The Day the Armistice Was Signed to
End World War I
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."
The Treaty of Versailles was finally signed by Germany and the
Allied
Nations on June 28, 1919, formally ending World War
I.
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 9 million soldiers dead and 21 million wounded. In addition, at least 5 million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure. The influenza epidemic that swept the world in 1918 killed an estimated 50 million people. One fifth of the world's population was attacked by this deadly virus.
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 in 1917 and then the Ottoman Empire, the German Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Old countries were abolished, new ones were formed and boundaries were redrawn. The League of Nations was established in 1919, under the Treaty of Versailles "to promote international cooperation and to achieve peace and security."
The high ideals of a "War to End All Wars," of duty to King and Country, and to empire, were shown to be a cover, a false justification, for the horrendous clash of the imperialist warmongers which took place during World War I. Yet these same values are promoted at this time under the rubric "Lest we forget."
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 making decisions over its own foreign policy. 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.
Today, Canadians and Quebeckers stand second to none amongst the peoples of the world opposing genocide and imperialist aggression and war. They have done so by arguing out their convictions in the face of an onslaught of disinformation that the brutal crimes carried out by U.S. imperialism, NATO and Zionism represent enlightenment, defence of human rights, peace, democracy and freedom. The peoples' ongoing work to oppose these crimes and end Canadian complicity is part and parcel of the important work to bring about new arrangements that will Make Canada a Zone for Peace.
First National Day of
Action against the U.S./Israeli genocide in Palestine, November
25, 2023
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 52 - November 11, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54522.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca