Socialist Worker 515

www.socialist.ca

no. 515 February 2010

ECONOMIC CRISIS BREEDS MORE WAR Money for jobs, not for war Fight back against greedy corporations Save pensions and benefits Stop the attacks on public services The first month of 2010 ended with the news that Greece required financial rescue by the rest of the European Union to avoid defaulting on payments to holders of its bonds.

Greece joins Portugal, Spain and the Republic of Ireland in the list of European countries on the verge of bankruptcy.

The effects of the financial crisis unleashed with the credit crunch of September 2008 are still being felt, yet the only answer our leaders have is to attack social spending on the one hand and, on the other, to increase spending on the military.

Western governments are trying to assert themselves militarily where they have increasing trouble asserting themselves economically. Recent events have begun to open the door for a growing “war on terror”, with the potential to engulf both Iran and Pakistan.

At the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War, taking place currently in the UK, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified he did not regret the decision to wage war on Iraq despite the fact that

Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction: “The decision I took—and frankly would take again—was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction we should stop him.

“That was my view then and that is my view now.”

Blair thus reasoned that even if Hussein didn’t have WMDs, he had the potential to get them.

Such a justification could be used to launch a war anywhere in the world at anytime.

Blair also testified that he would support a war on Iran, referring to the country 58 times during his testimony.

A war on Iran is not out of the question. The US maintains two ships in the Persian Gulf equipped to shoot down missiles. The White House claims this missile shield is in place to deter Iran. The US has further increased tension in the region by moving missile defense shields to Iran’s neighbours— Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait.

While 30,000 more NATO troops are moving into Afghanistan and

the war there continues to unravel, the US is stepping up its assault on Pakistan. Attacks by US drones are on track to reach 150 this year, up from 53 in 2009. The deaths of three US soldiers on the ground in Pakistan has confirmed the US military presence in that country, threatening to expand the already devastating “war on terror” to a nuclear-armed nation of 120 million people.

US President Obama recently released the biggest US budget ever at $3.8 trillion for 2011 with an increase in military spending, bringing the Pentagon’s total budget to $708 billion. To finance this, domestic spending will actually decrease.

The $700 billion bailout of the financial sector last year will have lasting and painful consequences.

According to Sal Guatieri, an economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns, “The legacy of the credit crisis is long-running and has a lot of reach.

“What we’ve done essentially is move debt from the private sector to the public sector, and spread the payments over generations.”

The Tory government of Stephen Harper is following suit, preparing the ground for an assault on the public sector while increasing spending for war. According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Canada will increase military spending this year by almost ten per cent over 2009, bringing Canadian arms expenditure to a level 56 per cent higher than in 1998 and the highest it has been since the end of the Second World War. Canada ranks 13th in the world for spending on arms, and 6th among NATO countries. The Canadian military budget is 20 times that of the federal Department of the Environment.

Governments intend to force workers to pay for the financial crisis, cutting spending on services, health care and education and increasing spending on war. At every turn, we must fight back against this, making the links between war-funding and the economic crisis. Fighting against lay-offs, attacks on pensions, pay cuts and public service reductions will be key in the fight ahead.

AID TURNS TO OCCUPATION IN HAITI Pages 6&7 Thousands rally against Harper Page 10 James Clark on the rallies against prorogation

How abortion rights were won Page 10 Michelle Robidoux on the history of the pro-choice movement

Union solidarity must be built Page 11 Carolyn Egan on the need to increase strike support

Afghanistan war far from over Page 3 Paul Stevenson on ramping up of the war

Obama’s America Page 4 Virginia Rodino on rasing poverty levels in the US

People’s history Page 9 Jonathon Hodge pays tribute to Howard Zinn

CPMA No. 58554253-99 ISSN No. 0836-7094 $1 or $2 at newsstands

Cabinet shuffle violates Ipperwash inquiry report

by pam johnson

by amelia murphy-beaudoin

As the federal deficit hit $36 billion in January, Harper’s government indicated very clearly how they will spend their time while Parliament is prorogued.

On January 18, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty shuffled-off Aboriginal affairs as unworthy of a fulltime minister, and sent a message that First Nation issues are not important.

A full-time Aboriginal affairs minister in Ontario was one of the key recommendations to come out of the inquiry into the fatal shooting of the First Nations protester Dudley George in 1995. George was killed by an OPP officer while occupying Ipperwash Provincial Park to protect a sacred burial ground.

The Liberals created the Aboriginal affairs ministry in 2007 after the release of the Ipperwash report.

McGuinty went back on his word when he gave Attorney General Chris Bentley the added responsibilities of the ministry of Aboriginal affairs.

Brad Duguid previously held this post but he was moved to energy and infrastructure.

The fact is that an Attorney General doesn’t have the time to devote to Aboriginal affairs that it deserves. First Nations communities are faced with a myriad of issues including a high youth suicide rate, high unemployment, a housing crisis, profound poverty and heated land claim disputes.

The move is a “step backwards,” said Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Stan Beardy, who represents 49 First Nation communities in Ontario. “We are disappointed that the premier doesn’t see aboriginal issues worthy of having a stand-alone minister,” he said in a statement.

Harper and Treasury Board appointee Stockwell Day are planning to massively cut public services to reduce the deficit.

The so-called economic recovery has improved the bottom line for banks but has not created jobs, and economic investment remains static. Still, Harper is planning to forge ahead with cuts to public services that will create further misery for people already facing job loss or pension losses.

Harper will rein in stimulus spending after 2011 despite the fact that no new jobs are being created. Nearly half of the deficit is not new spending but the loss of tax revenue, mainly from corporations. Corporate tax rates in Canada have been steadily dropping to become lowest of G7 countries.

These already wealthy corporations reap a tax benefits, while the shortfall will be made up in cuts to public spending. One of the main targets announced

by Harper in January is health care spending.

While public services are on the chopping block, defence spending has risen steadily, up 9.6 per cent in 2009. Canada now ranks sixth highest in defence spending among the 28 NATO countries. Canada’s defence spending is 20 times higher than spending on the environment.

The thousands who attended no-prorogue rallies on January 23 proved Harper wrong when he said people don’t care about politics.

The next challenge will be to stay mobilized to fight for public services.

The nightmare of Stockwell Day by paul kellogg You know you’re in trouble when Stockwell Day is the new hope of the Canadian government.

Day was briefly leader of the Canadian Alliance— one of the versions of the right-wing Reform Party, which has now morphed into the Conservative Party, led by Stephen Harper.

His recent elevation to president of the Treasury Board makes him the point man in overseeing spending in the federal public sector.

That sector has been redlined by Harper as the site where payback will begin for the federal stimulus spending sparked by last year’s recession.

That spending has coincided with the creation of a much bigger federal deficit— and Harper has let us know in no uncertain terms that the deficit will be cut by slashing government spending— and the job of leading that attack now falls to Day. Day will probably forget to mention the role that years of massive corporate tax cuts have played in creating the deficit. He will be very comfortable letting corporations keep their tax breaks, while trying to make government workers and services tighten their belts.

Over 10,000 people take to the streets in downtown Toronto against Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament

Thousands take to the streets against Harper by james clark On January 23, about 30,000 people in over 60 towns and cities across Canada joined rallies to protest Stephen Harper’s prorogation of Parliament.

Rallies also took place in London, UK; New York City; Dallas; Los Angeles; Costa Rica and Oman.

The rallies were organized

by Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (CAPP).

A Facebook group with this name grew to over 200,000 members, and local chapters were launched all over the country in the weeks after Harper prorogued Parliament on December 30, his second time in 13 months.

The Tories and media pundits tried to dismiss the re-

sponse, saying that no one really cared about prorogation, and that most people were only interested in the Olympics. But the Tories’ arrogance only deepened the opposition.

Since Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, the Tories’ support in the polls has dropped between ten and fifteen per cent. It could drop even further in response to the successful anti-prorogation rallies.

In Toronto, over 10,000 people joined the rally and marched through the downtown core. Although the slogans for the event focused on “No to prorogation” and “Yes to democracy”, it was clear that people were angry at the Tories for a variety of reasons, and that their anger had been

building for some time.

Many participants expressed opposition to the war in Afghanistan, and the Tories’ attack on career diplomat Richard Colvin, who blew the whistle on the Afghan detainee scandal. The Tories shut down Parliament to prevent the release of documents that would show how much the Tories knew about the use of torture in Afghanistan.

Others came in protest of Harper’s sabotage of the climate change summit in Copenhagen in December 2009. Some protested the Tories’ widespread attacks on civil liberties and free speech.

War resisters and their allies marched in support of the private member’s bill in Parliament to let US Iraq War resisters stay in Canada.

PHOTO: JOHN HANSEN

Federal deficit on the shoulders of public services

Marchers chanted: “Harper: fired!” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho: Stephen Harper’s got to go!”

Following the success of these rallies, CAPP organizers are building a series of local actions to build on the momentum and keep people active in the lead-up to the opening of Parliament on March 3.

Already, “flash-mob” protests against prorogation have been organized during public appearances of Stephen Harper at the CD Howe Institute in Toronto, of Minister of Industry Tony Clement at York University, and of Clement again in Saskatoon. Protesters are expected to dog the Tories wherever they go.

For more information on the next steps, visit CAPP on Facebook: www.tinyurl.com/31daysofaction.

HARKAT TRIAL

Unfair process continues despite CSIS admissions by jessica squires Weeks into the “reasonableness” hearing in Mohamed Harkat’s security certificate case, it is crystal clear that fairness is not an essential part of the process.

On January 18, the first day of the hearing, the CSIS agent who testified—“John”—stated that he had not read the secret evidence. Instead, his testimony would be based on having read two books: Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror and The One Per cent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11. With such unbiased accounts how could he possibly go wrong?

“John” went on to concede that Harkat’s behaviour and activities could be innocent, but he refused to let go of the interpretation that Harkat is a sleeper agent. He did say that Harkat is no longer very effective as such given his public profile.

On his last day of testimony, “John” stated CSIS does not allege that Harkat is part of any particular terrorist organization or cell structure, but only that he is a sleeper agent.

2 Socialist Worker February 2010

Mohamed Harkat

CSIS alleges Harkat’s use of a false passport, common practice with refugees from countries where they face repression, was a sign of his being a sleeper agent, as well as his use of a nickname in Pakistan, a practice commonplace in that country. In short, all of the allegations against Harkat are actually innocent activities.

“John” admitted to having “mixed-up” a timeline, which placed Harkat in a car with Ahmed Said Khadr. “John”

earlier testified he had taken the trip after having been arrested. He said he did not see the point of informing the court of the incorrect information.

Week two of the hearings saw a right-wing professor of an Ottawa university try to argue that members of the Algerian political party FIS were not subjected to repression when Harkat says that he fled the country. These statements are easily refuted by a few

minutes of online research.

The man Harkat is supposed to have been associated with, the late “mujahedeen” leader Ibn Khattab, was ruled not to be a terrorist by Justice Richard Mosley in quashing a security certificate against Syrian-born immigrant Hassan Almrei, who was also associated with Khattab.

