Remeberance Day: Why Revolutionaries Don't Commemorate the Crimes of Imperialism

One day commemorated in capitalist Canada is Remembrance Day. Other imperialist powers have similar holidays. The US has Veterans Day and Memorial Day. A question that I think should be asked is what purpose these days serves. A revolutionary Marxist I would argue that such days serve no other purpose then to drum up national chauvinism and support for imperialist war.

As for wars Canada has been involved in, there is the War of 1812, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the War on Afghanistan and the War on Haiti. The US has been involved in the American Revolutionary War, the Mexican-American War, the American Civil War, Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the War on Afghanistan, the two Persian Gulf Wars etc. (There are really too many to list for the US).

Britain ruled the world from the barrel of the gun all the way till World War II. They invaded people's in Asia, Africa, the Americas, Australia etc. France, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Holland and the like have similar blood-soaked records. Britain and Holland fought in the Boer-War and the Napoleonic War. Britain, France and Germany both fought in both world wars. I want to apologize in advance if I don't get down to the point.

Well for World War I. It was an inter-imperialist war. Britain, France, the United States, Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey were all imperialist powers fighting for markets, resources sources of cheap labour, raw materials and spheres of influence. This being the case revolutionaries have no side. And revolutionaries at the time rightfully fought for turning the imperialist war into a civil war of the proletariat (working class) against the bourgeoisie (capitalist class). Revolutionaries OUGHT TO honour the soldiers who point their guns their generals and the capitalists though. This did in fact happen in Russia and made the October Russian Revolution successful.

As for World War 2 this was a similar situation. Britain, France, Canada, the United States, Japan, Germany and Italy were all imperialist powers and revolutionaries didn't side with any of them. Revolutionaries did take a side with the Soviet Union, a bureaucratically degenerated workers' state (a state based on collectivized property where capitalism had been overthrown but where political power had been monopolized by a privileged bureaucratic caste which rested atop the workers' state). The Soviet Red Army smashed the Nazi war machine (no thanks to Stalin and other bureaucrats though) and the they SHOULD be honoured.

As for the Korean War, Revolutionary had a side with the Soviet Union as well as China and North Korea (the latter two were bureaucratically deformed workers' states which is similar in definition to a bureaucratically deformed workers' state) against the Imperialist powers led by the U.S. and included Canada, and many countries from Western and Northern Europe.

As for the Vietnam War, North Vietnam was a bureaucratically deformed workers' state and the revolutionary working class had a side with it against US (and Australian) Imperialism. The Soldier to be honoured were the Viet Cong as well as the US draft dodgers and defectors like Mohammad Ali.

As for the two US led wars on Iraq and the US led war on Afghanistan, revolutionaries sided with Iraq and Afghanistan without giving any political support to the reactionary Taliban or the bloody capitalist regime of Saddam Hussein. The Balkan wars were similar Revolutionaries sided with Serbia against the imperialist without giving political support to the genocidal regime of Slovajo Milosevic (I hope I am spelling that right). The US led war on Bosnia would be quite similar.

As for the American Civil War, revolutionaries had a side with the Northern Union against the Southern Confederacy. Capitalism in the US had yet to cross over to reaction at this point. It wasn't until the notorious Compromise of 1877 that they crossed over to reaction. The capitalists in Europe crossed over to reaction in 1848.

In the same light the American Revolutionary War was supportable as it free American farmers and capitalists from the grip of the British colonial overlords. This was a political revolution. While the American Civil War along with the English Civil War, the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution were social revolutions.

As for the Mexican-American war, it was a reactionary war on the side of the US. I am embarrassed to admit that Marx and Engels initially supported the US. Fortunately, they later repudiated this stance. Marx and Engels initially thought that when European and American powers colonized people it lead to economic and social development in those colonies. They saw the blood spilled as a tragic necessity. They later realized that when the US or West European powers colonized people's, they didn't promote social and economic development but arrested it. Britain promoted the caste system in India and tribalism in central Africa. More recently, the US led forces enshrined Sharia law in Afghanistan and in Iraq they gave the mullahs the authority to strike down any law they saw as "un-Islamic".

