First Published: The Call, Vol. 7, No. 11, March 20, 1978.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Paul Saba
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A communique from the Canadian Communist League (M-L) brought news that the CCL recently held its Second Congress. This Congress, according to the communique, “opened a new and last decisive stage in the League’s work—the final drive towards the creation of the Marxist-Leninist party, the vanguard of the Canadian working class.”
The Congress adopted some important resolutions on the Quebec national question and on building the party and elected a new Central Committee. According to the communique, the delegates showed a strong working class composition, “a very large increase” from the First Congress.
The Political Report adopted calls on the English-speaking working class to support the democratic rights of the Quebec nation, particularly the “right of self-determination up to and including the right to form a separate Quebec state.” The report also pointed to the special duty of the Quebecois workers to oppose the narrow nationalism of the bourgeoisie.
The report reaffirmed the League’s support for Mao Tsetung’s theory of three worlds, which it called “a powerful weapon which permits the world proletariat to distinguish between its friends and enemies.” The report also underlined CCL’s “unshakeable support for socialist China and the Communist Party of China.”
Before the Founding Party Congress, the CCL set itself the tasks of “producing the draft program for the party,” struggling to unite with “all Marxist-Leninists who are still outside the League’s ranks” and “rallying the advanced workers to communism.”
In a post-Congress interview with the League newspaper, The Forge, CCL spokesman Roger Rashi said: “The League’s Second Congress must serve as a weapon to win these advanced workers. It’s by rallying to the League that they will unite and organize to take in hand the building of the party and to advance on the road of socialist revolution in our country.”
The Congress was greeted by many Marxist-Leninist parties, including the CPML of the U.S. In its message, the CPML called the Congress ”a great event for the Canadian proletariat and the Canadian people.” It added that “CCL (M-L) is playing the leading role in forging the new party of the Canadian proletariat which will inevitably propel the class struggle forward to victory over the bourgeoisie and on to socialism.”