1 – The International Situation 

Crisis of Capitalism 

Modern bourgeois society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange, is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells. For many a decade past the history of industry and commerce is but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeois and of its rule. It is enough to mention the commercial crises that by their periodical return put the existence of the entire bourgeois society on its trial, each time more threateningly. In these crises, a great part not only of the existing products, but also of the previously created productive forces, are periodically destroyed. 

Manifesto of the Communist Party 

Since our Central Convention in October last year, the trends in the international situation we observed at that time have continued in a similar direction. Overall, we can see the two main contradictions of Capital-Labour and Sovereignty-Imperialism being aggravated by the inter-imperialist and intra-bourgeois rivalries and conflicts. 

The crisis of globalised capitalism is deepening; financial speculation, transfer of wealth through the instrument of the state, towering debt, and investments into big tech as well as militarisation have been used to attempt to conceal the slowdown of the post-Covid global economy. But we can clearly see the large over-accumulation of capital that cannot be recapitalised and invested therefore the large monopolies are encountered with an unacceptable rate of profit. 

Imperialism, as moribund capitalism, is increasingly parasitic. One way this parasitism is expressed is in the continued growth of militarism despite the end of the ‘cold war’ between the two conflicting orders that dominated most of the 20th century. A continuing increase in the amount or percent of gross domestic product, predominantly coming from the income of workers through instruments such as taxes, comes out of the coffers of the state and is spent on large standing armies and on preparing for and carrying out imperialist interventions. This growing militarism is one of the main ways where the large monopolies can guarantee the utmost profits possible and yet is responsible for the destruction of material wealth, let alone human life. 

As the relation of economic forces along the imperialist pyramid can change quickly, the balance of military power can change in an uneven manner. This inevitably contributes to the struggle for the redivision of the already divided world. 

The over-accumulation we are witnessing is not a new phenomenon, but rather a continuation of the crisis of imperialism. The global economy never recovered from the crisis of 2008. Few economies ever reached a higher level of growth than they did in the years after the dot-com bubble burst. Looking even further, since the late 1970’s capitalist globalisation shifted the balance of forces and put the working class and popular strata on the defensive. But the process of globalisation deepened the contradictions inherent to capitalism. 

The process of globalisation causes capital to become relatively stagnant. By freeing up capital from national constraints, globalisation hindered the ability of state monopoly capitalism to dole out a sufficient social wage for the reproduction of labour. This is exemplified in Canada by the privatisations of the Mulroney governments and subsequent ‘neoliberal’ policies carried out by provincial governments, including the NDP in Saskatchewan and Ontario, in the 1990’s. 

Globalisation has the ability to speed up and sharpen the process of wealth inequality, which in turn feeds into the process of over-accumulation. 

The over-accumulation of capital has meant that the large monopolies have built up unprecedented amounts of capital without the productive outlets for reinvestment. Over-accumulation becomes more of an issue for the large monopolies as there is a general increase in the organic composition of capital. Bourgeois state intervention may at times temporarily slow down or manage the depreciation of capital or strengthen certain sectors of the economy, but it inevitably leads to deeper crises of over-accumulation. For example, the response from many states to the 2008 crisis was to lower interest rates to near zero and loosen monetary policy. This led to a more substantial crisis starting in 2019 that was further aggravated by the pandemic. The differences in the interventions by different states, however slight or severe, sharpen the unevenness and competition throughout the imperialist pyramid. 

Although over-accumulation starts in capitalist production, it most vividly can be seen in the process of circulation, the market, as a crisis of underconsumption or overproduction. We continue to see the trend of an increase in underutilisation and slowdown of industrial production growth. As productive or ‘value-added’ capital stagnates, financial speculation flourishes. 

Throughout the last decade, large monopolies continuously posted record profits, yet their investment declined. At times, global corporate cash reserves exceeded the foreign exchange reserves of all the central governments combined. Yet at the same time, corporate debt skyrocketed and large monopolies issued bonds in amounts never seen before. The total global value of goods and services has been constantly outpaced by the global derivatives market, demonstrating the massive accumulation of fictitious capital. This can be summarised as a ‘kicking the can down the road’ approach where the next crisis is significantly greater than the previous. 

