The Marxist-Leninist Daily

TML greets the delegates to the 26th Constitutional Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress. To say that this convention held in Vancouver from May 9-13 is important would be an understatement. The working class movement is beginning to assert itself in the twenty-first century but faces grave dangers as a result of the neoliberal anti-social anti-national offensive and the involvement of Canada in U.S. wars of aggression and occupation. The CLC delegates and trade union officials have a serious responsibility to lead the movement to intervene in the political affairs of the country in a manner which contributes to resolving the crisis in favour of the people, not the rich.

Already, the neoliberal anti-social and anti-national offensive has seized control of the federal government and the city of Toronto. The question that workers are raising is how to make the CLC and its various affiliates an effective force to block the anti-social anti-national offensive and hold governments to account.

The results of both the recent federal election and of the Toronto municipal election before that show that the labour movement has not yet succeeded in sorting out the problem of how to activate itself politically to defend Canadians from the all-sided wrecking of the neoliberal agenda of the rich and their governments. On the federal level this can be explained in part because of the split in the parliamentary opposition and the fact that the workers were not led to effectively express their own independent voice and demands. This is turn meant that the minority government -- paralyzed and ineffective because of Stephen Harper's refusal to reasonably accommodate any interests except the ones he represents -- did not serve the interests of working Canadians. The parliamentary impasse is now resolved as a result of the election of a Harper majority government but the question arises: How will Canadians hold his government to account?

With the historic election of the NDP as the national opposition in the Parliament, the determination of the working people from coast to coast is to hold the Harper government to account. On the basis of their own politics which they work out themselves, the labour movement can become an effective political force. It can stop the neoliberal wave and not only put the full weight of an effective opposition into play in the federal parliament, but also make sure the labour movement has a decisive say in the outcome of upcoming electoral battles in various provinces and at the local level.

This surge of neoliberalism is expressed both nationally in the anti-social offensive and internationally in the mounting number of sovereign countries that the U.S. Empire and its annexed allies such as Canada have attacked with troops, bombs, coloured revolutions and other imperialist tactics. War and fascism must be stopped and the labour movement can do it!

All Out to Support and Strengthen the Workers' Opposition!

The Workers' Opposition exists objectively and its practical politics must flourish if any problems facing the country are to be resolved in favour of the people. Examples of the workers putting forward solutions to the problems which face them abound but the monopoly controlled media give them no significance. In 2011 alone, on January 29, workers organized a historic demonstration of 10,000 in Hamilton, Ontario calling for Manufacturing yes! Nation-wrecking no! Public right yes! Monopoly right no! and for production to resume at U.S. Steel Hamilton Works; March 12, 50,000 workers and their allies took over the streets of downtown Montreal and with a united voice denounced the anti-social agenda, budget and nation-wrecking program of the Charest Liberals; April 1, CAW Local 222 Retirees and supporters rallied in front of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's campaign office in Oshawa to denounce the latest budget of the Harper government and demand decent pensions for all; April 2, over 1,500 workers from BC, Washington and Oregon held a joint rally at the BC/Washington Peace Arch border crossing to denounce the attack on workers' rights and public services in Wisconsin, other states and Canada; April 9, 10,000 marched in Toronto in defence of public services and workers' rights; throughout this period, postal workers have been taking job actions in defence of their rights and during the federal election workers in communities across the country held actions denouncing the Harper government's anti-social, anti-national agenda and expressing their aim to Stop Harper! This culminated on May First when actions were held in many cities including the rally and march organized by USW Local 1005 on Parliament Hill in Ottawa demanding a new direction for the economy and pledging to hold governments to account. Then, on May 2, the NDP was elected to form the national opposition in the Parliament!

Now is the time for the active and growing voice of the working class and its Opposition to unite in action in defence of the rights of all! This opportunity must not be squandered! Cast aside all reluctance to make your voices heard so that your demands are accorded the importance they deserve and workers are able to proudly declare, We Are the Opposition!

