Rebel Youth Magazine

Mobilize for CFS Day of Action, Feb. 1st

2012-01-31T03:59:00.000-08:00

Student's will be mobilizing
at over 50 campuses across
the country on Wednesday.

Students today are facing a corporate steamroller in the form of massive tuition increases and high youth unemployment like our generation has never seen before. The only way forward for the students is to develop a united fightback. The cross-Canada Day of Action, organized by the Canadian Federation of Students, is an excellent step in that direction and has the full support of the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League.

“EDUCATION IS A RIGHT” NOT A PRIVILEGE!

Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Despite the economic crisis, Canadian corporate profits are increasing.

The Harper Conservative government is spending billions on the military and war. Yet there is no money for education.

It would take approximately $6 billion to pay for all undergraduates’ tuition, while Harper is now spending over $20 billion (and rising) on the military each year.

Why are the people being forced to pay for the economic crisis? This crisis was not created by young people, or students, or workers. It was created by systemic problems inherent in the capitalist system, which is also environmentally unsustainable.

STUDENTS ARE JUSTIFIED IN BEING ANGRY AND PROTESTING

All students are being gouged. At almost every college, trade school and university campus across the country, tuition is being jacked-up. Students are forced to run up huge ‘debt sentences.’

Aggressive privatization on campuses is also severely compromising the quality of education and student services, independent research, campus democracy, as well as decient wages and working conditions for all campus workers.

THERE ARE NO JOBS FOR GRADS

More working class youth are excluded from school and left kicking stones – unemployed, or in low-paid work without union protection – especially young women, aboriginal youth and youth from racialized communities. Youth unemployment is far higher than any other age group.

Big business needs an educated workforce. But the corporations are not willing to pay the bill through corporate taxes. Instead, they are forcing students and working families to pay using credit cards, static wages or shrinking savings.

If they miss a pay cheque, even for just a week, 57% of Canadians would be in financial difficulty with rent, bills, groceries, etc.

ACCESS TO EDUCATION IS A CLASS ISSUE

Education is a concerns of all working-class people. And together, students and the people can again pull open wide the doors of higher learning that have been slammed shut in our faces.

Tuition fees should be frozen, reduced and then abolished. Education should be free for all.

The Young Communist League is proposing a Charter of Youth Rights guaranteeing the right to education as well as the right to good-quality employment, full equality, democracy, leisure, justice for Aboriginal peoples and Quebec, a healthy environment, and peace.

STUDENTS MUST KEEP UP THE PRESSURE

More mass mobilizations on and off-campus, sit-ins and strike action are needed. Mass struggle and cooperation between the students and other movements, especially labour, is the only way forward that can effectively defeat reactionary governments and win accessible education.

By marching in the streets on Feb. 1st, the student’s are joining a struggle that needs to grow and deepen.

Now is the time to act – and keep going.

Such an approach can succeed, escalating the struggles and weaving together all the threads of resistance.

The Occupy movement proved again that young people in Canada are not complacent and apathetic but can audaciously take on the 1%.

OTHER STUDENTS HAVE OVERCOME GREATER CHALLENGES!

Last year, students helped topple the Mubarak and Ben Ali regimes of Egypt and Tunisia. Also, in Chile, hundreds of thousands of students have been marching in the streets demanding a new constitution guaranteeing accessible education. They have been joined en masse by the labour movement and other people’s forces.

The biggest student mobilizations in Canada’s history took place in Quebec in 2005 which saw weeks of growing mobilization and strikes for education.

At the same time as students in English-speaking Canada are marching, hundreds of thousands of Quebec students will be voting to use the strongest weapon of the students to put moral and political pressure on the government – a general student strike, shutting down virtually all campuses.

TIME TO TURN UP THE HEAT ON THE TORIES

These student struggles in Quebec and the rest of Canada are connected because in Ottawa all students face the Conservatives who are trying to smash basic democratic, civil and labour rights with their agenda of police, prisons, poverty and war.

Take the mass arrests at the Toronto G20 summit, or last year’s evictions of Occupy, attempting to silence dissent.

Take the Tories’ “omnibus attack on human rights” crime bill, or their tearing up of Canada’s Kyoto commitments.

The Harper government are also denying the right to strike, like they did with the Postal Workers.

Last week the Harper Tories announced deeper and quicker budget cuts and more ‘major transformations.’

Stopping this attack and bringing down the Harper Conservative government is the first major break towards a people’s alternative agenda.

CONNECT THE ‘EDUCATION IS A RIGHT’ DEMAND WITH GREATER UNITY AND MILITANCY

The way forward for students after the Day of Action, therefore, is to re-double our efforts and find every tactic that brings in thousands more students as well as labour unions, Aboriginal activists, community groups, women’s organizations in a powerful, united campaign targeting the federal government.

This is also the best way to win the battle of ideas against right-wing students who have been crusading to break apart the CFS and weaken student unity.

A ‘PSE’ ACT WOULD BE A STEP FORWARD

The promising idea of a federal Post-Secondary Education Act (PSE Act) proposed by the CFS, the Canadian University Teachers Association and now the New Democratic Party (NDP) would make education a protected right like Medicare.

But a PSE Act must go further than currently proposed – it must have ‘teeth’ and be enforced; restore and massively increase all federal PSE funding; ban ancillary fees; impliment a system of grants instead of loans, reverse campus privatization; lift the cap from and then expand Aboriginal education spending; and treat Aboriginal peoples and Quebec on an equal basis with English-speaking Canada, allowing these nations full control over their post-secondary education on the basis of their sovereignty and self-determination as nations.

STUDENT STRUGGLES SHOULD OPEN A BROAD DEMOCRATIC DEBATE ABOUT FREE EDUCATION

The Day of Action, the PSE Act and the campaign “Access to Education is a Right” therefor must be part of a real alterative project for a fundamentally different direction for education in society, based on people’s needs not corporate greed, starting with freezing, reducing and then abolishing tuition fees and opening the question of a new kind of emancipatory education.

This struggle will not be advanced just by lobbying and press conferences, or isolated local battles.

Nor is electing the NDP an effective plan. The NDP’s track record is inconsistent; the Manitoba and Nova Scotia NDP are underfunding PSE and raising tuition.

Only persistent work, a powerful coalition, and visible resistance on our streets, campuses, and workplaces can make public calls for access to education (and other progressive demands) resonate in parliament.

WE DEMAND A CHARTER OF YOUTH RIGHTS

A Charter guaranteeing the rights of youth to education, democracy, employment, peace, a healthy environment, equality, leisure and sports, other demands could be a platform to bring together the threads of resistance of the youth and student movement, and unite in a powerful force, taking on policies that push for real change and confront the system, pushing for a counter-offensive for the rights of youth against big business.

The struggles students are making today can grow, to help bring about social progress towards a people’s alternative agenda, making a sharp break with current policies. That struggle can also open the door to revolutionary transformation.

FOR A SOCIALIST CANADA!

Big business says socialism is finished. In reality, it is the capitalist system, based on exploitation and oppression, which has no future. History is on the side of freedom, peace, ecology, and the people. Only socialism makes the needs and aspirations of the people its highest priority.

Only socialism can put people before profit. And only socialism can use the benefits of science and technology for the well-being of all Canadians, not for the enrichment of a few, and not for waging war. Socialism is a real advance towards true democracy.

This is the perspective of the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League.

Join the fight! Join the movement!

Student's protests planned on fifty campuses across Canada

2012-01-29T08:53:00.000-08:00

Special to People's Voice newspaper

Striking graphic from www.educationisaright.ca

Confronting skyrocketing tuition fees and rising student debt, the Canadian Federation of Students will hold a cross‑Canada day of action for accessible education on February 1st. Actions are expected on over fifty campuses from Vancouver Island to Newfoundland, including mass rallies in Ottawa, Toronto and other cities.

"The Education is a Right campaign is the expression of students' collective vision for a well‑funded, high‑quality, public post‑secondary education system that builds a fair, and equitable society" says Roxanne Duboise, CFS Chairperson.

The campaign follows "12 days for public education" in December which saw Ontario students deliver the provincial government 30,000 "gifts" in the form of petitions.

The CFS will highlight attacks on education across the country, such as:

* Nova Scotia, where the NDP government just announced that tuition fees will increase three percent per year for the next three years, while operating grants to universities will be cut by three percent for 2012‑13, meaning students will be paying more and getting less;

* Quebec, where mobilizations against the Charest Liberals will be taking place at the same time as hundreds of thousands of students vote on a mass strike for accessible education (see below);

* Ontario ‑ the province with the highest fees in the country at $6,640 average undergraduate tuition ‑ where hundreds of thousands of students in need of aid are being left out of the new McGuinty Liberal tuition grants;

* Manitoba, where the average student will accumulate $19,000 of debt to complete their post‑secondary education and the Selinger NDP government is increasing tuition;

* British Columbia, where students pay more in tuition than corporations pay in taxes, but the Clark Liberal government charges the prime interest rate plus 2.5% on student loans, adding an extra 30.2% of principal to be repaid on the average student loan, over the standard ten‑year period.

"The fight for public education in Canada is part of a global effort to maintain education as a basic right for all," Duboise says. "Around the world, governments are tabling `austerity' budgets containing massive cuts to post‑secondary education and other public services."

In Canada, according to the CFS, tuition fees for university students will hit record levels this year in most provinces. During 2011 undergraduate tuition fees increased by 4.3% to an average of $5,366. This is a shocking 509 per cent above inflation over the last two and‑a‑half decades. At the same time official youth unemployment is fluctuating between 14.5 and 18 percent, while minimum wages across the country are well below the poverty line.

A joint statement by the Communist Party and the YCL expressed full support of the CFS slogan "education is a right" and for the student actions. The statement calls for all students to step up their struggles against tuition increases and reactionary governments, especially the Harper Conservatives.

"All young people are facing a corporate steam roller in the form of tuition fees," Drew Garvie, a student activist and Ontario organizer of the Young Communist League, told People's Voice. "Corporations want an educated workforce, but they aren't willing to pay for it through progressive taxation. And this is not just an issue for the students. Access to education is a broad class issue hitting hard at working people, unemployed youth, Aboriginal and racialized communities, and women."

The Young Communist League will be mobilizing for the demonstrations and promoting the Charter of Youth Rights campaign to unite progressive youth behind fighting demands, Garvie said. The YCL just concluded a successful student conference in Montreal with about thirty campus activists and friends, stressing that mass struggle and cooperation between the students and other movements, especially labour, is the only way forward.

"Despite the economic crisis, a militant, united and coordinated struggle across the country by students and their allies can win" said a YCL statement issued at the end of the conference. The event also looked at the need to link the struggles of Quebec students and those in English‑speaking Canada, and discussed the fundamental problems presented by the Canadian constitution in regards to post‑secondary education, and the sovereignty and self‑determination of nations. Participants considered ideas like the Post‑Secondary Education Act which would extend the principles of the Canada Health Act to education.

"We fully support this proposal, with the caveat that Quebec and the Aboriginal nations must have control over their own education," said Johan Boyden, leader of the YCL. "More generally, we need a fundamental transformation of the education system, a sharp break with the current `corporate greed model' of increasing two‑tier elitism, P3 privatization, for‑profit and military research, while millions of working class youth are left out in the cold.

"If capitalist Norway, Venezuela, and even poor socialist Cuba can afford free tuition then so can Canada," Boyden said. "If the Harper government can waste nearly $500 billion on the Canada First Defence strategy, then this clearly a question of political priorities. The opinion polls all show majority support to freeze and reduce tuition and strong support for total abolition of fees."

Boyden added that students must "escalate, expand and grow the movement with more large, continued and visible actions - working to create a broad, powerful and militant unity that cannot be ignored."

Student protests shake Chile

2012-01-29T07:51:00.000-08:00

Chilean students march in the streets of Santiago

From People's Voice newspaper

The past year and a half has seen significant student resistance in the streets in Britain and Ireland, across Europe and the US, as well as North Africa and the Middle East. But one of the most significant struggles over education is in Chile, against the right‑wing government of billionaire president Sebastian Pinera.

Most basic and secondary schools, and most universities in Chile have been privatised. Even public universities charge large fees. The state dedicates less than 5% of Chile's GDP to education, leaving students and families to pay 75% of education costs.

Not surprisingly, debts affect 70% of all university students, and most from poor families drop out. Monthly fees range from $240 to $840 CND; the average monthly salary in Chile is a little over $1,000.

Protests started in July 2011, when miners shut down state-owned Codelco copper mines to protest privatization and demand higher pay and benefits in light of record global copper prices. The miners walked out on the 40th anniversary of the Salvador Allende government's nationalization of Chile's mining sector, joined by 7,000 students and teachers.

"We believe that the key to a successful student movement is [...] to interweave social networks with the people, the workers, with social organizations, the trade unions, and with the youth who did not make it into the University ‑ who were left kicking stones," said student leader Camila Vallejo, who is also a member of the Central Committee of the Young Communists of Chile.

In August, a political strike was launched on the national level by labour, calling to replace the Pinochet‑era constitution with a new charter guaranteeing free quality education. Repeated mobilizations saw 82 unions walk out. Santiago ground to a halt with 100,000 in the streets.

"The truth is I do not know the difference between the political and social, when social organisations realise that the current institutional framework cannot resolve the big issues of our country, such as the subject of education," Communist Party president and MP Guillermo Teillier said.

A few days later, 600,000 marchers turned out in a country of about 15 million.

Into the fall and winter, students held negotiations with the government, as well as hunger strikes, occupations, disruptions of the Senate, and many more peaceful demonstrations, often facing police water cannons, tear gas, beatings and hundreds of arrests. Neo‑fascists also burnt the offices of the Communist Party of Chile. A government official tweeted about Vallejo: "Kill the bitch and the pack falls apart."

The demonstrations have taken place on a backdrop of indigenous land reclamations, environmental protests against damming of Patagonian rivers, and protests by gay and lesbian activists, earthquake victims, and the homeless and the poor against high gas prices. "This is no movement that comes of spontaneity," Vallejo told Chilean newspaper Voz. "It's been developing over many years based on historical demands of the Chilean student movement."

"Not since the days of Zapatistas' Subcomandante Marcos has Latin America been so charmed by a rebel leader," UK newspaper The Guardian has written. Vallejo is currently Vice‑president after another leftist (united with right‑wingers) defeated her in the student federation's presidential vote. In January it was announced she was releasing a book of interviews and may be the Communist Party's candidate in Chile's Presidential elections.

"We do not want to improve the actual system, we want a profound change ‑ to stop seeing education as a consumer good, to see education as a right where the state provides a guarantee," Vallejo says. Student actions are now building in Argentina and Colombia.

Tories sharpening budget knife

2012-01-26T11:14:00.000-08:00

RY Exclusive

Thursday’s Globe and Mail online carried a series of reports on the Canadian, US and global economy that provide a snap-shot of the continued internal contradictions and struggles that capitalism is going through, which may be more protracted and serious than even the Marxists have thought to date.

The thought comes to mind that if Harper -- who has shown some wack musical “talent” in the past -- were to ditch the piano and write a Hip Hop song about the current budget, he’d have to sample a lot of sharpening knives... Anyway, here are the highlights.

Budget axe will hit deeper, sooner:

Rather than aiming for a 5 per cent cut overall and permanent savings of $4-billion a year – as outlined in the 2011 budget – the government is now clearly describing the 5 per cent cut as the low end of a targeted range....

Finance Minister Tony Clement at the Empire Club:

“I have led a cabinet committee to review the plans of federal departments and agencies to achieve savings of between 5 and 10 per cent in their program budgets; in other words, reductions of anywhere between $4-billion and $8-billion.”

More chop, chop, chop:

The federal government is poised to transform immigration, pensions and research and development policy, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday. In a major speech to global movers and shakers at the World Economic Forum, he said the idea is to position Canada as a more competitive force in the global economy and to confront the pressures of an aging population.

Uncle Sam has bombs but not jobs:

When is a declining jobless rate a bad thing? Answer: When a big part of the drop is because people are abandoning the labour market, many without hope and too discouraged to look for work. That, unfortunately, is what’s happening in the United States.

