One Humanity, One Struggle

Reject the Security and Prosperity Partnership, Tool of U.S. Annexation and War!

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), is a tool of U.S. annexation and war. It was created by executive dictate, with the U.S. bringing together the heads of state of Canada and Mexico and making certain they agreed on the SPP. There have been no laws passed, not even debate on the SPP by the legislative branches of government in any of the three countries. The U.S. decides, the executives of Canada and Mexico agree, then all three announce the decisions. The legislature and courts play no role, despite the fact that the decisions commonly are contrary to existing law and standards.

The content of the SPP is openly being directed by the top U.S. monopolies, which lead the National American Competitiveness Council (NACC). These include oil giant Chevron, GM, Ford, Lockheed Martin, GE, Merck pharmaceutical and WalMart. The NACC prepares reports and recommendations, which are implemented by President George W. Bush and imposed on Canada and Mexico, completely against the peoples of all three countries.

The meetings are held in secret with a huge military and police presence to protect these elected officials from the people. The next summit is taking place August 21-22 in Quebec and numerous actions are planned. And already, the SPP is showing its true colors — with the U.S. Army dictating that a planned public forum by activists, at a public community center located several miles from the summit, cannot take place. Instead, the U.S. military decided the community center would serve as its command center, in Canada. Thus the character of the SPP as a tool of U.S. annexation, war and repression is clear. We say U.S. Military and Police Forces Out of Canada! And Stay Out of Mexico!

The aim of the SPP is to create a North America of the Monopolies. The hope is to provide the U.S. with a stable and secure “homeland,” that includes all of Canada and Mexico. This will include integration and use of Canadian and Mexican military and police forces into the U.S. Northern Command, (NORTHCOM), all for use against the peoples at home and abroad.

It should surprise no one that right as the summit is being prepared, the head of NORTHCOM, Air Force General Victor “Gene” Renuart, is claiming, with no evidence of any kind, that al-Qaida is again building “cells” in the U.S. and that the military needs to triple its “response teams.” These teams are to be used inside the U.S. against the people. And President Bush recently issued an executive order allowing such use of the military in an “emergency.” The military already has a team of 3500 troops and Renuart wants two more of similar size.

NORTHCOM also issued a report called “NORAD, USNORTHCOM Plan for ‘Borderless Threats’ with Vision 2020.” As the title implies, the plan does not recognize borders but only U.S. dictate, claiming today’s world is “not a world of borders, but it’s a world of borderless threats, a world of cyber threats, a world of natural disasters on a fairly large scale that can cause substantial damage to our citizens and to their property.” The report also emphasizes that “the commands will partner with civilian agencies, the military Reserve components and the National Guard even more than they have in the past.” (NORAD is the military arrangement that already puts Canadian armed forces under U.S. command.)

The SPP, NORTHCOM and the concrete arrangements they have put in place indicate that the U.S. ruling circles are finalizing their arrangements for war and fascism, and that both require annexation. Additional indicators are recent executive orders by Bush that make the president the government, without Congress and the courts. One executive order puts the president in charge of government in the event of an “emergency”— one the president can declare at any time, claiming “terrorism,” or “natural emergency” or a health-related “pandemic-flu,” and so forth. He also issued an order that essentially targets anyone and any organization that opposes the “war on terrorism,” and war in Iraq, giving the government the ability to confiscate all resources.

The SPP is also designed to control and regulate the workers and natural resources of all three countries for the benefit of the top U.S. monopolies. Immigration is being used as a means to impose common identification cards on all, and to regulate who does and does not work and where. And while the government is giving every appearance that is trying to “close” the borders, in fact, as General Renuart indicates, the aim is to essentially eliminate the borders running east to west and create a single North American perimeter along the oceans.

The border fencing mainly serves militarization and provides an excuse for the U.S. military to get into Mexico, something it so far has not succeeded in doing. It did already manage to build portions of the fence on Mexican territory.

The disinformation and hateful laws and actions in the U.S. against immigrants have as a main aim whipping up antagonisms in the hopes of getting U.S. workers to side with their imperialist masters. It is also being utilized to integrate U.S. forces under the military, including state and local police and governments, as well as those of Mexico and Canada. This integration includes development of detention camps for tens of thousands, for use against immigrants now, against all who resist in the days to come.

The workers of all three countries are striving for fraternal relations of unity and cooperation. They despise these efforts to pit the peoples against each other, as the May Day actions and many others have shown. This drive of the working class for unity and cooperation, with the vibrant struggle to create Another World, is the biggest problem for the monopolies. The monopolies are using immigration and threats of “terrorism,” to try and neutralize unity and cooperation and split the workers into warring factions. We say no! Let all together carry forward the fight for political empowerment and work to strengthen our ties, people to people, organization to organization! We are One Humanity with One Struggle for a new world!

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Annexation No! Sovereignty Yes!

War Criminal Bush is Not Welcome
in Quebec & Canada!

Actions are being organized in August to oppose the visit to Canada of war criminal and U.S. President George W. Bush and the meeting of Bush with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexico’s imposed President Felipe Calderon at the Chateau Montebello in the Outaouais. The meeting is to further impose the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).

The SPP represents the tightening U.S. grip over our natural resources especially to provide itself with a secure and cheap source of oil and natural gas, but also water, electricity and raw materials. The North American Free Trade Agreement, for example, already dictates that Canada must provide a guaranteed percentage of its oil production to the U.S. The Harper government’s decision to increase oil production at Alberta’s tar sands not only completely disregards its obligations as a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol and the disastrous consequences to the environment, but also means increased oil exports to the U.S. at the expense of Canada being able to guarantee meeting its own energy needs.

For the Canadian working class and people the SPP’s conception of “security” and “prosperity” mean submitting to the dictate of the North American monopolies. It is the CEOs of the monopolies who initiated the discussions, far from the eyes and ears of the people and even of the Parliament. These are the same business elites that in order to secure their own private prosperity are exacerbating the crisis in manufacturing and the anti-social offensive by creating ever more devastation and insecurity in communities throughout Canada, the U.S. and Mexico.

The kind of “partnership” being imposed through the SPP represents the not only the increasing exploitation of Canada’s natural resources but also labor, as regulations to protect workers and their right to organize and to safe and healthy working conditions are seen as unwarranted costs or impediments to their profiteering.

On the military front, “partnership” means the deployment of Canadian troops simply as one of the U.S. Army’s divisions in U.S. imperialist adventures, or for Canada to take a leading role in NATO’s occupation of Afghanistan so as to free up U.S. forces to intensify its brutal occupation of Iraq. Such a partnership is the antithesis of the desire of the peoples of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico for modern relations between nations based on mutual benefit, peaceful resolution of conflicts and the principle of sovereignty for all nations.

