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November 30, 2019 - No. 29
Trudeau Government Sets Direction for 43rd
Parliament
The Necessity for a New Direction and
Control of the Economy in Conformity
with Its Socialized Nature
  
• Liberal
Government's
New Cabinet and Politics of the Absurd
- K.C. Adams -
Alberta Government Proclaims Theft of
Workers' Pension Fund Legal
• Hands
Off Our Pensions!
- Peggy Morton -
• Unions
Say Government Has No Consent and No Mandate
• Workers'
Mass
Resistance Against Provincial
Government Attacks on the Rights of All
No Harbour for War! Make
Canada a Zone for Peace!
• Peace
Activists
Oppose War Conference in Halifax
• China
in the Crosshairs of Halifax War Conference
- Tony Seed -
• U.S.
Primes
NATO to Confront Russia, China
- M.K. Bhadrakumar -
Tributes to Fidel Castro
• Living
Legacy
of Comrade Fidel Castro Commemorated
by the Peoples of the World
• In
the Heart of Latin American Unity
- Enrique Ubieta Gómez -
Unfolding Events in Latin
America and the Caribbean
• Resistance
Grows
to Neo-Liberal Wrecking,
State Terror and Imperialist-Inspired Coups
- Margaret Villamizar -
• Unifor
Letter
to Canada's Foreign Minister Re: Condemning the
Military Coup and Respecting Democracy in
Bolivia
• Thank
You
Message for Contributions to the Lula Livre
Campaign
- Workers' Party of Brazil
-
• Cuban
Ministry
of Public Health Withdraws Collaborators
from Ecuador, While Reiterating Willingness to
Continue Supporting the Country
- Cuban Ministry of Public
Health -
• No
One Can Erase Cuba's Loving Contribution
in Bolivia and Ecuador
- Yenia Silva Correa and
Germán Veloz Placencia -
Actions
in
Canada
• Solidarity
Activists
Hold Discussion with Cuban
Ambassador in Ottawa
• Rising
with
Haiti! Demonstrators Demand
Justice, Dignity and Reparations
Coming Events
• Demonstration
for
Social Justice in Latin America
• Demonstration
in
Solidarity with Gaza
• Discussion with
Cuban Ambassador to Canada
on Current Situation in Cuba
Trudeau Government Sets Direction
for 43rd Parliament
The ruling elite are talking of a global
recession as inevitable. The President of the
World Bank, David Malpass, recently described the
global economy as "fragile" and on the precipice
of a recession. The International Monetary Fund
(IMF) says the global economy will grow at its
lowest level since the economic crisis in 2008.
The new IMF Managing Director, Kristalina
Georgieva, states, "The global economy is now in a
synchronized slowdown. We expect slower growth in
nearly 90 per cent of the world."
The representatives of the financial oligarchy
expose themselves as enemies of the people when
they speak in this manner. To accept an economic
slowdown as inevitable is criminal for those in
authority. They refuse to see what they do not
want to see, what they do not want to change.
The socialized economy of industrial mass
production is more than capable of providing a
modern standard of living for all without
recurring crises. The obstacle to bringing the
economy under control to solve its problems lies
with the social class in control and its outmoded
aim of forcing the economy to serve the narrow
private interests of competing factions. The
contending companies, monopolies and cartels turn
the various parts and sectors of the socialized
economy against each other and the whole to serve
their private interests. The result is chaos,
anarchy, recurring crises and war.
 The modern
socialized economy is integrated. It needs all its
parts functioning in harmony with each other and
the whole in a nation-building project. The nation
in turn does not look at others in the world as
competitors or people and regions to exploit but
as one humanity, cooperating for mutual benefit
and common development. This can only occur if
those in control of the parts and sectors of the
economy have the aim of cooperating with all other
parts and sectors for the common good of all and
Mother Earth herself.
This means those in control of this new direction
for the economy hold the well-being and rights of
all their fellow producers in the same regard as
their own. Those in control realize that their
well-being depends on the well-being of all
humanity and Mother Earth. In this way control
over the economy and the relations among its
producers are in conformity with the socialized
interrelated nature of the economy itself.
It is the determination of the working people to
set a new direction and control of the economy in
conformity with its socialized nature which opens
a path to progress. The announcements of the
Trudeau government cater to the competing private
interests of those currently in control of the
economy. They will make the rich richer, the poor
poorer and exacerbate the contradictions and
crisis.
- K.C. Adams -
The Trudeau government has created a Ministry of
Middle Class Prosperity and appointed
Ottawa-Vanier MP Mona Fortier to be the Minister.[1] Interviewed on
CBC Radio's The
Current, Minister Fortier said she had
not yet received her mandate letter from the Prime
Minister and as such could not speak to what her
Ministry will do. The interviewer asked her to
define the middle class and according to a CBC
transcript she replied, "Well, we know that we
want a very strong economy for everyone. And
having a strong middle class will entail the fact
that we can continue to put measures and helping
those that want to join the middle class to have
access to those programs.
"Well, I define the middle class where people
feel that they can afford their way of life. They
have quality of life. And they can send their kids
to play hockey or even have different activities.
"It's having the cost of living where you can do
what you want with your family. So I think that
it's really important that we look at, how do we
make our lives more affordable now?
"And that's, for me, something that we will be
putting measures, and really putting efforts, with
my colleagues, to have a strong economy."
 The gibberish from
the Minister of Middle Class Prosperity stems from
the self-serving fraudulent ideology of the ruling
elite and from the irrelevance of her position
other than as window dressing as a woman in
Cabinet. Coming from a communications background
Fortier is perhaps being groomed as a Public
Relations fast talker in the belief that loud
propaganda can overcome the reality of recurring
economic crises and the fact that the financial
oligarchy has mandated the Trudeau government to
pay the rich, not to increase the affluence and
influence of better paid members of the working
class who in fact are being pushed into ever
greater insecurity.
Women cannot achieve dignity when they allow
themselves to be manipulated in the aristocratic
belief that distorting the concrete conditions can
make problems disappear, such as the looming
cyclical economic crisis or war that will wreak
havoc in the lives of all. Speaking nonsense about
a so-called middle class to perpetuate a
perception of affluent workers, who somehow have
achieved control over their lives because they can
enroll their kids in hockey, does not help when
the financial oligarchy attacks those same workers
with demands for concessions or destroys their
livelihoods as it has done in large swathes of
manufacturing, and now in the forestry industry in
BC. Fast talk does not change the reality that the
cartel parties, including the Trudeau Liberal
Party and its minority government, cannot have the
best interests of the vast majority of working
Canadians at heart because those cartel parties
represent the financial oligarchy and do its
bidding.
The cartel party system has concentrated power in
the Prime Minister's Office, which acts on behalf
of powerful private interests. Canadians saw a
crude display of the power of the PMO when Trudeau
fired two female Cabinet members, the Minister of
Justice and the President of the Treasury Board
because they would not keep quiet about what they
felt was a developing corrupt arrangement with
SNC-Lavalin to avoid criminal proceedings.
The cartel party system is lowering the level of
political activity and discourse. The antidote is
for workers and their allies to empower themselves
and become political in their own right and speak
out politically with their own voice, thinking and
agenda. Being political in your own right means
uniting with others to tackle the economic,
political and social problems as they present
themselves in their objective reality and fight
for solutions that favour the interests of working
people and uphold social responsibility and
nation-building.
Women face particular problems as the reproducers
of life and targets of abuse; they have to defend
the dignity of women themselves by being political
and informed. They have to join with others in an
organized fight to affirm the right of people to
exercise control over the decisions that affect
their lives. The battle to affirm this right in
practice brings empowerment and dignity.
Being political in your own right on those
matters that affect your life pushes forward the
human factor/social consciousness in the battle
for democratic renewal. Being political in your
own right shapes in a positive manner the
democratic personality of all those actively
involved.
For Your Information:
The Canadian Working Class
The Canadian working class is the most numerous
social class by far. It exists within a
dialectical social relationship with the financial
oligarchy. The working class sells its capacity to
work to the financial oligarchy. With this sale,
the oligarchs take control of the use-value of
workers' capacity to work and what they produce.
The financial oligarchy is a tiny minority of the
population that has become a supranational social
class with no particular connection to Canada
other than as exploiter of its natural resources,
means of production and working class.
 Within the
oppressive social relation with the financial
oligarchy, workers must organize to defend
themselves, their rights and well-being. This
means they must organize to empower themselves
through their own independent political activity
for democratic renewal and develop and spread
their advanced social consciousness and
independent institutions so the working class
becomes an unstoppable social force both in
defence of its rights and to build the New.
The class struggle within the social relation
with the financial oligarchy entails mass
political mobilization of working people and their
allies for democratic renewal and for a new
direction for the economy to stop paying the rich,
increase investments in social programs and public
services, and to make Canada a zone for peace with
an anti-war government.
In building the New, the working class has the
historic social responsibility to overcome its
oppressive social relation with the financial
oligarchy and eliminate it as a ruling social
class that acquires its living by buying the
capacity to work of the working class.
In freeing itself from the oppressive social
relation with the financial oligarchy, the working
class creates itself anew with its own democratic
personality as the social class in control of the
economy and politics of the Canadian
nation-building project. The new working class in
control of its capacity to work and what it
produces has the social responsibility to move
society forward to the complete emancipation of
the working class and the elimination of class
society not only in Canada but also worldwide in
unity with all humanity.
Social Relation Between the Working Class and
Financial Oligarchy
Social class denotes how a collective of people
acquire their living in relation to others during
a particular historical period and mode of
production, such as during the classical Roman
period of slavery with slave masters and slaves or
the medieval mode of production and social
relation between the landlord and peasant. Social
classes come into being and pass away with
developments in the productive forces and
revolutionary changes in the mode of production.
The specific term "middle class" originated
during the medieval or feudal period when in
concert with developments in the productive forces
a social class appeared that gained the ability to
purchase the capacity to work of others outside
the strict relations of production and laws of the
medieval era.
Advancements in methods of production in
agriculture and manufacturing challenged the petty
production of the feudal mode of production and
its relations. These developments forced many
peasants and journeymen to be released or excluded
from their traditional relations of production. To
survive, those who found themselves without land
or a guild began to sell their capacity to work on
a daily or longer basis to those who had acquired
the material and financial means to purchase their
capacity to work. Thus began in its infancy the
long social relation between a small social class
of those who buy others' capacity to work and the
vast numbers of those who sell their capacity to
work to acquire a living.