Over the past year, the U.S. jobless rate has dropped to 8.5 per cent from 9.4 per cent. The average length of unemployment is now 39.4 months, more than twice as long as it was in the 2001 recession.

Good luck, imperialism!

The founder of the annual World Economic Forum retreat in this Alpine town, Klaus Schwab, has appealed to global movers and shakers for a “great transformation” that would challenge the basic tenets of capitalism.

Statement of the Press Office on the Decision of the EU for an embargo on Iran’s oil

2012-01-24T12:39:00.000-08:00

USS Abraham Lincon off the shores of Iran

The decision of the governments of the EU to impose an embargo on Iran’s oil constitutes an extremely aggressive act. It is outrageously brazen for the EU, some of whose countries possess nuclear weapons, to use, along with the USA, Iran’s nuclear research as a pretext, in order to impose their imperialist demands.

The agreement of the Greek government to the embargo constitutes open support for the aggressive plans of the EU against the people of Iran and marks the deeper involvement of the country in the imperialist rivalries and wars. This is reinforced by the development of the military cooperation with the aggressive state of Israel which possesses nuclear weapons with the support of the USA and the EU.
The people must condemn the provocative acts of aggression of the EU and the position of the Greek government. The struggle of the people against the barbaric measures of the government and Troika must be combined with the struggle for the disengagement of the country from the imperialist organizations, their interventions and the wars that they bring.

The KKE calls on the workers, the self-employed, the youth and the women in an all-people’s rally with the following line: End to the sacrifices for the interests of the monopolies. The people should become neither victimizer nor victim in the imperialist war.

Athens 23/1/2012
The Press Office of the CC of the KKE

CEP condemns murder of Colombia oil union leader

2012-01-24T12:32:00.000-08:00

The president of one of Canada’s largest unions, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, says both the Columbian and Canadian governments need to act now to denounce the latest murder of a trade union leader in Colombia.

Maurico Redondo and his wife Janeth Ordóñez Carlosama were murdered by two gunmen in their home in Putumayo on January 17, leaving their five children orphaned. Maurcio was a provincial leader of the Union Sinical
Obrera (USO), and both he and his wife were activists in a community group that advocated for better working conditions, environmental stewardship and labour and human rights in the booming oil and natural gas fields of south-western Colombia. The murders followed telephone threats to three other USO leaders and a bomb threat at USO’s regional office in Orito.

“Once again we see that activists for decent work and decent communities continue to be targets in Colombia,” says CEP President Dave Coles. “We mourn the deaths of Maurico Redondo and Janeth Ordóñez and call on
Colombian authorities to bring those responsible to justice. We also call on the Canadian Government to cancel the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, until the Colombian Government meets its international obligations to respect labour and human rights.”

CEP is the largest union in several key sectors of Canada’s economy, including forestry, energy, telecommunications, and media.

For more information:
Duncan Brown
National Director – Graphical
Humanity Fund Executive Secretary
(613) 230-5200 ext 281
(416) 605-4665

Chilean student leader launches book and considers entering electoral politics

2012-01-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

Camila Vallejo and the struggle of Chilean students
will be the subject of an article in February's People's Voice

The popular student leader and vice president of the University of Chile’s Student Federation (FECh), Camila Vallejo launched her new book “Podemos cambiar el mundo” or “We can change the world” at a central park in the capital Santiago de Chile on the second day of the centenary celebration of the Communist Party, Fiesta de los Abrazos.

On the stage Camila stressed the idea that the struggle for deep structural changes in the education system is a response to the demand from the public and urged the social movement “to come out of marginality” and said it is “not enough to make suggestions for others to carry out.”

The book consists of collected texts written by Camila in 2011, including opinion articles and an unedited interview with Vallejo by Francisco Herreros, a Chilean journalist. Subjects within the texts include the discrepancies within Student Confederation of Chile (CONFECH), the fall of former Minster of Education Joaquín Lavín and the relation between the students’ movement with political parties.

The book is on sale at a special of price of 5.000 Chilean Pesos (approximately 10 dollars) and has already proved popular with sales of 4.500 on the day of release.

The Chilean Communist Party has strengthened its leading young people and proclaimed the former president of the Student Federation of Santiago, Cameron Ballestero, as a candidate for mayor of the Estación Central commune in municipal elections taking place in October of this year.

The party is also considering Vallejo for their candidate for parliamentary elections in November 2013, especially after the survey from Centro de Estudios Públicos or Center for Public Studies, ranked her fourth in the most influential political figures in Chile.

Ms Vallejo reputation is not limited to Chile: she was voted person of the year in a poll of guardian.co.uk readers and has lectured in several Latin American and European countries even before business forums.

Fact sheet: Save the Canadian Wheat Board!

2012-01-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

Farmers protesting in Ottawa

An RY Exclusive

More than 60,000 Western Canadian farmers and their Wheat Board are under the most serious attack in history.¹

The federal government is planning to end the Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB) single desk authority effective August 1, 2012, in defiance of existing legislation that requires a farmer vote before making any changes to the CWB's single desk.

Because of trade deals such as NAFTA, if the CWB's single desk is eliminated, it will be very difficult to reinstate it later. The fight to save the Canadian Wheat Board is a broader fight to save the family farm across Canada.

What is the Canadian Wheat Board?

· The Canadian Wheat Board is a wheat and barley marketing agency for western Canadian farmers.

Farmers pay for its operations and run it through a majority of farmer-elected directors (ten are elected and five are appointed by the government).
There is no cost to the government. All it requires to function is legislation that grants it the authority to market wheat and barley through a single desk.
The CWB markets from $5-8.5 billion a year in wheat and barley.
It is the largest farmer‑run marketing board in Canada and perhaps the world.

What is a single-desk?

·         A single desk means that buyers of western Canadian milling wheat and malting barley must go through the Canadian Wheat Board.
·         By being the single source for western wheat and barley, the board is able to capture higher prices for farmers in the global and domestic market place.
·         All returns go directly to farmers with the exception of a small operating fee.

Why is the wheat board important?

·         In an industry fraught with the challenges of unpredictable weather, volatile prices and huge economic powers bent on extracting all they can from farmers, the Canadian Wheat Board allows prairie farmers some form of economic justice for the fruits of their labour.
·         The Wheat Board gives farmers market power in an international grain trade dominated by a handful of giant multinational grain companies.
·         The majority of farms in Canada are still family farms, under constant pressure from both monopoly suppliers and marketers, except where protected by marketing boards.
·         The CWB, which works for large and small farmers, has unchallenged research that it provides a net benefit of $500 million per year compared to the "open market."
·         Without the CWB, the earnings of smaller family farms will be more vulnerable to the monopoly practices of grain corporations whose only motive is profit.
·         Without the CWB, Thousands of family farms will be wiped out.

Why are the Harper Tories doing this?

Going back further in history, it was the dream of the Conservative Party to colonize Western Canada with farmers after cleansing the land of its original owners. The farmers and workers of Western Canada have always been looked at as a source of profit for the industrialists in Ontario who backed the Conservative's National Dream.

The plan to destroy the single desk, which Harper and Ritz are framing as marketing choice and freedom, will transfer these benefits and funds to some of the richest corporations of the world.

·         Today, Harper is acting for the giant U.S. grain corporations, not the Ontario industrialists.
·         Ending the CWB would be a monumental sellout to the giant, mainly U.S.‑owned corporations that dominate the global grain trade.
·         It would also rid the Conservatives of a democratic group of farmers who could be part of the effort to build a more just society in Western Canada.
·         Follow the money: as farmers lose power, the transnational grain companies gain access to cheaper grain.
·         Transnational grain companies like Archer Daniels Midland Company, Bunge, Cargill, Louis Dreyfus and Viterra will capture the premiums for themselves and likely dilute the quality of Canadian grain as we have seen in Australia in the years following the disbanding of the Australian Wheat Board in 2006.
·         For the Harper Tories, profits for big corporations trump the laws of Canada and the interests of prairie farmers every time.

Attack on democracy

Since taking office in 2006, the Conservatives have tried a wide range of tactics to eliminate the CWB or remove its single-desk authority. But CWB elections have consistently resulted in a majority of single-desk supporters, despite government tricks such as removing voting rights for many farmers.

·         The Wheat Board is governed by a 15-member board of directors, ten of whom are elected by Prairie farmers, with another five appointed by Ottawa;
·         Section 47.1 of the Canadian Wheat Board Act, prohibits any changes to the marketing of grain in Western Canada unless supported by a producer vote,
·         The Tories have said they will not follow this rule and the supreme court has said they must;
·         On Oct. 17, 2006, in the middle of the CWB election, Strahl ordered the removal of 36 percent of Western Canada grain growers (16,269 farmers) from the list of eligible voters: victims of flood, drought, or bad harvest weather, and farmers who were in the middle of a crop rotation, or still had crops in the bin. Even so, farmers returned pro-CWB directors in four out of five districts;
·         The CWB held a plebiscite of its own to provide an opportunity for farmers to express their preference on the single desk question. Results were announced on September 12 and showed that a clear majority of farmers support the single desk;
·         Despite a December Federal Court judge ruling that Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz breached the Canadian Wheat Board Act by making changes without holding a plebiscite for producers, the Tories will go ahead with Wheat board destruction.

Read More: http://www.nfu.ca/cwb/2011-save_CWB.pdf

SOURCES:

Terry Boem, ‘In defence of the Canadian Wheat Board’ Briarpatch Magazine, Sept. 1st 2011;

National Farmer’s Union, ‘Saving the Wheat Board: information, resources and campaign material,’ http://www.nfu.ca/cwb.html;

Manitoba Committee, Communist Party of Canada, ‘Act now to save the wheat board,’ October 28, 2011;

PV Vancouver Bureau, ‘Tories prepaire to destroy Wheat Board,’ People’s Voice Newspaper July 11th 2011;

D. Rankin, ‘My Canada includes the wheat board,’ People’s Voice Newspaper Sept 1st 2011.

All out for Student Actions!

2012-01-22T10:04:00.001-08:00

YCL-LJC student activists call for all-out mobilization for accessible education:
Build the CFS February 1^st Day of Action and the Quebec student strike!

The Young Communist League of Canada held a special colloquium discussion recently about struggles in the student movement Montréal, Quebec. About thirty students and student activists participated in the meeting, including guests from Montréal student unions, a cross-Canada student organization, as well as activists with the ASSÉ and the Occupy movement. Reports were heard from campuses in Nova Scotia and across south, eastern and central Ontario.

Some highlights of the discussion:

Urgency, struggle and cooperation

Tuition fees and record student debt are increasing at dangerous record levels across Canada and Québec, further eroding the fundamental right to education and demanding broad, powerful student action in response. Despite the economic crisis, a militant, united and coordinated struggle across the country by students and their allies can win;

Help needed for Feb 1st

Students across English-speaking Canada will hold major demonstrations on February 1^st and this is a vital occasion of all friends and members of the YCL-LJC to join in the actions of the students (see attached information sheet);

Quebec student strike, all-Canada student unity

Quebec students are mobilizing for a substantial confrontation with the Charest Liberal government for accessible education with a national student strike being organized in March. The conference also looked at need to link the struggles of Quebec students and those in English-speaking Canada, the fundamental problems presented by the current Canadian constitution in regards to post-secondary education and the sovereignty and self-determination of nations and ideas like the Post-Secondary Education Act;

Building the YCL helps build`s the movement

The conference discussed and debated the importance of the building YCL clubs on campuses to help strengthen the left forces among students. The YCL has to help the students find ways to draw-in more forces and build the struggle, never forgetting that it is part of the revolutionary process, for social transformation and socialism.

The conference also heard international reports including about the magnificent struggle of the students in Chile in last year. The YCL sent it`s solidarity to the Chilean students and Chilean student leader Camila Vallejo, member of the Young Communist`s of Chile. The conference event was hosted by the Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Quebec at the Association des travailleurs grecs and also received greetings from the Communist Party of Quebec, the Greek Worker`s Association, and a veteran activist of the historic Association Nationale des Étudiants et Étudiantes du Québec.

Mobilize for February 1^st!
Statement by the Canadian Federation of Students

The fight for public education in Canada is part of a global effort to maintain education as a basic right for all. Around the world, governments are tabling “austerity” budgets containing massive cuts to post-secondary education and other public services.

The Education is a Right campaign is the manifestation of students’ collective vision for a well-funded, high-quality, public post-secondary education system that builds a fair, and equitable society.

As part of the Education is a Right campaign students are organizing a National Student Day of Action on Wednesday, February 1, 2012.

If you are interested in participating in the Day of Action, you can do one (or all!) of the following:

- participate in a rally / march / action in your region

- send letters to the editor or write blog posts about why accessible education is important

- seek endorsements from any groups you know or are a part of.

Be sure to check the www.educationisaright.ca website very often for template motions, new materials and news on what is happening across the country.

Stay classy, Republicans!

2012-01-21T21:49:00.000-08:00

Getty images

RY Exclusive: youth climate activist on Durban

2012-01-20T09:15:00.000-08:00

Meghan McCarthy is a Newfoundland Climate Activist

The most recent fight for a legally binding global climate change agreement took place from November 28th to December 9th 2011 when world delegates, environmental ministers, monopoly capitalists, media personnel, NGO representatives, and impassioned activists collected in Durban, South Africa for the 17th annual Conference of the Parties (COP 17) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Meghan McCarthy, native of St. John’s, Newfoundland, was one of the six members of the CYCC (Canadian Youth Climate Coalition) to attend the conference as a delegate to represent the voice of youth and students. Meghan was born and raised in Newfoundland and Labrador. Meghan became active in the climate movement in 2009, as one of the founders of the NL Climate Action Coalition.

The COP is responsible for adopting decisions and resolutions, publishing the results to establish rules and methods of implementation in detail. The UNFCCC is the body that is responsible for reporting to the UN the recommended procedures to ensure its ultimate objective: “to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.” With 194 parties, the COP is the most political and most publicized convention for global climate legislation in the world.

The results of COP 17 are complex and commentary on the results varies widely in opinion. While some say more was accomplished than thought possible, the results are nowhere near what the scientific community said was necessary. While a timeline for climate negotiations was established, the time for creating timelines has passed where action is needed immediately. The new planning to cut emissions includes agreements by the major polluters of the world, though the proposals for cutting emissions are very relativistic in respect to strong economies and weak economies.

Interview by Richard Williams for Rebel Youth.

R. Y. - How are you? How was the trip?

M. M. - I’m just finishing up my final papers right now. The trip was in some ways really great (with) the opportunity to work with fantastic organizers from all across the country and really make, what we view as, a positive impact in term of how aware Canadians are of the negotiations and of Canada’s position, but at the same time, Canada’s position and COP essentially being a failure. Our actions there were worthwhile but it wasn’t a fully positive experience in that respect.

R. Y. - What were your first impressions of South Africa?

M. M. - What hit me most was the aftermath of colonialism. I’ve studied colonialism a lot in school and African and South African history specifically. Seeing the clear impacts of (colonialism) through race and disparity of wealth, and me as a western white person was treated related to other people in the community I was living, that was something that was really startling and something that I didn’t expect would take such a toll on me every day.

R. Y. - Was it just the language that was different towards you? Perhaps people were approaching you as a tourist that could afford more merchandise?
M. M. - The language was no different. English is prominent and we were mostly in the wealthier, white area for most of the time. My time actually spent in the typical South African communities wasn’t as much as I would have liked it to mean. It was more so that self-consciousness (and) the power and privilege that I felt that I had, realistically, in just being white (and) the consciousness of how lucky I really am. In Canada we tend to forget that privilege. Seeing others who have a lot less privilege and power because of it… There were a lot of people from Durban and from other South African missions who essentially had very little voice at the negotiations. Seeing that and seeing wealth and privilege and race was really hard to deal with, but also I like to think that we challenged, at every opportunity, that privilege that we held.

