|
|
People’s Voice August 1-31, 2017
Volume 25 – Number 13 $1
2) UNIONS SAY MINIMUM WAGE AND WORKERS’ RIGHTS SHOULD BE NDP
PRIORITY
3) UNION LEADERS JOIN BC NDP CABINET
4) NO TO WAR AND OCCUPATION: STOP TRUDEAU’S SPENDING INCREASE
5) TREATY ALLIANCE TO RESIST TAR SANDS EXPANSION
6) THE HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST OMAR KHADR - Editorial
7) CELEBRATION AND CAUTION - Editorial
8) NLFL BACKS CALL FOR PHARMACARE
9) LESSONS FROM THE 1811 INDEPENDENCE OF VENEZUELA
10) COMBATING HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA IN CUBA
11) CLASS DIVIDE THREATENS CHILDREN, SAYS UNICEF
PEOPLE'S VOICE August 1-31, 2017 (pdf)
|
People's Voice deadlines: September 1-15 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, |
|
|
REDS
ON THE WEB
http://www,rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com
http://www.communist-party.ca
http://peoplesvoice.ca
www.ycl-ljc.ca
www.solidnet.org
|
People's Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start" website, http://www.labourstart.org/. We urge our readers to check it out! |
* * * * * *
Central Committee CPC
290A
Ph: (416) 469-2446
fax: (416) 469-4063 E-mailmailto:info@cpc-pcp.ca
Parti Communiste
du Quebec (section du
Parti communiste du
5359 Ave du Parc, Montréal,
B.C.Committee CPC
Tel: (604) 254-9836
Fax: (604) 254-9803
Tel: (780) 465-7893
Fax: (780)463-0209
Unit #1 - 19 Radcliffe Close
Calgary
Tel: (403) 248-6489
Tel: (613) 232-7108
Manitoba Committee
387 Selkirk Ave., Winnipeg, R2W 2M3
Tel/fax: (204) 586-7824
290A
Tel: (416) 469-2446
Tel: (905) 548-9586
Atlantic Region CPC
Box 70 Grand Pré, NS, B0P 1M0
Tel/fax: (902) 542-7981
* * * * * *
News for People, Not for Profits!
Every issue of People's Voice
gives you the latest
on the fightback from coast to coast.
Whether it's the struggle for jobs or peace, resistance to social
cuts,
solidarity with
we've got the news the corporate media won't print.
And we do more than that
- we report and analyze events
from a revolutionary perspective,
helping to build the movements for justice and equality,
and eventually for a socialist
Read the paper that fights for working people
- on every page, in every issue!
People's Voice
$30 for 1 year
$50 for 2 years
Low-income special rate: $15 for 1-year
Outside
Send to: People's Voice,
You can call the editorial office at 604-255-2041
<pvoice@telus.net>
(The
following articles are from the August 1-31, 2017, issue of People's
1)
GET OUT OF NAFTA NOW!
Submission
to Global Affairs Canada’s NAFTA Consultations, by the Communist Party of
Canada
The
Communist Party of
Most
Canadians were unaware and surprised by the Tories’ support for the FTA, as
Mulroney had opposed free trade in an earlier election campaign. But the
extraordinary efforts of the labour and democratic movements, the Communist
Party, the NDP, and some others to expose the real impact that the deal would
have on Canada, nearly defeated the deal in the court of public opinion, in the
few short months leading up to the election.
Mulroney’s
victory in 1988 was based on his unfounded promises that free trade would
create thousands of new, well-paid jobs in industry and manufacturing, would
raise wages and living standards across the country, and would open a new era
of prosperity for Canada, as a result of expanded access to the US market.
In 1992,
the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement was expanded to include
In 1993,
five years later, after a deep recession and massive job losses in
The
reasons: the free trade agreements, corporate tax cuts, deregulation,
privatization, and attacks on labour and democratic
rights which, combined, had opened up Canada like a sardine can for large
national and transnational corporations to maximize profits at the expense of
Canada’s sovereignty and independence, of permanent, well-paid and unionized
jobs in industry and manufacturing, of cultural and environmental protections, labour and democratic rights, and more.
NAFTA was
exposed as a North American corporate constitution which was not about trade,
but about corporate control of the continent, including the hobbling of
national and local governments, control over resources and the environment, the
workforce, culture and education, healthcare and every other aspect of our
sovereignty and independence.
NAFTA also provided the transnational oil companies with
sweeping new powers. The energy proportionality agreement embedded in NAFTA
ensures that
Free trade
opened a period of unprecedented corporate greed, impoverishing millions of
people across the continent, driving down wages and pensions, destroying more
than half a million value added manufacturing jobs and the domestic steel
industry in Canada, stripping the country of manufacturing sectors such as
appliance and agricultural implements, the garment and footwear industries,
among many others, and eviscerating public services and social programs with
government mandated austerity programs.