On February 1, Mohamed Harkat told the court the harrowing story of his escape from Algeria: his decision to leave his country of origin in order to survive, risking homelessness, finding work, and then again living precariously until an opportunity arose to come to Canada as a refugee.

As soon as he arrived he presented himself to immigration authorities, and he declared his passport was a fake on the spot.

Pretty odd behaviour for a supposed sleeper agent.

The Justice for Mohamed Harkat Committee called a press conference on January 15, before the hearings started, calling for the abolition of the security certificate process. So far in the hearings their call is vindicated.

Limiting votes in by-election Shamefully, the most densely-populated neighbourhood in Canada, St. Jamestown, was alotted only three polling stations during the February 4 by-election.

St. Jamestown is home to 15,000 people in 18 high-rise buildings in the Toronto Centre riding.

Liberal candidate Glen Murray defeated his main challenger NDP candidate Cathy Crowe, a well-known and highly-respected street nurse and founder of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, by a margin of roughly 3,700 votes. The NDP vote in the riding more than doubled from the last election.

The Ontario Liberal government was also accused of buying votes. In the hours before polls opened, the Liberals, responding to public pressure, poured more than $15 million of funding into Grace Hospital, a hospital in the riding threatened for months with closure by that same government.

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Islamophobia in Europe continues

INTERNATIONAL

by bradley hughes

PHOTO: ISAF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

In January, a French parliamentary panel called for further restrictions on the rights of women.

Afghanistan ‘exit strategy’ a plan for many more years of war by paul stevenson It was hard to tell if media reports from the Afghanistan conference in London were deliberately using Orwellian double-speak or if they were genuinely confused about the mixed messages coming from the meeting.

Headlines in the Canadian media referenced the “exit strategy” that was developed at the conference.

The front page of the Toronto Star lauded the new, “Road map out of Afghanistan”, which involves paying hundreds of millions of dollars to Afghans so that they will renounce the resistance and support the occupation.

This “new” plan has been tried before. Some resistance fighters were bought-off with promises of money and safe haven over the past nine years, but NATO’s failure to honour those promises has meant that almost all fighters have returned to the resistance.

Far from developing an exit strategy, the London conference argued that more troops are needed and the occupation may be extended an additional ten years.

UK Foreign Minister David Milliband argued that NATO would stay for at least five more years and would need reinforcements to finish the job.

Hamid Karzai asked for NATO to stay another ten to 15 years, and

Hillary Clinton made it absolutely clear to the assembled delegates that US support for the NATO transition plan “is not an exit strategy”.

Tens of thousands of new NATO troops are now being deployed to Afghanistan. More troops, staying longer, hardly represents a winddown in the war.

The problem for NATO is that they have yet to come up with a winning formula against a resistance that is humbling the most advanced armies in the world. The recent attacks in Kabul and Helmand by resistance forces showed a remarkable level of sophistication and coordination.

That they could openly target downtown Kabul, despite hundreds

On January 29, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a 9-0 ruling that acknowledges the rights of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr, now 22, continue to be violated by the Canadian and US governments.

The Court fell short of demanding that Ottawa immediately request the repatriation of Khadr. This would have upheld the constitutional obligations of the government to protect the rights of all of its citizens.

Khadr was captured by US forces in Afghanistan in 2002. During the attack he was nearly killed. Only 15 at the time, Khadr was first held in Bagram Air Force base in Afghanistan and then transferred to Guantánamo Bay, where he has

now spent over a third of his life.

Human rights groups are disappointed that the Court didn’t force the government to act.

However, the ruling is still legal recognition of the complicity of the Canadian and US governments in the violation of Khadr’s rights.

The Court condemned the use of torture at Guantánamo, including the use of the so-called “Frequent Flyer” program, in which prisoners are awoken every three hours for a three-week period. This is an intense method of sleep deprivation that is used in a an attempt to extract information from prisoners.

Khadr was subjected to this and other forms of abuse while in US custody, and with the full knowledge of Canadian authorities.

“Interrogation of a youth to elicit statements about the most serious criminal charges—while detained in these conditions and without access to counsel and while knowing the fruits of the interrogations would be shared with the US prosecutors—offends the most basic Canadian standards about the treatment of detained youth suspects,” said Khadr’s lawyers in response to the ruling.

The Court also suggested that, unless the government acts to stop the continuing violation of Khadr’s rights, it will be forced to issue a ruling that does demand action: “courts are empowered to make orders ensuring that the government’s foreign affairs prerogative is exercised in accord-

of checkpoints, shows the lie in any rhetoric from NATO about spreading security.

And there is lots of hollow rhetoric to go around.

Canadian Brig.-Gen. Daniel Menard, commander of the Task Force Kandahar, is talking tough. He plans to use thousands of new US soldiers under Canadian command in a new offensive to kick the Taliban out of their traditional turf in the Panjwayi and Arghandab districts south of Kandahar.

He described this new deployment of thousands of soldiers as phase one in the “exit strategy”, but the outcome of the offensive will see a new and bloodier phase in the war. War is peace, indeed.

ance with the constitution.”

Despite this warning, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon announced that the government would not seek Khadr’s repatriation from Guantánamo Bay. The Tories interpreted the ruling as recognition that the judicial branch of government has no right to tell the executive branch what to do, even if the government acts are against the law. A constitutional showdown is still possible if the Tories refuse to demand Khadr’s repatriation.

Polls show a majority of Canadians now believe that Khadr should be returned to Canada to face a public trial instead of left in the US to face military tribunals planned for later this year.

War criminal wins election in Sri Lanka by ritch whyman The two leading candidates in the presidential elections in Sri Lanka were both war criminals.

The winner, incumbent Mahinda Rajapakse, who oversaw the brutal war against the Tamil minority, won the election with almost 60 per cent of the vote.

His rival, and former ally, General Sarath Fonseka, carried out the massive shelling of Tamil refugee

camps in the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

Tens of thousands of Tamils, who have been forced into camps, were denied the right to vote.

The Tamil National Alliance, instead of running independent candidates, supported General Fonseka as the lesser evil. This left the Tamil minority with no choice in the elections.

Throughout the election campaign Tamils where harassed and

intimidated. Rajapakse will continue to displace Tamils from their land and cities. He will also continue to re-direct aid money for Tamil areas to his allies.

This situation drives Tamils to attempt to gain refugee status elsewhere. Canada condemns the Rajapakse regime, yet continues to deny Tamils refugee status. It has yet to hear the cases of many of the 76 refugees who landed in Vancouver last year.

Israel silences dissent by peter hogarth

Supreme Court lets Tories off the hook in Khadr case by james clark

Their report calls for the ban of the niqab, a full-face veil, from schools, hospitals and public transport. The report’s authors write, “The wearing of the full veil is a challenge to our republic”.

In the Netherlands, courts have ordered that MP Geert Wilders be prosecuted for hate speech. The court overruled a decision by the public prosecutor, who defended Wilders’ right to free speech.

He is being prosecuted for his film Fitna, which equates Islam with terrorism.

Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, described the film as “offensively anti-Islamic”.

Wilders has also called for a ban on the Qur’an, which he equates to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

In Indonesia, 254 Tamil refugees have been held since before Christmas in a holding camp after the government intercepted a refugee boat headed for Australia.

Indonesia also detained, for several hours, three refugee rights activists, including Canadian Jessica Chandrasheka, for trying to talk to the detainees.

Canada has done nothing to help the displaced Tamils in Sri Lanka or here.

The Goldstone Report is a United Nations report calling on Israel to conduct an independent investigation into war crime allegations during the war on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09, but Israel has dismissed the findings and refused to comply.

In the last month, the Israeli government has moved to silence dissent.

They detained and deported American journalist, Jared Maslin, while he was trying to enter Israel. Maslin is the English-language editor for the Palestinian Maan News Agency. The International Federation of Journalists has called the incident an “intolerable violation of press freedom”, since it seems to be an act of revenge for the journalist’s independent reporting.

The Israeli government has also stopped granting work visas for NGOs in the occupied territories. Oxfam, Save the Children, and Doctors Without Borders have all had their visas revoked.

US drone attacks kill 29 in Pakistan by peter hogarth A series of US drone attacks have rocked the northwestern region of Pakistan. Reports say that multiple missile strikes on February 2 in the North Waziristan area have killed upwards of 29 people.

Drone bombings (missile strikes conducted by unmanned planes) have soared recently as US President Barack Obama has put Pakistan at the centre of his administration’s fight in the Middle East. Three US soldiers were killed in a roadside explosion on February 3 in northwestern Pakistan. These are the first fatalities of US forces in Pakistan and they point to how deeply entrenched the US military is becoming there.

The US has been heavily criticized for the drone-bombing program in Pakistan. The CIAoperated program is said to target militant hideouts, however political opposition within Pakistan is fierce, as hundreds of civilians have been killed since the operation began in 2006.

February 2010 Socialist Worker 3

TALKING MARXISM

INTERNATIONAL

Abbie Bakan

Democracy and power Parliamentary democracy has changed a great deal over the centuries, as the electoral franchise has extended to wider layers of the population. But if parliament is the highest form of democracy in capitalist societies, it remains far from representative of workers and the oppressed.

PHOTO: JOHN W. IWANSKI

Stephen Harper’s ability to prorogue Parliament is a sign of how limited is this form of democracy. In fact, prorogation was enacted precisely because the debates on the Hill were getting too close to home for the Prime Minister.

Clearly, Harper wanted to shut down further investigation of torture of Afghan prisoners, deflect scrutiny of Canada’s refusal to welcome US war resisters, and dodge exposure of the Tories’ shameful record in halting fossil fuel emissions.

But exposing this criminal record is exactly what people want from their MPs. It’s the message we should still be hearing from the MPs who object so loudly to Harper’s arrogance.

The Liberals have no real interest in getting to the root of these actions, as Ignatieff’s agenda is no different from Harper’s. But where is the NDP? Surely, a social democratic party like the NDP should be the organization raising the strongest opposition to Harper’s actions. Yet the NDP has been notably reluctant to press the Harper government, leaving the Ignatieff Liberals the main beneficiaries of the movement that has erupted across Canada opposing prorogation.

The reason for this fumbling lies at the core of NDP politics. Social democratic parties like the NDP, despite some well-intentioned individuals, rely on parliamentary procedures and participation in the existing state as the central strategy for social change.

Lenin

The Russian revolutionary leader VI Lenin studied democratic state forms of capitalism, like parliaments, carefully. Writing in 1912, Lenin summarized: “The facts of democracy must not make us lose sight of a circumstance, often overlooked by bourgeois democrats, that in the capitalist countries representative institutions inevitably give rise to specific forms in which capital exercises its influence on the state power.”

Observing the emergence of labour parties in Europe, Lenin aptly described the role of social democratic, or reformist, parties as “capitalist workers’ parties.” Though oriented to supporting capitalism in their program and policies, their class base is among the workers. Socialists have to approach such parties and the role they play in bourgeois democracies tactically.