R. Y. - hat were your expectations going into COP17?
M. M. - We knew that they weren’t going to end well or, we figured that they weren’t going to end well. Canada, in the past, had been effective in actively blocking most of the negotiations. So, we didn’t really have high hopes for the actual talks, but they ended up being a lot worse than I originally had expected. (Also), in terms of expectations for the Canadian Youth Delegation, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I worked with these people a lot over the internet (and) a little bit in real life before going. But, working with them far surpassed any expectations that I could have hoped for. We worked almost seamlessly together, challenging each other, really pushing each other, and that’s the most effective I’ve ever been in my whole life. I also expected to be really depressed when I came home, and that’s definitely not the case. I’m very hopeful and excited to keep organizing, especially with the people that I was there with.

R. Y. - What, if any, progress was made at COP17?
I think, when you look at progress in terms of negotiations, I’d say that there was no progress made on the Green Climate Fund, which was supposed to be a fund to help developing countries adapt to climate change; it is empty. The second commitment period of Kyoto only covers 15% of polluters globally and they made a big commitment next “x” amount of years to come up with another treaty. So, in terms of COP17, I would say there was no progress made. (I think) the progress that was made, and the reason why I feel our time at COP17 was successful, was because of the peoples’ movements: the actions of the youth on the ground made a substantial difference in effecting people around the world (and) their views on the process, but also on climate change. The Canadian delegation was successful in sending the message to other Canadians that Canada is the worst country in the world when it comes to climate change and that they’ve been putting their trust in polluters instead of people. In that regard, I think that there was some progress made in bringing Canadian consciousness and awareness of this country’s policies to the forefront.

R. Y. - How do you describe what was done when Canada’s environmental minister, Peter Kent, took the stage?
M. M. - As Peter Kent stood up in plenary, which is the largest and highest decision making body of the United Nations Framework for the convention on climate change and COP17, (and) took the stage to give his opening address, myself and five other members of the Canadian Youth Delegation stood up and turned our backs with t-shirts saying “Turn your back on Canada” on the back of them, and essentially disrupted his speech. In doing that, security was alerted that what we were doing was against UN security protocol and came over and asked us to leave. They tapped us on the shoulder, were promptly escorted out by those security guards and promptly ejected from the conference centre. The reason why we were ejected was that (we were) not allowed to target a specific country in our actions. But, for us it was an opportunity to highlight that what (Peter) Kent was saying didn’t represent the view of Canadian youth and that his main goal at COP17 was to represent the interests of the tar sands and big polluters and not the people of Canada.

R. W. - Why did you decide to do it?

M. M. - Like I said before, Canada is the most embarrassing and outrageous country at COP. They not only stall, and in some ways halt, negotiations and progress being made. They misrepresent Canadians but also degrade other countries. For that reason, for many years we’ve tried in every other avenue available to engage in meaningful dialogue with the government and it, on all occasions, including COP17, we’ve been shut out and have not had our voices heard. So we thought that doing this action was the only other way that we could get the attention of our government and to send a clear message to them and to Canadians that what they are doing is unacceptable.

R. Y. - What are your recommendations for the climate justice movement, going forward?
M. M. - I have tons of recommedations, and I’d love to talk to anyone who would like to have a further conversation about this.

In seeing what I saw at COP, I really do feel that the movement needs to come into its second phase of organizing. There’s a lot of climate activists I know who kind of huddle in their beds and have lost hope, but what I’d like to say to them is that I’ve seen positive change and that I’ve seen a difference be made and that difference can happen but we all need collective, direct action in order to continue down that hopeful path and to actually ask for what is needed; (to) organize and be creative and work as hard as we can ‘til we can get what we need. And so, my message is of hope but also one of urgency, in that we have to do this now. We don’t have any time left. Fear and commitments and a lack of will on our part are really luxuries (and) priviledges that a lot of people that I’ve seen when I was at COP17 who are suffering from the effects of climate change today, don’t have. So for the sake of our country and our economy and the people, and people all around the world, I really hope that people will become active and start organizing in their communities and really start demanding the change that we need to see.

R. W. - You mentioned the need for direct action. By seeing the legislative process of COP17, is this why you’re more inclined to say direct action is necessary? Was it a failure of the legislative process?
M. M. - I think that the process will always fail as long as there’s countries like Canada that are allowed to behave as they do. The process, in theory, should work but as long as countries like Canada lack the political will, with the substiantial amount of corporate influence (over Canada), then processes like that will never succeed. As well, in terms of Canada, nationally, the same problems apply, and so as Canadians we need to put our government in a position where they have no other choice but to represent our interests, and so direct action, I think, is important. I think diversity in tactics is important. Obviously, we need people working in policy; we need people who are trying to work within the system. But, as I’ve said before, those avenues for us have been exhausted. We’ve worked for years within this system and that clearly hasn’t worked. We don’t have time to continue doing things that don’t work. So, for us, direct action is a really important and powerful tool that has been used in every social movement for anything that we have achieved in our society. Whether it be the example of the civil rights movement, because today is Martin Luther King Day, or the womens’ right to vote, direct action has always been used. I think, the climate movement now, it’s our time to start making some progress in terms of the social movement that we want to see.

R. Y. - Great. I’d like to thank you for letting me interview you.

M. M. - Yeah, no problem, thanks for having me.

Public access to all press releases and other published materials of COP17 can be found online at unfccc.int

Some January Cartoons

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000-08:00

Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail

There’s still no excuse for keeping tuition fees high in B.C.

2012-01-19T05:56:00.000-08:00

Reprinted from the Georgia Straight

Students across Canada will be mobilizing
for accessible education on Feb. 1st

Polling demonstrates with stunning reliability that most British Columbians want affordable, high-quality public education.

They think tuition fees are too high, and have considerable anxiety about the record student debt that this generation of students is carrying.

Despite the popularity of reducing tuition fees and cutting student debt, the B.C. Liberals have shown no interest in making university and college more affordable. Tax cuts and more trade with Pacific Rim countries seem to be the only policies on the radar, and it’s unclear how either issue helps average families.

But in order to divert attention away from the student debt burden created when tuition fees doubled under Gordon Campbell between 2002 and 2005, the government relies on a variety of excuses and half-baked theories.

This time last year, it was fashionable for politicians to cite the higher earnings of university graduates as an excuse to ignore student debt and the upfront costs (tuition fees) imposed by government. Organizations like the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada (AUCC), a small but powerful interest group comprised exclusively of university presidents, have gone so far as to suggest that a university graduate will earn $1 million more in her working life than a high school graduate.

Enter the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the 2011 edition of its Education at a Glance publication comparing education systems around the globe. When examining all of the costs and benefits of university participation in Canada, the OECD concluded that the average lifetime premium for male university graduates is only $80,000—less than 10 percent of the AUCC’s fantastical figure.

For female university graduates, the average earnings premium is only $46,000. In other words, the average woman graduating with a university degree today should only expect to net $1,150 more each year in her 40-year working career.

No doubt there are other benefits to a university and college degree in addition to higher wages. Education is correlated with things like better health and greater career satisfaction. Society benefits in a variety of ways too, as does the broader economy. But the fact remains: proponents of higher tuition fees have been grossly exaggerating the individual returns for their own policy ends.

So this year, with the diminishing credibility of the argument that more student debt is okay because university graduates are all millionaires-in-waiting, politicians need new reasons to fend off the middle-class demands for affordable public education.

The new excuse is the allegedly poor financial planning skills of today’s young adults. In an effort you might call victim-blaming, provincial and federal politicians have begun to cling to the idea that students (and therefore their families) are to blame for their own lot.

The mainstream press has embraced the idea with gusto. In the month of November 2011, the Province newspaper wrote no fewer than six stories about the record debt facing this generation—without a peep about the government policies that got us here. Almost all of the solutions covered by the Province were of the self-help variety.

Clever budgeting for students is not an entirely new fad on campus. University administrator and self-styled financial planning guru Murray Baker has made a tidy sum selling his “Debt-Free Graduate” series in which he reminds students to turn off the lights to cut energy bills. Baker estimates his methods to be so effective that he counsels his readers to max out their student loans so they can invest what they don’t spend in the stock market (which, by the way, is fraud).

There may be some truth to the idea that it wouldn’t hurt for students to brush up on their budgeting skills. Unfortunately, this potentially positive approach has—like the millionaire myth discussed above—been used by political opportunists to distract attention from the heart of the matter: sky-high tuition fees.

If the public discourse about fault can be shifted to the victim, so too does the public discourse about the solutions, which is convenient for a government hell bent on tax cuts over investment in public education.

Instead of tuition fee reductions, we get a gimmicky PR campaign to convince us that education is more affordable when you buy less coffee or carpool twice a week.

Of course, even the most aggressive personal budgeting couldn’t change the fact that tuition fees in B.C. have more than doubled over the last decade and that student debt has skyrocketed into uncharted territory. Clever money management is unlikely to change the interest rate charged on B.C. student loans which, at prime plus 2.5 percent, is the highest in Canada.

Better financial literacy won’t hurt, but it is a Band-Aid solution to a problem caused by government divestment in vital public services. If the government is serious about a B.C. that is fair and an economy that works for everyone, it should attack the causes of student debt by reducing tuition fees and re-establishing the student grants program that was cut in 2005.

Zach Crispin is the chair of the Canadian Federation of Students-British Columbia

Tunisian Communists condemn Qutari regime

2012-01-17T11:42:00.000-08:00

by Sana Ajmi of Tunisia Live

Hama Hamami, leader of the POCT

Hama Hamami, leader of Communist Workers Party of Tunisia (POCT), claimed yesterday that ”The Qatari regime is an enemy to Tunisia and the Arab World,” referring to Qatar’s alleged involvement in the guiding of democratic uprisings of 2011 in North Africa and the Middle East.

Qatar’s role in the “Arab Spring” has been a source of controversy among politicians and citizens across the Arabic-speaking world.

Many have claimed that the tiny Gulf emirate has been promoting its agenda through its television channel Al Jazeera, while others have claimed that Qatar has broader motives for backing and supporting Islamist parties.

The Tunisian Islamist Party Ennahda, whose historic election victory solidified its hold on the largest share of seats in the Constituent Assembly, was accused of having affiliations with, and accepting financial aid from, Qatar.

The extent of political and economic Qatari involvement in Tunisia’s affairs has been a large point of contention in Tunisia since the revolution. Hamma Hamami, leader of POCT, stated that Qatar is playing a dangerous game, and is only serving its own agenda. He also added that Qatar is an agent of USA and Israel.

“Qatar is playing a dangerous role under the umbrella of USA; it is a government that serves America’s agenda, and also has direct relations with Israel. Qatar’s intentions are not patriotic,” Hamami said.

Hamami also asserted that Qatar is attempting to guide moderate Islamic parties, which are popular in Qatar, toward the political choices of the USA.

“Qatar is conditioning popular Islamic parties to serve American and Western interests, and they are managing to achieve that end through the messages that Ennahda is sending to America and Western society. Ennahda is basically assuring the west that the relationship between Tunisia and the West will not change. I do not have concrete proof but this is my political analysis.”

Hamami also referred specifically to Al Jazeera, claiming that during the electoral campaign the network was 90% pro-Ennahda.

When asked about Qatar’s support for Tunisia economically, he said that Tunisia does not need financial aid as much as it needs a, “political economy.”

“Tunisia is a self-sufficient country that is rich with natural resources – it is not about having money. A good example is Libya: The country was rich but they were living in awful conditions,” he added.

“The revolutions were authentic, but the USA wants to orient these new democratic movements in their own direction,” he added.

Samir Dilou, an Ennahda member who is rumored to hold the post of the Human Rights and Transitional Justice Minister (and to be spokesperson of the upcoming Government) disagreed with Hamami.

“I respect what he said, but I do not agree with him. It is his political opinion and it lacks any concrete proof.”

He added that Tunisia’s relations with Qatar are no different from Tunisia’s relations with other Arab countries.

“Our relations with Qatar are nothing but friendly, just like any other Arab country. We want what’s in our nation’s best interest, and if that involves having economic relations with Qatar, or any other Arab country, then we will not be against it. We welcome all Arab investors.”

When asked about Al Jazeera being Pro-Ennahda, he replied,”We actually protested against Al Jazeera before because some of its broadcasts were anti-Ennahda. We respect media but Al Jazeera is sometimes right and sometimes wrong.”

The Class Assassins – The Treason 45

2012-01-14T12:01:00.000-08:00

Toronto streetpunks The Class Assassins have followed up their brilliant 2010 full length You’ve Got It All Wrong with a new EP titled The Treason 45. The release includes two new tracks on 7” vinyl.

Side A, Treason, blends the bands classic stripped down punk rock sound with a heavy back beat to produce a song that is legitimately catchy and memorable. I received the album a day ago and have probably heard this song a dozen times since.

The B Side is a song titled Start Again which is more reminiscent of You’ve Got It All Wrong. It’s a straight forward punk rock anthem expertly crafted to incite the listener to sing along and throw back a pint for the working class.

The Treason 45 only has one problem; it leaves the listener wanting more, and that’s a quality problem to have. One thing’s for sure, I’ll be looking forward to the next full length.

Check The Class Assassins out and order The Treason 45 at Rebel Time Records.

Demonstration in Western Sahara - the struggle against the occupation continues

2012-01-13T19:59:00.001-08:00

January 13th 2012

Caterpillar lock-out in London hits families

2012-01-13T19:36:00.000-08:00

Caterpillar is demanding a 50 percent pay cut

January 13, 2012
Reprinted from Rabble.ca

LONDON, ONTARIO -- "Caterpillar equipment is used to destroy homes in Palestine. Kind of like what Caterpillar is trying to do to our homes here in London," a locked-out worker commented outside the Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD) plant last week on their picket line.

Home losses are a likely outcome of the aggressive concessions the locked-out workers' employer (owned by Caterpillar since 2010) is demanding. Wage cuts of more than 50 per cent plus loss of benefits would mean families not being able to make mortgage or rent payments. I spoke to one welder, a father of five, whose spouse also worked at EMD. With both breadwinners hit by drastic compensation cuts or job loss, what sort of future would a family like theirs face?

It doesn't have to be this way. The EMD workforce is highly skilled and highly productive, and their work returns handsome yearly profits to their company. Caterpillar's profits from EMD are up, in part thanks to generous tax gifts from Harper's Conservatives, paid for by Canadian taxpayers. The rollbacks Caterpillar is trying to force on EMD workers are not needed in order to stay in business, they are based on one thing: corporate greed.

So the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) members walking the line at EMD are defending their families -- and ours. Those union paycheques pay for homes in our neighbourhoods, and they support businesses in our communities. If Caterpillar is allowed to get away with their home-smashing tactics at EMD, similar race-for-the-bottom demands will be pushed on other private and public sector workers, in London and beyond.

That is how bullies operate: one bully's success encourages others to try to push people around -- until someone says "enough bullying, stop!" That is what the EMD workers are doing now.

Caterpillar has an ugly history of using strong-arm union-bashing tactics to roll back wages, close plants and move manufacturing to lower-wage jurisdictions. They also supply equipment, like the D9 armoured bulldozer, which is used by the Israeli army to destroy Palestinian homes. The corporation refuses to acknowledge responsibility for the thousands of homes demolished in the West Bank and Gaza using Caterpillar equipment.

The price of opposing bullies can be high: in March 2003, U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie [1] was crushed to death by a Caterpillar bulldozer driven by an Israeli soldier, as she attempted to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian family's home. Other solidarity activists have been killed and injured, and many Palestinian civilians injured and/or detained for peacefully protesting against home demolitions -- despite this heavy toll, the protests continue. Bullies driving Caterpillar equipment can destroy buildings, but they cannot bulldoze a grassroots movement.

The price of defending our communities from Caterpillar's intimidation tactics need not be as high as in Palestine. We can help counter bullying by joining the CAW picket lines and by demanding that Canadian politicians hold Caterpillar accountable for its purchase of EMD and for keeping quality jobs in our community.

The Harper Conservatives have made it clear that they side with the community-demolishing bullies, at home and abroad. The question is, where do the rest of us stand?

Those CAW pickets on Oxford St. East are standing against the bulldozers of corporate intimidation on behalf of all of us. When we join them on the line (and at the upcoming January 21 mass Day of Action in London [2]) we are sharing more than a walk with a hot beverage in the face of nasty weather: we are helping to defend communities against an international bully.

David Heap is Peace & Social Justice Chair for the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians [3] and on the Steering Committee of the Canadian Boat to Gaza [4]. He was on the Tahrir when it was taken by force in November [5], and spent six days in an Israeli prison before being deported back to Canada.

Sandino Primera on Venezuela

2012-01-12T17:50:00.000-08:00

Ali Primera was a great heroic Venezuelan folk musician who is remembered as a voice of the poor and oppressed and a national hero of the country. Below is an interesting interview with his son, Sandino Primera. Although the interviewer does not mention it, Ali Primera was a long-time member of the Venezuela Communist Party (PCV). The Party and progressive Venezuelan's remember Ali Primera with the March of the Red Carnations (see photos below).

Harper's "Big Brother" Law (C-52)

2012-01-10T13:02:00.001-08:00

STOP CETA!

2012-01-05T15:46:00.000-08:00

January 5, 2012

CETA: Stop negotiations immediately and scrap the deal!

Young Communist League demands a Charter of Youth Rights, not Corporate Rights

Shrouded in secrecy, the Harper Conservative government, the European Union, and major trans-national corporations recently concluded the final round of negotiations for the largest free-trade agreement in Canada’s history since NAFTA.

The Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a over-arching Bill of Rights for big business – at the expense of all the non-corporate population, not least youth and students. The Agreement is now being ‘fine tuned’ by representatives of government and big business for release in Spring 2012.

Negotiations began in May 2009 and the agreement has attracted opposition from a broad range of labour, youth and student, and other community groups who have come together in the Trade Justice Network in English-speaking Canada and Réseau Québécois sur l’Intégration Continentale (RQIC) in Quebec.

Youth, young worker and student organizations urgently need to reinforce their vocal full opposition to CETA.

CETA is a dangerously far-reaching free trade agreement with serious danger to the future of the youth. CETA would prohibit most tariffs between Canada and the EU while extending “behind the border” to change various non-trade related government policies that may impact corporate profits such as differences (however small) in labour, health, education, intellectual “property”, cultural, farming, public safety or environmental rules and regulations. This is a direct attack on the democratic sovereignty of all peoples in Canada.

CETA will increase the oppression and exploitation of the youth and students across Canada and Europe. Its danger must be exposed to the working people and all civil society, and the agreement stopped!

Highlights of what the CETA could potentially do:

effectively abolish the democratic ability of Canadian municipalities, school boards, hospitals, universities, provincial agencies and Crown corporations, as well as the people of Québec and current or future self-governing Aboriginal communities, to control purchases of local goods and services ensuring local workers are hired;

entrench the “rights” of capital – investors and private corporations – to attack and potentially abolish Canadian laws and all regulations (ie. environmental, social, etc);

privatize drinking water (including municipal procurement of water services like sewers and sanitation) by comprehensively covering these items for the first time in Canadian trade negotiations,

lock-in full and partial water utility privatizations making these services virtually impossible to bring back into public hands;

force privatization of other public services like liquor stores and Canada Post by transnational corporations;

allow corporations to crack into the goldmine of Post-Secondary Education (PSE) and further erode PSE’s status as a right and a public service, not a commodity to be bought and sold on the market;

threaten the integrity of our post-secondary education research programs, with private companies suing students who whistle-blow unethical research practices;
attack Aboriginal people’s treaty rights and sovereignty and self-determination with the agreements sweeping scope, such as foreign industries operating in First Nations, Inuit and Métis lands, territories and water;

undermine already tepid government policy on Climate Change and Green House Gasses, such as the Green Energy Act;

entrench the low, crisis-creating commitments to sustainable development in existing Canadian and European trade agreements, protecting capital from democratic regulations and to lock-in unsustainable trading patterns;
stop the EU from passing regulation to differentiate products based on their “carbon content” such as Alberta Tar Sands oil vs. conventional oil;
allow EU energy companies added investment protections to stop any regulation of the Tar Sands – the largest single industrial polluter project on the planet.

skyrocket prescription drug costs by at least $2.8 billion per year

CETA and the crisis of capitalism

The idea that CETA will somehow move Canada closer to the “European model” of social programmes is very misleading.

The CETA is being negotiated in the framework of a prolonged structural crisis of capitalism. Every advance of the working class is basically under attack. This trade agreement is therefore not just another poisonous recipe from the book of the neo-liberal cooks (whose attack has already undermined accessible, quality public education, employment for youth and many other issues that have already left the scares of vicious ‘reforms’ on the backs of the people). With the current prolonged break-down in the World Trade Organization (WTO) “Doha round” of negotiations, imperialism must find another way forward to mega-profits.

The major capitalist powers of the European Union (which are undergoing a turbulent internal struggle in the face of the so-called “Euro-zone debt crisis”) are also desperately seeking plunder and profit – like Libya’s oil resources or penetrating Canadian markets with the CETA. Despite the rivalries between different states, these bourgeois governments are united in their attack on the working people and the youth.

On the other hand, Canadian imperialism is also pursuing a very determined response to the economic crisis. This also includes increased military spending, deepened participation in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), cunningly extending the occupation in Afghanistan, and most recently the deadly bombing of Libya. The Canadian government has no money for social programmes or the crisis on Aboriginal reserves but millions for bombs.

On the economic level Canada is pushing self-described “aggressive attempts” to secure foreign markets beyond the USA and strengthen its investment position in the so-called developing or emerging economies as well as the European Union. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is a ‘jewel in the crown’ of this strategy of Canadian imperialism.

The “Global Commerce Strategy”

In association with the 2009 federal budget, the Harper Conservative government launched its “Global Commerce Strategy.” Therefore, after a lull in Free Trade agreements following NAFTA Canada has signed agreements with Honduras (Aug 2011), Colombia (Aug 2011), Panama (May 2010), Jordan (June 2009), Peru (Aug 2009) and the earlier Canada-European Free Trade Association (July 2009) with Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

It is important to note that Canada is also quietly in negotiation with a number of other trade-blocks and countries including the so-called Andean community, the Caribbean community, the Central American Four (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua), as well as Morocco, India, South Korea and Singapore. These agreements underscore the links of Canadian capital to Latin America and the Caribbean – linkages that are challenged by new developments like the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the progressive Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), and now Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

There has also been a marked increase of Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection agreements with the Harper Conservatives signing deals in Kuwait (Sept. 2011), Slovakia (July 2010), Bahrain (Feb. 2010), Jordan (Dec. 2009), Czech Republic (May 2009), Romania (May 2009), Latvia (May 2009), Madagascar (Aug. 2008), and Peru (June 2007). Negotiations are ongoing in five Asian countries and four Africa states.

CETA is a new kind of free trade creature

This blitzkrieg of trade agreements underscores two points. First, for Canadian capital (and also the capitalists of the European Union) the CETA agreement is a special prize because it allows access to advanced state-monopoly economies not just the “emerging” or “developing” economies (although in terms of the balance of economic power, Canadian capital is in a much weaker negotiating position).

Secondly, while it may seem like there is increasing elimination of “trade protectionism,” these developments actually reflect the sharpening rivalries across the entire imperialist pyramid as the capitalists try to manage their way out of the crisis (while maximizing the situation to attack working people). Canadian big business is now dealing with its overwhelming main market, the United States, adopting the “Buy American” strategy by the US Congress showing the one-sided nature of NAFTA.

In fact CETA is a new kind of free trade agreement going well beyond the issues dealt with in NAFTA, to address changes in the nature of the global economy, including multinational production chains involving components, intellectual “property” and investment from a variety of countries. This is why it is referred to as “comprehensive.” This is very dangerous for students and young workers.

Attack on students

Already various international agreements have greatly increasing the sheer volume of international students, paying far higher fees on two-tier tuition rates as potential cash cows for an under-funded system. There is also the market-oriented delivery of education by monopoly capital like cross-border e-learning, the franchising of offshore campuses, and the sale of curricula and course materials overseas are all features of an emerging multi-billion dollar trade in education. Education privatization is a gold-mine for capital – an area it can rapidly increase profits.

Thus now is the time to right the alarm bells like the student movement did towards the Global Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which became the WTO negotiations. The same attack agenda characterizes CETA. The EU trade negotiators have clearly said that “Health care and education is on the table to the extent that it is open for commercial activity.”

CETA may likely bring across the Atlantic the dangerous Lisbon Strategy and Bologna Treaty which students across Europe are now rallying against. These agreements are a sweeping and anti-democratic plan to standardize education across Europe introducing new student fees (often where none existed before) increased private investment and, in most cases, the removal of local governments’ ability to set tuition, funding and research policies.

Education will function in the interest of capital, not for the emancipation of youth. This is producing a deeper hierarchical and elitist categorization between European Post-Secondary Education institutions. Similar processes are already at work in Canada.

Attack on young workers

Young workers in Canada have already faced the devastating impact of Free Trade in the form of NAFTA which also promised “economic prosperity” and instead allowed for the asset-stripping of Canada’s industry by finance capital at the expense of the working class who were left at the end with increased exploitation.

NAFTA has sucked the country of manufacturing jobs, for example effectively terminating the Auto Pact protecting workers in the auto industry. The future of millions of young workers has now been limited unemployment – or low-paying, non-union, “service sector” jobs, that are generally dangerous and precarious work.

Democratic sovereignty has been severely limited with environmental regulations shredded, for example the over-turn of the dangerous gasoline additive MMT under corporate pressure in the context of NAFTA regulations. Control over our resources, such as the nationalization of energy, is effectively prohibited by NAFTA. On the other hand, the agreement has set-up a scenario for further negotiations sometimes called the “Security, Peace and Prosperity Partnership” (SPP) with the US and Mexico. The SPP includes “deep integration,” funnelling Canada’s resource wealth into US corporate pockets.

In Mexico, NAFTA has created a social-economic crisis, especially in rural communities. The end result has been the breaking up communities and families as millions of people search for jobs in the North. These immigrant and migrant workers are treated like second-class citizens or forced labour in the USA and Canada.

In short, NAFTA shows free trade agreements like CETA to be a dead-end solution for working people and youth. The European Union states have already launched a full-scale attack on workers over the past decade with the imposition of the Stability and Growth Pact, the Lisbon Strategy and especially the Bolkestein Directive which are all against the youth, workers and people's rights.

Struggle is the way forward!

Imperialism has never forgotten the failed Multi-lateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA) – agreements which were both defeated in the context of mass public mobilization – and have openly said CETA is a step towards a multi-lateral agreement. But whereas the FTAA was described as “NAFTA on steroids,” CETA could be considered NAFTA on crack.

Imperialism is forced to sign trade deals by the drive for an increasing rate of profit. These deals cannot be amended with a more human or socially-just approach. Unity and resistance rejecting these agreements is the only realistic and effective strategy. Our future can not be stolen from us! We can not be reduced to beggars in our lands!

The YCL calls upon all progressive youth to work as quickly as we can break the silence about the danger of CETA through mass education, and sound the alarm bell through broad visible mobilization, standing with the labour movement. Provincial governments, which must sign on to CETA, are also vulnerable to pressure. We urge the youth and student movement to seek out as many ways possible to integrate opposition towards this new scourge of Free Trade deals into our daily and immediate struggles!

The major cross-Canada mobilization the students called by the Canadian Federation of Students for February 2011 is fully supported by the YCL-LJC. This is an opportunity to ‘think globally’ and raise this issue. Likewise, the general student strike planned by Québec students in March 2011 can and must connect with the cross-Canada and international-level attack on education.

The Young Communist League categorically opposes CETA agreement and calls for total disengagement by Canada, the immediate abolition of the agreement, as well as full disclosure of negotiations. Drop-out now!

All imperialist agreements must be abrogated – including NAFTA and NATO – in favour of economic relations that break with the policies of the corporate pirates and instead enshrine values of peace, disarmament and non-proliferation; ecology and climate justice; friendship between peoples; mutual respect of sovereignty; and solidarity in our common struggles. This requires a new, transformational framework, with revolutionary scope based on people’s needs, and people’s power. If socialist Cuba, a poor country, can send doctors around the world – why can’t Canada?

The Young Communist League supports the call for a Charter of Youth Rights, not corporate rights, to guarantee a life with a future for the youth.

Central Executive Committee
Young Communist League of Canada

The clash for the cash

2012-01-05T14:58:00.001-08:00

Download and read the full report in PDF here.

The AFL-CIO and Colombia

2012-01-05T13:19:00.000-08:00

by ALBERTO C. RUIZ

Ernesto Guevara “feels that in social and political matters the role of Latin America has been one of neglect. As an example of this, he remarked on one occasion, ‘Five thousand workers are shot down in the Bolivian highlands, and maybe there is one line in the New York papers, which mentions that there is labor unrest in Bolivia.’ He wonders if the United States so-called international labor unions would take an interest in the South American worker and if it might help to raise the living standards of the Latin Americans to a level which might come closer to that of the North Americans.”

–CIA biographical report on Che, 1958 (as reproduced in Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away with Murder).

Many of us have wondered the very same thing about “the so-called international labor unions” in the U.S. and whether they would take a real, sincere interest in the workers of Latin America. For some time, it has appeared that, for whatever its faults in other countries such as Venezuela, the AFL-CIO has taken a bona fide interest in the workers of Colombia. Specifically, it has seemed that the AFL-CIO has taken a good line in opposing the unprecedented anti-union violence in that country – “the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist” as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has opined each year for the past many years. The diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, however, show a more equivocal role.

First, some background on Colombia. Since 1986, around 2900 unionists have been killed in that country. According to the ITUC, which itself relies upon the well-respected National Labor School of Colombia (ENS), 51 unionists (out of 90 worldwide) were killed in 2010. In 2011, there were at least 28 labor leaders assassinated, while hundreds more (including 600 teachers) were threatened with physical harm, including death. The Colombian government, in an attempt to paint itself in the best light and to win Congressional passage of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (which it successfully did this past October) has tried to take issue with these figures. It has done so by claiming that some of the unionists in these figures were killed, not because they were trade unionists, but rather, for other reasons – e.g., as the result of common crime or crimes of passion. And so, for example, the Colombian government took the position that in 2010, only 37 of the unionists killed in Colombia (out of the 51 total) were killed because they were unionists, and that this should be the figure used when tallying up the victims. However, even if we took this as the correct number of unionists qua unionists killed in Colombia in 2010, this would still mean that Colombia accounted for over 40% of the entire world’s trade union killings – hardly anything for the Colombian government to brag about. Still, the fight over these numbers is highly contentious, and for serious reasons of policy.

Another important background issue is the very nature of unionism itself in Colombia. The view of honest human rights and labor rights groups is that unions in Colombia, while representing diverse views from the far-left to the far-right, and everything in between, are peaceful, civilian actors in Colombia and merit protection from armed violence in Colombia. This is indeed the official policy of the United States government which in fact provides aid for union protection in Colombia. This can be viewed as inconsistent with the U.S.’s continued policy of providing massive aid to the Colombian military which itself carries out anti-union killings and which is aligned with right-wing paramilitaries which carry out the lion’s share of anti-union killings in Colombia. However, the point is that the U.S. government, particularly the State Department, does not officially question the legitimate, peaceful aims of the Colombian labor movement.

On the other hand is the Colombian government which, especially under President Alvaro Uribe who held office between 2002 and 2010, attempted to rationalize and even legitimize the killing of unionists by attempting to portray unionists generally in Colombia as being aligned in some way, either in fact or at least in outlook, to the left-wing guerillas in that country. This stigmatization of the Colombian union movement has not only served to justify union killings, it has indeed encouraged them. This is so because the right-wing paramilitaries, which are themselves closely aligned to the military, have the propensity to kill anyone they view as even potentially aligned, again if merely in thought, to the guerillas. And so, this stigmatization serves as a green light to the paramilitaries to carry out extra-judicial killings of unionists. That is why it is so dangerous in Colombia to accuse someone of being a guerilla. Similarly, accusing someone of being a communist is equally dangerous given that guerillas and communists are viewed as one in the same by paramilitaries in Colombia.

This brings us to the Wikileaks cables. There are about a dozen Wikileaks cables which reflect meetings between the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center and the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, and they are quite revealing. For example, there is an embassy cable from August 11, 2008, entitled, “COLOMBIAN UNIONS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE ARMED CONFLICT.” And, in this cable, the Solidarity Center’s Rhett Doumitt [the same AFL-CIO staffer directly involved in aiding and abetting forces that carried out the coup against President Chavez in 2002] professes strong views on this subject to the U.S. Embassy, in particular to Ambassador Brownfield.

Thus, in this cable, Mr. Doumitt is said to have “complained of a ‘Stalinist’ approach taken by Communist and other hard-left labor leaders within the CUT,” the largest labor confederation in Colombia. The cable continues:

In 2006, they [the CUT] affiliated with the Social Democratic international confederation, which later became the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Even then, RHETT DOUMITT of the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center said the Communists literally ‘turned the lights out’ at the convention in a last ditch attempt to block this affiliation.

Further in the cable, DOUMITT complains that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues. In the April 22 monthly ‘labor dialogue’ meeting with President Uribe, the confederations focused discussions on the investigations of the Colombian congressmen associated with the parapolitical scandal. CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajadores Democraticos) International Relations Secretary Jose Leon Ramirez notes there was no discussion of labor issues at the meeting. Still, DOUMITT says the unions have made progress in moving away from their traditional polemic cold war perspectives.

Another cable from another meeting indicates identical complaints to the Embassy by Doumitt about the Colombian labor movement elevating its political concerns – e.g., about the “parapolitical” scandal which involved scores of politicians collaborating with the paramilitaries who, among other things, have been hunting down labor leaders – over purely labor concerns. In this cable, dated February 5, 2009, Doumitt complained that “the public’s perception that the unions value politics over pocket book issues for workers also limit union membership. Doumitt complained that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues, but noted that some unions are moving away from their traditional socialist ideologies.”

Still, in another cable dated September 5, 2008, Doumitt seems to side with the Colombian government in terms of the debate over the figures of unionists killed in Colombia. Thus, the cable states:

RHETT DOUMITT of the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center told us paramilitary violence against unionists subsided after the last paramilitary block demobilized in 2006. Recent murders of unionists are largely related to common crime. . . .

The tenor of these cables is repeated in other Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, where the Embassy reported on a meeting with Solidarity Center officials who told the Embassy “that unions [in Ecuador] generally have a bad reputation all around. Younger workers see them as either communist or irrelevant, and most Ecuadorians seen them as essentially selfish actors.” In a January 22, 2007 cable emanating from Peru, and entitled, “GOP [Government of Peru] Wins Battle Against Radical Teacher’s Union,” the local AFL-CIO representative is cited as siding with the government in this legal victory which, among other things, limited the number of teachers (from 314 to 30) who could engage in full-time union activity and still receive their teachers’ salaries. Thus, the cable states: “According to Oscar Muro of the local chapter of the AFL-CIO, the fund sometimes aids teachers in need but is often misused. He further said that 30 subsidized representatives was a generous number given that no other union in the country has such a high number of positions as a percentage of membership.” Finally, in a cable out of Managua, dated January 23, 2007, and involving meetings with various anti-Sandinista NGO’s, the cable explains that unions can play a role in challenging the policies of President Daniel Ortega, and that “[t]he Ambassador offered to meet with independent unions and suggested that Huembes [a union leader from a non-FSLN union] contact the AFL-CIOregional representative in Guatemala to seek his guidance.”

What these cables portray is an organization, the AFL-CIO, which is beholden to the U.S. State Department and which is reporting to it on a regular basis. Among other things, it is reporting on the perceived blemishes of the union movements in those countries in which it operates. And, as during the Cold War, the “blemishes” it is reporting on in many instances revolve around the left-wing, and possibly socialist or communist, nature of these unions. Of course, the AFL-CIO is reporting on this to the U.S. government which is hostile to such left-wing institutions and which is indeed bent on wiping them out. The cable emanating from Nicaragua actually shows the Ambassador himself calling upon the AFL-CIO for help in agitating against Sandinista President Daniel Ortega.

This type of conduct by the AFL-CIO is particularly dangerous in the case of Colombia where trade unionists are being threatened and killed in record numbers by state and quasi-state actors which receive their support from the U.S., and where the U.S. is such a powerful, intervening force.

At worst, such red baiting of the union movement in a country such as Colombia to that countries’ military backer (the U.S.) serves to put the lives of unionists – who the AFL-CIO actually claims to protect – in danger.

Further, such conduct on the part of the AFL-CIO has an adverse impact on U.S. policy. For example, in the case of Colombia, undermining the union movement in the eyes of the U.S. government only serves to undercut the cause of the U.S. and Colombian unions who desperately attempted, and succeeded for several years, to prevent passage of the Colombia FTA, largely on the grounds that Colombia should not be rewarded for anti-union violence. This message was greatly compromised — and possibly fatally so as seen in the ultimate passage of the FTA under Obama — by the AFL-CIO’s representative in Bogota who, at least as reflected in the cables, portrays the Colombian unions’ concerns as unworthy, either because the unions are themselves somehow unworthy because they are communist-ridden or too political (that is, too concerned about government officials collaborating with paramilitary death squads), or because the issue of violence isn’t the big deal those unions are claiming it is.

In short, the AFL-CIO continues to do the work, not of a true internationalist union, but of an imperialist organization which sees itself aligned with U.S. foreign policy in challenging the movement for radical change and for socialism in the world. I can say that, as someone who believes in the cause of socialism – a cause more relevant than ever in light of the current global crisis of capitalism – this is not what I want those speaking in labor’s name abroad to be doing. I would submit that the U.S. labor movement would be better off, instead of presumptuously telling unions in other countries what they should be doing and what political line they should be following, to instead focus on its own efforts at organizing workers and in agitating for real change in this country – efforts at which it has been woefully inadequate since the 1930’s when, oh yes, it was being spurred on by militant socialists and communists.

REPRINTED FROM COUNTERPUNCH.ORG
Alberto C. Ruiz is a long-time unionist, peace activist and socialist.

Successful WFDY Mission to Western Sahara

2011-12-28T17:12:00.000-08:00

WFDY delegation in Western Sahara calls for peace

The World Federation of Democratic Youth, committed to the cause of anti-imperialist struggle, carried out an important international solidarity mission to Western Sahara on 2 to 11 of December.

The organization of this mission was decided before the Assembly in the framework of the decisions taken then, to continue organizing international missions such as the mission to Egypt and Palestine. After the Assembly and its decisions, this mission had even greater importance as the final documentation of the Assembly, among other decisions, underlined and ratified the importance of this missions and of course the importance to support and express solidarity to the struggle of the people of Western Sahara against the Moroccan occupation.

The organization of the mission was carried out by the member organizations of WFDY, UJCE from Spain and the comrades of UJSARIO of Western Sahara. The mission had participation of 37 comrades from 3 countries and had theopportunity to meet with very important persons of the political life of Western Sahara, of Polisario and UJSARIO and of course with young Sahrawi’s that fight for freedom, against imperialism. The most important meeting was with the General Secretary and President of Sahrawi Arab Republic, Mr. Mohamed Abdelaziz. The mission also met with the President of the parliament, the coordinator of the Sahrawi with MINURSO (UN mission in W. Sahara), with the Governor of Esmara, representatives of local authorities and other organizations of the Sahrawi movement.

Another part of the mission consisted by a member of UJCE travelled directly to the occupied territories of Western Sahara and despite the continuous surveillance by the Moroccan occupying forces he met with members of the Sahrawi resistance and participated in their demonstrations and actions.

Given the opportunity the mission also visited schools, institutions and museums to better understand the historical development of the struggle of the Sahrawi people and also to witness the efforts that the Sahrawi people take toorganize the life in the refugee camps in a just and democratic way overcoming the difficulties that are consequences of the occupation. It is worth mentioning also that during the mission the delegates had the opportunity to participate in a conference titled: “Imperialism, war and occupation in the world today. The response of the peoples”, which had a great success. Another important moment of the mission was the visit to the “Wall of Shame”, the wall that the occupation force of Morocco raised with the false belief that the Sahrawi’s would stop their struggle for freedom and self determination.

The people and youth of Western Sahara have been victims of the European and Moroccan colonialism for more than a century. They continue theirstruggle for the establishment of a free and independent State. Their struggle for a peaceful and just settlement finds obstacles put by the Moroccan government, which is supported by other imperialist forces, especially in Europe. For more than 20 years the Sahrawi try with peaceful means to take what is rightfully theirs but the Moroccan side refuses to collaborate.

On the contrary the Moroccan government represses the Sahrawi that live in the occupied territories, arrests those who resist and continue the exploitation of the natural resources of Western Sahara.

The World Federation of Democratic Youth condemns the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara. We demand the liberation of the political prisoners and we stand in solidarity with the 36 Sahrawi prisoners who are onhunger strike in prisons of Morocco and who were detained after the massacre of Gdeim Izik.

WFDY stands in solidarity with the people and the youth of Western Sahara. We support the right of the Sahrawi people for self determination, for freedom and independence. Their struggle against the Moroccan occupation is a struggle against imperialism. We know that the path of the struggle is difficult especially considering the support that Morocco has by its imperialist allies who have financial interest in the area, but we are sure the popular resistance of the Sahrawi people and the international solidarity of the anti-imperialist movement will prevail, bringing closer the day of victory, a victory not only for the Sahrawi but also for the anti-imperialist movement.

Communists call for urgent action on climate change

2011-12-27T16:24:00.000-08:00

Rebel Youth report

Climate change is "a question
of life or death"

The topic of climatechange and the Kyoto protocol has been an issue of attention to some Communistand Worker’s Parties as COP17 2011 UN Climate Conference took place in Durban thisDecember. This has included a proposal for a special conference of CommunistParties on climate issues to be held in South Africa.

Climate change is animportant struggle for all progressive youth in Canada. The YCL-LJC Canada debatedthe question of climate change at it’s 25^th Central Convention ofthe YCL last year (to read the final resolution click here and scroll down to Part 5) and resolved to makethe environment, and especially climate change, of particular concern to theLeague.

The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol (1997)is essentially an international courtesy rule or guiding chart. It is part ofthe larger United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Both are aimedat fighting global warming. Kyotogenerally sets 1990-level emission goals for Green House Gases (GHG) andexpires next year. Almost exclusively,the goals have not been met.

To implement Kyoto threeflexible mechanisms are outlined in the Protocol that fit within the frame-workof the global capitalist economy: 1. Trading in emission rights; 2. Jointimplementation and; 3. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

The United Statesnever signed Kyoto. This December, followingthe COP17 meeting, the Harper Conservative government also formally withdrew Canadafrom the Protocol.

COP 17

In an editorialarticle in The Morning Star notedthat legal measures for a new legally binding treaty on global warming by 2015were watered down on the pretext that countries could not sign up to negotiatea legally binding deal without knowing if it would be fair to poorer countries (TheMorning Star is the only daily English-language socialist newspaper in theworld which is politically linked with the Communist Party of Britain).

“That's a perfectlyreasonable argument on the face of it, but there's much more to it than that,”the editorial said. “[I]t's largely not countries that pollute, it's companies”they added, noting two basic questions: can developing countries can afford toforgo industrial development? and, could they control the big transnationals evenif they wanted to? Furthermore, “international legally enforceable agreementsalso raise the question of just how they would be enforced.”

Are these conferences “set-upto fail” the writers asked?

Life or death

The Communist Party ofAustralia (CPA), in their intervention to the 13^th InternationalMeeting of Communist and Worker’s Parties (IMCWP) in Athens this December, spokedirectly to what is at stake with these negotiations.

Quoting Bolivia'sPresident Evo Morales addressing the Copenhagen Climate Change summit in 2009, theCPA said it is a struggle of "the culture of life and the culture of death”where “The culture of death is capitalism, its highest and most dangerous form,imperialism. The culture of life is that of the Indigenous peoples, the South,and all the oppressed and exploited people on our planet.”

Likewise, TheMorning Star said that “One can only feel for countries such as Grenada,whose delegate made the telling point that ‘while you are debating, we aredying.’ The Star quoted one speaker at the conference who warned that “actionagainst climate change in 2020 will come a decade too late for poor people onthe front line - they urgently need it now. Their lives are already ravaged byfloods, droughts, failed rains, deadly storms, hunger and disease and we knowthat these disasters will get worse and more frequent as climate change bites.”

Ecology or social progress – a false dilema

Another of the communistparties to recently address the Kyoto question was The Progressive Party of theWorking People of Cyprus (AKEL), which is currently the leading force in theruling coalition of Cyprus making it the only communist-led government in theEuropean Union.

In a statement issuedshortly before the Durban meeting and the 13^th IMCWP, AKEL notedthat there is a wide range of opinions about future obligation periods withdeveloping countries wanting to extend the Protocol for the developingcountries, with funding for emerging and developing countries (for example to upgradeGHG emitting technologies), while developed countries are demanding a newagreement which includes commitments from all countries on the planet (especiallyChina, India and Brazil).

“The dilemma betweenthe need to protect the environment and combating poverty, between combatingclimate change and economic development is a false dilemma and only when werealise this, will there be a solution” the AKEL concluded.

The real question is the market vs theenvironment

AKEL also criticizedcapitalism’s solutions to the environmental crisis. “[P]olicies which seek to regulate theproblem through the mechanisms of the market, such as the Pollution TradingSystem, which with its implementation has not only not recorded progress buthas created a pretext for those responsible for great emissions to continuepolluting without reductions, cannot offer a solution to the problem of climatechange - as they cannot offer a solution to the problems of poverty,unemployment and so many other social problems the peoples of the world arefacing” they said.

A similar point ofview was made by the Australian communists who noted that, in response to thegrowing environmental crisis, “the Australian Government has played a leadingrole in trying to replace the Kyoto Protocol with a political agreement” – for exampleadopting a carbon tax to enable big Australian corporations to participate inglobal carbon markets, “to buy the right to pollute at the expense of thedevelopment of poorer nations” the CPA said.

“The carbon tax hasserved as a diversion from taking serious measures to reduce Australia's carbonfootprint, the largest per-capita in the world,” they said. Instead, “Governmentsupport for market-based policies has stifled almost all voices that questionthis policy and effectively ruled out the planning, regulation and legislationfor the necessary measures to ensure a sustainable future.”

Comprehensive, just and audacious

In the Parliament ofCyprus AKEL also passed a special resolution on the question of climate change.In introducing the resolution AKEL noted that they approach the Conference “witha critical disposition, but at the same time with interest.”

We expect and demand “thatthe rich countries of the North take a decision and assume theirresponsibilities towards the poor countries of the South. The drawing up of abinding and Active agreement for the restriction of pollution and thesimultaneous provision of substantial assistance - economic and technological -towards the poor countries of the South to tackle and adapt to the climatechanges is imperative and not to burden them with more responsibilities” theysaid.

The resolution calledon the UN and member states to push for a comprehensive, international, just,ambitious and legally binding agreement beyond 2012, founded on theinternational system of regulations of the Kyoto Protocol. Any agreement musthave “strict political, economic and legal obligations for the provision ofassistance to the developing countries, recalling that the poor countries arethe ones most exposed to the impact of climate change and have the leastcapacity to adapt.”

This is similar to theviewpoint of the Communist Party of Canada which in at its 2010 CentralConvention called for deep cuts in the climate emissions by the imperialistcountries, “climate reparations” owed to the oppressed people’s of the world,and that climate change agreements “be strong, legally binding, comprehensive,and audacious, and be based on international solidarity, peace and respect forsovereignty, self-determination and democracy, as well as employment and socialprogress.”

Again, as the CPA hassaid, “despite their immense wealth and political power, [the corporations] canbe constrained. With a massive mobilisation of working people we can begin totake steps towards environmental sustainability and towards the socialtransformation necessary to complete this process.”

Conference failure shows problems withcapitalism

Although the UNannounced the conference was a success, many scientists and environmentalistsnoted that the conference failed to set necessary targets. AKEL agreed. Whilenoting that a positive step in the Conference was Cyprus´ inclusion into Annex1 of the Protocol (the island country will reduce emissions by 20-30% inrelation to today's realities) “yet again it has been confirmed that for thesake of interests and economic profit the big polluters do not make concessionsand compromises.”

“[T]he environmental and ecological crisis isnothing else other than the direct consequence of the ruling world economicmodel of development” AKEL said.

This sentiment wasechoed a few days later at the International Meeting of Communist and Worker’sParties in Athens by the South African Communist Party (SACP). Noting that climate change that will impactmost severely on continents like Africa and low-lying island states, the SACPsaid that “Capitalism is a system based on profit and not on social andenvironmental need [and it] is incapable of resolving the climate crisis - asis apparent from the stance of the major capitalist powers in the current COP17process.”

“[F]ailure to ratifyand extend the Kyoto Protocol or coming out without another alternative bindingagreement in Durban has got very serious implications for our planet and thefuture of humanity” the SACP said in there intervention.

In it’s editorial onthe Durban conference The Morning Star quoted World Development Movementpolicy officer Murray Worthy:

When [...] Worthy said the outcome of the talks had been a ‘spectacularfailure’ he wasn't overstating. ‘Developed countries have behaved shamefully,blocking meaningful progress on tackling climate change. They have refused toacknowledge their historical responsibility for the crisis, either by agreeingto reduce their emissions or by providing finance to help developing countriesdeal with climate change.’ And that hits the issue squarely.

The Morning Star also noted that no sources of money were foundfor the establishment of a green climate fund to channel billions to poorcountries to help them cope with impacts of global warming such as floods anddrought, and pursue sustainable development.

Climate change, an important issue forcommunists

The South Africancommunists called climate justice “another arena of struggle” that the entireleft should “take up in earnest” which “will also require that we forge linkswith both domestic and international progressive ecological movements, also asa crucial component of internationalist working class solidarity.”

Communists and theleft “have to navigate a contradiction facing many developing countries likeours, the simultaneous necessities to grow our economies and the destruction tothe environment brought about by ecologically unsustainable growth paths” andtherefore the SACP is calling for a “climate justice international conferenceof communist and workers parties in South Africa in 2012” to bring togethercommunist and workers parties to debate and engage matters relating to theclimate.

Similarly, AKEL “pledge[d]that we shall continue the struggle and our efforts to safeguard not only thepresent, but also the future of the planet and our children. The tackling ofthis environmental and ecological crisis, which is of vital importance,constitutes a component part of the struggle for a more just and peacefulworld.”

The sense of urgencywas also echoed by the Communist Party of Australia who noted that “Capitalismhas always failed to meet the basic needs of hundreds of millions of people.With the climate crisis, it will eventually fail all humanity. The struggle forsustainable development is in essence a struggle to restrain and restrictcapitalist corporations and to compel an end to environmentally damagingproduction processes.”

Similarly, the Australiancommunists said that “The struggle is to save our planet, for peace, forsurvival, for basic human rights such as jobs, food, health services, educationand clean water. It is the struggle for socialism.”

"Capitalism is approaching its historical limits" Canadian Communists say

2011-12-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

13th International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties
Athens, December 9-11, 2011

SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE!
The international situation and the experience of the communists 20 years after the counterrevolution in the USSR. The tasks for the development of the class struggle in conditions of capitalist crisis, imperialist wars, of the current popular struggles and uprisings, for working class-popular rights, the strengthening of proletarian internationalism and the anti-imperialist front, for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism.

Contribution of Communist Party of Canada

presented by Miguel Figueroa,
Central Executive Committee, CPC

Dear Comrades,

In the limited time available, allow me to address just a few points on behalf of our Party:

First of all, to express our deep appreciation to our host party, the KKE, for graciously facilitating this meeting, and more importantly, for its combative initiative in the unfolding struggle of the Greek working class and its allies in response to the deepening systemic crisis of capitalism. Our Greek comrades are showing in life how a Communist party should and must exercise its vanguard role. Your party is setting an example and giving inspiration to all Communist forces and revolutionary movements everywhere in the world;

Second, about the overturning of socialism 20 years ago, and our experience since. In the aftermath of that great calamity, that world-historic setback, we decided that our most important task related to the party itself – to be a party worthy of the name “Communist”. We are reminded of the comments made many years ago by the great Portuguese Communist leader Alvaro Cunhal. He listed the essential features to which we should aspire: to be a party completely independent of the interests, ideology, pressure and threats of capitalist forces; to be a party of the working class, the working people, in general, the exploited and oppressed; to be a party with a democratic internal life and a unified central leadership; to be a party which is both internationalist and which defends the interests of its country; to be a party that defines its goal as the building of a society which knows neither exploited nor exploiters, a socialist society; to be the bearer of a revolutionary theory, the theory of Marxism-Leninism, which not only makes the explanation of the world possible, but also shows the way to change it.

Third, concerning the current crisis. It is especially intense, global and all-sided not only because the onset of the cyclical crisis of relative over-production was artificially delayed as a result of neoliberal policies, financial speculation, the rise of fictitious capital, etc., but also because it is merging with intractable structural crises of the system, not least of which is the growing environmental crisis. This confirms that capitalism is fast approaching its historical limits – perhaps more rapidly than even we Communists had anticipated – and also helps to explain why traditional bourgeois mechanisms of regulating and overcoming the crisis are increasingly ineffective, and why the resulting ruling class response to the crisis is more socially brutal, more militaristic, more dangerous to all humanity than during previous rounds of crisis – at least since the end of WW II. The objective ‘space’ for reformist “solutions” is evermore restricted. This is the objective basis for the deepening crisis and bankruptcy of the social democratic ‘alternative’ today;

Fourth, that while the contradictions underpinning this rotten system are more mature than ever before, laying the objective conditions necessary for the revolutionary leap to socialism, we must acknowledge that the subjective factors for transformation are lagging far behind in many if not most of our countries, especially in most of the advanced capitalist states including Canada. The capitalist offensive against the social, economic and political advances and rights of the working class and its allies, the growing social disparities, the increasing state repression, etc. – all these developments are giving rise to increasing anger among working people, to the loss of bourgeois political legitimacy, and even to the growth of anti-capitalist sentiments. And yet for the most part, the working class – even within its most organized sections – is not yet prepared to embrace the socialist alternative, much less actively fight for it, to rally to the Communist parties, etc. In general we know the reasons for this growing divide, this contradiction between the objective and subjective factors for revolutionary advance – the increased sophistication of bourgeois ideological instruments of social control, of its use of racism, sexism, narrow nationalism, religious extremism to cloud and divert class consciousness; of the particularly pernicious use of anti-communism and the systematic dissemination of lies and distortions about socialism past and present to scare the workers away from the socialist alternative, and so on. But to identify the problem – including our own subjective weaknesses and failings as a movement in this regard – this is hardly enough, comrades. We need to undertake a far more rigorous study of the problem of the formation of social and class consciousness in the current conditions, and most importantly, how best to counteract bourgeois ideological influences on our class, and make a more skilful and compelling case for socialism as the only alternative to capitalism, as the necessary and desirable alternative to capitalism. And we need to develop new and creative ways to make that case. Simply repeating over and over again slogans about the “superiority of socialism” just won’t suffice. Perhaps we can make this a topic for a future meeting, or better yet, organize a special international conference around this theme.

Finally, a few words about these meetings. At the risk of repetition, we appeal again to all parties – and especially those parties in the Working Group – to give concentrated attention to improving the format for these annual gatherings. A great deal of time, energy and resources go into convening this international assembly every year, and we must find better ways to ensure that they are as purposeful and productive as possible – for instance by finding more time for targeted discussions and constructive debate on some of the big theoretical and practical challenges we face, more time for discussion and planning of joint actions, more time for regional caucuses, and so on. We are confident that this can be achieved.

Thank you for your attention.

Socialism is the Future, say Communist and Worker's Parties

2011-12-27T13:32:00.000-08:00

Final Statement

The 13^th International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties was held in Athens on 9-11 December 2011 with theme:

“SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE!

The international situation and the experience of the communists 20 years after the counterrevolution in the USSR. The tasks for the development of the class struggle in conditions of capitalist crisis, imperialist wars, of the current popular struggles and uprisings, for working class-popular rights, the strengthening of proletarian internationalism and the anti-imperialist front, for the overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism”.

The meeting was attended by representatives from 78 Parties from 59 countries. A number of parties that did not manage to take part for reasons beyond their control sent written messages. We salute from Athens the growing popular struggles releasing huge emancipatory potential against imperialism, against capitalist exploitation and oppression, and for the social, labour and social security rights of workers’ all over the world.

The meeting was held in critical conditions in which the deep and prolonged capitalist crisis continues to prevail in the international situation, accompanied by the escalation of the aggressiveness of imperialism which is expressed in the decisions of the Lisbon Summit for the new NATO strategy. This reality confirms the analyses outlined in the statements of the 10^th, 11^th, 12^th, International Meetings that took place in Brazil (Sao Paolo) in 2008, India (New Delhi) in 2009 and South Africa (Tshwane) in 2010.

It becomes increasingly obvious for millions of working people that the crisis is a crisis of the system. It is not faults within the system but the system itself that is faulty, generating regular and periodic crises. It results from the sharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between the social character of production and the private capitalist appropriation and not from any version of the management policy of the system or from any aberration based on the greed of some bankers or other capitalists or from the lack of effective regulatory mechanisms. It highlights the historical boundaries of capitalism and the need to strengthen the struggles for anti-monopoly anti-capitalist ruptures, the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism.

In the USA, Japan, the EU, and in other capitalist economies the impasses of the various versions of the bourgeois management are being demonstrated. On the one hand the restrictive political line leads to a prolonged and deep recession; on the other, the expansionist political management, with large state support packages to the monopoly groups, finance capital, and the banks, intensifies inflation and leads to the swelling of the public debt. Capitalism converts corporate insolvencies into sovereign insolvencies. Capitalism has no other response to the crisis beyond the mass destruction of productive forces, resources, mass dismissals, factory closures, and the comprehensive attack on workers and trade union rights, on wages, pensions, social security, the reduction in people’s income, the huge increase in unemployment and poverty.

The anti-people offensive is strengthening which is manifested with particular intensity in certain regions. The concentration and centralization of monopoly capital is intensifying the reactionary character of economic and political power. Capitalist restructuring and privatisations are being promoted, aiming at competitiveness and maximisation of profit of capital, at ensuring a cheaper labour force and the regression of decades in terms of social and labour rights.

The intensity of the crisis, its global synchronisation, the prospect of the slow, weak recovery intensify the difficulties of the bourgeois forces in managing the crisis, leading to the sharpening of the inter-imperialist contradictions and rivalries while the danger of imperialist wars is being strengthened.

The attacks on democratic rights and sovereignty are intensifying in many countries. Political systems become more reactionary. Anti-communism is being reinforced. There are generalised measures against the activity of the communist and workers’ parties, against the trade union, political and democratic freedoms The ruling classes develop a multi faceted attempt to trap the people’s discontent through changes in the political systems, through the utilisation of a series of pro-imperialist NGOs and other organizations, through attempts to channel the people’s discontent into movements with allegedly non-political or even with reactionary characteristics.

We salute the people’s and workers extensive struggles and uprisings, for democratic, social and political rights against the anti-people regimes in the Middle East and North Africa, namely in Tunisia and Egypt. Despite the contradictions which the current situation manifests, it constitutes a significant experience that the communist movement should study and utilise. Simultaneously we strongly condemn the imperialist war of NATO and the EU against the Libyan people and the threats and interference in the internal affairs of Syria and Iran, as well as of any other country. We consider that every foreign intervention against Iran under whatever pretext attacks the interests of the Iranian workers and their struggles for democratic freedoms, social justice and social rights.

These developments confirm the necessity of strengthening the Communist and Workers’ Parties in order to play their historical role, to further strengthen the workers and people’s struggle in defence of their rights and aspirations, to utilise the contradictions of the system and the inter-imperialist contradictions for an overthrow at the level of power and economy, for the satisfaction of people’s needs. Without the leading role of the communist and workers parties and the vanguard class, the working class, the peoples will be vulnerable to confusion, assimilation and manipulation by the political forces that represent the monopolies, finance capital and imperialism.

Significant realignments in the international correlation of forces are under way. There is the on-going relative weakening of the position of the USA, the general productive stagnation in the most advanced capitalist economies and the emergence of new global economic powers, notably China. The tendency for the increase of contradictions is strengthening, between the imperialist centres, and of these with the so-called emerging economies.

Imperialist aggressiveness intensifies. There are already several regional points of tension and wars and they are multiplying: in Asia and Africa, in the Middle East with the increasing aggressiveness of Israel particularly against the Palestinian people. At the same time we note the rising of neo Nazi and xenophobic forces in Europe, the multifaceted interventions, threats and the offensive against the people’s movements and the progressive political forces in Latin America. Militarization is being reinforced. The risk for a general conflagration at a regional level becomes even greater. In this sense the expansion and strengthening of the anti-imperialist social and political front and the struggles for peace in the direction of eradicating the causes of imperialist wars are fundamental.

There are two paths of development:

- the capitalist path, the path of the exploitation of the peoples which creates great dangers for imperialist wars, for workers’, people’s democratic rights

- and the path of liberation with immense possibilities for the promotion of the interests of the workers and the peoples, for the achievement of social justice, people’s sovereignty, peace and progress. The path of the workers’ and people’s struggles, the path of socialism and communism, which is historically necessary.

Thanks to the decisive contribution of the communists and the class oriented trade-union movement the workers’ struggles in Europe and all over the world were further strengthened. Imperialist aggressiveness continues to meet resolute popular resistance in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. This fact, along with experience accumulated so far especially in Latin America, the struggles and the processes that take place demonstrate the possibilities of resistance, of class struggle, in order for the peoples to make steps forward, to gain ground inflicting blows to imperialism when they have as their goal the overthrow of imperialist barbarity.

We salute the workers’ and people’s struggles and note the need to further strengthen them. The conditions demand the intensification of the class struggle, of the ideological, political, mass struggle in order to impede the anti-people measures and promote goals of struggle that meet the contemporary people’s needs; demand an organized workers’ counterattack for anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist ruptures, for the overthrow of capitalism putting an end to the exploitation of man by man.

Today the conditions are ripe for the construction of wide social anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist alliances, capable of defeating the multifaceted imperialist offensive and aggression and of fighting for power and promoting deep, radical, revolutionary changes. Working class unity, the organisation and the class orientation of the labour movement are fundamental factors in ensuring the construction of effective social alliances with the peasantry, the urban middle class strata, the women’s movement and youth movement.

In this struggle the role of the communist and workers’ parties at national, regional and international level and the strengthening of their cooperation are indispensable. The joint coordinated activity of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, of the communist youth organizations and the anti-imperialist organizations in which the communists have an important contribution constitutes one of the most reliable elements for the expansion of the anti-imperialist struggle and the strengthening of the anti-imperialist front.

The ideological struggle of the communist movement is of vital importance in order to defend and develop scientific socialism, to repulse contemporary anti-communism, to confront bourgeois ideology, anti-scientific theories and opportunist currents which reject the class struggle; combat the role of social democratic forces that defend and implement anti-people and pro-imperialist policies by supporting the strategy of capital and imperialism. The understanding of the unified character of the duties of the struggle for social, national and class emancipation, for the distinct promotion of the socialist alternative requires the ideological counteroffensive of the communist movement.

The overthrow of capitalism and the construction of socialism constitute an imperative need for the peoples. In view of the capitalist crisis and its consequences the international experiences and practice of the socialist construction prove the superiority of socialism. We underline our solidarity with the peoples who struggle for socialism and are involved in the construction of socialism.

Only socialism can create the conditions for the eradication of wars, unemployment, hunger, misery, illiteracy, the uncertainty of hundreds of millions of people, the destruction of the environment. Only socialism creates the conditions for development according to the contemporary needs of the workers.

Working people, farmers, urban and rural workers, women, young people, we call on you to struggle together to put an end to this capitalist barbarity. There is hope, there is a prospect. The future belongs to socialism.

SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE!

Athens, December 11, 2011

Santa in the struggle

2011-12-23T14:46:00.000-08:00

Top: Santa is not allowed into Palestine by the Israeli military
Bottom: Santa is arrested at a student demonstration in Chile

WFDY sends condolences

2011-12-20T20:04:00.000-08:00

The logo of the World Federation
of Democratic Youth

The World Federation of Democratic Youth today sent condolences on the recent deaths of two leaders in the anti-imperialist movement, Branko Kitanović and Kim Jong Ill.

Branko Kitanović was the General Secretary of the New Communist Party of Yugoslavia. "The death of comrades as comrade Branko who devoted their lives to the struggle against imperialism, for peace and social justice, are always a great loss.... As WFDY together with our condolence we express our support to the Young Communist League of Yugoslavia," a statement released today said.

The WFDY also issued a statement on the death of Kim Jong Ill of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea which said Kim Jong Ill "expressed the willing[ness] of the people of Korea to struggle against imperialism [and] to build their own future despite the imperialist attacks that created many difficulties" in DPR Korea.

The WFDY expressed it's continued solidarity with the people of Korea and especially the youth, as well as the Kim Il Sung Socialist Youth League in their struggle "for peace and [the] reunification of the Korean Peninsula." The WFDY is confident that the Korean people will "continue to work for peace, freedom, independence, social justice and the right to build their future as they want, despite the imperialist aggression," the statement said.

Socialism's defeat will only be temporary

2011-12-16T15:02:00.000-08:00

Twelve communist youth organizations
gathered in Prague recently from across Europe

Rebel Youth re-prints here the declaration of the 9th Meeting of the European Communist Youth Organizations, held in Prague on the 3rd and 4th of December, 2011 under the slogan "20 years after the counter-revolution and the overthrow of Socialism in Europe; its consequences for the youth. The youth's future is Socialism." Please note that we have made some small grammar edits.

Twenty years have passed since the hammer and sickle, the red flag of the Great October Socialist Revolution and of socialism, was lowered from the Kremlin. Twenty years have passed since the counter-revolution and the overthrow of socialism in USSR and the other socialist countries of Europe.

This fact marked the beginning of a socially backward movement, not only for the peoples of the socialist countries, but also for peoples of entire world. The peoples of socialist countries saw a drop in their standard of living. They faced new phenomena such as unemployment, insecurity and immigration. The peoples of capitalist countries lost support for their struggle against capitalist barbarity. The subsequent years have proved not only that capitalism can not resolve any social problems, not only that capitalism can not satisfy the needs of the workers and the youth, but on the contrary, capitalism tries to get over its irremediable contradictions, by augmenting the exploitation of peoples, by condemning them to poverty, by unemployment and by wars.

Today, we are witness to new manifestations and a deepening of the capitalist crisis of over-accumulation and overproduction.As a result, all of the predatory aspects of the capitalist mode of production in its final stage (i.e. imperialism) are sharpened.

The economic crisis and the youth

Accumulation of monopoly capital has accelerated because of capitalism's centralization and concentration. On the other hand, the relative "surplus" population (in regards to the needs of capitalist accumulation), as well as evidence of the ineffectiveness of capitalism, is growing and is manifested in massive unemployment, the proletarization of the masses and increased poverty, especially among young people.

At the same time, part of the working class is overloaded, facing longer working hours for lower wages. As capitalism's productive forces grow, large part of the working class is also unused. The unequal effects of crisis in the capitalist centers (ie. Germany, France) and the so-called "periphery" (ie. Greece, Italy, Portugal, etc) are the result of the uneven regional and national development inside the structures of imperialism.

The crisis is taken as a pretext for attack on every advance of the working class, and every advance was gained by a history of hard working class struggles -- the most significant of which was establishing of workers' power in a part of Europe.

Attack on labour, young workers

The implementation of anti-people measures, that have been decided by both social democratic and neo-liberal governments alike, is accelerating and aims to decrease the price of European labor power. Labor rights, such as limitations of the working day, collective agreements, protection at work, and against the inconsistency of employers, are now in danger.

Precarious work has become one of the main means of exploitation among young workers, and it is also used to bring limitations to the workers capacity of organizing themselves and participating in the working class organizations, like trade unions, and as consequence precarious work is a tool to weaken the working class struggle.

Free and accessible public health care and education is being destroyed and the price of these services grows. The retirement age is rising. Social security systems and other responsibilities of the state toward the working class are canceled. All these changes move in direction of privatization, i.e. new spheres of profit for capital, and larger stratification of society. Now, the high-quality health care, education, social security, etc. is only for the bourgeoisie and not for working people and other popular classes.

The EU and mechanisms of domination

The capitalist rulers implement and enforce mechanisms of domination over peoples. Mass-media propaganda, no matter whether it is financed by the state or capital, promotes anti-communism and blames the the economic crisis on part of or all the people. It supports racism, chauvinism and xenophobia.

Any illusion of the democratic character of European Union (EU) institutions are being thrown away. This development shows the imperialist character of the EU and disproves any illusion of change to a so-called “more social” EU that, due to its class nature, is not possible to reform.

Rivalries between capitalist countries over who shares the greatest burden capital loss (which is the inevitable result of the crisis) are sharpening. Rivalries within the EU and Eurozone reflect precisely this reality. At the same time, the capitalists of the EU are united in their attack against the workers. They ask them to make sacrifices in the name of the salvation of Eurozone, EU and their profitability. But the people should not make any sacrifice!

Falsification of history

The people's future and their prosperity cannot be found in imperialist institutions.The falsification of history and anti-communism is financed and promoted by EU institutions and bourgeois states both in former socialist countries and other capitalist countries. The peoples’ victory over fascism, the historical significance of the Soviet Red Army in this victory, as well as the progressive development of the socialist countries is all disparaged. Instead, Communism is falsely equalized with Nazism.

The reactionary forces of the past are also being propagated -- including openly terrorist and fascist forces. Even the trade-union movement is slandered and state mechanisms (such as banning strikes and organizing strike-breaking) are used against striking workers. Likewise, the criminalization against the Communist Parties and Communist Youths is being promoted.

War and imperialist plunder

NATO confirmed its aggressive stance in its summit in Lisbon. The new imperialist attack in Libya (under a pretext of civilians’ protection and employing the UN in its plans to occupy this country and exploit its oil reserves) as well as the planned attacks on Syria and Iran clearly shows the dangerous imperialist offensive which can be resisted only with the gathering of the anti-imperialist forces. Inter-imperialist contradictions are growing between the old as well as the new imperialist powers.

Fightback and counter-offensive!

The effects of the crisis also creates new movements of the youth and working people in the European countries. We salute the brave struggles of workers and youth, including the recent struggles of workers in Greece, Portugal, Spain and other countries, where young communists are standing in front for the defense of working people and for counter-attack against the capital!

We highlight the necessity of reinforcing the intervention of the communist youth organizations within the youth and the youth movement, of reinforcing the contribution of young communists to the empowerment of the class struggle-oriented labour movement.

Only that way, will the accumulated anger of the young people, who are facing more and more dead-end solutions, will find a way out.

Only in that way will such anger not be trapped within the framework of the so-called “new movements” which are actually promoted by the system.

The so-called "new movements," using slogans such as “down with the parties, down with the trade unions”, are actually trying to slander the organized class struggle and the revolutionary struggle.

Socialism is the future

The recent attempts to intimidate the working class movement are caused by the capitalists’ fear of comparison between the current capitalist development and the successes of socialist construction. The socialist system proved its superiority over capitalism!

Socialism guaranteed to the citizens right to work in planned socialist economy which developed the capabilities of its country proportionally. Socialism guaranteed social security, free health care and education. Socialism canceled exploitation and inequalities between peoples, regions, races, nations, and genders. Socialism promoted social ownership of means of production, in both rural and urban communities.

On the international scale, the World Socialist System (WSS) was decisive for the peoples’ defeat of fascism and Nazism, and for destruction of colonialism. The WSS constituted the only effective counterweight to imperialism. It supported progressive and anti-imperialist forces in the world.

The communist youth

The communist youth compromise to enforce their struggle, especially today, that the capitalist crisis sharpens and this may cause unforeseeable consequences for the peoples. The Communist Youth organizations bare the great task of organizing the struggle of the youth to secure the satisfaction of its contemporary needs.

Today, all wealth (which produced by the people) the productivity of labor, and the development of science and technology can meet all the contemporary popular needs. It can reduce the hours of work. It can eliminate unemployment. And it can raise the cultural and educative level of workers.

In order to achieve this, the means of production must no longer be private property, used to exploit workers. It is necessary to transform the means of production into social property and develop them in favor of the working people.

We highlight that the people must not concede and pay for the capitalist debt. The real debt is owed to the working people, by their exploitation and dispossession by the monopoly capital. There is no unity with the exploiters facing the crisis. We can not sacrificing the people. This will only bring even more surplus-value to the big capitalists and strengthen their rule.

The communist youth organizations have great responsibility for future of the peoples. Their ideological work must tell the truth about the glorious history of socialist construction in the 20th century.

The strengthening and coordinated actions of the communist youth organizations can develop a consciousness of the possibility and necessity of building a superior society – socialism and communism. This is the idea that capital wants to erase from the minds of the youth.

The organization of militant youth will reinforce the working class and people in their struggles against imperialism.The prospect of socialist construction and the future of communism is the only real alternative to current system of exploitation.Twenty years later, it is clear that the defeat of socialism will be proven to only be temporary.

Social evolution cannot be stopped!
The youth's future is Socialism!

Communist Youth of Austria (KJÖ)COMAC, BelgiumUnited Democratic Youth Organization (EDON)Communist Youth Union of the Czech Republic (KSM)Socialist German Workers´ Youth (SDAJ)Communist Youth of Greece (KNE)Communist Youth of Poland (KMP)Portuguese Communist Youth (JCP)Revolutionary Communist Youth Union of Bolsheviks (RKSMb)Union of Young Communists of Spain (UJCE)Collectives of Young Communist (CJC)Youth of Turkish Communist Party (YTKP)

WFDY statement on the developments in Egypt

2011-12-03T21:32:00.001-08:00

The recent developments in Egypt have attracted much attention from the progressive youth around
the world.

The insistence of the Egyptian youth on the continuation of their uprising against the prevailing regime of Mubarak and the new leadership of the Military council is a brilliant example on how the youth can continue the struggle until the full achievement of the demands rather than accepting middle solutions that were just a continuation of the previous policies. It is still the same regime,with the same oppressive policies and same connection and dependence on USA and countries of NATO. This is why the people continue their struggle against the regime as well as against the reactionary forces of the Islamic political currents that prevail in Egypt now.

The results of the first round of the elections have shown the strength of the Islamic (modern and extreme) forces in Egypt. However, we are aware of the deep cooperation between those forces and the remains of the regimes, as well as their connection to countries with suspicious roles in the region like Qatar and Turkey, and their ideas of domination and conservatism in Egypt.

WFDY re-affirms its support for the progressive youth of Egypt in their struggle for freedom, social justice and sovereignty. We believe that it is important to emphasize the big changes that those youth have initiated despite the continuous efforts of the counter revolutionary forces represented by the Military council and the Islamic forces to dominate in the new political situation.
The future will carry a clear competition and struggle between the democratic and progressive forces against the reactionary forces and it will only bring victory for the people.

WFDY expresses its full solidarity with the Egyptian people and youth and their continued struggles for a future of hope and of change towards democracy and social justice.

The CC/HQ of WFDY
Budapest, December 4, 2011

Evictions coordinated with Homeland Security, FBI, etc.

2011-11-27T05:15:00.001-08:00

Occupy Vancouver

Rebel Youth re-prints this report linking the violent evictions of the Occupy demos across the USA with the Department of Homeland Security. The DHS was created following 9/11 with a mandate to prevent terrorist attacks, man-made accidents, and natural disasters; secret service, immigration, customs, boarder-patrol, citizenship and in total 22 government agencies are now included in its mandate. DHS has a 2011 budget of over $98 billion. It is coordinated by the White House.

The report raises important questions for here in Canada, where Occupy protests also took place relatively quickly. Why did all the cities move in the same week-long period? Was their coordination by CSIS, or PMO office?

WEDNESDAY NOV 16, 2011 8:53 AM

Did Mayors, DHS Coordinate Occupy Attacks?

BY ALLISON KILKENNY

When a series of crackdowns on the Occupy camps suddenly occurred in, more or less, the same week, many observers wondered if perhaps the attacks had been coordinated at a national level. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan confirmed that suspicion during an appearance on the BBC - excerpted on The Takeaway radio program - when she casually mentioned taking part in a conference call with the leaders of 18 US cities right before the raids.

“I was recently on a conference call with 18 cities across the country who had the same situation," said Quan.

It turns out one of the 18 leaders who sat in on the call was Portland Mayor Sam Adams. The calls, according to Adams, were organized "to share information about the occupying encampments around the country." He described the calls to the New York Times as "check-ins to share information and advice on how various cities were handling the demonstrations."

In addition to conferring with their fellow mayors, it appears city leadership also received an assist from the Department of Homeland Security, according to journalist Rick Ellis at theExaminer. Ellis spoke with a Justice official, who claims each of the Occupy raid actions were coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI, and other federal police agencies.

The official, who spoke on background to me late Monday evening, said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement.
According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present.

The existence of these types of conference calls could help to explain the near-universal brutal police response to Occupy. A "massive show of police force" describes the scene of every raid, whether talking about major cities like Oakland or New York City, or other smaller Occupy locations like Chapel Hill or Nashville. This also helps to explain why assault weaponry like tear gas canisters and rubber bullets have been being used as a first-response rather than defensive measure.

Evicting protesters at a time "when the press was the least likely to be present" perfectly explains what happened during the eviction of Occupy Wall Street when Mayor Bloomberg dispatched the NYPD in the dead of night to raid the camp. Though police had obviously planned the midnight attack to keep media presence to a minimum, many still made the journey, but when they arrived numerous journalists were welcomed with a hostile response by authorities, and reported beingbullied, threatened, and assaulted by police as they attempted to cover the raid.

Quan and Adams are the only mayors who have thus far admitted to the coordination, but if Quan's statement is accurate, there are many other city leaders who took part in the calls. Crackdowns in Salt Lake City, Albany, Denver, and elsewhere in the past few days suggest the synchronized assaults were planned to deal a swift, crushing blow to Occupy. It's unsurprising that such coordination would demand federal oversight, but it's also deeply disturbing that a federal agency may have participated in the plot, since the whole reason Occupy exists is to address the corruption of the government.

It seems as though OWS has transitioned from the first and second parts of Gandhi's formula for peaceful revolution, and have now entered the third and last stage: "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you…" have come and gone. Certain establishment media players had their fun mocking the protesters as a bunch of bongo-playing, weed-smoking hippies. The movement grew rapidly, and it quickly became apparent that Occupy is not just comprised of hippies, but also the unemployed, union members, indebted students, homeless, and the other marginalized and forgotten people in our society.

Occupy is now firmly planted in the "then they fight you" phase where city leaders, through arbitrary application of laws, raids, and police brutality hope to crush the movement for good. It speaks to the effectiveness of the group that this last stage has taken not only a full-scale, nationwide coordination of 18 city leaders, but also allegedly federal oversight. Not bad for a group of a couple hundred kids who went to Zuccotti without so much as a vague plan in their back pockets.

General Strike – A huge strength to defeat the Pact of Aggression and save the country

2011-11-24T11:47:00.001-08:00

A powerful general strike rocks Portugal!

