The great democracy that is new capitalist Russia

The elections have just been stolen from Russia. Knocking out the desired result the vertical of power threw into the battle the whole arsenal of fraud and manipulation. The officials were instructed on the voting "outcome" targets. "Law enforcement officials" turned a blind eye to the violations imposed. They did not suppress the issuing of anonymous newspapers like "Lord forbid!" ones. Complaints addressed to the law enforcement agencies were being rejected under various pretexts. The electoral commission compositions remained unchanged. CEC Chairman Vladimir Churov was kept at place. The CPRF Bills on the electoral system "repair" were not accepted by the State Duma. Instead of fair elections a campaign of web cameras installing was proposed to the citizens. On the Election Day the apotheosis of cynicism revealed itself in the removal from the polling places not only of the CPRF observers, but in some regions, of election commissions’ members with decisive vote.

Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the 2012 elections.

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Mayra and Cristhina's story: still waiting for wages

From the Worker's Action Center in Toronto

We found work in a hotel in the Muskoka area through an agency.  The pay that we received was always $10 per hour, whether we worked overtime or not.  This is less than the minimum wage.  When we left our job, the employer told us that she would not pay us our last cheque.  This employer works with many Latin American people in different hotels, many of them north of Toronto.  It is not only to us that the agency does not want to pay.

We started working with another Toronto agency that does cleaning work in movie theatres.  Because a family member had an accident, we had return back home to our country.  We gave our employer 10 days notice so he could find someone else, and we agreed that on our last day we would receive all our wages, around $3,000 for each of us.  But when we came to get our cheque, the employer told us he would only give us part of the money and the rest would be paid to us later.

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United to stop the growing war against Syria

Bombing Syria would be genocidal, not 'humanitarian'

By Darrell Rankin, People’s Voice, March 1, 2012

Events continue to move quickly towards very dangerous, destabilizing wars of occupation in the Middle East, wars that will trample democracy and conditions for working people in all countries that take part. Imperialist and reactionary countries are pushing ahead with an onslaught of deception and justifications, bringing armed groups to life, and making sure to involve as many countries as they can.

Western-backed armed groups and weapons are flooding into Syria, with the aim of creating conditions where a political solution to the civil war is impossible. Imperialist countries would rather drown Syria in blood than allow democratic elections to take place.

The former colonial powers in the Middle East such as France and Britain, the United States, Israel and the most reactionary members of the League of Arab States, are making every effort to de-legitimize the Syrian government, saying it is incapable of reform and that bloody regime change and foreign “help” are the only options.

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More unemployed call center workers, says report

After adding more than 90,000 jobs across Canada from 1997 to 2007, the business support services sector (ie. call centers - RY) saw its employment decline by 28 per cent from 2007 to 2011. Nearly 33,000 jobs have disappeared since 2007. The losses have hit particularly hard in New Brunswick and Ontario. In New Brunswick, the industry lost more than 3,100 jobs between 2007 and 2011. Ontario’s sector took an even larger hit, shedding almost 26,000 jobs since 2007 or a 40 per cent decline. ...employment decline in the business support services sector on a percentage basis has been much steeper than in manufacturing. ... There will be far fewer jobs associated with customer interaction in the future... (because) people are increasingly using the Web and bypassing the need to talk directly to a customer service agent by the telephone.


Source: Globe and Mail, March 8, Why call centres no longer ring up big job gains

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Toronto Star: lost generation of youth?

“Set the bar low,” is the advice Ron Sly would give himself a year and a half ago, when he started looking for work in Toronto.

But back then it was a city of opportunity, where he’d get a stable job and become upwardly mobile.

Instead the 26-year-old, armed with a useless B.Sc. in biology, spent months job-hunting while working at a bar.

“I couldn’t go back to school, I couldn’t take on any more debt,” he said. For the last year he’s worked on short-term contract as communications coordinator at First Work, a not-for-profit organization helping youth find employment.

He likes his job, but it would be nice to live like you know where next month’s rent is coming from.

“There is still the stress of being unsure about the future. There just isn’t the stability and job security that was enjoyed by previous generations. That is for me the biggest let down.”

Sly is part what could become a “lost generation,” says TD economist Francis Fong. “There is the threat of it taking half a decade to a decade or even longer to get these people back to where they should have been had they been the same age in an economic boom year.”

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Thought of the day: Lenin on religion

Under no circumstances ought we to fall into the error of posing the religious question in an abstract, idealistic fashion, as an “intellectual” question unconnected with the class struggle, as is not infrequently done by the radical-democrats from among the bourgeoisie. It would be stupid to think that, in a society based on the endless oppression and coarsening of the worker masses, religious prejudices could be dispelled by purely propaganda methods. It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society. No number of pamphlets and no amount of preaching can enlighten the proletariat, if it is not enlightened by its own struggle against the dark forces of capitalism.   Unity in this really revolutionary struggle of the oppressed class for the creation of a paradise on earth is more important to us than unity of proletarian opinion on paradise in heaven.


Lenin, Socialism and Religion, 1905

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Video: Police violence against student protesters continues

Video link from CTV, preceded by an advertisement.

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Ottawa set to lift entry ban on ANC members

South African youth at the 17th WFYS in Tshwane

From The Globe and Mail

More than 20 years after Nelson Mandela's release from prison, Ottawa says it has taken steps to loosen restrictions that prevent members of South Africa's governing party from visiting Canada and might finally lift an entry ban altogether.