The period of classical Marxism at the beginning of the 20th century was a transitional age, an era when absolutist forms of government were still dominant but coming under increasing pressure. This period saw a move from the rule of kings, queens, Tsars and Kaisers, to early forms of parliamentary democracy. Since Lenin’s day, however, we have had almost a century of experience of liberalism. Social democratic parties have become deeply integrated into the structures of capitalist society, and their actions everywhere have confirmed Lenin’s caution.

Memory

Socialists must serve as the memory of the working class. It is worth remembering how the parliamentary road has not led to progressive change, but instead served as a “democratic” cover for capitalist rule. The NDP government in Ontario, when current Liberal MP Bob Rae led the province’s first (and only) NDP majority government from 1990 to 1995, serves as an important recent example.

The 1990 Ontario election took place in an atmosphere of optimism and hope for a new era of reform. But after five years of government, Bob Rae and the NDP had carried through a series of attacks on workers, students and the poor that continue to impact upon current conditions.

These attacks included the wrongly named “Social Contract”— dubbed the Social Con-Trick—that in the name of economic restructuring froze wages in the broader public sector for three years, saw nearly one million workers lose their right to collective bargaining, and removed union rights previously won in the middle of the terms of collective agreements. The Ontario NDP presided over lay-offs of 11,000 public sector workers. Seeing the existing system and the existing state as the only possible means of addressing the needs of people, the NDP in power ended up accommodating to the priorities of the system, rather than meeting people’s needs.

Formed in 1932, the predecessor of the NDP—the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF)—drew together labour and farmer groups with the aim of achieving political power.

The CCF was, as stated in its initial documents, “a cooperative commonwealth, in which the basic principle regulating production, distribution and exchange will be the supplying of human needs instead of the making of profits.”

In 1961, the party adopted the name of the New Democratic Party.

The new name was the culmination of years of debate leading to the launching of a renewed party, more directly linked financially and organizationally to the largest trade unions and labour federations.

The NDP, however, was and remains focused on parliament as the route to change, change that will occur within the existing system. With organic links to the labour movement, the NDP has a distinctly different class basis from all the other political parties in Canada. It is indeed a “capitalist workers’ party”, in Lenin’s words.

Now as before, the NDP is not committed to revolutionary transformation. In fact, CCF and NDP activists were among the most aggressive opponents of the Canadian Communist Party.

Instead, the NDP was established to be, and remains, a firm supporter of the capitalist system. The goal was to humanize capitalism, to ensure that it worked more effectively by redistributing wealth and to use parliamentary power to do it. Parliamentary power, though, cannot and will not alter the rule of capital over the working class. Many aspects of the state machinery—not least the systems of legal and military repression—are not subject to electoral control. In fact, the most useful role played by parliament is as a platform that can be used to build opposition from social movements and support for labour actions from below.

Radical redistribution demands changing the structure of capitalist production itself, and this is not in the mandate of social democratic parties. Real democracy calls for new structures of democratic self-governance—mass, popular councils of workers and the oppressed. Real democracy is democracy from below.

4 Socialist Worker February 2010

Getting by on food stamps in Obama’s America by virginia rodino While corporate fat cats from banks, insurance companies and trading firms took home $700 billion last year in US taxpayer bailout money, ordinary Americans continue to be brutally buffetted by the latest bust in the economy.

Earlier this month, the US federal government reported an enrollment record for the ninth month in a row of Americans on food stamps. Food stamps, officially called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, have taken on an increasingly important role in the US safety net.

Participation has surged since the economic crisis hit over a year ago and has set a record each month since last December. The US Agriculture Department listed enrollment as 37.9 million in October 2009, up 746,000 from the previous month.

The average monthly benefit was $133.60 per person in October.

As if those figures aren’t staggering enough, an overlooked sub-population that is growing especially fast are recipients with no cash income.

About six million Americans receiving

food stamps report they have no other income, according to an analysis of state data collected by The New York Times.

This figure has soared by about 50 per cent over the past two years. About one in 50 Americans now lives in a household with a reported income that consists of nothing but a food-stamp card.

That’s six million people in households with no income, of whom about 1.2 million are children.

So while insurance contractor AIG was given $182.5 billion in bailout money last year and AIG executive David Herzog received upwards of a $1 million in bonus money after the bailout, millions of Americans are struggling to find jobs that no longer exist, and feed families on $130 in food stamps.

Health care reform

And in a further blow to those already on the margins, we are seeing political capitulation over the crucial issue of health care.

On the heels of a special election upset by Republican Senator-elect Scott Brown in the longstanding blue state of Massachusetts, President Obama cautioned, “I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those

elements of the package that people agree on.”

The “people” referred to by the president does not include the millions of working people who voted his political party in, but the country’s Republican elite. The elements of a watereddown version of the health care package (which Republicans show no signs of supporting any more than they did other Democrat Party proposals) no longer include, among other core goals, universal coverage.

Digging out

Polls show that the president’s approval ratings are dropping. But the key is for the electorate to believe that in the face of the wretched economy, poverty wages (if one has wages at all), and unaffordable health care, we the people still can make the change we believed in last November.

It is when ordinary people win sovereignty over where their money gets spent, on social services and jobs, food and housing and health care, rather than in the coffers of the already wealthy— when investments are made for people and not profiteers—that the change we hoped for can and will come.

Zelaya flees Honduras as new leader takes power by jessica squires The election of right-wing candidate Porfirio Lobo was marked by brutal repression the days before and after the vote, and his appointment has forced the ousted president Manuel Zelaya to leave the country.

In Canada, Peter Kent, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs (Americas), called the election “encouraging”, citing reports from “civil society organizations”. However, human rights observers in the country in December and January reported widespread repression, and even the Canadian Council on International Cooperation called for Canada to reject the results.

On November 29, Election Day, Honduran soldiers and police attacked a peaceful protest in San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras, with water cannons and tear-gas. This, and other examples, shows the scale of the repression.

The Organization of American States, United Nations, European Commun-

Manuel Zelaya

ity, the US-based Carter Center and all other governments of the Americas, refused to send international observers.

The so-called election was also marked by large-scale abstention.

The coup resistance called for abstention from “la farsa” (the farce).

Despite reports that only about 30 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot, and reports of widespread fraud and repression, on January 26

Porfirio Lobo was sworn in for a term ending 2014.

Death squads, paramilitaries and Honduran police have been massacring Honduran youth, the core of the resistance to the coup.

In the wake of the false elections, Manuel Zelaya, the real president of Honduras, left the country once more, seen off by crowds even larger than those who turned out to welcome him months before.

Following Lobo’s election, the US has restarted non-humanitarian aid to Honduras, which had temporarily been suspended following the June 28 coup. In addition, US diplomat Craig Kelly is urging the Organization of Americas to restore Honduras to full membership, outrageously stating that the country has made significant strides in returning to democratic constitutional rule.

While there is no confirmation that Western nations played a role in the coup itself, it has become apparent they are satisfied with the newly installed right-wing government.

T

he blues singer who, in 1937, proudly sang, “Me and the devil were walking side-by-side”; the 1950s hipster who took lots of drugs and passed the time listening to saxophonist Charlie Parker in overnight jam sessions; or the rap poets who chanted, “Fuck the police” in the latter days of the Reagan administration—all share one thing: they are living representatives of the iconic “bad man” of modern African-American folklore.

The “bad man” was never a Robin Hood. His crimes and misdemeanours could be directed at anyone, rich or poor. He has nevertheless enjoyed enduring popularity, appearing over and over in African-American folk tales, blues and rap.

The key to understanding the “bad man” or the rap gangster’s appeal is not necessarily his political clarity. His appeal rests on a deep-seated desire among AfricanAmerican youth for a hero figure, who will break the laws, laws which often block the destitute and unemployed from trying to make a living by whatever means necessary.

The “bad man” is a hero because he braves imprisonment and even death by standing up to white racial violence and police brutality.

In the aftermath of an L.A. police attack on African-American motorist Rodney King in March 1991, rap artist Tupac Shakur touched on the bitter realities that Black and Hispanic youth faced in the US when he chanted: “Can barely walk tha city streets/Without a cop harassing me, searching me/Then asking my identity…”

Tupac, whose mother had been a member of the Black Panther Party, urged that it was legitimate for Black youth to resist police fearlessly, rapping, “Coppers said ‘Freeze, or you’ll be dead today’/ Trapped in a corner … What do I do?/Live my life in a prison cell/I’d rather die than be trapped in a living hell.”

When a largely white jury acquitted the four policemen who beat Rodney King, African-American and Latino youth in L.A. exploded in a fury of rioting that sparked similar uprisings in cities as far afield as New York and Atlanta. This upsurge of popular violence targeted at the police had a remarkable effect among street gangs in L.A. In the immediate aftermath of the riot, rival gangs that usually hit on each other forged a truce that would see gang-related murders decline phenomenally.

The police, who believed the gangs were the organized underground behind the riots, immediately set about stirring trouble between them, and even, as hip-hop historian Jeff Chang suggests, became involved in dispersing peace gatherings and barbecues.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

In the early 1970s, Black power organizations such as the Black Panther Party were renowned for drawing street gangs into radical politics

radical roots of hip-hop

Joe Kelly explores the politics of gangster rap and the economic conditions

which led to its rise to prominence

he was a thug hero supreme and a kind of freedom fighter, too.

In fact, rap music did not start as a bitter protest against the police and white racism. In the early 1970s, Black power organizations such as the Black Panther Party, also renowned for drawing street gangs into radical politics, were violently suppressed by the police and FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover. In the meantime, middle-class African-Americans began to benefit from the civil rights reforms they had fought for in the 1960s.

Unfortunately, while affirmative action policies gave the middle class opportunities in business, education and elected office at the local level, the situation became worse for the African-American (along with the Latino) urban poor as their most militant political leaders were imprisoned and gunned down by the police.

Gangster rap

As state governments granted the police enhanced powers to harass and arrest youth after the riots, the gangster became even more valued among youth as a figure of strength and fearlessness. Gangster rappers became entrenched as signals of coolness. Tupac Shakur, who sadly was murdered in 1996, would become a lasting iconic figure of resistance. In the post-L.A. riot era, it was not the story-telling power of his raps alone that elevated Tupac to superstar status.

On a night in October 1993, Tupac shot and wounded two police officers in Atlanta after he had stopped to check on an African-American motorist whom the policemen were harassing. Tupac claimed that he had shot the policemen in self-defence. The charges of aggravated assault against Tupac were eventually dismissed.

Tupac’s daring confrontation with the police, as Marcus Reeves has suggested in his book, Somebody Scream, confirmed for his fans that

Ghettoization

‘Tupac Shakur, who sadly was murdered in 1996, would become a lasting iconic figure of resistance’

Segregated urban development policies that encouraged white flight to racially exclusive suburbs tended to leave most working-class Blacks trapped in inner-city ghettos that both corporations and local governments treated with sheer negligence. By the mid-1970s, unemployment among urban AfricanAmerican youth reached close to 40 per cent.

