People's Voice September 1-15, 2006

Defeat the drive to war, defeat the Harper government

Labour Day Statement by Sam Hammond, Chair of the Central Labour Commission, Communist Party of Canada

IN THE NEAR FUTURE future and for a long time to come, the Canadian labour movement, the peace movement and the social justice Movements will look back on 2005 as a very dangerous year. Whether 2006 and our future overshadow 2005 and get worse is yet to be seen. This depends on the Canadian working people and their democratic institutions, especially labour.

     Let's go back to the spring of 2005. The unelected business elites of Canada, Mexico and the USA organise a nice little group called the Independent Task Force for North America. Our misfortunes were represented by former Deputy Prime Minister John Manley. This tri-national group issued a "Call for a North American Economic and Security Community" by 2010 - a call for a united continental bloc to share energy, immigration, law enforcement and security.

     In March of 2005 Prime Minister Martin, President George Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox signed the "Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreement" which is literally the blueprint for "deep integration" of Canada and Mexico into the US. Each leader assigned a cabinet minister to work in an implementation group. David Emerson was assigned by Martin, and that is why George Bush probably told Harper to recruit him to the Tory cause and give him his old post. His primary role might transcend government altogether the span between parties. The interesting phenomenon is that his nimble footwork was strictly organizational. His moral and philosophical turpitude was quite in tune to both Liberal and Tory machinations for the dismantling of Canadian sovereignty. There are working groups busy in all three countries fine tuning the Security and Prosperity Partnership Agreement in preparation for implementation. These people will shape our future and they are neither elected nor identified.

     These grand plans for continentalism are a tangible expression and the instruments of managing a once sovereign state that has already been penetrated by foreign ownership to the tune of 37% in 2003. This just didn't happen. It is part of a process that began in earnest in the early sixties, was slowed considerably by public pressure during the Trudeau years and took off again with Mulroney, continued under Martin and is absolutely soaring under "Steve" Harper. Most developed countries consider 10% foreign ownership to be effectively foreign control. The burning question for Canadians isn't if we're under foreign control, it's at which level are we and is it possible to reverse a trend that is being escalated almost daily by the Stephen Harper Tories.

     If this is viewed as a process, then the last federal election and the massive media and corporate support for Stephen Harper was merely an act of implementation. The Martin Liberals were too vulnerable to public opinion. They hesitated on Star Wars publicly while acquiescing behind the scenes. Not good enough. The Canadian Council of Chief Executives (largely executives of foreign owned corporations) only recognize on-your-knees grovelling to US policy. One blink is disloyalty. Deep integration, a common border, an expanded US dominated military, US controlled cross-border movement, US dominated continental intelligence, "Homeland" security and US dominated cross-border law enforcement are the agenda. Harpers role is to deliver the bacon.

     Every vital sector of manufacturing, extraction, transportation, print media, telecommunications, energy and natural resources is by now experiencing significant foreign control, with full foreign ownership looming. The role of the Harper Tories is to finalize a militarized branch plant economy, with our traditional social programs, our social safety net either eliminated or out sourced to private foreign corporations. Imagine the working people of Canada suffering and super exploited under the heel of a borderless corporate oligarchy using continental police and unlimited electronic surveillance.

     We already have a large dose of the contempt for democratic governance possessed by the Harper government. We have gone from peace-keeping to war with no act of parliament. Our foreign policy has been fundamentally changed to partnership and integration with the aims of imperialism and its American Bushite war plans. If anyone wants to see what Harper has in store for those who resist, just compare the glorification of soldiers killed serving US interests in Afghanistan with the contempt shown to a Canadian soldier murdered by Israeli forces, because he and other UN observers were in the way, witnesses to Israeli war crimes. Harper's policy of war and militarization will be financed by the plunder of our social programs, the giveaway of our resources and broken promises to the First Nations. War creates death and poverty. Foreign policy will be mirrored by domestic policy, and the police forces and the military will implement at home eventually what they implement in Afghanistan and Haiti.

     In a minority government, why has there been no rebellion? Why is resistance so timid? Where are the voices of anger? Who the hell is minding the store?

     The Canadian Labour Congress has spoken unflinchingly on Afghanistan. Bring the troops home, get out of the US war machine. CUPE Ontario has spoken bravely and stubbornly against the US-Zionist military agenda, against occupation of Arab lands and murder of Arab people. CUPE fights for the scores of UN resolutions and thus fights also for the UN as a needed institution. The CLC and CUPE are not alone in the labour movement. Rather they represent the antidote for the political sickness inflicted on us. If the antidote doesn't come from the organized section of the working people, the labour movement, then who?

     Many workers today are searching for answers and this often produces an introspective as well as a militant stance. Some want to concentrate on shop floor issues, contracts and wages, quality of life and maintenance of standards. Not surprising when the generation-spanning struggle it took to get a few crumbs from the capitalist table is remembered so well.

     This is not in itself a danger to militancy. Sometimes to hold the line is the only way to prepare alternatives. Stubborn defence is every militant worker's agenda. It is only dangerous when it becomes the only agenda because in time every defence will be penetrated. Defence is valuable as a launching platform for an aggressive agenda with the ability to create a social dynamic serving the interests of working people.

     The convention resolutions, the analyses, the framework of a fight back movement already exists in the central labour bodies of both English-speaking Canada and Quebec. They exist in one form or another in the policies of most unions in Canada. But how can they be implemented? How can they be injected as a guide and a catalyst for the peace and social justice movements, as the binding factor of unity and solidarity? The answer is mass action. Massive political action outside parliament. Massive campaigning to save medicare, to withdraw from imperialist war plans, to win child care, to save our resources and create jobs. A social dynamic that will swell the ranks of labour, bring in thousands of new members and raise the level of social consciousness of the entire non-corporate population. We are talking of a Tory defeat in the next federal election. This can be done if the determination to do it is there.

     The pre-requisite is a higher level of unity in the labour movement. This means consciously putting aside irritants that feed disunity. Raiding across sectors, absence from central labour bodies, opportunism, collaboration, etc. We all know what divides and what heals. This is a process of mending that will create large young and progressive elements in the labour movement, that will weld the membership and the leadership into a common purpose, use the instrument of inclusive democracy. What is needed is a labour movement that can pull all the democratic and people's movements into a social dynamic that will defend our country and address the future. A business as usual "wait and see" attitude, fighting only on the corporate ground where media and money will determine the outcome is a blueprint for disaster. The Tory defeat in the next election must be the result of street level campaigning that starts now, that resists the drive to war, the sale of our resources, the destruction of our social programs and the dismantling of medicare. The Communist Party calls on organized labour to take up this task, to take its programs and experience back to the streets.

     Years ago in the yards surrounding slaughterhouses there were long winding mazes of fencing where the doomed animals were herded from the rail cars to the killing floor. They could smell the death and danger in the air. In order to control them it was necessary to get another animal to lead them through the maze to their doom, an animal they thought was one of them. This despicable being was usually a goat, known as a Judas Goat. At this time and place Stephen Harper is the Judas Goat of Canadian Politics. He must not succeed. The Canadian people need their labour movement as never before.

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Peace in Lebanon, but US prepares for war on Iran

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Hargrove re-elected, CAW takes "New Direction"

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Council of Canadians slams new sellout

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Farmers hit by crisis - Editorial

(The following editorial is from the September 1-15, 2006 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, 290A Danforth Ave., ON, M4K 1NC.)

PV Editorial, Sept. 1-15, 2006

After being elected in part with strong rural support, the Harper Tories are carrying out measures that will deepen Canada's severe farm crisis. For example, Harper is preparing to chop the Canada Wheat Board, which would mean a huge windfall for the giant grain companies.

     The backlash is already underway. Harper was put on notice at an April 5 rally in Ottawa, where 10,000 farmers demanded steps to address the record losses in net farm income, which reached historic lows for the last two years.

     The Tories have promised a "cost of production" income program for farmers. But without curbing the monopoly powers of the large agribusinesses, government assistance going into a farmer's pocket will be robbed by corporations charging more for supplies or paying less for farm produce. Until this cost-price squeeze is addressed, nothing important will change for farmers.

     During the past ten years, from 1995 to 2005, the average Canadian farm earned negative $323, far less than the worst years of the Great Depression when the average Canadian farm had a net income of $3,897. At the same time, a survey of 75 agri-companies showed that in 2004 profits reached a record high, and 76 per cent had their best or nearly their best year. (See "The Farm Crisis & Corporate Profits," issued last November by the National Farmers Union.)

     As farmers are forced off the land, most join the ranks of wage-earners in cities and in rural areas, giving employers a stronger hand in their efforts to drive down wages and break unions. It's in the interests of the labour movement to join hands with Canada's farmers to resist this trend, starting with pressure on Ottawa to preserve the Wheat Board.

