Oppose the Warmongering Halifax
International Security Forum

This year, for the 15th year in a row, Haligonians are rallying to oppose the warmongering Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) held in their city. Every year since 2009, this Washington, DC-based organization has used Halifax to hold this event, this year from November 22-24. It is officially hosted by Canada's Minister of National Defence, with funding from the federal government and private sponsors. It is an event hated by the people as it tries to legitimize aggressive war, war funding, war criminals and arms profiteers. At a time when Haligonians together with the world's peoples are demanding an arms embargo to stop U.S./Zionist genocide, HISF promotes arms sales and war monopolies.

The HISF is an open example of how the big war monopolies and similar private interests dictate to governments and usurp powers to ensure wars like that in Ukraine and against Palestine persist. This is evident in titles for informal sessions such as "Victory in Ukraine: For As Long As It Takes," and "The Will to Win Wars: Required."

The president of HISF Peter Van Praagh threatens any who stand against the U.S./NATO proxy war against Russia. "When we meet at Halifax, we can choose unity and stand together to defeat Russia's aggression in Ukraine," he said, "Or we can choose division and a dark, dangerous era of more violence and more war. The future is up to us."

As is always the case with these private interests and their representatives in government, the peoples have no role to play. Haligonians are making clear that it is the people that will decide the future and it will be one where Canada is a Zone for Peace.

For the entire agenda there is no mention of negotiations to end wars, of political relations of mutual respect and benefit, of people-to-people relations or any content demanded by the peoples and needed for peace and security. To hide this reality, the HISF every year brings various media personalities, academics and others to lend a veneer of social acceptability and humanitarianism to its demand for more aggression and war.

The activities of the HISF go against the long-established claim on Halifax by its own residents, that their city is No Harbour for War! The actions to oppose this year's war conference are crucial as they stand against the complicity of these "democracies" in genocide in Palestine, for ending the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, which the U.S. is escalating, and ending war games and preparations against China and the DPRK, including promoting racism and denigrating the peoples of East Asia.

Haligonians also reject the effort by HISF to brand itself with the initials "HFX," the longstanding abbreviation for all things Halifax, from the airport, to local businesses, public transportation and sports clubs. For a U.S.-based war conference to try to co-opt this abbreviation, as if to make its pernicious war agenda synonymous with an entire city, is a no go. Halifax is No Harbour for War!

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls on everyone to join in actions to oppose the HISF and uphold Halifax's longstanding anti-war traditions, as well as actions to oppose the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Montreal taking place this same weekend. All out to affirm that Canadians and Quebeckers stake their claim on Canada and Quebec as Zones for Peace and that defenders of U.S. wars and dictate are not welcome here!

Pro-War Agenda of 2024 Halifax Forum

Protest outside 14th Halifax International Security Forum, November 19, 2023

The Halifax International Security Forum (HISF) taking place November 22-24, has a pro-war agenda designed to gain support for U.S./NATO aggression. Given the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president, HISF specifically "Appeals for Strong American Support for Ukraine," calling on Trump to continue the U.S./NATO proxy war using Ukraine against Russia. There is no support in the agenda for negotiations, a possibility indicated by both Trump and Russian President Putin.

There is also concern about keeping the NATO countries unified at a time divisions exist over how to contend with Russia and China -- divisions which also exist within the U.S. ruling factions. This is evident in HISF President Peter Van Praagh emphasizing the dangers of failing to "choose unity and stand together to defeat Russia."

Session titles, formal and informal, are about "sinking" China, Russia, Iran, and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. These countries are also to be kicked out of Africa and Venezuela. The thrust then is advancing U.S. interests globally and ensuring Canada and other NATO countries continue to march in lockstep with the U.S.

This includes supporting the U.S. as it escalates the confrontation with Russia, sending land mines to Ukraine and approving use of long-range ballistic missiles, both major provocations.[1] The HISF, far from attempting to lessen tensions, adds to the provocations.

Speakers include pro-war, pro-U.S. people from Taiwan, Russia and Ukraine. The sessions are filled with U.S. and NATO military forces, including Admiral Samuel Paparo, Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The John McCain Award -– McCain himself a war criminal –- is given to Vladimir Kara-Murza, Vice President, Free Russia Foundation.

