April 3, 2020 - No. 4

CPC(M-L) CELEBRATES ITS
50th ANNIVERSARY

The Indelible Impact of CPC(M-L)
on the Canadian Polity

- Anna Di Carlo -

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), the members, supporters, friends and fellow travellers of the Party can look back with great pride at the historic struggles and uninterrupted work they have carried out and sustained to organize the Canadian working class and broad sections of the people. At every stage of its existence, CPC(M-L) has taken up those tasks that were critical to opposing the retrogressive measures and pressures of the moribund capitalist ruling class and opening society's path to progress.

Notwithstanding the relentless campaign of the ruling elite to convince everyone that CPC(M-L) is irrelevant, "fringe" and of interest only to the radical few, the work of the Party has had an indelible impact on the Canadian polity. In many regards, it can be said that Canada would be a different country were it not for the existence and leadership of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) at critical times in foiling the efforts of the ruling elite to impose retrogressive qualities onto the society and the thinking of the people.

Hundreds of thousands of Canadians who have come into contact with the work of the Party have had their spirits and outlooks lifted by the awareness that there is an organized political force in Canada that persists in proclaiming that there is an alternative to the current state of affairs. Their spirits have been lifted by the prospective horizon of a new society based on the recognition of the human rights of all, where the natural and social resources of the country are not squandered for the benefit of the few but put into the service of the entire working class and people.

Tens of thousands of Canadians have participated in the campaigns of the Party, such as the broad work to recognize the rights of the Quebec nation and Indigenous peoples, as well as to define minority rights and human rights on a modern basis, as in the historic work to defeat the racist Green Paper on immigration and the efforts of the Canadian government to blame the people for racism and whitewash the role of the state in the promotion of racism. The campaign to defeat the Charlottetown Accord was another which involved the entire polity to take a non-partisan approach to modernizing the Canadian democracy and end the 19th century British colonial constitutional arrangements upon which the current anti-people democracy is based.

Tens of thousands of young people have participated in struggles on various fronts bolstered by the ideo-political work of the Party, leading to transformations that cannot be reversed in the Canadian collective consciousness. The demands of the youth and students under the influence of the Party guide today's teachers and education workers to boldly proclaim that education as a right, not a privilege. So too on the front of health care, the Party has always gone to the heart of the matter: health care is a right, not a privilege. This is confirmed by current unfolding events. The right to health care must be affirmed in the form of making sure Canadians have enough doctors, nurses and properly provisioned health facilities readily at hand. The treatment of health professionals and workers must come first in the plans of governments. The right to health care must be enshrined in a modern constitution and not permitted to be reduced to the distribution of financial resources in self-serving ways. Privatization of health care and seniors' care which reduces human beings to "clients" who must enhance profit-making should be banned.

It is the Party's mass democratic method of work, of maximum political mobilization and reliance on the working class and people to play their role, that transforms the Canadian polity. Today the quality of being human means that all human beings must lay the claims which they must so as to humanize the natural and social environment. The most basic human right is the right to participate in making the decisions which affect our lives.

Today, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) stands as the indispensable political organization of the Canadian working class and people because its striving to humanize both the natural and social environment is based on the mass democratic method which brings forward the modern democratic personality. On the basis of this method, CPC(M-L) practices internal democracy and extends this to all spheres of endeavour. As it has at every stage of its work over the past five decades, it has taken up the task that is most crucial to opening the path for society's progress by involving the people in making their own history. At a time when the very word "politics" has been disgraced, CPC(M-L) honourably practices the conception of a political party that serves the purpose of involving the people in decision-making and participating in the political affairs of the society so that decisions favour the people and not the private interests of the rich. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is committed to putting everything in place to achieve the transformations Canada needs. Canada will then be fit to play a role as a champion of peace, freedom and democracy internationally as well.

There Is Such a Party! All out to support it, build it and finance it so that together we can turn things around in our favour!

From the time of its founding CPC(M-L) has run candidates in federal elections. In 1973, Hardial Bains runs as the candidate for the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada in the Toronto riding of Eglinton in a by-election, where he also runs in the 1974 federal election.

People's Canada Daily News popularizes the Native Peoples' Caravan which takes the Indigenous peoples' struggle to regain their land and hereditary rights to Ottawa at the opening of Parliament in September 1974. Across the country the Party participates in mobilizing for the success of the caravan.

