THE DISASTER IN JAPAN AND A VISIT FROM A FRIEND

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

“THE DISASTER IN JAPAN AND A VISIT FROM A FRIEND”

Today I had the pleasure of greeting Jimmy Carter, who from 1977 to 1981 was the President of the United States, the only one, in my opinion, who had enough serenity and courage to tackle the issue of US-Cuba relations.

Carter did what he could to reduce international tensions and to promote the establishment of Cuban and US Interest offices. His administration was the only one that took a few steps towards easing the criminal blockade imposed against our people.

The circumstances weren’t exactly favorable given the complexities of our world at that time. The existence of a genuinely free and sovereign nation in our hemisphere was incompatible with the ideas of the fascist rightwing in the United States. This faction maneuvered to cause President Carter’s plans to fail; plans that would make him worthy of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nobody gave it to him for free.

The Cuban Revolution always appreciated this brave gesture. In 2002 we gave Jimmy Carter a warm welcome. Now I take this opportunity to reiterate our respect and appreciation.

Will the oligarchy that governs this superpower ever be able to give up its insatiable drive to impose its will on the rest of the world? Can this even occur in a system that increasingly produces presidents such as Nixon, Reagan and Bush W. who have ever more destructive powers and ever less respect for the sovereignty of nations?

The complexity of the world today leaves little margin for relatively recent memories. The farewell we gave to Carter today, Wednesday, coincided with worrisome news on the nuclear accident caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. These reports keep coming in and cannot and should not be ignored, not only for their importance, but also because of the practical and almost immediate repercussion they have on the world economy.

Today AP reported the following from Japan:

“The crisis at the Japanese nuclear plant that was damaged by the tsunami worsened on Wednesday after tests of nearby ocean water showed the highest levels of radiation detected so far.”

“In Fukushima, radiation has penetrated the ground, seeped into the ocean and turned up in vegetables, non-pasteurized milk and even in tap water in Tokyo, 220 kilometers to the south.”

“Meanwhile, Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited for an hour with a group of evacuees in Tokyo.”

From Tokyo, Reuters reported:

“Japan said it would upgrade its safety standards for nuclear power plants on Wednesday, its first acknowledgement that norms were insufficient when an earthquake wrecked one of its facilities, triggering the world's worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

“The announcement came as the government conceded that there was no end in sight to the crisis and a spike in radioactive iodine levels in seawater added to evidence of reactor leakages around the complex and beyond.

“Plutonium finds in soil at the plant this week had already have raised public alarm over the accident, which has overshadowed the humanitarian calamity triggered by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11 that left 27,500 people dead or missing.

“Before the disaster, Japan's 55 nuclear reactors had provided about 30 percent of the nation's electric power. The percentage had been expected to rise to 50 percent by 2030, among the highest in the world.

“New readings showed a spike in radioactive iodine in the sea off the plant to 3,355 times the legal limit, the state nuclear safety agency said, although it played down the impact, saying people had left the area and fishing had stopped.

“Hundreds of engineers have been toiling for nearly three weeks to cool the plant's reactors and avert a catastrophic meltdown of fuel rods, although the situation appears to have moved back from that nightmare scenario.

“Jesper Koll, director of equity research at JPMorgan Securities in Tokyo, said a drawn-out battle to bring the plant under control and manage the radioactivity being released would perpetuate the uncertainty and act as a drag on the economy.

“’The worst-case scenario is that this drags on not one month or two months or six months, but for two years, or indefinitely,’ he said.

“A by-product of atomic reactions and a prime ingredient in nuclear bombs, plutonium is highly carcinogenic and one of the most dangerous substances on the planet, experts say.”

A third news agency, DPA, reported from Tokyo that:

“Japanese technicians continue to try to stop the nuclear crisis three weeks after the accidents took place at the Fukushima plant. Consequently, Tokyo authorities are beginning to consider taking extraordinary measures to stop the radioactive leak from the facilities.

“The idea is to cover the reactors with a sort of tissue. Recent high readings of iodine 131 in seawater indicate increasing radiation. The Greenpeace environmental organization warns of serious danger to the health of local inhabitants following its own assessment.