Joblessness and overcrowding in rat-infested dwellings contributed to the breakdown of African-American families. Many youth found in gangs the sense of family and protection that they needed to survive in a violent and racially segregated society. By 1973, gang numbers soared. In New York alone, gang

membership was close to 20,000— and turf wars took a heavy toll on lives.

Some youth began to seek alternative and less dangerous forms of entertainment. In their thirst for alternatives to gangs, there was a burst of creative energy among inner-city Black and Latino youth that saw the emergence of graffiti art.

This art form was not to the taste of the local authorities or the police, as big city capitalists began to fear that the appearance of graffiti art on the subways was a sign that they had lost control of the urban landscape.

All through the 1970s and 80s, the police would have ongoing running battles with gangs of graffiti artists, while rap music developed around a centre of neighbourhood parties, break-dancers, rap lyricists and DJs who were ingenious with sound systems and turntables.

The rap music that was born out of the local creativity of youth in Harlem, New York or South Central L.A. would quickly evolve into a widely known and commercially viable art form, after a group known as the Sugar Hill Gang made the first rap hit with their recording “Rapper’s Delight”. Early rap artists such as the Sugar Hill Gang and Afrika Bambaata—though they often preached Black self-love, unity and peace—were focussed on keeping the party going rather than making intense statements about the situation of African-American youth.

Reagan

This would soon change after rightwing Republican Ronald Reagan became president in 1981. Reagan’s neoliberal policies, while contributing substantially to increasing

the wealth of the rich, undermined trade unionism by encouraging capital flight from high concentrations of industry in the US North-east and West to non-unionized centres in the South, which would become known as the Sunbelt, as they experienced an economic boom from the influx of Northern investors.

During the Reagan administration, federal government spending cuts on social services weighed most heavily on African-Americans.

By 1987, the decline in people’s access to housing and health services contributed to increasing social problems within African-American communities. The Reagan administration dealt with the problem by increasing expenditure on the security apparatus of the state.

By 1987, one out of every four Black American males in their twenties was behind bars or on legal parole or probation. African-American and Latino youth were the targets of daily police searches and harassment.

By the 1990s and early 2000s, African-American youth had long been deprived of militantly assertive leaders such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and the Black Panthers Party. There have been few willing to speak up forcefully against the dire situation they continue to face in a racist capitalist society.

Gangster rappers such as Ice T have resoundingly filled the void.

Many a Black youth who had daily experienced police harassment would probably be in full agreement with Ice T’s 1992 rap: “Got my twelve gauge sawed off/I got my headlights turned off/I’m ‘bout to bust some shots off/I’m ‘bout to dust some cops off.”

February 2010 Socialist Worker 5

Hell in Haiti as aid turns to occupation Charlie Kimber examines what has happened in Haiti since the disastrous earthquake

which took the lives of over 200,000 people and has left over a million homeless

F

or all the talk of aid, ordinary people in Haiti are still waiting for basic supplies—and many have had nothing. Geographer Kenneth Hewitt coined the term “classquake” when examining the 1976 earthquake in Guatemala, because of the accuracy with which it hit the poor.

It cost the lives of 23,000 people.

The classquake in Haiti today, in which at least 200,000 people have died, is even worse.

The earthquake was a natural event. Yet the scale of the suffering is about the way society is organized.

The US and its allies, including Canada, could use their vast resources to help people. Instead they are using the catastrophe to intensify their control in Haiti.

They are preparing a long-term occupation that will be justified as a “humanitarian mission”.

Haiti’s poverty, following generations of imperialist and capitalist oppression, is the backdrop to the overcrowded and fragile housing that has proved so disastrous.

And now poor people’s interests are coming second to those of the US and the Haitian elites.

IRIN, the official United Nations (UN) news agency, distributed a press release shortly after the quake headlined “Haiti: hungry and angry”.

It quoted one woman who said that two large camps hosting 30,000 homeless people had received no organized food aid since the earthquake on January 12.

Port-au-Prince resident JeanMarc Duvert told IRIN, “We are 6 Socialist Worker February 2010

hungry and tired of elected officials taking food intended for us”.

Aid is distributed in a way that keeps UN and US control—and takes power away from Haitians.

Racist attitudes mean Haitians are treated like children.

Some 60,000 Haitians have set up a temporary shelter at the Pétionville golf club in Port-au-Prince.

The US 82nd Airborne division polices every drop of water and morsel of food they receive.

It distributed 10,000 meals each day until January 23, making this camp the US military’s largest distribution point in Port-au-Prince.

The military then decided that “the food attracted too many people to a volatile site”—and suspended it.

Ungrateful

‘The Haitian police are using the chaos after the earthquake to murder activists who oppose the present regime’

Lieutenant Brad Kerfoot said, “We told them we wouldn’t give any food away today, because of the way they behaved yesterday.

“My soldiers and I think they’re ungrateful”.

While hundreds of thousands starve and go thirsty, the US-controlled Port-au-Prince airport and neighbouring UN compound have ice-cold beers, internet access, food, blankets, generators and other aid relief from around the globe.

Journalist Caroline Graham wrote last weekend, “Never, in more than 20 years of covering disasters, has the void between the might and power of the Westernized world and the penniless and pitiful people they have been mobilized to ‘save’ been so glaringly obvious to me.”

This gulf is causing entirely justified resentment. On at least two oc-

casions Haitians have marched on the UN compound demanding aid and jobs.

The UN’s answer is repression.

A Cuban television team filmed scenes of UN troops firing rubber bullets and tear gas grenades at crowds of Haitians.

The Haitian police are using the chaos after the earthquake to murder activists who oppose the present regime.

There are dozens of reports of bodies in the streets, hands tied behind their backs—the signature of state death squads.

There are constant media stories about “looters”. The reality is that desperate people are doing whatever is necessary to survive.

Journalist Rebecca Solnit writes, “After years of interviewing survivors of disasters, and reading firsthand accounts and sociological studies from such disasters as the London Blitz and the Mexico City earthquake of 1985, I don’t believe in looting.

“The great majority of what happens you could call emergency requisitioning.

“Someone who could be you, someone in desperate circumstances, takes necessary supplies to sustain human life in the absence of any alternative. Not only would I not call that looting, I wouldn’t even call that theft.”

While there are not enough flights to get aid and medical supplies into Haiti, the parasitical rich are still arriving for their photo-ops.

Princess Haya of Jordan flew in last week in her role as a UN goodwill ambassador. She met her country’s troops then flew back to the

Dominican Republic—in a private 747.

US officials claim to be helping Haiti’s people. Yet they are making a huge effort to make sure that any Haitians who flee the island are driven back—or drowned.

“Operation Vigilant Security” backs up a small fleet of navy and coastguard vessels with aircraft.

Repatriation

“The goal is to interdict them at sea and repatriate them,” said the US Coast Guard Commander Christopher O’Neil, of the Haitians who may be driven to risk the 681-mile sea crossing to Miami.

Raymond Joseph, Haiti’s ambassador to Washington, recorded a public information message in Creole warning his countrymen not to “rush on boats to leave the country”.

“If you think you will reach the US and all the doors will be wide open to you, that’s not at all the case,” he said.

Hundreds of immigration detainees have been moved from a South Florida detention centre to clear space for Haitians who do manage to reach the US. In addition, a large tented city, initially capable of holding 1,000 people, has been readied at the infamous Guantanamo Bay to hold Haitian refugees.

People are needlessly dying in Haiti because those in positions to help are refusing to do so.

Just like the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005, the Haitian earthquake is a condemnation of the world’s rulers.

The Trojan Horse of Western generosity by john bell Even many ardent foes of Stephen Harper’s Tory regime are giving him credit for a quick and generous response to the Haiti disaster.

Harper has promised to match the generosity of Canadian citizens by matching their donations “dollar for dollar”.

In the lead up to the Montreal conference where Canada, the US and other nations involved in the occupation of Haiti, Harper called for the “forgiveness” of $1 billion of Haiti’s debt.

And Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stated: “Our collective goal should be to ensure that Haitians not be required to make substantial debt repayments while reconstructing their nation.”

When the International Monetary Fund offered a $100 million loan, which would have added to Haiti’s already crushing debt load, voices all over the world reacted in anger.

The abashed IMF was forced to change that amount to a “grant”, a move that even antiglobalization activist and author

Naomi Klein applauded.

But we need to take a closer look at the “generosity” coming from the rich western nations, including Canada, that hold Haiti’s debt.

The outpouring of generosity from ordinary Canadians has been inspiring; the response of the Canadian government, not so much. The matching “dollar for dollar” offer from the Tories includes old money, funds announced for aid projects before the earthquake.

There has already been cancellation of over $1.2 billion of Haiti’s debt, in 2009. Of that amount, the Canadian government cancelled a meager $2.3 million.

The money came with strings attached. To qualify, the Haitian government had to implement a five-year austerity plan, gutting services, driving down living standards and diverting desperately needed fund to debt repayment, to the tune of between $60 and $80 million per year.

The Haitian government, installed by the US and its allies, concentrated on reducing

its deficit and increasing its currency reserves, privatized what there was to privatize and cleared the way for foreign corporations. As a result 76 per cent of Haitians live in dire poverty.

In 2008, the country suffered the effects of 4 hurricanes. Food riots resulted. The government has never had popular support, and remains in place through the presence of occupying UN armed forces and paramilitary thugs.

It should be remembered that almost half of Haiti’s debt is illegitimate: the money went directly into the pockets of dictators Papa Doc and Baby Doc Duvalier, and was never used for projects to benefit the Haitian people.

The new round of Western “generosity” will come with similar strings attached. In some cases debt repayments will not be cancelled outright but merely postponed. And the 10-year, $10 billion “rebuilding” targets set at the Montreal conference mean another 10 years of foreign military occupation, undemocratic government and corporate domination.

Haiti’s debt by numbers $35 billion Approximate equivalent in today’s currency of Haiti’s bill to France for its “lost” colony $750 million Haiti’s debt in 1986, when the US-backed Duvaliers fell $900 million The Duvalier fortune that remains frozen in a Swiss bank © Socialist Review

$321 million The cost of servicing Haiti’s debt between 1995 and 2001 $11 million The amount by which interest on debt exceeded foreign aid to Haiti in a single year (2003)

$1,051 million Haiti’s debt today, 80 percent held by the World Bank and InterAmerican Development Bank

$100 million Projected annual debt repayments for the next ten years $1.9 billion Haiti’s debt when the US Five years gave $1.2 billion in relief Period World Bank has suspended repayments (June 2009)

Corporations target Haiti by jesse mclaren After Canada joined France and the US to overthrow Haiti’s democratically elected government in 2004, the coup government imposed a neoliberal model that busted unions and held down wages.

