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CPC LEADERSHIP PREPARES NEW PROGRAM
(This article is from the April 1-15/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA is closer to adopting a new program, after a March 17-19 meeting of the party's Central Committee in Toronto. The CC meeting also finalized plans for this spring's party campaign against capitalist globalization, and laid preliminary plans for the CPC's Central Convention at the start of next year.
The CPC's 1971 program, The Road to Socialism, was being updated during the late 1980s, until the collapse of the European socialist countries and a sharp split in the CPC.
Since the Communist Party began to rebuild in 1992, one of its top priorities has been to develop a new program, based on the principles of Marxism-Leninism and taking account of the reversals suffered by socialism at the start of the 1990s. At the CPC's 32nd Convention (Vancouver, December 1997), delegates instructed the incoming leadership to circulate the draft of a new program for wide discussion well before the 33rd Convention. That draft is now in the final editing stage, and will be printed in April.
Most of March CC meeting was devoted to an in-depth debate on the draft program, which will present the Communist viewpoint on the present domestic and world situation, and on the way toward a socialist Canada.
There was a strong consensus among the two dozen Central Committee members around the basic contents of the draft. The document gives a detailed analysis of "capitalist globalization" - the present phase of the world imperialist system - and the neoliberal attack against working people by corporations and governments.
Despite the setbacks to socialism a decade ago, the draft program says, world capitalism still faces a deep-going structural and systemic crisis. Far from being proof of its strength, the savage neoliberal assault against unions, social programs, and democratic freedoms shows that the transnational corporations are struggling to halt a long-term decline in their overall rate of profit.
In Canada and other countries, the draft program points out, the result is a growing trend towards larger, more unified struggles by working people against right-wing governments and greedy corporations. Several chapters of the draft program present the CPC's approach to building broad alliances for real change, leading in the direction of a people's government and a socialist Canada.
Another key chapter deals largely with one of the most difficult matters facing the working class in Canada, the "national question." The CPC was the first political party in Canada to recognize the national rights of Quebec and the First Nations, and the draft program updates the party's proposals to resolve this crucial issue in a democratic way.
Debate on the draft will begin immediately in party clubs across the country, and in a series of summer schools, conferences, and other forms. A regular program discussion bulletin will be published leading up to the 33rd Convention.
The party's immediate focus will also include the second part of a campaign against capitalist globalization, following up on its participation in the "Battle in Seattle" late last year. On April 15, Communist Party clubs and committees across Canada will hold public events targetting various corporations. These actions will be part of the CPC's contribution to the protests against the International Monetary Fund meetings taking place in Washington the following week.
In his report on recent political developments, CPC leader Miguel Figueroa spoke about the party's ongoing struggle against undemocratic sections of the Canada Elections Act, and the federal government's March 2-3 appeal of parts of the CPC's 1999 legal victory against these sections. A ruling on the appeal is not expected for some time.
Figueroa also stressed the need to begin preparations now for the next federal election, updating the CPC's platform and considering how many candidates to nominate, especially if the Elections Act still requires parties to nominate 50 candidates to become eligible for full registered status.
The CC meeting also heard reports on some of the most promising areas of recent Communist political activity.
Since its December 1999 convention, the Parti Communiste du Québec has recruited sixteen new members (including eight women), and PCQ members played an important part in the February protests against the Bouchard government's phony "Youth Summit."
Just as important, the Central Committee heard from organizers of the May 5-7 communist youth conference taking place in Toronto. From 30 to 50 delegates are now expected to take part, sharing their experiences in the movements for youth rights, and making initial plans for the formation of a Canada-wide communist youth organization in about a year.
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