Demonstration in Vancouver in support of the national liberation struggle of the Indochinese peoples. From its founding, CPC(M-L) is active in providing leadership and organization to the people's opposition to U.S. imperialist crimes, and Canadian involvement in them, from the seventies to today.

CPC(M-L) organizes meetings across Canada during 1975, to mobilize opposition to the federal government's Green Paper on Immigration that aims to divide the Canadian people on a racist basis. Photos (top to bottom) from Vancouver, Ottawa and Kitchener-Waterloo.

Rally in Toronto and meeting against the political persecution of communist and progressive forces, March 1977, following a police raid on the Party's Workers' Centre in Kitchener-Waterloo. 

Rally in Toronto organized by the People's Front/East Indian Defence Committee and the West Indian People's Organization against state racist and fascist violence, March 19, 1977. Ensuring that national minorities are organized to defend their rights and the rights of all is an important part of CPC(M-L)'s work since its founding.

Hardial Bains addresses the Third Annual Convention of the East Indian Defence Committee in Vancouver and joins in discussion the President of the EIDC, Bela Singh Thandi, and other conference participants, December 31, 1977. The EIDC was founded in late 1973 to mobilize against state-organized racist attacks and attempts to split the polity on a racist basis.


Desh Bhagat Temple was inaugurated in Toronto on January 7. 1978, one of three such institutions established in that period as part of building the independent institutions needed by the working class.

The Party and its organizations spearheaded Canadian Youth Festivals, which began in August 1977. The festivals involved youth across the country in the development of progressive culture that addressed the issues facing the people. From its inception, CPC(M-L) called on the youth to be organizers in their own right and to fight for a bright future. The Second All-Canada Youth Festival (photo above) took place in 1979.


Party leader Hardial Bains speaks at an election meeting held in Winnipeg during the January-February 1980 federal election, in which the Party runs worker politicians as part of the work for political empowerment.

Meeting held in Toronto, May 18, 1980, during the first Quebec referendum as part of mobilizing in Quebec and the rest of Canada to renew the constitution and political process. The meeting starts from the stand that the Quebec nation is sovereign and its right to secede must be recognized. It opposes the bourgeois distortions that reduce the matter to one of language and hysteria about a threat to Canada in order to split the people.

The Peoples' Front Against Racist and Fascist Violence is founded in Vancouver, November 22, 1980 as a broad front of the Canadian people. The organization opposed attacks by the Canadian state on progressive organizations such as CPC(M-L), state-organized attacks on national minorities that attempted to sow divisions on a racist basis and imperialist war preparations.



The founding meeting of the central council of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition is held in Toronto in the early 1980s (top) and the Quebec organization participates in Montreal demonstration. From 1970 to the present, the Party and its Workers' Centre pay first-rate attention to organizing the workers and intervening in the workers' movement so that it can achieve its aims.



The Party leads in the founding of the Democratic Women's Union on March 8, 1981 in Vancouver, to organize women to play their leading role in the emancipation of the working class, the necessary pre-condition for their own affirmation.

May Day demonstration in Montreal, May 1, 1982. On May Day the Party leads the workers in summing up their successes over the past year and setting their course for the next.

The Fifth International Anti-Fascist Anti-Imperialist Youth Camp is held in Saint-Donat, Quebec, July 1982.

The Party from its founding stands with the Palestinian people against Israeli occupation. Demonstration in Toronto, September 25, 1982 against Israeli atrocities in Sabra and Shatila.

The Democratic Women's Union of Canada holds its 1st Congress in Montreal, March 10, 1984.

International Women's Day demonstration in Montreal, March 10, 1984.

The Party participates in Vancouver demonstration, April 28, 1984,
against the testing of U.S. cruise missiles in Canada.

Quebec City demonstration organized by the People's Front against  warships visiting
Canadian ports, July 7, 1984.

Anti-war demonstration in Ottawa against President Reagan's visit, March 1985.

People's Front/EIDC holds its 16th National Convention in Toronto, April 15, 1990.

National leader of CPC(M-L) in discussion with the youth, August 30, 1992. Discussions were also held at this time with women and workers.

Forum on democratic renewal in Toronto, September 5, 1992 shortly after the Charlottetown Accord was reached by the provincial and federal governments. The Charlottetown Accord is a deal to amend the constitution reached behind closed doors by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, cabinet ministers, and provincial and territorial leaders in Charlottetown on August 28, 1992, to further concentrate decision-making power in the hands of the Prime Minister and Premiers.

