PEOPLE'S VOICE - Issue of August 1-31, 2023

 

The following articles are from the August 1-31, 2023 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper.

1. Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day:Once is too often – so why is Canada still supporting nuclear weapons?
2. National Steel Car workers on strike for their lives
3. Quebec’s private mini hospitals: another “breach in the wall” for public healthcare
4. Toronto blocked the right at the ballot box – now labour has to fight for real gains for working people
5. Unions and community stand united against New Brunswick government attacks on 2S/LGBTiQ+ rights
6. Government statistics confirm unprecedented rise in inequality in Canada
7. Kingston tenants call on city: “Clean up our housing!”
8. Toronto tenants strike against above guideline rent increases
9. If you think Palestine/Israel is “too complicated” to understand, read on
10. The working class and national liberation – lessons from Venezuela’s experience
11. 250 million sign that Hiroshima never again can happen
12. BoC rate hikes – not in working people’s “interest”
13. César Vallejo: revolutionary in politics, revolutionary in art

Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day:

Once is too often – so why is Canada still supporting nuclear weapons?

PV staff

Most people in Canada believe the country is a non-nuclear weapons state. After all, nuclear weapons aren’t built, stored, tested or deployed here. It’s a comforting feeling – justifiably so – and one that the government enjoys stoking. But it’s not completely true.

For starters, Canada has a recent history of enthusiastically supporting nuclear weapons, including deploying them here. It’s only been since 1984 that there have been no nuclear arms stationed in Canada. From 1963 to then, there were four tactical nuclear weapons systems in this country which deployed several hundred nuclear warheads. And it wasn’t just in Canada – as Yves Engler writes, “At the height of Canadian nuclear deployments in the late 1960s the RCAF had between 250 and 450 US atomic bombs at its disposal in Europe. Based in Germany, the CF-104 Starfighter, for instance, operated without conventional weapons and carried nothing but a thermonuclear warhead.”

Ah, but that all changed when nukes were withdrawn in 1984, right? Not quite. Even after 1984, Canada has continued to actively participate nuclear weapons development and proliferation, through its membership in NATO and NORAD. As a member of NATO’s Nuclear Planning Group, Canada not only supports but actively maintains and administers NATO’s nuclear arsenal and its aggressive first-strike policy.

As an ongoing funder (to the tune of over $600 million) of the Joint Strike Fighter program, Canada has actively and knowingly contributed to the development of the F-35 fighter jet and the B61-12 nuclear bomb which it is specifically designed to carry. As a purchaser of the F-35, Canada will actively and knowingly become part of the multinational delivery mechanism for this US nuclear bomb.

If this active funding and development of nuclear arms and delivery systems were not enough, the Canadian government has also worked to stall and derail international efforts at nuclear disarmament.

One of the most important recent breakthroughs in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation is the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was signed in 2017 and came into force in 2021 after 50 countries ratified it. The treaty prohibits countries that are party to it from developing, testing, producing, stockpiling, stationing, transferring, usingor threatening to use nuclear weapons. For nuclear armed states joining the treaty, Italso provides for a timed framework nuclear armed states (who are party to it) to eliminatetheir nuclear weapons programs.

It's a big step forward. But Canada hasn’t ratified it.In fact, since 2018 Canada has consistently voted against annual UN General Assembly resolutions calling on all states to sign and ratify the TPNW. The current Liberal government even rejected a 2022 parliamentary petition calling on Canada “to break with NATO’s nuclear policy and immediately sign and commit to ratifying the TPNW,” with Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly insisting that “a step-by-step approach to nuclear disarmament remains the most viable pathway to achieving meaningful and lasting progress.”

In the leadup to the TPNW, the Canadian government repeatedly tried to derail the process. The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, notes: “In 2016, Canada voted against the UN General Assembly resolution that established the formal mandate for states to commence negotiations on ‘a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination.’” ICAN further states: “In a document sent to NATO members ahead of the vote, the United States ‘strongly encourage[d]’ members, including Canada, to vote against the resolution, ‘not to merely abstain.’ In addition, it said that, if the treaty negotiations do commence, allies and partners should ‘refrain from joining them.’”

Clearly, Canada supports the retention, development, proliferation, testing, stockpiling, use and threat to use of nuclear weapons. And why? The answer is frustratingly simple – because of the country’s military alliance and integration with the United States, which includes its membership in military alliances like NATO and NORAD.

A 2021 public opinion poll found that nuclear weapons are a far greater concern for people in Canada than government actions would suggest. Specifically, there is a groundswell of support for disarmament, including through divestment in companies involved in nuclear weapons.

At a time when the Canadian government is preparing to purchase 88 nuclear weapons capable fighter jets, which both the F35 and Super Hornet are, a large majority (80 percent) of people polled said that there needs to be more work on a global level to eliminate nuclear weapons. This includes 74 percent who indicated that Canada should sign and ratify the TPNW, even if it comes under pressure from the US or NATO to not do so.

This popular view is clearly at odds with the Trudeau government, which is working overtime to drum up public support for increased funding and support for NATO and NORAD, and for increased arms race generally.

This month, as people from across Canada and around the world pause to remember the horrors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it’s worth remembering also that this country continues to be guided by policies which would see those horrors inflicted again.

It is time for Canada to sign the TPNW. It is time for Canada to get out of NATO, NORAD and all aggressive, imperialist military alliances. It is time for comprehensive nuclear disarmament. One atomic bombing is too often.

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National Steel Car workers on strike for their lives

Dave McKee

When most of us go into work, we don’t ask ourselves if this is the shift that will end with the death of one of our co-workers. But for workers at National Steel Car (NSC) in Hamilton, that has happened three times in the past 21 months. And now, they are on strike against the rail car manufacturer, fighting for key contract changes that will make their workplace fairer and safer.

The 1480 workers are members of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 7135. They work in all areas of production, from welding to painting to crane operation.

NSC is a privately held company, so its financial information isn’t publicly available but estimates from financial websites put its revenue at around $540 million annually. That works out to nearly $365,000 in revenue per production worker, so NSC is making quite a killing (literally) off its workforce.

Based on that kind of surplus value, you’d expect NSC to be ponying up a decent wage package during negotiations. Not so, according to Local 7135 President Frank Crowder. He says the company has offered 10 percent over three years, but that other areas in the same industrial sector are getting 14-16 percent over three years. Furthermore, the company’s offer doesn’t even approach inflation, which topped 8 percent last year. “In this environment, 10 percent over three years just isn’t good enough,” Crowder told PV. “You have to at least match inflation, if not better.”

In fact, wages at NSC are so out of step with the industry and the cost of living, that the company is having a hard time attracting new workers. Crowder says that the picket line is marching in the shadow of a sign from the employer (which went up before the strike) advertising for 200 skilled positions. But poor pay – and, no doubt, notoriously unsafe working conditions – mean the positions go unfilled. And that means existing workers have to work harder, which further jeopardizes safety.

