Propagandhi – Dear Coach’s Corner

‘Don’t Ask Don’t Tell’ A Denial of Human Rights by Michael Prysner

Michael Prysner is an Iraq war veteran and member of the Veterans and Service Members Task Force of the ANSWER Coalition. You can visit their website at www.ThisIsNotOurWar.org

Obama’s campaign promise to repeal discriminatory policy in question

President Obama’s campaign promise to repeal the bigoted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy is now looking less and less like a reality.

Prior to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, service members would receive “dishonorable” or “undesirable” discharges for their sexual orientation, barring them from VA benefits and the GI Bill and making it difficult to find quality employment. Former President Clinton enacted Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in 1993, also after a campaign promise to lift the ban on LGBT people serving in the military.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell states that LGBT people in the military “create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline.” Service members are prohibited from speaking about their sexual orientation or past relationships. If there is the slightest suspicion that a service member has any homosexual inclinations, a full investigation can be initiated into that service member’s sexuality, leading to humiliation and a disciplinary discharge.

The policy is nothing more than a denial of human rights; a backwards prejudice that forces individuals—already oppressed and discriminated against in mainstream society—further into a state of fear and alienation.
Included in the Obama administration’s proposal for the new Pentagon budget, the largest in history, is funding to enforce the existing policy. This is the first sign that inequality and bigotry will continue to remain policy in the U.S. military.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made two public comments recently explaining that LGBT people serving in the U.S. military should not be expecting to see equality anytime soon.

Gates said to repeal the law and allow service members to serve openly would be “complex and difficult,” echoing the old homophobic rhetoric that homosexuality is so offensive that it has no place in public life, and any homosexual individual must live a life of secrecy and shame. The logic goes so far as to say that eliminating discrimination against LGBT service members is a threat to national security.

Secretary Gates: ‘push that one down the road’

He went on to say, “That dialog though has really not progressed very far at this point in the administration. I think the president and I feel like we’ve got a lot on our plates right now and let’s push that one down the road a little bit.”

The Obama administration has taken the position that human rights and ending discrimination can wait. It is the position that ending a legacy of prejudice and hatred can wait.

We say that it cannot wait. It is time that this injustice comes to an end. We demand that the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy be abolished immediately, along with any other discriminatory measure. The funds that are allotted to fund the continuation of bigotry should instead be used to fund an effective, mandatory military-wide educational campaign to eliminate homophobia from its ranks. Along with the creation of that program, new laws should be enacted to protect LGBT service members from discrimination and harassment. The military should adopt strict disciplinary measures to enforce those laws. We contend that similar measures are needed to combat racism and sexism in the military.

That is what is needed to achieve true justice and equality—and it is something that can become a reality. But this kind of change will not come from the top, as the Obama administration and its Pentagon generals have indicated. It must come through a fight-back movement of progressive grassroots organizations, and of the powerful force that exists within the military—gay, lesbian and bi-sexual service members and their allies, themselves. We call on all service members to take a stand for human rights by challenging this outrageous law and organizing within the military against it.

Real victories in the struggle for LGBT rights are within our grasp. We can see the right of same-sex couples to marry, the right of LGBT people to adopt children, and the elimination of every form of discrimination based on sexual orientation in the country. But this can only be reached through mass unified action. Service members can be a dynamic force in the movement for equality; a force that would no doubt be supported by the movement of students, workers and civil rights and social justice organizations demanding justice for the LGBT community.

As service members in the U.S. military, we should not be fighting these racist, profit-driven wars of aggression. We should be fighting for equality, for human rights and for progress—and that means fighting against the will of Washington.

Allies – Strike Anywhere

(Please this excuse this song being presented as a skate video, it’s the only descent audio one I could find…but I guess if you like skatebording this won’t be a problem!)

For the days to come watch out
They’re taking everything we die for
like the freedom from this world’s disorder
what did they murder you for?
born in gray eyes up but heads bowed
our comrades’ songs heard at Stonewall loud
for every day we’ll fight our way through
or we’ll drown in all our past mistakes
Searching not waiting
For our reaction
Don’t let them tell you
What you cannot be

all the silent nights you thought
the space between you and the mirror
telling all the things you couldn’t tell us
so afraid the world won’t listen
and the ministers fill up the skies
praying on our fears and lies
still Love is the last thing we’ve got left to lose
our we’ll drown in all our past mistakes

Searching not waiting
For our reaction
Don’t let them tell you
What you cannot be

Searching no longer
For our reaction
Don’t let them tell you
Who you cannot love

For all this
You wanted
Don’t fall
Names of the fallen
In the wall
Live on
So arm in arm
We’ll fight them down
With all our pride

Don’t let them tell you
Who you cannot love

Right to Choose – Anti-Flag

Thrown out by her family
In the midst of anger
Mom and dad can’t make sense
Of her sexual preference
It seems the cars
Just drive by on this night
No one has any idea
What this feels like

You wave your flag
Tell me I’m free
Then use the word fag
To fuck with me

You have a (hey hey) a right to choose
Gen-der is, gender is not the issue

Judged by parents and the public
The Fingers pointed at them
Well I’ll point mine right back
They Must Realize
You can’t change whom you love
And gender is not the issue

That night she said, “I will be true”
Meant every word she said to you

You have a (hey hey) a right to choose
gen-der is, gender is not the issue

It seems today, to be yourself
Takes so much courage and strength
If you were half the human, as people who “come out”
This world would be a better place

You wave your flag
Tell me I’m free
Then use the word fag
To fuck with me
Go and wave your flag [x3]
I’m free, fucking free!! YeaHH!!

