Gérald Godin Quebec 1971
Source: Québec-Presse, September 12, 1971;
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2004.
Though not a member of the FLQ, Gérald Godin was one of the 500 Québécois arrested in October 1970 under the War Measures Act imposed by Trudeau at the time of the FLQ kidnappings. Godin was militant nationalist, a poet and journalist who was elected to parliament as a member of the Parti Québécois, and was later a government minister.
Michel Chartrand has already accused Trudeau’s gang of being whores, adding — in order to make his excuses to these ladies — that at least whores give their clients something for their money.
But the analogy didn’t go far enough: Trudeau isn’t a whore, he’s a pimp. Which is much worse.
The whore in the story is really Canada. Or more precisely, Quebec, as far as we're concerned. And the clients are the Americans.
With ever greater frequency the exploited want to free themselves. Call-girls are no exception to the rule. Quebec, which is an economic call-girl, wants to free itself. What do Quebec’s pimps Trudeau, Marchand, Lesage, Kierans and the others say? “You're going to lose your clients.” In economic terms: there will be a flight of capital.
If the call-girl says; “I don’t give a damn. I'm sick of all these fat pig Americans who take my youth (read: natural riches) in exchange for a few devalued dollars,” the pimp has to smack his call-girl around. Because the pimp is in the service of his clients, and not of his girls. In the first place this is because he makes a living off the clients. And if the call-girls rebel — that is to say, if Quebec leaves the sinister Canadian Confederation — the pimp no longer has a reason to exist. So he beats his call-girls. And he even beats on the kitchen table and the walls in order to scare everyone. In October ( 1970) this was called the War Measures Act. In fact, this was a small fit on the part of the pimp.
And all those who want to unionize the call-girls; all those who tell the call-girls that that isn’t a life; all those who tell the call-girls that they can lead a normal life, which means they could sleep for love with men of their choosing, without being paid, but just for pleasure; have children; get married; have their own house, maybe with a backyard and a garden; see the end of their personal and collective shame; in fact, have a country of their own: all those who were accused of putting such ideas in the call-girls’ heads were accused in October either of being members of the FLQ, or of having of having participated in plots to overthrow the pimps’ and big clients’ order.
And now the client has said to the pimp: “I don’t want any more of your call-girls in our country. You're going to pay a 10% tax if you a want to bring them into the country.” The pimp sent his smiling shit-carrier Jean-Luc Pépin and his pipe-smoking goon Edgar Benson to Washington to negotiate the 10%. The big clients said “no.” And when the big client says “no,” it’s “no.”
The pimp had no choice! He passes a law worth $80 million in order to wipe out the effect of the 10% tax. Where do the $80 million come from? It comes from the money he deducts from the call-girls or, as it’s expressed in that métier, it comes from his cut of the take.
What will he do with the money? He'll pay to American enterprises — hit by the American decision — the equivalent of the tax. The result: they can continue to cut their selling price in the USA by 10% in order to remain competitive even across the border. In the language of the pimp, that’s the same as giving to the clients the part of the price that the client refused to pay, so that the greatest number of call-girls possible can continue to work; which is to say, make Americans come. And what makes Americans come? Profit.
As Trudeau said in his message to all the call-girls of the country the evening of President Nixon’s decision; “I'm convinced that President Nixon didn’t want to be unfair and that a solution will be found to the current difficulties in the same spirit of friendship that marks all the relations between our two countries.”
This is exactly what a pimp would say. But it isn’t what the call-girls think. In their heart of hearts, the call-girls bear a profound feeling of aggressiveness toward their clients.
And so: Call-girls of Quebec unite and rid yourselves of your pimps! Afterwards you can lead the life you want to live.