PEOPLE'S VOICE - Issue of March 16-31/2005

(The following articles are from the March 16-31/2005 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)

CANADA SAYS NO TO WAR!

Statement of the Communist Party of Canada on the Days of Action for Peace and Global Justice, March 19-20, 2005

THOUSANDS OF CANADIANS will participate in anti-war protests on March 19-20, the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. They are joining people in countries around the world in one of the larger global protests in recent years.

This is a truly massive mobilization in support of peace and global justice, the theme adopted for the days of action by the Canadian Peace Alliance, the World Social Forum and world peace movements.

The protests reflect growing and broad anti-imperialist sentiments among wide sections of Canada's and the world's peoples, sentiments in support of people's sovereignty and against the impositions of U.S. imperialism.

Other forms of rivalry in the form of bitter trade disputes are showing millions of Canadians that free trade agreements with the U.S. are worthless. The whole purpose of U.S. foreign policy is to protect U.S. transnational corporations, not to create a fair or level playing field.

Imperialism: Source of the war danger

Capitalist imperialism is the source of the growing war danger. Canada is part of a small number of imperialist countries led by the U.S. that are plundering the oppressed nations and workers and nations of the world. These countries act for the giant transnational corporations that dominate the global economy.

Faced with growing crises, declining profits and other impasses, imperialism is increasingly turning to militarism, issuing threats, adopting aggressive military doctrines, and building the most dangerous weapons.

Mobilize against war!

Mass anti-war mobilizations in 2003 helped to keep Canada and several other imperialist countries out of direct involvement in the brutal U.S. occupation of Iraq. The Liberal Party's official policy of non-participation in that war was a major reason why it won re-election as a minority government in 2004.

Canadians are deepening their opposition to U.S. foreign policy, and have a growing awareness of U.S. militarism. The visit last year by U.S. President Bush to Ottawa and Halifax backfired when he tried to involve Canada in Missile Defense and future military adventures throughout the world.

Millions realize that U.S. Missile Defense is a dangerous plan to dominate the earth using weapons in space. That reality has forced the Martin Liberals reluctantly to back away from the plan.

But the Martin Liberals are pouring billions of dollars into the military, they have close military ties with the U.S., they are crushing democratic rights with so-called anti-terrorist laws, and during twelve years in office they have dealt blow after blow to workers and the needy.

These facts challenge everyone with a vision for a better future to build the peace movement. This is the task of our moment in history, just as the struggle to block fascist aggression was the critical goal in the 1930s. War is the greatest threat to a better Canada and a better world!

International solidarity needed

Trade unions and people's movements around the world must meet this historic challenge, unite against war and imperialist plunder, and inspire the world's peoples with a better future. It is especially important to build solidarity and unity against imperialism in the international labour movement.

In Canada, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and Quebec's central labour bodies (the QFL, CNTU and CEQ) should all work together in support of making Canada a voice for peace, and to oppose Canada's involvement in expensive military preparations and aggressions.

They should all work together to build the global movement against war and imperialism. Only strong, united international people's movements against war will be able to confront and eventually prevail over imperialism and the threat it poses to humanity.

The days of action this weekend are another sign that the people's movements are starting to overcome years of disunity and despair. Imperialism will never find a weapons system or army that can defeat the people's movements emerging today. And weapons in space and new military doctrines like "preventive" war will never save the capitalist system from its long-sought defeat.

A World for People, Not Profit and War!

A people's alternative vision is urgently needed to build a world for people, not war and profit. The Communist Party calls for an independent foreign policy of peace and disarmament, based on upholding Canadian sovereignty in support of the urgent needs of our country and the world, including:

- End the occupation of Iraq; prosecute those responsible for the invasion as war criminals; end Canada's military involvement with occupied Iraq

- Withdraw Canadian and all foreign troops from Afghanistan and Haiti

- Oppose the brutal U.S. sanctions against Cuba; support freeing "The Cuban Five" jailed in the U.S. for fighting terrorism

- Oppose Israel's occupation of Palestinian and Syrian territories; demand the immediate dismantling of Israel's illegal wall built in occupied territories; support a Palestinian state and the right of return of all Palestinian refugees according to U.N. resolutions

