Greeting from CPCon president Larry Wasslen to MQP Convention, December 10, 2023

 

Comrades and friends,

It is a great honour to speak with you at your convention of the Mouvement Québécois pour la Paix. The Canadian Peace Congress and all anti-imperialist and peace-loving organizations salute you and wish you every success in your deliberations and in the struggles ahead.

Your meeting is taking place at a most critical moment. Militarism and imperialist wars of aggression are on the rise. If ever there was an urgent time for the voices of peace and solidarity in Quebec, in Canada and around the world to be heard it is now.

The genocidal Zionist war against Palestine is raging with the full support of Canadian, US and EU imperialism. Every time we underline the number of innocent civilians killed we know that our count is out of date. As of December 6, 2023 at least 16,248 people have died. There is no limit to death and destruction at the hands of Zionism and imperialism. We recognize the grave danger that the Zionist war on Palestine in Gaza and the West Bank can easily expand into a regional conflict where an untold number of innocent lives will be lost.

Millions of people around the world are marching in the streets demanding an immediate ceasefire and, critically, an end to apartheid Israel’s occupation of Palestine. The whole world stands with the Palestinian people.

The Canadian Peace Congress recognizes the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation. Similarly, we support the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland and their absolute right to their own state.

We must step up efforts to force Canada to call for a ceasefire and an end to occupation now.

In Ukraine the NATO war against the Russian Federation continues to grind on. While casualty numbers on both sides of the war are kept secret some estimates put the number of dead and wounded at over 500,000.

As you know the World Peace Council immediately condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for an end to hostilities and a negotiated settlement. The WPC and our Congress understands the circumstances that led to the current conflict. We know that US imperialism is directly responsible for this conflict. We know that imperialism explicitly blocked a negotiated end to the conflict that would have saved many hundreds of thousands of lives. We must continue to demand that Canada stop fuelling this conflict by sending weapons to Ukraine. We reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire and serious negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

The serious danger of another imperialist-inspired war in East Asia is also on our minds. Canada and other imperialist powers directly participate in aggressive military exercises in the South China Sea in what is clearly a provocation against the People’s Republic of China.
The forces for peace must come together to try and prevent this war and to bring current conflicts to an end.

It goes without saying that each and every one of the above mentioned conflicts could escalate into a much broader, even nuclear, confrontation between the US/NATO imperialist bloc and the rising powers in Iran, Russia and China.

We must act now to strengthen the broad peace movement. At the same time we must systematically build the anti-imperialist section of the peace movement in Quebec and Canada.

We know that the Québécois have a very long history of opposing imperialist war. We are thrilled with the fact that the MQP was warmly received at the WPC regional meeting in Pachuca, Mexico. Without a doubt your organization will receive full membership in the WPC at the next general meeting.

We look forward to strengthening the bonds of solidarity and active cooperation between our two organizations. This includes, not least, coordinated efforts to campaign for Canada’s immediate withdrawal from the aggressive NATO military alliance.

We have every confidence that the decisions you make today will enhance both the broader and, most importantly, the crucial anti-imperialist core of the peace movement.

Thank you