Our Fight for Independent National Policies is Our Fight for Peace

Part 2: An Independent Nation of Peace or Belligerent Prop of US Imperialism

Does Canada as a nation chart an independent international course of peace, progress and cooperation with other non-aligned and emerging states or remain entrenched in the monopoly capital interests of G7 states dominated by US imperialism supplying a growing share of our raw natural resources primarily to US value-added industries supporting US policies of war and hegemony?

The answer to this question placed within the context of contemporary world affairs situates Canada either as a nation of progress or a nation of reaction. It places the Canadian people either in solidarity with the overwhelming majority of the world’s people who work for wages and in their majority reject neo-colonial and imperialist policies or within the camp of a diminishing privileged sector of finance, energy and military capital - a belligerent class of wealth and privilege who perpetrate wars, dominance and occupation on the peoples of the world. The outcome of this question makes Canadian workers either the masters of their own destiny or complicit in imperialist wars of conquest and occupation. There can be no middle ground.

The fight for control over the commanding heights of the national economy determining the political and economic direction Canada pursues – either peace and progress, or war and reaction – is ultimately the struggle between labour and capital. It is the struggle for national policies which serve the interests of working people who must rely on wages or policies that serve a small and ever contracting parasitical class of wealth and privilege who rely on the unpaid labour time of workers in one form or another. There is no middle course.

There can be no reconciliation, no alignment, nor common purpose between the interests of labour and capital. There can be no basis for national policies that search for “equitable” distribution and sharing of the resources of the nation other than those which seek to fully subordinate the interests of finance and monopoly capital to those of the labouring people of Canada. This is the only basis upon which the Canadian people can fulfil the vast potential of the nation. It is the only path to be a leader in the contribution toward peace and progress in the world, and which provides all the peoples of Canada the opportunity to live a life free of economic hardship and worry. Canada has that potential and more.

Our Fight for Independent National Policies is Our Fight for Peace

Part 1: Yes to Peace - No to NATO

“Economic planning operated in a capitalist country falls far short of the possibilities of planning under socialism when the working people have political power but, even with the limitations of private ownership, it can be used to produce results for the people until they can establish their political supremacy”

Tim Buck – Put Monopoly Under Control, Progress Publishers, Toronto, 1964, pp 25

For the Canadian people who in their majority are dependent on wages, an expanding economy to provide jobs, income and social and retirement security is vital. A growing economy means jobs and income – it means guarantees for the future of working families. Regional, national and foreign policies of governments are central to that aim. Government policies can benefit workers or exclude them from the productive capacity of the nation, providing benefits exclusively to the narrow profit motive.

The primary factors in determining the level of national income and which sectors of the Canadian economy contribute to and benefit from that goal is the national policy of the nation. Determining the direction, content and whose interests government policies serve, in Canada, is a fight for control over our nation, to place all national resources and its full productive capacity in the service of the Canadian people first.

The importance of this task confronts all working Canadians. The task is of first rate importance, one which will compel the nation to choose a course of independent action or to remain locked into the economic imperialist policies of US monopoly capital.

Recovery For Whom?

From the Smoke Pit returns from a long absence – work gets in the way of writing.

The economy has not improved for Canadian workers despite all the claims of Harper and his speech writers at the Frazer Institute. It is getting worse for Canadian workers where over 1.5 million remain unemployed, wages, benefits and pensions all under attack and 10,000’s others exhausting their EI.

The Globe and Mail reported today in an article entitled “Job seekers faced with wary employers” that “economists are worried” that the “recovery” will be a jobless one. The article says that “It will take at least another year, and maybe two, to recover all of the 280,000 lost jobs in the recession”. The hatchet man Stockwell Day began his efforts to “trim the fat” in the public service by axing 285 GIC (Government in Council) positions.

Meanwhile bank profits are approaching pre-depression levels with the Scotia Bank reporting today that it will post 1st quarter profits of $988 million, up 17% from the year earlier. The Royal Bank reported a 35% increase in 1st quarter profits for 2010 to $1.5 billion. According to the Globe and Mail that is “bank's second-highest quarterly profit ever”. CIBC profits rose from $147 million a year ago to $652 million in the 1st quarter of 2010. BMO posted a $657 million profit, up $225 million from a year earlier. TD Bank profit doubled from a year earlier to $1.3 billion – a record performance.

Canadian families are facing household mortgage debt that is at an all-time high. February 16, 2010 the Globe and Mail reported in an article entitled “Household mortgage debt hits record”, that Vanier Institute of the Family said “debt is the highest level since the annual study began 11 years ago”. The report says that 2/3 of people 18-34 would be “squeezed” if their pay cheque is delayed by one week. The Bank of Canada reported that mortgages in arrears have risen to a 7 year high.

CIBC Economist Benjamin Tal says that, “Consumer bankruptcies have risen significantly over the past year, and they will continue to rise. Clearly, some people are in over their heads, and more will get into trouble when interest rates rise.” According to the January RBC Consumer outlook survey 58% of Canadians are worried about their debt loads. The chartered banks hold $336 billion of the debt up from $292 billion are year earlier.

Anyone who thinks can see that this spells disaster for Canadian workers. In the Federal Budget speech Flaherty boasted, “Our government took immediate action to ensure Canadian banks could keep lending…Because of prudent government regulation, none of our banks failed. None of them required a bailout from taxpayers, unlike their competitors in other countries.”