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In Memory of the Victims of Nazism,  
Fascism and Japanese Militarism [by Pauline Easton, TML Daily No. 9, August 31, 2022] 

During September, we commemorate several important anniversaries related to World War II. We recall the death-defying deeds and courage of the peoples of the occupied countries and the Allied nations who joined their fight to vanquish Italian fascism, German Nazism and Japanese militarism. We pay deepest respects to the victims of these scourges of humankind. 

On September 1, 1939, the German Nazis invaded Poland. The Nazi invasion of Poland signalled the beginning of World War II and of the European holocaust. In China on September 2, the people celebrate the defeat of the Japanese occupation of China in 1945. The Japanese invaded China on July 7, 1937. Their invasion unleashed the Asian holocaust about which Canadian media remains largely silent. Since 1962, the International Day of Memory of Victims of Fascism is also marked on the second Sunday of September every year. This year it will be marked on September 11. 

The Whole World Honours the Victims of Fascism 

World War II involved 61 nation-states and over 80 per cent of the world’s population, taking a toll of more than 55 million people. Hostilities occurred on the territories of 40 states and the vast basins of the Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. The Soviet Union sustained the biggest losses in people and material resources. Some 27 million of its people lost their lives, in addition to losses to its armed forces of some 8.7 million . China is estimated to have endured the second highest number of total casualties in World War II. As many as 20 million people died in China in the Asian Holocaust, including up to 3.75 million military deaths and 18.19 million civilian deaths. 

The Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanjing, was the mass murder of Chinese civilians by the Imperial Japanese Army in Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, immediately after the Battle of Nanjing in the Second Sino-Japanese War. Beginning on December 13, 1937, the massacre lasted for six weeks. The Japanese militarists committed atrocities such as permitting mass rape, looting and arson. The massacre has gone down in history as one of the worst atrocities committed in the twentieth century. 

In their maniacal drive to condemn Russia and the People’s Republic of China as “authoritarian regimes,” Canada’s Prime Minister and the government of Canada and media remain silent about who liberated China from these monstrous deeds and the role of the Soviet Union in liberating Europe. Despite the tremendous sacrifices endured by the peoples of the occupied countries and their liberators, the government of Canada and the media in the service of the U.S. striving for world domination are purveyors of criminal disinformation about what actually took place and its significance today. 

Canada is marching in lock-step with the United States, Britain and various European countries and NATO allies to spread historical falsifications to justify what cannot be justified as concerns U.S./NATO warmongering and crimes against humanity in the name of Canadian values, peace, freedom and democracy. The restoration of the Nazism, fascism and Japanese militarism will not solve any crisis they are facing as they plunge the world into the abyss of wars of destruction with unknown consequences. 

They are erecting monuments intended to equate Nazism and communism for purposes of complying with the U.S. striving for world hegemony. This includes the rehabilitation of neo-Nazi and militarist forces in positions of power and enabling private armies and paramilitary forces to maraud, plunder and commit crimes on their behalf. 

The claim that Canada is not honouring Nazis but “freedom fighters against the communists,” fools no one. To its utter shame, the Government of Canada no matter which cartel party has been in power, with the NDP in tow, participates in this perpetuation of historical fraud. All read from the same playbook which seeks to shamefully cover up the betrayal committed when the Munich Agreement was concluded on September 30, 1938, by Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy which gave Hitler the green light to first occupy Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and then invade Poland on September 1. 

The German-Soviet non-aggression pact signed August 23, 1939, was forced on the Soviet Union because Britain and France refused to enter into a defense alliance in Europe to stop the Hitlerites from invading other countries. These countries had already signed the Munich Pact with Germany on September 30, 1938. This outrageous act of appeasement and collaboration permitted Germany to annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia, ordered the Czechs not to resist Nazi aggression and gave the Nazis the green light to launch further attacks across Europe. 

Since 2005, on Russia’s initiative, every year the UN General Assembly has approved resolutions urging an end to the glorification of Nazism and urging member states to combat practices that exacerbate contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. 

The General Assembly through these resolutions has expressed its deep concern over attempts to glorify Nazism, neo-Nazism and former members of the Waffen-SS in any form, including the construction of monuments and the holding of public demonstrations. The resolutions express concern over the “recurring attempts to desecrate or demolish monuments erected in remembrance of those who fought against Nazism during World War II, as well as to unlawfully exhume or remove the remains of such persons,” and noted an alarming increase in racist incidents and violence globally. 

