LET GEORGE GALLOWAY SPEAK IN CANADA!

March 25, 2009
YCL-Ljc CEC

The Harper Conservative government has again brought down its heel on freedom of speech.

Democratic Canadians have to reverse this decision. By banning British MP George Galloway, minister Jason Kenney and the Harper Conservatives are attacking the very liberties they hypocritically claim to defend in Afghanistan. Even the corporate media has condemned this (although they are really saying to Harper ‘don’t silence him, trust us to do that job’).

Since when has terrorism meant donating a fire engine, twelve ambulances, a fishing boat, trucks full of medicine, blankets, shoes and children’s toys? Who is next – the Red Cross (or Red Crescent)?

The Palestinians live under a state of siege and occupation. (Last week, Israel simply drove into the West Bank and arrested several elected Hamas parliamentarians!) This announcement comes in a period of intensifying clamp-downs against broad public discussion of Canada’s bloody imperialist foreign policy, especially the dirty, racist war in Afghanistan and the Canada’s support of the Israeli apartheid government’s occupation in Palestine.

Take the deportation of the US Iraq war resisters – this week Kimberly Rivera; or the cut backs to public funding for the Canadian Arab Federation’s immigrant community services not because of any policy violation, but a political statement by an unfunded part of the organization. High school and university communities have been under attack for Palestinian solidarity work. Immigrant workers without full documentation have been targeted through Immigration Enforcement raids, harassment outside women’s shelters, and rising deportations (and today the Minister equates the UN’s announcement of a 30% increase in refugee claims with abuse of the system! The nerve!).

In all of these heavy-handed measures Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, comes forward as the government’s un-muzzled pit bull terrier.

The Young Communist League expresses our condemnation of the Harper Conservative government and minister Kenney: reverse the decision, apologize, and drop the “Terrorist lists” which criminalize legitimate peoples movements. We stand with all democratic Canadians who are outraged by this development, and call upon the youth to join the rapidly growing vocal opposition to this attack on freedom of speech.

Mr. Harper – your attempt to silence the Canadian people will fail.

Young Communist League of Canada - Ligue de la jeunesse communiste du Canada.
290A Danforth Ave,
Toronto ON M4K 1N6
CANADA
Office: 416-469-2446

CELEBRATE EL SALVADOR!

1. FMLN VICTORY! 
2. LEFT TRIUMPHANT IN EL SALVADOR 

1. FMLN VICTORY 

YCLers joined members of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) at socials and party's across Canada last night, celebrating the victory of President-Elect Mauricio Funes of the FMLN, the party of the heroic Communist and guerialla fighter Schafik Handal. Funes got 51.26 percent, against 48.74 percent from the governing Nationalist Republican Alliance candidate. The results are considered irreversible. 

A delegation of YCLers and other youth from Guelph-Kitchener is currently in El Salvador, observing the election proceedings and we will circulate a report-back from this delegation. 

This is very welcome development, marking the latest of a series of progressive shifts across the political landscape of Latin America. It is a  victory of a people that deserves to have the necessary change to fulfill their dream of liberation, and elimination of poverty and inequalities. The YCL will be sending greetings to the Youth of the Front and the FMLN on the occasion of this long, hard and historic victory! 

2. LEFT TRIUMPHANT IN EL SALVADOR ELECTION 

Morning Star (UK) 
Monday 16 March 2009 

SALVADOREAN left-winger Mauricio Funes vowed to crack down on tax-evading corporate chiefs on Monday after he won presidential elections. 

The country's election commission released figures on Sunday which showed that Mr Funes of the Farabundo Marti Front for National Liberation (FMLN) garnered 51.27 per cent of the vote against 48.73 per cent for Rodrigo Avila of the ruling Arena party, ending two decades of right-wing rule in El Salvador. 

Jubilant, red-clad FMLN supporters poured into the streets of San Salvador on Monday, singing, clapping, blowing whistles and waving large party flags as fireworks lit up the night sky. 

Addressing the rally, Mr Funes said that "the time has come for the excluded, the opportunity has arrived for genuine democrats, for men and women who believe in social justice and solidarity." 

