(The following article is from the November 16-30/2005 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.)

Sudbury ‑ According to Rick Grylls, President of Local 598 Mine‑Mill/CAW, the "friendly" takeover of Falconbridge Noranda by Inco announced in early October might be just the first merger in the current corporate restructuring of Canada's nickel and copper mining industry.

     The takeover will make the "New Inco" the world's largest nickel producer. With 28,500 employees, and operations in 28 countries on four continents, the New Inco will be the fifth largest mining and metals producer in the world, about half the size of each of the top four companies. Behind it are more than a dozen smaller or comparably sized companies including Xstrata, which also made a bid to take over Falconbridge‑Noranda. Further takeovers are likely, according to Grylls, including a further takeover of the New Inco somewhere down the road.

     "This is globalization," Grylls said in an interview with People's Voice. 

     China is the biggest market for nickel, with orders projected for the next 5 to 7 years and a high price on international markets as a result. But the "boom" will be short‑lived, says Grylls, with the high‑grading and the big profits followed by a bust that will felt across the community, including lay‑offs and smelter shut-downs.

     "The corporate vision is corporate power," says Grylls. "It's an international corporate perspective. They have no vision for the future except immediate profits and free trade. Workers are in real jeopardy. We need to plan for the bust."

     Talk in the community is all about the takeover and what it will mean in the short‑term. About 150 jobs will be lost, most by attrition. The interesting thing for most people is the possibility that the warren of mines underneath Sudbury, for decades separated by viciously competitive corporations, may now tunnel towards each other and join.

     "I'd like to see to meet underground and shake hands" says a Falconbridge miner, dreaming of a day not too far off when miners from Falconbridge‑Noranda and Inco work together digging out the nickel, copper, cobalt and precious metals that lie deep underground in the Sudbury basin. Brought closer to the earth's surface after being hit by a meteorite millennia ago, the nickel deposits under Sudbury are among the richest in the world.

     Part of the riches to be mined for the first time by the New Inco, are the 200 foot "no‑go" areas that legally separated the mines belonging to the two companies. These new "seams" will likely allow miners who toiled apart to meet and shake hands in the not too distant future.

     Sudbury has been a strong union town since the Mine‑Mill and Smelterworkers broke up the "company town" in the early years of the last century. The Communist‑led union was the subject of ferocious raiding and redbaiting by the USWA, and by employers and the governments that backed them from the 1940s through the 1970s. In the late '80s Mine‑Mill joined the CAW, after that union split from the UAW to become a sovereign and independent Canadian union opposed to tri‑partism and the concessionary policies followed by many unions with headquarters in the US.

     For the last 20 years, the Mine Mill/CAW and Steelworkers unions have led separate lives. That period has been punctuated with increasingly vicious strikes caused by Inco and Falconbridge, both intent on smashing the power of labour in Sudbury, the gains achieved by Mine‑Mill's militant leadership over decades, and the continuous upsurges from the ranks of USWA Local 6500.

     Most notable of these upsurges was the Patterson leadership which defeated INCO in a momentous strike in the late '70s, and then won the District 6 USWA leadership in 1981. The Patterson leadership came the closest to creating real labour unity among metalworkers and metal unions in Canada, based on a program of Canadian autonomy and democracy, organizing the unorganized, coordinated bargaining, and the pursuit of class struggle policies backed by independent labour political action.

     Patterson's defeat at the hands of the right‑wing in District 6 was a setback for labour in Sudbury and across Canada. Animus continues to run, in part because of the anti‑communism that still infects the USWA leadership. Local 6500 President John Fera and others cite the union's red‑clause as a reason to refuse interviews with People's Voice, even though the clause was removed at the union's last international convention. The history of raiding by USWA is a material factor in relations between the two unions; a threat which has never disappeared.

     Still, underneath, workers have helped workers through strikes and hard times. Mine Mill's position has always been to assist other unions, including Local 6500 USWA when it faced off against INCO in a prolonged strike three years ago.

     Mine Mill has struck Falconbridge in both of the last two bargaining rounds. The corporation virtually forced them out with its intractable positions, and in the first round, with public statements characterizing workers as "scum‑sucking, bottom feeders". The companies have never missed a chance to deepen the divides in the community and in the labour movement.

