Communist Parties win 11 Seats in Syrian Parliamentary Elections (MRZine)

Communist Parties win 11 Seats in Syrian Parliamentary Elections

MRZine June 18, 2012

(Published with edits in People's Voice June 16-30, 2012)

By S. Saleh Waziruddin

The first Syrian parliamentary elections under the new constitution, passed by 90% of voters in a referendum with 57% turnout, concluded in May with seat gains for Syria’s Communist Parties. The elections had a turnout of 51% (active duty military and police were ineligible) and voters elected 250 representatives from 16 geographic constituencies. The majority of seats are reserved for category “A”, required to be workers or peasants as defined by Labour laws, and the remaining representatives are elected as category “B” from the other classes.

The Communist Party of Syria (Bagdash) ran 30 candidates (13 in category A) in 15 constituencies and elected 8 (3 from category A), an increase of 3 from the previous parliament, while the Communist Party of Syria (Faisal AKA Unified) elected 3 representatives, reporting that its candidates’ individual votes amounted to 13% of the total, with the most popular candidate winning 300,000 votes. Voters voted for individual candidates but were provided with a list at the polling station called the “National Unity List” with candidates from parties in the National Progressive Front (NPF), which includes the two Communist Parties as well as the Arab Socialist Ba’ath (Renaissance) Party and 8 other parties. Only 41 of those elected were incumbents from the previous parliament, and more than 80 independents were elected.

The results announcement was delayed in some areas because of appeals filed about violations of the election law, and re-counts were conducted in some polling stations. The Communist Party of Syria (B) reported over 21 violations in Aleppo including the names of Communist candidates being crossed out from the National Unity List at one polling station. The CPS(B) filed two appeals to the Supreme Constitutional Court about these violations, one of which challenged the right of a winning candidate to be classified in category A because he was a lawyer, although a law professor.

The Communist Party of Syria (F-U) criticized the new parliament for having only 12% (30) women, whereas previously women made up 18% of the legislature, and said it would have preferred the elections to be held under better circumstances because of the violence in the country which it said limited the turnout. The CPS(F-U) criticized some parties for boycotting the election, saying that it was an inappropriate tactic based on a miscalculation that the government would fall from the boycott and criticized these parties for continuing to take positions which “hinder every effort to resolve a consensual peaceful solution to the crisis, and encourage terrorist acts and calls for foreign intervention in all candour.” The Party also criticized the process of forming the joint electoral list, which in the past included consultation between the parties in the NPF and had the Front's name instead of "National Unity List", but said that it expects the new parliament to be a tool for progress.

A rival coalition to the NPF called the Popular Front for Change and Liberation (PFCL) is lead by Qadri Jamil who was one of the drafters of the new constitution. Jamil was elected as an independent but leads the People's Will Party (also the name of a 19th century Russian terrorist organization), which is the legal name of the National Committee for the Unity of Syrian Communists, formed after they were expelled from the CPS (B) under accusations of Trotskyism. The PFCL also includes a 1957 split of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party ("Intifada" or uprising), whose parent party is an NPF member, as well as independent legislators including some trade unionists. The PFLC appealed election results across Syria and has called for nullifying the vote. At the opening of the first session of the new parliament Jamil rose to a point of order and lead a walkout/boycott by the PFLC.

Six parties in neither the NPF or the PFCL ran 81 candidates but did not win any seats.

The first Communist to be elected in an Arab parliament was Khalid Bagdash in 1954, a Kurd who was a delegate to the Communist International (Comintern). During World War II Bagdash lead the national resistance against the Vichy French occupation of Syria. While many Communist Parties experienced splits in the 1989-1991 period of counter-revolutions in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, uniquely this division happened much earlier in Syria. In 1986 Bagdash, who was the leader of the Communist Party, criticized Gorbachev’s policies and what they meant for socialism including in Syria, and subsequently lead a split from the Party as the majority of the Central Committee under Yusuf Faisal agreed with Gorbachev's policies.

Nothing "Sticky" About Religious Accommodation (letter to People's Voice)

Nothing "Sticky" About Religious Accommodation 

(letter to the People's Voice editor printed May 16-31, 2012 issue)

In your May Day 2012 issue letters section, Wayne Madden writes that a flawed on-line CBC poll aligned him with the Wildrose Party on one question because he believes “giving extra protection to certain religious groups, whether that group is a minority or a majority in society” amounts to the state establishment of religion and somehow puts religious rights over other rights.

