By Liz Rowley
We are living at an extraordinary moment, when the danger of new and bigger wars at the international level is becoming increasingly likely, following the arrival of Donald Trump and the quasi-fascist government and movement that he leads to the White House with majority control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The November election result announced a reign of terror to come on immigrants, on women, on transgender people and the 2SLGBTIQ+ community, on Black and Indigenous peoples and on their communities, on unions and other workers’ organizations, and on access to and control over education, justice and policing.
On January 20 when he became the new president, Trump signed orders exonerating all those found guilty of participating in the riot aimed to overturn the 2020 election result, and he fired all of those involved in prosecuting him for the many crimes he had committed and was charged with. Within days, he also repeated his intention to annex Greenland and Panama by military force if necessary, and to annex Canada, using economic force.
At the beginning of February, he trumped these proposals with the announcement that the US would annex and occupy Gaza, expel the Palestinian people and transform Gaza into a playground for the rich. The Israeli PM supported this idea, said Trump, and would help with the expulsion and removal of the Palestinian people.
This proposed new crime against Palestine and the Palestinian people has been widely condemned, but it will take mass action and more protests around the globe to stop it from happening. We must fight for a peace agreement now, and for an independent Palestine with the right of return, as set out in numerous UN resolutions. In particular, it’s essential that the labour movement play a central role in speaking out and mobilizing millions of working people in support of Palestine and against this genocide.
The reasons for Trump’s annexation proposal of Panama, Greenland and Canada (up to now) are apparent. In Panama it’s control of the strategically vital Panama Canal. In Greenland it’s the US military base which is already located in the north, from which it can exert muscle in the Arctic and control over new shipping routes opening up due to climate change; and it’s access to Greenland’s massive oil and gas reserves, forestry, and rich mineral and natural resources including hydrocarbons, lead, iron, zinc, rare earth metals, gold and precious gemstones.
The annexation of Canada, erasure of the border, and creation of a 51st state would, as Trump said, be “really something.” It would finalize the work of the North American corporate constitution that was the first free trade deal signed by PM Brian Mulroney in 1988 after a big fight by the labour movement, the Communist Party, the NDP, the women’s movement, social movements and democratic organizations, which came very close to defeating it.
The corporate free traders promised thousands of new jobs, higher wages and a gigantic new market where Canadian goods could now be sold at big profits. They drew a picture of endless benefits and improvements in living standards, plus access to the bright lights of life in the US. Regrettably the NDP and many union leaders gave up the fight against the free trade agreements that followed the 1988 deal, which were never just trade agreements, but were the framework for a hemispheric corporate constitution – for big corporate profits, privatization of the social programs won in the 1950s and 60s including Medicare, EI, public pensions and labour and democratic rights including the right to strike and to unionize.
By the time NAFTA arrived in 1992, it had became clear that Canada had the highest wages and standards for workers on the continent, and that these free trade deals were really about driving them down to the lowest levels. Canada also lost it best jobs when it lost its manufacturing base and the value-added jobs that went with it. Jobs disappeared, wages fell and hard fought benefits like the defined benefit pensions, EI and social programs were cut.
Free trade deals were not for workers, but for corporations; and they didn’t enhance Canada’s sovereignty – they undermined and diminished it, and created supra-national bodies that had more power than elected governments. This situation has worsened with every new free trade deal, with political power increasingly removed from the people and delivered into corporate hands.
Trump’s tariffs are a political tool aimed to force Canada, Mexico, China and other countries to bow down to the US and make even more economic and political concessions including sovereignty and independence. In North America, this is about the upcoming USMCA negotiations, where Trump wants even more access to resources and markets in Canada.
More, Trump is directly interfering in Canadian politics, undermining democracy and urging the election of Pierre Poilievre, with whom he shares a far-right, anti-worker outlook and agenda. Trump’s movement is busy linking up with far-right governments and political movements around the world. This is his political base internationally.
The overthrow of socialism in Europe in the 1990s opened up a period when imperialism had the offensive, historically temporary but profound nonetheless. Canada’s foreign policy became completely intertwined with US policy, and Canada embarked on 35 years of war in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. Before 1990, the Soviet Union had been the force against war and for peace in the international arena. Then it was gone.
Throughout this period capitalist crises became more frequent, lasted longer and were deeper. And real wages and living standards fell. The big and militant struggles of the 1970s, including the 1976 general strike against wage controls and for price controls against inflation, dissipated.
But for the past few years, US imperialism has been losing its place as the main force dominating the global economy. It is China whose economy is rapidly expanding, with its GDP set to overtake the US and become the world’s biggest by 2030 at the latest, according to the IMF. China has also raised living standards and wages across the country, lifting 700 million people out of deep poverty, while expanding its trade and international relations through its Belt and Road Initiative.
This is why US imperialism is increasing its provocative and belligerent stance in Asia. This is why it has formed the AUKUS alliance with Australia and Britain and is focused on building a nuclear powered submarine fleet docked in Australia. While it is focussed on provocative actions against China in Hong Kong and Taiwan, the US is also engaged in escalating political and military provocations against DPRK. Washington’s justification for these attacks is that China and DPRK are socialist countries and that this is reason enough.
This is the same argument for the political and economic attacks on Cuba. For over 60 years the United States has plotted to make the Cuban economy scream, to spread disease on the people and the land, to assassinate Cuban leaders and imprison Cubans abroad, and to isolate Cuba with threats to its trading partners. Now Trump plans to ship 30,000 migrants to the US torture camp of Guantanamo Bay which is located on the island of Cuba. In charge of carrying out this plan is Marco Rubio whose hatred of Cuba and of socialism is boundless. This is the bridgehead for a US invasion of Cuba. And it’s the reason for Communists, socialists and democrats across Canada to mobilize in support of Cuba now.
A Canadian federal election could be called any time after March 9, when the new Liberal leader is elected, and March 24 when Parliament is reconvened and a non-confidence motion is tabled by the Tories and supported by the NDP and the Bloc.
The front-runners in the Liberal leadership race seem to think they can placate Trump (and Poilievre) by abandoning the carbon tax and the proposed increase to the capital gains tax. They are also promising to hit NATO’s military spending target of 2 percent of GDP by 2030 at the latest, meaning the arms budget will more than double to $80 billion, paid for by reduced social spending and increased privatization.
This is shaping up to be a very volatile campaign with a lot hanging in the balance.
This means that the Communist Party’s election campaign will be important in helping to identify capitalism as the source of the many problems people are facing. And we need to highlight the policy solutions that exist to alleviate those problems, that meet the needs of working people. Working people in Canada need to be encouraged to vote for policies that they want and need.
This includes pulling out of the capitalist free trade deals, and focusing instead on mutually beneficial multilateral trade with the world. It includes building up value-added manufacturing and secondary industry across Canada; a massive public housing construction program to provide truly affordable housing for all; nationalizing the auto industry to build environmentally sound public transit, inter-urban transportation, and light industrial and passenger vehicles. It includes putting energy and resources under public ownership and democratic control, and moving rapidly to renewables. And it includes funding and expanding universal Medicare, EI, pensions, universal childcare, and free public post-secondary education.
We also need to pitch hard for the unity of working class and progressive forces, to build a People’s Coalition that can fight for these policies and advocate for mass action after the election. The labour movement needs to take the initiative to begin building such a People’s Coalition to lead mass struggles against the corporate agenda. Such a fightback could help forge a democratic people’s alliance, led by the working class, and which could ultimately challenge the ruling class for political power.
Liz Rowley is the leader of the Communist Party of Canada
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