[Education for Activists Conference: ‘Reform or Revolution!’ 7…]

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Education for Activists Conference: ‘Reform or Revolution!’

7 p.m. “Is social democracy over? From Mulcair to Corbyn to Tsipras” with Marty Goodman, Socialist Action (U.S.); Robbie Mahood, Montreal branch, SA/Ligue pour l’Action socialiste.

10 a.m. “Is China imperialist?” What does the Chinese economic downturn mean for world capitalism? - Yasin Kaya, Socialist Action (Canada) and PhD candidate York University. 1 p.m. “Why inequality?” with Jim Stanford, chief economist for UNIFOR, a regular commentator on CBC-TV; and John Clarke, provincial organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. 4 p.m. “Where is U.S. politics going? Trump, Sanders, $15 Now, Black Lives Matter.”

University of Toronto, Woodsworth Residence, 321 Bloor Street West, Room 35. Admission: $5 per session or PWYC / $10 in advance, $20 at door for entire program.

We ask antiwar forces in the U.S. to join together to plan ac­ tions to protest the growing U.S. intervention in Syria. The most recent step has been to introduce up to 50 Special Forces com­ bat troops to work with what are called “moderate” rebel groups to fight against Islamic State/Daesh. This violates earlier prom­ ises by the Obama administration not to send troops to Syria.

Contrary to the official White House announcement, journal­ ists have pointed out that the mission is a combat one and that troops are likely to face combat. It is an escalation of what is already a major U.S. intervention and war. The intervention is an illegal invasion under international law; the Syrian govern­ ment is recognized throughout the world and has not invited U.S. troops.

The so-called moderate forces supported by Washington are part of a broader alliance that includes the Syrian Al-Qaeda af­ filiate, the Al-Nusra Front. U.S. forces could end up in combat with Russian forces, in Syria at the government’s invitation, that are in combat against Al-Nusra. Both Al-Qaeda and Islamic State are aligned with the murderous anti-Shi’ite bigotry of the U.S.-allied Saudi Arabian regime and clergy. In Syria, as in Ye­ men, the Saudis are waging war with active U.S. support.

We reject the ongoing provision of U.S. weapons to forces waging war in Syria—also a violation of international law and an act of war. Likewise, the traffic in illegal oil and weapons to and from Syria by U.S. allies must be exposed and stopped. No foreign country has the right to wage war against Syria or to demand regime change in Syria—the Syrian people must decide their future.

Antiwar unity is necessary to push back the new U.S. ground intervention, which is similar in character to the disastrous 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. Because its scope and posture are quite different, mobilizing in the streets will be more difficult at first.

Part of our attention must be to oppose calls for an expand­ ed U.S. air war, “no-fly” zones, and the like. It is possible to form local and national coalitions for non-intervention, how­ ever, based on the principle of self-determination for the Syrian people.

U.S. troops out of Syria! No air war against Syria!

... Canada vote (continued from page 12: “Canada: Tory brutes yield to sunny Liberal deceivers”) your bottom dollar it won’t be proportional representa­ tion. If anything, it will be “ranked balloting,” a mecha­ nism is designed to distribute second and third prefer­ ences to establishment parties. The discredited Senate, with or without the fig leaf of “non-partisan” appoint­ ments, will continue to squander money and oxygen.

The Liberals said they’d halt the termination of home mail delivery, but not reverse it—much less restore lost mail services and maintain letter carrier jobs.

Legalization of marijuana will be welcomed by con­ sumers. At the same time, it will primarily mean huge profits for politically well-connected growers and mar­ keters.

Trudeau will go the COP21 conference in Paris in De­ cember. He will talk a good game on climate change. But his commitment to the oil patch, to tar sands develop­ ment, to “cap and trade” (i.e., the sale of permits to burn carbon) will show where he really stands on climate jus­ tice and indigenous people’s rights.

Trudeau pledged to end Canada’s combat mission in Iraq and Syria, but not to end Canadian Forces’ involve­ ment in NATO, and in so-called training operations in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Congo, Darfur, Sudan, the West Bank, and Haiti—all in support of right-wing regimes. Ottawa’s backing for the Zionist apartheid state of Israel will be undiminished.

Canada should accept many more Syrian refugees. Even if Trudeau’s goal of 25,000 by the end of 2015 is met (extremely unlikely), the causes behind the dis­ placement of millions—war and climate change—can be addressed only by halting western military interven­ tion into the resource-rich countries of the South and East. Pious Liberal promises to re-settle hordes of refu­ gees cannot ameliorate the profit-lust and dire humani­ tarian consequences of imperialism.

Instead of taking a wait-and-see attitude, labour and social justice activists need to hit the streets now to de­ mand positive action from the Trudeau government on all these fronts.

Good jobs for all. Tax the rich. Repeal C-51 and anti-labour laws C-377 and C-525. No to the TPP and CETA. Fully restore home mail delivery. No new pipelines. Na­ tionalize Big Oil and Gas and the giant banks, and invest heavily in public green energy systems. Justice for in­ digenous peoples. Canada out of NATO. Bring the troops home. For public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy under workers’ and community demo­ cratic control. Those should be the demands of every union, of every working-class and popular organization, and of the NDP.

