Tribute to Comrade Wilson Badonaza, Secretary General of Kilusang Mayo Uno

By Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle

As Chairperson of the International Coordinating Committee, I wish to express the deep sorrow and grief of the member-organizations of the International League of Peoples' Struggle in various countries and continents over tne passing away of the oustanding Filipino patriot, labor leader and internationalist Comrade Wilson Baldonaza, Secretary General of Kilusang Mayo Uno.

We convey wholehearted condolences to his beloved wife, Ka Lily, and all his relatives and to all his comrades and friends in the working class movement and in the struggle of the Filipino people for national liberation and democracy against foreign monopoly capitalism, domestic feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism.

Ka Wilson began the patriotic and progressive course of his life by joining a militant youth organization in the period when the Marcos regime was suppressing the mass movement and was preparing to impose a fascist dictatorship on the people. He persevered in the youth movement even as he subsequently worked as a security guard at the Manila Domestic Airport and then as a quality control employee at the Mabuhay Textile Mills.

Even under conditions of fascist repression, he was a conscientious and effective labor organizer and trainor. In 1985 he became vice-president and then president of the workers union at Mabuhay Textile Mills. He led successful strikes for workers’ rights. He eventually became the secretary-general of the Valenzuela chapter of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) from 1987 to 1990.

He served as an educator and a project evaluator at the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER). Then he decided to go back to full-time work in organizing workers’ unions under the Alliance of Nationalist and Genuine Labor Organizations (ANGLO), a KMU federation, and was elected as its president in 2002. In recognition of his high competence and long service to the working class, he was elected Secretary General of KMU at its 9th Congress in 2007.

Ka Wilson was firmly dedicated to the revolutionary cause of the proletariat and people for national and social liberation. In this regard, he always strived to do his best in arousing, organizing and mobilizing the toiling masses and the rest of the people. He aspired for the realization of the national democratic and socialist stages of the Philippine revolution.

Ka Wilson was a proletarian internationalist. He propagated the teachings and achievements of the international working class movement. He cherished every occasion to stand in unity with workers of other countries during the annual International Solidarity Affair and during his travels abroad. He had no greater ambition than to contribute all he could to the advancement of the historic mission of the working class to build socialism and ultimately do away with class exploitation and oppression.

Ka Wilson was in militant solidarity with the broad anti-imperialist and democratic struggle of the people of the world. He did substantial work for the International League of Peoples' Struggle. He was the coordinator of Commission No.5, which is concerned with the promotion of trade union and other democratic rights of the working class, the improvement of wage and living conditions against all forms of intensifying exploitation of labor and the destruction of working class organizations in their pursuit of the historic mission of fighting for social liberation.

We are sad that Ka Wilson has left us at the age of 57. But we celebrate the fact that he has lived an exemplary life of revolutionary commitment and arduous work. We are inspired by and learn from what he has accomplished.

Ka Wilson has left to us a legacy that enriches our lives and future generations. This strengthens us in our struggle for greater freedom, democracy, social justice, development and peace. Ka Wilson lives on in our hearts and minds and in our relentless struggle for national and social liberation.

Phils. is again Asia’s most dangerous country for workers; KMU welcomes int’l fact-finding mission on workers’ rights repression

from kilusangmayouno.org

Kilusang Mayo Uno, together with Anakpawis Partylist, stressed calls for the immediate stop of killings, harassments, and other violations of workers’ rights amid recent tagging of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that the Philippines is still Asia’s most dangerous place for workers.

The Philippines is listed by ITUC as the no. 1 country in Asia and the no. 3 in the world with the most number of trade unionists killed for the past year, and has always remained in the ITUC top listers for several years now.

“The ITUC findings is a validation of our accusations against the Arroyo regime’s murder and oppression of workers,” said KMU Chairperson Elmer Labog.

International investigation
“It is in this light that we welcome the fact-finding mission to be held by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in the country to investigate the political repressions against workers,” said Labog.

The ILO is set to have a high-level fact finding mission in the country after the Phil. government acceeded to pressures in conducting such a mission.

But KMU lambasted the Department of Labor and Employment and the Arroyo adminstration for initially opposing the ILO fact-finding mission and subsequently posturing as most supportive of it now, as it has never iniatiated any investigation against any case of killings or abductions.

Even ITUC Secretary General Guy Ryder said "The fact that certain countries, such as Colombia (1st), Guatemala (2nd) and the Philippines (3rd) appear year after year on the death list shows that the authorities are, at best, incapable of ensuring protection and in some cases are complicit with unscrupulous employers in the murders."

When KMU filed the ILO complaint in 2006, there were already 64 cases of trade-union killings under Arroyo’s presidency. Now the number has climbed to 91.

“We expect the ILO high-level mission to immediately push through and reflect the real state of repression imposed by the Arroyo government upon Filipino workers,” Labog said.

