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People’s Voice September 1-15, 2017
Volume 25 – Number 14 $1
1) UNITE AND FIGHT FOR JOBS, DEMOCRACY, SOVEREIGNTY, AND PEACE
2) HUGE VANCOUVER RALLY BLOCKS NAZI GATHERING
3) WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT CHARLOTTESVILLE
4) BRAMPTON ACTIVISTS RALLY FOR AFFORDABLE PUBLIC HOUSING
5) PARKDALE RENT STRIKE ENDS IN VICTORY
6) UNITE AGAINST NAZI TERROR - Editorial
7) PEACE IS A WORKING CLASS ISSUE - Editorial
9) WORLD PEACE COUNCIL SLAMS NEW DPRK SANCTIONS
10) NATIONS MUST REJECT VENEZUELA INVASION PLANS AT U.N.
SESSION
11) SOUTH AFRICA POLITICAL TENSIONS HEATING UP
12) U.S. UNIONS CONDEMN FASCIST VIOLENCE
13) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker
PEOPLE'S VOICE September 1-15, 2017 (pdf)
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(The
following articles are from the September 1-15, 2017, issue of People's
1) UNITE AND FIGHT FOR JOBS, DEMOCRACY, SOVEREIGNTY, AND
PEACE
Labour Day statement from the Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada
This Labour
Day 2017, is the centenary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in
100 years
later, the peoples of the world are once again facing war, racism, exploitation
and fascism, while the
Today
working people in Canada and around the globe are faced not only with the
ongoing corporate assault against jobs and living standards, but with a US
president willing to launch a nuclear war which could devastate humanity. It's
time to unite and fight - for jobs, democracy, sovereignty and peace.
Say no to Trump! Get out of NAFTA!
As we march
in Labour Day parades, our sovereignty and independence are being sold out in
the NAFTA talks. Contrary to what the Liberal government and Chrystia Freeland
claim, these negotiations aim to open up Canada like a sardine can to US based
transnationals that want to feast on energy and natural resources, including
oil and gas, water, lumber, and much more. They want to scrap Chapter 19, which
settles trade disputes among the NAFTA partners, while expanding Chapter 11,
which gives corporations the power to sue governments over future lost profits.
They want to allow US corporations to bid on healthcare and education services
and delivery, which are all public in
On top of
all this, the
There are
no benefits for
Unfortunately,
much of the leadership of the labour movement in
Instead of
one-sided and detrimental “free” trade with the
Say yes to democracy! Defend workers’ rights and standards!
Since
Trump’s election, the attack on civil, social, labour, and democratic rights
has escalated dramatically, especially in the
In
Andrew
Scheer, the new Conservative leader, has close ties with the far right,
including (despite recent disavowals) Ezra
Mass
protests and demonstrations are essential to send a strong message that the
cancerous ideas spread by fascist, racist and white supremacist movements will
not be tolerated. Working people have fought fascism in
These
movements have arisen again because of the crisis of capitalism and its
inability to meet the needs of working people without curbing the power and the
profits of the biggest corporations. Instead, reactionary governments have
relied on policies of austerity, mass unemployment, war, and attacks on labour,
civil and democratic rights to quash resistance and maintain the status
quo. This has created an opening for the
rise of the ultra-right. Racism,
xenophobia, Islamaphobia, and anti-semitism aim to split and divide the working
people and weaken their resistance when united action is essential and
decisive.
No to Trump’s war threats
The
"fire and fury" threat by President Trump against the DPRK (
The South
Korean government is pleading with the
Closer to
home, where Venezuela sits atop the largest oil deposits in the world, the
Trump administration is threatening to overthrow the elected government of
Nicholas Maduro, who has full constitutional rights to convene a Constituent
Assembly. Cuba is also in Trump's sights, just 90 miles from
On a global
scale, military spending (largely by the
Higher
military spending also means more privatization of public services and assets
like
A People’s Coalition
The
Communist Party calls for a People’s Coalition that can unite all the forces
fighting against austerity, war and the rise of the ultra-right, and for a
people’s recovery from capitalist crisis. Working people need a strong and
independent voice to defend their interests in the turbulent times ahead. This cannot be contracted out to the NDP ,who
are committed to put a human face on capitalism, or to the Liberals, the
"friendly" face of capitalism. A People’s Coalition would be just
that: a coalition of people’s organizations, labour, the Communist Party and
others united around a common program and united action to secure those gains.