He vowed to boost public spending on education, health and poverty alleviation. 

And Mr Funes gave notice to big-business bosses who exploit government complacency to evade taxes, pledging to bring the full force of law to bear on them. 

The former freelance television reporter harnessed a wave of discontent with two decades of Arena party rule that have brought economic growth at the cost of growing social inequality. 

Fuel and food prices have soared, while powerful gangs extort businesses and fight for drug-dealing turf, resulting in one of Latin America's highest murder rates. 

Mr Avila, a former police chief, had warned that an FMLN victory would send El Salvador "down the communist path" and threaten the country's warm relations with the United States. 

On Sunday, he vowed to lead "a vigilant opposition that would ensure that the country does not lose its liberties." 

The FMLN was formed in 1980 as an umbrella group to unite progressive guerilla groups struggling against the US-backed military regime and its notorious death squads. 

After signing the Chapultepec Peace Accords in 1992 which ended the bloody civil war, it became a legal political party. 

In January's legislative elections, the FMLN won 42.6 per cent of the vote and 35 seats, making it the largest party in parliament, though it does not have a governing majority. 

In Washington, the Obama administration has assured Salvadoreans that it will work with Mr Funes - a marked departure from the approach of former president George W Bush who indicated that an FMLN victory would hurt ties.

Solidarity with Sudanese peoples

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. MIGUEL FIGUEROA TOUR IN BC
3. SUDAN SOLIDARITY

1. YCL IN ACTION

Six YCL Toronto members met on Wednesday 11th March to distribute and sell copies of People's Voice and Rebel Youth around the campuses of Ryerson and University of Toronto. The action was only about 45 minutes, but raised $5.60 despite this and the cold weather. It was decided that sales inside were more effective; future actions of this sort would benefit from a pre-distribution meeting in order to go over the contents of the literature being sold; and that this type of distribution activity should be taken up more regularly. (Report from Philip F, YCL Toronto)

2. MIGUEL FIGUEROA TOUR

YCLers across BC will be coming out to hear Miguel Figueroa, leader of the Communist Party, speak on his tour across the province. Miguel will be speaking about the root causes of the financial crisis, and the urgent need to change direction, create jobs and reform Employment Insurance (EI).

Among the Federal Budget's worst features is the almost complete government inaction on EI. Instead of extending coverage to all of the unemployed, and increasing benefit levels and claim periods, the budget keeps virtually all of the current miserly and exclusionary regulations firmly in place. The $2 billion for retraining jobless workers is a tiny fraction of the $54 billion stolen from the unemployed over the years through Liberal and Tory cuts. The federalminimum wage remains unchanged and the budget does nothin to protect and raise pensions or to improve social assistance. Read more:
http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/Pv01mr09.html#14_FIGUEROA_TOUR_TO_LAUNCH_C...

We will forward out all tour dates in a separate email.

2. SOLIDARITY WITH SUDAN

With the kidnapping of a Canadian nurse in Sudan, and the news that an "International court has issued an arrest warrant for the president of Sudan," the fact that Canada has been quietly increasing its military role in Sudan with Operation Safarri and Operation Saturn, has come into public scrutiny. There has also been a supposed solidarity campaign with Darfur, incorporating many honest and good activists but being led by anti-Palestinian and pro-Zionist students who have advocated for an "Afghanistan-style military intervention" into Sudan.

Canada's Talisman Oil has significant investments in Sudan.

This comes just months after one a horrifying scandal around one of Canada's last significant 'Peacekeeping' operations in north-eastern Africa was again slipped under the carpet by the military.

In September chargers were dropped against a former Canadian soldier who was accused of helping beat, burn and suffocate to death a sixteen year-old Somali teen, Shidane Abukar Arone. (Other soldiers later posed and snapped photos with Arone's bludgeoned and limp body). The charges were officially dropped because the soldier had a permanent brain injury -- inflicted days after the crime when he attempted to hang himself.

We re-print here the statement of the World Federation of Democratic Youth on Sudan.

WFDY ON SUDAN

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant against the Sudanese President for conviction in mass murder in Darfur region. As other international organizations manipulated by the imperialist powers, WFDY considers the ICC decision a political decision and another form of intervention in the internal issues of independent countries to cause more instability and to divide them in order to conquer them.

