Socialist Worker 504

www.socialist.ca

no. 504 16 March 2009

Tories do nothing as corporations slash jobs

Fight back to save our jobs

1

Nationalize to stop closures

2

Retool plants & factories

3

by michele mccauly and charlotte ireland

On February 23, Ontario’s Energy Minister George Smitherman announced his Green Energy Act to an audience of citizens worried about jobs, the economy and climate change.

It relies on nuclear power to generate 50 per cent of energy in Ontario—paying lip service to green energy.

It caps new renewable energy projects at 5,312 megawatts over the next 20 years to allow space for 14,000 megawatts of nuclear electricity. Spending billions of dollars on nuclear rebuilds like Pickering and new nuclear reactors is not a green act—it’s greenwashing.

In a world faced with two major crises—economic and environmental—any viable solution must be environmentally sustainable and create good jobs. There are immediate steps that could be taken to address these crises: lCompanies planning to cut wages, lay off workers or close shop should be taken into public hands. No jobs should be lost and no wages cut.

Ontario’s steel industry has just taken another major blow as US Steel Canada announced the temporary closure of its Hamilton and Erie plants. Nationalization would save thousands of jobs in the steel industry. lFactories across the country need to be retooled to produce renewable energies. The steel for wind turbine blades can be manufactured in Hamilton and Erie, keep-

ing production local.

According to the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), 3,900 manufacturing jobs have been lost in Hamilton since October. Factories sit empty and idle. We must demand the McGuinty and Harper governments take a serious stance to stimulate the economy and promote

Create good, green union jobs

green energy. The government should retool these idle factories, not pour billions of dollars into dangerous and dirty nuclear reactor production.

Germany produces 20,000 megawatts of electricity from wind power and is shutting down reactors. The offshore wind business is one of the fastest growing renewable energy technologies. Local wind turbine production has the potential to create tens of thousands of much needed jobs in Canada and help create a sustainable future. lThe economic crisis has already led to the elimination of hundreds of thousands of good manufacturing jobs. The creation of good, green jobs through the nationalization and retooling of factories could stop the lay offs and closures.

We must demand that the government keep steel production local, retool factories, build windmills and solar technologies, train people to install geothermal, and stop nuclear production.

If this Green Energy Act gets approved as is, the government will use the money in the budget for nuclear instead of green energy projects. This will mean far fewer jobs in the renewable green energy sector.

Workers and environmentalists have common ground.

Now is the time to work together. The corporations and their Tory backers are the ones who got us into this mess.

They have no solutions. The solutions will come from us, but only if we build a fightback.

Big Three & the auto bailouts » page 2 l Gaza convoy » page 3 Free speech on campus » page 5 l Workers fight back » pages 6&7

Québec solidaire tackles the economic crisis by benoit renaud Since the election of its first Member of the National Assembly (MNA) in December, the main issue for Québec solidaire (QS) has been its response to the deep economic crisis and the underlying ecological and social crises.

During the election campaign, elements of the platform had been brought together under a “Plan de sortie de crise”, or the QS equivalent of a stimulus package.

It contained immediate measures aiming to create sustainable jobs through programs of energy conservation, child care, social housing, public transit, etc.

Starting in mid-February, Amir Khadir, the QS MNA, went on a tour of several regions of Quebec to discuss this plan and get feedback and ideas from QS members and other citizens.

In February, delegates from riding and regional associations met in Quebec City to decide what the priorities of the party should be for the next year or so.

Following the consultations, a revised plan will be presented to the public in the form of a manifesto.

In short, the current crisis is profound and systemic and demands that we think creatively about how our economy could be reorganized in order to meet human needs on an ecologically sound basis.

The short-term response should be framed within that long-term view of building a socially useful and ecological economy.

AUTO INDUSTRY

SECRET TRIAL FIVE

Fights, not concessions, can save workers’ jobs

Adil Charkaoui nearly free, others under strict conditions

by lindsay hinshelwood

The auto industry bailouts and the concession demands from GM, Ford and Chrysler—the Big Three—are making the workers responsible for the corporations’ economic recovery through anti-worker restructuring.

Members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union, for the last six months, have been worried about what they will be expected to give back, and have been under constant assault by the government and the public.

These workers should not have to apologize for the wages and benefits they fought hard to gain. Autoworkers, like many other people, work in harsh, adversarial condi-

tions; they are the value-added employees and produce the wealth for these corporations.

The CAW GM unit ratified over two weekdays instead of the customary weekend date, which would have allowed the membership time to assess the issues. The concessions were accepted by an 87 per cent approval vote.

What will this mean for Ford and Chrysler workers?

These corporations have already announced that the GM deal didn’t go far enough and are intimidating workers with the threat of pulling their operations out of Canada—further evidence that no amount of concessions will ever satisfy the Big Three.

The fear-mongering from the “vote yes to save your

jobs” campaign has gotten the better of many workers, who truly feel they have a responsibility to help the companies out.

However, resistance is building, in both the US and Canada, the concessions in the US were only narrowly approved by the UAW Ford unit. Therefore, there is growing disunion between the rank-and-file and the leadership. These concessions have also achieved pitting workers against workers.

During the 2008 CAW ratification, CAW local 707 Ford Oakville Assembly Complex rejected the concessionary contract, a historical rejection in the CAW. The union leadership has not addressed these members concerning their issues or why they voted

to reject.

The membership rejected the contract because many felt then that concessions were not a solution and would only encourage more concessions.

Now they are being forced to ratify and give back more gains less than a year later.

What we do know is that concessions do not prevent layoffs, job losses or plant closures. The UAW has repeatedly accepted concessions over the years and has shed 80 per cent of its membership to lost jobs.

These current CAW agreement amendments will guarantee further layoffs and lost jobs throughout the Ontario auto sector, which itself has lost 20,000 jobs.

>>page 11

Activists block nuclear station PICKERING—On March 12, Greenpeace activists protested the continued reliance on nuclear energy by the Government of Ontario by blocking access to the Pickering nuclear station.

Activists used a flat-bed truck carrying a billboard reading: “Minister: Don’t Nuke Green Energy”.

This action is part of the campaign to get the government to replace the aging nuclear reactors with green energy.

So far, the McGuinty government has only put forward nuclear options and is even looking to build the world’s largest nuclear construction project.

“Greenpeace is blocking the Pickering reactor station because Nuclear Energy Minister George Smitherman is blocking green energy in Ontario,” said ShawnPatrick Stensil, a Greenpeace energy campaigner.

For more information, visit www.greenpeace.ca.

Resistance Press Bookroom Open Saturdays from 12pm to 3pm

info: 416.972.6391

TORONTO—Over 1,500 people marched in the pouring rain as they marked International Women’s Day on March 7.

This year’s event featured women leading the fight for good jobs and dignity. PHOTO: JESSE McLAREN

Welcome war resisters, not war criminal George Bush by jesse mclaren

On the sixth anniversary of the illegal Iraq War, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his immigration minister Jason Kenney welcomed George Bush at the same time as they are deporting US Iraq War resisters, including Kimberly Rivera and her family.

The world’s leading war criminal spoke in Calgary on March 17, giving the first public speech after his disastrous presidency. Local anti-war activists organized a week of protest, including throwing shoes gathered from across the country.

Being associated with the war is political poison, and Harper had to admit last election campaign that the war was “absolutely an error”.

Howover, he continues to deport US soldiers who have come to the same conclusion. Despite a June 3 House of Commons motion to stop the deporta-

2 Socialist Worker 16 March 2009

tions—reaffirmed February 12 by the House Immigration Committee—the Tory minority government has deported three individuals Iraq War resisters.

Kimberley Rivera, her husband and three young children face deporation on March 26. Rivera is the first woman US soldier to seek refuge in Canada.

She decided she could no longer participate in the

Iraq War while home on leave from Iraq. She and her family came to Canada in January 2007.

They received an order to leave Canada from the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) in January. While they did receive a temporary stay to appeal the decision, they have now been given a new order to leave.

The Riveras have re-

quested that their deportation date be postponed until June so that their son could finish the school year, but this request was denied.

Two Toronto-area MPs, Olivia Chow (NDP) and Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Liberal) travelled to San Diego in March to visit war resister Robin Long who was deported by the Harper government and imprisoned in the US last July.

Robin gave the MPs information about his treatment at the hands of CBSA and the consequences of his deportation, including a 15-month sentence, a felony conviction and not being able to travel to Canada to visit his Canadian-born son.

Over the next few weeks, while MPs once again move a motion in Parliament to stop the deportations, supporters will be phoning and writing Kenney to demand an end to the deportations.

For more information, visit www.resisters.ca.

Adil Charkaoui has finally had most of the conditions of his release lifted. Hassan Almrei was finally released on February 27.

Almrei cannot leave his rented Toronto apartment unaccompanied by a court-approved surety. While he will be allowed to leave home with a surety, he has essentially exchanged one prison for another. Like the other security certificate detainees, Almrei has not been charged with a crime and is not allowed to know the alleged case against him.

Meanwhile, Charkaoui still wears a GPS tracking bracelet and has surrendered his passport and other travel papers to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). The CBSA can access his computer at will. Charkaoui has never been charged.

In mid-March, Mohamed Harkat and Mohammad Mahjoub had their restrictions eased. However, in order to take advantage of the so-called home-alone provisions, Harkat must phone CBSA once per hour and his wife, Sophie, must call upon departure and arrival. He can now attend political rallies only if CBSA officers are satisfied of their safety.

Mahjoub’s conditions have become so unbearable for him and his family that he decided to return to prison voluntarily on March 17.

Recently mainstream press editorials, notably in the Globe and Mail, have suggested these men should be deported on the basis of diplomatic assurances from the target countries that the men will not be tortured. Human rights groups and the UN have stated these assurances are completely ineffective.

OSSTF

Teachers rally for fair contract On March 12, two thousand secondary school teachers rallied outside the Toronto School Board at Mel Lastman Square protesting the Board’s request for increased supervision time.

Contract negotiations remains stalled, and the OSSTF District 12 is charging the Board with bargaining in bad faith.

“They’re trying to strip out language that protects our workload,” said union president Doug Joliffe.

A strike vote has been set by the union for March 31.

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SRI LANKA

INTERNATIONAL

Situation for Tamils grows worse The government of Sri Lanka is continuing its attacks on its Tamil minority. Despite a media ban in Tamil areas, reports continue to leak out of atrocities committed by the Sri Lankan Army.

‘Viva Palestina’ aid caravan breaks siege of Gaza by james clark

In the wake of Israel’s 22-day war on Gaza, British MP George Galloway announced that he would lead an aid caravan that would drive all the way from Britain to the Rafah border crossing in Egypt where it would deliver relief directly to the people of Gaza.

On March 10, the caravan known as “Viva Palestina” finally reached its destination. Starting in London, England, the caravan drove over 10,000 km through eight countries in Europe and North Africa, before reaching Gaza. The caravan stretched more than two kilometers and was comprised of over 300 volunteers in

100 vehicles ­ including five ambulances, a fire truck and a boat. Over $1.1 million in aid was delivered to the people of Gaza.