Today, even the United Nations is being used to push the Anglo-American historical fraud called a rules-based international order. May the memory of those who gave their lives in the fight for freedom, peace and democracy live on in the battle of current generations for a world free of the scourge of the aggression we see today carried out by the Anglo-U.S. and European powers in the name of regime change and “responsibility to protect.” It is said more people are losing their lives today as a result of the current imperialist striving for domination of the world’s resources, labour, zones for investment and influence than during World War II. 

The need to establish anti-war governments all over the world has never been greater. Let us do our duty to the victims of Nazism, fascism and Japanese militarism.

STOP WAR! STOP THE INDUSTRY OF DEATH! 

SHUT DOWN THE ABBOTSFORD AIRSHOW! (Aug. 5-7, 2022)

As peace loving citizens and residents of Canada who want an end to war, we oppose the arms trade, aggressive military policies, growing military budgets and aggressive military engagements. In this spirit, we are demanding the end to arms trade shows and displays. 

It is especially troubling that the Abbotsford Airshow, which runs at the Abbotsford Airport from August 5 to 6, is taking place on the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, August 6. Rather than committing to such a display and promotion of weaponry and war, public administrations and businesspeople should be organizing mass commemorations of the victims of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear explosions and denouncing war and all weapons of mass destruction. Instead, Canadian and US military air forces are celebrating the technology of war and military action at this show. 

The Abbotsford Show is advertised as a family-friendly event where young children are to admire the machinery of death by air. It teaches them to overlook the destruction of life that is escalating around the world as tensions between the biggest powers grow and militarization is being ramped up. There should be mass events to express the desire for world peace, demilitarization, cease-fires in Palestine, Yemen, Ukraine, and all conflicts and negotiations to end them. 

In addition to the Canadian Snowbirds and the USAF Thunderbirds, the show is featuring the Canadian Skyhawks (parachutists) and demonstrating the RCAF CF-18 Hornet jet fighter. The website boasts 300,000 sq. Ft. of a range of sitting military and other aircraft from around the world. With the Aviation S.T.E.M. Zone, technology and science for war is promoted. Disturbingly, McDonald’s is hosting a Kid Zone at the show’s site.  

We oppose the arms trade and policies and actions of military aggression. We are campaigning to stop the Canadian government’s acquisition of 88 fighter jets and the sale of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, which is waging war with its partners against Yemen. We stand against the purchase of armed drones, too.  

Just as we staunchly protested the CANSEC arms trade fair, we adamantly protest the Abbotsford Airshow, as it is characteristically a military exhibition intended to promote Canada’s military materials and engagement. No more blood and tax dollars for war! 

Signed: Members of the Canada-Wide Peace and Justice Network 

[Message to Just Peace Committee and other activists who organized commemorative protests on August 6 and August 9.]

On the occasion of the 77th anniversary of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we AWC-Japan express our heartfelt solidarity to all our friends in Vancouver and the rest of the world who are fighting for nuclear abolition and world peace. We are also holding an anti-war and anti-nuclear rally today, August 6, in front of the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima.

The two atomic bombs killed so many people. More than 210,000 people in the two cities died by the end of 1945. Survivors have suffered from severe aftereffects. It is a horrendous crime against humanity.

Surprisingly, the U.S. government, which dropped the atomic bombs, has neither apologized for nor compensated the victims until today. In addition, it continues to build up its nuclear capability, including the development of small or tactical nuclear weapons. We strongly denounce the U.S. atrocities 77 years ago as well as present expansion of its nuclear posture.

A-bomb victims were not only Japanese. For example, around 40,000 Koreans died instantly in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They were the dual victims of Japanese imperialism’s forced transport to Japan and the U.S. imperialism’s atomic bombings. We must not forget such kind of historical facts.

We have second and third generation of A-bomb survivors in our membership. The genetic effects of radiation have not been “proven” but cannot be denied. They are standing on the front lines of the anti-war and anti-nuclear struggles in Japan, despite their health concerns. For them and us, the atomic bombings are not a matter of the past, but of the present..

In an aspect, the U.S. atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were a misery result of inter-imperialist war. Therefore, after the World War II, many Japanese people have demanded nuclear abolition and world peace, not war. Japanese government’s attitude, however, is the exact opposite.

