Left Turn:Virage à Gauche: June 2010

June 30, 2010

Posted by Emile Schepers to People's World 06/26/2010 in response to Sam Webb's "No other way to get there"

Posted by Emile Schepers to People's World 06/26/2010 in response to Sam Webb's "No other way to get there"

See Webb: http://peoplesworld.org/no-other-way-to-get-there?commentStart=10

This is an interesting discussion and we should find a way to keep such discussions on strategy and tactics going on a permanent basis. Now my two cents:

1. I can't agree that the task of pushing the Democratic Party to the left has to wait until the ultra-right has shriveled up like the Wicked Witch of the West. That would be a long, long wait. Even under socialism, the ultra-right is likely to survive for a considerable time, and periodically flare up and do harm. Consider the case of Hungary: Recently the world was shocked by a big electoral advance for the JOBBIK party. This party has revived the demands of the old feudal nobility and its hangers on who are angry at the loss of their estates in Slovakia and Rumania AT THE END OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR! The tendency ran Hungary in the pre-war years, then went completely underground during FORTY YEARS of socialism, and now here it is again.

2. I agree with Sam Webb that the crucial thing is the grassroots coalition, and also that it is advancing at the base, but I have to note that it is not only the ultra-right and the GOP who work to weaken that coalition, but right trending sections of the Democratic Party also.
Not all Democratic politicians are crazy about the fact that their party's victory in 2008 was due to such an extent on millions of African-Americans, Latinos, poor workers and yough turning out to vote in unprecedented numbers. The Blue Dogs and others at one level were glad to get that vote, but also see in this a threat to themselves, i.e. to their control of the Democratic Party and the resources, power and patronage it controls.

3. I was politically active in Chicago inner city communities from 1969 through November 2004. I never missed an election and was often involved as a poll watcher, canvasser or part of a candidate's team of advisors--never was a candidate though. During that time, one of the main dynamics was the effort of the more conservative Democrats, affiliated with the Cook County "Machine", to SUPPRESS VOTER TURNOUT by African Americans, Latinos and other sectors they thought might not support them massively. This was motivated partly by racism, but much more by the very reasonable fear that if African Americans and other oppressed sectors really became empowered, they would make demands which would interfere with the cozy relationships the leaders of the city had with various financial and industrial corporations; relationships that were so corrupt and anti-people that Chicago journalist Mike Royko said that the city's Latin motto should be changed from "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden) to "Ubi est Mea?" (Where's mine?). So the "machine" Democratic leadership (not the Republicans, who are as common in Chicago as wooly mammonths) would fiddle with voter registration, schedule elections for dates in which it is likely to snow or sleet, and sometimes simply harrass people to keep down the vote.

4. The tendency of the right wing elements in the Democratic Party to turn away from the core elements of the working class and its allies -- the unions, the minorities, the social movements etc -- is of long standing and is directly related to the links it has to international monopoly capital as well as major economic actors in our own cities, regions etc. They are not merely ideologically backward, they are working to undo what we are trying hardest to do. And it is very harmful to our current efforts, because if it is successful its result will be a tamping down of participation in November 2010 of precisely those voters who made the difference in 2008. When someone like Cong. Heath Schuler (D-NC) goes out of his way to be the main sponsor of viciously anti-immigrant legislation, or when Blanche Lincoln takes anti-labor positions, this can't be ignored or swept under the rug. These elements, we must recognize, are also present in the administration, though they are not the whole story. Some of these elements wouldn't be brokenhearted if the Democratic Party were to lose its majority in Congress; their frame of reference is their own local political and economic base and they are willing to cut deals with the GOP if necessary to keep that going.

5. If the Democratic right succeeds, it breaks up the mass coalition which is the MAIN thing right now. If minorities, immigrants, youth, poor people, people harmed by the BP oil spill in the Gulf, etc etc. think that they are not only being attacked by Republicans, but also sandbagged by Democrats, the result will be demobilization, discouragement and disunity. And when right wing Democrats do these things, we absolutely can't cover up for them, or we harm our own prestige and ability to have influence. So when Blue Dogs bite, we HAVE TO HIT BACK with criticisms, agitation and if possible help for their opponents in the primaries etc. That has to go on AT THE SAME TIME as our fight against the ultra-right. That's the dialectical approach.

6. As for socialism, remember that Lenin tells us that revolutionary change comes when two things happen: The subordinated class can no longer tolerate the way they have been ruled, and the ruling class can no longer rule in the old way. I don't think that time is upon us. But should it happen that the ruling class faces a crisis before such time that the working class is ready to move, the danger of fascism, an overt and violent seizure of power by the ultra right, arises. So we have to keep organizing, agitating and defending the class base of the movement.

Posted by Emile Schepers, 06/26/2010

POLAND'S ANTI-COMMUNIST LAW TURNS HISTORY ON ITS HEAD, People's Voice, June 16-30, 2010 issue

http://fwd4.me/VBF

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

Statement by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

"Democracy" in the former socialist countries of Eastern Europe will take another body blow on June 8, when a new law takes effect in Poland, banning the depiction of anything considered a "communist symbol." In an outrageous twist, the law equates such symbols with the swastika and other Nazi insignia. The Communist Party of Canada condemns this legislation, which proves once again that democratic rights and civil liberties are being increasingly trampled across the European Union.

The legislation in Poland is an amendment to the penal code, criminalizing the dissemination of "communist symbolism." Signed into law last fall by the late president Lech Kaczynski, the measure was adopted by a nearly unanimous vote in the country's Parliament. The law includes a penalty of up to two years in prison for anyone who "produces, perpetuates, or imports, stores, possesses, presents, carries or sends a printout, a recording or other object" carrying "fascist, communist or other totalitarian symbolism" for other than "artistic" or "research" purposes.

In response, the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) correctly stated: "We strongly oppose efforts to equate fascism - which, based on racism, led to the bloodiest war in history thanks to the implementation of a plan to exterminate millions of people - with communism, which is built on the principles of social justice, and which defeated the genocidal fascists thanks to the utter dedication to struggle and sacrifice of countless millions of men, women and children. Despite even the most brutal repression we will not stop in our struggle for the victory of socialism, nor turn from the road to a victorious communist destiny!"

The free speech ban in Poland is just the latest such action taken by governments in Eastern Europe. Hungary imposed a ban on communist symbols in 1993; one of the leaders of the Hungarian Workers Party was given a prison sentence in 2004 for the "crime" of wearing a red star.

That sentence was overturned four years later by the European Court of Human Rights. Yet a similar law was adopted by Lithuania in 2009, and bans are also being considered in Estonia, Latvia and other countries.

In 2007, the Czech government outlawed the Communist Youth Union because it called for public ownership of the means of production. After a huge international outcry, that ban was finally overturned a few months ago by the Czech courts. But right-wing Czech parties are now demanding steps to outlaw the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the third-largest parliamentary party in the country.

This anti-communist campaign is also taking place on a continental level. The European Parliament last year proclaimed August 23 as a "Europe-wide Remembrance Day for the victims of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes." The anti-communist measures in Poland and elsewhere serve broader objectives against the workers' movement. They aim to suppress the activity and contain the influence of the Communists, and to block discussion of the socialist perspective, especially in the conditions of the present capitalist crisis. As George Toussas of the Communist Party of Greece warned in a December 3, 2009 statement in the European Parliament, the Polish ban is "an act of provocation aimed at prosecuting anyone who offers resistance and fights for a better future."

Nor is this campaign limited to Europe. Here in Canada, anti-communist reactionaries with close ties to the Harper Tories are preparing to build a so-called "monument to the victims of totalitarianism" in the National Capital Region of Ottawa. The real purpose of this "monument" is to serve as a rallying point for those who seek to restrict and ultimately ban the activity of the Communists in Canada.

In the face of this anti-communist escalation, communists in other countries are joining with the Polish Communists to express their opposition to the legislation. A number of Communist and Workers' Parties in Europe are sending MPs, MEPs, or other delegations to Warsaw to express their solidarity. Many parties will take part in a common day of action on June 8, 2010 with statements, news conferences, demonstrations, protests, and representations to Polish Embassies and EU offices, calling for the abolition of the anti-communist clauses and laws, and demanding the free, unhindered action of communists in all countries.

