Happy Halloween!

“A spectre is haunting Europe—the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre.”

Happy Halloween!

Dmytriy Kovalevich

The amoral US economic blockade of Cuba must be ended

ISAAC SANEY, CNC Spokesperson, October 27, 2018

The blockader gets blockaded

On October 31st, for the twenty-seventh successive year the General Assembly of the United Nations will vote on the resolution, Necessity of Ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba. There is no doubt that given the immense global respect and stature that Cuba enjoys, the world will once again resoundingly reject Washington’s more than five decade long economic war against the revolutionary island and its heroic people. Last year, on November 1st, 2017, by the massive vote of 191 to 2, for the 26th consecutive time, the international community repudiated this ongoing economic aggression against Cuba.

This Day. Martyring the six ‘Chilcotin Chiefs’

October 26 is the anniversary of the 1864 hanging of the six “Chilcotin Chiefs” (also Tsilhqot’in) by the Colony of British Columbia. The hanging took place at 7 a.m. on Front St. in Quesnel, one of the largest mass hangings in Canadian history. They had been ambushed at what they were told was a peace conference where they would meet the newly-installed Governor Frederick Seymour and discuss terms. The mostly indigenous crowd of 250 represented seem to have been Dakelh from the north, Secwepemc from the south, some Tsilhqot’in and a party of Nuxalk who walked 1000 km to honour the “Chiefs.” 

Postal workers’ demands are just

Postal workers begin rotating strikes. Photos from across Canada

Rural and Suburban Mail Carriers (RSMCs) picket in Nova Scotia, October 22

Workers’ Forum

On Sunday, October 21, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers National Executive Board informed postal workers that last minute discussions with Canada Post failed to address the demands of the union. A bulletin to union members stated that Canada Post negotiators refused to address the workers’ demands and consequently the union would begin rotating strikes at 12:01 am on October 22, in Victoria, British Columbia; Edmonton, Alberta; Windsor, Ontario; and Halifax, Nova Scotia.

US heroizes drug-dealing, torturing Afghan thug as its golden boy

Civilians and military personnel stand beside the grave of Gen. Abdul Raziq, Kandahar police chief, who was killed by a guard, as they pay respect during his burial ceremony in Kandahar, Afghanistan on Oct. 19, 2018 | AP

Women march on the Pentagon

Fed up with ongoing wars depleting innocent lives and the U.S. Treasury, more than a thousand women marched on the Pentagon on Sunday to declare their opposition to the continuing slaughter | JOE LAURIA

Designed to fail: American aggression in Afghanistan

A review of Carlotta Gall’s The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan | OMAR AHMAD

US Marines stand in formation during a transfer of authority ceremony at Shorab camp, in Helmand province, Afghanistan April 29, 2017 | Reuters/James Mackenzie

In 2003 I attended a hearing on Afghanistan at the US Senate. During the hearing, at which a serving general and a few other experts were giving their testimony, the then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden, leaned forward and said something to the effect of, “I’ve always felt that rather than sending 100,000 troops to Iraq, we should have sent 25,000 troops to Waziristan instead.”

War: A community issue

By LYNN MARIE PETROVICH*

War affects everyone. While some are adversely affected more than others, there is no one that escapes the war machine’s reach. One example in the United States is war funding. The defence budget is mind-boggling. The U.S.’s 2019 Pentagon budget supports 883 overseas bases and is lethal to humanity.

Postal workers’ fight: the key issues

Prince George, BC, September 28, 2018

On Monday morning, October 22, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which represents 50,000 postal workers, began rotating strikes in four cities of Victoria, Edmonton, Windsor, Ont., and in Halifax.  Almost 9,000 workers in the Greater Toronto Area walked off the job Tuesday at 12:01 am ET.

All out to oppose annual US-led war conference in Halifax!