These processes we have described can be examined through the lens of global motor vehicle production. After the dot-com bubble, the number of motor vehicles produced worldwide stood at around 56 million in 2001 and followed a constant increase with a peak of 73 million in 2007. After the crisis of 2008, it hit a low of 62 million in 2009, followed by a year-over-year increase until stagnating at 97 million in 2017 and 2018. There was a significant drop to 92 million in 2019, demonstrating that the crisis began before Covid, which was followed by another dip to 78 million in 2020, before increasing year after year reaching 94 million last year. Meanwhile in Canada, motor vehicle production has not surpassed 3 million since reaching an all time high in 1999. Between 2012 and 2017, motor vehicle production in Canada roughly averaged around 2.25 million per year, but has not hit 2 million since 2018. Overall, we can see an example of how the economy did not recover after 2008 and the global economic meltdown started before the pandemic. 

Inter-Imperialist and Intra-Bourgeois Rivalries and Conflicts 

The most dangerous of all … are those who do not wish to understand that the fight against imperialism is a sham and humbug unless it is inseparably bound up with the fight against opportunism.

From all that has been said in this book on the economic essence of imperialism, it follows that we must define it as capitalism in transition, or, more precisely, as moribund capitalism. It is very instructive in this respect to note that bourgeois economists, in describing modern capitalism, frequently employ catchwords and phrases like “interlocking”, “absence of isolation”, etc.; “in conformity with their functions and course of development”, banks are “not purely private business enterprises: they are more and more outgrowing the sphere of purely private business regulation”

What then does this catchword “interlocking” express? It merely expresses the most striking feature of the process going on before our eyes. It shows that the observer counts the separate trees, but cannot see the wood.

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism 

As we agreed in our new Program adopted by the Central Convention last October, “wars between capitalist states are as a rule the consequence of their competition in the world market. What means other than war could there be under capitalism to overcome the disparity between the development of productive forces and the accumulation of capital on the one side, and the division of spheres of influence for finance capital on the other.” As we know, the key characteristics of imperialism are: monopolisation, finance capital, export of capital, international monopolistic capitalist associations, and the division and redivision of the world by great powers. 

As monopolies are consolidated and faced with an over-accumulation of capital, they are in a constant hunt for new investments leading them to export capital. In the process of an increasing exportation of capital, associations between the large monopolies form and in turn political alliances between bourgeois states are formed in the hope of creating spheres of influence.

The alliances of state monopoly capitalism can run into competition with each other, such as among different countries belonging to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation or the BRICS and the G7. But within these alliances as well, there can be competitions and divisions between the bourgeois states such as India and Pakistan in the SCO and Turkey and Greece in NATO. 

Unlike those who ascribe to a ‘dependency’ or ‘core-periphery’ outlook like the one put forward by Samir Amin for example, we recognize that within the imperialist pyramid the relations go in two ways and not in a single direction, even if they can be lopsided at times. We understand the interdependence of the imperialist global system, which can result in cooperation and closeness in states that are in relative competition. This is evident in examples such as the rebound in trade and mutual investment between China and the United States after the 2018-19 trade war, the continued trade between China and Ukraine after the start of the war, the more than doubling in the purchases of enriched uranium from the Russian Federation by the United States from 2022 to 2023, or both Ukraine and Russia providing support for the Sudanese Armed Forces in their conflict. 

In the search for profits, capitalist powers can have overlapping membership in seemingly competing alliances such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Asian Development Bank or the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. But this is because just like the position on the imperialist pyramid is not fixed, the same can be said of membership in any imperialist alliance. In any form an imperialist alliance is shaped, it is only a temporary truce in the time between wars. We can see this in the ascension of Saudi Arabia and Iran to full membership in BRICS despite their regional struggle that causes bloodshed in a myriad of proxy battles. Alliances form to prepare for wars and then grow out of them. 

Since our convention, we have seen the continuation of the manifestation of inter-imperialist conflicts. As Lenin said, globalised capitalism is war. Most notable has been the destruction of Gaza by Israeli aggression, resulting in the tragic mass civilian death amongst the Palestinian people, especially the youth. It is also necessary to highlight the continuation of the war in Ukraine, the increasingly unstable conflict in Sudan which despite the incomprehensible cost in human lives has been for the most part ignored by even the most progressive forces in Canada, and the continued economic warfare against Socialist Cuba which continues to heighten nearing a stranglehold on the bulwark of anti-imperialism in our hemisphere. 