Boss’s “incentive” program key to unsafe work environment

The heart of the problem is NSC’s peculiar pay system. About 75 percent of production workers (welders and painters especially) work on an “incentive program” under which they get a base wage plus a piecework rate that amounts to about 25 percent of their pay. But the program only extends to what the employer deems to be production time – it excludes prep time and cleanup, so it leaves workers effectively getting a 25 percent pay cut during those periods, which could be a couple of hours or more.

So, unsurprisingly, workers will start their shift early and work through lunches and breaks. They are “incentivized” by the boss to cut corners, rush, take risks. It’s a ticking time bomb that has gone off with fatal consequences three times in less than two years.

Beyond safety considerations, the program is unfair. The 25 percent of workers who are not part of it includes crane operators, for example, who still have to keep pace with welders and painters, supplying them with material. They get no additional compensation for their sped-up work. It’s a clever – and evil – way for the boss to divide the workforce while cashing in on productivity.

Crowder says that the incentive program is a key issue. And he and the union have put a clear solution on the table: “either remove the program and bring wages up to par or involve the union in the time studies and setting the rates.”

It’s a tough fight. The incentive program has been in place since before NSC was first unionized in the 1940s (the plant was one of the first big industrial organizing victories in Canada by what was then called the Steel Workers Organizing Committee). Crowder points out that the union has not been involved with it, and it is not grievable or arbitrable – another key problem.

The issue of the program has been becoming more serious over recent years. The union has tabled changes to it in the last three rounds of bargaining, including this one. The company, though, was openly angered and hostile the first couple of times and, with other immediate matters to deal with, the union backed off its demands. While safety conditions improved a bit following Ministry of Labour investigations into the workplace fatalities, the company’s human resources department continues to intimidate workers who want to discuss safety concerns. Now, safety and the incentive program are at the centre of the fight.

Divided workplace, united union

With the combination of unfair pay and an extremely dangerous work environment, all related to the incentive program, you might expect that the membership delivered an overwhelming strike vote. But the company’s final offer was only turned down by only 52 percent of the workers.

There are myriad reasons for how workers vote on an offer, but one of the key factors in this case is NSC’s effort to divide the workplace by playing one group against the others. An example is the fact that one-quarter of the production workers aren’t subject to the incentive program, even though it drives a lot of their working conditions. Another is NSC’s pension plans, which is a two-tier arrangement that provides DB (defined benefit) pensions to one group, but DC (defined contribution) to another. Crowder says that the company purposely stalls on improvements to the DB side, keeping those pension benefits lower and playing it off against the DC side.

Another example of the company’s eleventh-hour offer of a $1 per hour wage increase to selected trades each of two years of the contract, while keeping the wage increase low for everyone else. In this case, NSC arbitrarily defined who was a “skilled trade” and eligible for the increase, while leaving out a lot of other skilled workers. In the end, the company identified around 100 workers who would receive the bonus.

A union that has been divided by the employer and which only turned down the boss’s offer by the slimmest of margins may sound like a pretty precarious basis for a strike. But the picket line at National Steel Car radiates the kind of unity and solidarity that are crucial to maintaining and winning a strike. Crowder describes the Local 7135 picket line as “one of the best lines ever,” noting that the union has games (including axe throwing), movie nights, music and lots of working-class spirit. Community groups are turning up to provide picket line support, and local businesses are sending food, water and gift/discount certificates to the striking workers.

Making a workplace fight into a political struggle

Among the people who have showed up to bring solidarity to the picket line are Hamilton Centre NDP MP Matthew Green and NDP Ontario leader Marit Stiles. Stiles addressed the workers and stated: “This company, like so many other companies, is making billions, billions on the backs of working people ... who are going to lose their homes if this company doesn’t come forward with a solid deal.” She’s right, of course, but there’s a political dimension to this struggle that goes beyond the collective agreement dispute, and which the NDP needs to be pushed into being a part of.

Crowder tried, by asking Stiles why the federal and provincial governments have provided billions and billions of dollars in assistance to auto manufacturers (both unionized and non-unionized), but not to rail. The NSC plant is more than one hundred years old – some areas still have a dirt floor – and is desperately in need of upgrades to improve efficiency, productivity and safety. Stiles said she would raise the issue with the provincial government.

But there’s more political work that labour can demand from the NDP. What about strong plant closure and plant safety legislation which requires an employer to answer publicly for relocation or workplace injury, with stiff consequences like jail time for executives or nationalization of their plants? What about yanking all public contracts from companies that don’t provide fair wages and pensions, benefits, working conditions and union rights for their workers? What about a shorter work week with no loss in take-home pay, so that workers get both jobs and leisure time? What about implementing the Westray Law, which treats critical injuries on the job under the Criminal Code, not just the Labour Code.

Building workplace fights into political struggles is key to winning real, enduring gains for the working class. But doing that requires the support and mobilization from the broader labour movement and community. USW members often proudly say, “One day longer, one day stronger,” when referring to a strike. We could add to that, “One more day of unity, one more day of solidarity.”

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Quebec’s private mini hospitals: another “breach in the wall” for public healthcare

JP Fortin

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) is working hard these days to satisfy powerful private sector lobbyists. This troublesome practice generates a dissonance between “the problems” as expressed by the people and “the solutions” proposed by the CAQ government.

Faced with a worsening housing crisis, the CAQ is more inclined to grant concessions to the Corporation of Quebec Property Owners and the private sector in general than to tackle the problem. It’s the same situation with the environment, where after years of zigzags, the CAQ disgracefully defended the narrow interests of real estate developers in the South Shore suburbs of Montreal and their “third link” transit project.

But where the CAQ is really entranced by the neoliberal siren call – like the Liberals and PQ before them – is in the area of healthcare.

The government’s creation of subsidized private mini hospitals is not a response to popular demands. It is a bureaucratic solution promoted mainly by the neoliberal Institutéconomique de Montréal think tank and the chambers of commerce. Notably, this shadowy “institute" is also the former employer of the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health YouriChassin. It appears that the sole objective of this CAQ policy (and 2022 election promise) is to open another “breach in in the wall” for public services and to flout the Canada Health Act for the umpteenth time. The implicit goal is to dismantle the public healthcare network, through a thousand cuts.

To justify these private mini hospitals to the public, the government spins the tangled yarn that ​​lucrative private healthcare that does not in fact cannibalize resources from public services. They aren’t exactly shouting from the rooftops that the private conglomerates which are on the list to administer these mini hospitals are the same ones that managed long-term care residences and private surgery clinics during the pandemic.

Paid for from the public purse, surgeries performed by the private sector during the pandemic were up to 150 percent more expensive than their equivalents in the public sector. In addition, private clinics took advantage of the health emergency to negotiate an increase in their profit margin from 10 to 15 percent.

