November 3, 2010 - No. 185
U.S. Midterm Elections
A System in Need of Renewal
U.S. Midterm Elections
• A System in Need of Renewal
• Fund the Process Not the Candidates and
Parties - Voice of Revolution
Brazil
• Dilma Rousseff Elected President: Brazilians
Vote for Consolidation of Pro-Social Reforms and Against Neoliberalism
• Dilma Elected to Move Forward on Reforms
- Vermelho
United Nations
• Another Anniversary without Reform
- Victor Carriba, Prensa Latina
Lisbon, Portugal
• Anti-War Activities Planned to Oppose
Upcoming
NATO Summit
• World Peace Council and Portuguese Council
for Peace and Cooperation Appeal Against 2010 NATO Summit in Portugal
Coming Events
• Gatineau: Free the Cuban Five Solidarity
Assembly
• Toronto: Labour-Community Discussion -- No
More Deaths: People's
Resistance to
Undocumented and Precarious Work
• Windsor: Mavi Marmara Freedom
Boat to Gaza -- Testimony of a Canadian Survivor
U.S. Midterm Elections
A System in Need of Renewal
On November 2, the U.S. held midterm elections. Being
contested were all 435 seats in the House of Representatives
and 37 of the 100 seats in the Senate, as well as 38
state and territorial governorships, 46 state legislatures (all except
Louisiana,
Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia),
four territorial legislatures and numerous state and local races.
The Democrats lost
their majority in the House of Representatives as the Republicans won
239 seats, an increase of 60. Thus, the Democrats lose the position of
House Speaker held by Nancy Pelosi (although she retained her seat),
who will be
replaced by Republican John Boehner. Prior to the election, the
Democrats had controlled the House with a 255-178
majority, with two vacancies. In the 100-seat Senate, the Democrats
lost six seats (the had a 57-41 majority prior to the election), but
will likely retain a narrow majority. Results are
still coming in.
While the U.S. ruling circles portray their notoriously
corrupt political system as being the bastion of democracy to justify
arrogantly interfering in other countries' elections and internal
affairs, they cannot hide their own illegitimacy, decay and reaction.
None of the so-called election issues raised was
for purposes of actually sorting out the problems facing the working
class and peoples of the U.S., let alone the world. All the so-called
issues were designed to create hysteria to keep the working class
and people from discussing and developing their independent thinking.
In this way, the ruling circles block the people from changing the
situation while exerting maximum pressure to line them up behind their
reactionary schemes at home and abroad.
Voice of Revolution, a publication of the
U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization points out:
"The 2010 mid-term elections are being
presented as a
'choice' between the Democrats and Republicans, the pro-war parties of
the rich. Every effort is being made to create an atmosphere of fear
and distrust, so as to block any political discussion on the problems
facing voters. These include escalating
aggressive wars and threats, unemployment, poverty and destruction of
the environment. These are serious matters that require a calm
atmosphere for thinking about solutions. Instead, not only are negative
attack ads worse than usual and they account for more than 50 percent
of
all ads, but efforts to promote fear and
chauvinism are also widespread. Racist ads attacking immigrants
are common, as are those claiming China is going to 'steal' the
elections. We have a situation where almost $4 billion is being spent,
the vast majority by the military and financial monopolies that rule
the country, yet we are supposed to be afraid
of China! These ads whipping up fear of China and Iran have far more to
do with U.S. war preparations and plans targeting both countries.
Instead of the elections serving as an opportunity to discuss building
fraternal relations with the peoples of the world and to stand together
against war, they are used for U.S.
war-mongering by Republicans and Democrats alike.
"These same efforts to create an atmosphere of fear and
distrust are also being fomented in relation to conditions at home.