The Israeli war on the people of Gaza has already spilled out to a regional conflict. Forces in Yemen have turned to targeting international shipping routes, Israel has launched attacks into Lebanon and Syria, and Iran sent drones into Israel. The genocidal onslaught against the Palestinian people has shown the changing balance of forces and shift in the imperialist rivalries. Just take for example the Gulf monarchies, which are caught between their support for the Trump-initiated Abraham Accords and their desire to be included in the emerging alliances such as BRICS or the Belt and Road Initiative. The contradictions are evident when Saudi Arabia has joined BRICS and at the same time are in the midst of negotiating a historic trade and defence deal with the United States. 

With the conflict in Ukraine, the divisions between NATO and European Union members are deepening. This can be shown in the differing opinions on how many and what types of armaments to send, such as the disagreement over sending tanks to the Ukrainian forces. Germany is restricted from the Russian natural gas it desperately seeks while France and the United States continue to buy Russian refined uranium for their reactors. These differences are playing into the hands of the far-right with Le Pen and Trump both seeing dramatic rises in popularity while espousing skepticism over their states’ military support for Ukraine. 

In Sudan, the Rapid Support Forces see support from Gulf monarchies, Russia, Ukraine and European Union members, but the Armed Forces, the army they fight, also receive support from the already mentioned places. It is clear that the transnational corporations will be the beneficiaries to opening up the mineral wealth, fertile land, and oil refineries, while the people of Sudan pay the price with their lives. 

Regardless of who wins the next yankee presidential election, the economic war on the Cuban people and their revolution will continue at the behest of the big monopolies. As we stated in our plan of work, we must redouble our solidarity efforts with our sister organisation the Union of Young Communists and the Cuban people as a whole. 

Although we recognize the significant work done by comrades in this arena, as shown by the increased participation on the Che Brigade, we must put more collective effort into the Canadian Network on Cuba and the Table de concertation de solidarité Québec-Cuba campaigns. We have a particular role as young communists to bring youth and student organisations into the Cuba solidarity movement. 

The intra-bourgeois conflicts are also sharpening around the world. We can see this in the sharp divisions in the American presidential election and French parliamentary elections, among other places. Clearly the ruling class is not universally united around ways to deal with the deepening global capitalist crisis. We must further our study over the division of different sectors of the economy or between different monopolies in the same industry to find ways to exploit these divisions for the advancement of the class struggle, with a particular focus on bringing young workers into the fight and raising class consciousness among the young workers and youth of the popular strata.

2 – The Situation in Canada 

Canada’s Role in the World

Lenin freed us from the then popular Kautskyite conception that the decisive characteristic of imperialism was “striving for annexations”; that what constituted imperialism was solely possession of colonies and the oppression of their peoples. For the first time we recognized clearly the significance of Lenin’s repeated emphasis upon the fact that imperialism is a specific historical stage of capitalism…

Belatedly, we realized that the political oppression and double exploitation of the hundreds and millions of people in India, Africa, the Philippines, China , and other colonial and semi-colonial territories, the glaring and repulsive evils which democratic people denounced and considered as constituting imperialism, were not the essence of imperialism nor its source. At last, with the help of Lenin and the ideological “ kick in the pants” from our student comrades, we came to understand that capitalist imperialism is the noxious fruit of the operation of the inherent laws of motion of capitalism. The character of a state, the question of whether it is part of the system of capitalist imperialism and its exploitation and oppression, or part of the exploited and oppressed majority of mankind, is determined by the level of development in the capitalist society which maintains and operates it — not simply by whether it annexes colonial territories. Astonishing as it sounds today, that was a revelation which revolutionized our understanding of imperialism

Lenin and Canada 

Tim Buck

Canada occupies an intermediate position on the imperialist pyramid. With somewhat unique features, the early phase of capital formation was a push between British and American capital, but the state has its own ‘made in Canada’ capitalist roots too. Firstly, after 1867, the new ‘Dominion’ immediately began pushing colonialism further than either the British or French ruling class did, both geographically but also in the systemic and violent genocide of Indigenous peoples. This led to the political, economic, and cultural domination and forced displacement of many peoples. Thus, Canadian capital grew by pushing the raw extraction and agriculture west and industrializing the east off of the exploitation of workers.

Early state monopoly capitalist projects like the trans-Canada railroad were initiated. The new state’s bourgeois politics were dominated by a debate over a ‘free trade’ or ‘protectionist’ approach and the country’s relation to the United States. Not much has changed from then to today in this respect. We know as young communists that of course this early capitalism gave rise to the industrial proletariat and increased the dynamic of the Capital-Labour fight. But in terms of bourgeois politics, the lines were pretty much drawn in 1867 and continue to be dominated by these questions. 

