The Spark!

(The following articles are from the Oct. 16-31, 2007, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, Oct. 16-31, 2007

This month marks the sixth anniversary of Canada's military involvement in the NATO occupation of Afghanistan. Originally painted as a small contribution to the "war on terror" and the "liberation" of Afghan women, this mission has morphed into the symbol of Canada's role as a fully subservient part of the U.S. imperialist war machine. Any minor improvements for women in Afghanistan pale in comparison to the thousands of killings committed by the NATO forces, including the recent shooting of two young boys by Canadian troops.

     Despite the growing demands in both the U.S. and Canada to bring the troops home, Bush and Harper remain determined to "stay the course," at any cost in human lives and economic destruction. On October 27, anti-war movements in both countries will be in the streets to protest the catastrophic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

     This day of action is crucial as Canada teeters on the brink of a federal election. A powerful turnout for the Oct. 27 rallies is the best way to tell the Harper Tories - the most pro-war, pro-US party in Parliament - that most Canadians still reject their policies, despite every attempt to rouse enthusiasm for this failed mission. Massive protests on Oct. 27 will also warn the other parties in Parliament that instead of playing one-upmanship, they should isolate the Tories and unite to set a quick deadline to bring the troops home. If the Harper government is defeated - and the sooner the better - all the labour and democratic forces must also unite to make withdrawal from Afghanistan the key issue of the campaign.

     The stakes are too high to stay home. For details of the anti-war rally in your community, visit the Canadian Peace Alliance website, www.acp-cpa.ca. Be there, and bring everyone you can!

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial, Oct. 16-31, 2007

Appearances can be very deceiving. This newspaper, for example, is dated October 16-31, but due to the vagaries of the calendar and printshop operations, it was printed on Oct. 9 - one day before the Ontario provincial election and the referendum on mixed-member proportional representation.

     As we went to press, pollsters predicted that the far-right forces in Ontario would fall short of their goal to elect the Tory Tories. That would be a welcome result. But the re-election of Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty would be small comfort to Ontario working people, the main victims of his "Harris Lite" policies. This campaign certainly emphasized the need to strengthen the left and democratic movements outside Queen's Park as the key factor in shifting the balance of forces inside the Ontario legislature.

     Across the country, all eyes will be on the PR referendum, which has been downplayed by the corporate media and the big parties in Ontario. Why? Because victory for PR will signal rejection of the "old boy's club" which characterizes Canadian electoral politics, and a powerful public demand for more democratic and open government. Whether or not the referendum achieves the artificially-set minimum of 60% support to pass, this issue will not disappear. Canadians are tired of being spoon-fed a narrow range of policy options by the same parties which benefit from the "first-past-the-post" system. It's time for PR, time for fair allocation of broadcast and print coverage for all parties, time to lower the voting age to 16, time to scrap ridiculous rules that give millions of taxpayer dollars to some parties and zero to others. In short, it's time for radical electoral change, time for more democracy!

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Sam Hammond, Chair of the Central Trade Union Commission, Communist Party of Canada

I suppose if you were writing a book called Exploitation for Dummies, you could define socialism as a giant social "Defined Benefit Plan" (DBP) and capitalism as a giant social "Defined Contribution Plan" (DCP).

     In our DBP the benefits are defined according to need, and paid for out of wealth created by social labour, where everyone contributes according to ability.

     But a DCP, for the purpose of this dialogue, is where you give everything that can be squeezed out of you (labour power), for your whole life, for whatever the capitalist system deems necessary to keep you doing this, with a few shekels at the end to dispose of the exhausted residue.

     In short, the Defined Contribution Plan is just that. The contributions are defined and applied to plans that will reimburse something at some time. The variations in investment returns, the stock market, the last known whereabouts of Santa Claus, etc., will determine the stability and reimbursement potential of the plan. Meanwhile the plan administrators - the trustees - will provide a nice pool of cheap capital for the investment sharks to play with, while charging nice fat fees for their intransigence. 

     What trade unionists would ever allow their members to fall into the open‑pit life‑feasting consumption of a Defined Contribution Plan, when labour has historically fought for Defined Benefit Plans that give some foreseeable guarantee to workers who have purchased future benefits with their working lives?

     Perhaps trade union leaders who have been schooled in acquiescence, who fear the power not only of their class opposition, but perhaps even more so the potential of a membership out of control. Either way they lose value to both if they can't deliver. So the whole game becomes smoke and mirrors - substance is not real, promises are planted in the deck, the jokers are wild, and surviving until the next round of negotiations is the only goal. The real applicators of class power stir the pot with glee: watch how they run!

     This is not an article to vent frustration, but rather an introduction to the UAW settlement with General Motors in the United States. In this settlement, the predicament of the UAW and its thirty years of concessions ideology (an ideology that actually sparked the backlash in Canada that created the CAW) has taken the next step and merged with a fiendish refinement and escalation of Defined Contribution called "VEBA."

     A VEBA is a "Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association" which contains little gems and compartments like the HRA, Health Reimbursement Arrangement. VEBAs have a history. After laying dormant like incipient cancer since the late 1920's, they were given new life early in this decade when the U.S. Congress approved significant changes to the rules.

     This was a time when, in most capitalist countries, the fight over Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Pension Plans was heating up. This is no small item, but until lately and outside the United States it has been, at least in the minds of trade unionists, restricted to pension battles.

     Well, brothers and sisters, the U.S. employers, great innovators that they are, have kicked it up a notch or two. Under VEBA Plans every medical, health, severance, retirement and pensioner benefit will be covered by a single Defined Contribution morass called an HRA. But it gets worse. In the GM settlement, the VEBA is converted to a Union owned trust.

     Employers are required to provide actuarial studies of "promise‑to‑pay plans", health care and pensions, that have a future liability and therefore affect the value of a company and its balance sheet. This is a bigger item in the U.S., which has refused historically to provide universal medicare, than in other capitalist states. The entire cost of benefits negotiated is a company expense and must be figured into the cost of production.  The aging workforce, especially at General Motors which has healthcare and pension liabilities to over 320,000 retirees, becomes a cost factor that does not apply to new non‑union arrivals like Toyota and Volkswagen, whose young employees do not or may never have any future benefit claims on the company.

     The whole nature of a VEBA changes when it is converted to a Defined Contribution Plan and a Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA) is added. This is how it works.

