Greek General Strike on December 17th

GENERAL STRIKE ON THE 17th OF DECEMBER

On December 17, All Militant Workers’ Front (PAME), which gathers in its ranks the class oriented forces of the Greek trade union movement, called for a 24-hour nationwide strike against the anti-people’s plans of the social democrat PASOK government which are also supported by the liberal party of ND.

This attack, which is based on the general EU guidelines for the increase of the capital’s profit making, strikes a decisive blow on the labour and social security rights. For that reason the government invited political parties and the trade union organizations to the “social partnership” talks. KKE and PAME do not participate in this fake dialogue that aims at the restriction of worker’s rights. Communists along with the forces of PAME called upon the people to resist and intensify the struggle against the anti-people’s plans that under the pretext of the capitalist crisis intend to place new burdens on the people. Thus, they called for a 24 hour strike on December 17.


A series of nationwide industrial unions participated in the strike, that is the Federation of Construction Workers’ -the biggest industrial federation in the country- the Federations of workers in food and beverages companies, in press and printing companies, the Federation of accountants, the Federation of workers in the textile, garments and leather industries, the Federation of workers in private hospitals, and the federation of pharmaceuticals; in addition, 14 Labour Centres, that is regional trade union organisations that rally all the trade unions acting in their region, as well as tens of primary trade unions both in private and public sector. As a result of the dynamics of the strike, a series of trade unions and federations that do not join the ranks of PAME such as the Athens Union of Journalists and the Federation of Nurses went on strike.


The Confederation of the trade unions of workers in private sector (GSEE) that participates in the social partnership talks, terrorized by the strike of PAME, has resorted -for the first time- to an open strike-breaking statement urging the workers not to participate in the strike. PAME and KKE condemned this outrageous action.

Significant day for the working class of Greece

The 17th of December all of Greece turned into a great river of demonstrating workers. Thousands of working places (factories, construction sites, offices and ships) stopped while the strike rallies in 64 Greek cities were massive. Since the early morning thousands of workers and youth joined the picket lines.

Thousands of people demonstrated in Athens

The blocks of the “stagiers” (the workers in stage programs), the builders and the students with the Student’s Militant Front (MAS) stood out in the rally. Many banners wrote: “Organization - Counterattack” while the main slogan was “Law is the right of the worker”. In the rally that took place in Athens, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist party of Greece, Aleka Papariga, participated.

The strike in Piraeus

An example of the strike’s success is that no ship left from the port of Piraeus (the country’s largest port) even though the strike had been considered illegal by the court the day before. The two primary seamen trade unions PEMEN and STEFENSON, that gather in their ranks the engineers of the Greek merchant fleet, managed to “freeze” the navigation throughout the country.

The massive strike was commented by the Financial Times and other international media while in Greece the media purposely diminished it. However, the strike is a successful and new start of assertions from workers that comprehend that they have nothing to expect from a rotten system that exploits them and from the political parties and organs that support it. The hope is in class struggle and unity. People should not pay for the crisis. Now mass liberation of the people from the ideology and the parties of the plutocracy and the EU!

International Relations Committee

of the CC of KNE

KNE: 145 irakleiou avenue –N.Ionia Athens- (: +30210 2592307 FAX +30210 2592611

E-mail ,: int@kne.gr

video review: racism series 3

While not dealing with racism per se, this film deals more with propaganda, smearing, and discrimination. One of the themes in this film is discrimination according to political beliefs, anti-communism specifically. The original film distorted to fit the right wing story was made by the Mutual networks's fierce right-wing commentator Fulton Lewis, Jr.

This film is a good lesson to remember when you watch the television news. I current debate as 2010 approaches is the slant the CTV network has towards the olympics. Since they are broadcasting the events in 2010 (and will sell and profit from the ad spots). They have been accused of self-censoring any criticisms of the games. see a link to this debate on Rabble.ca Babble forum.

Operation correction aclu




operation correction 2

video review: racism series 2

integration report





NAACP schools film (silent with inter titles)

When watching this film about black schools in the south, think about the present situation with aboriginal schools.

Our climate - not your business

Source: Aljazeera English,
Dec 12 2009


Thousands of protesters have gathered in the Danish capital Copenhagen to call on governments at the UN global climate change summit to commit to a deal.

Police detained at least 900 people during demonstrations on Friday in which activists attempted to disrupt meetings between corporations and industry lobby groups, accusing them of being "climate criminals".

Most of the protesters arrested were masked youths dressed in black who threw bricks and firecrackers and smashed windows in the city centre.

Around 50 police in riot gear moved in, forcing the protesters to the ground and bundling them into vans.

Police later followed activists as they wound through the narrow streets of central Copenhagen to the sound of drums, whistles and horns and chants of "Our climate - Not your business".

The procession then split up, with activists fanning out to several locations, including the venue of a business conference.

Lars Borg, a Copenhagen police spokesman, said protesters did not reach the Bella Centre conference facility, where representatives from about 190 governments are negotiating a new global climate agreement.

