Occupy Everywhere!

The YCL support the Occupy movement and will be participating around the country in occupations beginning October 15th.

For info on Occupy Vancouver click here.

For info on Occupy Kamloops click here.

"WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP"

LEFT FILM NIGHT

"WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE STAND UP"

Sunday, October 30, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver

Directed by Saul Landau, Cuba/USA, 2011, 82 minutes

Saul Landau has produced more than 40 films in his career, most concerned with human rights. Will The Real Terrorist Please Stand Up documents 50 years in which CIA-backed Cuban exiles have tried to overthrow Cuba’s socialist government, killing over 3,000 in their campaign of terror. In the 1990s, Florida-based exiles began bombing Cuban tourist sites, aiming to damage a vital piece of its economy. In one such bombing, an Italian tourist was killed. When the FBI refused to deter or capture the bombers (who worked out of Miami), Cuba sent agents to infiltrate and report on these criminals. Predictably, the FBI, having ignored the bombers, arrested the five Cubans, who were given draconian sentences after a deeply flawed trial in Miami. Landau’s film features interviews with Gerardo Hernandez, one of the Cuban Five who is serving a life sentence, as well as the so-called “freedom fighters” who proudly acknowledge committing acts of terrorism in Cuba. Even Fidel Castro appears in the film. Shot by the great Haskell Wexler, the film is as good looking as it is intelligent and enlightening.

******************

Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Admission free, donations welcome. On this occasion, part of the proceeds will go towards Cuba solidarity campaigns. Coffee and refreshments available. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.

Rally in Solidarity with CUPW

Please join us for a rally in solidarity with the Canadian Postal Workers:

Date: Friday, June 17, 2011

Time: 5:30 pm

Place: Vancouver Public Library Square
350 West Georgia
Vancouver, BC

Summer Camp

The YCL Summer Camp is fast approaching!

This years camp will be held in White Rock and will include sessions such as:

-What is Socialism?

-Youth Rising Up in Northern Africa & the Middle East

-The Lessons of the Freedom Charter & The Struggle for a Charter of Youth Rights

-And strategy sessions on Building the Student & Young Workers Movements

Registration is $20. Meals are included.
To register, please respond with the following information:
Name
Phone Number (preferably cell phone)
E-mail address
City
As well as details of any food allergies or preferences.

Accommodations will be tents. Please bring your own. If this is not possible, please indicate when registering.

Rides will be arranged to camp from Vancouver upon request.

Check out the event on Facebook, and help spread the word!

YCL BC eBulletin - June 2011

Read the June eBulletin here. E-mail ycl_bc@ycl-ljc.ca to subscribe!

CHEVOLUTION

LEFT FILM NIGHT

"CHEVOLUTION"
(Written & directed by Luis Lopez & Trisha Ziff, 2008, 86 minutes)

Sunday, May 22, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver

"Chevolution" tells the story of a photo that after 50 years, continues to intrigue the world. How did the iconic image of Che end up on everything from radical T-shirts to beer bottles and bikinis? Directors Luis Lopez and Trisha Ziff focus on the single most famous photographic portrait of the 20th century: Alberto Korda’s image of the beret-wearing Ernesto “Che” Guevara.... The photograph itself was cropped down from a larger picture that showed Guevara at the 1960 memorial service for the victims of the La Coubre explosion. The outside world first saw it in a 1965 edition of Paris-Match After Guevara’s death in 1967, the image was used as a symbol of many movements and issues, far beyond Che’s ideology of revolutionary Marxism. Albert Korda’s estate eventually regained the copyright on the image, but only after millions of posters, t-shirts, postcards and parodies were created. Among those interviewed in Chevolution are Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and actors Antonio Banderas and Gael Garcia Bernal.

Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Admission free, donations welcome, coffee and refreshments available. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.

YCL BC eBulletin - May 2011

Read the May eBulletin here. To subscribe, e-mail ycl_bc@ycl-ljc.ca

March, Rally, Meeting, and Fundraiser!

