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People’s Voice September 16-30, 2016
Volume 24 – Number 14 $1
1) “THE BIGGEST INDIGENOUS GATHERING IN OVER A CENTURY”
2) SOLIDARITY WITH TREATY 8 CARAVAN TO STOP THE SITE C DAM!
3) THE UNIFOR BROMANCE WITH JUSTIN TRUDEAU
5) SALUTE TO POSTAL WORKERS - Editorial
6) BIG STEP FOR PEACE IN COLOMBIA - Editorial
7) NEW BRUNSWICK’S THREATENED WILDLIFE HABITAT
8) FACTS ON B.C. EDUCATION FUNDING CRISIS
9) MAURICE RUSH: A LIFETIME DEVOTED TO THE CAUSE OF SOCIALISM
10) IS A U.S.-SPONSORED “SOFT” COUP TAKING PLACE IN VENEZUELA?
11) BIGGEST GENERAL STRIKE IN INDIA’S HISTORY
12) WHO PROFITED FROM THE $440 BILLION GREEK BAILOUT? NOT GREEKS
PEOPLE'S VOICE SEPTEMBER 16-30, 2016 (pdf)
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(The
following articles are from the September 16-30, 2016, issue of People's
1) “THE
BIGGEST INDIGENOUS GATHERING IN OVER A CENTURY”
With files from democracynow.org
and Annalisa Merelli at qz.com.
The Native tribes and environmentalists say the pipeline would disrupt a sacred
burial ground, as well as threaten water quality in the area. They say that the
Army Corps of Engineers should never have granted permits for its construction.
The pipeline would carry crude oil from
The protests led to the arrest of the Standing Rock Sioux tribal chair Dave
Archambault, among others. Work was eventually halted, pending a Sept. 9 ruling
by a judge who has heard arguments against the construction.
Things turned violent on Saturday, Sept. 3, when security guards working for
the Energy Transfer Partners, on behalf of the Dakota Access pipeline company,
attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted
construction on a tribal burial site.
As Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman reported, “the Dakota Access pipeline company
attacked Native Americans with dogs and pepper spray as they resisted the
construction of the $3.8 billion pipeline on a sacred tribal burial site...
Native Americans were shocked when they went to plant their tribal flags at the
construction site and found the bulldozers working over the weekend. On Friday,
lawyers for the tribe had filed documents showing how this land was a tribal
burial site. Now many fear that many of the graves and artifacts are destroyed.”
The next day, more than 500 people marched back to the site and held a prayer,
mourning the destruction of their ancestors’ graves.
Interviewed by Goodman, Dave Archambault said “Law officials try to portray
that they were attacked by an angry mob and it was a riot scene. But that was
not what was taking place. We had protectors who were concerned about the land.
And it just goes to show what kind of a company Energy [Transfer] Partners is.
They have zero policies on community relations, zero policy on human rights,
zero policies on Indian rights, indigenous rights... And they hire security
companies with untrained handlers. And the dogs were attacking the handlers.
That’s why they released dogs into the crowd...
“I asked the law enforcement, where did this company get these dogs? Was this
something that law enforcement supplied? When I asked the question, they said,
no, they had nothing to do with it. The company hired someone to get these
dogs, and there was a lack of training on how to handle the dogs. They were
using the dogs as a deadly weapon. And that’s something that needs to be looked
into, is who was handling these dogs, and whose dogs were they, and why were
they being used? This was all premeditated. They knew something was going to
happen when they leapfrogged over 15 miles of undisturbed land to destroy our sacred
sites. They knew that something was going to happen, so they were prepared.
They hired a company that had guard dogs, and then they came in, and then they
waited. By the time we saw what was going on, it was too late. Everything was
destroyed. The fact is that they desecrated our ancestral gravesites. They just
destroyed prayer sites... And that’s why we’re filing for the temporary
restraining order.”
The image of Native Americans being attacked as they try to protect sacred land
shocked many, among them commentator Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC whose
condemnation of their treatment on Aug. 26 has been widely shared: “Dakota
means friend, friendly,” he begins. “The people who gave that name to the
In his short message, O’Donnell calls the events in Standing Rock a “morally
embarrassing reminder” of
“The original sin of this country is that we invaders shot and murdered our way
across the land, killing every Native American we could, and making treaties
with the rest,” he says. “This country was founded on genocide.”
