Statement issued by the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) on the occasion of the workers’ demonstration on Parliament Hill, dated: March 22, 1976
WORKERS
The government of Trudeau has declared war on the entire working class. Besides attacking the workers it is also attacking other sections of the people. Since October 13, 1975, and for a long time before, there has not been a single day when the Trudeau government has not issued one threat or the other against, the workers, used the state against the workers and carried out the most vile and filthy propaganda against the working class. The Trudeau government has told the workers of our country: either accept a high rate of unemployment and inflation voluntarily or we will force you to do so – that is, bear the burden of the economic crisis or else! The Trudeau government is waging class war against the workers and other sections of the people on behalf of the war preparations of U.S. imperialism and on behalf of the big capitalists of our country.
The workers are fighting back. There is resistance through strike struggle and there is a campaign developing to make the rich pay. All sections of the workers and other oppressed people are entering the war. The lesson we learn from the activities of Trudeau’s government since October 13th and earlier is that only through revolutionary proletarian struggle can we win any battle. We ourselves have to fight. This fight is protracted but very necessary. No one can liberate the workers but the workers themselves.
Some people amongst the organised workers are saying that we should “test” the “constitutionality” and “legality” of the capitalist attacks. We say: this is not the kind of struggle which will unite our ranks and win us the war. It will merely make us wait and see what the courts of our oppressors think about their own law. We believe that this is a dodge. It is a dodge for two reasons: 1. It takes the initiative of struggle out of the hands of the workers and makes them sit and wait and 2. It creates illusions in the minds of the workers that a cure can be obtained from the gods of plague.
We say: workers have already rejected this path. Let us not waste time chasing dead-ends.
Some people amongst the organised workers are saying that we should “fight” to abolish Bill C-73. It will be good if Bill C-73 is abolished. We are all for it. But the state is not going to abolish Bill C-73. The state will abolish this bill only when it no longer suits its interests or merely to replace it with a more exploitive and repressive bill.
The call to abolish Bill C-73 is good as far as it goes. We all want it. But the method being provided by the people who are giving the call proves that this call is a dodge. These people only want to form some kind of political alliance of do-gooders around the NDP. That is, they want to take the initiative out of the hands of the workers and create illusions that through parliament these do-gooders will get some changes, some reform.
We say: Workers have also rejected this slogan. Workers who are fighting various economic struggles cannot sit around and wait until some do-gooders make it into the parliament. Let us not waste our time chasing dead-ends.
Some people on the fringes of the workers’ movement are yelling from the side: “down with the capitalist system” as a cover-up for having no fighting programme to give to the workers. These people also want to take the the initiative out of the hands of the workers and tell the workers that they should fold their arms and do nothing until capitalism is “downed’. These sloganeers have not yet gotten the message: workers know quite well that simply shouting slogans from the side does not “down” the capitalist system. Workers are actually resisting the attacks of the state and the capitalists.
We say: Workers have already rejected this empty breastbeating. Let us not waste time chasing dead-ends.
We say: what the workers want is to RESIST THE ATTACKS OF THE CAPITALISTS AND THEIR STATE and MAKE THE RICH PAY! as the immediate aim of their proletarian struggle. Their ultimate aim is the overthrow of the capitalist system and the establishment of a genuinely socialist and independent workers’ republic.
Workers know that others can help but the main brunt of this proletarian struggle has to be borne by the workers themselves. In this era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, it is up to the workers to emancipate themselves. Those who produce everything and suffer so much from the exploitation and repression by the capitalists and their state cannot sit on the sidelines with folded arms waiting for some would-be emancipators to save them. Workers have to fight the class war themselves.
In this class war, worker’s must launch an offensive against the capitalists and their state. The main content of this offensive in the immediate sense is to MAKE THE RICH PAY! We call upon the workers:
Workers cannot sit around with folded arms hoping that one-day the judges of the oppressors will declare Bill C-73 “illegal” and “unconstitutional”.
Workers cannot sit around with folded arms hoping that one day some do-gooders will enter the Parliament of the oppressors and abolish Bill C-73. We know what NDP did in BC just a few months ago.
Workers cannot sit around with folded arms hoping that if some sideline individuals shout “Down with the capitalist system!” enough times, the system will disappear from the face of this earth. We have heard enough of the impotent shrills from these sideline individuals in the past.
Resist actively at your place of work, in your sector as a whole and as part of the entire working class.
Resist to make the oppressors pay!
Launch active struggles to make the rich pay! The rich must pay for their crisis!
No to unemployment! No to inflation! No to attacks on the wages and working conditions!
PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE!
MAKE THE RICH PAY!
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) resolutely hails the fighting spirit of the workers. We salute the tens of thousands of workers who are vigorously participating in this demonstration as representatives of millions of their class brothers across Canada. CPC(M-L) firmly believes in the militancy and determination of the working class. We are convinced that THE WORKING CLASS CAN MAKE THE RICH PAY and THE RICH CAN PAY!
Workers: Launch one offensive after another against the U .S.imperialist-dominated state and the capitalists. NO to sitting around and waiting for something to happen. YES to revolutionary proletarian class struggle against the state and the capitalists.
Workers: The March 22nd demonstration is a reflection of the revolutionary will of the working class. It is also the declaration of the working class that they will launch one offensive after another until the RICH PAY and THE CAPITALIST SYSTEM IS OVERTHROWN.
PREPARE FOR STRUGGLE!
MAKE THE RICH PAY!
VIGOROUSLY RESIST THE ATTACKS OF THE CAPITALISTS AND THEIR STATE!