June 26, 2010

NATIONAL ABORIGINAL DAY, People's Voice Editorial, June 16-30, 2010 issue of People's Voice

Obama to be given the right to shut down the internet with 'kill switch'By Paul Thompson, Mail Online, 25th June 2010

Barack Obama will be given a 'kill switch' in times of national emergency

http://fwd4.me/Ucb

President Obama will be given the power to shut down the Internet with a 'kill switch' in a new law being proposed in the US.

He would be able to order popular search engines such a Google and Yahoo to suspend access to their websites in times of national emergency.

Other US based Internet service providers as well as broadband providers would also come under his control in times of a 'cybersecurity emergency.' Any company that failed to comply would be subject to huge fines.

Critics of the new law, which has been proposed by former presidential candidate Joe Liebermann, said it would be an abuse of power to let the White House control the internet.

TechAmerica, one of the largest U.S. technology lobby groups, said the new law had the 'potential for absolute power.'.

The proposed legislation, introduced into the US Senate by Lieberman who is chairman of the US Homeland Security committee, seeks to grant the President broad emergency powers over the internet in times of national emergency.

A sustained terror attack on multiple cities would be considered a national emergency as would a cyber attack by 'hackers' on the US financial system.

The director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair warned earlier this year that the US is 'severely threatened' by malicious cyber attacks.

The number of attacks on Government departments has increased by 400 per cent in the last three years.

Under the proposed bill, which has been dubbed an Internet 'kill switch', the US Government would effectively seize control of access to the internet.

Lieberman argued the bill was necessary to 'preserve those networks and assets and our country and protect our people'.

He said: 'For all of its 'user-friendly' allure, the Internet can also be a dangerous place with electronic pipelines that run directly into everything from our personal bank accounts to key infrastructure to government and industrial secrets.

'Our economic security, national security and public safety are now all at risk from new kinds of enemies--cyber-warriors, cyber-spies, cyber-terrorists and cyber-criminals.'

His bill is formally titled the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act, or PCNAA.

While the US Government would not be able to control the internet in other countries access to the most popular sites would be cut off.

Google,Yahoo and YouTube, the top three most visited sites, are all based in the US.

Google logs an estimated two billion hits a day from 300 million users.

Under the cyber law any company on a list created by Homeland Security that also 'relies on' the Internet, the telephone system, or any other component of the U.S. 'information infrastructure' would be subject to command by a new National Centre for Cybersecurity and Communications (NCCC) that would be created inside Homeland Security.

Google, the world's most popular search engine, refused to comment. A spokesman said the law was not yet Government policy.

June 24, 2010

Honduras on the March, By Chris Thomas, The Indypendent, June 23, 2010

http://fwd4.me/UMd

COUNTERING THE COUP: Thousands of people took to the streets of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on April 20 to launch a campaign for a new constitution. PHOTO: GIORGIO TRUCCHI/Rel-UITA

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras—On June 28 of last year, soldiers burst into the Honduran presidential palace in the middle of the night, put Manuel Zelaya, the country’s leftleaning, democratically elected president, on an airplane and exiled him to Costa Rica.

Cesar Silva, a reporter for state-run Channel 8 television, tried to go on the air to denounce the coup, but was censored. Instead, he took to the streets with his car and a loudspeaker to broadcast news of the overthrow, which was orchestrated by Honduras’ traditional oligarchy.

It would be the first of many independent broadcasts for Silva, 29, who tirelessly documented opposition to the coup and the human rights abuses that were visited on the opponents of the new regime. He too was forced into exile after an incident in late December in which masked men dragged him from a taxi at gunpoint and brought him to a clandestine jail where he was interrogated and tortured for 24 hours before being dumped on the side of the road on the outskirts of the capital city of Tegucigalpa.

“It was impossible for me to remain in my country,” Silva said. “I couldn’t go anywhere without unmarked cars with tinted windows following me, parked outside of my house — I didn’t have any other option than leave the country.”

A year after the coup, Silva’s experience is not uncommon in this deeply polarized Central American nation of about seven million people. A resurgence of paramilitary death squads along with regular pre-dawn police raids on the homes of government opponents have terrorized the population and helped reduce the visibility of the resistance. According to the Committee for the Families of the Detained and Disappeared of Honduras, there have been at least 12 politically motivated assassinations since late January and more than 9,000 documented human rights violations committed by state and paramilitary forces since last year’s coup. However, the repression hasn’t so much eliminated opposition to the government as forced it to take a different form.

THE RESISTANCE

The National Front of Popular Resistance (FNRP), or simply the Resistance, poured into the streets in the first days after the coup. For months, this massive nonviolent protest movement demonstrated daily, frequently blocking highways, while national unions carried out several strikes. Leading groups in the resistance include the Union of Beverage Workers, the Association of Secondary Teachers of Honduras, the Tegucigalpa- based Popular Block and the Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations (COPINH). All four have been targets of death threats and assassinations.

“The coup leaders want a bloody solution,” said Carlos H. Reyes, head of the beverage workers union and a leader in FNRP.

“That’s why they are repressing us.” The FNRP, whose platform is explicitly anti-capitalist, has evolved into a national coordinating body with local and regional coordinating groups as well. Despite the ongoing repression, it continues to organize “in every neighborhood, in every colonia, in every community,” according to FNRP coordinator Juan Barahona. The Resistance still calls for former President Zelaya to be allowed to return to the country along with 200 other political exiles. Its central demand, however, is transformational: a democratically elected constitutent assembly that would rewrite Honduras’ constitution to favor the country’s poor majority.

To achieve this goal, it is patiently building for the future. Anti-government marches that draw thousands still take place, but the focus has shifted toward local organizing, political education and solidarity building between the diverse movements and organizations that make up the FNRP.

“We couldn’t march half a block before they began to beat us and launch tear gas — that is why we began to change our strategy,” said Berta Cáceres of COPINH and FNRP.

“Popular Resistance Collectives” are one FNRP initiative aimed at broadening political participation throughout the country. These collectives are intended to create local, democratic and participatory spaces for reflection and action. They are already taking root: From the campesino movement in the Aguan Valley in the north to the striking workers at the National Autonomous University to the campesinos of Zacate Grande in the south, diverse organizations and communities have begun to develop a sense of solidarity with movements throughout the country, each acting from its own space, but with a common purpose.

On March 12-14, more than 1,000 delegates from the Resistance participated in a mock constituent assembly in the town of La Esperanza to begin hashing out concrete proposals in anticipation of installing a future assembly to draft a new Constitution.

In mid-May, FNRP initiated a series of public forums across the country entitled “Peoples’ Thinking,” in which participants discuss and analyze Honduras’ history and its present reality. These forums are also being broadcast over the internet so as to broaden the discussion and to allow the re-transmission of these exchanges by individuals, as well as community radio stations springing up throughout the country.

“The experience of the coup has saved the left decades of political education regarding the impossibility of genuine democracy under capitalism,” said Tomás Andino of the FNRP in a recent magazine interview.

COMMUNITY RADIO

With most of the large commercial media vociferously backing the coup makers, community radio stations with strong ties to peasant, indigenous and social organizations played a fundamental role in breaking the information blockade in the months following the coup, and continue to do so today.

Not surprisingly, these independent voices have been targeted by state and paramilitary forces. On Jan. 5, Garifuna community radio station Faluma Bimetu was pillaged and burned, and by the end of May courts ordered the destruction of newly inaugurated La Voz de Zacate Grande in southern Honduras. Operators of other independent radio outlets such as the Jesuit Radio Progreso have received numerous death threats and in some cases have had to go into hiding.

Just as the Honduran media is deeply divided, so too are other institutions. In this heavily Catholic country, much of the Church hierarchy has been outspoken in its support for the coup, most notably Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga. Yet, the majority of the Catholic base and much of the clergy are sympathetic to the resistance and have denounced the cardinal and other clergy for their complicity with the coup. Bishop Luis Alfonso Santos of Copán, near the border with El Salvador, and exiled Olancho priest Andrés Tamayo have maintained close ties to the Resistance, with Santos leading mass at highway blockades.

