An Urgent Appeal to the Canadian
An Urgent Appeal to the
Canadian Communists: Stop US-Israel Attempts to Start War On Iran
Don Currie, Chair CPS
August 27, 2010
Dear Comrades and Friends
The précis below by Fidel Castro Ruz of the work of the pro-Israeli journalist
Jeffrey Goldberg must shake the complacency of every Communist, labour militant
and peace activist to the core.
It is clear, as the World Peace Council (WPC) and the International Movement of
Workers and Communist Parties (IMWCP) has been warning for some time, that
Israel will attack Iran, within the year with or without the approval of the
Obama administration.
The consequences of an aerial bombardment of Iran’s nuclear facilities can be so
catastrophic and destabilizing not only for the Middle East and Central Asia,
but for the entire current shaky framework of international relations, that it
can cause a chain reaction that will create the conditions for uncontrollable
massive war with misery and death for millions of people, including the people
of Israel, Palestine and their closest neighbours.
We should never forget as Soviet historians warned us, that WW2 was not a single
event, but the culmination of a whole series of capitalist wars, culminating in
the unleashing of Hitler’s armies that led to the deaths of 50 million people.
Today the tinder box of imperialism is full. There are 12000 nuclear weapons,
the militarization of space via satellites, and the greatest concentration of
military power in the hands of the leading imperialist state the USA, organized
globally, exceeding anything we have seen since the end of WW2.
The internal situation in the USA is unstable. The US economy is stagnant and
may even be sliding into another phase of economic crisis. The right-wing
extremist pressures on the Obama Administration to accede to widening the wars
in Central Asia are growing. Nothing emanating from the Obama Administration
gives us confidence that without enormous pressure, it has either the will or
the intent to stay the hand of Israel.
The twin evils of capitalism at the imperialist stage, extreme economic
instability and militarism, are merging with speed and with unparalleled peril
and misery for the people of the world.
Comrades and friends.
We who know better and from our own experience, that war in the modern era
solves nothing except to breed more war are called upon to put the matter
squarely: What are we going to do?
The situation that is maturing and that is leading to another war demands that
the responsible progressive left act now.
The responsibility to act falls most urgently on the Communists and their
supporters, past and present, and in the first place on the current leadership
of the Communist Party of Canada.
What should we do as a minimum to fulfill our responsibility to our people, to
our cause, to our class and to our country? What is the concentration task
around which we can all unite?
To prevent an Israeli-US-Harper sanctioned attack on Iran would be a great
victory for peace and the best way we can help the people of Iran who are
struggling under the most contradictory and difficult circumstance for
progressive advance, democracy and peace. The consequences for the people of
Israel are unforeseen. They can be quite terrible. The consequence for the
beleaguered people of Gaza and Lebanon will be dire. How can a war against Iran
help to bring an end to the ordeal of the people of Iraq and Afghanistan?
We know there are in our own country, pro-war forces, driven by hatred and
revenge and myopia, that will welcome such a war. War profiteering as always, is
a major motive. The rest is deceit!
Wherever we may be at in our understanding of peace and progress, whatever has
been our personal journey, none of us support what is being planned in Tel Aviv
and Washington to be in the interests of any of the peoples of the Middle East
and the world. War against Iran is not the answer. It wasn’t in Iraq and it
wasn’t in Afghanistan and will not be in Iran.
Where to start? With the obvious - a plan of action.
Nothing that is said here has not already been considered. What is concerning is
that it has not as yet been done. Therefore:
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We urgently appeal to
General Secretary Miguel Figueroa leader of the Communist Party of Canada to
immediately, with the help of his most trusted co-workers, to prepare a
carefully worded, sober, succinct and brief as possible statement, in both
French and English, to all of organized labour, peace and democratic forces
of Quebec and Canada including all of the members of the opposition parties
with a special appeal to the NDP Caucus in Parliament, the NDP Governments
of Nova Scotia and Manitoba, to all of the NDP MLA’s in all of the provinces
and territories, to the responsible environmentalists and to the working
class at large, warning of the extreme consequences for peace of an Israeli
attack on Iran and to do everything in their power to prevent it.
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The issuing of such a
statement should be accompanied with the calling of a press conference and
consideration given to what can be done to have the statement carried on
CPAC, the CBC and all websites with which the CPC may be in contact.