CPC(M-L) plays a leading role in the Canadian and Quebec peoples' No! vote to the October 26, 1992 referendum on the Charlottetown Accord. As part of the work of involving Canadians in discussing what kind of constitutional changes were required the three above pamphlets are produced.


Following the Canadian people's veto of the Charlottetown Accord, a Canada-wide campaign is launched to continue the discussion on what kind of renewed constitution and political process is required. Above, Hardial Bains speaks at the University of Ottawa in 1993.

The work of the Party to involve Canadians in renewing the political process to empower the people results in the founding of the Canadian Renewal Party on April 24, 1993.

Following its founding, the constitutional convention of the Canadian Renewal Party is held in Ottawa, September 11-12, 1993.

This conference in Ottawa, March 13, 1994, is part of the ongoing work to oppose the stepped up neo-liberal anti-social offensive taken up by governments at all levels in the 1990s.


  A conference is held in Toronto March 24-25, 1995, as part of the work of elaborating a modern definition of rights. Four pamphlets on rights are produced the same year.

The Party pays first-rate attention to the youth and the necessity to provide them with an outlook that serves their interests. Above, Hardial Bains meets with the youth in Ottawa in December 1996.

The Party's program Stop Paying the Rich -- Increase Funding for Social Programs! is elaborated in the course of its participation and leadership in the movement against the anti-social offensive of the Harris government in Ontario, including city shutdowns from 1995-1998. Photos from (top to bottom) Windsor, St. Catharines, Kingston and Ottawa.

Across the country the Party participates in actions against the NATO-led aggression against Yugoslavia. Photo above from May Day 1999 action in Vancouver.

Youth Organizing Project and Party contingents participate in actions against the meeting of the Organization of American States (OAS) in Windsor, June 4, 2000.  Canada uses the meeting to advocate for the OAS to adopt its “Human Security Agenda” to legitimize interference in the affairs of sovereign nations in Latin America and the Caribbean under the guise of
"putting people first."

CPC(M-L) contingent participates in the Quebec City demonstration against the Third Summit of the Americas, April 20-22, 2001. Activists reject the militarization of Quebec City and the summit's neo-liberal agenda that seeks to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas and the "Inter-American Democratic Charter" to promote imperialist values and provide mechanisms for foreign intervention in the name of "multiparty action in defence of democracy."

The Party holds a public rally in Toronto in support of the anti-colonial struggle of the Puerto Rican people and to demand the U.S. Navy get out of Vieques.

The Youth Organizing Project holds youth camps in Gatineau, under the leadership of the Party, where participants organize themselves to ensure the all-sided success of the camps, including discussions of matters of concern to the youth.

Windsor conference on the participation of youth in the electoral process, March 13, 2004. Participants include many youth candidates who ran in the 2003 Ontario election on a platform of political renewal. The conference sums up that process and prepares them to intervene in the 2004 federal election.

Youth with the Marxist-Leninist Party Club at the University of Windsor are joined by community members at a picket they hold on June 1, 2004, during the federal election, against the U.S. ambassador's visit to Windsor.

Party contingent in an anti-war demonstration, November 30, 2004, opposing the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Ottawa and demanding an end to the war in Afghanistan.

International Women's Day, Montreal, March 8, 2005.

Contingent of Party youth in the Windsor Labour Day parade, September 5, 2005.

Hamilton steelworkers rally in Ottawa, September 26, 2005, as part of their fight against the fraud of CCAA bankruptcy protection. The Party renders important assistance to the workers throughout this struggle.

Party contingent in Montreal anti-war demonstration, March 18, 2006, on the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.


A contingent of land defenders from the Six Nations on the Grand marches with steelworkers in Hamilton's Labour Day parade, September 4, 2006. Steelworkers and activists of CPC(M-L) are among the forces that stand with them in their land reclamation in the Caledonia area.

A Party contingent in a Toronto demonstration standing with the Struggle of the Palestinian people to end the occupation and the siege on Gaza, January 10, 2009.


Conference on nation-building is held in Hamilton, May 1, 2010.

Contingents of CPC(M-L) and the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization participate in the protests against the G20 summit meeting in Toronto, June 26, 2010.

Political parties which are excluded from the official leadership debates during the 2011 federal election hold a public forum in Toronto, April 23, 2011, under the banner "For an Informed Vote."


