Recall David Emerson

Please sign this petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/RDE/petition.html

To: Government Of Canada

We the undersigned believe that David Emerson elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for the riding of Vancouver Kingsway should be immediately recalled and a by election held so that the people of Vancouver Kingsway and in general all Canadians can be represented by the party and candidate of their choice.

David Emerson should immediately resign his current position in the Conservative Party and his cabinet position of Minister of International Trade. The people of Canada and in Particular the people of Vancouver Kingsway deserve proper democratic rights.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

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Stop the Big Business Attack on Youth

Lets think big about youth and the labour movement for a moment.

Jason Mann

The fact is the wealth of Canada continues to grow but full time jobs for young people keep disappearing. It’s no surprise many young people are in debt because there is only part-time work at low pay available.

Young workers in Canada make up almost 18% of the work force but have the lowest rates of union organization of any age group. Understandably, many young people end up working under conditions of low pay, chronic underemployment and high rates of injury. What’s going on?

Jobs and Wages
If you take prices into account for items like gas, tuition, food and rent: we are better educated but earning less than young people did 30 years ago! And yet the big monopolies that control our economy have increased their profits to record levels. ($204.5 billion in operating profits in 2004, up 18.8% over 2003 levels).

Every dollar less for wages, benefits and safety is one more dollar in the pocket of the big business. Big businesses like Wal-Mart, McDonald’s, Loblaws and Telus, their friends at the Fraser Institute and their representatives in government are keenly aware of this economic law.

Big Business and Government are on the Offensive

Their objective is to reduce our wages, increase profits, get rid of the organized labour movement and everyone else that stands in the way of their low wage strategy. The offensive of big business must be stopped!

Fight-back!

The trade union movement says organizing youth is a top priority, unfortunatly little action has backed it up so far. Unionization of young workers increased little since 1997 (11.7% to 13.9%). There have been some notable exceptions, but for the most part, organizing has been limited to sporadic uncoordinated “hot-shop” campaigns. What is really needed is a multi-union campaign to organize young workers on a mass scale.

What about openly and vocally building a cross-canada coalition of youth, students and young workers, both organized and unorganized, around a program for better work and better wages?

The program could be aggressive, simple, creative and strategic, action oriented and bold in demands. We need campaigns with overarching themes like organizinging young workers on a mass scale, establishing one $12/hr minimum wage and eliminating training and student wages. Raising the minimum wage is of concern to all workers because it raises the wage floor. Up the lowest wages, and everyone’s pay increases.

We can and must break the stranglehold of monopoly and its governments, turning Canada in a positive direction towards peace, social progress, full employment and better living standards for youth and all working people. It may sound ambitious but tinkering around the edges won’t stop the big business attack.

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Convention Shows Growth of YCL Ontario

Toronto –
Last fall the YCL kicked off its very first provincial convention in Ontario in almost fifteen years. The meeting brought together around 20 young comrades from eight different cities across the province.

The convention took a whole day of active discussion, starting with a keynote address from Ryan Sparrow from Hamilton, and greetings from the Communist Party. Discussion began with a review of the YCL’s organizational progress over the past year and a half, and then turned to the political document, which centred on a youth agenda for Ontario.

The approved political document analysed the attack by corporate power on youth and noted five features of this assault: low wages (including minimum wages), smashing price controls (such as jacking up rent and the tuition fees), privatization, free trade deals, and misrepresentations by the corporate media.

The convention backed the call for three province-wide campaigns to do with high schools, post-secondary education and young workers. Comrades debated issues ranging from graffiti as a means of political action, McJobs and youth unemployment, and youth culture such as punk and Hip Hop.

The day ended with the election of an eight person provincial committee, with three alternates. The provincial committee then elected an executive: Shona Bracken (secretary), Johan Boyden (organizer), and Dylan Figueiredo (treasurer). “It was a good time,” one delegate told Rebel Youth. “We had some really good debates,” said another delegate. “All in all, I think this convention will be important for the growth of the YCL in Ontario.”

Last year, B.C. held their first provincial convention, and a Central Convention is being planned for the Spring.

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Elections in Haiti

No to Imperialism's Sham Elections!

YCL Statement-reprint from Oct 2005

In early October, the International Mission for Monitoring Haitian Elections (IMMHE) held its first meetings in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. While the mission is composed of representatives from Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Panama and…of course…the United States; it is headed by Canada.

