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HandyDart Workers Deserve Support

On October 22nd, over 500 HandyDart workers represented by the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) local 1724 issued a 72 hour strike notice to MVT Canadian Bus Inc.

The deceptively named MVT Canadian Bus Inc. is a California based company which took over the operation of HandyDart services in late 2008. HandyDart provides specialized public transit services for passengers with physical or cognitive disabilities which make them unable to use the other existing transit services.

Job action was set to take effect on October 26th, but many ATU members were turned away when attempting to attend their duties on October 25th, the day before the end of the 72 hour notice. The corporate media predictably launched into an immediate anti-worker frenzy, attempting to paint the ATU as a gang of greedy thugs more than happy to strand the disabled and elderly for a quick buck.

Meanwhile, back in reality the situation is quite different than in the imaginary world of corporate media. In fact, the ATU went to great lengths to avoid a strike which they knew could inconvenience the passengers they carry each day. The ATU attempted for over eight months to bargain with MVT which met its workers with nothing but demands for unreasonable concessions which would destroy all the gains made by HandyDart workers over the last two decades.

These concessions include major cuts to benefits, reduction of shifts but as much as half and elimination of the workers pension plan. It also fails to address the question of HandyDart operator’s wages which are still below those of conventional bus drivers. All of this is nothing but a blatant drive to weaken the union and boost its own profits.

Under these conditions the members of ATU 1724 had no better option than to vote to strike. And so they did, an impressive 97% strike vote was achieved, giving a powerful mandate for job action against the corporate greed of MVT. At the same time, services are continuing to run at essential service levels for those who could otherwise face serious implications to their well being such as cancer therapy and kidney dialysis patients.

As events unfold it becomes increasingly clear that this is not a case of “greedy” workers demanding more at the expense of the elderly and disabled. Rather, it is a case of a greedy U.S. corporation seeking to extract higher rates of profit by putting the squeeze on hard working unionized drivers who provide an important public service not just for the pay cheque, but also because they care.

In this struggle can also be found evidence of the negative effects of privatization and contracting out. This attack by MVT transit is cause for renewed calls for public and democratic ownership and control of public transit, for a democratically elected and accountable Translink board, and for increased transit funding leading to expanded service and reduced (and then eliminated) fares. All of this runs counter to the corporate agenda of the current Liberal government provincially and Conservative government federally.

With collective bargaining in the near future for other transit workers and the majority of the public sector in general, there is added urgency to the need to unite with HandyDart workers and help to see that their struggle is successful. If not, we may soon see how accurate the old saying that “an injury to one is an injury to all,” really is.

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“Counter-attack for the education, the work, the life that we deserve”

From: Communist Youth of Greece, Monday, 16 November 2009

http://www.kne.gr , mailto:int@kne.gr

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The creation of the Students' Militant Front

“Counter-attack for the education, the work, the life that we deserve”

The Students' Militant Front [MAS] of Universities and Technological Institutions was created on November 6th at the University of Athens. Its creation constitutes a historic moment and great achievement of the students' movement in Greece.

The constitution of the MAS is the result of the need to confront the decay of the student movement in Greece, to reorganize it and give it a militant orientation, to fight back the Bologna and EU policies that are enforced through the laws implemented by both neoliberals and socialdemocrats, to struggle for the rights in education and work, for the students and of today and workers of tomorrow.

The situation in the Greek student movement.

Nowadays, the student movement is in decay. The Universities’ and Technological Institutions’ National Union of Students (EFEE) Central Committees are non-existent since 1996. The majority of the year-one councils do not meet at all and in some cases don’t even elect their representatives. In the recent years, in the struggles against the Bologna directives, even though students participated en masse, they did not manage to endure, to contribute in the change of the correlations of forces in the student movement and in the rising of the political consciousness of the students. They were manipulated by the dominant political forces, particularly by the social democracy.

The responsibility for the decay of the student movement lies within the student organisations of PASOK (governmental party) and of the New Democracy (neo-liberals), while some leftist groups contribute to this situation. These organisations are responsible for the non-existence of the EFEE Central Committee as they have done everything in their power to prevent the EFEE Conference from happening; they deliberately address small departmental issues and on the other hand they support the realisation of the dominant policies in Higher Education. This situation suits the government, the dominant political forces, the enterprises, all those who promote the reactionary restructurings in education; it is to their interest to aim for a decayed student movement.