President Barack Obama has been campaigning across the country [...]
emphasizing that voting for Republicans will bring disaster,
attempting to generate a 'sky is falling'
atmosphere. People are to be panicked into voting for Democrats in a
situation where the large majority, consistent with their experience,
has negative views about both parties. The effort is to generate such
fear and disgust that people are blinded to the alternative of building
up the people's opposition to the war
parties and strengthening efforts to empower the people to govern and
decide.
"The language used by Obama is significant. For
example, in speaking about immigration reform on Univision October 25,
to an audience mainly of Latinos, Obama said, 'And so the problem that
we have is, is that until I can get some cooperation from the other
side, then people who are
anti-immigration reform can continue to block it. And that's why this
election coming up is so important because we essentially have to say
that those who are politicizing the issue, who are supportive of the
Arizona law, who talk only about border security but aren't willing to
talk about the other aspects of this,
who don't support the Dream Act,
who
are
out
there
engaging
in
rhetoric
that
is
divisive
and
damaging
that
--
those aren't the kinds of folks
who represent our core American values.' He added, 'If Latinos sit out
the election instead of saying, we're gonna punish our enemies and
we're gonna reward our friends, then I think it's gonna be harder and
that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on
November 2.'
"Obama, as President and
Commander-in-Chief, is again
promoting the concept that he can determine who does and does not
'represent our core American values.' That is, he is deciding who is
and is not American or 'un-American' as his administration has been
putting it. And he takes this further,
labeling those that he determines do not 'represent our core American
values,' as 'enemies' to be punished. It is easy to dismiss the
language as merely campaign rhetoric, but put in the context of what
the government has been doing, it must be recognized as statements of
where Obama stands on these issues.
"The government organized anti-Muslim hysteria generated
around September 11 and now again being fomented with reports about
'terrorists' from Yemen; the recent raids in Minnesota and Chicago by
Joint Terrorism Task Forces, including the FBI; mass round-ups and
terrorizing of immigrant communities
-- all are part of these efforts to impose the dictate of the President
as to who is and is not American, while also emphasizing that those
deemed 'un-American' are 'enemies' to be punished. The campaign
statements are consistent with these government actions, which all
serve the war drive of the imperialists and
their efforts to impose fascist measures at home.
"The U.S. rulers are seeking
a quiet homefront, with a
divided and docile workforce and a silenced and pacified movement.
Increased executive power and government impunity to commit any crime
-- whether directed against Muslims or immigrants and other workers, or
organizers opposing war and
attacks on rights -- is being unleashed with greater force so as to
paralyze resistance and force the peoples to submit. And if Obama can
brand fellow Republicans as "enemies" to be punished, then all others
can be as well. And further, Obama's comments indicate that
contradictions within the ruling circles are at
such a height that the various factions may not be able to prevent
outbreaks of violence within their ranks."
Despite the midterm elections being essentially
concluded, the contradictions with the ranks of the ruling class are
sharper than ever. They will not only spill over into the Congress and
Senate but could erupt into violence at any time. The American people
will have to remain extremely vigilant. Meanwhile, the central problem
facing the people remains how
to empower themselves. They must reject the false choice of two war
parties -- the Democrats and the Republicans, including the Tea Party.
As VOR points out:
"We need a modern democracy of our own making,
one that empowers the people
and their anti-war, pro-social agenda. [...] Political empowerment is
the necessity."
Fund the Process Not the Candidates and Parties
- Voice of Revolution*, November 1, 2010 -
A main feature of U.S. elections is the massive amounts
of money spent, and the character of the advertising as negative, often
racist, and serving to disinform the public, not inform them. This
election is taking place at a time of continuing wars abroad, economic
crisis and major crises on issues impacting society
as a whole, such as unemployment, poverty and destruction of the
environment. These problems and solutions for them are what people want
discussed and debated as part of the elections. A program of solutions
and identifying the candidates that best represent those solutions is
needed content for modern elections.
Yet 2010 sees negative ads, with their character assassination and
dirty smears at higher levels than ever. The ads are not geared toward
informing the public and putting them in a position to calmly and
rationally work out is needed to move society forward. Indeed this is
what is kept off the agenda at all costs. The
aim of the massive advertising and its negative, petty and "promises
made to be broken" content is to disinform the public, to generate
disgust and rejection of politics -- when politics and being political
are urgently needed to solve problems. The public, as a polity, the
body
politic of society, defending the interests
of society, its collectives and individuals is to be torn apart; its
form disintegrated so as to preserve the rule of the rich.
This year almost $4 billion has been spent on
campaigning. This includes large increases in the number of ads, up
about 27 percent from 2008, a presidential year and their cost, up by
almost 90 percent. The large majority of campaign spending is done by
the candidates, together with their parties and what are
called "coordinated ads," which combine funds from candidates and Party
campaign committees. As an example, from September 1 to October 20, the
candidates and parties together accounted for about 85 percent of ad
spending. Outside interest groups accounted for about 15 percent.
The productive forces in the U.S. are modern and highly
developed. They require a democracy that is also modern and highly
developed. Yet as spending and negative ads and empty campaigns
indicate, it is a backward and corrupted democracy. At a time when the
full energies and ingenuity of the people are
required to solve problems, we face an electoral process designed to
keep the people out of power. An important and immediate means to
change this is to demand that an independent electoral commission,
funded with public dollars, organize elections and fund the process. No
party, candidate or outside funding
would be permitted. Instead, information concerning the problems to be
solved, the programs of candidates to solve them, the interests served
by various proposals, etc. would be the content of election campaigns.
Every candidate would have equal time and opportunity to present and
elaborate their program. The
process would provide space for information, debate and ability to
identify which candidates best represent the needs of the people. By
publicly funding the process and gearing it towards informing the
public, elections could contribute to solving problems rather than
serving to disinform and disorganize the public
while wasting billions of dollars. It also opens space for working
people to elect and be elected, rather than only the servants of the
rich being chosen by the rich for office.
The recognition by many of the need to put ordinary
working people in power was revealed in a recent poll. People were
asked if they had the option on election day to vote to get rid of the
entire Congress and start over with new people, would they do so? About
65 percent of likely voters said yes. About half
also said people randomly selected from the phone book would do a
better job than the current Congress. While the poll is being promoted
as a means to discredit Congress and use anger with Congress to make
elected governance the problem, the response shows something different.
It shows that many recognize
that ordinary working people, which are what the majority of those
randomly selected from the phone book would be, are needed to govern.
Funding the process with the aim of informing and uniting the public on
a program of solutions to the problems we face is a step in this
direction of politically empowering
the people.
Brazil -- Dilma Rousseff Elected President
Brazilians Vote for Consolidation of Pro-Social Reforms
and Against Neoliberalism
Left: Brazilians
celebrate the victory of Dilma Rousseff in the capital Brasilia,
October 31, 2010.
Right: President-Elect Rousseff is congratulated by supporters at a
victory rally. (Agencia Brasil)
On October 31, Brazilians went to the polls for the
country's presidential runoff election. As expected, Dilma Rousseff,
candidate of the Workers' Party of Brazil (PT) and former Chief of
Staff for outgoing president Luis "Lula" da Silva, defeated José
Serra of the conservative-backed Social Democratic Party of Brazil
(PSDB). Rousseff received 56.05% of the vote, compared to Serra's
43.94% of the vote. Rousseff and her Vice President-elect Michel Temer,
president of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, will take office
on January 1, 2011.
TML sends its
warmest congratulations to President-Elect Dilma Rousseff, President da
Silva, the PT, the broad coalition of parties supporting the PT,
especially the Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB) which is in the van of
consolidating the people's unity, and the Brazilian people for this
victory. Rousseff’s election as Brazil's first woman president is an
achievement in itself, and will permit the progressive social forces
to consolidate and advance the changes required by the masses of the
Brazilian people to solve the problems they are facing and to gain
control over their affairs.