As the World Bank stated at the time, “The transition period and the Transitional Government provide a window of opportunity for implementing economic governance reforms with the involvement of civil society stakeholders that may be hard for a future government to undo.”

In 2004, Canada created the Haitian-Canadian Chamber of Commerce to push Canadian corporate interests in Haiti. Canada eliminated tariffs and quotas on Haitian exports to Canada on textile and apparel goods, dubbed “an important and promising sector for Canadian investment” by the Paul Martin Liberal government.

Gildan

One such company is the Canadian garment manufacturer Gildan, which took advantage of the 2004 coup to transfer further production to Haiti. As CIBC World Markets analyst Ronald Schwarz explained: “Gildan’s manufacturing is among the most cost-competitive in the industry. Gildan’s labour costs in countries such as Haiti and Honduras are actually cheaper than those in China”.

In the recent earthquake, one of Gildan’s contractors’ building collapsed, killing all 1,000 workers inside.

Another major area of corporate interest in Haiti is mining. As director of Frontier Strategy Group, a consulting firm that advises mining companies, explained:

“Haiti’s logical. The assumption of most mining executives is that its proximity to the United States and its relatively small size mean that they will have a lot of leverage as large players in a small economy, and that the Americans will always be there to protect against complete disaster.”

Last year, Canadian mining company Majescor announced plans to explore for copper and gold in Haiti—joining other Canadian mining companies, such as Eurasian Minerals and St. Genevieve Haiti.

Following the devastating earthquake, Canadian businesses were salivating at the opportunity of further exploiting the poor country.

The Globe and Mail business section blamed Haitian poverty on the country’s supposedly having “banned commerce” and “run the country’s major businesses themselves”, and called for “a brisk shot of laissez-faire”. In other words, Western powers want to further privatize Haiti economy and dismantle trade barriers like workers right, more of the same policies that have impoverished Haitians.

Haitians will continue to resist.

Two weeks after the earthquake, hundreds of people protested outside the presidential palace as Rene Preval, ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s Westernimposed successor, visited, holding photos of ousted Aristide and calling for aid and basic goods. As one protester said, “The government has no power. It’s completely incapable of helping us”.

That’s because of the interference of Canada—alongside France and the US—and it’s up to Canadians to get their troops out of Haiti and to support the Haitian labour movement, so Haitians can rebuild their own future.

February 2010 Socialist Worker 7

FINANCIAL CRISIS CLIMATE CRISIS

Harper’s climate crimes The Harper government has unveiled its climate strategy following the Copenhagen talks, which required governments to submit their emission reduction commitments by January 30. Shamefully, but not surprisingly, Harper’s strategy is to follow suit with the United States, meaning an increase in emissions from 1990 levels.

Both countries are committing to reducing emissions by 17 per cent below 2005 levels by 2020. For Canada, this is an increase of 2.5 per cent above 1990 levels.

Climate scientists are urging a reduction of at least 25 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 in order to avoid runaway climate change.

Harper has, yet again, demonstrated his lack of concern for the planet. As Graham Saul of the Climate Action Network Canada states, “What this government is saying now is that they intend to do nothing until the US government forces them to take action which is an incredible abdication of responsibility”. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the US senate will pass the proposed legislation, known as the Waxman-Markey bill.

At every given opportunity, we have to shame the Harper government for its unwillingness to address climate change and its continued commitment to allow the Alberta tar sands to expand without restraint.

HAITI

History repeating itself The devastation the people of Haiti have suffered is almost unfathomable with over 200,000 people killed and 2 million homeless. Haiti lies in ruins.

While those who have survived are in desperate need of food, water, shelter and medical assistance, most countries have sent soldiers to “restore order”. Predatory corporations have set their sights on the “rebuilding” of Haiti and the massive profits they will earn.

The reality playing out is a cruel case of history repeating itself—external forces exploiting an impoverished country in the name of altruism. Behind the smokescreen of “aid” lies the real story: much of the US aid will be used to maintain a military force in the country.

Haiti won its independence following a slave revolt in 1804, becoming the first black republic in the world.

However, shortly after, the new country was forced to pay reparations to former-slave owner France for loss of property during the revolt, keeping it locked in a cycle of debt.

Again, the current presence of foreign troops will quickly be used to sustain the US-backed, brutal regime imposed by the US, Canada and France after the coup of 2004 which overthrew the democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

The real culprit behind Haiti’s poverty is Western imperialism. The country desperately needs aid, but not in the form of occupation. Haiti needs a flood of food, water, doctors, nurses and medical supplies, construction machinery and technical help, all without conditions. Our borders must be opened to refugees and debts must be cancelled without stipulations.

ANTI-HARPER SENTIMENT

Take it to the G20 in June The movement that was born out of Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament brilliantly captured the anger that many people feel at Harper’s arrogance.

But while the January 23 mobilization was highly successful, the movement behind it runs the risk of fading almost as quickly as it formed.

The demonstrations voiced people’s outrage, but the breadth of the movement was at the expense of raising the issues fueling people’s anger. These issues, which showed up on home-made placards in the crowd, were by and large absent from speeches: Harper’s attempt to duck responsiblity in the transfer of Afghan detainees to torture, his government’s criminal behaviour at the Copenhagen climate change talks, a refusal to improve the situation of the unemployed, and the ongoing cuts to pensions and public services.

The focus by the Liberals and NDP on making it harder to prorogue Parliament completely missed the real content of people’s anger. The absence of a political alternative voicing the anger over these issues, and the decision by unions to sit out the mobilization, mean it is harder to sustain the mobilization.

But the sentiment behind the mobilization has not gone away. In June, leaders of the rich and powerful nations of the world will descend on Toronto to push their neoliberal agenda at the G20 meetings. This will be the next big opportunity to challenge not only Harper, but the global attacks on people and planet.

8 Socialist Worker February 2010

A new debt crisis stalks capitalism by alex callinicos REMEMBER THE Third World debt crisis of the 1970s and 1980s? The First World debt crisis of the 2000s and 2010s may make it look like a tea party.

In the US and Britain in particular, the economic booms of the late 1990s and mid-2000s floated on a vast pool of private debt. Borrowing by firms and households grew to several times the size of the US economy and drove the growth in demand for goods and services.

Now this process has gone into reverse. Individuals and companies have reacted to the crisis by desperately trying to reduce their debts. They are spending less—and cutting demand.

This is very similar to what happened during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The willingness of states to step in, rescue the banks, and increase spending has so far prevented a slump as severe as that one.

But this extra spending has been financed by more borrowing. This has contributed to huge increases in governments’ budget deficits—in other words, the difference between what they spend and what they receive as revenue.

So it is still debt that is keeping the world economy afloat, only now it is public rather than private debt.

In their recently published study of financial crises, This Time is Different, Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff argue that “a build-up of government debt has been a defining characteristic of the aftermath of banking crises”, mainly because economic slumps cut state revenues.

They also document in detail how common “sovereign default”—states stopping paying their debts—is during financial crises. Before the 1980s and 1990s, the last big wave was during the 1930s and 1940s.

Even the US and Britain, by leaving the gold standard and devaluing their currencies, effectively defaulted on

their debts as previously valued.

Fear of sovereign default is now stalking the euro-zone. It focuses especially on the weaker economies and, above all, Greece.

Weaker economies benefited from joining the euro-zone because it tied them to Germany, one of the world’s most powerful economies.

This meant, among other things, that they could borrow at interest rates little lower than those at which the German government raises money.

But now the financial markets are focusing on those states believed to be most in danger of default.

This has forced up the interest rates that countries like Greece must pay on their government debt.

The abolition of their national currencies means that they can’t use devaluation to reduce their debts and improve the competitiveness of their exports.

Some experts, for example the notorious “prophet of doom” Nouriel Roubini, believe the crisis of the smaller European economies could threaten the survival of the euro-zone itself.

To appease the markets, Greek prime minister George Papandreou is under even more pressure than Gordon

Brown to cut the budget deficit.

Papandreou last week told the bosses assembled at the World Economic Forum in Davos he would “draw blood”. That’s exactly what they want.

The Financial Times newspaper last week carried a piece from a Brussels think-tank calling for a ten percent cut in consumption in Greece and Portugal.

Public sector attacks

The European Commission is demanding the Greek government force down public sector pay.

Greek workers, who have the most sustained history of struggle of any European country since the 1970s, are unlikely to meekly accept attacks on this scale.

Two days of strikes have been called for early February. Hence, the reports that Papandreou is manoeuvring for a bailout by the euro-zone, or even by China.

All this should put in perspective the idiotic announcements that “the recession is over”. The Great Depression went through several stages and lasted ten years.

What Reinhart and Rogoff call “the Second Great Contraction” still has a long way to run.

Obituary: Julius Deutsch, 1953-2010 by michelle robidoux

On Thursday, February 4, 2010 Julius Deutsch passed away at the age of 56 after a long battle with cancer.

Julius was an activist, a fighter and a dogged campaigner. His vision of a better world drove him right to his last moments. Born in Australia to Austrian-Jewish parents, he lost his father at a young age. He immigrated with his mother and siblings to Canada and they settled in Toronto.

Julius was involved in many successful election campaigns, including those of NDP MP Peggy Nash and MPP Cheri DeNovo. But he was also intensely involved in many grassroots community campaigns­—from the fight for the $10 minimum wage, to the campaign to save the Kodak Lands.

One of the lasting legacies of Julius’ work is his effort to bring together trade-unionists, environmentalists and youth from lowincome and racialized communities in a campaign to press for green jobs.

He was instrumental in the success of last year’s Good, Green Jobs for All conference which drew 600 people.

Building such alliances involved an enormous amount of prodding, persuading and legwork. Hidden behind the success of these initiatives were hours upon hours of patient (and sometimes impatient) work by Julius.

He was one of the first supporters of the War Resisters Support Cam-

paign, which is fighting to win asylum for US Iraq War resisters. His advice at key turning points of the campaign helped secure the successful passage of two motions in Parliament in support of war resisters.

He was a fixture on picket lines, most recently when Toronto city workers walked out to defend their conditions. Even in hospital, his health failing, he tried to persuade student nurses to support community college faculty who may soon be on strike.

Over the last ten years Julius was the Executive Assistant at Toronto and York Region Labour Council, and campaigned tirelessly for the rights of working people in this city.

Despite how hard the fights could be, Julius always brought a combination of razor-sharp tactics, memorable humour and unflinching backbone to the campaigns he was part of.

Our thoughts go out to his partner Bob and his family.

Donations in his memory can be made to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, www.stephenlewisfoundation.org.

Socialist Worker subscription drive Help us reach our goal of 50 new subscriptions by March A one-year regular subscription costs $30, $50 for institutional and the US, and $60 for international To subscribe, visit www.socialist.ca/subscribe

50

LEFT JAB

REVIEWS

John Bell

Harperism 101 You learn something new every day. Today, reading my morning paper, I learned that our exalted leader Stephen Harper has “a doctrine for how the world should work”. Just what he always wanted—Harper is an “ism.”

