Red Star Weekly Issue # 17 (27th May 2012) - CPI(ML)
Red Star Weekly Issue # 17 (27th May 2012) - CPI(ML)
Red Star Weekly Issue # 17 (27th May 2012) - CPI(ML)
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C-141, Sainik Nagar, New Delhi – 110059, Phone – (011) 25332343<br />
Email: info@cpiml.in, redstarenglish@yahoo.co.in Website: www.cpiml.in<br />
Online <strong>Weekly</strong> Volume – 1 <strong>Issue</strong> – <strong>17</strong> 27 <strong>May</strong> <strong>2012</strong><br />
Countrywide all out struggle against price rise needed<br />
THE HUGE HIKE of Rs. 7.50 per litre in the price of petrol has further intensified the all round price rise of all<br />
essential commodities. While the central and state governments are not ready to increase the minimum wage<br />
linking it with the inflation or to implement even the existing act, when the daily average income of vast<br />
majority are only Rs. 20 per day, the ever intensifying price rise is making them destitute. In this situation, as the<br />
hike in petrol price is announced the opposition parties are contended by calling a token hartal and leaving the<br />
people to suffer the consequences of this latest hike. While Congress is justifying it in the name of mounting<br />
economic strains as it justified in 1991 the imposition of the imperialist globalization policies, none of these<br />
opposition parties from BJP to <strong>CPI</strong>(M) is ready to initiate a debate whether our country should still follow the<br />
neo-liberal policies or not. None of them target their attack on the huge taxes charged by central and state<br />
governments on petroleum and its products. Except for reaping immediate political benefits, none of them call<br />
for reversing the policies that have led to fall in Re prices and to unprecedented price rise. In this situation what<br />
is required is an all out struggle against the price rise and the neo-liberal policies that create this intolerable<br />
condition for the masses. Let all left and democratic forces get organized for such a struggle.<br />
Repeal Hike in Petrol Price and Bring Down Prices of Essential Commodities!<br />
Revoke Decontrol of Petrol pricing; Repeal Neo-Liberal Policies!<br />
Mobilize the Masses and Make 31st <strong>May</strong> Bharat Bandh a Great Success!<br />
THE UPA GOVERNMENT’S declaration hiking the petrol price by Rs. 7.50 at one stroke is another arrogant attack<br />
on the masses who are already reeling under ever-intensifying and unprecedented rise in prices of all essential<br />
commodities and services. After decontrolling the petrol pricing without even getting it passed in parliament,<br />
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is ridiculing the people by saying that it is done by the companies, and the<br />
government has no control over it. Similarly, if is happening because of the fall in Rupee value in relation to<br />
dollar, as the government shamelessly justifies, it is due to the neo-liberal policies imposed under imperialist<br />
dictation. So will the government repeal these anti-people policies? It should not be forgotten that even when<br />
the international finance capital crisis was intensifying for last three years or more, this government was<br />
repeating that everything is ok and that the resilient Indian economy will not be affected. Now they justify the<br />
crisis in the economy and hike in petrol price sighting the Euro zone crisis and what not. All these selfcontradictory<br />
talks are for hoodwinking the people. It is abundantly clear that as Indian economy is getting<br />
increasingly integrated with the imperialist finance capital system under globalization, any crisis in the<br />
imperialist system will be soon transmitted to the economy of countries like India which are under increasing<br />
neo-colonial plunder. The worsening economic plight of the masses including the price hikes are the result of<br />
these policies blatantly imposed by the govt., and it alone is responsible for its consequences like price rise.<br />
In this situation, the people have no other way out but to unleash their fury to compel the government to repeal<br />
of the petrol price hike and to revoke the decontrol of petrol pricing. This struggle should be expanded to a<br />
mighty struggle for revoking the reactionary neo-liberal policies themselves. But as far as the opposition parties<br />
are contended they are only interested in cornering the UPA government for their future electoral gains. They<br />
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have no basic differences with the Congress or UPA government regarding the neo-liberal policies and<br />
servitude to imperialism. While campaigning and mobilizing for the bandh, these differences between the<br />