May Day March & Rally!

We encourage everyone to join in this event being organized by the Vancouver & District Labour Council...

International Day of the Worker
MAYDAY
One Movement - One World

Sunday, May 1
Gather 1 pm
Clark Park (13th & Commercial)
March 1:30 pm

Rally 2:30 to 3 pm
McSpadden Park (5th & Victoria)

Join with unions, community groups and individuals to march and call for the protection and advancement of workers' rights. Bring your banners & signs.

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=176916119024211

Mothers Day Pancake Breakfast - People's Voice Newspaper Fundraiser
Come join us fo r a delicious pancake breakfast on Sunday, May 8th, from 10 am - 1 pm. Last call for pancakes is noon.

All you can eat for $12.00 each. Kids under 12 are $8.00. Pancakes, sausages, and lots of other delicious breakfast goodies.

For information or directions, call (604) 294-6775.

All funds go to support the People's Voice newspaper - Canada's Communist Newspaper. http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/

Organize by the Burnaby Bolsheviks Club, Communist Party of Canada.

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=211002098927161&ref=mf

YCL Vancouver Meeting

Join us for our monthly meeting. May 2nd, 7pm, 706 Clark Dr.


Draft Agenda

Roll call
Previous minutes
Membership

Old Business
- We Are One Rally
- People Power Not War rally
- May Day march & rally
- Federal Election

Standing Items
Student movement
- Post Secondary
- High School

Peace & international solidarity
- Report and updates

Young workers movement
- Report and updates

Rebel Youth
- Subscriptions update
- Update on next issue
- Plan distribution

Culture & Agit-Prop
- Left Film Night
- Postering

New Business
- Summer Camp

Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=141061995965223

May Day March & Rally!

We encourage everyone to join in this event being organized by the Vancouver & District Labour Council...

International Day of the Worker
MAYDAY
One Movement - One World

Sunday, May 1
Gather 1 pm
Clark Park (13th & Commercial)
March 1:30 pm

Rally 2:30 to 3 pm
McSpadden Park (5th & Victoria)

Join with unions, community groups and individuals to march and call for the protection and advancement of workers' rights. Bring your banners & signs.

Left Film Night: Inside Job - April 24

(Urgent note: Stephen Harper is coming to Burnaby on Saturday. StopWar is calling an emergency picket at Harper's campaign rally, 3 pm, Sat., April 16, at 3030 Gilmore Diversion, off Canada Way. Please help spread the word!)

LEFT FILM NIGHT

"INSIDE JOB"
(Written & directed by Charles Ferguson, 2010, 120 minutes)

Sunday, April 24, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver

Inside Job unravels the derelict capitalist morality at the heart of the global financial crisis, and picked up an Oscar for Best Documentary. After opening with Iceland’s disastrous experience of deregulation, the film switches to the USA, examining the get-rich-quick bubble that grew from 2001 to 2007, and the crisis of 2008. From there, the documentary looks at the greedy foxes in charge of the chicken coop - the bankers and investors who benefited from the bubble and the collapse, and still run the financial services sector. Inside Job is a call for action against those who are clearly responsible as they drive the capitalist system towards yet another crash.

"This is a work of sustained, nonpartisan rage. Its anger is always simmering, never all-consuming. Ferguson knows what it is he wants to say, and the movie goes about its point-making with lawyerly precision. The result is a masterpiece of investigative nonfiction moviemaking—a scathing, outrageous, depressing, comical, horrifying report on what and who brought on the crisis." (from a Cascadia Weekly review)

Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Admission free, donations welcome, coffee and refreshments available. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.

People Power, Not War!

forwarded from Stopwar:

People Power, Not War!
Part of a Pan-Canadian Day of Action to End the war in Afghanistan

Every Saturday since January, Vancouver has seen solidarity rallies outside the downtown public library, in support of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and many other countries in the region. Now People Power is spreading beyond North Africa and the Middle East and it's capturing the world's imagination. Let's help make April 9 a show of People Power across Canada - our own Day of Dissent!

