The Communist Party face to face with the Capitalist Crisis, International Communist Review, issue 1

http://www.iccr.gr/site/en/issue1/the-communist-party-face-to-face-with-the-capitalist-crisis.html


Characterisation of the Crisis and Changes in the Model of World Domination

The tendency of the profit rate to fall, as Marx explained, is the weak point of capitalism, to the extent that profit is the aim, the motive and the finality of capital. Its effective fall, conditioned by the rise in the organic composition of capital, is at the end of the day the cause of the paralysis of the process of accumulation of capital, sharpening the basic contradiction of capitalism between the social character of the process of production and the private, capitalist form of appropriation of its results.

The crisis is the consequence of the huge increase in productivity of the labour force, of human labour exploited in factories and fields, which in turn produces an increase in capital, in surplus-value and in commodities, capital which cannot be re-accumulated at a suitable rate of profit.

The problem is not the abundance of unsold commodities, but the abundance of commodities unsold at a given rate of profit. The cause of the crisis is in no way a crisis of under-consumption. The working class exists for capitalism as producer of value, not as consumer.

Pursuing higher profits or the maintenance of the average profit rate, on the other hand a tendency for the profit rate to fall occurs because the real limit of capitalist production is capital itself. To overcome these inherent limits to the capitalist mode of production, the following lines of action have been adopted in the last decades.

* Political intervention to organise the valorization cycle at world level:

A) Producing and realising surplus value on a world scale through a boundless increase in productivity. Extending capitalist production relations to the entire world.

B) Territories and markets are annexed, the price of labour force, agricultural products and raw materials becomes cheaper, etc.

* The increase in productivity has been accompanied by a lowering of wages – devaluing the price of labour force as a commodity. To compensate for this there has been an exaggerated increase in fictitious capital and in credit. Financial and speculative capital have soared to face up to the stagnation of the profit rate while parasitism increases as a result of capitalist development in its imperialist phase.

The crises of overproduction of capital as of commodities, exclusive to capitalism, make the irrationality of the system violently explicit. The present crisis has struck capital with a violence difficult to measure and to dominate, revealing the historic limits and the caducity of capitalism.

In this sense, in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Athens from 18 to 20 November 2005, on the subject “Current tendencies of capitalism and their economic, social and political impact. The Communist alternative”, our party gave the following warning in its contribution:

“The risk of a world economic collapse is increasing each day. The global economy demonstrates that, in spite of the high concentration of capital, profits represent an ever decreasing percentage of the millions bandied by the big transnational companies. The operations of financial engineering, with the aim of “doctoring” the accounts of the results of the big firms, are everyday practice to try to cover up the situation, but they can in no case slow it down. Capital is encountering ever greater difficulties in completing its cycle of increased reproduction. Extremely high levels of speculation and having recourse to financialization not only cannot solve the problem, but complicate even more the panorama.”

Other factors linked to the crisis of overproduction interact dialectically and come in conflict in their turn with the limits of capitalism and the production of surplus-value and capital. Among these:

- The oil production peak and its consequences for models of production, transport, urbanism, life etc. The International Energy Agency declares that the developing countries could increase their demand by 47% to 121 million barrels daily in 2030 and that the oil companies and the producing countries will have to spend around

100 000 million dollars annually (76.500 million euros) to develop new sources in order to keep up this pace.

- Climate change, perhaps already out of control for the system of production of surplus-value and which affects ecosystems and peoples’ conditions of life and work of negatively. The earth has lost in just over a quarter of a century practically a third of its biological wealth and its resources and at the present pace humanity will need two planets by 2030 to maintain its lifestyle, as the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) has warned.

- The food catastrophe, which condemns millions of human beings to death by exhaustion due to lack of nourishment. According to the FAO, the number of undernourished people rose from 850 to 925 millions, as a result of the rise in the price of foodstuffs in the period 2.007 – 2008,. The price of foodstuffs increased by 12 % between 2005 and 2006, by 24% in 2007 and by nearly 50 % between January and July 2008.

The capitalist crisis will not be overcome by reformist means or Keynesian recipes. Only by means of increasing exploitation, plunder and drastic restriction of all democratic rights can the capitalist system overcome the crisis. Marx and Engels, in The Communist Manifesto asked themselves “How does the bourgeoisie get over these crises?” and they replied “On the one hand by enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other, by the conquest of new markets, and by the more thorough exploitation of the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means whereby crises are prevented.”

Either the bourgeoisie will consolidate its exit from the crisis by toughening capitalist dictatorship and introducing growing levels of violence to guarantee the process of accumulation of capital, or the great majorities of working people will opt for a solution in terms of a popular counter-offensive which will benefit the social majority and not the plutocracy.

Modern society is built in tune with the contradiction labour/capital in the sense that all the contradictions existing in society come up against the increase in the value of capital. The food crisis, the energy crisis, the environmental crisis, the hydrologic crisis, gender discrimination through patriarchal hierarchy, the destruction of the land, urban speculation, racial and ethnic discrimination, famines and pandemics, etc. All the struggles generated in these fields must be directed against the power of monopolies, in the perspective of revolutionary overcoming of capitalism.

The consequences of the capitalist crisis are daily worsening for the working class and other popular sectors. The constant increase in unemployment, the redundancies planned by the employers to eliminate the sectors of the working class with most rights, the systematic theft of indemnities and outstanding payments, the non-payment of over-hours, the lowering of wages, etc. are all on the agenda.

In inter-annual terms, the Spanish economy has experienced a contraction of 4,2% of GDP in the last year, with a rate of -1,1% in the second semester of 2009, according to the data of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. All the productive sectors registered negative growth rates in comparison with the same period of the year before. The Aim of Stability fixed for the period of 2010 – 2012, foresees a negative growth of 3,6 % for 2009, coinciding with the figures of the Spanish government.

The Spanish working class is being harshly hit. Full-time employment has fallen by 7,1 % in one year. According to a recent document issued by the experts of the Ministry of Finance, 63 % of Spanish wage-earners receive a gross monthly income of less than 1 100 euros (16,7 million wage-earners). Between 1999 and 2006, net profits of Spanish firms increased by 73%, more than double the average of the EU-15 33,2 %) or of the euro zone (36,6 %), whereas in the same period labour costs in Spain increased by only 3,7%, five times less than in the EU-15 (18,2%). According to forecasts of the National Employment Institute, unemployment will be about 25 % at the end of 2009.

The economic data confirm that there is a direct relation between unemployment, temporary jobs and wage levels. Geographically, the data make it clear that communities with a rate of unemployment higher than the national average are also those where temporary contracts and low wage-earners (around 1.000 euros) are most prevalent.

Young workers suffer particularly from this situation, with uncontrolled work-days and very low wages. More than 60% of work contracts imposed on young people are temporary, while their wages are 30 % below average, with the result that in 2008 only 21´% of young people could lead an independent economic life. In many cases, working women come to the aid of the deteriorating family economy by accepting jobs in the black sector with infinitesimal wages and no kind of labour protection.

The financial oligarchy expropriates working-class families who cannot pay their mortgages – which affects the immigrant sector of the class in particular – and is making a multi-million business of slowly re-appropriating houses that cannot be paid by their owners. In the year 2008, more than 58.686 mortgage embargos were registered, more than double the number of the previous exercise and three times as many as those counted in 2006. This number is higher than the total of the years 2004 – 2007 and the trend was getting worse in the first semester of 2009. Many workers are incapable of paying mortgage dues which frequently represent more than 50% of their wage incomes. These roughly 60 000 homes which have passed out of the hands of working people into those of capital in one year are the equivalent of the ownership of a city of 250 000 inhabitants. It will be in the second semester of 2009 that the real estate disaster will strike popular sectors even harder, in a country with more unsold houses than the United States.

The dictatorship of capital expresses itself in its true dimension. The police state is taking shape day by day, with changes in the law and harassment and repression of the people in every struggle. Bourgeois “freedom” is being converted into a museum-piece and is giving way to repression, fascism and anticommunism.

The conditions described form a scenario where it is essential to raise the socialist alternative in face of a capitalism which is at death’s door, enlarging the consciousness and the organised struggle of the working class and of growing sectors of working people.


THE PARTY NECESSARY FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF SOCIALISM. ITS LEADING ROLE

The crisis offers a unique opportunity which affects the governability of capitalism and its state ; political power becomes more vulnerable. The capacity to decide what to produce, how and for whom is weakened. Conflicts appear between different fractions of the bourgeoisie, which will be more or less decisive depending on the capacity of the working class and its allies to intervene in the class struggle, and to try to transform the economic crisis into a political crisis which will pave the way for the revolutionary overcoming of capitalism.

A period is beginning when we will have to try to break down the apparently invincible totalitarianism in which the dominating class plunges the working majority, questioning capitalism head-on. A moment in which the main task of the Communist Party consists in organizing and watching fractures so that the working class can take new steps in terms of counter-offensive.

The working class must play a decisive role in the social conflict, joining forces where its interests are concerned with the broad masses which, mobilised by secondary contradictions or by partial demands, must incline the relation of forces in favour of socialism.

In the present scenario where the class struggle is becoming sharper, it is urgent to rebuild the labour and trade union movement in a class sense and the impetus of popular struggles; this is the demand of a Communist Party which assumes a vanguard role and boosts and orientates the organised struggle of the working class and of all working people who are faced with increased exploitation as well as the infinity of problems imposed by capitalism on the great majority.

The choice between socialism and barbarity is the challenge facing mankind today. As communist and worker parties we must trace the strategic lines which will allow the working class to weaken the power of monopolies, open up spaces of counter-power and weaken the imperialist blocs, in favour of the working class, of sovereignty and of oppressed peoples.

The leading role of the Communist Party must bring a strategic perspective to working class and popular struggles, build unity of the working class and give an impetus to its organised struggle by offering an alternative of popular and socialist power in the face of the power of monopolies and the dictatorship of capital.

The working class demands an alliance with the broad popular masses affected by the impositions of monopoly capitalism. So that a majority alternative to the oligarchy can be built. This is a prerequisite for the hegemony to be won in a Leninist sense; thus, the ideological struggle becomes very important.

The conquest of socialism, like every revolutionary process, is not something that occurs from one day to the other. Nor will it follow a straight path or be the result of a spontaneous struggle process. The rise of the political struggle of the working class demands, in addition to certain objective socio-economic conditions which create a revolutionary scenario, some subjective conditions which require the intervention and the politico-ideological orientation of the Communist Party.

In the conditions of the class struggle in Spain and keeping in mind the present relationship of forces that means precisely to create a social and political front which corresponds to and expresses the yearning for change of the masses, bringing together working-class and popular struggles against capitalism in crisis in the perspective of socialism.


THE WORKING CLASS NEEDS A PARTY OF A LENINIST TYPE

The solution to the present capitalist expresses itself in terms of socialism or barbarity. What has happened since the triumph of the counter-revolution in the Soviet Union and in the other European socialist countries, with the increase in imperialist violence in every field (wars, armaments, espionage, repression…), the increased exploitation of the working class, the continuing decline of labour and social rights and the absolute incapacity of capitalism to respond to the great problems of mankind, fully confirm the thesis that this is the era of socialist revolution.

Two decades have been sufficient to prove that those who have put Marxism-Leninism aside have in fact embraced the line of integration in the system, of complete reformism and, in some cases, of the most rabid anti-communism

The abandon of Marxism-Leninism was not only a formal question. It brought with it the complete destruction of certain communist parties which eliminated democratic centralism in order to become electoral machines of a social-democratic type, dismantling the Leninist structure, destroying the revolutionary character of communist militancy and renouncing the dictatorship of the proletariat and at the same time the conquest of political power, sharing essentially the imperialist criticisms of socialist countries.

The facts have confirmed that the working class needs a structure capable of organising and leading the struggle for socialism. A party structure, based on the principles of democratic centralism, which will be capable of combining in a correct way the different forms of struggle in function of the changing conditions of the class struggle. A structure capable of endowing the labour and popular movement with a power strategy based on a rigorous, scientific analysis of reality. A class structure, organised in a party, conscious that the class struggle in each country is part of the struggle of the working class world wide and that as a result raises the flag of proletarian internationalism.

The period in which in our country the right-wing ″euro-communist ″ tendency predominated resulted in a historic defeat for the working class. Today the bad habits and the deviations generated during that period must be definitively rejected, which implies recovering the teachings and the revolutionary spirit of the Bolshevik Party and analysing in a detailed way and defending the experiences of socialist construction during the 20th century.


THE REVOLUTION IS NOT THE RESULT OF A GRADUAL PROCESS OF REFORMS, IT IS THE VICTORIOUS STRUGGLE FOR POWER AND THE HISTORIC VICTORY OVER CAPITALISM IN CRISIS.

The Communist Party, through democratic centralism, must give an impulse to a political intervention which unites and leads the working class, which, in turn, must bring together a whole front of class alliance with different popular social strata confronted with monopoly capitalism. The broad participation of the masses in the class struggle brings with it an extraordinary experience. The role of communists is to make sure that the process of working class and popular struggle fractures and weakens the power of the dominating classes in the perspective of the socialist revolution.

In Spain the capitalist superstructure was crowned by the Bourbon monarchy, imposed on the people by fascism as the greatest example of the power of the oligarchy and the landowners. The revisionist thesis defended in Spain by reformism according to which, in the conditions of a parliamentary monarchy, socialism is reduced to a mere struggle for deepening democracy through a process of reforms, depending on the struggle of the working class in a bourgeois-democratic framework, forgetting that Franco’s dictatorship as well as the present parliamentary monarchy are two concrete historical forms of dictatorship of capital, rejects the Marxist theory of the state and withdraws the working class from its revolutionary objective.

However, in the present conditions of capitalist crisis, while the working class struggle tends to grow, republican aspirations are also progressing in broad sectors of the people. As in other moments of the history of our country, the republican demand is progressively changing into the alternative of power for the popular classes. In the last years, important advances have been achieved in this sense, from commemorating and defending the historic experience of the 2nd Republic to fighting openly for the 3rd Republic.

The necessary working class and popular counter-offensive, for the PCPE, must imply a process of intensification of the mass struggle to win a constituent process orientated towards the proclamation of this 3rd Republic and the derogation of the 1978 constitution; an alternative whose main aim, for the communists, is to make of the working class of the peoples of Spain a national class in power. As a result, this process must be launched on the basis of the interests of the proletariat and its allies, which, in the present conditions, for the PCPE, must contain certain openly socialist elements.

The strategy towards workers’ power, towards socialism, means refusing any compromise with imperialism, as much in its military expression, with the leaving of NATO, as with the incorporation of Spain in that imperialist pole which is the European Union.

The Socialist Revolution is not an illusion, it is not the result of a gradual process of reforms. The historic debate between reform and revolution is once again in full force. The reconstruction of the international communist movement in Marxist-Leninist keystones, as at other moments throughout the history of the struggle of the working class, will be a determining factor in giving an impetus to the revolutionary process and the triumph of socialism in the 21st century, which will be the century either of the triumphant proletarian revolution or of barbarity.

Mineworkers ready to join public-sector strike in South Africa By: Loni Prinsloo in: mining weekly,27th August 2010

http://miningweekly.com/print-version/south-african-mineworkers-ready-to-join-public-sector-strike-2010-08-27

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – South Africa's National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) said on Friday that it fully supported the public sector strike and would engage in a sympathy strike if negotiations were not resolved by next week Thursday.

"We will ensure that every mining operation, every construction site and every energy worker joins the public-sector strike in some form.

"The union calls on its members to listen to their branch leadership and be ready for action," said the NUM general secretary Frans Baleni.

Some 1,3-million unionised public sector workers downed tools last Wednesday, crippling the country's health and education services.

Workers are demanding an 8,6% wage increase and a monthly housing allowance of R1 000, while the government says that it can only afford a 7% wage hike and a R700 a month housing subsidy.

The strike is costing South Africa's economy an estimated R1-billion a day.

The NUM said that it was "shocked" by the manner in which the State decided to deal with the strike. "The mineworkers are angry that when their servants, the public sector workers ask for mere pittance, they are met with resistance and threatened with dismissals by those in power."

The NUM appealed to the State to stop its "attitude" and agree to workers demands.

Further, the NUM said that it was worrisome that while it was concerned about the welfare and impact of the strike on the country's citizens, "others" were more concerned about the effect that the strike would have on elections.

Some speculate that the public sector strike has resulted in a rift in the tripartheid alliance.

The NUM also said that the country's Ministers should stop abusing State funds by spending it on "useless" electronic and print media propaganda.

NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT: PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES AND PROSPECTS - Part 2 , By Darrell Rankin, September 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice

http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint63/11%29_NUCLEAR_DISARMAMENT__PRINCIPLES,_PRACTICES_AND_PROSPECTS_-_Part_2.html


(The following article is from the September 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

By Darrell Rankin

The neo-conservative drive to war, under Bush and today, has been intimately tied to the most openly reactionary and racist measures in U.S. and Canadian domestic politics. The war drive in the Middle East and Asia, which is heating up in Iran and North Korea, could easily involve the use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. or Israel.

The spread of neocon wars or imperialism's use of nuclear weapons would have important political fallout. Not least this could include dictatorial rule in some or all imperialist countries and the deepening of serious inter-imperialist rivalries. These wars need close examination.

The neo-conservative forces who rose to prominence in U.S. ruling circles under Bush still hold powerful positions in that country. The most reactionary sections of the U.S. ruling circles (the military-industrial-media complex, oil, finance) are the most important source of the war danger. These sections or circles give the neocons their authority.

President Obama is in power. But on several issues such as Iran and North Korea he is being influenced by the most dangerous sections of U.S. imperialism. It is important to recognize the split in the U.S. ruling circles between those who oppose and support the neocon drive to war.

The U.S. is not unique as an imperialist country. A similar split exists in the ruling circles of almost every imperialist country. The pro-peace forces must take full advantage of this split. Today blocking imperialism's military agenda involves both building awareness about the source of the war danger, imperialism as a whole, and rejecting the appeasement of neocon forces in imperialist countries. The neocons must be isolated and made powerless.