As for the War of 1812 and the Napoleonic War, revolutionaries had no side. Revolutionaries did not have a side with either Britain or Holland in the Boer-War or with the US or Spain in the Spanish-American War.

Quotes of Staff persons‏

* Staff Person A
 
   . On Agent Provocateurs:
   "Sometimes the police need to take charge of protesters and it may appear like 

the cops are provoking them"
 
   . On Vancouver being a police state during the 2010 Olympics:
    "Its necessary and keeps us safe."
 
   . On abusive employers in small businesses:
   "Owning a business is hard and bosses are under pressure to get things done"
 
   . On police cracking down on the waterfront:
   "I'm glad. It should have been sooner".
 
   . On longshoremen:
   "They're mean and tough. If they're not that way to begin with they'll become 

mean and tough".
 
   . On those born wealthy:
    "People born to riches are all so humble and down to earth"
 
   . On Paris Hilton:
   "I'd like to be her friend. She's probably a really nice person."
 
* Staff Person B
 
   On unionized workers:
   "Its virtually impossible to fire them. You really ought to be able to fire 

them."

What Mental Health Housing Staff Push for When Unionized

* Staff in group homes were originally elected annually. Since they were unionized they saw to it that those elections were abolished. The staff now have absolute power.
* More power over residents.
* More discretionary powers.
* Harder for residents to go over top of staff.
* The "right" to utter death threats to, shout at, insult, or confiscate welfare cheques of residents without repercussion.

Why the Labour Bureaucracy and the Bourgeoisie want Staff In Mental Health Housing to be Unionized

* Keep a cap on potential labour militancy: 
   . Many of the residents are proletarian others were homeless and are or were 

unemployed. These group homes serve a an organic link between the anger of the 

ghetto masses and the militancy of the proletariat.
   . The staff instill unquestioning obedience in authority. One of the staff 

persons described themselves as a "den mother" (the family instills in youth 

unquestioning obedience in authority).
* The labour bureaucracy expands its dues base without organizing the

proletariat:
   . Less dependent on the proletariat for dues.
* Builds organic links between the labour bureaucracy and the bourgeois state.
* The labour bureaucracy shares the bourgeoisie's contempt for the disabled.
* The labour bureaucracy collaborates with the bourgeoisie and even organizes 

cops, security guards, prison guards etc. Organizing managers is a logical next 

step:
   . The staff in mental health housing have more in common with low level 

managers or foremen then proletarians or even semi-proletarians.
   . All the manual labour is performed by the residents. Workfare with a new name.

The Functions Of Staff In Mental Health Housing

* Dictate what you put in your food.
* Dictate when you can or can't lie on "communal couches".
* Spray residents with water who sleep at "wrong times".
* Dictate what clothes a person wears.
* Spashes residents with water who sleep at wrong times.
* Residents are encouraged to rat out fellow residents to staff if they have ANY 

concerns about fellow residents. 

* Dictate when you can be awake and asleep.
* Dictate when you can be in your room.
* Dictate what people can spend money on.
* Dictate where residents can sleep
* Dictate when people can watch TV.
* Confiscate disability and welfare cheques.
* Withhold welfare and disability cheques.
* Rat residents out to management (often involving immediate eviction, no notice)

(residents who are evicted from their group home can't set foot in the group unless

the staff person is present):
   . Doing drugs
   . Drinking alcohol within a block of a group home
   . Not handing over "excess earnings over to government" (on disability you can

only make $500 on the side)
   . Not taking one's medication
   . "Excess" sleep, TV or time in the house
 
* If a resident is evicted they can't enter the group home unless the staff person

is present. This is true even to get their stuff.
* A lot of the rules imposed on residents by staff are at the discretion of the 

staff.
 