IN DEPTH


Tania Page, Al Jazeera's correspondent reporting from Copenhagen, said the protests were largely peaceful.
"It has been a largely peaceful demonstration and something of a family affair really hoping to push home to the delegates here that the public won't stand for anything less than a firm concrete commitment and agreement to cut carbon emissions and to fork out the money to help poorer nations because they are the ones who are the front line of this," she said.

"There is still a level of confidence that there will be a political agreement by the end of the week but I don't think that anyone inside the conference believes there will be a legally binding agreement which is what the demonstrators are calling for.

Draft deal

A draft climate pact unveiled at the summit on Friday revived hopes that the UN talks might be able to pin down a deal, but developing nations said they needed more financial commitment from richer nations.

With less than a week until more than 110 world leaders descend on the talks, the proposal that would at least halve global emissions by 2050 sought to bridge some of the long-standing rifts between rich and poor nations.

A European Union offer of $10.8 bn of climate aid over the next three years was welcomed by the UN and the Danish hosts.

Connie Hedegaard, the Danish minister presiding over the negotiations, said: "Things are progressing."

Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, said the draft text marked a "step change" in the negotiations.

Chinese anger

China, the world's largest carbon emitter ahead of the US, said rich nations needed to provide long-term cash if they wanted poor nations to agree long-term emissions goals.

"I doubt the sincerity of developed countries in their commitment. Why are they not talking about a commitment of providing funds through 2050?" He Yafei, the Chinese vice-foreign minister, said late on Thursday.

"That will make them credible when they are asking for an emissions reduction by 2050."


Protesters were upbeat during the festive season in the Danish capital [AFP]
Todd Stern, US President Barack Obama's special envoy for climate change, said earlier this week that he could not "envision" public funds for climate change going to China.
China's He said that was a dangerous betrayal of a globally agreed principle that rich nations had a responsibility to help poor nations adapt to a warmer world and cut emissions.

"I was shocked, personally, to read the American negotiator's [comment]," he told a news conference.

"I don't want to say the gentleman is ignorant, because he is very well educated, but I think he lacked common sense when he made such a comment vis-a-vis funds for China. Either lack of common sense or he is extremely irresponsible."

"When people mention US and China together, they tend to forget that these two countries belong to totally different categories. The US is part of the developed countries ... China is part of developing countries. You cannot mix the two."

African nations said they were still considering the draft, but also were unhappy about financing.

The draft text covers both an extension of the existing UN Kyoto Protocol, whose first phase ends in 2012, and a parallel track of talks.

The text offers a range for global cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, of at least 50 per cent by 2050 from 1990 levels.

To save the earth and environment, defeat imperialism

World Federation of Democratic Youth

Over the last weeks thousands of news in newspapers, websites, television channels and other media have circulated raising the Conference of Partners (COP15) taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a decisive and crucial moment for a deep change in the environmental policies. Many statements and declarations from political leaders and so called experts on the matter have raised this COP15 as a source of hope for saving Earth from the environmental destruction the last one and half century has brought to our common natural patrimony.

Despite the intense propaganda surrounding the COP15 of Copenhagen, WFDY believes that the main issues are still to discuss and will remain untouched by the main characters of the conference in Denmark, for the following reasons:

a) The COP15 rejects to acknowledge that it was the capitalism model of production and limitless consumerism (to achieve limitless profits) that brought mankind and Earth to this situation. Without a clear and deep change of paradigm (not rhetorical, but revolutionary) the attack to the sustainability of the environment will never be truly stopped.

b) It is hypocrite and deceiving the campaign to bring the responsibilities of protecting the environment to the individual level, as if it was a matter of “good will” or “environmental consciousness” of the people. It is in the hands of the governments of each country to prevent the major economic groups from continuing destroying Earth’s resources and sustainability. In a world where energetic costs and production costs are rapidly decreasing, all steps to hand over the responsibility to be “environmental friendly” are maneuvers to keep hiding the real causes of the environmental crisis lived by mankind and increasing the profits of the economic groups with business in the energetic areas (statistics are clear on this).

c) Whilst all attentions are drawn to Copenhagen, the deforestation of earth continues with the support and the silence of the imperialist agenda. Our world has lost half of its original forested area, and it is losing 130,000 square km per year. Among others, it is particularly serious the situation of Amazonia, where the major economic groups keep destroying the natural patrimony and polluting and poisoning native populations and the natural resources.

d) Water, a vital resource for mankind, keeps being polluted and privatized, as a commodity. The growing imperialist interference of water sources, if not stopped, will lead to a situation of deprivation of the masses of access to fresh water.

e) The COP15 of Copenhagen introduces no real news when compared to Kyoto or Bali similar conferences. In fact, it represents a step forward in the implementation of the market regulation of the emission of greenhouse gases. Such strategy will only lead to the transfer of the gases and not its reduction or control, as recent history has proved. The big dispute on this matter is not on the reduction of the gases, but actually in a market which value is estimated to be worth around 700 billion USD in a short period. The current regime of Clean Development Mechanism and carbon trading must be changed, as this trading mechanism has given the room to shift the polluting industries in least developing countries.

f) The US, EU and the major capitalist countries have the first and foremost obligation to reduce carbon emission and they cannot be reluctant to environmental Protocols. The transformation of eco friendly technologies from developed world should be unrestricted in the developing world. The richer countries and people are just re-tracking these resources in name of different project while the poorer and most suffered of climatic change are left neglected. So, this is the right time to evaluate about this mechanism in order to make it more pro-poor and progressive.

g) The World Federation of Democratic Youth bears great concern for the most suffering people and nation like Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, and Sub- Sahara Africa etc due to this man made environmental catastrophe.

