People Before Profit blog

International notes

Thu, 27 Nov 2003 03:32:00 +0000

Africa: ILO summit vs. poverty

The International Labor Organization’s 10th African Regional Meeting, Dec. 2-5 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will project ways to build job opportunities and reduce poverty in Africa, the ILO said in a press statement last week.

The delegates from 53 African states will prepare for the Extraordinary Summit on Employment and Poverty Alleviation in Africa to be convened in Burkina Faso next year by the African Union.

Calling Africa “a continent in search of decent work,” the ILO said the continent has “the highest regional poverty level and the widest gap between rich and poor in the world.” Over 300 million people there live in extreme poverty with income the equivalent of one U.S. dollar per day, the ILO said.

The conference has three aims, the ILO said: eliminating barriers to Africa’s productive potential, promoting investments that will function within ILO principles of workers’ rights, and building opportunities for rural families.

Honduras, Nicaragua: Protest Powell’s visit

Indigenous people, students and other grassroots activists greeted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell with resounding protests during his visits to Nicaragua and Honduras Nov. 3 and 4.

Honduran President Ricardo Maduro was forced to apologize to Powell for the protesters’ chants of “Colin Powell, you’re a terrorist” and “Powell and IMF, get out of here!” – audible inside the government building where the two held a joint press conference. The demonstration was organized by the Civic Council of Grassroots and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), which demanded U.S. forces leave the Palmerola air base, and called for the return of Honduran troops from Iraq.

Some 5,000 Nicaraguan university students also marched to protest Powell’s stop over in that country. They demanded U.S. forces leave Iraq, and that the Nicaraguan government not approve proposed budget cuts for the universities.

Japan: Protests vs. troops to Iraq

On Nov. 16 the peace movement and the Japanese Communist Party demonstrated in a number of cities to oppose government plans to send units of the Self-Defense Forces(SDF) to Iraq, the JCP’s newspaper, Akahata, reported. As U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Okinawa for talks with Governor Inamine Keiichi, demonstrators from the Okinawa United Action Liaison Council assembled in front of the prefectural office to oppose the SDF dispatch to Iraq.

Among other cities where protests were held were Toyota City and Nagano, where JCP members gathered petition signatures at railway stations.

Akahata reported that in October and November the SDF and U.S. forces held large-scale joint exercises, under the new Japan-U.S. Guidelines for Defense Cooperation and war contingency laws – both designed to mobilize Japan for U.S. wars.

The maneuvers included live-fire exercises, and joint exercises with the U.S. Navy and Air Force.

Poland: Coal miners strike vs. closings

Thousands of Polish coal miners struck for 24 hours on Nov. 17 to protest the government’s plans to close four pits. Union leaders said the one-day action could be followed by a general strike unless a solution is reached.

An earlier protest brought thousands of angry coal miners to the capital city, Warsaw, in September.

Under the government’s plan, 8,500 miners would lose their jobs in a region where nearly one-third of workers are already jobless.

Overall, the proposed restructuring of the coal-mining industry would cost miners 25,000 of the industry’s present 140,000 jobs. The layoffs are part of Poland’s plan to cut spending and lower its budget deficit before it joins the European Union next May. But the layoffs and other austerity measures are very unpopular with the country’s working families, who were accustomed to full employment and benefits under socialism.

East Timor: NGOs demand fair boundaries

Some 100 non-governmental organizations from 18 countries have written to Australian Prime Minister Howard, demanding that he “play fair” with East Timor during negotiations on the sea boundary between the two countries.

During the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia, an agreement was made with Australia excluding from East Timorese territory the rich oil and gas deposits under the sea. The Australian government is continuing to use this agreement, which violates the international law of the sea, in negotiations with the newly independent government of East Timor. This deprives East Timor, whose people are among the world’s poorest, of resources estimated to be worth $30 billion.

The NGOs called on Australia to set a firm timetable to establish a permanent maritime boundary, and urged that East Timor be “treated fairly and as a sovereign nation, with the same rights as Australia.”

