*

(Continued from previous Page)
workets and farmers who now vote Lib-
eral and Tory to move away from sup-
porting these parties of Big Business, and
to take the path of political action in
their own vital interests. :

In turning outwards to the masses of
Canadian people, the LPP will exercise
the maximum influence by concentrating

on the immediate needs of the working |

people. Our Party’s proposals as they are
detailed in the 1953 Federal Election
Platform of the LPP and the National
10-Point Plan to Beat the Threat of De

pression, are the main content of our
demands upon the government.

The LPP must draw political conclu:
sions from the struggle for these de-
mands, encouraging the idea of indepen-
dent political action, conducting propa-
ganda for a New National Policy, and
showing that every economic struggle is
at bottom a political struggle, requiring
the political defeat’ of the betrayers of
Canada—the big monopolies and their
parties, the Liberal and Tory. We mus:
strengthen our exposure of specific ac
tions of Right Wing Social Democrac

and the Right Wing trade union and fari..
leaders. The Party will show how theii
policies are the main obstacles to people’s
unity in the labor and farm movements.

All the factors of the objective eco-
nomic and political situation, in their
present and future development, provide
the basis for a people’s ‘coalition of al!
democratic and patriotic forces.

The nature »f this coalition will be
that of a growing and diversified people’s
movement in opposition to the policies of
reaction, Such a movement can and wil’
longa the noth of unity, elect a peop!”

rajority to Parliament. r

The LPP will point out in its agitatioi.
and propaganda for people’s unity, and
in all united front actions around imme-
diate issues, the necessity for parliamen-
tary political action, for electoral unity
around candidates who oppose the be-
trayal of Canada and stand for Canadian
independence. The LPP will emphasize,
constantly, that the working class must
take independent political action, to en-
sure the consistently progressive charac-
or of a people’s coalition of all demo-
“> end patriotic forces in the country

— 4, Build the Party, the NFLY and the Press —

SINCE the 4th National Convention thé
Party has taken an important step
forward in developing its Marxist pro-
gram for Canada, projecting a new na-
tional policy, and widening the area ot
its mass public work, Our members, un-
der difficult conditions, have performed
great tasks and fought unitedly and well.
However, the fight for the new policy
and for wider mass contacts have been
uneven as between different fields of
work and areas of the country; the
ideological-political mastering of the es-
sence of our new Draft Program has
fallen short of what the new tasks de-
mand; and the organizational limitedness
of our Party strength stands in sharp
contradiction to the truly great possibili-
ties which the new situation opens up for
growth of our membership, of the NFLY
and of our press.

The 1953 federal election campaign
marked a far-reaching advance in the
fight for our mass policy. In the cam-
paign we brought the message of our
New National Policy to hundreds of
thousands of Canadians and made the
first initial impact on public thinking
with our slogan, “Put Canada First!” In
the election campaign, in the nomination
of 100 LPP candidates and the break-
through into new areas, in many places,
the soundness of our. policy was fully
vindicated. In consolidating the gains
made in the campaign, a number of
Party organizations demonstrated the
power and potential for further advance
that our policy contains. Of this, Quebec
(where the conditions of Party work are
the most arduous) is the outstanding ex-
ample. Re-election of our provincial and
municipal candidates in Winnipeg show-
ed that with bold application of our
policy, victories can be won. .

The experience of these and other

struggles in the past three years — in the
fight for Great Power negotiations, to
ban the atomic bomb and to end the
war in Korea, against. the reactionary
clauses in the Criminal Code and for a
Bill of Rights, to save the Rosenbergs,
and in economic and political struggles
tight across the country — emphasizes
above all the need for a stronger Party,
NELY and progressive press.

This need is at once a matter of poli-
tical, ideological and organizational work.
In all three respects, a critical and self-
critical approach indicates the direction
our fight should take, to build our move-
ment ever stronger as we take our policy
to the masses.

Taking its stand on the historic issues
of Canada’s development our Party must
plunge more fully yet into all phases of
public life. Our readiness and ability to
seize hold of political issues and develop
the battle around them in the spirit of
“Put Canada First” must be sharpened.
We must overcome much more decisively
than we have yet done, the sectarianism
which holds us back from the mainstream
of struggle and which is expressed in
the tendency to lag behind events and
opportunities, Sectarianism remains the
chief obstacle to putting our policy into
life. At the same time we shall combat
more tellingly the right opportunism
which evades the political conclusions of
the struggle for peace and independence
which are implicit in the economic
struggles.

* 1” *.
OUR Program is qur guide to action.
Its adoption by the Convention will
mark a new advance in the political ma-
turity of our Party.