Even after the killings stopped, deals and treaties made with the tribes have
been consistently broken. “We piled crime on top of crime on top of crime,
against the people whose offense against us was simply that they lived where we
wanted to live,” he says.
He counts the current events at Standing Rock among those crimes. “That we
still have Native Americans left in this country to be arrested for trespassing
on their own land is testament not to the mercy of the genocidal invaders who
seized and occupied their land, but to the stunning strength and the 500 years
of endurance and the undying dignity of the people who were here long before
us.”
2) SOLIDARITY
WITH TREATY 8 CARAVAN TO STOP THE SITE C DAM!
The struggle to save the environment is a critical element of the global
movement to achieve a better world, and the Communist Party of
The Communist Party has repeatedly urged Premier Christy Clark’s provincial government
and BC Hydro to cancel the Site C dam, to cease all preparatory work for this
destructive project pending the outcome of the legal case, and to drop legal
proceedings and threats against those who use their democratic rights to
express opposition to Site C.
Both the federal and provincial governments have completely failed in their
responsibility to uphold the terms of Treaty 8, which promised the signatory
First Nations across a vast area of Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia and
the Northwest Territories that they would be able to continue their traditional
practices of hunting, trapping, fishing, and collecting medicinal plants “for
as long as the sun shines, the rivers flow and the grass grows.”
The Canadian state is obligated by treaties, court rulings, and the United
Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, to engage in
meaningful consultations with First Nations regarding economic developments on
their traditional territories. The days when governments and corporations could
simply ignore the rights of indigenous peoples are gone forever. In our view,
the lack of any serious consultations with Treaty 8 First Nations means that
the Site-C project is completely illegal.
There are many other reasons to oppose this dam, which will flood some of the
best agricultural lands in northern
This strategy is based on speculation that energy prices may rebound in the
near future, and on unfounded claims that huge tax breaks and low-cost
electricity will lure big energy transnationals to make multi-billion dollar
investments in
This fatally flawed project must be blocked now by the united actions of
Indigenous peoples, environmentalists, land defenders, and the labour movement,
and by the power of public opinion and the courts. The Communist Party joins
with all those who oppose Site C in sending our warmest greetings to the Treaty
8 Caravan participants. Yours is a courageous stand for the future of our
country and our planet, and we will continue to do everything we can to help
build broad public support for your struggle.
-
Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of
3) THE UNIFOR
BROMANCE WITH JUSTIN TRUDEAU
By Stuart Ryan,
This was the second time that Trudeau had addressed a Unifor event. He appeared
at the Good Jobs
The event that night was a panel of economists, including Jim Stanford, to discuss
different policy proposals to ensure Canadians would be able to find good
full-time union jobs in an economy devastated by the Great Recession of 2008-9.
It was the only occasion the whole weekend where participants were allowed to
ask questions from the floor. While Trudeau was not in line, the moderator
intervened to say that we had time for only one more question, and gave Justin
Trudeau the floor. He stepped ahead of Libby Davies, who had lined up with
everyone else.
Trudeau thanked the moderator and profusely thanked Jerry Dias for the
invitation to attend the
The Unifor flirtation with the Liberals did not start with the lead-up to the
2015 federal election. In the aftermath of the 1988 election, then CAW
President Bob White, who had travelled the country with Maude Barlow condemning
the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the United States, wrote a stinging
rebuke of NDP leader Ed Broadbent for allowing his party to play down “free trade”
when it was the only issue in the election.
Following the 1999
Tensions came to a head when the NDP under Jack Layton withdrew its support for
the Paul Martin Liberal government over the sponsorship scandal, which led to
the 2006 election. Buzz Hargrove invited Paul Martin to the December 2005 CAW
Council meeting, where he gave Martin a CAW jacket for having passed that year
a “progressive” budget with NDP support.
When the election was called, the
CAW endorsed Liberal candidates where the NDP did not have a chance to win.
After the Harper Conservatives won a minority government, the
Unifor has continued this policy of strategic voting since its inception. When
the local representing NDP staff on Parliament Hill, a local coming from the
former CEP, kept pushing for Unifor to endorse the NDP at its founding
convention in 2013, President Jerry Dias refused. In the end, that local left
Unifor and joined the United Food and Commercial Workers.