In the medieval period, the feudal aristocracy
was referred to generally as the upper class while
the mostly impoverished masses including the
peasants, guild workers and others were known
generally as the lower classes.
The term middle class became attached to those
who had gained the ability to purchase the
capacity to work of others outside and often in
opposition to the rules, regulations and laws of
the medieval regime. Members of the emerging
middle class were neither upper aristocrats nor
lower peasants but rather were considered
colloquially as the middle class.
An important feature of this new social middle
class was that it only existed in a relationship
with a new emerging social class that possessed no
land or hereditary position but only its capacity
to work. This social class was "free" to sell to
the middle class its capacity to work on an
hourly, daily or longer basis because it was
"free" from the land and any other productive
material possession, and outside feudal
restrictions.
The new relations of production between those who
bought the capacity to work of others and those
who sold their capacity to work developed mostly
within protected urban areas or market towns that
became centres of opposition to feudal control.
The towns were known in Europe in various
languages as a "Bourg" and the members of the
middle class who dominated the "Bourgs"
subsequently became known as bourgeois.
With the invention of the steam engine and its
application to production, industrial mass
production soon overwhelmed feudal petty
production and propelled the working class to
become the most numerous social class mostly
coming from the ruined peasantry. Upon the
political overthrow of the feudal ruling elite,
the bourgeoisie or "middle class" took control of
the state and society and became the ruling class.
The upper class of landed aristocrats has since
been integrated into either the new ruling elite
or working class. The relations of production
became simplified into two main classes, those who
sell their capacity to work, the working class,
and those who buy the capacity to work of the
working class, the bourgeoisie, which no longer
could be considered middle class.
 The early nascent
period of the relations of production between the
working class and bourgeoisie soon gave way to
imperialism. Social wealth became concentrated
into fewer hands and the financial and industrial
sectors merged into one and spread throughout the
world turning the bourgeoisie into a powerful
minority of rulers called the financial oligarchy.
The working class became educated and experienced
in the class struggle, engaging in its own
nation-building projects in the Soviet Union and
elsewhere and countless battles to defend its
interests and rights within the imperialist system
of states. The working class is poised to end
through revolution its oppressive social relation
with the financial oligarchy.
No middle class exists between the two main
social classes under imperialism. A small group of
people with no stability has one foot in each
social class. Extremely vulnerable people who can
no longer work for various reasons may suffer what
is called civil death, with no means to acquire a
living other than through charity, social programs
or other means.
The objective conditions exist to resolve the
dialectical social relation between the working
class and financial oligarchy and move society
forward to the emancipation of the working class
and the elimination of social classes. This social
revolution can only be accomplished through the
efforts of the working class itself by preparing
the subjective conditions for revolution and
thereby resolving the dialectical social relation
with the financial oligarchy.
Note
1. According to information
on the government website, the Minister of Middle
Class Prosperity, Mona Fortier, was first elected
to the House of Commons in a 2017 by-election.
Prior to entering politics, she was on several
non-profit boards and was the director of
communications for a French-language college in
Ottawa until 2015, when she started and managed
her own communications consulting firm. She was
co-chair of the Liberal Party's 2019 campaign
platform committee.
Alberta Government Proclaims Theft
of Workers' Pension Fund Legal
- Peggy Morton -
Rally organized by Alberta nurses at the Alberta
Legislature, November 20, 2019, during passage of
Bill 22 to say No! to wage rollbacks and "Hands
Off Our Pensions!"
The Alberta government of Jason Kenney has
rammed Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards
and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act, 2019, a
174-page omnibus bill, through the Legislature.
The bill was introduced on November 18 and the
United Conservative Party (UCP) imposed "time
allocation" after only four hours of debate. The
bill received Royal Assent on November 22. Bill 22
amended or scrapped 31 different acts. It
abolished the Office of the Elections Commission,
which has levied more than $200,000 in fines for
violations of the elections act associated with
the UCP leadership race, and fired the
Commissioner, who is still conducting
investigations. Bill 22 also made it "legal" for
the Alberta government to essentially expropriate
the pension fund of Alberta teachers and put those
funds into the hands of the Alberta Investment
Management Corporation (AIMCo), the money manager
owned by the provincial government.
 The bill removes
the option for Alberta's biggest public-sector
pension plans, the Local Authorities Pensions Plan
and the Public Services Pension Plan, to choose
their fund manager. Both are presently managed by
AIMCo, but had the option to withdraw and choose
another fund manager. It removed one of the
representatives of the Alberta Union of Provincial
Employees (AUPE) from the pension board and
replaced that representative with a management
representative. Bill 22 gives the government a
veto over union appointments to the government
employees' pension board on the basis that such
appointees must be "competent."
Speaking in the Legislature, the Finance Minister
made it clear that the Alberta government's
reasons for these changes have nothing to do with
guaranteeing security in retirement for public
sector workers and professionals. He explicitly
stated that it was to benefit the government, and
further described the workers' pension funds as
"public funds." In other words, he does not
recognize that these funds do not belong to the
governing cartel party.
These decisions were imposed on the entire public
sector and the 400,000 members of the pension
plans with absolutely no consultation with the
unions and no consent, and carried out with
lightning speed. Alberta Teachers' Association
President Jason Schilling called on the government
to "show us the numbers and convince us it is in
our interests, instead of unilaterally seizing our
pension assets." The government did not respond.
Schilling also called for a report from the
Auditor-General before the government proceeded
with Bill 22, but this also received no response.
Instead, the government continues to act to
destroy any equilibrium in the social relations
between the workers and the employers. It refuses
to recognize the right of the workers and
professionals to exercise control over decisions
as to how the pension funds are to be managed.
 The arrogance,
hubris and narcissism of Kenney and his government
is such that they seem convinced that they are
unstoppable. They are continuing their shock and
awe tactics based on this outlook, declaring that
the fact that they won the election means they
have a mandate to do whatever they please, and
even that this is what the people want. UCP leader
Jason Kenney did not even appear in the
Legislature to defend Bill 22. Instead he went to
Texas to woo investors, and declared that this
was, after all, his most important duty.
Kenney's efforts to silence any opposition to his
government's attacks on workers have been a dismal
failure. Teachers who have managed their own fund
for the past 80 years responded with a resounding
No! Not Without Our
Consent! More than 30,000 teachers
emailed their MLAs or the Premier to express their
opposition to this outrageous act of seizing
control of their pension fund. They filled the
galleries at the Legislature each night.
As well, close to 1,000 nurses from across the
province, together with workers from other unions,
rallied at the Legislature to say No! to wage
rollbacks and Hands
Off Our Pensions! Active and retired
workers sent thousands of emails telling the
government to stop its arrogant abuse of power.
Education workers also rallied to express their
opposition, and more actions are planned for the
coming weeks. Workers from the public sector
joined the striking CN workers on the picket
lines.
Public sector workers join CN workers' picket line
in Edmonton, November 23, 2019.
The UCP government continues to claim that
nothing has really changed and that the boards of
the respective plans, which are comprised of
representatives from the unions and employers,
will continue to set direction. But this is pure
deception because the option to choose another
plan manager has been eliminated. Without the
power to withdraw from AIMCo's control, the
pension plans have no recourse if they disagree
with the management of the retirement funds.
It is also deception that the government has no
control over AIMCo. The Alberta Investment
Management Corporation Act (Section 19)
states: "The Treasury Board may issue directives
that must be followed by the [AIMCo], the board,
or both." This gives the government the power, for
example, to direct the fund to increase its
already substantial share of investments in
Alberta-based oil and gas corporations.
 The government's
actions to seize control of pension funds without
the consent of the working people to whom these
funds belong is a form of theft. The working
people demand to know what the government is up
to. It is clear that Jason Kenney is seizing
control of large pools of capital and has an
appetite for much more. He has moved some $30
billion worth of investments under AIMCo control.
Kenney has also revived Harper's call for Alberta
to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan (CPP),
and establish an Alberta Pension Plan.
It is not accidental that while this legislation
was being passed in a manner never seen before in
the Alberta Legislature, Kenney was in Texas
stumping for the energy oligarchs and making who
knows what promises on their behalf to potential
investors. Kenney is showing on whose behalf he is
ruling and on whose behalf he is prepared to
trample on the rights of the hard-working public
sector employees. To use dictate in this manner to
seize more control over how these funds are
managed is an abuse of power and cannot stand.
Defined pension benefits that guarantee a
cultured standard of living until passing away are
a necessary component of modern life. Security in
retirement is an inviolable right which belongs to
every member of society. Bill 22 must be repealed!
Alberta unions are standing as one to call
on the government to cease and desist its
arbitrary actions and abuse of power in seizing
control of pension funds, issuing the following
joint statement.
 In response to this
blatant grab for money and control, the
representatives of more than 300,000 working
Albertans, have a three-part message for the
premier and his government.
First, this isn't your money. It belongs to the
Albertans who saved it month after month. How can
a party that styles itself as a champion of
individual rights and property rights think it's
appropriate for government to essentially seize
control of other people's savings?
Second, you don't have permission. You never
mentioned sweeping changes to Alberta's retirement
system in the recent election, so you do not have
a mandate for any of this.
Third, you don't have the confidence of the
people who this money really belongs to. Working
Albertans did not ask the UCP to interfere in the
administration of their pensions, nor do they have
confidence that they will run those plans in a
fair or responsible way.
In fact, we're worried that what you're
attempting to do is use other people's money to
create a huge slush fund to finance an agenda that
has not yet been articulated to the public and
which most people would not feel comfortable using
their life savings to support.
For these reasons, on behalf of all working
Albertans, we demand that you keep your hands off
our retirement savings. You can do that by
rescinding Bill 22 and abandoning your reckless
and irresponsible plan to withdraw from CPP.
If you don't do these things, we will make sure
all of our members know who, exactly, seized their
pension savings and put their retirement security
at risk. We will make sure that Bill 22 becomes an
albatross that hangs around your necks, from now
until the next election.
Gil McGowan, president, Alberta Federation of
Labour (AFL)
Guy Smith, president, Alberta Union of
Provincial Employees (AUPE)
Heather Smith, president, United Nurses of
Alberta (UNA)
Mike Parker, president, Health Sciences
Association of Alberta (HSAA)
Rory Gill, president, Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE Alberta Divisions)
Jason Schilling, president, Alberta Teachers'
Association (ATA)
Students rally at Alberta Legislature, November
18, 2019, against cuts to investments
in education.