Many workers were needed for the projects of the raw extraction west and industrial east. Huge numbers were quickly rushing in through massive immigration programs which at times had an extremely racist approach. 

Then the early monopolies began to form and become financialised. These emergent monopolies took their profits and exported capital to the Caribbean because of superstructural shared British colonial roots, which also meant existing economic ties as well as the real differences in resources and commodities available for export or needed for import. Then the banking and mining sectors grew so they went elsewhere. And thus the tentacles of the Canadian bourgeois spread around all corners of the world. 

Just as the still wet from birth Canadian capitalist economy was advancing outwards, the domestic economy was being penetrated by American capital. We know that imperialism is dynamic and that Canada occupies a relatively intermediate rung on the imperialist pyramid. As a country, Canada is not a U.S. dependency or semi-colony. We can see the penetration of Canadian capital in the U.S. with most notably the banking sector. Even though the Boston Bruins beat the Toronto Maple Leafs every spring in the playoffs, the home games of the Bruins are played in ‘Toronto Dominion’ Bank Gardens. 

But in the superstructure, we can clearly see the influence of America in our day to day lives, in our culture, especially the music or movies we consume, or notably in the news media, which for young people including young workers is predominantly the monopoly dominated social media. Most young people in Canada are familiar with Trump far more than Erin O’Toole or Andrew Scheer – forget about the current premier of the provinces they don’t live in or that are not of their region. 

Don’t even bother asking a young Canadian who Mary Jeannie May Simon, Ningiukudluk in Inuktitut, is, let alone what she was doing in 1982 or 1999 and what the significance those years have to the constitution of Canada. 

Yes, Canada is tied to American capital, but politicians of all stripes have tried different approaches. Trudeau senior’s relationship with Cuba and the socialist world was obviously not a proletarian internationalist one and history teaches us well that P.E.T. was no friend of workers. Nevertheless, Trudeau the elder did approach the socialist world markedly differently than previous prime ministers in a defiance towards his ‘southern neighbour,’ in an idealist nationalist way but also in an economic way, in the search of markets in which Canada could play a larger role with less competition. Or what about Harper, who brought the Canadian economy closer to China and the European Union in a move to lessen the link with the U.S. and economically diversify. But ultimately, these tactics are still part of the imperialist game and are far more products of their time and context with regard to the state and relative health of global capitalism rather than any serious struggle along the Sovereignty-Imperialism axis. 

The difference between Harper’s and Trudeau’s approaches to foreign policy is much akin to historical examples of differences in governance in the industrial base of the country. Bob Rae was not – as a metaphysician or idealist would put it – always a ‘red’ or ‘capital L’ liberal and never dyed-in-the-wool orange, but rather social democracy was playing its class collaborationist and non-antagonistic role in capitalism when free trade was on the rise and globalisation was reaching new plateaus. Just as Bill Davis was not a crypto-socialist ‘red’ Tory, but was rather a product of the economic boom after World War II and the increased industrialisation of the region during the war and the expansion of state monopoly capitalism. Whether an NDP government with austerity or a Tory government with social spending, neither one pushes the needle on the Capital-Labour metre. The pushing of that needle belongs to the workers and their allies in the organised struggle to win gains from their class enemy. 

Canada is the only G7 country where the number of companies on the Fortune Global 500 since 1995, when they first started recording, had increased by 2021. Examining the political circumstances, this trend can be explained by an approach after the 2008 crisis that slightly differed from other countries in a similar position in the imperialist pyramid. But we, as young communists, chalk a lot of it up to the combination of sheer amount and diversity of raw resources with a relatively unique advanced and sophisticated industrial production, for example: the extraction, refining, and transportation of synthetic crude. These forces of resource extraction and advanced industrial production lead to significant foreign direct investment, and a highly financialized economy that exports capital. Canada also features combined access to both the Pacific and Atlantic, creating the conditions in the base for easier flow of physical commodities through ports like Vancouver and Montreal, but also in the superstructure with more ‘privileged’ relations with a number of states and transnational monopolies. 

The infamous Canadian mining sector has its ugly tentacles in every corner of the world. But Canada is also home to a majority of the worlds mining corporations not because of ‘know how’ engineering techniques, because of the amount of mineral wealth within the borders or because of a bloodthirsty demand for the lives of people in the Global South. Canada is home to so many mining companies because of ‘snow washing’, a relative ‘ease’ of doing business in Canada because of lack of regulations or investigation and enforcement.

