[Mayworks-org] 'Canada and World Order After the Wreckage, ' March 21, 2007

[The Bullet]

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 46... March 21, 2007

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 Canada and World Order After the Wreckage

 **Greg Albo**

The active imagining of an alternate global politics could hardly be
more pressing. Mounting global inequalities, the turbulence of climate
change, and recurring military interventions by Western powers have
been the daily fare of the neoliberal world order. This world order
was constructed over the last two decades under the hegemony of the
U.S., in alliance with key European, Japanese and Canadian allies.

The American objective has been the reassertion of its primacy
amongst states. The 'Washington consensus' of the World Bank, the IMF
and the WTO, has helped re-establish the economic foundations of
American power, while integrating its allies in a shared project of
liberalising markets. New American security doctrines, American and
NATO military and diplomatic interventions to initiate regime changes
in wayward states, and the proliferation of American military bases
around the world, have all redrawn geopolitical alliances. In line
with U.S. 'grand strategy', American unilateralism now occupies the
space left by the decline of the Cold War division.

The political period since the American 'coalition of the willing'
intervention into the Middle and Far East, beginning in 2001, has also
exposed cracks in American hegemony. The Doha trade round has stalled;
the U.S. dollar overhang and current account deficit reveal unresolved
economic problems; and the U.S. occupation of Iraq has become a
quagmire both militarily and politically for the Bush Administration.

These events, however, have yet to displace U.S. primacy in the world
order. Indeed, it is altogether fanciful to speak as if the arc of
U.S. power is now in perpetual decline and that a splintered
geopolitical order now governs world affairs. It is still the foremost
task of the global social justice movement to turn the cracks in
American hegemony into open fissures to allow the space for an
alternate world order to emerge.

Canada and the Neoliberal World Order

Canada has proven to be a bulwark in support of American imperial
objectives. Canada played a crucial role as a supportive imperial
power in establishing the Washington institutions and the GATT, as
well in building Western military alliances such as NATO and NORAD,
over the postwar period. Canada undertook this role by ideologically
stressing the role of 'middle powers' and diplomatically supporting
multilateralism via the U.S. dominated United Nations Security Council
and system. Since the 1980s, the Canadian state and ruling classes
have pulled Canada closer into the U.S. sphere, symbolized initially
by the spineless decision of the Trudeau government to allow cruise
missile testing in Canada. Since then Canada has given consistent
support, in the form of peacekeeping operations or military
deployments, to U.S. military and diplomatic interventions, as in
Somalia, Haiti, and others. Canada has also played a pivotal role in
the 'quartet' of countries setting the WTO trade agenda, and as the
staunchest supporter of U.S. policies toward Latin America.

While the Jean Chretien Liberals kept Canada out of the Iraq war, he
also contributed to making Canada the third largest participant in the
American 'war on terror' since September 2001 (symbolically
re-affirming the North Atlantic triangle partnership between the U.S.,
Britain and Canada, that dominated global politics across the 20th
century). The subsequent joint Smart Borders Agreement and the
tripartite North American Security and Prosperity Partnership further
integrated Canada into American geopolitical strategies. Together,
these measures have all but dissolved whatever independence Canadian
foreign policy had exercised.

None of the Canadian political parties propose a fundamental
departure from the neoliberal world order. The Conservatives under
Stephen Harper, and the Liberals under Paul Martin and now Stephan
Dion, actively define Canada's international position as support of
American power. The NDP and the Greens depart from them in their
emphasis on working through multilateral institutions. Or, over the
form of Canadian imperial interventions, such as the NDP contentions
on how Canadian troops and funds in Afghanistan might best be put to
use. But it is an utter illusion to suggest that a 'Liberal-Green-NDP'
alliance would break from the neoliberal world order and Canada's
supine relation to the American empire.

An Alternative Agenda

The Left in Canada has long argued for an independent foreign policy
for Canada. This dates back to the colonial relationship to Britain
that existed into the 1930s. American geopolitical interests soon
supplanted British ones, with the Canadian ruling classes merging -
and sometimes subordinating - their own imperialist interests with the
U.S. Indeed, Canada's 'middle-power' strategy of working through
multilateral institutions to form the 'Western interest', or
initiating independent relations with developing countries, such as
Cuba and China, often proved useful to the U.S. The Liberals and the
NDP point to the exercise of such 'soft power' as representing
Canada's independent stance in world affairs.

There is, however, a far more critical perspective on Canada's role
in world affairs. It begins from the perspective that Canadian foreign
and military policies are firmly embedded in the economic imperatives
and political agendas of Western, and particularly American,
imperialism and militarism. The strength of the Canadian capitalist
class has given it a capacity to advance its own interests in Western
power structures, as well as to establish imperialist agendas of its
own.

This view has been behind the calls for an active disarmament agenda,
for international solidarity and the democratization of Canadian
foreign policy. It has a social base in sections of the union,
Aboriginal, and global social justice movements. It links an alternate
world order to transformative political developments at the national
and local levels. An alternate political agenda has been emerging from
these political struggles.

