Hillary Clinton, Kissinger, and the coup in Honduras

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I der to inflate her credentials as Secretary of State, n one of the early Democratic Party debates, in or­ Hillary Clinton threw out an off-the-cuff comment about her relationship with Henry Kissinger: “I was very flattered when Henry Kissinger said I ran the State Department better—better than anybody had run it in a long time.

In 2014, when Clinton reviewed Henry Kissinger’ book, “New World Order,” she called him a “friend” whose counsel she “relied on.”

This was all too much even for Bernie Sanders, who had refrained from criticizing any of Clinton’s actions when she was Secretary of State. Sanders stated that Kissinger was “no friend of mine” and launched into describing Secretary of State Kissinger’s nefarious role in the bombing of Cambodia. He did not use the word “war criminal,” but this was the verdict of the International Tribunal at The Hague, and summons for his arrest issued by judges in France and Spain are still in effect.

While Secretary of State, Kissinger oversaw the de­ struction of civilian populations and the assassina­ tion and kidnapping of leaders who got in his way.

It is well known that Clinton is a strong proponent of “regime change.” This is an innocuous term that means that the U.S. claims the right to violate the sov­ ereignty of any nation to enable the removal of that nation’s leader. This can be done with massive mili­ tary might, creating instability, financially and mili­ tarily supporting opposition groups, or with a wink and a nod to the nation’s military.

What many people might not know is that this in­ cludes removing popularly elected leaders. Two examples in history were Salvador Allende in Chile (1973) and Manuel Zalaya in Honduras (2009). The U.S. role in Chile Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s Secretary of State, spoke openly about his involvement in the coup in Chile. One of his most famous statements is also a descrip­ tion of what is meant by “regime change”: “I don’t see why we need to stand by and watch a country go com­ munist [sic] due to the irresponsibility of its people. The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves.”

Declassified documents show that Kissinger set up a two-track plan. One was ostensibly diplomatic and the other was a strategy of destabilization, kid­ napping, and assassination designed to provoke a military coup. One out of every seven members of the command staff of DINA, the notorious Chilean in­ telligence agency responsible for many of the worst human rights atrocities during the Pinochet years, were graduates of the notorious U.S. Army School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.

Once the coup had been completed, on Sept. 11, 1973, and Augusto Pinochet and his cohorts were in the good graces of U.S. corporations, they turned to 6 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 2016 AFP / Getty Images making fortunes for themselves from the privatiza­ tion of public services.

Honduras military overthrows Zelaya President Manuel Zelaya was a popular leader who won election in 2006 with a coalition of unions, in­ digenous leaders, LGBT activists, and women’s rights supporters. He was not a socialist but a large land­ owner and a social reformer. Zelaya supported a 60% wage hike, which angered U.S. corporations like Chiquita Brands International and the Dole Food Co., who were concerned that the higher minimum wage would spread to other countries in Latin America.

Zelaya put in place other liberal policies, including free education and meals for children, subsidies to small farmers, lower interest rates, and free electric­ ity. As a result, Honduras saw a 10 percent decline in poverty.

The Honduran international airport, Toncontín, is one of the most dangerous in the world. For years prior to the coup the Honduran authorities had dis­ cussed the possibility of converting the U.S. Air Base at Soto Cano (also called Palmerola) into a much-needed civilian airport. The U.S. military would be moved to another base on the Honduran coast.

Venezuela agreed to reciprocal trading agreements to help finance the new airport. Right-wing Hondu­ rans protested the use of Venezuelan funds, but after a major airline crash at Toncontín, President Zelaya announced that they would proceed with construc­ tion at Palmerola. A couple weeks after Zelaya had announced that the armed forces would engage in the construction, the military rebelled.

The coup was carried out by Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the head of the of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Honduran military and by Gen. Luís Prince Suazo, the head of the air force. Like the notorious Chilean intelligence agency, they were trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (for­ merly called the U.S. Army School of the Americas) at Fort Benning.

On June 28, 2009, Zelaya was overthrown by the Honduran military, who broke into his home and kid­ napped him at gunpoint. They forced him onto a plane that flew him to Costa Rica and dumped him onto the tarmac. According to Zelaya, an Honduran military plane flew him to Costa Rica and stopped to refuel at (Left) Honduras police detain peasant leaders at Tegucigalpa protest. Peasants are protesting World Bank-funded palm oil plantations’ takeover of their land. The oil is exported to Europe for bio-fuel. (Top) Hillary Clinton. (Below) Henry Kissinger.

