June 23-25, 2000

Building Working Class and People's Unity
to Oppose Neoliberalism
and Capitalist Globalization

INTERNATIONAL MEETING
ATHENS

Paper Presented by
André Parizeau,
Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of Canada

Dear Comrades,

Let me first of all thank the KKE for taking the initiative to once again convene a meeting of Communist and Workers' parties.

The topic for this meeting deals with one of the most difficult problems of communist theory and practice: namely, that of developing our revolutionary work, strategy and tactics under the prevailing non-revolutionary conditions. I will try to share with you some of the key aspects of our Party's views on this matter.

Our strategic approach is first and foremost based on the fact that the working class, due to its size and strategic place in the production process, is the natural leader of all democratic and progressive forces in the fight against capitalist rule. The development of capitalism has made the working class into a cohesive, continuously growing and militant force. The working class possesses no means of production. Its class interests are diametrically opposed to both domestic and international finance capital by virtue of its position in the economy.

At the same time, it is also our view that the working class cannot do the job by itself alone – it needs to build alliances in order to take on and defeat the immense and coordinated power of capitalism. Therefore the working class must build unity with other sectors and movements of the Canadian people adversely affected by the domination of finance capital, and which have an objective interest in winning a new democratic course for Canada.

From our point of view, the setting up and the consolidation of such alliances, with the working class as the core element of that movement, will play a decisive role in moving towards more favorable conditions for a radical transformation of our society. The strategic objective of building working class and people's unity has been a key element of the Communist Party of Canada strategies since its creation in 1921. Building such alliances is still a major aspect of our work today as more and more people coming from broad and diverse sections of the population are being victimized by the all-sided attacks launched by finance capital and the neoliberal governments which aim to destroy most of economic and social gains achieved by working people over the last half-century.

Throughout the years, the building in Canada of such alliances or coalitions has had its ups and downs, depending on the development of the class struggle, the influence of the working class and the ability of the Communist Party to effectively lead that movement as well as the level of repressive measures undertaken by the bourgeois class. The nature of these people's alliances has also evolved. Today, a key element and unifying issue within such a movement is the necessity of fighting neoliberalism and its right-wing agenda as well as working for a broad coalition of anti-monopoly forces.

The building of a broad anti-monopoly coalition of forces is extremely difficult and complex. The ruling circles use every weapon in their arsenal, including economic bribery, political manipulation and co-option, monopoly control of information and media, religious and cultural prejudices, and even psychological instruments to foster divisions among the people along national, cultural, gender lines.

Notwithstanding these difficulties however, life itself impels broader sections of the people to seek mutual solidarity and to build alliances in the face of the intensified attack of finance capital and its state. This is the expanding feature of our time.

People's movements are involving growing numbers of Canadians in extra-parliamentary political activity. These forces include a vast array of movements, multi-class in character, that are united around democratic and social struggles across Canada and against neoliberalism. They include progressive trends within the national movements in Quebec and among aboriginal peoples, the movement for women's equality, environmentalist forces, the peace and solidarity movements, the youth and students' movement; social justice movements and many and many more.

There is also a growing struggle against U.S. domination of our economic, political and cultural life. Today the struggle for Canadian sovereignty and independence is a struggle for the future of Canada, an essential condition and step for the advance to socialism.

In all of its mass political day to day work, and by getting involved in these struggles, the Communist Party strives to help build a truly democratic, anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist alliance uniting all these people's forces as the basis for a democratic, anti-monopoly, anti-imperialist people's government. Although such a people's government would not constitute socialism, it would nonetheless mark a significant step in the struggle for fundamental change and socialist transformation.

Working within mass organizations to help strengthen them is one aspect of the work we do. At the same time, we also encourage these mass organizations to work much more closely together. We also encourage other left-oriented political organizations to leave aside sectarianism and to engage themselves into united actions around very concrete issues that concerns the working class as well as the vast majority of the population. This is another way to advance the building of what we call the people's alternative.

Because of the still relatively limited influence of the revolutionary movement in our country, left-wing organizations, including the Communist Party, are usually portrayed as small and marginalized organizations. So part of our job must be to fight against such an image and convince people that what we offer can be a viable option. Working to build alliances is an integral part of that objective.