 Alberta workers
and their allies came out in force during the week
of November 18-23 with rallies and protests being
organized almost every day. On Monday, November
18, about 300 students from the University of
Alberta and about 200 students from MacEwan
University marched to the Legislature and joined
forces to protest the United Conservative Party
(UCP) government's vicious cuts to post-secondary
education. Many students carried signs beginning
with, "I am not silent because." The cuts, which
will seriously affect student learning conditions
and instructor working conditions, include
slashing already inadequate base funding, seven
per cent tuition increases each year, student loan
rate increases, and threats of a
"performance-based" funding model which no doubt
will be based on how well the universities serve
the needs of the monopolies.
On Wednesday, November 20, United Nurses of
Alberta, which represents 30,000 nurses, organized
a protest of about 1,000 nurses at the Legislature
to affirm their collective rights and the right of
all to health care. Two specific issues of focus
were the right to collective bargaining without
threatened government interference and the right
of public workers to control their own pensions,
which will soon be administered by the UCP
government instead of by the workers themselves.
In February 1988, nurses across Alberta heroically
struck for 19 days, defying cease and desist
orders, criminal charges, firings, and threats of
government seizure of their assets to win an
improved collective agreement.
Nurses rally at the Alberta Legislature,
November 20, 2019.
On Thursday, November 21 about 1,000 people
rallied at the University of Calgary to protest
the UCP government's funding cuts and the lifting
of the previous government's tuition fee freeze.
The picket, hosted by the Alberta Union of Public
Employees (AUPE), was held during the noon hour on
the main quad. The rally followed the November 18
announcement that University of Calgary would cut
250 jobs, a move prompted by the province's grants
reduction and the funding cuts for the
university's infrastructure maintenance program.
The budget cuts amount to over $54 million. Guy
Smith, AUPE president, stated: "When you're trying
to rebuild an economy, the best way to do that is
to have an educated and well-skilled workforce. If
you take away the ability of Albertans to become
educated then that's going to hurt the economy
even more."
Rally, November 21, 2019, at the University of
Calgary.
 On Friday, November
22, CUPE Alberta, which represents 36,000 Alberta
workers, organized a rally of about 100
non-teaching staff and their allies in front of
the Edmonton Public School Board building in
downtown Edmonton to protest UCP cuts to K-12
education. After promising to maintain existing
funding, the UCP government's budget for 2019 will
reduce overall funding by about $275 million, with
no additional funding for enrollment growth.
"We're going to see larger class sizes, kids less
supported," Canadian Union of Public Employees
Alberta President Rory Gill said. "There's going
to be devastating impacts to the kids here in
Edmonton."
A salient feature of all four rallies was that at
each one many people stepped forward to speak in
their own name. For example, at the Edmonton
Public School Board rally, people heard from
support workers, parents, students, teacher aides,
teachers, and union leaders. It was pointed out at
all the rallies that the UCP decisions on
education and health care are being arbitrarily
made without any serious consultation with any
workers. This highlighted once again that the real
issue facing Canadians is the need for democratic
renewal so that people can become decision-makers
on all matters that affect their lives and can
secure the future for themselves and the coming
generation. This is a problem for today, not
tomorrow.
No Harbour for War! Make Canada a
Zone for Peace!
A lively rally organized by No Harbour for War
was held in Halifax on November 23 at Peace and
Freedom Park, across from the Westin Hotel, site
of the annual war conference, the Halifax
International Security Forum (HISF). This marks
the 11th year that peace activists in Halifax have
come out to firmly reject their city being used as
the venue for this war conference.
 A representative of
No Harbour for War recounted the steadfast
opposition by Haligonians to the war conference
when it first began. It was pointed out, "It is
important to oppose this war conference for a
number of reasons. Firstly, since its beginning
with Peter MacKay, who was Canada's Defence
Minister, this so-called 'Halifax' conference was
based in Washington, DC and serves to support the
aggressive war policy of the U.S. imperialists
while being paid for by the Canadian taxpayers.
Secondly, it is part of the movement to integrate
Canada into the U.S. empire and its war machine.
In this, Halifax has played a key role.
"During the First World War Shearwater was
established as an advance deployment base for the
U.S. military. Today Halifax hosts visiting NATO
fleets and allied foreign warships on their way to
wars of aggression and military exercises.
Recently, the Cutlass Fury exercise, the largest
in recent years, was an example of military
exercises connected to Halifax in the interest of
U.S. imperialist aggression around the world. And
there is a list of such exercises and wars around
the globe connected to Halifax. This is why we are
demanding that Halifax
Be No Harbour for War! and that Canada
should no longer be a factor for future wars.
"Within this framework, this war conference, the
so-called International Security Forum, plays the
role of an international strategizing session
where leaders in the field meet to discuss topics
of interest to the empire and possible courses of
action. For example, Bolivia has just experienced
a coup d'état. Plans to deal with countries which
have been a thorn in the side of the empire for
many years were discussed here in previous
conferences. So was the South China Sea,
Venezuela, Libya, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, and so
on.
"No Harbour For War salutes you for coming out
today -- let us march on, unite in action with
others and build the anti-war movement."
 
Actions to oppose the HISF were also held in
Ontario.
In Toronto on November 23, a picket was held out
front of the headquarters of the NATO Association
of Canada, an organization whose purpose is to
impose NATO's warmongering agenda on the
Parliament and the general public. The event was
organized by the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist) and the Canadian Voice of Women
for Peace and took place at the same time as No
Harbour for War held its annual protest against
the HISF in Halifax.
 
The picket in Toronto attracted the attention of
many people who stopped to express support for the
action or to find out more about the
U.S./NATO-sponsored HISF and Canada's involvement.
 Philip Fernandez,
speaking on behalf of CPC(M-L), noted that HISF is
an instrument of war and aggression in the service
of NATO and U.S. imperialism, which this year is
focused on containment of China. He added that in
the next year the U.S., NATO, Canada and others
intend to create an aggressive strategy to
challenge China under the pretext of defending
so-called freedom and democracy. He said that
Canadians want peaceful relations with all nations
and peoples and will oppose these war plans.
The picket received a warm message of greetings
from No Harbour for War, which was read by Tony
Seed, one of its founders.
In concluding the picket, the participants
expressed their determination to step up their
work in the new year to oppose NATO and the
Anglo-American imperialists and warmongers, to
oppose Canada's interfering role in the affairs of
other nations to foster regime change, and to
organize to make Canada a Zone for Peace.
Also on November 23, the Windsor Peace Coalition
used the occasion of its weekly picket to draw
attention to the Halifax war conference, with
signs calling for NATO to be dismantled.
Windsor, November 23, 2019.
- Tony Seed -
 
On November 22, the opening day of the 11th
annual Halifax International Security Forum
(HISF), "a new year-long initiative focused on
China" was announced by HISF President Peter Van
Praagh via press release.
The HISF announcement came two days after U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke out in
Brussels, following a NATO Foreign Ministers'
meeting, saying that NATO's operations are
expanding into Asia. Pompeo stated that "our
alliance must address the current and potential
long-term threat posed by the Chinese Communist
Party." NATO countries cannot ignore the
"fundamental differences and beliefs" between
themselves and the ruling party in Beijing, Pompeo
said.
In the HISF press release, Van Praagh declared,
"It's no longer a secret that Xi Jinping's China
is working hard to make the world safe for
authoritarianism. It is time for a comprehensive
China strategy for the United States, Canada and
their allies -- one that makes the world safe for
democracy.
"Over the next 12 months, Halifax will consult
with subject experts and thought leaders to get
their input on what can be done to confront this
growing threat to our freedom."
The HISF's strategy on China will be released at
the 2020 Halifax International Security Forum,
which will be held two weeks after the U.S.
Presidential election. Thus, the U.S.-based HISF
has given itself the right to design a strategy
for Canada and the "allies."
The rivalry with China over security is posed as
a military conflict to be escalated by the NATO
bloc. This includes sanctions, a form of war. This
is unacceptable. All political and ideological
conflicts must be resolved peaceably.
The major theme of this year's HISF was to
camouflage the Might Makes Right doctrine of NATO
and the striving of the U.S. empire for economic
domination with a phony face of human rights and
cyber security. Within this, China was already
being targeted. A session on November 24 was
titled "Huawei or Our Way." However,
contradictions exist within the NATO block, as
NATO member Germany, for example, does not agree
that the blockade of Huawei Technologies is "our
way."
HISF Participants Claiming to Represent the
Asia-Pacific
Below are the HISF participants who came from
Asia, brought to the war conference with all
expenses paid by Canadian tax dollars. At the head
of the list is the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. This
list does not include different participating
think tanks specializing on Asia, which are
itemized in a distinct U.S. category.
U.S. Military
Philip Davidson, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific
Command; Richard Berry, Special Assistant, U.S.
Indo-Pacific Command.
The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command is based in Hawaii.
It is a unified combatant command of the U.S.
Armed Forces responsible for the Indo-Asia-Pacific
region. It dates from the period when the U.S.
possessed a "one ocean" navy -- the conquest of
Hawaii and the Philippines and continuous
aggression against China, e.g., the Boxer
Rebellion -- and is the oldest and largest of the
unified combatant commands. Formerly known as U.S.
Pacific Command (USPACOM), and renamed on May 30,
2018, it conducts military operations in an area
which encompasses more than 100 million square
miles (260,000,000 km2), or roughly 52
per cent of the Earth's surface, stretching from
the waters off the west coast of the U.S. and
Canada to the west coast of India, and from the
Arctic to the Antarctic.
The Commander reports to the U.S. President
through the Secretary of Defense and is supported
by Service component and subordinate unified
commands, including U.S. Army Pacific, U.S.
Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces, U.S.
Marine Forces Pacific, U.S. Forces Japan, U.S.
Forces Korea, Special Operations Command Korea,
and Special Operations Command Pacific.