For two decades, Canada has banned members of the African National Congress, the anti-apartheid movement that Mr. Mandela led. They have usually been obliged to seek a special exemption from the ban if they want to visit Canada.

The Canadian ban applies to any member of an organization that has advocated violence as a political tactic, or engaged in criminal activities. The ANC did both - although it was the apartheid regime that defined the party's actions as "criminal."

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Struggle heats up in Portugal

The Central Committee (of the Communist Party of Portugal) cannot fail to stress as a significant aspect of the evolution of the national political situation, the magnitude and historical significance of last 11 February demonstration, at the Terreiro do Paço Square, in Lisbon. A demonstration that is an unequivocal expression of the increasing dissatisfaction with the present course of the country and a clear sign of the significant erosion of the social base of support of the government. A demonstration that represents a new phase in the struggle against the right-wing policy in Portugal.... At a time when the ruinous consequences for the country and its development brought by the application of the Pact of Aggression emerge clearly, the struggle for its rejection constitutes a national imperative, a patriotic objective indispensable to defend the dignity and living conditions of the Portuguese and national sovereignty.


Read the full statement here.

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BC mothers rally for child-care

Child-care continues to be inaccessible
for many parents and the workers are
some of the lowest paid educators.

Reprinted from Burnaby Now
By Christina Myers

This article is the seventh in a series of eight feature stories RY magazine is presenting before International Women's Day on March 8th. Here we present a short personal story of the ongoing struggle for child care.

A group of parents at Taylor Park Elementary School in Burnaby have banded together in the hopes of creating a new out-of-school care program so that future parents won't be facing the same challenges they're now dealing with.

The group pulled together more than 175 signatures on a petition asking for a daycare facility at the school, which they're hoping to present to the city in their effort to get support and attention for the plan.

"It's a big problem," said parent Yan Xing.

Xing has a son in kindergarten and said she was on a waiting list for an out-ofschool care program at a nearby school but wasn't able to secure a spot in time.

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Support BC Teachers: Fight Bill 22!

Statement of YCL BC Provincial Committee

The BC Liberals have proposed legislation that would send BC’s teachers back to work without collective bargaining or the right to strike. This legislation, called Bill 22, threatens the democratic rights of all workers in BC. The Young Communist League of Canada BC Provincial Committee condemns Bill 22 for seeking to terminate the basic rights of working people to bargain collectively and to strike.

Teachers are seeking improvements to public education such as smaller classes and more resources for special needs students. , Under the cynical slogan of “Families First”, The BC Liberals are attacking teachers through slander and threats. In the process, they are aggravating the problems with BC’s public school system and hindering the students who depend upon it for their education. Bill 22 uses a “cooling off period” and sham “mediation” as tools in the Liberal’s ongoing union busting efforts. Violations of the imposed restrictions being placed on teachers’ right to strike will result in millions of dollars in fines, a clearly punitive action on the part of a government.

The Young Communist League supports the struggle of the BC Teachers’ Federation and the efforts of the BC Federation of Labour, local labour councils, and others to stand strong against this anti-democratic, anti-worker legislation. We also applaud the impressive and inspiring actions of BC high school students in staging walkouts and rallying to support high quality public education.

The alternative to high quality public education is private education. The spread of private schools would mean a two-tier education system. One tier of high quality education for those who can pay the high cost of tuition fees, and another insufficiently funded tier for the majority of British Columbians.

The BC Liberal government’s time in power has been disastrous for working people, youth, and students in this province. This is the government of big business carrying out the interests of the socio-economic class they represent.

The attack on unions and on public services is part of the broader offensive on working peoples’ working conditions and living standards aimed at saving the capitalist system its current crisis by making working people pay for a situation they did not create. Youth and students should fight to stop Bill 22, to defeat the Liberal government, and ultimately to replace the capitalist system with one in which working people themselves will set the priorities for our communities and teachers and students will be valued, not criminalized and demonized. We call that system socialism.

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Statement of the WPC about the attack of Israeli army in Hebron

IDF Soldier attacks school children in Hebron

The World Peace Council expresses its vehement protest and condemnation of the recent violent attack of the Israeli occupation army in the Palestinian City of Hebron. The brutal attack with chemical gas and rubber bullets against thousands of demontrators from Palestine and Israel took place during a protest commemorating the massacre committed by a Jewish extremist settler in 1994,during which 29 Palestinians were killed.

The demonstration demanded the re-opening of the Shuhada Street which is leading to Hebron's Mosque.

The WPC denounces the actions of the Israeli regime and its army and the arrest of six peace loving people, amongst them the chairman of the Front for Peace and Equality (Hadash),member of the Knesset Mohammed Barakeh from the Communist Party of Israel, who was also one of the injured.

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Letter from René González to his brother Roberto

Rene Gonzalez, victim of US imperialism

My Brother for life, 

I never thought I would have to write this letter. We share the same lack of enthusiasm for letter writing, a fact clearly demonstrated during our respective internationalist missions and - more conclusively - in the unique experience of the last 20 years. In other words, only conditions as extraordinary as the present ones induce me to write.

Under normal conditions, these things should said be face to face, and a lot of them wouldn't even need to be said at all. You have enough on your plate with this pitched battle against a disease that is trying to devour you, without on top of that having to face a human ailment that is much more lethal: hatred. The hatred that stops me from reciprocating all the efforts, with that well-deserved hug we Five would like to give you.

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