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People’s Voice November 16-30, 2017
Volume 25 – Number 19 $1
1) VENEZUELA SOLIDARITY MOVEMENT TO FREELAND: LIMA GROUP NOT
WELCOME IN TORONTO
2) MONTREAL PEACE ACTIVISTS SAY “YES TO
PEACE, NO TO NATO!"
4) UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY PROMISES HARD-RIGHT WEDGE IN
ALBERTA
5) CONFRONTING HARASSMENT AND ASSAULT
6) YOUTH SHOW THE WAY OF THE FUTURE
7) NEW DIRECTIONS FOR SOCIALISM IN CHINA?
8) XIX WORLD FESTIVAL OF YOUTH AND STUDENTS: A CHALLENGING
FESTIVAL CONCLUDES WITH SUCCESS
9) SPANISH LEFT DENOUNCES “SELF COUP” AGAINST CATALONIA
10) “FIX OUR SCHOOLS” CAMPAIGN LAUNCHES IN ONTARIO
11) MAKING VANCOUVER “SAFE”: 50 PEOPLE GATHER TO FORM LOCAL
ANTI-FASCIST GROUP
12) OFL CONVENTION: POWER ON OR ON STANDBY? FIVE KEY QUESTIONS FOR
ONTARIO LABOUR
PEOPLE'S VOICE November 16-30, 2017 (pdf)
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People's Voice deadlines: December 1-31 January 1-31 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, |
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(The
following articles are from the November 16-30,2017,
issue of People's
1)
By Drew Garvie
As Foreign Affairs
Minister Chrystia Freeland further escalated
The so-called “Lima
Group” of twelve nations that support the
The Canada-wide
solidarity organization, the Hugo Chavez People’s Defence Front, called for the
meeting to be cancelled and issued a warning, “history has taught us that such
actions are a pretext for foreign military intervention, regime change and
looting of natural resources.” In a press release, the Hugo Chavez Front,
pointed to facts ignored by the Trudeau government and the Lima Group:
“Venezuelans went to polls for the second vote this year, this time to elect
Regional Governors. The outcome, recognized by observers and the majority of
the opposition leaders, was a resounding victory for the governing United
Socialist Party of
After the official
meeting, a public meeting was organized at the
Solidarity groups
gathered outside the event holding large banners demanding that
Chrystia Freeland and Irwin Cotler opened
the meeting. Irwin Cotler is an ex-Liberal MP, who has been appointed by the
historically US-dominated Organization of American States to investigate
supposed “crimes against humanity” committed by the Venezuelan government.
Freeland said that
Minister Freeland
claimed that "
The featured speaker on
the panel was the ex-Attorney General Luisa Ortega, who is currently facing
charges in
As soon as Ortega began
to speak, protestors chanting “hands off
The events surrounding
the Lima Group meeting in
It also
showed that solidarity groups and many Torontonians see this as shameful and
dangerous.
2) Montréal peace
activists say "Yes to peace, no to NATO!"
On October 14th, around
200 peace activists marched in downtown Montréal to oppose
Organised
by the newly created Mouvement Québécois
pour la Paix, the march reached out to different progressive activists and
also cultural personalities from Québec. It benefited from the endorsment or
participation of Dominique Daignault, President of the Montreal CSN Labour
Council, Yvon Deschamps, famous humorist, Roméo Saganash, Cree activist and member
of parliament from the NDP, Mario Beaulieu, President of the Bloc Québécois and
Amir Khadir, member of National Assembly from Québec Solidaire amongst others.
This march
was the first public and official event organised by the Mouvement québécois pour la paix, a broad coalition of peace
activist and peace-loving organisations. It was officially created last June
after several months of discussions that reached a consensual basis of unity
articulated mainly around the opposition to NATO and for
The MQP
also calls for solidarity with peoples victims of wars of aggression, for their
rights to self-determination without foreign interference (starting with the
Indigenous Nations at home), the dismantlement of Canada and Québec’s
industrial and military complex, promotion of integral and universal
disarmament starting with nuclear, biological and chemical disarmament, the
withdrawal of all Canadian soldiers in duty in foreign countries and for
massive transfer from Canada’s military budget towards more social programmes.
The
founding of the MQP responds to a concern of different Québec peace activists
who were concerned about the need to mobilise peace-loving forces with with a
breadth similar to the one that forced, in 2003,
Considering
that today’s main obstacle in the mobilisation of peace forces is the rhetoric
around so-called "humanitarian interventions" and the
"Responsibility to Protect" or R2P, this march, although modest, was
able to bring progressive people and groups of different orientations together
to assert that the main threat to peace, the main obstacle to a just and
lasting peace in the world still is US and NATO imperialism and their allies,
including Canada.
MQP's view is that the
best contribution Canada could make in this situation is to withdraw from NATO
and NORAD now, to massively cut its military budget and adopt an independent
foreign policy based on the principles of International Law, which include the
absolute respect of sovereignty and
3)
Day
of Action for Public Housing: Anti-poverty groups call for
cross-
An invitation from:
There is a
severe shortage of social housing in
Meanwhile,
even as most people’s real incomes drop, speculation in the private housing
market has elevated rents to absurd heights. The combination of the two
factors, coupled with poor provincial rent control, has sent poverty and
homelessness on an upward spiral. Housing has been transformed from a basic
human need to a commodity that is bought and sold solely for maximizing profit.