     Every employee has an individual account within the VEBA called an HRA. The company deposits a negotiated amount at set periods into each employee's HRA. The employee draws from their HRA account what is needed to supply benefits. If the employee or their family is healthy, the account accumulates amounts that can then be retained in the pool and applied to other areas such as severance or pension accumulation. If they must draw heavily on their HRA account, there may not be any left over for severance, disability or pension. 

     Against this backdrop, we can more easily judge what the UAW negotiating committee did. General Motors had a stated $52 billion liability for retirees' health care. The union leadership, who are apparently committed to some kind of "save our employers" mentality, agreed to take over the ownership and liabilities of the VEBA, convert it to a defined contribution fund, and cover the 320,000 retirees as well as the 73,000 active employees.

     To finance this Trojan Horse, General Motors will make a cash contribution of just over $24 billion and put up an interest-earning debenture of $4.5 billion, probably in GM stock. The union now becomes the owner and manager of an under‑funded defined contribution trust, which if it can't meet its requirements, will have to develop direct user fees or cut benefits. Who the trustees of the trust will be is vague. If they are (as is likely) appointed bankers and federal officials, they will tell the union when to demand user fees or cut benefits to keep the trust solvent.

     But there is more. In 2006 the UAW agreed to temporarily postpone the AIF (Annual Improvement Factor) payment to employees and allow GM to put it into health care costs. In 2007 it was given up altogether. This will cost an assembly line worker about $7,200 over the life of the four-year agreement. The union has also agreed to allow GM to take money from the cost‑of‑living (COLA) plan amounting to about $6,200 per worker over this term, and put it toward health care costs. (Part of the $24 billion?)

     The negotiators are selling the tentative agreement on the basis of an assembler gaining $13,000 over the four years of the contract: a $3000 signing bonus up front, and three annual lump sums of 3%, 4%, and 3%, which correspond to about $2100, $2800 and $2100, for another $7000. The rest is a guesstimate of COLA paid on overtime. My arithmetic tells me they have given up at least the equivalent of gains, and that the lump sums will not compound into wage‑related benefits like pensions, holidays, health‑care or  supplemental unemployment benefits.

     General Motors, and in a slightly lesser degree Ford and Chrysler, have aging workforces. In the proposed GM agreement  "new‑hires" and so‑called non‑core jobs will be subject to special provisions that provide only half the wages. This two-tier system of negotiated discrimination will apply to all new hires, not only so-called non‑core. About 30 to 40 percent of jobs will be reclassified to non‑core, so that existing workers will be losing about $14 per hour. Non‑core workers and all new hires will have a distinct (worse) pension plan, and will not be eligible for post-retirement health care. This of course will have a big cost saving effect on the now union‑owned VEBA trust, which will have a vested interest in lowering pension and health care coverage.

     The corporation has agreed to provide incentives to about 25,000 older (most at about $28 per hour) workers to help ease them out. Their new‑hire replacements will come in at $14 an hour less, with poorer health care and pensions. Many will never accrue seniority, but will become "permanent‑temporary" workers who have to bid for core jobs and never be fully eligible for health care, pensions or seniority.

     For thirty years the UAW has not been in conflict with  General Motors, except for some local strikes and minor rebellions. The concessionary mentality had taken root in the craniums of the leadership so strongly that they tried to bully and sabotage their way to concessionary agreements with Chrysler in Canada, so strongly that the Canadians under the leadership of Bob White left the International and formed the CAW in 1985.

     This marked a major departure of ideology, not only in the new CAW. It was a beacon for those in Canada who had long strived for a Canadian trade union movement devoted to Canadian needs, recognizing our cultural‑historic differences, especially recognition of the nations within the Canadian state. The differences are worth noting, not because we are more militant, but because the U.S. workers have special problems from living in the heartland of imperialism.

     The Canadian labour movement, including the branches of US unions, had supported the social democratic leaders who were fighting for medicare. The entire left and notably the Communist Party gave impetus to this struggle. The breakthrough was in Saskatchewan under Premier Tommy Douglas, who was recently voted the most famous Canadian in CBC polling. It took decades and a lot of effort to spread this across the country.

     The problems faced by autoworkers date back to those times. The priority in the US for the then-powerful UAW, Steelworkers et al was for negotiated private health‑care purchased by employers as a contractual obligation to employees. That also took place in Canada, but in parallel with a campaign for public health care. We were negotiating private plans and trying to replace them at the same time. Tricky, but we did it.

     The U.S. system left the corporations in control of the health of workers and their families, a mechanism to choke strikes and hinder the class struggle. It also made union members a sort of health care elite amongst the working class as a whole, which to this day is largely deprived of access to health care. The US unions should never have abandoned the struggle for universal health care, because it separated them from millions of working people left in the hinterland.

     Once a union, like the UAW, develops a partnership mentality to "their" corporations, they are on a downhill slide, racing for the bottom as their corporate "partners" squeeze more and more out of them, until they finally rebel or become management's brokers within their own class. This is certainly not an American phenomenon, but it sometimes appears sharper because of the intensity of the attack against U.S. workers. We Canadians have it amongst us for sure, and it is home grown.

     Even at this late date the UAW could have taken up the challenge, prepared for a fight with health care as a rallying point, escalated the threat by GM into a struggle for national medicare, using the strike as the beginning of a massive struggle consuming all the unions and the unorganized. Therein lies salvation and growth. People join a fight, but no one in their right mind would join a retreat. The membership would have grown in this struggle.

     But UAW President Ronald Gettelfinger rode into battle waving a white flag. At the news conference beginning the strike, in front of the media, viewed by millions, Gettelfinger made the statement, "nobody wins a strike!" Clearly disoriented by the backstab of his corporate partners even after years of concessions, he continued, "but again, you can be pushed off a cliff, that's what we feel like happened here..."

     Obviously in a strike situation he is not used to and doesn't believe in, Gettelfinger turned to his second‑in‑command, Cal Rapson, and asked if he wanted to say anything. Rapson shook his head, "no." No comment, nothing to say, when 73,000 of your members are on the street?

     At the end of the day the UAW ends up owning an underfunded trust that will ultimately fail, a two-tier wage and seniority concession that costs the non‑core and all future hires $14 per hour, lump sum payments that do not even equal the givebacks in COLA and AIF, and a memorandum to prevent plant closures (except if there is market decline). Perhaps in the next contract the company could be given absolute title to the workers in return for food and housing.

