Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line

Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)

Political Report of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)


Chapter 7: The unity of the working class is absolutely necessary and essential to overthrow the capitalist system and build socialism

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) maintains that the working class has a historical mission to unite its class behind one revolutionary banner and to overthrow the monopoly capitalist class, a class which has seized political power through treachery, robbery, plunder, genocide against the Native Indian people, armed national suppression of the Quebec people and vicious exploitation of the whole Canadian working class and people. The CPC(M-L) declares that there are two antagonistic worlds in combat, the world of capital and the world of labour, the world of U.S. imperialism, Anglo-Canadian colonialism and the Quebec traitors and the world of the entire working class. The freedom of one necessitates the suppression of the other.

The class struggle we have lived in Quebec over the past few years has awakened many to the lessons that both capital and labour know that the freedom of one necessitates the suppression of the other. For this reason, more and more fighters have come forward to 1) build the unity of the working class against the attacks of the reactionary governments and 2) build the Marxist-Leninist proletarian revolutionary party, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).

It is only natural that the criminals who hold state power, who see the working class organising independent of their control, reply with fascist repression and massive conspiracies in order to strengthen their dictatorship and divide the ranks of the working class. Every conspiracy, every clubbing, every jailing and every act of their unprovoked violence, however, brings fresher and newer forces into the struggle. There is no force which the monopoly capitalist class has which will stop the advance of the revolutionary class of this country. Their jailing of union leaders and members, their conspiratorial reports hatched with U.S. imperialist companies, their anti-labour laws, their suppression of the unemployed and the workers on welfare, their vile attacks and arrests of over 1600 members of CPC(M-L) since 1968 will not stop the proletariat or its Marxist-Leninist Party from organising and bringing about the social revolution and the People’s Republic of Canada.

The reactionary governments have made it known that 1) the proletariat has no right to fight against capitalist exploitation, 2) the proletariat has no right to organise itself into associations of its own choice, and 3) the proletariat must remain a slave class under the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie.

The capitalist system in Canada has reached its highest and final stage. It is incapable of dealing with the problems facing the working class as it is the cause of all problems. Actual production in Canada is going down, unemployment is extremely high, inflation is rising and the prices of goods and services are sky-rocketing. Real wages of the workers are going down, the living conditions are deteriorating, economic crisis of capitalism is setting in. Final, total breakdown of the capitalist system is just a matter of time.

The capitalists are quite conscious of this economic crisis. They are also acutely aware of the working class. The capitalist governments in all the provinces and at the federal level are passing anti-working class legislation in order to continue depriving the working class of the right to organise and the right to strike. The political party of the working class, the CPC(M-L) is constantly the target of attack of the capitalist state machine.

The general organisations of the working class, the trade unions, are under the control of the class-collaborationist leadership of the social-democrats. Instead of using the trade union organisation against the capitalists, they are using them against the workers. The leaders of many trade unions have accumulated capital and have become capitalists themselves. A labour aristocracy has come into being which has its basic interests tied up with the capitalist system, and the labour aristocrats act as the agents of the capitalists in the trade unions.

The basic struggle of the workers is two fold: 1) the political struggle against the capitalist system, and 2) the struggle at the place of work for a) decent wages, b) better working conditions c) job security and d) against unemployment. The opportunists, the revisionists and the social-democrats mix things up and oppose the two-fold basic struggles of the workers. The revisionists and the social-democrats believe that the capitalists are interested in working for labour if labour pleads and begs them on a consistent basis. For them, the problem in Canada is not the exploitation of labour by capital but the problem of “unequal distribution of wealth”. All the revisionist and social-democratic slogans centre around “equalising the distribution of wealth”. For them the problem at the place of work is not the heartless exploitation of labour by capital but the problem of a “misunderstanding between workers and management”. Based on this basic counter-revolutionary outlook, the revisionists and social-democrats subordinate the political mission of the proletarians of overthrowing the capitalist system to one of reforming the capitalist system so that “equal distribution of wealth” can take place. And they subordinate the basic day-to-day struggles of the workers against the heartless exploitation of labour by capital at the place of work to “improving worker-management relations”. Through this method, they oppose the political struggle of the working class as well as the day-to-day struggles of the working class. Because of the revisionist and social-democratic leadership of the organised workers, all their struggles at the place of work are liquidated before they even start, and sweetheart deals are made between the labour aristocracy and the management behind the back of the working class.