Since its inception, Unifor has adopted the CAW 1998 position in two
important elections. In the 2014
In the 2015 federal election, Unifor went all out to defeat Stephen Harper. Its
2014 Canadian Council endorsed strategic voting. Dias told the
What has made strategic voting seem plausible, given the political climate, was
the consistent drift to the right by the NDP. Where was Andrea Horvath when
Hudak took on the labour movement? Why did Thomas Mulcair address the Canadian
Club in
Fast forward to Trudeau’s address to the Canadian Labour Congress in November
2015, where he promised a “new partnership with Labour”, and then to his
address to Unifor.
In his introduction to Trudeau, Jerry Dias denounced Stephen Harper as a Prime
Minister who genuinely did not like Canadians. He pointed out that Harper stole
the surplus from Employment Insurance to put it into the government’s
general fund, in order to balance the federal budget. But Dias failed to
mention that the robbery of what was then Unemployment Insurance to the general
fund was started by former Finance Minister Paul Martin, in the 1995 budget
where he was going to slay the deficit “come hell or high water.”
Trudeau’s speech was a dud. His main point was to reiterate his government’s
new partnership with labour: “The labour movement has been essential to
building a stronger economy, one that's centered on the principles of fairness
and inclusion, You hold employers to account, and that includes my government.
You fight for the interests of the (sic) middle class, and you demonstrate a
sense of community in everything you do."
"We believe in partnership and collaboration," said Trudeau. "We
believe in renewing our relationship for the betterment of all Canadians. And
we believe that Labour is a solution, not a problem."
He cited his record since being
elected. The only new initiatives he promised were to allow employees
flexibility to schedule their working hours, and flexibility in parental benefits.
He said nothing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission; nothing about the
Trans-Pacific Partnership; nothing on climate change.
Much has been made of the “numerous standing ovations” given Trudeau by the
Unifor delegates. Two of them were after his introduction and when he finished.
This was a courtesy given all the guest speakers. The only ones during the
speech came when Trudeau said he kept his promises to put the retirement age
back to 65, and to repeal the anti-union Bills C-377 and 525 which the Harper
government passed just before the 2015 election, by having the Senate vote to
violate its own rules of procedure.
His reception was nothing compared to the responses to Cindy Blackstock and
Murray Sinclair, who were granted the Unifor Neil Reimer and Nelson Mandela
awards respectively, for their advocacy for the indigenous peoples of North
America. Standing ovations came every two minutes for them.
What will this bromance with the Liberals bring to the members of Unifor, and
the Canadian working class as a whole? How often have the Liberals campaigned
from the left and governed from the right? Have people forgotten that Pierre
Trudeau lampooned the Conservative promise of wage controls with his slogan, “Zap
you’re frozen”, in the 1974 election campaign, only to impose the very same
attack on workers in 1975? Remember that Jean Chretien promised to improve the
FTA in 1993, only to bring us NAFTA in 1994.
The test will come with the Trans Pacific Partnership. During the 2015 election
debates, Trudeau said that while he had not seen the details of the TPP, the
Liberals support trade. Trade Minister
Chrystia Freeland signed the TPP in
Let’s hope Unifor will forget its “partnership” with the Trudeau government and
follow through with its pledge to Stop the TPP.
By J. Boyden
Now it seems the cruise of this grand and gleaming trade deal might be coming
to an end. Indeed, it may run ground, not on a coral reef surrounding some
Polynesian island, but on the shores of the very country which launched the TPP
several years ago. As a potential shipwreck looms, the lighthouse beam of the
So, as Shakespeare might say, what tempest put the wild waters in this roar, as
if they would pour down stinking pitch, so this brave vessel was dashed all to
pieces?
The first hurricane blew not from the Pacific, but the
Following the Eurozone crisis, German capital was forced to push for faster and
deeper integration than desired by some sections of British capital. Then
Just as the EU has always been about much more than trade, so too has trade
always been part of its DNA. Likewise trade deals are always about much more
than trade. Today the EU works to shift power from elected national governments
to the European Commission, where the big business agenda can hack away at
existing labour rights and democracy. Indeed, as the Council of Canadians noted
in a statement on the Brexit, “rejection of these destructive trade deals
[NAFTA, TPP, CETA, etc.] is part of a positive vision of ‘fair trade.’”
The Brexit vote rocked the TPP boat. Since then, Obama, Trudeau and other
global big shots have been on damage control. At the G20 in
Negotiating trade deals is a temporary power granted to the
The November 8th US vote will also see elections to Congress. Before its
successor's term begins, the outgoing Congress will meet again for a “lame duck
session,” where politicians are not directly accountable to the electorate.
This is the main option Obama has for the TPP.
In August, Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority leader, came out
against such a vote, noting the “political climate” is “toxic” towards passing
the TPP. A number of members of Congress who voted for fast-track have now
re-considered.
For big business, however, a delay is no problem, if it means an opportunity to
add even further trade liberalization to the TPP. This is the way to understand
McConnell’s comment that the TPP has "serious flaws" and he would not
support the deal in its current form.
The New York Times reported in August that business groups don’t want the TPP
to come to Congress before they can lock-down enough support, holding pro-TPP
events in “more than 120 congressional districts”. Darci Vetter, the chief US
agricultural negotiator for the TPP, said recently that Farm Bureau lobbyists
have characterized McConnell as less uncompromising on prospects of a lame duck
vote.
Republican nominee Donald Trump has said he opposes the deal and would
re-negotiate. On the other hand, Hillary Clinton, who initially supported the
TPP, came out opposed in the Democratic primaries.
But big questions remain. The Communications Workers of
Obama opposed free trade with the
In
As one Tory insider told the National Post, “The Trudeau government didn’t want
to waste taking a positive position unless it looked like it would pass through
Congress.” But, the Post notes, Freeland recently went out of her way to note a
minor internal Global Affairs
For some months, trade unions, social movements, and Communist Party of
People’s Voice Editorial
Little wonder that successive Liberal and Conservative governments have
frequently tried to weaken this militant, democratic and socially progressive
trade union. This year, CUPW again faced off against a viciously anti-labour
employer, winning a two-year collective agreement despite an intensive
right-wing propaganda campaign. As we go to press, it appears that CUPW won
some important gains. For example, the tentative deal doubles all paramedical
benefits for RSMCs, with the exception of physiotherapy, raising extended
healthcare benefits for these workers to the same level as urban operations.
While the gendered 28% pay gap between urban and rural employees remains, the
union did win a major victory, establishing a process to finally resolve this
shocking pay discrepancy within nineteen months.
There are huge issues left unresolved at
6) BIG STEP FOR PEACE IN
People’s Voice Editorial
Negotiated in
But the people of Colombia still need our solidarity, to block attempts by the
fascist forces to assassinate activists, as they did during the 1980s against
the left-wing Patriotic Union, and to keep up pressure on the government to
fulfill the reforms contained in this agreement. Not least, the 9,500 political
prisoners languishing in
The FARC-EP deserves warm congratulations for its principled struggle to win
peace and social justice in
7)
By
Norm Knight
The
Loss of habitat and appropriate grazing vegetation are blamed for the decline
in
Fast-growing softwoods are deemed more desirable by the pulp and paper industry
than are slower-growing, longer lived tree species. Somewhat more than one
percent of the province's forest is harvested annually. Regeneration of
deciduous species is discouraged by clearcutting, silviculture (tree planting),
and the application of glyphosphate, a herbicide which also harms wildlife and
is a suspected human carcinogen.
In 2014 the Liberals approved a new timber deal
The forest industry in
The license for the east-central part of the province currently has no company
willing to operate it, and is under a government-appointed management team.
Companies claim that
A more promising trend from an environmental perspective is that small woodlot
owners (defined as those who do not own a mill), who 50 years ago were the
worst from a forest-management perspective, now increasingly embrace the
non-timber values of their stands, such as aesthetic, conservation,
residential, and spiritual values. A survey in 2011 found that they gave
environmental and legacy reasons as their principal motivation for owning
forest land - ahead of timber harvesting as a motivation. Thirty-seven percent
of the small woodlot owners said they had not harvested from their land in the
last ten years.