Canadians and Quebeckers have never accepted U.S. Manifest Destiny and are profoundly opposed to the U.S. imperialists’ annexationist projects, such as the SPP, the BC/Alberta Trade, Investment and Labor Mobility Agreement, Atlantica, etc., and their facilitation by fifth columnists amongst Canada’s government and financial oligarchy. It is under these circumstances that the fight for democratic renewal must be taken up so that Canadians from all walks of life have a say over the matters that affect them and their profound sentiments for peace and protection of the social and natural environments can find expression through an anti-war government that represents their interests.

TML calls on the Canadian working class and people to go all out to oppose Bush’s visit to Canada and the Security and Prosperity Partnership!

Annexation No! Sovereignty Yes!
War Criminal Bush Is Not Welcome in Quebec and Canada!

TML Daily is the on-line newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), www.cpcml.ca.

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Demonstrate August 20

The Canadian Peace Alliance (CPA) and Collectif Échec à la guerre are jointly calling for demonstrations to coincide with the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit in August.

The CPA is urging its member groups to join demonstrations and other events that will be happening in Ottawa and Montebello and if travel is not possible to demonstrate against war and the SPP in your home towns. Please send us the details of your events to post on the website.

The details of events in Ottawa and Montebello are still being worked out but we do know that there will be a mass rally in Ottawa on the 19th of August, teach-ins and other events on the 20th and demonstrations at the summit site on the 21st. Some groups have already started booking buses to get to the rally on the 19th. Book your time off work now so that you can take part in all three days of events. Please check the CPA website www.acp-cpa.ca for details. For more info on the SPP please check the Council of Canadians website at www.canadians.org.

[The U.S. Army recently blocked plans by the Council of Canadians to have a forum at the community center in Papineauville, about three miles from the site of the SPP Summit in Montebello, Quebec. The Army dictated to Canada’s Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Québec’s Sûreté do Quebec police forces that the community center be used as a command post and that anywhere with a 15 mile radius of Montebello be blocked off to the public. Activists from all three countries continue to organize to oppose the SPP, including a main day of action August 20 and actions on the 21.]

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No to War! No to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America!

On August 21 and 22, at Château Montebello, in the Outaouais region of Québec, between Ottawa and Montreal, the third meeting of the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico — Harper, Bush and Calderon, will take place to discuss the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). The Canadian Peace Alliance and Collectif Échec à la guerre denounce this partnership among the top business and political leaders of all three countries, because it will not improve the security and prosperity of the people but will work against their aspirations. We call on all peace supporting organizations and individuals to protest war and the SPP this August.

The SPP was signed by Prime Minister Paul Martin and Presidents Vicente Fox and George W. Bush on March 23, 2005. Then came the second summit in Cancun, in March 2006, where Stephen Harper represented Canada. Media reporting of these meetings ignored the crucial issues at the heart of this “partnership”: the accelerated extraction and delivery of Canadian oil and water resources to the U.S. economy; a deepening of economic partnership with the U.S. conditional to a war driven foreign policy; the pretext of “national security” to justify the secrecy surrounding the precise nature of the discussions and the deals made.

Guaranteeing & Increasing Profits of Largest Corporations

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, George W. Bush declared, “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.” That year, the only directive given to Paul Celluci, as he became U.S. ambassador to Canada, was to do whatever he could to bring about a major increase in Canadian military spending. During his term, he repeated relentlessly that, for the U.S., “security trumps trade.” The message was clear: unless Canada adopted the same “security” agenda as the U.S., our trade relations would suffer.

It is in this context that in January 2003 the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) launched its North-American Security and Prosperity Initiative, in which it takes a stand in favor of the “smart border,” the secure flow of Canadian energy resources to the U.S., Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), a major increase in military spending and interoperability of Canadian and U.S. armed forces. In April 2004, in a policy document entitled “New Frontiers: Building a 21st Century Canada-United States Partnership in North-America,” the CCCE wholeheartedly embraced Bush’s credo: “The way that we and other countries respond to the relentless threat of terrorism and rogue states has vital implications for global economic growth just as it does for Canada’s future (...). In short, for Canada and for the world as a whole, economic security and physical security have become inseparable.” In April 2003 and 2004, the CCCE held its spring meetings in Washington, inviting several U.S. military and political leaders to participate.

On to War!

Change in the international role of the Canadian Forces towards offensive operations in partnership with the U.S. military has taken place gradually, over the last 15 years, without any public debate or awareness. In February 2005, it was made official in the Liberal government’s budget, announcing the greatest increase in military spending since the end of World War II ($12.8 billion over five years). The following month, echoing the demands of the powerful Canadian corporate lobby and adopting their proposals almost to the word, the SPP was signed. The real significance of this “partnership” would become clearer over the following months.

On April 19 2005, the new International Policy Statement of the Martin government announced its intention to increase regular forces by 5,000 members and reserves by another 3,000, as well as to double the rapid deployment capacity of the Canadian military for missions abroad. And in July 2005, it was announced that the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan would move from Kabul to Kandahar, and that starting in February 2006, an extra 1,400 soldiers would be sent to that area. This news was accompanied by declarations by the new Chief of Defense Staff, Rick Hillier, rejoicing at the thought of hunting down terrorist “scumbags” and to see the Canadian Forces finally doing their real job of being “able to kill people.”

Anti-Democratic Policies

Granting the wishes of Canada’s largest corporations -- those who also benefit the most from military and “security” contracts -- the Government of Canada has forced on the people a warmaking foreign policy that the majority continues to reject. Furthermore, as was revealed a few months ago, in the name of that same partnership, the goal of increasing fivefold the production of oil in the Alberta tar sands by 2030 has been decided. This makes even more ludicrous the recent Conservative government statements of seriously wanting to address the issue of greenhouse gases and to follow the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. On this issue, the gap between government policies and the will of the people is even more obvious.

This third SPP summit will bring together a U.S. president whose policies are backed by hardly a quarter of his own people, a Mexican president whose election is highly disputed, and a Canadian Prime Minister heading a minority government. The deals they will make in Montebello, with no parliamentary debate or public discussion, will have no legitimacy. The Canadian Peace Alliance and Collectif Échec à la Guerre therefore call on the people of Québec and Canada to reaffirm their opposition to the warmongering, anti-environmental and anti-democratic policies of the Security and Prosperity Partnership and to protest the SPP summit.