Japan
Yukinari Hirose, President, National Institute
for Defense, Japan
Hideo Suzuki, Director General for International
Affairs, Defense Policy Bureau, Ministry of
Defense, Japan
Matake Kamiya, Professor, International
Relations, National Defense Academy of Japan;
Director and Distinguished Research Fellow, Japan
Forum on International Relations
Masashi Nishihara, President, Research Institute
for Peace and Security, Japan
Yoichi Kato, Senior Research Fellow, Asia Pacific
Initiative, Japan
Hideshi Tokuchi, Visiting Professor, National
Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan
Tsuneo Watanabe, Senior Fellow, International
Peace and Security Department, Sasakawa Peace
Foundation
Noboru Yamaguchi, Advisor, Sasakawa Peace
Foundation
Korea
Byung Kee Kim and Seung-Joo Baek, Members of the
National Assembly, The Daehanminguk Gukhoe,
Republic of Korea
Jaeho Hwang, Director, Global Security
Cooperation Center; Professor, Division of
International Studies, Hankuk University of
Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea
China
Szu-chien Hsu, Director of the Board, Institute
for National Defense and Security Research, Taiwan
Yeh-chung Lu, Associate Professor, Department of
Diplomacy, National Cheng-chi University; Vice
President, Taiwan Foundation for Democracy
J. Michael Cole, Senior Fellow, China Policy
Institute, University of Nottingham, Taiwan
Hong Kong
Emily Lau, Former Chairperson, Democratic Party;
Chair, Foreign Affairs Committee, Democratic
Party, Hong Kong
King-wa Fu, Associate Professor, Journalism and
Media Studies Centre, University of Hong Kong,
Hong Kong
Figo Chan, vice-convenor, Civil Human Rights
Front, Hong Kong; Sales Director at ESTEC Corp.
Inc. since August 2011
Himalayas
Dolkun Isa, President, World Uyghur Congress,
China
Lobsang Sangay, President, Central Tibetan
Administration, Tibet
Indonesia
Teuku Faizasyah, Adviser to the Indonesian
Foreign Minister for Political, Legal, and
Security Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Indonesia
Singapore
Keng Yong Ong, Executive Deputy Chairman, S.
Rajaratnam School of International Studies,
Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Philippines
Richard Javad Heydarian, Research Fellow,
National Chengchi University; Columnist, Philippine Daily
Inquirer, Philippines
India
Ram Madhav, National General Secretary, Bharatiya
Janata Party; Director, India Foundation, India
Nirmal Verma, Chief of Naval Operations
Distinguished International Fellow, U.S. Naval War
College, India
Ruhee Neog, Director, Institute of Peace and
Conflict Studies, India
Chaitanya Giri, Fellow, Space and Ocean Studies,
Indian Council on Global Relations, Gateway House,
India
Rita Manchanda, Research Consultant, South Asia
Forum for Human Rights, India
Dhruva Jaishankar, Director, U.S. Initiative,
Observer Research Foundation, India
Pakistan
Husain Haqqani, Director and Senior Fellow, South
and Central Asia, Hudson Institute, Pakistan
Farahnaz Ispahani, Former Member of Parliament,
Qaumi Assembly, Pakistan
Australia
Joseph Hockey, Ambassador of Australia to the
United States
Michelle McGuinness, Director General Counter
Proliferation & Terrorism, Defence
Intelligence Organisation, Australia
Rachel Durbin, Director, Future Force Lifecycle
Engineering, Navy Capability Division, Royal
Australian Navy, Australia, HISF Peace With Women
Fellow
New Zealand
Rose King, Chief of Staff, Headquarters Joint
Forces New Zealand, New Zealand Defence Force,
HISF Peace With Women Fellow
Lisa Ferris, Director, Defence Legal Services,
New Zealand Army, HISF Peace With Women Fellow
- M.K. Bhadrakumar -
The December 3-4 summit of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) in London resembles a
family reunion after the acrimony over the issue
of military spending by America's European allies.
The trend is up for defence spending across
European Allies and Canada. Over $100 billion is
expected to be added to the member states' defence
budgets by end-2020.
More importantly, the trend at the NATO foreign
ministers' meeting at Brussels on November 19-20,
in the run-up to the London summit, showed that
despite growing differences within the alliance,
member states closed ranks around three priority
items in the U.S. global agenda -- escalation of
the aggressive policy toward Russia,
militarization of space and countering China's
rise.
NATO will follow Washington's lead to establish a
space command by officially regarding space as "a
new operational domain." According to NATO
secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, this decision
"can allow NATO planners to make a request for
allies to provide capabilities and services, such
as satellite communications and data imagery."
Stoltenberg said, "Space is also essential to the
alliance's deterrence and defence, including the
ability to navigate, to gather intelligence, and
to detect missile launches. Around 2,000
satellites orbit the Earth. And around half of
them are owned by NATO countries."
Equally, Washington has been urging NATO to
officially identify China's rise as a long-term
challenge. According to media reports, the
Brussels meeting acceded to the U.S. demand and
decided to officially begin military surveillance
of China.
The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hit out
at China after the Brussels meeting: "Finally, our
alliance must address the current and potential
long-term threat posed by the Chinese Communist
Party. Seventy years ago, the founding nations of
NATO came together for the cause of freedom and
democracy. We cannot ignore the fundamental
differences and beliefs in the -- between our
countries and those of the Chinese Communist
Party."
So far so good. However, it remains to be seen if
Washington's grand design to draw NATO into its
"Indo-Pacific strategy" (read containment of
China) will gain traction. Clearly, the U.S.
intends to have a say in the European allies'
growing business and economic relations with China
to delimit Chinese influence in Europe. The U.S.
campaign to block 5G technology from China met
with rebuff from several European countries.
On the other hand, the European project has
unravelled and the Franco-German axis that was its
anchor sheet has become shaky. The rift between
Paris and Berlin works to Washington's advantage
but, paradoxically, also hobbles the western
alliance system.
The French President Emmanuel Macron annoyed
Germany by his recent calls for better relations
with Russia "to prevent the world from going up in
a conflagration;" his brutally frank remarks about
NATO being "brain dead" and the U.S. policy on
Russia being "governmental, political and
historical hysteria;" and his repeated emphasis on
a European military policy independent of the U.S.
The congruence of interests between Berlin and
Washington vis-à-vis Macron manifested
itself in NATO's endorsement of the U.S.-led
escalation against Russia and China, with France
rather isolated. However, this congruence will be
put to the test very soon at the summit meeting of
the Normandy format over Ukraine, which France is
hosting on December 9, following NATO's London
summit. France is helping Russia to negotiate a
deal with Ukraine.
The recent phone calls between Russian President
Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart
Volodymyr Zelensky underscored the growing
interest in Moscow and Kiev at the leadership
level to improve relations between the two
countries.
In the final analysis, the Franco-German
relations are of pivotal importance to not only
Europe's strategic future but the western alliance
system as such. If anyone was in doubt, the French
veto in October means sudden death for the
proposal on European Union accession of the Balkan
state of North Macedonia, which NATO is inducting
as its newest member. Berlin and Washington are
livid, but a veto is a veto.
With NATO being set up by Washington for a
confrontationist posture, Russia and China won't
let their guard down. Addressing a meeting of the
Russian Federation Security Council on November
22, Putin said, "There are many uncertainty
factors; competition and rivalry are growing
stronger and morphing into new forms. The leading
countries are actively developing their offensive
weapons, the so-called 'nuclear club' is receiving
new members, as we all know. We are also seriously
concerned about the NATO infrastructure
approaching our borders, as well as the attempts
to militarize outer space."
Putin stressed, "In these conditions, it is
important to make adequate and accurate forecasts,
analyze the possible changes in the global
situation, and to use the forecasts and
conclusions to develop our military potential."
The U.S.-led military build-up against Russia and
China will be on display in two big exercises next
year code-named "Defender 2020 in Europe" and
"Defender 2020 in the Pacific."
Significantly, only four days before Putin made
the above remarks, Chinese President Xi Jinping
told him at a meeting in Brasilia on the sidelines
of the BRICS summit that "the ongoing complex and
profound changes in the current international
situation with rising instability and uncertainty
urge China and Russia to establish closer
strategic coordination to jointly uphold the basic
norms governing international relations, oppose
unilateralism, bullying and interference in other
countries' affairs, safeguard the respective
sovereignty and security, and create a fair and
just international environment."
Putin responded by saying that "Russia and China
have important consensus and common interests in
maintaining global strategic security and
stability. Under the current situation, the two
sides should continue to maintain close strategic
communication and firmly support each other in
safeguarding sovereignty, security, and
development rights."[1]
The Russian response is also visible on the
ground. The share of modern weapons and equipment
in the Russian Army and Navy has reached an
impressive level of 70 per cent. The first pilot
batch of next-generation T-14 Armata tanks will
arrive for the Russian troops in late 2019 --
early 2020.
On November 26, the Russian Defence Ministry
stated that Moscow's breakthrough Avangard missile
system with the hypersonic boost-glide vehicle
will be deployed on combat duty with the Strategic
Missile Force in December.
For the first time, the electronic warfare
systems at Russia's military base in Tajikistan
will be reinforced with the latest Pole-21 jamming
station that can counter cruise missiles, drones
and guided air bombs and precision weapon guidance
systems. Moscow is guarding against the U.S. and
NATO presence in Afghanistan.
M.K. Bhadrakumar is a former Indian diplomat
who writes mainly on Indian foreign policy and
the affairs of the Middle East, Eurasia, Central
Asia, South Asia and the Asia-Pacific.
Note
1. Chinese Ministry of
Foreign Affairs.
Tributes to Fidel Castro
November 25 marked the third anniversary of the
death of Comrade Fidel Castro, historic leader of
the Cuban Revolution and hero to the oppressed
peoples of the world for spearheading Cuba's
outstanding internationalism. His living legacy
was commemorated by the Cuban people, joined by
all the peace and justice-loving peoples of the
world, with whom Cuba shares weal and woe.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel remarked via
social media, "How does one remember Fidel? By
assuming his legacy as one's own, confronting
imperialism with courage and firmness, working and
thinking for the people, fighting because a better
world is possible."
Gerardo Hernández, Vice Rector at Cuba's Advanced
Institute of International Relations and Hero of
the Republic of Cuba, reiterated the call for
global action through social media as part of the
tributes to the revolutionary leader using the
hashtags #YoSoyFidel, #PorSiempreFidel,
#HastaSiempreComandante.
The Cuban Federation of University Students and
the Union of Young Communists (UJC) hosted a
political-cultural evening at the grand staircase
of the University of Havana to remember their
Commander-in-Chief, calling the event "Fidel
Antimperialista." Thousands were in attendance,
including President Díaz-Canel, Commander of the
Revolution Ramiro Valdés, Vice President of the
Council of Ministers Roberto Morales, President of
the Central Organization of Cuban Trade Unions
Ulises Guilarte, leaders of mass organizations and
students, as well as Brazilian intellectual Frei
Betto. The choice of venue was fitting, as the
university holds a prominent place in Fidel's
revolutionary life. These are also the steps where
in 2016, after Fidel's death was announced, the
youth maintained an honour guard until his burial
at Santa Ifigenia cemetery.