You have a (hey hey) a right to choose
Gen-der is, gender is not the issue

Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes – Propagandhi

The tangled webs they weave span from Pine to Ruby Ridge, way back from Shay’s defeat on up to Gustafsen (now cue the ass parade of ditto-heads and commissars and pricks to drown out this faintest threat of commie faggot heretics). Conclusion: the nail that sticks up gets hammered down and the master’s finest tools are found slack-jawed and placid amidst the cacophony of screaming billboards and Disney-fied history. Sometimes the ties that bind are strange: no justice shines upon the cemetery plots marked Hampton, Weaver or Anna-Mae where Federal Bureaus and Fraternal Orders have cast their shadows; permanent features built into these borders. But undercover of the customary gap we find between History and Truth, the Founding Fathers bask in the rocket’s blinding red glare. The bombs bursting in air. One nation. Indivisible? The truth is when the back-country learned of ratification the People had a coffin painted black and solemnly borne in funeral procession, they buried it deep in the earth as an emblem of the dissolution and internment of their Publick Liberty. Someday, somewhere, today’s empires are tomorrow’s ashes.

Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada’s Genocide

Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada’s Genocide is the story of one man’s brave attempt to expose the role played by the United Church of Canada in the attempted genocide against Canada’s Native population that was the Residential School System. For his attempts to expose the crimes of the Church specifically and Canada more generally he lost almost everything, including his family (the Church payed for his wife to divorce him) and his job (he became the only member of the UC clergy to ever be defrocked), but thanks to his efforts and the Canadian Native community we are now 1 step closer to finding justice for the generations of our children that were taken from us and placed in the schools, and had their culture and lives systematically destroyed by the church and government.

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Progressive Election Law Ratified in Bolivia by Gloria La Riva

Hunger strike led by President Morales defeats right wing

After a five-day hunger strike with thousands of supporters who joined him, President Evo Morales forced the right wing in Bolivia’s senate to back down and approve a law establishing norms for the national elections of Dec. 6, 2009.

Bolivian president, Evo Morales, signs new election law that gaurantees the Indigenous majority more representation in parliament

The Transitory Election Law would give Bolivians who live abroad the right to vote in the election and guarantee more parliamentary representation in the form of seven more seats in the lower house of parliament for Indigenous-populated districts in the eastern part of the country.

Bolivia is 60 percent Indigenous. The three main groups are Quechua, Aymara and Guaraní, along with 33 less numerous ethnic peoples. Brutally oppressed by the racist dominant class, the Indigenous were denied the right to vote until 1952, when a revolutionary struggle swept Bolivia.

Morales is the first Indigenous president of Bolivia since the Spanish conquest 470 years ago. His 2005 presidential victory has helped vindicate the oppressed masses, who are making historic social and economic gains.

His stance against the racist and right-wing oligarchy, which has tried to split off the eastern half of Bolivia, has earned him the support of the poorest of society.

Morales has nationalized Bolivia’s immense natural gas reserves. He has also led the fight for a new constitution as well as economic improvements like pension increases for seniors.

Morales’s popularity with the workers and peasants virtually assures him a presidential victory in December. But his government is embattled by the oligarchy, which controls most of the gas, mineral and land reserves of the eastern “Media Luna,” or “half moon.”

Like the revolutionary process in Venezuela, several referenda promoted by Morales’s Movimiento Al Socialismo (Movement Toward Socialism) party have resulted in popular majority support for Morales’s economic and social reforms.

This time, the right-wing majority in the senate refused to adopt the Transitory Election Law, which was required by the new constitution. The constitution was ratified Jan. 25.

In a victory speech to thousands of people as he ended his hunger strike and signed the new law, Morales said, “On Jan. 25, the Bolivian people gave a mandate to approve the election law in 60 days.”

“When the senate refused,” he continued amid cheers, “the president of Bolivia, together with his cabinet, and with the social movements like the Bolivian Workers Confederation, obligated the senate to respect the people’s will by our hunger strike.”

Not all the law was ratified, but Morales indicated it is a start and that with a strong parliamentary and presidential victory they will be able to gain a bigger foothold for the people.

During Morales’s hunger strike, Cuban leader Fidel Castro wrote several “reflexions.” Castro encouraged Morales and described for the world the heroic struggle that Morales had undertaken.

Castro wrote on April 11: “For the first time in the history of Bolivia, Evo has built a significant hard currency reserve which now allows him to face up to the grave international financial crisis; in less than three years he has eradicated illiteracy in Spanish, Aymara and Quechua; he has made it possible for the entire poor population to enjoy a safe minimum income; he is recovering the energy sources and conquering for Bolivia the admiration of the world.”

