The second wave of Canadian anti-revisionism was larger than the first and originated in Quebec where it spread to the rest of Canada. Like the first wave, it was rooted in support for Communist Party of China and its struggle against modern revisionism.
Two events determined the development of the Quebec left in the early 1970s. The first was the October Crisis of 1970. The repression by the Canadian state and the defeat of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) forced the left to re-evaluate its strategy. Many followed the lead of FLQ spokesperson, Pierre Vallières, who argued that activists should abandon the immediate struggle for socialism and instead work for independence from within the mainstream Parti Québécois (PQ). The struggle for socialism could begin after independence was achieved. This dispute split the progressive movement into those who supported the Vallières’ position and those who focused more on changing the basic economic structures of society.
The second was the Common Front strike of 1972 that saw 250,000 workers walk off their jobs to support the jailed leaders of the three main union federations. This was the largest mass labour action in Canada since the Winnipeg General Strike in 1919. The strike saw workers take over radio stations and at least two towns before it was over. This development created a “workerist” trend in the Quebec left exemplified by the formation of the comites d’action politique (CAPs) in Montreal. Other supporters of this trend included the Agence de presse libre du Quebec, Librairie progressiste, and the magazine Mobilisation. They supported the policy of entering factories and other workplaces to build a militant union movement. Another group that emerged during this period was the Mouvement révolutionnaire des étudiants du Québec (MREQ), which was active in Quebec universities and CEGEPS (community colleges) including the English language universities in Montreal. It published the bilingual newspaper The Partisan and operated a bookstore (Librairie Ho Chi Minh). It was the first group to put forward the necessity of rebuilding a communist party in Canada. Although more to the left than the workerists, it also supported the trend of sending activists into the workplace
In 1972, a former FLQ member, Charles Gagnon, along with other a few other activists, released the document Pour la partie prolétairian. This polemic attacked both the “independence first” strategy promoted by Pierre Vallières and the workerist strategy promoted by the CAPS. It argued that the immediate task of activists was to build an ideological and political alternative to capitalism in the form of a revolutionary party that would win the workers to socialism. This document would form the basis of the group, In Struggle!, one of the leading second wave anti-revisionist organizations.
Soon after the publication of Pour la partie prolétairian, members of the CAPS and allied organizations began to develop more openly Marxist-Leninist political positions and a number of small groups spun out of the disintegrating CAPS, such as the Cercle Communiste marxiste-leniniste, Groupe d’action socialiste, and Mobilisation (groupe communiste marxiste-léniniste).
In the autumn of 1975, two of these groups – the Cellue militante ouvriere and the Cellule ouvriere revolutionnaire – joined with the MREQ to form the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist) (CCL (M-L) (known hereafter as the League), the other leading group in the second wave of Canadian anti-revisionism.
In English Canada, those Marxist-Leninists who were not attracted to any of the pre-existing organizations such as CPC (M-L), CPL, or CLM worked in broad-based left groups and newspapers such as the East Coast Socialist Movement in Nova Scotia or the Western Voice newspaper in Vancouver. Others worked in workers support networks such as the Right to Strike Committee in Toronto. Still others were in isolated study groups. This changed with the launching of the publication Canadian Revolution in 1975. This magazine was published by members of the Toronto Communist Group, Workers Unity, and future members of the Bolshevik Union as an open form for Marxists-Leninists. It not only translated and published documents from the Quebec organizations but also provided a means for isolated groups in a geographically huge country such as Canada to make contact with one another.
However, it was In Struggle! and the League that were the most developed groups with organizational structures, a regular press and developed positions that would define the second wave of Canadian anti-revisionists.
The second wave differed from their first wave predecessors in that the majority saw Canada as a developed capitalist country that had reached the stage of imperialism. Although U.S. imperialism did play an important part in the Canadian economy, these anti-revisionists argued that the Canadian capitalist class acted in its own interests and was not a puppet of the U.S. Further, this capitalist class was active in the exploitation of the Third World. For these groups and individuals, the struggle in Canada was a struggle for socialism – not for national independence.
The second issue that also separated this wave of anti-revisionists from the first was the issue of Quebec. Although the initiative for the second wave came from Quebec and they viewed Quebec as an oppressed nation, these anti-revisionists rejected the view that it was in a colonial relationship with Canada. Flowing from this, they also rejected the concept of separate organizations for Canada and Quebec and instead argued for building a single organization or party within the Canadian state. This was reflected in both In Struggle! and The Forge (newspaper of the CCL (M-L)) which carried identical articles in both their French and English editions.
