People's Voice January 16-31 , 2007

Six Nations chiefs return to Council House

(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

PV Hamilton Bureau

IN THE EARLY MORNING of New Year's Day, the Six Nations people signalled a turning point in their history by removing the lock that barred the Haudenosaunee Chiefs from the building that was the seat of their government since before Confederation.

     "We are now back in the original building of our ancestors," said Onondaga Chief Arnie General to a packed room inside the Ohsweken Council House.

     Built in 1864, the house has great symbolic significance. It was the house of the Six Nations Confederacy until October 7, 1924, when the RCMP stormed the Council House, dissolved the Confederacy, and imposed an elected Band Council in its place.

     Similar actions had occurred on Iroquois territories all over Ontario and Quebec. Beginning in the 1880s, Indian Affairs began pressuring smaller communities to replace their traditional chiefs with an elected council system. In 1899, traditional leaders on the Akwesasne reserve made an attempt to recover their council hall two months after an election presided over by armed police. They were met with RCMP bullets. Head Chief Jake Fire was shot two times, wounding him fatally.

     After the storming of the Council House in Ohsweken in 1924, RCMP raids seized documents and wampum belts that proved the sovereignty of the traditional government and the extent of the lands granted to the Six Nations by the Crown in the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784.

     In contrast, this return of the chiefs to the Council House was a far more peaceful and celebratory occasion. The first ones to enter were Six Nations people who tried to reclaim the Council House in 1959, only to find themselves legally barred and the RCMP preventing them from entering the building. They were followed by Six Nations chiefs, clan mothers, Six Nations people and their supporters.

     Members of the elected Band Council handed over the keys and showed their support for the restoration of the traditional government. Melba Thomas, member of the Band Council, handed Chief General the key to the Council House, "so that the true leaders of this community can once again conduct their business here."

     The building had been vacant since 1998, when it had housed the Six Nations library. Speakers representing the traditional chiefs, clan mothers, and participants in the 1959 attempt spoke about the need for the Six Nations community to become more united, in a single government, and to reassert their sovereignty.

     The transfer occurred one day after the end of what the local press has dubbed "The Year of Reclamation," in reference to the ongoing reclamation near the town of Caledonia of a piece of land slated for suburban development. The land is still the subject of current negotiations with the Province of Ontario. The Confederacy council won the right to be the chief negotiator representing the Six Nations community, after a power struggle with the elected council over who should be handling land claims.

     2006 proved a year that sparked the Six Nations community into action, asserting their rights and educating others about Six Nations history and sovereignty. A fundraising concert in July raised over $20,000 for the reclamation, and the October 15 "Potluck for Peace" brought thousands of Six Nations people and supporters to the reclamation site, while across a police line a so-called "March for Freedom" organized by Gary McHale of Richmond Hill, Ontario, failed to draw more than a couple hundred.

     By New Year's Day, the Reclamation had entered its eleventh month. This in spite of an OPP raid last March and the racist mobs that occasionally gather to harass and insult the Six Nations people at the site.

     Following the ceremony inside the Council House, a Six Nations flag was raised on top of the building, which will see its first Confederacy meeting in 82 years some time this spring. Participants then gathered outside for a group photo, marking a milestone in the history of the Six Nations people, inaugurating a new year of peace, understanding, and struggle.

     "We have to work together," Chief General said. "All good things are done over a period of time."

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Poverty amid plenty across Canada

(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

PV combined sources, including reports from the Canadian Association of Labour Media

THE RATE of child and family poverty in Canada has been stalled at 17 to 18 per cent over the past five years despite strong economic growth and low unemployment, according to a new report by Campaign 2000.

     Data from Statistics Canada shows that Canada's child poverty rate has never dropped below the 15 per cent level of 1989 when the House of Commons resolved to end child poverty, and it has been that high for the past 25 years.

     The 2006 National Report Card on Child & Family Poverty, "Oh Canada! Too Many Children in Poverty for Too Long," shows that 1,196,000 children - almost one in six - live in poverty. In First Nations communities the child poverty rate is even higher - one in every four.

     "Despite some claims to the contrary, Campaign 2000's review of Statistics Canada data since 1980 shows that Canada's high rate of child and family poverty is not declining. There are fluctuations depending on good economic times or bad, but we have not overcome the challenge of more than one million children living in poverty. It's time to honour our commitments to children," stated Laurel Rothman, national coordinator for Campaign 2000.