- Reject the official "war on terror," a war that attacks democratic rights, incites anti-Arab racism, and divides the international working class; oppose terrorism as dangerous and undemocratic

- Work to ban weapons in space and oppose U.S. Missile Defense

- Respect the United Nations' Charter and international laws that uphold state sovereignty and national self-determination; strengthen the authority of the UN General Assembly in security matters

- Oppose "preventive" war, the "first use" of nuclear weapons and other imperialist official military doctrines

- Support negotiations to abolish weapons of mass destruction and achieve global disarmament treaties

- Withdraw Canada from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation; support dismantling all military alliances; ban arms sales to regimes responsible for genocide and crimes against peace

- Abrogate "free trade" deals which undermine Canada's sovereignty, close factories, and fail to protect Canada from unjust sanctions

- Promote trade relations between Canada and all countries on the basis of equality, sustainability and mutual social benefit; cancel the debt of Third World countries; increase unconditional aid by imperialist countries as compensation for centuries of slavery, colonial oppression and exploitation.

- Strengthen and fulfill Canada's commitment to stop global warming contained in the Kyoto protocol; support processes started at the 1992 Earth Summit to address global environmental problems

- Support the right of self-determination for all nations which now are denied that right, including in Canada; promote equal and voluntary relations between nations deciding to remain in the same state.

 

THE MARTIN BUDGET: GIVEAWAY TO THE RICH

By Miguel Figueroa

The first federal budget put forward by the minority Liberals is a survival budget, crafted to ensure that the Martin government is not defeated. The passage of the Budget, thanks to the Conservative abstentions, achieved that goal for Martin.

But the Budget is more than simply an exercise in survival. It is intended to reassure Canadian monopoly capital that the Martin Liberals will deliver the goods.

Much has been made of the increase in social spending, and certainly there was some of that. The Budget include allocation of $2.3 billion for the environment, $5 billion on childcare, and $3.4 billion on foreign aid, on top of the healthcare "deal-for-the-decade" with the provinces announced earlier, and some promised transfers of the gasoline tax to municipalities for infrastructure, transportation, etc.

But there are many problems with this Budget. The devil is in the details.

Take childcare. The failure of the ministerial summit in Vancouver in January showed that there is no real progress on Martin's promises for a national childcare program. There are no guarantees that this Budget's funds will be used for public, not-for-profit, accessible childcare which advocates have been calling for, and which Canadian families desperately need. There is a growing danger that much of this funding will go to for-profit corporate-run childcare centres, as happens in the U.S.

On foreign aid, there is still no real action or move towards the target of spending 0.7% of Canada's GDP on such aid.

There is very little in this Budget for public, co-op or not-for-profit housing, at a time when the crisis of homelessness continues to deepen in cities across Canada.

At most, this Budget includes just token steps to alleviate the grinding poverty which affects millions of people. Martin's increase in personal exemptions (up to $1200) will have a negligible impact on most working poor, and for the most impoverished Canadians, there is nothing of note.

Despite hopes for reforms to the EI system, including an increased percentage payout of former earnings, and expanded coverage for those who have no access, the only change deals with the calculations of former earnings - best 14 weeks, as opposed to last 14 weeks - to calculate EI benefits. This is a betrayal of the labour movement, anti-poverty activists, and others who wanted the Martin Liberals to use the huge Employment Insurance surplus built up by workers' contributions to improve the system.

The real beneficiaries of this Budget are the wealthy and big business. Upper-income earners will be able to shield more of their annual income through substantial increases in RRSP limits. The corporate entities owned and controlled by the rich will benefit from the final elimination of the corporate surtax (which averages 1.12% of all business taxes, with the bulk of the benefit going to the biggest corporations), and through a drop of 2 points (from 21% to 19%) in the basic corporate tax rate.

This is expensed out at $600 million over five years, but there is a big difference - the others are one-time expenditures, but this mega-gift to corporate Canada will keep on growing with each passing year - the gift that just keeps on giving!

And then of course there is the military and "security," at $12.8 billion the largest single handout in the entire budget, the largest allotment to defence in 20 years or more.

