We will leave to others the task of drawing up the balance sheet of the more spectacular aspects of the event; the 7000 cops, the thousand soldiers, the smoke and tear gas grenades, the plastic and rubber bullets, the street fighting, the hundreds of arrests and the dozens of wounded.

What we are interested in now is to grasp the evolution of workers’ consciousness following the actions in relation to the Québec Summit. Let’s begin by what seems to have advanced. In the first place, the union and community group practice of compromise and of sabotage of the struggle was such that the illusions in the true function and place of these groups, at this stage of capitalism have been seriously shaken for hundreds of workers, particularly among the youth. Already, the more clever and opportunistic of the bureaucrats are engaged in damage control by rebuilding their image as fighters in criticizing the most vulgar “blunders” of a few of their colleagues. We are notably speaking here of the sinister officials of the FRAPRU and of a certain number of careerists of the so-called trade union left.

Another positive aspect is the retreat of a certain form of nationalism: the most hackneyed, that of language and race... All through the weekend, it was great to see demonstrators from all over the Americas, linking up and uniting in struggle, beyond all petty differences of language and nation.

But all is not well, far from it. The decline of this overt nationalism is accompanied by the rise of another, more subtle and pernicious form of nationalism. We are referring here to the massive support for programs of economic, social and environmental protectionism. This takes the form of a vulgar anti-americanism, exonerating the capitalist system as being a totalitarian one. Thus, thousands of students marched in defense of the Canadian education system from the threat of an invasion by American academic institutions. Now, a short time ago, during Prime Minister Chrétien’s visit to China, approximately a quarter ⁽⁹⁸⁾ of the 400 delegations that accompanied him (Team Canada) were Canadian educational establishments interested in investing in the Chinese market... In the same way, while there is great anguish over the impact that the future Free Trade Zone of the Americas will have on our environment (the US would dictate our standards), we tend to conveniently forget that Canada is already the second largest polluter in the world, despite our relatively small population! Ah, the mysteries of protectionism...

Finally, all these mobilisations, including those of the leftists and what we call the “radical democratic” milieu, occured under various banners calling for the “defense of democracy”. When we realise the importance of the democratic form in the preservation of the dictatorship of capital, this is an ominous sign. That there is a growing wing of the “anti-globalisation” movement that claims to be “anti-capitalist” is a fact. However, it is also a fact that this “anti-capitalism” is insipid and derisory and will remain so as long as it is satisfied with its petty bourgeois “plurality”, which is nothing else than an expresssion of its inter-classist confusion.

The entire history of humanity is a clear confirmation of what we dutifully reaffirm here: there is no national or democratic solution that leads us to the end of capitalism. The coming revolution will be the result of the action of the working class or it just won’t happen. It will require international preparation and a solid revolutionary organisation. Internationalists Notes and the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party with which we are associated are not this organisation, but we are working adamantly to build it. We call on all true anti-capitalists from around the world to help us in this crucial task. Comrades, the real summits are still ahead of us!