We are a young communist group which has only recently constituted itself. Our formation as a group was the result of two things: first, ideological leadership from IN STRUGGLE! through some of its published positions; second, demarcating ourselves from the bourgeois ideology of the Saskatchewan Waffle, particularly neo-social-democratic ideology, and also an opportunist line among some Marxist-Leninists that advocates organizational consolidation of Marxist-Leninists on the local level. We believe that the struggle for unity among Marxist-Leninists should occur on a country-wide basis in as public a way as possible. The Regina Communist Group, therefore, welcomes the initiative shown by IN STRUGGLE! to organize this Conference on the unity of Marxist-Leninists.
We believe that Canadian Marxist-Leninists are faced with an historic opportunity to struggle correctly in order to unite. In order to do this, it is necessary to learn from the negative experiences of the International Marxist-Leninist movement especially in Western Europe and North America. This Conference, organized by IN STRUGGLE!, and the others to follow offer Canadian Marxist-Leninists concrete means by which we can take advantage of this historic opportunity to achieve the unity of Marxist-Leninists. We agree with IN STRUGGLE! and others that before we create the Party, we must first create a Canada-wide Marxist-Leninist organization of struggle for the party. But this organizational unity must be a principled one. That is, it should be based on an ideological and a political unity that is elaborated in a program which will be a result of debate in front of both the entire Marxist-Leninist movement and advanced workers. Our unity in a requirement for the effective fusion of Marxism-leninism with the workers’ movement. For this fusion must take place on a country-wide basis if we are to prepare the subjective conditions for the formation of a new (M.-L.) communist party.
While all Marxist-Leninists must realize that the main danger throughout this first stage of party building is right opportunism, in the struggle for the unity of Marxist-Leninists, the main obstacle is sectarianism and dogmatism. In a Marxist-Leninist movement as divided and scattered as ours is at this time, any talk of unity must also deal with the serious and real problem of uneven development if we are to unite and move forward. Sectarianism and dogmatism would exclude the less advanced and treat them as if they were “lepers”. We agree with IN STRUGGLE!’s statement that “to help the whole movement advance, means to work for the disappearance of uneven development in the movement, a very real inequality which is an obstacle to unity”.
In conclusion, we urge all Marxist-Leninists to grasp this historic opportunity for the unification of the Marxist-Leninist movement.