A DIVIDED OLIGARCHY

Honduras’s internal divisions extend into its ruling elite.

Rightist Porfirio Lobo assumed the presidency on Jan. 27 following elections last November that the FNPR boycotted and a majority of Latin American nations declared illegitimate. Since then, Lobo has struggled to gain support. His public approval ratings inside Honduras hover under 40 percent according to a recent CID-Gallup poll, while abroad the country still has not been re-admitted to the Organization of American States from which it was booted following the coup.

While maintaining a discourse of national unity and reconciliation, Lobo has taken clear steps to further consolidate the coup, placing current and former military officers in charge of migration control, the merchant fleet, civil aviation and even the state-owned telephone company. He established a truth commission, but his nominations exclude the victims of human
NOT AFRAID: A member of the Honduran National Front of Popular Resistance (FNPR) carries his daughter as they march past a line of police special forces. PHOTO: GIORGIO TRUCCHI/Rel-UITA
NOT AFRAID: A member of the Honduran National Front of Popular Resistance (FNPR) carries his daughter as they march past a line of police special forces. PHOTO: GIORGIO TRUCCHI/Rel-UITA
rights abuses — a fundamental element of truth commissions by international standards. In response, the Human Rights

Platform, a group of six national and international human rights organizations, has launched an independent commission that will begin its work June 28. However, his catering to the armed forces and the oligarchy has failed to placate the more hardline elements behind the coup. Lobo’s lack of popular support, combined with his clashes with certain business interests and even the Supreme Court, leaves him atop a government on the verge of collapse.

Desperate to obtain more international goodwill and legitimacy for his government, Lobo has also floated the idea of offering amnesty to both sides in the coup. On June 9, Lobo stunned observers when he announced he too was at risk of being deposed in a coup. The plotters, he claimed, were members of his own party.

“I’m warning you that I know who you all are,” Lobo said. “I have information, and you were wrong about me.”

Meanwhile, as Honduran oligarchs feud among themselves, the FNRP continues organizing.

All across the country, resistance members are in the midst of a massive campaign to gather signatures for “sovereign declarations” from their fellow citizens calling for a constitutent assembly to re-found the country. They also seek the return of all political exiles, including Zelaya. This effort is intended to counter the repressive political climate and broaden participation in the resistance before the FNPR’s founding assembly in September, in which it looks to consolidate its position as the most dynamic political force in the country.

The FNRP’s goal is to gather 1.2 million declarations, equal to the official number (most likely inflated) of votes that Lobo received in last November’s election. The declarations are being checked and centralized in Tegucigalpa. On June 14, with three months to go before the September 15 deadline, 549,743 declarations had been collected nationally. When the campaign is completed, the declarations will be presented before the Honduran Congress as well as international institutions to dramatize the level of discontent with the present situation in the country.

PINK TIDE

Last year’s coup was carried out with the tacit support of the Obama administration (which has since fully embraced the Lobo regime), the Pentagon and right-wing interests throughout the Western Hemisphere. They sought to draw a line in the sand against the “pink tide,” the growing wave of left-leaning governments that have risen to power in Latin America during the past decade and have slowly begun to move the region out from under U.S. domination. This is not lost on the FNRP, which sees its struggle in a broader context.

“What comes next is not at all easy for the countries of Latin America,” said Carlos H. Reyes. “The United States already has Honduras in its plans as a police force for Central America. From here they go against El Salvador and Nicaragua, and the same goes for Colombia … against the countries of South America. These people are ready to put an end to all of the integrationist processes that we have been developing across the continent.”

In spite of this offensive, the Resistance continues in its struggle to build “popular power from below with the direct participation of all sectors of society” towards a political program that responds to the grave crisis the country and the region are currently facing. As the one-year anniversary of the coup approaches, the FNRP doesn’t plan on mourning the assault on democracy. Instead, it recently announced it will celebrate “the birth of a authentic direct democracy, which has put us on the path towards the refounding of Honduras, and the construction of a just future for all.”

Chris Thomas is an independent journalist based in Chiapas, Mexico.

June 28, 2009

Honduran President José Manuel Zelaya is kidnapped by his own military and sent into exile. Head of Congress Roberto Micheletti is installed as president. Zelaya previously angered Honduran elites with a number of initiatives including raising the country’s minimum wage by 60 percent and forging closer ties to a coalition of left-leaning countries led by Venezuela. The coup takes place on the day Hondurans are scheduled to vote on a non-binding referendum to convene a constituent assembly to rewrite the nation’s constitution, a move supported by Honduran social movements but deplored by the country’s political establishment.

July 4, 2009
The Organization of American States expels Honduras by a vote of 33 to 0. Called a “blow to the democratic conscience of the continent” by Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo, the coup is widely denounced in Latin America, a region still scarred by memories of U.S.-backed dictatorships that flourished during the Cold War era. The Obama administration criticizes the coup but does little to pressure the Honduran oligarchy, despite its close economic and military ties to the United States.

July 5, 2009
More than 100,000 demonstrators march to an airport on the edge of Tegucigalpa to watch Zelaya’s attempt to return to Honduras accompanied by the presidents of Paraguay, Argentina and Ecuador. His effort is thwarted when the military refuses to allow his flight to land.

July-August 2009
U.S. State Department-backed talks between representatives of Zelaya and Micheletti begin under the auspices of Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. The Miheletti government is advised by Lanny Davis, a longtime Clinton family political operative-turned-lobbyist for Honduran business interests. The talks drag on for weeks, giving Honduras’ new rulers additional time to consolidate their power.

September 2009
Protesters inside Honduras continue to call for a constituent assembly and a new constitution. Zelaya successfully sneaks back into the country Sept. 21 and is greeted by tens of thousands of supporters when he appears at the Brazilian Embassy. The Honduran military quickly cordons off the area. Zelaya is confined to the embassy for the next four months.

Nov. 29, 2009
The main opposition groups boycott the elections as National Party candidate Porfirio Lobo wins the presidency in a vote marred by low turnout. The United States declares the Honduran elections a success while most Latin American nations refuse to recognize the election results.

Jan. 27, 2010
Zelaya is allowed to leave the country as Lobo is inaugurated as Honduras’s president.

March 12-14, 2010
A thousand delegates from the National Front of Popular Resistance convene a mock constituent assembly and begin to hash out their ideas for what they would like to see in a new constitution.

June 10, 2010
President Lobo announces that members of his own political party are plotting to overthrow him and install a new president.

—John Tarleton

June 23, 2010

Hadash: Israeli Arabs most restrained minority, Ynet, June 8 2010

Hadash General Secretary Ayman Uda

Hadash: Israeli Arabs most restrained minority

"We are not Arab Israelis, we are Palestinians. We are the most restrained minority in the world, despite the IDF's crimes," Hadash Secretary-General Aiman Uda said.

"In 1948 we decided not to harm the state's security, yet you continue to commit crimes against us anyway," he said during a conference in Ma'a lot- Tarshiha. (Hagai Einav)

G8/G20: Fight for a Real Alternative to the new Capitalist "Consensus" July 1-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice

http://fwd4.me/UCO

(The following article is from the July 1-31, 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.)

Issued by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada, June 2010

On the eve of the G8/G20 meetings, mass labour and democratic mobilizations are building in Southern Ontario and across Canada to protest this wasteful, security-obsessed extravaganza. The Communist Party of Canada salutes this resistance and takes its rightful place alongside workers, students, women, Aboriginal peoples and social activists in denouncing these summits which aim to hammer out a strategic line among the ruling imperialist states and international finance capital on how best to advance their shared interests, and then present their agenda as a fait accompli to the world's peoples.

This set of G-summits is particularly important because global capitalism continues to be mired in a profound economic and structural crisis, notwithstanding the soothing media reports that the 'worst is behind us' and that recovery is well under way. Saving capitalism and restoring profit margins are the main concerns of these 'leaders', rather than solving the burning problems afflicting the world today. That is why issues like climate change, the world food crisis, ending wars of occupation and rampaging military spending, and the worsening problem of "under-development", especially in Africa, have all be swept off the agenda of the G8/G20 meetings.

Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney admitted as much this June when he declared that the Summits must focus attention on the continuing crisis, especially in Europe, which has had a serious "impact on financial conditions ... [and] it's not over." He then parroted the World Bank which earlier raised the possibility of a "second recession affecting most of the industrialized world if governments don't deal successfully with the unfolding European debt crisis."

In fact, the leading imperialist countries, including Canada, want to use the Summits to showcase their determination to impose further social and economic austerity on all states and peoples, as the only viable solution to overcome the crisis. But this is a false 'international consensus" - one that serves the interests of finance capital, but which consigns the vast majority of the world's working class and oppressed peoples to even more hardship and suffering.

In Europe, the Austerity agenda pushed by the European Union brass and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is already having a devastating effect, especially on public sector workers, youth, and pensioners. Minimum wages are being slashed, social programs cut, and the retirement age extended for workers.

But this savage attack is being met by heroic resistance across the European continent, especially in Greece and Portugal where the left, Communist-led unions and popular movements are mounting escalating general strikes and other forms of mass resistance to fightback against this anti-social onslaught of Big Capital and its governments.

In Canada, we need to replicate the kind of militancy building in Europe, Latin America and elsewhere around the world. The right-wing Harper government and their pro-corporate provincial counterparts (both Conservative and Liberal) are also moving to deepen the assault on workers' conditions, social programs, and democratic and equity rights. And they will succeed in pushing through these reactionary 'reforms', unless the labour and people's forces move quickly to mount a militant, coordinated, Canada-wide counter-attack.

This is such a progressive alternative to this reactionary, pro-capitalist 'solution',, but it must go beyond, palliative demands to soften the impact. It must include sweeping measures which challenge the dominance of monopoly capital, such as the nationalization of the banks, the big energy monopolies, and other key sectors of our economy. These steps need to be combined with social measures like expanding access to healthcare, public and post-secondary education, raising the minimum wage to $16/hour, reducing the workweek with no loss in take-home pay, and improving public pensions. And with sweeping tax reform which would shift the burden from working people onto the corporations and the wealthy, and with an immediate withdrawal from the disastrous war of occupation in Afghanistan, along with a 50% cut in military spending which would save another $10 billion every year.

As we state in our May Day 2010 statement, "the big monopolies and banks want to make working people pay for the economic recovery through lower wages, higher unemployment, and huge cuts in social spending. We say: those who reap billions in profits must pay! Unite and fight for a fundamentally new direction, placing the needs of working people and our environment before corporate greed, [and for policies] based on peace and disarmament!"

COMMUNITY SUPPORT STRONG FOR M.P. LIBBY DAVIES July 1-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Communist Party of Canada Newspaper

TAKE PRIDE IN SOLIDARITY! Pride 2010 statement from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League

(The following article is from the July 1-31, 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 summer, millions of people from the LGBT communities and their allies across North America will fill the streets for Pride parades. On the 40th anniversary of the first gay pride celebrations, held in 1970 in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League send warmest greetings, and pledge our solidarity to the ongoing struggles for full equality.

The controversy around this year's Pride Parade in Toronto highlights the true meaning of these struggles. By trying to ban reference to Israel's apartheid policies, the parade organizers have committed the tragic mistake of sacrificing the rights of one group of oppressed people for the alleged protection of another.

We recall the words of Pastor Martin Niemoller regarding the rise of Hitler fascism: "First, they came for the communists, but I was not a communist, so I said nothing. Then, they came for the social democrats, but I was not a social democrat, so I said nothing. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist, so I said nothing. Then they came for me, but there was nobody left to speak out."

Fortunately, many are speaking out today, within the queer community and far beyond, in solidarity with the Palestinian people and in defense of free speech. These voices remind the world that Pride is about the right of individuals and peoples to live free from oppression, whether this takes the form of brutal homophobia or war crimes committed against the Palestinians.

In fact, the dynamic response of the LGBT communities to the banning of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid has mobilized wider international solidarity with Palestine. Many leaders of the LGBT communities have returned their Pride Parade honours, calling on Pride Toronto to reverse this censorship, a demand which we whole-heartedly support.

Forty years after the first Pride Parades, we welcome the expansion of more queer-positive environments in the public realm, the growing numbers of trade unions with active Pride and LGBTQ caucuses, and the increase of gay-straight alliances, safe school spaces and "Pride proms" in our schools. These and other legal, political and cultural victories are the hard-won results of decades of efforts by the LGBTQ community and allies.

But much more remains to be achieved. The burning issue today is not how to sweet-talk corporate donors or pro-Israeli politicians, or to raise the visibility of the military in Pride events. The issue is the ongoing violence and hatred directed against gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and trans people, and those perceived as such by homophobes and gay-bashers.

Alarmingly, police-reported hate crimes are up sharply, according to a new Statistics Canada report. Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation more than doubled from 2007 to 2008, a much greater increase than crimes based on religion or race/ethnicity. Hate crimes motivated by sexual orientation were also more violent, and took place most often in cities such as Vancouver, Hamilton, London and Guelph. This report confirms the anecdotal evidence of a rise in gay-bashings in recent years.

We also know that same-sex marriage gains are threatened in the United States, and that the Harper Tories still hope to reverse queer rights if they win a majority government. Right-wing forces continue to scapegoat the LGBTQ community and racialised groups, to divide working class resistance against finance capital, corporate bailouts and global environmental plunder.

Despite Canada's welcoming image, queer youth seeking asylum from persecution in other countries are still being extradited. Most LGBTQ students still report feeling unsafe at school, and prosecutors are often unwilling to prosecute vicious gay-bashings as hate crimes.

Globally, violent expressions of homophobia are on the rise, sometimes in response to courageous attempts by gay-rights groups to hold public events like our Pride Parades. The struggle to end the criminalization of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression faces stubborn resistance in many countries. Working class queer people suffer vicious discrimination, along with women and racialized communities who bear the brunt of neoliberal economic and social policies.

ILGA, the association of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersexed peoples, reports that 76 United Nations member states still criminalize consensual same-sex acts among adults. In seven countries, punishment for homosexuality still includes the death penalty.

But progress for equality is being achieved in countries such as Cuba, South Africa and Nicaragua. The myth that queer rights can only be won in wealthy capitalist countries is shattered by these advances, and by the reality that homophobic and racist concepts are exported from North America and Europe. We also note that Canada is one of only 15 countries which shamefully legislates a higher age of consent for homosexual activities.

Despite the cultural and legal shift in favour of equality and diversity, homophobia and transphobia remain entrenched within the Canadian state.

Stephen Harper voted against same-sex marriage, and has left his options open on abortion if he wins a majority. He snubbed the 2007 international AIDS conference in Toronto, and appoints anti-choice, anti-gay judges to the courts. "Focus on the Family" zealots are found among top Tory advisors, who promote the patriarchal family model.

At a time when the so-called "war on terror" is used to remove civil liberties for racialized communities, we must always remember that "an injury to one is an injury to all." Just like racism, sexism, and national chauvinism, homophobia and transphobia are weapons to divide working people. Equality and human rights must be expanded to include full legal and political protections for sexual orientation and expression, and gender identity.

This demand is not "divisive." It is a vital part of the wider movement to drive the Harper Tories out of power. Today the ruling class is using the economic meltdown to carry out a vicious assault on all hard-won social equality gains. A broad democratic and social resistance is needed to block and reverse this corporate agenda. Together, we must build a powerful coalition around a genuine people's alternative to this crisis - a common front of Aboriginal peoples, youth and students, women, seniors, immigrant and racialized communities, environmentalists, labour, peace activists, the LGBTQ community, farmers, and many other allies.

Ultimately, this struggle in our communities and workplaces, and at the ballot box, will defeat the right and open the door to a people's coalition government. The goal of the Communist Party is to win fuller social freedom and genuine people's power in a socialist Canada, where our economy will be owned by all and democratically controlled. It will then become possible to eradicate the intersecting forms of exploitation and oppression which we face today, while defending our sovereignty and protecting our common environment.

