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