The restructurings have resulted in:

• The strengthening of class barriers in education, results in the suffering of the working class family, particularly if their children study away from home. Simultaneously, every day more students are obliged to work alongside with their studies, which prevent a big part of them from graduating. It is of great significance half of the students of the Technological Institutions abandon their studies, while only 20% graduate on time
• The content of the studies continues to be degraded, as it adapts to the needs of the capital for the production cheap labour.
• The line of Bologna and Lisbon, having as its basic tool the “evaluation” process, intimidates the employees and turns most of the Higher Education Institutions into schools that provide students with ephemeral professional skills, which will antagonise with private colleges that collaborate with foreign Universities and the Professional Skills Institutions (private and public). At the same time the functioning of private “universities” is legalised.
• The degree does not safeguard professional rights. The working reality is characterised by insecurity, low salaries, non-existent social security rights, intimidation and the fear of unemployment.
• The students are taught lies, anticommunism, the distortion of reality, the acquittal of imperialism is perceived to be the truth.
• The monopolies dictate scientific research and make it their property

The fundamental aim of the restructurings is the connection of the universities with the private enterprises in such a degree, that the enterprises will have an immediate say in the curricula (what will the students be taught, how the sciences will advance). This is promoted in order for Higher Education to be able to serve capitalism in this phase of its development. Capitalism needs to a big mass of graduates quickly and cheaply; flexible and half-educated graduates (so that they will be less demanding) and only a small scientific elite. They want research to be developed only on the grounds that it increases the profits of the capital and not for the needs of the people.

These advancements in Education are supported by all the political parties and their youth organisations that perceive the EU to be the only way, have found the student movement in decay, unable to warn the youth and the people for the real extent of the restructurings to follow. The forces of KNE and of the All-Student Collaboration Movement (the list that KNE supports in student elections) alone appealed to the students to fight against these restructurings, tried to mobilize the university students to struggle for true public and free education that will serve the people's needs and for work with full rights.

The recent cancellation of the EFEE Congress – another one in a long list of cancellations –a Congress that would establish the new EFEECentral Committees of Universities and Technological Institutions reaffirms that these forces are to blame for the decay of the student movement and cannot guarantee its re-establishment.

We do not reconcile with that situation

Counterattack and Rupture with the politics of PASOK-ND-EU in Education

It is thus obvious that a dividing line exists. On one side, lie the monopolies, the dominant political forces and their direction-recipients in the student movement. On the other side, lie the unfulfilled needs and rights of the students. The re-establishment of the student movement must be based on the orientation of the struggle.

This highlighted the need of a bottom-up approach to the student movement; the fundamental form of organization of the struggle must be the first-level student unions that proceed with a militant direction, with the Militant Committees in every school, faculty and semester. Alongside these, there is the need for the establishment of a Students Militant Front that will coordinate the action of these Committees nationwide. One of the qualitative characteristic of the MAS is that it brings together committees and unions from both Universities and Technological Institutions (two different types of institutions of Superior Education) together, thus superseding the untimely separation between the two types of institutions that was used in the past for the cultivation of pseudo-confrontations between the students, dividing their common struggle.

KNE appealed to all the students that originate from poor and working class families to create Militant Committees in every faculty all over Greece.

The foundation of MAS was preceded by the meetings of dozens of Assemblies of the Student Unions and the establishment of Militant Committees that resulted in the election of representatives for the 1^st National Assembly for the foundation of MAS.

A massive and successful founding Assembly

More than 700 representatives of 110 Militant Committees and 17 Student Unions participated in the founding assembly for the establishment of the MAS; the “AULA” amphitheater of the Athens Faculty of Philosophy was full of students.

The representatives of the class forces in the Greek trade-union movement were present and saluted the creation of MAS. Moreover, the assembly received the salutations of the representative of the Progressive Movement of Cypriot Students, as well as the written salutations sent by the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) and the Federation of University Students of Cuba (FEU).

The first announcement of the Front highlights:

“We appeal to the students of Universities and Tech. Institutions, to the children of the working class families and we state: we and our parents will not pay for the crisis. Our parents will stop to pay the high cost of our education. The plans of the government for the further degradation of our studies will not pass. The private companies will stop intervening in the universities.

We know that we must coordinate our struggle for Education with the general struggle of the class-oriented workers and peoples movement, so that the conditions will be created that will allow for the social planning and control of the production and of the economy. Our objective is the creation of a distinctive front of struggle in the Universities and Tech. Institutions that will struggle for:

Unitary – exclusively public – free Higher Education, against the enterprising functioning of the Universities, against the founding and legalization of private pseudo-universities, alongside the professors who do not conform with the given situation today, alongside the employees of the institutions.

Alongside with PAME (All-Workers Militant Front), our ally in our struggles now and in the future. Every conception that seeks to interrupt the fundamental bond of the student movement with the class oriented workers movement is against us.

Alongside with the school students and their organized movement, their coordinative boards and councils.

Against the imperialist organizations, NATO, EU, OSCE etc. We fight for the full disengagement of our country from every imperialist organization and planning.”

The students discussed and voted for a detailed list of demands that corresponds to their modern needs.

1. Abolition of the untimely separation into Universities and Technological Institutions.

2. Immediate stop to the economic suffering of the poor and working families in order to educate its children.

3. Non application of the Bologna directives.

4. Abolition of the private universities and colleges.

5. No place for the companies and enterprises in the universities and faculties.

6. Every effort of corrupting the meaning and subverting the University Asylum will stop.

7. Research to serve the interest of the people

8. Stable and full-time employment for every graduate, with proper working rights, on the subject of their studies.

9. Measures for the support of immigrant students

We appeal to the Councils and the Assemblies of the Student Unions, to every student, to unite with the Students' Militant Front, to take their place in the side of the class-oriented worker movement, to further strengthen the effort of the organisation of the University and Tech. Institution student movement...”

International Relations Committee

CC of KNE

November 11, 2009

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YCLSA welcomes Alliance Summit outcomes

16 November 2009

The Young Communist League of South Africa (uFasimba) welcomes the Alliance Summit outcomes and declaration as presented yesterday by the leaders of Cosatu, SACP, SANCO and ANC. The Summit is a representation of a departure from old-school mentality of such gatherings being a platform to further alienate the Alliance partners from the ANC, and shows the determination of our leaders to unite all of South Africa.

The outcomes of the Summit also disproved the prophets of doom whose intentions were to see the Alliance ultimately break in the hands of the current leadership. We are also pleased that those who are in the leadership and were quoted as saying there is an intended left takeover, have come to appreciate and endorse the new spirit of sustaining lifelong relations amongst the allies.

We particularly welcome the determination by our leadership to focus on employment creation as a crisis that affects millions of young people around the country. The youth of our country have been the most hit by the economic recession, which resulted in retrenchments that followed the “last in first out principle”. The hunger for new jobs represents a powder-keg that is waiting to explode, and the sooner this is addressed the better.

We further welcome the commitment by the Alliance leadership to vigorously campaign against HIV/AIDS, again a nemesis for the youth of our country. The statistics presented by the Department of Health on the shocking rate of deaths in relation to the rate of births, and the number of young people infected with HIV/AIDS means that our political leadership should depart from denying the existence of HIV/AIDs and enter a new paradigm of uniting our country against this scourge. The resolutions of the Summit presents hope to our youth that those who are infected will be provided with anti-retroviral drugs and that those who are not, will get adequate health care that will keep them healthy and fit.

We equally welcome the “uncomfortable” attitude of the Alliance leadership towards the 45% tariff increase over the next three years by Eskom. This means that the Alliance takes the impact of the tariffs on our economy and on the working class and the poor seriously. We hope that the leadership of Eskom or Nersa will heed to this call and ensure that they halt their intentions, and raise money elsewhere.

We want to state for the record that we are not surprised that the President of the Republic intervened on the Eskom crisis. Eskom remains a national company and any crisis that happens in that institution should require an intervention from the highest office of the land. The Democratic Alliance would have done the same and even worse, and that they should not use this as a platform to win votes in future elections.

The YCLSA will do everything in its powers to ensure that the Alliance remains united, focused and provide leadership to society. We call on all members of the Alliance structures to ensure that the same spirit as displayed over the weekend at the Summit filters down to provincial, regional and local structures.

