HAVE YOU EVER been stuck, bored, in a waiting room? That was me last week. But then I found a recent newspaper article and a slightly older glossy magazine. The magazine article title: "How to say NO to your kids: setting limits in an age of excess." The newspaper headline: "Poverty hits one in six kids in Ontario."

     Magazine: It's time to stop the madness and start teaching kids about what is really important - values like hard work, delayed gratification, honesty and compassion.

     Newspaper: A new report finds that 443,000 children in Ontario are living in poverty and the child poverty rate is stalled at 16 per cent, despite strong economic growth.

     (When did this "age of excess" slip you by? Read on.)

     Magazine: It's an unexpected legacy of the affluent 90s.... This generation of parents has always been driven to give kids every advantage, from Mommy and Me swim classes all the way to that thick envelope from an elite college.

     Newspaper: The average low income family is living about $10,000 below the poverty line. Over the past decade, the poorest 10 per cent of families saw a 4 per cent increase in average incomes. The richest 10 per cent of families saw a 41 per cent increase.

     Magazine: Here are ways from the experts to say "no" to your kid's purchasing demands: No. No, and that is final! Nice try. I have thought about it and the answer is no. Who is the grown up here? I'm starting to get really angry at you! It's your money, but I'm in charge!

     But it is not children or parents who are in charge - it is big business. What is at the root of this poverty crisis? Today's capitalist system and its corporate greed agenda of low wages and McJobs, deindustrialization, mega mergers and tiny corporate taxes. It's our money, but the bosses are in charge. We make it - they take it.

     And take it they do. As Deena Ladd, Coordinator of the Workers Action Centre in Toronto, states in the newspaper article: "Low wages and poor working conditions are part of the reason behind Ontario's 16 per cent rate of child and family poverty." Ladd refers to Ontario's minimum wage, raised to $7.75 this February, and up 90 cents since 1996.

     Ontario's minimum wage legislates poverty. In the race with inflation it is lagging by miles. A worker today earning minimum wage, working 35 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, makes 23 per cent less than the Low Income Cut off for a single person. And many minimum wage workers are not single people.

     Child poverty, Ladd states, is also caused by inflation and cuts to social assistance rates. We could add tiny corporate taxes at a time of record profits, and a weakened labour movement, both in numbers and leadership. But basically she hits it on the head.

     The growth of part time, temporary and contract work means that too many parents are unable to find jobs that are stable, well paid and provide sufficient hours and benefits. It comes down to the NAFTA reality: the loss of good industrial jobs.

     Over the past months there have been huge job layoffs at plants in Kitchener, Langley, Mississauga, Waterloo, Kenora, St. Thomas and Cornwall. Behind the numbers are stories of real communities, like Hamilton facing the Stelco Steel fiasco, and the resulting trench warfare of merger transactions or "vulture capitalism."

     Hamilton is not alone. Investment Bank Crosbie and Co. says that vulture capitalism jumped 42 per cent in 2005, up to 1,244 announced transactions. The value of those deals also shot up by 47 per cent to $166 billion.

     The Crosbie report then talks about increasing "mega‑deal activity," meaning merger transactions over $1 billion. These mega-deal mergers are like plate tectonic movements of the capitalist system. You can hear noises of them grinding away in the business section, re‑shaping the economic landscape of Canada, putting us back to being hewers of wood and drawers of water.

     "While fewer in number, foreigners have stepped up their acquisition of strategic Canadian businesses" in 2005, said the report. They add that income trusts have become "a major component of the Canadian capital markets." Income trusts are a special classification of capital, supposedly for pension plans. But a list of Canadian income trusts includes Enbridge Gas, ReoCan Real Estate, Canadian Oil Sands and Penbina Pipelines.

     In reality, income trusts are part of a complex capitalist shell game played with the tax man. They are made up of "units," traded on securities exchanges exactly like shares in corporations. But unlike corporations, trusts pay out most of their profits not as income but as "distributions" to unit holders. Thus, they avoid corporate taxes. The federal government calculates it lost $300 million tax dollars in 2004, probably a low estimate. And in 2005, out of all the billions exchanged on vulture capitalist merger transactions, 18 per cent was also for these income trusts.

     More sneaky tax‑evading mergers are ahead. Last November, another financial association study predicted that around half of Canadian companies expect to be involved in domestic mergers in 2006. About a third of Canadian corporations surveyed expect to be involved in an international "vulture capitalist" transaction. None will be oversee by a public tribunal.

     What this means (surprise, surprise) is that by the end of the year, some CEOs and bankers will be a lot richer. But none of this merging, not one penny, will be socially productive.

     Take the unpaid cooks at Amato's Pizza on Queen Street (owed over $82,000 in unpaid wages). Or the home garment worker for Northern Reflections getting $2.30 per shirt (there are an estimated 5000 such workers in Toronto). Or the "illegal" immigrant construction worker (the Ontario government officially says there are 76,000 illegal immigrants in the province's construction industry).

     All these workers will feed, clothe and house thousands more than a money-shuffling CEO like Jacques Lamarre, Director of the Royal Bank and President and CEO of SNC‑Lavalin Group (the company that has the contract with toll highway 407 and also makes bullets for the US army in Iraq).

     But these are the workers who are getting kicked. In Ontario, families from the most oppressed sections of the working class have seen a 40 per cent loss in income over the past ten years. That includes double the poverty rates for children in Aboriginal, visible minority and immigrant families. ("Visible minorities," by the way, are now statistically the majority in Toronto).

     What does the future hold for these "Mike Harris" children? Toronto's medical officer of health, Dr. David McKeown, recently said that 15.6 per cent of Toronto's children will not get proper nutrition during their formative years. Prime Minister Stephen Harper eliminated the ministry of public health in last month's cabinet overhaul. But rest assured: more money is going to Canadian troops to kill the poor of Afghanistan.

     To add insult to injury, the McGuinty Liberals have announced that Ontario families on welfare and disability assistance must wait until 2007 before the claw back of federal child tax credits is abolished. Currently, a single parent with two kids is expected to live on $1,119 a month in welfare. That is 57 per cent below the poverty line.

     As huge global companies merge, push wages down, evade taxes, and layoff workers, the cracks on the surface of imperialism grow wider. Into these dark cracks and crevasses fall our children and ever‑bigger numbers of the working class. What will the labour movement do? Where is Wayne Samuelson and the OFL? Or the CAW? The need to build the broadest possible resistance to the corporate agenda, to blunt and defeat its offensive, and send both the McGuinty Liberals and the Harper Tories packing, is more pressing than ever.

