A vile Zionist smear campaign against Montreal-based lawyer and global “Reason2Resist” blog host Dimitri Lascaris failed miserably to derail an anti-imperialist public forum in Toronto. The August 18 gathering, organized by Socialist Action, featured Lascaris speaking on the topic “The Imminent Decline and Fall of the American Empire”.
Only two days before the event, the location was shifted to Taco Taco, a restaurant in the Kensington Market, just a few meters from the originally booked venue on College Street. This followed a barrage of menacing threats by Zio-Nazis to impose a suffocating Jewish community boycott on The Free Times Cafe.
In the end, over 140 people, on-line and in-person, witnessed the re-located socialist forum. Lascaris, who recently reported directly from war-torn Lebanon and Iran, as well as from Cypress and Greece, gave a 40 minute presentation on the failing hegemony of the western imperial powers, and answered questions for close to an hour.
Cowardly Zionists made no appearance at the venue on Augusta Avenue, which was well defended by volunteer marshals.
At the entrance, dozens of people signed the Socialist Action contact sheet. Donations and purchases at the SA literature display surpassed $270. Supporters of the Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed campaign to Confront PM Mark Carney’s CEO Summit on September 14 grabbed hundreds of leaflets, stickers and large colourful posters to distribute at upcoming events and to paste at busy street intersections in the coming days.
Attached below are photos taken on August 18, along with a statement presented by Socialist Action on the occasion.
Imperialism is not invincible. It is well past its peak.
The height of USA hegemony was in the 1950s. Globally, the rulers called it Pax Americana.
Its first defeat was the Cuban Revolution in 1959, followed by the repulsion of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. The second defeat was in Vietnam in April 1975, ending a brutal 20-year war. The third defeat was in Afghanistan, 2001-2021. The fourth major defeat for Washington is unfolding now in Iran and associated sites: Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. The NATO-led war in Ukraine is faltering.
Each defeat was the result of a combination of military action and mass popular protest movements – on a global scale.
Today, the Palestinian people are in the vanguard of the resistance to imperial hegemony. And the capacity of mass political action is again being demonstrated. The context is a profound social polarization and the terminal crisis of late capitalism. It is marked by radical inequality, tariff wars, hot forever-wars, and environmental catastrophe. To this must be added the totalitarian potential of Artificial Intelligence. Worst of all is the threat of nuclear war.
What is the only rational response to this multi-faceted existential emergency? The socialist transformation of society. Nothing less than socialist revolution! Revolution is a class-conscious process. It does not occur spontaneously. Leadership is required at every moment. Foremost, it requires a revolutionary party.
The world is descending into barbarism. It involves the suppression of democratic rights, including free speech, the right to hold a public meeting such as this one tonight, and the disappearance of state accountability and transparency.
But barbarism is not inevitable. That’s why our slogan is “Socialism, not barbarism.”
If you feel moved to fight for the only realistic alternative to capitalism in its death agony, if you recognize that capitalism can’t be fixed, then you ought to join the socialist movement now.
Socialist Action is a leading proponent of unity in action and democracy from the bottom up. The united front is crucial, but it still requires the leadership of revolutionaries. So, get ready for September 14 and the Carnival Against Capitalism. Down with Mark Carney’s CEO Summit in Toronto!
Join Socialist Action. We have a world to win!