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Hands off the Wheat Board!

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The Revolution is here to stay - Editorial

(The following editorial is from the September 1-15, 2006 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, 290A Danforth Ave., ON, M4K 1NC.)

PV Editorial, Sept. 1-15, 2006

News of President Fidel Castro's successful surgery has lifted the spirits of all who recognize Cuba's valiant role in the global struggles for peace and social progress. We wish a full recovery for Fidel, and a speedy return to his responsibilities as the head of the Cuban state.

     Meanwhile, the ghoulish celebrations by ultra-right circles in Florida quickly fell flat. We have a message for these terrorist forces and their Washington backers: the Cuban Revolution will not falter when Fidel passes into history.

     The story of Latin America is full of outstanding heroes, from Simon Bolivar to Jose Marti in the past, to Luis Emilio Recabarren, Che Guevara, and Salvador Allende and many more during the 20th century. In nearly every country of Latin America, revolutionary struggles have challenged imperialism's brutal oppression and plunder, but in most cases, Yankee imperialism and its local ruling elites have ultimately crushed or subverted these movements.

     Until now. The Cuban Revolution has proven that fundamental social transformation is a real alternative to capitalist exploitation in our hemisphere. Even more significant, Cuba has defended its Revolution in the face of a crippling U.S. boycott and innumerable plots to destabilize and overthrow its democratically elected leadership. With powerful support among the working class and peasants, the main social base of any revolutionary government, Cuba's socialist system will survive and flourish in the wake of any leadership change in the future.

     This is especially true given the sweeping advances by left and progressive forces across the region. Cuba is no longer largely isolated; it is part of an emerging alliance of countries which stand for social progress, democratic renewal, and defence of national sovereignty. Fidel's contribution to this process is his greatest legacy, one which will continue to transform our hemisphere in the decades ahead!

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Bringing labour history to the classroom

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Pressure mounts for Mexican recount

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Israel, oil and the demolition of Lebanon

(The following article is from the September 1-15, 2006 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, 290A Danforth Ave., ON, M4K 1NC.)

By Mike Whitney, from Information Clearing House. Written prior to the recent ceasefire, this article has been abridged.

"The raw logic of Israel's distorted self-image and racist doctrines is exposed beyond confusion by the now-stark reality: the moonscape rubble of once-lovely Lebanese villages; a million desperate people trying to survive Israeli aerial attacks as they carry children and wheel disabled grandparents down cratered roads; limp bodies of children pulled from the dusty basements of crushed buildings. This is the reality of Israel's national doctrine, the direct outcome of its racist worldview." (Virginia Tilley, "The Case for Boycotting Israel" in Counterpunch).

     By bombing the highways and main bridges into Beirut, Israel has cut off the capital from the outside world and put the entire nation under siege. Israel can now execute its plan to pummel Lebanon into rubble without the threat of foreign intervention.

     The north has been effectively severed from the south allowing the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) to continue its ethnic cleansing operations as well as its search-and-destroy missions for Hezbollah fighters. They have meticulously destroyed all the main points of entry at the Syrian border and blockaded the coastline. Israel believes that their earlier occupation (which ended in year 2000) failed due to the unrestricted flow of supplies and weaponry from Syria and Iran. The Bush administration has assisted this effort by providing crucial intelligence about the movement of material from the outside.

     By now, it should be apparent that Israel's military campaign has nothing to do with Hezbollah's capturing of the two Israeli soldiers on July 14. The present plan, which was drawn up more than a year ago (and on which high-ranking members of the Bush administration were fully briefed) is designed to establish a new northern border for Israel at the Litani River and create an "Israel-friendly" regime in Beirut.

"Greater Israel"

     The plan to annex the land south of the Litani River dates back to the founding of the Jewish state when Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion described the country's future borders this way: "To the north the Litani River, the southern border will be pushed into the Sinai, and to the east, the Syrian Desert, including the furthest edge of Transjordan."

     In 1978, the IDF launched Operation Litani with the intention of annexing the southern part of Lebanon and setting up a Christian client-regime in Beirut that would take orders from Tel Aviv. Israel said that it needed a "buffer zone" for its security, the same excuse that it uses today. The 1982 invasion devolved into an 18-year onslaught which ravaged the Lebanese economy and killed more than 20,000 civilians. In 2000, Israel was driven from Lebanon by the persistent attacks of the Lebanese resistance organisation, Hezbollah.