Statement by Jeronimo de Sousa , General Secretary of the PCP on the Portuguese general strike

1 - In thousands of enterprises and workplaces, millions of workers today expressed a fighting No! to the Pact of Aggression, in a memorable day of struggle in defence of workers’ rights and for a developed and sovereign Portugal.

The General Strike called by CGTP-IN and which gathered widespread support, represented a powerful answer to the biggest offensive since the days of fascism. A strike against exploitation and impoverishment, against the path of national disaster that PSD, CDS and PS, subordinated to the interests of big national and international business, want to impose on Portugal.

A General Strike that represents a great moment in the history of the struggle of the Portuguese workers and people, an expression of the intense class struggle being waged in our country, a patriotic and democratic affirmation, factor of mobilisation and confidence in the struggle for Portugal with a future.

2 - The PCP stresses the national dimension achieved by the General Strike. All around the country – in the mainland and the autonomous regions – and in all sectors of activity, the success of the strike, represented a significant adherence by the workers to the call by CGTP-IN, and received widespread solidarity and support from other layers of society.

The General Strike had special significance in the productive sector as was the case of: in the automobile industry in Auto-Europa and its whole industrial complex, in Renault-Cacia, Exide (Tudor), Visteon, Delphi; in the metallurgy and metalwork sector in the Viana do Castelo Naval Shipyards, Lisnave, Arsenal do Alfeite, Browning, Sacti and Sacometal; in the cork industry in the Amorim group; in the textile, clothing and shoe industry in Carveste, Paulo de Oliveira Group, Trekar, Califa, Huber Trico; in the food and drink industry in Central Cer; in ceramics, cement and glass Saint-Gobain (Covina), Vista Alegre, Secil. The PCP valorises the dimension of the strong participation in the transport sector in CP Railways, Refer, EMEF, Lisbon Metro. Oporto Metro, Soflusa and Transtejo river navigation, and in dozens of bus companies, as was the case of Carris, STCP, TST, TUBraga, TCBarreiro, TUCoimbra, MovAveiro. The closure of all sea ports and most fishing ports and the closure of airports and air transport, with the cancellation of more than 600 flights.

The PCP also stresses the great response given by the central and local public administration workers with stoppages reaching historical levels, with full or partial stoppages all over the country in the solid waste collection, and other public services as in the case of the health sector with a strong participation by the workers of the sector, and in the education sector with the closure of hundreds of schools.

The PCP valorises the mobilisation in various sectors and enterprises and the widespread expression on the streets of the General Strike, in thousands of pickets all around the country, information points and gatherings that made this day of action an impressive collective work.

3 - This extraordinary participation has to be highly valorised considering that it was put together under increasing pressure, reprisals and blackmail. This General Strike constitutes a defeat for the ideological campaign that tries to portray the policy of regression as inevitable and the struggle as useless; a defeat for the blackmail of imposition of illegitimate minimum services that attempt to condition the right to strike and illegally resorting to the police and national republican guard security forces to cover the violation of the right to strike.

A General Strike that, at the same time, represents a victory over the economic conditioning, threats of dismissal, loss of wages and bonuses, repression and intimidation, namely against casual workers, A great show of strength, determination and serene combativeness that defeated the attempts of intimidation and provocations duly mounted to try to overshadow its dimension and the wish to build a better future. A General Strike that is in itself an affirmation of dignity and combativeness of millions of workers who renounced a day of their wages, in defence and affirmation of the great meaning of their protest against the worsening of their living conditions and an action to save the country from disaster.

In a country marked by more than 35 years of right-wing policies, submitted to the process of capitalist integration of the European Union, a victim of the nature of capitalism and its crisis, the General Strike expressed a firm and wide demand of rupture with the current situation.

4 - The PCP salutes the millions of workers who participated in the General Strike. We salute in particular the thousands of youth who striked for the first time, an essential factor of undeniable political meaning that will be projected in the future. We salute CGTP-IN and the workers’ representative organisations, all the activists, shop stewards and trade union leaders who erected this powerful day of struggle, reaffirming the key role of the United Trade Union Movement which, with its strength and identity, constitutes a huge social force indispensible to build a better life, a country of progress and social justice, a determining factor in the process of a rupture with the right-wing policy.

5 - Submitted to the interests of big business and the impositions of the major powers of the European Union, the Government, the parties that support the Pact of Aggression, the President of the Republic who sponsors the current policy, today received and unequivocal and firm condemnation.

A strike that, while contributing to the growing isolation of those who rob the people and sink the country, brings about a compelling new stage in the development of the mass struggle which, sooner or later, will defeat the aims of the Government and big business.

What the General Strike confirmed was an unshakeable confidence to continue, in every enterprise and workplace, in every locality, in every sector of activity, the continuation of the struggle with specific and converging actions. PCP also highlights the day of struggle that will take place next Wednesday, 30th November, in front of the National Assembly, on the day of the final voting of the State Budget for 2012.

6 – The PCP, in solidarity with the General Strike, reaffirms its everlasting commitment to the Portuguese workers and people. The struggle that follows will be even more demanding, but the strength and determination that this Strike showed brings confidence that it is not only necessary, but possible to materialise a patriotic and left-wing policy that will contribute to save the country from the path of disaster that they want to impose on it.

Government spys on activists, then tells Boss class

2011-11-24T11:19:00.001-08:00

Riot police at the G20 in Toronto waltz past the
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce

OTTAWA -- RCMP records obtained under freedom of information legislation reveal a disturbing relationship between the national police force and corporations.

According to a CBC news report, the Joint Intelligence Group, an RCMP-led intelligence team that has extensively spied on community organizations and activists, "made a series of presentations to private-sector corporations, including one to 'energy sector stakeholders' in November 2011. Other corporations that received intelligence from police included Canada’s major banks, telecom firms, airlines, downtown property companies and other businesses seen to be vulnerable to the effects of summit protests."

The Council of Canadians and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada demands answers. The public must know:

- Why is the RCMP spying on activist groups and then briefing energy corporations and banks?

- What was the 'energy sector stakeholders' meeting held this month?

- Has there been a breach of privacy laws?

- What groups and individuals have been monitored and reported on at RCMP briefings to corporations?

- What corporations specifically have been briefed by the police?

In August 2001, the Ottawa Citizen reported, "Officers from various police forces and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service have infiltrated, spied on or closely monitored organizations that are simply exercising their legal right to assembly and free speech. Before and during the (1997) APEC meetings, security officials compiled extensive lists that included many legitimate organizations whose primary threat to government appeared to be a potential willingness to exercise their democratic rights to demonstrate."

While it is unacceptable for organizations 'exercising their legal right to assembly and free speech' to be spied on, closely monitored, or infiltrated by the police, it is simply wrong for police forces to be briefing corporations 'vulnerable to the effects of summit protests'.

Evict the system, not the people!

2011-11-23T09:32:00.001-08:00

The Young CommunistLeague condemns the anti-democratic and illegal evictions (and attempted evictions)of the Occupy movement in Halifax, London, Victoria, Regina, Saskatoon, Whitehorse,Quebec city as well as Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal, and elsewhere acrossCanada. In many cities the policeattacks or threats against the occupiers have been pushed back by the largestshowings of community mobilization since the demos began!

Across Canada, youthand students have been coming together behind the slogans “Occupy Everywhere” and“We are the 99%.” Occupy camps have been set up all around the world, with anextraordinary 300+ occupations in the USA and all major cities in Canada beingoccupied.

Youth should takeheart in the fact that, despite increasingly cold, freezing, wet and snowyweather (as well as internal challenges) the occupations in Canada increased bothin numbers and popular support. In many places they have been joined byrepresentatives of the trade unions and striking workers, and have receivedofficial solidarity from a broad range of labour and people’s forces. The 99%have set up kitchens, meeting spaces, libraries and literally hundreds of tents,with a general sense of organization.

This is both a consciousand deliberate action, and a liberating act of resistance. The destruction of the camps therefore hasnothing to do with “safety” or the “health and welfare of the protestors” or toavoid “violence.” In fact, theenforcement of municipal by-laws or trespass notices is unconstitutional becausethese actions violate our fundament rights and freedoms. We have a fundamental right to assemble inpublic spaces, organize forms of collective resistance and speak out for realchange and reforms, as well as revolutionary social transformation.

Young people arecompletely justified in asking where are our Charter Rights and Freedoms? and againbeing outraged as the occupations face trickery, unilateral action, harshtreatment, and often violent repression by municipal, federal and provincial police– the tools of the state of the 1%.

Youth and studentsshould continue to have courage now, taking confidence in the reality that the issuesthe occupiers are raising will not go away by destroying the encampments or jailingthe occupiers.

The massive inequalityand social injustice we face today, massive environmental problems etc., occurin the framework of an ongoing and severe crisis of capitalism. We are not in a“long recession,” a “slow or jobless recovery,” nor is there just an isolated “Euro-zonedebt problem.” We cannot “hunker-down”and wait for the storm to pass – the only way forward is struggle.

Occupy is another signthat more and more people, especially youth, are saying “Enough is Enough.” The YCL-LJC Canada joins these voices andcalls-out that our anger must be just the start of organized resistance behindthe demand of people’s needs, not corporate greed. To this end the YCL-LJCcontinues to advocate for a Charter of Youth Rights.

As we have said, thecorporate drive for maximum profits is responsible for destroying our planet,and for the escalating attacks against workers, Aboriginal peoples, racializedcommunities, women, youth, seniors, and other sections of the people.Ultimately, stronger collective resistance against this deadly enemy can openthe door to a process of genuine democratic social change, leading towards asocialist future!

YCL-LJC CEC, November 2011

State violence against occupiers

2011-11-23T09:21:00.001-08:00

An elderly woman in her 80s is pepper-sprayed in Seattle.
Video below: a pregnant woman responds to the attack, she reportedly lost her baby.

Spanish elections confirms goal of the oligarchy

2011-11-23T08:59:00.001-08:00

Results of the 2011 Spanish elections. Blue is the right-wing party, red is the social democrats, yellow and blue are political parties for the Catalan and Basque national communities, or regional parties. A summary of results as presented on Wikipedia is below. The right wing has already said it will abolish gay marriage.

Political Party		Congress					Senate
Political Party		Total Votes	%	+/-	Deputies	+/-	Senators	+/-
	People's Party (PP)	10,830,693	44.62%	4.68%	186	32	136	35
	Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE)	6,973,880	28.73%	15.14%	110	59	48	40
	United Left (IU)	1,680,810	6.92%	3.15%	11	9	-	-
	Union, Progress and Democracy (UPyD)	1,140,242	4.69%	3.50%	5	4	-	-
	Convergence and Union (CiU)	1,014,263	4.17%	1.14%	16	6	9	5
	Amaiur	333,628	1.37%	1.37%	7	7	3	3
	Basque Nationalist Party (EAJ/PNV)	323,517	1.33%	0.14%	5	1	4	2
	Republican Left of Catalonia (ERC) - Reagrupament - Catalunya Sí	255,961	1.05%	0.11%	3		-	-
	Catalan Agreement of Progress (PSC-ICV-EUA)						7	5
	Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG)	183,279	0.75 %		2
	Canarian Coalition (CC-NC-PNC)	143,550	0.59 %		2		1
	Compromís-Q	125,150	0.51 %		1	1
	Asturian Forum (FAC)	99,173	0.40 %		1	1
	Geroa Bai (Basque Nationalist Party (PNV), Atarrabia Taldea, Zabaltzen)	42,411	0.17 %		1	1
TOTAL (turnout 71.69%)			92.92 %	N/A	350		208

Source: Ministerio del Interior - Elecciones Generales 2011

The Executive Committee of the PCPE (Communist Party of the People's of Spain) issues this first statement of analysis of the electoral results of November 20th. In a few days the Executive Committee will issue a resolution on this subject, once the collective discussion is done on due time.

The result of the elections confirms the goal of the oligarchy of getting a new fresh government in order to continue the adjustment policies in the frame of the structural crisis of the capitalist system.

The future government of the [Right wing] Popular Party -with the possible incorporation of some members of other parties- responds to the expectations of the oligarchy: a government with a wide majority in Parliament, although we can see a limited ability to increase the number of votes obtained by this oligarchic party in the General Elections of 2008. This is an expression of the lack of confidence of the electors in the policies that will be implemented in the next period.

The [Social Democratic] PSOE's electoral collapse is an expression of the frustration of its electorate with the policies implemented in the management of the structural capitalist crisis. Much of that electors walked to abstention or to various intermediate political formations.

The reformism of IU / ICV, [United Left - which includes the Communist Party of Spain, and the Initiative for Catalonia Greens] and other peripheral bourgeoisies options, benefited from the decline of social democracy and gain a better presence in parliament. This increased presence in Parliament will result in a new shift toward positions of more political moderation and greater commitment to the oligarchy that will try to keep the discontent of the working masses in the limits of bourgeois democratic formality.

The PCPE improves our yet modest election results and shows that the our electorate is growing constantly without being fooled by the siren song of reformism. Our votes are won with a serious militant effort in a constant and committed mass work in recent years. These results are part of the consolidation process of the PCPE as a communist reference for all peoples and nations of Spain.

The reform of the Electoral Act has proved to be a sinister ploy to try to prevent the communist presence in the elections. Without this trick, PCPE results would be clearly better. The repression of our lists, with the election rigging in Barcelona, will not prevent the continuation of this process of accumulation of forces. Exhausting the ways of bourgeois legality, the EC will take to the Court of Strasbourg the clearly illegal cancellation of our list.

The brutal policies that the new government will apply, which will deepen the policies already initiated by the PSOE, submitting obediently to the mandate of the oligarchy, require of an extensive mass mobilization to fight for a social way out of the structural crisis of the capitalist system, organizing a Workers' and People's Front that brings together all sectors confronted with the domination of the oligarchy. In the trade union struggle, the formation of the Committees for Workers' Unity will define the main strategy of PCPE.

The Executive Committee of the PCPE salutes the work of all the party militants in this battle and thanks for their trust and respect all those friends of the party who have collaborated in the campaign. The PCPE will not disappoint the confidence of those who have supported our political proposal. The struggle goes on until victory!

November 21, 2011

Stop repression of Turkish youth

2011-11-23T08:57:00.001-08:00

The repression of the popular movement by the Turkish state

WFDY once again condemns the repressing regime of Turkey that gets more and more aggressive towards the social and civil rights of the youth and people of Turkey. For years the progressive, democratic and communist forces in Turkey were suffering by the governments, but recently and especially during and after the latest elections, the attacks are getting more intense.

Turkey under Tayyip Erdoğan rule is not the country that the media try to present to the rest of the world. The European Union and especially the USA and NATO try to convince their peoples that Turkey is a democratic state with respect to civil rights, the right of free speech etc, and that Turkey is an example of an “Islamic Democracy” that should be an applied by Arab countries.

In reality, Turkey is still serving the interests of NATO, the US and EU. Turkey is the biggest ally of these forces in the Middle East. Additionally, the national reactionary forces that find their political expression through AKP and Erdogan, have strong interests on the exploitation of the Turkish people and also the peoples of their neighbor countries.

The organized struggle of the youth and the progressive movement in Turkey is that what scares the reactionary forces. That is why the Erdogan goverment uses the police and the criminal system to repress everyone who opposes his policies, especially the organized youth movement. They have increased their pressure on socialist organizations, Kurdish movement and even on journalists. Today, there are more than 500 university students in jails because of political reasons.

WFDY calls for solidarity towards the popular strata of Turkey and especially the militant youth which remains in the first line of the popular strata. Their struggle is of great importance, not only for their own people, but also for the peoples of their neighboring countries. We look towards their struggle with hope and faith that despite the difficulties and the repression, the peoples will prevail.

WFDY: A short history

2011-11-23T08:52:00.001-08:00

On the occasion of the 18th Assembly of WFDY, the comrades made a way-colourful exhibition about the most important moments in the life of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, as well as the youth movement in general.

The story spans throughout the last 65 years, from the creation of WFDY after the defeat of fascism.

Check it out by clicking on the link here.