In sum, this is a budget with "something for everyone" only in appearance. In reality, it is a neoliberal budget, much like Martin's own budgets during the Chrétien years, and then some.

This pro-corporate giveaway comes at a time when corporate profits are rising sharply, especially for the banks, the oil and energy giants, and other sectors. Look at some recent examples: a 15% profit increase for BMO bank, and 28% for the National Bank.

Neoliberal propagandists have been claiming for years that "government needs to be downsized." What we are seeing under the Martin Liberals is yet another case of a government which wants to appear to be acting in the interests of the people, even while it concentrates on enriching the wealthy at the expense of working people and the poor. With another federal election widely expected in the next year or so, this Budget should be exposed as a sham and a deception.

(Miguel Figueroa's comments are based on the report he presented to the recent Central Committee meeting of the Communist Party of Canada.)

THE STEEL TAPESTRY

By Sam Hammond

When the King of Ithaca, Ulysses, left for the battle of Troy his wife, Penelope, started to weave a tapestry. Ulysses was away so long that he was feared dead, and about forty young men sought the Kingship by laying siege to the Queen. Poor Penelope, in a demonstration of loyalty that has survived the ages, said that she would choose a new husband when the tapestry was completed. For the next several years Penelope wove the tapestry by day and tore it out by night. Ulysses, who apparently was the kind of man who always took the long road home, eventually returned, killed all the suitors and put Penelope back on straight days.

The Steel Company of Canada, Stelco, has bummed around under bankruptcy protection for about a year and a half. During that time they have had their major debt/bond holder, Deutsche Bank, weave a tapestry of deceit that would make poor old Penelope look like the primitive Queen she was. This goes back to the "pension holiday" created by Bob Rae for the corporations in Ontario "who could never go bankrupt". They were allowed to stop contributing to the "safety valve" pension funds that guarantee workers pensions in the event of financial failure.

After years of wallowing in these new found riches, neglecting basic re-tooling, neglecting plant upgrades, self-aggrandizement and just plain plunder by upper management, Stelco was $1.3 billion in hock to the pension and perhaps $600 million in hock to creditors. This model of private sector waste, neglect and theft should provide a strong argument for publicly-owned social programs and institutions.

However, that is another story. The capitalist state, if you are close to the ruling elite, provides a unique way out of the debt dilemma. Workers' contracts can be put in limbo, shareholders can be impoverished, suppliers/creditors can be cheated. The upper management and major bond holders can refinance at the expense of all the aforementioned and even give themselves big bonuses for their accomplishments.

This is called bankruptcy protection. Stelco has been in this state of corporate euphoria for about eighteen months now and it has been quite a trip.

Now we introduce the fly in the ointment. The Locals of the United Steelworkers of America have watched the U.S. version of this epic scandal south of the border for the last decade. Their American brothers and sisters have lost pension benefits, medical coverage and jobs big time as the corporations restructured, retooled and rationalized production at their expense.

The Steel locals went to the courts and challenged the company's claim of corporate poverty. They failed to stop the bankruptcy protection, but did succeed in making Stelco's inner workings and the absolute prejudice of the courts a topic of keen interest all over Ontario and beyond. Public consciousness soared and the inner workings of the capitalist state and its court was briefly exposed. This hit a raw nerve for the brass at the top, because objectively a workers organization temporarily represented the best interests of the smaller capitalists (suppliers), the shareholders, the salaried pensioners (their former bosses), the public at large and of course their own members and pensioners. This is a classic example of what is stable in society, and what is transient. That is another story also.

Stelco, like Penelope, needed a way to delay all the pressure while they concocted a plan to emerge from the cocoon and metamorphose into a new corporate glory. They decided to shop the world for suitors and offer up their industrial charms to the highest bidder, using Deutsche Bank as the match-maker. Deutsche Bank offers up a minimum dowry and the race is on. The bids came rolling in from the far corners of capitalism. Russians, Americans, Germans, Belgians, even some Canadians all shared the equality and fellowship of the games.

During all this, the Ontario government notices that in all the dowries and proposed marriage contracts, in the new dawn, there is no provision for the owed pension benefits. There is no way that the government is going to shoulder the political fallout of about 18,000 angry pensioners and their allies. They panic and announce that any re-structuring and corporate sale must include replacing the $1.3 billion pension benefits.