The actual question on-line is not about protection but accommodation: “How much should be done to accommodate religious minorities in Alberta?” It’s revealing that the question was misinterpreted this way. There is a reason why we need extra efforts to accommodate faith-based minorities but don’t need more efforts to accommodate faith-based majorities, similar to why we need efforts to accommodate LGBT2SQI and not heterosexuals, why we need extra efforts to accommodate women but not men, and why we need extra efforts to accommodate oppressed peoples but not their oppressors. This is because of the existence of patriarchy and racism, which are historical oppressions tied to systems of production that pre-date capitalism but have become interconnected with capitalism.

Attacks on faith-based minorities are often really racism-driven attacks. After all no one administered theology tests trying to distinguish a Sikh from a Muslim during the vigilante attacks which followed in the wake of 9/11, such as firebombing mosques and Gurdwaras (Sikh temples), assaulting men with turbans or women wearing veils. Religion may or may not have been an important part of the victims’ lives, but that was no protection from the racists. The reason faith-based minorities are attacked are because of fears of losing WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) supremacy, and if we don’t protect the minorities we leave the working class and its allies open to divide-and-conquer.

This is similar to why we need laws protecting the rights of workers and the poor but don’t really need laws protecting the rights of the bosses. We can say that a law forbidding anyone from sleeping under a bridge is equal, but the truth is that under capitalism the rich have plenty of homes whereas the working poor and unemployed need the bridge for shelter. Similarly, faith-based minorities don’t have access to most of the capital in this country (contrary to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories) and need to be protected from those who do.

There is much institutionalization of some religions over others many of us take for granted, such as why our weekends are on Sundays and Saturdays, why statutory holidays coincide with Judeo-Christian ones, as well as bias in school textbooks.

Religion is not something that exists independent of the historical processes behind patriarchy, race, and class. It’s no accident that people in some parts of Europe are Catholic whereas others are Protestant, while others still are Muslim, Jewish, pagan, etc. Religion is interconnected with ethnicity, culture, and race, and so religious rights don’t exist in isolation from other rights.

Unfortunately there is a big blind spot not just in Canada generally but within the left in particular which ignores the realities of patriarchy and racism when opining on issues that only from the surface seem unrelated, such as religious accommodation. In particular Islamophobia operates by painting Muslims as a threat to secularism, whereas Muslims don’t have the power to threaten secularism here but the capitalists behind WASP supremacy do. Bogus campaigns in Ontario and in the United States against non-existent Shari’a courts gain acceptance from the left by re-branding racism as secularism, when in fact there has never been a proposal to establish Shari’a courts in North America.

My recommendation to People’s Voice readers is that if you ever find yourself on the same side of an issue as the Wildrose Party or other bigots, even if it is on an on-line poll however flawed, you should reconsider your views, repeatedly if necessary! The issue of accommodating minorities, even faith-based ones, is not “sticky” or complicated after all, any more than racism and patriarchy are. 

S. Saleh Waziruddin,

Niagara Falls, ON

Shirley's Story (The Spark! #23)

Shirley's Story

interview by Asad Ali

as published in The Spark! #23, December 2011

90th Anniversary of the Communist Party of Canada

  

Through much of the 1970s the progressive movement in Canada was lead by the labour movement, driven largely by the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), and in the CAW's forefront was Local 199 in St. Catharines, which in turn was lead by the Unity Caucus influenced by the local Communist Party club. 

The Spark! interviewed Shirley Hawley, an Aboriginal woman who was a rank-and-file autoworker and a Communist Party member who fought first-hand in many of the battles that laid the basis of strength for the Canadian left in the 1970s. Shirley currently is an active CAW retiree and is also the Secretary-Treasurer of the Communist Party's Eric Blair Club in Niagara.

Background: Early Years of the Communist Party in Niagara

  

Prior to the strategic role in the CAW in the Canadian left, Communists had been active in Niagara since the early 20th century. Newspaper accounts show how in 1930 eleven party activists were arrested in Niagara Falls for attempting a peace march in coordination with comrades from the CPUSA across the border. In the summer of 1935 unemployed workers went on strike at relief camps in Welland, organized by Communist Frank Haslam among others, for the second time in order to get charges withdrawn from strikers arrested earlier and also for the right to use their vouchers at stores nearby instead of having to hike just to cash their pay. Haslam and four others had been arrested after the provincial police threw tear gas bombs at the unemployed. In December of 1936 Local 199 of the United Auto Workers (UAW, now CAW) at the McKinnon (now GM) plant in St. Catharines was founded with the leadership of Haslam and the help of the unemployed workers movement.