We also note that the Canadian energy sector going overseas includes building relatively ‘green’ technology like nuclear reactors and hydroelectric stations. Creation of ‘green’ infrastructure overseas can be a form of tied aid by the state with state-monopoly contracts doled out to monopoly construction firms like the notorious SNC-Lavalin or backed by Canadian finance, exporting capital and seeking new places in which to invest the over-accumulated capital.

Since our convention, the threat of growing militarism continues. There is no end in sight to the snowballing military expenditures. That is why we need to continue to develop and engage our campaign for ‘Canada out of NATO’. 

Many sections of bourgeois ideology are constantly calling  for more arms and soldiers. We hear and read almost everyday in the bourgeois press propaganda about our outdated weapons, or our lack of troops, or – even more laughable – our failure to commit to our yankee, NATO, ‘western,’ ‘democratic’ or ‘rules-based international order’ allies. 

Conservatives but also NDPers are issuing the terrifying cry that the state is ‘not doing enough for Ukraine’ despite the needless bloodshed and destruction in the region. There are also broader impacts on the working class and toiling masses of the world due to the downturn in the production of energy, wheat, and potash coupled with the risk of nuclear war. Clearly, among the ruling class there is no shame felt after the ‘Hunka Affair’ let alone a passing thought for peace.  

Sudan, in the eyes of the Canadian bourgeoisie, is ripe for taking. With commonalities in the main commodities produced in the economies of the two countries like oil, agriculture, and mining means Canadian monopolies want in. Just like we said about support for the war in Ukraine in our political thesis of the last Central Convention, “the class that the state represents benefits from these policies. Canadian monopolies owned by the bourgeoisie benefit from increased demand for wheat, pork, potash, and natural gas.” And just like the case of Ukraine and Ukrainian-Canadians there are lots of workers of Sudanese origin in Canada because of economic overlap and Canadian monopolies operating in Sudan. 

In areas where clubs have the capacity as well as centrally, we must build solidarity with the people of Sudan and our sister organisation in the face of the unthinkable attacks and the workers and popular masses taking place in Sudan since they rose up against the dictatorship. As the comrades from the Sudan Youth Union have told us, neither armed side in this conflict represents the interests of the workers and popular masses. 

Student unions and labour unions have been active in building solidarity with the Palestinian national liberation struggle. In many facets, this trend is thanks to increased mobilisation of students and young workers. It is a marked uptick and overall it has been a good show of international solidarity. We should recruit among the most class-conscious members of these groups and movements, while continuing to train young communists to work within them. It is important as young communists to bring the BDS and Palestine solidarity movement among the rank and file members of our labour and students’ unions, not only leadership.

We need to work openly, seriously and in line with our line and policies in the solidarity movement. But this too means fighting first and foremost for collectivity and the broadest possible formation of the working class and its allies moving in unity around action. Foremost because it is overall good for our organisation and our class no matter how it is young workers learn to fight and work in a collective as long as they end up as militants or active supporters. 

So we need to continue to foster allies and respect for our style of work. If we fight well and work collectively and not in a sectarian manner, this will help even more young workers and students be open to listening to us, reading our press, coming out to our events and coming into contact with our collectively decided proletarian internationalist positions. 

With that in mind, we need to work to connect the national liberation of the Palestinian people to monopoly rule and issues of peace and war, militarism and anti-imperialism. We have a duty as young communists to bring young people and their organisations into and in contact with the anti-imperialist movement of the World Peace Council and the affiliates in this country as well as the World Federation of Democratic Youth. 

We have heard from our comrades in Palestine, who told us: campaign against the monopolies in your country profiting off our death and suffering as a form of working-class solidarity. We continue to push for BDS actions and we salute the work being done by students and young workers in this area of work. Canadian monopolies continue to sell more weapons to the state of Israel for profit – not out of hatred or ‘settler colonialism’ or being positioned in the ‘Global North’ or ‘the west’. But a reactionary attitude can be reflected in the superstructure promoting racism and ignorance, and even unjustifiable actions like violent hate crimes on individuals or organisations. 

The Growing Fightback in Canada and the Challenge of Youth 

One of the special features of imperialism connected with the facts I am describing, is the decline in emigration from imperialist countries and the increase in immigration into these countries from the more backward countries where lower wages are paid

Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism 

The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.

The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement. 

The Manifesto of the Communist Party

Immigration and Immigrant Organizing

The numerical population of Canada continues to soar. The bourgeois love to use immigrants as scapegoats, but they are not to blame for the crisis of capitalism and the various symptoms that working people and the popular strata experience. We do need to remember that not all immigrants coming to Canada are working class, but many are working class. Workers born in Canada need to work with immigrant workers in our collective struggle against capitalism. 

Although we don’t ascribe to state-prescribed multiculturalism, we believe in working-class culture and of course respect communities and would never call for any forced assimilation.

 As we said in our new Program: 

The policy of multiculturalism advanced by the Canadian state over the past half-century contends that the Canadian identity is formed solely by the contribution of a mosaic of different ethnic groups, equal among themselves, who have arrived as immigrants and who, for the most part, have quickly integrated and continue to integrate mainly into the dominant English-speaking nation of Canada.

This policy was created ostensibly to differentiate Canada’s multiculturalism from the US “melting pot” which forces immigrants to abandon their mother-tongue and their culture when they immigrate to the US.

In fact, Canada’s multiculturalism policy was created to deny the existence of nations within.

But as we recognize working-class culture, we see the natural effects of integration from working together with Canadian-born workers on the same shifts and going to the same schools. We can see examples in the late hip hop artist Sidhu Moose Wala. His music is not a form of cultural appropriation, but rather his style was a reflection of his time as an international student in Canada, just as Hockey Night in Canada broadcasting in Punjabi is not cultural appropriation. Punjabi people immigrating to Canada is not a recent phenomenon.

One of the early leaders of our organisation was a comrade from Punjab. Darshawn Singh Canadian was both a leader in the YCL and a labour militant. Darshawn Singh was one of the founding members of the International Woodworkers of America, leading the union as general secretary from 1942 to 1946. Comrade Darshawn returned to India after independence and became the secretary for the Communist Party of India in Punjab and was a member of the Punjab state legislature until his assassination by religious separatist extremists in 1986. 

But just as there are highlights in proletarian history, there are tragedies in bourgeois history such as the Komagata Maru incident and the infringement of all South Asian people’s voting and other rights from 1907 to 1947. 

We note the work of the Naujawan Support Network (NSN) in the Greater Toronto Area. This group is an interesting example of an immigrant-based popular organisation for youth to deal with student and primarily worker issues. They mostly organise where industry and legal conditions make the employer recognizing a union almost impossible.

Representatives of NSN have spoken at a Toronto Area Peace and Solidarity rally against NATO, at various union local meetings and at the CUPE Ontario convention, and at Palestinian liberation marches. NSN members have attended Cuba solidarity events and turned out to hear the former World Federation of Democratic Youth president speak about young people’s role in the anti-imperialist movement.

Members in NSN have navigated questions of support from different and diverse groups, while avoiding getting caught in left or right traps. They operate with respect for religious matters but are secular; the same can be said of their approach to separatism in Punjab or the growing tensions between the Indian and Canadian states. They are a youth group and one with no funds, material resources, or staff, so we know they must struggle, and their leadership needs to be applauded. 

These young workers leading NSN are building and maintaining membership, organising struggles with different employers as well as differing campaigns and causes like student issues, and avoiding controversy. We applaud their leadership and most of all the leadership of the rank and file members who are workers struggling against substandard conditions at the workplace. They deserve our respect both for engaging in direct class struggle linked to a relatively proletarian internationalist outlook and our solidarity.

NSN is a geographically limited movement, but the issues outlined are an example of the trends we see coast to coast. The increase in migration within Canada is also a trend that has developed more since our Convention.

Privatization Looming in Education and Healthcare

Since our Central Convention, the federal government announced a cap on international students. The Canadian immigration system is designed to maintain an abundance of temporary immigration statuses in order to ensure a steady supply of precarious, non-union, low-wage workers to tamp down wages and working conditions for all. Universities, colleges, and a growing number of private institutions have been using international students as a replacement for dwindling public financial support, since international students pay higher tuition fees.

The international student cap has been introduced because the ruling class no longer needs to expand the reserve army of labour in this way to put a downward pressure on real wages, as the Canadian state’s ‘fight against inflation’ does the same thing. 

During the pandemic, the cap on the hours someone on a student visa could work was lifted. Many young people who came here to study were subjected to the unsafe practices of hiring agencies. Now inflation is getting the job of reducing wages done for the ruling class. 

Reducing international student enrollment can help manufacture a crisis in post-secondary education, so that it can undergo corporatised restructuring and accelerate the commodification and exclusivity of education as we have already seen at Laurentian University. This is a sign of coming privatisation of social services in health care and education. 

In the economic base, the ruling class wants to manufacture a crisis. The state and monopolies will attempt to manage a process of creative destruction of capital. The over-accumulation of capital needs new places to invest.

NDPers, Liberals and Conservatives all support some form of privatisation of healthcare like public-private partnerships (P3s) or outsourcing labour and services using hiring agencies. The same is true in education too through student loans, which treat students as if they are installment plan customers.  Outsourcing secondary and elementary school is already a reality in some provinces with charter schools or online courses from for-profit corporations. Trudeau’s tax credit to teachers for classroom supplies recognises the problem and spits in their face. 

We know the privatisation of education is being sold to us with empty phrases like ‘quality’ or ‘specialized’ education. As young communists, we fight for a holistic education, not just degree mills or corporate training. We want barrier-free and quality education for everyone willing to take their studies seriously. We need to prepare ourselves for September and work on the ‘Free Education for All’ campaign.

It is not just the role of our student members to work on the ‘Free Education’ campaign. Post-secondary education (PSE) is also a significant industry in the country. The majority of people in Canada have received some form of post-secondary accreditation. According to the OECD, Canada’s population has the highest rate of tertiary education completion in the world. PSE accounts for more than $40 billion in government revenue annually or approximately 1.2 percent of the GDP of Canada. In Ontario alone, it is estimated that the economic impact of its 21 public universities and 24 public colleges is more than $120 billion a year. The PSE sector in Canada directly employs more than 440,000 people across the country and contributes another 300,000 indirect jobs. Fighting for free education is also fighting for quality unionised jobs, for a life with a future. 

In healthcare, the ruling class and its spokespersons tell us hospital wait times could be resolved with privatisation by doling out incentives for doctors. But the ruling class refuses to advance measures that could increase medical school enrollment or ease the path for foreign-trained doctors to be licensed here.  

We should work to expand the field of Cuba solidarity to the healthcare workers and members of the Canadian Healthcare Coalition. We can link the fight for public healthcare in Canada with Cuba’s public healthcare system that is under attack from imperialist blockade.

We should ask, is the NDP-Liberal dental care plan the result of struggle by workers or the dental lobby? Of course, this reform will have immediate benefits for the working class and popular strata. But, how will it affect unions in their negotiations in collective bargaining agreements? We have to ask, are all reforms initiated by the class struggle with the workers on the offensive, or are some reforms, even if some aspects are beneficial to workers, initiated by the bourgeois? Dentists and insurance companies lobbied for this dental plan, run by Sun Life as a subcontractor, which is an expansion of insurance coverage – not universal healthcare. We need to think dialectically: it was not the working class in motion that won this reform for dental care. 

Yes, even the limited dental plan will mean routine cleanings for workers but what about universality, union negotiations, or taxes? Workers don’t have tax specialist accountants or lawyers let alone tax havens; large monopolies do. Workers pay more in taxes than large monopolies do. High taxes on services or individual income are indeed anti-working class to the extent that the tax burden falls on workers not capitalists and their companies. 

We want services like dental care as far as possible to be universal and paid for publicly through mechanisms like taxes on large corporations and reduction in military spending. We want universal and not tiered access to healthcare to allow union negotiations to concentrate on other things like hourly pay. 

Will this Liberal-NDP dental plan lead to deterioration of services and just become a small stipend or subsidy? What happens when the Conservatives win the next election? We know what the result of Conservatives managing dental care would be: it will be similar to Ontario when pharmacare insurance was massively expanded under Wynne on her way out trying to win an election, just to have Ford come in and immediately slash it.

Both Québec solidaire and the NDP support bulk purchasing of pharmaceuticals. Even if this reform is beneficial to the workers in the short term, the large insurance and pharmaceutical monopolies will be beneficiaries as well.

We can see the path we could be headed down: guaranteed basic income combined with cuts to social services, a myriad of user fees, P3s or outright privatisation backed by the insurance companies and banks. 