The neocon strategy was and is to use a fascist foreign policy to crush democracy in the U.S. and its allies. Their most important agenda is to divide the world's working class, using the war to deepen anti-Arab and anti-Asian racism. The Nazis used anti-Semitism to divide the working class and all other democratic movements.

Bush's first neocon war in Afghanistan actually coincided with a historic meeting of the world's two main trade union movements, the World Federation of Trade Unions and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. The September 2001 meeting was the first to take place since the historic split in the global trade union movement in 1945. The two movements agreed on a common day of action against the World Trade Organization's policies.

There is also an important underlying economic push behind the neocons' political agenda for these wars. For U.S. corporations, it is increasingly hard to resist plundering the oil and other resources of the Middle East and Central Asia. This is the most commonly understood reason for the wars of George Bush. U.S. imperialism is pursuing the so-called Washington consensus on global free trade adopted in 1991 by other, violent means.

An aspect of the economic push is the deepening rivalry between blocs of imperialist states for the re-division of the world. The U.S. pursued these wars as a way to shore up its declining positions in the imperialist division of the world.

These are all serious sources of imperialism's war drive that have led us to where we are today.

The world's trade unions are closer to united action against imperialism, despite neocon war and racism and a slowing of progress since 2001. The economic problems of the imperialist countries continue to deepen. These countries are failing to cooperate on adequate solutions and are more ready to loot poorly defended resources.

Some important questions flow from the new realities. Can imperialism's drive to war be stopped? Can imperialism increase its respect for international law, especially the United Nations Charter, and can it reverse the new, dangerous military doctrines that prevail throughout the NATO military alliance? Can imperialism be pressured to reduce military spending and abolish nuclear weapons?

The answer to all of these questions is yes, but it will require unity and action. It is becoming increasingly important to halt imperialism's smaller wars of occupation and to achieve meaningful disarmament. It is through such struggles that a new, truly devastating inter-imperialist war may be prevented.

Perhaps more of the most reactionary circles are concluding imperialism cannot continue to rule in the same way. They have started a few wars and stoked tensions. They have succeeded in creating the new, dangerous military doctrines in NATO and in most NATO countries, changes that have wedded imperialism to nuclear weapons even more firmly. So far this side of imperialism is prevailing.

These changes are happening not just because socialism has been overthrown in the Soviet Union. Imperialist countries are very arrogant, but growing militarism and the threat of nuclear annihilation are intimately connected to the great problems that have arisen under capitalism and which it is incapable of resolving.

Humanity must address the impoverishment and starvation of hundreds of millions of people, the uncontrolled climate crisis and the huge burden of the arms race and the wars of occupation. As long as imperialism has nuclear weapons, the threat of nuclear annihilation by imperialism will be the most dangerous obstacle blocking the resolution of these problems.

Before it is overthrown, imperialism is unlikely to resolve any of the big problems confronting humanity, including the abolition of nuclear weapons. Humanity cannot allow a worsening of impoverishment, racism, national oppression, and the massive dislocations of people, refugees from wars and economic and climate catastrophes - not only in our continent but through out the world. Identifying and blocking imperialism as the main source of the war danger is crucial if the world's peoples are to prevail and resolve all these great problems.

No strike talks, says Cosatu, News24,Johannesburg,2010-08-27

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/No-strike-talks-says-Cosatu-20100827


Johannesburg - There have been no new wage talks between public service unions and the government, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said on Friday.

"We have not had a meeting," said spokesperson Mugwena Maluleke.

He was responding to reports of secret talks on Thursday night between unions and Public Service and Administration Minister Richard Baloyi.

Maluleke said he was trying to trace the source of the rumours.

"I can speak on behalf of Cosatu that there was no meeting," Maluleke said.

Leadership

Asked if any meetings had been arranged, he replied: "We are hoping to hear from the government. Our memoranda that we presented at marches yesterday (on Thursday) gave the government 24-hours to respond. We are ready to talk."

Government representative Themba Maseko said he could not give out any information. "There is no news yet," he said at noon on Friday.

Independent Labour Caucus (ILC) spokesperson Chris Klopper said both the ILC and Cosatu have requested a meeting with the minister of public service and administration, and that "it is time that he takes leadership and time that he takes responsibility".

Klopper said they have continually advised members in essential services to be extremely cautious when they participate in any type of industrial action.

"If they want to picket, they must rather do it while they are on leave. Our advice has been to refrain from striking indefinitely. If they participate they must not make themselves guilty of intimidation and violence.

"Workers are supposed to be at work and what we are saying is that it is time to end the dispute. It's time to do the right thing," said Klopper.

The ILC will meet on Monday morning to discuss the way forward and will also ask for a meeting with Cosatu to decide what to do.

Solidarity

About 1.3 million public servants, both from Cosatu and the Independent Labour Caucus, entered a tenth day of striking on Friday to push for an 8.6% salary increase and R1 000 monthly housing allowance.

Later on Friday, Cosatu provincial secretary Dumisani Dakile said Cosatu affiliates intended embarking on a strike in solidarity with public servants on Thursday and bringing Gauteng's economy "to a standstill".

He said striking unions would target the department of finance, the SA Reserve Bank, the department of housing, Business Unity SA and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

During a briefing in Johannesburg, Cosatu said it was very concerned about the impact the current strike action had on the poor communities and the working class.

"We believe that government should take full responsibility for this state of affairs," said Dakile.

Health institutions have been heavily affected due to the strike and demonstrated a serious need for the introduction of the national health insurance.

Cosatu noted the deaths in hospitals reported by hospital chief executive officers and government officials and said "they report these deaths as if before the strikes there had never been people dying in hospitals".

Tactics

Dakile called it "daily occurrences" and demanded the MEC of health provide the number of deaths that took place in hospitals during 2008 and 2009 because no strike took place during this period.

Dakile also called upon government to "desist from grand standing by visiting hospitals and becoming scab labour as such does not help or assist the situation".

The collapse of the education system and the postponement of preliminary exams would cause matric results in 2010 to be worse that in 2009, Cosatu said.

The marks would be made worse due to the fact that schools closed for a month to "satisfy the imperialist agenda of FIFA".

According to Dakile, the state used the courts to "frustrate and demoralise" members of Cosatu public sector unions to crush the strike, and in Cosatu's opinion it has not worked so far.

"We believe that such tactics do not help the situation at all and will not resolve the strike".

Cosatu announced that Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has issued a notice for its members to participate in the strike, which it felt would "further negative impact to the service delivery and in particular on combating crime".

Dakile commented on the rise of state brutality that has taken place within the SAPF and metro police in what he called "militarisation of the police force".

Dakile reiterated that unions want issues of health, education, unemployment, corruption and inequality to remain on the agenda beyond the strike.

- SAPA

Government peddles lies on wage offer, Sizwe Pamla, NEHAWU Spokesperson, 24 August 2010

http://www.amandlapublishers.co.za/special-features/65-south-africa-public-sector-strike-2010/401-government-paddles-lies-on-wage-offer


NEHAWU is deeply disturbed by the outright lies that government has told the people of South Africa that there is an 8.5% wage increase offer that has been presented to the unions.



There is no offer that was tabled at the PSCBC, a democratic institution set up for negotiations. Government has now decided to negotiate with the media instead of trade unions admitted to the council. As Nehawu we want to make it clear that there is no offer that was tabled at the PSCBC.



Government calculates pay progression as a wage increase knowing fully well that not everyone qualifies and benefits from it and it is a flawed system that is open to abuse by the supervisors.

This system is a performance based system which was first unilaterally implemented during the 2001/2002 financial year by the government as employer. This performance based system is part of the existing conditions of service, which was not part of the 2010 negotiations and had never been part of any negotiation recently.



The system gives rise to extreme unhappiness amongst public service workers and annually when evaluations are completed government is flooded with grievances by disgruntled public service workers. This unilateral system is not an objective tool and bonuses are allocated on favouritism, nepotism and blatant unfairness. Further, it is not possible for everyone to qualify as a limited budget is made available and the DPSA policy also limits the different categories of bonus allocations.



Government’s unashamed lies show the contempt which this government has for the citizens of this country and the crisis of leadership we have as a country if our own government lies to the public without a sense of shame. We have noticed that despite government pleading poverty it has enough money to buy full page adverts to peddle its lies and also has money to transfer patience to the private hospitals. With the private health receiving 2/3 of all money spent on health to provide services to 15% of the population, private hospitals are helping government to derive big profits. Special courts were set up for the World Cup but now they are being used to punish striking workers when they should be established permanently to fight crime that is affecting everyone.



There are workers who are employed to serve the public and they are ready and willing to perform their duties as long as government gives them what they deserve which is 8.6% wage increase and R1000 monthly housing allowance. A government with serious socio-economic challenges will think twice before spending millions of rands buying tickets on a month long soccer tournament and buy acres of space in the media to peddle lies and mislead the public.



The government ministers who deny workers their meager wage increase have spent millions of rands on luxury vehicles and are living caviar lifestyles at the expense of the poor majority that is dependent of government services. This is a case of the shepherd feeding himself forgetting about the lambs.