He then mentioned Cuba’s solidarity contributions to the people of Bolivia, including literacy teachers, the 5,000 Bolivian youth who are studying in Cuba to become medical doctors, and the 20,000 lives that have been saved by Cuba’s doctors in Bolivia.

Morales will now participate in the much-anticipated ALBA (Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas) conference in Venezuela on April 17. Then he will attend the Summit of the Americas April 18 and 19.

Vancouver Olympics “A Rich Man’s Game”

Harsha Walia writes that the Olympics “are less about sport than a spectacular capitalist industry that ensures corporate profits at all costs.”

For anyone who still maintains any illusions of Olympic prosperity, an updated Olympic budget released by Vanoc last week made clear that there is no projected potential Olympic profit.

According to John Furlong, “We will be very happy to get to break-even.”

With sponsors such as GM and Nortel in crisis, the financial stability of the Games has been a controversy. Although $950 million in corporate sponsorships is expected, only $365 million has been collected. A Vanoc line of credit with sponsor RBC was cut by $65 million. The IOC has still not signed two of its top sponsors, resulting in another $30 million shortfall.

However, these financial troubles are not simply due to the recession. According to Kevin Walmsley, co-director of the University of Western Ontario’s International Centre for Olympic Studies, most host cities incur a net of high debt. Montreal’s $1.5-billion debt was only recently paid off. Other cities were left with similar debts: $910 million for Calgary, $1.4 billion for Barcelona, $2.3 billion for Sydney.

Since 2004, Vanoc and government officials have claimed that the Olympics will be on budget. But the convention centre expansion is one of many examples of cost overruns; originally budgeted for $495 million, its final costs ballooned to almost $900 million. Vanoc’s 2008 annual report shows that construction costs for five venues have increased by 48 per cent.

Vanoc and the B.C. government further insist that the final Olympic tab will be around $1.8 billion, a figure that has been widely discredited. Contrary to the B.C. auditor-general’s own assessments, much of the infrastructure costs — including the Sea to Sky Highway and the Canada Line — are not being counted. Depending on which projects are included, the actual costs range from $3 billion to $6 billion.

The security tab alone is $1 billion, with 13,000 personnel involved in the largest deployment in Canadian history. High-tech operations, including unmanned aerial vehicles and remote sensors, have led to the dubbing of 2010 as the “Surveillances Games” by sociologist David Lyon.

And Vancouver city council has approved using $2.6 million from provincial and Vancouver Integrated Security Unit funding for closed-circuit cameras. Canada’s privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has raised concerns, stating, “Experience has shown that Olympic Games and other mega-events can leave a troubling legacy — large-scale, security surveillance systems often remain long after the event is over.”

For years, economists have been saying to anyone who could listen past Vanoc’s propaganda that the Games will not pay for themselves. According to Dr. Martin Shaffer, who co-authored an assessment for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in 2003, “The Games are not attractive from a financial point of view.”

According to a January 2009 poll conducted by Canadian Press Harris-Decima, only 52 per cent of British Columbians feel that the Games have more benefits than drawbacks. This recent outrage with Games-related financing and misdirected public spending gives long-time critics some bitter-sweet satisfaction.

It appears that Vancouverites are learning that the Olympics are less about sport than a spectacular capitalist industry that ensures corporate profits at all costs. That it is no coincidence that accessing Vanoc’s financial statements is like finding a needle in a haystack. Or how quickly it seems the municipal government decided — through a provincial legislative change that circumvented the necessity of going to voters — that borrowing $458 million to complete the Olympic Village was a more important priority than housing or health care.

Just as the failed financial commitments, the IOC and Vanoc have failed on their social promises, including protecting rental housing and the right to protest, guaranteed in the Inner-City Inclusive Commitment Statement.

The devastating reality is that Vancouver has experienced a 300-per-cent increase in homelessness since the Olympic bid, residents in the Downtown Eastside are being affected through aggressive police ticketing, Native communities are opposing Olympics-related development on their lands, and environmentalists are challenging the “Green” Games.

British historian George Monbiot has aptly characterized the Olympics as “a legacy of a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich . . . . Everywhere they go, [they] become an excuse for eviction and displacement; they have become a license for land grabs.”

The economic crisis has led to worldwide opposition to the systemic failures of our economic system. We should make it clear to Vanoc and our governments that we will not allow them to use the Olympics financial crisis to accelerate a fundamentalist economic program that privatizes gains for the rich and socializes financial and social burdens upon the rest of us and the environment.

Harsha Walia is a Vancouver legal researcher and activist.

News from Bolivia by Fidel Castro

Fresh news about Bolivia was arriving this morning, Thursday April 9, on the Bolivian television channel, reflecting tension in the country.

President Evo Morales of Bolivia is leading a mass hunger strike in defense of the country's new progressive constitution

Everything was going well. Important changes were being produced. Evo’s prestige in Bolivia and in the world is growing. He is constantly receiving more support from the people in spite of the fact that the oligarchy controls most of the media resources. An exemplary literacy campaign has wiped out illiteracy in record time; today the media services reach the entire population; important historical necessities of the people are being looked after by native and new methods. The economy and currency reserves are on the upswing. This infuriates the oligarchy which is blocking the parliamentary elections announced for the end of this year. The maneuver has forced Evo, the party in power and the masses to adopt battle measures characterized by the moral strength they imply. President Evo Morales, the National Coordination for Change (CNC) and the Bolivian Workers’ Union (COB) have declared a massive hunger strike from the Government Palace, demanding respect for the Constitution and the Provisional Electoral Law which has been postponed for months to sabotage the elections.

