vol. 2, no. 9, November 2009, $ 1.00
si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/
FOREWORD: Many thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca who edited this article. Don't forget the link below to L'Humanité in English, selection of the daily communist newspaper published in Paris.
______________________________
It’s all started with the last column that I wrote. My dear friend and editor, Tim, said to me: “Sometimes you can be overly abstract and theoretical to the point that I have trouble understanding what you are saying […] if I have trouble understanding what you are saying, I am sure that your readers will have the same problem.”
I read over the whole article. Tim is right. But why publish a newsletter in English if one cannot express himself properly? The reason is very basic: I am totally devoted to the Québec people and I want English speaking Canadians - and others - to know that we are not a bunch of angry, restless separatists, waiting for the next referendum to drag us out of Canada. Naturally, since this column is re
ad by intellectuals and journalists, I did not want to give them the impression that La Vie Réelle in English was a simple read that could be labelled as a cheap piece of French Canadian communist writing. (Photo: a typical French-Canadian homestead in Québec City)
But Tim, very generously, added: “You can express yourself well in English. I know this because of our wonderful email conversations. Write as if you are writing your readers an email. Write in simple prose that is easy to grasp. This is important if you want to appeal to working class readers.” Not only was I touched, but it brought two things to mind: first that we have to persuade people in Québec that it is important to learn English and second it is important to learn the history of English speaking Canada. Even communists around the world have adopted English in their communications. For instance, SolidNet, the Communist and Worker's Parties central communication's bureau in Athens, Greece distributes documents and bulletins in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and English. Few documents are in French. I believe that when the French communist party becomes more involved in world solidarity movements there will be more French publications. At the moment, even Québec communists use English to communicate with central party headquarters in Toronto.
Of course, main documents are translated from English to French. Those living in Vancouver, Halifax or Hamilton should know that there is a lively, flourishing French speaking culture in Québec. We have prominent and talented singers like Robert Charlesbois (Ordinaire) as well as new ones like Lynda Thalie (Une femme amoureuse), an immigrant from the Arab world. Well, the point is that we don’t eat pea soup, cretons and pâté chinois like in the past. We have changed. We go for sushi, couscous and souvlaki now. And there are even so
me who believe that God does not oppose French Canadians joining the communist party. C’est la vie… (Photo : a Montréal-born new Québécoise, Nile)
Even in the labour movement there are changes. For instance the Québec Centre of Trade Unions, formerly the Québec Teacher's Union, decided at its last convention in June 2009 to get involved in politics “so that we live in the type of society that we want to build”. We increased our solidarity with workers from other parts of the world. For instance, the Québec Federation of Labour (500 000 members) opposes the Free Trade Agreement that the Canadian government signed with Colombia because of the systematic violations of human rights in that country. The Union Centre invites its “member unions and regional councils to put pressure on conservative and liberal MPs…” And, the Confederation of National Trade Unions (300 000 members) will enlarge its support policy for striking workers. Recently, union members working at Le Journal de Québec decided to “give 1% of their salaries to the union representing 253 workers at Le Journal de Montréal”, who have been on lock-out for over 8 months.
Karl Marx in the article published under the title of Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, concluded that: “ We are firmly convinced that the real danger lies not in practical attempts, but in the theoretical elaboration of communist ideas, for practical attempts, even mass attempts, can be answered by cannon as soon as they become dangerous, whereas ideas, which have conquered our intellect and taken possession of our minds, ideas to which reason has fettered our conscience,
are chains from which one cannot free oneself without a broken heart…” (Collected Works, Vol. 1, International Publishers, New York, 1985, pp. 220-221)
As readers know, there is an older bulletin named La Vie Réelle (just in french). One of its readers wrote not long ago: “A very good issue. One reads it and can make up one’s own opinion. Articles are never aggressive, I appreciate it.” (Photo: a renovated catholic church in Québec City)
si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/
FOREWORD: Many thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca who edited this article. Don't forget the link below to L'Humanité in English, selection of the daily communist newspaper published in Paris.
______________________________
It’s all started with the last column that I wrote. My dear friend and editor, Tim, said to me: “Sometimes you can be overly abstract and theoretical to the point that I have trouble understanding what you are saying […] if I have trouble understanding what you are saying, I am sure that your readers will have the same problem.”
I read over the whole article. Tim is right. But why publish a newsletter in English if one cannot express himself properly? The reason is very basic: I am totally devoted to the Québec people and I want English speaking Canadians - and others - to know that we are not a bunch of angry, restless separatists, waiting for the next referendum to drag us out of Canada. Naturally, since this column is re
ad by intellectuals and journalists, I did not want to give them the impression that La Vie Réelle in English was a simple read that could be labelled as a cheap piece of French Canadian communist writing. (Photo: a typical French-Canadian homestead in Québec City)But Tim, very generously, added: “You can express yourself well in English. I know this because of our wonderful email conversations. Write as if you are writing your readers an email. Write in simple prose that is easy to grasp. This is important if you want to appeal to working class readers.” Not only was I touched, but it brought two things to mind: first that we have to persuade people in Québec that it is important to learn English and second it is important to learn the history of English speaking Canada. Even communists around the world have adopted English in their communications. For instance, SolidNet, the Communist and Worker's Parties central communication's bureau in Athens, Greece distributes documents and bulletins in Spanish, Italian, Russian, Portuguese and English. Few documents are in French. I believe that when the French communist party becomes more involved in world solidarity movements there will be more French publications. At the moment, even Québec communists use English to communicate with central party headquarters in Toronto.
Of course, main documents are translated from English to French. Those living in Vancouver, Halifax or Hamilton should know that there is a lively, flourishing French speaking culture in Québec. We have prominent and talented singers like Robert Charlesbois (Ordinaire) as well as new ones like Lynda Thalie (Une femme amoureuse), an immigrant from the Arab world. Well, the point is that we don’t eat pea soup, cretons and pâté chinois like in the past. We have changed. We go for sushi, couscous and souvlaki now. And there are even so
me who believe that God does not oppose French Canadians joining the communist party. C’est la vie… (Photo : a Montréal-born new Québécoise, Nile)Even in the labour movement there are changes. For instance the Québec Centre of Trade Unions, formerly the Québec Teacher's Union, decided at its last convention in June 2009 to get involved in politics “so that we live in the type of society that we want to build”. We increased our solidarity with workers from other parts of the world. For instance, the Québec Federation of Labour (500 000 members) opposes the Free Trade Agreement that the Canadian government signed with Colombia because of the systematic violations of human rights in that country. The Union Centre invites its “member unions and regional councils to put pressure on conservative and liberal MPs…” And, the Confederation of National Trade Unions (300 000 members) will enlarge its support policy for striking workers. Recently, union members working at Le Journal de Québec decided to “give 1% of their salaries to the union representing 253 workers at Le Journal de Montréal”, who have been on lock-out for over 8 months.
Karl Marx in the article published under the title of Communism and the Augsburg Allgemeine Zeitung, concluded that: “ We are firmly convinced that the real danger lies not in practical attempts, but in the theoretical elaboration of communist ideas, for practical attempts, even mass attempts, can be answered by cannon as soon as they become dangerous, whereas ideas, which have conquered our intellect and taken possession of our minds, ideas to which reason has fettered our conscience,
are chains from which one cannot free oneself without a broken heart…” (Collected Works, Vol. 1, International Publishers, New York, 1985, pp. 220-221)As readers know, there is an older bulletin named La Vie Réelle (just in french). One of its readers wrote not long ago: “A very good issue. One reads it and can make up one’s own opinion. Articles are never aggressive, I appreciate it.” (Photo: a renovated catholic church in Québec City)
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