No to Wars of Occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan
No to the Accelerated Destruction of Our Planet
No to Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America

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The Bush Push to Militarize America

Under the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, the military of the United States and Canada are advancing USNORTHCOM (U.S. Northern Command) into a domestic military command structure, with authority extending to Mexico, even though Mexico has not formally joined with the current United States-Canadian NORTHCOM command structure.

Connecting a number of recent developments, President Bush appears to have positioned the U.S. military and the National Guard acting under presidential authority to intervene in a wide range of domestic incidents that could occur anywhere in North America.

On April 17, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced the establishment of USNORTHCOM as responsible for a “homeland defense” area defined to include the U.S., Canada, Mexico, parts of the Caribbean and waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans contiguous to the United States. USNORTHCOM also serves as the head of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a U.S.-Canadian command.

Section 1076 of the John Warner Defense Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2007 grants the president the right to commandeer federal troops or state National Guard to use them domestically. The language of that legislation allows the president to use federal troops or the National Guard in federal service in a wide range of emergencies, including natural disasters, epidemics or other public health emergencies, terrorist attacks, insurrections, or domestic violence, including conspiracies to commit domestic violence.

As WND has reported, the new National Security (NSPD-51) and Homeland Security (HSPD-20) Presidential Directives signed by the president May 6 and posted to the White House website May 9 give the president unprecedented, almost dictatorial, powers should the president declare a national emergency.

NSPD-51 and HSPD-20 make no specific reference to the National Security Act under USC Title 50 or the requirement of that act that the president bring a declaration of a national emergency to Congress immediately and publish the declaration in the Federal Register.

With the new legal authority granted under Section 1076 of the John Warner Defense Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2007, as well as the emergency powers of the president as specified in NSPD-51 and HSPD-20, President Bush could avoid having to wait for a decision by the state of Louisiana to mobilize the National Guard — in a hurricane scenario, for example — before he could declare martial law and send in U.S. troops or the National Guard acting under the authority of the president.

Under NORTHCOM, the United States command of the continental NORTHCOM, the U.S. military has been conducting a variety of domestic exercises aimed at using the Armed Forces and National Guard under the president’s control to be involved in a wide range of U.S. homeland emergencies, -including health emergencies, natural disasters, terrorist events and even domestic violence.

Extensive USNORTHCOM field drills have been conducted under a variety of exercises, including Ardent Sentry — Northern Edge 07 (As-Ne 07), Vigilant Guard, Alaska Shield, Indiana Sentry, Blue Flag, and Positive Response.

AS-NE 07, conducted April 30 to May 17, included the Canada Command as a full partner and was the largest exercise to date in terms of the number of personnel, the length of the drill, the cost and the complexity of the exercise series. The exercise took place in New England, Alaska, as well as Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, with cross-border deployments staged in the Indiana part of the exercise.

National Planning Scenario One of AS-NE 07 involved the detonation of a 10-kiloton improvised nuclear device by terrorists. A second scenario involved a hurricane impacting the New England states, as well as New York.

On May 16, General Victor E. "Gene" Renuart Jr., commander of NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command, a military arrangement bringing the Canadian military forces under U.S. command) and USNORTHCOM, told the press AS-NE 07 “allowed us to validate the incredible amount of planning that has gone on since Hurricane Katrina, not only to respond to things like a hurricane, but also to ensure that the agencies responsible for homeland security and homeland defense really can work together under a series of demanding scenarios.”

Last year’s exercise, Ardent Sentry ‘06, tested a variety of scenarios, including a chlorine gas terrorist attack, the crash of an airplane into a bridge in Michigan, a sulfuric acid leak at a rail yard, and multiple radiological dirty bombs going off in American cities. A southern scenario in Arizona involved an act of biological terrorism in Mexico, with pneumonic plague spreading in northern Mexico and causing a mass migration of Mexicans across our southern border as people sought medical assistance.

WND has also reported KBR, formerly a Halliburton subsidiary, has in place a $385 million Department of Homeland Security contract to build on a contingency basis detention facilities that could be utilized for domestic emergencies, including sudden mass immigration across our southern border.

The SPP 2006 “Report to Leaders” identifies under “Health Initiatives” the following agreements the SPP trilateral working groups are tasked to complete:

• Draft and complete a North American influenza plan by 2006;
• Complete Canada-U.S. and Mexico-U.S. joint assessments of the stockpiling of vaccines and antidotes within nine months (March 2006) and on an on-going basis;
• Within the next 9-24 months (March 2006-June 2007) improve Canada-U.S.-Mexico infectious diseases surveillance systems, training and response systems.

The SPP 2006 “Report to Leaders” report also identifies under “Bioprotection” the following agreements the SPP trilateral working groups are tasked to complete:
• Share plans within nine months (March 2006) for isolation and quarantine during a transborder infectious disease outbreak;
• Within 12 months (June 2006), examine the feasibility of a tracking and control system for monitoring the movement of dangerous human pathogens within North America;
• Within 12 months (June 2006), develop a North American plan to address pandemic influenza.

While these agreements are mentioned and tasked in the SPP 2006 “Report to Leaders,” not one of these agreements are documented, linked or printed on the SPP.gov website. Conceivably, any of these agreements might define emergency situations where U.S. federal troops or National Guard under the direction of the president could be mobilized to intervene in the U.S. or elsewhere on the continent of North America.

Judicial Watch, in documents obtained from a Freedom of Information Act request, has reported Admiral Tim Keating, former commander, USNORTHCOM, as well as USNORTHCOM political adviser Deborah Bolton and NORAD-NORTHCOM director of plans policy and strategy Major General Mark Volcheff, attended the secret North American Forum September 2006 meeting in Banff, Alberta, Canada. WND has previously reported the Banff meeting involved a closed-door elite discussion of advancing the North American integration objectives currently being implemented under the rubric of SPP.

In the “Rapporteur Notes” taken at the conference, as released through the Judicial Watch FOIA request, mention was made that “Mexico has not participated in USNORTHCOM as there has not been great understanding of the differentiation from NORAD.” The notes suggest the subsequent discussion focused on “confidence building measures” that might be taken to prompt Mexico to join USNORTHCOM. The conference further suggested an exchange of military personnel and cadets with Mexico as a means of gaining Mexican involvement in USNORTHCOM, as well as regular talks about cooperation, perhaps focusing on disaster relief. According to the notes, the problem integrating Mexico into NORAD and USNORTHCOM involved organized crime and the drug trade in Mexico. “Internal security in Mexico is an issue that can only be tackled with help from the U.S. and Canada,” the conference notes recorded.

