International Women’s Day: Reinvigorating Marxist-Feminist Struggles in Canada

 Jenna Amirault

This March, the Young Communist League and the Communist Party of Canada will celebrate International Women’s Day (IWD) by expressing solidarity with the ongoing and past struggles of women. While IWD is widely celebrated in civil society today, often little is known about the holiday’s socialist roots. IWD would not have been possible without the struggles of socialist women. The political activism of Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) and Luise Zietz (1865-1922) was particularly influential. Zetkin and Zietz were committed communists dedicated to organizing working class women and educating their male comrades on the importance of women’s struggles. They understood that the success of socialism depended on proletariat women and men “fight[ing] hand in hand…against capitalist society.”1   In August 1910 at a general meeting of the Second International, Zietz suggested holding an International Women’s Day to bring attention to equal rights, the suffrage and the struggles of working class women. Zetkin seconded the motion and over a hundred women from seventeen different countries voted in support of creating IWD. The next year on March 18 (chosen to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Paris Commune) the first IWD demonstrations were held in Europe. It was a tremendous success with an estimated 300 demonstrations being held across the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1922, with the help of Zetkin, Lenin would name International Women’s Day an official communist holiday.

Supreme court strikes down prostitution laws

By Jane Bouey,
Peoples Voice Newspaper

            In a unanimous landmark decision on Dec. 20, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down three provisions of Canada's Criminal Code: s. 210 (keeping or being found in a bawdy house), s. 212(1)(j) (living on the avails of prostitution), and s. 213(1)(c) (communicating in public for the purpose of prostitution). The Court found that those provisions violate the right to security of the person protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and gave the federal government one year to change the laws.

            The Bedford case was initiated in 2007 by three Ontario sex workers. Terri Jean Bedford, Amy Lebovitch and Valerie Scott challenged the laws which they believe violate sex workers' constitutional right to security of the person.

            The Supreme Court decision stated, "The prohibitions at issue do not merely impose conditions on how prostitutes operate. They go a critical step further, by imposing dangerous conditions on prostitution; they prevent people engaged in a risky ‑ but legal ‑ activity from taking steps to protect themselves from the risk."    

Please help gather support for bill C-389

Please help gather support for bill C-389

The final debate on Bill C-389, Equal Protection for Trans People will take place in Ottawa next Monday, February 7 and the vote will likely be as soon as Wednesday, February 9.

The vote will be very close and every call you send and each email you can send will definitely help. (All MP email addresses are available at www.labourcouncil.ca/tools)

We have waited long enough for equal protection in law to be extended to trans communities. Too many of us forget that it was in fact the trans community which led our struggle against police repression in 1969 at Stonewall and gave birth to the early lesbian and gay rights movement. Canadian society as a whole benefited from the1969 decriminalization of sexual orientation and impressive legal advances since.

Surely, now is the time to put an end to the exclusion of gender identity and gender expression in Canada's key legal instruments.

Please write or call your Member of Parliament today to encourage them to support this Bill.
An election is imminent. There may be no other chance to address the exclusion of gender identity and gender expression from the Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.

In particular, we need to target MPs who supported the bill on second reading (including 5 Conservative MPs) and those who were absent from that vote. To find out how MPs voted last time (Dec 7th) and who missed it, visit http://billc389.wordpress.com/english/frequently-asked-questions/how-did-my-mp-vote-on-dec-8/


How did all MPs vote on Dec. 8?

Results at a glance

The final result was 143 votes in favour and 131 votes against.

All NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs present voted in favour of the bill.

Most Liberals present voted in favour of the bill; three voted against.

Most Conservatives present voted against the bill; five voted in favour.

The three opposition party leaders voted in favour. Prime Minister Harper did not vote.

A note on abstentions: There is no way for an MP to officially be registered as abstaining on a bill, i.e. no way to distinguish between MPs choosing to abstain versus simply being absent (which may happen for many reasons: illness, duties in the riding, etc.; in the case of this vote, several MPs were at a climate change summit in Cancun, Mexico.)

However, immediately before the Dec. 7 vote on Bill C-389 took place, a Liberal bill concerning the census was voted on. We therefore note those MPs who voted on that bill, but chose not to vote on Bill C-389.

Take Pride in Solidarity!

Pride 2010 statement from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League

The YCL-LJC is proud to celebrate the acceptance by the Toronto pride parade of the Anti-Israeli Apartheid contingent after a long hard fight, which happened after this statement was written.



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

PRIDE TORONTO BACKS DOWN ON DECISION TO CENSOR GROUP AT 2010 PRIDE PARADE

From PFEX: Victory!

http://queersagainstapartheid.org/

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid wins battle against censorship
June 23, 2010

PRIDE TORONTO BACKS DOWN ON DECISION TO CENSOR

GROUP AT 2010 PRIDE PARADE

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid congratulates Toronto’s LGBT community for successfully reversing censorship at the 2010 Pride Parade. Pride Toronto announced today that it would not censor the term ‘Israeli apartheid’ from the parade.
Publish Post
“This is a victory for the Palestine solidarity movement, which has faced censorship and bullying tactics from the Israel lobby for far too long,” says Tim McCaskell, a member of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. “The Israel lobby learned a tough lesson today about our
community’s proud history of standing up to censorship and human rights abuses.”

In May, Pride Toronto had announced that it would censor the term in response to pressure from the City of Toronto and Israel lobby groups. In response, Dr. Alan Li rejected the title of grand marshal for the 2010 parade and Jane Farrow refused her appointment as Honoured Dyke.

The decision to censor Queers Against Israeli Apartheid was met with widespread condemnation from the LGBT community, including Olympic gold medalist Mark Tewksbury, the 519 Church Street Community Centre, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and 23 current and former Pride honourees, who returned their awards in protest.

Some thoughts on same-sex schools

Lord of the Flys Collegiate?

Recently one of Canada's largest school boards, the Toronto District School Board, announced that it intends to introduce boys-only classes and schools to address male underachievement. This initiative will take the form of a leadership academy for boys as an alternative school staffed mainly by male teachers -- an "all-boy Male Leadership Academy" -- and has opened up a host of sexist commentary says McGill women's studies student Jamie Burnett. Please note his article has been edited from the original, and reflects the views of the author.