Free trade
and the apocalyptic, concomitant policies of tax cuts, privatization, and
deregulation enabled the redistribution of wealth into the pockets of the 1%
and the biggest corporations, banks and hedge-funds, eventually leading to the
2008 crisis which rocked the capitalist system around the world.
In the nine
years since, the banks and the corporations have recovered very well, with new
corporate trade deals and sky-rocketing profits the order of the day, while
working people continue to suffer mass unemployment, precarious work,
increasing attacks on their wages and pensions, public services and social
programs, growing household debt, and continuing attacks on their labour, civil and democratic rights.
This is
capitalist globalization, and it is accompanied every step of the way by
militarization, reaction, and war.
The
Canadian government’s proposed renegotiation of NAFTA takes place in the
context of a US administration committed to slash corporate taxes by 20% (or
more), to repeal the Dodd-Frank Act and consequently speed-up the next global
financial crisis brought on by deregulation and unfettered corporate greed.
The
renegotiation takes places with a
The
renegotiation takes place in the context of
The
What the US
wants in particular is for Canada to yield on softwood lumber, food sovereignty
and supply management policies in agriculture, the single payer system in
Medicare , public delivery of public services and social programs, culture,
and education.; rules of origin on automobile parts and
assembly and on other products
manufactured in Canada. They want those manufacturing jobs to slide
south to the US rust belt states which all have right to work laws and the much
lower wages and poorer conditions that go with it.
They want a
free hand to export and sell US goods in
They want a
free hand for US corporations to invest in every sector including state owned
enterprises, and in banking. They want
They want
to eliminate the NAFTA trade dispute panels contained in Chapter 19, where
In previous
negotiations side deals and agreements on labour
standards, environmental standards were negotiated to meet the demands of the labour and environmental movements, and to eliminate
opposition to these trade deals. However
it’s now clear that none of the side agreements was of any use, because all of
them were toothless and none of them were enforceable.
Now the
Why would
we want to get in bed with our politically and economically sick neighbour to the south?
Instead of
getting in deeper, losing ever bigger chunks of our sovereignty and
independence,
Instead of
virtually unilateral trade with the
Along with
a fair and democratic trade policy,
Rebuilding
Canada’s manufacturing and secondary industry, developing an environmentally
sustainable industrial strategy, a transportation policy that invests in mass
public transit in cities and inter urban rail transit, in social housing at
rents and prices people can afford, expanding Medicare to include dental and
vision care, long term care and pharmacare; and
developing an environmental policy that will create new green jobs and build up
alternative energy sources within the publicly owned energy sector.
This is the
way to a future worth having in
We say NO
to NAFTA, Get Out Now!
We say YES to Canadian Sovereignty, Democracy, Peace and Jobs!
- Central
Executive Committee CPC, July 18, 2018
2) UNIONS SAY MINIMUM WAGE AND WORKERS’ RIGHTS SHOULD BE NDP
PRIORITY
By Meagan Gillmore, Canadian
Association of Labour Media (CALM)
Horgan and his cabinet were sworn in on Tuesday, July 18..
Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said she hopes this new government will raise
minimum wage to $15 an hour by sometime in 2019, a timeline consistent with
announced changes in
Lanzinger called the increases a way to
"immediately" improve the lives of the working poor. The province
also needs to follow suit with nearby jurisdictions like
But it
can't stop there, she said. Eventually, the minimum wage should be the same as
the living wage. How that happens is a "completely appropriate and a good
discussion to have," Lanzinger said. She said
the federation is looking forward to working with the Fair Wages Commission,
which will study the issue.
The
provincial Green party had named the establishment of such a commission as an
election promise.
But Lanzinger also wants the government to tackle concerns that
are "less on the public radar," like changing the labour
code to make it easier for people to join unions, calling unions the "key
to reducing the gap between rich and poor."
Lanzinger would also like to see stiffer penalties,
including criminal charges and jail time, for employers whose negligence causes
the injury or death of workers. Drivers face prison time when their negligence
causes injury or death, she said. It should be the same for employers.
The new
cabinet includes many ministers with past labour
experience. Judy Darcy, former president of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE), was named to the newly created ministry of mental health and
addictions. George Heyman, former president of the
B.C. Government and Services Employees'
While Lanzinger says the "deep knowledge" about labour these ministers will bring is helpful, it's not
necessary for advancing the rights of workers. It's more important that
government officials recognize the importance of unions, she said.
A former
teacher, Lanzinger said she was pleased to see Rob
Fleming appointed minister of education. Fleming was previously the education
critic.
