"Freedom
Convoy" in Ottawa Anarchy Breeds Violence
- Pauline Easton -
The narrow supranational private interests behind the so-called
"Freedom Convoy" that is making a nuisance of itself in Ottawa and
other cities and provinces have lowered the level of culture to one
word expletives and are doing their utmost to instill confusion and
fear. This is facilitated by the
authority which exists at the federal and provincial levels which is
self-serving. Any consideration for the well-being of the people and
the polity has been replaced with self-serving cartel party posturing
and in-fighting. These have degenerated to such an extent that epithets
hurled at one another and the peoples who are fighting for their rights
have supplanted political discourse. It shows what happens when
retrogression is imposed and gives rise to anarchy and violence. This
is not the answer to the all-round crises facing Canada and the world.
Today, anarchy
describes the state of affairs when everyone fends for themselves as a
result of the very rich putting the decision-making power and agencies
of the state at their disposal. These supranational narrow private
interests accept no authority above their own, making legislatures
redundant to the decision-making process. The legislatures are reduced
to paying the rich and putting all resources at their disposal. The
cartel parties play a role by providing the facade of high ideals while
the peoples are abandoned to their fate as a result of the absence of a
unifying state authority which upholds the public good. Anarchy
goes hand in hand with violence because the methods used to sort out
conflicts within the ranks of the rulers, such as elections, no longer
achieve that aim.Resorting to the use of force is the only
alternative the ruling class knows but when it comes to the blatant
violations of law and order by goons calling themselves a freedom
convoy in Ottawa, there has been a marked reluctance to use it.
Ottawa City Council has now declared a state of emergency. The
ordinance does not provide police with increased powers or call in the
military but does show the reluctance of the ruling class to use law
and order measures when it is a matter of the contradictions within its
own ranks. The Trudeau government went out of its way to say it defends
freedom of speech and to protest so long as it is law-abiding but
everyone can see that its law and order arrangements are reserved for
Indigenous peoples and protestors fighting for social justice, against
war and for other social and political causes, not for goons running
around Ottawa in the name of freedom. It is a reminder of what took
place in Washington, DC on January 6, 2021. The violent rampage against
the Capitol and failed coup were called an insurrection. The Biden
administration raised accusations of "sedition" and talks about laying
charges of treason and the like but it has not managed to force its
rivals for power to submit to its authority. And it can be predicted
that the same will happen in Canada as well. It all underscores that
the violence which accompanies the assertions of "freedom of speech"
and to protest are inherent to the state of anarchy which has set in
where various factions attempt to assert their supremacy while they
unite when it comes to putting down the struggles of the people.
Constitutionally speaking, the arrangements which justify the
use of instruments of law and order are basically designed to mete out
colonial "justice." They enforce structures which breed discrimination,
misogyny and intolerance against the affirmation of the interests of
workers, women and youth as well as Indigenous peoples. Those who have
usurped power through their stranglehold on wealth and privilege are
having trouble using these instruments of law and order against their
rivals for power when neither they nor their rivals for power enjoy the
support of the people. Based on unfolding events,
how is what is happening to be assessed? How is the character of this
historical period to be determined? Should the peoples accept that
there is no alternative to the state of anarchy and violence which
exists? To determine what
is happening it is necessary to recognize that a great conflict is
taking place between two fundamental outlooks; one which is
counterrevolutionary and fights to preserve the status quo and the
positions of privilege and power and another which is revolutionary and
fights to bring in the New and open a path for society to progress.
Only if the situation is looked at from the point of view that reveals
the need for change, progress and the advancement of society can the
status quo of anarchy and violence be ended and the retrogression be
stopped. Only the working class and people have an interest to do that.
In this regard, it really does not matter anymore what "ism" a person
or an organization espouses. What matters is whether the outlook of the
fighting forces is consistent with the demands of the times and they
are acting in a manner which provides solutions that favour the
peoples. Without this, putting labels on things -- including ideologies
-- is meaningless. It is not just meaningless but in fact it is
harmful. It stops people looking at the reality because they are too
busy getting incited, cursing one another and hoping the cartel
parties, courts and agencies of law and order will sort out the
problems in a manner which favours them. The
interest of those who occupy the top positions of power at the federal
and provincial levels is served by the preservation of the status quo.
