The Marxist-Leninist Weekly

• Leaked CETA Agreement Thoroughly Upholds
Monopoly Right to Smash Public Right
- Dougal MacDonald -

Maritime Strategy of the Couillard Government
• Serving the Interests of the United States of North American Monopolies
- Louis Lang -
• Maritime Strategy to Turn Quebec into Giant Hub for the
Comings and Goings of Free Traders
- Pierre Chénier -

Energy Corridor Schemes of the Irvings
• Upcoming Provincial Election Aims to Deliver New Brunswick to the United States of North American Monopolies
- TML Correspondent in New Brunswick -

The Mexican Connection
• Mexico and the World's Intermodal Corridors
- Pablo Moctezuma Barragán -

Continued Opposition to Zionist Crimes Against Gaza
• Palestinian Resistance Prevails

More Secrecy, Sellout and Lies

On August 13, a 521-page copy of the final draft of the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union (EU) dated August 5 at Brussels, was leaked to the public.[1] This free trade agreement is being called Canada's "biggest free trade agreement since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)." The Harper dictatorship has been negotiating CETA for at least five years. The plan was hatched after a joint EU-Canada study released in 2008 and negotiations officially began in May 2009. Prime Minister Stephen Harper and EU President José Manuel Barroso announced the signing of an agreement in principle on October 18, 2013. It still has to be ratified by all 28 EU member states, as well as each of Canada's provinces, a process expected to take two years or longer.

As is typical of the Harper dictatorship, the least transparent federal government of all time, all negotiations for CETA have been carried out in closed rooms behind the backs of the people, and, until the leak on August 13, 2014, all details of the agreement have been kept secret. Even after the agreement in principle was signed in October 2013, instead of full disclosure of the agreement, the Harperites released their own official 26-page CETA technical summary which was misleadingly subtitled, "Opening New Markets in Europe: Creating Jobs and Opportunities for Canadians." The summary is self-serving to the nth degree, talking in glowing terms of how advantageous the agreement is to Canada and totally obscuring that in reality the entire agreement has been pursued and concluded to serve the interests of the most powerful monopolies.

Canada's free trade agreements began 25 years ago when the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed with the United States. The FTA and subsequent agreements have further tightened the grip of monopoly capital over Canada's political and economic affairs. Power has been more and more consolidated in the hands of the most powerful private interests, mainly in the U.S. This growing economic and political power has tried to crush any national blocks to the exercise of its dominance and monopoly right, including Canada's federal Parliament, the Quebec National Assembly, the provincial legislatures, trade unions, farmers' groups, and other organizations of civil society. One example is U.S. Steel's vicious attacks on the Hamilton steelworkers and deliberate destruction of the Hamilton steel industry. Another example is the wrecking of the Canadian Wheat Board.

Hamilton steelworkers and others hold action to defend the public monopoly of the
Canadian Wheat Board, November 25, 2011.

Since free trade, with the huge loss of manufacturing jobs, a very significant change has occurred in how Canadians acquire their living. This exposes as bogus Harper's claim that CETA will "create jobs." In the first two years of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement, 200,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared. A partial recovery occurred in the mid-nineties but during the last decade, the wrecking of manufacturing has accelerated. This decline is mainly due to deliberate policies of the dominant global monopolies to outsource manufacturing to other countries where cheaper labour can be exploited. The political rule of free trade and its unrestricted movement of capital allow the global monopolies the freedom to wreck the economy and privatize or otherwise degrade social programs and public services. This includes getting rid of regulations that govern corporate behaviour, moving taxation towards more individual taxes such as the GST and user fees and away from corporate taxes, and doing whatever else serves narrow monopoly interests.

Free trade represents the end of the raison d'état of the original Canada as a nation-building project to block U.S. continentalism. Today attempts are being made to establish Canada as a vassal within a United States of North American Monopolies dedicated to the U.S. imperialist striving for world domination as it competes with others within the imperialist system of states to oppress and exploit the peoples of the world and their natural resources and the value produced from their work. The financial oligarchy has used the private monopolies to establish their dominance in North America and to extend their reach beyond by making additional free trade arrangements with others within the U.S.-dominated system of states, which now includes the states of the European Union via CETA.

The political rule and concentrated expression of free trade is the exercise of monopoly right over public right in all matters and domains, and the dominance of private monopoly interests within the public political institutions. The rights of all, especially the working class, are under extreme pressure. All important political matters are decided in camera by those private monopoly interests directly involved and the executives of their political representatives. No wonder that in 2008 a declaration of support for a Canada-EU free trade agreement was signed by more than 100 top executives in Canada and Europe, including those of the monopolies Barrick Gold, Bombardier, CN, Power Corporation, SNC-Lavalin and Suncor on the Canadian side. All forms of civil and labour rule and rights once considered important to establishing equilibrium under the Canadian raison d'état in opposition to U.S. continentalism are now abolished, not used or pressured to disband.

The challenge facing the working class and its allies is to step forward as the social force capable of establishing a new Canadian raison d'état within a nation-building state based on the recognition of the rights of all and the sovereignty of all nations. This requires annulment of all free trade agreements, including CETA. It requires a self-reliant economy with manufacturing as its foundation to guarantee the well-being of the people under all circumstances; equal trade for mutual benefit with all nations regardless of their political regime; the inalienable right of the Canadian people and First Nations to ownership and control of all their natural resources; the inalienable right of the Canadian people to control all decision-making that affects the socialized economy and the social and natural environment; and ending all military agreements with the U.S. and participation in its foreign wars.

Finally, it requires the empowerment of the sovereign people within modern renewed political institutions that guarantee the right of the people to govern themselves and their own affairs.

1. CETA draft available at http://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/ceta-dokument-101.pdf.

Leaked CETA Agreement Thoroughly Upholds
Monopoly Right to Smash Public Right

The leak of the full Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union and Canada on August 13 has foiled the Harper dictatorship's efforts of the past five years to keep secret from the Canadian people specific details of all negotiations around the deal. The leak of the 521-page draft of the recently signed trade agreement also reveals the totally self-serving nature of the 26-page "technical summary" that the Harperites released after the memorandum of agreement was signed in October 2013. That summary was clearly aimed at obfuscating what the agreement really contained and presenting it in the best possible light to try to fool the Canadian people.

