People Before Profit blog

CPUSA condemns Gaza attacks

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 10:00:00 +0000

The Communist Party USA (CPUSA) emphatically condemns the continuing Israeli air strikes in Gaza, which have left hundreds dead and over a thousand wounded. The hundreds of Israeli air strikes have been carried out with a total disregard for the safety of civilians and institutions and are the latest phase in a campaign to blockade the economy of Gaza and deny the people access to basic necessities.

Israel's disproportionate response to the resumption of the Hamas rocket firings into Israel after the six-month ceasefire agreement expired, dramatically underscored the Bush administration's sidetracking of diplomatic efforts and negotiations. In fact, the US government has provided the basis for Israel's military action with continued military aid and supplies.

The Communist Party of Israel has suggested that the current Israeli attacks are a demagogic move related to the current electoral campaign in that country, as well as perhaps being intended to present the incoming Obama administration with a fait accompli, making it more difficult for Obama to adopt a new approach to the Israel-Palestine issue.

The CPUSA denounces the Bush administration for the verbal and material support it is now rendering to the Israeli aggression. We condemn all attacks on civilians whatever the cause or intention. We call on all peace-minded people in the U.S. to demand an end to the Israeli air strikes, end threats of a ground assault into Palestine, along with an end to Hamas rocket attacks, and to call on the incoming Obama administration to make a radical change in US policy on the Israel-Palestine issue, and to pressure the Israeli government to return to honest negotiations toward a two-state solution.

TAKE ACTION:

1. Contact the White House to protest the attack and demand emergency negotiations for an immediate cease-fire. Call 202-456-1111 or send an email to comments@whitehouse.gov.

2. Contact your Representative and Senators in Congress at 202-224-3121.

3. Call upon President-Elect Obama to pursue a new U.S. policy toward Israel/Palestine and send a message at www.change.gov

4. Join one of the many local actions protesting the assault on Gaza.

EDITORIAL: Happy holidays

Mon, 22 Dec 2008 13:11:00 +0000

Happy holidays

This is our last print edition for 2008. Do not fear — we will be publishing online throughout the holiday season.

But we do want to take the opportunity to send a greeting to all our readers, wishing you happy holidays and a New Year full of victories for workers and the people everywhere.

This year will go down in history. Electing the first African American president is history-making. And what it took to accomplish that is history-making too: the unity — and struggle — of millions of ordinary Americans coming together to take back our country from the reactionary corporate Republican elite. This election will be remembered as a turning point, when the people collectively said “Enough” to this elite. Enough lies, looting of public treasure, wars, trampling the Constitution, racism, immigrant-bashing and discrimination. Enough!

The Obama campaign captured that mood and turned it into the biggest grassroots political movement in our lifetime — one that will continue in 2009 and beyond to help shape and carry out the new administration’s agenda.

2008 will also go down in history as the year the second Great Depression hit. Shaking the foundations of global capitalism, the crisis was sparked by the greed-driven subprime loans (targeting Black and Latino homeowners) and financial Ponzi-schemes by the major banks with government backing. At the same time, led by the labor unions and allies, an all-people’s fightback is under way, growing out of the historic election fight.

And a good thing, because these banks and Bushites are doing everything to try to derail the new “Yes We Can” people’s politics: assembling a $200 million war chest to prevent passage of the Employee Free Choice Act; blocking aid to the auto industry in order to bust the UAW and set labor back on its heels; raising the volume on anti-gay bigotry.

But the “Yes We Can/Si Se Puede” spirit has gone deep among the people. Witness the Republic Windows and Doors workers who showed that through unity we can win.

Here’s to hope, unity and change. Here’s to “the people united will never be defeated.” Happy holidays.

Ultra-right pushes Canada into political crisis

Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:18:00 +0000

Canada has been thrown into a period of intense political volatility as the three opposition parties in Parliament have rejected the governing ultra-right Conservative Party’s “mini-budget” response to September’s economic meltdown, and announced the formation of a coalition government ready to take power. Parliament is now suspended until January.

The crisis was sparked by the government’s fiscal update, on November 27, just a few days after Parliament reconvened from a Federal election where Steven Harper’s Conservatives were returned to power again holding a minority of the seats in Parliament.

Harper’s previous term was marked by a close affiliation with the Bush regime on most issues such as foreign policy, energy and democratic rights. Since their election in 2006, the Conservatives have accelerated the previous neo-liberal policies of the Liberals, implementing an agenda of privatization, cutbacks, deregulation, and militarization, and extending Canada’s involvement in the war in Afghanistan.