At first, both In Struggle! and the League had a fairly harmonious relationship and even worked together on a number of campaigns, but relations deteriorated over a number of issues.
The first was how to unite the still dispersed Marxist-Leninist forces across Canada. In Struggle! argued that because the movement was still young and underdeveloped, it should be broadly defined so as to allow for debate and the delineation of political positions. In Struggle! proposed that four conferences be held to foster that debate. The first would be about Marxist-Leninist unity, the second on the nature of the Canadian state, the third on the international situation, and the fourth on the revolutionary program. It also offered to open the pages of its theoretical journal, Proletarian Unity, to smaller groups to publish their material.
The League on the other hand defined the movement much more narrowly and held that since In Struggle! and itself were the largest organizations, debate should be between these two organizations with smaller groups participating from floor. So, while In Struggle! was willing to allow the Red Star Collective – which held the Canada as neo-colony position – to participate in the conference process as a Marxist-Leninist group, the League did not consider it part of the movement. Although the League participated in the first conference, it announced that it was boycotting the subsequent ones.
The League’s position would prove more realistic as smaller groups began to dissolve into either of the two organizations. By the end of 1977, 90% of the small groups had ceased to exist. There were hold-outs such as Red Star Collective, and the Bolshevik Union (among others). The Bolshevik Union held that the process of small groups merging into the two larger groups (which it dubbed the “two superpowers”) was premature. Instead, they argued, these groups should remain independent and develop their political positions more. They also questioned the “pre-party organization,” a concept they said was imported from the U.S. On the other hand, the Red Star Collective (along with the Halifax Study Group) believed that objective conditions did not yet require the formation of a vanguard party. The League declared itself the Workers’ Communist Party (WCP) in 1979.
Both In Struggle! and the League were real forces on the Quebec left. In Montreal, meetings organized by In Struggle! usually had an attendance of 1,500 or more, while the League/WCP could top 2,000 and at one point even reached 3,000 people. Both had 16-page weekly newspapers that were published in two languages and both also had bilingual theoretical journals. However, these groups, although they had branches in most major Canadian cities, never really grew in English Canada – although the League had a base in Toronto and In Struggle! in Vancouver.
The differences between the two organizations continued to deepen to the point in late 1977 that the League declared that In Struggle! had degenerated into revisionism. In Struggle!, for its part, said that the League had a sectarian attitude toward the Marxist-Leninist movement and was never really interested in struggling for unity.
The final dividing line between the two organizations would be the Chinese policies following Mao’s death; and the “Theory of Three Worlds.” In Struggle! always had a “left” interpretation of the Three Worlds Theory that separated the foreign policy of China from support for revolutionary movements around the world. The League maintained a more rigid interpretation, going so far as to call for greater Canadian participation in NATO to counter the threat of Soviet imperialism and the influence of US imperialism. After the death of Mao and the arrest of the “Gang of Four”, the League enthusiastically supported the new regime in Peking. In Struggle! was however more guarded about events in China until late 1978 when they denounced the Chinese Communist Party.
By the 1980s, both In Struggle! and the League began to enter a period of crisis. The first group to fall was In Struggle! A combination of trying to reorient to a less dismissive attitude toward progressive movements, the crisis in the world-wide Marxist-Leninist movement, and the demands of women, gays and lesbians, and workers members soon drove it into crisis. At its fourth congress in 1982, In Struggle! calmly voted to dissolve.
The WCP crowed at the dissolution of In Struggle!, but by 1983, it saw its own members question its rigid internal regime and political direction. Unlike In Struggle! whose crisis lasted over a period of almost a year, the WCP dissolved within months. By mid-1983, two organizations that could, combined, bring over 4,000 people to their meetings, had ceased to exist. The crisis in the worldwide Marxist-Leninist movement also claimed the life of smaller groups. By the mid-1980s, these groups, such as the Red Star Collective and Bolshevik Union had also disappeared. In this way, the anti-revisionist trend in Canadian communism came to an end.
| Index of organizations and topics in this section (by alphabetical order) |
| Alive magazine |
| Bolshevik Union |
| Canadian Communist League (M-L) – Workers’ Communist Party |
| Canadian Revolution |
| Conferences of Canadian Marxist-Leninists |
| Halifax Study Group |
| Marxist-Leninist Organization of Canada, In Struggle! |
| Organization of Communist Workers (Marxist-Leninist) |
| Red Star Collective |
| Western Voice |
Pour un Québec socialiste A November 1972 Radio-Canada video of a debate between Pierre Vallières and Charles Gagnon (founder of In Struggle!) on the struggle for socialism in Quebec (French only).