Nehawu pickets have been peaceful, but striking workers exercising their legal rights have come under attack from the police with intimidation, rubber bullets and arrests. We submitted a letter to the Minister of the DPSA on 12 August in line with the LRA authorising legal pickets by members and supporters. We are entitled to establish the legal pickets in public places outside workplaces. The police have no right to disperse pickets outside workplaces.



We call on government to respect the democratic institutions and present a new offer if there is one at the PSCBC not tell lies in the media. The ministers are wasting time playing games because they are not suffering and their children are not forced to use public hospitals and schools. The entire government continues to fail the poor South Africans by failing to provide the necessary leadership to resolve the impasse.

On the Opportunist Theory of "21st Century Socialism" Written by Dimitris Karagiannis

On the Opportunist Theory of "21st Century Socialism"
Written by Dimitris Karagiannis

This piece, originally published in the the newspaper Rizospastis on December 13, 2009 was recently reprinted by "21stcenturymanifesto: politics, analysis, action and culture from the left in Britain" (http://21stcenturymanifesto.wordpress.com/) Authored by Dimitris Karagiannis, it is a sharp criticism of theories of 21st century socialism.

The positive developments that have taken place during the last years in several Latin American countries (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, recently in El Salvador, Honduras), to a different extent and depth in each country, have created important expectations as well as various confusions and illusions throughout the world.

The new situation is mainly defined by opposition to US imperialism -this however leads to the identification of the concept of imperialism with the US, and its characterisation as "empire". The issue of relations of dependence that each country faces in the framework of interdependence within the world imperialist system is also approached in an incorrect, one-sided way.

The lack of a class approach, the necessity for class struggle and confrontation with the interests of capital are obvious. At the same time, due to the erroneous analysis of the contemporary world and the prevalence of opportunist influences, the bourgeois class is wrongly differentiated as a national one and one subjected to foreign influence .

Thus, sections of the bourgeoisie, who are owners of means of production and control the economy, often participate in fronts that manage to win the elections without aiming to overthrow capitalism but to better promote their interests and claim a bigger slice from the pie of the conflict with capital, in particular the US one. This actually occurs in all countries from Brazil, Argentina and Chile that claim to play a leading role in the region, to El Salvador, Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela, where this process is more advanced.

This intention of the bourgeoisie in each country, in relation with the level of capitalist development, is in line with the spontaneous anti-imperialism and anti- Americanism that exists among the popular strata. It constitutes a response to the cruel anti-people's policies implemented the previous decade throughout the continent by political forces that had good relations with US monopolies. At the same time, through the intense promotion of the platform for "21st century Socialism", particularly in Venezuela and Bolivia, a blurred picture of the socialist perspective is created.

The New Theory is ...Old.

Let's examine this "new theory" that is presented as "21st century Socialism" which, by no accident, has been adopted by various political forces compromised with the system, reformists and opportunists, such as the European Left Party. The so-called theory of the "21st century Socialism" was promoted in 1996 by the German sociologist Hans Dietrich Stefan who has lived and taught in Mexico since 1977 and has served as advisor to the president of Venezuela Hugo Chavez.

This theory was developed after the overthrow in the socialist countries. It is based on the arbitrary assumption that "capitalism and real socialism have bred a huge deficit of democracy and failed to solve urgent problems of humanity such as poverty, hunger, exploitation, economic oppression, sexism, racism, the destruction of natural resources and the lack of a truly participatory democracy".

Dietrich and his theory annihilate the contribution of socialism in the 20th century, lumping together the exploitative system and the socialist construction that offered great achievements to humanity and paved the way for a society without exploitation of man by man. He says that "the social programme of the bourgeoisie and of the historic proletariat" have failed and underlines that "it's time to overcome the culture of the ruling class towards a post-capitalist global society, a generalised liberal democracy".

This fabrication is presented as the "new socialism of the 21st century". Dietrich claims that it will be based on "the mixed economy, on the diverse forms of ownership (social, cooperative and private)" which, supposedly, will give priority to social ownership and "will be based on the Marxian labour theory of value while the values produced will be distributed democratically to those who produce them, in contrast with the principles of the market economy".

It is evident that this theory is utopian and arbitrary due to the fact that in a society where private ownership of the means of production for profit exists, that is a capitalist enterprise, there cannot be social priorities. Dietrich, in order to make his contrived notion even more persuasive, claims that private capital will be forced by the prevailing social state production to be at the service of development in favour of the people that "the public sector will prevail over the private".

He also goes beyond the issue of central planning as an essential element in socialist construction saying that it will be solved by the capabilities of new technology nowadays. It comprises a "mixture" of opportunist and utopian ideas that cannot be implemented because mixed socialism or socialism with a market cannot exist.

However, it is a theory as old as the first revisionists of Marxism. It actually wants to give a "left" cover to a social-democratic type of management of capitalism. This theory, however, exerts a broad influence on the popular strata with little political experience in countries of Latin America and elsewhere. It is also promoted the view that broad political alliances can be developed without the need of ideological homogeneity, as if policy and ideology can be separated by great walls.

A key issue in order to understand that this theory is actually a variant of social-democratic management of capitalism is the criterion of ownership of the means of production, the analysis from the class point of view of who is served by this "new theory". The opportunist position presented as "socialism of the 21st century" sidesteps the fundamental issue that the interests of the workers, of the popular strata, are opposed to those of the bourgeoisie, of the capitalists and cannot be identified in the name of a "participatory and pluralistic democracy"; it neglects the fact that the class struggle is irreconcilable.

The Bolivarian Process

In this spirit we must examine the so-called Bolivarian process in Venezuela, the country that since 1998 has paved the way for changes in favour of the poor popular strata through the utilisation of important state revenue that is mainly derived from oil. Social programmes that contributed to combat illiteracy, to provide health services to the popular strata, to strengthen the cooperatives, to distribute land to landless peasants, to improve nutrition through state stores with low prices overcoming the speculation of the private food sector, to create lending opportunities and to subsidize other sectors such as culture and sports were based on this revenue. In these programs the mutual cooperation established with socialist Cuba since the very first moment is of significant importance.

However, this so-called "anti-imperialist process for national liberation" does not lead to a confrontation with the bourgeois class that still holds economic power. The socialism that the president of Venezuela refers to and has been adopted by the Unified Socialist Party - a multi-class, multitendency party organised throughout the country - is far from scientific socialism.

In his statements, Hugo Chavez revives positions against the dictatorship of the proletariat and in favour of a supposedly "democratic socialism". The essence of these positions results from influences from bourgeois, social-democrat approaches to socialism in the 20th century. Even the USSR and the socialist countries we have known in the 20th century are characterized as totalitarian and bureaucratic regimes, although their internationalist contribution to the struggle against imperialism, to Cuba for example, or the support of popular movements cannot be ignored.

The petit-bourgeoisie and the preservation of capitalism In this direction is the proposal for the establishment of the so-called "5th Socialist International" currently promoted by President Chavez and his party as a necessary step for the perspective of "21st century socialism". This proposal is characterised by a great deal of confusion.

It involves a generalisation with regards to anti-imperialism that encompasses the necessary political- state alliances in order to maintain the current of change in the American continent by promoting unrealistic views that do not go beyond the management of capitalism or of the mutual cooperation of states contrary to what is defined as "US empire", while it remains within the framework of the dominant system. Such a collaboration is also the progressive form of alliance based on solidarity, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) in which the following countries participate: Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, the small countries of the Caribbean - Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Saint Vincent, the Grenadines, Honduras with the previous (now ousted) president Manuel Zelaya who had signed a joining agreement.

However, the participation of socialist Cuba does not change the character of this interstate alliance between capitalist countries. It is precisely for the fact that it does not constitute an alliance of socialist countries that it cannot be considered as a real counterweight to imperialism; even more so with regards to other unions such as the Union of Nations of South America UNASUR (in which Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Surinam, Uruguay, and Guiana participate) where various bourgeois state interests come in conflict. At the same time, major powers in Latin America, such as Brazil, participate in collaborations at an international level such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and develop relations with Russia, Iran and China.

Thus, it is clear that diplomatic relations and interstate cooperation cannot be confused with platforms for a socialist perspective. This perception dominates in the so-called "Commitment of Caracas" that was proposed by the Unified Socialist Party of Venezuela in the recent party meeting in Caracas and it also runs through the proposal of Chavez for the "5th International".

Socialism as immature communism is the society in which the working class and its allies hold the power (its scientific definition is the dictatorship of the proletariat), a prerequisite for the abolition of capitalist ownership of the means of production and for their socialisation. The struggle for socialism cannot be realised without the existence and action of the revolutionary party - as an independent organization; it is the party of the working class, the Communist Party that leads this struggle and at the same time creates socio-political alliances, for the confrontation with imperialism and the monopolies. History has shown that this struggle will be difficult as imperialism fights "tooth and nail" against any attempt of revolutionary overthrow of the unjust exploitative system.

From this point of view, positions that appear in the text of the "Commitment of Caracas" condemning violence in general, as well as the violence that the militant revolutionary forces assert, actually confirm the social-democrat content of this entire effort that does not recognise the right of the people to decide on the form of struggle they will embrace.

