November 2, 2022 - No. 40
Broad Support for Ontario Education Workers
Spirited Rally Denounces Ford Government
Letter to the Editor
• On the Emergency Rally to Support Education Workers
United Nations General Assembly Debates Resolution
Against
U.S. Blockade of Cuba
• U.S. Isolated Thanks to Heroic Resistance
of Cuban People
and Worldwide Support
Demands for Peace on Korean Peninsula
• Mass Protests in South Korea Demand an End to U.S. War Exercises and Resignation of President Yoon
• We Must Stop Military Action That Leads to War
Broad Support for Ontario Education Workers
Spirited Rally Denounces Ford Government
Over three thousand workers and youth rallied in front of the Ministry of Labour in Toronto on November 1 to denounce the Ford government's legislation that criminalizes Ontario education workers. On October 30, their union, Canadian Union of Public Employees' Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (CUPE-OSBCU) had served notice, in accordance with the labour law, that they would strike on November 4 if negotiations for a new collective agreement were not successful. The government, in response, tabled legislation on October 31 that imposes a four-year contract and strips the workers of their right to strike for the life of the collective agreement. Because such anti-worker action would not withstand a court challenge the government also invoked the notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Education
workers, teachers, health care workers, nurses, government workers and
industrial workers joined the rally to listen to speeches from leaders
of the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Canadian Labour Congress, the
Canadian Union of Public Employees, CUPE Education Workers, Ontario
teachers' unions, community organizers and the Canadian Vice
President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace
Workers who spoke on behalf of industrial workers.
All the speakers condemned the legislation and pledged their support for the CUPE education workers' decision to walk off the job on November 4 if no negotiated settlement has been reached. The call was given for workers in all sectors to join them in whatever actions are organized for that day and beyond, to talk to their co-workers, families and friends about what is going on and for parents to keep their kids home from school that day in support of the workers.
It was repeatedly emphasized that the government's attack on the CUPE education workers is an attack on all working people in Ontario and more, something that will be watched by provincial governments across the country. During the election, one speaker said, Ford made a big deal of courting industrial workers, promising good jobs with good pay, but this legislation shows the government's real attitude towards workers' rights and shows that all Ontario workers have to vigorously support the CUPE workers in fighting the legislation.
Several pointed out that by invoking the notwithstanding clause Premier Ford and Education Minister Stephen Lecce were saying to all Ontario workers that they are fully aware that the legislation violates workers' Charter rights and human rights, that they are determined to ensure that no court will stop them, and workers should just get used to it because the Ford government has the power to do what it pleases.
Following the speeches there was a march to Queen's Park where the legislative sitting for the day had ended. Slogans denouncing Ford and Lecce and the legislation and expressing the determination of workers to defend their rights rang out all the way and at Queens' Park where speakers from the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, the Ontario Nurses Association and the interim leader and labour critic of the NDP denounced the legislation and pledged their support for the workers.
The spirit of the rally and march was one of defiance of an unjust anti-worker law and of a government which uses police powers to trample on rights. Everyone is called on to join actions organized by and in support of CUPE education workers on November 4.
(Photos: TML, CUPE Ontario, CUPE 4400, ONA, L. Meskine, C-L Paul)
Letter to the Editor
On the Emergency Rally to Support
Education
Workers
I am a retired teacher who joined the emergency rally yesterday organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour at the Ministry of Labour in support of the education workers who are defying the Ford government's Keeping Students in Class Act.
There must have been at least 3,000 people there and the spirit was defiant. There was a tremendous sense of unity and I noted that besides hundreds of education workers there were many teachers, nurses, migrant workers, students, postal workers, steelworkers and also parents. The fighting mood was very palpable. As one union leader said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr., "One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws."
I am writing in appreciation of the TML Daily that was distributed yesterday and the two fine articles, one by Enver Villamizar and the other by Pauline Easton. I was struck by the concept of "police powers" and how governments across Canada are acting above the law or using the law for unjust and illegitimate causes. The use of the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Constitution of 1982 by the Ford government to table the Keeping Students in Class Act in order to criminalize and attack the education workers is unconscionable. I appreciated the point made in the Easton article that the notwithstanding clause in the Constitution enables governments to "legally" attack the rights of workers and this is a political matter that belongs to everyone and that it will take all of us Ontarians to solve this problem by putting forward our claims and fighting for them.
Let us all keep the initiative in our hands and fight together for the rights of all as the TML Daily urges us to do.
