‘Come The Revolution’

Fascism And Contemporary Canada.  Locating The Present Conservative Government Led By Stephen Harper.  Part XII....

 

                                ‘Come The Revolution’

 

 

Written by Robin Mathews

 

 

From the so-called Peasants Revolt of 1381 in England through the French Revolution of 1789 to the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution of 1949, the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1978-9, the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the Bolivarian (electoral) Revolution in Venezuela in 2007, the Ecuadorian Citizens’ (electoral) Revolution of 2008, the Tunisian Revolution of 2010, and the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 (and there are more), one thing is clear.  Revolutionary action in modern society is increasing … not decreasing.

 

It is action to take power from a small super-rich, ruling and exploiting class and deliver it to a broader population … by peaceful and/or other means.

 

Conversely, a huge blanket of propaganda is being thrown over global populations by the corporate-owned media, by elaborate political agencies engaging in public manipulation and massage, and through high-cost, non-media corporate indoctrination. In addition, military and other coups to end democratic governments continue – as was the case in Egypt in 2012.

 

The blanket of propaganda is intended to assure the world’s population that it is better off with vast concentrations of wealth in the hands of a few, with unregulated corporate fouling of the ecosystem, with increasing exploitation and pauperization of whole communities, and with governments dedicated to service of the corporate minority rather than to open, visible representation of the larger population.

 

The tension between the two forces grows stronger daily.

 

The ‘smother’ tactics of the super-rich and their docile governments cannot be underestimated. Many examples are so obvious they are missed altogether. Here’s a pair that will offend many – because of the successful indoctrination to which we have ALL been subjected!

 

Born in 1918 Nelson Mandela – as we all know – became a revolutionary, was jailed for years, became South Africa’s first Black president and worked to erase apartheid and to reconcile racial differences.  A hero, he won the Nobel Peace Prize and at least 250 other honours from around the world.

 

He did not, however, rebuild the South African economy and land ownership to provide greater justice for most of the people … not in any serious way.  By accident or design he left a system in the hands of global corporations.

 

And so, for example, in August 2012 thirty-four miners were killed and seventy-eight wounded at the Marikana platinum mine by South African Police Officers acting for a British Corporation.  That and other injustices have caused new parties to spring up, confronting huge poverty, unemployment, rapacious multi-national corporations, unending urban crime … and more. The ANC government of South Africa is doing all it can to ignore the meaning of the Marikana massacre.

 

When Nelson Mandela died in 2013, government leaders from around the world attended his funeral.  Among them were those dedicated to the rule of the super-rich who conducted the trumped-up wars in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. Praise for Mandela was unlimited. The global press was saturated. No eulogy could be too extravagant for The Great Freedom Fighter.

 

Born in 1926 Fidel Castro – as we all know – became a revolutionary, in and out of jail, conducted an armed revolution, won it, and completely reconstructed Cuba to provide for the health and welfare of all Cubans.  Hated by corporate USA, Cuba has spent decades and decades suffering from U.S. boycotts, sanctions, and blockades of all sorts (as well as an armed invasion) instituted in an attempt to destroy its government and to impoverish its people. Named a Hero of the Soviet Union, Fidel Castro has been forced to elude at least 600 assassination attempts made on him by the U.S.A.

 

The Cuban socialist experiment survives.  In addition Cuba has been an aid and an inspiration to movements all over South and Central America working to increase the democratic power of populations.  When Fidel Castro dies,

the global press will portray him as a brute who savaged human rights and a ‘dictator’ who denied ‘freedom’ to his people.

 

The governments that turned Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan   into wastelands of poverty, crime, civil war, disease, destruction of property, and social chaos will refuse to attend Fidel Castro’s funeral – in order to preserve their propaganda images of saintly morality. Among them – if he is still around – will be Stephen Harper, Canada’s present prime minister, who has aligned himself and his government with the super-rich - with the global, repressive, corporate forces.

 

To do that, any government has to abandon its existence as an entity working within legal and established constitutional structures. In bids to maintain illegitimate power, for instance, the present Conservative government led by Stephen Harper has repeatedly engaged in what are, in fact, criminal actions to befoul the electoral system.

 

In addition, it has used the Prime Minister’s Office (and the Canadian Senate) in a combination of actions that have brought accusations of criminal activity. In preceding columns I have asked if the Prime Minister’s Office and the Conservative Party of Canada may be designated ‘criminal organizations’? 

