Canada: imperialist or vassal?
[this was just posted to Lou Proyect’s Marxism list - any reax from
our Canadians?]
For decades, one of the most important and divisive questions before
Canadian socialists has been the character of their ruling class.
Many on the left view it as a dependent bourgeoisie dominated by U.S.
imperialism. Others argue that it is a fully imperialist ruling class.
An authoritative new study of this question by Vancouver Marxist Bill
Burgess was published today in Socialist Voice. The following excerpt
indicates Bill’s conclusions. For the full study, see
http://www.socialistvoice.ca/SV-PDF/SV-95.pdf.
John Riddell
Imperialized Canada or Canadian Imperialism By Bill Burgess
Is Canada a colony of the United States, a dependent economy
controlled by U.S. corporations? Are Canadian capitalists a weak and
servile group with no real power? Should socialists focus their
efforts on winning Canadian “independence” from the Yankee behemoth?
Many on the Canadian left - especially in the NDP and the Communist
Party - believe just that. They complain that Canadian capitalists
don’t defend Canadian sovereignty at home or pursue independent
Canadian interests abroad. Imperialist war, private health care and
more greenhouse gases are not really Canadian issues', they aremade in the USA.’
ultimately
That in turns leads them to the view that the left should focus its
main fire on the U.S., not on Canadian capitalists. In some cases
they argue that we should ally ourselves with “progressive” sectors
of the Canadian bourgeoisie to bolster Canadian sovereignty as a
necessary first step towards other progressive changes. This view
guided much of the opposition to ‘free’ trade with the US over the
past two decades.
This “left-wing nationalism” became particularly influential in
English Canada in the 1960s and 1970s, and it still exerts a powerful
influence on progressive thought. Groups such as the Council of
Canadians, headed by Maude Barlow, argue that Canada’s growing
political and economic integration with the U.S. is the most
important political question today. Readers of Barlow’s recent book,
Too Close For Comfort, will find no mention of a Canadian capitalist
class with its own capacity to act and its own motives for acting the
way it does. Barlow’s Canada is controlled by US corporations and
right-wing Republicans.
Barlow’s readers would never guess that 22 of the 25 largest
enterprises in the country are Canadian-controlled. Ten rich families
control ten of these largest enterprises. Another two are government
enterprises, and ten are more widely-owned. Only three of the top 25
enterprises are US-controlled.
Wealthy Canadians have clearly not been displaced as the primary
economic decision-makers in this country. Nationalists therefore
resort to the myth that Canadian capital is so divided along sectoral
lines and integrated with US capital that the Canadian ruling class
lacks independent interests at home and abroad. The facts actually
reveal strong links between Canadian financial and industrial
corporations. As for the links between foreign and Canadian
corporations in Canada - they are conspicuous by their absence.
And isn’t it time to admit how wrongheaded the nationalist economic
perspective has been? Robert Laxer wrote in 1973 that, “The theory of
deindustrialization as a consequence of imperial dominance will have
more practical consequences for the future of jobs, economic
security, and quality of life for Canadians than any single other
explanatory concept on the Canadian horizon.” Wrong. 33 years later
Canada is still not qualitatively less industrially-developed than
the U.S.
So-called “left nationalism” rests on assumptions about the Canadian
economy that are demonstrably false. The simple truth is this: Canada
is an independent imperialist country dominated by its own ruling class.
At every opportunity, nationalists highlight the US influence over
Canada. Meanwhile they underestimate the role of the Canadian
bourgeoisie, relying on economic myths for which the empirical
evidence is negative. Canadian capitalists are closely allied with US
capitalists, but from their own basis of power.
Canada’s second rank relative to the US should not be confused with
its imperialist status in the world system, which is rooted in a
domestic economy controlled by independent Canadian finance capital.
Politics in Canada should begin with the mainly Canadian capitalist
root of social ills at home and Canadian policy abroad.
…for the full study, see http://www.socialistvoice.ca/SV-PDF/ SV-95.pdf.