Beginnings of a Socialist Movement in Montreal (Translation and adaptation of “Quelques aspects du Debut d’un Mouvement Socialiste a Montreal”)
“The Extra-Parliamentary Left,” Chapter IX of Henry Milner’s Politics in New Quebec (1978)
L’extrême gauche au Québec A February 1979 Radio-Canada half-hour video featuring In Struggle! and the Canadian Communist League (as well as a Trotskyist group) (French only).
Retour sur un passé révolutionnaire A September 1999 Radio-Canada video featuring former members of In Struggle! and the Workers’ Communist Party reflecting on their experiences in the movement (French only).
Red Power and Socialist Study: 1967–1975 by Ray Bobb
The origin of In Struggle! can be traced to the polemic For the Proletarian Party written in 1972 by ex-Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) activist Charles Gagnon. This document attacked two popular positions within the Quebec left at that time. The first was put forward by his former FLQ comrade, Pierre Vallières, that activists should join the Parti Québécois to win independence first and then struggle for socialism later. The second was the strategy of activists entering the workplace and promoting militant trade-unionism. This tendency was represented by the Comités d’action politique active in Montreal. For the Proletarian Party argued that the main task was to build a revolutionary party and win the working class to socialism.
In 1972, the newspaper, En Lutte! began publishing to advance the concepts laid out in For the Proletarian Party. The Équipe de journal (newspaper team) that published the newspaper maintained it as an independent journal until 1974 when its supporters consolidated into a Marxist-Leninist group with the publication of Create the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Struggle for the Party at its first congress. In response to its publication, five groups in Quebec dissolved to join In Struggle!
Create the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Struggle for the Party stated the necessity of forming a Canada-wide communist party. Accordingly, In Struggle! began publishing an English-language digest of its newspaper and in 1976 began to publish the newspaper in both French and English on a bi-weekly basis. Later in the year, it launched a bilingual theoretical journal, Proletarian Unity.
By autumn of 1976, the Toronto Communist Group merged with In Struggle! And in early 1977, groups in Halifax, Regina, and Vancouver would also join. It would also expand to other cities.
In Struggle! developed campaigns against the wage control act in the late 1970s and the struggle for democratic rights. However, it did not have a policy toward union work (although members were active in a number of unions). Most activity was geared to recruiting contacts into its readers’ circles to study the newspaper.
After the death of Mao and the arrest of the Gang of Four, In Struggle! maintained silence on the changes in China until 1977 when it came out against the Three-Worlds theory and generally supported the criticisms of it by the Party of Labour of Albania (PLA). In Struggle! would also denounce the Chinese leadership –however, it never supported the PLA’s attacks against Mao himself.
After the adoption of a programme at its third congress in 1978, In Struggle! renamed itself the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Canada, In Struggle! It also called for unification of the Marxist Leninist movement around a new communist international that would be based on a communist programme rather than the practice of following the line of “father parties” such as the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labor of Albania.
Toward this end, In Struggle! launched the magazine International Forum in 1980 as an open forum for debate between anti-revisionist groups that were opposed to the developments in China. However, it had little success as political positions were rapidly hardening between those organizations that supported the PLA and those that still supported Mao. During this time In Struggle! became critical of nationalism which in its opinion, had infected the Marxist Leninist movement for too long.
During this time, the organization began to adopt a more open attitude toward working with movements and groups that they had previously dismissed as reformist and vowed to be less sectarian than in the past. It also decided to embark on a study of socialism.
However, by 1981, the organization began to fracture with some members questioning the validity of Marxism-Leninism. Others in the organization – such as women, gays and lesbians, and workers – began to criticize a structure dominated by male intellectuals and professionals. Soon the paper became a free for all with different factions debating back and forth. This continued until In Struggle!’s fourth congress in May, 1982 when it voted to dissolve itself. Some factions tried to continue afterwards, but they disappeared soon after.