     "These disturbing findings demonstrate that we need political commitment to a poverty reduction strategy for Canada with targets, timetables and funding. We challenge the leaders of all political parties to make this commitment if they're serious about ending child poverty in our country," added Rothman.

     (The Child Poverty Report Cards can be seen at http://www.campaign2000.ca)

     Meanwhile, whether they've got a job or not, more Canadians are struggling to stay above the poverty line and are turning to food banks to make ends meet, according to HungerCount 2006, the latest Canadian Association of Food Banks (CAFB) study.

     Charles Seiden, CAFB executive director, says the annual study shows the percentage of food bank clients who are part of Canada's workforce is 13.4 per cent, up from 13.1 per cent in 2005. "This increase has occurred despite a welcome 8.5 per cent drop in overall food bank use," he says. "However, food bank use has risen 99 per cent since 1989, when the first food bank study was conducted."

     According to the survey, employed individuals continue to comprise the second largest group of food bank clients after social assistance recipients, which account for 53.5 per cent of food bank clients across the country.

     "Low wages may be only one of several factors contributing to the working poor phenomenon in Canada," says Seiden. "But the fact that real wages have not improved over the past several years tells us that our leaders have neglected the country's labour rights and standards."

     The study also showed children account for 41 per cent of the estimated 753,458 food bank clients, although they make up only about a quarter of Canada's population.

     A closer look at the drop in food bank recipients reveals that despite the overall decrease in food bank use, some food banks report that the same clients need to be served more often. Based on these findings, the CAFB is asking governments to develop policies to address employment security, housing and daycare.

     "The continued presence of food banks is evidence that hunger is real. It demonstrates a continued lack of government commitment to finding lasting solutions to the problem of hunger," says Seiden.

     CAFB's network of regional and community food banks, include provincial associations and food distribution centres serve 90 per cent of the people who use emergency food programs in Canada.

     The poverty numbers alone are stunning, but each number represents a real human being.

     Frances McNutt, a Scarborough mother with four young children under the age of 12, is struggling to get by on social assistance. But after the Ontario government claws back the National Child Benefit Supplement from her meagre payment and she pays her $990 rent, she is left with only $122 to feed and clothe her children and herself until the middle of each month when her $300 child-support cheque arrives. After six years on welfare, McNutt is trying to get back on her feet by taking job training and doing volunteer work, but she admits it's hard.

     McNutt is just one of the 5.3 million hidden faces of poverty in Canada. Tragically, the number of people living in poverty has grown - not dropped - in recent years despite economic boom times in many parts of this nation. Those good times, though, have bypassed many Canadians who live a miserable existence on incomes well below anyone's definition of poverty.

     While there is no official definition of poverty, Statistics Canada has developed a relative measure of low income to capture the number of people who have significantly less income than other Canadians or must spend significantly more of that income on basic needs.

     In the Greater Toronto Area, that means supporting a family of four on less than $32,500 a year. And hundreds of thousands of people in the GTA, including Durham, Peel, Halton and York, live on incomes less than half that level. Apart from the homeless begging on street corners, we never see the poverty of many of these people unless we search for it. For example, poor children who sit in classrooms in Brampton do not resemble the pictures of starving children in Darfur. But they are hungry all the same.

     The hidden faces of poverty are also the disabled, such as Debra Kershaw, 50, who is trying to live on a disability pension since she was forced to quit her job after suffering a stroke six years ago. She is struggling to help her son stay in college with the help of student loans. Her benefit payment leaves her $572 a month for food, transportation, clothing and medicines for the two of them. When her rent rises by $50 a month in March, she will be forced to move again. Subsidized housing is not an option. There are 67,000 people in Toronto already on the waiting list for city housing, more than enough to fill the Rogers Centre.

     The hidden faces of poverty also include the 650,000 working poor in Canada. Amany Johnson, a single mother of two living in Ajax, is one of them. She lost her subsidized daycare for her children because she worked a few extra hours at her part-time job as a bank teller. And each time she works extra hours, her subsidized rent goes up, leaving her no better off than on social assistance. She and her two children sleep in the same room to save on the electrical heating bill.

     Sadly, the hidden faces of poverty include thousands of new immigrants who cannot find jobs because their credentials are not recognized or they lack the elusive "Canadian experience." Many work for temporary agencies that charge up to $150 in "placement fees." Temps have become the nation's homegrown version of offshore labour. And the faces of poverty include the mentally ill and the homeless who for a variety of reasons have found themselves on the street.