The caravan encountered many obstacles along the way. In Britain, the BBC refused to broadcast the caravan’s aid appeal, arguing that it would undermine the broadcaster’s “balance”. The decision sparked protests all over the country.

British police targeted the caravan, arresting nine participants— all Muslim men—before the caravan even left the country. The men were arrested under Britain’s “antiterror” laws which have been used to harass Muslims, Arabs and anti-war activists. All of the men were even-

tually released without charge, but three were held an entire week for questioning.

The caravan also encountered widespread support. Along the route in Europe and North Africa, the caravan was often welcomed to each town and city by groups of enthusiastic supporters who made their own donations to Gaza relief. Many offered food, accommodations and fuel as the caravan passed through.

In some places, local people held impromptu solidarity demonstrations.

Upon arrival at the Rafah border, the caravan was held up by Egyptian officials, but eventually made it into Gaza—but on 24-hour visas. Par-

ticipants only had one day to deliver aid. Galloway was welcomed by Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh who thanked him by issuing him a Palestinian passport. Galloway met with Haniyeh to demonstrate support for the democratically elected government of the Palestinian Legislative Council, despite the West’s attempts to boycott it. Hamas won a majority in Palestinian elections in 2006, a free vote that most Western countries—including Canada—refuse to recognize.

Galloway will speak in Canada on a four-city speaking tour from March 30 to April 2.

For more information, visit www.nowar.ca.

Iran: 30 years after the revolution New left power in El Salvador Iran marked the 30th anniversary of its revolution in February.

In 1979, mass strikes and demonstrations led to a revolution that swept the pro-US Shah from power, and kicked the US out of its most important client state. In the weeks and months that followed, Ayatollah Khomeini strengthened his grip on power, filling a vacuum left by the left.

Today activists in Iran continue to face repression, especially among trade unionists, women and gays—despite the gains of the revolution. George Bush and Stephen Harper have tried to

exploit the situation to generate support for war on Iran. Recently Harper referred to the “ideology” of the Iranian government as “obviously evil”.

Thirty years later, the US has yet to forgive Iran for its revolution. Before Bush left office, there were widespread fears that the US would launch an attack on Iran. Israel has hinted that it plans to launch its own attack.

The anti-war movement, however, has opposed any military attack on Iran, while supporting the right of the Iranian people to decide their own future.

Another left-wing government has been elected in Latin America.

On March 15, presidential elections in El Salvador saw left candidate Mauricio Funes win 51.3 per cent of the vote, representing the FMLN. In the 1980s, Funes was part of the FMNL guerrilla movement that transformed itself into a political party after the 1992 peace accords.

Funes’ victory ends the 18-year rule of the National Republic Alliance (ARENA), the largest conservative party in El Salvador.

Funes dedicated his victory to Archbishop Oscar

Romero who was murdered by death squads in 1980.

Funes becomes the first socialist president of El Salvador.

Obama’s Iraq ‘exit strategy’ keeps troops in Iraq by jonathon hodge At the end of February, US President Barack Obama announced his much-anticipated exit strategy from the US-led Iraq War. Unfortunately, the approach, which he hails as a “new era of American leadership in the Middle East” and “the responsible removal of [US] combat brigades from Iraq”, raises the prospect of an indefinite US military presence in the country.

A few short weeks before the

sixth anniversary of the US-led invasion, the president announced plans to draw down upwards of 90,000 US combat personnel by August 2010, leaving between 35,000 and 50,000 troops in Iraq until December 31, 2011, at which time those brigades would be removed in accordance with a status-of-forces agreement reached last year between the current Iraqi government and the former US administration.

Progressives are understandably dismayed by this plan. It is a far cry

from Obama’s campaign promise of a division a month (10,000 troops) for up to 16 months.

Vague provisions

More ominous though are the provisions of the agreement, which allow US forces to stay, in the event of a decline in the security situation in the country, or a change in other nebulous facts on the ground, or at the request of the Iraqi government.

All criteria are intentionally vague, and US officials made clear that the agreement represented a best-

case scenario. Even in their best case, US soldiers would continue to enforce Western interests for almost another three years.

Finally, the agreement makes no mention of the tens of thousands of mercenaries who continue to conduct operations in Iraq at the behest of US companies and the US government.

Until such time as all foreigners with guns leave the country, the War in Iraq can not truly be described as ended, regardless of presidential rhetoric.

Thousands of civilians are trapped in forests in the north and east of the island, many are facing starvation.

“Acute shortage of food commodities prevails as stocks have completely depleted; as we have nothing to eat for the next meal, the only alternative open before us is to jump into the sea,” said Rev. Anton Rock, a priest who serves Tamil Catholics.

The government of Sri Lanka continues to deny aid relief and has continues to shell areas where Tamil refugees have fled. The government has tried to force Tamils into government-controlled camps where Human Rights Watch has said there is ongoing abuse of Tamils.

Sri Lanka continues to ignore international appeals for a ceasefire. Tamils around the world have been mobilizing and demanding a ceasefire and recognition of Tamils as a nation. They represent close to 25 per cent of the population of Sri Lanka. The government has continually denied Tamils’ rights to language and religion. The struggle in Sri Lanka is spreading to the Tamil speaking regions in southern India, where there have been mass protests and strikes against India’s support for Sri Lanka.

In Canada, the government has promised a paltry $3 million dollars for relief but has refused to cut ties with the government of Sri Lanka. Not only has Immigration Canada continued to deport Tamils back to Sri Lanka where they face certain harassment by the government, but in the past year the number of deportations has increased.

PALESTINE

PM Fayyad steps aside Paving the way for national unity talks in the Palestinian Authority, Fatah appointee Salam Fayyad has agreed to step aside, meeting a long-standing demand of rival group Hamas. Unity talks have come in the wake of the Israel offensive that destroyed large parts of Gaza, as well as increasing desire on the part of Palestinians to see a united leadership.

In the wake of the Hamas election victory in the winter of 2006, President Abbas (with US backing) installed a non-Hamas parliamentary leadership based around Fayyad. Such actions precipitated factional fighting between the two sides, ultimately resulting in Hamas ousting Fatah from Gaza to pre-empt a US and Israeli backed coup, in the summer of 2007. Since that time, Gaza has been blockaded while the West Bank has enjoyed a renewed flow of international aid.

Hamas has argued since 2006 that, given its election majority, it should name a Prime Minister and be central to the formation of any cabinet, something Western governments oppose.

16 March 2009 Socialist Worker 3

TALKING MARXISM

INTERNATIONAL

Abbie Bakan

Omar Barghouti: Palestine’s Mandela comes to Canada Movements that challenge oppression generate new voices and leaders. Malcolm X was a powerful spokesperson for Black liberation in the US. Che Guevara led the Cuban Revolution against US occupation and domestic corruption. And Nelson Mandela defied Apartheid to become the first president of a democratic South Africa.

Today, Palestine brings us Omar Barghouti.

Omar Barghouti’s first speaking tour in Canada opened with a keynote address in Toronto for the annual Israeli Apartheid Week. Initiated five years ago by students at the University of Toronto, this series of lectures and events in solidarity with the Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) has spread to over forty campuses across Canada and internationally.

Speaking to packed-out lecture halls, Barghouti carefully explained the analysis of Israel as a state that can be readily compared to apartheid South Africa. He argued that, as apartheid has been identified as a crime according to international law, it is both legitimate and necessary to oppose it.

Barghouti meticulously described Israeli attacks on Gaza during the recent “Operation Cast Lead”. He stressed that the recent war was not the exception but the norm. There have been numerous examples of violence in both Gaza and the West Bank, and among Palestinians living in Israel.

There have also been expulsions of Palestinian refugees for generations.

The long-term oppression of the Palestinian population, and Israel’s consistent refusal to adhere to international law without consequence, has compelled the emergence of a movement that is actively seeking international support.

This civil society movement for non-violent action is aimed to call Israel to account.

Omar Barghouti is a spokesperson, educator and advocate for this movement.

Open debate

Barghouti’s talks in Toronto, Kingston, Montreal and Ottawa took place amidst a cacophony of repressive statements and measures aimed to silence those speaking at, and attending, Israeli Apartheid Week. But Barghouti is a self-identified public intellectual who welcomes open, respectful debate and invited those who would disagree to do the same.

Barghouti is no stranger to controversy. He is a founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). He is also an electrical engineer educated at Columbia University, an artistic choreographer and is currently a doctoral candidate in Philosophy, specializing in Ethics, at Tel Aviv University.

While speaking at Queen’s University on March 3, Barghouti was asked by one audience participant if there was a contradiction between his call for boycott of Israeli institutions and his own enrollment at an Israeli university.

His reply was clear.

“Israeli universities, including Tel Aviv University where I study, are deeply embedded in military research and activities that advance apartheid. A boycott of these institutions challenges these activities. It would also cause harm to those of us who are students, but there is a higher aim involved. There is no contradiction here at all.”

Barghouti is also a prolific writer, in both English and Arabic, and he challenges the standard charge that calls to oppose and isolate the state of Israel are anti-Semitic. As he has stated in CounterPunch (October 21, 2008): “As to the anti-Semitism charge, it is patently misplaced and clearly used as a tool of intellectual intimidation. …

The growing support among progressive European and American Jews for effective pressure on Israel is one counter-argument.... Moreover, considering actions and positions that target Israeli apartheid and colonial rule antiSemitic is itself anti-Semitic.... “[The assumption is] that all Jews, per se, are somehow responsible for Israeli crimes, a patently racist assumption.... It hardly matters what faith your oppressors belong to, really—whether they are Jewish, Christian, Muslim or Hindu is almost irrelevant. The only thing that matters is that they are illegally, immorally oppressing you.”

War crimes

During his tour Barghouti addressed the increasing likelihood of charges being laid against individuals in the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) for war crimes conducted during the war on Gaza. The fact that such crimes have occurred is hardly debatable, recognized even within the IDF. But nor are such crimes new. Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, for example, was also charged with war crimes. To this day, as Sharon lies in a coma, there have been no convictions.

Then, as now, according to Barghouti, “We should not expect to see a single IDF soldier spend one day behind bars for this criminal activity.”

However, he stated, it is nonetheless important that charges for Israeli war crimes are advanced. “The political exposure of Israeli military brutality is important, regardless of the legal outcome, and will become more important. This is the real significance of the war crimes charges.”

Barghouti is a staunch advocate for peace, but insists that a real, lasting peace demands that all citizens in Israel and Palestine be free and equal. He advocates for a single state, where the indigenous rights of Palestinians, as well as the “acquired” rights of the Israeli colonists who have developed attachments in the region, are recognized and respected. “Otherwise,” he argues, “we have only the peace of the slave, where there is ‘peace’ on condition of the master’s absolute power. This is no peace at all.”