Killing us softly
“Aside from the more publicized violations of workers’ rights, we also hope that the mission will help highlight various violations of ILO conventions implemented here in the country. For the past years, we have faced various offensives that aim to wipe-out trade unionism itself, promote contractual and flexible labor as a standard rather than secured jobs, and paralyze all forms of resistance that workers can carry out to uphold their rights,” Labog added.

“Unionism has now been on the wane, as only 1.85 million (10.5%) workers are unionized today, down from 3.85 million (3.85%) since Arroyo assumed presidency.” Labog cited the data from the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights or CTUHR.

The ILO committee even noted: The violations of Freedom of Association in the Philippines severely impact the capacity for workers to freely organize, the form or join trade unions, to run elections, to certify unions, to negotiate collective agreements and to take up campaigns or seek legal redress for matters in dispute.
“Also, with the onslaught of massive retrenchments this year, we saw the real lack of job security, as contractualization and flexible labor measures have been implemented in massive scales,” Labog added.

“Killings and blatant brutalities against workers intensify as workers fight more for their basic rights in life and in the workplace.

Labog said they hope that the campaign against such interrelated forms of repression against workers will be brought to the international arena with the ILO high-level fact-finding mission.

“It will be a step forward in the long journey towards justice that has long been denied to the workers and rightfully deserved by them,” said Labog. ###

Small Batangas Town Frets as Canadian Firm Readies Gold Mining

By JANESS ANN J. ELLAO

Bulatlat

MANILA — Since 2003, a mining company has been conducting exploration work in the mountains of the coastal town of Lobo ^[1], in the southernmost part of Batangas province, about 143 kilometers south of Manila. Mindoro Resouces Limited Gold Philippines (MRL Gold), a 99-percent Canadian-owned and one-percent Filipino-owned company, sees so much potential for gold in the fourth-class municipality, known among local tourists for its white sand beaches ^[2].

So far, MRL Gold has explored 29,000 hectares of land encompassing several villages of Lobo; it is allowed to explore 10 percent of the town’s total land area, majority of which are mountainous and plains suitable for cultivation. The company has already drilled 173 holes for the exploration, each approximately one kilometer deep, in barangays (villages) Pulang Lupa and Kay Tanda to check for gold deposits.

Lobo is home to nearly 40,000 people, as well as to Mount Banoi, a watershed that provides potable water for the people of Batangas.

The mountains of Lobo, Batangas.
(Photo courtesy of Bukal)

For MRL Gold, Lobo promises to bring riches. For the townsfolk, however, the mining operation, which could begin anytime after the exploration phase is completed, could spell disaster. And they have barely two years to stop MRL Gold.

Several concerned groups like the Bukluran Para sa Inang Kalikasan (Bukal), an inter-organizational and multi-sectoral alliance of church people, professionals and people’s organizations, together with Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan), conducted a fact finding mission last February 21 and 22 to determine the possible impact of mining in the town.

According to their assessment, as soon as the actual mining operation in Lobo begins, potable water sourced from Mount Banoi would be contaminated as chemicals, such as mercury and lead, which are used in separating minerals from ore, would eventually mix with the water.

Residents and NGOs have started consultations against MRL Gold. Shown at center in bottom photo is Archbishop Ramon Arguelles of Batangas conferring with them.
(Photos courtesy of Bukal)

This contamination would bring sickness and possibly death to people, the advocates said. The contamination of water from Mount Banoi would also kill marine life in rivers and lakes in the area. There is a possibility that open-pit mining would leave Lobo’s land forever useless.

And the fact that MRL Gold has determined that gold deposits are scattered all over town bodes ill for many residents. “The mining company claims that the exploration phase took them six years because gold deposits are scattered all over Lobo,” said Ryan Damaso, campaign officer of Kalikasan and member of the fact finding team in Lobo during the recent Talakayan sa Kubo, a monthly discussion activity of the organization.

A challenge for anti-mining advocates in Lobo is the low awareness among the populace on the harmful impacts of mining. This was affirmed in the focus group discussions organized by Bukal and Kalikasan. Damaso quoted barangay officials as telling the team that “there are no sources of livelihood from both the mountains and the sea waters.”

Thus, the officials explained, residents gave their consent to the mining company to explore their land, believing that they have little to lose. Barangay officials said they hoped to gain benefits, such as employment opportunities, from the mining project.

Contributing to their decision to give consent to MRL Gold, according to local officials, is that the townsfolk’s sources of livelihood have been greatly affected since bugs began infesting the atis (sugar apple) and tamarind being produced and processed in the town. Local fisherfolk, meanwhile, complained of declining fish catch due to the entry of commercial ships fishing in municipal waters.

These are predicaments that MRL Gold exploited, Damaso said. “MRL Gold wants the local people to be indebted to them,” he said, adding that the company offered livelihood trainings and loans with no interest to the residents of Lobo. Some residents claimed their parish received P200,000 ($4,223 at the May 30, 2009 exchange rate of $1=P47.35) as “donation” from the mining company.

