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People’s Voice May 16-31, 2017
Volume 25 – Number 10 $1
1) BACK FROM THE GRAVE?
SECRET TPP TALKS RESUME IN TORONTO
2) SISTERS STALLED
IN THE TRADES
3) CANADA’S WEALTHY
TAX-DODGERS WRITE OFF INCOMES
4) GREED KILLS: THE
WESTRAY DISASTER - Editorial
5) BACK OFF THREATS
AGAINST DPRK - Editorial
6) BREAK FROM STATUS
QUO, URGES YOUNG COMMUNIST CANDIDATE
7) SURREY COPS
TERRORIZE BLACK TEENAGER
8) AUSTERITY,
FASCISM AND POLITICAL UPHEAVALS IN FRANCE
9) SYRIZA YIELDS TO
EU CREDITORS OVER PENSION CUTS
10) THE SPANISH
CIVIL WAR - BETRAYAL IN BARCELONA
11) RUSSIAN CONGRESS
OF CANADA CALLS FOR FAIR INVESTIGATION OF ODESSA TRAGEDY
12) DEFEAT THE COUP
AGAINST THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC
PEOPLE'S VOICE May 16-31, 2017 (pdf)
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(The
following articles are from the May 16-31, 2017, issue of People's
1) BACK
FROM THE GRAVE? SECRET TPP TALKS RESUME IN
The
Trade Justice Network reported on May 2 that high level negotiators from 11
countries were meeting at an undisclosed location behind closed doors in
The
proposed corporate mega-trade deal appeared to be dead after public pressure
prompted the
The
TPP sparked strong public opposition in all 12 countries, in part because the
deal which could have covered 40% of the world's economy was negotiated
entirely in secret and without public input. As details of the TPP began to
leak out, opinion polls in most of the participating countries tracked growing
public opposition.
The
renewed talks have sparked protests from the Trade Justice Network and other
civil society groups who warn that this secretive pact cannot be the basis for
“The
TPP is only marginally about trade. It is about harmonizing standards and
regulations across countries and strengthening the rights of corporations at
the expense of citizens, workers, the public at large, and the environment. The
costs of ratifying the TPP far outweigh any small benefit that may be gained.
We urge the Trudeau government to stand up for Canadians and against the
Trans-Pacific Partnership,” said Larry Brown, Co-Chair of the Trade Justice
Network and President of the National Union of Public and General Employees.
“Deals
like the TPP never truly die. Their destructive nature – killing jobs and the
environment – lives on in other forms,” said Maude Barlow, National Chairperson
of the Council of Canadians. “Even without the
“TPP
was a bad deal then, and it’s a bad deal now,” said Unifor National President
Jerry Dias. “We were told we had to be in the TPP because the
“The
TPP is an unfair and undemocratic deal that was negotiated behind closed doors
without any meaningful public participation,” said David Christopher,
communications manager with OpenMedia, the Internet advocacy watchdog. “Such a
flawed and unpopular deal cannot be the basis for
The
recent Let’s Talk TPP report, crowd-sourced from nearly 28,000 Canadians, found
that the most common reason for opposing the TPP was the failure of the federal
government to consult with the public during negotiations. Canadians also
highlighted concerns around digital rights, corporate overreach, democratic
accountability, healthcare and public services, the environment, labour issues,
and the economy as reasons they opposed the deal.
The
TPP has been criticized as a transfer of power from democratically elected
national governments to multinational corporations that would result in higher
drug prices, a dumbing down of national environmental and health regulations
and would give corporations special rights to sue national governments without
having to go through the established court system.
The
TPP has also been condemned by citizens groups including the Sierra Club,
Doctors Without Borders, and the Canadian Labour Congress, and LeadNow. More
information is available at LetsTalkTPP.ca.
The
Trade Justice Network is a network of environmental, civil society, cultural,
farming, labour and social justice organizations that aims to raise awareness
about free trade agreements and their implications, and to call for a more
sustainable, equitable and socially just international trade regime.
2)
SISTERS STALLED IN THE TRADES
By Helen Kennedy
Forty
years ago, the percentage of women in the building trades in
At
a recent meeting of Sisters in the Trades, a peer support group for women in
the building trades in the
Some
recruitment strategies have been working – the average rate of recruitment of
women in the trades is 15%. Recently the BC government provided $7 million to
refit classrooms in Kamloops and the Royal Bank gave $200,000 to CLAC (a
company union not in the house of labour). In response to these programs, the
number of women rose. However, most of those women recruited into the trades
are no sooner hired than they quit. Not all the reasons are due to the hostile
or toxic workplace; other issues include the lack of affordable childcare that
matches the hours of work demanded in the trades.
The
conditions in trades workplaces are not conducive to building an inclusive
workplace. Women are often overlooked for training; most contracts do not
recognize seniority. Favouritism is rampant; nepotism is very common. Most
women want to fly under the radar in order to do their work, get their pay and
not to be labelled a ‘trouble-maker.’ As difficult it is for women to find
their place in trades workplaces, the same experience extends to racialized,
gay, lesbian, trans, and aboriginal workers.
Conditions
in Community College training programs have improved over the years; issues of
rampant sexism and misogyny have begun to be addressed. It is now not as common
for electrical apprentices in training for example, to be taught resistor codes
through the mnemonic “Bad Boys Rape Young Girls But Violet Goes Willingly.”
However, echoes of the grossly misogynist phrase are heard regularly in today’s
construction sites.
There
are more support programs in colleges – enforcement of human rights legislation
for example – that make it easier to address these issues there than in the
workplace.
If
a worker forgets his hardhat at a site, the replacement he is forced to wear,
to discourage him from doing it again, is often pink with the words
‘forget-me-not’ printed clearly for all to see. The intent is humiliation.