The Political Journey of Charles Gagnon
Fight the Sectarianism of the CCL (ML)
When unmasked, the League has no choice but to turn to police methods
Unreserved nationalism – The League’s “reserve nation”
CPC(M-L)’s International Conference: Doing everything to be recognized by other parties
A fourth counterfeit communist party [on the WCP]
The Workers Communist Party unveils its constitution
Equality of Languages and Nations – WCP style
NO to in Struggle’s Compromising with Revisionism by the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist)
Unmask In Struggle! Denounce Gagnonism! by the Bolshevik Union
Critique of In Struggle!’s “The Path of the Canadian Revolution” by the Red Star Collective
Critique Of In Struggle’s Declaration Of September 6, 1977 “Against Right Opportunism In International Questions” by the Red Star Collective
Create the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Struggle for the Party
DRAFT PROGRAM for the Canadian Proletarian Party
No Revolutionary Party Without a Revolutionary Program
The goals and work of Canadian Communists in trade unions today
In Montreal, 1,900 people sing “One weapon that we need is the workers’ unity”
The Third Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Canada IN STRUGGLE!
In Struggle! No Longer Exists [Resolution of the 4th Congress]
A [4th] Congress summation from some B.C. sympathisers
The Question of Quebec – Our Position
Collect signatures for the Declaration [for the absolute equality of languages and nations in Canada]
The Quebec National Movement in the 1960s
Support for Quebec’s right to self-determination is very much alive in English Canada
Against Right Opportunism on International Questions [On the “Three Worlds” Theory]
The leaders of the Communist Party of China are taking China down the capitalist road
China in Vietnam – An act of aggression to match its return to capitalism
On Enver Hoxha’s book, Eurocommunism is anti-communism. There are questions that still need to be answered by Charles Gagnon
A feminist criticism of IN STRUGGLE!’s Programme
Feminist questions about Marxist theory
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The Conferences of Canadian Marxist-Leninists were four national meetings organized by In Struggle!. The conferences developed out of In Struggle!’s position that because the Canadian ML movement was underdeveloped; it was necessary to give the widest expression to all viewpoints on critical issues. IS! planned four national conferences that would also be supplemented with regional conferences.
The first national conference was held on September, 1976, on the “unity of communists”. Over 1200 people participated with 14 groups giving presentations. The Canadian Communist League (M-L) participated in the conference but denounced it as an opportunist exercise that dodged issues of political line. The CCL (ML) also held that some other participating groups – such as the Bolshevik Union – were counter revolutionary and did not belong at the conference. The CCL (ML) subsequently announced that it would be boycotting future IS! national conferences. A regional conference on the issue of communist unity was also held in Toronto, Ontario.
Despite the League’s boycott, IS! organized a second conference in April, 1977 on the “path of the Canadian Revolution”. The conference included eight groups with over 1500 people attending. The reduced number of participating organizations was due to the fact that a number of the groups that had attended the first conference subsequently joined either IS! or the CCL(ML).
The third conference on the “international situation” was held in September, 1977. Debate at this conference centred on the “Theory of Three Worlds” that had been recently criticized by the Party of Labour of Albania. This time, over 1,000 people attended with five groups giving presentations (along with anti-imperialist groups from Africa, Haiti, Iran, Philippines as well as the Third World Peoples Anti-Imperialist Committee). A regional conference on the international situation was also held in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The fourth conference on the “tasks of communists” was held in February, 1978. While 1200 people attended, it was a much diminished event inasmuch as the majority of smaller ML groups had already joined either the CCL (ML) or IS!, At the conference itself, only IS! made a presentation. The prior debates between IS! and the Red Star Collective had become antagonistic to the point that the RSC had announced that it was boycotting the fourth conference. The Bolshevik Union, on the other hand, was no longer considered by IS! to be part of the movement – and BU members were ejected from the conference by mid-morning.
Towards the Unification of the Canadian Marxist-Leninist Movement by In Struggle!
