August Celebrations
Historic Anniversaries
Every year during the month of August, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) organizes special activities to discuss the significance of important events in the life of the Party. These events celebrate the movement that gave rise to the Party itself and all those who have contributed and continue to contribute to its development.
The theme of these celebrations this year is Answering the Call of History — 35 Years Since Chertsey. The events include the celebration of the 85th anniversary of the birth of Hardial Bains, the founder of CPC(M-L) and the First Secretary of its Central Committee until his untimely death in 1997. Hardial Bains was first and foremost a man of revolutionary action. Thus the celebrations include study and discussion of the speeches and writings of Comrade Bains, especially the significance of the Necessity for Change analysis. This year, besides other programs, the Ideological Studies Centre is holding seminars on the Party's theoretical work on modern definitions based on the Necessity for Change and the Hardial Bains Party School is educating Party youth about CPC(M-L) and modern communism.
The aim of these programs is to enable the youth, advanced workers and party cadres to elaborate modern communism. By taking up this work, they will be able to provide themselves with guides to action and practical ways forward under all conditions and circumstances. Through revolutionary action to provide themselves with the tools and institutions and, most importantly the Party itself, the youth acquire the world outlook they require. This helps them steer clear of all the traps laid for them by those who rule over the society today. These moribund forces peddle the anti-communist, anti-immigrant and anti-worker world outlook designed to keep them in power and make sure the working class can never seize the initiative in its own hands. These programs also aim to enable the youth to develop the enlightenment movement, which they require to build a bright future for themselves. Those who take up the study and discussion of the Necessity for Change and modern communism do so in a concrete practical way by taking up definite problems for solution. Opening society's path to progress within the complex situation we are living through today requires enlightened theory.
August 15-19 also marks 35 years since CPC(M-L) held the historic meeting in Chertsey, Quebec where on behalf of the Party, Hardial Bains boldly reaffirmed the character of CPC(M-L) to march on courageously under all conditions and circumstances as it has always done. The celebrations include discussion of the significance of the historic 1989 meeting in Chertsey, when the world was on the eve of being plunged into the retreat of revolution with the collapse of the former Soviet Union and the regimes in Eastern Europe. The Chertsey meeting affirmed that no individual, collective or social force could act in the old way but had to find their bearings in the new conditions of the retreat of revolution. Despite whatever treachery and betrayal should rear its head, Comrade Bains said on that occasion that CPC(M-L) has consistently shown its convictions through its deeds. Its constant work and revolutionary actions show what it means to lead on the basis of mass democratic methods and forms so as to open society's path to progress.
August 15 also marks the anniversary of the historic Necessity for Change Conference held in London, England 57 years ago. That conference provided the Necessity for Change analysis on which CPC(M-L) was founded. The analysis opened a way forward for the youth and student movement at that time. This led to the reorganization of The Internationalists as a Marxist-Leninist youth and student movement in 1968. The Internationalists, originally founded by Hardial Bains at the University of British Columbia on March 13, 1963, was the precursor organization of CPC(M-L).
Included in these events is a visit to the Party Memorial in Beechwood Cemetery in the national capital. This year on August 11, the Party will gather to honour the memory of Hardial Bains and all the Party comrades who have passed away who represent the spirit of Chertsey, the defiance expressed by Comrade Bains on that occasion to march on holding high the banner of communism under all conditions and circumstances. As the poem inscribed on the Party memorial reads:
Let the march go on for the road is clear
Let the modern human being make history
Something is Calling Now, Move On
On the occasion of the celebration of these Historic anniversaries, the Central Committee sends warmest revolutionary greetings to all the Party organizations across the country, to all supporters and friends and to all those involved in the crucial work to open society's path to progress. Never has their contribution to making new breakthroughs been more important. Never have they been better served by the model set by CPC(M-L) and its leader Hardial Bains who never wavered, declaring:
We Are Our Own Models!
Show the Party's Revolutionary Colour Through Our Deeds!
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 7 - August 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/M540071.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca