First Published: Canadian Revolution, No. 1, May 1975
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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The Mouvement Revolutionnaire des Etudiants de Quebec is a revolutionary organization which bases itself on Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse Tung Thought. The initiative to found our organization was originally taken by a small group of students at a university in Montreal who understood the need for revolutionaries to organize themselves, wherever they might be, in order to carry out their political work. The basis of unity of our organisation, that is to say its political line was published in the first issue of The Partisan in January 1972 and entitled Contre L’ecole Capitalist. It exposed the class nature of the education system and advanced the need to organize in three fronts of struggle; the struggle against the capitalist school, in support of workers struggles and in support for anti-imperialist struggles. Since its foundation MREQ has carried out its political work around these three fronts of struggle.
Today MREQ is continuing to carry out revolutionary work among students and also some of our comrades have begun to integrate themselves into the working class in order to begin communist work in the factories. Our organization is presently engaged in the struggle to build the greatest possible unity of Marxist-Leninists in order to bring about the creation of a M.L. organisation in the near future.
The principal task facing communists in Canada today is the struggle to create a genuine Marxist-Leninist communist party. Only such a party can lead the working class forward to overthrow the bourgeoisie, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and to construct socialism and communism.
At present, the revolutionary movement in Canada is very young and inexperienced and it is just beginning to undertake the task of party building. More and more within the revolutionary movement militants are facing the question of how to build a genuine communist party in Canada.
The text En avant pour la creation de l’organisation marxiste-leniniste was published by MREQ in October 1974 to put forward our views on how to undertake the struggle to build the party. Here, we have presented the English translation of this document. Despite the fact that it was specifically written to help advance the ideological struggle which is presently going on in Quebec (that is to say, the immediate struggle to create a Marxist-Leninist organization), we feel that the main points which are raised are of importance to revolutionaries throughout Canada. Above all, the text emphasizes two essential points: first, the crucial importance of political line in determining the success or failure of revolutionary work; and second, the need for communists to organize themselves wherever they may be in order to successfully carry forward their work.
In the past, due to the low degree of development of the revolutionary forces, a certain isolation caused by the size of our country, the existence of the national question, and so on, there has been little contact, exchange or debate among communists in different parts of Canada. As we now actively undertake to struggle to build a genuine Marxist-Leninist party, it becomes increasingly important to strive to develop discussions, exchange, and ideological struggle aimed at reaching unity of political line among Marxist-Leninists throughout Canada. It is in this perspective that we have undertaken to distribute this document as widely as possible throughout Canada.
We are naturally aware that there are certain insufficiencies in this text. Some points have not been fully developed and certain questions of considerable importance have been omitted completely. Nevertheless, we feel Toward the Creation of a Marxist-Leninist Organization is a significant contribution to the current debates within the Marxist-Leninist movement in Canada. We welcome all comments and criticisms of our document and would be interested in entering into a process of exchange, debate and ideological struggle-based on the principle of “unity-criticism-unity” with militants across Canada.
The last few years have seen a growing development of working class struggles in Quebec and the rest of Canada. With the deepening crisis of imperialism and the attempts by the bourgeoisie to place the burden of the crisis on the backs of the workers, the latter have shown that they are ready to defend their economic situation. Workers have, in particular, used the strike weapon in order to demand job security, better working conditions, and compensation for the rising cost of living. Every day the newspapers tell us of another factory where workers have refused to capitulate to their bosses and have their standard of living eroded by galloping inflation. What is more, today, a growing number of workers are beginning to understand that they must face not only their own bosses, but the entire capitalist class which uses its state to exploit the workers.
In general, this struggle of the workers is spontaneous. It is not organized and led by the most conscious elements of the working class. As Enver Hoxha has pointed out: “The situation is such that the practical movement of the masses has marched and is marching ahead, whereas the subjective factor, consciousness, their organization and direction in many countries has lagged behind, and does not respond to the tasks of the times.” (E. Hoxha, Report to the Sixth Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania, Tirana, 1971, p. 210.)
