Every
year, on August 24, party youth join representatives of the Central
Committee and, together with members of the local party organization,
they pay respects at the Party Memorial in Beechwood Cemetery. The
Tribute of the Youth to Comrade Bains, delivered on August 24, on the
occasion of the 25th anniversary of his loss, on August 24, 1997,
follows.
Today's youth organized under
the leadership of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), pay
profound tribute to their ever-present leader, teacher and guide,
Comrade Hardial Bains who passed away on this day, 25 years ago. We are
joined in this salute by the youth of the '90s generation who are now
educating us in the conditions of today as Comrade Bains taught them to
do.
The youth of the '90s had the good fortune to
work with Comrade Bains directly at a young age. He taught them to
unite the people in action on the basis of consciously participating in
individual acts of finding out to open society's path to progress on
that basis. This is the example we follow and learn from. It is by
acting consciously, working as a collective, learning together and
taking up social responsibility that the revolutionary youth of today
are guided to acquire a world outlook consistent with the demands of
the times, as Comrade Bains always guided them to do. To humanize the
natural and social environment, our fidelity is to the relations
between humans and humans and humans and nature and to what they
reveal, which is how to empower ourselves each step of the road we have
taken.
Comrade Bains was himself
schooled and disciplined by the mass struggle of the people of his
native Punjab at the young age of eight or nine when he engaged in
revolutionary actions of the people striving for Indian independence.
He experienced the treachery of the British and their servants in India
who made sure the people could not fulfill their aspirations for
liberation, freedom and democracy based on a system of rule which
empowered them, not those who took over the mantle of the British Raj
in 1947 when they partitioned India and in 1950 when they imposed a
Constitution on India designed to keep the people out of power.
Disciplined by the movement and its inherent demands, first in
India and then Canada where he arrived in 1959, Comrade Bains
profoundly understood the need for a revolutionary political party
capable of educating the educators and winning the working class and
people to bring about their own emancipation. The necessity to build
such a Party and the kind of Party which is needed, we also learn from
Comrade Bains. We therefore carry out all our actions on the basis of
organization and the mass ideological and political mobilization
required to achieve success.
On this occasion, we
reiterate what the communist youth said to Comrade Bains in the
Farewell Message they delivered at his funeral, held on August 30, 1997
at the Convention Centre in Gatineau, Quebec, the city he resided in
and where he worked with the youth during the last decade of his life.
The Tribute of the Youth addressed Comrade Bains directly, pledging
that the youth would follow his lead by dedicating their greatest
energies to the struggle of the younger generation for the world which
is striving to come into being, as he did throughout his life.
Comrade
Bains, we had the great honour of closely working with you and although
only for a short time, it seems as if we have known you for all our
lives. Such was your intense passion for the youth! Such was your
patience, generosity and warmth! Such was your dedication to assisting
the youth and all those who shared your resolve to open the door for
the progress of society!
Comrade Bains, you are
gone but your words and deeds live on and comfort us in our profound
grief. "Do not shed a tear," you said shortly before you were to fall
asleep forever. "March on!" Let us follow this advice and turn our
sorrow into strength. Comrade Bains, we will march on!
"The
past only has beauty if it exists in the form of the present, and the
revolution only has relevance if it finds its adherents from one
generation to the next." We will never forget your
inspirational words, dear Comrade Bains. You will always be remembered
as the founder of The Internationalists and the
Canadian Youth and Student Movement in the sixties. It is true, the
struggles that lie ahead will be momentous, but thanks to the
revolutionary traditions that you founded in Canada, the future of the
youth shines brighter than ever. Step by step, under the experienced
leadership of the Party, we are preparing for the revolutionary storms
that glimmer on the horizon.
Comrade Bains, your
life and work will live on forever. Today we are a small force in the
same way that you and your comrades were a small force in 1962-63. But
this is still the epoch of imperialism and proletarian revolution and
the retreat of revolution is as certain to turn into flow as the sun
will rise tomorrow. This is what dialectics teaches us. Your life and
work will live on forever and your name will be spoken by millions of
workers, women and youth who will come to know of your immeasurable
contribution to humanity's forward march. In 1967 you declared: "This
great humanity has said enough and has started to move forward!"
Today, we are marching forward; tomorrow humanity will join in.
You can be sure that in the struggles to come your spirit will
always be with us. We will carry on the glorious struggle for socialism
and communism, guided by the proletarian world outlook, and transform
the success of revolution in the 20th century into its final victory.
As you told us in January, "As young people, let everyone know
your stand through your revolutionary actions. Already, you have made
great headway. You did not have your study groups before. Now you have
them. You did not have your Voice of Youth before.
Now you have it. Go on like this until the time you have revolution. It
is at that time that you will speak out with utmost happiness and joy
-- Hurrah! We have now acquired our world outlook! And you will declare
to the world: The world is ours."
All
Glory to the Life and Work of Comrade Hardial Bains! We
Will March On! Long Live the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist)!
An afternoon with the
youth, Toronto, August 30, 1992
The work of
Hardial Bains, founder and leader of the Communist Party of Canada
(Marxist-Leninist), with the youth of the '90s generation was
considerable. He always made it a priority to speak with the youth,
mobilize them and provide them with the kind of education which helped
them cope with their reality.
As part of the
generation of youth of the 1990s who had the honour of joining the work
to organize youth and students under the leadership of Hardial, I have
many fond memories. One of them is the work we did when Comrade Bains
led us on how to organize an important conference on the theme: The
Future Belongs to the Youth. A preparatory meeting was held
in the Party offices in Gatineau. Youth attended from different parts
of Canada and Quebec. That meeting which set the organizing work for
the conference was a turning point in my own life and the lives of many
others who attended or who joined the work it set. Comrade Bains
inspired us to be in the forefront of the struggle to open the door for
the progress of society.
Comrade Bains addressed
the Preparatory Meeting to organize the Conference: The
Future Belongs to the Youth December 1996.
He made it clear that the problems we faced as youth were not
ours or of our own making, but were inherent to the existing society.
Therefore, to address these problems, he pointed out that we had to
address the society itself. It is in the changing of the society that
these problems can be solved, Comrade Bains explained. This, he said,
would give rise to new problems. Without problems to solve there is no
life, he used to say, but make sure the problems are of your own
making, not those which are dumped on you and stifle you.
Putting
things in this way it was clear to us that it was vital that we put our
energies towards changing the society itself rather than just railing
against this or that person or bad policy and the practice of those who
govern over us which we didn't agree with. This meant that as youth we
had to take up building a bright future for ourselves by empowering
ourselves in the present.
Looking back, the title
of that conference we organized was very important: The
Future Belongs to the Youth -- and it is up to us
to make it a future of our own making. It is not a matter of just
taking over what already exists and trying to tweak it or just fit in
to a status quo that we know is unjust. This is huge when one considers
what we were taught in school -- that the youth are the future
which means they have to make the right choices in high school or else
their future will suck and they only have themselves to blame. It might
be the right courses, the right career, the right sports, volunteering
activities, etc., but the aim is to fit in and find a place within the
structures which exist "if you want to amount to anything."
Comrade
Bains and the Party set us straight -- we are not the problem and it's
not a matter of fixing ourselves so our future is good. We
must change the society itself so that our future is ours.
At that meeting, we
set out with Comrade Bains and the Party on a path to hold a National
Conference of Youth and Students the following year by establishing a
preparatory committee which would take charge of the organizing. All
kinds of things arose out of that decision such as how do we popularize
the conference, what will its agenda be, who should be invited, who
will speak, and so on. It was in the solving of these problems in the
course of being in the forefront of the political battles at that time
that we learned together. Comrade Bains gave us the framework so that
we could work as a collective, learn together and take up our social
responsibility. These are the principles of the Youth Organizing
Project (YOP) adopted by Youth for Democratic Renewal which are
inscribed on their banner today.
When Comrade Bains
passed away a year later it was a tremendous loss to us the youth, to
the Party, to the country and for the revolutionary movement. However,
he gave us this Party, these principles and an outlook which has as its
central aim the flourishing of the human person to its fullest
potential under all conditions and circumstances, no matter how
difficult or bleak they may seem at the time.