The Conference of Canadian Marxist-Leninists on October 9
Boycott In Struggle’s ’unity’ conference by the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist)
Why we won’t participate in In Struggle’s unity conference by the Vancouver Socialist Group
Who Will Attend In Struggle’s Unity Conference by the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist)
Why we support the boycott of In Struggle’s unity conference by the Regina Marxist-Leninist Collective
In Struggle’s 3rd conference clear evidence of opportunist betrayal by the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist)
Matchmakers of Opportunism: Against En Lutte’s Unity Plan by the Organization of Communist Workers (Marxist-Leninist)
Documents of the National Conference on the Unity of Canadian Marxist-Leninists
Documents of the 2nd Conference of Canadian Marxist-Leninists on the Path of Revolution in Canada
Documents of the 3rd Conference of Canadian Marxist-Leninists on the International Situation
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The Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist) – and later the Workers’ Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) – was the largest of all the anti-revisionist organizations with a membership of over 1,000 at its height. The League was formed through the merger of three Montreal-area groups in the autumn of 1975. The largest group was the Mouvement révolutionnaire des étudiants du Québec which had been active at university campuses and CEGEPS (community colleges) after its split from the Parti communiste du Québec (marxiste léniniste) in 1971. The two other groups were the Cellue militante ouvriere and the Cellule ouvriere revolutionnaire. These groups came out of the comites d’action politique (CAPs) that were active in the working class neighbourhoods and workplaces in the Montreal area.
The League also held that Canada was part of the imperialist camp. It also supported the position that while Quebec was an oppressed nation, the goal should be to build a Canada-wide party. It published a bi-weekly paper in both French and English named The Forge which later became weekly. It also published a theoretical journal named October.
The League held that the groups that came out of the CAPS such as Cercle Communiste marxiste-leniniste, Groupe d’action socialiste, and Mobilisation (groupe communiste marxiste-léniniste) were right-opportunist and the members could only develop as communists under the leadership of the League. This strategy proved to be remarkably successful as these groups agreed and dissolved themselves into the League. The recruitment of most of the groups from the early-1970s workerist trend made the League the largest group in Quebec. When Workers Unity, a Marxist-Leninist collective in Toronto, joined the League and it started expanding across Canada – although the majority of its membership would remain based in Quebec.
The League was very active in union movement – especially the Confederation of National Trade Unions in Quebec where it could mobilize up to 300 delegates (out of over 1,000) at CNTU conventions. In other parts of Canada, the League was active in the Canadian Auto Workers and the Canadian Union of Public Employees. During this period, the League was its largest with public meetings in Montreal with over 3,000 people attending. Their contingents in demonstrations in that city could number over 2,000 people.
In the spring of 1979, the Canadian Communist League renamed itself the Workers’ Communist Party (WCP). The WCP, like its predecessor, supported the new regime in China after Mao’s death and was a strident supporter of the Three-Worlds Theory. China reciprocated by officially recognizing the WCP and the leadership of the party met with Hua Guofeng and toured Pol Pot’s Democratic Kampuchea just prior to the Vietnamese invasion. During this period, the WCP also developed close ties with like-minded parties such as the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) in the U.S. and the Workers’ Communist Party of Norway.
By late 1982, the WCP entered a period of crisis. Many began to question the direction that China was taking. Members also discovered that the majority composition of the Political Bureau was English speaking while the vast majority of the membership was French speaking. More controversy came to the fore as members complained about the rigid internal structure that was overseen by a security group that acted as an internal police. In the last issue of The Forge, the disintegrating WCP officially apologized to a couple who had been held prisoner by this group in their apartment for 14 hours while it searched for internal documents. Although some members wanted to form a broader based organization, the majority voted to dissolve the party.
The most prominent former member of the WCP is Gilles Duceppe who was the leader of the pro-independence Bloc Québécois which holds a number of seats in the Canadian Parliament. He resigned the position after the 2011 election.
Fight the Sectarianism of the CCL (ML) by In Struggle!
Unreserved nationalism – The League’s “reserve nation” by In Struggle!
“CCL(ML)” The Canadian Counter-Revolutionary League (Social-Fascist) by the Bolshevik Union
A fourth counterfeit communist party [on the WCP] by In Struggle!
The Workers Communist Party unveils its constitution by In Struggle!
Alive magazine editorials on the formation of the Workers Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)
Equality of Languages and Nations – WCP style by In Struggle!
Announcing the Creation of the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist)
Mobilisation must choose: Climb out of the opportunist swamp or drown
Organize March 8 on a revolutionary basis
The League in the Regroupment for March 22
The struggle against right-opportunism is essential for building the party
Self criticism of the group Mobilisation: A profound criticism of right-opportunism and economism
Workers’ Unity (Toronto) rallies to the Canadian Communist League (ML)
The CCL (ML) Response to the Political Documents of Western Voice
No compromise with opportunism
On the question of Canadian Revolution
For the unity of Marxist-Leninists
Mobilisation is not a Marxist-Leninist group
Combat right opportunism masked by intellectualism
New Victories in the Battle against Opportunism
NO to in Struggle’s Compromising with Revisionism
Boycott In Struggle’s ’unity’ conference
Editorial: In Struggle Completely Liquidates Self-Criticism on Political Line!