National Secretary of the YCLSA, Cde.Buti Manamela completes Limpopo Three Campus Election Tour

21 October 2009

Talks about Free Education, Kader Asmal, UFS, Caster Semenya and Alberto Santana

The Young Communist League of South Africa’s National Secretary, Buti Manamela, last night completed the Three Campus Election Tour in Limpopo (visiting University of Limpopo (Turfloop), University of Venda and the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT- Polokwane) where the Progressive Youth Alliance (comprising of the ANC Youth League, South African Students Congress(SASCO) and the YCLSA) are confident of an overwhelming victory.

The Election Trail attracted more than 6000 students combined from all the three campuses.

Free Education

In his message, Manamela emphasised the need for free education at universities and called on the NSFAS Review Committee to complete its work urgently. Manamela called on the Minister of Higher Education, Dr. Blade Nzimande, to introduce a national funding model that should result in regulating the cost of Higher Education and guide universities when they increase their tuition fees. If these universities are not stopped from insane fee increases, we will declare a Campus on Fire next year until all students are admitted, he said.

On Kader Asmal

“The best thing that we will remember Kader Asmal for is that he closed black universities under a cosmetic integration process, and today, black youth and students are worse off than before the merger. Today he wants to teach us about political literacy, when he is effectively responsible for the academic genocide we are witnessing” Manamela said

On Free education

If we build a R35bn train; or buy guns worth R35bn; or even better, we build expensive stadiums for other nations to come and win the world cup here because our national soccer team is terrible, then we can afford to educate every child for free. True liberation can only come through the education of youth of our country”

He also said that if there is overcrowding in schools and universities then those doors get closed, and the youth almost always choose any other door that is open and sometimes that door is a prison cell. We have to give the youth opportunities so that they do not flirt with crime.

Manamela called on students at universities to ensure that when the state provides free education, they have the responsibility of passing and giving way to the next generation to have access.

“We must discourage lifelong learning where people repeat every year of their degree. If you are on campus for five years, we expect you to be doing a Masters Degree, not your second year of a junior degree. This is more so important for the leaders we elect into the SRC”

He also said that students have a responsibility to uplift their communities through the education they acquire. It will be communities and the tax payer who will be paying our free education; we must pay it back through community service and working for government.

Upliftment of black universities

The YCLSA’s message also reiterated the need for improvement of facilities of ‘black universities’. Manamela said that as part of the demand for free education; students should be studying in clean campuses, with computers, well equipped libraries and better accommodation. He said that “if that applies in Stellenbosch, it must also happen in the University of Venda. Why is the raping and killing of students regarded as normal in ‘black universities’, and when a white student in ‘white universities’ is victimised, all resources are deployed to ensure their safety and security.

“Kosvies Four”-UFS

He called on Prof. Jonathan Jansen to reverse his decision of not disciplining the Kosvie Four who last year forced black workers to drink their urine.

“This is a travesty of justice. Reconciliation ended with Bishop Tutu, and anybody committing acts of racism should be prosecuted by the NPA and the Human Rights Commission as a lesson that racism is barbaric and backward. Those who see universities as training grounds for them to become future AWB leaders must be shown the jail cell. “Reconciliation se voet”! Prof. Jansen should send a message to those who still behave like they stay in a cage that he will not tolerate such, and giving an olive branch to the Klu Klux Klan cannot be that lesson” said Manamela

Manamela also said that the YCL will blockade the University and stop the racist students from re-entering the university and render that university ungovernable”

Caster Semenya

Manamela called on the students to support Caster Semenya. “The most practical support is to ensure that we build sporting facilities in every township so that we give more and more young people an opportunity. Why are there more shebeens than there are sports ground in our townships? Every school and university that we build must have a sports facility as a rule in order for the youth to realise their potential, he said.

Manamela called on companies such as SAB Miller, Vodacom, Standard Bank and the private sector in general to support grass-root sports as the millions of profits that they rake in are from the townships. He said that the private sector has an important role to play in uplifting our communities and investing in sports. “They must give us a lifeline and a way out from the misery of poverty and crime”

Santana should have gone years ago

Manamela applauded the decision of SAFA to dismiss Santana and called for an urgent, sober and South African coach. But he equally said that the coach was just a tip of the iceberg of the problems facing our soccer, and that it is unacceptable that each time we hear of strikers in soccer, it is when the players are demanding more money. “They must also strike in the soccer field”

Election Dates

The University of the North and University of Venda will vote on Thursday, whilst TUT will vote next week. Manamela was upbeat, saying that the PYA will bury the little puppies of AZAPO, PAC, DA and others as the bigger ANC led alliance buried their seniors in the general elections on April 22. On Friday, the PYA will host a rally in Soshanguve where Manamela will be speaking

Issued by the YCLSA Head office

Fucking around with sex education

Rising rates of teen pregnancy and STDs in the United States are the result of programmes intended to stamp them out.

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 27th July 2009 as "Politically Transmitted disease"

All of us are in denial. Without it we couldn’t get through life. Were we to confront the implications of mortality, were we to comprehend all we have done to the world and its people, we wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning. To engage comprehensively with reality is to succumb to despair. Without denial there is no hope.

But some people make a doctrine of it. American conservatism could be described as a movement of denialogues, people whose ideology is based on disavowing physical realities. This applies to their views on evolution, climate change, foreign affairs and fiscal policy. The Vietnam war would have been won, were it not for the pinko chickens at home. Saddam Hussein was in league with Al Qaida. Everyone has an equal chance of becoming CEO. Universal healthcare is a communist plot. Segregation wasn’t that bad. As one of George Bush’s aides said, “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”(1)

Collective denial has consequences. A new study by the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows that during the latter years of the Bush presidency, America’s steady progress in reducing teenage pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases was shoved into reverse(2).

Between 1990 and 2004, the birthrate among teenage girls fell sharply: by 46% for 15-17 year olds. The decline was unbroken throughout these years. (The same thing happened in the rest of the western world, though about 20 years earlier). But between 2005 and 2006, something odd happened: the teen birthrate increased by 3%. In 2007 it rose by another 1%. I think most people would agree that this is a tragedy. According to the UN agency Unicef, women who are born poor are twice as likely to stay that way if they have children as teenagers. They are more likely to remain unemployed, to suffer from depression and to become alcoholics or drug addicts (3). Similarly, the incidence of gonorrhea dropped for more than 20 years, then started to rise in 2004. After a long period of decline, syphilis among teenage boys began to increase in 2002; among girls in 2004.