approach of the parties from BJP to <strong>CPI</strong>(M) who implement the very same policies of the UPA government<br />
whenever and wherever they come to power, with that of the revolutionary left forces should be highlighted.<br />
The <strong>CPI</strong> (<strong>ML</strong>) appeals to all genuine left and democratic forces to make the Bharat Bandh a great success and get<br />
prepared to use it as a stepping stone to carry forward the struggle to the very revocation of all these antipeople<br />
policies.<br />
Condemn CRPF’s demand to enforce AFSPA in Jharkhand<br />
2<br />
KN Ramachandran,<br />
General Secretary,<br />
<strong>CPI</strong>(<strong>ML</strong>)<br />
Dated 24th <strong>May</strong>, <strong>2012</strong><br />
THE JHARKHAND HUMAN RIGHTS MOVEMENT (JHRM) has strongly condemned the Central Reserved Police<br />
Force (CRPF)’s demand for enforcement of the draconian law, “Armed Forces (Special Power) Act 1958”, in<br />
Jharkhand. There would be a genocide of innocent Adivasis if the Act in enforced in the state. This Act would<br />
create upheaval and chaos in the state. Needless to say that Mr. D K Pandey, CRPF inspector-general (IG)<br />
posted in Ranchi and in-charge of anti-Maoist operations for the central forces in Jharkhand, had written a letter<br />
to the Central Government asking for the enforcement of the AFSPA in Jharkhand. According to Mr. Pandey,<br />
the draconian AFSPA should be imposed in "at least selective pockets" in Jharkhand if it is not possible in the<br />
entire state. Pandey has said that in the present system, Jharkhand Police is requisitioning CRPF for providing<br />
troops for anti-Naxal operations. CRPF is not in a position to launch any operation of its own. Hence, the CRPF<br />
should be given Armed Forces Special Powers (AFSPA) for at least six months.<br />
The JHRM has reported that the CRPF and its elite force the COBRA Jawans have already killed Mangal<br />
Honhaga, Soma Guria, Jurida Honhanga (Saranda region), Jasminta Devi, Devendra Yadav, Lukas Minj<br />
(Palamu region) Akhileshwar Mahto (Bokaro region) and many others during the anti-Naxal operations.<br />
Similarly, they have brutally tortured Sylvester Minj, William Minj, Birju Oraon, Bifa Pahria and many others<br />
after branding them as either Naxals or their supporters. The data suggests that 557 people were killed in the socalled<br />
cross-fire and 6000 were arrested and thrown behind the bars in last 11 years after branding them as<br />
Naxals or supporters in the state. Investigation reveals that most of the victims were innocent villagers.<br />
Similarly, the Human Rights defenders were also exploited by the forces. Hence, if the central forces get the<br />
special power, they will misuse it as it has been done in Manipur, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir. Therefore,<br />
the CRPF’s demand should be opposed by all democratic forces in order to protect the rights of the people of<br />
Jharkhand.<br />
Business and Politics of Blind Faith<br />
Ram Puniyani<br />
Sanal Edamaruku, a rationalist is facing the legal trap for abusing others’ faith. (April <strong>2012</strong>) At the same time in<br />
another event, Nirmal Baba, who is supposed to be having divine powers and who has been flashing his paid<br />
programs in over 40 TV channels, advising people on solving their problems with various’ divine’ solutions, is<br />
facing case of fraud. Recently a local court has directed the police to register a case against him for allegedly<br />
cheating people. Both these cases coming in different religions have a deeper connection. In case of Sanal<br />
Edamaruku, he was able to show the root of the water seeping from the feet of Jesus Christ on cross in<br />
Mumbai’s Irla area. This water was regarded as divine and many followers were thronging the place to have<br />
access to the divine water. Sanal showed that water was from the choked drain and getting pushed up by<br />
capillary action. Sanal is facing the wrath of section of the community for hurting their faith.<br />
Nirmala Baba, Nirmaljit Singh Nirula, a failed Businessman had disappeared in 1970 and then later repapered<br />
claiming to have divine powers and started building up his enterprise by organizing paid TV shows in which<br />
those in the audience were initially paid to ask solutions for their problems and later people in thousands<br />
thronged, paid money to enter these TV shows, ‘Nirmal Darbars’ and Baba started dishing out ‘solutions’ while
his bank accounts swelled. In few years time the ‘faith-business’ flourished and now Baba is a multimillionaire<br />
with good deal of property under his belt.<br />
The large section of followers thronging for the divine water seeping from the feet of Lord Jesus, to explain the<br />
source of water came as an insult of their faith. To the multiple people seeking solutions from Nirmal Baba, it<br />
was again a matter of faith. The boundaries between faith and blind faith many a times are very blurred. As<br />
such faith and reason have been counter-posed in the society. Faith has been ruling the roost in the areas of<br />
‘unknown’ and the future. It has been constructed around the supernatural powers and clergy of different<br />
religions or self made Godmen have been the custodian of faith. Many an areas which were in the domain of<br />
faith shifted to reason over a period of time like nature of earth, eclipse, diseases etc. …<br />
Vapi most polluted industrial cluster again<br />
VAPI is the region on the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat where a large number of industries removed from<br />
Mumbai for pollution and other reasons were relocated. The interim review of work index for comprehensive<br />
environment pollution index (CEPI) action plan carried out jointly by the Central Pollution Control Board<br />
(CPCB) and Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) has thrown up disturbing facts about the Vapi industrial<br />
cluster.<br />
The CEPI data shows that pollution levels in Vapi, which was marked as one of the most critically polluted<br />
industrial cluster in country, have again gone up. In the interim assessment report carried out jointly by CPCB<br />
and GPCB, Vapi has scored the highest in pollution grade out of the 43 industrial clusters in India assessed. The<br />
score in interim report is 90.75 out of 100. In the earlier report of CEPI in 2009, Vapi industrial cluster had scored<br />
88.09 out of 100. This means that pollution levels of air, water and land, have both gone up in two years.<br />
The score of air pollution in CEPI-2009 was 74 out of 100 whereas it went up to 74.50 in interim assessment<br />
CEPI-11 report. The report also reveals that during sampling, monitoring and assessment work, some of volatile<br />
organic carbon (VOC) based pollutants were found beyond permissible limit prescribed by national ambient air<br />
control standard - 2009. Out of 12 pollutants monitored in air from five different locations, six pollutants were<br />
found beyond permissible limit. These included nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter 10 and 2.5, lead, nickel and<br />
arsenic.<br />
According to guidelines for high polluted areas decided by the ministry for environment and forests, the score<br />
of more than 60 in CEPI shows a critical level of pollution The meeting was held last month in the in presence of<br />
senior GPCB officials, delegates from Vapi industrial associations and Vapi Waste and Effluents Management<br />
Co. Ltd. along with other prominent stakeholders from industry. The meeting widely discussed the issue of<br />
rising scores in air and water pollution, which were assessed beyond prescribed permissible limits. The first<br />
quarter report of volatile organic carbon monitored according to the new ambient air monitoring standard was<br />
worrisome. The value of highly hazardous pollutants was high, said an officer who was present in meeting.<br />
GPCB sources said after the moratorium imposed by MOEF on Vapi was lifted on condition of strict<br />
implementation of long-term pollution control action plan. The limit of the two-year action plan will end in<br />
September. [The Times of India, 21 st <strong>May</strong>]<br />
Naxalbari Day: Political Campaign for Revolutionary Alternative<br />
<strong>CPI</strong>(<strong>ML</strong>) KERALA STATE COMMITTEE is organizing a week long political campaign at state level with the slogans:<br />
Condemn the murder of com. TP Chandrasekharan, Fight Against Criminalization of Politics, and Struggle to Build<br />
Revolutionary Alternative, on the occasion of observing the 45 th anniversary of Naxalbari Uprising from 24 th to<br />
31 st <strong>May</strong>. While the campaign is organized on 24 th in Ernakulam district, 25-26 in Trichur, 27-28 in southern<br />
districts culminating with rally and public meeting at Thiruvalla on 28 th , the campaign in the northern districts<br />
from 28 th to 31 st <strong>May</strong> will culminate with a rally and public meeting at Kannur. With a special issue of the state<br />
committee’s organ, Sakhav ,the campaign will be continued in June propagating the ideological-political line of<br />
the <strong>CPI</strong>(<strong>ML</strong>) and calling for the unity of all genuine communists against the intensification of the<br />
criminalization of politics as a part of the neo-colonial degeneration as reflected in the brutal murder of com.TP<br />
Chandrashekheran by <strong>CPI</strong>(M)cadres, and for building a revolutionary alternative against Congress-led UDF,<br />
<strong>CPI</strong>(M)-led LDF and BJP.<br />
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Kabir Kala Manch Defence Committee statement<br />
ACCORDING TO official government figures, on an average 2 dalits are killed and 3 raped every day across India.<br />
All the more shocking is the fact that even in Maharashtra which gave birth to major social reformists and<br />
progressive thinkers like Jotiba Phule and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, the incidence of atrocities remains very<br />
high. In this landscape it cannot be surprising that dalit and adivasi youth have begun to voice their protest<br />
more openly than before. After the polic killings at Ramabai colony and later, the Khairlanji massacre many<br />
protests took place. Instead of bringing the guilty to book, the State responded by branding the protesters as<br />
Naxalites (Maoists). Dalit cultural activists like Sudhir Dhawle were jailed for “sedition” and remain behind<br />
bars for years, pending trial.<br />
It is in this context that the story of Kabir Kala Manch must be understood. KKM is a Pune based cultural troupe<br />
mainly consisting of Dalit youth from the region. First coming together against the communal carnage in<br />
Gujarat, they took part in innumerable public interest causes like slum-dwellers rights, workers rights and<br />
sustainable development, but their special affinity has been fighting for the annihilation of caste to which end<br />
they even held events promoting inter-caste marriage. Around last year the state began to brand them as<br />
Naxalites. Today while Deepak Dengle and Siddharth Bhonsle of KKM are in prison, many other members<br />
including lead singer-poets Sheetal Sathe, Sagar Gorkhe and Sachin Mali have gone underground after threats<br />
from the police.All are charged with being Naxalites and the ATS is using an uncritical media to plant regular<br />
allegations against the KKM. Even these allegations do not accuse the KKM of any violence, but are dependent<br />
mainly on guilt by association.<br />
The Kabir Kala Manch Defense Committee urges the government of Maharashtra to withdraw all false charges<br />
against members of the KKM, free the cultural activists who are currently in prison and allow the KKM to<br />
perform in public again.<br />
West Bengal: Thika Mazdoor Union Formed<br />
CONTRACTOR LABOUR UNION has been formed in Engineering Industry, Tiitagarh Wagon Limited, in West<br />
Bengal under the leadership of TUCI. The name of this union is "TWL Sangrami Thika Mazdoor Union". The<br />
struggle is going on in that Company.<br />
Indefinite fast against mega dam projects<br />
KRISHAK MUKTI SANGRAM SAMITI (KMSS) general secretary Akhil Gogoi today started his fast for an indefinite<br />
period in support of the demands for abandoning all the mega dam projects proposed in Arunachal Pradesh<br />
and Bhutan. The KMSS leader has also demanded immediate halt to transportation of construction materials to<br />
the under construction mega dam projects and resented the police atrocities on the anti-mega dam activists.<br />
Gogoi started his fast at the Lakhidhar Bora Kshetra in the Dighalipukhuripar area of the city. Many people met<br />
Gogoi at the venue of his fast programme and expressed their solidarity with him. Many students of the city<br />
colleges and Gauhati University met Gogoi at the venue of his fast, said a press release of the KMSS.<br />
Barack Obama’s Rule and the Killing of Trayvon Martin<br />
Ray o Light<br />
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL, the still imprisoned and still fearlessly honest Black journalist, warned the Afro-American<br />
people during the 2008 presidential election that they should remember that Obama was running to be the<br />
leader of “the most powerful white nation in the world.” With Mumia’s insight in mind, let’s look at Obama’s<br />
record as President in dealing with the oppressed status of the Afro-American people. Black Agenda Report<br />
executive editor Glen Ford exposed Obama’s role in the Trayvon Martin case with this profound truth:<br />
“Anybody that speaks of the U.S. as on a trajectory to a post-racial society is setting non-whites up for racist<br />
attack. … At the top of the list is Barack Obama, whose campaign trail ‘Philadelphia Speech’ baldly stated that<br />
racism was not endemic to American life and history, and characterized those Blacks who disagreed as having<br />
been psychologically damaged by past battles. That a Black president can be gratefully applauded by African-<br />
