>Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 09:42:18 -0400
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From: Communist Party of Canada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: PEOPLE'S VOICE - Articles - October -15, 2000
>
>PEOPLE=S VOICE ON-LINE
>
>ARTICLES FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS IN CANADA
>
>(The selected articles below are from the October 115, 2000 issue of
>People=s Voice, Canada=s leading communist newspaper. Articles can be
>reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada:
>$25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other
>overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People=s Voice, 706
>Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
>
>________________________________________________________________
>
>
>In this Issue:
>
>1/ Editorial: PROTEST THE HEALTH CARE SELLOUT
>2/ FOR A PEACEFUL AND JUST SOLUTION TO THE BURNT CHURCH CRISIS
>3/ BURNT CHURCH ABORIGINAL FISHERS NEED SOLIDARITY
>4/ THE OIL PRICE CRISIS: PEOPLE VS. CORPORATE GREED
>5/ INDEPENDENT TRUCKERS HARD HIT BY RISING COSTS
>6/ MOX: THE LATEST NUCLEAR THREAT
>7/ WOMEN’S MARCH HEADS TO OTTAWA
>8/ US PRESENCE GROWING IN COLOMBIA
>9/ IMPORTANT VICTORY IN UNIV. OF TORONTO ANTI-RACISM STRUGGLE
>
>________________________________________________________________
>
>1/ Editorial: PROTEST THE HEALTH CARE SELLOUT
>
>FAR FROM REVERSING the long term decline of Canada’s health care system,
>last month’s deal hammered out by the Prime Minister and provincial
>premiers opens the door wider to two-tier medical care. The fact that
>public pressure has forced Ottawa to restore some of the billions of
>dollars slashed since 1995 should not deter the labour and people’s
>movements from keeping the heat on our politicians.
>
>The first ministers’ agreement ominously calls for unspecified “urgently
>needed reforms.” This phrase is a veiled code for further privatization of
>Medicare and new attacks on universality.
>
>The agreement signals Ottawa’s surrender of its key role, which has been to
>ensure that all Canadians have access to a not-for-profit, comprehensive,
>publicly administered health care system, regardless of which province they
>reside. In effect, the “no strings attached” deal means that Ralph Klein,
>Mike Harris, Lucien Bouchard and other premiers are free to decide how to
>spend the funds supposedly earmarked for medical care.
>
>A number of people’s organizations have called on the Liberals to clearly
>oppose further privatization of the health care system, and to force all
>provinces to adhere to the conditions set out in the Canada Health Act.
>This demand should be raised loud and clear right across the country.
>
>The Chrétien government must not be allowed to head into an election
>campaign claiming credit for “saving Medicare.” This Liberal lie will be
>exposed by the October 28 Canada-wide day of protest against health care
>cuts initiated by the Quebec-based “S.O.S. Santé” movement. We urge readers
>to get more details of this important action and to help organize actions
>in as many cities and towns as possible on October 28th.
>
>Editorial: THE GENOCIDE AGAINST IRAQ
>
>ON SEPT. 23, over 800 people jammed a Vancouver church hall for a public
>forum on the United Nations sanctions against Iraq. The huge turnout was to
>hear from Dennis Halliday, the UN bureaucrat who supervised the “Oil for
>Food” program in Iraq for a year, until he resigned in disgust in the fall
>of 1998.
>
>Halliday’s message was blunt, shocking, and clear. The United States and
>other major western powers want to maintain the status quo in Iraq, to
>dominate crucial oil supplies, and to keep selling vast amounts of arms to
>other countries in the Gulf region. For the sake of imperialist
>geopolitical interests and huge oil profits, the people of Iraq have been
>condemned to a humiliating genocide by slow starvation. UNICEF reports that
>5,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 die as a result of the sanctions
>every month, and nobody disputes these or other similar estimates.
>
>Halliday stressed that the UN economic sanctions do nothing to challenge
>Saddam Hussein’s grip on power. While the US and Britain bomb Iraq nearly
>every day, democratic change in the country is virtually impossible. All
>indications are that once the economic sanctions are lifted and the
>situation in the country begins to normalize, the Iraqi people themselves
>will settle their own future without imperialist dictates.