The basis for the increased profits of the capitalists is the increased exploitation of labour week by week, month by month and year by year. To suggest that exploitation remains at an average level is bourgeois mysticism and not scientific analysis. Concrete analysis shows that if the capitalists were able to exploit the working people, say in the year 1972, 100 units, then they must exploit the same working people by 125 units in 1973. If they do not do so, then their increase in profits will go down. This they will never permit. While the revisionists and social-democrats make a lot of noise about “guaranteed income”, they never talk about supporting the basic right of labour to demand whatever wages they deem fit in return for their labour power. The basic right of labour to sell its labour power at the price agreeable to itself is what the revisionists and social-democrats oppose. All the noise by the revisionists-and social-democrats to “tax the rich” and ”make monopolies pay”, etc., amounts to nothing when on the daily basis they oppose 1) the basic political mission of the working class to overthrow the capitalist system, and 2) the basic right of the workers to sell their labour power at a price agreeable to themselves.

Life, and especially economic life, does not stay at the same level. There are some basic trends in economic life which keep on irresistibly developing. One of these trends is 1) the increasing profits of the capitalists and 2) the increasing exploitation of labour under the capitalist system on a continuous basis. The capitalists engage in most vicious fights with one another in order to enrich themselves at the cost of other capitalists and on the basis of maximum exploitation of the working class, and the working class trains itself in the fight with capital. Ultimately the entire economic system breaks down. These developing antagonisms between capitalists themselves are inherent in the capitalist system. The irresistible tendency to ruin itself as an economic system is also the inherent tendency within the capitalist system. The revisionists and social-democrats do not believe in the changes taking place in the real world. They are status-quo seekers. They vainly dream of unity of all capitalists as opposed to vicious dog-fights. They wishfully strive to make the working class servile to capital. They wish the capitalist system would remain forever. It is for this reason that all their demands are to the capitalists to reform themselves and not manifestoes which they present to the people in order to overthrow the capitalist system. Only the CPC(M-L) has a programme which is addressed to working people. This programme can only be implemented by the Communist Government and no one else. To suggest that a communist programme can be adopted by the capitalist government is to be eternally naive, and those who are deceived by the revisionist and social-democratic propaganda that “minimum demand” is to ask the capitalist government to reform and “maximum demand” is to overthrow the capitalist system, must wake up and see through the anti-working class designs of these political groups. These groups have been talking about “minimum demands” for decades upon decades and they have never once given the call that even these “minimum demands” will not be implemented until the communist government is established and for this reason the people should support the communists.

The capitalists will undertake reform in order to strengthen the capitalist system. They do pick up revisionsit and social-democratic demands and put them into practice. There are many demands of the bourgeois socialists which are good for the capitalist system, and it is for this reason that they pick them up. But the real demands of the working people will never be taken up by the capitalists. The capitalists will never agree with the right to sell labour power at the price agreeable to the labourer. They will never improve the working and living conditions nor will they provide job security and full employment. These are the day-to-day struggles on which battles must rage. But it is precisely on these points that the revisionists and social-democrats negotiate sweetheart deals behind the backs of the workers. As far as the communists are concerned, it does not matter how much actual capital any one capitalist has hoarded and how much these leeches must be payinpg taxes. What is important to us are the basic rights of the workers and how tenaciously and stubbornly we fight for these rights. It is precisely on this point that the revisionists and social-democrats compromise and collaborate with the capitalists. A lot of these individuals themselves are wallowing in wealth and are immensely pleased with themselves for their “standard of living”. It is for this reason that they complain about those who are richer than themselves, and their slogan of “equalising of the distribution of wealth” is the equalising of wealth amongst the capitalists. A lot of revisionists and social-democrats have enriched themselves over the years because of this “equalising of the distribution of wealth”.

Unity of the entire class is absolutely necessary and essential

The working,class is basically disunited. There are no united struggles of the entire working class, and the capitalists’ agents have been able to split the working class into as many sections, trades and crafts as possible. As a result, there are struggles being fought of a trade, craft or section of the working class in isolation from the entire working class, but against the entire capitalist class. In this struggle, the capitalists deploy, everything available to them against a particular trade, craft or section on a class basis as one force, while the workers helplessly watch the struggles of their fellow workers being fought in isolation from one another and ending in defeat. The capitalists, apart from using their state machine and news media, also hire goons to physically attack the workers, protect the scabs and suppress the strike struggles.