A Reader in Toronto
United Nations General Assembly Debates Resolution
Against U.S. Blockade of Cuba
U.S. Isolated Thanks to Heroic Resistance
of
Cuban People and Worldwide Support
|
This
year marks 60 years since the proclamation that formalized the criminal
economic blockade by the U.S. against Cuba. As well, it is the 30th
year of the vote at the United Nations' General Assembly on the
"Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial blockade
imposed by the United-States of America against Cuba." Every year since
1992, a resolution against the criminal blockade has won the support of
the vast majority of UN member states.
Since then, in their interventions at the UN General Assembly, many member states have pointed out that the vote on the resolution is a collective call from the international community to respect the guiding principles of the UN and of its Charter, that the blockade constitutes a form of economic terrorism which hinders the economic development not only of Cuba but of the entire region, and that the resolution calls for respect for the principles of non-interference and non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.
Judicial studies have also pointed out that since the second half of the 20th century, embargoes have frequently been launched at the initiative of the U.S. and the UN Security Council, in defiance of the most elementary rules of international law. They also point out the extraterritorial nature of U.S. national laws such as Helms-Burton which sanction foreign economic actors who do not bow down to the requirements of the U.S. Congress. This in itself is a violation of the principle of sovereignty as found in Section 2 of the UN Charter which states that the UN is founded on the principle of sovereign equality of all its members.
In spite of all of the above, still U.S. representatives feel they are empowered to stand at the UN General Assembly and reprimand the entire international community for their stand against the blockade against Cuba and in defence of UN founding principles. Last year, for example, U.S. spokesperson Rodney Hunter stated: "As with other member states, the U.S. determines its conduct of economic relationships with other countries in accordance with its national interests. Sanctions are a legitimate way to achieve foreign policy, national security and other national and international objectives and the United States is not alone in this view or in this practice."
The
U.S. does stand alone, isolated but immersed in its conviction that it
is the indispensable nation calling the shots, against the very
principles it claims to uphold. The U.S. persists in upholding its
doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which was another form of God-given
authority to conquer and plunder. The phrase was coined in 1845 to
propagate the idea that the United States is destined -- by God, its
advocates believed -- to expand its dominion and spread democracy and
capitalism across the entire North American continent and beyond.
Today, the isolation of the U.S. on the matter of the blockade is due first and foremost to the heroic resistance of the Cuban people and the support they have won over the years for their principled stand. It is also based on the living experience nations have had in dealing with U.S. interference, pillage, regime change and aggression. The vote against the blockade appears as a mark of U.S. isolation and of the opposition of nations and peoples to U.S. dictate, blackmail and brutality in the way it conducts foreign affairs. The world would definitely be better off without the blockade and without U.S. meddling, bullying and brinkmanship.
Demands for Peace on Korean Peninsula
Mass Protests in South Korea Demand an
End to U.S. War Exercises and Resignation
of President Yoon
Hundreds of thousands of workers, teachers, youth and others marched in Seoul, the capital of the Republic of Korea (ROK), on October 22 to oppose the pro-U.S. and militarist government of President Yoon Suk-Yeol and called for his removal. Yoon, the leader of the People's Power Party, came to power in May having won the elections this past March with the slimmest of margins, less than one per cent more votes than his rival, Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party.
The
ongoing actions for peace by the people of south Korea are of such
significance they were recently reported by Stars and Stripes which
identifies itself as the U.S. military's independent magazine. In a
September 7, 2022 article, the magazine reports on the popular
resistance to the
never-ending U.S-ROK military exercises, and quotes Lee Seung-bin, an
engineering student and anti-war activist stating: "The fact is that
this is not an exercise of a defensive nature but an exercise for
attacks against North Korea (DPRK). It is too obvious that these drills
do not bring peace to
the Korean Peninsula but can cause confrontation between North Korea
and the U.S. and a war crisis."
The magazine also stated that "Protests outside Yongsan Garrison in Seoul and 40 miles south at Camp Humphreys prompted gate closures." It noted that "Outside Humphreys, activists took turns holding banners with messages criticizing their government's relationship with Washington. In Seongju, roughly 130 miles south of the capital, protesters have regularly staged demonstrations in front of a south Korean military base that has housed the U.S.-made Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system since 2017. Protesters there previously blocked roads leading into the base and prevented the delivery of supplies."