8) FACTS ON B.C. EDUCATION
FUNDING CRISIS
PV Vancouver Bureau
With the next BC election looming in May 2017, the Liberals keep throwing dust
in the air, to prevent voters from getting a clear understanding of the
situation. Once again, the Liberal line is that the province is spending
“record amounts of money” on public education - even while Education Minister
Bernier and the Premier dole out tiny grants to save a handful of small schools
in rural areas represented by Liberal MLAs.
Fortunately, the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has
put together research materials which demolish the Liberal propaganda. And
surprisingly, even the right-wing Fraser Institute, which has done more than
any other group to undermine public education in BC over the past three
decades, recently agreed that, just as the CCPA has long pointed out, per
student funding here is about $1000 lower per capita than the Canadian
provincial average. In other words, the school system in BC suffers from an
annual shortfall in the range of $500 million, with devastating consequences
for classroom learning and teaching conditions.
Here are some facts and figures from the CCPA-BC:
* Despite provincial government
claims that education funding is “at record levels” funding has actually shrunk
substantially as a share of BC’s overall economic pie, and fallen almost $1,000
per student below the Canadian average. Meanwhile, enrolment is projected to
rise; the government estimates that there will be 40,000 more students by 2024.
* At least half of BC’s local
school boards have faced budget crises this year, with many forced to close
schools and impose other cutbacks to balance their budgets as required by
provincial law.
* We see a significant drop in
the share of total economic resources dedicated to public education. K–12
funding has fallen steadily from 3.3% of BC’s Gross Domestic Product in 2001 to
a projected 2.5% in Budget 2016— a 25% decline. Actual operating grants the
province sends to school boards fell from 2.8% of GDP in 2001 to 1.9% in Budget
2016.
* This year alone the provincial
government declared a $730 million budget surplus, and stashed away another
$300 million in a “prosperity fund” (misleadingly linked to LNG). It also sent
over $310 million in public tax dollars to fund private schools.
* BC has the second lowest
education funding in the country, nearly $1,000 per student lower than the
national average, according to 2010/11 data from Statistics
* The provincial government has
downloaded costs to local school districts, including substantial increases in
BC Hydro, Medical Services Plan (MSP), Employment Insurance (EI) and WorkSafeBC
rates; the carbon tax; provincially mandated computer network upgrades; a
proliferation of new technology in the classroom; as well as the cost of salary
and benefit increases for teachers, support staff and administrators. These
cost pressures on school districts amounted to a provincial cumulative total of
$192 million for 2012/13 to 2014/15.
* Students with special needs and
learning challenges benefit from more classroom support. Yet the number of BC
classes with four or more students with special learning needs has increased
dramatically over the past ten years from around 9,500 to over 16,500.
* Households in BC’s top 1% now
pay $41,000 less in tax per year than they did in 2001, and pay a lower overall
tax rate than the vast majority of the population.
* Public tax dollars are flowing
into private schools at a growing rate, including to elite prep schools that
charge $20,000 per year in tuition. Funding for private schools has increased
at more three times the rate of public schools over the past ten years, and is
projected to reach $358 million in the 2016/17 school year.
* Private schools are subsidized
in other ways, including with property tax breaks on their facilities, and a
“child care” tax break that parents at prep schools like
- See more at: http://www.policynote.ca/education-crisis/#sthash.aFmwHkgS.dpuf
9) MAURICE RUSH: A LIFETIME DEVOTED TO THE CAUSE OF SOCIALISM
The oldest member of the Communist Party of
Born in December 1915 in
By early 1935, the struggle of the Communist-led Relief
Maurice was soon a key leader of the YCL and the Communist Party in
Over the Cold War decades and beyond, Maurice was deeply involved in labour
activities, struggles to defend BC‘s forests and fisheries against corporate
pillaging, campaigns against the arms race and the US imperialist war in
Vietnam, municipal reform movements, the long and successful effort to
establish the Committee (later Coalition) of Progressive Electors, the
Operation Solidarity struggle against the Socred government’s austerity attack
in 1983, and many other issues. Thanks to the efforts of Maurice Rush and other
party leaders, BC Communists played a much larger role than their numbers,
combining a strategy of broad unity around immediate demands with the aim of a
socialist
Maurice travelled overseas to various socialist countries on behalf of the Pacific Tribune and the Party, including
to the USSR, the German Democratic Republic, China, and Vietnam, where he and
long-time CPC leader Tim Buck met with Ho Chi Minh in December of 1965. After a
section of the leadership tried to liquidate the CPC in the early 1990s,
Maurice was among those who remained loyal to the Party and to its ideology of
Marxism-Leninism, helping to publish the Western
Bulletin, which was an important vehicle to project Communist views on
current issues. After the Party’s 30th Central Convention in
December 1992 restored control to the membership, he became a frequent
contributor to People’s Voice. In
1995, Maurice published his memoirs, and he continued his participation in the
The Central Executive Committee and BC Provincial Executive Committee of the
CPC salute comrade Maury’s decades of contributions to the cause of the working
class, and his powerful revolutionary spirit.
This year’s Revolution Banquet in
10) IS A U.S.-SPONSORED “SOFT”
By Nino Pagliccia, September 9,
2016
The most severe challenge took place in 2002, when a coup forced Chavez out for
a few hours until a large mass of supporters succeeded in reestablishing him in
power. The latest is developing now, with a weak but vocal opposition
conducting a drive for a referendum to recall President Nicolas Maduro from
office.
Recalls from office of elected persons are legitimate as established in Article
72 of the Venezuelan constitution. In fact, a recall referendum tried to remove
President Chavez in 2004. The attempt failed, with 58% of voters against the
recall.
The current recall effort has additional issues even from the beginning of the
process.
On August 9,
If the opposition succeeds, the recall referendum will happen three months
later, in January 2017. That is the time required by law and by previous
experience in order to comply with technicalities and verify all the
signatures. This is what the opposition refused to accept, and proceeded to
call the population to a “Take
According to the Constitution of
Ironically, the main reason for the delay that the MUD coalition refuses to
accept is fully their own responsibility. For the first three months of this
year, the different factions could not agree on how to proceed. Some did not
agree with the recall referendum, and this delayed the recall request until
April 14. That is when the “legitimization” stage of the recall process began,
and was concluded by the CNE on August 3. During this time a full verification
by the CNE and corrections by the MUD coalition could be made in order to
comply with the legal requirements. This stage is mostly to the benefit of the
opposition, to ensure that they comply with the law and the request can
proceed. On August 9 the full chronology of the next stage for the collection
of the 20% of voters’ signatures was laid out.
There is nothing unusual in the careful planning, attention to details, and
legality of a process as critical as a recall referendum taken by the CNE. This
is necessary to guarantee that the rights of those who have expressed their
political choice for a president through a legitimate electoral process are
regarded as equally important as the rights of those requesting the referendum.
The “Take
In reference to the misinterpretation of these events, the Venezuelan foreign
minister, Delcy Rodríguez, declared that “there were no more than 30,000 people
in the [opposition] rally, and that is a reality that the international media refuses
to recognize.” [2] This is not new, but the direct foreign intervention in
From the international arena point of view, the
The relentless aim at regime changes in “unfriendly” countries is today the
main strategy of
We are witnessing a
Emboldened by winning a majority of seats in the National Assembly in the 2015
elections and by the tacit support of the U.S. government, the Venezuelan
right-wing refuses to accept the democratic process and the rule of law, and
continues to incite the population with the aim of destabilizing the country.
As we write, the MUD coalition is calling another manifestation on the streets,
this time in other cities. Venezuelans are being warned and security is on
alert. [5]
The opposition forces are bent on using aggressive provocations in the hope of
creating violence that would have to be stopped, and then accusing the Maduro
government of “repression”. This undemocratic tactic did not happen on
September 1. Two realistic interpretations are possible: 1) The Venezuelan
people have chosen to reject violence, thus becoming the true victors; 2) the
Bolivarian Revolution is firmly committed to a respectful democratic process, a
sign of maturity and conscience of the Venezuelan people. But Venezuelans must
be vigilant.