June 21, 2010

THE CPC VIEWPOINT ON ON IRAN, From the Resolution of the 36th Central Convention Communist Party of Canada. February 2010

On Related International Issues

"We also express our solidarity with the progressive,
secular and democratic forces of Iran who are struggling
against the Ahmadinejad government and the repressive
theocratic regime as a whole.

"At the same time, we emphasize that the
conflict within that country must be settled
by the Iranian people themselves. We vehemently
oppose any move by U.S. imperialism or its
allies to use the conflict and their ongoing
“demonisation” of Muslims and Islam as a pretext
to interfere, or worse, launch military aggression
against Iran.

"As the Central Executive stated in July 2009, some
progressives in Canada and elsewhere
“have wrongly concluded that because the regime
has been targeted by U.S. imperialism and its
regional gendarme, the Zionist state of Israel… [the
anti-imperialist movement] should remain silent, or
worse, even support the reactionary regime. This
simplistic arithmetic, based on the flawed notion
that ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, is
fundamentally flawed. The Ahmadinejad regime is
not at all a progressive or ‘pro-worker’
government… It is a vicious, reactionary regime
which has repeatedly attacked workers’
organizations, women, students and secular forces,
including imprisonment, torture and murder against
its opponents, over the past thirty years of its rule.”

U of T G20 Page, June 21, 2010

http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/

Unless there is a Communist Party line there is no opposing line to Wall Street's line, by: Alan Maki, June 21st, 2010

http://fwd4.me/Trg

I had commented on "the Obama is better" argument in starting a facebook thread:

American progressive friends often say "but Obama is better then the Republicans". How better is it to have a Dem president who has escalated the Afghanistan War & expanded US commando Special assassination commandos to 75 countries including African countries? Obama initially sold the world on a softer US imperialist spiel. Now Pakistan cannot dodge his indiscriminate drones.

Alan Maki's contribution touched on many important lines on the role of the Left in North America:

"First of all, there is no "Obama line" or "Bush line" or "McCain line" or "Palin line;" there is only the "Wall Street line." We are seeing this in the upcoming G-20 meeting in Toronto. Wall Street is dictating the "line" of capital.

"Unless there is a "Communist Party line" (the Party line); there is no opposing line to Wall Street's line.

"The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), under the brilliant and able leadership of Sid Ryan, has come the closest of anyone, any organization or political party in formulating a proper line that the working class--- all liberal, progressive and left people in North America--- can unite around with a real progressive agenda that is a real alternative to Wall Street's agenda.

That line is "People First."

"The strong implication in "People First" is that it is "People Before Profits" which is, and always has been, (until recently) the "Party line." The Communist Party of Canada seems to be adhering to this Party line; the CPUSA does not since it is working in league with Wall Street's (Obama's) imperialism.

"At times, it appears to me, the CPC does not completely understand the important role of the NDP as some CPC members and leaders seem to think the NDP is a party they should be competing with, rather, than, helping to lead.

"Quite frankly, there would probably be no NDP had CPC leader Tim Buck not had the foresight and vision to understand the importance of Canada having its own party for labor and the working class--- which the NDP is, in spite of all of its shortcomings (which are to be expected and anticipated since among the working class there are all kinds of world views and outlooks always jostling for leadership to provide the NDP with its direction).

"Now would be the time for the CPUSA to give leadership in helping to create a labor based people's party reflecting and representing those forces who are, objectively in line to become "the people's front," should the CPUSA exert its leadership in building such an important, necessary and needed popular front to oppose Wall Street's capitalist and imperialist system.

"At present, the CPUSA leadership views Barack Obama as "the brilliant leader of the democratic people's front." I doubt there has ever been a Communist Party leadership so confused as to think that a flim-flam man and con-artist working for Wall Street can possibly be the leader of any "democratic people's front."

"Actually, there have been few social democrats so confused although there are some right-social democrats in Canada's New Democratic Party who seem to have relinquished leadership to Wall Street and its chosen frontman, Obama who uses all of Madison Avenue's and Hollywood's gimmickry, too.

"While the Greens may offer some useful opposition and obstruction to Wall Street's agenda, it is more by accident then by intent or design--- certainly the Greens have no "Party line" offering an alternative to Wall Street's imperialist agenda.

"Liberals, progressives and the left can continue wasting precious time; but history has proven, time and time again, that without strong Communist Parties, the people and the working class are left defenseless as Wall Street maneuvers through all kinds of schemes few people will understand, to implement its thoroughly reactionary imperialist agenda which is all about profits before people and Mother Nature--- no matter how "brilliant" those leading the Wall Street charge may be in hoodwinking the people and the working class--- brilliance does nothing to alleviate the suffering and misery of the people caused by wars, racism, unemployment, failing public educational systems, inadequate healthcare, lack of public child care centers and a crumbling infrastructure as the drive to amass greater profits which leads to these dirty wars becomes the primary motivation behind everything.

"Here in North America--- in Canada and the United States--- we should all be finding ways to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in activism and solidarity behind the call of the Ontario Federation of Labour an alternative agenda for "People First" as the G-20, led by Wall Street with complete complicity of Bay Street, the Square Mile and the other centers of capital, are convening at their Toronto Summit on June 26-27--- next week:

People First! We Deserve Better G8 & G20 PUBLIC RALLY and MARCH

http://ofl.ca/index.php/news/index_in/people_first_we_deserve_better/

Time, Date & Location:
Saturday, June 26th @ 1:00pm
Queen's Park - Toronto
March ends at Trinity Bellwooods Park

"The G8 & G20 Summits taking place in Ontario from June 25-27 offer Canadians a rare opportunity to speak out on priorities that the world’s most wealthy and powerful nations should adopt on economic recovery, environment, human rights, decent jobs, and social justice. Decisions taken by the G8 & G20 governments impact on millions of lives in Canada and around the world.

http://www.g20.utoronto.ca/

"Check out this excellent poster being distributed by the OFL--- print it, post it and distribute it widely:

http://ofl.ca/uploads/misc/June26_Rally_Poster-EN.pdf

"Let us look at who is supporting this peaceful working class family centered march, rally, and demonstration and who isn't working to build it... this will tell us much of what we need to know and what we need to do.

People First!

People before Wall Street's profits!

http://ofl.ca/uploads/library/economy/Together_it_Works.pdf

Aides to U.S. General in Afghanistan slam Obama: report, Excerpt, Washington, Reuters, Mon Jun 21, 2010

http://fwd4.me/TrQ

The Rolling Stone article, which quoted several McChrystal aides anonymously, portrays a split between the U.S. military and Obama's advisers at an extremely sensitive moment for the Pentagon, which is fending off criticism of its strategy to turn around the nearly nine-year-old Afghan war.

It quotes a member of McChrystal's team making jokes about Vice President Joe Biden, who was seen as critical of the general's efforts to escalate the conflict and who had favored a more limited counter-terrorism approach.

"Biden?" the aide was quoted as saying. "Did you say: Bite me?"

Another aide called White House National Security Adviser Jim Jones, a retired four star general, a "clown" who was "stuck in 1985."

It quoted an adviser to McChrystal dismissing an early meeting with Obama as a "10-minute photo op."

"Obama clearly didn't know anything about him, who he was. The boss was pretty disappointed," the adviser told the magazine.

McChrystal, a workaholic said to sleep just four hours a day, was brought into Afghanistan a year ago after his predecessor was pushed out.

The article portrays his teams as disapproving of the Obama administration, with the exception of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who backed McCrystal's request for additional troops in Afghanistan.

Some of the strongest criticism was reserved for Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"The boss says he's like a wounded animal," a member of the general's team is quoted as saying. "Holbrooke keeps hearing rumors that he's going to get fired, so that makes him dangerous."