Rather than
deal with the crisis, the federal Liberals are playing tricks. In this year’s
budget, the Trudeau government announced a plan to spend $11 billion on
affordable housing. But as others have pointed out, the announcement is mere
smoke and mirrors. First, the money will be spent over 11 years. Second, the
spending plan is unjustifiably backloaded. In the two years the Liberals have
left before the next election, they will spend less than 3% of that pledged
amount, at best increasing existing social housing stock by 0.2%, and will
allot a big fat $0 to renewing federal, provincial and territorial partnerships
in housing. In keeping with the Liberal record, they promised a mountain but
aren’t even delivering a mole hill.
Let’s not
be fooled by this Liberal treachery. We all deserve decent affordable public
housing and we must fight to win it. So this November 22, the National Housing
Day, we are calling on groups across the country to join together and demand
that the Liberals spend 100% of that $11.2 billion within their current
mandate, on building and fixing social housing. We urge groups to endorse this
call and organize local actions on November 22 that respond to the social
housing needs in your communities. Our basis of unity is our resolve to win the
following demands and a commitment to respect local autonomy of actions taken
and tactics used.
We demand
that the Trudeau Liberals:
• Spend 100% of the
$11.2 billion announced in the March 2017 budget within the next two years to
respond to the crisis of social housing plaguing the country.
• Renew federal
subsidies to low-income tenants in existing social housing (co-op, nonprofit
and public).
• Build new social
housing units with rent-geared-to income subsidies that are affordable to
people living on social assistance and old age pension.
• Eliminate homelessness and prioritize
needs of those in precarious housing situations, especially marginalized groups
including on and off-reserve Indigenous communities, recent immigrants,
racialized communities, lone parent families and single seniors, women fleeing
violence, disabled people, youth, people on social assistance, and the working
poor.
Join us!
To
endorse this call or to organize an action locally, contact the
4)
United Conservative Party promises hard-right wedge in
PV
Alberta Bureau
With the two right wing parties herded back into the United
Conservative Party (UCP), and Jason Kenney elected as their leader, it is
likely but not certain that they will win the next provincial election in
Alberta.
In the May 2015 election, the NDP took its ridings in
However, taking the loyalty of these voters for granted is what lost
them the last election in the first place.
The NDP has been a well-behaved centrist party with respect to the
economy. They have not challenged the supremacy of the oil and gas
multinational corporations in the economy in either policy or rhetoric, leaving
royalties low, framing any move towards green diversification as a way of
justifying continued development of oil sands production, and claiming to be
better than the conservatives at gaining approval for new pipelines. The final
round of looting of the oil and gas sector before it is swamped globally by
technological advances will be only marginally affected by whether it is the
NDP or the UCP that fails to raise royalty rates or corporate taxes. This
leaves little room for the UCP to claim the capitalist high ground, and gives
only tepid motivation to the corporate sector back them. So expect an up-tick
in treason – the right-wing propaganda machine will be doubling down on their
old trick of blaming Ottawa, denouncing transfer payments and posing as
defenders of poor exploited Alberta, and trying to implicate the provincial NDP
in this nasty Eastern cabal.
If current projections are correct, the
The local propaganda battle is therefore likely to play out in the area
of social policy, and there's going to be a lot of sex in it. The NDP has taken
a forthright stand on supporting LGTBQ youth, mandating Gay Straight Alliances
(GSA) clubs in high schools wherever students ask for them, and being willing
to combat the homophobic trends in Catholic and Public School Boards to do so.
Jason Kenney has always been not just an opportunist supporter of
corporate interests but an ideologue of misogyny and homophobia, starting his
career campaigning against reproductive rights and consistently opposing
protection of human rights at the federal level. Part of his handy majority
within his own party came from organized anti-choice groups. His campaign for
the leadership of the UCP was launched by proposing that schools should be
required to tell parents if their child joins a GSA club. The NDP is now
introducing legislation explicitly to protect children from being outed to
their parents without their consent.
Consent could be the word of the year. Reactionary hatred of sex
education, in the context of a general review of the public school curriculum,
has handed the NDP another useful tool. Catholic school superintendents’
attempts to counter the proposed sex education program allowed NDP premier
Notley and education minister David Eggen to take an explicit stand that
homophobia will not be taught and the need for consent will be taught. They are
essentially taking Jason Kenney's dog whistle away, by explicitly refuting the
unspoken implications of “parental rights” and “variety of religions
perspectives”.
Last month's municipal elections in
They must now repudiate this notion, and it does not bode well for the
UCP if all they have to offer is attacks on women and children.
5) Confronting harassment and
assault
People’s Voice Editorial
As the sexual harassment and
assault scandal involving Harvey Weinstein exploded, an increasing amount of
media and public discourse has become focused on the depth of these problems.
The recent #metoo social media campaign, for example, involved a huge number of
people sharing their experience of harassment or assault. The overwhelming
majority were women. A research poll conducted on November 1 revealed that 53%
of women in
The telling of these experiences
is a poignant and important reminder that violence and oppression continues to
target and hurt so many women and girls in our society. They call upon our
society, as a whole, to do a better job of recognizing and confronting
oppression that occurs around us.
At the same time, there have
been valid and important critiques of both the media response and social media
campaigns like #metoo: Why does it so often take a massive public scandal,
involving famous man and a large number of victims, before the media looks
seriously at sexual harssment and assault? Why do women and gender oppressed
people have to publicly expose their experiences, over and over again, for the
issue to be taken seriously? Why do we seem unable to move beyond a temporary –
some would say voyeuristic – focus on these problems?
These questions deserve a lot of
discussion and analysis. But one thing is clear – we need to build a stronger
alliance to combat harassment and sexual assault.
In part, this requires making
connecting the harassing and violent behavior of individuals (usually men) with
the broader systems and ideologies around us. Unfortunately, these are often
separated. For example, Statistics
Closing this gap is important.
Deepening our understanding of how patriarchy has become institutionalized
within capitalism, and how capitalism relies on the systemic oppression of
women in order to reproduce itself, helps inform the tactics of our struggle
against both. This includes extending our awareness of the disproportionate
impact of harassment and violence upon Indigenous, racialized and trans women.
As we celebrate, worldwide, the
centenary of the October Revolution, we should recall the words of Bolshevik
revolutionary, Inessa Armand:
“If women’s liberation is
unthinkable without communism, then communism is unthinkable without women’s
liberation.”
6) Youth show the way of the future
In the framework of the 19th World Festival of Youth and Students, 36
communist youth organizations from all across the world gathered in Sochi’s “Lenin
Conference Hall” to honour the 100th anniversary of the Great October Socialist
Revolution. They celebrated its achievements in favour of the working class,
youth and popular masses everywhere, in socialist countries and also in
capitalist countries.
From India to Guatemala, from Colombia to Austria, the room was heavy
packed by hundreds of young people who committed to following the path opened
up by the October Revolution a century ago.
In a common resolution, the organizations present recalled that the
October Revolution “proved the peoples, through their struggle, can overthrow
capitalism and construct a superior society, socialism.” The resolution further
states that all the problems youth are facing in capitalist countries “can be
resolved through the seizure of power by the working class, with the
revolutionary overthrow of capitalism. In the countries where socialism was
built, the youth had important achievements that even today seem a distant
dream for the youth of our countries. These include the access to all levels of
education, guaranteed and stable work, sports and culture.”
Taking part in this event, the YCL-LJC Canada made an intervention
outlining the influence of the October Revolution on the working class, the
youth and progressive movements in Canada, either through their domestic
struggles, like the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike, or through their massive
support for revolution abroad. All of this occurred in a context in which
The YCL-LJC Canada also stressed that the October Revolution inspired
the formation of the Communist Party of Canada in 1921 and, two years later,
the creation of what would become the Young Communist League. Both of these
organizations have been part of the key struggles that contributed to increased
quality of life for the working class and the youth in this country. These
include the ‘On to Ottawa Trek’ that led to the first system of employment
insurance, and Norman Bethune’s call for socialized medicine that paved the way
for public healthcare, decades before Tommy Douglas and the CCF.
The youth organizations who participated in the conference noted that
the October Revolution still has an impact throughout the world. Their common
conclusion, despite different conditions in their different countries, was that
Great October is not an event of the past, but rather an event of the future.
They understand that today, new socialist revolutions are not only possible,
but necessary. The aggressiveness of capitalism and imperialism, and the rise
of the ultra-right in many countries show to the youth of the world that the
need to build socialism is more urgent than ever. Capitalism cannot have a
human face – whatever its form, it is a system aimed to suit the interests of
minority over those of the toiling majority. The youth know that as long as
capitalism exists, the dangers of war, environmental destruction and fascism
will always be on the horizon.
But they also know, thanks to Great October, that capitalism is not
undefeatable. The youth of the world see the way of the future, and are
inspired to take up the challenge of their generation, their class, and all of
humanity – to strengthen our common struggle for the victory of socialism.
7) NEW DIRECTIONS FOR
SOCIALISM IN
Special
to PV
CNN described it as “
Far be it from us to question the assessments and characterizations of
the mainstream bourgeois media – bastions of truth and democracy that they are
– but it does seem that they have taken great pains to depict China’s 19th
Communist Party Congress as a singularly threatening event. After all, such
characterizations do directly support and facilitate imperialist plans to
demonize, encircle and isolate
Clearly, something was astir at the 19th Congress that caught the
attention of these spokespeople for global capitalism and planted the seeds of
panic. While there is a lot to be analyzed in this situation, the opening
speech from Chinese President and Party General Secretary Xi Jinping is a good
place to start. The following is based on excerpts from that speech:
“The CPC’s 19th Congress is held in this key period, on the eve
of the victory of attaining an Affluent Society, of achieving “Socialism with
Chinese Characteristics (SCC).” This is a key meeting.
