News and views from SA Canada Socialism 2016 — Sparks and convergences
2016Barry Weisleder 2016-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 11 →
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Speakers from five countries converged on the Uni versity of Toronto, May 20-21, for “Socialism 2016 -Crisis and Change.” The eleventh annual international educational conference sponsored by Socialist Action (Canada) featured panel discussions on Is Russia Im perialist? The nature of the conflict in Ukraine and Syria; Robots, Part-time and Precarious Employment; Is the Working Class Disappearing?; Climate Justice, After COP21; Another Great Recession, and the Stakes for Humanity; and Corbyn, Sanders and the Revival of “Socialism.”
The latter topic, with panelists Jeff Mackler, national secretary, Socialist Action (U.S.); Xavier Chiarelli, Nou veau Parti Anti-capitaliste in France; Cheri DiNovo, New Democratic Party MPP, Parkdale-High Park; and this writer, drew close to 50 people. Nearly 70 attend ed one or more sessions during the weekend.
In the economics debate, sparks flew in a clash be Peace and human rights organizations re newed their call on the Trudeau government to rescind export permits for the sale of Canadianmade, light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, perhaps the most repressive regime on Earth.
In an open letter in April to the PM, Amnesty International, Project Ploughshares, and the Rideau Institute decried the $15 billion arms deal, saying it breaks both the spirit and the letter of Canada’s export controls and interna tional laws.
Prime Minister Trudeau has maintained that cancelling the deal, brokered by the previ ous Conservative government in 2014, would harm Canada’s trade reputation and cost jobs at home. Once again, it seems, private profit trumps human rights.
But what do you think Ottawa would say if a Canadian corporation tried to sell or donate weapons to Palestine, Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba?
... Climate (continued from page 12: “Climate movement tests ‘Break Free’ strategy”) given a place on the Platform Committee of the Democratic Party, and other 350 leaders proudly proclaimed themselves as Sanders delegates.
The impact of these announcements, com ing as they did on the heels of modest ac tions that were designed more as spectacle than experience, arguably makes the climate justice movement look smaller, less inde pendent, and less powerful than at any time since the 2014 mass march in New York City.
The whole movement needs to find a way to come up with a balance sheet on the spring actions. We need to figure out how to con solidate the gains that were made and also to correct the mistakes that left too many on the sidelines—or worse, led part of the move ment to subordinate a much needed mass mobilization against the failure of the Paris climate talks to politicking inside the Demo cratic Party.
Fortunately, the anger that has been build ing all year due to the criminal inaction of the world’s governments last December and the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure by the Obama administration, will find some expression at the July 24 March for a Clean Energy Revolution that will be held in Phila (Above) Leon Trotsky in Mexico. A documentary film about Trotsky, “The Most Dangerous Man in the World,” is in production. See www.trotsky project.org for more information.
tween Keynesianism and Marxism. Agreement that another recession is coming soon gave way to a dis pute over whether government spending and tighter regulation of banks, or expropriation of capital and democratic planning, are required to solve the under lying causes.
On the subject of climate justice, Angela Bischoff, cialist Unity League-LUS in Mexico, criticized the weak carbon-emissions reduction measures that emerged from the Paris COP21 conference, and focussed on the growing incidence of wild fires, including the devas tating blazes that forced the evacuation of Fort Mac Murray, Alberta.
In the opening session, Vancouver-based socialist writer Roger Annis, who travelled recently to Russia, Crimea, and Ukraine, provided insights into the Wash ington-orchestrated NATO offensive to dominate Eastern Europe, economically and militarily, right up to the Russian border. As SA-USA leader Jeff Mackler explained, the false designation of Russia and China as imperialist states is a convenient cover to excuse Western aggression. It promotes passivity, including on the radical left, towards the regime-change wars fostered by the West in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and beyond.
Between sessions a special appeal for a new film now in production, “The Most Dangerous Man in the World,” netted $400. Forty years in the making, this documentary by Lindy Laub and David Weiss features eyewitnesses who bring to life Leon Trotsky’s dra matic story of revolution, betrayal, and exile, in foot age never before seen on screen.
On May 22, members and supporters of Socialist Ac tion / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste gathered in Con vention to hear reports on the Fourth International, updates on important class battles against austerity then unfolding in France, and local organizing expe riences across the Canadian state. They celebrated brand new and re-activated members in Edmonton, Winnipeg, and St. John’s.
After adopting a plan of action, including efforts to step up the fight for the environment and socialism in unions and the labour-based NDP, members elected a team to lead the organization forward, and then ad journed, buoyed by a rousing chorus of the Interna tionale.
On to Socialism (May) 2017, the year of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution! n
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Cancel military equipment deal with Saudi Arabia