They are trying to maintain control by concentrating more and more
power in the hands of the executive which is, in turn, controlled by
narrow private interests. When it comes to the workers, women, youth
and Indigenous peoples, they rant against those who refuse to submit to
their unjust laws and violations of their rights, calling them
troublemakers or this or that "ism." The workers, youth, women and
Indigenous peoples are called all kinds of names in the hope that they
will be blamed for the disorder. In this vein, the official media are
blaming the nuisance in Ottawa on "truckers" even though it is
orchestrated by private interests and has nothing to do with the claims
truckers are making on society to improve their living and working
conditions. The factions within the ruling class,
their advisors and pundits also throw epithets at one another, accuse
each other of sedition and the like. What it reveals is that the world
the rulers have created for themselves is not working out for them. The
conditions demand an authority which is in tune with the times, with
the need to stop paying the rich, uphold the rights of all, renew the
political process so that the people -- not representatives of the most
narrow supranational private interests against the well-being of the
peoples -- can rule and humanize the social and natural environment.
The history of civilization shows us that those who profited
from the status quo in any particular period always fought tooth and
nail to stop the creation of a new form of society, even though the
conditions were calling for it. They gave birth to outlooks that viewed
the developments purely from the angle which served them. Today,
such self-serving outlooks are being promoted on the world scale. Their
specific feature is that they do not take into consideration the
conclusions drawn from the study and analysis of the contemporary
developments and what they reveal. For instance, pay-the-rich policies
make the rich richer and the poor poorer and this trend is presently
out of control. No matter how hard they try, the rulers are having
trouble having their pay-the-rich decisions accepted by the people as
good for them. So they do it more and more in secret. It is also a fact
that permitting state-organized racists and fascists to organize and
flourish is a matter of grave concern to society. They are fostered and
backed by the highest echelons of wealth and power to cause disruption,
instill fear, stage coups as in the United States. The mimicry of this
is on parade in Ottawa and has the residents of the city fuming and
furious. Canada's rulers and their cartel parties also appease the wars
the U.S. wages abroad and try to pass the U.S. and NATO off as peaceful.
The Government of Canada and the cartel parties in the federal
Parliament use what are called identity politics and hurl epithets at
one another to wage the factional fight among themselves and embroil
the people to choose a side. They incite passions which serve to divert
attention from their own corrupt rule by claiming they uphold high
ideals. Their attempts to justify the dangers their appeasement of U.S.
warmongering causes are reaching the limit of absurdity. So
too at the provincial level, the factional fights over control of the
reins of power are vicious and it is the people who pay with their
lives when they are forced to fend for themselves. The rulers' law and
order agenda is reserved for the people who fight, while they treat
what are called white collar crimes and their own conflicts of interest
with kid gloves. The crimes committed by the highest echelons including
the courts against the Indigenous peoples, the working people, seniors
and youth are facilitated and those committed against the peoples of
the world are either attributed to corrupt leaders in their own
countries, hiding the fact that they were put in place by foreign
powers which benefit, or as inevitable collateral damage. The double
standards and clash of outlooks which determine who and what are
dispensable and who and what are indispensable is more naked than ever
and have shaken the regimes which claim the superiority of the
so-called liberal democratic institutions to the core. It
is crucial in these circumstances that the peoples speak out against
what the rulers are doing and against their self-serving excuses and
failure to carry out their social responsibilities which show more than
ever that they are unfit to rule. The habit of
asserting the superiority of one belief over another, or one person or
party over another, or of implementing policies, decisions and
practices which declare some peoples or countries dispensable and
others indispensable are all used to make sure the struggles of the
peoples do not make headway. But the peoples are laying the claims on
society which they must and this is the way forward. Meanwhile, the
rulers are out of control. They cannot control the contradictions
within their own ranks which are erupting in violent acts whose
suppression escapes them. The character of this
period and what should be done is revealed by paying attention to the
conditions themselves from the perspective of contributing to the
advance of the society, from its present phase to the next. If this is
not done, the state of anarchy and violence will lead to the grave
dangers which lie inherent in blocking society's path to progress. This
includes embroiling the peoples in war. Recognizing
the claims all human beings are entitled to make by virtue of being
human is the key to opening society's path to progress. Affirming the
right to be begins by affirming the right to take the decisions which
affect our lives. |