THOSE WHO SEEK to wring maximum profits from human suffering are seizing a long-awaited opportunity to destroy Canada's universal Medicare system. Alberta premier Ralph Klein gave the big finger to Canadians on Feb. 28, announcing that his government will legislate a full-scale private profit health system.

     Alberta's Health Policy Framework will allow physicians to practise both inside and outside medicare - not one or the other. This will encourage doctors to shift to for-profit services catering to the wealthy. The drain of physicians from the public system will leave working people with less access to medical care. In many parts of the country, it is already increasingly difficult to find a family physician or to receive adequate medical treatment close to home. Let us be blunt: this means that growing numbers of Canadians will die trying to get medical treatment, taking us back to the days before Medicare.

     The immediate federal response came from Health Minister Tony Clement, who said that any changes to the health‑care system must be done within the confines of the Canada Health Act, while refusing to say whether Alberta's proposal meets that test. Reality check here, Tony: Klein's plan is completely illegal. The Canada Health Act, which is still law of the land, requires medically necessary services to be offered equally and without extra charge to all citizens. 

     This medical emergency require much more than angry news releases. The Canadian Labour Congress in particular has a responsibility to give strong leadership in the struggle to save Medicare. We call upon the CLC to join with the Canadian and provincial health coalitions in convening an urgent summit meeting of all labour and democratic movements to plan a swift and massive fightback. Stephen Harper's Tories, with just 125 seats in Parliament and a paltry 36% of the popular vote, must be compelled by public mobilizations to block Klein's attack.

     One final point. If the Alberta Tories their province's oil revenues to thumb their noses at attempts to enforce the Canada Health Act, it will be all the more reason to put Canada's entire energy industry under public ownership.

By Darrell Rankin

PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD will participate in massive demonstrations against war on the March 18 weekend, the third anniversary of the brutal and illegal U.S.‑led invasion of Iraq. In Canada, protests are being organized in dozens of cities and towns.

     Far from becoming a problem of history, the dangers to peace are multiplying and require ever larger efforts to build the anti-war movements around the world.

     Millions of people are increasingly alarmed at the dangerous escalation of threats and provocations against world peace. Iran faces international sanctions for pursuing the peaceful use of atomic energy, and lives under the threat of aggressions from U.S. imperialism. The United States continues to develop and lower thresholds for the use of its massive nuclear weapons arsenal.

     The publication of blasphemous anti‑Islamic cartoons in a Danish newspaper was a calculated provocation against world peace, creating dangerous tensions that benefit the aims of imperialism to "divide and rule" over the peoples of the world.

     Another serious danger is the growing measures against communist parties and liberation movements by imperialist countries in Europe and the U.S. The war on terrorism is a useful tool for imperialism to criminalize all resistance to its domination while casting aside all democratic aspects of international law, such as disarmament, respect for human rights, laws against torture and "renditions," and most importantly the prevention of war.

     All these problems are added to old global injustices, wounds and dangers, such as the impoverishment and starvation of millions of people as a result of the unjust world order of corporate globalization. U.S. imperialism particularly wants to use weapons in space to dominate the world and "protect U.S. investments."

     Millions of Palestinian people continue to languish in refugee camps more than fifty years after being expelled from their homeland. The brutal U.S. sanctions and support for terrorist attacks against Cuba continue.

     The election of the Harper Tories in January is a huge blow against the wishes of Canada's "peace majority" opposed to further involvement in illegal and unjust military aggressions, often at the behest of U.S. imperialism. It will be important to influence the opposition parties in Parliament to oppose Harper's pro-imperialist agenda.

     The days of action on the March 18 weekend should help to strengthen peace forces in Canada and internationally.

     (Rankin is the Chair of the Communist Party of Canada's Peace and Disarmament Commission.)

The Young Communist League of Canada is gearing up for a major on‑line organizing meeting of all members, the YCL announced in early March.

     The meeting, to be held on Sunday, March 26, will bring together YCLers from across the country to discuss planning for a founding central convention. Since an initial conference in Vancouver three years ago, the re‑launched YCL has joined in high school and university campaigns, worked on picket lines, engaged in the peace movements and helped build the Canadian delegation to the 16th World Youth Festival in Caracas Venezuela.

     "I think we've made some excellent steps forward," Johan Boyden, Ontario YCL organizer told People's Voice, adding that the CPC has allocated funds to a YCL budget and is assigning young people in the party to help build the YCL. "It is an extremely exciting development. It means we will be able to welcome international guests, and launch an organizing drive before the convention."

     Educational/cultural events are another idea, he notes. "All these things will be discussed by membership in detail on the 26th."

     The YCL Central Preparatory Committee has issued a letter to all members and applicants and is planning to attract participants in areas where the League has little base. So far, clubs have been set up across BC and Ontario, plus a start in Winnipeg.

     "Our goal here, however is bigger and broader," Boyden stated. "We want to build a pan‑Canadian organization, one that brings together revolutionary youth in Quebec and English Canada, as well as the First Nations, with a common unity of purpose. That will mean expanding the preparatory committee also, to reflect this goal."

     Recent YCL statements for International Women's Day and the March 18th Peace Rally have emphasized the need for a strong pan-Canadian youth movement as critical to defeat the new, Harper‑style corporate agenda. "To really confront this anti‑youth and student assault  and we're talking about a country that is one of the richest in the world, where our youth unemployment policy has not dropped below 14% in thirty years - we need a strong resistance. Now." Boyden stated.

     "Thousands are marching against war and US empire. The NDP's lack of action and youth policies have discredited their claim to be the only forum for a `new politics' of `left' and progressive youth ‑ especially after their stance on crime in the last election. More and more young people see real alternatives in Cuba and Venezuela, creating tremendous hope in Canada for broad resistance, uniting youth and students, and making a sharp break with the corporate agenda. Now is the time to join the YCL," he said.

     For more information about the March 26 meeting, please write to ycl_ljc@ycl‑ljc.ca.

By Kimball Cariou

DIFFICULTIES CONTINUE to compound for Vancouver's Coalition of Progressive Electors. Not surprisingly, given the sharp debates within COPE prior to last fall's election setbacks, very different strategies for the organization have emerged.

     Recent COPE membership meetings have seen vocal attacks on the labour movement, as well as heckling and threats against speakers who urge unity with other progressive forces leading up to the 2008 civic election. There is a declining presence of members involved in positions of leadership in the trade union movement, no doubt reflecting the growth of anti-labour sentiments.

     As recorded in the COPE history book, "Working for Vancouver," the organization was launched in 1968, after the Vancouver and District Labour Council's Spring Education Institute recommended that "a meeting be held in the immediate future of labour, ratepayer groups, the New Democratic Party and other interested groups to establish a base in municipal politics."

     The new civic party was soon born with the strong support of the VDLC and its affiliates. A key player in this process was the 260-member Harry Rankin Election Committee, which included many prominent Communists and left NDPers. As the history notes, "the road to joint action between COPE and the NDP was a long and stony one (but) COPE and the Labour Council, however, never deviated from their unity efforts."

     Over the following decades, COPE became the most successful labour-backed civic party in Canadian history. Much of its success during the 1980s was due to the Communist Party's strategy of uniting broad sections of reform-minded citizens with the trade union movement as the key political base.

     Efforts were made during those years to start other electoral alternatives based on the civic NDP, often at times when Trotskyist forces played a divisive role. These attempts failed, but COPE and the labour movement always worked hard to create left-centre electoral unity against the right-wing NPA which has long dominated Vancouver City Hall, even when this meant running fewer COPE candidates to avoid vote splitting.

     In the 2002 election, a "perfect storm" of favourable events led to COPE's first majority on City Council, as well as on School Board and Park Board. As always, the VDLC and its affiliates played a major role in that campaign, providing much of the financial and organizational muscle to win victory.

     The next three years, as reported in People's Voice, saw major positive changes in Vancouver, despite the decision by Mayor Larry Campbell and three other COPE councillors to form their own party, Vision Vancouver. The bitter antagonisms sparked by this departure laid the basis for COPE's losses last November.

     One result is a desperate desire to guarantee that all future COPE elected officials adhere to COPE policy. That understandable sentiment, however, is frequently coupled with demands to place severe restrictions on any form of electoral alliance with other forces, which would leave COPE increasingly isolated.

     Some COPE members, including several defeated city councillors, lay much of the blame on the trade union movement, which gave financial and political backing to both COPE and Vision. Despite statistical analysis and surveys proving that a COPE mayoralty candidate and a larger council slate would have led to disastrous vote splits and a sweeping victory for the NPA, some state that COPE's 2005 electoral strategy was "dictated" by the unions, and that COPE must now target the trade union and NDP "brasses." In the next election, according to these voices, COPE must run a full slate against the NPA and Vision, and demand that the labour movement give full support only to COPE.

     This new "go it alone" concept rejects the approach of uniting left and centre forces within COPE and more broadly against the NPA. There is virtually no support for such tactics within the labour movement, but many union activists are weary of fighting sectarian battles within the organization.

     The stage is now set for perhaps the most critical annual meeting in COPE history, scheduled for April 23. If those who advocate narrowing down the historic strategy of building a broad left-centre coalition against the NPA win at that meeting, COPE may well begin to implode.

     But that outcome is not inevitable. Last September, a large turnout of COPE members gave two-thirds support for the tactic of broad cooperation against the NPA, a decision which helped elect six COPE candidates overall. What remains to be seen is whether the majority of COPE members have drawn the same conclusion as the Communist Party's Vancouver civic caucus - that last fall's setbacks were not caused by too much cooperation and unity, but rather by too little.

By Kimball Cariou

TWO RECENT DEVELOPMENTS on opposite sides of the world help shed some light on the tactics of U.S. imperialism's drive for global dominance.

     One is a report from RBC News in Russia about a coup plot uncovered by Belorussian state security. On March 1, the chair of the Belorussian KGB, Stepan Suhorenko, told a press conference about plans by pro-western opposition groups to declare the March 19th presidential elections "falsified."

     Suhorenko provided documents showing that leaders of the unregistered NGO Partnerstvo ("Partnership") planned to release phony exit polls as "proof" of false election results, and then to detonate explosives during a post-election protest rally in Belorussia's capital city of Minsk.

     That provocation was to be followed by a takeover of state buildings, train stations, and other facilities. Suhorenko said the plan involved the use of armed terrorists from Georgia, Ukraine and ex‑Yugoslavian countries.

     Around 100 mobile phones with Lithuanian SIM‑cards and tens of thousand dollars had been seized by Belorussian security forces from Partnership. Suhorenko reported that the group is financed by a regional branch of the National Democratic Institute, and U.S. citizen David Hamilton, and that the United States had allocated $12 million to support these activities in 2006. The thwarted plot shows remarkable parallels with similar "colour revolutions" which have taken place in other former socialist countries.

     Meanwhile, Canadian researcher Anthony Fenton has released information about efforts by the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to provide broad financial support for counter-revolutionary groups in Cuba. Fenton is a member of "In the Name of Democracy," an emerging project by scholars, researchers and writers dedicated to the promotion of popular democracy.

     The US Department of State provides special funds in addition to the NED's yearly appropriation, to be used in priority countries. In Latin America and the Caribbean, Cuba was the only country for which NED received such special funds in 2005. Some of the groups receiving such funds last year included:

• Federation of Electric, Gas and Water Plants, $177,696 from State Department special funds, "to promote labor rights and defend independent labor unions and workers in Cuba. Working with independent labor leaders, the Federation will produce a report on labor rights violations inside Cuba. The group will also support a training center in Havana that will train Cuban workers in worker rights and distribute information inside Cuba on international labor laws and the activities of international unions."
• People in Need Foundation, $99,900 "to support the spread of information inside Cuba through local samizdat literature. PINF will send Eastern Europeans who were active in producing samizdat during the 1980s to Cuba to work with local journalists and dissident groups to develop a work plan to produce printed materials and a video‑journal on life in Cuba. PINF will also organize the second meeting of the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba in Brussels, Belgium."
• National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, $175,000 "to support peaceful democratic change in Cuba. NDI will help Varela Project representatives in Miami develop the organizational capacity of their newly registered non‑profit, and continue to build awareness of and support for the Varela Project and the National Dialogue in the Latin America."
• Cuban Committee for Human Rights, $65,000 "to advance the cause of human rights and democracy in Cuba. Endowment support will cover the operating costs and program activities of CCHR's Miami office, which works on behalf of human rights and human rights activists in Cuba."

     Other operations on this remarkable include:

• CubaNet, a front to support "independent" Cuban journalists;
  
• the Center for International Private Enterprise, which "provides practical information and analysis on democratic, market‑oriented reforms"; 
• the Independent Libraries of Cuba; the Center for a Free Cuba, which provides "humanitarian assistance and emergency relief to political prisoners and their families";
  
• Partners of the Americas and "Red Feminista Cuban Inc.", which train "independent" women's groups; and many more.  

