p Our Party and many progressive people in Canada welcome the fact that this conference is taking place. The Communist Party of Canada has long pressed for such a world gathering as an urgent necessity, both to assess the march of events since 1960 and the new problems that have been posed by history, and to consolidate the unity of the international communist movement.

p The fact that it is being held is of great historical moment. The enemies of peace and socialism hoped it would not take place. Their hopes have not been realised. Now that it is on, they hope nothing will come out of it, that unity will not be achieved. We are confident, however, that their hopes will be dashed again, and that all of us, conscious of the great responsibility we bear before the peoples of our countries and the working class of the world, will work to assure the success of this conference and not allow temporary differences to stand in the way.

p Our Party is in full agreement with the Main Document before us. It was unanimously endorsed by our Central Committee following our 20th National Convention in April, which by resolution instructed the Central Committee "to work for the success of the international conference". We believe the Main Document correctly assesses present-day phenomena in their complexity and contradictions, the strategy of imperialism, and the tasks and responsibilities confronting us at this stage. We believe it will help to overcome tendencies, which have arisen, to one-sided interpretation of some questions related to the struggle for peace, democracy and socialism, and will thereby make the work of the Communist and Workers’ Parties in the coming period more effective.

p We cannot agree with the viewpoint that only one part of the Document should be adopted. We believe a correct rounded-out analysis of imperialism and its strategy at this stage is fundamental to reaching appropriate conclusions with respect to the tasks we must undertake. Nor can we agree with the viewpoint which fails to take into account and draw all the necessary conclusions from the global strategy of US imperialism and its allies, their efforts to undermine the unity of the socialist countries and the Communist Parties, to separate them, weaken them from within and lay the groundwork for the restoration of capitalism in one country after another, and the threat this poses to world 350 peace. Any complacency in this regard would seriously weaken the forces capable of resisting and checking imperialist aggression.

p Differences in estimating the aims of imperialism and the relationship of forces on a world scale lead to different conclusions for action and undermine the cohesiveness of the world communist movement. Our Party agrees with the analysis on this question in the Main Document. This is the basis for our support of the conclusions arrived at, as it is the basis for our well-known position with respect to the events in Czechoslovakia. Our Party Congress expressed full support and solidarity with the present leadership of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in the steps it is taking to normalize the situation and strengthen socialism.

p In the face of US global strategy we see the maximum co-ordination of action by all Communist and Workers’ Parties as a prime necessity. Any other position would be narrow-minded in the extreme. Any thought of "going it alone" in face of imperialism’s "bridge building" and subversion., on the assumption that it would bring some immediate gains to this or that Party, is indeed a shortsighted policy which will help neither the Party concerned in the long run, nor the anti-imperialist struggle.

p One should have no illusions about the peaceableness of imperialism. Imperialism will only negotiate seriously given unity and cohesion of the socialist states and all anti-imperialist forces.

p The international tasks projected in the Main Document fully correspond to the national tasks of our Party. Indeed, most of the points in it are also embodied in the main resolution of our 20th Convention. That is only natural, for how can there be a conflict of interests between national and international tasks in the face of the global strategy of imperialism?

p The defeat of this strategy is an essential prerequisite for assuring the peace, independence and sovereignty of Canada, as it is for other nations. Every setback for US imperialism strengthens the patriotic and peace forces in our country.

p Guided by this our Party has, over the years, placed at the centre of its work the struggle for real Canadian independence, including the adoption of a truly independent foreign policy for our country. The growing crisis of imperialism and with it a sharpening of inter-imperialist contradictions have created more favourable c’onditions for this. Thus the growing pressure of Canadian public opinion to extricate Canada from the suffocating embrace of American imperialism has compelled our government to begin a review of its foreign policy with respect to Latin America, China, Africa and its commitments to NATO. Of course this also partially reflects the efforts of sections of Canadian monopoly to exploit contradictions between imperialist states to their own advantage.