Let the Workers' Opposition occupy the space for change with its own practical politics that unite all those who can be united to take up the defence of the rights of all! Let this Opposition make itself felt by discarding sectarian divisions and uniting as one in all fields of concern so that the crisis is resolved in favour of the people, not the rich! TML will continue to be at the disposal of smashing the silence on the living and working conditions of the workers across the country. It will continue to end the marginalization of their concerns and promote discussion on viable pro-social alternatives to the crisis. Manufacturing yes! Nation-wrecking no! Our Resources Stay Here! Trade on the basis of mutual benefit, not stepped up plunder and oppression both at home and abroad!

May Issue of Workers' Forum Off the Press!

TML is pleased to inform that the latest issue of Workers' Forum has just come off the press. To view the table of contents and information on how to subscribe, click the image at right. Workers' Forum is a supplement to The Marxist-Leninist Daily and is produced by the Workers' Centre of the Marxist-Leninist Party.

A new situation faces the workers and people, that of a Harper majority government with the NDP as the official opposition, at a time when the post-war social contract has ended. Workers must give serious consideration to these circumstances to ascertain how to marshal the strength of their numbers and organization to hold the Harper government and its anti-social, anti-national agenda in check and advance their own demands.

This issue carries important coverage on the intervention of workers across the country to defend their interests during the recently concluded 41st General Election. During the election, despite the fact that the media play a negative role by ignoring the conditions of life of the working people, workers were able to put forward their demands in various ways, including Stop Harper rallies and during May Day actions. Workers opposed the nation-wrecking of the monopolies and the Harper government's anti-social offensive. A highlight of these actions was the historic rally led by Hamilton steelworkers on Parliament Hill on May First where a call was issued for workers everywhere to continue taking their own initiatives to change the situation in their favour, fight for a new direction for the economy and hold governments to account.

This issue also includes reports of the 10,000 strong day of action in defence of public services in Toronto, and information about the recent decision of the Supreme Court to deny agricultural workers the ability to exercise their rights, articles on what the workers are doing about the crisis in forestry, manufacturing and to fight for their right to wages and working conditions, and adequate compensation for injured workers.

With the Harper government's embroiling of Canada in U.S. wars of aggression, another issue facing the workers and people is how Canada's economy is being used to feed the U.S. war machine. In particular, this issue details the situation in the shipbuilding industry, where war production is being presented as a boon for the workers and the economy. Under the pretext that the issue is to "buy Canadian," discussion is blocked on how to build a self-reliant economy which meets the needs of the people, safeguards peace and carries out trade based on mutual benefit not competition between monopolies and monopoly groups.

The May issue of Workers' Forum also reports on the fight of postal workers to oppose the increasing pressure for concessions during the present round of negotiations, including anti-human changes to their present working conditions under Canada Post's "Modern Post" initiative. The attacks on their working conditions are disrupting the workers' lives, increasing injury rates and are the cause of the serious delays in mail delivery. Every month, postal workers across the country are holding days of action to oppose these attacks. Spontaneous walkouts also underscore the untenable position the workers are being forced into. Nationally, postal workers have voted 95.5 per cent to authorize strike action to get an appropriate collective agreement that addressees these concerns if the corporation fails to adequately do so in the current round of negotiations.

Workers' Forum serves the work to build and strengthen a Workers' Opposition. Unless the workers take up social responsibility for ending the neoliberal offensive, the dangers facing them and society will increase.

The work of Workers' Forum to present the issues facing the workers and people counts on the participation of workers across the country to write for it, distribute it and finance it. Please send information about what is happening in your sector of the economy, region of the country, community and place of work so as to help smash the silence imposed on the working and living conditions of the workers and their communities. Getting a subscription is also a good way to go. Build and expand this important work -- read, write and distribute Workers' Forum!

Lively Meeting in Courtenay, BC Discusses How to Hold the Harper Government to Account

On May 6, in Courtenay, BC, union activists from forestry, the post office and health care, along with others fighting against the privatization of parks, against the plans for a coal mine in the area and a gas station on the local estuary, and peace activists, all participated in a wide-ranging discussion organized by the Vancouver Island organization of the Marxist-Leninist Party. Discussion took place under the general topic: How can workers hold the Harper government to account and be effective in fighting for a pro-social agenda? This is a topic which workers are discussing across the country including at the Canadian Labour Congress Convention which got underway Sunday night in Vancouver. Already, the Marxist-Leninist Party has pointed out that there is no room for pessimism now that Harper has a majority and will use it to push his anti-social agenda. Nor is there room for euphoria because for the first time in history the NDP forms the official opposition. Labour has an important role to play if it actually analyzes the significance of the election results and can work out how to occupy the space for change. Silly discussion should be put to rest. This includes suggestions about "learning from the Egyptians" or about the dire consequences that will befall us if what is happening in the United States happens to Canadians, as if it is not already taking place! Other suggestions include hopes that the workers' movement strengthens its ability to influence social media and twittering as the means to keep the Harper government in check.

Far from dwelling on such diversionary suggestions, the Courtenay meeting was characterized by a lively discussion on how to strengthen the measures the workers are already taking to activate their own consciousness and organization in a manner which favours them. The discussion on how to be effective in fighting for a pro-social program on all fronts was introduced by Pierre Chénier, Secretary of the Marxist-Leninist Party's Workers' Centre.

"The problem of holding the Harper government to account belongs to everyone," Pierre pointed out. He explained that the role of the Workers' Centre is to provide the workers' movement with what it needs to have its own voice, its own press, its own research institute. He spoke of the work of Workers' Forum and its counterpart published in Quebec, Forum Ouvrier, in breaking the silence on the working and living conditions of workers throughout the country and how they are deliberating on the problems which face them and in providing these problems with solutions. Our experience and that of the workers shows that to be effective in life, it is the reality of life itself which must be looked at so as to provide solutions to the problems facing the working people and their communities. The marginalization of the workers and their demands is never stronger than during the election, he said, but in spite of this, workers in many communities took action to present their demands during the election. The largest of these actions was the demonstration on Parliament Hill on May Day to demand a new direction for the economy and that no matter what party or combination of parties forms the next government, governments must be held accountable be accountable; they must uphold public right, not monopoly right and it is up to the workers to make it so.

Different aspects of the struggles that are being waged were discussed, with a focus on how to be effective, how to overcome the silence of the monopoly media by providing information and developing all manner of means to inform, educate and organize. Pierre pointed out that the fight to defeat the anti-social offensive is also a fight of ideas, that the working class has to prove to society that if their demands were implemented the whole society would benefit, would be more human, more rational, that the demands of the working class are not complaints, but come out of real life and are based on the necessity for a new direction for the economy. In terms of the relations of power in the society, there is no doubt that Harper will have the upper hand, Pierre pointed out, but this is not the case as concerns the crucial issue for society -- the legitimacy of not just a cause but of the political power itself. Harper does not represent the majority of Canadians who have been seeking the ways and means to defeat his government, despite the electoral system which presents his government as a majority government. More importantly, what this means is that his anti-social agenda does not have the consent of the governed. This is why it is so important to participate in the battle with solutions, "to both enhance our ability to resist the attacks and to act with social responsibility," Pierre said. On this basis we can strengthen the backbone of the national opposition to the anti-social offensive, which must be an organized Workers' Opposition, Pierre said.

Many local examples were discussed, both from the perspective of the danger and irrationality of the actions of monopolies and government, and from the perspective of the alternatives being put forward by unions and social justice and environmental groups. The meeting recognized that all the just causes for which the working people are fighting converge into the fight to defend the rights of all, put forward and argue out the rational and pro-social alternatives and assist one another to achieve them. Several people pointed out the importance of the workers having their own media such as Workers' Forum and the positive role played by local media that still exists and sees the necessity to report on what the working people are doing and their conditions and demands.

A very positive upbeat atmosphere characterized the meeting. Pierre Chénier is now representing Workers' Forum at the Convention of the Canadian Labour Congress in Vancouver where he will be interviewing workers from all sectors of the economy on the problems they face in their regions and how they are working out solutions which favour their interests and those of the people. He will also be speaking on the mainland and in Alberta.

The Overthrow of the Imperialist System Is the Only Guarantee for Peace

April 30, 1945: The Soviet Victory Banner is raised over the German Reichstag in Berlin by Red Army soldiers,
shortly before the surrender of German forces in the city and the decisive victory over the fascists on May 9, 1945.
(RIA Novosti)

On May 9, 1945 the anti-fascist forces of the world with the Soviet Union and communists of all lands at the head of the Resistance Movement declared victory over the Hitlerite Nazis. On this memorable day 66 years ago, fascist Germany acknowledged defeat and declared unconditional surrender.