     For the full list of grants for Latin American and Caribbean countries, see http://inthenameofdemocracy.org/?q=en/node/8.

     Whenever one reads about "spontaneous" uprisings against governments which refuse to bow to Washington's pressures, you can be sure that millions of U.S. dollars have been spent to build the machinery of counter-revolution.

JUST A MONTH AGO, we editorialized as follows: "As the military offensive against Afghan rebel forces steps up, there are increasing attacks against foreign troops. These attacks are in turn being used to whip up jingoistic demands for an iron-fisted response. This option can only lead to the tragic deaths of more Afghans, Canadian soldiers and aid workers. Nor can it make Canada safer."

     The latest tragedies in Afghanistan prove that our warnings were on the mark. Canadian forces in Kandahar, as Gen. Hillier boasts, are there to kill "bad guys" - at the request of US imperialism, which needs Canadian troops to ease its own pressures in Iraq. Blurring the lines between aid programs and military forces means that any Canadian presence in Afghanistan will increasingly be viewed as part of the imperialist military occupation of the country, despite the good intentions of any individual soldiers.

     The NDP is right to call for a full debate on the Afghan debacle. At the anti-war actions on March 18, we must tell all parties in Parliament to reject all participation in the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, and to launch a new Canadian foreign policy based on peace, disarmament, and global justice.

Facts about the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA has sent 2250 Canadian soldiers to be stationed in Kandahar for the next year as part of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) under the leadership of NATO. They will be fighting alongside about 8,000 US soldiers still operating under the banner of "Operation Enduring Freedom".

     The ISAF, which includes significant British and Dutch contingents, will be operating along the southern border between Pakistan and Afghanistan in Kandahar and Hellemond provinces. This is a crucial area for two reasons: it is the location of Taliban strongholds and it is the proposed route for the multibillion dollar Trans‑Afghan pipeline.

     It is no secret that since the collapse of the Soviet Union US oil companies have been keen to exploit Caspian Sea oil and gas. They lobbied the Clinton administration to have a pipeline built from Turkmenistan in the north through Afghanistan to ports in Pakistan. They see even more opportunity with George Bush as president. Afghanistan is important to US oil Companies because it is the only route that would provide total control for them. The other possible routes for the pipeline run through Iran, an enemy of the US, China, a competitor of the US, or Russia, an unreliable and heavily armed ally.

     The Department of National Defence says that Canadians, and the other international forces, are there to "reinforce the authority of the Afghan government in and around Kandahar and help local authorities stabilize and rebuild the region."

     Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan is considered a US puppet by most Afghanis. His authority outside Kabul is merely symbolic. Local control in the provinces is left to a mix of opium gangsters, former Taliban commanders and tribal elders. Mark Schneider, president of International Crisis Group has said, "It's not merely about drug money financing candidates. Drug lords are candidates."

     The United States and the Karzai Administration are, in most cases, happy to work and make deals with these local rulers. According to Human Rights Watch the majority (60%) of those elected to the Afghan parliament in the Oct. 18, 2005 elections were these local criminals and power brokers or their associates. US forces and allied local warlords are responsible for human rights abuses in the country.

     According to Human Rights Watch: "U.S. forces operating against Taliban insurgents continue to generate numerous claims of human rights abuses against the civilian population, including arbitrary arrests, use of excessive force, and mistreatment of detainees... Local military and police forces, even in Kabul, have been involved in arbitrary arrests, kidnapping, extortion, torture, and extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects. Outside Kabul, commanders and their troops in many areas have been implicated in widespread rape of women, girls, and boys, murder, illegal detention, forced displacement, and other specific abuses against women and children, including human trafficking and forced marriage."

     According to General Rick Hillier, Canadians are going to Afghanistan to "Kill detestable murderers and scumbags." The reality is that we are going to support, some of the worst human rights abusers the country has ever seen. This deadly combination of abuses by both US forces and their local allies ensures that Canadians will continue to face growing resistance from the Afghan people.

State of Reconstruction 

     We are told that the Canadian soldiers will be engaging in development work as part of their mission. This type of intervention, generally referred to as the 3‑D approach (disarmament, diplomacy and development) has come under heavy criticism from NGOs for confusing the process and endangering aid workers. It is argued that having the development component so intertwined with the defense operation results in corruption and the use of development initiatives as bribes to local authorities and civilians. It also eliminates the possibility of development work being neutral in the conflict.

     According to a report in the Guardian, Vickie Hawkins, acting head of the Médecin Sans Frontières mission in Afghanistan said the international humanitarian group left Afghanistan for these very reasons. The US‑led coalition has made the situation worse by blurring the line between humanitarian work and military operations. During the war in 2001, Hawkins said, US soldiers were driving around in civilian clothes in white cars, taking on the appearance of humanitarian aid workers. In May, the Pentagon was forced to apologize for dropping leaflets in southern Afghanistan which promised humanitarian assistance if local people gave the coalition information about the Taliban and al‑Qaida.

     She despaired that military campaigns were employing "hearts and minds" strategies more and more often, making it difficult for aid workers to maintain their aura of all‑important impartiality. If armies are handing out food assistance and medical equipment, it becomes harder for locals to tell the aid workers from the occupiers.

     Opium Revenue from poppy cultivation - between $2‑3 billion annually ‑ is now double the amount of international aid. Ironically, the money coming from opium production is now the chief source of "reconstruction funds" in the country. Afghan farmers have little option but to produce poppies and will continue to do so. It is the only crop that will generate enough money to survive on.

     The British Government, worried that most of the heroin ending up on UK streets came from Afghanistan, began an eradication program for poppy cultivation. Afghan farmers were promised aid and new seeds in return for ending their production but the aid never arrived and many have returned to poppy cultivation. Attempts at a new eradication program will likely end in conflict unless there is a real commitment to provide viable alternatives to the farmers.

     Frasier Nelson, a Scottish journalist, summarizes the contradiction, "Today, some two million Afghans rely on opium poppies for their livelihood, generating $2.7bn of illegal wealth. They will not give this up readily, nor will the farmers whose desire to feed their families is stronger than their desire to placate NATO."

     British Prime Minister Tony Blair stated that, "The Taliban regime is funded in large part on the drug trade ‑ 90% of all heroin sold in Britain originates from Afghanistan. Stopping that trade is directly in our interests."

     The Taliban has many faults but by May 2001 it had virtually eradicated opium production. The resurgence in poppy production is a consequence of the US invasion and continuing occupation.

