December 1, 2011 - No. 123

Nation-Wrecking Agenda of the Harper Government

Hamilton rally for Canadian Wheat Board, November 25, 2001.

• Anti-Wheat Board Act Passes Third Reading and Moves to Senate
• Board Directors Demand Government Halt Seizure of $200 Million in Farmer's Assets - Canadian Wheat Board

Protests Continue Against Dismantling of Wheat Board
• Farmers Protest in Winnipeg
• Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba Federations of Labour Release Joint Statement
• Steelworkers Demonstrate in Hamilton
• Elimination of Wheat Board Will Also Hurt Manufacturing Jobs - Interview, Steve Weller, President, Local 7135 USW, National Steel Car

National Farmers' Union 42nd Annual Convention
• Farmers Discuss How to Step Up Work to Defend Their Rights

Anti-Wheat Board Act Passes Third Reading
and Moves to Senate

On November 28, Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act passed third reading by a vote of 153 to 120 in the House of Commons. The bill will now head to the Senate for review before it receives Royal Assent. The leader of the government in the Senate, Marjory LeBreton, has announced that the Senate will extend its sittings so as to expedite the bill's passage before the holiday recess, along with the passage of the Harper government's Omnibus Crime Bill, the Budget Bill and legislation adding seats to the House of Commons.

Just prior to the vote, Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz held a press conference, where he was joined by Saskatchewan Agriculture Minister Bob Bjornerud and Alberta Agriculture Minister Evan Berger, to "welcome third reading and the final vote in the House of Commons on the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act."

Ritz repeated the fiction that the Harper government's destruction of the Wheat Board is something that farmers want. "Western Canadian farmers have waited far too long for the freedom to market wheat and barley that they pay to plant, spend months to grow and tirelessly harvest," said Minister Ritz. "All Members of Parliament should pass this legislation as quickly as possible so that farmers have the certainty they need to start planning for next year's crop."

Putting the lie to what Ritz said, farmers held a protest outside of Ritz's news conference denouncing the government's wrecking and making clear their opposition. "We are also very frustrated and angry with the Harper government's unwillingness to listen to farmers or consider in any sort of serious way all the implications of killing our Canadian Wheat Board," said Ian McCreary, a farmer from Bladworth, Saskatchewan, and a former Wheat Board director. "The fact is, if they thought farmers wanted it, they'd let us vote. They're refusing to let us vote," he added.

(Agencies)

Board Directors Demand Government Halt Seizure of $200 Million in Farmer's Assets

- Canadian Wheat Board, November 24, 2011 -

The CWB's farmer-controlled board of directors is alerting farmers that the Government of Canada intends to expropriate assets worth over $200 million that farmers have paid for, financed or generated through activity surrounding their grain sales.

"The CWB's assets and fund money belong to Prairie farmers. The government should not use them to finance its ill-conceived plan to destroy the single desk," Oberg said, following a board meeting yesterday that may have been its last as a farmer-controlled entity. "This was not farmers' idea, they don't support it, and they shouldn't be forced to pay for it."

The board passed a resolution that farmers must be completely reimbursed and compensated for the loss of their assets caused by removing their single-desk marketing system for wheat and barley.

Assets include a contingency fund of up to $200 million, as well as assets with an estimated value of approximately $80 million, including the CWB's fleet of 3,400 rail hopper cars and an eight-storey Winnipeg office building. In addition, farmers will have paid $28 million towards the cost of two new laker vessels by August 1, 2012 (when the government plans to close down the current CWB), with no chance for them to realize the long-term revenue and cost-savings benefits the ships were to generate.

Minister Gerry Ritz has stated that the government will use the contingency fund to help finance wind-up costs of the current CWB. Enabling legislation, soon to be tabled in the Senate, would immediately fire all the farmer-elected directors on the CWB's board upon Royal Assent, leaving five government-appointees in charge.

The government this month raised the cap on the contingency fund to $200 million from the previous limit of $60 million. It also issued a directive that prevents the CWB's board of directors from acting to return any surplus program funds to farmers. The fund was set up in 2000-01 to manage risk associated with operation of newly created CWB Producer Payment Options and is also used to backstop more recent cash-trading programs.