May Day demonstration on Parliament Hill called by the Hamilton steelworkers Local 1005 on the eve of the May 2, 2011 federal election gives the call for the working class to defeat the Harper government and the neo-liberal anti-social agenda it represents.


Workers from across Quebec, Ontario and around the world rally with the locked-out Rio Tinto Alma workers, recognizing that this fight against nation-wrecking is also their fight. CPC(M-L)'s Workers' Centre plays its role to ensure the Alma workers' struggle is widely known and supported by other workers with concrete financial aid.


The Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec (PMLQ) takes part throughout the Quebec student strike in spring 2012, for the right to education and against fee hikes by the Charest government. The May 22 demonstration (above) marks 100 days of strike action and rejects the government's imposition of a special law suspending civil liberties and criminalizing their just struggle.

Steelworkers organized in Local 1005 in Hamilton, celebrate ten years of their Thursday meetings, June 13, 2013. Party activists, including Local 1005 President Rolf Gerstenberger, play an important role to establish the Thursday meetings as a venue for the workers to discuss their concerns and inform themselves about important economic and political developments and how to intervene.

The PMLQ participates in a rally in Montreal, May 19, 2014, celebrating the 1837-38 uprising of the Quebec Patriots, whose nation-building project finds expression today in the Quebec people's fight to exercise their sovereignty. Throughout its existence, the Party has consistently elaborated the need for a modern Quebec and defended Quebeckers from attempts by the ruling circles to isolate and denigrate them.

Picket in Vancouver December 17, 2014, as the Cuban solidarity movement across Canada and internationally celebrates the liberation of the Cuban Five. Pickets that are held monthly in Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa continue with the demand that the U.S. end its illegal blockade of Cuba.

Demonstration on Parliament Hill March 14, 2015 is one of numerous actions that take place across Canada and Quebec in early 2015 demanding the withdrawal of the Harper government's Bill C-51, the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015. Through the work of its activists and Renewal Update the Party provides orientation to the movement.

The Party runs candidates in the 2015 election on a platform to empower the people and stands with workers across Canada in calling for the defeat of the Harper government and the neo-liberal agenda it represents. Photos above from Windsor and Montreal.

Conference on the Future of Quebec is organized April 10, 2016 in Montreal by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec to discuss the key problems of nation-building today.

Discussion organized by the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L) in Calgary, April 23, 2016.

Conference on the modern conception of rights held in Vancouver, June 25, 2016.

Windsor MLPC meeting, October 19, 2016, one of a number of discussions in different cities under the banner All Out for People's Empowerment!

Conference in Montreal, May 7, 2017, deals with the conception of rights in the Canadian constitution on the occasion of the 180th anniversary of the 1837-38 rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada.

Party activists in Montreal (left) and Vancouver  organize against the Trudeau government's passage of Bill C-59, which takes further measures against the right to conscience introduced by the Harper government in Bill C-51.

Actions across the country denounce Canada's participation in the attempted coup in Venezuela and demand Canada get out of the illegitimate Lima Group. Photo from Ottawa demonstration February 4, 2019 outside Lima Group meeting.


Meeting in Montreal, March 31, 2019 on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of NATO, one of a series of such events organized by CPC(M-L) across Canada, highlights the opposition of the Quebec and Canadian people to this aggressive alliance since its founding. They reiterate the Party's call for Canada to get out of NATO, for NATO to be dismantled and to Make Canada a Zone for Peace.

The Animal Protection Party of Canada and the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (MLPC)  co-sponsor a discussion on Canadian foreign policy during the 2019 federal election.


During the 2019 federal election, the leader of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada participates in a youth townhall where, without the candidates of the cartel parties present, discussion takes place on the concerns of the people.

Across Canada, Party activists participate in the Global climate strikes held throughout 2019, under the banner Humanize the Natural and Social Environment. Shown above is the climate march in Montreal, September 27, 2019, in which 500,000 people take part.

International Day of Action is organized January 25 to say No! to U.S. imperialist aggression against Iran. Emergency actions began January 4, 2020, when the U.S. assassinated Iranian military leaders. Party contingents participate in actions across Canada. Above photo from Edmonton action on January 25, 2020.

Through the pages of the Party's publications and in actions across the country, CPC(M-L) stood with the Wet'suwet'en people in their assertion of their sovereignty and rights, including their right to say No! to developments on their lands. Photos from Vancouver (top) and Toronto.

(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)

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