Dear Friends,

Be sure to attend and mobilize for the rally against Bill C-51, the misnamed ‘anti-terror’ law:

Winnipeg City Hall, 510 Main St.
Saturday, March 14, 1 pm
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1406312033015005/

Anti-C-51 rallies will take place in more than 50 towns and cities across Canada this weekend.

The Conservative government is cracking down on the popular resistance to its reactionary policies with this law. Just in time for the next economic crisis.

The bill will vastly expand the powers of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to commit illegal acts against vaguely-defined threats to Canada’s security and “economic stability,” which could easily include strikes.

Like last year’s “Fair Elections Act” which disenfranchised about half a million mainly non-Conservative people and surveillance of the entire population, C-51 is another serious attack on democracy.

More seriously, the Conservatives are fear mongering against Muslims, Aboriginal people and environmentalists to stampede people from a ‘spy” state to a ‘police’ state.

It is very positive to see the great response so far to this reactionary Tory plan.

As the organizers point out, absolute unity and action will defeat this reactionary bill, even if it becomes law.

The roster of speakers includes a broad range of groups from the Aboriginal, Muslim, civil rights, student, environmental and other communities, plus three political parties opposed to the bill (NDP, Green and Communist ).

Against Bill C-51,
Darrell Rankin
Manitoba office, Communist Party of Canada

The annual IWD march begins at 1:00 pm at Portage Place mall, near the escalators, and ends at the Union Centre.
Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/723472897766915/

* * * * *
Dear Friends and Comrades,

On International Women’s Day, the Communist Party sends greetings and solidarity to all women in their struggles for equality and a fair society. Started by working class, socialist women in 1911, IWD has become a national holiday in many countries – a paid, statutory holiday, but not in Canada and the United States.

It was a utopian socialist, Charles Fourier, who was the “first to declare that in any given society the degree of woman’s emancipation is the natural measure of the general emancipation” (Engels).

The position of women here helps explain why North America is the bulwark of reaction and militarism in global politics, as much as our governments try to portray our countries as brimming over with human rights.

In Solidarity,
Darrell Rankin
Manitoba office, Communist Party of Canada

February 25, 2015

Picket tomorrow against Harper’s so-called anti-terror bill

A picket has been organized against the Conservative Party’s misnamed anti-terror bill:

Shelly Glover, MP’s office
Thursday, Feb. 26, 4:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
213 St. Mary’s Road (near Traverse)

All groups are welcome, including to speak and co-sponsor.

* * * * *
Harper’s legislation will enable the RCMP and CSIS to crack down on all resistance in Canada, against democratic and workers’ struggles.

There is no “balance” in the bill. It gives free reign to the government’s security apparatus at the same time it attacks Canadians’ rights and freedoms.

There is no evidence that the government needs to give such power to secret, actually political police. Historically, such legislation has always been used once passed:  to outlaw socialist parties (1918), crush the Winnipeg General Strike (1919), outlaw the Communist Party (1931, two years before Germany and Japan, and 1939), and imprison hundreds of innocent people during the FLQ crisis.

As found by the Royal Commission on Certain Activities of the RCMP (1977), even without such laws the police carried out serious criminal activities against progressive organizations, including the Communist Party, many of which remain unpublished and secret to this day.

So it can safely be said, the bill is unnecessary and is intended to create fear and conformity among Canadians with the Conservative Party’s definition of terrorism.

The Communist Party is wholly opposed to terrorism as a tactic in the mass struggles for democracy and socialism, but the Conservative government is using this bill to instill fear in the general public and to draw attention away from its own pro-terror policies such as bombing Yugoslavia and Libya, helping Ukraine’s pro-Nazi regime which is terrorizing its population and banning the Communist Party there, and deporting U.S. military veterans who are opposed to war crimes to serve lengthy sentences in U.S. military prisons – pursuing a pro-war crime agenda.

The Communist Party completely rejects the idea that this bill is needed to counter so-called “eco-terrorism” or the serious, false charge against Aboriginal rights activists that they are terrorists. The proven use of agents provocateurs in anti-globalization protests by police shows who are the real criminals.

The bill targets the resistance to corporate control of Canada.

The bill’s first target is the international unity of working people, Arab and non-Arab, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, Russian and non-Russian.