The CDC makes no attempt to explain these findings, but the report contains four possible clues. The first is that between 1991 and 2007, the percentage of high school students who had ever had sex declined. So did the number of their sexual partners, and their level of sexual activity. But from 2005 onwards there was a levelling or reversal of all these trends(4). The second possible clue is that while the use of condoms among high school students rose steadily from 1991 to 2003, it stagnated then declined between 2003 and 2007(5). Towards the end of the Bush years, schoolchildren began abandoning condoms at the same time as their sexual activity rose.

The third clue is provided by the shocking data from the Hispanic community. Adolescent Hispanic girls have less sex than their non-Hispanic classmates; but they have three times as many children as non-Hispanic whites(6). Why? Because they are less likely to use contraceptives, probably because of the doctrines of the Catholic church.

But perhaps the most interesting clue is this one. The CDC has published a map of trends in the teenage birth rate. I ran it against a political map of the Union and found this: nine of the ten states with the highest increase in teenage births voted Republican in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections(7). (Eight of them voted for McCain in 2008.(8)) Among them are the Christian conservative heartlands of Kentucky, Alabama, Mississipi, Louisiana and Oklahoma. These are the places in which Bush’s abstinence campaigns were most enthusiastically promoted.

George Bush did not invent sex education without the sex. Clinton’s last budget set aside $80m for abstinence teaching(9). But by 2005 Bush had raised this to $170m, and engineered a new standard of mendacity and manipulation. A Congressional report in 2004 explained that programmes receiving this money were “not allowed to teach their participants any methods to reduce the risk of pregnancy other than abstaining until marriage. They are allowed to mention contraceptives only to describe their failure rates.”(10) The report found that over 80% of the teaching materials “contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health.” They suggested, for example, that condoms do nothing to prevent the spread of STDs, that 41% of sexually active girls and 50% of homosexual boys are infected with HIV and – marvellously - that touching another person’s genitals “can result in pregnancy.”(11)

While “abstinence-plus” campaigns (teaching contraception while advising against sex) are effective, a long series of scientific papers shows that abstinence-only schooling is worse than useless. A paper published in the British Medical Journal found that abstinence programmes “were associated with an increase in the number of pregnancies among partners of young male participants”(12). An article in the Journal of Adolescent Health found that although teenagers who have taken a pledge of sexual abstinence are less likely to have sex before marriage and then have fewer sexual partners, they have the same overall rate of infection as the kids who haven’t promised anything(13). This is because the pledgers are less likely to use condoms, less likely to take advice and less likely to go to the clinic when they pick something up. Most teenagers (88%) who have taken the pledge end up breaking it(14). But, like the campaigners, they are in denial: they deny that they are having sex, then deny that they have caught the pox.
A study published by the American Journal of Public Health found that 86% of the decline in adolescent pregnancies in the US between 1991 and 2003 was caused by better use of contraceptives(15). Reduced sexual activity caused the remainder, but this “ironically … appears to have preceded recent intensive efforts on the part of the US government to promote abstinence-only policies.” Since those recent intensive efforts began, sexual activity has increased.

When Unicef compared teenage pregnancy rates in different parts of the world, it found that the Netherlands had the rich world’s lowest incidence – five births per 1000 girls – and the US had the highest: 53 per 1000(16). Unicef explained that the Dutch had “more open attitudes towards sex and sex education, including contraception.” There was no “shame or embarrassment” about asking for help. In the US, however, “contraceptive advice and services may be formally available, but in a ‘closed’ atmosphere of embarrassment and secrecy.”

Obama’s new budget aims to change all this, by investing in “evidence-based” education programmes(17). The conservatives have gone ballistic: evidence is the enemy. They still insist that American children should be deprived of sex education, lied to about contraception and maintained in a state of mediaevel ignorance. If their own children end up with syphilis or unwanted babies, that, it seems, is a price they will pay for preserving their beliefs. The denialogues are now loudly insisting that STDs and pregnancies have risen because Bush’s programme didn’t go far enough. The further it went, the worse these problems got.

www.monbiot.com

References:

1. Ron Suskind, 17th October 2004. Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html

2. Lorrie Gavin et al, 2009. Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons Aged 10–24 Years — United States, 2002—2007. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5806a1.htm

3. UNICEF, July 2001. A league table of teenage births in rich nations. Innocenti Report Card No.3. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence.

4. Lorrie Gavin et al,

5. ibid.

6. ibid.

7. http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/electoral.college/

8. http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

9. United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform — Minority Staff Special Investigations Division, December 2004. The Content of Federally Funded Abstinence-only Education Programs. http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20041201102153-50247.pdf

10. ibid.

11. ibid.

12. Alba DiCenso et al, 15th June 2002. Interventions To Reduce Unintended Pregnancies Among Adolescents: Systematic Review Of Randomised Controlled Trials. British Medical Journal 324:1426.

13. Hannah Brückner and Peter Bearman, 2005. After the promise: the STD consequences of adolescent virginity pledges. Journal of Adolescent Health 36 (2005) 271–278. http://www.yale.edu/ciqle/PUBLICATIONS/AfterThePromise.pdf

14. ibid.

15. John S. Santelli et al, January 2007. Explaining Recent Declines in Adolescent Pregnancy in the United States: The Contribution of Abstinence and Improved Contraceptive Use. American Journal of Public Health, Vol 97, No. 1. http://www.ajph.org/cgi/reprint/97/1/150

16. Unicef, ibid.

17. Janice Hopkins Tanne, 20th May 2009. Obama’s budget changes sex education funding from abstinence-only to comprehensive education. British Medical Journal. doi:10.1136/bmj.b2008.

Caster Semenya and gender expression

Commentary by a Canadian trans-activist.

I was very happy to read on the news of the Young Communist League of South Africa and the World Federation of Democratic Youth’s campaign denouncing the International Association of Athletes Federations for its racist, chauvinist and patriarchal attacks against South African gold metalist, Caster Semenya.

When I heard the news on the radio for the first time, it piqued my interest. It sounds like Caster didn't exactly fit into one of two neatly ascribed gender roles in white capitalist society. This isn't the first time that a gender non-conforming athlete has been accused of 'tricking' authorities.