Americans – and publicly pilloried by some whites – for deigning to acknowledge the humanity of his own<br />
4
hypothetical child (‘If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon’) says volumes on the devaluation of Black life in<br />
America.” (“Trayvon Killing Reveals Unreconstructed White Nationalism on the March,” 4-18-12, My emphasis, ROL)<br />
Indeed, as the weeks passed with no arrest of the killer, his “looks like me” comment was all that the<br />
Commander in Chief had to say about the Trayvon Martin killing.*<br />
[Furthermore, as the Trayvon Martin case became widely known, Congressman Bobby Rush (Democrat-Illinois)<br />
spoke from the floor of the U.S. Congress in defense of justice for Trayvon Martin’s family while wearing a<br />
hoodie. Congressman Rush, a Black Panther in his youth, was physically escorted out of the building. The<br />
Illinois Congressman’s protest was the strongest support for justice that the Trayvon Martin case has received<br />
from an established bourgeois Washington, DC politician thus far. It is worth remembering that Barack<br />
Obama’s first run for political office was an effort to unseat Congressman Rush. From the standpoint of the<br />
Trayvon Martin case and the Afro-American people it is certainly good that Congressman Rush defeated<br />
Obama in that election.]<br />
A few months ago, Troy Davis, a young Afro-American man was executed in Atlanta, Georgia, the unofficial<br />
“capital” of the Afro-American nation. Davis was put to death by the state of Georgia, even though all but one<br />
of the witnesses who had fingered him for the crime had renounced their previous testimony and Davis had<br />
steadfastly maintained his innocence. The National NAACP, led by Benjamin Jealous, was acting as if there was<br />
no way that Troy Davis would be executed. After all, the NAACP was well connected with both the President<br />
and Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr., both men of African descent. Yet Obama and Holder did not “interfere”<br />
with Georgia-style “justice,” citing the age-old pro-slavery doctrine of states’ rights! Some of Troy Davis’ blood<br />
is on their hands!<br />
An earlier experience of Barack Obama and the National NAACP in Georgia, could have foretold the tragic<br />
outcome of the Troy Davis case. In July 2010, the mere allegation that Shirley Sherrod, Georgia State Director of<br />
Rural Development United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), a Black USDA official, had discriminated<br />
against a white farmer led to her being forced to resign by Tom Vilsack, Barack Obama’s Secretary of<br />
Agriculture. In 1982, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights had reported that a primary cause of the loss of land<br />
of Afro-American farmers was discrimination at the hands of the USDA. And the U.S. Congress has reluctantly<br />
begun to pay reparations for this fact. Yet no white USDA official was ever ousted for the actual systemic<br />
discrimination against Black farmers now acknowledged by the U.S. government itself. Despite all this, the<br />
National NAACP immediately and shamefully trumpeted its support for Obama’s ouster of Sherrod.*<br />
About six months into the Obama presidency, in July of 2009, Obama’s personal friend, the eminent and well<br />
known Harvard University African-American Studies professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested by a white<br />
Cambridge, Massachusetts police detective named James Crowley. Gates was then a small, fifty-eight year old<br />
man walking with the aid of a cane who proved to the detective that the home Crowley “caught” him in was his<br />
own. In spite of all of this, Crowley handcuffed, arrested, booked and jailed Gates for four hours with no legal<br />
justification for his treatment of Gates. He merely did not like Gates’ attitude. Gates had not adopted a<br />
submissive approach in keeping with the U.S. culture in which the general population, and especially the Afro-<br />
American population, prostrates itself before the police power of “law and order.” Obama’s “executive action”<br />
was to invite both the victim and the perpetrator, to come to Washington, DC to have a beer together with him.<br />
Thus, was the police detective’s white supremacist rogue behavior toward a prominent Afro-American scholar<br />
and friend of the president rewarded by the president!<br />
Finally, the Afro-American working class has been attacked by the Obama Administration as well. The auto<br />
industry bailout led to a sharp decrease in the standard of living and union rights for the auto workers. And<br />