Spread the word and make plans to join StopWar:
Saturday, April 9, starting at 1 pm
outside Vancouver Public Library downtown

YCL BC eBulletin - April 2011

Check out the April 2011 eBulletin available online here.

On the Announced Increase to the Minimum Wage

Young Communist League BC Provincial Committee
March, 2011

The Young Communist League British Columbia Provincial Committee welcomes the recently announced increase to BC's dismally low minimum wage. At the same time, we note that the increase is far from adequate and does not represent a change in policy or direction on the part of the BC Liberal Party.

Any increase to the minimum wage is undoubtedly positive in terms of the immediate economic situation of hundreds of thousands of workers, many of whom are youth, who are currently working for wages that put them well below the poverty line. We note that action around the minimum wage issue has ebbed in recent times, it was the work of the BC labour movement, especially the young workers movement, which applied pressure to the anti-worker, anti-youth Liberal government around this issue and stimulated public outrage around the Liberal's shameful wage freeze. We are proud that some of our members were part of that work as well.

However, the minimum wage increase is designed to protect the interests of the BC Liberal Party's corporate backers. The increase is much lower than needed and is spread out over the course of more than a year; $8.75 this may, $9.50 on November 1st, and $10.25 in May 2012. But a worker would need to earn no less than $11.11 today to merely straddle the poverty line, and with inflation that number will increase even more by the time minimum wage workers achieve $10.25 next Spring. Keep in mind that this is merely the poverty line. An actual living wage would be around $18.81 in the Metro-Vancouver area, or $18.03 in Victoria. To make matters worse, the Liberal government has introduced a "server’s wage" which will put those who serve liquor on a second wage tier where they will make only $9 by next May. The Liberal strategy is one of keeping BC's workers, youth, and students, at sub-poverty level wages in order to ensure tidy profits to their corporate masters.

In this respect, it is clear that the minimum wage increase is no more than a public relations stunt by a new Liberal leader who is trying to re-brand and re-legitimize her party in preparation for the next round of elections. Clark's wafer-thin claims about a change in Liberal policy and "putting families first" are belied by the fact that she has the very same policies of her predecessor which led to his dramatic decline in voter support and eventual resignation. As the Communist Party's recent statement indicated, Christy Clark merely represents "the same club led by a different smile and a different gender."

The Young Communist League supports the ongoing efforts of young workers to fight for better wages, employment standards, and workplace safety. We demand an immediate increase in the minimum wage to $16 per hour and the elimination of the server’s wage. We oppose all forms of tiered wage systems such as "training" or "student" wages. Ultimately believe every worker deserves a living wage.

The BC Liberal Party will never offer a real alternative to the legacy it has left during the Gordon Campbell era. We call on youth, students, workers, left and progressive forces, and all those negatively affected by the results of Liberal corporate rule to come together and fight for a people's alternative to the anti-worker, anti-youth, and anti-student legacy of the BC Liberal Party.

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land

LEFT FILM NIGHT and Pasta Dinner

"Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land"
(Directed by Sut Jhally, 2004, 80 minutes)

Sunday, March 27, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver

Our next film night features Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land (directed by Sut Jhally, 2004, 80 minutes). The film looks at how distorted media coverage reinforces false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how U.S. foreign policy interests — oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region — work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies. Scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts analyze the use of language, framing and context to explain how Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is made to appear “defensive” in nature. Interviewees include Seth Ackerman, Mjr. Stav Adivi, Rabbi Arik Ascherman, Hanan Ashrawi, Noam Chomsky, Robert Fisk, Neve Gordon, Toufic Haddad, Sam Husseini, Hussein Ibish, Robert Jensen, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Karen Pfeifer, and Gila Svirsky.

For this Film Night, come early at 6 pm to enjoy our annual Pasta Dinner - tickets $12, vegetarian or non-veg., with refreshments available. Proceeds to the People's Voice 2011 Fund Drive. Free admission to the film at 7 pm. Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.

