STALEMATE OR PROGRESS

Where is President Obama?

vol. 3, no. 6, September 1-15, 2010, $ 1.00

Si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

FOREWORD: You will find at the bottom the link to the daily communist selection published by l'Humanité in English, in Paris.

Sadness, did you say? Oh, rather deep sorrow! The US communist newspaper disappeared in January 2010, sunk by its editorial board. They shut the public voice of the Communist Party USA, the People’s Weekly World (PWW).

Who will now, like the British communist newspaper, The New Worker, reveals that: “It is appropriate to recall that it was Bush’s corrupt administration that boosted and fostered the development of offshore oil rigs – no matter how risky they were- to increase local oil production without observing the proper safety measures, in return for bribes and economic favours?”

(ref.: May 2010).

The CP USA electronic newsletter People’s World , which replaced the PWW, praises President Obama to the skies. For instance, a few months ago, when he “tackles immigration reform”, it says: “The president, like the Statue of Liberty and Lazarus’ poem, appeals to the best of America”. Is that true? At any rate, it causes confusion.

What’s next? Already in the 1990s, one of the US leaders, Dan Margolis barred the sending to Montréal of the PWW, not “to mingle with Canadian affairs”; nowadays, he acts as a modern Mandarin, kicking out party members who do not abide by His Grace.

Astonishingly enough the 29th Convention in New York (May 2010), hammers out: “Finally, as for the role of communists, our mission is not to ‘steer the ship of state’. That task is the responsibility of a broader left coalition and the broadest possible section of the people.” Concretely, they could have tried to set up such a coalition to free the Cuban Five, detainees in USA on mere allegations since 11 years, but they did not.

(Photo-Gen.Consulate in Montréal: those "dangerous" Cubans supporting the Cuban Five, detainees in US jails).

The writer Edward A. Drummond, in The Crisis of the CPUSA Part 2, shows that “above all, the greatest problem is the demoralization and political disorientation”... in the membership and “the CP USA suffers from growing international isolation”.

Nevertheless, their People’s World reported in June 2010, that: “Opening the U.S. Social Forum in this city (Detroit, Ed.), hit hard by the economic crisis, 20 000 from around the nation marched [...] calling for jobs, economic and social justice and equality.” At the same time, the leadership of the CP USA is tailing Obama, its Democratic Party and the direction of the AFL-CIO. They don’t live up to the fine traditions of the internationalist CP USA past chairman, Gus Hall.

(Photo-Internet: CP USA past Chairman, Gus Hall. Well-known and appreciated leader in the world communist movement).

The tone here is angry. How would you react, when a clique of right-wing opportunists is wrecking this beautiful US fighter’s party, vanguard of working people’s rights: Black and White, English and Spanish speaking, and much more?

Drummond declares: “Project the Party’s own advanced demands for anti-monopoly democracy and for socialism. Fight for leadership of people’s movements, including trade unions.” He also states that “… for the overwhelming majority of Americans of color, the burden of special oppression and class oppression remain a material reality, as the Black unemployment rates double the white unemployment rate (true for decades now) illustrate”. 30 millions unemployed people languish and the Party leadership has not taken a single step toward responding to the crisis in its own name.

The international scene

Altogether, it is very difficult to distinguish the policies of Obama from those of Bush in external affairs, to start with. In January 2010, the Communist Party of Bolivia expressed its concern and exposed the situation as such: “While Venezuela sent one plane with medication, doctors and rescuers just 30 minutes after the catastrophe (in Haiti, Ed.) and immediately followed by Cuba, the USA sent 10 000 soldiers. What had the appearance to be humanitarian help, “rapid and efficient”, was for observers an attempt for occupation of a “failed State”.

At the end of June 2010, the US Congress responding to a demand of President Obama granted $ 33 more billions to the war in Afghanistan; 30 000 more troopers will be dispatched there. It seems that there is no way out. Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, kept on asking the Canadian government to pursue its mission in Afghanistan. In July 2010, Métro reported that Richard Fadden, the “boss” of CSIS (Canadian secret services, Ed.) regretted to have said that: “there is a foreign interference in provincial politics”.

