Working people in Canada and the United States, along with their unions and farm organizations need to join together to demand that Ottawa and Washington provide immediate and massive assistance to those hit by the devastating flood in the Red River valley.

About 85,000 people in Manitoba, Minnesota, and North Dakota have been affected by the flood. Some have lost their entire farm or house in the floodwaters, many farmers will lose this year's crop, and others have been forced out of their homes and jobs for several weeks.

The response of working people across Canada has been an outpouring of solidarity. Typical is the response from people in the Saguenay region of Quebec, devastated last summer by floods, who have raised $100,000 for Manitoba flood victims.

This stands in stark contrast to the compensation governments are offering flood victims - all of which will benefit the wealthy the most. The government is guaranteeing up to $100,000 in assistance for those who can afford to pay the first 20 percent of damages themselves. Workers and family farmers who have lost their homes or livelihoods will be hard pressed to pay this deductible.

Instead of mapping out a real plan of emergency relief, capitalist politicians, be they in the Liberal, Conservative, or Reform parties, as well as the New Democrats spent the entire first week of the flood debating the relative merits of postponing voting and electioneering in Manitoba.

The Communist League demands massive, unconditional aid to the flood victims to rebuild homes and farms. Farmers who have lost their this year's crops should be fully compensated to guarantee a living income.

The government should launch a massive public works program to rebuild homes, farmsteads, and communities. This kind of program, with workers paid at union-scale, would provide jobs for those who are out of work due to the flood, as well as to thousands of others. This repair campaign should be part of a broader public works program to build housing, hospitals, schools, and child-care centers to meet the needs of working people and provide jobs for the unemployed. This includes reopening and restaffing hospitals.

As the crisis of the capitalist system deepens, working people will be faced with more natural and capitalist-made disasters. The rulers will try to make working people bear the brunt of its crisis, while they continue cuts to social programs.

We pledge to work alongside fellow workers to organize resistance and protests to these anti-working-class and anti- farmer actions. A good place to start is by fighting for massive aid to workers and farmers in the Red River valley.  
 
 
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