“Experts say that a process that would definitively rule out a possible fusion of the core may take months. Tepco has promised to improve the work conditions of the technicians, who are increasingly becoming more nervous and exhausted.”

While these events take place in Japan, the president of Venezuela is visiting Argentina, Uruguay and is on his way to Bolivia to promote economic accords and to strengthen relations with the countries of our hemisphere, which are determined to be independent.

At the University of La Plata, where the tyranny promoted by the United States caused the disappearance of many thousands of Argentineans, including 700 students —40 from the Faculty of Journalism--, Chavez was granted the Rodolfo Walsh award, named after one of the heroic and revolutionary journalists who were murdered.

It is no longer Cuba alone; there are now many peoples willing to fight to death for their own homeland.

Fidel Castro Ruz
March 30, 2011
6:51 p.m.

On the Announced Increase to the Minimum Wage

Young Communist League BC Provincial Committee
March, 2011

The Young Communist League British Columbia Provincial Committee welcomes the recently announced increase to BC's dismally low minimum wage. At the same time, we note that the increase is far from adequate and does not represent a change in policy or direction on the part of the BC Liberal Party.

Any increase to the minimum wage is undoubtedly positive in terms of the immediate economic situation of hundreds of thousands of workers, many of whom are youth, who are currently working for wages that put them well below the poverty line. We note that action around the minimum wage issue has ebbed in recent times, it was the work of the BC labour movement, especially the young workers movement, which applied pressure to the anti-worker, anti-youth Liberal government around this issue and stimulated public outrage around the Liberal's shameful wage freeze. We are proud that some of our members were part of that work as well.

However, the minimum wage increase is designed to protect the interests of the BC Liberal Party's corporate backers. The increase is much lower than needed and is spread out over the course of more than a year; $8.75 this may, $9.50 on November 1st, and $10.25 in May 2012. But a worker would need to earn no less than $11.11 today to merely straddle the poverty line, and with inflation that number will increase even more by the time minimum wage workers achieve $10.25 next Spring. Keep in mind that this is merely the poverty line. An actual living wage would be around $18.81 in the Metro-Vancouver area, or $18.03 in Victoria. To make matters worse, the Liberal government has introduced a "server’s wage" which will put those who serve liquor on a second wage tier where they will make only $9 by next May. The Liberal strategy is one of keeping BC's workers, youth, and students, at sub-poverty level wages in order to ensure tidy profits to their corporate masters.

In this respect, it is clear that the minimum wage increase is no more than a public relations stunt by a new Liberal leader who is trying to re-brand and re-legitimize her party in preparation for the next round of elections. Clark's wafer-thin claims about a change in Liberal policy and "putting families first" are belied by the fact that she has the very same policies of her predecessor which led to his dramatic decline in voter support and eventual resignation. As the Communist Party's recent statement indicated, Christy Clark merely represents "the same club led by a different smile and a different gender."

The Young Communist League supports the ongoing efforts of young workers to fight for better wages, employment standards, and workplace safety. We demand an immediate increase in the minimum wage to $16 per hour and the elimination of the server’s wage. We oppose all forms of tiered wage systems such as "training" or "student" wages. Ultimately believe every worker deserves a living wage.

The BC Liberal Party will never offer a real alternative to the legacy it has left during the Gordon Campbell era. We call on youth, students, workers, left and progressive forces, and all those negatively affected by the results of Liberal corporate rule to come together and fight for a people's alternative to the anti-worker, anti-youth, and anti-student legacy of the BC Liberal Party.

INTERVIEW WITH MIGUEL FIGUEROA

From People's Voice.

As the May 2 federal election began, People's Voice interviewed Communist Party of Canada leader Miguel Figueroa about the campaign.

People's Voice: What are the most important issues around which the federal election will be fought?

Miguel Figueroa: I heard a political commentator dub this a "Seinfeld" election because - like that famous sitcom - this campaign will be `about nothing', without any pivotal issues or defining themes. But appearances can be misleading.

