May First is the day on which the working class expresses its unity across Canada and Quebec and with its peers around the world. Above all, it is a day on which workers take stock of what they have achieved in the previous year and what they estimate needs to be achieved in the coming year.

From May Day to May Day, workers all over the world set their course to turn things around in their favour. At this historic turning point when nothing has remained the same, predictability has given way to uncertainty, anarchy, violence and attempts on the part of the rulers to control everything by imposing their dictate in all spheres of life in the most autocratic way. This is accompanied with laws which criminalize the participation of the people in political affairs, and much more. Grave crimes against humanity and against peace, as in Gaza, also increase the danger of world war.

It is crucial that the working class, youth, women, seniors and all those who have been raising their voices against injustice and for the protection of the rights of all ensure their voices cannot be silenced. They have to act intelligently, not permit police provocateurs to infiltrate their ranks, and not fall prey to confusion and incoherence. We know that by working with their peers and recognizing the necessity to take stands by speaking in their own name, and not falling down every rabbit hole in their path, it can be done because it must be done.

Last year, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) set for itself the task of strengthening its journalism and focusing discussion on the challenges facing the workers' movement to delineate what is pertinent and what is not and determine their course of action. Now, moving forward, the situation reveals that workers in this country face the challenge of taking the next step by working to become the kind of organized political force they need today. The decisions made by governments at every level are detrimental to the well-being of the working people and to the the natural environment and to society itself. They also undermine the international cause of peace, freedom and democracy. This indicates that the workers must pay first rate attention to the need to renew the democratic process so that they can exercise control over how decisions are made, by whom and with what aim, as well as oversee their implementation and how the results are accounted for.

In essence, it is the lack of political power in the hands of the working class and people that blocks any progress in society. The ruling class uses its positions of power and privilege to step up the anti-social offensive, betray the country's sovereignty and integrate Canada into the U.S. war machine. This causes many problems, not only for the working class and people but also for the ruling class itself which is sinking deeper and deeper into disrepute because it is corrupt and serves narrow private interests at the expense of the needs of the natural and social environment. Those who call themselves elected representatives are, as a whole and in many cases individually as well, seen to be corrupt as they conciliate with the most backward laws in the name of high ideals. Conflicts among the factions of the ruling class feed civil war scenarios, such as those seen in the United States but also in Europe and other countries. Countries where what are called liberal democratic institutions prevail, including Canada, have resorted to autocratic measures to control speech, outlaw dissent and block a way forward which benefits the people.

Taking measures to become an effective organized political force is the challenge facing the workers' movement in 2024. This task is becoming ever more urgent as Canada's integration into the U.S. war machine and its support for the most reactionary forces destroy the fabric of society and cause serious problems for the working people. Canada's colonial and Cold War anti-communist, racist and anti-worker values resulted in the past year in a standing ovation in the Canadian Parliament for a Nazi collaborator, unwavering support for the crimes committed by Israel's Zionist government against the Palestinian people, and intimidation and criminalization of those who support the Palestinian resistance, among other things.

Across the country, so-called green projects are pursued without even carrying out environmental assessments and in violation of constitutional protections and principles. The Legault government in Quebec and federal and provincial governments are imposing irrational measures on the people of this country. In the case of the Northvolt battery plant, the Legault government and its ministers act with impunity, rejecting opposition from all quarters demanding protection of the natural and social environment. So too, the Ford government in Ontario is riding roughshod over laws which were designed to protect the environment, the hereditary rights of the Indigenous Peoples and workers' rights. In the case of the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, narrow private interests dictate what governments can or cannot do to avoid dealing with arsenic emissions. Governments at both the federal and provincial level refuse to guarantee a roof over the heads of all members of society, and have now embarked on a huge program to give public money to banks and real estate companies, as announced in the federal government's latest budget.

We cannot let governments get away with imposing the dictate of supranational narrow private interests on the polity. Workers are aware that this blocks any possibility of providing what the society needs to open its path to progress. They are demonstrating their opposition to this orientation of the economy and speaking out to put forward the claims they are entitled to make as the producers of society's wealth and guarantors of its well-being. However, when it comes to exercising political power, they are not politically organized. The cartel party system is in total disarray and disrepute. This raises the need for the workers to speak in their own name, not just in the domains of labour relations and social justice, the environment and so on, but also in the political field which must not be left unattended.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) has been holding forums on political affairs throughout the past year, calling on its members, supporters, working people, youth, students, women and seniors to hold roundtables among their peers in all sectors of the economy, educational institutions and communities to provide information on new laws being passed, their implications for the economy, society and the working people, and to take a stand based on their own vantage point, not the vantage point of the rich whose aim is to exclude them from the political process. With these roundtables to provide information and exchange views, workers, young people and retirees are beginning to solve the problem of creating the forms they need that enable them to exercise their political power in a way that favours them.

In the coming year, CPC(M-L) will continue to provide information on these laws and give views on their significance. It will encourage those who organize roundtables to report on the views expressed about them.

Today, the enactment of laws which are very harmful to the polity has become commonplace. Laws which claim to control hate speech and extremism, measures on the electoral front which further restrict and gag the working class and prevent it from participating in governance on all issues that concern it, including the deplorable budgets that pay the rich, are some examples of how the citizenry is dispensable in the political process being put in place.

In Quebec, the government has just tabled a bill to criminalize citizens who want to make their voices heard. It is doing this under the guise of protecting elected officials from intimidation, without bothering to conduct an analysis of the sources of the problem and without consulting those who will be the target of injunctions, fines and imprisonment. It is incredible that elected officials would pass such a bill to criminalize the people who want to make their voices heard.

Workers are not enemies of stability, order, national security, peace or a healthy economy and environment. On the contrary, their lives are dedicated to a healthy natural and social environment, but to say that all these things can be achieved by giving money to the rich, by restructuring the state to make it even more hierarchical, unequal and discriminatory, is to indulge in disinformation to disorganize the working class and prevent it from going beyond the arbitrary limits decided by the rulers, their constitution and their laws.

For example, the latest contract negotiations involving more than 600,000 public service workers in Quebec illustrate very well that the old way of negotiating working conditions no longer works. The government has done everything to break Quebeckers' support for these workers, without success. Workers are aware of the need to renew their unions' way of doing things so that action to bring about the changes that need to be made to their working conditions are not restricted to a period called negotiations when in the end decisions are imposed irrespective of what the workers are within their right to claim. Eighty thousand Quebec nurses have just rejected the government's proposal for an agreement in principle. The Secretary of the Treasury Board's response is: "We will meet with the union to understand what the stumbling blocks are. However, the context and our objectives will remain the same, particularly in terms of flexibility," which is why the nurses have rejected the proposed agreement time and time again!

Rally of Quebec public sector workers, September 23, 2023

Workers in all sectors of the economy refuse to be treated as disposable, with no role to play, because they are not an organized political force. They are silenced and criminalized for demanding what is rightfully theirs and what is just and necessary in a modern society.

To speak in one's own name, to represent oneself politically on a collective basis and to fight for one's rights in the context of the struggle for a society that defends the rights of all is the greatest challenge facing the workers' movement today. This breaks with dependence on a so-called higher power that decides what the working class and the people should think and what they can and cannot do, when the decisions taken do not serve their interests nor those of their society and country, nor the cause of peace, freedom and democracy in the world. It also breaks with the role the ruling class gives to the people of begging, instead of seeing how in every situation they can defend the common cause and hoist the banner of working-class dignity, which is synonymous with human dignity.

Intervening in a way that empowers us opens the way to progress, and literally makes history. Since May 1, 2023, the workers' movement has made progress in this respect, taking steps to reject mechanisms that do not allow workers to speak out and intervene during negotiations. This gives workers confidence and puts an end to the humiliation caused by passivity in the face of the dangers inherent in the present and what lies ahead.

CPC(M-L) and its Workers' Centre devote all their efforts to cultivating this perspective and practice. All those who wish to join the roundtables must register without delay! Onward and upward!

Together on May Day in Defence of the Rights of All!

Urgent Need to Oppose Anti-Social Offensive

Government Irresponsibility as Wildfire
Season Begins

– Peggy Morton –

Edmonton, June 28, 2023

After a devastating wildfire season in Canada in 2023 where 2.2 million hectares of forest were burned (22,000 square kilometres) and 38,000 people evacuated from their homes, wildfire season has already begun in both Alberta and British Columbia.

In BC, the Burgess Creek Wildfire, burning about 45 kilometres south of Quesnel, was estimated at 50 hectares on April 20, but by noon on April 21 it had grown to about 1,600 hectares. The Fire Information Officer at the Cariboo Fire Centre stated that 125 firefighters were expected on site to battle this one blaze. They have managed to slow its growth, and by April 25 the fire had grown to 1,800 hectares (18 square kilometres). Six other wildfires are burning and considered under control.

In Alberta there have been more than 205 wildfires in 2024, burning 755 hectares, more than three times the average area burned for this time of year. There are 63 active fires burning with all fires considered held or controlled as of April 26. People in the Peace River district, including all 260 inmates at the Peace River Correctional Centre, were evacuated earlier in April. Alberta Wildfire information officer Josée St-Onge says the fire risk is very high right now due to the dry and windy conditions across the province.

The Alberta government acknowledged on April 24 that its wildland firefighting services would not be fully staffed until May 15, not April 15 as announced in February. To put this in perspective, the Slave Lake fire, which destroyed one third of the town of the same name, began May 14. 2011. The Fort McMurray fire, known as "the beast" which forced the evacuation of the entire city, began May 1, 2016. By May 6, 2023, 24,000 people throughout western Canada had been evacuated, an ominous start to the unprecedented 2023 fire season.

This irresponsible and alarming situation is not even the entire story. In February, Minister of Forests and Parks Todd Loewen announced that the government would increase the number of firefighters from 900 to 1,000, adding five teams of 20 people. However, as of April 24, there were only 749 firefighters and support personnel, with a best case scenario of 850 workers trained by May, 500 of whom are new and have no experience. In place of the inadequate increase in the number of firefighters announced, it now seems clear that there will be even fewer than last year, while the majority will have no experience.

None of this is unexpected. Unions representing the wildland firefighters have continued to sound the alarm about the acute crisis of recruitment and retention. Wildfire specialist and professor at Thompson Rivers University in BC, Mike Flannigan, said in August 2023 that the current number of firefighters across the country, about 5,500 according to a Reuters survey, is approximately 2,500 short of what is needed.

Fire is a natural part of the boreal forest ecosystem, but 21st century fires are different. Fueled by global warming and governments in the service of narrow private interests, they are burning hotter, spreading faster and happening more frequently, devouring vast tracts of land, and destroying thousands of homes and infrastructure. Fire management can no longer be based on bringing in crews from other parts of the country or even across the world. Rapid response to identify which fires need to be suppressed and quick action to do so when they are small is necessary. Wildland firefighters and their unions, scientists, Indigenous knowledge keepers, and local communities together have solutions to mitigate the destruction of the natural environment and protect communities. But governments turn a blind eye and block necessary measures, including ensuring the well-being of the wildfire fighters, nine of whom lost their lives last year.

The inaction of the authorities reveals just how irresponsible, indifferent, incompetent, irrational and unfit to govern they are. Those who rule on behalf of powerful private interests are blocking the desperately needed measures to address the crisis of recruitment and retention of wildland firefighters which requires providing what the firefighters need. They ignore the knowledge and even criminalize the practices of the Indigenous Peoples who have lived with fire in the forests since time immemorial. The conclusions reached by the scientists who are studying the changing nature of fire in the 21st century are also rejected by the "business as usual" outlook which prevails. The absence of political power in the hands of the working class and people is immediate, and it is the greatest problem which has to be solved.

Wildland Firefighters Speak Out About Their Conditions and Demands

– Peggy Askin –

Alberta wildland fire fighters, Alberta, August 7, 2023

TML Monthly spoke with Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (AUPE) Vice-President James Gault about the conditions, challenges and demands of the wildland firefighters represented by AUPE. AUPE is currently in negotiations for a new collective agreement for the firefighters as well as tens of thousands of other workers. Some key issues which are all linked are wages acceptable to the workers and which recognize their tremendous value, and health and safety issues including the lack of sick pay and presumptive workers' compensation coverage for workplace illnesses, and recruitment and retention. He also raised the utter failure of the UCP government to be prepared for this year's wildfire season.

"By April 15, we should have been ready and it will not be ready until May 15. And last year by May 6, we were already in a state of emergency in this province. We've already dealt with three grass fires. This is a very dry province... we are in a drought province right now. We have fires burning underground. We need wildland firefighters. We need trained staff now. We are not going to get it if we just consider them an expendable group.

"The wildland workers often get a little bit of training, work a season and then they don't come back. Instead of people with four and five years experience, we have people with one or two years experience leading brand new crews of 20 people into these wildfires. And so we're talking about health and safety issues, basic safety and lack of experience to deal with these fires," Gault said.

"The government conducts speed interviews, then provides a 10-day training course in Hinton. It's adequate enough to get people fighting fires, but what you need in any job, you learn when you've been there for a while -- you get hunches, you get the pickup, you get to understand the role a lot better, you are more effective, more efficient, you're a lot faster, and you deal with issues quicker. That's what we're lacking here. We're constantly putting in brand new people. And that's a lot of work for somebody with a little bit of experience to have 18 or 19 other people with no experience. You're responsible for that crew. You are trying to control those fires. And when they start burning, you are at the mercy of Mother Nature and one change in the wind, and everyone feels it," Gault explained.

Another important demand is for presumptive workers' compensation coverage for cancer and heart disease. Urban firefighters fought hard for recognition that cancer was a job-related illness, but wildland firefighters do not have presumptive coverage, which means they have to try and prove their illness was job related.

"So they're out there fighting these fires. We know that wildfire smoke causes cancer, and they're not covered....There was a study that just came out that said some of the worst air quality in the country was within Alberta due to the wildfires. So with this kind of information, why is the government choosing to allow presumptive workers' compensation for municipal firefighters, but not the wildland firefighters who are in the middle of fire and smoke for 10- to 14-day tours? I have no idea except for the fact that when you hear Minister Loewen, when he's speaking, he's always talking about 'they're just seasonal,' you know, that 'they're only here for that short period of time.' He does not believe Alberta would want any type of permanent firefighters. And it really gives you the sense that they're pretty much an expendable group of students in the eyes of the government who just come in, fight fires and leave," Gault said.

He explained that another important demand is that wildland firefighters also need to have paid sick time.