Since the 2002 presidential election, the wealthy elite supporting
Serra have used their ownership of monopoly media to lower the level of
political discourse in the hope that this would serve their narrow
interests. The first round of the election was marked by slanders and
other unprincipled attacks by these forces. This hooligan activity
continued in the second round, but was repudiated once again with
Serra's defeat.
In Vermelho, a publication of
the PCdoB, Umberto Martins notes, "Serra allied with the most
reactionary sectors and attitudes of the [Catholic church], mobilizing
priests, pastors and bishops for a dirty campaign against Dilma." Even
the pope entered the fray in the homestretch of the election, preaching
against what he called "the abortion candidate," Martins says. However,
the election results show this religious obscurantism was defeated,
Martins states.
Martins described the role of two of the mouthpieces for Anglo-American
imperialism -- The Economist
and the Financial Times -- in
the campaign. "In the final stretch of the campaign, The Economist and the Financial Times, which had
maintained a prudent distance from the polls in the first round, with
the resurrection of the possibility of victory in the second round
decided to play the field and declare their support for Serra." He
noted the two publications "reflected the choice of foreign capital and
spun the situation in the hope that the program of privatization would
be resumed by the PSDB. [...] They were defeated."
Brazil's
President-Elect Dilma Rousseff is received by President Luis "Lula" da
Silva at the presidential palace in Brasilia, November 3, 2010. (Agencia Brasil)
|
The presidential election on October 4 brings to a close
Brazil's 2010 general elections, which elected 54 of the 81 seats in
the Senate, all of the members for the 513 seats in the Chamber of
Deputies and all 1,035 seats in the 27 state legislatures.
In the Senate elections, the governing coalition (comprised of the bloc
of left-wing and bloc of centrist parties) gained seven seats, while
the opposition coalition lost 11, and the three independent parties won
four more seats.
In the Chamber of Deputies, the governing coalition also increased its
seats by 14, while the opposition lost 20. Between them, the
independent parties gained another six seats.
In the state legislatures, the governing coalition had a net gain of 73
seats, while the opposition lost 96, with the independent parties
gaining many of their seats at the latter's expense.
The results show that the election of Dilma Rousseff as President of
Brazil embodies the demand for continued progress and change and the
rejection of reaction and neoliberalism reflected in the elections
overall.
Brazil Elects Dilma to Move Forward on Reforms
- Vermelho, October 31, 2010 -
The Brazilian soul is awake and alert -- this is one of
the conclusions from today's victory of Dilma Rousseff for the
presidency. Giving her more than 55.5 million votes (more than 56% of
total), the Brazilian people reaffirmed at the ballot box the option
for change and the progress they had made in 2002 and
2006 to elect Lula for the highest office in the nation.
Dilma represents the continuation of the project that in
two previous elections, was approved and confirmed by the electorate,
which rejected the neoliberal conservatism of the Toucans [the nickname
of the Social Democratic Party of Brazil -- TML Ed. Note ].
It is a new step, and steady, toward
the consolidation of change and progress. If in 2002, Lula's victory
was the choice of hope against fear, Dilma is the affirmation of truth
against falsehood, fraud and brutality. It is the defeat of
obscurantism, backwardness, undemocratic arrogance, a campaign unable
to admit that the anti-people and anti-national program
of the neoliberal right was based on slanders and calumnies.
If Lula's election in 2002 turned a page in history and
began a new phase in Brazilian life, Rousseff's election confirms the
validity of an era of democratic consolidation. We must move forward,
and the defeat the right in all bodies of elected political power -- in
the Senate, the House of Representatives and
now president -- is a historic opportunity as
the foundation for the rapid advance and consolidation of the changes
that must not be wasted.
Brazilian democracy embodied in active form, huge
numbers of people who, until recently, were at the periphery of
national decisions and given the political role of passively responding
to calls of the self-interested elite constituted by so-called opinion
leaders. That changed, despite the ruthless efforts of the
right and the conservatism and neoliberal media, whose lunatic
preaching found limited response from the Brazilian electorate.
There are democratic gains that need to be consolidated
and strengthened. This Sunday, October 31, 2010, the electorate placed
in Rousseff's hands the historic responsibility of carrying forward
the reforms that will give consistency to democracy and modernity to
our country.
Among the advances that Brazil's new president hopes for
are democratic political reform to strengthen popular participation in
political life; land reform against the unproductive large estates;
urban reform to ensure decent homes, safety and sanitation; education
reform to wipe out illiteracy and other projects
designed to advance Brazilian society; the universalization of the SUS
[public health system] ensuring health for all; tax reform to exempt
workers' income; investments and production, and making the rich pay
more taxes. Abroad, her priorities are to keep strengthening
continental integration, solidarity among peoples,
national sovereignty and Brazil's multilateral relations with all
nations. Finally, especially after the election campaign where the
[private] media participated with an unfair monopoly, Brazilians expect
Dilma to confront the power of the families who control newspapers and
television and ensure the democratization of
the media that the country is calling for.
Now, with a woman president, the struggle against
backwardness, the oligarchy and subservience to foreign powers
throughout the entire Republican period until the election of Lula in
2002 will go further. It's what everyone expects of President Dilma!
United Nations
Another Anniversary without Reform
- Victor Carriba, Prensa Latina, November
1, 2010 -
In urgent need of a deep-going reform that would make it
possible to revitalize a General Assembly lacerated by the actions of
its Security Council, the United Nations celebrated its 66th
anniversary.
Created on Oct. 24, 1945 in the U.S. city of San
Francisco, the basic goals of the United Nations are to preserve peace
and security, encourage economic and social development, and defend
human rights.
The brand-new organization comprised 51 countries, about
one-fourth of the current 192 members, most of whom are demanding a
deep-going change, both in form and content.
The most recent demand in that sense was made one month
ago by the outgoing president of the General Assembly, Libyan
Alí Treki, who voiced support for efforts to reform the Security
Council, which has not changed for decades.
"If we do not want the UN to be on the periphery of the
principal challenges of today, its working methods must be improved,
and its authority strengthened to its maximum potential, in line with
its Charter," he said.
Since 1945, the Security Council has had five permanent
seats, reserved for the United States, Russia, China, the UK and
France, all with veto power.
It is precisely these unchanging conditions and supreme
power for the last 65 years that are at the center of the unceasing,
growing demand for reform.
Also, demands have been raised to end Security Council
actions that overstep the boundaries of the powers and functions it is
assigned by the UN Charter, and which constitute interference in the
affairs of the General Assembly, the top authority of the United
Nations.
For many country's representatives, some of
the permanent Security Council members use their prerogatives to
promote their own national interests, beyond the principles of
impartiality and non-selectivity. During the recent general debate of
the Assembly, dozens of presidents and ministers insisted that the
Security Council should reflect the needs and interests of developed
and underdeveloped countries in an objective, rational and
non-arbitrary way.
At the same time, they demanded changes in its
composition and the number of its members, as well as the categories of
its members and veto power.
The example of Africa was held up several times: it
makes up almost 30 percent of the UN membership, and its problems
occupy about two-thirds of the organization's activities;
nevertheless, it does not even have a permanent seat.
In that sense, the various regions are demanding one or
two seats of that kind, without ruling out the possibility of granting
veto power.
However, the issue of reform did not appear in the
message released for the UN's anniversary by Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon.
The message was limited to highlighting the need to face
climate change, prevent a nuclear disaster, expand opportunities for
women, combat injustice and impunity and reach the so-called Millennium
Development Goals.
These are a whole range of interrelated problems, with
common
roots in the current economic and political international order, which
has precisely as one of its pillars, maintaining a power scheme that
emerged 65 years ago in San Francisco.