Stephen Harper and his stable of advisers in the Prime Minister's Office have been crafting such a scenario since the last election, and especially after their post‑election brush with death when their minority government was almost brought down (saved only by the prorogation of Parliament in December 2008). The Tory game plan is to `low‑ball' their economic and political program and avoid sharp confrontations which would more fully expose their reactionary anti‑labour, anti‑democratic agenda. That is the main reason why power has been so concentrated (and carefully scripted) in the PMO. Their `possum' strategy has been aided and abetted by both the mainstream corporate media, and by the feebleness of the opposition parties in Parliament, which have failed to bring forward substantive alternatives to Tory policies.

So, of course, this election is not about `nothing'. Far from it. It is all about the most central issue: the consolidation of Conservative political power in the form of a `stable' majority in Parliament. This objective is also what monopoly capital - the oil barons in Alberta, the bankers on Bay Street, and the transnationals - desperately want to put in place.

This is the crux of the matter. Over the remaining days leading up to May 2nd, workers, youth, pensioners, Aboriginal peoples, racialized communities - indeed the vast majority of Canadians - need to do everything possible to deny Harper and his cronies their coveted majority, and if possible drive them from the government benches entirely.

People's Voice: Could you elaborate on how this election relates to the larger class struggle for fundamental change?

Miguel Figueroa: Defeating the Harper Tories is a fundamental first step for our class in the fight to reverse the social and economic devastation wrought by capitalist governments for decades, and which have intensified over the past five years of Tory rule. This trail of destruction comprises a long list, but here are a few which we consider most central: (1) the accelerating erosion of Canadian sovereignty; (2) de‑industrialization and mounting job losses: (3) privatization and the resulting loss of public services, especially Medicare, public education and the CPP; (4) the increasing concentration of wealth for a small minority, together with declines in the real living standards of most working people, especially those increasingly herded into low‑wage and precarious job ghettos; (5) the growing deterioration of the Canadian and global environment; and (6) and the deepening attack on labour and democratic rights.

We realize that preventing a Tory majority, or even defeating the Harper Conservatives, will not in itself reverse this disastrous course and take our country in a new direction. The real battle for fundamental change will not be restricted to the ballot booth. It will be fought out across this country, in the workplaces, in our communities and on the streets of our towns and cities. The strategic orientation of our Party is directed to help bring together and unite the many threads of popular and mass resistance into a strong and militant People's Coalition of labour, social and national movements. Centered around a comprehensive alternative program which challenges corporate domination, a People's Coalition would put the interests of working people and our environment first, rather than the pursuit of profit.

But it would categorically wrong to remain indifferent to the outcome of this particular election, to sit it out or dismiss it as yet another futile exercise in bourgeois `democracy'. The labour and people's forces must be ever mindful of the political terrain that will arise after May 2nd. We need to work hard to expose and defeat the Tory juggernaut as an initial step in creating better conditions for more meaningful advance.

People's Voice: Defence and foreign policy issues are so far receiving scant attention in the campaign. Why is that?

Miguel Figueroa: It is true that the militarist, pro-imperialist Tory foreign policy agenda is not yet high on the campaign radar, despite the concerns of the Canadian people. Take Canada's role in the continuing imperialist war of occupation in Afghanistan - a reprehensible mission which the Harper Tories have extended for another two years (to 2014). The majority of Canadians have never supported this expensive, unjustified and totally unwinnable war. They want our troops brought home now. Canadians also have growing misgivings about the current imperialist aggression against Libya, which our Party strongly opposes. In both cases, the Tories have eagerly promoted these imperialist actions, without any principled opposition from the other parties in Parliament.

Or take the $30 billion dollar purchase of F‑35 stealth fighters. The Liberals complain that the contract was not properly tendered. The NDP rightly points out that the exorbitant cost comes at the expense of social programs, and both parties (as well as the BQ) are furious that Harper tried to conceal its full cost from Parliament. All these criticisms are valid. But no one, including the corporate media, is asking the more fundamental question: "what are these F‑35s for?" Canada doesn't need stealth fighters to patrol the Arctic or guard our 200‑mile coastal limits. They are for Canada's further involvement in aggression and wars abroad, as a fully integrated `junior partner' of U.S. imperialism.