Glen Hansman, president of the BCTF, echoed Lanzinger's
approval. Fleming "doesn't need to come up to speed" about the issues
facing the education system, said Hansman.
The first
priority needs to be making sure the B.C. government implements last November's
Supreme Court of
But that
hasn't happened, said Hansman. Many districts were
"scrambling" in June when they learned they weren't going to receive
the money they had expected, he said. This includes large districts, like the
Districts
need that staff immediately, said Lanzinger.
"It is
not optional," she said. "It must be implemented and it must be
implemented quickly. Frankly, that's the best thing for kids in the province.
And it's also the law."
Hansman also said he hopes the new government will have a
less "adversarial" relationship with unions. The Liberals were known
to "use the legislative hammer" to get things done, he said, calling
their relationship with labour a "dark
cloud" hanging over the province. He said he hopes this changes --
especially as teachers' collective bargaining agreement expires in 2019.
Preparations for negotiations will begin soon, he said.
Hansman wasn't the only union leader calling on the
government to take action on education.
Paul Faoro, president of the Canadian
Stephanie
Smith, president of the BCGEU, said in a release the union is hopeful to work
with a new government "forged in a spirit of cooperation." The
release singles out the need for the ministry of education to provide better
services in time for the next school year.
The
government also needs to re-evaluate long-term educational goals, said Hansman. The government has spent years changing the
curriculum. The federation supports many of those changes, he said. But other
changes, like those to assessment and reporting, has caused a lot of stress for
teachers.
Teachers
are "faced with a lot of changes all at once without the resources in
place in schools to make them successful," he said. "It's a lot of
scrambling."
The last
government seemed to make decisions at "random," he said. It spent
millions of dollars implementing electronic databases for student information,
without always explaining the purpose for this, how information will be used or
how long it will be stored, or giving teachers adequate training about privacy.
Hansman said he hopes to meet with Education Minister
Fleming soon to discuss priorities.
3) UNION LEADERS JOIN BC NDP CABINET
PV Vancouver Bureau
On July 18,
the new B.C. NDP cabinet, led by Premier John Horgan,
was sworn in at the Legislature, marking the first time in 16 years the
province has seen a change in leadership.
Horgan made several key appointments from among the trade
union members and activists in his 41-member NDP caucus, including George Heyman as the Minister of Environment and Climate Change
Strategy. Heyman is the former President of the B.C.
Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU), and National Executive Board
member of the National
The new
ministry of Mental Health and Addictions will be led by Judy Darcy, former
National President of the Canadian
Harry Bains, who has served as an MLA since 2005, will now serve
as the Minister of Labour. Prior to running for
office, Bains was a member of the Board of Governors
at
Mabel
Elmore has served 3 terms as an MLA for the riding of Vancouver-Kensington.
Previously she worked as a transit operator for 10 years, where she became
active in her union, the Canadian Auto Workers, Local 111 – and led successful
campaigns as a transit advocate. Her new role is as Parliamentary Secretary for
Poverty Reduction.
Melanie
Mark, the new Advanced Education Minister, is the first female Indigenous
cabinet minister in
4) NO TO WAR AND OCCUPATION: STOP TRUDEAU’S SPENDING
INCREASE
Statement by the Central Executive Committee, Communist
Party of
The
Communist Party of
The Trudeau
government’s plan is to add 5,000 regular and reserve personnel to the Canadian
Armed Forces, buy a bigger than expected fleet of 88 new fighter jets (with an
estimated cost of $15-19 billion), pay for 15 war ships (with an estimated cost
of $60 billion), increase the size of Canada’s secretive special forces by 600,
and purchase armed drones, all the while increasing annual expenditures by $14
billion to over $32 billion a year within ten years. This is far beyond what
the previous Harper Conservative government attempted or had planned.
The
military spending plan is being sold as a move towards Canadian sovereignty and
away from reliance on the
This
ignores the fact that U.S. President Trump and NATO have been lobbying for
Already
under the Harper government
Trudeau’s
election victory in 2015 was based on “sunny ways” against the Conservative
government’s agenda of war and austerity. He campaigned on more “peacekeeping”
and less involvement in the
Part of the
cynical political spin of this announcement is that
For working
people in
Who will
pay the tens of billions in increased expenditures? The government has not made
any mention of how they intend to fund their ambitious war plan. Those that can
afford it won’t be the ones that pay: the corporations and the wealthy. The
Liberals have ruled out corporate tax increases. The only options are increased
taxes on working people, through sales taxes, user fees and other regressive
taxation schemes. Undoubtedly this will mean more attacks on social programs
and services: more cuts to Medicare, the privatization of public services and
assets, the further privatization of education, and much more.
The
priorities of the Liberal government and of
The
Communist Party of Canada demands that the federal government cut the existing
military budget by 75% and use these funds to create good jobs across Canada;
build affordable housing and infrastructure; develop a sustainable industrial
strategy and expand value-added manufacturing and secondary industry to create
jobs; expand and improve Medicare, including a public pharmacare
program; address the housing crisis by building social housing across Canada;
introduce a universal, accessible, affordable public childcare system; invest
in public renewable energy to transition from fossil fuels and pay climate
reparations to over-exploited countries to avoid climate catastrophe; fully
fund public and post-secondary education and eliminate tuition fees and student
debt; increase the minimum wage and pensions; and deliver on promises made to
Indigenous peoples for urgent and long-term funding to raise living standards
on and off reserve in order to implement the recommendations of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission.
Trump’s
prescription for economic recovery is war: huge profits for the arms industry
and total hegemony over the land, labour and
resources of the world. We need to fight for a recovery for people. An urgent
part of this fight is building the anti-war movement across
5) TREATY
From the
An assembly
of Tribal leaders of the Great Sioux Nation along with leaders of the Ponca
Nation in Nebraska and Oklahoma met (on July 4), in the sacred Black Hills in
South Dakota, with a large delegation of Chiefs of First Nations from Canada
who have signed the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion. The tribal
leaders and chiefs sent a clear message on this July 4th US “Independence Day”
about their independence as Sovereign Indigenous Nations and to announce a new
cross-border alliance to stop the Keystone XL pipeline. The historic gathering
challenging the power of Canada and the US to harm their lands and pollute
their water comes on the heels of widespread Indigenous resistance in Canada
challenging the July 1st celebrations of Canada’s “150th anniversary”.
The Treaty
Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion, after the signing today of the 10 Tribes
and First Nations from the Great Sioux Nation, Ponca Nation and Blackfoot
Confederacy, now counts over 130 First Nations and Tribes who have signed the
Indigenous Treaty barring the passage of each of the four pipelines that the
Tar Sands industry of Alberta is hoping to build in order to expand production:
TransCanada’s Keystone XL, Enbridge’s Line 3 pipeline through Minnesota, Kinder
Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion through British Columbia and TransCanada’s
Energy East.
“If you
don’t think we’re nations, if you think we’re isolated remnants of a bygone
era, just watch us exercise our sovereign right to protect our land and our
people by stopping these pipeline abominations from threatening our water and
our very future,” said Casey Camp-Horinek on behalf
of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, who will in fact be organizing a similar type
ceremony in Nebraska in the coming weeks where the broad cross-section of
opponents of the Keystone XL will be invited to sign a declaration against KXL
first signed on May, 17 in Calgary, AB. “Today is not just about our
independence as Nations, but also everyone’s much needed independence from the
shackles of oil, and especially Keystone’s dirty tar sands oil.”
Present for
the formation of this cross-border Indigenous alliance against Keystone XL were
most of the Tribes whose lands the pipeline would cross, from Piikani Nation of the Blackfoot Confederacy at the start of
the pipeline in Canada to the Great Sioux Nation and then finally the Ponca
Nation in Nebraska and Oklahoma where the pipeline would end.
Also signed
on this day was The Grizzly: A Treaty of Cooperation, Cultural Revitalization
and Restoration, an Indigenous Treaty spearheaded by the Piikani
Nation in Alberta which now also counts over 130 signatory First Nations and
Tribes from across the continent. The leaders present at the ceremony today
pledged to work together to safeguard the sacred Grizzly Bear and combat the recent
move by the Trump administration to delist the grizzly of Greater Yellowstone
from the Endangered Species Act.
“Indigenous
People in Canada, led by our women and youth grassroots water protectors, just
finished crashing the July 1st ‘Canada 150’ celebrations, letting Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau and all of Canada know that not only can they not
whitewash history, but they cannot continue to run roughshod over our Nations
by looking to ram pipelines like Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Expansion through
our lands,” said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC
Indian Chiefs on behalf of the Treaty Alliance Against Tar Sands Expansion. “We
were honoured to be invited to come support Tribes in
the
“The Tribes
of the Great Sioux Nation are gathered here today on this most historic
occasion on this most sacred of sites, surrounded by our trusted allies, to
make it clear, in honor of Crazy Horse, that we, as a sovereign nations, have
not consented to and will all together fight to the end some of President
Trump’s most grotesque actions, including illegally ramming through the Dakota
Access Pipeline, trying to raise Keystone XL pipeline from the dead and just
recently, trying to get away with delisting our sacred Grizzly bear from the
Endangered Species List,” said Chair Brandon Sazue of
the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe who invited leaders to the event in the spirit of
“Remaking of the Sacred Hoop”, a rekindling of the alliance between the Great
Sioux Nations and the Blackfoot Confederacy.
“These tar
sand pipeline fights like Keystone XL, or Enbridge’s Line 3 which passes
through our lands in Manitoba, are about protecting our Mother but will also
end up being the turning point for relations between our Nations and state
powers – the point where we say no more,” noted Kevin Hart, Assembly of First
Nations Regional Chief for Manitoba, on behalf of the Treaty Alliance Against
Tar Sands Expansion. “These are more than pipelines: they are lines in the sand
for our Nations.”
6) THE HATE CAMPAIGN AGAINST OMAR KHADR
People’s Voice Editorial
The
nauseating campaign to whip up hatred against Omar Khadr
is a signal of the direction the Conservative party intends to take leading up
to the 2019 federal election. Aping the racist rhetoric of Donald Trump and
other demagogues, Tory leader Andrew Scheer and his
colleagues are playing a classic bait and switch game, falsely appealing to the
public on completely irrelevant grounds. Their true intention is not to force
the federal government to reverse the Supreme Court ruling in the Khadr case - which would be utterly illegal - but to create
a more reactionary political and social terrain for the next election, making
it easier for the Tories to regain a majority.
This hate
campaign is not about whether military veterans should receive adequate
pensions, or whether Indigenous communities should have clean drinking water,
to give just two examples. The Conservative Party had a decade in office to
address these and many other issues. Instead, they chose to relentlessly slash
taxes for the big corporations and the rich, making it “necessary” to chop
public services.
Who is
really at fault here? The young boy thrown into a
The torrent
of hate against Omar Khadr is a sickening foretaste
of one frightening future - a society in which racialized
peoples, women, and other sections of the population are turned into second
class citizens, denied their fundamental rights. But this strategy can be
defeated, starting by speaking out in support of the compensation agreement,
and against the vicious bigots who use the Conservative party to advance their
agenda.
People’s Voice Editorial
More than
two months after voters cast their ballots for change in
The BC
Federation of Labour has called on the new government
to improve labour rights and raise the minimum wage.
It seems likely that the NDP pledge to implement a $15/hour minimum wage by
2019 will be kept, despite sharp resistance from the big fast food monopolies
and other corporate interests. Even $15 is far from a living wage in the most
expensive province in
Anti-poverty
activists and poor people welcomed the NDP’s move to
raise social assistance and disability rates by $100 per month. But these
increases still tail the skyrocketing costs of rent, food and other
necessities. Unless the new government reverses the huge tax breaks given by
the Liberals to upper income brackets and the corporations, the one-percent in
British Columbia will keep getting richer, while the poor get poorer - but
maybe at a slightly slower pace.
Our advice
in this remarkable situation? Celebrate the positive gains, but keep the heat
on the Horgan government.
8) NLFL BACKS CALL FOR PHARMACARE
The head of the Newfoundland and Labrador
Federation of Labour (NLFL), representing thousands
of union members and workers in the province, is joining the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) call to premiers to recommit to
establishing a single-payer, universal prescription drug plan in Canada.
“In
The St.
John’s Telegram reports that the CLC gathered in Alberta in July for events
that ran concurrently with a meeting of premiers of Canada’s provinces and
territories — the Council of the Federation.
Labour leaders used that opportunity to prompt premiers to
lobby the federal government for a national pharmacare
plan to ensure all Canadians have access to life-saving medications and to
bring down the costs of the increasingly “out-of-control system.”
According
to the NLFL, evidence shows Canadians who rely on prescription drugs don’t have
the money to cover costs, and instead are splitting pills, skipping dosages to
stretch prescriptions, sharing medicines or going deep into debt to make ends
meet.
A survey by
Angus Reid, in 2015, found 26 per cent of Atlantic-Canadians don’t take their
medications as prescribed because they can’t afford to. This can cause serious
health complications, Shortall said.
“When
people skip their medications or otherwise ignore doctors’ orders, because of
costs, additional burdens to the health-care system actually cost everyone
more,” she said.
The
federation pointed out that
Canada is
the only country with universal health care that does not have a universal
program for prescription drug coverage, despite the stated goal of universal
coverage in the 2004-14 Health Accord.
“Canadians
know bulk buying is the smart option,” Shortall said.
“In public opinion surveys, over 90 per cent of both citizens and employers
believe a universal prescription drug plan is important to Canadian health-care
coverage. Pharmacare is the type of smart policy
Canadians are looking for from our political leaders.”
She said by
adopting a single-payer program, Canadians would benefit from bulk purchasing
power, giving them the power to obtain competitively priced prescription drugs.
She said through aggressive pharmaceutical company competition for Canadian
business, a single-payer, universal prescription drug program could save
Canadians approximately $7.3 billion a year, based on an additional $1 billion
in public sector spending.