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (cpusainternat@mindspring.com).

International Notes

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 05:30:00 +0000

Lesotho: Strike leaders arrested

The two top leaders of Lesotho’s Factory Workers Union (FAWU) – Billy Macaefa and Willie Matheo – have been arrested following last week’s strike and protest demonstration, the United Nations’ Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reported.

On Nov. 10, thousands of workers marched to the headquarters of the Employers’ Association of Lesotho carrying a petition protesting a 5.5 percent wage increase offered by textile factories.

Alleging that the protest turned violent, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at the crowd. In the ensuing confusion, a woman was trampled to death, and a man reportedly died later in a hospital. Police then arrested the union leaders.

Calling the police allegations of property damage and public disorder baseless, the union charged police had failed to warn the protesters before opening fire, and said the union would sue the police for their unjustified attack.

Russia-China-South Korea:

Giant gas pipe planned

If the three governments involved approve a $17 billion joint pipeline project, Russia is expected to export a large amount of gas from its Siberian fields to China and South Korea, People’s Daily reported last week.

On Nov. 14 in Moscow, after eight years of evaluation and research, Russia’s RUSIA Petroleum, China National Petroleum Corporation and Korea Gas Corporation signed an International Feasibility Study (IFS) Report on the proposed pipeline. The three companies will submit the IFS report to their respective governments for approval before starting further commercial negotiations.

The nearly 5,000 kilometer pipeline, the longest of its kind in Asia, will link the Kovykta gas field in Irkutsk Oblast to Shenyang, Beijing and Dalian in China, and finally to Pyeongtaek in South Korea via a pipeline submerged beneath the sea. First delivery is expected in 2008.

Cuba: Development, not war

Welcoming participants to Havana for the 18th Conference of the Organization for Proscription of Nuclear Weapons in Latin America and the Caribbean (OPANAL), Cuba’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Fernando Remirez de Estenoz urged a massive shift of military funds to sustainable development, and pledged Cuba’s continued commitment to complete nuclear disarmament.

“How much could be done if just one part of the $849 billion annual military expenditure – almost half corresponding to just one country – were invested in [giving] attention to the 815 million people in the world suffering from hunger” as well as those in extreme poverty and deprivation, he said.

Remirez repeated Cuban proposals to place half of current world military expenditures in a U.N.-managed fund for sustainable development. He said that despite the pressures of the U.S. blockade, aggression and threats, Cuba’s military spending has fallen dramatically in the last decade, while spending has been maintained and increased for education, public health, social security and other priorities of the revolution.

Tunisia:

Hunger strike for civil liberties

Tunisian lawyer Radhia Nasrawi has been on hunger strike since Oct. 15 – the opening of Tunisia’s judicial year – to protest the Ben Ali regime’s repression of basic civil liberties of progressive forces including members of the Workers’ Communist Party of Tunisia (PCOT). Many PCOT members, including General Secretary Hamma Hammami, Nasrawi’s husband, have been imprisoned and tortured. Nasrawi herself has been under attack by the regime for her role as legal representative of those accused in many political cases in Tunisia.

Nasrawi’s hunger strike is receiving important support from progressive organizations. The head of the Tunisian Bar visits her every day, while local lawyers’ organizations, the Association of Arabic Lawyers and Arab Lawyers League based in Cairo have expressed their solidarity. Also backing her struggle are pro-democracy organizations including students, writers, women and many trade unionists and intellectuals.

Canada: Workers locked out

Dominion Stores closed all 15 of its stores in Newfoundland this week after the Canadian Auto Workers Union started rotating strikes, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Company.

Workers in Corner Book and Marystown walked off their jobs Nov. 16, the CBC said, and the company responded by shutting down all its stores in the province by 6 p.m.

The union members had voted in favor of the strike by over 95 percent. Salaries and seniority are the two big issues, and the workers have been without a contract since July.

Workers in Corner Brook said the company wanted to hire 32 nonunion workers to do work now done by union members.

Workers said they believe Dominion was preparing for a long closure, because shelves that usually would be filled with Christmas items are now empty.

