Economic Crisis

Video: the Political Conditions of Bill C-51

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Miguel Figueroa, Leader of the Communist Party of Canada, discusses the larger political context of Bill C-51 and other ‘anti-terror’ legislation around the world and its relationship to the ongoing crisis of capitalism.

This talk was recorded in March 2015, in Edmonton, Alberta and was part of a coast-to-coast multi-city tour against Bill C-51 by the Communist Party of Canada in March and April which visited Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, North Vancouver, Surrey, Kelowna, Kamloops, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph, London, Montreal, Westville and Halifax.

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Block the CETA deal!

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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.

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Labour Day 2014: A new mood to resist!

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There is a new mood in the Canadian labour movement – the mood to resist. This was the propellant at the May CLC Convention, where incumbent president Ken Georgetti was narrowly defeated, and a groundswell replaced the inertia of rest with the demand for action. The winner, Hassan Yussuff, was successful after adopting the action program of Hassan Husseini and the “Take Back the CLC” movement which captured the discontent that has been maturing for years. The defeat of Georgetti, moving Hassan Yussuff to the helm, the re-election of Barb Byers and Marie Clark Walker, and adding prominent CUPW activist Donald Lafleur, was the delegate mandate for militant action.

In Ontario, following the dormancy of the Samuelson years, the OFL under the leadership of Sid Ryan displayed concretely what can be accomplished if labour takes the bull by the horns and implements independent political action. There is no doubt that the decisive defeat of the Hudak Tories in the Ontario election was due in large part to the campaigning and mobilization of the labour movement. This was not just a defeat for a political candidate, but for the reactionary agenda of the “Right‑to‑work” pro-corporate movement. The blow struck by Ontario labour will weaken the whole anti‑labour agenda. Nevertheless labour is under siege across the country. From the BC teachers to Québec municipal workers to the Nova Scotia nurses, the pattern is the same. The corporate sponsored attack on social programs, pensions, education and Medicare is an assault on those who provide and defend those programs. Labour must not rest to relish success. The Ontario fightback should be a game plan for a major defeat of the federal Tories in 2015.

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Joint International Statement on the reactionary developments in Ukraine

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The Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada agreed to sign the following Joint Statement of Communist and Workers’ Parties on the recent developments in Ukraine.

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The recent dramatic developments in Ukraine do not constitute the “victory of democracy” by the alleged “revolutionaries”, as it is being described by the mass media of the USA and the EU, but is a dangerous development, above all for the people of Ukraine themselves.

Reactionary political forces, ideological descendents of the Nazis, have risen to the political “surface” with the assistance of the EU and the USA. These are forces which apart from destroying the offices of their opponents, are planning political persecutions, and the banning of parties, above all against the communists, and even racist legislation at the expense of the Russian-speaking population, like what has been in force for the last 20 years in the countries of the “European” Baltic, with the blatant political support of the EU.

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Down with the Omnibus Bill C-4!

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The Communist Party of Canada strongly condemns the new omnibus Bill C‑4 to implement elements of the March 2013 Conservative budget, changing many laws and containing an array of measures, including a fierce attack against the right to strike in the public service.

In particular, this bill now gives the government, as an employer, the exclusive right to determine which services, facilities or activities of the State it considers essential, depriving public employees of their right to strike. Currently, the determination of essential services is the result of negotiation between the employer and the union.

In addition, the bill provides that where the employer has said that at least 80% of positions are essential, the right to strike will be completely abolished and the dispute must be referred to arbitration. However, when the employer considers that less than 80% of services are essential, the employer will have a veto over the arbitration. The bill also provides that the arbitrator shall be required to place a preponderance of weight to employer demands.

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