9) LESSONS FROM THE 1811
By Nino Pagliccia
July 5
marked the 206th anniversary of
But can we
draw parallels between Venezuelan independence of 1811 that gave birth to the
The
attempts of independence in
Francisco
de Miranda, considered a precursor of Venezuelan independence, tried twice to
reach the Venezuelan territory with an armed expedition from
Miranda
proposed total independence from
The origins
of the movement that culminated in the 1811 declaration of independence and
started the First Republic rest on the events of April 19, 1810.
On that
date a local governing board (Junta Suprema) was established formally in
The
character of this government did not allow it to go beyond the autonomy that
had been proclaimed on April 19. For this reason, the governing board resolved
to convene elections and set up a General Congress, before which it would
decline its powers and decide the future fate of the Venezuelan provinces. The
call for elections ensured the transformation of the de facto government into an independent constitutional
government. This early example of entrusting power to a constituent assembly is
what gives this date, April 19, 1810, a prominent place in the Venezuelan coat
of arms.
Following
the elections, the first session of the newly created Venezuelan Congress took
place on March 2, 1811. On July 3, lively debates started among the deputies
around the issue of full independence. Among those in favour
was Simón Bolívar who pronounced the famous question:
"Three hundred years of calm, is it not enough?” in reference to the
Spanish domination. On July 5, with independence being approved with forty
votes in favour, representing seven of the ten
provinces, the President of the Congress announced that it was "Solemnly
Declared
This
leadership role of
The Act of
A paragraph
from the Venezuelan Act of Independence reveals the reasons given by the
deputies for the need to cut ties with Spain: “Notwithstanding our protests,
our moderation, generosity, and the inviolability of our principles, contrary
to the wishes of our brethren in Europe, we were declared in a state of
rebellion; we were blockaded; war was declared against us; agents were sent
amongst us, to excite us one against the other, endeavoring to take away our
credit with the other Nations of Europe, by imploring their assistance to
oppress us.” [1]
Simply by
adding the U.S. and some OAS countries to Europe, this statement might well
have been written by the Maduro government in
response to current threats to the Bolivarian Revolution. The similarity of
aggression tactics over 200 years apart is striking, including the reference to
foreign intervention.
The
Popular hostility. This was a hostile
resistance to the independence movement by people who preferred to remain a
Spanish colony. This lack of internal solidarity gave strength to the
colonialist powers to bring down the
Economic crisis. The crisis was
triggered by the loss of international trade, the flight of capital and the
rising cost of staples, which resulted in a negative popular reaction against
the authorities. This was not because independence was a “failed” system, just
as today Chavismo is not a failed system. The crisis
is manufactured in order to create unrest among the population.
Mistrust between military power and
oligarchy. When Generalisimo Francisco de
Miranda was given powers to support independence in 1811, the oligarchy was
afraid of a military dictatorship, so Congress did not support executive
measures. This has been a recurrent situation in
Tolerance system. The idea that
reactionary movements could be carried out without bloodshed was widespread
among many supporters of independence. However, the lack of a firm hand was
also seen as a weakness leading to the loss of the first republic. Bolivar, for
one, said: "Under cover of this pious doctrine, to each conspiracy
happened a pardon, and to each pardon happened another conspiracy that was
forgiven again". This final cause of the fall of the
It would
take 187 more years until 1999 before Hugo Chávez
resumed the building of true Venezuelan independence, on the foundations of
that
Chávez achieved the true self-determination of
The
1810-1811 independence movement remains alive with the government of Nicolás Maduro. Today we see the
possibility of further consolidation of the Bolivarian dream with the process
to elect the individuals and sectoral members of the
National Constituent Assembly that will reexamine the Venezuelan constitution.
[3] This is necessary as the only peaceful, legitimate, constitutional and
democratic process for all Venezuelans to participate in without exclusion, to
achieve the
[1] http://www.declarationproject.org/?p=370
[2] http://www.psuv.org.ve/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/ManifiestodeCartagena.pdf
10) COMBATING
HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA IN
By
Jonathan Palameda, The Guardian (
In 2013, I travelled to
These open displays of pride were
spearheaded by Mariela Castro Espín,
daughter of Raul Castro and Vilma Espín,
and head of the Cuban National Centre for Sex Education. The reactions of
onlookers to the march reflected the conflicted past on which
As in many other sectors, though,
In this environment of great change
on the streets and in the halls of Cuban government, our group had the
privilege to meet with Mariela Castro at a newly
built CENESEX clinic providing sexual health services to the surrounding neighbourhood. She spoke briefly on what CENESEX was doing,
particularly its sponsorship of those marches we had seen a few days before.