     Since Noranda came on board, Falconbridge has been "very aggressive" with workers and with Mine‑Mill, attempting to contract out as much work as possible, and to eliminate the union from the mines and smelters, where on a daily basis the union has had to fight tooth and nail to enforce the collective agreement. Mine Mill's sister union, Local 599 in Sudbury, has been on strike against Rouen Noranda since September, fighting job losses and contracting out. The agenda's the same all over.

     Grylls points out that Falconbridge has had two unions representing its employees for a long time. USWA represents office workers while Mine Mill speaks for miners and smelterworkers. Different locals represent workers at Inco as well.

     "What's needed now is a labour movement with a vision for the future that advances the needs of workers, the community, and the environment", says Grylls. "We need an agenda for people, and that's also the agenda we need to export ‑ not the corporate agenda."

     Sudbury has always had an international feel, says Grylls. "In the Sudbury basin, the world is but a neighbourhood... Canada must be accountable in other parts of the world. We must not live off exploitation of other parts of the world." Instead, he says, unions here need to strengthen their ties with international metalworkers unions and federations. Canada should be exporting copper wire, not copper, building up value added secondary industry in this country.

     He also notes that not all of the New Inco's 28,500 workers are unionized, and says they should be: "People want to be organized. In greater Sudbury 60% of workers earn less than $10 an hour.... It's people versus power."

     Times are changing says Grylls. "There's a new awareness that labour is part of the solution. And there's an important new message: a people's agenda; a new vision of the future based on that agenda; and strong local democracy. The times demand a new approach."

     Rick Grylls and John Fera have had several discussions since the Oct. 11 merger announcement, but they're waiting to hear the company's plans for the mines, mills, and smelters, and for combining of the workforce, before they make any moves ‑ or any statements.

     Grylls' approach is to focus on the future, on the way forward, to protect and advance the interests of Sudbury workers in a globalized world, facing off against one of the biggest and powerful transnational corporations in the country.

     "It will come down to a vote," but it ought to be based on the way forward, he says, on the vision for a future built on a people's agenda ‑ not a corporate one.

Fighting for women's equality - again!

By Helen Kennedy

One of the key issues facing delegates to the CUPE National Convention, held in a blizzardy Winnipeg the first week of October, centred on the lack of women in leadership positions. The loss of a key equity resolution that would increase the number of women on the National Executive Board (NEB) was a bitter fight that engaged the delegates and highlighted some of the problems facing CUPE.

     Women account for 60% of the total membership of CUPE, yet going into this convention, there were only four women on the 23-member NEB. Resolution C27 proposed to add five Women's Regional Vice‑Presidents (RVPs) for the next two years. In addition, a Task Force was proposed to investigate barriers that prevent women from taking on leadership positions at the National level and to report back with recommendations to the next convention. 

     The National Women's Committee called daily women's caucuses to build support for C27. These well attended meetings provided great opportunities for women across the country to meet and begin working together. Women from Ontario, which accounts for 40% of the membership of CUPE, warned the women's caucus that they had noted growing opposition to the equity agenda at their previous Division convention. Women were asked to talk to as many members as possible at all division caucuses, hospitality suites and other gatherings. As momentum built towards the Wednesday morning vote, almost every division caucus was convinced to support the resolution. But Ontario was still divided, and a caucus vote was not taken.

     Many members were swayed by the strength of these sisters in motion, but at the end of the debate, the motion to adopt C27, a constitutional amendment which needed 2/3 majority to pass, was lost. A succeeding motion to refer won after a standing count - a very small victory and an indication that perhaps the majority would have supported the amendment, but not the required 2/3 majority.

     One concern of women at the national caucus was the very vocal opposition of a minority of their CUPE sisters. In fact the first voices in opposition on C27 were from women at division caucuses. They argued that women shouldn't be given special considerations, that women should just run for the positions, that men can represent women just as well as women can, that the creation of these five RVP positions was reverse discrimination. These women were also the first con speakers on the convention floor.