There could be so many reasons she looks the way she does. If she was taking testosterone it would have been easily detected. The main point here is that this isn't an issue of her biological sex - that is easy to tell and any steroid test would give away the testosterone. The worry is the way she presents - i.e., short-hair, muscular, athletic, natural eyebrows.

The accusation is totally reflective of a white definition of gender roles. African women have historically resisted a lot of the "damsel in distress" expectations of femininity. No one said "Caster is a boy because I saw her penis" or "Caster is a boy because she has testosterone in her". Because they know she doesn't.

Instead I hear "She is too muscular to be a girl" or other comments on her physical appearance. That's a clear attack on her gender expression and it's also sexist.

And now as more gender non-conforming athletes enter the playing field, the hurdles faced by these athletes are becoming more visible. In fact, it was not until 2004 that the ban was lifted against transgendered people from competing in the Olympics!

RY magazine stands with Caster against this attack!

Sign a petition in support of Caster

Urge Tim Hortons to Stop Supporting Anti-LGBT Group

From Change.org

Oh, don't you hate it when doughnuts decide to go homophobic? The Canadian mega-giant Tim Hortons (which in Canada is the largest coffee chain in the country), has decided to co-sponsor a rally in Rhode Island next week hosted by the National Organization for Marriage. Yup, the same National Organization for Marriage that is currently leading campaigns to take away the civil rights of gays and lesbians in Maine to marry, and the same group fighting marriage equality in places like Washington, D.C., New York, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Is this really the type of politics that Tim Hortons wants to support?

Michael Airhart at Truth Wins Out and the Providence Daily Dose were the first ones to point out that, indeed, Tim Hortons is not only sponsoring the anti-gay marriage event, but they've also allowed their logo to be plastered on the brochure for it. To be clear, this is an event hosted by an organization that has said gays and lesbians are a threat to children, and a group that openly promotes discrimination toward gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender citizens.

Here's what the Providence Daily Dose wrote about Tim Hortons sponsoring this event. Take note, Tim Hortons says on their Web site that they don't support those representing religious organizations. Yet, despite that pledge, the restaurant chain is sponsoring the NOM event where a worship concert will take place, and supporting an organization that has consistently partnered with anti-LGBT religious groups.

What in the world [is Tim Hortons] doing sponsoring something like this? Their site says that they support “local initiatives that make a difference” — such as little leagues, Halloween safety, and the like. And that they sponsor community initiatives with a focus on “helping children and supporting fundraising events for non-profit organizations and registered charities.” But not “those representing religious groups [or] political affiliates,” such as.. well, how would you characterise a group like NOM?

Disturbing, right? Well, here's where you can take action, and tell Tim Hortons to get out of the business of sponsoring anti-LGBT organizations. We've got a petition right here at change.org that goes to the company's President & CEO, as well as to their Director of Public Affairs. Please consider signing this, and forwarding it to your friends.

As Truth Wins Out notes, one reason that this sponsorship may have gone through is that Tim Hortons allows its franchise owners to decide on donations and sponsorships. But that reason just isn't good enough when the restaurant's name gets attached to one of the most anti-LGBT groups in the United States. Remember when a Subway franchisee decided to give money to take away the rights of gays and lesbians? Activists fought the hell back, and not only got the donation to the anti-LGBT groupr rescinded, but also got Subway to change their corporate policies to incorporate equal rights for LGBT people.

Now that's the power of activism. And as far as Tim Hortons goes, it's ever-so important to know where they stand on the issue of civil rights for gays and lesbians. Tim Hortons currently has franchises in Maine, where anti-LGBT folks have put a ballot initiative on the slate for this year which could eliminate the rights of gays and lesbians to marry in the state. If Tim Hortons is going to take a position on same-sex marriage by sponsoring organizations like the National Organization for Marriage, LGBT folks and LGBT allies in places like Maine - as well as places like New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere where Tim Hortons are popping up - deserve to know.

UPDATE: For Canadian readers interested in signing the petition, please include both your city and province name in the field for "City," and select "CA" from the list of states. For our petition software, "CA" can act as both California and Canada. This should allow Canadian readers to sign the petition to change.org. Thanks!

Jewish Women Occupy Israeli Consulate in Toronto

Toronto: Wednesday January 8, 2009 Time: 10:25 am - 

A diverse group of Jewish Canadian women are currently occupying the Israeli consulate at 180 Bloor Street West in Toronto. 

This action is in protest against the on-going Israeli assault on the people of Gaza. The group is carrying out this occupation in solidarity with the 1.5 million people of Gaza and to ensure that Jewish voices against the massacre in Gaza are being heard. They are demanding that Israel end its military assault and lift the 18-month siege on the Gaza Strip to allow humanitarian aid into the territory.  

Israel has been carrying out a full-scale military assault on the Gaza Strip since December 27, 2008. 

At least 660 people have been killed and 3000 injured in the air strikes and in the ground invasion that began on January 3, 2009. Israel has ignored international calls for a ceasefire and is refusing to allow food, adequate medical supplies and other necessities of life into the Gaza Strip.  

Protesters are outraged at Israel's latest assault on the Palestinian people and by the Canadian government's refusal to condemn these massacres. They are deeply concerned that Canadians are hearing the views of pro-Israel groups who are being represented as the only voice of Jewish Canadians. 

The protesters have occupied the consulate to send a clear statement that many Jewish-Canadians do not support Israel's violence and apartheid policies. They are joining with people of conscience all across the world who are demanding an end to Israeli aggression and justice for the Palestinian people.  

The group includes: Judy Rebick, professor; Judith Deutsch, psychoanalyst and president of Science for Peace; B.H. Yael, filmmaker; Smadar Carmon, an Canadian Israeli peace activist and others. Spokespersons for the group will be outside the Israeli consulate: Dr. Miriam Garfinkle: 416-731-6605 mgarfinkle@sympatico.ca Cathy Gulkin: 416-697-0768 cgulkin@rogers.com Release is online at http://www.sources.com/Releases/NR135.htm

Sex and Socialism in Cuba

Check out this wide-ranging January 1, 2009 video interview (11:25min) with Mariela Castro Espín and Anastasia Haydulina of Russia Today Television in Havana Cuba. Mariela Castro is Director of CENESEX – National Center for Sexual Education and a leading authority and proponent of LGBT freedoms in Cuba and globally. She addresses issues of how Cuban society is dealing with changing perceptions of sexuality and concrete measures benefiting LGBTs. Castro also reflects on new legislation, transsexualism, same-sex unions, gay rights, AIDS, her father, President Raúl Castro, her mother, Vilma Espín, founder and President of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), woes caused by the US economic blockade of Cuba, and her views on Barack Obama, as well as the history of the Revolution. Sections of the interview have been translated and transcribed below.

Interview with Mariela Castro Espín on the Future of Sex and Socialism in Cuba

Anastasia Haydulina One day your uncle Fidel Castro… is going to die.. Do you think his death will change the status quo of your Cuba?

Mariela Castro Espín First of all, the death of Fidel will bring great suffering for the Cuban people, and it will be an enormous loss. But as far as I can see, the Cubans are willing to continue on the path of socialism even when our Comandante is no longer with us, even when my father and other forefathers of the revolution are not. Our people want socialism. Of course, we're very self-critical, so what we need is a better and rich social reform that will resolve most of the existing contradictions. People themselves are proposing actions necessary for the survival of our socialist society, a society that should always guarantee social justice, equality, and solidarity within the nation, as well as in relations with others. We want welfare, but not as exaggerated as that of consumer societies. I think that socialism in Cuba will survive and become what we have considered to be a utopia.

Haydulina Same-sex unions in a Communist, originally Catholic, state?

[In] socialism it will surely be possible to make fundamental changes in the lives of men and women according to their sexual orientation.

Castro Yes, I believe that, in societies like ours, same-sex unions are possible. It's true that, in the history of countries that have tried to create socialism, sexuality-related prejudices from the capitalist past have persisted. But in the Cuban version of socialism it will surely be possible to make fundamental changes in the lives of men and women according to their sexual orientation and other elements of their sexuality that haven't been contemplated by other socialist nations to date. Of course there are very strong influences of religions predominant in our cultures, but they are not going to become obstacles to achieving the aim of guaranteeing human rights socialism must guarantee. That is why we proposed a bill to legalize same-sex unions to parliament.

Haydulina What makes you feel you can overcome the stigma within the Communist Party and legislative barriers to pass it as well?

Castro As head of the National Center for Sex Education, not as daughter of the president, I presented an educational strategy strongly based on the mass media to bring the attention of the Cuban society to various expressions of sexuality within it.

Haydulina Realistically, when do you think we are going to see this bill passed here in Cuba?

Castro We've already accomplished a lot. For example, we've achieved a resolution by the public health ministry that guarantees transsexuals specialized attention, including sex change surgeries. The first of these types of operation are about to begin. They were first performed in 1988 but were interrupted due to people's incomprehension. We're proposing important changes to the family code that include the right of people of the same sex to legalize their unions. We're also working on a gender identity decree law that will make it easier for transsexuals to change their sex and identity papers, regardless of the sex change surgery. Because not all of them are automatically eligible for this operation, but nevertheless people do need society to recognize them in accordance with their gender identity, not by biological sex.

Haydulina Tell us more about the history of homophobia in this country.

Homosexuality is a reality to be taken into account, not got rid of.

Castro Just like any other patriarchal societies in the world, Cuban society is homophobic. In the 1960s and 70s, it expressed itself as a political decision that discriminated against homosexuals, especially men. That was a general criterion coming from not only religions but even from sciences. Psychiatry classified homosexuality as a mental disorder.. There were even therapists to change homosexuals into heterosexuals, since that's what was considered normal and healthy. So, the Cuban politicians, educationalists, and doctors acted in accordance with the scientific precepts of the time as well. Neither teachers nor doctors could be gay. Today, no military person can be gay either. But there are homosexuals everywhere, whether out in the open or not. So we attend to them in our center, because humanity is about diversity. The most important thing here is that there have been discussion and change ever since. And in order to avoid this [homophobia] in the future, we've got to be explicit in our laws and policies. Homosexuality is a reality to be taken into account, not got rid of.

Haydulina Two thirds of Cubans with HIV/AIDS are homosexual men. Are they provided due treatment? Are the Cubans with HIV provided the treatments they need?

Castro In 1983, when Fidel learned about the existence of AIDS, he asked the doctors of the Pedro Kourí Institute of Tropical Medicine to carry out research to avoid the tragedy on our island. Since then the state began designing its policies for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. Each patient infected with the virus is provided with all the medical assistance at the cost of the state. Although the medicines are very expensive, as well as prevention matters, these are fundamental to avoid the spreading of the epidemic. Even though Cuba maintains the lowest level [of infection] in the region and in the world, it keeps rising, so we need much more effective prevention and treatment. For example, the island buys condoms for the pharmacies, but many are donated and distributed free of charge as part of the center's educational activities across the country. Thanks to this efficient work, [HIV] infection hardly occurs among adolescents. Unfortunately the existing prejudices impede us from many of the educational activities planned for the homosexual male population.

Haydulina Is your father supportive of your work?

Castro Yes, he's supportive of my work, thanks to the past influence of my mother, on sexual education, and mine. Of course, from time to time we have discussions meant to convince him of the need for quicker solutions. He's also influenced by other people that disagree with my work, and it's those people who create obstacles. But I believe that dialogue is fundamental to progress, so whenever I have a chance to sit down and talk with my father to convince him, I do so.

Vilma Lucila Espín Guillois (1930-2007), mother of Mariela Castro Espín, was a feminist and revolutionary married to Raúl Castro, the current Cuban President. Espín was founder and President of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) from 1960 until her death. The FMC has a membership of over 3.5 million women. Espín was also a leader in the Council of State, as well as a member of the Central Committee and the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1980 to 1991.

Haydulina Your mother was an internationally recognized champion of women's rights. What challenges remain for women in Cuba?

Castro There are still the remains of machismo and inequality between men and women. Although there are few women in top governmental positions, we observe rising percentages of women technicians, lawmakers, vice ministers, ministers, as well as among the regional party leadership. Besides, in the last two hurricanes that hit the island, the actions of the women governing the two worst affected provinces made Cubans, and especially women, very proud. In troubled families, women keep returning to household chores and the upbringing up of children, because most of them still think that is our job, that "nobody can do it better than us." But men's participation in all these household duties is no less fundamental, especially in a time of crisis.