In order that the struggle of the working class develop from spontaneous resistance to the bourgeoisie to an organized offensive to overthrow capitalism, the working class must be led by its most devoted and resolute fighters. The working class must have its own vanguard, its own revolutionary party.
It is the creation of this party which constitutes the principal task of revolutionaries in Quebec and in the rest of Canada at the present time.
In this document, we present our positions on the strategy to follow for the creation of a revolutionary party of the working class.
Some militants might well be surprised that an organization which presents itself as a student movement should be considering all these decisive questions for the future of the revolutionary struggle in Quebec and the rest of Canada. And indeed, MREQ – whose political line was defined in three points (the struggle against the capitalist school, support for working class struggles, and support for the anti-imperialist struggles) – has never been and is not now a vanguard organization of the working class. As such it cannot pretend to be the organization which, in its present form, will indicate the way toward proletarian revolution in Quebec and the rest of Canada.
After having existed for three years, MREQ now recognizes that it did not sufficiently define its political tasks at the outset. As a result, the very idea revolutionary student organization remained ambiguous. In determining our political orientation, we emphasized our position as students rather than as revolutionaries, whether students, workers or others. This led to a spontaneous conception of the building of a Marxist-Leninist party. In the first issue of The Partisan (January, 1972), we wrote:
“... the only tasks which revolutionary students have within their schools is to win the majority of students, whatever their class origins, over to the side of the working class. In the absence of a revolutionary workers’ party to lead the struggles of the working class, taking the side of the workers means to actively support them wherever they struggle against capitalist exploitation.”
In this way we defined the Marxist-Leninist party only by its absence, and avoided having to determine the tasks necessary to build such a party. This came to mean denying the necessity for the party as we waited for it to fall from the sky and could also lead to workerist positions in our propaganda. These errors essentially resulted from an insufficient grasp of Marxist-Leninist principles regarding the organization of revolutionaries and the creation of the party. Nevertheless, since we have always based ourselves on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought, we have been able, after summing up our experience, to recognize certain errors of our political line, and attempt to correct them. We must nevertheless now avoid committing the opposite error of proclaiming at once the existence of a party; for a party without a correct political line deepened by practice in struggle and without roots in the proletariat would be Marxist-Leninist in name only.
In the last few months, we have gone through a process of study, research, analysis and discussion in order to deepen our political line. In this process, we have clarified our political tasks and we intend to work towards the creation of a Marxist-Leninist party.
It is for this reason that we intend to begin a debate with all militants, whether they are organized or independent, who share the same objectives as our movement – proletarian revolution, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the building of socialism and then of communism – all of which necessitates the creation of a genuine Marxist-Leninist communist party.
We will conduct this debate in the spirit of “unity-struggle-unity” with all those who think as we do, that we must first unite around a Marxist-Leninist political line.
Chairman Mao has said: “The correctness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything.”
Marxism-Leninism teaches us, in addition, that any correct line comes from practice.
We have not always grasped the implications of these two truths, hiding as we did behind the fact that we were a student group and consequently we should not openly deal with the problems of proletarian revolution in Quebec and the rest of Canada. It is not because several of our comrades are no longer students and yet remain Marxist-Leninist militants that we are beginning this debate today. It is because we are first of all a group of militants who are attempting to apply the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the revolution in Quebec and in the rest of Canada. This reason alone obliges us to struggle for the unity of Marxist-Leninists in order to advance towards the creation of the party of the proletariat.
“If there is to be a revolution, there must be a revolutionary party. Without a revolutionary party, without a party built on Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory and in the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary style, it is impossible to lead the working class and the broad masses of people to defeat imperialism and its running dogs.” – Mao Tsetung, ”Revolutionary Forces of the World Unite, Fight Against Imperialist Aggression.”
Canada is an industrialized country of the Second World in which capitalism has reached its monopoly stage. The means of production are the property of a small number of capitalists, Canadians and foreigners, who accumulate profits and live off the exploitation of the working class throughout Canada. The broad masses of the people of Canada are concentrated in urban centres and are forced to sell their labour power to the capitalists.