The Groupe Abitibi-Temiscamingue (ML) Rallies to the League
More than ever, we must demarcate in order to unite
The End of the “Family of Five” in Quebec
Opportunism Around Unity Again
League Holds Unity Conference in Vancouver
In Struggle Embarks on Another Dead-End Path
Bolshevik Union: A Counter-Revolutionary Sect
A Great Ally of Reformists and the Best Defender of Economism
May First Collective, An Opportunist Group
In Struggle slipping ever faster into right opportunism
Communist Work Developing in Acadia
Self-criticism of Regina Marxist-Leninist Collective on its participation in Saskatchewan Waffle
Regina Marxist-Leninist Collective rallies to the League
In Struggle now turns to direct attacks on socialist China
In Struggle has sunk completely into revisionism!
Black Study Group rallies to the League
Draft Program for a New Communist Party
Founding Congress of the Workers Communist Party
Four years of communist work laid basis for party
Resolution on the unity of the international Marxist-Leninist movement
Report on the Party’s Work in a Big Plant
Repression of the masses, capitulation on defence
The League’s work among students
Editorial: 1,200,000 Workers Out Against Wage Controls
“C”PC’s parliamentary illusions will never defeat capitalism
Who Owns Canada? by Richard Desrosiers and Julian Sher (October, Autumn 1980)
SOS Daycare Congress Adopts CCL(ML)’s Program
In Struggle on Unions: Opportunist Through and Through
Revisionist chiefs leading fishermen’s struggle to a dead end
Newfoundland seal hunters get enthusiastic send-off in St John’s
For the unity of the proletariat of the two nations
No to separation, yes to self-determination and socialism
The significance of the Parti Quebecois election
Editorial: Safeguard the independence of Canada
En Lutte and the International Situation
Joint Communique Issued by the October League and the Canadian Communist League
Joint Communique of the CCL (ML) and the AKP (ML) of Norway
Capitalism encourages it, socialism fights it!
Fascist Bains gang tries to buy off worker
In Struggle Comes to the Rescue of Trotskyists
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Canadian Revolution was a magazine founded by members of the Toronto Communist Group, Workers Unity, and individuals who would later go on to form the Bolshevik Union. The magazine was intended as an open forum for Marxist-Leninists to debate issues related to communist theory and practice. Although only six issues were published (from spring 1975 into early 1976) Canadian Revolution managed to connect often isolated groups across Canada with one other. However, disputes between the Bolshevik Tendency (the initial name of the Bolshevik Union) and the other groups on the magazine over its direction soon disrupted further publishing. Moreover, both the Toronto Communist Group and Workers Unity were soon to merge with the expanding Quebec groups – In Struggle! and the Canadian Communist League.
The Degeneration of Canadian Revolution by the Bolshevik Union
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The Bolshevik Union was originally formed as the Bolshevik Tendency by a group working with the magazine Canadian Revolution. The group held the position that the Canada’s native peoples were an oppressed nation and that Canada’s north is an internal colony. After the group split from Canadian Revolution, it started publishing its own magazine named Lines of Demarcation.
Although the Bolshevik Union initially supported In Struggle!, it soon denounced both In Struggle! and the Canadian Communist League (M-L) for being right-opportunist and economist. Instead, the Bolshevik Union argued that the smaller anti-revisionist groups and collectives across the country should maintain their independence in order to sharpen the ideological struggle and not merge with the larger groups. It also questioned the concept of a “pre-party organization” which was felt to be a concept imported from the United States. The Bolshevik Union managed to recruit a group of In Struggle! members and sympathizers in Montreal and began publishing the monthly bilingual magazine, Proletarian Revolution.
The BU supported the Party of Labour’s criticism of the Three-Worlds Theory and socialist Albania until the PLA recognized the CPC (M-L) as the vanguard party in Canada. After that, it claimed that there had been no socialist camp since the death of Stalin. Thereafter, the BU started working closely with the Bolshevik League in the United States and a journal, Correspondances Internationales, that was published by African Marxist-Leninists in Paris. It disbanded sometime in the mid-1980s.
Bolshevik Union: A Counter-Revolutionary Sect by the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist)
A Strange Letter from the Bolshevik Union by In Struggle!