Susely Morfa, First Secretary of the UJC's
National Committee, addressed the gathering and
spoke to the important role Cuban youth are
playing as defenders of the nation-building
project led by Fidel. She remarked on Fidel's
influence on the current generations, his capacity
as a military strategist, his conception of
politics and the validity of his analysis of the
conditions of the contemporary world. She affirmed
that the younger generations are consciously
taking up their role to defend Cuba's sovereignty
under today's conditions.
Commemorations in Canada
In Canada, events to remember Fidel were held at
the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa and the Cuban
Consulate in Toronto. At both events, the
documentary Fidel in the Memory of the People
was screened, in which Cuban personalities recount
their experiences with the leader of the
Revolution.
The Ottawa event opened with remarks from
Ambassador Josefina Vidal. She recalled the legacy
of the Commander in Chief and spoke of his ties
with Canada. She noted how Fidel specifically
invited a CBC reporter to interview him while the
rebels fought in the Sierra Maestra, and how he
visited Canada the day after the victory of the
Revolution. She said that 2020 will mark the 75th
anniversary of diplomatic relations between Cuba
and Canada. This is an important relationship, and
despite whatever difficulties have arisen,
relations have never been broken, she said.
Educator Marcia Krawll spoke about how she, her
husband Rongo Wetere and a group of Cuban
pedagogues introduced the Cuban literacy method
"Yes I Can" to New Zealand. The event also
featured a photographic exhibit entitled
"Comandante" featuring the work of Roberto Chile.
Present at the event were ambassadors and
representatives from Vietnam, Russia, Nicaragua,
Venezuela and Canada, as well as friends from the
solidarity movement, Cuban residents and the
embassy staff.
At the event held at the Cuban
Consulate in Toronto, Consul General Tania López
Larroque welcomed everyone and thanked them for
joining "a modest tribute to the memory of a
great man, from Cuba and the world."
She noted: "It would be impossible to summarize
[Fidel's] life and legacy in a few words.
Instead, we can just mention that the Revolution
led by him fostered pride and dignity in the
Cuban people. At the same time, his leadership
grew beyond our island and became a beacon in
favour of independence and progressive ideas.
His anti-imperialist, anti-colonialist,
anti-racist and internationalist spirit were
standards in the movements and among progressive
forces all over the world. Faithful defender of
world solidarity, he dedicated important moments
to share and thank friends like you, who have
made the Cuban cause a battle of your own."
 The
Consul General added: "Three years ago, many
people wondered what Cuba would be like without
Fidel and we, the Cuban people have shown that
Cuba is Fidel. Time goes on and as a good
father, he left us everywhere signs of how to
move forward on that path we did not imagine
without him. We find at every step and before
every obstacle, his teachings -- the days of
more than 24 hours and his perennial
development. With the humility of the greatest
heroes, he told us that he did not want streets
or monuments named after him. Therefore, we have
to honour his life with our daily actions."
After her remarks, an excerpt was read
from the poem "Canto a Fidel," which was written
by Cuban poet Carilda Oliver in 1957. This was
followed with the showing of the documentary.
Following the video, the Consul General and her
staff invited those gathered to a reception where
people had a chance to express their thoughts
about the life and legacy of Fidel Castro.
- Enrique Ubieta Gómez -
Chávez and Fidel joined
forces, allowing hundreds of thousands of
Latin Americans to gain access to health and
education, to recover their vision and
dignity.
Our America is living intense days, but there is
no reason, or time, to be discouraged. The
continent's peoples have opened the great avenues
of their emancipation, and imperialism cannot
close them. Bolívar, Martí, Sandino, pointed the
way to unity. "How long will we remain in
lethargy?" Fidel asked in 1959, during his visit
to Caracas. "How long will we be defenceless
pieces of a continent, which its liberator
conceived as something more dignified, greater?
How long will Latin Americans live in this
miserly, ridiculous atmosphere? How long will we
remain divided?"
Early in his formative years, in the 1940s, Fidel
was involved in struggles for justice, the
region's most pressing: the Independence of Puerto
Rico and an end to the Trujillo dictatorship in
the Dominican Republic, among others, and would
witness, alongside the Colombian people, the
events that today history remembers as the
Bogotazo.
His visit to Venezuela, just a few months after
the revolutionary triumph, would be portentous.
There he would say, with regard to the necessary
unity of our peoples: "And who should be the
proponents of this idea? Venezuelans, because
Venezuelans launched it on the American continent,
because Bolívar is Venezuela's son and Bolívar is
the father of the idea, of the union of America's
peoples."
But Fidel was not referring only to the internal
unity of peoples, indispensable for the triumph of
justice, but to the unity of nations on the
continent, although he knew that there would be
"seven-month" governments without faith in their
land, ready to hand over the collective wealth and
popular needs, in hopes of attaining dishonest
personal rewards.
That is why, on many occasions, he sought to
demonstrate the advantages of unity, based on
respect for the diversity of socio-economic models
and identities. "What is the fate, moreover, of
the balkanized countries of our America? What
place will they occupy in the 21st century? What
place will be left for them, what will their role
be if they don't join together, if they don't
integrate?" he insisted in 1990. In the final
years of this decade of surrender and
discouragement, Fidel would re-launch Cuban
medical internationalism (which was born in
Algeria, in 1963), for the peoples of Central
America and Haiti -- with no ideologically allied
governments. In the wake of two devastating
hurricanes, hundreds of health workers travelled
to the most remote areas to provide assistance to
destitute populations.
The Cuban people came face to face with their
brothers and sisters on the continent, without
intermediaries. Fidel always met with brigades
before their departure, conversing with members as
a father.
On November 25, 1998, he stated: "I want to
emphasize this right now: our doctors will not
become involved, in the least, in matters of
internal politics. They will be absolutely
respectful of the laws, traditions and customs of
the countries where they work.
"Their mission is not to disseminate ideology
[...] They are in Central America as doctors, as
self-sacrificing bearers of human health, to work
in the most difficult places and conditions, to
save lives, preserve and restore health, uphold
and honor the noble medical profession, nothing
else."
That very year, a disciple of Bolivar would reach
the Presidency of Venezuela. Two dreamers, two
madmen, Fidel and Chávez, would meet, in an effort
to promote unity. And ALBA was born, the most
advanced project that has emerged on our
continent, an agreement based on the people, on
our infinite capacity for solidarity. Hundreds of
thousands of Latin Americans gained access to
health and education, recovered their vision and
dignity.
Our America, a concept of Martí's that also
includes the Caribbean, became greater, as we
looked inward and came together to complement each
other, in common projects. Imperialism is today
attempting to dismantle these conquests, which it
fears so much.
On the eve of the third anniversary of Comandante
en jefe Fidel Castro's physical departure, it is
worth remembering him as the man who dedicated his
life to the defence of unity among our peoples and
the nations of Latin America.
Unfolding Events in Latin America
and the Caribbean
- Margaret Villamizar -
March held in Anzoátegui, Venezuela, November 15,
2019, in support of Evo Morales and against
the coup in Bolivia.
The past two weeks have seen the people of
Bolivia and Chile continue their courageous fights
to affirm their rights in the face of the brutal
repression unleashed against them by state forces.
On November 21 they were joined by Colombians who
staged a massive national strike in cities and
towns across the country against the anti-social
offensive of the neo-liberal, warmongering
government of Iván Duque. They were also met with
a violent response at the hands of the army and
the militarized police, especially the hated riot
squad. Large demonstrations have continued every
day since then.
As the clash between the Old and New intensifies
in the region, the youth and working people in
particular are rising to the challenge and, in the
process, winning over middle sections to join the
cause of those who are fighting for their rights
and the rights of all. This can be seen having an
effect as all attempts by the foreign-backed
oligarchs to wield exceptional measures and their
monopoly on state power to terrorize the people's
forces in hopes of making them submit are not
working. The killings, injuries inflicted,
arbitrary detentions, disappearances and
persecution of all types have only served to
increase the people's indignation and
determination to keep resisting and pressing their
demands until they secure justice.
Chile
Banner at November 16, 2019 demonstration in
Santiago, Chile, reads "Chile Will Be the
Tomb of Neo-liberalism."
A general strike took place on November 26 and
27, the third since mass protests began six weeks
ago. Workers from different sectors of the economy
joined social movements and political forces
organized as the Social Unity Roundtable in
marching through Santiago and other cities and
setting up roadblocks in some areas. It is
reported that hundreds of thousands of workers
participated, including those working in mining,
on the docks and in the education and
transportation sectors.
The Secretary General of the Unitary Workers'
Central of Chile, Nolberto Díaz said the strike
was called because the government, contrary to
what it announced, had not engaged in dialogue
with the social movements or met any of their
demands. He added that if President Sebastián
Piñera and the parliamentarians were incapable of
providing a solution for what Chileans were
demanding, they should step aside and call early
elections.
Gabriela Flores, President of the National
Federation of Municipal Health Officials said, "We
workers are not going to sit with our arms folded,
nor is the population. How is it possible that
[Piñera's] advisors can be so blind and so deaf
that they don't hear what the people are asking
for and just push legislation to increase the
repression?"
 On November 26, a
day in which the Interior Ministry reported that
police arrested 915 people, Piñera introduced
legislation to permit use of the military to
"protect critical public
infrastructure," widely interpreted to mean
returning them to the streets without the need to
declare a state of exception as he was required to
do when he militarized the streets in anticipation
of the first protest action on October 18.
Thereafter, for nine straight days the armed
forces operated alongside the police (carabineros),
using deadly force, torture, rape and other
extreme measures against the youth in particular,
who the president portrays as an enemy that has to
be defeated.
Over the past 10 days both Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch have released damning
reports documenting the brutality with which
Chile's police and military have attacked
protestors and others who simply happened to be in
the vicinity of street actions, both during and
after the lifting of the state of exception. In a
statement released on November 21 Amnesty
International wrote:
"'The intention of the Chilean security forces
is clear: to injure demonstrators in order to
discourage protest, even to the extent of using
torture and sexual violence against protesters.