This would enable a united struggle across
On this
Labour Day, we call for mass united action to stop the drive to war and
reaction, and to move labour onto the offensive, shoulder to shoulder with its
social and political allies.
United
we stand – divided we fall!
An injury
to one is an injury to all!
2) HUGE
By Kimball Cariou,
An
estimated five thousand people jammed the area around
Initiated
by an ad hoc group called Stand Up to Racism Metro
While a
number of fascists and Nazis did turn up, the anti-fascist rally had already
brought together thousands of people, many arriving as early as noon. The nazi
thugs spent their time circulating through the huge crowd, desperately trying
to incite and then film confrontations,
with little success. Most anti-fascist protesters simply ignored these
provocations, or surrounded the nazis to block them from spreading their hate
speech.
A
contingent of members of the Communist Party of
Several
nazis were escorted from the scene by
The rally
was supported byfrom B.C.’s new NDP Premier, John Horgan, and one of the
speakers was Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson. A wide range of politicians
condemned the plans for a nazi rally, although the recently-defeated provincial
Liberals had little to say.
The rally
began with an Indigenous welcome from members of the Musqueam Band, and heard
from several other Indigenous speakers, including Ren Winona from the Tsleil-Waututh
Nation, Bob Chamberlain of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, “Grandmother Buffalo”
(an Idigenous elder from Chief Dan George’s family), and Indigenous rights and
climate justice activist Eagle Eyes (Gordon August).
Other
speakers included Jessie Kaur (Kaur Project), Edward Liu (Richmond anti-racism
activist), Haroon Khan (President of Pakistan Canada Association, and trustee
of Al Jamia Masjid, BC's first mosque), NDP MLA Ravi Kahlon (who brought
greetings from Premier Horgan), trans rights activist Morgane Oger, Martha Roth (Independent Jewish
Voices), a young Syrian refugee, Nour Youssef (student & Muslim social
justice activist), Sejal Lal (SANSAD), Zara Liberte Aldunia (who worked with
Nobel Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu), Harambecouver Parade organizer Kayode
Fatoba, and Jean Swanson (anti-poverty and housing activist who is a candidate
in the upcoming City Council byelection.
Plans are
being discussed to build the anti-fascist and anti-racist movement on a wider
basis in the
3) WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT
This anonymous first-hand social
media report from
I rarely
post politics or anything else on Facebook .... But let me be clear. I was acting
as a medic in
In the
run-up to that weekend, some local counter-protest organizers' families were
forced to flee their homes because of violent threats. Some of them had
"bodyguards" - friends escorting them everywhere they went that week,
even to the grocery store, work, all the mundane places that people go in their
normal lives.
On Friday
night, a torch-wielding mob chanting Nazi and other racist slogans (e.g.
"blood and soil," "Jews will not replace us"), some doing
Nazi salutes, surrounded, screamed "White lives matter" and
"anti-white" at, a small group of college student counterprotesters
who had linked arms around a statue and had a banner. They then threw fuel at
them, beat them with lit torches, pepper-sprayed them, and punched them
(including pepper-spraying a girl in a wheelchair).
The police
mostly stood by until the nazis were gone. A medic who was wearing a kippah (a
Jewish skullcap) was followed in the dark by one of the nazis, and took it off
after that so as not to be targeted. A university librarian who joined the
students to try to protect them has now had a stroke. At some point that
evening, the torch-wielders also surrounded a black church while chanting racist
slogans. All of this not only hurt people that night but set expectations for
how the white nationalists would behave the next day.
