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March 12, 2007 - No. 39
Quebec Elections 2007
Workers Want a Government that
Stops Paying the Rich and
Increases Investments in Social Programs
PMLQ
youth candidate Gabriel Girard-Bernier
addresses PMLQ public meeting in Hull March 11, 2007.Latin America
• Resounding
Rejection of Bush Visit
Quebec Elections 2007
Workers Want a Government that
Stops Paying the Rich and
Increases Investments in Social Programs
On March 11, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ)
held a vigorous meeting in the riding of Hull, in the Outaouais, where
youth candidate Gabriel Girard-Bernier represents the Party in the
current election. Besides Gabriel, the PMLQ is fielding three other
candidates in the Outaouais region: Pierre Soublière in
Chapleau; Lisa Leblanc in Gatineau and David Ethier-April in Pontiac.
Mathieu-Henri Jetté, the Director of Organization of the PMLQ
campaign, himself from the Outaouais region, chaired the meeting, which
was well attended by local party supporters, especially youth.
 To
vigorous applause, Mathieu announced that the PMLQ is running 24
candidates in this election. He presented the platform of the party and
called on the candidates and Party supporters to use the next two weeks
to involve the people of Quebec to take up the program of the Party and
vote PMLQ on March 26.
With great pride, he dedicated the meeting to the
Internationalists, the precursor organization of the Communist Party of
Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and its founder Hardial Bains. March 13 will
mark the 44th anniversary of the founding of the Internationalists, he
said, pointing out that it is the organization that created the
conditions for the founding of the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist) on March 31, 1970. He said that the Marxist-Leninist
youth of today are in step with the glorious tradition of the
Internationalists by dedicating all their efforts to the building of a
new society that recognizes the rights of all. By running as
PMLQ candidates in the current election, the Marxist-Leninist
youth are implementing their decision to actively
participate in renewing the political process. Following the example of
the
Internationalists, the Party youth pay utmost
attention to the building of the organization without which the
movement cannot achieve its aims. Such an organization must have as its
content how to activate the human factor and social consciousness. It
is by taking up social responsibility that the youth of today, like the
Internationalists in the sixties, develop a genuine revolutionary life
and remain in step with the demand of the movement at all times,
Mathieu concluded.
He then presented the Party platform for the election
and invited Christine Dandenault to elaborate the Party's call to the
workers to vote PMLQ so as to create a government that stops paying the
rich and increases funding for social programs. Christine is a Party
leader and the coordinator of the door-to-door work to register the
PLMQ candidates in Montreal and in the region of Quebec.
This program, Christine said, responds to the demand of
the workers and people of Quebec for a government that provides their
rights with a guarantee. It presents a real alternative to the status
quo.
 The
problems society faces can be solved Christine said, but the first step
has to be for the people to take a stand which refuses to conciliate
with the notion that their interests will be defended by those who
usurp power to pay the rich and then reduce all the crucial matters to
policy objectives. Refuse to vote for those who think that they are
superior to the people and have a god-given right to usurp power to use
the state to steal the people's wealth, she said. All the so-called
major parties present themselves as the ones who should be trusted to
"distribute the wealth equitably," but without doubt the Liberals are
the most arrogant. After all their destructive activities which have
exacerbated the trend whereby the rich get richer and the poor poorer,
they declare that the prosperity of the rich is the condition for the
prosperity of the poor! Shame on them!
Now in this election a battle has begun between the big
parties and even others over where they will get the wealth they seek
to redistribute. Charest says he will get it from Harper and
irrespective, he can manage by selling more hydro power to the U.S.
Dumont says he will throw more people off welfare. The PQ suggests it
can be done by getting the federal transfer payments to which Quebec is
entitled and cutting down on the number of ministries. All of them
without exception create the illusion that without changing the
direction of the economy and setting different priorities which stop
paying the rich and increase investments in social programs as a matter
of principle, the wealth can be "more fairly" shared.
In this election Quebeckers have the opportunity to take
a stand on who this wealth belongs to and who decides how it
should be distributed, Christine said. So long as they exercise no
control over the decision-making process, so suggest they have a
"choice" is a fraud. By voting PMLQ the workers and people can clearly
indicate their rejection of this fraud. The workers already know the
wealth is created by their labour and the resources should be used to
their advantage, not those of the native and foreign monopolies. The
issue remains then how to make their decision effective. This is where
the PMLQ is offering the alternative. By voting PMLQ, the workers will
be taking a clear cut stand to renew the political process to put
worker politicians into the National Assembly so that it is their
interests not those of the rich that the government serves.