     Women were very visibly taken aback by the loss of C27. Tensions were very high in many areas of the convention hall. While delegates waited for the results of the standing count, loud male voices began to chant "Go Leafs Go" and "Arrrrrrggggggos!" The irony was not lost on women who were fighting to have their voices heard at the National. The biggest hurt though was that women had led the fight against the resolution.

     The women's caucus held an emergency meeting at the lunch break to reflect, regroup and decide on what steps to take next. After much discussion, we agreed that the next fight had to focus on getting the Task Force organized, and working over the next two years to win unity amongst the women in CUPE. One of the women who spoke against C27 was in attendance and was encouraged to speak near the end of the meeting. As a complete shock to the rest of the caucus, the sister told us that she had felt very uncomfortable coming to women's caucuses in the past because "I am not a lesbian, I'm not black and I don't hate men." The meeting dissolved in great pain, with many women in tears. Women went to convey to this woman that her remarks were insulting, homophobic, racist and misogynist. As a result of the ombudsperson being called in, the same woman came back to the next caucus meeting and apologized, adding that perhaps she needs some training.

     At the caucus meeting the next morning, some women were anxious to run for Regional Vice‑President positions in the regular elections. Traditionally, the RVPs are elected in Divisional Caucuses, either at the National Convention or at the preceding Division Convention, so all the caucuses had elected their "caucus choices." Unfortunately, the CUPE Constitution is silent on the election of RVPs, and a "gentleman's agreement" had prevented anyone from ever running against a "caucus choice."

     After a heated debate, the women's caucus voted not to run women for these positions. It was argued that if we were going to run, we should have run in the caucuses, not cause more acrimony by running against their "choices" at the last minute. A compelling point, that CUPE members from across the country could actually be given the power to vote on who would represent Quebec on the National Executive, helped to sway the women.

     Unfortunately, one of the women at the caucus, Margaret Templeton from Alberta, decided to run anyway. Three of us voted for Nancy Riche, the former CLC executive Vice‑President conducting the elections, who by leaps and bounds was the best speaker and singer at the convention. But Templeton won by a landslide. Alberta was dumbfounded and walked off the convention floor. Many women were confused, and took the result as a real victory for women. What they didn't realize was that Darcy Lanovaz, who was just defeated, was a strong supporter of women's issues. Templeton won because not many people knew what happened in Alberta and took the first opportunity to finally vote for a woman. In fact, Templeton had just helped to prove the opposition argument that women just need to run for the NEB and they'd get elected!

     Templeton was in attendance at another emergency women's caucus at lunch break. While she explained that there was no caucus election, one of her sisters from Alberta clearly stated that the caucus elections were held at the Division convention which Templeton had attended, and breaking the solidarity of caucus choices had just devastated the Alberta delegation.

     Templeton stood fast to her explanation, and would not consider stepping down. So now there are four women on the NEB - the same number we came in with. But there are also major problems within the Alberta Division, concerns about how the women's caucus organizes, and the lack of caucus discipline.

     Dr. Linda Rae Murray, addressing the convention on Tuesday, had told delegates that the debate on the women's resolution was very important because unions have to "reflect the people that work in the shops and the offices."

     The Co‑Chief Medical Officer for the Cook County, Illinois, Ambulatory and Community Health Network, Murray went on as if foretelling the results of the C27 debate: "It is in democratic trade unions that we learn how to organize, to win and, sometimes, how to lose, regroup and come back again. The essence of trade unions stands in opposition to insane individualism."

     The decision not to run against the caucus choices was passed on to those on the NEB who thought the women's caucus was in support of Templeton's election. There is no question that there will be a constitutional amendment at the next convention which closes the "gentlemen's agreement" on caucus elections. The women's caucus moved on at its last meeting to begin discussing the organization and work of the National Women's Task Force. The National Women's Committee will meet early in December to discuss the way forward. Women recognized that there is much work left to do in preparation for the 2007 convention in Toronto.

     In Ontario, the Provincial Women's Committee is organizing a Conference on Dec. 8-9, which will begin with a historical reflection on the fight for women's rights, highlighting key struggles and victories. We hope that women who were opposed to C27 will attend this conference and participate in the dialogue on building a united women's movement within CUPE.

PV Vancouver Bureau

The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) and Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families have slammed the Martin government's refusal to properly redress the Head Tax and Chinese Exclusion Act.

