April 21, 6:00pm – Holy Rosary Parish Hall, St. Clair West (just east of Bathurst Street)

We are inviting you to the upcoming 4th year CORDILLERA DAY celebration in Toronto, Canada on APRIL 21, 2012 from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm at the HOLY ROSARY Parish Hall on St. Clair West (just east of Bathurst St.). Our theme for this year is INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, UNITE! DEFEND OUR LIFE, RIGHTS and LIVELIHOOD.

Binnadang-Migrante is a newly-formed organization in Canada of indigenous migrants from the Cordillera in Northern Philippines, advocating for the assertion of rights as migrants and actively engaged in the struggle of the indigenous peoples in the Cordillera for self determination and the Filipino people’s struggle for genuine freedom and democracy.

Committed to these principles, Binnadang has adopted and spearheaded the annual celebration of Cordillera Day here in Toronto since last year. Cordillera Day has been celebrated every year on the 24th of April for 28 years since the assassination of Maclling Dulag, a respected pangat (tribal chieftain) who bravely opposed the World Bank-supported Chico Dam Project of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. This intensified the struggle of the Kalinga and Bontoc tribe for the defense of their land and resources. Cordillera day is at once a commemoration of the historical struggle of the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera for the defense of their ancestral domain and their right to self determination, as it is an occasion to strengthen the unity among the different indigenous groups of the Cordillera and build solidarity with other indigenous peoples, sectors and other nationalities for social justice, freedom and democracy.

In this regard, we look forward to your active participation in the form of cultural presentations and/or solidarity messages related to our theme to make this event meaningful and successful.

Please send solidarity message and confirmation of your presentations on or before April 10, 2012 for program preparation.

For inquiries and confirmation, please call any of the following:

Jenny Owatan:416-877-5725; Bridge Cosme Dang-ay:647-740-4175; Geralda Cobsilen: 647-898-7531; Marivic Kalagui:647-894-1270; Anabelle :416-275-7164 and Nellie Kablay 705-984-6536

Get on the bus from Toronto! Support the Walk for Peace, Respect, and Friendship.

April 28, meet at Keele Station, 12:15pm. Reserve your spot today at http://april28coalition.wordpress.com/.

At 2 PM on Saturday, April 28, 2012 the Six Nations [Haudenosaunee] people of the Grand River territory and their allies will be holding a walk and rally for “Peace, Respect and Friendship.” The main focus of the event is to remind the Canadian people and the Canadian government that Six Nations land rights and treaties need to be respected.

Whether native or non-native, all of us residing within Canada are treaty people. We have both a moral and a legal imperative to uphold the nation-to-nation agreements made on our behalf by the British Crown and Canadian government with indigenous peoples. It was treaties such as the Two-Row Wampum which gave us as non-indigenous people the right to settle in what is now called Canada, and as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms affirms, these treaties are still in force and they must be honored and upheld.

Six years after the land reclamation began at the former Douglas Creek Estates, the time has come to stand together and respect the words of our ancestors, to call for our treaties with Six Nations people to be honoured, and to bring together our communities and allies to celebrate the principles of Peace, Friendship and Respect under the agreements that our peoples made together – the Two-Row Wampum, the Silver Covenant Chain, and the Haldimand Proclamation of 1784.

At 2pm on April 28th, 2012, we will be gathering at Edinburgh Square, a Haudenosaunee park across from the Caledonia Fairgrounds in the Township of Caledonia and then we will peacefully walk down Argyle St. to the site known as Kanonhstaton. At the site there will be a potluck, live music, games, activities and discussions to which all people – from Six Nations, Caledonia, and all other communities – are invited to attend.

Organizers will also be hosting two events leading up to the walk and gathering. The
events welcome all community members who wish to talk about the walk and gathering;
ask questions about the reasons behind the event; or just want to meet organizers. There
will be a BBQ in Kinsmen Park on Saturday April 7th at 1pm. There will also be a
information and Q&A night at the Caledonia Public Library on April 19th at 6pm. All are
welcome.

Phone: 905-481-0072| Email: [email protected] |Website: www.april28coalition.wordpress.com
|Twitter: @kanonhstaton|Facebook: Kanonhstaton Six Nations |Youtube: Youtube.com/kanonhstaton

http://april28coalition.wordpress.com/

Unite the struggles of the people on International Workers’ Day for an

Anti-Capitalist May Day!

Nathan Phillips Square – Toronto City Hall

Rally and Food – 4pm

March – 5pm

Cultural Festival – 7pm

*The richest 10 people in Toronto earn almost 3.5 times the annual income of all people earning minimum wage in Canada*

All over the world on May 1, millions of people fill the streets to advance the struggles and issues of the working class.