Some of the anti-people implications of CETA have already become clear from previous smaller leaks. The leak of the full draft, however, reveals a number of other implications, all of them clearly confirming that the agreement has been created to serve the interests of the international private monopolies and oppose the interests of the people of Canada.

Toronto action on Inter-Continental Day of Action against the Trans Pacific Partnership and Corporate Globalization, January 31, 2014. (D. Soberall)

Tariff Elimination: Elimination of tariffs will further increase access to the market for the most powerful private monopolies that already dominate the world economy. This will open Canada's doors even wider for further foreign takeover and increase the already high level of foreign ownership and control of Canada's economy. CETA will have a major negative effect on agriculture. For example, in the dairy industry, CETA will allow increased European cheese exports to Canada of 32 per cent. Such measures further erode Canada's supply management system for marketing agricultural products which has a long and commendable record of maintaining stable and consistent prices for producers, processors and consumers, ensuring a constant and certain supply of quality products and eliminating reliance on subsidies. Free trade is only possible between free nations and free people. Until the time those conditions are created, trade and everything else must be carefully controlled.

Rules of Origin: Rules of origin help to ensure that CETA countries can discriminate against goods exported from non-CETA countries that have undergone only minimal processing in CETA countries. Each CETA country retains its external tariffs vis-à-vis non-members' goods and levies a lower tariff on goods deemed to originate from other CETA members, making CETA an exclusive club for the European Union and Canada.

Anti-Dumping and Countervailing Measures: CETA opposes "dumping," the practice where a country chooses, for its own benefit, to sell a good for a lower price in a foreign market than in its home market or the selling of a good below its cost of production. Under CETA, the importing country may impose trade import duties to neutralize the effects of dumping.

Reducing Technical Barriers to Trade: The CETA stipulation that technical barriers of various kinds related to regulations, standards and monitoring should be harmonized across all the states participating in the agreement is a straightforward attack on Canada's sovereignty (i.e., its right to set its own regulations). The proposed provisions are similar to those imposed by the World Trade Organization, which were mainly based on U.S. needs.

Sanitary Measures: This part of the CETA agreement applies mainly to trade in living things. It calls to mind the restrictions countries placed on importing Canadian cattle after "mad cow" disease was discovered in a few herds. It is a potential weapon one country can use to ban another country's imports even with supposed free trade in place.

Customs and Trade Facilitation: Overall, CETA will increase Canada's trade deficit with Europe. According to Statistics Canada, in the first eight months of this year, Canada ran a $14 billion trade deficit with Europe. A recent analysis by the EU suggests that European exporters will save about three times the amount of duty payments that their Canadian counterparts will save, adding to the deficit.

Subsidies: A subsidy is financial or in kind support extended to a domestic economic sector, commonly by government. Production subsidies support local producers by partially offsetting production costs, increasing domestic production of a good without increasing the price to the buyer. Consumer subsidies lower the consumer prices of goods and services, ensuring that they are available to all (e.g., food, shelter, and electricity). Subsidies, by their very nature, are said to violate free trade because the price of everything should be "determined" by the so-called free market, while in practice prices are determined by the largest monopolies.

Investment: Investor rights are a key feature of today's free-trade pacts. CETA allows international monopolies to challenge national and local government rulings before special international tribunals and circumvent national regulations. One recent example is U.S. energy monopoly Lone Pine Resources' $250-million lawsuit against the Canadian government under provisions of NAFTA after Quebec banned fracking, a drilling technique for releasing oil and natural gas from shale rock formations. In a similar case, in 2010 the Harper government paid Delaware-incorporated forestry monopoly AbitibiBowater Inc. $130 million to compensate the company for Newfoundland and Labrador's expropriation of its assets in the province. It is interesting to note that under NAFTA, the U.S. has won a number of such judgments while Canada has failed to win a single one.

Cross Border Trade in Services: This refers to the delivery of a service (e.g., health care, education, water and electricity) from the territory of one country into the territory of another country. Cross-border trade in services undermines the authority of national governments to regulate such activities within their own boundaries, with the effect of ceding power to private monopolies or foreign governments ahead of the interests of their own citizens. Cross border trade in services also opens the door to privatization of public services, eventually making them available only to those who can pay for them.

Temporary Entry: To facilitate conducting foreign business on Canadian soil, the CETA agreement includes a provision for temporary entry of key personnel, contractual suppliers, independent professionals, businesspersons, etc. related to the business. In other words, CETA will disrupt the Canadian labour market, allowing European firms to bypass Canadian workers and bring in their own staff when doing business in Canada.

Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications: CETA is the first free trade agreement signed by Canada that includes substantial provisions on the mutual recognition of professional qualifications so that EU professionals could work in Canada. It should be noted that regulation of professionals in Canada, including licensing and recognition of credentials, is a provincial, not a federal, responsibility. The rationale for mutual recognition is the unproven claim that Canada faces a shortage of professionals, which is eerily similar to the debunked rationale for Harper's disastrous Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

Domestic Regulation: Domestic regulations (i.e., regulations created by a national government) are regarded by the monopolies as just another set of barriers to their profit-making activities. Two examples are the regulations banning genetically modified organisms and certain mining practices that harm the environment. In the view of the monopolies, the main responsibility of every sovereign country is to eliminate the "offending" domestic regulations so as to give the monopolies unrestricted access to whatever they want.

Financial Services: The EU financial institutions and investors would have the power to sue the Canadian government directly for measures it might take to protect the stability of its financial system and stock markets. CETA provisions could undermine Canada's banking and financial safeguards. For example, Belgium was recently hit with a $2.28-billion USD investment claim related to prudential financial measures taken after the crisis under a bilateral investment treaty with China. Canada would also be required to provide this 'most favoured' treatment to its NAFTA partners, even though neither is making reciprocal commitments, so not only European but also U.S. and Mexican financial firms would be able to pick apart Canada's financial regulations. CETA will also make it possible for European Union countries to establish financial institutions in Canada.

International Maritime Transport: This provision further undermines Canadian sovereignty by completely opening up the use of Canadian ports and port handling facilities and services, including storage, to foreign carrier ships on the same basis as Canadian ships. It also opens up the use of important internal waterways to foreign ships (e.g., the St. Lawrence River).

Telecommunications and Electronic Commerce: CETA will open Canada's telecommunications sector to major ownership by foreign monopolies. This has implications not only for the further takeover of the Canadian economy but also for increased foreign surveillance of domestic communications.