     Each of these millions of hidden faces has a different story to tell. But the simple truth is that none of these people has enough money to eat every day or live in a decent home. They struggle to get by with the help of friends or relatives and rely heavily on the local food banks.

     And they are isolated as well as invisible. They cannot enjoy simple activities like inviting family or friends over for dinner. Their children do not go to birthday parties because they are too ashamed to admit there is no money for a gift. They don't rush them to hockey practices or skating lessons after school. Even their cramped apartments are invisible to those of us hurrying home with our bags of groceries and bottles of wine.

     While fighting poverty seemingly ranks low among the priorities of many federal, provincial and municipal politicians, many private citizens and organizations are working hard to help those less fortunate than most Canadians. For example, the National Council of Welfare launched a website inviting Canadians to voice their opinions about the state of poverty in Canada and offer steps politicians should take to address it. At the same time, more than 700 groups in Canada with 250,000 members have organized the Make Poverty History Campaign to put the issue of poverty back on the political agenda as a national priority.

     As the National Council of Welfare warns: "If there is no long-term vision, no plan, no one identified to lead or carry out the plan, no resources assigned and no accepted measure of results, we will be mired in the consequences of poverty for generations to come."

     Without a doubt, Canada can afford to knit together the strands of what has become a torn and sagging social safety net. In 2007, with provincial and federal elections looming, there is a window of opportunity to confront what has become a national shame in a country of plenty. It's an opportunity that cannot be wasted.

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SGEU starts escalating strikes

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Walkin' the Line for the first time

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McCormicks workers lose jobs and severance

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Hope for the planet - Editorial

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CEOs rolling in money

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How to defeat the Tories?

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Women's equality still far from reality

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Getting out of the Afghan nightmare

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War resister Kyle Snyder speaks across USA

(The following article is from the January 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

On October 27, U.S. war resister Kyle Snyder took part in a StopWar.ca rally outside the Canadian Armed Forces recruiting centre in downtown Vancouver. The next day, he crossed the border back into the United States. The following is a report on his journey from the website www.SoldierSayNo.blogspot.com.

     Kyle Snyder, AWOL from the U.S. occupation of Iraq, continues his impromptu speaking tour of the United States. He was last sighted in California, where, on Dec. 8, Alameda police attempted to arrest him at the Army's request. Kyle continues to seek a discharge from the Army. And he continues to call for his fellow soldiers to come home from Iraq.

     After spending a year and a half as a political refugee in Canada, Kyle Snyder returned to the U.S. in late October in order to be discharged from the Army. Kyle hoped to get the Army off his back and to be able to return to Canada and begin a normal life. But the understanding his lawyer, Jim Fennerty, had reached with Army Major Brian Patterson evaporated shortly after Kyle presented himself at Fort Knox, Kentucky on October 31.

     Kyle, who understood he would be discharged in three days, was instead ordered to report to his old unit, the 94th Engineering Battalion, at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Commanders there would decide his fate. There would be no guarantees. He might be court-martialed and imprisoned. He might be ordered back to Iraq.

     The 94th Engineers are slated to return to Iraq for a third time in August. Now, with President Bush's escalation of the war, their deployment date will likely be moved up. Would the Army would want to make an example of Kyle? Might he face additional serious charges?

     Kyle Snyder is not a fool. This was not why he took the chance of returning to the U.S. When Fort Knox authorities dropped him off unescorted at the Greyhound bus station in Louisville, Kyle resumed his AWOL status.

     But instead of slipping into the shadows with 8,000+ other young men and women currently on "unauthorized absence" from the military, Kyle is speaking out loud against the U.S. war on the people of Iraq. He tells people it is illegal and immoral. He tells people it is crazy.

     But Kyle is not one to be rhetorical. Very compellingly, he tells his own story. How he was recruited from Job Corps with promises of money, education and pride. How he trained as a construction equipment operator, and believed he would be rebuilding in Iraq. How, once in Iraq he was given a 50-calibre machine gun and told to point his personal weapon of mass destruction at young children.

     Kyle also tells how he witnessed an innocent civilian being shot by a fellow soldier, and how, despite his report on the incident, the Army refused to even investigate. That is when Kyle was given a two-week leave to visit British Columbia, Canada. But Kyle decided not to return to the war. Instead, he applied for political refugee status in Canada. He lived in Canada for a year and a half before returning to the U.S. in October to seek a discharge from the Army.

