03) SOLIDARITY CAN BLOCK THE ENBRIDGE NORTHERN GATEWAY PIPELINE

Statement by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

The Joint Review Panel hearings into the Enbridge Northern Gateway (ENG) pipeline have become a historic clash between two different visions for the future of Canada. On the one hand, the transnational energy monopolies and their right-wing political backers are determined to use any means available to win approval for this project, which would make Canada even more dependent on the export of raw materials. On the other hand, a vast coalition has emerged, bringing together Aboriginal peoples, environmentalists, working people, and even sections of the business community who understand the grave environmental, economic and social dangers.

     As the vast majority of submissions to the hearings have proven, the ENG project does not meet the criteria of being "required" and "in the public interest." Rather, it is intended to generate huge new profits for the oil and gas monopolies.

     The Communist Party of Canada stands in full solidarity with the growing resistance to the ENG plan. The sleazy attempt by the Harper Tories to smear this broad opposition as "foreign radicals" and "billionaire socialists" has backfired. Rejection of the project is becoming even stronger. The decision by Gitxsan chiefs to reverse a previous claim of support for Enbridge reflects the nearly universal view among Aboriginal peoples that the project is a disaster. The overwhelming majority of submissions to the hearings condemn the project, as do most British Columbia residents in opinion surveys.

     Stephen Harper hopes to ram the ENG project through by completely ignoring the views of First Nations, the public and environmental experts. His government regularly acts in such a dictatorial fashion, wielding its majority in Parliament to impose the corporate agenda. Ultimately, blocking this pipeline will require united, massive, and militant mobilizations.

     The Enbridge project is a direct attack on the national rights of Aboriginal peoples along the pipeline corridor, many of whom have never ceded inherent indigenous title to their traditional lands and waters. By building the pipeline over the nearly unanimous objections of these peoples, the Harper Tories and the energy monopolies would render meaningless any future attempts to reach nation-to-nation agreements based on justice and equality.

     Many opponents have warned of the strong potential for catastrophic environmental damage. This pipeline would be constructed across 1177 kilometres, crossing some 1,000 rivers, streams and bodies of water, bringing crude oil to load onto supertankers in the narrow Douglas Channel, one of the most environmentally fragile areas of the west coast. As Enbridge's record of 804 leaks over the past decade proves, the question is not "whether" leaks will occur, but the frequency and scale of such disasters.

     Ever since the post-war Liberal government adopted the so-called "Abbott Plan", vast resources within the borders of the Canadian state have been increasingly controlled by transnational corporations, effectively denying the peoples of Canada any genuine sovereignty over our economic future. In this case, the project would fuel the greed-driven extraction of the sands, a process which has grave health consequences for the people of Alberta, and which contributes heavily to the dangerous escalation of global warming.

     For decades, the Communist Party has opposed the policy of exporting unprocessed raw materials, which strengthens U.S. imperialism and its Canadian cronies, but fails to create jobs. The Enbridge project is another nail in the coffin of Canada's declining domestic industrial and secondary manufacturing base.

     For all these reasons, the Communist Party of Canada condemns the Enbridge Northern Gateway project. Instead, we call for a People's Energy Plan, based on several key principles, including: the need for a sustainable, conservation-based economy rather than expanded exports of crude oil and other raw materials; full respect for the inherent rights of First Nations over their traditional territories and resources; public ownership of the energy industry, as the material basis to rebuild Canada's industrial and manufacturing sector and to create jobs.

     We urge the labour and democratic movements to build united solidarity with the Aboriginal peoples and environmentalists, both to kill this dangerous project, and to discuss a genuine people's alternative plan for the economic development of this country, based on people's needs, not corporate greed!

(The above article is from the February 1-14, 2012, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)