Front de Libération du Québec
Source: FLQ: Un projet révolutionnaire, texts assembled by R. Comeau, D. Cooper, and P. Vallières. VLB Éditeur, Montreal, 1990.
Translated: for marxists.org by Mitch Abidor;
CopyLeft: Creative Commons (Attribute & ShareAlike) marxists.org 2004.
This declaration of principles appeared in issue 45 of the FLQ organ La Cognée
Political independence is the tool, the lever indispensable for an authentic national revolution. In order to accede to this political independence, the only sure means of fully succeeding in the enterprise of total liberation is revolutionary war. We must begin it.
We consider that this radical attitude is correct, because:
Firstly, Québécois party leaders propose only that which is permitted by the Canadian constitution. These propositions are nothing but stopgaps, re-plasterings or, worse still, fallacious doctrines which go against the national dignity, the political health and the fundamental objectives of the Québécois people;
Secondly, the independantiste parties delude themselves in adopting the electoral road. This is a fight that the adversary knows a thousand times better than them, and for which they dispose of enormous capital in order to seal the outcome to their profit;
Thirdly, the Québécois people, over-saturated with electoralism, colonized for two centuries, quasi-assimilated and heavily intoxicated, is shaking off its distrust, its resignation, its apathy and its lack of awareness. Our people has renounced palaver;
Fourthly, We must act quickly in the face of the invader. We suffer from social negligence, economic weakness and cultural insufficiency, both in teaching and language;
Fifthly, we have at our disposal a real force against the combination of Ottawa’s colonialism and the valets in Quebec;
Sixthly, we will determine events instead of waiting for them. We accept the fatal due date that our immediate liberation demands, rather than delighting in a bourgeois fashion in several more decades of silence, of compromise and of abandonment;
Seventhly, the revolutionary movement is irreversible; its methods are well broken-in and ineluctable. Scientifically directed by serious, disciplined and well-trained partisans, success is assured;
Eighthly, in freeing the fatherland, at the risk of their lives and careers, the partisans will thus furnish a striking proof of their disinterestedness, determination, and true faith. They will bar the route to the too numerous opportunists, demagogues, and dilettantes;
Ninthly, the necessities of this action will oblige the partisans to surpass themselves and to idealize the realization of the revolution.