The Israel lobby in Canada, From: Jews sans frontieres June 19, 2010

http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com/2010/06/lobby-in-canada.html

Source: Jews sans frontieres
June 19, 2010

The Israel lobby in Canada

The Israel lobby in Canada is as nasty as it is anywhere if the case of Canadian MP, Libby Davies, is anything to go by. They are not content with hassling people who have made comments condemning this or that atrocity by the racist war criminals of the State of Israel, they have to get in people's faces now, ask them what they think of something or other and then go nuclear when they get an honest response. See this from Straight.com:

Vancouver East MP Libby Davies got bushwacked by a pro-Israel activist posing as a neutral – if not pro-Palestinian – blogger. After a rally for the Palestinians criticizing Israel’s deadly assault on the aid flotilla, a man approached Libby asking for an interview. As she always does, because she never hides her views, she complied. He immediately set her up with what he called a “background question.” He asked when the occupation began, 1948 or 1967.

Libby hesitated then said 1948. She made the point that the date was not important – that whatever the date the occupation was the longest in the world – and far too long.

The next day the interview appeared on YouTube. But in 24 hours it had gone nowhere – just 28 views. Then the most vociferous supporter of Israel in the NDP caucus, Thomas Mulcair, got wind of it and it escalated out of control. He went on a relentless campaign to punish Libby. The spin he helped create was that if Libby believed the occupation began in 1948 then she, ipso facto, believes that Israel has no right to exist. Libby has always gone to great lengths to make it clear that she supports Israel’s right to exist and the two-state solution endorsed by the NDP. But suddenly Jack Layton was in full-panic mode. He apologized to the Israeli ambassador. He hung Libby out to dry. He forced her to issue a public apology.

Apology? For what?

Some have criticized Libby’s statement as evidence that she does not know the history of the occupation which most mainstream commentators date from 1967 – when Israel militarily occupied the West bank, Gaza and the Golan Heights. But Libby’s problem was not that she didn’t know enough. She knew too much.

Sadly, she did indeed apologise and the lobby seems now to have gone into a feed frenzy. Her apology is here but she has many supporters in the comments that show people are far more focused on the truth that she told than the backtracking and apology.

First Posted by Levi9909 @ 7:29 PM

Palestinians already have a homeland, By Palestine Youth Voice, palestinenote.com, 21 Jun 2010

Palestinians are not desperate for a homeland, they already have one. Palestinians want to go back to their homeland.

http://fwd4.me/Tq7

After his meeting with President Abbas, a meeting meant to difuse calls to punish Israel on its flotilla massacare, President Obama came out to pretend he understands it all. Obama came out to say: "It is time for us to go ahead and move forward on a two-state solution that will affirm the needs of Israeli citizens and will affirm the needs of Palestinian -- Palestinians who are desperate for a homeland."

Obama is desperate for a two-states solution not for peace. But never mind, all former American Presidents were committed to the same concept, a two-states solution to guarantee the legitamizing of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. They never discuss a solution for peace. They always discuss a solution for a two-states solution. Regardless of all that, Obama and his predecessor have always thought we are desperate for a homeland. I wonder who gave them this idea. Preseident Obama - we are not people who were massacared somewhere in Europe or America and we immigrated all the way to this land looking for a homeland because we don't like our previous homeland anymore. We do have a homeland. Our homeland is here. My homeland is Haifa. Our homeland is Akka, Haifa, Yafa, Safad, Bisan. Our homeland is Palestine. Remember Palestine. Maybe if you ask the British they'll tell you. Ask them about the land that they mandated in the early 20th century. Ask them where it is. The 27,000 km square land, Palestine.

Dear Mr. Obama - we are not Americans. Americans consider their place of residency as their homeland. We are Arabs. We are Palestinians. Our homeland is the land that our ancestors have built and grew shedding sweat and blood. Our homeland is Palestine.

Sure some Palestinians who still live on their land in the West Bank and Gaza are fed up with the rest of us and want a political entity. You can work on that. You can solve their problem. But you better know that you are not solving the issue here. You will be deviating 30% of Palestinians out of the equation, but the rest of us are still waiting to get back home.

President Obama - I do understand that the interest of the American people is to control the region with the zionist presence, but please do understand that the interest of the people in the region is to end zionism.

So please do not copy the zionist slogan "a land without a people for a people without a land". This land is called Palestine. With three Political entities "Gaza, West Bank, and Israel" but it's called Palestine.

Dear Obama - We DO have a homeland.

"Whoever says that there was a coup here (in Honduras)is crazy," says Panamanian Ricardo Maduro, Honduras en lucha!, 21st june 2010

Ricardo Maduro (photo) with Roberto Micheletti was part of the coup against the constitutional president, Manuel Zelaya in June 2009.He is a former President of Honduras and chairman of the Bank of Honduras

http://fwd4.me/TpK
Source: Honduras en Lucha! , June 21, 2010

The former president Ricardo Maduro (2002-2006)who masterminded the coup...said that the Honduran coup which occurred in June 2009, was a total success, because "culture, peace and democracy" must prevail over foreign interference.

US Supreme Court Boosts Federal Prosecutors in Terror Cases, Monday 21 June 2010, by: Michael Doyle | McClatchy Newspapers

Source: Truthout

http://fwd4.me/Tp8

Washington - The Supreme Court on Monday bolstered law enforcement in national security cases, permitting prosecution of U.S. organizations that provide non-violent legal training or advice to designated terrorist groups.

Honduran Military and police kill boy and arrest five peasants, from: Honduras en lucha! Source: defensoresenlinea.com , June 21, 2010

http://fwd4.me/Tou

The farmer Oscar Geovanny Ramirez (age 16) was killed and five others arrested in a violent operation that involved the police and army, the Cooperativa La Aurora, the Peasant Movement Unified Aguán, MUCA, on Sunday June 20 between 9 : 30 to 10:00 am.

A flash of lightning By Uri Avnery, Aljazeera.com 21/06/2010

Uri Avnery

Our government's action against the Gaza aid flotilla was such a lightning flash. Israelis normally live in darkness as far as seeing the world is concerned.

By Uri Avnery

http://fwd4.me/Toc

NIGHT. UTTER darkness. Heavy rain. Visibility close to nil.

And suddenly a flash of lightning. For a fraction of a second, the landscape is lit up. For this split second, the terrain surrounding us can be seen. It is not the way it used to be.

OUR GOVERNMENT action against the Gaza aid flotilla was such a lightning flash.

Israelis normally live in darkness as far as seeing the world is concerned. But for that instant, the real landscape around us could be seen, and it looked frightening. Then the darkness settled down over us, Israel returned to its bubble, the world disappeared from view.

This split second was enough to reveal a dismal scene. On almost all fronts, the situation of the State of Israel has worsened since the last flash of lightning.

The flotilla and the attack on it did not create this landscape. It has been there since our present government was set up. But the deterioration did not start even then. It began a long time before.

The action of Ehud Barak & Co. only lit up the situation as it is now, and gave it yet another push in the wrong direction.

How does the new landscape look in the light of Barak¡¯s barak? ("barak" means lightning in Hebrew.)

THE LIST is headed by a fact that nobody seems to have noticed until now: the death of the Holocaust.

In all the tumult this affair has caused throughout the world, the Holocaust was not even mentioned. True, in Israel there were some who called Recep Tayyip Erdogan "a new Hitler", and some Israel-haters talked about the "Nazi attack", but the Holocaust has practically disappeared.

For two generations, our foreign policy used the Holocaust as its main instrument. The bad conscience of the world determined its attitude towards Israel. The (justified) guilt feelings ¨C either for atrocities committed or for looking the other way ¨C caused Europe and America to treat Israel differently than any other nation ¨C from nuclear armaments to the settlements. All criticism of our governments¡¯ actions was branded automatically as anti-Semitism and silenced.

But time does its work. New tragedies have blunted the world¡¯s senses. For a new generation, the Holocaust is a thing of the remote past, a chapter of history. The sense of guilt has disappeared in all countries, except Germany.

The Israeli public did not notice this, because in Israel itself the Shoah is alive and present. Many Israelis are children or grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and the Holocaust has been imprinted on their childhood. Moreover, a huge apparatus ensures that the Holocaust will not disappear from our memory, starting from kindergarten, through ceremonies and memorial days, to organized tours "there".

Therefore, the Israeli public is shocked to see that the Holocaust has lost its power as a political instrument. Our most valuable weapon has become blunt.