Instead of taking measures to curb the very grave
human rights crisis, the authorities, under the
command of President Sebastián Piñera, have
pursued a policy of punishment for over a month,
adding yet more people to the staggering number of
victims, which is continuing to rise to this day,'
said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas Director at
Amnesty International."[1]
Then on November 26, Human Rights Watch issued
its report documenting similar police abuses and
violations of human rights as well as statistics
provided by different Chilean authorities. It
indicated that the Attorney General's office was
investigating 26 deaths that occurred during the
protests and cited a report of the Ministry of
Health indicating that emergency medical services
were provided to 11,564 persons injured between
October 18 and November 22. Of these, 1,200
sustained grave injuries. It said the use of
pellet guns aimed at people's faces was the
main cause of the more than 220 eye injuries
documented up to November 17, with 16 people
having lost sight in one eye and 34 having severe
eye injuries that could result in partial or total
blindness. Since then there are reports of people
having been blinded in both eyes and at least one
case of a young person whose eyes were physically
destroyed.
Human Rights Watch reported that police
detained more than 15,000 people from October 18
to November 19, and "held" an additional 2,000 for
violating the curfew imposed during the state of
emergency. It said as of November 21 the National
Human Rights Institute had filed 442 criminal
complaints with prosecutors on behalf of victims
for injuries, cruel treatment, torture, rape,
killings, and attempted killings allegedly
committed by security forces. It said there were
hundreds more who reported being subjected to
mistreatment and humiliation inside police
stations. Separately, Reuters reported on November
26 that prosecutors said they were studying 2,670
complaints of abuse by security forces.
The conclusion reached by Human Rights Watch,
widely considered to operate in tandem with the
U.S. State Department, was only that Chile was in
urgent need of "police reform," which no doubt
allowed Piñera to breathe a sigh of relief as he
already had his sacrificial lamb. The day before
he met with Human Rights Watch regarding its
recommendations, he fired his discredited Interior
Minister and cousin Andrés Chadwick, who already
bore political responsibility for the
extrajudicial assassination by police over a year
ago of Mapuche community leader Camillo
Catrillanca, and more recently referred to
protesters as "criminals." On November 27, Chile's
House of Representatives voted to impeach Chadwick
as well.
In spite of everything to which they are being
subjected, Chileans have not been cowed and
continue to come out into the streets in large
numbers to fight for their just demands, including
punishment of those responsible for the harm
inflicted on so many citizens, reparations for
those killed and injured, and for the convoking of
a constituent assembly that empowers the people to
write and approve a new constitution for the
country to replace the one currently in force. The
current constitution was imposed by the Pinochet
dictatorship, enshrining the neo-liberal economic
and social model they reject.
Bolivia
 Mass demonstration in El Alto,
Bolivia, November 16, 2019.
The week that ended November 23 was marked by a
massacre in which at least 10, mainly young men,
were shot and killed by state security forces who
attacked a peaceful blockade at the Sekata gas
plant in El Alto. Witnesses have said they believe
many more were killed and their bodies simply
disposed of by state forces to reduce the number
of deaths reported. The gas plant blockade was set
up as one of many on roads around the country that
formed part of the nationwide resistance to the
coup. It prevented fuel from leaving the plant to
supply the nearby capital city, La Paz.
 That week was also
marked by large daily mobilizations around the
country of outraged Bolivian working people and
families demanding justice for those murdered in
El Alto and a similar massacre perpetrated the
week before against workers supporting Evo Morales
in Cochabamba. That massacre took place just one
day after the self-proclaimed "interim president"
Jeanine Áñez issued a decree exempting members of
the armed forces from criminal responsibility for
actions carried out in the course of
"re-establishing public order." Adding insult to
injury, a large funeral procession in which
grieving people were carrying the coffins of those
killed in El Alto, was attacked and forcibly
dispersed with tear gas.
Those bearing the brunt of the repression --
which has to date included over 30 documented
killings, hundreds of injuries and over a thousand
detentions and disappearances -- are Indigenous
youth, campesinos and other working people whose
organizations are the main base of support of the
country's rightful president, Evo Morales. The
dictatorship, calling itself an interim
government, meanwhile has issued warrants for the
arrest of Evo and other leading members of the
Movement Towards Socialism (MAS) on invented
charges of sedition, terrorism and the instigation
of criminal acts. That is on top of the mayors and
other local elected officials affiliated with MAS
already forced out of office and/or detained
during the coup. It is being described by people
on the ground in Bolivia as a generalized witch
hunt.
Media censorship is part of the mix. Two days
after the El Alto massacre, on which it reported
extensively, TeleSUR received notice from the
state-owned telecommunications company Entel that
its signal was being taken off the air effective
immediately. RT en
español has since been told by its
private provider to expect the same as of December
2. Similar attacks on national and international
media organizations and journalists are reported
as being widespread, with Bolivians being accused
of sedition if they dare to present the coup
forces in a negative light.
For more than a week now negotiations have been
taking place in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies
of the Plurinational Legislative Assembly of
Bolivia on legislation proposed by the MAS
majority to constitute new national and regional
electoral tribunals and to call a general
election. Agreement was reached and the Exceptional
Temporary Electoral Law for the Realization of
General Elections was promulgated on
November 23. Currently the imposter president Áñez
and the legislature are engaged in the process of
naming (in her case) and electing (in theirs) new
electoral authorities. They will have 120 days to
call an election once the new national and
regional tribunals are established and have drawn
up a calendar for their work. Neither Evo Morales
nor Álvaro García Linera are permitted to stand
for re-election.
Complicating the ability of other MAS members to
exercise their right to participate in the
election, or politics generally, is the fact that
passage of a companion law to guarantee the
constitutional rights of all Bolivian citizens is
being blocked by Áñez, who contemptuously refers
to it as an "impunity law." The legislation would
outlaw arbitrary detentions and political
persecution, including those her coup government
has been carrying out from day one, and which
those behind her have no intention of stopping.
One need only recall how effective "lawfare" was
at keeping Lula out of the last presidential
election in Brazil, and the fact the same is being
attempted against former President Correa of
Ecuador.
On November 26 the Commander in Chief of the
Armed Forces presented Áñez with its Great
Military Merit award and conferred on her the rank
of captain general for services rendered. For her
part of the show, Áñez said she was grateful to
the armed forces for not hesitating to join the
coup and that their presence contributed to
"pacifying" the country. She assured the commander
that in spite of the temporary nature of her
"mandate" it was her intention to restore to the
military the role and prestige that has always
characterized them and would work with friendly
countries to bring back the highest level of
training programs for them. A day later it
was announced that Bolivia had restored diplomatic
relations with Israel.
Also on November 26, a national assembly of
social movements in resistance to the coup d'état
was held in Cochabamba at the headquarters of the
coca growers' federation, of which Evo is the
president. There, a resolution was adopted which,
among other things, reaffirmed participants' moral
and material support to their brother Evo Morales
Ayma, President of the Plurinational State of
Bolivia; reaffirmed the ongoing state of emergency
and announced a temporary halt to their protest
actions to see if the coup government honours its
signed commitments and other agreements entered
into with mobilized social sectors of the country;
called on the legislative assembly and executive
of the de facto government to immediately
approve the law guaranteeing the exercise of basic
civil, political and constitutional rights for
elected political authorities and union leaders;
demanded the immediate freeing of detainees and an
end to all illegal persecution and detentions; and
committed themselves to unity in the political and
social struggle for social justice.
The vice-president of the host organization, the
Six Federations of the Trópico
de Cochabamba, said there was a whole strategy in place
to make the MAS lose the next election. Given
the difficult situation, he called on all
sections of the party to prepare to fight the
elections without wearing the movement down in
protests and blockades. An emergency
meeting of the MAS has been called for this
weekend to discuss who will be its candidates.
Colombia
Bogotá, Colombia, November 21, 2019.
The huge demonstrations that have taken place
daily in the capital city of Bogotá and other
parts of Colombia since November 21 are said to
have reached dimensions not seen in decades. What
started out as an initiative mainly of the
country's trade union centrals, students and
pensioners to hold a one day national strike to
demand an end to the neo-liberal paquetazo
(package) of austerity and privatization measures,
rampant corruption and unfulfilled commitments of
the Duque government, soon took on wider
dimensions, with tens of thousands continuing to
take to the streets and banging on pots day and
night. People are demanding an end to the
criminalization of protest, that the military be
removed from policing and that the hated riot
squad be disbanded; that the government take
action to end the impunity for the rampant
killings of social leaders and former FARC
guerrillas; and that it implement the peace
agreement with the FARC and re-open negotiations
with the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Teachers call for the riot squad to be disbanded,
Bogotá, November 27, 2019. Banner reads: "We did
not choose to be teachers to see our students die"
The straw that broke the camel's back regarding
the riot squad was its killing of an 18-year-old
student who was shot in the head with a projectile
-- all of it captured on video. The killing has
sparked outrage in the country. Dilan Cruz was due
to graduate from high school on November 25 and
had joined the protest to oppose the underfunding
of public education after being denied a loan he
applied for to be able to attend university. One
of his friends told Colombian daily El Espectador
that "'we were marching and the ESMAD threw stun
grenades and tear gas canisters at us. Dilan went
to the front to kick back a tear-gas canister,
because it had landed next to old people, that's
when he was shot at, they say it was a rubber
bullet,' his friend added." Forensic reports later
said it was a beanbag filled with lead pellets
shot at close range. He was the fourth person to
be killed by security forces during the protests.
But the repression carries on. Duque, like his
equally unpopular Chilean counterpart Piñera,
hopes he can weather the storm by using force,
buoyed by the pat on the back he got from U.S.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo earlier this week
who congratulated him over Twitter for his
handling of the protests.
On November 28, those demonstrating in Bogotá
were joined by members of the Indigenous Regional
Council of the department of Cauca (CRIC). Members
of their Indigenous Guard plan to converge on the
capital city from different parts of Cauca in the
coming days to add their voices to the demands
being raised by others.
Ninth consecutive day of protests, Bogotá,
November 29, 2019.
Hands Off Dominica!