Castro acknowledged at the end of
her talk that we as Americans faced challenges she did not, particularly the
corporate influence on the American pride movement. She suggested in our
circumstances “tangible support to your communities,” referencing the
educational seminars, informal discussion/support groups, and material support
offered by CENESEX. Several communist organisations
including the American Party of Labor have pursued such an approach in Serve
the People campaigns since 2013, and the concept of material support continues
to garner multi-tendency support.
The floor was then opened for
questions. Several in the group asked about the history of Cuban machismo and
that “great injustice” mentioned earlier. Castro did not hide from the
realities of the Cuban past, calling it “terrible and unscientific.” She did
seek to contextualise the history, though,
underlining that “revolutions are popular events – they cannot transcend the
minds of revolutionaries.”
The Cuban Communist Party in the
past failed to incorporate LGTBQ+ narratives into its decision making, and in
doing so limited its ability practically and intellectually to agitate against
homophobia and transphobia. “That has changed,” she
concluded, highlighting that the PCC now plays a central role in CENESEX’s work.
Given what she had just highlighted,
I asked her how she counteracted anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry within the Communist
Party, how she had, in her words, changed the minds of revolutionaries. Her
answer was significant then, in a year that saw several incidents of sexism,
rape-apologism, homophobia, and transphobia
in various left groups, and remains relevant today as these issues and debates
continue.
“It’s an ongoing challenge,” she
said with a laugh, before highlighting the similar barriers her mother, Cuban
revolutionary icon Vilma Espín,
faced in the early 1970s during the push for a domestic labour
equality law that eventually passed. The answer then as now for Castro was not
in supplementing Marxism but appealing to it. “Challenge those people in your
parties to consider why they are socialists. What is the goal of socialism?”
Answering these questions made
bigotry against LGBTQ+ an untenable position for Marxists according to Castro,
as the goal of socialism “is to establish a society in which all people can
prosper, no matter who they are. Socialism and prejudice are contradictory.”
Castro thus attacked homophobia and transphobia in
In building a movement for LGBTQ+
liberation and equality, Castro asserted that the most important concerns for
Communists lay first in the community they are serving and second amongst
themselves. The focus in each case is not on conversion or confrontation with
reactionaries, but on building a revolutionary cadre that serves the people, is
ideologically disciplined, and is capable of winning converts and confrontations.
Developing and educating a cadre is a
daunting yet increasingly important task in the era of resurgent fascism, but
the challenges do not exceed those of 1959, 1949, or 1917. Following Castro’s
lead through establishing campaigns for community support and having difficult
debates within the confines of a democratic centralist organisation
provides a useful foundation from which to move forward for those working in
what Ché Guevara called “the heart of the beast.”
Castro herself was optimistic as our
session came to an end, bidding us goodbye with a not entirely sarcastic “si se puede” before heading to
another CENESEX clinic for another speaking engagement.
11) CLASS DIVIDE THREATENS
CHILDREN, SAYS UNICEF
By
W. T. Whitney, Jr. mltoday.com (abridged)
“Report Card 14,” released June 15
by the United Nations’ Children’s Fund (UNICEF), shows that many children in
well-resourced nations are developing poorly and are vulnerable. The document
is the latest in a series of periodic reports issued by UNICEF’s Office of
Research on the performances of economically advanced countries in securing the
rights of children. The current title is: “Building the Future: Children and
the Sustainable Development Goals in Rich Countries.”
This UNICEF survey ranks the
performance of 41 countries belonging to the European Union, the Organization
for Economic Co-operation and Development, or both. Report Card 14 documents
the disadvantage weighing on children of working-class and marginalized
families living in capitalist societies.
The report’s author, Chris Brazier,
utilized nine of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
elaborated by the United Nations in 2015, particularly those “with most direct
relevance to the well-being of children in high-income settings [and to] income
and wealth, health and educational opportunity.” He indicates that the SDGs generally “represent an ambitious effort to set a
global agenda for development that is both equitable and sustainable, in
social, economic and environmental terms.” They bring attention to “the
consequences of wealth accumulation by the richest.”
SDGs are
one set of tools used in UNICEF’s Report Card for assessing whether or not
wealthy societies are meeting the needs of children. The other is a
conglomeration of dozens of “indicators” of their success or not in meeting
particular SDGs. The indicators utilize data from
2014 and 2015.
The SDGs
and indicators appearing here are those selected specifically for pointing to
outcomes for children that vary according to their social class. In fact,
Report Card 14 presents information covering a wide range of childhood
experience, not all of it having to do with class differences. As a result,
many of the SDGs and indicators found in the Report
Card aren’t mentioned here.
One method for presenting the
survey’s results was to evaluate the progress of individual countries in terms
of specific SDGs, through an assigned rating
reflecting the combined findings from relevant indicators. Those results are
displayed in a listing that extends both above and below the average country
performance for the indicator.