Over a hundred years ago, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels showed that capitalist society was divided into two fundamental and antagonistic classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The contradiction between these two classes, which is the contradiction between the social character of production and the private ownership of the means of production can only be resolved when the proletariat overthrows the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and establishes its dictatorship and undertakes building socialism until the advent of communism.
In Canada, as in all other capitalist countries, the working class is the most revolutionary class. Only the proletariat has nothing to lose in the revolution but its chains. Only the proletariat, concentrated in large factories and disciplined by the necessities, of modern production, possess the abilities necessary to struggle to the end and to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Marx and Engels noted in the Manifesto of the Community Party:
“Of all the classes that stand face to face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its specific and essential product.”
But for the proletariat to win its struggle for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, it must be organized. Lenin summed up the revolutionary experience of the Russian people by saying: “... without the organization of the masses, the proletariat is nothing; if it is organized, it is everything.” In this movement of organization of the masses, the highest form of organization is the revolutionary party of the proletariat.
Historical experience all over the world – from the Paris Commune to the October Revolution of 1917, and, more recently, the Chinese Revolution, has demonstrated the necessity of a revolutionary party in order to bring about the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the construction of a socialist society. Only with its own party can the working class organize its battle against the bourgeoisie. The latter holds state power and uses its ideological and repressive apparatus (courts, army, police, prisons) to prevent the development of revolutionary forces.
The proletarian party must lead the whole working class, coordinate its struggles and guide all the mass organizations of the working class, including the trade unions.
The revolutionary party defends both the immediate and fundamental interests of the proletariat. It fights for immediate improvements in the workers’ living standards, but creates no illusions that the workers’ interests can be satisfied without the overthrow of the bourgeoisie. To struggle for the fundamental interests of the proletariat is to struggle for proletarian revolution.
The role of the party is precisely to advance the working class towards revolutionary consciousness and organization. Without a communist party, the working class cannot fulfill its historical role as the revolutionary class. As Enver Hoxha explains:
“It is now historically proven that without its party the working class, under whatever conditions it may live or work, cannot achieve consciousness on its own. What turns the working class from a ’class by itself to a class for itself is its party. Of course, struggle, action, temper and test the masses and the revolutionaries, and teach them many things. But if they lack a political party with a clear cut program, and scientific based strategy and tactics, the struggle will either stop halfway or fail altogether. And the experience of the present day revolutionary movement, and numerous struggles of various continents teaches us this.” (E. Hoxha, op. cit. pp. 223-224.)
To sum up, we feel that the essential characteristics of a revolutionary party are the following:
1) The party of the proletariat must resolutely base itself on the revolutionary theory of Marxism-Leninism. This theory puts forward the historical task of the working class, which is to struggle against and overthrow the bourgeoisie. It is through study and the creative application of Marxist-Leninist theory to the conditions in its country that the party is able to determine correct strategy and tactics for the development of the revolutionary movement.
2) The revolutionary party must be the vanguard of the working class movement. It must be made up of the most advanced and most militant elements of the proletariat. It must have a clear programme to lead the proletariat forward to revolution.
3) The communist party must be ultimately linked with the masses, and must understand their needs and concrete demands.
4) The party must function according to the principles of democratic centralism, with a very precise division of labour, an iron discipline and the practice of criticism and self criticism. The minority must submit to the majority, the different organizations to the central committee and the lower level organizations to the higher levels. The party needs democracy but can never do without centralism.
5) The party must be able to lead the proletariat through all the complicated twists and turns of class struggle, it must lead the struggle at several levels; legal and illegal, open and secret, in parliament and in the streets, by argument and by armed force.
6) The communist party is based on the principle of proletarian internationalism. It combats all forms of narrow nationalism and of national chauvinism, as well as national oppression inside its country. It is opposed to all the imperialist manoeuvers of its “own” bourgeoisie and also those of the other imperialist bourgeoisies.
7) The party always struggles for the fundamental interests of the proletariat – the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the construction of socialism and then of communism.