The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) maintains that in order to fight any battle with the capitalists, the unity of the entire working class is absolutely necessary and essential. This unity can only be built in struggle against alien elements and influences inside the working class. It is the most urgent resposibility of the class conscious workers to take up the task of uniting the working class against the capitalist class and their system.

In order to build the unity of the working class, the CPC(M-L) calls upon all class conscious workers to earnestly take up the task to organise the un-organised workers. There are masses of workers who are eagerly waiting to be organised into mass organisations. To build the unity of the working class, it is absolutely necessary that an earnest effort is made to organise the unorganised workers. Without organising the unorganised workers, to talk about uniting the working class is merely a pipe-dream.

In order to build the unity of the working class, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls upon all class conscious workers to oppose the influence of the social-democrats among the already organised workers. Without consistently fighting this counter-revolutionary influence on a day-to-day basis, no progress toward the unity of the working class can be made. It is absolutely necessary to oppose the class collaborationist politics of the NDP to build revolutionary resistance to the onslaught of capital against the working class.

In order to build the unity of the working class, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist Leninist) calls upon all class conscious workers to irreconcilably wage struggles
1) to defend the wages of the workers,
2) to fight for better working conditions,
3) to fight for job security, and
4) to fight against unemployment.

All these struggles must be waged on a revolutionary basis. That is, on the basis of fighting the capitalists as opposed to on the basis of demanding reform. There are certain basic rights which belong to the workers which cannot be negotiated. These are rights to decent wages, better working conditions, job security and a job. Battles must be waged to defend these rights.

In order to build the unity of the working class, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls upon all class conscious workers to defend the right of the workers to strike as a method of fighting for the fulfillment of their demands. At no time should the workers agree with any legislation which takes this right away.

In order to build the unity of the working class, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls upon all class conscious workers to support the “Canadian Unions” in opposition to the International Unions. In supporting the “Canadian Unions” and in opposing the International Unions, the class conscious workers must not take an absolute and dogmatic stand, but, instead, make an analysis of each union and support these unions on merit. At the same time, the general line of building international unions should be opposed and the general line of building Canadian Unions should be supported. There can be no international Unions without the building of independent, militant and proletarian Canadian Unions.

The right to have Canadian unions must be asserted. We are not against the establishment of International Unions. But these International Unions must be based on equality and must be based on equal representation from small or big or medium-sized nations, and the International Unions must respect the basic sovereignty of all nations. Behind the building of the International Unions is the strengthening of the militant unity behind workers of all lands against international reaction and the politics of the two superpowers. Those so-called “International Unions” which are creations of either one superpower or the other cannot assist, but rather, hinder, the unity of the trade union movement on the world scale. We are against such International Unions and alliances.

In order to build the unity of the working class, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls upon all class conscious workers to struggle to politically organise at the place of work, The workers should oppose the capitalist notions that workers should “merely work” and “leave politics to the politicians”. The class conscious workers must struggle hard to arouse the workers to take political stands and to support the overall political struggle against the U.S. domination of Canada and against the capitalist system itself.

This is an era of anti-imperialist proletarian revolutions. In this era, the working class is gaining ascendancy all over the world while the ship of capitali;m is sinking fast. The working class must take the initiative in its own hands and lead its class to victory over capitalism. This initiative must be developed in leading the struggles of the workers at the place of work as well as participating in general politics against the capitalist political system. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is the political party of the proletariat and is dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism and the building of socialism and communism. It supports any class conscious worker who will wage irreconcilable struggles at the place of work and in the community.

Building the unity of the working class is our own task. Working class unity will be built on the shoulders of the working people. It will be built by waging struggles at the place of work and in the society at large. Let us unite ranks closely against fascism and for the liberation of the entire working class through active resistance to the attacks of the bourgeoisie and its state machine. Let us oppose the reactionary plans of the monopoly capitalists to use the national question to divide the working class of Canada. Let us transform the trade unions into revolutionary organisations of the workers which no capitalist party or government can destroy by passing a backward law through their bourgeois parliaments. The working class will emancipate itself. The working class has defeated one enemy after another and is leading the entire people to revolutionary victory.