BU “Alone at last!” by In Struggle!
As Usual Alive Responds to Attacks!
Nationhood or Genocide: The Struggle of the Native People Against Canadian and American Imperialism
LINES OF DEMARCATION, the Marxist-Leninist Movement and the Bolshevik Union
The Degeneration of Canadian Revolution
“Not with Whom to Go, But Where to Go”
Unmask In Struggle! Denounce Gagnonism!
The Expulsion of the League from ADDS: A Great Victory for Welfare Recipients
“CCL(ML)” The Canadian Counter-Revolutionary League (Social-Fascist)
The Party of Labor of Albania Came to Canada Under a Stolen Flag
Alive Magazine on the “Unsheltered Class” and its Dirty Language
War and Proletarian Revolution
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The Red Star Collective (RSC), a Vancouver area Marxist-Leninist group in the 1970’s, developed out of the Vancouver Study Group (VSG) which was active from 1972 to 1976. For much of this period the VSG was the only group in Vancouver which sought to base its analyses in Marxism-Leninism. Founders and leading members of the VSC included former members of the Progressive Workers Movement.
The RSC, like its predecessors, believed that Canada was not an imperialist country but rather an economic colony of the United States. However, it did not support the two-stage theory of an anti-imperialist revolution followed by socialism that the Progressive Workers Movement had put forward in the 1960’s. The RSC position was a minority one within the Marxist-Leninist movement during the 1970’s. However, some smaller groups such as the Halifax Study Group had similar positions. The RSC considered the Three Worlds Theory, developed by Mao, to be the correct approach to analyzing the international situation.
The RSC disagreed with the larger anti-revisionist groups like In Struggle! and the CCL (ML) on the priority of party building. While these two organizations saw the building of a vanguard party as the primary task of Canadian communists, the RSC held that the objective conditions did not yet exist for the creation of a vanguard party. The RSC saw the primary task as being to create these objective conditions (by strengthening the class consciousness, knowledge and organization of the working class and its allies). To this end, the RSC was active in labour, anti-imperialist and anti-racist movements as well as in conducting study groups and publishing various pamphlets.
The RSC willingly debated with other second wave anti-revisionist groups and worked in common campaigns with them and with other progressive organizations. The RSC participated in various conferences including some of those organized by In Struggle! Jack Scott – an RSC member and long-time activist – personally addressed the first IS! conference.
Like other second wave anti-revisionist groups, the RSC dissolved during the 1980s.
Two Roads: the Origins of the Sino-Soviet Dispute by Jack Scott
The Progressive Workers’ Movement and the Red Star Collective: A Legacy Of Economism And Bourgeois Nationalism In The Marxist-Leninist Movement by the Long March Collective
Canada: Imperialist Power or Economic Colony?
Critique of In Struggle!’s “The Path of the Canadian Revolution”
The International Situation: World United Front & Proletarian Revolution
Discussion with Chinese Comrades (Notes on Chinese Foreign Policy) by Jack Scott
Basis of Unity of the Red Star Collective
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The Halifax Study Group had its origins in the East Coast Socialist Movement – a left group that supported workers’ struggles (such as the Nova Scotia fisherman’s strike in the early 1970’s) and published the newspaper, East Coast Worker. Two groups that identified with Marxism-Leninism emerged from the East Coast Socialist Movement (ECSM) when it dissolved in 1972. One group eventually became the Halifax Communist Group (which later joined In Struggle!). The other group became the Halifax Study Group (HSG).
The HSG was initially formed to work with the journal, Canadian Revolution, but as the Toronto groups joined the larger Marxist-Leninist formations and the Canadian Revolution project was abandoned, the HSG turned its attention to the analysis and critique of the new left in general, the major Canadian M-L groups in particular, and the connections it made between the two. The HSG’s New Infantilism pamphlet – which had begun as an analysis of the politics of the ECSM – was revised to take aim at what it saw as the ultra-leftism and “phoney Marxism” of In Struggle! and the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist). The HSG continued as a study group but dissolved in the early 1980s. The New Infantilism was its only publication.
New Infantilism. The “New Communist Movement” in Canada
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Alive began in as a generally left-wing Guelph, Ontario high school literary magazine in Nov.-Dec. 1969, inspired by a teacher, Edward Pickersgill, who continued to play a leading role in the magazine until 1978. For a number of years, it continued in this pre-anti-revisionist mode. By the early-1970s, however, Alive was clearly aligned with the anti-revisionist movement, publishing a variety of revolutionary poems, short stories, literary criticism and cultural news, “in the tradition of Norman Bethune and Lu Xun.” For a brief period in the mid-1970s, Alive merged with the Communist Party of Canada (M-L)’s cultural journal Literature & Ideology, only to break with it shortly thereafter. Peak circulation of Alive in the mid-1970s was approximately 6,000 – with 5,000 copies per issue being sold on the streets and campuses in southern Ontario and another 1,000 by mail to paid subscribers. Alive closely followed the political-cultural line of the Communist Party of China in its poetry, short stories, and editorials – during the late 1970s, for example, it had a regular news column entitled: “Soviet Union: Greatest Threat for World War”. Alive ceased publication in 1980.
Alive Magazine on the “Unsheltered Class” and its Dirty Language by the Bolshevik Union
Revolutionary Culture is a Practical Struggle
Writers and Artists Have Duty to Serve in the Worldwide Struggle Against Imperialism
Oppose Monopoly Capitalist Terrorism Against Individuals and Whole Segments of Society
Letter: Nothing Like Alive in England by T. Graham
The Progressive Cultural Club of the University of Guelph Sets a Good Example for Cultural Workers
CLM’s National Chauvinist Body Dead. Let’s Bury the Opportunist Spirit!
Dealing with the question: Should We Retract Our Characterization of Milton Acorn
The One That Got Away by John Burnley
Six of One, Half a Dozen of Some Other by John Burnley
Introduction to the Updated “Alive View”
The Destruction of On the line by Cathie Lauzon
Book Review: The Challenge of the Kampuchean Revolution by E. San Juan Jr.
Editorials on the formation of the Workers Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)
As Usual Alive Responds to Attacks!
The Shoe by John Burnley
The Execution of the Infant Mary
Let Us Remember by Pat McLellan
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Western Voice was founded in 1973 by staff members of the Vancouver “alternative” newspaper, Grape. The newspaper’s masthead described Western Voice as a “Newspaper of Working Class Struggle” and it covered labour and social struggles across Canada with an emphasis on British Columbia. While many in the Western Voice Collective (WVC) were sympathetic to Marxism-Leninism, this was not reflected in the paper which focused more on broad-based labour support and solidarity rather than putting forward a revolutionary political line. The trend of publishing progressive papers with no discernable revolutionary line by activists who identified with Marxism-Leninism was repeated across Canada during the early 1970s. Other examples include Mobilisation, published by Libraire Progressiste in Montreal, and Ottawa Worker and New Foundations in Ontario. These activists were either not attracted to the existing M-L organizations, such as the CPC (ML) or the CPL, or else believed that conditions were not yet right for the creation of a Marxist-Leninist party. However, with the publication of Canadian Revolution and the expansion of the Quebec M-L groups, many began to re-evaluate these positions. The Western Voice Collective, in the last two issues of the publication, began a process of self-criticisms and a public orientation to Marxism-Leninism. Not only did it publish its own material but also included translated material from the M-L groups in Quebec. The WVC eventually dissolved Western Voice and most of its members went on to join In Struggle! Others similar publications, such as Mobilisation, became affiliated with the CCL, while others simply ceased publishing.
The CCL (ML) Response to the Political Documents of Western Voice
Against the Economist Line on the Western Voice
Liquidate Economism – Not the Struggle Against It
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The OCW (ML) began in Guelph, Ontario as the Guelph Worker’s Committee. The latter described itself in a letter to Canadian Revolution as a ‥small group of workers studying Marxism-Leninism”. The GWC later renamed itself as the Organization of Communist Workers (Marxist-Leninist).
For a brief period of time, the OCW (ML) was allied with a U.S.-based collective, the Communist Workers Group (Marxist-Leninist), based in Kasas City, Missouri. The two groups issued a joint statement on the situation in China after the defeat of the “Gang of Four.”
The OCW (ML) seems to have disbanded not long after the publication the “Movement for the Party.”
Three Letters to Canadian Revolution in response to the letter of the Guelph Workers Committee
Letter to Canadian Revolution from the Guelph Workers Committee
The Situation in China and Social-Chauvinism in Our Movement by the Organization of Communist Workers (ML) Canada and Communist Workers Group (ML) U.S.A.
Matchmakers of Opportunism: Against En Lutte’s Unity Plan
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