a long, hard march

} ~ GERRY VAN HOUTEN
pe trents emanating from Ot-
a days, some time during the
“tations Marking this year’s Canada
a € Minister Mulroney will find
ertunity to laud the friendly and
Nature of U.S.-Canada rela-

m poking back over the past 220
idly -ceality has been anything but
2 Canada’s history has been.a

© for independence. A fight to.

st economic, military and political
lth, by the U.S. Confederation
. J0ugh it had its less than noble
Us hings, was an effort at holding
ew Control. When Quebec, Ontario,
“UNswick and Nova Scotia sat
fe 1867 three purposes were
da’ In the *‘Fathers’”’ minds.
«contro Manufacturing interests, now
iy Of the federal government,
‘tiers mar’ interprovincial trade
‘tural take over the rich agri-
F and natural resources of the
din Eactld provide them with an
Oi a Omestic market.
dee 4 the Province of Canada had
Mate Ply into debt by subsidizing the
ects parted railway construction
Ong Rhea of which went bankrupt.
M ta ‘ 10on would serve to broaden
ia and provide the government
needed revenue to reduce the
Support private business ven-

St
but not least, almost 100 years of
the Sometimes hostile relations
Nee U.S., convinced Canadians of
fed
0

~ 2 U.S. takeover.’

back as 1775, while the 13 states

battling for their own indepen-
fe S. troops invaded Canada. In
Vorrauitest destiny’ became the
Nowy Ue United States, calling for all
o Tw, America to come under its con-
d: © years later, the U.S. invades
ish. ut are repelled by united
Speaking, French and Native
Sth forces.
4n 40 years would pass before
ee turned hostile. In 1846,
. ay were preoccupied with
of 6 Uurope, the U.S. took posses-
_~Fegon.

When ¢ Tory Riots
rel he Prime minister speaks of a
Ning a onship to the U.S. he is con-
ae me tradition in Conservative
Cles. In 1849, Montreal Tories
a burned down Lower Canada’s
ST! buildings in protest of their

0 unite against the very real

minority position in the house. Pre-
viously Canada’s strongest supporters of
the British connection, they demand
annexation to the U.S. a

Canada’s role as a resource base for
U.S. manufacturers was established in
the Reciprocity Treaty of 1854. It al-
lowed for free trade in natural products
but does. not include manufactured
goods. Just coming into their own,
Canada’s manufacturing interests had
the government substantially raise tariffs
to protect domestic markets.

Relations between Canada and the
North became strained during the U.S.
Civil War of 1860-65. Canadian
businessmen sympathized with the
South because they saw it as a counter-
weight to the powerful manufacturing in-
terest of the North. The North won how-
ever and paid Canada back in 1866 by
abrogating the Reciprocity Treaty and
backing a Fenian (Irish Republican) raid
into Canada.

Following Confederation, in 1878 a
National Policy was implemented with
the aim of protecting domestic markets
from U.S. competition by substantially
increasing tariffs. Although it succeeded
in fostering the growth of independent
Canadian-owned manufacturing, trans-
portation and financial industries, in the
long run it also encouraged U.S. firms to
establish branch plants in Canada. By the
1890s, U.S. investment began to enter
Canada on a large scale.

Backed by Canadian farmers, the
Laurier government comes to a reciproc-
ity agreement with the U.S. However,

Canadian manufacturing interests op- —

pose it as a threat to their profits. Laurier
is defeated in the general election of
1911. :

The Abbott plan of 1947 became

Canadian monopoly’s blueprint for tying»

Canada to the U.S. drive for world milit-
ary and economic domination. Canadian
monopoly believed that by allowing U.S.
corporations to tke over huge sectors of
the Canadian economy, they would be
given a share in the profits of U.S. world
domination. Canadian finance capital
thus adopts a policy of sacrificing Cana-

da’s independence on the altar of greater .

corporate profits. In addition, Canadian
business hoped to profit from the Cold
War which brought with it a nuclear arms
race directed against the Soviet Union.
In short, the Abbott Plan constituted a
radical departure from the policies of the
previous 100 years which were aimed at
strengthening Canadian independence.