Canada has also seen record job losses with hundreds of thousands lay-offs in forestry and manufacturing. 70,000 jobs were lost in November alone.

Far from trying to remedy the situation, the Conservative’s called for a continuation of neo-liberal policies in their fiscal update, which did not included a significant ‘bail-out’ package for the economy, and instead severely constricted public servants right to strike and limited their pay, privatized public assets, attacked pay equity, and canceled the Party Financing Act, upon which the opposition parties largely depend for funding.

The mini-budget has been widely condemned by labor and progressives. “How does taking away public employee’s right to strike stimulate the economy?” asked Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Hours after the budget statement, the opposition parties made a surprise announcement that they would bring down the government and form a coalition.

Under Canada’s Parliamentary system, any party (or coalition) that can obtain the confidence of the house – through a majority vote on a “confidence motion” such as a budget bill – can ask the Governor General as the Queen’s representative to form a government. A coalition government at the Federal level is very unusual in Canadian Parliamentary history.

The proposed coalition would bring together the right-of-centre Liberals and the smaller centre-left New Democratic Party. The NDP would hold six ministerial seats within a twenty-four member cabinet. The coalition would not include the Bloc Québécois, which advocates for the sovereignty of Quebec people, but will receive their support on confidence motions for eighteen months.

The formation of a coalition has been enthusiastically welcomed by labor and progressive movements as a vehicle to remove the ultra-right Conservatives. Although there has been wide-spread debate on the left about the social democratic NDP partnering with the big business Liberals, tens of thousands of Canadians rallied in major cities in support of the coalition this past week.

In what is widely regarded as a desperate bid for power, the Conservatives have now dropped most points of their financial update and successfully asked the Governor General to suspend parliament until January, when they will put forward a new budget. They have also launched a desperate public-relations war.

Harper’s efforts have included buying TV ads, trying to shift public opinion with scare-tactics claiming that the coalition is anti-democratic, and by red-baiting the NDP as socialists (rather ridiculously since that party dropped its socialist “baggage” twenty years ago).

Disturbingly, the Conservative’s have also launched one of the most hostile attacks on the Québécois in recent years, characterizing the coalition as dealing with dangerous “separatists” in a negative appeal to the some of the worst sentiments of English-speaking Canada.

Harper’s attack has been seen as an affront by the Quebec people, who have long-standing grievances around the Canadian government’s failure to recognize their national status and right to self-determination. Even Quebec’s right-wing Liberal premier has criticized the Conservative’s comments as inflammatory. During the last election the Conservatives Party was most noticeably set-back in Quebec. Support for the coalition is also strongest there.

It remains to be seen whether the coalition will hold together, however, over the holidays. This week the largest party in the coalition, the Liberals, suddenly dumped their unpopular leader Stephan Dion, forcing his resignation on Monday. The Liberals are posed to replace him with right-wing and hawkish Micheal Ignatieff, as the other main contenders withdrew from the race the next day. Ignatieff is luke-warm about the coalition.

Either way, as Canadian journalist Naomi Klein said in a recent interview, “January [could see] a deeply chastened Harper… Best case scenario, we leverage his overreach, his attempt to use a crisis to push through his ideological pro-corporate agenda, to have a deeper democracy in our country.”

Any coalition government “would be highly susceptible to public pressure, and would open new doors to win pro-people policies” the Communist Party of Canada said in a recent statement, adding that “labour, Aboriginal peoples, youth and students, women, and other people’s movements and organizations will need to intensify extra-parliamentary mobilizations to demand real and immediate action from any new government.”

If Harper is not replaced in January, it seems likely the movement for the Conservative’s defeat will grow rapidly in a spring that now holds new possibilities.

Canada: Political crisis postponed

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 12:19:00 +0000

VANCOUVER, B.C. — A political standoff between the rightwing Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the opposition that would have seen the Liberal Party and center-left New Democratic Party (NDP) form a coalition government to replace the Conservatives, has been narrowly averted. Governor-General Michaelle Jean has granted the Conservatives a short reprieve by closing Parliament until Jan. 26.

Harper caused the political crisis when his government announced in late November that it would, among other things, terminate public funding for political parties and ban government workers from striking for three years. Harper also offered no plan to confront the growing economic crisis.

Canada’s economy is spiraling into a deep recession. The opposition Liberal Party, NDP and Bloc Quebecois, which hold a majority of seats in Parliament, planned to hold a non-confidence vote Dec. 8 that would have defeated the minority Conservative government. The opposition has 163 seats to the Conservatives’ 143. The Liberals and NDP would have then formed a coalition government, with the Liberals holding 18 cabinet posts and the New Democrats six. The Bloc, which is working for Quebec’s separation from Canada, agreed to back the coalition government for 18 months.