“The 5 years since the 18th Congress have been extraordinary years for
the CPC and country. Facing a world with weak growth, uncertain conditions,
worsening global problems, and changing economic conditions, we remain steady
to face our difficulties head on, to advance toward the historic outcome of
modernising socialism.
“The poverty rate has dropped from 12.2 percent to 4 percent. The
comprehensive development of education, the central and western regions and
rural education has been significantly strengthened. Growth of urban and rural
incomes exceeds economic growth, and middle-income groups continue to expand.
“Significant ecological protection and restoration projects are
progressing smoothly, and forest cover continues to improve. Ecological
environment management has been significantly strengthened, and the
environmental situation has been improved. We have become a global leader,
guiding international cooperation in response to climate change.
“At the same time, we must clearly see that our work still has many
deficiencies and we face many difficulties and challenges. The development of
quality and efficiency is not high, innovation is not strong enough, the real
economic level needs to be improved, ecological and
environmental protection has a long way to go. The contradiction between the
urban and rural areas and the income distribution gap is still large. There are
many problems in the areas of employment, education, health care, housing, and
pensions. These problems must be addressed.
"We must speed up the improvement of the socialist market economic
system. We should improve all kinds of state-owned assets management system,
reform the state-owned capital authorized management system, speed up the
optimization of state-owned economy layout, promote the preservation and
appreciation of state-owned assets, enable state-owned capital to do better and
effectively prevent the loss of state-owned assets.
"Our country is a socialist country under the leadership of the
working class and a people’s democratic dictatorship based on the alliance of
workers and peasants. All the power of the state belongs to the people.
“We must develop quality education, promote education fairness, and
cultivate the socialist constructors and successors of moral, intellectual and
aesthetic development. We must promote the integration of urban and rural
compulsory education; run pre-school education, special education and online
education; popularize high school education; and strive to make every child enjoy
fair and quality education. We must improve the student subsidy system, so that
the vast majority of the urban and rural labor force receives high school
education, and more receive higher education.
“We must improve the quality of employment and people’s income level.
We must adhere to the employment priority strategy and active employment
policy, to achieve higher quality and full employment. We must provide a full
range of public employment services, and promote college graduates and other
youth groups, and provide migrant workers with multi-channel employment
opportunities. We will adhere to the principle of distribution according to
work, improve the institutional mechanisms for distribution, and promote the
distribution of income in a more reasonable and orderly fashion. To fulfill the
redistribution function of the government, we must speed up the equalization of
basic public services and narrow the income distribution gap.
“We must strengthen the social security system to cover the whole
people, urban and rural areas. We must fully implement the national insurance
program, improve the basic old-age insurance, and improve the unified basic
medical insurance system. We must adhere to the basic national policy of
equality between men and women, to protect the legitimate rights and interests
of women and children. We will improve social assistance, social welfare,
charity, the special care and resettlement system, and the elderly care service
system. We will speed up the construction of housing supply, so that all people
are housed, either through rental or purchase.
“We must resolutely win the fight against poverty. It is our party’s
solemn promise to ensure the poor and the poor areas join the whole country
into a comprehensive well-off society.
“We will implement a healthy
“The modernization that we want to build is the modernization of the
harmonious coexistence of humanity and nature. It is necessary to create more
material wealth and spiritual wealth to meet the growing needs of the people
and to provide more quality ecological products to meet growing environmental
needs. We must adhere to the principle of conservation priority, protection
priority, natural recovery, the formation of conservation of resources and the
protection of the environment.
“To promote green development, we will build market-oriented green
technology innovation systems; develop green finance; strengthen energy-saving
environmental protection industry, clean production industry, and clean energy
industry. We will promote comprehensive conservation and recycling of
resources, the implementation of national water-saving action, and reduce
energy consumption and material consumption, to achieve a link between
production systems and living system cycle.
“We advocate simple and moderate, green low-carbon lifestyle, against
luxury waste and unreasonable consumption. We will carry out the creation of
conservation-oriented organs, green homes, green schools, green communities and
green travel and other actions.
“Comrades! We must firmly establish the
socialist ecological civilization concept and promote a harmonious development
of humanity and nature, a new pattern of modernization, in order to protect the
ecological environment!
“China will hold high the banner of
peace, development, and cooperation. The world is in a period of great changes. Peace and development are
still the theme of the times – at the same time, the uncertainties of
instability in the world are prominent, the world economic growth is not
enough, the polarization between the rich and the poor is becoming more and
more serious, and the regional hotspot problems continue to spread through
non-traditional security threats such as terrorism, cyber security, major
infectious diseases and climate change. Humanity faces many common challenges.
“The world we live in is full of hope and full of challenges. We cannot
give up the dream because of the complexity of reality. No country can respond
to the challenges of humanity alone, and no country can turn into a
self-enclosed island.
“Comrades! The Chinese people are great people
who are industrious and courageous and self-reliant. The Chinese Communist
Party is a great political party who dares to fight and dares to win. History
will only favor the firm, who forge ahead fighting,
and it will not wait for hesitators, slackers, or the fearful. The whole party
must consciously safeguard the unity of the party, keep the party’s flesh and
blood ties with the masses of the people, consolidate the unity of the people
of all ethnic groups throughout the country, and strengthen the unity of the
Chinese people at home and abroad. We must unite all the forces that can be
united, and work together towards the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation
– the bright future!”
