April 7, 2008 - No. 50 .
In Memoriam British Columbia Zimbabwe Haiti
Kathy BergenWith great sadness the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) informs you of the death of Kathy Bergen, a dear friend and comrade, in her home in the early hours of Friday, April 4. On behalf of the entire Party, the Central Committee expresses deepest sympathies to her husband Scott, son Timmy and daughter Franny, other family members and friends. Kathy was diagnosed with lung cancer, already advanced and incurable, eighteen months ago. She faced the rest of her life as the fighter she always was; she lived it to the fullest under all conditions and circumstances, imbuing those around her with the courage of her own convictions. She has made us all truly proud. Kathy first became active in the struggle for political and social justice as a student at the University of Waterloo, as a member of the Chevron student newspaper collective. She joined the Anti-Imperialist Alliance (AIA) and, through her work with the AIA, she became a member of CPC(M-L). In 1977, she took up the Party's call to build the Party press and was trained by the Party in typesetting, layout and design. In the mid-1980's Kathy again volunteered and took up the Party's work on new journalism. Under the leadership of Comrade Hardial Bains, she played a crucial role as part of the technical team responsible for the New Magazine publications. Kathy went on to spend many years working in the publishing industry, notably with the Today's Parent group. She was held in high regard by her peers for her professionalism, compassion and spirit. Kathy remained a mass member of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada to her last breath. A memorial for Kathy's family and friends will be held on Friday, April 11 at 1:00 pm at the Floral Hall of Edwards Gardens, Toronto Botanical Garden, 777 Lawrence Ave. East (Eglinton and Leslie).
British Columbia Drop the Charges Against UBC Students!
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On Monday, April 7 parents, teachers, and citizens will protest outside the BC provincial legislature in Victoria against the growing pressure on school boards to sell school properties made vacant by the provincial government's forced closure of more than 140 schools.
On Wednesday, April 9, the Cowichan Lake District School Board may close down another three schools, including Koksilah Elementary School, attended mainly by children from the Cowichan Tribes reserve, the largest indigenous peoples' reserve in BC. CPC(M-L) activists will join in the actions of the citizens to save their schools and uphold the right to public education for the coming generations. The defence of the right to public education and the just demand to reverse the anti-social, neo-liberal offensive and the cut-backs to public education whilst encouraging private education is an important current of political resistance in the province. The struggle of the people in British Columbia to defend public education, public health care and public electrical power is leading more and more people into action in defence of the rights of all. As the resistance grows, so too does the demand from the people for direct control over the decision making power. Unless the problem of the party-dominated system which disempowers people is resolved, people can see that they will continue to be deprived of what belongs to them by right as a result of secret deals hatched behind their backs.
TML is posting below a statement from LANDS (Let's Agree Not to Dispose of Schools).
Call for Province-Wide Rally of Parents
and
Concerned Citizens
Victoria, BC -- The public coalition LANDS! (Let's Agree Not to Dispose of Schools!) is calling on all PACs, pregnant mothers, parents, municipal counsellors, trustees and citizens concerned about the future of our province to join them at a rally to declare their objections to school closures and the sale of school properties.
History
Previous generations placed the lands in public trust for the future education of all generations of children. Therefore, the lands are not ours to sell. The Ministry of Education has told the school districts to "bring money to the table" if they need money for capital projects (such as new schools), thereby forcing school districts to close schools and sell the land. There are at least 140 school properties at risk of being sold off across BC. The Ministry of Education has downloaded increasing responsibilities onto school districts, without increasing capacity or amending the funding formula.
Stephanie Longstaff, a PAC Executive member from Sooke School District said "We are working to unite parents, students, citizens, school districts and municipalities to convince the Provincial government to fully fund capital spending and support sustainable public education for future generations."
"Selling off public lands and assets has only resulted in more sell-offs and more cuts. Someone has to put a stop to this -- and that someone must be all of us!" stated Jessica Van der Veen. She added, "On a brighter note, some municipalities are preserving school land in the public domain through zoning laws. Thank heavens for common sense!"
Blaine Castle (a parent from the Cowichan Valley School District) noted, "The Ministry of Education has stopped adequately funding the cost pressures faced by School Boards. Therefore Boards are forced to sell schools to generate capital funds needed to build and maintain bigger schools. Warehousing kids in big-box schools makes no dollars and sense -- especially considering the educational benefits of smaller schools!"