Contrast this practise with ‘Days of Pink’ held in schools and other public
sector workplaces to protest against bullying.
Heather
Hamilton, a manager from Thompson River University, has stated that
What
steps can be taken to address the incredibly low percentage of women in the
trades? First of all, we need to recognize that we can’t expect changes to come
from the 3% who survive in their workplaces every day. We need to demand the
enforcement of key legislation in all trades workplaces. We need to demand the
enforcement of the Occupational Health and Safety Act which includes measures
to prevent harassment and violence in the workplace.
Gender
neutral language may seem like a small measure, but if regularly enforced, it
would contribute to a more respectful workplace. Programs need to be developed
to train male trades workers to address the chauvinist culture in the
workplace. A recent project undertaken by the BC Lions of the CFL is a step in
the right direction. The program trains men to be ‘more than a bystander’;
trains them to confront their peers to address violence-against-women talk in
the locker room. This project was extended to trades workplaces in BC with some
success.
What
could the labour movement do to address the gender gap in the building trades?
The
Resolutions
at Federations of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress conventions would put
this issue on the agenda for the broader labour movement. Until these are done,
activists in the labour movement should bring the issue to the attention of
their local Labour Council to begin a much needed conversation about equity and
access for women in the Building Trades.
3)
More
and more upper-income earners in
A
CBC News analysis of Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) data compiled all individual
income tax and benefit returns filed with the CRA between 2011 and 2014,
focused on the top three income brackets: $100,000 to $149,999, $150,000
to $249,999 and $250,000 and over. During those four fiscal years, the
number of people who legally avoided paying income tax rose about 50 per
cent from 4,050 to 6,110. The number of filers who made more than $250,000
a year and completely avoided taxes doubled. Every
year, one out of three income tax returns filed in
The
CRA says: "It is possible for individuals classified in the upper
income ranges to reduce their tax liability to zero by using deductions such as
business or farm losses of previous years and allowable business investment
losses, or significant contributions to RRSPs. Tax filers can also use
non-refundable tax credits such as charitable donations, or dividend and
foreign tax credits."
In
the 2014 tax year, half of the 6,000 high-income non-taxable returns were
filed by
Tax
policy experts explained to CBC News that rich taxpayers — most of them
owners of corporations — can claim most of their earnings as business and
investment income in order to benefit from a combination of credits and
lower their tax rates. "Our tax
system is overly complex and probably benefits people who hire lawyers and
accountants to work for them … lower-income people don't have that
option," says Michael Veall, an economics professor at
Last
year, Veall co-authored a study that found nearly half of high-income earner
are business owners who can write off most of their income through their
corporations, and not pay taxes immediately. That
strategy unlocks a trove of "special deals made for business and
investment income," explains Michael Smart, who teaches economics at
the
"Those
kinds of income are based on lowest tax rates overall, typically less than you
would pay on your salary or wage income as an ordinary Canadian. When you add
all of them up, you allow taxpayers to be smart about how to exploit this
system."
4) GREED
KILLS: THE WESTRAY DISASTER
People’s Voice Editorial
May
9 marked the 25th anniversary of the Westray disaster in
Owned
and operated by Curragh Resources, Westray Coal opened in September 1991, but
closed eight months later when the methane explosion killed all the miners
working underground at the time. A public inquiry ordered by the
In
2003, Parliament passed the “Westray Bill”, to increase legal penalties for
corporations and managers who fail to take steps to prevent bodily harm.
5) BACK OFF
THREATS AGAINST DPRK
People’s Voice Editorial
There
are hopes that the victory of Moon Jae-in, the moderate candidate in
Threats
of war and aggression against sovereign states, including the DPRK, are
completely outside the rules of international law. The
We
call on the federal government to oppose
6) BREAK
FROM STATUS QUO, URGES YOUNG COMMUNIST CANDIDATE
Tyson Strandlund was the Communist Party of
BC candidate in the May 9
What’s at stake in this election for the
people of BC?
British
Columbians are faced with increasingly heavy economic burdens while
multinational corporations make off with ever greater profits in stolen
resources. Any semblance of democracy has been completely undermined by
corporate donations and a rigged electoral system.
The
allegedly “progressive” parties have made a number of ambiguous and
inconsistent statements, and promised minor concessions to small sections of
the working class while carefully avoiding any criticism of capitalism. An NDP
victory would over the next four years at best constitute a tree saved amidst
another burned down forest as they oversee a continued trend in capitalist
decline and environmental destruction, and at worst, a betrayal of the working
class and student activists whose revolutionary instincts they’ve co-opted for
their political gains. Rather than a break from the status quo, a vote for any
of the capitalist parties would represent not a step forwards, but to the side.
British Columbians must decide if they will let first-past-the-post and false
progressive rhetoric push them into lending legitimacy to the parliamentary charade,
or if they will push for the new direction our society so desperately needs.
What has been the record of the BC Liberals
when it comes to the rights of young people in BC?
The
economic scene in BC is not so rosy as the Liberals would have British Columbians
believe, and this is particularly true for youth. Young adults with full-time
jobs are earning $1,200 less per year pre-tax than before the premier took
office. Personal debt has skyrocketed, and costs of everything from housing to
education and even transit fares have risen far faster than stagnant wages can
keep up with. Public schools are desperately underfunded, requiring an
additional $500 million dollars (or approximately $1000 per student) just to
reach the Canadian average, and yet the Liberals have continued provincial
support for religious and private schools, such as the one attended by the
Premier’s son.
What is the current government’s relationship
with Indigenous peoples like in BC? Is this an issue in the election?