The conference notes suggest U.S.-Canadian military integration in NORAD and USNORTHCOM are much more advanced, with some 80 formal treaties and 240 agreements in place between the two countries and a Canada Command firmly established within USNORTHCOM. During Adm. Keating’s command of NORAD and USNORTHCOM, the U.S. and Canadian commands were integrated into a single command center.

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Border Communities Oppose Militarization

Border Action Network has launched a drive to stop the triple border walls and protect our communities: No to border militarization! Not at the cost of our communities! In the next several months we will bring together city officials, businesses, churches and community members in all four border states to defend our communities and insist in policies that reflect the realities and priorities of border communities.

The Douglas, Arizona City Council declared today “ineffective Federal policies will negatively impact local economies.” The resolution points out that “the communities of Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta Sonora, Mexico are joined together not divided, as one region by the border, its people, culture and commerce.” Two weeks ago our allies at the Border Network for Human Rights successfully got a similar resolution passed in El Paso, Texas. Border communities are united in their belief that we need a “safe and humane approach that should recognize the dignity and worth of every human life.”

These victories would not have happened without you. But we still have a long way to go. Join our efforts!

The resolution passed by the Douglas City Council, June 7, concluded:

“We are opposed to adding additional fencing within the area immediately adjacent to the City of Douglas from the east boundary of the Douglas Municipal Airport to Whitewater Draw to the West which could adversely affect and displace many of our longstanding residents and homes in those areas and any military personnel stationed along the Border other than in a supportive role. Furthermore, be it resolved that the complex issues of illegal immigration and a porous border cannot be fixed by an enforcement only approach. The solutions must take a multi-faceted approach to multi-layered issues created over the years by virtue of neglect; also that a more realistic, safe and humane approach that should recognize the dignity and worth of every human life should require allowing the entry into the U.S. of documented workers who are filling legitimate employment needs to remain in an approved and monitored program.”

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Unauthorized Immigration

It is normally expected that, when given an opportunity to speak, I will talk about campaign finance reform and, more specifically, about how the public financing of campaigns can cut the threads of the big-money puppet show. But today I would like to talk about unauthorized immigration, which has nothing to do with the big-money corruption of our political system, except for everything.

Unauthorized immigration seems to be a big issue right now with our Republican candidates, as they are well-known to be the “law and order party.” That, after all, is why they are insisting that Scooter Libby pay the full price for his perjuries and obstructions of justice. They are for law and order, with the normal exceptions of the Geneva Conventions and the US Constitution, especially its Bill of Rights. But we know what they mean: When they say they are for law and order, they are talking mostly about keeping down the uppity poor folk. They are certainly not talking about the big corporations, hotel companies, agribusiness giants and retailers who employ millions of unauthorized immigrants but who make up for that sin many times over with their large campaign donations.

But I do not come here to talk about corrupting campaign donations and the need for public campaign financing. I come to talk of unauthorized immigration and a little about corn and something about tortillas. I call it unauthorized immigration, not illegal, because I don’t want to use words that confuse my Republican friends. By the way, in saying that Republicans are very interested in the immigration issue, I do not mean to imply that it is less important for any of us.

If you will look around the grocery store check-out lines and notice the widening measurements of our fellow citizens, we can certainly see for ourselves the problem of having too much cheap labor around to do all our yardwork and housework for us. By my calculations, the roughly three billion pounds of extra weight now being carried on the hips of working-age American citizens is roughly equivalent to the combined weight of the unauthorized immigrants now in our communities. The math is clear and persuasive. Cheap labor is bad for everybody.

But why are so many people risking their lives to come into our country now? When did this big rush begin?

It began when Mr. Clinton approved NAFTA — the North American Free Trade Agreement — and when he militarized our southern border at the same time. Prior to these combined actions, families crossed the border very commonly and casually, especially during harvest seasons. After harvest, they would go home to Mexico or Central America because that’s where they lived with their families in quite happy communities.

When the border was militarized, it became too risky to go back and forth. So they stayed.

Why did Mr. Clinton militarize the border? He did so because NAFTA was about to pull the rug out from under Mexico’s small family farms. We flooded Mexico with cheap corn - exports that we now subsidize to the tune of some $25 billion a year. Congress gives that money of ours to a handful of agribusiness giants. Of course, I am not here to tell you why Congress does that, and what might be done to stop it, such as with the public financing of campaigns. But they do it, and Mexican family farmers cannot compete.

In the years since NAFTA was signed, half of Mexico’s small farms have failed. The only kind of farming that can now compete in Mexico is big agribusiness, which does not employ as many people. Tortillas in Mexico now contain two-thirds imported corn, and they are three times as expensive at retail level than before NAFTA. The people have less money, and the cost of food is rising. We have done that. Our precious senators and congressmen and their corporate cronies have enforced that raw and cruel exploitation in our names.

The result of undermining Mexican farms, as Clinton expected, was a rising flood of poor people moving from rural areas into Mexico’s big cities, which have become so poor and overcrowded that all one can do is dream of going north across the border.

Now, if any Democratic candidates for president would like to show a little courage and intelligence, let them address the real cause of our flood of unauthorized immigrants. Will Mrs. Clinton or Mr. Obama or Mr. Edwards or any of the other candidates face down the agri-gangsters who are behind this problem? Probably they will not, so long as Iowa has a major primary.

Let me say that I am not ranting and raving in the least about these new Americans. When Mexico owned Texas and everything west of Texas, and when Mexico cut off migration across its borders into Texas, our people kept coming anyway — crossing illegally in search of opportunities for their families. When Mexico got upset by this, we trumped up false reasons for a war, and we illegally took those lands. If that wasn’t enough law and order for you, we also conducted unfettered genocide against the region’s native people. So let’s not stand on any moral high ground regarding that southern border.

The people coming across the border today, with the usual exceptions, are family people with an incredible work ethic. Personally, I welcome them. I congratulate them for their courage and their dedication to their families. I want them to stay and become citizens, or, if some prefer, to return to their homeland at a time when there is international justice and a decent chance for prosperity at home.

I regret what the political corruption of our system has done to their farms and their communities back home. It is not the people’s fault — it is the fault of corrupt leaders of both parties and both nations. We must speak this truth to these powerful people, even to those presidential candidates whom we otherwise admire.

So, candidates Clinton, Edwards, Obama and the rest: Do you understand the reasons why immigration numbers are growing? Are you smart enough to understand the situation? Are you brave enough to do something — to even say something — about it? Or is the truth too big for you?

All of us in this room have a duty to be good citizens and good Democrats. And that means we must ask the toughest questions, so that the interests of the people — the people of our nation and of the world — will be served. Isn’t that what we’re here for?