4 Socialist Worker 16 March 2009

Mass strikes win, and spark wider resistance General strikes in French Caribbean island and Réunion are part of a global battle to stop workers paying for the crisis, writes Ken Olende.

General strikes have won big concessions for workers in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique.

On March 4, the 44-day strike in Guadeloupe came to an end as the lowest paid workers scored a monthly wage increase of $250 USD and price reductions on basic goods.

The agreement that ended the strike was called the Jacques Bino Accord, in memory of the trade unionist shot by police during the strike.

On March 14, the Martinique strike also ended in victory as 47,000 low-

wage workers won similar wage increases. Most businesses have also been forced to drop prices by 20 per cent on hundreds of goods.

The strike wave has now spread to La Réunion, an “overseas department” of France, where workers are raising similar demands, and using similar tactics.

The first strike began in Guadeloupe on January 20, shutting shops, cafés, schools and public transit. The strike in Guadeloupe was led the Collective Against Exploitation (LKP)—a committee including trade unions and community activists.

The action spread to neighbouring Martinique. In response, the French government sent a unit of 130 riot police to the island.

In Guadeloupe, incomes are only about half of that of metropolitan France. Unemployment is 25 per cent, 50 per cent for young people. Workers and the poor in these islands feel that the rich are trying to make them pay for the recession.

The sentiment links them to global resistance against the crisis, and puts them at the forefront of the fightback. © Socialist Worker (UK)

Cuba, the U.S. and the 47-year-old embargo by paul kellogg

In the early 1990s, Cuba was living in the shadow of a terrible 30-year-old blockade. In the eyes of the US and its allies, Cuba’s “sins” were to have nationalized key industries and used the state to develop some of the best health and education programs in the Americas.

One way that Cuba got around the blockade was to develop trading ties with the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

But that was a mixed blessing. For Cuba it meant going from being a sugar-exporting dependency of the US, to being a sugar-exporting dependency of the state capitalist USSR. By the early 1990s, the Soviet Union was gone. The Berlin Wall had fallen.

Suddenly, Cuba was on its own. And real privation hit all sectors of society.

But Cuba survived. And with the emergence of mass movements, particularly in Venezuela and Bolivia, a littlepublicized event has now taken place— the blockade of Cuba has been broken.

In December 2004, Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez signed a trade deal to establish the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and now includes Nicaragua and Bolivia. ALBA is designed to get around the punitive, unfair and debt-stacked trade regimes represented by NAFTA and the WTO. ALBA allows for trade in kind. Cuba has many doctors. Venezuela has lots of oil. So oil could be exchanged for doc-

tors in a unique relationship that benefits both countries.

Too often debates about Cuba become bogged down in the issue of “socialism” and “communism” versus “capitalism” and “freedom”. The Cuban people have stood up and asserted their independence from the US and Canada.

It doesn’t take a socialist revolution to threaten the interests of imperialism.

It simply takes a people demanding to use some of their resources for healthcare and education, instead of shipping those resources to banks in the Global North.

After 50 years, the people of Venezuela and Bolivia, and the countries of ALBA, are joining Cuba in the fight for sovereignty.

Chávez wins Venezuela referendum On February 15, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez won a hardfought referendum on a constitutional amendment to remove the limit on the number of times the president and all public officials can stand for re-election. It won just under 55 per cent of the vote—around 6.5 million votes.

President Hugo Chávez had put his personal reputation at stake, and had effectively presented the referendum as a vote of confidence in him, both as president and leader of the Bolivarian revolution.

Chávez’ government has been plagued by right-wing attacks, problems with corruption and a crumbling infrastructure.

For Chávez, the vote was crucial to consolidate his authority. And he

has clearly done that.

The people celebrating, blowing their megaphones and waving their flags were not partying over a simple election victory. They were expressing their support for a Chávez who

symbolized revolution, redistribution of wealth and, above all, a new kind of power—a popular democracy.

Chávez continues to represent that hope, despite the compromises that his government has made and despite the people who surround him.

If Chávez is to justify the faith and energy that the majority of Venezuelans have placed in him, and if he is to consolidate the gains that have been made, then the initiative has to pass to the grassroots, the popular organizations that on one occasion after another have saved the revolution from its enemies.

The only guarantee for the future is the strength of a movement from below which must become the driving force in the months to come. © Socialist Worker (UK)

O

n the lawn outside the university administration building, student leaders delivered speeches condemning the administration’s proposed “Student Code of NonAcademic Conduct”. They connected the issue with rising tuition fees, a lack of student space and tensions between the administration and the student unions.

At the end of the last speech, a student leader asked the crowd of five hundred if they wanted to take their message to the university president. A cheer rose up.

Five hundred students surged towards the administration building and occupied it for two hours.

This scene was not from 1968.

It was April 25, 2008 at the University of Ottawa. A hastily organized demonstration at the end of the exam period drew students to a rally which turned into a brief but large occupation of Tabaret Hall, the university’s administrative building. In the wake of the occupation, the administration formally dropped its plan to introduce the code. This occupation was one of the largest mobilizations against recent attempts by university administrations to restrict free speech and political organizing by students.

hypocrisy of how these different issues are treated. The poster bans, denial of room bookings and banning of the term “Israeli Apartheid” are largely ignored or even supported in the same mainstream press that attacks student unions for taking principled political stances that do not, in any way, violate freedom of speech or assembly.

Students are the bad guys while university administrations are let off the hook.

This is the leading edge of a wider attempt to crack down on student as well as labour organizing on campus. The attacks are rooted in the early 1990s when massive cuts in post-secondary education (PSE) funding led to rising tuition fees, the casualization of labour (academic and non-academic) and the increasing corporatization of the university.

University administrations, rather than ally with student and labour unions to force the government to restore funding, have loyally followed the mantras of their pals in the corporate and political worlds.

The “neoliberalizing” of the university has resulted in increasing tensions with students and workers on campus over tuition fees, union rights, wages and many other issues. The past decade has also seen a renewed anti-imperialist mood centred around the occupations of Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan.

Poster bans

In the wake of the Israeli invasion of Gaza, a number of university administrations have attacked Palestine solidarity efforts on campuses by banning Israeli Apartheid Week posters and blocking students from booking rooms for Palestine solidarity events.

Poster bans for Israeli Apartheid Week at the University of Ottawa, Carleton and Laurier were based on the grounds of being “inflammatory” and students were threatened with fines or worse. The Trent University administration requested that posters be removed by IAW organizers or they would be taken down by the administration.

The IAW poster features artwork

by Carlos Latuff depicting an attack helicopter labelled “Israel” firing a missile at a child labelled “Gaza”.

The recent war against Gaza resulted in over four hundred children being killed by Israel. Many people, including hundreds of Jewish Canadian academics, have openly opposed the poster bans as flagrant violations of free speech.

But the attacks on free speech have extended to attacks on the right to organize.

At the University of Toronto, a freedom of information requestsubmitted by the local Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) revealed that in late 2008 the University of Toronto administration, including President David Naylor, pre-emptively banned OPIRGUofT from booking rooms for Students Against Israeli Apartheid.

The documents include an e-mail exchange between a number of university administrators showing how they concocted a “generic” response to use when the room booking application was made. The response was that the room booking did not have “advance notice”.

In early 2008, the McMaster administration banned the term “Israeli Apartheid”. The ban was overturned two weeks later mainly due to campaigning by outraged students, faculty and solidarity activists.

These recent attacks are the focal point of a broader attack on student rights and student organizations ranging from single-issue organizations like Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) to student unions to the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

Student unions

Student unions across the country have also faced anti-choice organizing on campus. Small groups of anti-choice students who want to criminalize abortion, have sparked controversy on many campuses.

At least eight progressive student

Codes of conduct

DEFEND free speech on campus As university administrations step up attacks on free speech, Gary Norris covers the growing wave of campus resistance, and considers the potential for a wider fightback

‘The attacks on student rights by university administrations are laying the basis for a potential explosion in student militancy’

unions have fought back and actively denied student union resources and space to these groups.

This has sparked a widespread attack on student unions for denying “free speech” to the anti-choice groups.

Most recently Alan Borovoy of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association accused the Canadian Federation of Students of facilitating the violation of free speech by passing a resolution supporting member student unions who deny resources and space to anti-choice organizations. This was picked up in the mainstream press, from the Globe and Mail to the National Post.

But as the BC Supreme Court made clear when it ruled in favour of the UBC-Okanagan student union, student unions have the right to determine how student union fees are distributed.

Denying a student group student union resources and space does not prevent anti-choice groups from organizing on campus. As recent Palestine solidarity campaigns have shown, it is university administrations, not student unions, which control access to free speech and assembly on campus.

In late 2006, the Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA)

reaffirmed its pro-choice stance and denied resources and funding to an anti-choice group. The antichoice group still organized and publicized a debate on campus with Planned Parenthood through the university administration.

The attacks on student unions are attempts to bully them into taking weak or even reactionary political stances not on the basis of the membership’s decisions, but on the basis of fear and intimidation.

Similar bullying happened in late 2007 at the University of Victoria when the student union passed a motion not to allow Canadian Forces recruiters in the Student Union Building for a career fair in early 2008.

Unfortunately, the student union decision was made with virtually no groundwork being laid. The media backlash gained traction and anti-war students were caught flatfooted. The motion was taken to a special general assembly and overturned by a large margin.

Campaigning

The lesson is that student union decisions should be reinforced by an engaged and aware student body— through sustained campaigning in advance of such motions.

These recent attacks reveal the

As a result, a number of universities have introduced a series of new or amended student codes of “non-academic conduct” which dramatically undermine freedom of speech and assembly. The codes allow universities to academically penalize students for “disruption” and damaging the “reputation” of the university.

Definitions of non-academic misconduct are left deliberately vague, and punishment – ranging from fines to expulsion – is being meted out by undemocratic and unaccountable tribunals. The codes also attempt to extend the jurisdiction well beyond the boundaries of the university, targeting students for off-campus and on-line activities that violate the codes of conduct.

These codes have sparked resistance on campuses. Trent University students defeated the “NonAcademic Misconduct Policy”. A petition signed by 1,200 students (out of 7,500), a demonstration, weekly coverage by the student newspaper, a formal boycott by the student unions, and active support from campus labour unions all contributed to scuttling the policy.

Other universities, such as Ryerson, Queen’s, York and University of Toronto, have seen similar codes used to discipline and expel students involved in political campaigns.

The attacks on student rights by university administrations are laying the basis for a potential explosion in student militancy.

In the fall of 1964, a stall for student civil rights organizing was kicked off campus by the university administration.

What resulted was the Berkeley Free Speech Movement which galvanized thousands and effectively launched the inspiring and enormous American student movement in the 1960s.

These campaigns focused not on the particular political campaign that was suppressed but on the right that was being denied by the university administration. In doing so, many more students can be pulled into activity and, as a result, be exposed to those particular campaigns in the process of defending freedom of speech and assembly.

Alongside our efforts to defend a woman’s right to choose, to organize Palestine solidarity actions and to kick the recruiters off campus, we can connect on basic issues like free speech and begin to build the mass student movement that we know we need.

