p The Central Executive Committee of the Communist party of Canada is very pleased to have been invited,and to be able to participate in this important gathering of parties to mark the 175th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx, the founder and first practitioner of scientific socialism.

p Had this anniversary taken place last year instead of this year,the then Executive of the Communist Party would have declined to participate, if they had communicated at all.

p Until the late summer of 1992, the top leadership of the Party and of the Party newspaper The Canadian Tribune was in the hands of reformists and revisionists whose aim was to dismantle and liquidate the Communist Party of Canada, while extracting all of the assets built up by its membership and supporters over seventy years.

p After a prolonged political ideological, organizational and legal struggle spanning the years 1988-92, with roots going back even earlier than that, the liquidationists were defeated and left the CPC taking with them about 15 percent of the former membership, 50 percent of the assets, and the newspaper The Canadian Tribune.

p The terms of their departure, and the restoration of the Party and the remaining half of its assets to the control of the Leninist membership of the Party, were negotiated in the spring of 1992, when it finally became apparent to the liquidationists that in spite of the difficult international situation the Communist membership of the Communist Party was prepared to fight liquidation on every front, including public exposure of their betrayal which was the 153 final straw that forced these “democrats” and “reformers” to the negotiating table,thus ending the crisis in the CPC.

p The splititself, which was dubbed "inevitable” and “desirable” by those who attempted the hijack and whose intent was to split the organization but not the assets, was to be the prelude to the formation of a new political party referred to as "the united party of the socialist left".Initially,the reformists had intend-ed to dispose of the Party by dissolving it into this new broad “ nonsectarian” formation. It is a party which has yet to be bom, parenthetically; if s more likely to be a still-birth than anything else. That is because there is no room and no interest in Canada’s labour and democratic movements in developing a second social democratic party in Canada. It am be said that their hands are full dealing with the existing social democratic Party (NDP), which is presently implementing neo-conservative policy in 3 provinces.

p Aside from the inherent dishonesty of the hijackers, as they become known, (for their real agenda was always hidden and always denied), the logic of their position derived from events in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union in the first place. They concluded that the upheavals in the socialist countries were the result of fundamental flaws in socialist theory and practice which negated scientific socialism as a guide to revolutionary action, and socialism as the next rung on the ladder of human social development. Marxism,they said, was only one of many philosophies.

p In abandoning Marxism-Leninism,they strove instead to find a new form in which to express a left social democratic programme and goals; a form which would ensure their own personal careers and which would aim to reform capitalism, not to challenge and destroy it This was "the united parry of the socialist left* which was rebuffed by the Party from the moment it was first floated in the Canadian Tribune in January 1990, as well as by the labour and democratic movements whose interest is in transforming the NDP into a left social democratic party which is accountable and responsive to labour and the democratic movements, instead of being the conduit for the corporate agenda which it is in danger of becoming.

p In pursuit of this new political formation however,the reformists strove to abandon the principle of proletarian internationalism, most blatantly revealed in their refusal to condemn US aggression in the Gulf until the very last days of 1990, and by 154 refusing to extend working class solidarity to the people of Iraq during and after the bombing, for fear of appearing “soft” on Saddam. It is the position that they take now, outside of the Communist Party of Canada, to the heroic Party and people of Cuba. This alone is massive evidence of their departure from a class approach to the understanding of the world and of their place in it. More4t is reminiscent of the last great split in the working class movement in 1914 on the question of a nationalist or an internationalist approach by the working class movement in each country.

p Regrettably, the membership together with the minority in leadership was unable to prevent the reformists from severing almost all fraternal ties between th CP of Canada and the Communist and Workers Parties and the National and Social Liberation Movements around the world; indeed with any organization or publication outside Canada save for the breakaway group from the CP USA. This is a situation that we are working to rectify now. In our view it is crucial to re-establish the links with the international working class movement: to re-establish communications and information exchanges, but much more than that, to find the appropriate ways and means to chart a common strategy to prevent the outbreak of world war and of local wars that might lead to a general nuclear conflagration, to find a common strategy globally to block imperialism and to force it into retreat so that the forces for socialism and social progress may regain the historic initiative which has been temporarily lost to imperialism and to move forward-each country in its own way towards socialism and national and human emancipation. This includes the most urgent task which is the defence of socialist Cuba against US economic and military aggression; as well as socialist DPRK, socialist Vietnam, and other socialist countries in less imminent danger of attack. It also includes the defence and maximum solidarity with the heroic South African Communist Party and the African National Congress of South Africa. And it includes defence and solidarity to the Palestinian people in the year of the Intifada, under the leadership of the PLO. And to all the states and people under attack by US imperialism, and by the growing threat of war, reaction, racism and fascism which increasingly accompanies imperialism whatever its home base.

p In our view, such discussions will help to define the new content of proletarian internationalism in the post USSR period and 155 into the next century. That is, working class internationalism that is being shaped by the new conditions in which the anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly struggle is being fought today. We think that meetings such as this one are valuable because they provide an opportunity to examine all aspects of the people’s struggles from a theoretical and practical point of view. That is why we also favour the convening of a world meeting of parties as soon as it is practicable to do so.

p The reformists in the CP of Canada also attacked democratic centralism, deriding this Leninist organizational principle, and Leninism per se, as "Stalinism in practice”. This too was rejected by Party members, though the then General Secretary put out that the abandonment of Democratic centralism was the crucial pivot on which turned the “transformation” and liquidation of the CPC It was this statement more than any thing else that convinced many Canadian Communists that the reformists were not to correct distortions of democratic centralism that had occurred in the CPC, but to gut the party of the very thing that made it possible for the party to act in unison, and to lead in struggle.

p The reformists also attacked the theory of socialist revolution, which they wanted to see replaced with an updated theory of gradualism, which they then equated with democracy. Difference between the working class struggle for socialism, and the broader more immediate struggle for democratic reform,became increasingly blurred, as the reformists began to equate governmental power by social democratic governments with state power in the hands of the working class and its allies. They also abandoned the premise that the party should be a part of the working class;rejecting this as "too narrow" a base. Party membership itself began to be regarded as sectarian, as an unnecessary barrier which separated the party from the masses and from the activists in the trade union and democratic movements. Great efforts were made to blur the distinction between the Party and the mass movements as the party’s independent policies and campaigns disappeared and merged into the mass movements. Great efforts were made to change and later to ignore the party constitution (rules) so that individuals who were invited by the reformists to join in order to capture certain leading positions in the Party, could be admitted and advanced in spite of the rules.

p The idea of a revolutionary leap was also rejected, and the idea 156 of socialism growing up within capitalism was once again advanced and gained currency in some circles. The very idea of class struggle as the motive force of history was rejected, and instead,the democratic forces were suddenly invested with characteristics they do not possess, and tasks they cannot carry through.

p The rejection of these reformist ideas by Communists in Canada does not in any way deny the growth and significance of the democratic forces as allies of the working class, and in many instances as initiators of important struggles for democracy and social changes. But they are not, and cannot be the driving force -the engine of fundamental social change, up to and including socialism. That role is reserved for the working class, which continues to be the grave-digger of capitalism, even though the working class in itself is changing in response to the scientific and technological revolution and to global restructuring, which has extended capitalism’s life for what will be historically, a relatively brief period of time.

p The new conditions are no reason for communists to collapse and declare capitalism the winner, rather the new conditions call for new demands and new methods of struggle. Mass unemployment which is becoming the norm in the advanced capitalist countries, with over 2 million unemployed in Canada, raises the question of shorter work time in sharp perspective. A 35 hour work week with no reduction in take home pay, a ban on mandatory over-time,reducedpensionage and increased vacation time, would go a long way to putting Canada back to work. Together with legislation to prevent capital flight, to make substantial public investment in infrastructure, to bring in democratic tax reform, to bring down interest rates, and to block NAFTA and rescind the Canada-US Trade Deal, to protect social programs and to cut the arms and defence budgets starting with the helicopter purchases, these are the elements of a program to unite the employed and the unemployed for full employment, or in other words for genuine economic recovery.

p Combined with a militant defence of the national democratic rights of Quebec, the Aboriginal peoples, and English-speaking Canada to self determination up to and including secession; a policy of new confederal arrangement guaranteeing the equal voluntary partnership of each nation within Canada; the defence of trade union and democratic rights, the rights of women and youth, 157 the rights of Aboriginal people and people of colour; this is a program for a sovereign and independent Canada, a program for peace, jobs and democracy. It is a program that must be implemented in order to reach socialism in Canada; but it is not a program for socialism, nor should it be.

p The task before Canadian Communists today is to find the waysand means to mobilize the very broadest sections of Canadian society, including sections of capital, that are prepared to fight for Canada’s independence and sovereignty, for a foreign policy of peace, for jobs, and for labour and democratic rights.