In Quebec today most revolutionary militants agree that the principal task of communists is to build the proletarian party. We must therefore see how that task can be accomplished.
First of all it is obvious that it is not a matter of the simple proclamation of the existence of a party. It is not because a party defines itself as proletarian that it is in truth the party of the working class. In the same way it is not because fifty (or more) people get together at a meeting, agree on a statement of principles, and proclaim the creation of a party, that they become the vanguard of the working class. On this subject, Lenin remarked:
“If this minority is really class-conscious, if it is able to lead the masses, if it is able to reply to every question that appears on the order of the day, then it is a party in reality... If the minority is unable to lead the masses, and establish close links with the, then it is not a party, and is worthless in general, even if it calls itself a party.” (“Second Congress Of The Communist International”, Collected Works, Vol. 31, Moscow, 1966, pp. 235, 238.)
It is therefore the correctness of the political line, and its application through links with the masses, that determines if a group really constitutes the party of the working class.
Certain people in Canada have already committed the error of proclaiming themselves the party of the working class without fulfilling the above conditions (namely the CPC(M-L) and the CPL). Groups which make this error mystify themselves and other people. They believe that all they have to do to become the working class party is to give themselves the name. The result is that they are Marxist-Leninist parties in name only.
The central point in the building of a party is the question of political line. At the Tenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, comrade Chou En-Lai recalled this universal truth of Marxism-Leninism:
“Chairman Mao teaches us that ’the correctness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything’. If one’s line is incorrect, one’s downfall is inevitable, even with the control of the central, local and army leadership. If one’s line is correct, even if one has not a single soldier at first, there will be soldiers, and even if there is no political power, political power will be gained.” (op. cit., p. 17)
At present the revolutionary movement in Quebec and the rest of Canada is very young. It does not yet have much experience in struggle, and is only beginning to answer such important questions as “who are our enemies and who are our friends?”. The concrete analysis of the concrete situation is not yet advanced enough to define the strategy of proletarian revolution. Finally, the revolutionary movement has few real links with the working class, and it is also divided on certain questions of analysis of the situation and of the tasks of communists. And additional factor to be considered is the isolation of revolutionaries – a result not only of Canada’s size but also of the uneven development of capitalism and divisions maintained by national oppression. One thing, however, is certain: all these divisions can only be surmounted, and the unity of Marxist-Leninists realized, in the struggle for a more correct application of Marxism-Leninism to the practice of making revolution in Quebec and the rest of Canada – in other words, through the elaboration of a correct political line. This requires a deeper understanding of Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung Thought, and at the same time growing links with the masses.
This link between the communist movement and the masses must take place through sinking roots in the masses in order to lead the day-to-day struggles of the workers with and among them. In this way Marxist-Leninists will arrive at a better understanding of the living conditions of working people, and of their needs. Little by little Marxist-Leninists will come to lead the most militant sections of the working class, because they will show through their actions and their devotion that they are the people who struggle the most resolutely for the interests of the working class.
We must struggle to defend the immediate interests of the working class, and, at the same time, organize ourselves and prepare the struggle for its fundamental interests, socialist revolution. The Marxist-Leninist communist party cannot therefore be created until its militants and its organization are linked up with the working class.
For the above reasons it seems to us premature to create the party immediately. It is not a question of “putting off the creation of the party, but rather to ensure that the party, when created, will have a more profound proletarian character than simply its name. The experience of the international communist movement and the experience of struggles both in Quebec and in the rest of Canada teach us that the worst anti-communists are those who wave the red flag simply in order to oppose the red flag. Whether this action is intentional or not is irrelevant; the effect remains the same.
To sum up, then, we feel that the creation of a Marxist-Leninist communist party must take place on a firm political foundation. For this to happen, Marxist-Leninists must undertake and accomplish certain political tasks. We feel the following three are the main ones:
1) the concrete analysis of the concrete situation, in other words, the application of revolutionary theory, of Marxism-Leninism, to the conditions of Canada (and Quebec in particular).
2) to develop links with the working class and to sink roots in the masses.