>
>One ray of hope in this tragedy is that the sanctions are being challenged
>by more people and governments around the planet. Recent increases in
>humanitarian aid and the resumption of some civilian flights to Baghdad are
>important steps in this direction. Canadians should tell our federal
>government to stop its shameful participation in this act of genocide
>immediately!
>
>*****************************
>
>2/ FOR A PEACEFUL AND JUST SOLUTION TO THE BURNT CHURCH CRISIS
>
>Statement by the Central Executive Committee,
>Communist Party of Canada,
>Sept. 18, 2000
>
>RACISM AND PROFITS are behind the federal government’s violent suppression
>of fishing by the Mi’kmaq people in Burnt Church First Nation. The
>Communist Party condemns the life-endangering police actions and mass
>arrests in Burnt Church.
>
>The corporate media claim that Mi’kmaq fishers are ignoring depleted
>resources, the environment and the endangered jobs of white fishers.
>Federal scientists have exposed these claims as lies.
>
>These false claims are part of the racism originating from the biggest
>corporations that have a stranglehold over Canada’s rich natural resources.
>The common enemy of First Nation and non-aboriginal fishers is the
>multinational corporations that are depleting stocks, driving down
>livelihoods and inciting racism.
>
>The federal government provoked the Burnt Church crisis by its violent
>denial of the Mi’kmaq Nation’s treaty fishing rights, rights that have been
>affirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada.
>
>The federal government’s actions are setting a dangerous precedent for the
>negotiation of treaty rights with all First Nations. Powerful political
>forces are calculating an escalation of the crisis will set back all
>current treaty rights, and further remove any prospect of settling
>outstanding land claims.
>
>The corporations that dominate the economy have a narrow, self-interested
>stake in the outcome of the Burnt Church crisis. They oppose any land
>claims and self-government agreements that may limit their control over
>Canada’s rich natural resources.
>
>This strategy is coming out openly in the platform of the Canadian Alliance
>Party. The CA rejects “race-based allocation of harvest rights to natural
>resources. (The CA) position in land claims negotiations will be to ensure
>respect for existing private property rights.”
>
>The CA says not a word about the historical colonial theft of First
>Nations’ land! Their policies aim to assimilate First Nations in Canada, by
>refusing to recognize the inherent rights of First Nations as nations.
>
>Canadians would naturally oppose unrestricted plundering of Canada’s
>resources by U.S. transnational corporations, even if U.S. political
>parties opposed the “racist” defence by Canadians of those resources.
>
>The Chrétien Liberals are pursuing the CA’s agenda by other, violent means.
>
>The interest of all fishers, regardless of nationality or background, is to
>unite against the powerful forces that seek to prevent a peaceful solution.
>In the Burnt Church crisis, the Maritime Fishermen’s Union in the Atlantic
>provinces has a special responsibility to speak out against the racist
>attacks on their First Nations sisters and brothers.
>
>This is a classic divide and rule situation that will benefit only the
>corporations owned by the ruling class of the larger nations in Canada -
>Quebec and English-speaking Canada. Working people who are the large
>majority in English speaking Canada and Quebec have every reason to support
>a peaceful solution to the crisis.
>
>Fishers of all backgrounds must work out an agreement of their own that can
>be used to pressure Ottawa to safeguard fish stocks against plundering by
>multinational corporate fish factories, to secure the livelihoods of all
>fishers and abandon policies that undermine the future of the industry.
>
>The Communist Party will work to accomplish the unity of the working class
>around such a platform as the immediate solution to the pro-corporate
>provocations and violence carried out by the federal government.
>
>A long-term solution to the present crisis must also include the
>recognition of the democratic rights of First Nations, including treaty
>rights that were negotiated originally on the basis of formal equality
>between nations.
>
>But treaty rights and self government are only the first steps needed to
>reverse centuries of colonial and neocolonial plunder and underdevelopment.
>Full employment policies, job and pay equity, education and housing
>programs and industrial diversification are required to ensure not just
>formal, but real equality among the nations of Canada.
>
>The overall democratic goal needs to be an equal and voluntary partnership
>of all the nations of Canada; English speaking Canada, Quebec, First
>Nations, and the Métis and Acadian peoples.
>
>****************************
>
>3/ BURNT CHURCH ABORIGINAL FISHERS NEED SOLIDARITY
>
>“Labour in Action” column
>by Liz Rowley
>
>THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT says the Aboriginal fishery threatens what’s left of
>Atlantic lobster and fish stocks. It doesn’t have to be true, it just has
>to be said over and over, by serious looking men in expensive suits:
>Liberal cabinet ministers, national newscasters, even an NDP mediator.