But there are those who are genuinely concerned about the dim future that awaits Lobo once the mining operation begins. The fact-finding team was informed that a group of farmers had filed a petition to stop the exploration activities of MRL Gold. They were, however, summoned to the municipal hall and were told that what they did was illegal, Damaso said, quoting the residents. Scared, the farmers retracted their sworn affidavits. They also sent a letter of apology to the municipal government explaining that they had not thought carefully of the consequences of the petition.

Members of a recent fact-finding mission collecting water samples from water coming down from Mount Banoi. (Photo courtesy of Bukal)

MRL Gold still has two years before the exploration license will expire. It may not be much time but concerned residents and organizations are determined to continue their campaign against mining. In the last day of the fact-finding mission, Bukal and Kalikasan had the opportunity to talk with Batangas Governor Vilma Santos-Recto. Damaso said that Recto asked for a copy of the results of the mission, saying that she does not yet know what to do and where to begin.

The entry of a foreign-owned mining company into Lobo is a result of the Philippine government’s campaign to open up mining, often disregarding local concerns and opposition.

The Philippines, like all the countries located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, has abundant gold deposits. Various studies prove that frequent earthquakes that cause seismic activities of colliding and moving tectonic plates and active volcanoes that generate fast chemical reactions are essential to producing valuable minerals, making the Philippines a good place to invest for the mining industry.

The mining industry in the Philippines boomed from 1974 to the 1980’s. But the increasing cost of production has led to the decreasing demand for gold in the world market. This also caused a shift from the practice of underground or tunnel mining to open pit mining, a method that involves the blasting and flattening of mountaintops to extract gold. It is a method that resident sof Lobo are afraid might happen to their town.

The Philippine government, under former president Fidel V. Ramos, passed the Philippine Mining Act of 1995 to further revive the mining industry in the country. Next to agriculture, the mining industry is considered as the second most important industry in the country. But the booming industry has also perpetuated the lack of information regarding the harmful effects of mining activities among the various stakeholders surrounding the area. (Bulatlat.com) ^[3]

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Article printed from Bulatlat: http://www.bulatlat.com/main

URL to article: http://www.bulatlat.com/main/2009/05/30/small-batangas-town-frets-as-canadian-firm-readies-gold-mining/

URLs in this post:

[1] Lobo: http://wikimapia.org/1698527/Lobo-Batangas

[2] white sand beaches: http://www.waypoints.ph/detail_gen.html?wpt=lobo

[3] (Bulatlat.com): http://www.bulatlat.com/

In honor of Crispin "Ka Bel" Beltran on his first death anniversary

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, International League of Peoples' Struggle

The ILPS wholeheartedly participates in honoring Crispin “Ka Bel” Beltran as a great leader of the toiling masses, sincere and patriotic servant of the people, on the occasion of the commemoration of his first death anniversary.

The member organizations of the ILPS join in the commemoration at Ka Bel's tomb at AMMAN Park, in the parade to Manila, in the program at Plaza Miranda, in the fun run and photo exhibit, cultural presentation and other activities of various organizations until May 28.

We are happy that Ka Bel is being honored by the city of Manila with a marker at Plaza Miranda and the declaration of May 20 as Crispin Beltran Day. We hope that before his second death anniversary the book in his honor shall have been published and the building in his name and memory shall have been built in Quezon city.

The ILPS takes pride in having had Ka Bel as first chairperson. During his term, he pursued the anti-imperialist and democratic line of the people of the world against monopoly capitalism and all reaction. He had long and rich experience in the struggle of the toiling masses nationally and internationally.

Ka Bel had always been firm in his objective to free the toiling masses from oppression and exploitation. He devoted his mind and skills to advance this objective. He wished passionately that under the leadership of the working class national freedom, democracy and socialism would be achieved.

Let us always cherish and propagate Ka Bel's exemplary life, spirit and deeds as a priceless legacy to inspire and guide the current and succeeding generations. Let us ensure every year and every day ways of preserving and enhancing Ka Bel's legacy through study and action.

Ka Bel has broad relevance and influence. This is widespread among the impoverished classes. This extends to the middle social strata. Even among the enlightened sections and elements of the upper classes. All recognize him as a sincere and true defender of the rights and interests of the toiling masses and as a firm and heroic servant of the people.

He suffered vilification, threats to life, imprisonment and other tribulations and difficulties in the course of fierce of struggles during and after the Marcos fascist dictatorship. But these tempered and steeled him even more as a servant of the proletariat and the entire people. He proved so many times that he was not afraid of the oppressive and exploiting classes and their underlings.

He escaped from imprisonment during the time of the fascist dictatorship and he joined the armed struggle of the people in the countryside. He returned to the labor movement after the fall of Marcos. He was also with me in establishing the People's Party in 1986. With full courage, he led the KMU after the kidnapping, torture and murder of Rolando Olalia and his driver. Everyone admires Ka Bel because of his courageous and conscientious service to the people and his simple style of living until the end of his life.