     We shouldn't feel smug here in Canada. The corporate cross-hairs are fine tuning on Canadian auto workers, who should be preparing immediately for next year. Start stocking up the pantry.

     In fact, the entire labour movement should prepare for the 2008 auto negotiations. Probably the most important part of this preparation should be to end the foolishness of sectarian political agendas and get back into the Ontario Federation of Labour. This is a very large challenge, considering the absence of the OFL from any meaningful activity except the downhill momentum of "just being." Add to this the tendency of Buzz Hargrove to become the mouthpiece of the Liberal Party, and it's easy to see that we have no room to be complacent. The struggles are shaping just as surely as storm clouds on the horizon.

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Pat Daley/Straight Goods/CALM

For the first time, women outnumber men in the rank‑and‑file of Canadian unions. But before we start popping champagne corks, know that the new numbers released by Statistics Canada don't necessarily mean women are joining unions in droves or, even more importantly, that their growing numbers are changing unions.

     In the first half of this year union membership included 2,248,000 women - 30 per cent of the workforce - and 2,237,200 men - 29.3 per cent according to StatsCan.

     Unionization rates are even higher in the public sector - almost 72 per cent compared with 17 per cent in the private sector - where women are more likely to be employed in administration, social services, education and health care. Indeed, within the public sector, more women are unionized than men - 73 per cent compared to 68 per cent. In the private sector, only 12 per cent of women belong to unions, compared to 21 per cent of men.

     The shift in gender balance certainly reflects, in part, a declining manufacturing sector and increased employment in health, education and social services. But, is whether the overall change having an effect on unions and their leadership? After all, in recent years we have seen high‑profile women leaders - like Judy Darcy from the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Leah Casselman from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and Nycole Turmel from the Public Service Alliance of Canada - all step down, to be replaced by men.

     Certainly we've seen a change in awareness from 30 years ago, when only 10 per cent of female workers belonged to unions. For years now, unions have been leaders in campaigns for national childcare, for public health care, for increased minimum wage and any number of other issues that directly affect women workers. Most unions have women's programs or equity departments and take proposals like pay equity and workplace violence prevention to the bargaining table.

     Yet, ask the public, and even union members, who they think belong to unions and they're more likely to imagine a burly, male miner than the woman who provides home care to their elderly parents. And union culture is still a macho culture, based on confrontation, often acrimonious debate and, for activists and staff, long hours away from home and family.

     Like many other unions, CUPE has seen growth in the number of female members - now at about 67 per cent, but the leadership at the provincial and national levels has remained primarily male. Only three of the 23‑member national executive board are women.

     CUPE created the National Women's Task Force two years ago, after delegates to that convention defeated a resolution that would have created two short‑term designated seats for women on the board. They voted instead to create the task force.

     The 54 recommendations in the task force's report cover everything from holding a women's bargaining conference to creating new seats on the national board to developing new education, leadership and mentoring programs.

     When the task force took its report to provincial division conventions in the spring, CUPE's Quebec division voted to institute gender parity for its vice‑president positions on the national board. In British Columbia, for the first time, women won all four provincial vice‑president positions. And women's caucuses were held for the first time at six of the 10 conventions.

     Women told the task force they are often uncomfortable with the loud, aggressive and confrontational behaviour that's associated with union events. Combined with the "all or nothing" commitment that's usually expected from activists and leaders and a tradition of not challenging incumbents and backroom deals on succession, leadership starts to feel like a big turnoff for women members, especially women of colour and Aboriginal women.

     But there are many, women among them, who will argue that it's exactly the aggressive behaviour that helps unions win at the bargaining table. And, just like in the wider world, there are female unionists who will never vote for change that they believe will see them win leadership positions "just because" they are women.

     So, more women in unions - that's a good thing. More women in leadership would be even better.

     (Pat Daley is a CUPE communications officer.)

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Government documents obtained by the BC Health Coalition expose plans to expand the contracting out of surgeries to for‑profit clinics even though the "Conversation on Health" public consultation has not yet concluded.

     In a July letter sent to all B.C.'s private clinics, Deputy Minister Gordon Macatee asks clinic owners for information about their facilities' operations in order to help government explore "further opportunities for innovative private sector involvement" in public health care.

     BCHC medicare campaigner Leslie Dickout says it is more proof that government is not listening to citizens and is intent on expanding private health care despite the evidence that for‑profit clinics cost more, undermine public accountability and drain valuable public health care resources.

     "There is no shortage of proven public solutions to strengthen health care for all. It's time this government listened to British Columbians' input into the Health Conversation and invest public dollars in real health care improvements," says Dickout.

     The documents also reveal, for the first time, the extent of for‑profit clinics' incursion into public health care. Health authorities have signed 65 contracts or renewals with 22 different private clinics since 2003. But despite the large number of contracts, the survey accompanying Macatee`s letter shows that government knows very little about the operations of private clinics including basic information about sterilization procedures, medical staff accreditation and staffing levels.

     The survey also requests information on the clinics' revenue sources, hours of operation, the number of overnight stays by patients, patient safety procedures, diagnostic testing capacity, and even whether a blood bank is present on site.

     "British Columbians should be concerned that this government has been handing out public dollars to private clinics despite their apparent lack of very basic information about these facilities' operations," says Dickout. "It makes more sense to expand the kind of innovative and cost‑effective pilot projects that have already reduced wait times and increased access here in BC and across Canada - all within regulated public facilities."

     These successes include the North Shore Joint Replacement clinic, which centralizes and coordinates care between physicians, as well as Richmond Hospital's streamlined surgical procedures, which have shortened waitlists by 75 per cent. In addition, the UBC Centre for Surgical Innovation's province‑wide program has provided a 20 percent increase in the number of hip and knee surgeries performed in B.C.

     According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, knee replacement surgeries performed in Canadian public hospitals average $8,000. In private clinics they cost between $14,000 and $18,000.

     (For more information, visit www.bchealthcoalition.ca)

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Stephen Von Sychowski

"We're the first ones to starve, we're the first ones to die

The first ones in line for that pie‑in‑the‑sky

And we're always the last when the cream is shared out

For the worker is working when the fat cat's about"

- Dropkick Murphys, "Workers Song"

     Walking down an East Vancouver street I spotted a card in a local shop for "bosses day."* What a perverse occasion, I thought to myself, a day to honour those who rob you blind each day you work, who plunge our country into imperialist war, who turn our natural environment into an unliveable cesspool and yet, apparently, dare to expect praiseful recognition for their monstrosities.  

