October
17, 2020 - No. 39
50th
Anniversary of the Proclamation of War Measures
in 1970
Honour
to Those Unjustly Imprisoned During the 1970
"October Crisis"
Rally of 1,500 in
Vancouver, October 19, 1970, one of many actions
across the country
supporting the Quebec people's struggle and
opposing imposition of the War Measures Act.
•
Courageous
Resistance to Military Occupation and
Attempt to Isolate
Quebec
-
Christine Dandenault -
• Film Les Ordres
by
Michel Brault (1974)
Plundering the Public
Treasury to Pay the Rich
•
Governments
Give Millions to Privately-Owned
U.S. Ford Motor Company
- Workers' Centre of
CPC(M-L) -
• Sustaining
Maximum
Private Profit with Public Money
- K.C. Adams -
• The
Billionaire Ford/Firestone Family Empire
• Pay-the-Rich
Programs
for Electric Vehicles
Alberta
• Criminality
of
Privatization in Health Care
- Barbara Biley -
Bolivian Election on
October 18
• Oppose
Foreign
Interference in Bolivian Election!
Let the Bolivian
People Decide!
• Zoom
Meeting Held on Upcoming Bolivian
Election
Canada-Cuba Friendship
•
Successful
Fundraising for Cuba's Efforts to Combat
COVID-19
Venezuela
• Letter
to
the Peoples of the World
- Nicolás Maduro
Moros, President of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela -
India
• Millions
Protest Dispossession of Small
Farmers
- J. Singh -
50th
Anniversary of the Proclamation of War Measures in
1970
Youth fill Paul
Sauvé Arena in Montreal in support of Quebec
national
liberation on the eve of the declaration of the War Measures Act
in
October 1970. A number of the youth in attendance
are among those
arrested in the raids which follow the Act being
invoked.
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the
proclamation of the War
Measures Act by Pierre Elliot Trudeau and
his Liberal
government, the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist) salutes
all those who were unjustly imprisoned and
persecuted on that occasion
and all who fought militantly in defence of
democratic rights and
freedoms and who, to this day, continue to uphold
the right of Quebec
to self-determination, up to and including
secession if the Quebec
people so decide. Unless the Canadian federation
is a free and equal
union of all its members, including the Indigenous
peoples, where
sovereignty is vested in the people, the
oppressive Anglo-Canadian
state in the service of U.S. imperialism will
continue to launch acts
of state violence based on racism, anti-worker and
anti-communist
ideology and pose a danger to the peoples of this
land, no matter what
their national origin, beliefs, language, gender,
age or ability. And
this is what it is in deed continuing to do today.
Victims
of the persecution under the War Measures Act
and
the special measures taken before and after
include many CPC(M-L)
members who spent months in jail along with many
others arrested at
that time. An Interpol warrant was even issued at
the time for the
arrest of the Party's leader Hardial Bains against
whom several
assassination attempts, frame-ups and other acts
of political
persecution were also organized under the CIA's
Operation Chaos,
including depriving him of citizenship for 30
years.
CPC(M-L)
vigorously participated across the country in
organizing Canadians to
oppose the use of the War Measures Act and
arbitrary measures and the violence of the state.
In Quebec, Party
members organized without letup for the freedom of
the political
prisoners.
Freedom
by Marcel Barbeau (click to enlarge).
|
On October 16, 2010, a
commemorative monument in honour of those unjustly
imprisoned during
the 1970 October Crisis was erected in Montreal
outside the premises of
the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society. The idea of the
monument is simple,
said René Bataille, then-President of the
Fondation Octobre
70 which raised the funds for the monument and
presided over its
inauguration.
"People whose names have been
engraved into the steel were jailed under
Trudeau's War
Measures Act. That is why the monument's
column is surrounded
by prison bars. The work of art, entitled Freedom,
by [painter and sculptor] Marcel Barbeau blends
well with the
monument's concept. Freedom is imprisoned during
the October Crisis.
The bird on the sculpture represents Quebec. It is
imprisoned. However
it would not take much for it to fly off and be
free."
Of
note is the fact that the list of persons
imprisoned by virtue of the War
Measures Act was never made public.
Journalists and
historians who have looked into the events
estimate that between 500
and 1,000 arrests were made, and between 10,000
and 15,000 warrants
served.
When the monument was inaugurated Bernard
Landry, former Premier of Quebec, said:
"We have a
duty to remember and express gratitude towards
those who were the
victims of an injustice which has brought shame to
Canada."
"Does
a democracy brutally send 500 people to prison
without charge, without
them having broken the law? This is not forgotten
and must not be
forgotten. Abuse of power is always possible,"
Landry said.
"Surely
we all know that the best way of honouring those
unjustly imprisoned is
to bring the country's project to term," he
concluded.
Three
public commissions of inquiry (Duchaîne, Keable
and McDonald)
found a total lack of justification for the
adoption of such extreme
and unprecedented measures as the suspension of
civil rights at a time
of peace. It should be remembered that the October
14-15, 1970 Trudeau
cabinet meetings revealed that the federal caucus
of ministers was
perfectly aware that the police would arrest
hundreds of innocent
people without expecting to find the two FLQ
hostages.[1]
The commissions
brought to light the many illegal and even
criminal activities of the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Quebec soil.[2]
This
year, on October 1, in honour of the 50th
anniversary of the
proclamation of the War Measures Act in
1970, the
Parti Québécois presented a motion to the
National Assembly of Quebec demanding an official
apology from the
federal government for the imprisonment of
hundreds of Quebeckers
during the October crisis. The Liberal Party of
Quebec refused to
support the initiative.
The motion was handed over
to journalists the same day by the interim leader
of the Parti
Québécois, Pascale Bérubé.
It reads:
"That the National Assembly recall that
50 years ago, in October 1970, no less than 497
Quebeckers were
unjustly arrested and imprisoned and 36,000 people
were the subject of
an unreasonable search because of their
independentist political
allegiance.
"That the National Assembly demand an
official apology from the Prime Minister of Canada
as well as the
complete opening of the archives of all federal
institutions involved
in these sad events, in order to shed light once
and for all on this
troubled period in our history."
At the press
briefing, Bérubé explained that on the 50th
anniversary of this troubled period in Quebec and
Canadian history, the
tabling of this motion is both "a duty to remember
and a necessity for
all those who have seen their rights trampled by
the War
Measures Act."
CPC(M-L) concurs. Open the
archives and right the wrongs committed at that
time.
Honour
to all those unjustly imprisoned during the 1970
"October Crisis" and
to their spouses, parents, children, friends and
colleagues who were
caught in the maelstrom.