For all the above mentioned aspects, WFDY firmly defends that only a policy of respect to Earth and that really puts the natural resources in favor of mankind and its development (and not in favor of profits) can save earth.

WFDY calls all its member and friend organizations to denounce the imperialist maneuvers to increase the attack against the rights of the people and youth, putting at stake the survival of mankind and earth itself, and to reinforce their struggle for a world free of imperialism in all its expressions, as only by defeating imperialism mankind can be sure to save itself from destruction and barbarism.

Unity of anti-imperialist, pro-peace forces

The Young Communist League, a member of the Canadian Peace Congress, is happy to announce that the Peace Congress has, together with the US Peace Council, launched a blog for better coordination of their efforts.

The blog can be viewed here.

The most recent statement of the World Peace Council is as follows:

After less than a year in office, President Barack Obama flew to Norway to accept the Nobel Peace Prize.

Upon evaluating that Prize, the Greater New Haven Peace Council drew up a list of goals that President Obama should champion to evidence his contributions to Peace:

• The President would not only call for abolition of nuclear weapons at some vague time in the future but lead the Nuclear NonProliferation Review at the United Nations this coming May to agree that the year 2020 would be the target date, as demanded by the Mayors of thousands of the world’s cities (Mayors for Peace ).

• The President would invoke Article 6 of the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty and begin serious negotiations towards reducing conventional armaments and demilitarization.

• The President would de-escalate the occupation of and war on Afghanistan, end the illegal bombing of Pakistan and ensure the recall of all foreign troops from Iraq.

• The President would sign and urge Senate ratification of thetreaty banning anti-personnel land mines.

• The President would sign and urge Senate ratification of thetreaty banning cluster bombs.

• The President would immediately negotiate agreement with Russia to take nuclear weapons off hair-trigger alert.

• The President would act to end the illegal embargo against Cuba.

• The President would call not only for ending torture by U.S. operatives but also for prosecuting those who condone and are complicit in torture.

• The President would close secret and brutal prisons in Afghanistan, such as Bagram, and wherever else they exist.

• The President would close the thousand U.S. military bases on foreign soil whose presence threatens peace and the sovereignty of nations and reverse the decision to build military bases in Colombia.

• The President would end economic, diplomatic and military support for the coup leaders and their lieutenants in Honduras.

• The President would pursue a treaty ensuring demilitarization beyond earth’s atmosphere.

• The President would state that since NATO no longer fulfills its mission of protecting Europe he will work toward abolishing NATO.

• The President would end the U.S.’s one-sided treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and pursue action on UN resolutions to justly end the conflict.

• The President would join members of Congress to dramaticallycut the one trillion dollar U.S. military budget.

• The President would rebuke and end the nuclear materials agreement with India, which violates U.S. Obligations under the Nuclear NonProliferation Treaty.

• The President would press the Senate to ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and work to amend it to include the banning of virtual testing.

• The President would instruct his Ambassador to the United Nations to end U.S. obstructionism and work on and vote for disarmament resolutions .

• The President would support strong international environmental treaties, such as Kyoto.

• The President would submit to and urge the Senate to ratify the International Covenant On 
Economic, Social And Cultural Rights; also the Convention on the Rights of the Child; also the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Using his authority on these and other issues the President could make great strides toward peace worthy not only of a Nobel Prize but to gain the enthusiastic approval and support of the world’s peoples.

Canadian Youth makes plea to Michael Martin about Climate Change

Check this out. We share her shame of our country, and note that global warming will destroy homes and food in our country too -- especially for Aboriginal peoples but also working class and racialized communities.

To save Earth and the Environment, defeat imperialism!

Over the last weeks thousands of news in newspapers, websites, television channels and other media have circulated raising the Conference of Partners (COP15) taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, as a decisive and crucial moment for a deep change in the environmental policies. Many statements and declarations from political leaders and so called experts on the matter have raised this COP15 as a source of hope for saving Earth from the environmental destruction the last one and half century has brought to our common natural patrimony.

Despite the intense propaganda surrounding the COP15 of Copenhagen, WFDY believes that the main issues are still to discuss and will remain untouched by the main characters of the conference in Denmark, for the following reasons:

a) The COP15 rejects to acknowledge that it was the capitalism model of production and limitless consumerism (to achieve limitless profits) that brought mankind and Earth to this situation. Without a clear and deep change of paradigm (not rhetorical, but revolutionary) the attack to the sustainability of the environment will never be truly stopped.

b) It is hypocrite and deceiving the campaign to bring the responsibilities of protecting the environment to the individual level, as if it was a matter of “good will” or “environmental consciousness” of the people. It is in the hands of the governments of each country to prevent the major economic groups from continuing destroying Earth’s resources and sustainability. In a world where energetic costs and production costs are rapidly decreasing, all steps to hand over the responsibility to be “environmental friendly” are maneuvers to keep hiding the real causes of the environmental crisis lived by mankind and increasing the profits of the economic groups with business in the energetic areas (statistics are clear on this).

c) Whilst all attentions are drawn to Copenhagen, the deforestation of earth continues with the support and the silence of the imperialist agenda. Our world has lost half of its original forested area, and it is losing 130,000 square km per year. Among others, it is particularly serious the situation of Amazonia, where the major economic groups keep destroying the natural patrimony and polluting and poisoning native populations and the natural resources.

d) Water, a vital resource for mankind, keeps being polluted and privatized, as a commodity. The growing imperialist interference of water sources, if not stopped, will lead to a situation of deprivation of the masses of access to fresh water.

e) The COP15 of Copenhagen introduces no real news when compared to Kyoto or Bali similar conferences. In fact, it represents a step forward in the implementation of the market regulation of the emission of greenhouse gases. Such strategy will only lead to the transfer of the gases and not its reduction or control, as recent history has proved. The big dispute on this matter is not on the reduction of the gases, but actually in a market which value is estimated to be worth around 700 billion USD in a short period. The current regime of Clean Development Mechanism and carbon trading must be changed, as this trading mechanism has given the room to shift the polluting industries in least developing countries.

f) The US, EU and the major capitalist countries have the first and foremost obligation to reduce carbon emission and they cannot be reluctant to environmental Protocols. The transformation of eco friendly technologies from developed world should be unrestricted in the developing world. The richer countries and people are just re-tracking these resources in name of different project while the poorer and most suffered of climatic change are left neglected. So, this is the right time to evaluate about this mechanism in order to make it more pro-poor and progressive.

g) The World Federation of Democratic Youth bears great concern for the most suffering people and nation like Bangladesh, Nepal, Maldives, and Sub- Sahara Africa etc due to this man made environmental catastrophe.

For all the above mentioned aspects, WFDY firmly defends that only a policy of respect to Earth and that really puts the natural resources in favor of mankind and its development (and not in favor of profits) can save earth.

WFDY calls all its member and friend organizations to denounce the imperialist maneuvers to increase the attack against the rights of the people and youth, putting at stake the survival of mankind and earth itself, and to reinforce their struggle for a world free of imperialism in all its expressions, as only by defeating imperialism mankind can be sure to save itself from destruction and barbarism.

NO to the persecution of communists in Poland!

WFDY has received with great concern the news of the ban of the communist symbols (hammer and sickle and red star) in Poland, by initiative of the Polish Government.

This measure, approved and promoted by all European Union structures, is a new evidence of the anti-communist cruzade that the imperialist forces have embraced as their mission, with similar results in different Eastern European countries.

The persecution of communists and communist organizations is one of grim faces of imperialism. Beyond the empty and rethorical speeches about “freedom” and “democracy” the imperialist structures and governments’ actions clearly show that imperialism cannot cope with the possibility of others thinking differently.

In a framework in which the historical limits of capitalism were so clear to the peoples and youth of the world, following the international crisis of capitalism, there is no other way for the imperialist structures than banning and persecuting all those who struggle against its domination.

It is a dark coincidence that such act took place in the exact same week when, against the will of the peoples, the European Union and the governments of its member states impose the so called Lisbon Treaty (declaring its implementation from December 1) and when NATO decides to increase its military presence occupying Afghanistan, also in name of “freedom” and “democracy”.

As before, WFDY reaffirms that this is not a matter that concerns communists only, as it is part of an anti-democratic strategy that aims a gradual attack to all levels of democratic freedoms.

Therefore, WFDY calls upon all its member and friend organizations to join its solidarity message to the Polish communists and take action to denounce among the youth of the world this ongoing attack and organize actions to demonstrate its condemnation of this anti-democratic measure.

Statement on the U.S. and NATO Troop Expansion in Afghanistan

The last week witnessed a new decision by the U.S. administration to send 30.000 more troops to boost the war in Afghanistan. At the same time, other allies in NATO agreed to send 7000 additional troops mainly from European countries.

It is important to mention that the same president who leads the wars in two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan, won a Nobel Prize for Peace few weeks ago, in a glowing sign that the interests of imperialism are the only criteria used by the world’s main leaders, away from the advertising slogans of democracy and human rights. Democratic rights of the
people of Iraq and Afghanistan start from their right to live in independence and sovereignty without the death squads and the occupation armies used by imperialism.

WFDY strongly condemns those moves by USA and its allies in NATO and EU governments because they will only bring more death and misery to the people of Afghanistan and also to all the people of the world.