     The media portrayal of the current conflict is blatantly absurd. It has nothing to do with "captured soldiers" or Israel's "right to defend itself". This is a traditional war with clear territorial and political objectives. The border controversy is nonsense. Israel is trying to seize more land to realise its vision of "Greater Israel" while reducing an adjacent Arab country to a "permanent state of colonial dependency".

     This explains the vast and deliberate destruction to Lebanon's civilian infrastructure. Israel's dominance requires that its neighbours endure abject poverty and oppression. By destroying the infrastructure and life-support systems, Israel hopes to eliminate the rise of a potential rival as well as to diminish the ability of the Lebanese resistance to wage war against the Jewish state.

     Once Lebanon is decimated, it will be delivered to the World Bank which will apply the shackle of reconstruction loans and structural readjustment, which will keep Lebanon as an indentured servant to the global banking establishment. This model of economic servitude has been used throughout the developing world with varying degrees of success. It anticipates Israel's regional ascendancy while ensuring that Lebanon's sovereignty will be compromised for decades to come.

US fully engaged partner

     The United States has played a unique role in Israel's war on Lebanon. In its 230-year history the US has never deliberately assisted in an attack on an ally. That record will end with Lebanon.

     Lebanon's government was demonstrably "pro-American", on friendly terms with Washington. In fact, American NGOs and intelligence organisations helped to activate the "Cedar Revolution" which gave rise to the Fouad Siniora Government and the eventual expulsion of Syrian troops. To a large extent, Washington and Tel Aviv had achieved what they wanted to by meddling in Lebanon's political affairs. The country was singled out as a shining example of Bush's "global democratic revolution", which was the stated goal of American intervention in the Middle East.

     Lebanon has since been rewarded for its cooperation by the total obliteration of its economy and infrastructure. The Bush administration has abandoned any pretence of being an "honest broker" and is now providing Israel with precision-guided missiles to prosecute a war against a (mainly) civilian population. They are also actively collaborating with the Olmert regime to foil all plans for an immediate ceasefire.

     The United States is a fully-engaged partner in the premeditated destruction of a democratic country. It is as much a part of the Israeli aggression as any IDF tank commander rumbling towards Beirut.

What does Israel want?

     The only way that Israel can maintain its dominance in the region is by becoming a main-player in the oil-trade. Otherwise it will continue to be dependent on the United States to strengthen its military and defend its interests. Israel's determination to "stand on its own two feet" is outlined in the neocon plan for "rebuilding Zionism" in the 21st century - "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm". The document is the blueprint for redrawing the map of the Middle East and eliminating rivals to Israeli power.

     Most of the attention has been focused on the parts of the paper which presage the attacks on Iraq, Lebanon and Syria; including this ominous passage:

     "Securing the Northern Border: Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one with which America can sympathise, would be if Israel seized the strategic initiative along its northern borders by engaging Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran, as the principle agents of aggression in Lebanon, including by: paralleling Syria's behaviour by establishing the precedent that Syria is not immune to attacks emanating from Lebanon by Israeli proxy forces striking Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove to be insufficient, striking at select targets in Syria proper." ("A Clean Break"; Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser).

     Clearly, this is the basic schema for US/Israeli aggression in the region. What has been overlooked, however, is Israel's determination to "break away" from its traditional dependence on American support. As stated in the text:

     (Israel intends to) "forge a new basis for relations with the US - stressing self-reliance, maturity, strategic cooperation on areas of mutual concern, and furthering values inherent to the West. This can only be done if Israel takes serious steps to terminate aid, which prevents economic reform. Israel can make a clean-break from the past and establish a new vision for the US-Israeli partnership based on self-reliance, maturity, and mutuality - not one narrowly focused on territorial disputes. (Israel) does not need US troops in any capacity to defend it, and can manage its own affairs.

     "Such self-reliance will grant Israel greater freedom of action and remove a significant lever of pressure used against it in the past. No amount of weapons or victories will grant Israel the peace it seeks. When Israel is on sound footing, and is free, powerful, and healthy internally, it will no longer simply manage the Arab-Israeli conflict; it will transcend it".

     Israel's "economic freedom" depends in large part on its ability to become a central petroleum-depot for the global oil trade. In Michel Chossudovsky's recent article "Triple Alliance: US, Turkey, Israel and the War on Lebanon" (July 2006), the author provides a detailed account of the alliances and agreements which underscore the current war. As Chossudovsky says, "We are not dealing with a limited conflict between the Israeli Armed Forces and Hezbollah as conveyed by the Western media. The Lebanese War Theatre is part of a broader US military agenda, which encompasses a region extending from the Eastern Mediterranean into the heartland of Central Asia. The war on Lebanon must be viewed as `a stage' in this broader `military road map'".