Red salute to all who
continue to fight for the rights of all under all
conditions and
circumstances.
Notes
1. La Presse,
January 31, 1992.
2. TML Weekly
Supplement
on 50th
Anniversary of the War
Measures Act Invoked in 1970, October
10, 2020.
- Christine Dandenault -
Demonstration against the War Measures Act
at
the University of Calgary, October 27, 1970.
When
the government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau enacted
the War
Measures Act
on October 16, 1970 and the army was deployed in
the streets of Ottawa
and
Montreal before that and arrests began, opposition
and resistance was
immediate across the country. Students and youth,
intellectuals, working people and other
collectives in their
thousands protested all across the
country. The following
account is taken from newspapers published by the
Communist Party of
Canada (Marxist-Leninist) and its affiliated
organizations at the time
the events were taking place.
On the eve of the
coming into force of the War Measures Act,
3,000
youth and students gathered at the Paul Sauvé
Arena in
Montreal to salute the spirit of uncompromising
struggle against the
fascism of the government and to support new
developments in Quebec's
national liberation struggle. The next day,
October 16, 1970, more than
300 students gathered to support the people's
struggle for national
liberation and to publicly oppose the military
occupation. More than
35,000 copies of a statement issued by the
Communist Party of Quebec
(Marxist-Leninist) was widely distributed, calling
for opposition to
the War Measures Act. "The working class
moves into
the political arena and begins to take independent
action. All these
things showed the weakness of the Canadian
compradors and thwarted all
their plans. In order to suppress the rising
struggle of the people,
they have now unleashed fascism on the Quebec
people. These measures
have not worked," the statement reads.[1]
Rally at the University
of Montreal, October 1970.
"In Montreal,
students from McGill University, the University of
Quebec, the School
of Fine Arts, the University of Montreal and
various CEGEPs rose in
militant protest. Many students voted for a
boycott of classes and at
the Université du Québec, students organized a
sit-in for several days, defying fascist
intimidation by the
authorities," People's Canada Daily News
reported
on October 27, 1970.[2]
"On October 19, in Vancouver, British Columbia,
and Regina,
Saskatchewan, mass demonstrations were organized
in support of Quebec
patriots and to denounce the War Measures Act
[...]. One thousand students participated in the
rally in Regina. After
the rally, 300 activists marched angrily to
government buildings where
they organized a powerful demonstration. In
Vancouver, 1,500
demonstrators heard speakers at the courthouse
supporting the struggle
of the Quebec people and calling for total
opposition to the measures
imposed by the Trudeau lackey regime. Students
from the University of
Calgary did the same. After the rally, 300
students marched angrily to
central Calgary in an act of defiance to express
their militant protest
against the government's fascist measures."[3] In Ottawa, on
October 16, a meeting of more than 300
french-speaking students from
the University of Ottawa voted by a two-thirds
majority to strike
against the War Measures Act.
A
People's Canada Daily News report states:
"Students from
across the country defended their right to publish
the FLQ manifesto in
their student newspapers. In Alberta, authorities
[...] at the
University of Lethbridge banned the distribution
of The
Meliorist newspaper and threatened the
publishers with
expulsion. In Halifax, commercial printers refused
to print St.
Mary's Journal because it contained an
editorial protesting
the government's attempt to 'institutionalize the
suppression of
information in Canada.' In Guelph, the RCMP seized
a mock-up copy of a
special issue of The Ontarion on the
struggle of
the people of Quebec and the War Measures Act.
Other student newspapers, such as the University
of Toronto's Varsity,
published the manifesto and various articles
quoting statistics
exposing the oppressive condition of the Quebec
people and describing
their long history of struggle for national
liberation."[4]
"On
Friday, December 25, more than 1,000 members and
sympathizers of
various democratic and patriotic groups in
Montreal held a
demonstration in front of the Parthenais Detention
Center to denounce
the imprisonment of revolutionary fighters and
Quebec patriots," PCDN
reported. The action was led by the Committee for
the Defence of
Democratic Rights (CDDP) founded in 1968 during
the uprising of workers
and students to defend them against ongoing
persecution.[5]
One
year later, on the anniversary of the use of the War
Measures
Act, the newspaper Le Québec populaire
reported that in Montreal, on October 16, 1971,
"more than 7,000 people
demonstrated on the first anniversary of the
imposition of the fascist
'war measures' law on the people of Quebec. The
law was denounced as a
dirty attempt to crush revolutionaries and
patriots and to stifle the
national liberation struggle."[6]
On the same day, in Toronto, a "rally took place
at Nathan
Philips Square, followed by a demonstration along
Toronto's main
streets to the U.S. imperialist consulate."[7]
The
articles in the Party press testify to the failure
of attempts by the
Trudeau government and police forces to isolate
the people of Quebec
and crush their resistance struggles. Ongoing
demonstrations took place
to demand the release of the political prisoners,
and the affirmation
of the rights of workers, students, Indigenous
peoples and the Quebec
people themselves.
Since then, one event after another has
shown that
the striving of the people of Quebec and all of
Canada to gain control
of decision-making power over all matters that
concern them cannot be
resolved by the police and military powers.
Political problems require
political solutions, which the ruling elite
refuses to provide. The
arrangements where power remains in the hands of a
privileged few are
unsustainable because they are self-serving and
because the narrow
private interests keep fighting for more. The
people cannot agree with
that.
Today, no problem can be solved
without the full participation of the people of
Quebec and Canada at
the centre of decision-making. To think otherwise
is to maintain
illusions about the current outdated and bankrupt
political process.
Today, in this time of pandemic, the problem
remains. On
October 1, the Quebec government issued an
order-in-council imposing
new containment measures in response to the
numerous COVID-19 outbreaks
occurring in Quebec. These were accompanied by new
policing powers
announced by Premier François Legault and Security
Minister
Geneviève Guilbault. How can the response to a
pandemic and
all the social, medical, educational, mental
health and containment
issues be police powers? This response serves the
pursuit of the
neo-liberal agenda by governments in the hands of
a financial
oligarchy. It stands against the solutions being
put forward by the
thousands of workers in health, education and
throughout the society
who are on the frontlines and working to resolve
the crisis in their
favour.
Today, as before, these real problems can
only be solved with the full political and
ideological mobilization of
the human factor/social consciousness, not with
the criminalization of
different collectives, including the youth. The
people have never given
up the struggle to vest themselves with the
power to decide
all the issues that concern them. They expressed
this vigorously during
the War Measures Act in 1970 and affirm it
today in
the extremely difficult and complex conditions of
COVID-19 as they
confront a governance that blocks the solution of
problems and once
again resorts to criminalizing dissent.
Notes
1. "The
Quebec People's Unarmed Struggle Will Become
Armed!" Statement by the
Communist Party of Quebec (Marxist-Leninist), People's
Canada
Daily News, October 17, 1970
2. "Canadian Workers
and Students
Stand Firmly Behind Quebec People," People's
Canada Daily News,
October 27, 1970.
3. "The Resistance
Movement Will
Develop People's Democratic Power," People's
Canada Daily News,
October 27, 1970.
4. "Canadian Workers
and Students
Stand Firmly Behind Quebec People," People's
Canada Daily News,
October 27, 1970.
5. "CDDP Leads Mass
Demonstrations
in Montreal," People's Canada Daily News,
January
20, 1971.
6. "More than 7,000
people
demonstrate for the struggle for national
liberation and against
fascism," Le Québec populaire, October
18, 1971.
7. "Demonstration in
Toronto
against American imperialism and in support of
the national liberation
struggle of the Quebec people," Le Québec
populaire,
October 18, 1971.
Image from the
film Les
Ordres
Michel Brault's film Les Ordres (The
Orders) was made four years after the events
triggered by the
proclamation of the War Measures Act in
October
1970. The film focuses on the repercussions of the
War
Measures Act, and more precisely on the
resulting arbitrary
arrests. At the time of the making of the film,
the frustration among
the people arising from the events of October 1970
was still palpable
as a result of the flagrant violation of the
individual freedoms of
citizens. The film deals with this legislation and
the reaction of the
government of Pierre Elliot Trudeau to trample the
rights and freedoms
of citizens in the name of public safety. The
message conveyed by
Michel Brault is clear. He explains that he
"didn't want to make a film
about the October Crisis, but rather about
humiliation."
To
view the film click
here.
For
a trailer of the movie Les
Ordres with English subtitles, click
here.
Plundering
the Public Treasury to Pay the Rich
- Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) -
At a dual ceremony in Ottawa and Oakville, Prime
Minister Trudeau and
Premier Ford announced on October 8, a massive
pay-the-rich scheme to
give jointly $590 million to the U.S.-owned global
Ford Motor Company.
Each leader heralded the pay-the-rich giveaway as
meeting the demands
of the U.S.-dominated global financial oligarchy
that otherwise would
refuse to continue production in Ontario.
The
political elite insist that any change from
carbon-based propulsion of
vehicles to battery-electric ones must be done
under the current
imperialist direction of the economy and serve
those in control. They
argue the change must be done under the dictate of
the oligarchs who
own the vehicle production and distribution
enterprises and serve their
private interests. The working class is denied any
say or right to
intervene and discuss an alternative direction to
stop paying the rich
and build independent vehicle production and
distribution public
enterprises under the control of Canadians.
Those
who work for the global oligarchs are told to
accept their terms of
employment without negotiations and to applaud
their employers' plunder
of the public treasury. If they obey and accept
their subservient
position in the social relations with their
employers, they are told
jobs and security will be theirs and that these
are dependent on
ensuring the amassed wealth and private
enterprises of the global
oligarchs. No other direction for the economy is
contemplated or
discussed.
Working people are told that their
futures can only be guaranteed if the power,
privilege and wealth of
the global oligarchy are consolidated with money
from the public
treasury and without opposition from working
people.
The ruling elite
willfully ignore what the social relations between
humans and humans
and humans and nature reveal. This includes but is
not limited to the
class divisions in society and the opposing aims
and interests of the
imperialists and working class. Within the current
mode of production
the working class exists in an unequal social
relation with those who
own and control the economy. The workers produce
the value and the
imperialist owners expropriate it for their
private use. The position
of ownership comes with control over the economy,
its enterprises and
social product, which means in effect control over
the actual producers
and their fate.
The relations also reveal that a
change in the method of production or social
product does not change
the unequal social relation between workers and
the imperialist owners
as it does not change the mode of production and
the social class in
control. The aim of the imperialists for maximum
private profit from
the expropriation of the value workers produce
remains the same whether
the vehicles workers produce are gas or
battery-operated. The
dictatorship of the oligarchs over the working
people and society
remains the same. The oligarchs decide everything
and workers are told
to obey.
But the social relations also reveal the
striving of the workers to exercise control over
the decisions which
affect their lives. This is why the most vicious
offensive is the state
disinformation that with their obedience, workers
can secure jobs and
benefits but only if they do not cause a fuss and
only if they do not
question the pay-the-rich schemes and the
consolidation of control,
power, wealth and privilege this brings to the
oligarchy. Otherwise,
the global oligarchs threaten to destroy the
workers' plants,
livelihoods and local economy as they have done on
countless occasions,
such as GM in Oshawa and Ford's threats to shut
its plants in Oakville
and Windsor. Canada as a whole has suffered
destruction of the
manufacturing sector as the global oligarchs have
moved production
elsewhere in their global empires.
The federal and
Ontario governments and other proponents of this
deal speak on behalf
of the rich and their plutocracy. The "investment"
in fact secures the
fortunes of the oligarchs who own and control
Ford. Without the work of
the working class -- the jobs they do -- no value
would be created for
the owners to expropriate. For the imperialists,
the only reason to
produce gas or electric vehicles is to profit from
what the workers
build. For the Ford oligarchs, a century of
getting richer from workers
building gas vehicles must become another century
of getting richer
from workers building electric vehicles. It is all
the same to the
rich, as long as the working class keeps producing
value that they can
expropriate and as long as the state keeps giving
them public money to
bolster their profits.
To prettify the unequal
social relation with talk of "securing jobs"
insults the working class
and people of Canada. The challenge workers face
to defend their rights
and claims and bring into being a new direction
and aim for the economy
under the control of the actual producers is to
raise the demand to Stop Paying the Rich; Increase
Investments in Social Programs.
Who
Said What
The Trudeau government statement
announcing the Ford pay-the-rich scheme:
"A
repurposed battery-electric vehicle (BEV)
production plant for the
Oakville Assembly Complex is in line with the
Government of Canada's
commitment to sustainable growth. [...] Together,
we continue to help
build a Canada that is healthier and safer,
cleaner and more
competitive, and fairer and more inclusive for
future generations. [...]
"The Government of Canada and the Government of
Ontario are
committed to working with Canada's automotive
partners, including Ford
and Unifor, to attract investment, including in
zero-emissions
technologies, and to ensure that our automotive
industry remains one of
the most competitive in the world."
And to this end
we do bequeath to you, the U.S. Ford Motor
Company, $590 million of
public funds.