     There was a time when people knew who they were, and who their enemies were. The On to Ottawa Trekkers knew it, the heroic fighters of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion knew it. It becomes ever more clear in the minds of workers walking the picket line each time the boss tries to break the strike. Even today, it is unlikely that many workers in Canada will seriously consider going out to buy a bosses day card; and good on them.

     But still many of our working sisters and brothers have a strange kind of shame about being workers, and a sick form of reverence for the boss, the capitalist, the guy who tells us what to do. To many people, being the boss is admirable, it is the equivalent of being "successful" in life. But the boss and the worker are not friends. It proves difficult to forge a meaningful friendship with a bloke who always has his hand in your wallet and a club over your head.

     Class struggle is a historical and scientifically proven fact. As Marx and Engels aptly stated in the Communist Manifesto, "the history of all hitherto existing societies has been the history of class struggle". No class based society is free from this reality, including contemporary Canada. A serious study of Canada shows ours as a country with a history rife with class conflicts. Instead of celebrating those against whom we have historically struggled for our interests and our rights, we should celebrate ourselves, our struggles and the future we must build for ourselves as a class.

     So what's the big deal about being a worker? Well, if you are a worker you have a lot to be proud of. Look around you, everything you see was built by workers; unless it was built by a machine, in which case the machine was built by workers. Bill Gates didn't build your computer; Mr. Ford sure as hell didn't build your car for you. All products and all wealth in society are produced by workers. The bosses only have the vast majority of the wealth because they stole it!

     Did Churchill and Roosevelt defeat fascism? No! It was the working people of the Soviet Union and the capitalist democracies, including Canada, who saved the planet from tyrannical and murderous fascism. They paid with their lives while the bosses stayed safely at home, many of them even trading with Nazi Germany!

     When a building needs to be built, a worker builds it. When a boat needs unloading, a worker unloads it. When a street needs paving, a worker paves it. When garbage needs collecting, a worker collects it. When a burger needs flipping, a worker flips it! And for this, we should all be proud. It's us, not money that makes the world go around. Let's keep this in mind on October 16th and make every day a "workers day."

     * Boss's Day is a holiday established in the United States in 1958 by a secretary who was the daughter of a capitalist. Not surprisingly, the capitalist in question was also her boss. The appearance of this despicable holiday in Canada is attributable to intensifying cultural imperialism imposed on our country by the United States, largely via their dominant ownership of economic sectors involved directly in culture. In this case, for example, greeting card companies.

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CPUSA Chair Sam Webb speaks at StFX University

By Chris Frazer

The annual homecoming at St. Francis Xavier University had communist flavour this year when Sam Webb returned for his first homecoming since graduating in 1967. National chair of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Webb spoke to a standing-room-only audience of 90‑plus students and faculty on September 26. The theme of the meeting was "Last Dance for Bush: Peace, Justice and the 2008 Elections, A Communist Viewpoint." The departments of history and political science co‑sponsored the event.

     Many in the audience were curious to learn how Webb made the transition to becoming a communist activist after spending four years immersed in the conservative and Catholic environment that characterized St. FX in the 1960s.

     "I wasn't very politically conscious at the time," said Webb, who earned a degree in economics and was a starting forward on the basketball team. "For me," he said, "the transition took another three or four years after leaving St. FX."

     Webb credited his Catholic upbringing in a working class Maine family with instilling in him a strong sense of right and wrong, but it took more to connect his moral sense with a critique of capitalist injustices.

     Webb encountered Marxist theory as a graduate student pursuing his MA in economics at the University of Connecticut. It was timely, for as he recalls the political landscape was heaving in the USA.

     "All hell was breaking loose," said Webb. Student opposition to the Vietnam War was peaking. Student strikes, mass protests, and draft resistance permeated the atmosphere. It was clear that the system was in crisis, but what was the alternative?

     "I started to read Marxism voraciously," he explained. This included all three volumes of Capital by Karl Marx. That reading began to help Webb make sense of the political struggles unfolding in the USA and around the world, but so did his exposure to the repressive machinery of the state. Webb recalled going to New Haven for a demonstration in solidarity with Black Panther members who were on trial.

     "It was like entering a war zone," he said, with police and National Guard everywhere with tanks, armoured vehicles, weapons and teargas.

     All the same, Webb did not immediately join the communist movement. His first venture into struggling for an alternative to capitalism was to help form a commune in the countryside. But eventually, he concluded that change required fighting the system and replacing it with socialism, rather than simply opting out.

     Webb linked the struggles of the 1960s with contemporary struggles to defeat the ultra‑right agenda of the Bush administration. The White House is now captive to the extremist right‑wing agenda of neo‑conservatives in the USA; their goal is achieve world domination, and they are prepared to achieve this by using force, said Webb.

     "The war in Iraq is a piece of a much larger picture, a bigger prize," he pointed out. But the dangers have also magnified. "I can't think of a more reckless administration. Bush intends to prosecute this war until he leaves the presidency."

     "September 11 created the political atmosphere to ramp up the administration's policy of global dominance," he argued.

       Now the question is: what policy will follow Bush's departure?

     "Neo‑liberalism and capitalistic policies have left a lot of wreckage across the world," the result of exploitation of working people by big business and the fierce repression of those who resist. Now Webb says the indictment against capitalism has to include the destruction of a liveable environment on the planet.

     "Global warming is the pre‑eminent problem of the 21st century," he said, urging students to make this issue a priority. "There is a real immediacy about this, we need to take action." Otherwise, Webb warned, there might be a world to change at all.

     The USA has now had 27 years of unbroken domination by the extreme right in the Republican Party - either through control of the presidency or Congress. So Webb and his party see the immediate goal as breaking this pattern and helping to elect a Democrat as president and working for a progressive majority in the Congress.

     At the same time, Webb has no illusions about the Democrats. However, he insists that the first step towards more fundamental change is pulling politics in the USA back from policies that threaten the world with destruction.

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"Time to bring them home"

By Jim Sinclair, President, British Columbia Federation of Labour, and Rick Bender, President, Washington State Labor Council, issued on Sept. 24

Working people from both sides of the border will gather on September 29th at the Peace Arch border crossing to send a strong message to both our governments - it's time to bring our troops home. It should come as no surprise that organizations representing more than 800,000 workers have come to the same conclusion. It is not because we are afraid to fight that we are opposed. Working people are fighters. Our movement and our countries have been built by the struggle and sacrifices of ordinary citizens acting with extraordinary courage. As trade union leaders, we are challenged to speak out because it is the young daughters and sons of working people whose lives are being wasted in an impossible war which will have no end.

