Halifax Protest Rally for Peace and Against Racism

HALIFAX (September 25, 2001) – ON September 22, 2001, a protest rally for peace and against racism was held on the lawn of the main branch of the Halifax Regional Library. Organized largely by MobGlob, between 200 to 300 people participated representing a broad cross section of organizations and views. Amongst them were representatives of the Council of Canadians, the Muslim community, the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) and the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).

Speakers reiterated the demand that the United States should not respond to the tragedy which took place on September 11 in an act of revenge which will kill more innocent people. As a speaker from India put it: “If you practise eye for an eye, the whole country goes blind.”

Representatives of CPC(M-L) emphasized several crucial points. One speaker focused on who are the terrorists, pointing out that the tremendous inequalities and impoverishment of the majority of the world’s people are not labeled as a crime. US state terrorism is linked with and fuels international terrorism. Force is not a legitimate means of resolving political conflicts amongst states. He added that it is up to the people of each country to resolve these problems, and as Canadians our duty is to stop Canada from being embroiled in US imperialist aggression.

Another speaker pointed to the high level of resistance to the pressures from the state and the monopoly media. He said that before this tragic event occurred the people were making progress on a number of fronts: the movement against globalization, the international movement against racism and the movement for democratic renewal. “Yet now, in the wake of the shocking events on September 11 we are told that we should give up all that and line up behind George W. Bush. The worst reactionaries are now being portrayed as the foremost defenders of democracy and freedom and this sleight of hand is happening in broad daylight in the hope that people’s minds are too numb to notice.”

A representative of the CFS talked about the activation of Canadian and American students for peace and against war citing the teach-ins and protests across the US and Canada. Clifford White from the Council of Canadians also spoke, saying, amongst other things that Canada was at a crossroads and it could go any way, and that politicians should realize the importance of not getting too embroiled with the US military actions.

CPC(M-L) supporters also distributed copies of the latest TML Daily, and collected more signatures on the petition for a binding referendum on the FTAA.

This was one of many actions taking place in Halifax these days. There was a teach-in at Dalhousie University on Thursday, another panel discussion Saturday evening at Dal-tech and there are on-going forums sponsored on CKDU radio station.

Source: TML Daily, September 25, 2001 – No. 170

Not a Single Youth for Imperialist Terror and War!

A Youth in Halifax

I WORK FOR a news agency in Halifax and so I have followed the media coverage of every major national station in Canada, the US, and local stations here in Halifax on the tragedy in the United States. I share my deepest sympathies for the working people, women and youth of the US who were the victims of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the other terrorist crimes of September 11. The first comments made by the media in their “assessment,” as to the reasons this act was carried out, was to look at the WTC and the Pentagon as symbols of economic freedom and military might. In other words, an attack on the American “Way of Life” (i.e. the free market economy, military Might Makes Right) and so on. The fact is, the attack on the World Trade Centre was not an attack on the “Way of Life” of US imperialists but rather part and parcel of the state terror, criminalization of dissent and war mongering that is their modus operandi. That is to say, it is the US imperialists who are also responsible for innumerable crimes against humanity – such as in Chile with the assassination of Salvador Allende and rise of Pinochet, or in Iraq, Indonesia, Cuba, Korea, Yugoslavia and numerous others – and are the proponents of the state terrorist idea that Might Makes Right and that the use of force is how to settle conflicts both at home and abroad.

It is also important to point out the fact that workers, women and youth who are fighting for their rights in the United States and in other countries under the thumb of the United States are the real threat to the “Way of Life” that the US imposes on and dictates to everyone. It is the people who are trying to take control of their lives that are a threat to the US “Way of Life.” It is people who also bear the brunt of such terrorist attacks as what happened on September 11, not the imperialist powers. This act of terrorism has nothing to do with the movement against imperialism but is rather a part of imperialism and is in fact counter-revolutionary and against this movement.

The US imperialists are the same people that created the terror in Seattle, at the Democratic and Republican Conventions and criminalized the dissent of the people, especially the youth, of the United States. The US imperialists made it well known that they will stop at nothing to stop those that are a threat to their hegemony including putting them in jail, firing on them and infringing on their basic fundamental rights. The media hype, the statements by Bush, Chretien and all others is part of creating divisions amongst the people, sowing confusion and fear amongst the people and breaking their resolve to take control of their lives and fight for justice and real peace. Their frenzy to whip up feelings of vengeance and retribution is an example.

The youth must take a stand against the war mongering and further their efforts to organize and agitate against imperialist dictate around the world. We all know that the first victims of any action taken by the US will be the youth that they utilise to carry out their imperialist dictate and the innocent peoples of the world that will be casualties of their quest for vengeance.

This is a time to step up efforts to denounce imperialist crimes of the past and expose them such as in Chile and to defeat this state of affairs which has long been the imperialist World Order. It is a time to expose the crimes the US imperialists are committing today. It is a time to refuse to be passive and not let these imperialist hooligans get away with murder! Let us lay the blame where it is due and defeat imperialist gangsterism at home and abroad!

Not a Single Youth for Imperialist Terror or War!

Step Up the Fight to Defeat US Imperialist Dictate!

Source: TML Daily, September 14, 2001 – No. 159