BY KATY LEROUGETEL
MONTREAL - Amidst great media fanfare on December 4, representatives of 121 countries signed a treaty in Ottawa banning the use, production, export and transfer of land mines. Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy used his government's position as host of the event to strengthen Canadian imperialism's leverage in world politics against its rivals.

At the same time, a campaign by the trade union officialdom and social democratic politicians in support of the treaty drew many working people toward Canadian nationalism and support for the use of Ottawa's imperial power abroad.

About 550 delegates representing governments and nongovernmental organizations attended the three-day conference and so-called Action Forum against Land Mines. Land mines are cheap defensive weapons costing between $3 and $30 each.

United Nations (UN) secretary-general Kofi Annan lavished praise on Ottawa's role in initiating the ban saying, "There are countries whose leadership can make a difference .. and these countries do not have to be superpowers."

The December 6 La Presse, a Montreal daily, editorialized glowingly, "The great Liberal tradition had a precise vision of what Canada was, a small country with a vocation of peacekeeping and goodwill ambassador. The [Liberal party] Chrétien government has unequivocally reestablished this image, among other things with its intervention in Haiti, the land mines dossier and thanks to its role in favor of human rights within the Commonwealth." Some 650 Canadian troops began a withdrawal from Haiti this month, after a three-year stint as part of an imperialist occupation force initiated by Washington under the UN flag. About 30 Canadian cops remain charged with training the National Haitian Police force.

Among those refusing to sign the treaty were the governments of the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan. Washington refused to sign because the treaty did not include a clause allowing its 1 million mines in south Korea. Washington has 37,000 troops stationed in south Korea four decades after its military invasion divided the Korean peninsula.

The Cuban government did not sign the treaty either for different reasons. Cuban Brig. Gen. Luis Pérez Róspide, director of the Union of Military Industries (UIM) in Cuba, spoke about this earlier this year. "Asked about the manufacture and utilization of land mines, which are opposed by some rich countries led by the United States, the UIM director gave his opinion that no one discussed this issue with the poor or those who are threatened by nuclear weapons and have none of their own," said an article in the September 28 Granma International, a Cuban weekly. "`Land mines are a weapon of the poor,' Róspide declared."

Part of the UIM's basic mission is to guarantee each Cuban a rifle, a land mine and a grenade to defend the country.

The signatories of the treaty in Ottawa announced $500 million-worth of pledges to de-mining and victim-rehabilitation activities.

The Canadian Autoworkers union has pledged CAN $1.25 million over the next three years to de-mine Mozambique. The union aims to finance labor-intensive de-mining programs employing Mozambicans and is seeking technology from companies without links to the armaments industry.

"People's treaties" signaling support for the official agreement were signed in 40 countries, including Canada, by union officials and various petty bourgeois radicals attending ceremonies coinciding with the official Ottawa event. On December 9, the Montreal Metro Labor Council of the Quebec Federation of Labor added its name to the "people's treaty." Prominent figures such as Canadian singer Bruce Cockburn have publicly supported Ottawa's campaign.

Remarks by Federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Stéphane Dion at the biennial meeting of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party reflect ruling-class satisfaction at its success in using the land mines campaign to draw labor officials, and broader social democratic and liberal forces into support for Canadian imperialism. Taking aim at the strong pro-sovereignty sentiment in Quebec, he enthused, "The minister of national unity last week was Lloyd Axworthy. I am proud to share this country with this great Manitoban."

Concurrent with the conference, Canada's Ministry of Industry organized a "Salon of Canadian de-mining technology" in which roughly 20 companies participated. "De-mining activities promise a good future given the number of countries signing the treaty," said a Ministry official.  
 
 
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