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (cpusainternat@mindspring.com).

Ecuador: Peasant activist assassinated

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 05:29:00 +0000

Ecuadorian campesino and environmental leader Angel Shingre was murdered on Nov. 4 in the city of Coca, Orellana province, where he lived. Shingre was a member and leader of numerous peasant and environmental groups in the region.

Shingre became involved in the environmental movement because he was directly involved in the ecological damage inflicted by the U.S. oil company Texaco (now ChevronTexaco). At the time of his death, Shingre served as coordinator of the Office of Environmental Law in Orellana province, where he was advising communities engaged in a lawsuit against ChevronTexaco. Shingre had reportedly received threats from people linked to the oil industry. Local community leaders and activists have demanded a full investigation of the murder.

The civil trial against ChevronTexaco began on Oct. 21 in the court of Nueva Loja on behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorans who say the company damaged their health and way of life by poisoning their environment. The plaintiffs, represented by former Ecuadoran Supreme Court Justice Alberto Wray and supported by a U.S. legal team, want ChevronTexaco to pay for cleanup and medical monitoring costs.

“We have water studies that show that people are drinking contaminated water caused by this pollution, caused by the oil – that they are drinking contaminants that are known to cause cancer,” said U.S. lawyer Steve Donziger.

From Weekly News Update, Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York

Turkish military attacks glass workers

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 05:28:00 +0000

Security forces smashed a “tent city” outside a glass factory operated by the leading glass producer Pasabahce in Eskisehir, Turkey, and detained 100 union members including two officers of the Kristal-Is union, on Nov. 7.

Workers and their families had encamped outside the 4-year-old factory in protest after Pasabahce fired 350 workers in late September and October for engaging in lawful union organization at the Eskisehir factory.

Turkey’s glass union represents 90 percent of all glass workers in the country, but Pasabahce and the Glass, Cement and Clay Products Industry Employers’ Association of Turkey over the past year and a half have mounted a systematic campaign in an attempt to destroy the union. The employers initially tried to challenge the union by invoking the “10 percent rule” of the Turkish Labor Code, which stipulates that a union has to represent at least 10 percent of all the workers in an entire industry to be certified and have bargaining status. But after the courts held that Kristal-Is easily had that, Pasabache resorted to harsher measures.

In early September, 700 workers at the Eskisehir factory, including contract workers that Pasabache had been employing to weaken the union, became members of the Kristal-Is union. The firm demanded union activists resign their employment. When they refused to do so, Pasabache fired 300 of them on Sept. 27. Pasabache sacked another 50 union activists from Eskisehir in October and three more on Nov. 3, bringing the total number of workers who have been illegally discharged to 353.

Together with families and with aid and support from Kristal-Is, the activists established a tent city outside the factory. Meanwhile, workers inside began a series of sit-down strikes and Kristal-Is members at some 13 of 15 other Turkish glass factories began solidarity protests.

The Nov. 7 military assault on the tent city protest and the detentions also resulted in the holding of Kristal-Is executive board member Polat Akbas and Eskisehir Branch Chairman Ismail Ayer. They and all of the others have since been released.

“Military force to break up lawful assembly and peaceful protest is totally unacceptable in civil society anywhere,” stated Fred Higgs, general secretary of the 20-million-member International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM). “The ICEM calls on the Turkish government to reverse this style of union-bashing and facilitate good-faith dialogue between the glass industry and Kristal-Is.”

Higgs described the escalating glass dispute as “complete and unequivocal retaliation” on the part of the employer. He said these actions violate International Labor Organization’s Core Conventions, all of which Turkey has ratified.

From the International Federation of Chemical, Mine and General Workers’ Unions

South Korea: Rumsfeld beset by protests

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 05:26:00 +0000

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to South Korea last week provoked stormy demonstrations over a period of several days. It was Rumsfeld’s first visit to the country as Bush’s defense secretary, and one of his main objectives was to discuss South Korea’s planned troop deployment to Iraq to help with the U.S. occupation.

At least 1,500 students and labor activists rallied in downtown Seoul on Nov. 15, the day before Rumsfeld’s arrival.

“No South Korean soldiers to Iraq!” they shouted, shaking their clenched fists in unison. They carried banners and chanted slogans describing Rumsfeld as a “warmonger” and opposing his visit. Hundreds of riot police were at the scene, but no clashes were reported.

In recent months, over 350 organizations in South Korea have been holding protests and rallies, circulating petitions, and publishing statements to stop the deployment of new troops to Iraq. The country has been deeply divided on the issue.

Nevertheless, South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun announced on Nov. 11 that he will dispatch 3,000 combat and non-combat soldiers to Iraq. Rumsfeld had reportedly demanded that South Korea provide 5,000 combat troops, so the lower number has been interpreted as a rebuff to the Bush administration. It remains unclear, however, as to how soon and where the South Korean troops will go, and what proportion of them will in fact be engaged in combat operations.

In a related development, Seoul ordered 464 South Korean troops already stationed in southern Iraq to suspend their operations outside coalition bases following a deadly suicide bombing in Nasiriyah on Nov. 12.

When Rumsfeld arrived at the Defense Ministry on Nov. 17 for talks with his South Korean counterpart, Cho Young-kil, antiwar protests were so fierce that Rumsfeld was forced to enter the building through a side gate. “No blood for Bush” was one of the chants. “Don’t make our young men the bullet shields of the U.S.” was another.

Rumsfeld’s trip comes at a time when new diplomatic overtures are being made to resume six-way talks with North Korea to discuss a year-long crisis around nuclear issues. A South Korean official indicated that a new round of talks could take place on Dec. 17 in China.

It also comes at a time when the U.S. is “repositioning” its troops in South Korea. While the change reflects a pulling back of about 15,000 troops of the U.S. 2nd Infantry Division from the frontline demilitarized zone with North Korea, critics charge that the pullback may actually heighten the danger of an air or missile attack by the U.S. against the North by removing U.S. troops from the area adjacent to the DMZ. Peace activists have urged vigilance.

The United States has about 37,000 troops in South Korea. Those troops and the many U.S. military bases in the country have given rise to a huge popular movement demanding their departure. About 200,000 people in Seoul and 60 other cities demonstrated under the slogan of “U.S. out!” on June 13.

Demonstrations confront Bush in London

Sat, 22 Nov 2003 05:24:00 +0000

President George W. Bush’s state visit to London this week has provoked an “unwelcoming” response of huge proportions, with mass demonstrations, teach-ins, debates, school walkouts, film showings, poetry readings, and plays organized to oppose Bush’s policies and those of his British counterpart, Prime Minister Tony Blair.

“It’s hard to overestimate just how angry many Britons feel about George Bush’s visit,” writes Ros Taylor in the British Guardian. With upwards of 60 percent of the population strongly disapproving of Bush’s handling of Iraq, polls also show at least 36 percent believes that Bush should never have made the trip to the United Kingdom at all.

The anger has been stoked by the widespread perception that Bush’s weapons of mass destruction story was simply a trick for going to war for Middle East oil. It is also fueled by the rising death toll among the 9,000 British “coalition” soldiers stationed in Iraq. Fifty-two British soldiers have died there so far.

Reg Keys, whose son Lance Cpl. Thomas Keys was killed by an angry mob in southern Iraq near Basra, told the Associated Press: “I am totally against his [Bush’s] visit. I don’t know how he has the nerve to show his face in this country. I wouldn’t shake his hand. I’d love to meet him, but I’d refuse his hand. I’d say, ‘I can’t shake that hand. It’s stained with the blood of my son.’”

George Galloway MP, a parliamentary deputy who was expelled from the Labor Party for his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, is among Bush’s and Blair’s harshest critics. He calls Bush “the most unwelcome visitor since William the Conqueror,” the leader of the Norman invasion in 1066. Noting that Bush is hoping to exploit his visit to the UK for political ends, Galloway said, “Let us spoil George Bush’s photo opportunity, because it could be decisive in next year’s [U.S.] presidential election.” Galloway’s remarks were reported in the Morning Star.