WFDY asserts its condemnation of those provocative decisions that will only lead to more wars and instabilities in the region.

WFDY also stresses the fact that it supports the democratic rights of the Sudanese people, the rights of the inhabitants in Darfur in a stable and better life and the rights of the residents of Southern Sudan in stability and progress. WFDY also supports the democratic forces struggling for the rights of the Sudanese people in democracy and social transformation.

However, all forms of international intervention in internal issues of sovereign countries like Sudan will only lead to more problems and tensions. Those policies form the legal cover for the domination and hegemony of USA and its imperialist allies over the world resources and sources of energy. The problems in Darfur and Sudan only rose after the discovery of oil, gas and uranium in its lands; therefore we understand those interventions as preliminaries for more exploitation of the resources of this country by the imperialist powers lead by USA.

WFDY expresses its solidarity with the Sudanese people against imperialist plans in their country, and with their right in independent progressive state that controls its resources for the well being of its people.

Viva International Women's Day

1. YCL IN ACTION
2. IWD 2009
3. STUDENTS AGAINST WAR


1. YCL IN ACTION

YCLers across the country are marching and participating in
International Women's Day this weekend. March 8th will mark the 93rd
anniversary of IWD. Read down for more...

Save the date! YCLers across Souther Ontario and elsewhere are being
urged to attend Student Assembly Against War and Racism, A
pan-Canadian student conference to end the war in Afghanistan, Friday,
March 20 to Sunday, March 22, 2009. The CFS has a travel budget for
this event, contact the YCL CEC at johan@ycl-ljc.ca or for more info
read down to item three...

LJCers in Quebec will be joining members of the PCQ next week in a
joint educational talk about the National Question in Quebec and the
current economic situation. They are working to bring in new contacts
and interested young people.

There have been several new contacts for the YCL across the East Coast
recently. Next week, YCLers in different locations in Nova Scotia will
be holding a conference call next week planning to discuss the next
steps with organizing, including the posibility of another East-Coast
YCL school.


2. IWD 2009

The YCL endorses the following statement of the Communist Party and
urges all members to read it!

IWD 2009: A Statement

from the Communist Party of Canada

“The Communist Party of Canada stands in solidarity with all those who
struggle for peace, equality, democracy and social progress. A better
world is both possible and necessary – the world of socialism, the
only system which can guarantee full equality and a future for
humanity!”

March 8: a day to honour women’s struggles

For 98 years, March 8 has been a day to honour women’s struggles, take
stock of hard-won gains, and put forward demands to promote full
equality. Communists have played a leading role since the inception of
International Women’s Day, which was unanimously adopted by a
Socialist International women’s conference in Copenhagen in 1910 and
observed for the first time in 1911. The Communist Party of Canada is
part of this historic tradition. We salute women who are struggling
throughout the world for peace, justice and equality, whose full
participation is essential for the success of all working class and
democratic movements.

This year on IWD, the United Nations has chosen the slogan “Women and
Men United to End Violence Against Women and Girls.” Violence takes
many forms, from family abuse to rape to human trafficking to war. To
truly address these issues requires a major commitment to both legal
remedies and social development.

In Canada, we must reverse the under-funding of emergency shelters and
support services for victims of family violence. We must address the
shameful economic and social conditions of Aboriginal women and girls,
who have been particularly vulnerable to racism and inequality –
hundreds have been murdered or disappeared. Internationally, trillions
of dollars are wasted on war instead of development efforts to provide
women and girls with education and economic opportunities, clean
water, adequate health care, and more human rights protection,
including personal security, choice in marriage, and reproductive
choice. Changing material conditions goes hand in hand with changing
social attitudes.

