Ed Lehman
Ed Lehman is a Canadian Communist, and a comrade of mine. I don't say such things often or lightly, especially about Westerners. But he became my comrade, and we struggled shoulder to shoulder, for five days. Not in the South American wilderness, not in Afghanistan or Syria, but in Regina, a small Canadian city, the capital of the province of Saskatchewan.
I admit, before being invited there, I knew close to nothing about Regina. I did not even know how to pronounce it, correctly. But one day, an email arrived, and I was invited to become a keynote speaker at the Peace Conference there - in Regina. Spontaneously, I accepted.
The peace conference was called "Yes to Peace and Progress - No to NATO and War!"
I usually do not speak at peace conferences. I have always believed that oppressed and colonized countries have to
fight for their independence and freedom, and that
peace as it is propagated in the West is something that basically upholds the
status quo. It is, as I mentioned in Canada, "when the bombs are not falling on Paris or Toronto". It is when the wretched of the earth are dying quietly and obediently, far away from camera lenses, in their looted countries and continents.
Actually, many peace movements in the West annoy me to the extreme. Their lack of sensitivity, as well as ignorance, are maddening.
The desire of their members to 'do good' and 'feel good', is often self-serving, and has absolutely nothing to do with the struggle for justice in dozens of colonized, and plundered 'client' states.
Comment: 'Austerity' has led to a complete collapse in UK public services and the economy has been tanking for nigh on a decade, but this isn't isolated to the UK, this same deterioration in living standards is occurring throughout the western world: