Push back the bigots!

Poster by the Young Communists of Spain

EXTEND THE STRUGGLE FOR EQUALITY!

Pride 2012 statement from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League

     Pride 2012 events across Canada this summer will celebrate impressive achievements by the LGBTQ communities and their allies. The Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League send warmest greetings and solidarity to Pride participants, and to the ongoing struggles for full equality. But this is also a time to push back against the bigots and right‑wing politicians who want to roll back our gains. The corporate‑driven "austerity" cuts to social programs and education have the sharpest negative impact on the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ community, including trans, two‑spirited, racialized queers and young people. The cuts heavily impact women, Aboriginal peoples, and racialized groups, and make it far more difficult to implement significant advances towards equality.

Other voices: an different point of view on Canada day

Canada has “no history of colonialism” Prime Minister Steven Harper, pictured above, once gaffed 

White people, here’s your one-time Canada Day special: Native people apologize back!

DREW HAYDEN TAYLOR
Reprinted from the Globe and Mail


Canada Day has always been a mixed bag for Canada’s native people. It makes us think of many things: patriotism, flags, sunburned cottagers, barbeques and exploding fireworks. That’s the good stuff.

Since then, much has been said and written about that apology: Did it go far enough? Too little too late? What’s next? That is something I am afraid only educated, wealthy white men in positions of power can decide.

However, some in the native community feel that perhaps we are being a little lax in not issuing an apology of our own.

We are not without some culpability. In the centuries that have passed since that fateful day of contact, we ourselves have been negligent and irresponsible in not acknowledging our liability in many regretful incidents and events in the past.

So in the spirit of cooperation, I would like to offer up these apologies to the people of Canada on behalf of the NAFNIP (native/aboriginal/first nations/indigenous people):

In Quebec, school's out but not the class struggle

Student protest continued on Friday, making another big splash in two places cities at once.

J. Boyden

School is out of session. The students have returned home, leaving their close-knit campus life behind. Young people are in summer jobs – or searching for summer employment, as the youth unemployment rate in Quebec is still one of the highest in Canada. And so the English-language corporate media has a new line about what they`ve mislabelled the Quebec student “boycott.’ The spoilt brats have surrendered. The resistance is melting away.

Anyone who believes that line in Quebec was in for a rude awakening on June 22. That’s when another major demonstration rocked the streets in Montreal, quickly growing in size to become a rumbling, noisy human river running through the downtown. And at the same time, the largest mobilization Quebec City has seen during this five-month struggle also swept through the streets of the historic capital.

A video reflection on the Quebec struggle