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November 11, 2020 - No. 8
Remembrance
Day
Affirm
Our Aspirations for Peace
and a World Without Interference,
Threats, War and Aggression!
-
Christine Dandenault -
January 25, 2020. Demonstration in
Montreal opposing U.S. aggression against Iran.
•
Call to Wear the White
Poppy on
Remembrance Day
• The
Day the Armistice Was Signed to End World War I
- Nick Lin
• Remembrance
in Education
- Education is a Right Podcast
Remembrance
Day
- Christine Dandendault -
 
Montreal
demonstration against the U.S. war in Iraq, February 15, 2003.
The workers of Canada and Quebec do not want
Canada to contribute to
world conflicts or wars of aggression against friendly peoples. The
2003 march of more than 200,000 people in the streets of Montreal in
minus 20 degree Celsius weather against the invasion of Iraq, along
with
various actions organized against the presence of NATO
warships in the Port of Montreal and elsewhere against the promotion of
war amongst
the youth clearly attest to this.
 Reflecting on
and drawing appropriate conclusions on issues of war and peace is
essential for Canadians, Quebeckers and Indigenous peoples. It assists
them in strengthening their anti-war movement and in taking action to
ensure that Canada is a zone for peace, that it withdraws from NATO and
other U.S. imperialist military alliances
and that it plays a role in support of the peoples and their
sovereignty worldwide. Remembrance Day, November 11, is an occasion to
affirm these aspirations.
One of the forms this
takes is the White Poppy, which commemorates all the victims of war.
Appeals are being made around the world to wear it on Remembrance Day.
For at least 80 years the White Poppy has been worn to represent three
things: remembrance of all victims of war, a commitment to peace, and a
stand against all attempts to glorify or
celebrate war.
The White Poppy was first introduced
as a symbol of peace in England in 1933 by the Co-operative Women's
Guild, to commemorate all victims of war, both civilian and military.
The idea was first discussed in England as early as 1926 in the wake of
the First World War (1914-1918) which resulted in the deaths of 10
million soldiers and
1.5 million civilians.
The White Poppy Campaign
calls on people to mobilize for peace. According to Britain's Peace
Pledge Union, it "symbolizes the belief that there are better ways to
resolve conflicts than through the use of violence. It embodies the
refusal to kill human beings for whatever reason."
The
Peace Pledge Union condemns economic dependence on arms sales and the
pressure to update and produce weapons of all types, pointing out that
"the results of recent military adventures highlight their
ineffectiveness and dramatic consequences." It goes on to emphasize
that the best way to respect the victims of war is to work to prevent
war in the present and future by addressing the underlying causes of
war. It points out that peace is far more than the absence of violence;
it "requires major social changes to enable us to live more
cooperatively."
In Quebec, for a 10th
consecutive year, the Collectif Échec à la guerre
is asking everyone to wear the White Poppy on Remembrance Day. On this
occasion, a declaration dedicated to the memory of all the victims of
war was published in the Saturday, November 7 issue of the newspaper Le Devoir, as well
as in its spot ads and tablet
and internet editions. Over 200 individuals and 34 groups endorsed the
declaration and helped defray the cost ($8,000).
On
Remembrance Day, November 11 from 6:00 to 7:00 pm, Échec
à la guerre along with the sponsors of the 2020 White Poppy
Campaign, is co-hosting a virtual roundtable discussion entitled "The
Forgotten of Remembrance Day -- Civilian Casualties and Canada's
Harmful Role." For information click here.
Today, let us say loud and clear:
Make Canada a Zone for
Peace!
Dismantle
All U.S.
Military Bases Around the World and Those of NATO
and Its
Members, Including Canada!
Put an End to All Wars of
Aggression and Occupation!
End Spending on Weapons of Mass
Destruction and Arms Sales!
The Quebec anti-war coalition
Échec
à la guerre published the following open letter in the pages
of Le Devoir on November 7.
 These are grave
times!
As the Bulletin of Atomic
Scientists advances its "Doomsday Clock" to "100 seconds
before midnight" to illustrate the "most dangerous situation mankind
has ever faced" ...
...the warheads held by the
nine nuclear-weapon states in the world are hundreds of times more
powerful than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that took the
lives of more than 200,000 people;
...Today's
nuclear arsenals alone have the potential to wipe out humanity and much
of the world's animal and plant life; nevertheless, Canada boycotted
the process of developing and adopting the Nuclear Weapons Treaty
(NWT), adopted in 2017 by 122 of 192 countries;
...The
United States and Russia have not renewed the Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty; furthermore, the U.S. has indicated that
it will not agree to extend the New START Strategic Nuclear Reductions
Treaty, which expires in February 2021.
For
civilian populations, the danger does not end there....
...Military
bases and training sites around the world generate tons of toxic waste
that contaminate soil and groundwater. Military operations have a
significant impact on global warming, for example, the U.S. military
alone is the largest single producer of greenhouse gases in the world;
...The Government of Canada has just resumed the
sale of
armoured vehicles and weapons to Saudi Arabia -- military equipment
that could be used in the war in Yemen, which has killed more than
100,000 people, many of them civilians, despite criticism from a UN
panel of experts;
...The U.S. is increasingly
playing the card of interference, intimidation and military aggression.
The threat of new and even more destructive wars is growing, and with
it the risk of a nuclear conflagration.
In this
time of danger, we invite you to wear the White Poppy to remember the
thousands of civilian casualties of war and to prevent hundreds of
thousands more!
- Nick Lin -
On
November 11, 1918, the Armistice which brought
World
War I to an end was
signed, marking the end of the war. A slaughterhouse of
unprecedented proportions, World War I was
referred to as the "war to end all wars." Despite this, it is well
known that the subsequent peace treaty signed in
Versailles, was a factor in laying the grounds for the growth of
fascism and World War II.
World War I was
an inter-imperialist war, a war
in
which working men were sent to be slaughtered as empires clashed
to re-divide the world. World War I left nine million
soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. In addition, at least five
million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.
The war also marked a turning point in history. In
1917,
the
Russian working class and people organized the Great October
Socialist Revolution and took Russia out of the war.
When
Soviet power was established, Winston Churchill called for the
crushing of the baby "in the cradle." In the aftermath of the war, 14
foreign powers, including Canada, militarily
intervened
in order to foment civil war, seize Soviet Russia's assets for
themselves and put an end to the revolution and Soviet power. But
Soviet power prevailed and they were defeated. Far from being
crushed, the Great October Socialist Revolution led to the
advance of society, to its vigorous development and the
unprecedented release of human initiative.
Drastic
political, cultural, economic, and social
change
occurred in Europe, Asia and Africa, even in areas outside those
directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war -- the Russian
Czarist Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire and the
Austro-Hungarian Empire. Old countries were abolished, new ones were
formed and boundaries were redrawn. International organizations, such
as the League of Nations, were established.
Soviet
Russia was industrialized
at a
record rate, a phenomenon unheard of up till that time. It
provided the example of a triumphant march. No matter what enemy
it faced, it knew no defeat.
The high ideals of a
"War to End All Wars," of
duty to
King and Country, to empire, were shown to be a cover, a false
justification, for the horrendous clash of the imperialist warmongers.
Yet these same values are promoted at this time, under the rubric "Lest
we forget" -- the dead are the glorious ones, because they made the
supreme sacrifice for freedom against a heinous enemy.
Demonstration
against conscription in Victoria Square, Montreal, May 17, 1917.
Working people in Quebec could find no convincing reason to sacrifice
their lives for the glory of the British Empire. The Canadian
government imposed conscription in August 1917.
Bourgeois historiography refers to Canada's
"coming of
age" as
a result of its role in World War I where it allegedly
proved itself worthy of big power status. The sacrifice of
Canadian youth as cannon fodder in the trenches of Europe is said
to have provided proof that Canada could be entrusted with the
conduct of its own foreign policy and break ties with the British
Imperial Parliament in this regard. This disinformation seeks to
imbue Canadians with a chauvinist outlook that portrays Canada
as a major Entente Power fit to sit at the table that divides
the spoils of war. In fact, it made Canada a yes-man at the
service of the understandings between Britain and France to keep
Germany out, while they sympathized with all the new
organizations hostile to Soviet Russia.
 Today,
Canada's warmongering is presented as a foundational Canadian value.
But the sacrifice of Canadians contradicts official accounts. Their
sacrifice was made not for freedom but on behalf of empire. Canada's
independence was not secured by sending Canada's youth to participate
in the charnel house of imperialist slaughter that was World War I, a
war of division between the empires of the day to secure sources of raw
materials, cheap labour, zones for the export of capital and strategic
influence. On the contrary, Canada's ruling elite secured a place for
itself as a yes-man of first the British and then the U.S.
imperialists, while the movement of the people persists for a genuine
nation-building project in which the natural and human resources and
decision-making power serve the people, not the rich.
Today,
more than 100 years after the end of World
War I, Canada has
been
integrated into the U.S. imperialist war machine while the U.S.
and NATO and their allies expand their interference and
aggression and threaten war against countries that will not
submit to their dictate. At the same time, the Canadian
government, in the service of this agenda, is setting the stage
to use its police powers to deem opposition to war and aggressive
alliances such as NATO as threats to national security.
Now,
more than ever, Canadians and Quebeckers must
argue
out
their convictions against imperialist aggression and war and take
up the work to Make Canada a Zone for Peace.
- Education is a Right
Podcast -
 Episode 68 of Education is a
Right Podcast, released on the occasion of Remembrance Day 2020, is
introduced as follows:
"This year Remembrance Day takes place in the 75th
anniversary year of the end of World War II. It will take place in
schools in the conditions of a pandemic where assembly or other large
gatherings are not permitted. This means educators will play a bigger
role in commemorating Remembrance Day with their students than they
might in
other years. In this episode we discuss the importance of contributing
to peace through remembrance for educators and students."
Listen to the complete episode here.
(To access articles
individually
click on the black headline.)
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