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April 21, 2010 - No. 75
May Day 2010
All Out in Defence of the Rights of All!
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Prince George, BC
May
Day
Celebration
and
Banquet
Saturday, May
1 -- 6:30 pm
Coast Inn of the North
To register for the event, please contact:
Prince George: Aaron Ekman – President, Prince George & District
Labour Council, (250) 563-1116
Sarbjit Deepak – North Labour Law Corporation, (250) 563-9999.
Mackenzie: Alf Wilkins – United Steelworkers Local 1-424, (250) 997-4681
Transportation to the celebration will be available from Mackenzie.
Fee:
$20
per
person
(includes full course dinner)
Organized
by:
May
Day
Organizing Committee
Sponsoring
organizations:
United
Steelworkers,
Local
1-424; Faculty Association of CNC; Canadian Union
of Postal Workers; Prince George & District Labour Council;
Canadian Union Of Public Employees; Pulp, Paper & Woodworkers,
Local 9; BC Government Employees Union; Health Sciences Association;
(other organizations to confirm). |
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May Day 2010
• Celebration and Banquet in Prince George, BC
• Calling All PSAC Members to Halifax May
Day March - PSAC, Atlantic Region
Harper Government's Anti-Democratic Agenda
• Canadian Human Rights Commission Offices
Closed in
Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax
• No Democracy Without Rights
Discussing the Quebec Budget
• The Myth of the "Individual's Share" and the
"Collective Share" of the Cost of Public Services: An Attack on Society
- Pierre Soublière
• Letters to the Editor
Afghanistan
• More Soldiers Die by Suicide than in Combat
• Pentagon Accused of Funding Taliban -
Enrique Román, Granma International
May Day 2010
Celebration and Banquet in Prince George, BC
A May Day celebration is being organized in Prince
George on Saturday, May 1, at 6:30pm at the Coast Inn of the North.
The event is organized by the May Day Organizing
Committee, a
recently-formed group made up of volunteers from Prince George and
Mackenzie who belong to a variety of trade unions and employee
associations in the region. The celebration will consist of a banquet
with full course dinner, labour
songs, presentations, and discussion on the issues facing workers and
communities.
The organizers of the event believe that it is
important to have a
May Day celebration this year, given that across the province and
country, and around the world, the burden of the current economic and
financial crisis is being shoved onto the backs of workers and
communities through mill and factory
closures, layoffs, wage concessions, tax increases, and the cutting of
health, education and social services.
All of this is taking place after massive and
unprecedented
bailouts of the very financial institutions that triggered the crisis,
as well as huge handouts to large corporations in the form of "stimulus
packages" and other schemes.
In this context, organizers feel that it is vital that
there be a
strong, united workers' opposition in this region and throughout the
province that stands up for itself, as well as other sectors of the
community such as youth, seniors, native people, the unemployed and
others, and that fights for its own aims
and solutions to the problems facing society.
Labour acting on nature is the source of all wealth.
All sectors of
workers -- whether private or public, service or manufacturing --
contribute to the creation of society's wealth and are vital for the
economy. Thus, it is important for this May 1st that workers in British
Columbia and Canada stand together,
as well as in solidarity with workers everywhere.
The May Day Organizing Committee invites all workers
from the
region, as well as people from other walks of life, to attend this
banquet and celebration.
Calling All PSAC Members to Halifax May Day March
- Public Service Alliance of Canada,
Atlantic Region, April 12, 2010 -
May Day is an international day of recognition and
celebration of worker solidarity and struggle. On Saturday, May 1st
2010, Halifax workers will gather and make a collective call for
workers' rights in the context of continued job loss, attacks on wages,
pensions and benefits, and assaults on public services.
PSAC members have been specifically targeted by the
spending freeze contained in the Harper Conservative's budget. In the
last month alone plans have been announced to eliminate 147 Citizenship
and Immigration jobs in Sydney and 65 Canada Post jobs in Antigonish.
Nova Scotia is also seeing a quiet program of
centralization of Service Canada's staff and cuts to services for the
unemployed. The province also recently lost its Labour Affairs Officer
in Cape Breton and will lose its Human Rights Commission Office in the
fall.
On May Day PSAC members need to be front and centre
with our flags flying. Join the fight for workers' rights. Come out
with family, friends and allies to the Annual May Day Rally and March
on Saturday, May 1st at 1 p.m at Victoria Park (located at Spring
Garden Road and South Park Street).