Reshaping the Middle East

     Chossudovsky shows how the recently completed Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline has strengthened the Israel-Turkey alliance and foreshadows an attempt to establish "military control over a coastal corridor extending from the Israeli-Lebanese border to the East Mediterranean border between Syria and Turkey."

     Lebanese sovereignty is one of the unfortunate casualties of this Israel-Turkey strategy.

     Most of the oil from the Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan pipeline will be transported to Western markets but, what is less well-known, is that a percentage of the oil will be diverted through a "proposed" Ceyhan-Ashkelon pipeline which will connect Israel directly to rich deposits in the Caspian. This will allow Israel to supply markets in the Far East from its port at Eilat on the Red Sea. It is an ambitious plan that ensures that Israel will be a critical part of the global energy distribution system.

     Oil is also a major factor in the calls for "regime change" in Syria. An article in the UK Observer, "Israel Seeks Pipeline for Iraqi Oil", notes that Washington and Tel Aviv are hammering out the details for a pipeline that will run through Syria and "create an endless and easily accessible source of cheap oil for the US guaranteed by reliable allies other than Saudi Arabia." The pipeline "would transform economic power in the region, bringing revenue to the new US-dominated Iraq, cutting out Syria, and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke."

     The Israeli Mossad is already operating in northern Iraq where the pipeline will originate and have developed good relations with the Kurds. The only remaining obstacle is the current Syrian regime which has already entered the US/Israeli crosshairs. The Observer quotes a CIA official who said, "It has long been a dream of a powerful section of the people now driving this administration and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply as well as that of the US. The Haifa pipeline was something that existed, was resurrected as a dream, and is now a viable project - albeit with a lot of building to do."

     Former US ambassador James Atkins added, "This is a new world order now. This is what things look like particularly if we wipe out Syria. It just goes to show that it is all about oil, for the United States and its ally."

     The Middle East is being reshaped according to the ideological aspirations of Zionists and the exigencies of a viciously competitive energy market. Behind the bombed-out ruins of Qana and the endless sorties laying Lebanon to waste, are the tireless machinations of the energy giants, the corporate media, the banking establishment and Israel.

     Don't expect a quick return to peace. This war is just beginning.

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What's Left

VANCOUVER, BC

StopWar.ca meetings - to plan anti-war actions and Oct. 28 protest against Canadian occupation in Afghanistan, 5:30 pm, Aug. 9 and 23, Maritime Labour Centre, 111 Victoria Drive. See stopwar.ca for info.

Left Film Night - 7 pm , Sunday, September 24 at the Dogwood Centre, 706 Clark Drive screening "People's History of the United States" DVD. Free admission, donations welcome, call 604-255-2041 for details.

TORONTO, ON

Campaign for Public Education Summit - Sunday, Sept. 24, 10 am - 2 pm, North York Civic Centre, 5100 Yonge St. Meet CPE-endorsed school trustee candidates at this campaign platform launch. For info, visit the CPE website: http://www.campaignforpublic-education.ca.

Celebrate 85 years of struggle - social marking the Communist Party's anniversary, Sat., Sept. 30, cocktails 6:30, dinner 7:30, at 300 Bloor St. W. Guest speakers, four-course meal with vegetarian option, cultural program, displays, cash bar, live music and dancing. For info and tickets, call CPC Ontario Ctee. at 416-469-2446.

MONTREAL, QC

Young Communist League School - Sept. 1-4, on Marxism and building the youth and student movements in Quebec. Info: quebec@ycl-ljc.ca

Vigil against occupation of Palestine - Every Friday, noon to 1 pm, at Israeli Consulate, corner of Peel and Rene Levesque. For info: Palestinians and Jews United, 961-3928.

REDS ON THE WEB
http://www.communist-party.ca

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CUPW speaks out on crisis in the Middle East

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Harper Tories should resign, says CPC

an immediate cease-fire and halt to all military actions, followed by the complete withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Lebanon and Gaza;
the release of all prisoners taken during the current offensive, including the elected Palestinian parliamentarians and government Ministers taken by the IDF in Gaza;
that Israel be held accountable for its blatant war crimes during this aggression and forced to provide full compensation to Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority for all human and material losses suffered as a direct result of its aggression..

