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EDITORIAL After the Federal Election

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EDITORIAL After the Federal Election EDITORIAL After the federal election he federal election is over and there is little to cheer party in the US. about. Our situation threatens to go from bad to What about the NDP? From a Left and activist perspec- worse, and many worry that the worst is yet to come tive there was nothing to cheer about in the Jack Layton Tunder the Tories. Things will not change for the better campaign and its appeals to “working families.” The direction unless large numbers of people recognize the danger signals of the federal NDP has become crystal clear — it is moving and mobilize to defend their rights and interests. to the right. The NDP differentiated itself a little by oppos- The Liberals faithfully served corporate interests, while ing corporate tax cuts, privatization of health and the Bush cynically promising reforms that were never delivered. Martin agenda. But it called for a balanced budget, promised no new helped paved the way for the Tories through huge cuts in corporate taxes, offered its version of “get tough on crime” federal program spending and transfers to the provinces, and refused to challenge the Canadian military’s role in increased military spending and Canadian intervention in warlike occupations. Afghanistan and Haiti. The NDP may sometimes try and act as a parliamentary A clear majority of people voted against the Tories, so the brake on the Tories. But Layton’s talk about cooperating to Tory minority government does not signify strong support “make parliament work” makes it plain that the NDP wants for a right turn or social conservatism. And as a minority to avoid bringing down the Tory minority government, for government, the Tories face constraints on what they can fear that voters who buy into the reactionary “we don’t want achieve. another election” sentiment would punish the NDP at the However, the last thing social movements and the Left polls. should do is sigh, say it could have been worse and go back The Conservatives will only be defeated if they are chal- to sleep. We should not make the mistake of underestimating lenged in society at large by visible and vocal opposition our enemies. The Tory campaign showed that Harper was not organizing itself and taking to the streets. Many do not want a bungler but a man on a mission. to take the Harper agenda lying down. New Socialist calls for The Tories may decide to bide their time and strike a rela- people to not to give the new government a chance. tively moderate pose, except on issues such as a crime where Renewed mobilization by unions, anti-poverty groups, the right-wing tide is running high. However, no one should students and a strengthened anti-war & anti-intervention be fooled. If they succeed in obtaining a majority in the next movement are our weapons to defeat Harper. There is a election they will ruthlessly implement an anti-worker, anti- crying need for a new women’s movement to defend the exist- woman, anti-queer, anti-environmental, racist and militarist ing hard-won right to choose and to win universal quality agenda. public child care services. People who have experienced the right-wing Campbell and It has been a decade since the last major pan-Canadian Harris governments in BC and Ontario know what this mobilization against the federal government around domestic means. Big tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy have issues: the 1996 women’s march against poverty organized by inevitable consequences, gutting badly-needed public services unions and the women’s movement. This of activism and the and increasing privatization in areas such as health care. timid conservatism of the Canadian Labour Congress leader- In the absence of rising, outwardly-engaged movements ship means that for now mobilization against the Tories will and radical ideas, this election seemed isolated and marginal. probably be on a small scale unless they miscalculate and try But this need not be a permanent state of affairs. The current to push through a particularly unpopular measure. situation is dangerous but also holds opportunities. Nevertheless, it is essential to be involved in the rebirth of opposition and struggle. This is the best way to block Tory HOW CAN THE TORY AGENDA BE DEFEATED? plans and make the next government less likely to launch a Some will look to elect the Liberals as the lesser evil. This new round of attacks. election CAW President Buzz Hargrove go so far as to ally Only a new wave of protest and resistance can create hope himself with Paul Martin, abandoning any notion of and new possibilities for positive political initiatives on the working-class political action independent of the parties of Left, just as the global justice movement did in 2000-2001. the ruling class. This is the road to nowhere. The last thing New Socialist looks forward to being a forum for discussing we need is a Liberal-labour alliance akin to the Democratic how we can best fight back and win. # new 2 SOCIALIST Box 167, 253 College St. new Toronto, ON M5T 1R5 (416) 955-1581 [email protected] SOCIALIST www.newsocialist.org Issue #55: February-March 2006 NEW SOCIALIST offers radical analysis of politics, social movements and culture in the Canadian state and internationally. Our magazine is a forum for people # HOMEFRONT # who want to strengthen today’s activism and for those who wish to Disability rights and immigration . .Ravi Malhotra 4 replace global capitalism with a Lessons from the BC teachers strike . .Harold Lavender 8 genuinely democratic socialism. We believe that the liberation of the (Re)imagining Canadian nationalism . .Harsha Walia 12 working class and oppressed peoples can be won only through their own struggles. For more information # RESISTING IMPERIALISM # about the publisher of this magazine, the New Socialist Group, please see The legacies of national liberation . .David Finkel 15 the inside back cover. Indigenous resurgence and the new warrior . .Taiaiake Alfred 18 EDITORS Todd Gordon The de-commodification of water . .Susan Spronk 22 Sebastian Lamb Will Evo Morales change Bolivia? . .Jeffery R. Webber 25 Harold Lavender Jeff Webber France: Shock waves of a popular revolt . .Murray Smith 28 EDITORIAL INTERNS Western intervention in Yugoslavia . .Rade Zinaic 30 Dave Brophy Clarice Kuhling Feminist struggle in Bolivia: An interview . .Jeffery R. Webber 32 Keith O’Regan EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Richard Banner # REVIEWS # Neil Braganza Jackie Esmonde Da Vinci’s City Hall . Susan Ferguson 35 Susan Ferguson Denise Hammond The Island . .Clarice Kuhling 35 Alex Levant Canada in Haiti . .Harold Lavender 38 Morgan MacLeod David McNally Rebels, Reds, Radicals . .Jim Naylor 41 Sandra Sarner Hamid Sodeifi Tony Tracy # TIME TO ORGANIZE # . 43 DESIGN & COVERS Greg Sharzer (Front/back covers) Sandra Sarner (Design/Layout). Signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the Editors or members of the New Socialist Group. New Socialist is a member of the CMPA. Printed at JT Printing, a union shop new SOCIALIST 3 Disability rights and immigration BY RAVI MALHOTRA n recent years, activist organizations such as “No One is Illegal” and One issue that has been almost entirely ignored by Left I“Justicia for Migrant Workers” have played an important role in raising organizations and activists is the virtual exclusion of publicity and solidarity about the serious and systemic problems that many undoc- people with disabilities as potential immigrants. umented immigrants and refugees experi- ence in the Canadian immigration system as well as their exploitation in informal labour markets. In light of the skimming the most desirable immigrants barrier is the widespread and pernicious nationalist politics that still dominate that will benefit Canadian capital and attitudes that regard people with disabili- much of the English Canadian Left and corporations through their labour, while ties as incompetent, pathetic, asexual and its marked tendency to regard the rejecting those who are deemed to have fundamentally “inauthentic workers” to Canadian state as a bastion of progress no marketable value. use a phrase coined by legal scholar Vicki and enlightenment untouched by the Schultz. People with disabilities remain blemishes of racism or vicious class THE SOCIAL MODEL OF DISABLEMENT far more likely to be impoverished, exploitation, this solidarity work has been unemployed and have lower levels of extraordinarily important in exposing an Before one can fully appreciate the education than the average Canadian, yet uglier and strategically crucial side of how issue, it is important to begin with a solid the issue barely registers on the radar of capitalism really operates. However, one appreciation of disability discrimination, most of the political Left. issue that has been almost entirely an awareness often lacking across all Challenging all of these barriers is the ignored by left organizations and segments of the Left. Disability is best project of the young but growing and activists, time and again, is the virtual understood as a political issue that impli- increasingly vibrant disability rights exclusion of people with disabilities as cates the structural barriers that handicap movement. These activists embrace a potential immigrants under the people with disabilities, whether they be philosophy known as the social model of Canadian Immigration and Refugee mobility, sensory, intellectual or mental disablement, which can be regarded as Protection Act. Also ignored are the efforts health disabilities. While there are differ- complimentary to feminist theories of by disability rights activists to challenge ent theories of disablement that vary patriarchy or queer theories of heterosex- these exclusions. slightly in their details, the overwhelming ism. The social model of disablement The failure of activists to take up the focus is on the barriers rather than the contrasts with the medical model that rights of disabled immigrants reveals two physiological impairment in the disabled focuses on the disabled person’s physio- major social problems with profound person’s body.
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