Competition: CETA opposes "anti-competitive business conduct." This provision is straight disinformation which attempts to imply that the world still lives in an era of "free enterprise." The fact is that the last 100 years have been the era of monopoly capitalism which is characterized by the domination of world enterprise by the largest monopolies which have the power to singlehandedly pursue their aim of destroying all competition. One strategy they use is to buy up their competitors and then shut them down as was done by U.S. Steel in Hamilton.

State Enterprises and Monopolies: CETA will ensure that state enterprises and monopolies operate in accordance with "commercial considerations," whatever that means. Parties to the agreement will still be able to designate and maintain state enterprises.

Government Procurement: This provision gives European monopolies unrestricted access to purchasing by provincial and municipal governments (e.g., procurement contracts involving public municipalities, utilities and other provincial agencies, including contracts related to drinking water, electricity, sanitation, etc.) CETA rules will ban "buy local" -- which means buying food and goods that are grown, raised and produced as close to home whenever possible -- and other similar policies which support local jobs and development through public spending. In anticipation of CETA, the Harper government has been pushing provinces and municipalities to give up the right to use tax dollars to develop local economies. At stake for the foreign monopolies is access to government purchasing in Canada, worth more than $100 billion per year. This provision does not affect actions taken by the federal government to procure arms or other war material for the protection of its essential security interest, or to procurement deemed indispensable for national security or national defence purposes.

Intellectual Property: Among other things, CETA will force Canada to grant more patent protection to brand name drug monopolies such as GlaxoSmithKline as opposed to smaller generic drug companies. According to a 2012 federal assessment, which the Harper government tried to suppress, these patent changes could cost Canadians up to $2 billion annually. Meanwhile, the European property regime for patented drugs will not be affected.

Trade and Sustainable Development; Trade and Environment: Lip service is paid to encouraging sustainable development and environmental protection, however, such considerations remain in the realm of dialogue and consultation. They are also inherently contradictory to the very practices of the international monopolies which carry out their plunder with minimal regard for either sustainability or environmental protection.

Trade and Labour: Again, lip service is paid to such labour-related matters as free collective bargaining, elimination of all forced and compulsory labour, abolition of child labour and discrimination in the workplace. As every worker knows, the monopolies constantly oppose all of these principles through union-busting, use of forced labour, for example in prisons, child labour in offshore production, and discrimination against those who fight on behalf of the workers at the place of work as well as against women workers. In light of the Harper government's anti-worker legislation, for example, ordering the CN workers, Air Canada workers and postal workers back to work and its dismal track record with the Temporary Foreign Worker Program, it is clear that whatever international agreements are made, Harper is not to be trusted when it comes to the interests of working people.

Regulatory Cooperation: CETA calls on all parties to the agreement to eliminate all domestic regulations that are "barriers to trade and investment." This, in a nutshell, is how CETA views all such regulations.

Manufacturing Pharmaceuticals: CETA will further tilt the balance towards the protection of brand-name drug manufacturers and their profits and away from Canadian consumers, resulting in significantly higher drug and health care costs.

Dialogues and Bilateral Cooperation: One of the significant issues on which CETA proposes future "dialogues and bilateral cooperation" is genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This acknowledges the high level of controversy around GMOs, for example, opposition to seed patenting, the wide support for product labelling that distinguishes GMO products from non-GMO products, and the call for totally banning the import of GMOs. The intent of CETA in regard to GMOs, however, is clear: to facilitate their eventual distribution. CETA recommends "engaging in regulatory cooperation to minimize adverse trade impacts of regulatory practices related to biotechnology products."

Transparency: Any reference to "transparency" is fraudulent. It is clear from how the CETA negotiations were carried out for five years in total secrecy behind the backs of the Canadian and European peoples that any statements about transparency refer only to transparency among the monopolies. At the same time, it is well known that in order to gain a market advantage the monopolies will, as a matter of course, conceal important information from each other and even engage in outright lying to advance their own interests.

In sum, CETA will be another free trade disaster for the Canadian people because trade and the economy are in no way "free." Every sector of the world economy, except the odd rare niche, is dominated by global monopolies. Free markets under the control of the global monopolies represent monopoly right and freedom to further dominate, control and wreck existing economic sectors and even entire economies. Contrary to the dogma of "free markets," these global monopolies manipulate prices and supply to suit their narrow interests, of which destroying or taking over smaller competitors and seizing their markets through so-called free trade agreements is a major aspect. The way forward for the working class and its allies is to annul all free trade agreements, including CETA and to instead organize international trade on the basis of principles such as self-reliance, equal trade for mutual benefit with all nations regardless of their political regime, and the inalienable right of the Canadian people to control all decision-making that affects the socialized economy and the social and natural environment.

Serving the Interests of the United States of
North American Monopolies

The Maritime Strategy being put forward by the Quebec Couillard government as a "pivotal project" to develop the economy of Quebec is not a plan to build an independent national economy for the benefit of the people of Quebec but rather it is to put the resources and transportation infrastructure of Quebec in the service of North American monopolies.

The statements of the Couillard Liberals promise economic growth and thousands of jobs all over Quebec. In fact, it would seem that what is being proposed is a new version of the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP). The SPP, in which the Paul Martin government was involved, was a plan integrating the Canadian, U.S. and Mexican economies into the United States of North American Monopolies. This was to form a trade and military bloc in the inter-imperialist striving over control of world markets, spheres of influence, cheap labour and resources and zones for the export of capital.

In 2007, during the SPP negotiations the Harper government in addressing the issue of the National Framework of Gateways and Trades Corridors stated:

"The emergence of global chains as pre-eminent business models is a key factor in global economic change. Prosperity and Canadian living standards cannot be maintained unless Canada becomes a logistical hub for the international trade of goods between North America, Asia and Europe."

The same kind of assertions are being made now by the Harper government, except now it is in the context of the need for "modernization of transportation networks to respond to new global needs," like the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA), the free trade agreement with Europe and NAFTA.

Couillard's Maritime Strategy is designed to fit the plans of the ruling circles to build infrastructure and establish Gateways and Trade Corridors across Canada to facilitate the transportation of energy resources and manufactured goods to North America, Europe and Asia.

2005 NAFTA/SPP plans for super corridor, including pipieline for water, oil, natural gas,
rail and trucks, from port in Cardenas, Mexico, through Kansas City,
north to Winnepeg and Montreal. Still under consideration.

"The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Economic Community -- coupled with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) -- will allow Québec to make itself one of the main logistical hubs of import-export activities between the two continents."

They also talk about the expansion of the Panama Canal and possible future use of the north-west passage as opportunities for east coast ports of Quebec to position themselves for superior trade routes to Asia. These are all presented as crucial to "restart the Quebec economy."

Federal Government Planning Huge Investments in "Public Infrastructure"

In a speech on August 18, 2014, Transport Minister Lisa Raitt announced that the federal government was investing $70 billion in public infrastructure projects which included $53 billion for the New Building Canada Plan -- a fund for provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure. This money is also intended for further investments in the Asia Pacific Gateway Corridor Initiative, which has been in place since 2006; the Gateways and Border Crossing Fund; and the Atlantic Gateway Trade Corridor.

At a time when monopoly corporations are closing plants and cutting production in Quebec and Canada with no consideration for public interest, the plan to invest billions of dollars in what the government calls "public infrastructure," is not a modernization program which strengthens the economy. It is dishonest for Harper and Couillard to talk about an economic recovery based on transport and storage hubs, new railway lines and ports, etc., when there are no plans for new production and no plans to develop our own productive forces. Talk about renewing the economy and raising the standard of living of the people is meaningless without a plan to increase the level of production and grow the productive forces.

The Maritime Strategy of the Couillard government is an integral part of the ruling circles to put the land, labour and resources of Quebec at the disposal of the United States of North American Monopolies. It will give rise to further disasters as a result of the destruction of the natural and human environment which are the means through which superprofits are to be made.

Maritime Strategy to Turn Quebec into Giant Hub for the Comings and Goings of Free Traders

A major aspect of the Liberal government's plans for Quebec is its Maritime Strategy. The Maritime Strategy and the resuscitated Northern Plan constitute the Liberals' main program for Quebec's economic recovery. The Liberals first presented their Maritime Strategy on February 21 in Rimouski, a few weeks before the general election that elected a Liberal majority government that is now pushing its austerity agenda full throttle.

The aim of the Maritime Strategy is to transform Quebec into a logistical hub for trade between the Americas and Europe, and eventually with Asia. This involves developing the full potential of the St. Lawrence Seaway for transatlantic trade and the intermodal transportation connected with it. The strategy is said to require the modernization of Quebec's deep water ports, including those on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, so that goods can be shipped through Quebec rather than U.S. east coast ports. Montérégie West would become one such logistics centre, as the Liberal government intends to develop a trade route along Highway 30, with intermodal transportation installations linking trucks and trains to the port of Montreal. The hope is that manufacturing companies will settle along this corridor because of this logistical advantage.

Scope

The Maritime Strategy encompasses all of Quebec, not just its coastal regions. It is part of the annexation of Quebec and Canada into the United States of North American Monopolies, with Quebec catering to all those that trade within the context of liberalized North American and European markets.

"Favourable Conditions"

"The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between Canada and the European Economic Community (CETA) -- with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) -- create the conditions for Quebec to make itself one of the main logistic hubs of import-export activity between the two continents, the Liberals say. This is based on:

"- The enlargement of the Panama Canal locks, to be completed in mid-2015, will greatly modify the flow of trade, to the benefit of east coast ports. Quebec has several deep-water ports that can accommodate the largest ships and additional traffic.

"- In the long term, the Northwest Passage will link the Atlantic to the Pacific via a route through the Arctic islands of Canada's North. This will shorten the trip from Asia to Europe by 7,000 km.

"- Cruise ship tourism is increasing throughout the world. Quebec has already greatly benefitted, thanks to the previous Liberal government's strategy for the sustainable development and promotion of international cruises on the Saint-Lawrence River. This development will continue.

"- Progress in marine biotechnologies -- involving industrial biotechnologies, agriculture, the environment, health and biomedicine -- can also provide unique opportunities for Quebec to develop new industrial, commercial and environmental sectors."[1]

Funding

The Maritime Strategy depends on a massive influx of funds from the federal government. Quebec has eight deep-water ports -- Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Bécancour, Sorel, Baie-Comeau, Port-Cartier and Sept-Îles -- all of them except Port-Cartier are under federal jurisdiction.

According to a Liberal Party document, the Maritime Strategy will require an investment of public funds to the tune of $4 billion. The Quebec government is offering to put up $1.5 billion. It is also offering to negotiate on behalf of port administrations to get their hands on federal funds to upgrade port facilities.

The Liberal government wants a bigger share of investments coming from the federal government's Building Canada Fund, which was set up to finance infrastructure projects. What will the Liberals give in return? The way the Couillard government is playing its cards suggests it will set aside any differences with Ottawa to get what it wants on this front.

Will the Harper government invest in what the Couillard government is calling the revitalization of the Quebec-Ontario Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor or the modernization of ports? That remains to be seen. Federal Finance Minister Joe Oliver did not mention the Maritime Strategy directly when he spoke at the Metropolitan Montreal Chamber of Commerce on April 23. However, he did say that seeing how Quebec had rejected what he termed "sovereignty" (i.e., separation from Canada), it could now become an economic power within Canada on the basis of its natural resources. He specifically mentioned the exploitation of its oil and gas.

Trade Gateways and Corridors

The Quebec-Ontario Continental Gateway and Trade Corridor is based on a 2007 memorandum of understanding signed by the Harper government and the governments of Ontario and Quebec. It depends on the unity of purpose of Quebec's Liberal government and that of Ontario, as well as their deal-making with the federal government.

The Asia-Pacific Gateway and Trade Corridor, the Atlantic Gateway and the Continental Gateway as well as the Quebec-Ontario Corridor have been developed by the Harper government since the mid-2000s, in connection with the United States. These gateways and corridors are the complex infrastructure pathways for the international transportation of goods and passengers which Harper claims are key components to make Canada competitive in international trade.