Sadly, for decades, the party and labour brass have “99 Homes,” set in Florida, is an excellent socio-economic film that could have been a documentary. I’m glad it isn’t. It is a wellacted, powerful drama, based on the 2007-9 economic collapse, when banks foreclosed on thousands of homes—resulting in “legal,” yet ruthless, evictions.

It started out as a housing boom. Realtors con­ vinced low-income people and those with bad credit that they could buy a home and have the American Dream. They offered them subprime mortgages, low payments with little or no money down. Innocent victims showed up at real estate offices where they completed eligibility forms. Little did they know that once these forms got into the hands of mortgage brokers, their stated income was fudged to satisfy lenders.

By the end of 2007, the economy tanked and people were not able to make their mortgage pay­ ments. The housing market collapsed. Many went to their banks for loans or asked for extensions, but were denied. The banks soon foreclosed on their homes, and homeowners found eviction no­ tices tacked to their front doors.

Andrew Garfield plays Dennis Nash (a more nu­ anced character than the one he played in “The Social Network”). Nash builds houses. He’s also a general handyman who knows his way around airconditioning, electrical, and plumbing systems. Nash, and Lynn, his mother (Laura Dern), who works out of the home as a hair-dresser, and his preadolescent son, Connor (a believable Noah Lo­ mas), live in a modest detached home in a Miami suburb. As an independent contractor, he had had been veering to the right. The result has been more and more concessions to Capital, and less democracy in the workers’ organizations.

Electorally, it has been a time of weak, short-lived elec­ toral gains, followed by setbacks and disasters for the NDP. Between 2011 and today, the party blew a pro­ vincial election in British Columbia, lost government in Nova Scotia after only one term, failed to advance in On­ tario (where provincial Leader Andrea Horwath pledged no new taxes and a balanced budget—sound familiar?), and the NDP government in Manitoba plunged in pop­ ularity. The jury is still out on Rachel Notley’s crew in Alberta, whose first provincial budget took a direction opposite to Mulcair’s.

Marty Goodman, Socialist Action (U.S.).

lots of work during the housing boom. When it all fell down, he had none. He couldn’t pay his bills, let alone his mortgage.

There’s a harrowing scene of their forced evic­ tion, ordered by the sheriff and overseen by the cut-throat, Machiavellian realtor, Rick Carver (an intense, excellent Michael Shannon)..

The Nashes end up at a sleaze-bag, motel. But Nash is determined to get his house back, no mat­ ter what. Director Rahman Bahrani manages to build suspense by focusing on Nash, his strategy, and his relationship with Carver.

Carver makes a deal with Nash, some of which entails illegally faking records regarding the re­ moval and installation of appliances for which the bank will pay. Nash knows it’s wrong, but Carver sells him on the idea that in a world of dog-eatdog, it’s best to strive to be a survivor. “Don’t get emotional about houses,” says Carver. “They’re just boxes.”

At this point, like Faust, Nash has sold his soul to the devil, so desperate is he to move out of the motel and reclaim his home. Eventually, his goals are inflated; he dreams of acquiring a mansion and a swimming pool, and other lavish luxuries. It’s sad to see him end up by evicting people with the same ruthlessness as when he was a victim.When he is forced to evict a friend, he finds himself at a crossroads and takes the right path, though it costs him dearly. n (Left) Tom Mulcair of the New Democratic Party. The labour-based NDP lost 59 seats in Parliament.

But the verdict on Mulcair and company is clear. The NDP brain trust masterminded the biggest loss of seats in party history. Many good MPs, like Megan Leslie and Andrew Cash, went down to defeat. They will be missed. Pro-military Peter Stoffer, and the profane anti-socialist Pat Martin, not so much. The party was shut out in Al­ tantic Canada and Toronto. It was severely cut down in Quebec.

Sadly, star social justice advocate Linda McQuaig failed in her second bid in Toronto Centre. Happily, leftist MP Niki Ashton, who ran for federal Leader in 2012, was re-elected in Churchill, Manitoba. She is joined in Parlia­ ment by left economist Erin Weir from Regina-Lewvan. So, there is hope. But hope must be accompanied by political clarity, unity in action, and relentless struggle from the bottom up.

The NDP, the only mass, labour-based political party in North America, remains viable as a potential challenger to capitalist austerity, climate injustice, social inequal­ ity, racism, sexism, and war. Jeremy Corbyn’s stunning leadership victory in the British Labour Party, ongoing grassroots opposition across Europe to the EU bankers’ agenda, the Bernie Sanders phenomenon in the USA (al­ though he is with one of the bosses’ parties), and even the ouster of the hated Stephen Harper regime in Ot­ tawa all show a growing appetite for significant change. That is the agenda the NDP Socialist Caucus vigorously advances. We will discover Canada’s Jeremy Corbyn as we take up the struggle against the ruling rich, their state, and the misleaders of the working class. n SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 2015 11

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SOCIALIST ACTION

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