South Africa Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow

What was South Africa like under the Apartheid regime? What is it like now? How did it get here? Where is it going?

Join us for a discussion about the history and the future of the national democratic revolution in South Africa and what lessons this provides to those fighting for a better life in Canada.

The event will feature a special guest presenter who was involved in solidarity activities with South Africa during the anti-apartheid struggle, and who knew/knows many others who were involved in that fight directly.

We will also hear a report back about the 17th World Festival of Youth & Students, held last December in Pretoria, South Africa.

Friday, March 11th, 7pm
Centre for Socialist Education
706 Clark Dr (Clark & Georgia)

Winter School Canceled

Dear friends and comrades,

The YCL BC Provincial Committee regrets that it must cancel the 2011 YCL BC Winter School. We will be looking at other options for providing skills development training to members throughout the year. We will also be holding our annual summer camp later in the year.

However, we will still be holding our discussion group on South Africa Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow on the evening of March 11th, 7pm, at 706 Clark Dr. (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=100374346709564#!/event.php?eid=100374346709564) we will be discussing the situation in South Africa today, how it got here, and where it is going. It will also include a report back from delegates to the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students which was held last December in South Africa.

In Solidarity,
YCL BC Provincial Executive

Same club led by a different smile and a different gender, Communists say

The new leader of the BC Liberal Party, Christy Clark, may be the only person in BC who believes that Gordon Campbell left the province in better shape at the time of his departure than it was in at his debut. Sam Hammond, provincial leader of the Communist Party points out that, “This is more than naiveté. It is a declaration of more of the same old, same old.”

“Christy Clark claims to put ‘Family First’ but her vision of family values nicely skips over unemployment, homelessness, child poverty, education cuts and impacts of privatization., points out Hammond. “Her vision of family does not include the working people”.

Despite having portrayed herself during the leadership campaign, as an outsider, Christy Clark played a leading role in the first draconian term of the Gordon Campbell Liberals.

Her term as Education Minister was marked with unprecedented conflict and chaos. “Christy Clark made attacking the BCTF one of her main priorities, Hammond points out. “The imposition of collective agreement on teachers is the most glaring example of her hostility.” Clark made legislative changes, and changed the funding formula – the result increased class sizes and decreased supports for all students, but particularly those with special needs. She not only froze education funding, but also announced the government would not pay for the teacher salary increases (agreed to by the previous NDP government). School Boards were forced to cover the increases, resulting in unprecedented cuts. ($25.5 million in Vancouver- Even future Liberal Cabinet Minister, Mary Polak, then a Surrey School Board trustee, expressed anger at Clark’s actions.) She was famous for a flurry of policy announcements that the Board were expected to implement with little or no notice.

Clark’s short term at Ministry of Children and Families, was similarly marked by chaos.

It should also not be forgotten that Christy Clark was Deputy Premier for the scandal-ridden sale of BC Rail. “Clark championed the give-a-way of the publicly owned BC Rail to private ownership”, Hammond stated, despite having helped write the Liberal election platform that promised not to sell BC Rail.” Christy Clark has repeatedly stated her rejected calls for an inquiry into the BC Rail scandal.

“She is not an outsider. She actively participated at the Cabinet table in some of the worst attacks on working families in the history BC – including tearing up labour agreements, reducing welfare, to presiding over one of the greatest transfers of wealth from the public coffers to private hands. It is clear from her record that the family that really comes first for Christy Clark is the ‘Coalition of Corporate Interest’, Hammond says. “The Liberal Party in British Columbia has not changed leadership. It is the same club led by a different smile and a different gender.”

Christy Clark has promised to move the HST referendum up to June 24th. “It is imperative for Labour and its allies – for all progressive voters in BC to give the first signal of resistance to the new Premier”, Hammond states. “Defeat the HST!”

