01) THE STRUGGLE AGAINST NORTHERN GATEWAY CONTINUES!
Statement from the BC Provincial Committee, Communist Party of Canada, June 21, 2014
The Harper Conservative government's June 17 approval of Enbridge's Northern Gateway project is not the end of the struggle against tar sands extraction and exports in western Canada, just the signal that the next stage has begun.
As the Communist Party said in our submission to the Joint Review Panel hearings into the Enbridge Northern Gateway (ENG) pipeline, this struggle represents "a historic clash between two different visions for the future of Canada."
Opposition to the ENG proposal brings together growing numbers of Aboriginal peoples, environmentalists, and working people, who understand the grave environmental, economic and social dangers posed by this project, including the global crisis of climate change fuelled by greenhouse gas emissions arising from fossil fuel consumption. Despite the overwhelming propaganda campaign by Enbridge, the majority of British Columbians and growing numbers of Albertans are opposed to tar sands expansion, new pipelines and expanded tanker traffic.
This project does not meet the criteria of being "required" and "in the public interest." Rather, it is intended to generate huge new profits for the oil and gas monopolies.
Aboriginal peoples along the pipeline corridors, many of whom have never ceded inherent indigenous title to their traditional lands and waters, call the ENG project a direct attack on their national rights. Instead of meeting legal and constitutional obligations to engage in meaningful consultations with First Nations, the pipeline proponents and its political backers set up phony pro‑pipeline groups and pay so‑called aboriginal leaders to issue supportive statements. The response to these corrupt tactics has been to strengthen opposition by First Nations people across B.C.
The Northern Gateway pipeline would be constructed across some 1,000 rivers, streams and bodies of water, bringing bitumen to load onto supertankers in the narrow Douglas Channel, one of the most environmentally fragile areas of the west coast. Despite its expensive greenwash propaganda, Enbridge's record of more than 800 leaks over the past decade proves that the only real question is the frequency and scale of more such disasters.
But the transnational energy monopolies and the federal and Alberta governments remain determined to proceed. The Harper Tories have used their parliamentary majority to remove key legal barriers to the rubber‑stamping of controversial energy projects.
This is not a new debate in Canada. Natural resources such as fossil fuels, lumber, water and minerals could provide the material base for a publicly‑owned "value‑added" economic structure, focused on creating good jobs and meeting people's needs, without destroying the natural environment. Instead, starting with the colonial seizure of Aboriginal lands, vast resources within the borders of the Canadian state have been grabbed by transnational (especially U.S.) capital. Canada has become a key supplier of raw materials for the U.S. military‑industrial war machine. "Free trade" sellouts ensure that the First Nations and the peoples of Quebec and the rest of Canada are still denied any genuine sovereignty over our economic future. The Enbridge project is another nail in the coffin of Canada's declining domestic manufacturing base.
The ENG project, the twinning of the Kinder‑Morgan pipeline to Burnaby, and massive natural gas fracking in northern BC, all feed into the global imperialist pattern of fossil fuel dependence and domination. This relentless capitalist expansion not only threatens British Columbia's coastline, it has grave health consequences for human beings and wildlife, and contributes to the deadly spiral of global warming and climate change.
The Communist Party opposes the policy of exporting unprocessed raw materials. Instead, we call for a People's Energy Plan, based on a sustainable, conservation-based economy; full respect for the inherent rights of First Nations over their traditional territories and resources; and public ownership of the energy industry, as the material basis to rebuild Canada's industrial and manufacturing sector and to create jobs.
Blocking the Northern Gateway pipeline and other forms of tar sands expansion will require more than legal actions or even civil disobedience, although such tactics will be part of a wider resistance strategy. Victory will require united, massive, and militant mobilizations. We urge the labour and democratic movements to build united solidarity with the Aboriginal peoples and environmentalists, both to kill this dangerous project, and to create a genuine people's alternative plan for economic development, based on the needs of people and the environment, not corporate greed!
(The above article is from the July 1-31, 2014, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)