Paul S. Graham

About 50 Winnipeggers braved -20 C temperatures and a biting wind to rally for Freedom for Gaza in front of the Canadian Grain Commission building on Main Street in Winnipeg Jan. 24.

The rally, organized by Peace Alliance Winnipeg, Canadian Muslims for Palestine and the Canada Palestine Support Network, was one of several held in Winnipeg since Jan. 3 that have mobilized hundreds of local citizens.

“Even though the shooting is ended in Gaza, the occupation is still on. So we’re calling for freedom for Gaza and an end to the occupation,” said rally spokesperson, Bassam Hozaima.

Bob Tyre, President of the Winnipeg Local of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, read a letter from CUPW National President Denis Lemelin to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, which said, in part:

“. . . as a longer term strategy, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers is asking your government to adopt a program of boycott, divestment, and sanctions until Israel recognizes the right of Palestinian people to self-determination and complies with international law, including the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

Speaking on behalf of Canadian Muslims for Palestine, Nadira Mustapha said:

“The question we face now is what next? Will we return back to our status quo and remain at ease? Dear people of conscience, let us remember we have yet to hold the Israeli government accountable for the war crimes perpetuated against the innocent civilians of Gaza as a result of Operation Cast Lead as with past operations, sieges and invasions. Let us remember that while Israel has called for a unilateral ceasefire, it is clear that the siege of Gaza continues with Israeli troops in Gaza. We must denounce the ongoing Israeli occupation in Palestine, which constitutes a violation of United Nations Resolution 242. We must condemn the direct complicity of the US and Canadian governments with the Israeli war crimes in Gaza.”

Israeli peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Jeff Halper, who heads the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, was optimistic about the prospects for a free Palestine.

“I bring you greetings from the critical Israeli peace movement. We had about 10,000 people in the streets of Tel Aviv not long after the beginning of the invasion of Gaza. So, there are people in Israeli, as well, who get it, that are fighting the occupation, who are horrified at the massacres in Gaza, and are raising their voices.

“I think we are making the turn in our struggle. Until now, we were still minority voices. With the invasion of Gaza, Israeli really showed what it is after. It’s not after peace but the invasion of Gaza was really a campaign of pacification to try and pave the way for apartheid – an imposition of an apartheid regime on all of Palestine. And I think now people get it. Not only people on the left, or critical people, but I think the mainstream is starting to get it.

“Millions of people went out all over the world to protest this and still are. I think we have to take heart from that. Sometimes we look at ourselves as small groups of people on s street corner. But we should know that this is becoming a global issue on the scale of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. So, we’re winning, and I think that people are with us and I hope that soon we’re going to see a free Palestine.”

Halper is on a cross-Canada tour. Information on the tour is available at the Canada Palestine Support Network site.

Jan. 24, 2009: Members of CUPW Winnipeg Local at Freedom for Gaza Rally in Winnipeg. Photo: Paul Graham

This article originally appeared at the Peace Alliance Winnipeg web site.

http://blip.tv/play/2UjnmCyJ9XE

Last Sunday, in the lead-up to Barack Obama’s inauguration, American musical icons Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen, performed together in front of the Lincoln Memorial for Barack Obama and an estimated half million other folks.

Their song was timely — “This Land is your Land” — Woodie Guthrie’s beloved anthem, penned at the end of the Great Depression in 1940.

This may be the first time in history that this song was heard on televisions around the world as it was originally intended to be sung. The last three verses, which represent a powerful call for the rights of working people, are not widely known.

By reclaiming the lost verses, Seeger, 89, reaffirmed its original meaning as America enters another Great Depression. In doing so, he paid a huge tribute to his old friend Woodie Guthrie.

And veteran rabble rouser that his is, Seeger also provided a means for the half million people on site and the millions watching to express their aspirations for social justice to Mr. Obama. Obama seemed to be singing along, but was he listening? Time will tell.

Parliament resumes next week. Will our elected representatives remember that there is a Canadian version to This Land is Your Land?

