First Published: 1973
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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Adopted at the 1st Congress of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) held from May 15-24, 1971 in Guelph, Ontario, the First Congress since the criticism and repudiation of the modern revisionist line in March, 1970 in the Communist Party and revised by the 2nd Congress (Second Congress since the criticism and repudiation of the modern revisionist line in the Communist Party in March 1970) of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) held in Montreal from March 17-24, 1973).
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), as distinguished from the Revisionist Party of Canada, is the political party of the proletariat.
The basic programme of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is to complete the mass democratic anti-imperialist revolution, whereby the first stage towards the total overthrow of the bourgeoisie and all other exploiting classes will be accomplished and the dictatorship of the proletariat in place of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie is established and the historic era of continuing class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat is inaugurated, leading to the final victory of socialism over capitalism. The ultimate aim of the Party is the realisation of communism.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is composed of the advanced elements of the proletariat; it is a vigorous vanguard organisation leading the proletariat and the revolutionary masses in the fight against the common enemy.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) takes Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as the theoretical basis guiding its thinking. Mao Tsetung Thought is Marxism-Leninism of our era in which imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is advancing to world-wide victory.
Since the formation of the Communist Party of Canada in 1921, at a convention held in secret in Guelph, the genuine Marxist-Leninists inside and outside the Party have held high the great red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and proletarian internationalism. They have attempted, time and time again, to apply the scientific theory of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought to concrete conditions of Canada and have persisted in leading Canada’s great struggle against colonialism, imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction and in support of the restoration of the hereditary rights of the Native Indians (including Metis and both treaty and non-treaty Indians) and Inuit people and in support of the national liberation struggle of the people of Quebec and for the defeat of capitalism and all systems of exploitation of man by man. These genuine Marxist-Leninists have gained rich experience in combatting modern revisionism, dogmatism, and opportunism: They have stubbornly opposed the “working class line” of the right opportunists, and their attempts to deny the decisive role played by Marxism-Leninism and the working class in building the Party and the mass movement and in achieving the class goals of the proletariat and building socialism, as well as their attempts to bind the working class hand and foot to reformism and “the peaceful and parliamentary road to socialism.” They have also persisted in opposing the ultra-left who slander the step-wise development of revolution consistent with the historical conditions, oppose the national liberation movements and the leading role of the working class, its Party and of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in the anti-imperialist revolution under the hoax that “all nationalism is reactionary”, and are a road-block to the national and to the international-United Front against U.S. imperialism. They have firmly criticised and repudiated those who agree in theory that Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the working class are decisive in building the Party and the mass movement, but who, in practice, fail to uphold Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and mobilise the working class as the leading and main force of revolution. They have upheld the proletarian revolutionary line that both the advanced elements of the proletariat, the communist revolutionaries organised in their own political party, the Communist Party based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, and the working class (as a class leading the revolution as well as being the main force of revolution) are decisive factors in defeating U.S. imperialist domination of Canada and in defeating the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought is the class consciousness of the proletariat in its most concentrated and advanced form, and the genuine Marxist-Leninists have always strived to base their consciousness of class struggle in Canada on the sound foundations of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and have strived hard to defeat their class enemies. Since 1970, they have taken up the glorious task of building the Party anew on the genuine Marxist-Leninist basis by criticising and repudiating the modern revisionist line and waging militant struggles to mobilise the class-conscious workers against imperialist domination of Canada, against the anti-working class legislation of the bourgeois state machine and in support of the day to day struggles of the workers as well as in support of the over-all struggle of the proletariat against foreign imperialist domination and against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. They have defeated one attempt after another of the bourgeois state machine to suppress them, and they have overcome the splitting activities of the “Left”-sloganeering front of Khrushchovite revisionism inside. They have firmly stood against all lies, slanders and abuse of the holy alliance of the “left’: and they have, without letup, continued on the revolutionary path of building the Party and leading the masses.