The Japanese government has not ratified the Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The reason is that ‘Japan must be protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella’. This is really shameful attitude. Furthermore, the Japanese government is now drastically developed its own military posture under the nuclear-armed U.S.-Japan military alliance. It includes planned double increasing of military budget and moves toward amendment of Article 9 or a peace article of the Japanese Constitution. We also point out that one of the reasons why the Japanese government try to maintain nuclear energy despite the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 is to keep technical capability for Japan’s own nuclear armament.

We fight against imperialist wars of aggression and expansion of nuclear posture in solidarity with peoples of the world. We believe that only people can stop war and war crisis. Let us fight together for lasting peace in the world.

August 6, 2022

AWC-Japan

* The AWC-Japan or formally ‘Asia-Wide Campaign against the US-Japanese domination and aggression of Asia’ is a people’s organization in Japan, which has long committed people’s campaign against war, nukes, US bases and neoliberal policies. The AWC-Japan is a member organization of the ILPS.

BREAK THE US IMPERIALIST WAR DRIVE!

Statement of Commission 4 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles

The International League of Peoples’ Struggles thoroughly condemns the global gendarmerie known as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the brutal enforcer of US-based monopoly capitalism and interests world wide. A member of the International Coordinating Network which just launched the “Fight against Imperialist War” on May 21st, the ILPS has joined the united international mobilization to confront and expose NATO with calls to have member states withdraw and the entire Organization to be dismantled.

NATO is meeting in late June to launch its new global strategy and execute plans for expansion. The people are protesting the proposals to have more countries join NATO (Finland, Sweden and Ukraine).

Faced with the profound crisis of monopoly capitalism, an imperialist system of exploitation, plunder and domination, and the loss of its status as top dog in the multipolar world today, the US is dragging its closest allies in Europe and Canada into stepped up expansion and militarization, demanding more state funds and development and trade of arms. It is aligning more profoundly with fascism and terrorism in a desperate attempt to achieve its anti-social and destructive goals. It has even renewed a commitment to the use of nuclear weapons rationalized by the deterrence argument.

NATO’s support for the extreme right of Ukraine and interventions to use Ukraine against Russia is a case in point. The US is draining its taxpayers’ treasury instead of addressing its own internal problems and providing for its people to the point where its financial commitment to the war in Ukraine exceeds Russia’s yearly military budget. Through NATO, it is demanding that its military allies follow suit. NATO is also having its members commit to more donations of arms for Ukraine while it pushes arms production and trade. NATO is an institution of the military industrial complex serving the big arms producers such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing. In fact, Lockheed Martin executives were expressly activated to hussle European states and Canada to form NATO in the first place. NATO activity guarantees markets, which motivates NATO to extend and perpetuate conflicts.

Arguments that NATO defends democracy and human rights are totally bankrupt. Neither does it intervene to save lives and end conflicts. NATO is an apparatus intended to thwart democracy and liberation struggles. That is one of its intentions in the Ukraine conflict: overcoming the independence struggles and controlling all of Eastern Europe while it seeks to bring Russia to its knees. An instrument to curb communism from the post-WW2 period through the Cold War, it was later mobilized to marshal Eastern European nations as the Soviet Union collapsed. One aim has been to break imperialist Russia’s influence and markets in Europe and beyond.

NATO member countries have long been deployed to defend US-led imperialism around the world, despite NATO’s ostensible label as a “European and North American organization”. It and its members run bases in the Caribbean and South America. It plays a role in aggressive interventions and US military expansion in Africa. Recently, NATO formally announced it was engaging in confronting China. This follows its 20-year occupation of Afghanistan and its aid to Saudi Arabia’s campaign to destroy Yemen, its involvement in attacks on Syria and its support to Israel’s occupation of Palestine. It has mainly aimed to conserve the international imperialist world order since its formation in 1949. All its activities and policies contribute to sharpening rivalries, militarism, military interventions and perpetual war; it is thus a factor for war setting the stage for another world war.

The ILPS, especially Commission 4, fully supports the people’s counter summit and other mass meetings in Madrid on June 25 and their mass demonstrations to oppose NATO there and at locations around the world that are planned from June 26 to 30th. ILPS organizations and allies should join in or organize their own local mass actions and other expressions of opposition.

No to NATO! End the arms trade!

Stop the US war machine! No war in Ukraine!

Stop wars of aggression and counterrevolution! Negotiations, not military action!