     Kyle has made many appearances around these United States since October 31. On November 6, the day before the midterm election, Kyle Snyder spoke at a well-attended press conference in Chicago, where he encouraged Chicagoans to vote yes on a referendum calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. On the following day, 80% of them did just that, along with millions of Illinois voters.

     Kyle spoke to Spanish language media in Chicago along with Juan Torres, whose son served in the Army as a Certified Public Accountant in charge of all cargo in and out of Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. After telling his father that had learned of things that made him fear for his life, Spc. Juan Torres, Jr. was murdered while taking a shower. Juan Torres is conducting an independent investigation of his son's death, which the Army claims was a suicide.

     On Veterans Day, Kyle spoke at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Chicago, and then celebrated with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace. The celebration took place at the Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, where Kyle was moved by the art exhibit of a fellow Iraq veteran, Aaron Hughes.

     Next Kyle travelled to Fort Benning, Georgia for the annual November protest against the School of the Americas. Twenty thousand activists, including many religious and youth, participated. Kyle was invited to speak on the stage just outside the gates of Fort Benning. He was introduced by Col. Ann Wright, a leader in the antiwar movement after almost 50 years of military and government service. Kyle called for the closing of the School of Americas and the end of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Accompanying him as he spoke was fellow Iraq veteran and war resister, Darrell Anderson, and a group of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). Kyle was so happy to find his fellow soldier/resisters.

     Kyle hopped on the IVAW bus to New Orleans, where he and other Iraq veterans - women and men - talked about how they were affected by Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, in a therapeutic setting organized by Vets 4 Vets. Kyle then joined in reconstruction efforts that Iraq Veterans Against the War have been carrying out in New Orleans since early last summer, helping to rebuild the flood damaged homes of musicians and veterans. This meant a lot to him.

     But Kyle was also upset by what he saw in New Orleans: huge neighbourhoods that were still disaster areas a year and half after Hurricane Katrina. "Why isn't the 94th Engineering Brigade helping here, where they are really needed," he asked. "Why are they being told to return to Iraq, where they will do no reconstruction at all?"

     Kyle's Canadian girlfriend, Maleah, and I have accompanied him ever since we crossed the border from British Columbia into Washington State on October 28. After working in New Orleans, the three of us returned to Chicago. The American Friends Service Committee had arranged for Kyle to speak in Chicago high schools, especially the most highly recruited, in segregated African American and Latino neighbourhoods.

     Everyday for a week, Kyle spoke in multiple high school classrooms and assemblies. African American and Latino students had no trouble relating to Kyle's story. Several young men and women told him they were reconsidering their plans to join the military. Some students signed the "opt out" form in order to keep military recruiters from having access to their school records and contact information.

     A few days after the winter had abruptly asserted itself back into the lives of Chicagoans, Kyle, Maleah and I headed for San Diego, where it was warm and beautiful. The Iraq Veterans Against the War had arrived from New Orleans with their bus. Kyle and fellow Iraq veteran/resister Darrell Anderson spoke at a meeting of the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice. On the following evening, Kyle was the honoured guest of at a fundraising party organized by the San Diego Military Counseling Project.

     We found many good friends in San Diego, as we had in Louisville and Chicago. We found committed communities that gladly supported us. We found people who understood the importance of GI's sitting down and saying no more killing.

     We were offered sanctuary in several places. In fact, before Kyle spoke at the Church of the Brethren in San Diego, the church board decided to reassert its status as a "Sanctuary Church." During the Vietnam War, they had provided sanctuary to 9 sailors.

     On Friday evening, December 8, the Alameda police came looking for Kyle at an event in support of GI resisters. The speaker at the event was Bob Watada, father of Army Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the Iraq War. Army authorities at Fort Lewis, Washington are planning to court martial Lt. Watada on February 5, 2007.

     Three Alameda policemen entered the event and asked for Kyle Snyder. But Kyle was not there. He was speaking at another event in San Jose, organized by the Quakers and Veterans for Peace. The San Francisco Chronicle on Dec. 10 quoted an Alameda police sergeant saying they were "tipped off by someone in the Army in Kentucky."

