Darrell Rankin, Jacob Penner – Norman Bethune Club, Winnipeg

The resolutions and amendments from Manitoba are from
comrades united behind our identity as a Marxist-Leninist
party of the working class and the goal of a socialist
Canada. We had a rich and thoughtful pre-convention
discussion.

At our nominating convention, the delegates’ average age
was the lowest in many decades and two comrades from
Northern Manitoba took their initiation pledges. We had a
good combination of change and continuity, essential for a
revolutionary party.

The YCL is being re-established in Manitoba and
comrades are forming a new club in one of Canada’s
poorest rural areas. It is realistic to say that our influence
in the Aboriginal rights, labour, youth and other
movements will improve in the years ahead.

Other parts of Canada are attracting new members; they
are greatly needed because of the gigantic challenges
confronting the working class.
* * * * *
The fightback and the Communist Party. The Harper Tory
government will never douse the growing flames of
resistance to its reactionary policies. In times of struggle,
the Communist Party’s ideas and interventions become
important, helping create the purpose and unity needed for
advance or retreat, to accomplish a strategic goal or to
support the right tactic.

The Idle No More protests led by Aboriginal Peoples are
the latest upsurge, preceded by the Occupy movement and
last year’s massive Quebec student strike. No longer is
Canada a quiet backwater of U.S. imperialism. In all
nations in Canada, resistance to corporate destruction is
growing.

The Communist Party is an essential part of making sure it
will grow into an unstoppable force that will shift the
balance of forces in Canada, curbing the immense power
of the corporate state at all levels.

A key problem is how to tie all the struggles together,
ensuring unity of all the forces. Our party’s understanding
of the national question in Canada gives a far-reaching and
strategic answer to that problem. We support the
international unity of workers and, unlike any other
political party, we place the full equality of nations as an
important democratic goal.

The slogan “workers of all nations unite” is important
right inside Canada itself. The Communist Party has
warned about the continued danger of bourgeois
chauvinism in the French and English non-Aboriginal
nations. The Tories are working harder to divide non-
Aboriginal workers away from the increasingly militant
Aboriginal working class. Unchallenged, this can only
harm the overall struggle, pushing it back and creating
openings for Tory/ Corporate-incited racism.

Quebec experienced a Quiet Revolution in the 1960s. We
must reject attempts to take away from Aboriginal activists
their call for “revolution.” The Communist Party must be
in full support of the call for revolutionary democratic
change for and by Aboriginal Peoples. We need to build
support for that change in all nations in Canada.
* * * * *
When we contribute our views about firmer tactics like
general strikes, let’s keep a thought in mind. Besides
Labour, only Aboriginal Peoples can bring the economy to
a halt because they live close to pipelines, railways, dams
and power lines. They are being thrown in jail for trying
already. Workers and Aboriginal Peoples have nothing to
lose except their chains. They need to unite for jobs, a big
wage hike and a fair society.
* * * * *
Another very significant development is the Canadian
Labour Congress’ first-ever political action conference
held in March. The Communist Party has long called for
such a conference, notably one that would target the
Harper Conservatives, which in fact was the focus of the
CLC conference.

There is no doubt that the CLC organized the conference
as a response to the Harper government’s dangerous
attacks. The CLC was spurred by the growing alarm of
millions of workers about the agonizing and prolonged
economic crisis and by workers watching the U.S. (and
European) labour movement get pummeled without mercy.
The party needed to ensure our fullest participation and
preparation for the conference.

To call the CLC conference inadequate in advance and
suggest that people should fear participating because of the
long record of manipulation by right wing social
democracy would have been a left-sectarian mistake. The
conditions required that the Communist Party welcome the
fact that the conference was taking place, and to encourage
delegates speak out for effective and unifying tactics to
defeat Harper.

Is there greater willingness by some unions to stop acting
as “business unions,” sponsoring capital funds, or
suffering quietly as U.S.-dominated international unions?
Capitalism’s crisis and the vicious attack on labour are
creating an answer of “yes.”

Importantly, the CLC conference was a challenge to rightwing
social democracy’s dominant role as the lone,
sufficient “political voice of labour”, leaving to unions
only the “economic struggle.” The conference launched
Labour into independent political action, creating a double
benefit: the opportunity to push social democracy away
from its neoliberal, pro-imperialist positions and to carry
out independent, proletarian political action of its own
aimed at the Harper Conservatives.

