March 13, 2025
62nd Anniversary of Founding of The Internationalists

Significance of the Creation of The Internationalists to the Work of CPC(M-L) Today

Sixty-two years ago today, on March 13, 1963, an event took place at the University of British Columbia which was to have far-reaching historical consequences. Under the leadership of Hardial Bains, who would become the founder and leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) until he passed away in 1997, students responded to the need to create an academic atmosphere on the campus and established a discussion group called The Internationalists.

They analyzed that the key thing absent from their lives at that time was the kind of consciousness and organization which would open a path for themselves. They created an academic atmosphere on the campus against all the hype which impeded learning that was meaningful for themselves and society. Working on a very broad basis with students in all disciplines, The Internationalists became the most vibrant broad student movement from the outset. The organization left its imprint not only on all its members and fellow-travelers, but on the politics of Canada ever since.

1962: Hardial Bains in front of International House at the University of British Columbia in 1962 (left); UBC students hold mass democracy meeting on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The Internationalists was subsequently reorganized in Montreal in 1968 as a Marxist-Leninist youth and student organization, on the basis of Hardial Bains’ Necessity for Change analysis, and the work done to broaden its work from coast to coast. Right from the beginning, from the founding of The Internationalists, the essence of the 1960s was that the working class must introduce the measures to turn the situation around in its favour. On this basis, The Internationalists led the creation of organizations in defence of democratic rights, student organizations in Quebec CEGEPs and universities across the country, the Canadian Student Movement and Canadian Workers’ Movement and associations and study groups carrying out work of organizing the Canadian people to provide proletarian internationalist support for the peoples waging anti-colonial, national liberation struggles abroad.

It is on this sound foundation that CPC(M-L) was founded in 1970 and the Party has addressed itself to the key issues of the day ever since, as The Internationalists did in its time.

In the book Thinking about the Sixties, Hardial Bains wrote about the fight to establish discussion of politics amongst one’s peers as necessary for everyone to address and overcome the pressures facing them to leave decision-making to the ruling elite. He wrote:

To order a copy of Thinking about the Sixties, send a cheque or money order for $15 to: National Publications Centre, P.O. Box 264, Adelaide Station, Toronto ON M5C 2J8

“When I look back at those years in Vancouver, I can remember the pressure to stop any discussion of politics and the pressure not to do anything worthwhile. Those pressures still exist. […]

“Workers know why the capitalist boss does not want them to discuss politics. The slogan ‘politics for politicians’ suits the capitalist bosses very well. They know very well that capitalism cannot last for a day without robbing the state treasury — that is without forcing the exploited to pay for the very instruments which enslave them. […] The capitalists openly discuss the need for taking risks, and demand the state should take these risks. If profits are made, the profits go to individual capitalists; if losses are incurred then it is the state and the workers that must bail them out.

“Of course, within such a system the demand for no political discussion suits the capitalists very well. […]”

The youth of the 1960s also confronted U.S. domination with the particular features of that time, that necessitated becoming politically organized. In the same book, Hardial Bains wrote:

“The 1960s was a decade of massive U.S. penetration into Canada, the spearhead and basis of which was economic. U.S. dictate over Canada increased with the election of Kennedy, who openly demanded that Diefenbaker toe the line. Not only did the U.S. want to get complete hold of Canada’s natural resources, Kennedy also wanted Canada to bear the brunt of any clash between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. He wanted to use Canada as a buffer to ensure that the U.S. faced less death and destruction in the event of war. A huge scandal erupted over the stationing of Bomarc missiles in Canada, which saw Kennedy not only threaten Canada but also interfere in the country’s internal affairs. The U.S. government did not stop until Diefenbaker was defeated and the minority government of Lester B. Pearson come to power in 1963.”

Thinking about the Sixties is recommended reading to learn about the work of The Internationalists. It is important for all those politically active today, especially the youth, to appreciate the methods and work to build that organization, methods inherited by CPC(M-L) when it was founded, and practiced ever since.

On this occasion, the Central Committee of CPC(M-L), greets all those members and fellow-travellers whose contributions date back to the 1960s and pays deepest respects to the memory of our dearly beloved comrade and leader Hardial Bains, who led the founding of The Internationalists 62 years ago and, on the basis of the same principles and methods of work, led the founding of CPC(M-L) on March 31, 1970.The CC also salutes the Party youth of the present whose actions follow in the tradition of The Internationalists under the watchwords Audacity, Defiance, Resistance!