Evo Morales has stated:

“We, the comrades from the country’s various social organizations, faced with the negligence of a group of neoliberal lawmakers, are being forced to defend the peoples’ mandate.

“The members of parliament knew they had 60 days to pass the Provisional Electoral Law.

“Nevertheless, they do not want the passage of a law that will allow for the implementation of the Constitution to be ensured.

“Asking for new election registration simply says that there will be no national elections at the end of this year, nor will there be prefecture or municipal elections next year.

“Thus, I reiterate this endeavor by the union leaders and the chief authorities at the head of COB and CONALCAM in the defense of the sacred vote by the people.

“At a press conference I explained how the proposal made by some senators was saying that the election registration of residents abroad had to be passed by two-thirds of Congress, when they know that two-thirds cannot be attained.

“But that is not what the currently valid constitution states.

“What they want is for no voting to occur abroad.

“Bolivians residing abroad also have the right to decide about the future of their country and about who shall govern their homeland.

“This is a matter of defending the vote.

“Last year they came from Argentina asking that that right be passed by the Senate; but it was not passed.

“When they were also talking about population density to ensure special electoral districts, the real reason is so that they would not exist.

“Thus, this endeavor is also in defense of the special electoral districts of the indigenous movement.

“We have heard some of the media saying that the government, the president, is shutting down the Congress.

“We are not talking about putting on pressure; rather it is a matter of calling on the passage of the law.

“We are calling upon this measure in defense of democracy.

“The anti-democratic elements of yesterday are now portraying themselves as the great defenders of democracy.

“Here we have comrades who have given their lives and their time on behalf of true democracy.

“Therefore, in order to undertake real democracy, we are passing regulations in the National Congress.

“In the Congress, members of parliament have one of the best opportunities to ensure democracy and profound structural transformations as well.

“I am asking the opposition members of parliament that we make history together, all of us.

“We must think of equality and the social solutions that the people want; here there is no room for egoism or sectarianism.

“First are the people, first is the homeland and then the interests of the sectors or the regions.

“My regards, truly, so that together we may take on the defense of democracy, of the peoples’ vote, of the vote abroad and the other structural claims, using the endeavor of a hunger strike.

“Thank you, very much.”

With this appeal, he concluded.

Throughout the course of the day, we shall see how the events unfold.

At 2:25 p.m. I talked with Rafael Dausá, our ambassador in La Paz. I asked him for news.

Evo is well, full of spirit and calm. He is only drinking water. He is being accompanied at the Presidential Palace by leaders of the Bolivian Workers’ Union and peasant leaders from the National Coordination for Change. As vice president of Bolivia, Garcia Linera presides over Congress. Exchanges with the oligarchy opposition are being held in a commission. A matter under considerable discussion is the number of indigenous legislators on Evo’s proposal about representation of those communities, according with the adopted Constitution, without setting figures. Evo proposes 14; the opposition only accepts 3. I sent my greetings to Evo. There has been no violence reported up to now.

At 4:01 p.m. I speak with Dausá again. He had passed on my greetings to Evo who had planned on visiting Cuba on April 9. He found him absolutely calm. He was playing chess with his comrades. The people are joining the hunger strike; it had extended to El Alto, Cochabamba, Santa Cruz, La Paz and to other cities. Mass organizations are constantly calling him offering support. The House of Representatives supports him overwhelmingly. In that sector of Congress, their advantage exceeds the required two-thirds. The problem lies in the Senate where the oligarchy has the majority.

Passage of the Provisional Electoral Law would require two thirds in each House, therefore it is easy for blockage in Congress. However, Evo has a legal avenue. Among his constitutional powers is the possibility of issuing a Supreme Decree in order to pass the law under discussion. In that case he can also dissolve Congress and call for parliamentary elections, but he doesn’t want to do that in his desire to preserve the country’s unity. For that reason he is constantly inviting the opposition to share in the effort to develop the nation for the benefit of all sectors. Internationally, he is recognized for his honesty and his democratic spirit.

A few minutes ago I was listening to the debate in Congress. It is incredible to hear the oligarchy leaders’ hatred and insolence. They are trained in the art of insults and personal affronts. They are outraged by Evo, the first indigenous person in the history of our America to govern a country that also has ancestral indigenous origins and customs.

The Law in dispute has just been passed in the House, 100 votes to 30. The debate is taking place in La Paz, in the pertinent chamber of the legislative building located a few meters away from the Government Palace.

At 6:40 p.m. I again get in touch with Dausá, briefly. He tells me that representatives of the mass organizations are arriving at Murillo Square in front of the Palace. He also comments on the insolence of the positions even though he expresses to me that not all the oligarchy deputies are that rude; there are some who behave themselves correctly. Negotiations are also continuing and perhaps late at night a decision will be reached.