This is probably pretty mild in comparison to the constant interventions of the US government in Canadian affairs; but nobody raised the point so far. Anyhow, if the Canadian people maintain its pressure, the Canadian troops should leave on July 1st 2011 and return to Canada. (But watch out the pro-US Harper government that would like to make a deal with the Liberal opposition to go just over it).

Now, as a growing number of US rank-and-file communists puts it: “If anyone is tempted to walk away in disgust, resist the temptation. Real revolutionaries don’t quit. Walking away only makes the victory of the Party-wreckers easier. There is not an infinite amount of time to right this starboard-listing ship. Every comrade is needed in this struggle.”

(Photo-Internet: The CP USA used to present candidates to the presidential elections. Here Gus Hall for President and Jarvis Tyner for Vice-President).

So, Canadian communists got in touch with some US comrades; they talk together. “Interference!” will shout Webb and his bunch… No! In North America, we need action and solidarity. Obama puts us to sleep. Let’s wake up workers’ America!

L'Humanité in English

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

-30-

UNITED, WE SHALL WIN

vol. 3, no. 5, June 2010, $ 1.00

si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

NOTA BENE: Many thanks to Tim Pelzer (Vancouver), tpelzer@shaw.ca, who edited this article. You will find at the bottom, the link to the daily communist selection published by l'Humanité in English, in Paris.

_______________________

A LETTER TO MY COMRADES,

I have just come back from Paris, France where progressive people I met - a few members of the French Communist Party (FCP); one elected leader of the French Communist Renewal Movement (FCRM); and some activists of the General Confederation of Labour (CGT) - paid attention to a friendly report on the situation in Québec and English speaking Canada. They knew that living in Canada does not mean that you are enjoying a full democracy.

They recognize that most of the gains in living standards over the decades are the fruit of difficult union struggles. Such is the reality in France.

(Photo: Activists of the Pôle de Renaissance Communiste en France at the Eiffel Tower, in solidarity with the Cuban Five).

For a strong and democratic communist party

Because the FCP has lost members and influence among the working class over the last few decades, French Communists are conducting an intensive debate about the decline of their Party.

The whole picture is that of a house under renovation. It’s “renovators” have either broken with the dictatorship of the proletariat, democratic centralism or are undecided about the role of Stalin and the like. These never-ending debates have resulted in some temporarily leaving the party. It is also obvious that some have deliberately used the debates to weaken the party.

The Pôle of Communist Renewal in France (PRCF), led by philosopher Georges Gastaud and former Young Communist League leader Daniel Antonini, are standing at the head of the movement to change the party. In a recent call to French Communists, the Pôle stated: “When the FCP was Marxist-Leninist and focused on its links with the working class, the goal of changing society was at the core of struggles, social gains were on the agenda and the Capital had to be cautious. Since the FCP has repudiated its fundamentals and dropped national independence in order to please the pro-Maastricht socialist party, not only has the Party’s influence collapsed but our working class and nation are trod upon by ‘European construction’, liberties are trampled down, and the extreme right has a free space to lure the most desperate part of the working people. The PRCF calls on all comrades (from outside and inside, ed.) to build a communist convergence for action on a truly communist basis.”

The PRCF stresses too that: “without renouncing to its own organization, independent of the Socialist Party and PCF, the PRCF calls for immediate action”.

The PRCF is an active organization that enjoys support across France, especially in the industrial region of the North (Nord-Pas de Calais). It carries out discussions with some PCF leaders and Communist parties around the world. It does not want to transform itself into a party but is working to change the Communist Party of France into a fighting organization. Every month the organization carries out a solidarity action. This month the PRCF organized an event to support the Cuban Five near the Eiffel Tower which attracted the attention of many tourists and French. The PRCF is close to the traditions and current policies of the Communist Party of Canada. The Pôle is not a member of the French communist party but attracts members of the PCF; as for the official leadership of the PCF, they prefer to ignore the Pôle while there is little media coverage of their activities. They "disturb" the overall political picture of France.