 When the Communist Party of Canada was banned in 1941 Niagara communist Charlie Weir had been arrested in Windsor by the RCMP and accused of being both a communist and a union organizer. He was successfully defended on most of the charges by David Goldstick, the father of the current editor of The Spark.

In the summer of 1946 striking Canadian Seamen's Union (CSU) sailors had to fight scab ships on the Welland canal, defended by police on-board. The CSU strike, lead in part by communists such as Mel Doig who was in his late 20s, was assisted by UAW and International Chemical Workers Union (ICWU) locals, the latter lead by George Gare. This was followed by a summer-long auto workers strike in 1948 in St. Catharines to get the same pay as Windsor and Oshawa workers, lead in part by communists such as Local 199's vice president Lloyd Hawke. The CCF, forerunners of the NDP, were criticized publicly by both the Labor Progressive Party (LPP, Communists) and the union for urging a settlement and collaboration with management. 

Management had declared the strike illegal and, as with USW 1005 Hamilton steelworkers today, tried to get the membership to bypass the elected leadership and vote on the offer. The leadership rejected this trick, and even when the union did later vote on the offer, only one member voted to accept it. In the fall, the Labour Board allowed the company to prosecute the union for the strike. The next year two party members, activists in the United Electrical workers (UE) and CSU, were elected to the municipal councils of Crowland and Humberstone, now part of Welland.

In the Red Scare years many Niagara communists were purged by social-democrats in collusion with management and right-wing politicians. In 1949 George Gare was fired in-person by the International (i.e. US) President of the ICWU for connections to local communists. In 1957 the ICWU raided Niagara Falls chemical plants from the UE. However, from 1953 to to 1971 communist Gordie Lambert was GM plant chair and Unity (left) Caucus leader for the CAW's local 199 in St. Catharines. In 1973 Port Colborne union activist John Severinsky successfully fought his expulsion from the Steelworkers for handing out a supplement on food prices of the Canadian Tribune, forerunner of the People's Voice newspaper, a month after his election to the Inco local's office. These latter incidents were contemporary to Shirley Hawley's working life at the St. Catharines GM plant.

Interview with Shirley Hawley

Spark: How did you join the Communist Party?

  

Shirley Hawley: I was involved with the NDP and I didn't like it: didn't like their ideas, theory, and what they thought the future should be. I remained in the NDP for less than a year. I was elected as my riding's financial secretary. The riding association was split. There was a left and a right. My way of thinking was always to the left. I had no political education up to this time. I became a single mother and had three children to look after and was out in the labour force. I knew things weren't right. Then I got a job at a union plant, GM was then McKinnon with local 199. I was still involved with the NDP and not happy with the way they were going. I started in the foundry. There was a strong left caucus there. I got involved with them. I liked the way the committee men represented you and I felt comfortable with them. I attended a few of their meetings and got involved. They could depend on me when they wanted to take action.

I got involved with the party. I wasn't a member but I was very close to them. I belonged to the CCW (Congress of Canadian Women). I was selected to be one of 120 women from Canada, we were invited to a women's conference in the Soviet Union, Moscow. 

My eyes were opened up to women's rights and things like that. It was put on by the women's part of the Communist Party. There were a lot of professional people there and academics. I felt quite comfortable there and attended all their sessions. I could not go to all of them, there was not enough time. The ones I did go to I spoke at. They claimed to be interested in me because I was on the floor in the labour movement, working at an auto plant.

The conference was 2 weeks long. I was invited to stay over for another week by the women's committee and tour auto plants there. They wanted me to tour and give them an idea of our plants and what differences there were. I was quite impressed with how the Soviet Union was running at that time. I came back in '87 I think it was, and I joined the party. I was very close to the party in the Niagara region. A lot of it had to do with Eric Blair (the organizer). I've been a member ever since.

What impressed you about what you saw in the Soviet Union?

Their education. Women working alongside of men at the same wage. You could do anything, any work that you wanted to do to better yourself. Medical things were open for women there. I was very impressed with their day care at work and a lot of it was in their community. You could drop your children off on your way to work. Daycare was quite convenient for you, not a long way to go for daycare and then a long way to work. Quite different from what we have here!

Most women still had to buy their daily groceries to make their meals, (the) only negative thing that I saw for women. Housing was adequate, great programs for their youth, sports activities, in the music field, (public) palace of this palace of that, social participation of children learning. Kids were allowed to go to the ballet and the opera. Most of our youth can't afford that and it's not available for them. Always had a good sports program. You could see that in the figure skating and hockey, I imagine all the other sports too. That's what I was really interested in

Can you tell us about the illegal strike or walk-out you were a part of?

  

The Unity Caucus - Left Caucus - we were in the foundry and an employee got disciplined from higher up because something went wrong and it wasn't this employee's fault at all. It was a supervisor (at fault) but he was covering up his mistake by getting rid of this employee. This happened on the midnight shift. When we came to work in the morning, all the union left-wing delegates, they spread the word and they said that they were going to take action around 11 O'clock in the morning. When you get the word, you spread the word and you talk all morning and when the time comes you get the people to follow you. We had a great attendance of the people, almost all the people walked out. We kept them almost 24 hours, nobody coming in, no deliveries trucks or parts. We caught some of the supervisors (at the entrance) and told them what was happening. Some turned around and went home, and some didn't.

Early morning one supervisor wanted to go in and I asked them not to and explained everything. He said I'm going in (anyway). I just got in front of his car and laid down in front of it. He waited a while but he turned around and went home. It was something that I did out of reflex, on the spur of the moment, and after I realized what I did I was really scared and frightened. I was just so much into what I was doing, it was automatic.

 Did you win on the issue?

I got served by the labour board. Several people did. The employee that was fired wasn't fired, he got his job back. The whole story came out, the supervisor was reprimanded. He didn't get fired, didn't lose any time. Didn't lose any management. Almost everyone (on strike) that they caught on camera lost a day's a pay, lost some money. But I got wrote up and it was on my record. I think I lost a day's pay and all. That was it. The employee kept his job. We won but it was an illegal strike and the union had to pay some money.

I obeyed them and (CAW) 199 got that all squashed. I was served so many papers, boxes (full). I never did read it. One of the main fellows in our left supporters, he told me “Shirley you've done your job, now go home.” Anyone that got served, the union could be liable $1000 a day. Quite high. I obeyed them and the union didn't have to pay anything. There was some settlement, it was an illegal strike.

All strikes used to be illegal. It's coming back in Canada. Some unions don't have the right to strike yet. We've got this government that will legislate you back to work. Its not good for the union. What power does the union have? That was one of their main strengths was to strike, that was a landmark for the union when they got it. When the contract is up (and) you can't come to a settlement, you have the right to strike. 

When that's taken away from you, your rights are being eroded, taken away. It has been going on for quite a few years. The unions are losing ground and losing power, conceded for different wage scales. With the job loss and downsizing of our industries, it's a way of keeping the ones that are there still working. Don't blame the union, the union has had to make a lot of concessions for 10 years or so but it's slowly breaking up the unions.

Can you tell us about how the Unity Caucus (left-wing) lost influence to the Blue Slate (right-wing, within the union local), and the influence of the Communist Party?

It was the early 80s that they (the left) lost the power. There was some building of egos, an ego fight within the caucus. Someone who was a protege of Gordie Lambert, he sold Gordie out and went the other way. It made a big rift in the caucus, it lost strength then. Because of the infighting and the disagreements, they couldn't operate with these two ideas of how to handle a problem. And then what really put the kibosh on the unity caucus was when one committee man during a shut down agreed to, not sure just exactly what, but it was classifications right in the contract. He agreed to give these up. So when the workers come up to work, this agreement was in place. We didn't know how it was possible: it wasn't even negotiation time, but it turned out that it was. I really don't know how. People lost faith. 

This committeeman who did this was supposed to be a unity slate guy . Turned out he sold us out, the deal was for him to give up this classification of certain areas and he had quite a easy way at work. A lot of times he wasn't there and still got paid. People seen that. The only thing they had (in response) was to withdraw their support. Very few of the unity slate guys got elected the next time around. It just went from bad to worse.