Lisbon, Portugal
Anti-War Activities Planned to
Oppose Upcoming NATO Summit
Worldwide demonstrations
against NATO in 2009.
Peace and disarmament are incompatible with NATO the
network "No to War -- No to NATO" says. More than 650 organizations
have
worked together since the preparation for the NATO summit in Strasbourg
in 2009, the network points out and at its annual meeting in Berlin in
October 2009 it decided to
use the Lisbon Summit where the new NATO strategy is to be adopted, for
intensified actions against war and militarism.
In Portugal, a national coalition has formed, the
members of which are of the national anti-NATO alliance PAGAN, as well
as other anti-war and peace organizations, environmental, human rights
and social initiatives. This alliance has support of NGOs, and of
"Bloco" -- an alliance of left parties and movements. The anti-NATO
alliance has come into the public more with the first successful events
in the recent weeks (see http://antinatoportugal.wordpress.com) and
seeks to further support the participation of more organizations and
initiatives.
The International Coordinating Committee of the network
has worked along with the Portuguese organizations on a proposal for a
roadmap for the NATO Summit.
This includes:
1. Regional and local actions from November 15 - 21,
2010. For this, a permanent public peace centre for multiple activities
will be set up on a central square in Lisbon;
2. A counter summit on Friday November 19 and on Sunday
November 21, which will end with an International Anti-War Assembly.
Opposition to NATO and its war-mongering strategy are the focus of this
congress, along with an international analysis of the same. The
organizations are to "intensely discuss
peace alternatives. Actions of the peace movement are to be presented
and further agreements for more and more intensive international
cooperation should be obtained. There is also lots of place for
discussion of our different positions; we want to learn from one
another, so as to act more effectively together."
3. Support for a large international peaceful
demonstration on Saturday November 20 in Lisbon.
Already an international action conference was held in
Lisbon from October 14-17 to prepare and coordinate the international
participation.
Details for the entire program are being worked out now
and will be discussed further, including at the European social forum
in Istanbul. More information and an exact timetable will be placed on
the website www.no-to-nato.org
where the first
announcements of the protests can also be found.
The organizers call for all participants to think about
the preparation in each of the nations, how to increase the pressure on
national governments and to get the topic of NATO more visible in the
public sphere. " NATO and peace stand as complete opposites; whomever
wants a peaceful and just world must
reject NATO," says Reiner Braun, member of the International
Coordinating Committee "No to War -- No to NATO" and executive director
of the IALANA, International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear
Arms.
World Peace Council and Portuguese Council
for Peace
and Cooperation Appeal
Against 2010 NATO Summit in Portugal
- September 2, 2010 -
The World Peace Council (WPC) and the Portuguese Council
for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC) salute the peace loving people of the
world and the peace movements which stand up and continue denouncing
imperialist wars, illegal occupations and social injustice, and call
upon them to continue and reinforce
the common efforts and struggles against imperialism and its
mechanisms, particularly against NATO, the biggest war machinery in the
world.
The WPC denounces to the peoples of the world the crimes
NATO has committed and goes on committing against humanity with the
pretext of either the protection of "human rights" or the fight against
"terrorism" according to its own interpretation.
NATO since its foundation in 1949 has been an aggressive
alliance. After 1991, with its new military doctrine it became the
world "gendarme" of the imperialist interests. It has been often
connected to bloody regimes and dictatorships, reactionary forces and
Juntas. It participated actively in dismembering
Yugoslavia, in the barbaric bombardment of Serbia for 78 days, in the
overthrow of regimes through "orange revolutions," in the occupation of
Afghanistan. NATO continues its plans for the "Greater Middle East,"
enlarging its range of actions through the "Partnership for Peace" and
"special cooperation" in Asia
and Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, as well as the
"European Army."