WFDY demands USA, EU and NATO to immediately halt their military actions in Afghanistan and withdraw their troops out so that the people of their own path of governance. WFDY also supports the democratic and secular forces of Afghanistan which are fighting against the occupation armies and against Taliban and religious extremists at the same time.

WFDY expresses its deep solidarity with the innocent youth and people of Afghanistan being victims of imperialism and extremism, and call them to escalate their struggle for their free independent future.

No army has been able to defeat the will of the people when the people are united in their struggles, and the future of the youth and the people in the world shall only be prosperous and safe in a world with no occupation and war, in a world where imperialism is defeated.

A look back: crawford cartoon #2

Cuba does not deserve this criticism on human rights

The real abuse taking place in Cuba is the crippling and inhumane American blockade

Rob Miller
The Guardian, Thursday 26 November 2009

Your article on the Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on Cuba gives little context of the complexity of US-Cuba relations (Hopes of new dawn dashed as Fidel Castro's brother cracks down on dissent, 19 November).

You report that president Raúl Castro "has kept up repression and kept scores of political prisoners locked up", but ignore that these include individuals accused of receiving US government money who were jailed for being paid agents of a foreign power - a crime punishable in every country in the world.

And you make scant reference to the inhumane US blockade, recently voted against by 187 countries at the UN. The blockade should surely inform any debate, since it permeates every aspect of Cuban life. You only repeat HRW's accusation that it is a "pretext for Havana to crack down on dissenters".

HRW appears to care little for the human rights abuses the blockade inflicts on Cubans. Its 123-page report is more concerned with how the blockade "alienates" US policy internationally. Maybe this politicised view is not surprising since HRW's Latin America director, José Miguel Vivanco, recently accused Cuba of having the "worst human rights record in the region". In a region where trade unionists are assassinated, homosexuals murdered and children live in poverty with lives blighted by drugs, violence and abuse, Cuba does not deserve such an unjust title.

The Guardian failed to report, let alone devote an entire page to, Amnesty International's more even-handed July 2009 report, The US Embargo against Cuba, which stated that the "impact of the embargo on the human rights of Cubans has received insufficient attention from the US government". Rarely do we read about the multimillion-dollar lobbying by groups intent on demonising Cuba to justify the blockade, nor US funding - $45m (£27m) in 2008 - for Cuban individuals and organisations. Such hostility has intentionally kept the island in a state of siege.

Six words out of 1,400 in your article recognise "acknowledged advances in education and healthcare". But where are the reports on the 40,000 doctors providing healthcare in 80 developing countries, the 1.5 million who received free sight-saving operations, the thousands of students from poor countries receiving free medical scholarships?

The former UN general secretary Kofi Annan said: "Cuba demonstrates how much nations can do with the resources they have if they focus on the right priorities - health, education and literacy."

However, you quote Brian Latell, senior research associate from the Institute for Cuban and Cuban American Studies, who claims that "no organised or potentially threatening opposition of any kind is tolerated". We are not told that his organisation is based at Miami University, the academic heart of the rightwing Cuban exile community, nor of its funding by both the US government and the Bacardi family, infamous financial backers of the blockade. Also not mentioned is Latell's background as a former CIA officer for Latin America.

Nobody claims that Cuba is perfect, but the country does not deserve such pariah status. Anyone who genuinely wants to improve human rights should start by demanding an end to the blockade.

Calefornia students protest

New publication launched - International Communist Review

Readers of Rebel Youth may be interested to know that a new publication has been launched by a number of Communist Parties around the world. It's called International Communist Review and the first issue can be read for free online at http://www.iccr.gr/ Check it out!

video review: racism series 1

challenge to democracy-Japanese internment

This is definitely a propaganda film. It is trying to portray the Japanese internment camps in a good light. Much use of Orwellian double speak is used : evacuees vs. detainees, relocation centres vs. internment camps.

Has a "look how well the government takes care of Japanese people! They are doing okay!" feel to the movie. Baseball, football, religious services, are shown. A very paternal attitude. This is ironic as a few years and a horrible war later, the government would "champion" freedom and human rights during the Cold War.

Here in Canada, the government at the time did the same thing, interned Japanese Canadians. Communists were also rounded up and put in camps during the first part of the war. Canada had done this before of course. In WWI Germans and Ukrainians (parts of Ukraine were in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time) and others were put into camps. And this was a time when Aboriginals living on reservations were not allowed off the reserve without a government pass.

There are a few reviews at the Internet Archives where this film is hosted:

"this is the most hypocritical (but at least they tried haha) explanation i have ever heard for a moronic governmental action!

no, of course they weren't nazi extermination camps; no one has said that. but they were a disgrace to human dignity and you MUST read between the lines. for example, read about the japanese unit during WWII. or that it might be BETTER to volunteer for the army than stay in a camp?

how about all these japanese who came from lovely parts of california (i know, because i live there), being fruit farmers or owning their own businesses or being doctors? and then they end up in the mid-west which is freezing doing menial jobs and are never asked their opinions.

yeah, i am sure all the nisei and isei have really forvigen the united states government. i haven't!"

here is another:

This stark film explains and attempts to justify the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It's a tall order, and the filmmakers seemed to have known it, for despite their newspeak terminology of "relocation" and "evacuation", they end up not really trying very hard to make this seem any better than what it really was:the forced imprisonment of a group of American citizens based on race.