federal workers have been laid off and have lost income and raises during this Obama period. Now the United<br />
States Postal Service, long seen in the Afro-American community as one of the few reliable, accessible sources of<br />
stable, dignified and decent working class union jobs, (along with other federal jobs and the auto industry) is<br />
threatened with collapse and is a privatization target of the Obama-Wall Street cabal. The bloody, brutal, harsh<br />
and unrelenting historical assault by U.S. imperialism on the Afro-American people’s national identity is the<br />
only explanation for the desire of the majority of the Afro-American people to keep hoping that Obama will be<br />
“successful,” even though his success clearly comes at their expense! Clinging to this national identification with<br />
Obama, the successful individual African-American, many Afro-Americans refuse to recognize the fact that<br />
Obama is a more effective enforcer of the national oppression of the Afro-American people than George W.<br />
5
Bush was.<br />
Caterpillar Plant Closing in Canada<br />
FOR OVER SIXTY YEARS, hundreds of Canadian workers, organized in the Canadian Auto Workers Union (CAW),<br />
built railroad locomotives in London, Ontario. Two years ago, the giant U.S. company, Caterpillar, Inc.,<br />
purchased Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. and the London, Ontario plant became Caterpillar’s main plant for<br />
assembling locomotives in North America. The unionized Canadian workers were earning an average of thirtyfive<br />
Canadian dollars an hour as well as good benefits and pensions.Caterpillar, Inc., has a history of unionbusting<br />
in the USA; it is a Fortune 500 company that made a record profit of $4.9 billion dollars last year,<br />
including a 60% profit increase of $1.55 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone! In an effort to take advantage<br />
of the global economic crisis and no doubt encouraged by the many concessions that the company had<br />
previously wrested from the more class collaborationist leadership of the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) in<br />
the USA, Caterpillar pushed the CAW for huge (50%) cuts in wages and benefits.<br />
On January 1, <strong>2012</strong>, after six months of union-company negotiations, Caterpillar locked the workers out of their<br />
workplace in an effort to force these concessions on the workers. The CAW workers set up picket lines and<br />
resisted the company’s demands with slogans such as “50% CUT in wages and benefits: NOT this time<br />
Caterpillar!” and “CATER$ILLAR — Record profits, Record CEO Compensation, Record demands for<br />
concessions.” On January 21, <strong>2012</strong>, there was a huge community-labor protest rally of around 15,000 in support<br />
of the workers’ resistance to these outrageous company demands. On February 3, <strong>2012</strong>, Caterpillar, Inc.<br />
announced it was shutting down the London, Ontario plant permanently. The company lockout had become a<br />
plant closing!<br />
According to a front page article in the January 20, <strong>2012</strong> Wall Street Journal, Caterpillar, Inc. has other railroad<br />
locomotive plants, including one in Brazil and a new non-union plant in Muncie, Indiana, where Caterpillar has<br />
hired workers at about half the wages of the London, Ontario workers! In addition, prior to its lockout of the<br />
London, Ontario manufacturing workers, Caterpillar made an agreement with the Canadian-based monopoly,<br />
Bombardier, Inc., to supply it with locomotives produced by workers in Sahagún, Mexico. Caterpillar, Inc. is<br />
prepared to shift its production from London, Ontario to either the “low wage” USA or Brazil or Mexico or to<br />
any place else in the world where it can maximize its profits! This fact reflects the utter lack of loyalty of the<br />
monopoly capitalists to any country or to any country’s workers. The monopoly capitalists are loyal only to<br />
maximum profits.*<br />
[Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric Company, the largest U.S. monopoly corporation, which made<br />
$14 billion dollars in profits and paid no taxes in 2010, said years ago that if he could put every factory on a<br />
barge and continually move it to whatever was the lowest wage-earning country in the world, that’s what he<br />
would do!] From the experience of the militant CAW workers in London, Ontario who refused to submit to<br />
Caterpillar’s brutal pressure, it is clear that while trade union militancy and community support is important<br />
and quite likely was key to wresting plant closing benefits from Caterpillar, Inc. that were greater than those<br />
guaranteed by Canadian law (three weeks severance pay for each year of work), they were not sufficiently<br />
strong enough to prevent Caterpillar from shutting down the plant. Caterpillar, Inc. was able to close the<br />
London, Ontario plant because the corporation had lined up workers in other countries to meet its production<br />
needs! To be in a position to prevent Caterpillar, Inc. or any other monopoly corporation from closing plants in<br />
Canada or anywhere else in the world, workers need to be at least as united and organized “across borders” as<br />
Caterpillar and other monopoly capitalist corporations are. To successfully oppose the monopoly capitalists’<br />
efforts to keep workers divided, playing off one section of the international working class against another<br />
(workers of one country against those of another), and thereby undermining all of our wages, working<br />
conditions and hours of work, workers around the world need to unite and coordinate our struggles<br />
internationally.* [It was precisely this need for international working class unity in the struggle to win the eight<br />
hour work day that led to the birth of <strong>May</strong> Day – the International Workers Holiday – over one hundred and<br />
twenty years ago.]<br />
Unprecedented strike in Educational system in Spain<br />
6
IN AN unprecedented move, in so far as there has never before been a strike covering all the levels of education –<br />
from Kindergarten to University, teachers and students in Spain went on strike on 22 nd <strong>May</strong> <strong>2012</strong> to protest<br />
against the massive cuts in the educational budget. Parents Associations, Private Educational institutions, all<br />
responded to the call for a strike from the teachers union. Massive demonstrations are expected this evening.<br />
The teachers union has reported 80% response to the strike. 14 out of <strong>17</strong> regions in Spain are taking part in this<br />
strike.<br />
The Government has budgeted for a cut in spending on education to the tune of 3 billion Euros (Twenty<br />
Thousand Crore Rupees). This will translate into less teachers, more students per class and higher fees for<br />
university education. It is estimated that 80000 to 100000 teachers will lose their jobs as a result of this cut in<br />
spending.<br />
After Greece, Ireland and Portugal have already been given massive bailouts by the European Union, it seems<br />
that Spain is headed in the same direction. Massive crises in the banking sectors in Spain have led to the<br />
Governments call for “austerity”. This “austerity” naturally translates into cuts in spending on essential public<br />
sectors like education. Spain already has only a 74% high school completion rate (as against 85% average in the<br />
European Union). The unemployment rate in the country is already at over 24%. The unemployment rate in<br />
those below 25 is 52%! Cutting expenditure in education in this situation will lead to havoc. In the words of a<br />
student interviewed in Madrid, all students will have to leave their schooling and get jobs in Germany – as<br />
uneducated labour.<br />
Presidential Pardon to Sarath Fonseka<br />
[Statement of Com. SK Senthivel, General Secretary of ND<strong>ML</strong>P, dated 25 <strong>May</strong>]<br />
IF IT IS POSSIBLE for the President to pardon the former Army General Sarath Fonseka who was detained for<br />
reasons of political vengeance and imprisoned under court verdicts, why is it not possible to pardon and release<br />
political prisoners who are under detention for many long years without inquiry? In that context, the demand<br />
by the Tamil political prisoners who have been on hunger strike for the past five days that they should be<br />
released is fully justified. The Government should pay full attention to their demand and take the necessary<br />
steps to secure their immediate release.<br />
The former Army General Sarath Fonseka was detained, charged and imprisoned under court verdicts as a<br />
result of contradictions among the ruling class forces. These steps comprise denial of democracy and political<br />
vengeance, and are unacceptable in any way. Sarath Fonseka was released yesterday through a pardon by the<br />
President. The pardon was not based on democratic considerations but because the Government yielded to<br />
pressure from the US.<br />
The release of Tamil political prisoners is being deliberately dragged on and denied owing to chauvinistic<br />
considerations. The Party urges in the name of law, democracy and human rights that all other political<br />
prisoners including Tamil political prisoners who have been detained without inquiry for a very long time<br />
should be released.<br />
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