The rally will include short presentations from a number of speakers. Citizens who believe school lands belong to future generations are encouraged to wear green to show their support. Meagan Blaquiere (17) asks, "Where will my children go to school if your generation sells these lands? How will it help the environment if everyone is driving their kids to distant schools?"
Issues in Capital Spending
The K-12 education sector is experiencing annual declines in enrolment of about 1% but faces inflation pressures of just under 3%. Being short 2% each year from 2001/2 -- 2007/8 has cut more than 12% out of the K-12 system and budget projections show continuation of this policy. The Ministry refuses to fully fund capital spending (such as earthquakeproofing, new schools and upkeep of infrastructure) which it has deemed necessary for the future of public education.
Media Note
Assistance is available to arrange interviews or photo opportunities with PAC Executive, parents and other stakeholders. A backgrounder outlining the situation, history and current issues is attached as well as additional contact information.
For more information, please visit the LANDS! website at: http://hs.facebook.com/event.php?eid=22406310067
Backgrounder
School Lands Are Not Ours to Sell
Many years ago visionary people set aside public school lands for the future good of families they would never meet -- not just our generation, but all future generations. There are at least 140 school properties at risk of being sold off across BC.
Basics
1. The Ministry of Education has instructed the school districts to "bring money to the table" for short-term capital projects, forcing them to close schools and sell so-called "surplus" school lands.
2. Declining enrolment figures are only predicting decline until 2015 -- just 7 years away;
3. We in the baby-boom population bulge will be dead, downsized or in care within 30 years, leaving room for new young families who will need community-based schools -- especially as we pass peak oil and live and work closer to home;
4. Community schools knit communities together, building healthy neighbourhoods and societies.
5. Often, schools slated to receive the children from closing schools are already full. The Ministry is forcing a generation of children to go to school in portables.
6. The Speech from the Throne promised investigation introducing day kindergarten and preschool programs in the public schools -- these government promises will require every inch of classroom space in the Province.
7. Driving kids to distant schools increases greenhouse gases and global warming.
8. Once the school lands are gone we will not be able to reassemble this much public green space in the future;
9. Accessible universal public education is a cornerstone of our democracy, our communities and our economic security.
Band-Aid Solutions
Recently, Education Minister Shirley Bond announced a new policy asking, not telling, school districts to offer to sell so-called "surplus" school lands to public organizations before selling to the private sector. The instructions stipulate "fair market value" making them unaffordable for public organizations.
Minister Bond passed her stewardship responsibility to the Ministry of Labour and Citizens' Services making the school lands more difficult to monitor. This Ministry has over 1,500 properties to oversee. Selling to other public organizations does nothing to protect green spaces.
A Chain of Abuse by Neglect
The Province has downloaded increasing responsibilities onto school districts, regional authorities and municipalities without downloading resources and capacity. Like children turned loose in the neighbourhood and then punished when they don't bring home food, the boards can't defend themselves. They are afraid of being fired, so they keep silent. Either the boards bully the community, which is the behaviour they see the Province modelling; or they suffer attack from both above and below. We tear our own communities apart, blaming each other for our failures. We try to think of creative ways of preserving public access to land that is already ours -- but really we are simply adapting to neglect and abuse.
Breaking the Silence
Until we break the silence this government will continue to give away, privatize or sell our greatest assets while insisting that they can't afford to fund public goods. We must stop the neglect and tell the Ministry of Education we were never consulted, nor did we ever agree to cuts in capital or operating funding to universal public education. The K-12 education sector is experiencing annual declines in enrolment of about 1% but faces inflation pressures of just under 3%. Further cuts to public education have been built into funding policy. School districts are being slowly starved to death.
United Communities, Municipalities and Districts Will Save Schools
Fortunately, we do not need to capitulate to the dismal agenda of school fees, closures, elitism and further driving wedges between the haves and have-nots.
The municipalities can protect these lands through maintaining their institutional zoning. Local communities can resist divide and conquer tactics and support School Boards who refuse to sell.
Send a Message
Let the Province know through letters, phone calls and visits to your MLA that:
1. We have no right to sell off these lands. They
belong to future generations of children.