On the television, I am listening to the Senate debate which has already begun.

The transmission ended at 7:20 p.m. after a request by an opposition senator to recess for negotiations, joined by other senators. In the last two and a half hours they had not yet resumed.

I called Dausá at 8:42 p.m. Evo is well, in constant communication with his cadres on the cell phone. People continue arriving at Murillo Square. Our ambassador knows that negotiations are moving forward but the opposition is asking the people to leave the square and Evo to desist from the hunger strike. It is difficult they will achieve both things. Dausá thinks that perhaps an agreement will be reached by the end of the night. I promised to call him again.

I called Dausá two more times, at 10:20 and at 10:49 p.m.

My first call coincides with Garcia Linera’s explanation of the situation up to that moment. The impasse continues in Congress. He explains what has been achieved at the negotiating table during the day. He complains about the intransigence of the senate minority. They continue to demand that Evo ceases the hunger strike and that the people leave the Square. Now there is no possibility of reaching an agreement today Thursday. Perhaps early Friday morning, but that isn’t certain. Evo is well and calm. His attitude has not changed. In the second call after some contacts that were pending he confirms the foregoing to me.

It is midnight and there has been no agreement. The opposition has left Parliament. I must deliver this material to Cubadebate so that our press can print it on time. This is no baseball Classic game, but in spite of that one has to go to bed fairly late. I haven’t the slightest doubt that Evo will come out victorious.

Fidel Castro Ruz, April 10, 2009

North of Ireland: Failed State

The following is an editorial statement of The Plough, the publican of the Irish Republican Socialist Movement, which includes the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Irish National Liberation Army and the Republican Socialist Youth Movement, all of whom stand in the revolutionary socialist traditions of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Connolly. It should be noted that while they reject the Good Friday Agreement on a class-unity and anti-imperialist basis, they are also currently recognizing a unilateral cease-fire, deeming the current situation to be unsuitable for the reignition of armed conflict. The truth of their position can be seen in the recent events involving the Continuation IRA and Real IRA, two other armed republican factions, who attempted to reignite the armed conflict and the Irish people came down on them like a tonne of bricks.

—

It has not gone away. If anyone thought that the issue of partition was concluded and peace made, they are mistaken. Recently two British soldiers and a PSNI officer were shot dead. Their deaths were a tragedy for their families and regrettable.

The attacks were followed by the usual security response. House raids, arrests, rioting, the demonisation of individual republicans and the use of extensive anti-terror laws to imprison and interrogate suspects. A media campaign was launched to denounce not only those organizations alleged to be involved in the attacks on the British army and police but all those republicans who desist from giving allegiance to the new institutions of the northern State. Accusations of drug dealing, criminality etc., and terms like terrorists, fanatics, traitors etc., were uttered by former republicans who in the past had the same terms used against them. The media went into overdrive denouncing the “terrorists”. (See The Plough, Vol. 6-3, for the definitive position of the INLA on these matters).

All the superficial changes ushered in by the Good Friday and St Andrews Agreements were and are not, enough to hide the glaring contradictions inherent in those agreements. Those agreements centre on the mistaken notions that Britain is neutral between two divided communities that the issue of sovereignty is irrelevant and that sectarianism is the central problem. They are based on the old imperial notion of “divide and conquer”.

Sectarianism is not a quaint notion confined to the strange inhabitants of the north of Ireland. The passions angers and hatred in the Shankill and Ardoyne, to name but two areas, are shared across the globe. In many cases the existing divisions between tribes, races and religions became an extremely useful tool for the imperialist powers to exploit and turn neighbour against neighbour.

For centuries the subcontinent of India existed in comparative peace. Under British Imperial rule differences were emphasized and eventually, faced with the power of the Indian National Congress, the British decided to partition the subcontinent. Today sectarian violence spreads through the whole Indian subcontinent, Pakistan is a failed state in turmoil and Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. These are the bitter fruits of Imperialism. The Irish Republican Socialist Party has set its face firmly against sectarianism. Our comrades in many areas intervene, sometimes daily to dampen down sectarian feelings and incidents and prevent the spread of sectarian violence. We make a conscious effort to reach out to those within protestant working class areas to explain our ideas our views and our beliefs. Such outreach work in no way lessens either our socialism or our republicanism. We are resolutely anti-imperialists. Those activities have the unanimous support of our leaderships.

British control of the north is now as strong if not stronger than before the launch of the Provisional IRA campaign. That may be an unpalatable fact for many but it is nevertheless true. The British spend more on intelligence in the 6 Counties than is spent on Islamic terrorism. Relationships between the ruling classes of Britain and Ireland have never been stronger. Britain can continue to recruit and train British soldiers in a part of Ireland. The PSNI has increased recruitment from the catholic population. The state institutions are reasonably stable and there is certainly little appetite for a return to armed struggle.

All of this is not to say that the Northern State is stable. On the contrary it is still a failed state just like Pakistan. In every decade from its foundations there have been armed revolts against this state. People have been driven into sectarian mindsets and poverty used to divide people. Symbols such as flags and banners have been used to taunt and provoke people into rioting on a regular basis and every year precautions are taken to prevent sectarian marches provoking even greater rioting. No, “Northern Ireland” is not a stable state and no matter how many times it is said by the media , Windsor Park, home of Linfield FC is not a “national stadium”.

Easter time is when Republicans march to honour the republican dead and in a sense renew their commitment to the broad ideals of republicanism. This year the multitude of republican organizations and the ritual denunciations of those who may have deviated the slightest from some form of “pure republicanism” will no doubt confuse and alienate those who republicanism should be attracting to its banner, i.e. the working class.

Irish republicanism historically has always been based on the urban and rural poor. That is its natural base. Of course there have been leaders from different classes, some of whom went on to forsake their republicanism. Others have used their republicanism to ingratiate themselves into the elite ruling classes. And as always the poor, urban or rural, have remained poor.

So it could be argued that at this critical point Irish Republicanism is at a crossroads. The recent upsurge in violence would indicate that there are those who want to maintain armed struggle as the main vehicle to attain republican ideals. History teaches us all hard lessons. Only fools refuse to learn the lessons of history. The armed struggle waged by a variety of organizations including the PIRA, the INLA and the OIRA failed to achieve their objectives.

It is no good rewriting history to pretend otherwise. It was the mass struggle of the civil rights movement that achieved limited bourgeois democratic objectives, not the PIRA campaign. It was the sound of marching feet that undermined the old unionist ruling class. It was something else that gave us first Paisley and now Robinson as first Minister administering British rule. So let’s not pretend otherwise.

At the same time the IRSP works hard to unite the republican base and we have engaged in joint talks and political activities with other republicans while at the same time advocating our own views and perspectives.

The working classes are divided. The schools are separated, lives are divided, even the graveyards are segregated. In Belfast, there is a wall that separates one section of the working class from another section of the working class. No radical, no republican, no socialist, no revolutionary can be happy with this set up.

Having benefited from the Celtic tiger and the economic benefits following the ceasefires many are now for the first time enduring economic misery as unemployment soars and redundancies gather apace while the Irish government imposes massive attacks on the working class. Somehow the blame for this is allocated to world conditions or the greed of bankers and investors.

The blame rests with the system that predominates ‑ capitalism. That is the message that needs to be hammered home. No amount of tinkering or reforming will change the fundamental nature of capitalism. It is a system based on the overproduction of goods [and nothing] will change that basic fact. The IRSP have always said in the spirit of James Connolly that the class and national questions are intertwined and now is the time for republicans to lead the class struggle.

The occupation of the West Belfast site of Visteon by workers is an example of a class fightback by the workers. The Belfast factory is divided roughly fifty-fifty between those from a catholic or protestant background, but staffed 100% by working class who are leading the resistance to the shutdown. The Belfast workers set an example taken up by fellow workers in in Enfield and Basildon. If management get away with this, 600 workers at the three plants will be sacked and left on the minimum statutory redundancy pay. Statutory redundancy pay is paltry. Even workers with 30 years’ service are only entitled to £9,000 and most will get far less.

So it is clear that there is a commonality of interest between workers in Ireland and England and of course worldwide. Capitalism respects no borders, loves no nationalities, destroys native cultures and imposes a consumerist culture in order to maximize its profits.

In the struggle for national independence in the early 20th century Eamon De Valera famously told the labour leaders “Labour must wait” and that bourgeois unification must come first. Well Labour is still waiting, unification is still on the long finger and the workers are still getting screwed. There are too many fake “socialists” out there trying to fool the workers in order to get and maintain power.

No more waiting. No war but the class war.

Vermont and Iowa Legalize Same-Sex Marriage

An important victory in LGBT struggle for full equality

In a unanimous decision, the Iowa Supreme Court voted April 3rd to legalize same-sex marriage. On the same day, thousands of LGBT people and their supporters held victory rallies all over the state.

Demonstrators gathered all over Iowa on April 3 to celebrate the legalization of same-sex marriage in the state

The legal opinion of the justices was that same-sex marriage could not be denied to Iowa couples based on the equal protection clause in the state constitution. The ruling struck down a reactionary state law passed in 1998 that defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

The first same-sex marriages in Iowa are set to take place as early as April 27th.

Iowa is one in a series of states where the battle for full equality for LGBT people is being waged on the streets and in the courts.

The Iowa Supreme Court opinion mirrors a similar decision in June 2008 by the California Supreme Court. That court also affirmed that same-sex marriage could not be denied because of that state’s equal protection laws.

Currently, marriage equality is recognized in four states: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont and Iowa. In California, 18,000 same-sex marriages are in legal limbo after the state supreme court heard oral arguments on the legality of Proposition 8.

In reaction to marriage equality victories in California, right-wing forces placed Proposition 8 onto the November ballot seeking to constitutionally define marriage as a union between one man and one woman only. Due largely to a bigoted campaign of misinformation, Proposition 8 narrowly passed. A decision on Proposition 8 in California is expected by June 5.

Legislative leaders in Iowa claim they will not introduce a bill that would seek to overturn the supreme court decision this year. Even if a state initiative is brought before and approved by the legislature next year, according to the law it would not come to a ballot vote until at least 2012.