Over the past ten years, the mass movement has advanced rapidly and the working class and oppressed people have undergone a new awakening; tne Communist Party based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and proletarian internationalism has been re-established; the merging mass movement and the developing Party have declared bankrupt those so-called “veteran communists” known as so-called “anti-revisionists” who, through their abstract formulae, were yelling themselves hoarse from the sidelines about the “necessity of building the Party” but were not quite capable of building it themselves and who have now totally degenerated into neo-revisionism and neo-trotskyism forming a road-block against the Party and the mass movement. Also crest-fallen are various centrists all across Canada who pitted themselves against building one national and proletarian revolutionary party based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. The responsibility of leading the struggle against the deviations and vulgarisations of the modern revisionists, the “anti-revisionists” and the centrists of all hues and colours fell onto the shoulders of a group of Marxist-Leninists known as the Internationalists who came out of the developing revolutionary mass movement. They tenaciously upheld the view that the Party will grow out of the mass movement and will, in turn, serve the mass movement. For this reason, they stubbornly attempted to build the Party as the decisive factor in leading the mass movement and build the Party in the course of leading the mass movement. Under the staunch and correct guidance of their leader, Comrade Bains, the Internationalists, starting in 1963, slowly but steadily emerged as the leaders and path-finders of the revolutionary mass anti-imperialist movement in Canada, and as the builders of the Communist Party based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. They led coast-to-coast dissemination of Mao Tsetung Thought, organised several nation-wide Learn From the People campaigns, developed mass democracy meetings, initiated the resistance movement to defend by armed force the right to politically organise and disseminate Mao Tsetung Thought, and participated in many revolutionary struggles at the place of work, in the educational institutions and in the community against the class enemy. By linking theory with practice and by remaining the centres and leaders of the mass movement, the genuine Internationalists solved some initial problems in the building of the Party and the mass movement and contributed tremendously towards the defeat of modern revisionism,dogmatism and opportunism inside and outside the Party. Whenever the Party followed the correct methods of work developed under the leadership of Comrade Bains by creatively applying Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought to the concrete conditions of Canada, our Party moved forward. When we deviated from this correct path, our Party suffered temporary setbacks.
It is the firm conviction of the Party leadership and its entire membership that the Communist Party of Canada with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as its leader and commander will, with every passing day, grow into a great, glorious and correct Party and will constitute the core of leadership of the Canadian people; it will be tempered in the course of defeating imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction, and in its historic struggle towards the seizure of state power by armed force.
The steeling of the Party takes up the entire historical epoch of defeating imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction and the entire period of socialist revolution and socialist reconstruction. During this entire period, class struggle never ceases, and in fact, becomes steadily more acute as the people advance towards victory. At the present time, when political power rests in the hands of the monopoly capitalist class who are nothing but the tools and lackeys of one imperialist power or the other and who are the oppressors and exploiters of the vast majority of the Canadian working class and people, there is class struggle against their policies of national betrayal and national subjugation and there is the historic task of defeating the U.S. imperialist domination of Canada. There is class struggle to restore the hereditary rights of the Native Indians and Inuit people and in support of the just struggle of the Quebec people to win national liberation. There is class struggle against the right opportunist line and the ultra-leftists inside the Party and outside, and there is constant class struggle against the conspiracies of the bourgeoisie to liquidate the Party through open suppression and internal subversion. There is an over-all class struggle against social fascism and against the class-collaborationist policies of the NDP and the Revisionist Party of Canada.There is constant class struggle against the main form of anti-Marxist-Leninist degeneration and liquidation of our era, modern revisionism at every level. And there is class struggle to seize political power by armed force and to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and to build socialism. During this entire historical epoch, our Party must stubbornly persist in holding high the great red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and gloriously lead the vast majority of the Canadian people to final victory over colonialism, imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction.