In doing so, we must be alert to the dangers of right and 'left' opportunism. Right opportunism occurs when the Party loses its political independence within these coalitions, and neglects or renounces its leadership role. The net result of such a fundamental error leads to the abandonment of the Communists' revolutionary perspective and long-term objectives, and the de facto tailing behind the reformists and the social-democrats.

The 'leftist' danger consists in rejecting the need to help build alliances on the sole basis that such alliances do not advance a "revolutionary" line. One current argument we sometimes hear goes as follows: "let us stand aside from such alliances so to avoid getting trapped into right opportunism." But this argument amounts to nothing more than gross left infantilism. This is no solution because, by doing so, the Communists would only isolate themselves and betray their responsibility to help transform the current situation into more favorable conditions for the working class and its allies. It is just another form of political capitulation.

The winning of working class and people's unity and ultimately political power requires an independent working class ideology. This involves a long battle for a genuine working class policy, forged in the process of combating capitalist ideology, reformism and class collaboration within the labour movement.

The economic base for reformism and class collaboration is steadily diminishing. As the systemic crisis of monopoly capitalism deepens, big business is placing increasing demands on the working class, and is extracting more and more concessions. This in turn compels the workers to stiffen their resistance. As the actual conditions of life for workers under capitalism continue to deteriorate, the illusions fostered by social reformism come increasingly into conflict with the realities of the class struggle. That said, there is no doubt that reformist and class collaborationist ideas still hold sway over most workers in Canada, and within the trade union movement itself.

While conducting a constant struggle against social reformism, the Communist Party supports the fight for reforms to protect working people from the effects of capitalist exploitation. The struggle for reforms helps the working class to gain confidence and experience, to strengthen their unity and organization, to deepen their class consciousness, and to shift the balance of class forces in society in their favour. The Communist Party links the struggle for reforms with the revolutionary transformation of society.

The main obstacle to the unity of the workers' movement, to the uniting of the progressive forces and to the establishment of antimonopoly unity still is rightwing social democracy and anti-communism.

Capitalism's deepening crisis and the resulting intensified struggle between capital and labour has also evoked a deep-going ideological and political clash within the ranks of social democracy. The right-wing leadership of the social democratic movement in Canada and internationally has abandoned even the few formal references to socialism that still exist in their parties. These people have embraced globalized capitalism, and reoriented social democratic parties in favour of the illusion of managing capitalism "with a human face."

Social democracy's reorientation is a reflection of its changing class base, from the working class it used to be associate to, toward the petty bourgeoisie, professionals and other sections of the middle strata. That reorientation has had far reaching effects, widening the gap between the interests of the working class and those of rightwing social democracy. Within some important sections of the Canadian Labour movement which were up until recently closely linked to the NDP – Canadian main social-democrat party – the continued political and organizational relationship between unions and that party is currently being questioned in the most serious way since a long time.

These developments attest to the widening gap between the interests of the working class and its allies and those of right-wing social democracy. The Communist Party of Canada thinks it must nonetheless continue to work for cooperation with social democrats. The more effectively the Communist Party works for left and democratic unity and strengthens its independent political activity, putting forward its program and policies, the more the left forces, both within and outside the social democrat movement, can be brought into united struggle for genuine socialist policies.

The main focus for labour and democratic cooperation and action today is around the battle to preserve social services from the ravages of neoliberal attacks – especially those in defence of Canada's public health care and educational system which are both threatened by wholesale privatization.

These struggles in turn are linked to the broader struggle against capitalist globalization, and the drive by finance capital to completely ensnare Canada in its embrace through the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), and of course the World Trade Organization (WTO), the IMF and World Bank. A few years ago, a very wide sweep of labour and other democratic forces came together to resist and defeat the Multilateral Agreement on Investments (MAI). These social forces were further bolstered by the historic anti-WTO protests in Seattle last November. Th most salient aspect of these new emerging coalitions is their increasingly anti-corporate basis of unity, and the anti-capitalist consciousness of many of their activists.

We should also like to report on some important developments in the province of Quebec, where left and democratic forces are likewise drawing more closely together. A new political coalition comprising six left-wing political parties – including the Greens, Communists, socialists and left social-democrats – is taking shape. Despite its small size, the Parti Communiste du Quebec (PCQ) has managed to become a leading force in this process, demonstrating in a very concrete way how to combine political efforts to build left and democratic unity, while at the same time winning new members and supporters for the communists' own long term revolutionary strategy.

Thankyou for your attention.

© 2000 Communist Party of Canada