THE CENTRAL pillar of our policy is our alliance with the United States. To use a phrase dear to Binyamin Netanyahu (in another context): it¡¯s "the rock of our existence".

For many years, this alliance has kept us safe from all trouble. We knew that we could always get from the US all we needed: advanced arms to retain our superiority over all Arab armies combined, munitions in times of war, money for our economy, the veto on all UN Security Council resolutions against us, automatic support for all the actions of our successive governments. Every small and medium country in the world knew that in order to gain entrance to the palaces of Washington, the Israeli doorkeeper had to be bribed.

But during the last year, cracks have appeared in this pillar. Not the small scratches and chips of wear and tear, but cracks caused by shifts of the ground. The mutual aversion between Barack Obama and Binyamin Netanyahu is only one symptom of a much deeper problem,

The Chief of the Mossad told the Knesset last week: "For the US, we have ceased to be an asset and become a burden."

This fact was put into incisive words by General David Petraeus, when he said that the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict is endangering the lives of American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. The later soothing messages did not erase the significance of this warning. (When Petraeus fainted this week at a Senate hearing, some religious Jews viewed it as divine punishment.)

IT IS not only the Israeli-American relationship that has undergone a fateful change, but the standing of the US itself is changing for the worse, a bad omen indeed for the future of Israeli policy.

The world is changing, slowly and quietly. The US is still by far the most powerful country, but it is no longer the almighty superpower it had been since 1989. China is flexing its muscles, countries like India and Brazil are getting stronger, countries like Turkey ¨C yes, Turkey! ¨C are beginning to play a role.

This is not a matter of one or two years, but anyone who is thinking about the future of Israel in ten, twenty years must understand that unless there is a basic change in our position, our position, too, will decline.

¡¡

IF OUR alliance with the US is one central pillar of Israeli policy, the support of the vast majority of world Jewry is the second.

For 62 years, we could count on it with our eyes shut. Whatever we did ¨C almost all the world¡¯s Jews stood at attention and saluted. In fire and water, victory or defeat, glorious or dark chapters ¨C the world¡¯s Jews did support us, giving money, demonstrating, pressuring their governments. Without second thoughts, without criticism.

Not anymore. Quietly, almost silently, cracks have appeared in this pillar, too. Opinion polls show that most American Jewish young people are turning away from Israel. Not shifting their loyalty from the Israeli establishment to Israel¡¯s liberal camp ¨C but turning away from Israel altogether.

This will not be felt immediately either. AIPAC continues to strike fear into Washingtonian hearts, Congress will continue to dance to its tune. But when the new generation comes to man key positions, the support for Israel will erode, American politicians will stop crawling on their bellies and the US administration will gradually change its relations with us.

IN OUR immediate neighborhood, too, profound changes are underway, some of them beneath the surface. The flotilla incident has exposed them.

The influence of our allies is decreasing constantly. They are losing height, and an old-new power is on the rise: Turkey.

Hosni Mubarak is busy with his efforts to pass power to his son, Gamal. The Islamic opposition in Egypt is raising its head. Saudi money is trumped by the new attraction of Turkey. The Jordanian king is compelled to adapt himself. The axis of Turkey-Iran-Syria-Hezbollah-Hamas is the rising power, the axis of Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Jordan-Fatah is in decline.

BUT THE most important change is the one that is taking place in international public opinion. Any derision of this reminds one of Stalin¡¯s famous sneer ("How many divisions has the pope?")

Recently, an Israeli TV station showed a fascinating film about the German and Scandinavian female volunteers who flooded Israel in the 50s and 60s to live and work (and sometimes marry) in the kibbutzim. Israel was then seen as a plucky little nation surrounded by hateful enemies, a state risen from the ashes of the Holocaust to become a haven of freedom, equality and democracy, which found their most sublime expression in that unique creation, the kibbutz.

The present generation of idealistic youngsters from all over the world, male and female, who would once have volunteered for the kibbutzim, can now be found on the decks of the ships sailing for downtrodden, choked and starved Gaza, which touches the hearts of many young people. The pioneering Israeli David has turned into a brutish Israeli Goliath.

Even a genius of spin could not change this. For years, now, the world sees the State of Israel every day on the TV screen and on the front pages in the image of heavily armed soldiers shooting at stone-throwing children, guns firing phosphorus shells into residential quarters, helicopters executing "targeted eliminations", and now pirates attacking civilian ships on the open seas. Terrified women with wounded babies in their arms, men with amputated limbs, demolished homes. When one sees a hundred pictures like that for every picture that shows another Israel, Israel becomes a monster. The more so since the Israeli propaganda machine is successfully suppressing any news about the Israeli peace camp.

MANY YEARS ago, when I wanted to ridicule the addiction of our leaders to the use of force, I paraphrased a saying that reflects much of Jewish wisdom: "if force does not work, use brains." In order to show how far we, the Israelis, are different from the Jews, I changed the words: "If force doesn¡¯t work, use more force."

I thought of it as a joke. But, as happens to many jokes in our country, it has become reality. It is now the credo of many primitive Israelis, headed by Ehud Barak.

In practice, the security of a state depends on many factors, and military force is but one of them. In the long run, world public opinion is stronger. The pope has many divisions.

In many respects, Israel is still a strong country. But, as the sudden illumination of the flotilla affair has shown, time is not working in our favour. We should deepen our roots in the world and in the region ¨C which means making peace with our neighbours ¨C as long as we are as strong as we are now.

If force doesn't work, more force will not necessarily work either.

If force doesn't work, force doesn't work. Period.

-- Uri Avnery, an Israeli writer and peace activist, founded the Gush Shalom movement. He had served three terms as an MP at the Knesset. This article was published by Gush Shalom.

-- Middle East Online

© aljazeera.com

A Quebec Communist replies To CPUSA's Sam Webb re: "A cautionary tale" People's World, June 18 2010

A Quebec Communist replies To Sam Webb's "cautionary tale",
People's World, June 18 2010

http://fwd4.me/Tl1

To Sam Webb,

I don't agree with you. Of course, I don't know much about the USA; however I realize that there is not such a thing as the Left in your country. There are political groups that are of the extreme left, such as Trotskyists and there is also the Communist Party USA. I would never say that the Democratic Party that is reluctant to adopt the law on Health Care for some members is a progressive organization. In Canada, more precisely in the french province of Québec, there is the Québec solidaire party that gathers different groups and the communists. They have one elected Member at the National Assembly out of 125 deputies. His main concern is for the workers of Québec.

Of course, communists are ready to represent workers in the National Assembly (Parliament) and promote their interests such as the purchasing power and the defence of their standards of living and also their national rights (french language and culture).

Engels never said, never, that communists should present hidden candidates. Earlier he said even that elections were a powerful mean to measure the support of the population in regard with the communist party and its number amongst the people.
Now, if there would be a fascist threat in Canada, the Communist Party would immediately call for the unity of all democrats; it is not the case in my country and it is not the case in USA.

The US workers are at the moment more pragmatic than communist, but they have less and less confidence in the system, that is the capitalist system. IN 2008, it was a blow against racism and not against capitalism (and imperialism). It seems obvious that the communists in USA must reach the working people, engage into campaign that will benefit the workers and struggle for their well-being. It must be an independent campaign against b ig US mnopolies to start with.
In the canadian media, they say that Obama is less popular in USA. One can understand it easily since he does not live up with electoral promises and the dire economical situation of workers'families.

I know that I mention very often the word "workers", it is needed since they are the majority of the people living in USA. They deserve to be listened to. The Communist Party must be on their side and fight for their interests first. Maybe, democratic minded people will accompany them, including Democrats, but in this class struggle, the toilers must have the last word.

Posted by Daniel Paquet, 06/19/2010
Daniel Paquet studied Communications at Montréal’s Québec University from 1993 to 1996, where he graduated in journalism with honours

Zionists fighting Peace - How Israel lost its soul, Media Monitors, by Mohamed Elmasry, Wednesday, June 17, 2009

http://fwd4.me/Tko

"Israeli society is in love with war and Tzahal: because they give the average citizen a feeling of contradictory safety; because they develop the mind and muscle of the economy and help them fill their pockets; and because war and preparation for war tally with the dynamic development of Israeli industrial life. Further more, war IS the only possibility, when your aim is to live alone in a country where another people lives as well.