Some commendable and not so
commendable results are presented here. They apply to these SDGs:
“End poverty,” “End hunger and food insecurity,” “Ensure healthy lives, promote
well-being,” “Inclusive education,” “Reduce inequality,” and lastly “Promote
peaceful and inclusive society.” The performances of these countries are at the
top in the various categories:
The other way Report Card 14
displays its findings is by ranking performance of the countries as signalled by individual indicators, expressed as
percentages or rates. Again, performances are recorded as ranking above or
below average performances by the countries. What with data for an indicator
not always being available, some rankings don’t include all 41 countries.
Examples follow of countries ranked according to single indicators:
One indicator relating to “End
poverty” is “Relative [family] income.” It’s the percentage of children 17
years of age or younger living in households with incomes less than 60 percent
of their country’s median income. The average for all countries is 21 percent.
Another such indicator is
“Percentage of reduction in childhood poverty as the result of social
transfers.” The country average is 37.5 percent,
The indicator “Percentage of
children 15 years old or younger living with a food-insecure family” relates to
the “End hunger” SDG. The country average for this indicator is 12.7 percent;
The indicator designated as
“Neonatal Mortality” relates to the SDG “Ensure healthy lives.” The neonatal
mortality rate is the number of infants per 1000 births who die in their first
28 days. The country average is 2.8 deaths.
One indicator for the “Reducing
Inequality” SDG is the ratio of income share of the top 10 percent and bottom
40 percent of the population in income distribution. The country average is
1.17.
Another indicator for the same goal
is: “the relative gap between the median income and that of the bottom 10
percent of households with children.” The country average is 51.2 percent.
One of the indicators for the SDG
“Ensure education” is revealing. Its designation is: “percentage of children
under 15 years of age achieving basic learning proficiency.” The country
average performance is only 68.6 percent. Estonia is in first place with 83.1
percent, and the
The indicator “Child murder rate”
(age 0-19), associated with the SGD “Promote peaceful and inclusive Society,”
also deserves a look. The country average is 0.65 child murders per 100,000 persons.
No Maltese children were murdered in 2015, and in second place, Luxemburg’s
rate was 0.01. The
Report Card 14 says little about
racial oppression of children, particularly in the
The report’s conclusion is that a
sizable portion of children in well-resourced nations are deprived, neglected,
or endangered. They belong to the single social class of people who work or who
are marginalized.
Evidence for their class
identification lies in the documentation the Report Card provides of families
being subjected to scanty income, hunger, violence, flimsy health care, and
poor schooling for children. Affected children live in capitalist societies
where profiteering and protecting the status quo come first. Their fate is no
accident.
In theory the working class has a
mission of anti-capitalistic struggle. Children, however, can’t engage very
well. So who speaks and acts for them?
Adult family members and
left-leaning political organizations are their proxy warriors. But these
parties may have priorities far removed from those of children. Importantly,
children are not little adults; their task of personal development often
requires repair measures applying to them as individuals.
But any rescue effort has to
encompass all endangered children, together. The need arises, therefore, for
new thinking.
Preparation for political struggle
ideally begins in childhood with education, good health, and emulation of any
self-confidence, resilience, and optimism displayed by adult family members.
But under stressful conditions like those portrayed in this survey, adults may
be distracted, fearful, out of money, isolated, and/or fixated on short-term
survival. Incapacitation of children fits with the priorities of those in
charge, as they plan their future.
The essential need now is for
advocates for children to confront power-brokers and to lead. Maybe the time is
right for parents and especially women, and women as mothers, to assert
themselves. Children are with women, and women know the realities of children’s
lives. They are used to defending their own rights and those of children.
Together these rights make up a lion’s share of social and economic rights
generally.
12) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker
Rebel music
from Canadian Reds
Canadian
communists are producing some vital music these days, with comrades in
Stirring
messages from DeMent & Gilkyson
Singers Iris DeMent and Eliza Gilkyson, both
outstanding contemporary folk artists, have
released new works with powerful political messages. Iris DeMent is a folk, country, and gospel artist who resides in
rural
The irony of
being feted as "the musical conscience of Greece" by a parliament,
most of whose members have acquiesced to the austerity demands of foreign
capital, must not have been lost on composer Mikis Theodorakis, as he took in the gigantic tribute to his life
and work on June 19 in Athens. 50,000 people attended the concert at Panathinaic Stadium, which featured 1,000 choral singers
from 30 cities, a full orchestra, and dozens of other performers. Theodorakis, 91, is universally recognized as the country's
greatest living artist, so Greece's rulers were compelled to join in the
tribute, despite the artist's criticisms of their capitulation to E.U.
austerity and
Rosie Sorrels:
1933-2017
American
singer-songwriter and storyteller Rosalie Sorrels died on June 11 in