TML Daily

April 4, 2020

CPC(M-L) CELEBRATES ITS
50TH ANNIVERSARY

The Crucial Role Played by the Party Press in the Life of the Party

The headline in Mass Line "There Is Such a Party!" announcing the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) in 1970, continues to ring true today. The announcement in Mass Line is also proof of a Party press at that time, which has been consolidated, year in and year out, ever since. The Party press is crucial to the overall work of the Party.

CPC(M-L) is the only political party in the country to publish regular newspapers, which are the only political affairs publications provided in both French and English and often in other languages. All the work of the Party press is carried out on a volunteer basis and financed by the Party using membership fees and contributions.

The Party's technical and editorial workers are second to none. Basing themselves on the revolutionary principle of providing the highest quality work on time, the members of the technical and editorial staff serve the revolutionary interest to the best of their ability, facing difficulties with courage and determination under all conditions and circumstances. The Party's translation team deserves special mention as well, for it is awesome.

The technical and editorial staff responsible for the Party press is an integral part of the red steel spine that runs through the entire fifty years of Party life. Its particular role is to record the Party's work and inform the people about unfolding events nationally, regionally, locally and internationally in a manner that helps Party members and people find their bearings and make their own contribution to the revolutionary work.

Evidence of the role the Party press has always played is found in the special anniversary issues of TML Daily in photo reviews based on the Party's archival collection. The photo reviews of the Party's history show how, at every step of the way, the Party has taken up the task of organizing the vanguard in the course of mobilizing the masses of people to deal with the concrete conditions of the day, to confront the problems they and society face and resolve them in their favour. The Party press is integral to this work.

The Party press is an organizer, mobilizer and educator. Throughout the Party's history, as events unfold and the concrete conditions in the country and world change, the Party press has consistently carried the Party's analysis of those conditions and presented a line of march and program to deal with those conditions. It has faithfully reported on the results of the Party's work and encouraged Party members and friends to join in.

From its line of march and program and in the course of the practical politics, the Party has made consistent efforts to work out theory to enhance its practice. The analysis, news and commentary carried by the Party press and guided by Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought recognize the relation between theory and practice. Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement and without a revolutionary movement there can be no revolutionary theory.

The work to analyze the conditions by establishing our own reference point breaks the stranglehold of the ruling elite on thinking and action. It smashes the attempts of the state and its news agencies to deprive the people of their own thinking, outlook and organization. The members of the technical and editorial staff of the Party press are proud contributors to ensuring this takes place.

Right from the beginning, the Party fought for its right to be and to speak, and for the right of all Canadians to be and to speak. The Party defied the state attacks and repression, and the Party press played a crucial role in this fight. The Party did not appeal to the ruling class to be "nice" and to let it be; no, the Party mobilized the people, especially the youth, to affirm the right to be a communist and revolutionary in the heartland of imperialism and to have a collective of communists organized within their own Party with its own voice and institutions. The state carried out over 2,500 arrests and jailings of Party members and supporters, with many of the attacks aimed at stopping the communists from selling their newspapers on street corners, and demonstrating and organizing.

But none of this could prevent the affirmation of the Party and its members' right to be communist! And throughout these difficulties, the Party press continued to produce in two and more languages, day after day, and distribute its material from coast to coast. It provided the communists and fighting forces with unity of thinking, thwarted the disruptive and divisive attempts of the rich and their agencies to sow discord and confusion, and gave confidence and organization to the people's striving for empowerment.

The formative period in those early years of overt severe repression, including the War Measures Act in 1970, consolidated the fundamental position of the Party of relying on the working class and its allies to resolve the problems of whatever the actual conditions demand and to intensify efforts to build the Party under all circumstances.

The Party press has always mobilized youth and workers to take up the work of the Party and its press, and become members of the editorial and technical staff. The Party press bases itself on those who volunteer to do the work, not on ready-made experts. In this way the working people become experts in their own right. No matter what knowledge they bring with them, so long as their fidelity lies with the revolutionary aim, they "learn warfare through warfare." This means that the Party press takes the best society has given rise to and puts it at the disposal of the working class and its allies throughout the country, not the financial oligarchy and its self-serving cause of exploitation and regression.

The Party has established and continues to build a technical foundation second to none, modernizing itself based on the latest scientific and technological achievements. It strives to ensure the independent politics of the working class for which they need to have their independent voice and organization. The Party's continuing work to open a path forward and build the new vindicates the bold decision taken fifty years ago to pay first-rate attention to making sure the Party press had everything it requires to flourish. Comrade Bains founded the Party press and the Party's leadership at every level pays first rate attention to making sure it flourishes and builds sustained links between the Party and the class.

