Back in January, Mark Carney appealed for countries to “take the sign out of the window” — to recognize that the old order is dead, before starting to build a new one. Instead of the “fiction” of the international rules-based order, which merely concealed the interests of the U.S. with hypocritical window-dressing, he argued for an alliance of the “middle powers.” This order, he claimed, would actually be based on “respect for human rights” and “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.
However, as soon as Trump’s attack on Iran began, Carney promptly put the sign back in the window. He released a statement calling Iran “the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East,” supporting Israel’s “right to defend itself,” and expressing support for the U.S., “acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.” These lines reek of the same old hypocrisy of the “rules-based international order.”
Just days later, Carney switched course: he softened his endorsement of the war, stating that it was “another example of the failure of the international order” and that yes, he still supports it, but “with regret”. Far from a condemnation of the atrocities committed by the U.S. and Israel, or the violation of Iran’s sovereignty, this is merely a recognition that this war is widely unpopular.
With two thirds of Canadians opposing involvement, uncritical support for Trump and Netanyahu’s attacks – which have quickly turned into an absolute disaster – would be dangerous for Carney’s support. Most ordinary people don’t want war with Iran, but Trump does. This explains Carney’s flip-flopping. As long as Canadian capitalism is tied to American capitalism, the sign must keep going up and down.
This exposes the total emptiness of Carney’s talk of an “alliance of middle powers.” Canadian capitalism is deeply enmeshed with the U.S., with over three quarters of exports going to U.S. markets. With CUSMA negotiations hanging over their heads, the Canadian ruling class knows they must appease Trump. While grasping for the new world order with one hand, Carney is clamping onto the old one with the other.
This is why, at the House of Commons debate on the war (which Carney was notably absent from), the Liberals repeated that they’re staying out of the war — in any “offensive actions,” at least. This leaves open the possibility of “defending” our allies in the region – as those allies such as Israel, risk the total destruction of the Middle East in pursuit of their domination over the region. The government later wrote that they’d be willing to “contribute to appropriate efforts” to re-open the Strait of Hormuz, not specifying what those efforts could entail.
This is business as usual – the same hypocrisy Carney disavowed in his Davos speech. Carney is ready to back the U.S. – just regretfully, defensively, or in a “values-based” way, whatever that means.
Carney’s phrasemongering is nothing more than a new coat of paint on this crumbling machine. As it deteriorates, this machine will generate war, crisis, and misery. But it will also generate revolution. A socialist revolution would bring an end to the rule of bankers and billionaires who squander the wealth of the world in endless wars and destruction. By the working class taking the world into our own hands, ending capitalism, we can finally sweep away the old world order. In its place will not be a new world order, but a new world entirely.