The statement went on to say:
". . .This crisis has shown once again the true face of the Harper Tories - their close ties with U.S.-based energy transnationals, and their willingness to accelerate the sell-out of Canadian sovereignty. Harper and his government do not speak for most Canadians who want our country to be an active voice for world peace, not more war and aggression. in so doing, they have lost any right to govern, and should resign. . .

"The roots of this latest tragedy are to be found in longstanding policies of the Israeli government based on the expansionist and racist ideology of Zionism, regardless of the sufferings and dislocation of its neighbouring Arab peoples and states. In achieving these ends, the state of Israel has continually thumbed its nose at international law, and with the help and protection of U.S. imperialism, has rejected dozens of United Nations resolutions which could form the basis for a just and lasting political settlement of the Middle East conflict.

"Successive Israeli governments have seized Palestinian lands and built the 'separation wall' which was ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice. The IDF routinely detains and tortures Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, assassinates activists and leaders, and destroys homes, clinics and schools. Israel is trying to strangle the elected Hamas government, and brazenly declares its right to unilaterally determine the final borders by annexing Palestinian lands into "Greater Israel."

"The only just solution that can guarantee genuine and enduring peace in the region must be based on UN resolutions demanding an end to Israel's illegal occupation of all territories, including East Jerusalem, seized in the 1967 war; the establishment of a viable and genuinely independent Palestinian state; guaranteeing the right of return for all Palestinian refugees; and recognizing and developing co-operative relations with a truly independent and sovereign Palestinian state. There is no other 'road map' to genuine and lasting peace in the region.

"In order to pressure Tel-Aviv and its imperialist allies to accept such a lasting and just peace, the time has now come for the world to impose sanctions and a full boycott against the rogue state of Israel."

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"What comes next?" asks CAW

We must offer all possible support to issue-specific campaigns aimed at limiting the Harper government's actions in the present minority government. Top priorities include the child care campaign, the fight to preserve Canada's commitment to Kyoto, the fight to save the Kelowna Aboriginal accord, the fight to stop the Canada-Korea free trade agreement, and the movement to limit Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan.
We must work to build stronger links, and where possible common campaigns and messages, between the various issue-specific fightbacks... The CAW commits to supporting broader social movements and fight-back coalitions as a key priority of our political strategy.
We also need to begin thinking about possible strategies for the next election... Each party can be expected, once again, to put its own short-term electoral interests ahead of the broader need to stop Harper and protect crucial progressive values. It will be left to more independent progressive forces (including the CAW, and other movements which are not beholden to a particular party) to imagine ways out of this electoral "box." Options here might include some form of electoral cooperation in selected ridings between the Liberals and the NDP; nominating joint candidates in selected ridings; or else a more focused and detailed effort to encourage voters to stop the Conservatives in specific ridings. In the long-run, of course, working for electoral reforms (such as proportional representation) would help to avoid the sort of voting quandary that assisted the Conservatives so much in the recent election. In the short-run, however, we have to imagine how to attain the best possible results within our current, flawed system.
The Liberal leadership contest will be an important political event in coming months, and there are stark differences between the candidates on several important issues. It is important for all progressive movements that the next Liberal leader support more progressive positions on crucial issues (such as child care, Kyoto, taxes, and the war in Afghanistan)...

In all of these cases, the CAW's interventions will continue to reflect our fundamental political principles: namely, that working people and their allies can exert real, collective influence over our political evolution, in ways that advance their interests (and those of their families and communities). And the union can play a leading role in organizing that collective action, so long as its efforts are independent, democratic, and reflective of the concrete concerns and priorities of union members.

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Support family farms - defend Canada's food sovereignty

Ensure Canada's food sovereignty through policies that benefit family farms, such as lower rail freight rates and curbing the power of the agro-industrial monopolies with price controls to reduce the cost of farm inputs.
Expand or reestablish single-desk selling for more crops and livestock through the Wheat Board and similar marketing agencies.
Increase food safety inspections.
Set price controls on staple foods, including in Northern and remote communities.
Impose strict environmental controls on all "factory" farms and ban in-ocean fish farming and deepsea draggers.
Support organic farming; reduce the use of antibiotics, fertilizers, pesticides, and other potentially harmful farm inputs.

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Parity price bill needed - (Letter to Editor)

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Bengal rallies condemn anti-worker policies

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Chilean workers protest over pay

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Tim Buck: Canada's communist

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September 1-15, 2006 Volume 14 - Number 15 $1

September 1-15, 2006
Volume 14 - Number 15
$1