"Government ministers speak about the firefighters getting lots of work or hours during the season. The firefighters work a lot of overtime. That's how you're making money. When they get sick, there's no basic benefits for them. They're still sleeping in the tent, within the camp, where the fire is, they're just not able to work. So they're not even collecting those hours, so that forces them to get up. I mean, your coworkers are out fighting a fire every day and you're in the tent, not feeling well. You are not getting paid for that day. You are not getting your overtime that you are going to need at the end of the season, so they feel obligated to go work and that's when people get sick in the camp. And it's not the fault of the wildland firefighters. It's the fault of the government for not providing an environment where there are benefits that they can use. They are willing to fight the fires. They just want to be respected by the government."

Gault also spoke about the practice of having a small seasonal crew and relying on firefighters from across Canada and around the world.

"The government has agreed to put an extra $55 million over the next three years. But they're allowing a $2 billion contingency fund. They use that contingency fund after the fires are out of control so they can bring other people from around the world. It takes three to five days to get a crew here.

"When Minister Loewen was asked about these issues, it's like, people can just come here and fight fires. There's a lack of regard with this government on how it treats public sector workers, and not to go off on a tangent, but even Finance Minister Horner said recently he is thinking that public servants don't deserve more than 7.5 per cent over four years. They're telling the people who serve Albertans you're just not worth it."

"The Minister of Forestry said he will be opening up lookout towers. I think it will be about 20. But he's only going to be opening those towers when there's already fire or a notice of a possibility of fire, not ahead of time, which proved critical in the past. When it comes to the Rappel Program, they have said no, they've been asked outright, they've said no, they could get them from BC, forgetting that this whole country is a tinderbox for forest fires, and they have their own fires right now." In the Rappel Program, also known as the Helitack-Rappel Progam, firefighters rappel out of helicopters directly into remote areas of the province to fight fires.

In conclusion, Gault emphasized the importance of health and safety, and the mental health of the workers: "They need to know that Albertans support them. Some of them are fairly young. We take university students, and they're away from home with all those different things that go with it. But they need to know that Albertans support them. They don't need somebody like the Minister saying things to the effect that they value the public service, but they don't see publicly funded employees getting the same kind of settlement that they get in other places in Canada. These are young people who are fighting fires to protect us. And we need to be very, very cognizant of the importance of the work that they do."

Demands of British Columbia Wildland Firefighters

The British Columbia General Employees Union (BCGEU) is making concerted efforts to improve the working conditions of wildland firefighters and support their ongoing campaign to deal with the acute problems of retention. In an interview with TML, a spokesperson for the BCGEU explained that BC Wildfire Service is losing people who have worked as wildland firefighters for as long as 20 years. The service lost a lot of people last year, she said. The problem is evident in the fact that last summer, of the 261 crew leaders, 152 had one year of experience, 47 had two years of experience and only seven had four or more years of experience. When you lose experienced firefighters like that, it affects the entire firefighting team.

TML clearly saw how the problem of the anti-social offensive gives rise to such a critical retention problem. Governments consider that workers are disposable. They pass laws which pay the rich and refuse to take responsibility for the fact that their pay-the-rich programs go hand in hand with the deterioration of wages and working conditions of all public sector workers. This is very dangerous when it concerns frontline workers whose lives are in jeopardy every day, as in the case of the wildland firefighters.

Another problem for the wildland firefighters is that instead of expanding the number of workers represented by BCGEU, the government is expanding the number of contract workers. These workers are hired according to need as the season progresses. This creates a lot of difficulties when the contract workers are brought in during the season instead of having time to learn to operate as part of a team, with everyone knowing their responsibilities. Many experts, as well as the firefighters themselves and their organizations, are calling for a permanent, year-round workforce to deal with the new conditions of forest fires.

BCGEU launched a petition in the form of an open letter directed to the BC Minister of Forestry in August 2023 urging the province to improve the working conditions of wildland firefighters in the face of the retention crisis. The petition is ongoing. As well, in November 2023, the union brought a group of wildland firefighters to the BC legislature where they spoke with the premier, cabinet ministers and MLAs. The workers spoke about their experience and the necessity for the government to take the necessary measures to address the tremendous difficulties they face.

The petition says,

"The 2023 wildfire season was BC's most destructive on record. A total of 2,217 fires burned almost 25,000 square kilometres of trees, bush and grassland. This made it an extremely dangerous time for our brave firefighters -- who our communities relied on heavily to protect the province.

"We need to do more to support firefighters -- they are putting their lives on the line to protect our communities from devastating fires, but they are doing it for the starting low wage of $26.68/hr. As a result, a lot of firefighters must work unsustainable hours of overtime and sometimes leave to work in the private sector.

"There is a massive recruitment and retention crisis among firefighters due to low wages, low pensions and no hazard pay. This means it's getting harder and harder to train and retain the most skilled firefighters in the province. The people who are protecting our province from fires deserve better!

"Firefighters are doing everything they can to protect us and our communities, so we need to show our support for them now. We are calling on the Minister of Forests, Bruce Ralston to support BC's firefighters."

BCGEU is calling for an overhaul of the compensation system so firefighters are paid fair wages and pensions equivalent to those of other public safety first responders.

Criminalization of Right to Speech and Conscience

More Administrative Measures in Quebec to Criminalize Citizen Participation in Political Life

– Geneviève Royer –

The Government of Quebec is taking the most ridiculous measures to criminalize dissent in the name of defending democracy. On April 10, Minister of Municipal Affairs, Andrée Laforest, tabled Bill 57, An Act to enact the Act to protect elected officers and to facilitate the unhindered exercise of their functions and to amend various legislative provisions concerning municipal affairs.

The law would give the political police in Quebec the power to act against citizens and residents who hold demonstrations at the offices of federal Members of Parliament, Members of the National Assembly (MNAs), municipal officials, or send them letters, launch petitions or write about them, deeming such actions to be unlawful and even harmful to Canadian and Quebec values and the interests of the state. It is a most egregious extension of dictatorial powers against freedom of speech and the right of the people to act to defend their rights and the rights of all.

When it was tabled, the minister declared: "This law provides the possibility for a municipal elected official or a member of the National Assembly, who because he is an elected official is the subject of comments or gestures that unduly hinder the exercise of his functions or undermine his right to privacy, to ask the Superior Court to issue an injunction to put an end to this situation."

The first paragraph of the Act states:

"1. The purpose of this Act is to promote the role of elected officers, encourage candidates to run for elected office and improve the retention of elected officers already in office by facilitating the unhindered exercise of the functions of elected office within Quebec democratic institutions, in particular the exercise of those functions free from threats, harassment and intimidation."

A request for an injunction is to be "heard and decided on an urgent basis." The bill stipulates that with regard to MNAs, the Superior Court may order a person:

"(1) to not be in the MNA's constituency office;
"(2) to not be in the ministerial office of the Executive Council;
"(3) to cease communicating with the MNA;
"(4) to cease disseminating in the public sphere comments referred to in the first paragraph."

For municipal elected officials, the Superior Court may order a person:

"(1) to not attend the meetings of any council of a municipal body of which the elected officer is a member;
"(2) to not be in the offices of any municipal body referred to in subparagraph 1 without having been authorized to do so by the council of that body;
"(3) to cease communicating with the elected officer;
"(4) to cease disseminating in the public sphere comments referred to in the first paragraph."

Violations can lead to a fine ranging from $500 to $1,500 for anyone who hinders the exercise of a member or elected municipal officer's functions by "threatening, intimidating or harassing" them "in a manner that causes them to reasonably fear for their integrity or safety." As well, anyone who "causes disorder in a way that interferes with the conduct" of a municipal meeting "is liable to a fine."

At the municipal level, the minister responsible for Municipal Affairs will have the power to postpone or suspend a municipal election when the safety of people or property is threatened or when an unforeseeable event seriously hinders the smooth running of that election. It has the power to require the mandatory adoption by intermunicipal authorities of a code of ethics and professional conduct for their employees and to oblige any municipality or metropolitan community to adopt standards concerning the maintenance of order, respect and civility during council meetings.

Marie-Claude Nichols, independent MNA for Vaudreuil, issued a press release on April 12 in which she noted: "This expected bill is a hasty solution to a complex problem, since it was tabled without having first carried out a real accounting of the sources of the problem and without consulting the stakeholders concerned." She said, "In some municipalities, the problem translates into incivility on the part of citizens; in others, it is a toxic climate at the council table.... In some cities, the tension is between general management and elected officials." In short, the sources are varied and the proposed measures do not directly respond to them. "Having myself been mayor and prefect, I don't understand where Andrée Laforest wants to go with Bill 57," Nichols said.

In the experience of those involved in municipal affairs, most intimidation is carried out by other elected officials or by a clique of individuals against an elected official. For example, during virtual meetings, some elected officials simply close their screens so as not to hear a certain elected official when he or she speaks.

Bill 57 does nothing to address the fact that corruption continues to be a problem at the municipal level. In 2011, the Charbonneau Commission was convened to deal with corruption at all levels of government and the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit was created. According to the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit's head of prevention, since that time corruption in elected officials' circles has become more hidden and each scheme involves fewer players than before. In other words, power is being concentrated in fewer hands.

"It is no longer in plain sight. As with any type of organized crime, people adjust. [...] Today, it is more hidden, with a lower number of participants," he said. "We no longer observe, for example, vast networks like that of the former mayor of Laval, Gilles Vaillancourt, which involved dozens of companies and for which 37 people were arrested in 2013."

Embezzlement by the Laval mayor and his associates extended to land sales, snow removal and the professional services of landscape architects. Intimidation was among the methods used to achieve their purposes.

Instead of going after corrupt officials, measures have been taken by municipalities aimed at restricting citizens' rights. In January, the Municipality of Sainte-Pétronille on Île d'Orléans, in response to a petition demanding an investigation into the hiring of the new general manager who was allegedly fired by a former employer for serious offences, sent a formal notice to the 97 signatories, demanding that they cease their actions. The municipal council of the City of Rimouski during its April 8 meeting unanimously adopted a regulation allowing for an increase in fines imposed on citizens who disrupt the progress of public sessions. Workers have already shown up en masse at municipal sessions to challenge decisions and make their voices heard.

Under Bill 57, it is the voice of the citizens and residents which is clearly targeted. Attempts to protect elected officials by criminalizing dissent will protect neither elected officials nor citizens who want to make their voices heard on issues that concern them. The proposed law includes prohibitions of all kinds that are applied to individuals and organizations by the executive powers. The problem with that is precisely that the people are excluded and not even consulted on what they think is the cause of the problem and what solutions can be provided. Only by modernizing the processes on the basis of which decisions are taken, elections are held, and transactions at every level take place can such problems be resolved.

This proposed law is a desperate measure which will not only be applied to dissenters at the municipal level, where a lot of the corruption indeed takes place, but will be used to criminalize dissent at every level in Quebec.

Problems should be resolved through discussions in which every view is heard and given significance, not through the use of violence and threats. Time and again Quebeckers have had to defeat injunctions, fines and other actions which criminalize them and deprive them of their right to speak and act in defence of their rights and the rights of all. Today, in the name of eliminating intimidation, hatred, extremism and the like, the same is taking place all over again. Even if the law is passed, attempts to silence the people will not pass!

Banning of Keffiyeh at Ontario Legislature Will Not Silence Voice of Palestinian Resistance

– Philip Fernandez –

Picket at Premier Ford's constituency office aganst ban on keffiyeh, April 26, 2024

In early April, security staff at the Ontario Legislature began approaching legislature staff and visitors to the legislature asking them to remove the keffiyeh they were wearing if they were planning to enter the legislative building. On April 12, Marit Stiles, the opposition NDP leader sent a letter to the Speaker of the House questioning why legislature security were preventing staff, including from her party, and guests from wearing the keffiyeh to work. Stiles said that these were cultural symbols important to the Palestinians, Arabs and others and, similar to Scots wearing the kilt, permitted in the legislature.

Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Ted Arnott responded in writing on April 16, noting that after "extensive research" he concluded "the wearing of keffiyehs at the present time in [the] Assembly is clearly intended to be a political statement," and that while he "wholeheartedly" agreed that the legislature must be a welcoming place for all Ontarians, it was with that welcoming environment in mind that he sought to ban the keffiyeh. Arnott also indicated that if the legislature voted unanimously to oppose the banning of the keffiyeh, he would go along with the decision. On April 18, NDP leader Marit Stiles put forward a motion to have the ban removed, but did not get the unanimous vote needed.

Arnott subsequently said that his decision to ban the keffiyeh is not "written in stone" and that if other MPPs wanted to bring forward motions to oppose the ban, they were free to do so.

For his part, pro-Zionist premier Doug Ford said that he was opposed to the ban because it is "unnecessarily divisive." The leader of the Liberals, former Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie also sided with Stiles and spoke against the ban. But the vote was not unanimous and therefore did not result in the speaker changing his decision.

All of this is spontaneous grandstanding where everyone, encouraged also by the monopoly media, presents themselves as champions of freedom of expression. Lest we forget, it was the leaders of the political parties in the Ontario legislature that banded together to criminalize and attack Hamilton NDP MPP Sara Jama when she expressed public support for the cause of the Palestinian people and opposed the genocide that Israel is committing against the people of Gaza. Marit Stiles even removed Sara Jama from the NDP caucus.

Premier Ford, who seemed so concerned about the "unnecessary divisions" the banning of the keffiyeh would cause among the people of Ontario, proudly proclaimed in October 2020 that his government was adopting the working definition of anti-semitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a group of some 35 countries including Canada which consider criticism of Israel as anti-Semitic. At that time the Ford government stated: "We stand with Ontario's Jewish community in defence of their rights and fundamental freedoms as we always have and always will."

The official position of the Canadian state, from the founding of the state of Israel to the present time, is to stand with the Zionists while they have murdered and displaced the Palestinian people and sought to undermine their resistance. Since October 7, when the Zionists began their genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza and other occupied lands, the Canadian state has consistently supported the Zionist regime in Israel by sending them money and arms.

At the same time, as more and more people in Canada and around the world have rallied around the besieged Palestinians by standing with the Palestinian resistance, the Canadian state has increasingly used violence and terror and sought to silence them. The unilateral decision by Arnott, whose job is to keep order and facilitate the business of the house, to ban the keffiyeh is part of the campaign to silence the growing support of the Canadian people for the Palestinians and in keeping with the Canadian state's full support of the U.S./Israeli genocide. Not only has Canada funded and sent arms to Israel, but it has also cut its funding to UNRWA.

At home, more state violence and intimidation is taking place as workers, academics, students and others have been suspended and sanctioned when speaking out against the U.S./Zionist genocide. For example, last fall Wanda Nanibush, one of only two Indigenous curators at the Art Gallery of Ontario, was fired from her job for posting a message on her Facebook page supporting the Palestinians. The other Indigenous curator resigned in protest.

Following the failure to get unanimous consent, Hamilton MPP Sarah Jama, who is sitting now as an independent, noted: "Wearing a keffiyeh is now banned at Queen's Park -- not just in the chamber, but from the building itself. This is unsurprising, but nonetheless concerning in a country with an ongoing legacy of colonialism. You don't have to go far back in Canadian history to see how state powers use suppression of Indigenous cultural dress, language, ceremony and beliefs as tools of genocide. Seeing those in power in this country at all levels of government, from federal all the way down to school boards, aid Israel's colonial regime as Israel's genocide in Gaza and the West Bank continues, we see attempts to demonize and suppress every aspect of Palestinian identity here in Ontario. Students are reprimanded for wearing keffiyehs at school, while racist Zionist groups continue to equate Palestinian identity with terrorism with little or no pushback from people in power. Those who do speak out in solidarity are slandered and silenced, all while police violence escalates to repress the people using their voices to demand peace."

On April 23 Stiles once again presented a motion to reverse the ban. Several Conservative MPPs objected meaning the motion did not get unanimous consent. On April 25, Sarah Jama, who has been wearing a keffiyeh in the legislature in defiance of the ban, was ordered by the speaker to leave the chamber. He said “Sarah Jama you are named. You must leave the chamber… As a result of being named, the member, for the remainder of the day, is ineligible to vote on matters before the assembly…” Jama refused his order to leave, and the clerk of the legislature did not attempt to forcibly remove her.

The cause of the Palestinian people is just and no amount of state intimidation and terror will divert the movement in Canada from standing with the Palestinians until Palestine is free from the river to the sea.

No Let Up in Fight for Social Justice

Gatineau Demonstration During Summit on Homelessness

On April 17, during the Summit on Homelessness in Gatineau at the Maison du Citoyen, people experiencing homelessness held a rally. The event was organized by the Outaouais Regional Collective Against Homelessness, and a spokesperson for the Collective pointed out that those who are directly involved, working on the streets and who know what's going on should be heard.

Organizers gave a number of people who are living or have lived through homelessness the opportunity to speak of their own experience, and each explained how anyone can find themselves on the street because of a fire, rents going through the roof or a lack of affordable housing. One woman explained that she had been homeless and that a women's shelter had taken her in, showing the importance of such community organizations in people's lives and how they should be properly financed.

Another woman who lives in the camp next to the former Robert Guertin Arena, a camp that is under threat of being dismantled, said: "They want to get rid of us and separate us, hoping that we will keep our mouths shut. We can no longer close our eyes to things that concern us all. We are not consulted and we are informed at the last minute. We don't know what will happen to our camper-trailers. We have to start all over again. When will we, as vulnerable citizens, be listened to properly? We are citizens, living men and women, and all we want is to participate in the solutions to problems that concern us."

Such was the message expressed by all who intervened -- to be treated with dignity, as human beings and full-fledged members of society. After having shared their stories, everyone shouted: "End homelessness! We want solutions!"

Haligonians Demand Right to Housing at
Juno Awards

– TML Youth Correspondent –

On March 24, a demonstration on the topic of a lack of safe and affordable housing took place outside the Light House Art Centre in Halifax, the venue of this year's Juno music awards. People experiencing homelessness stated that they were evicted to "clean up" Halifax ahead of the ceremony. According to the CBC, there are more than 1,200 homeless people in the city, with four designated "tenting locations," all of which are over capacity. The other encampments, termed "illegal," have been shut down and destroyed by police.

All of this against the backdrop of a glamorous awards ceremony shows the stark contrast between the interests of the citizens and residents on the one hand, and the ruling class in power on the other. Enough is enough! The right to housing belongs to people by virtue of their being human and must be guaranteed!

The demonstrators held firm alongside those demonstrating at the same location in support of the cause of the heroic Palestinian people, with organizers making links between the two causes, both of which stand as a single humanity in their fight for the rights of all.

Advocacy Groups Call for National Plan for
Refugee Claimants

– Diane Johnston –

On April 4, the Canadian Council for Refugees (CCR) and some of its member organizations hosted a press conference in Ottawa calling for a national plan for asylum seekers. Participating in the conference were CCR co-executive director Gauri Sreenivasan and vice president Jenny Jeanes; Allan Reesor McDowell, executive director of Matthew House Ottawa; and Loly Rico, founder of FCJ Refugee Centre in Toronto. They called on the Trudeau government to "create a national plan that addresses the growing number of refugee claimants and ensures the right to asylum."

"Refugee claimants have often survived perilous journeys to seek safety here and the vast majority, almost three out of four last year, are found to be refugees needing protection," Gauri Sreenivasan pointed out. "However, there is no system in place to deal with claimants [...]. Instead, we are seeing a false narrative bandied about by political leaders that unfairly labels refugee claimants as a crisis and an approach that is focused either on futile and dangerous attempts to stop refugees from seeking safety here, or costly, short-term emergency responses that serve neither the public, nor refugees. Far too many claimants are ending up homeless or bussed to isolated hotels, lost in a confusing system without supports or legal counsel," Sreenivasan said.

She said that she and her colleagues "know first-hand" that with some key adjustments to the infrastructure already in place, "we can redirect wasteful expenses" and "replicate what we know works, so that those fleeing persecution are treated fairly and can live and contribute to our country in safety." She added, "This requires contributions from federal, provincial, municipal governments and civil society."

The panelists then demarcated the following five key areas that require action:

1. Establish reception centres in cities with large numbers of claimants to orient arrivals and coordinate services, in collaboration with provincial and municipal governments and civil society.

Allan Reesor McDowell recommended that the federal government establish reception centres to provide "emergency shelter, triage, orientation and referral services for newly-arrived refugee claimants in major cities across the country" to help them "get and stay on track with their claims and settlement process." Such a coordination centre, he said, "can also play a critical role in ensuring services are appropriate and complementary, leading to better outcomes ... with significant cost savings for governments."

2. Provide sustained federal funding for short-term and transitional housing for refugee claimants, scaling up the successful experiences of civil society, diaspora and community groups, to complement provincial and municipal efforts.

Reesor McDowell suggested that the "scaling up of existing successful models" would "complement the reception centres."

"Over the last three decades," he explained, " civil society has on its own initiative developed a network of at least 35 organizations across the country that offer short-term and transitional housing for refugee claimants. Initial findings indicate that these programs operate at a fraction of the cost of hotels or homeless shelters." Such programs, he went on to say, "typically provide food, connections to a lawyer, getting help with a work permit and finding a job," along with a "community of support that is critical to well-being and mental health. Residents are also supported in securing longer-term housing, leading to shorter stays in transitional housing and easing pressures on emergency shelters and related services."

3. Make refugee claimants eligible for the support services offered to other newcomers under the Settlement Program run by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

Loly Rico noted that support services were offered to Ukrainians in Canada to help them "start integrating into Canadian society." Since the vast majority of refugee claimants become future Canadians, she requested the same services be provided to refugee claimants so that they can "have a very dignified life, beginning when they come to Canada."

4. Ensure that adequate legal aid coverage is available for refugee claimants in all parts of the country supported by multi-year funding.

Jenny Jeanes argued that "effective legal representation is essential for fair and effective refugee determination and for coordination of all of these systems."

"Currently," she informed, "there is a severe shortage of legal aid across the country. Either in provinces where it exists, it is underfunded and many people don't have access to effective legal representation" or in others "it simply does not exist. To be able to ensure that people can promptly and correctly present their refugee claim and have access to... fair refugee determination down the line, it is essential that they have legal representation."

"We are calling on the federal government to ensure funding for legal aid... that is stable, predictable, linked to the number of claims and reflects the actual cost of determining refugee status. In provinces where there is no provincial legal-aid system, there are... models that can be built on."

5. Streamline the initial stage of the claims process and eliminate the backlog in the subsequent determination process with small but significant adjustments.

Jenny Jeanes said that the initial processing of refugee claims was "overly complex" and, if simplified, "would allow people easier access to the claims system and to the paperwork that they need so that they can meet their basic needs."

In response to a question about the cost of such a national plan, Reesor McDowell noted that his organization's estimation of around $35 a day to provide a bed, food and all the supports and/or referrals needed, including lawyers and employment supports, "is a fraction of the cost in comparison to what's being spent in emergency shelters, overflow shelters, hotels and the outcomes are better." "And as I mentioned, there are 35 organizations like ours doing this, so I think focusing on scaling those up, replicating those effective programs and building on that expertise is an excellent next step."

Gauri Sreenivasan added: "The other point is about long-term predictability. So where emergency measures are not only expensive by default, because they are planned suddenly in the kind of a context that you can have this money and it will run out,... they make it impossible for municipalities and civil society partners to plan longer term. ... So the other way that we know that will be cost-effective is if we create predictable funding. We can actually just create the infrastructure that will be able to properly service and absorb those claimants and their needs, taking the pressure off homeless shelters."

Saying that although new programs "seem like they mean new costs," Jenny Jeanes noted that "many of our members [are] seeing claimants across the country who are languishing for months in hotels because of a lack of service, where we on the ground, our membership, are used to dealing, day by day, with things like a misplaced work permit, a glitch with a medical exam, things that can help people get on their feet quickly, move out of hotels, find jobs and get started with their life in the community.

"On the other side," she continued, "we are denying access to basic services to claimants during the year or two, sometimes more, that they're waiting for that final decision," which "means that they're not getting a good start, in terms of their life in Canada, when most of them will go on to become permanent residents and Canadian citizens. We're not giving their children a good start, either, by depriving them of services."

In Loly Rico's opinion, the three levels of government should be sitting together with "civil society, ... because we are the ones at the end welcoming them and providing the services. If we have a good plan, they won't waste the money."

In response to a question about the dramatic rise in refugee claimants (50 per cent) between 2022 and 2023, Sreenivasan responded that these are numbers that the country is able to absorb and can process fairly. Even at their peak last year, she noted, this was "one-sixth the number of temporary workers that we have in the country and we know that the main reason that it can seem overwhelming is because there is no plan." This "creates the feeling that the volume is too high." But we know very well that "we have all of the skills and know-how to receive claimants, house them, help them find their work permits and help them on their way to set up for successful lives in Canada."

Jenny Jeanes again gave the example of "Ukrainians who were welcomed by Canada in very large numbers, where there was very quickly a system put in place, kiosks at the airport, emergency funding on arrival, organizations mandated to help find housing and work permits, with very large numbers of people coming in a very short period of time. So with the proper coordination, it can work, even with a larger number."

Opposition to Quebec's Increases to
Post-Secondary Tuition Fees for Non-Quebec
and International Students

– Christine Dandenault –

Last October, Quebec Minister of Higher Education Pascale Déry and Minister of the French Language Jean-François Roberge announced the Legault government's intention to significantly increase tuition fees paid by non-Quebec and international students enrolled at Quebec universities. In their initial statement, the original plan was to raise annual tuition fees from $8,992 to $17,000 for non-Quebec students and to $20,000 for international students.

The Quebec government's October 13 press release announcing the new measures said:

"Starting in fall 2024, a minimum fee will be set for all non-Quebec students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate professional programs. Canadian students who are not residents of Quebec will have to pay a fee equivalent to what their training costs the Quebec government, while the fee established for international students will be higher.

"In addition, the Ministry of Higher Education will recover a lump sum for each non-Quebec student. Universities will retain the right to charge an additional discretionary amount, depending on their international recruitment strategy and priorities."

The "additional discretionary amount" a Quebec English-language university such as McGill charges non-Quebec students annually already adds up to close to $12,000 per year (2023-24 academic year) for a Bachelor of Arts and Science program and is as high as $21,000 per year for first-year students in Dental Medicine and Doctor of Medicine programs.

Premier Legault's logic in justifying the annual tuition fee increase was to say that Quebec students who study at Canadian universities outside of Quebec already pay higher tuition fees and that "that is not fair" if the government of Quebec doesn't apply the same anti-social measures to non-Quebec students.

Because of the uproar this created amongst student unions and university administrations that count on the enrollment of non-Quebec students to make ends meet, the Legault government issued a statement last December announcing that annual tuition fees for non-Quebec students would be set at $12,000. The annual base rate tuition fees for international students will increase to $20,000, with the government collecting $3,000 in fees that would, in its own words, be "reinvested in Quebec universities" to restore a so-called "balance in the financing of francophone and anglophone institutions." This is another ploy by the Legault government to divide and rule by once again pitting one university against another on a backward basis.

In an open letter dated October 25 and published in La Presse, rectors of the three most important French-speaking universities in Quebec -- Université de Montréal, Université Laval and Université de Sherbrooke -- as well as the directors of the two most important engineering and business French-speaking schools in Quebec -- Polytechnique Montréal and HEC Montréal -- questioned the validity of these measures which will affect non-Quebec students and international students. They first remind everyone that "Neither of these measures was the subject of prior consultation with Quebec universities." They go on to say, "The announcement of these measures was also tainted by some unfortunate comments. Students from outside Quebec have been portrayed as budgetary variables, threats to the growth of the French language, freeloaders and cash cows. Instead, they should be seen as players who, like Quebec students, contribute to the excellence, quality, diversity and relevance of our institutions. Universities around the world recognize the exceptional contribution of people from outside their borders."[1]

Bishop's University, located near Sherbrooke, has been partially exempted from the tuition hike for non-Quebec students. The Quebec government will allow up to 825 students to pay the old rate, while others will pay the new tuition fees. One of the reasons, in the words of Bishop's University's principal and vice-chancellor Sébastien Lebel-Grenier, is that "francophone municipal leaders in the Eastern townships... petitioned the provincial government to give them that exemption."

The Students' Society of McGill University, the Concordia Student Union and the Bishop's University Students' Representative Council organized demonstrations last fall that led to a two-day strike where over 11,000 students walked out of classes on January 31 and February 2. Last October, an online petition posted on the Quebec National Assembly's website demanded that the Quebec government rescind the proposed tuition fee increase for non-Quebec and international students. Within a month, the petition had garnered over 33,000 signatures.[2]

French Language Requirements for Non-Quebec and International Students

Quebec's three English-language universities -- McGill, Concordia and Bishop's -- will be hit hard by these measures, since they receive a significant number of non-Quebec and international students (approximately 32,000).

As part of the Legault government's new measures to readjust annual tuition fees to $12,000 instead of $17,000, Quebec's three English-language universities -- McGill, Concordia and Bishop's -- will have to ensure that 80 per cent of their out-of-province and international students learn French. Those students will need to demonstrate a Level 5 oral proficiency -- essentially the ability to hold a conversation -- by the end of their undergraduate studies. The French-language requirement comes into effect for new students as of the 2025-26 academic year.

To justify such a measure, Premier Legault argued that out-of-province students who come and study at McGill and Concordia universities are a threat to the French language in Montreal. On October 16, he said that "when I look at the number of anglophone students in Quebec, it threatens the survival of French." He gave the nonsensical argument that if you go and walk in the neighbourhood around McGill or Concordia, all you hear is people speaking in English, with his underlying message being that non-Quebec students are contributing to the decline of French in Montreal.

Government Attacks on International Students at Post-Secondary Institutions in Quebec and Canada

In December 2022, there were 58,675 international students attending Quebec universities, an increase of 10,000 over the previous year, when they accounted for 14 per cent of the total student body. A further 19,460 international students attend public and private colleges. Around 24 per cent of Concordia University students are international; at McGill University, the figure is over 30 per cent.

Quebec's French-speaking universities also have a very significant international student enrolment. For example, 6,000 out of the 42,000 students registered at Université de Montréal are international students. Two-thirds of those enrolled at the Université de Montréal are from France and Belgium, and because of government-to-government agreements in place, pay the same tuition fees as Quebec students.

At the Université de Montréal, international students not covered by these agreements are required to pay close to $30,000 a year. While some other Quebec universities charge slightly less, others, like McGill University, charge much more -- up to almost $70,000 per year in some undergraduate programs. The issue of finding extra revenues is crucial for many of these international students.

Because of the restrictions imposed by the federal government, international students can only work up to 20 hours per week. This is often insufficient for a student to make ends meet, so many are forced to work under the table without any workers' compensation in the case of a work-related accident.

Canada's exploitation of international students is criminal. Many of these students' parents have greatly indebted themselves so that they can get an education in Canada in the hopes of being able to make a living and help sustain their families back home. However, Canada uses them as a cash cow, with no regulation of the rents landlords can charge for housing or guarantee that institutions' credentials will be recognized, etc. Although these problems have been recognized for years, the Canadian government prefers to ignore them, or even worse, encourage the setup of private institutions and unscrupulous recruiting agencies.[3][4]

Agents hired by post-secondary institutions to recruit international students are no better than the coyotes who work for the drug cartels and the types who take tens of thousands of dollars from people of poor backgrounds who are forced to sell their meagre plots of land to pay the price of promises to get them across the U.S. border.

Canada says it is concerned about the plight of women all over the world, their education and well-being, but deeds show otherwise. For Canada, people are things to be used and discarded. The case of non-Quebec and international students merely reveals that governments will do anything to extract money from people at home and abroad. Educational institutions are being destroyed because of privatization and their takeover by private interests which pay no attention to the needs of the polity as a whole, only their schemes to make money as rapidly as required to qualify for government handouts. Having money for investments in health care, education and pensions is a matter of changing the direction of the economy.

Notes

1. "Il faut mieux soutenir les universités d'ici," Open letter, La Presse, October 25, 2023.

2. Petition -- Cancellation of the tuition fee increase for students from outside of Quebec, Quebec National Assembly, November 27, 2023.

3. See "The murky world of unregulated international student recruiters," Matthew Halliday, University Affairs, November 2022.

4. See the video "How recruiters in India use false promises to lure students to Canada," The Fifth Estate," CBC, October 13, 2022.

(With files from the Government of Quebec, CBC, CTV, La Presse)

75th Anniversary of North Atlantic Treaty Organization

Anniversary Finds NATO Wobbling Uncontrollably

– Nick Lin –

This year marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the aggressive North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which took place on April 4, 1949. The anniversary finds NATO wobbling uncontrollably, shaking from side to side unable to find its balance in the face of its repeated failures to help establish U.S. hegemony both within Europe as well as beyond the borders of the North Atlantic. To no avail, the U.S. has been trying to establish its global hegemony since the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the related demise of its rival military alliance, the Warsaw Pact. The Warsaw Pact was established in May 1955 to offset the U.S. striving for world hegemony using NATO as its instrument of control over Europe. The Warsaw Pact, signed in Warsaw, Poland, between the Soviet Union and seven other republics in Central and Eastern Europe, was formally named the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance. The United States and Soviet Union were considered two superpowers who dominated world affairs by maintaining an equilibrium controlled by the use of force and threat to use force. This was mostly ensured by the threat to use nuclear weapons as a deterrent to keep the peoples' striving for peace, freedom and democracy in check.

Since its founding, the Anglo-American imperialists have declared NATO to be a force for peace, freedom and democracy. In Canada's official discourse, discussion which challenges NATO's real aims and its 75-year history is taboo. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Warsaw Pact was dismantled, far from dismantling NATO, the U.S. expanded NATO to the east, beyond the boundaries of the North Atlantic. Under U.S. command, NATO established itself in the Baltic countries on Russia's borders and staged a coup d'état in Ukraine, mobilizing and organizing neo-Nazis to slaughter Russians living in eastern Ukraine, take over the Ukrainian government and threaten Russia. Canada has been the most faithful appeaser of U.S. aims, putting itself at their disposal carrying out crimes against humanity second to none such as in Yugoslavia and Afghanistan, amongst other countries and today, especially in Ukraine.

Demonstration in Finland (Yorkshire CND)

Marking the anniversary of NATO's founding, the foreign ministers of the 32 NATO member countries gathered in Brussels and NATO issued a statement claiming that the alliance "has ensured peace, democracy and prosperity for its members...and one billion people on both sides of the Atlantic."[1] This at a time the world knows the trouble NATO is in with the failure of it unending proxy war in Ukraine that has caused the needless death of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians used as cannon fodder, the destruction of its economy and virtual ruin for years to come. The U.S. and NATO have not succeeded in crushing Russia nor in uniting the contending forces within the U.S. and NATO. U.S. President Joe Biden has spoken to the danger of losing NATO cohesion.

Despite this reality, Biden said on the anniversary that "[NATO] is the greatest military alliance in the history of the world. But it didn't happen by accident, nor was it inevitable. Generation after generation, the United States and our fellow Allies have chosen to come together to stand up for freedom and push back against aggression -- knowing we are stronger, and the world is safer, when we do."

From Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also claimed on the anniversary that "75 years later, NATO has become the most successful alliance the world has ever known -- and it continues to grow in size and strength... for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security." King Charles III also weighed in with a statement that day saying that "its core task endures: to protect the one billion citizens of our NATO Allies. This vital Alliance continues to thrive and adapt in the face of new threats and challenges."

Canada's cardboard cutout Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, "For 75 years, NATO has been the cornerstone of transatlantic security. Created in the aftermath of the Second World War, it unites 32 countries around collective defence -- the principle that we are stronger together. On this milestone anniversary, we celebrate the Alliance and our fellow Allies for their contributions to protecting freedom, democracy, and the rule of law." He went on to promote Canada's role in NATO, noting that it is a founding member that has been active in all NATO operations, and that Canada is the seventh largest funder of NATO and is increasing military spending.

All of this is said at a time NATO is not united and, despite acquiring new members, its strength is a matter of definition given the repeated failures of the U.S. wars of aggression it has participated in. This is underscored by the U.S. defeat and hasty departure from Afghanistan leaving its NATO partners to fend for themselves and also rapidly depart. The U.S. has since imposed sanctions and frozen Afghan assets forcing the Afghanistanis to suffer and face deprivation. On everyone's mind is the likely defeat of the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the peoples of all the NATO member countries are protesting the ever-rising expenditures on armaments and armed forces and hosting foreign troops and military bases, as well as the environmental destruction, loss of national sovereignty and crimes against humanity NATO carries out in the name of peace, freedom and democracy.

Saying NATO has "ensured peace, democracy and prosperity for its members" is pathetically glib, to say the least. Whose "peace, democracy and prosperity" does NATO and its leading nations stand for? There are 8 billion people in 195 countries identified by the UN which are not benefited by NATO, including the one billion pertaining to the 32 countries that NATO claims to represent.

With its founding, NATO was deliberately established outside the United Nations and its internationally recognized realm of international law, conventions and institutions. An aim was to undermine the movement of the peoples worldwide for peace, freedom and democracy on the basis of carrying out denazification and holding the Nazis and fascists to account. NATO put the Nazis who escaped justice into prominent positions from the beginning. It targeted the Soviet Union and holus bolus promoted the Cold War outlook to deprive the peoples of a vantage point of their own. In this regard, it was instrumental in converting the worldwide anti-fascist united front of the peoples of the world into two camps, one which was pro-Soviet and one which was pro-U.S., thus limiting the revolutionary initiative of the people within the post-war circumstances. Within this situation, the covert agencies in the service of the Anglo-American imperialists carried out wars of aggression, coups d'état, assassinations and kept anti-fascist and communist fighters in concentration camps for decades, as in south Korea, Greece and other countries. They propped up brutal dictatorships and committed innumerable crimes in the name of democracy and freedom.

To establish U.S. hegemony, NATO has also operated in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Oceania. Its role in present conflicts, in addition to the use of force, bombings, destruction and the humanitarian catastrophes it has participated in since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989-1991, is to spread disinformation on a grand scale. Its criminality can be seen in the fact that since last year, NATO has made no statements condemning the occupation of Palestine by Israel and the current U.S./Israeli campaign of slaughtering the Palestinian people and committing genocide. When questioned about the hypocrisy that NATO only interferes between Russia and Ukraine, neither of which are NATO members, the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, claimed that "Ukraine and Gaza are very different." This explained neither NATO's role in the U.S. proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, nor the disregard for the genocide of the Palestinian people. NATO member states, like all signatories to the Genocide Convention have the responsibility to prevent and punish genocide.

Current NATO war games include its "Steadfast Defender 2024" war drills, currently taking place until May 31, throughout what it calls "the trans-Atlantic" region. They are the largest war games in the last 30 years, featuring some 90,000 troops, from all 32 member states. Meanwhile, NATO is carrying out all kinds of other war preparations. On April 9, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced that the "Lithuanian-German partnership" is setting up "Panzerbrigade 45" which will involve 4,800 soldiers on the borders of Russia when it becomes fully operational in 2027. Alongside already large military bases of the U.S. and British forces in Eastern European countries on the borders of Russia and Belarus, all such initiatives further endanger the peace.

The more NATO tries to survive by expanding way beyond the shores of the north Atlantic, not only to threaten Russia directly on its borders, but also into Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the more the peoples of the world are rising against it. The peoples of the world desire peace, freedom and democracy more than ever. They desire an end to all the wars of aggression conducted by imperialist powers and their toadies, beginning with the U.S. imperialists but also the British and old European colonial powers.

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of NATO, NATO's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg once again claimed it is crucial for the "West" to continue to support Ukraine in its war for "freedom and democracy" and "our values" against Russia "as long as it takes." Stoltenberg's refusal to make sure negotiations take place with Russia to reach a settlement which will end the war shows the desperation of NATO to make sure the war continues for years in the hopes of saving NATO.

NATO's failures are such that these contradictions within NATO are deepening, making it impossible for NATO to function smoothly under U.S. command as has been the case in the past. Reports from the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting held in Brussels on April 3 and 4, reveal the extent of the dissatisfaction of member countries with NATO's Russia and China policies as well as with the factional struggle within the United States itself. Various European states are beginning to panic in the face of the impact the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine is having on their own economies, causing upsurges in protests of workers and farmers in Europe where the people oppose the diversion of their economies to cover U.S. war funding.

In this vein, on April 4 at the NATO Foreign Ministers' meeting Stoltenberg announced a proposal for a new NATO "Mission for Ukraine," a mechanism to secure directly a five-year military aid package from all 32 members of the alliance of up to $108 billion to supply "lethal weapons to Ukraine." Reports, however, say that "none of the details have been worked out" and it will have to be approved at the NATO summit in July. The proposal would give the NATO alliance control of the U.S.-led Ramstein weapons support group which is at present an informal group of countries supplying weapons to Ukraine from individual countries.[2] The move would further expose the Anglo/U.S. NATO alliance as the sole weapons supplier and escalator of the war in Ukraine against Russia and curtail the establishment by individual countries of bi-lateral arrangements with Ukraine.

A hysteria has arisen that should Donald Trump become the next the U.S. president and move to dismantle NATO, the arms producers will be protected. It is called "Trump-proofing" weapons supplies to Ukraine. The U.S. would have to supply additional money for Ukraine, but now would have to supply it via NATO.

At the same time that the NATO military alliance celebrates its 75th anniversary, the U.S.-led aggressive alliance is using pressure and deals to secure support and threaten China by arming and sending special forces to Taiwan. This includes $8 billion in funding, including for development of submarine infrastructure, a direct threat to the region as U.S. submarines are known to carry nuclear weapons.

No to NATO! Yes to Peace!

Notes

1. Sweden became NATO's newest member on March 7, after depositing its instrument of accession with the Government of the United States in Washington, DC. With Sweden's accession, NATO now counts 32 countries among its members, all under U.S. command.

2. The Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG, also known as the Ramstein group) is an alliance of 56 countries (all 32 member states of NATO and 24 other countries) and the European Union which allegedly supports the defence of Ukraine by sending it military equipment in its conflict with Russia.

Desperation Over Ukraine in Meetings of NATO Foreign Ministers, NATO-Ukraine Council and
Indo-Pacific Partners

– Steve Rutchinski –

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) marked its 75th anniversary on April 4. The proceedings in Brussels included a meeting of foreign ministers from the 32 NATO member states on April 3, followed by a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council and a meeting of the North Atlantic Council with the NATO "Indo-Pacific Partners" on April 4. The quagmire of the U.S./NATO Ukraine proxy war against Russia was the major preoccupation of the meetings.

In remarks to the press following the meetings, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg outlined various arms being sent by NATO members to Ukraine, saying, "[T]his includes nearly 600 million euros from Germany for the Czech-led artillery initiative; as well as 10,000 drones from the United Kingdom; more missiles and armoured vehicles from France; and just yesterday, a new package of aid from [new member] Finland worth 188 million euros."

Despite NATO's ongoing failure in Ukraine, Stoltenberg called on NATO countries to continue down the same path, saying, "[W]e need to do even more, and we need to put our support on an even firmer and more enduring basis." The Ukrainian army's shortage of ammunition at this time, especially artillery shells, is well known, and Stoltenberg urged that members provide ammunition in a timely manner so that the "capable" Ukrainian army can do its job. This is not to mention the shortage of trained troops as more Ukrainians resist military service. The request was also made notwithstanding the fact that ammunition production capacity of NATO countries cannot meet Ukraine's needs, and that many of the same countries are also supplying money and arms to Israel to carry out its genocidal crimes in Gaza.

A NATO press release issued after the ministerial meeting stated, "Allies have now agreed to move forward with planning for a greater NATO role in coordinating necessary security assistance and training for Ukraine." It did not give further details.

