There is growing within Canada a new Communist movement which bases itself on Marxism-Leninism, Mao Tse-tung Thought and takes as its central task the building of a new and genuine communist party. Only with a genuine communist party will it be possible for the working class to seize power and build socialism. But this new Communist Party will not be built easily. As yet ,the Marxist-Leninist movement is small and weak, its links with the working class are very limited and it is divided on many questions of extreme importance. The different positions held by groups lead them to put forward different strategies for proletarian revolution.
But unity exists as well. For example on the question of the international situation, all Canadian Marxist-Leninists recognize: the development of the Soviet Union into a vicious social-imperialist country; the struggle for world hegemony between the US and the SU; and that both superpowers are militarily preparing for a third world war. These are crucial positions on which Marxist-Leninists have unity, on which Marxist-Leninists are distinguished from the betrayers of the working class, the ’Communist Party of Canada’ and other phoney communists. There is ,therefore, a basis for debate and struggle – a unity from which we can proceed to make criticisms and reach unity on a higher level.
In this paper we take up the questions concerning the international situation, and analyze the major trends operating on a global level. We do this in order to determine: 1) what effect the international situation will have on the revolutionary struggles in Canada and consequently on the tasks of Marxist-Leninists who must lead these struggles, and 2) the responsibilities and tasks of the Canadian working class and Marxist-Leninists in upholding proletarian internationalism. We analyze the positions of other Marxist-Leninists in this light with the aim of developing principled unity and overcoming the errors that would lead to the defeat of revolutionary forces. We hope our work will be subject to the same analysis by comrades in the movement with the same goals in mind.
The areas we focus on are:
1) the Three Worlds analysis and its consequences;
2) the question of the inevitability of war;
3) the tasks of Canadian Marxist-Leninists with regard to the international situation.
We take up these questions because we must understand the world to change it. We must build a united proletarian party that can lead the way forward to revolution. It is toward realizing this goal that we write this paper.