16 March 2009 Socialist Worker 5

Workers’ fightback in a time of recession The economic crisis is producing both anger and fear among workers. Carolyn Egan looks at some of the recent fightbacks against lay-offs and concessions, and argues for a wider movement that bails out workers, not the bosses.

T

he working class is under attack in Canada.

There have were 129,000 jobs lost in the month of January alone, mostly in manufacturing but also in service, retail and the building trades.

This is on top of hundreds of thousands of previous layoffs.

Only 45 per cent of laidoff workers are able to collect unemployment insurance. The system has been gutted over the past years as the neoliberal agenda is being pushed forward by governments ideologicallycommitted to privatization, cutting services and pushing back workers demands. They are taking advantage of the economic crisis to continue their attacks.

Autoworkers are under particular pressure with federal ministers like Tony Clement telling them they have to do their part and share the pain, accepting concessions when the CAW has shown that wages are only 7 per cent of the cost of making a car. If they are defeated it will have an effect on workers in every sector.

The horror of the capitalist system is glaringly obvious whether you are a laid-off worker with EI benefits running out, a student who can no longer bear the cost of school, an agency worker trying to maintain two jobs just to keep her family afloat or someone who lays awake at night not knowing what the next week or month will bring.

The economic crisis has sent 6 Socialist Worker 16 March 2009

the rich and the powerful into a blind panic as they see their assets and profits disappear overnight.

Whatever their claim, they have no solutions to the problem except one: make workers pay the price through unemployment or reduced wages and benefits. The class divide is clearer and clearer.

International fightback

‘In Ireland, workers at Waterford Crystal occupied their workplace because they were being denied their severance’

Fear is stalking the world, but so too is resistance. We have seen how workers, students and immigrant communities in France have risen up and are fighting back, and it’s not just happening there.

In Ireland, workers at Waterford Crystal occupied their workplace because they were being denied their severance.

This militant resistance sparked 200,000 to march in the streets of Dublin against the government.

In Chicago, workers at Republic Window and Doors occupied their plant, also being denied severance. The Bank of America, which was the recipient of bailout monies, urged the employer to bilk the workers. A solidarity rally by other unionists at the bank upped the ante and the workers won their demands. Numbers of them had been involved in earlier mass demonstrations for amnesty for people without status.

A year and a half ago, workers in southern Ontario occupied plants, primarily steel and autoworkers in workplaces, such as Collins & Aikman Corporation and Masonite, demanding

just severance. The militancy and class solidarity were palpable and you got a glimpse of the power of the working class, and what we mean by socialism from below.

But these were defensive struggles, and we know that deep recessions have contradictory effects on workers’ consciousness. They create anger and fear at the same time. The anger can erupt into sudden struggles that are more militant. The fear can lead people to avoid struggle, hunker down and try to wait it out.

Which of these factors predominates is not preordained.

It depends on concrete circumstances—the way the crisis hits particular industries or sectors, past traditions of struggle, the general political mood and the degree to which there is a fighting leadership or rank-and-file organization.

Confidence can be built by a victory that inspires, locally or around the world. A particular action can be the spark to a much broader fightback.

The shooting by the police of a teenager in Greece led to huge demonstrations and fightbacks because of the volatility of the situation people were facing and the depth of the crisis.

This is possible today in Canada as well. There is a much greater opening to a criticism of the market and the capitalist system itself, but nothing is automatic.

We also have to be aware that there can be right-wing responses to crisis. We have seen that in

Britain with demonstrations calling for “British Jobs for British Workers”. This anti-immigrant backlash against Italian and Portuguese workers from the EU tries to blames them instead of the bosses and the government for the effects of the crisis.

We have to be aware that when we raise demands for jobs, domestic content and local procurement for the manufacture of wind turbines and subway cars, that we always put it within the context of internationalism and class solidarity. Our enemy is not the workers of China, Mexico or any other country, but the corporate owners and their governments who are trying to continue to make profits at our expense.

There have not been general strikes or mass demonstrations in the streets in Ontario, but there has been growing resistance locally.

Local action

We have seen the 2,000 workers from Progressive Moulded Products barricade their workplace for days demanding severance, surround the federal Minister of Labour and sparking a movement for expanded EI benefits. They have inspired laid-off Steelworkers to follow suit and organize among the 6,000 in Toronto who have lost their jobs forming “Workers Without Jobs” as a voice of laid-off workers.

We have seen Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) workers at Canada Post mount

Workers strike back against Sarkozy French President Nicolas Sarkozy used to be known as the “French Reagan”. Last July he said that France had changed so rapidly under his leadership that “these days, when there is a strike, nobody notices anymore.” But Sarkozy noticed last January 29 when 2.5 million people took part in a one-day general strike and demonstrations across France to protest his leadership.

His government has found 26 billion Euros to bail out France’s banks while thousands of workers are being laid off and face a 10 per cent unemployment rate. The general strike in January was actually just the latest in a series of escalating labour actions and even multiple-day strikes in various sectors. Polls in the lead-up showed that 69 per cent of French people said they “supported” or “sympathized with” the strike actions.

The January 29 strike was called by France’s eight major trade unions and pulled in teachers, postal employees, transport and media workers, civil servants, hospital staff, bank staff, car industry and shop workers, even lawyers, judges and journalists; and in many smaller towns groups of workers from small private firms demonstrated for the first time.

a courageous battle against concessions, rejecting the first tentative agreement and holding out as long as they could with picket line support.

A while back, activists at the Toronto and York Region Labour Council looked for an issue that could link union and non-union workers. After talking with a lot of people, we decided to see if the fight for a $10 minimum wage could be the spark to bring people into action.

The employers came out fighting and they fought hard, saying it would lead to greater layoffs and that businesses would shutdown the same scare mongering we always hear whenever workers make demands.

But the support was broad and deep, and it led to real links between union and non union workers. Meetings took place in neighbourhoods across the city: Malvern, Parkdale, Davenport, Regent Park, Rexdale and others. A bill was moved in the legislature, because of the growing pressure, and we won, not everything but a 28 per cent increase in three years.

Students

Labour Action Agenda

That led to activists intervening in the CLC convention in June 2008, with a Labour Action Agenda, trying to test the sentiment and connect with other rank-and-file workers who wanted to fight. We leafleted at the entrances and held side meetings, which attracted hundreds of workers talking about local campaigns, deteriorating conditions and the need for action. We intervened from the floor of convention and gave confidence to both ourselves and others that there was an appetite to fight back against the attacks.

This led to an organizing effort to counter the huge job losses, connect with agency workers and the unorganized to build a coalition in Toronto. The “Good Jobs for All” coalition included both union activists and community members, particularly racialized communities who were being hard-hit. During the organizing, the economic crisis deepened and more people came out to the meetings. In late November 2008, we held a conference and over 1,000 workers came out, representing the diversity of the Toronto working class.

Participants endorsed a “Good Jobs for All” declaration and

‘Our enemy is not the workers of China, Mexico or any other country, but the corporate owners and their governments who are trying to make profits at our expense’

continued to organize. Activists organizing International Women’s Day in Toronto took up the call “Good Jobs and Dignity for All” with a march and rally that brought thousands into the streets.

One of the most exciting campaigns to come out of the coalition is around Employment Insurance reform. This was a major demand on the Harper government during the last election and it was ignored.

The Montreal Labour Council recently called the Toronto and York Region Labour Council due to the connections we made at the CLC convention asking if there would be a taste in English Canada for a campaign around EI. And there is.

Rallies have already begun in Toronto. Similar actions are planned in other cities. On March 21, there will be a huge rally at the Hamilton Convention Centre protesting the shut-down of the US Steel plants in Hamilton and Lake Erie. Workers are bussing into the city that has been devastated by the impending layoffs.

In Toronto, there will be public forums in low-income neighbourhoods in Rexdale, Brampton and Parkdale to organize within communities in the same way as

happened during the minimum wage campaign in the hopes it will lead to national actions.

We have to defend the CAW workers, fight for good, green jobs for all, tackling both the economic and the environmental crisis, build a campaign to improve EI, start occupying the factories once more and inspire workers that they can fight back and win in these tough times.

We may not yet have seen the huge demonstrations in France, Greece or Ireland, and there is tremendous fear about what the future may bring, but the circumstances are such that they could erupt, and involvement in local campaigns that can make a difference in peoples’ lives can be the spark to much larger mobilizations.

The central thing that we need to understand is that the crisis is not simply a fault of a lack of financial regulation or bankers’ greed.

It is the capitalist system itself that is in crisis and we must take advantage of the turmoil to put across socialist arguments while seeking to be at the centre of the many forms of resistance as our rulers try to make working people pay for the crisis.

They were joined by high school and university students, as well as some of their parents, on over 200 demonstrations across France, with slogans like: “The crisis is them—the solution is us.”

The actions forced Sarkozy back to the table to negotiate with the eight major trade unions and a number of employers’ representatives on February 18 and announce a kind of “bailout” package for the poor worth 2.65 billion Euros ($3.4 billion) including tax breaks for low-income households and extra benefits for the jobless and big families. But he rejected union demands for a hike in the minimum legal wage and vowed to stay the course of structural reform. Despite the concessions, another nation-wide one-day general strike took place on March 19.

At the same time, an unlimited general strike was already underway in the French Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, also over the economic crisis. This was no doubt a factor in forcing Sarkozy to the table with unions, to avoid things spiralling into unlimited strike action in France. Just as Sarkozy was sitting down at the negotiating table on February 18, a union representative in Guadeloupe was shot dead. But that strike has now won.

Besancenot

Even Sarkozy has started speaking about the need to find a “more moral” version of capitalism, because the neoliberal version of capitalism “isn’t working”. Now his biggest political adversary is a 34-year-old postal worker who ran against him in the last election as an open revolutionary and is now polling at 18 per cent—Olivier Besancenot.

Besancenot has now become a leading figure of France’s “New Anti-capitalist Party”, which is appealing to the growing desire to see collective ownership and redistribution of wealth in France today.

16 March 2009 Socialist Worker 7

letters@socialist.ca Workers’ fightback needs strong leadership As the economic crisis continues to deepen, people fear the worst. The news of more companies going bust, pay cuts, massive lay-offs and declining social safety nets are on everyone’s minds.

Workers are responding with anger and, in some instances, action—from questioning the fairness of the system and the government’s priorities to rallies for EI and factory occupations. But workers’ fightback in a time of economic crisis is not automatic—it needs strong leadership. So far, solutions to the crisis have varied in the trade unions and the NDP. They include the fight for better EI, pension protection and job training, which are important and necessary, but will only go so far.

As socialists, we must fight inside and outside of our unions, take the lead and win political arguments about the way forward. We must help aim the anger at the bosses, the government and the system responsible for the crisis. We must raise the bar of the fightback and organize resistance in our workplaces, schools and in the streets. We must argue for bold, radical solutions: nationalize the steel industry and retool the auto industry to create good, green jobs and stop concessions.