Canadian corporations in the Caspian

     According to the Energy Information Administration there are proven reserves of between 17 and 44 billion barrels of oil and 232 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Caspian region. Production of these reserves is very limited. As of 2004 only about 11% of the regions gas reserves, which equal those of Saudi Arabia, were under production.

     On Dec. 27, 2002, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkmenistan signed an agreement to build a 1500 kilometre long Trans‑Afghanistan Pipeline ‑ a $3.2 billion project expected to deliver 30 Billion cubic meters of natural gas a year. The only stumbling block to finally realizing this deal is the lack of stability in Afghanistan.

     In September 2004 a joint Omani‑Canadian delegation led by Yusuf bin Alavi, foreign minister of Oman, and Jean Chretien, former Prime Minister of Canada, met in Turkmenistan to negotiate a deal between Edmonton-based Buried Hill Energy and the government of Turkmenistan to develop the Serdar block in the Caspian area.

     This is not the first or only time that the former Prime Minister, a man responsible for sending thousands of Canadian soldiers to Afghanistan, has intervened on behalf of Canadian corporations for contracts in the area. On the same trip Chretien met with Saparmurat Niyazov, the self proclaimed president for life of Turkmenistan, and discussed potential involvement from Canadian corporations in the Trans‑Afghan pipeline.

     On Oct. 20, 2004, Thermo Design received a contract worth $42 million for the production of an LPG and gas condensate plant in Turkmenistan that would produce 50,000 tons of LPG and 200,000 tons of condensate gas (light gasoline) annually.

     The hypocrisy of signing multi‑million dollar deals with one of the worst human rights abusers in the region while simultaneously arguing that Canada's soldiers are bringing peace is obvious. It is also standard operating procedure for successive governments of Canada to ignore issues of Human rights if there is money to be made in international deals. These facts call into question the real reasons why Canada is in Afghanistan.

     The people of Afghanistan want peace. The occupiers and their puppet and former Unocal employee, Hamid Karzai want oil. We have seen the US and its Allies in this scenario before. Whether in Chile in 1973 when the US sponsored a coup to make sure that the copper mines were not nationalized, or in Iraq where they have killed more than a million people to control the oil resources, they will brutally enforce a corrupt and divisive political process to keep the people divided so they can pillage the land of its resources. They don't care who is in power or what type of society they are creating. In this case they are building a society based on corruption, drugs and violence. Canada is now the cop trying to impose these realities on the people of Afghanistan.

     (From the Canadian Peace Alliance website: http://www.acp‑cpa.ca. For more information on the CPA, email cpa@web.ca or call 416-588-5555.)

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PV Fund drive donations start rolling in

(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

Even before our 2006 Fund Drive letters went into the mail on March 3, donations began arriving at our Vancouver office. With the Drive officially just a couple of days old on that date, we had received a total of $1,864 towards our $50,000 target. One retired British Columbia reader who shuns the spotlight makes a very generous donation every year to People's Voice. This time around, he kicked off the Drive with a bang by contributing $1,000. Long-time California reader Lilo Heller continued her regular contributions during the first part of 2006, sending us $200 in US funds, which worked out to $227.15 Canadian. Thanks to both supporters for your incredible solidarity!

As this issue beamed across the internet to our printshop in Montreal on March 7, the first batch of return envelopes with contributions and renewals tucked inside was delivered. In our next issue, we will give full details of the pace of the Fund Drive during the first half of March.

In the meantime, fundraising events are already being announced. Our Editor, Kimball Cariou, will speak at the first Fund Drive event of the season in Toronto on March 11, as announced in our previous issue. We expect a full house at 6:30 pm that evening, when doors open for Toronto's 3rd Annual PV Dinner at the GCDO Hall, 290 Danforth Avenue. Supporters will be treated to live jazz and blues with the Wally Brooker Trio.

This month's Left Film Night hosted at the Dogwood Centre on March 26 by the Vancouver East Club CPC, the YCL and the Centre for Socialist Education, will include a potluck dinner to raise funds for PV. Bring something good to share with friends at 6 pm, plus a $5 donation, and then at 7 pm, watch "Aristide and the Endless Revolution," Nicolas Rossier's fascinating documentary on Haiti. Call 604-2550-2041 for details.

We have already received several May Day greetings from unions and other groups. Remember that the value of these greeting ads counts towards provincial targets in the Fund Drive, so be sure to ask your union local, your labour council, your peace and community groups, and other progressive organizations to place May Day greetings this year!

PV 2006 FUND DRIVE Area                                    Target British Colombia                $22,000 Alberta                                 $1,700 Saskatchewan                         $800 Manitoba                              $3,000 Ontario                               $20,000 Quebec                                    $500 Atlantic Canada                   $1,200 Other                                       $800 Total                                   $50,000

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Danish Communists on the "Cartoon Crisis"

(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

Statement by the Communist Party in Denmark, Feb. 20, 2006

All  over the world there have been severe reactions to the cartoons, published in the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, the publication of which was a provocation and has nothing to do with the freedom of expression.

It is not true when the Danish prime minister, the liberalist Anders Fogh Rasmussen, declares that the freedom of expression is unlimited in Denmark. In Denmark freedom of expression is freedom with responsibility which includes legislation against blasphemy. It is a normal ethical priority that one does not insult religious beliefs and thoughts.

The same newspaper and right-wing politicians in Denmark have no problem restricting the freedom of expression and other human rights when they implement "legislation on terror," which has criminalised Danes' support to liberation movements as the FARC in Colombia and the PFLP in Palestine.

For several years public debate in Denmark has taken a more and more harsh and aggressive tone, especially when immigrants with a Muslim background are the subject. This negative tone has not facilitated the integration of our Muslim fellow citizens. The Danish legislation on immigrants and refugees is now one of the most restrictive in Europe.

The integration of immigrants and their descendants has been hampered by a labour market that does not offer the necessary number of jobs for people with a non-Danish background.

We communists regard the publication of the cartoons and the way the government had treated the situation as a severe aggravation of the debate climate. The publication of the cartoons is a part of a more general provocation meant to create even more artificial conflicts within the Danish population. And the situation has been even more critical as the supporting party of the Government, the so-called Danish Peoples Party (an ultra-righwing party, is intensifying its xenophobic and sometimes directly racist rhetoric in the public debate.

The Danish government should strongly dissociate itself from this kind of rhetoric and instead give full support to social integration by securing jobs and proper living conditions for all immigrants.

Since the beginning of the 1990's, Danish foreign policy has changed from an internationally respected foreign policy deeply rooted in the UN to an aggressive US-supporting imperialism. This has led to active Danish participation in the illegal war in Iraq and to Danish military involvement in Afghanistan.

