There is dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over every cell of Canadian society. It is only natural that those who control political, judicial, state and military affairs also control the social and cultural life of the country. This dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as a national all-embracing system whose main purpose is to supervise the basic contradictions between capital and labour in favour of capital, exhibits itself as small particular entities and systems in all the various particular cells and aspects of the society. It is this dictatorship operating in particular entities in a particular fashion which creates the material conditions for the operation of the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as a whole, as a national and all-embracing phenomenon, and vice versa. So the class struggle goes on daily, without let-up, in every cell of the society, in the real life of the people, and in the most particular and concentrated form. This class struggle going on every day without let-up quantifies and takes up the shape of general and all-embracing class struggle, giving rise to its spokesmen, representatives, functionaries and military men. And this quantification is further assisted by the influence of the developing general and all-embracing class struggle, pushing into periods of high tide and then low tide and guiding it through various twists and turns. Each class issues manifestoes, produces propaganda, grooms functionaries, steels cadres and fights an incessant class war against the other classes. This entire process is universal, is independent of man’s will and is continuous without any break or let-up. The ebb or rise in the class struggle is merely the reflection of the state of class struggle, the level at which it is at and not the reflection of the discontinuity or elimination of the class struggle.
In Canada, as well as in all the countries of the world, this class struggle is being waged by various classes without any let up. The basis for change, development and motion in the society is class struggle; and the more fierce, decisive and conclusive the class struggle is the more the society moves forward. Class struggle is not controlled by any individual or political party. Class struggle is universal and irresistible. It is inherent in the system of society where classes exist (classes exist in all the countries in the contemporary world) and one or more classes in unity or separately, oppress another class or classes. No one’s ideas escape the imprint of his class. The ideas, political declarations and manifestoes are the summing up of the objective class struggle. This is true of the revolutionary class as well as of the reactionary classes. Only a knave or a fool could believe that he is above classes and his ideas do not bear the imprint of a very definite class.
The origin of all ideas is the class struggle which is taking place in society. These ideas then act upon the real world, act as the material force in changing the world and give rise to further ideas. Man’s consciousness is the reflection of his social being, and class struggle is the one central theme of every person’s social being. Nobody is independent of class struggle. Millions upon millions of workers go through class struggle, daily, hourly and on a second to second basis, contributing to the advance of society through their heroic participation. This participation in daily class struggle gives rise to consciousness of class struggle, how to lead it more scientifically, more vigorously and more in the interests of one’s class in order to do maximum damage to the enemy class. The glorious Communist Manifesto of Comrades Marx and Engels is living proof of the force of ideas which are the outcome of scientific analysis of the society and which are the outcome of scores of centuries of class struggle waged by millions of people. These ideas are, at once, in the service of a definite class. The Communist Manifesto was the clarion call to the proletarians to rise. It came out of their struggles and influenced them to the maximum.
It is this concentration of the experience of the objective class struggle in the real world which helps to move society forward. Consciousness plays a decisive role at certain times under certain conditions, even though social being is primary and decisive under all conditions and at all times. Consciousness necessarily develops out of class struggle, and in class society, there is no other main consciousness but the consciousness of class struggle. And this class consciousness and consciousness of class struggle in every particular case is the decisive factor in the struggle for production and scientific experiment. There is no such thing as production or scientific experiment independent of classes.
This class consciousness and consciousness of class struggle is not something abstract and mystical: it is the theory and practice of revolution. Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought is the light, the concentration of the most advanced ideas about class struggle which have originated from one of the stormiest and most vigorous class struggles that ever raged in the world.
The twentieth century gave birth to proletarian revolutions. The rise of the world system of socialism, the rise of independent countries and nation-states and the rise of the people of all countries of the world. It is the irresistible revolutionary storms, it is the sacrifices of millions of revolutionary heroes, which gave birth to Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. And at every turn, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought assisted and advanced the revolutionary struggle of the people, giving rise to an outlook, a system of thought and consciousness which is at once against the bourgeoisie and in the service of the proletariat. Leninism, which is the theory of actually overthrowing the Czarist aristocracy and building the first socialist state, is based on the sound foundation of Marxism. Mao Tsetung Thought is based on the sound outlook of Marxism and the sound historical experience of the Great October Revolution and Leninism. It completely originates from the struggles of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial people for liberation and against the restoration of capitalism once state power is in the hands of the proletariat. It is the theory and tactics of organising people’s democratic revolution and of waging class struggle under the dictatorship of the proletariat. Without the light of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought revolutionaries would grope in the dark and accomplish nothing. It is playing the decisive role in changing the world.
For us Canadians, the consciousness of class struggle is the consciousness of how the modern revisionists liquidated the revolutionary struggle in our country and how first the Internationalists and now the CPC(M-L) fought and are fighting these modern revisionists. For us, the consciousness of class struggle is the consciousness that nothing can be accomplished in Canada without grasping that a proletarian party based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought is the decisive factor in achieving any victory on any front. For us, it is the consciousness of the continuous and unceasing class struggle inside the Party against the bourgeois reactionary line and outside the Party against the monopoly capitalist class. To have so-called class consciousness by only reading a few books won’t do; and to only have consciousness of class struggle without class consciousness of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought won’t do either. Anyone who has organised among the workers or the youth and students will attest to this fact: Mere bookish learning won’t advance revolution nor will mere social practice. What is decisive is a Party which has the class consciousness of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought and the consciousness of class struggle in Canada. Our Party is daily becoming increasingly conscious of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, and the consciousness of class struggle is also deepening and broadening every day. It is our contention that neither class consciousness nor consciousness of class struggle can be acquired by reading, that is, without social practice. Even though some windbags may parrot a few phrases by reading a few books, they will be useless in the battlefield. They will have no clue how to organise the workers or youth and students and they will be mortally afraid of the guns and prisons of the monopoly capitalist class. They will be impotent phrase-mongers good only for moaning but not good for majestically marching at the head of the revolution and storming the heavens. It is our contention that no one should ever be permitted near a proletarian party who has not dipped his hands in the soil of organising either the proletarians or youth and students or immigrant workers or Native people or anything concrete, even if it is organising a side force and not the main force.