According to the federal government website www.continentalgateway.gc.ca, the Continental Gateway is "a key component of Canada's multimodal transportation system." Its "central location ... facilitates international trade and the domestic inputs towards foreign trade with the United States and other key trading partners" and "includes strategic ports, airports, intermodal facilities and border crossings as well as essential road, rail and marine infrastructure that ensures this transportation system's connection to, and seamless integration with, Canada's other gateways: Asia-Pacific and Atlantic."[2]

These transportation corridors have been created as a result of free trade agreements and 9/11 under the thesis that Canada's prosperity is dependent on its competitiveness in global trade and on continental security as defined by the U.S. In the Canadian Military Journal, Summer 2010 issue, maritime security expert Peter Avis writes: "The Gateway and Corridor approach brings together traditionally disparate players into a common partnership with a vision linking trade, transportation, and security. It also leverages assets and information. Governments are both setting the rules and investing in infrastructure and technology, while the private sector works in partnership, making significant investments themselves. The need for improved security in the post-911 era is evident. The altering of Canadian mindsets about security in both public and private communities challenges future Canadian governments -- for it will take years of effort to bring about full-scale acceptance of the notion of security as an integral part of life in Canada... Because Canada is known as a trading nation, the strategic notion of secure trade and transportation Gateway and Corridor systems linking Canadian interests to suppliers and markets in the world economy is a major foundation pillar for such a modern Canadian National Security Strategy."

In a 2007 statement entitled, "The National Framework of Gateways and Trade Corridors," the Harper government states: "The emergence of global supply chains as the preeminent business model is a key factor in global economic changes. Prosperity and Canadian living standards cannot be maintained unless Canada becomes a logistical hub for the international trade of goods between North America, Asia and Europe.... Commonly referred to as 'integrative trade,' this new international business model uses lower trade barriers to distribute production around the world through out-sourcing and off-shoring to maximize efficiency and reduce costs of each component -- taking advantage of global supply chains."

Within this, Canada is presented as an annexed territory within the United States of North American Monopolies:

"The integrated North American economy provides the 'platform' for Canada's successful global engagement. Canada and the U.S. share the largest bilateral flow of goods, services, people and capital of any two countries in the world."[3]

In other words, Canada has the potential to be competitive in international trade because it is integrated into the North American market. The document states:

"Between 2001 and 2006, the world economy has grown more than during any other five-year period since World War II. As one of the most trade-reliant nations in the G-8, Canada has been benefiting from this global growth. By the end of 2007, exports and imports of merchandise had both hit record highs, reaching $465 billion and $417 billion, respectively....

"These changes in how businesses operate have significant implications for transportation. Intensifying competition within the global marketplace among supply chains, major cities and major integrated regional trading blocs has increased the pressure to achieve greater scale and efficiency in the infrastructure systems that support major trade flows, and that move international passengers.

"With businesses increasingly relying on seamless, secure and efficient multi-modal transportation systems as keys to their success, transportation is being recognized as more crucial than ever to Canada's competitiveness."[4]

According to this, Canada's prosperity and standard of living depend on whether Canada can become a logistical hub between North America , Europe and Asia. International economic growth is developed on the basis of global supply areas, with big cities as centres of international trade and trade blocs.

The government document quotes the Conference Board of Canada: "Private industry and all levels of government need to be relentless in pursuing the modernization and coordination of trade, transportation and border infrastructure, including security, as a national priority."[5]

The gateways and trade corridors are the transportation infrastructure as well as the pathways for goods and international passengers to various markets and therefore developing this new infrastructure is sine qua non. And since this new infrastructure crosses borders (between Canada and the U.S. and between provinces) changes to public policies to make them accord with those of the U.S. are also absolutely necessary. The security of persons and infrastructure -- not only protection from terrorist threats but from the consequences of natural catastrophes -- is to be subordinated to the control of the U.S. -- Canada's competitiveness on the world market depends on it. It requires the greatest collaboration between not only governments but governments and private enterprise.

With the Harper government's gateways and trade corridors, Quebec and Ontario are to become logistical hubs for transatlantic trade on the basis of an economy even more annexed to the United States of North American Monopolies. The document provides the Windsor-Detroit Trade Corridor example which, in the name of addressing "the challenges of cross-border volume of trade," describes a massive pay-the-rich scheme to build a new international bridge and access road to Highway 401, at a time of cuts to public services. In her first Throne Speech in early 2013, the newly-selected Liberal Premier of Ontario, Wynne, in the name of strengthening "the earning potential of all men and women of this province... and [to] enable everyone to have a good job and a secure paycheque," said her government would "facilitate the smooth transfer of goods through important hubs like Windsor, across the Detroit River International Crossing."

The Example of Vaudreuil-Dorion: A City in Two Trade Corridors

With its Maritime Strategy, the Quebec Liberal government intends to ensure that goods pass through Quebec's ports, not those of British Columbia. The website of Vaudreuil-Dorion, a suburb of Montreal, southwest of the island, states:

"Commercial exchanges in Canada are done through different modes of transportation as well as different infrastructure including first and foremost airports, ports, railways, freeways as well as 'inland ports' also known as 'intermodal zones.' This is what CP is planning to build in Les Cèdres: an inland port linked, not to the port of Montreal, but to the port of Vancouver because the trade flow has been reversed. We have become a country of importers. No longer are we an export country with the exception of raw materials. To meet import needs, we need product assembly centres which will see to their redistribution. These are the logistical hubs.

"These products will flow via different corridors where there is an important concentration of means of transportation such as freeways, airports, pipelines, electric cables, the main railway routes, high-speed trains, etc.

"Vaudreuil-Dorion is home to two of these corridors where 85% of all of Quebec's trade flow transits in the following directions: the Montreal-Toronto Trade Corridor and the Montreal-Chicago Trade Corridor (via the Thousand Island Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit Bridge in Ontario)."

Logistics Hubs to Take Advantage of the "Oil Windfall"

The present organization of the Canadian economy to serve U.S. imperialist and monopoly interests through exploitation and export of oil from the Alberta oil sands (as well as oil fractured in the U.S.) has created great demand in Canada for the transport and export of crude oil. Quebec is vying to become a logistical hub for moving this oil. The big oil monopolies are finding it hard to increase their oil exports from western Canada (via the Northern Gateway and Kinder Morgan Pipeline) or south to the U.S. (via the Keystone XL Pipeline) because of inter-monopoly competition and people's opposition to these projects. Quebec ports could be the solution to this problem.

The Oil Connection

Before its demise, the PQ government initiated what it called the oil connection, agreeing to reverse the flow in Enbridge's Line 9. This opened the door to TransCanada's pipeline project to transport crude oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan to refineries in Eastern Canada and to transport some by ship. An integral part of the TransCanada project is to build an oil port in Gros-Cacouna in the region of Rivière-du-Loup. The PQ government also decided to invest in oil exploration on Anticosti Island along with the oil companies.

TransCanada's pipeline project to bring oil to the East Coast. Map shows existing pipelines (blue), pipelines under construction (green) and possible further extension of the line (dotted green).

How the Government Says the Maritime Strategy
Will Stimulate Economic Growth

The Quebec government says, "This first real Maritime Strategy in our history will make use of all the potential of the Saint-Lawrence River and its estuary. It will stimulate economic development in all coastal regions, from Gaspé and Îles-de-la-Madeleine to Montréal, including Sept-Îles and Rivière-du-Loup.

"- The Maritime Strategy will mean the birth of new economic growth drivers and provide a new boost to several industries,

"- Provide new momentum to maritime transportation by investing in our port installations, developing intermodal transport and increasing the competitiveness of Quebec shipyards, all with the objectives of economic development and greenhouse gas reduction related to the transportation of passengers and goods.

"- Pursue maritime tourism development, e.g., by promoting international cruises on the Saint-Lawrence.

"- Make Quebec part of the blue economy by investing in marine technology research and development.

"- Respond to looming shortages in skilled labour by deploying and promoting training programs."[6]

Government Action to Realize the Maritime Strategy

Important demands raised by Quebec construction workers in the 2013 strike to defend their working conditions and the well-being of local economies in the regions went unmet after they were legislated back to work. These will surely continue to be an issue if the Quebec Liberals go ahead with their Maritime Strategy. In order to seize the opportunities presented by the Maritime Strategy, the Quebec government says it must support industry, in particular port managers, by focusing on specific construction projects:

"- Support port managers in their efforts to obtain federal government support of their infrastructure projects.

"- Ensure that Quebec gets its fair share of the Building Canada Plan 2013, which earmarks $10 billion in investment in federal public infrastructure, including ports.

"- Create a user-pay system jointly with the federal government to invest in infrastructure for upgrading to adapt to expansion and changes in the industry.

"- Restart efforts related to the Quebec-Ontario Trade Corridor as well as the Continental Gateway so as to make the initiative as dynamic as the Asia-Pacific Gateway and Corridor.

"- Reboot the Northern Plan, which will contribute to port activity in the North of Quebec and in Quebec as a whole. It will also ensure the establishment of infrastructure complementary to port facilities to respond appropriately to the increasing demand that will come from development in the North.

"- Ensure that road and railway infrastructure (intermodal connections) are coordinated with the various port development projects to develop an efficient logistical chain to reduce transportation costs for Quebec exporters and importers."[7]

How the Question Poses Itself for the Working Class

The direction the Liberal government has set for the Quebec economy will not only further integrate Quebec and Canada into the United States of North American monopolies but further fuel the trade wars and competition between trade blocs. This will not bring about stability. Instead of taking up the work to build a sovereign economy which meets the people's needs and which carries out trade for mutual benefit, thus strengthening political sovereignty, this will further embroil Quebec in the inter-imperialist contradictions between the U.S. and the European Union. From a political and ideological perspective, this is to erase from workers' consciousness any notion of a project to build a sovereign Quebec or Canada, based on a self-reliant economy that defends the rights of all. It underscores the fact that the Canadian working class must itself champion nation-building in a manner which puts all the assets of the nation and the bounty of Mother Earth at the disposal of the people to affirm the rights which belong to all by virtue of being human, and does so sustainably.

3. Canada's Gateways: National Policy Framework for Strategic Gateways and Trade Corridors, Government of Canada (2007), p. 6.

5. Conference Board of Canada, Mission possible : a phenomenal performance of the Canadian economy on the world scene, 2007, p. 65.

(Sources: Government of Quebec, Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Water Resources Regional Body, Compass -- A Report from the Council of Great Lakes Governors)

Upcoming Provincial Election Aims to Deliver
New Brunswick to the United States of
North American Monopolies

An election is scheduled in New Brunswick on Monday, September 22, 2014. In Canada as in other capitalist countries, elections are held to sort out contradictions in the ranks of the rich and strengthen the rule over the people and society. This is also the case in New Brunswick, where even the overwhelming dominance of one particular monopoly group -- the Irvings -- does not alter the basic truth of the competition within the ruling circles for domination.

At dissolution of the Legislature in Fredericton late last spring, the Progressive Conservatives led by David Alward held 42 seats, the Liberals under Brian Gallant 13 seats, the NDP under Dominic Cardy, the Green Party under David Coon and all other registered parties, zero seats.

At the close of candidate nominations on September 2, five parties -- the Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Green and People's Alliance -- had fielded candidates. There are six fewer seats in the Legislature: 49 instead of 55. The Conservatives, Liberals and NDP are each fielding a full slate of 49 candidates. The Green Party is fielding 46 candidates and the People's Alliance, 18. In addition, nine independents are in the running.[1]

Overwhelmingly, the media coverage of the election campaign has consisted of variations on the theme of what team and leader will pull the rabbit out of the hat on election night, according to 1,001 speculations as to the meaning of these "numbers." Meanwhile, much evidence or many reminders of the people's spontaneous movement in directions not helpful to the interests of the rich are throughly buried, recalled only fleetingly and indirectly in the form of platform proposals advocating greater scrutiny of police arrests during demonstrations, etc. As little as possible is mentioned about the months-long standoff between the indigenous Mi'kmaq First Nations of Kent and Northumberland counties and the RCMP in eastern New Brunswick, or the fracking exploration of deposits of shale natural gas in the general vicinity of Rexton, NB by SWN Resources which sparked this struggle.[2] Also remaining unmentioned was the massive participation of large numbers of unemployed miners, fishermen and forestry workers in numerous demonstrations protesting cuts to employment insurance in northern New Brunswick and the neighbouring Gaspé region of eastern Quebec.[3]

Strengthening the impression that there is nothing of political or economic consequence going on in what the tourism brochures call "Canada's Picture Province," the current election campaign has been dominated by set-piece repetitions of official policy positions of the parties participating in the elections.

From the "facts" presented in the monopoly media during elections, one would never guess that the rich have a strategy and there is a fight in their ranks over how it is to be implemented. The relevant and most essential current elements of this strategy are as follows:

The rail and ship transport of crude oil cargoes for refining into petroleum products at the Irvings' 300,000-barrel-a-day facility on Courtenay Bay at East Saint John -- the highest-capacity oil refinery in Canada -- will enjoy priority and minimal regulatory interference from the next administration in Fredericton. The rail transport arrangements that contributed to the Lac Mégantic disaster back in July 2013 have remained in place, unaffected by the explosion or the collapse of the Irvings' main railway partner MMA, which declared bankruptcy shortly after the Lac Mégantic disaster.

The completion of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on tidewater (the Bay of Fundy), at Coleson Cove near the Irving oil refinery, will put Saint John on the map as never before as one of the first, modernized Atlantic coast LNG terminals within six days' voyage of LNG terminals on the Atlantic coast of western Europe. These connect to the gas pipeline network of the European continent. In the course of the deepening conflict between the U.S. and Russia this spring and summer, the Obama Administration rashly promised that the Americas could replace the Russian sources of natural gas that currently turn the wheels of industry in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Italy and France (to name a few).

The Irvings' role in these particular energy corridor arrangements are one piece of a much larger system and network of energy corridors that run the length and breadth of Canada, the United States and Mexico. This collection of energy corridors forms the backbone of transport, industry and energy supplies for the entire United States of North American Monopolies.

New New Brunswick's energy resources -- click to enlarge. (nbenergyinstitute.ca)

Irving Family's Influence and Control over Politics and the Economy

In New Brunswick, the monopoly bourgeoisie is led (or overwhelmed in this case) by the Irving family. The Irvings actually maintain two corporate HQ. From Saint John, NB, they direct all their industrial interests:

- in oil refining and tanker fleets;
- English-language daily newspapers across the province of New Brunswick;
- commercial English-language radio and TV;
- commercial trucking fleets;
- thousands of kilometres of railway track in the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia;
- shipyards in Nova Scotia involved in offshore oil rig servicing, including the Halifax Shipyard which is the construction centre for the coming generation of warships for the Canadian and U.S. navies;
- and forest products.

Meanwhile, from Hamilton, Bermuda, the family trust set up by the founding patriarch K.C. Irving is managed. According to the Globe and Mail's annual Report on Business listings, the Irving family is the second-wealthiest, by corporate assets, in Canada, after the Thomson family.

The Irvings raise up and destroy political party leaders and their parties as their interests require. These leaders and parties may be provincially-based or New Brunswick representatives of the main federal parties.

The main tendency consistently since the early 1950s has been to support the federal Liberal party and its New Brunswick wing. Exceptionally, they supported the anti-Ontario factions of the Diefenbaker Conservative administrations and the anti-Quebec wings of the Mulroney Conservative administrations.

Currently they continue to support the Harper Conservative majority government, which awarded them a 20-year shipbuilding contract in October 2011 -- shortly after the federal election in which Harper finally won a parliamentary majority -- to produce 23 warships for the Canadian navy as part of the National Defence Procurement Program.

Meanwhile, the Irvings have been positioning themselves to benefit in the event of a Trudeau Liberal victory in the federal election expected in October 2015.

The Irvings also strongly supported the current provincial Conservative government of David Alward. This departure from backing the provincial Liberals was the result of the last provincial Liberal government's unsuccessful attempt to sell the provincial electric power monopoly NB Power to Hydro Quebec. Such a sale raised a prospect that was anathema to the Irvings, who have enjoyed decades of special arrangements with NB Power that delivered its industries megawatts of power priced far below its actual cost of production. In the current campaign, they have swung again behind the Liberals.

1. The Liberal opposition has been polling 25 percentage points ahead of the Alward government since the election was called. Similar to the Dexter NDP government's reaction to strong Liberal opposition polling against it in Nova Scotia last autumn, the sole hope of the incumbent government in Fredericton at the moment (two weeks from Election Day) is that the electorate gives it a second term. The NDP provincial government of Darrell Dexter tried to convince itself that since no Nova Scotia government over the previous 150 years had ever been defeated on its second appearance at the polls, it would magically capture a second term in office. The McNeill Liberals not only defeated them but left them in third place behind the Conservatives.

The number of seats at the dissolution of the Legislature as well as polling numbers are no longer relevant to predicting the results of an election. Today, the two-party system which provided a parliamentary equilibrium of exchanging one party for another when the people got fed up, no longer functions. Elections are disinformation campaigns which micro-target voters and fail to gauge the popular will so as to transform it into the legal will. In British Columbia, the party-in-office was able to stay in power despite an initial groundswell of opposition at the time the election was called, in favour of the larger of two opposition parties, the NDP. In Ontario, such a bogeyman was created of the Hudak Conservatives that the labour movement could not rally behind a program to hold all parties in check with a minority government and the Liberals were elected with a majority.

As in Ontario, Quebec went into an election supported by a minority representation in the National Assembly. In Ontario, the governing party was six seats short of a majority, while the Marois PQ government was nine seats short of a governing majority for passing its legislative program in a 125-seat National Assembly when it called the election last spring. The focus of media coverage at the time succeeded in diverting people from looking beneath the isolated development of bourgeois parties, leaders and their campaigns, at the actual program they were interested to implement.

2. For more detail, look for the articles filed from Rexton by Miles Howe at www.mediacoop.ca.

3. After the Harper Conservatives won their first parliamentary majority in the October 2011 federal election, the federal government was confronted with evidence from across the country that its biggest so-called job creation program -- comprising many local initiatives left unfinished or unlaunched under the preceding Liberal federal government of Paul Martin -- made no dent whatsoever in the established pattern of declining full-time employment in all sections of industrial production.

Mexico and the World's Intermodal Corridors

Mexico's intermodel corridors, with the Port of Lazaro Cardenas
on the Pacific Coast highlighted.

North America transit provides examples of what is probably the most extensive cargo flows and distances in the world, second only to the Trans-Siberian system. The trans-Canadian system serves traffic from Asia to Europe with a transit time of 28 to 40 days.

The trans-U.S. system operates three ports on the Atlantic: Miami, with air or water connections to the countries of the Caribbean and South America; Houston, with rail connections to Mexico and maritime links to the Caribbean; and New York, with maritime links to Europe. The ports on the Pacific are, in the north, Seattle; and in the south, Oakland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Long Beach.

And perhaps, in the not so distant future, Punta Colonet, Mexico. Mexico's transit system is particularly interesting because although historically there has been much talk of the trans-isthmus corridor in Tehuantepec, the fact is that technology and the dominant new trade flows have made corridors that cover large distances highly competitive.

