Our first and most important priority is to speak up and stand up against Canadian imperialism in all its forms. Canadian imperialism includes:
Canada’s military industrial complex & related war-profiteering industries,
the Canadian state’s military budget,
Canada’s state and corporate violence towards the First Nations & Indigenous people of this land,
Canada’s role in the mining and resource extraction industry that exploits the people and natural resources of many countries around the world, and
Canada’s membership in and support of various military alliances, including NATO, NORAD, the FIVE EYES, etc.
TPI’s aim is to research, listen to, and learn about all the ways Canada’s imperialism is manifested, and to challenge, expose, and educate others about all of this. (Recommended reading: Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism – by Vladimir Lenin).
Canada’s ruling class is bound up with its imperialist allies, especially the ruling class in the USA, UK, Europe, as well as in other parts of the world. Our responsibility as residents of an imperialist country is to expose and challenge the ways that these ruling class imperialists exploit, sanction, starve, and slaughter millions of people in the world in our name.
TPI’s focus will remain on Canada’s imperialism, and that of its allies. We do not think that people living in imperialist countries should be policing other countries which our state is already targeting. We reject idealistic notions of what socialism should be and we look for analyses that are rooted firmly in present-day material conditions and contexts. (Recommended reading: Socialism: Utopian and Scientific – by Friedrich Engels). We trust people in other countries to know their own situation better than people in imperialist countries do.
ANTI-COLONIALISM & DECOLONIZATION
Canada is a settler colonial state as well as an imperialist state. As such, it is the responsibility of all people who are settlers (non-Indigenous, or those of us who do not belong to a First Nation) to demand that the Canadian state accept the sovereignty of the First Nations and Indigenous peoples of this territory, so that they may once again become stewards of their traditional land, water, and natural resources.
Canada, along with its US, UK, and EU partners, is a participant in what Kwame Nkrumah called “Neo-colonialism” whereby larger, more developed countries use economic pressure, cultural domination, and conditional aid to influence or control a poorer, developing country. (Recommended reading: Neo-colonialism: the Last Stage of Imperialism – by Kwame Nkrumah). This differs from historical colonial methods of direct military control or indirect political control by these same countries. We can see examples of Canada’s participation in neo-colonialism in its treatment of countries like Haiti, its membership in the Organization of American States (OAS), as well as its role in global financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank which use Structural Adjustment Policies to keep global south countries poor, unregulated, under-developed, and deeply in debt. TPI opposes all forms of neo-colonialism.
SELF-DETERMINATION AND RIGHT TO SELF-DEFENSE
TPI supports the right of colonized, neo-colonized, and oppressed nations to determine their own destiny, liberate themselves, and develop their own communities and countries free from any Western intervention.
While TPI is committed to peace, we do not support pacifism in the face of violent oppression. TPI aligns with the UN Charter which affirms, “the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial domination, apartheid and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle.” (Source). Peace and justice go hand in hand; in order for there to be peace, there must be justice, and an end to oppression and state and corporate violence. As the Black Panther Party’s leader Fred Hampton said, “Peace to you – if you are willing to fight for it.” and “You have to understand that people have to pay a price for peace. If you dare to struggle, you dare to win.”
ANTI-PATRIARCHY & ANTI SEXUAL ABUSE
TPI has a ZERO TOLERANCE policy towards any kind of sexual abuse, exploitation, assault, or harassment. All such incidents will be thoroughly and transparently investigated, and anyone shown to have engaged in sexual misconduct will be disciplined up to and including being removed from the organization.
Patriarchy is a system of male domination which has been prevalent in many cultures around the world since the dawn of private property relations. (Recommended reading: The Origins of the Family, Private Property and the State – by Friedrich Engels). TPI stands against patriarchy and we stand in solidarity with people of all genders, gender identities, and sexual orientations who are fighting against patriarchal norms, and against imperialism.
Patriarchy and capitalism have also historically marginalized people with disabilities, both visible and invisible. TPI stands in solidarity with people with disabilities, and those who are neurodivergent, who face oppression, stigma, and even eugenics from capitalist, war-mongering states.
ANTI-CAPITALISM
As an anti-imperialist organization, TPI recognizes that class struggle is at the heart of our work. Billions of people around the world want peace, while a small minority of bourgeois elites profit:
from conflicts wherein they buy and sell weapons of war and other commodities,
from deregulating poorer countries to exploit their populations through cheap wages or even slave labour, and
from using political, military, and economic intimidation to control which country gets sanctioned & blockaded from getting food and medicines.
Capitalism requires that a certain amount of people remain poor and in debt, alienated from their labour, and unable to own their means of production, which is why developed countries like Canada mine, coup, exploit, and militarily coerce poorer countries like Haiti, Ghana, Guatemala, the Congo, among many others.
TPI stands with the people of the world who have nothing to lose but their chains when this brutal system of capitalist exploitation is abolished, and instead a rational system that values human life and well-being above profits is put into place — a system known as socialism.
Until that happens, TPI will continue to advocate for peace and justice for all people around the world.
Recommended readings:
Imperialism: the Highest Stage of Capitalism – by Vladimir Lenin