Issued by the YCLSA Head office

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Honduras: A Victory for "Smart Power"

by Eva Golinger,
Monthly Review

Henry Kissinger said that diplomacy is the "art of restraining power." Obviously, the most influential ideologue on US foreign policy of the twenty-first century was referring to the necessity to "restrain the power" of other countries and governments in order to maintain the dominant world power of the United States. Presidents in the style of George W. Bush employed "Hard Power" to achieve this goal: weapons, bombs, threats, and military invasions. Others, like Bill Clinton, used "Soft Power": cultural warfare, Hollywood, ideals, diplomacy, moral authority, and campaigns to "win the hearts and minds" of those in enemy nations. The Obama administration has opted for a mutation of these two concepts, fusing military power with diplomacy, political and economic influence with cultural penetration and legal maneuvering. They call this "Smart Power." Its first application is the coup d'état in Honduras, and as of today, it's worked to perfection.

During her confirmation hearing before the Senate, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remarked that "We must use what has been called smart power, the full range of tools at our disposal -- diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural -- picking the right tool or combination of tools for each situation. With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of our foreign policy." Clinton later reinforced this concept affirming that the "wisest path will be to first use persuasion."

So, what is intelligent about this concept? It's a form of politics that is difficult to classify, difficult to detect, and difficult to deconstruct. Honduras is a clear example. On one hand, President Obama condemned the coup against President Zelaya while his ambassador in Tegucigalpa held regular meetings with the coup leaders. Secretary of State Clinton repeated over and over again during the past four months that Washington didn't want to "influence" the situation in Honduras -- that Hondurans needed to resolve their crisis, without outside interference. But it was Washington that imposed the mediation process "led" by President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, and Washington that kept funding the coup regime and its supporters via USAID, and Washington that controlled and commanded the Honduran armed forces, involved in repressing the people and imposing a brutal regime, through its massive military presence in the Soto Cano military base.

Washington lobbyists also wrote the San José "agreement," and in the end, it was the high-level State Department and White House delegation that "persuaded" the Hondurans to accept the agreement. Despite the constant US interference in the coup d'état in Honduras -- funding, design, and political and military support -- Washington's "smart power" approach was able to distort public opinion and make the Obama administration come out as the grand victor of "multilateralism."

What "smart power" achieved was a way to disguise Washington's unilateralism as multilateralism. From day one, Washington imposed its agenda. On July 1st, spokespeople for the Department of State admitted in a press briefing that they had prior knowledge of the coup in Honduras. They also admitted that two high-level State Department officials, Thomas Shannon and James Steinberg, were in Honduras the week before the coup, meeting with the civil and military groups involved. They said their purpose was to "impede the coup," but how, then, can they explain that the airplane that forcefully exiled President Zelaya left from the Soto Cano military base in the presence of US military officers?

The facts demonstrate the truth about Washington and the coup in Honduras and the subsequent successful experiment with "smart power." Washington knew about the coup before it happened, yet continued to fund those involved via USAID and NED. The Pentagon aided in the illegal forced exile of President Zelaya, and later, the Obama administration used the Organization of American States (OAS) -- during a moment at which it was on the border of extinction -- as a façade to impose its agenda. The discourse of the Department of State always legitimated the coup leaders, calling on "both parts . . . to resolve the political dispute in a peaceful way through dialogue." Since when is an illegal usurper of power considered a "legitimate part" capable of dialogue? Obviously, a criminal actor who takes power by force is not interested in dialoguing. Based on this Washington logic, the world should call on the Obama administration to "resolve its political dispute with Al Qaeda in a peaceful way through dialogue, and not war."

The Obama/Clinton "smart power" achieved its first victory during the initial days of the coup, persuading the member states of the OAS to accept a 72-hour wait period to allow the coup regime in Honduras to "think through its actions." Soon after, Secretary of State Clinton imposed the mediation efforts, led by Arias, and by then, so much space had been ceded to Washington that the US just stepped in and took the reigns. When President Zelaya went to Washington and met with Clinton, it was obvious who was in control. And that's how they played it out, buying more and more time up until the last minute, so that even if Zelaya returns to power now he will have no space or time to govern.

