Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

PSAC has joined with unions from across Canada, to show solidarity with the people of Pakistan who are struggling to gain access to disaster relief after weeks of devastating floods. The union announced a $30,000 donation to Oxfam Canada this week, contributing to more than $200,000 pledged by the Canadian labour movement to various relief efforts.

“Food crops and seeds have been decimated and nearly a million homes washed away. An estimated 8 million people have been affected by the floods and are in urgent need of emergency aid,” said John Gordon, PSAC National President. “Unless humanitarian aid reaches the affected communities soon, more people will succumb to water borne diseases and potential starvation.”

PSAC’s donation is being channelled through the union’s Social Justice Fund, which was established in 2003 to support initiatives to help eliminate poverty and injustice in Canada and around the world. Operating from a position of solidarity not charity, the fund advocates for political change and works with union partners around the world to help defend and re-build public services.

“Poor people are facing the worst of the impact from extreme climate change around the globe,” said Gordon. “Our union is committed to supporting people affected by natural disasters, while also advocating for the Canadian government to unfreeze its aid budget and take substantive steps to lower Canada’s green house gas emissions.”

PSAC urges its members to give generously to help the people of Pakistan during this critical time by donating to Oxfam or the charity of their choice.

The Play Fair campaign is a coalition of labour rights groups that seek to push sportswear brands that produce merchandise for the Olympic Games to abolish sweatshop conditions in their supply chains and to respect labour rights.

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We recently shipped the second Balikbayan box to the Philippines and received this message from Kilusang para sa Pambansang Demokrasya (Movement for Nationalism and Democracy) – the Alliance that received our last box.

Dear Friends in PSAC BC and VDLC, Warm Greetings from the Philippines!

We are happy that another box from you is on its way here.

We appreciate these balikbayan boxes knowing that for each item to be gathered and placed inside a cardboard box that would travel hundreds of miles from there to here is the fruits of your effort to make real the concept of international solidarity — a mutually enriching relationship towards a greater good.

And that inspires us. Thank you.

DJ Janier, Popular Struggles Committee, Director

forwarded on behalf of CoDevelopment Canada

Dear CoDev supporters,

We found out on Friday last week that the government will bring Bill C-23, implementation legislation for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, back to the House of Commons this week. We’re told by NDP Trade Critic Peter Julian’s office that the government hopes to hold a second reading and vote by the end of the week, which will send the FTA to committee for more deliberations.

You will remember that the Liberal opposition, led by Trade Critic Scott Brison, is backing away from the all-party standing committee decision last year that called for an “impartial human rights impact assessment be carried out by a competent body, which is subject to independent levels of scrutiny and validation,” prior to moving ahead with Bill C-23. The first order on the bill this week is to debate a motion by the Bloc Quebecois that would pull C-23 from the order paper on the grounds that the Harper government ignored this all-party recommendation. If this motion is voted on and defeated by the Conservatives and Liberals, the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement will be one step closer to becoming reality.

It is urgent that Canadians write THIS WEEK and express their views on the CCFTA. We are asking CoDev members and supporters send messages to their MP and to key Liberal MPs expressing their views. We are including here some new information that you may want to pass on to your MP. Urge your MP to support the Bloc motion to remove the CCFTA.

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Do you have useful items that can be donated to our sisters and brothers in the Philippines?

The PSAC-BC region is supporting the Vancouver & District Labour Council’s “Balikbayan Box” campaign to gather material support for union and community organizations doing important organizing work in the Philippines.

That these organizers are risking their lives to carry out this work is not an exaggeration. In the past two years more than 70 trade union leaders and activists have been murdered in the Philippines.

Your or your Local/Branch can provide material support to these organizations by contributing small items or surplus supplies which we will ship to the Philippines in a “Balikbayan Box”, a 1.5 sq metre box, which we can fill to the brim and ship to the Philippines.