But the insatiable thirst for profit doesn't stop there. There is a drive to hermetically seal the new mini hospitals from public sector collective agreements, while systematizing the use of subcontracting. All of this is consistent with the rest of the CAQ's anti-union rhetoric. The CSN union fairly describes the policy as an "ideological choice."

Beyond the financial implications, privatization in the healthcare sector is an attack on the fundamental principles of universality and accessibility. Faced with real problems like wait times and lack of access, the CAQ instead proposes solutions to the problems it perceives, namely a missed opportunity to subsidize the private sector. This isn’t a question of moral failure on the part of the caquistes, but rather of their incapacity, as mere instruments of powerful private sector interests, to really defend the people of Quebec. The underlying problem isn’t political corruption, but rather blind opportunism in the capitalist system.

The CAQ defends interests which run counter to those of the people of Quebec. So, it is up to us to organize ourselves to defend our own interests.

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Toronto blocked the right at the ballot box – now labour has to fight for real gains for working people

PV Toronto Bureau

Progressives across Toronto cheered when Olivia Chow won the mayoral byelection on June 26. The former city councillor and NDP MP was elected with 37 percent of the total votes.

Chow’s victory ended up being closer than expected, largely as a result of late endorsements her main opponent, Ana Bailão, received from former mayor John Tory, the Toronto Star newspaper and other high-profile supporters. These endorsements represented a panicked coalescence of right-wing forces desperate to hold onto power and maintain the status quo. But, buoyed by a surprisingly high voter turnout (higher even than the 2022 election just last fall), Chow sailed to victory and bested Bailão by over 30,000 votes.

The challenge now for labour and progressive forces across the city is to ensure that Chow’s electoral victory delivers gains for working people. Her platform was mostly focused on rolling back cuts implemented by Toronto mayors over the last two decades, particularly the recent cuts implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among other things, she has pledged to reverse cuts to the TTC and restore transit service to pre-pandemic levels, reopen libraries to ensure seven-day access to their services. She has also indicated that she will address the housing crisis by building 25,000 rent-controlled homes, introducing anti-renoviction bylaws, reviewing and strengthening existing policies and programs for renters, and pressing the provincial government to implement real rent control.

However, while it is a welcome turn from the right-wing policies of John Tory, Chow’s program is not enough to address the urgent needs of Torontonians or to reverse the death spiral the city has been in since the post-amalgamation period began.

For example, while her pledge to build 25,000 housing units is a good start, this still falls short of filling Toronto’s current 80,000 unit wait list for social housing. This gap will no doubt widen during the lengthy eight-year construction timeline. And that’s if the housing gets built at all. The city’s 2019 “Housing First” plan aimed to build 10,000 new homes on city-owned lands, with a paltry 20 percent being “affordable,” but has yet to build a single home.

If Chow can carry through with her plan, there would still be a deficit of around 45,000 homes desperately needed to address the housing crisis. Moreover, Housing First and Chow’s CreateTO plan share a common weakness: most of the housing will never be affordable. Both plans only set aside 25 percent or less of their stock to be affordable housing, and only 10 percent of CreateTO’s projects will be rent-geared-to-income (RGI). According to the City, “affordable housing” is housing that is at or below 80 percent of market rent, meaning that a one-bedroom unit deemed “affordable” in today’s Toronto would still cost $2000 a month. For that unit to represent 25-30 percent of a renter's income – a common ratio advocated by financial planners and the city’s own RGI percentage – a worker would need earn between $80,000-$100,000 per year, hardly the average wage in Toronto.

It will be a challenge for the labour and progressive movement to make sure that Chow sticks to the promises she made, let alone to improve on them. Part of the problem is that the right-wing and centre-right still dominate City Hall and are strongly supported by the policies of Doug Ford’s provincial government. While electing a left-leaning mayor was critical, it by no means secures a centre-left majority. Chow will have to win over key centre-right votes on council, which will bring pressure on her to capitulate to capital rather than dealing with the needs of the working people who saw her elected.

Only a strong mobilization by working people, around a strong labour-based municipal program that is committed to real progressive change, can force the new mayor and the centre-left on council to resist the coming push from the right and implement reforms that put people before profit.

The propensity of social democrats to drift to the right is readily apparent in the NDP’s experience with provincial government. From Bob Rae’s “social contract” cuts in Ontario, to the anti-environmentalism and submission to oil monopolies in BC and Alberta, social democratic governments have tended to hang workers out to dry.

The same trend can be observed in municipal politics. During his mayoralty, particularly in his second term, David Miller advocated for more than half a billion dollars in cuts to city services which desperately needed funding increases. At the same time, he pushed the provincial government to enact back-to-work legislation against striking transit workers in 2008 (which it did) and in 2009failed to quickly reach a deal with city workers, which led to another strike. These actions buoyed the electoral prospects of the right wing and directly contributed to Rob Ford’s mayoral victory in 2010. Or look at Andrea Horwath, former leader of the ONDP and now Hamilton mayor, who voted against living wages for city hall staff – in direct contradiction to what she had campaigned on provincially less than a year prior.

As always, right-wing and corporate forces will press City Council and try to force Chow to abandon working people in favour of capital’s agenda for Toronto. In fact, the attacks have already begun, with media across the country reporting on a general state of lawlessness in Toronto, which they attribute to Chow.

The people’s movements, and especially labour, must not simply sit on their hands and wait for Chow to act on their behalf. To do so would simply ensure eventual capitulation to the right. Instead, the left and progressives must seize this opportunity to push for a genuine alternative for working people in the city. We must be a backstop against a rightward drift, but we must also be a force pushing for more.

Labour can look to its own history, including campaigns like the Days of Action against the Mike Harris Conservatives in the 1990’s, and prepare for the fight that is coming. Chow’s election provides an important opening, but success is by no means guaranteed – labour, as always, must mobilize to set the political bar and press her (and council) to meet it. By setting our sights on a true victory for working people, we can deal a blow to corporate power in the city.

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Unions and community stand united against New Brunswick government attacks on 2S/LGBTiQ+ rights

Blaine Higgs’ revisions to Policy 713 are a dog whistle to the far right across Canada

June Patterson

New Brunswick’s Conservative Premier Blaine Higgs and Education Minister Bill Hogan have drawn international attention in the past two months over their government’s attack on the democratic rights of 2S/LGBTiQ+ youth. This attack comes in the form of revisions weakening Policy 713, which established minimum standards for schools to ensure a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for 2S/LGBTiQ+ students. Policy 713 was implemented in 2020 after a lengthy consultation process under Higgs’ former education minister.

On May 5 the New Brunswick Teachers Association (NBTA) held their annual Council Day – a professional development opportunity for teachers which receives some funding from the provincial government. Since 2012, Council Day has included workshops by Pride in Education (PIE), a teacher-led initiative and educational non-profit which helps train teachers in inclusive education and issues faced by 2S/LGBTiQ+ students. PIE has received support from both Liberal and Conservative governments for these important educational initiatives, at least until now. This year, just nine days before Council Day, PIE received written notice from the Department of Education that their request for funding had been denied in a last-minute heel turn, despite having received verbal confirmation of funding in early April.