 

That those questions can even be asked says all that needs to be said .... The Conservative forces in Canada have been found out in major malicious, organized, intentional violations of the law and the constitution.

 

In doing so, they have joined the forces across the globe  determined to violate, to reinterpret, or to rewrite laws and processes governing social behaviour in such a way as to remove democratic oversight and protection of freedoms - and to erase constitutional guarantees of due process.

 

By intentional administrative violations (as with B.C. government’s repeated unconstitutional attacks on teachers), by draconian ‘terrorist’ laws made ‘for the protection of national security’, by voluminous so-called ‘international free trade’ and economic agreements, by the hobbling of democratic institutions (like unions), and by open coercion on the part of international banking authorities (always contributing to private banking powers and profits) governments of ‘the free world’ - of the U.S., Europe, Canada, and other nations - are serving the super-rich in their battle against democratic populations.

 

Corruption in the European Community, for instance, we are told, is worth $180 Billions annually (Globe and Mail, Feb 4 14, p. A11). It is directly connected to governments. The problem is caused, the Globe reports, by “the ties between the political class and industry”.

 

The outcome of such monumental fraud practiced on the population is easy to predict. In the shorter term tensions will increase. In the longer term the outcome will be a long period of fascist rule in formerly ‘democratic’ countries, or there will be an overthrow of present directions and a return to popularly responsible governments.

 

For the present there are no national Opposition Parties in Canada seriously engaged with that real, historical confrontation of forces. 

 

And so tensions will grow until a wholly new Party is founded on what will have to be – in terms of present political ideology and behaviour – revolutionary ideas.  It might even be called the “The Canadian Revolution Party” to indicate its root and branch difference from anything presently in existence.

 

Its platform isn’t hard to predict. It will strip corporations of their present unannounced governing power and license them under strict regulation and oversight. All private corporate activity in Canada will not only be taxed through progressive taxation programs, but will be audited to end the fake tax reporting and massive illegitimate profit-taking that characterizes present behaviour, especially from corporations headquartered outside of Canada.

 

The new Canadian government will engage in full-scale economic activity through Crown Corporations. Proved by past excellence, they will engage in, especially, what are described as infrastructure activities: energy production and transmission, transportation, health and education facilities. Worker-owned enterprise and community created management of housing, retirement facilities, cultural undertakings ... and more … will be encouraged and supported.

 

The Canadian government will take over and direct all credit granted in the country, through the Bank of Canada. Private credit-granting banks will continue under strict regulation, but the Central Bank will manage all credit for ‘national’ enterprise. The balance between the two forces will ensure the existence of lively private critics of all government credit activities and governmental critics of all private, corporate lending.

 

The new government will erase or fundamentally reconstruct all so-called Free Trade Agreements to eliminate ‘rule by private corporations’… and to reinvest and liberate Canadian expertise and energy in the creation of industry and enterprise. It will also work to liberate workers who are presently (in fact) slave labourers in so-called far-away “off-shore sourcing” populations by making Canadian laws to cover them. Canada will take a leading place among countries seeking international equality and justice.

 

Canada will unite environmental law with intense ‘green’ programs of all kinds to prevent polluting activities and to make them, finally, unnecessary. 

 

Quite simply, the new Party in power will completely overturn the present goal of the ruling elites which is to erase the Canadian population as the significant basis of law, justice, social interaction, and economic enterprise in the country. The struggle will be a hard-fought one because it will not arise out of any of the existing political parties and formations in the country – all of which have openly or tacitly signed on to the program of the super-rich.

 

If that were not so, readers would recognize (at least some) Opposition Party policies in the ones I have set out as part of the revolutionary change that must come about. But not one of the present parties has put forward a single one of the major ideas set forth here as necessary in order to make significant change.

 

The case seems hopeless. There is no sign of new leadership.  The population seems drugged or willingly passive. The present Conservative government of Canada  engages in open destruction of democratic institutions … and in criminal behaviour.

 

History shows us, however, that such times are often, in fact, the seedtimes of sudden unpredictable happenings and the appearance of apparently unprepared leaders seeming to come from nowhere. They gather solid support and – to the population’s delighted surprise – make changes that seem so obvious, necessary, and fair that all come to believe the changes were already in their own minds before the new leadership appeared to set out on the new direction.

 

Written by Robin Mathews

 

 

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