All governments of the member states share
responsibility in NATO, regardless of the leading role of the U.S.
administration. Despite different approaches on some issues which
reflect particular views and rivalries they always lead to the common
aggressive confrontation with the peoples.
We condemn the policy of the European Union, which
coincides with NATO's and with the Lisbon Treaty that goes hand in hand
with it in the political and military fields. The Military expenditure
of the EU in missions abroad has increased between 2002 and 2009 from
30 million Euros to 300
million Euros.
The peoples and peace loving forces of the world do not
accept NATO in its role as world "gendarme." They reject any effort to
incorporate NATO into the United Nations system. They demand the
dissolution of this offensive military war machine. Even the pretext of
the existence of the Warsaw
Pact does not exist any more today.
The World Peace Council and its members will organize
various national and international initiatives in dozens of countries
against NATO and the new strategic concept it intends to adopt at the
Lisbon Summit in Portugal. We shall organize, together with the
Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation
(CPPC), events and conferences in Portugal and central mass activities
before and during the days of the NATO Summit.
Under the slogan: NATO -- Enemy of the Peoples and of
Peace -- DISMANTLE IT! the WPC is calling upon all organisations in
NATO
member States and the entire world to endorse this appeal underlining
the following aspects:
NATO has been an aggressive and reactionary force since
its founding in 1949. The Warsaw Treaty was created later and was
dissolved earlier.
NATO's hands have been soaked in the blood of many
peoples for 60 years and cannot constitute "a peacemaking force" within
the UN framework.
Despite the domination of the USA, aggressions are
waged together with other imperialist forces, which do not change the
character of NATO.
NATO is directly bound to the EU and viceversa, as a
large number of EU countries are also members of NATO, as well as
through the militarist traits and commitments embedded in the "Lisbon
Treaty."
All governments of NATO member countries bear
responsibility for its action; they support its imperialist plans.
The NATO war against Yugoslavia in 1999 was a milestone
for the new dogma at the time of its summit in Washington 1999. The
fact that the EU was never a "democratic counterweight" to the USA was
revealed then.
NATO acts as a global policeman with collaborators on
all continents, carrying out its plan for a "Greater Middle East" and
actively intervening in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and elsewhere.
We fully support and endorse the Portuguese campaign
"Yes to peace, No to NATO" which unites dozens of movements and social
organisations. We call upon all peace loving organisations to unite our
voices and forces under this appeal and meet in November 2010 in Lisbon.
World Peace Council (WPC)
Portuguese Council for Peace and Cooperation (CPPC)
Coming Events
Free the Cuban 5 Solidarity Assembly in Gatineau
Click image for fullsize poster (PDF).
Wednesday, November
3 -- 7:00 pm
Outaouais Cegep, 333, Boul. Cité-de-jeune, salon étudiant
Organized by
the Association d'amitié Outaouais-Cuba and
the
Salvadoran Women's Association of Ottawa-Gatineau |
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Featuring a discussion with the Cuban Ambassador to
Canada, Her Excellency Teresita Vicente Sotolongo on the importance of
the solidarity movement between the Quebec and Cuban people and the
liberation of the five Cuban heroes imprisoned in the U.S. Everyone
welcome!
Toronto
Community-Labour Discussion
No More Deaths: People's Resistance to
Undocumented and
Precarious Work
Click image for fullsize poster.
November 4 --
6:00-8:00pm
OPSEU Union Hall, 31 Wellesley St. (across from Wellesley Station)
Hosted by: No
One Is Illegal
-- Toronto
Supported by:
Justicia for Migrant Workers, Industrial
Accident Victims Group of Ontario, OPSEU Workers of Color, Caregiver
Action Centre, Labor Education Centre, Workers Action Centre, Health
for All, Latin American Trade Unionist Coalition, Coalition for Change:
Live in Caregivers and Temporary
Workers
Email nooneisillegal@riseup.net to endorse
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Speakers:
FRANCA IACOVETTA is Professor of History and
author of "Such Hardworking People: Italian Immigrants in Postwar
Toronto" that focused on the Hoggs Hollow disaster.