Premier Ford hailed Ontario's
politics of bowing to the dictatorship and
pressure of the U.S.
imperialists declaring, "Together with our federal
partners, we are
proud to invest almost $300 million to support the
production of
next-generation, made-in-Ontario vehicles and
secure thousands of
good-paying jobs across the province for years to
come."
In
a statement, Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of
Finance wrote in defence of neo-liberalism and
Canada's position within
the U.S.-led imperialist system of states, "Our
government is committed
to making investments that create good middle
class jobs and give
Canada a competitive advantage in the clean
economy of the future."
Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science
and Industry
repeated much the same saying, "This investment
will position Canada as
a global leader in battery-electric vehicle
manufacturing and secures
5,400 good, green, middle class jobs for thousands
of Canadian
autoworkers. [...] Ford Motor Company of Canada is
a vital part of
Canada's journey toward an electric future of
sustainable growth,
dependable jobs, and global leadership."
Ontario
Minister of Economic Development Vic Fedeli
congratulated the
tripartite arrangement under the dictatorship of
the global oligarchs
saying, "Bolstered by strategic government
partnerships, Ontario is now
at the leading edge. This ongoing collaboration
between industry,
government and labour will be essential as we face
the immense economic
challenges of COVID-19 and build for the future."
Jerry
Dias, National President of Unifor, who attended
the Ottawa
announcement said, "The Canadian government
understands that the auto
industry is essential to building back our economy
and the Prime
Minister must be commended for his vision and
leadership in making this
significant investment that will secure good jobs
for our members for
decades to come."
-
K.C. Adams -
What is this U.S. Ford Motor Company
that must be given public money or else it will
close its Canadian
plants? Has it changed its spots and become a
charitable project
spreading peace, goodness and light? Has it
diverted from its
imperialist and militarist roots both serving and
profiting from war
and the war economy? No, nothing has changed. The
billionaire
Ford/Firestone family empire remains in control
and is richer and more
powerful than ever. The global U.S. Ford Motor
Company continues to
suck blood and profit from the working class and
demand public money
from the state wherever it operates.
The imperialist
economy has degenerated to the point where maximum
profit for private
enterprise is sustained with public funds within a
war economy and
blackmail of the working class. No large
investment is made or private
enterprise operates without public funds
augmenting its profits.
Every jurisdiction is blackmailed to offer the
most public
funds and benefits, if it wishes to have a certain
private enterprise
invest or continue in operation. Of course, if an
investment and
pay-the-rich scheme are consummated, jobs are a
result as no enterprise
operates without workers. In the case of the
recent federal and Ontario
handout to Ford of $590 million, the smokescreen
to fool the gullible
and disguise the plunder is the shift to a "green
economy" and the need
to be competitive in the global market.
Changes in
the productive forces and social product are
constant throughout
history and under imperialism any enterprise must
adapt to those
changes to be competitive. The U.S. Ford Motor
Company came into being
building motorized vehicles that replaced the
horse and buggy for
civilian and military use. In doing so Ford became
a dominant global
imperialist enterprise and its billionaire
oligarch owners seized
unparalleled power, privilege and control.
The U.S.
Ford Motor Company was instrumental in
concretizing the pay-the-rich
militarist economy during the economic crisis in
the 1930s and its
political expression in the national socialism of
the Nazis and
fascists in opposition to the revolutionary
advance of the working
class movement.
Today, the politics of national
socialism is not found within the crumbling nation
states of the early
twentieth century but as global neo-liberalism
within the U.S.-led
imperialist system of states to make the rich
richer and more powerful
and privileged. The aim remains to make maximum
profit through the
plunder of global resources and working people.
The competition on a
global scale for the oligarchs involves massive
military preparations,
constant war, sanctions, blockades and
interference in the sovereign
affairs of others.
The neo-liberals
chant, "All power to the oligarchs to build a war
economy and
plutocracy to defeat our competitors in the market
through war and
plunder of public treasuries, and to suppress the
working class
movement for its rights, claims and emancipation."
Working
people must take sober stock of the situation and
build their own
independent organizations to defend their rights
and claims in the
present and prepare to take the economy and
society in a new direction
outside the clutches of the global oligarchy and
U.S. imperialism and
its war economy.
Workers do not need or want
plutocrats and oligarchs dictating to them how to
manage their
economic, political and social affairs. To
strengthen this journey
towards a new direction and emancipation, working
people must more
firmly raise the banner to defend their rights and
claims in the
present and demand governments uphold their social
responsibilities
towards the people and society or leave the scene
of history.
Denounce the plunder of the federal and Ontario
public
treasuries by the Ford oligarchs and their
political henchmen!
The U.S.
Ford/Firestone family billionaire members control
40 per cent of the
voting stock in the Ford Motor Company (FMC). This
allows them to
decide on members of the Board of Directors and
key executives. Voting
and non-voting shares are mostly institutionally
owned by imperialist
investment cartels such as The Vanguard Group
(5.82 per cent) and
Evercore Wealth Management (5.58 per cent).
William
Clay Ford Jr. is executive chairman of FMC. His
father was the last
surviving grandchild of Henry Ford. His mother is
Martha Firestone of
the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company that was
sold to Bridgestone in
1988 for billions of dollars.
FMC has 213,000
employees at 90 plants and facilities worldwide
(2008) with a global
gross income of $156 billion (2019) and total
assets worth $259 billion
(2019).
For its 2018 fiscal year, FMC listed the
following CEO pay ratio data on its annual proxy
statement to the
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Ford CEO James
P. Hackett pay for 2018 = $17,752,835;
Median U.S.
employee pay, including factory and office
workers, supervisors and
executives for 2018 = $64,316;
CEO to employee pay
ratio is 276:1.
The Ford Motor company employs
approximately 8,000 people in Canada at a vehicle
assembly plant and
two engine manufacturing plants, two parts
distribution centres, two
research and development sites, and three
connectivity and innovation
centres. Approximately 18,000 people also work at
more than 400 Ford
and Ford-Lincoln dealerships across Canada.
Three
Ford Plants in Canada
The Oakville Assembly
Complex in Oakville, Ontario has 3,550 employees,
which with the change
to electric vehicle production will decrease to
3,000.
The
Windsor Engine Plant in Windsor, Ontario has 600
employees and
the Essex Engine Plant also in Windsor has
780 employees.
The federal government has for
some years been paying point-of-purchase
incentives for electric
vehicles. The program is called Incentives for
Zero-Emission Vehicles
(iZEV). The incentives averaging $4,000 per
electric vehicle, are
direct government payments to the retail seller
and manufacturing
companies upon the sale or lease of qualifying
electric and hybrid
vehicles. The program to reduce the market price
for the buyer is open
to individuals and businesses with a maximum 10
units per organization.