And do you see why I do not need to harp on campaign finance reform, to cut the puppet strings that allow these cruelties to continue? I didn’t have to say a word about that, because you understand it. You understand what must be done in regard to the public financing of federal and state campaigns. And that only begins the reforms we require in this challenging new age.

Granny D Haddock, an elder, marched across the U.S. demanding electoral reform and continues to take a stand against war and for a system where the people’s votes actually count.

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2006: Bush Border “Security” Aims to Divide the Peoples

No to Annexation! No to Police State Measures!

President George W. Bush, using border “security” and immigration as his justification, is imposing measures aimed at annexing Mexico and pitting the workers against each other. The use of 6,000 National Guard troops at the border creates the conditions for these troops to take action inside Mexico. Whether in the name of pursuing “human smugglers,” or “pre-empting” immigrants from crossing the border, it is very likely that the troops will mainly be used, as Bush put it, for “security both sides of the border.” Given the history of the U.S. using troops first for “training” and “surveillance,” and then in combat, as is taking place in Colombia and took place in Nicaragua, the peoples here and in Mexico are very right to call the measure one of militarization and annexation.

The Bush plan does nothing to solve the problems of mass migration from countries impoverished by U.S. imperialism. It does nothing to assist the peoples of Mexico, Central and South America and contribute to raising their standards of living, something readily possible given the massive wealth produced by workers in the U.S. Canceling the debt of these countries, paying reparations for U.S. wars, interference and robbery of their land and resources, these are actions that would assist and contribute to fraternal relations.

Increasing use of force and lining the border with more troops and firepower serves annexation and repression. Voice of Revolution vigorously denounces any use of U.S. troops in Mexico. The millions in action on May Day made clear that the workers will not accept these divide and conquer measures by the U.S. rulers. We say, No to Annexation, Yes to Sovereignty!

The latest Bush plan is also designed to finalize arrangements for a police state. The plan includes special identification cards, with biometric identifiers, issued by the federal government and required for “work eligibility.” While the ID is aimed at immigrants to start with, there is every indication that it will be required of all workers in the name of “employer verification of legal status.” It is also the case that the cards are being tied to Bush’s “guest worker” program, forcing individual immigrants to secure a contract with an employer. Again, this is a measure that can readily be extended and required of all workers, as a condition for work. It also serves to give employers a much freer hand in imposing lower wages, slave-like conditions and elimination of unions and collective contracts.

Another police state measure is use of local and state police agencies to enforce federal immigration law. This serves to put these forces under federal control, in this case Homeland Security and its Border Patrol, while also engaging them in activity beyond their legal authority as local or state police agencies. Already, in Arizona, as well as New York City, where local police have been involved in such enforcement, there is widespread impunity by the police, including racial profiling and terrorizing of people on the streets, demanding they show proof of citizenship. This terrorizing in turn is being used to force people to accept the notion that police can stop, brutalize and detain anyone, without cause, in the name of verifying their “legal status.”

Conditions are being created so that everyone will be required to have the federal ID, in order to work, to qualify for Medicare or welfare, to vote, and so forth. The ID will only be issued according to government dictate. When one adds Bush’s claim that everyone must submit to “American values” as dictated by the government, it can be seen that these measures will be used to broadly repress the people, justify mass round ups and detention, and banish people from society.

Voice of Revolution calls on all to be vigilante against all these measures and all efforts to split and divide the people, inside the country and from our sisters and brothers in Mexico, Canada and around the world. Let the May Day actions stand as our model: No One is Illegal! Defend the Rights of All!

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2006 Harper, Fox and Bush Summit, Cancun Mexico

U.S. Seeks to Strengthen Annexation and Dictate

President George W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Vincente Fox of Mexico are holding a two-day summit in Cancun, Mexico, March 30-31. The summit marks the first anniversary of the establishment of the Security and Prosperity Partnership for North America (SPP). The SPP was launched following a similar summit in March of 2005. This second summit is an indication that these meetings will now become an annual event.

The U.S. will no doubt try to use the summit to further strengthen the SPP, a main tool for U.S. annexation of Canada and Mexico, economically, politically and militarily. Given the U.S. emphasis on developing a single North American Security Perimeter, further measures to militarize the borders and ports will likely be discussed. As well, trade and immigration issues, both a source of current conflict among the three, will be main issues.

In the lead-up to the meeting, the NAFTA Free Trade Commission met on March 24 in Mexico. Mexico’s Secretary of the Economy, Canada’s Minister of International Trade and the U.S. Trade Representative issued a joint statement following the meeting. According to the statement, the three governments “reaffirmed our commitment to NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) as the cornerstone for strengthening North American competitiveness in today’s global economy. We have committed to achieving concrete, commercially relevant results that will continue to ease the flow of goods, services and capital between our three countries.”

The statement also speaks to the further involvement of Canada and Mexico in U.S. efforts to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and other trade agreements in the Americas. It says, “We will examine how our three countries might collaborate in the trade agreements with other countries.” It emphasizes, “We also reaffirmed our commitment to achieving the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).” Already the U.S. is forcing Colombia to take on the task of consulting with the 34 FTAA countries (all of the Americas except Cuba).

The summit is taking place at a time when broad resistance and protests are occurring in Central and South America opposing U.S. efforts to secure bilateral free trade agreements. The FTAA, which was supposed to be completed in 2005, faced broad -opposition by the peoples across the Americas, beginning in Quebec City, Canada. Its last summit failed, but it remains a weapon of annexation the U.S. wants. The joint statement indicates that one aspect of the summit will be U.S. efforts to force Canada and Mexico to support efforts to revive the FTAA in 2006. [Since that time the FTAA has been defeated by the peoples and mutual trade arrangements that exclude the U.S., such as ALBA, (Alternativa Bolivariana para las Américas, the Boliverian Alternative for the Americas) are gaining strength.]

The U.S.-Mexico Binational Commission also met on March 24 in Washington, DC, where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez. Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff and Ministers Medina Mora and Abascol from Mexico were also present. A statement issued by the State Department on the meeting said that the “U.S.-Mexico border has become one of the most economically integrated and active regions in the world.[...] We have deepened our economic integration.” The statement emphasized, “We have greatly improved our law enforcement cooperation.” This includes “day-to-day tactical and strategic cooperation between our law enforcement agencies.” It also spoke to U.S. efforts to secure a greater role inside Mexico, by acting to “assist the Mexican government in modernizing and better equipping the justice sector institutions.” The statement adds, “U.S. and Mexican authorities discussed the movement of people across our borders and our mutual interest in ensuring that these movements are safe, legal and orderly, that they contribute to our mutual prosperity, and do not pose a threat to our mutual security.”