Support the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons!

peace4@vcn.bc.ca

Why Canada must stop funding the Philippine counter-terrorism campaign

https://www.ichrpcanada.org/…/why-canada-must-stop…/

Press Release

May 18, 2022

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

The International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines – Canada (ICHRP-Canada) and 20 organizations, including Canadian churches, unions, non-governmental and solidarity organizations are calling on the Canadian Government “to stop funding so called counter-terrorism measures of the Philippine Government. In a brief, “Human Rights and Canada’s support for the counter-terrorism campaign of the Philippine Government,” submitted to the Canadian Government, ICHRP and the signing organizations recommend that the Philippines be excluded from Canada’s funding to counter-terrorism programs of the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) provided through the Counter-terrorism Capacity Building (CTCBP) and other programs of Global Affairs Canada (GAC) and other departments.”

The call arises from concerns that the counter- terrorism activities are not conducted within international norms, standards, and obligations. The Philippine Government is using the counter-terrorism campaign to criminalize dissent, attack critics of the Government as enemies of the State and make them targets of its dubious counter-terrorism campaign. The counter-terrorism policies and measures amount to a declaration of war against human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, political opposition, labour, peasant, environmental and Indigenous rights defenders, and other citizens who exercise their civil and democratic rights.

ICHRP and the signatories of the brief warns the Canadian Government that it is inadvertently enabling the Government of the Philippines to use the counter-terrorism campaign as a tool of repression by providing financial, programmatic, and technical support. Canada risks being complicit in the thousands of extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and irregular searches, arrests and detention, vilification and harassment campaigns and other severe human rights violations associated with the counter-insurgency campaign.

For more information about the Brief, the human rights consequences of the Philippine Government’s counter-terrorism campaign and Canada’s support for it, please contact:

Patricia Lisson

Chairperson of ICHRP Canada

1-514-241-9036

ichrpcanada@gmail.com

Statement on the Ukraine Invasion by the International League of People’s Struggles

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the culmination of decades of imperialist competition for Ukraine and US-led aggression by Western imperialist powers since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The successor Russian Federation has developed easily into an imperialist power itself with its natural resources and own industrial-military base and starting with the former republics as its dependent vassal countries. Russian imperialism contends with the US-led Western imperialist powers in beating the war drums in Ukraine.

US imperialism seeks to maintain its military hegemony through the G7 Western imperialist alliance and NATO. It has succeeded to encircle Russia militarily through its troops and bases, and implement a policy of constriction through economic sanctions, political-economic initiatives in the former republics as well as the former East Bloc countries. All of these are the geopolitics of monopoly capital of all sides.

The turning point for Ukraine was 2014 when the US succeeded to prod a coup to topple the corrupt, undemocratic pro-Russian government utilizing neo-Nazi gangs in a bloody repression against the anti-fascist rebellion from the masses. The fascist Ukrainian government decided to ignore the Minsk agreement that was supposed to create self-governed regions and would have assured stability in the region. Violating the Minsk agreement, the Ukrainian US-controlled Zelenski government continues its war of aggression against the declared governments of Donetsk and Luhansk as well as Crimea which has voted to rejoin Russia. This war has killed more than 14,000 people in the last eight years.

Russia has remained defensive and used its economic and natural resources and military might as leverage to counter the US-NATO security and military constriction and economic sanctions. But the military intervention and invasion by Russia in Ukraine also violates the Minsk agreement, especially the self-determination and right to development of the Ukrainian people. This invasion is pushed by the Russian monopoly capital which faces threats of declining profits from sanctions and overall constriction policy by US-led G7.

Putin uses the Ukrainian peoples militant struggle against fascist and Western imperialism to assert their self-determination as an excuse for its invasion which is truly driven by the political-economic interests of Russian bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the Ukrainian working masses face the brunt of the war and will not make gains until they all fight to liberate themselves from Russian and US-European imperialist control, starting with the bourgeois government beholden to the Western imperialists.

Condemn US warmongering and aggression against Russia!

Condemn the Russian invasion and military intervention in Ukraine!

US-NATO out of Ukraine! Implement the 2014 Minsk Agreement!

Support the militant struggle of the Ukrainian people for democracy, social liberation and self-determination!