Transport Canada writes, "The federal (iZEV)
Program provides
point-of-sale incentives on eligible zero-emission
vehicles. To do
this, participating dealerships agree to lower the
purchase or lease
price of eligible zero-emission vehicles and apply
to the iZEV Program
for a grant on behalf of the purchaser or lessee."
The
government says that as of August 31 of this year,
over 56,000 payments
to companies have been made through the iZEV
program totalling more
than $239 million. Many global vehicle companies
have received payments
from the program.
Tesla, Inc. so far has been the
biggest recipient of the federal government
electric vehicle subsidies,
pocketing over $60 million. Tesla massaged the
rules with a Canada-only
electric vehicle model priced at $44,999 to
qualify for a $5,000
rebate. Transport Canada writes that the $5,000
amount is available for
"a vehicle with six seats or fewer, where the base
model (trim)
Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) is
less than $45,000." The
U.S. Tesla cartel has no production facilities in
Canada. All its
vehicles and other products are made in the U.S.,
Europe and China.
The Quebec, BC and Ontario governments also
introduced a
comparable pay-the-rich scheme.
The Quebec program
offers, in addition to the federal amount, a
payment of up to $8,000 on
the purchase or lease of a new electric vehicle.
The program is
scheduled to conclude at the end of the year.
The
BC government has a "CleanBC Go Electric
Incentives" program managed by
the New Car Dealers Association of BC. The
government incentive offers
to pay the seller up to $3,000 on the purchase
price of a qualifying
new electric vehicle, plug-in hybrid electric
vehicle and hydrogen fuel
cell vehicle. The BC payment to the seller can be
combined with the
federal iZEV scheme and the BC SCRAP-IT program,
which pays up to an
additional $6,000 to the seller when an older gas
vehicle is replaced
with the purchase of a new electric vehicle, and
$3,000 when a
qualifying electric vehicle is purchased.
For
several years until September 2018, Ontario ran a
similar electric
vehicle pay-the-rich program with payments of up
to $14,000 per
vehicle. Dealers that had electric vehicles in
stock when the program
was discontinued and could not attract buyers with
only the federal
incentive reportedly transferred all their excess
inventories to Quebec
dealers.
Government Electric Vehicle
Infrastructure
In any sector of the modern
socialized economy, infrastructure as means of
production to support
the sector is crucial. The value from this
infrastructure should be
realized by the companies involved in the sector
as they use and
consume the infrastructure but this generally does
not happen.
Government pay-the-rich schemes abound both with
the production of
infrastructure and during its use and consumption.
The
Government of Canada has provided over $300
million to establish a
coast-to-coast network of fast chargers for
electric vehicles, natural
gas, and hydrogen refuelling stations and
continues at a rate of $75
million more per year. The government has also
provided the research,
demonstration, and development of next-generation
charging
technologies. Without this infrastructure
Canadians would not purchase
ZEVs.
Tax Write-Off for Businesses
Transport
Canada writes: "[The Trudeau government's] Budget
2019 proposed a 100
per cent write-off for zero-emission vehicles to
support business
adoption. [...] Where the capital costs for
eligible zero-emission
passenger vehicles (e.g., cars and SUVs) exceeds
$55,000, the 100 per
cent write-off will be limited to $55,000 plus the
federal and
provincial sales tax that would have been paid if
the vehicle was
purchased for $55,000." No mention is made of a
limit on the number of
vehicles that a company can claim for the tax
write-off.
All
these programs are aspects of the pay-the-rich
economy to support the
continued power, wealth and privilege of the
global oligarchs. These
programs suck value out of the economy and even
the country, such as
the $60 million the federal government has given
the U.S. Tesla cartel
under the iZEV pay-the-rich scheme. The working
class must expose and
denounce all these pay-the-rich schemes and demand
they be stopped.
The movement to stop paying the rich is a
necessary and
important part of the program of the working class
for a new direction
and aim for the economy to serve the people and
not the narrow private
interests of the global oligarchy.
Stop
Paying the Rich!
Increase Investments in Social Programs!
Alberta
-
Barbara Biley -
Alberta Health
Minister Tyler Shandro announced at a press
conference on October 13
that the government is proceeding with the layoff
of 11,000 health care
workers as a result of privatization of services
including laundry,
laboratories, food services and environmental
services. This
announcement is part of fulfilling the mandate
oligopolies in the
health sector have given governments to destroy
any vestige of a public
authority that acknowledges and upholds the
responsibility of the state
for the well-being of the people. This
restructuring puts all
decision-making and regulation into the hands of
the private interests
who provide "services" for profit with that profit
guaranteed by the
state from public funds. The announcement thus
reveals once
again the corruption and criminality involved
when it comes to the
privatization of health care among other social
programs and state
functions that have been or are being privatized.
Through
commercial contracts, the government hands over the service to the
private operator who sets standards on the basis of reducing "costs,"
including wages and the quality and quantity of goods and services and
is answerable only to shareholders and not to the people who are the
public authority it is duty bound to serve.
Privatization also destroys
the relationships within the health care system
and removes
decision-making from the front line to corporate
offices far away from
where health care is provided and with no
conception of the needs on
the front lines. Where cleaning is privatized, for
example, the
cleaner's work is assigned from a corporate
office. In an emergency,
for instance in an Emergency Department, a doctor
or nurse employed by
the health authority cannot ask a cleaner employed
by a private
enterprise to leave a routine task to disinfect an
area that is
urgently needed for patient care. Such a request
has to be communicated
to the office of the private enterprise where the
assignment may or may
not be communicated to a worker and certainly not
in a timely manner.
This is one of the greatest complaints that health
care workers have
with privatized services, that they destroy the
health care team which
is essential to patient care.
The mantra of the
cartel parties is that it doesn't matter whether
health care is
delivered by private enterprise or by a public
authority; all that
matters is that it be of good quality. But it is
precisely "good
quality" health care that is sacrificed in serving
narrow private
interests and eliminating the human factor from
any
decision-making.
When the private sector
provides housekeeping, working conditions and
wages of workers are
below the standard in the public system and the
quality of training,
equipment and supplies is reduced. A consequence
of the low wages and
poor working conditions is the constant turnover
of staff which makes
the shortage of trained staff even greater. A
study by public health
officials in British Columbia of an outbreak of C.
difficile which took
the lives of many patients in one hospital found
that the poor
standards and training and constant turnover of
staff were significant
contributing factors to the hospital's difficulty
in getting the
outbreak under control and to the lives
lost.