Soto Cano, the Honduran air base that is home to 600 U.S. soldiers, sailors, and airmen.

The coup was followed by months of protests by the Honduran people against the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti and for a return of their presi­ dent. While virtually all Latin American governments condemned the coup and called for Zelaya’s restora­ tion, Secretary Clinton, who had been in Honduras a few weeks before, immediately called for elections to bring in a new government.

Using the word “crisis,” Clinton immediately praised the Honduran military for bringing “stability” to Hon­ duras. She detailed some of her actions in her book “Hard Choices,” published in 2014. Days after the coup, she teamed up with Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa to forge a response: “We strategized on a plan to restore order in Honduras and ensure that free and fair elections could be held quickly and legitimately, which would render the question of Ze­ laya moot and give the Honduran people a chance to choose their own future.”

In regard to Chile, Kissinger, the U.S. president, and the CIA were all on one page. But on Honduras, Presi­ dent Obama initially stated that it was a coup and Zelaya should be returned. WikiLeaks also reveals that the former U.S. Ambassador to Honduras, Hugh Llorens, sent a cable to Clinton with the subject line, “Open and Shut: The Case Of The Honduran Coup.” The cable said, “there is no doubt” that the coup was “illegal and unconstitutional.”

The U.S. Embassy listed arguments by supporters of the coup to claim its legality, and dismissed each of them, saying, “none ... has any substantive valid­ ity under the Honduran constitution.” The Embassy went on to say that the Honduran military had no le­ gal authority to remove President Zelaya from office or from Honduras. They characterized the Honduran military’s action as an “abduction” and kidnapping.

Nevertheless, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton quickly did everything she could to help the military coup in Honduras succeed, at the same time that it was violently cracking down on the media and the opposition. She inferred that Zelaya was legally re­ moved from office and she violence baited the Hon­ duran people who were non-violently demanding the (continued on page 7)

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(continued from page 6) return of their president.

Clinton claimed that Honduras was on the verge of a civil war. The “elections” that she helped organize for November 2009 in Hondu­ ras were not recognized as legitimate by the rest of the region and the world. The Organization of American States, the European Union, and the Carter Center all refused to send observers.

Rosemary Joyce of the North American Con­ gress on Latin America (NACLA) said: “The election was conducted without the presence of certified international observers that would be necessary to accept the results even in normal times, let alone with the election conducted un­ der a government exercising fierce repression of the media and of free speech. It was a ‘dem­ onstration election.’ An election held for little other purpose than to buff the image of an antidemocratic government.”

Yet Clinton continued to claim that the situa­ tion was merely a “crisis,” not a coup, and that Zelaya should be replaced with hastily called elections. The fraudulent election was financed by the National Endowment for Democracy, known for its pro-U.S. obstructive practices in Latin America and around the world, and the U.S. State Department.

In 2013, when Xiomara Castro, the wife of Manuel Zelaya, ran for president, over 30 can­ didates of her Libre party were murdered. The right-wing presidential candidate, Juan Orlando Hernandez, was declared the winner, although many international observers reported evi­ dence of intimidation, vote buying, and other irregu­ larities at the polls.

The Clinton e-mails In January 2016, three batches of Secretary Clinton’s e-mails were released. The Center For Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has reported that while many of the e-mails are heavily redacted, they give a clearer picture of how Clinton handled international develop­ ments during her tenure at the State Department.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, then Director of Policy Plan­ ning at the State Department, sent an e-mail to Clinton on Aug. 16, 2009, strongly urging her to “take bold ac­ tion” and to “find that [the] coup was a ‘military coup’ under U.S. law,” a move that would have immediately triggered the suspension of all non-humanitarian U.S. assistance to Honduras: “I got lots of signals last week that we are losing ground in Latin America every day the Honduras crisis continues … even our friends are beginning to think we are not really committed to the norm of constitutional democracy.”

Fifteen House Democrats asked the State Depart­ ment to “fully acknowledge that a military coup has taken place.” They expressed concern that “every passing day gives Micheletti and his associates the chance to tighten their illegitimate hold on the reins of power.”

As we know, Clinton spurned this advice, which meant that millions of dollars of U.S. military assis­ tance continued to flow to the military coup. While strategizing the best way to keep Zelaya out of power, Clinton’s e-mails mention working with Lanny Davis, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton, who was working as a consultant for a group of Honduran busi­ nessmen that supported the coup.