(translated and
edited for length)
8) XIX World
Festival of Youth and Students: A challenging Festival concludes with success
Adrien Welsh
Last October 22nd, the 50,000 young people from
over 180 countries who gathered at the 19th World Festival of Youth and
Students put a final, successful mark to a challenging edition of the biggest
anti-imperialist youth event in the world. For over a week, the
However,
as the President of the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), Nikolas
Papadimitriou, outlined in his closing remarks, “the success of the 19th World
Festival of Youth and Students was a challenge for the World Federation of
Democratic Youth. This success is not reflected only by numbers and facts. It
is reflected with the messages that the youth will carry from
Indeed,
WFDY and the International Organising Committee, as well as the National
Preparatory Committees, encountered difficulties due to unilateral actions
taken by the Russian authorities, that were in contradiction with the different
collective decisions made during the preparatory process of the Festival. These
included the invitation of international participants without consulting with the
National Preparatory Committees (who are the bodies responsible for the
mobilisation to the Festival in each country), several attempts to depoliticise
the event as well as deliberate efforts to isolate WFDY, the main organiser of
the event, from the rest of the Festival. All of these actions were publicly
denounced by WFDY, who issued three statements regarding this problematic
situation.
Despite
these difficulties, thousands of young people who mobilised through the World
Federation of Democratic Youth made the Festival’s slogan resonate in
Strong and
united, WFDY and its member organisations stood together in order to show the
presence of anti-imperialist forces in the Festival and to promote, as much as
possible, the official discussion programme approved during the 3rd
International Preparatory Meeting.
In doing
so, we honoured the legacy of three anti-imperialist figures who dedicated
their lives to the struggle against imperialism. Saluting Mohamed Abdelaziz, we
stood in solidarity with the people and the youth of Western Sahara, Africa’s
last colony, who has been fighting occupation by
On the
morning of October 16th, thousands of young people marched in the middle of the
Olympic Village to honour the Great October Socialist Revolution. It was an
event that showed the path of resistance of the peoples against capitalism,
imperialism and colonialism, and for peace, social justice and revolutionary social
transformation. We remembered the achievements of the Revolution, as well as
the help and support the
At the
conclusion of the march, representatives of the main international
anti-imperialist organisations allied to WFDY, such as the World Peace Council,
the World Federation of Trade Unions and the Women’s International Democratic
Federation, addressed delegates. They expressed their solidarity and confidence
in the struggling youth, asking them to keep up the guard during a period in
which, as WIDF President Lorena Peña said, “imperial
and androcentric forces, patriarchal, homophobic and sexist capitalism are
harming the youth and women. Let’s celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Great
October Socialist Revolution as a preparation for current and future
struggles!”
Honouring
the October Revolution was part of the programme on many occasions. On October
18th, for example, 36 communist youth organisations including the YCL-LJC
As the
slogan outlines, “honouring our past we build the future.” Thus, the Festival
was not only an occasion to celebrate a glorious past, but also to celebrate
the ongoing anti-imperialist struggle of millions of young people across the
world.
Throughout
different activities, delegates were able to exchange with current, inspiring
anti-imperialist figures, such as Oscar López Rivera (activist for the
independence of Puerto Rico who served 35 years in prison before be- ing
liberated last year), Fernando González (one of the Cuban 5) and Elián
González. Participants attended conferences, panel discussions and seminars
addressing the different problems confronting youth today. These included
issues such as racism, the rise of the ultra-right, women’s rights and
emancipation, the rise of militarism and the danger of globalised wars, the
threat of regime change, environmental issues, neoliberalism, the need for free
and quality public and education. Looking at these individual issues, delegates
also discussed their overall relation with imperialism.
One of the
core events at the Festival movement is the Anti-imperialist Tribunal. As heir
to courts of conscience like the Russell Tribunal, which accused the crimes of
US militaries in Viet-Nam, the Anti-imperialist Tribunal of the World Festival
of Youth and Students is an occasion for young activists to prosecute
imperialism’s crimes. Among the countries who submitted a case to the Tribunal
were the youth from
The
Pan-Canadian delegation also presented a case against Canadian imperialism,
both at home and internationally. Amongst the accusations presented to the
court, the delegation denounced Canada’s mining corporations for their
extractions in Latin America, Africa and elsewhere; Canada’s foreign policy
that is increasingly bound to the NATO and US war agendas; and the ongoing
genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada, with particular reference to the case
of missing and murdered Indigenous women.
In the
end, the Tribunal, presided over by World Peace Council President Maria do
Socorro Gomes, declared imperialism guilty of crimes against humanity. This was
demonstrated through “aggressions, invasions and colonial occupation;
neo-colonial wars, economic war, installation and proliferation of military
bases to guarantee imperialist hegemony; genocide, crimes against humanity and
gender-related crimes; actions against biodiversity and the appropriation of
the natural resources, principally water; use of nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons; and the overthrow and destabilization of democratic and
legitimately constituted governments.” The final statement also called on the
world’s peoples to “develop their active resistance and all the forms of
struggle to reach the ideas of social justice, freedom, democracy, and the
construction of a better world, socialism.” In addition to its contribution to
the International anti-imperialist tribunal, the pan-Canadian delegation
participated in a panel, denouncing NAFTA and the role of free trade
agreements.