Haydulina What other changes would you like to see in Cuba?

Castro I would like the US government to lift the financial, economic, and commercial blockade that it has imposed on our island for fifty years against the Cuban people and that has considerably prevented us from achieving our development goals. It has affected our economy, commercial relations, and financial mechanisms. Cuba doesn't receive credit from any bank, and it's very difficult for us to survive in the field of international economy. The companies that trade with Cuba are being penalized. We have big problems with the Internet without the access to optical fiber. It would be fundamental for life in Cuba to change, for its economy to grow, the salaries to rise. Then, we'd be able to produce, obtain, more materials and use the latest technologies. For example, I'd like to see improvements in democratic participation mechanisms on the island, so that our government could function more fluently. It has a very peculiar and good structure, like no other in the world, and we like its maturity. That's why we need to cultivate mechanisms for people's participation. It's one of the things that preoccupy me most and will bring about a whole range of other changes.

OHMIGOD! WHY WE LOVE TO HATE BRITNEY

Dynamic Magazine Fall 2008, Issue 20
Docia Buffington


Was Britney running around town again without panties? Oh my god! Look she shaved her head! Is Lindsay Lohan gay? Maybe so, but she’s definitely still on drugs! Did you see the new Paris Hilton sex tape? And when do you think Amy Winehouse will finally just die?

We are bombarded daily with this endless frenzy of media coverage of young women like Brittney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, and Paris Hilton. They are held up as glamorous icons, and then gleefully torn apart by the very same people who seem to adore them.

When it comes to young female celebrities today: Do we build them up just to tear them down?

More Americans pay attention to celebrity gossip than to world news, but that doesn’t explain why we are so obsessed with females struggling with drug addiction and sex scandals, maintaining their weight, and whether or not they keep their private parts covered in public. It also doesn’t explain why we disproportionately gossip about women’s private scandals over men’s.

The magnitude and profitability of these scandals are unimaginable. For example, when Miley Cyrus/Hanna Montana broke her girl-next-door image for the first time with a semi-sexual Vanity Fair photo shoot, VF.com racked up 1.8 million unique visitors, as opposed to its usual 20-40 thousand, and a staggering 17 million page views.

These views were not generated from positive reviews of the photo shoot, but from articles calling the photos scandalous the weekend after the VF publication.

As more people stated their shock at Cyrus’s age and the sexuality of the photos, VF posted more photos and videos of the shoot on their website—which only increased the number of people who logged on to look.

Cyrus had to publicly apologize to her fans, and then was trashed by the very same websites that published any photos of her deemed to have sexual implications, including silly pictures she took with her friends and posted on her MySpace page. Somehow, in the world of public scandal, there is more “shock and awe” at a 15 year old taking typical-teenager pictures of herself, than at the fact that bloggers and gossip sites attempt to use them to publicly humiliate her.

However, Miley Cyrus is hardly the face of scandal, comparatively at least.

Britney Spears has been the golden child of humiliation and scorn for the past couple years. She has been called everything by the gossip magazines: fat, addicted, out of control, out of her mind, bad mother, white trash, bad wife, and a fake.

The same Britney Spears whose cutesy teenage pictures were glamorized, whose so called virginity was publicly praised, and who was held up as a role model for teen girls, has now been publicly torn apart.

She may or may not have made ‘bad’ choices, but why her life has been so public, why there has been so much interest in what has been called “her fall” and how so much money was made in the process, is hard to understand.

Women’s behavior, good and bad, raises lots of public attention, and judging it, seems to generate a lot of revenue.

Male celebrities are also harassed by gossip reporters and suffer public humiliations over break ups and breakdowns; however, they do not make up an equal share. We just seem less interested in what they look like without makeup, what their tummy rolls look like magnified with big red circles around them, or what their best outfit of the month was.

They also seem less bound by PR produced images that are too ‘perfect’ for them, not to mention the everyday women who feel judged against them, to ever live up to.

Britney Spears was painted as an innocent, protected virgin throughout her teen years, when in fact she was taken out of high school, sent on tours away from her family-- where drugs and sex were everywhere. She was not protected as an artist or as a young woman. Instead, she was exploited by record industries, older men and her own family. When she couldn’t live up to her own public image, she was publicly shamed.

Now, if she ‘acts right’ she will eventually gain praise again. Maybe she will get some peace to spend all her money, and lucky us, judging women will still be a popular public pastime we can all enjoy. To some women this pastime may feel like revenge against iconic women, but we are only participating in setting the standards we are all judged by.

Judgments that control us, that make us insecure, and that devalue us. Controlling women’s behavior, especially sexual behavior, has long been part of our culture. But is this how we continue it today in the 21st century?

In The Origin of Family State and Private Property, Engels described the connection between the creation of private property and the development of gender based inequality. He drew attention to how as families began privately accumulating wealth, the need to pass it on through generations became important, and from that a need to know whose child was who became increasingly important as well.

Women’s bodies became the carriers of lineages of property and wealth to the point where their bodies themselves became property-- property that had to be controlled, especially sexually.

While capitalism today does not function along family lines in the same way, and the patriarchal control of women’s sexuality is no longer necessary for capitalism’s function, this history has not stopped. Today it is inherent in our views of women’s bodies and sexuality.

While most women agree that comments about J Lo’s weight a month after giving birth to twins, such as “Is J- Lo’s booty just another fat ass?” from celebrity gossip blog Dana’s Dish, are disgusting; there was no decrease in production of these articles. Why are we still buying into it?

Maybe it’s because we are conditioned, from the earliest age, to be “princesses,” to be like Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana, to look like Britney Spears, to become BFF’s with Paris Hilton. This leaves a lot of us confused about who we are or who we ‘should be.’ Teenage girls aspiring to be “Mean Girls” and “Plastics” are left with the resulting nastiness that turns into glee when those people we want to be—but aren’t—“fall from grace.”

Competition over unity leaves women fighting each other, judging each other, and ultimately participating in controlling each other. We learn how to compete on TV too, like in all 13 seasons of the popular reality television show “The Bachelor,” where 25 women trash each other to win the acceptance of one man.