1. Canada should immediately withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
The current NATO intervention in Afghanistan follows on a series of
alignments with one group of warlords after another, as U.S. imperial
interests in the region have altered. The NATO mission is in disarray,
and increasingly at odds with Afghani 'national interests'. The surge
in troops being called for by Canada will only prolong the chaos.
Troop withdrawal needs to be followed by a plan for war reparations
paid by Western governments. This is the central agenda of the
Canadian Peace Alliance. We need to further engage in an extended
campaign of teach-ins with unions and on campuses. Direct solidarity
links with Afghan labour and women's groups need to be explored.

2. Canada needs to develop a comprehensive framework for remaking its
relations with Israel and Palestine, beginning by breaking economic,
cultural and political ties with Israel. Israel has consistently and
blatantly rejected international legal norms, notably UN resolutions
on illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories, withdrawal to the
'green line' 1967 borders and the building of the illegal apartheid
separation wall. Canadian actions should include: recognition of the
democratically elected Hamas (now in alliance with Fatah) government
and restoration of funding; the abrogation of the Canada-Israel Free
Trade Agreement; the ending of the special research and development
programmes of the Canadian government with Israel; and the move of
Canada's vote at the UN on Palestinian resolutions in line with the
vast majority of the nations of the world condemning Israeli
violations of basic international norms on occupation, imprisonment,
return of refugees, legal rights of citizens, and nuclear weapons
inspections.

3. Canada should play a central role in support of multi-polarity in
the world order, national rights of self-determination, and the
democratic sovereignty of states to choose alternate development
paths. This agenda of international solidarity needs to begin with
'smashing' the present UN system, by fundamentally democratizing the
assembly and abolishing the privileged position of the permanent
members of the Security Council. This is part of reinforcing the
agenda that has re-emerged in the Non-Aligned Movement, as stated in
last year's Havana conference. Such demands are necessary to
revitalize multilateral processes for disarmament, cultural and
linguistic heritages, global environmental protections, population and
housing, and addressing the horrific legacy of Western imperialism and
racism. This would necessarily include address colonial legacies for
the indigenous peoples of the world, including Canada's own shameful
history and horrific present policies toward the Aboriginal peoples of
Canada.

4. Canada needs to withdraw from international military alliances,
and redeploy Canadian resources and troops within Canadian borders.
NORAD and NATO are legacies of the Cold War that had nothing to do
with national defence and everything to do with protecting and
advancing Western capitalism under American leadership and thwarting
socialist and nationalist governments. With the end of he Cold War,
this is still their agenda. NATO and NORAD operations are now directed
at disciplining 'Third World' countries while building a parallel
'Fortress North America'. The alliances are also being used to ratchet
up the 'arms race' and tactical deployments against China. Canada has
the democratic right and obligation to revert to using Canadian troops
exclusively for its own self-defence.

5. Canada must demand a review of international trade institutions
and policies, and begin formulating a plan for trade regulation and
controls on capital movements. Immediate steps are withdrawal from the
Security and Prosperity Initiative, and review of all ongoing
negotiations and inter-bureaucratic trade and security relations with
the U.S. A moratorium should also take place in hydrocarbon energy and
water development, until concerns over issues of sovereignty,
greenhouse gas emissions, Aboriginal rights, trade obligations and
commercialization are addressed. This should be followed by a notice
of reopening of the NAFTA agreement, as its most pernicious provisions
are examined. Similarly, Canada should withdraw from the Doha round of
trade negotiations and join calls for a fundamental review of
international trade regulation and the operations of the so-called
Bretton Woods institutions.

Left Internationalism After the Wreckage

This is a minimum internationalist platform for the Left in Canada.
It reinforces the democratic inclinations of the Canadian people
toward democratic sovereignty and against a liberalised trading order
and foreign military interventions. The agenda has a potential
foothold in the electoral and policy terrains.

It will depend upon social justice movements agitating and
demonstrating tirelessly, and building organizational capacities that
the 'multitudes' and 'organized chaos' of the anti-globalization surge
of the recent past abjectly failed. But here a hard political barrier
is reached. There is a need to rebuild, and then link up, coalitions
of the social left, a socialist current in the union movement, and an
organization of the radical left. The current disorganization of the
Left is as much of the wreckage of the neoliberal world order as
anything else and requires just as much re-imagining of what is
possible.

Greg Albo teaches political economy at York University.

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*********************************************************************

Canadian Dimension, March-April 2007
<http://www.canadiandimension.com>

International Women's Day

Bernadette Wagner, Back Atcha Backlash

Women Changing the World

Francoise David, A Life of Solidarity

Talking Politics: The Upcoming Election

Cy Gonick and Brendan Haley, A Program to Combat Climate Change

Greg Albo, Canada and World Order After the Wreckage

Gord Laxer, An Energy Security Program for Canada

Neil Brooks, A Democratic Tax Reform for Canada

Peter Kulchyski, Toward a New Policy Paradigm for First Peoples

Sam Gindin, Ideas for Popular Assemblies

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