This Land Is Your Land
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie

Chorus:
This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking that ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

I’ve roamed and rambled and I’ve followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

Chorus

In the squares of the city – In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office – I see my people
As they stood hungry and some are wonderin’
If this land’s still made for you and me.

Chorus

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn’t say nothing;
That side was made for you and me.

Chorus

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

Additional verses

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

As I was walkin’ – I saw a sign there
And that sign said – no tress passin’
But on the other side …. it didn’t say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/k4oF6uBR00EwTN613l&related=1

John Lennon Happy Christmas

This song is a small way to say thank you to the folks who have visited here over the past year. I’ve appreciated your comments and ideas and look forward to another year of shared rants, raves and thoughtful analyses.

Without asking the G-G, I’m proroguing this blog for the holidays. Nonetheless, I will be back before Parliament resumes.

So, a wonderful solstice to all, however you choose to celebrate or ignore it.

🙂

The War Resisters Support Campaign says that U.S. war resister Cliff Cornell has been told by Citizenship and Immigration Canada to leave Canada by Dec. 24, or face removal by force. Another war resister, Kimberly Rivera, will receive a decision on her request to remain in Canada on Jan. 7. War resister Dean Walcott was told on December 3rd that he must leave Canada by January 6th or face deportation to the United States.

Cornell, from Arkansas, was stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia. He joined the Army with the promise from a military recruiter that he would receive a $9,000 sign up bonus and job training. “Ninety per cent of what the recruiters tell you is a pack of lies,” said Cliff. Army recruitment techniques amount to entrapment, targeting young men from poor families, said Cornell. His unit was to be deployed to Iraq just after Christmas. On January 8 2005, Cliff arrived in Toronto seeking asylum. He currently works as an assistant manager of a retail store near Nanaimo.

Rivera served with the U.S. Army in Iraq and came to Canada with her husband, Mario, and their two children in early 2007. Says Rivera: “While in Iraq, losing soldiers and civilians was a part of daily life. I was a gate guard. This position was the highest of security for a forward operation base, being that we searched vehicles, civilian personnel, and military convoys that left and came back every hour. After a huge awakening in the lives of the civilians who don’t get to escape the trauma, or the pain and the loss of people they love, I was seeing the truth and it wasn’t pretty. Seeing the war as it truly is. People losing their lives for greed of a nation, and still some people can’t see the lies behind the media. The effects on the soldiers who come back with new problems such as nightmares, anxieties, depression, anger, and alcohol abuse, and missing limbs and scars from burns, and some don’t come back at all.”

Dean Walcott joined the active duty USMC August 23 2000. Dean deployed to Iraq twice, and in between, was stationed at a US Army hospital in Stuttgart, Germany. His last command was at a non-depolyable Inspector/Instructor unit in North Carolina.  Originally from Connecticut, Dean arrived in Toronto in December 2006 where he has applied for refugee status.

The War Resisters Support Campaign needs our help. You can start by demanding that the Tories take back their Chrismas lumps of coal. Insist that the government implement the motion approved by Parliament in June to allow war resisters to remain in Canada.

Contact Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney at (613) 954-1064 or (613) 992-2235 or
minister@cic.gc.ca or Kenney.j@parl.gc.ca.

Please cc the opposition party critics if you email Jason Kenney:

• Liberal party immigration critic Borys Wrzesnewskyj: wrzesnewskyj.b@parl.gc.ca
• NDP immigration critic Olivia Chow: chow.o@parl.gc.ca
• Bloc Québécois immigration critic Thierry St-Cyr: st-cyr.t@parl.gc.ca.

Finally, visit the War Resisters Support Campaign web site and see how you can become further involved.

Sources: War Resisters Support Campaign, Canadian Press

Three more Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan yesterday, bringing the Canadian death toll to 103 soldiers, two aid workers and one diplomat. A week before in Helmand Province, ten civilians including women and children were killed in an ISAF air strike in the Nad-e-Ali district.