By developing its revolutionary initiative in the course of solving contradictions in the real world, by learning from the history of the struggle between the two lines in the Party since its establishment in 1921, and by learning from past mistakes to avoid future ones and using Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as a guide to action, the entire Party is engaged in solving many problems of method of work left over by history and is transforming itself in the heat of the revolutionary struggles. Contradictions are being resolved by complete reliance on the revolutionary capacity of the masses and by having complete faith in Mao Tsetung Thought. To defeat imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction, the Party is vigorously upholding the revolutioary methods of work: Seek truth from facts to serve people; integrate theory with practice; unite with the people to struggle against the enemy; and struggle against the enemy to unite the people. Such is the mass democratic anti-imperialist revolution of the Canadian people which will vanquish imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction.
The entire Party must hold high the great red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, adhere to its teaching and use the science of dialectical and historical materialism to solve various problems. The entire Party must engage in constant propaganda as to what is the basis of change, development and motion in society by taking up concrete struggles as examples, criticise and repudiate all imperialist, revisionist and reactionary theories of apriorism, metaphysics and “human nature”, emphasise the decisive role of conscious participation, attitude, outlook and ideology in moving history forward and explain the relationship of the superstructure to the economic base.
The entire Party, in fighting the concrete manifestations of modern revisionism, dogmatism and opportunism, engages itself in building the actual struggle units in the course of which it becomes one with the masses and develops their revolutionary initiative. It stubbornly persists in organising the unorganised; leads the day-to-day struggles of the working class at the place of work and in the community and refrains from substituting itself for the revolutionary initiative of the masses. It rigidly adheres to the line of leading some struggle in certain key areas on the basis of kindling single sparks and it encourages, sympathises with and supports all oppositional trends against the capitalist system.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) upholds proletarian internationalism; it firmly unites with the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist-Leninist), The Communist Party of Ireland (Marxist-Leninist), and the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) as well as with all the other genuine Marxist-Leninist parties and groups from all over the world and with complete faith in Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism and in the proletarian revolutionary line of Chaiman Mao Tsetung, the greatest Marxist-Leninist of our era, and of the great Marxist-Leninist Enver Hoxha, and with total confidence in the correctness of the Communist Party of China and the Albanian Party of Labour, the Party is, with great patience and perseverance, slowly but resolutely taking up the task of winning its rightful place in the glorious international communist movement headed by the Communist Party of China and the Albanian Party of Labour. The Party never loses faith in the correctness of its own political line and is striving hard to contribute towards the defeat of imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction through its own work and become a worthy member of the Internationale. It stands firmly against U.S. imperialism, Soviet social-imperialism and all reaction, works tirelessly for their defeat, militantly, supports the national liberation struggles of all nations and peoples of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the world which are oppressed and bullied by imperialism, social-imperialism and all reaction, works labouriouslv to develop the revolutionary unity between the peoples of Canada, the U.S.A. and the people of the world to abolish the system of exploitation of man by man on the globe, so that all mankind can be emancipated.
Members of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), who dedicated their lives to the struggle for communism must be resolute, fear no sacrifice and surmount every difficulty to win victory!
Article 1: Any worker, poor farmer, poor fisherman, or any other revolutionary element who has reached the age of 18, is resident in Canada and who accepts the constitution of the Party, joins a Party organisation and works actively in it, carries out the Party’s decisions, observes Party discipline and pays membership dues may become a member of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).
Article 2: Applicants for Party membership must go through the procedure for admission individually. An applicant must be recommended by two Party members, fill out an application form for Party membership and be examined by a Party branch, which must seek the opinions of the revolutionary masses who come forward in struggle to support the Party. Formal membership of the Party goes through the following stages: 1) Friend of the Party, 2) Close Supporter of the Party, 3) Candidate Member of the Party and 4) Full Member of the Party. Full membership to the Party is accepted after two years period of being in contact with a particular Party branch first as a friend, then as a close supporter and lastly as a candidate member.