However, even with the decline, the Communist movement is still strong: the PCF claims 40,000 party members and 12,000 YCL members. In France you are either a FCP member, a former member, a friend, or party ally. The PCF has elected Deputies in the National Assembly and City Councils across the country. The party's daily newspaper L'Humanité and weekly magazine l'Humanité-Dimanche are available at every newstand and enjoy a broad readership. (Photo: Communist Assistant-Mayor Uychart in one of a Paris Borough, taking part to the 2010 May Day Demonstration in Paris).

On the other hand, the PRCF also believes that support for young people and their struggles is an important goal.

Be it in Canada or in France, solidarity spells the same way

There is room for hope. Let’s put some muscle in our struggle and solidarity with the French working class. They are supporting the Greek workers and demanding the Cuban Five’s liberation.

As for the contribution French communists have made, lets remember that they fought against the Nazi occupation during WWII; they contributed to the modernization of their country and the well-being of the working class through the Conseil National de la Résistance (National Resistance Committee); they are able to overcome new challenges, including building a genuine socialist society. That is the real charming perfume of Paris...

(Photo: Militants of the General Confederation of Labour-CGT, the largest trade-union center in France, in support to the Greek workers and retired people, in Paris).

L'Humanité in English

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

THE DAM HAS BROKEN

FRENCH-CANADIANS WOKE UP WITH SPRING

vol. 3, no. 4, APRIL 2010, $ 1.00

Foreword: many thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca, who not only edits this column, but teaches English language to this author. Please note that at the bottom you will find the link to an English selection of the french daily communist newspaper L'Humanité, published in Paris.

Si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

Since the electoral defeat of the politically buoyant Parti Québécois (PQ) government, reactionary circles in Québec have placed their hopes on Jean Charest centrist Liberal Party to block left wing efforts to move Québec on to the road of social progress. It did work at the beginning. Now, after declining living standards for working families and constant increases in prices for goods and services such as electricity, Liberals are declining rapidly in popularity.

Neither did they halt public demands for political change in the status of Québec within Canadian confederation: the right to self-determination up and including separation if people choose.

Ironically, any proposal made as well to the PQ leadership and several of its militant members, even independence, does not seem acceptable to them, as long as they don’t lose their grip on the Québec society. It raises an important question. What is their secret agenda? Democracy, côté jardin, is it not madame Pauline Marois?*

(Photo: Arrival of demonstrators to the Montréal March).

Recently, the right –that did not put all its eggs in the same basket- received support from former PQ Premier Lucien Bouchard, who called for a hike in University tuitions for Québec students, according to the Montréal daily La Presse on February 24. Bouchard spoke on behalf of a group of “experts” at a press conference.

Two weeks later, the newspaper Métro reported that University students protested when Education Minister Michelle Courchesne, “hesitated’ about “how she would use the 35 M$ given as a supplement to Québec by Ottawa in the framework of the Canadian Program of Student Bursaries”. While students want to use this federal money to ameliorate the bursary’s system, the minister is not too clear yet. The Montréal Regional Coalition of Students, organized demonstrations and other actions, supported by the Montréal University Student Federation. Québec Young Communist League took part in the protests, according to provincial leader Marianne Breton-Fontaine in a phone interview with La Vie Réelle.

(Photo: several French-Canadian workers protest regularly against the constitutional status quo, denying their right to self-determination).

To force the provincial government to protect public services and negotiate in good faith with its 475 000 State employees, the trade union movement, people’s associations and Québec solidaire party organized a big demonstration in Montréal on March 20th, that drew over 75 000 workers (even construction workers attended). “Québec people want to preserve gains of the past, which they struggled for with sacrifices: such as access to quality public services”, according to a QS statement. The Party’s representative in the National Assembly, Amir Khadir, affirmed a few days beforehand that, “Banks, mining corporations, the ultra-wealthy must share the load”. Communist party of Québec members (PCQ) appeared at the demonstration with a new issue of their newspaper Clarté. The PCQ was well received and collected enough donations to pay half of the paper’s print run; it attracted many people, especially the locked-out employees of the daily newspaper Journal de Montréal.

The Research Institute in Contemporary Economy (l’Institut de recherche en économie contemporaine) charged that the government “must tax the wealthiest rather than raise the tariffs and allow the private sector to administer services”. They stressed that the “tax system must be revised and the contribution of the well-to-do and business should be increased.” Institute Director Robert Laplante questioned government spending billions of dollars in military expenditures while there are cutbacks in the health sector and increases in education fees.

Something noteworthy: Communists or would-be communists are more visible than ever even. Among them, the Communist Party of Canada (CPC) is the only progressive political party that has branches all over Canada and enjoys relations with Communist and worker’s parties across the world (including France and the USA). Today, there is a new generation of political and social activists ready to show that there must be “a life with a future for the youth”.

(Photo Marianne Breton-Fontaine: Québec communists denouncing IMF, WTO and WB during the demonstration).

* Pauline Marois leads the PQ. Severity is an euphemism when you deal with her leadership within her party and during her interventions in the National Assembly.

L'Humanité in English

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

THIS CANADA

vol. 3, no. 3, MARCH 2010, $ 1.00


Foreword: many thanks to Tim Pelzer who edited this article, tpelzer@shaw.ca, please note that at the bottom you will find the link to an English selection of the french daily communist newspaper L'Humanité.

Si vous voulez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/

So many French-Canadians love Canada. In 1973 when I was 16 years old, I left Québec City on a beautiful July morning with two friends, Didier and Vincent, on a cycling trip to Toronto. We were proud and “endowed” with a mission: to convince English speaking Canadians that Québec should leave Canada. We were also intent on collecting further evidence proving that English speaking Canadians were out to destroy our nation and assimilate us into the melting pot of cultures. Didn’t we learn in secondary school that we could suffer from this disaster?

(Photo: always ready to move around to learn and share knowledge)

Once we arrived in Ontario, English speakers made us feel like kings. They treated us like famous athletes, offering free food and accommodation. They listened to us patiently when we spoke our broken English, making us feel like honoured guests.

People smiled at us and greeted us in a friendly manner. What an eye opening disappointment! What were we going to report to our friends back home about our journey to the “enemy’s kingdom”. In fact, we had nothing to complain... Besides, our parents were involved in the organization Expérience de vie internationale, (International Life Experience) to promote cultural exchanges with young people from USA. Now we were going to meet Québec’s real foes. Instead, these young people, especially those from New York taught us many interesting topics and introduced us to the music of Cat Stevens. It also happened - and we should not mention it too loudly- that we fell in love with the young beauties of our neighbouring country and learn to kiss for the first time.

Here again, we suffered a major setback in our endeavour to justify why Québec should separate from English speaking Canada.

The following year I went to Newfoundland. Instead of finding big mean English barbarians, I received a warm welcome. The people there were keen to know what Québec City looked like. They invited us to visit their houses, a wedding ceremony and an evening dance.

After a turbulent time in French speaking high school that led to my expulsion, my parents sent me to an English speaking high school, St.Patrick’s in Québec City to complete grade 12. During my year there I had a conflict with the “established gang”. One hot summer evening while savouring a beer in the Battlefields Federal Park, I met them by accident. We chatted and I told them that my presence in their High School had not been my choice and that I had been kicked out of French speaking school. They offered me a beer. Cheers they said happily. I became part of the gang.