The latest target of Organization of American
States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro
appears to be the Caribbean island state of
Dominica, where a general election is scheduled to
take place December 6. Dominica's Minister of
Foreign and CARICOM Affairs, Francine Baron,
informed a special meeting of the Permanent
Council of the OAS on November 19 that the
opposition United Workers' Party, which obstructed
attempts to discuss proposals for electoral reform
earlier as requested, was at the last minute
spreading lies about general unrest and lack of
safety on the island. At the same time it is
trying to incite violence itself to create the
impression the country is in chaos and
ungovernable and that conditions do not exist to
hold the election. In an interview with teleSUR on
November 27 Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit left
little doubt that the foreign agents egging on the
opposition were the U.S. and OAS. He said:
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit
|
"They [the OAS] are targeting certain member
states. Dominica is one such country that they're
targeting and my government is one such government
that they are targeting. So it is not about free
and fair elections -- it is not about the
electoral process. [The OAS] have waited for this
opportunity to implement this strategy, so, it is
something that has been in the making for three or
four years," he stated.
Skerrit went on to say that he believes the main
motivating factor behind the OAS crusade to
delegitimize his government is to punish it for
consistently voting against non-interference in
the region, and more specifically, against OAS
resolutions on Venezuela.
Minister Baron informed the OAS in her
presentation that Dominica plans to invite
CARICOM, the [British] Commonwealth, the UN and
the Carter Center to observe its election and was
open to including the OAS. But she asked it first
to issue declarations condemning all use of
violence in this and any election and calling for
all parties to refrain from statements that could
be construed as interfering in the sovereign
affairs of countries. And in the case of member
states that do not implement OAS recommendations,
against deeming their elections not to be free and
fair.
Baron said she was containing her outrage at the
attempts to destabilize Dominica and the election
just as it has been making a huge effort to
overcome the terrible effects of Hurricane Maria
and get the country back on its feet,
acknowledging the assistance received from many of
those in the room.
Addressing a rally of his supporters on November
23, Prime Minister Skerrit emphasized that
Dominica was not for sale and nobody can tell it
what to do, repeating several times, "Hands off
Dominica!" He reminded Dominicans that there was a
dangerous situation in the region with the
imposition of an unelected "government" and coup
attempt in Venezuela and a coup in Bolivia, both
of which Almagro supported. He said the fight this
time is not about himself winning re-election but
standing up for the country against foreign
interests that care nothing about the people but
seek to take control of the country.
The just stand of patriotic Dominicans, as
expressed by Prime Minister Skerrit and Minister
Baron, has received the support of the Bolivarian
Alliance of the Peoples of Our America (ALBA-TCP),
which in its statement of November 21 expressed
its members' "uneasiness in face of the statements
by the OAS Secretary General, Luis Almagro, who
pretends to impose an Electoral Mission of the
aforementioned Organization in Dominica, which
constitutes not only an intolerable act of
interference in Dominica's internal affairs, but
also an unacceptable overreach in the exercise of
his functions." The statement went on to refer to:
"The controversial performance of the most recent
OAS Electoral Observation Mission in Bolivia,
plagued by actions of doubtful political
impartiality, which severely question its
technical authority and openly discourages its
intervention.
"[...] In that sense, the ALBA-TCP member
countries warn and denounce before the
international community, and in particular the
Caribbean community, the application of the same
format of violence and death used in Bolivia,
against the Commonwealth of Dominica whose
purposes and objectives seem to be aimed at
forcing an unconstitutional change of the
government of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit."
In its statement of support, CARICOM reminded
that no member state has the obligation to invite
the OAS to observe its elections. Other Caribbean
leaders, including Gaston Browne, Prime Minister
of Antigua and Barbuda and Ralph Gonsalves, Prime
Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines also
spoke out in support of the Dominican government's
stand. Prime Minister Gonsalves added that
the OAS and its Secretary General, Luis Almagro
were enemies of the democratic and progressive
forces of the continent.
Paraguayan Youth Prevent OAS Secretary General
from Speaking
 Earlier this month
social, political and student organizations took
the wind out of Luis Almagro's sails by preventing
him from speaking at Pacific University in
Asunción where he was supposed to deliver an
address on "Democracy and Development." As the
vehicle carrying him approached the meeting venue
people carrying signs and flags surrounded it and
shouted that he was not welcome, that he was
responsible for the coup in Bolivia and had blood
on his hands. Almagro thought better of trying to
proceed under the circumstances and left without
getting out of the vehicle.
Note
1. The full report can be
seen here.
Dear Minister Champagne:
Unifor strongly condemns the military coup in
Bolivia that saw the recent ousting of
democratically elected President Evo Morales.
We are dismayed that the Canadian Federal
government has chosen to support the interim
leadership of Jeanine Áñez Chávez -- a
representative from a party that received only
four per cent of the vote in the latest October
elections, and whose support is derived largely
from the backing of the Bolivian police and
military. We are also troubled given Áñez's
hostile and discriminatory anti-Indigenous
remarks, especially in a country where more than
half the population is Indigenous.
As Bolivia's first Indigenous President, Morales
made significant progressive economic and social
policy changes that have resulted in strong
economic growth, drastic reduction in rates of
poverty and overall improvements of human rights.
However, we have seen how actions of independent
states with socialist policies often provoke the
ire of corporate interests and Western countries
such as the United States, which has a long
history of Latin and South American government
intervention and ousting democratically elected
leaders by way of violent military coups.
We are now once again witnessing waves of
violence and atrocities rock Bolivia, along with
deaths of protesters who are resisting the
usurpation of their democratic process. With Áñez
recently making changes to allow security forces
to be protected from prosecution in order to quell
protests, we will only see a further escalation of
state violence and repression. By not condemning
these actions as a coup -- actions contrary to the
fundamental principles of democracy -- Canada is
complicit in these human rights violations.
In an effort to understand the current and
evolving situation, Unifor dispatched its Director
of International Department, Mohamad Alsadi, to
Mexico City in order to meet with President
Morales directly. This meeting helped to solidify
our support and solidarity with the people of
Bolivia.
Unifor urges the Federal government to publicly
condemn the coup and reject Áñez's illegitimate
interim position. We demand the safe passage and
return of Evo Morales to his home country, and to
let Bolivians exercise their own democratic right
in choosing a government through a new round of
elections -- elections Morales himself initially
agreed to before being forced into exile. We also
encourage you to visit and dialogue with Evo
Morales directly, as we have done, to receive a
firsthand account on what has transpired in
Bolivia and areas in which Canada can provide
support. Canada cannot proclaim to support
democracy while also enabling a repressive
military dictatorship to unfold and go
unchallenged. We trust you and your government
will reverse course and stand by the people of
Bolivia.
Please also see these links to statements from
other like-minded organizations:
https://www.ituc-csi.org/Bolivia-crisis-must-be-settled-at-the-ballot-box
http://www.industriall-union.org/industriall-condemns-the-coup-in-bolivia
https://www.ueunion.org/statement/2019/ue-condemns-coup-in-bolivia
Sincerely,
Jerry Dias
National President
cc: The Right Honourable Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau
- Workers' Party of Brazil -
Dear comrades,
On behalf of the Workers' Party, we thank you for
all the support you have given us over the past 18
months as we fought for the freedom of our great
friend and leader, Luís Inácio Lula da Silva.
 Your friendship and
solidarity throughout this period have helped us
to continue the victorious campaign: Lula is free!
And his return represents the strengthening of our
daily struggles for a better Brazil, for a better
world.
Our next challenge is to prove Lula's innocence
in all the legal proceedings against him. After
all, he remains a victim of lawfare and is under
constant threat because these legal actions have
not yet been overturned and his political rights
have not been restored.
We are showing Brazil and the world that the only
reason for these proceedings is to block the
struggle for a more just and democratic country.
Justice for Lula! Lula is innocent!
Gleisi Hoffmann
National President
Monica Valente
Secretary for International Relations
- Cuban Ministry of Public Health
-
The government of the Republic of Ecuador has
reported the decision to terminate, and not renew,
six collaboration agreements signed with the Cuban
Ministry of Public Health.
Cuban medical cooperation in Ecuador began in
1992. In June of 2006, a cooperation agreement was
signed for the launching of "Operation Miracle"
with the participation of 153 professional
collaborators. Through this program 168,543
surgeries were performed, including 4,609 to
remove cataracts, and 118,575 for pterygium. In
January 2009, on the occasion of an official visit
by then President Rafael Correa Delgado, the
Framework Agreement on Cooperation in Health
between the two governments was signed. On June 11
of the same year, the Inter-institutional
Cooperation Agreement was signed by then
Ecuadorian Vice President Lenín Moreno Garcés and
the Ministry of Public Health of Cuba, for the
realization of a psycho-social, pedagogical, and
clinical genetic study of people with
disabilities, known as the Manuela Espejo
Solidarity Mission. Through this program, 825,576
persons were assisted, of whom 35,257 were
provided neurophysiology or otolaryngology
consultations. Some 21,062 patients underwent
clinical genetics studies.
In 2013, a contract was signed with the
Ecuadorian Social Security Institute (IESS)
through which 293 Cuban doctors of different
specialties provided medical assistance in 52 of
this Institute's units.
Cuba has provided assistance in emergencies and
disasters in Ecuador: in 1986 due to heavy rains,
in 2001 due to a dengue epidemic, and to assist
victims of the earthquake that occurred on April
16, 2016.
Since the beginning of Cuba's medical
collaboration in this country to date, a total of
3,565 health professionals have provided their
services in Ecuador. Some 6,749,666 medical
consultations have been provided, 212,360 surgical
interventions, 3,548 births assisted, and 100,084
vaccinations administered.
At all times, Cuban health professionals have
faithfully performed the role entrusted to them by
Ecuador's health system, in strict compliance with
the signed agreements' stipulations.
Recent campaigns by the U.S. government to
discredit and sabotage the international
cooperation that Cuba provides in the field of
health in dozens of countries, cannot obscure this
data, that demonstrates the altruistic spirit,
effort, and solidarity of Cuban collaborators.
Currently, the medical brigade in Ecuador
includes 382 professionals, present in 23 of the
country's 24 provinces.
Cuban collaborators will return to the homeland,
having made a meritorious contribution to the
noble effort to ensure medical attention to the
Ecuadorian people, in accordance with the
principle of universal health coverage promoted by
the World Health Organization. Cuban professionals
provided access to specialties which were
previously of limited availability within the
Ecuadorian health system, as more than 400,000
professionals in this sector have voluntarily done
in 164 countries, since 1963.
The Ministry of Public Health of the Republic of
Cuba reaffirms the desire to continue providing
collaboration for this sister people, which ceases
at this time as a result of a decision by the
Ecuadorian government.
The peoples of Our America and the rest of the
world know they can always count on the humanist
and solidarity vocation of Cuban professionals.
