This article advances a theoretical and political critique of the protectionist opposition of Canada's labour movement to the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the United States. North American free trade is examined in the context of the global trend towards regional trade blocs. The author suggests that nationalist politics have seriously divided English-speaking and Quebec workers in Canada, and makes the case for an alternative politics of working class internationalism.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ages, Bob, et. al. (1988) ‘United front needed to defeat free trade’. Canadian Dimension22:7, 47–48.
2.
Andreff, Wladimir (1984) ‘The international centralisation of capital and the re-ordering of world capitalism’. Capital and Class22, 58–80.
3.
Bagnall, James (1989) ‘Corporate donations to Liberals on rise’. Financial Post July 17, 1.
4.
Bergeron, Gerard (1983) ‘Quebec in isolation’, in Keith Banting and Richard Simeson, eds., And No One Cheered. Toronto: Methuen. 59–73.
5.
Birchall, Ian (1986) Bailing Out the System: Reformist Socialism in Western Europe, 1944-1985. London: Bookmarks.
6.
Black, Errol (1987) ‘Political realignment in Canada?’Monthly Review39 (November), 33–39.
7.
Bowles, Samuel (1988) ‘Different wavelengths’. Globe and Mail. December 18, A7.
8.
Bukharin, Nikolai (1973) Imperialism and World Economy. New York: Monthly Review Press.
9.
Callinicos, Alex (1987) ‘Imperialism, capitalism and the state today’. International Socialism35, 71–115.
10.
Taylor, L. (1989) Marxism and the National Question. London: Socialist Workers Party.
11.
Canada (1971) Corporations and Labour Unions Returns Act Report, Part 1: Corporations. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
12.
Taylor, L. (1986) Corporations and Labour Unions Returns Act Report, Part 1: Corporations. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
13.
Taylor, L. (1987) Corporations and Labour Unions Returns Act Reports, Part 1: Corporations. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.
14.
Canadian Auto Workers (1987) Canada does not belong to these two men. Willowdale: CAW Canada.
15.
Canadian Labour Congress (1986a) Full Employment and Fairness — The Workers’ Agenda for Canada. Ottawa: CLC.
16.
Taylor, L. (1986b) Our Canada or Theirs? Workers Confront the Corporate Blueprint. Ottawa: CLC.
17.
Carroll, William (1986) Corporate Power and Canadian Capitalism. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
18.
Taylor, L. (1989) ‘Neoliberalism and the recomposition of finance capital in Canada’. Capital and Class38, 81–112.
19.
Clarke, Simon (1988) ‘Overaccumulation, class struggle and the regulation approach’. Capital and Class36, 59–104.
20.
Cook, Peter (1990) ‘The discouraging movement toward a less open world economy’. Globe and Mail. April 2, B2.
21.
Crane, David (1988) ‘Canada-US trade agreement earns a cool reception abroad’. Toronto Star. January 30.
22.
Taylor, L. (1989) ‘Is world facing disintegration into protectionist trade blocs?’ Toronto Star. January 28.
23.
Dawkins, William (1988) ‘EC forming policy on foreign firms’. Financial Post. November 8.
24.
Denis, Roch (1979) Luttes de classes et question nationale au (Quebec, 1948-68. Montreal, Paris: Presses Socialistes Internationales.
25.
Denis, Serge and Rocher, Francois (1990) ‘Reply to a Canadian friend’. Canadian Forum. March, 5-6.
26.
Fennema, Meindert and van der Pijl, Kees (1987) ‘International bank capital and the new liberalism’, in Mark S. Mizruchi and Michael Schwartz eds., Intercorporate Relations: The Structural Analysis of Business. New York: Cambridge University Press. 298–319.
27.
Fournier, Jacques (1986) ‘The Socialist Party and the Left in France’. International Socialism33, 89–110.
28.
Fournier, Pierre (1983) ‘The future of Quebec nationalism’, in Keith Banting and Richard Simeon eds., And No One Cheered. Toronto: Methuen. 154–173.
29.
