Speaking in Our Own Name Goes Hand in Hand with the Need to Organize
The institutions of the bourgeoisie are in such crisis that not only do they limit the role of the working class to that of a vote bank, the state in the hands of the imperialist financial oligarchy also does everything to ensure that the workers and people act against their own interests. The greater the need for the workers to speak in their own name and define their independent politics, the more the bourgeoisie works to ensure that any attempt on the part of the people to provide themselves with organizations and social forms to facilitate their freedom of expression gets nipped in the bud. Without organization, freedom of speech and of expression can only remain abstractions. During the period of the old social contract, civil society's mechanisms were intended to facilitate the expression of a certain public opinion within society. Now civil society no longer exists. It has been replaced by neo-liberal political arrangements whereby the rich act and decide without even bothering to create public opinion and pass decisions through a democratic process that educates and at some level involves the polity. Today how do freedom of expression and of speech pose themselves for workers? The resolution of this problem is a historic necessity. New forms of organization must be brought into being in order to sort it out. Our work must facilitate the political practice of speaking in one's own name, beginning with one's own concerns, class interests and proletarian partisanship. For 50 years CPC(M-L) has been carrying out this work without let-up and continues to do so today within the new conditions of the retreat of revolution, the unprecedented crisis of the bourgeois institutions and the imminent danger of imperialist war.
The work of the Party to build the Workers' Centre and groups of readers, writers and disseminators of its online publication, Workers' Forum, and establish other forums where workers gather to exchange experiences and opinions and work out what stands are appropriate and effective is crucial today if any headway is to be made. The groups of readers, writers and disseminators are essential because they do not leave the exchanges of opinion and discussion to chance. These consultations are at the heart of the historic necessity to bring renewal into being. Within the current situation, it is crucial and essential that the mass Party press and the mass non-Party press and workers' forums become the tools by which the Party involves the workers in mass democratic politics which favour them.
The financial oligarchy and imperialist bourgeoisie have no future to offer humanity other than anarchy, violence and war. The working class and people are entirely conscious of this. Despite the great difficulties which we confront, huge opportunities exist to move forward and advance our work. We must seek out those opportunities and seize the occasion to build the New. Although the responsibility is great, it is one that we accept. In this regard, full weight must be put to bring the Workers' Centre on par with this requirement. It is a challenge we accept. Normand Chouinard is a member of the Executive of the Workers' Centre of CPC(M-L).
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
Throughout 2019
and into 2020, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)
has highlighted the importance that workers speak
in their own name and define the modern democratic
personality that is required at this moment in our
history, and do so in their own image. What will
enable workers to become a leading force in the
resolution of the problems the society faces is
the most crucial problem which requires solution
at this time. Without bringing into being a modern
democratic personality, the path to progress will
remain blocked.
The workers want to
defend their right to speak as individuals with
their own claims and rights. However, without the
organization that can take such speech into the
realm of public opinion, it becomes diffuse and
the state does everything so that it does not gain
traction, remains marginalized and ineffective.
Moreover, workers realize that their individual
stands are increasingly criminalized in all kinds
of ways. The working class and people in general
reject the culture of vulgarity and ignorance, as
they do the politics of personal attacks or
character assassinations. For them, freedom of
speech means the affirmation of the right to
establish modern human relations amongst their
peers aimed at addressing the issue of political
power, of who decides. In that vein, they
recognize the necessity of establishing their own
organizations that will guarantee that the
individual right of each worker to express himself
or herself is exercised in all security and that
such expression becomes effective in the
resolution of society's problems.
This year is the
50th anniversary of the founding of CPC(M-L). We
are engaged in summation of that work while
continuing to pursue it without let-up. The mass
Party press has a past and a present but the
future must also be defined. The essence of that
future is to guarantee that the voice of the
working class and its Party become increasingly
influential so that a new direction is provided
for the society. The maximum political
mobilization of more and more workers in that work
is key to attaining the objectives they require
and must set for themselves.