p As is already known, the Canadian government announced that it has decided to carry out a phased and controlled withdrawal of a part of its armed forces from the NATO alliance in West Germany. However, it was quick to add that the number of troops to be withdrawn and the timing of the withdrawal was subject to consultation with its allies. Even this timid step was sharply attacked by the American, British and West German governments, which are fearful that this example might be followed by other NATO countries. They 351 are striving to compel the Canadian government to retreat from its stated position. This is flagrant interference in Canadian affairs, an attempt to deny the Canadian people their sovereign right to determine the foreign policy of their country. This pressure from foreign states coincides with the efforts of the industrial-military complex in Canada which is closely related to the US military-industrial complex, to tie the country permanently to NATO and the NORAD military alliance, to the Washington-Bonn war axis as a means of securing war orders from the United States and Bonn at the price of the sovereignty and independence of our country. This same industrial-military complex is pressing the government to acquiesce in President Nixon’s AntiBallistic Missile (ABM Safeguard) system, which opens the door to a nuclear arms race and directly threatens Canada with destruction in the event of war.

p The review announced by the Canadian government does not add up to adoption of an independent foreign policy in the interests of Canada. This has yet to be won. The government seems to veer in favour of "continental defence" as a substitute for an independent foreign policy. This holds real dangers for our country and would further undermine its independence. The Communist Party of Canada opposes such a policy and calls for a truly independent foreign policy along the following lines: withdrawal from NATO and NORAD and adoption of a policy of military non-alignment; a declaration that Canada is a non-nuclear zone; support for a European security pact and recognition of the German Democratic Republic and the post-war borders in Europe; recognition of one China; recognition of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and of the Democratic Republic of North Korea; support to the 10-point programme of the National Liberation Front as the basis for a just settlement of the war in Vietnam; a political solution of the Near East crisis based on the UN Security Council resolution of November 1967; support to the colonial peoples fighting for their liberation; extension of trade with the socialist and developing countries on a mutual advantageous basis; disarmament.

p This programme meets the interests of the Canadian people, strengthens Canada’s independence and security and, we- believe, is a solid contribution to the world-wide struggle against imperialism.

p There is a direct relationship between the struggle against imperialism and the struggle for peaceful coexistence. Some see the struggle for peaceful coexistence as a rejection of the struggle against imperialism; others see the struggle against imperialism as a rejection of the struggle for peaceful coexistence. In reality, there can be no such contradiction. To achieve peaceful coexistence and international detente imperialist aggression must be defeated. The struggle against imperialism and for peaceful coexistence opens up opportunities for the broadest unity to achieve social advance on all fronts. This is the basis for the unity of all the Communist and Workers’ Parties and all forces for peace, democracy, national independence and social progress in the world. The strategy of unity advanced by the Main Document will make the forces of progressive humanity invincible.

p Our Party sees the working class as the decisive, leading force of the struggle against imperialism. Indeed, without the leadership of the working class no effective struggle can be waged against imperialism, against monopoly. In 352 Canada the struggle against monopoly is mounting, the class struggle is growing sharper. Every effort of the monopolists and their stooges to build up the concept of "class harmony" and "class partnership", directed to preserve the privileged position of corporate wealth, is collapsing in face of the growing confrontation between labour and capital.

p In the recent period, in an effort to disorientate the working class, the apologists of capitalism have tried to convince the workers that the scientific and technological revolution "has made the doctrine of the class struggle obsolete". The workers are repudiating this classless position by their actions. The class struggle of the workers is mounting. Chronic inflation, sharp rises in taxation, a 4 per cent annual increase in prices, high rents and interest rates, increased exploitation, job insecurity and growing unemployment—arising from the scientific and technological revolution—all these have led to growing strike action. There is a new spirit of militancy and consciousness in the working class, in which the young workers are playing an important part. The aims set by the workers are higher. While largely concentrated around wage demands, they are also increasingly taking up the fight for job security. These actions, and others which will follow, are a fitting reply to those who consider the working class a spent bourgeoisified force, unable to fulfil its historic role.