Together,
we took the pledge, as mentioned in the Final Declaration of the 19th World
Festival of Youth and Students, “to unite our voices and strengthen our common
struggle to overthrow imperialism,” at a moment in which the aggressiveness of
imperialism and capitalism are increasing every day, in which the danger of
nuclear war is higher than it has been for over half a century, and in which
US-NATO imperialism has waged a constant war against the peoples of the planet
since 2001.
Together,
the progressive youth of the world reaffirmed the importance and the pertinence
of the Festival movement and the vanguard role played by the World Federation
of Democratic Youth. They committed to “march forward with the ideals of the
WFYS and to join hands to become the builders of the world of peace and
solidarity, a world free from imperialism, of this global system of the
domination of capital and the monopolies.”
9) SPANISH LEFT DENOUNCES
“SELF COUP” AGAINST
In what has been called
The move to direct rule was based on a never-before-used article in
Capitalist governments and institutions around the world – including
the European Union,
The social democratic Podemos has presented a timid and
confusing position. While they have declared their opposition to the government’s dissolution of the Catalan government and the
imposition of direct rule, their main concern is that the Partido Popular will
use these measures to acquire more influence than their electoral results
provide. Podemos has adopted the contradictory position of
supporting the referendum, but agreeing with the government that the results
(independence) are illegal and illegitimate.
While
Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias does hint that there is class basis to the
crisis, he locates this factor exclusively within the government and not within
the State itself. Rather than respect the right of self-determination, Iglesias
tacks toward opportunism and self-promotion: “The elites know that only a
coalition government with Podemos could provide a democratic solution to the
problem in Catalan, but our presence in the Government would have threatened
their privileges.”
In
contrast, the Spanish Left has denounced the government’s moves as an
aggressive denial of the right to self-determination, and has called for mass
mobilizations in protest.
The Communist Party of
the Peoples of Spain (PCPE) declared on October 27 that the dissolution of
Catalonia’s regional government is “another demonstration of how the great
Spanish bourgeoisie, in its historical inability to solve the national
question, resolves difficulties generating immense problems through the
application of measures of the highest repressive nature.”
The PCPE describes the
current crisis as a product of capitalist society. “The capitalist system, in
its higher stage of development, is immersed in a profound general crisis that
turns the bourgeoisie into a decadent class whose only way out, to maintain the
hegemony that it recovered with Franco and kept intact in the so-called
Transition [to democracy], is to increase the exploitation of the working class
and the exclusive looting of what it considers its "national"
market.”
In this context, the
PCPE refers to the government’s actions as a “self-coup” (autogolpe in Spanish). A self-coup is
typically an act through which the State aggressively curtails its own
democratic institutions, in order to preserve or reproduce its foundations
during a time of crisis. The PCPE observes that deepening contradictions within
Spanish capitalism are leading to an “accelerated liquidation of the social,
labor and political achievements reached through decades of hard workers and
popular struggle.” It identifies a confederal, socialist republic as necessary
for guaranteeing the right to self-determination and other progressive gains.
In a statement issued on October 29, the Communist Party of
The PCE notes that the
crisis is being presented in a way that deflects attention from many of the key
issues facing the working class in
The PCE
advocates a federated republic as the “constitutional framework that allows the
peoples of the State to decide on all the issues that affect them, social,
labour, and territorial, a constitution(al) that
guarantees by law the rights to housing, work, health, education, a
Constitution that effectively guarantees the rights of women and that includes
the right to self-determination.”
10)
“Fix Our Schools” campaign launches in
PV
Ontario Bureau
On November 14, the Campaign for Public
Education (CPE) is launching a province- wide campaign to eliminate the repairs
and maintenance backlog in
The “Fix
Our Schools” campaign builds on a comprehensive study of
The alarming state of
disrepair in Ontario’s schools was highlighted in a 2015 Ontario’s
Auditor-General’s report which detailed chronic government underfunding to the
provinces 74 school boards:
“An
independent assessment calculated that the Ministry of Education needs $1.4
billion a year to maintain schools in a state of good repair. However, actual
funding in the last five years has ranged from $150 milion to $500 million.”
In the three years
between 2011 and 2014, provincial funding to school boards for school renewal
was only $150 million per year – roughly one-tenth of what the Auditor’s Report
indicated was needed.
Because of
the serious inadequacy of the government’s public education funding formula,
the choice for
Despite
several rounds of special funding aimed at school facility renewal over the
ensuing 15 years, the backlog, as measured by the Ministry itself, has grown
consistently, and is now well over $15 billion. Even this figure is an
understatement. Of the 4,636 schools in the detailed database released in 2017,
no data on renewal needs was reported for 346, of which 284 schools were shown
as not having been assessed.