The corridor linking Asia with central-north Mexico enters via Manzanillo and Lazaro Cardenas (maritime-rail). Its greatest potential is in the southeastern United States, as this corridor can be very competitive with respect to freight costs and time, especially compared to the Long Beach/Los Angeles-Houston corridor where wait times can be very long.

What is particularly attractive about Mexico is the development of national and transcontinental corridors: Mexicali-Guadalajara-Mexico and Lázaro Cárdenas / Manzanillo-Veracruz, among others.

In addition there are mature intermodal services connecting the automotive zones of the north and centre of the country to the Detroit area in the United States (Hermosillo, Ramos Arizpe, Toluca and San Luis Potosi, among other origins and destinations).

Construction of a container port at Punta Colonet in Baja California was put on hold due to the global financial downturn, however, this project on Mexican soil responds to a pressing need in the United States for a new port to handle the growth in trade with China, but mainly because between Tacoma and San Diego there is no alternative that has the features of the Baja California bay. Sooner or later, construction of this port will start, which will undoubtedly to some extent impact the new Panama Canal.

It is noteworthy that the highway being built between Mazatlan and Durango with the Baluarte Bridge (which will be the largest in Latin America) will generate extraordinary logistical advantages for Mazatlan, positioning it as a competitive port for shipments to the industrial zone of Monterrey and southern Texas.

(Source: http://www.logisticamx.enfasis.com/notas/12166-mexico-and-the-runners-wor ld-intermodal. Translated from original Spanish.)

Palestinian Resistance Prevails

Rally in Nablus on the West Bank pays tribute to the resistance, August 29, 2014.

TML Weekly salutes the Palestinian resistance and the people of Gaza for their courage and steadfastness in the face of the Zionists' vicious, genocidal onslaught. Israel suggests that it is victorious. However, it has failed in its weeks-long efforts to bring Gaza to its knees and force the resistance to disarm, and instead has agreed to a cease fire. The resistance remains armed and the Palestine unity government, another main target of Israel, is going forward to rebuild Gaza. The cease fire secured at the end of August also calls for an easing of the siege of Gaza, extending fishing from 3 to 12 nautical miles offshore and restricting the border buffer zone to about 110 yards. Also part of the cease fire agreement, Israel said it would continue negotiations on the demands of the Palestinians, to open their port and airport and completely lift the siege.

Worldwide, people gave their support to the resistance and the people of Gaza. A notable example took place in the U.S. where the people are subject to the most disinformation and pressure to accept the imperialist doctrine of Might Makes Right and the chauvinism promoted by the ruling circles against the peoples of the world who seek their own path. Nonetheless, an important stand was taken by the people and workers in Oakland, California and also Tacoma, Washington that rejected U.S. support for Israel and sought practical means to stop the genocide against the Palestinians.

Hundreds of defenders of Palestine and anti-war activists organized a picket line at the Port of Oakland on August 16 to protest the docking of the Piraeus, operated by Israel's Zim Integrated Shipping Services. They called on all to condemn U.S. aid and support for Israel and to refuse to support the Zionists as long as they continue the blockade of Gaza and occupation of Palestine. Longshoremen, with a long history of honouring such picket lines, refused to cross the line. Protesters and workers recalled other similar actions to block the unloading of ships from apartheid South Africa in 1984 and expressed their rejection of today's U.S./Israeli apartheid in Palestine, with the apartheid wall and Palestinian-only checkpoints and Israeli- only roads. The action specifically targeted the months-long genocidal bombardment and ground attack by the Zionists against Gaza. Protests defending Palestine and in solidarity with the west coast action were also held in New York City.

By August 18, the ship remained unloaded in port, paying docking fees. About 20 demonstrators remained, faced with more than 100 police. Longshoremen still refused to cross the line. "We will not work under armed police escort -- not with our experience with the police in this community," International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10 President Melvin MacKay said in a statement. In a 2003 anti-war picket of hundreds blocking the sending of arms and supplies to Iraq, Oakland police fired rubber bullets at workers and demonstrators, injuring many. "The community demonstrators, though peaceful, were outnumbered 5-1 by more than 100 police officers from the Alameda County Sheriff's Office and the city of Oakland," the ILWU stated.

On August 19, protestors organized a 5:00 am picket and longshoremen again refused to cross it. Zim sent the ship away, saying it was leaving for Los Angeles. But almost 20 miles into the voyage, the vessel turned back. It returned to Oakland and was eventually unloaded that evening.

Protesters considered this an important success to have united with the longshore workers and forced the ship to pay port fees and be delayed for four days. "Delaying even by one hour costs Zim money. Delaying for days causes a significant expense and sends a clear message that there will be no business as usual with Israel as long as it blockades the Gaza Strip," said Nada Elia, an organizer of the blockade.

Their success had a direct impact on a second Zim vessel, the Chicago, which was delayed before even reaching port in Tacoma, Washington to avoid protesters. On August 24, at least 150 activists blocked both of the entry gates to longshore workers on the 8:00 am shift at the Washington United Terminal (WUT) where the Zim ship was docked. That picket successfully closed both gates and delayed the unloading of the ship. According to demonstrators, workers were then snuck in through an entirely different terminal, a very unusual action. However, this had required the Port of Tacoma and Zim to delay the arrival of the Chicago ship for days until August 23 when that alternate terminal was empty of any scheduled ships.

Later that day on the 6:00 pm shift, protestors used cars and bicycles to move their blockade rapidly between terminal gates. To circumvent the blockade, the Port of Tacoma opened at least seven terminal gates, some of which had been unused for years or decades and unknown to many staff. Protestors managed to blockade all of them and blocked the unloading of the ship once again, despite an aggressive police presence.

Meanwhile, the Zionists in Israel and elsewhere were soundly defeated in the court of world opinion and their brutal crimes against humanity once again laid bare. The peoples of the world have once again affirmed that they stand together with the Palestinian resistance and the people of Gaza in particular to oppose the crimes of the Zionists and for the freedom of Palestine from the illegal Israeli occupation. Such are the delusions of the Zionists that they openly call for genocide of the Palestinians and think the peoples will support them or will not defy the spurious blackmail that claims the rejection of Zionism equates to anti-Semitism. This will never come to pass!

Actions in Canada to Support the Resistance

Sherbrooke, August 3