[1]
http://www.cne.gov.ve/web/imagen/publicidad/2016/presentacion.pdf
[2]
http://www.noticiasaldiayalahora.co/delcy-rodriguez-no-llegaron-a-30-000-en-la-marcha/
[3]
http://peoplesvoice.ca/2016/06/01/obamas-new-u-s-foreign-policy-latin-america/
[4]
https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/217763-canciller-venezuela-rt-derrotar-golpe-washington
11) BIGGEST GENERAL
STRIKE IN INDIA’S HISTORY
PV Vancouver Bureau, with files
from People's Democracy and The Guardian
Last-minute concessions by the finance and labour ministries, including a
104-rupee rise in unskilled workers’ daily minimum wage, failed to undermine
the strike against the anti-worker and anti-people policies of Narendra Modi’s
Hindu nationalist BJP government.
The turnout was a big rebuff to the government, which claims to protect the
interests of workers. Significantly, the pro-government BMS union central,
which withdrew from the strike at the last minute in 2015, did not join the
strike call this year at all. In fact, the government did everything in its
power to create confusion and sabotage the strike, with the willing support of
the BMS, which declared that it was ‘withdrawing’ from the strike after
claiming a ‘historic victory’ for the workers. The corporate media aired these
false claims and added to the misinformation campaign.
But the working class was not deceived, and BMS members even joined the strike in
several places. Workers who are not organised into unions, as in the Pune
industrial area, joined the strike again this year. In several places the
strike spread to newer areas and sections of workers. In many states, not just
traditional union strongholds, the strike turned into a "bandh"
economic shutdown, mainly due to the massive participation of road transport
workers.
Despite attempts by the TMC government in
The anger of workers against the policies of the government was visible in many
ways. Around 70,000 anganwadi (health care shelter) workers and employees of
ASHAs (community charities), most of them not members of any union, joined the
strike in
In a few areas, such as the larger ports and some road transport sectors, the
strike was not as good as 2015, but overall it was observed in many more
industrial clusters and sectors.
In several states, striking workers were subjected to police repression and
physical attacks. In Haryana, 22 leaders of the road transport workers’ union
were arrested and the striking workers were lathi charged; police went to the
residential areas where contract workers lived and coerced them to jobsites.
Several coal workers in Jharkhand were suspended for joining the strike. In
An overwhelming majority of bank and insurance employees all over the country
joined the strike, along with state government employees, some for the first
time. Participation of income tax employees, postal employees and other central
government workers was massive. Employees in several defence production units
joined the strike, along with telecommunications workers, coal miners, medical
workers, and contract workers in the public sector.
Unorganised workers in construction, beedi (cigaret production), head load
workers, auto and rickshaw drivers, street vendors, and domestic workers in
several states joined the strike and also participated in demonstrations.
The Sept. 2 action was the seventeenth joint country-wide general strike since
the advent of neoliberal policies some 25 years ago. It was preceded by joint
campaigns to organize workers across the country. Booklets exposing the
government's claims were published in local languages, for example.
Among the trade union demands were a 692-rupee daily minimum wage, universal
social security and a ban on foreign investment in the railway, insurance and
defence industries.
Modi won power in 2014 promising to replicate across
Prof. Jayati Ghosh, a development economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in
Delhi, says that "less than 4% of workers in
She said health workers in some states had not been paid in months, food
subsidy and distribution schemes were being neglected and “private
12) WHO PROFITED FROM THE $440 BILLION GREEK BAILOUT? NOT GREEKS
By Jack Rasmus, Information
Clearing House (slightly abridged from the original text)
That’s approximately US$440 billion in Troika loans over a five year period.
The question is: who is benefiting from the US$440 billion? It’s not
One might think that US$440 billion in loans would have helped Greece recover
from the global recession of 2008-09, the second European recession of 2011-13
that followed, and the Europe-wide chronic, stagnant economic growth ever
since. But no, the debt has actually impoverished
To pay for the US$440 billion, in three successive debt agreements the Troika
has required Greece to cut government spending on social services, eliminate
hundreds of thousands of government jobs, lower wages for public and private
sector workers, reduce the minimum wage, cut and eliminate pensions, raise the
cost of workers’ health care contributions, and pay higher sales and local
property taxes. As part of austerity, the Troika has also required
Bankers got 95%
The US$440 billion in Troika loans – and thus Greek debt – has gone to pay the
principle and interest on previous Troika debt, as that debt has been piled on
prior debt in order to pay for previous debt.