All indications were that organized labor is playing a big part of the “unwelcoming” activities, with many unions encouraging their membership to take flextime or leave time from work to participate. Rail union RMT general-secretary Bob Crow predicted that trade unionists would join the anti-Bush demonstrations “in their droves.” Crow added, “I am sure that Mr. Bush will be given the reception that he deserves.”

Security arrangements around the president’s visit have been extraordinary, with the mustering of the largest security force in the British Isles since World War II. At least 5,000 British police and 250 U.S. Secret Service agents have been enlisted in the effort to monitor and suppress the demonstrations, with reports of an additional 450 armed U.S. security personnel walking the streets.

Bush’s aides have tried to lock down the whole of central London as an “exclusion zone,” but have met resistance from city authorities, including the police. “It is not part of our policing plan to spare others of the embarrassment” of the demonstrations, said Andy Trotter, deputy assistant of the Metropolitan Police.

Critics charge that the main aim of the police presence is to keep the demonstrators from the president’s view, and to do their part in keeping the spotlight on those photogenic moments when he is sipping tea with Queen Elizabeth II. Bush refused to speak before the British parliament, fearing heckling from the benches. Emily Mann, a spokesperson for the Communist Party of Britain, said, “While hiding from the British public, pictures of Bush with his sidekick [Tony Blair] will be transmitted to the U.S. in a bid to save his electoral skin.”

Conservative estimates of the British government’s costs of hosting Bush’s three-day visit are in the neighborhood of $6.8 million.

Many of the anti-Bush demonstrations and other activities have been organized by the Stop the War Coalition, which comprises over 100 groups from across the United Kingdom. The coalition has roundly criticized Tony Blair for his right-wing domestic policies and his abject subservience to the U.S. president. It is not uncommon to hear Blair called “Dubya’s poodle.”

The British Prime Minister has been an outspoken advocate of the “special relationship” between the U.S. and Great Britain. Mark Curtis, author of the recently released book, “Web of Deceit: Britain’s Real Role in the World,” argues that “the essence of the special relationship is British support for U.S. aggression. … In a very real sense, Britain under Blair is now acting as a U.S. military proxy or satellite, having lost even the pretense of an independent foreign policy.”

Like Bush, Blair has been charged with outright lying about the reasons for going to war with Iraq. Perhaps a recent photo caption from the British magazine, the Economist, sums up the public’s mood best. Showing Bush next to Blair, the caption reads, “Wielders of Mass Deception.”

The author can be reached at

International notes

Thu, 13 Nov 2003 12:45:00 +0000

Mozambique: Brazil pledges anti-HIV help

Speaking in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, last week during his five-nation African tour, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged that his country would soon build a factory in Mozambique to produce antiretroviral drugs.

Brazil has developed inexpensive generic antiretroviral drugs, and its anti-HIV campaign has helped keep the infection rate to less than 1 percent of its population. Mozambique is currently experiencing an infection rate of 16 percent.

Saying that the fight against HIV/AIDS is one of his country’s greatest challenges, Mozambique’s President Joaquim Chissano said Brazil’s successes in this field “will be a valuable contribution to our struggle against the epidemic.”

Starting in Sao Tome and Principe, Lula traveled to Angola before visiting Mozambique. Like Brazil, all three are former Portuguese colonies and thus share a common language. Lula then visited Namibia and South Africa.

Dominican Republic: Union activists arrested

Over 100 union leaders and activists were arrested Nov. 10, in anticipation of a strike called for Nov. 11 to protest the government’s IMF-inspired economic austerity policies, frequent power interruptions, and soaring prices.

An army spokesperson said 106 people had been arrested and accused of carrying concealed weapons or planning “subversive” actions.

Despite months of street protests, President Hipolito Mejia has dismissed demands for a change in economic policies.

