DOWNLOAD EPISODE
Anti-imperialism and
anti-imperial resistance is what we’re talking about today. We just
had the 109th anniversary of Ireland’s Easter Rising
against the British Empire in 1916. On April 30th we had
the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, the end of
American imperialism in Vietnam and the re-unification of that
country after decades of struggle against multiple colonial empires.
Today Palestine resists. Today Gaza fights. And Yemen stands with the
Palestinians, choking off Israeli trade in the Red Sea and defying a
murderous bombing campaign waged by the U.S. Navy and Air Force.
In
our last episode, I apologize for being so busy, Israel had yet to
resume its genocidal offensive in Gaza. But it didn’t take long for
the Apartheid state and its American backers to do just that. Gaza
has experienced two months of indiscriminate bombing, starvation and
now a resumption of ground invasions by Israeli troops. These have
been met by heroic resistance and this continues daily as the people
fight back against this genocide.
Meanwhile,
wither Canada? The country of my birth. For once, I’m pleased to
say that I was not present to partake in such a pathetic election.
Such a pathetic resurgence of the two-party and first-past-the-post
systems that have traditionally done so much to limit democracy in
this country. The Liberals have another minority government. The
Conservatives came in second. The NDP and the Greens have been
crushed. The Liberals have been in power for the past 14 years, the
Conservatives before that, all the problems that Canadian voters say
they care about have been created by or been exacerbated by
successive Liberal and Conservative governments. Let’s look at the
Abacus poll data for what voters listed as the most important factors
determining their vote in 2025. For a more extensive breakdown, I
would strongly recommend watching Dmitri Lascaris’s recent interview on Geopolitical Economy Report.
45%
said reducing the cost of living was their #1 priority.
30%
said dealing with Donald Trump.
20%
said making housing affordable
19%
said growing the economy
18%
said improving the healthcare system
15%
said making Canada a better place to live
11%
said managing Canada’s federal debt
11%
said protecting public services
9%
said keeping Canada united
6%
said running an ethical and scandal-free government
6%
said representing Canada internationally
5%
said dealing with climate change
2%
said supporting Ukraine
2%
said achieving reconciliation with indigenous peoples
Besides
the disturbing figure that only 2% of voters seem overly concerned
about indigenous sovereignty, it’s notable that 45% of people are
mainly concerned about the cost of living and inflation. Housing is
also up there. Both of these things are the result of bi-partisan
Liberal and Conservative policies. Same with public services and
healthcare. And yet voters expect these guys to clean up their own
mess and have entrusted a banker, Mark Carney, to secure Canada’s
sovereignty in the face of U.S. aggression. I wanted to laugh when I
heard that. It’s pathetic. A banker. A banker is going to defend
Canada’s sovereignty. When confronted with a hostile American
administration, Canadians turn to the same people who oversaw the
cost of living crisis, the resulting homelessness crisis, and the
undermining and hollowing out of the public sector. It takes a
heavily propagandized population to consider those people “the safe
option” in a time of crisis. And while Palestine wasn’t on that
polling list, it’s worth noting that both Liberals and
Conservatives are firm in their support of Apartheid Israel while the
majority of Canadians are not. Canadian politics are not the politics
of solidarity, they are the politics of frightened, isolated
individuals who turn to their abusers for protection. And it makes me
sad. I’ve been in politics. I’ve run in elections and it’s just
so hard to break through the sheer normalcy of it all.
But
I keep trying. Because we need people-centred politics. We need
socialism, not barbarism.
I’d
like to return to the subject of Gaza now. A new documentary has just
been released about the student encampments that emerged in
solidarity with Gaza across the States over the past year. It’s
called “The Encampments” and Kei Pritsker of Breakthrough News, a
journalist I have a lot of respect for, played a lead roll in its
development. Kei was just on the Electronic Intifada this past week
and this is the interview that he had with Ali Abunimah. This is how
solidarity is done, folks.
Sources
The Electronic Intifada "The Encampments paints portrait of US student movement for Gaza"
Geopolitical Economy Report "Canada's new elite banker PM is not a real alternative to Trump"