The victory in Iowa will need to be defended by progressive people in Iowa and every other state. Already, Steve King, a bigoted member of Congress from Iowa, is lobbying the legislature to pass a discriminatory law that would refuse marriage certificates to couples who do not reside in Iowa.

The Iowa ruling is an important step forward for LGBT people and all workers. It comes as the result of decades of struggle. But the fight is far from over.

A broad and militant struggle in the streets, workplaces and the courts that has demanded nothing less than full equality has forced a few states to grant much-needed equal rights to LGBT people. The path to full equality and liberation will require the continuation and growth of an independent movement of LGBT people and their allies.

Equal rights for all LGBT people now!

On April 6, the Vermont legislature voted 100-49 to override Governor Jim Douglas’s veto of a bill that granted LGBT couples the right to marry. Vermont is now the fourth state in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage.

The movement for LGBT equality is gaining momentum: In the last week, Iowa and Vermont legalized same-sex marriage

The vote came on the same day as the City Council of the District of Columbia voted unanimously to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states, and just days after the Iowa Supreme Court voted unanimously to allow same-sex marriage in that state.

LGBT people and their allies welcomed the vote in Vermont as another step forward in the struggle for equal marriage rights.

In Vermont, there is no current legal avenue for a referendum to overturn the vote. The law is set to go into effect in September.

In a cynical ploy meant to pit LGBT and heterosexual workers against each other, Governor Douglas said, “What really disappoints me is that we have spent some time on an issue during which another thousand Vermonters have lost their jobs.”

LGBT people and all workers are natural allies. There exists no limited pool of rights for workers and oppressed people.

Winning rights for LGBT people does not in any way detract from the struggle for social justice for all working people. There is no natural separation between the struggle for full employment and equal rights. The struggle for LGBT equality is not responsible for layoffs and foreclosures. The government could easily eliminate unemployment by funding jobs instead of bailing out the banks.

The vote in Vermont represents real progress in the struggle for marriage equality and the general struggle for LGBT liberation. Recent victories and setbacks in the struggle for equality highlight the need to continue the struggle.

Under capitalism, the rights of workers, especially the rights of people of color, women, immigrants, and LGBT people, are under constant attack and must be constantly defended. While very real economic and social gains can be won under capitalist rule as a product of struggle, those rights face constant threats under a system that profits off inequality.

Currently, there are growing opportunities to achieve lasting victories in the struggle for LGBT liberation. Marriage rights should be extended to every person in the United States. All anti-LGBT laws should be struck down, especially the Defense of Marriage Act that outlaws federal recognition of same-sex marriage rights.

Ireland: Visteon – IRSP Accuses Politicians of Evading Responsibility

The IRSP last night [April 7, 2009] accused local politicians of rerouting responsibility regarding the investment and manufacturing crisis in the North of Ireland.

The IRSP Employment spokesperson Sean White, told activists last night that it was easy to blame a global economic crises or credit crunch rather than blame the companies and bankers who intentionally created the crisis; a crisis created in the interest of profit.

The current economic situation may be global; but the loss of jobs locally is a consequence of the Stormont Programme for Government with its dependency on inward investment. Job losses are the result of policies in favour of the employers whilst ignoring the needs of workers.

The long-term needs of the workers were known at Visteon UK when Stormont was subsidising the profits of its directors.

Sean White went on to say; “there is no ‘natural’ order to the economy. There are no innate, static laws overriding economic behaviour. It is a myth to say nothing can be done. What is termed the ‘economy’ is the way people work, to produce goods and services, and then decide how, where when to sell or use what they produce. People decide rightly or wrongly. It is people who make success, make mistakes. It is people who gamble for profit. It is people who exploit other people. We must move away from treating the economy as if it is a fluke in the weather.”

All economists know that recessions and inflation don’t just happen. They are caused. The Banks deliberately restricted the flow of currency; that is a fact, a fact not disputed by the Bankers. Bankers were aware that a restriction of currency gives way to a recession.

The Banks responsible for investment have so far ignored the pleas from the First Minister Peter D. Robinson MP MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness. On the 16th December 2008 the First Minister Peter D. Robinson MP MLA and deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness and their Executive colleagues Nigel Dodd and Arlene Foster today met with the Chief Executives of local banks to explore further initiatives to ease the impact of the present economic downturn on consumers and businesses. To date there has been no response.

Who governs? The Banks or the elected representatives?

The IRSP are asking whatever happened to the billions investment promised to create new jobs in current industries. This time last year $750million was promised for investment in current industries. The investment was announced on the 7th April 2008, by William C. Thompson Jr. Comptroller of the City of New York, who is Chief Investment Advisor of the New York City Pension Funds which currently hold assets of $110billion. A small number of people made decisions regarding how this money was used or if it was used. The IRSP believes that the Irish people deserve answers.

Companies are downsizing or closing as a consequence of poor investment. Of course there is the immediate response car sales are down by an average of 33%, but remember in generic terms profit averages 40%. Decreases in profit are compensated with job losses and cuts in labour; in turn increasing the workload on workers. There is no evidence of any major investment outside of construction. But there is evidence that the Banks responsible for investment paid increased bonuses to their Directors.