The strike was planned for the same week that the government and the International Monetary Fund are negotiating over a stalled $600 million, two-year loan. The country’s heavily tourist-based economy has been plagued by the collapse of a major bank, Baninter, with allegations of fraud, as well as the collapse of the electrical power system when the government ran out of funds for subsidies.

Italy: Metalworkers strike over pay

Over 200,000 metalworkers marched through Rome Nov. 7 to demand an 8.5 percent pay hike. The left-led Italian Federation of Metal Workers (FIOM) said up to half the workers at Fiat’s main auto plant in Turin participated in the eight-hour walkout.

FIOM says the 8.5 percent pay hike would include a real increase of 1.5 percent as well as compensation for inflation in 2001 and 2002. Its action came after two smaller and less militant union federations – the Federation of Mechanical Industries and the Italian Union of Metal-Mechanical Workers – agreed to accept a pay increase of only 4.5 percent, less than the rate of inflation.

“Let no one make any illusions that we have finished with the demonstration today,” said Gianni Rinaldini, FIOM secretary-general. “We have decided on another eight-hour strike to extend the conflict.”

Bangladesh: Police attack workers

A garment worker was killed and up to 200 people were injured when police attacked a demonstration by thousands of protesting workers, most of them women, in the city of Narayanganj, Nov. 10.

The workers were demonstrating against the arrest Nov. 9 of leading trade union activist Mahbubul Rahman. The government had accused Rahman of making unreasonable wage demands for the workers he represents.

Over one million Bangladeshis – mostly women – work in the garment industry, a central component of the country’s economy, and its highest producer of foreign exchange.

This was the second time in recent weeks that police attacked a group of mostly women demonstrators. In October baton-wielding police injured at least 50 student nurses in the capital city, Dhaka.

UK: Warplanes fly over Scotland

Last week observers in the Highlands of Scotland reported seeing large movements of U.S. warplanes overhead. Peace-watchers at U.S. air bases in Fairford and Welford said planes were flying over at the rate of about one every 15 minutes. In information circulated by the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, they said the large numbers were reminiscent of those that preceded the bombing of Iraq in 1998 and the military strikes against Libya in the 1980s as well as the first Gulf War.

The peace observers said the planes probably flew a route from the U.S. over the North Pole to bases in Europe and the Mediterranean. They said the size and scale of the movement suggested the U.S. might be planning to strike soon at a country in the Middle East, possibly preparing to use the pretext of “foreign” terrorist attacks on U.S. personnel in Iraq to attack Iran or Syria.

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (cpusainternat@mindspring.com).

Canadians fight to save public health care

Thu, 13 Nov 2003 12:37:00 +0000

PHILADELPHIA – Doug Allan, an authority on the Canadian health care system and a longtime health researcher for one of Canada’s largest public employee unions, spoke to appreciative audiences in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Cambridge, Mass., this week in a tour sponsored by the People’s Weekly World/Nuestro Mundo.

Allan’s talk, “Lessons From Canada’s Public Health Care System,” explained how the Canadian people have organized to fight back attempts by the right-wing conservatives and greedy corporations to privatize many of their health services.

“Canadians see universal health care as one of the defining accomplishments of the country, a great achievement of the Canadian working people,” Allan said. “Canadians have removed the area of health care from the control of monopoly capital.”

Before 1964 Canada’s health care system was pretty much like that of the United States. In the early 1960s, after much public discussion and debate about their health care, Judge Emmet Hall appointed the Royal Commission on Health Services, which established what Canadians call Public Medicare. Public health care in Canada provides hospital and medical coverage for all necessary services for all of its people. User fees are outlawed.

The 1984 Canadian Health Act defined and reaffirmed the five principles of the public health care system: comprehensiveness, universality, portability (national standard rates), accessibility, and public administration. Forty years ago the national government split the costs of health care 50-50 with the provincial governments. Now the provincial governments pay 80 percent and the national government pays 20 percent.

“Despite Canada’s universal coverage, costs are much less in Canada than the privatized system in the U.S.” said Allan. One reason for this is the lower costs for health administration in Canada: $307 per person in Canada versus $1,059 per person in the U.S. Administrative costs account for 31 percent of health care expenditures in the U.S., nearly double the 16.7 percent figure in Canada.

