[Marxism] Forwarded from Derrick O'Keefe

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

George W. Bush is making an official visit to Canada November 
30-December 1, in what will mark both his first trip to our capital -- 
that’s Ottawa, not Toronto, as I assume someone has briefed George -- 
and one of his first international visits since the November 2 election. 
People across the country are looking forward to giving the American 
President the welcome that he deserves. Hopefully we can make it a 
welcome worthy of the memory of the tens of thousands of Iraqis and one 
thousand plus American soldiers whose lives have been taken by Bush's 
immoral war for oil.

Earlier this month, reports speculated that Bush’s visit would take 
place in early January, shortly before his inauguration. The reason for 
the scant notice of the official visit – barely two weeks – is pretty 
clear. John Ibbitson, writing in the November 17 Globe and Mail (“Can PM 
silence Parrish”), notes the cynical reason for the timing while taking 
a cynical shot of his own at anti-war activists:

One reason for the rushed announcement might be to limit the ability of 
social and peace activists to mobilize. With only a fortnight to 
prepare, and with the temperatures getting nippy, the various coalitions 
in solidarity with each other will have a difficult time putting 
together anything truly impressive.

Despite Ibbitson’s sneering implication, the various grassroots anti-war 
coalitions are clearly representative of public opinion in Canada, both 
towards Bush and towards the war in Iraq. Activists across the country 
have already set about making plans for an impressive mobilization. (I 
don’t know about truly impressive, though, since Ibbitson fails to 
define what he hopes we fail to do.) The Ottawa No to Bush Committee put 
out a call within hours, casting a wide net indeed, rallying under the 
slogan, “Freedom, Justice, Equality: No to Bush!” The Canadian Peace 
Alliance has put out a call for actions in cities across the country, 
and in Toronto at least, buses are already being organized to get people 
up to Ottawa.

Perhaps the desire to minimize protest was the reasoning behind not only 
the short notice, but also behind the choice to make Canada an early 
post-election foreign visit for Bush. One could imagine that a visit to 
a European or Latin American capital might be likely to generate a more 
vociferous protest. For instance, this week’s APEC summit in Chile, 
which Bush is attending, is being greeted with mass protest and the 
accompanying state repression. Despite the tendency of the North 
American Right to rail against Canada as a socialistic holdout (and a 
tendency of a good chunk of the Left to glorify our relative 
egalitarianism and tolerance), we lag sadly behind much of Europe and 
our brothers and sisters in the South in terms of an oppositional 
political culture.

We also have a tendency to hold U.S. administrations to closer scrutiny 
than our own regimes in Ottawa. While Jean Chretien’s announcement that 
Canada would not send troops to Iraq was widely applauded, ongoing 
Canadian involvement in the occupations of Haiti and Afghanistan has 
been overwhelmingly ignored and unreported. Hopefully, then, the 
demonstrations that accompany Bush’s visit will also be aimed at the 
war-making policies explicitly or tacitly supported by Paul Martin and 
the Liberal government. And the issue of Canada’s participation in the 
misnamed National Missile Defence program -- rather than being denounced 
in isolation as leading to dangerous “Star Wars” weaponization of space 
-- should be linked to the overall strategy and efforts of the U.S. 
empire-builders to wield first-strike nuclear capability as part of 
their drive to maintain unrivalled military (and thereby economic) 
dominance.

And so the anti-war movement in Canada faces an important challenge and 
responsibility. The world will be watching for us to make a strong, 
principled, and visible stand against Bush and against the daily 
outrages that are being perpetrated in Iraq. The latest crime, of 
course, is seen in the appalling footage of a U.S. soldier killing a 
wounded and helpless Iraqi, caught by the cameras of NBC and now 
broadcast throughout the world. Like with Abu Ghraib, we can imagine 
that the camera has only shown us the tip of the iceberg.
The war in Iraq was rejected by world public opinion, and this was 
reflected with millions in the streets before the war. The occupation, 
with all the now absolutely routine atrocities, torture and death it has 
engendered, deserves to be rejected with equal force throughout the 
world. And what better opportunity to get back in the streets than 
George Bush’s first official visit to Ottawa. Welcome George. The U.S. 
election may be over, but the war in Iraq isn’t. And Canada’s 
demonstrations will only be the tip of the iceberg.
Derrick O’Keefe is a founding editor of the weekly on-line journal 
www.SevenOaksMag.com and a member of Vancouver’s StopWar coalition.
For a full listing of demonstrations in Canada, visit the Canadian Peace 
Alliance site at www.acp-cpa.ca.
	

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