Sep 242014
 

The Communist Party of Canada’s Central Committee calls for democratic‑minded people to join in the condemnation of Montréal municipal bylaw P‑6 and support the ongoing court challenge against this law. Montréal is on the front line of a much broader, reactionary attack on democratic and civil rights which must be reversed.

Bylaw P‑6 was created during, and in response to, the Québec student strike of 2012. Refusing to negotiate in good faith, and responding to the outpouring of public support, the provincial Charest Liberal government imposed draconian legislation under the title of Bill 78 which grossly violated civil and democratic rights by effectively outlawing all student protest and blocking any attempt of solidarity actions by the labour movement.

It is well known that this tactic further discredited the Charest Liberals. Public pressure helped trigger an election in which the Liberals were defeated, and the new minority Parti Québecois government struck Bill 78 from the books.

What is not well know is that on the municipal level, both Montréal and Québec City either adapted or adopted city bylaws mirroring Bill 78 ‑ and that these were never struck from the books. Continue reading »

Sep 242014
 

The Communist Party of Canada supports the municipal employees of Québec and demands the withdrawal of Bill 3 which attacks their pension rights.

Citing the fear of pension fund deficits due to the improved life expectancy of workers, Bill 3 would tear up collective agreements, and force renegotiation by setting advance concessions that workers must accept. With good reason, the unions argue that such imposed negotiations will be artificial, and that the Bill is an attack on freedom of association and collective bargaining.

Bill 3 covers all Québec municipalities, affecting 170 retirement plans, 50,000 retirees and 122 000 participants, even though these plans are not actually in financial difficulty. Continue reading »

Sep 242014
 

For all of its 65 years of existence, NATO has been an aggressive, imperialist alliance. It is the largest military organization in the world, committed to the doctrines of first strike and preemptive strike. NATO interventions regularly include the use of toxic weapons containing depleted uranium or white phosphor, and the alliance has repeatedly stated that nuclear weapons are a fundamental part of its military arsenal and strategy.

NATO is also an illegal alliance under international law. Article 52 of the United Nations Charter permits regional military organizations, but only if their activities are “consistent with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations.” The most important principle of the UN is the prohibition of the use of force. Since NATO’s membership has always been beyond any commonly identifiable region, and since its primary activity has always involved the use of military force, its foundation contravenes international law.

Firmly dominated by US-imperialism, NATO is also a pillar of the European Union’s military strategy. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has aggressively expanded both its membership and its theatre of operations. Currently, there are 28 NATO member states across North America and Europe, another 22 countries in the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), and a further 19 countries engaged with NATO through programs such as the Mediterranean Dialogue, the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative and the Partners Across the Globe Initiative. This expansion reveals NATO’s fundamental character as the key military tool of Western imperialism. Continue reading »

Solidarity with the Palestinian people

 Posted on September 24, 2014
Sep 242014
 

The Communist Party of Canada’s Central Committee, meeting on the weekend of September 13-14th, repeats its condemnation of Israel’s murderous 51-day war on the people of Gaza. We call for the immediate lifting of the siege of Gaza and express our continued full support for the Palestinian people’s struggle for an independent sovereign state.

“Operation Protective Edge” was an act of genocide, killing over 2 200 Palestinians. More than 500 of the dead were children. To this date at least 450 000 people have been displaced. Direct deliberate bombing hit refugee centers, turned into rubble tens of thousands of homes, and destroyed schools, hospitals, clinics, factories, mosques, water and sewage infrastructure, and Gaza’s only power plant. Already, Gaza was effectively an open-air prison. Its population of 1.8 million people remain penned into an area about half the size of Toronto, now without electricity or even clean drinking water and running water. Continue reading »

Block the CETA deal!

 Posted on September 24, 2014
Sep 242014
 

Every government and advocates of “Free Trade Agreements” have dangled the illusion of jobs and prosperity. These have never materialized. Indeed the opposite is true. Hundreds of thousands of jobs have vanished through NAFTA, and experts predict at least another 50,000 jobs will be lost through CETA, the latest and most dangerous of these agreements.

