First Published:The Forge, Vol. 1, No. 12, June 3, 1976.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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Canada is a second world country whose independence is threatened by the hegemonistic aims of the two superpowers, particularly US imperialism.
In fighting to safeguard Canada’s independence the Canadian people and the working class join with the countries and peoples of the world in the united front of all those who are fighting colonialism, imperialism, and particularly the voracious ambitions of the two biggest international villains, the United States and the Soviet Union. The latters’ contest for world domination threatens the independence of all countries.
Their rivalry will necessarily lead to war; it is inevitable. And it’s Soviet social-imperialism, because it is on the offensive, which is pushing for the redivision of the world and thus constitutes the main source of war.
Here in Canada, the people must strengthen and defend the country’s independence – starting right now. To defend Canada’s independence does not mean just defending it against armed aggression or just sitting around waiting for world war to break out.
For example, US imperialism has a strong economic hold over Canada and, as a result, it brings diplomatic and political pressures to bear on the Canadian government, penetrates our trade unions, poisons our culture, etc. That’s not to mention our heavy dependence on the US for defence.
So safeguarding Canada’s independence means, in this case, denouncing and fighting the American presence wherever it is felt. It also means criticizing the capitulationist attitudes of the Canadian bourgeoisie towards American imperialism.
However, we also have to be very vigilant about Soviet social-imperialism. Right now it is present in Canada mainly through its agent, the “Communist” Party of Canada. The “C”PC is increasingly infiltrating the trade unions and mass organizations to spread its poison. It preaches the same policy of “detente” and “peace” as its Moscow masters. In Canada, the Soviet Union also is busy with economic infiltration: it rapes our coastal waters and increasingly develops a policy of dumping.
It would be completely illusory and dangerous to thjnk that the Canadian people could get rid of US imperialism by relying on the “aid’’ of social-imperialism.
We’ve also got to realize that American imperialism, forced onto the defensive, will do everything to keep its current spheres of influence. To the extent that its rivalry with the Soviet Union intensifies, it will thus’be obliged to tighten its screws on Canada.
The struggle for the defence of Canada is part of the struggle for our democratic rights. The more we fight to safeguard Canada’s independence, the more we’ll see that the cause of all the ills we face is not the absence of or threat to our freedoms, but the capitalist system itself. We’ll also see the bourgeoisie’s inability to consistently defend the country’s independence.
This struggle thus is an integral part of the proletarian revolution. The proletarian revolution in Canada has three enemies: the main one is the Canadian bourgeoisie, but there is also US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. These two would certainly intervene to prevent revolution in Canada and would give their self-seeking aid to the Canadian bourgeoisie. They’ll try to use such situations to infiltrate. Just look at the attitude of social-imperialism to Portugal or Italy.
But the question of the safeguarding of the country is also a question of class. And the only class which has an interest in fighting that battle to the end is the proletariat. To succeed in this task, the Canadian working class has to unite the entire people around itself; to be in a position to lead the Canadian people, it has to build its own vanguard leadership, the Marxist-Leninist communist party.
As for the Canadian bourgeoisie, it is not able to defend the independence of Canada except in a vacillating and hesitant way. The present situation has already proven that. At times it makes positive moves which contribute to isolating the superpowers, to bringing it closer to the third world countries (MacEachan’s trip to the Middle East) and to reinforcing its unity with countries of the second world (links with the European Economic Community). It reinforces the military defence potential (see the article in this issue), although only against one superpower.
At other times the Canadian bourgeoisie capitulates in favour of US imperialism. It’s this tendency which is presently dominant.
Therefore, we have to commit ourselves to denouncing any capitulationist attitude and to encouraging any move by which the Canadian bourgeoisie demarcates itself from the two superpowers.
The more the danger of war develops, the more our independence is threatened.
Struggling to safeguard the independence of Canada, also and especially means preparing ourselves for the inevitable war.
It’s the responsibility of Marxist-Leninists to ideologically and politically prepare the working class and the Canadian people, since the bourgeois policy of detente” is still widely accepted.
Let’s not forget that the expression defence of country” has often been used by the imperialist bourgeoisies in order to mystify peoples and to make use of them as cannon fodder to satisfy their own aggressive purposes.
For the Canadian people it’s a question of opposing Canada’s involvement on the side of American imperialism in the case of an imperialist war, and of transforming this unjust imperialist war into a civil war for proletarian revolution.
Or in the case of armed intervention in Canada by either of the superpowers, it would be necessary to fight, arms in hand, to resolutely defend the independence of our country.
The growing danger of war and the increasing threats to our independence make our task of creating our Marxist-Leninist party all the more urgent. Because only this party will be able to rally the Canadian people around the working class, and make this struggle part of the struggle for socialism in our country.