This is post number two of three on the liberal illusions imposed on our society. The first post discussed the part of the illusion that is based on international imperialism. This one is about the reality of control and oppression at home.
In addition to international imperialism discussed in the last post, dissenting opinions and actions within Canadian borders are also controlled more than is understood. In all class societies, the fundamental forms of limiting dissent are control of armed forces and information. Capitalism also uses the market as a vital tool in limiting the broadcast of, and access to, deeper criticisms while many governmental and civil institutions effectively divert dissenting views in harmless directions as well.
Control by Armed Forces
Though physical violence and force against dissent is applied less frequently in Canada than in many countries, this is only because it is currently less necessary as a form of control. Nonetheless, it has a long history on a larger scale of brutality than many Canadians realize. This includes genocide of natives since the first days which included tactics such as massacres, intentional spreading of disease, intentional killing off of the buffalo as a food supply1 and residential schools among others. Today, corporations and our federal and provincial governments routinely trespass on unseeded aboriginal land across the country or use treaties signed under fraudulent conditions to justify expropriation and destructive industrial activity. During the “Oka Crisis” of 1990, developers attempted to expand a golf course to 18 holes, further into the Kanehsatake territory, traditional Mohawk land. This would have stolen traditional burial grounds. In response, the Mohawks erected armed barricades, to defend against further encroachment. Rather than accept the obviously legitimate claims, the government sent in the Sureté du Quebec and eventually the military, with tanks, Armoured Personel Carriers and helicopters. Police blockades meant much food had to be snuck in to the Mohawks. All to teach a lesson about defending land from something as insignificant as a golf-course expansion. Other industrial projects massively pollute native lands and the inhabitants against their permission, such as the cancer causing Tar Sands.2 Many planned industrial activities would cross native land without consent such as the Northern Gateway Pipeline. New laws like the proposed Bill C-51 threaten to call anti-pipeline activists “eco-terrorists” increasing the threat to anyone trying to protect the environment. Natives have always been dealt with by force. It is easier however, to keep this reality outside of the understanding of the dominant majority community, in a racially segregated land. Consequently, native resistance has usually had little effect on central power institutions and the powerful do not generally feel threatened by it.
As well, violent oppression against the working class of all skin colors has been used when needed and examples abound. During the Winnipeg General Strike, the international threat was invoked and strikers were called Bolsheviks invading Canada. When the government cracked down with firearms, two were killed and many were injured. Others were deported. During the Cold War, communist leaders were imprisoned. In more recent history, protests against the Vancouver Olympics were met with force. The 2010 G20 protests in Toronto brought a much higher level of brutality. Anger had been growing for some time in Canada against neo-liberalism, growth in inequality and undemocratic governing and financial institutions. This culminated in massive protests against the G20 summit of global elite. The result was over 1,100 arrests, the largest number of arrests in peace time Canadian history. In addition to widespread illegal arrests, there was extensive physical police brutality on protesters, some women were sexually abused, journalists were arrested and many were held under illegal conditions. 3
Increasingly worrying is the currently proposed Bill C-51. This bill contains a broad definition of what could be called terrorism, including threats to the “economic and financial stability of Canada.” There has already been heightened rhetoric against the environmentalist movement, to the point that the ridiculous term “eco-terrorist” has entered common use. Joe Oliver, former Minister for Natural Resources, now Finance Minister, went so far as to call environmentalists “foreign-funded radicals.” Environmental activists have already been attacked for defending against capitalism’s constant expansion of environmental exploitation and destruction. There is massive influence of oil, natural gas and many other interests in government. It is obvious how those hoping to stop environmental destruction and climate change could be increasingly attacked as “eco-terrorists” for the threats they supposedly pose to the “economic and financial stability of Canada.” Especially when that phrase is actually a by-word for threats to corporate activities and profits. Once again, indigenous groups on the front lines of these struggles will certainly be attacked hardest. Bill C-51 gives greatly expanded powers to the Canadian Secret Intelligence Service (CSIS) and does not even pretend to provide matching oversight. The only barriers mentioned for CSIS activities are against causing “bodily harm” and “violation of sexual integrity.” Warrants granted by federal judges, in secret courts, would give CSIS the right to secretly overstep the bounds of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Meanwhile, our governments and media continue to hype and distort international and domestic terrorist threats. To understand the danger, one does not need to connect this to revelations on government surveillance of recent years, such as those exposed by Wiki leaks and Edward Snowden. 4
Bureaucracy, Disillusion and Withdrawal