Trans National Companies here are not facing unreserved profit loss. TNCs require extensive returns; not marginal profit. The reported losses of Visteon UK are percentage falls in profit. However, such profit is not great enough for TNC investment.

Visteon UK’s reported losses totalled £669m. However in the West Belfast section of the company administrators found no evidence of any losses. According to the IRSP spokesperson there is not a single component produced by Visteon that we cannot match in terms of a nationalised industry.

Different members of the Stormont Government have come out with statements in support of workers who face job losses. But they place no blame on the employers. There is an illusion that Stormont cannot and does not want to interfere in free-market capitalism. An illusion partly created by the first and second ministers when they visit the US with their begging bowls and partly the Programme for Government. They over emphasise no government interference.

In fact, without Stormont with its inward investment policies, TNCs could not exist at all. Government actions and programs have tended to reinforce and stabilize the basic relationships of all Trans National Companies here; guaranteeing private property rights, supplying British and US business (including Ford and later Visteon UK) with needed inputs (like reliable infrastructure and skilled, disciplined workers), expanding markets, and managing social relationships in a way that promotes both stability and profitability. If Stormont can interfere on behalf of the Bosses, it can interfere on behalf of the workers.

What was not considered by our MLA’s waltzing about in Stormont and should be, is that workers continue to produce the said components for Ford or any other car company. The Assembly has already stated that “we are a Growing, a Dynamic, Innovative Economy, in a position to invest and build our own infrastructure with a highly trained workforce.” The factory should be nationalised under workers’ control. But that would be too radical a step for any of the parties in Stormont already committed to administering the neoliberal economic policies of the pro-business Brown Government in Westminster.

[Originally published in the E-mail newsletter of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, The Plough, Vol. 6, No. 4, April 8th 2009, Web Site]

Community Groups Condemn Largest Immigration Raid in Recent Canadian History

April 8, 2009, Vancouver – Community groups, immigrant worker organizations, and members of the legal community are outraged at the recent Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) raids in Ontario. Executing unprecedented US-style raids and massive round-ups in East Toronto, Leamington, and Bradford, CBSA has arrested and detained over 100 non-status and migrant workers.

In one of the largest CBSA raids in recent Canadian history on Thursday April 2 and Friday April 3, enforcement officers stormed into workplaces including factories and farms, as well as workers homes. Most of the arrestees are currently being held in Immigration Detention Centres.

According to the Immigration Legal Committee of Toronto, a joint project of the Law Union of Ontario and No One is Illegal-Toronto, “We vociferously condemn the CBSA raids as a shift towards aggressive enforcement tactics. Every person should be concerned about the message this sends to our friends and community members.”

“In this economic crisis, migrant workers are even more vulnerable. Rather than guaranteeing that these workers have full rights as permanent residents, Canadian immigration policies systemically discriminates and exploits these workers who work in the most dangerous sectors of our economy,” states Peggy Lee of No One Is Illegal-Vancouver.

According to Glecy Duran, Chairperson of SIKLAB-BC Overseas Filipino Workers, “Without looking at the contributions migrants make to the Canadian economy, the government continues to criminalize migrants.” “These anti-immigrant raids make clear that in fact, contrary to Minister Jason Kenney’s recent comments, Canada is not a hotel. These raids heighten a sense of fear in immigrant communities and ensure that migrant workers will continue to work as part of Canada’s revolving door policy with minimal human and labour rights” further states Lee.

“Instead of dignity and justice, the government is choosing a path of racism, criminalization, and fear-mongering against migrant workers. But we want to make it clear to them that across Canada people are protesting these US-style anti-immigrant enforcement tactics and are demanding justice for migrants.”

Media Contacts:
Harsha Walia – No One Is Illegal 778 885 0040

Et Tu Canada?

After posting last night about the 101 most “dangerous” university and college professors in America, I got to thinking to myself, “what about Canada?” Surely there most be some people stiring the pot here in the great white north. I know for sure that I have more than few anthropology profs who were critical of capitalism, and I have been told that the university down the road from mine, Wilfred Laurier University, has a sociology department that is positively buzzing with Trotskyists, but who could the worst offenders be in the eyes of the Canadian capitalist system?

So, today I got down to searching, and I managed to come up with a list (much smaller than Horowitz’s) of the top professors who are earning the anger and frustration of Canada’s conservative mainstream. Do I agree with everything they may say or do? No, but what is important is that they do not follow the plan that is expected of them by those in charge. So who are they?

• Sunera Thobani, Assistant Professor, Centre for Women’s and Gender Studies, University of British Colombia
• Shadia Drury, Canada Research Chair in Social Justice, University of Regina
• Taiaiake Alfred, Indigenous Peoples Research Chair and Professor of Human and Social Development, University of Victoria
• Leo Panitch, Professor of Political Science, York University
• Kathleen Mahoney, Professor of Law, University of Calgary
• Thomas Homer-Dixon, Director of the Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto
• Sophie Quigley, Professor of Computer Science, Ryerson University
• Joel Bakan, Professor of Law, University of British Colombia.

If anyone knows of anymore, feel free to suggest them in the comments box