Today it is more obvious than ever that war is the most terrible crime
against humanity. In many countries, from the Middle East to
Afghanistan to Congo to Colombia, wars increasingly target civilian
populations. Women and children are casualties of bombardment from the
air and atrocities on the ground, and also the most frequent victims
of public health catastrophes arising from the destruction of power
plants, water supply systems and hospitals.
The Communist Party expresses our full solidarity for the women who
are involved in the struggle for survival under difficult conditions
and for peaceful resolution of conflicts. Particularly, we single out
the women of Gaza, subject to inhuman attack following a long period
of economic blockade. We call on all governments to embargo arms to
the state of Israel until it abandons its policy of territorial
expansion, violence and economic strangulation of Palestinian
communities.

International Women’s Day 2009 takes place during the most serious
global economic crisis in decades. Fifty million layoffs are expected
this year, destroying the livelihood of countless families around the
world, and threatening much of the social infrastructure which has
improved women’s lives.

In response to the crisis, the corporations, and the governments which
serve them, are increasing economic disparity by cutting social
programs and giving unconditional bailouts to wealthy shareholders and
CEOs. Rather than pay for the crisis which their system created, the
capitalists want to roll back workers’ gains and set the stage for
ever-deepening exploitation.

Here in Canada, unemployment is rising quickly, and the corporations
are pushing for wage cuts. The demand for a country-wide child care
system, a key issue in election after election, has again been
abandoned by the minority Harper government. Incredibly, pay equity is
actually under attack, with plans to reduce the opportunity for
complaints through the courts. The Tories have ignored calls to
improve the Employment Insurance system paid for by all workers. As
the majority of part-time and minimum wage workers, women are
disproportionately under-protected; only three women out of ten in the
workforce are eligible to collect EI. Even those who do meet the
requirements can’t survive on benefit rates set at 55% of their low
previous earnings.
Needed: a working class response to the crisis

The response to the economic crisis by working people, women and men,
must be a massive campaign to build a People’s Coalition for a genuine
alternative to corporate greed. Such a campaign, led by the labour
movement and its allies, should fight to restructure the economy, to
provide sustainable jobs and to improve social services such as
health, education and universal child care, to provide increased
opportunities for women in the work force. To protect jobless workers
and their families, EI payments must be set at 90% of previous
earnings for the full duration of unemployment. Evictions and utility
cutoffs against all families affected by unemployment must be banned.

But as long as capitalism continues, it will continue to generate
poverty, inequality, exploitation, environmental degradation and war.
These are not accidental side-effects, they are necessary ingredients
of a system designed to maximize profit in private hands. Under
capitalism, the women of the world face tremendous struggles to win
new progress, or to hold on to gains already won. Every step forward
will be threatened by the next economic downturn, and the danger of
war is never absent.

Only socialism, based on democratic, collective ownership and working
class power, can permit the enormous creative and productive potential
of the world’s workers to be used constructively for human needs. On
IWD 2009, the Communist Party of Canada stands in solidarity with all
those who struggle for peace, equality, democracy and social progress.
A better world is both possible and necessary - the world of
socialism, the only system which can guarantee full equality and a
future for humanity!


3. STUDENTS AGAINST WAR

Student Assembly Against War and Racism
A pan-Canadian student conference to end the war in Afghanistan

Friday, March 20 to Sunday, March 22, 2009
Ryerson Student Centre, 55 Gould Street
Ryerson University
Toronto ON

The Student Assembly Against War and Racism is a pan-Canadian student
conference to end the war in Afghanistan. We invite all students and
youth from across Canada and Quebec to join us in building a mass
student movement against war and racism, and in calling for Canadian
troops to come home from Afghanistan.

The assembly will focus on Canada's war in Afghanistan, where over
2,600 Canadian troops are currently deployed. Thousands more have been
cycled through in the largest Canadian combat operation since the
Korean War. The assembly will also address a broad range of topics
including racism, Islamophobia, civil liberties, counter-recruitment,
the militarization of campus, global solidarity, and more.

The assembly will feature a series of workshops that discuss anti-war
issues and build organizing skills. It will also feature high-profile
guest speakers, two evening panels, two anti-war socials, open
organizing space, and a closing strategizing plenary.

We hope you can be a part of it!

You can register online at http://www.unitedagainstwar.ca. Registration is FREE.

Organized by
Canadian Federation of Students - Ontario: www.cfsontario.ca
Canadian Peace Alliance: www.acp-cpa.ca