To make matters worse, a small group of protestors picketed a Council Day event holding signs reading “perverts in education” and “shame on teachers”. Instead of standing with teachers, the provincial government issued a press release distancing itself from them, denying its involvement in Council Day and telling the public to direct their anger toward the NBTA.

In a statement the next day, NBTA President Connie Keating said:

“None of this was unexpected, unfortunately. We have been aware of this kind of hate towards teachers and public education being perpetuated online across North America for some time. What was unexpected was the statement released from [the government] at the end of the day … Teachers needed you to step up and support them. To educate. To stand with them against hate and misinformation. Instead, we face it alone.”

The Tories doubled down, not only refusing to stand with teachers facing harassment and threats but announcing within days that they planned to open up Policy 713 for review, citing “hundreds” of complaints from concerned parents allegedly inundating Minister Hogan’s office. In an independent study of the proposed review, NB’s youth and child advocate was provided with only three such complaints and criticized the review as “incoherent”. Echoing social conservatives in the United States, Higgs began invoking “parents’ rights” and a supposed lack of involvement from parents during Policy 713’s development as reasons for a review.

A vast array of labour unions, political parties and democratic and civil society organizations came out in opposition to the review of Policy 713. “We stand in solidarity with the New Brunswick Teacher’s Association, Pride in Education and the 2SLGBTQI+ community, whether this government likes it or not,'' said CUPE-SCFP NB. Unifor called on its membership to “join the fight and stop this rollback of human rights in New Brunswick.” Meanwhile, Chief Allan Polchies Jr. of the Sitansisk First Nation said he would “not stand by and watch the Higgs government water down these protections … Instead of protecting valued but vulnerable members of our families, this government capitulated to a small group of conspiracists.” Organizations such as Egale Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, the NB Women’s Council and Queer Momentum added their voices to the chorus of criticism.

On May 13, Fierté Fredericton Pride and over a dozen other 2S/LGBTiQ+ advocacy groups organized a large rally in support of Policy 713, at the provincial legislature in Fredericton. Speaking to a crowd of around 300, Communist Party organizer and transgender woman June Patterson castigated the Tory government for their underhanded attack on 2S/LGBTiQ+ youth: “This fight isn’t just for inclusive language. It’s a fight to save lives, to force this government of the wealthy to do something that protects the people. A government that would undo these protections would have blood on its hands. Full stop.” Speakers from the NBTA, CUPE, Green Party and others similarly criticized the government for its attack on human rights. A petition in support of Policy 713 and against the review has collected over 18,000 signatures to date.

Unperturbed by broad public opposition, Higgs and Hogan pushed ahead with their review. Important stakeholders such as the 2S/LGBTiQ+ community, NBTA, the UNB Faculties of Education and Gender and Women’s Studies, and the College of Psychologists of NB were shut out of the process.

The newly revised Policy 713 that took effect July 1 has been significantly weakened. Most notably, the new version forbids teachers and staff from using a student’s preferred name and pronouns without parental consent if they are under 16 and instructs educators to direct 2S/LGBTiQ+ students to mental health professionals. It also removes language protecting the right of transgender students to participate in school sports. The province’s child and youth advocate called the changes "incredibly vague and shoddy" and warned they could open the door to discrimination. The College of Psychologists of New Brunswick called on the government to rescind the changes, warning of the harm that will be caused to students by the revised policy. Lifting rhetoric from the US and Britain, Higgs has previously voiced concerns about “fairness” in girls’ sports due to inclusion of trans students. The New Brunswick Interscholastic Athletics Association, which represents all school sports, has previously said there have been no concerns about fairness, and that it has received zero complaints about trans kids in the last decade.

In addition to opposition, Blaine Higgs has attracted support from the far right across Canada for his attacks on 2S/LGBTiQ+ youth, including from far-right media outlets such the Rebel and True North, and international far-right darling Jordan Peterson. The far right clearly sees Higgs’ attack as an opportunity to “re-open the debate” on 2S/LGBTiQ+ acceptance on a Canada-wide level and is salivating at the opportunity to roll back these hard-won democratic rights.

But this isn’t just an attack on the rights of 2S/LGBTiQ+ students – it’s part of a broader assault on organized labour and the very institution of public education. Across North America, teachers – a powerful and respected section of organized labour – have been under sustained and multi-sided attack for years. The right wing in the United States and (increasingly) Canada is spreading hatred and misinformation which paints teachers as lazy, overpaid “groomers” indoctrinating children to hate their country, their parents and God. These vile lies are part of a concerted effort to turn public opinion against teachers and their unions, and ultimately to weaken the public education system with an eye to privatization. With a strike on the horizon in NB, teachers such as Denis Boulet, member of Cercle 33 AEFNB (the francophone affiliate of NBTA) are clear-eyed:

"After negotiations with the government have broken down in the spring, the NBTA is preparing a strike vote at the end of August. It's no coincidence the Higgs government has engaged a section of parents that are ideologically aligned with him and on board with his changes to Policy 713. Parents have always been an important factor in teachers' strikes, and it wouldn't surprise me that Higgs is trying to put a wedge between teachers and parents by implying that teachers are keeping secrets from parents when it comes to pronouns and desired names. He's trying to make it seem like teachers are not worth parents' trust, to undermine the credibility of our demands."

The solidarity shown by the labour movement with New Brunswick’s 2S/LGBTiQ+ community is promising and forms the basis for the broad, united movement of labour and people’s organizations that’s needed to fight back against the anti-popular government of Blaine Higgs and the Tories. As CUPE-SCFP NB President Steve Drost declared at the May 13 rally in defense of Policy 713: “Your fight is our fight!”

Only united can we defend our rights, and only united can we hope to win a better, more just future for all.

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Government statistics confirm unprecedented rise in inequality in Canada

JP Fortin

On July 4, Statistics Canada published first quarter 2023 report on income, consumption, savings and wealth of people in Canada. The figures unequivocally confirm that “the gap between rich and poor is widening at the highest rate ever recorded.”

Income inequality between the richest and poorest households increased between 2022 and 2023, with the poorest families seeing their income grow less quickly than the average. Income from self-employment fell by almost 7 percent and the share of income from government benefits increased by about 50 percent for these households. Also, rising interest rates have caused the poorest to lose an average of $500 in 2022 in additional credit card costs.

For the wealthiest, these new costs were offset by an increase in investment income which enabled average net gains of nearly $1,200 for the same period. This group also saw their savings grow for a fourth consecutive year, by an average of more than $13,500.