     From 1885 to 1923, all Chinese immigrants to Canada were forced to pay Head Tax levies, totalling $23 million. The federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1923 to prohibit Chinese immigration. That Act was repealed only in 1947, finally ending 62 years of legislated racism.

     After the CCNC and other equality‑seeking groups testified last month before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, the Liberals negotiated amendments which further dilute redress terms in Bill C‑333, a private member's bill sponsored by Conservative MP Inky Mark, (Dauphin‑Swan River). Among these proposals is a commemorative stamp on the Head Tax and Exclusion Act era.

     "Imagine that! Redress in the form of a postage stamp to the families who paid the racist Head Tax and suffered generations of family separation under the Exclusion Act!" said Victor Wong, CCNC Executive Director. "The Prime Minister should direct the withdrawal of these amendments and hear first hand from the head tax families who are seeking a just and honourable resolution."

     Formed in 1980, the CCNC has 27 chapters across Canada. The Ontario Coalition of Chinese Head Tax Payers and Families consists of head tax payers, their surviving spouses and descendants. Other opponents of Bill C‑333 and the Liberal amendments include the Association of Chinese Canadians for Equality and Solidarity Society, Metro Toronto Chinese and South East Asian Legal Clinic, BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers Spouses and Descendants, and other equality seeking organizations and allies.

     The groups oppose the naming of the National Congress of Chinese Canadians, to the exclusion of all other community groups representing head tax families. Amendments proposed by the community groups were defeated by the Standing Committee, which passed the Liberal amendments.

     "This Bill will divide the community. This approach of dealing with ethno‑cultural communities is completely outdated - communities cannot be treated as being monolithic - and such an attitude in telling everyone who looks alike to think alike, and while they're at it to agree with the Government, should not be tolerated," said Susan Eng, Co‑Chair of the Ontario Coalition.

     "The government is actually saying that they will only negotiate with groups that agree with it," said Sid Tan, representing the BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants. "It's shocking that the government would want to partner with a group which is unrepresentative of head tax families and virtually invisible on social justice issues in Canada. The government has ignored the wide support for redress from across the country and from disparate groups like the Indigenous Bar Association, the Canadian Race Relations Foundation and the Urban Alliance on Race Relations all of whom support redress and reconciliation."

People's Voice Editorial

The setback for the Free Trade Area of the Americas at the recent Summit in Argentina was a tremendous victory. Why did thousands of working people travel to Mar del Plata to condemn the drive for the FTAA? Their reasons were many. Among the protesters were peasants and workers from Bolivia, where transnational capital has tried to seize control of water supplies.

     A similar scenario is emerging here. A group of Texas farmers claims to "own" water in the tributaries which flow into the Rio Grande on the Mexico-U.S. border. They demand that Mexico must deliver this water to Texas, or else pay $500 million U.S. in penalties. The "legal" basis for this blackmail is the Chapter 11 provision of NAFTA, which allows individual investors to sue foreign governments for decisions that devalue their investments; in this case the argument is whether Mexico is upholding a 1944 water-sharing agreement.

     This case may push the door open wider for the "continental water policy" favoured by U.S. agribusiness. While Mexico has just 4,600 cubic metres of renewable water available per person annually, Canada has 94,400 cubic metres per person. Canada and the U.S. have signed numerous water‑sharing agreements, including the Boundary Waters Treaty. If the Texas claim succeeds, the next move will be a grab for Canada's water, starting with the Milk River which flows across the Alberta-Montana border, or perhaps the Great Lakes or some other convenient target.

     Canada has the legal right to reopen the NAFTA agreement, or to abrogate the deal, which is proving to be the death knell of our economic sovereignty. The time to scrap NAFTA is now, before we lose control over our fresh water, one of the most valuable resources of the 21st century.

By Kimball Cariou

For centuries, the Canadian capitalist state has been developed via the theft of the land base from its original inhabitants, the Aboriginal peoples, with many tragic consequences. The news of terrible living conditions at Kashechewan is surprising only to those who prefer to avert their eyes to the realities of racism in this country.

