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Northern Lights is a monthly ezine, as well as a column that appears in Socialist Action newspaper, from Socialist Action/Ligue pour L'Action Socialiste. For an archive of Northern Lights postings, and other articles and statements, check out our News & Views page.
Post-election blues: Harper's hubris
The ancient Greeks called it arrogant pride or
presumption. Seldom has a freshly sworn-in prime
minister displayed hubris so abundantly, so rapidly,
and on such a slim electoral basis as the new Canadian
Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.
NDP federal leader Jack Layton disagrees with the
decision of the Ontario NDP to suspend the membership
of Canadian Auto Workers' President Buzz Hargrove. The
NDP Socialist Caucus (SC) agrees with Jack Layton on
this one.
While protests continue worldwide, thousands in
Toronto rallied repeatedly in February against the
provocative anti-Muslim cartoons and propaganda
emanating from Denmark and other imperialist capitals.
An anti-imperialist radicalization among a significant
portion of the Islamic population in Toronto is
evident and may change the face of working-class
politics here. This is sparking a range of discussions
on the left as the antiwar movement gears up for March
18 protest actions.
Within days of the Jan. 23 federal election, in which
a mere 7 per cent shift in the popular vote tilted the
Parliamentary seating plan from a Liberal minority
government to a Conservative minority, Harper swiftly
violated two of his vaunted principles, and created
one big furor in the process.
Harper enticed David Emerson, who was re-elected as a
Liberal in British Columbia's Vancouver Kingsway
riding, to cross over to the Tories in exchange for a
Cabinet portfolio (International Trade, the same one
he held in the Paul Martin Cabinet). Never mind that
Harper criticized then-Tory Belinda Stronach for
jumping to the Liberals eight months earlier.
And after campaigning for a political lifetime in
favour of an elected Senate, Harper appointed
non-elected Montreal businessman Michael Fortier to
his new cabinet via the Senate. That these acts of
hypocrisy did not sit well with Tory MPs (two
complained publicly), let alone with most of rest of
the country, should have come as no surprise to the
former head of the right-wing National Citizen's
Coalition.
Nonetheless, faster than a born-again Richard Nixon,
Harper revealed his thin skin and strong disdain for
media criticism by rudely waving off reporters and
then by firing his communications chief (who held the
post for less than two weeks—was this another
record?).
Meanwhile, residents of Vancouver Kingsway held
rallies and collected thousands of signatures
demanding that Emerson resign and run in a by-election
as a Conservative. The labour-based New Democratic
Party jumped on the turncoat issue and filed a
'conflict of interest' complaint with Parliament's
ethics commissioner.
Regardless what happens to Emerson and Fortier,
Harper's faux pas is a perversely welcome development
for several reasons: It exposes the emptiness of his
populist rhetoric, and immediately takes the gloss off
the new regime. It dulls Harper's blade for the next
assault. It underscores the lack of mandate for
radical rightist policies (during the two-month
federal campaign, Harper kept his 'social
conservative' candidates under wraps, and he talked
like a clean government moderate). And it may even
shorten the life of his minority government.
Harper scrambled to put this controversy behind him by
appointing a Paul Martin Liberal nominee to the
Supreme Court, and by trying to heal the rift in
conservative ranks by designating Michael Wilson, a
former finance minister in the Brian Mulroney 1980s
Progressive Conservative government, as ambassador to
the United States.
But these steps were countered by swift cancellation
of the Liberal national child-care programme,
depriving the provinces of $5 billion, followed by
Conservative Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor's
untimely admission that his government is willing to
consider joining Washington’s ballistic missile
defence scheme.
The Liberal Party is not in much better shape, under
interim leader Bill Graham. Several former cabinet
ministers and ex-ambassador Frank McKenna have ruled
out running for Leader, leaving among the current
front runners ex-Tory billionaire Belinda Stronach and
Harvard academic and pro-imperialist freshman MP
Michael Ignatieff.
One hopes that when folks see how similar Tory
economic policies are to recent Liberal ones, it will
dash more than a few illusions in both big business
parties.
NDP: Lift suspension of Hargrove!
In a February open letter the SC argues, "Although we
disagree strongly with so-called 'strategic voting'
and the actions of Hargrove during the most recent
federal election campaign, we oppose his suspension on
general democratic grounds. The priority for the party
should be free and open debate on the conduct of the
latest NDP federal campaign.
"The suspension sends a chill into the body politic,
substituting a stern sanction for the frank and
constructive discussion needed now. Moreover, it is
being done on a rather hypocritical basis.
"As the Socialist Caucus argued in a statement issued
in December, 'Layton is campaigning to win "more NDP
seats", not to form a government. Though some claim
this is a matter of 'practicality', it is really one
of principle. It implies that the prize is another
Liberal minority government—propped up by a somewhat
larger NDP contingent. This is only a short step away
from CAW chief Buzz Hargrove's explicit call for
re-election of a minority Liberal regime, backed by a
few more New Democrats."
Will Hargrove's suspension make the NDP leadership
more accountable for its own shortcomings? NDP support
for the anti-Quebec Clarity Act, its over-adaptation
to law-and-order sentiments, and its silence on
Ottawa's military intervention in Afghanistan and
Haiti come to mind. Or will the disciplinary action
simply divert attention from the shift to the right,
while tightening party ranks against dissent of any
kind?
Hargrove says he will not appeal the suspension, on
the grounds that it was arbitrary and unfair to him.
He makes matters worse by now proposing an NDP-Liberal
coalition to defeat the Conservatives in the next
election.