He waited until he had just the right audience to receive the wisdom of Harperism; where better than the World Economic Forum, the annual gathering of the super rich, the corporate elite and the politicians who work for them?

He could have chosen the United Nations General Assembly. But the last time he was invited there, he opted instead to jet to New York to have a private dinner with Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor, and then raced back to Oshawa to help his corporate friends and open a new Tim Horton’s franchise.

Harper Doctrine

A sad farewell to People’s History author Howard Zinn Book H A People’s History of the United States H By Howard Zinn H Reviewed by Jonathon Hodge “You wanna know about history?

Read A People’s History of the United States by Howard Zinn; that book will f***-n blow your mind.”

So said Will Hunting to his (new) psychiatrist Sean Maguire, in the late-1990’s Oscar-winner Good Will Hunting.

Truer words have rarely been spoken.

It is hard to overestimate the impact of Zinn’s magnum opus, nor of his place in American scholarship. First published in 1980, I read its 20th anniversary edition, all 700+ pages of it, in a single sitting while travelling in Europe.

A friend commented upon hearing of Zinn’s death that “He was the reason I started caring about the past.” George Orwell famously stated (in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four) that “who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.”

Howard Zinn understood this; he understood that history is contested terrain, that the struggle for the interpretation of where we came from and why influences and shapes our prospects.

He also understood that the dominant ideas and powers of today consciously shape the interpretation of the past to suit their goals, to maintain their position of dominance.

So A People’s History of the United States is history from the ground up; it is the magnificent story of the development of modern America through the struggles and stories of the people on whose backs it was built.

The genius of People’s History lies in its position that history is built by much more than the “great men” favoured by more conventional writing, and that it is possible (and necessary) for ordinary people to fight for a world they want to live in.

The struggles to end slavery, the development of labour unions, the fights for the eight-hour day and for the vote are all brought to life in prose as exhilarating as to be found in the best of novels.

Zinn, however, did not only write about history, he was a part of it, too.

Raised in the Great Depression, he witnessed first hand the brutality and senselessness of modern war as a bombardier in WWII. He returned to the US and, like many others of his generation, went to university on the GI bill. He was an early opponent of the American war in Vietnam and arrested for sitting in at Spelman College where he taught history during the civil rights movement.

As he wrote in his autobiography, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train (1994), “From the start, my teaching was infused with my own history. I would try to be fair to other points of view, but I wanted more than ‘objectivity’; I wanted students to leave my classes not just better informed, but more prepared to relinquish the safety of silence, more prepared to speak up, to act against injustice wherever they saw it. This, of course, was a recipe for trouble.”

Howard Zinn died on January 27 in Santa Monica, California.

In one of his final interviews, Zinn stated that he wanted to be remembered “for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns, that the power ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it. At certain points in history, they have used it.

“Black people in the South used it.

People in the women’s movement used it. People in the anti-war movement used it. People in other countries who have overthrown tyrannies have used it.”

Howard Zinn will definitely be remembered by millions. The world needs more trouble-makers like him.

Prescription Errors accurately depicts Vancouver’s left Book H The Prescription Errors H By Charles Demers H Insomniac Press, 2009 H Reviewed by Bradley Hughes Charles is my neighbour, and when he comes over to visit he brings me beer. So, I’m really happy that his novel is so good. I’d hate to annoy him by writing a bad review.

The Prescription Errors is a novel with two protagonists whose paths almost never cross. One of them, Ty, is a stand-up comedian, like Charlie is. The other, Daniel, is a Marxist, like Charlie is. Daniel suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder and spends much of his time in a biomedical library researching journal articles for background for his application of Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism to his disorder.

However, the main character in the novel is Vancouver, and most especially “the Drive”—the east-side neighbourhood around Commercial Drive.

His descriptions of the neighbourhoods

and people in Vancouver are brilliant and funny. The writing style pulls you along seemingly at random, but with great purpose and intensity.

The chapter that introduces Daniel’s upstairs neighbor and landlord, Gary— who joined a Trotskyist organization during the Vietnam War years and who remains a Trotskyist long after that group has disappeared—begins with a description of Vancouver’s place in BC, which is mostly due to the Drive’s place in Vancouver.

The character of the Drive is explained by the fact that despite wave after wave of immigration, it is not divided up into ethnic neighbourhoods— the remnants of each wave live next door to each other. This is explained by the continued presence of the descendents of the area’s original First Nation inhabitants.

“When a settler loses his neighbourhood, he’s beset by the same love-andwar fairness that prevents the burglary victim from reporting the theft of a hot stereo.” One of the waves was 1960s and 1970s radicals, which is how the reader meets Gary. If you know of a nicer use of the historical materialist method in a novel, please send in a review!

There is much more in this novel than I can cover in this review, for example, all the characters have bits and pieces of various friends of Charlie’s, which means if you know the left in Vancouver, you’ll recognize parts of it in each character.

This book is important because it nails down a city, a neighbourhood and a time period on the left. It is important because it is funny, and it is important because it is just damn good writing.

He could have chosen Copenhagen to unveil the “Harper Doctrine”, when the eyes of the world were on the climate change negotiations there. Instead, he jetted to Denmark to have a private dinner with Queen Margrethe II. I can’t swear to the fact that she is a billionaire, but she is representative of the ancient royal House of SchleswigHolstein-SonderburgGlucksburg: if not in-themoney, she sure is in-bred.

And of course Harperism could have been proudly proclaimed in our own House of Commons. But as the name indicates, the inhabitants therein—and by extension all the rest of us whom those MPs purport to represent—are far too common to provide Harper with the necessary doctrinal stimulation. So Harper shut Parliament down to save on the heating bill. Only proximity to billionaires seems to do the trick for Harper.

So he jetted off to Davos, the Swiss resort that annually hosts the WEF. The high concentration of bankers, corporate CEOs and assorted billionaires, with more money per square inch than anywhere else on Earth, was all the muse Harper needed.

As he unveiled the “Harper Doctrine” he was transformed from Prime Minister of a minority government into (in the glowing words of the Globe and Mail) “a statesman”.

Let’s make that Statesman with a capitalist “S”, which is only fitting for the man who will chair the coming meetings of the G8 and G20 in Ontario this June.

The cornerstone of Harperism is “enlightened sovereignty”. Many words have been associated with Mr. Harper, through his tenure as Tory Prime Minister and in his former career as full-time free-market worshiper, but to my knowledge “enlightened” has never been among them.

Reports of the great Statesman’s speech expand on what this “enlightened sovereignty” might be. According to the Globe’s breathless description, “He called for governments to temper their short-term national interests by shaping them to the global good.”

That almost sounds enlightened. Was he about to announce a moratorium on tar sands development? Was he going to take the billions

he’s wasting in Afghanistan and devote the fortune to helping African nations deal with the droughts and famines that climate change is already causing? Was he going to regulate executive pay and curb the neo-liberal trade policies that have caused havoc in the lives of working people in Canada and around the world?

As if. As the speech unfolded, it became clear that the “Harper Doctrine” could be summed up in three words: business as usual.

Let’s hear it from the Statesman’s mouth: “So when the G20 resumes in Toronto, the discussion should be less about new agreements than accountability for existing ones. Less about lofty promises than real results.” (Translation: if you think I’m even going to let climate change be on the agenda at the summit, you are shit out of luck. Oh, and that accountability thing doesn’t apply to our Kyoto commitment.)

“To be succinct, the real test of the G20 going forward is that it develops and sustains among its members a sense of shared responsibility toward the global economy.”

(Translation: free markets rule. Whether it is an emerging nation introducing regulation to protect its economy or a grass-roots campaign to buy/produce/ hire local, it is antithetical to the “Harper Doctrine”.)

“Canada will not go down the path of excessive, arbitrary or punitive regulation of its financial sector.” (Translation: hey billionaire bankers, c’mon down to Canada.

We’re open for speculation.)

“But while it is absolutely too soon to abandon stimulus programs, it is no longer too early to start thinking about a strategy to exit them.”

(Translation: if you think I’m going to put money into far-sighted jobs creation programs, or transition to sustainable energy, fugetaboutit.)

Okay, so “enlightened sovereignty” doesn’t include addressing the global crisis of climate change; or putting a limit on corporate greed; or using stimulus money to create good paying green jobs. Then what is it?

“Enlightened sovereignty, then, the natural expression of natural self-interest.”

Reaganism redux

Wait a minute: the Harper Doctrine isn’t anything new.

Harperism is just a rebranding of some more familiar “isms”, what we used to call Reaganism or Thatcherism. The great Statesman is merely channeling Gordon Gecko, the character in the film Wall Street who famously declared: “Greed is good.”

Suddenly Harperism, the “doctrine for how the world should work”, takes on a different meaning. According to the “Harper Doctrine”, the world should work for the lowest wage that the traffic will allow. And if it should work amidst the smoke and fumes of tar sands crude, so much the better.

The billionaires and bosses at Davos loved Harper’s presentation. Being the last head of state to cling openly to the mantra of unregulated free-market madness, the honour and title should go to him: Harperism it is.

If this is a Statesman, call me Smash-the-Statesman.

February 2010 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.

VI Lenin’s State and Revolution Wed, Feb 10, 2pm Speaker: Giles Hodge Bahen Centre 40 St. George Sreet Room 4010 Info: 414-972-6391

Socialism and workers’ power

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.

Revolution on my mind: Black power in the 1960s Tues, Feb 9, 7pm Speakers: Norman Otis Richmond & Carolyn Egan 40 St. George St Room 2145

OTTAWA

UofO club meeting

Tuesdays, 7pm Cafe Alt (basement of Simard Hall University of Ottawa info: gosocialists@yahoo.ca

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 February 2010

peace & justice events TORONTO

5th annual rally for our missing sisters

Henry Morgentaler celebrates after the 1988 Supreme Court victory, which struck down Canada’s federal abortion law

How abortion rights were won by michelle robidoux January 28, 1988 the Supreme Court struck down Canada’s federal abortion law. The landmark ruling, referred to as the Morgentaler decision, removed any legal obstacles to women having access to abortion.

This decision was the product of a mass movement, which challenged the old law’s restrictions on access.

Yet despite this achievement, today access to abortion across Canada remains uneven and discriminatory.

Women in rural areas and the North have no access to services in their communities. There are still no abortion services available in Prince Edward Island.

The New Brunswick government still refuses to fund abortions provided in free-standing clinics.

And as recently as last year, proposed legislation by the federal Conservative party showed starkly that the gains women have won are vulnerable to attack.

Looking at the history of how the abortion law was struck down offers a glimpse of how movements can effectively mobilize both to defend the gains of the past, and to press for further reforms today.

Reform

In 1969, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought in reforms to Canada’s abortion law. A woman could have an abortion if three doctors forming a Therapeutic Abortion Committee (TAC) agreed to grant the abortion. (The same reform also decriminalized contraception).

Prior to this reform, abortion was illegal in practically all circumstances.