     As the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples stated in 1996, "The Aboriginal peoples' living standards have improved in the past 50 years ‑ but they do not come close to those of non‑Aboriginal people: life expectancy is lower; illness is more common; human problems, from family violence to alcohol abuse, are more common too; fewer children graduate from high school; far fewer go on to colleges and universities; the homes of Aboriginal people are more often flimsy, leaky and overcrowded; water and sanitation systems in Aboriginal communities are more often inadequate; fewer Aboriginal people have jobs; more spend time in jails and prisons."

     Almost a decade later, as the Canadian Labour Congress points out, "there is no long‑term plan to raise the living standards of Aboriginal people living in hundreds of neglected communities across the country... The people of the Kashechewan First Nation are paying an awful price with the loss of their community, their health and the displacement of their families, for decades of neglect, indifference and incompetence."

     The CLC correctly notes "unacknowledged systemic racism" as a factor in this crisis. If there were one hundred Canadian cities and towns where the drinking water was contaminated by sewage, there would rightly be screams of outrage across the country. Remember Walkerton? Yet water must be boiled before it is safe to drink in over one hundred First Nations communities today.

     And it gets worse. Representatives of the Mushkegowuk Council (the Northeastern Ontario First Nation communities of Kashechewan, Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Moose Cree, Taykwa Tagamou, Chapleau Cree and Missanabie Cree) also fear the legacy of the federal government's failure to clean up the dangerous waste left at seventeen abandoned Mid Canada Line radar sites across the region: PCBs, asbestos, DDT, heavy metals and TPH. Similar sites have been cleaned up in Quebec, but not yet in Ontario.

     At a recent press conference organized by the Mushkegowuk Council and Friends of the Earth‑Canada, Grand Chief Stan Louttit stated, "We clearly have a problem. From the stories told to us about the casual disposal of dangerous wastes in lakes, streams and on the land, we believe the problem is widespread. We believe it is in our fish and our meat. We have even called upon retired military and civilian personnel to tell us in confidence where they disposed of these materials... The environmental and health threats caused by toxic waste force us to ensure that the clean up is done properly and completely."

     Urgent measures are needed to end this criminal treatment of Aboriginal peoples.

     But the process must go much deeper. The truth is that the Canadian state is based on the colonial concept that this country is composed of the federal government, and provinces and territories which have certain powers. This framework ignores the reality that Canada includes many oppressed nations within its borders: the First Nations, the Métis and Inuit, the Acadiens, the Québecois. Even in cases where treaties were signed at gunpoint between the state and individual First Nations, the terms of such nation to nation treaties have been repeatedly violated.

     Long-term impoverishment necessarily results from a racist, capitalist legal and economic structure which denies control over land and resources to the Aboriginal peoples. The only way forward is to struggle for an end to oppression, an equal and voluntary partnership of nations. Until this is achieved, we will continue to see new Kashechewans, and our peoples will continue to be the victims of ongoing environmental catastrophes.

By Sam Hammond

In many ways, the Ontario Federation of Labour is like a bad child who has been given a "time out", a period of non‑activity. Just where and when this general malaise set in and who gave the "time out" is a good and worthy topic of investigation.

     A short perusal of percentage labour densities in Canada gives a glimpse, a teaser, into the problem. Using 2002 figures from a Canadian Labour Congress survey we can measure the OFL against other provinces. This raises some significant questions.

     The overall percentage of Canadian organized workers in 2002 was 32.2%. Quebec was way ahead with 40.4%, followed in order by Newfoundland‑Labrador (39.1%), Manitoba (36.1%), Saskatchewan (35.8%), British Columbia (34.7%), Prince Edward Island (30.0%), Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Ontario (28.1%), and finally Alberta at 24.5%. Ontario is tied at 7th to 9th out of ten provinces.

     This is Ontario, Canada's most industrial province: Hamilton, Oshawa, St. Catharines, Windsor, Oakville and of course the largest city in Canada, Toronto. According to the above survey. the Ontario workforce in 2002 was 5,713,900, of which the 28.1% organized amounts to 1,600,600. Of these, 700,000 (43.8%) are OFL affiliates. The largest industrial union in Ontario, CAW, represents 184,000 (11.5%) and is not affiliated to the OFL. There are 716,000 (44.7%) in other non-affiliated unions. So what gives here?

