SocialistWorker www.socialist.ca $2 no. 560 March 2014 HANDS OFF UKRAINE Russia and NATO out! Colonial FNEA sparks resistance Page 2 Valerie Lannon examines the “First Nations Educa- tion Act” and the resist- ance it has sparked Women in Iraq Page 3 Shayma Bashawieh exposes violence against women in the aftermath of Western intervention Intersectionality and resistance Page 4 Faline Bobier looks at the strengths and limits of intersectionality Quebec election Page 5 Chantal Sundaram sur- veys the Quebec election and the left-wing alterna- tive Anti-oppression Page 6-7 Hanan Jibril discusses the threat of Islamophobia The current crisis in the Ukraine is at roughly 20 per cent and under The US is concerned that a Neither Washington and the need to build is a product of decades of employment is also rampant. rival economic and military bloc nor Moscow meddling by both the West The people of the Ukraine have is being created with the Russian For the left in the west our tasks movements against racism and Russia in the affairs of the fought numerous times to try and and the Chinese governments are clear. We need to stop our gov- and sexism country. find a government that will do signing pacts under the Shanghai ernments from interfering in the After the collapse of the Eastern more to take care of the people, cooperation organization. The affairs of the Ukraine. We know Motherhouse Bloc, NATO countries were keen but both the Western sponsored SCO is also expanding and has that when the Johns—that is Baird, to exercise as much control as opposition and the Russian sup- invited both India and Pakistan Kerry and McCain—speak about Page 8 possible over the economics of the ported government of Yanukovich to join. This new bloc is the main bringing democracy and rule of former soviet satellites. The initial were incapable of meeting those reason that US president Obama law, that they are only doing so to Pam Johnson reviews IMF “shock treatment” for the demands. has called for a pivot to Asia to advance their own states strategic David Fennario’s latest Ukraine was devastating for the This is the immediate context curtail any expansionist designs interests. play against militarism economy and the current EU and for the uprisings against the from the SCO. We also need to support the left IMF sponsored “rescue packages” government that have resulted in At this point it seems unlikely in the country that is attempting to for the Ukraine will no doubt the current situation. that NATO will use military force build an alternative vision for the follow a similar pattern of gutting against Russia but that may future. They are doing so under Workers rights social services and privatization. Inter-imperial rivalry change. The main European huge pressure from the far right Page 11 Russia, for its part, was deeply Russia was not imagining things partners in NATO have extensive fascist groups and in the context concerned about a NATO drive to when it perceived that NATO economic ties with Russia, and of the legacy of Stalinism, which Carolyn Egan describes surround it, and has exerted what intended to surround the country. western European countries are makes their jobs even harder. the growing campaign to influence it can over the Ukraine The plans by the US to build reliant on Russia for 40 per cent of But they are organizing and the confront the Tories and and the other former Soviet states. missile defence installations in their natural gas. In fact, it seems current political crisis provides an Russia has done this through a Ukraine were an attempt to isolate that western Europe isn’t even opening to advance different ideas. rebuild unions series of mechanisms but the Russia militarily. interested in sanctions. Each of the left groups has their chief weapon in its arsenal is the The end of the Cold War may But this could change; economic own interpretation of the current manipulation of gas supplies. In have been heralded as the “end of integration isn’t always a deter- events but many have raised the 2006 and 2009, Russia cut off gas history” but it didn’t stop the drive rent to war but frequently ends up slogan “neither Washington nor to the Ukraine, causing economic towards imperial accumulation stoking tensions. Moscow.” crisis. by either the West or Russia. We It is a central dynamic in As Russia feels more confidence have seen many flashpoints over capitalism that competition for re- in challenging the West, and the Ukraine the years such as the Russian war sources and markets drives conflict economy of the NATO countries The result of all this is that the to take south Ossetia in 2008. That between states. As economic crisis continue to deteriorate, that slogan CPMA No. 58554253-99 Ukraine is bankrupt and facing a inter-imperialist rivalry is still continues