On Saturday
morning, a line of clergy, along with a gradually growing group of other
protesters, showed up outside the nazi rally ... facing militia movement members who were
carrying assault rifles. There was shouting back and forth, and a small early
fistfight where a nazi punched a nearby counter-protester who spilled coffee on
him. Nazis were screaming anti-semitic things at rabbis in the clergy line, and
chanting "blood and soil" in response to the clergy singing
"This little light of mine."
At one
point, some clergy did a peaceful blockade of one of the park entrances, which
was forcibly broken by an incoming white nationalist group with skulls painted
on their shields. The heavy bidirectional fighting, though, mostly got going
after a group of counter-protesters nonviolently blocked the way of an oncoming
group of white nationalists, who broke through the blockade with clubs and
heavy shields. Some people defended themselves as the white nationalists kept
charging and swinging clubs. After that, there were fistfights and club-fights
breaking out all around, nazis pepper-spraying and tear-gassing counter-protest
crowds, plastic water bottles thrown in both directions. A nazi group that
didn't know where the entrance to the park was added to the street fights. Some
clergy ran to shield vulnerable people with their bodies, and those clergy were
protected by antifa-associated counter-protesters - multiple clergy/theologians
have said that they would have been "crushed" and maybe killed if
antifa had not protected them. This went on for a long time. For most of this,
the police stood around. Eventually, they cleared both sides out of the area.
The town's
synagogue is a short distance from the park. Throughout the day, nazis paraded
by it doing the Nazi salute and shouting antisemitic slurs. The police had
refused to provide a guard to the synagogue for some reason, so it had hired
its own armed guard. There were threats of burning it down coming in. It had to
cancel a havdalah service at a congregant's house that evening out of fear of
attack.
The march
that was attacked with a car by James Fields was that afternoon. What street
fighting had happened was long-since over by then. It was a happy march, it was
not fighting anyone. The car attack came out of nowhere and the aftermath
looked like a war zone. It hit the front of the march as the march was going
around a corner, and many people weren't sure what had happened at first,
people were screaming about a bomb. In addition to the woman who died, many
people had serious injuries. A medic who was hit had to have emergency surgery
to not lose her leg. A 13 year-old girl and her mom were among the injured. The
street was covered in blood. The firefighters and paramedics were great. The
police, on the other hand, rolled in an armored vehicle and threatened the
crowd of survivors with a tear gas launcher. Police officers ordered the medics
who were performing CPR on the woman who died to leave her and clear the area.
They refused, and bystanders negotiated with the police to leave them alone.
There were
several other incidents throughout the afternoon where white nationalists/nazis/whatever
were menacing small groups of wandering counter-protesters with their cars,
swerving toward them on the sidewalk like they were going to hit them, that
kind of thing... At one point my medic buddy and I were about 50 feet ahead of
such a group and heard screeching car sounds and screams, and ran back,
thinking for a second that there had been another terrorist attack and that
this time we were the only medics on site, but fortunately it was just a scare
- the driver then "rolled coal" (intentionally emitting a dark cloud
of exhaust) at the people on the sidewalk before driving away. There was also
an incident at some point where a young black man was badly beaten by white
nationalists in a parking garage.
There is no
"both sides" here... There is no moral both sides because
antifascists and nazis aren't morally the same, period. Disrupting nazis isn't
the same as being one, period. But there was also no "both sides"
even beyond that. Mutual street fighting primarily kicked off by an attack from
the opposing side, doesn't compare to mowing people down with a car, to
threatening a synagogue and a black church, to stalking someone for being
visibly Jewish, to being part of a Nazi-slogan-screaming mob that surrounds and
attacks peaceful college kids and could have easily killed one of them if the
fuel thrown on a couple of them had been lit by one of the many thrown or swung
torches...
4)
PV Ontario Bureau
As the
In
All the
NRST really amounts to is a populist nod to a racist narrative that
“foreigners” are responsible for the high cost and low supply of housing in the
Greater Golden Horseshoe area of
Housing for
People rejects this tax, along with the government’s discredited policy that
the private sector can provide affordable housing. Instead, the rally called
for a massive provincial campaign to build 200,000 new affordable
publicly-owned units, and to upgrade and maintain existing units. Speaker Dave
McKee, leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Ontario), told the rally,
“Across Ontario, there are 725,000 households in core housing need – spending
more than 30% of their income on housing that is crowded or in need of major
repairs. The private sector has failed to provide housing for hundreds of
thousands of working class people. We need to take the profit out of housing,
recognize it as a human right, and treat it like a public utility that is
provided on the basis of need.”