     On December 9, Courage To Resist hosted a forum on GI resistance at the Veterans War Memorial Building in San Francisco. Courage To Resist, based in the San Francisco Bay Area, had coordinated a weekend of actions in support of GI resisters (see www.couragetoresist.org). The event was co-sponsored by the Bay Area's Chapter 69 of Veterans For Peace. Bob Watada spoke. Vietnam war resister Mike Wong. Iraq war resister Darrell Anderson. Anita Dennis, antiwar activist and mother of Darrell Anderson. Maxine Hong Kingston, editor of Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, a compilation of writings of veterans. Jeff Paterson, first GI resister of the Gulf War. Due to the attempt to arrest him the night before, Kyle Snyder addressed the gathering by speakerphone. Kyle later appeared in person at an outdoors rally.

     All throughout Kyle Snyder's journey, he has been followed by interested media from the U.S., Canada and around the world. Associated Press wrote three different stories that reached hundreds of media outlets throughout the globe. Canadian media continues to follow Kyle. CBC Radio called up Kyle for his comments on the firing of Donald Rumsfeld. Kyle was live on Fox Radio with the Alan Colmes show, which airs on sixty radio stations. He was interviewed for 30 minutes, followed by an hour-and-a-half of lively discussion about war crimes and recruiter fraud.

     Kyle Snyder has been meeting with peace and justice activists wherever he goes. Due to recent attempts to have him arrested, Kyle is keeping a slightly lower profile over the holidays. But he continues to speak out. He is calling for his 94th Engineering Battalion to be sent to New Orleans instead of Iraq. He is requesting a discharge from the Army.

     On Dec. 15, he spoke, again by speakerphone, to the 40th Anniversary Celebration of the Whatcom County Peace and Justice Coalition in Bellingham, Washington. Also present were many good friends in the Bellingham chapter of Veterans For Peace, whom Kyle had met last August at a solidarity picnic in Peace Arch Park.

     Kyle is looking forward to the New Year as a time when he can join with war resisters in Canada and the U.S, with veterans and with active duty GIs to bring a grinding halt to George Bush's disastrous war on the people of Iraq.

How you can help Kyle

Call General William McCoy, Jr.,
Commanding General of Fort Leonard Wood, 573-596-0131,
or call the Public Affairs Office at 573-563-4013 or 4015
email: alleym@wood.army.mil,
to demand that the army discharge Kyle Snyder with no punishment.

Kyle Snyder has found tremendous support, but he has no surplus funds, and he will have significant travel and legal expenses. Please consider donating to his expenses online at Courage To Resist http://www.CourageToResist.org, or send a cheque to Courage To Resist (write "Kyle Snyder" in the memo line), at 484 Lakepark Ave. #41, Oakland, CA 94610.

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What's Left

NANAIMO, BC

The Crisis of Homelessness - panel forum, 7:30 pm, Monday, Feb. 26, St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church Hall, 4236 Departure Bay Road, with John Horn, Chair of Nanaimo Group on Homelessness; Jonnie Tunnell, Coordinator of Nanaimo Crisis Services; and Melanie Morton, Samaritan House Shelter.

VANCOUVER, BC

StopWar.ca - peace coalition meetings on 2nd & 4th Wednesdays, 5;30 pm, Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St., see http://www.stopwar.ca for updates.

Robbie Burns Dinner - for Queen Alexandra school morning program, 6 pm, Friday, Jan. 26, Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St. Tickets $40 from VDLC office 604-254-0703.

My Generation: A Festival of Power - celebrating the importance of our water, and the power and jobs it produces, Centre for Performing Arts, Sat., Feb. 17, doors 6:30, show 7:30, with Buffy Sainte-Marie, Final Fantasy, Jim Byrnes, Kinnie Starr, info at http://www.publicpowerbc.ca. Sponsored by Canadian Office and professional Employees Union (COPE 378.

TORONTO, ON

Raise the Rates Assembly - Thurs., Jan. 18, 7 pm, Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St., Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, 416-925-6939. http://www.ocap.ca.

Climate Change: Canada Fails the Grade - Friday, Jan. 26, U of T Bahen Centre, Room 1160, 40 St George St., organized by Toronto Climate Chaos Coalition, brian. champ@sympatico.ca.

Close Guantanamo rally - speak up for human rights, Sat., Jan. 13, 1 pm, assemble at US consulate, E. side of University Ave, S. of Dundas. Bring your lungs, your friends, warm clothes. Details at http://www.noexceptions.ca or Amnesty International, http://www.amnesty.ca.

Communist Party Convention Social - evening of Friday, Feb. 2 - Friday, Feb. 2, Steelworkers Hall, 25 Cecil St., tickets $20/$10, (see details below).

