05) CELEBRATIONS AND A CAUTION

 

People’s Voice Editorial

 

            Debates over the direction of the new federal government are heating up, across the political spectrum. For example, CUFI-Canada, a hardline Zionist group, has condemned Foreign Affairs Minister Stephan Dion’s statement that Canada will “return to the role of honest broker" on Israel/Palestine issues; if this does mark a break with support for the violent policies of the Israeli apartheid state, all supporters of Palestine welcome the news.

 

            More such developments can be expected. The Harper Tories represented the most dangerous, anti-people elements of the ruling class in Canada, and their defeat is a significant victory, not just a simple transition from one bourgeois party to another. The new government plans to repeal the notorious anti-immigrant Bill C-24, to restore the Interim Federal Health Program for refugees, to let federal scientists speak about important research, to reinstate the long form census, to suspend the elimination of urban home mail delivery, etc. All these wins were achieved mainly by the mass movements which resisted the Tory agenda for years, and we join with them in celebrating every such victory.

 

            At the same time, the Trudeau Liberals are still a party of big business, strongly committed to the capitalist system and to the “trade deals” pushed by transnational corporations.

 

The new Liberal caucus supports the “humanitarian intervention” doctrine used by imperialist powers to justify every disastrous US-led military action of the past two decades, from Yugoslavia to Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and other countries. Justin Trudeau promised to amend Bill C-51 and to change the electoral system, but it remains to be seen if these will be more than cosmetic fixes.                      

 

            So let’s keep pressing the Liberals to carry out their positive promises - and prepare to resist the pro-corporate and pro-war agenda which will inevitably follow.     

 

(The above article is from the November 16-30, 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.)