The rally
also addressed the issue of housing costs, which rose by 33% in the Greater
The Housing
for People campaign is calling for rent rollbacks, combined with strong rent
control legislation to make housing affordable. McKee noted, “If you have a
person drowning in a swimming pool, the solution is not to stop adding more
water but to get them out of the water. For the Liberals to talk about rent
control now is too little, too late – tenants are drowning in unbearable rental
costs and we have to roll those back now.”
At the end
of the rally, organizer Wilfred Szczesny read a statement that participants
agreed to send to Malhi and all MPPs.
For more
information on the Housing for People campaign,
visit www.housingforpeople.ca.
5) PARKDALE RENT STRIKE ENDS IN VICTORY
Special to PV
Tenants of
Rental
units in twelve Parkdale buildings were badly in need of repairs, and tenants
were hit with repeated rent hikes intended to force out low-income residents.
Many tenants had withheld their rent payments in response.
MetCap
claimed that efforts were made to address tenant concerns at the buildings,
including special hotlines to report repair issues. But tenants were not
impressed, especially when MetCap applied in February to the Landlord and
Tenant Board to raise rent 3 per cent above provincial guidelines, each year
for three years, due to renovation costs.
Parkdale
Community Services said as many as 200 tenants of the 12 buildings withheld
rent in May and up to 300 in June, an estimate based on public meetings and
information from tenant representatives. There were also rallies and marches
through Parkdale, the short-term shutdown of a hearing at the Landlord and
Tenant Board, and other tactics.
“We won
this strike because we refused to play by the rules,” said Bryan Daley, who
lives at a seven-story building at
The August
12 statement of the Rent Strikers’ Negotiating Committee reads:
“Today we
are pleased to announce that the Parkdale rent strike has ended in victory. The
organizing of hundreds working class people in Parkdale, including us and our
neighbours, has shifted the balance of power between landlords and tenants in
Parkdale in our favour.
“For the
past six months we have organized our neighbourhood to take on our landlord
directly. We know that the laws, courts, and bureaucracies of this system do
not serve our interests and throughout this fight we would not be trapped in
their dead ends. We refused to play by the rules. Instead we set up independent
organizations in our buildings and linked those organizations up across
Parkdale. Three hundred of us in 12 buildings went on rent strike and hundreds
more of our neighbours joined our actions. What’s more, our organizing has
built a new power in our neighbourhood, a power which is based in our own
capacities as working class people.
“We have
won the following concessions from our landlord:
- A substantial reduction in the above guideline rent
increases at each building
- A program of additional rent relief for tenants in
financial hardship
- A program of maintenance and repair work in each
building
“Our rent
strike won because it expressed the collective strength of working class people
in Parkdale. Yet we feel we have only made a beginning. We will continue to
organize in our buildings. We will reach out to neighbours facing rent
increases in other buildings throughout the neighbourhood. We are prepared to
take up the struggles of all working class people in our neighbourhood whether
around housing, education, employment, or any other area of our lives. By
continuing to organize, we will become stronger and build our power in
Parkdale.
“We would
like to thank everyone who supported us in this fight. Moreover we urge you to
organize and build power in your own neighbourhoods. There is no limit on what
we as working class people can accomplish when we organize together in our own
interests.”
People’s Voice Editorial
In the wake
of fascist terror in
None of
this should surprise any observer. Anti-racist and anti-fascist groups -
including this newspaper - have warned for years about the activities of the
pro-Hitler scum who incite violence. Unfortunately, most elected political
leaders, the corporate media and the police insist that "both left and right
extremists" are the problem, justifying moves to suppress and marginalize
radical and socialist movements - but rarely fascist groups. Sounds like
Trump's line? Exactly.