(And that’s just on prime time TV. The Cable networks offer similar, even more sensationalistic programs like “Flavor of Love” where various women must vie for the affection of 49 yr old rapper Flavor Flav.)

With women competing for acceptance against standards that we will never reach, who benefits? We can start with all the companies that profit from seemingly endless beauty products, but the buck does not stop there.

It moves into the workplace, where we are still unsure if women’s labor is worth the same paycheck. And even besides those billions made in profits from wage discrimination, there is lots of other money made in shaming women.

If women privately feel shame around their ability to mother, or to be ‘good wives,’ then a political demand for public child care for working and single mothers is stifled. In the end, hating on women like Britney may be the same as hating ourselves.

Stop Conservatives Anti-Sex Agenda!

Stop Conservatives Anti-Sex Agenda!
YCL Canada, March 2006

According to new Justice Minister Vic Toews, an immediate priority of Harper’s Conservative regime will be an increase of the age of sexual consent from 14 years of age to 16. This call is no surprise from a party notorious for its anti-sex, anti-sexual freedom and anti-women positions on a variety of issues, most notably abortion and gay marriage.

This new move to change the age of consent is a veiled account to outlaw youth sexuality. Just like the Conservatives plans to lengthen prison sentences for youth and begin jailing children (see "Stop Criminalization of Youth!" statement); this too is an attempt to impose reactionary, imperialist and moralistic policies on problems or supposed problems without taking into account the root of the issues or the real problems young people face today.

The Conservatives, along with reactionary and quasi-fascist organizations like the Heritage Front and the Christian Heritage Party, would like to see an end to sex education in schools, the imposition of their right-wing religious views about sexuality on all of society, an end to gay marriage and even bans on homosexuality and abortion. They certainly aren’t interested in allowing youth to learn about safe sex, or to see sex in a positive, healthy light. They cover their fascistic positions on these basic social questions with empty phrases about "freedom of speech", "religious freedom", and "the right to life". It is the same as the neo-Nazis of the Heritage Front, Ku Klux Klan, and other groups cover their racism and anti-Semitism with phrases of "white pride" and "white freedom" while trying to accuse those who call for equality of being the real racists.

The same reactionaries who throw rhetoric about STI’s, teen pregnancy etc. in the mix with their moralistic jabber, oppose proper sex education in school, thus proving that their concern is not the well being of youth, only the pursuit of their own political goals driven by their anti-people ideologies.

The Young Communist League calls for a fight back against these policies. We unite with left and progressive forces in defending sexual freedoms and the right to choose. We demand sex education in schools that will teach youth the truth about sexual health and give a positive outlook. Safe sexual practices should be emphasized, not the replaced by religiously inspired "abstinence" curriculums. Youth have a right to make their own sexual choices, and to have the necessary education provided to them, publicly and free of charge, so that they can make informed decisions. Pro-feminist, pro-sex and pro-queer views should be promoted in place of the anti-women, homophobic, anti-sex views promoted by the ruling class in their divide and rule tactics.

No to the Changed Age of Consent!
Defend Sexual Freedom!
For the Right of Youth to Sexual Equality!

Women's Rights Under Attack, Youth Unite: push Harper Back!

ON INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2006, the Young Communist League stands together with the women's movement as we celebrate the victories of all girls and women in the past – and focus on the fights ahead.

A month ago, and with only 36% of the vote, Steven Harper's new cowboy Conservatives rode into Ottawa along side the old Mike Harris gang, re-loaded. The Harper agenda will be very sweet and profitable for big business (and Uncle Sam). Harper will attack the equality rights of women and girls. We must push back!

Young women workers and students, both women and men, will have an important role to play in the fight-back for women's equality rights, by mobilizing and protesting.

Women and young women are being hit hard by THE SEXIST CORPORATE AGENDA and Harper's plans will make life harder. We must mobilize and fight back to stop education and health care being further privatized, prevent the small steps towards national child care from getting stomped on, and halt billions of dollars wasted on corporate tax-evasion, tax-breaks and US wars.

Turn on the TV. Ever seen advertisements, music videos and song lyrics serve up our sisters as "bitches" and "hoes"? Women become degraded things, not people. The big businesses owning these stations (like Bell Canada) don't stop violence against women. They put it in the TV guide.

Bulimia and anorexia: why is it reality in all Canadian high schools today? The corporate media knows that body pride and women's well-being won't sell. CONTROLLING OUR BODIES is a right!

Women's health programmes get pennies, while Canadian corporations keep fortunes from tiny taxes. But millions go to brand promotion! Sexist brand wars come from the capitalism. Driven by greed and competition, capitalism can't make a social plan to benefit women and working people. Women's bodies and dignity before profits!

This is a class and gender issue of CAPTIALISM AND PATRIARCHY AGAINST DEMOCRACY, of who is in charge, and who benefits. Take February's headlines: South Dakota Outlaw's Abortion. Women in Canada are justifiably to be outraged by the right-wing drive against reproductive freedom in the US. The best solidarity with our American sisters is a strong united campaign, blocking such a reactionary push in Canada. No "free vote" on abortion in Canada 2006!

Education about birth control and healthy sexuality is a right. Free condoms and daycare in all schools, including Catholic schools! Instead of abstinence and hetro-sex ed, young women have a RIGHT TO PRO-FEMINIST, PRO-SEX, PRO-QUEER EDUCATION.

Instead, Ontario schools present the view of the ruling class. The stories of working-class women role-models, like militant trade union leaders such as Annie Buller (a Communist, unjustly jailed in the 1930s and 40s), as well as aboriginal woman, and women of colour must be recognized and taught. Expand curriculum against rape, harassment, relationship abuse, ableism, and homophobia. Every space, including all workplaces, must be a safe space free from discrimination.

Look what young women just did at the Torino Olympics – and at the unequal support women's hockey gets. Expand women's sports in and out of schools; make them equally funded and accessible. It's time to end cut backs. A new high school funding model must be implemented and funding restored, now!

Women who want a university education, meanwhile, find that it is becoming more and more expensive, and their student debt is crippling. POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION MUST BE EQUALLY ACCESSIBLE! Harper's Conservatives privately support "Income Contingent Loan Schemes:" lifelong repayment of student debt. Students, including the CFS, are right to denounce this longer debt sentence as sexist. It takes women longer to pay-back loans. Child or elder care make you quit your job (but the interest on your student loan still grows).