The discussion developed around 'the new socialism' highlights the necessity of intensification of the ideological-political struggle, the strengthening of Communist Parties and the creation of the communist pole of Marxist-Leninist parties that will decisively defend the principles of class struggle, the necessity of socialist revolution, the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism based on the political power of the working class, the socialisation of the means of production, central planning and workers' control.

It is necessary to confront on this basis any illusions, confusion and even more so, any petit-bourgeois ideas presented as "21st century socialism" that are based on the maintenance of private ownership of the means of production, the denunciation of the positive contribution of the USSR and generally of the socialism we have known in the 20th century, as well as the rejection of the laws of socialist revolution and construction, the socialisation of the basic means of production, central planning of the economy, workers' and people's control.

Dimitris Karagiannis is a member of the editorial board of the daily Rizopastis, organ of the Central Committee of KKE

Canada Opens Arctic To NATO, Plans Massive Weapons Buildup:Stop NATO , Rick Rozoff, August 29, 2010

Canada Opens Arctic To NATO, Plans Massive Weapons Buildup:Stop NATO , Rick Rozoff, August 29, 2010


http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/encroachment-from-all-compass-points-canada-leads-nato-confrontation-with-russia-in-north


The government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently concluded the largest of a series of so-called Canadian sovereignty exercises in the Arctic, Operation Nanook, which ran from August 6-26.

Harper, Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay and Chief of the Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces General Walter Natynczyk visited the nation’s 900 troops participating in the “Canadian Forces’ largest annual demonstration of Canada’s sovereignty in the Arctic” [1] which included “Canada’s air force, navy, coast guard…testing their combat capabilities in the frigid cold.” [2]

Nanook military exercises were commenced in 2007 when Russia renewed its claims to parts of the Arctic and resumed air patrols in the region after an almost twenty year hiatus. They are complemented by two other Canadian military drills in the region, Operation Nunalivut in the High Arctic and Operation Nunakput in the western Arctic.

Canada is formally involved in territorial disputes with two other Arctic claimants: The United States over the Beaufort Sea lying between Canada’s Northwest Territories and Yukon Territory and the American state of Alaska, and Denmark over the Hans Island between Canada’s Ellesmere Island and Denmark’s Greenland possession on the other end of the Arctic.

Four of the five nations with Arctic claims, all except Russia, are founders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization whose charter commits member states to mutual military assistance.

With the melting of the polar ice cap and the opening of the fabled Northwest Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans for the first time in recorded history, the scramble for the Arctic – reported to contain 30 percent of the world’s undiscovered natural gas and 13 percent of undiscovered oil according to last year’s U.S. Geological Survey – is under way in earnest. The military value of the navigability of the passage is of even greater and more pressing significance.

The George W. Bush administration’s National Security Presidential Directive 66 of January 12, 2009 states:

“The United States has broad and fundamental national security interests in the Arctic region and is prepared to operate either independently or in conjunction with other states to safeguard these interests. These interests include such matters as missile defense and early warning; deployment of sea and air systems for strategic sealift, strategic deterrence, maritime presence, and maritime security operations; and ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight.” [3]

The U.S. insists that the Northwest Passage is open to international navigation while Canada claims it as solely its own. Yet Ottawa has accommodated Washington at every turn while persisting in saber-rattling comments and actions alike vis-a-vis Russia.

Sixteen days after the release of the White House’s Arctic directive of last year NATO conducted a two-day Seminar on Security Prospects in the High North in Iceland attended by the military bloc’s secretary general, its two top military commanders and the chairman of its Military Committee, and stated that “Clearly, the High North is a region that is of strategic interest to the Alliance.” [4]

Although Canada’s territorial disputes in the Arctic are with fellow NATO members the U.S. and Denmark, the three nations have recently coordinated their strategies and in this year’s Operation Nanook have for the first time collectively participated in military exercises in the Arctic region.

In mid-July NATO’s chief European military commanders, Admiral James Stavridis, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and General Sir John McColl, Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe, arrived in the Canadian capital at the invitation of the nation’s military chief, General Walter Natynczyk. The three consulted on “how to take the Alliance forward” and Stavridis “conveyed his latest appraisal of NATO’s progress in Afghanistan and commended Canada on its contributions to NATO’s efforts around the world.” [5]

Canadian Defence Minister MacKay stated almost two years ago: “We are concerned about not just Russia’s claims through the international process, but Russia’s testing of Canadian airspace and other indications…(of) some desire to work outside of the international framework. That is obviously why we are taking a range of measures, including military measures, to strengthen our sovereignty in the North.” [6]

A year ago Canada and the U.S. conducted a 42-day joint Arctic expedition to survey the continental shelf for future bilateral demarcation, following a more modest effort along the same lines in 2008 and followed this year by one with U.S. and Canadian ships from August 7 to September 3. The latter was announced two weeks after a Russian research vessel left St. Petersburg on a mission to delimit the borders of Russia’s Arctic continental shelf.

The U.S. State Department described the purpose of this year’s expedition: “The mission will help delineate the outer limits of the continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean for the U.S. and Canada, and will also include the collection of data in the disputed area where the U.S. and Canada have not agreed to a maritime boundary.” [7] It is being held in the Canada Basin, the Beaufort Shelf, and the Alpha Mendeleev Ridge. The last, along with the Lomonosov Ridge, is the basis of Russian Arctic claims.

On May 14 Canada and Denmark signed a military agreement, a memorandum of understanding pledging to collaborate more closely in the Arctic “through enhanced consultation, information exchange, visits, and exercises,” according to the Canadian Forces. [8] The preceding month Denmark deployed a unit to participate in the Operation Nunalivut exercise in the High Arctic.

The Royal Danish Navy sent the HDMS Vaedderen ocean patrol vessel and the HDMS Knud Rasmussen offshore patrol vessel to join the recently concluded Nanook 10 exercises, where they were joined by the U.S. Second Fleet’s naval destroyer USS Porter and the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Alder “for the purpose of exercising and increasing…interoperability with Arctic allies.”

As for the Canadian contribution, “The Air Force [provided] air movement and mission support through the CC-177 Globemaster III, CC-130 Hercules, CP-140 Aurora, CH-146 Griffon, and CC-138 Twin Otter aircraft.

“The maritime component [included] Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships (HMCS) Montreal, Glace Bay and Goose Bay; and Canadian Coast Guard Ships CCGS Des Groseilliers and CCGS Henry Larsen.” [9]

Military personnel involved included “About 900 Canadian troops [who patrolled] parts of the Eastern and Northern Arctic by air, land and sea.” Another “600 military personnel from the Danish Royal Navy, the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard are also [took] part in the operation.” [10]

In the words of Lieutenant Commander Albert Wong of Canada Command, “They’re our allies. Collaboration is part of what Canada does.” [11]

This year’s exercise was based in Resolute Bay in the Nunavut federal territory where the Harper government is building a new army Arctic warfare training center in Resolute and a deep-sea port for the Nanisivik Naval Facility to be constructed on Baffin Island. Canadian Navy Lieutenant Commander Robert Houle said before the event that “2010′s military operation will push further north than in past years.” [12] That is, north of the Arctic Circle for the first time.

“The US Navy 2nd Fleet, the US Coast Guard and the Royal Danish Navy…joined in the war games in an effort to enhance the allies’ capabilities to cooperate in Arctic waters.” [13]

In fact the NATO allies collaborated to an unprecedented degree, as “Danish and American vessels” conducted “ocean exercises throughout eastern Nunavut.” [14]

After visits by Canada’s defense and military chiefs to inspect the multinational war games, Prime Minister Harper arrived in Resolute on August 25, the penultimate day of the 20-day military maneuvers, to – in the words of one of the nation’s main news agencies – rally the 1,500 Canadian, American and Danish troops present. [15]

Harper’s visit to inspect the exercise occurred only hours after another – potentially dangerous – publicity stunt by his government: Dispatching CF-18 fighter jets (variants of the American F/A-18 Hornet) to allegedly ward off two Russian Tupolev Tu-95 (Bear) strategic bombers patrolling off Canada’s northern border, “something the Russian military does frequently.” [16]

Harper’s press secretary, Dimitri Soudas, “said the two CF-18 Hornet fighters visually identified the two Russian aircraft approximately 120 nautical miles north of Inuvik in Northwest Territories,” [17] over international waters.

The timing of the Canadian action, as that of its announcement, was calculated. As was a comparable incident in February of 2009 when then recently installed U.S. President Barack Obama paid his first visit abroad to Ottawa, to meet with Harper, and his host scrambled warplanes to intercept a Russian Tu-95 bomber – on a routine mission thousands of kilometers from the Canadian capital – in a show of bravado and of loyalty to his ally south of the border.

“The Russians said then the plane never encroached on Canadian airspace and that Canada had been told about the flight beforehand.” [18]

Last year Canada’s prime minister and defence minister made the following comments:

Harper: “We have scrambled F-18 [CF-18] jets in the past, and they’ll always be there to meet them.”

MacKay: “When we see a Russian Bear [Tu-95] approaching Canadian air space, we meet them with an F-18.” [19]

A few days before Operation Nanook began, July 28, Canada also deployed CF-18 fighters against Russian Tu-95 bombers “as debate rage[d] over whether Canada needs the next generation of fighter jets to replace the nearly 30-year-old CF 18s. The Harper government has committed to buying 65 F-35 stealth fighters at a cost of $9 billion. Critics have said such Cold War-type jets are no longer needed.” [20]

The same source provided background information concerning what is being fought over:

“Canada is in a race with Russia and other Arctic nations to lay claim to the frozen territory that may hold untold treasures.

“Geologists believe the Arctic shelf holds vast stores of oil, natural gas, diamonds, gold and minerals. A 2007 Russian intelligence report predicted that conflict with other Arctic nations is a distinct possibility, including military action ‘in a competition for resources.’” [21]

Regarding the later occurrence on August 24, “The Prime Minister’s Office used the incident to promote Ottawa’s plan to buy 65 stealth fighter jets for $16 billion.” [22]

The discrepancy in (Canadian) dollar amounts is attributable to Ottawa’s attempt in May to underestimate the actual cost of the purchase when Defence Minister MacKay said “There is eye-watering technology now available, and a fifth-generation fighter aircraft will be brought to Canada after the year 2017.” [23], but failed to disclose the total cost.

When in-service support and other additional outlays are included, the total package will be $16 billion, according to a major Canadian newspaper “one of the most expensive military equipment purchases ever.” [24]

In fact the F-35 Lightning II fifth generation stealth fighter project also has been estimated to be “the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program” at a cost of $323 billion for 2,443 of the warplanes. [25]

Last month Defence Minister MacKay confirmed that Canada will buy 65 of the Joint Strike Fighters. At the same time Ottawa announced that the $3 billion Joint Support Ship project will be restarted, as “the military [wants] Joint Supply Ships to be capable of carrying army vehicles and to provide support to ground forces ashore. The ships would also have an air-force element on board, having helicopters and repair facilities for those aircraft. A hospital would also be included on the vessels.” [26]

On August 25 Dmitri Soudas, Harper’s director of communications, trumpeted the news of the non-encounter between Canadian and Russian military aircraft and laid the bravado on thickly – and not without a purpose. His comments included:

“Thanks to the rapid response of the Canadian Forces, at no time did the Russian aircraft enter sovereign Canadian airspace.

“The Harper Government has ensured our Forces have the tools, the readiness and the personnel to continue to meet any challenges to Canadian sovereignty with a robust response.

“This is true today, it will be true tomorrow and it will be true well into the future.

“The CF-18 is an incredible aircraft that enables our Forces to meet Russian challenges in our North. That proud tradition will continue after the retirement of the CF-18 fleet as the new, highly capable and technologically-advanced F-35 comes into service. It is the best plane our Government could provide our Forces, and when you are a pilot staring down Russian long range bombers, that’s an important fact to remember.” [27]

The Associated Press reported on the above statement that “Soudas noted…Canada’s recent purchase of 65 F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jets from U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin Corp. The $8.5 billion purchase, one of the biggest military equipment purchases in the country’s history, was due to be debated at a parliamentary defense committee hearing on Wednesday. [August 25, the date of Soudas' comments]. The jets will replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of CF-18s.” [28]

According to a Canadian journalist:

“This week…we learned that the Cold War is not, in fact, over and that Russia remains an active threat in the north….Harper’s press spokesman, noted Sovietologist Dimitri Soudas, explicitly turned the Russian flyby into an argument for a $16-billion, sole-sourced upgrade of Canada’s fighter-plane fleet.” [29]

Canada requires an adversary to justify large-scale arms acquisitions. In the past three years it has bought and leased 120 Leopard tanks from Germany and the Netherlands for the war in Afghanistan. It has purchased and used Israeli-made Heron drones (unmanned aerial vehicles) for the same war theater and beyond, one of which crashed near a military base in Alberta last month knocking out power lines.

It has also acquired Chinook, Griffon and Mi-8 helicopters for NATO’s war in South Asia, where it has deployed 2,830 troops and where 151 of its soldiers have been killed.

The Polar Epsilon spaced-based satellite project is being developed for the Arctic, and while in Resolute Bay on Wednesday Prime Minister Harper reiterated that the RADARSAT Constellation Mission, a three-spacecraft fleet of satellites that is the centerpiece of Polar Epsilon, “will provide the Canadian military with daily coverage of Canada’s land mass and ocean approaches ‘from coast-to-coast-to-coast, especially in the Arctic.’” [30]

In June defense chief MacKay disclosed that Canada will spend over $30 billion “to build 28 large vessels for the Canadian Coast Guard and navy, as well as 100 smaller ships.” [31]

Canada is, as NATO’s top military commander Admiral Stavridis remarked in Ottawa last month, providing the Western military bloc and the Pentagon indispensable services around the world. In the Arctic as much as if not more than anywhere else.

Related articles:

Canada: Battle Line In East-West Conflict Over The Arctic

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/canada-battle-line-in-east-west-conflict-over-the-arctic

Encroachment From All Compass Points: Canada Leads NATO Confrontation With
Russia In North

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/encroachment-from-all-compass-points-canada-leads-nato-confrontation-with-russia-in-north

Loose Cannon And Nuclear Submarines: West Prepares For Arctic Warfare

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/loose-cannon-and-nuclear-submarines-west-prepares-for-arctic-warfare

Canada: In Service To The Pentagon And NATO At Home And Abroad

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/canada-in-service-to-the-pentagon-and-nato-at-home-and-abroad

1) Xinhua News Agency, August 7, 2010
2) Agence France-Presse, August 25, 2010
3) NATO’s, Pentagon’s New Strategic Battleground: The Arctic
Stop NATO, February 2, 2009

http://rickrozoff.wordpress.com/2009/08/26/natos-pentagons-new-strategic-battleground-the-arctic

4) Ibid
5) North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe
July 11, 2010
6) Canwest News Service, September 12, 2008
7) Russian Information Agency Novosti, July 27, 2010
8) Nunatsiaq News, May 24, 2010
9) Xinhua News Agency, August 7, 2010
10) CTV, August 25, 2010
11) Nunatsiaq News, June 16, 2010
12) CBC News, August 3, 2010
13) Agence France-Presse, August 25, 2010
14) CBC News, August 18, 2010
15) Canadian Press, August 25, 2010
16) CTV, August 25, 2010
17) Xinhua News Agency, August 25, 2010
18) Associated Press, August 25, 2010
19) Encroachment From All Compass Points: Canada Leads NATO Confrontation With
Russia In North
Stop NATO, August 5, 2009
20) Toronto Sun
Quebec Media, Inc. Agency
July 30, 2010
21) Ibid
22) CTV, August 25, 2010
23) Canwest News Service, May 28, 2010
24) Ottawa Citizen, July 12, 2010
25) PBS Newshour, April 21, 2010
26) Ottawa Citizen, July 12, 2010
27) CBC News, August 25, 2010
28) Associated Press, August 25, 2010
29) Susan Riley, The Russians aren’t coming
Ottawa Citizen, August 27, 2010
30) Agence France-Presse, August 25, 2010
31) Xinhua News Agency, June 4, 2010

LABOUR NEEDS TO TAKE THE LEAD: Labour Day 2010 statement, Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint63/03%29_LABOUR_NEEDS_TO_TAKE_THE_LEAD.html

(The following article is from the September 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)



This year's Labour Day takes place two years into the most serious capitalist crisis since the Great Depression. The so-called "recovery" is already faltering in Canada and around the world. Corporate profits and huge bonuses for top executives have rebounded, but for working people, the reality is continued high unemployment, falling incomes, more social cutbacks, and new attacks on wages and pensions. On a global scale, the working class faces the unchecked growth of militarism and imperialist wars, and the impact of deepening environmental problems and natural disasters.

In this complex situation, the labour movement and its allies desperately need to build a massive, united and coordinated fightback campaign. But the experience of the past two years shows that the willingness of workers to struggle for their rights has yet to be matched by the leadership of the trade unions. The time has come to stand together and say: those who reap billions in profits must pay for the economic crisis!

Faced with a stubborn refusal by most working people to surrender to the right-wing agenda, the ruling class and the Harper Tory minority government have increasingly resorted to demagogic tactics designed to create divisions and muddy the waters, such as the racist campaign against Tamil refugees and the scrapping of the long-form census. In Canada, the most visible and powerful public rejection of Tory policies - the demonstration by some 40,000 people during the G20 Summit on June 26 in Toronto, including thousands of trade unionists - was met with brutal state repression, including the arrest of over 1,000 protesters and bystanders.

The corporate/government attack has been particularly sharp against organized workers, such as the Vale Inco strikers who held out valiantly for one year in Sudbury and Port Colborne against the outrageous attempt by their Brazilian-based bosses to gut their collective agreement.

There are many other positive signs that workers across Canada are ready to take on the corporate agenda. These include lengthy and determined strikes by university employees, civic workers, and Steelworkers in Ontario, and by the paramedics in British Columbia. In Montreal, 75,000 public sector workers and their allies marched on May Day this year, during the Common Front negotiations with the Charest government.

These examples prove that Canadian workers are just as capable of challenging the ruling class as our sisters and brothers in other countries. The powerful upsurge of general strikes and mass protests in Greece, Portugal and other countries has inspired workers everywhere to step up our militant resistance

However, the truth is that heroic struggles by workers across Canada have been weakened by the labour movement's inability to mobilize its full potential. Time and again, we have witnessed the refusal by many union leaders to build broad community/labour solidarity campaigns around strike battles or wider social issues. This trend includes the retreat from mass action by the Common Front union leaders in Quebec, the collapse of the Coalition to Build a Better B.C., the reluctance of the Steelworkers Union to appeal for wider support for the Sudbury strikers, and the attempts by some forces to hamstring important efforts by the Ontario Federation of Labour leadership to move in a more militant direction. Most troubling, the Canadian Labour Congress itself remains unwilling to engage in the type of movement-building which would rally millions into action against the corporate agenda.

Some activists mistakenly argue that the difficulties in mobilizing the labour movement for a major struggle mean that workers have "sold out" or that the trade unions are a spent force. This wrong assessment has fuelled attempts to impose divisive tactics on the people's movements, such as the claim that isolated acts of property damage, rather than mass action, is the only way challenge the foundations of ruling class power.

The real lesson of these experiences is that working people in Canada have the strength and understanding to conduct tough battles for their rights, despite that challenges of cold weather, scabs, police brutality, corporate media slanders, and relentless political attacks. When organized workers have leadership which matches their capacity for struggle, important victories have been achieved. But when leadership consists of looking for "exit strategies" or calls to retreat at the first sign of pressure, workers are understandably reluctant to take chances.

On this Labour Day 2010, the Communist Party of Canada salutes all working people across our country and around the world who have chosen to fight rather than surrender. Their struggles have played a major role in slowing the offensive by the corporations and pro-business governments (including many led by social democratic parties) against the interests of the entire working class.

We renew our call for the labour movement in Canada to play a leading role in stepping up resistance against the corporate attack. It remains both timely and urgent for the CLC and other labour federations to convene a broad People's Summit, with the full participation of the Aboriginal peoples, youth, seniors, women, immigrants, anti-war and anti-racist groups, environmental groups, and many other movements. Such a Summit should develop an Action Plan to bring down the Harper Tories and other pro-business governments, and to block the offensive by the corporations.

Unity can and must be built around a set of immediate demands for a People's Recovery Program, such as expanded EI coverage, a massive investment in low-income housing and improved social programs, and reversing the huge tax cuts given by the Tories and Liberals to the corporations and the wealthy. These and other pro-people demands are needed to rally millions into action, rejecting the lie that "there is no alternative" to the policies favoured by big business.

We urge trade union members and all activists in the people's movements to raise their voices for such a perspective to move from isolated defensive battles, towards a strategy of coordinated, united, mass resistance, based on recognition that "an injury to one is an injury to all." The working people of Canada have nothing to lose from such a strategy - and we have a better future to win!

HISTORIC MINERS' STRIKE ENDS IN SUDBURY By Liz Rowley, September 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice

(The following article is from the September 1-15, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/Pv01se10.html#1_HISTORIC_MINERS_STRIKE_ENDS_IN

Three hundred and sixty days after it started, the strike of 3,300 miners, mill and smelterworkers in Sudbury and Port Colborne against Vale Inco, the second largest mining company in the world, is over.

By a vote of 75.5% at Local 6500 in Sudbury, and 74% at Local 6200 in Port Colborne, the United Steelworkers voted July 8 to end the longest mining strike in Canadian history.

"Nobody voted for the contract; they voted to go back to work", said Patrick Veinot, Local 6500 Vice President.

That was the sentiment as the bitter pill of a defined contribution pension plan (snuck in for new hires through the two-tiered back door) means today's relatively secure pensions will soon be a thing of the past. Entirely subject to the marketplace, DC plans could leave a pensioner with 30 years service with next to nothing when the economy tanks again.

For those with the defined benefit plan, pensions increased to $41,400/year with life time COLA and health care benefits and long term disability. This too will all be gone when the current workforce expires.

The settlement establishes new triggers and a $1,500 cap on the nickel bonus, a profit-sharing scheme Inco devised in the 1960s in lieu of a raise. The bonus used to kick in when nickel reached US $2.25/lb. Now the price must tip US $3.75 - another wage cut.

The small wage increase amounts to US $2.25-$2.50 an hour over the lifetime of a five-year agreement. There was also a $2,000 signing bonus, and some smaller bonuses linked to production.

Welcome back: you're laid off

There was also agreement that 113 jobs would be eliminated in Sudbury: a "preliminary" number according to Vale, the maximum according to the USW. The union says the 113 have been accounted for with the retirement of 89 at the end of the strike, and 55 more who found jobs elsewhere. With these numbers, Vale should be hiring, says the USW.

Vale's July 26 recall included calls to tell 18 workers that they no longer work in Sudbury, but could apply in Port Colborne in southern Ontario, or Thompson in northern Manitoba. Either way, Vale is aiming for labour mobility - pack-sack miners who will dig it out and move on.

Speculation is the workforce will continue to drop as Vale contracts out more non-union work, a real and continuing threat to the unionized work force.

During the strike, Vale fired nine of the most militant union members, including Veinot, who became Vice President in early August. The company claims that because Veinot was fired he was not a member of the bargaining unit, and ineligible to hold office. But the popular strike leader had the support of the Local Executive and membership, who told Vale to "stuff it".

The eight cases (one has retired on a full pension) will go to arbitration after an Ontario court ruled that the company must show just cause for the firings, bring witnesses, etc. Veinot is convinced the union will win reinstatement for all eight.

Dozens of legal actions launched against the union and individual strikers were dropped with the settlement. But the company is intent on sending a message to union members, by refusing to revoke the firings as part of the settlement.

It's the same message at Vale's reorientation meetings, where workers are told that the union no longer has the "power" in the workplace, and is a third party that shouldn't be involved. If there's a problem, workers are told to speak first to the supervisor, and only involve union stewards as a last resort.

In fact, nothing in the collective agreement has changed, as Steel rep Myles Sullivan tells it. But the political climate has certainly changed after a year on the picket lines facing scabs, cops, helicopters and lawsuits, after lost homes, marriage break-ups, and hardships are counted in, and after being forced to accept a collective agreement nobody but the company wanted.

Mind-boggling profits

This strike began shortly after the 2008 economic crisis, the ensuing bail-outs of giant corporations, and a global corporate assault on wages, pensions and organized labour. Provincial and federal governments proclaimed that the way out of the crisis was to open up the country to foreign investment.

This was the first set of negotiations after the takeover of Inco by Vale, a multi-national with operations all over the world and 2008 profits of US$13.2 billion. Company data show that each Vale worker produced $221,223 of the 2008 profits. Vale made $4 billion from the Sudbury operations alone in the two years after it bought Inco in 2006. Six top Vale executives took home $33 million in 2008, an increase of 121% over the last two years. Vale's earnings during the second quarter of 2010 rose 254% over the same period in 2009, to $6.11 billion. This is a company with deep, deep pockets.

"Ourselves Alone"

Throughout the strike, the USW worked hard to build ties with unions at Vale's global operations. At mass rallies in Sudbury, international guests visited the picket lines, and strikers crossed the world telling their unionized brothers and sisters about the historic strike in Sudbury.

The strikers also travelled in busloads to the OFL convention last November, to Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, and wherever they could.

But the labour movement as a whole was never engaged. The fight remained largely in Sudbury, and was mainly about bargaining. Few outside Sudbury knew about the strike, and most unions were just sympathetic observers.

But the issues at stake were huge, affecting workers across Canada. The strike began shortly after the massive attack on the wages and pensions of autoworkers, and during the campaign against public sector workers in Toronto and Windsor. All of organized labour was under attack, especially around pensions and wages.

A key issue was the take-over of Inco by Vale, which had made legal undertakings through the Canada Investment Act to operate in specific ways that would benefit Canada. US Steel made similar undertakings when it bought Stelco in Hamilton, and now faces charges for breaching its obligations.

Vale's clear breach of its obligations should have made the fight an issue to all those concerned about Canadian sovereignty. The labour movement is on record calling for public ownership of natural and energy resources. This would have engaged a much broader base of support for the strike and put more pressure on the federal government.

Vale's decision to scab its operations put the provincial government front and centre, and should have brought the whole labour movement into the struggle from the start. But the fight for an anti-scab law was left to the NDP, vastly outnumbered in the Ontario Legislature by Liberal and Tory MPPs. France Gelinas did her best, but speeches and press releases were never enough. This fight cannot be won without mass mobilization of the labour movement and its allies, without thousands of feet marching on the lawn of the Legislature.

The strike could have become a poster child of the fight for public ownership and Canadian sovereignty, for labour rights and anti-scab legislation, and for a united, fighting labour movement defending and improving pensions, wages, and living standards.

But the USW's position of "ourselves alone" led in a different direction. The political fight was left to the NDP in Queen's Park and Ottawa, where anti-scab legislation and control over corporations like Vale can't possibly be won without mass mobilizations by labour and its allies.