The monopoly media in Canada deliberately does not report on the anti-war actions of the people in the ROK for peace on the Korean Peninsula but rather busies itself with reinforcing the American disinformation campaign targeting the DPRK as the aggressor.
The protests in south Korea clearly identify the U.S. as the main threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula and call for the removal of President Yoon. Yoon is condemned as a tool of U.S. militarization of south Korea and for undermining the prospect of the Korean people providing themselves with peaceful solutions for the future of the Korean Peninsula.
Yoon assumed office as president on May 10, 2022. Since taking office, his government has stepped up joint military exercises with the U.S. against the DPRK. He has agreed to deployment of American THAAD missiles, disregarding the legitimate concerns of both China and the DPRK as well as the people of south Korea. Yoon's government is strengthening the U.S.-ROK-Japan Trilateral Alliance which threatens the peace and stability not only of Korea but China and the Asia Pacific region in general. Since coming to office, Yoon's government has also opened a ROK NATO office in Brussels and has joined NATO members in various military exercises, as well as providing U.S. weapons bought by the ROK to Ukraine to fuel the conflict there.
Korea is One! The Korean people are one people. Canadians must stand with the people of Korea, north and south, who are determined to oust the U.S. warmongers from their land so as to secure peace and reunification and a bright future for themselves and the people of the region.
(With files from Hankyoreh, Stars and Stripes)
We Must Stop Military Action That Leads to War
On October 27, the South Korean Committee for Implementing the 6.15 Joint Declaration and the Peace Campaign to End the Korean War, held an emergency press conference on the crisis on the Korean Peninsula in front of the Yongsan Presidential Office in Seoul, where the following statement was issued.
Today, we are standing here in a sense of crisis. The word "war" feels closer than ever. As south Korea, the United States, and north Korea conduct military exercises every day, military tensions are rising like never before. Neither the Panmunjom Declaration nor the Singapore Joint Statement have been properly implemented, and even the September 19 military agreement is in jeopardy. Accidents have also occurred amid the tensions. Missiles that landed in Gangneung [Republic of Korea (ROK)] during military training [by the U.S. and ROK on October 5] left residents trembling overnight.
The previously reduced ROK-U.S. combined military exercise was held again on a large scale in August, and strategic assets of the U.S. military such as nuclear-powered aircraft carriers were deployed and a joint military exercise between south Korea, the United States and Japan was also carried out. As a result, the North's response is also getting tougher. Following the actual training manoeuvre for the south Korean military's outdoor training, the Patriotic Training and the ROK-U.S. Combined War Reinforcement Exercise, from October 31, 250 air force units, including the F-35A fighters of the ROK and USFK and F-35B fighters of the U.S. Forces in Japan, will be deployed towards north Korea. A large-scale ROK-U.S. joint air exercise Vigilant Storm, which will simulate strikes on hundreds of strategic bases in north Korea is expected. This training could be the start of a bigger crisis.
These dangerous demonstrations of force that are said to ensure the safety of all life living on this earth are being repeated, but there is no way out. If things go on like this, an unexpected armed conflict could happen due to a moment's mistake, and war could become a reality. If the military crisis and unstable situation continue, it will have a great impact on society and the economy as a whole. It is difficult to predict what kind of danger the crisis on the Korean Peninsula will lead to in the midst of the chaotic international order diagnosed as the "New Cold War" and the intensifying arms race. The most urgent thing right now is to end the current tensions.
All military actions that will intensify military tensions on the Korean Peninsula must be stopped immediately. In particular, the plan for the upcoming large-scale joint military exercise between south Korea and the United States should be canceled. Despite the inter-Korean agreement reached in 2018 and the cessation of nuclear and missile tests by the north, south Korea and the United States have not stopped military training, increased armaments, and sanctions. After the failed DPRK-U.S. Hanoi Summit, negotiations were eventually halted. Non-fulfillment of promises and failure of negotiations have created the crisis we have today. It must be soberly recognized that hostile policies and armed protests will only deepen the vicious circle and will never be the solution. Realistic measures are needed to ease military tensions and shift to a dialogue phase.
War doesn't happen all of a sudden. We strongly demand that military actions that lead to war be stopped. We reaffirm the fact that there is no other way than to stop hostilities and return to the spirit of Panmunjom and Singapore. If we stop now, we can turn a crisis into an opportunity. Let's not give up hope for peace on the Korean Peninsula.
Signed by 704 religious and civil society organizations.
(Tongil News. Translated from the original Korean by TML.)
(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca