First Published: People’s Canada Daily News, Vol 9, No. 295, December 20, 1979
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada has released the following programme for the federal elections to he held on February 18, 1980.
Like all the other political parties which exist in Canada, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is the political Party of a definite class. It is the political Party of the proletariat and works in its interests as opposed to the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals, the NDP and others which are parties of the rich and which work for the continuation of capitalist exploitation and wage-slavery.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) was registered as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada in July 1974 for purposes of the elections, because the rich of this country registered another party as the “Communist” Party – the party of William Kashtan which has nothing communistic, democratic nor patriotic about it. It serves the Soviet social-imperialists, just like the Progressive Conservatives, the Liberals and the NDP and others serve the foreign and native moneybags. Only the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), which is registered as the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada for purposes of the elections, is genuinely democratic, patriotic and fights for socialism. The rich have given William Kashtan and his clique a monopoly over the word “communist” for purposes of creating confusion in Canada about communism.
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist)/Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada was founded on March 31, 1970, for basically two reasons:
1. To organize proletarian revolution – that is, to prepare the conditions for the overthrow of the capitalist system in order to establish the socialist system, and not the phoney socialist system as it exists in the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, etc., but genuine socialism, the system which guarantees the genuine emancipation of the working class and broad masses of the people.
2. To oppose those who were creating confusion about Marxism-Leninism anq communism and revolution, such as the so-called, Communist Party of Canada of William Kashtan and other revisionists and opportunists who actively work against communism and the revolution but who, at the same time, pretend to be communist for the purposes of disintegrating the genuinely revolutionary, progressive and democratic forces and befuddle the people and lead them astray.
Thus our Party fights against the rich of the country and against those who are their servants, as well as against the labour aristocrats and the revisionists and opportunists of all hues, and against the U.S. imperialist domination of Canada, against all imperialists and social-imperialists and the reactionaries of the whole world. The Minimum Programme of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is to Make the Rich Pay for the Crisis! The implementation of this Programme will get Canada out of the crisis. The Party fights for the immediate implementation of this Programme. The Maximum Programme of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada is to overthrow the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat, overthrow capitalism and build socialism, end the exploitation of man by man and, build communist society classless society as the next stage in human social development from capitalism to communism.
The Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada fights to accomplish the following political, economic, social and cultural tasks:
1. To proclaim a new constitution which genuinely guarantees the sovereignty of the people, breaks all links with the British monarchy and any foreign imperialist power, guarantees, the free union of Quebec with the rest of the country, restores the hereditary rights of the Native people and constitutes the People’s Assembly which is elected through universal suffrage with real democracy for the workers and broad masses of the people.
2. To provide full democratic rights, full freedom, liberty and franchise to the people, including freedom of speech, assembly, organization and freedom of the press and the right to political opinion, scientific and cultural pursuits and religious beliefs and full protection of private life, and the right to self-determination for the nation of Quebec, the restoration of the hereditary rights of the Native people (treaty and non-treaty Indians, Inuit people and the Metis), to end all racial, economic and political discrimination against the immigrants and all inequality and social discrimination against women and to make full provision for the advancement and safeguarding of the languages and culture of the Native people and of the people of different national origins.
3. To institute a progressive independent and sovereign foreign policy: a) Scrap all reactionary military alliances with any foreign power. Pull Canada out of NATO and NORAD and all interventionist forces. b) Scrap all other reactionary economic and political alliances, treaties, agreements, preferential tariffs and concessions with any foreign power. c) Develop mutually beneficial trade and cultural and scientific exchanges with all countries (except the imperialist superpowers, U.S. imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism, and the states with fascist regimes) on the basis of equality and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. d) Support the struggles of all peoples fighting for independence, freedom, democracy, progress and emancipation from imperialism and reaction. e) Oppose all unjust, predatory and imperialist wars of aggression and intervention.
4. To end all imperialist preparations for war. No reactionary military, economic and cultural institutions are to be allowed in Canada. To disband the reactionary police and armed forces and replace them with a people’s police and armed forces.
5. To reorganize the judicial system where those who are the judges and officials of the judicial system are elected by secret ballot and are subject to recall by the people at any time by the demand of the majority of the electors, and are paid workman’s wages.
6. To punish all traitors to the country and those who have committed crimes against the people and provide them with no rights whatsoever. To redress all the wrongs committed against those who have been unjustly persecuted by the reactionary government and who have suffered at the hands of the rich.
1. To expropriate monopoly capital and imperialist property without any compensation and to end the domination of Canada by U.S. imperialism or by any other foreign power.
2. To declare all foreign debts, mortgages, bonds, etc., null and void, whether contracted by the state, its agencies or expropriated monopoly enterprises. To declare all stocks, bonds, debts, mortgages, etc., held by the Canadian financial oligarchy in foreign countries null and, void, and declare all income from such sources illegal. To declare all consumer debts incurred by the workers and broad masses of the people to financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, mortgage companies, etc.) null and void. All mortgages on real property shall be turned over to the state and a policy of rent shall be established by the government. To prohibit the importation of foreign capital through investments, credits, “aid”, loans, joint ventures or in any other form.
3. To declare all concessions, royalties, extra-territorial rights enjoyed by foreign and native monopolies, multinationals and foreign states null and void and revert all land, mines and forests, oil and natural gas, waters, and other resources presently held by the crown, the monopolies or finance capital to the state as common property of the nation inalienable and sovereign. Land and other property of the farmers and petty producers shall be protected, but no land shall be subject to sale or be the object of speculation. Land for personal use shall remain in the family and can only be sold to the state at prices determined by the government. All monopoly-held lands shall be expropriated whether in country or city. To nationalize all banks, insurance companies and other financial institutions, trade and commerce, transportation and communication, electric power, health, welfare and education.
4. To provide full employment and job security, forty-hour week and proper working conditions and a guaranteed income after retirement.
5. To ensure equal pay for equal work according to the principle of: From each according to his ability, to each according1to his work.
6. To ensure the planned, all-sided development of the economy for the benefit of the people, on the basis of self-reliance.
7. To introduce a graduated system of taxation whereby the people are taxed according to their means with a view to eliminating taxes altogether.
1. To provide proper living conditions.
2. To provide full social insurance and care for the people and for all forms of disablement, including the disablement caused by sickness, injury, infirmity, old age, occupational disease and industrial accidents, and childbirth.
3. To eliminate all discrimination against women, provide facilities for the care and upbringing of children, and create conditions for the all-sided and full development and participation of women in all aspects of the life of the society.
4. To provide full facilities for the cultural, physical and spiritual development of the youth.
5. To provide universal and free secular education which is closely integrated with socially productive work.
6. To develop the new culture based on progress and science which upholds the lofty ideals of genuine independence, democracy and progress against imperialism, fascism and reaction.