Trudeau’s reform sparked a crosscountry movement opposing the law, saying it did not go far enough—that it should be up to women to decide whether or not to have an abortion.

With Trudeau’s new law, women had no say in the decision by the TAC. Hospitals were not required to establish a TAC or to provide abortion services. Poor women, immigrant women or women who spoke little English

could not access services.

In response, in 1970 women organized the Abortion Caravan, starting out in vans and traveling across the country to converge on the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa.

On May 11, 1970, as the Caravan arrived, many women went into the House of Commons and chained themselves to the seats.

A woman would start a speech, get hauled away, and another woman carried on the speech.

They shut down the House of Commons—the first adjournment provoked by a gallery disturbance in its 103-year history. The action marked the beginning of an 18-year battle to remove abortion from the criminal code.

Morgentaler

At about the same time, Dr. Henry Morgentaler’s Montreal medical office was raided and he was charged with conspiracy to perform an abortion. A survivor of Auschwitz, Dr. Morgentaler had gone public in his fight to improve women’s access to abortion by performing them in his medical practice.

In spite of the jury being male and Catholic, he was found innocent. Three times he was charged and arrested, and three times juries acquitted him.

Almost ten years later in Ontario, reproductive rights activists put a call out for a doctor to set up a clinic to challenge the existing law. Henry Morgentaler responded. The Ontario Coalition for Abortion Clinics (OCAC) was formed to build the political arm of this next wave of struggle.

‘The campaign connected abortion rights to other issues central to women truly being able to make choices in their lives’

The Toronto Morgentaler Clinic opened in 1982 and became a symbol of women’s resistance to an unjust law. OCAC set out to build a broad movement that could draw in different forces to support this challenge to the law.

The movement reached out to trade unions, faith groups and a range of communities that might not have agreed with the women’s movement on some issues but that supported this particular fight.

The political focus of the campaign was the repeal of the federal abortion law and the establishment of free-standing clinics providing medically insured abortions.

The campaign connected abortion rights to other issues central to women truly being able to make choices in their lives: the right to decent jobs, quality and accessible child care, an end to forced or coerced sterilization. Native women, women of colour and women with disabilities needed the right to care for their own children without interference or the threat that Children’s Aid would take them away.

Shortly after the Morgentaler Clinic opened, police raided it and arrested the doctors. Over the course of the next five years, mass mobilization, lobbying, and a lengthy legal battle combined to overturn section 251 of the Criminal Code.

Within months, the Conservative government of the day under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney began attempts to recriminalize abortion.

Anti-choice organizations tried to physically prevent women from having access to abortion clinics.

But these attempts to turn back the clock failed, as mass mobilization continued to grow. When the Tory bill recriminalizing abortion failed to pass the Senate, there was jubilation across the country.

When Stephen Harper’s Tories attempted to roll back abortion rights last year, demonstrations in several major cities—especially in Montreal—forced them back.

The history of the struggle that made Canada the only country with no criminal restrictions on abortion are a treasure trove of lessons for organizing today.

OPEN SATURDAYS, 12-3pm

RESISTANCE PRESS BOOK ROOM

427 Bloor Street West, suite 202, Toronto | 416.972.6391

Sun, Feb 14, 12pm Police HQ 40 College St @ Bay info: nomoresilence@ riseup.net

Resistance across borders: Colonel Ann Wright speaks out Tues, March 2, 7pm ISC, Cumberland Rm 33 St. George St, UofT info: www.codepinkalert/ org/toronto Organized by Code Pink and Council of Canadians

Israeli Apartheid Week March 1-5 Info: toronto.apartheidweek.org

International Women’s Day march and rally Sat, Mar 6, 11am OISE Auditorium 252 Bloor St W info: www.iwdtoronto.org

HALIFAX

Protest 2010 Olympic Torch

Fri, Feb 12, 3-6pm Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Horny St Info: www.2010welcoming. wordpress.com/ Organized by 2010 Welcoming Committee

Do you believe in torture, war and occupation?

Theft of Indigenous land? The Canadian government does!

Mon, Feb 15, 6-9pm Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St info: stopwar.ca Organized by Stopwar.ca

Rally for a national housing program

Sat, Feb 20, 12pm Vancouver Art Gallery 750 Hornby St

Israeli apartheid week

Mar 2-6 Info: www.vancouver.apartheidweek.org

HALIFAX

Beyond Copenhagen: find our way to climate action

Tues, Feb 9, 7:30pm St. Andrew’s Church 6036 Coburg Rd info: Gretchen@sierraclub.ca Organized by Sierra Club

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 HANDYDART STRIKE

by IAN BEECHING On January 4, Handydart (a specialized bus service for the disabled) workers in the greater Vancouver region returned to work after walking the picket line for six weeks.

These brave men and women won a victory against the for-profit American company MVT. Through binding arbitration, ATU local 1724 won a no contracting-out clause, saved their pension plan, guaranteed hours and a modest pay increase.

Throughout the strike, MVT attempted to intimidate workers by regularly calling the police and fire department on picketers over the controlled fires (in large metal cans) workers were using to keep warm, and attempting to unfairly fire people.

On Christmas Day, I stood the picket lines with my father, a long time driver. The sense of solidarity was strong. Union members reported that MVT’s blatant disrespect and arrogance has brought workers closer together and strengthened the union.

Union meetings have swelled and a mood of militancy persists. An attempt by the company to split office staff and drivers through giving office staff a $1 an hour higher rate of pay has failed largely through the camaraderie developed on the picket lines. The message I heard on the picket line was “every time they pushed they made us stronger”.

The struggle continues as union activists plan to bring Handydart under the non-profit governmentfunded transit company.

TTC WORKERS TTC workers rightly fed up with increasing harassment by riders snapping their photos may fight back with a work-to-rule campaign.

The fight back began with the launch of a Facebook group, Toronto Transit Workers against public harassment, posting their own photos and stories of rider misdeeds and harassment.

Workers are well within their right to be upset. Workers often face disrepect and the brunt of rider disgruntlement at a transit system in disrepair.

Fare collectors can sometimes work up to nine hours without a bathroom break. Fatigue is another issue, especially in stations where traffic is light. Working long shifts in the booth is far from stimulating.

Another transit worker came under attack and was suspended after stopping his bus and taking a seven minute washroom break at 3:00am.

In the context of a municipal election and the threat of privatizing public transit, the vicious attack on TTC workers is no coincidence. Assaults on the public sector are increasing.

Workers are an easy scapegoat for politicians to justify privatizing public services, cutting wages, gutting pensions and other benefits.

NOVA SCOTIA

200 public sector contracts up in 2010 by stephen ellis On January 18, a strike by 4,100 of Nova Scotia’s laboratory, x-ray, clerical, housekeeping and other support staff was called off just two hours after it began: a tentative deal has been reached ending the short strike that affected 33 hospitals across the province.

Just hours earlier, workers in eight health districts had prepared for a strike by cancelling elective surgeries, outpatient services and clinics, discharging some patients and transferring others to nursing homes or other facilities. Now services are back in full swing.

Back in November, the NDP government’s proposal for a one per cent wage in-

QUéBEC SOLIDAIRE by jessica squires On February 2 Québec solidaire (QS) launched its campaign to defend public services in Québec, in the context of the Québec government’s current brutal round of collective bargaining with almost half a million public sector workers.

Spokesperson Françoise David and Member of the National Assembly for the Montreal riding of Mercier Amir Khadir announced the launch of the campaign and its website, couragepolitique.org. The campaign includes a “counter-consultation” to the false “consultation” undertaken by the Québec government; videos and textual tools for popular education; and proposals for concrete action.

In the next few weeks Françoise David will undertake a tour of Québec’s regions to raise awareness of QS’ proposals on public finance and the importance of public services, and to discuss the ideas with people across Québec.

“The government and the opposition parties propose the same old recipes for the financial crisis... some propose a reduction of services; some, the imposition of user fees; and some, privatization. Meanwhile, one thing is certain: workers will be asked once again, along with their families and the poor, to tighten their belts. Women will be particularly hard hit,” Françoise David asserted.

QS is proposing to find the money where it is to be found: in the pockets of the rich, including the banks whose directors continue to receive fat bonuses, the mining companies who exploit common resources without having to pay for it, and from those who benefit from tax shelters. “À leur tour de se serrer la ceinture (It’s their turn to tighten their belts)!”

Françoise David exclaimed.

QS is proposing measures to collect additional revenues in both taxation and licenses from corporations and the richest 3 per cent of the population.

For QS, the protection of accessible, universal public services is a struggle for social justice.

crease ensured that negotiations went nowhere. CUPE wanted a 2.9 per cent raise to maintain parity with workers in the Capital Health district, which covers the Halifax region and Windsor.

“We showed this government that we would stand,” said CUPE negotiator Wayne Thomas. “We showed our employer that we would stand together as a group, and we showed them that rural Nova Scotia is as equal

as Capital Health.”

On January 31, a strike by 3,000 school support workers was also averted the same day when a tentative deal was reached.

While Darrel Dexter’s fiscally-conservative NDP government may have ducked a shoe this time, the remaining months of 2010 promise to be raucous for the government as more than 200 public sector contracts are up for renewal.

TEACHERS TO VOTE ON ‘CONCESSION’ CONTRACT

by PAM JOHNSON College teachers across Ontario rejected the contract offer with a 57 per cent strike mandate on January 13.

The offer currently being imposed on college teachers includes changes to working conditions that would essentially gut the collective bargaining process.

The changes would remove limits on workload, eliminate overtime, exclude preparation and marking time from the workload formulation and prohibit the union from intervening on behalf of workers.

OPSEU, which represents college teachers, has called for arbitration to resolve

outstanding contract issues.

The colleges have refused.

An independent Workload Task Force created to look at issues related to workload from the 2006 strike, that sent both sides to arbitration, has recommended that the collective bargaining process be strengthened—just the opposite of what the current imposed conditions do.

The colleges are using the current economic climate as an excuse for their attack on collective bargaining.

This would roll back years of gains and set a dangerous precedent for future public sector bargaining. OPSEU is strongly recommending that members reject the colleges contract.

MPs REPORT-BACK FROM PALESTINE

by JAMES CLARK Over 200 people packed a Palestine report-back meeting in Toronto featuring two Canadian MPs who recently returned from a fact-finding mission to the West Bank and Gaza.

NDP MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) and Bloc MP Richard Nadeau spoke about their two-week trip to Palestine in August 2009 where they witnessed the reality of Israeli apartheid for the Palestinians and the widespread carnage of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The MPs were joined on their trip by Liberal MP Borys Wrzesnewskyj (Etobicoke Centre) who was absent from the report-back.

Davies and Nadeau showed a moving 25-minute video of their trip in which Palestinians spoke of the daily struggles they face. One Palestinian told Nadeau to tell the government of Canada: “The Palestinian people are not animals. Stop treating us that way.”

The Harper Tories have recently decided to cut all funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), accusing it of having links to terrorism.

UNRWA provides health, education and social services to Palestinians in 59 refugee camps.