The huge
anti-nazi rallies in
7) PEACE IS A WORKING CLASS ISSUE
People’s Voice Editorial
The months
leading up to Labour Day brought terrifying news about the increasing danger of
war and militarism. The world’s attention has been focused on the Korean
Peninsula and the wider East Asia region, and Donald Trump’s bombastic warnings
that the US military is “locked and loaded” and prepared to rain “fire and
fury” on the DPRK (North Korea). Not surprisingly, as a country which suffered
millions of casualties in the US invasion of 1950-53, the DPRK considers its
arsenal as the only meaningful form of deterrence against such an attack. Many
global voices are calling for a negotiated solution to this crisis, including
de-nuclearization of the entire region, a peace deal to finally end the Korean
War, and removal of US troops from
Not
satisfied with its threat to destroy the DPRK,
Amidst this
war-making, the terrible cost of global militarism remains unchanged. The world now wastes over a
trillion dollars a year on preparing for and conducting wars, and the
By Rob Gowland, The Guardian (
Time was,
if you felt strongly about some issue and wanted to make your views known to
other people you had to type up a stencil and run off copies on a roneo-machine
or pay someone with access to a printing press to print your views as a flyer
to be handed out to people you hoped to influence.
But that
was then. Today, you simply post your views on Facebook or Twitter from the
comfort of your computer at home and you can reach vast numbers at
insignificant expense. However, just because a person knows how to talk doesn’t
mean they have anything to say that is worth hearing.
In fact, it
might well be that, depending on their education, background, personal
prejudices and similar influences, what they have to say is nothing more than a
vicious, hate-filled tirade pandering to ignorance and fear. Just look at the
utterances of almost any federal government back-bencher or the notorious
Tweets of US President Donald Trump.
Or consider
the phenomenon of cyber bullying, where the anonymity of modern technology
platforms allows cowardly attacks on individuals to be perpetrated publicly
with impunity. Clearly, technology alone is not enough. It must be accompanied
by the simultaneous development of society to replace fear and suspicion with
co-operation and friendship. That seismic shift in social relations comes –
over time – with, and only with, the establishment of socialism.
Witness the
experience of the people of the
Capitalism,
which is devoted to benefitting the individual at the expense of others, breeds
fear and jealousy, hostility and hatred. People live in fear that what little
they have may be taken away from them by business chicanery or ill health or
government fiat. In fact, capitalism not only encourages – it positively revels
in – greed and self-interest. Ignorance is its handmaiden and also one of its
more powerful weapons. When that is combined with the powerlessness and
frustration that is the unfortunate lot of ordinary people under capitalism, it
is hardly surprising that so many are sucked in to giving credence to those who
blame the ills of the system on racial or religious differences.
Those who
are visibly “different” make a very convenient target for right-wing rabble
rousers to point to in their efforts to divert popular attention away from real
issues like de-industrialisation by capitalists whose pursuit of greater
profits means they happily close down entire industries, throw whole cities out
of work, while they shift production to low wage countries where they can
extract greater surplus value from making the same object.
Hitler is
usually held up as the epitome of the “hate-speech” maker, but there were and
are many others. Anti-Semitism did not originate with Hitler. It was widespread
among the upper classes in
After WW1,
Clerical-Fascist
Capitalists
have a permanent problem: if they come clean and admit to the people that as a
system Capitalism exhausted its progressive phase (when it was taking over from
feudalism) a couple of hundred years ago and that since then it has been
nothing more than a drag on human progress, they are unlikely to emerge well
from the ensuing bunfight. So instead they lie.
And finding
scapegoats is still their preferred type of lie. You can sympathise in a way
with bourgeois politicians: beating the racist drum or the anti-Muslim drum is
a much easier thing to do than to try to analyse and explain to people the
complexities of modern capitalist society. Especially when, if you did explain
it, you would be the one who would come out with egg – or worse – all over your
face!