The only bright note was today’s shoe-ing of outgoing War Criminal in Chief George W. Bush by Muntadhar al-Zaidi, an Iraqi journalist with Egypt-based al-Baghdadia television network — who could be heard yelling in Arabic: “This is a farewell … you dog!” Reportedly, throwing shoes at someone is considered an insult among Muslims. I gather that being called a dog isn’t exactly a term of endearment, either. But I digress . . .

Like most Canadians, I am more than tired of this endless violence (except for the shoe part). For that reason, I suppose, I (and we)  would not have been welcomed at a gathering, in Ottawa last week, of dozens of senior bureaucrats, diplomats and analysts from Canada and the U.S. who met to discuss a “blueprint” for convincing Obama to pay attention to the Canadian government.

Among their conclusions, according to the Financial Post,

. . . if Ottawa has any hope of getting the ear of the world’s most popular politician, it will have to think big and act even bigger. And that means dumping plans for the large-scale withdrawal of Canadian Forces from Afghanistan in 2011.

These deep thinkers need a reality check: Obama will only remain the world’s most popular politician if he breaks his election promise and withdraws from Afghanistan.

Regrettably, I doubt that will happen. Obama strikes me as a forthright man; if he says he is going to escalate the war in Afghanistan, I believe him. Furthermore, there is no doubt in my mind that our mandarin class will line up to do the Empire’s bidding. Whether we have Stephen Harper to kick us around in 2012, or whether the boots are applied by “Torture if Necessary, but Not Necessarily Torture” Michael Ignatieff, the outcome is not likely to be much different. We will be in Afghanistan, and other unquestionably sordid military misadventures, because that is the nature of the beasts who run things in Ottawa and  Washington.

While I have never believed that Canada played the Pearsonian boy scout that we have been raised to believe was our progressive, middle power personna, there is no question that we are becoming increasingly militarized. In 2004, Canada was tied with Germany for 5th place among the world’s largerst arms exporters.

USA – $18.555 billion
Russia – 4.6 billion
France – 4.4 billion
UK – 1.9
Germany – 0.9 billion
Canada – 0.9 billion
China – 0.7 billion
Israel – 0.5 billion

According to Conscience Canada,

Canada’s involvement in militarism is significant: 8.4% of Canada’s budget was spent on the military in 2006-2007 (up from 7.9% in 2005-06). Canada is now the sixth highest military spender within NATO.

Table, Canada’s Military Budget 2006-07: Conscience Canada

With the costs of Canada’s war in Afghanistan expected to be between $14 to $18 billion by 2001, expect that figure to increase.

While a majority of Canadians opposes this war, most opposition has been expressed politely in public opinion polls. While the peace movement can take much of the credit for informing and helping to shape public opinion, the government has found it relatively easy to ignore the peaceful wishes of Canadians.

Anti-war opposition might be louder and sharper if young Canadians were being conscripted to fight in this unpopular war. But they are not, and Canadians remain relatively quiescent as a result.

What most Canadians don’t seem to get is that Ottawa’s eager warriors don’t need to draft our kids as long as they can draft our dollars. As Justice Thomas Berger has observed,

In Canada the conscription of ordinary citizens has become irrelevant to the maintenance of the armies of modern technological societies. It is the citizen’s resources that the government now conscripts.

What do you suppose the government would do if the 56 per cent of Canadians who disapprove of their war refused to pay for it? Never mind 56 percent — what if only five per cent of us redirected that portion of our income taxes that funds the Department of National Defence to peaceful means?

Watch this video, and then check out the Conscience Canada web site. And think it over.

I can hear it now: HELL NO! OUR BUCKS WON’T GO! Hmmmm.

When Bob Rae was in Winnipeg yesterday he mused that Harper’s suspension of Parliament, while undemocratic, gave the Coalition a chance to talk with Canadians, listen to Canadians and to “get it right.”