- Yenia Silva Correa and
Germán Veloz Placencia -
These past few days, doctors lending their
services in Bolivia and Ecuador have returned to
the homeland, leaving behind their patients,
families with few resources, but very grateful to
those who treated their ailments, living as
neighbours in their communities.
"We have lived days of deep sadness, of
harassment, of physical mistreatment," said Dr.
Nirza García Valdés, a General Surgery specialist,
who worked in the Bolivian department of Santa
Cruz, referring to the period immediately
following the coup against President Evo Morales
Ayma.
"But even in the moments of greatest danger, we
did not weaken. We stayed in our positions until
the last moment, supporting the health of the
sister Bolivian people until it was no longer
possible to continue," said García, a native of
Bayamo, in the province of Granma.
"We return victorious. We do not feel defeated.
We come with our heads held high, with our mission
accomplished, because no coup, nor any regime that
may take charge of Bolivia's fate, can erase our
impact.
"The lives saved are there, the grateful patients
are there, and the results achieved by Cuba and
its international collaboration will always be
there."
Alfredo Escobar Bernal, gastroenterologist,
thanked the Cuban government for not abandoning
brigade members to suffer the consequences of the
coup in Bolivia on their own.
When the coup was consummated, he explained, he
was in Santa Cruz and lived moments of
uncertainty, along with other colleagues, given
the tension that eventually triggered very serious
confrontations among Bolivians.
"There were situations in which we felt the
support of people who recognize the value of Cuban
collaboration, but at other times, supporters of
the coup took advantage of our presence to defame
Evo Morales and his government.
"I had no doubt that, at all times, we were
protected by our country's authorities through
diplomatic channels, and by personnel responsible
for the medical mission. They were always aware of
our safety."
As of November 18, 431 health professionals had
returned to the country from Bolivia, with the
arrival of another group expected shortly. Also
returning are members of the Cuban medical brigade
in Ecuador, where the government cancelled the
bilateral agreement in this sector.
Earlier this month, before the UN General
Assembly, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez
Parrilla clarified that our country's health
collaboration programs, which are facing attacks
by the current United States administration, are
serving "the neediest communities, based on the
solidarity and completely voluntary disposition of
hundreds of thousands of Cuban professionals;
conducted as established in cooperation agreements
signed with the governments of these countries;
and have enjoyed, for many years, the recognition
of the international community, of this
organization itself and the World Health
Organization, as an outstanding example of
South-South Cooperation."
Actions
in Canada
Ottawa-Cuba Connections held its annual general
meeting on November 20, where it reviewed the
various events it has organized in the past year
to express friendship with Cuba. An ongoing
activity is the pickets held in front of the U.S.
embassy on the 17th of every month to express
support for Cuba and to denounce the inhuman
blockade by the U.S. against the Cuban people.
 In this respect,
Ottawa-Cuba Connections was honoured to have the
Cuban Ambassador to Canada, H.E. Josefina Vidal,
come to speak at its general meeting. Ambassador
Vidal addressed what was on everyone's mind, that
is, the new difficult situation the Cuban people
face with the abrupt end of the normalization of
the relations initiated by the Obama
administration, the destruction of the progress
that had been made and the announcement on an
almost weekly basis of measures, unprecedented
both in scope and aggressiveness, that make life
harder for the Cuban people. She explained that
the U.S. was attacking sectors of the economy
which are important for Cuba in terms of
generating revenue, for example, the tourism
industry. This involves the cancelling of
U.S.-based cruises, the banning of licences that
permit people-to-people activities, and the
cancellation of direct flights from the U.S. to
nine destinations in Cuba, with the exception of
Havana.
The recent activation of Title 3 of the Helms-Burton
Act is particularly aimed at stopping
companies from doing business with more than 220
Cuban entities, many of them hotels. In September,
the U.S. blocked oil shipments to Cuba, leaving it
with only 60 per cent of the fuel it needed for
the economy. The Cuban government took measures to
overcome this problem and minimize its impact on
the population. It was overcome, in part, by
reducing urban and inter-provincial transportation
for a period of time. Normal conditions are being
re-established.
The ambassador explained that the U.S. is
resorting to tactics adopted in 1962 by the
Kennedy administration when the blockade began,
with the aim of making life so unbearable for the
people that they would revolt and bring about
regime change. She said that Cuba has always been
its own model and has learned to deal with the
most difficult situations, such as the Special
Period in the 1990s when 75 per cent of Cuba's
trade collapsed with the demise of the Soviet
Union. She said the U.S. cannot accept countries
which are sovereign and independent, but the
resilience of the Cuban people is such that the
attempts of the U.S. will not succeed and the
Cuban people will prevail.
When asked what countries can do beyond the
massive UN resolutions whereby the vast majority
of the world's countries reject the blockade as
being an attack on the human rights of the Cuban
people, she said that countries must stand up to
the U.S. and not accept the extraterritoriality of
their laws. She gave the examples of the Caribbean
nations of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad
and Tobago, which in 1972, not long after
achieving their independence, established
diplomatic relations with Cuba, a courageous break
from U.S. dictate. Even though these countries are
small, this did not stop them from taking this
important stand, she pointed out.
The ambassador also said that Canada and Mexico
have stated that they will defend their interests
in Cuba against Title 3 of the Helms-Burton
Act. She also pointed out that dialogue with
the Canadian government had resolved certain
problems and has led, for example, to the partial
reopening of the Canadian visa service in Havana.
In this respect, she said that as the year was
coming to an end, the situation with the Canadian
government in diplomatic terms was good.
The discussion also touched upon the situation in
Latin America and South America and the struggles
of the people and how events -- such as the
struggle of the people against the coup in Bolivia
and that of the Chilean people -- are important to
Cuba, as the struggle is one and the same.
On Sunday, November 17, nearly 200 people from
the Haitian community in Montreal and their many
allies walked the streets of Montreal to denounce
the interference of foreign powers, including
Canada, in Haiti and their support for the corrupt
government of Jovenel Moïse. The action, organized
by Solidarité Québec-Haiti, was also aimed at
highlighting the heroic struggle of the Haitian
people for their right to be. The slogans Justice! Dignity!
Reparations! resonated throughout the
march.
Many interventions were made both at the
beginning and at the conclusion of the march,
which ended outside of the Haitian consulate. All
spoke with one voice to denounce foreign
interference in Haiti. The Haitian people are not
miserable and enslaved, they pointed out. They are
a proud and dignified people and are very capable
of leading their country. What prevents them from
doing that are corrupt governments imposed by
neo-liberal powers. Repeatedly, the slogans and
interventions denounced the so-called saviours
with their self-serving aid aimed at imposing the
enslavement of the Haitian people. "We are here to
defend the just cause of the Haitian people. There
are countries -- such as the United States, Canada
and France -- who say that we have chosen the
government in place. That's not true. We did not
choose it. The Haitian people have been in the
street for over two months. Over 300 people have
died. Schools are closed. And here Canada
continues to say that we elected them. They are
false friends and we do not need friends like
that," one of the speakers said.
 Another speaker
said, "We want to condemn the Canadian
government's dirty role in Haiti and its
hypocrisy. It financed the election in Haiti with
its millions of dollars, totally interfering in
the affairs of a country, while during the federal
election here, it repeatedly warned about the
dangers of foreign interference in the election.
In 2004, it was part of the coup, along with the
United States and France, against President
Aristide. Foreign policy does not belong to us and
does not represent us. It's up to us to decide
what kind of relationship we want with other
countries. We have a responsibility to respond to
Canadian foreign policy at a time when the
government is interfering against Bolivia,
Venezuela and others."
Tribute was paid to the youth, women and workers
who have died since the beginning of the uprisings
in Haiti, as well as to all those who died under
Duvalierism. "Today is the third edition of
Duvalierism. We have a responsibility. We cannot
remain silent because some people are taking
advantage of that silence. We must tell those who
represent us here in Canada that when you have
influence, show that you are Haitians," said
Frantz André, one of the organizers of Solidarité
Québec-Haiti. He greeted the Haitian youth of
today who are fighting and providing hope.
Several spoke to salute the battle of Vertières,
on November 18, 1803, whose 216th anniversary
was celebrated the day after the march. That
battle, led by Jean-Jacques Dessalines to free the
Haitian people from slavery and put an end to the
colonial power meant the rout and the defeat of
the Napoleonic army. It signified the elimination
of slavery and led to the proclamation of Haitian
independence and the formation of the first black
republic in the world, the Republic of Haiti on
January 1, 1804. Today, that battle continues.
Another speaker asked: "Are the Haitian people
entitled to health, education and dignity? Yes.
This is what we are demanding of those imperialist
powers who support the government in Haiti and
deny us all forms of humanity, who deny the right
to be of human beings, just like all the peoples
of the world. As long as the [Haitian] people are
deprived of their humanity and their dignity, we
must continue the fight. Why is Jovenel Moïse
still in Haiti? It's because he supported and
continues to support those foreign powers who do
not want change in Haiti. The Haitian people have
the right to dignity, the right to be masters in
their own homes and the right to sovereignty. We
have the right to demand it and to demand that
foreign governments -- such as the Canadian,
French, and American governments -- not interfere
in the internal affairs of our country. They
interfere and after that they say that we are
responsible for the situation in Haiti; that it is
we, the Haitian people, who are corrupt. That's
what's called "development aid" and behind that
whole masquerade are the hands pulling the strings
of misery in Haiti. The Haitian people are not
responsible. We must continue the fight to the
end. Long live the struggle of the Haitian
people!"
An activist invited all the protesters to a
viewing of Elaine Brière's "Haiti betrayed"
on November 24 at 6:00 pm at La Maison
d'Haïti. The film deals with the role of the
Canadian government in Haiti. It's an opportunity
to learn about and continue to discuss and
exchange on Canadian foreign policy, which must
take a new direction.
 
Coming Events
Toronto
Sunday, December 1 -- 5:30
pm
Trinity Bellwoods Park (in
front of the statue of Simon Bolivar)
Montreal
Sunday, December 1 -- 1:00
pm
Metro Guy-Concordia
Outaouais
Wednesday, December 4 --
12:00 pm
CEGEP de l'Outaouais, 333
Boul. Cite des jeunes
Co-organized
by the Cegep de l'Outaouais Student
Association
and the Outaouais-Cuba Friendship Association
(To access articles
individually click on the black headline.)
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