For more information contact Sam Hammond

cpinfo.bc@gmail.com

March eBulletin

The March YCL BC eBulletin is now available online here.

If you would like to subscribe to the eBulletin, please e-mail ycl_bc@ycl-ljc.ca

Discussion Group: Wage Labour & Capital

We will be hosting a discussion group on Friday, the 18th of February, at 7pm on Wage Labour & Capital by Karl Marx, an important work on Marxist economics. It will be held at 706 Clark Dr.

The reading materials can be accessed for free here: http://www.marx2mao.com/M&E/WLC47.html

or purchased at the People's Co-Op Bookstore on Commercial Dr.

Regarding employment in British Columbia

February, 2011

In British Columbia, employment is dropping faster than anywhere in the country, save the Atlantic region. Official government figures indicate employment jumped to 8.2% in January, and actual unemployment may be as high as 12%. During the first month of 2011 most other provinces saw an increase in employment numbers over the last month, yet BC continues to slip.

Youth and workers in BC have been told for some time that the economy is in recovery mode. But no recovery has arrived for workers, youth, and students. This "jobless recovery" means a recovery for big business only in a province short on jobs, with the lowest minimum wages in the country, and continued attempts by government and employers to make workers pay for the economic crisis.

The provincial government has made no significant moves to fix the growing problem of unemployment. Unemployment levels of this magnitude or higher suit the political agenda of the BC Liberals, because competition keeps workers divided and facilitates a race to the bottom in terms of wages and working conditions. In BC corporate income taxes are being cut while working people are hit with increases in fares, tuition, and other fees, as well as the hated HST. This trend highlights the anti-worker stance of the BC Liberal government.

The cause of unemployment is fundamentally tied to the mode of production. That is to say, the economy is owned and controlled by private corporations whose interest is in profits, not the people. Furthermore, there is little recourse for working people to have democratic input in the economy. Thus, the economy reflects the interests of the few owners and bosses, not the mass of British Columbians. The BC Liberals are of owners, of big business, which seeks to further the exploitation of workers to the most extreme level.

To ensure total worth-while employment there must be enforced legislation for a living wage for all workers, and abolition of the $6 training wage. Work weeks must be shortened and a ban placed on mandatory overtime. Ban raw log exports, and open publicly run mills in British Columbia. Nationalize oil and gas, end and reverse privatization of BC Hydro, and increase funding to post-secondary education. All of these reforms would create good-paying, secure jobs and increase the standard of living for British Columbians.

Experience over the past ten years of Liberal rule have shown that only a broad, mass, and militant fightback led by labour and joined by, among others, the youth and students, can force change on a government that is unreceptive to the will of the people. The power of mass extra-parliamentary struggle should not be downplayed, as recent events in Egypt and Tunisia demonstrate. We also note that with the potential of a provincial election within the year, the opportunity now exists to ensure the defeat of the Liberal Party as well as to block the rise of new and resurgent forces on the right like the BC Conservatives and BC First Party. But this will only occur if the people of BC, fed up with years of the Liberal's big business policies, are mobilized around not only their discontents, but a progressive alternative.

Ultimately, we know that while the opportunity exists to win many progressive reforms which will improve the lives of working people, youth and students, the capitalist system with its periodic crisis, its need for war and plunder, and its environmental degradation, can only offer increasingly dismal long term prospects. The exploitative capitalist system which produces economic crisis, unemployment, and poverty, must be replaced by a new, socialist, system wherein working people hold all political and economic power and harness it for the benefit of society, not for the profits of a minority.

Build the Trade Unions!

Build the Students' Unions!

Build the Young Communist League!

Better Work, Better Wages!


BC Provincial Committee
Young Communist League of Canada
www.ycl-ljc.ca

YCL BC Winter School - March 11-13

Dear comrades and friends,

The Young Communist League BC Skills Development Weekend aims to develop the organizing and activist skills of YCL BC members, such as interpreting and communicating political positions and policies, using message boxes, carrying out agit-prop, organizing and chairing meetings, and contributing to Rebel Youth.

