iibailialaass aa i internationalism marks Jamaican Party congress New Communist Party born Special to the Tribune KINGSTON, Jamaica — The 9tst member of the world frater- nity of Communist Parties came literally roaring into life in Jamaica on Jan. 14 when the Workers Party of Jamaica (WPJ), two years aborning under the gui- dance of the Workers Liberation League, convened its First Con- gress here. The WPJ joins the community of world Communist and Workers parties with years of experience in the struggles of its people and a solid base in the democratic and workers movements in the coun- try. : This was evident in the deep discussions leading up to the adoption of the party’s program and constitution, the two main documents before the Congress. It was also made clear in the final and public session of the Congress held in a downtown Kingston theatre where 2,000 members and supporters jammed the seats Sunday morning to wel- come the new party to the Jamaican public scene and hear an inspiring report from its Gen- eral Secretary, Trevor Munroe, as well as greetings from the Soviet, Cuban, Guyanese and Uruguayan fraternal delegates to the Congress. One hundred and seventy dele- gates along with 23 fraternal dele- the Congress was the growing Party leaders at the public session of the Workers’ Party of Jamaica. gates representing 15 organiza- tions took part in the discussions. Forty-six per cent of the delegates were 24 years of age or under. Eighty-four per cent were 29 years of age or under. This youthful character of the Congress undoubtedly accounted in part for tremendous en- thusiasm, audacity and con- fidence. Beyond that, however, running through the Congress from hour one until the gavel came down to wind up the public session four days later, it was evi- dent that the two elements which fired up the gathering were the confidence of the new party in its historic mission of achieving significant social change in Jamaica leading to socialism and its oneness with the world com- munist miovement to which: it gladly ascribed its being. - A significant feature was the participation of workers and rev- olutionary parties from the east Caribbean countries. Representa- tives attended from the New Jewel Movement in Grenada, from Youlimo of St. Vincent, Monali of Barbados, the Workers Revolutionary Movement of St. Lucia as well as a representative of the Working Peoples Alliance of Guyana. Evident in the remarks of the Caribbean fraternal delegates to a ~, Over 2,000 packed the hall to welcome the new party. strength of the revolutionary cur- rents in the Caribbean and the burgeoning of Marxist Leninist parties in the area. It would seem reasonable to speculate that such parties will come into existence in @ most if not all the éast Caribbean countries in the next few years. Speaking for the Communist Party of Canada, William Stewart greeted the Congress not only as a great and historic achievement for the working people and all dem- great victory for the cause of socialism and national liberation around the world. - He saluted the internationalism of the new party (which most strongly expressed itself in a tumultuous welcome for the Soviet and Cuban delegations), the sole guarantee of the unity of the world working class and anti- imperialist movement. Stewart drew attention to the common interests of Jamaican and Canadian workers in their: Struggles against common exploiters and not least against American imperialism which dominates Canada economically.. He also noted the large number .of Jamaican workers who now lived in Canada and the dif- ficulties they face in building new lives with problems of un- employment and racism which are not only injurious to Jamaican workers but to all working people in Canada. He informed the Con- gress that the Communist Party would be giving increased atten- tion to the struggle against racism in Canada and would intensify its efforts to ensure that Jamaicans living in Canada could find a happy and secure future. The highlight of the Congress was the adoption of the program of the party, an ambitious task in- deed for a first Congress, but one WPJ proved admirably up to. _ The program, which had been the subject of two years intensive Corporate cannibalism ocratic forces in Jamaica, but asa ©} discussion by thé WLL and its friends, traces the history of the Caribbean, its struggles against slavery and against imperialism up to the present. It examines the political situa- tion in the country, class rela- tions, the role and position of the working class and sets forth the’ path of socialist orientation for Jamaica. It forsees the establish- ment of a People’s Democratic Republic as the next stage of rev- olutionary progress leading to- wards socialism. While carefully recognizing the historic role of the working class, the program draws the conclusion that in the neo-colonialist situa- tion in Jamaica the working class has not yet assumed the leader- ship of the mass struggle against imperialism. The struggle, as is common in most neo-colonial situations, due to the distortions implicit in their’ economies; «is being headed in the main by the middle sections of the population. Their interests coincide with those of the working class and are in direct opposition to im- perialism and the International. Monetary Fund which directs the attack on the lives and futures of the people of Jamaica. The program concludes that the middle strata can, and indeed is, at this time, playing the leading role in the struggle for a socialist » party iy e a il Trevor Munroe was elected general secretary of the Patt \ orientation in Jamaica. 4 same time it sets as a majork, the new party, bringing ! ganized working class mo more into the centre of this Cle ws yy The other major achieY of the Congress was the ad of a constitution in line MI democratic centralist p in cf Marxist-Leninist partie bespeaking the firm I nationalism of ‘scies socialism. After heated ait, orous debate in panels the) stitution .was adopted um) ously by the Congress am) directed itself int) struggles of its peoples. 4 Fascinating reports were at the plenary sessions D! resentatives of the party fr0 industrial area, the rural aré the area of women’s work. was common to all was -ingenuity of the membershi audacity, its revolutionary fe and most of all its closenest the people. { It acted and sounded 1 party whose time has come living up to its responsibilith William Stewart was the nal delegate from the Com Party of Canada to the fou congress of the Workers’ Pa! Jamaica. By ALFRED DEWHURST | Over the past few weeks the daily press has been headlining thé rash of mergers and take-over bids that are being consummated. Such corporations . as Hudson Bay, Simpson Co. and Simpson-Sears; Domtar, MacMillan & Bloedel and Canadian Pacific Invest- ments have been locked in fierce power struggles for top dog positions in mer- chandizing and wood products. = * ok Toronto Globe & Mail columnist Ronald Anderson aptly dubbed this brutal aspect of capital concentration as “cannibalism. We say aptly, because the devouring of lesser corporations by the Corporate giants and, yes, giants by giants, has over the past 20 years or more become a typical form of corporate expansionism. And, we should add, such cannibalism intensifies during periods of economic recession with the stringent market con- tractions and heightened competition that mark such periods, For, in such times the less powerful corporations be- come easier marks for the more power- ful. The deeper the recession, the bigger the hit list. However, it should be underlined that the real victims of corporate cannibalism are not the corporation tycoons but the PACIFIC TRIBUNE~JANUARY 19, 1979—Page 8 Marxism-Leninism in Today’s World working people, through lowered living standards, and the country as*a whole through corporate robbery of the real wealth of the country. * * * The tendency for capital to be concen- trated into fewer and fewer hands is a law of development of capitalism, especially — in its monopoly stage when the tempo of concentration is vastly increased. Such concentration certainly pays off for the giant corporations. The bigger the corpo- ration, the bigger the profits. To give one example: in 1971 Canadian Pacific re- ported a net income of $63.7-million. Three years later in 1974 its reported in- come has tripled to $181.7-million. Even in struggle for control the corpo- rations reap millions. For instance, in the struggle for control of MacMillan & Bloedel, Domtar made a cool $27-million on the stock market due to the rise in price of MacMillan & Bloedel shares. oh * * There are 18 corporate companies in Canada with assets of more than $1-bil- lion and 23 financial institutions in the same category. The combined. assets of the five largest banks are two times grea- ter than the combined assets of the next largest financial institutions, and two times greater than the combined assets of the country’s 30 largest companies. These giant corporations comprise the power base of Canada’s financial oligar- chy. This oligarchy is a relatively small group of financial .tycoons that com- pletely dominate the economic and polit- ical life of our country. The power they wield is finance capital which is the pro- fit-hungry offspring of banking and industrial capital. And this power is strongly influenced in its economic and political aims by the enormous weight of U.S. capital investment in Canada. * *- Ok The most common method used by the financial oligarchy to establish its domi- nation over the economy is through hold- ing companies. Through this method the monopoly financial groups. obtain the controlling interest over the capitals and enterprises of other firms or groups of firms. Corporate and company shares are floated on the market in huge num- . bers and in small denominations in order to attract the savings of working people and of small investors, thus facilitating the centralization of capital. Small shareholders do not participate in the Management of the company whose ~ shares they own. It is only the ow large blocks of shares that do. ° This is an ideal situation for the ing companies. Taking advantage 0 huge numbers of small denomin shares that are traded daily on th e | market, it is sufficient for holding panies like Canadian Pacific In ments, the Argus Corporation and P Corporation to own only 10 to 12% | given company’s shares to obtain cd of that company. . “ok * ok The financial tycoons that makf and control holding companies seek trol of whole pyramids of compi Such control improves their posit the fierce cut-throat battle that: got ‘between competitive monopoly gr It enables them to squeeze monopoly profits from the comp they control and to accumulate amounts of capital in the form of res funds. 4 These profits, we. should add, i final analysis come out of the swea toil of all who labor for their daily b The capital, wealth and power usul by the financial oligarchy rightfully longs to those who toil. It is time workers came into their own. ok * * ' More next week.