News and views from SA Canada Green Party puts BDS on political agenda
2016Barry Weisleder 2016-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 10 →
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When the convention of the Green Party of Canada adopted a resolution in early August that advocates Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against the State of Israel, it simultaneously put BDS on the main stream Canadian political agenda, and applied enor mous pressure on the labour-based New Democratic Party to do the same.
The Leader and sole Green Party (GP) member of Parliament, Elizabeth May, immediately threatened to resign over the motion. But when she saw that her attempt at blackmail wouldn’t kill the policy, she pivoted—instead asking her party to re-visit the mo tion, with a view towards rescinding it eventually.
TORONTO—In late August, the Cana dian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and Canada Post Corporation (CPC) reached two separate tentative agree ments—lasting only two years—cover ing CUPW’s 50,000 members, both the urban workforce, and the rural/subur ban mail carriers.
The union, which wanted one agree ment for both its bargaining units, said in a public statement that key bargaining points—like the protection of its defined contribution benefit plan for current and future members—were secured.
Throughout 10 months of negotiations, Canada Post insisted on a two-tier pen sion plan that imposed on all new hires a defined contribution plan, leaving the defined benefit plan for current workers only. CPC said this was needed to halt the escalation of pension plan costs. The ten tative agreements, subject to ratification ... Convention (continued from page 8: “‘Climate change ... is a world war aimed at all of us.’ — Bill McKibben”)
working-class principle, support to self-deter mination is not at all synonymous with politi cal support to the governments or regimes of these oppressed nations—in the case of Syria, the Bashar al-Assad government. Socialists have no illusions that the Assad regime repre sents any form of revolutionary nationalist or otherwise progressive break with capitalism….
“Nevertheless, the removal of Assad’s oppres sive capitalist Syrian regime is the sole respon sibility of the Syrian people, not U.S. imperial ism and its reactionary allied forces.
“Socialist Action’s unanimously adopted 2014 national convention Political Resolution makes this absolutely clear: “Today’s war in Syria is a war between U.S. imperialism’s direct and indi rect capitalist-fundamentalist and reactionary forces on the one hand and the capitalist Assad government on the other. The Syria masses have no independently organized political, mil itary or economic presence. Under these cir cumstances, Socialist Action stands full square against U.S. imperialism and those allied with it in Syria and elsewhere. In accord with our support to the right of self-determination of all oppressed nations, even those under capitalist rule, we are for the defeat of the U.S.-backed imperialist intervention in all its forms.”
The January 2014 article continued, “Syria’s right to self-determination necessarily includes the right of the Syrian government to seek and accept the support of the militia fighters that are today defending Syria against imperialist intervention in several of its manifestations….
“In a similar vein, the agreements recently signed by Syria with Iran, Hezbollah, and Rus sia to share intelligence information in fight ing ISIS, al-Qaeda and all other groups aimed at removing the Assad government, including May’s maneuvers, seeking to appease the Canadian corporate and political elite, reveal much about the bourgeois, undemocratic nature of the GP and its leadership.
Ironically, the image of the GP on BDS is rather overblown. The approved resolution itself is quite narrow and limited. It targets only “those sectors of Israel’s economy and society which profit from the ongoing occupation” of the West Bank, and only “un til such time as Israel implements a permanent ban on further settlement construction … and enters into good faith negotiations with representatives of the Palestinian people for the purpose of establishing a viable, contiguous, and truly sovereign Palestinian state.” ished statelet. The policy excludes a general econom ic boycott of the oppressor state and economy. The occupation of the West Bank would continue; most Palestinians abroad would still be denied the right of return; and the apartheid wall would remain as a militarized barrier to freedom.
Nonetheless, the GP policy (at least for the time be ing) “opposes all efforts to prohibit, punish, or oth erwise deter expressions of support for BDS.” This welcome stance comes at a time when the Conserva tive Party seeks to outlaw the boycott, which enjoys significant support internationally, including from unions across Canada. It follows the declaration by the Justin Trudeau Liberal government that defends the right to advocate BDS, while it vigorously oppos es the actual boycott and staunchly backs the Zionist state—a position shamefully echoed by the Tom Mul cair NDP leadership.
But change is in the air. As shown by the debate in the GP, coupled with the trend in global public opin ion, and the growing desperation of Israel backers, support for self-determination for Palestine contin ues to break down barriers. n