Parents,
students, teachers and education workers all know what needs to be done.
The Fix
Our Schools campaign is a province-wide effort to force the
The
campaign will press for 5 main objectives:
- The education
funding formula must be enhanced to provide a realistic level of funding
for on- going school renewal. Taking the mid-point of the 2% to 4% range
of ongoing renewal investment needed, that would require an increase in
school renewal funding from the current temporary level of $1 billion a
year to an ongoing funding level of $1.7 billion per year, increasing as
the replacement value of school buildings increases.
- A separate stream
of capital funding must be created to replace the 346 school buildings
across the province determined to be too expensive to repair as of the
most recent review cycle. That will require a one-time capital injection
estimated at $3.9 billion for those 346 schools. Each year, more and more
schools move across the line that divides those that require substantial
renewal investments from those that are prohibitively expensive to repair.
- Capital funding
should be opened up to enable boards to develop new schools in growing
areas under their jurisdiction, without reference to the occupancy status
of distant schools. To support that additional investment, school boards
should be required to levy development charges to defray a portion of the
cost of both land and buildings in growing areas.
- To mitigate against school conditions continuing to
deteriorate in the future, the funding formula for school operations and
maintenance should be enhanced, and its fundamentals reconsidered.
- The general
level of funding for school operations and maintenance should be
established based on a careful analysis of community-based data on what
is required to maintain schools as safe and secure public-use facilities.
As a starting point, total operations and maintenance funding should be
increased by 8.7% to match the APPA North American Average.
- The formula
should recognize explicitly the underlying drivers of differences in
operating costs for schools in the province, including:
· Labour costs in the community
· Heating costs and climate
· The age and design of school buildings – a
formula that recognizes building age only up to 20 years is not realistic
· One size does not fit all; equality does not achieve
equity when needs and costs are different.
- The formula
should take explicit account of school space needs for specialized
programs such as music and art, school breakfast and lunch programs and
special education programming as well as community use of school
facilities.
- Expected
utilization should not be used as a weapon to force school boards to
close schools; utilization expectations should be based on a
broadly-based view of the role of the school in the community, and should
take into account the implications for student access and commute times
of forcing underutilized schools to close.
- The provincial
government should establish an explicit and quantifiable standard of good
repair for school facilities in the province, require that school boards
maintain their facilities to that standard and ensure that funding
provided to school boards is sufficient to support that standard. For more information about the Fix Our
Schools campaign, please visit campaignforpubliceducation.ca
11)
Making
By
Ismail Askin
As right-wing hate groups and white supremacist
organizers become bolder and gather with more regularity across the country,
using the cover of “free speech” to spread their racism and genocidal
propaganda; the left continues to resist Nazis and fascists as they have done
in decades past, as they have been doing so since, and as they will continue to
do so for a long time to come.
It was to
resist this increase in fascist, Islamophobic, racist and white supremacist
forces at work in
Solidarity
Against Fascism Everywhere, or SAFE, was founded under the name
Organizing Committee Against Islamophobia (OCAI) by, among others,
veteran organizer Sarah Ali. OCAI was founded as a broad-based coalition
intended to work towards forming a mass movement to combat the growing forces
of Islamophobia, white supremacy, and fascism. From its beginnings, SAFE has
been strongly supported by the Communist Party of
Together
with the continued strong support of a wide range of political, labour,
religious, and community organizations, SAFE grew exponentially, continuing to
enjoy great successes with organizing the
As SAFE
grows, it has begun to move to establish itself as a Pan- Canadian coalition
and has begun establishing sister chapters in cities across
At a
meeting organized with the help and funds of the University of British Columbia
based student-led Social Justice Centre (UBC SJC) and with catering from Tamam
Fine Palestinian Cuisine, SAFE co-founder and CPC member Sarah Ali Skyped in
with a number of representatives from the Toronto chapter of SAFE to guide
Vancouver activists in establishing a branch of the coalition in the city.
Alongside facilitators from the UBC SJC, the CPC and the YCL; members of labour
unions, the East Indian Defence Committee, Salaam Queer Mosque, International
League of People’s Struggle, Kagawasan Liberation Campaign, the University of
British Columbia Women’s Centre, Critical Muslim Voices, Coalition Against
Bigotry, Stand Up Against Racism, Inter- national Socialists and countless
others listened to Sarah and her comrades speak of the history of SAFE, the
organization’s structure and their experiences organizing, as well as answer
any questions and concerns the crowd at the CSE had.
After the
conversation with Sarah, the assembly viewed SAFE-Toronto’s statement of unity
and a lively discussion on the coalition’s points of unity ensued. Participants
discussed the importance of building a mass movement that incorporates more
than just the most radical elements of society to prevent fascism from taking
root in the community. To members of the CPC and YCL, for example, it was
self-evident that it would take a mass movement to prevent fascists from
feeling comfortable enough to march and organize in Vancouver, and that it
would take more than just a handful of revolutionaries to keep the marginalized
and targeted communities of Vancouver safe from far-right violence – it would
take thousands.
