shall not be intimidated," he added. Despite being severely strapped for resources and restricted by the situation in Iraq, IFTU unions have netted some welcome management concessions for members. At several big firms, they have negotiated better deals - both increases to wages and bonuses. And, in the state oil, gas and railway sectors, members have defied the ban on organizing and emerged victorious. Minimum wages for these workers have increased from 69,000 dinars ($48) to between 125,000 and 150,000 dinars ($105) a month. Since the Iraqi Governing Council recognized the IFTU, it has been allowed to sit on government committees dealing with the new labour code, social provision and pensions. "Although we sit on some committees, we do so because we want to keep an eye on the situation, to have a stronger say in the welfare of working people," he said. (Back) (Home) WFTU backs Palestinian hunger strikers (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) In an August 17 statement, the World Federation of Trade Unions issued the following appeal for world-wide solidarity in support of Palestinian political prisoners.      Over 7,000 Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli prisons have begun a hunger strike on 15 August to protest against the inhuman conditions in Israeli jails, the brutal repression by the jail authorities, the gross violations of their basic human rights and to put an end to their unfair and illegal imprisonment.      The atrocities against the Palestinian prisoners include: - Arbitrary and indiscriminate beating of prisoners in their cells, in prison courtyards and during transportation to and from prisons. - Arbitrary and indiscriminate firing of tear gas into prisoner's cells and prison courtyards and intimidation of prisoners by guards entering their cells with guns. - Humiliating strip searches of prisoners in full view of other prisoners and guards each time they enter or exit their cells. - Subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement for excessive periods of time, for months and even years. - Arbitrary imposition of financial penalties on prisoners for minor infractions, arbitrary revocation of visitation rights and extended confinement to cells as punishment for minor infractions such as singing or speaking too loudly. - Confining children with adult prisoners and political prisoners with criminals. - Withholding or delaying medical treatment and the provision of medication to sick detainees. - Severely restricting the category of family members entitled to visit prisoners thus denying visitation rights to other close family members. - Arbitrary denial of travel permits to family members of prisoners living in the West Bank or Gaza so that they cannot travel to the prisons to see their relatives. - Imposing conditions on travel for family members and obstacles that result in travel of a few hours being prolonged to 16 or 17 hours for a 45‑minute visit. - Conducting humiliating strip searches of visiting family members even though they are usually separated from the prisoners by a full glass barrier as well as a wire mesh barrier. - Providing such poor visitation facilities that prisoners find it difficult to see or hear their loved ones - Maintaining prisoners on near starvation diets that are insufficient to sustain health. - Applying rules concerning items that prisoners may receive from their families arbitrarily and inconsistently, on the whim of the guards, with each visit. - Withdrawing study privileges that in the past allowed prisoners to continue their high school or university studies through correspondence courses.      As the Committee for the Families of Political Prisoners and Detainees in the West Bank has pointed out, the treatment of Palestinian prisoners in Israel violates both international and Israeli laws, as well as rules governing the administration of Israeli prisons.      The WFTU appeals to trade unions and democratic organisations all over the world to observe September 4, 2004 as an International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners and urge the UN and Member Governments to compel the Israeli authorities to end the brutal repression unleashed on the Palestinian political prisoners and to release the prisoners immediately. (Back) (Home) Remembering Pablo: Celebrating 100 years of Pablo Neruda (The following article is from the September 1-15/2004 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.) July 12, 2004 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pablo Neruda, the outstanding Chilean poet. To celebrate this occasion, the Communist Party of Chile and its allies held events around the world. On July 10, a cultural and political event was held at the University of Toronto. Among the speakers was Miguel Figueroa, leader of the Communist Party of Canada, who presented the following remarks. It is indeed a great honour to join in this celebration of the 100th anniversary of the life and work of Pablo Neruda, the great working class poet, humanist, revolutionary and communist. He left us more than 30 years ago, and yet his memory lives on in the hearts and minds of people everywhere. That this centennial celebration is being marked not only among Chileans - although he sprang from your native soil, a true son of Chile; not only in literary and artistic circles - although his