Leaders’ War Summit

Say No! to Fortress North America!
No to War Preparations and Monopoly Rule!
Down with Obama’s Politics of
Drone Assassination!
Canada Needs an Anti-War Government!
Obama and Peña Nieto Go Home!

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls on Canadians and Quebeckers to firmly oppose the presence in Canada of U.S war president Barack Obama and his Mexican counterpart Enrique Peña Nieto. Go all out to oppose the 10th North American Leaders Neo-liberal War Summit taking place in Ottawa on June 29. The Summit aims to disarm the resistance of the people and step up the criminal activities that put all the human, material and natural resources of the peoples of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico at the disposal of the most powerful monopolies, concentrate their power and privileges on a supranational basis, destroy the anti-war public opinion of the people and mobilize them behind the criminal U.S.-led wars of aggression and occupation and Obama’s politics of drone assassination.

Media reports are crowing that for the first time since the Summits began in 2005, all three governments “are ruled by centrist parties.” The financial oligarchs are euphoric that they have such governments that can pull off war preparations, neo-liberal free trade agreements and an unprecedented sellout of the people under the noses of the people themselves.[1] This sentiment was expressed blithely by Canada’s Minister of Environment Catherine McKenna when she said, “It’s a great message to the world that we’re working together, we believe in trade, we have progressive governments.”

At a time when Canadians are organizing to intensify their opposition to U.S.-led wars and neo-liberal free trade including NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and CETA, Justin Trudeau, Barack Obama and Enrique Peña Nieto have the arrogance to put on their agenda the creation of “a more integrated, sustainable and globally-competitive North American economy” and sanction Obama’s politics of endless war and drone assassination. Leaks of the secret agenda reveal talk of a “union” of Fortress North America under the domination of the monopolies and to do everything possible to counter any contagion from Brexit and aspiration of the peoples everywhere for their own independent economies and politics under their control.

The Canadian American Business Council comprised of some of the biggest private monopolies in Canada and the U.S. has called for the leaders to strike a three-country “cabinet group,” a new political executive for the United States of North American Monopolies to deprive the people of any possibility to control those affairs that affect their lives. This Fortress North America Cabinet would be an extension of existing mechanisms joining the ruling elite of Canada and the U.S., the High Level Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and Mexico, and the Canada-Mexico High Level Strategic Dialogue announced on June 28.[2]

Media report that “an official in one of the countries said the leaders will announce more than one process designed to tighten long-term co-operation over multiple areas.” In other words, behind the backs of the people arrangements are being put in place whereby decision-making is further concentrated in the hands of a trilateral executive where the buck stops with the U.S. and the decisions they take are imposed on national legislatures and the people. The further concentration of decision-making power in a supranational executive led by U.S. imperialism makes a mockery of the Liberals’ pledge to restore the credibility of the democratic institutions, whether through electoral reform or other means.

These matters are a serious concern to Canadians. The Liberal government is accelerating the restructuring of the state to pay the rich, further disempowering the people and increasing Canada’s participation in U.S. imperialist war preparations. The neo-liberal war summit of Fortress North America points to an existential crisis facing Canada and highlights the grave dangers for the Canadian people should the U.S. imperialists succeed in embroiling Canada in missile defence, nuclear blackmail, its politics of assassination and stepped up preparations for world war.

The “processes for cooperation” are being installed in the twilight of the Obama war presidency precisely because the U.S. ruling elite are organizing for a Clinton war presidency to carry forward and drastically expand U.S. aggression in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

In this regard, war president Obama will address a special session of the House of Commons with MPs and Senators present on June 29 to give the final word on the meetings most likely in an atmosphere of blind euphoria. Before the House adjourned on June 17 for its summer break, the Liberal government introduced two bills to further integrate Canada with the U.S. national security apparatus in information sharing and border pre-clearance and set the stage for the next phase of “cooperation.”[3] The Liberal government’s actions and this neo-liberal war Summit underscore the serious dangers for the people. Organize to bring into being a pro-social alternative to neo-liberal globalization and war!

Say No! to Fortress North America!
Sovereignty, Yes! Annexation, No!
Down with Obama’s Politics of Drone Assassination!
Oppose U.S. Preparations to Install a Clinton War President!
Canada Needs an Anti-War Government!
One Humanity, One Struggle!

Note

1. This is the first summit to be held since February 2014 in Toluca, Mexico. The summits began in 2005 as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, a name that was discarded after the meetings were met with the militant resistance of working people in all three countries, including at Montebello, Quebec in August 2007.

2. The Canadian American Business Council (CABC) promotes strengthening monopoly right throughout North America by attacking the public authority and removing and “harmonizing” national regulations and standards that limit in any way the exercise of control by the biggest monopolies. It also promotes integration on security and defence matters.

Its Board is made up of Air Canada, Barrick Gold, Baxter Corporation, Bennett Jones, Bombardier, Borden Ladner Gervais, Campbell’s Soup Company, Canadian National Railway, Capitol Hill Consulting Group, The Coca-Cola Company, Contextere, Dickstein Shapiro, Enbridge, Energy Equipment and Infrastructure Alliance, ExxonMobil, Facebook, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, Google, Harley-Davidson Canada, Johnson&Johnson, Lockheed Martin, MasterCard, Motion Picture Association-Canada, Revolution Organics, Rio Tinto Canada, Shell, Spectra Energy, TD Bank Group, and UPS.

The CABC Advisory Board is chaired by the current Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. and is composed of all former Ambassadors to Canada and the U.S., as well as former Congressman John LaFalce, former Senator Jack Austin, P.C., Q.C., and former Minister Barbara McDougall, P.C., O.C.

3. Bills C-21, An Act to amend the Customs Act and C-23, An Act respecting the preclearance of persons and goods in Canada and the United States (Preclearance Act, 2016).