Women in Canada make 28% less than men. They are the last hired and first fired. True, the pay gap has narrowed over time –and now men's wages are falling. That's an ass-backward way to get equality. Canadian corporations make billions off pay inequity. And as corporate profits hit record levels in 2005, women's poverty hit a twenty year high.

Over the past ten years in Ontario, for every $1 increase in the incomes of the poorest 10% of families, there was a $108 increase in the incomes of the richest 10%. The poorest of the poor in Canada are women, including young women.

It's about winning better work and better wages. Ontario's minimum wage, up to $7.75 this February, legislates poverty (see chart). Weekly grocery costs alone in Ontario have gone up $13.25 cents over the past five years! It is time to RAISE WAGES. We need a wage that lifts women above the poverty line, to $12 an hour. That's the rate a single mother would need to hit the poverty line – and they said it back in 1999!

JOBS NOT BOMBS! The military budget just saw its biggest increase in twenty years. Canadian troops are being deployed in more high-danger zones in Afghanistan. As the Communist Party of Canada recently stated, imperialism and its allies are the worst enemies of women's rights:

Over 100,000 Iraqi civilians, mainly women and children, have died under the illegal US-led occupation. "Liberated" Afghan women still face threats and violence for working outside the home. The flawed recent "elections" in Haiti took place two years after the overthrow (with Canadian participation) of democratically-elected President Aristide, an advocate of genuine women's equality. The women of Palestine live in poverty, while the US pours billions of dollars in aid and arms into Israel.

"The Bush White House cooperates with patriarchal religious forces in a global offensive against women's reproductive rights. After the restoration of capitalism in the former European socialist countries, women face a stark choice between ghettoized low-wage jobs, or entry into the global capitalist sex trade." The War on Terror is also a war against women's equality rights.

If youth unite, we can push Harper back. To combat the assault on women's rights in Canada, we need unity of all progressive forces. Youth have an important role to play here.

Youth and students are one of the most dynamic and progressive forces in society. Time and time again in Canada, young people have been at the front pushing for change.

Youth in the trade union movement, as well as the Canadian Federation of Students and many other youth cultural -- including a re-invigorated NAC (holding its AGM in May 2006) – could form a powerful and formidable resistance. Our proposal for common action is a Charter of Youth Rights.

Together, we can defeat the drive to the right and the big business push against women and the working class. Together with the Communist Party, the Young Communist League demands:

* block the Harper government's attacks on equality rights.

* end all Canadian participation in the phony "war on terrorism." Solidarity with the women of Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Palestine, Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba, the Philippines, Korea and other countries facing imperialist occupation and violence.

* safe, public, accessible abortion clinics in all parts of Canada.

* allocate 1% of the federal budget to the creation of social, affordable and subsidized housing.

* protect and expand equality gains by lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people.

* replace the student loans program by student grants; eliminate post-secondary tuition fees and pay students a stipend; massively expand trade programmes, including young women.

* a universal, affordable, non-profit childcare system with Canada-wide standards.

* a 30 hour week with no loss in pay and no reduction in public services; full benefits for part-time workers; raise the minimum wage to $12 an hour.

* intensify efforts to organize part-time workers and female dominated workplaces.

* restore and extend employment and pay equity legislation; expand job creation programs, especially for disadvantaged young women; remove barriers to EI coverage; expand parental leave benefits to 52 weeks.

* reinstate and expand core funding for equality-seeking women's organizations, including NAC; full funding for grassroots, feminist services to deal with violence against women.

* enshrine within the constitution the rights of Aboriginal peoples, Quebec, and Acadians to self-determination and self-government, and guarantee the full economic, social and political equality of Aboriginal women.

The root cause of this assault on women's rights is CAPITALISM. Sexism is a divide and rule tactic. Corporations have a lot to gain by paying their female workers less than men. But women not only work: they do the bulk of domestic labour. Ultimately, sexism and the double oppression of women can only be ended with the elimination of capitalism – and its replacement by real democracy, where the working people (the majority) call the shots: socialism. This is the aim of the YCL. Join the struggle today!

International Women’s Day

(WFDY) World Federation of Democratic Youth’s Salute

8^th of March – International Women’s Day

On the occasion of this historical day WFDY extends its greetings to all the women all over the world and expresses its militant solidarity with all the movements launched by the courageous women in various countries.

The 20^th century can be considered a century that is marked by great conquers on the women’s rights. Nowadays they participate in all the spheres of life but is also true that the women remain to be strongly discriminated and under to a minor status in the society and in the family despite of the formal proclamation of gender equity between man and women. It is believed that many positive steps towards women's empowerment have been made, but still much remains to be done.

It is widely recognized that the issues of young women are diverse and varied, yet there are commonalities that link their experience throughout the world. They are affected by human rights violations including lack of access to information and education, discrimination on employment opportunities and rights, imbalance of economic power, violence, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, negative portrayal in the media, poverty, situations of armed conflict and post conflict, limited access to decision-making process, cultural, religious, social, political and economic barriers to young women's empowerment, sustainability of environmental resources, and lack of access to proper health care and sexual and reproductive health rights and education. Additionally, young women face discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, refugee status, disability, age, class, race, education, language, ethnicity, religion, political ideology, socio-economic class, caste, marital status, HIV status, occupation and physical appearance. Young women's rights are human rights.

Nowadays as in the past the women’s struggle and the reinforcement of their organizations assume an extraordinary importance for their emancipation as well as on the struggle for peace, self-determination, independence and sovereignty, international solidarity, justice, freedom, democracy and social progress. The emancipation of the women became an aspiration and a demand that mobilizes wide progressive sectors. We don’t see this date as day to pay a little bit more attention to the women and their problems but a moment that celebrates the long and brave role of women and their struggle.

WFDY strongly opposes and works against all forms of discrimination against women of the world and reaffirms its stand for the equal participation and rights for the women in all sectors of life and society. WFDY believes that it is essential that the participation of women within our movement be increased and that equality of the gender should be guaranteed. This principle will strengthen our movement. Hence, we commit ourselves to continue the struggle for the advancement of women's rights.

Coordinating Council / Headquarters of WFDY

Budapest, 8^th of March 2006