The event will take place from March 11-13 at the Centre for Socialist Education, located at 706 Clark Drive in Vancouver.

In addition to skills development educationals and activities, the event will include an exciting and educational discussion on South Africa and its national democratic revolution, a showing of a video report on the 17th World Festival of Youth & Students, and a social event on the Saturday evening. Friends and allies are welcome to attend these events.

This weekend is a very important one for the YCL as it is a rare opportunity for our members around the province to come together to talk politics, learn important skills, and get to know their comrades from other clubs. We strongly encourage all comrades to do all they can to attend.

Registration for the event is now open and is only $20. Meals are provided as well as billets for out of town guests. In special circumstances travel subsidies may also be available. The agenda of the event is attached.

To register, e-mail ycl_bc@ycl-ljc.ca

In solidarity,
Young Communist League
BC Provincial Executive Committee

In support of the intifada of the poor!

In support of the intifada of the poor!
YCL-LJC International Commission
February 2011

The Young Communist League of Canada expresses our solidarity with the intifada of the poor of the popular forces in Tunisia, as well as Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Sudan, Jordan, Yemen and other Arab countries. We urge youth to join the mobilizations by youth and students across Canada in support of these uprisings. The strength and will of the people is stronger than ever, and is a testament to what the militant and united struggle of the workers and youth can achieve in the current context the economic crisis and the capitalist offensive against the people.

In Tunisia, where the protests were sparked, demonstrations follow more than two decades of the highest level of political repression, corruption, the illegal privatization of public resources, and blatant theft of public funds. The people of Tunisia have demanded change from the staggering unemployment and crippling poverty caused by imperialism and the dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, his wealthiest allies and his political colleagues, including interim prime minister Mohamed Ghannouchi, former minister of International Co-operation and Foreign Investment and from Ben Ali's very own oligarchy. We condemn the continued arrests in Tunisia of progressive trade unionists and students and pay homage to all those protestors killed in the violence.

We alert Canadian youth and student organizations of the hypocritical aspect of Prime Minister Harper’s recent statement on supporting democracy, being made in the Kingdom of Morocco, occupier of the last colony in Africa, Western Sahara. The Harper Conservatives, who until a week ago strongly supported these governments, cannot re-write their history. In the context of the debate about extraditing Ben Ali’s family members, we note that this has exposed the contradictory two-tier racist immigration system which spends most time punishing and deporting immigrant and migrant workers yet allows in Canada super-rich human rights violators from US-backed puppet regimes from around the world.

We urge the youth of Canada to oppose any imperialist attempts to interfere with the sovereign people’s of north Africa and the Middle East and their right to make their own future. For the Arab people, these struggles are only the continuation of a long battle for much needed political and economic reform that must go further; we support the demands for the redistribution of wealth and resources, which previously sat in the private hands.

The uprising has been an inspiration to not only to the Arab National Liberation movement but to all political activists and working people across the globe. Regardless of its outcome, it sends a signal that the people make history. We too, can throw off our chains and fight towards a democratic system that represents our interests, rather than those of our elite oppressors.

Keep the momentum going: you will win!

Left Film Night: Garbage Dreams

LEFT FILM NIGHT

"Garbage Dreams"
Directed by Mai Iskander, 2009, 79 minutes

Sunday, Feb. 27, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver


**************
The Oscar-nominated GARBAGE DREAMS examines the social inequality which is a key factor driving the current revolutionary upsurge in Egypt and across the Arab world. This documentary sees global issues at the grassroots level, showing how transnational corporate “modernization” fuels the marginalization of the poor. Cairo, a city of 20 million, never had a system of garbage collection. But for about a century it has had the zabbaleen, a 60,000-strong community of people who live in Mokattam, on the outskirts of the city. The zabbaleen recycle 80% of the waste they collect directly from people’s houses, sorting it carefully, cutting off the tops of cans, shredding up plastics, and feeding the edible waste to hogs for sale to Egypt’s Coptic Christians. When multinational companies are brought in by the Egyptian government to collect the trash, turning the zabbaleen into marginal scavengers, three teenage boys born into the trash trade are forced to make choices that will impact their lives and the future of their community.