Communist Party's 35th Convention - Toronto
Dinner and Cultural & Political Night
Friday, Feb. 2, 2007, 6 pm - Midnight
Steelworkers' Hall, 25 Cecil Street
Meet Canadian and International Guests
Hear progressive musicians and artists live
Delicious buffet dinner, 6 - 8:30
A Night To Remember!
Tickets $20 (unemployed $10) For information, call 416-469-2446

Annual Jose Marti Dinner and Dance - Canadian-Cuban Friendship Assoc., Sat., Feb. 3, 7 pm Dinner, 8:45 pm Cultural Program, at Bloor St. United, 300 Bloor St. W. Live Band "Pablo Terry & Sol De Cuba", door prize, raffle, cash bar. $25 advance ticket (includes dinner), $10 dance only (after 9 pm). Limited dinner places - sold out last year. Cheques to CCFA Toronto, PO 743, Stn F, Toronto, ON. M4Y 2N6, tel. 905-951-8499.

CROSS-CANADA: MARCH 17

March 17 Day of Action - against occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan marking 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Help is needed to mobilize powerful actions in every community. Find your local peace group through the Canadian Peace Alliance website, http://www.acp-cpa.ca or call 416-588-5555.

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Demand higher minimum wages - Editorial

(The following editorial is from the January 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 173 West Ave. North, Hamilton, ON, L8L 5C7.)

The corporate press is full of stories about the "red hot" Canadian economy, the lowest official jobless levels in thirty years, and shortages of skilled workers.

Tell that to the 275 McCormicks workers in London, Ontario, where an investment company is closing their historic factory and ripping off severance pay. Tell it to thousands of young Canadians who can't afford the training courses they need to score a well-paying job. Tell it to the grocery workers on the picket line in Prince George, fighting billionaire Galen Weston for a decent paycheque. Tell it to families in Vancouver, where a two-bedroom apartment rents for more than the total monthly income of many workers. Tell it to the 650,000 Canadians with low-paying jobs who survive below the poverty line.

There's something terribly wrong with an economy which cranks out over $200 billion a year in corporate profits, while millions of Canadians live in desperate poverty and rely on food banks. The root cause of the problem is capitalism itself, which constantly presses to raise profits by increasing the exploitation of workers. One crucial way to resist the bosses is to fight for better wages for the lowest-paid workers. Higher minimum wages help all workers to organize for better pay and working conditions, and that message is coming through loud and clear.

A recent survey shows that four out of five British Columbians back a $10/hour minimum wage, a 25% increase over the current $8. Three out of four want to eliminate the "BC training wage," which allows employers to pay just $5/hour for workers during their first 500 hours of employment.

Yes, the economy may be "hot" for the rich these days. But it's time to put the heat on, mobilizing such favourable public opinion for higher minimum wages right across the country.

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UK, US, German unions unite

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Cuba maintains low unemployment

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Chavez vs. Washington: a momentous conflict

Hugo Chavez: Oil, Politics, and the Challenge of the United States,
by Nikolas Kozloff, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006,
ISBN 13-9978-1-4039-7315-3,
262 pages, $37.95 Can.

Reviewed by Steve Gilbert

Nikolas Kozloff, a senior research Fellow for the Council of Hemispheric Affairs in Washington, DC, has written a biography of Hugo Chavez set in the context of contemporary Latin American history and politics, together with first-person accounts of Kozloff's travels and conversations with Venezuelan citizens of all political persuasions.

Chavez is convinced that the Bush administration is determined to effect a regime change in Venezuela. At a recent campaign rally he told supporters that his true enemy was not his political opponent, but "the imperialist government of the United States."

Kozloff begins his book by describing a TV broadcast in which evangelical minister Pat Robertson said that "if Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it... It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war." According to Robertson, Chavez is "a terrific danger" to the United States and is about to become "the launching pad for communist infiltration and Muslim extremism."

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld commented: "Our department doesn't do that kind of thing. It's against the law." But Chavez has good reason to suspect that an assassination attempt against him was being contemplated by Bush & Co. On March 2, 2006, former CIA operative Felix Rodriguez, speaking on Miami's Channel 22, said that the Bush administration had "contingency plans" for dealing with Chavez. These plans, according to Rodriguez, included "economic measures and even, at some point, military measures."