We held the
national conference as decided, bringing together youth from all over
Canada and Quebec and even internationally. From there the Youth
Organizing Project started organizing YOP camps, many in the Gatineau
Hills, as regular convergences of youth and students from across Canada
and with contingents of youth from countries with which we had
established bonds of friendship and common work. Today we have many
projects and even important infrastructure to build on. We are now
defining new projects consistent with the needs of the youth and
students today as they strive to build a bright future for themselves
by humanizing the natural and social environment.
Youth camps were
organized in the Gatineau hills by the Youth Organizing Project.
I would like to end with a quote from that meeting held to
establish the preparatory committee for the National Conference, from
the keynote speech that Comrade Bains delivered. He said:
The
past only has beauty if it exists in the form of the present, and the
revolution only has relevance if it finds its adherents from one
generation to the next. Our getting together here today is the coming
together of the generation of the nineties along the sure footsteps of
the generation of the sixties, on the basis of the great exploits of
the peoples who rose against imperialism, fascism and all reaction and
on the road of the Great October Revolution. We have gathered here
today to make one decision, a decision which seems so ordinary and
simple. Yet, this decision to establish the Preparatory Committee for
the National Youth and Students' Conference will have far-reaching
consequences for decades to come. This decision will have in its fold
all the decisions which will be made to pave the road of revolution for
the next generation.
To the new
generation of youth who are taking up this work on their own terms
under today's conditions, we trust that our experiences inspired by
Comrade Bains and the Party can assist you as together we take up the
cause of creating a new society where you don't have to "fit in" but,
instead, it is the society which is made fit for all human beings
without exception.
One of the most important
features of the work of Youth for Democratic Renewal (YDR) is how we
deal with the fact that the youth and students are presented with a
very definite situation. The question is posed: What must the youth and
students do to secure their future at this time? In other words, the
youth are organized by the very task emerging out of the concrete
conditions. They are not organized according to some sectarian
principles imposed on the situation by some would-be revolutionaries or
reformers.
By dealing with the actual conditions of
the youth and students, and by posing the question "What Next?" young
people are expressing their opinions to one another. There are some
youth and students who are already organized with very definite ideas
guiding their work. There are other young people who are looking
towards the YDR for leadership and organization. There are those who
just want to participate in work or actions. What brings them together
and unites them is their resolve to deal with the concrete conditions
facing the youth and students and to find ways to open the path for
their work.
Sectarianism in modern times is the
most reactionary thing there is. Every sectarian cares only about the
well-being of their own sect, and subordinates the well-being of all to
it. The real world tells the youth that what is needed is to
subordinate all organizations and their work to the success of the work
to open the path forward for the youth and students. The Youth
Organizing Project (YOP) Camps and other activities linked to the work
of Youth for Democratic Renewal, including the participation in
political affairs during elections, have only one consideration: to
involve all youth and students to open a path for themselves in order
to secure their future. This imparts to this work its most progressive
character.
Youth and students who participate in
YDR work and activities and YOP camps are called on to work out their
own opinions beforehand. This means that events are used to deal with
the problems of organizing to achieve success, and not whether this
person's or that group's opinion is right or wrong. The youth cannot
afford to lose their focus, their aim in getting together which is to
organize the events they decide to carry out. All participants are
called on to contribute their creative energies to the success of this
work.
Youth for Democratic
Renewal is not just an organization. It is also a way of looking at
things and doing them. All participants are called upon not only to
implement the decisions, but also to participate in arriving at them.
The entire work of arriving at decisions and implementing them places
the participants in the position of being both decision-makers and
decision-implementers. YDR and the YOP principles and methods of work
truly place everyone in a position of equality and leadership. These
are:
Learning Together Working As a
Collective Taking Up Social Responsibility
The
youth face conditions that are most destructive to their economic and
spiritual well-being. Managers regularly demand that the youth speed up
at work, yet all the while they must remain eternally grateful to have
jobs! In other words, they are forced to submit not only to economic
exploitation but also to the capitalist dictate: Do not think of
anything else except "life" within this system. For all intents and
purposes, these youth feel as if they are on the margins of society and
life, which is materially and spiritually devastating.