Canadian elections official and IMMHE chair, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, states that “the ultimate goal of the mission is to accompany and support the Haitian people in their path toward democracy.” Yet it was Canada who was one of the main forces at the lead of an imperialist coup which overthrew and kidnapped democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide from Haiti in February 2004 and have since brutally occupied the country and installed a puppet government.

Under such conditions no democratic election could possibly take place. Hence the YCL rejects the legitimacy of the “elections” in Haiti and supports demands for the return of Haiti’s democratically elected President.

History has shown that imperialism can not be expected to provide democracy, especially not to its occupied territories. Recent history has seen sham elections held in Iraq and Afghanistan after vicious invasion and occupation by imperialist forces. Furthermore, not unlike imperialism in Iraq and Afghanistan, imperialism in Haiti is there for one purpose…to serve and protect its own interests. Canadian companies like SNC Lavalin and Gilden have been getting rich off of the suffering and exploitation of the Haitian people for years and continue to under the occupation. There is no doubt that with Canada monitoring the Haitian elections to ensure that their chosen puppets are elected, nothing will change through electoral means. One way or another, imperialism must be forced to leave Haiti. As much as imperialism may claim it is spreading democracy, one must ask what democracy there is with no sovereignty. At the same time, we should question what democracy we have in our own country when our electoral officials are involved in “monitoring” the elections of a country that our country is occupying and will undoubtedly be involved in all sorts of fraud in the name of “democracy”. What democracy do we have when our government on the one hand deprives the people of other countries of their sovereignty, while on the other hand selling out our own sovereignty to U.S. imperialism? This is democracy for the capitalist ruling class, not for the majority of the people, the workers.

The YCL continues to condemn the occupation of Haiti. We fight against Canadian imperialism and for socialism not only for ourselves and for the Canadian working class and people, but for the people of Haiti and other countries where Canadian imperialism continues to exploit, oppress and meddle. We point out to those who are justly enraged at the monstrous actions of U.S. imperialism in Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and so on that Canadian imperialism has been no different in its actions and rhetoric in the case of Haiti. Furthermore, their actions are in all cases carried out for the same purpose, to further the interests of the ruling class. This fight is one for the whole world; we are all connected by our class interests in the struggle against imperialism. Hence, we stand with our Haitian sisters and brothers against the occupation. We demand Haiti’s sovereignty be restored and that Canadian troops be removed from all occupied territories.

Canada Out of Haiti!
Down with Imperialism!
Workers of the World, Unite!

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BC Student Walkout 2005

Report from BC Student Walkout 2005

In the midst of last years media blitz about ‘helpless youth’ during the teachers strike in BC, one story that curiously didn’t get much news time was the province-wide student walkout in support of teachers and for a quality education.

The October 3^rd walkout, called for by the Red Star Club of the YCL, showed the myth that students are just helpless bystanders is a lie. Approximately half of BC’s high schools walked out during the day of protest, proving that students are willing to stand up to defend public education.

"We’re out here making a stand,” said Sofia, a grade 12 student from Collage Heights Secondary.

“Why should corporations get more money from tax cuts,” said another grade 12 student, Virginia, “when we get zero for fundraising. It’s stupid. We need money because education is a lot more important than Gordon Campbell and his big business buddies.”

Some schools in the Lower Mainland even held public mock funerals for the death of public education in the province.

Although the walk-out was downplayed by local media, local organizers call the event a success because student stood up for something they believed in.

“This was one of the most significant developments in organized student struggle by BC high school students we have seen in some time” said Jason Mann, YCL BC provincial secretary. “High school students have been hit hard by Gordon Campbell,” he added. “But the YCL is going to be there together with students. We’ve got to fight back.”

To see videos of picket lines set up by BC students visit: http://www.workingtv.com/studentreportonbctfstrike.html

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Fast Food Workers Reject Final Pay Offer in New Zealand

Fast Food Workers Reject Final Pay Offer in New Zealand

Fast food workers from the SuperSizeMyPay.com campaign voted 100% against the Restaurant Brands’ final offer at a stopwork meeting in Auckland today.

Today’s meeting brought together union delegates from KFC, Pizza Hut and Starbucks stores in Auckland who voted unanimously against the company’s offer, and restated their support for the SuperSizeMyPay.Com demands of a $12 minimum wage, an end to youth rates and secure hours.

Susan Tuaniu, a mother of five and shift supervisor at Lincoln Rd KFC said that the company’s offer would only give her an extra $20 in the hand each week and would decrease the pay difference for people with more responsibility.

