The true face of Imperialism

Since the 47th president of the USA was sworn in on January 20, 2025, the true, brutal face of U.S. imperialism has come into clearer focus. Euphemisms such as “allies”, “trading partners”, and “best friends” used to describe subservient countries have been unceremoniously ditched in favour of direct threats to the sovereignty of various “neighbours.”  Threats include crippling tariffs on Canada, Mexico and Colombia and coercion or direct military threats to Greenland and Panama. These measures are being used to force ever more obedience to an empire that is clearly in decline.

Imperialism does offer other options for its so-called friends ranging from outright capitulation i.e. ‘51st state’, to implementing other forms of appeasement including massive increases to the war budget and ‘securing’ the northern border from alleged illegal immigrants and drugs flooding into the USA.

The Canadian ruling classes are scrambling to appease the demon to the south in a variety of ways. What these efforts amount to is weakening independence; critically curtailing crucial public services while guaranteeing Canadian and American capitalists higher profits that further integration into the U.S. economy; the so-called “Am/Can Fortress.”

Canadian government officials of every stripe are now prepared to militarize the border vowing to funnel $1.3 billion into new security measures, (BBC report, January 22, 2025), rapidly increasing an already bloated war budget. They prostrate themselves to Trump and his war mongering entourage begging to exempt Canada because “we are not Venezuela, China, or Russia”.

Instead of making a concerted effort to expand Canada’s trade across the globe, the federal government has warned that it will retaliate with tariffs of its own in what would become a trade war with the largest economy on the planet. This is the time for Canada to extend the hand of solidarity and friendship to all countries under attack from imperialism in the spirit of no country to be left behind.

The Canadian Peace Congress condemns, in the strongest possible terms, these new acts of aggression of US imperialism. We emphasize that these attacks are but the latest reiteration of Canada’s continued subservience to an ever more desperate empire, now in decline.

Our Congress steadfastly maintains that Canada must have an independent foreign policy based on peace, disarmament, and solidarity, a foreign policy that adheres to the UN charter and working diplomatically to resolve international disputes. We can only achieve these goals by getting Canada out of the ferocious military alliances of NATO, NORAD, and the so-called ‘Five eyes’.

No to imperialist threats against Canada and all other countries!