Genuine Marxist-Leninists must learn to keep the main thrust and activity of the Party among the proletarians, and the main source of cadres in the areas where class struggle is taking place and recruit only those who have come out of class struggle. It is true that some sideline individuals can also make a contribution; but they can do so only if the heart, the core, the centre of the Party is filled with those who have the direct experience of class struggle and who have soiled their hands in the fundamental task of organising it on a day to day basis. Class consciousness and consciousness of class struggle, the theory and practice of revolution, cannot be acquired by those who are neither class conscious nor have consciousness of class struggle because of their class background, experience of their country, class and particular section and most importantly their own direct experience.
Class consciousness and consciousness of class struggle is the condition of the change, development and motion in the Party and in the country. To the working class it is brought from without by a professional contingent of cadres who daily, actively and in a united way participate in the class struggle of their country on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought. All of us have seen how the monopoly capitalists force everyone to acquire class consciousness through going to educational institutions. They force the people to go against their own class interest and daily, without let up, they do propaganda and force people to read their papers and books, force them to see their films and acquire their habits. They do this for the sole purpose of having the people develop the outlook of the monopoly capitalist class and for no other reason – that is, their class consciousness (theoretical basis) and their consciousness of class struggle in Canada (that is, how to oppose the working class in Canada). And when the Party demands (not requests or appeals, but demands) that the leading cadres actively and in a vigorous manner destroy the outlook of the monopoly capitalist class and build the proletarian outlook of daily class struggle against the monopoly capitalist outlook and make themselves the target of revolution and the masses the target of revolutionary propaganda, then the real snakes in the Party raise their heads: It is terrible! It is unjust! It is dictatorial!, etc., ad nauseum. And instead of waging vigorous class struggle to get rid of these habits, they mobilise around themselves the bourgeois elements, the degenerates and the capitulators to the bourgeois state machine and call for disunity and splits. We ask these individuals: Can proletarian revolution be brought about and the proletarian outlook acquired without going through vicious and painstaking class struggle inside and outside the Party? Can revolution be so civil that it does not affect anyone’s life? Should revolution and the revolutionary Party not purge itself of degenerate elements?
This question of habit – this is the daily dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the people in their lives, on their minds as to how they think, as to how they should wage class struggle is a class question and a decisive question too. No one can make much of a contribution in revolution by keeping (and actually fighting to keep and violently resisting to preserve) the habits of the monopoly capitalists. It is to be and must be the discipline of the Party that the leading comrades are advanced, that they reflect the ideas and aspirations of the advanced class and not of the monopoly capitalists and that they work tirelessly to demolish everything which keeps the Party from organising. It is for this reason, the Internationalists waged the struggle against bourgeois hang-ups campaign. It is for this reason we insist there be mass democratic method inside and outside the Party. This is why we insist on vigorous criticism-self-criticism as the method of moving forward. This is why we demand that our comrades must oppose the monopoly capitalist class, destroy its influence inside the Party and build the new as the basis of organising the Party and waging external class struggle against the monopoly capitalist class.
Our enemies tell us that this is not the correct method of dealing with comrades. For them, the Party should just demand some responsibility that is, going to a demonstration or distributing a leaflet – but other wise they should keep their demands to the “minimum”. In ocher words, we should be organising a comfortable revolution. This habit, the cultural superstructure, the millions of dollars which the monopoly capitalists spend to force people to learn their habits is it so inert that it does not affect the world of communist revolutionaries? Are the communist revolutionaries not inside the country dominated by the monopoly capitalist class and do monopoly capitalist ideas not seep into the Party? Do these ideas of the monopoly capitalists in the Party not lead to liquidation? Of course they do! Then why should the organisation not wage relentless struggles against those who bring these ideas into the Party? More importantly what is the basis of change, development and motion inside the Party? Is it not class struggle? How can we permit “inner-Party peace” and degenerate ourselves to the level of the monopoly capitalists? And further, is the inner-Party struggle based on class consciousness and consciousness of class struggle or is it merely a matter of some “debates” and “discussions” about something which you have read somewhere? At every stage of the Party building, representatives of the monopoly capitalist class attempt to stop the march of revolution forward and paralyse the entire organisation with their ideas. When they do such a thing, should we believe in their “sensibleness”, request that they should refrain from doing so and not wage class struggle against them but co-exist! No, we will do no such thing! We will unite the comrades around the proletarian revolutionary line and smash up the headquarters of these reactionaries. We will ,overcome the paralysis caused by them and struggle against their splitting activities. Only in this way will we change, move and advance to a higher stage.
The struggle against the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie inside the Party is part and parcel of the struggle against the same outside the Party. It must be waged without let up, systematically and in a thorough-going manner.