In spite of the billions spent for health care in the U.S., at least 43 million people have no health care coverage and millions more have only partial coverage. Because Canadians have heard about the downsides of the U.S. system, conservatives are careful not to use the U.S. as an example when demanding health care “reforms.” But Canadian corporations are relentless in trying to privatize the system and make big profits like their U.S. counterparts.

During the 1990s Canadians voted in conservative governments at the national level and in the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. Conservatives opened the door to privatization, eroded worker rights, and contracted out many health care support services. In Ontario in 1995, a far-right government introduced for-profit homecare services and abolished local agencies set up to coordinate homecare. The result was cutbacks in services and waiting lists. MRI and CT diagnostic services were also privatized. An attempt to privatize ambulance services, however, was blocked by unions and community groups.

Ontario’s conservative government introduced “public-private partnerships” for hospitals (P3’s) – a scheme where a for-profit corporation would own the facility and provide support services, while the public hospital would provide clinical services. A private corporation would be allowed to build a hospital facility and lease it back to the hospital for 25-60 years. Clinical services would remain (for now) under the control of the public hospital.

Angered by what was going on, Canadians in Ontario organized the Ontario Health Care Coalition, composed of 300 union and community groups. In 2002 teams began to canvass door-to-door, asking people to display signs on their lawn and red ribbons on their porch to show support for public health care.

“Tens of thousands of signs and red ribbons were displayed,” Allan said. “Seventy coalitions have formed across Ontario and continue today as the struggle continues.”

As a result of the pressure, the New Democratic Party (social democrats) and the Liberal Party (a middle-of-the-road, pro-business party) both came out strongly against privatization and supported the people’s outcry to keep and expand their public health care system. On Oct. 2, the Conservative Party was voted out, including the minister of health who had led the hospital privatization campaign.

“It would be instructive for those in the United States to study the struggles of the Canadians around health care. Privatization has been set back and strong popular support for public health care continues. But corporate campaigns continue and so does the fight back!” said Allan.

The author can be reached at phillyrose1@earthlink.net

U.S. Cuba policy out of tune

Fri, 07 Nov 2003 09:10:00 +0000

Opinion

Did you see where Benjamin Treuhaft, a piano tuner in the U.S., is being pursued by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) because in 1994 he went to Cuba and tuned pianos there – for $1 (U.S.) each?

OFAC says Treuhaft violated the Trading With the Enemy Act and has been demanding that he cough up $10,000 (they must figure he tuned an awful lot of pianos)! “More recently,” he says, “OFAC sent me a Cease and Desist letter threatening $1.3 million in fines and 10 years in jail.”

The U.S. government would like you to believe that all U.S. citizens support the campaign against Cuba, but in fact lots of U.S. people think the country’s anti-Cuba policy is for the birds. Treuhaft is one of them.

He is one of the organizers of a project with the catchy title Send A Piana To Havana. “We tuners collect used pianos for Cuba, visit the island en masse to fix them, and help run our Newton Hunt Workshop/School of Tuning and Instrument Repair at the National School of Music in Havana.”

To show how absurd the U.S. policy is, while the Treasury is hounding Treuhaft for “trading with the enemy” in 1994, the following year he received permission from the U.S. Commerce Department to ship to Cuba the hundreds of pianos donated by U.S. citizens to Send A Piana To Havana!

So far, the U.S. tuners have delivered 210 pianos to “the 90 conservatories that dot that musical island.” And they have another 30 “waiting to go.”

But the U.S. government is well aware of the threat posed to American values and the democratic way of life by tuned pianos just over the water in Cuba. So this year OFAC refused to renew the U.S. piano tuners’ license to travel to Cuba to tune the pianos Americans donated.

“This makes no sense so I’m going anyway,” said Treuhaft in a letter to the Cuba Desk of the U.S. State Department earlier this month. And he went.