The board is demanding the Minister use federal government money to pay all costs of winding down the current organization, as well as the costs associated with transitioning the CWB to a voluntary organization in accordance with government plans. Most of the current CWB infrastructure would no longer be needed by a potential new company with a very different role in marketing a much smaller volume of grain.

Total wind-up costs are estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, consisting of: liability costs related to logistical contracts and obligations, financial assets, debt and derivatives; pension and retiree obligations; staff severance; laker vessel costs; and other costs including those related to building and IT contracts.

Oberg said farmers are also at risk of bearing a host of hidden costs during the current crop year as the wind-up progresses, such as those related to transferring cash-advance programs to a different service provider, costs of planning for and creating a new entity and new supply-chain environment.

"There has to be a line in the sand," he said. "The government must bear all costs incurred as a result of their unilateral move to strip away the single desk. Farmers have already been silenced and ignored -- they cannot be forced to pay on top of it all."

The CWB has launched legal action against the federal government's introduction of Bill C-18. The case will be heard on December 6 at Federal Court in Winnipeg.

Protests Continue Against Dismantling of Wheat Board

Farmers Protest in Winnipeg

On Wednesday, farmers protested outside the Fort Garry Hotel in Winnipeg where Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz was speaking at an event sponsored by the Manitoba Chamber of Commerce. In its call for the protest, the Friends of the Canadian Wheat Board reiterated that the Harper government has not adhered to the Wheat Board Act and complied with farmers' majority vote to keep the Wheat Board's single desk. Among other things, the organization also pointed out that the government has not informed the public of the consequences of this change in the production of a basic food crop that will profoundly effect everyone.

Members of the National Farmers Union waved banners and distributed literature entitled, "The Attack on the Canadian Wheat Board: Seven Reason Non-Farmers Should Care... and Act." Protestors spoke to the anti-democratic nature of the Harper government in destroying the Wheat Board.

"On election day Harper said he was there for all Canadians, but I guess that doesn't include the 60 per cent of farmers who voted against [the end to the single-desk system]," said Drew Baker, a young grain farmer from Beausejour, Manitoba.

David Bonli, who drove eight hours from Melfort, Saskatchewan to attend the protest, said the Minister needed to hear his opposition. "I'm here to represent the voices of the producers who don't see the benefits and to protest the lack of consultation the government has shown," he said. "For my farm it means a lack of full value for my production."

Katharina Stieffenhofer, whose parents have been farming for 35 years said the government's decision has shocked her family. "This is not a democracy anymore. This is a dictatorship," she said.

(Friends of the CWB, Winnipeg Free Press, Metro News)

Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba Federations of Labour Release Joint Statement

- November 28, 2011 -

The Harper government's decision to dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) is illegal and undemocratic. Once again, the Conservative government is putting the interests of its corporate friends ahead of the interests of Canadian communities, families and working people.

Illegal: The law requires the government to consult with farmers on any changes to the CWB, but the government has refused to hold a vote among farmers.

Undemocratic: Farmers held their own vote on the future of the CWB and a majority voted to keep the board. The Harper government is ignoring this vote. Farmers elect directors of the CWB -- eight out of 10 elected board members are strong proponents of the board. The Harper government is ignoring this. While Harper claims his majority in the House of Commons gives him a mandate, 60 per cent of voters in the last federal election backed parties that support the CWB.

The real story: The Tory government claims it believes in the free market, but wants to undermine the ability of farmers to get together to freely and collectively bargain for the best price for their goods. To Harper, market freedom extends only to corporations. Any attempt by farmers or workers to act collectively to get a fair deal for their work is under attack. We have seen this in back-to-work legislation for members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers and for workers at Air Canada. We are seeing it again now with the CWB. Next on the list of targets will be the dairy and poultry industries. Ed Fast, the Minister of International Trade, has admitted that the supply-management systems in these sectors will be on the table in free-trade talks with the Asia-Pacific trade group.

For more than 75 years, the CWB has worked successfully to help farmers negotiate on an equal footing with the buyers of their products, mainly large multi-national or U.S. corporations. It has also helped small Prairie farmers compete with larger corporate farming operations.