People's Voice: Can you say a few words about the Communist Party's campaign and its objectives?

Miguel Figueroa: We will be fielding about 20 candidates across the country to put forward our `people's agenda' for a new direction for Canada. Our candidates will also connect the current economic and social crisis with the basic structural injustice and irrationality of capitalism as a system. We will make the case for a socialist Canada. And we'll be fighting for every vote we can win - the best way to send a message for fundamental change. Everywhere, we will work to build the ranks of our Communist Party, the most conscious and organized revolutionary detachment of the working class in Canada.

ON MAY 2: DUMP THE HARPER TORIES AND BLOCK THE RIGHT!

From People's Voice.

A message for the 2011 federal election from the Communist Party of Canada

This federal election will be crucial for our country, and the stakes have rarely been so high. If the Harper Conservatives manage to secure a majority in the next Parliament, it will have catastrophic consequences for working people, for Aboriginal peoples, for women, youth and students, pensioners, new immigrants and racialized communities. Canadians need to defeat this Tory government and end the ruinous, pro‑corporate policies it has inflicted ‑ a critical first step in taking our country in a new, peaceful, democratic, sovereign and socially progressive direction.

WFDY News - March 2011

Click here for the new edition of World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) News!

The big Sid to McGuinty: sacrifice good jobs and public services to pay for billion-dollar corporate windfall -- over my dead body!

Sent on behalf of the OFL Communications Department

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 29, 2011


OFL: McGuinty sacrifices good jobs and public services to pay for billion-dollar corporate windfall

(TORONTO) - Ontarians struggling to make ends meet are going to be hit hard in this budget, according to the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). While handing over $4 billion to already-profitable corporations, McGuinty is asking the public to manage with less. Dramatic public sector job loss will compound an already existing crisis in the public services, leaving many out of work and many more without the services they rely on.

“Three years of corporate tax cuts have bled the public coffers dry and manufactured a recession in the public service,” said OFL Secretary-Treasurer Marie Kelly. “The government’s plans to cut another 1,500 public sector jobs, on top of the 3,400 that were axed in the last budget, while deprive many – including the unemployed – of the services they rely on.”

The government’s own projections demonstrate that tens of thousands of those left unemployed by the recession in 2008 are still pounding the pavement today while thousands more continue to languish in part-time and precarious employment.

“Those who are struggling on the margins of society are the most reliant on public services and will be the hardest hit by the projected cuts,” said Kelly. “This budget offers nothing to expand access to retraining for unemployed workers and freezes the minimum wage freeze for the working poor. With little money allocated to the Poverty Reduction Strategy, a nine million dollar cut to children’s aid and only a fraction of the funding needed to prevent childcare centres from closing, this budget ensures that only corporate CEOs will get a leg up.”

“This budget outlines McGuinty’s strategy for getting re-elected on a platform of being more Tory than the Tories,” said Kelly. “But if McGuinty wants to get re-elected as Premier, it is time that he demonstrate that he has the interests of Ontarians at heart, not his corporate donors.”

The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) represents 54 unions and one million workers in Ontario.
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NATO’s FASCIST WAR

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

NATO’s FASCIST WAR

You didn’t have to be clairvoyant to foresee what I wrote with great detail in three Reflection Articles I published on the CubaDebate website between February 21 and March 3: “The NATO Plan Is to Occupy Libya,” “The Cynical Danse Macabre,” and “NATO’s Inevitable War.”


Not even the fascist leaders of Germany and Italy were so blatantly shameless regarding the Spanish Civil War unleashed in 1936, an event that maybe a lot of people have been recalling over these past days.

Almost 75 years to the day have passed since then, but nothing that has happened over the last 75 centuries, or even 75 millenniums of human life on our planet can compare.

Sometimes it seems that those of us who serenely voice our opinions on these issues are exaggerating. I dare say that we have actually been naive to assume that we all should be aware of the deception or colossal ignorance that humanity has been dragged into.