Canada joins NATO, an aggressive
anti-Soviet alliance dominated by U.S.
imperialism, in 1949.

Military Integration

In 1957, Canada joined with the U.S.
in NORAD. Completely controlled by
the U.S., NORAD denies Canada con-
trol over its own northern territories for
the sake of U.S. imperialism’s anti-
Soviet nuclear strategy.

In 1959, Canada and the U.S. signed
the Defence Production Sharing Agree-
ment. It effectively turned Canada’s
arms production industry into a parts
supplier for the U.S. military-industrial
complex.

In 1963, the U.S. Administration
openly backed'the Liberal Party during
the 1963 election. Relations had reached
a post-war low because Prime Minister
Diefenbaker refused to allow the Bomarc
missiles to. be armed with nuclear
weapons.

In 1981, the Trudeau government
signed the weapons testing agreement
despite widespread opposition. It allows
the U.S. to test the ACLM which is now

going to be used to sabotage the SALT II
agreement.

The Mulroney government, the most
pro-U.S.. in Canadian history, renewed —
the NORAD agreement which in U.S. ©
military strategy is to become a part of
the Star Wars program. At the same
time, it opened up free trade negotiations
with the U.S. The pro-U.S. section of
Canadian monopoly hope these and
other concessions will give them greater
profit through easier access to the U.S.
market.

Clearly, there are three lessons
to be learned. Firstly, the patriotism
of some sections of Canadian business
depends on the jingle of money in their
pockets. They can never be relied upon
to defend Canada’s independence. Sec-
ondly, the U.S. has only one interest in
Canada — to take it over completely.

' Thirdly, Canadians, in the first place the

labor movement must unite to fight U.S.
imperialism, for peace jobs and Canadian
independence.

Canada needs a defended border, one
that will put Canada first.

STAR
FLOPS:
From
Shuttle
to SDI

The main beneficiary of the string of
accidents that has gutted the U.S. space
program will almost certainly be the
Pentagon, says a major U.S. news-
magazine. The military, which had a
large role in the space shuttle from the
beginning, will have absolute priority
for its cargoes once flights resume in a
year Or So.

The effect of this, notes the
magazine, U.S. News and World Report ~
(June 16, 1986), will be the ‘‘defacto
militarization’? of the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration

(NASA), still nominally a civilian agen-

cy.
‘‘For a long time, military operations
were out of sight, out of mind,” John
Pike, associate director of space policy
for the Federation of American Scien-
tists told the magazine. ‘‘Now there
won't be the civilian and scientific mis-
sions for the military to hide behind’’.

There will be so much military work
for the shuttle to do once it resumes

flying, said one defence analyst, that

NASA ‘‘might as well paint the shuttle
Air Force blue’.

Indeed, some observers have
suggested that the military intends to
displace NASA althogether. A $2.8-bil-
lion spaceport, now nearing completion
at Vandenberg Air Force Base, will
soon enable the Pentagon to launch its
own shuttle missions and other military
space projects, in complete secrecy.

DAVID SUTER

It is estimated that to deploy a com-
plete Star Wars system could take up to
5,000 shuttle launchings, or their equi-
valent. Therefore, the Reagan ad-
ministration has begun to consider
alternative projects, including a huge
unmanned ‘“‘space truck’’, or Shuttle-
Derived Vehicle, to boost military pay-
loads into space, and a hypersonic
“*space plane’, which would take-off
and land like a regular aircraft. Both of
these projects are now likely to be put
under the control of the Pentagon.

‘**As the nation struggles to resume
space operations after the program’s
worst setbacks in history,’’ writes U.S.
News, ‘‘The inspiration of manned
exploration and the thrill of scientific
discovery seem forgotten. For the fore-
seeable future, the program will be
dominated by the overriding necessities
of national security, thus transforming
a dazzling, made-for-prime-time adven-
ture into a utilitarian system to ferry a
backlog of secret military payloads into
orbit’’.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JULY 2,19860e5