Many Canadians are simply disillusioned with the whole unresponsive political system and decide to refrain from participation in official institutions. Little seems to improve for many and in recent years much has gotten worse. The continued economic crisis has disproportionately affected the working class. Meanwhile, a 2014 report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives said that the country’s 86 wealthiest individuals and families, .002% of the population, control as much wealth as the poorest 11.4 million. In 1999, they controlled “only” as much as the poorest 10.1 million. 5
Destruction of the environment is ramping up even as concern for human destruction reaches new heights. In 2012, bills C-38 and C-45 removed the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act and 2.5 million rivers and lakes lost the protection of the Navigable Waters Protection Act. This left only 159 protected (disproportionately in wealthy, Conservative ridings) but not their tributaries.6 This clearly benefits no one but corporations hoping to do environmentally harmful business. In protection of destructive domestic energy production, the government is going so far as to directly silence scientists, on a broad scale, whose findings are inconvenient for business. This has occurred particularly in relation to results finding human causes for climate change and environmental destruction. The Harper government has garnered international criticism for this. The union representing scientists and other professionals in the federal government, the Professional Institute of the Public Services of Canada, has decided to abandon its neutral stance and openly campaign against Harper.7
Endless examples show the government is just one arm of the capitalist class. This breeds massive apathy and many participate in Canadian politics in only the most superficial ways, if at all. Capitalism thrives on this apathy because the government’s true constituents are not the Canadian masses but their friends, families and connections in the elite. This political withdrawal leaves the realm of politics up to those whom capitalism actually cares about, the wealthy. Since after 1988, 30% or more of Canadians have stayed at home during the simplest moment of political activity offered, national elections. The last two have seen 42.2% and 38.9% of the population not voting. It is hard to blame them. The “robo-calls” scandal reveals a growing desire to even use direct fraud in elections. Though bourgeois elections have never been the major avenue for effective participation that propaganda tells us, the drop-off in turnout does reflect the general disillusion with capitalist politics throughout society.
Control is Inherent to Capitalism
The present and historical reality is that our government has consistently used violent and coercive methods of moderating and controlling deeper critiques of our social system. A majority of Canadians today have not felt the worst aspects of this. But as detailed in the first post, if our government enthusiastically contributes to international coups, para-militaries and assassinations, why should we expect them to treat us better if we were to seriously threaten their interests domestically?
The reality of our “freedom” is that we are free to live relatively comfortably with imperialist wealth while we are prevented from accessing serious economic or political power. The armed forces, media, political and market forces, all based on class, combine to divert and control acceptable political thought within narrow parameters. The political, market and media forms of control are currently effective enough that the armed forces are less frequently needed. We still live in the deceptive stage of capitalism called liberal democracy. But it is moving to the edge. The global and national situation is such that the liberal mask is slipping to reveal capitalism’s face of crisis, brute force. As the economic and other crises deepen and intertwine, so too will discontent and dissent. This will push a ruling class reaction. A reaction many countries already face.
Meanwhile the freedoms left to us will remain superficial. The political freedom to vote every four years for leaders that cannot offer a serious critique, let alone a revolutionary overhaul. In the past capitalism helped tear down certain forms of oppression that came with feudalism, such as domination by the church. But freedom is always relative in the human context. Capitalism set up its own oppressions. Today many problems appear to us as inevitable and unsolvable. As though they are human nature. But many are actually problems natural to the capitalist socio-economic structure. In substituting freedom before the market, we get the accompanying “freedoms” of manipulative and superficial elections every four years, where we elect which members of the bourgeoisie will rule over us. We have the freedom to change menial job for menial job, for low wages amidst high profits.
Despite constant economic growth, one key to mass political participation is consistently denied, more free time due to a shortened work week. Society is kept too busy earning a living to have adequate time and energy left over for political participation. We have the freedom to follow cultural patterns dictated by the market. We are forced to accept a society based on profit-searching, growth and an ideology of consumerism to support them. We are denied the freedom to protect parks, waterways and ecosystems, the fundamental bases of all life. According to liberalism, this would be excessive “communitarianism.” With a for-profit structure, critical media can’t get advertising money or funding from wealthy sources and will simply go out of business or always exist on the periphery. These problems cannot be solved within the class structure of capitalism. To construct a better society we need to put into proper perspective the socially produced nature of our society and come to collective action to solve problems. This can only be done through socialism: a society based on social property and doing away with the anarchy of the market.
1 http://www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP10CH2PA2LE.html
3 http://backofthebook.ca/2010/07/01/how-i-got-arrested-and-abused-at-the-g20-in-toronto-canada/3476/
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/four-journalists-file-police-complaints
6 http://canadians.org/sites/default/files/publications/NWPA-factsheet.pdf
A Socialist Perspective 