Paul S. Graham

I just received this message from Eric Lee at LabourStart. Please read and act.

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In unions in different countries, we call each other by different names. Some unions use the word ‘comrade’, others use ‘colleague’. And many use the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ to describe fellow union members.

Are we simply using these words because we always have, or do they still have any real meaning?

I ask that question because in the last few days one of our brothers has been brutally tortured and murdered, and another one, an innocent man, jailed.

Santiago Rafael Cruz

In Mexico, Santiago Rafael Cruz, a 29-year-old union organizer from the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC, AFL-CIO) was brutally tortured and murdered. Santiago was a successful organizer in the USA who had moved down to Mexico to run the union’s office there. His activities aroused the hostility of those who fear the growth of trade unionism among farm workers, and generated attacks in the media, threats of deportation, robberies and intimidation, culminating in this terrible crime.

Santiago has a family in Mexico, a mother, father, sisters and brothers. But his family is much larger than that; it includes all of us. We must grieve together with his family, and we must fight together with them as one large family to ensure that the Mexican government investigates the murder, arrests and prosecutes those responsible, and ensures the safety of union activists in that country.

Please take a moment to send off your message today.

Mahmoud Salehi

About the same time that union-hating murderers were ending the life of this courageous young man in Mexico, on the other side of the world Iranian security forces lured union activist Mahmoud Salehi into the local prosecutor’s office on the pretext of discussing plans for this year’s May Day celebrations. Salehi, a former president of the bakery workers’ union in the city of Saqez, was then arrested and put in jail for a year with a three year suspended sentence on top of that. His crime was that in 2004 he organized a May Day demonstration.

Tell the Iranian authorities to release Mahmoud Salehi now, and to drop all charges.

I doubt very much if Santiago and Mahmoud ever met — and yet they are brothers. One now languishing in an Iranian prison, the other in a Mexican grave.

If these two men were not just fellow trade union members but actually your brothers, the sons of your mothers and fathers, how would you react? I know that you wouldn’t be silent — you would be up in arms and the whole world would know your anger and your pain.

Please pass this message on. Let’s tell the Mexican and Iranian governments that we in the international trade union movement are a single family, and we will not tolerate our brothers and sisters being tortured, jailed or murdered anywhere in the world.

– Eric Lee

For citizens with a desire for progressive political change, the anticipated Manitoba provincial election is guaranteed to disappoint.

We are still recovering from the damage done by the Tories the last time they held power and progressives rightly will not trust them with our vote.

The Liberals long ago ceased to have political importance; indeed their only contribution in the last 30 years of provincial politics has been to offer, rarely and long ago, a spirited opposition à la Sharon Carstairs or Lloyd Axworthy (when he was much younger.)

The Greens? They are worth a second look. And perhaps your vote. They have some good ideas, but the party is very small and unlikely to do more than annoy the NDP in one or two urban ridings.

In Manitoba, the NDP has come to occupy the territory provincially that the Liberal Party holds nation-wide: that of the Natural Governing Party. As an “NGP” the NDP is not hideous enough to kick out, but neither does it inspire any confidence that it has the ideas or even the desire to implement a progressive platform. As a result it enjoys broad support, drawing votes from folks who would feel comfortable voting Liberal on one hand, and those who dread a return of the Tories. The only thing that could cost the NDP a victory in the next provincial election would be if it were caught with its fingers deep in the public till, as were the federal Liberals under Chretien and Martin.

Where does that leave us lefty, pinko, commie, tree-hugging, red-green hippie feminist anarchists — otherwise known as thoughtful critics of late capitalism (or neo-barbarism, if you prefer)?

A friend once quipped: “Don’t vote – you’ll only encourage them!” That may be an option for some.

For the rest of us, perhaps the best we can do will be to inject some meaningful content into the election that is to come after Gary Doer has examined the entrails of a dying chicken to find the most propitious moment to drop the writ.

The Manitoba office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has decided to do just that with a new blog. It’s definitely worth a visit and a bookmark. Moreover, I hope readers will contribute to the CCPA Manitoba Election Blog, and work actively to inject progressive ideas into the coming election.

If we don’t do it, who will?