The turning point of the war was the historic Soviet victory at Stalingrad February 2, 1943 that concluded with the encirclement and surrender of a German army of 300,000 troops. This rout of the Nazi Wehrmacht, followed by a decisive victory at Kursk, began a powerful counteroffensive that drove the German Hitlerites steadily backward until the final demise of the Third Reich in Berlin.

Of great assistance was the Allied landing at Normandy on June 6, 1944 (D-Day), which compelled Germany to wage war on two fronts. Unable to withstand the joint blows of the Red Army and Allied forces, the German troops quickly fled back to their own lands where they finally capitulated unconditionally.

As soon as Hitler was crushed in Berlin and even before the people could breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the heroic success of their accomplishments in the anti-fascist war, the "Western" imperialists led by the United States began their Cold War to "contain communism." This campaign to attack and stifle the democratic rights of the people was directly aimed at preventing progressive change across the entire world. It continues unabated to the present day with anti-communism at the core. A few examples are the formation and continual expansion of NATO, McCarthyism, the invasion and occupation of Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the arming and financing of the Suharto fascists in Indonesia, covert and not-so-covert wars and coup d'états in Latin America and so on. The period since the end of World War II has not been a time of "peace," as the imperialists try to claim, but one of continuous life and death struggles between progress and retrogression throughout the world, between the exploited of the world with the working class at the head and the exploiters led by the imperialist bourgeoisie.

As part of their attack on everything progressive, the U.S. imperialists and their minions have deliberately falsified the history of the Second World War. Today, the Red Army of that time is caricatured as being similar to the army of Hitler, as if communist and people's armies go about killing civilians and shooting prisoners, which is how Goebbels and the Nazis portrayed the Red Army. The imperialists relentlessly repeat all the old fascist accusations against communism and especially J.V. Stalin who led the Soviet Union and the worldwide victory against fascism. The most outrageous claims are made that Hitler and Stalin are "the same" and that "both bear responsibility for World War II," when it was the fascist states with the connivance of the Anglo-Americans and the French that started World War II, while the Soviet Union led the struggle to stop the war from ever beginning and finally to end it. What is the objective behind these falsifications? It could not be merely to discredit the enemies of imperialism posthumously because history cannot be rewritten in that fashion. Rather, it is to groom and egg on the fascist forces in the present, to give them every support to organize against the people in the here and now. The imperialists present to the world a totally fabricated falsehood called "Stalinism," suggesting this caricature is the same as its opposite, fascism. In fact, everything that is falsely blamed on the name and work of Stalin is exactly what the imperialists have been doing since the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917 and the beginning of the Soviet nation-building project led by the working class to negate its exploiters and open a path for the emancipation of workers and oppressed people worldwide.

The truth is that the rulers of the U.S. were very unhappy that the Red Army crushed Hitler's forces at Stalingrad and broke the back of the Wehrmacht and its myth of invincibility. The deepest wish of the U.S. ruling elite was that Nazi Germany would smash the Soviet Union. This was an imperialist dream that went back prior to the founding of the Soviet Union. In 1918 the U.S. and 13 other countries invaded the newly born Soviet Russia, hoping to destroy it before the revolutionary workers and peasants could consolidate their nation-building project. Even as the "peacemakers" talked in Paris in 1919, tens of thousands of Allied soldiers were waging a bloody undeclared war against Socialist Russia and the revolutionary workers and peasants of 14 other nations fighting to join together in a Union of Soviet Socialist Republics free from imperialist exploitation and war.

Following World War I, the U.S. ruling class pursued a policy of using the contradictions among the European imperialist powers to further its own empire building and to profit from and weaken its European rivals, especially Britain and France. With the rise to power of the German Nazi Party in 1933, the U.S. saw in Nazi Germany a weapon to terrorize and dominate Europe and finally destroy the socialist Soviet Union. To this end, powerful monopolies in the U.S. such as Ford invested millions in Germany to strengthen its military for the planned invasions and war. Meanwhile, as the Nazis ruthlessly eliminated all opposition within Germany and militarized all aspects of life, Britain and France pursued a policy of conciliation and capitulation to fascism, and similar to the U.S. prodded Germany to prepare to march eastward.