The
BC Liberals are the only major party not to have committed to the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – not that I think the
other parties will show any more commitment should they take power, but at
least they’ve said they will even if it is a hollow lie. The government has
repeatedly displayed their contempt for indigenous peoples and unsurprisingly
sides with corporations that would continue the colonial legacy of plunder and
exploitation, such as with the Northern Gateway Pipeline, Kinder Morgan
expansion, Site C dam, and other resource extraction projects on unceded
traditional territories. The opposition has feigned an unconvincing sympathy
for indigenous peoples which they will maintain as long as is useful.
Considering that Pacific Northwest LNG and other undisclosed “resource industry
leaders” are NDP donors, I am not so naive to put my faith in the orange
Liberals.
What has been the response to your campaign
so far? What’s it like to be a red on the campaign trail?
Having
ran in the 2015 federal election, many people remember me from our previous
campaign... The response has been overwhelmingly positive, and people are
genuinely interested with the ideas of the Communist Party. Young people
especially are drawn to our anti-capitalist message, although increasingly it
finds resonance even with those who lived through McCarthyism and the Red
Scare. Even those who disagree with our positions have expressed very positive
feelings witnessing youth involvement. I am far from the best speaker, the most
well versed, so if I am received so well I can only imagine what other comrades
might achieve in this regard. As such I must urge all members of the YCL to
participate in federal, provincial, and municipal elections that we may
demonstrate that the Communist Party is a party of youth.
What do you hope to accomplish with your
campaign? Why vote Communist?
We
cannot form a majority government, and if we could, it would still fall short
of what is necessary. That said, there are several things which still may be
achieved by this campaign. First, and most importantly, we are building a
broader movement than simply striving towards a seat in the legislature. Every
debate opens people’s minds and accustoms their ears towards words that will
never be uttered by the bourgeois politicians – most importantly being
capitalism, a word we can harbour some very negative feelings for with very
simple associations that working class people respond to. In this sense, our
work is in laying foundations that we can draw on in future. Indeed, we are
able to speak to so many people during election time that this often is one of
our best periods for meeting people interested in working with the YCL or the
Party, and every such opportunity must be leapt on.
Every
vote for our party sends a clear message that fundamental change is necessary.
Whether we get a seat or not, a substantially larger vote for the Communist
Party would force the other parties to consider adopting more progressive
platforms to avoid being outflanked. Our parliamentary system wasn’t made to
allow candidates like myself to win, nor was it made to allow for fundamental
change however, that’s not to say it’s impossible. If we did get a seat, this
would surely represent both a poison dart in the colonial state, and a new
stage in the revolutionary work of our organisation. I’d use this seat not as a
politician, but as yet another platform from which to call for building the
fightback against corporate power and for workers’ power.
7)
Statement from Black Lives Matter-Vancouver
Earlier
this week (April 28 - Editor) in
We
need to disabuse ourselves of the notion that
This
is also not an isolated incident.
“9.5%
of federal inmates today are Black (an increase of 80% since 2003/04), yet
Black Canadians account for less than 3% of the total Canadian population.
Aboriginal people represent a staggering 23% of federal inmates yet comprise
4.3% of the total Canadian population. One-in-three women under federal
sentence are Aboriginal. “These are disturbing trends that raise important
questions about equality and our justice system in
This
disturbing trend only continues when Black children are stereotyped,
criminalized, assaulted and traumatized by Canadian law enforcement. This needs
to stop. The two police officers should be investigated, charged, suspended
without pay, and publicly named. The public has a right to know who these
officers are. The investigation of police officers by other police officers is
categorically biased and has proven inconsequential time and again.
We
need meaningful pursuit of justice for
this child and for everyone who experiences police violence. The parents have
sought legal counsel and BLMV is in contact with the family. BLMV will be
contacting the Independent Investigations Office (IIO) and the Office of the
Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) about racial profiling, community
consultation processes by municipal police/RCMP, and police accountability.
8)
AUSTERITY, FASCISM AND POLITICAL UPHEAVALS IN
By Adrien Welsh, Montreal
On
April 23rd, French voters chose two out of eleven presidential election
candidates to make their way to the second round and aspire to be the next
tenant of Élysée palace.
In
France, the first round of voting has never been a moment of great suspense.
For decades, the two main political parties which have run the country for
decades, the Socialists (PS) and the right (Les républicains and, formerly, the
UMP or RPR) get to the second round with a comfortable margin. This year,
however, until the last minute, four candidates could count on a score near 20%
for the firtt round: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marine Le Pen, François Fillion and
Emmanuel Macron.
At
8 pm the first results were broadcast, making it clear that the seats for the
second round would be filled by Marine Le Pen and the “centrist” Emmanuel
Macron, getting respectively 21.7% and 24% of the ballots. The candidate of Les
Républicains, the right wing party, finished third with 20% and Jean-Luc
Mélenchon, from the left, obtained 19.2%. The Socialist candidate, Benoit
Hamon, had to settle for only 6%, the party’s lowest score since 1969. For the first time in the history of
the 5th Republic (since DeGaulle’s constitutional putsch of 1958), neither of
the two parties which governed for almost 60 years was represented in the final
round. Macron received 66.1% of the votes on May 7, the first candidate to win
the presidency without the explicit support of any political party.
This
certainly has a lot to do with the decadence of bourgeois democracy in France
and elsewhere.
As
the crisis of capitalism started hitting Europe, the lines of a political
recomposition started to emerge, especially in the so-called “peripheries”
(like in Greece with the raise of Syriza, in Spain with Podemos or in Italy,
with Matteo Renzi and Beppe Grillo, but also like Corbyn in Britain under
another format). In all these countries, the traditional parties of
social-democracy, because of their compromises with neo-liberal policies since
the 1980s and 1990s, are being replaced by new political forces, which adopt a
seemingly radical rhetoric.
In
France though, probably because the Socialist Party was slow to adopt a
social-liberal line (unlike in Germany, or in Britain with the Tony Blair’s
“new Labour”) and because the PS was in opposition when the capitalist crisis
burst in 2008, this political recomposition emerged slowly and tepidly. Until
the current electoral process, the old division between the “right” and the
“left”, coming all the way from the French Revolution, seemed to serve bourgeois
democracy just fine.
During
the last five years though, the PS government has been constantly attacking the
working class, the youth and popular masses. Unemployment is now about 10% (and
20% for the youth), social programs have been ransacked from healthcare to
universities, the nationalized railroad system and the postal services are on
the verge of being privatized. The El-Khomri law attacks on the Labour Code in
spring 2016 went so far that even the right had no serious objections. In the
colonies, youth unemployment is over 60% in some areas (like in Guadeloupe and
Martinique), access to education is highly limited, and the right to
self-determination is still denied - those people are not even recognized as
nations. In French Guyana, social and labour movements actions paralyzed the
whole department for weeks, even impeding the launching of rockets from the
European base of Kourou.
On
the other hand , the Socialists provided the corporates with high subsidies for
low-paid and precarious jobs, through the CICE and the “Responsibility
Compact”, costing tens of billions of euros.
Francois
Hollande’s five-year mandate was also marked by attacks against democratic
rights, through security measures and the State of Exception applied almost
without interruption since the January 2015 attack against Charlie Hebdo. This
measure led to people being arrested without evidence (including children),
deployment of the military in the streets, and attacks on protestors, but in no
way did it prevent terrorism, as the victims of the November 2016 attacks could
testify. The rhetoric of “total war against terror”, as named by Prime Minister
Valls, gave justification for France to be more involved in imperialist wars,
such as in Syria, Iraq and its former African colonies, Mali and Central
African Republic.
This
all led to massive popular discontent and desperation which, coupled with the
anti-terrorist rhetoric, gave fertile ground for the ultra-right, xenophobic
and fascistic ideas of Marine Le Pen’s Front National. This is particularly the
case in the northern and eastern regions of France, hit by pro-European Union
policies of deindustrialization. In local and European elections, Le Pen’s
party reached its highest share of votes. When Le Pen made it to the second
round of Presidential elections, this was not a surprise to anyone.
In
short, the five years of anti-social policies imposed by Hollande and the PS
government forced a drastic political recomposition on many levels. The results
of the 2017 presidential elections reflect this change, and the big
corporations are the big winners.
The
compromised Socialist Party could not play social-democracy’s role of
channelling people’s anger towards reformist ideas. Hollande and his party were
sacrificed to the benefit of both Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and of Emmanuel Macron
with his “En Marche!” movement. Both are former members of the Socialist Party.
Mélenchon
voted for the privatizations under the Jospin government, as well as for
Maastricht and all subsequent agreements that integrated France into the EU of
capital. He is now the leader of La France insoumise, a movement adopting a
radical rhetoric, but which refuses to be a clear voice calling for a rupture
with the EU, implying that this free-trade agreement is reformable. Clearly he
is perceived to be the one who can become the official “leftist” opposition.
Macron,
presented as the “new element”, actually bears the whole record of Hollande’s
five years in office. Despite saying that he is both from the left and right,
the reality is that Macron served as Minister of Finance. He gained his
political legitimacy by participating in the past government. The voice of
finance, perceived as a youthful pragmatic leftist not coming from the
traditional right, supported by people from the two main parties (including
Hollande himself) - the bourgeoisie could not find a better candidate to revamp
the image of bourgeois democracy. Pretending to be above parties, Macron is the
most suitable candidate to continue the austerity policies, without generating
as much popular hostility as if the right were in power.
The
Front National, on the other side, plays an increasingly important role as a
foil to channel and discredit all kinds of opposition to the system. Its
nationalist deviation of the popular rejection of the European Union, of NATO
and free trade; its xenophobic, islamophobic and racist rhetoric, as well as
its social demagogy, constitute a dangerous poisonous mix for the advencement
of fascist ideas.
This
brutal shift in the French political landscape, away from opposition between
the left and right parties, to a clash of personalities “above” parties, will
certainly force the capitalist class to change tactics. Since Macron comes from
no political party, nothing seems clear, except that he will ensure that the
agenda of the 1% is reflected in French policies. Pro-European Union,
pro-globalization and pro-free-trade, Macron calls for a break with the French
economic model, meaning that he will fiercely attack all gains the working
class obtained through its difficult past struggles.
The
Front National, despite its attempt of “de-demonization” still has difficulties
to erase its old image of links with collaborationists and holocaust
negationists. A Donald Trump-like scenario was very unlikely, especially since
François Fillion, the candidate of the right, called for a vote for Macron.
Most
of the losing first-round candidates and most of the political parties, from
the right to the PS, called for a vote for Macron (or a vote against Le Pen)
and for a “republican front”. However, Mélenchon (critically supported by the
French Communist Party) along with the class-oriented labour union CGT, did not
give any voting advice. They stressed the correlation between austerity and the
rise of fascism, and that in this situation, voting for one or the other would
be like chosing between plague and cholera.
Emmanuel Dang Tran, member of the PCF National
Council, put it this way: “Of course, Marine Le Pen and the fascist groups supporting
her are dangerous. But for us, what really matters isn’t so much the danger of
her being elected (which is unlikely), but the danger, on a longer term, of her
movement to gain more popularity as a result of the anti-people measures that
Macron will impose. Fascism doesn’t fall from heaven, it is the expression of
capitalism in crisis. This is why our anti-fascist mobilization cannot rely on
a representative of the 1% like Emmanuel Macron. This is why our anti-fascist
actions cannot be separated from our struggles against capitalism. As
communists, our duty now is to be ready to hit the streets, go on strike to
defend our public services, our rights and to oppose all resistance needed to
block Macron’s pro-corporate agenda. And this has to start right now, with May
Day being the first moment to show our strenght and our opposition to both the
voice of racism, xenophobia and fascism and to the voice of CAC 40 and the
diktat of finance.”