The HISF is also an opportunity for the major arms manufacturers, pro-war tech companies (Boeing and Google are organizers), and military forces to build relations and cement support for war and militarization of the economies of the U.S., Canada, and NATO countries. Military speakers from the U.S. and Canada are given a main role in providing "answers" for the topics raised, an indication of an increasing role for the military in governance. There are calls to "deliver weapons faster," and artificial intelligence applications for the battlefield.

HISF no doubt hopes these opportunities to build relations will contribute to the unity called for. But the failure of the liberal democratic institutions in the U.S., Canada, and other NATO countries to resolve conflicts and contention within the ruling circles and between these countries, means they are increasing. The Trump election did nothing to ease these conflicts within the U.S. as continued talk about the "enemy within" and Trump appointments indicates.

There is also conflict between the U.S. and NATO countries like Germany and France. All three, for example, are striving to have their own spheres of influence in Africa. NATO's interference in the name of relations with their "southern neighbourhood," reflects in part this effort by the European countries to have their role in Africa, in contention not only with China but the U.S. as well.

The agenda also expresses "uncertainty about American global priorities." The HISF attributes this to Trump's election, meanwhile it refuses to look at the uncertainty from the dysfunctional liberal democratic institutions worldwide and the deep anger of the peoples about this, about widespread government impunity, continued genocide against the Palestinians and the insecurity and suffering worldwide.

The U.S. "rules-based international order," is also failing to lessen the conflicts and increasing divisions as the U.S. strives to impose its hegemony. The HISF is attempting to help maintain this order, while the peoples are rising to challenge it. This is evident in the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance but also by peoples worldwide and by Haligonians rejecting this pro-war forum.

The HISF also tries to promote women and youth as supporters of war, when resistance in Canada and worldwide shows the opposite -– they are at the forefront of the resistance and struggles against imperialist war, for peace, freedom, and democracy. These are the examples for youth, not the military women HISF puts forward as leaders.

In examining the HISF, one certainly must ask how does increasing war provide security? How does stepped up aggression against China, Russia, Iran, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea serve the interests of world peace or improve the situation of working people in Canada today?

Try as it might, the HISF and the agenda of its 2024 war conference cannot hide that this forum has nothing to do with the security, interests, and well-being of the peoples in Canada or anywhere else.

Demonstration outside first Halifax International Security Forum in November 2009

Note

1. See "Get Canada Out of NATO! Dismantle NATO" TML In the News, November 21, 2024.

"Dynamic Front" War Games in the Arctic

Get Canada Out of NATO! Hands Off the Arctic!

The U.S. Army 56th Artillery Command, and partners, have been carrying out the largest NATO artillery-focused integration war game on the European continent, code-named Dynamic Front. Hosted by the Republic of Finland in Rovaniemi from November 4-24, the war games have been commanded by the U.S. and involved more than 5,000 U.S. and multinational military forces from 28 NATO and partner countries: Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

Dynamic Front takes place not only in Finland but also in Estonia, Germany, Poland, and Romania. Since its launch in 2016, the multinational war game provides the U.S. with the means to integrate the various military forces under U.S. command and develop direct relations with military forces from the different countries. This strengthens U.S. domination and positions the U.S. to call such forces into action even without agreement from governing officials, as it has done with Canada in the past. As a war game aimed mainly at Russia, it also provides a live fire exercise for testing and strengthening the interoperability of the NATO forces over a broad geographic area, from the Arctic to the Black Sea. These are war games and preparation for war against Russia and the U.S. uses them to line up support for future aggression.

According to one military report: "The U.S. Army, through its 56th Artillery Command, plays a central role in leading the exercise. This command is tasked with integrating allied artillery units, showcasing NATO's capability to coordinate fire missions over a vast geographic area. U.S. forces are employing HIMARS multiple-launch rocket systems and 155 mm M777 howitzers, both noted for their precision and range, enabling long-distance strikes and increased operational mobility."

In the wake of the U.S. support for Ukraine missile strikes inside Russia with U.S. long-range missiles, and the U.S.'s most recent veto -- the fifth in the past year -- of a UN Security Council resolution demanding a Gaza ceasefire, and given these war games are directly aimed at Russia, including one led by Canada in Latvia which borders Russia, all talk by the U.S./NATO forces, including Canada, about "regional stability and security" rings hollow indeed.

(With files from DVIDS, Army Recognition. Photo WILF)

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