Stoltenberg also proposed a $108 billion five-year military aid package to secure arms for Ukraine during the meetings. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who was in Brussels for the meetings, was underwhelmed. He pointed out that NATO has already had difficulties raising much smaller amounts. "In other words, in the current funding model, this initiative has zero chances. Because they can't collect 500 million, and here they would have to collect 20 billion in the current model," Kuleba was quoted as saying. But if all the bloc's members were obliged to contribute, he added, the plan could "exist and has a chance of being implemented."

In the NATO-Ukraine Council meeting, Stoltenberg stuck to the line of the U.S./NATO arbitrary dictate referred to as the rules-based order, the aim of which is to undermine the rule of international law and the right to be of all nations and peoples. He said, "We discussed the global implications of Russia's war against Ukraine, including the support for Russia from China, north Korea and Iran. As authoritarian powers increasingly align, NATO and its partners must stand united to defend a global order governed by law, not by force."

NATO is an aggressive alliance whose expansion is a growing threat to world peace. Long before the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine, Russia called on NATO to provide it with security guarantees and to stop its expansion. Stoltenberg turned this reality on its head, continuing to spread the disinformation that it is Russia that must be stopped in Ukraine, and that if it is not other NATO allies will be attacked. "[T]here is a real risk that Russia will capture even more territory and that we will be in an even more dangerous position. And the thing is that the only way to reach a just and lasting peace in Ukraine is to have a strong Ukrainian armed forces, because that's the only way to convince President Putin that he will not win on the battlefield."

As concerns how to have a strong Ukrainian armed forces when it is losing an existential battle of attrition, that Stoltenberg did not address. Ukraine recently passed new conscription measures that lowered the draft age from 27 to 25, while a process for demobilization after 36 months of deployment was scrapped. Various analysts have said this will not provide the estimated 500,000 more troops that the Ukrainian armed forces say they require.

The NATO Secretary General also explained the presence of NATO's "Indo-Pacific Partners" -- Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and the Republic of Korea, as well as the European Union -- based on fearmongering about Russia and linking that to China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Iran. "The war in Ukraine demonstrates that very clearly. Because we see how China is propping up the Russian war economy, delivering dual-capable equipment which is also used in the Russian military industry. In return, Moscow is mortgaging its future to Beijing. And then we see how Iran and north Korea are delivering ammunition, missiles, drones to Russia. And then in return, Russia is delivering technology for missile and nuclear programs of these countries," he said. The U.S. and NATO of course have no qualms about training and arming neo-Nazis in Ukraine or using reactionaries of a similar ilk against the peoples anywhere else. What his words reveal is that the economic measures from the NATO countries meant to isolate Russia, is another front on which NATO is being defeated.

One reason for expanding NATO and involving its "Indo-Pacific Partners" is to get more funding and weapons outside NATO members. On April 16, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel urged Japan to step up war production "to enhance our collective security" amid conflict in Ukraine, Gaza and elsewhere. The United States alone can no longer supply all democracies. Japan has drastically eased arms export rules, allowing it to send Japanese-made PAC-3 missiles to the U.S. to help replace those the U.S. has sent to Ukraine.

Another matter discussed at the NATO meetings that Stoltenberg spoke about was the establishment of a group of experts to advise NATO on how to further penetrate its "southern neighbourhood" -- meaning from North Africa to the Middle East. He noted that NATO had close relations with Jordan, Tunisia and Mauritania and also a presence in Iraq. Stoltenberg stated that the "Alliance" is seeking ways and opportunities to extend NATO influence in the region and that the upcoming NATO Summit in Washington, DC in July would concretize these plans. Such a development is dead in the water and will only come to pass through coercion or betrayal by servile governments. It will be greeted with all the contempt it merits by the peoples of all those regions, who today still suffer the consequences of prior colonization and foreign interference.

United States

Movement Using Vote to Denounce Genocide
Is Growing

Across the U.S. organizations are uniting and mobilizing to use the vote to express their stand against genocide and Genocide Joe's refusal to secure a Ceasefire Now! and end military aid and political support to the Israeli Zionists. Biden just recently sent 2,000-pound bombs that wipe out city blocks, and added another $26.4 billion to the unending arming, funding and unconditional political support of the Zionists, showing that the U.S. is guilty of genocide in Gaza.

In the protest using the vote during the primaries, Michigan set the tone, with more than 101,000 people voting against genocide by voting "uncommitted." Autoworkers, youth, Muslims and Jews, Arabs and Black people, those from all walks of life joined in saying Count Me Out for Genocide. The organizing was done in a brief amount of time by a force that is multi-racial, multi-faith and multi-generational.

The movement spread across many states, including seven of the Super Tuesday states on March 5, then Washington, and on April 2, Wisconsin, and New York. For the Super Tuesday states, in Minnesota more than 45,900 voted uncommitted, or about 20 per cent of the vote. In North Carolina it was 12.7 per cent, more than 88,000 votes; Alabama 11,213; Tennessee 10,450; Colorado had 43,439 and Massachusetts 58,462 votes. Most states got between 7 and 10 per cent of the vote. In Hawaii, 29.1 per cent voted against genocide.

Washington saw nearly 90,000 vote uncommitted, with the demand to end U.S. funding for Israeli war crimes prominent. Missouri had more than 11.7 per cent say No to Genocide, with 36 per cent of voters in St. Louis doing so. Wisconsin had more than 48,000 and New York more than 40,000, about 12 per cent.

Mobilizing in the many states involved is going forward. The main demands for Gaza remain Ceasefire Now! End the Siege, Stop Military Funding and Provide Humanitarian Aid as part of organizing for an anti-war, pro-peace agenda.

Prominent is the firm stand against genocide and anger with the continuing U.S./Israeli impunity to carry it out. Many are rejecting the existing electoral set-up that produces such hated candidates that stand against the demands of the majority. Large numbers of people are looking for alternatives and part of this is organizing to meet, discuss and demonstrate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 19-22. Consciousness is building to reject Genocide Joe, the Democratic Party and Trump and a campaign of #NoVotes4Genocide! is underway.

(Voice of Revolution)

Continuing Genocide Does Not Stop U.S. War Funding for Israel and Ukraine

On April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed into law the $95 billion supplemental war funding bill for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. As the U.S/Israeli genocide continues and mass graves of Palestinians are being exposed, the U.S. Congress approved another $26.4 billion for Israel. More than $17 billion is for military purposes and another $9.2 billion is said to be for humanitarian aid, but few believe Israel will use it for that. There is $61 billion for Ukraine, but $34 billion goes to the U.S. military and war monopolies to replenish U.S. weapons and stockpiles. Another $8 billion goes to Taiwan, including $3.3 billion for "submarine infrastructure," threatening China and the peoples of the region.

In signing the bill, Biden highlighted that a main aim of the proxy war against Russia using Ukraine is not defending the Ukrainians, but rather to strengthen NATO and U.S. command of it. He said, "In the last two years, we've helped unify, strengthen, and expand NATO. Imagine if instead we had failed -- we had failed to step up now and support Ukraine. All those gains would have begun to unravel, the cohesion of NATO would have been weakened, and our national security would have been undermined, without any question."

Similarly, part of the role of the war in Ukraine, and the U.S. refusal to negotiate a settlement, is the effort to unite the military bureaucracy, which is currently divided on war issues, reflected in the months-long factional fighting in Congress over the bill. More than half of the $61 billion goes to the U.S. war machine, with about $23 billion to replenish U.S. weapons, stockpiles, and facilities, and more than $11 billion to fund current U.S. military operations in the region.

There is little to indicate that Biden's failures on these war issues, including unifying the rulers and bureaucracy, will be overcome. Conflicts within NATO persist, especially in relation to Germany, and efforts to use war -- whether in Palestine, Syria, Libya or Afghanistan -- have not lessened the intense factional fighting among contending oligarchs in the U.S. This is further evident in the presidential election which is serving to sharpen the rivalries, as both Biden and Trump talk about open violence occurring in November, not a peaceful transition of power.

Biden attempted to convince workers in the U.S. that war funding is good for jobs. He said the funds will replenish U.S. stockpiles "with new products made by American companies here in America: Patriot missiles made in Arizona, Javelins made in Alabama, artillery shells made in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas," and jobs in 40 states. Workers are rejecting the claims of Genocide Joe that they support war. Those at factories supplying Israel with arms have respected picket lines demanding no weapons to Israel and joined the many demonstrations taking place across the country. Others participated in the Count Me Out for Genocide campaigns by refusing to vote for Biden in the primaries. The stand of the majority is against war and for peaceful international relations of mutual respect and benefit.

In addition to the war funding, the new law includes attacks on Iran, a potential ban of TikTok, which has more than 170 million U.S. users, and seizing Russian assets held in the U.S. -- about $5 billion -- for use in Ukraine. For Iran, the bill expands U.S. sanctions, calling for sanctions on ports and refineries that receive and process Iranian oil and on anyone involved in activity previously covered under the expired UN missile embargo on Iran or in the supply or sale of Iran's missiles and drones. It would also further restrict the export of goods and technology of U.S. origin to Iran. This is an additional effort by the U.S. to isolate Iran and control international trade in conditions where Iran has withstood U.S. attacks, gained influence and provided a game-changer in relation to U.S./Israeli dictate in the region.

The plan to seize Russian assets in the U.S. will likely backfire, as it tells the world that the U.S. will act to steal foreign assets whenever it decides. Already, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and those of the Caribbean and Latin America’s ALBA (Venezuela, Cuba, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Bolivia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) are working to develop financial institutions and currency independent of the U.S. dollar. Seizing assets will likely increase these positive efforts.

The new law demands that ByteDance, the China-based owner of TikTok, sell the company or face a U.S. ban within 9-12 months. While this action is partly to promote China as a threat, it is also to serve U.S. tech giants like Facebook and Google, who want TikTok’s technology. ByteDance has said it will not sell and will contest the law in court.

Biden had asked for this war funding almost a year ago but factional fighting in Congress delayed it. With its passage, leaders in the Senate -- majority leader Chuck Schumer and minority leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Mike Johnson in the House, all joined Biden in proclaiming it a major victory. They are trying to make it appear that the deep divisions within the ruling class have been overcome. Biden himself indicated this is not true by raising that the issue of the need for more militarization of the border and increasing presidential powers to control the border has still not been resolved. And neither Biden nor Trump have lessened their talk about U.S-style democracy itself being on the line in the elections, meaning neither is likely to accept defeat.

What is clear is that the people across the U.S. are standing against war and for an end to the U.S./Israeli genocide and rejecting the elections as undemocratic and unrepresentative. Their demand is Stop Funding War and Fund Our Rights!

(Voice of Revolution)

All Out to Support Revolutionary Cuba!

New U.S. Operations Against Cuba Reveal Its Interference in the Country

Camaguey, Cuba, rally in defence of the Revolution, July 13, 2021, one of many held across Cuba.

On April 13, the Cuban newspaper Granma revealed plans of U.S. intelligence agencies to provoke a social explosion this summer, around July 11, as a repeat of the disturbances of 2021 which were financed and promoted from the U.S. They hope to "heat up" the Cuban streets during the summer, taking advantage of the complex economic situation the country is experiencing, Granma informs. Evidence of what the U.S. intelligence agencies call Operation 11.7.24, was revealed following a meeting at the home of counterrevolutionary Marcel Felipe, by the online platform against media terrorism, Razones de Cuba.

According to the information revealed, the attacks planned at this stage have as a priority target the National Electric System, due to its impact on the quality of life of the people, Razones de Cuba said. This also explains that they hope to generate sabotage and reinforce their destabilizing media offensive, the media platform adds. To this end, Washington has "tripled its budget," with the decisive role played by anti-Cuban U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.

Their tactics include the recruitment of criminals to commit acts of terrorism on the island while they plan to continue manipulating issues such as the relations between Cuba and Russia, by presenting their cooperation as a way for Russia to obtain soldiers from Cuba, which is patently false. They also plan to use the U.S. sanctions against Russia as a means to aggravate the situation in Cuba by curbing fuel and food shipments.

Razones de Cuba exposed the existence of a new counterrevolutionary spawn, known as Cuba First, linked to the preparation of terrorist actions against the island. Among its founding members is Manuel Milanés Pizonero, known for financing violent actions.

New Funds from U.S. Embassy for Subversion in Cuba

In related news, the website Cuba por Siempre, which promotes solidarity with Cuba at a global level, has also revealed further interference to create chaos in Cuba on the part of the U.S. Embassy in Havana. The Embassy has launched a new fund called the "Acelérate (Accelerate) Fund for Independent Media and Content Creators." It was launched with some $68,800 provided by the United States.

Reports indicate that projects will be focused on the production of content dealing with "challenging problems" in Cuba. These are described as the following, Cuba por Siempre informs: subsidizing "independent media" to "create relevant and accessible content for people with disabilities, increasing their participation in the democratic process," "the development of mobile applications or other technologies for the promotion of democratic values," "connecting and strengthening networks of independent content creators in Cuba, and financing research studies that evaluate the situation of independent media" on the island.

Choking the island by depriving it of food, medicines, investments, trading opportunities and everything else Cubans need to sustain life and make progress, it is cynical indeed to now carry out destabilizing activities by declaring the imperialists care for persons with disabilities. First it was alleged care for the youth, then women and now persons with disabilities. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) once again expresses its opposition to the unrelenting U.S. policy of interference in Cuba. That country recently approved more than $50 million for its subversive actions. Of this, $25 million is for the Office of Broadcasting to Cuba, in charge of the subversive Radio and TV Martí, and $25 million is for "democracy promotion programs in Cuba."

This shows that our work must be stepped up against this U.S. so-called democracy promotion in Cuba and any conciliation with its false claims that Cuba does not uphold human rights and is not democratic.

We are happy to inform you that Youth for Democratic Renewal is taking a delegation of 16 persons, mostly youth but also some workers, teachers and activists to attend the May First solidarity activities in Cuba. They will express the support of the Canadian and Quebec working class and people for Cuba's nightly battle against U.S. attempts to cause regime change, an aim it has failed to achieve in more than 60 years of trying and see for themselves how the Cuban people unite in action to solve the problems they face because of the U.S. blockade. We also have delegates attending the meeting to be held in Guantánamo Province to promote the cause of making the Caribbean and Latin America a Zone for Peace and for the return of Guantánamo to Cuba.

With the U.S. stirring up so much anarchy and violence in Latin America and the foreign interference in Haiti, stepping up activities which provide information, ending any attempts promoted in Canada to promote the U.S. counterrevolutionary aims to undermine the Cuban revolution, and working together with immigrants and refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean who have now become an integral part of the working class in Canada and Quebec is very important. We wish success to those going to Cuba, while we hoist the banner of international solidarity here on May First and every day!