3) to build the largest possible unity among Marxist-Leninists.
These three tasks will of course be far from completed when he party is actually created. Communists will have to apply revolutionary theory to revolutionary practice, to strengthen their links with the masses, and to struggle for unity among Marxist-Leninists. These three tasks are thus also three essential tasks of the party. Nonetheless, we must recognize that an initial definition of the nature of the revolution in Quebec and the rest of Canada, the first links with the masses, and a certain degree of unity must be attained before the creation of a party. These three necessary conditions can only be fulfilled by communists, who are organized, and for this communists must create a Marxist-Leninist organization. This is why it is our belief that the creation of the party is not an immediate task but that presently the creation of a Marxist-Leninist organization is on the agenda.
The main task of such an organization is to immediately take up the work of building the party – to prepare the conditions that will be necessary for its creation.
A Marxist-Leninist organization will be based on the same basic line as that of the Marxist-Leninist Party – Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tsetung Thought. It will be a vanguard organization, an organization of communists. On the organizational level, it will apply the principles of democratic centralism and combine legal with illegal work.
Why must we create such an organization?
Because the three tasks defined above as conditions for the creation of the party can only be assumed by communists organized into a Marxist-Leninist organization. This organization will be the product of unity around a determining political line.
The tasks of the Marxist-Leninist organization thus correspond to the realization of these three conditions:
1) the Marxist-Leninist organization will deepen the analysis of the concrete situation in Quebec and in the rest of Canada to clarify the nature of the revolution.
2) the Marxist-Leninist organization, which will have defined and put into practice a strategy for linking communists to the masses, will include for the most port the vanguard detachment of the proletariat capable of leading the struggle of the entire class. To this end, the Marxist-Leninist organization will build roots and will consolidate itself primarily in the larger factories It will both lead the struggle for the defense of the immediate interests of the proletariat and conduct educational work to wards the realization of its fundamental interests: the destruction of the bourgeois state and the establishment of the dictatorship a the proletariat. Through its work in the proletariat, the Marxist-Leninist organization is going to acquire the revolutionary experience which will be so necessary for the future party The Marxist-Leninist organization will not limit itself to politics work in the large factories. It will also work to rally other strata of the working population, as well as some fractions of the petty bourgeoisie, and build unity of the entire people around the working class. It will thus undertake political work among students, in communities and in other areas.
3) Finally, the Marxist-Leninist organization will reinforce the unity of Marxist-Leninists on the basis of its correct political line, a line developed through its practice among the masses.
Only this type of organization, once it is created, can undertake the building of the party. Hence, its creation is urgent.
We have already described the error of precipitation in the creation of a party which consists of proclaiming a party which has not defined a correct political line or tested its line in practice. Parties such as these cannot lead the working class to victory.
But there is also the opposite error on the question of building a revolutionary party. This is spontaneity (le spontaneisme) which eventually winds up as an attitude of passive expectation and waiting (l’attentisme). Spontaneity is believing that the party will arise automatically with the rising tide of working class struggles, rather than being built by the most conscious elements of the working class. This is to deny all the lessons of the revolutionary movement on the very nature of the party. This error is very dangerous because those who maintain that the party will grow out of “militant workers” and not from the work of Marxist-Leninist militants can never actually undertake the tasks of party building, though they may constantly talk about its necessity.
On this point, some confusion presently exists about the role rank-and-file workers’ committees active in factories can play in the party building process. We’d like to briefly clarify our views on this question.
First of all, the development of such committees is clearly a sign of increasing political consciousness and of growing militancy on the part of the working class. Nonetheless, these committees cannot be considered as building blocks to be simply assembled into a party.
Any authentic communist party is a party built from the top by communist militants united in a Marxist-Leninist organization. Built from the top means that primacy is given to the Marxist-Leninist political line on both the ideological and organizational levels.
Workers’ committees are organizations composed of militant workers, some of whom will undoubtedly become members of the party. From their very basis of unity, however, there exists in these committees an unequal development of political consciousness. Some of their members are workers who wish to apply Marxism-Leninism, others are at an initial stage of class consciousness, while still others are scarcely advanced at all.