This Convention calls upon the Party
the make our new Program the property
of every member, and to take it to our
supporters and contacts by widespread
use of forums, lectures, group and indi-
vidual discussions. It should be our aim
to make our Program known in the im-
mediate future to wide circles of leftward
moving CCF , Supporters, members of

trade unions and farm organizations, pro-
gressive middle class people, youth, wo-
men and students.

In the course of working for wider
mass connections we must raise the
fighting capacity of our Party by
deepening Marxist-Leninist understand-
ing among our whole membership — in
the first place by deepening the grasp
of the theoretical foundations of our new
Program. -

The fight for Canadian independence
requires a stronger grasp of the true
connection between patriotism and
working class internationalism. This
means a struggle against cosmopolitanism
and bourgeois nationalism. x

Introduction of a planned year of .

Party study in clubs and through classes
and lectures should lead to more and
better individual and collective study.
equipping our members to speak and ar-
gue with great effectiveness in favor of
our New National Policy. The deepen-
ing of the basic understanding of our
aim of a Socialist Canada, a fuller
knowledge of Canadian history and
working class struggle are needed to ad-
vance in life our fight for independence,
peace, democracy and Socialism.

* * *

HE federal election campaign clear!y
revealed the gap between the breadth

of our national policy, and our acutely”

limited organizational strength. At the
same time it showed us the striking pos-
sibilities that exist for the growth of our
membership, of the youth movement, and
of our press. It is clear that the best
possibilities of building a larger Party
and a bigger press circulation now lie in
the direction of taking our New National
Policy into every factory, union, and
electoral area, and that we’shall build our
Party only as we develop. our political
mass work in line with our New National
Policy.

This 5th National Convention calls up-
on our whole Party td redouble its
exertions to establish LPP clubs in every
federal constituency. Our experience has
shown that with a correct policy, boldly

‘ and imaginatively applied, we can build

the Party, the NFLY and the press. What
is required is a combination of two
things, particularly:

1. Leadership which, fighting for the
widest expression in mass work of ou:
“Put Canada First” policy, consistently
gives direction and sets an example in

the work of. building the movement in*

the struggle.

2. Planning the work of the club mem-
bers in such a way as to ensure the
provision of time for visiting people;
only* when the approach to this problem
is given due tecognition by leading com-
mittees can it be expected that time will
be devoted to recruiting and press build-
ing as work of first-rate political impor

tance.
* * *

Our political task demands a bigger
and more widespread Party organization,
able to contest federal, provincial and
municipal elections on a far wider scale
than we have yet done. To further this
aim, the structure of the Party organiza-
tion should be modified to the extent
that is needed to provide leadership and
organized activity in a steadily growing
number of constituencies. It must be our
aim to have a functioning committee in
every federal constituency and to assign
every club (territorial, industrial, nation:

‘al group) to carry on work in a specific

constituency. This is necessary both to
strengthen the emphasis on the turn out-
wards to mass public work on the main
national issues; it is necessary also in
order to strengthen all-year-round work
with the people we want to reach and
win for our policy in each constituency.

Our Program and policy are directed
to the widest circles of democratic Ca-
nadians. Properly applied, they can win

SUPPLEMENT TO-PACIFIC TRIBUNE — JANUARY 8, 1954 3

us Wide new areas of influence and sup-
port. Above all, they can be the means
of reaching and convincing thousands of
industrial workers—the backbone of re-
sistance to the war and crisis program
ot reaction, Our New National Policy is
a challenge to every Party member, club
and committee—-to tackle with renewed
vigor and full confidence the work of
spreading our Party’s message in the
plants and industrial areas. To establish
the LPP as a national parliamentary
party of the working class means, not to
weaken but to strengthen our industrial
concentration. It means improving radi-
cally: the political quality of our indus-
trial club and committee work, in line
with the fight to “Put Canada First.” It
means directing our parliamentary work
in such a way as to win a stronger base
in the main areas of working class con-
centration. ;

The test of leadership in the coming
period will be, how well we have devel-
oped our mass work in the federal con-
stituencies, as measured by consolidation
of our support in membership and press

readership — particularly in the main
working class centres.
* * *

@UCCESS in extending the circulation
of the progressive press—in the firs.
place the Canadian Tribune, Pacific Trib
une and Combat—depends on the way
in which we fight politically to win sup-
port for it—as the main means of making
known our New National Policy and as
the main organizer of wide public action
in behalf of the nation’s needs. This
political quality of the fight for the press
can be made effective only by so organ-
izing the work as to ensure that time is
devoted to winning new readers and sub-
scribers, and maintaining contact with
them. We have splendid, staunch work-
ers for the press all across the country,
but not always is the leadership and di
rection of the overall work such as to
secure gains for our press. The recorc |
in this respect must be made a yardstick
of political adequacy in judging the work
of clubs, committees and cadres.