(With files from Radio Havana Cuba and Granma)

Friendship and Solidarity Between the Cuban and Quebec People Reaffirmed!

Roundtable's general assembly, April 6, 2024

On April 6 in Montreal, the Quebec-Cuba Solidarity Roundtable (Roundtable) dedicated the entire day to celebrating the solidarity and friendship that unites the Cuban and Quebec people, as well as the resilience of the Cuban people and their government.

In the morning, the Roundtable held its general meeting and celebrated the 22nd anniversary of its existence. Throughout the meeting, representatives of member organizations presented their achievements on different fronts in support of Cuba. They spoke of the monthly picket lines, rain or shine, demanding an end to the blockade; the numerous conferences to inform Quebeckers of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, the Cuban health system, their battle during the pandemic, the creation of their own vaccines to fight Covid in order to protect Cubans, the internationalist medical brigades, the elections in Cuba, the holding of the annual Madeleine-Parent brigades, etc. The Roundtable maintains relations with various organizations in Canada and the United States to strengthen common work in support of Cuba, some of whom sent the Roundtable their wishes for success.

An important front of work of which the Roundtable is very proud is that of gathering medical equipment to donate to Cuba. This work has developed valuable collaborative links with many people and organizations working in the health field. Over the past two years, more than $400,000 worth of medical equipment has been sent.

Delegates from member organizations unanimously adopted a resolution expressing their determination to continue their work to defend the Cuban revolution. They are determined to continue their work particularly in light of the escalating efforts of U.S. imperialism to divide the people and defeat their nation-building project.

The resolution highlights, among other things: "On the occasion of its general meeting of April 6, 2024 and the 22nd anniversary of its founding, the Quebec-Cuba Solidarity Roundtable salutes the heroism of the Cuban people and their government who have once again foiled, on March 18, the attempts of the United States and its counterrevolutionary agents to provoke a popular uprising against the Revolution. Demands for stable supplies of electricity and food bring problems that the government is struggling to resolve despite the blockade and brutal U.S. sanctions. It is not the Revolution which is the origin of these problems; it is the U.S. blockade to which all the member countries of the United Nations, with the exception of the United States, Israel and one or two American protectorates, demand an end.

"Cuba's problems are the people's problems and the people's problems are Cuba's problems. Who can say that the government of the United States or the governments of other countries that foment counterrevolution in Cuba belong to the people? Nobody.

"We take the opportunity of our general meeting to reaffirm loud and clear our determination to help end the criminal economic, commercial and financial blockade that the U.S. government has imposed on the Cuban people. Whether through our actions, pickets, caravans, conferences, brigades and medical aid of all kinds, we will continue this work in unwavering support for the Cuban people."

In the afternoon, the Roundtable invited Susana Malmierca Benitez, Consul General of Cuba in Montreal, to talk about the difficult situation facing the Cuban people and their government at the moment and how they are dealing with it. Some 70 people thus learned from the daily struggle which is waged through the mobilization and involvement of all in the resolution of problems, to ensure their well-being and security while the United States is intensifying its counterrevolutionary activities to attempt to suffocate and crush Cuba.

Public conference, April 6, 2024

Dealing with the intensity of the blockade against Cuba, especially under the Trump administration, which the Biden administration has not lessened, she explained the problems in obtaining credits in international financial markets due to the persecution of institutions that deal with Cuba and because Cuba has been put on the U.S. list of state-sponsors of terrorism. Selling products that Cuba might export is also more difficult, again because potential buyers face the threat of being accused of supporting terrorism. For example, ships stopping in Cuba cannot stop in a U.S. port for six months before or after the Cuban visit. Given the proximity of the United States and the scale of its international market, this is particularly problematic for Cuba. The blockade prevents the sale to Cuba of any manufactured goods containing more than 10 per cent U.S. materials, which is again particularly problematic given the extent of U.S. control over the global economy.

The U.S.' cyberwar activities against Cuba are also part of the reality in Cuba. They are desperately trying to use the Internet to sow trouble and turn the population's frustration and discontent with the difficulties against their own government, without providing any solution. Meanwhile, when people take to the streets in Cuba, she said, as happened last month, local and national authorities join their people to discuss the problems and see together how they can resolve these issues.

The meeting ended with informal discussions on new initiatives to support revolutionary Cuba and demand an end to the criminal and inhumane U.S. blockade against it. Friendship and solidarity between the Cuban and Quebec peoples were reaffirmed.

Torontonians Mark 63rd Anniversary of Cuban Victory at Playa Girón

Consul General of Cuba Jorge Yanier Castellanos Orta addresses meeting, April 19, 2024

Torontonians participated in a meeting on April 19 commemorating the 63rd anniversary of Cuba's military victory over the U.S. at Playa Girón, foiling an attempt by the U.S. to achieve regime change in the island nation. The meeting was organized by Toronto Forum on Cuba.

In his opening remarks, Morteza Gorgzadeh, co-ordinator of Toronto Forum on Cuba, noted that the victory of the Cuban people over the U.S. imperialist mercenary forces at Playa Girón on April 19, 1961 was historic. Cuba's victory, the first military defeat suffered by the U.S. in the Americas, inspired the anti-colonial forces all over the world. It demonstrated the decisive unity of the Cuban people with the revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro which was instrumental in routing the U.S. and their armed mercenaries. It is this unity which is key to the defence of the Cuban revolution against all U.S. attacks over the decades and is particularly important today when the U.S. is stepping up its attempts, through various means, to destabilize Cuba, including funding so-called human rights groups, introducing drugs into the country and tightening the blockade.

The confidence of the Cuban people that they will prevail was expressed by Consul General of Cuba Jorge Yanier Castellanos Orta who addressed the meeting. He pointed out that the U.S. blockade of Cuba has caused very serious damage, including during the pandemic and gave examples of the difficulties faced because of the lack of medicines, food, fuel and other basic necessities and reaffirmed the determination of the Cuban people to overcome all adversities. Speaking of the struggle of the Cuban people and of Cuba's support for the Palestinian people, he said, "We stand for the right of all to exist, especially those who are suffering the most." He highlighted the strong historic ties between the Cuban people and the people of Palestine and said that Cuba is finding ways and means to support the people of Palestine at this hour of their greatest need. He concluded his remarks by saying that Cuba is still working on the revolution, still building, with confidence in the people and the leadership. "We believe in our own strength. We will survive. We will prevail."

Ghassan Abulawi from the Palestine Youth Movement

Ghassan Abulawi from the Palestine Youth Movement also made a presentation to the meeting. He expressed appreciation for Cuba's support and solidarity with the Palestinian people historically and today. He noted that Cuba is in the front line of the struggle against U.S. imperialism. He pointed out that the people of Cuba and the people of Palestine are united in the fight against U.S. imperialism and its allies who are responsible for wars, exploitation and human suffering the world over. Stressing the significance of actions all over the world against imperialist occupation and aggression, Ghassan ended his presentation with a quote from the Palestinian communist poet and activist Ghassan Khanafani: "Imperialism has laid its body over the world, the head in Eastern Asia, the heart in the Middle East, its arteries reaching Africa and Latin America. Wherever you strike it, you damage it, and you serve the World Revolution."

Stand With Haiti! Core Group Out of Haiti!

Core Group and Caribbean Community Collude to Impose Transitional Presidential Council and Legitimize Foreign Intervention

The people of Haiti continue to have their sovereignty undermined by the Core Group on Haiti and increasingly by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The CARICOM governments, rather than upholding the longstanding fraternal relations and common struggle against colonialism and foreign domination shared by the peoples of the Caribbean, have instead agreed to play a key role in the current schemes of the Core Group to block the Haitian people from exercising control over their lives.

Core Group and CARICOM Appoint "Transitional Presidential Council"

A.T. Freeman, writing for the Caribbean Organisation for People's Empowerment on April 11, points out:

"In early March, the Core Group-appointed Prime Minister, Ariel Henry, was blocked from returning to Haiti after armed groups besieged the country's Toussaint Louverture International Airport, where he intended to land. Within a week of this development, CARICOM convened a high-level meeting on Haiti in Kingston, Jamaica on March 11. This meeting which was also attended by members of the Core Group and, notably, by U.S. Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, produced what they termed a 'transitional governance arrangement,' in the wake of the resignation of Ariel Henry. Henry had agreed to resign upon the establishment of a Transitional Presidential Council and appointment of an interim prime minister.

Freeman continues:

"The transitional arrangements openly violate Haiti's sovereignty and are intended to reinforce the U.S. and its Core Group's colonial mission. Many commentators note that the current social crisis in Haiti is the result of 20 years of the Core Group's domination and gross interference in Haiti's political affairs, which are part of a broader pattern of U.S. domination of Haiti that has endured for over a century.

"The CARICOM/Core Group scheme aims to appoint a Transitional Presidential Council whilst specifically excluding from participation in this council any Haitians who oppose the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2699 of October 2023 that greenlights the long-planned U.S.-organized invasion of Haiti. In this way CARICOM and the Core Group, have given themselves the authority to decide which Haitians can take part in the political developments in their own country.

"Furthermore, the CARICOM/Core Group scheme demands that the envisaged 'Transitional Presidential Council' must have as one of its primary duties 'collaboration with all members of the international community for the accelerated deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission.' In other words, the so called Transitional Presidential Council is a fig leaf to attempt to legitimize the long-planned intervention in Haiti."

To add insult to injury, Haitian participation in the March 11 meeting was limited to a virtual afterthought. While it was in the main an in-person meeting, those said to represent Haiti were only permitted to join the meeting at the end, and then only via Zoom.

The Presidential Transitional Council was created by decree on April 12. In a statement on the occasion, CARICOM welcomed the development and said that it "stands ready to continue to support the Haitian people and their leaders as they determine their future in a sovereign manner through this transitional period on the path to stability, security and long-term sustainable development for Haiti."

In a similar vein, the U.S. State Department also welcomed the council, claiming that it comes out of "months of discussion among diverse Haitian stakeholders" and that it "helps pave the way for free and fair elections and the expedited deployment of a Multinational Security Support mission."

No comments were forthcoming from either Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or Foreign Minister Melanie Joly.

Canada Trains Interventionist Forces

Canada has continued to play a nefarious role in Haiti ever since convoking the Ottawa Initiative in 2003 that led to the 2004 coup against the democratically elected government of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. It is now working in conjunction with forces in the Caribbean Community to help them attain the U.S./Canadian aim of imposing foreign military forces on Haiti once again.

The Department of National Defence (DND) informed that on March 29, in a mission known as Operation Helios, "approximately 70 Canadian Armed Forces members deployed to Jamaica." According to DND, this deployment took place at the request of the Jamaican government. The Canadian Armed Forces "will provide training to military personnel from Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations who are set to deploy to Haiti as part of the United Nations-authorized, Kenyan-led, Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission."

"The Canadian personnel being deployed are drawn primarily from the 1st Battalion, Royal 22e Regiment from Valcartier, Quebec. Their deployment will last for an initial period of approximately one month. Canadian Armed Forces expects to train approximately 330 CARICOM troops from Jamaica, Belize and the Bahamas," DND adds.

According to DND, "This training is just one way that Canada is supporting the Kenyan-led MSS mission and building the capacity of CARICOM partner nations. In February, Minister Joly announced an investment of $80.5 million to support the deployment of MSS mission.

"Operation HELIOS also builds on Canada's ongoing efforts to increase the capacity of CARICOM nations to participate in United Nations missions."

Canada's qualifications for playing this particular role in undermining the Haitian people are evident from its role in the immediate aftermath of the 2004 coup. The March 2007 issue of Press for Conversion focused on Haiti, explained: "Through the UN Police (UNPOL), which the RCMP has led since the coup, Canada has trained and funded Haiti's police (HNP), which has committed countless crimes, including murder, illegal arrest, torture, rape, drug trafficking and kidnapping. Under RCMP supervision, the HNP has promoted many recruits from Haiti's military, which Aristide had disbanded. UNPOL has accompanied deadly HNP raids into poor slums and witnessed unprovoked shootings of peaceful, pro-Aristide protesters. Rather than trying to stop or prevent such atrocities, Canada routinely helps cover them up."

Later in 2013, several Quebec police officers who were part of Canada's forces supervised by the RCMP were found to have violated UN regulations due to sexual abuse of Haitian women during their deployment.

The shamelessness of the Canadian government is such that on October 5, 2023, two days after the UN Security Council authorized an interventionist force to enter Haiti, Global Affairs Canada announced plans to deploy RCMP officers to Haiti "to act as trainers in a multinational military intervention, with officials promising an added focus on preventing sexual violence," the Canadian Press (CP) reported.

As TML wrote at that time, "Global Affairs Canada said in a statement that Ottawa is also 'focused on preventing sexual and gender-based violence' in Haiti. The statement noted 'gangs have been using sexual violence as a means of controlling the population,' CP noted. CP reported that Lisa Vandehei, the head of an interdepartmental task force on Haiti at Global Affairs Canada noted in her testimony that in past military interventions in Haiti, locals have reported widespread sexual exploitation by both fellow citizens and foreign armies. Given these reports it would seem that the 'focus' is on hiding the sexual violence of foreign forces sent to Haiti."

Update on Kenyan-Led Multinational
Interventionist Force

Despite the serious opposition of the Haitian people and their friends and allies around the world, preparations for the Multinational Security Support (MSS) Mission in Haiti, based on 1,000 Kenyan police and 2,000 troops from Benin, in addition to reinforcements from several Caribbean countries, continue.

Haiti Libre reports that on April 17, Benin's Council of Ministers announced the appointment of Colonel Pamphile Zomahoun, Director of Benin's intelligence services, as Benin's special envoy to Haiti to prepare for Haiti to receive the 2,000 troops from Benin. Before departing for Haiti, the troops will receive additional training from Beninese and foreign instructors. The timetable for the deployment of the MSS Mission is still unknown.

Reports in Kenyan news media show which interests support the deployment. According to this media, Haitian business leaders have written a letter to Kenyan President William Ruto to fast track the deployment, which they claim will set the country on the path to recovery. They affirmed cooperation with Kenya to ensure the deployment is a success. The business leaders also acknowledged and backed the formation of the Presidential Transitional Council.

On April, 12, moments after the Presidential Transitional Council was declared, the Biden administration ordered the release of $60 million most of which will go towards arming and training the MSS Mission. A report from the Miami Herald states:

"The Biden administration [...] has faced congressional roadblocks despite pledging $300 million towards the mission. To get around some of the resistance, Biden used a little known executive power known as Presidential Drawdown Authority. The authority was established under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, and Biden has been using it to get around congressional resistance to funding weapons for Ukraine.