A recent study has revealed conclusively that all the interest and principal
payments on the US$440 billion debt has gone directly to European bankers and
investors, and to the Troika institutions of the EC, ECB, and IMF, who
indirectly in turn recycle it back to private bankers and investors.
According to the White Paper (WP-16-02) published this past spring by the
European School of Management and Technology, ESMT, entitled “Where Did the
Greek Bailout Money Go?”, more than 95 percent of the initial Troika loans to
Greece went to pay principal and interest on prior Troika loans, or to bailout
Greek private banks (owned by other Euro banks or indebted to them), or to pay
off European private investors and speculators. Less than 10 billion euros was
actually spent in
The ESMT study further estimates the August 2015 deal will result in more of
the same: of the US$98 billion loaned to
Cost to
In exchange for the 95 percent paid to the Troika and banker-investor friends,
the austerity measures accompanying the Troika loans has meant that Greece’s
unemployment rate today is still 24 percent.
The youth jobless rate still hovers above 50 percent. Wages have fallen 24
percent for those fortunate enough to still have work. The collapse of wages is
due not just to layoffs or government and private business wage cutting, both
of which have occurred since 2010, but is due also to the shifting of full time
to part time work. Full time jobs have collapsed by 27 percent, the lowest
ever, while part time jobs have risen 56 percent, to the highest ever.
The poorest and most vulnerable Greek workers and households have seen their
minimum wages reduced by 22 percent since 2012, on orders of the Troika.
Pensions for the poorest have been reduced by approximately the same. All that
to squeeze Greek workers, households and small businesses in order to repay
interest on debt to the Troika, to
None of the debt, austerity, depression, and collapse of incomes existed before
the Troika intervened in
Greece’s debt since 2010 is certainly not a result of government spending,
which has fallen from roughly 14 billion euros to 9.5 billion in 2015,
reflecting deep austerity cuts demanded by the Troika. Nor can it be attributed
to excessive wages and too many public jobs, as both of these have declined by
a fourth as debt has accelerated.
No relief
What happened a year ago was the same that happened in 2012 and 2010: US$98
billion more debt was added to
In exchange,
Cut health care services and convert 52,000 more jobs to part time. Introduce
what the Troika called a more “ambitious” privatisation program. And this is
just a short list.
Greek government spending since August 2015 has further declined by 30 percent
as of mid-year 2016, except for military spending which has risen by US$600
million. Since August 2015, quarterly Greek GDP has continued to contract on a
net basis. Greek debt as a percent of GDP has risen further.
There are 83,000 fewer full time jobs (but 28,000 more part time jobs). Youth
unemployment rates have risen from 48.8 to 50.3 percent. Consumer spending has
dropped by almost 10 percent, as consumer confidence continues to plummet, home
prices deflate, and business investment, exports, and imports all slow. In
other words, the Greek economy continues to worsen.
Financial imperialism
By imposing austerity to pay for the debt, the Troika has forced the Greek
government to extract income and wealth from its workers and small businesses –
i.e. to exploit its own citizens on the Troika’s behalf, and then transfer that
income to the Troika and European bankers and investors. That’s imperialism
pure and simple – albeit a new kind, now arranged by State to State
(Troika-Greece) financial transfers instead of exploitation company by company
at the point of production. The magnitude of exploitation is greater and far
more efficient.
What’s happened, and continues to happen in Greece, is the emergence of a new
form of financial imperialism that smaller states and economies, planning to
join larger free trade zones and “currency” unions, or to tie their currencies to
the dollar or the euro, need to avoid at all cost, lest they too become
“Greece-like” and increasingly debt-dependent on more powerful capitalist
states in which they decide to integrate economically.
Neo-liberalism is constantly evolving, and with it forms of imperialist
exploitation as well. It starts as a free trade zone or “customs” union. A
single currency is then added, or comes to dominate, within the free trade
customs union. A currency union eventually leads to the need for a single banking
union within the region. Central bank monetary policy ends up determined by the
dominant economy and state.
The smaller economy loses control of its currency, banking, and monetary
policies. Banking union leads, of necessity, to a form of fiscal union. Smaller
member states now lose control not only of their currency and banking systems,
but eventually tax and spending as well. They then become “economic
protectorates” of the dominant economy and State such as