He was an outstanding fighter for the rights and interests of the working class and the people. In the trade union movement, he became the union president of the taxi drivers and eventually the chairman of the largest Philippine labor center, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (May First Movement). He was in the forefront of strikes and other concerted activities of the working class as well as in the protest mass actions on vital issues in the so-called parliament of the streets.

He excelled as a member of Congress by pushing measures to uphold, defend and promote the rights and welfare of the toiling masses and by exposing the acts of treason, human rights violations and corruption of the Arroyo ruling clique. Thus, respected institutions accorded to him awards and honors. He received the award, Congressman of the Year for three consecutive years (2003-2004-2005) and thus became installed in the Hall of Fame. He was honored as the Filipino of the Year by the Free Press in 2005.

Not only in the Philippines but in the whole world, the people know the record of struggles, sacrifices and achievements of Ka Bel. Written in history are his contributions to the struggle of the working class to achieve a new and better world of greater freedom, democracy, social justice, progress and peace.

Long live the memory and legacy of Ka Bel!

Advance the new democratic revolution of the Filipino people!

Long live the anti-imperialist solidarity of humankind!

Tasks and prospects of workers of the world amid global financial and economic crisis

Speech to the 25th International Solidarity Affair

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, ILPS International Coordinating Committee

On behalf of the International Coordinating Coordinating Committee and member-organizations of the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS), I convey warmest greetings of solidarity to the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) and to all the delegations to the 25th KMU International Solidarity Affair (ISA).

We salute and congratulate the KMU for successfully holding the ISA every year since 1984 by gathering workers, trade unions, labor rights advocates, friends and supporters of the working class in Asia and the Pacific, Africa, Europe, North and Latin America.

We appreciate the institutionalization of the ISA as as a venue for exchanging experiences and ideas and for developing cooperation and mutual support in campaigns for decent wages and labor rights against the exploitative and oppressive policies of monopoly capitalism and its agencies, like the IMF, World Bank and WTO.

We commend the KMU for having established the ISA under the harsh conditions of the US-directed Marcos fascist dictatorship. Precisely because of such conditions, the KMU organized the ISA in order to gather support from the workers of the world for the KMU and Filipino workers that the fascist regime was subjecting to the worst barbarities. But over the years the ISA has become a means of developing well-rounded international solidarity and cooperation among the workers of the world.

We join you in celebrating the 25 years of ISA and all the efforts of KMU and its partners in other countries in upholding, defending and promoting international solidarity of the workers for their rights and interests against imperialism and all reaction. It is fitting and proper that the theme for this year's affair is the fighting slogan: Resist Imperialist Crisis, Plunder and War."

I am pleased and honored to be able to contribute today to the development of the theme by discussing the topic assigned to me: the tasks and prospects of the workers of the world amidst the global financial and economic crisis. I am grateful that one speaker is assigned to dissect the global financial and economic crisis and another to present the intensifying militarism, fascism and war engendered by imperialism. I presume that their presentations lay the basis for my topic.

Need for a Revolutionary Party of the Working Class

Let me start my presentation by agreeing with the view that the essential task of raising the level of the international labor movement consists of advancing from making economic demands and protesting imperialist plunder and war to confronting the No.1 imperialist and terrorist power and developing unity, cooperation and coordination among the workers of the world in exposing and opposing imperialism.

An important requisite for such advance is to build a broad anti-imperialist united front of trade unions that oppose monopoly capitalism as the common enemy of the proletariat and all the oppressed peoples and nations. In this regard, you must foster common understanding and practical cooperation among trade unions around the world in order to intensify the campaigns against imperialist plunder and war and to strengthen the anti-imperialist movements in our respective countries and globally.

It is of great importance and urgent necessity that ISA serves as an instrument for developing the anti-imperialist position, carrying forward the victories in the international workers' movement against imperialism, fortifying the resolve to resist the chronic and worsening crisis of the world capitalist system and fostering the revolutionary aspirations of the working class for socialism.

I understand that, In keeping with the character of the KMU as a labor center and the ISA as a gathering of trade unionists, you do not spell out and dwell on the need for a revolutionary party of the proletariat and the task of building it. Let me have the honor and privilege of discussing these matters, relating the trade union movement to the party of the working class but without suggesting any change in the nonparty or mass character of the KMU and ISA.

From being a class in itself that arises from the need of the bourgeoisie to purchase and exploit labor power in industrial production, the working class becomes class conscious and coheres as a class for itself: at first in struggles for better wage and living conditions through the trade union movement and eventually in struggles for the conquest of political power through the revolutionary party of the proletariat. Such a party is needed to lead the trade union movement and other anti-imperialist mass movements in realizing the historic mission of the working class to build socialism and defeat imperialism and ultimately to bring humankind to the threshold of communism.

