Ban the Halifax War Conference! Oppose Canada's Stated War Aims!
November 21, 2009. Demonstration against the first
Halifax International Security Forum
demands "Warmongers Out of Halifax!"
From November 20 to 22, the 12th Halifax
International Security Forum (HISF) convenes as a
platform for warmongering and empire-building of
U.S. imperialism and the NATO bloc, in which the
Trudeau Liberal government is fully embroiled. The
HISF is being convened in a virtual format. For
the 12th consecutive year, the anti-war forces in
Halifax are organizing to oppose it.
On November 20, No Harbour for War organized
a public anti-war webinar. On November 21, a rally
is organized at Halifax Peace Park across from the
venue of the HISF.
 Peace activists in
Halifax are joined by others across the country to
firmly reject their city and our country being
used as the venue for this war conference and a
base for war preparations.
This is not a Halifax -- let alone a Canadian --
event. It is a NATO bloc event, which it
officially sponsors and directs. Its virtual
format is organized from NATO's Washington, DC
headquarters. The majority of its sessions are
private and classified as "informal." The eight
"plenary sessions" are broadcast in Canada by
CPAC, owned by the Rogers telecommunications
monopoly.
The HISF describes itself as "non-partisan" and
"independent" but it is a U.S. imperialist
enterprise -- lock, stock and barrel. An
instrument of the U.S. state, its credo is
"Halifax creates opportunities for leaders to
learn, generate ideas and put them into action."
The word "security" in HISF's name is informed by
NATO's warmongering definition, namely protecting
and advancing Anglo-American imperialist political
and economic interests to the detriment of the
peoples of the world, including those of the
United States, Canada and Europe itself, in
addition to those of Asia, Oceania, Africa, Latin
America and the Caribbean. This is dangerous and
puts Canadians and peoples everywhere in harm's
way.
There is nothing honourable, "internationalist"
or "multilateral" in the way that the Trudeau
Liberals are funding and promoting this venue on
Canadian territory, just as the Harper
Conservatives did before them. Not only is
everything related to foreign relations a
prerogative power over which the people have no
say whatsoever, but Canada plays no independent
role. In fact, both its defence minister and armed
forces are subordinate to the U.S.
Commander-in-Chief through both NATO and NORAD
command structures.
Who adopted the "Global Canada" conception which
is being pushed? Who agrees that Canada's
government should be set up as a war government
with a war economy?
The "security" this conference is based on is a
Cold War definition of "collective security" which
does not respond to Canada's defence needs or the
demand of the peoples of the world for peace and
the peaceful resolution of conflicts within and
between nations. It responds to the demands of the
U.S. imperialists through NATO and the biggest
arms monopolies and other private interests to
increase military spending, step up war
preparations and control all interests which clash
with their own.
 In line with the
Liberal government's public relations approach,
Canada's participation in the HISF and launching
of wars is presented as a factor for a "more
stable and peaceful world" and a "rules-based
international order." It is not. The great
insecurity felt by the world's peoples today is a
direct result of the U.S.-led imperialist wars
that have devastated and threatened countries and
whole regions. Against this warmongering path --
which does not contribute one iota to solving the
serious problems humankind is facing due to the
neo-liberal destruction of the natural and social
environment, betrayal of the nation, and issues
such as poverty, hunger, and the COVID-19 pandemic
-- the forces which genuinely stand for peace
demand concrete measures to make Canada a zone for
peace by getting Canada out of NATO and NORAD, and
demilitarizing the economy and changing its
direction to make it pro-social so that it can
meet the needs of the people.
The HISF attaches high significance to its
initiative to bring together the movers and
shakers of U.S. imperialist attempts to dominate
the world. But no matter how much they give rise
to refurbished notions of old theories, they
cannot overcome the imperialist security dilemma
formulated as far back as 1957 by none other than
Henry Kissinger when he was still a professor
at Harvard University.
"But so far as the effect on our national policy
is concerned, the stalemate ... has been with us
ever since the explosions over Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. To be sure, in the first postwar years
it was not a physical stalemate. For nearly a
decade the United States was virtually immune to
Soviet retaliation. It was a stalemate, none the
less, in the sense that we never succeeded in
translating our military superiority into a
political advantage." (emphasis added.)
Kissinger adds, [O]ur atomic monopoly had at best
a deterrent effect."
This describes the problem the Anglo-American
imperialists have had all along -- that their
military superiority does not provide political
advantage. It does not do away with politics.
Sovereign countries continue to exist with their
own right to be and right to decide their own
affairs. Thirty NATO members out of 198 countries
in the world do not the world make.
With the fall of the Soviet Union and the onset
of the neo-liberal nation-wrecking agenda, the
security dilemma facing the imperialists can only
continue to get worse so long as their neo-liberal
agenda does not recognize international relations
based on territoriality and nation-states have
been usurped by very narrow private interests
which operate internationally as cartels and
coalitions vying for control. What they cannot
control, they seek to destroy. No matter what
choice the imperialists and their henchmen make,
in the absence of politics all they have left is
"endless war" -- states of exception and the use
of force to try to control what they cannot
control through threats, anarchy and violence
coupled with attempts to justify what cannot be
justified.
In 2016, it was the missile defence shield to
contain Russia. Now it is a global handbook to
contain China.
The fact remains that the greatest insecurity is
that people are disempowered, the prerogative
power gives them no say whatsoever over foreign
affairs and defence policy. This makes gatherings
such as the one organized by No Harbour for War
very significant because its aim is to provide
those who are on the front line fighting for peace
with information and assessments of the war
preparations by the HISF, Canada and NATO. To
share and exchange experiences, and work out a new
direction for Canada is important work.
Canadians should demand that the HISF be banned,
along with demanding that Canada get out of NATO
and NORAD and that they be dismantled. No foreign
troops should be permitted to operate on Canadian
territory and Canadian forces should be brought
home to operate only in defence of Canada based on
how the Canadian people define that need, not the
U.S. imperialists, NATO and their so-called
intelligence agencies. No foreign warships,
whether or not they carry nuclear weapons, should
be permitted to use our harbours. All foreign
think tanks and NATO-sponsored Canadian academic
institutions should be dismantled. All front
groups and non-governmental organizations which
promote imperialist war aims must be rejected by
the people.
With a pro-social aim and new direction for the
economy, other uses can be found for that social
wealth and the human productive force released
from the war economy. Needless to say, the
suggestions to humanize the social and natural
environment are unlimited in their scope.
Ban the Halifax War Conference
and Oppose the Government of Canada's War Aims!
No Harbour for War!
Make Canada a Zone for Peace!
This article was published in
Volume 50 Number 45 - November 21, 2020
Article Link:
Ban the Halifax War Conference! Oppose Canada's Stated War Aims!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
|