In 1975, Québec students were engaged in a tight struggle with the government over the loan and bursary issue. Campus student organizations across the province were about to hold a meeting to create the National Association of Students (ANEQ). Speaking English, the Bishop University’s student delegation –consisting of three young women- invited me to be their translator at the upcoming meeting. A few months later I was elected to the national union’s Executive Council. I also joined the Young Communist League (YCL) of Canada. This was a turning point in my life. I agreed with the Communist party’s position on the place of Québec within confederation and its two-nation solution. I proposed this approach to the ANEQ and they adopted this position. At that time the union had 110,000 members and was very influential in Québec. The separatist Parti québécois members within the ANEQ were not happy.

(Photo: The Parti québécois members ultimately brought the cemetary peace within the Québec student movement in the 1980s)

ANEQ opened the horizons of Québec students after it invited the Prague based International Union of Students (IUS) to visit them in Québec City. The Association was also involved in the preparations for the World Youth and Students Festival that was going to take place in Habana, Cuba in the summer of 1978. The ANEQ spearheaded efforts to establish links with students in Ontario. Our motto was: Let’s get rid of this old story of two solitudes! We were young and wanted to create a new Canada. It was before the first separatist referendum in Québec. All over Canada, young communists were working for a new, modern and dynamic country.

But PQ members launched a counter attack and took over the ANEQ. At the 1978 ANEQ Convention, they elected their candidates to the executive, except for one position: information secretary which I occupied until my demotion. The PQ could not find anybody else to take the position. It was the beginning of the end for the YCL in Québec which lost most of its influence within the organization.

The YCL still exists but is in the process of rebuilding. By the way, All-Canada YCL general secretary Johan Boyden is going to marry Québec YCL leader Marianne Breton-Fontaine and they are expecting their first child in June 2010.

I spoke about my friends and me who in the early 1970s were trying to discover something that in reality did not exist. Contrary to what nationalists were and today are still claiming the French speaking nation of Québec is not facing the threat of disappearing. My childhood friend, Vincent Giguère, is now an international leader in the field of nuclear receptors, -a class of DNA-binding proteins that regulate the expression of genes-. He works very hard. In October 2009, McGill University proudly announced that this researcher has been elected as Fellow to the Royal Society of Canada, “in recognition of [his] outstanding scientific achievement”. Vincent is not a communist, but he is certainly a democrat like his family. He studied cloning in Great Britain in the 1980s. I could have spoken about medical doctor François Desbiens, or Michel Forget, who works closely with the leadership of the Confederation of National Trade Unions (CSN).

They all have been in a way or another involved in the student movement during the 1970s and helped foster understanding between French and English speaking students. The movement is certainly not dead.

I can say that they believe in democracy. They paved the way for their children to preserve what the past generations achieved. They are part of the new generation of French-Canadians who are open to other people and not intimidated by immigrants who want to learn the French language and enjoy Québec’s lively culture – i.e. jazz, music and comedy festivals and the like during the summer period.

(Photo: some delicatessen from Lebanon and Pakistan)

Modestly, many French Canadians would like other Canadians to know that in Québec, French Canadians are not all alike and that the future belongs to the working class and the progressive intellectuals and artists.

Vive le Canada populaire!

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

L'Humanité in English

-30-

OPEN LETTER TO LICIA CORBELLA

vol. 3, no. 2, February 2010, $ 1.00


si vous désirez lire en français: http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/


FOREWORD: Thanks to Tim Pelzer, tpelzer@shaw.ca who edited this letter.
__________________________


CALGARY HERALD (NEWSPAPER)


Dear colleague,


I recently had a glance at the Montréal Gazette. Your article "What if Quebecers got their wish and the oilsands closed?" caught my attention. I must admit that you have a humorous way of thinking and quick wits. However, I have to recognize that I was not aware about the topic and never realized that in Québec there was a desire to shut down the Alberta oilsands. Just recently I heard Gilles Duceppe affirming that it should be done.