p These are the forces that must be rallied and organized to defeat the neo-conservati ve agenda in Canada, to defeat the Conservative government led by Kim Campbell nee Brian Mulroney, and to prevent the election of a coalition of right forces including the newconservative and nationalist Bloc Quebecois in Quebec, and the populist Reform Party in the West with its links to extreme rightwing forces such as the white supremacist Heritage Party, the Klu Klux Klan, and the virulently anti-French Confederation of Re gions Party, amongst others. This is the crucial question before the working class and the democratic forces today, since the re-election of the Tories alone or in coalition with other right forces could spell the end of Canada by the end of the century, without exaggeration.

p The women’s movement in particular together with the senior citizens, the students, the Aboriginal peoples, the anti-racism movements, the peace and social justice movements, and many others have become a powerful force, which allied with the trade union movement, Communists, Social Democrats, (NDP), Greens, and the newly formed National Party (reflecting the sections of Canadian capital in sharp competition with the transnational in Canada), and even some sections of the Liberal Party will be the decisive factor in the days ahead. Such a people’s coalition, combining extra-parliamentary with parliamentary struggle, and united in action around a common alternative program such as outlined above.

p This is not a program for socialism, but it is crucial we believe in order to turn back the corporate assault in Canada and internationally. A narrow, self-serving approach on our part would be fatal for the attainment of our immediate and our long term goals, and for the future of the Party itself. In other words it is a struggle 158 for democratic reform, but it has nothing in common with reformism.

p The struggle against reformism in the Communist Party of Canada as we have tried to briefly outline here, was in fact the struggle to validate Marxism, and the need for Marxist-Leninist party, first in the complicated and quite foggy and confused conditions of 1989-90; and now in the new and complex conditions internationally and in Canada in the post USSR period. It is a struggle which has cost us dearly, but which left us in the words of Lenin "better fewer, but better”.

p It is a struggle which William Kashtan, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Canada, fought hard to win in the last years of his life, and to which he made as always, a signal contribution.

p Today, the CPC is a small party, but one which is once again able to be of service to the working class and people of Canada, and to the international working class movement.

p In the 72 years of its existence.in Canada, the CPC has sunk deep roots into the working class movement. The history of the Communist party during this period has been indivisible from the history of the working class movement in Canada and internationally, and so we intend it to continue. Learning from the past, and the recent and difficult past in particular now, we will rebuild on the best of those deep roots, severing those which are dead or useless, renewing our party on a continuing basis.

p Our recently held 30th Convention, the first since the end of the crisis, opted to reaffirm the Marxist-Leninist character of the party, to undertake a thorough study of the crisis in our Party and internationally which may take some time, to test and re-test all of our theory and practice in light of these cataclysmic events of the past 5 years, and to open up the discussion on our program " The Road to Socialism in Canada" (last published in 1971) that will examine in detail questions such as the national question in Canada, the new World order and capitalist rivalries for a redivision of the world, global restructuring and the scientific and technological revolution, changes in the working class, the new content of internationalism, democracy, democratic movements and democratic demands, socialist political economy and the exercise of working class power, the prevention of nuclear war, stages in the transition 159 to socialism, national liberation and the debt crisis, environment and ecological questions, and other fundamental questions.

p We expect that the discussion on the program will culminate in a special convention to be held in 1995 that will adopt a new program for the CPC.

p During this period, we anticipate a very critical discussion, a sharp debate, on many of the questions that are before the international movement as well as before our Party. This will help to strengthen our Party, our cadres, our theory and practice; not weaken us, as we replace unanimity as the benchmark of unity, with a more genuine collectivity based on rigorous and critical examination of problems including a rigorous and self-critical examination of our work. Errors and distortions in theory and practice must be regularly corrected in this way, not left to amass and seed the beds of future deviations to right or left This point is of particular significance to us in Canada, since in our view the seeds of the crisis in Canada were already mere, in 1988. The international situation proved to be the trigger that set liquidation in motion, and nearly destroyed the CPC.

p The Convention also agreed to launch the new Communist press in Canada, The People’s Voice, which was launched on March 1 st as a monthly,but which we expect to be published twice monthly by year end. A great deal of our energies will be spent on publishing this newspaper for the foreseeable future. It is our voice to the working class and people of Canada, and though we are small and our circulation is also small, it is our ideas that tower, and it is this that we must safeguard at all costs.

For as Marx said, it is not enough to study the world, the point is to change it.