January 1, 2020 

New Year's Greetings

• Congratulations for the Achievements in 2019 --
All Out for Success in 2020!
• Fifty Years of the Determined and Successful Work of CPC(M-L)

• Taking Up Social Responsibility in 2020

New Year's Greetings

Congratulations for the Achievements
in 2019 -- All Out for Success in 2020!

CPC(M-L) New Year's Gathering, Toronto, December 29, 2019.

On the occasion of the New Year, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sends militant revolutionary greetings to all Party members, sympathizers and friends, and wishes all the members and party organizations at every level and mass organizations of the workers, women and youth success in all their endeavours in the coming year.

Across the country on the occasion of the New Year, the Party is organizing get-togethers to celebrate what the forces fighting for change achieved together in 2019 as we united our efforts to defend the rights of working people, women, youth and Indigenous peoples and to Make Canada a Zone for Peace, and did our utmost to develop the anti-imperialist solidarity with the peoples of Asia, Africa and especially our responsibility towards the peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean. It is important to celebrate our achievements won in the course of facing many challenges and prevailing over them.

On this occasion, the CC of CPC(M-L) also extends greetings to the Communist Party of Cuba and its first secretary General Raul Castro and to the Cuban people and their president Miguel Díaz-Canel and our sincere congratulations on the occasion of the 61st anniversary of the Cuban Revolution. We pledge to contribute our efforts to the defeat of the brutal blockade the U.S. is tightening against Cuba and for the return of Guantánamo. We once again express our profound appreciation for the contributions of Comrade Fidel Castro and his fidelity to principles which, as he said, are worth more than life itself.

We salute all the peoples of Our America who continue to uphold the revolutionary interest in the difficult conditions of today. We pledge to do our utmost to make sure Latin America and the Caribbean are a zone of peace and that Canada cannot be used as a base to undermine the peoples' striving for peace, democracy and freedom.

Our greetings also to the working people of all the countries fighting for their rights. We salute the U.S. working class and people who are waging historic fights by upholding their anti-war consciousness and tradition in today's difficult conditions and their fight for the recognition of the rights of all. Based on their own thought material, by speaking in their own name and upholding the values they espouse against those of the ruling class, we wish the people of the U.S. success in the coming year as the elections become the greatest assault on their conscience and collective rights and action.

In Britain, the ruling class got the majority it wanted out of the general election but this will not sort out any problem. Whether or not Britain leaves the European Union or stays, the economy is caught in the grip of the raging competition between one faction and another of the narrow private interests which are striving to dominate the world today. The so-called One Nation politics of the Conservative Party are for purposes of claiming the consent of the governed to rule with impunity. It will not pass! We salute the peoples of England, Scotland and Wales who persist in raising the demand for an anti-war government and the recognition of the rights of all. We also salute the Irish people and their fight for the reunification of Ireland which we are confident will prevail.

On this occasion we also salute the millions of workers in France who have been on strike for the last three weeks. They have broad support as they oppose the new proposed law to change their pensions and increase the retirement age. All power to all those who have persisted in their protests throughout the year. Just like in 1789 when the people stormed the Bastille, the people of France are striving to take control of the affairs of society and not just beg the ruling elite for this or that concession. The ruling elite has captured the state to siphon off all the wealth produced by the toil of people and plunder the resources of nature while wrecking the social and natural environments. The French working class has shut down France showing they are quite capable of running the affairs of society and instituting a modern democracy where the distribution of wealth and use of resources are human-centred and society affirms the rights of all.

Paris, December 28, 2019

We salute the workers everywhere in Europe and Oceania whose demands underscore the need of the times to abolish the system of party rule which has become as historically obsolete as the financial oligarchy is superfluous, a drain on society which neither humans nor nature can afford. In 2020, the struggles of the peoples to defeat all attempts to rule with impunity and through police powers in the name of high ideals are sure to make headway.

In India and abroad, protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) continue. In many places, the police are rampaging, looting, killing people and destroying homes. The Indian state has unleashed a campaign of terror to quell the revolt and scare people who are defying its lawlessness. Plans to bring in a register of citizens aim to expropriate from the people what belongs to them by right and to force upon them the need for a piece of paper to prove they are human beings in a society where they have lived since time immemorial and where oral traditions are still dominant. It is a travesty of justice and humanity. The Indian cabinet approved more than a billion dollars for a National Population Register, the first step towards a NRC. It is a win-win for the ruling elite when more than a billion dollars will be handed over to Tata, Ambani, Naryanmurthy or another data company to attack the people. In the meantime, there are videos showing detention centres built for "illegal" people where they are to provide free labour to the big companies as is done in the U.S. Procomm, a company that runs call centres from prisons in the U.S., was being used by businessman Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York City, for his election campaign, until it was exposed. India, like all the countries saddled with the system of so-called representative democracy to keep the people out of power, is past master at using disinformation, deception and fraud as the modus operandi of the ministers and leaders of parties which form the cartel party system. During the first war for Indian independence in 1857, the people of India raised the call: Hum Hain Iske Malik Hindustan Hamara -- We the People are the owners of India. It belongs to us. What they aspired to achieve at that time, they continue to fight for today.

So too, the people of Kashmir are engaging in unprecedented acts of bravery to end the occupation of Indian forces. We salute them as we also salute the Palestinian people and the peoples of all the countries subject to occupation and cruel sanctions which are acts of war in the name of high ideals. May the just cause of the peoples of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others, prevail.

In Canada, this past year has been marked by an advanced consciousness on the part of the working people, Indigenous peoples, youth and women that it is up to them and their collectives to make sure political action is taken to defend the aims of their movements for the realization of their demands. We have seen in even sharper relief the deepening of the crisis of the existing institutions which rule through the use of police or arbitrary prerogative powers on behalf of the oligarchs. The working people have not just seen this but have responded with their own organizing and by speaking in their own name.

Vancouver, January 16, 2019

Looking at the 2019 photo review across Canada that TML Daily has been posting, we can see the growing political resistance of the people to all the attacks of the rich and their governments. The year began with the offensive against the Wet'suwet'en and the response from coast to coast to coast in support of their right to decide what takes place on their territory. Since then, on every front, the battle for democratic renewal is raging. At the heart of it is the affirmation of the right of the working people, the Indigenous peoples, the women, youth and all national minorities and people from all walks of life to a say in the decisions which affect their lives.

The only accomplishment of the ruling class is to further enrich the rich. Its inability and disinterest to tackle the profound problems of the economy and the fact that they have become superfluous is evident in their brutal demand that people must fend for themselves and in the fraud that a healthy economy is measured by the rich getting richer, not by the well-being of society and its members. The basic aim of the financial oligarchy leads it to seize the reins of power directly to tailor domestic and foreign policy to making businesses competitive on the global market and to strive for spheres of influence which it controls, not the peaceful coexistence of nations or the fraternal unity of peoples. It has led to the destruction of the modern nation-state, NATO aggression, conflicts, global poverty, starvation and environmental destruction.

Trois-Rivières rally in solidarity with locked-out Bécancour aluminum workers, May 25, 2019.

But the facts do not end there. This particular historical period is characterized by the fact that all old forms and institutions no longer function while new ones have yet to be created to replace them. This also means that a trial of strength with the ruling class is in the making on the fundamental question of whether or not the path for the progress of society will be opened. The rulers are striving to keep themselves in power, whatever the cost to society, while the people see that governments only fulfill obligations towards the international financial oligarchs. In all earnest, working people nationwide are beginning to tackle the need to change the direction of the economy and make sure the political superstructure looks after the well-being of all.

We are living in difficult times but also exciting times. The face of the New can be seen in the demand of the working class and other working people that society must provide for all.

Let us exchange views with one another, share the highlights of the year's activities and see what plans we can put in place for the coming period. We thank you all for your support in the past year. Most importantly, together we appreciate the contributions each and every one of us makes to the movement for the emancipation of the working class as it fights for peace, freedom and democracy.

On behalf of CPC(M-L), we wish everyone success in their work and pledge to play our role as best we can. We are confident that all of us together are a formidable force which can make the headway the times are calling on us to make.

Fifty Years of the Determined and
Successful Work of CPC(M-L)

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.

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.

Taking Up Social Responsibility in 2020

The new decade brings with it the necessity for working people to take up their individual and collective social responsibility to oppose imperialism. This means in practice to speak out and act in one's own name individually and collectively on the issues and problems facing the people, economy and society, to oppose the ruling elite of the financial oligarchy and defend the people's interests; it means not allowing the rich oligarchs to set the agenda and falsely claim they represent the people in government; and it requires the people to advance the organized movement for democratic renewal and their empowerment.

Speaking in one's own name individually and collectively means in practice that the interests of individuals and collectives must be put on a par and harmonized with the general interests of the society. The challenge of the 21st century is to have fidelity to the relations between humans and humans and humans and nature and what they reveal. Individuals are called on to speak in their own name and defend the collective right to conscience and to deliberate on and decide the matters which concern their lives. The ruling elite give themselves license to attack the people's protest movements and criminalize ideology in the name of high ideals. It must not pass!

The right to conscience is a fundamental right without which all other rights have no meaning. In this regard, working people and their allies condemn with the utmost contempt the defamation of Dr. Dougal MacDonald, a lecturer at the University of Alberta, and the attack on the right to speak and organize initiated by reactionary forces whose aims for society are harmful and must be opposed.

For the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) accountability begins at home, which has been the case since its founding in 1970. Speaking and acting collectively in the name of the Party means as individuals and through the Party's organizations taking measures to defend and strengthen the constant political work and to produce TML Weekly, Workers' Forum and various other publications and engage in political discussions, meetings and demonstrations.

Accountability and social responsibility require that all members and supporters do everything in their power to write, distribute, finance and otherwise participate in defending and building the collective voice of the Party and strengthening its organizations. It also means contributing to making sure all others can also speak in their own names in order to find their bearings under all conditions and circumstances.

Without individuals and their collectives taking up their social responsibilities to resist imperialism, the ruling elite is allowed to run roughshod over the rights that people have by virtue of being human, to perpetuate their anti-people anti-democratic institutions, to dehumanize the natural and social environment, block the development of a modern diversified economy that serves the people and interfere in the sovereign affairs of others in the world on the side of U.S. imperialist regime change, aggression and war.

The conditions in 2020 are calling and challenging working people to play their individual and collective political role to realize their striving for empowerment and democratic renewal so they can control the decisions that affect their lives. This means participating to the best of their abilities both as individuals and collectively in the mass defence and political organizations the people are themselves building.

Taking the Resistance Movement Further in 2020

The people's resistance movement defends the rights of all, including the hereditary rights of the Indigenous peoples; it strives to defend what belongs to working people by right, to increase investments in social programs and humanize the natural and social environment, to fight for democratic renewal and empowerment and stop the governments and state institutions from paying the rich; and fights to make Canada a zone for peace in opposition to the Canadian government's actions on the side of U.S. imperialist aggression and war.

In the face of the anti-social offensive and war agenda of the ruling imperialist elite, the working people have the social responsibility to organize and develop the resistance movement against the actions of the financial oligarchy and take it further. By intensifying the resistance movement, they develop the seamless relation between it and the need to act politically in their own name through political collectives established to achieve aims they set. By engaging in actions with analysis to take the trade union and protest movements further and by building their own political party, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), the working people can advance the movement to affirm their rights.

By taking the resistance movement further, the working people expose the sectarian, disruptive, splittist and self-serving role of the cartel parties of the ruling elite as a real problem for working people that blocks their advance and keeps them out of power. The participating members of the cartel party system of the financial oligarchy vie to seize power while claiming they govern with the consent of the governed. They divert the attention of working people from the need to speak and act in their own name and represent themselves in social and political affairs. The idea that working people have a choice between one party and another through elections has been debunked time and time again. The people want real problems to be solved and the power to do so; they detest the splitting of the movement by cartel parties disinforming the people to get their vote so as to access positions of privilege by claiming to represent the people in government.

Individual workers and their collectives, as they deliberate on their actions, need to pay close attention not to allow the aim of their movement to be put in a secondary position and made subordinate to the narrow aim of the parties of the cartel party system of government to be elected. The movement of working people against the anti-social offensive and imperialist war agenda can be advanced in practical ways by winning victories in actions with analysis using the people's own brains, outlook and thinking to affirm what belongs to them by right.

In 2020, the fiftieth anniversary year of the Party, let everyone take up their individual and collective social responsibilities to realize the aim of the movement!

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