(Photo Josette Thibault: Daniel Paquet, Editor La Vie Réelle in English)


I visited Calgary in 1977 -a beautiful city, by the way- so dreamy with the sight of the Rockies on its western horizons. The purpose was the annual convention of the National Union of Students (of English speaking Canada) - NUS which invited our Québec National Association of Students (ANEQ) to discuss on vital issues such as youth unemployment. First, NUS recognized the right of the French Canadian nation of Québec to self-determination up and including secession if the people choose; they also confirmed that ANEQ is an organization on an equal footing with NUS. This is what we expected to reshape Canada, to reinforce its unity.

I knew then that even the Parti québécois (PQ) members in our union, who were in the majority, would have to accept this gesture of solidarity, friendship and openness. It was one year after the election of the PQ in Québec and three years before the first referendum, in 1980.

I wanted to mention it to underline that in Québec, there is a battle of interests. This is what we call the class struggle. The PQ and its political ally the Bloc québécois represent nationalist petite bourgeoisie interests in Québec. These economic forces want Québec independence to control the State and expand their market share and profits within and without Québec.

The vast majority of the working people here do not support independence. In fact, many French Canadian workers are employed throughout Canada, including Alberta. The new party Québec solidaire is more inclined to defend the people's interests than the PQ and the Bloc, even though they also advocate Québec independence.

The only political party that is coherent on these matters (self-determination and oilsands) is the Communist Party which I doubt yo would support. Big business promotes their point of view through the mass media and encourages conflict and division between workers in English speaking Canada and Québec. I guess that you understand my point of view that there cannot be unity and prosperity in Canada without working class unity and economic independence, especially in regards to large US corporations such as the oil industry.

Rather than trying to describe fully what the essence of French Canadian pride is, I would like to invite you to Montréal, where I live, so you can get to know Québec and people better, including the arts and architecture, to name just a few areas where we have contributed to the general development of the Canadian culture. Your readers would love it.

I think that you will agree with me that we have, as journalists, the responsability to demonstrate to the Canadian people that they have much more in common that we can think.

I am confident that the future is not bad for Canada. I hope one day I will be able to write as well as you do in English. I hope that I will have the opportunity to prolong this conversation in the future.


Thank you sincerely!


Daniel Paquet

danieleugpaquet@yahoo.ca

L'Humanité in English

- 30 -

THE 36TH CENTRAL CONVENTION IN TORONTO

JUST BEFORE, A LITTLE TALK ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT

vol. 3, no. 1, January 2010, $ 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.

But why did they organize it so far away? After all, Copenhagen is not a suburb of Montréal. In November, Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared in Singapore in relation with this meeting: “Everybody is looking for a convenient agreement that will not impose upon us a burden too heavy, that is the reason why negotiations are so difficult”. The conservative newspaper The Gazette chose to write in December that “oil and gas producers comprised the largest industry lobbying group from January through August 2009 with 24 companies and associations represented in Ottawa, according to the registry. These include all the major oil companies.” One of the lobbyists was Ken Boessenkooll, “a campaign adviser and a senior policy adviser to Harper when he was leader of the opposition.” Maybe it smells of oil, but it does not smell good at any rate... (Photo SolidNet: Anti-imperialist demonstration in Athens, 2009)

The French communist philosopher, Georges Gastaud, wrote recently on the topic and said: “If any “cut” ecological movement takes us away from anti-capitalistic class struggle, a responsible ecological and comprehensive implication carries us, on the contrary, to get involved now and not before another century in a new society free from capitalist depredations and class, without havoc by a handful of irresponsible elements looking for profits. We need a society supporting revolution in the world of science, of political power and relations of properties. We must collectivize for the benefit of everybody, knowledge and human products. In a nutshell, we call for a communist society.”

Sadly enough, the Chinese Communist Party delegation at the last International Meeting of Communist and Workers ‘Parties in New Delhi, India, concluded that: “no social order ever disappears before all the productive forces, for which there is room in it, have been developed; and new higher relation of production never appear before the material conditions of their existence have matured in the womb of the old society”. Thus “capitalism will remain more powerful than socialism for a certain period to come...” During the same meeting, the Vietnam delegation affirmed that their next convention will “map out the socio-economic development strategy for the next 10 years (2011-2020) with the targets of becoming a modern-industrial country by 2020 and strongly progressing to socialism in which people are wealthy; country is strong; society is equal, democratic and civilized.”

THE CANADIAN CONVENTION


From February 5th to 7th, delegates from all parts of Canada will gather in Toronto to attend the Central Convention of the Communist Party of Canada (CPC). As a backdrop, we can mention the struggles of the employees and journalists of Le journal de Montréal who are still locked out after almost one year. In November, elected Québec Solidaire member Amir Khadir introduced a motion in the Quebec National Assembly inviting both parties to negotiate so that “the rights of the workers be respected...” It was adopted unanimously. In October, Khadir, declared to Le Devoir, in relation with the situation in the construction industry, that, “I believe seriously enough that the Liberal Party of Québec could be sullied...” in an eventual public inquiry in this area.

(Photo SolidNet: Demonstration in Paraguay in support of democracy, 2009)

In October, Le Devoir reported that some Québec farmers were dissatisfied with their organization the Union of Farm Growers (Union des producteurs agricoles-UPA), established in 1972. The discontented members were not clear about whether they wanted to leave the UPA, only stating that “they want something else”.

During the CPC convention, discussions will take place on the role of the Party in relation with the people’s struggles. Another question being discussed is the Marxist concept of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Rebel Youth editor (magazine of the Young Communist League of Canada), Stephen Von Sychowski wrote: “When we talk about what people think of that particular theoretical aspect of Marxism-Leninism we are dealing with a relatively small segment of the people who are the more educated [...]. The reality is that most of people’s knowledge of revolutionary theory is based on anti-communist propaganda and a few tidbits of often questionable historical information.” (Discussion Bulletin, November 4th, 2009, no.2, p. 6).
La Vie Réelle in English shares the CPC´s point of view that the working class of Canada will have to exercise political power and defend any revolutionary measures once they win power. The political party of the workers will also have to raise the question of the toiling people in all regions. For instance before New Year 2010, AbitibiBowater, a US-based multinationals shuts down its operations in Beaupré and Clermont, near Québec City, dismissing hundreds of employees. The company also closed plants in Ontario, Nova Scotia and Alabama, according to Quebec City´s daily Le Soleil.

Speaking of Québec, the Communist Party shall reiterate its position for a new Canada where the two founding nations, Québec and English speaking Canada, will be equal and united, and Québec will enjoy the right to secession. It is the right moment since the Parti québécois (PQ) is trying again to mobilize the population to separate from Canada, taking advantage of anti-English sentiment caused by dissatisfaction with the federal conservative government.

(Photo SolidNet: Demonstration in Italy for the freedom of information, in 2009)

L'Humanité in English

-30-

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

si vous voulez lire en français, : http://www.laviereelle.blogspot.com/



On the occasion of the New Year 2010, La Vie Réelle in English wishes to all its readers Peace, Progress and Prosperity.


We wish you as well Health and Wellbeing.


We hope in a new Canada, a land of democracy and freedom for all, where French-Canadians and English-speaking Canadians will live in equality, with the right of Québec to self-determination as a nation, up and including secession if this is the will of the people; alongside with the rights of the First Nations and the immigrant communities.


We extend warm salutations to the Communist Party of Canada which will hold its 36th Central Convention in Toronto (Ontario), not so far away from Guelph where it was founded in 1921 by a group of some 20 people that garner rapidly the support of thousands of workers in our country for the right to a decent housing, job and more generally a Life with a Future, a socialist Canada.
(Photo: Daniel Paquet, editor; with a group of young french communists in Paris, Spring 2009)

We extend fraternal greetings to the International Communist Review published in Athens (Greece) by a collective of theoretical communist journals from all around the world, including Debate Abierto from the Communist party of Venezuela, in our hemisphere.


Finally, we salute the Canadian delegation to the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and wish them successes in the coming competitions.





Montréal, December 2009

- 30 -