03) “DRAMATIC ESCALATION IN MILITARISM AND THE DRIVE TO WAR”

 

Excerpts from the Political Report adopted by the Central Committee, Communist Party of Canada, at its June 13-14 meeting held in Toronto.

 

            Internationally, the main feature today is the dramatic escalation in militarism and the drive to war by U.S. imperialism and its allies (either directly or via local proxies), by growing interference in the domestic affairs of other countries, and by the outright intervention to overturn states and governments perceived to be hostile to its regional or global interests. This escalation in the drive to militarism and war is directly connected to the deepening cyclical and structural crisis afflicting the capitalist system as a whole, and the desperate attempts of the main imperialist centres to protect and extend their respective positions at the expense of their imperialist rivals, at the expense of the vast majority of the peoples and nations in the rest of the world, and at the expense of the global environment.

 

            Within the imperialist countries (including Canada), this increasing aggressiveness manifests itself in an all-sided offensive to roll back the social and economic gains of the working class and working people generally, and sharpened attacks on labour, democratic and civil rights. Labour and the democratic resistance is also growing within the imperialist countries and around the world, but resistance, united around a comprehensive democratic and anti-imperialist alternative, needs to be strengthened in order to turn back this offensive, and move onto the counter-offensive, for socialism.

 

            The U.S. and EU imperialist blocs are the primary forces driving this heightened aggression, most often under the ‘flag’ of NATO. For its part, the Harper government is actively promoting the rising tide of aggression, particularly through its military involvement in Iraq and now also Syria, its strident support for the pro-fascist regime in Ukraine, its unqualified backing of Israeli expansionism, and its belligerent attitude to the Bolivarian government in Venezuela.

 

            Whipping up tensions in turn serves to justify increased defence spending. As the World Peace Council recently noted, despite the economic crisis, overall military expenditures last year reached almost $1.5 trillion dollars, some 2.4% of global GDP, 37 % of which was spent by the USA alone. The web of U.S. military bases and installations around the world continues to spread, now estimated at roughly 1,000.

 

            A massive chunk of these wasteful military expenditures is going into the expansion of the NATO military alliance, in order to secure absolute military superiority for the U.S. and its European allies, and to expand its ‘sphere of operations’ not only up to Russia’s eastern and southern flanks, but also from the Middle East and North Africa up to the Arctic.

 

“Regime change” threat

 

            The escalation of imperialist militarism and aggression is not only reflected in military interventions in local wars and the fomenting of ‘regime change’ in individual countries. It is also pushing the world dangerously closer to world war. The bellicose campaign whipped by the US & NATO bloc against the Russian Federation over the issue of Ukraine, together with the ‘eastern push’ of NATO to tighten its encirclement of Russia (including the redeployment of NATO forces on its borders), raise the very real danger of possible thermonuclear war. PM Harper has been particularly vociferous in revving up this ‘new cold war’ against Russia. At the G7 meeting in Germany last week, he said “Mr. Putin runs an entirely different system… It is not at all like our economy, it doesn't share our interests, it doesn't share our values”, and once again claimed that Russia was “expansionist” and constituted a “long-term menace”.

 

            Recent developments in Ukraine figure prominently into US/NATO’s expansionist plans. Following the U.S.-orchestrated fascist coup d’état in February 2014, the illegitimately installed regime of Petro Poroshenko moved quickly to apply for NATO membership, and to call for NATO arms to beef up its brutal onslaught in the Donbas, against cities and enclaves of the Russian-speaking minority who are fighting for regional autonomy to protect their linguistic and other national rights under threat from the Ukrainian nationalist regime in Kiev. Thousands of innocent civilians have perished in this fratricidal conflict. In violation of the truce agreement signed in Minsk earlier this year, the Ukrainian army and its National Guard (made up mostly of fascist and neo-Nazi thugs and criminals) are continuing their assault in an attempt to crush the embattled opposition forces in the East. These gross violations are taking place with the approval, and with the strategic military assistance, of the main imperialist powers including Canada. In light of the genocidal offensive of the Kiev regime, the announcement this April of the Harper government’s decision to dispatch 200 CAF personnel to help train the Ukrainian Army is deplorable, and our Party demands that this decision be rescinded immediately.