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid out "his vision" of peace last week. This vision was, in a word, expected. After all, he is a hard-core Zionist Jew:

"If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization and Israel’s security needs, and if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state."

Netanyahu also said Israel would not recognize the right of return for Palestinian refugees, saying that the problem must be solved outside of the Jewish state.

To understand why Netanyahu’s vision, which can be described as fighting peace, is supported by many Israelis one must know how Israelis are indoctrinated in Zionism and how violent militarism is not only a Zionist ideal but an economical and a sociological necessity.

One of the best books on the subject is How Israel Lost Its Soul, by Maxim Ghilan, a Zionist Jew who left Israel in 1969, having been "forced to reconsider his nationalist Jewish stand" :

"Tzahal (the Israeli Defense Forces) is not only an army: it is a state within a state, a security apparatus, an extremely dynamic economic empire, a never diminishing source of managerial manpower for the civil economy ... But first and foremost for the average Israeli, Tzahal is the main channel of his indoctrination, the symbol of the identity he wears, in fact and in thought, when he feels insecure or knows himself to be under attack. Zionist history, which in a totally insipid and slanted form, is pushed down pupils throats in Israeli classrooms. (Tzahal drafts 18-year-old boys for three years and girls for two years.)

"[Once drafted he] does not have to fight for his basic needs: home, food, the usual comforts, transport, health insurance-all these are provided by the State. Even his family is taken care of, should he fall in battle. He can, then, afford to be mildly critical, at times-as long as his criticism is unrelated to war.

"[A University student] is either fighting two months a year in the reserves, or has just completed three years of army duty ... upon completing his studies he will have a good deal of useful knowledge and a position which will be almost automatically allotted to him by the manpower-hungry (Zionist) Establishment. He will have the two necessary attributes: knowledge and Jewishness.

"He thus reaches his conclusions, out of his own vested interests but without real knowledge or personal experience of the social and military roots of the conflict upon which his society is based. His future, his economic interests and past military indoctrination all tend to add up and force him to ignore ‘dangerous’ facts such as racialists exclusivity and perennial war.

"Israeli society is in love with war and Tzahal: because they give the average citizen a feeling of contradictory safety; because they develop the mind and muscle of the economy and help them fill their pockets; and because war and preparation for war tally with the dynamic development of Israeli industrial life. Further more, war IS the only possibility, when your aim is to live alone in a country where another people lives as well.

"Israel has gradually become a more and more openly racist country. Anyone not Jewish is at best second-class in Israel... A Jew has inherent rights in Israel even if he is not born in the State. A Jew is considered an insider, while a ‘Goy’ (Gentile, non-Jew) always remains an outsider, even if born inside the country ... In the State of Israel, officially defined as ‘Jewish’ just as Rhodesia’s or South Africa’s (were) ‘white’, this is a most important means of personal tyranny.

"As Israel progressed towards its consecration as a ‘pure Jewish’ state, it found itself giving more and more power to those zealots who held Zionist-religious views."

Ghilan ends by citing the example of Giora Neumann, who went to military jail for refusing to serve in an "imperialist army," and those of a growing number of young Israelis who wish to "escape the nightmare of unending war." If more Israelis turn into Neumanns then and only then will "peace with an independent Arab Palestine and rapprochement between this Palestine and Israel would finally become a possibility."

June 20, 2010

CUPE ONTARIO : INTERNAL DIVISIONS CONSUME CONVENTION, By Helen Kennedy, Toronto, June 16-30, 2010 issue of People's Voice

(The following article is from the June 16-30, 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.)

CUPE Ontario has emerged from its recent convention in Windsor with divisions in its leadership and budget cuts that could hamper its ability to act as one of Canada's leading social unions. The union that has been on the leading edge of many critical debates in the labour movement over the past decade has been hobbled by an accumulated deficit. And, instead of coming out strongly in defence of free collective bargaining in the face of a provincial government that is creating a wage-freeze environment, the leadership appears to be consumed by internal divisions.

The CUPE Ontario officers, President Fred Hahn and Secretary-Treasurer, Candace Rennick, were elected by the Executive Board when previous president Sid Ryan moved on to become president of the Ontario Federation of Labour in November 2009. Ryan had led CUPE Ontario for 17 years and provided much of the impetus within CUPE for a strong fightback against privatization, for supports for coordinated bargaining and for being a staunch defender of Palestine.

In Ontario, the March budget did nothing to stem the corporate tax cuts, which, according to Hugh Mackenzie at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, will cost an additional $2.5 billion by 2012-13. Savings of course will be taken by implementing a wage freeze for all provincially funded organizations (eg. front-line, low-paid social and community service organizations) and all provincial collective agreements that expire over the next two years. Transit funding to expand Toronto's sorely needed infrastructure was slashed and postponed. The poor will see fewer benefits with a miserly 1% increase in social assistance combined with the elimination of the "special diet program" that thousands have relied on to supplement their families' nutritional intake.

However, from the onset of the Convention, the CUPE Ontario budget defined much of the debate. In her first report, Rennick revealed that CUPE Ontario had a deficit of just over $1 million and that CUPE Ontario was "insolvent." While the fiscal year deficit was close to $500,000, deficits from past years stood at over $500,000.

The current year deficit was the result of a variety of factors. Several staff in the CUPE Ontario office have been on extended sick leaves and their positions were back-filled through book-offs. The budget overage in this category was almost $300,000. Other areas in which CUPE Ontario spent more than budgeted included $85,000 in strike support, over $100,000 in campaign costs that were disallowed by the National, over $100,000 in convention costs, and increased translation costs. Despite losing its largest affiliate (Local 79, inside municipal workers in Toronto), dues income exceeded revenue targets, due to the decision at the 2008 Convention to convert to a percentage system which results in automatic increases with wage settlements.

Rennick's proposed solution to the financial "crisis" was that CUPE Ontario had requested CUPE National co-sign a loan to assist the Division in "offering relief and a path to financial stability." CUPE National's conditions? "A review of [CUPE Ontario's] finances and operations to better understand the seriousness of the situation and to help in identifying the most accurate amount of financing required." An auditing firm from Winnipeg was brought it to conduct the review. The result, published and distributed to the floor as the "Management Letter for Financial Structuring", outlined 103 recommendations, that if implemented would result in the National's signature on a loan agreement.

Other recommendations include gapping and staff lay-offs, making it more difficult to book-off activists, especially those from smaller and more female-dominated locals, and establishing a "budgeting culture" at CUPE Ontario.

The Action Caucus, which met at the convention, were alarmed with the strategy that would make CUPE Ontario more dependent on the National Union, given the latter's move to the right over the past seven years. The Caucus considered a suggestion from CUPE 3902 (University of Toronto) for locals to lend the Division the money needed to address the deficit - a plan that would allow CUPE Ontario to retain its fighting activism. As the convention ended, the Executive Board had met with those locals interested in pursing this possibility.

Was there any good news coming from the convention? Aside from the very few resolutions being passed, the Convention did pass a 2010 Action Plan that outlines a progressive fightback. Priorities for CUPE Ontario include building resistance to the Liberal government's "Open Ontario" plan, reaffirming a commitment to "no-concession" bargaining, strengthening sectoral and pattern bargaining, fighting privatization, strengthening collaboration with social movements, defend defined-benefit pension plans and fight to win progressive candidates to City Councils and School Boards in the upcoming municipal elections.

The newly elected Executive Board needs to play a lead role in moving CUPE Ontario forward by implementing the 2010 Action Plan, despite the gloomy internal budget picture. CUPE Ontario needs to be at the forefront of a massive fightback against the provincial government's attack on public services. Strengthening the Action Caucus within CUPE Ontario is also essential. It is also the best way to strengthen left-centre unity and shore up CUPE Ontario as one of Canada's leading social unions.

Left Turn:Virage à Gauche