Most of the reassurances the film tries to give that this is not what it appears to be are contradicted at later points in the film. It's not imprisonment or even internment, the film says, but then it shows us the barbed wire fences and guards around the perimeter. The fact that these people are being "relocated" should not imply that they are disloyal, but then they turn around and say that their presence on the west coast was a "military hazard."

These people, despite their Japanese ancestry, are loyal Americans just like the rest of us, the film keeps saying, then it tells us that the Japanese-American medical personnel in the camps are supervised by Caucasians, and even the doctors earn the princely sum of $19 a month.

Finally, the film breaks down and admits that it's hard to teach the "values of Americanism" in a concentration-camp setting. Still, that doesnÂt stop them from ending the film by saying that we are fighting the war to preserve the American values of freedom and equal opportunity regardless of race, creed, or color, an ending for this movie that makes you want to throw up.

Of course, there are many positive scenes of camp life, but you get the impression that these good things were entirely due to the efforts of the internees themselves, with no real help from the government that imprisoned them. The film as a whole, as appalling as it is, is a fascinating historical record of one of the darker moments in the history of our government. It's definitely required viewing for those who may romanticize our participation in World War II.

Given the present "War on Terror" this film is important to consider as there are parallels, then and now.

don't be a sucker-(1947)

"Admonishes Americans that they will lose their country if they let fanaticism and hatred turn them into '"suckers." "Let's forget about 'we' and 'they' -- let's think about us!" In the context of the emerging Cold War, this film appears paradoxical."

Another review/comment as quoted: "The tone of this film puzzled me until the end. It preached tolerance, stressed that America was a nation of minorities, disavowed any differences in ability based on race, and in short would be considered liberal today and quite radical in 1947.

I was very suprised to see the final screen, where the movie said it was produced by the War Office and not to be shown to the general public. Based on this, I take this film not to be a relic of New Deal liberalism, but to be part of Harry Truman's efforts to desegregate the armed forces, which was as ahead of its time as this film. This makes sense, because a film like this would not have been tolerated in the segregated south..."

This movie is indeed a paradox, as the McCarthy anti-communist witch hunts and resulting blacklists were just about to begin.

Fee hikes are a blow to University of California students

MediaNews editorial
Posted: 11/23/2009 12:01:00 AM PST

STUDENTS ATTENDING the University of California next fall will be paying 32 percent more in fees than they are now. That's an increase of $2,514 on top of a $662 increase this year over last. No wonder students are protesting at UC campuses across the state.

As recently as 1993, UC student fees were just $1,624 a year, far less than at many public universities in other states. The low fees made higher education financially available to many people who otherwise would not have advanced their schooling.
Large subsidies to UC were an important part of California's commitment to expanding educational opportunities, which not only helped students, but enhanced the economic growth and quality of life in the state.

Even before the current recession and series of state budget crises, California's financing of higher education had been eroding. Today's weak economy, with its consequent reductions in state revenues, has placed a severe burden on the UC system. Regents had no choice but to substantially raise student fees.

UC has laid off 1,900 employees, imposed furloughs on faculty and staff, cut 3,800 positions and left vacant another 1,600. But even with these spending reductions, the university faces a bleak fiscal year with $1 billion less in state revenues.

However, even with the huge increases in fees, the cost of attending the University of California for many students is considerably
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less than it is at similar private universities and colleges, where tuition is often at least three times higher.

Students from families with household incomes under $60,000 (near the state median) do not have to pay fees, allowing lower-income residents access to UC. But what about those from middle-income families who do not qualify for a fee waiver?

Stanford, which charges more than triple what UC students will pay in fees next year, waives tuition for students from households earning less than $100,000 a year. That means Stanford could be more affordable for many middle-income families than UC.
For the next few years, we do not see any way the state can make it possible for the UC system to lower fees. But every effort must be made to avoid more increases.
In the long run, California needs to make a more stable commitment toward higher eduction, perhaps by guaranteeing a given percentage subsidy of UC costs so that there are no more huge, unanticipated spikes in student fees.

For their part, UC leaders need to make greater efforts to hold down costs. Perhaps an independent audit of university finances would help find ways to prevent expenses from rising far faster than the rate of inflation.

Most important, the current severe economic downturn in California should not set a new ceiling for state spending on higher education. As the economy recovers, so should Sacramento's commitment to California's public colleges and universities.