TZAZNA MIRANDA LEAL is an organizer with Justicia for
Migrant Workers
MOHAN MISHRA is an organizer with No One Is Illegal --
Toronto
Also remarks by Cosmo Mannella (Director of The
Labourers International Union of North America (LIUNA) Canadian
Tri-Fund); Elizabeth Ha (OPSEU Workers of Colour & OFL VP Workers
of Colour); Jessica Ponting (Community legal worker with Industrial
Accident Victims Group of Ontario); Pura Velasco
(Caregiver Action Centre); Jojo Geronimo (Executive Director, Labor
Education Centre) and members of the Workers Action Centre.
On September 10, 2010 two migrant workers Ralston White
and Paul Roach died after inhaling toxic fumes at Filsinger's Organic
Foods appleorchard and processing facility near Owen Sound, Ontario. On
December 24, 2009, Aleksanders Bondarevs, Aleksey Blumberg, Fayzullo
Fazilov, Vladimir Korostin, migrant
workers without full status, fell to their deaths when the scaffolding
they were working on collapsed in half. Though these deaths made the
mainstream news, migrant workers and undocumented workers continue to
be hurt, to get ill and to die both in Canada or upon being deported to
countries they have citizenship
in. This injustice must end.
50 years ago, five Italian construction workers,
Pasquale Allegrezza, Giovanni Correglio, Giovanni Fusillo, and
Alessandro and Guido Mantella, died while working in a dangerous tunnel
near Yonge Street in Toronto, remembered as the Hoggs Hollow disaster.
Knowing that workers without full status were facing
flagrant workplace violations, negligent employers and little
legislative protection from occupational hazards, workers across the
city rose up, and carried out a series of actions and strikes in a
fight to organize the building trades.
Today as migrant workers continue to die, labour
activists and community groups must gather together, to reignite a new
fight. A fight that creates far-reaching changes and challenges the
very root of people's inability to access real safety -- immigration
status and racism.
Join community groups and labour activist to discuss and
demand:
- Moratorium on deportations for all workers with WSIB
claims and MOL complaints
- Access to Health and Safety without Fear
- Status for injured workers and their families
- Status for All!
Windsor
Mavi Marmara Freedom Boat to Gaza --
Testimony of a
Canadian Survivor
- Media Advisory -
Sunday,
November 7 -- 6:00-8:00 pm
Caboto Hall, Caboto Club, 2175 Parent Ave.
For
information: Wendy Goldsmith, 519-619-6766; David Heap, 519-859-3579;
info@canadaboatgaza.org
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In May 2010 an international flotilla of peace
activists, carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, set sail on the
Mediterranean. The Mavi Marmara,
a
ship bearing a Turkish flag but
carrying activists from around the world, was boarded and brutally
attacked by the Israeli military.
This one-sided attack, which violated international law,
claimed the lives of nine innocent peace activists. Canadian Kevin
Neish was on board and is now sharing his first-hand account of that
horrible night, embarking on a pan-Canadian tour with stops in Halifax,
Hamilton, London, Windsor, Regina, Yellowknife,
Edmonton and Vancouver.
On the subject of the passengers aboard the Mavi
Marmara, Neish recounts, "They were humanitarian aid workers. A
lot of
them were pot-bellied fellows, balding, glasses, looked a lot like me.
They weren't fighters."
Join us as we bear witness to Neish's experience and
also hear about our latest initiative to launch a Canadian Boat to
Gaza, www.canadaboatgaza.org which will set sail with the next Free
Gaza flotilla in the spring of 2011. We will join efforts from the
U.S., Europe, Africa, Asia and parts of the Middle East
in sending ships to the port of Gaza with the goal of breaking the
siege on the only Mediterranean port which is closed to shipping.
Read The Marxist-Leninist
Daily
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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