Horrible aftermath of the Honduran coup The decisions made by Clinton contributed to the enormous damage done to Honduras since the coup. Poverty has increased, and violence has spiraled out of control. The U.S. government has continually in­ creased military assistance to Honduras, despite alarming reports of killings and human rights abuses by the military and security forces.

Honduras is the size of New Hampshire, and before the coup there were five military bases. After the coup the number of bases has doubled; the U.S. instituted multi-million-dollar projects to build two U.S. naval bases. One of the bases is on Guanaja in the Bay Is­ lands, which destroyed a popular tourist destination that had been known as a diving mecca for its pristine waters.

Honduras rapidly descended into a period of extreme violence after the coup, as security forces suppressed protests. The British organization Global Witness has released figures that show at least 109 people were killed in Honduras between 2010 and 2015, for taking a stand against destructive dams and mining, logging, and agricultural projects. Of the eight victims whose cases were publicly reported in 2015, six were from indigenous groups.

A major LGBT leader and activist with the front of resistance against the coup was assassinated on Dec. 14, 2009. Ten days before his murder, Walter Trochez was kidnapped, beaten, interrogated, threatened with death, and told to cease his activism. He managed to escape after being told they had orders to kill him. Trochez was documenting and publicizing homopho­ bic killings and crimes committed by forces behind the coup. He also was documenting human rights vio­ lations committed during anti-coup demonstrations.

Three days after his body was found, the Internation­ al Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission stated, “The death of Walter Trochez is the 16th known mur­ der in the LGBT community since the military coup. The accelerated rate at which LGBT people have been killed in the last seven months shows a targeted pat­ tern of violence.” The fact that at the same time Hillary Clinton was making sanctimonious speeches about U.S. advocacy of LGBT human rights around the world shows the height of hypocrisy.

Honduran feminists speak out Hillary Clinton has built her presidential campaign around her self-proclaimed dedication to fighting for women’s rights and her experience as Secretary Of State. Honduran feminist artist Melissa Cardoza has another view of Secretary Clinton’s legacy in Latin America: “As is well known, she supported the coup d’etat in my country, which has sunk a very worthy and bleeding land further into abject poverty, vio­ lence, and militarism.

“In Honduras, women suffer widespread gender vio­ lence as well as a crisis of human rights abuses since the U.S.-backed 2009 coup that ousted democratically elected Manuel Zelaya.”

Neesa Medina of the Honduran Women’s Rights Cen­ ter told Telesur that the coup has had an impact on all human rights, but particularly the rights of women. “As a member of a feminist organization we are severely affected by the U.S. support for militaristic policies in other countries, which always has a negative effect on the lives of women”. In Honduras the femicide rate increased by over 260% between 2005 and 2013. In 2014, 513 women were murdered, and in 2015 one woman was killed every 16 hours.

Since 2009, Tegucigalpa has become known as “The Murder Capital of the World.” Since 2009, 59 jour­ nalists have been assassinated in Honduras, with 12 journalists assassinated last year and four murdered so far in 2016 as of April.

Adding to her shame is Hillary Clinton’s stance in regard to the refugee children who have fled Hondu­ ras and other Central American countries. In a 2014 interview with CNN, for example, Clinton said that children arriving in the United States should be “sent back” to their violence-prone countries. “We have to send a clear message, just because your child gets across the border, that doesn’t mean the child gets to stay,” she said. Recently, however, in debate with Sand­ ers, Clinton backtracked from that position. The assassination of Berta Cáceres On March 3 of this year, two assassins broke down the back door of the home of indigenous activist Berta Cáceres and killed her. Last year, Cáceres was given the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her 10-year fight against the Agua Zarca Dam, a proj­ ect planned along the river sacred to the indigenous Lenca people. She led the struggle against Canadian and U.S. corporations for promoting development that the people considered threats to their very existence because they eliminated access to the rivers, forests, Fernando Antonio / AP (Above) Protest outside in Tegucigalpa demanding justice for Berta Cáceres. On May 1, four people were arrested in connection with the murder. It is thought that at least two suspects have ties to the military, and two or three are connected to the company building the Agua Zarca dam.

and mountain environments critical for agriculture, food, and water.

Cáceres and Gustavo Castro co-founded the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH). They led the movement that was pressuring the Honduran government to ratify a law that requires the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous communities before projects can proceed on their land.