The suitors started to drop away immediately. There were only a few left when Stelco announced, wonder of wonders, that they aren't as bad off as they thought, so they will reject the remaining suitors, retool and restructure on their own. Stelco stocks almost double in value in a fortnight as the investment vultures on Bay street smell new riches and opportunity. The sun shines at night, rivers run uphill, new hope blossoms and the media develops amnesia.

Wow. Of course they still want bankruptcy protection. Let's not get too carried away. They made record profits all through this fiasco, but that is no excuse for demanding that they settle their debt to workers, shareholders and creditors. After all this is still capitalism.

Stelco wove the tapestry of deceit for a year and a half. They wept at times, mourned the cold world, put on make-up and blushed at other times. Smoke and shadows of lies and deceit. Full page articles of the world wide "steel crisis". Media genuflection to the "restructuring team." "Can we really afford industrial pensions?" The goo-goo for the last year has layered itself so thick that you can hardly see the profits.

The Steelworkers have carried a consistent line from the start. They represent their members, and what is good for their members is good for the community, the province and the whole country. Through this process there have been whispers, and sometimes shouts, that the workers are irresponsible and should negotiate concessions to keep the steel industry alive. Some of these came from within the labour movement. The whisperers are wrong. A lesser life is not an alternative, it is just a lesser life. This is a good lesson for everyone and should echo throughout the labour movement. It is better and more successful to fight for jobs than to attempt to buy them.

History is interesting, but it doesn't really repeat itself. Penelope was a good woman who fought for her husband using guile and is remembered as a symbol of loyalty and perseverance. Her tapestry was finished when her husband returned and killed her tormentors.

The Stelco tapestry continues to be woven every day. There is no Ulysses to return, but the Steelworkers in southern Ontario are tearing out the threads every night. As usual, good luck brothers and sisters.

 

A PRO-CORPORATE NDP BUDGET

People's Voice Editorial, March 16-31, 2005

At a time when working people want alternatives to the prevailing neo-liberal policies of most governments, they have a right to expect better from the NDP. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. The Manitoba government's March 8 budget continues the record of failure for workers and the needy by the government of NDP Premier Gary Doer. Manitoba's corporate leaders believe that the budget is "responsible" and "acceptable."

"No wonder," wrote former NDP MLA Cy Gonick recently in the Winnipeg Free Press, "the premier gets such a warm reception at the chamber of commerce. Business never had such a good friend (at the Legislature) since the days of Sterling Lyon."

Calling the budget "the largest decrease in taxes in Manitoba history," Doer said tax cuts over the last five years total $500 million. Since his election in 1999, Doer has lavished large cuts and tax credits on the wealthy and corporations. More modest benefits for farmers and home and business owners are worth little after inflation.

Doer has cut the corporate tax rate from 17 to 14 per cent and the small business rate from 7 to 4 per cent. This year the rate for people with taxable incomes between $30,500 and $65,000 will drop from 14 to 13.5 per cent.

Lower income workers get nothing, and a meagre 2,000 workers will avoid income tax because of a higher exemption. Welfare rates are untouched, having lost more than half their value since 1972. Modest increases in health care spending means that for now they want workers to be healthy and exploitable until age 65.

Last year, education property taxes on farmland were chopped 33 per cent. Doer amended the City of Winnipeg charter so it can do away with the business tax. The two measures mean $170 million more per year for farmers and Winnipeg businesses.

As Manitoba Communist leader Darrell Rankin said, "It appears that the largest corporations in Manitoba are the real power behind the Doer government. This direction means hardship for workers, plant closures, more impoverishment in urban and rural areas and increased control by transnational corporations. Organized labour and all other people's movements in Manitoba have a major challenge to build support for real change that puts people before profit."

 

 

VANCOUVER DINNER HONOURS "A CLASS ACT"

By Marj Kozeluk

How often do you see workers happily fork over $45 to attend a banquet for their employers? Never?

