YCL-LJC Central Committee Report on the 2015 Federal Election

Central Committee – April 5, 2015

Almost a decade of Conservative rule in Canada has brought war, austerity and crises.

After 9 years of the Harper government’s rule, the upcoming Federal election, whether in the Spring or the Fall, marks an important opportunity for the YCL-LJC in their struggle for peace, jobs, the environment and democracy, as well as the broader struggle for socialism.

This year has seen a continued employment crisis, with a potential deepening of the economic crisis approaching. Lay-offs in the retail sector, oil and gas sector, and more manufacturing job loss means that the Harper government has failed to deliver on their self-styled image of “good economic managers”. In fact, the Harper Tories were only ever interested in managing and restructuring a neo-liberal capitalist economy that was good for Canada’s capitalist class and its imperialist endeavors.

Evidence of this can be seen in every area of the Harper government’s record. The Conservative connection to oil and gas monopolies and it’s drive to export raw materials has led to an atrocious record on climate change and an intensified attack on Indigenous sovereignty. On the international level, Harper has moved Canada into lock-step with US imperialism, increased military spending, and has become one of the most pro-war governments in the world, even within the criminal NATO alliance. Canadian imperialism has become increasingly aggressive under Harper’s watch and has been a major player in wars in Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq and now the illegal bombing of Syria, while being vocal proponents of war and occupation in places like Mali, Ukraine and Palestine.

Connected with this expansion of Canada’s role as an imperialist power has come a new wave of racism and an attack on democratic rights at home, framed as part of the “war on terror”. In the upcoming election the “war on terror” rhetoric is being used as a “wedge issue” in a cynical attempt to broaden Harper’s electoral base through fear mongering. A roll-back of democratic rights, such as through the police state Bill C-51, also serves to give the state new powers in surveilling and repressing labour and people’s movements.

Throughout the near-decade of Conservative rule, we have witnessed a reactionary social agenda emerge: anti-choice private members bills, anti-women’s equality policies such as taxation and benefit schemes designed to benefit homes with stay-at-home Mothers, bills brought forward attacking labour and Indigenous organizations under the cloak of “transparency”, anti-trans rhetoric and hostility towards expanding the rights LGBTQI* people, racist changes to immigration policies (such as the 4 and 4 rule aimed at the rights of migrant workers through limiting possible work terms to four seasons), and deeply xenophobic attacks on refugees. This dangerous “divide and rule” strategy, designed to blame anyone besides capitalism and capitalist governments for severe and deepening social and economic problems, create fertile ground for groups and voices on the extreme right of even the Conservatives. This includes fascist and neo-Nazi organizations, which are starting to operate more openly in Canada.

Domestically the Conservative government has been the prefered protagonist acting on behalf of big business to chop and privatize vital social programs and services, lower the real wages of working people and attack the ability of the labour movement to fight back by gutting free collective bargaining rights.

What the austerity agenda means for Canada’s youth was expressed clearly in the “advice” given by the Bank of Canada’s governor last fall: youth should work for free at unpaid internships while living in their parents’ basement. According to the Canadian Labour Congress, 360,000 young workers can’t find work and youth unemployment approaches 20% in many major Canadian cities. A full third of all young workers only have access to part-time employment. All this while tuition fees and student debt continue to skyrocket across Canada, with no more funding for PSE coming from the Federal government.

The future for youth under the current system looks dismal: unemployment, underemployment, debt, environmental destruction, war and militarism, and an eroding democracy.

Meanwhile annual profits of the big banks and largest transnationals has ballooned up to $250 billion. This is no surprise. The economic crisis is being used by capitalist governments around the world to enact policies designed to transfer wealth to the super-rich. While there has been a recovery for profits, there is no recovery for workers, especially for young people.

The fightback and the 2015 elections

Fortunately, more and more people are convinced that Harper and his gang must go. The strongest opposition that the Harper government has faced is in the streets. Since the economic crisis hit, Canada has been witness to large-scale mobilizations that have involved hundreds of thousands of youth and students. The Occupy movement, the Quebec student strike of 2012 and the Idle No More movement are the best examples of these democratic movements that found resonance with a growing number of young people being brought into the struggle for the first time. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has fought back on the issue of the privatization of Canada Post and the cuts to services in that area. The environmental movement and Indigenous communities have risen up against the Harper government’s expansion of pipelines and the Tar Sands. The anti-C-51 mobilizations that have responded to this particularly dangerous piece of legislation, aimed at legalizing repression of labour and people’s movements, also poses a problem for the Harper government and has provided a real opposition to its anti-democratic agenda.

At the YCL-LJC’s 26th Convention last May, the League pledged to build the fightback with “unity and militancy”. We saw the fight against Harper as developing in a positive way, with major semi-spontaneous mobilizations, but we recognized the need to unite struggles and build towards a “people’s coalition” with political demands as a way to build a counter-offensive capable of challenging corporate monopoly control. The YCL-LJC and the Communist Party of Canada are not the only ones seeking ways to build the fightback in the direction of a “people’s coalition”. After the Convention, the People’s Social Forum in Ottawa in August carried on many of the discussions we had at our convention. Although there are many differences in viewing the way forward at this stage, a growing number of people involved in labour and peoples’ movements see the primary importance of uniting and growing our movements through increased militancy, as opposed to a restricting ourselves to a narrow electoral approach. If we restrict ourselves to focus on uncritical support for a “lesser-evil” government this will inevitably lead to the co-optation and restriction of the fightback towards a governmental alternative that provides little change and no real opposition to the austerity agenda. It will also lead to putting a break on opposition to the Conservative government in the streets, which is essential leading up to the federal election and beyond.

The Current Electoral “Opposition” to Harper

The Liberal Party, which is re-emerging as the main electoral alternative to the Conservatives, have not provided meaningful political opposition in parliament. While not as favoured as Harper among the extreme right and supporters of reactionary anti-equity policies, the Liberals are extremely close to the Conservatives on key issues like economic policy, militarism, health care and social programs. Fundamentally they support the same pro-war and pro-big business approach, which has been highlighted by their recent support for Bill C-51 and their very timid opposition to the expansion of the war in Iraq into Syria.

The NDP, which long ago rejected their stated long-term goal of socialism and fundamental change, has shifted further to the right under the leadership of Thomas Mulcair. While hoping to appear as the next “responsible government in waiting”, they have made overtures to big business in order to appear as better and friendlier administrators of capitalism. This includes support for imperialism in key areas, such as Canada’s participation within NATO aggression and support for free trade deals like NAFTA, and CETA. The rallying cry from the NDP, that “we are one election away from a labour friendly government”, is at best wishful thinking. At worst its a dangerous trap for labour and people’s movements that can steer people away from struggle and towards narrow electioneering for a party that has failed to provide a meaningful alternative while in opposition, and time and time again while in government at the provincial level.

The Green Party, and in particular, Elizabeth May, has put forward some important ideas on questions of war, the environment and democracy, but the Green Party has not put forward consistent policies that offer an alternative to corporate control, and more fundamentally to capitalism.

While even the “opposition” refuses to make a sharp break with imperialism, another glaring deficiency is the inability of the opposition to put forward demands that offer solutions to Canada’s national question. The Canadian state needs to reflect the multi-national character of Canada ending the oppression of nations. We need relations of equality and justice among the nations in Canada with a new, democratic constitution based on an equal and voluntary partnership of the Indigenous peoples, Quebec, the Acadians and English-speaking Canada, recognizing the national rights of Indigenous nations, Acadians, and Quebec to self-determination, up to and including secession. The most glaring example of the urgency required on this question is the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

A majority of Canadians recognize Harper as the primary danger, and rightly so. However, an approach that is limited to strategic voting for the Liberals, or even the NDP, will continue to trap labour and people’s movements on the tread-mill of the parties of big business. “Lesser-evilism” as a strategy is not a strategy at all when the long-term is considered.

Our Strategy: the 2015 Elections and Beyond

Canada is desperately in need of a fundamentally new direction, a “People’s Alternative Platform” placing the needs of working people and the environment first. This would necessarily include the democratic nationalization of natural resources and finances, the cutting of military spending, and a progressive taxation system that makes corporations and the wealthy contribute to greatly expanded social programs. Many in labour and people’s movements would agree to this necessity, but the question remains how we get there.

Our view as Marxists is that politics is determined by class struggle. Our primary duty is to use the elections to strengthen the real driver of politics. While we view bourgeois politics and democracy under capitalism as severely limited, we also recognize that ignoring parliamentary struggle as a necessary arena to fight in only concedes ground to the capitalist class and their political parties. It is true that voter turnout is low, and that more and more people rightfully do not see hope in voting for another group of capitalist-politicians, but it is important to direct and organize this disempowerment into concrete political demands that can turn back the capitalist attack.

In our view this requires a long-term fight, especially mass social mobilizations which can unite a broad and powerful People’s Coalition of the working class and its allies outside Parliament. A People’s Coalition is not simply a new electoral formation but would have to have deep roots in united and militant action, with labour at its core, involving Indigenous peoples, women’s organizations, the student movement, immigrants, LGBTQI* groups, and more. This would then have a reflection inside Parliament that would further empower a counter-offensive against capital.

Unfortunately, we are not at a stage yet where we could elect MPs on a People’s Agenda with roots in labour and social movements. So what is our role as the YCL-LJC in building the groundwork for this counter-offensive against capital in the context of this Federal election?

We encourage young people to support the Communist Party of Canada’s campaign, as a platform to strengthen the fightback and put forward such an alternative platform. The Communist Party’s platform reflects an agenda that would put people’s needs before corporate greed and demonstrate that another Canada is possible. It also places the question of socialism on the table, in order to provide a clear long-term vision of what will be necessary to replace capitalism. Only socialism can get rid of exploitation and replace it with a system based on full democracy, human equality and environmental sustainability, in which the resources and economic wealth are owned and controlled by working people, not by corporate bosses. Voting Communist sends the clearest possible message that fundamental change is possible and necessary.

In mass movements, YCLers will also work in order to place demands on electoral candidates and expand these movements. This approach has the ability to expand mass action, avoid the pitfalls of merely supporting the Liberals or the NDP, and rally youth and students to independent demands of social movements, laying the basis for a “People’s Coalition”. Practically this would mean encouraging and supporting campaigns such as the $15 an hour minimum wage campaign (without allowing it to be restricted to merely support the NDP platform of only applying to the very narrow Federal minimum wage), support for the student movement in bringing issues of student debt and tuition fees onto the Federal election agenda, continuing the fight against Bill C-51 into the election period (even if the Bill is passed by this time), standing in solidarity with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women’s movement as they continue to demand a federal inquiry, and countless other local campaigns where our members are active.

In ridings where there are no Communist candidates running, the YCL-LJC still has a big role to play in advancing and popularizing the policies of the League and campaigns we support. As for voting in these areas (which is not as important as doing political work during the campaign!), comrades should be encouraged to vote for candidates that support as much of our policy on immediate questions as possible.

This election provides us with an opportunity to build connections on behalf of the YCL-LJC. To talk about our immediate and long term strategy for fundamental change. It is these politics and strategies, built on our Marxist-Leninist analysis, that many young people and Canada are looking for as a way to fight for a future. The YCL-LJC Central Committee commits itself to intensifying its work during this important juncture.

Materials and Practical Steps for YCL-LJC Work During the Election Period

• Release an “Organizer” Issue that includes this report to enable clubs to discuss how to enact this strategy on a local level
• Work with the Communist Party to develop a YCL-LJC pamphlet on the election and our demands in respect to youth and students
• Develop articles on Rebel Youth detailing the Conservative government’s crimes and providing leadership for strong opposition to the government; ask YCL-LJC Commissions to contribute content in their areas of struggle
• Cover the electoral campaign of the Communist Party in Rebel Youth, especially the campaigns of YCL members running as candidates for the Communist Party
• Cover labour and social movement activities during the Federal election
• Build the YCL through on the ground campaigning for the election