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La Chiva (with the help of many friends) has begun a major fundraising campaign in Vancouver to support of the Tejido de Comunicaci�n of the Association of Indigenous Councils of Northern Cauca, Colomba (http://www.nasaacin.org).

The Tejido has asked for our help in raising funds to repair the equipment for Radio Pa-Yumat, their community radio station, which was destroyed last December by unknown saboteurs, seriously hindering their ability to accompany their communities.

This and many other attacks and threats have come from all of Colombia’s armed actors. The attacks are clearly in response to their community’s position of non-violent resistance to war and the effectiveness of the Tejido’s communications strategy in bringing that message to the national and international scene (see: http://www.nasaacin.org/noticias.htm?x=9919).

For the Nasa indigenous communicators, communication is simultaneously community accompaniment and resistance to what they call the ‘death project’ presented by transnational interests and the armed actors that threaten the viability of popular community-based responses, or ‘life plans’.

Truth, participation and democracy derived from the communities are what social movements seek to strengthen within society. They are confronting the mass media, which engages in what might be more accurately regarded as propaganda rather than communication: the domination of the media landscape to ensure passive audiences and to halt the development of communication based on raising consciousness from social movements. Is this confrontation why the Communications Weavers are currently being singled out, persecuted, and threatened?
– Vilma Almendra, member of the Tejido de Comunicaci�n

As friends of the Tejido, we are mobilizing our support to show that they are not alone and that we share their vision for another possible and necessary world.

On July 1 2009, Latino Soy (FM96.1 in Vancouver) began a summer-long radio campaign to raise funds for the Tejido de Comunicaci�n. They have been in direct contact with Radio Pa’Yumat, collecting donations, broadcasting interviews and informing Vancouver’s Spanish-speaking community about the situation in Cauca and the importance of communication in popular resistance struggles in the Americas.

Please join us in Vancouver for the following events, where you can learn more about the situation in Colombia (and its relation to Canada), support the work of the Tejido, and have a good time while you’re at it!

Mark your calendars!

Salsa en Minga
A salsa party in support of the indigenous Communications Network in Northern Cauca, Colombia
With genuine hard-hitting salsa music by DJ La Sals�mana
FREE Salsa lesson with Ramses (8:30-9:30pm)

Saturday July 25 2009
Doors: 8pm
Venue: Cambrian Hall
Address: 215 E 17th Avenue (Main Street & 17th Ave)
Cost: $10
Snacks and locally-produced alcoholic beverages will be available.
We will also be selling copies of ‘Country of the Peoples without Owners’

Tickets available at the door, or at the following locations:
Panaderia Latina Bakery: 4906 Joyce Street, Vancouver
Los Guerreros Latin Food Products: 3317 Kingsway, Vancouver
Info: 604.607.4814 or 604.338.0806
Presented by La Chiva and Grupo Atarraya. Sponsored by Latino Soy 96.1FM

Film Screening and Celebration:
Country of the Peoples without Owners
A screening of the documentary (Spanish w/ English subtitles) created by the Tejido de Comunicaci�n about the process of the Minga de Resistencia Social y Comunitaria
This documentary has been warmly received by audiences across Colombia, up and down the West Coast of North America, in Eastern Canada and, more recently, to hundreds in New York.
With music by DJ La Sals�mana

Saturday August 1 2009
7:30pm
Venue: Rhizome Cafe
Address: 317 Broadway East, Vancouver, (near Broadway and Kingsway)
Cost: $5 – $10 Sliding Scale (No one will be turned away).
Come early for dinner and drinks!
Copies of the documentary will also be for sale.

Presented by La Chiva and Grupo Atarraya with the generous support of Rhizome Cafe and Latino Soy 96.1FM.
For more information about the above events, please check out the Canada-Colombia Project blog: http://www.canadacolombiaproject.blogspot.com

from the Spring issue of Think Public!