Article 3: Members and candidate members of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) must:
1. Study and apply Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought in a living way;
2. Work for the interests of the vast majority of the people of Canada and the world;
3. Consciously participate in discussing the policies and directives of the Party in order to understand their meaning thoroughly and decide on the methods of carrying them out;
4. Participate in constant Learn From People campaigns as well as in active mass work in order to learn trom the masses, study and investigate the actual conditions and conscientiously follow the revolutionary line: No investigation, no right to speak!
5. follow the three guidelines of a) Building fraternal relations, b) Upholding mass democracy, and c) Boldly practicing criticism-self-criticism and the four levels of work of a) Internal consolidation, b) External consolidation, c) Investigation, and d) Agitation.
Article 4: When Party members violate Party discipline, the Party organisations at the levels concerned shall, within their functions and powers and on the merits of each case, take appropriate disciplinary measures – warning, serious warning, removal from posts in the Party, placing on probation within the Party or expulsion from the Party.
The period for which a Party member is placed on probation shall not exceed five years. During his probationary period, he has no right to vote or elect or be elected, to be allowed into any formal sessions of the Basic Units and upwards.
A Party member who becomes politically apathetic and makes no change despite education should be persuaded to withdraw from the Party.
When a Party member is asked to withdraw from the Party, the Party branch concerned shall with the approval of its general membership meeting, remove his or her name from the Party rolls and report the matter to the next higher Party committee for the record. When necessary, this should be made public to the masses outside the Party.
All candidate members who either themselves ask to withdraw their application, or who are asked to do so before their two years probationary period is up will be treated as non-members of the Party and will lose their status in the Party automatically. Candidate members have no right to vote or elect or be elected but will be permitted to participate in meetings of the Basic Unit and in other activities as if they were full members.
Proven renegades, enemy agents, those who persist in following the bourgeois reactionary Right and “left” opportunist line – the handing over of the leadership in the building of the Party and the mass movement to bourgeois “experts”, trade union hacks and intellectuals by opposing the decisive role of Marxism-Leninism and the working class in the building of the Party and the mass movement; the “peaceful and parliamentary road to socialism”; the counter-revolutionary theories of “productive forces”, “two combine into one – the withering away of class contradictions”, “inner-Party peace”, people are too “weak”, while imperialism is too “strong”; “all nationalism is reactionary”, counter-revolutionary slogans of “anti-capitalist” and “one-stage” revolution, and for the “armed overthrow of Trudeau’s regime”, the theory of “many centres” and anarchy in the national and international communist and working class movement; the advocates of the “working class line”, waving “Marxism-Leninism” and “Stalinism” to oppose Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, dividing the ranks of revolution under the hoax that “workers” are more “revolutionary” than others, blurring class differences in the working class and peddling fascist and social-fascist workers as genuine “revolutionaries”; becoming critics of the revolution instead of resolutely leading the masses in changing the world; practising centrism as against democratic centralism, intriguing and conspiring and standing above the revolutionary discipline of the Party, degenerate and alien class elements must be cleared out of the Party and not re-admitted.
Article 5: The organisational principle of the Party is democratic centralism.
The leading bodies of the Party at all levels are elected through democratic consultation.
The whole Party must observe unified discipline. The individual is subordinate to the organisation, the minority is subordinate to the majority, the lower level is subordinate to the higher level, and the entire Party is subordinate to the Central Committee.
Leading bodies of the Party at all levels shall regularly report on their work to congresses or general membership meeting, constantly listen to the opinion of the masses both inside and outside the Party and accept their supervision. Party members have the right to criticise Party organisations and leading members at all levels and make proposals to them. If a Party member holds different views with regard to the decisions or directives of the Party organisations, he or she is allowed to reserve his or her views and has the right to bypass the immediate leadership and report directly to higher levels, up to and including the National Secretary of the Central Committee. It is essential to create a political situation in which there are both centralism and democracy, both discipline and freedom, both unity of will and personal ease of mind and liveliness, and both maximum release of the revolutionary initiative of the masses and solidarity of the organisation.
Article 6: The highest leading body of the Party is the National Party Congress and, when it is not in session, the Central Committee elected by it. The leading bodies of Party organisations in the localities are the Party Congresses or general membership meetings at their respective levels and the Party committees elected by them. Party Congresses at all levels are convened by Party committees at their respective levels.
