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December 20, 2017
2017 Photo Review
For a Modern Canada that
Defends the
Rights of All --
All Out to Build the New!
May
 TML Daily is posting a
month-by-month photo review of the stands taken by the working people
of Canada and Quebec and Indigenous peoples in 2017.
May is a month of particular
importance to the working class worldwide as it opens with May Day –
International Day of Working Class Unity and Struggle. In rallies and
meetings in Canada to mark May Day, workers from all different sectors
of the economy used the occasion to raise the banner of their rights
and their struggles today. In so doing they affirmed that the workers
have their own politics and demands on the society independent from
those of the ruling class in Canada, Quebec and worldwide. The actions
expressed the fraternal unity of the working people around the world
with demands to oppose Canadian involvement in imperialist war and
aggression against the working people of other lands.
In May active and retired
workers, especially those in the public sector, took important
initiatives to oppose the Trudeau Liberals' attacks on defined benefit
pension plans through Bill C-27, demanding secure pensions for all.
Bill C-27 aims to destroy defined benefit pensions for nearly half a
million workers and remove the legal requirement that employers fund,
maintain and guarantee pension plan benefits.
In Quebec 175,000
construction workers embarked on a bold general strike to challenge
unacceptable demands from construction employers to disrupt existing
work schedules to the detriment of the workers' personal and work
lives. Instead of affirming the workers' rights through legislation, or
contributing to negotiations, the provincial Liberal government swiftly
passed back-to-work legislation criminalizing the workers' resistance
while fraudulently claiming that they could still bargain in the form
of mediation and arbitration, without the right to say No! with strike action. This action
was met with broad opposition from Quebec workers and legal challenges
from unions affected.
The Marxist-Leninist Party of
Quebec held an important conference on rights on the 180th anniversary
of the 1837 rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada. The conference
brought together forces from across Quebec, Canada and the United
States to discuss the experience of the Patriots in their fight against
the colonial institutions of the Canadian state of that period, from
the standpoint of how to advance nation-building in the 21st century on
the basis of a modern conception of rights.
In May, Canadians joined
worldwide celebrations of the 72nd anniversary of the defeat of Nazi
fascism in Europe. Events highlighted the outstanding role of the
Soviet Red Army and paid tribute to the partisan resistance and all the
anti-fascist fighters who gave their lives for this victory of all
humanity. Actions also opposed the Canadian state’s imperialist
warmongering today in Europe in particular Canada's May signing of a
Defence Agreement with Ukraine.
The annual CANSEC weapons
fair in Ottawa was protested by anti-war demonstrators in Ottawa and
Montreal, while the Trudeau Liberals took this opportunity to promote
Canada's
new warmongering
"defence policy" which steps up Canada’s integration into U.S.-led
imperialist war alliances. One of the main sponsors of the annual
private event is the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the Crown
corporation which facilitated the Liberal government’s $11 billion arms
deal with Saudi Arabia. The event came at a time when NATO member
states, including Canada, dramatically increased military spending at
the demand of the U.S. in its striving for domination. Thus, CANSEC
provided a venue for the biggest war profiteers to seek ever-greater
payments from the public purse. It featured U.S., Canadian and other
arms monopolies and representatives of warmongering governments
including those of Canada, the U.S., UK, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and
Israel, as well as of other countries infamous for repression against
the people including India, Egypt and Colombia.
May 1
Across the country workers from different regions and sectors of
the economy participate in actions marking May Day, the International
Day of Working Class
Unity and Struggle.
Halifax
 
Dolbeau
 
Montreal
 
  
 
Ottawa
 
Toronto
 
Mississauga
Hamilton
Windsor
 
Edmonton
 
Calgary  
Vancouver
Prince George
Cumberland
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47016S.HTM
(Photos:
TML,
P.
Lahay,
CUPE,
HEU,
D.
Copeland,
OSSTF District 9.)
May 5
Federal public service workers protest the introduction of Bill C-27
which will undermine their defined benefit pensions and security
in retirement.   
http://cpcml.ca/WF2017/WO0418.HTM#1
May 6
On the 180th anniversary of the rebellions in
Lower and Upper Canada a conference is held in Montreal on the
Patriots' conception of rights and that in the Canadian constitutions
of 1840 and 1867.
     
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47017.HTM#2
May
9
The 72nd anniversary of the
victory over fascism in Europe in 1945 is
commemorated with marches
and ceremonies in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver to honour
those who fought and sacrificed their
lives to contain fascism,
and to reiterate humanity's call
Never Again!
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
Vancouver
Dewdney, BC
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47018.HTM#7
May 11
Rally and street party takes place during Canadian Labour Congress
Convention in Toronto, to
demand an end to precarious non-standard employment and to oppose
racist attacks against the people, singling out Islamophobia at this
time.
May 13
Marches in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto, among other
places, commemorate the
69th anniversary of al-Nakba, the forcible
expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from
their homeland by the Zionists in order to annex their land into the
state of Israel.
Montreal
Ottawa
Toronto
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47018.HTM#9
Montreal picket opposes foreign intervention in
Venezuela and attacks on Venezuela's diplomatic staff in Canada.  
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47018.HTM#13
May 17
Monthly picket at U.S. Embassy in Ottawa demands end to U.S. blockade
of Cuba.
May 21-23
On Quebec Patriots' Day marches, historic exhibits, conferences and
performances take place to mark the 1837-1838 uprising and to honour
the memory of the Patriots who gave their lives or were forced into
exile in the struggle to end British colonial rule by establishing a
Republic of Quebec.
Montreal
  
Gatineau
May 24
In Quebec, 175,000 construction workers launch a general strike against
unacceptable concessionary demands from organizations representing
construction employers. Within days the Quebec government criminalizes
the workers' struggle for their rights, passing legislation ordering
them
back to work.
Montreal
 
Quebec City
Trois-Rivières
Saguenay
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47019.HTM#3
May 25-31
Injured workers' Rights for All!
bike ride from Ottawa to Toronto stops in cities and towns along the
route to mobilize support for workers' demands for just
compensation
when injured or made ill at work. The bike ride arrives in Toronto to
join in the Injured Workers' Day rally on June 1.
Ottawa
 
Cornwall; Brockville; Kingston
  
Belleville
 
Port Darlington, Toronto City Hall
 
http://cpcml.ca/WF2017/WO0422.HTM#5
May 29
Construction workers rally in Quebec City as National Assembly debates
and on May 30 passes legislation criminalizing their just fight for
their rights and ordering
them back to work.
http://cpcml.ca/WF2017/WO0421.HTM#1
May 31
Hospital workers from across BC rally at St. Paul's Hospital in
Vancouver to support the demands of more than 4,000 housekeeping and
food service workers employed by the multinationals Compass-Marquise,
Sodexo, Aramark and Acciona.
http://cpcml.ca/BCW2017/BC0505.HTM#5
Picket opposes the annual CANSEC weapons fair in Ottawa
sponsored by the Trudeau war government and the biggest U.S. arms
monopolies.     
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2017/W47020.HTM#13
Pickets continue in Toronto to oppose U.S. threats
against Korea as activists
prepare to mark the 17th anniversary of the
historic June 15, 2000 North-South
Joint Declaration between the
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and
the Republic of Korea
that paved the way for almost a decade of
relationship-building,
peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
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