No doubt there will be further repercussions and efforts to stop Benjamin Treuhaft and his colleagues from continuing their simple humanitarian work. But every time U.S. government officials try to stymie such actions and to silence the “perpetrators,” they create more rebels against U.S. policy – in the U.S. itself.

This article is reprinted from The Guardian, the newspaper of the Australian Communist Party.

International notes

Fri, 07 Nov 2003 05:42:00 +0000

Britain: Mail strikers spied upon

While Royal Mail and postal union leaders in London announced on Nov. 3 the settlement of a two-week long unauthorized strike by the nation’s postal workers, the Guardian has reported that during the strike managers at the Royal Mail were ordered to spy on workers who joined the walkouts.

Royal Mail’s plans for breaking the strike, sent to sorting and delivery offices in “strictest confidence,” called for managers to identify ringleaders and eavesdrop on conversations between workers, writing down exact times, dates, names and what was said.

The strike, which did not have official backing by the Communication Workers Union, involved about 25,000 workers and started after the Royal Mail took disciplinary action against workers in west London following their official 24-hour strike in mid-October.

Japan: Corporate donors get tax breaks

Last week Akahata, daily newspaper of the Japanese Communist Party, revealed that six major automakers and the three largest steelmakers received 3 billion yen (nearly $28 million) in corporate tax breaks, in return for 600 million yen in donations to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party during the last three years.

The Industrial Revitalization Law providing large companies with tax breaks was enacted in October 1999, endorsed by the LDP, the Liberal Party, the Komei Party, and later the Democratic Party of Japan. Under the law, if a company’s restructuring plan meets the government’s standards, the firm becomes eligible for tax breaks.

By July 2003, 217 companies had saved 81 billion yen through corporate tax breaks in exchange for their plans to cut employees by a total of 90,000.

Akahata emphasized that the Japanese Communist Party has consistently opposed the tax breaks.

Mexico: Migrants send billions home

Mexicans working abroad, mostly in the U.S., will send an estimated $14.5 billion home this year, mostly to family members, according to a study released last week. The study, by the Inter-American Development Bank and Pew Hispanic Center, said 18 percent of Mexico’s population receives regular income from abroad.

The remittances have become Mexico’s second largest source of foreign income, after oil sales, and now exceed income from both foreign investments and tourism.

The study showed that even the U.S. economic crisis and new security measures along the U.S.-Mexico border have not significantly slowed the flow of remittances.

Many Mexican immigrants in the U.S. work for minimum or even subminimum wages to support their families in Mexico, whose economy has been undermined by U.S.-based transnationals.

China: Moon launch next

China plans to launch its first moon probing satellite in the next three to five years, Zheng Qingwei, general manager of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., said last week. Zheng said that after the successful development of satellites and the launch of the first Chinese manned space flight last month, the moon probe will be the third milestone of the country’s space technology development.

Commenting on last month’s space flight, Zhang Qiyue, a spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, said that astronaut Yang Liwei’s 21 1/2 hour flight was an important step in “the peaceful exploration of outer space.”

“China has always advocated a weapons-free outer space and holds that preventing an armament race in space is in the interests of all countries in the world,” Qiyue told People’s Daily.

Sub-Saharan African nations: Water emergency looms

An international consortium on agriculture is warning that many sub-Saharan African nations could face growing malnutrition and dependence on international financial and food aid if water issues are not addressed effectively.

The Washington-based Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) said that sub-Saharan Africa will face a 23 percent shortfall in crop yields because of insufficient water supply, and cereal imports will have to more than triple in the next 23 years to meet demand. It said many poorer African countries would not be able to pay for the needed imports.

“Agricultural subsidies in North America and Europe determine where food is grown and policy decisions taken in the World Trade Organization are possibly the single most dominant factor shaping the global demand for food and consequently the amount of water required to grow food,” Prof. Frank Rijsberman said in CGIAR’s Nov. 2 press release.

International Notes are compiled by Marilyn Bechtel (cpusainternat@mindspring.com). Dan Margolis contributed to this week’s notes.