A Second Look a the Situation in Mental Health Housing in BC: Why the "Staff" are NOT Workers and Have no Place in the Unions

In a previous article I wrote about how the bureaucrats running the Hospital Employees Union organized the "staff" at mental health housing were organized and the that residents (many of whom are Proletarian, all of whom are Plebeian) were disenfranchised.

I however made what I now consider to be a fundamental error. I assumed that the staff were working class. The fact is the Proletariat do manual labour and produce commodities, unlike the staff at mental health housing. The staff primary function isn't white collar work either. In fact their job is to police the activities of residents in the group homes.

Marxist define the state as armed bodies of men (people would be more politically correct) and other forces of coercion. And the "staff" at mental health housing by their job description are coercive. They are, I think it is correct to say part of the state apparatus. This being the case they have no place in unions and it is a crime that the labour bureaucracy would organize these people. Especially when it involved disenfranchises actual Proletarians. It truly speaks to the labour bureaucracy's utter bankruptcy.

The labour bureacracy organizes a ton of people who they shouldn't. They organize cops and security guards who break strikes. They organize prison guards who terrorizes workers and oppressed people who have been thrown in jail. They organize foremen who police workers on the job. Recently, the Canadian Auto Workers started organizing priests. Just as cops who police the ghettos (and break strikes) and foremen who police the shop floor shouldn't be in unions, "staff" in mental health housing don't belong in unions.

It is the job of revolutionaries Trotskyists to form a disciplined Leninist vanguard which would serve as a class struggle leadership for workers (whether organized or unorganized). Such a leadership would fight tooth and nail to purge the unions of mental health housing "staff", priests, cops, security guards, prison guards, foremen and other anti-working class elements along with the labour bureaucrats who organize them.

Nazism Raises its Ugly Head: Fascist Terror is Not a Question of Free Speech!

It has been reported that the Nazis intend to rally in the Greater Vancouver area. I has been ten years since these vermin dared rally in Vancouver. The fascists pose a threat to all the oppressed including disabled, mentally ill, racial minorities, Jews, Muslims, gays, bisexuals, transgender but their main target is the multiracial proletariat (working class). The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), which criminally champion the "constitutional rights" of fascists will probably do the same again. More recently they have taken it a step further and championed people who actually killed the oppressed such as fascistic bigot Robert Latimer who has the support of outright fascists and sits back and lets them make his case (see. http://thebigotedmurderoftracylatimer.blogspot.com). The BBCLA criminally can't even stomach the idea of opposing forced sterilization of the severely disabled, severely mentally ill and severely mentally challenged on principle.

Lately the fascists have been reaping gains from the fascistic Free Robert Latimer Movement. A movement that has defends the freeing of ablest bigot and fascistic lyncher Robert Latimer who murdered his own disabled daugther. A number of notable leftists, such as NDPer Svend Robinson and the grossly misnamed political bandits known in Canada as the "Trotskyist League" (see. http://spartacistwatch.blogspot.com), have criminally championed Robert Latimer,  and therefore share responsibility for the rise of fascism in Canada.

Like the fascists in Britain the fascists here are probably benefiting from anti-immigrant racism and 9/11 hysteria. The "war on terror" has been criminally support by the likes of the NDP.

Fascist terror is not a question of free speech. They "speak" with the lynch rope, firebombs, guns etc. Revolutionaries much not call on the capitalist state because "hate crime law" will only be used as a pretext to go after the left and rarely go after actual fascists and racist and ablest terrorists. What is need is labour/minority/disabled people rally to smash the fascists and drive them off the streets. The multiracial and neurologically diverse proletariat create labour defence guards to defend minorities, the disabled and mentally ill against lynchings (including "mercy killings"). To do this it is necessary to forge a Revolutionary Leninist Trotskyist Vanguard party to lead the proletariat. Ultimately, in order to eliminate fascism altogether the capitalist system needs to be overturned in international workers revolution and the Bourgeoisie (capitalist class), which always keeps the fascists in reserve as a last line of defence, must be expropriated.

