|
Statement Canadians for Peace and Socialism March 20th 2011 Box 168 Slocan BC V0G 2C0 Phone: 1 250 355 2669 The Reconvening of Parliament and the Tasks of the Left as Canada Heads for another Federal Election. Yes to Peace and Full Employment for the People of Canada! No to US-NATO Wars and IMF Austerity! When Parliament opens on March 21st 2011 the corporate subservient government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will attempt to blackmail the opposition parties into supporting imperialist war and economic austerity or go to the polls. Jack Layton leader of the NDP, Gilles Duceppe leader of the Bloc Quebecois and Michael Ignatieff leader of the Liberals have a choice. They can either call the bluff of a right wing autocratic Prime Minister and defeat his democratically intolerant government of imperialist war and austerity for workers, farmers and the self-employed, or abandon all pretence at having a progressive independent foreign and domestic policy in the interests of the majority of Canadians. Canadians in their majority reject a further continuation of the ruinous absolutist policies promoted by Prime Minister Harper on behalf of big oil profits, big war profits and big bank profits. There is nothing that is good for the Canadian people in supporting another US-NATO war, this time waged against the people of Libya and another made-at-the-IMF economic austerity budget imposed on Canadian workers. Endless war and IMF austerity is the policy of the dictatorial and centrally controlled Conservative government acting in the interests of the small parasitical investor elite of wealth and privilege. Prime Minister Harper is deceiving Canadian wage and salary earners when he claims to be acting on their behalf. War and austerity is to the benefit of a small and powerful group of monopoly capitalists. These are the interests that derive windfall profits from investments in the modern day US-Canadian military industrial complex and reap quick massive profits from speculation on the rise of oil and food prices. These are the interests that plunder the treasuries of the G7 states to prop up failing banks and prosecute a high tech war for the oil and resources belonging to the people of sovereign states. War and austerity is the enemy of the Canadian working class. Canadian working class families will be the victims of war induced inflation and profit speculation that will drive up prices on all basic necessities in particular the price of food, gas and accommodation. By committing Canada to another US-NATO war, Prime Minister Harper has assured every Canadian worker of a wage cut to pay for it. As US NATO cruise missiles and Canadian CF 18 jet fighters rain down death on the Libyan people indiscriminately killing pro and anti Qaddafi civilians alike with the same precision and indifference as US drones launched from control centres in the USA kill Afghans and Pakistani civilians, Canadian Parliamentarians can look the other way and play the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary con game of “he said she said”, or speak over the heads of the Conservative-big business axis, directly to the Canadian people and appeal to them to reject the Prime Minister’s invitation to abandon peace and support another G7-NATO imperialist war. Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty are appealing to their right wing supporters to go into the federal election campaign and convince the Canadian people to voluntarily abandon all struggles to build an independent, economically advanced, and peaceful country through publicly ownership and planning, government investment in the needs of the people in favour of accepting a different kind of Canada where its foreign policy and domestic policies are determined elsewhere and rubber-stamped in Parliament. Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty offer Canadians a corporate totalitarianism where defense policy is made at NATO headquarters in Brussels, economic, monetary and fiscal policies are made at the IMF and energy policy is made at the Petroleum Club in Calgary on behalf of a small elite of foreign and domestic investors and a parasitical cabal of wealth and privilege that help them do it. The next federal election will be upon us sooner than later. The next federal election with the threat of a Conservative government majority will be a turning point for the people of Canada. The stakes are high for the working class and its allies. Another corporate sanctioned Conservative government either minority or majority will accelerate Canada along the path of deeper integration into the global system of imperialism and commit our country to a more aggressive adversarial reactionary role internationally imposing on the Canadian armed forces the duty to protect private profits and suppress the struggles of the poor and disadvantaged people’s of the world demanding a better life. Canada as an enforcer imperialist state is not a vision of Canada that is supported by a majority of Canadians. How could it be? We have never been asked our opinion about the Conservative Government’s state monopoly capitalist decisions. Prime Minister Harper and Finance Minister Flaherty don’t consult with the people of Canada about their economic future. The Prime Minister first consults the elite of militarists, banks, and foreign and domestic oil companies and their think tank shills about what to do. When the Prime Minister gets the message he then imposes it on Parliament and the people. That is the Canada’s authoritarian Prime Minister’s idea of democracy. The Canadian people are not part of that elite decision making process in our country and it is time to reject monopoly rule for real working people’s democracy. That is what the working class and its allies are demanding everywhere in the world and the time has come for Canadians to do likewise. The left progressive forces of our country, the organized labour, patriotic and peace movements have never been called upon to stand up and unite for a different kind of Canada, for a different kind of economy, for a different kind of democracy as we are now called upon to do. There is no one else to do it. If Canadians value our achievements, seek to regain what we have lost to right wing privateers, save what we have and make further social advances on behalf of those who labour to live, that struggle must be taken into the next federal election independently of the established parties. Organized labour and movements of the people cannot afford to permit big business dominated political elites and their media hacks to set the people’s agenda for the next federal election. The struggle for peace and progress can be won. The organized labour and peace movements, the environments and community and social activists for women’s equality of rights, for racial equality, for the welfare of our children, the anti-poverty action groups, youth and students, the advocates for seniors and affordable housing for young families, the trade union led struggle for improved universal CPP and OAS pensions and the strike movement demanding increased purchasing power through rising wages – these forces are the majority and united can take back our country from state monopoly capitalist ruination. The federal election is the opportunity to enunciate a new direction for Canada towards a foreign policy of peace, planned economic development for the workers and farmers and self-employed, guaranteeing a future for the children and youth. The working class can settle for nothing less! Left Turn Canada! |