Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada

Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada
Book launch and presentation with author Yves Engler
Monday, October 22 (7:00 – 9:00 pm)
Education Centre South, Room 158
87 Avenue & 113 Street, U of A campus (map)

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Join us for the Edmonton launch of Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada, the new book by author and activist Yves Engler, which details the Canadian left’s failures over many decades to confront Canada’s support of empire and promotion of corporate interests abroad — from the NDP backing unjust wars and supporting Israeli policy towards the Palestinians to Canadian unions supporting the creation of NATO, the Korean War, the Bay of Pigs invasion, and the coup in Haiti.

Yves’ presentation will outline the findings of the book and offer solutions to help create a just foreign policy, with a particular focus on the book’s analysis of the NDP’s anti-Palestinian history.

Before Israel’s creation Canada’s social democratic party took a sensible, humanist position towards Zionism, but soon after it began echoing Israel’s justification for ethnically cleansing Palestinians and invasions of neighbouring countries in 1956 and 1967. Through the 1970s and ’80s NDP luminaries Tommy Douglas, Ed Broadbent, and Stephen Lewis made stridently anti-Palestinian statements.

In recent years NDP MPs have participated in the Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group, Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs trips to Israel, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conferences, and Jewish National Fund events.

At its convention in February 2018 the NDP leadership suppressed debate on a widely endorsed “Palestine Resolution,” highlighting the party hierarchy’s anti-Palestinianism, as well as growing support for Palestinian rights among the membership. Yves will offer a roadmap for those who oppose racism and colonialism to push the NDP into supporting the struggle of the Palestinian people.

This is a free event. Copies of Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada will be available for purchase.

About the book

Left, Right: Marching to the Beat of Imperial Canada will make some on the ‘left’ mad! It details the left’s failures over many decades to confront Canada’s support of empire and promotion of corporate interests abroad: the social democratic NDP has backed unjust wars; Canadian unions supported the creation of NATO, Korean War, assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Bay of Pigs invasion and coup in Haiti; left commentators concede too much to the dominant ideology, whether it’s Stephen Lewis praising Canada’s role in Africa, Linda McQuaig turning Lester Pearson into an anti-US peacenik or many others mindlessly demanding more so-called peacekeeping. Why? Left nationalist ideology, both Canadian and Quebecois, has warped foreign policy discussion; viewing their country as a semi-colony struggling for independence has blinded progressives to our long history of supporting imperialism. But the book is not just critical — it also offers solutions to help create a just foreign policy.

About the author

Dubbed “Canada’s version of Noam Chomsky” (Georgia Straight), “one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left” (Briarpatch), “in the mould of I. F. Stone” (Globe and Mail), “part of that rare but growing group of social critics unafraid to confront Canada’s self-satisfied myths” (Quill & Quire), “ever-insightful” (Rabble), “Chomsky-styled iconoclast” (Counterpunch) and a “Leftist gadfly” (Ottawa Citizen), Yves Engler has ten published books. Find out more at yvesengler.com.