Workers
know that this is the case with privatized
housekeeping across the
board and that the same is true of other
contracted-out services.
Quality suffers and the public authority has no
control because that
has been handed over to the private
operator.
The
opposition of the people to privatization is so profound and the
announcement of privatization of health services in the middle of a
pandemic is so egregious that Health Minister Shandro had to pretend
everything is being done to look after the people. The Kenney
government has not only postponed the implementation of some measures in the
name of developing "business cases" for environmental and food services
in 2022 and 2023. In announcing the government's plans to further
privatize laundry and laboratory services, Health Minister Shandro
perfidiously highlighted the management positions which are being axed
as if this makes the dismantling of the healthcare system acceptable to
the workers -- both losing their jobs and those who have to make do
with a restructured system they have no role in setting up.
Minister Shandro said "The pandemic has changed
everything. As a result, AHS [Alberta Health
Services] has been directed to proceed carefully,
putting patient care
above all else. As a first step, AHS has been
directed to
eliminate a minimum of 100 management positions
and to proceed with
previously announced contracting work. This
approach will allow us to
strike the right balance between supporting the
COVID-19 response and
Alberta's challenging fiscal situation."
The
fact is that the plans that are being implemented
now are those that
have been on the government's agenda to pay the
rich all along. It is
shameless for Shandro to say that patient care is
being put above all
else. To proceed in this direction in the
situation where the health
care system and all the workers are under the
strain that the past
decades of neo-liberal wrecking have created, will
cause unimaginable
chaos and cost lives. It seems the calculation is
that the restrictions
imposed by the pandemic, alongside the legislation
that has already
been passed to criminalize anyone who interferes
with "critical
infrastructure," make this an opportune time to
proceed with this vast
destructive anti-social restructuring to
irreversibly change the health
care system.
The criminality
of privatization in health care was exposed by the
suffering and deaths
in long-term care homes in the first wave of the
pandemic, with the
worst situations and highest death rates in the
private-for-profit
homes. It is in this sector that the effects of
privatization and the
destruction of a public authority which takes
responsibility for
setting and enforcing standards are most
obvious.
No
measures have been taken to correct the situation,
and now COVID-19
cases are increasing again. The solution clearly
does not lie in
further privatization and governments giving more
money to the private
operators, which is what governments are proposing
and the "solution"
demanded by the private operators themselves.
Workers
and families have repeatedly proposed measures
that would change the
situation in long-term care, which are all based
on putting the needs
of seniors and the workers that care for them as
the aim. The
fulfillment of this aim requires an end to all the
pay-the-rich
measures and increased investment in long-term
care and all aspects of
the health care system.
These plans of the Kenney
government further reveal the need for workers and
their organizations
to take up the social responsibility that the
Kenney government is
abdicating, to denounce these plans and mobilize
public opinion against
the cuts to health care services and privatization
by putting forward
solutions to the problems in the health care
system that favour the
people and hold the government to account.
Bolivian
Election on October 18
Pickets
October 18
No
to Foreign Interference in the Bolivian
Elections!
Montreal
1:00-4:00
pm
In
front of the U.S. Consulate, 1134
St.
Catherine St. W.
Organized
by
Mouvement québécois pour la paix
Ottawa
4:30
pm
In
front of the U.S. Embassy, 490
Sussex
Dr.
Organized
by
ALBA Social Movements Ottawa
Following continuous massive protests by the
organized Bolivian people
in defence of their right to elect a president and
government of their
choosing, the elections, postponed three times,
will finally take place
on October 18. The postponements reflect the
efforts of the U.S.-backed
coup forces to suppress and attack the Bolivian
people who are fighting
to defend their democratic rights. To this end,
attempts were made to
annul the legal status of the Movement Towards
Socialism (MAS) with
warrants issued for the arrest of President Evo
Morales and other
leading members of MAS on invented charges of
sedition, terrorism and
the instigation of criminal acts. This is in
addition to the mayors and
other local elected officials affiliated with MAS
already forced out of
office and detained during the coup.
Inspired by a
U.S. goal to dominate the region and with the
direct intervention by
the Organization of American States (OAS), the
coup machinery was set
in motion with paramilitary groups kidnapping and
torturing elected
officials, burning public buildings, ransacking
President Morales'
home, attacking his ministers and holding their
families hostage to
compel resignations.
Canada's role in undermining
the constitutional process in Bolivia shows its
hypocritical face once
again. While pretending to be the greatest
defender of the rights of
Indigenous people and rules-based governance, the
Liberal government
was a direct participant with the U.S. and others
in the Lima Group in
the interfering activity of the OAS to overthrow
Evo Morales, the first
Indigenous leader elected as President of Bolivia
where Indigenous
peoples make up 80 per cent of the population.
It
is a fact that Canada financed the OAS effort that
discredited the
Bolivian Presidential election. Chrystia Freeland,
Canada's Foreign
Minister at the time, stated:
"Canada commends the
invaluable work of the OAS audit commission in
ensuring a fair and
transparent process, which we supported
financially and through our
expertise."
This is another example of the actions
of this Liberal government which claims to be a
paragon of "democracy"
and to follow "a rules-based international order."
In fact, it targets
independent-minded governments for destabilization
and regime change.
Since ousting President Morales, the coup regime
welcomed back
to Bolivia the U.S. Agency for International Aid
and Development,
joined the anti-Venezuela Lima Group and also
expelled 700 Cuban
doctors, which has exposed the people to further
dangers from the
COVID-19 pandemic. The coup government's
corruption and racist policy
towards the Indigenous peoples of Bolivia resulted
in a lack of
sanitary supplies, and diagnostic and clinical
tests. Today, Bolivia is
among the hardest-hit countries with a surge in
deaths related to the
pandemic. It is one of the top five countries with
the most infections
and COVID-related deaths.
We wholeheartedly support
the striving of the Bolivian people to elect a
president and government
of their choosing and to give themselves the ways
and means to continue
solving the social problems they encounter, not
least of which is the
dire health situation.
On the occasion of the 75th
anniversary of the adoption of the founding
Charter of the United
Nations, we demand that the Canadian government
adhere to its
principles and objectives. This includes the
equality of all nations,
big or small, and their right to determine their
own affairs. Canada
must uphold the standards established by
international rule of law
enshrined in the Charter which the world's people
still hold dear.
Full support to the Bolivian people's striving
for empowerment!
No to all attempts to crush the Bolivian people's
struggle for
democracy!