"The equipment, which can come from the stockpiles of any U.S. government agency, and the training from the Defense Department, will help get the Multinational Security Support Mission off the ground," the Miami Herald wrote. It continued, "The Mission has been on hold since [President Ariel] Henry, under pressure from Washington, announced his resignation on March 11. Kenya, which is supposed to deploy 1,000 of its police officers to serve as the backbone of the force, has said that it would not deploy its officers to Haiti unless the funding was in place."

The reports do not say what level of funding is required to satisfy Kenya's demand. The Miami Herald also points out:

"Top Republicans in the House and Senate have expressed skepticism about the Mission and refused to approve $40 million of the $100 million the State Department has pledged. The Pentagon, which is supposed to be building a base in Haiti for the mission, has separately pledged $200 million."

For its part, Canada pledged $80.5 million for the MSS Mission in February, while the UN has thus far raised $10.8 million from member states.

(Haiti Libre, Miami Herald)

Statements by People's Organizations on
Crisis in Haiti

Haitian Democratic Committee in Argentina

Henry Boisrolin, Coordinator of the Haitian Democratic Committee in Argentina, wrote:

"The Haitian crisis has worsened in the last months in a really alarming way. We are witnessing the collapse, practically of the neo-colonial system, whose main symbolic structures were attacked by so-called gangs that in my opinion are death squads, they are political instruments at the service of imperialism and the Haitian ruling elite.

"To the Prime Minister who was outside and who has now presented his resignation, to a governance on autopilot, who has decreed a virtual government, who has decreed a state of siege impossible to be applied, because he controls absolutely nothing, and there was a CARICOM meeting on Monday, March 11, 2024, where Canada, the United States and France were invited, and where evidently it was a manoeuvre of U.S. imperialism, because the one who had the singing voice was the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.

"What is the solution they offer, the resignation of the Prime Minister and the formation of a presidential council of seven members with a presidency alternating every three months among them, but with a duration between 18 and 24 months to organize the country, to impose peace and to organize elections, but each member of that council has to accept the deployment of a multinational force, which means a new interference, a new occupation, then the fundamental objective of our struggle is to recover our right to self-determination, our sovereignty and our independence, then we seek a Haitian solution to the Haitian crisis, we reject outright the resolution that came out of the CARICOM meeting in Kingston, Jamaica."

Haitian Coalition in Canada Against Dictatorship in Haiti

On March 28, the Haitian Coalition in Canada Against Dictatorship in Haiti issued the following statement:

"We, the members of the Canadian Haitian Coalition Against Dictatorship in Haiti, signatories of the August 30, 2021 Accord (Montana Accord), are very concerned by the way in which the international community is imposing its own rules of the game on the Haitian players in order to establish a transition of continuity. We agree with the principle of a breakaway transition as formulated from the outset by the August 30 agreement. This breakaway transition presents a certain number of fundamental principles and characteristics that characterize it. Principles such as recovering the country's sovereign rights, which cannot be negotiated. Maintaining sovereignty means rejecting all forms of occupation. CARICOM, which is supposed to play an intermediary role, appears, through its actions, to be a self-interested political player acting in accordance with the agenda of the powers that dominate the country, alongside the vassal politicians and political organizations existing in the country. In this logic, the transnational occupation is imposed as a condition for the establishment of the transition. This is totally at odds with our convictions and principles.

"A breakaway transition must be clear in its choice of participants. In this respect, we continue to believe that the PHTK [Haitian Tèt Kale Party] and its allies have no place in any transitional government that seeks to recover the country's sovereignty and create the conditions for the Haitian people to live in peace and dignity. It is this regime that has put us in the impasse in which we find ourselves, with the aim of dismantling from their point of origin all popular initiatives and mobilizations in the country that are attempting to change the system. The popular saying about the need to overturn the pot is a clear expression of the will and determination of the Haitian people to establish another model of society. Consequently, the members and organizations of the PHTK -- 'legal bandits' and their allies supported by the 'international community' -- have been responsible for more than a decade for the current chaos and situation of terror. The Haitian people have had enough. The PHTK and its allies, under the obedience of the Core Group (U.S., France, Canada, Brazil, Spain, Germany, EU, UN and OAS) cannot, after sowing chaos and creating problems, then claim to be looking for solutions. They start fires and pretend to be firemen.

"The PHTK regime has already been in power for 13 years, enjoying the blessings of the Core Group countries (in particular the USA, France and Canada), but the Haitian people have never missed an opportunity to throw these figures into the landfill of history for the financial crimes, massacres, corruption and all the atrocities committed against the people. A breakaway transition requires people and organizations of integrity, who are not involved in illicit activities, drugs, financial crimes, kidnappings, murders; people who have never been convicted by the national or international judiciary. A breakaway transition must have people who are not subject to any national or international sanctions, people who have never been accomplices of the criminal PHTK regime and who have never served the interests of foreign countries. This means that this transition only needs people and organizations of integrity, credibility, honesty, patriotism, determination and competence, who put Haiti's interests first. In this respect, we are very concerned by the presence of the Montana Accord in the Presidential Transitional Council created by CARICOM, as the CARICOM initiative does not respond to any breakthrough initiative. In our opinion, the objective of CARICOM is to put an end to all Haitian initiatives so that the country does not gain its own sovereignty and prevent Haiti from finding a sovereign solution to this crisis created in the country.

"We note that all the treatments CARICOM is carrying out on behalf of its employers are contrary to all the fundamental principles of the transition towards a break with the past. Everything that is happening here is in line with the objectives of the countries that oppress Haiti, to renew and strengthen the PHTK regime and its allies, who respond like lackeys in the service of the projects of the countries dominating Haiti. What's more, they've created a muddle to continue and reinforce the country's dependence and domination. To accept this is to sell the country's sovereign right to the devil. As the Montana Accord said in its initial program, Haiti needs a clean break transition carried out by sovereign Haitians. It's a transition that must at the very least create the conditions necessary to degangsterize the country in all its aspects (notably economic and political), recover the country's sovereignty by organizing honest elections free of impositions from foreign countries or the local oligarchy. Any breakaway transition must be clear to the Haitian people, from the election of candidates to the organizations involved. This transition must create the necessary conditions for the population to live in peace and dignity, and lay the foundations for people to truly live as human beings, for citizens to see and do politics differently in the country, and create the conditions to put on trial all those responsible for all the financial crimes and massacres against the Haitian people.

"All CARICOM's measures are contrary to this project. And in this respect, we believe that the August 30, 2021 agreement must initiate a permanent communication process to explain to all the signatory organizations and to the Haitian people in general what is going on. When we see that what is being done runs counter to the breakaway transition project, we get very worried. Before it gets too late and more tragic, we continue to believe that at the crossroads where we find ourselves, all true patriots and progressive organizations have a historic and ethical responsibility to come together and unite on a united front to prevent the country from falling into a trap aimed at renewing the PHTK and its allies and thus dismantling all democratic and popular initiatives. We must join forces as adults to implement the project of a transitional break with the past. We have a rendezvous with history, so let's respond now and assume our responsibilities.

"Haiti comes first! Long live sovereign Haiti! Long live the struggle of the Haitian people! Those who fight do not die!"

RASIN Kan Pèp La Party

Marc-Arthur Fils-Aimé, General Secretary, and Camille Chalmers, Spokesman, of the RASIN Kan Pèp La Party issued the following statement in Port-au-Prince on March 12, 2024:

"The RASIN Kan Pèp La Party, takes its hat off to salute all the families and communities who were victims of violence last week, where the people we call gangs received orders from their employers here and abroad to accelerate the work of destruction of the country. The victims are many and our suffering is the suffering of all the children of the country.

"The Party believes it is important to try to understand what is happening. We are in a situation where many actors are pretending. There are criminals-drug traffickers who pretend to make a revolution against the system while working to maintain the system and aggravate the chaos. There are other actors who claim that they cannot enter the country while they go about their business. There is a de facto interim Prime Minister who pretends to lead the country when he has contributed to the destruction of all the tools that could have allowed him to truly lead. There is a de facto government pretending to organize the transition, while the power of the gangs grows. There are the imperialists pretending to be helping to build security positions in the country while organizing to weaken the Haitian National Police (HNP) by organizing the migration of over 3,000 police during 2023, a HNP that already did not have enough police. There are politicians who pretend to be running the State apparatus while all they do is to steal everything that is deposited in the State coffers. There are policemen who pretend to protect and serve the population while all they do is sell ammunition to the gangs. Between what the actors say and do, we must develop the capacity to understand what political project they are really defending.

"1. As of February 29, 2024, the coalition of gangs bearing the name 'Living Together' received orders to launch a coordinated attack in Port-au-Prince and Croix-des-Bouquets. The actions of the gangs mainly targeted 2 large prisons, one in Croix des-Bouquets and the other in Port-au-Prince, where they allowed the escape of more than 4 thousand prisoners. The attacks also targeted the Toussaint Louverture international airport, some police posts and some public offices. At the same time, they destroyed hospitals, colleges, water collection systems and other important infrastructures for people to live in the territory. The gangs' only demand, they say on social networks, is the resignation of the de facto Prime Minister, Ariel Henry. The gang attack on the international airport forced airlines to cancel all international flights in the country. Meanwhile, the media reported that Ariel Henry was under pressure from the United States and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to resign. This series of events, as they unfolded, shows the high-level coordination in the actions of the gang coalition, which are part of a project to totally destroy the country, remove all progressive organizations from the political scene and strengthen the domination of the imperialist countries over the country.

"2. What actors in the country and abroad are involved in this planning? Why is it at this time that the gangs unleashed these attacks and demanded Ariel Henry's resignation? What is the hidden agenda behind the latest gang attack?

"3. The gang coalition has allies inside and outside the country. It is true that the gang attack on the Port-au-Prince airport could have prevented the plane carrying Ariel Henry, who was coming from Kenya, from landing in Port-au-Prince. Although there were some militants demonstrating against him in front of the Cap-Haitien airport, this could not have prevented Ariel Henry from entering Cap-Haitien because all gang violence was limited to the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. Moreover, the Dominican government's decision to close the border with Haiti comes at a time when Ariel Henry is having difficulty entering Haiti. While gangs in Port-au-Prince say they are erecting barricades to prevent Ariel Henry's entry, Dominican authorities are taking diplomatic measures to keep Ariel Henry out. This shows the alliance between international actors and the gangs to unleash the movement that is further destroying the country since February 29. For over 30 months, U.S. imperialism and its allies have been supporting the Ariel Henry government and all its drifts often committed in relation to the gangs, what could explain this new phase in U.S. policy?

"4. The negotiations in the UN Security Council on the resolution to authorize international military to go to Haiti to support the de facto government and the position expressed by some U.S. congressmen on the Haitian crisis, show that the country is in the middle of a war of strategic interests, on the one hand, and in an electoral battle between Democrats and Republicans in the United States, on the other. There are sectors in the United States that are working to bring the disaster in Haiti on Biden's head. We remember the great support given by Haitians living in the United States to the election of Joseph Biden as president of that country. At that time, the most active groups of the U.S. diaspora on the election issue and supporting Biden clearly expressed their anti-Jovenel Moïse position. With their vote they intended to change the policy of U.S. imperialism towards the government of Jovenel Moïse. It was a miscalculation. Now, as the U.S. prepares to hold elections, the position against the U.S. and against the Democratic Party has reached an all-time high. In this context, the crisis in Haiti is a major issue in the U.S. election campaign. Since it was a simple message from the CORE GROUP that authorized Ariel Henry to become Prime Minister, why, then, would they need to mobilize this infernal machine to overturn the de facto government they appointed?

"5. Since the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in July 2021, many political and civil society actors believe that only a Haitian solution can address the current crisis. One of the most organized expressions of this idea is the Agreement of August 30, 2021 (Montana Agreement). The imperialist does not agree with this idea. There was and there is a whole campaign of manipulation, corruption and division mounted to reduce the strength that Montana represents. Some renowned journalists even said on the radio that the Montana Accord is a thing of the left. The reactionaries are doing everything possible to try to dismantle the Montana Accord. They succeeded in inoculating the germ of division in the dynamics created by the Montana Agreement; which reduces even more its mobilization capacity. Let us remember all that, it is to tell you that U.S. imperialism has come to understand that all solutions to the crisis that do not seem to come from a consensus among Haitians will face many contestations within the country. Therefore, the gang attacks give imperialism two possibilities: First, gang violence has created a situation in which all the actions of imperialism can be interpreted as a salvation for the population; second, gang leaders can impose themselves as political actors who must participate in the solution of the crisis. Faced with such a situation, what are the progressive forces to do?

"6. It is good to better understand the roles assigned to the gangs. We must never forget that the gangs are instruments of the oligarchy and imperialism. All human rights reports show where the gangs' weapons and ammunition come from; they show the complicity between state authorities and the gangs that are there to paralyze all popular mobilizations. Progressive forces must confront the project of turning drug traffickers and gang leaders into political leaders. If this project is carried out, we will further deepen the gangsterization of the entire state space. It is true that the leftist political organizations were not prepared to enter into this violent battle based on the weapons that the oligarchy and imperialism delivered in the popular neighborhoods, but progressive organizations must have the courage to denounce the dreadful project that is underway and open the eyes of the masses to understand the contradictions. The majority of the population resists this plan of death that combines several tactics: the delivery of arms and impunity to the gangs, the application of neo-liberal policies that destroy national production and the capacity of the State, then facilitating migration.

"7. We salute all the honest policemen and soldiers who are not involved in crimes, in extortion and abuse against the population, who are not involved in receiving money from drug traffickers and kidnappers. There are several of them who maintain a good collaboration with the self-defence groups in various neighborhoods of Port-au-Prince. They show that they are available to defend the dignity of the country if they find the means to do their job and if they have the guarantee that the boss who gives them the orders is not in collusion with gangsters.

"8. We salute all Haitians who were trained in the army and police of the following countries: United States, Canada, Venezuela, Cuba, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, who are aware of the debt they owe to their mother Haiti and are willing to share their knowledge and/or services in a true project of national liberation.

"The solution to get out of this grave crisis is in the hands of the popular masses, of the popular classes, of the progressive and revolutionary forces!

"We need to get out of the logic of waiting for an opportunity to take office.

"Down with all the arsonist firemen. They set fire to the country and now they pretend they are going to put it out.

"Down with the war unleashed against the Haitian people.

"Down with the gangsterization of our political system. They have left the country in the hands of the PHTK, the legal criminals, and they are trying to continue with the same logic to hand over power to gang leaders and drug traffickers.

"Long live a sovereign transition.

"Long live honest elections with a Provisional Electoral Council that is not tied to the table of the oligarchy or the imperialists.

