Protestors denounce Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s “Canada Investment Summit”

The BT joined more than 2000 protesters in Toronto on 14 September to denounce Canadian prime minister Mark Carney’s “Canada Investment Summit” where financial oligarchs (both domestic and foreign) discussed government plans to attract $1 trillion in private capital by shredding regulations on working conditions, environmental protection and the rights of Indigenous peoples. The night before the protest we participated in a public forum alongside representatives of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Socialist Action and the Trotskyist League. The following is the text of our speaker’s remarks:

We are at an important historical juncture—a lot of tectonic plates are shifting in the imperialist world order. Carney’s efforts to solicit $1 trillion in new investment and his government’s commitment to closer economic integration with the EU is a response to Trump’s attempts to reverse the prolonged decline of US imperialism at the expense of its allies and vassals. The increasingly obvious strategic defeat of the American military in the Persian Gulf has led the Wall Street financial press, like most other serious observers, to point to Iranian/Houthi control of West Asian energy shipments as a major contributor to rising inflation in the West. This in turn is having a major impact on the increasingly fragile US long-bond market—which has been ground zero of global capitalism since the end of World War Two. Today that whole model is falling apart.

Carney hopes reducing overheads through slashing environmental safeguards, Indigenous rights and working conditions will help entice foreign investment. He is also dangling the prospect of large-scale privatizations of airports and other public assets. Avi Lewis, leader of the pro-capitalist NDP [New Democratic Party], commented: “The government is fast-tracking corporate Canada’s wish list, and calling it a plan to fight a trade war.” In fact, it is both—and Bay Street is well pleased.

Trade wars often lead to shooting wars. Both are the inevitable by-products of late capitalism, as V.I. Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution and founder of the Communist International, observed. He identified WWI as marking the transformation of capitalism from a dynamic, competitive and historically progressive form of social organization into reactionary, monopolistic imperialism—a system he described as characterized by wars and revolutions.

Lenin’s greatest contribution was to solve the problem of successful revolutionary organization—he created a disciplined vanguard party based on adherence to a common revolutionary program. While many of tonight’s speakers can agree with this model, we have some important differences. For example, the BT [Bolshevik Tendency] advocates the military victory of Iran over the US/Israel axis and we want to see Russia defeat NATO’s Ukrainian proxy. We also defend the Chinese deformed workers’ state against both foreign and domestic counterrevolution. While the comrades of the TL [Trotskyist League], SA [Socialist Action], and RCP [Revolutionary Communist Party] reject some or all of these positions, I think we can all agree on another important element of Leninism—the need for leftists to cooperate in pursuit of common objectives, like tomorrow’s demonstration against Carney and the Canadian and foreign corporate elites he represents.