---------- From: Communist Party of Canada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 11:42:14 -0500 To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: PV Articles - April 1-15, 2001 PEOPLE’S VOICE ON-LINE ARTICLES FROM THE COMMUNIST PRESS IN CANADA ______________________________________________________________ In this Issue: 1) MOBILIZE FOR QUEBEC CITY SUMMIT! 2) Editorials: MEA CULPAS IN OTTAWA; NATO'S BALKAN POWDERKEG 3) PRESCRIPTION FOR FASCISM: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AND RIGHT-WING 1) MOBILIZE FOR QUEBEC CITY SUMMIT! By Liz Rowley THE CANADIAN LABOUR CONGRESS and its affiliates, social justice, church, anti-poverty and environmental groups, women, seniors, youth, Aboriginal Peoples, the Council of Canadians and Common Frontiers, the Communist Party and even the NDP are all making preparations for the Summit of the Americas, and the People's Summit -- featuring Fidel Castro -- preceding it on April 17-21. The Quebec Summit will draw leaders from 34 countries (excluding Cuba), to lay plans for a hemispheric free trade zone to be set up by 2005. US President George W. Bush will attend the gathering hosted by Canada and by some of the most powerful transnational corporations in the world. The main demonstration of outraged opposition to these plans, and the secrecy surrounding them, will take place on Saturday, April 21, not far from the Plains of Abraham where US invaders were once defeated. Buses, vans, trains and even planes were being marshalled to move thousands of people from central and eastern Canada. Planeloads were planned from BC and Alberta, until the Quebec City airport announced that no charters would be allowed to land during the Summit dates, forcing alternate landing arrangements to be made. One train will be come out of the Atlantic region, and another out of Toronto, collecting people as they go. Efforts to block insurance for Montreal busses taking protesters to Quebec were finally stalled, but now highway and bridge crossings are threatened with closure under the pretence of “security.” Organizers are urging protesters to avoid eastbound Highway 20, the most likely to be closed, and to leave plenty of time for travel. “Summit security” has become the excuse for the most extraordinary breaches of citizen rights, even before the Summit starts. Police and military presence at the Summit will include the RCMP and its riot squad, the provincial Surete du Quebec, Quebec city police, the Sainte-Foy police to guard the airport, and the army: about 400 troops from Valcartier for “logistical” support. Altogether close to 6,000 police and military personnel will be present, armed with pepper spray, dogs, horses, riot gear, guns and an array of weaponry --some specially bought for the occasion. Security costs are estimated to be about $35 million, excluding a new $7.5 million Bell helicopter and other perks for the Surete. All this is paid for by the same public which is holding legal protests against the Summit. A virtual police state is being set up in Quebec City. The Quebec Detention Centre, which holds up to 600 inmates, is being emptied for detained protesters. The movable wire cages used by police in Windsor to detain protesters will also no doubt make their appearance during the Summit. Surveillance cameras will be everywhere, inside and outside the 3.8 meter high chain link fence which police plan to expand beyond the current 6 kilometer perimeter fence, tagged “the Berlin Wall,” the “Wall of Shame,” and “the Wall of Provocation” by local residents. About 7,000 Quebec city residents living inside the perimeter will have to carry passes to get in and out of their homes, and 10,000 provincial employees who work inside the perimeter have been told to stay home on April 20. Movement throughout the city will be restricted by military checkpoints. RCMP officer Brongel told the Toronto Star that “...we have for months now been looking into the various protest groups that we feel might be a threat during the summit, but what official measures we're going to be taking, for security reasons we're not going to be discussing that publicly.” The police and military presence and preparations are so extreme that a recent CSIS report stated that security overkill could make mayhem inevitable at the Summit. Certainly the City of Quebec thinks so, and has had its Charter amended to release it of any civil liability for damages caused during the Summit. The City of Seattle was stuck with $17 million in damages in 1999 after cops attacked non-violent demonstrators. On March 23, Quebec City Mayor Jean-Paul L'Allier asked the federal government to cancel the Summit, because of widespread fear of “risks” among residents. The government declined, and instead will distribute door-to-door 278,000 copies of a glossy 16-page brochure extolling the virtues (for business) of the FTAA and the Summit. Duff Conacher, coordinator of Democracy Watch, said “the true undemocratic nature of the Canadian government is being so starkly revealed by these extreme measures.... This is a wake-up call to all Canadians to realize we don't live in a democracy.” But if these advance volleys by the state were intended to scare off would-be protesters, the plans have backfired. Outrage at the efforts to stymie legal protests, and threaten protesters with police violence and jail, have moved thousands of people into action on both sides of the Canada-US border. And the Internet is whipping information around the continent at record speed. The labour movement, slow to move at first, has pulled unions inside and outside the CLC into action. Labour will be responsible for transporting thousands of workers, seniors, youth, and others to the big demonstration on April 21. Buses from as far away as Windsor, Sudbury, and the Niagara Peninsula will travel up to 36 hours to demonstrate their anger at the plans for corporate globalization. Some communities are still in the process of deciding “how to get there” as police and government officials pursue their transportation war against the protests. Part of the lead-up to the Summit are teach-ins being held in many cities. The Toronto teach-in on March 16-18 was jammed with people who came to learn about the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas, and about what to expect during the protests in Quebec City. Participants learned civil disobedience techniques, and how to protect themselves against pepper spray, tear gas, beatings, and what to do if arrested. (Wear layered clothes padded with newspaper, and carry at least a litre of water and vinegar against the gas.) For weeks now, protest organizers and lawyers acting on behalf of the protest committees have been working out of Quebec City, challenging efforts by police and other authorities to curb civil and legal rights. The suburban Sainte Foy by-law, making the wearing of any face covering illegal, was thrown out, scuttling a similar by-law being drafted for Quebec City Council. These volunteer lawyers and organizers also successfully challenged insurance companies which had refused to insure bus companies carrying protesters. They are currently fighting the insurance “surtax” which arbitrarily increases the cost of rentals by up to $500 per bus. They are also battling with authorities who may close bridges into Quebec City as well as the decree closing the airport to charters during the Summit. Faced with these challenges, protesters repeat what appears on numerous Summit web sites: “It didn't start in Seattle, and it isn't going to stop in Quebec.” Communist Party leaders said the mass protests were vital to expose the real nature of this proposed hemispheric corporate constitution, and to build up a powerful and united cross-Canada opposition. The Communist Party has organized busses departing from Toronto and Montreal for the April 21 demonstration. CP members and supporters as well as readers of People's Voice and Le pointe communiste are invited to book a seat and/or make a contribution towards the cost of the buses. Donations to the CPC, CPC (Ontario), and PCQ in Quebec are all tax deductible. ******** 2) Editorials: MEA CULPAS IN OTTAWA; NATO'S BALKAN POWDERKEG MEA CULPAS IN OTTAWA MARCH WAS A MONTH for apologies on Parliament Hill, some more appropriate than others. Take the Canadian Alliance's Rahim Jaffer, for example. Here's a young neo-con so puffed up by the flattery of the corporate media that he believes the fables of his awesome intelligence. How else to explain his idea that nobody would expose his sophomoric lies? Jaffer and the rest of his caucus would do better to apologize for their relentless attacks on the working people of Canada, but we aren't holding our breath. The right-wing blitzkrieg against cabinet minister Hedy Fry is a more serious matter. Fry is another too-clever politician with a bent for exaggeration, but the main point of her Commons speech on the International Day for the Elimination of Racism was quite correct. The real issue is not whether KKK crosses are burning in Prince George today, but the extent of racist and ultra-right activity across British Columbia and Canada. Any honest person familiar with Prince George knows full well that the city has a history of racist discrimination, particularly against Aboriginal peoples and Indo-Canadians. Various neo-fascist groups have set up shop and circulated racist materials in Prince George in recent years. Is this situation worse in northern BC than elsewhere? Perhaps not. But it is true that many racist organizations prefer to operate outside large urban areas, hoping to use their relative isolation to spread their poisonous hate propaganda without being exposed. While Fry deserves some credit for pointing to the danger of racism active across Canada, it is unfortunate that her mistake has undermined the important work of highly credible anti-racist and anti-fascist researchers and activists. NATO'S BALKAN POWDERKEG TWO YEARS AGO in late March, the US, Britain, Germany, Canada and other NATO members began their eleven-week terror bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Peace movements and anti-imperialist forces warned at the time that NATO's dirty war would have tragic consequences. The latest eruption of fighting in Macedonia confirms this prediction once again. The key NATO powers have all played a part in the break-up of Yugoslavia, pushing their twin agenda of destroying the remnants of socialism in the region, and opening up south-eastern Europe to new forms of imperialist takeover. All the peoples of the former Yugoslavia have paid a terrible price during this onslaught. The social and economic benefits of socialism have been destroyed, many thousands of people have died, and the economy and environment are largely ruined. The health effects of depleted uranium poisoning on NATO troops have brought this sordid war back home to the imperialist powers themselves. Ever since the cessation of the bombing campaign, Serbs living within Kosovo-Metohija and Serbia itself have faced ongoing attacks by the terrorist KLA. Having armed this gang as part of their anti-Yugoslav strategy, the NATO rulers are surely not surprised that these elements are now engaged in destabilizing Macedonia. We fear that the worst may yet lie ahead. It seems increasingly likely that the fragmentation of Yugoslavia may end up in a wider war and a staggering refugee crisis. Urgent action is needed now to restore peace and stability to the troubled region. Getting imperialism out of the Balkans would be a good start! *************** 3) PRESCRIPTION FOR FASCISM: ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AND RIGHT-WING POLITICS “Anti-Fascist Resistance” column by David Lethbridge INCREASING NUMBERS of Canadians have begun to embrace a variety of alternative medicines and health food supplements, some with little medicinal or nutritional value. Certain vendors of these products appear to have tapped into a widespread anti-science tendency. Propaganda advising parents to refuse vaccinations for their children appears in many health food stores, along with pamphlets advising that the fluoridation of water causes insanity, or that the pharmaceutical industry is deliberately producing drugs that kill patients in significant numbers. This propaganda appears to be leading some health food enthusiasts into the embrace of large-scale purveyors of alternative medicine products which simultaneously promote extreme-right, even fascist politics. A case in point is the Consumer Health Organization of Canada's (CHOC) Total Health convention, held in Toronto on March 17-18. Scheduled speakers, alongside the usual alternative medicine promoters, were Eustace Mullins and Bob Baker. Mullins has a fifty year history of advocating the most vicious neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and white racist ideology. Baker is associated with Lyndon LaRouche's extreme right organizations. Is CHOC's combination of alternative medicine and right wing politics at the Total Health convention simply a mistake, or some sort of anomaly? Or are there deeper connections between the two movements? Consider the remarks of Libby Gardon, the president of CHOC, when confronted with the nature of Mullins' work. Gardon said she “was unaware of Mr. Mullins' early writings in which he challenged the authenticity of Holocaust reports and made several unfounded anti-Semitic slurs.” Now this is a very interesting and half-hearted disavowal, to say the least. Gardon has reportedly known Mullins for fifteen years. Her organization openly sold Mullins' hate propaganda until this was exposed last month. In using the term “early writings” she seems to suggest that Mullins' anti-Jewish writing is a work of the past, something that he has transcended. Nothing is further from the truth. The Curse of Canaan and The World Order, to name but two of his books which are condemned as prohibited hate propaganda by Customs and Excise, are of quite recent vintage, and Mullins continues to actively sell them. Also, to say that Mullins' writings “challenged” the Holocaust is hardly accurate; in fact, he claims that the Holocaust is a deliberate fiction of “Satanic Jews.” He has written that Jewish priests drink the blood of little white boys, that Jews are “furry scavengers who have found their way through the sewers into ever civilized place,” and that “the Christian peoples totter on the verge of worldwide annihilation by the Jewish master scheme.” Nor is CHOC alone in promoting extreme-right and fascist conspiracies. Citizens' Voice for Health Rights (CVHR), run by Debbie Anderson, actively distributes tapes by Edward Griffin of the “Reality Zone.” One such tape outlines an alleged conspiracy behind the US Federal Reserve System, and advises listeners to join Griffin's group. True enough, the Griffin Internet site sells a variety of alternative health books. But side-by-side with this material are books claiming that contemporary immigration policies are a product of a socialist conspiracy to destroy the nation by deliberately pitting one ethnic group against the other; that the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s was a Communist plot; and that the Soviet Union never really collapsed a decade ago, but only pretended to do so to lull the West in preparation for an invasion! Furthermore, CVHR's own website, in a section called “Our Alliances,” links directly to Wes Mann's Preferred Network, in central BC. PN itself carries numerous alternative medicine books, as well as a full list of Eustace Mullins material and other extreme-right propaganda. Indeed, Anderson spoke at a PN conference in August 2000, on the same platform with Mullins. Anderson's connections to the far right are anything but accidental or transitory. In late March, she was to speak at the so-called “Freedom Fest 2001,” in Port Coquitlam, BC, along with Wes Mann, and Eldon Warman and Fred Kyburz, proponents of the right-wing Sovereign Citizen movement. Warman has had overtly anti-Semitic material on his website, as well as links to racist Christian Identity sites, and to the extremist Lyndon LaRouche network. Further investigation reveals that Anderson is also a member of the National Executive, as well as BC Chair, of the Progressive Group for Independent Business (PGIB), whose motto is “Unite the Right to Unite the Country.” Since the mid-1990s, PGIB has held three “Roots of Change” conferences. At the third (December 1999), Anderson spoke in her capacity as head of CVHR. Speaking with her were Mark Mix of the union-busting National Right to Work Committee, based in Springfield, Virginia, and Mark Montini of the ultra-conservative Leadership Institute, of Arlington, Virginia. Speakers at the 1998 conference included Ron Leitch, of the right-wing Association for the Preservation of English in Canada (APEC); Jocelyn Dumais, of the Quebec-based ADAT, an anti-union “right to work” group; Robert Metz, of the extreme reactionary Freedom Party of Ontario; John Thompson, executive director of the MacKenzie Institute, a right-wing think tank based in Ottawa; Progressive Conservative MP Scott Brison; Michael Coren of the Financial Post; and Steve Jalsevic of the anti-choice, anti-abortion, Campaign Life Coalition. Speakers at the 1997 conference included Link Byfield, editor Alberta Report, which frequently carries advertisements for Paul Fromm's and Doug Christie's fascist organizations; and Stockwell Day, now leader of the Canadian Alliance Party. Wherever we find tendencies to irrationalism and conspiracy-mongering, there we find fertile ground in which fascism can grow or a movement which fascism can exploit. These tendencies are rife within the ever-expanding and overlapping alternative medicine, New Age, and tax refusal circles. While the class basis for these tendencies is essentially petit-bourgeois, sectors of the working class are being strongly influenced by these same forces. It would be foolish to dismiss fascism's entry into these areas which are often considered purely marginal or simply bizarre. On the contrary, much political work needs to be done on this front, as on so many others where fascism has found a new foothold. *********
