Americas

Eight months into their minority government, the federal Liberals have tabled a budget that serves one main aim – survival. Their right-leaning budget aims to please everybody, or more accurately in typical Canadian fashion attempts to offend nobody, and in so doing shows the weakness of Canadian Liberalism.

Last year, the Toronto District School Board debated whether to start collecting data based on students’ race. Now, a professor is suggesting that Toronto experiment with “black focused” schools in order to halt “the problem of black youth disengagement from school.”

In presenting his Administration’s proposed budget, President Bush has shown the real face of his “compassionate conservatism” – guns before butter.

Once again the workers of Québec are pointing the way forward for the rest of Canada. From over 100,000 taking to the streets of Montréal on May Day to the occupation of an Alcan smelting plant north of Montréal, now Québec has become the first place in North America in which a Wal-Mart store has unionized.

The comrades of the Marxist current El Militante in Spain and of the Socialist Current El Militante in Argentina have received an appeal for solidarity from the workers of Zanon. We appeal to all comrades, readers and supporters of In Defence of Marxism to take up this campaign and send protest and solidarity messages to the workers in the best traditions of the international working class movement – “An Injury to One is an Injury to All”.

The situation in Bolivia has undergone a sharp change in the last few days. Faced with a new upsurge of the mass struggle against the policies of the Mesa government, a movement in favour of the expulsion of Aguas de Illimani (the water company controlled by French multinational Suez), and for the nationalisation of hydrocarbons, the forces of reaction decided to go on the offensive by using bourgeois institutions, their mass media and the reactionary mobilisation of sections of the petty bourgeoisie.

The situation in Bolivia has undergone a sharp change in the last few days. Faced with a new upsurge of the mass struggle against the policies of the Mesa government, a movement in favour of the expulsion of Aguas de Illimani (the water company controlled by French multinational Suez), and for the nationalisation of hydrocarbons, the forces of reaction, led by the multinationals and the oligarchy, decided to go on the offensive by using bourgeois institutions, their mass media and the reactionary mobilisation of sections of the petty bourgeoisie.

A vicious attack on the Peace Community in San Jose de Apartado left 8 people dead, including women and children. Witnesses reported that armed men who identified themselves as part of the 11th Brigade of the Colombian army were involved. The brutal actions of the army, and the government's denial of any involvment has led many to demand an enquiry into the matter. It is clear, no matter the outcome of any investigation, that the workers and peasants of Colombia can only rely on themselves for defence.

Last week thousands of Belgians protested against US President Bush, who was in Brussels for a short trip from February 20-22. After having alienated most of his European allies, Bush was in Belgium to heal the wounds since he is aware the United States cannot simply keep running like a bull in a china shop on the stage of world affairs. Bush needs to seek points of support in Europe and that is why (temporarily) diplomacy seems to have taken the front seat again. Even little Belgium can help the United States, which is what the country is doing at the moment in relation to the war in Iraq. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt may be “proud” of not having any Belgian troops in Iraq, but the

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Forty years ago, yesterday, Malcolm X stood up at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem (New York) to speak. He was going to speak against the racial segregation all over the US. He was going to appeal to his brothers and sisters to resist and fight back against the “oppression of the white man” when he was gunned down. More than one or two breathed a sigh of relief at the top of the US establishment. One of the loudest voices against injustice had been lost.

We received this letter from an American comrade, Michael Hureaux, in Seattle.

Celia Hart comments on her experience with the comrades from the Spanish Marxist current El Militante, spreading Trotsky’s ideas at the Havana bookfair.

The progress of the Venezuelan Revolution has inevitably brought it into conflict with the vested interests of the oligarchy. At every step the demands of the masses in both town and village clash with the so-called sacred right of property. Upon the resolution of this contradiction the future of the Revolution depends.

More than half a million people visited the Havana International Book Fair which has just closed. The long queues that formed in order to buy books were an impressive sight. But the Fair is not only a place for the buying and selling of books, but also an open space for debate and discussion of left wing ideas.