As a result  of this policy and as never seen before in Danish foreign policy, the Danish prime minister refused to have a meeting with the official representatives from the embassies of a number of Muslim countries after the publication of the cartoons. By this negative action the Danish government added new fuel on the fire.

The situation is now dangerous. The imperialist pressure on especially Syria and Iran is growing daily and at the same time the imperialists try to find new ways of interfering in the internal affairs in Lebanon. The cartoons and the protests they have caused are now used in this aggressive ploy.

At the same time, eyes are shut to Israeli aggression and acts of terror against the population of Palestine. The Israeli government has no plans of finding a solution that respects the justified claims of the Palestinians.

The Communist Party in Denmark warns that new imperialist aggressions are planned - especially against Syria and Iran. The imperialist powers are now using provocations, sometimes involving local reactionary powers, in order to split the population to prevent the people from uniting against the common enemy.

The situation is not a "clash of civilisations" as reactionaries claim. This claim is just made to disguise the growing discrepancies between the narrow interests of imperialism and the interests of the people. At the same time, this argument is used to legitimate new wars and suppression. All around the world, the main contradiction is between the suppressors and the suppressed - between the exploiters and the exploited.

A broad anti-imperialist popular movement is the only tool to stop this trend.

Among the Danish population, a majority want to stop the Danish participation in the military activities in Iraq. The peace and anti-war movements are growing. Several initiatives are being taken to try to stop the provocations and the harsh tone in the Danish debate on the integration issue. These initiatives are being taken in common by many Danes regardless of religious and political positions and including our Muslim fellow citizens.

Communist Party in Denmark demands:

• The paper Jyllands-Posten shall give an unreserved apology for having published the cartoons.
• The Danish prime minister and the Danish government shall publicly announce its dissociation from the cartoons and apologize for not having accepted the meeting with the representatives from the embassies of the Muslim states in Denmark.
• The Danish government shall strongly dissociate itself from the harsh tone in the public debate and especially from the statements of its xenophobic supporting party.
• The restrictive Danish policy concerning immigrants and international refugees shall be changed. The reductions in economic support to immigrants and refugees shall be reversed and sufficient resources for a positive integration of immigrants and refugees in the Danish society shall be made available.

All Danish soldiers shall  immediately be (withdrawn) from Iraq and Afghanistan!

(The KPiD website is http://www.kpid.dk)

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Canada's military spending

 
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

Despite claims by politicians and industry that Canada needs higher military spending, our country is already the 7th highest military spender among NATO's 26 members. Even before Stephen Harper's Conservatives were elected, Canadian military spending was set to increase by $12.8 billion over the next five years, to $20 billion annually. For every 30 cents Canada spends on UN peacekeeping 10 dollars is spent on military missions which are fuelling Canadian integration with the United States armed forces. For more information, see http://www.ceasefire.ca or http://www.polarisinstitute.org.

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Don't attack Iran

 
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

Canadian Peace Alliance statement on the Iran crisis, Feb. 27, 2006

The United States and Israel have both recently stated that they may engage in a military campaign against Iran for alleged development of nuclear weapons. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is being used for energy production and not for weapons development. In either case, any use of military force against nuclear installations in Iran will be illegal under international law and must be opposed.

Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention states that no country can attack a nuclear facility or any other target "if such attack may cause the release of dangerous forces and consequent severe losses among the civilian population." An attack on a nuclear facility will cause massive damage to the local environment and to the civilian population in the vicinity. A nuclear attack would cause untold civilian deaths.

There is no way to distance the current confrontation with Iran from the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The US, without the support of the international community and in clear violation of international law, invaded and occupied a sovereign Arab state ostensibly based on the same motivation about the threat of weapons of mass destruction. The fact that no weapons have been found in Iraq and the proof that the evidence of such a program in Iraq was deliberately falsified renders the US accusations against Iran questionable, to say the least.

Furthermore, while the Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA) is opposed to the development of any nuclear weapons, the state of Iran should not be singled out for its potential program, particularly under the current circumstances with both the US and Israel threatening nuclear attack. It is the position of the CPA that nuclear proliferation will continue as long as those states which currently have nuclear weapons refuse to comply with their international treaty obligation to disarm their own arsenals.

The CPA therefore calls on the Government of Canada to oppose any military action against Iran and to resolve this issue diplomatically.

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Three Years Too Many! End the War on Iraq - Bring All The Troops Home Now

(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

United for Peace and Justice call for local actions across the United States on the third anniversary of the Iraq War, March 15-22, 2006.

United for Peace and Justice joins our partners in the global antiwar movement in calling for a massive outpouring of opposition to the war in Iraq. We are urging opponents of the war to organize a wide array of events in their hometowns for the entire week surrounding this anniversary. As important as our periodic large national gatherings are, we believe it is vital that we bring antiwar sentiment out into the streets of every community around the country.

Last year, on the second anniversary of the war, at least 765 actions were organized in response to the call from UFPJ for local antiwar protests. This year we want to increase that number significantly, and expand participation at each event.

Our national coalition will help local groups organize a range of events and activities throughout the week of March 15-22, with the goals of increasing the visibility of grassroots antiwar sentiment and bringing new people into this movement. We encourage groups to plan education events and protest actions, including vigils, marches, rallies, non-violent civil disobedience and other creative activities and to publicize them by listing them on the UFPJ website calendar.

In any given community, these activities might include:

• actions to expose the local costs of the war
• efforts to support the growing movement against military recruitment
• activities aimed at pressuring members of Congress and other elected officials to speak out against the war
• events to highlight the attacks on our civil liberties
• programs that address issues of corporate accountability
• protests demanding that all of our troops be brought home now!
  

Three years of persistent anti-war organizing are having a significant political impact. A majority of people in the United States now agree with the peace movement that this war never should have happened, and calls for immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq are growing. More members of Congress, retired generals and state department officials, newspaper editorial boards and people from all walks of life are demanding the truth and calling for an end to the war.

But the horrors continue. Three years of war have resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 U.S. service people, and thousands have come home with horrific wounds they will carry for the rest of their lives. Estimates of Iraqi deaths number in the tens of thousands, and more Iraqis are killed every day. The schools, hospitals and homes hard hit by the U.S. military have not been rebuilt. Foreign investors like Halliburton - not the Iraqi people - control the Iraqi economy while the IMF and World Bank "give" a $100 billion loan to Iraq, intent on locking the economic future of that country into the same policies that have punished people around the world.