“I led a strike at my store because the minimum wage increase of 75c on March 27 won’t alleviate poverty. Many workers will still have to remain on benefits to supplement their income and New Zealanders will continue to subsidise big businesses like Restaurant Brands. Our $12 an hour claim is a first step against poverty wages”

Sam Van der Kolk, 15, a KFC worker from Balmoral, who currently earns $7.13 an hour, said that he was disappointed that the while the company had recognised that youth rates were unfair by promising to remove them in 3-5 years their offer meant a pay rise to only $8.76. This is still well below the new minimum adult wage of $10.25.

“It will take 3 years of doing exactly the same job as my older co-workers until I get the same pay. The majority of my mates at work are under 18, we went on strike because people should get equal pay for equal work” he said.

Parnell Starbucks shift-manager has to do several part-time jobs because she can’t get guaranteed hours. “Many of my friends who joined the Starbucks strike have their hours and shifts constantly changing each week,” she said.

SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign co-ordinator, Simon Oosterman, said that now that the workers had rejected the company’s final offer, that they would take the message to the general public and customers for support, before taking widespread industrial action.

“The SuperSizeMyPay.Com campaign began with short two-hour, non-disruptive strikes at a Starbucks, KFC and Pizza Hut. The goal of these actions was to draw public attention to the plight of low paid workers in New Zealand, not to disrupt customers. Many fast food customers are on minimum wages themselves and Restaurant Brands was notified of each strike in advance” he said.

“Restaurant Brands have not listen to the workers, nor have they listened to community groups such as Make Poverty History, the Council of Trade Unions and the Green Party who support our workers demands. If Restaurant Brands doesn’t listen to the broader public and their customers workers will be forced to take industrial action to win their demands. Workers cannot continue to face their lives being disrupted by insecure hours and poverty wages” said Mr Oosterman.

The broader public have been invited to a mass rally and stop work meeting in the Auckland Town Hall on Sunday February 12 at 2pm to support the campaign. It will be hosted by Rhombus lead singer, Imon Star and will hear accounts of the effects of poverty wages on fast food workers. The rally has been organised by Unite Union with the support of the National Distribution Union which represents many similarly low-paid workers in retail and distribution.

ENDS
Simon Oosterman is available for interview on 0274 555 789
http://www.SuperSizeMyPay.Com

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McGuinty’s Corporate Steamroller is on – but students can stop it!

Commentary

As winter’s ice covers Ontario, a freeze of another kind is being forced away – in spite of widespread complaint. “We are going to lift the tuition freeze,” Premier Dalton McGuinty coldly told students at Carlton University in September. This announcement is a radical shift in McGuinty’s official approach towards post-secondary education.

McGuinty’s plan is a “new tuition framework,” or deregulation. The fees students pay for their schooling would be set by “the market” rather than a body elected by and accountable to the people. While the banks would get big profits from debt, Ontarians would get less democratic, less accessible and poorer quality education.

In other parts of Canada like the East Coast and Quebec, significant gains have been made by students in the fight against loans and high tuition. If these policies are stopped in Ontario (one of the largest student populations in the country) not just the students’ agenda but all people’s struggles against corporate power could get a real boost. So the CFS fight back will impact more than just its members.

The YCL is 100% behind the CFS in this struggle. But there is a real need to up the anti, and go for militant tactics – for the CFS to team up with as many progressive forces as possible. After all, we’re up against one of the most powerful groups in society: the big corporations and financial interests – aka: capitalism.

Steamroll

McGuinty’s announcement comes at a time when public opinion widely supports tuition fee reductions, and Ontario’s share of Federal dollars for such reductions sits at $600 million. Plus, according to many observers, a big campaign – mobilizing students and other allies like the labour movement – has more potential for victory than we’ve seen in years.

While the old Harris Torries and the new Mc Guinty Liberals share the same corporate agenda, the Liberals are in a weaker position: they campaigned against the incredibly unpopular Tory agenda they are now steamrolling in using their majority in Queen’s Park.

Last spring, the Liberals presented three options at a stake-holder consolation process: tuition increase, tuition staying the same, or tuition decrease. As the head of the CFS Ontario, Jesse Greener, told Rebel Youth in an interview in late October, CFS leaders wanted to combat youth cynicism with politics and “plug youth into the [stake-holder consultation] process.” He added: “We were told time and time again that, in fact, there had been no decision and that our opinions at the table were valued.” Not true.