 

            Our Party also condemns the growing wave of anti-democratic and anti-communist repression currently underway in Ukraine. The Kiev regime has launched some 20 criminal cases against leading members of the Communist Party (CPU) including its General Secretary, and the government is fighting a battle in court to ban the party altogether. Furthermore, several weeks ago the bogus ‘parliament’ in Kiev passed a series of bills to “de-communize” Ukraine, banning communist symbols and tearing down monuments to the Soviet heroes of the Great Patriotic War.

 

            At the same time, the rump parliament approved legislation to officially restore the ‘good name’ of Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and infamous war criminal who colluded with the Nazis during Germany’s bloody occupation of Ukraine in WW2. The legislation would also impose stiff sentences on anyone who exposes this grotesque rewriting of Ukrainian history. While Communists are the main target of this assault, other democratic opponents of the regime are also coming under attack. On June 8, a tent camp set up on the ‘Maidan’ in Kiev by demonstrators protesting against Poroshenko was attacked and torn down by fascist thugs allegedly hired by the authorities. In the face of this fascist repression, our Party expresses its unwavering solidarity with the CPU and all democratic dissent, condemns the ugly wave of anti-communist frenzy, and calls on the Canadian government to publicly and unequivocally disassociate itself from the repressive actions.

 

U.S. Pivot to Asia

 

            U.S. imperialism has also embarked on a dangerous expansion of its war machine in the Pacific. The U.S. “Pivot to Asia” plan to ‘contain’ the People’s Republic of China calls for the deployment of 60% of its naval fleet in the area, with grave consequences to the peace and stability of the region. Continuing military provocations aimed at the DPRK (North Korea), the 2014 ‘re-interpretation’ of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution by the Abe government to allow for accelerated re-armament of Japan’s Self-Defence Forces, U.S. meddling in the dispute over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea, and the expanding U.S. military presence in Australia are all parts of this worrisome development. Canada is also moving to install a foreign military base in Singapore which will contribute to this ‘pivot’.

 

            The U.S.-led imperialist drive to encircle both the Russian Federation (through NATO’s ‘eastern push’) and China (via the “Pivot to Asia”) also has a South Asian component. Since its election, the BJP government under PM Narendra Modi has shifted India’s domestic and foreign/military policy sharply to the right, contrary to the desire of the vast majority of the people. It has announced its intentions to privatize certain state utilities, mines and farms, has cut state food subsidies for 20 million of India’s poor, and is actively promoting extreme Hindu nationalism (the so-called Hindutva doctrine, literally “Hindu-ness”), and encouraging Hindu extremist attacks against Muslim and other non-Hindus at the local and state level in parts of the country. Modi and the BJP have a long record in this regard. In 2002, when he was Chief Minister of the Gujarat state, Modi was directly implicated in fomenting communal riots that left up to 2,000 Muslims dead.

 

            With respect to India’s foreign policy, Modi is tilting ever more toward the U.S. axis. In January, his government renewed the 10-year Defense Framework Agreement with the U.S. that will now include joint weapons production projects. The two countries also announced a “breakthrough” on the stalled Indo-US nuclear cooperation agreement.  In return for his willingness to make India serve as a strategic asset if not an outright ally of the U.S. in its crusade to counter “rising China,” the Washington has declared that Modi would receive immunity from US lawsuits, even if they allege human rights violations he committed.

 

New Mid-East wars

 

            Meanwhile, the U.S. & NATO imperialist powers are conducting another set of wars in the Middle East, under the cover of the ‘war on terror’. In reality, this is part of the U.S. strategy of imposing a ‘New Middle East’, composed of a patchwork of weak, fractured Arab states divided among sectarian lines, in order to undermine pan-Arab unity, facilitate Israeli expansionism and extend imperialist domination over the region and its resources.

 

            When the U.S., Canada and other NATO powers first launched airstrikes against the Islamic State (ISIS), our Party warned that this was likely a pretext for imposing regime change in Syria. Four long years of a foreign-sponsored war, financed by the reactionary Arab states and coordinated from Washington, has left Syria a shattered country, with an estimated death toll of more than 215,000 including 20,000 children, and millions more internally displaced or driven into exile. The elected Al-Assad government in Damascus is now caught in a vice, between ISIS attacks in the western part of the country and a new ‘coalition’ of other extremists and mercenaries backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey (the al-Qaida-led “Army of Conquest”) seizing territory from the Syrian army on its eastern flank. In these dire circumstances, our Party must step up its solidarity with the besieged Syrian people, with the Syrian Communists, and with all the progressive, secular and democratic forces of the country striving to defeat this reactionary onslaught and to preserve the sovereignty and independence of their country.

 

            Our Party has condemned the Harper government’s one-year extension of Canada’s participation in the latest imperialist war in Iraq, and its expanded military mission into neighbouring Syria without the agreement of the elected government of that sovereign country. As the CEC statement noted:

 

            “Clearly, this extension shows that Canada is on the way to another disastrous Afghanistan-style war of occupation, ultimately costing billions of dollars and thousands of Iraqi and Syrian lives. Predictably, the Tories call this a ‘humanitarian’ war to ‘protect the women and children’. There is overwhelming evidence that the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine has... inflicted enormous damage upon civilian populations.”

 

            The wars in Syria and Iraq, the chaos in Libya, the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, and domestic turmoil in Egypt – all these are playing into the hands of the Zionist state of Israel to maintain and deepen its illegal occupation of the West Bank, Golan Heights and other Arab lands, and to negate the Palestinian people’s struggle for national self-determination. The March 15 declaration by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if re-elected, his party/government would ensure that Palestine never receives independent statehood confirms that expansionist Israel has been lying to the world for decades, and that it has no intention of ending its occupation and of negotiating a just peace with the Palestinian people based on a two-state solution. Rather, the rapid expansion of illegal settlements on the West Bank, the construction of the ‘wall of shame’, the periodic bombardment and slow economic strangulation of Gaza, and its continued refusal to resume negotiations with the Palestinian Authority – all these actions unmistakably point to the real intentions of the Zionist state: namely, to make life under occupation unbearable for the Palestinians, to force them into permanent exile, and to complete the annexation of remaining Palestinian lands. This is a genocidal policy of ‘ethnic cleansing’, by any other name. As such, it is a crime against humanity.

 

            It is absolutely appalling therefore that the Harper Conservative government should give unbridled political, diplomatic and economic support to the racist, expansionist state of Israel. Turning reality completely on its head, the Tories have threatened to prosecute Canadians who criticize Israel’s actions, and who support boycotts, sanctions and disinvestment (BDS) against Israel, on the basis that such advocacy constitutes a ‘hate crime’. In January, then-foreign minister John Baird signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with Israel pledging to fight the BDS campaign, which he called “the new face of anti-Semitism” in Canada. Shortly afterward, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney, in an address at the United Nations, characterized boycotts of Israel as anti-Semitic hate speech and violence. Blaney said Canada would take a policy of “zero tolerance” toward the BDS movement. Our Party categorically denounces these anti-democratic threats intended to muzzle all criticism of, and active opposition to Israeli policy, and calls on our entire party to step up its solidarity with the Palestinian people’s struggle, and in favour of the BDS campaign against Israel.

 

Iran agreement

 

            One encouraging development in the region has been the interim nuclear deal (the Joint Plan of Action) struck between Iran and the P5+1 countries (US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany), which our Party cautiously welcomed in a recent CEC statement. Our Party is sharply critical of the autocratic, undemocratic regime in Teheran; however, we also condemn the use of the so-called “Iranian nuclear threat” as a pretext to impose sanctions on the Iranian people, and to foment imperialist aggression against Iran. Our Party therefore considers this ‘framework’ agreement is a small step in a positive direction on the issue of peace in the Middle East.

 

            However, we also warned that the deal avoids many of the underlying issues that have contributed to insecurity, conflict and war in the region, not least of which is the fact that there is no consideration or inclusion of the role of Israel – a nuclear weapons state which has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty – in the agreement, nor any mention of the military buildup in the region by the US and its allies. Our Party has demanded that the Canadian government immediately normalize relations with Iran and end all sanctions, reject its current foreign policy of provocation, interference, aggression and war, and adopt an independent foreign policy based on peace and disarmament, including withdrawal from NATO.

 

Capitalist crisis

 

            ...The escalation in imperialist aggression, the main aim of which is to secure resources and markets for plunder, is directly related to the deepening systemic crisis of capitalism itself, and to the desperate attempts of the dominant imperialist centres to resolve this crisis on terms which preserve and advance their respective interests and forestall the advance of the BRICS countries. The impact of the worldwide economic meltdown of 2007/08 – by far the most intense and protracted cyclical crisis since the Great Depression – continues to resonate. Economic growth rates in the main imperialist centres – U.S., Japan and EU – remain sluggish. In Europe, GDP growth is virtually zero and many of the EU member-states (Greece, Spain, Portugal, and Italy) are perilously close to defaulting on their massive accumulated debt. The austerity measures imposed on these countries by the EU and the bankers to ensure repayment have led to a massive surge in unemployment and poverty among the masses of the people.