Recently, thousands of people converged on Teguci­ galpa, the Honduran capital, in a massive mobilization to demand justice for Berta and an end to repression and government support for corporate interests. All around Tegucigalpa, her face has been spray-painted next to the words, “Berta did not die. She multiplied.”

A week after the death of Berta Cáceres, another member of COPINH, Nelson Garcia, was shot to death. Before he was murdered, Garcia was at the site of the Rio Chiquito eviction, where Honduran police and military were violently forcing the community out by destroying homes and crops. Garcia went to his moth­ er-in-law’s home, where two gunmen were waiting for him and shot him dead.

The following week, the Dutch development Bank FMO and the Finnish development bank Finnfund said they would suspend funding of the Agua Zarca Dam. In a statement, FMO said it was “shocked” by the deaths and would halt all activities in Honduras.

Berta’s daughter, Bertha Zuniga Carceres, came to the United States to demand an international inves­ tigation of the recent deaths. She was also concerned that “since the coup hundreds of concessions were given for hydroelectric exploitation, for mining.” She pointed out that a number of projects aimed at dis­ possessing the population have been established, in­ cluding “model cities” to house people who were dis­ placed.

“So, we are actually experiencing the results of the coup d’état now with the establishment of a whole series of projects that are strengthening an econom­ ic model that represents the pillage of the common goods of nature.”

COPINH states that more than 300 hydroelectric dams are planned for Honduras, of which 49 are on COPINH lands. In addition, 872 contracts have been handed out to corporations for mining alone. The ma­ jority of these are planned for indigenous lands.

Brigitte Gynther of the Washington-based School of the Americas Watch told Telesur, “The U.S. is essen­ tially financing this repression.”

At the same time, colleagues and relatives of Cáceres in Honduras have raised questions about the role of Honduran soldiers and police in her March 3 death. They cite what they call a pattern of intimidation and abuse by security forces, including a national police unit called Los Tigres, which was set up by U.S. Special Forces soldiers over the past two years and receives funding and training from the United States. Before (continued on page 9, in “Class Struggle in Ireland: 1916”)

SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 2016 7

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News and views from SA Canada the launch of a cross-country discussion of the Leap Manifesto, signals a shift in the relationship of forces in Canada’s New Democratic Party. The right-wing forces of the party and the union bureau­ cracy are now on the defensive. The “progressive,” soft-left is ascendant. Will the left seize this golden opportunity to fight for an anti-capitalist agenda and make North America’s only mass, union-based po­ litical party a weapon in the fight against austerity and climate catastrophe?

As over 1700 delegates gathered in Edmonton, Alberta, for the April 8-10 NDP federal convention, two things were evident. Firstly, it was clear that Mulcair, who led the disastrous election campaign in which the party lost a million votes and 60 per cent of its parliamentary seats last October, did not enjoy the confidence of a large majority. Secondly, anti-pipeline sentiment was pervasive, at least outside of the Alberta delegation, and the appetite for action against catastroph­ ic climate change would prevail.

The conflict over carbon-based energy came to a head when Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley made a pro­ vocative gamble. She went on television the night before the convention to demand that a west-to-east pipeline be built, with the help of the federal government. That put Mulcair, who had been wavering, after initially support­ ing the Pipeline East, in an impossible position. He con­ tinued to waver, and was mostly absent from the conven­ tion floor, thus sealing his fate.

Former Ontario NDP Leader and UN diplomat Stephen Lewis delivered the coup de grace with an electrifying speech on Saturday night. Lewis topped Notley by per­ suasively arguing that an extensive transition to green energy would be the greatest job creator on earth. But few, outside of the NDP Socialist Caucus, predicted Mulcair’s precipitous fall. When delegates voted 52 per cent on Sunday morning in favour of launching a leader­ ship race to replace the former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister, the convention and the country were stunned. Party honchos and bourgeois pundits forecasted that Mulcair would get over 70 per cent support, which they insisted would be enough for him to stay on as Leader. No one saw the 48 per cent sinker ball coming. But the signs were there.

