Fall Day School: Marxism and the National Question

The relationship between nations, nationalism, and liberation is once again a pressing question in so-called “Canada.” Carney’s pipelines and other “nation-building” projects are planned on the land of Indigenous nations. The Parti Québécois is promising a referendum on sovereignty if they win the Quebec election. Meanwhile in Alberta, far-right forces are whipping up anti-Indigenous racism in the lead up to the referendum on holding a referendum to separate. 

Imperialism has created a pecking order of oppressor and oppressed nations which shapes our world in profound ways. Canada, founded on the theft of Indigenous lands and the conquest of Quebec, is a "prison of nations". 

What can we learn from the writings of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg on this question? What does the experience of the Russian Revolution and its aftermath tell us about the connection between struggles for national liberation and international working class revolution? In practice, how do we organize to stand against racism in Alberta and Canadian nationalism everywhere, while supporting land back for Indigenous nations and the right of self-determination for the Quebecois people?

Join us for a discussion of insights and strategies the classical Marxist tradition offers revolutionaries in the Canadian state today.