p Monopoly is. striving to change this situation by anti-labour legislation which would seriously curtail the rights of the workers to- defend their vital interests through strike action. This is being pressed for with the specious argument that the working class is too strong and needs to be curbed so as to restore "the balance of power". In this way capitalist propaganda tries to obscure the fact that it is monopoly capital that is in power. The working class is answering that propaganda by the demand for a say in regard to technological changes and all other questions affecting its vital interests. The growing monopoly offensive is being met by the growing unity of the workers, expressed among other things in such actions as the removal of the anti-communist clauses from the by-laws of the trade union centre and labour councils, and the growing trend of merger of unions in a number of industries in face of monopoly concentration and the emergence of conglomerates.

p The growing strength of the organised industrial working class and its consistent struggle against monopoly has been an important factor in stimulating organisation amongst professional and white-collar workers, as it has indirectly influenced the movement among the youth, particularly student youth, amongst whom anti-imperialist sentiment is rising. At the same time the inexperience of youth attracted by pseudo-revolutionary phrases has tended to separate them from the working class and the Communist Party. Our Party’s efforts are directed to unite this movement with the working class, to create among its participants an understanding of the leading role of the working class in the revolutionary process, to bring scientific socialism, the teaching of MarxismLeninism, into the youth and student movement.

p The increasing stranglehold of monopoly capital in agriculture, the technical revolution in farming and the chronic agrarian crisis, including the problem of markets, are calling forth a new wave of struggle and unity amongst masses of farmers. The process of differentiation is growing in the countryside with the 353 wealthy farmers aligned with monopoly and the masses of working farmers beginning to turn to labour-farmer unity for effective struggle against the monopolies. A new significant development is the movement to establish an all-Canadian farmers’ union through which the working farmers could defend their interests.

p These movements and struggles against monopoly capital and its policies are augmented by widespread sentiments and actions for peace and around democratic issues, for civil and labour rights and particularly the demand of the French-Canadian nation for their right to national self-determination. The demand for control of their national state in Quebec within a reconstructed federal Canadian state is laying the basis for uniting the national democratic forces of French Canada with the working people of English Canada in the common struggle against US and Canadian monopoly. The opposition to the American domination of the Canadian economy and foreign policy has become a major factor of Canadian politics.

p It is around the issue of Vietnam that opposition to the US dirty war has been most strongly expressed. Both moral and economic factors are involved here. The Canadian people have felt the economic effects of that war in inflation and rising prices, in a distortion of the international balance of payments, and a currency crisis which could lead to devaluation of the Canadian dollar. At the same time moral revulsion against US aggression has brought new sections of people, young and old, into opposition to US policies and strengthened the demand that the government publicly repudiate these policies, that Canada adopt a truly independent foreign policy. It is this sentiment which has prevented the US government and its supporters in Canada from stopping the entry of draft resisters and deserters from the US armed forces, into Canada. It is no accidental that it was in Canada that the Hemispheric Conference against the War in Vietnam took place. Nor is it accidental that considerable material and medical aid has come from the Canadian people to assist the National Liberation Front in its just struggle. Not always clearly, those Canadians see in the Vietnam struggle an assist to their own struggle against US imperialism. For the Canadian people the struggle for peace and independence is in reality one struggle.

p All these movements reflecting the desire for deep-going change create the basis for an anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist coalition, led by the working class. This’is what our Party is striving to achieve in its work to bring about fundamental social change in Canada. We recognise that this is an intricate and complex process and that a major responsibility falls upon the shoulders of our Party—to help unite these various currents, strengthen its own influence and organised strength, and imbue the working class with consciousness of the role it must play. Here, neither impatience nor adventurism, or adaptation to capitalist pressures will serve the interests of the working class. It requires firmness in principle questions and the utmost flexibility in tactics, to accomplish these aims.

p Lenin many years ago emphasised that the most important task before Co.nmunist Parties in the capitalist countries is to search after the forms of transition or the approach to the proletarian revolution. We are guided by this in our work to bring about a democratic alliance which could take Canada on 354 the high road to socialism. Therefore we see no contradiction between these national tasks and our international responsibilities as outlined in the Main Document before us.

p The divisions in the international communist movement have created many problems for our Party and the international movement. The only one who has benefited from all this has been imperialism, which plays upon and inflames nationalism as a means of undermining the unity of action of Communist and Workers’ Parties and of the anti-imperialist forces throughout the world.

