Oct 13, 2025 | by Barry Weisleder
Donald Trump’s “peace plan” feeds on the overwhelming misery and desperation of Palestinians. Naturally, any pause in U.S.-backed, Zionist state bombardment, any arrival of humanitarian aid, is welcome – even though the plan delivers zero solutions to the root causes of injustice. Trump’s scheme is a fake and a fraud, more naked in its vile intentions than the illusory 1993 Oslo Accords. It is an ultimatum to the Palestinian resistance to disarm and evacuate – as bombs and bullets rake Gaza, and bulldozers plough through West Bank communities on a brazen mission of annexation.
The Arab and Muslim governments that accede to Trump’s fiat are bowing to a bully. They are committing an act of historic betrayal. Remember an earlier odious betrayal, the USSR vote for partition at the U.N. in 1947, which gave birth to the Zionist state. The new imperial protectorate in Gaza today, to be administered by labour-traitor Tony Blair, would leave Palestinians voiceless and pulverized. What about Ottawa? It is totally complicit in these crimes. Liberal Prime Minister Mark Carney fatuously croons for “a Zionist Palestinian state”. He reveals the depth of his subservience to the Empire by saying not a word about Israel’s interception, on international waters, of members of Sumud, the global humanitarian aid flotilla.
What is the answer to this multi-layered criminality? Mass protest — all across the Canadian state, and worldwide.
Fortunately, protests continue to grow, from union policy resolutions in this country to the awe-inspiring, mammoth general strike in Italy. The demand to “hot cargo” shipments to Israel is an expression of the worldwide, long-standing Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign.
The candidates for New Democratic Party federal leader should be challenged to champion BDS, and not just oppose the Genocide in words alone.
War by other means is embodied in Trump’s trade tariffs. At bottom, commerce is an arena of inter-imperialist conflict. Big capitalists on both sides of the border aim to bolster their profits at workers’ expense.
In a return visit to the Oval Office, Mark Carney presented a spectacle of sucking up to the orange clown, once again. Still, there is no sign of relief for auto, steel, aluminum and nickel industries. Due to the mercurial nature of Trump and the furtive qualities of Carney, it’s difficult to know what’s coming next. However, rumours are circulating that the PM is prepared to approve construction of an XL pipeline from Alberta to Texas, in exchange for some reduction in U.S. tariffs. Capitulation to corporate polluters goes hand in hand with integration into the U.S. war machine, including NATO, NORAD and the Golden Dome. Just for compliance with NATO, the price is an annual increase of $9 billion in military spending. Meaning more drones, not homes. More submarines, not the sandwich kind.
Socialists say: Break with the U.S. war machine, which is the major threat to peace, democracy and social justice.
Marxists oppose nationalism, but support the national aspirations of oppressed nations, like the Palestinians, the Kurdish people, Venezuelans, Indigenous First Nations and the Quebecois. Canada is a junior partner of American imperialism. Canadian nationalism is not progressive. So, the reason to oppose becoming Trump’s 51st state is certainly not patriotism; it is the fact that it would seriously weaken labour, savage democratic rights, and strengthen U.S. imperialism.
What will be the impact on climate and the environment? Clearly, greater reliance on fossil fuels will accelerate the climate crisis, which is hastening a respiratory health crisis. According to the publication “Nature, Ecology and Evolution”, human activity has added an average of 40 days to the global wildfire season, fundamentally changing when major fires occur around the world. More than half of all burned area now happens outside the natural fire season, the period when lightning and dry conditions customarily coincide. The study analyzed data across over 700 regions worldwide, from tropical savannas to boreal forests and Mediterranean landscapes. Burning more fossil fuels adds to Greenhouse Gas Emissions that trap solar rays and increase surface temperatures. Alberta Premier Daniele Smith and Donald Trump may deny it, but thousands of scientists insist it is true.
Facing capitalist austerity and declining job security, the blunt weapon of the working class is the strike. With an unbearable cost of living and a shrinking wage packet, unions are turning to job action. Across the Canadian state a wave of strikes is unfolding.
The British Columbia Government Employees’ Union, in the sixth week of job action, is bringing the total number of public service workers on strike to nearly 25,000 (out of a total of 95,000), across more than 470 worksites.
Fifty thousand teachers across Alberta have hit the bricks. In Ontario, full-time community college support staff will soon be joined by their part-time co-workers. And across the country, over 50,000 postal workers, whose strike was interrupted by the Liberal government in December 2024, and which resumed in September 2025, is shifting to rotating strikes. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is waging a crucial struggle to save jobs and services, up against a management that aims to dismantle the post office and sell its most profitable parts to private capital. Firms like Amazon and Purolator could make billions by providing delivery in big cities with low-wage labour. The losers will be northerners, rural folks, seniors and everyone who relies on an integrated service.
Now is the time to join picket lines across the country. Enlist all unions and workers’ organizations to unite in the effort to defend collective bargaining and the right to strike. Abolish Section 107 of the Canada Labour Code. Stop the attacks on public services. Dump the bosses’ governments, federal and provincial, with a General Strike. All power to the working class!