Tuesday, December 3, 2024

Letters to the Editor

On TML Coverage of U.S. Presidential Election

March in New York City, November 9, 2024, days after the U.S. election

Excellent coverage of the U.S. elections, especially on the reasons people abstained or voted against Kamala Harris. Notably, this election was a profound refutation of the Obama-era explanation of elections according to voting blocs, the "Black vote," "Hispanic vote," "LGBTQ2S+ vote," "youth vote," etc. The people, across these "blocs," and regardless of how they decided to do it, acted according to their conscience and with a tremendous dissatisfaction with the status quo. This has left many Democratic pundits, political strategists and analysts stunned because their worldview of various blocs who oppose one another has fallen apart. Whatever the people decided, they proved that they believe the future belongs to a modern society where discussion takes place based on experience, views and interests, not by being grouped into a box based on one's innate characteristics.

What is striking is that the biggest correlation with refusing to vote for Kamala Harris across all "blocs" was income -- with those making under $50,000 a year less likely to vote for Harris, and those making more than $150,000 substantially more likely to vote for Harris, according to various news agencies' exit polls. In other words, those most affected by the present socio-economic crisis were more likely to vote against Harris, regardless of race, gender or other characteristics. This also disproves the fraud that one party is of the workers and the other is of the rich, when they are both known to represent the rich and all they stand for, including increasing impoverishment and wars of aggression.

Another crucial point is that many people who voted for Donald Trump, and are now being demonized, did not do so because they are "backwards" and "uneducated." They did so because he claimed he would stop the proxy war in the Ukraine, avert a Third World War, deliver peace to the Middle East, lower inflation, bring jobs, etc. In essence, they want stability in their society and the world. Whether or not he will do these things is not the point. The point is that these issues are matters of concern to the people. And they will find out through experience whether President-elect Trump, beholden to the increasingly decaying U.S. system of narrow private interests, will do them.

A particularly strong and admirable stand was taken and is being taken by the Muslim and Arab Americans of Michigan and elsewhere, who refused to vote for the genocide of their peoples. On the campaign trail, Kamala Harris angrily told them: "If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I am speaking." In response, on November 6, Muslim and Arab Americans held a press conference in Dearborn with signs stating, "We are speaking," "Michigan Arabs and Muslims are now speaking" and "We are committed to peace, justice and dignity for all." An historical lesson as to the fate of anyone who stands for genocide and war. The brave Arabs and Muslims of the United States will certainly continue to fight for the rights of the Palestinians, Lebanese and others, and the end to the genocide under any circumstance.

Dearborn, Michigan, November 2, 2024

The people of the United States will continue to organize for change during Trump's second term. The stability and the secure future they desire can only be guaranteed when the people themselves exercise decision-making power, not through outmoded and outdated political processes which serve to legitimize one clique or the other at the head of the ruling class. The solution they will work out will necessarily lead to the balanced, proportionate development of the economy and society according to the maximum satisfaction of the people, the opposite of the present-day anarchy and civil war conditions ripping apart the old society.

A Reader in Niagara

Political Class in Crisis in Light of Broad Support for Palestinian Resistance

Montreal, November 22

The media hype since the demonstration against NATO in Montreal on Friday, November 22 has raised a lot of questions and anger in Quebec. From the Mayor of Montreal, to Premier Legault, to the chief of police of Montreal and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with one voice they blame the youth and the people of Quebec for the violence at the demonstration saying it was unacceptable, anti-Semitic, unprecedented and that it has no place in Quebec.

None have saluted the courage and determination of the youth and students of Quebec who stood up to organize strike days in support of the Palestinian people and their resistance, who stood up to say that Canada must withdraw from NATO, that NATO and NORAD must be dismantled and that the pro-war agenda of the Canadian government must be denounced and abandoned. On the contrary, this great elite, in lockstep with the U.S. State Department and the Zionist lobby, made sure to dissociate itself from positions in favour of the Palestinian people and international law. They passed over in silence what the participants of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly were plotting at their annual meeting in Montreal while labeling the demonstration of the youth anti-Semitic.

The big problem for the ruling class and their cronies is that they have no moral authority to convince anyone that the demonstration was anti-Semitic or to present the demonstrators as extremists. The demonstrations since October 8, 2023 and the many actions in support of the Palestinian resistance express the determination of the people to put an end to the massacres and the genocide. No elite can shake this determination, even if it desperately tries to deny the decisive role of these actions of the people of Quebec, alongside those of the peoples of Canada and the world, in the fight for justice to be served in Palestine. They have tried by all sorts of means to discredit the student encampments, like the one at McGill, and have totally failed.

A Reader in Montreal

Facts Repudiate Claims that Supporters of Palestinian Resistance Are Violent

Demonstration in Montreal November 23, 2024, against NATO Parliamentary Assembly

In relation to anti-NATO demonstrations held in Montreal during the NATO Parliamentary Assembly meetings from November 22 to 25, the director of the Montreal police service stated several times in various interviews and newspapers that in connection with the conflict in the Middle East, of the 450 to 500 demonstrations over the last 14 months, only 2.5 per cent have "gotten out of hand." Those allegedly responsible for violence were part of a "far-left group" known to the police for 20 years, he said, adding that the group had "nothing to do" with the pro-Palestinian demonstrators who attended the November 22 demonstration. This has not stopped government officials carrying on about the demonstrations being anti-Semitic and violent!