     The cost of continuing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is enormous. More than 3,000 Americans have been killed and 30,000 have been injured. While Canadians have not died at the same level (71 deaths), they have the highest death rates. A Canadian soldier in Kandahar is nearly six times as likely to die as an American in Iraq.

     We have sacrificed our sisters and brothers in wars that have no victories, and rather than bring freedom to these countries, they have brought violence, death and insecurity. If the death tolls of the invading countries are high, the toll in Iraq is truly staggering. While official numbers top 65,000 Iraqi deaths, unofficial numbers put the carnage at more than 500,000 lives.

As the death toll climbs, so does the economic cost. Public money and resources (working people's taxes) support this war. The amounts are staggering. We watch as living standards continue to decline on both sides of the border. Poverty grows, and along with it so does the homeless crisis in all of our cities. Every week the United States spends $8 billion more on war. To date, the war has consumed more than $450 billion; in Canada the number has climbed to more than $5 billion. Swedish experts report that in 2006 the world expenditures on arms reached over $1.2 trillion dollars, enough to feed, clothe, house and provide basic education and medical care for the planet's poor.

     Yet, as both our countries pour billions into war, we have fallen far short of our commitments to providing foreign aid to developing countries. A 35 year‑old United Nations target for aid was finally endorsed two years ago by the richest countries in the world (including ours). The United States and Canada have not even set a target date to meet the modest commitment of donating 0.7 percent of our annual economic activity. Ironically, the United States finds itself dead last on the list of donors and Canada is just slightly better.

     It is no surprise to us that our leaders are friends and allies. George Bush and Steven Harper lead governments that continue, despite mounting evidence to the contrary, to demand ever‑increasing funds to bring "peace" to the region. After six years of war and massive military and civilian casualties, we are no closer to peace and the people of both countries know it. A recent Canadian poll showed opposition to the war at 59 percent while support was only 36 percent (only 7 percent strongly). In the United States, the polls are similar. To make matters worse, both Afghanistan and Iraq have become the breeding grounds for publicly-funded private armies and contractors who are earning billions. These are some of the same corporations who are also busy at home exporting industries to cheap labour zones, undercutting good jobs and union rights.

     We want to conclude by extending our sympathy to the families of the young men and women in both countries who have died. We pledge to work together to stop these wars and to turn our minds, money and energy to solving the real problems of our countries and the world ‑ poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and climate change. The success of our struggle for economic and social justice for all peoples is tied directly to our ability to ensure the majority of people opposed to war are heard, not only in the streets, but in the corridors of power in Washington, DC and Ottawa.

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Let's respect our Mother Earth

Message from Bolivian President Evo Morales, delivered on Sept. 24 to the United Nations on the issue of the environment

Sister and brother Presidents and Heads of States of the United Nations: The world is suffering from a fever due to climate change, and the disease is the capitalist development model. Whilst over 10,000 years the variation in carbon dioxide (CO2) levels on the planet was approximately 10%, during the last 200 years of industrial development, carbon emissions have increased by 30%. Since 1860, Europe and North America have contributed 70% of the emissions of CO2. 2005 was the hottest year in the last one thousand years on this planet.

     Different investigations have demonstrated that out of the 40,170 living species that have been studied, 16,119 are in danger of extinction. One out of eight birds could disappear forever. One out of four mammals is under threat. One out of every three reptiles could cease to exist. Eight out of ten crustaceans and three out of four insects are at risk of extinction. We are living through the sixth crisis of the extinction of living species in the history of the planet and, on this occasion, the rate of extinction is 100 times more accelerated than in geological times.

     Faced with this bleak future, transnational interests are proposing to continue as before, and paint the machine green, which is to say, continue with growth and irrational consumerism and inequality, generating more and more profits, without realising that we are currently consuming in one year what the planet produces in one year and three months. Faced with this reality, the solution can not be an environmental make over.

     I read in the World Bank report that in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change we need to end subsidies on hydrocarbons, put a price on water and promote private investment in the clean energy sector. Once again they want to apply market recipes and privatisation in order to carry out business as usual, and with it, the same illnesses that these policies produce. The same occurs in the case of biofuels, given that to produce one litre of ethanol you require 12 litres of water. In the same way, to process one ton of agrifuels you need, on average, one hectare of land.

     Faced with this situation, we - the indigenous peoples and humble and honest inhabitants of this planet - believe that the time has come to put a stop to this, in order to rediscover our roots, with respect for Mother Earth; with the Pachamama as we call it in the Andes. Today, the indigenous peoples of Latin America and the world have been called upon by history to convert ourselves into the vanguard of the struggle to defend nature and life.

     I am convinced that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, recently approved after so many years of struggle, needs to pass from paper to reality so that our knowledge and our participation can help to construct a new future of hope for all. Who else but the indigenous people, can point out the path for humanity in order to preserve nature, natural resources and the territories that we have inhabited from ancient times.

     We need a profound change of direction, at the world wide level, so as to stop being the condemned of the earth. The countries of the north need to reduce their carbon emissions by between 60% and 80% if we want to avoid a temperature rise of more than 2 degrees in what is left of this century, which would provoke global warming of catastrophic proportions for life and nature.

     We need to create a World Environment Organisation which is binding, and which can discipline the World Trade Organisation, which is propelling as towards barbarism. We can no longer continue to talk of growth in Gross National Product without taking into consideration the destruction and wastage of natural resources. We need to adopt an indicator that allows us to consider, in a combined way, the Human Development Index and the Ecological Footprint in order to measure our environmental situation.

     We need to apply harsh taxes on the super concentration of wealth, and adopt effective mechanisms for its equitable redistribution. It is not possible that three families can have an income superior to the combined GDP of the 48 poorest countries. We can not talk of equity and social justice whilst this situation continues.

     The United States and Europe consume, on average, 8.4 times more that the world average. It is necessary for them to reduce their level of consumption and recognise that all of us are guests on this same land; of the same Pachamama.

