A GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO MAKE HIST

On the Communist Party's new program
“The road to Socialism in Canada”

By BESEte MORRIS

HAT power there is in a
Was mighty idea when
it is seized upon by the major-
ity of the people.

“No More Hiroshimas”
the flaming demand around
which the Japanese working
class, peasants and intellecu-
als organized to give U.S. im-

perialism the most humiliating |

defeat since its armies turned
tail in North Korea in 1951.

This article on the new pro-
gram of the Communist Party
of Canada is being written on
the morning of June 16, when
the news of Eisenhower’s re-
treat came through the radio.

There is a deep connection
between the course of events
in Japam and the Canadian
Communist Party’s program of
Canadian independence and
socialism.

In 1952 the party brought |

together its opinions on Canad-
ian independence and_ the
struggle for socialism in Can-
ada in a draft of a party pro-
gram.
two years and in 1954 it was

adopted at a national conven- |

tion and published under the
title, Canadian Independence
and a People’s Parliament,
Canada’s Path to Socialism.

Thousands of copies of the |

program were sold and distri-
buted throughout Canada.

What was new in the pro-
gram, as distinct from previous
programs in 1923 and 1943,
was the concept of Canadian
independence from domination
by the U.S.A. This had been
put forward by the party since
World War Two, when the
grip of U.S. imperialism on
Canada had strengthened.

The special feature of the
demand for Canadian indepen-
dence was that the U.S. trusts
not only dominated Canada,’
but that U.S. imperialism is
the maka enemy of world pro-
gress, world peace and world

socialism. It was clear that the |
fight against U.S. eenation |

brought Canada into the centre |
of the world struggle.

The Communists were the
first to point out that this issue |
mirrored the actual state of |
affairs for the majority of |
Canadians, and that the battle|
for independence was not only
a part of the struggle for world
peace but a great domestic
battle against the Canadian
monopolies who. had sold our
country to the U.S.A. for dol-
lars.

Thus, independence for Can-
ada and peace in the world
were joined together.

e

ANY will remember how
the party campaigned in

the 1953 federal election with
100 candidates, under the cen-
tral slogan, Put Canada First!

was |

This was discussed for |

| Then the party’s independence
policy received its first public
test on a big scale.

We passed the test well.
| While the votes for the Com-
munist candidates were not
sufficient to elect, the fact re-
mains that the independence
issus was then, and since, re-
vealed to be a central factor
in Canadian political; life.

It is no secret that John
Diefenbaker, in 1957, chucked
aside the adopted Tory plat-
form and campaigned on the
“independence” issue as he
saw it. How phoney his cam-
paign was is clear now to
many who voted for him then,
j}and again in 1958.

This goes to show that a
genuine working-class party
must not be swayed by the
votes it receives from time to
| time. If its basic ideas are cor-

|rect, then ultimate success is
assured. (The simple, all-em-
bracing slogan, No More Hiro-
shimas! gradually seized the
minds of the Japanese people,
in a most difficult situation.)

While many Canadians~ are
against the U.S. ownership and
control ef our main economic
centres, it is the distinguishing
feature of the Communists that
they do not see this issue as
separate from other, and even
more fundamental ones. Com-
munists see in the present
struggle for Canadian indepen-
{dence and peace the germs of
| the future final conflict with
monopoly rule, and for social-
ism.

So it was that in the 1954 |

program the Communists link-
ed together the independence
|idea with the socialist idea;
; they saw the two things as
|merging, for this reason; that |
|}to get independence

adian monopoly
lthege blows would weaken its
| political basis and open the
|door for great struggles on/|
| domestic class issues; the de-
;mocratic idea of independence
weaves into the class struggle.

| In short, independence is

| not only an issue of peace and
neutrality, but an anti- -monop-
[a issue; and as an anti-mon-
| oply issue, it brings into ac-
tion not only the working class
but the farmers, the middle
classes of the towns, and even
sections of the non-monopoly
capitalists, whose interests are
hurt by state-monopoly capit-
alism — that is, the welding
together of the big monopolies
with the state machine which
is the outstanding feature of
the Canadian government to-

great |
blows must be struck against |
the rulers of Canada — Can- |
capitalism; /

|
|

LESLIE MORRIS

day.
€
URING the climax of the
D nolitical struggle inside

the Communist Party in 1956-
57, when the right-wing oppor-
tunists were defeated by the
Marxists, at the April, 1957
convention, it was decided to
work over the party’s program
to make it a more precise doc-
ument, and to improve it by
including many of the lessons
of the past several years.

Some of the improvements
pointed to at that time includ-
ed a better treatment of the
interweaving of Canadian in-
dependence with the struggle
for socialism and a clearer
explanation of the universal
laws of Marxism-Leninism
which operates in all countries
and how they were integrated
with the specific features of
Canada.