Hit hard by the rising cost of living, middle-income households saw their savings decline by an average of $1,306 in 2022. The poorest have lost an average of $8,289 in savings over the same period – an amount that risks being added to the debtloads of these households.

The richest 20 percent of people in Canada currently own nearly 70 percent of the country's wealth. The poorest 40 percent share a meager 2.7 percent. The impoverishment of the poorest people is the main reason that the inequality gap is widening at the fastest rate ever recorded in Canada. This inequity hits young people and new immigrants the hardest. The debt-to-income ratio for people under age 35 crossed the 200 percent mark this year. That of people aged 35-45 reached 276 percent, up 17 percent over the previous year.

This situation has huge consequences, as it leads to the impoverishment of an increasingly large part of the population. In addition, the constant attacks on public services, the financialization of the rental market and the repercussions of rising interest rates contribute to increasing the burden of inequality which is becoming heavier and more deadly. For the government, the chambers of commerce and employers, the solution is to grant even more money and concessions to those who already have it, with less in workers’ hands and more social inequity.

This is not a situation that can be solved through legislation and temporary relief measures. Structural inequalities and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a small number of haves are fundamental elements of the capitalist system. Working people need to question this system and demand its replacement by socialism.

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Kingston tenants call on city: “Clean up our housing!”

Jacob Wynperle

Kingston’s rental properties are in crisis, and not just in terms of cost. 

Due to years of landlord-friendly governments, limited regulations and austerity programs, landlords have kept their properties in disrepair while jacking up rental prices at every opportunity. As a result, people who struggle with the cost of living are forced to live with bedbugs, cockroaches, rodents or other unsanitary and unsafe pests. This has been documented in the mainstream press, but the publicity has made no difference. As far as landlords are concerned, if the rent cheques keep rolling in, they could care less about their tenants’ quality of life.

Living with bed bugs, cockroaches and other pests is extremely stressful, but it isn’t just a mental strain. These pests are transmitters of disease and bacteria and can spread dangerous illnesses to those exposed. What’s even worse is that the worst buildings tend to house the most vulnerable tenant populations – including elderly people, single parents, newly immigrated families, people with disabilities and people living with addiction, trauma and unaddressed mental health problems.

Pests are most often associated with publicly owned housing as a way to stigmatize public housing and those who live in it. But pest infestations are not inherent to public housing; rather, they come as a result of underfunding and a lack of democratic oversight.

In considering the stigma around public housing – which is propagated by all those who benefit from soaring rental costs – it is important to note that the conditions of many private rental units are equally bad, if not worse, than public housing. Tenants of the largest corporate landlords like Homestead Land Holdings can easily corroborate these claims.

Homestead is a major player in the rental market in Kingston and elsewhere in Ontario. It owns just under one third of all the primary rental units in Kingston, giving it immense power over key questions such as who gets housing, for what price and in what condition. 

It doesn’t take much research to figure out Homestead’s answer to these questions. I myself witnessed firsthand the dilapidated quality of Homestead buildings when campaigning for the2022 municipal election. In one of my first conversations with a Homestead tenant, they recommended I tuck my pants into my socks so as to not bring any insects home with me. 

When landlords actually address a tenant’s request to exterminate pests (which is rare), they typically do so in piecemeal ways which allow them to spend the least amount of money. This includes what is known as unit-by-unit extermination. This is exactly what it sounds like: a multi-unit building attempting to exterminate pests one unit at a time. 

You might ask, “Wouldn’t pests just move to units not being treated, through vents, gaps in doors, etc.?”Yes, that is exactly what happens. But from the landlord’s perspective, further degrading another tenant’s quality of life is better than paying for the extermination of the entire building. 

This all begs the question, how did the lack of maintenance in rental housing get so bad?

Part of the answer, as mentioned above, is that large corporate landlords like Homestead have far too much power and are therefore able to dictate their own terms. But what about those of us with so-called “mom and pop” landlords who have similar issues? The answer to this question lies in the view that Kingston’s municipal government takes of these problems, based on their policies and actions when it comes to landlord-tenant relations. 

One of the most glaring examples of disregard for tenants is the extreme cuts to public services which have been made over the last several years, culminating in the remaining property standards officers being laid off during the pandemic. This has resulted in the property standards department as a whole being effectively paralyzed, allowing landlords to go unpunished while their tenants are tormented by pests.

Many tenants have lost hope that their living situation will ever improve, and they cannot afford the suggested alternatives such legal battles or moving to a new building. Furthermore,gangster-like corporate landlords like those at Homestead use homelessness as an implicit threat against tenants speaking out about their horrific living conditions. Several tenants have voiced concerns that airing their property standards issues will only lead to Homestead tearing their buildings down or engaging in “renovictions” rather than paying to clean up the pests.

Tenant union campaign

On May 30, the Katarokwi (Kingston) Union of Tenants launched a campaign to clean up rental housing. This campaign includes petitions, policy proposals and public demonstrations aimed at forcing our municipal government to finally take action and defend tenants against negligent landlords. Only a strong coalition of workers, tenants and otherwise oppressed peoples can solve the problems facing us today and tomorrow.

The KUT kicked off this campaign by issuing a petition with the following demands:

1. Bolster and expand the property standards department by rehiring former property standards officers who were laid off and hiring enough new staff to meet the needs of tenants in Kingston.
2. Ensure that landlords are financially responsible for the temporary relocation of tenants during fumigation, so that tenants are safe and housed while their units are being treated.
3. Amend the pest prevention by-law to include a more specific definition of what qualifies as a “pest free dwelling” and which prevents unit-by-unit extermination.

4. Hire pest control workers as municipally employed public maintenance employees who can be dispatched to systematically exterminate pests, bugs and rodents, at the landlord’s expense.
5. Raise the fines and punishments – up to and including expropriation of property – for landlords who are neglecting their properties.

When demanding justice, it is not uncommon for those who have vested interests in the current state of affairs to offer up shallow critiques of demands like these, perhaps most notably, “how are you going to pay for all this?” From the perspective of the KUT, if individuals and corporations are keen on making money off housing, then they must be forced to accept any and all costs associated with keeping this housing in livable conditions.

So, all costs associated with extermination must be paid for by the owners of the affected buildings. Failure to comply must result in heavy fines or expropriation of property – which can then be used to further fund rent-geared-to-income, social housing projects.

For more information on the KUT campaign, visit katarokwitenants.wordpress.com or email katarokwitenants@gmail.com.

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Toronto tenants strike against above guideline rent increases

Jenoa Meagher and Anita Nathan

Two Toronto tenants’ unions – Thorncliffe Park Tenants and York South-Weston Tenant Union – are currently supporting members on a rent strike. On May 1, around 125 tenants at 71, 75, and 79 Thorncliffe Park Drive collectively decided to withhold rent from their landlord Starlight Investments which is seeking a 4.94 to 5.5 percent rent increase. On June 1, nearly 200 tenants at 33 King Street also went on rent strike, withholding rent from their landlord, Dream Unlimited. Owners of 33 King Street have applied for six above guideline rent increases in the last ten years.