We had a left-wing plant chairman, Gordie Lambert, but that as high as the unity caucus went. There wasn't that much Party influence. We did as much as we could with the members we had, helped on the picket line and different protests. We did march with our banner “Communist Party of Canada” for the first time in the 1995 labour and community groups' Days of Action against Ontario Tory Premier Mike Harris, that to me was a big thing. Eric Blair (club organizer) was invited out to speak at different things. He was well respected, he was awarded from the labour council a plaque. I also was, from the labour council, awarded for being an activist. I've been active in my community and the peace movement. Eric Blair had been around for many many years and this the first award he ever got. It was delivered on his death bed! Took a long time. He was well respected. We all were. So many people agreed with us but just couldn't vote for us.

I ran for school trustee and got a very good reception. There was a spot open as I was told he (the incumbent) wasn't going to run anymore, and I started with my literature and going door to door which was something that wasn't heard of for school board trustee. On local cable TV they all didn't show up (for a debate). It was a given that the same people over and over would get elected. It's still like that, “old blood.” I started with my partner Don Quinn and Toronto helped us, the Provincial Party Office. This fellow that was going to not run, all of a sudden decided he's out there (running). I got a very big vote but didn't get elected. I got invited to all the meetings where the candidates speak. When I was canvassing I had people say “you're the first school trustee to come to my door.” They just assumed they got elected. I never followed that before I got involved, didn't know that's the way it was. These same people had been in for years.

The Eric Blair Club was the first communist club that went into the union hall on different days there was a public event, such as International Women's Day. When the notice went up that you could rent a table and came, I applied and we got it. We were quite visible, right around our table “Communist Party of Canada.” People were shocked but they were interested too, had a lot of inquiries.

Our downfall was we didn't have a lot of people. I guess we didn't interview them enough, talk to them enough to see if they were real (communists). Didn't know just who was honest.

What is some advice you would give to new members?

Get yourself educated and find out really the background, the struggle of the party and what we really stand for. A lot of people that come in think they have a lot of action, marches and protests, but that isn't all that's there do. I think the best thing is get yourself educated and really know what the party's all about.  No one knows now with the struggles that we have, this is the only party that's going to help the people out of the situation . The era that we're in, all the issues that the other parties have they don't take in the working class people that are working, struggling, lost their jobs working for minimum wage or low wages, two and three jobs to support their families . Everything (prices) is going up, there just aren't enough jobs around. The govt has allowed this. You have to really get yourself educated and understand. I picked the women's issues. I worked on that. I organized women in my union on the women's committee.

I think picking an issue to find out what you really want to work in, it would be more effective that way. Join a club, find out what your club is doing and how you can help. One other thing is we have to distribute our paper, the People's Voice, that's very important.

The people that are involved that are communists, comrades, I've never met more hard working, sincere people in my life. There are so few of us and they work so hard, whether it's when an election comes up or it's a protest or getting out to support a strike, delivering the paper. I don't think the history is much different (now), we don't have the people and the people really don't realize what's happening to them. When that happens and they realized what happened, we'll have history in this time. We'll have more communists and more history. People have to start to fight back. It's gotta happen with what's happening now, especially the young people and I think the party sees that with the YCL'ers (Young Communist League). It's growing in different provinces. Right here you've (to interviewer) had some success. These are the people that's going to make some history.

Can you tell us about your plant experiences as an Aboriginal women?

I haven't really worked on that. In the area I am living in (retired) now, I have been asked to come out to their meetings and get involved with them. The President of the Native association here just left my house, I get a lot of info from him. It's quite a highly populated area of Aboriginal people. I was very proud of my mother, I got my bloodline from my mother. I was proud of that that. I didn't like it when people characterized people like being a “drunken Indian”, (I would say) “but I've seen a drunken white person,” things like that. “They don't work,” (I would reply) “if you were taken out of your environment and way of life you might be acting like that too!.” They have problems but we're coming a long way with addressing their problems and educating.

I knew I had to got involved. Some organization had to fight for women. I had three children and had to get a job. I had to show I was in the process of getting a divorce as they wouldn't hire a married woman (on the production line)! Office staff could meet someone at the plant and keep their job. In 1964 they had a two-tier wage scale. I worked beside a man, we ran a machine together and he got a dollar an hour more than I did. He did one end, I ran the other end. That changed, that was one of the reasons really I got involved. Things weren't right for women. I was a woman with kids, wanted to have a future for them and support them .