2. Green spaces on school lands must be preserved;
3. Priority must always be given to future use as
public schools.
4. School lands must remain under the ownership and
stewardship of their local school districts until such time as the
provincial government acknowledges its stewardship responsibilities.
5. Universal public education is a foundation of our
democracy, our civil society and our economy.
Everyone Has a Role to Play
We need municipalities to stand firm on zoning, we need school boards to be brave and speak out against these cuts, we need citizens to unite and we need this Provincial government to acknowledge its constitutional responsibility to universal public education.
We need universal public education if we are to retain Canada as a civil democracy where opportunity is not dependent on an accident of birth. Like those who originally set these lands aside, we can imagine abundance and justice and generosity and we can make choices with these values uppermost in our minds. Speak out so that these lands will forever be a legacy for the children of British Columbia.
Contact: bc.lands@gmail.com
Jessica Van der Veen, (250) 598-9272
Court to Rule on Zimbabwe Election Result
A Zimbabwean High Court judge is set to rule on a petition by the opposition demanding the immediate release of the country's recent election results, news agencies are reporting April 7.
The judge said he would first consider the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission's (ZEC) argument that his court did not have jurisdiction in the case.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has said he defeated President Robert Mugabe in the presidential election.
No results have yet emerged from the March 29 presidential race.
In related news, President Mugabe said Zimbabwe's black population had to protect from white farmers the land for which thousands died during the independence war in the 1970s, the Herald newspaper reported April 7.
"Land must remain in our hands. The land is ours, it
must not be allowed to slip back into the hands of whites," President
Mugabe is
quoted as saying. Thousands of freedom fighters died
during
the liberation war in the 1970s and Zimbabweans "cannot afford to
retreat in the battle for land," he added.
In 2000, there were 4,000 white farmers working on much of the best land in Zimbabwe, the Herald reports, claiming just 300 now remain after a campaign of initiated by the government's land resettlement program.
On April 4, war veterans' leader Jabulani Sibanda accused white farmers of reoccupying farms allocated to blacks, and of telling other black farmers to leave or else face the wrath of an "incoming MDC government."
"Those white people trespassing on the small-scale and
medium-scale farms should know that it is an invasion of our country,"
Mr. Sibanda told reporters. "We will defend our sovereignty. We will be
compelled to
repel that invasion," he added.
A spokesman for the ZANU-PF party,
Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa, said the opposition MDC had been
"unleashing former white farmers on
farms occupied by new farmers to reverse the land reform program," he
said.
Chinamasa said ZANU-PF policies and those of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change were diametrically opposed and accused the party of seeking to reverse land reforms.
"The MDC claim they have won and they are unleashing former white farmers on farms occupied by new farmers to reverse the land reform programme.
Zimbabwe television reported that the southern city of Masvingo had seen a large influx of "white commercial farmers who are trickling back to reoccupy... land."
Chief of executive of the Commercial Farmers' Union, Hendrick Olivier, however, said that war veterans had invaded eight farms in Masvingo since April 5.
State television said at least one farm had been seized.
Mr. Olivier said the invasions may have been a consequence of the statement made by Mr. Sibanda and said his union had urged the authorities to stabilize the situation.
(Sources: Angola Press, Zimbabwe Guardian)
Poll Results -- UK's Hidden Hand Exposed
The British government and its prime minister, Gordon Brown, have now come out in the open as the real power behind the MDC Tsvangirai faction, demanding the release of the results of Zimbabwe's elections that show an opposition victory.
Almost the entire British state machinery -- from the BBC to its House of Commons -- was almost going hysterical over the delay in announcing the election results by the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission.
Britain's three main political parties united in urging Brown to approach South African President Thabo Mbeki to press him "to deal with the crisis in Zimbabwe." It was these three British parties that set up the so-called Westminster Fund for Democracy that bankrolled the launch of the MDC from a ZCTU platform in September 1999 after the Government announced it would compulsorily acquire white-held farms for redistribution to landless black families.
Brown told the BBC that the "eyes of the world" are on Zimbabwe, saying the election results should be published without delay.
Liberal Democrats leader Nick Clegg urged Brown to increase pressure for a "swift and transparent" declaration of results, even though ZEC has been hailed by observer missions for the manner in which it conducted the election and managed the release of the results.
"Gordon Brown must seek urgent discussions with Thabo Mbeki and other leaders of the Southern African Development Community to ensure that maximum pressure is applied to ensure a swift and transparent declaration of results," Clegg said.
Brown's office said the British premier had discussed "the situation" with President Mbeki on Monday, but would not give details of the talks. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and former Labour cabinet minister Peter Hain called on Africa and the rest of the world to express their support for the MDC.
Miliband told the BBC's Newsnight programme: "It is long overdue for the rest of the world to stand shoulder to shoulder with the spirit of democracy which has expressed itself in Zimbabwe and which is now about to be traduced by President Mugabe and his ruling clique."
At a meeting in Paris, foreign ministers from France, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain issued a joint statement, along with Milliband, saying: "We call on the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission to swiftly announce all the election results, especially the results of the presidential election. The future of the Zimbabwean people depends on the credibility and transparency of the electoral process."
The BBC said Brown's spokesman had hinted at possible increases in aid for Zimbabwe in the event Tsvangirai wins.
Zimbabwe's election results have become a top story on all international media networks, drawing far more attention than Kenya was accorded when over 1,500 people were hacked or speared to death while 600,000 others were displaced following the disputed re-election of incumbent president Mwai Kibaki on December 27 last year.
Given the intimate relationship between the global media structures, Western politics and the quest for world domination, analysts say this vindicates the view that what is at stake in Zimbabwe is far bigger than what the contestants, with the notable exception of those in Zanu-PF, realise.
A view vindicated by the conspicuous flow of many white former commercial farmers who trooped back into Zimbabwe once the MDC prematurely claimed victory. Some of them have headed to the farms where they threatened to evict newly resettled farmers particularly around Chegutu and Kariba, as many are coming through Chirundu Border Post.
Zimbabwe, the analysts say, represents the last frontier of resistance between the black nationalist struggle and Western neo-colonial encroachment under the guise of globalisation and the parochial discourse of democratisation.
Following the Government's decision to bar all news networks hostile to Zimbabwe from covering the elections, many of them are encamped right round the borders with flushed correspondents giving feverish coverage to all sorts of conspiracy theories and utterances by the opposition and its allies.
The BBC, the public face of British foreign policy, yesterday devoted the entire day to non-stop coverage of Zimbabwe before splashing hourly updates to claims of electoral victory by the MDC. The BBC, in fact, dispatched its main news anchor to report from Johannesburg.
Yesterday all major news networks ran hourly updates on Zimbabwe eclipsing even U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to Europe for a Nato conference that is supposed to resolve some contentious issues between the world's major military powers.
What has raised eyebrows is the fact that the Western leaders are basing their premature pronouncements on results compiled by the MDC and its civil society compatriots, yet ZEC -- the only organisation legally and constitutionally mandated to issue the results -- has not declared a winner, let alone the winner of the presidential contest.
What makes the pronouncements from the West even more glaring is that African leaders, many of whom have a lot to gain or lose from the political dynamics in Zimbabwe, have not spoken, obviously waiting to issue their statements once the full outcome is in the public domain.
Haiti
Thousands Protest over Growing Hunger
Thousands of Haitians took to the streets Thursday to protest against soaring food prices and growing hunger in the Western Hemisphere's poorest country.
In Les Cayes, Haiti's third-largest city, over 5,000 people demonstrated, chanting slogans denouncing President Rene Preval and shouting "Down with the high cost of living!"
According to local reports from the southern peninsula city, the protesters stormed and attempted to burn the local offices of the UN Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (MINUSTAH). This United Nations "peacekeeping" force occupied the country after Washington orchestrated the violent overthrow of Haiti's elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and sent in U.S. Marines four years ago.
Some of the demonstrators barricaded the streets with burning tires and sacked food supplies. According to one source, eight people were wounded when soldiers opened fire on the crowd. Schools, stores and banks in Les Cayes were forced to shut down because of the clashes.
Demonstrations against the soaring cost of living were also reported in other parts of southern Haiti and in the northern city of Gonaives, Haiti's fourth largest. These protests have been building steadily. According to statistics kept by the UN mission, there were 164 such demonstrations in the six months leading up to last August and 258 in the subsequent six months.
MINUSTAH issued a statement condemning the recent demonstration in Les Cayes. "Acts of violence, whatever they may be," the UN occupation force warned, "can only hinder efforts of the Haitian authorities in their struggle to improve living conditions of the population."
The statement continued by vowing that MINUSTAH "will continue to support the Haitian National Police throughout the country and particularly in its efforts to restore calm in Les Cayes" and that those responsible for attacking the Les Cayes headquarters would be prosecuted. The UN force sent an additional 100 troops to the city to suppress any continuing upheavals.
Fully 80 percent of Haitians survive on $2 or less a day, while half of the country's 8.5 million people subsist on the edge of starvation with less than a dollar a day. One out of every four children in Haiti is malnourished.
As was widely reported in the media earlier this year, things have become so difficult for the masses of poor that many Haitians in impoverished areas like the massive Cité Soleil slum of Port-au-Prince have resorted to eating "dirt cookies," made from salt, oil and clay and baked in the sun.
The minimum wage in Haiti -- which applies only to the fraction of the population that is employed in the formal economy -- stands at 70 gourdes ($1.90) a day. While the country's unions called for an increase to 200 gourdes ($5.50), the government of President Preval has sought a "compromise" with the Haitian ruling elite and foreign multinationals by proposing a 100 gourdes ($2.75) daily minimum wage. Critics have warned that this amount is totally inadequate to meet minimal requirements of life.
Even sections of the Haitian bourgeoisie have voiced fears that the desperate conditions of live prevailing in the country will make the population ungovernable. "Poverty, unemployment, hunger are part of everyday life for Haitians, while private and public elites of the country continue to show irresponsibility," said Pierre Leger, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of southern Haiti, who believes that the increase is insufficient. "Hunger ... breeds rebellion," the businessman warned.
Two years after his election to the presidency, Preval has faced increasing opposition from Haitian workers and the poor because of his failure to adopt measures to alleviate hunger and plummeting living standards. Speaking to the Haitian Chamber of Deputies in February, Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis insisted that there was no "quick fix" to Haiti's food crisis, which he said was driven by global forces, including the high cost of oil.
Instead, the government has pursued policies of privatization, and free trade that have enriched a small elite, while continuing to pay off the massive foreign debts -- to the tune of $1 million a week -- incurred during three decades of rule by the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Francois and Jean-Claude Duvalier.
Presiding over the immense social tensions created by these policies and the prevailing conditions of life is the 9,000-strong UN military and police force, under the command of the Brazilian military, with other units drawn mainly from Uruguay, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Jordan, Argentina and Chile.
The MINUSTAH forces, which are heavily armed and backed by tanks, helicopters and armored cars, have launched a new anti-crime crackdown, ostensibly prompted by a recent sharp increase in the number of kidnappings. This has meant increased roadblocks and checkpoints as well as raids within the slums inhabited by Haiti's poor.
The UN admitted in a statement issued late last month that its efforts have been "stifled by an increasingly dissident population." It appealed for "the population's support so that its blue helmets can help ensure public safety and security."
Increasingly, however, the UN troops have been seen as an occupation force, whose mission is to protect Haiti's few "haves" from the masses of "have-nots." The raids that they conduct together with Haitian police have sent thousands of young Haitians into overcrowded and miserable prisons, where they are held without trials or even charges.
The events in Haiti are part of a wave of protests and upheavals that have swept the globe in response to rising food prices and shortages. Food protests and riots have been reported in the past few months in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Guinea, Indonesia, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
As of last December, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) listed 37 countries facing food crises and found that 20 had imposed food-price controls. Many countries producing rice and other commodities have imposed export restrictions to avoid domestic shortages, driving up prices on the world market even further.
According to the FAO, food costs worldwide soared by 23 percent between 2006 and 2007, with grains going up 42 percent, oils 50 percent and dairy 80 percent. In addition to the skyrocketing price of oil, the crisis is driven by increasing speculation in basic foodstuffs on the global market and the universal instability created by the deepening crisis of finance capital in the U.S.
Together, these international economic forces driving the growth of hunger are making it increasingly impossible for masses of working people in country after country to tolerate the existing social order.
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