     I know that change is not easy when an extremely powerful sector has to renounce their extraordinary profits for the planet to survive. In my own country I suffer, with my head held high, this permanent sabotage because we are ending privileges so that everyone can "Live Well" and not better than our counterparts. I know that change in the world is much more difficult than in my country, but I have absolute confidence in human beings, in their capacity to reason, to learn from mistakes, to recuperate their roots, and to change in order to forge a just, diverse, inclusive, equilibrated world in harmony with nature.

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Excerpts from the statement by Felipe Perez Roque, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, to the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, Sept. 26, 2007.

Never before had the real dangers menacing the human species become so evident; never before had the violations of International Law become so evident, as they increasingly jeopardize international peace and security; never before had inequality and exclusion become so evident, as they impact on over two‑thirds of the population on our planet.

     A key factor to the survival of humankind is to put an end to wastefulness and to the unbridled consumerism fostered by the large corporations and the power groups of a handful of developed countries, which squander at the expense of impoverishment and the perpetuation of underdevelopment in a sizable number of poor countries where billions of people scramble to make a living. The high‑level meeting of this General Assembly, held only two days ago, emphasized the danger posed by the accelerated global warming that is already affecting us and by its effect on climate change. Action must be taken, and quickly, and the developed countries have the moral duty and the historic responsibility to set the example and spearhead the effort.

     On the other hand, several of our countries, always from the South, continue to fall prey to unacceptable acts of aggression by the ever‑powerful - which are essentially driven by the insatiable hunger for strategic resources. The wars of conquest and the proclamation and implementation of doctrines based on pre‑emptive wars, which do not exclude the use of nuclear weapons even against non‑nuclear States, and the repeated use of pretexts such as the alleged war on terror, the much‑trumpeted promotion of democracy or the so‑called regime change in countries that are unilaterally labeled as rogue States, are today the greatest and most serious threat to peace and security in the world.

     The aggression and illegal occupation of countries, military interventions against International Law and the purposes and principles enshrined in the UN Charter, the bombing of civilians and tortures continue to be daily practices. Under the false tirade of freedom and democracy, an attempt is made to write in stone the pillaging of the natural resources in the Third World and control areas of increasing geostrategic importance. That and no other is the imperial domination plan that the mightiest military superpower ever to exist is trying to impose through all means possible....

     If a small country defends and upholds its right to independence, it is accused of being a rogue State; if a power launches an attack against a country, it is said that it "liberates" them. A fighter against foreign aggression is a terrorist; an attacking soldier is a "freedom fighter." That is the media war, the swindle of truths, the tyranny of a one‑track mind in a globalized world.

     Instead of moving towards general and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, which has been an ongoing demand of the Non‑Aligned Movement for decades, we bear witness to the promotion of the arms race and to the squandering of wealth on new weapons and arms systems that deplete the resources required by the world in order to mitigate the effects of climate change and address the very serious problems stemming from poverty and marginalization.

     An attempt is made to prevent, in a politicized and selective fashion, the implementation of the principle - already contained in the Non‑Proliferation Treaty - that nations are entitled to the development of nuclear energy with peaceful purposes. Threats are imposed to launch wars against and wreak havoc on some countries, while allowing the aggressive ally to have hundreds of nuclear devices and helping them modernize such artifacts continuously.

     How much more time will it have to elapse and how many new victims will have to die before the hawks of war understand that weapons are useless to resolve the critical problems of humankind?

     ...There is no progress today towards fulfilling the Millennium Goals and the decisions of the major United Nations conferences held over the last decade.

     Poverty does not decrease. Inequality among and within the countries is on the rise.

     Drinking water is not accessible to 1.1 billion people; 2.6 billion lack cleaning services; over 800 million are illiterate and 115 million children do not attend primary school; 850 million starve every day. And 1% of the world's richest people own 40% of the wealth, while 50% of the world's population merely has 10%. All this is happening in a world that spends a trillion dollars on weapons and another one on advertising.

     The nearly 1 billion people living in developed countries consume approximately half of all the energy, while 2 billion poor people are still not acquainted with electricity...

     Why are such colossal resources squandered on the killing industry and not used to save lives? Why are schools not built instead of nuclear submarines, and hospitals instead of "smart" bombs? Why are vaccines not produced instead of armored vehicles and more food instead of more fighter jets? Why is there no momentum given to research to fight off AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis instead of promoting the manufacture of anti‑missile shields? Why is there no war waged against poverty instead of against the poor?...

     Mr. President:

     The non‑aligned countries want a more democratic and transparent United Nations, in which the General Assembly, its most representative and democratic body, can really implement the powers vested in it.

     We need a United Nations with a reformed Security Council, acting in conformity with the mandate granted to it by the Organization's Charter, without infringing upon the functions and prerogatives of other organs of the system. There must be a Security Council with an expanded membership, in line with the current composition of the United Nations, where the underdeveloped countries are the majority. There must be a Security Council with a radical modification to its working methods in order to allow transparency and the access of all Member States to its deliberations.

     We uphold the idea of having a United Nations where multilateralism and the solutions agreed upon in full compliance with the Charter are the only way to address and resolve the current problems.

     We need a Human Rights Council that prevents the repetition of the serious mistakes made by the former Commission on Human Rights. A Council that enshrines in its practices the principle that human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. A Council to put an end to selectivity and double standards. The non‑aligned countries will firmly oppose those devilish schemes by some mighty quarters which, frustrated as they are for failing to achieve their goals, are now attempting to reopen and call into question the agreement reached in the hard and difficult process of institutional building of the Council....

     The non‑aligned countries account for nearly two‑thirds of the membership of the United Nations. Our demands will not be forgotten, nor our interests ignored. We will remain united and we will find support in the defense of our rights. We will make our voice heard.

     Mr. President:

     This was supposed to be the end of my statement as Chair of the Non‑Aligned Movement. However, the shameless and gross behaviour of the US President in this hall, yesterday morning, now forces me to utter a few remarks on Cuba's behalf.

     With a foul language and an arrogant tone, President Bush insulted and threatened some ten countries; he gave orders, in a firm and authoritarian fashion, to the General Assembly; and with such bossiness never ever seen in this hall, he dished out terms and judgments on a score of countries.

     It was an embarrassing show. The delirium tremens of the world's policeman. The intoxication of imperial power, sprinkled with the mediocrity and the cynicism of those who threaten to launch wars in which they know their life is not at stake.

     The President of the United States has no right at all to pass judgment on any other sovereign nation on this planet. Having powerful nuclear weapons offers no right whatsoever to tread upon the rights of the peoples of the other 191 countries that are represented here.

