Communist Party of Canada
by Andr� Parizeau

BUILDING WORKING CLASS AND PEOPLE'S UNITY TO OPPOSE
NEOLIBERALISM AND CAPITALIST GLOBALISATION

Dear Comrades,

Let me first of all thank the KKE for taking the initiative
to once again convene a meeting of Communist and Workers'
parties.

The topic for this meeting deals with one of the most
difficult problems of communist theory and practice:
namely, that of developing our revolutionary work, strategy
and tactics under the prevailing non-revolutionary
conditions. I will try to share with you some of the key
aspects of our Party's views on this matter.

Our strategic approach is first and foremost based on the
fact that the working class, due to its size and strategic
place in the production process, is the natural leader of
all democratic and progressive forces in the fight against
capitalist rule. The development of capitalism has made
the working class into a cohesive, continuously growing and
militant force. The working class possesses no means of
production. Its class interests are diametrically opposed
to both domestic and international finance capital by
virtue of its position in the economy.

At the same time, it is also our view that the working
class cannot do the job by itself alone it needs to build
alliances in order to take on and defeat the immense and
coordinated power of capitalism. Therefore the working
class must build unity with other sectors and movements of
the Canadian people adversely affected by the domination of
finance capital, and which have an objective interest in
winning a new democratic course for Canada.

From our point of view, the setting up and the
consolidation of such alliances, with the working class as
the core element of that movement, will play a decisive
role in moving towards more favorable conditions for a
radical transformation of our society. The strategic
objective of building working class and people's unity has
been a key element of the Communist Party of Canada
strategies since its creation in 1921. Building such
alliances is still a major aspect of our work today as more
and more people coming from broad and diverse sections of
the population are being victimized by the all-sided
attacks launched by finance capital and the neoliberal
governments which aim to destroy most of economic and
social gains achieved by working people over the last
half-century.

Throughout the years, the building in Canada of such
alliances or coalitions has had its ups and downs,
depending on the development of the class struggle, the
influence of the working class and the ability of the
Communist Party to effectively lead that movement as well
as the level of repressive measures undertaken by the
bourgeois class. The nature of these people's alliances
has also evolved. Today, a key element and unifying issue
within such a movement is the necessity of fighting
neoliberalism and its right-wing agenda as well as working
for a broad coalition of anti-monopoly forces.

The building of a broad anti-monopoly coalition of forces
is extremely difficult and complex. The ruling circles use
every weapon in their arsenal, including economic bribery,
political manipulation and co-option, monopoly control of
information and media, religious and cultural prejudices,
and even psychological instruments to foster divisions
among the people along national, cultural, gender lines.

Notwithstanding these difficulties however, life itself
impels broader sections of the people to seek mutual
solidarity and to build alliances in the face of the
intensified attack of finance capital and its state. This
is the expanding feature of our time.

People's movements are involving growing numbers of
Canadians in extra-parliamentary political activity. These
forces include a vast array of movements, multi-class in
character, that are united around democratic and social
struggles across Canada and against neoliberalism. They
include progressive trends within the national movements in
Quebec and among aboriginal peoples, the movement for
women's equality, environmentalist forces, the peace and
solidarity movements, the youth and students' movement;
social justice movements and many and many more.

There is also a growing struggle against U.S. domination of
our economic, political and cultural life. Today the
struggle for Canadian sovereignty and independence is a
struggle for the future of Canada, an essential condition
and step for the advance to socialism.

In all of its mass political day to day work, and by
getting involved in these struggles, the Communist Party
strives to help build a truly democratic, anti-monopoly,
anti-imperialist alliance uniting all these people's forces
as the basis for a democratic, anti-monopoly,
anti-imperialist people's government. Although such a
people's government would not constitute socialism, it
would nonetheless mark a significant step in the struggle
for fundamental change and socialist transformation.

Working within mass organizations to help strengthen them
is one aspect of the work we do. At the same time, we also
encourage these mass organizations to work much more
closely together. We also encourage other left-oriented
political organizations to leave aside sectarianism and to
engage themselves into united actions around very concrete
issues that concerns the working class as well as the vast
majority of the population. This is another way to advance
the building of what we call the people's alternative.

Because of the still relatively limited influence of the
revolutionary movement in our country, left-wing
organizations, including the Communist Party, are usually
portrayed as small and marginalized organizations. So part
of our job must be to fight against such an image and
convince people that what we offer can be a viable option.
Working to build alliances is an integral part of that
objective.

In doing so, we must be alert to the dangers of right and
`left' opportunism. Right opportunism occurs when the Party
loses its political independence within these coalitions,
and neglects or renounces its leadership role. The net
result of such a fundamental error leads to the abandonment
of the Communists' revolutionary perspective and long-term
objectives, and the de facto tailing behind the reformists
and the social-democrats.

The `leftist' danger consists in rejecting the need to help
build alliances on the sole basis that such alliances do
not advance a "revolutionary" line. One current argument
we sometimes hear goes as follows: "let us stand aside from
such alliances so to avoid getting trapped into right
opportunism." But this argument amounts to nothing more
than gross left infantilism. This is no solution because,
by doing so, the Communists would only isolate themselves
and betray their responsibility to help transform the
current situation into more favorable conditions for the
working class and its allies. It is just another form of
political capitulation.

The winning of working class and people's unity and
ultimately political power requires an independent working
class ideology. This involves a long battle for a genuine
working class policy, forged in the process of combating
capitalist ideology, reformism and class collaboration
within the labour movement.

The economic base for reformism and class collaboration is
steadily diminishing. As the systemic crisis of monopoly
capitalism deepens, big business is placing increasing
demands on the working class, and is extracting more and
more concessions. This in turn compels the workers to
stiffen their resistance. As the actual conditions of life
for workers under capitalism continue to deteriorate, the
illusions fostered by social reformism come increasingly
into conflict with the realities of the class struggle.
That said, there is no doubt that reformist and class
collaborationist ideas still hold sway over most workers in
Canada, and within the trade union movement itself.

While conducting a constant struggle against social
reformism, the Communist Party supports the fight for
reforms to protect working people from the effects of
capitalist exploitation. The struggle for reforms helps the
working class to gain confidence and experience, to
strengthen their unity and organization, to deepen their
class consciousness, and to shift the balance of class
forces in society in their favour. The Communist Party
links the struggle for reforms with the revolutionary
transformation of society.

The main obstacle to the unity of the workers' movement, to
the uniting of the progressive forces and to the
establishment of antimonopoly unity still is rightwing
social democracy and anti-communism.

Capitalism's deepening crisis and the resulting intensified
struggle between capital and labour has also evoked a
deep-going ideological and political clash within the ranks
of social democracy. The right-wing leadership of the
social democratic movement in Canada and internationally
has abandoned even the few formal references to socialism
that still exist in their parties. These people have
embraced globalized capitalism, and reoriented social
democratic parties in favour of the illusion of managing
capitalism "with a human face."

Social democracy's reorientation is a reflection of its
changing class base, from the working class it used to be
associate to, toward the petty bourgeoisie, professionals
and other sections of the middle strata. That reorientation
has had far reaching effects, widening the gap between the
interests of the working class and those of rightwing
social democracy. Within some important sections of the
Canadian Labour movement which were up until recently
closely linked to the NDP Canadian main social-democrat
party the continued political and organizational
relationship between unions and that party is currently
being questioned in the most serious way since a long time.

These developments attest to the widening gap between the
interests of the working class and its allies and those of
right-wing social democracy. The Communist Party of Canada
thinks it must nonetheless continue to work for cooperation
with social democrats. The more effectively the Communist
Party works for left and democratic unity and strengthens
its independent political activity, putting forward its
program and policies, the more the left forces, both within
and outside the social democrat movement, can be brought
into united struggle for genuine socialist policies.

* * * * * *

The main focus for labour and democratic cooperation and
action today is around the battle to preserve social
services from the ravages of neoliberal attacks especially
those in defence of Canada's public health care and
educational system which are both threatened by wholesale
privatization.

These struggles in turn are linked to the broader struggle
against capitalist globalization, and the drive by finance
capital to completely ensnare Canada in its embrace through
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and of course the
World Trade Organization (WTO), the IMF and World Bank. A
few years ago, a very wide sweep of labour and other
democratic forces came together to resist and defeat the
Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI). These social
forces were further bolstered by the historic anti-WTO
protests in Seattle last November. Th most salient aspect
of these new emerging coalitions is their increasingly
anti-corporate basis of unity, and the anti-capitalist
consciousness of many of their activists.

We should also like to report on some important
developments in the province of Quebec, where left and
democratic forces are likewise drawing more closely
together. A new political coalition comprising six
left-wing political parties including the Greens,
Communists, socialists and left social-democrats is taking
shape. Despite its small size, the Parti communiste du
Quebec (PCQ) has managed to become a leading force in this
process, demonstrating in a very concrete way how to
combine political efforts to build left and democratic
unity, while at the same time winning new members and
supporters for the communists' own long term revolutionary
strategy.

Thanks you for you attention.