Shrouded in secrecy, the Harper Conservative government, the European Union, and major trans‑national corporations recently concluded the final round of negotiations for the largest free‑trade agreement in Canada’s history since NAFTA. Although there have been setbacks in the German Parliament over the dispute mechanism, the Harper government are still pushing for a signing, at least in principle, in September 2014. CETA would take effect after it has been ratified by the EU member states, and also by the federal and provincial governments of Canada. This makes the fightback agenda very urgent; just as the MAI (Multilateral Agreement on Investments) was defeated, blocking CETA is still possible, through a strategy of mass mobilizations and by making this sellout a key issue in next year’s federal election. Continue reading »

Sep 242014
 

The Communist Party of Canada opposes the renewal of imperialism’s war in Iraq, under the pretext of fighting the Islamic State (IS), and calls for Canada’s immediate and complete withdrawal from the US‑led military intervention.

The doctrine of Responsibility to Protect is being fed to the people of Canada in order to justify a new war in Iraq. In this narrative, intervention is promoted as necessary to save the people of Iraq and Syria from IS terrorism.

But this argument obscures the fact that the main and most immediate threat to peace and to the people of the Middle East is from imperialism. It was the United States, together with its allies in NATO and Israel, who spearheaded the invasion of Iraq in 1990, and who carried out the murderous sanctions through the decade of the 1990s, and who again invaded and occupied the country from 2003 on. It is the imperialist states who have waged a terrorist war against the people of Syria, in which 100,000 people have died and millions displaced. It is imperialism that has supported Israel’s occupation of Palestine, the apartheid policies against the Palestinian people, and Israel’s repeated military strikes against Gaza. Continue reading »

Salute to B.C. teachers – the fight continues

 Posted on September 19, 2014
Sep 192014
 

The teachers of British Columbia deserve a huge vote of appreciation for standing on the picket lines to defend public education and collective bargaining rights. The Communist Party of BC salutes their determination to resist the attacks and provocations of the Liberal government, and to win the support of parents, students, and all who value public education. This courageous struggle goes all the way back to the first Liberal term in office, and the budget slashing and union‑bashing launched by Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark. We pledge to continue our solidarity with teachers and all education workers in this fight, which has now entered a new stage following the ratification of a new six‑year collective agreement. The teachers will go back to classrooms with justifiable pride that unlike the government, they made the interests of students their priority in this dispute.

After months of government threats and bullying, the final negotiated settlement was reached thanks to the solidarity of community groups, parents and students, and by the financial and moral support and of trade unions across the country and even internationally. Having made huge sacrifices, many teachers were understandably reluctant to accept a deal which leaves them with just 7.25% pay increases over a period of eight years, and with only minor gains on the crucial issues of class size and composition. Continue reading »

Sep 042014
 

British Columbians are dismayed and increasingly angry that public schools across the province are closed as the 2014-15 academic year begins, with no end in sight to the labour dispute imposed on students and teachers by Christy Clark’s Liberal government. The Communist Party of BC stands in solidarity with the BC Teachers’ Federation in their courageous struggle for a fair collective agreement, the right to negotiate class size and composition, and a funding formula which reverses many years of cutbacks, layoffs and school closures across the province.

Over the summer, many remained hopeful that the government would eventually back down from its refusal to engage in real collective bargaining, and find a way to reach an agreement with the BC Teachers Federation by Labour Day. Now, it is clear to both critics and supporters that the Premier’s long-range goal is to use this dispute in order to gut the public education system across the province
and to smash the BCTF. Continue reading »

Sep 012014
 

Right across Canada, people are challenging the abuses of capitalism and asking serious questions about how to move forward to a better world.  Recent years have seen huge popular struggles:  protests against corporate trade sellouts, the Idle No More movement for indigenous sovereignty, the Quebec student strike, mobilizations against fracking and tar sands exports, labour resistance against attacks by bosses and governments, struggles for gender equality and against racism and homophobia, opposition to Canada’s role in imperialist war-making, and much more.

This Labour Day the Communist Party, which has a proud record in many historic struggles against exploitation and oppression, is launching a campaign to reach out to all those who want to build a stronger fightback.  We urge you to join the party that fights for the working class and all those who want to unite in action for a socialist future!

Please visit our recruitment campaign site here.