Canadians Must Take Up a New Nation-Building Project
- Statement of the Manitoba Regional Committee of
the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), July 1, 2002
As Canada marks its 135th anniversary, it remains at a crucial crossroads in its existence. Which direction it takes will determine whether it will emerge as an independent, sovereign nation or will continue down the path of economic, political and cultural subjugation to the United States.
Historically, Canada has never been fully independent, throwing off the yoke of British colonialism only to become an economic colony of the United States. This is the result of the ambivalent attitude of the dominant political class in Canada - the capitalist class - towards the issue of independence. Its goal, first and foremost, has always been its own enrichment and since the 1920s this has been largely dependent on access to American markets. Canadian capitalists have generally been too small and weak to compete with American capitalists and have needed the power of a national state to protect them from American competition. Hence the historical irony of continentalists like John A. MacDonald and Wilfred Laurier embracing a National Policy of protectionist tariffs and nation-building projects such as the trans-continental railway.
However, far from fostering an economy dominated by domestic capital, the National Policy of MacDonald and Laurier created a branch-plant economy in which the largest and most powerful corporations in every sector of the economy were subsidiaries of giant American companies. Even the nominally domestic capital was and continues to be totally dependent on foreign capital for its existence.
Today, the capitalist class no longer has an economic interest in maintaining a nation which is independent of the United States. This fact is underlined by the unquestioning support of the Canadian ruling elite for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), both of which subordinate national sovereignty to the interests of capital, especially American capital.
However, the vast majority of Canadians - those who do not make their living exploiting others - see nothing positive about the increasing American control of Canada. They see only the loss of their jobs, the destruction of the natural and social environment and the trampling of what Canadians articulate to be their values, such as reasonableness, compassion, respect for society and social programs, peaceful relations with other peoples, etc. They are coming to the realization that the defence of those values necessitates defence of Canada's national sovereignty
The fact that the capitalist ruling elite has abandoned any semblance of defence of Canada's sovereignty means that the struggle to defend the nation is not only anti-imperialist, but necessarily anti-capitalist, as well. It means that conditions exist for the working people to build a nation in and to use the power of such a nation to represent their interests and their values; in other words, to win the battle for democracy. Freed from the narrow interests of the capitalists to enrich themselves, such a nation-building project would also create conditions for the affirmation of the sovereignty of the Quebecois nation and the Aboriginal nations, with a new, voluntary union based on mutual respect and equality.
A nation-building project of this nature, a struggle for the very heart and soul of Canada is not a small project. It cannot be achieved without overcoming enormous obstacles. But it is an absolutely essential struggle if Canada is to survive; and history has proven repeatedly that a people determined to defend their national sovereignty will ultimately prevail.