A Festival-Forum with Speakers, Videos, Spoken Word, Music and Food
will follow at 3:00 pm at the Mi'Kmaq Friendship Centre at 2158
Gottingen Street.
PSAC will provide free bus transportation for
supporters from Sydney and Antigonish who wish to attend. Please
contact Mark Rogers at rogersm@psac.com or at 443-3541.
Harper Government's Anti-Democratic Agenda
Canadian Human Rights Commission Offices Closed in
Vancouver,
Toronto and Halifax
The Harper government's anti-social agenda
is at work once again in the closing of Canadian Human Rights
Commission (CHRC) offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax. In 2008,
these three offices
received 70 percent of all signed complaints to the CHRC. It is obvious
that the
closure of the three offices will make it substantially harder for
individuals from marginalized groups to launch
human rights complaints. TML
denounces the closures and the Harper goverment's unacceptable
anti-democratic agenda.
The closure of the CHRC offices continues the modus
operandi of the Harper government to systematically attack those
fighting for their rights and shut down any source of opposition to its
anti-social agenda. In its first year in power, the Harper government
shut down 12 of 16
offices of the Status of Women across the country and cancelled its
Court Challenges Program, as well as its mandate to fund research on
the status of women.
The Canadian Human Rights Commission administers the Canadian
Human
Rights
Act and is responsible for ensuring compliance with
the Employment Equity Act. "Both laws ensure that the
principles of equal opportunity and non-discrimination are followed in
all areas of
federal jurisdiction," states the CHRC website.
In a March 26 media release, the Public Service
Alliance of Canada (PSAC) states:
"PSAC sees the closures of the CHRC offices as part of
a broader trend by the Harper government toward self-regulation --
something that puts both public safety and human rights into question.
By severely hampering the Canadian Human Rights Commission's ability to
adequately deal with
complaints throughout the process, the federal government is relying on
employers to voluntarily meet employment equity obligations and address
discrimination. But with no mechanisms for enforcement, the CHRC's
mandate will be reduced to mere suggestions."
According to the CHRC, the reorganization is expected
to save about $500,000 in rent, salaries and other administrative
costs. Nine employees will be affected: three jobs will disappear,
three employees will be given the option of relocating and three
mediators, one in Vancouver and two in
Toronto, will work out of other federal offices.
The secretary general of the CHRC Karen Mosher said the
commission is
dealing with a budget that is slated to remain flat for the foreseeable
future. Justice Minister Rob
Nicholson's office quickly issued a statement denying any government
interference in the matter. It said the Harper government had no input
into the "internal reorganization" by CHRC. This illustrates the Harper
government's denial of any social or political responsibility for the
public's agenda. Guaranteeing the rights of the
Canadian people is the responsibility of the government itself. The
CHRC is not some random agency independent of government in the manner
the minister is saying. It is the government which provides the budget
for the CHRC to carry out its work.
As it is, the responsibilities of the Commission are
increasing, not decreasing.
For example, there is the June 2008 repeal of section 67 of the Canadian
Human
Rights
Act (CHRA). Section 67 denied First
Nations people, both on and off reserve, full access to the human
rights complaint resolution system
available to anyone else under the CHRA. It stated: "Nothing in this
Act affects
any provision of the Indian Act or any provision made under
or pursuant to that Act." The CHRC must now ensure that the more than
700,000 Aboriginal persons subject to the Indian Act are
aware of their rights
under the CHRA and have access to its services.
TML calls on
Canadians to denounce these closures which contribute to rolling back
the achievements of a modern society in the
field of rights. To do so in the name of strengthening democratic
institutions is not only the height of absurdity, but in the opinion of
TML, is akin to
criminal negligence.
No Democracy Without Rights
On April 10 a public forum was held at the University of
Quebec
in Montreal (UQAM) under the theme "No Democracy Without Rights." The
event was organized by the Association Québécoise des
Organismes de Coopération Internationale (AQOCI),
Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) and Institut
d'Études Internationales de Montréal (IEIM) and reflected
the concerns of the people in the face of the attacks from the Harper
government on democratic institutions, democratic practices and rights
and freedoms.
The first speaker was Maude Séguin,
representative of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). She
spoke of the profound crisis that is facing the organization Rights and
Democracy, a crisis that is a concern for all of society, she said. She
stressed that the mandate of the organization that is
supposed to be independent and non-partisan has been put into question
by the Harper government's appointments intended to place supporters of
Israel at the head of the organization. Séguin pointed out that
this is an erosion of Canadian democracy.