The revolutionary party of the proletariat is needed to struggle for such immediate demands as full employment, decent wages, social security, health protection and trade union rights, expose and oppose the root causes of poverty, racism, chauvinism, repression, aggression and environmental degradation and improve the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental conditions of the working class and the broad masses of the people in the direction of revolutionary change for socialism. The trade union movement weakens and the conditions of the working class deteriorate when the revolutionary party of the proletariat weakens, is coopted by the bourgeoisie or does not exist at all.

When we speak of the revolutionary party of the proletariat, we mean a party that truly belongs to the working class as the most productive and most progressive political force and aims for the realization of the historic mission of the working class to build socialism. It is a party that rejects confinement within the capitalist system as a permanent condition. It is determined to replace capitalism with socialism, to make the radical rupture with the exploitative tradition of private ownership of the means of production, to defeat monopoly capitalism and bring humankind to the threshold of a world without any exploiting class.

Definitely, we do not need a bourgeois laborite party, a social democratic party, a revisionist "communist" party nor any other brand of party that seeks to perpetuate the capitalist system and serves the narrow interests of imperialism and reaction. Neither do we need any party that proclaims itself the revolutionary party of the proletariat but does not arouse, organize and mobilize the workers and other toiling people for the fundamental social transformation. We need a party of the working class that leads the broad masses of the people in the new democratic revolution with a socialist perspective in certain countries and the socialist revolution in other countries.

Together with the rest of the people, the working class and its revolutionary party must carry out the new democratic revolution in countries, which are in dire need of national liberation and democracy and of national industrialization and land reform. In the industrial capitalist countries, they must pursue the line of socialist revolution and be ready to fight for democracy against the use of chauvinism, racism, fascism and imperialist war by the monopoly bourgeoisie to suppress and derail the revolutionary movement for socialism.

The revolutionary party of the proletariat is an indispensable instrument for waging the people's struggles for immediate basic social reforms and for the long-term goal of building socialism. It concentrates the revolutionary ideas and political will of the working class as the leading class and charts the strategy and tactics for defeating the imperialists and reactionaries and for establishing the worker state or the worker-peasant state, as the circumstances require. It is not enough to have trade unions and other forms of mass organizations that amount to mere pressure groups within the confines of the exploitative ruling system.

In recent decades the monopoly bourgeoisie and the imperialist powers headed by the US have been successful in their anti-communist crusade and class struggle against socialism and the working class because of the emergence and growth of modern revisionism within the ruling communist and workers' parties, since the late 1950s in the case of the Soviet Union and since the late 1970s in the case of China. Together with other anti-worker currents, modern revisionism has resulted in the restoration of capitalism in socialist countries and has undermined and derailed the international working class movement for socialism.

Gladdened by the revisionist betrayal of socialism and the peaceful restoration of capitalism in socialist countries, the US and its imperialist allies have been emboldened to adopt since 1979 and thereabouts what has come to be known as the policy of "neoliberal globalization". They have decked out this policy as a solution to the problem of stagflation which they claim results from the stifling of the free market by state intervention and working class demands. They have used the policy to unleash an ideological, political and socio-economic counteroffensive against the working class and the socialist cause.

They have obfuscated the extraction of surplus value and the maximization of private profit as the cause of the crisis of overproduction and the overaccumulation of capital in the hands of the monopoly bourgeoisie. Instead, they have put the blame on the working class for supposedly jacking up wage levels and social spending by government as the cause of stagflation and they have interpreted the capitalist restoration and economic decline in the revisionist-ruled states as the invalidation of socialism and the justification for the "free market" within every country and on a global scale.

Under the policy of "neoliberal globalization", the imperialists and the reactionaries throughout the world have carried out a vicious class struggle against the working class. By various means within their power, they have pushed down the wage levels and cut back on government social spending. They have curtailed the trade union and other democratic rights of the workers. They have used the brute force of the state to suppress strikes and other concerted actions of the workers. They have also used the schools, the mass media, churches, think tanks and other weapons of mass deception to propagate the dogma of the "free market", to discredit the socialist cause and the working class movement and to undermine the class consciousness of the workers themselves..

They have accelerated the concentration of both productive and finance capital in the hands of the monopoly bourgeoisie and have in the process inflicted the most intolerable forms of exploitation and oppression on the working people. But they have repeatedly outwitted themselves by pressing down the incomes of the working people and thus causing the crisis of overproduction. They have further outwitted themselves by generating ever bigger financial bubbles one after another under the illusion that the unbridled creation of fictitious capital can counter the tendency of the profit rate to fall upon the expansion of capitalist commodity production.

Right now, they cannot solve the crisis because they are obsessed with their neoliberal bias and know no bounds for bailing out the finance oligarchy and for imposing further financial burdens on the working people. They miss out on the need to undertake measures to stimulate demand and production by providing temporary jobs and other forms of relief to the working people on a timely and adequate basis.

We are in the situation of the worst global financial and economic crisis since the Great Depression. In fact, we are already in a global state of depression and are moving towards the Greater Depression. The working class and the broad masses of the people are faced with the challenges of understanding the history and current severity of the crisis, carrying out protests against the imperialists and reactionaries and making demands for countering the crisis, adopting relief measures and reforms and, in the course of all these, aiming for the lasting solutions through revolutionary mass movement and social revolution.

The Task of Building the Revolutionary Party of the Working Class

The international workers movement and the international communist movement have weakened as a result of the growth of modern revisionism and the eventual full restoration of capitalism in the revisionist-ruled countries and the ruthless assaults on the democratic rights, wage levels and social benefits of the workers by the imperialist states and the monopoly bourgeoisie under the policy of "neoliberal globalization" and the slogan of "free market".

Trade unions have weakened or dissolved as a result of the ruthless class war waged against the working class by the monopoly bourgeoisie in combination with the labor aristocracy, the reformists and the revisionists. Communist and workers parties afflicted by modern revisionism lost membership and political following, every time that they moved further to the Right. Since the 1989-91 period when the revisionist regimes disintegrated and the Soviet Union collapsed, the revisionist parties have either dissolved themselves or moved further to the Right and constituted themselves as "left social democratic" or neorevisionist parties.

The World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) was once the largest international labor center even after the formation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and also even after the splits related to the Sino-Soviet ideological debate (i.e. between Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism). But it has declined drastically since the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc regimes. Many of its constituent unions have gone over to its former Cold War rival, the ICFTU. The WFTU still maintains a structure of several trade union internationals along defined industrial lines but focuses now on organizing regional federations of unions in the third world.

At the moment, there is neither a socialist state nor any communist or workers' party that serves as the widely accepted and effective rallying point for either the international communist movement or the international workers' movement. However, there are communist or workers parties related to various traditions and currents traceable to the ideological debates in the international communist movement since the 1960s around the issue of Marxism-Leninism and modern revisionism. Such parties belong to various groupings that hold periodic conferences or seminars which adopt resolutions on various issues by consensus.

There is nothing like the Third Communist International, with the Bolshevik party as the most respected party and with congresses and an executive committee that made decisions to guide or direct communist and workers parties on a global scale. Since the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943, the principles of equality, independence, consensus, cooperation and mutual support have at best guided the relations among communist and workers' parties. Such principles have been underscored among parties that have opposed the line of modern revisionism spread by the Soviet party since 1956.

As of now, it may be said that there is an international communist movement insofar as there are communist and workers' parties that are engaged in revolutionary struggle in their respective countries under the guidance of Marxism-Leninism and in accordance with the concrete analysis of concrete conditions, that consider their efforts and accomplishments as contributions to the advance of the world proletarian revolution and that are ever willing to engage in common undertakings with comradely parties abroad in order to fight and defeat imperialism and all reaction.

The main task of the proletarian revolutionaries in every country is to build the revolutionary party of the working class. The parties that arise in various countries are the building blocks of the international communist movement. This movement shall rise to a new and higher level of development as a result of victories in the revolutionary struggle in various countries. Holding international conferences, seminars and forums among parties in order to exchange experiences and ideas, develop common understanding, make resolutions by consensus and agree on practical cooperation takes a secondary position to the revolutionary struggles of the communist parties in their respective countries.

The first among the tasks in building the revolutionary party of the working class is ideological building. Without a revolutionary theory, there can be no revolutionary movement and there can be no revolutionary party leading it. The theory of Marxism-Leninism is the accumulation of ideas and experiences of the international workers' and communist movement. It is the highest level so far achieved in developing the revolutionary consciousness of the working class. There is an element of modesty in calling Marxism-Leninism a theory because it is in fact a science that has revealed the laws of motion in capitalism and socialism and has repeatedly guided successful revolutionary practice.

The purpose of studying Marxism-Leninism in the course of ideological building is to apply the theory in understanding the history and current social circumstances and in carrying out revolution by the working class and the rest of the people. The theory encompasses the philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism, the political economy of capitalism and socialism, the role of classes in state and revolution, the strategy and tactics of the revolution and the history of the international communist movement.

It is not enough though to have a few party cadres and members with a high level of revolutionary consciousness and theoretical knowledge. The working class party needs to become a political force, capable of leading the broad masses of the people and gaining their participation and support in waging various forms of struggle and eventually in taking political power, which is indispensable for effecting social revolution. In this regard, it is necessary for the working class party to undertake social investigation and class analysis in order to grasp the basic character of society and to draw and carry out the corresponding general political line for waging the revolution.

Let us consider three clearly defined types of societies. If the society is semicolonial and semifeudal, the general line of the new democratic revolution needs to be carried out. If the society is industrial capitalist, the general line of socialist revolution needs to be carried out. If the society is already socialist, the general line is to carry out socialist revolution and construction for a whole historical epoch and continue the revolution under proletarian dictatorship in order to combat revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate socialism.

In building the working class party politically, it is necessary to take the mass line, which is to learn from the masses what are their conditions, needs and demands and to rely on them and trust them in mustering their own strength and undertaking the actions for achieving basic social reforms and social revolution. The cadres and members of the party must maintain intimate relations with the masses and must work resolutely and militantly to arouse, organize and mobilize them.

The party must build the trade unions and other mass organizations of the working people, women, youth, the professionals and other sectors of society. It must generate the mass movement through political campaigns on the most urgent as well as long term social issues. It must engage in alliances in order to amplify the strength and influence of the progressive forces and isolate and defeat the enemy of the people at every given time. In waging legal forms of struggle, the party can develop forms of self-defense against state violence. In resisting extreme oppression or a war of aggression, the party can build a people's army as well as organs of political power for the purpose of social revolution.

To be able to carry out its gigantic political tasks, the working class party must build its own organizational strength. It is guided by the principle of democratic centralism. Democratic discussions are freely undertaken in the organizations and organs of the party. Decisions are made either by majority vote or consensus. The decision of a higher organ prevails over that of the lower organ because of the representation of a bigger number of party members and because of the need to concentrate and unify the will of the party for the purpose of social revolution.

The party needs to maintain and develop its working class character. It must recruit members mainly from the working class and require all recruits from the working people and the intelligentsia to take the stand, viewpoint and method of the working class, to cast away the anti-worker and anti-socialist influences of the bourgeoisie and adhere to the principles, line and policies of the party. The party must be deeply rooted among the masses, draw its members from the ranks of militants in the mass movement and must expand and deepen its organization on a nationwide scale.

Prospects of the International Working Class Movement

Since the imposition of The policy of "neoliberal globalization", the current grave crisis of the world capitalist system has been in the making for three decades through the recurrence and cumulative aggravation of the crisis of overproduction and overaccumulation of capital in the hands of the finance oligarchy in the US and other imperialist countries. The greed and violence of the monopoly bourgeoisie prevent the solution of the crisis in the short term or in the middle term.

The crisis will worsen and deepen for a long while. It is causing multipolarization of the imperialist powers and the intensification of the struggle for a redivision of the world. The intensification of economic competition and political rivalry among the imperialist powers will cause more social and political turmoil. It portends more imperialist wars of aggression despite all the current hype by the leaders of the imperialist countries to unite in solving the crisis in a peaceful and nonprotectionist way.

The crisis escalates the exploitation and oppression of the proletariat and people of the world. Thus, social discontent and unrest is spreading and intensifying. Their suffering impel the broad masses of the people to fight back. The crisis makes the conditions favorable for the upsurge of the revolutionary mass movement against imperialism and all reaction and for national liberation, democracy and socialism.

The prolonged duration and worsening of the crisis provide the progressive forces of the proletariat and people of the world the time and opportunity to arise and strengthen themselves ideologically, politically and organizationally. The progressive legal mass movements will certainly flourish on a global scale. The armed revolutionary movements will grow in strength where they already exist. They are bound to break out in more countries and in more global regions as the imperialists and the reactionaries become more rapacious and more violent than ever before.

The international workers' movement will certainly gain strength as the workers in both developed and underdeveloped countries fight for their rights and interests as a class and combine with the rest of the people in fighting for the common good against monopoly capitalism. They will raise high the banner of proletarian internationalism as they increase common understanding, international cooperation and mutual support and as they struggle against the monopoly bourgeoisie, the labor aristocracy and the currents of opportunism, reformism and revisionism.

The broad anti-imperialist movement of the people of the world will make great advances. The achievements already made by anti-imperialist and democratic formations like the International League of Peoples' Struggle (ILPS) will become greater. Like the ISA, the ILPS is a nonparty or mass formation but certainly it recognizes the important role of the revolutionary parties of the proletariat. The anti-imperialist organizations and movements of the people will grow within particular countries and at the international level. The ILPS is prepared to strengthen its own forces as well to have broad alliance and cooperation with other forces.

Within a particular country, the progressive workers movement can become strong only when the revolutionary party of the working class leads the proletariat and the people. Such a party can become strong only if it bases itself on the strength of the progressive trade union movement and other mass movements. Also within a country, the broad anti-imperialist movement can become strong only when the revolutionary party of the working class leads the broad masses of the people. Such a party can become strong only if it is based on the broad anti-imperialist movement of the people.

The international movement of trade unions can become strong only if there is a strong international movement of communist and workers' parties. The international communist movement can become strong only if it is based on a strong international workers' movement. The broad anti-imperialist movement can become strong worldwide only if there is a strong international communist movement. Such an international movement of communist and workers' parties can become strong only if it is based on a strong anti-imperialist movement of people's organizations on a global scale.