That's just what happened on March 4, when Vancouver's seven COPE school trustees were honoured at a sold-out fundraising dinner attended by hundreds of school employees and defenders of public education. Even the Superintendent of the Vancouver school district sent a message of congratulations to the trustees for their outstanding efforts over the past two years.

The COPE trustees on the Vancouver School Board are Adrienne

Montani, Al Blakey, Jane Bouey, Noel Herron, Angela Kenyon, Kevin

Milsip and Allan Wong.

Organized by the Coalition of Progressive Electors and the Vancouver and District Labour Council, the dinner brought together parents, students, teachers, school support workers, trade

unionists, community and education activists. The event raised an estimated $15,000 for COPE, which is trying to wipe out debts from its last campaign before this November's civic election.

"Our COPE school trustees have done a tremendous job defending

public education and advocating on behalf of the students of

Vancouver", said Labour Council President Bill Saunders. "We decided to call this dinner, `A Class Act' because that's what this School Board has been over the last two very difficult years."

The trustees faced immediate challenges after winning a majority in November 2002, starting with the arbitrary imposition of a new right-wing, anti-labour Superintendent by the former Non-Partisan Alliance majority just before the NPA went down to defeat. Rather than surrender to pressures not to rock the boat, the COPE trustees did what was soon widely acknowledged as a courageous and correct move, hiring a new superintendent with proven credentials as a strong advocate for public education.

That decision was expensive for the financially-strapped VSB, but it set the tone for a shift towards genuine consultation and open decision-making. The new Board surprised even COPE's strongest supporters in the education community by fully backing the teachers' unions in their work to advocate for the interests of students.

The COPE trustees stayed on that course with their first budget, in the spring of 2003, finding ways to minimize the impact of government under-funding by focussing on reduced administration costs and other innovative measures. The result was a budget that reflected the call by teachers, parents, and students to "keep the cuts out of the classroom."

The Board faced a more difficult test in their 2004-05 budget, as the full impact of the BC Liberals' refusal to cover the cost of teacher pay increases hit home. Despite intense efforts by parents, teachers, and trustees to lobby the province for more funds, the VSB had to deal with a shortfall of some $11 million in a $400 million budget, on top of more than $100 million in accumulated cuts over the previous decade. Some painful cuts were made, but the open consultation process ensured that most participants knew that Gordon Campbell's government was responsible.

This year, with a May 17 election looming, the Liberals were finally pressured to loosen the purse strings a bit. Rather than having to risk being fired for refusing to pass another hated "compliance budget," the VSB has the ability to maintain and even improve some programs for 2005-06.

Just as important as the budget battles, the COPE trustees have brought an unprecedented level of inclusiveness to the school system. The days of union-bashing by VSB management and trustees are gone, as seen in the banquet speeches by representatives of the Vancouver Secondary Teachers, Vancouver Elementary School Teachers, CUPE, and Operating Engineers. Trustees Angela Kenyon and Al Blakey won particular praise for their critical roles in this process.

Other COPE trustees also received tributes: Alan Wong for his tireless efforts to win provincial funding for seismic upgrading of schools; Jane Bouey for her work on anti-racism and special needs issues, and her ground-breaking leadership on the VSB Pride Committee as an advocate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and questioning youth; Kevin Millsip for his important role in beating back corporate intrusions into the education system. Retired principal Noel Herron, a passionate defender of inner-city students, won a special "energizer bunny" award.

Not least, VSB Chair Adriane Montani was recognized by all for her leadership in transforming the VSB from an opponent of teachers and students into a valued ally of education supporters.

At a time when progressive activists often question the value of electoral strategies, the COPE trustees are a powerful example of what can be achieved through a combination of grassroots struggles and the election of visionary "people's politicians." The labour movement, teachers, parent groups, the LGBT community, and many other groups with an interest in better public education will clearly be on board this November, determined to help elect another COPE majority to the VSB.

CHAVEZ SEES "DEMOCRACY IN ACTION" IN BENGAL

By B. Prasant, PV correspondent in India

<Body text> Hugo Chavez made the first official visit by a Venezuelan President to India starting March 4. Continuing his government's policy of building up trade relations outside the domination of US imperialism, Chavez met with Indian officials to discuss a range of proposals on energy and other sectors.

But the human side of the Venezuelan leader was uppermost during the President's trip to the state of Bengal, which has been led by a Left Front government for over a quarter of a century.

On March 7, Chavez visited the Chandpur Gram Panchayat near Rajarhat to see, in his words, "participatory democracy in action." He was scheduled to stay in the village for 20 minutes, which easily stretched into a couple of hours.

The villagers at first were a little bemused and taken aback at the long convoy of cars entering in a whirlwind of noise and dust. President Chavez put the village folk, especially the children, at ease by waving aside the cordon of security men and going straight ahead to mingle with the people. The villagers, coming out of the daze, shouted, "Viva Chavez," and "Viva socialism!" Children went curiously up to the red-shirted figure, and touched him.

Chavez started off by moving about the village. Striding ahead of his retinue, he went straight into the green paddy fields, pressed the stalks of the plants on his cheeks, smiled to himself, and then stood beside the banana plantation and exclaimed how "exactly similar" the ambience of the village was to the hamlet in which he had grown up far away from the bustle of Caracas. He gave a great photo-op to the international press that had followed him from Caracas and Delhi, when he first hugged and then hoisted aloft a huge ripe pumpkin.

Chavez then visited the primary school and surprised everyone by taking up bucketfuls of boiled rice and lentil. He proceeded to ladle the food onto the shiny metal plates of the children, who thus received their mid-day meal from the hands of the Venezuelan president.

And no, he did not make any symbolic gesture here. He distributed food to all 150 students, squatting down before each child, pinching cheeks, tousling hair, and speaking to them in a soft singsong voice. The language barrier melted away and the children were simply delighted, and so were the villagers who watched everything wide-eyed.

Addressing the villagers as hermanos y hermanas ("brothers and sisters"), Chavez said that "our children of the world represented the future of our beautiful green planet." A nuevo mundo (new world) must be constructed while struggling against poverty, misery, and inequality, he said, stating that the 21st century belonged to the mass of the people of the world.

Chavez later enjoyed a brief cultural interlude as the children of the village presented a song-and-dance programme. At the end of the programme, Chavez clapped lustily and lifted up some of the younger children, twirled them round, and kissed them, to their squealing delight.

Chavez then visited the local community hall, and although in a sweat in the damp heat of the Bengal summer, attentively listened to the dynamics the women's self-help groups. He then walked along the village roads, dusty but full of vim and vigour, and looked closely into the details of the patta documentation.

The Venezuelan leader also visited flower bowers, nurseries, looked into irrigation facilities, asked a myriad of questions about the functioning of the rural Panchayat system. After exhausting his official interpreter, he ended by saying that he would communicate to the world about the new path of pro-people village development as depicted in the Panchayat system. His parting words to the crowd were: "be good, my children, I leave my heart with you."

A day earlier, Chavez met and discussed various issues regarding industrial development, education, land reforms, and decentralisation of power with the Bengal leadership of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which has led the state's Left Front government for a quarter-century.

During his discussions with CPI(M) Polit Bureau members Prakash Karat, Biman Basu, Anil Biswas, and Buddhdeb Bhattacharjee, Chavez was an animated talker as well as an attentive listener.

Later, Buddhadeb told newspersons that the Venezuelan president had agreed to building up joint ventures with the Bengal government in such sectors as leather goods, agricultural produce, marine food processing, and petroleum. The state LF government is producing an extensive note to be sent to the central government for approval.

THE FARC-EP STRIKES BACK

By James J. Brittain, University of New Brunswick

Several years ago Dr. James F. Petras released an excellent text entitled "The Left Strikes Back: Class Conflict in Latin America in the Age of Neoliberalism". Petras described the objective and ideological growth, substance, and power of movements existing throughout the region. Over the past decade, several such movements have abandoned their ideological positioning and the tangible need for objective protection and offensive measures. But one group has maintained its sociological and philosophical roots -the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP). Further writings by Petras illustrate the military fortitude and armed capacity of the insurgency's ability to respond to the coercive and fascist activities of the Colombian state and the imperialist interests of the United States. The FARC-EP has also been able to respond to the needs of the rural population (through protection from state/paramilitary forces, tactical operations, and in procuring above subsistence wages for the peasantry from rural-based capitalists). Apart from their military capacity, the FARC-EP has also engaged in other lesser-known cultural and political activities.