In 1936 there was an intense clash between two systems and ideologies of more or less equal military power.

The arms back then seemed more like toys compared with today’s weapons. Humanity’s survival was not threatened despite the destructive power and the locally lethal force deployed. Entire cities and even nations could have been virtually destroyed. But never was the human race, in its totality, at risk of being exterminated several times over for the stupid and suicidal power developed by modern science and technology.

With these current realities in mind, it is embarrassing to read the continuous news reports on the use of powerful laser-guided rockets with 100% accuracy, fighter-bombers that go twice the speed of light, potent explosives that blow apart uranium-hardened metals that have an everlasting effect on the inhabitants and their descendants.

Cuba stated its position regarding the internal situation in Libya at the meeting in Geneva. Without hesitating, Cuba defended the idea of a political solution to the conflict in Libya and was categorically opposed to any foreign military intervention.

In a world where the alliance between the United States and the developed capitalist powers of Europe increasingly take hold of the people’s resources and fruits of their labor, any honest citizen, whatever their standpoint to the government, would be opposed to a foreign military intervention in their country.

But most absurd about the current situation is the fact that before the brutal war broke out in Northern Africa, in another region of the world, nearly 10 000 kilometers away, a nuclear accident had occurred in one of the most populated areas of the world following a tsunami caused by a 9.0 earthquake, which has already cost a hard-working nation like Japan nearly 30 000 lives. Such accident would have not occurred 75 years before.

In Haiti, a poor and underdeveloped country, a nearly 7.0 quake according to the Richter scale, caused over 300 000 deaths, countless people wounded and hundreds of thousands harmed.

However, what was terribly tragic in Japan was the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant, whose consequences are still to be assessed.

I will only recall some of the main stories published by the news agencies:

ANSA.- Fukushima 1 nuclear plant is releasing “extremely high and potentially lethal radiations,” said Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), the US nuclear entity.



EFE.- The nuclear threat stemming from the serious situation at a Japanese plant, following the earthquake, has triggered security revisions in atomic plants around the world and has made some countries paralyze their plans.

Reuters.- Japan's devastating earthquake and deepening nuclear crisis could result in losses of up to $200 billion for Japanese economy, but the global impact remains hard to gauge.

EFE.- The deterioration of one reactor after another at Japan's Fukushima nuclear center continued to feed fears of a pending nuclear disaster as desperate attempts to control a radioactive leak did nothing to provide even a glimmer of hope.

AFP.- Japan´s Emperor Akihito expressed concern about the unpredictable character of the nuclear crisis hitting Japan following the quake and tsunami that killed thousands of people and left 500 000 homeless. New quake reported in the Tokyo area.

There are reports talking about even more concerning issues.

Some refer to the presence of toxic radioactive iodine in Tokyo’s drinking water, which doubles the tolerable amount that can be consumed by the smallest children in the Japanese capital. One of these reports says that the stocks of bottled water are shrinking in Tokyo, a city located in a prefecture at more than 200 kilometers from Fukushima.

This series of circumstances poses a dramatic situation on our world.

I can express freely my views on the war in Libya.


I do not share political or religious views with the leader of that country. I am a Marxist-Leninist and a follower of Marti, as I have already said.

I see Libya as a member of the Non-Aligned Movement and a sovereign State of the nearly 200 members of the United Nations.

Never, a large or small country, in this case with only 5 million inhabitants, was the victim of such a brutal attack by the air force of a militaristic organization with thousands of fighter-bombers, more than 100 submarines, nuclear aircraft carriers, and sufficient arsenal to destroy the planet many times over. Our species had never encountered this situation and there had been nothing similar 75 years ago, when the Nazi bombers attacked targets in Spain.


Now, however, the criminal and discredited NATO will write a "beautiful" little story about its "humanitarian" bombing.


If Gaddafi honors the traditions of his people and decides to fight to the last breath, as he has promised, together with the Libyans who are facing the worst bombing a country has ever suffered, NATO and its criminal projects will sink into the mire of shame.


The people respect and believe in men who fulfill their duty.