Who are the Conservative party’s targets-of-choice, the targets of RCMP wrongdoing, jailings and outright banning since the beginning of mercantile and settler colonialism, the Red River Resistance and the Winnipeg General Strike?

Politically, it is socialist parties, especially the Communist Party which supports the resistance against corporate influence and domination and works to build the international unity of working people and oppressed nations (outlawed 3 times).

In terms of the people’s resistance, it is the trade union movement and oppressed nations, Aboriginal peoples and Quebec’s movement for self-determination and equality.

The anti-terror legislation is certain to broaden the dirty tricks, secret police wrongdoing and repression.

That is why the Communist Party in Winnipeg will hold a picket to protest the new bill this week.

Everyone is invited to bring their signs and messages of resistance.

Vive la resistance,
Penner-Bethune Club, Communist Party of Canada

Information: Darrell Rankin (204) 792-3371

Dear Friends, Comrades, Sisters and Brothers,

It’s vitally important to have a quick and sharp protest against the Conservative Party’s misnamed anti-terror bill. At times, numbers don’t matter as much as the resistance actions such as this can spark. Help be a spark.

You are invited to a picket at Shelly Glover, MP’s office. Bring your signs and messages of resistance and solidarity. All groups are welcome, including to speak and co-sponsor.

Thursday, Feb. 26, 4:30 p.m.-5:30 p.m.
213 St. Mary’s Road (near Traverse)

There’s an event page that you can share on your timeline and where you can invite friends. Please do so; it would be great if we had a larger crowd for rush hour traffic:
https://www.facebook.com/events/436876659795959/

* * * * * *
Harper’s legislation will enable the RCMP and CSIS to crack down on all resistance in Canada, against democratic and workers’ struggles.

It targets the resistance to corporate control of Canada.

Its first target is the international unity of working people, Arab and non-Arab, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, Russian and non-Russian.

Who are the Conservative party’s targets-of-choice, the targets of RCMP wrongdoing, jailings and outright banning since the beginning of mercantile and settler colonialism, the Red River Resistance and the Winnipeg General Strike?

Politically, it is socialist parties, especially the Communist Party which supports the resistance against corporate influence and domination and works to build the international unity of working people and oppressed nations (outlawed 3 times).

In terms of the people’s resistance, it is the trade union movement and oppressed nations, Aboriginal peoples and Quebec’s movement for self-determination and equality.

The anti-terror legislation is certain to broaden the dirty tricks, secret police wrongdoing and repression.*

That is why the Communist Party in Winnipeg will hold a picket to protest the new bill this week.

Everyone is invited to bring their signs and messages of resistance.

Vive la resistance,
Penner-Bethune Club, Communist Party of Canada

*Even before this new bill, things were so bad that at one point PM Trudeau was forced to call a Royal Commission into Certain Activities of the RCMP (1977). Some findings remain secret to this day.

January 28, 2015

Public letter to Winnipeg City Council

January 28, 2015

Dear members of City Council,

The media will probably insulate the public from my comments, but I want to say this about True North’s plan to build a hotel and, likely, retail space to link with the Convention Centre. More gambling machines could line the new hallways with funds going to True North.

I don’t want to see another dime of City money go to a union-busting, billionaire-backed outfit like True North. This is an outfit that receives at least $12.5 million in public money every year, and fails to say even a small thank-you on its website.

We are talking about a quarter-billion dollars in public money over twenty-five years being sucked up by True North with no accountability, calculated before we landed the Jets franchise. How fair is that to other downtown hotels?

I’m not counting the recently-installed gambling machines whose revenue goes to True North and subsidies to support the Jets franchise. How many more machines will True North want in the new development?

It is a private corporation that does not have to report its profits, unlike how the government forces First Nations (who are owed resources and funds) and trade unions (who are democratic, unlike corporations) to disclose all their spending.

This privileged outfit busted the union that worked at the publicly-owned Arena.

To me, you are allowing CentreVenture to get away lightly for signing a deal with True North.  You have the power to make True North give the stagehands their jobs back, show some gratitude, and disclose its finances.

If True North fails to do that right away, then it’s time for you to reverse the privatization of the Arena.

I am unable to make these comments in person to you today, but I hope the discussion at council shows you will put people before billionaires.

I’d put $12.5 million a year towards building houses and child care centres, not supporting an outfit like True North.

Darrell Rankin
Leader, Communist Party of Canada – Manitoba