After the Socialist Caucus launched a national cam­ paign for Leadership Review in late October, a number of prominent NDP leftist figures called for change at the top. Ontario MPP Cheri DiNovo and Sid Ryan, former president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, led the way. NDP electoral district association presidents and lo­ cal labour council officials added their voices. Then 37 prominent Quebec NDP activists issued an open letter calling for change in the party’s direction. On the other hand, five heads of unions publicly backed Mulcair. And the mass media weighed in, mostly on his side. The party staff commandeered huge resources to conduct highly manipulated telephone town halls, and to host scores of events to promote “fighter” Mulcair across the country. But that was countered by the president of the Cana­ dian Labour Congress, Hassan Yussuff, who predicted that Mulcair would be defeated. In fact, on the eve of the vote, leaders of CUPE and UNIFOR “released” their del­ egates from a pledge to support Mulcair. This came after the 274-strong Labour Caucus, which met on Saturday morning, took no position on the issue. In the words of Bob Dylan, “It doesn’t take a weatherman to know which way the wind is blow’in.”

The convention showed Mulcair the door, but asked him to pause at the exit—to stay on as parliamentary Leader until a race to replace him can be orchestrated. That contest will culminate in a one-member-one-vote election, and a policy convention, to be held 18 months to two years from now.

Delegates also voted about 60 per cent in favour of conducting a grassroots discussion of the environmental and social justice proposals in the Leap Manifesto. To­ ronto Star columnist Tom Walkom describes the docu­ ment as “middle of the road.” Journalist and former NDP star candidate Linda McQuaig asks, “What’s with all the ruckus over the Leap Manifesto? … Reports of its scari­ ness have been greatly exaggerated; its call for a transi­ tion from fossil fuels to green energy is solidly based in 8 SOCIALIST ACTION MAY 2016 website: http://socialistaction.ca (Above) NDP Leader Tom Mulcair science and widely accepted.”

This begs the question: why have the capitalist media and bourgeois politicians been pouring abuse on the Manifesto, and on NDPers who backed it and who voted to dump Mulcair?

The reason is simple: they fear that the party right wing will lose control of the apparatus. They worry that the left will gravitate towards radical socialist politics that call into question, not only capitalist austerity, but the system itself. The ouster of “balanced-budget at-all-costs” Mul­ cair, and the warm welcome accorded Leap’s critique of growing inequality, job precariousness, and environmen­ tal plunder greatly disturb the Canadian Establishment. Will the Canadian left turn up the heat, and work to set the agenda for fundamental change? Well, that would re­ quire quite a break in practice—an end to navel gazing by leftists outside the NDP, and an end to nit-picking and name-calling by some inside the labour-based party. The answer will come soon as local forums and dis­ cussions get underway. The openness to such debates has rarely been so great. The convention in Edmonton, despite its rigged policy priorities process, and dubious guest speakers (like John Ashworth, one of the most right-wing members of Jeremy Corbyn’s British Labour Party leftist Shadow Cabinet), was nonetheless the most open NDP convention in decades.

A proliferation of independent issue campaigns and candidates greeted delegates at registration. This includ­ ed CUPW members for postal banking, folks who want to abolish the monarchy, and proponents of proportional representation in parliament. One group, with scissors in hand, snipped hundreds of credential-holding lanyards embossed with Mulcair’s name and replaced them with plain ribbons. Soon a huge pile of discarded lanyards ac­ cumulated on the Shaw Communications Centre carpet, while a tray heaped high with Tom Mulcair buttons sat ignored on the registration counter.

Party officials provided the Socialist Caucus a venue for its meetings, along with a display table in the hallway— after refusing SC requests for three months. The social­ ists faced no hassle from officials when they unfurled a huge banner “For Democracy and Socialism Back in the NDP” in the main corridor, and even on the conven­ tion floor. Likewise, the SC had no problem distributing nearly 900 copies of its full-colour, glossy magazine Turn Left, nor any difficulty collecting over $850 in donations and revenue from sales of literature and buttons at its highly visible campaign depot.

For the first time, the meetings of the NDP socialists were listed in the official Delegate Kit, and the group name was spelled with capitals “S” and “C.” Six meet­ ings of the caucus took place, all well attended. Over 70 people signed up to join the SC, which worked cooperatively and successfully with Momentum—the NDP’s left alternative to austerity—with RENEW the PARTY, and New Democrats for the Leap Manifesto. A joint lunchtime meeting of supporters of Leap and the SC brought together about 60 delegates, chaired by this writer, to discuss floor tactics for the Sunday morning en­ vironment issues debate.

In the weeks leading up to the convention, the SC gained wide media attention, including in-depth inter­ views in leading newspapers. At the same time, venom­ ous attacks by National Post writers and by former senior NDP staffers Gerry Caplan and Robin Sears appeared. They claimed the SC has little influence—before Mulcair was defeated, before the Leap discussion was launched, and before various socialist policies won significant sup­ port in policy workshops.