     And the determination and courage of the peoples should not be underestimated when it comes to defending their rights! After all, what prevails is not the power of cannons but the fairness of the ideas that you fight for. The bullish and menacing President should have already learned it by now.

     Sovereign equality of States and not "regime change." Respect for sovereignty and not unilateral certifications of good behaviour. Respect for International Law and not illegal blockades and wars.

     President Bush talked about democracy, but we all know that he is lying. He came into office through fraud and deceit. We would have been spared his presence yesterday and would have listened to President Albert Gore talking about climate change and the risks to our species. We also recall how he brazenly supported the coup d'etat against the President and the Constitution of Venezuela.

     He talked about peace, but we know that he is lying. We remember very well when he threatened 60 or more countries, which he called "dark corners of the world," saying that he would wipe them off the face of the earth with pre‑emptive and surprise attacks. Bush is a strange warrior who, from the rearguard, sends the young people of his country to kill and to die thousands of kilometers away.

     He talked about human rights, but we know that he is lying. He is responsible for the death of 600,000 civilians in Iraq; he authorized tortures at the Guantanamo Naval Base and at Abu Ghraib, and he is an accessory to the kidnapping and disappearance of people, as well as to the secret flights and the clandestine prisons.

     He talked about the fight against terrorism, but we know that he is lying. He has ensured complete impunity for the most hateful terrorist groups which, from Miami, have perpetrated heinous crimes against the Cuban people.

     President Bush attacked the new Human Rights Council. He is bleeding through the wound; he is grunting his helplessness. He is haunted by the shamefulness that, during his term in office, the United States cannot even look forward to being a member because elections are through secret ballot. Cuba, in turn, was elected as a founding member of the Council with more than two‑thirds of the votes.

     He talked about cooperation, development and prosperity for the rest of the world, but we all know that he is lying. He has been the most selfish and reckless politician we have ever seen. In a world that this year will bear witness to the death of 10 million children under the age of 5 through preventable diseases, his self‑seeking and empty proposals of yesterday are but a sick joke.

     President Bush has no moral authority or credibility to judge anyone. He should be held accountable to the world for his crimes.

     There are boundaries, Excellencies, to both arrogance and hypocrisy. There are boundaries to lies and blackmail. Cuba rejects and condemns each of the devious words uttered yesterday by the President of the United States.

     Mr. President:   

     Cuba appreciates the solidarity received from this General Assembly in its struggle against the blockade and the aggressions that it has been forced to endure for nearly five decades. I would like to particularly appreciate the words uttered yesterday here by the President of Nicaragua, comrade Daniel Ortega, present in the hall, and those of all the people who have raised their voice in favour of the right of and the justice to the Cuban people.

     Cuba thanks all those who have supported its tenacious fight against terrorism and have raised their voice in favour of the release of five Cuban anti‑terrorism fighters unjustly imprisoned in the United States.

     Cuba will fight, delegates, along with all the members of the Non‑Aligned Movement, in order to achieve a more just and democratic international order, in which our peoples can exercise their right to peace and development.

     We may be accused of being dreamers, but we are fighting with the conviction that today's dreams will be tomorrow's realities.

     We are fighting, and we will not stop doing so, with the conviction that even when there are men without decorum, there are always others who have in themselves the decorum of many men and carry in them a whole nation, as well as human dignity.

     Thank you very much.

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Western corporations profit in Burma

By Kimball Cariou

Amid the wave of mass media coverage of brutal repression against democracy activists in Burma, almost nothing has appeared about the role of Canadian and other western corporate interests in that country.

     As a contribution in the Dominion online website noted, "try to find any coverage at all that mentions Ivanhoe Mines" in relation to Burma.

     Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines has been among the largest contributors in export income for the Burmese military junta. After lengthy protests by groups such as Canadian Friends of Burma, Ivanhoe agreed to sell its 50% interest in the Monywa copper mine, from which the company raked in annual profits in the $25 million dollar range for many years.

     Ivanhoe transferred its holdings to an "independent trust" last February as a condition of a strategic partnership reached in October 2006 with mining transnational Rio Tinto PLC. Charged with selling the Monywa asset, the trust has issued Ivanhoe a promissory note to be repaid from proceeds of the sale. Ivanhoe says it now receives no revenue from the mine, although it did get a $6.6 million payment during the second quarter of 2007 from the trust, which the company said was used to reduce the amount owed on the promissory note.

     On a global scale, several hundred companies are known or suspected of having business links to Burma. Many foreign companies have ceased doing business there, under pressure from the international trade union movement and human rights and democracy groups, but others still have relations with the dictatorship.

     Burma's workforce faces strong repression, including the widespread use of forced labour. The international trade union movement and the European Trade Union Confederation have for many years called on the EU to include Burmese state monopolies covering gas, oil, mining, tropical woods and precious stones in the list of companies with which EU‑based multinationals are forbidden to do business.

     Multinationals with well‑documented links to Burma include Caterpillar (USA), China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC), China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC), Daewoo International (Korea), Siemens (Germany), Gas Authority of India (GAIL), GlaxoSmithKline (UK), Hyundai (Korea), ONGC Videsh Ltd (India), Swift (Belgium), and Total (France).

     US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently told a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that "the United States is determined to keep an international focus on the travesty that is taking place" in Burma.

     Rice served on the board of directors of Chevron Oil for a decade. She even had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

     Burma's military controls natural gas reserves in partnership with Chevron, Total and a Thai oil firm. Offshore natural gas facilities deliver extracted gas to Thailand through Burma's Yadana pipeline, built with forced labour. The original pipeline partner, Unocal, was sued by EarthRights International for the use of slave labour. As soon as the suit was settled out of court, Chevron bought Unocal.

     According to Marco Simons, U.S. legal director at EarthRights International: "Before Yadana went online, Burma's regime was facing severe shortages of currency. It's really Yadana and gas projects that kept the military regime afloat to buy arms and ammunition and pay its soldiers."

     The U.S. government has had sanctions against Burma since 1997, but a "grandfathering" loophole allowed Unocal an exemption which it passed on to Chevron.

     While Rice served on the Chevron board, the company was sued for involvement in the killing of nonviolent protesters in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The latest protests in Burma were actually triggered by a government‑imposed increase in fuel prices.

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

By Karim El‑Khashab, in the Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram Weekly

On Sept. 30, workers at the state run textile and weaving company Ghazl Al‑Mahala began one of the largest industrial protests of the past two decades, with 27,000 workers downing tools. The strike is a continuation of the action taken in December, when production at the plant was halted.

     On the night of Sept. 29, police forces had surrounded the factory only to withdraw, fearing direct confrontation with the workers. Meanwhile, Minister of Manpower Aisha Abdel‑Hady said that action can only be taken once the strike is ended.

     The workers have repeated many of the demands they first made in December, and to which the government agreed, only to backtrack on its promises. They include payment of overdue bonuses, an increase in salaries and better medical services and transport facilities. The workers are also insisting that board chairman Mahmoud El‑Gibali be suspended pending investigation into the alleged misuse of funds, and that union officials attached to the state‑controlled General Federation of Trade Unions be impeached.

     Mohamed Attar, a factory worker and one of the organisers of the current strike, spoke to Al‑Ahram Weekly shortly before he was detained, and said workers were more determined than ever to achieve their goals.

     "It has become an issue of life and death for us now," he said, explaining that the workers had no choice but to strike after factory and union officials failed to act and the government broke its earlier promises.

     "There was real hope and confidence that the government understood our plight last December and would act accordingly," said Attar. Now, he added, the workers feel betrayed and are in much more militant mood.

     Attar was arrested on Oct. 1, accused with three others of disrupting production and promoting unrest. Before being detained he told the Weekly he expected the government would act against him and other labour leaders and then attempt to cut a deal with workers once they were rudderless.

     "We don't fear arrest or the police, and if they are hoping to cut a deal after our arrests they will be disappointed," he said, arguing that the mood among workers in Mahala had developed momentum of its own. It is the first time since December that the authorities have detained workers' leaders.

     The strike began when evening shift workers laid down their tools on Sunday, Sept. 30. They were joined on Monday by morning shift workers, including 3,000 women, some of whom brought their children. The workers began to chant their demands, including the payment of bonuses of 150 Egyptian pounds ($27 Can.) each. The chants then changed as workers named members of the factory's management and demanded they be brought to account.

     Layla Abdel‑Moneim, a worker at the factory, says the management has consistently failed to pay bonuses despite targets being met. "They said that if we made 60 million ($11 million Can.) in profit we would receive our annual bonus. Profits have exceeded 200 million ($36 million Can.) and still no bonuses have been paid."

     As the protest continued demands turned from worker‑related grievances to denunciations of the government and calls were made for President Hosni Mubarak to intervene. The strikers also carried coffins bearing the names of senior managers as well as Minister of Investment Mahmoud Mohieddin. News that strike leaders had been arrested fuelled the growing mood of anger.

     El‑Gibali told the Weekly that the allegations made against him were false and that the workers had overstepped the mark in this latest strike. "They seem to want to take things by force without understanding the circumstances the company is facing," he said, adding that the profit figures quoted by the workers are inaccurate and that the company has yet to meet its targets. Neither the management, nor the government, is in a mood to be bullied by such actions, he added. Asked whether he thought Attar and others should be prosecuted, El‑Gibali responded that they had been warned earlier of the likely consequences of a strike.

     Meanwhile, workers at the Kafr Al‑Dawar textile mill have issued a statement saying they would take action in solidarity with the strikers. Railway employees have made a similar pledge. The strikers also have the backing of Kifaya, the Egyptian movement for change, most opposition parties and many civil society organisations.

     Workers in Mahala are keen to dismiss allegations that they are being used by any political faction, especially not the Muslim Brotherhood.

     "We don't want anything from anyone," one worker said. "This is a worker‑led action. We will not be used as anyone's political tool." Yet there is no question that the workers' demands, which had initially focussed on specific grievances, have taken on a more political complexion following the arrest of eight strike leaders. Current demands now include the holding of union elections without state security interference. Indeed, the police and state security personnel are increasingly the subject of workers' anger and so, by extension, is the state.

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(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2007 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

"Against another American war, and for Peace and Democracy in Iran," statement issued by 38 left, communist and progressive parties from five continents, expressing support for the struggle of the Iranian people and condemning the escalating U.S. military threats against Iran.

We the undersigned parties express our grave concern with the heightening tensions in the Persian Gulf region emanating from the US militaristic and hegemonic stance in its conflict with Iran (including Bush's latest statement on Sept. 12, 2007). The US led pressures against Iran on the question of Iran's expressed wish to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes, is only a cover for the US attempts to secure US control over an area of the Middle East that is best situated to control the production and export of energy resources from this part of the world. We also express our concern over the provocative and unacceptable statements from the Iranian president. These statements have provided the US and its allies, in particular the Israeli government, with the excuse to continue their provocations against Iran. The Iranian regime is exploiting the current situation to extend its suppression of progressive forces, trade unions, youth and student movements as well as women's movements.

     We express our full solidarity with the people and progressive forces of Iran, with trade unions, women, youth and student movements that are campaigning for peace, democracy and social progress. We call for the immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners particularly the trade unionist leaders, student movement activists and women's right campaigners who have been arrested and tortured in recent months.

     We strongly and unconditionally express our total opposition to any military attack or intervention against Iran by the US, the EU or Israel. We resolve to support all genuine efforts directed at the resolution of the current differences between the US and the Islamic Republic of Iran through peaceful and diplomatic means. We call for the elimination of all nuclear weapons in the Middle East, strict observance of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and declaring the region a nuclear weapons free zone. The future direction of developments in Iran should be decided only by the people of Iran and no one else.

     Supported by: AKEL Cyprus; CP Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic); CP France; CP Greece; DKP (Germany); CP Portugal; CP Russian Federation; Hungarian Workers Communist Party; CP Finland; CP Italy‑Refoundation; Party of Italian Communists; CP Spain; CP Britain; The Swiss Party of Labour; CP Ireland; CP Norway; CP Turkey; European Left Party; Die Linke (The Left Party) Germany; CP USA; CP Canada; Party of Mexican Communists; CP Venezuela; CP Peru; Tudeh Party of Iran; CP Lebanon; CP Jordan; CP Syria; CP Israel; CP Iraq; People's Party of Palestine; CP Australia; CP India (Marxist); South African CP; PADS Algeria; Party of Patriotic and Democratic Labour of Tunisia; MPLA Angola; Independent and Labour Party of Senegal; CP Guadeloupe.

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