Youth organize picket
against the glorification of Nazism, Ottawa, August 21, 2021.
As if this were not enough, their concerns are trivialized by
those who speak about their oppression not as an occasion to work for
the creation of a new society, which would guarantee a secure future
for them, but to harp at them to aspire to having a bourgeois life
minus all the inconveniences that go along with it.
For
the youth to secure a future, they must fashion a profound life for
themselves by being fully involved in creating that new life. It is
this life of struggle and organizing that will place them at the
centre-stage of all developments and provide them with the wherewithal
to change the situation.
Youth for Democratic
Renewal is one such prospect. The working class youth must be in the
forefront along with the student youth in building Youth for Democratic
Renewal as an indispensable tool for the success of their work.
In 1996, Hardial Bains, with comradely affection, wrote a
letter to the youth who took up the project of publishing Voice
of Youth. Congratulating them on their initiative under the
leadership of the Party, he wrote:
"Every new
generation of youth has to learn to take hold of the affairs of the
society from the older generation. This is certainly the case with the
present generation of young people. But what will they learn and from
whom? Will the new generation of youth merely take hold of the
capitalist status quo and hope for the best? Or will it actually create
a society capable of opening a path for the progress of the society?
The younger generation can guarantee a future only if the path for the
progress of society is opened.
"It is quite
clear that the youth will have to learn not just to take over from the
older generation, but specifically from that particular older
generation that has engaged itself throughout its lifetime in opening
the path for the progress of society. Such learning involves work, and
very specific work for the progress of society. Your decision to
publish Voice of Youth is a step in the right
direction.
"While remaining loyal to the task of
opening the path for the progress of society, youth must be extremely
militant and broad-minded. Some will decide to learn Contemporary
Marxist-Leninist Thought and join CPC(M-L), but they must not permit
any divisions in the youth collective on this basis. They must forge
the unity of the youth as a collective for the progress of society."
Those who want to become Marxist-Leninist, and more and more
are coming forward as the revolutionary ebb wreaks havoc on society and
the absence of political power is increasingly felt, must ensure that
while they become the future cadres of CPC(M-L) they must be at the
head of the political struggle and seek the unity of the entire
collective of youth. Political struggle at this time has taken the form
of the defeat of the anti-social offensive and the victory of the
pro-social program on the basis of making way for democratic renewal.
Youth must be in the front ranks of this struggle, opposing any
ghettoization and marginalization, Comrade Bains pointed out.
Our organization has taken many successful initiatives in the
past and many more are needed at this time. Basing ourselves on these
past achievements, I am sure that we will enter the new school year
ready to make our present initiatives to expand our youth radio,
discussion and work for political empowerment successful as well.
(To
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We held the
national conference as decided, bringing together youth from all over
Canada and Quebec and even internationally. From there the Youth
Organizing Project started organizing YOP camps, many in the Gatineau
Hills, as regular convergences of youth and students from across Canada
and with contingents of youth from countries with which we had
established bonds of friendship and common work. Today we have many
projects and even important infrastructure to build on. We are now
defining new projects consistent with the needs of the youth and
students today as they strive to build a bright future for themselves
by humanizing the natural and social environment.
One of the most important
features of the work of Youth for Democratic Renewal (YDR) is how we
deal with the fact that the youth and students are presented with a
very definite situation. The question is posed: What must the youth and
students do to secure their future at this time? In other words, the
youth are organized by the very task emerging out of the concrete
conditions. They are not organized according to some sectarian
principles imposed on the situation by some would-be revolutionaries or
reformers.
"It is quite
clear that the youth will have to learn not just to take over from the
older generation, but specifically from that particular older
generation that has engaged itself throughout its lifetime in opening
the path for the progress of society. Such learning involves work, and
very specific work for the progress of society. Your decision to
publish Voice of Youth is a step in the right
direction.