The Peoples of the U.S. and the Americas Are Our Allies, Not U.S. Imperialism

On November 4, as the U.S. presidential elections had not been finalized, the Premier of Quebec, François Legault, stated concerning the elections: "We will continue to work hard to build our relationship, regardless of the president the Americans choose. I would not like other states or countries to interfere in our elections. So, it will be up to Americans to decide." The Deputy Premier of Quebec, Geneviève Guilbeault, also stated: "We will work with whoever is elected and respect the choice of the Americans." Finally, the Minister of International Relations, Nadine Girault, said: "Our ties are strong and we are essential trading allies. We will continue to support the relationship we have always had with our neighbour to the South."

To find a period in the past when the Quebec people considered the U.S. an ally, we must go back to the 19th century, when the Patriots considered the U.S. an ally in the anti-colonial struggle against the British Empire, which came to a head with the Great Assemblies of the people in 1837-38 and the need to put an end to the control the British Empire had over their lives.

But with the direct experience of the Quebec people, especially of the expansion of U.S. capital in Quebec and Canada in the 1960s and the all-out U.S. wars of aggression, their brutal and criminal overthrow of governments and their war alliances, the Quebec people sided with the peoples of the world, including the U.S. youth opposed to the Vietnam War. Among many expressions of this, following the coup in Chile in 1973, Quebec communities wholeheartedly welcomed the Chilean people who had been forced into exile by the murderous U.S.-led Pinochet coup.

During that period, Quebec workers and people also felt the brunt of the expansion of U.S. capital in Quebec. They became keenly aware that the official policy of successive governments, irrespective of their political colours, was "Quebec is open for business." This meant that the human and natural resources of Quebec were to be put at the disposal of foreign corporations, especially U.S. ones, a situation which comes to the fore again and again, as the Quebec government openly sides with these monopolies against striking workers and their communities, as was the case in Alma in 2012 when it sided with Rio Tinto Alcan. This also meant, as in the case of the lumber and mining industries as well as of U.S.-financed hydro-power mega-projects, that governments would side with the owners of these industries against the hereditary and treaty rights of the Innu, Anishinaabe and other Indigenous peoples.

As for interfering in our own affairs here, U.S. agencies were particularly active in Quebec in the 1960s and 1970s, as part of their worldwide Operation Chaos, to subvert and suppress the struggle of the Quebec working class and youth in defence of their rights, including their right to decide their own future and to oppose U.S. imperialist wars of aggression and "alliances," such as U.S.-led NATO and all of its consequences for Quebec and Canada, such as the militarization of the economy and a foreign policy in the service of U.S. global ambitions. This is seen today in the hostile U.S. policy against Cuba and Venezuela, for example, while the Quebec people oppose the brutal and criminal sanctions being imposed on these countries and stand for the right of the people to decide and for relations between countries based on peaceful relations and mutual assistance.

This is what makes statements about respecting what the U.S. people decide so deceptive and so out of touch. To lend any credibility to such a brutal and anti-conscious process which can no longer even be called "political" is precisely aimed at defending a political process that no longer serves the interests of the people and society, and subverting the struggles of the peoples for change. It is to promote an outdated, corrupt and unjust political process in which millions of people cannot even register to vote, in which the campaigns of both parties imposed upon the people as a "choice" are financed by the largest corporations in the world, and in which the very notion of public authority, of public good and of the polity have been replaced by narrow private interests.

The struggle of the people of the U.S. to decide is being waged in all earnest in all the workers' and peoples' movements which have been ongoing even during election months and are willfully being ignored by those who want to perpetuate the myth of the "greatest democracy in the world." It is being expressed in the active participation -- in the face of the most brutal suppression -- of more than 20 million people from all walks of life against racist police killings and violence, demanding equality, justice and accountability. As part of this movement, discussions are taking place about the existing political set-up and that its constitution and election fraud do not serve the interests of the people and block the development of a society that can and should serve these interests.

This struggle is being waged by the U.S. workers who have waged thousands of strikes in recent months in defence of their rights and their security, especially in these times of pandemic. In this respect, nurses -- over 2,000 health care workers have died in the U.S. due to COVID-19 -- have been particularly active as they courageously held vigils throughout the election to honour the dead and fight for the living, demanding better protection and for national public safety standards for which all private and public institutions must be held accountable.

There is a lot at stake behind seemingly innocuous statements such as those cited above, especially as concerns our relationship with the U.S. and the life-and-death struggle for change that is taking place in the Americas, including Quebec and Canada, at this time.

As for the Quebec working class and people, our relationship is above all with the working class and people of the U.S. and of the Americas in this period when, indeed, the effects of all the past injustices have caught up with those who form the ruling classes and have benefited from them.

One humanity, one struggle -- the struggle for democracy based on the defence of the rights of all, and, foremost, the right of the people to decide, to develop and choose the forms of democracy which suit their needs, without any foreign interference.

(Photos: VOR, B. La Berge)

This article was published in

Volume 50 Number 43 - November 7, 2020

Article Link:
The Peoples of the U.S. and the Americas Are Our Allies, Not U.S. Imperialism

    

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