'
4

French Canada’s Left takes
historic step to unity

By SAM WALSH

On Sunday,
March 27, in
the head-
Fe quarters of
ee the Parti
’ Socialiste du
Quebec in
Montreal
repre-
sentatives
from all im-

ms, rtant~ groups of the
ce ina conference, Their
i8t Se was to agree on common
eae actions in defense of the
: ple and of democracy and to
fe the process of working
a minimum common program
Nst the policies of the mon-

%Polies and th
oe e Lesage govern-

_ The idea was to bring together

the distinctly Left groups and
agreement could be reached,
Be the united Left spark a
aan democratic and national
Boni € sense of French Canada)

me: which would bring together
amet trade union centres, the
oe farmers, students and

ike a to present an alternative

esage government,

8 initiative was taken by
Rien a Socialiste du Quebec,
= tself had split from the
08 €mocratic Party two years

1a lengthy agenda drawn up

ee all the major questions
oe Concern to the Left forces
ee ever? trade union unity,
ihe evel against monopoly,
aan Tuggle for peace, the na-

ae question and in particular.
tre ulton-Favreau formula for
Bee cation” of the British
ate rventea Act, establish-
ibiray a joint weekly socialist
Dublie to supplement the monthly
a ea of the various move-
Provir, &@ common front on the
a Cial electorial field, the

Tal elections, May Day.

However, since this first.

ee lasted only four hours,

Poca which was devoted to

organi. hg general objectives and

only Zational structure, it could
act on two matters of direct

thos mediate concern to all
Present,

ae Conference decided to set
the Pee nating Committee of
Would Ovements of the Left which

include at its foundation:

age Caucus de Gauche, the Club
Dror iste Jacques Perreault
€ssors at the University of

Montreal,) Co-operative des
Editions — Socialistes, Groupe
d’Action Poptlaire, the Revue
Socialiste (strongly separatist,)}
Ligue Socialiste Ouvriere (Trot-
skyist), Parti Communiste Can-
adian, Parti Pris (a movement
organized around the socialist
separatist journal of the same
name,) Parti Socialiste’ du
Quebec, Socialisme 65 (a
socialist journal,) Revolution
Quebecoise (a socialist journal.)

The New Democratic Party
was represented and has yet to
decide whether to participate of-
ficially in the committee,

The co-ordinating committee
must meet at least once monthly
and must convene the conference
(consisting of delegates from
each group) at least once in
three months, Decisions must
be unanimous before the co-
ordinating committee can organ-
ize actions in its own name,
But it may organize actions in the
name of the consenting partici-
pating organizations, if one or

more groups dissent, -
The conference decided to deal

with questions of common united
action before tackling problems
where ideological differences
might stand in the way of reaching

immediate agreement,
The first decision for united

action was to organize a May
Day celebration jointly this year;
to start making the international
worker’s celebration a part of
the tradition of French Canada
as well. Only once before, in
the 1980s, has Montreal had a
united May Day celebration.

The second decision was to
issue a statement sharply criti-
cizing the Fulton - Favreau
“repatriation” formula as an
“odious negation” of the right of
self-determination of the French
Canadian nation, and condemning
Premier Lesage both for es-
pousing this formula and his
declaration that the people of
Quebee aren’t educated enough
to understand its significance.

The conference itself and its
success in reaching common de-
cisions of the Left was considered
by most present as an historic
step, reversing the recent trend
to splits, and a big step in over-
coming fear to include the Com-
munists in the councils of the

Left.

Many saw the conference as
the beginning of organized
activity that could in time bring
about a great united movement
of all those ready to present a
political alternative both to the
Lesage government and the Union
Nationale and Creditiste repre-
sentatives of monopoly capital.

THE RUSALKA FEMALE CHOIR

presents a

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\ 5 a

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April 15, 1965—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Page 11