02) IDLE NO MORE GIVES VOICE TO MILLIONS OF CANADIANS

Statement of the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada, Jan. 15, 2013

     Less than two months since its first public actions, Idle No More has become the most widespread and significant movement for indigenous rights in recent decades. The Communist Party of Canada sends warm solidarity greetings to all Idle No More activists. By demanding the repeal of Bill C‑45, C‑38 and other Tory legislation, Idle No More gives voice to millions of Canadians who oppose the dangerous agenda of the Tory government.

     Bringing tens of thousands of supporters out to hundreds of actions across the country, the Idle No More movement has already compelled Prime Minister Harper to meet with a number of First Nations chiefs. But following their usual strategy, the Tories are attempting to smear their opponents, and to recycle old broken promises to improve living conditions for First Nations reserves and urban indigenous people.

     These desperate dirty tricks must be exposed and rejected. The real corrupt criminals in Canada are those who carry out the corporate agenda to drive down wages, gut social programs and pensions, attack labour and democratic rights, and give the big monopolies unfettered rights to extract and export natural resources. The politicians who accuse Chief Theresa Spence and other First Nations leaders of financial irregularities are hypocrites who transfer billions to the rich through tax cuts, forcing all working people to pay the costs of the economic crisis. The $300 million promised by PM Harper to provide safe drinking water to reserves is less than one percent of the amount his government proposes to waste on deadly fighter‑bomber jets. Finally, while right‑wing forces talk about "divisions" among indigenous movements, Harper's Tories were backed by just one‑quarter of all registered voters in the 2011 federal election, showing that they have no genuine political mandate for their reactionary policies.

     We urge all the labour and democratic movements in Canada to help this courageous struggle become a rallying point for a broad, united campaign to turn back the racist, anti‑people, anti-environment assault by the Tories and the corporations. Such unity must be based on support for the Idle No More demands to rescind omnibus Bill C‑45 and the rest of Harper's reactionary legislation, and to respect the inherent land and treaty rights of the Aboriginal peoples on the basis of genuine equality among all the nations within the Canadian state.

     This is not a time to base tactics and strategies of the fightback on hopes of electing a different federal government in 2015. Only a powerful, united, determined alliance of the broadest possible range of people's forces can make the Harper Tories back down. Idle No More has presented a truly historic opportunity to create such a united resistance ‑ it is the collective responsibility of the labour and people's movements to grasp this opportunity and make it a reality.

(The above article is from the February 1-14, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)