Tenants are canvassing their buildings and neighbourhoods, gaining more support and momentum. Other tactics include protesting outside the office of Minister of Housing Ahmed Hussen, as well as at the homes of board members of Public Sector Pension (PSP) Investments. PSP is a Canadian Crown corporation which manages pension funds for federal public service workers and is a shareholder of Starlight Investments. Tricia-Ann Israel, a resident of Thorncliffe Park for thirty-two years, highlights the effectiveness of this tactic: “I just want to make sure that the investment company that owns the buildings realizes that these are people’s lives that they’re playing with.”

Each year, the Ontario government provides a rent increase guideline for the following year. The current guideline is set at 2.5 percent. This means that a landlord can increase most current tenants’ rents by this amount without approval from the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). However, a landlord can apply to the LTB for a rent increase that is above the guideline (AGI) because of an increase in municipal taxes, significant renovations or repairs (“capital expenditure”) or security.

Both Starlight Investments and Dream Unlimited are seeking above guideline rent increases for capital repairs and improvements. But long-time tenants know the discrepancy between rent increases and repairs.

Thorncliffe resident Jawad Ukani revealed, “In my eighteen years living here, nothing has really changed in my apartment. The cabinet doors are broken and don’t close, the ceiling is falling apart, and nothing works. It’s all superficial, they’re just trying to attract new tenants at a higher price.”

According to York South-Weston Tenant Union, Dream Unlimited admitted that 50 percent of the rent collected from tenants is profit. In addition, landlords like Starlight and Dream receive funding from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation for capital repairs, with no conditions attached. With multiple streams of revenue, the burden remains on tenants for repairs and improvements on standards of living that are just not happening.

In the end, rent increases, above guideline and otherwise, are about corporate greed. In an act of solidarity, CUPE Ontario acknowledged this greed and voted unanimously to financially support both tenants’ unions, stating, “In the middle of an affordability crisis, giant corporate landlords are jacking up rents and pricing people out of their homes. But those same despicable moves have created a network of amazing activists – ordinary people who have been pushed too far by corporate greed and who are saying ‘enough is enough.’ The rent strikes are a product of grassroots community organizing and are part of a determined response to unfair rent increases, and tenants coming together to form unions to protest has clear parallels with union organizing.”

Thorncliffe Park Tenants are calling for the withdrawal of Starlight Investments’ above guideline increase application from the LTB and York South-Weston Tenant Union is taking it a step further by calling for an end of all above guideline increases and rent and vacancy control for all units.

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If you think Palestine/Israel is “too complicated” to understand, read on

Judy Haven

Few thinking people in Canada think it’s a good idea for civilians to carry guns.

Yet Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir is calling for Israelis (Jews) to carry guns because, in his words, it’s the only way to provide safety for them. “I call on the public who meet the criteria: carry guns.”

But isn’t the best way to provide safety not to invade another people’s land, destroy their homes and streets, cut off their water, electricity and phone lines and kill/maim women and children?

That is what the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) has just done in its two day “raid” on the Jenin Refugee Camp in the Occupied West Bank. It is the worst invasion of Jenin, the CBC World at Six radio news reported, in 20 years. Twenty years ago, the IDF invaded Jenin, killed 80 and wounded hundreds.

Of course, we hear virtually no Palestinian voices. First, we hear some Israeli general who was in charge who totally justified the relentless attacks because there are “terrorists” in Jenin. Then we hear a Canadian woman who works for the UN who is mortified by the attacks. Then we hear from Ben Gvir who says the best thing for Jews is to carry guns.

Is something wrong with this picture? I’d say so. In Jenin, twelve people are dead – for no reason at all in Jenin, and hundreds wounded attacked by drones manned with missiles, army bulldozers which razed homes and streets, and artillery – all carried out by the IDF.

Commentators now say that Israel doesn’t care about the potential collapse of the Palestine Authority (PA) – which is meant to police Jenin. Israel just wants to destroy the armed resistance of the Jenin Brigades.

Who are the Jenin Brigades?

Since 1967, Israel has forcibly and illegally occupied Palestinian land of the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Israel also controls everything that goes on in the Gaza strip – ensuring there is virtually no way in, or out, blockading goods from Gaza, preventing Gaza fishers to earn a serious living from fishing in the Mediterranean Sea. The UN has passed scores of motions calling for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories to no avail.

The Jenin Brigades are the resistance. People living under subjugation of a foreign power have a right to fight back. And that is what the people in Jenin want to do.

United Nations resolution 37/43, dated December 3, 1982, “reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.”

The international community is calling for some kind of international intervention, but as Marwan Bishara, a senior political analyst for Al Jazeera says, no international force has ever intervened against Israel on behalf the Palestinians. He said acerbically, “We are closer to divine intervention than international intervention.”

My own experience of Jenin was in 2010, when I went on a study tour of Palestine and Israel.  We went to the Freedom Theatre of Jenin – a theatre based on the principle that cultural expression is meaningful to all – especially to those living under foreign occupation. The theatre is a community space that encourages young people from Jenin to act in plays, to perform in films and to raise the level of awareness, pride and culture in the community.

I met the theatre’s co-founder, an Israeli with a Jewish mother and a Palestinian father, the late Juliano Mer Khamis. He noted, “What we do in the theatre is not trying to be a substitute or an alternative to the Palestinian resistance in the struggle for liberation, just the opposite. This must be clear… We join, by all means, the Palestinian struggle for liberation, which is our liberation struggle. We are not healers. We are not good Christians. We are freedom fighters.”

What happened in Tel Aviv?

A Palestinian deliberately drove a vehicle into a crowd near a mall. Eight people were injured. The 21-year-old-man was then shot dead by an armed Israeli civilian walking by.

Try to imagine, for one second, life under military and brutal occupation. Water, electricity and telecommunications are often cut by Israel. More than 60 percent of your town or village is unemployed. There is little food and no sanitation. Garbage and feces run down streets because Israel has destroyed infrastructure. At any time, Israeli troops can ride into your town or your refugee camp to destroy houses, fire guns at children or disabled people, and terrorize your relatives and friends. Not only that, the more than 600,000 Israeli-Jewish settlers who live in scores of illegal settlements (on land stolen from the Palestinians) attack you, kill your livestock, poison your wells, or pistol whip you and your family when you are harvesting your own olives. 

Little wonder some Palestinians slip into Israel proper and target Israelis – I’m surprised there are not more of them.

Judy Haiven is a Halifax member of Independent Jewish Voices Canada, and a principal of Equity Watch, a Nova Scotia based non-profit that fights against discrimination, sexism and bullying at work.