Delhi Declaration

This 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers' Parties, held in New Delhi, 20-22 November 2009 to discuss "The international capitalist crisis, the workers' and peoples' struggle, the alternatives and the role of the communist and working class movement":

Reiterates that the current global recession is a systemic crisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits and the need for its revolutionary overthrow. It demonstrates the sharpening of the main contradiction of capitalism between its social nature of production and individual capitalist appropriation. The political representatives of Capital try to conceal this unresolvable contradiction between capital and labour that lies at the heart of the crisis. This crisis intensifies rivalries between imperialist powers who along with the international institutions-the IMF World Bank, WTO and others - are implementing their 'solutions' which essentially aim to intensify capitalist exploitation. Military and political 'solutions' are aggressively pursued globally by imperialism. NATO is promoting a new aggressive strategy. The political systems are becoming more reactionary curtailing democratic and civil liberties, trade union rights etc. This crisis is further deepening the structural corruption under capitalism which is being institutionalised. 


Reaffirms that the current crisis, probably the most acute and all encompassing since the Great Depression of 1929, has left no field untouched. Hundreds of thousands of factories are closed. Agrarian and rural economies are under distress intensifying misery and poverty of millions of cultivators and farm workers globally. Millions of people are left jobless and homeless. Unemployment is growing to unprecedented levels and is officially expected to breach the 50 million mark. Inequalities are increasing across the globe – the rich are getting richer and the poor, poorer. More than one billion people, that is one-sixth of humanity go hungry. Youth, women and immigrants are the first victims.

True to their class nature, the response of the respective capitalist governments to overcome this crisis fails to address these basic concerns. All the neo-liberal votaries and social democratic managers of capitalism, who had so far decried the State are now utilising the state for rescuing them, thus underlining a basic fact that the capitalist state has always defended and enlarged avenues for super profits. While the costs of the rescue packages and bailouts are at public expense, the benefits accrue to few. The bailout packages announced, are addressed first to rescue and then enlarge profit making avenues. Banks and financial corporates are now back in business and making profits. Growing unemployment and the depression of real wages is the burden for the working people as against the gift of huge bailout packages for the corporations.

Realises that this crisis is no aberration based on the greed of a few or lack of effective regulatory mechanisms. Profit maximisation, the raison d' etre of capitalism, has sharply widened economic inequalities both between countries and within countries in these decades of 'globalisation'. The natural consequence was a decline in the purchasing power of the vast majority of world population. The present crisis is thus a systemic crisis. This once again vindicates the Marxist analysis that the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden. Capital, in its quest for profits, traverses boundaries and tramples upon anything and everything. In the process it intensifies exploitation of the working class and other strata of working people, imposing greater hardships. Capitalism in fact requires to maintain a reserve army of labour. The liberation from such capitalist barbarity can come only with the establishment of the real alternative, socialism. This requires the strengthening of anti-imperialist and anti-monopoly struggles. Our struggle for an alternative is thus a struggle against the capitalist system. Our struggle for an alternative is for a system where there is no exploitation of people by people and nation by nation. It is a struggle for another world, a just world, a socialist world.

Conscious of the fact that the dominant imperialist powers would seek their way out of the crisis by putting greater burdens on the working people, by seeking to penetrate and dominate the markets of countries with medium and lower level of capitalist development, commonly called developing countries.

This they are trying to achieve firstly, through the WTO Doha round of trade talks, which reflect the unequal economic agreements at the expense of the peoples of these countries particularly with reference to agricultural standards and Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA).

Secondly, capitalism, which in the first place is responsible for the destruction of the environment, is trying to transfer the entire burden of safeguarding the planet from climate change, which in the first place they had caused, onto the shoulders of the working class and working people. Capitalism's proposal for restructuring in the name of climate change has little relation to the protection of the environment. Corporate inspired 'Green development' and 'green economy' are sought to be used to impose new state monopoly regulations which support profit maximisation and impose new hardships on the people. Profit maximisation under capitalism is thus not compatible with environmental protection and peoples' rights.

Notes that the only way out of this capitalist crisis for the working class and the common people is to intensify struggles against the rule of capital. It is the experience of the working class that when it mobilises its strength and resists these attempts it can be successful in protecting its rights. Industry sit-ins, factory occupations and such militant working class actions have forced the ruling classes to consider the demands of the workers. Latin America, the current theatre of popular mobilisations and working class actions, has shown how rights can be protected and won through struggle. In these times of crisis, once again the working class is seething with discontent. Many countries have witnessed and are witnessing huge working class actions, demanding amelioration. These working class actions need to be further strengthened by mobilising the vast mass of suffering people, not just for immediate alleviation but for a long-term solution to their plight.

Imperialism, buoyed by the demise of the Soviet Union and the periods of boom preceding this crisis had carried out unprecedented attacks on the rights of the working class and the people. This has been accompanied by frenzied anti-communist propaganda not only in individual countries but at global and inter-state forums (EU, OSCE, Council of Europe). However much they may try, the achievements and contributions of socialism in defining the contours of modern civilisation remain inerasable. Faced with these relentless attacks, our struggles thus far had been mainly, defensive struggles, struggles to protect the rights that we had won earlier. Today's conjuncture warrants the launch of an offensive, not just to protect our rights but win new rights. Not for winning few rights but for dismantling the entire capitalist edifice – for an onslaught on the rule of capital, for a political alternative – socialism.