Signed:

Len Cooper

ILPS Chairperson

27 February 2022

Commission 4 of the International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS) supports renewed calls for action to protest the military assaults on Yemen and the imposition of the brutal and unjust economic blockade against the Yemeni people. Commission 4 is concerned with the struggle for just peace against wars of aggression and counter -revolution and all weapons of mass destruction. We joined in the global day of action against the bombing of Yemen on January 25, 2021. A year later, the aggression continues.

There had already been years of internal conflict when Saudi Arabia launched its military campaign against Yemen in 2015. The pretext was retaliation for a Yemeni armed faction’s hit on a Saudi Arabian target. An anti-Yemen coalition formed involving the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Though not officially members of this coalition, Israel and NATO countries are supporting Saudi Arabia militarily. Canadians have opposed the scandalous sale of armed vehicles to Saudi Arabia, for example. Saudi Arabia has also led an economic blockade against Yemen, multiplying the suffering experienced by civilian Yemenis.

A UN report released on December 6, 2021 stated that deaths to Yemenis directly resulting from this war would likely reach 377,000 by the end of that year. Humanitarian organizations cited the worst crisis in the world as of last year, decrying the blockade as it is depriving the people of necessary good including food and medical supplies.

Saudia Arabian-led forces heavily bombed Yemen on January 31, 2022, prompting a wave of response on the part of concerned observers in many countries. A national day of action was planned for March 1^st in the US, supported in Canada, and a national day of action is planned for March 26 across Canada. Meanwhile, US activists are pushing for the approval of the “War Powers Resolution” in the US Congress, as it would commit the US government to stop monetary and military aid and arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners. To this end, activists have been engaging in letter and social media barrages and gathering at the offices of Houses of Representatives. ILPS Commission 4 wholeheartedly supports all these initiatives that could bring relief to the people of Yemen and get its assailants to back down. We encourage ILPS and allied organizations to join in and signal their own messages of protest in ways they can.

End the blockade against the people of Yemen! Humanitarian aid now!

Oppose militarism and fascism!

Build the movement for just peace against imperialism!

A Pan-Canadian Counter-Summit on NATO, June 14 

Speakers including academics, youth leaders, communist organizers and leaders of women’s groups met online while local actions ensued over the weekend before and on the day of the NATO summit. 

One of the keynote speakers, Margaret Villamizar, pointed to NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg stated purpose of this NATO summit:  

“enhancing NATO’s role in preserving the rules-based international order, which he said is challenged by authoritarian regimes, like Russia and China. He said this requires strengthening existing partnerships and building new ones, including in the Asia-Pacific, Africa, and Latin America — in other words extending NATO’s reach to regions far beyond the north Atlantic to China’s own neighbourhood…”. (“China as a Threat and the Fraud of NATO’s Values,” TML Monthly Supplement posted June 14, 2021, on www.cpcml.ca) 

She also cited Stoltenberg’s argument characterizing China as a predator state “seeking to control critical infrastructure in NATO countries and around the world” and raised alarm bells about its interest “some of the most important technologies, including parts of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems” the extent of China’s defense budget, naval expansion and military capabilities. (“Ongoing Threat to World Peace by a Cold War Relic”, ibid.) He insists that member countries must share the burden of defense against such threats. 

Another Canadian Counter Summit speaker, Nick Lin, underscored the US-led alliance’s framework about defense against China and Russia. “At a time when the U.S. claims that China and Russia pose a threat to global stability, NATO is using these countries as the pretext to demand increased war funding from member governments.” (ibid.) Furthermore, said Lin, NATO is seeking more control over its member states by “insinuating itself into the political and social affairs of member countries and the direction of their economies” and assuming an air of benevolence. (ibid.) Margaret Villamizar examined the language of NATO’s propaganda, city keywords that signify a false voice of peace: ” safeguarding the freedom, common heritage and civilization of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law….to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.” (ibid.)  

Both speakers called for Canada to withdraw from NATO and for NATO to be dismantled. They supported actions and discussions opposing NATO and analyzing NATO and US strategy, pushing the need for broad based unity in action against NATO and US aggression.  

CONDEMN COLOMBIA’S STATE TERROR!

US Military and NATO, Get Out!

The Venezuela Peace and Solidarity Committee of Vancouver (VPSC) condemns the state violence against civilians demonstrating and organizing for their rights and just peace. Colombia has one of the worst human rights records and is highly militarized thanks to its alliance with the US. With nine US military bases, US backed paramilitary groups, and extreme policies and practices of state repression, Colombia is a threat to the region, especially Venezuela.