A politically engaged labour movement is a spur for the
delicate and needed task of ratcheting sections of the
working class and (possibly) the NDP away from positions
indistinguishable from the Conservative Party. The
situation requires the us to improve our propaganda
efforts.

The serious situation required that the Communist Party
urge the fullest unity to defeat the Harper government in
2015. It was necessary to remind delegates of recent
militant struggles and project the tactics that would create
the greatest trouble for the Harper Conservatives.
* * * * *
Our party has always advanced inspiring ideas that spark
action among broad sections of society, well beyond
people who count themselves as socialists.

We are associated with popular victories such as
unemployment insurance, medicare, organizing unions and
opposing fascism and war – examples of past People’s
Alternatives.

Today, our People’s Alternative is a comprehensive
platform. The Communist Party continues to fight for the
best, unifying proposals to curb and eventually end
corporate power and its state institutions. Capitalism’s fan
base is dwindling and Canadians who support a socialist
future are a minority, around 30 per cent according to
opinion polls. That’s a good starting point!

As capitalism’s crisis deepens, the need for a stronger,
fighting Communist Party is greater than ever. With
socialism, our People’s Alternative will be accomplished
more quickly, but we’re fighting hard for our platform
right now!
* * * * *
About my article on the CLC conference (PV, March 16), I
was disappointed at how the Central Executive’s editing
changed it into a complaint about the conference and
turned people off from reading the rest of the article,
which focuses on defeating Harper. I believe it was a
political error that harmed the party.

The original second sentence read: “The most highly
managed conference will produce a life of its own when a
government is ripping a country apart,” an idea intended to
encourage delegates to speak their minds and to point to
the seriousness of the situation. The CEC flat-out called
the conference, in advance, “highly managed.” Secondly,
the original “There are problems” before the 7th paragraph
was more constructive than the word “unfortunately”
inserted by the Central Executive, which is another
complaining word.

The CEC stopped me from circulating a longer version of
the article without cuts and retaining the formulations
helpful to the party. I have not heard from the CEC if the
changes were “political” or if they were made only for
reasons of haste or simple shortening. (I circulated the
longer article by email, copied to the CEC and noting “a
shorter version” was in the PV. I was ready to circulate it
more widely when the CEC informed me of its new rule,
banning later versions.)

Cde. Kimball has suggested that the new rule (one
contradicted by Engels, Marx or Lenin) be discussed at the
convention, so there is an appropriate special resolution on
this matter. I very much regret not being able to circulate a
version more helpful to the party to more activists.

We need to welcome unprecedented developments like the
CLC conference, which challenge the grip of right-wing
social democracy over the labour movement. Turning
people off from participating in the conference feeds into
the outcome desired by right-wing social democracy. The
CEC was notified about the CLC conference months ago,
yet it did not discuss the conference before the March 16
PV deadline.
* * * * *
How has this happened?

Charges and counter-charges in the party, both formal and
informal, are accumulating rapidly; some will occupy
convention time. They are dissipating our energy at a
critical juncture in the fightback. The convention will not
solve the problem, which is a place only for final appeal.
(CC members can only be charged individually in her or
his club, and if that fails, in the next higher body.)

The CEC’s reports to the CC about provincial woes helped
some B.C. members to involve the entire central leadership
and convention in the imbroglio. B.C. structures could and
should have resolved the issues. As an outgoing member of
the CC, I am self-critical for allowing a letter that included
the word “discipline” to be simply read out for
endorsement. The central leadership can be criticized for
being consumed with top-down discipline rather than
building constructively.

About the draft plan of work, I agree with the self criticism
of organizational failures. The only campaign
since 2010 was launched during the pre-convention period
and distracted from preparations.

How can this be remedied?

A more serious look at cadre is needed at all levels,
starting with a careful survey of clubs, activism/ ties to
mass work, and a skills inventory. Where necessary and
consistent with priorities, changes in assignments must be
considered and made. The balance between central (all-
Canada), provincial and local work needs close
examination. Marxist education must be a priority for all
members, everywhere.

Statements and websites are a good start. We need to
develop large numbers of cadre for the growing struggle
who will work in a disciplined, proletarian spirit, equipped
with the most advanced theory.