 

            One of the sure signs that the capitalist crisis if far from over is reflected in the fact that the ‘debt bubble’ has continued to grow at a staggering and unsustainable rate. The McKinsey Global Institute, a bourgeois think-tank, noted recently that instead of indebtedness receding in the period following the onset of the crisis, “all major economies today have higher levels of borrowing relative to GDP than they did in 2007. Global debt in these years has grown by $57 trillion, raising the ratio of debt to GDP by 17 percentage points. That poses new risks to financial stability and may undermine global economic growth.” Meanwhile, corporate and bank profits have rebounded handsomely, but both private (corporate) and state reinvestment levels in new goods and services production and infrastructure remain at very low levels in most leading capitalist countries, including Canada. This glut of so-called ‘dead money’ (assets not funnelled back into the cycle of extended reproduction), is instead being used to consolidate and centralize capital in the hands of an ever-dwindled core of ‘super-monopolies’, and the largest global banking institutions.

 

            This in turn is driving up structural unemployment rates in real terms, as full-time, well paying jobs are increasingly replaced by part-time, temporary and other precarious forms of employment, and forcing real wages to plummet.

 

            In the U.S., for instance, “...median inflation-adjusted income last year was $2,100 lower than in 2009 and $3,600 lower than in 2001. 50% of all American workers made less than $28,031 a year, while a whopping 39% brought home less than $20,000. Furthermore, the gap between high- and low-income groups is the widest it has been in 100 years and the share of U.S. consumers who call themselves middle class has never been lower.” [Money Morning Staff Reports, February 2015]

 

            Even more serious than the current cyclical malaise is the longer term economic and political outlook for the U.S. and EU powers, as their hegemonic positions come under increasing challenge from the so-called BRICS countries. Currently, the combined economies of the BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – amount to 18% of global GDP but their share, led primarily by China’s economic growth, is expected to rise to fully 1/3 of worldwide GDP by 2030. Using a different econometric measure, the “Purchasing Power Parity” index (which adjusts for the real value of respective currencies), the BRICS’ share would increase to over 45% of global economic activity by 2030. The recent talks between Brazil and the Russian Federation about plans to create a BRICS development bank and other moves to weaken the monopoly of the US dollar as the international reserve currency are sure signs of this changing balance of forces internationally.

 

            This seismic shift in relative economic might has precipitated a number of counter-measures by the U.S. and EU to shore up their flagging position through an accelerated push for regional trade and investment pacts (CETA, and US-EU trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP], etc.), and through increased militarization aimed at pressuring and “containing” both Russia and the PRC.

 

            ...Despite the failure of neoliberal recipes to re-fire growth, ruling capitalist governments have in the main stubbornly struck to pro-austerity, anti-labour measures (even when mixed with fiscal stimulus), the results of which continue to place an overwhelming burden on the backs of the working class and its allies – indigenous peoples, women, seniors and retirees, youth and students – while protecting corporate wealth and even accelerating the concentration and centralization of capital.

 

            Indeed, this concentration of accumulated wealth on a global scale is reaching dizzying heights. As an Oxfam research paper released earlier this year points out, “the richest 1 percent have seen their share of global wealth increase from 44 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014. Members of this global elite had an average wealth of $2.7 million per adult in 2014. Of the remaining 52 percent of global wealth, almost all (46 percent) is owned by the rest of the richest fifth of the world’s population. The other 80 percent share just 5.5 percent...”

 

            In the face of this widening social disparity – caused in the main by corporate-driven wage cuts and other takebacks, pro-austerity cuts to public and social services by capitalist governments, and by regressive tax policies that shift the burden onto working people – labour and popular resistance continues to grow particularly in Europe where the austerity agenda has been most harshly implemented. Strikes and protests have continued in Greece, Spain, Portugal and many other countries, such as Ireland, where this March, up to 40,000 anti-austerity protesters marched through Dublin against additional charges for water. The Communist parties have played an important and in some cases decisive role in building up the mass anti-austerity movements across Europe, especially the KKE (and PAME) in Greece and the Portuguese CP in Portugal.

(The above article is from the August 1-31, 2015, 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.)