The Liberal-NDP coalition promises investment in infrastructure and social housing, aid to struggling industries, greater support for unemployed workers and funding for retraining.

But on Dec. 4, Harper asked Jean to close Parliament to head off the planned non-confidence vote and save his government from defeat. Jean agreed to give Harper breathing space and ordered Parliament shut down until Jan. 26.

Harper has backed down on his plan to end public funding of parties and ban public sector strikes and has promised to work with opposition parties and implement a stimulus program to counter the country’s deepening economic recession.

Both the Liberals and New Democrats have vowed to pursue a coalition government when Parliament reconvenes Jan. 27. The Liberals and NDP have launched an internet, TV and radio campaign to sell Canadians on the idea of a coalition government. Both parties are organizing rallies across the country. The Canadian Labour Congress is also supporting a coalition government, organizing rallies and launching its own media advertising campaign.

The Green and Communist Parties have launched campaigns to support a Liberal-NDP coalition government. Green Leader Elizabeth May met with the Liberal, NDP and Bloc leaders, vowing her party’s support.

According to the Communist Party of Canada, a coalition government between the Liberals and NDP would offer opportunities for progressive change. “A new coalition government would be highly susceptible to public pressure, and would open new doors to win pro-people policies,” the Party’s Central Executive said.

The Conservatives have launched their own media campaign to discredit such a coalition. Harper has chided the Liberals for working with leftists and separatists, saying his government’s fate should not be decided until it has presented an economic stimulus package on Jan. 27.

If a coalition government comes to power in January, it will be the first time the Social Democrats have achieved power at the federal level. The NDP, able to win power in certain provinces, has always sat in opposition federally. Because the NDP would be a key player in the coalition, it would be in a position to force the Liberals to implement progressive measures.

The Liberal Party always campaigns from the left during elections while it governs from the right when in power. Previous Liberal Party governments have, among other things, gutted the country’s unemployment insurance program, introduced the North American Free Trade Act and worked with the U.S. and France to overthrow the elected Haitian government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2004. Some Liberal Members of Parliament publicly oppose forming a coalition with the NDP, and instead advocate cooperation with the Harper Conservatives. A Liberal caucus insider told the Globe and Mail newspaper that “there is growing unease in the party with the accord reached between the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois.”

NDP leader Jack Layton promises that a coalition government would “create jobs, protect pensions and retirement, and lay the foundation for the green economy of tomorrow.”

If the opposition holds a non-confidence vote when Parliament reconvenes, the Governor-General has the option to hand power to a Liberal-NDP coalition government or call new elections.

tpelzer @shaw.ca

EDITORIAL: Focus on policy

Sat, 06 Dec 2008 08:12:00 +0000

The process of governing has begun for President-elect Barack Obama, as the economic crisis deepens and a bloody attack in Mumbai, India, puts terrorism on top of our headlines.

Given these enormous twin challenges, it is not surprising that he has put a priority on naming his top economic and foreign policy/national security appointees. These have been the focus of much commentary and spin. Those on the left who expected Obama would name left figures to top positions have been disappointed. Some are ready to write off his presidency before it has even begun. But such expectations were sorely misguided to begin with.

Obama was elected with a strong mandate to turn away from the Bush administration’s far-right policies. But to consolidate his victory and move ahead, his administration must build a strong record of accomplishments, working with a Congress in which Republicans, though weakened, continue to exercise considerable leverage, and responding to concerns of the 46 percent who did not vote for him. This requires considerable tactical skill and thoughtfulness. It’s entirely logical and sensible that Obama would pick figures from the broad political center for Cabinet seats requiring Senate confirmation and other prominent positions.

“It’s not the personnel, it’s the policy,” observed Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, speaking about the economic crisis. “And on this, Obama has been clear. He’s announced a massive recovery plan based on putting people to work with public investment in areas vital to our future.

“Obama is choosing experienced hands for the crisis, trusting that their experience does not impede the new thinking needed to get us out of this hole. He’ll set the direction. And so far, he’s on course.”

Robert Gard Jr., a retired Army lieutenant general who heads the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and former Rep. Tom Andrews, director of Win Without War, wrote at Huffington Post, “Those of us eagerly awaiting relief from the debacle called the Bush administration should avoid getting swept up the in DC parlor game of who is getting what position in the new administration and focus instead on the fundamental changes we need the Obama administration to start making. In short, ‘It’s the Policy, Stupid!’”

As Obama himself has emphasized, the grassroots base that elected him will make the difference in what can be accomplished.