It is clear that such groups cannot undertake the building of the party.
In short, communists must do mass work among the working class. They must rally the most advanced elements to Marxism-Leninism, that is, to lead them to become active in a Marxist-Leninist organization.
The task of party building, is a job for communists themselves. Once more we must make the distinction between a vanguard organization and mass organizations in which communists must work actively.
If the creation of a party by workers’ committees were to be initially successful, the absence of a Marxist-Leninist political line as a guide for the creation of such an organization would soon lead it into economism (a loss of sight of the fundamental interests of the proletariat) and revisionism.
To give an idea of the dead-ends in which such spontaneous movements end up, we quote from the sum-up of a group of workers who had been active in a certain factory:
We can sum up several characteristics from these three attempts to link up with elements of the working class movement.
a) A poor knowledge of working class reality: They did not start with an understanding, even a general one, of the reality (of the trade union movement, of the workers’ movement in general or of one factory in particular.)
b) Not basing oneself on the preoccupations of the workers. They did not start with the needs and concerns of the workers involved but rather from the objectives of the progressive militants; to “recruit” for the benefit of the organization, or else to get across a point of view. In general, they tended to identify the organization of progressive militants with the political organization of the workers. What is more, they tended to subordinate the needs of the workers (support for struggles) to the needs of the organization to which a given militant belonged – to do recruitment, put across a line, etc.
c) Isolating the workers that were recruited. They tended to isolate the workers thus recruited, to take them out of their environment of work and of struggle (or their union organization) and to insert them in the artificial framework of the group of progressive militants as “vanguard elements of the working class”.
d) Leadership stays in the hands of intellectuals. By doing this they placed the leadership of the workers in the hands of intellectual militants in the context of common work of a purely ideological nature (political education).
e) An idealist view of progressive groups. They put forward an idealist conception of the progressive group – that of a structured organization which already has a relatively clear political line (analysis of reality and formulation of clear political tasks) which had to look for contacts inside the factories. (“Debut d’un mouvement socialiste a Montreal”...in Mobilisation, Vol. 3, no. 1, p. 65 – MREQ’s translation)
These militants would like so much to do important political work in a factory that the conclusions they have drawn from their sum-up is that they would like to be members of a “progressive group” but that they don’t want to be structured and that they don’t need a clear political line. All that can come later! For them, a clear political line and a “structured” organization can be found among the masses. This is an example of pure spontaneity.
To sum up then, when we speak of party building, we mean defining all the steps and tasks to accomplish to build the proletarian party which will lead the working class to victory.
The party-building process thus includes:
1) the creation of a Marxist-Leninist organization which will work towards the creation of the party;
2) the creation of the party as such;
3) the building of the party, which is accomplished by its growing links with the masses and its growing capacity to
direct the struggles of the working class towards socialism. This process goes on constantly once the party is created.
Today, we therefore need a Marxist-Leninist organization to lead us forward towards revolution without succumbing to the dangers of either spontaneity or passive waiting.
Recognising the need to create a Marxist-Leninist organization in Quebec, MREQ has begun to struggle to set up this organization. For the coming months, we consider this our principal task.
MREQ is convinced that we are not alone in. the belief that in order to advance the revolutionary struggle, this Marxist-Leninist organization is necessary. Other groups of militants have come to the same conclusion. We are thus ready to unite with other Marxist-Leninist militants in order to build this organization.
However, in creating a revolutionary organization, communists cannot merely agree on the necessity for such a Marxist-Leninist formation. Of course, this agreement is important and represents a step in the right direction: but it is certainly insufficient. It is obvious that we cannot speak of unity in an abstract way, but in terms of clear political principles and a clear and correct political line. The correctness or incorrectness of this political line will determine if, in fact, the Marxist-Leninist organization will be capable of undertaking the task of building the Marxist-Leninist party.