So
right-wingers spend a lot of their time (and money, let’s not forget that vital
ingredient) fostering, feeding, financing and generally promoting that most
useful diversionary tool, racism. Laws intended to safeguard people from racist
abuse are howled down as limiting “free speech”, as somehow curbing democracy
itself.
In
Free
speech, like everything else, is a class question. Workers have a right – and a
necessity – to be able to criticise capitalist (i.e. anti-worker) governments.
Capitalists do not have a “right” to try to destabilise and overthrow a pro-worker
government. Nor do they have a right to own all the daily newspapers and the TV
and radio stations with which to propagandise their destabilisation message. If
that seems unfair, it is because you are looking at it from the class
standpoint of the bosses.
Try putting
yourself in the position of the exploited workers. The reasoning becomes
simple: if it is in the interests of the workers it is good, and is it is
against their interests it is bad. “Simples!”, to borrow a slogan from those
capitalist ads featuring a meerkat.
9) WORLD PEACE COUNCIL SLAMS NEW DPRK SANCTIONS
Statement of the World Peace Council on the recent
resolution of the UN Security Council on the DPR of
The World
Peace Council (WPC) expresses its serious concern about the recent resolution
of the UN Security Council on the 5th of August (2371/2017) to
impose new sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of
The WPC
stands firm in solidarity with the Korean people for its right to decide alone
and without any foreign interference its fortunes and future, while we reject
and denounce the threats by the US administration and its allies in the region
against the sovereignty of the DPR of Korea. We condemn the increasing military
exercises of the
The WPC is
in favor of the abolition of all nuclear weapons in the world but we do not
accept the one-sided eclectically applied propaganda against the “nuclear
program” of the DPR
We are
historically opposed to the singling out the DPR of
The legitimate
concerns of the DPR of
The WPC
reaffirms its support to the Korean people’s struggle against the imperialist
plans, the defense of its sovereignty, for the demilitarization and nuclear
disarmament of the region and the independent and peaceful reunification of
The United
Nations should respect and safeguard the principles of its founding Charter and
not violate them!
- WPC Secretariat, August 9, 2017
10) NATIONS MUST REJECT
By Earl Bousquet, www.telesur.com
Having
failed to excite or influence Latin American and Caribbean neighbors to gang-up
collectively against Caracas, Washington is now placing its bets on mobilizing
international action through the United Nations ahead of very possibly marching
U.S. troops into Venezuela.
Following
the success of previous military invasions with ‘Urgent Fury’ in Grenada in
1983 and “Desert Storm” in Iraq, persistent efforts in recent years to get the
Organization of American States, OAS, to join in a U.S.-led invasion march
against founder-member Venezuela have failed.
Since the
advent of former President Hugo Chavez and his “Bolivarian Socialism”
declarations and policy initiatives in 1998, successive administrations led by
his United Socialist Party of
Successive
U.S. ambassadors in Caracas have openly supported anti-Chavez and now
anti-President Nicolas Maduro policies while embracing the opposition and
supporting their actions with both material assistance and political and
economic sanctions against the PSUV governments.
Badly burnt
over Grenada and Iraq, Latin American and Caribbean nations, as well as other
similar groupings of developing states worldwide, have been very cautious about
quickly, overly and overtly supporting direct U.S. intervention in countries.
The mainly
English-speaking Caribbean Community, Caricom, has repeatedly expressed its
opposition to foreign intervention in
The smaller
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, OECS, has also supported a peaceful,
negotiated solution.
At the wider
regional level, while the Mercosur group has shut its doors on Caracas, the
majority of Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America, ALBA, and
PetroCaribe member-states support Venezuela’s right to determine its internal
affairs without outside intrusion.
The
Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, CELAC, and the Association of
Caribbean States, ACS, have not yet become major players in the current
dispute, but when they eventually do, there is no doubt they will also oppose
external intervention.
Having
failed to stop the peaceful and credible election of the National Constituent
Assembly, NCA, on July 30,
Rejecting
the transparent vote for the ANC by over 40 percent of the electorate — a
greater comparative amount of voters than in any recent U.S. presidential or
legislative elections — Washington opted to criminalize the ANC and punish
people and entities doing business with it.