The war has already cost well over $200 billion in U.S. taxpayer money, and there is no end in sight. At the same time, the people of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have yet to receive the resources they need to recover from Hurricane Katrina and communities around the country are impacted every day by drastic cuts in social spending. And the war has brought new assaults on civil liberties and democratic rights.

March 19th will mark the third anniversary of a war that never should have happened - a war based on lies that continues to devastate the lives of thousands, both in Iraq and the United States.

The Bush administration is on the run as the foolhardiness and arrogance of their "stay the course" policy has been exposed. Let us work together to make this the last anniversary of this war. Join the week of local action in March and help build the movement to end the war in Iraq and bring all our troops home now!

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KSM enters new stage of legal struggle
 
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

Special to PV

The Communist Youth Union (KSM) of the Czech Republic reports that its struggle for legality (see report in our Feb. 15-28 issue) has entered a new phase.

The Interior Ministry of the Czech Republic had given the KSM until March 3 to renounce its political outlook. The Czech Republic has persecuted Communists through a variety of legal and political campaigns since the overthrow of socialism over a decade ago. The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia is one of the largest political parties in the Czech Republic, with the support of almost one-quarter of  voters, and the KSM is one of the country's largest youth groups.

The KSM has responded by defending its ideas and goals, the positive program of socialism, and the basic democratic rights and liberties such as freedom of expression and right of assembly.

Recent weeks have seen an enormous wave of international solidarity, protests and demonstrations of political parties, youth and student organizations, civic associations, trade unions, significant personalities of political, social, scientific and artistic life, such as Italy' Nobel prize laureate Dario Fr.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth, representing tens of millions of young people, has declared its full solidarity with the KSM, which is a WFDY member organization. WFDY organized an international day of action in solidarity with the KSM on February 27. Members of the Young Communist League of Canada have organized several such protests.

A recent statement from the KSM notes the anticommunist draft resolution proposed at the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe, and stresses the importance of resisting every anticommunist and antidemocratic attack in any country. There is an interconnection between all such attacks, says the KSM, but also a united counter-offenxive.

The KSM was given an ultimatum to respond to the Interior Ministry by March 3. On March 1, the organization gave a representative of the Ministry a letter defending the program, goals and Marxist principles of the KSM. The government representative said that the Interior Ministry now wants discussions with the KSM in another two or three weeks. He acknowledged the international campaign of solidarity with the KSM and implicitly confirmed its impact on the authorities of the Czech Republic.

As the KSM says, "It is possible to conclude that on one hand the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic has repeated its accusations against the KSM and insisted on them; on the other hand the Ministry of Interior partially changed its previously non-communicative behaviour to the KSM and expresses its interest to negotiate. It means that the Ministry of Interior will exercise further pressure on the KSM, and the possibility of making the KSM illegal is on the table. Simultaneously the enormous international pressure has affected the behaviour of the Ministry of Interior. The international campaign of solidarity with the KSM has so far (borne fruit) but the struggle for legal existence of the KSM continues. We are entering (what) may be the decisive period. The pressure of the Czech state is going to increase. It is therefore crucial to step up endeavours to break down the attack of the Ministry of Interior."

The KSM urges supporters to sign internet petitions at http://rksm.kke.gr (initiated by the Communist Party of Greece, http://wfdy-ksm.kne.gr (initiated by WFDY), and campagnaproKSM@livero.it (initiated by the Italian Committee in Solidarity with KSM).

Protests should be sent to the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic:

 Ministerstvo vnitra, offeleni volebni a sdruzovani, namesti Hrdinu 3,
140 21 Praha 4 Czech Republic,
Fax: ++420 974 816 872,
e-mail: stiznosti@mvcr.cz.

Protests can also be sent to embassies and consulates of the Czech Republic abroad.

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Canada, Haiti and the struggle for justice
 
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

An interview with Patrick Elie

Patrick Elie is a former cabinet minister and a leading social justice activist in Haiti, and a fierce opponent of the 2004 coup d'état against the elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. He is currently on a five-week speaking tour across Canada. Derrick O'Keefe, co-editor of Seven Oaks, recently interviewed Elie by telephone.

Derrick O'Keefe: Patrick, your visit to Canada was delayed as a result of events in Haiti. And then when you did arrive here you were subjected to rough treatment. Could you explain what happened?

Patrick Elie: I was scheduled to come to Canada on February 14. But, what happened was, with the election and the attempted fraud that followed, the people of Haiti took to the streets and voted with their feet after having voted with their ballots. And, as a consequence, Air Canada cancelled its weekly flight to Port-au-Prince. So I had to start the tour one week late.

I left on February 21 and arrived in Montreal in time for an event at Concordia University. But when I got to Customs I was detained and searched. All my papers were examined - I'm talking about personal papers, and notes, agenda and everything. These were even taken away from me. I insisted on being present when they were going to examine these papers, but they refused. I had a TV camera and they insisted on viewing the film that was in it. They took my laptop. All kinds of stupidity. And of course they couldn't have anything against me, so then the supervisor of Customs came and told me I was cleared but now CSIS wanted to talk to me.

O'Keefe: How long did CSIS take with you and what was their attitude towards you?

Elie: It was an attitude that was not aggressive, I would say. But they wanted to know a bunch of things that were none of their business. They wanted to know who invited me, who my contacts were in Montreal, etc. They also wanted to know where I was staying in Montreal and what was my phone number. I said it's none of your business. They also, and this is even more interesting, asked me about the content of my private conversations with President Aristide since his exile. So, after about a half an hour I told them, "I'm tired of this, I'm already late. So unless you're going to arrest me I'm going." So I just picked up my luggage and I left.

But because of this I missed my event at Concordia, because I was only able to clear the airport at 10 pm. Fortunately, the next morning we had a press conference in Montreal that was quite well covered.

O'Keefe: The election of René Préval strikes me as yet another amazing victory by the Haitian people. Do you think that the United States, France and Canada, who helped engineer the regime change in the first place, could have foreseen this outcome"? And how will these countries now try to maintain their control over Haiti?

Elie: I think they started to get a bit edgy, first when people started registering (for the election) in higher than predicted numbers, and then when that registration process accelerated after Préval had declared rather late in the process. I believe that, had he declared as early as the other candidates, they would have devised some kind of plan to actually deal with his candidacy.

And when you can't derail or sabotage an election upstream, then what you do is go downstream. After Aristide was first elected in 1990, they went downstream and did the coup. I suppose a coup was not yet in the plans this time, so they went downstream and started tweaking the results.