Unity and Struggle

At the local level in Sudbury, the fight quickly moved from the union hall into the community. Family members and supporters pressed the City Council into action against Vale's by-law infringements for sleeping scabs inside mine offices at the work sites. Supporters raised funds, mobilized for the rallies, responded to the media, exposed the scabs, and helped families suffering after months on strike.

But support never moved much beyond the USW at the national and international level. Most key decisions were made at the top levels of the union, and strikers were often scrambling for information about the state of negotiations. The union's "one day longer" strategy proved inadequate in a wholly changed situation against an extremely powerful corporate adversary.

The central lesson of the Sudbury strike, applicable to the whole labour movement, is that the days of "ourselves alone" are over. Right-wing governments allied with transnational corporations can't be beaten with the bargaining strategies of the last 50 years. To defeat the agenda of austerity and union-busting, it will take a united labour movement with a coordinated offensive agenda and a mobilized membership.

The war continues

"The battle's over, but the war continues". That's the message from the Local 6500 leadership. An angry and bitter membership will continue the fight with Vale in the workplace, a mile or more underground.

Remarkably, after a year, one in four strikers voted to stay out in spite of everything. Most of the other 75% held their noses and voted to go back to work. In the event, the union had nowhere else to go.

The struggle continues, with a new, feisty local leadership. Former local President (and local Liberal) John Fera has retired, and the new President and Vice President were active local leaders and fighters in the strike. The union has some time to think over the strike and the future with Vale.

Already the venue is shifting. With Xstrata just down the road, and in the mine shaft next door, the people of Sudbury face a future of trouble and more struggle.

WikiLeaks releases CIA paper on U.S. as 'Exporter of Terrorism' By Ellen Nakashima | August 25, 2010; 5:40 PM ET

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkpoint-washington/2010/08/_a_little-known_fact_according.html

A little-known fact, according to a once-secret CIA analysis, is that America has long been an exporter of terrorism. And if that phenomenon were to become a widely-held perception, it could damage relations with foreign allies, the agency analysis said, and dampen their willingness to cooperate in "extrajudicial" activities, such as the rendition and interrogation of terrorist suspects.

That is the conclusion of a three-page classified analysis produced in February by the CIA's Red Cell, a think tank set up after the 9/11 attacks by then CIA Director George Tenet to provide "out-of-the-box" analyses on "a full range of relevant analytic issues."

Titled "What if Foreigners See the United States as an 'Exporter of Terrorism'?" the leaked paper, released Wednesday by the Web site WikiLeaks, cites the example of Pakistani-American David Headley, among others, to make its case that America is a terrorism exporter. This year Headley pleaded guilty to conducting surveillance in support of the 2008 Lashkar-i-Taiba attack in Mumbai, India, that killed more than 160 people. The militant group facilitated his movement between the U.S., Pakistan and India, the agency paper said.

Such exports are not new, the paper said. In 1994, an American Jewish doctor named Baruch Goldstein emigrated from New York to Israel, joined the extremist group Kach and killed 29 Palestinians praying at a mosque at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, it said. That helped trigger a wave of bus bombings by the extremist Palestinian group, Hamas group in 1995, it noted.

As Wikileaks disclosures go, this paper is more whiffle ball than bombshell. Last month the organization published 76,000 classified U.S. military records and field reports on the war in Afghanistan. That disclosure prompted criticism that the information put U.S. soldiers and Afghan informants at risk and demands from the Pentagon that the documents be returned. WikiLeaks says it is still planning to release 15,000 more Afghan war records that it has been reviewing to redact names and other information that could cause harm.

CIA spokeswoman Marie Harf downplayed the significance of the analysis: "These sorts of analytic products -- clearly identified as coming from the Agency's 'Red Cell' -- are designed simply to provoke thought and present different points of view."

A U.S. official who declined to speak for attribution was more dismissive. "This is not exactly a blockbuster paper," the official said.

While counterterrorism experts focus on the threat to the homeland, al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups "may be increasingly looking for Americans to operate overseas," the Red Cell report said.

And if the made-in-the-US brand becomes well-known, foreign partners may become balky, perhaps even requesting "the rendition of U.S. citizens" they deem to be terrorists. U.S. refusal to hand over its citizens could strain alliances, and "in extreme cases... might lead some governments to consider secretly extracting U.S. citizens suspected of foreign terrorism from U.S. soil."

This is not the first Red Cell report that WikiLeaks has released. It earlier published a March Red Cell "special memorandum" suggesting strategies to boost sagging public support for the Afghan war in France and Germany.

By Ellen Nakashima | August 25, 2010; 5:40 PM ET

Truth is concrete: by John Pilger, Morning Star, Tuesday 24 August 2010

On July 26 WikiLeaks released thousands of secret US military files on the war in Afghanistan. Cover-ups, a secret assassination unit and the killing of civilians are documented.

In file after file the brutalities echo a colonial past. From Malaya and Vietnam to Bloody Sunday and Basra, little has changed. The difference is that today there is an extraordinary way of knowing how faraway societies are routinely ravaged in our name - WikiLeaks has acquired records of six years of civilian killing in both Afghanistan and Iraq, of which those published in the Guardian are a fraction.

There is understandably hysteria on high with demands that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange be "hunted down" and "rendered." In Washington I interviewed a senior official in the defence department and asked: "Can you give a guarantee that the editors of WikiLeaks and the editor-in-chief, who is not American, will not be subjected to the kind of manhunt that we read about in the media?" He replied: "It's not my position to give guarantees on anything."

He referred me to the "ongoing criminal investigation" of US soldier Bradley Manning, an alleged whistleblower. In a nation that claims its constitution protects truth-tellers, the Obama administration is pursuing and prosecuting more whistleblowers than any of its modern predecessors. A Pentagon document states bluntly that US intelligence intends to "fatally marginalise" WikiLeaks. The preferred tactic is smear, with corporate journalists ever ready to play their part.

On July 31 the US celebrity reporter Christiane Amanpour interviewed US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates on the ABC network. She invited him to describe to her viewers his "anger" at WikiLeaks. She echoed the Pentagon line that "this leak has blood on its hands," cueing Gates to find WikiLeaks "guilty" of "moral culpability."

Such hypocrisy coming from a regime drenched in the blood of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq - as its own files make clear - is apparently not for journalistic inquiry. This is hardly surprising now that a new and fearless form of public accountability, which WikiLeaks represents, threatens not only the war-makers but also their apologists.

Their current propaganda is that WikiLeaks is "irresponsible." Earlier this year, before it released the cockpit video of a US Apache gunship killing 19 civilians in Iraq including journalists and children, WikiLeaks sent people to Baghdad to find the victims' families in order to prepare them. Before the release of last month's Afghanistan war logs WikiLeaks wrote to the White House asking that it identify Afghan names that might draw reprisals. There was no reply. More than 15,000 files were withheld and these, Assange says, will not be released until they have been scrutinised "line by line" so that the names of those at risk can be deleted.

The pressure on Assange himself seems unrelenting. In his homeland, Australian shadow foreign minister Julie Bishop has said that if her right-wing coalition wins the general election on August 21 "appropriate action" will be taken "if an Australian citizen has deliberately undertaken an activity that could put at risk the lives of Australian forces in Afghanistan or undermine our operations in any way."

The Australian role in Afghanistan, which is in effect mercenary to Washington, has produced two striking results - the massacre of five children at a village in Uruzgan province and the overwhelming disapproval of the majority of Australians.

Last May, following the release of the Apache footage, Assange had his passport temporarily confiscated when he returned home. The Labour government in Canberra denies it has received requests from Washington to detain him and spy on the WikiLeaks network. The Cameron government also denies this. They would, wouldn't they? Assange, who came to London last month to work on exposing the war logs, has now had to leave the country hastily for, as he puts it, "safer climes."

On August 16 the Guardian, citing Daniel Ellsberg, described the great Israeli whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu as "the pre-eminent hero of the nuclear age." Vanunu, who alerted the world to Israel's secret nuclear weapons, was kidnapped by the Israelis and incarcerated for 18 years after he was left unprotected by the Sunday Times which published the documents he supplied.

In 1983 another heroic whistleblower, Foreign Office clerical officer Sarah Tisdall, sent documents to the Guardian disclosing how the Thatcher government planned to spin the arrival of US cruise missiles in Britain. The Guardian complied with a court order to hand over the documents and Tisdall went to prison.

The WikiLeaks revelations shame the dominant section of journalism devoted merely to taking down what cynical and malign power tells it. This is state stenography, not journalism. Look on the WikiLeaks site and read a Ministry of Defence document that describes the "threat" of real journalism - and so it should be a threat. Having skilfully published the WikiLeaks exposé of a fraudulent war, the Guardian should now give its most powerful and unreserved editorial support to the protection of Assange and his colleagues, whose truth-telling is as important as any in my lifetime.

I like Julian Assange's dust-dry wit. When I asked him if it was more difficult to publish information in Britain with its draconian secrecy laws he replied: "We haven't found a problem. When we look at Official Secrets Act labelled documents we see that they state it is an offence to retain the information and an offence to destroy the information. So the only possible outcome is to publish the information."

This article appeared in the New Statesman.