Galt, Virginia (1990) ‘Unions set up flying squads for cross-border campaigns’. Globe and Mail. June 12.
30.
Garver, Paul (1989) ‘Beyond the Cold War: new directions for labor internationalism’. Labor Research Review13 (Spring), 61–71.
31.
Garten, Jeffrey E. (1988) ‘Protectionism seems headed for a much higher plane’. Globe and Mail. October 25.
32.
GATT-Fly (1987) Building Self-Reliance in Canada. Toronto: GATT-Fly.
33.
Geras, Norman (1987) ‘Post-Marxism?’New Left Review163, 40–82.
34.
Gindin, Sam (1989) ‘Breaking Away: The Formation of the Canadian Auto Workers’. Studies in Political Economy29, 63–89.
35.
Goldenthal, Howard and Roberts, Wayne (1990) ‘Franco-phobia’. Now. March 17, 10–12.
36.
Gordon, David (1988) ‘The global economy: new edifice or crumbling foundations?’New Left Review168, 24–64.
37.
Greenspon, Edward (1988) ‘EC grand initiative feared protectionist’. Globe and Mail. August 16.
38.
Gudmundson, Fred (1986) ‘Free Trade: The Real Agenda’. Canadian Dimension20:5, special supplement.
39.
Hawley, James P. and Noble, Charles (1982) ‘The internationalisation of capital and the limits of the interventionist state: towards an explanation of macroeconomic policy failure’. Journal of Political and Military Sociology10 (Spring), 103–120.
40.
Harris, Nigel (1983) Of Bread and Guns: The World Economy in Crisis. London: Penguin.
41.
Hogness, Peter (1989) ‘One more hole in the wall: the Lunafil strikers in Guatemala’. Labor Research Review13 (Spring), 1–17.
42.
Horsman, Matthew (1989) ‘Trading partners express fears over a fortressed Europe at world forum’. Financial Post. January 31.
43.
Hurtig, Mel and Cameron, Duncan (1988) ‘No longer will Canada make economic sense’. Globe and Mail. November 14, A7.
44.
Islam, Sadequl (1987) ‘Free Trade and Protection: The US-Canada Case’. Monthly Review39:11, 20–32.
45.
Jorgenson, Bud (1990) ‘The auto business will not be for the faint of heart this year’. Globe and Mail. April 4, B9.
46.
Kaufman, Michael (1984) ‘The internationalisation of Canadian bank capital (with a look at bank activity in the Caribbean and Central America)’. Journal of Canadian Studies19:4, 61–81.
47.
Kellogg, Paul (1988) Downturn: The Origins of the Employers’ Offensive and the Tasks for Socialists. Toronto: SW Books.
48.
Taylor, L. (1989) ‘State, capital and world economy: Bukharin's Marxism and the ‘dependency/class’ controversy in Canadian political economy’. Canadian Journal of Political Science22:2, 337–62.
49.
Keynes, John Maynard (1933) ‘National self-sufficiency’. Yale Review. New Series22, 755–69.
50.
Laclau, Ernesto (1977) ‘Towards a theory of populism’, in Ernesto Laclau, Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory. London: New Left Books.
51.
Laclau, Ernesto and Mouffe, Chantal (1985) Hegemony and Socialist Strategy: Towards a Radical Democratic Politics. London: Verso.
52.
Lamoureux, Andre (1985) Le NPD et le Quebec, 1958-1985. Montreal: Editions du Parc.
53.
Larkin, Maurice (1988) France Since the Popular Front. Clarendon: Oxford University Press.
54.
Latouche, Daniel (1983) ‘The constitutional misfire of 1982’, in Keith Banting and Richard Simeon, eds., And No One Cheered. Toronto: Methuen.
55.
Laux, Jeanne Kirk and Molot, Maureen Appel (1988) State Capitalism: Public Enterprise in Canada. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
56.
Lebowitz, Michael (1988) ‘Trade and class: labour strategies in a world of strong capital’. Studies in Political Economy27, 137–48.
57.