As for the NDP, they weren't going to do nothing for us. That's the way I went. I drifted and I met communists and liked them, and their way of thinking. I knew I'd found my place.

(online at http://niagaracommunists.blogspot.ca/2012/05/shirleys-story.html)

Coverage of St. Catharines Communist Party candidate in Vapaa Sana, a Finnish-Canadian newspaper

SALEH WAZIRUDDIN - NIAGARA COALITION FOR PEACE, CANADIAN PEACE CONGRESS, COMMUNIST CANDIDATE FOR ST. CATHARINES

by Sofia Vuorinen for Vapaa Sana

I first encountered Saleh Waziruddin at a luncheon meeting of the Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association.  I took particular note of him because he was carrying an armful of People's Voice.  He is the co-convenor of Niagara Coalition for Peace and a member of the Canadian Peace Congress executive council.  There are occasional Niagara News Bulletins in People's Voice.  In the November 1-15, 2011, Saleh wrote an article titled in the paper entitled "Canadian Peace Alliance campaign for "Peace and Prosperity, not War and Austerity."  

The Canadian Peace Alliance held its bi-annual convention in Toronto on October 14-16 this year.  The theme of the convention was on "Peace and Prosperity not War and Austerity."  They were agitating for shifting public money from militarism and war into public services, jobs, and the environment.  Postcards can be signed on-line at www.acp-cpa.ca/en/Peace and Prosperity.html.

Several resolutions were passed, including support for the campaign to let U.S. War Resisters stay in Canada, helping students counter military recruitment, and participating in elections by encouraging peace candidates and clear anti-war positions.

I was particularly interested in getting in touch with Saleh when I was informed that he was going to run as a Communist candidate in St. Catharines in our October provincial election.  He had been campaign manager in 2008 in the federal election and in 2007 in the provincial election.  He also ran as a candidate in both the federal and provincial elections this year.

Saleh was born in Montreal to an Indian father and a Pakastani mother.  He lived in the U.S. for 12 years and has now returned to reside in Niagara Falls, Canada.  I wanted to know how he was received in the election as a Communist candidate.  He gave me some very interesting information.  He was approached by different people before the debates who had recognized him from his previous federal candidacy.  After the debate, one individual who was actually working for the Progressive Conservative party told Saleh that he made the most sense of all the candidates!

One of the major issues that he addressed was about the situations in local hospitals in the Niagara area.  The Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has been cutting emergency rooms in favour of  P3 (public-private partnership) hospitals and mismanaging a bacteria outbreak linked to over 30 deaths.  

Niagara Falls residents have protested three bacterial outbreaks including C-Difficile with several deaths where the outbreak was declared late. The Health Minister Andrews denies that the  cause is funding cuts but adds that they will have to find money to deal with the outbreaks and added housekeeping staff.  

Saleh felt he did very well in certain high schools.  In one, he had the second most votes of any party.  Keep up the great work you are doing in many aspects of your life. Further details of "A People's Agenda for Ontario" is available at www.votecommunist.ca.

Reader Comment on Sri Lanka (letter to People's Voice)

Reader comment on Sri Lanka

(Letter to People's Voice October 16-31, 2011)

I am gravely concerned about the Labour Day issue’s article “Indian Communists Debate Tamil Issue” in the People’s Voice which states “Sri Lanka’s Tamils were largely brought from Tamil Nadu by the British as labourers.” Even the chauvinist Sri Lankan government’s own census shows this is simply not true, the last complete census (1989) shows Tamils who had been in Sri Lanka since ancient times outnumbered Tamils brought by the British from India by over 2 to 1 (2.1 million vs under 1 million). As the CPI(M)’s Ramdass discussed in his article “Developments in Sri Lanka” in the theoretical journal The Marxist (Vol. 3, No. 2, April-June 1985)  “The Jaffna Tamils had emigrated to Sri Lanka, then Ceylon, about 2000 years ago”. The root of the problem is that the Sinhalese consider Sri Lanka to be their country where the Tamils have no business to be.”

Unfortunately the People’s Voice article not only suggests a misrepresentation of the position of the Indian Communist Parties, let alone facts on the ground, but does so in a way that plays right into the hands of the most reactionary chauvinists.

