WHAT CONSTITUTES A NATION? What constitutes a nation? Lack of clarity on this question leads to various kinds of conclu- sions on how to face up to the crisis of confederation. Among the areas of unclarity is the mixing up of Canada as a geog- raphic entity, as a country, with - nationhood. As we know from other exam- ples, more than one nation can inhabit a country. Prime Minister Trudeau stated recently that there are many nations in Cana- da, including the Indian and Inuit peoples. He argues this wav to aet away from a strictly must uphold and advance an inde- pendent class position and continue efforts to build a mass federated party of the working people. It is in this way that the organized labor movement can best defend the na- tional aspirations of the French Canadian people while advancing its class interests and striving for unity .and cooperation with the working class and democratic movement of English speaking Canada. The election result in Quebec pre- sents a new situation for Canada. It shows that the Trudeau government policy of one Canada, one nation, its aim of containing and defeating the Parti Quebecois and its separatist op- tion, has failed. That policy of bi- lingualism and regional development which was to have substituted for the recognition of the bi-national charac- ter of Canada has collapsed in Quebec and:Canada as a whole. In- stead of overcoming the crisis of con- federation, that policy has brought it to'a head. However it would be shortsighted to consider the constitutional crisis without also seeing how it has been seriously deepened by the failure of the Trudeau and Bourassa govern- ments to come to grips with the tube SEEN tobe. wien A scientific approach to the ques- tion of nationhood and from the bi-national character of Canada. The Marxist definition of a nation states: ‘A nation is a historically constituted, stable community of people formed on the basis of a common lan- guage, territory, economic life and psychological make-up manifested in a common cul- ture.’ Based on this scientific ap- proach the French Canadian people constitute a nation. To mix up the concept of nation with ethnic group or economic and social aspirations of the people, above all, the French Canadian people. This was further aggravated by its wage restraint pro- gram, by rising unemployment, by the failure of government to over- come the national, social and economic inequality of the French Canadian people. The present critical situation is be- ing exploited by the various reactio- nary forces to weaken Canada inter- nally and internationally. In English-speaking Canada, reac- tion to the election of the Parti Quebecois, has taken on various forms, ranging from demands that Quebec be ‘‘thrown out’’ of Confed- eration, to demands to ‘‘bash them - in’. The fact that Prime Minister -Trudeau has had to twice state his government will not use force against the French Canadian people while qualifying this with the statement that another prime minister or gov- ernment may use force, shows that the door to force and the sending of an army of occupation into Quebec is not closed if the people of Quebec opt for separation. ‘The reactionary and chauvinist anglophones who advocate such a policy including ‘‘destabilization’’ of the economy in Quebec have learnt nothing and forgotten nothing. They want to open the door to civil war in Communists intend to carry their program far a solution to the present crisis from coast to coast. Photo shows a session of the recent Communist Party convention. PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 25, 1977—Page 6 . community is harmful and un- sound. The ethnic groups live in different parts of Canada. They do not constitute a stable com- munity of people on the basis of common language, territory, economic life and psychological make-up manifested in a com- mon culture. They are, by and large, part of either English Canada or French Canada. As for the Indian. and Inuit people, in a strictly scientific sense they are not presently nations, although they could become so. They have no com- _ mon language, economic life or Canada and impose a second Plains of Abraham on the French Canadian | people. They play upon confusion, prejudice and lack of understanding of the basic issues involved among English-speaking Canadians. Separa- tion however will not be defeated by force of arms, by other arbitrary dic- tatorial measures, or by chauvinism and racism in whatever form aimed against the French Canadian people. It can and will be defeated by truly democratic solutions to the crisis. _ United States imperialism is striv- ing to use the election of the Parti Quebecois to its own advantage. It believes the election of that party has led to a weakening of the federal gov- ernment and that it may now be pos- sible to exact further concessions from it in the field of domestic and foreign policy. At the same time U.S. financial interests strive to utilize the difficult economic and financial situa- tion in Quebec to strengthen their positions there. They are not averse to separation of Quebec from Canada as long as their economic and financial interests are secured. Nor is U.S. imperialism alone in this. Inter- national capital in. the European Common Market and in France par- ticularly, see an opportunity to pene- trate. Quebec and strengthen their positions. Clearly a weakened, bal- - kanized Canada would - become “open season’’ for these forces and for U.S. imperialism particularly, which then they would be able to ab- sorb piece by piece. There is an existing scenario which suggests that, if Quebec were to separate from Canada, the Maritime Provinces and British Columbia would make their own arrangements with the USA. The economic effects ‘of separation would be no less dis- astrous for all parts’ of the country and more particularly for Quebec and Ontario. Separation would. under- mine Canadian independence and ob- jectively favor U.S. imperialism. The deepening of the crisis of Con- federation has not led to any change of policy on the part of monopoly or its political representatives in parli- ament — the Trudeau government and the Conservative Party or by the NDP and Social Credit Party. Despite the collapse of its policy of bilingualism, the Trudeau govern- ment has declared its intention of territory, spread over as they are, in many parts of the country and in various tribal formations. As nations they would have, as a matter of course, the -right to self-determination up to and in- cluding seccession. Because they do not constitute nations the Party Program speaks of their right to. national identity and development of their cul- ture. This includes full respect for their autonomy with regard to, culture, language, education, and not least, a voice in deter- mining economic development and its fruits in the areas they occupy. continuing it. The government main- tains its unalterable opposition to the recognition of the existence of the French Canadian nation. It speaks of the Canadian nation, not of two na- tions in one state. What it refuses to see is that. the problems of French Canada are na- tional and cannot be solved by a bi- lingual and multicultural approach. The problems of French Canada are national problems with economic, cultural and political aspects. These cannot be separated from each other. The Trudeau government expresses equal opposition to proposals for a looser confederation as the answer to separation. The Conservative Party also side- steps the basic issue of Canada’s two nations. It proposes instead decen- tralization of power between the fed- eral government and all the pro- vinces as the solution to the crisis, an option likewise repeated in different ways by the New Democratic Party and Social Credit. Decentralization proposes giving more power to all the provinces and less to the federal au- thority. Such a proposal weakens the federal authority without coming to grips with the source of the crisis, refusal to recognize the existence of the two nations in Canada. The Con- servative Party ‘‘policy’’ is a de- structive one and would deepen the crisis. afflicting the country. .. The NDP has adopted various pos- itions on the crisis throughout the years. These have ranged from ‘cooperative federalism’’ to “‘spe- cial status’. In all these various posi- tions the NDP has resisted coming to grips with the roots of the crisis and has merely echoed the positions of the parties of monopoly. Its oppor- tunist position found expression re- cently in its appeal to the Parti Quebecois as a ‘‘brother social democratic party,’’ to work together. In its efforts to establish a firmer basis in Quebec the NDP has chosen to close its eyes to the fact that the Parti Quebecois is not a social demo- cratic party but a petty bourgeois nationalist party whose basic aim is separation, having elements of a so- cial reform program which excludes nationalization. The NDP is now veering again towards the option of special status for Quebec. Special status however sidesteps the basic pal Fa ne a Se ge os mg iets ey ae aoe i oe” ie, t ( \ f \ 1 I it