Alexa Conradi of the Fédération des
Femmes du Québec then took the floor. She emphasized that the
Harper government's first target was women, while it wages war in
Afghanistan supposedly on behalf of women's freedom. She spoke about
the change in the mandate of the Status of Women
Canada as a blow to women's collective rights. She also pointed out
that the abolition of the Court Challenges program is an attack on the
most marginalized.
"If human rights are not respected participation in
political and social life is constrained," she added. "The government's
conception of democracy rejects the participation of citizens," she
concluded.
Bonnie Campbell, a professor at the Faculty of
Political Science and Law of UQAM stressed that the crisis at Rights
and Democracy is of great importance because it indicates a larger
problem that attacks the intrinsic nature of rights.
She gave the example of the Canadian mining companies
which act in total contempt of human rights and with the full support
of the
Canadian state. The protection of rights cannot be forfeited just
because foreign policy is the domain of the government of the day.
She concluded by speaking of a dangerous turning point
in foreign policy that gives priority to economic partners like Peru
and Colombia to the detriment of countries that really need help.
"If there is no law there can be no democracy. We can
have elections, but that is not democracy," said Francine Lalonde,
spokesperson for the Bloc Québécois on Foreign Affairs.
Michèle Asselin of the Centre International de
Solidarité Ouvrière (CISO) pointed out that the
rise of religious fundamentalism is the source of the government's
positions. "In our fight, it is important to offer
alternatives to the current situation. If we don't, then our movement
will fizzle," she said.
Finally, Michael Lambert, chairperson of Alternatives
was
optimistic despite the threats to the organization's funding, which he
says are a result of their stance on Israel's human rights violations.
He was impressed by the support that the organization has received
across Canada.
"We are facing an ideological assault from the forces
of the right," he said. This event is the beginning of
something that must continue, he added.
The interventions from the floor continued in the same
vein. One speaker said that we are not the beginning of a movement, but
that we are a part of a vast movement that has been in motion for a
long time and requires the establishment of a modern society that
recognizes the rights of all.
The media substantiated the
concerns of participants over the government's contempt for human
rights, reporting that same day that the Canadian Human Rights
Commission would close its three largest regional offices in Vancouver,
Toronto and Halifax. These offices
received 75 percent of the complaints addressed by the organization in
2009.
The news reinforced the determination of participants
to fight for the full recognition of the rights of all.
Discussing the Quebec Budget
The Myth of the "Individual's Share" and the
"Collective Share" of the Cost of Public Services:
An Attack on Society
- Pierre Soublière -
Quebec Minister of Finance Raymond Bachand first
prepared the ground for unveiling the Quebec budget during a speech he
delivered to the Conseil du Patronat (the Quebec association of
employers) on February 22. He spoke of a "cultural revolution," saying
that people must be prepared to pay more for what the
government calls "services" and finally put an end to "unjustified
expectations," particularly those connected with being a member of the
society.
He philosophized: "What is the fair share that I as a
citizen should pay and that the collective should pay? What is the
state's share and that of the individual?" Who does Bachand think pays
the "state's share"? Where does the money that comprises a government's
budget come from? The most
common of mortals knows that the lion's share comes from direct
and indirect taxes paid by individuals.
Through the minister's sophistry, people are made to
believe that they get a free ride
while in fact not only are these programs paid for by taxation of
individuals, but the value represented by
what is collected from "corporate taxation" also originates from the
workers who produce the wealth. The point is that the entire wealth of
Quebec is created by the working class and people and belongs to them.
The capitalist class is very happy with this new
finding that "someone has to pay" for the services. It is not for
nothing that certain excerpts from the budget tabled by
Mr. Bachand are a carbon copy of
views contained in an article published a few days prior in Le Devoir
on March 26 entitled Public
Finances: Nothing is Lost, Nothing is Created by L. Jacques
Ménard, President of BMO Financial Group,
raises the same preoccupation for "future
generations."
BMO: "Clearly, heartrending choices can be spotted on
the horizon. Within that context it becomes vital to properly assess
the means Quebec has at its disposal and ensure we do not carry on
mortgaging our children's future. No one is suggesting Quebeckers do
not 'deserve' the best public services
possible. However, a fundamental issue that must be addressed is what
level of public services do Quebeckers have the means to secure without
constantly handing down the bill to their kids... Quebec funds 26% more
public services than Ontario. By offering the same basket of public
services as Ontario, Quebec
would reduce its expenditures by $17.5 billion (2008-09)."