Jen Hassum and Estefania Toledo put it accurately in a letter to U of T students: “The stakeholder consultation proved to be a farce, and quite frankly students got screwed.” Well said! With the freeze off, student leaders across Ontario sent a strong and united message of opposition. The CFS Ontario have also laid out an action plan on the steps of Queens Park.

The Next Step

The new CFS tactic is combining plebiscite votes on tuition fees with lobbying. On November 21, Ryerson students voted 97% to reduce tuition fees; November 9, Sudbury students voted 96% in support of lower tuition fees; and November 7, University of Toronto Students Vote 98% to Freeze and Reduce Tuition Fees.

The lobbying side is summed up by The Varsity headline: “NDP, CFS lobby for new tuition freeze.” Rosario Marchese (NDP Trinity-Spadina) introduced a bill to simply keep the freeze. But currently, the Liberals hold 70 seats at Queens Park, the Conservatives 24 and the NDP 8. Even if the Conservatives voted for the freeze (when pigs fly!) the vote would be lost.

What could turn it around? Mobilization – large, powerful student protests at Queens Park, occupations of ministers offices, and joint-action with other progressive forces beyond the NDP such as like the labour movement, citizen’s and political organizations that oppose privatization such as the Health Coalition and Communists. “In the past, we have held public forums with the Health Coalition and met with the OFL [Ontario Federation of Labour] working group on tuition,” Greener told RY. It can be done again.

Stopping the Steamroller

A big-time fight could force the hand of McGuinty. In fact, York University – home to one of the most militant student unions in the country – has announced that fees may not go up for students. Plus, Quebec student last year went through one of the largest student actions in Canadian history.

This magnificent struggle was completely unreported by the corporate media. But at its peak in mid-March, an estimated 230,000 post-secondary students, over half of the total in Quebec, were on strike against a move by the Liberal provincial government to convert $103 million in grants to low-income students into loans. Striking students blocked access to the port of Montreal, disrupted highway traffic, occupied the offices of the Conseil du patronat (the principal employer association) and briefly took over the offices of Liberal ministers and members of the provincial legislature.

Quebec and Ontario aren’t in the same place. But we need something equally militant if we’re going to win quality, accessible, and democratic post-secondary education. Sitting on the sidelines would be a disaster. Unless there is a fight back, the government will literally steam-roll Ontario students with the corporate high-tuition agenda.

Sidebar:

We need:

• 100% public post-secondary education system
• Reduce then abolish tuition fees and user fees
• Grants not loans! eliminate all current student debt
• Full-funding for Aboriginal education; cut higher fees for international students
• Boldly expand apprenticeships and set compulsory quotas for on the job training
• Make childcare accessible to all students!
• A people’s government in Ontario and Canada

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Support the World Peace Forum

Mayor Sam Sullivan and the NPA-led City Council has used its majority to rescind the City’s commitment to host mayors from around the world for a General Assembly of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities (IAPMC) and the Mayors for Peace in conjunction with the World Peace Forum 2006.

The Young Communist League fully supports the World Peace Forum as an opportunity to present Vancouver as a city of peace.

Sadly, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan has broken another commitment he made during the election campaign. He promised to respect and honour the decisions and commitments of the previous Mayor and Council of Vancouver.

Right on the heels of reducing the amount of subsidized housing in False Creek as a legacy from the 2010 Olympics, this new council has decided to withdraw its funding and support for the World Peace Forum in Vancouver this June.

Solidarity is urgently needed from all progressive forces to let them know your outrage

Please send your letter to Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and Vancouver City Council.

Click this link to take action now!!
http://www.worldpeaceforum.ca/

Peace, Jobs, Socialism- a life with a future

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Stop the ban on the KSM!

The youth wing of the third-largest political party in the Czech Republic is about to be made illegal, according to an recent government letter sent to the Czech Communist Youth Association (KSM).

The letter, entitled “Warning and Precept,” has received condemnation from youth and student organizations internationally, including the Young Communist League of Canada who are planning a protest on February 14^th at the Czech embassy in Ottawa and Czech consulates across the country.

“This attack against the KSM is an attack against the whole communist movement in the Czech Republic” said Radim Gonda vice-president of the KSM responsible for international relations in a statement. “It is a part of a large anticommunist campaign in our country and in Europe.”