Now, having
recently persuaded Peru to lead Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and others
to take separate unilateral punitive action against Venezuela over the ANC,
Washington’s next stop is the U.N., where the annual General Assembly starts in
September.
Along with
North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK, Venezuela is
most likely headed for the U.N. Security Council’s agenda as the U.S. State
Department and the White House seek to ratchet-up global action in reaction to
recent developments in Venezuela along lines dictated in and by Washington.
Already, a
very questionable “Human Rights” report associated with a U.N. department (and
done from abroad by “remote” means) has surfaced, which piles fault for the
unfortunate deaths in
Washington
has turned down all of Maduro’s direct appeals for talks, instead all but
confirming that plans are underway to land
Former
Republican presidents — from Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the two Bushes
— have repeatedly demonstrated the party’s willingness and ability, in office,
to wring the arms and spin the heads of allies to support U.S. plans and
actions, to engage in military incursions against other countries. U.S.
President Donald Trump is showing no difference.
When Reagan
dispatched
The later
success by former President George W. Bush and former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair to mislead the world, at the U.N., to go on a costly wild-goose
chase for weapons of mass destruction they knew former Iraqi President Saddam
Hussein did not have, was no less of a hijacking of the international body to
pursue the political objectives of one nation, backed by powerful others.
Under
current circumstances, the international situation is too fragile for the world
to allow Trump to deflect and divert attention from his numerous internal
crises at home. His threats against
Trump’s
threats against
The U.S.
Commander in Chief might very well believe that threats of punitive military
action against Venezuela, backed by
political and economic sanctions, is the best way to pressure U.N.
member-nations into supporting U.S. plans for regime change in a country where
both the targeted President and the ANC were legitimately, legally and
constitutionally elected.
Taking the
Historically,
except in earlier circumstances, the OAS has tended not to too openly or
quickly support
This time
around, under Trump — and in relation to both Venezuela and the DPRK —
Washington has signaling that it is prepared to go it alone, at least against
Venezuela, if it fails to get regional fig leaf cover like it did against
Grenada.
The recent
meeting of 17 OAS member-states in Peru, which was attended by only two Caricom
member-states (Guyana and Jamaica) was a bonsai model of the ongoing and wider
anti-Venezuela plot that has been failing at the OAS since April 1.
Pence’s
Latin American regional tour was undoubtedly aimed at drumming-up regional
support for opposition to Maduro, the PSUV and the ANC.
The ACS,
Celac, Caricom, OECS, PetroCaribe and ALBA nations will, between now and the
start of the U.N. General Assembly sessions in New York, be heavily lobbied to
support the U.S. positions against both Venezuela and the DPRK.
They will
not be able to dissuade
The U.N.
and OAS charters specifically outlaw uninvited or unapproved military
intervention in member-states.
Washington
has historically been able to twist the language of related resolutions at
regional and international bodies to allow it the leeway to intervene
militarily, if only in the usual pursuit of “
It is now
time for all Latin American and Caribbean nations — and their respective
regional bodies — to network with like-minded entities around the globe, to
sound U.N. nations’ delegations ahead of time about the perilous implications
for democracy, peace and regional stability at stake in any new military
invasion in the region, under whatever guise and by whatever name.
(Earl Bousquet is a Saint Lucia-based
veteran
11)
PV Vancouver Bureau
Tensions
between
Zuma
survived an opposition no-confidence vote in Parliament on August 8. But while
the SACP urged MPs to vote against the motion, it has also called on the
President to resign, or else for the ANC to recall him over his corrupt links
to the billionaire Gupta family which exercises immense political influence
over the government and the state apparatus. The Party has also taken part in
protests for Zuma’s resignation, in the wake of the President’s firing of
Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan last March.
In the wake
of the parliamentary vote, the ANC has moved to discipline MPs who have
admitted voting with the opposition. The SACP calls these measures a “myopic
campaign clothed in the name of discipline” and in pursuit of a “factionally
charged agenda.”