Dump Jason Kenney Jason Kenney has been on a rampage lately. As Canada’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Kenney has refused to recognize the democratic will of Parliament which passed a motion on June 3, 2008 calling for an end to deportations of US war resisters.

Since then, three resisters have been deported.

When confronted by protesters over his government’s stance, Kenney dismissed resisters as “bogus refugee claimants”, attracting a rebuke by the Canadian Council for Refugees for interference in the immigration process.

Kenney’s interference doesn’t stop there. In London for a conference on anti-Semitism, Kenney attacked the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) and its leadership, accusing them of “spreading hate”. Kenney’s remarks follow high-profile criticism by CAF of the federal government for its uncritical support for Israel during its war on Gaza. CAF’s criticism was echoed by numerous Jewish organizations and individuals and the wider anti-war movement.

Kenney is now threatening to cut all federal funding to CAF for its highly successful immigration placement program— unless CAF changes its leadership. CAF has every right to free speech—including sharp criticism of the Canadian government—and should not be subject to retaliation for exercising that right. Kenney’s threat sends the message that immigrant communities must toe the Tory line in order to keep funding.

Kenney has further targeted Arabs by attacking Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), a highly successful initiative led

by Palestinian students and their supporters in the Palestine solidarity movement. He has predictably accused its participants of anti-Semitism, despite the meaningful participation of Jewish students and supporters. His remarks have encouraged those calling for an outright ban of IAW, an attempt to shut down any criticism of Israel whatsoever.

Kenney claims to be a defender of democracy abroad (as a strong supporter of the war in Afghanistan), but ignores its expression in Canada (while most Canadians oppose the war and support US war resisters). He claims to be a defender of free speech (especially when it comes to Danish cartoons or magazine articles that refer to Muslims as “terrorists”), but joins the chorus against any criticism of Israel and its wars, even using his position to target Arab-led community groups.

Jason Kenney is a first class hypocrite.

Jobs not bombs The anti-war movement in Canada has been rebuilding itself over the last few years, and with some success.

There is more organizational support for the demand to withdraw Canadian troops from Afghanistan than ever before—including the NDP, the Canadian Labour Congress and the wider labour movement. Polls show a clear majority is opposed to the mission and supports withdrawing troops before 2011, the supposed end date.

But these facts do not always translate into mass numbers protesting in the streets. Just because there’s wide support for the demands of the anti-war movement doesn’t mean there’s also confidence to fight back. Most ordinary people are too worried about their jobs, homes and pensions to think too much about the war in Afghanistan, even though they’re related.

Anti-war activists must find a way to connect to the crisis and relate the demands to save jobs, homes and pensions to the demand to end the war. The upcoming day of action on April 4 to end the war in Afghanistan is a great opportunity to do just that, raising demands like “Expand EI, not the war”.

The anti-war movement has rightfully exposed Harper’s commitment to spend $490 billion on the military budget over the next 20 years, resources that—if reallocated—could solve Canada’s housing crisis, eliminate all tuition fees, create good green jobs, build efficient public transit, protect pensions, and extend EI benefits.

By making this connection more obvious, the anti-war movement has the potential to attract a wider layer of support and further undermine Harper’s claims about the Afghan mission. Such a movement can give confidence to workers that the money is there for jobs. That creates an opportunity for socialists to raise bigger questions about why we need to get rid of capitalism.

8 Socialist Worker 16 March 2009

Governments gambling with our pensions The recent losses from the Canada Pension Plan and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec which manges the Quebec Pension Plan show that tying our pensions to the stock market is a bad idea.

In the final quarter of last year the CPP lost $8.5 billion dollars, which is 6.7 per cent of the fund’s value or $330 per person outside of Quebec.

The QPP losses were even

worse; it lost $39.8 billion over the year of 2008. This is one quarter of the fund’s value and amounts to $5,300 per person in Quebec.

In the case of the QPP about 10 per cent of the losses were due to speculating on what is called Asset Backed Commercial Paper, which, it turns out, meant betting on the US housing market to keep rising at record rates forever. The rest of the loss

was due to the general downturn in the stock markets.

So far in 2009, the markets have continued to lose value suggesting that the losses in both pension funds will continue.

This shows that allowing our pension mangers to gamble on the stock market with our pension funds is a bad idea.

The working people of Canada and Quebec have

created all the wealth that the corporations claim as their own. We are entitled to as much of that as is necessary to provide a decent standard of living while we are working and after we retire. Don’t gamble away our pension contributions. Public pension plans should be based on taxing the wealth of the corporations.

Bradley Hughes Vancouver

Recession causes death—literally

Wall Street

Reading the news these days, one can’t help worrying about the impact the economic toilet-dumping is having on working people’s lives.

It is already basically common knowledge that library lending goes way up during such times, but that is no bad thing.

No, what is a bad thing is that recessions quite literally kill people. Public health professor Dr. Harvey Brenner argues that socio-

The exact amount of money lost by Wall Street financial institutions leading up to the recession is unknown.

One could say trillions of dollars have disappeared.

American government bailout money for Wall Street up to now is probably around one trillion dollars.

Where has this astronomical amount of money gone? Why is there no transparency?

Some obscene salaries of executives are known, but much is not revealed. Is it possible that Wall Street accounting is like Enron accounting (i.e. creative accounting)?

Could it be that a certain amount of Wall Street money and bailout money has been fraudulently absconded?

Have the authorities and FBI investigated this situation?

Yes, they have—in a very half-hearted, ineffective manner. After looking at the banking situation in the USA, I have concluded it is no wonder that the American economy has’t been viable for such a long time and is now in recession.

economic status—how well off someone is—is the single major factor in health and mortality. “It’s not an act of God [death], it’s an act of the unemployment rate.” Yikes.

It turns out that health care spending tightens in recessions as laid-off workers lose access to insured health benefits. By Brenner’s calculations, nine months into a typical year-long recession sees a huge up-tick in deaths.

He argues that generally

people begin by reducing unaffordable visits to physicians and reducing their medicine intake (an act that will drastically reduce the effectiveness of their treatment).

Then, six to nine months in, they rush to the ER when they become too ill to avoid a doctor. By then, of course, it’s too late.

It’s a truly sick world that produces this brutality, not sick people.

Jon Hogan Milton

The picture tells the story The headline in a recent edition of the Globe and Mail declared: “Prentice stresses common ground in Washington talks on climate change”.

The truth is otherwise.

Canada’s Environment Minister Jim Prentice was in Washington trying to do some public relations work for the tar sands oil lobby.

The tip-off was the photo that accompanied the article: Prentice, meeting not with his opposite number,

director of the US Environmental Protection Agency, but with Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary.

Harper and his oily friends fear that US environmental standards proposed by Obama—not nearly good enough to truly address climate change, but miles ahead of Harper’s “plan”— will judge Alberta’s tar sands oil as too ecologically destructive to be imported.

The theme of Prentice’s Washington press confer-

ence was that $7 billion in government spending on Carbon Capture and Storage technologies will make tar sands oil squeaky clean.

I wonder if Secretary Chu reminded Mr. Prentice that just last year his Department of Energy scrapped a planned $1.8 billion CCS project in Illinois because it was judged environmentally ineffective and economically unfeasible.

Arthur Scoter Toronto

Nathan Borenstein Richmond Hill

Quebec wins on the Plains of Abraham Popular opposition in Quebec succeeded in cancelling the re-enactment of the 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham this summer in Quebec City.

Over 2,000 military history buffs had planned on participating in the lavish “attraction”. According to André Juneau, president of the National Battlefields Commission: “we would like to underscore this page of our history.

The public is behind us and extremely enthusiastic of the military camps and these decisive engagements of the brave men and women who helped shape our history.”

But the battle is viewed in Quebec as the defeat of the French by the English, and is referred to as the conquest.

Opposition to the event inside Quebec was palpable.

Ottawa advised the Commission to tread carefully. “Ottawa is saying to be careful: We don’t want to offend people. We don’t want a political confrontation,” said André Juneau. “Everyone, including the (Commission), is aware of the emotional nature of the event.”

Josée Verner, federal Tory minister responsible for Quebec, said she would attend the re-enactment and anyone

Caring conservatives?

Recently Tory MPs and cabinet ministers John Baird and Jason Kenney promised to try to help Somali-Canadian Bashir Makhtal come home to his family.

Jason Kenney, who is the Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, has made outrageously racist remarks over the years. This ploy is a transparent maneuver to gain inroads into the Somali community to win votes.

Who knows, maybe they actually will try to help Bashir Makhtal. But their statements that Makhtal is being judged guilty by association, and that there is no evidence,

ring truly false in a country where refugees and permanent residents are detained under security certificates with no charge and no access to evidence.

These two are hypocrites, plain and simple.

Jenny Striker Ottawa

offended by it should stay home. Agnès Maltais, PQ MNA, said “She is making a terrible mistake by taking this into the political arena.

She’s creating controversy herself.”

Liberal MP Denis Coderre said he might “take in the festivities as a tourist, but not as a politician.” Premier Jean Charest said he would not attend the re-enactment.

The Commission distanced itself from the debate saying it wouldn’t invite politicians.

Then, faced with mounting opposition, it cancelled the event. The corporate media threw a fit of name-call-

ing and inaccurate historical comparisons.

The conquest of Quebec was compared to the triumph over the slave-owning southern states at Gettysburg, or the victory that humbled Emperor Napolean at Waterloo. These comparisons prove the lack of understanding of Quebec’s oppression, and add insult to the injury of conquest.

Given Quebec’s ongoing fight for self-determination, opposition to the re-enactment should have come as no surprise. The cancellation is a victory.

Deborah Murray Montreal

Military recruitment during an economic crisis Even though almost 5,000 US soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, business is booming for the US Department of Defense.

They just keep on meeting their recruitment goals.

According to the Pentagon, that’s because of the economic crisis, which has created almost three million jobless Americans since the beginning of 2008.

This brings new meaning to the concept of a poverty draft.

Meanwhile the environmental crisis and fearmongering about terrorism has allowed Canada’s military to find the excuse it needs to convert the Canadian Reserves into forces to be “deployed” on Canadian soil to “secure perimeters” in cases of environmental or natural catastrophes, “dirty bombs” or chemical warfare.

This will free up more Canadian troops to fight, and be killed, in wars.

Jessica Squires Ottawa

LEFT JAB

REVIEWS

John Bell

I’m a tar sands traitor In his attempt to leave the debacle of the last election behind, new Liberal “tar Tsar” Michael Ignatieff has been spending a lot of time in Alberta showing off the party’s new position vis-àvis the tar sands industry.

On his second Alberta speaking tour in as many weeks, Ignatieff declared that support for the tar sands was an issue of “national unity”.

In terms that are indistinguishable from Stephen Harper and his Tories, Ignatieff embraced an economy based on continued production of a commodity which is inherently wasteful and environmentally destructive not only in its production, but in its use.