As reported in the last issue of People’s Voice, in January 2006 the Political Affairs Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe passed a reactionary resolution entitled "Need for international condemnation of crimes of totalitarian communist regimes." Protest campaigns prevented approval of the repressive enforcement measures, however.

A flood of letters, petitions and protests from around the world also helped the European Union announce in early February that it would reject calls for a proposed Europe-wide ban on Nazi symbols to be extended to Communist Party symbols.

The Czech Communist Party is the third largest political party in the Czech Chamber of Deputies. It’s autonomous youth contingent, the KSM, works actively in fights like those against rising college fees, and public transit ticket prices. It stands for peace, jobs and higher wages.

“The KSM does not promote hate, racism, homophobia or anti-Semitism.” said Stephen Von Sychowski, a leading member of the YCL Canada. Von Sychowski met and discussed various political concerns with several members of the KSM at the 16^th World Festival of Youth and Students in Venezuela this past summer. “A vital part of their activities are actually in the anti- racism, anti-war anti-fascist and anti-imperialist movements. Yet this association is about to be banned.”

Officially, the Czech Home Office sites two reasons to ban the KSM. First, they claim the KSM’s goals interfere with those of political parties. “However, the KSM does not differ from other youth political organizations like the Young Conservatives, Young Social Democrats, Young Christian Democrats, etc. So this attack is clearly political,” Gonda noted in the KSM statement.

“The other ground used by the Home Office for its attack was openly ideological,” Gonda adds. The ministry demands the KSM to renounce its political program, goals, and theory because it supports socialist revolution.

“To show you how ridiculous the attack against the KSM is I will quote from the letter,” Gonda explains. It says: ‘In terms of quotations from works of Marx, Engels and Lenin (see the banner MARXISM directly on the main internet page of the KSM), from whose teaching the KSM stems, there is no way but to state, that the approach of the KSM to Marxist-Leninist ideology is not neutral, that the KSM is concerned not only to inform the public about Marxism-Leninism or to publish historical documents, but to promote it consciously, in the context of the aims expressed in “the Political Programme of KSM.’

“What can the KSM reply?” Gonda continues. “Yes, we are for socialism, yes, we want to overcome capitalism, yes, we want to achieve it by the masses of the working people. Yes, we offer for free the texts of classics of Marxism on our web page.”

Thus, the ban is really a ban on an alternative to the current situation in the Czech republic, a country where unemployment is at 20% in some regions. In the 2002 elections, the Czech Communist party won 20% of the vote. In 2004, the European elections the party won second place, taking six seats. “They’re a threat to the ruling elite, not to democracy,” said Sychowski,

The attack against the KSM is just the latest in an anti-communist campaign that is expanding. Both the hammer and sickle and the red star are illegal in Hungary, for example. Another attempt in the Czech Republic was a petition by two far-right senators.

“Let’s abolish the communists” the petition was entitled, demanding a law criminalizing communist ideas, movements and the very word “communist,” placing them in the same category as fascism.

In recent days the House of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic has also passed a new Penal Code according which it is a criminal act to approve of and/or deny Nazi and so-called “communist crimes.”

This legislation re-writes history, for it was the Communists together with other progressives who overcame fascism in Eastern Europe and Russia. As Albert Einstein said when the unbeaten Nazi machine was stopped in Stalingrad: "Without Russia, those blood dogs [...] would have obtained their goal, or in any case, would have been close to it."

To find out more about the February 14^th protest and subsequent solidarity actions, email: ycl_ljc@ycl-ljc.ca

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Stop Illegalization of Czech Communists!

Stop the Ban on Czech Communist Youth!
Join the Canada-wide Day of Protest, Feb. 14th!

In recent years, especially since the events of September 11, 2001, the people of the world have faced increased repression by capitalist governments under the guise of the “war on terror”. The patriot act in the United States, Bill C-26 and Security Certificates here in Canada and the anti-communist resolution of PACE in Europe are examples of an offensive against dissent and against the rights and freedoms of the people. Today, the Communist Youth of the Czech Republic (KSM) are being outlawed by the Czech government.

The Young Communist League urges all progressive and democratic people to join us in protesting this blatant attempt to eliminate dissenting, progressive and revolutionary voices.

Join us February 14th at the Czech Consulate and make your voice heard!

February 14th
Outside of the Czech Consulates across Canada

For more information, or to help with this demonstration, please call 778-231-4635 or e-mail ycl_ljc@ycl-ljc.ca or Young Communist League Canada

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