Does this mean that before the Marxist-Leninist organization can be created, all the problems of the Canadian revolution will have to be solved? Certainly not. What it does mean, however, is that those who participate in the founding of the organization will have to be united around certain key points. These points will lay the basis for the political line of the Marxist-Leninist organization. We believe that this unity should be based on the following points:
1) A firm application of Marxist-Leninist principles in both the ideological and organizational spheres;
2) Analysis of the class contradictions in Canada and determination of the principal contradiction in Canada;
3) Determining the tasks of the Marxist-Leninist organization and the strategy for the creation of the party;
4) A common position on the trade unions.
Why these four points? The first one merely affirms the need to create a Marxist-Leninist organization based on the revolutionary theory elaborated by the great leaders of the proletariat: Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao Tsetung.
The second and third points define the political task of the organization after its creation.
The fourth point is particularly important since the trade unions are the largest mass organizations of the working class.
The Marxist-Leninist organization will also have to deal with other questions: for example, what kind of political work should be done with non-proletarian classes or strata in society. However, these questions are secondary for the moment, and can be answered by the Marxist-Leninist organization in the course of its development.
Presently it is most important for Marxist-Leninists to debate the above four points in order to develop unity and advance towards the creation of a Marxist-Leninist organization.
We don’t believe that either this unity or the creation of the Marxist-Leninist organization will come about simply by fusing together or combining the groups that exist at the moment. Right now in Quebec, no group founded on the basis of a Marxist-Leninist organization exists. Nor do the members of the existing groups necessarily meet all the requirements for belonging to a Marxist-Leninist organization. Although the initiative for the creation of a Marxist-Leninist organization must come from one or more of these groups, the creation of the organization itself will not come about by merely merging all the existing groups. It will be created only though the unity of all those who are ready to become members of the Marxist-Leninist organization around a political line.
The struggle for the creation of the Marxist-Leninist organization should not take place in an endless series of debates lasting a year or longer. On the contrary, we should establish the greatest unity possible at a given moment with those who are ready to move forward and create the Marxist-Leninist organization.
It is not surprising that militants belonging to different groups with varying experiences should not have entirely the same point of view on the tasks to accomplish at the present time. However, in the final analysis, it is the practice of the Marxist-Leninist organization that will determine the correctness of these positions.
We hope that in the months to come, ideological struggle among Marxist-Leninists will intensify, so that the problem we face will become clarified and our tasks more clearly defined. This struggle will result in a higher level of political unity and in the creation of a Marxist-Leninist organization within a relatively short period of time.
We have mentioned the four points around which we mm unite in order to create a Marxist-Leninist organization. In order to clarify these four points and begin the struggle for the unity of Marxist-Leninists, we would like to present our position on these questions. We are happy to accept any criticisms of these positions given in the spirit of “unity-struggle-unity” by all militants and political groups who want to apply Marxism-Leninism to the revolution in our country.
In this text, we have tried to explain our positions on the strategy to follow to build the revolutionary party of the working class. To sum up, we affirm that:
1) To make revolution, it is necessary to have a revolutionary party.
2) The struggle for the creation of such a party is the principal task of revolutionaries in Quebec and in the rest of Canada.
3) To work for the creation of this party, communists must organize in a Marxist-Leninist organization which can undertake the struggle for the creation of the party.
4) And therefore, the creation of a Marxist-Leninist organization is at hand.
As we have already noted, we are working to achieve this end. Convinced that other Marxist-Leninists share our opinions, we wish to work for the unity of Marxist-Leninists around clear political principles. We are confident that Marxist-Leninist organization will soon be created.
It is clear that the struggle to build the revolutionary party the only organization capable of leading the struggle overthrow the bourgeoisie, establish the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism and move towards communism – will not be easy. The road will undoubtedly be hard and we will make errors in our work. But as long as we apply the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions; our country, as long as we integrate ourselves with the work class, our final victory will be assured.
LONG LIVE MARXISM-LENINISM MAO TSE TUNG THOUGHT! LONG LIVE THE UNITY OF MARXISTS-LENINISTS! LONG LIVE PROLETARIAN REVOLUTION!