Canadian Liberation Movement: opposing American imperialism 50 years ago

Fifty years ago, 1975, I went to jail for opposing American imperialism. My crime was wearing a bright yellow teeshirt emblazoned with the slogan YANKEE GO HOME! Yep, we were far ahead of our time in the small Marxist-Leninist Canadian Liberation Movement (CLM).

We were a gaggle of university age twenty-somethings, with a handful of genuine working class members. We had a number of front groups to recruit members. The 85% Quota Campaign’s goal was to limit the influence of American profs in Canuck universities while encouraging the teaching of Canadian culture. 

We had our own newspaper, New Canada. I was its circulation manager, which mostly meant standing on campus corners flogging copies and sending small bundles to CLM clubs scattered across Canada.

Another of our front groups was The National Committee for Independent Canadian Unions, the NCICU. Our goal was to form independent Canadian unions as breakaways from American controlled unions like the Steelworkers. Over the decades this goal has been achieved in some measure.

Our mottoes were Independence and Socialism. I doubt most surviving members are still Marxists, but our youthful adventurism in pushing for Canadian freedom from American control has finally reached desperate relevance with the Canadian public. We were just half a century early ;  )-   

Here’s my poem about the twenty-four hours jail time in 1975.

  

DOMINION DAY IN JAIL

(Celebration 1975)


I spent last Dominion Day in jail
in a cold cell
on a steel bench -
cold, sleepless, angry and proud
tho almost wanting to feel foolish.

Fed a cheeseburger and a coffee in 24 hours
fingerprinted
stripped of my shirt
frogmarched - mugshot
insulted.

All this for the patriotic crime
of daring to say YANKEE GO HOME!
to the Yankee Shriners
parading thru downtown Toronto.
They thought it was the 4th of July
(Canada Division).

Cold, sleepless, hungry, angry
              PROUD
that I was cold, sleepless, hungry, angry
and not enjoying the July sun
lounging on the green grass in Queen's Park
or lining the parade route for the Shriners.
This growing pride made my solitary jail cell
a celebration of Dominion Day.

Chris Faiers

This is wonderful Chris and it's very meaningful especially now-- I think that the few paragraphs you wrote about CLM are sort of  the best ad for what or who we were--thanks for writing and the poem's great

Judy Haiven, PhD 

Writer/activist

Halifax NS

Canada

If you’d like to know more about me, my politics and activism, perhaps, you can listen to this podcast Pretty Heady Stuff. Scott Stoneman, a researcher and writer, interviewed me and boiled the interview down to 50 min. You can decide how much you actually want to listen to!