The national liberation struggle of Quebec is part and parcel of the whole Canadian anti-imperialist revolution. The state machine of the monopoly capitalist class, its economic system, its propaganda and cultural apparatus exist within the geographical country known as Canada. This class subjugated the Quebec nation in the 18th Century and through its control of Quebec expanded its genocide against the Native Indian people and was able to import large numbers of workers from Europe. The working class in this country known as Canada is a reflection of these facts. It is composed of different nationalities and sections. Knowing that they can only be overthrown by the united revolutionary action of the whole working class, the exploiters have created the counter-revolutionary public opinion that Quebec nation is oppressed by the “English”, that the main enemy of the working people of Quebec are “the English Canadian” workers. In this way the enemy is attempting to create profound division in the revolutionary class, pit one section of the workers against another and hold on to its state power and economic system.
The nation of Quebec dates back to the eighteenth century when the French colonialists handed it over to the English colonialists. The settlements which came into being as a result of French colonial expansion in North America were ceded to the English crown. Lower Canada, presently known as Quebec, became the oppressed nation, the “subject” of the English crown. Since the time the French colonialists handed over the Quebec nation to the English colonialists in the 1760s, the English colonialists with the support of the national traitors of Quebec have been viciously subjugating and exploiting the nation and people of Quebec.
In their design to keep the nation and people of Quebec in bondage, the English colonialists tried their utmost to create counter-revolutionary public opinion amongst the people in Quebec and in the rest of Canada that the Quebec people are oppressed by the “English-speaking Canadians” and concocted the “two nations” theory. They attempted to turn one portion of the Canadian people against the other on the basis of language and to obscure the basis of the subjugation of the nation and people of Quebec. The English colonialists pretended (as in the north of Ireland, they pretend to be merely “guardians of law and order and peace” between the two warring communities of the so-called Protestants and Catholics) that they were keeping the “peace” while the so-called nation of “English-speaking Canadians” was and is fighting the nation of “French-speaking Canadians” and vice-versa. Through this method they created a so-called “English-speaking nation”, and propagandised that it was the source of oppression of the “French-speaking nation”, and not that it was the English crown which was, and has all along been responsible for subjugating the nation and people of Quebec and also the people of the rest of Canada. There is no “English-speaking nation” in existence and there never has been. There are and have been agents of English colonialism (the “Family Compact” in the 18th and 19th centuries and the colonial Confederation from 1867 to date) who are the cause of the subjugation and oppression of the people of Quebec and who are also the exploiters of the rest of the Canadian people on behalf of the foreign imperialists. The counter-revolutionary theory that there is one confederal state with “two nations” is merely meant to divide the Canadian people on a national and social chauvinist basis in order to keep the nation and people of Quebec in bondage. This theory of “two nations” has been peddled by the social fascists of all hues and colours, and the federal government has spent millions of dollars to make this theory stick. The federal government established a Commission on “Bilingualism and Bi-Culturalism” as well as giving grants to various bourgeois scholar-despots to provide “evidence” for the “two nations” theory and do propaganda for it.
Our party has never supported the “two nations” theory. We have always upheld the basic thesis that there is one country called Canada with a geographical territory recognised by international laws and conventions. This country has in it the subjugated nation and people of Quebec as well as the nations and tribes of the Native people. Because this country suppresses these nationalities and tribes with the assistance of the foreign imperialists there is a national question which demands immediate solution. Our Party holds that the Native people must have their hereditary rights and the nation and people of Quebec must win their national liberation. We have also upheld the view that the destinies of the nation and people of Quebec and that of Canada are inter-linked and there is no basis of conflict between one section of the Canadian working class (the section in the nation of Quebec) and the remaining section. In fact, the entire working class must fight together against the U.S. imperialist domination of Canada as a whole and for the national liberation struggle of Quebec, and found the glorious People’s Republic of Canada which has in it the People’s Republic of Quebec. There is absolutely no conflict of interests between the People’s Republic of Canada as the sole government of the territory known as Canada and within it a nation of the liberated people of Quebec having their own People’s Republic of Quebec.