On May 1, 2012 in Toronto, we need to also be out in the streets – not as a parade, but as a call to people across the city and across the country. A call to action against the governments of the bankers and the rich who are imposing “austerity” on the people.  After decades of spending billions on wars, prisons, police, tax cuts and tax breaks for the rich, subsidies, oil and mining companies and other corporations, they tell us there is an ‘economic crisis’ that justifies their layoffs, wage freezes and reductions, cuts to social programs and higher and more fees for what we need.

This is capitalism: their system is the crisis!

This is a call to unity against the nationalism, racism, anti-immigrant sentiments, sexism, homophobia, and any other hatred their media creates to keep us divided while the rich continue to line their pockets.

Since its founding, Canada has been stealing and plundering First Nations lands, minerals and resources and now launches imperialist wars around the world to plunder other people’s resources.  The land rights of First Nations and those of other people fighting for their rights and freedom should be everyone’s fight.  The right to work and dignity for those who come as immigrants and migrants need to be the fight of all of us who came as or descend from immigrants.

This is a call to reject the rampant consumerism and the social decay, climate chaos and environmental destruction imposed by this system.  We don’t want the “growth” that capitalism has to offer.

We want a truly democratic and just society that meets the social needs of all people. Capitalism can’t do this.

So May Day is a call to all those coming under attack, to the sick and tired, the exploited and oppressed.

A call to all unionized workers whose rights and wages were the result of years of struggle, not from supporting this or that party or by back-room negotiations. Remember your role in this society, reclaim the proud history of militant labour.

A call to precarious workers with little job security and no benefits.

A call to the students struggling to find jobs and tied down to tens of thousands in debt.

A call to all the working class women who have to work multiple minimum wage part-time jobs to feed a family.

A call to the racialized youth, targeted and brutalized by police and under attack from policies aimed at stuffing their bodies into new prisons.

A call to the migrant mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, who left their homes in for the empty promise of a better life.

A call to the indigenous peoples defending their land rights against Canadian colonialism, and a call to all non-indigenous peoples struggles to unite with them.

On May 1, 2012, International Workers Day, join us at 4pm at Nathan Phillips Square for a rally and march to respect Indigenous sovereignty, insist that no one is illegal, for international workers solidarity, to defend and expand public services, to stop prison expansion…and corporate handouts, to end imperialist wars and aggression, to build people’s power, and to move beyond capitalism.

Rally with the May 1st Movement contingent!

Rally with the red flags!

by Alex Felipe – Issue #27 (Dec 2011 / Jan 2012)

**This article was first written up as a facebook response to the following Coke ad that went viral, “Coca-Cola Where Will Happiness Strike Next: The OFW Project”

Coca-cola has just released an incredibly powerful, emotionally-gripping, viral ad targeting the Filipino community worldwide—and I hate it.

It is a fantastic piece of marketing propaganda.  It has a strong emotional pull, high production value, and connects the product to family, struggle, and how hardship can be overcome by simple things, like a Coca-Cola.

ILPS condemns TPPA as US scheme to further control Trans-Pacific trade – Statement

By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle

The International League of Peoples’ Struggle resolutely condemns the drive of the US government and its monopoly capitalists to realize the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) as a scheme to impose their power over trade and investment flows. This would aggravate the exploitation of the working people and the environment as a way of raising superprofits and seeking to cope with the grave economic, social and economic crisis.

The TPPA was initiated by the Bush regime. Since March 2010, negotiations have been proceeded, with the objective of creating a a legally-binding free trade agreement for the Asia-Pacific region. Right now, the TPPA talks involve nine countries – the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Peru, Chile, Viet Nam, Malaysia and Singapore. Japan is poised to join. The USA has free trade agreements (FTAs) with four of the nine countries.

The TPPA is conceived of as an economic dimension of the growing US confrontation with China. This is a confrontation which is a growing danger to world peace. Peoples’ organizations in the nine countries covered by the TPPA have therefore agreed to expose and oppose the callous and unjust demands of the US corporations and the US Trade Representative regarding the TPPA.

At first, the talks on the TPPA advanced when the US delegation put forward specific text, revealing that the entire TPPA process is US-driven. Delays arose when the US Trade Representative waited for the FTAs of the US with Colombia, Panama and South Korea to be ratified by the US Congress.

What are the objectives of the US corporations in the TPPA?

These are: 1) to subordinate the health and medicines policies of all other countries to the demands of giant US pharmaceutical companies, including the extension of patent rights to allow the charging of higher prices for a longer period, and restrictions on the right of governments to control prices for medicines; 2)to require that all government procurement be open to US corporations – no local content or local training polices; 3) to require that all media policies that support local cultural content be abolished, allowing complete domination by US media corporations; 4) to impose US copyright law on all other countries – greatly extended copyright and royalty payments which greatly favour US corporations; 5) to make internet service providers criminally liable for any copyright piracy on their networks; and 6) to demand tariff-free access for US exports into all markets, while limiting corresponding access to US markets.

