Written by Pauline Easton in The Marxist-Leninist Weekly
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2015/W45041.HTM#2
After
much hoopla about "deliberation," the Trudeau government on December
17 announced its official decision on Harper's abominable monument to the
so-called 100 million victims of communism.[1] This
"deliberation" did not include involving the Canadian people in any
discussion as to the actual aim and content of the memorial or even the process
to be followed.
On the contrary, Liberal Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly merely
announced that the monument will be built at the Garden of the Provinces and
Territories on the south side of Wellington Street. This is the location
originally decided by the National Capital Commission (NCC).[2] The Liberal government will hold a new design competition
for a smaller monument, Joly said. The federal budget for the project has been
cut to $1.5 million, which will be matched by private donations, for a total
budget of $3 million, she said.[3]
Thus,
without being forthright about their own aim, the Liberals have decided to make
the memorial smaller and less expensive and to place it in a different
location. By implication, opposition to the monument merely concerned its
proposed size and location, not its fundamental nature and the outlook it
represents. Why the monument should be built at all and why the federal
government should pay anything at all Minister Joly did not say. The question remains
however, why the Liberals are taking up Harper's despicable campaign to make
communism a main concern of Canadians? The only explanation is that they seek
to use the monument to promote the virulently anti-communist definition of
rights created by the Anglo-American secret services during the Cold War.
Notably,
Justin Trudeau and numerous other Liberals such as former MP Irwin Cotler and
former federal party leader Bob Rae supported the memorial project from the
get-go. This is because in essence, the Liberals' ideology and definition of
rights, like that of the Harperites, is also rooted in Cold War anti-communism
and the neo-liberal values of the Paris Charter taken up by the Anglo-American
imperialists after the end of the bipolar division of the world. These values
serve their purpose of imposing the neo-liberal anti-social offensive onto the
working people and continuing to restructure the state in the service of
private monopoly interests. Progressive humanity has established a modern
definition of rights, whereby rights belong to people by virtue of their being.
The Cold War definition of rights brought forward by the Paris Charter after
the bi-polar division of the world came to an end constitutes a direct attack
on this modern definition of rights and the attempts to open society's path to
progress. This must not pass!
Earlier
this year, TML Weekly pointed out the danger posed by the
memorial project: "...the government has run rough-shod over established
Canadian institutions to give pride of place to a monument which imposes a
private extremist view of the world and makes this official policy. All of this
is done in a manner that offends the many sectors of society which do not share
its world view or interpretation of history. This is not governance. It is
extremism. No society can survive on the basis of being taken over by extremist
views and practices. This is a matter of profound concern."[4]
Not
only is the monument a matter of concern for all Canadians because it is based
on a self-serving Cold War definition of rights, but also because it turns
history on its head and is an attack on everything Canadians and the peoples of
the world sacrificed so much to achieve in the Second World War -- freedom,
democracy and peace -- with the Soviet Union making the greatest sacrifice.
What
is the purpose of attempts to recognize Nazis from Ukraine and the Baltic
states and various eastern European countries as "freedom fighters"
who were "victims of communism"? It is claimed they were not truly
Nazis because their alleged aim was to liberate their countries from communist
oppression. Who will be targeted today on the basis of attempts to promote a
self-serving Cold War definition of rights? Is it not used to undermine the
people's striving for progress and the realization of rights which belong to
them by virtue of being human?
The
sacred causes Canadians fought for when they defeated Nazi-fascism are present
today in their striving for empowerment and for a society which recognizes the
rights of all, in opposition to systems of privileges for those who espouse
values based on the private interests of the monopolies which strive to be
number one on world markets.
The
working people must make sure attempts to impose retrogression are stopped!
No to the Anti-Communist Monument! No to Anti-Communist Definitions of Human Rights! Our Future Lies in the Defence of the Rights of All!
Notes
1.
The so-called victims of communism are in fact the Nazis and their
collaborators. Attempts are being made to revive these Nazis in various
countries to again criminalize the struggles of the working people and
discriminate against minorities and those deemed "undesirables" by the
ruling circles. The monument is based on the U.S. "Victims of Communism
Memorial," dedicated in 2007, which has as its honourary chairman George
W. Bush. It is backed by U.S. monopolies such as war contractor Lockheed
Martin.
2.
Following the intervention of Stephen Harper and Jason Kenney, the original
location was replaced with a massive 5,000 square metre location next to the
Supreme Court, in contradiction with long-established plans of the NCC.
3.
This monument was said to be a private initiative which after almost seven
years has not been able to cover even its own expenses. Its initial cost was
estimated at $1.5 million, of which the organization that proposed the
monument, Tribute to Liberty, was supposed to raise two-thirds the cost. At no
time has it come close to meeting this threshold, while the estimated costs
continued to escalate, up to $5.5 million. The Harper government had promised
$3 million in federal funds, while the value of the land it wanted to hand over
was estimated to be worth $30 million.
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