First Published:The Forge, Vol. 1, No. 17, Sept 9, 1979.
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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One of the key documents at the founding of the Workers Communist Party (ML) is the Political Report presented by Roger Rashi on behalf of the out-going Central Committee.
It is an analysis of the revolutionary advances over the past few years by the Marxist-Leninist movement and summarizes the conditions that have been laid down by the founding of the WCP.
In the opening section, the Report describes the domestic and international situation surrounding the Party’s creation.
It shows that the WCP is founded in the midst of a serious political and economic crisis and a growing working-class fightback in Canada. Important political changes have come about since the victory of Joe Clark’s Conservatives in the federal elections – including tighter links with our superpower neighbour to the south.
At the same time the referendum battle in Quebec is heating up and risks to tear Canada apart.
On the world scene, the Report states that while the factors for revolution are progressing, the factors for war are increasing considerably. The USSR has stepped up its worldwide offensive and has become the number one factor of tension in the world and the principal source of war. The US, meanwhile, continues its decline and has been smashed hard by the victorious liberation struggles in Iran and Nicaragua.
The Report sums up the important steps forward over the past several years in the Canadian Marxist-Leninist movement. It contrasts the situation four years ago with the conditions that now permit the Party’s creation.
In the early ’70s the Marxist-Leninist movement was weak, divided, and almost totally cut off from the working class. But in I975 three small Montreal-based groups united to form the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist), the pre-Party organization.
The founding of the League was a turning point in the development of the Marxist-Leninist movement.
The League began to apply Marxism-Leninism to the concrete situation in Canada and through hard work began to win workers to its ranks.
The League expanded and became a cross-Canada organization with hundreds of members and sympathizers united around a developed political line, which was to provide a basis for the Party’s Political Program.
The League succeeded in rallying a number of Marxist-Leninist groups to its ranks.
Slowly a foundation for the Party was laid in the main industrial centers across Canada. Party cells were set up in steel, auto, and pulp and paper plants, in mines, the railways, among fishermen and elsewhere.
A strong base was built in the industrial and public sector unions across Canada.
Analyzing the League’s accomplishments over four years, the Political Report stressed that the political, organizational and ideological conditions for the founding of the new party of the working class had been realized.
A section of the report then went on to examine the strengths and weaknesses of the League’s work and its internal development.
The Report explained that the young Party will remain for some time in the first stage of its development. The principle activity during this period remains widespread communist agitation and propaganda to rally the vanguard of the working class to Marxism-Leninism.
The WCP’s objective in its first years of development will be to build and popularize the Party among the working class.
To attain this objective the main political and organizational tasks of the WCP are:
The WCP will also strive:
The Party practises proletarian internationalism and supports the liberation struggles around the world. It particularly supports the battle against Canadian imperialism.