Lenin, V. I. (1963) ‘The Right of Nations to Self-Determination’, in Lenin, Selected Works.Vol. 3, 595–647.
58.
Luxemburg, Rosa (1971) ‘Either/Or’, In Rosa Luxemburg, Selected Political Writings, ed. Dick Howard. New York: Monthly Review Press. 336–51.
59.
McNally, David (1981) ‘Staple theory as commodity fetishism: Marx, Innis and Canadian political economy’. Studies in Political Economy6, 35–63.
60.
Taylor, L. (1985) ‘Technological Determinism and Canadian Political Economy: Further Contributions to a Debate’. Studies in Political Economy20, 161–169.
61.
Taylor, L. (1990) ‘Socialism or protectionism’. Studies in Political Economy31, 159–168.
62.
McNaught, Kenneth (1990) ‘To topple the Tories and save the country’. Globe and Mail. March 7, A7.
63.
Moore, Steve and Wells, Debi (1975) Imperialism and the National Question in Canada. Toronto: S. Moore.
64.
Nelson, Joyce (1990) ‘Voting the Unthinkable’. This Magazine23:8, 10–13.
65.
Niosi, Jorge (1985a) Canadian Multinationals. Toronto: Between the Lines.
66.
Niosi, Jorge (1985b) ‘Continental nationalism: the strategy of the Canadian bourgeoisie’, in Robert J. Brym, ed., The Structure of the Canadian Capitalist Class. Toronto: Garamond Press.
67.
Ostry, Sylvia (1990) Governments and Corporations in a Shrinking World. New York: US Council on Foreign Relations.
68.
Palmer, Bryan (1983) Working Class Experience: The Rise and Reconstitution of Canadian Labour, 1800-1980. Toronto: Butterworth.
69.
Panitch, Leo (1981) Dependency and Class in Canadian Political Economy. Studies in Political Economy6, 7–33.
70.
Taylor, L. (1985) ‘Class and power in Canada’. Monthly Review36:11, 1–13.
71.
Radice, Hugo (1984) ‘The national economy: a Keynesian myth?’Capital and Class22, 111–40.
72.
Resnick, Phil (1990). Letters to a Quebecois Friend. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen's.
73.
Rugman, Alan (1987) Outward Bound: Canadian Direct Investment in the United States. Toronto: Canadian-American Committee.
74.
Ryerson, Stanley (1963) The Founding of Canada: Beginnings to 1815. Toronto: Progress Books.
75.
Taylor, L. (1973) Unequal Union: Roots of Crisis in the Canadas, 1815-1873. Toronto: Progress Books.
76.
Schmidt, Ray (1981) ‘Canadian Political Economy: A Critique’. Studies in Political Economy6, 93–112.
77.
Smiley, Donald (1983) ‘A dangerous deed: the Constitution Act, 1982’, in Keith Banting and Richard Simeon, eds., And No One Cheered. Toronto: Methuen.
78.
Terry, Edith (1990) ‘New empire created as Tokyo moves south’. Globe and Mail. January 11, B1, B13.
79.
Turk, Jim (1987) ‘GATT will get us too - the implications of multilateral free trade’, in GATT-Fly, Free Trade or Self-Reliance. Toronto: GATT-Fly.
Whitaker, Reg (1987) ‘Neo-conservatism and the state’, in Ralph Miliband, Leo Panitch and John Saville, eds., Socialist Register 1987. London: Merlin Press. 1–31.
82.
Taylor, L. (1989) ‘No laments for the nation: free trade and the election of 1988’. Canadian Forum. March, 9-13.
83.
Taylor, L. (1990) ‘Breaking the Mulroney monopoly’. Canadian Forum. March, 11–14.
84.
White, Robert (1989) ‘Lost opportunity’. Our Times. January, 34–37.
85.
Wolfe, David (1988) ‘A progressive agenda’. The Facts. Fall, 3-5
86.
Wood, Ellen (1986) Retreat from Class: A New ‘True’ Socialism. London: Verso.