All the efforts of the Soviet Union to oppose Germany by signing a mutual assistance pact with Britain and France failed. Instead, Britain and France meekly accepted the German Wehrmacht's invasion and annexation of Austria in March 1938, paving the way for the signing of the infamous Munich Agreement six months later in September allowing Germany free hand to occupy a major industrialized region of Czechoslovakia greatly strengthening its militarization and preparations for war. The Munich conciliation with fascism sealed the immediate fate of the peoples of Europe by giving Hitler the green light to invade other countries without a united opposition. The Soviet Union in particular was left on its own to prepare itself as best it could for the inevitable Nazi attack. As expected, 22 months later on June 22, 1941 Hitler's military invaded the Soviet Union along a 2,900 km front with over 4.5 million troops, 600,000 vehicles and tanks, 750,000 horses and thousands of aircraft. This barbaric invasion to crush the nation- building project of the Soviet working class and peasantry, annex their territory, seize their means of production and raw material and turn the people into slaves of the German monopolies was the largest military offensive in history. In the end, the resistance of the Soviet peoples led by Stalin and the Communist Party broke the back of the Nazi aggressors. Some 50 million people died and another 35 million were seriously wounded during the Anti-Fascist War with the peoples of the Soviet Union bearing the brunt of the casualties.

In Causes and Lessons of the Second World War, Hardial Bains writes: "It is very important to understand that this entire propaganda on the question of the Second World War has an aim. Working people should not take it with folded arms because its object is to organize a fascist movement, to condone fascist aggression. If the Anglo-American bourgeoisie is successful in this, it will cause a disaster for the peoples of the world just as the Anglo-American policy caused the disaster of the Second World War. A repetition of this policy will bring the disaster of a Third World War. Our Party openly states that people should take the road of revolution. Our party will give the call for the overthrow of any government that participates in an imperialist and aggressive war. We have the right to do so in order to protect the people from the horrors of such a cataclysmic war. To protect the people from the horrors of inter- imperialist war is part of the tradition of the modern democratic movement, the entire struggle for the rights and freedoms of the people. The movement entrusts us with this stand. [...] The overthrow of the imperialist system is the only guarantee for peace. There is no other lasting way peace can be achieved. This is the lesson of the Second World War." (Hardial Bains, Causes and Lessons of the Second World War. Toronto: MELS, 1990)

Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War

The Soviet Union's Great Patriotic War (1941-45) refers to the war against Nazi Germany and its European allies during World War II.

The war broke out on June 22, 1941, when Germany, tearing up the mutual non-aggression pact between the two countries, launched a blitz offensive against the Soviet Union.

Before long, Nazi German troops and those from Finland, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Croatia occupied the entire territory of Lithuania and most of Latvia, and much of Belarus and Ukraine.

In October 1941, Germany started a ferocious attack on Moscow in hopes of quickly winning the war before winter. However, the Soviet Red Army put up a heroic and active defense, annihilating large numbers of Nazi German forces, and it won the battle in January 1942.

On November 19, 1942, the Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the German troops in Stalingrad. On Feb. 2, 1943, the Red Army wiped out the last of the German main forces trapped and under siege in Stalingrad. The Nazi defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad threw Germany's offensive on the Soviet Union into disarray, marking a turning point in the war against Nazi Germany.

Following up their victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet army liberated most of Ukraine and virtually all of Russia and eastern Belarus during 1943. In August 1943, the Germans were defeated in a battle at Kursk, Russia, and thus rendered incapable of launching any further strategic attacks.

In 1944, the Soviets launched an all-out offensive, liberating the rest of Belarus and Ukraine, most of the Baltic States and eastern Poland from Germany. By August 1944, Soviet troops had crossed into Germany. In mid-April 1945, the Soviet army launched its final assault on Germany and laid siege to Berlin on April 21.

On May 2, 1945, Soviet troops took Berlin. On May 8, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally.

Battle of Berlin: Left, Soviet forces in combat; right: celebration at the Brandenburg Gate on May 2, 1945
following German surrender of the city. (RIA Novosti)