n the course of his pre-
sentation to the meeting
of the Central Commit-
tee of the Communist
Party of Canada (Feb.
4-6), William Kashtan,
Party leader, listed se-
ven points around

which Communists should carry
on a concerted struggle on the-na-
tional question— the right of na-
tions (in this case the French
Canadian nation) to self-deter-
mination. .

In a preamble, Kashtan said:

“Events have vindicated the
correctness of the Communist
position on the national question
as it applies concretely to Quebec
and Canada. Based on this fact
Communists, wherever they are
to be found, in the factories and
trade unions, among women,
youth, students in universities
and high schools, in the academic
field and among _ intellectuals,
should be in the forefront of the
ever-widening debate.

“Tn connection with this the
Party everywhere should or-
ganize seminars so that Party
members as well as friends and
supporters of our Pary can be
fully equipped theoretically, tac-
tically and practically to deal with
the question. :

“In the seminars which ought
to be held and generally in our
work among English-speaking
and French Canadians we should
restate our principled approach to
the national question. The follow-
ing are among those we must give
particular attention to:”

Self-determination

1. Each nation must have the
right to decide how its national
aspirations should be met. This is
the essence of the right to national
self-determination. Self-deter-

The following resolution was
passed at the Central Committee
meeting of the Communist Party of
- Canada. It is titled ‘No privileges
for any nationality or language; no
discrimination against any nation-

or language.

The Central Committee of the

Communist Party of Canada reit-

- erates its principled position that
French must become the main and
principal language in Quebec, that
French-Canadians in Quebec
must have access to all employ-
ment at all levels and be able to
work freely in their own language.
The fact that English is still the
main language of work where 80%
of the population is French-
speaking is an intolerable con-
sequence of the British Conquest
and of U.S. and Anglo-Canadian
monopoly domination of the
economy.

The stubborn efforts to prevent
French-speaking air pilots and
controllers from speaking to each
other in French in the three main

mination means above all, recog-
nition of the full equality of na-
tions up to and including the right
to secession and the duty of
Communists is to oppose any
attempts to influence the issue by
force.

What constitutes a nation?
Lack of clarity on this question
leads to various kinds of conclu-
sions on how to face up to the

crisis of confederation. Among.

the areas of unclarity is the mixing
up of Canada as a geographic enti-
ty, as acountry, with nationhood.
As we know from other exam-
ples, more than one nation can
inhabit a country. Prime Minister
Trudeau stated recently that there
are many nations in Canada, in-
cluding the Indian and Inuit
peoples. He argues this way to get
away from a strictly scientific ap-

proach to the question of nation-

hood and from the bi-national
character of Canada. The Marxist
definition of a nation. states: ‘A
nation is a historically consituted,
stable community of people
formed on the basis of a common
language, territory, economic life
and psychological make-up man-
ifested in a common culture.’
Based on this scientific ap-
proach the French Canadian
people constitute a nation.

To mix up the concept of nation
with ethnic group or community
is harmful and unsound. The
ethnic groups live in different
parts. of Canada. They do not
constitute a stable community. of
people on the basis of common
language, territory, economic life
and psychological make-up man-
ifested in a common culture.

They are, by and large, part of -

either English Canada or French
Canada. -

As for the Indian and Inuit
people, in a. strictly scientific

airports around Montreal have
nothing to do with safety but are a
deliberate effort to maintain the
privileges and dominant position
of the English-speaking. on
Quebec territory.

On the St. Lawrence River
where all pilots and shore-
controllers are French-Canadian
and have always conversed in
French, there is now a serious ef-
fort on. foot to force them to
switch to English.

We oppose all measures in
Quebec to prevent immigrants
and children of immigrants from
getting English-language instruc-

tion and the imposition of.a quota"

system setting a limit on the
number of non-immigrant chil-
dren whose mother tongue is En-
glish from attending English-
language schools.