The people were left out, excluded. Months of repression, violence, persecution, human rights violations, curfews, media closures, tortures, and political assassinations have been forgotten. What a relief, as Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon remarked upon achieving the signature of Micheletti and Zelaya on the final "agreement," that the situation in Honduras was resolved "without violence."

Upon the signing of the "agreement" this past October 30th, Washington immediately lifted the few restrictions it had imposed on the coup regime as a pressure tactic. Now they can get visas again and travel north, they don't have to worry about the millions of dollars from USAID, which hadn't even been suspended in the first place. The US military in presence in Soto Cano can reinitiate all their activities -- oh wait, they never stopped in the first place. The Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) of the Pentagon affirmed just days after the coup that "everything is normal with our armed forces in Honduras, they are engaging in their usual activities with their Honduran counterparts." And Washington is already preparing its delegation of elections observers for the November 29th presidential elections -- they are already on their way.

Forget about Cold War torturer Billy Joya who was scheming with the coup regime against the resistance; or the Colombian paramilitary forces sent in to help the coup regime "control" the population. Don't worry anymore about the sonic warfare LRAD weapon used to torture those inside the Brazilian embassy in an attempt to oust Zelaya from the building. Nothing happened. As Thomas Shannon said, "we congratulate two great men for reaching this historic agreement." And Secretary of State Clinton commented that "this agreement is a tremendous achievement for the Hondurans." Wait, for whom?

In the end, the celebrated "agreement" imposed by Washington only calls upon the Honduran Congress -- the same Congress that falsified Zelaya's resignation letter in order to justify the coup, and the same Congress that supported the illegal installation of Micheletti in the presidency -- to determine whether or not it wants to reinstate Zelaya as president. And only after receiving a legal opinion from the Honduran Supreme Court -- the same one that said Zelaya was a traitor for calling for a non-binding poll vote on potential future constitutional reform, and the same one that ordered his violent capture. Even if the Congress' answer is positive, Zelaya would not have any power. The "agreement" stipulates that the members of his cabinet will be imposed by those political parties involved in the coup, the armed forces will be under the control of the Supreme Court that supported the coup, and Zelaya could be tried for his alleged "crime" of "treason" because he wanted to have a non-binding poll on constitutional reform.

Per the "agreement" a truth commission would supervise its implementation. Today, Ricardo Lagos, ex president of Chile and staunch Washington ally, was announced as the leader of the Honduran Truth Commission. Lagos is co-director of the Board of Directors of the Inter-American Dialogue, a right-wing think tank that influences Washington's policies on Latin America. Lagos also was charged with creating a Chilean version of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), la Fundación Democracia y Desarrollo, to "promote democracy" in Latin America, US-style. Upon leaving the presidency in 2006, Lagos was named President of the Club of Madrid -- an exclusive club of ex presidents dedicated to "promoting democracy" around the world. Several key figures involved in currently destabilizing left-leaning Latin American governments are members of this "club," including Jorge Quiroga and Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (ex presidents of Bolivia), Felipe González (ex prime minister of Spain), Václav Havel (ex president of the Czech Republic), and José María Aznar (ex prime minister of Spain), amongst many others.

In the end, "smart power" was sufficiently intelligent to deceive those who today celebrate an "end to the crisis" in Honduras. But, for a majority of people in Latin America, the victory of Obama's "smart power" in Honduras is a dark and dangerous shadow closing in on us. Initiatives such as ALBA have just begun to achieve a level of Latin American independence from the dominant northern power. For the first time in history, the nations and peoples of Latin America have been collectively standing strong with dignity and sovereignty, building their futures. And then along came Obama with his "smart power," and ALBA was hit by the coup in Honduras, Latin American integration has been weakened by the US military expansion in Colombia, and the struggle for independence and sovereignty in Washington's backyard is being squashed by a sinister smile and insincere handshake.

Bowing before Washington, the crisis in Honduras "was resolved." Ironically, the same crisis was fomented by the US in the first place. There is talk of similar coups in Paraguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador, and Venezuela, where subversion, counterinsurgency and destabilization increase daily. The people of Honduras remain in resistance, despite the "agreement" reached by those in power. Their determined insurrection and commitment to justice is a symbol of dignity. The only way to defeat imperialist aggression -- soft, hard, or smart -- is through the union and integration of the people.

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer." -- Henry Kissinger

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