>
>They need a really big lie to justify the violence unleashed against
>Aboriginal fishers and their families in Burnt Church. The Department of
>Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is sinking and swamping boats full of people.
>Knives and baseball bats are in the hands of mobs incited by Fisheries
>Minister Herb Dhaliwal, who should be relieved of his cabinet post immediately.
>
>Bob Rae has indirectly contributed to the violence, with his betrayal of
>the trust given by the Mi’kmaq of Burnt Church. As the single mediator, Rae
>simply repeated the DFO’s demands that the Mi’kmaq stop fishing,
>effectively giving up their inherent rights.
>
>The situation is so inflamed that Ovide Mercredi of the Assembly of First
>Nations has called upon the Canadian people “to pray for this community and
>for their politicians so they use reason, not violence. This community has
>done everything. They don’t deserve to be humiliated by anybody, least of
>all the government of Canada.”
>
>The truth about the Mi’kmaq fishery would incite quite another reaction if
>it were told, just as the truth about Ipperwash, Oka, and Gustafsen Lake --
>including murder and mayhem by police under orders from the highest levels
>-- appalled world public opinion once it became known.
>
>The Minuscule Aboriginal Fishery and the Factory Trawlers
>
>The truth concerns the unparalleled greed of the giant fish processing
>companies, whose floating fish factories empty the seas year after year,
>and then lobby for bigger quotas and a longer season.
>
>The truth is the Aboriginal “take” is insignificant -- a drop in the ocean,
>compared to the big factory fleets.
>
>The truth is that the corporate plundering of the oceans is the real and
>immediate threat to Canada’s fishery, to the oceans and the environment,
>and to the livelihoods of both Aboriginal fishers, and of the small family
>fishers who are the members of the Maritime Fishermen’s Union.
>
> Systemic racism: divide and conquer
>
>If it weren’t for systemic racism, the corporate fish interests would not
>have been able to divide the small in-shore fishery. Racism, pure and
>simple, has prevented white fishers from recognizing that Aboriginal
>fishers are their closest natural allies in the fight to safeguard the
>resource endangered by the fish companies.
>
>Burnt Church Mi’kmaq Chief Wilbur Dedam said in mid-September, “I’m really
>getting tired of threats. The fishermen already made their livelihood. They
>should just leave us alone. It’s time we made our livelihood. We aren’t
>hurting anybody.”
>
>Recognize aboriginal inherent rights
>
>Inherent rights to a commercial fishery were re-affirmed by the federal
>courts a year ago in the Marshall decision. The Supreme Court decision
>recognized the treaty right of the Mi’kmaq, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet
>nations to run a commercial fishery that would create a livelihood for
>Aboriginal fishers and an economic base for their communities.
>
>These rights were denied for years, by governments that acted to protect
>the big companies who wanted sole rights to exploit this profitable natural
>resource. Decades of frustration and anger at this policy, which
>contributed greatly to the impoverishment of the Mi’kmaq People, gave way
>to hope when Donald Marshall - himself a victim of systemic racism in the
>justice system - successfully challenged the government, by fishing out of
>season.
>
>The Liberal government must respect the Supreme Court decision, not try to
>overturn it in practice. This is a matter of law, as well as a clear issue
>of social justice and Aboriginal rights.
>
>Solidarity needed now
>
>Looking at Burnt Church, Aboriginal peoples across Canada see their
>communities facing similar violence from governments and corporations.
>Matthew Coon Come, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has warned that
>Aboriginal people will not sit back and watch while the DFO attacks the
>Mi’kmaq. Aboriginal peoples are mobilizing Canada-wide, to defend their
>national rights and interests.
>
>The CLC and some Federations of Labour have already sent letters of
>solidarity to the Mi’kmaq, as have groups such as the National Action
>Committee on the Status of Women. But much more needs to be done. Emergency
>resolutions from Labour Councils and Local Unions should be sent to
>Chrétien, telling him to stop the DFO’s campaign of violence against
>Aboriginal fishers, to end vigilante action in the area, to respect the
>Marshall decision, and to curb the corporate fish factories.