Nonetheless, party and labour activists should fight
to lift the suspension to avoid needlessly alienating
CAW members from the NDP, and to foster an unfettered
and penetrating discussion of the strengths and
weaknesses of the recent NDP campaign.
Defend Muslims, Palestine, and Iran
A small example was the Toronto Socialist Action forum
on Feb. 24, where 25 people gathered to hear Zafar
Bangash, director of the Institute of Contemporary
Islamic Thought; Diana Ralph, representing the
Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada; and Bahman
Yedi, a veteran Iranian solidarity activist and member
of Socialist Action, address the topic, "Free Speech
or Hate Speech? Defend Muslims, Iran and Palestine
Against Imperialist Attack".
Bangash pointed to the recent bombing of a sacred
mosque in Samarra, Iraq, as indicative of the
divide-and-rule tactics employed by the U.S. rulers to
control the oil-rich region, even if it means
dismembering Iraq.
Ralph referred to what she called "the production of
Islamophobia" and the labelling of opponents of the
U.S. empire as terrorists, as a direct a product of
political strategies devised by Washington, including
the Defense Policy Guidance of 1993, and the
subsequent Project for a New American Century.
Yedi reminded the audience of the CIA-engineered
overthrow of elected Iranian President Mossadegh in
1953 after he nationalized that country's oil
industry, and how the U.S. supplied and pressed Saddam
Hussein's Iraq to wage war on Iran following the 1979
popular revolution that ousted the U.S.-backed Shah
Reza Pahlavi.
Other speakers linked the victory of Hamas in the
recent Palestine Authority election to rising
anti-imperialist sentiment on a global scale. Beneath
the religious indignation provoked by reactionary
media attacks is a deep desire by millions of Muslims
for social justice and radical change, including a
rejection of local rulers who submit to the dictates
of Washington and its powerful allies.
Socialist Voice supporter Suzanne Weiss, who chaired
the SA forum, urged everyone to counter the attack on
Muslims and on all who stand up against imperialism by
working for the broadest possible unity in antiwar
action on March 18.
Force Kingsley to answer for Haiti role
Rene Preval, a former ally of deposed President
Aristide, handily won the election for Haiti president
on Feb. 7. Despite facing dozens of opponents, some
financed by big money from the U.S., Preval enjoyed an
initial 60 per cent lead—that is, until dirty
tricksters shifted into overdrive, absconding with
dozens of ballot boxes later found smouldering in a
garbage dump, and adding thousands of blank ballots
that appeared to lower Preval's majority.
In fact, of the 2.2 million votes cast, 5 per cent
were declared invalid, and 10 per cent were not
counted a week after the vote—when much of the country
erupted into a massive protest that ground the economy
to a halt. That is when the national election
commission, no doubt nudged by the forces of military
occupation operating under the UN flag of convenience,
'declared' Preval to be elected.
Was Preval forced into making a 'deal' involving
concessions to foreign interests, or was the act of
'declaration' (done to conceal a failed attempt at
stealing the election) sufficient for the imperialists
to sully Preval's victory and undermine his mandate to
effect change in the poverty-stricken nation? Time
will tell, and it may be soon as Preval signals he
will welcome the return of Jean-Bertrand Aristide from
his exile in South Africa.
But a nagging question persists. How is it that
Jean-Pierre Kingsley, Election Canada's chief and the
head of the International Mission for Monitoring
Haitian Elections, flatly rejected the likelihood of
fraud in the days immediately following Feb. 7?
Indeed, Kingsley said the Haitian election was one of
best he has ever seen. It makes one wonder how many
elections Kingsley has seen where there are no polling
places in huge urban slums, where rural voters must
walk several kilometres to vote, and where thousands
of marked and unmarked ballots are found aflame in a
dump.
Quite apart from the gross involvement of foreign
money in partisan campaigns, and the hundreds of
millions devoted to the ongoing military occupation
and training of police who terrorize the poor
population and murder civilians wantonly, what purpose
was served by the $30 million spent by the Canadian
government to help run this election?
Kingsley's remarks smell like a foul cover-up, in aid
of the ongoing subjugation of Haiti by Canada, France,
Brazil, and the U.S., and the wealthy sweatshop owners
who stand to continue to profit.
Responding to critical and persistent pressure over
his silence, during the recent federal election
campaign, concerning the crimes of Canadian
imperialism in Haiti, New Democratic Party leader Jack
Layton seems to be taking a different tack by issuing
this demand: "The NDP calls on Prime Minister Stephen
Harper to direct his Minister of Foreign Affairs to
carefully review Canada’s role in Haiti since February
2004 and to report his findings to the Standing
Committee on Foreign Affairs."
Although the call is remiss in exempting the period
prior to 2004 (e.g., the coup that overthrew Aristide
was planned at a government-sponsored conference held
in Ottawa in early 2003), it is still a positive step
to put this issue on the parliamentary agenda (since
standing committees report to the House of
Commons) — provided that the NDP vigorously presses it
forward in the days ahead, rather than discarding it
as a token gesture.
The Canada Haiti Action Network, anti-imperialist and
antiwar forces, and the labour movement would be wise
to press the NDP, and the new Conservative government
on this very point.
Stephen Harper's obnoxious call on Rene Preval to
foster 'national reconciliation' in Haiti is part of
the cover-up of electoral duplicity, and part of the
imperialist drive to cripple Preval's capacity to
effect meaningful change, whether Preval intends to do
so or not. Harper (along with the former Paul Martin
Liberal regime) should be challenged on this file, and
exposing Kingsley's role in Haiti could be the lynch
pin.