I agree. Nowhere is this more important than on the question of Afghanistan. The Liberals got us into Afghanistan. The Liberals voted with the Tories (against the NDP and BQ) to keep us in Afghanistan. And the agreement signed by the Liberals and the NDP leaves this situation unaddressed.

If the Coalition for Change is truly interested in the views of Canadians, it needs to remember that a majority of Canadians opposes Canada’s military involvement in that war. We need to remind them of that.

Should the war in Afghanistan be a deal breaker for NDP participation in the Coalition? Evidently not, as far as the NDP leadership is concerned. For Paul Kellogg, writing in rabble.ca, it should be. According to Kellogg:

An anti-war party cannot stay anti-war and enter a cabinet with a pro-war party. Layton and the NDP leadership have to face up to the fact, that were the coalition to take office, the war in Afghanistan would become their war, and the deaths and injuries suffered in that conflict would be their responsibility.

I’m sympathetic to Kellogg’s point of view, but I’m not totally convinced. This coalition business might provide an opportunity to talk to Liberals about the evils of imperialism and the Liberal’s sad record of supporting it.

I suggest that Coalition supporters who oppose the war insist that their respective parties address it. Surely there are at least a few Liberals who oppose this war.

So, Antiwar Liberals, wherever you are, as long as you are in bed with the NDP, why not raise some hell about this war? How many more Canadian soldiers have to die helping the Americans rule the world? How many more Afghans do we have to kill before you awaken to complicity of your party?

Bob Rae rallied Coalition support at a packed Crescentwood Community Centre in Winnipeg, Dec. 6. Photo: Paul Graham

If there are divisions in Liberal ranks over the Liberal-NDP Coalition, they were not evident today at a meeting addressed by Bob Rae. The mostly Liberal gathering listened closely and applauded enthusiastically as Rae explained the historic agreement between the Liberals and the NDP to bring Harper down.

After speaking for about 20 minutes, Rae answered questions for another hour. At the end of the meeting, he was joined by Winnipeg North MP Judy Wasylycia-Leis, who was welcomed warmly by the crowd.

Here is an audio clip of Bob Rae’s speech in Winnipeg.

And here are excerpts from his remarks.

We have to have the courage of our convictions, my friends. We cannot allow ourselves to be intimidated by these slogans and these epithets and this irresponsibility of our Prime Minister. We will stand our ground.

I regret that the fact of the Governor General giving the extra seven weeks to Mr. Harper . . . but we respect the decisions that were made and all I can tell you is that it just gives us more time to get it right. It gives us more time to sit down and talk to Canadians and explain to Canadians about why this common approach works best – why it makes more sense that one-man government.

Mr. Harper has succeeded in delaying the end of his government, but he has not succeeded in achieving what he thinks he can achieve. He has no more confidence and trust today than he had last week. And believe me, he will have no more on January 26 or Jan. 27 than he has today.

Do you want to live in a country where the Prime Minister basically says that people who don’t agree with him or who try to do things differently are traitors? Are unfaithful to their country? Or lack patriotism? And I’m telling you – there is only one way to stop that. There’s only one way to stop it.

You cannot appease this man. He cannot be appeased. There is no point pretending that we can. It is essential for all of us understand.

Mr. Harper, we are serious. We are serious with what we did. We are serious with where we need to go. And we are determined to get there. And we are going to get there together. We’re going to get there in a positive, creative way, We’re going to get there in a way that responds to the needs of Canadians. We’re going to present them with a government that is disciplined, that is focused, that is united and that understands what has to be done.

We cannot afford division. We cannot afford to be disunited. We have to stay together, stay disciplined and stay focused. And stay respectful of one another. And even respectful of those people who say “I don’t think this is the right thing to do.” . . . You say, “Fine. Let’s have that discussion.”