Bachand: "Thus, this budget takes a stand for the
common good of Quebeckers -- those of today as well as tomorrow. Our
decisions today will condition the options that will be available 20
years from now to the roughly 90,000 Quebeckers who will be born this
year. Our duty of solidarity extends to
those children and the hundreds of thousands of others who will follow
them... Over the years, Québec has given itself the biggest
basket of public services in North America... the Québec
government funds 26% more services than Ontario." (Budget 2010-2011, p. 3
and 5)
This idea of a "cultural revolution" to eliminate the
"everything is free mentality" is nothing but a self-serving argument
to transfer an
ever greater portion of Quebec's wealth to the rich minority.
Letters to the Editor
The government says Quebeckers have to start paying more
for public services because of lack of funds in government coffers.
What is the truth of the matter?
Two days after a demonstration of 75,000 public sector
workers in Montreal on March 20 and less than a week before the tabling
of the budget on March 30, it came to light that the entertainment and
multimedia giant Warner Bros. established offices in Montreal after
accepting the generous "help" of the
Charest government: $7.5 million grant from Investissement
Québec, 37.5 percent payroll tax credits, the right to refunds
from Emploi Quebec on half of the eligible costs of training staff; and
a tax credit for film and television production! The rationale for such
a tribute to the rich is that it could have a "ripple
effect," according to Clement Gignac, Minister of Economic Development.
Liberal hypocrisy knows no bounds.
A Montreal Teacher
***
In tabling the budget, the government announced
increases in the lower-priced "heritage block" electricity rate. The
heritage block pertains to electricity produced at power stations built
before 2000, currently frozen at 2.79 cents/kilowatt-hour, which the
Charest government wants to raise by 1.5
cents/kilowatt hour. The increase will not affect some 150 industrial
enterprises which are charged according to tariff "L"
applied to large consumers of electricity until 2018. "These companies
are largely located in areas where their contribution to the economy
and jobs is vital," claimed Bachand.
"Higher electricity costs [for the companies] would significantly
decrease profitability
and might even lead to some of them closing," he opined. Richard Fahey,
Vice-President Québec, for the Canadian Federation of
Independent Business expressed skepticism about this motivation,
pointing out that while these 150 enterprises
would be spared from rising electricity rates, 200,000 small and medium
sized enterprises already have more expensive rates, to the tune of 20
to 30 percent. Never mind that the increase is expected to also
raise electricity bills for ordinary Quebeckers by 3.7 percent annually
beginning in 2014.
When it comes time to pay the rich or provide a bail
out, the question of whether the money can be found is never raised.
For the Charest government, there is never a problem when it comes to
paying the rich and it is all done
in the name of high ideals, e.g., job creation, debt servicing, zero
deficits, etc.
Stop Paying the
Rich! Increase Funding for social Programs!
A Quebec City Public Sector Worker
Afghanistan
More Soldiers Die by Suicide than in Combat
From the invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001 until
last summer, 761 soldiers in the U.S. Army have died in combat there,
while in the same time period, 817 have taken their own lives.
Time magazine
reported these figures in an article titled: "Is the U.S. army loosing
the battle on suicide?"
The phenomenon of soldiers who commit suicide, which has
surged over the last five years, has turned into the greatest problem
for senior officials in the U.S. Armed Forces.
The figures illustrate that a solution has still not
been found, despite the military having invested millions of dollars
and used hundreds of mental health professionals, including
psychologists and psychiatrists.
According to Time,
beyond
the
efforts
of
the medical
plan, the problem is linked to soldiers' commitment in combat.
New research shows that in reality there is a very
strong link between the number of times soldiers are deployed and the
number of suicides.
Pentagon Accused of Funding Taliban
- Enrique Román, Granma
International, April 15, 2010 -
Two allies of the United States in its principal areas
of conflict, the Middle East and Central Asia, have raised their voices
to the present administration within a short period.
The first was Israel, in an event that is still in full
development, when the Israelis snubbed Vice President Joseph Biden
during a visit to that small country, by making the surprise
announcement of the construction of more settlements in East Jerusalem.
The other exploded in Afghanistan. President Hamid
Karzai, to date Washington's man in that directionless war, reacted
violently to criticisms of his government's corruption made by Obama
himself, during his recent visit.