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The working class and national liberation – lessons from Venezuela’s experience

Adrien Welsh

When Hugo Chavez came to power in Venezuela in 1999, he demolished imperialism’s triumphant claim that history had ended. Cuba was no longer alone in the sub-region – other anti-imperialist movements, which until then had confined their actions to the economic sphere, now understood the importance of seizing political power. Such was the case with Evo Morales in Bolivia and then Rafael Correa in Ecuador, followed by El Salvador, the Sandinistas’ return in Nicaragua, Pepe Mujica in Uruguay, etc.

Of course, US imperialism realized it was losing control of its proclaimed backyard, so it instigated the 2002 coup d'état to depose Chavez and restore a subservient bourgeois government. But the Venezuelan working class and people and the working class rejected this, mobilizing to put their legitimate president back in place. So, imperialism tried other dirty tricks, the latest of which include the coup attempt by Juan Guaido (whom Canada still recognizes despite his complete lack of credibility) and desperate mercenary-led military attacks against the Maduro government.

The Venezuelan people stood their ground but have paid a high price through the sanctions which have been imposed on them. They fought back because they knew that if the continental right-wing returned to power, it would spell the end of progressive labour standards (the 2012 Organic Law of Labour and Workers), social programs, infrastructure projects, nationalized companies and all efforts at improving economic development and redistributing wealth.

But, instead of trying to get out of this crisis by deepening the Bolivarian process so that it becomes a real socialist revolution, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) has governed like any social democratic party. It has hurried to give guarantees to imperialism, recognizing that if it did not want to fight for socialism – in a catastrophic economic situation – it would have to share power and allow the fascistic opposition to regain its footing economically.

As a result, mining corporations which had been displaced under Chavez are again entitled to the red-carpet treatment while cooperatives and nationalized agricultural enterprises see control shift to private capital. The Organic Law of Labour is casually ignored and flouted. At the political level, the government negotiates with the pro-imperialist “opposition”.

Against this backdrop, the Communist Party of Venezuela (PCV) recognizes that the government's priority is no longer defending the country’s sovereignty, but rather compromising with imperialism. As a result, in 2020 the PCV formed the Revolutionary Patriotic Alliance (APR) with other political parties which supported the Bolivarian process.

In response, the government is trying to foment splits between the parties in the APR. The PCV is in the direct line of fire, but it has been able to withstand the attack through its democratic centralist structure and the ideological strength of its members and leadership. International support for the PCV is high, as it is often one of the few voices that consistently and continuously fights for the defense of Venezuela’s sovereignty.

For the PSUV, the only remaining option is the illegalization of the current PCV and its replacement with a false “parallel” party.

The Communist Party of Venezuela was the first political party to grasp the historical significance of Chavez and to support him. But his proposal, made following the 2006 election, for a united anti-imperialist front was in fact a push to form a single party (the PSUV) into which other parties would dissolve. The PCV’s refusal to do this (dissolve itself) led to the formation of the Great Patriotic Pole which brought together all the progressive, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist forces. But unlike Chile’s Popular Unity, whose political and social components all met periodically to establish a common political program, the Bolivarian "pole" had no real purpose except to renew a strictly electoral alliance.

The PCV was strongly committed to preserving its partnership and solidarity with the government. In 2018, it signed an agreement with the PSUV, agreeing upon Nicolas Maduro as the single candidate, Nicolas Maduro, for the presidential elections. But once Maduro was elected, the PSUV did not convene a follow-up meeting or implement the agreed-upon programs. In fact, quite the contrary.

What lessons can be learned from this experience?

1. The two great contradictions in contemporary capitalism are those between capital and labour, and imperialism and sovereignty. The first is the fundamental contradiction and the second can, in certain cases like Venezuela, be the main contradiction. But they evolve in parallel. This means that we cannot, in the name defending national sovereignty, demand sacrifices from the working class and allow the national bourgeoisie to set itself up as a monopoly bourgeoisie.
2. An anti-imperialist united front is important, but the Communist Party (as the vanguard detachment of the working class) must still be able organize itself independently. Without this condition, the front is anti-imperialist in name only and ends up becoming a tool for the national bourgeoisie.
3. Without communist leadership, the struggle for national liberation can only be capitalist. In Venezuela, it only took twenty years for the nascent monopoly bourgeoisie to try to impose its authority and get rid of its former allies, often brutally. Its efforts to integrate into globalized capitalism include liquidating the social gains of the Bolivarian process.

These three lessons are not only to be learned from the Venezuelan experience. We have seen it in South Africa, where ANC governments have not hesitated to betray the 1955 Freedom Charter. We also saw it with the MPLA in Angola, FRELIMO in Mozambique, Sékou Touré in Guinea, Nasser in Egypt and with independent Algeria.

In these and many other cases, the lesson is clear: there is no national liberation without working-class liberation.

Clarté

Translated and edited for length by PV staff

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BoC rate hikes – not in working people’s “interest”

PV editorial

The Bank of Canada’s decision in mid-July to increase interest rates for the 10th time, to a 22-year high of 5 percent, is an enormous attack on working people. It clearly exposes the Bank’s – and the state’s – class character and role.

The latest rate hike, as with previous ones, clearly has nothing to do with “inflation,” whose official rate is now down at 3.4 percent. This official metric obviously doesn’t measure the cost of living for working people, who are facing soaring prices for basic necessities like housing (up an average of 19 percent between January and May), food and fuel. This situation is driving the household debt-to-income ratio to a near-record high of 184.5 percent, and it’s still climbing.

No, the BoC isn’t concerned about your ability to keep a roof over your head, put food on your table or pay your bills. Rather, it’s worried about your wages – which it feels are way too high. That probably comes as news to most working people, whose real wages are dropping (relative to the cost of living) faster than BoC governor Tiff Macklem’s crocodile tears.

But, you know, while Tiff and crew are delivering a real shit-kicking to working folk, they’re also delivering the goods to the ruling class. Last year was a banner year for capital – corporate profit in Canada hit record levels and reached 20 percent of the country’s GDP, a 60-year high.

This year, corporate profits are still soaring, but they aren’t quite on the same record-setting pace as last year. So, the BoC has to step in and help out.

Macklem – like every capitalist economist – knows that jacking interest rates will push the economy into a recession, and possibly a deep one, bringing with it slashed wages and incomes. Labour economist Jim Stanford estimates that the BoC’s policies could lead to unemployment as high as 8-9 percent, meaning another half million unemployed workers.

In the process, small businesses which are highly dependent on credit will also face increased bankruptcies. The first will be those that survived the pandemic on a wing and a prayer, and accumulated debt – they’ll be easy pickings for big monopolies.

In the end, there’ll be a massive transfer of wealth from working people to corporations and the very rich. And with that wealth will come a transfer of more power – economic and political – which will make the hardship even harder for working people and their families.

So, faced with a little blip in profits for 2022, capital will ride the wave of repeated interest rate hikes and come back bigger, more powerful and even more desperate to cling to what it has, at almost everyone else’s expense.