More than 50 years ago, when the United States killed more than a hundred Cubans with the explosion of merchant ship "La Coubre" our people proclaimed "Patria o Muerte." (Homeland or Death). They have fulfilled this, and have always been determined to keep their word.


"Anyone who tries to seize Cuba," said the most glorious fighter in our history-"will only gather the dust of her soil soaked in blood."


I beg you to excuse the frankness with which I address the issue.

Fidel Castro Ruz
28 March 2011
8:14 p.m.

On the attacks against the CPBM

The World Federation of Democratic Youth observes the intensification of anti-communist acts that are presently in an increased way directed against the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (CPBM). That came to light during the parliamentary hearing about the draft of a law on the so called anti-communist resistance, it means a violent resistance against the socialist system in Czechoslovakia in years 1948 - 1989 and was expressed with the subsequent political and media manhunt against the CPBM members of parliament Marta Semelova and Miroslav Grebenicek. There are even threats of banning the CPBM and government authorities’ investigation is under way.

The right wing government formed in 2010 has used its parliamentary majority to pass anti-social laws in favor of the capitalists against the interests of the working people, including even middle strata employees. To detract attention from these anti-social policies an anti-communist campaign is being waged with direct engagement of some MPs, senators and anti-communist civic associations as the “Confederation of political prisoners”, as well as directly the government and especially the Ministry of Interior.

It is a set of measures starting with the debate on the mentioned draft on the anti-socialist resistance that puts the adversaries of the socialist regime on the same level with the anti-fascist fighters, that celebrates the terrorists who murdered innocent citizens, robbed and caused damage to the national economy. Another step debated by the government is the lowering of the pensions of the former functionaries of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in order to gain finance to increase the pensions of the anti-socialist resistance members. The last step so far has been a creation of a special team of the Ministry of Interior to collect source materials to be used for the legal proceedings of the Supreme Administrative Court on the dissolution - ban of the CPBM. This is an attempt to ban a party that is a part of the political system of the Czech Republic, that observes the Constitution, the Charter of fundamental rights and basic freedoms and the laws of the Czech Republic and that receives support of approximately 12% of the voters with orderly elected representatives from municipal and regional to national and European parliamentary level.

As far as the anti-socialist resistance law is considered, it is based on ideological adoration of anti-communist terror, murders and neglecting of the victims and consequences of this violence and has an inciter effect in relation to present and future. The representatives of the anti-socialist resistance committed violent crimes against citizens and representatives of a sovereign internationally recognized state like it was the case of a terrorist Masin brothers gang who committed murders of the functionaries of the national councils, agricultural co-operatives, members of armed corpses and hijacked means of transport taking hostages and violent robberies. The anti-socialist resistance draft of law is a part of ideologically purposeful historical revisionism.

During the parliamentary hearing even the right to free opinion and expression was denied when the speeches of MPs of the CPBM Marta Semelova and Miroslav Grebenicek were rudely disturbed by the right-wing MPs with effort to make them impossible to finish their speeches, with calls addressing the Minister of Interior to prepare the ban of the CPBM and even with calls of the Municipal council of the capital city of Prague to Marta Semelova to resign from her mandate in this body which she won in elections with a significant voters’ support.

WFDY denounces and protests against the anti-communist attacks against the CPBM and its representatives, as well as against the so called anti-socialist resistance draft of law and express its concern with the endangering of fundamental human rights and democratic freedoms in the Czech Republic.

STOP the war against Libya: NOW!

The World Federation of Democratic Youth condemns the bombing of Libya. by NATO and its members, under the excuse of defending the “human rights” of the protesters that want to overthrow Kaddafi’s government.In fact, the simple act of recognition of the rebels as a partner for dialogue by the European Union and other structures represents in itself, a provocation to the sovereignty of Libya and an unacceptable interference on the Libyan issues.

The double standards of imperialism are further clear when in case of the Saudi troops entering Bahrain to smash the ongoing popular movement or in case of the suppression of the peoples’ movement in Yemen, the imperialist states prefer to remain silent, supporting the ongoing brutal repression.