By 1985, the conditions were changing rapidly with the development of neo-liberal global free trade. The Party analyzed that no force could continue to act in the old way and it expanded the technical base of the Party so it was capable of handling a mass Party press and mass non-Party press. It put at its disposal the necessary Party organizational force, the enlightenment movement based on modern communism and the human factor/social consciousness this nation-building project required.

The mass Party and non-Party press are an integral part of modern nation-building and the strengthening of the independent politics of the working class. Such a press has been built with the efforts of Party members and supporters led directly by the Central Committee and its National Executive. Today, the technical and editorial staff is a mighty collective force, capable of carrying out the work the Party entrusts to it.

Long Live the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)!
Long Live the Party Press!
Let Us Together Continue to Strengthen and Consolidate the Mass Party Press
and Mass Non-Party Press so as to Contribute to Turning Our
Historic Successes into Historic Victory!

April 12, 1970 issue of Mass Line announces the founding of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) on March 31, 1970, with this bold headline.

Issues of the Red Patriot, the official organ of the Communist Party of Quebec (Marxist-Leninist). The issue on the left was published in November 1970 under the conditions of the War Measures Act.

Celebration in 1972 of the first anniversary of the People's Canada Daily News Release.

People's Canada Daily News, came out daily in English and French, this issue carries the news of the Native Peoples' Caravan, September 1974.

The Party press produces books and periodicals required by the work.

The lead article of the May 29, 1975 issue of People's Canada Daily News, later published as a pamphlet, dealt with the role of the Canadian state in the racist attacks on the East Indian community.

Lok Awaz, the newspaper of the East Indian community, was published in Punjabi and English, with some issues also produced in Hindi. The newspaper reported on the organizing work done against state-organized racist attacks. The Punjabi issue above is from May 1974,
Volume 1 of the publication.

The Party press carries news of the founding of the Peoples' Front Against Racist and
Fascist Violence in Vancouver, November 22, 1980.

Celebration of 15 years of the Party press held in Toronto, September 1, 1985.

Celebration of the successes in building the mass Party press, Toronto, August 31, 1986.

The work of building the Mass Party and non-Party press began in 1985, with New Magazine beginning publication in 1987. Other publications published during this period included New Voice, Today/Tomorrow, New Weekly, New Montreal Weekly, New Hamilton Weekly, Youth Today, Aboriginal Youth Today and others.

CPC(M-L) celebrates two years of tremendous advance in the building of the mass Party press,
January 1, 1987.

Celebrating the 2nd anniversary of the publication of New Weekly Magazine, March 23, 1989.

Celebration of 19 years of the Party press, Toronto, August 1989.

As part of the work of building the Party and mass Party press, in 1990 a new four-colour press is commissioned in Toronto. This highlights the importance the Party places on having its own independent means of production, in both installing the press, and ensuring it has the means to put its work on a sound footing.

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

May 29, 1992, the New Hamilton Weekly celebrates its fifth anniversary.

The Party press publishes the reports from the Party's congresses and other important documents. Shown above are the reports of the 5th, 6th and 7th Congresses.

Issues of Discussion, a review of contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought,
published by the Party in 1994-95.

As part of the work of elaborating a modern definition of rights four pamphlets were produced in 1995. The fourth was Affirming Minority Rights.

Through the pages of its press, the Party discusses and mobilizes both in Quebec and in the rest of Canada for a People's Yes! vote in the 1995 Quebec referendum, as a starting point for the renewal of relations between Quebec, the Indigenous nations and the rest of Canada.

Voice of the Youth, the publication of the Youth Organizing Project and These Days are produced during this period.

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. TML Daily in print edition is distributed widely in the city shutdowns from 1995-98. At the St. Catharines Day of Action (above), May 1, 1998, it seemed everyone had a copy.

Modern Communism: Communist Party of Canada Marxist-Leninist was published in 1996; the new edition of Necessity for Change in 1998; and There Is Such a Party in 2000 on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Party.

Thinking About the Sixties, by Hardial Bains, is launched in Halifax, April 20, 2005, after its release at the Party's 35th anniversary celebration in Toronto earlier that month.

January 2011 edition of Forum Ouvrier comes off the Party press.

The print edition of Workers' Forum/Forum ouvrier, the newspaper of the Workers' Centre
of CPC(M-L).

Celebration of 44th anniversary of the Party press and 29th anniversary of the mass Party press, August 23, 2014.

Issues of the Party's newspaper Democratic Renewal are widely circulated during the 2015 federal election. Photos from Calgary (left) and Hamilton.

The Party now publishes its newspapers online at cpcml.ca in English and French, including TML Weekly, TML Daily, Workers' Forum and Renewal Update, as well as regional publications as required by the work.

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

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Celebration in 1972 of the first anniversary of the People's Canada Daily News Release. People's Canada Daily News, came out daily in English and French, this issue carries the news of the Native Peoples' Caravan, September 1974.