contribution to world culture is legend; and not only among Communists and revolutionaries, although he was an outstanding, passionate and committed Communist up until his final breath; but indeed is celebrated by the broadest sweep of progressive humanity around the world. All this is tribute to his enduring greatness. He was of course first and foremost a poet. And yet for all the accolades which were accorded him, all the public acclaim, recognition and praise, he remained a humble craftsman of his trade, something reflected in some of the verses from his famous ode to "Poetry": Poetry arrived in search of me. I don't know how or when, and it touched me. and something started in my soul, and I wrote the first faint line, faint, without substance, pure nonsense, pure wisdom of someone who knows nothing, and suddenly I saw the heavens unfastened and open, I wheeled with the stars, my heart broke free on the open sky. Neruda used this poetry not only to describe, to reflect, to emote, but also to uncover the essence of life, of all living things, and of nature itself - their essential simplicity amidst a sea of complexities and contradictions. Who else could pen such stirring and magical tributes to the simplest things in life, in which he found splendour and wonderment. In his Elementary Odes, for instance, you will find his ode to wine, an ode to tomatoes, to artichokes, to corn and lemons, an ode to a large tuna in the market, to a chestnut on the ground. Pablo is rightly described as one of the greatest romantic poets - an incurable romantic by some. He had a singular capacity to capture the intensity of love, and with his words melt the heart of the most wooden and de-sensitized among us. Take these words, for instance, from his Sonnet XVII, just one of his famed 100 Love Sonnets: I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where, I love you simply, without problems or pride: I love you this way because I don't know any other way of loving but this, in which there is no I or you, so intimate that your hand upon my chest is my hand, so intimate that when I fall asleep is your eyes that close. And yet Neruda was no soppy romanticist, no idealist detached from the vagaries of life, blind or indifferent to the contradictions - the unity and struggle of opposites - which inform its essence, and provide the driving force for change and development in nature and society alike. Where he wrote of unbridled love and passion, he also confronted loneliness and sorrow. Where he cherished joy and happiness, he also found pain and suffering - both of the individual and of oppressed classes and nations. Where he embraced the magnificence of life, he also grasped the finality of death, and of life renewed. From his earliest works it is clear that he understood the dialectics of life. And it was not long before this understanding of the dialectics of social life drew him to take a partisan stand, to side with the working class and the oppressed - the class from whence he sprang, the son of a railway worker. In 1933, Neruda met Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca in Buenos Aires. Garcia Lorca introduced him to the ideas of Marxism- Leninism, the revolutionary ideology of the working class. Soon after, Neruda found himself immersed in the caldron of fascism that was to befall Republican Spain. This experience turned Pablo into a committed anti-fascist, internationalist and revolutionary, and he went on to organize international support for the democratic forces of Spain who were the first to confront the scourge of fascism which was soon to embroil the entire world in war. Neruda went on to commit his life work to his poetry, which he used to lay bare the facade of centuries of oppression, of colonialism and class slavery, and to inspire working people at home and indeed around the world. He travelled extensively to the Soviet Union and China, and throughout most parts of the world, and of course throughout his beloved Latin America. He railed against the colonial oppression and wars imposed by imperialism on the peoples everywhere - in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, and championed every class and democratic struggle fought by the oppressed, no matter how far- flung the battlefield. Neruda was truly a poet of the oppressed, a people's poet. He staunchly defended the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and other revolutionaries from attack, regardless from which quarter, and held firm his socialist and internationalist convictions. And he remained faithful to his Party - the Communist Party - not out of a stilted dogmatism but out of a creative understanding of its historic potential and role, even while others were fleeing or betraying the working class movement. Neruda is no longer with us, and we can only imagine how he would characterize the present moment in human history, one in which the world balance of forces has shifted decidedly, if momentarily, to the side of imperialism, reaction and war... Perhaps he would evoke the imagery from his famous poem, The Great Urinator, a poem left unpublished, now part of the posthumous selected failings, in which he portrayed God's urine falling on factories, cemeteries, gardens, and churches, eroding all it touched. At the same time, Pablo would also draw hope and promise from the growing movements against capitalist globalization, militarization and war - inherently and increasingly explicit anti-imperialist struggles which are developing across Latin America and around the world. Neruda won all sorts of awards, the International Peace Award, the Lenin Peace Prize, among them. But perhaps the crowning tribute was the Nobel Prize for Literature which was finally awarded him in 1971. I recently had the opportunity to rediscover his Nobel lecture upon (his) receiving this prize. I am no expert, but I dare say that this speech must stand among the most outstanding ever delivered to any Nobel audience. In it, Neruda describes a journey he and four compatriots took through the Andes toward the Chilean frontier with Argentina. It is a most powerful parable, some of which I would like to share with you. Here he describes "crossing a river": "We had to cross a river. up on the Andean summits there run small streams which cast themselves down with dizzy and insane force, forming waterfalls that stir up earth and stones with the violence they bring with them from the heights. But this time we found calm water, a wide mirrorlike expanse which could be forded. The horses splashed in, lost their foothold and began to swim towards the other bank. Soon my horse was almost completely covered by the water, I began to plunge up and down without support, my feet fighting desperately while the horse struggled to keep its head above water. Then we got across. And hardly we reached the further bank when the seasoned countryfolk with me asked me with scarce- concealed smiles: "Were you frightened?" "Very. I thought my last hour had come", I said. "We were behind you with our lassoes in our hands", they answered. "Just there", added one of them, "my father fell and was swept away by the current. That didn't happen to you." "During this long journey I found the necessary components for the making of the poem. There I received contributions from the earth and from the soul. And I believe that poetry is an action, ephemeral or solemn, in which there enter as equal partners solitude and solidarity, emotion and action, the nearness to oneself, the nearness to mankind and to the secret manifestations of nature. And no less strongly I think that all this is sustained - man and his shadow, man and his conduct, man and his poetry - by an ever-wider sense of community, by an effort which will for ever bring together the reality and the dreams in us. "Our original guiding stars are struggle and hope. But there is no such thing as a lone struggle, no such thing as a lone hope. In every human being are combined the most distant epochs, passivity, mistakes, sufferings, the pressing urgencies of our own time, the pace of history. But what would have become of me if, for example, I had contributed in some way to the maintenance of the feudal past of the great American continent? How should I then have been able to raise my brow, illuminated by the honour which has been conferred on me, if I had not been able to feel some pride in having taken part, even to a small extent, in the change which has now come over my country?" Two years after receiving the Nobel Prize, the great social experiment that was Chile under the Popular Unity government led by Salvador Allende, was drowned in blood by the military coup of Augusto Pinochet, under the guidance and support of U.S. imperialism. Fascism had reared its ugly head once again, this time on his native soil, dousing - if not extinguishing - the hopes and aspirations of his people. While weak and stricken with the cancer which would ultimately take his life, Neruda lived for 12 more days after this great tragedy... how torturous those final days must have been for Pablo, who must have felt the pain and anguish no less than those thousands of others tortured and murdered in the stadium and throughout his Chile in those dark days. And yet Pablo epitomized hope for the future, hope which springs eternal even in those darkest moments - hope that is connected with the world-historic struggle of humanity against exploitation and oppression, which despite the zigs and zags of momentary history, must ultimately be crowned with success. In his final words to the Stockholm audience, he summed up his indomitable spirit - words that would become his lasting epitaph: "I have preferred to offer my services in all modesty to an honourable army which may from time to time commit mistakes but which moves forward unceasingly and struggles every day against the anachronism of the refractory and the impatience of the opinionated. "I was the most forlorn of poets and my poetry was provincial, oppressed and rainy. But always I had put my trust in man. I never lost hope. It is perhaps because of this that I have reached as far as I now have with my poetry and also with my banner. "Lastly, I wish to say to the people of good will, to the workers, to the poets, that the whole future has been expressed in this line by Rimbaud: only with a burning patience can we conquer the splendid City which will give light, justice and dignity to all mankind." In honouring his memory, let us re-commit ourselves to struggle ever onward, until that glorious moment when we shall "conquer that splendid City which will give lights, justice and dignity to all mankind." (Back) (Home)

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