“The oil sands are an integral part of the future of Canada,” the Tsar told his Edmonton Chamber of Commerce audience. “No other country in the word would toss away this advantage.”

Suburban alienation laid bare Film H Revolutionary Road H Directed by Sam Mendes H Starring Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio H Review by Jessica Squires Hollywood treatments of issues of women’s oppression and abortion are usually abysmal failures.

Sam Mendes’ Revolutionary Road is an exception. Brilliantly acted by Kate Winslet (April) and Leonardo DiCaprio (Frank), the film’s themes of alienation and conformity in 1950s American suburbia are supported by its artful treatment of gender roles and abortion—in an era when illegal and dangerous abortions were the only kind available.

Frank and April thought they were special, but they have become trapped in a life they hate. Frank is in a deadend advertising job, writing about products he doesn’t understand. In one exchange with a co-worker he asks what the Knox 500—the product he’s writing about—actually does. April is trapped by days spent in a suburban house on a street where every driveway looks the same.

Frank and April make a pact to escape, to move to Paris with their children, where April will work and Frank will find out who he is. The reaction to their decision by their friends sug-

gests that the move would emasculate Frank and make April a questionable mother. Only the neighbour’s recently shock-treated son thinks their decision makes sense.

Frank internalizes these questions from the outside, from society at large.

When April gets pregnant, he is secretly relieved that they won’t be able to go through with the move. Meanwhile, ironically, Frank’s disinterest in his job has gotten him noticed. His ad slogan—a distracted “Speaking of quality control”—provokes his superiors to offer him a promotion.

Frank’s second slogan—“Knowing what you want, knowing what you need, knowing what you can live without: that’s inventory control”—is a poignant encapsulation of the decisions Frank is making, highlighting how distanced he is from the effects his words and actions will have, and how distanced Frank and April are from each other.

April doesn’t want to give up on the dream, and suggests an abortion. The two characters grow apart in wrench-

ing and violent ways.

In Critique of Critical Criticism, Marx and Engels write about alienation: “The class of the proletariat feels annihilated in estrangement; it sees in it its own powerlessness and the reality of an inhuman existence.” April and Frank become, for each other, the symbol of all they hate about their lives. But for both of them the problem is really a society which substitutes inhuman existence for honest experience, and expects Frank to be a “man” and April to be a “woman”: the breadwinner, the childbearer, neither the dreamer.

April’s “inventory control” leads her to self-abort too late in her pregnancy. Because abortions were illegal, her choices were limited. Her fate only serves to illustrate the importance of the right to choose.

Revolutionary Road is a masterpiece about suburban alienation. Mendes treats his subject matter in a way that leaves no doubt about either the impact of alienation on April, or its integration with the dominant values of the society in which she lives.

Lily Allen produces pop with a punch Audio CD H It’s Not Me, It’s You H By Lily Allen H Capitol H Review by Jesse McLaren Lily Allen is a sign of the times: a young singer-songwriter who has used the Internet to attract millions of fans to her eclectic music and rebellious lyrics.

Her upbeat music playfully blends musical genres, and her singing style is nonchalant and conversational. But as the title of her new album, It’s Not Me, It’s You suggests, her lyrics are scathing, funny and empowering. As she has explained, “You’re more likely to get people to listen to those things if you disguise it within that kind of music.”

The most obvious example is the sing-along “Fuck you”, where she took the Carpenter’s love ballad “Close to you” and turned it into a one-fingered salute to the fascist British National Party and George Bush: “So you say, it’s not ok to be gay / Well I think you’re just evil / You’re just some racist, who can’t tie my laces / Your point of view is medieval… You say, you think we need to go to war / Well you’re already in one / Cuz it’s people like you that need to get slew /

No one wants your opinion.”

Much of the album is a critique of women’s oppression, from popular culture to relationships. The hit single “The Fear” satirizes celebrity culture and its pressures on women: “I want to be rich and I want lots of money / I don’t care about clever, I don’t care about funny / I want lots of

clothes and fuckloads of diamonds / I heard people die while they’re trying to find them / And I’ll take my clothes off and it will be shameless / ‘Cuz everyone knows that’s how you get famous.”

In a refreshing departure from the utopian songs that clog up the radio, Allen offers love songs that are simple and sweet (“even though it’s moving forward / there’s just the right amount of awkward”) as well as opposition to unsatisfying relationships.

In “Not fair”, she criticizes her boyfriend for not reciprocating in the bedroom. Then in “I could say” she describes the liberating feeling of leaving an unhealthy relationship: “And now you’ve gone it’s as if the whole wide world is my stage / And now you’ve gone it’s like I’ve been let out of my cage.”

Unfortunately for Toronto fans, Lily Allen’s April 22 concert quickly sold out. But her catchy songs and defiant lyrics will be available on the Internet while we await her return.

Destiny

Yes, folks, Canada’s destiny is to become the Saudi Arabia of the 21st century.

And we all know what a positive force of change Saudi Arabia was in the 20th.

It isn’t just the toxic petrochemical profits that will make us Saudi Arabesque— don’t forget the uranium.

“We have the uranium, we’re the Saudi Arabia of uranium and all we do is mine it. It’s time for that to stop,” Premier Brad Wall, head of the Saskatchewan Party, recently told the press. “It’s time for us to take some advantage of the science and value-add opportunities around the uranium value-added chain.”

Value-added translation: we mine it and make a pile of money; why not refine it here and build some nuclear power plants too and make piles more.

So I guess supporting over-expensive and unsafe nuclear power, and piling up deadly radioactive waste is also a matter of national unity.

When Ignatieff waxed eloquent about noxious goo and the national good, he didn’t just let the oil industry off the leash and say “Sic ‘em boy.”

He did wag a finger—pinky not index—at the industry for the Wild West character of development in Alberta and its toxic byproducts.

“We need to be able to stand up for the oil sands and ask the oil industry to do better. These communities need to become environmentally sustainable, but they also need to become socially sustainable.”

Forget about it

Forget the dwindling water resources across the prairie as rivers are diverted into bitumen processing.

Forget the massive toxic lakes of tailings from that process.

Forget the Boreal Forest habitats gouged up and tossed away. Forget the dead ducks and the poisoned fish in the Athabaska River.

And it goes without saying, forget about the First Nations people who live downstream, who depend on the rivers and the fish and the forests. C’mon, oil industry, do a bit better so we can all cheer you on.

Tar Tsar Iggy’s comments about national unity came in the face of the latest onslaught against Alberta’s oil patch, from an enemy known for its irrational radicalism: I speak, of course, about National Geographic magazine.

The offending article in the latest National Geographic, entitled “Scraping Bottom”, is full of nastiness, like facts and ugly non-airbrushed pictures, which show the mad scramble for profit is leaving an environmental nightmare on the land, in the water and in the atmosphere.

Ignatieff is unmoved, and not about to let mere facts sway him from his call for petro-patriotism: “But am I proud of this industry? You bet. It’s a world leader. We just need to make it better.

But I don’t take lessons from the National Geographic.”

One thing Ignatieff is clear on: the way we can all feel warm and fuzzy about the tar sands is if Ottawa promises to spend billions more on the mysterious, marvelous technical cure-all called Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).

Money pit

Ottawa has already devoted several billion dollars to CCS research and development. The latest Harper budget pledged $2 billion more over the next five years. Alberta has gone into deficit by throwing another $2 billion of its own chips into the CCS pot. “Not enough,” cries the Tsar. If he ruled in Ottawa he would be spending billions more.

There is just one problem: CCS does not work. Nowhere in this wide, increasingly grey world is there a successfully functioning CCS power project. The technology only works in a few particular cases, and is so astronomically expensive it would make tar sands oil uneconomical–unless it was massively subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

According to a secret Harper Cabinet memo, happily leaked to the press, Harper, Stelmach and even Tsar Ignatieff know that CCS doesn’t work in the tar sands. It states: “Only a small percentage of emitted CO2 is ‘capturable’ since most emissions aren’t pure enough.”

Public relations

So why are they all crowing about CCS and continuing to throw billions of taxpayer dollars down this open pit mine? It is all about public relations. It is about trying to change the subject when articles like the offending National Geographic story appear. It is all about trying to convince us to be petro-patriots.

Well, screw that.

I reject the national vision Ignatieff calls us to unite around. Who wants to pursue this pseudo-Saudi oil pipedream? Is there no alternative but to base the national economy on gouging up toxic goo and radioactive crap?

That’s where Harper wants to take us. And now Tsar Ignatieff says he can get us there even faster.

When these dipsticks wrap themselves in the flag, all that’s left is an oily rag.

That’s why I’m a tar sands traitor, and I don’t care who knows it.

16 March 2009 Socialist Worker 9

WHERE WE STAND

international socialist events

The dead-end of capitalism

TORONTO

The capitalist system is based on violence, oppression and brutal exploitation. It creates hunger beside plenty. It kills the earth itself with pollution and unsustainable extraction of natural resources. Capitalism leads to imperialism and war. Saving ourselves and the planet depends on finding an alternative.

Reading Marx’s Capital

Sunday, March 22, 2pm Reading: chapter 1 Resistance Press Bookroom 427 Bloor St W, 2nd floor info: 416.972.6391

Toronto district meetings

Socialism and workers’ power

Tuesdays, 6pm Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre 427 Bloor St W info: 416.972.6391

Any alternative to capitalism must involve replacing the system from the bottom up through radical collective action. Central to that struggle is the workplace, where capitalism reaps its profits off our backs.

Capitalist monopolies control the earth’s resources, but workers everywhere actually create the wealth. A new socialist society can only be constructed when workers collectively seize control of that wealth and plan its production and distribution to satisfy human needs, not corporate profits—to respect the environment, not pollute and destroy it.

OTTAWA

Branch meetings

Saturdays, 12pm Second Cup at Dalhousie & Rideau info: gosocialists@yahoo.ca

MISSISSAUGA Is this the end of capitalism?

Reform and revolution

Every day, there are battles between exploited and exploiter, oppressor and oppressed, to reform the system—to improve living conditions. These struggles are crucial in the fight for a new world. To further these struggles, we work within the trade unions and orient to building a rank and file movement that strengthens workers’ unity and solidarity.

But the fight for reforms will not, in itself, bring about fundamental social change. The present system cannot be fixed or reformed as NDP and many trade union leaders say. It has to be overthrown. That will require the mass action of workers themselves.

Elections and democracy

Elections can be an opportunity to give voice to the struggle for social change. But under capitalism, they can’t change the system. The structures of the present parliament, army, police and judiciary developed under capitalism and are designed to protect the ruling class against the workers. These structures cannot be simply taken over and used by the working class. The working class needs real democracy, and that requires an entirely different kind of state—a workers’ state based upon councils of workers’ delegates.

Internationalism

The struggle for socialism is part of a worldwide struggle. We campaign for solidarity with workers in other countries. We oppose everything which turns workers from one country against those from other countries.

We support all genuine national liberation movements.