Jointly with Momentum, the SC ran 16 candidates for party executive and federal council posts. Vote results, ranging from 5.2% to 15%, revealed a significant hardcore radical left base. It also indicated that, while the broad membership wants change, it is not yet convinced of the need for a Marxist programme. But the SC will continue to make the case for revolutionary change. That was the essence of my presidential candidate speech to the convention, which elicited rounds of ap­ plause. Toronto’s Marit Stiles, who was elected NDP president, and Montrealer Elaine Michaud, who ran sec­ ond, refused to say whether they wanted a Leadership Review, and only vaguely indicated that they favoured some kind of “reform” and “renewal.”

Delegates demonstrated significant support for social­ ist policies on Palestine and BDS, favouring the need to dedicate 80% of convention time to discussion of resolu­ tions (as opposed to less than 32 per cent presently), to establish public Pharmacare, and to institute steeply pro­ gressive taxation. These issues were featured in the 4 Ps Petition circulated by the SC during the summer of 2015, signed by hundreds of party members. The SC attracted over 30 per cent delegates’ support for an early bid to amend the convention agenda. This was later attempted by the sizable Quebec delegation.

The Persons Living with disAbilities Caucus won an important change that will benefit all members. It requires that resolutions and proposed constitution amendments be posted and circulated weeks before a convention, not just days in advance. The convention also adopted a more open and accountable candidate vetting process. This gain was in response to the outrage provoked by de­ cisions of the federal office to block or rescind several potential NDP candidates in 2015 who expressed pro-Palestinian views.

What’s next? The key tasks facing the party left include: • Promote and advance the discussion on the Leap Man­ ifesto. • Emphasize the need for public ownership and demo­ cratic control of Big Oil and Gas, and the entire energy sector. • Demand justice for indigenous peoples. Economic restitution is the basis for moral reconciliation. Resource corporations and the government must pay. • Explore running a socialist candidate for NDP Leader, or support someone like MP Nikki Ashton, Linda Mc­ Quaig, or Avi Lewis. Defeat MP Nathan Cullen who ar­ gued for a coalition with the Liberal Party in 2011, and who favours fossil fuels and more resource extraction projects provided a “social license” is obtained from First Nations.

The dethronement of Mulcair occurred less than two years after Ken Georgetti was deposed as reigning Cana­ dian Labour Congress President. Two incumbents forced out of top positions by a major body of working class del­ egates in Canada is unprecedented. It is a reflection of the keen appetite for change. It is testament to the resurgence of socialist ideas in Britain, in the USA, and beyond. It is also a sign of things to come in Canada.

Socialist caucus presidential candidate’s speech to NDP convention:

M y name is Barry Weisleder. I am a union organizer and a proud socialist—working to put socialism back in the NDP. It’s time for a Democratic Revolution in Canada and the NDP.

We want proportional representation in Parliament and membership control of the message this party takes to the electorate. Our fight is for the working class, not what Liberals call the “middle class.”

The NDP should stop apologizing for being a labour party. Working people make the country run. Workers should run the country. With real wages frozen for 30 years, and deep in debt, workers need a raise. A mini­ mum wage of $18/hour would be a good start. We need homes, not bombs. We need trains in Canada, not tanks shipped to Saudi Arabia. We need schools and hospitals on the ground, not CF18s in the air. The NDP should fight to make the polluters pay, to build renewable power, not pipelines. Let’s uphold indigenous people’s rights, not condone corporate blight. We demand fair trade, not CETA and the TPPA.

Now’s the time for public and democratic control of the economy. That’s the way to provide useful, well-paid employment for laid-off oil workers, for farmers and fisherfolk suffering from the effects of climate change, for youths and minorities stuck in McJobs, facing a pre­ carious future. Isn’t it crazy to rely on monopoly control by giant banks, greedy telecoms, big pharma, agribusi­ ness and WalMart, and to expect anything other than deskilling, speed-up, growing inequality, social decay, and racist police violence?

Our struggle is not for a “balanced” budget. It’s for a Workers’ Budget that puts people before profits. Yes, we will balance the budget – on the back of Conrad Black, (continued on page 11, in “[“Astro Noise,” Whitney Museum of American Art, Feb…]”)

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Clinton is a proponent of ‘regime change,’ a term meaning the U.S. claims the right to violate the sovereignty of any nation to remove its leader.