As Ramdass explains, “What is generally referred to as the `ethnic problem’ is in fact the problem of a minority nationality - the Sri Lanka Tamil people - whose aspirations and legitimate demands have been denied by the ruling classes.” Although the Indian communists are against Tamil separation,

Ramdass explains who has true responsibility for this demand: “But it should not be forgotten that it is the refusal of successive bourgeois-landlord governments to concede autonomy to the Tamil majority areas, the breaking or scuttling and again of agreements arrived at that finally brought the separatist slogan to the forefront.”

Two years ago thousands of Tamils, some waving LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elaam) flags, blockaded highways in Toronto to bring attention to the genocidal war (CPI Tamil Nadu state secretary D. Pandian called it that in the party’s New Age Weekly Jul. 9, 2011 “CPI for Solidarity with Sri Lankan Tamils”), concentration-camp roundups of the Tamil people and, whether one agrees with them or not, the leading force for their national liberation which is the LTTE.

The Canadian government targets for deportation Tamils who have ties to the LTTE and the struggle for national liberation. We must refrain from any dodges on the facts of nationhood and the principle of self-determination, whether abroad or in Canada.

Asad Ali, Niagara Falls, ON

Selected Coverage of St. Catharines Communist Campaign for 2011 Federal Election

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?archive=true&e=3325619

"NDP and Greens Proud of Campaigns"

(and Communists too!) by Erica Bajer of the St. Catharines Standard, some quotes:

St. Catharines Communist Party candidate Saleh Waziruddin said his campaign was successful because he managed to raise his party's profile in the community.

He said he didn't have a goal in terms of number of votes but instead a target of gaining ground in contacts and awareness.

"People are definitely looking for solutions that are beyond what the big parties are putting forward," he said.

Waziruddin said he's proud that he was able to add to the debate on important issues including health care, the economy and the HST.

"The Communist Party campaign has been farther ahead on the issues," he said. "I feel very happy."

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3329599
"Bradley found students a tougher sell than adult voters"

by Jeff Bolichowski of the St. Catharines Standard, lists the 10% Communist Party vote in the St. Catharines Student Vote elections.

Striving to be heard (Niagara This Week)

Liz Rowley knows she won't form the next provincial government, but she is working tirelessly to at least raise awareness for her party. The Ontario Communist Party leader stopped by the St. Catharines Public Library's Central Branch on Oct. 1, to support St. Catharines candidate Saleh Waziriddin, one of nine Communist Party candidates vying for election Oct. 6. Rowley says the tour to the various ridings, which include larger cities such as Toronto, Guelph, Ottawa and Hamilton, is a good chance to raise awareness about the party and educate voters about the platform. "We won't be forming the next government," said Rowley. "We want to let people know who we are and what we're about." That's an important facet, said Rowley, who just days before her visit spent time picketing outside the offices of TVO in Toronto, to protest the exclusion of the Communist Party from TVO's election coverage. The Communists were also shut out from local debates, including St. Catharines, where Waziriddin wasn't invited to a St. Catharines-Thorold Chamber of Commerce-sponsored debate. "They are infringing on our rights to be heard," said Rowley, adding the electors have a right to see and hear from all of the parties on the ballot. "The public depends on them for accurate news and coverage of elections." She said the Communist Party meets the provincially legislated number of having at least two candidates, so she feels they have a right to be heard. For those who are hearing the Communist message, Rowley said they are listening with an "open ear." She said voters are opening their minds to the party's platform to try to curb corporate power, and create good jobs for people. "We're the party of the working people," she said. "We want to put peoples' needs in front of corporate greed." That would include, she said, repealing corporate tax cuts for the "giant corporations", such as the big banks, and trying to promote economic growth for the smaller and medium businesses out there. The party is about more than economic issues, she stresses. They also promote expanding social services and building housing, would rescind the HST, and they would introduce progressive tax reform based on the ability to pay. Rowley applauds the efforts of Waziriddin this election. Among his more notable issues addressed in the riding this election, was stepping up during a health debate and saying he feels public elected officials should be accountable for the 35 recent deaths from hospital-acquired infections in Niagara, as they were warned of this danger by nurses and unions. She said the candidates running across the province are strong, but feels the electoral system in Ontario works against them. She calls the first-past-the-post system "skewed", saying voters hesitate to vote for candidates in some of the fringe parties, even if they support them, on the basis that their party won't be voted to office. She does hope voters will consider the Communist Party on Oct. 6, however. "It sends a very strong message," she said. "People want change."

Credit: Scott Rosts, staff; srosts@grimsbylincolnnews.com

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