>
>The Liberals and their corporate friends are counting on the non-Aboriginal
>population of Canada to sit out this violent assault on Aboriginal People.
>They’re counting on racism carrying the day.
>
>But an injury to one is an injury to all. If they can do this in Nova
>Scotia, they can do it in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Toronto. They can do it
>all of us. And they will, if they aren’t stopped. It’s a time to stand up
>and be counted: for democracy, equality, and for social justice.
>
>****************************
>
>4/ THE OIL PRICE CRISIS: PEOPLE VS. CORPORATE GREED
>
>Statement by the Central Executive Committee,
>Communist Party of Canada
>
>CRUDE OIL PRICES climbed ever higher in September, past $37 US per barrel,
>signalling yet another rise in fuel prices. European countries have been
>rocked by protests carried out by truckers, and North America is on the
>verge of similar road blockades and demonstrations.
>
>Some environmental groups have welcomed skyrocketing gasoline prices as an
>opportunity to break modern capitalist society’s dependence on the
>automobile. Given that the production of oil is expected to peak within
>10-12 years, and that hydrocarbon emissions are a major factor in global
>climate change, an overall reduction in fuel consumption must be achieved,
>especially by the major industrial economies.
>
>But today’s oil crisis, taking place in the anarchy of the capitalist
>marketplace, is making life worse for millions of working people, including
>senior citizens and the poor who face huge increases in heating bills with
>winter just ahead.
>
>The most powerful forces at work in the fuel crisis are the huge
>transnational oil monopolies, which are reaping incredible profits from the
>explosive climb in crude oil prices.
>
>During the second quarter of this year, for example, 17 of Canada’s largest
>oil and gas corporations surveyed by the Globe and Mail reported profits of
>$2.074 billion, a stunning 432% increase over their $413 million profits
>during the same three months of 1999. It’s no coincidence that crude oil
>prices jumped from less than $20 US per barrel in the spring of 1999 to $32
>US a year later.
>
>Many observers have noted that in Britain during September, the cutoff of
>fuel to gas stations was largely orchestrated by the big oil companies.
>Instead of demanding immediate state intervention when tanker drivers
>refused to go through protests to deliver gasoline, the corporations stayed
>silent. Their goal is the same in Europe as in North America - to force
>governments to slash taxes on fuels, creating lower prices, more sales and
>increased profits.
>
>The Canadian Alliance and Stockwell Day are demanding that Parliament act
>immediately to cut federal taxes on gasoline. Since the most generous
>backers of the Alliance and its predecessor, Reform, have been the
>Alberta-based oil and gas monopolies (closely tied to U.S. transnationals),
>this is hardly surprising. Such a move would simply open the public
>treasury of Canada to further enrich the oil companies.
>
>But actions must be taken by governments, to assist truckers and consumers
>during this crisis, to help Canada avoid a huge economic downturn triggered
>by rising fuel prices, and to tackle the environmental impact of fossil
>fuel use.
>
>One immediate measure would be to replace part of the current fuel taxes at
>the pumps with a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas monopolies. That
>would lower costs for working people without reducing government revenues,
>by forcing the profiteers to cover the difference.
>
>Another useful step would be to restore the two-price system which existed
>in Canada until the 1970’s -- a lower price for domestically-produced oil
>and gas sold within Canada, and world prices for our exports. Such a policy
>should include subsidies for regions which depend on imported fuels, such
>as Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Since NAFTA and other “free trade” deals
>currently block such policies, Canada must abrogate these agreements and
>pull out of any further sovereignty-killing trade pacts.
>
>In the longer term, steps should be taken to begin reversing the
>north-south orientation of Canada’s energy grid, which robs our country of
>any real economic independence by chaining us to the USA. The Communist
>Party and other people’s movements used to campaign for an east-west power
>grid; while the continuing sellout of Canada’s energy and resources makes
>such a grid harder to create than it would have been in the past, it
>remains a necessary goal.
>
>Finally, it is more urgent than ever to make the planned reduction of
>fossil fuel consumption a high priority. Governments at all levels in
>recent decades have failed to properly fund mass transit systems, forcing
>millions of Canadians to rely on private cars, a situation that must be
>changed. Similarly, the practice of provincial and local governments to
>give big corporations lower rates for large-scale energy and utility
>purchases must be scrapped.
>
>The right-wing demands for tax cuts can only benefit wealthy shareholders
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