For Workers Seizure of Bankrupt Industries: Companies Demanding Bailout Money Should Open the Books

A little while ago their were bailouts of companies, mainly banks and auto companies so far. Such grotesque bailouts serve to do nothing other than to save the profits of the capitalist and save this venal, decrepid and putrid capitalist system. This all has come at the expense of the working class and the oppressed. The working class has to pay higher taxes to bailout these greedy and rapacious capitalist. More public services are being gutted. Also, taking place have been "restructuring". Basically companies that are being bailed out are require to slash wages, eradite pension and other union benefits.

Criminally the labour bureaucracy and it political arm of the NDP. Jack Layton criminally told workers to have the "courage" to take a cut. Its quite obvious the Proletariat (working class) needs to break with the NDP and he labour bureaucracy. The working class needs a new party, a revolutionary Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard party. Many smaller reformist groups such as Fightback, Socialist Action and the International Socialist continue to foster illusion in the NDP. In doing so they do a real diservice to the working class.

If capitalist companies go bankrupt than workers should seize those factories and run them themselves. If you've seen The Take by Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis you'll know what I am talking about. Also, workers must demand that bosses requesting bailouts to open the books so all can see the profits that the capitalist gouge from the masses. However, workers musn't stop there. The working class must be mobilized to take state power by smashing the Bourgeois (capitalist) state. Whereas, a Bourgeois state would seek to overturn working class expropriations of capitalist companies, a worker's state would defend and extend such expropriation. Workers' Revolution in Canada isn't enought. It must take place internationally.

Anti-Olympic Protestors Who Riot: Stupid? Maybe. Criminal. No.

As most people know the Olypmics are currently taking place in Vancouver and Whistler in British Columbia. The games have done nothing but bleed public services in Canada dry. In response to this their have been plenty of protests against these games. There have been allegations by the Bourgeois (capitalist) Press of protestors being "violent". I'm a Marxist, not a Petty-Bourgeois (middle-class, white-collar) moralist and see no reason to be repugnant over "violence".

First of all what's worse, trigger-happy thugs in blue (i.e. cops), who have a monopoly on fire-arms and tasers, gunning down the mentally ill, disabled, natives and hispanics in the ghettos like Downtown Eastside, cops breaking strikes or assualting protestors with tasers, guns, pepper spray, tear gas etc. or a couple of people breaking a few windows?

The multi-racial, neurolocially diverse Proletariat (working-class) must show its uncompromising solidarity with Olympic protestors against cop terror and state repression. Such means as mass strikes, united front demos and labour defense guards should prove affective.

This being said I don't think one should be uncritical of the anti-olympics protestors. Breaking windows is NOT criminal from the standpoint of the revolutionary proletariat. However, such tactics as breaking windows are NOT affective and only give the Bourgeoisie (capitalist class) and excuse to bolster state power. And the Bourgeoisie WILL seize on the opportunity to do so.

Also, none of the groups on the groups, to my knowledge, have sought to mobilize the Proletariat. The Proletariat is not one more layer of oppressed people, but is the only class with the objective interests and means to abolished private property, class society and every last vestige of this decaying, rotting system know as Capitalism. Groups like the Anti-Poverty Committee thinks that cop terror can be eliminated with civilian review boards. But the cops can not be reformed to serve the oppressed. They must be smashed throught workers' revolution.

In order to mobilize the working class what is needed is a revolutionary, Leninist-Trotskyist vanguard party to lead the working class to power. This goes hand-in-hand with breaking the working class from the labour bureaucracy and their political arm the NDP. The labour bureaucracy even agreed to extend labour contracts till after the Olympics to ensure "labour peace" during the Olympics. Criminal indeed. After the Olympics, the province will be so in debt that the government and the bosses they represent will rip apart union contract front and centre.