p Our party is deeply concerned about the actions taken by the Maoist group to split the international communist movement. The Maoists speak about fighting imperialism but in their daily practice and in their basic policies split the forces which can effectively oppose imperialism.

p We are equally concerned about their territorial ambitions. Our 20th National Convention sharply condemned the provocation perpetrated by the Maoists on the Soviet-Chinese border as contrary,to all ordinary relations between states let alone to socialist internationalism. This going over from polemics to military provocation, from ideological struggle to state actions, shows how far the Maoists have departed from their commitments and responsibilities to the socialist community and the cause of peace and socialism throughout the world. Their adventurist position on the main questions of war, peace and revolution further underwritten in their 9th Congress are anti-Leninist. Maoism is an anti-Leninist disorder, an expression of petty-bourgeois nationalism. It is a departure from Marxism-Leninism which they have replaced by Maoism. This opportunism masked with Left phrases is a negation of proletarian internationalism, a form of virulent anti-Sovietism, and in the final analysis strikes at the very foundations of socialism.

p We are confident that the Chinese Communists who adhere to MarxismLeninism, and the Chinese people, will eventually assert themselves. MarxismLeninism will sooner or later win out in its contest with Mao’s petty-bourgeois nationalism. The place of China is with the socialist camp, with the world communist movement, with all the anti-imperialist forces in the struggle for peace, independence and socialism. The defeat of Maoism, ideologically, on an international scale, the strengthening of our unity on the basis of MarxismLeninism, is a significant contribution in this direction.

p We see the Lenin centenary as an important part of the ideological struggle of Leninism against petty-bourgeois nationalism and petty-bourgeois radicalism, against opportunism and revisionism and in the bulding of a working-class Party independent from the bourgeoisie, firmly based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism.

p It has become fashionable in some quarters to criticize the Soviet Union in the illusory hope that it will make a Party “respectable”, forgetting that history redounds with facts showing that anti-Sovietism has always been the common factor drawing together all enemies of peace and socialism. All of us who are concerned with the struggle for peace and socialism must never forget that the Soviet Union is the decisive factor in the world struggle against imperialism, for peace and socialism. This does not mean that any one party is in a privileged position in regard to other Parties in the world communist movement. But 355 facts are facts, and it is the Soviet Union and the CPSU that carry the main burden and responsibility in the world-wide struggle. Anti-Sovietism, no matter how refined, any weakening of the socialist countries, their unity and cohesion, plays into the hands of the enemies of the workers of the world.

p This does not deny that each Communist Party is independent and sovereign, responsible to the working class of its country. But it is also responsible to the international working class. For a Party to see only one side of its responsibility will cause it to fall prey either to nationalism or national nihilism. In our view the independence and sovereignty of Communist and Workers’ Parties find expression in independence from the capitalist class and its policies and by standing firm on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Only such a class standpoint which blends national interests and international interests can effectively cope with the global strategy of imperialism.

p From our own experience our Party has recognised the need for a systematic ideological struggle against revisionism, opportunism and nationalism, all of which express the pressures of the capitalist environment and could lead, if not checked, to the transformation of the Party into a Social-Democratic type of party. Recognising this danger, our recent convention, expressing the conviction of the overwhelming majority of the members of our Party, called for a resolute struggle against Right and “Left” revisionism atrd opportunism which in our view is the main danger at this stage, and also to continue combating dogmatic, sectarian tendencies.

p From our Party’s experience we can fully endorse the statement of Comrade Brezhnev about the benefits derived from the various forms of discussion of mutual problems and co-operation between the Parties of different countries. Such discussion and co-operation, we believe, help to establish ideological unity—unity based on principle because no other unity can be lasting or durable—in the international communist movement.

p The highest expression of that international communist discussion is this historic world conference which we are attending. The workers of all countries are looking to us to emerge from our discussions with the maximum of ideological unity as the greatest asset in bolstering and extending our unity of action. We must not disappoint them. We must find the strength and will to overcome whatever differences there may be among us and emerge with a unanimous agreement, for which we believe the Main Document before us offers us the basis. We are sure that this can and will be achieved.

As far as our Party and delegation are concerned, we are prepared to sign this Document as it presently stands.