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We urge the CEC of the CPC
to consider requesting the opportunity for its public spokespersons to hand
deliver their statement personally to a representative of the embassies and
or consulates of Israel, Iran and the USA and to circulate such a statement
to the entire ambassadorial community in Ottawa.
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Consideration may be given
to issuing of joint statements with representatives of pro-peace states with
embassies in Canada.
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We recommend that all
provincial party organizations and the Communists in Quebec be called upon
to go directly to their members and supporters and appeal to them for help
to circulate and distribute such a statement and to wherever possible hand
deliver it to all local news media and distribute as widely as possible to
all local and community papers, cable networks, and to the most
progressively consistent bloggers for peace.
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We urge the editorial board
of People’s Voice to assign a member of its board with the special
concentration task to prepare and edit a featured column dedicated to the
struggle for peace that carries as a regular feature, the appeals of the
World Peace Council, the Canadian Peace Congress, the Canadian peace
movement and the International Communist Movement relating to preventing an
imperialist attack on Iran.
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We appeal to the CEC of the
CPC to convene an emergency enlarged meeting of the CC as soon as possible
and to mobilize all of the resources at hand with an appeal to all of its
candidates to issue statements calling upon all other nominated candidates
of other political parties to renounce any support for an attack by Israel
on Iran. This should be done publicly and as part of the CPC’s federal
election work with the specific and publicly stated intent to defeat the
Harper Government’s pro-war policy and oust it from power as soon as
possible.
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We call upon all
progressives to assist CPCon to mount a campaign for funds to support a
CPCon public campaign to prevent an attack on Iran.
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We call for full support to
Dave McKee, President of the Canadian Peace Congress (CPCon) and his
committee and to do all we can to assist them with real resources required
to activate CPCon on a country-wide scale.
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We recommend that CPCon
plan for an emergency enlarged meeting of its executive, where an appeal can
be issued to the Canadian Peace Alliance and all of the peace organizations
of Canada calling upon them to speak over the heads of the politicians
directly to the Canadian people to oppose an Israeli-US-Harper sanctioned
attack on Iran.
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We recommend that CPCon
immediately speak with all of its Iranian and Middle Eastern and Central
Asian supporters to speak directly to their communities and urge them to
publicly denounce plans for war on Iran and to work resolutely for
non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in co-operations with CPCon and the
World Peace Council.
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We appeal to comrade
Professor Daniel Goldstick, Editor of Spark to immediately go to the United
Jewish People’s Order (UJPO) and urge them to work in collaboration with
CPCon and to convene a meeting of all of their supporters to publicly
denounce the Netanyahu Government and its aggressive policies and to
immediately speak out against the threat of an Israeli attack on Iran.
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We urge President Dave
McKee or someone from his committee to immediately speak with the leading
committee of the Association of United Ukrainian Canadians appealing to them
to act in co-operations with CPCon to alert and appeal to its members to
oppose an Israeli-US sanctioned attack on Iran.
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We urge President Dave
McKee or a member of his committee to speak with Mike Lucas and his
organization appealing to them to begin to work with CPCon on a campaign of
peace and to prevent an Israel attack on Iran.
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We call upon the CEC of the
CPC to convene a meeting of the fourteen trade union members, newly elected
to the CC to discuss a plan of action that would include the organizing of a
rank and file labour peace committee. Part their work would include opening
up direct communications with the WFTU, consideration of attending its next
World Congress and circulating the work of the WFTU for peace, among
Canadian trade unionists.
If these modest steps were
taken, we could lay the basis for convening early in the New Year of the most
representative conference of left progressive peace forces we can mobilize with
invitations to the WPC, the WFTU, the WFDY, the WIDF to send greetings as a
minimum and delegates if possible, with the express purpose of repositioning our
movement as the leading force for peace in Canada.
Dear comrades and friends.
These proposals are made in the full knowledge that the left progressive forces
do not as yet command the mass support we would wish. That is not an excuse not
to act in the most organized, purposeful and united way that we can with the
resources we have.
As Chair of CPS, I am deeply convinced, not just from the experience of the
past, but from what I believe to be a growing war weariness among Canadians with
what has happened in Afghanistan, that a united campaign initiated by the left
progressive forces, with CPCon leading it, appealing to the Canadian people not
to permit the Harper Government to drag us into another war, would resonate
positively and have an inspiring affect on all of the forces for peace across
the whole country.
I call for discussions, urgent discussions,
There is no one else to do it…
Comradely
Don Currie, Chair, Canadians for Peace and Socialism
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