What I know in my bones is that if we give Mr. Harper a vote of confidence at the end of January we will live to regret it for the rest of our lives. The democratic rights that he wanted to take away with that economic statement – they are the steps that he wanted to take. Those steps are not gone. Those steps are simply sleeping. There is nothing in what he has said since then that leads me to believe that he is sorry, has changed his mind, or is prepared to mend his ways. And everyone here knows that those are the steps that are crucial before you can say you are on the road to recovery. This guy ain’t on the road to recovery; he’s on the road to ruin. And I don’t think we should be following him down that road.

http://video.google.ca/googleplayer.swf?docid=-8983474497946059326&hl=en&fs=true

No, he still hasn’t met them, but it’s not for want of trying by the Majority Agenda Coalition, which on Nov. 15 demonstrated outside of the Conservative Party of Canada Convention in Winnipeg.

The coalition drew eloquent and boisterous attention to the vast range of issues deemed important by Canadians across the country. If you missed it, set aside an hour, get a bucket of popcorn and enjoy the video.

More importantly, circulate the video link widely.

You can email the Majority Agenda Coalition at block.harper.winnipeg@gmail.com.

Warrant Officer Robert John Wilson, Pte. Demetrios Diplaros, Cpl. Mark Robert McLaren, all from 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, were killed by an IED on Dec. 5, 2008. Photo: National Post

Every time we lose another soldier, it feels like I’ve lost my son one more time . . . I really feel we shouldn’t be there to begin with, so if there’s a hundred or two or three its all the same to me – they shouldn’t be there. . . . I don’t see the reason we should be losing all our young soldiers to a war. I think they should be doing peace keeping and helping more people. What’s the point of having them killed in a foreign country — for what reason – we’re not even sure what we’re doing there.
– Claire Léger, mother of Sgt. Marc Léger, one of the first Canadians to die in Afghanistan, interviewed on Global TV News, Dec. 5, 2008

These are very special people who have put their lives on the line in the service of their fellow human beings and in their devotion to our country. It is because of them now and throughout our history that we are able to celebrate our Christmas in such peace and prosperity,” Harper said. “It is because of them that we have this wonderful country. It is their gift to us.
– Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at CFB Petawawa for a previously scheduled event to launch a “Trees for the Troops” Christmas campaign, National Post, Dec. 5, 2008

I guess Madame Léger has her answer; her son and 99 other Canadian soldiers died in Afghanistan so that we could celebrate Christmas in peace and prosperity.

Bah, humbug!

Winnipeggers opposed The Rogue, Dec. 4, 2008, at a spirited rally at the Marlborough Hotel. Photo: Boris Minkevich, Winnipeg Free Press

Media reports put attendance at the Winnipeg rally at about 500. I was there; it seemed larger. It was (as were all of the rallies across the country yesterday, I imagine)  part public relations exercise and part group therapy. We publicly demonstrated our support for a coalition government to replace Harper and we got a chance to vent our collective outrage at Harper’s antics.

This is all well and good. But it left me wondering, where do we go from here? Will the leadership of this movement continue to mobilize and if so, to what end?

I’m beginning to think that the Parliamentary battle to replace Harper was lost as soon as Michaelle Jean gave Harper permission to suspend Parliament. When he comes back at the end of January, having held power for three months, the option of a transition to coalition government may be theoretically possible. However, I think Jean will play safe, and if the government falls at the end of January, she will dissolve Parliament and we will be into an election.

Which brings we back to my earlier question: to what end should this coalition be mobilizing? An election favours Harper, not so much because he is popular with Canadians, but rather because the anti-right wing forces in Canada are fragmented and our electoral system allows MPs to win their seats with the smallest of pluralities.

None of Canada’s Opposition parties, by themselves, can take enough seats to win even a minority government. If the Coalition is serious about replacing Harper it has to be prepared to contest the next election as a Coalition.

This would involve, among other things, an agreement between the Liberals, NDP and Bloc to support each other’s currently elected MPs in this election.

Scary stuff, yes. But absolutely necessary if we are to rid the country of Harper and the dangerous brand of politics he represents.

Below is the latest Winnipeg Free Press Readers’ Poll. It’s a snapshot taken at 9:30 Central Time today.

Should Parliament have been suspended?

Yes 42%
No 57%

Total Votes: 1841