Fifty Years of the Determined and Successful Work of CPC(M-L)
Fifty years ago in December, in Vancouver, an important conference was held which completed the work to lay the foundations of CPC(M-L) which was founded three months later. CPC(M-L) was a new Party in every sense -- a Party dedicated to the cause of revolution and socialism, a party of the working class, its vanguard. The strengthening of the foundations of the Party was the most difficult task at that time, as it has always been and remains so today as we take up the challenge to lay the foundations of a new modern mass communist party consistent with the needs today. As is the case today as we enter the second
decade of the 21st century, so too in 1969, on the
eve of the decade of the seventies, various
pressures were exerted on us so that the workers'
movement would not give rise to a political party
of its own. We had come to the Vancouver
Conference at the end of 1969, the last days of
the decade of the sixties, united ideologically
and organizationally but great pressure was
exerted to not enshrine this unity in a political
resolution. If not dealt with appropriately, the
pressure, in essence of both an ideological and an
organizational character, could seriously impair
the functioning of the Party, paralyze it and
later lead to its liquidation. At the same time,
we could not have agreed that the Party should
exist outside the workers' movement, divorced and
isolated from everything else, so pure as not to
wage any struggle to defend and strengthen itself
in the course of waging the mass struggles. This
pressure came from different quarters and took
many forms. It had to be fought systematically,
surely, with confidence in our own forces. With this in mind, the Political Resolution which took up the conclusions drawn at the Vancouver Conference was written by the third week of January 1970 and sent to all the delegates for study. Because it was the founding resolution of the Party, and as much work had already been accomplished in order to reach warranted conclusions and raise the level of the cadre, the founding resolution was to be studied by each individual for at least six weeks. The reports were received from all the delegates, which were read by a special commission appointed by the Central Organizing Committee and, on the basis of the commission's report, the COC adopted the resolution on March 31. That same day, amidst several hundred sympathizers attending a mass rally held in a building situated at the southeast corner of Park and Bernard in Montreal, the communiqué titled There Is Such a Party! was read out announcing that the Party had been founded. The task set by the Internationalists had been accomplished. The Marxist-Leninist Communist and Workers' Movement in Canada was not to remain the same from that time forward. Right from its inception, knowing full well that things do not appear ready-made on their own, CPC(M-L) entered into a period of profound all-sided struggle. This is all the more true because the strategic aim of CPC(M-L) is to establish a modern society without exploitation of persons by persons. Such a society has never existed in Canada before, but the material basis for it is present with the widespread socialization of the process of production. Recognizing this, it is to be expected that the obsolescent forces, representing all that is old and dying, with vengeance and brutality seek to crush the new revolutionary forces that are emerging. In this context, CPC(M-L) has developed a broad field of work based on forging a stern resistance movement to these state-organized attacks. Its attitude towards the decision-making power of the state as it presently exists always puts the interests of the working people at the centre of its deliberations so as to open society's path to progress. This is why after 50 years, CPC(M-L) has overcome the many hurdles and strengthened itself as the kind of force the workers and their allies have confidence in and can rely on. Determined, successful work on the part of CPC(M-L) from the time of its founding enabled it to set the direction of the communist and workers' movement in Canada anew following the historic shift which took place 35 years ago in 1984-85. At that time, on September 1, 1985, we declared that henceforth, as a result of free trade and globalization, no force could continue to act in the old way. The space which is equivalent to change is based on what the social relations between humans and humans and humans and nature reveal. It belongs to everyone without exception irrespective of what class they belong to or what interests they uphold. We undertook to build the mass Party and mass non-Party press to make sure it is the working class which leads the people to occupy this space for change. This work created the conditions to adopt our nation-building Historic Initiative which we launched on January 1, 1995, 25 years ago, whose main feature is a fully conscious and organized plan to make sure the working class, women and youth develop their independent thinking and politics so that they speak in their own name and lay the claims which they must. This is what it means for the working class to constitute the nation and vest sovereignty in the people.
As part of its Historic Initiative, CPC(M-L)
carries out extensive theoretical work,
elaborating Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought,
the pro-social program and the necessity for
democratic renewal. It has adopted work to educate
the educators in a manner that brings the advanced
forces together to establish their own vantage
points and provide modern definitions which bring
forth a modern democratic personality. The
theoretical and practical activity of CPC(M-L)
encompasses the work to consolidate CPC(M-L) on
the basis of democratic centralism which vests the
decision-making power in the membership which sets
the agenda for the work, works out its
implementation and checks up on the results so as
to discern the guides to further action. Organizing the working class to fight for a
change in the direction of the economy and to
constitute the nation is the order of the day. It
requires organizing the people to recognize the
need for a modern constitution that enshrines the
rights and duties of all citizens and residents,
and eliminates privileges and arbitrariness;
restoring the hereditary rights of the Indigenous
peoples and ending colonial injustice and crimes
against them; providing the nation of Quebec and
its right to self-determination with due
recognition by making sure the federation is
voluntary which means it recognizes the right to
secede if the Quebec people so desire; supporting
the struggle of all national minorities against
marginalization and ghettoization and for the
development of their languages and cultures; and
recognizing the rights of women without exception.
So too must the well-being of the most vulnerable
and all those who require assistance of any sort
whatsoever be provided for. Besides its work to
involve the entire polity in humanizing the social
environment, CPC(M-L) works to make sure the
natural environment is looked after. All people have rights by virtue of being human, including to a livelihood, education, health care, childcare and seniors' care. Raising the level of society's material well-being and its spiritual health are immediate concerns as a result of the "everyone fend for oneself" anti-social offensive. CPC(M-L) works hard to bring together all the different threads of the movement which are developing across the country within the present national and international conditions so as to direct them towards opening the path for the progress of society. It is the work to develop the human factor/social consciousness, human sensuous and material action directed towards fully controlling the direction of society and its relationship with nature so as to benefit society and all its members. During the course of this year, CPC(M-L) plans to engage its members, sympathizers and fellow-travellers in ongoing conversations about the aim of the Historic Initiative and its immediate aim to bring into being a mass communist party consistent with the needs of the people and society for enlightenment and political organization. On the basis of their own thought material, they can make sure a modern democratic personality is brought into being in the form of an anti-war government.
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
This
coming year we celebrate the 50th anniversary of
the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).
It behooves all progressive forces to deliberate
on the kind of party CPC(M-L) is because this is a
time when the movements of the people for their
rights, for peace, against colonial arrangements
and injustice and for anti-imperialist solidarity
with the peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America
and the Caribbean must be strengthened to realize
their aim. For that, capable political leadership
is necessary. Already the political character of
the struggle is obviously against those state
actors and governing forces who are blocking the
path to progress by refusing to renew the
arrangements to make them consistent with the
needs of the times. Instead, they persevere in
using state attacks to divide the people, divert
their attention from the real problems and how to
provide them with solutions. To make headway, it
is necessary to join and strengthen the kind of
political organization which can turn historic
successes into historic victories. In Canada, that
organization is CPC(M-L). CPC(M-L)'s partisanship
is to the aim of the workers' movement in defence
of peace, democracy and rights. It opposes
sectarianism and narrow-mindedness under all
conditions and circumstances. It is taking
all-sided measures to make sure the mass party and
non-party press are at the disposal of the working
people and their need to create enlightened public
opinion which favours their just cause.