ALBA Social Movements Canada,
October 14, 2020
ALBA Social Movements
Canada -- Ottawa Chapter held a picket at the
Bolivian Embassy on October 14, 2020, to demand
there be no foreign interference
in the elections on October 18, 2020. The
organization denounced the
Canadian government's role in undermining the
constitutional process in
Bolivia and demanded that the Bolivian people's
right to elect a
government and president of their own choosing be
respected. After the
picket a letter was delivered to the Bolivian
Embassy fully supporting
the right of the Bolivian people to decide their
own future.
On October 11, ALBA Social Movements Canada
organized a zoom meeting to
discuss the situation in Bolivia on the eve of the
Bolivian general
election. Three presenters began the meeting:
Amancay Colque, one of
the founders of the Bolivia Solidarity Campaign in
London, England;
Katerina Pratt, a Bolivian solidarity activist
living in England and TML Weekly journalist on
Canada's foreign policy Margaret
Villamizar. A lively discussion
followed the presentation. For a recording of the
meeting click
here.
Canada-Cuba
Friendship
Members of the Henry
Reeve Brigade prepare to leave Cuba for South
Africa, April 25, 2020,
as part of their contribution to the fight against
COVID-19.
The Canadian Network On Cuba (CNC) informed this
week on its
successful Campaign to Support Cuba's Contribution
to the World's Fight
Against COVID-19. The CNC reports that it sent
$53,512 to Cuba.
"This is a significant contribution at a time of
uncertainties
in the national and international spheres. It
demonstrates your trust
in and commitment to Cuba's vision of public
health and its
international efforts to cope with COVID-19,"
Keith Ellis, Coordinator
of the Campaign, writes in a letter reporting on
the Campaign. The
letter says:
"Cuba and two
other countries, Russia and China, are making it
clear that
economically deprived sectors of humanity will be
included among those
users of their vaccines against COVID-19. Cuba
collaborates with these
two countries in the production, packaging and
distribution of vaccines
against COVID-19, and that would probably ensure
Cuba's supply from
these sources. Nevertheless, the Cubans are
working to produce their
own safe and efficient vaccine for humanity and
for themselves, as well
they should, supported in part by their historical
research record.
"When the editors of Encyclopedia
Britannica tell you that Walter Reed was
a 'U.S. Army
pathologist and bacteriologist who led the
experiments that proved that
yellow fever is transmitted by the bite of a
mosquito' don't believe
them, despite President Trump's recent high praise
of the hospital
named after Walter Reed. The fact is that Carlos
Finlay, a Cuban
scientist, was the first to identify the Aedes
aegypti mosquito as the
vector of yellow fever, a disease that took a
heavy toll among the
patriotic Cubans who fought in their war of
independence from Spain.
Many American soldiers who intervened in the war
when it was about to
be won by these patriots also died from yellow
fever.
"The
properly named Carlos Finlay Institute became the
vaccine research
centre where a team of Cuban scientists, led by
Concepción
Campa, a true heroine of science, invented the
meningococcal B vaccine
that in the 1980s quelled a raging tide of
meningitis that was on a
course to destroying a catastrophic number of
young Cuban and other
lives. Some in North America came to prefer a
vaccine from Norway, a
fellow NATO member, to this safe and effective
Cuban one, but their
choice was soon withdrawn in the face of a torrent
of lawsuits brought
against the Norwegian makers for personal injury.
"The
outstanding work of Cuba's 'Henry Reeve
International Medical Brigade
Specialized in Disaster Situations and Serious
Epidemics' since the
outbreak of COVID-19 in the world is motivating
many individuals and
organizations to initiate and support campaigns to
nominate the Henry
Reeve International Medical Brigade for the Nobel
Peace Prize. We
strongly support the drive to give this important
recognition to a
group of perennial standard bearers for José
Martí's vision of melded science and tenderness.
"The
anti-COVID-19 fund remains open and we will
gratefully continue to send
collected funds to Cuba, but please reserve
something for a rainy,
windy day [to help with the damages caused by
hurricanes. --
TML Ed. Note].
"Thank you very much for
your solidarity and generosity."
To contribute to
the fundraising campaign, Support Cuba's
Contribution to World Fight
Against COVID-19: cheques should be made out to
the "CNC," with
"COVID-19" written in the memo, and mailed to:
c/o
Sharon Skup
56 Riverwood Terrace
Bolton ON L7E 1S4
Venezuela
- Nicolás Maduro Moros, President
of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela -
The anti-blockade law is
received by President Maduro, October 9, 2020,
from
the National Constituent Assembly following
its deliberations.
Brothers and Sisters:
I greet you
affectionately on the occasion of informing you
about the recent
actions undertaken by Venezuela to confront and
overcome the illegal
blockade that the government of the United States
of America has been
imposing against my country for almost twenty
years now, with special
radicalism during the last five years, leading to
serious effects on
the normal performance of the Venezuelan economy,
with subsequent
impact on the population's well-being.
In this
regard, I want to inform you about the approval of
very important
legislation that has been named "Anti-Blockade Law
for National
Development and the Guarantee of the Rights of the
Venezuelan People,"
which is focused on defending the patrimony,
sovereignty and dignity of
our Homeland as well as our people's right to
peace, development and
well-being.
It is a necessary legal response from
the Venezuelan State, in perfect harmony with
International Law, that
will allow for the creation of mechanisms to
improve the nation's
income and generate rational and adequate
incentives, under flexible
controls, to stimulate internal economic activity
and enter into
partnerships, through foreign investment, that
favour national
development.
A workers' assembly
approves the anti-blockade law as part of broad
consultations.
At the same time, in the area of politics, I am
honoured to
reiterate that in the face of the external
aggression against Venezuela
by the United States with its unilateral coercive
measures, our banner
is, and will continue to be, strengthening and
deepening our democracy.
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, preparations for
our
legislative elections on December 6, for which the
population will turn
out in massive numbers, to fulfill the
constitutional mandate of
electing a new national parliament, are moving
ahead steadily.
In this election, whose conditions were agreed to
with broad
sectors of the democratic opposition of my
country, over 90 per cent of
the organizations registered with the National
Electoral Council will
participate, for a total of 107 political parties
-- 98 of them in
opposition -- and over 14,000 candidates who will
compete to obtain one
of the 277 parliamentary seats.
The result of this
electoral race will undoubtedly grant more
strength to our nation and
to our people, who have resisted foreign
aggression with dignity and
firmness and despite everything, maintain their
spirit of love and
solidarity.
Compañeros
and compañeras, having
updated
you on these two elements of the real situation in
Venezuela,
allow me to share with you some information of
interest, to broaden the
range of your knowledge on the general context
that explains the
current reality of my country.
Since 2014, the
United States has approved a law and seven decrees
or executive orders,
as well as 300 administrative measures, which
together make up a
sophisticated policy of multi-faceted aggression
against Venezuela.