In what was seen as an attempt to gradually distance
himself from the invading forces, Karzai stated that if there was any
fraud in the recent elections, which he won for a second time, it had
come from the Westerners, and pointed the finger directly at observers
from the UN and the European
Union.
But graver still was his reference to the
interventionist troops: "In this situation there is a slight
distinction between invasion, and aid and cooperation," and he added
that if the perception is that foreign soldiers are invaders and Afghan
government soldiers their mercenaries, the Taliban insurgency
"could turn into a national resistance movement."
The sense of the war in Afghanistan, a controversial
issue in itself in Washington, has once again reached new levels of
debate. With his statement, compounded by his invitation to Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and threats of alliance with the Taliban,
Karzai has increased the number
of people who see the Afghan president as a serious complication to the
problem, and not as an agent of its solution.
But everyone knows that in politics, what comes to the
surface is no more than the little tip of an iceberg that, in the case
of Afghanistan, is absolutely unfathomable, where obscure and
unmentionable interests are crossed. Examples abound.
Still pending is an investigation generated at the
request of the U.S. Congress into the exposé made public some
months back of a paradoxical fact: 10% of Pentagon spending on logistic
contracts for that war falls into the hands of the Taliban.
The most damning evidence came from the well-known
journalist and investigator Aram Roston in The Nation, subsequently
followed by other journalists. Roston's revelation was disconcerting:
U.S. military officials in Kabul told him that a minimum of 10% percent
of the Pentagon's logistics
contracts consists of payments to the Taliban. And Afghan officials
added, "That's a large part of their income."
This exposé points in various directions. As in
Iraq, the participation of private companies as a complement to U.S.
military logistics is a huge business here. Roston details the
involvement with these companies of important figures in Karzai's
family, certain individuals previously linked to the
Taliban, and the support of these companies for the creation of
institutions dedicated to political lobbying in Washington.
Thus, the executive of the recently created Campaign for
a U.S.-Afghanistan Partnership, a new lobby organization, includes
Hamed Wardak, son of the Afghan defense minister and, at the same time,
president of NCL Holdings, one of the principal private security
companies linked to the
war.
Or Ahmad Rateb Popal, an interpreter for the Taliban
foreign minister prior to the 2001 invasion, who appeared on
international television with a black turban, a thick beard and traces
of the war against the Soviets; a deformed hand and arm and a patch
covering one eye. Today, Popal, a cousin of
President Karzai, controls the important Watan Risk Group, a consortium
specializing in telecommunications, logistics and security.
These flourishing companies are responsible for
protecting convoy traffic for the Western troops from Pakistan to their
destination in Afghan territory, via a corridor known as Highway 1,
with mountain passes in a terrain dominated by armed tribal leaders,
warlords and Taliban.
"The security firms don't really protect convoys of
American military goods here, because they simply can't; they need the
Taliban's cooperation," affirms journalist Bruce Wilson. And Roston
notes: "The real secret to trucking in Afghanistan is ensuring security
on the perilous roads, controlled by
warlords, tribal militias, insurgents and Taliban commanders. The
American executive I talked to was fairly specific about it: 'The Army
is basically paying the Taliban not to shoot at them. It is Department
of Defense money.' That is something everyone seems to agree on."
Jean MacKenzie from the GlobalPost relates
that an agent for these companies in Helmand province itself was
negotiating with a local supplier a large cargo of piping that had to
be brought from Pakistan. The supplier billed in an extra 30% for the
Taliban in order to guarantee the
safe transit of the load.
The administration's counterinsurgency doctrine in terms
of Afghanistan, which presupposes using money as a powerful weapon, had
resulted in an upwards spiral of security companies' businesses. Truck
transport by NCL Holdings, journalists assure, totaled $2.2 billion; in
other words, 10% of the
Afghan gross domestic product.
When this scandalous information was published, Rep.
John Tierney, president of the National Security and Foreign Relations
Sub-Committee, stated that a preliminary enquiry had produced enough
evidence to call for a complete investigation.
But the investigation did not happen and perhaps it
never will. NCL Holdings has initiated legal action against Aram
Roston, alleging that NCL and Mr. Wardak found out about the contract
opportunities for trucking services in Afghanistan via a U.S. federal
government business opportunities
website.
Meanwhile, critics of the war are increasing among the
ranks of Barack Obama's own party and the invading troops continue
tracing paths already covered by other armies and distributing vast
sums of money even to their enemies, in a criminal, unpopular and
unnecessary war.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
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Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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