Resolves that under these conditions, the communist and workers parties shall actively work to rally and mobilise the widest possible sections of the popular forces in the struggle for full time stable employment, exclusively public and free for all health, education and social welfare, against gender inequality and racism, and for the protection of the rights of all sections of the working people including the youth, women, migrant workers and those from ethnic and national minorities.


Calls upon the communist and workers parties to undertake this task in their respective countries and launch broad struggles for the rights of the people and against the capitalist system. Though the capitalist system is inherently crisis ridden, it does not collapse automatically. The absence of a communist-led counterattack, engenders the danger of rise of reactionary forces. The ruling classes launch an all out attack to prevent the growth of the communists and the workers' parties to protect their status quo. Social democracy continues to spread illusions about the real character of capitalism, advancing slogans such as 'humanisation of capitalism', 'regulation', 'global governance' etc. These in fact support the strategy of capital by denying class struggle and buttressing the pursuit of anti-popular policies. No amount of reform can eliminate exploitation under capitalism. Capitalism has to be overthrown. This requires the intensification of ideological and political working class led popular struggles. All sorts of theories like 'there is no alternative' to imperialist globalisation are propagated. Countering them, our response is 'socialism is the alternative'.

We, the communist and workers' parties coming from all parts of the globe and representing the interests of the working class and all other toiling sections of society (the vast majority of global population) underlining the irreplaceable role of the communist parties call upon the people to join us in strengthening the struggles to declare that socialism is the only real alternative for the future of humankind and that the future is ours.

November 22, 2009

Honduran Resistance Warns of Escalating Violence as Coup Regime Decrees State of Emergency

IFCO/Pastors for Peace Calls on President Obama: Don't Support the Illegal Coup Regime in Honduras, Don't Recognize the Nov. 29th Elections

Waldina Mejia, spokesperson for the Honduran Resistance and

Manolo De Los Santos of Pastors for Peace are available for interviews in English and Spanish.

Under the glare of international condemnation, the illegal coup government and the military in Honduras have decreed a state of emergency as they move forward toward elections on Sunday, November 29th.

Resistance forces who are calling for the reinstatement of President Manuel Zelaya have continued street demonstrations for the past 148 days. They remain steadfast against any election without Zelaya’s reinstatement and are calling for the immediate end to violence and repression by the coup regime.

“Elections under these conditions would be an act of fraud against the people of Honduras,” said Dr. Luther Castillo, a young Garifuna (African and indigenous descendant) physician from the Atlantic Coast region of Honduras, who is secretary of communications for the National Resistance Front Against the Coup.

Castillo reports that a new wave of repression has been unleashed by the coup regime. “The military has attacked our Garifuna Community Hospital, and arrested many peaceful demonstrators.”

“These elections are illegal because they were called by an unconstitutional government. They were set up to legitimize the illegal coup against the constitutional government of Manuel Zelaya” said Waldina Mejia, a spokesperson for the Honduran Resistance, who is currently in the US.

The National Resistance Front Against the Coup is calling for the international community not to recognize the election and to support the restoration of their constitution and their duly elected government.

They are also calling for a constitutional assembly to respond to the letters from 600,000 marginalized Hondurans who want equal treatment under the law in their own country.

The US State Department has said that the US will recognize the results of the November 29th elections. The International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) (both conservative think tanks who were active in destabilizing the region in the 1980’s) are sending observers to the elections, indicating that they recognize them as legitimate and not the farce elections that they are.

"We support the people of Honduras and the Honduran resistance in protesting the continuing repression, the illegal coup and the fraudulent elections in Honduras. An election held at gunpoint cannot be free and fair,” said Manolo de Los Santos, spokesperson for IFCO/Pastors for Peace.

IFCO/PASTORS FOR PEACE
418 West 145th Street, 3-FL.
New York NY 10031
tel: 212.926.5757 - fax 212.926.5842 - e-mail ifco@igc.org

news-arrest warrants for calgary fascists

It might be a "night of the long knives" redux for the Aryan Guard as a bomb attack supposedly targeted one of their own. A 17 year old youth was arrested when his bus made a stop in Portage la Praire Manitoba, his arrest was in connection with the attack in Calgary. Kyle Robert McKee a leader of the neo-nazi movement, is also being sought by the Police.

A posting on the neo-nazi stormfront Canada forum reported that the Aryan Guard officially disbanded.
The discussion thread blamed a rowdy lot of drunks for ruining the group and says that the "...bombing attack was launched against the former girlfriend of ... John Marleau - an associate of the Aryan Guard"

According to the Calgary Sun: "The 29-year-old woman living in the townhouse says she has nothing to do with the neo-Nazis, and was targeted because she spurned the advances of a senior Aryan Guard member, who is "best friends" with the accused. "He's stalking me," said the woman, who asked to remain anonymous.

Welcome news after the statement of the Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada on November 4th. read it here.

• Latest from the Calgary Herald

• Full report here

• Anti-Racist Canada site
  

trivia: do you know that the makers of doc martens boots have tried to sue white supremacists over the years? The claim is that fascists have hurt the reputation of the famous brand.