"Long live the struggle to defend the dignity of the Haitian people.

"Long live the struggle to build sovereignty and self-determination."

(Caribbean Organisation of People's Empowerment)

U.S. Restarts Deportations to Haiti

Amidst a worsening crisis in Haiti, the U.S. has once again made clear that its so-called concern for the Haitian people is simply for purposes of justifying the foreign intervention that it, along with France, Canada and the rest of the Core Group, is imposing on the Haitian people to block them from exercising control over their own affairs.

On April 18, the U.S. deported some 50 people back to Haiti, the first such deportations since January, according to news agencies, at a time when activities by rival gangs that represent contending factions of Haiti's ruling elite continue to threaten the people's well-being. U.S. Homeland Security said in a statement that it "will continue to enforce U.S. laws and policy throughout the Florida Straits and the Caribbean region, as well as at the southwest border. U.S. policy is to return non-citizens who do not establish a legal basis to remain in the United States." The New York Times said of the action, "Deportation flights are generally viewed as a way to deter migrants from crossing the southern border without authorization." It added that the deportations come at a time when migrants are crossing the U.S. southern border at a lower rate than before. Among those deported was a man who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20 years and who lacks any familial ties in Haiti but does have family in the U.S. The U.S. Coast Guard repatriated 65 Haitians who were stopped at sea off the Bahamas coast in March.

"This is not only morally wrong and in violation of U.S. and international law, it is simply bad foreign policy," said Guerline Jozef, the head of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a migrant rights group based in San Diego. The alliance said the Biden administration is "knowingly condemning the most vulnerable, who came to us in their time of need, to imminent danger." The alliance and several other rights groups in a February 2023 report entitled Urgent Call to Stop all U.S. Deportations to Haiti explained the violations of U.S. and international law as follows:

"Under U.S. law, all individuals who arrive at the border and express fear of being returned to their home country or who express interest in applying for asylum must be provided access to fear hearings before their removal. These laws are consistent with the principle of non-refoulement, which was established under article 33 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and has since crystalized as a norm of jus cogens under international law." The groups go on to explain the use of Title 42 of the U.S. Code to carry out these deportations, which empowers the government to remove a person who had recently been in a country where a communicable disease was present, "blatantly violates both U.S. law and international law by deporting Haitians to a country that consistently fails to guarantee its citizens the rights to health, food, water, sanitation, movement, and security of persons."

This racist and malicious outlook of the U.S. ruling circles toward the Haitian people, whether living in Haiti or in the U.S. is further confirmed by the fact that the U.S. has warned its own citizens to avoid travel to Haiti and organized several evacuation flights from March to April to get its citizens out of Haiti. Canada has also issued similar travel advisories and organized three evacuation flights from Haiti at the beginning of April.

In the News

Palestinian Resistance Rejects Israeli Aggression and External Interference

Toronto, March 30, 2024

On the occasion of the 48th anniversary of Land Day, the Palestinian Resistance and political groups issued a militant statement which underscored their unwavering commitment to resistance amidst Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

The Follow-up Committee for the National and Islamic Forces, a gathering of Palestinian Resistance forces, issued a statement on Land Day reiterating that no decision can be imposed on the Palestinian people or "supersede the Palestinian will."

"The 48th anniversary of the eternal Land Day comes amidst the ongoing Zionist aggression (...) and during the blessed Al-Aqsa Flood battle, where the Palestinian resistance created a strategic shift in the struggle with the Zionist occupation and the forces of global evil," the statement says.

The Committee congratulated "the legendary firmness and steadfastness of our people over more than 100 years" and extended their salute to "our brave and courageous resistance that continues to create miracles, strike the Zionist enemy, and resist it everywhere."

The statement reiterates the urgent call for an immediate cessation of the Israeli aggression on Gaza. The organizations urged Palestinians, along with the broader Arab, Islamic, and global communities, to escalate resistance against the occupying forces and their supporters worldwide.

The united Committee categorically rejected any "agreement or exchange deal with the occupation except with a comprehensive halt to the aggression, return of the displaced, full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, shelter and reconstruction, breaking the siege, opening the crossings, and delivering aid."

Addressing recent proposals regarding the deployment of international or Arab forces in Gaza, the united Resistance dismissed such initiatives as "mere illusion and mirage." The statement reads, "Any force entering the Gaza Strip is rejected, unaccepted, it is an occupying force, and we will treat it as such." It added that the Palestinian resistance appreciates "the stance of Arab countries that refused participation and cooperation with the occupation leaders' proposal."

The statement warned against external interference in the national unity and self-determination of the Palestinian people. "Managing the Palestinian reality is a national Palestinian internal affair we will not allow anyone to interfere in, and all attempts to create alternative administrations that circumvent the will of the Palestinian people will die before their birth," the statement read.

"On Land Day, we affirm that Palestinian blood will remain a living witness to the greatness of the Palestinian land and our just cause and adherence to our rights in it," the statement added.

"These sacrifices will be the fuel of victory, freedom, independence, and the establishment of the Palestinian state with al-Quds as its capital," the statement concluded.

London, England, March 30, 2024

(Palestine Chronicle)

Filipinos Denounce U.S.-Philippines Balikatan Joint Military Exercises 2024

April 22, 2024, Manilla

Progressive organizations in the Philippines organized actions to oppose the start of the 39th version of the U.S.-Philippines Balikatan Joint Military Exercise which began on April 22 and will end on May 18. These are the largest war games to date, involving more than 17,000 U.S. and Philippines soldiers, almost twice as many as last year. According to the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Balikatan (which means "shoulder-to-shoulder" in Tagalog) 2024 is undertaken under the terms of the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defence Treaty of 1951. U.S. Indo-Pacific Command notes, "Exercise Balikatan directly supports the U.S.-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty by ensuring our forces are tactically proficient, that capabilities and modernization efforts are mutually compatible, and by strengthening military-to-military coordination." They are live war drills implementing planned invasion scenarios directed mainly at China and designed to consolidate the command structure headed by the U.S.

This year, the Australian Defence Force and French navy are also joining the war games. Eighteen other countries, including Canada, are participating as "observers."

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) a broad alliance of progressive and patriotic Filipino organizations, called the military war games, "a shameful proof of the subservient foreign policy of the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. by allowing the increased presence and intervention of genocide-enabling and imperialist foreign military forces." Bayan and other organizations held a protest at Camp Aguinaldo on April 22 where the commencement of the war games was announced. Bayan pointed out that the military drill under the U.S. "is not designed to promote our national interest. Its real aim is to allow the U.S. to project and preserve its hegemony in this part of the world."

The Philippine human rights organization Karapatan also condemned Balikatan 2024, pointing out that the heavy presence of U.S. troops on the Philippines islands is a violation of the sovereignty of the Filipino people and a provocation against China which could lead to a military conflict between the two countries with people of the Philippines in the middle. Karapatan pointedly denounced the recent first-time deployment of the U.S. mid-range Typhon missile system which is capable of reaching the Chinese mainland. The missiles were introduced in the context of the Balikatan war games, Karapatan noted, further signaling the U.S. intention "to use Philippine territory as a launching pad for hostile acts against China."

Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas or Peasant Movement of the Philippines (KMP) also denounced the Balikatan war games. Danilo Ramos, chairperson of KMP, said that in locations where the Balikatan exercises will take place, farmers and fishers are restricted from carrying out their daily activity without compensation.

Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment denounced the Balikatan war games, emphasizing the severe detrimental impacts of the military drills on the natural environment. "Troop movements, vehicle manoeuvres, construction activities, and the sinking of naval ships -- all lead to habitat loss and fragmentation, endangering local wildlife. The use of heavy machinery, explosives, ammunition, and other military equipment contributes to soil and water pollution by chemical contamination," the organization stated. It added that "Massive amounts of waste are generated -- much of this toxic waste. The health of local communities is threatened during the exercises, as well as by the long-term impacts of the exercises on the environment. Noise pollution disrupts ecosystems and disturbs wildlife."

Kalikasan also underscored that the U.S. plans to use the Philippines as cannon fodder in confronting China. "History has also shown that U.S. intervention has always led to war and tragedy -- and widespread, long-term environmental destruction, as well. These have been seen in the U.S.-led wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Ukraine, and Palestine," the organization said.

Bayan called on the Filipino people to resist the Balikatan war drills, oppose the U.S. provocations in the region and expel U.S. military facilities and other foreign troops in the country. For its part Karapatan called on the freedom-loving people of the Philippines and the world to "forge the broadest solidarity front against U.S. imperialist intervention and war-mongering in the South China Sea and in other areas of the world."

(With files from Bulatlat)

South Koreans Demand Impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol Following National Elections

The recent 85th Candlelight Vigil to protest the anti-social and warmongering policies of President Yoon Suk-yeol in south Korea called for his impeachment following the April 10 elections where Yoon's People Power Party was reduced to 108 seats out of 300 seats in the National Assembly. This was the worst defeat of any political party since the creation of the Republic of Korea by the U.S. in 1948, a political move to keep Korea divided and for the U.S. to maintain a military and political hold on the Korean Peninsula.

Since coming to power in May 2022, Yoon has not only undertaken an anti-social offensive at home, but has built closer links with the U.S. and also with NATO. The ROK is now one of the supply depots for weapons bound for Ukraine, the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia and also weapons for the U.S./Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. The ROK is also vying with Japan to be the official outpost for NATO in East Asia. The peace movement in the ROK has consistently opposed these policies as well as the Yoon government's participation in war games against fellow Koreans in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

In his two years in office, Yoon has acted to undo the positive inter-Korean relations established during the tenure of the previous President Moon Jae-in and has stepped up participation in U.S.-led military drills in south Korea aimed at provoking the DPRK. Additionally, under pressure from the U.S. and Japan, the Yoon government has taken a soft approach towards Japan's wartime crimes against the Korean people and instead sought to strengthen bilateral ties with Japan. The matter of the tens of thousands of Korean "comfort women" who were abducted into sexual slavery to serve the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II, for example, has also been put aside. Under U.S. dictate, Yoon has also worked to strengthen ROK-Japan military relations and also U.S.-Japan-ROK relations in order to serve the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy of containing China and the DPRK.

It is no surprise then that the electors gave Yoon his comeuppance at the polls. It does not bode well that following the April 10 elections which resulted in the resignation of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and Yoon's Chief of Staff Lee Kwan-sup, Yoon said on national television, "We must humbly accept the popular sentiment that was revealed through these elections. We will engage in more communication with flexibility and an open mind, and I will be the first to listen closely to popular sentiment."

In other words, it will be business as usual. The people living in the ROK are not about to put up with this type of arrogance and high-handedness, and it is very possible that President Yoon Suk-yeol may not make it to the end of his term of office in 2027.

(With files from Hankyoreh and KCNA)

Farmers and Toilers in India Work Out How to Empower Themselves

– J. Singh –

Mahapanchayat in Kheda Chobisi, April 16, 2024

Farmers in India are holding Mahapanchayats (mass meetings) and get-togethers in different parts of the country to discuss how to participate in the upcoming general election and raise their demands. In many areas they have launched campaigns based on the slogan Jawab Do, Hisab Do (Give us answers, we want accountability). When any politician of any party comes to a village, they ask them questions about what they have done to implement the farmers' demands and those of other toilers. In most cases, the politicians are not able to answer their questions and run away.

Another slogan which has been taken up is Chhaltantra Nahin Chalega (No more Deceptocracy). It can be heard when the politicians of the parties contending for office on behalf of private interests come to the villages. Farmers are pointing out that even if they defeat the present government, they will have to continue the fight because no matter which party comes to power, they have to implement the agreements signed by the Manmohan Singh government with the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which opened the flood gates to hand over the lands of India to Adani, Ambani and others. Many farmers said that just because we are harvesting our produce, does not mean we will not continue our struggles. We will carry on our actions and prepare for coming battles.

April 17 marked the International Day of Peasant Struggles. Farmers across India held meetings and Mahapanchayats under the call Build Solidarity! Enough with the Genocide, Evictions and Violence! They declared, "Following our eighth international conference in December 2023, we, peasants, youth, women, men, and minorities, migrants, rural and landless workers, fisherfolk, and Indigenous Peoples, stand with renewed hope and strength, heightened awareness, unwavering commitment, organized unity, and determination to confront the multifaceted crises. United, we safeguard our Mother Earth against the grip of agribusiness multinationals, neo-colonialists, fascists, and repressive military forces. We will occupy the streets and all spaces to reaffirm our peasant path and strengthen food sovereignty."

Disinformation, deception and fraud in the form of election promises, manifestos, and guarantees by different parties of the ruling elite are filling the streets, airwaves and social media. Money is being spent by the ruling party as if there was no tomorrow. Prime Minister Modi proclaimed that India will become a world hub for all kinds of things. Nothing concrete. India Alliance is promising 10 million jobs. In a country where 83 per cent of the youth are unemployed, it's a cruel joke. Opposition parties are complaining about the heavy-handedness of the Modi government which is using state agencies to arrest and intimidate opposition candidates and parties. Many opposition party candidates have joined the ruling BJP because of fear of being raided. They are calling for free and fair elections and a level playing field.

In India, according to the World Inequality Report, 22 families own more wealth than 700 million people. The rule of billionaires has continued since 1947, no matter which party is in power or their slogans, be it socialism, secularism, liberalization, privatization, Third Way, Hindu Rashtra or others. The rich have grown richer and the poor have grown more numerous and poorer. What kind of level playing field is possible during elections in these conditions?

In liberal democracy, elections have never been and cannot be "free and fair" in the sense that people understand these words, nor can there be a level playing field because money speaks -- along with muscle, deception and disinformation. There is no enabling legislation that makes it possible for citizens to exercise their right to elect and be elected in a free and fair manner. The decks are stacked against them by money and muscle.

In the last general election in India political parties spent close to $8 billion to use the elections to disenfranchise, disinform and disempower the people. Various sections of the ruling elite complain of the lack of fair elections and a level playing field in order to capture the state for their own aims. None of these parties have any interest in empowering the people. Of course the people need an electoral system which empowers them but the ruling elite and their parties only talk to fool people by diverting them from drawing the warranted conclusion that the electoral process established by the British disempowers the people because their only role is to cast a ballot authorizing somebody else to speak and act in their name. Those people, authorized in this way, in fact speak and act for the rich.

The electoral process needs serious reform to democratize it. The system of first past the post has to go. Political parties should not be allowed to select candidates. People should select and elect candidates from their peers at work, in their neighbourhoods, offices, schools, etc. Elections should be publicly financed and no one should be allowed to spend money on elections. Mechanisms should be developed so that people can exercise their sovereignty without the mediation of representatives and parties over which they exercise no control and cannot hold to account.

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