9) SYRIZA
YIELDS TO EU CREDITORS OVER PENSION CUTS
PV combined sources
Greece
capitulated on May 2 to eurozone creditors’ demands for more cuts, in return
for releasing bailout funds. The Syriza-ANEL coalition government — elected in
2015 on an anti-austerity manifesto — agreed to a new round of pension cuts in
2019. It committed to maintaining a strict budget surplus target along with new
tax increases after the current bailout programme — signed in 2015 despite
voters rejecting it in a referendum — ends next year.
In
return, the creditors will pay Greece 2.8 billion euros it needs to avoid
defaulting on its loans in July, and start talks on how to ease the country’s
debt burden.
The
agreement with creditors was reached after a nightlong session of talks at the
Hilton hotel in Athens. Government officials said lenders dropped their demands
to abolish a long list of employment rights and also agreed to the expansion of
benefit schemes for jobless and low-income families.
Across
the political spectrum, this latest development has been condemned. Even the right-wing
New Democracy opposition pointed out that Syriza promised more funding without
austerity, only to implement more austerity with no additional funding for
social needs.
“This
is a painful compromise,” Interior Minister Panos Skourletis said to state
television ERT. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, whose Syriza-led coalition has a
parliamentary majority of just three seats, has said he will stand down before
the 2019 general election.
Hours
before the deal, protesters gathered at the entrance of the Hilton during large
May Day rallies in the capital, but riot police blocked them from entering the
building
The
main protests were organized in 78 cities across the country by the All-Workers
Militant Front (PAME), including a mass rally at Syntagma Square near the
parliament in Athens, under the slogan “with the workers of all countries for a
world without exploitation, wars and refugees."
Thousands
joined the PAME demonstrated against the new anti-people measures that the
"left" government of SYRIZA-ANEL is imposing on behalf of capital, as
well as against imperialist war.
The
May 1st rally escalated the preparations for a May 17 general strike in the
public and private sector, in response to the new raft of anti-people measures
in Parliament.
A
large delegation of the leadership of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) took
part in the rally, including General Secretary Dimitris Koutsoumpas.
The
rally opened with Bertolt Brecht's one act play "Job creation",
presented by members of PAME's theatre group. This play belongs to the work
"Fear and Misery of the Third Reich".
The
Palestinian Ambassador, Marwan Emil Toubassi, brought a message of greetings,
as the demonstrators expressed solidarity with the 1,500 Palestinian political
prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails. The rally demanded that a
delegation of PAME and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) be allowed
to visit with the hunger strikers.
The
main speech was delivered by Giorgos Perros, a cadre of PAME, who spoke about
the anti-people political line of the SYRIZA-ANEL government, and urged the
Greek workers not to shed their blood for capitalist profits. He ended by
saying that "the struggles of the working class in each period are the
only ones that can place the exploiters in a difficult position and challenge
their dominance and power. Because the working class can abolish capitalist
slavery and also build a new society without them and their parasitism. This is
what the exploiters all over the world are afraid of."
After
the rally ended with a rendition of the "Internationale", the
demonstrators marched to the US embassy, stopping outside the Hilton hotel,
where the negotiations were taking place between the SYRIZA-ANEL government and
the “Quartet” of international creditors.
10) THE
SPANISH CIVIL WAR - BETRAYAL IN BARCELONA
By Tom Sibley, Morning Star
In
July 1936, international fascism launched a war of intervention against the
Spanish people.
Earlier
in that year the democratic forces, making up the Popular Front, were elected
following a period of extreme right-wing government in which the fascists
played a leading role. The Popular Front government was initially supported by
the whole of the left, including many members of the powerful anarchist
movement and the centrist Republican Party.
It
brought forward a progressive programme aimed at democratising and modernising
Spain which, at the time, was dominated by the Church, the military and the big
landowners and whose industries were often controlled by foreign capital. The
Republican government’s measures to introduce land reform in order to end
widespread and abject poverty in the countryside, educational expansion and
change and women’s rights were anathema to the forces of the right. They were
seen to be against the interests of the Church and were presented by the right
as the first steps along the road to a communist society.
With
anti-communism as its pretext, the Spanish military, led by General Franco,
launched a military coup in July which was immediately supported with copious
supplies of trained troops and modern weaponry by nazi Germany and fascist
Italy.
Initially
Franco’s forces were repulsed in most of the big cities and towns as workers’
militias and armed police loyal to the elected government came together in
defence of the republic. Madrid continued to hold firm, thanks mainly to the
arrival of modern weaponry from the Soviet Union and the solidarity provided by
the thousands of International Brigade volunteers organised by the
international communist movement.
But
in other parts of the country the tide turned quickly as Italian and German
forces were deployed. And the limitations of the badly organised and poorly
trained militia were exposed.
In
the face of overwhelming military force, in the early months of 1937 the
Popular Unity movement splintered under the pressure of ultraleftist
adventurism, culminating in the tragedy of the Barcelona May Day events, the
80th anniversary of which we mark on May 3 this year.
The
May Day events were one of the most important turning points of the civil war
(1936-39).
In
the middle of a war in which international fascism threatened to overthrow by
military force a democratically elected government, the ultra-left movement
which had initially played an important part in resisting Franco’s first
offensive turned against the regional government in Catalonia and launched an
insurrectionary putsch. Guns, which should have been at the disposal of forces
fighting Franco, were instead turned on the state forces defending the
republic.