Our Party has upheld the proletarian revolutionary line that if the nation and people of Quebec secede and wish to have their separate state, it is the basic task of the rest of the Canadian people to comply with their wishes. But our Party is convinced that separatism and secession manoeuvred by international reaction led by U.S. imperialism will merely lead the nation and people of Quebec into direct subjugation by the foreign imperialists and that it will not accomplish much aside from aggravating the national and class oppression. For this reason, the genuine Marxist-Leninists do not work for separation and secession but rather for genuine national liberation.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) has always upheld the view that it is only by vigorous and hard struggles that the people win liberation. People do not win liberation by appealing to their oppressors. The national liberation struggle of the Quebec people is the task of the entire Canadian working class, and it should take this responsibility as its own. This task is directly and inseparably linked with the task of defeating U.S. imperialist domination of the whole of Canada. To split the Canadian working class under the hoax that they belong to “two different nations” – one English speaking and one French speaking or to oppose the founding of the People’s Republic of Quebec under the hoax that “all nationalism is reactionary” is to serve the U.S. imperialists and the Canadian monopoly capitalist class. The so-called “Communist” Party of Canada is peddling the “two nations” theory and is calling for a “confederal pact” between the “two nations”, that is, a pact between the monopoly capitalists of one section with the monopoly capitalists of the other. The so-called “Canadian” Party of Labour is opposing the national liberation of Quebec under the hoax that “all nationalism is reactionary”. The “Left”-sloganeering front of Khrushchovite revisionism is also caught up in the mire of national chauvinism, and they give the “two nations” theory when it suits them, and the theory of “all nationalism is reactionary” when that suits them.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) resolutely declares that:
1. There is one country known as Canada recognised by various international laws and conventions.
2. This country has in it the subjugated nation of Quebec as well as the enslaved nations and tribes of the Native peoples.
3. There is one Party, the Party of the Proletariat of the entire country, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)– of which the Communist Party of Quebec (Marxist-Leninist) is a fighting contingent – which is fighting for the national liberation of Quebec, the restoration, of the hereditary rights of the Native people and the anti-imperialist struggle of the entire Canadian working class and people.
4. CPC(M-L) is against separatism, against the theory of “two nations”, against the theory that “all nationalism is reactionary” and against all the national and social chauvinist theories of the “Left”-sloganeering front of Khrushchovite revisionism.
5. CPC(M-L) will accede to separation and secession if the people of Quebec so desire, but CPC(M-L) considers separation and secession to be against the fundamental interests of the people of Quebec and not only will not work for separation and secession, but will also oppose the forces calling for it with all its might.
6. CPC(M-L) will work hard for the establishment of the People’s Republic of Quebec, as an autonomous state within the People’s Republic of Canada, will do everything to forge the close unity between all sections of the Canadian working class and to oppose national and social antagonisms generated by the foreign imperialists, the monopoly capitalists and their fascist and social fascist political spokesmen, their partners in crime against the Canadian people, and
7. CPC(M-L) will work for the revolutionary spirit of unity and solidarity between all sections of the working class including the recent immigrants and visitors and will staunchly fight for the basic interests of the entire working class.
The CPC(M-L) declares that the national liberation of Quebec can only be achieved by ending the exploitation of labour by capital. This means overthrowing the rule of the monopoly capitalist class through the anti-imperialist revolution and establishing the working class as the ruling class. This mighty historic task cannot be accomplished in a “Quebec revolution” separated from the whole of Canada and the scientific laws of social revolution. Every class conscious worker knows this. The national liberation struggle of Quebec is part and parcel of the whole Canadian anti-imperialist revolution. The termination of the genocide against the Native Indian people, the termination of the national subjugation of the Quebec people and the emancipation of the entire working class is the task of the entire Canadian working class.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls upon all class conscious workers and progressive people to
1) Oppose the counter-revolutionary “two nations” theory,
2) Oppose the counter-revolutionary propaganda that “all nationalism is reactionary”
3) Oppose national and social chauvinism propagated by the imperialists, their lackeys and the fascists and social fascists,
4) Vigorously support the national liberation of Quebec, provide all-out assistance to the Communist Party of Quebec (Marxist-Leninist) by keeping in mind that the task of the national liberation of Quebec is the task of the entire Canadian working class and people and that this task is completely tied in with the anti-imperialist revolution of the entire Canadian people and,
5) Resolutely work for the founding of the People’s Republic of Canada and the People’s Republic of Quebec.