The international communist movement will definitely become far stronger than now if once more a country of strategic importance or several countries would become socialist though revolutions led by communist and workers' parties. Before then the communist and workers parties can comprise the international communist movement only as they study the theory of Marxism-Leninism and apply this in their respective countries and as they develop common understanding and practical relations with other revolutionary parties of the proletariat in accordance with the principles of equality, independence, cooperation and mutual support.

Workers of all countries, unite!

Long live the International Solidarity Affair!

Down with imperialism and all reaction!

Fight for national liberation, democracy and socialism!

Long live proletarian internationalism!

The Black Book on Canadian Foreign Policy - Book Launch

The Toronto Haiti Action Committee,
Students in Solidarity with Haiti,
Venezuela We are With You and
Latin American Solidarity Present:

CANADA VERSUS LATIN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: FROM JACOBINS TO SALVADOR ALLENDE, HUGO CHAVEZ AND JEAN BERTRAND ARISTIDE

When: Thursday, May 7, 7pm
Where: Bahen Centre (40 St. George Street at University of Toronto) Room 1130

Presentation and book signing with author Yves Engler
Introductory Remarks by Rick Salutin

Yves Engler's The Black Book on Canadian Foreign Policy is the first serious critical overview of Canadian foreign policy and will challenge popular mythology of Canada as the peacekeeper and honest broker on the world stage.

Early Reviews:

We bear responsibility for what governments do in the world, primarily our own, but secondarily those we can influence, our allies in particular. Yves Engler's penetrating inquiry yields a rich trove of valuable evidence about Canada's role in the world, and poses a challenge for citizens who are willing to take their fundamental responsibilities seriously. - Noam Chomsky

Engler has done for Canadian foreign policy what I tried to do for United States foreign policy in my book "Killing Hope" -- cover each region of the world, showing how "peaceful, benevolent, altruistic Canada" has, on numerous occasions, served as an integral part of Western imperialism, particularly the American version, helping to keep the Third World down and in its place. From Vietnam to Haiti, Canada has served the political and economic demands of US foreign policy and the multinational corporations. The picture that emerges is not the image of Canada the world has long admired. - William Blum

Yves Engler is a Montreal area activist, author and independent journalist. He is the author of two previous books: Canada in Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority (with Anthony Fenton) and Playing Left Wing: From Rink Rat to Student Radical.

Rick Salutin is an award winning Canadian novelist, playwright, critic and widely read columnist for the Globe and Mail.

For More Information Contat THAC at 416-731-2325 or SSH at 647-408-2654 or CVEC (venenzuelawearewithyou.blogspot.com) at cvec-tor@yahoogroups.com or LASN at ctorchiato@aol.com

KMU enraged over Malacañang’s no wage hike pronouncement for May 1

urges solons to deliberate on wage increase, financial assistance for displaced, instead of ChaCha

KMU expressed strong indignation to Malacañang’s advance Labor Day message that promises no wage hike for workers, reasoning out that “job security and job generation is its top priority.”

“Arroyo intends to force into our brains the logic that wage increase and job security are contradictory interests, and one cannot possibly be achieved together with the other – the same propaganda that big businesses have been continuously claiming. But we urge the public to never ever buy such an unreasonable argument, for big capitalists actually reap more profits by purposefully laying off workers and cutting wages at the same time, using the global crisis as a fast excuse,” said Elmer Labog, KMU Chairperson.

“Substantial wage hikes are more justified and necessary especially now in the time of the crisis because we need to cope up with spiraling costs of commodities and worsening living conditions.

“To give up the fight for a wage hike means to succumb to the dictates of the big capitalists, and to surrender the fight of the workers for a more decent life, which KMU will never stop pursuing. It is sad that phony labor unions such as the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines mouth the same arguments of the government and the big business against wage hikes, betraying the cause of the workers they dare pretend to represent,” Labog said.

KMU is now also seeking talks with small and medium Filipino businessmen to discuss possible arrangements for the P125 wage hike. “It is the greedy big businessmen who mouth wage cuts and other flexible labor schemes, while some SMEs are actually open to wage hikes.”

Labog also slammed Malacañang’s statement that if there should be wage increases, these should come from collective bargaining processes between workers and their employers. “Unions have been driven to near extinction by collaborative policies of the government and big business that now, only 6 percent of the country’s labor force is unionized. And among the unions, there is also a widespread case of CBA deadlocks or wage freezes in CBA negotiations as capitalists also use the global crisis as an excuse not to enforce any wage hike,” Labog added.

KMU and the Anakpawis Partylist led a piket rally at the House of Representatives today to urge solons to deliberate on the much needed wage hike and financial assistance for displaced workers, instead of the Arroyo-backed Charter Change.

Anakpawis Partylist Representative Rafael Mariano is expected to deliver a speech today on the people’s Labor Day demands.

“Instead of railroading the Arroyo-backed ChaCHa, our lawmakers should instead deliberate on the much needed wage hikes and financial assistance for displaced workers,” Labog said.