Our press has the urgent task of bring
ing the contents and presentation more
fully into line with our New National
Policy, its breadth and scope and patriot-
ic appeal. In this way, our press mus:
reach out to new people, take up ques
tions of the day more actively, and re
flect more adequately the all-sided char-
acter of the struggle for Canadian
independence and peace. f

Recent improvements in literatur
work must be extended so that the sale
of books and pamphlets becomes a part
of the daily work of the whole Party

National Affairs Monthly has the task
of becoming in a more all-round way the
political and ideological organ of the
Party, i.e., to strike a better balance be-
tween its practical guidance to immediate
action, and its work as the disseminator
of Marxist-Leninist theory. '

The Party must become more active
in helping to build the NFLY, the cir:
culation of Champion and assisting the
NFLY to reach out more effectively
through youthful forms of activity to
wide circles of young people, and espec-
ially young workers. A stronger NFLY
is indispensable to the involvement of the
youth in the fight for Canadian inde-
pendence and peace. The NFLY is to be.
congratulated for its activity, best ‘ex
pressed in the slogan, “New Horizons for
Canada’s Youth.’ ;

The Fifth National Convention of the
LPP calls upon the Party to strengthen
the work among the youth, with the aim
of helping to win the batile of Young
Canada‘by building the NFLY and the
Champion. : !

Ee *
A NOTABLE feature of the first major
test of our new national policy in
the federal election was the number of

U

new, fresh forces who came to the fore
in the course of the campaign. The task
of bringing forward and helping to de-
velop new cadres is an essential part of
the fight for our policy. Consistent and
rapid promotion of Party members as
candidates, public speakers and writers,
campaign organizers, and mass workers,
is a matter for all-year-round attention,
inseparably tied in with the fight for our
mass policy. The Party greets the many
women Party workers who have come
forward in recent campaigns as speakers,
candidates and organizers. They must
receive greater assistance to further
develop as leaders of the Party and the
Canadian people, and new women cadres
actively brought forward.

It is necessary that all leading Party

committees introduce more system and.

thoroughness in their treatment of the
selection, promotion and assignment of
cadres in relation to the needs of Party
growth and advance in the fight for ou
new National Policy.
We will unfold and win mass support
for our New National Policy to the extent
that we improve the quality of all our
work by better use of the classical weap-

_ on of criticism and self-criticism. Critic-

ism from below, of leading committees
and personnel,-of content and methods
of work, is the way to check up and
advance the fulfilment of Party policy.
Only by strengthening inner-Party de-
mocracy, by involving all members in
the struggle to improve the Party’s work,
can we measure up to the new oppor-
tunities before us. By means of criticism
and self-criticism we must demand and
obtain more—in initiative, boldness, and
“outward” orientation in our leadin
committees and workers. Collectivity o:
leadership needs to be strengthened in
nearly all areas of work; sharper and
more consistent use of criticism is the
means to*its achievement. Measurement
of work by results, political and organ-
izational, is not yet systematically under-
taken and checked upon. . Bei)

Not criticism “in general” is needed, .

but concrete criticism in relation to the
fight for our New National Policy, for

‘breadth of work and wider mass con-

tacts, for the organized strengthening of
our movement. The National Committee
is called upon to improve its use and
direction of the fight for criticism and
self-criticism throughout the Party.

The responsibility of the Labor-Pro-
gressive Party in this historic crisis of
Canada’s destiny, is to help the masses
of democratic Canadians, French and
English-speaking, to achieve people’s un-
ity for Canada. As a vital and far-reach-
ing part of its effort to fulfill this respon-
sibility, this National Convention is
adopting a new Program for our Party
—a Program which charts the path of
struggle for people’s unity to elect a
majority in parliament, to win Canadian
independence and advance through
people’s democracy to a Socialist Canada.

* * *
ODAY, love of country and true
patriotism of necessity involves a

struggle against the anti-national aims of
the conspiracies of monopoly capital.

The inescapable alternatives that face

the Canadian people are, economic ruin ~

and military destruction, or the recon-
quest of our sovereign independence
through a New National Policy. Out of
their struggles for Canadian independ-
ence, peace, democracy and to beat the
threat of depression, the democratic
forces, though still divided, are moving
towards unity. No Canadian can evade
this struggle. By winning it, Canadians
will set their feet on the path to true

national greatness. _

(Submitted to the Fifth National
Conyention of the LPP by the
National Executive Committee, De-
cember 1953.)

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