The
insurrection was instigated by dissident anarchist militias, which had a strong
base in Barcelona, encouraged by the Trotskyist-influenced POUM which since the
beginning of 1937 had been actively and very publicly campaigning for the
overthrow of the Popular Front government in Catalonia.
What
was the subtext which led to the May uprising and put at risk the whole of the
republican movement’s attempts to withstand the fascist offensive?
The
underlying catalyst was the determination of the Republican government to
radically reshape the war effort following months of military setbacks. This
followed widespread demands to incorporate all militia in a national popular
army with a unified command.
In
Catalonia the Popular Front administration, in the teeth of opposition from
both POUM and the local anarchists, took measures in line with central
government policies. The government called on the local militia to surrender
its arms and join the national army. It shut down the local patrol groups
controlled by the anarchists and put policing into local government hands.
Catalonia’s
important arms industry was nationalised and the government sought to take over
the strategically vital communication centre, the Barcelona telephone exchange,
which until May 3 had been controlled by an anarchist trade union committee.
All
of these centralising measures were taken primarily to strengthen the war
effort. But they also threatened to totally undermine what the anarchist and
POUMists saw as pillars of their strength, influence and control. Rather than
fall in line, in the interests of boosting the anti-fascist war effort, the
ultra-leftists launched an insurrection against the elected government.
The
immediate spark for the insurrection was the retaking by the government of the
telephone exchange. The anarchists had used their control of this facility to
intercept and disrupt calls between government ministers and military leaders.
This could not be tolerated in a war situation where the country was fighting
for its very existence. Consequently government ministers ordered the police to
take back into state control the telephone exchange.
Unarmed
senior police officers were met with a volley of shots and a standoff followed.
But the sound of gunfire and the subsequent surrounding of the exchange by
armed police officers was a signal for the anarchist militia to take to the
streets, erect barricades and bring tanks and other armed vehicles into the
fray.
In
the fighting that ensued in which the rebels were opposed by Communist Party
militia and the Republican Guards, hundreds were killed or maimed. Catalonian
ministers quickly called for central government reinforcements and within a few
days, encouraged by their national leadership, the local anarchists had laid
down their arms.
Throughout
the piece the overwhelming majority of Barcelona’s workers had taken government
advice to stay at home.
Eighty
years later arguments still appear from both the anti-communist left (sometimes
described as the anti-Stalinist left) and the liberal right suggesting that the
Barcelona events were provoked by Moscow so as to crush a nascent social
revolution.
Such
action was necessary, the critics argue, in order to reassure Western
imperialist powers, with which the Soviet Union was seeking to build an
anti-Hitler front, that Republican Spain was not about to usher in communist
control under Soviet tutelage.
Some
of the commentators also assert that by removing hopes for a fully fledged
socialist revolution the Republican government destroyed any possibility of a
military victory.
Given
the balance of political forces both in Spain and internationally these hopes
were entirely unrealistic. In this they partly reflect Orwell’s defeatist
assessment made in late 1937 that whichever side won the civil war a
fascist-type regime would be installed in Spain.
What
are we to make of these assessments? First, there is no evidence to back
assertions that the Soviets provoked the uprising.
On
the contrary, recently opened archive material shows that the insurrection was
planned months in advance and that the dissident anarchists and POUM put their
demands above the requirements of the national struggle to defeat fascism.
In
the circumstances of 1937, to call for a full-blown socialist uprising would
have created deep divisions in the republican movement, thereby guaranteeing
certain and early victory for the fascist forces.
The
Barcelona events were indeed an important turning point but not as some
anti-communist and liberal commentators present it. For there followed a period
during which the national Popular Army was transformed into an effective
fighting force.
Despite
the overwhelming military advantages enjoyed by the fascist enemy and the
continuing arms embargo placed on republican Spain by the Western democracies,
the reorganised National Army supported by the International Brigade was able
to hold on for a further 18 months, giving space for Spain’s outstanding
socialist prime minister Juan Negrin to negotiate for increased international
assistance.
The
fundamental reasons for the defeat of Spanish democracy were outside the
republic’s control.
First,
Franco could not have prevailed without the massive military support of the
fascist powers. And Spanish democracy could have survived if Britain, France
and the United States had lifted the arms embargo placed on republican Spain
and put diplomatic and economic pressure on the fascist powers to stop their
war of intervention.
By
May 1937 it was clear to Negrin and the Communist Party, which provided the
backbone to his administration, that only the centralising strategy of the
Popular Front government could stop the slide to military defeat, and
consolidate the substantial and profoundly democratic changes it had instituted.
These
reforms could have rapidly moved Spain from a largely backward, medieval
theocracy to an advanced social democracy. Many on the left saw such
developments as important steps on the road to socialism.
11)
RUSSIAN CONGRESS OF CANADA CALLS FOR FAIR INVESTIGATION OF ODESSA TRAGEDY
The following letter was sent to Canadian MPs on May 1, by the Russian
Congress of Canada
In
commemoration of the third anniversary of the tragic events in Odessa on May 2,
2014, the Russian Congress of Canada (RCC) remembers those who fell victim to
the violence of right-wing Ukrainian radicals and draws attention to the
failure of Ukrainian authorities to properly investigate and prosecute the
culprits. RCC calls upon the Canadian government to exercise its influence on
official Kyiv so that the investigation be brought to a conclusion, the truth
be known and justice served in this, one of the darkest pages of recent
Ukrainian history.
On
May 2, 2014, Odessa became a place of tragedy. Dozens of people died in the
outbreak of violence against citizens of the city and surrounding region who
did not support the ‘Euromaidan’ regime change in Kyiv ten weeks earlier.