Given that the immigration issue is a source of conflict between the U.S. and Mexico, a statement like the above may be all the summit publicly offers on this problem. Failure of both governments to in any way provide for the estimated 11-20 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the U.S., with the majority from Mexico, is also contributing to the credibility crisis facing Bush, Fox and the SPP itself.

Fox, for example, has been forced to publicly come out against a current immigration bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and called on Bush to oppose it. He has also spent more then $300,000 in government funds for full page ads in major U.S. newspapers, running this week, saying Mexico should help the U.S. design a “guest worker” program.

Bush, for his part, has been unable to get legislation with his proposed “guest worker” program through Congress. The U.S. Senate is now fighting over its version of an immigration bill, with three different bills already proposed. Among the measures included in the bills are special identification requirements not only for immigrants, but for all workers in the U.S., criminalizing any workers without the needed identification. As well, there was a proposal to strip people born in the U.S. of citizenship, beginning with the sons and daughters of immigrant workers.

President Bush, rather than promoting the summit and its “partnership,” has been engaged in the fight over immigration in Congress. In meetings with border agents and with “agricultural and faith-based leaders,” March 23, and again in his radio address on March 25, he emphasized, “Comprehensive immigration reform begins with securing our borders.” This “security” already includes plans for building 700 miles of giant walls along the border with Mexico, adding thousands of more border patrols, to about 12,500 now, and building more detention camps for immigrants.

The 14 miles of wall already built near San Diego has added hundreds of more deaths for Mexican workers and their families coming into the U.S. Increased deportations are already underway, with 85 percent of those deported coming from Mexico. Bush is instituting what he calls a “catch and return” policy, demanding that all those caught be immediately returned.

While Bush continues to call for a “guest worker” program that has similar ID requirements and rejects the demands of the peoples for amnesty for all undocumented workers, it is not expected to pass. He thus has little to offer that Fox can use on this problem, itself a problem for the Summit. Indeed, the brutality of the U.S. at the borders and concerning immigrant rights is serving to expose the whole “partnership” as a failure in providing any security for the peoples.

The focus on immigration leading up to the Summit is evidence that the monopolies are organizing to use it to try to work out the size and location of labor available in all three countries. Canada, for example, is also now stepping up deportations, such as the Portuguese workers recently targeted in Toronto. The monopolies are also striving to use the giant pool of undocumented workers to drive down not only the wages, but the legal standing and rights of all workers. What remains unclear is how far the summit will serve to advance efforts to create a single North American perimeter dominated by the U.S. military and border machinery. Such a perimeter could change the immigration equation for all three governments while greatly harming the peoples of all three countries.

While it has not been directly stated, it is likely that energy will also be an issue discussed, perhaps less publicly. Both Canada and Mexico are top exporters of oil to the U.S. President Fox visited Alberta in October 2005, promoting what he called a NAFTA policy in energy. He said, “We need to make the best and most efficient use of energy to keep this region of the world competitive.” Fox, following the demands of the North American monopolies, is pressing to change Mexico’s laws blocking private investment in the energy sector, particularly oil.

Speaking about the summit on behalf of Canadian monopolies, Thomas d’Aquino, who is chief executive of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, emphasized that “The energy sector must be opened up and public safety assured.” … Defending President Bush against “some in positions of authority” in Canada who “relished in delivering insults,” he said, “I do not believe we should deal with a great friend and ally with anything other than profound respect.”

Given the U.S. path of more imperialist wars, securing control of the energy resources of all three countries and advancing a North America of the monopolies is vital. Efforts in this direction are likely to be part of the summit.

Voice of Revolution, April 3, 2006

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2006 Harper, Fox & Bush SPP Summit, Cancun, Mexico

No to United States of North American Monopolies!

The executive branches of government of Canada, Mexico and the United States met in Cancun, Mexico March 30-31, 2006. This was the second annual meeting under the auspices of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) that was launched last year in Texas. The summit was organized against a backdrop of furious anti-immigrant provocations in the U.S. Congress and Toronto where national minority communities are being targeted by state-organized, anti-worker attacks and the growing opposition of the united peoples.

For Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President George W. Bush this was also a war summit, to discuss the further annexation of the Canadian military into the ongoing U.S. wars of aggression and occupation. Harper relished in his new role as war Prime Minister sporting the army fatigue vest he wore in Afghanistan while visiting the Canadian hostile army of occupation.

Along with Mexican President Vincente Fox, Bush and Harper took various decisions to strengthen the SPP at the ministerial level and establish a permanent committee of chief executive officers of the main monopolies of the three countries.

The basis for a political union of the executive branches of the three countries is the economic union established under the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The economic union within NAFTA and the political union within SPP are the creations of the most powerful monopolies on the continent. The agenda of those monopolies is to annex Mexico and Canada into the U.S. Empire in a United States of North American Monopolies. The combined strength of the continent’s natural resources, means of production, working class and military are to go into battle to establish U.S. imperialism’s hegemony over the entire world.

To win victory in the worldwide competition and war for empire and hegemony, North American monopolies need a powerful stable base from which to attack, conquer and maintain their domination of the world. Stability in the home base is an expression of political and police control by the financial oligarchy over the working class and people. Stability for the monopolies requires the negation of the political will of the people to unite in action to defend their rights based on common interests, which are the opposite of the financial oligarchy on all political, economic, social and cultural affairs.

The ruling elite does everything to split workers into warring factions based on race, nationality and skills and set them at each other’s throats. The hateful bills in the U.S. Congress to criminalize national minority workers and their supporters are an expression of the will of the monopolies to split, attack and exploit the peoples of North and Central America, especially the working class. The equally hateful deportations of immigrant workers in Toronto and elsewhere also reveal the profoundly inhuman and backward soul of the financial oligarchy.

Political deceit and demagogy extolling monopoly competition, ideological subversion and brutal repression and terror are used to prevent workers from uniting in political organizations in their own image and from forming trade union collectives that negate the competition of the labour market and give full expression to the working class will for unity and cooperation to restrict monopoly right, competition, exploitation and war.

Political control by the financial oligarchy over the people requires institutions that maintain an iron grip on all political affairs and set an agenda that the people are encouraged to support. Electoral political parties and the multi-party system of representative government are the frontline to subvert the will of the people. The multi-party system of representative democracy and the electoral political parties are the gatekeepers of power subjecting the people to the rule of the monopolies.