In five years, the blockade succeeded in cutting
off financing
to Venezuela, preventing it from accessing the
required currency to
acquire food, medicine, spare parts, and essential
raw materials for
economic activity. During that period, Venezuela
experienced the
sharpest fall in its external income in all of its
history, close to 99
per cent.
The United States has decreed a ban on
the commercialization of Venezuelan hydrocarbons,
its main export
product and source of tax revenues. In this
context, since the
beginning of the new coronavirus pandemic, on
different occasions the
United States has publicly boasted of having
assaulted ships bringing
Venezuela the required products to produce
gasoline and supply the
internal fuel market, aggravating even more the
economic situation.
Invoking this illegal regulation, the United
States has
confiscated money and assets from PDVSA, the
Venezuelan State oil
company, including several refineries on U.S.
soil, whose worth exceeds
$40 billion.
These legal instruments are the arm
that applies a cruel blockade against the
Venezuelan people, which
Alfred de Zayas, an independent United Nations
expert on Human Rights,
describes unequivocally as "crimes against
humanity."
In
this regard, in an investigation by the Center for
Economic and Policy
Research of the United States on the blockade on
Venezuela, the U.S.
economist Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the
United Nations
Organization on the Sustainable Development Goals,
determined that the
blockade against Venezuela is responsible for at
least 40,000 deaths in
my country, for which the sanctions must be
considered as a "collective
punishment of the Venezuelan people."
In a
surprising official statement in January 2018, the
U.S. State
Department admitted its illegal intentions:
"The
pressure campaign against Venezuela is working.
The financial sanctions
that we have imposed have forced the Government to
begin to default,
both in its sovereign debt as well as that of
PDVSA, its oil company.
And what we are seeing [...] is a total economic
collapse in Venezuela.
Therefore, our policy works, our strategy works
and we will maintain
it."
This is a confession of an international
crime, an act of economic savagery, a crime
against humanity, with the
only purpose that of hurting my country and the
people of Venezuela.
The illegal application of unilateral coercive
measures,
euphemistically called "sanctions," is a policy
repeatedly rejected by
the United Nations General Assembly, that is
contrary to International
Law and a violation of the United Nations Charter.
For
all the above-mentioned reasons, on February 13,
Venezuela went to the
International Criminal Court to denounce those
who, from the United
States, have committed these atrocious crimes
against humanity. I am
confident that sooner rather than later,
international justice will
look upon Venezuela with objectivity and will see
the great damage that
the United States has done to a peaceful, loving
and hard-working
people.
I want to express my appreciation for your
consideration in reviewing the content of
this letter, which I
hope has been useful in order to keep you
correctly informed on the
real situation of Venezuela, and at the same time
I would like to take
the opportunity to thank you for your permanent
solidarity towards
Venezuela. Together we shall overcome!
Sincerely,
Nicolás Maduro
Moros
India
- J. Singh -
Farmers' protest in
Punjab, September 2020.
Farmers in many parts of
India have mounted the barricades against the
policy of the central
government to pauperize them, force them into
debt, evict them from
their lands, drive them to commit suicide and hand
their lands to the
big corporations. "Haryana and Punjab are
boiling," reported a news
channel. In Haryana, the state unleashed its
terror on the farmers who
were demonstrating against the policies of the
central government.
In Punjab farmers stopped trains, sat on the
tracks and held
demonstrations to highlight their miserable
conditions due to debt. It
is a deliberate policy of the ruling elite and
their state to force
farmers to leave their lands by increasing the
prices of their inputs
and reducing the prices of their produce. Farmers
in Punjab are
indebted to the tune of Rs.88,000 crores
(CDN$15.844 billion). There is
no way they can pay this debt, which is why the
farmers are demanding
that the central state be thrown out of Punjab and
to regain control of
their land, water, grain, forests and other
resources. More and more
people are realizing that the central state is a
cause of their
misery.
All the governments in Punjab, no
matter which party, have long since become tools
of the central state,
which only serves the narrow private interests
represented by Adani,
Ambani, Tata, Birla and others. Farmers are also
organizing to stop the
bank employees in the villages from putting
notices of default on the
farmers' houses. Youth and students are joining
farmers in their
struggles for a better life. They are going from
village to village
discussing the problems that plague the farmers.
Punjabis
living abroad are also participating in these
struggles. For instance
they are asking those farmers who have less than
five acres of land and
have defaulted on their loan payments to send them
their information
and they will help them temporarily, to which
thousands of farmers have
responded. They are also pointing out to them that
the long-term
solution will only come when they throw off the
yoke of the central
state on Punjab and renew the social relations.
They are also pointing
out to farmers in other states that this is their
future as well if
they don't overthrow the rule of the ruling elite
and their central
state.
Once again the battle between Delhi and
Punjab is heating up. Just as in the past when
farmers and the
marginalized people rose up against Akbar,
Aurangzeb and the British,
Punjabis have been rising up against new
Aurangzebs in Delhi since 1947.
Naga leaders, who have been negotiating with the
Modi
government, are insisting on their own flag and
constitution. Nagas
have been fighting the colonial state since 1826
when they were
occupied by the British and have refused to give
up their sovereignty
since 1947 as well. Since then the colonial Indian
state has continued
to bomb them from the air, burn their villages and
churches, and
unleash state terror. They have refused to
surrender in spite of army
occupation and severe repression.
The monsoon
session of the Indian parliament began with the
government repeating
outright lies about the pandemic. It said that it
has no data on how
many migrant labourers died or how many doctors
also died fighting
COVID-19. It said that millions of young workers
left for their
villages due to "fake news" about lock down. As
usual, this talk shop
of the ruling elite is not going to address any
concerns of the people.
This is the central feature of liberal democracy.
In their talk shop,
the ruling elite joust with each other and lie to
the people. On the
day parliament opened, millions of workers took to
the streets and
declared September 17 National Unemployment Day,
while the government
celebrated Prime Minister Modi's birthday.
In many
parts of India a movement called Gram Sabha Adhikar
Jagrukta Abhiyan
(Village Empowerment Awareness Campaign) is going
on quietly at a
village level. People are discussing very
substantive issues such as:
"What is our vision for our village? How can we
bring it into being?
What are the hurdles in realizing this vision?"
Ordinary women, men and
children are discussing these important issues and
discussing
strategies, tactics and mechanisms to realize
their vision. This work
is inspiring because it sets down the building
blocks of renewal and
renovation.
Protest against farm
bills passed by central government, September 14,
2020.
(To
access articles individually click on the black
headline.)
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