No charge for admission; donations welcome. Coffee and refreshments available. Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.

Canadian Youth: Condemn Harper’s Free Trade Agreement with Morocco

Canadian Youth: Condemn Harper’s Free Trade Agreement with Morocco
Young Communist League, Central Executive Committee
February, 2011

In late January, Prime Minister Stephen Harper traveled to Morocco where he met with King Mohammed VI to discuss a free trade agreement between the two countries. This agreement has the ignominious title of being the first of its kind between Canada and an African country, and follows on the heels of the Harper Conservative's shameful free-trade deal with Columbia's dictatorship. It is not surprising that the first country chosen for such an agreement would be one like Morocco; a staunch ally of US imperialism, a Kingdom devoid of democracy, and a colonial power.

We draw to the attention of the youth and student organizations of Canada that, since Morocco's decolonization from fascist Spain in 1975, Morocco has held Western Sahara as a colony, brutally suppressed its people, and deprived them of the economic benefits of their own land and resources. They have been embroiled in a struggle with the Polisario Front, Western Sahara’s national liberation movement, since day one, supported by the United States and CIA. This struggle took the form of armed conflict up until 1991, when a UN sponsored cease fire led to a transition towards peaceful means. But the promises of the UN sponsored cease fire have never been kept. A referendum on the independence of Western Sahara has been sabotaged at every turn, and today the fight for independence is beginning once again to heat up.

Late last year 15,000 youth from 156 different countries gathered in Tshwane, South Africa for the 17th World Festival of Youth and Students, the largest anti-imperialist gathering in the world. The Final Declaration of the 17th WFYS demanded that Morocco immediately respect the right to self-determination of the Sharawi, end the blockade of the occupied territories, allow international observers and media in to Western Sahara, release all political prisoners and dismantle the wall which divides the territory.

We also note that the Polisario Front is recognized as the representative of the Western Saharawi people both by the people themselves, and by the United Nations. Over 50 countries recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, including full diplomatic relations with Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, Cuba, Vietnam, DPR Korea, Palestine, South Africa, and Mozambique.

The Harper Conservative government claims to be “neutral” in this conflict. This attitude effectively means support for the Moroccan occupation since it fails to recognize the rights of the struggling Western Saharawi people, the legitimacy of their state, and their grievances and condones the actions of the oppressor nation.

It should be no surprise that the ultra-right Harper regime expresses no qualms in dealing with the un-elected King of Morocco despite his disregard for democratic, civil and worker's rights. After all, this same government continues to unconditionally support the genocidal and racist apartheid regime of Israel. It continues to support the dictatorial Mubarak regime of Egypt, another ally of imperialism in the region.

It seems that the Harper Conservative government's sycophantic cries about “human rights” and “democracy” only apply when aimed spuriously at countries which are charting a path separate and apart from imperialism and its interests, such as in the case of socialist Cuba, Venezuela, and others.

Harper’s own distain for democracy and human rights has been proven time and time again -- in prorogues, the extension of the occupation troops in Afghanistan, the vicious suppression of dissent during the G20, attacks on women’s rights, and more.

The Young Communist League condemns imperialism, and its neo-liberal, free trade agenda. We condemn the Canadian governments complicity in the colonial occupation of Western Sahara and the brutality inflicted upon its people by the Moroccan state. We call for all progressive and democratic youth and student organizations across Canada to condemn the Canada-Morocco free trade agreement and fight for a foreign policy based on peace, solidarity, and disarmament. Harper and the Conservatives must be exposed for their support of anti-democratic regimes at the polls and in the streets!

Oppose Free Trade with Morocco!

Solidarity with the People of Western Sahara!

Long live the Polisario Front!

Long live the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic!