Eight years after the invasion of Iraq and eleven after the bombing of Yugoslavia, imperialism is yet again betting on confusing the minds of the peoples of the world to justify an invasion to a country with the sole motivation of stealing its resources and taking over its geostrategic position. If imperialism had ever before any honest worry with the Libyan people, what would justify the high level of relation between the government of Kaddafi with France, Spain, Italy, Portugal and the very USA until some months ago?

Once again, we underline that we reject the suppression of the rights of protesters in Libya, but we underline that the only solution is a peaceful understanding between all parts inside Libya and that a military intervention is totally unacceptable, as we believe that only the Libyan people is able to solve its own problems.

(click here to check out the material of WFDY for the international day of action against the war in Libya, on March 24)

On the political freedoms in Senegal

The World Federation of Democratic Youth and its member organizations, at the occasion of its General Council Meeting in Brazil, express its total solidarity to the people and youth of Senegal who are fighting against the liberals reforms, against the corruption of their government, for the right of employment, for free and public education as for the socials, economical and democratic rights in their country.At the same time we fully condemn the violent attacks organized by the government and the PDS to confront to these fair demands. We denounce the establishment of one list of the young leaders with the objective to arrest them with the pretext of attempt to the state security and the will to do one coup d’état.

We demand that the government of Senegal and the PDS should stop immediately the repression against the people and to answer to the popular aspirations which are presented today.

Fidel: Between emigration and crime

Reflections by Comrade Fidel

BETWEEN EMIGRATION AND CRIME


Latin Americans are not born-criminals nor did they invent drugs.

The Aztecs, Maya and other pre-Columbian human groups in Mexico and Central America, for example, were excellent farmers and didn’t even know about growing coca.

The Quechua and Aymara were capable of producing nutritious foods on perfect terraces that followed the mountain level curves. On the high plateaux that often exceeded three or four thousand metres in altitude, they grew quinua, a cereal rich in protein, and potatoes.

They knew about and also grew the coca plant whose leaves they chewed from time immemorial in order to lessen the ravages of high altitudes. This is an ancient custom that the peoples practiced along with products such as coffee, tobacco, liquor and others.

Coca originated on the steep slopes of the Amazonian Andes. The settlers there knew about it from times that pre-dated the Inca Empire whose territory, at the height of its splendour, stretched over the area covered today by southern Colombia, all of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, eastern Chile and north-eastern Argentina; it totalled about two million square kilometres.

We Are One!

Refugees are not criminals: NCCT demands removal of Conservative Party ad and apology

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release
Monday 28 March 2011

Toronto, Canada - The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) is calling on
Rt. Hon. Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada to remove an election advertisement, which insinuates that Tamil refugees who are forced to arrive through unconventional means are “criminals”, and apologize to Tamil Canadians.

The Conservative Party ad features a photo of the MV Sun Sea which arrived off the shores of British Colombia in August last year with 491 Tamil refugees fleeing war and persecution from Sri Lanka—a country marred by allegations of human rights violations, the denial of fundamental civil liberties, and extrajudicial killings. It calls the Tamils aboard “criminals” who trying to abuse Canadian generosity.

“This election ad is xenophobic and borders on racism,” said Krisna Saravanamuttu, NCCT spokesman. “It is reminiscent of the political rhetoric used to turn back Sikhs and Hindus on board the Kamagata Maru in 1914, and Jewish refugees on board the MS St. Louis fleeing persecution in 1939. In these cases, refugees fleeing persecution were labeled “criminals” and vilified by politicians appealing to the worst instincts of Canadians to score political points and votes.”

“We are confident that Prime Minister Harper would not have approved this ad, if he had seen it,” said Saravanamuttu. “We urge the Prime Minister to review the ad and do the right thing by removing it from his party’s campaign and apologize for labeling refugees and immigrants as criminals.”

The NCCT also calls on the leaders of Canada’s major political parties, Conservative candidates, and human rights groups like the Canadian Jewish Congress, Bnai Brith, and Amnesty International to review the CPC ad and join with us in calling for its retraction. “This election should be about uniting Canadians, no matter our ethnicity and how we arrived in Canada,” noted Saravanamuttu.