Kozloff reports that the Bush administration planned and financed the failed April 2002 coup against Chavez. Speaking on ABC Nightline, September 16, 2005 Chavez said: "Now this administration has truly broken with all protocols and respect for people. The coup'd'état against Venezuela was manufactured in Washington. My death was ordered. And it was ordered recently."

The April coup led to the deterioration in relations between the U.S. and Venezuela. As a result of the Bush administration's role, Chavez severed ties with WHISC (formerly School of the Americas), charging that it had "deformed the minds of many Latin-American soldiers." Chavez's vice-president, Jose Vicente Rangel, charged that WHISC was a school which trained "dictators, torturers and terrorists." In addition, Chavez terminated the practice of reciprocal exchanges of military personnel between the U.S. and Venezuela.

Speaking on his weekly television program in April 2005, Chavez charged that U.S. military instructors based in Venezuela were waging a smear campaign against his government and that the U.S. military office in Fort Tiuna was "an organ of the CIA conspiring against the government." He said: "All exchanges with U.S. officers are suspended... There will be no more combined operations."

In retaliation, the U.S. defaulted on a contract to provide service and parts for a fleet of 22 U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets purchased by Venezuela in 1982. Chavez then sent his older brother, Adan, with a military delegation to Cuba to pave the way for future arms deals. Members of the delegation saw MIG-29 fighter jets in action. Chavez purchased 100,000 Kalashnikov semiautomatic rifles and 40 helicopters from Russia, as well as transport planes and patrol boats from Spain.

Where did these weapons go? The pro-US government of neighbouring Colombia has accused Chavez of supplying arms to FARC, the guerrilla force which has been fighting for the peasants and working people of that country since 1964. But "who is a threat to whom?" asks Kozloff. "Even as Rumsfeld was turning up the rhetoric, the United States was arming Colombia."

"Many Americans," writes Kozloff, "might wonder why Bush and his fundamentalist allies seem so intent on getting rid of Chavez." He says the reasons are not hard to find. Since Chavez was elected in 1998, he has challenged U.S. sponsored free trade initiatives, denounced the war in Iraq, and refused to cooperate with the U.S. "drug war" in Latin America. In addition, he has developed warm relations with Cuba by trading oil for the services of doctors who come to Venezuela to treat impoverished patients free of charge.

Domestically, Chavez alienated the Bush administration by increasing taxes on U.S. oil companies. He has used this additional revenue to finance government programs in education, housing, health, and land reforms like those which were carried out in socialist Cuba. Perhaps more significantly, Chavez has also sought to unite other Latin American nations in an effort to control oil prices and counteract American influence.

These measures have made Chavez more popular than ever in Latin America, where opposition to Washington's free-market capitalist reforms is growing. Recently leftist governments have been elected in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Ecuador. Chavez's strident defiance of the Bush administration, together with his generous social development programs have guaranteed him an impressive lead in public opinion polls. In the December 2006 election he won 62 per cent of the vote, while his opponent, the conservative governor of an oil-rich province, won only 38 per cent.

In an epilogue, Kozloff describes Chavez's efforts to use oil as a political weapon in the U.S. After blasting the Bush administration in a speech at the UN in September 2005, Chavez visited a largely Latino area of the South Bronx. There, in collaboration with Congressmen José Serrano, he proposed a plan to sell fuel oil to the poor at half price through CITGO, a chain of 14,000 Venezuela-owned gas stations in the U.S. Chavez and Serrano also proposed to award vouchers for rent reduction and infrastructure improvements in public housing. In addition, Chavez provided relief assistance to poverty-stricken victims of Hurricane Katrina. "There is a lot of poverty in the U.S.", said Chavez, "and I don't believe that everything reflects the American way of life. Many people die of cold in the winter, and many die of heat in the summer."

Washington has not received Chavez's South Bronx oil diplomacy with gratitude. Kozloff writes: "Indeed, just as Bush's popularity is flagging over the war in Iraq and botched relief efforts at home, Chavez has emerged as the most charismatic South American leader in recent times."

Kozloff quotes journalist Bill Fletcher of "TransAfrica": "Advanced by individuals such as President Chavez, the recognition of the ongoing reality of racism, and the struggles against it by the African-descendant and indigenous populations, could have a momentous impact on the politics and future of Latin America, let alone the entire Western Hemisphere."

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January 16-31, 2007 Volume 15 - Number 2 $1

January 16-31, 2007
Volume 15 - Number 2
$1