YCL BC eBulletin - February 2011

The February eBulletin is available online here. To subscribe, e-mail ycl_bc@ycl-ljc.ca

YCL Vancouver - What's coming up?

Discussion Group

The second to last part of our extensive study groups on historical materialism will be January 30th at 5:30pm, just before the Left Film Night, at the Centre for Socialist Education (706 Clark Dr.). If you couldn't make it for previous parts don't worry you can still catch up! Reading material will be Historical Materialism by Maurice Cornforth chapters 7 and 8.

Read Historical Materialism for free online: http://leninist.biz/en/1971/HM147/index.html

Facebook event


Left Film Night

"The Cradle Will Rock"

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver

**************
Directed by Tim Robbins, 1999, 132 minutes

Set in the turbulent 1930’s, The Cradle Will Rock focuses on the National Theatre Company, set up during the Depression to help out-of-work actors present live theatre to culture-starved audiences. The film centers on attempts to block the production of a left-wing musical about union organizing at a steel factory. Director Tim Robbins fills the screen with a rich assortment of characters, from Orson Welles, to Nelson Rockefeller and revolutionary Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, covering the social spectrum from industrialists to union organizers and the unemployed. During this time of escalating state & corporate repression of civil liberties, The Cradle Will Rock is an important reminder that the struggle for freedom must be won again by each new generation.

No charge for admission; donations welcome. Coffee and refreshments available. Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.


Skills Development Weekend

The YCL BC will be holding a skills development weekend at the Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Dr., on March 12-13. The event will bring together YCLers and friends for a weekend of education and the development of activist skills. Registration is $20. Billets will be available in Vancouver. Further details including full programme and registration information will be coming very shortly. E-mail ycl_bc@ycl-ljc.ca for information.

Rally in Solidarity with Postal Workers - January 21st

YCL Vancouver January meeting and film night

YCL Vancouver meeting -- January 22

Our first club meeting of the year will be held on January 22 at 6pm. The venue will be our office at the Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Dr. The draft agenda is below. The meeting will be followed at 7:30pm by a continuation of our discussion of Maurice Cornforths book Dialectical Materialism. We will be looking at chapters 5 and 6. You can read it online for free at: http://leninist.biz/en/1971/HM147/index.html


Draft Agenda
Roll call
Previous minutes
Membership

Old Business
World Festival of Youth & Students report back & discussion

Standing Items
Student movement
- Post Secondary
- High School

Peace & international solidarity
- WPF (guest)
- Western Sahara
- Other

Young workers movement
- BCFED Convention/Young Workers Conference report back
- EARN
- Minimum Wage
- Other if any

Rebel Youth
- Discussion of new issue
- Distro plan for new issue
- Subscriptions
- Next issue

Culture & Agit-Prop
- Left Film Night on Jan. 30
- Other

New Business
- Report from Provincial Committee about Winter School and other items

Adjourn



Left Film Night -- January 30

"The Cradle Will Rock"

Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011, 7 pm
Centre for Socialist Education, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver

**************
Directed by Tim Robbins, 1999, 132 minutes

Set in the turbulent 1930’s, The Cradle Will Rock focuses on the National Theatre Company, set up during the Depression to help out-of-work actors present live theatre to culture-starved audiences. The film centers on attempts to block the production of a left-wing musical about union organizing at a steel factory. Director Tim Robbins fills the screen with a rich assortment of characters, from Orson Welles, to Nelson Rockefeller and revolutionary Mexican muralist Diego Rivera, covering the social spectrum from industrialists to union organizers and the unemployed. During this time of escalating state & corporate repression of civil liberties, The Cradle Will Rock is an important reminder that the struggle for freedom must be won again by each new generation.

No charge for admission; donations welcome. Coffee and refreshments available. Left Film Nights are presented by the Centre for Socialist Education, Young Communist League, and the Vancouver East and Montivero Clubs of the Communist Party of Canada. Call 604-255-2041 or email for further information.