Due to the
late hour, formulating a basis of unity appropriate to
By all accounts,
the founding meeting was a massive success and the next step, building a plan
of action and agreeing on a statement of unity, appears to be on the path to
being an even greater success. As CPC-YCL member and labour organizer Brent
Jantzen put it, “… The organizers who started this movement out in Toronto
spoke so well, helped us lay a great foundation to what we need to organize
against, and what to expect while organizing this kind of coalition. Honestly
seeing this collaboration coast to coast, not only built around a frame work of
fighting these fascist forces, but fighting the settler colonial government of
Canada and the policies they are bringing in to further this process of
colonization warms my heart… From cook to poet we are all resisting and
fighting this fight. There has never been a struggle we fought for in society
won by a single person, it was the collective around them that got it there.
I'm really excited to see the change we push for become a reality.”
12)
OFL Convention: Power ON or ON Standby? Five key questions for
PV
Ontario Bureau
The 2017 Ontario Federation of Labour Convention is meeting against a
backdrop of strikes against precarious employment, privatization and
underfunding of public services, a desperately inadequate minimum wage,
anti-labour corporate trade deals, and related job losses to low-wage
jurisdictions.
From the OPSEU college faculty strike, to CUPE’s fights at public
libraries and Children’s Aid Societies across the province, to HERE’s $15
minimum wage strikes at campus food service providers, to CUPW’s refusal to distribute
fascist material through the postal service, to USW’s struggle against
liquidation of Canada’s steel industry, to Unifor’s strike at CAMI to protect
jobs and wages in the face of NAFTA – from these and many other examples,
Ontario workers are in motion. They continue to face many defensive struggles,
but are increasingly shifting onto the offensive by making progressive demands.
Increasingly, they are building their collective agreement disputes into
political struggles.
In both the public and private sectors, all of this represents an
important growth in militancy and political radicalism for
But is this growth emanating from the
Two years ago, the OFL Convention passed a 25-page action plan that
stressed the need to strengthen the Common Front. It also proposed increasing
coordination among affiliates, to achieve a range of goals like organizing new
workers.
Unfortunately, rather than build upon the work in the 2015 action plan,
this convention has to face the reality that many things agreed to in that plan
were not accomplished. The organizing school, for example, was not held.
The Common Front has not met – in fact, it has actively
been scuttled, sidelining those activists who have a strategic vision for
labour, based on class and class struggle.
Instead, the OFL leadership appears to have pursued an action plan based
on shoulder-rubbing, photo ops and backroom lobbying of the
The OFL will be proud of the work done on its Make It Fair campaign and
on the modest but important employment reforms achieved through Bill 148.
However, we need to note that Make It Fair represented the OFL running a
parallel campaign to the already existing $15 and Fairness campaign. It was
this campaign, initiated and sustained by grassroots labour and community
activists, which pressed the OFL into working more deliberately on changes to
the Employment Standards Act.
But
why did the OFL leadership have to be pushed into accepting the $15 and
Fairness community partners? Why was their response to develop their own
separate campaign on these issues, and push aside these active allies who had
built and sustained the struggle?
The “FedForward” team of Chris Buckley (President), Patty Coates
(Secretary-Treasurer) and Ahmed Gaied (Executive Vice-President) is running
again without opposition. Registration is down, with only about 800 delegates
coming, and many affiliates are not sending their full complement. The
convention’s slogan may be “power ON,” but is seems that this convention will
be a sleeper and that
As
Over recent years, labour conventions have become carefully managed
events that sideline debate and engagement. Delegates cannot run from the floor
and they cannot seek a vice president position for equity spots or young
workers without the written approval of their leadership. This means that
delegates who are opposed to the business unionism of their leadership will
likely never be candidates for OFL leadership, despite the fact that they often
represent the views of the majority of workers.
At this convention, once again, resolutions will be grouped and
combined into composites that reduce sharp actions to a commitment to lobby,
informing and petition governments.
Clearly, a stronger left is needed, to press the need for action and to
hold the leadership accountable. This is developing, but it is a task that
requires time, organization, cooperation, and leadership.
In the meantime, delegates to this
1.
Will the OFL develop and assert labour’s independent political program, leading
a provincial mobilization against privatization and in defense of adequately
funded and expanded public services, for full employment and good wages, for a
provincial public housing program, for card check certification for all Ontario
workers? Or will it continue to uncritically outsource its political work and
responsibilities to the NDP and, increasingly, the Liberal Party?
2.
Will the OFL commit to building the Common Front, a strong and active
community-labour fightback against austerity, war, resurgent fascism and white
supremacy? Or will it continue to sit on its hands, providing meek verbal support
to these movements, while sidelining their active potential?
3.
Will the OFL put time, energy and resources into a plan to actively organize
4.
Will the OFL function according to engaging and active grassroots and
member-driven democracy – including the voices of women, LGBTQ and gender
oppressed workers; Indigenous and racialized worker; young workers; workers in
precarious employment; and workers with disabilities – in its conventions and
campaigns? Or will it continue its current practice of “stage managed”
conventions that do not allow motions from the floor, combined with a powerful
and detached Executive that can disregard convention action plans, without
being held accountable?
5.
Will the OFL take a leading stand on Canada-wide and global issues that affect