Statement for the Oct. 27 day of anti-war actions, from the Communist Party of Canada
Hearing only the wish of his master in the White House, P.M. Stephen Harper wants Canadian troops to stay in Afghanistan for another four years. He is deaf to the majority of Canadians who want the troops out of Afghanistan now!
Harper is turning Canada into a thug for U.S. imperialism. Harper is not acting for the people or for Canada's sovereignty. His only loyalty is to the giant U.S. oil, arms and finance corporations, loyalty bought by generous donations to the Conservative Party.
Afghanistan is a burning issue, a reason for the peoples' movements - peace, labour, women, youth and students - to unite and protest for the immediate return of our troops. The Oct. 27 day of action shows that Canadians want no part of the unjust and illegal occupation.
Defeating Harper in Parliament on Afghanistan would help greatly to block the election of a Harper majority government, if the opposition parties would cooperate on the issue. What is most important and urgent is building the anti‑occupation movement outside of Parliament, in coalitions and on the streets.
A Harper majority government would be a great calamity for Afghanistan, Canada, world peace and the environment.
Why is Canada in Afghanistan?
For six years Canadian troops have helped the U.S. occupy Afghanistan. We are not making life better for Afghans. We are not bringing democracy and light. No great work can pay for the sorrow and death we have placed on the Afghan people.
Canada is helping to impose the West's iron heel on the sovereignty of Afghanistan. We are mercenaries for U.S., Canadian and other corporations whose aim is to loot the country's rich resources.
The Afghan government was "elected" by people with NATO machine guns pointed at their backs. We are treading on the dignity of the country's people, by propping up a government of feudal mullahs, drug lords and war criminals. Everything we do there as uninvited guests will inflame the resistance.
Canadians should never believe that Harper wants the same reforms as those actually carried out starting in 1978 by the revolutionary government of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan, reforms that were drowned in blood by U.S. imperialism in 1992 when its henchmen overthrew the PDPA government. Afghanistan today is a tragic example of what happens when U.S. imperialism prevails.
Who benefits from the "War on Terror"?
George Bush's "war on terror" is a sham. Terrorism will never be defeated by military means. The U.S. is carrying out this racist "war on terror" to achieve global hegemony. It is a declaration of war against any resistance to the domination of U.S. transnational corporations. In its own words, the official military doctrine of the U.S. declares this aim.
Bush arrogantly accuses other nations of threatening peace, but the U.S. has the worst record of aggressions and occupations of any country today. It has the most dangerous military doctrines and preparations, such as weaponizing space, and asserting its "rights" to be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict and to carry out "preventive" wars. U.S. military spending is more than ten times that of China, the next largest military spender in the world.
The U.S. is trampling on international laws that prevent war and protect the sovereignty of nations. Enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, these laws are the greatest democratic legacy of the Second World War, the tragic war against fascist imperialism that cost fifty million lives.
That is why Bush's charge that Iran is "risking World War III" is utterly dishonest. With no evidence, Bush is accusing Iran of threatening peace for allegedly developing nuclear weapons. It is Bush who is striving to attack Iran.
U.S. imperialism is the most terrible threat to world peace since the Second World War.
Against the rising global resistance to U.S. hegemony, Bush is replying with dangerous military preparations and aggressions. Bush is defying world opinion and the views of the U.S. people, including the demand to end the occupation of Iraq.
The large U.S. capitalists who own the transnational corporations are reaping super-profits from the war, especially military and oil companies. The war is impoverishing the majority of U.S. people, who do not have enough to meet their own needs.
The fascist danger of permanent war
The stakes could not be higher if the U.S. continues to spread the bonfire of war. Millions of lives would be lost, but democracy and civil rights will go also. Already they are quickly eroding. Torture and disappearances are approved at the highest levels, including in Canada. If the war escalates further, as the U.S. seems to intend, fascist rule cannot be ruled out.
A U.S. war on Iran would plunge the U.S. into a terrible nightmare, a conflict that would consume the U.S. and its allies like Canada.
For an independent Canadian policy of peace, defeat Harper
Harper has an expensive plan to defend Canada's Arctic by military might, which is the only way he can conceive a strong Canada. But Canada's strength is the people who are demanding peace, better social programs and action on the environment. Harper will never truly defend Canada.
Instead of listening to Canadians, Harper is doubling the size of the military budget to help the U.S. war machine. He is allowing the takeover of Canada's resources by U.S. corporations in every deal he promotes.
The Tory government is defying public opinion on a number of important issues, like Afghanistan, the racist treatment of Aboriginal peoples, and the need to act against global warming, for child care and for better wages.
It is time to defeat Harper and elect a government that will adopt a foreign policy of peace and disarmament. Humanity cannot progress without such a policy.