While it is difficult to go into full detail, the insurgency has, in many areas of Colombia, been the only force to engage in progressive methods of social emancipation. Within rural Colombia, the FARC-EP has brought grass-roots democratic processes and restorative justice. It has brought the redistribution of income in rural regions, through a class-based taxation model in which the poorest elements of society are exempt from taxes and the petty bourgeoisie are obligated to give from 5% to 7% or in some cases 10% of their earnings to the insurgency. These taxes are indirectly or directly redistributed back into the community through monetary grants, infrastructure projects, health and educational services, and so on. The establishment of Juntas Accion Communalas has allowed regions to create non-capitalist governing constructs to meet the needs of communities while securing intercommunication and non-monetary subsistence trade relations with other regions.

While these are important, it is also necessary to understand that the FARC-EP and their rural supporters are in the midst of a civil war being waged by the US and the Colombian state against the people. Plan Patriota (the government's military campaign aimed at the FARC-EP and their rural support base which began in 2003), presented as a success through the corporate media, was merely a facade to cover the failure of the Colombian/US politico-military activities.

Last year, I wrote an article in the Australian journal Green Left Weekly about the falsified image of conditions in southern Colombia, the primary location of the Plan Patriota campaign. In this article I wrote that while Plan Patriota may seem to have rooted out the FARC-EP from regions where it had established a presence, the "lack of an overt presence does not mean that the FARC-EP has fully retreated from the countryside." One reason for the FARC-EP's "passivity" was a very real possibility of a major military assault or insurgent campaign aimed against the government forces.

The insurgency may be planning to implement a large-scale regional assault against the US-Colombian state forces in southern Colombia. For over 20 years, the FARC-EP has maintained its activities through guerrilla-based warfare - strategic small-scale attacks or armed missions against specific targets - and not as a formally organized army. More recently, it may have pulled back a large percentage of its combatant forces from the region, with the purpose of waging a major armed conflict against the Colombian army, paramilitary, and now, US forces. The FARC-EP have in fact greatly expanded their forces within southern Colombia, and are undoubtedly preparing to respond to the imperial conquest of the US/Colombian administrations.

Plan Patriota has not diminished the power of the FARC-EP. In fact, the rebel group's strength has actually increased. Between the years 2002 and 2004, the FARC launched 900 attacks, compared to 907 during the previous four years. While the Colombian Armed Forces and state-supported paramilitaries have largely blocked the border regions of the departments of southern Colombia, the FARC-EP is expanding its control of internal areas throughout the region.

In December 2003 alone, according to residents of one community, the FARC-EP increased the size of its movement in the region by an average of 100 newly trained combatants per municipality. This extraordinary recruitment rate surpasses the rates of increases the insurgency has experienced in the past. In 1979, the FARC-EP maintained a presence in less than 10 percent of Colombia's municipalities. By 2003, the rebel group was operating in all of the country's more than 1,000 municipalities.

No insurgent army can exist without the support of the people. The FARC-EP continues to receive substantial support from thousands of Colombians in jungles, semi-rural towns, and increasingly, the cities, allowing the guerrillas to thrive. While the FARC-EP may well be preparing for a major military confrontation in southern Colombia, its rural supporters are quietly stationed throughout the country. Therefore, the eve of a full-scale revolutionary war between the insurgent forces of the FARC-EP and their rural support-base against the Colombian/United States forces could be in the not-too-distant future.

As the military campaigns of February 2005 have shown, the "not-too-distant future" may be sooner rather than later. The "rebel attacks across Colombia" have demonstrated that the support, expansion, and power of the FARC-EP have greatly increased. In response to Plan Patriota, the insurgency has (in less than a month) shattered notions that Colombia's main rebel group is on its knees and poses little threat. One commandante of the FARC-EP recently stated that "this is only the beginning." After several months of Plan Patriota - the largest US/Colombian military counter-insurgency offensive since Marquetalia - it is now the FARC-EP's turn to strike back.