The Fight for LGBT Liberation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Worker www.socialist.caSocialist $2 no. 554 July 2013 WORLD IN REVOLT FROM TURKEY, to Brazil, to Egypt, imposing the same austerity: in Turkey it streets and ousted the new president Morsi. and the Egyptian military and police who people are rising up against austerity— comes from the right-wing Islamist AKP, This is a huge development from just one continue to attack resistance. But ongoing no matter which government is imposing while in Brazil it is delivered from the year ago, when Egyptians voted for the strikes and protests drove a wedge into the it—and demanding a better world. left-wing secular Workers’ Party (PT). Muslim Brotherhood (MB)—the largest MB, isolated Morsi and forced the military The trigger for the protests is clearly not opposition group—out of hope it would to remove him for fear of a general strike. From spark to revolt Islamism, as Western media claim, but cap- provide an alternative to neoliberalism and As Sameh Naguib wrote after the fall At the end of May, a small protest in italism. The PT in Brazil have joined other imperialism. of Morsi, “It opens the horizons to new Turkey to defend trees and stop gentrifica- social democratic governments around As Egyptian socialist Sameh Naguib forms of popular power which dwarf the tion in Gezi Park mushroomed into a mass the world—such as the British Labour wrote last year, “It was natural that a large temporary democracy of the ballot boxes, movement against government repression. Party, South African ANC, and PASOK section of the masses would elect Islamists which results in nothing but the sustaining While the immediate issue was the park, in Greece—in cutting jobs and services, after the revolution. The masses do not leap of bourgeois rule with its different wings… the protests galvanized broader struggles. backed up by police violence. to an integrated revolutionary conscious- The Egyptian masses have managed to Opposition to police brutality intertwined ness all of a sudden. But the election of overthrow two presidents in thirty months. with Kurdish solidarity, and when the gov- From revolt to revolution the Brotherhood and the more hard-line This mighty power is not reflected only in ernment tried to stop all demonstrations, But there is growing confidence to resist. Salafists is not the end of the story. It is a million-strong protests, but also in the sub- including Pride, tens of thousands marched. June saw not only mass movements transitional phase…It requires an intense sequent waves of labour strikes and popular Shortly after Turkey, protests exploded emerge in Turkey and Greece, but also and patient struggle to win the majority to demonstrations. For political confidence across Brazil in June—triggered by public general strikes in Costa Rica on June 25 our revolutionary project and to the neces- will transform into confidence in the social transit fare hikes, in the context of the and Portugal on June 27, and rolling strikes sity of a second Egyptian revolution.” and economic struggle, and vice versa.” government using the World Cup to dis- by US fast food workers demanding a $15/ We need to take the inspiration from place poor people while giving millions to hr wage and the right to unionization. New horizons the ongoing Egyptian revolution and corporations. The protests also tapped into Meanwhile the Egyptian revolu- While the MB’s base includes millions of build social and economic movements of longstanding anger about inequality and tion—whose outbreak in January 2011 poor and working class people, its leader- resistance, alongside a similar intense and inadequate public services. sparked the ongoing mood of global ship is committed to the capitalist state. patient struggle to win the majority to the One of the frustrations is that govern- revolt—entered a new stage on July 3, So Morsi supported Israeli apartheid, IMF necessity of revolutionary transformation ments across the political spectrum are when millions of Egyptians took to the loans and resulting austerity measures, not only in Egypt but the world over. The fight for LGBT liberation CPMA No. 58554253-99 pages 4, 6 & 7 ISSN No. 0836-7094 Walking to heal the fossil fuel sickness by JOHN BELL BEGINNING JULY 5, First Nations and Métis people will welcome anyone who wants to witness the environmental damage done by the Tar Sands to join them on the fourth annual Healing Walk. Indigenous communities have led opposition to tar sands extraction and development, from the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation fighting tar sands production in Alberta, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation op- posing local refineries in Ontario, and the Coastal First Nations opposing pipelines through BC. This has galvanized a movement that now spreads along the