Protesters set up a tent camp on Kulikovo Pole square in the centre of Odessa
as a place of peaceful gathering. They were collecting signatures for a
proposal to conduct an all-Ukrainian referendum on decentralization of
Ukraine’s central government powers and recognition of Russian as the second
official language of the country. These demands have always been shared by the
people of southern and eastern Ukraine, who historically, culturally, and
linguistically have been close to Russia. However, successive governments in
post-Soviet Union Ukraine have never agreed to these demands.
Kulikovo
Pole became the centre of anti-Maidan activists. Odessa city and the region
were split over support of Euromaidan, with pro and anti-Euromaidan marches and
public rallies taking place throughout February-April 2014. On May 2, hundreds
of football ultras, known for their support of right-wing Ukrainian
nationalism, arrived to Odessa by buses to attend a match. Members of
extremist, paramilitary ‘self-defence’ units of Euromaidan from various
Ukrainian cities also arrived to Odessa that day. They joined with local football
ultras and paramilitaries to organize a march for unity of Ukraine through the
centre of the city. The Anti-Maidan activists organized their groups in central
Odessa. The two sides came into conflict and police did little to prevent the
violence that erupted. Six people died in clashes, and many more were injured.
By
6:30 pm, nationalist ultras reached the Kulikovo Pole square. They attacked and
burned the camp down, using Molotov cocktails, cobblestones and firearms. They
beat the Kulikovo camp activists with baseball bats and chains. The activists
took refuge in the House of Trade Unions close to the camp. The right-wing
radicals encircled the building and set it on fire, trapping activists inside.
Some of those inside tried to escape the fires by fleeing to the roof of the
building. From there, some were eventually rescued. Others jumped from the
windows on the second and third floors. Some of those were then beaten to death
by the gathered extremists. Inside, many were burned alive or died from suffocation.
According
to official statistics, 42 people died in the fire in the Trade Unions House on
May 2. However, the number of victims was most likely over a hundred, according
to relatives and witnesses. Many survivors were seriously injured. Some of them
were taken to hospitals but did not stay there. Relatives took them away,
fearing that they would be killed by extremist vigilantes. Others did not even
go to hospitals out of fear of being reported to authorities and arrested. Some
of the survivors died of injuries.
The
massacre occurred under the eyes of the police who were observing but did not
intervene because, police officials later said, they had ‘no orders’ to act.
Police superiors were attending an unscheduled meeting which had been called by
higher authorities and lasted several hours. The fire brigade, located within
0.5 km from the Trade Unions House, received numerous calls for assistance but
it took them 45 minutes to arrive.
Ukrainian
authorities launched five separate investigations of the Odessa massacre – by
the General Prosecutor, by the Ministry of Interior, by a special Parliamentary
Commission, by the Ukrainian Ombudsperson and by the police department in
Odessa. None of these investigations have been concluded. Almost all of those who
have been arrested in relation to the May 2 events and currently face criminal
charges belong to the federalist, anti-Maidan camp. They are all accused under
identical charges of “causing mass disorder” instead of being individually
charged with specific offenses. None of the right-wing nationalists responsible
for the murders at the Trade Union House have been charged. As late as March
24, 2017, the EU-Ukraine Parliamentary Association Committee was still
demanding “further progress in the investigations into the crimes committed
during the Euromaidan protests and the violence in Odessa of 2 May 2014, in
order to bring to justice those responsible without delay.” (1)
Three
years after these tragic events, it is clear that Ukraine’s authorities
intentionally impede the progress of investigations. The prosecution has been
unable to produce any convincing evidence against the accused federalists and
supporters of Ukraine’s friendly relations with Russia. Numerous legal and
procedural violations have been observed during the proceedings. On a number of
occasions, right-wing extremists broke into courtrooms during proceedings,
threatened judges, defense lawyers and families of the defendants and
physically assaulted them. In several cases, judges recused themselves from the
investigation for fear of nationalist reprisals. Documentary evidence has been
tampered with. The investigation has been sabotaged at the highest level of
Ukraine’s Ministry of Interior (2).
Ukrainian
authorities clearly lack the will to bring the investigations to conclusion for
one simple reason – the same people and institutions that bear responsibility
for the Odessa tragedy are in charge of investigating it. The International
Advisory Panel of the Council of Europe concluded in November 2015 that the
Ukrainian government had failed to properly investigate and prosecute those
responsible for the violent clashes in Odessa on May 2, 2014. The European
experts found that Ukraine’s investigations into the “mass disorders” in the
city centre, the fire in the Trade Unions House and the conduct of the State
Emergency Service staff in response to the fire lacked institutional and
practical independence (3).
The
Ukrainian government’s failure to identify and prosecute the perpetrators of
the Odessa massacre has cast serious doubts about democracy and the rule of law
in post-Euromaidan Ukraine. The current Ukrainian rulers and their ardent
supporters in the West, including the Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister
Chrystia Freeland and the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, claim that Ukraine is
successfully reforming its law-enforcement agencies and the Prosecutor
General’s Office. According to the statement made by the Ukrainian Canadian
Congress to the Parliament of Canada’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs
and International Development on March 23, 2017, “… there are many positive
examples of what has changed on the ground (in Ukraine). We are on the path,
with the judicial system, with police reform, to fundamentally change the lives
of Ukrainian citizens, and provide an example to people in Belarus and Russia
of what is a better future….”
How
successful are these reforms if none of these agencies proved willing or able
to bring mass murderers to justice even three years after the Odessa massacre?
Ukrainian society needs to know the truth, which is denied to them by the
Ukrainian authorities. Nationalist radicals guilty of killing innocent
civilians in cold blood should be held accountable for their actions.