The MPs prepared a report of their trip which includes recommendations for Parliament. The report is available online: www.bit.ly/4Tk50b.

WORKERS VOTE TO SAVE HOMELESS SERVICE by peter votsch After months of fighting, Gaetan Heroux, a homeless outreach worker and his co-workers, members of CUPE Local 3202, have won an important battle on the road to save services in the downtown core.

In October 2009, Heroux was removed by his employer, Neighbourhood Link Support Services, from his posting at Street Health, where he delivered a service providing the homeless with identification.

This occurred directly after workers, including Heroux, wrote a letter supporting their sisters and brothers in CUPE Local 4308 at Street Health, who were facing a viciously anti-union employer in their fight for a first contract.

Heroux was ordered to move away from the community he served immediately after the letter was sent on from the Street Health board of directors, to whom it was written, to NLSS management. He was to be placed at head office at the edge

of Scarborough, thereby severely impacting the clients he served.

After a six-week community/union-based campaign to keep the service in the downtown core, Heroux refused to move to head office and was fired for insubordination.

Heroux, Friends of Street Health, his co-workers, along with activists in the anti-poverty movement, supported

by CUPE and CAW, attempted to continue the fight both on the streets by organizing the homeless, but also by taking the case to arbitration.

There was much discussion in the Local as to whether an arbitration case involving insubordination was winnable. But at a packed meeting on January 29, members of the Local voted that despite the odds, Heroux’s fight was one that should continue to arbitration.

This will send a strong message to management that the Local will stand with its community allies, not only in defending jobs for its members, but also the services they deliver.

STICKING WITH THE UNION

Carolyn Egan

Union solidarity must be built Recently, workers at a closed auto parts plant in the Windsor area received the money that was due them, but it took quite a struggle.

They occupied the plant refusing to allow machinery to be taken out. They stormed a hotel room preventing a planned auction of assets to take place. They kept the pressure up until they finally won their demands.

The lesson is that rankand-file action can make a difference when the employer is on the offensive. There have been other successful occupations at Collins and Aikman, Masonite and Price Mattress in Ontario. Internationally, we have also seen Republic Steel in Chicago, Waterford Glass in Ireland, Visteon and Vesta in England and Scotland.

The strike rate is slowly going up in Canada. For example, there are almost 6,500 Steelworkers in Ontario walking the line.

Some of the larger actions such as those at Vale Inco or US Steel’s Lake Erie Works are not using scabs because of the nature of the work, but others such as the CEP lock-out at the TD Centre and Infinity Rubber in Toronto are.

Usually in a scabbed workplace, a protocol is developed with the police and the company. Trucks and scabs are kept waiting at the gates for perhaps 20 minutes, then allowed in and then production goes on.

It puts the workers in a very difficult position. The economic pressure is not significant for the company because it can continue to provide its product or service.

The argument is that if the workers keep the scabs out, the company will get an injunction to limit the number of strikers on the picket line.

What this does is make the workers onlookers in their own struggle. Unfortunately, this perspective has become quite common among union leaders, and workers feel they can do very little to impact the outcome of the strike.

Militancy

If you look back to more militant times, stopping scabs and stopping production were very effective methods of pushing the management to the table and ending the strike. It was also more common to have strong solidarity

built by fellow workers. There was an old union saying: “The longer the line, the shorter the strike. This tradition seems to have been lost in many strike situations today.

Unions must make it a priority to build stronger solidarity. At the Stewards Assembly that took place in Toronto last spring, which brought out over 1,600 union activists, one of the key outcomes was the call for strike solidarity.

Municipal strike

We saw the beginnings of this during the Toronto municipal strike. It was slow in starting, but was kicked off by the Steelworkers who put on a barbecue for striking workers at City Hall. Over 500 strikers ate burgers and sausages and felt a real boost. They saw that industrial workers were supporting them. These workers did not buy the line the media was putting out, that public sector workers should be grateful to have a job since there were so many manufacturing jobs lost.

The Toronto and York Region Labour Council called local unions together and a solidarity strategy was developed.

Affiliates took on different locations and times and many unions including OPSEU, CAW, CUPW, the building trades, the teachers, the ATU, the firefighters, CEP, and other CUPE locals took up the challenge, and broad solidarity was built.

This lasted the length of the strike and gave confidence to the strikers that they were not alone.

There were few scabs in this strike, but the same solidarity should be built in all strikes, scabbed or not.

If management and scabs alike see that strong support is being built, that the community and other unions are on side, it will make a difference in the outcome.

When we see workers on the line we must do all we can to build the solidarity that will give confidence to the workers to keep up the struggle.

It is obvious that management has a common blue print, looking to do away with defined benefit plans, rollback wages and other hard won benefits whether it is the public or private sector.

This has to be challenged and is a struggle for all of us.

As Quebec trade unionists say: “So, So, So, Solidarité!”

Join the International Socialists Name: Address: City/Province: Phone: E-mail: February 2010 Socialist Worker 11

After over two months on strike, workers at Infinity Rubber are stepping up action against their greedy boss.

The workers, members of United Steelworkers local 526L, have been out since December 1 against a massive push for concessions.

But if the company’s new owners thought workers would fold without a fight, they were wrong. Resistance to the concessions is growing.

The employer has been using scab labour to try to keep production going. But in early February the scabs failed to get through the picket line and were forced to turn back after five hours.

The next day, scabs only made it through the picket line under police escort, running through a gauntlet of angry strikers.

The challenge is to keep the scabs out completely until the employer returns to the table with a fair offer.

Concessions

In November 2008, Infinity Rubber management demanded a $2 an hour wage cut, citing tough economic conditions. The workers reluctantly accepted, hoping they would recoup the loss in the next round of bargaining.

Instead, the company demanded another $5 an hour wage cut, and a 50 per cent cut to benefits. This would have dropped the hourly wage to $15. Many have worked at the plant for 20 or more years .

The company clearly wants to bust the union, emulating a pattern in many parts of the country.

through attacks they had previously only dreamed of making on workers’ conditions and pay.

Demands for 25 to 50 per cent pay cuts have been rife.

Warehouse workers at Zellers fought similar attacks last year. US Steel has locked out workers at the Nanticoke plant. Vale Inco is attempting to get rid of the nickel bonus, which workers won in lieu of wage increases many years ago. They are also trying to gut the pension plan.

The scale of the demand for concessions shows it is corporate greed that is driving the attacks. When pressed by the union to open up their books to show why they needed to gut wages, Infinity Rubber management refused. But when it comes to hiring scabs and security 24/7 at the plant, the company has a bottomless purse.

With a small workforce and many plant entrances, picketing is a challenge at Infinity Rubber. Regular solidarity picketing helped push back the scabs, but more is needed.

In the 1970s, when workers went on strike it was understood that an injury to one is an injury to all. Solidarity picketing between unions was common. Strikes such as Radio Shack, Mini Skools and Artistic Woodwork saw many mass pickets.

The recent strike by Toronto municipal workers and the lockout of Cadillac Fairview workers have both rekindled that tradition of solidarity picketing. This will be key to fighting back in the times ahead.

The bosses are certainly united in their demand for cuts. Workers need to respond in kind.

Corporate greed

Employers have seized on the economic crisis to push

Join the Infinity Rubber picket line, 170 North Queen Street in Etobicoke.

Pickets are 7 days a week from 6 am to 6 pm.

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PHOTO: CHARLOTTE IRELAND

by michelle robidoux

PHOTO: DENNIS WILLIAMS

SOLIDARITY NEEDED AS WORKERS FIGHT BACK

Striking Infinity Rubber workers and scab bus (inset) on the picket line in Etobicoke

VANCOUVER 2010

Olympic Games will be marked with shame by ian beeching According to a new report, Vancouver has the most unaffordable housing market in the world. BC’s taxpayers are also being forced to foot the bill for the Olympic Games when they cannot even afford homes.

The report states that when median housing sale values are compared to median household incomes buying a house in the city is almost unaffordable. With nearly as many homeless as Olympic athletes the 2010 games will be marked with shame.

In early 2009, the new city administration cancelled the social housing content of the Athletes’ Village, now deemed too expensive. The Village, located in downtown Vancouver, will instead be converted to luxury condominiums after the Games.

Outrageously, the Village then required a $500-million financing guarantee from the City of Vancouver before it could be completed.

The economic crisis has lead to cuts throughout all levels of government in vital social programs, including the most recently announced potential lay-off of nearly 800 teachers in Vancouver.

Many citizens who supported the Games initially are now outraged.

What was originally $175 million for security has now soared to $1 billion. The streets of Vancouver will be teaming with the Canadian military, federal police agencies and municipal police, about 10,000 altogether, complemented by some 5,000 security guards.

Surveillance

Cameras will cover every corner, barbed wire fences will fill the sky and anyone upset enough to protest or be in the wrong place at the wrong time will face the new weapons the Vancouver police have bought for crowd control. These include a Long Range Acoustical Device emitting a powerful sonic wave to disperse crowds, water cannons and dogs on the transit system to randomly sniff passengers and their belongings.

Demonstrations will take place in Vancouver to coincide with the opening of the Games on February 12.

Scores of public information and protest meetings and rallies have been held in the months leading up to the Games.

Civil liberties

The BC Civil Liberties Association has drawn attention to violations of civil rights leading to the Games.

These have included

police infiltration of organizations, including an undercover officer driving the bus of protesters to Victoria from Vancouver, police harassing family and friends of protest organizers, following people to their homes and the banning of vocal opponents of the Games from crossing the US/Canada border.

The BC Civil Liberties Association will be organizing teams of legal observers who will monitor political protests as well as other places and events that might experience police misconduct.

The annual march through the streets of Vancouver to commemorate the scores of Aboriginal women who have disappeared over the past decades in Canada and are presumed to have met violent deaths, is coming into conflict with Olympic security.

The traditional march route overlaps with Olympic no-go zones. March organizers say they will not change the traditional route to meet the whims of Olympic officials.

The two-week Olympic spectacle will leave in its wake a legacy of financial debt, deepening impoverishment, civil and social rights violations, and a significant reinforcement of the tools and weapons of the national security state. Such a legacy deserves to be challenged.

Kenney lied about Galloway ban A report by the Canadian Press on February 7 has exposed the involvement of Jason Kenney’s office in banning British MP George Galloway from entering Canada last March.

The news contradicts statements by Kenney and his staff that they did not interfere in the matter.

The article by reporter Jim Bronskill cites Federal Court documents that reveal back-and-forth e-mail conversations between officials in the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, including Kenney’s communications director, Alykhan Velshi, and officials in the Ministry of Public Safety and the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA).

Velshi and CBSA officials discuss how to keep Galloway out of Canada, and to make sure that border guards at every entry point are prepared to turn Galloway away.

Galloway was scheduled to speak at public meetings in Toronto, Mississauga, Montreal and Ottawa as part of a pan-Canadian speaking tour in March 2009. In response to the ban, Galloway broadcast his speeches live from New York City.