     If this 28.1% figure did not include the 78% of public sector workers organized, the percentages would look much more like US figures, not Canadian. Among private sector workers organized, Ontario nudges ahead of PEI, Alberta, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia to come in 6th with 17.4% organized, just after Saskatchewan.

     The heaviest concentration of industry and population in Canada is in the "Golden Horseshoe" peninsula that extends from Toronto to Niagara Falls. This is also where the auto assembly plants are all located. We said that these figures give a glimpse into the problem, because figures alone will never give a true objective analysis of a very complex situation.

     A few years back, the Harris Tories built on the modest attack on labour started by the NDP Rae government and turned it into a full scale offensive. The Labour Code was rewritten to make organizing and certification more difficult, Workers' Compensation was gutted, the attack on Teachers caused a two week political strike, and it goes on and on. Coincidentally, two prominent NDP ex-cabinet ministers went to work for the Tories. Floyd Laughren went to help privatise Ontario Hydro, and Dave Cooke continued to work on restructuring (dismantling) the education system. But how is this related to labour and organizing densities?

     The labour movement was seriously compromised by the Rae NDP government, especially internally amongst leadership. The trampling on collective bargaining with the repressive legislation (the mis-named social contract) needed to do this caused some serious wrangling amongst trade union leaders and their unions. Despite this, there was a pretty militant reaction to the Tories - the "Ontario Days of Action". In 1996 the Days of Action shut down Hamilton in February (120,000 demonstrators) and Toronto in October (250,000 demonstrators). There were other significant actions in between, and the euphoria amongst union membership was building. The workers had just begun to fight, but behind the scenes the "Pink Paper" unions threw a monkey wrench into the works.

     During the infighting of the Rae government period, two distinct political lines emerged amongst labour brass. These differences matured during the Harris government's attack on the working class. One position was that labour should concern itself with "factory gate" unionism and leave all political matters and campaigning to the New Democratic Party.

     The other position was for militant ground level labour action, demonstrations and work stoppages, to bring enough hurt to the capitalist class so that it would abandon or curb the Harris government. This was mostly identified with the CAW and public sector unions. Some public sector leaders waved militancy in public while covertly supporting the right wing.

     Mainly led by Steel and supported by CEP and UFCW, the right-wing position was published on pink paper, and they became known as the "Pink Paper Unions". The abandonment of militant action, denial of extra‑parliamentary struggle, slavish worship of law, appeasement and concessionary programs are the "Pink Paper" legacy. The drive to neutralize struggle and retreat behind the NDP put Wayne Samuelson in office as President of the OFL and has nourished this strategy ever since.

     The malaise of the OFL is the legacy of the "Pink Paper Unions". Just one example of the humiliation this leadership can watch workers endure was the Harris Tory resurrection of the sixty hour work week. Wayne Samuelson toured the province telling workers this was bad for them, without one positive suggestion about what to do about it. That absolute social and political vacuum probably made the Chicago martyrs of the eight hour struggle flip in their graves.

     The primary concern for Ontario workers should be how to recapture and save their labour movement. That should include some soul searching by the CAW, who have been absent from the OFL for some time. The absence of CAW delegates and CAW policy from the OFL leaves a gaping hole in labour's industrial strategy. Right now industrial Ontario is the weakest link in the Canadian labour movement, and the CAW is just as responsible as the OFL.

     This is a problem far beyond private sector workers in manufacturing. Public sector workers should take a good look and decide if they can fight and win (like the British Columbia teachers) with the Ontario labour movement as it exists now - a mirror that reflects back nothing.

Special to PV

The Fourth Summit of the Americas, a two‑day meeting of leaders of 34 Western Hemisphere nations, broke up on Nov. 5 without agreement on how to resume stalled talks aimed at concluding the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The outcome was hailed by popular movements as a stinging defeat for the transnational corporate drive for removal of all barriers to their economic activities.