The crisis of representative democracy and the demands of empire-building and war are such that increasingly the financial oligarchy is acting outside the traditional systems in Canada and the U.S., imposing arbitrary rule by executive decree and the authority of institutions such as the SPP and its organs full of the chief executive officers of the most powerful monopolies.

The people and in particular the working class are blocked from developing their own political institutions and agenda that are independent of those of the monopolies. The blockage comes mainly from tradition and the ideas of the ruling class which attack working class unity and cooperation. The mass media and pop culture constantly excuse, justify and even praise monopoly competition, empire-building and war, and ridicule the dignity and competence of the working class portraying it as incapable of an independent nation-building project, and the peoples of the world as backward, incompetent and unworthy of being sovereign.

Propaganda from the ruling elite still has hold of many workers and their leadership, negating and diverting their political will into chasing an idle dream of capturing parliament and running the capitalist system better than the chief executive officers of the financial oligarchy and its well-paid political representatives. In opposition, the working class and its leadership must uphold a view that sets practical political tasks for the class so that concrete gains are made in vesting sovereignty in the people and constituting the working class as the nation.

The formation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America is to fortify monopoly rule on the continent by attacking the unity of the people and increasing the weapons of repression. The more the three executive branches of the financial oligarchy unite, the more the unity of the peoples and their rights will come under attack. The SPP is designed to stabilize the imperialist base by disrupting the unity and cooperation among the working classes of the three countries and brutally suppressing any opposition to the growing danger of open fascism.

The biggest problem for the monopolies in stabilizing the North American base to serve expansion worldwide is to subvert the natural tendency of the working class for unity and cooperation to build an alternate world without monopoly competition and war. The antithesis of monopoly competition is working class unity and cooperation. The monopolies attack and try to neutralize working class unity and cooperation by manipulating the capitalist labour market in the interests of the monopolies and to split the working class of North America into warring factions and to line it up behind particular monopolies. To this end the three states have mobilized their organs to attack immigrant workers, reorganize the North American labour market to better serve the monopolies with sub-classes of workers criminalized and indentured, and to line up the peoples generally behind a most backward chauvinism extolling monopoly competition, empire-building and war.

It must not pass!

Workers and their organizations must negate monopoly competition and war and build working class fortresses of unity and cooperation to defend the rights of all and oppose war. Forward with those political tasks that make concrete gains in vesting sovereignty in the people and constituting the working class as the nation.

Down with Monopoly Competition and War!
Long Live Working Class Unity and Cooperation!

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August 2005

Pentagon Advances Plans for Military Rule Inside U.S.

Less than six weeks after the Pentagon released its Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support (see VOR, August 7, 2005 update), which elaborates plans and practical measures to put the military at the center of life inside the country, the military has gone further and developed what it calls a domestic “anti-terror war plan.” The Pentagon says that the military will be used in the U.S. in cases of “civil disturbance,” and whenever the military decides that civilian response to “threats” are not sufficient.

The plan was drafted by the U.S. Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), responsible for military actions for North America, including the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It puts forward the authority of the military to act in a crisis, with or without direct presidential orders.

The plan envisions fifteen potential crisis scenarios, ranging from “low-end” scenarios involving “crowd-control missions,” to “high-end” scenarios, such as several simultaneous “mass-casualty” events. These could include bombings, biological or chemical emergencies, medical emergencies, and so forth.

According to the plan, quick-reaction forces comprising at least 3,000 soldiers will be used for each incident, high or low-end. The manpower can be easily increased depending on the extent of the damage and the military’s determination that civilian response teams could be “overwhelmed.” The military also says there are situations when National Guard units could begin rounding up people for mass detentions.

The new plan provides for the military to take charge of situations, in effect subordinating people, resources, and facilities to its dictate. Senior USNORTHCOM officers add that any military takeover inside the country, likely beginning in specific areas, could become permanent.

About 1,400 National Guard troops have already been formed into a dozen regional response units, while smaller quick-reaction forces have been set up in each of the 50 states. USNORTHCOM also has the power to mobilize four active-duty Army battalions, as well as Navy and Coast Guard ships and air defense fighter jets.

The National Guard is a main force in the plans as it is exempt from the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 which prohibits the use of the Army for law enforcement inside the country. Even so, many people consider the entire USNORTHCOM plan to be against existing law.

Both the plan and the overall Homeland Defense Strategy justify these military actions by saying September 11 and the “war on terrorism” mandate that the military have the “freedom to act” at will, inside and outside the country, in all waters and airspace, in outer space and cyberspace.

In related news, a June 29 press release from USNORTHCOM describes a live drill aimed at putting into practice the military chain of command. The drill will be conducted by the Joint Task Force-Civil Support (JTF-CS) forces in Charleston, South Carolina. It includes military and civilian forces and is designed, like the Joint Task Force itself, to get all the civilian forces used to accepting and following military command. This includes medical personnel, firefighters, communications and transportation workers, and so forth.

While USNORTHCOM was only established in October 2002, its headquarters staff of 640 is already larger than that of the Southern Command, responsible for U.S. military operations throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The Pentagon is also in the process of transferring 70,000 troops to the U.S., for potential use by USNORTHCOM.

Voice of Revolution, August 14, 2005

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For Your Information

Document of 2006 Security & Prosperity Partnership

President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada and Mexican President Vincente Fox issued a joint statement March 31 at the conclusion of their summit. The following includes excerpts from that statement.

“This Partnership has increased our institutional contacts to respond to our vision of a stronger, more secure, and more prosperous region. In June 2005, our three governments released detailed work plans identifying key initiatives that form an ambitious agenda of collaboration. We ask our Ministers to build on this momentum.

“Today, we exchanged views with private sector leaders on how to enhance the competitiveness of North America.”

Strengthening Competitiveness in North America: “We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis.

“We are convinced that regulatory cooperation advances the productivity and competitiveness of our nations and helps to protect our health, safety and environment. For instance, cooperation on food safety will help protect the public while at the same time facilitate the flow of goods. We affirm our commitment to strengthen regulatory cooperation in this and other key sectors and to have our central regulatory agencies complete a trilateral regulatory cooperation framework by 2007.”

North American Emergency Management: “A disaster — whether natural or man-made — in one of our countries can have consequences across national borders. Our vision for a North American response, relief and recovery strategy would ensure that critical equipment, supplies and personnel can be deployed expeditiously throughout North America. We commit to develop a common approach to critical infrastructure protection, coordinated responses to cross border incidents, and coordinated training and exercises, with the participation of all levels of government in our countries.”

Avian and Human Pandemic Influenza: “Given the highly integrated nature of our economies, an outbreak of pathogenic avian flu or human pandemic influenza in any one of our countries would affect us all. Today, we have agreed to develop a comprehensive, science-based and coordinated approach within North America to avian influenza and human pandemic influenza management.”

North American Energy Security: “A sustainable, secure and affordable supply of energy is key to fueling the North American economy. Collaboration in the areas of innovation, energy efficiency, and technology development, including moving these technologies to market, promotes energy security. Our governments renew their commitment to [...] market facilitation as a means to meeting our shared goals of energy security and sustainable development.”

North American Smart, Secure Borders: “Our vision is to have a border strategy that results in the fast, efficient and secure movement of low-risk trade and travelers to and within North America, while protecting us from threats including terrorism. In implementing this strategy, we will encourage innovative risk-based approaches. [...] These include close coordination on infrastructure investments and vulnerability assessments, screening and processing of travelers, baggage and cargo, a single integrated North American trusted traveler program, and swift law enforcement responses to threats posed by criminals or terrorists, including advancing a trilateral network for the protection of judges and officers.

“The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America represents a broad and ambitious agenda. We instruct our Ministers to develop options to strengthen the SPP and present them next June as part of the second report on progress of the SPP.”

President Fox and President Bush were pleased to accept, on behalf of their countries, Prime Minister Harper’s invitation to host the next trilateral leaders meeting in Canada in 2007.

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Top U.S.Monopolies Dictating Annexation

Members of North American Competitiveness Council

The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) was established by the U.S. Canadian and Mexican governments at the June 2006 meeting of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) in Cancun, Mexico. The council is mandated to provide governments with recommendations on issues including border regulation and competitiveness in the automotive, transportation, manufacturing and services sectors. The council last met in February 2007 in Ottawa and is expected to present a report at the August meeting of the SPP at Montebello, Quebec.

U.S. MEMBERS
• David J. O’Reilly, Chevron, Chairman and CEO since 2000.He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council, JPMorgan International Council, American Society of Corporate Executives and the Trilateral Commission.

• Lou Schorsch, Mittal Steel USA, CEO since 2005.

• Rick Wagoner, General Motors, chairman and CEO since 2003.

• William Clay Ford Jr., Ford Motors, chairman of the board of directors since 2001 and executive chairman since 2006.

• Robert Stevens, Lockheed Martin, chairman, president and chief executive officer since 2005. Former director of Monsanto.

• Jeffrey R. Immelt, General Electric, CEO since 2001, president since 2000. Mr. Immelt also serves as a director of Catalyst, Robin Hood and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

• Joseph Gilmour, New York Life, appointed CEO in 2006

• Raymond Gilmartin, Merck, former chairman, president and CEO of Merck pharmaceutical until 2005; sits on boards of Microsoft and General Mills Inc.

• H. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart, President and CEO since January 2000.

• Michael Haverty, Kansas City Southern, President and CEO of Kansas City Southern, since 2000. Southern is a transportation holding company with investments in the U.S., Mexico and Panama.

• Douglas R. Conant, Campbell’s Soup, CEO since 2001.

• James M. Kilts, Gillette, Retired as Gillette CEO in 2005 after helping merge the firm with Procter & Gamble in 2004; board of directors of The New York Times, the Metropolitan Life Insurance, and serves as a member of Citigroup’s International Advisory Board.

• Herman Cain, Whirlpool, a director since 1992 and is a member of the board of directors of the Pillsbury Company, U.S. Navy and Coca-Cola. member of the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform.

CANADIAN MEMBERS

• Dominic D’Alessandro, Manulife Financial, president since 1994. Mr. D’Alessandro is a vice chairman of the board of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and a director of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association. He also co-chairs the Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council.

• Rick Waugh, Scotiabank, president and CEO since 2003.

• E. Hunter Harrison, CN, President and CEO of CN Railway since 2003.

• Linda Hasenfratz, Linamar Corporation (NACC chairperson), named CEO in August 2002.

• Michael Sabia, Bell Canada Enterprises, President and CEO of BCE, and CEO of Bell Canada, since 1999.

• Paul Desmarais, Jr., Power Corporation of Canada, chairman of the board and co-CEO since 1996.

• David Ganong, Ganong Bros. Ltd., Director since 1977, director of Canadian Council of Chief Executive Officers. He is also director of Sun Life Financial and the Conference Board of Canada

• Richard George, Suncor Energy Inc., president and CEO since 1991; board of directors of the U.S. offshore and onshore drilling company, GlobalSantaFe Corporation.

• Jim Shepherd, Canfor Corporation, former CEO. Shepherd has worked in Ontario and B.C.’s forestry industries and sits on the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Asia Pacific Trade Council.

• Annette Verschuren, Home Depot, president of Canadian operations

MEXICAN MEMBERS

• José Luís Barraza Gonzalez, Consejo Coordinador Empresarial (Enterprise Coordinating Council), president since 2004.

• Gastón Azcárraga Andrade, President of Consejo Mexicano de Hombres de Negocios, a group of Mexico’s leading industrialists, and CEO of Mexicana de Aviacion and Grupo Posadas.

• César de Anda Molina, CEO of Avicar de Occidente

• Valentín Díez Morodo, president of Consejo Mexicano de Comercio Exterior (Mexican Business Council for Foreign Trade, Investment and Technology); on the boards of directors of Grupo Financiero Banamex, Mexichem and Kimberly Clark de México.

• Jaime Yesaki Cavazos, Consejo Nacional Agropecuario (National Agriculture and Livestock Council), a main agri-business federation in Mexico. He is also the CEO of several poultry companies.

• Claudio X. González, Centro de Estudios Económicos del Sector Privado (Center of Economic Studies of the Private Sector), director of Kellogg, Banco Nacional de Mexico, Grupo Televisa and Telefonos de Mexico, and CEO of Kimberly-Clark de Mexico.

• Guillermo Vogel, vice-president of TAMSA (Tubos de Acero de México), since 1997. He is also chairman of the North American Steel Council and a board director of Amazonia, Instituto Latinoamericano del Fierro y el Acero, Citibank-Banamex and HSBC.

• León Halkin, Confederación de Cámaras Industriales (Mexican Federation of Industrial Chambers, CONCAMIN), president until October 2006. He is chairman of the board and CEO of four companies in the industrial and real estate markets.

• Tomás González Sada, president and CEO of Grupo CYDSA, a textiles manufacturing firm, since 1994.

• Alfredo Moisés Ceja, president of Finca Montegrande, a winery; president of the council of the Mexican Association of Coffee Exporters and vice president of international commerce on Mexico’s National Agricultural Council.

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Voice of Revolution
Publication of the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization

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