But high living costs are not caused by workers’ wages or by high levels of employment, so cutting wages and jobs will not bring down fix the problem. While it will increase profits, it will greatly harm working people, pensioners, the unemployed and those on fixed incomes, as well as tenants, homeowners and small businesses.

So, what’s the solution? Well, socialism obviously! But in the immediate term, working people need to demand that the government intervene in the economy to reduce prices, pursue full-employment jobs policies, raise wages and incomes to livable levels, and cut the BoC’s job-killing interest rates. This has been done before – several times – and always because working people and the labour movement have mobilized to make it happen.

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Pages from our past…

250 million sign that Hiroshima never again can happen

John Stewart

Canadian Tribune Vol 13 No 680 ~ August 7, 1950

“The morning was still. The place was cool and pleasant. Then a tremendous flash of light cut across the sky. Mr. Tanimoto has a distinct recollection that it travelled from east to west, from the city toward the hills. It seemed a sheet of sun. Both he and Mr. Matsuo reacted in terror…

“He felt a sudden pressure, and then splinters and pieces of board and fragments of tile fell on him. He heard no roar…

“He was the only person making his way into the city; he met hundreds and hundreds who were fleeing … The eyebrows of some were burned off and skin hung from their faces and hands. Others, because of pain, held their arms up as if carrying something in both hands. Some were vomiting as they walked. Many were naked or in shreds of clothing…”

Five years ago, at fifteen minutes past eight on the morning of August 6, the first atomic bomb was hurled upon the people of the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The words above are but a snatch from John Hersey’s story of how that bomb ripped and tore and burned to horrible death a hundred thousand people.

As of last week, 250,000,000 people – in Canada as in the Soviet Union; in India as in Australia; in Africa as in the United States; in South America as in Korea – had signed their names to an appeal to all the governments of the world, that never again shall an atomic bomb be dropped, that never shall there be another Hiroshima or another Nagasaki.

This week, across Canada, from Peace Councils in scores of cities and towns – yes, and in the villages – thousands of fighters for peace will mark Hiroshima week. They will seek signatures to the Stockholm Petition being circulated in Canada by the Canadian Peace Congress. Across the top of the petition this week will be the words: “Hiroshima was atom-bombed five years ago.”

Special teams of peace fighters will take it wherever people are gathered. They will carry it from door to door. They will gather thousands more signatures of peace-loving Canadians who want no Hiroshima here or anywhere.

The Final 8 Weeks

Hiroshima week begins the last eight weeks of the Canadian campaign for half a million signatures by October 2. The Canadian Peace Congress has urged all local Peace Councils to call emergency conferences not later than August 15 to work out plans to reach and surpass quotas by International Peace Day.

Next week, the national office of the Peace Congress is scheduled to announce an all-embracing plan of action for the final weeks of the campaign.

Canada is Decisive

But for today and for every day until Oct. 2 Mary Jennison, national secretary, says this: “Let all who work for peace remember that the eyes of the world are on Canada. Here in North America are the atomaniacs; here in North America are the warmakers. But if the multitude of Canadians declare themselves for peace, there will be no war. And Canadians can best declare themselves against the most hideous weapon of all hideous creations, if the thousands who participate in the peace movement will take the Peace Congress petition to the people. The people will sign; that has been proved.”

A half million signatures by October 2, can mean that the next “tremendous flash of light across the sky” will be but a harmless meteor. Failure can bring another Hiroshima.

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César Vallejo: revolutionary in politics, revolutionary in art

Normand Raymond

Born in 1892 in the small northern Peruvian village of Santiago de Chuco, César Vallejo emigrated to Europe in 1923 and died in Paris on April 15, 1938. He is considered one of the greatest figures of Peruvian literature, and one of the greatest innovators of twentieth-century Latin American poetry. His worked, marked by great realism, depicts people’s daily lives, social and political injustice, the exploitation of workers, alienation and the conflict between desire and spirituality. Preoccupied with social problems and influenced by Marxism – which he enthusiastically espoused until the end of his life – his thought gradually shifted from religious mysticism to socialist realism.

Best known for his poetry, Vallejo also tackled several other literary genres including novels, short stories, plays and essays. Dedicating much of his life to teaching, journalism and translation, he wrote many columns and articles for several magazines and newspapers and translated three books from French into Spanish. However, due to its Marxist and revolutionary nature, more than half of his work was not published until after his death, by his wife Georgette (Travers) Vallejo.

From modernism to revolutionary literature

An analysis of his four collections of poems reveals three evolutionary stages in his style: modernist, avant-garde and revolutionary. Initially influenced by Nicaraguan poet Rubén Darío and Uruguayan poet Julio Herrera y Reissig, Vallejo inherited the Latin American modernist tradition. But with his first collection, Los Heraldos Negros (The Black Messengers, 1918), he was already beginning to search for a different aesthetic, shifting from the written form to a colloquial oral one which marked a fundamental change in modernist Peruvian poetry.

His second collection, Trilce (1922), coincided with the advent of international avant-gardism and made a radical break with modernism. In an experimental poetic language, Vallejo pushedthe Spanish language to unexpected limits, shattering aesthetic and rhetorical norms. To forge his own grammar, he invented words and strained syntax, employingautomatism and other techniques from the Dadaist and Surrealist movements. Ultimately, he projected literature that was committed to social causes, a militant art against the bourgeoisie.

Poemas Humanos (Human Poems, posthumously in 1939), marked the final phase of his poetry and presented an essential humanism, a socialist and revolutionary literaturefocused on the anti-imperialist struggle. In a more accessible language, the poet tried to get closer to the people, as if talking to a friend or a worker. His membership in the Communist Party of Spain in 1930 and his trips to the USSR are among the factors that may explain this change of direction in both poetry and prose.

The author's last collection, España, aparta de míestecáliz (Spain, Take This Chalice from Me, posthumously in 1939), is said to contain the most intense and profound verses ever written on the Spanish Civil War. Moved by the vision of fighting Spain, Vallejo put all his poetry at the service of the Republican cause. Comprised of fifteen poems, this collection is his poetic testament.

Vallejo's voice in song

As a tribute to Vallejo, several composers have sethis poems to music. Uruguayan Daniel Viglietti was one of the first, beginning in 1968 with the poems "Masa" and "Pedro Rojas." Pablo Milanés and Noel Nicola – two founders of Cuban Nueva Trova – were also involved. While Pablo reworked "Masa" into a different arrangement published in 1971, Noel released an album in 1986 (Noel Nicola canta César Vallejo) featuring a dozen Vallejo poems. And in 1997, Peruvian writer and troubadour Luis Enrique Alvizuri completed his album Vallejo en mi cantar, which featured ten poems set to music in collaboration with his sister Norma Alvizuri and Peruvian composer Daniel Escobar.

Clarté

Translated from French by PV staff

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