Yet
it is unlikely that in today’s Ukraine justice will be served without any
external help. As in the case of unidentified sniper killings on Maidan in
February 2014, high-ranking officials in Kyiv have proven themselves
uninterested in honest and effective investigations of the Odessa Massacre because
it might reveal the involvement of current power holders in these killings.
Ukraine’s government has denied and covered up the involvement of the extreme
right nationalists and their paramilitaries in the escalation of violence on
Euromaidan and the persecution of pro-Russian Ukrainians across the country.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people who opposed the Euromaidan have been arrested and
detained illegally. Far-right thugs routinely intimidate and attack those who
dare to publicly voice their disagreements with the Ukrainian
ultra-nationalism. The government does nothing to protect the rights of the
attacked.
The
failure of the Ukrainian authorities to investigate the tragedy of May 2, 2014
in Odessa calls for an immediate action by the Government of Canada. If all
members of Mr. Trudeau’s cabinet care about the people of Ukraine and want them
to live in inter-ethnic peace, there should be no difficulty on the part of our
Government to pressure Mr. Poroshenko and the Ukrainian government as a whole
to name and prosecute those responsible for the deaths of ordinary Ukrainian
citizens in Kyiv and Odessa.
We
call upon the Government of Canada to hold the Ukrainian government accountable
for bringing to a conclusion the investigation into the Odessa tragedy. Only
truth and justice can bring reconciliation and forgiveness.
12)
DEFEAT THE COUP AGAINST THE BOLIVARIAN REPUBLIC
An open letter to the people, from the Communist Party of Venezuela
To
our compatriot Nicolas Maduro, President of the Republic; to the working class
and working people of the city and countryside; to the patriotic officers,
classes, and soldiers of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces; to the national
leadership and militancy of the political parties and popular organisations of
the Great Patriotic Pole, including the United Socialist Party.
The
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela finds itself threatened yet again by acts of
political violence from sectors of the extreme right as part of the execution
of a destabilising plan elaborated by North American imperialism.
This
plan has as its objective the imposition through force and blackmail of a
government which would work to maintain US hegemony throughout the continent,
taking apart the processes of national liberation which begun across Latin
America at the start of this century, and turning back progressive advances
which have allowed the working class and the people in general to establish
rights and social advances which were historically denied them by governments
which responded absolutely to the interests of the bourgeoisie, which in itself
acted as a subordinate to North American imperialism.
On
this occasion the aggressive escalation against our people by those actors of
the oligarchy and extreme right is much greater.
Apart
from the anti-popular violent acts resulting in the creation of shortages and
the high cost of living, terrorist acts have been seen in various cities across
the country in recent weeks.
These
acts have been accompanied by a national and international propaganda war which
looks to sew confusion and instigate confrontation between nations, creating a
state of chaos and violence which only favours a bloody resolution of the
political crisis, be it through a coup or a direct intervention by North American
imperialism and the international institutions at its beck and call.
The
Venezuelan extreme right, following instructions from US imperialism and with
its direct financing, does not control itself in its crimes of violence and
provocation.
With
such objectives in mind, the pro-US right are pressuring military officers with
diverse forces of blackmail and manipulation.
We
call on the patriotic soldiers and officers to not cede to these unpatriotic
terrorists and to take up the cause of the defence of our national sovereignty
and our independence and the security of our people without hesitation and with
complete commitment.
For
us, the Venezuelan communists, it is clear that what is happening is the
sharpening of the class struggle in its political form — the heightening of the
struggle for power. The forces which represent the interests of European and
North American great monopoly capital are attempting to take over control of
Venezuela and all Latin America by defeating and vanquishing the social and political
sectors which offer resistance to such objectives.
In
light of the dangerous terrorist escalation, which is putting our national
sovereignty, independence, and the gains of the working people at risk, we call
for a unified, forceful, and coherent response. It is necessary to mobilise
without delay the widest possible anti-imperialist alliance to defeat the
anti-democratic terrorist plans.
We
urgently need the central government, the parties of the Great Patriotic Pole,
the forces of the popular and working-class movement, and the patriotic command
of the armed forces to work together.
It
is necessary to develop a popular and patriotic plan to defeat the
pro-imperialist and terrorist extreme right. To not do so would be to act with
irresponsibility and, in reality, to hand oneself over without a fight.
The
true revolutionaries do not hand ourselves over, we fight united until we
succeed.
The
Venezuelan working class needs that the sectors of the petit-bourgeoisie which
currently hold hegemonic power in the national executive, the other powers of
state and parties of government, immediately abandon all sectarian and selfish
conduct which has only weakened the Bolivarian process and effectively works in
favour of the enemies’ plans.
The
Communist Party of Venezuela has insisted for many years for the need for a
collective and unified national leadership of this Bolivarian process of
changes, but the petit-bourgeoisie groupings which have exercised hegemonic
control over the government have not paid attention to these calls and
proposals.
Hence,
in the current context we insist on unity of action of all the political and
social forces willing to defend the nation against the imperialist enemy and
their puppets.
However
also, in the context of a wavering and inconsequent petit-bourgeoisie in power,
we call upon the most conscientious and combative sectors of the popular and
workers’ movements, the peasantry, the middle strata, the revolutionary
intellectuals and the patriotic officers to forge a block of forces which will
lead the wide patriotic and anti-imperialist alliance so as to halt the
seditious plans of the pro-US right and also so as to displace the
reformist-appeasement sectors which, from positions of government, tend to
favour the sectors of the big bourgeoisie and form pacts with social democratic
elements of the right wing.
Only
an ample, popular unity, led by the organised and conscientious working class
can guarantee the defence of the Bolivarian nation and the deepening of the
revolutionary changes towards the real construction of socialism on scientific
and committed foundations.
Peace
is won by defeating fascism.