The Harper majority vs. women's equality

Protesting violence against aboriginal women

This article is the third in a series of feature stories RY magazine is presenting before International Women's Day on March 8th.

By Helen Kennedy

As we celebrate International Women's Day this year, let's take a look at the Stephen Harper's continuing agenda to roll back equality rights. How much more damage have the Tories inflicted in the first year of their new majority?

The anti‑woman policies of the Harper Tories have been well documented since they came to office as a minority government in 2006. The first move was to back‑pedal on the national childcare program and offer a stingy $100 a month tax credit. Dismantling support for advocacy around legislative and constitutional change was next, with the cancellation of the Court Challenges Program, the closure of most Status of Women offices across the country and cancellation of research and advocacy funding for women's organizations.

Despite statistics showing crime rates are flat or declining, the Harper Conservatives declared law and order a top priority. Legislation supported by both the Liberals and the NDP introduced mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes. Bill C‑10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, is currently in Senate hearings. If passed, C‑10 will greatly reduce and/or eliminate rehabilitation programs and recast the criminal justice system towards punishment and vengeance.

Student actions a step ahead, but not enough

by Johan Boyden

The Feb. 1 cross‑Canada day of action by the Canadian Federation of Students was an important step towards the kind of broad, united fight for accessible education that is urgently needed right now.

Students are facing a powerful opponent - the agenda of big business. That means higher and higher tuition fees. Heavier student debt. Increased privatization. The corporate engines seem to be running on nitrous with the economic crisis these days.

If we agree on that, then the February 1st demonstrations should act as a wake‑up call for students in English‑speaking Canada, not just because of the scale of the protests. Crowds of a few thousand marched in several cities - below potential, but a good start. What was lacking was a clear, militant action plan to return to the streets, draw in a much stronger range of forces, and keep up the pressure.

Something fierce - memoirs of a revolutionary daughter

On September 11^th, 1973 a CIA-supported coup smashed the socialist and democratically elected Allende government of Chile. By the end of the day, Chile had taken a rapid descent into fascism and the dictatorship of General Pinochet had begun, as well as and the murder or persecution of hundreds of thousands of labour, left-wing, socialist and communist activists had begun – including women like Carmen Aguirre's mother.

Something Fierce is Carmen Aguirre's memoir of a young woman growing up in a Chilean-Canadian family that heads back to fight the Pinochet regime. The book was published just last spring, and has already garnered rave reviews and been named to the longlist of the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction and the CBCs Canada Reads contest.

It is not well known but the Canadian government also supported the US actions against Allende’s Chile, like the pre-coup embargo attempting to destabilize the country.

The Globe and Mail welcomed the Pinochet regime two days the coup and, commenting on events at the time, Canadian Ambassador to Chile Andrew Ross stated, "You have to remember, this is South America," as if that somehow justified Canadian support of a fascist dictatorship.

This makes Carmen’s story doubly interesting.  While the Canadian government welcomed tens of thousands of families fleeing socialist governments from Europe and South-East Asia, only two thousand political prisoners were accepted from Chile.

Here, as part of a series of articles leading-up to International Women's Day 2012, Rebel Youth presents an excerpt from the book and what a young feminist reviewer is saying about it.

IWD 2012

Message from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League
March 8 is a day to honour women's struggles, take stock of hard‑won gains, and to demand full equality.

This year, International Women's Day comes amidst inspiring new struggles. The global Occupy Movement has exposed the growing income gap and political power disparity between the wealthiest 1% and the other 99%. Working people in Europe are conducting huge struggles against austerity measures.

Across the capitalist world, women are disproportionately paying the price for bailouts of the banks and major corporations, neo‑liberal cuts to social programs, public service layoffs and massive tuition increases.

In Canada, IWD 2012 comes amidst intense attacks by corporations upon the hard won pensions of workers, and by governments upon public pension plans. These attacks have the sharpest impact on women, given their lower average incomes, and higher rates of poverty.