The 1917 revolution in Russia was an inspiration for the oppressed everywhere. But it was defeated when workers’ revolutions elsewhere were defeated. A Stalinist counterrevolution which killed millions created a new form of capitalist exploitation based on state ownership and control. In Eastern Europe, China and other countries a similar system was later established by Stalinist, not socialist parties. We support the struggle of workers in these countries against both private and state capitalism.

Canada, Quebec, Aboriginal Peoples

Canada is not a “colony” of the United States, but an imperialist country in its own right that participates in the exploitation of much of the world. The Canadian state was founded through the repression of the Aboriginal peoples and the people of Quebec.

We support the struggles for self-determination of Quebec and Aboriginal peoples up to and including the right to independence.

Socialists in Quebec, and in all oppressed nations, work towards giving the struggle against national oppression an internationalist and working class content.

Oppression

Within capitalist society different groups suffer from specific forms of oppression. Attacks on oppressed groups are used to divide workers and weaken solidarity. We oppose racism and imperialism. We oppose all immigration controls. We support the right of people of colour and other oppressed groups to organize in their own defence. We are for real social, economic and political equality for women.

We are for an end to all forms of discrimination and homophobia against lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgendered people. We oppose discrimination on the basis of religion, ability and age.

The Revolutionary Party

To achieve socialism the leading activists in the working class have to be organized into a revolutionary socialist party. The party must be a party of action, and it must be democratic. We are an organization of activists committed to helping in the construction of such a party through ongoing activity in the mass organizations of the working class and in the daily struggles of workers and the oppressed.

If these ideas make sense to you, help us in this project, and join the International Socialists.

10 Socialist Worker 16 March 2009

Wednesday, April 8, 7pm Speaker: P.R. Wright Mississauga Central Library 301 Burnhamthorpe Rd W Room CL-4 info: www.socialist.ca

peace & justice events NATIONAL

NATO and the drive to continuous war by paul stevenson There was a brief moment at the end of the Cold War when we were told to expect a “peace dividend”—a pull-back from rampant military spending and a constant nuclear-war footing.

Francis Fukayama famously declared the “end of history” and “the beginning of new era of peace and prosperity”.

It didn’t work out that way.

In fact, the collapse of the USSR resulted in a more complex and unstable phase of imperialism as competition began for land and resources in the former Eastern bloc.

Competition between rival states is a central feature of capitalism. The relative economic decline of the US means that the number of rivals is increasing in both numbers and confidence.

Russia, shorn of its Central Asian and Eastern European satellites and with a significantly weaker economy, but with a massive nuclear arsenal is, still a threat to US interests. China, with a rapacious appetite for raw materials and energy, is fast becoming a regional rival for US interests in Eastern and Central Asia.

In the eyes of the US, these countries needed to be isolated and have their growth curtailed so as not to lay claim to the territory and resources that the US sought.

Western interests

This is why NATO continues to be championed by Western powers, particularly the US. It is a Cold War relic whose stated purpose was to be a bulwark against Communism, but now acts as an aggressive coalition to advance Western interests.

It provides an illusion of multilateralism, but avoids the sticky discussions that may arise in the UN, where veto-wielding rivals can close the door on US dominance— as we saw with the failed attempt to get a UN Security Council stamp on the invasion of Iraq.

After the end of the Cold War, NATO had to find a new bogeyman.

Instead of Communism, NATO is now being portrayed as the line of defence against terrorism and the primary force in the “war on terror”.

The plans for a Missile Defence shield in Eastern Europe is a case in point. Missile Defence bases have been slated for construction in Poland and the Czech Republic,

ostensibly to provide Europe with a shield against Iranian missiles, but in reality they are designed to surround Russia. Likewise, the plan to grant membership to Georgia and Ukraine, countries that the Russians see as a part of their “legitimate periphery”, will only strengthen NATO at the expense of Russia.

The Russians have responded by recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia thus challenging the “territorial integrity” of Georgia.

Georgia is a key player in the Caucasus, a staunch US ally and, critically, is the location of the first leg of the Baku, Tbilisi, Ceyhan pipeline, which transfers Caspian Sea oil and gas to the Mediterranean.

South Ossetia

Under the Bush administration, the hard line on Russia caused a rift in NATO. The European powers, pushed into calling for a freezing of relations with Russia after the war in South Ossetia, were deeply concerned that Russia may cut off energy supplies. France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Spain all called for an opening of relations because they need access to Russian oil and gas.

Since the election of Barack Obama, there has been a shift in tone from the US. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for a re-opening of ties with Russia and NATO has followed suit. The European powers may need energy but the US, fearful of a lack of security in Pakistan, needs Russia to find alternative routes for transport of its military equipment into Afghanistan.

Also, the shift in foreign policy priorities for Barack Obama to focus more on the war in Afghanistan requires a stable NATO and a constant supply of Canadian and European soldiers to prop up the US-led occupation.

However, the new US administration is still talking tough on Russia, even after re-opening formal relations. They need Russian support, but will not go so far as to allow it to expand its area of control.

On the issue of the Georgian breakaway areas, Clinton said, “We will not recognize the breakaway areas of Georgia, we do not recognize any sphere of influence on the part of Russia and their having some kind of veto power over who can join the EU or who can join NATO”. The potential

for further wars to keep the Russians isolated is a real possiblity.

The Canadian government has recognized this new role for NATO and is using its “NATO commitment” to justify more military spending. It also argues for NATO to take on an increased role to protect Canadian interests abroad.

The Canada First Defence Strategy—the Conservative’s blueprint for the Canadian Forces— highlights the need for stability against “external threats” to secure their business interests in a “highly globalized world”. In other words, Canadian businesses, such as mining companies, which are currently plundering the resources of Central Asia, need the hidden fist of NATO to keep the money flowing in.

The NATO occupation of Afghanistan is the test case for operations far away from the North Atlantic. At the March meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Canadian foreign minister Lawrence Cannon said, “NATO’s International Security Assistance Force mission in Afghanistan demonstrates the important role that NATO can play in contributing to peace and security beyond the Euro-Atlantic region.”

This expansion is now provoking new conflict abroad and NATO members are constantly ready for war. NATO countries now account for 75 per cent of all global military spending.

NATO growth

The list of places that NATO expects to “project a presence” is growing day by day. NATO warships now patrol the Somali coast ensuring access to shipping lanes in the Red Sea. NATO planners through the “Mediterranean Dialogue”, routinely share recourses and intelligence with Israel and there have even been open calls to give Israel full NATO membership.

The international anti-war movement has begun to tackle this question and will be mobilizing thousands from all over Europe to demonstrate at the NATO 60th anniversary summit in Strasbourg this April 4.

The North American movement has also responded and there will be demonstrations all over Canada and, crucially, a national march in New York City to coincide with the meetings. Sixty years is more than enough. It’s time to abolish NATO.

Don’t let Harper extend the war—bring the troops home from Afghanistan Saturday, April 4 www.acp-cpa.ca

TORONTO

Student Assembly against War & Racism

March 20 – March 22 Ryerson University info: www.unitedagainstwar.ca

Stand with the Rivera family: Stop the deportations of Iraq War resisters

Wednesday, March 25, 7pm Steelworkers Hall 25 Cecil St info: www.resisters.ca

George Galloway— resisting war from Gaza to Kandahar

Monday, March 30, 7pm Metropolitan United Church 56 Queen St E $10 – $15 info: www.nowar.ca

MISSISSAUGA

George Galloway— resisting war from Gaza to Kandahar

Tuesday, March 31, 7pm University of Toronto Mississauga, CCT 1080 3359 Mississauga Rd N $10 – $15 info: www.nowar.ca

MONTREAL

George Galloway— resisting war from Gaza to Kandahar

Wednesday, April 1, 7pm Concordia University Hall Building, rm H0110 1455 de Maisonneuve W info: www.sphr.org

OTTAWA

George Galloway— resisting war from Gaza to Kandahar

Thursday, April 2, 7pm Bronson Centre Theatre 211 Bronson Ave $10 – $15 ottawapeace.blogspot.com

HAMILTON

Rally to save jobs

Saturday, March 21, 1pm Hamilton Convention Centre 10 MacNab St S info: www.canadianlabour.ca

You can find the I.S. in: Toronto, Ottawa, Gatineau, Vancouver, Victoria, Montreal, London, St. Catharines, Mississauga, Scarborough, Halifax, Belleville & Kingston e: iscanada@on.aibn.com t: 416.924.9042 w: www.socialist.ca For more event listings, visit www.socialist.ca.

reports@socialist.ca NURSES PROTEST

PRICE MATTRESS FACTORY OCCUPATION

RALLY FOR E.I.

by PHILIP MURTON

by PAM JOHNSON

On March 5, Ontario nurses protested the loss of nearly 1,000 registered nursing positions from health care facilities.

Linda Haslam-Stroud, the president of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) has said: “The Premier has stated in the legislature that his government will not make cuts to nurses. But these are empty promises, as the hundreds of registered nursing positions being cut from Ontario health care facilities in the past couple of months alone prove. It is deceiving our patients to tell them that their health care is not at risk.”

Meanwhile in the Legislature, the McGuinty Liberals ducked questions from both opposition parties. The Health Minister David Caplan dismissed the nurses’ demonstration as just pre-Budget lobbying. The Liberals are scheduled to unveil the Provincial Budget on March 26.

For most of us, it appears that the Government is more interested in hospitals balancing their budgets than the quality of health care in the province.

On March 5, the Good Jobs for All Coalition and the Toronto and York Region Labour Council kicked off a campaign to “Fix E.I.” Hundreds of workers attended a noon rally at an Employment Insurance office in Toronto to call for expanding eligibility and benefits for laid-off workers.

Although every worker pays into the Employment Insurance system, only 25 per cent in Toronto are qualified to receive benefits and only 55 per cent of wages can be collected. Many temporary, part-time and low-waged workers either do not qualify or do not receive enough assistance to live on if they become unemployed.

The Harper government’s stimulus package has offered nothing for the hundreds of thousands of workers who are being laid-off.

They continue to pour billions into defence spending and have offered $3 billion, with no strings attached, to banks and financial institutions to cover bad mortgages.

The Good Jobs for All Coalition, formed in the fall of 2008, is a broad grouping of trade unions, community groups and unemployed workers. It has planned rallies and town hall meetings across the GTA and a fix E.I. petition campaign is underway.

For more information, visit www.goodjobscoalition.ca

For more information, visit www.cuttingnursescuttingcare.ca.

FIGHT CONCESSIONS Continued from page 2.

The Big Three have been allowed to use the global economic crisis as an excuse to erode the rights of workers.

Workers have been convinced that they are stakeholders and that the companies must be able to compete with the wages and benefits of workers with non-unionized plans. We workers cannot allow this false ideal to continue.