In October 2008, Amelia Marasa, a PSAC/CIU member and Crystal Graber a PSAC/CEIU member, attended the 3rd Americas Social Forum in Guatemala City, Guatemala. The tour was organized by Co-Develop�ment Canada. Crystal and Amelia�s participation was sponsored by the PSAC Social Justice Fund and the BC Regional Council. The following is a report on their tour.

From October 7 to 12, 2008, the participants at the 3rd Americas Social Forum (ASF) proved that �another America is possible.� The forum, which was held in Guatemala City, aimed to analyze, to share information and propose ideas for how Latin America might stand up against the damages that globalization is causing to countries in the Global South. In Guatemala, two per cent of the population owns over 96 per cent of the land, while 48 per cent of the population is illiterate and lives in poverty.

People from all over the Americas participated in an open discussion about the all-too-common social problems facing Latin American countries. For decades right wing governments have allowed multinational corporations to make huge profits from the fruits, products and resources of the Mother Land (Mama Pacha, as the Mayans call Earth), without any consideration for the local people, communities, and environment.

The indigenous people of America are changing this. By participating in forums such as ASF and getting active in their local governments and at national levels, they are standing up for themselves and demanding changes. This is not just for their communities, but for the continent and for the rest of the world.

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“Rites for Humanity:An Evening of Solidarity for Human Rights and Dignity” Cultural Evening

• Saturday, December 13, 2008
• 7:00 pm
• Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway, Vancouver
• $5-$20 sliding scale donation at the door.

Please join the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) in celebrating International Human Rights Day!

On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly’s adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

On the 60th anniversary of the declaration, people all over the world continue to struggle for genuine human rights, equality and peace.

In the Philippines, the people continue to struggle. Since President Macapagal Arroyo took power in 2001, the Filipino people have been the victims of Arroyo’s localized ‘war on terror’. According to reports, Arroyo has committed gross and systematic violations of human rights with 910 victims of extrajudicial killings, 195 victims of enforced disappearances, hundreds illegally arrested and sent to prison, tortured and harassed and has caused the displacement and forced evacuations of millions of Filipinos. In the midst of this political repression, attacks on the people’s right to security and livelihood continue. The Philippines external debt has ballooned to US$60 billion and the cost of rice shot up sharp inflation of rice from 2.6 % to 6.4% within a year.

Despite the repression and economic hardships, the Filipino people continue to resist — not only against tyranny, but also for their genuine human rights, freedom, and development.

Peace and freedom-loving people the world over have pushed the struggle for human rights forward.

Because of this spirit of resistance, there is cause to come together and celebrate.

For more information please contact BCCHRP 604-215-1103 or bcchrp@kalayaancentre.net

Four of Canada�s top public sector union leaders, including PSAC National President John Gordon, recently visited Colombia to learn directly about the potential impact of a Canada-Colombia free trade deal on Colombian workers and their families. Here is a report.

We visited Colombia from July 18-25 on behalf of one million Canadian public sector workers. Our mission, among other tasks, was to see for ourselves whether our opposition to the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement was justified. What we saw and learned confirmed that we are right to oppose this deal and to speak out against it on behalf of Colombian workers and their families.

We met with many sectors of Colombian society, including the Colombian Minister of the Interior and government officials, the Canadian ambassador and embassy officials, leaders of the United Central of Workers (CUT) and trade unionists at all levels, members of the opposition Polo Democratico Alternativo, several non-governmental organizations, groups representing indigenous and Afro-Colombian peoples as well as media reporters and ordinary citizens.

We visited the poorest of the poor families displaced from their homes by paramilitary groups to benefit transnational companies wanting to expand agriculture production, mining and other business interests. We were told that more than 4 million people, 10 per cent of the population, have been displaced without reparations.

Continue reading at rabble.ca

via nupge.ca

Labour leaders undertaking week-long tour of South American country

Bogata (23 July 2008) – Four of Canada’s top public sector union leaders arrived at Bogota airport on July 18 to begin a week-long labour tour and learn directly about the potential impact of a Canada-Colombia free trade deal on Colombian workers and their families.

They were greeted by members of the Sindicato de Trabajadores Postales de Colombia (STPC – Union of Postal Workers) and the Association of Public Employees of the Human Rights Ombudsman (ASDEP), among other labour groups.

The Canadian delegation includes George Heyman, international vice-president of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), John Gordon, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), and Denis Lemelin, national president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW).

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The Filipino community in Canada and Canadians grieve and sympathize with the victims of supertyphoon Fengshen (Frank) that swept the Philippines over the weekend. We urgently appeal for financial support to help the relief efforts.

According to official reports, nearly 1000 people are confirmed dead, including those dead or missing from a ferry that sank in central Philippines. Over 35, 500 families had to be evacuated from their homes due to the rapid flooding and landslide risks. The hardest hit areas are Iloilo, Romblon, Cotabato, Antique, and Capiz.

In these times of natural disasters, the majority of victims are the poverty-stricken population. The majority of the people are already faced with economic crisis, such as the food crisis, the typhoon adds further suffering to the Filipino people. Already pushed in the margins of government priorities, the needy and poor populations are further left in extreme vulnerability and danger in times of natural and man-made calamities.

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“Challenging the Myths of Migration, Building workers’ solidarity in Canada”

A critical look at the expansion of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Workers’ Program (TFWP)

• Community Forum
• Sunday, April 6, 2008, 2:00 pm
• Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver (between Jackson & Dunlevy Streets)

Speakers include: SIKLAB-B.C. (Advance the Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers and their Families), Justicia for Migrant Worker, Other speakers to be announced. For more information: email: ilps_canada@shawcable.com

Picket and Rally

Wednesday, January 30, 4 pm
Picket outside the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver (1075 W. Pender)

War and Occupation are a Health Crisis.

The Israeli occupation is a health crisis for Palestinians. In particular, the total siege by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza effectively detains Palestinian men, women and children in what amounts to a giant open air prison, creating a mounting health emergency by denying even the basic necessities of life. In addition to the Israeli-created public health crisis, Palestinians face arbitrary and criminal military violence from the Israeli occupiers.

The conditions in Gaza demonstrate clearly the criminal nature of the Israeli occupation:

Ongoing killings, assassinations and air attacks by Israeli occupation forces; already in January, 2008, Israeli occupying forces in Gaza have killed 26 Palestinians, including children and women, and wounded 44 others. This death toll does not include the countless others whose physical and mental health hangs in the balance of the siege.

Tens of thousands are denied access to safe water and sanitation as raw sewage runs through the streets. General scarcity of food, clean water, and fuel, resulting in malnutrition, disease are a public health clamity. Gaza is on the verge of a humanitarian, health and environmental crisis, threatening the lives of 1.5 million civilians.

Surgical operations and medical aid are suspended at hospitals due to lack of power and supplies, leaving patients languishing in need of medical attention. Furthermore, medical personal are unable to reach people due to the siege conditions.

Blockade of supplies for UN Relief and Works Agency which supplies over 900,000 Palestinians in refugee camp; humanitarian aid is suspended in a region where 85% of the Palestinian population depends upon humanitarian aid their basic needs for survival.

The U.S. and Canadian governments share culpability for this disaster as they continue to support the Israeli occupation. The U.S.A. provides billions of dollars in aid to Israel annually, much of it military aid. Meanwhile the Canadian government has over the last several years shifted to a position of essentially unconditional support for Israel at the U.N. and was the first government to cut humanitarian aid to Palestinians following their democratic election in 2006, punishment for not voting for the ‘correct’ representatives.

Peace, justice and health for Palestinians are impossible under conditions of occupation and siege. We must speak out! We must ACT NOW to break the siege and end the occupation.

Break the Siege on Gaza!

Canada & U.S. – stop supporting Israeli war crimes!

End the Israeli Occupation! Free Palestine!

Organized by the Health Now! Campaign, Alliance for Peoples Health, Al Awda – Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, International League of Peoples Struggles participating organizations in Vancouver (BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Grassroots Women, Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino Sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, SIKLAB, Bus Riders Union, Filipino Nurses Support Group), Free Ahmed Sa’adat Campaign.

Email contact.

• Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2008
• Time: 7-9 PM
• Location: The Richmond Caring Place,
• 7000 Minoru Blvd @ Granville
• Cost: minimum donation of $5 but no one will be turned away

Since Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo assumed power in the Philippines in January 2001, there are now more than 830 reported cases of extra-judicial killings and almost 200 cases of forcible disappearances in the Philippines. Despite this terror, the Filipino peoples resistance continues. The killings, mostly carried out by unidentified men often wearing face masks who shoot the victims before escaping on motorcycles, have rarely led to the arrest, prosecution and punishment of those responsible.

Come to a forum at the Richmond Women’s Resource Centre and learn more about the situation of women in the Philippines and how you can be a Sister In Solidarity.

For more information contact Philippine Women Centre of BC (604) 215-1103, pwc@kalayaancentre.net, www.kalayaancentre.net/pwcofbc or Richmond Women’s Resource Centre (604) 279-7060, www.richmondwomenscentre.bc.ca

Endorsed by the PSAC Vancouver Regional Women’s Committee

via Vancouver & District Labour Council

A Chance to Go to School in Cuba

Wouldn’t it be great to have a place to meet other activists, learn something useful and have some fun in the sun at the same time?

Well how about getting together in Havana, Cuba in May, 2008 for a week of global solidarity courses and a program of events designed especially for activists.

That is the idea behind a Global Solidarity School. Its being organized in Cuba by a group of Canadian labour activists and educators. The school will run from May 4 to May 10 and offer five week-long courses designed to interest activists and their spouses.

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SIKLAB-CANADA READIES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS’ ALLIANCE; ENCOURAGES MIGRANTS IN CANADA TO JOIN

Filipino migrants in Canada are set to bring their fight for their rights to a new level.

SIKLAB-Canada, a national formation representing migrant Filipino workers, is readying for the historic launching of the International Migrants’ Alliance (IMA) in June 2008 in Hong Kong.

“There is an urgent need to form the IMA,” explains Roderrick Carreon, Chairperson of SIKLAB-Canada, “The issue of migration has become a global phenomenon and the focal point for much intense debate and discussion among academics and politicians on how to administer and manage international migration. It is now also time for those of us organizing around migrant rights to join together internationally to focus on the real lived experience and exploitation of migrant workers, the structures behind global migration, and the impacts of imperialist globalization,” continues Carreon.

There are over half a million Filipinos across Canada, the majority of whom are women who have entered the country as live-in domestic workers under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). SIKLAB is actively campaigning for the scrapping of the LCP calling the immigration program “anti-woman and racist”.

Under the LCP, migrant workers are required to live-in their employers’ home for 24 months, hold only temporary immigration status, and are tied to their employers because of the required employer-specific contracts under the program — conditions, which SIKLAB argues breed exploitation, abuse and oppression of Filipino migrant workers in Canada.

“We know that our community’s migration to Canada as cheap and expendable labour is shared by many other migrant and immigrant communities,” says Glecy Duran, Vice-Chairperson of SIKLAB-Canada, “Because we are here and legislated to perform low-wage and dangerous jobs that no other Canadians will perform, migrants of all nationalities, especially those of colour, share a common experience of exploitation. We need to unite,” adds Duran.

The objectives of the IMA are:

• To promote the rights, livelihood and welfare of migrants, refugees and displaced persons all over the world;
• To defend the interests of migrants, refugees and displaced persons from attacks of imperialist globalization and its lackeys;
• To forge coordinated and joint actions and plans in advancing the rights and well-being of im/migrants and refugees.
• To intensify campaigns for just wage, job security, against commodification and against criminalization of undocumented migrants and immigrants.
• Extend support and cooperation among the members.
• To further promote international solidarity and cooperation with progressive and genuine anti-imperialist organizations and alliances.

