10-18-06, 10:43 p.m.
The 35th Convention of the Communist Party of Canada will take place in February, 2007. Meeting in Toronto over the Sept. 30-Oct. 1 weekend, the party's Central Committee adopted a resolution on the international situation and the turn to the right by the Harper Tory federal government. The Draft Resolution will be the main focus of debate for three months leading up to the CPC's Central Convention, scheduled for the first weekend of February in Toronto.
The Draft Resolution warns that 'the deteriorating global situation not only foreshadows more wars, more oppression, more poverty and misery for the mass of humanity. It also takes place in the context of a deepening environmental crisis that becomes ever more critical and urgent.' But in the face of unpredictable and disastrous consequences of global warming, such as rising ocean levels and dramatic climate shifts, imperialism continues to launch new wars with the aim of controlling energy and other resources.'
The Bush Administration, warns the Draft Resolution, has launched the most expansive and costly military buildup in history to advance its ambitions and to punish nations and states which refuse to succumb to its dictates.
The response of the Communists everywhere, the CC said, is to strengthen the world peace movement. The resolution calls for a broadly-based, democratic and anti-imperialist front, capable of challenging the agenda of transnational finance capital, and of winning alternative policies.
In Canada, the Central Committee said, the minority Harper Tory government has become the instrument of a more aggressive attack on the rights and interests of working people. Despite the current 'economic boom,' the gap between rich and poor is widening. Over a million Canadian workers remain unemployed, and some five million more are in the category of 'working poor.' Corporate profits are at a record high of 14.6% of Canada's gross domestic product, compared to a twenty-five year average of 10%, while one-fifth of Canadian children live below the poverty line.
Although most Canadians reject key Tory policies, such as privatizing health care, scrapping the Kyoto Accord, and closer integration with the United States. But 'with the full backing of the corporate elite' and reactionary fundamentalist forces, the resolution says, the Conservatives aim to fundamentally transform the Canadian state, by downsizing and gutting social programs while building up the military.
Unfortunately, the resolution warns, the main parties in Parliament have only put up weak opposition to the Tories. The most significant resistance against right-wing policies will come in the extra-parliamentary arena of workplaces and communities, through bigger mobilizations of the labour and democratic movements. The October 28 'Troops Out Now' rallies backed by the Canadian Labour Congress, the anti-war movements, and a wide range of other forces, will be an important step ahead in this process.
But the Resolution notes that the next election will be perhaps the most critical since the 'free trade' campaign of 1988, when the Mulroney Tories won a majority and imposed a sellout deal rejected by almost two-thirds of voters. The Communist Party will nominate candidates in all major cities, running on a 'people before profits' platform and calling for the defeat of the Tories.
In the longer run, the Resolution says, a much larger and more effective Communist Party is needed to help build a powerful movement to defend Canadian sovereignty and block the corporate agenda. The Resolution outlines plans to focus the work of the CPC on several key issues in the coming period, such as the fight to save Medicare and other social programs, and to mobilize against Canada's role in the imperialist occupation of Afghanistan.
Today's struggles, the Resolution stresses, must be connected with the goal of a fundamental transformation of Canada, ultimately leading towards socialism. The Communist Party, it points out, has always played a vital role in building these struggles, starting with early campaigns such as the organizing of workers into industrial unions and the first movements for Medicare.
The Central Committee meeting adopted several special resolutions on urgent immediate issues: solidarity with the Six Nations struggle for reclamation of its lands at Caledonia; support for western farmers resisting the Harper government's move to arbitrarily eliminate the Canadian Wheat Board; and a call for all-out mobilizations for peace on October 28.
A banquet and social during the CC meeting celebrated the 85th anniversary of the Communist Party, paying tribute to many party veterans in attendance.
(The above article is from the October 16-31, 2006 edition of People's Voice, Canada's leading Communist newspaper)
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