Commemoration of the Life and Work of
Comrade Hardial Bains and
Party Comrades
On August 24, 1997, 27 years ago, the founder and leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) passed away after a courageous battle against cancer. This year also marked the 85th anniversary of his birth, an event celebrated at the Memorial Ceremony held on August 11 in Beechwood Cemetery in Ottawa. CPC(M-L) erected a monument there in 1999 to honour the life and work of Comrade Bains and all Party comrades who have passed away. The program produced on the occasion read:
This year, as we celebrate the 85th anniversary
of the birth of the founder and leader of our Party
Comrade Hardial Bains, we pay deepest respects to his
memory, life and work.
We reiterate our pledge to March On
under all conditions and circumstances and turn historic
success into historic victory as he taught us to do.
We pay tribute to all our Party comrades who have passed
away, ever present, whose names are inscribed on
the Party Monument. Red Salute to you Dan Nelson
and to you Gary Zatzman whose loss
this year we especially mourn.
We also salute the life and work of the legendary leader
of the Cuban revolution Commandante Fidel Castro,
whose 98th birth date is this August 13.
On this occasion, we also pay deepest respects and
express our highest regard for the life and work of
Nguyen Phú Trong, recently deceased General Secretary
of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
It is our honour to also dedicate this commemoration to the
heroic Palestinian Resistance and hold high the indomitable
spirit of all the martyrs of the Palestinian people.
Members, activists and friends of CPC(M-L) and their family members gathered to pay moving and fitting tribute to Comrade Bains and his life and work and to all the comrades whose names are inscribed on the Party Monument. Along with representatives of the Party's Central Committee, regional and local Party committees and the organizations of the youth, those gathered were honoured by the presence of the Ambassador of the Republic of Cuba to Canada, H.E. Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz and the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, H.E. Pham Vinh Quang, accompanied by First Secretary Madame Thao Do. A delegation of the Ottawa Branch of the Communist Party of Lebanon and fraternal comrades from El Salvador and Haiti also paid their respects, along with family members and friends of the Comrades who have passed away.
To the accompaniment of an Irish lament, the honour guard of young communists carried the Party banners and flanked the monument. Following the performance of the song The Dawn in honour of all those who have passed away, the Declamation was presented by Alexandre Cubaynes on behalf of all the generations who have joined the Party since its founding. The Declamation underscored the significance of Comrade Bains' leadership to the youth born in the new millennium who have come forward to hoist this banner of the Party and communism and carry it forward today.
This was followed by the performance of songs and instrumental pieces dedicated to specific comrades and by the placing of floral tributes.
Veteran communist Roland Verrier, who worked closely with Comrade Bains at the technical base of the Party press, presented a beautiful wreath on behalf of CPC(M-L), paying respects and honouring our Party's founder and leader. The Ambassadors from Cuba and Vietnam also paid their respects. Following this, the entire ceremony was dedicated to the heroic fighters of the Palestinian resistance with the song We Are All Palestinians. The youth draped a keffiyeh over the monument in silent tribute to all those who have been martyred as a result of Zionist genocide in the last 10 months and, before that, since the creation of the state of Israel as the instrument of Anglo-American imperialism in the Middle East.
Specific tributes were paid to the comrades who passed away this year, Dan Nelson and Gary Zatzman, with young people putting bouquets of red carnations dedicated to them on the monument.
This part of the ceremony concluded with the presentation by a university student of a poem dedicated to the work of the youth to humanize the natural and social environment and build a bright future for themselves and all of humanity. She then placed the red rose of the youth on the base of the monument.
Following the performance of Party songs, the gathering joined in singing The Internationale. Delegations from different Party organizations as well as family members placed floral tributes in remembrance of their loved ones, viewed the display of their photographs and recalled their contributions.
Accompanied by intermittent rain, the ceremony was a memorable occasion.
Declamation
We, the youth born in the new millennium, are joined here today by those who joined the Party and fought for change in every generation. It is our honour to stand with those who answered the call of history in the 1960s, '70s, '80s and '90s.
Together we have gathered here to pay profound tribute to our ever-present leader, teacher and guide, Comrade Hardial Bains on the occasion of his 85th birth anniversary.
Comrade Bains was born in what was then India, and is today Pakistan after the British divided India causing the slaughter of some three million people in the process. Those were turbulent times as the imperialists did everything in their power to make sure the peoples of the world would remain enslaved.
As a communist and freedom-fighter, Comrade Bains' father was either in prison or living in clandestinity. Comrade Bains only met him for the first time when he was nine years old, already carrying the red flag of revolution in his own name, the red flag soaked in the blood of all the Indian martyrs.
It was in this striving of the peoples of the world for peace, freedom and democracy that the defiance which informs the Necessity for Change Analysis was born. The recognition of necessity is imbued with the refusal to conciliate with what is not acceptable. It is imbued with the urgency to find a way forward on the basis of our own efforts under all conditions and circumstances – a way forward that favours the working peoples of this world.
This is what propels us today to organize for change.
The youth of the '90s had the good fortune to work with Comrade Bains directly at a young age and they are educating us in the conditions of today as he taught them. 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 the need for political power. In action together to carry out our own decisions we gain the confidence to lead the people to empower themselves each step of the road we have taken.
Comrade Bains was himself disciplined by the movement and its inherent demands, first in India and then Canada where he arrived in 1959 and became proletarianized in the struggle in this country. Comrade Bains profoundly understood the need for a revolutionary political party capable of educating the educators and leading the working class to bring about its own emancipation and enable the people to vest sovereignty in themselves.
The necessity to build such a Party and the kind of Party which is needed we also learn from Comrade Bains. We 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 in Gatineau on August 30, 1997. This is the city where he resided and worked with the youth during the last decade of his life.
"It is true, as you told us, the struggles in which
we are engaged today and those which lie ahead are momentous, but
thanks to the revolutionary traditions that you founded in Canada, the
future of the youth shines brighter than ever," the youth said.
"In 1967 you declared: 'This great humanity has said enough and has started to move forward!' Today, humanity is looking for a way forward and we are marching in step. Tomorrow humanity will prevail.
"You can be sure that in the struggles to come your spirit will always be with us. We will transform the success of revolution in the 20th century into its final victory.
"As you told the youth a few months before you passed away, '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.'"
In this way, by setting the crucial work to be accomplished at any time, under the experienced leadership of the Party, we are preparing for the revolutionary storms that are breaking out, today in the form of a relentless resistance to genocide, sanctions, disinformation, fraud and demands that we conciliate with those who commit crimes against humanity under the pretext that they will save democracy.
This is where defiance is called for. This is where history calls on us to find a way forward by organizing for change.
Red salute to the life and work of Comrade Hardial Bains!
Our deepest respects to all those whose names are inscribed on the Party monument. Their contributions and spirit imbue our Party with its revolutionary character of not waving the red flag but showing our colours through our deeds, as Comrade Bains showed us to do.
A red salute to the fighting peoples of the world. Your sacrifice will not go unpunished!
Long Live Our Party!