Supporting the Palestinian resistance is not anti-Semitic. Demanding that NATO be dismantled is a legitimate demand so that Quebec and Canada become zones for peace and that none of the human, natural, material and financial wealth is used for the war agenda of the great powers, led by the United States.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau condemned the events in Montreal on X: "What we saw in the streets of Montreal yesterday [Friday] evening is appalling. Acts of anti-Semitism, intimidation and violence must be condemned wherever they occur." Quebec Premier François Legault, Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet and Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante all made similar statements, condemning the demonstrators as "hateful extremists."

On November 26, Legault held a press briefing to call for continued arrests while Mario Dumont, former leader of Action démocratique, today a television personality, opened the door for Legault to legislate the supervision of demonstrations and banning the wearing of masks throughout Quebec.

None of their statements can detract from the support these same personalities give the genocide being committed in Gaza by the U.S./Zionist forces whose extreme violence and statements filled with hatred they refuse to condemn.

An anti-NATO demonstrator in Montreal

Resistance of Palestine Is Part of Forward
March of Humanity

The heroes of the Palestinian resistance are an unlimited source of humanity because of the role they play in making history. Their achievements are many times greater than the wishes of those hanging on to the threads of their dying western values and dreams of hegemony. The killing of Yahya Sinwar and response to it shows the world will simply not submit.

Cowards and heroes face to face contrasting the Old world and the New world is a key feature of today's developments. The U.S./Zionist cabal is only good at killing children and women and at using technology, provided to them by those who have stolen the advances made by the human productive forces, to locate individuals to assassinate them.

Cowards -- it is clear for all that want to see, who the terrorists are. CIA/Mossad/MI6-guided targeted assassinations are part of the arsenal of terrorism, just as killing women and children is, where the aim is to "shock" the people into submission. With CIA/Mossad/MI6-guided targeted assassinations, the aim is to create an impression of strength. And then they turn around and say that Hamas and Hezbollah are "terrorists." But the entire world can see! Every such event, even though it may be received with glee by those who desperately want to preserve the illusion of their western values, human rights and democracy, shows they are the opposite of what they claim.

There is no limit to the sacrifice of the resistance because there is no limit to human beings. The cause of Palestine is part of the forward march of humanity. It has been seen with the assassination of Nasrallah and Haniyeh and even going back to the assassination of the Iranian General Soleimani in 2020, that they are targeting individuals who play crucial roles while never succeeding in breaking the forward march of the Resistance Movement.

A Reader in Montreal

On Remembrance Day -- Never Again

Greetings!

Thank you for those wonderful articles on Remembrance Day.

Quebec City remains an important hub for the Canadian military. The Department of Defence is the largest employer in the region. Together the military base and Quebec City make up the largest military research centre in Canada. And it is being expanded considerably. During elections, all the Conservative candidates boast about coming from the military.

The military secretly infiltrates all areas of civilian life; the regiments here are given the keys to the city. The Quebec officer who led the Canadian operation in Haiti during the earthquake has been appointed to a high position of responsibility in Quebec civil security.

The software used by school guidance counselors has been manipulated by the military. My youngest is in high school and between 75 and 80 per cent of the jobs presented to her were in the military, from simple soldier to artilleryman, officer, technician, engineer etc. She hated the fact that the army invaded her high school during career days. Though the military wants to come even more often, the school committee has passed a resolution to limit their visits to career days.

Quebec has a tradition of opposing the military. During the 1918 uprising of the working population of Quebec City against conscription, the army deployed in the city fired on them with ammunition that was banned for use in Europe (Geneva Convention), killing at least four people, including a student, a carpenter and a father of five. During the attack on the recruiting offices at Place d'Youville on Easter weekend, the demonstrators ransacked them and burned their paperwork.

And when they were attacked by horsemen from the armoury, armed with axe handles as batons and the infantrymen pointed bayonets at them, the crowd shouted: "They have guns, let's go get some too" and set off to loot the surrounding arsenals.

It was then that Armand Lavergne, who had influence over the "populace" as Henri Bourassa's right-hand man and a former reserve officer, convinced the crowd to return home to the lower town to allow time to meet with the authorities. He invited them to return later in the week at the end of their work day, giving time for the troops brought in to be deployed in the town and set up their machine gun nest.

Bloody repression followed along with a very large number of arrests in proportion to the size of the population. The Church propagated the notion that one should be ashamed of rebelling. The Church, as we know, had sworn an oath to the British crown. Trials followed but the mothers and widows received only disappointment as compensation.

All of this is relatively well documented.

In Ireland too in 1916 the event known as "Bloody Sunday" took place on Easter Sunday.

A Reader in Quebec City

Racism of Halifax International Security Forum

Demonstration against the Halifax International Security Forum, November 23, 2024

The imperialist racism of the Halifax International Security Forum, November 22-24, was evident as they referred to their forum as one of "influential global democracies," meaning the U.S., Canada, and countries of Old Europe. The expression "influential global democracies" is nowadays used in a racist manner to target countries with ancient civilizations such as the Chinese, Arab, Indian, Persian and others as threats which give rise to "terrorists." U.S. state racism against people of Chinese origin is well known. Today this racism is not only directed against the Chinese but also seen in the derogatory acronym "CRINKS" to refer to China, Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. To have Canadian officials sitting in International Fora where such racism is spewed, repeating it, does them no credit, to say the least. Canadians will never accept government racism.

A Reader in Halifax

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