Christine also elaborated on the difference between the
demand for a government that Stops Paying the Rich and governments
which claim they will Make the Rich Pay. Some are saying that the issue
is to make the
rich pay by raising taxes for the banks and other financial
institutions and for people of "high income." "High income" refers to
those who make $80,000 a year through their own work, not the
monopolies who fleece the public treasury. The logic behind this demand
is that the only problem facing society is to have good policies where
the rich should pay a fairer share. The fact that the monopolies
control the governments and the decision-making process does not enter
into the consideration. Why should more tax money of Quebec's middle
class
go to the monopolies? It shows how electioneering has nothing to do
with solving the problems facing the people and their society.
Elections are used to find a champion who will sort out how to best
service the monopolies. It must not pass!
It is true that people are scandalized by the obscene
profits of the banks but the issue is to mobilize the working class to
mobilize itself so that it provides an alternative to the program to
pay the rich which is destroying society. Today, Christine said, the
whole society is forced to pay the rich through privatization, through
the plunder of the state treasury and other methods. This squandering
of the social wealth and sellout of the natural resources is depriving
the people of their livelihood and of the investments that are
necessary for social programs and to guarantee the health of the social
and natural environments. It is also making it impossible for the
people to plan the economy so that it fulfills the needs of all. The
workers cannot afford to be marginalized spectators as more debts are
incurred to pay for projects and all their wealth is siphoned off to
pay these debts. They must fight to change the direction of society by
establishing a government that will stop paying the rich and increase
funding for social programs.
Christine quoted from an interview that Comrade Hardial
Bains
gave in March 1997 at the time of the Sudbury shutdown in Ontario
against the anti-social offensive of the Harris government. In this
interview, Comrade Bains explained how the slogan to Make the Rich Pay
by forcing the banks to pay higher taxes was used to divert the workers
from achieving their own aims. Electing this or that political party
which makes promises reduces the crucial issues facing the people to
policy objectives. Comrade Bains explained that the working class has
to show that it has a solution to the crisis and is able to open the
path to the progress of society.
Pierre Chénier, leader of the PMLQ, elaborated
the program further. Many workers, he said, are openly saying
that the governments must stop handing out public money to the
monopolies and instead give it to collectives of workers and their
communities so that they can rebuild their industries in a way that
serves the needs of the people.
PMLQ Leader Pierre Chenier
Workers are pushing this demand in the forestry
industry, for example, but the Charest Liberals and other big parties
flatly reject it. According to the Charest Liberals, it is the
responsibility of the government to pay for the costs that should be
borne by the monopolies, such as the costs of the access roads to the
forest. Under the name of "responsibility," the Charest government is
actually discharging the monopolies from their responsibilities and
assisting them in their anti-labour restructuring, which means mergers
and closures and anti-labour concessions. A huge amount of social
wealth is squandered into private empires over which the workers have
absolutely no control, Pierre said. This creates further chaos in their
lives, he said. All support must be given to the workers and
communities which are reminding the government that it is duty bound to
defend the people, not to pay the rich, he added. Providing concrete
problems with solutions is what unites the workers. Uniting to find
these solutions defeats the attempts of the ruling circles to divide
the workers between the parties that the rich want to see in power. A
firm stand against all the parties of the rich will make it more
difficult for these parties to claim that they have received a mandate
from the electors to keep paying the rich once the election is over,
Pierre pointed out.
Gabriel Girard-Bernier spoke about the budget the
Charest government presented on the eve of the election as an example
of how the Charest government is paying the rich in spite of the
devastation it is causing to the workers and to the economy.
Charest pledged to keep assisting the monopolies of the
forestry sector and of the manufacturing sector as a whole by
decreasing the tax on capital. Recent data have shown that the amount
of public money that is handed over to the forestry monopolies is
far beyond what they pay in royalties to the government on their
cutting rights, Gabriel pointed out.
He also gave the example of the Coulombe Commission. The
report of the commission openly advocates that there should be more
mergers and more closures in the forestry sector. It also advocates
what it calls an open market for timber whereby the monopolies can use
the resources any way they want without any responsibility towards the
forestry communities. Gabriel said in conclusion that now is the time
to take a stand for a government that will make a radical rupture with
the program to pay the rich.
 Other
candidates also spoke to the program of the PMLQ. Pierre
Soublière, PMLQ candidate in Chapleau, said that through their
struggle the Quebec workers have put on the agenda the necessity to
defeat the Charest Liberals and now that the election is here they must
find the ways and means to make sure this takes place. The struggle of
the public sector workers in 2006 was a good example, he said. Workers
were outraged at the blatant refusal by this government to negotiate
with them although it was duty bound to do so. Instead, he imposed an
arbitrary figure of $2.1 billion and said he would not move from it.
Negotiations were impossible and Charest passed a special law to impose
by decree the working conditions of public sector workers. He
criminalized the workers to the extent that the special law made it
illegal to hold any collective action that could be seen as a protest
against the law. Pierre concluded by saying that it is high time that
the slogan championed by the Party: Who decides? We decide! is taken up
for implementation.
 Montreal
candidates Marsha Fine (Crémazie) and Fernand Deschamps
(St-Laurent) also addressed the meeting. Marsha denounced the pretence
of Charest that he allegedly wants to unite the Quebec people. She said
that this government stands exposed as the one who is trying to prevent
any rational discussion from taking place on any issue under the hoax
that before the discussion even begins, people have to be categorized
as "federalists", "separatists" or "autonomists." Charest is so
ridiculous that he keeps saying nobody wants a referendum while it is
he who makes it the issue every chance he gets. This week he went to
the extent of threatening the partition of Quebec should a referendum
vote yes to Quebec independence. This is what in 1840 the Liberals
called the "Act of Union." It is déjà vu all over
again.
 Further
elaborating this Fernand Deschamps emphasized the necessity to defend
the unity of the people by recognizing the right of the people to
themselves decide the direction of society in all fields. How the
people of national minority origin are
excluded during the collection of signatures to endorse the candidates
shows that equal rights are not provided with a guarantee, he said.
Hundreds of people of national minority origin are rejected under all
kinds of pretexts, even though they are citizens, he pointed out. Even
that much participation is not guaranteed.
Vigorous discussion continued following these
presentations. Mathieu-Henri Jetté concluded the meeting by once
again emphasizing the need to make the best use of the 15 days that
remain in the current election. Use the program of the Party to enable
the people to take up politics in a manner which defends their
interests, Mathieu said.
Christine Dandenault,
PMLQ candidate for Hochelaga--Maisonneuve.
Latin America
Resounding Rejection of Bush Visit
Guatemala City, Guatemala, March 10, 2007
On March 8 U.S. President George W. Bush began a
five-country "goodwill" tour of Latin America. In every country from
Brazil,
Uruguay, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico mass demonstrations have taken
place rejecting the exploitation of Latin America and coups
by the U.S. as well as its
brutal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Demonstrations have not been
limited to the capital cities where Bush is meeting with the
heads of state, but are taking place throughout the entire continent.
Banners, placards and stickers at every demonstration
all prominently display the slogan "Bush Get Out!"
Demonstrations got underway on March 6 when some 100
students from the Autonomous
University of Yucatan, northeast of Mexico City, protested Bush's
upcoming, dressing in
rags and shouting "Bush, Killer!" Demonstrations have continued in
Mexico City and other places since then.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has also
undertaken a tour of Latin America and the Caribbean during the same
period. In Argentina, Haiti, Bolivia and Nicaragua he is continuing the
process of offering genuine assistance to other nations and relations
of mutual benefit and respect. During the
tour he has repeatedly denounced the self-serving aims of the U.S. in
Latin America, as evidenced by the Bush tour, one of the main
purposes of which is to promote bilateral trade agreements with
individual
countries after the failure of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. In
Argentina Chavez led a huge militant demonstration to coincide with
Bush's arrival in neighbouring Uruguay.
In Bogota, where Bush arrived on Sunday March 11,
students, workers and social organizations burned U.S. flags, carried
banners and cried slogans like "Bush, terrorist, out of Colombia." The
protestors also denounced the FTAA and Plan Colombia, the latter used
by
the U.S. military to interfere in Colombia's
internal affairs and those of the entire region. They also rejected
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's
alliance with the U.S. and for being the only president in the region
to support the invasion of Iraq.
Argentina
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez leads
30,000-strong rally against visit of U.S president George W. Bush
and U.S. imperialism, Bueno Aires, Argentina, March 9, 2007.
Brazil
 
Uruguay
 
Colombia
  
Guatemala
 
El
Salvador
Mexico
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