The convening of all Party congresses in the local areas and their elected Party committee members are subject to approval by the higher organisations.
Article 7: Party committees at all levels shall set up their working bodies in accordance with the principle of unified leadership, close ties with the masses and simple and efficient structure.
Article 8: The National Party Congress shall be convened every five years. Under special circumstances, it may be convened before its due date or postponed.
Article 9: The plenary session of the Central Committee of the Party elects the National Executive Committee, the Control Commission of the National Executive Committee and the National Secretary and Assistant National Secretary.
The plenary session of the Central Committee is called by the National Executive Committee of the Central Committee.
When the Central Committee is not in plenary session, the National Executive Committee of the Central Committee and its Control Commission exercise the fuctions and powers of the Central Committee.
Under the leadership of the National Secretary, Assistant National Secretary, and the Control Commission of the National Executive Committee of the Central Committee, a number of necessary organs, which are compact and efficient, shall be set up to attend to day-to-day work of the Party in a centralised way.
Article 10: Local Party congresses at the county level and upwards will be convened once a year. Under special circumstances, they may be convened before or postponed until after their due date.
Party committees at all levels elect their Control Commissions, Secretaries, and Assistant Secretaries.
Article 11: In general, the Basic Units of the Party are formed in factories, mines and other enterprises, neighbourhoods and educational institutions, civil service and other organs of the state power of the bourgeoisie like the armed forces; general Party Basic Units may also be set up where there is relatively a large membership or where the revolutionary struggle requires.
Basic Units shall hold elections once a year. Under special circumstances, the election may take place before its due date or be postponed.
Article 12: The Basic Unit is a small, well-disciplined and conscious contingent of communist revolutionaries who are either sent by the Centre to a new area (Directed Struggle Basic Unit) or recruited from the local area in the course of revolutionary struggle (Actual Struggle Basic Unit), and whose task is to study and investigate the revolutionary history of the place and to lead the mass movement there by participating in the struggles of the workers and oppressed people in the area, living among them and beginning the work at a very low level. In the course of struggle, the Basic Unit either decides to get more cadres into the area in order to concentrate the forces to hit at the enemy or divide the forces to arouse the masses over a larger area. A conscious and compact communist Basic Unit will come into being in the area after a long period of revolutionary struggles – a Basic Unit which holds high the great red banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, gives prominence to the proletarian politics, develops the style of integrating theory with practice, maintains close ties with the masses, and practices criticism and self-criticism. The Basic Units can achieve this if they boldly carry out the political and ideological work in the open and amongst the masses while keeping all their organisational work underground, dare to chose leading spokesmen for their Units who have come out of the mass struggle and have support amongst the masses, persist in undertaking constant criticism-self-criticism and strive hard to achieve a relationship with the masses like the fish with water. The general responsibilities of the Basic Units are:
1. To carry out study and investigation by going deep into the masses and integrating with their struggles;
2. To organise regular study circles on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, not leaving it as a chance activity to be executed in “leisure time”;
3. To disseminate the works of Chairman Mao and the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and important documents from China, Albania and other genuine Marxist-Leninist Parties and groups on a large scale keeping in mind that the dissemination of Mao Tsetung Thought is primary and everything else is secondary;
4. To give constant education to the Party members and the broad revolutionary masses concerning the class struggle and the struggle between the two lines and lead them in fighting resolutely against the class enemy;
5. To propagate and carry out the policies of the Party, implement its decisions and fulfill every task assigned by the Party;
6. To maintain close ties with the masses, constantly listen to their opinions and advice and wage an active ideological struggle within the Party as to keep Party life vigorous;
7. To take in new Party members, enforce discipline, constantly consolidate the Party organisations by upholding “three guidelines” and “four levels of work” and get rid of the stale and take in the fresh so as to purify the Party in the course of the revolutionary struggle.