The CWB has annual revenues of $5 billion to $8 billion, all of which goes to farmers, less operating costs, as profit. It receives no public subsidies. Studies show that farmers earn hundreds of millions of dollars a year more when going through CWB than they would in an open market. That money is vital to the survival of the small, family farms that are the backbone of Canadian agriculture -- and to the rural Prairie communities where they operate.

Clearly, the CWB is working for the majority of farmers. The Tory government has not put forward a business case for its decision and it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to wrap up CWB operations. Prairie farmers and rural communities will lose out. Only large corporate farmers and foreign corporate buyers will benefit.

That is why the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba Federations of Labour wholeheartedly support the campaign to save the Canadian Wheat Board and ask our members to join that fight by signing the petition at www.StopTheSteamroller.ca.

Steelworkers Demonstrate in Hamilton

On Friday, November 25, U.S. Steel and National Steel Car workers, members of Local 1005 USW and Local 7135 USW, were joined by CUPE workers and community members for a demonstration in front of the Federal Building in Hamilton to support the Canadian Wheat Board. Forty people participated in the action. Standing in front of the Local 1005 banner, "A New Direction for the Economy!", people held signs that read: "Support the Canadian Wheat Board!", "Support Our Farmers! Oppose CETA!" (Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement), "Manufacturing Yes! Nation-Wrecking No!", "CWB Yes! Nation-Wrecking No!" and "Save the CWB!"

Gary Howe

Local 1005 USW Vice-President Gary Howe welcomed everyone and said that the defence of the Canadian Wheat Board is important for the livelihoods of farmers and the thousands of workers whose jobs depend on it.

Steve Weller, President of Local 7135 USW made the point that the destruction of the Wheat Board will also impact manufacturing. National Steel Car is the builder of the rail cars that store and move the wheat. These are now due to be refurbished or replaced with new ones. If the Board is destroyed, he said, what is going to happen to the building of these cars? He noted that Hamilton is already hurting from the loss of manufacturing jobs and cannot afford to lose more.

Rolf Gerstenberger

Rolf Gerstenberger, President of Local 1005 USW, said that steelworkers firmly oppose this attack on farmers and nation-building as the scrapping of the Canadian Wheat Board is going to hand control of the $5.2 billion Canadian grain trade to the private agri-monopolies which will affect the livelihoods and way of life of farmers and all Canadians.

During the action, Local 1005 workers distributed the latest issue of their newsletter, Information Update, which explains the importance of the Canadian Wheat Board and calls on Canadians to hold the Harper government to account for its nation-wrecking agenda.

(Local 1005 USW)

Elimination of Wheat Board Will Also Hurt Manufacturing Jobs

- Interview, Steve Weller, President, Local 7135 United Steelworkers,
National Steel Car -

Steve Weller addresses Hamilton rally for Wheat Board, November 25, 2011.

Local 7135 USW represents the workers at National Steel Car in Hamilton where we build rail cars. Years ago, in the 1970s, thousands of cars were built at our plant for the Canadian Wheat Board. These cars had a 40-year lifespan and the 40 years have now passed. According to government regulations the cars either have to be fixed or cut up, scrapping the steel and building new ones. Of first importance is the wheel assembly, what we call trucks, the wheels on which the car sits on the tracks. They are the most important thing to be refurbished because they keep the trains on the tracks and they wear out.

The elimination of the Canadian Wheat Board will hurt farmers and destroy manufacturing jobs. If the Harper government gets rid of the CWB, wheat will still have to be moved. The wheat is not kept in silos anymore; they have been eliminated. If you drive to western Canada, you will see they are all gone. These rail cars are used to store the wheat. When it has to be transported, they send a bunch of cars to the boats and ship it. China has bought up billions of dollars worth of wheat in recent years. Somebody else will move the wheat if the Wheat Board is gone.

Normally, when these cars are scrapped, they are replaced with new ones and we would build them at National Steel Car. It would create more work, and more people would be hired. It would help solve the unemployment crisis. We have the production facility in Hamilton. This steel to build them should be made in Hamilton, it should be Canadian-made. We think all the steel needed in Canada should be made in Canada. This is important because Hamilton and Canada are hurting. Here in Hamilton, years ago, when steelworkers worked at Stelco, a great many more workers were employed than is the case today at U.S. Steel. It is important to keep the manufacturing jobs because they produce a ripple effect; when you create some work here, the community has lots of work. This is why the Wheat Board is important for our local. We are worried that in the absence of the Canadian Wheat Board, some other companies are going to come forward to take our work. The cars are old; they are falling apart. It may become a sort of contracting out deal, with the job done more cheaply, just to save money from the government's point of view -- but it is going to put people out of work.

The CWB is another Canadian company they are trying to get rid of. It is going to hurt the farmers big time. If the wheat trade is privatized, farmers are not going to receive the income they need to survive. They are already struggling as it is.

National Farmers' Union 42nd Annual Convention

Farmers Discuss How to Step Up Work to
Defend Their Rights

NFU Convention delegates give standing ovation following speech by Allen Oberg,
Chair of the Canadian Wheat Board, November 26, 2011.

On November 26, the National Farmers' Union National Convention came to a close two days before the Harper government's Bill C-18, the Marketing Freedom for Grain Farmers Act passed third reading in the House of Commons. Farmers representing all sectors of Canada's agriculture industry from across the country gathered in London, Ontario for the Convention. This destruction of the Wheat Board, and working out how to stop the attacks on supply management that undermine the livelihoods of small farmers, was on everyone's minds.

The final day of the Convention included an address by Canadian Wheat Board Chair Allen Oberg, that gave rise to a lively discussion. The address was followed by a strategy session of farmers working out how to be effective in opposing the destruction of the Wheat Board and prepare for the coming battles. The final day also saw a panel on the phenomenon of international land-grabbing, and general discussion on policies which the NFU will take up in the coming year to defend Canada's food sovereignty.

The latest edition of Workers' Forum was distributed at the Convention with many delegates eager to learn more about the fight of the working class across Canada to hold the Harper government to account. A number of delegates took copies to give to other farmers in their regions. In particular, representatives of the Canadian Wheat Board and farmers with whom Workers' Forum correspondents spoke, were uplifted to hear that steelworkers in Hamilton held a demonstration on November 25 in support of the Wheat Board, supply management and nation-building.

Save the Canadian Wheat Board

Allen Oberg

In his remarks to the Convention on the significance of the fight to save the Canadian Wheat Board, Oberg expressed his dismay with the likelihood that Bill C-18 would pass before Christmas. "This will be the first time since the 1980s when a Wheat Board-selected advisory committee was established, there will be absolutely no role for farmers in leading the marketing organization which they have and continue to pay for entirely. And that's a tragedy. Not just for the elected board of the CWB or the tens of thousands of western Canadian farmers who support this organization, but it's a tragedy for all Canadian farmers because it represents a further erosion of farmer control and farmer influence over agriculture," he said. "I also stand before you today and say that I believe that in having destroyed Prairie grain farmers' marketing power, this government is now setting its sights on supply management as well. The writing is already on the wall. Many, many times over the past five years we have tried to tell our friends in supply management that after they came for the Wheat Board, the Harper government would come for them next. And it certainly will give me no pleasure to be proven right. In fact, on this one I hope I am wrong, but I believe that history will prove otherwise," he added.

He then put the fight to defend the Wheat Board and oppose the Harper government's wrecking on behalf of the monopolies in the context of farmers having to start all over again to establish an agricultural sector that favours the producers and not the monopolies. "This government operates on a deeply flawed principle when it comes to farming; that the interests of corporations and of farmers are one and the same. Now how can that be? For the grain trade there are a handful of vertically and horizontally integrated companies that dominate the global trade. Four of them: Cargill, Bungee, Louis Dreyfus and Archer Daniels Midland control close to 75 per cent of the global market. And today in western Canada, three companies -- two Canadian and one American [JRI, Viterra and Cargill] -- control 70 per cent of the primary elevator capacity in western Canada. And more importantly, they hold 89 per cent of the port capacity of Vancouver, 100 per cent of Prince Rupert and 84 per cent in Thunder Bay," he said. "I think it leaves us somewhere around a century ago when my grandfather and tens of thousands of other Prairie farmers first started building the great cooperative movement that culminated in the formation of the Prairie Pools and the Canadian Wheat Board. In many ways we will need to start all over again. We and the next generation of farmers will need to start building anew the organizations and institutions that will give us some power in the global marketplace and we will also need, in the months and years ahead, to hold the government accountable for the terrible things it is doing to family farms across Canada. We cannot let them get away with their lies, their half truths and their smug slogans. We need to stand up and continue to refuse to have our voices silenced. And while this may be the end of farmer control at the Canadian Wheat Board, it certainly cannot be the end of this fight."

Explaining the importance of the campaign to save the Wheat Board, Oberg stated: "Let there be no mistake that this issue with the Canadian Wheat Board did not roll out the way the federal government had wanted it to. Number one, they wanted to keep this an issue strictly in western Canada. That hasn't happened, " he elaborated. "This has become a national issue, even an international issue [...] although we had not accomplished all the things perhaps we would have liked to, it hasn't been exactly rosy or the perfect strategy for the current government either. And I think all of us need to keep that in mind as we move forward and continue this fight not only for the Canadian Wheat Board and all the issues around that, but surely for all the struggles that will be ahead of us with this current government."

Following Oberg's remarks farmers from many different sectors asked questions about the significance of the dismantling of the Board to their sectors. They also spoke out to denounce the Harper government's arrogance and bullying of farmers, and to thank the Wheat Board for standing up to the government. The farmers' intention to stand as one in the face of the desire of Harper to hand over their sector to the monopolies could be seen in the four standing ovations they gave Oberg during his speech. Delegates made arrangements to travel to Ottawa for the government's press conference and vote at third reading in order to show their opposition. NFU representatives also encouraged delegates to register for the Senate hearings into Bill C-18 in order to put forward the voice of farmers.

This discussion carried on in the resolutions session of the Convention with resolutions passed condemning the Harper government's theft of the added-value produced by farmers in the form of the government's takeover of the Wheat Board and its infrastructure, as well as its funnelling of the Wheat Board's contingency funds, money earned by farmers, into a scheme to privatize the Wheat Board.

NFU President Terry Boehm

NFU President Terry Boehm closed the Convention echoing Oberg's comments and affirming the NFU's commitment to step up its efforts to stop the Harper government. He used the opportunity to oppose the disinformation about "innovation and competitiveness" that the Harper government is using to impose arrangements in agriculture to favour the private monopolies.

"To Mr. Ritz, Mr. Harper and others, innovation and investment means intellectual property and intellectual property protections. It means quite likely, as Mr. Ritz constantly says, 'with the end of the Wheat Board we're going to have innovation and investment just like the canola model.' That means genetically modified wheat. It means the intellectual property protections that allow a huge extraction of wealth out of farmers just to plant their seeds every spring. It means enforcement to ensure that those IP rights are exercised though a number of modes. And it means international trade agreements that even go one step further, that actually force national laws to comply with these enforcement models. CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement; ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, and these enforcement provisions as I've described before mean the seizure [of farmers' property] for alleged infringement of intellectual property rights," he said.

In discussing the dangers posed by CETA, Boehm referred to a leaked draft of agreement and how it serves the agri-monopolies by proposing to criminalize farmers for alleged infringement of patented crops. He noted that the leaked draft addresses, "copyright and trademark, but at a minimum -- and then they list off the other intellectual property pieces and they're diverse and wide -- '[with] criminal penalties, sufficient to the gravity of the offence' -- that jail terms shall be enacted. And so we become criminals. We become criminals as farmers, we become criminals as citizens going about our natural activities."

Boehm closed his address reaffirming the NFU's commitment to defend farmers' interests: "We're going to defend [ourselves] but we're also going to bring forward policies for future generations that aren't focused on monetary value, but are focused on the economic justice that we all and the generations that come after us deserve," he said.

Read The Marxist-Leninist Daily
Website:  www.cpcml.ca   Email:  editor@cpcml.ca