The IMA was initiated by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Study Commission on Migrants and Immigrants, and aims to be a broad international formation of progressive and anti-imperialist migrant organizations of various nationalities.

As a convenor of the launching the IMA, SIKLAB-Canada is also inviting other like-minded organizations of migrants and immigrants in Canada to join the significant founding of the IMA.

For more information: SIKLAB-B.C.: Glecy Duran, siklab@kalayaancentre.net; 604-215-1103
–
SIKLAB-British Columbia
Advance the Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers and Their Families
Member of SIKLAB-Canada
c/o Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6A 1G7
Phone: 604.215.1103 | Fax: 604.215.1905 | http://www.kalayaancentre.net

Canadian Labour Congress to Ministers Solberg and Finley: Where are the Filipino 11?
Temporary Foreign Worker Program Should Be Suspended

OTTAWA – The Canadian Labour Congress calls for an immediate moratorium of the government’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program until a comprehensive investigation of identified abuse and exploitation cases takes place. Full suspension of this program is necessary as the government officially acknowledges that it cannot “monitor the working conditions offered by the employer following entry into Canada” – that it cannot protect these workers.

To print the English PDF version, please click the link below

http://canadianlabour.ca/index.php/november/1290

PAKISTAN UNDER THE GUN
Perspectives on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law
Public Forum, Film Screening and Discussion

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007, 6:30 pm
Alma Van Dusen Room, Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia – between Homer and Hamilton(lower level -take elevator/stairs by main library entrance)
From Granville Skytrain Station: 2 blocks east on Dunsmuir, 1 block south on Homer

FREE EVENT:

Join us for a public forum and interactive discussion on human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan. Support the resistance of the Pakistani people!

Co-sponsored by the Vancouver and District Labour Council, India Pakistan Peace Network (IPPN), South Asian Network for Secularism and Democracy (SANSAD), Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada. Endorsed by the PSAC International Solidarity Committee.

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Honourable Maxime Bernier, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Dear Minister Bernier:

On behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a national union made up of over 160,000 members, I am writing to express our grave concern regarding the appalling human rights situation in the Philippines under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In recent months, we have become aware of the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Philippines marked with extrajudicial killings and trade union repression from a variety of sources.

• Send an email to the Philippine & Canadian Governments – Stop the political killings!

In March 2007, we heard from individuals who survived assassination attempts under the Arroyo government, such as Dr. Constancio Claver, who told of the political targeting and surveillance he experienced that ultimately resulted in the murder of his wife and attempted murder of himself and his daughter when they were ambushed in July 2006. He also shared his frustration with the Philippine National Police’s lack of investigation and prosecutions in his case.

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The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister:

On behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, I am writing to express our grave concern and dismay regarding the imposition of a state of emergency and suspension of the constitution in Pakistan by the country’s military ruler and President, General Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf’s dictatorial actions, including: the suspension of Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other members of the judiciary; bans against the media; and the suppression of fundamental democratic rights; have resulted in protests throughout Pakistan and growing condemnation from human rights organizations, trade unions and government leaders from around the world, including Canada.

The people of Pakistan have a long and vibrant history of fighting to protect civil society and democracy and have been on the frontlines of the struggle since a state of emergency was declared in the country. Pakistan’s military dictatorship has responded with wide spread detentions and arrests of lawyers, journalists, students and internationally respected human rights defenders such as Asma Jahangir.

On November 11, the Musharraf government amended the Army Act of 1952, allowing the army to court martial civilianspeaking out against the state with charges of sedition, treason and terrorism, with trials conducted through military courts. This most recent change in legislation signals a dangerous escalation in the regime’s long history of human rights violations by allowing the military to act with total impunity, and presents a very serious threat to justice and human rights in the country.

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