We oppose all measures-in En-
glish Canada which deny

French-speaking persons the

right to have French-language
schools or classes as part of the

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—FEBRUARY 18, 1977—Page 6

~Communist Ce

sense they are not presently na-
tions, although they. could be-
come so. They have no common
language, economic life of territ-
ory, spread over as they are, in’
many parts of the country and in
various tribal formations. As na-
tions they would have, as a matter
of course, the right to self-deter-
mination up to and including sec-
cession: -Because they do not
constitute nations the Party Pro-
gram speaks of their right to na-
tional identity and development
of their culture. This includes full
respect for their autonomy: with
regard to culture, language, edu-
cation, and‘not least, a voice in
determining economic develop-
ment and its fruits in the areas
they occupy.

PHOTO —COMBAT

Referendum ©

-

2. Every nation must have the
right to decide on its form of
relationship with the other nation
or nations. :

It is important to bear this in
mind in connection with the de-
claration by Prime Minister
Trudeau that a referendum might

Documentation of the Feb.
4-6 meeting of ‘the Central
Committee of the Communist
Party of Canada will be fully co-
vered in forthcoming issues of
the Canadian Tribune. One of
the most significant documents
of our day, the CPC statement.
| Ona Democratic Solution to the
Crisis of Confederation, will
appear in these pages along
with other materials of the his-
toric meeting. How to go about
getting a made-in-Canada con-
stitution, how a_bi-national
state would work, and other
questions of key priority for our
day will be presented from the
Communist Party point of view.

public school system when they
are in. sufficient’ number in a
school district to justify it.

We believe that a new Cana-
dian Constitution should not only
guarantee the right to self-
determination and economic, so-
cial, cultural and language equal-
ity for the two nations of our
country. It should also guarantee .
the cultural and language rights of
the French-speaking minority in
English Canada and of the
English-speaking~ minority in
Quebec. ree

These policies are based on the
guiding principle of the Com-
munist Party of Canada with re-
spect to language: no privileges
for any nationality orlanguage;no o
discrimination against any na- 9
tionality or language. :

This principle is an important
‘ingredient of proletarian inter- +
nationalism and the unity of the

nt

English and French Canadian workers have united to fight the wage

cutting legislation of the Trudeau government. The Central Committee
of-the Communist Party met to discuss the role all Canadian workers
must play to attain full rights for the French Canadian nation. The photo
shows Quebec workers on October 14.

be held in all of Canada to counter
the referendum proposed by the
Levesque government in Quebec.
This kind of manoeuvre is aimed
at preventing the French Cana-
dian people from asserting their
right to national self-deter-
mination through a referendum,
and should be both condemned
and opposed by English-speaking
Canadians in all parts of Canada.

Unite to Fight Monopoly

3. Recognition of the right to
national self-determination does
not mean that Communists
should abstain from considering
the. expediency of. secession of
this or that nation in each particu-
lar case. Lenin always stressed
that the question of how to apply
the slogan of the right to national
self-determination in practice,
like any other question relating to
the policies: of a revolutionary
party of the working class, must
be resolved concretely in each in-
dividual case, depending on the
given historical conditions and on
the working class struggle for
socialism. As he said ‘‘the ques-
tion of the right of nations to self
determination must under no cir-
cumstances be confused with the

William Kashtan, leader of the Communist Party of Canada makes his

expediency of a given nation’s
secession.

_ “The Communist Party must
decide the latter question exclu-
sively on its merits in each par-
ticular case in conformity with the
interests of social development as
a whole and with the interests of
the proletarian class struggle for
socialisin”’. ;

This is reflected im. i pro-.

gram, the Road to ucialism in
Canada which states: ‘‘The
sovereignty of a national state
may be expressed in a free ra-
tional choice of three forms: a
separate state, a confederation of
equal nations or states, au-
tonomy. Providing the nation in
question freely chooses, any one
of these forms is a genuine ex-
pression of sovereignty. Separa-
tion is only one expression of
genuine sovereignty, and by no
means always the expresssion
that is in the best interests of the
working people involved.

‘‘The separatist solution pre-

ferred by a section of the French |

Canadian petty bourgeoisie,

would entail severe additional -

«economic hardships to the work-
ing people of both nations and
would weaken their political unity
against their common enemies —

working class of Canada, irres- opening address to the meeting of the Central Committee. The commit-
pective of nationality orlanguage. tee’s main deliberations were on the crisis of confederation.