A former CIA asset who promoted the destruction of Libya and genocidal anti-Palestinian propaganda is okay, but the leading critic of Canadian foreign policy should be cancelled. The reaction of a segment of the Canadian left to Gloria Steinem’s death highlights a glaring imperialist, anti-Palestinian, double standard.
In her twenties Steinem’s political work was funded by the CIA. In 2011 she aggressively hyped (dubious) sexual abuse claims used to justify NATO’s destruction of Libya and two months into the holocaust in Gaza she was lead signatory of a letter promoting Israel’s October 7 mass rape hoax. Fittingly, Steinem was a staunch supporter of aggressive imperialist Hillary Clinton, even smearing young women for supporting Bernie Sanders over Clinton in the 2016 Democratic primaries. Steinheim was photographed with Madeleine Albright, who infamously said killing a half a million Iraqi children was “worth it”, and received a presidential award from the murderous Barrack Obama.
Considering her alignment with liberal imperialism and Zionism, it’s unsurprising Steinheim was lauded on the front of Friday’s Globe and Mail, Wall Street Journal and New York Times (“Indefatigable feminist leader became symbol of the modern movement”, “Gloria Steinem, Feminist Trailblazer, Dies at 92” and “Her Voice, Pen and Vigor Lifted Countless Women”). Knowing the broad outlines of her liberal imperialism and Zionism, Matthew Behrens, Judy Rebick and a slew of other Canadian leftists have also lauded Steinem in recent days. For them her enabling of genocide and liberal imperialism is less important than her role advancing North American feminism. Political gains aren’t linear and individuals have complicated trajectories so there is a case to be made for celebrating Steinem from that standpoint. I’m not sympathetic to that argument, but at least it has some logic.
But when you contrast that argument to how these individuals relate to genuine leftists it exposes stark imperialist, genocidal, power serving, double standards. At a decisive moment, Rebick and Behrens cheer led attacks against me that enabled the reactionary NDP brass to exclude a dynamic anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist campaign from the party’s leadership race.
Among many attacks that aligned with efforts to suppress an activist campaign, Rebick and Behrens repeatedly labelled me “antisemitic”. In a Rabble.ca discussion about the NDP leadership race Rebick suddenly attacked a campaign promoting an anti-capitalist and anti-colonial platform crafted by 45 activists and researchers. She complained, “Yves Engler’s people are trying to take over the chat which is annoying me no end. So just like cool it guys. You just convince us that it’s good he’s not on the platform by trying to take over the chat.” The unelected three person NDP vetting committee was justified in excluding an insurgent leftist campaign because some supporters posted in a chat!
When asked about my exclusion from the race, Rebick claimed, “Yves Engler is the most destructive person I’ve ever known on the left. Ok I’m saying that. The only time I’ve ever seen him in political practice is in disrupting a meeting or harassing a politician.”
For Rebick, Behrens and many other Canadian self-described socialists a CIA asset who supported the destruction of Libya and enabled the genocide in Gaza is okay. But a genuine internationalist and anti-imperialist campaign deserved to be shut down for “antisemitism”, Rwanda genocide denial, pro-Putinism, “harassment” or whatever other claim the mainstream media, NDP brass and its left backers made against a leadership candidate who was not their chosen one. Their double standards are obvious.
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