pipe- Photo: joernrohde.com line routes—from last year’s sit- in against the Northern Gateway pipeline through BC, this year’s mass demonstration against the Metro Keystone XL pipeline in the US, Kinder Morgan: more pipelines, more resistance and growing opposition against by ANNA ROIK and 21 storage tanks over the In April this year, Tsleil- green jobs that will sustain Line 9 through Ontario and Vancouver four terminals, and more. Waututh Chief Maureen our world for the future, not Quebec. KINDER MORGAN wants Where the new pipeline seg- Thomas signed the destroy it. Recently Alberta has been to capitalize on the BC ments will go remains a ques- International Treaty to Protect the scene of extreme flooding opposes Liberal election victory by tion, as Kinder Morgan has the Sacred from tar sands Update and major pipeline spills, call- forcing through a pipeline filed only a project description projects. The treaty was cre- In June there were two leaks ing attention to global warming expansion, but it can be with the NEB. Later in 2013 it ated by the Yankton Sioux from the existing Trans and violence against the en- coal port stopped. will file a facilities application and Pawnee Nations, who are Mountain pipeline. Early in vironment. The Healing Walk During the BC election that will contain details about working to block development June, a “small oil spill” of is organized by Keepers of the ANNA ROIK by the proposed Kinder Morgan the route. of the Keystone XL pipeline 12 barrels of crude oil—ap- Athabasca. Organizer Jesse pipeline expansion became an Since the pipeline was built between Alberta and US Gulf proximately 861 litres—was Cardinal told the Guardian ON JUNE 14, Metro important issue when the NDP in the 1950s, much of the area Coast refineries. Locally, the noted by maintenance work- newspaper, “The land is sick Vancouver held a announced they were opposed nearest to the pipeline in BC’s Communications, Energy and ers checking sections of the here. The people are sick from version of a public to the plan. There have been Lower Mainland has been Paperworkers Union along Trans Mountain pipeline near polluted air, water and food.” hearing where members few details on the proposed built up with residences and with the cities of Vancouver, Merritt, BC. The pipeline was In an online petition, organizers of the local community pipeline, which will expand businesses. Kinder Morgan Burnaby and West Vancouver immediately shut down so re- are calling on federal Minister were invited to speak the Trans Mountain pipeline has said that it plans to follow support this treaty. pairs could be completed and of Natural Resources Joe Oliver on the proposed to double in size and triple in existing rights-of-way, which As the Kinder Morgan pipe- the soil cleaned up. and Alberta Premier Alison thermal coal terminal capacity. The existing pipe- has led to fear that property line is an expansion project, While this was the small- Redford to join them: “Minister at Fraser Surrey Docks. line travels through residential may be expropriated. it is not confirmed whether est oil spill of the 79 recorded Joe Oliver has claimed that tail- The proposed new coal neighbourhoods in Burnaby, There are also environ- it would be a designated spills along the Trans Mountain ing ponds at the tar sands are terminal could ship Coquitlam and Surrey. mental concerns related to project under the Canadian pipeline in its 60-year lifespan, being cleaned up to the point upwards of 4 million A few weeks after the elec- the extraction, transport and Environmental Assessment a Kinder Morgan spokesman where ‘you’d be able to drink metric tonnes of coal tion victory for the pipeline use of tar sands oil. In 2012, Act (CEAA). Recognizing admitted that the public is from them’ so we want to in- yearly to Asia. In the supporting Liberals, Kinder Vancouver and Burnaby an- the potential opposition to becoming more skeptical and vite the Minister to join us for end, Metro Vancouver Morgan filed a project descrip- nounced opposition to the the project, Kinder Morgan less forgiving about spills. the Healing Walk. We would voted 21 to 4 to tion with the National Energy proposed expansion, as did is requesting that the Trans This especially in light of its like him, and Alberta Premier oppose coal shipments Board (NEB). In an interview the provincial NDP in the 2013 Mountain pipeline be sub- own Trans Mountain pipeline Redford, to walk 16 km in our at Fraser Surrey Docks in the Globe and Mail, Kinder election. No one wants to see ject to environmental review twinning proposal as well as shoes and see the devastated and within the Fraser Morgan Canada president Ian the region turning into an oil under both the NEB and Enbridge’s Northern Gateway land, breathe the dirty air, and River estuary, the Anderson described the elec- exporting port with the inher- CEAA.