The VPSC supports the just causes of the people throughout the Americas. We support the ongoing national strikes in Colombia. We oppose militaristic and reactionary states such as Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia. We oppose the criminal, anti-social and anti-democratic government of Colombia’s President Duque. It is an example of the most extreme regimes that uphold vast social inequality, neglect of services for the people, and the rejection of basic human, political and civil rights. Colombia systematically murders labour, indigenous, and social cause leaders. Nevertheless, the US and its allies including Canada defend Colombia as if it were a model society, while it is hostile to democratic, independent societies that work to solve the problems of the people, most notably Bolivarian Venezuela, as well as Nicaragua, Bolivia and Cuba.

A foreign military presence has evolved out of European colonial times into World War II and into the neo-colonial era, with the US having established a foothold in the 1940s and increased its presence ever since. Concerns about independence, democratization and socialization in Grenada, St. Vincent, Suriname, Jamaica, Cuba and Nicaragua drove its “security” practices while a doublespeak of cooperation for economic and social development was voiced in the Clinton period. Plan Colombia, a scheme to militarize the Colombia under the false pretense of fighting “the war on drugs,” was conceived and launched under Clinton’s administration. Coastal US and Central America, Caribbean Islands controlled by US and European states, and South American states languishing under Right-wing rule are overloaded with US and NATO military forces and regional military forces commanded by reactionary commands today. Another stage of US military expansion in this region began in 2010. There were 21 US military installations in the Caribbean by 1984, and that figure is now over 30. Forty are in Latin America as a whole, in addition to the bases on US territories. Besides the nine US military installations in Colombia, they are present in Ecuador and Chile, and there are four in Costa Rica, two in Panama, one in Cuba, four in the US territory of the Virgin Islands, one in French Guyana, one on Aruba and one on Curacao (Netherlands), one in El Salvador, one in Honduras, and one in the Dominican Republic. [Sources: Institute for Policy Studies, “US Military Bases in Latin America and the Caribbean,” Oct. 5, 2005 by Paul Lindsay. “Caribbean Security on the Eve of the 21^st Century” by Ivelaw Griffith, McNair Paper of October 1996, Institute for National Defense Studies at the National Defense University in Washington DC.]

Launched in 1999, Plan Colombia pushed forward US-led militarization of Colombia and its surroundings in the name of fighting narco production and trafficking. This sham was a massive undertaking when US bases and military cooperation were developed, creating an ever-present threat of direct military invasion of Colombia, Venezuela and other countries. Drug production and trade is thriving. The political objective is obvious. Colombian revolutionary campaigns were gaining ground through the 90s. 1999 was the year that Hugo Chavez, representing the Bolivarian Revolution, was elected to power with overwhelming mass support in Venezuela. The masses defended his right to govern through the 2002 coup attempt, as they continue defend his political successor, Nicola Maduro.

US and its partners and allies regularly conduct military exercises off Central America and South America coastlines. Here is one example.

In 2015 the U.S. conducted 6 major regional military exercises in the Western Hemisphere. When our delegation was in Chile in October, the U.S. aircraft carrier George Washington, a mobile U.S. military base itself with dozens of aircraft, helicopters and landing craft, and four other U.S. warships were in Chilean waters practicing maneuvers as Chile hosted the annual UNITAS exercises. The navies of Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, New Zealand and Panama were also participating. [“US Military Bases in the Caribbean, Central and South America”, Presentation for the 4th International Seminar for Peace and Abolition of Foreign Military Bases By US Army Reserves (Retired) Colonel and former U.S. Diplomat Ann Wright, Guantanamo, Cuba, November 23-24, 2015]

Canada’s military participates in military training, technological development, arms trade and exercises in the Caribbean and Latin America. Its policies are closely aligned with those of the US. Its capitalist class has specific interests in supporting the free market and neoliberal policies and practices, and embracing imperialist strategies to defend those interests. The Royal Bank of Canada was founded under the name “Merchants’ Bank” in the West Indies in 1864.