Members of the CAW have been organizing and mobilizing against these concessions on their own; these movements started slowly but are now building. The “No Concessions Coalition” has ben offering alternatives, including: lHighlighting the fact that the economic crisis is not the result of workers’ wages and benefits. The problem will not be resolved in concessionary bargaining but by organizing the membership against the government and corporate demands; lDemanding decent working and living standards; lHighlighting the fact that past policies of the Big Three have caused their situation, they have made poor model and environmental choices; lCalling for the de-privatization of the industries which contribute to this economic crisis. lNationalizing the auto and transportation, oil, natural gas, hydro electricity, steel making, banking, infrastructure building and construction industries; l Demanding transparency and the terms and conditions for any taxpayer-funded initiative; l Demanding the corporations put up their property for collateral for any subsidization.

TORONTO—Members of United Steelworkers Local 8300 in Toronto occupied their workplace, Price Mattress, for two days. They had not been paid for five weeks and were being asked by the employer, Gerry Price, to continue to work to fill orders. Price promised they would be paid, saying that new financing was about to come through.

Workers downed tools at the start of their shift on March 5, saying: “Enough is enough”. Unless they got their pay or a letter from the bank assuring financing,

they were not going to work.

As workers expected, the company went into receivership on March 10. However, they feel strongly that they did the right thing, standing up for their rights. The employer stole their labour. Each worker is eligible for $3,000 under a government program protecting wages in cases of bankruptcy and, although they hoped that their jobs would continue, they were not prepared to subsidize the bosses’ profits. (PHOTO: charlotte ireland)

WINDSOR RACEWAY SECURITY GO ON STRIKE TO DEFEND JOBS AND BENEFITS by ritch whyman

As the body blow of losing 1,200 jobs at Chrysler hit Windsor, Security Guards at Windsor Raceway and Slots walked out on strike to defend their benefits and pensions.

The 18 full- and part-time workers are frustrated with the refusal of management to bargain fairly with them.

Workers had agreed to a series of rollbacks, but man-

agement then demanded that workers lose theirtime hours, benefits and pensions.

This was too much for the members of SEIU local 2 to take. They see their fight as part of a growing mood to stop the loss of good paying jobs across Ontario “Our community cannot continue to bleed good jobs.

At a time when so many are losing work in our city, how can the raceway do this when

so much money is coming in through the slots,” said Rick Berthiaume who has been at the raceway for 38 years.

What makes the situation even more disgusting is that the track has received $51 million from the OLGC for its slot operations. Tracks were given the right to have slot machines in order to help sustain the horseracing industry.

Now management at Windsor raceway is using

the $51 million to fatten its own bottom line as opposed to maintaining employment in racing industry. This is the same as a corporation getting bailout money and laying off workers.

The mood on the picket line is high as many patrons are turning away in solidarity and other unionized workers at the track have come down to the lines to show support as have CAW and other SEIU members.

recent wave of shut-downs is because of reduced demand for newsprint stemming from a drop in newspaper ad sales.

These cutbacks are on a much smaller scale than those in Ontario and Quebec, but in proportion to the size of the communities, they are just as devastating.

And the companies may extend the layoffs or further reduce production as the economy stagnates or worsens.

Newspapers have been in a decline for years, so not all of this can be laid at the feet of the economy. But what is needed is not layoffs, but “just transition” strategies to provide adequate protection for workers and communities affected by environmental and economic change.

In the meantime, workers should not pay the penalty for a recession they did not create.

EAST COAST PAPER MILLS SHUT DOWN by jessica squires

In early March, bad news came to hundreds of Nova Scotians, their families and their community in Queen’s County, southwest of Halifax.

Abitibi Bowater has shut down its Mersey plant for five weeks, laying off workers, blaming poor market conditions. Meanwhile, managers will be staying on.

In Newfoundland, Mont-

MARCH AGAINST CUTS Start spreading the news: on March 5, up to 75,000 New York trade unionists, community activists, and their supporters marched on City Hall to oppose budget cuts and call for higher taxes for the rich.

The “Rally for New York” was the largest trade union mobilization in decades, and coincided with protests across the state.

Democratic Governor David Paterson proposed a budget featuring massive cuts to health care, education, housing, social services and jobs.

As protesters chanted, “they say cut back, we say fight back”.

Instead of cuts, the rally called for raising taxes on those making $250,000 or more a year.

For more information, visit www.nycclc.org.

real-based Kruger Inc. has also reduced production, laying off some workers for eight weeks. This act is a reversal of a promise of no layoffs made in January.

For Abitibi Bowater, this announcement follows reductions at plants in BC and Thunder Bay, where shutdowns lasted longer than announced. Over 500 workers in Gatineau, Quebec were also laid off for five weeks starting in January. The most

TAR SANDS The Rainforest Action Network has launched a campaign aimed at the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) heavy investment in Alberta’s tar sands.

Campaigners are turning RBC bank machines around downtown Toronto into global warming crime scenes.

On February 26, activists rallied outside the RBC Annual General Meeting in Vancouver. Melina Laboucan-Massimo, member of Lubicon Cree Nation, a community fighting a TransCanada pipeline to the tar sands stated: “If RBC is serious about supporting clean water, why are they financing projects that are contaminating the lakes and rivers around my community?”

For more information, visit www.climate friendlybanking.ca.

VANCOUVER BUS DRIVERS

by BRADLEY HUGHES

Bus drivers in Vancouver, BC have started a public campaign to pressure the province into funding more buses.

The drivers are members of CAW local 111.

They have produced leaflets with postcards to the provincial transportation minister demanding 500 new buses.

The campaign also includes buttons and newspaper advertisements.

The drivers point out that Vancouver now has half as many residents per bus as we did 15 years ago. Both Montreal and Toronto have 50 per cent more buses per person.

Nearly 60 per cent of the bus routes in Toronto and Montreal have service at least every 10 minutes, while only 12 per cent of

Vancouver bus routes do.

The Vancouver bus drivers are showing how organized workers can improve everyone’s standard of living and help deal with climate change.

For more information, visit www.MoreBusesNow.com.

AUTO SHOW RALLY Workers for Union Renewal (WUR), a group of rank-andfile CAW workers, organized a support picket for autoworkers at the Toronto Auto Show on February 15.

CAW members along with members from other unions, came out to show their support. They followed the lead of UAW members who showed up in their hundreds at the Detroit Auto Show to protest attacks on unionized autoworkers.

The WUR is highlighting that autoworkers are not to blame for the economic crisis. Wages for workers make-up only 7 per cent of the cost of a car.

The US and Canada are the only countries in the world demanding worker concessions as part of bailouts to automakers.

WUR is calling for minimizing concessions and promoting local procurement.

They say the solution is not attacks on workers, but “support for plans to restructure the auto industry so that it can provide sustainable jobs and products in the future”.

Join the International Socialists Mail: P.O. Box 339, Station E, Toronto, ON M6H 4E3 E-mail: membership@socialist.ca / Tel: 416.972.6391

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16 March 2009 Socialist Worker 11

EXTEND EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE —NOT THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN by james clark Stephen Harper recently announced that NATO forces will never defeat the insurgency in Afghanistan.

“We’re not going to ever defeat the insurgency. My reading of Afghanistan in history is that it’s probably had an insurgency forever of some kind,” Harper said in an interview on March 1 with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

Harper’s comments fuelled speculation that his minority government is making plans to extend the Afghan mission yet again, despite repeated assurances that the 2011 end date is firm.

Over seven years after it started, the war in Afghanistan continues to get worse.

NATO leaders now openly admit what the anti-war movement has been saying for years: that a military occupation won’t bring peace to Afghanistan.

As the Taliban and other resistance forces extend their reach across 70 per cent of Afghanistan, NATO leaders can no longer claim they’re “winning hearts and minds”.

For some, admitting that the insurgency cannot be defeated would mean supporting a comprehensive peace and reconciliation process that would engage all players in Afghanistan to negotiate a lasting peace for everyone.

Not for Harper. He still doesn’t want to include the Taliban in any discussion about the future of Afghanistan, and he hasn’t closed the door on sending more troops.

Canadian military leaders are

careful to avoid terms like “surge” but nevertheless want all options on the table—including longer and overlapping deployments of Canadian soldiers.

Canada’s military is watching Obama send 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan, hoping to win support for its own Canadian-style surge.

Harper has already backed a surge in Canada’s military—a surge of spending, that is. The Canada First Defence Strategy allocates nearly half a trillion dollars to military spending over 20 years, despite cuts and rollbacks to other programs.

While hundreds of thousands lose their jobs and pensions, and millions more worry about a worsening economy, Harper has provided no meaningful relief for workers.

It’s time that resources for war and militarism be redirected to help ordinary people get through the crisis.

Billions should be poured into extending EI benefits, not the war in Afghanistan. Most people oppose the war in Afghanistan and want the mission to end.

Most people also want government to act now to save jobs, homes and pensions.

And an increasing number of people can see Harper’s hypocrisy, crying poor when it comes to helping workers, but breaking the bank when it comes to the war.

Harper won’t be stopped, though, until we link the issues of the recession to the war, and build a mass movement that can challenge Harper’s priorities.

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Protests target G20 and NATO by james clark Two big mobilizations are underway in Europe in March and April: one to challenge the priorities of the G20 Summit in London on March 28, and another to protest the 60th anniversary of NATO in Strasbourg, France on April 4.

Barack Obama and other world leaders will descend on London on April 1 and 2 for the G20 Summit, where the world’s richest nations will discuss how to get out of the economic crisis. On March 28, trade unionists, students, climate change campaigners and anti-war activists will welcome them with a very different set of demands: “March for jobs, justice, climate” and “Put people first”.

A coalition called Put People First has called the demonstration to demand a “sustainable route out of the recession”, campaigning for more investment in public services, a green energy pact to create green jobs, and support for countries hardest hit by the recession.

Just a few days later, the anti-war movement from

across Europe will meet in Strasbourg where NATO will mark its 60th anniversary and where military leaders will propose new strategies for the failing war in Afghanistan. The anti-NATO mobilization is significant, the first time that a Europe-wide anti-war mobilization has focused on Afghanistan.

This represents a growing shift in public opinion on Afghanistan in Europe, where a majority in every

NATO member country opposes the war in Afghanistan.

In Canada and Quebec, solidarity demonstrations will take place on April 4, calling for the immediate withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.

Demonstrations are also slated for the US, where a national demonstration is expected to attract thousands in New York City.

For more information, visit www.acp-cpa.ca.

Auto workers occupy plant On March 17, auto workers in Windsor occupied the Aradco plant to demand termination and severance pay before the company removed parts and tooling.

Aradco had shut down the plant a week earlier.

Supporters from Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 195, which represents Aradco workers, workers from other unions in Windsor, and community members surrounded the plant in support of the occupiers, and to prevent police from entering the plant.

By March 19, the workers voted to ratify an agreement that won them a significant portion of their termination, severance and vacation pay.

More workers are turning to militant tactics like plant occupations to resist job cuts and concessions. But struggles like these will have to spread and be coordinated as bosses demand further bailouts on workers’ backs. The growing wave of layoffs shows that concessions don’t save jobs or benefits. Only a serious fightback among all trade unionists can defend workers from further attacks.