Demonstration against fourth Halifax International Security Forum, November 17, 2012

This year’s U.S.-led “Halifax International Security Forum” (HISF), referred to by many as the Halifax War Conference, takes place on November 16-18. An anti-war rally will be held to protest it on November 17.

Women in US organize march on Pentagon

On October 21 and 22, women in the United States are organizing an anti-war march on the Pentagon to demand the complete end to the wars the U.S. is conducting abroad; the closure of foreign bases; and a significant cut to the Pentagon budget, to instead fund healthy social programs in the U.S. There will also be sister actions across the country.

Israeli forces wound more than 70 Palestinians at Gaza border protest

An Israeli military spokeswoman said about 10,000 demonstrators massed at the border and that some threw burning tyres, grenades and explosive devices at the troops across the fence. About 30 Palestinians suffered tear gas inhalation, the Gaza health ministry said.

Palestinian demonstrators gather at the Israel-Gaza border fence during a protest calling for lifting the Israeli blockade on Gaza and demanding the right to return to their homeland, in the southern Gaza Strip, October 19, 2018 | Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Anna Burns may have won the Booker, but monopoly publishers are the real victors

The Man Booker rules make submissions from small publishers very tricky because of the size of the print run required and the amount of money that involves. Because of this, a win can be a drain rather than a boost, and costs can outstrip sales if you don’t win.

The US orchestrates unprecedented provocation against Cuba in the United Nations

This afternoon, the U.S. government called a press conference to slander Cuba in the UN’s Economic and Social Council hall. As the meeting concluded, a teleSUR correspondent stated, “This is the environment. The meeting is over. The hall almost empty. Very few of those invited by the U.S.” | Granma 

Ten typical days in Trump’s America

A liberal chronology | Eliot Weinberger, London Review of Books

As dozens of lagoons of pig waste overflow in North Carolina, President Trump says that Hurricane Florence is ‘one of the wettest we’ve ever seen, from the standpoint of water’. (In North Carolina 9.7 million pigs produce ten billion gallons of manure a year.)

This day. The Paris massacre of 1961

When the Seine was full of bodies – as many as 300 Algerians massacred in Paris by order of the police Prefect, a Vichy Nazi collaborator, who was never prosecuted for this heinous crime. The provocation came in the form of a police order that Muslim “citizens” of Algeria only should be subject to a curfew from 8.30pm to 5.30am, on the pretext that there had been a significant increase in the number of attacks on policemen. What happened on 17 October 1961 is not a matter solely for historians.

This day. The Black Power salute

October 16 marks the 50th anniversary of the historic Black Power protest at the 1968 Olympics 200 metre medal ceremony by African American athletes Tommie Smith (centre) and John Carlos (right), the gold and bronze medalists. Peter Norman (left), the silver medalist from Australia and an opponent of the White Australia policy, displayed the badge of the Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR). This was – and is – a powerful example of defiance in the face of racist oppression, in particular, and for human rights for all, in general.

This day. Trudeau invokes the War Measure’s Act

Constituting the fascist state as a legal regime

Canadian soldiers take over the streets of Montreal following the invocation of the War Measures Act, October 1970.

Forty-eight years ago on October 16, 1970, the federal Liberal government led by Pierre Elliott Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. Trudeau declared a state of “apprehended insurrection” in response to kidnappings and mailbox bombings taking place in Quebec. The War Measures Act gave the police the power to act without warrants and to detain people indefinitely without charges or trial.

This day. ‘History will absolve me’

Prophesized and fulfilled

Sixty-five years after Fidel delivered his celebrated self-defence, this document continues to capture the essence of the project Cuba has undertaken | ALEJO CARPENTIER

Warship Watch. No to foreign warships in Halifax Harbour!

Haligonians have a long history of protesting visits by warships. Photo of May 29, 2012 action.

(October 13) – On October 5, the French Rubis-class nuclear-powered submarine L’Améthyste arrived at Canadian Forces Base Shearwater in Halifax, the first such visit in two years. Speaking on behalf of the organization No Harbour for War, Allan Bezanson unequivocally rejected the presence of the submarine. “We want Halifax to be a factor of peace in the world and a zone for peace,” he told the Chronicle Herald. He pointed out that the comings and goings of these warships is usually tied in with war exercises.

Cuba: Those who opened the way

Brief biographical sketches of six patriots who led the first struggles for Cuban independence| Ronald Suárez Rivas

This day. Cuba celebrates 150 years since First War of Independence

Battalion of cavalry of the mambisas troops during the conflict of the Ten Years’ War.

This day. Jean-Paul Sartre rejects the Nobel Prize

Jean-Paul Sartre (centre) dining in Paris with filmmaker Claude Lanzmann (left) and Simone de Beauvoir in 1964 | Bettmann/Corbis

On October 10, 1964, the French existential philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre rejected the Nobel Prize for literature.

Former Ukrainian deputy describes how the US ambassador blackmails politicians

The American Embassy influenced the decisions of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, with the help of information about the bank accounts of key figures of parliament.

This was stated on the air of the TV program “An evening with Vladimir Solovyov” by the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the previous session, Spiridon Kilinkarov.

“I state with responsibly that in the Verkhovna Rada, when there were some difficult political affairs, the ambassador of the US always appeared on the balcony. He didn’t hit anyone with a stick, he didn’t shout, he just culturally sat down in a chair and observed voting in the parliament. If a vote wasn’t passed, in the evening key figures who make decisions are invited to the American Embassy. He doesn’t shout there either. He says: ‘You know, mister, here you have bank accounts, here, here, and here … I’ve been here since 2006, I remember that there were three or four of such votes…’,” said Kilinkarov.

With a file from Stalkerzone, September 21, 2018

TS note: Over one third of the members of the Rada have dual citizenships.

A man was killed in a 1998 explosion at the Irving refinery; afterwards, a safety report made recommendations that would ‘prevent a similar occurrence,’ but 20 years later the refinery exploded again

By TIM BOUSQUET*

This day. Cuba remembers the victims of the 1976 terrorist attack and demands justice

This peaceful people has suffered the loss of 3,478 of its citizens due to brutal terrorist acts, among them the victims of the in-flight bombing of a Cubana de Aviación plane over Barbados

Warship Watch. French nuclear-powered submarine, US guided-missile cruiser in Halifax

FS L’Améthyste arrives at Shearwater on October 5 | Tim Krochak, Chronicle Herald

A French nuclear-powered submarine arrived in Shearwater on Friday for the first time in two years.

For your information: NAFTA becomes USMCA

The supranational oligopolies that control the economies of North America and seek global hegemony have tightened the screws of their domination over the peoples of the U.S., Mexico and Canada. The changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in becoming the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) have both strengthened and loosened the rules of international trade on the continent to favour the most powerful oligarchs.

The noise accompanying the new free trade agreement between US, Mexico and Canada

By K.C. ADAMS

Since President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the Trudeau Liberals and their retinue in the mass media and trade union movement have hysterically bleated about the demise of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). They have presented Trump’s threat to walk away from NAFTA as a grave danger to Canada’s economy and saving the trade agreement as akin to saving Canada from collapse. The mass media generated a three-ring circus of non-stop “will they agree or not,” “will Trump pull the plug or not,” “will Freeland appear on the steps to make an announcement or not.”

Gaza ‘laboratory’ boosts profits of Israel’s war industry

Gaza functions as a live testing area for Israeli weapons manufacturers | GABRIEL SCHIVONE*

Mohammed Zaanoun. ActiveStills

(October 5) – After exploring the vast surveillance regime along the US-Mexico border and finding Israeli systems installed at every turn, the author Todd Miller and I were drawn to investigate Israel as the largest homeland security industry in the world. Israel’s arms industry is twice the size of its US counterpart in exports per capita and employs a percentage of the national workforce double that of the US or France, two of the top global arms exporters.