The
statement which drew the ANC leadership’s anger says, “The South African Communist
Party rejects a witch-hunt against MPs. The myopic campaign clothed in the name
of discipline is nothing but a factionally-charged agenda. Revolutionary
discipline is consistent. It would have long ago decisively acted against the
rot of corporate capture of the state and sections of our movement and its
leaders. Revolutionary discipline would have long ago acted without fear,
favour or prejudice against corruption. It would have long ago acted against
deployed office bearers, including President Zuma for making decisions without
consultation. Such poorly considered decisions, taken in violation of the
democratic, revolutionary discipline of our movement, plunged our country into
a financial crisis.
“Our
country has lost a massive amount of capital due to widespread governance decay
and siphoning of public money through illicit tenders and tender practices,
corruption and maladministration. This is the money
“The SACP
has nothing in common with credit rating agencies. But as the Party we are not
oblivious to the deleterious consequences of their downgrading decisions. Our
country should not be pushed into such decisions the way President Zuma has
recklessly done and without being held accountable. For example other ANC
officials did acknowledge after the last cabinet reshuffle that the President
acted unilaterally from elsewhere, that is outside our shared revolutionary
discipline, Luthuli House and the
“Our
country was plunged into recession. The cost of borrowing has shot sky-high.
National debt has become worse. Inequality, unemployment and poverty remain
persistently high. Meanwhile the President`s friends, the Guptas are smiling
all the way to the bank and Dubai because of their proximity to his person. One
of them has become South Africa`s top black billionaire. It is inconceivable
that this happened without the relationship, and associated with it, funds from
developmental finance institutions of the state, tenders from state owned
entities and decisions made in government and the public sector by the
Gupta-captured network of officials, public office bearers and executives.
“All other
discipline that turns a blind eye to these glaring realities is nothing but
factional discipline! All other democratic centralism that does not act against
the rot is nothing but factional centralism!
“The SACP
reiterates its call that President Zuma must resign, failing which the ANC must
recall him. Holding the President accountable will show that the ANC is
consistent on discipline. The recall of the President alone will not solve the
many systemic and structural problems facing our movement and country, but it
will go a long way in building the basis for solving the problems associated
with his failed leadership.”
12)
Abridged from Labour Today
Following
the events in
The full
resolution can be found on the ILWU website.
Other
unions representing health care, teachers, and public service workers have
condemned the fascist and racist violence. The American Federation of Teachers
(AFT) implored their members and Locals to take part in protests around the
country.
In a press
release, AFT President Randi Weingarten said: "This type of domestic
terrorism has pilloried communities of color, Jews and other marginalized
groups throughout history... Friday's torch-light march showed white
supremacists are so emboldened that they don't even feel the need to wear
hoods. The violence directed at counter-protestors was meant to instill fear in
the hearts of people who are fighting for a more inclusive [
The Service
Employees International Union, representing nearly 2 million members, largely
minorities and people of colour, issued
the following statement from President Mary Kay Henry: "This tragedy is a
reminder that as a nation, we have to address the long legacy of racism and
slavery that is deeply embedded in our history and experienced in our present
day. We cannot be silent and must speak out against the violence and
intimidation we have seen in
AFSCME (the
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) also condemned
the Nazi white nationalists. President Lee Saunders and Sec.-Treas. Elissa
McBride said, “Now is a moment for all Americans who believe in freedom,
tolerance and inclusion to stand up and speak out.”
Taking aim
at President Trump, who basically gave a "dog-whistle", if not
outright support to the fascists, the Executive Director of National Nurses
United, Rose Ann DeMoro, decried what she called an “inadequate response” by
the President in characterizing the appalling scene in Charlottesville as
result of "violence on many sides.”
The United
Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of
13) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker
Waters defends BDS on
"US-Them" tour
English rock-star Roger Waters is a longtime supporter of the
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the government of
Mulligan's quest for "protest songs"
There are lots of protest songs being written in
Save
Undaunted by the wave of corporate greed and ignorance
emanating from
Neil Young's Fourth of July
Canadian rocker Neil Young chose the Fourth of July to
release "Children of Destiny", an alternative song for the