     U.S. President Bush and his supporters had twisted arms across the hemisphere to deliver endorsement of the plan, but no final communique was issued. The Summit was the scene of huge anti-FTAA protests, reflecting massive opposition in nearly every country of the region. The deal was also blocked by members of the Mercosur block, the third-largest trading group in the world, including Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, and by the radical government of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. The Mercosur group, founded in 1991 to eliminate trade barriers among its members, also aims to achieve political integration. It covers an area with a population of nearly 250 million and produces more than $1 trillion annually in goods and services.

     As large exporters of foodstuffs, the Mercosur countries want the Bush administration to end billions in subsidies to U.S. agriculture, in return for Latin American concessions on intellectual property rights, financial regulation and market access.

     The Summit opened on Nov. 4 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, as President Hugo Chavez and tens of thousands of protesters condemned the FTAA plan to impose corporate domination over the entire hemisphere. Huge protests were also held in other cities.

     Protestors filled the streets of the coastal resort, as leaders shuttled between luxury hotels. Helicopters hovered overhead and armed frogmen guarded the coast in rubber boats, as though demonstrators could possibly swim the choppy South Atlantic to attack the summit meeting. Demonstrators gathered hours before the summit started, chanting "Get out Bush" and "Fascist Bush! You are the terrorist!"

     The Summit will serve to bury the U.S.‑proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), said Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. "I believe we came here to bury the FTAA. I brought my shovel to join in the burial," said Chavez to the press upon his arrival in Argentina on Nov. 4.

     "We are determined to defeat neo‑liberalism," said Chavez, explaining that the FTAA was conceived as a means for implanting neo‑liberalism throughout the continent - the lowering of trade barriers, deregulation of worker and environmental protection measures, reduced state spending, and privatization of state‑owned companies.

     "In the 20 years of neo‑liberalism's implementation in Latin America, what it has done is to increase poverty and misery," said Chavez.

     Later, Chavez stood in front of a six‑story banner of Che Guevara to urge the massive crowd to help him block efforts to relaunch talks for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). "Only united can we defeat imperialism and bring our people a better life," he said, adding: "Here, in Mar del Plata, FTAA will be buried!"

     Instead of the FTAA, Chavez is proposing ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, in its Spanish acronym, to promote regional integration on the basis of solidarity instead of free trade.

     U.S. officials tried to play down the confrontation between Bush and Chavez. "This summit is not about Hugo Chavez," said National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Nov. 2. "We're concerned about... the status of democracy" in Venezuela, he added, an ominous reference given the history of US interventions in Latin American countries.

     Before the Summit's opening, the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), José Miguel Insulza, said that the summit is not about the FTAA and that the FTAA issue was causing problems for the summit's closing declaration.

     Venezuela's Foreign Minister, Ali Rodriguez, said that by insisting that the FTAA be mentioned, the U.S. government was at fault for the lack of consensus on the final declaration.

     "Two positions are facing each other: those who want to support integration on the basis of competition and the other that wants to promote integration on the basis of economic complementarity, cooperation, solidarity, and respect for sovereignty," said Rodriguez.

     Also, reports emerged that the U.S. wanted to mention that there are 98 million people in Latin America living with less than one dollar per day. Venezuela insisted that the document should also mention the 37 million-plus poor in the U.S.

     Venezuela presented a wide range of proposals, such as a campaign to eradicate illiteracy in Latin America, the training of 200,000 doctors in the next ten years to treat the poor of the continent, the construction of large factories for the production of generic medicines, to provide free medicine to the poor, and the creation of a Bank of the South.

     While Mexican President Vicente Fox claimed that 29 of the 34 countries participating in the summit were "considering forging ahead" with FTAA talks, three of South America's largest economies - Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina - have rejected the idea, along with Paraguay and Uruguay.

     Neoliberal policies are blamed by many Argentinians, 40 percent of whom live in poverty, for destroying local industries and causing a flood of cheap imports. The economic crisis caused President Kirchner to renegotiate more than $100 billion in public debt, the largest sovereign default in history, when he took office.

By Susan Hurlich, Havana, Oct. 30, 2005

Hurricane Wilma will be remembered in Cuba more for her torrential rains and extensive flooding than for her intense winds or for the localized tornadoes she provoked. Wilma has passed, but images of the streets of Havana being transformed into a sad allegory of Venice will remain in people's minds for some time.