What would be the result?

This neo-liberal over-reach by the giant US corporations would deliver a disastrous blow on jobs, health, and freedom of communications and information in the entire Asia-Pacific region.

The just response to these outrageous dictates of US monopoly capitalism is for the people to mobilize themselves and and protest! And the people’s protests have taken place in Auckland New Zealand, Chicago and Peru, three of the sites of negotiating rounds.

The people’s campaign has been effective. The initial objective was for the TPPA deal to be signed by November 2011, and unveiled at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Leader Summit in Honolulu as the blueprint for all member economies, including most of the ASEAN nations, Russia and China. But now that won’t happen.

Instead some kind of progress report may be given to APEC and then talks will proceed into 2012. The opposition of trade union, health and media sectors to the US corporations in the US itself and in other countries has delayed this obnoxious scheme. The ILPS is determined to work vigorously in cooperation with other forces in order to expand and intensify the people’s protest movement against the TPPA.

By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON- Thursday, 27 October 2011

Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle

The G20 summit is to be held in Cannes, France on November 3 and 4. Assisted by their finance ministers and heads of central banks, the heads of governments of the world’s twenty largest economies are supposed to confront once more the global economic and financial crisis and seek solutions.

As in previous summits, they will fail to solve the crisis, bound as they are by the laws of motion of capitalism and imperialism and by the neoliberal dogma. They are driven by the profit-making interest of the monopoly bourgeoisie and financial oligarchy and continue to pass the burden of the crisis to the broad masses of the people.

Public funds in trillions have been used to bail out the big banks and corporations from the crisis of their own making and to wage wars of aggression to please the military-industrial complex. They have brought about spikes and plunges in the financial markets but have not stimulated civil production and employment. As a result, public deficits and public debts have mounted. And now the public debt bubble is bursting in a number of the G20 member-countries, especially the US and certain EU countries.

Solving the crisis of overproduction and the extreme abuse of finance capital is beyond the purview of the G20 summiteers, especially because of their neoliberal blinders. They are now most concerned with the problem of debt defaults plaguing major capitalist countries, including the U.S. and those in the European Union, and still many others.

Apparently their main objective is to contain the threats of default by further pushing austerity measures at the expense of the people. These measures, which include tax hikes for the people and tax cuts for the corporations and the wealthy, pressing down of wages, cutting back on pensions and social benefits, reducing social services and public sector employment and rising fees for social services, can only aggravate the economic and financial crisis.

We anticipate the G20 summit to come out with further plans to skirt the fundamental problems of capitalism and imperialism, to further exploit the people under the auspices of the IMF, World Bank and the WTO and thus to aggravate the crisis. The imperialist powers will impose themselves on the rest of the summitteers and defeat or coopt any contrary view from the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa).

The G20 summit is held at a time that the dominant imperialist powers are gloating over

their success at conquering Libya and taking over its oil resources with the use of barbaric air attacks in combination with their Libyan puppets and rabble brigades directed by NATO special forces. They are expected to dance over the graves of close to a hundred thousand Libyan people massacred by NATO bombs and puppet butchers under the pretext of humanitarian intervention and protecting civilians.

They are poised to claim the mass uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa.as the victory of their brand of democracy as well as the invincibility of capitalism. They will once more go through the ritual of shedding crocodile tears over Africa and all the impoverished and underdeveloped countries of the world now further brought down by global depression.

The US and other imperialist powers are carried away by their wanton use of financial means and hightech weapons of mass destruction to destroy the lives, homes and social infrastructure of peoples with impunity. They are oblivious of the fact that the world capitalist system is practically falling apart because of its grave crisis, bankruptcies, state terrorism and wars of aggression as well as the rising wave of people’s resistance driven by the needs and aspirations for national and social liberation.

We, the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, call on our member-organizations, all allied forces and the broad masses of the people to take up all the urgent issues against imperialism and reaction, further strengthen themselves organizationally, occupy the public squares and the major streets and undertake all other forms and means of mass mobilization. We must intensify resistance and build the movement for national liberation, democracy and socialism.

SOUNDS AROUND THE CITY – CHRY 2011 Fundraising Drive

From October 12-22, 2011 CHRY 105.5 FM in Toronto will be running its annual fund-drive, this year entitled ‘Sounds Around the City’.  We are looking to raise $105,000 this year, and the Radio Basics program has a goal of raising $700 ourselves.

Undoubtedly one of Toronto’s strongest campus-community radio stations, located on the campus of York University and in the heart of the Jane-Finch region, our station cannot survive without the continued support of our listeners and supporters of independent, community radio.  Radio Basics has been broadcasting our anti-imperialist and pro-people’s broadcasts since Sep 11, 2008 at CHRY – and we couldn’t do what we do on the airwaves without having a strong community radio station like CHRY to work with.

How to donate

Listen to Radio Basics on October 17, 2011 from 8:00-9:00pm, and donate directly CHRY through our program, or call the station any time from October 12-22 at 416-736-5656.

Or, you can donate online at chry.fm. Click the ‘DONATE NOW’ button, and don’t forget to say that you’re donating to the Radio Basics show, Mondays 8-9pm!

By SK & MB

In the capitalist system labour is viewed as yet another commodity that can be traded and exploited. Wages are paid for labour-power and hours worked but in some circumstances, like the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Program (SWAP), contracted wage agreements and working conditions are not a guarantee.

As participants in UFCW Canada’s Youth Internship Program we were part of a contingent who went to Simcoe, Ontario to learn more about the SAWP. We visited farms, talked to workers and farm owners, with an objective of investigating the issues and introducing workers to the Agricultural Workers Alliance (AWA) action centre in Simcoe.

As a union contingent we organized a BBQ to celebrate the workers struggles and get more information into the hardships of the work, abuses in the SAWP program and generally agitate workers to organize themselves and talk about their working-conditions. We wanted to highlight workers’ value to the region, and to bridge the gap between the migrant workers and the larger community. The information in this article is based on our investigations.

Some of the issues we uncovered while visiting workers at their homes, meeting them in the community and visiting their workplaces are how employer friendly the program is. Some of the daily abuses include:
workers being frequently repatriated for demanding their rights. No enforced third-party regulatory system for health, safety, and labour regulations. Workers pay their employers rent for housing that is usually substandard and overcrowded.
Stories from the workers we met show that we cannot depend on individual farm owners to ‘do the right thing.’ We need to create a system of fairness where standards are regulated and monitored. Migrant workers are not familiar with Canadian laws and are given no paths to educate themselves. Through investigation, we discovered many workers who took home only $5 of the $10.25 per hour they are told they will receive.

Furthermore, many of the Latin American workers are not fully confident in the English language which means they can’t read WSIB and caution signs in their workplaces. It requires a huge effort for them to educate themselves on the rules, regulations and rights of agricultural workers in Canada.

When a worker attempts to educate themselves, or inquires about the many deductions on their paychecks, they are putting their jobs at risk. When workers turn to organizations that will assist them with their issues consulates from countries like Jamaica and Mexico often warn workers that the people at the Agricultural Workers Alliance (AWA) are dangerous and only intend to take their money. In reality the AWA helps workers apply for the benefits they contribute to and also assists the workers with ESL courses so they can better understand their rights. This program is further evidence of the growing systemic pattern where the race to the bottom is both legislated and supported by governments. Workers are easily replaced by the millions of other workers all over the world who are just waiting to be picked, and are just as quickly disposed of. If an individual proves to be vocal, entitled, or motivated they are easily replaced and forgotten.

The union compares the SAWP to the indentured labour practices of the 19th century but even worse in this program there is no pathway to citizenship. Agricultural work is not valued by the Canadian immigration system and when workers in the program apply to immigrate they find that the point system values education, and capital for investment, not the time and sacrifice farm workers have already made. The fight against the current SAWP program is a fight for good jobs and for sustainable communities. There are organizations fighting to improve standards and to eliminate the systemic circumstances that allow violations to occur.

Good jobs in sustainable communities that respect workers are rare in most sectors and employees must race to the bottom simply to ensure they are employed and hopefully in a slightly better financial situation.  Organizations like SAME (Students Against Migrant Exploitations), AWA (Agricultural Workers Alliance), Migrante, and the Workers Action Centre are all part of this battle for improved standards. We encourage you to find out more about these organizations and assist them in their struggles for justice.

#10 – Imperialism’s Real Interest in Haiti: Crushing the popular movement

by Niraj Joshi – BASICS Issue #18

We are told that the massive American, Canadian and United Nations military deployment to a battered and broken Haiti after the earthquake is for security. But the greatest threat to the life and limbs of Haitians following the massive earthquake was the unconscionable delay in search and rescue due to prioritizing military needs versus recovery and medical needs. Credible aid organizations have reported no difficulties working unguarded among a population that they say displayed remarkable calm and solidarity in the midst of chaos; and the military-led framework for delivery of humanitarian assistance has been a tragic and indisputable failure. Read more…