Canada’s hypocrisy knows no boundaries; it uses terms like “human rights” and “democracy” falsely to achieve its own aims, such as opposing people’s just struggles for a better life in Colombia and Venezuela. It continues military support and aid and diplomatic friendship with the worst of worst, from the Philippines to Israel to Colombia, while it moans ad nauseam about human rights in Venezuela and other politically incompatible countries. It has even been hostile to Cuba lately, violating a friendship seen as almost sacred to many Canadians. It actually orchestrates cooperation among reactionary states to support anti-social and anti-democratic regimes and practices, most notably the notorious Lima Group which is a rogue, Right-wing substitute for the Organization of the American States lacking in any legal authority. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other politicians and the Canadian mainstream media produce constant lies to cover up the US and NATO sinister projects and aims in the Caribbean and Latin America. They weave tall tales and try to prop up Juan Guaidó as a phony representative of the Venezuelan people, which is quite laughable today, considering he is no longer in an elected position.

The peoples of the America share the common dream of social equality, truly democratic governance, just peace and social support. They want social emancipation and freedom from foreign domination and interference. They are justified in demonstrating these demands and organizing to realize this dream. VPSC supports these mass movements in Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere.

We hail the brave efforts of the Colombian people to win political, economic and social achievements to solve their problems. We applaud their national strikes. We condemn the vicious, murderous Colombian regime and its amoral and anti-social backers, the US and Canada. As well, we wholeheartedly denounce the US and NATO militarization of the region, especially Canada’s role in it.

International solidarity! Down with the criminal Colombian regime and all reaction!

Long live the just cause of the people of Colombia and Venezuela! US, go home!

Statement of the Venezuela Peace and Solidarity Committee of Vancouver

Copied from the May edition of the ILPS Commission 4 “Peace 4 the People Newsletter”

Veterans for Peace (VFP) e-news, March 23, 2021:  “Sixty years ago, the United States used approximately 19 million gallons of 15 different herbicides, including 13 million gallons of Agent Orange, over southern Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed during the spraying and many more continue to be exposed through the environment. Agent Orange exposure continues to negatively affect the lives of men and women in Vietnam and in the United States. “

VFP hosted a webinar on the lingering aftermath of the despicable use of agent orange by the US military since the 19602.  In this powerful panel, Hoan Thi Tran and Heather Bowser talked about their personal stories as disabled children of parents who were exposed to the toxic compound agent orange. A defoliant deliberately mixed strong enough to kill people, the US said it used agent orange to clear jungles where it suspected Vietcong forces were hiding. The US Army Chemical Corps and the Flying Crews were charged with the task. It was poured over people, too. US personnel ordered to spray it in many areas succumbed to illness as did Vietnamese people. Not only did they suffer from cancers and other diseases such as Parkinson’s, their children and grandchildren suffered deformities and illnesses, too.  Jonathan Moore discussed the U.S. legal cases around Agent Orange, and Tricia Euvard cited the current lawsuit in France. Susan Schnall laid out the broad health effects of Agent Orange, and Paul Cox briefly described and weighed the legislation on Agent Orange that U.S. Congresswoman Barbara Lee would soon introduce. This webinar also occurred in conjunction with the recent release of the powerful new film “The People Vs. Agent Orange.” 

In 1960, the United Nations passed a resolution to create a treaty against chemical weapons because of discoveries of damage related to their toxins to all people, animals and plants. The use of agent orange was a violation of this treaty and international law, and as such, a war crime.  

The struggle to get justice for this monolithic crime continues. Tracking the history, we can see how costly the use of agent orange has been in terms of life and dollars. The US Agent Orange Act of 2005 assigned some compensation totaling $75 billion to US military veterans. Though the US government cannot be sued, there have been lawsuits against chemical companies. Many litigation cases by US veterans and non-resident aliens have been dismissed. The US military and government claim the effects of agent orange were unexpected “collateral damage” rather than intentional harm. However, it has been shown that the level of dioxin in the mixture sold to the US military was designed to cause death. 

The effects of agent orange are still being studied and learned. For instance, hypothyroidism, Parkinson’s, bladder cancer and other illnesses have been known as consequences of exposure, though not officially recognized until 2021. 

Veterans and their allies persist in educating the public about the true crimes of US wars. VFP reported on one historic action in its e-news release of April 6, 2021. 

“Many veterans came home from Vietnam with a mission: to tell the truth about the wartime atrocities being committed and demand an immediate end to the killing. In April 1971, a group of more than 1,000 veterans launched the Dewey Canyon III operation, a ‘limited incursion into the land of Congress.’ April 23 marked the 50th anniversary of one of the most influential anti-war actions of the era.”

VFP and the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs are hosting an online forum about this operation and the lessons it offers on April 23.