Here it should be pointed
out that the title of the new
| program, The Road to Social-
|ism in Canada, is a correction
| of the subtitle of the 1954 pro-
| gram, Canada’s Path to Soc-
}ialism. While on the surface

| the two appear to be identical
and a mere change of words,
| it is not really so.

There is one socialism, one
group of social laws making
for social revolution, one
group of scientific Marxist-
Leninist principles, applicable
to all countries; such as: the
need for proletarian dictator-
ship; an alliance between the
workers and farmers; the nec-
essity for a party of Commun-
ism without which socialism
cannot be victorious; the tak-
ing of the means of production
out of the hands of the capital-
ist class and operating them
as social property under a
workers’ state; and others.

It is precisely these univer-
sal and fundamental principals
which were rejected by the

revisionists.

There is no special Canadian
type of socialism; there is the
road to socialism in Canada.

e
HE integration of funda-
mental and_ universally

applicable principles with: the
historic realities and specific
features of Canadian imperial-
ism was the central problem
in the work on the new edition
of the program.

What kind of country is Can-
ada? How is its population
made up?

How was the “North Ameri-
can” living standard brought
about, and what does it mean?
Does it “challenge” Marxism.

It there a possible peaceful |
path to socialist power in Can-
ada, and if so, (and the new
program, as did the 1954 pro-
gram, Says there is such a pos-
sibility) how can, it be achiev-
ed, what are the paths to it,
and what are the dangers of vi-
olence and from where do they
arise?

How do the U.S. domination |

of Canada and the domination
of our country by Canadian
monopoly capital interweave,
and how are they expressed?

What are the possibilities of sais down. the “line oF ranean

a wide, popular anti-monopolist
united front, of labor-farmer
political action, and of a la-
bor-farmer government that
would open the floodgates of
mass political action which
could lead to socialist power?

How about the united work- |

ing-class front in Canada, the
trade unions, the farm organiz-
ations?

And how are these to be ex-
plained and elaborated in the
light of the universal princi-
ples of Marxism-Leninism?

Clearly, these questions are |

at the heart of Canadian polit- |
ical life, of the struggles be-
tween the contending classes,
and will be the subjects of en- |

ormous political movements in
| | monopoly, and its partner,

the coming days.

They are questions which af-
fect the relations between all
classes and groups — and on
which there must be a working
class position. This is what the
Communist program does.

On the issue of peace —
the central issue of our time,
the new edition of the program
of course places it in Canadian
terms as a part of the world-
wide struggle for peaceful co-
existence, which is the pattern
of development of the world
struggle against the still-pow-
erful and dangerous remnants
of imperialist rule — above
all, U.S. imperialist rule.

€

Weer questions have occu-

PG the attention of the
Communist Party for the past
three years, since the April,
1957 convention when the re-
visionists were routed.

A new draft was prepared
in 1958 and discussed by the
party. An improved draft was
debated at the 16th national
convention in October, 1959. It
was adopted there in principle
and the national committee
was instructed . to continue
work on it. At the Easter meet-
ing of the national committee
a two-day discussion of anoth-
er draft, brought in by the na-
tional executive, took place,
and the latter was empowered
to make certain changes which
the national committee had
agreed upon.

This has now been complet-
| ed and the Communist Party
[program will be published
| shortly.

It is truly a c°llective pro-
gram, not like the CCF, Tory
and Liberal programs, which
are “handed down’ from the
top.

COMMUNIST Party pro-

gram, from the time of the
Communist Manifesto written
in 1847 by Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels, is the most
important theoretical produc-
tion of a Communist party. It

of a Communist party, its
strategic aim, and its tactical
line to achieve that aim.

It is the basis for party mem
bership. A Communist party

party’s program and works a&
tively to bring it to reality.

The new edition of the pro
| gram of the Communist Party
'of Canada marks another steP
in the political maturity of thé
Communists in Canada.

It is a contribution to that
working class clarity which 4
|sorely needed to overcome
i es and right-wing
betrayal, to win unity against
jand overcome the __ vicious

enemy of the people, Canad
U

| imperialism.

It will help to raise th
political level of the Commu?
ists, who will be studying it ™
many club meetings and edu
cational classes next fall a?
winter.

Above all, the coe
program will be not only thé
property of the Communis®
who produced it but of th®
Canadian working class, who?
historic mission it is to ove
throw capitalist rule, establis?
its own political rule and Je4
Canada to socialism.

It is a program fo
working class, the maker
modern history.

June 30, 1960—PACIFIC TRIBUNE—Pase é

member is one who accepts the’

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