March 21 -- International Day Against Racial Discrimination

To Defend Minority Rights Is to Defend the Rights of All

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) pays first rate attention to making sure the rights of minorities are given pride of place in society. In its rendering of rights it takes up the main content of the problem of rights and its relationship to the main content of modern democracy.

The question of minority rights arises both historically as the struggle which began against medievalism and as it expresses itself at the present time when representative democracy is no longer up to the task of dealing with it. Whether it is the national minorities as they exist all over the world as a result of the massive dislocation caused by world imperialism and modern capitalism, which have transformed the entire world into their market, or due to other reasons, or whether it concerns linguistic, religious, political minorities as well as LGBTQ rights, their rights are not guaranteed on the basis of what is known as elite accommodation or "positive discrimination" (affirmative action) or any such measures which criminalize problems and people. Experience shows that no measures of this kind have eliminated the discrimination against minorities which is practised in the representative democracies where such measures have been applied.

The source of discrimination or denial of the rights of minorities in Canada is found in the absence of recognizing the rights of citizenship as a matter of equal membership in a body politic where equal rights and duties are recognized for all on an equal basis. What exists in Canada is a hierarchy of rights and ruling elites are treated on a privileged preferential basis as the SNC-Lavalin scandal amply shows once again. It is quite obvious that a hierarchy of rights leads to discrimination which is supposed to be eliminated through elite accommodation and positive discrimination. These measures only create further hierarchies amongst those who are discriminated against, but they do not eliminate discrimination or its basis.

Citizenship which recognizes equal rights and duties for all is the starting point of the defence of minority rights and not the end. Nonetheless, if minorities did not fight for these rights, there would naturally be no starting point and no end to this problem. After having won the same rights and duties for all, national minorities can then fight for all other equalities. However, the demand for these equalities has to be put on this basis right at the start.

National minorities must be able to educate their children in their languages if they so wish and be able to develop their cultures. They have to be provided with these facilities by ensuring that no citizen has more rights and duties than another. Discrimination against any religious minority or against atheists can be eliminated by completely detaching religion from the state and ensuring that practising the right to conscience remains a private and an individual affair. Funding some religions and not others is a matter of despicable pork barrel politics and should be banned, while the access for all members of the polity to social programs, including education and recreation without the danger of police violence must be guaranteed. In the same manner, all violations, all racism and racial discrimination have to be severely dealt with as crimes under the penal code. In fact, they should be meted the harshest punishment.

As a starting point, CPC(M-L) pays first rate attention to the main content and requirement that all citizens must enjoy equal rights and duties. At the same time, it demands that the languages and cultures of all national minorities be defended and, thirdly, that all racism and acts of racial discrimination or racial violence must be severely dealt with.

All those who are interested in defending the rights of minorities as the basis of defending the rights of all come together in the course of the battles waged. The defence of the rights of minorities is one of the most important steps to take in settling scores with medievalism and its practices based on privilege and mysteries of state in the manner decisions are taken and policies set. The denial of the rights of minorities is the very essence of the representative democracy which exists in Canada at this time. There can be no illusion that minorities can enjoy rights within the present representative democracy. The defence of the rights of all minorities and opposition to all forms of discrimination, including racial, and all forms of violence, including racial, is a social responsibility.

This article was published in

Volume 49 Number 10 - March 23, 2019

Article Link:
March 21 -- International Day Against Racial Discrimination: To Defend Minority Rights Is to Defend the Rights of All

    

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