around the world there will be ever more important. ISSN No. 0836-7094 social crisis. Youth unemployment going strong. will be more flash points. Harper’s “Fair Primer: Elections Act” Quebec’s oil/ by ALLAN WOOD gas turnaround Stephen Harper’s latest as- It’s as if suddenly, just a sault on democracy is the few months ago, Quebec Orwellianly-named “Fair suddenly realized it had Elections Act”, which the struck oil. And this despite Conservatives are trying to making real progress rush through Parliament over the past decade with as little (or no) debate in renewable energies, as possible. They recently sustainable transportation killed an opposition mo- and mass transit. tion to hold two months of How did we get here? hearings on the bill. Three interconnected strands Far from making will help better understand Canadian federal elections the public conversation on more fair, Bill C-23–which oil and gas in Quebec over Canada’s Chief Electoral the past few years. Officer has called “affront to democracy”–will likely Anticosti Island disenfranchise large groups Hydro Quebec’s oil and gas of voters while preventing division owned the explora- the Commissioner of tion rights for this pristine Elections from making full island in the Gulf of Saint investigations into future Laurence, and sold them cases of vote fraud. to two private companies, Junex and Petrolia. Less than Tory strategy a year later, the companies Opposition groups state announced they had found that C-23 violates Section oil, now estimated at about 3 of the Charter of Rights 40 billion barrels (potential and Freedoms, which Colonial FNEA sparks resistance gross revenues in the hun- gives every Canadian dreds of billions). Evidence citizen the right to vote. suggests that Hydro Quebec Jessica McCormick, by VALERIE LANNON per year since 1996 despite (First Nation to Canada) ium where the dignitaries may well have known there National Chairperson of the need having increased by agreements. were.” Singer was ejected was oil on Anticosti, before the Canadian Federation Stephen Harper’s February 6.3 per cent per year, creat- According to Chief for tweeting from the event ceding the rights. of Students, states the bill 7th announcement of the ing a $1.5 billion shortfall Patrick Madahbee of the and within days, a “sacred “aims to suppress the vote First Nations Education between 1996-2008 for in- Union of Ontario Indians blue dot” appeared on social Mining Act reform of groups that may not vote Act has sparked resistance. structional services alone.” “The proposed First Nations media, with people posting In 2011, the NFB released Conservative including The legislation itself has And, “unlike their provincial Education Act (FNEA) is pictures of themselves, or Trou Story, about Canada’s students, Indigenous people, not yet been shared with counterparts, First Nations about control and false ac- historical figures, with a blue mining industry, alongside seniors, and people on First Nations, even though schools receive NO fund- countability. It is a colonial dot on their hearts. an interactive website that low-incomes by eliminating reclaiming authority for ing for library books, librar- document and makes no at- Dr. Pamela D. Palmater, illustrates how Quebec’s the vouching system.” The education has been at the ian’s salaries, construction or tempt to close the gap on in- a Mi’kmaw lawyer and one Mining Act works. “vouching” system allows forefront of First Nations’ maintenance of school librar- equality in education. Firstly, of the spokespeople for Idle Portraying the history of people who may not possess demands at least as far back ies, nor funding for vocation- it gives our citizens, parents No More, described the draft mining and its ravaging ef- the necessary documentation as the Red Power movement al training, information and and students no say in their legislation within the federal fects on the environment and to cast their vote if they of the 1960s and 70s. These communication technologies, own education… This is the government’s and corpora- workers, the film appeals go to their polling station assertions are hardly surpris- or sports and recreation.” same mentality as the govern- tions’ ongoing priority to to Quebeckers to reform with a friend or neighbour. ing, given the horrific and The funding “commit- ment-run residential school have First Nations “be the the Mining Act and reclaim Marc Mayrand, the Chief ongoing impact of govern- ments” announced by Harper disaster that had a history lit- pick and shovel labourers control over our natural Electoral Officer, believes ment-supported and church- include $1.252 billion over tered with genocide and acts for mining companies and resources. at least 100,000 Canadians operated residential schools. three years, beginning in of inhumanity.