     Wilma didn't actually enter Cuba. After decimating Cozumel and Cancun in the Yucatan Peninsula, she ranged between 40 and 270 km off Cuba's northern coast as she headed to batter Florida. As she passed Cuba, her winds, ranging between 160 and 205 kph, were enough to send the surf pounding into this crocodile‑shaped country along both the northern and southern shores. In some coastal areas, such as Batabano, located on the southern coast almost directly opposite the capital city of Havana, the ocean penetrated three kilometres inland.

     In the capital itself, coastal flooding was extensive, particularly in the five municipalities ‑ Playa, Plaza de la Revolucion, Centro Habana, La Habana Vieja and La Habana del Este ‑ situated along the northern coast. Here, waves easily topped palm trees, streetlights and even the famous Morro lighthouse. Basement apartments and garages in hundreds of buildings and homes located along Havana's lowlands were inundated to their ceilings with sea water. In many areas, the water was two to three metres above street level. The Malecon, considered by many to be the city's front porch, suffered greatly from the pounding surf as it lifted up pavement, ripped out sidewalks and knocked down parts of the protective wall.

     And yet there were no deaths, no serious injuries. Cuba, as usual, took action well before Wilma's arrival, mobilizing its comprehensive Civil Defense system and evacuating all those living in areas susceptible to floods.

     Organized and timely evacuation ‑ this is the key to saving lives. Of a total of 643,573 people evacuated in preparation for Wilma's arrival, over 120,000 were from the capital. With the usual solidarity that so typifies Cuban society, some 82% of evacuees were welcomed into the homes of family, friends and neighbours.

     Flooding happens for many reasons. In Havana, there is the threat of flooding from the ocean as well as from rivers, creeks and dams. The Centre for Management of Disaster Situations has also identified 109 zones in the capital that are in danger of inundations from intense rains, mainly because of deficient and very old drainage systems.

     And after the floods, what then? After the journalists and photographers have filed their last reports and gone home, what happens then?

     Since October 24th ‑ even before all flooding had subsided ‑ a broad program of recuperation and special attention to flood-affected people began to be carried out around Cuba. In Havana, as elsewhere, specialized health brigades from the Ministry of Public Health are working hard with the local population. Along with the free distribution of tablets against leptospirosis, an infection caused by a genus of bacteria ‑ the Leptospira, found in sewage and contaminated water - health workers are vaccinating people against infectious diseases and providing orientations on basic hygiene and epidemiology. The entire population has been strongly advised to boil all drinking water.

     Work is also underway to repair basic services ‑ electricity, gas and phone ‑ affected by flooding. Water extraction is being done, first, to basements and garages which contain collective units of electric transformers, and second, to daycare centres and schools. Lower elevator shafts in high buildings have also been given a priority for water extraction. Both national and local structures are involved in these tasks, such as the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources which is helping to clean out domestic water cisterns flooded by sea water and other detritus, as well as providing chlorine to make water potable for family consumption.

     In those parts of Havana where neither gas nor electrical services have yet been reestablished, the provincial government is providing packages of food, mineral water and candles, all free. In addition, mobile stands have been set up to sell food products to families living in flood‑affected areas. The provincial government has also loaned ‑ note, loaned ‑ electric hotplates to some 2,000 families in Havana whose electric service has now been restored but whose source of gas is still water‑clogged, and canisters of kerosene and cooking alcohol to many other families. In total, some 30,000 Havana‑based family units (some 100,000 people) are receiving direct assistance from state structures.

     Because flooding was so extensive in Havana, some families have lost important household goods. During the past week, once the waters receded, recent graduates from the School for Social Workers have been doing a door‑to‑door inventory of key household objects that people have lost: refrigerators, fans, mattresses, TVs, etc. Although nothing has yet been announced, some people feel this means that the state is considering helping people recover their lost articles.

     All of this stands in sharp contrast to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina cruelly punished the city, where people were literally abandoned by a government which stood by and did nothing. Nor will one find in Cuba what happened in Cancun, Mexico, where after a day of being severely lashed by Wilma, looting was rampant in many stores as people took not only canned goods and bottled water, but also TVs, washing machines, sewing machines, air conditioners, microwave ovens, etc.

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