For me, there were two victories by the Haitian people. The first was that swift maneuver around the trap that was this election by coming out in droves to vote on February 7. But even more significant, and more beautiful in my view, was the coming out on February 13 to really state their decision that their vote was not going to be stolen. I think this was even a greater proof of the determination and political savvy of the Haitian people.

O'Keefe: What do you foresee in terms of the results of the National Assembly elections?

Elie: From the partial results of the first round, it looks like the party of Préval was leading everywhere they had presented candidates, and leading by a sizable margin. If the second round is not rigged, and if Préval is able to find some allies, he will have a majority parliamentary block. And that will mean that he will be able to find a Prime Minister who will be cooperative rather than adversarial. But of course this is if there is no further "hanky panky" with the results.

The Haitian people traditionally give more importance to the presidential election, and tend to slack off when it's time for the parliamentary election. So I hope that Préval's party will really mobilize strongly so that the vote comes out for that second round, and ensure that all the candidates of the platform are in fact elected.

O'Keefe: You mentioned the issue of a new Prime Minister. What happens now to the Lavalas political prisoners, including Prime Minister Yvon Neptune. Is there any chance that he will be released in the near future given the election results?

Elie: I think that President-elect Préval said that this was among the priorities, and that this was an easy enough issue to resolve. I understand that Prime Minister Neptune, I haven't read the letter myself, wrote to Préval saying that the release should happen before the president is inaugurated lest it be construed as a political decision of favouritism rather than a decision based on justice. So I think we should keep on pushing for the de facto regime, which actually jailed these political prisoners, to release them, rather than waiting for President Préval's inauguration.

O'Keefe: Two of the questions on people's minds now with respect to Haiti are: when or will the UN troops leave and when or will Aristide return to Haiti?

Elie: Both questions are to answered by the elected officials of Haiti. When you are in charge of a country, when you are the President, and the Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice of the entire country, you have to weigh whatever action you are going to take. You set the right course, but the rhythm of what you do has to be realistic. So, for example, when you take the UN, their presence has been so massive that to require them to leave in a swift fashion might introduce an element of destabilization. So, I think President Préval has indicated that the mission should change, and I suppose also that a timetable should be established for its fading out. My opinion is that one of the first things that should be done is to get rid of that Jordanian battalion which has been a plague really.

O'Keefe: You are doing an extensive tour of Canada. What is your main message to the people here, and do you see any opening for a real change in Canadian policy towards Haiti?

Elie: There is always a possibility when you have a change in government, but that will only remain a potential for change if the Canadian people don't step in and say "we don't want our tax money to be used against another people". And for that to happen, Canadians have to informed about the real situation, about the real Haiti and the real Haitian people, who have been so misrepresented by the mainstream press and also by the so-called experts on Haiti, who have been proven wrong over and over again by the Haitian people. Reality flies in their face, and yet on CBC and Radio Canada, they are always the ones being given the microphone, when they are completely incompetent and have been proven so by the last election. So, as they are the ones presenting Haiti to Canadians, it's no wonder that either Canadians are indifferent to Haiti or even hostile to the Haitian people. And that allows for the kind of misguided policy that Canada has applied in Haiti over the past five years.

O'Keefe: As minister in Haiti's democratic government in the 1990s, you played a historic role in dismantling the notoriously repressive Haitian army that was associated with so many dictatorships.

Elie: It's something I did out of necessity. I am a chemist by trade, I have a PhD in organic chemistry. But my country needed me. It needed me in the most difficult jobs, which were the fight against drug trafficking, and then after that in trying to dismantle the state security apparatus, the army, and set up a new police. It had to be done. I had no formal training, but that's the way it is. When you have to learn on the job you learn on the job, and you do the best that you can, and that's what I did.

O'Keefe: I don't know what your relationship is with the president-elect, but do you see yourself ever again taking on government -level responsibilities in Haiti?

Elie: First of all, about my relationship with Mr. Préval, we have known each other for thirty years now, and we have been comrades in the political struggle. There's no problem there. However, I think I'm more useful on the outside pushing in. Because if everybody gets into government, then who is out there to keep watch? I would, however, consider only one position, which is that of Ombudsman. Haiti's judicial system is in such a shambles that I think I could be helpful while it is being redressed. Meanwhile, a lot of people, especially poor people, are being victimized by this system. And I think the Ombudsman's role can be part of alleviating these problems.

For more information on Patrick Elie's cross-Canada tour, see http://www.canadahaitiaction.ca.

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Sacked union steward gets job back
 
(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

In January, an international campaign was launched to help a union shop steward in Ireland get her job back. Joanne Delaney, who worked for Dunnes Stores in Dublin, had been sacked for wearing a union badge.

Working together with Joanne's union, Mandate, the LabourStart website generated  5,500 email messages from around the world. Campaigners went to work outside Dunnes stores, and motions were made in the British, Scottish and Irish parliaments. On Feb. 27, Delaney returned to work.

According to her union, "This victory for trade union rights followed a short but highly effective campaign for her reinstatement by trade unionists, political groups and community activists throughout Ireland and by many more supporters from around the world who emailed the company through the LabourStart website.

"Mandate wishes to place on record our sincere appreciation for the support received from all those who joined with Joanne and Mandate to campaign for her right to work and wear her union badge without fear of victimisation. Your solidarity has won the day and we salute the courageous stand taken by Joanne who has become an inspiration to all those associated with the campaign."

For more information, see http://www.labourstart.org.

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Mexican mining strike spreads

(The following article is from the March 16-31, 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, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

A Mexican miners' strike expanded nationwide on March 1 as workers joined to demand union independence, social benefits and improved security after 65 workers died in February from a coal mine blast. Miners at 70 companies, including Mexico's largest silver producer, Industrias Penoles S.A. and steelworks Altos Hornos de Mexico SA joined striking workers at Grupo Mexico, the world's fourth-largest copper producer.

National Mining union spokeswoman Consuelo Aguilar said from Mexico City that "The government is on the side of business. It must respect the union's autonomy." The strike will continue until the government accepts union leader Napoleon Gomez as general secretary, Aguilar said.

Labour Minister Francisco Salazar said the government will only deal with rival union leader Elias Morales. Salazar said workers filed for authorization to strike at Grupo Mexico's San Luis Potosi zinc refinery and a mine in the state of Zacatecas. "All the other strikes are absolutely illegal," he told reporters at an export event in Mexico City. "You can't stop activity at a company just because there's conflict within a union."

Mexico, the world's third-largest silver producer, posted total mining exports of $1.2 billion last year.

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