Michael Roberts, a Marxian economist, on his blog has the following statistics:
Michael Roberts blog
Looking at these statistics, it can be concluded that the number of Palestinians killed far outnumber the number of Israelis killed. Of course, the context of such killings would have to be taken into account and not just the numbers in order to gain a more accurate understanding of the situation. However, even these numbers show the emptiness of social-democratic rhetoric when it comes to claiming that Hamas is a terrorist organization; Israel is never mentioned as a terrorist organizaiton. In Canada, the leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party (NDP), a social-democratic or reformist political party, condemned Hamas but remained silent about Israel’s antecedent decades-long oppression and killing of Palestinians:
The leader of Ontario’s NDP has asked one of her caucus members to retract a statement about the conflict between Israel and Hamas….
TORONTO — The leader of Ontario’s NDP has asked one of her caucus members to retract a statement about the conflict between Israel and Hamas, but the demand has so far been met with silence, a day later, with the premier now calling on her to resign.
Sarah Jama, who was elected earlier this year in a byelection in Hamilton Centre, published a statement Tuesday decrying “the generations long occupation of Palestine” and what she called apartheid and human rights violations in Gaza.
“Especially with this context in mind, the news coming out of Israel and Palestine is deeply concerning,” she wrote in a statement posted on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We must look to the solution to this endless cycle of death and destruction: end all occupation of Palestinian land and end apartheid.”
Jama wrote that her heart “genuinely goes out to all those impacted by this on-going violence,” but did not explicitly mention the weekend attack by Hamas militants that has been described as the worst civilian massacre in Israel’s history.
The attack and Israel’s ensuing response in Gaza have killed at least 2,200 people so far.
NDP Leader Marit Stiles said late Tuesday that Jama’s statement was not approved by the caucus and asked her to retract it and “state clearly that she decries any violence against both Israeli and Palestinian people.”
“The terrorist attacks by Hamas on thousands of innocent Israeli civilians are unjustifiable and must be condemned unequivocally,” Stiles wrote.
On Wednesday afternoon, Jama had yet to retract her statement or publicly respond. Stiles had also not yet commented on Jama’s silence.
Indeed, Stiles had the following to say earlier:
Ontario NDP Leader Marit Stiles joined the premier in his condemnation, calling the violence “horrifying.”
What of the violence perpetrated by the Israeli government against the Palestinians for decades?
Is it not a typical government trick to engage in oppressive actions and, when those who are oppressed fight back, condemn those who fight back as “violent?”
I do not see Stiles condemning the American government as terrorist–but many Latin Americans know that the United States government has engaged in terrorist activities throughout the world, including Guatemala (support of military dictatorships), El Salvador (the same), Nicaragua (mining Nicaragua’s ports), etc.
But let us step back a bit from the international stage and look at the domestic scene in Canada and other capitalist countries. Does Stiles condemn the dicatorship characteristic of the economy in which we live (see for example Employers as Dictators, Part One)? Not at all?
Does Stiles condemn the class power of employers because around 1,000 Canadian workers a year die at work according to official statistic and more than 630,000 injured every year?
“More than 1000 employees die every year in Canada on the job, and about 630,000 are injured every year (Bob Barnetson, 2010, The Political Economy of Workplace Injury in Canada. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press, p. 2). The same year as the publication of that work saw 554 homicides (Tina Mahonny, 2011, Homicide in Canada, 2010. Ottawa: Statistics Canada, p. 1) —the number of employee deaths at work under the power of employers was around double the number of murders.”
Does Stiles condemn the much greater number of unofficial dead workers at work?
- Steven Bittle, Ashley Chen and Jasmine Hébert report a much higher figure in their article (Fall 2018), ““Work-Related Deaths in Canada,”, pages 159-187, in Labour/Le Travail, Volume 82, page 186:
“Relying on a range of data sources, and adopting a broad definition of what constitutes a work-related fatality, we generated a revised estimate of the number of annual work-related fatalities. Based on our analysis, we estimate that the number of annual work-related fatalities in Canada is at least ten to thirteen times higher than the approximately 900 to 1,000 annual average fatalities reported by the AWBC [The Canadian Association of Workers’ Compensation Boards of Canada]. This makes work-related fatalities one of the leading causes of death in this country.”
Stiles silence concerning such carnage while condemning one of the NDP elected representatives for supporting the fightback of Palestinians against the terrorist Israel government indicates a hypocritical attitude, does it not?
The Abolitionary 