Yes, sometimes the capitalists undermine themselves and are shortsighted because of the crisis of capitalism, in the intra-bourgeois competition and rivalries including among different sectors of the economy just as well in the process of monopolisation, or they can wrongly perceive themselves to be acting in their best interests. Trying to navigate elements like a tendency of rate of profit to fall can make the capitalists negatively impact the process of reproduction of labour. Of course, this generally leads to social unrest in the superstructure and furthering the capitalists’ share of the pie which inevitably leads to over accumulation in the production of capital causing overproduction or underconsumption in the circulation of capital. 

Bourgeois Propaganda and Intra-Bourgeois Divisions

From our point of view as young Marxist-Leninists, the greatest benefit of reform struggles is building a movement, starting with trade union struggles. What Lenin called ‘revolutionary periods’ come when they come. But then they pass, if workers don’t know who the enemy is and how to organise, and if they don’t know that the boss isn’t invincible. Today, too many of our fellow young workers are fatalists – their experience has been that ‘there’s nothing you can do’. It is our role as young communists to be the organisational backbone and ideological vanguard of fights for reforms. We see no fight as too big or too small, as long as it is getting young workers into motion. We have a role to play in directing and uniting these struggles against our class enemies. 

There is no magic button that can be pushed with social democracy. A metaphysician or an idealist would say: if only the NDP elects a left leader or adopts a certain set of policies, it will do things differently. Of course, the objective conditions can make the base of reform parties more militant, and this can be reflected in their leaders or policies. However, ultimately we know social democracy plays a role in class society to dampen or divert the working class movement.

In different organisations and struggles, especially in the trade union movement where we will encounter many social democrats, we need to know how to build unity in action and avoid the sectarianism we see so often in the immature ultra-leftists. Recognizing this, we still need to walk on the tightrope between opportunism and adventurism. We as the youth must always be on the lookout for reformist or movementist elements that can try to poison the historic mission of our class. 

As Tim Buck said about Lenin “he was unequivocally opposed to any element of sectarianism, but he fought without quarter for the party; to keep the party united and protect it from penetration by bourgeois ideology or non-Marxist organizational ideas.”

In Imperialism, Lenin said, “imperialism has the tendency to create privileged sections also among the workers, and to detach them from the broad masses of the proletariat.” In the Manifesto, Marx and Engels wrote, “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes.” Of course, we know the process of proletarianisation, where someone from a petty-bourgeois or professional background may enter the ranks of the industrial proletariat, but just as well some workers can attain higher strata. Like states can go up and down the imperialist pyramid in the sovereignty-imperialism dynamic contradiction, so too can individuals in their class as part of the labour-capital dynamic. 

But, more importantly, the fate of companies can go up and down in the process of monopolisation, financialisation, and capitalist competition and crisis. The monopolies are not static or permanent. We are not advocating some conspiracy about rich families that have controlled everything. Yes, there are rich monopoly families that go back to early days of capitalism in this country like Labatt and Molson, but these families are subject to the laws of capitalism not the illuminati. In accordance with the trend towards monopolisation, Labatt and Molson became Coors and Anheuser Busch, then InBev and MillerCoors.

Engels wrote that “the English proletariat is actually becoming more and more bourgeois” in their ideology, but he contrasted the workers overall with some of their captured leaders who as he wrote led “old conservative trade unions, rich and therefore cowardly.” We can all recognise this or that person that we have worked with on a campaign or in an organisation like a student union that was captured by some set of bourgeois ideas. 

What may be more difficult for some young communists is dealing with bourgeois propaganda that may initially appear to some as ‘left’. Radical identity politics and post-modernism have done a great deal of damage to the militancy of the student unions. 

These bourgeois ideas penetrate the working class youth and can obscure or conceal the real enemy. Ultimately, these are individualist ideologies and they work against universalism and collective styles of work. 

Sections of the bourgeoisie act in what they perceive to be in their best interests. This is a part of the broader phenomenon of intra-bourgeois conflict, both in economic rivalry and in the superstructure. This is where we get different political expressions of bourgeois ideology and even trends within them. Intra-bourgeois conflict is rooted in the base, because of objective differences between sectors of the economy. 

The federal Tories continue to gain momentum and popularity. The Tories have welcomed in the ultra right. The far-right People’s Party seems to be wrapping up – started as an anti dairy board libertarian outfit, it quickly appeared to be doing a jingoistic racist dog whistle audible to anyone who would listen with a good measure of ‘anti-woke’ culture war distractions; in the end it went all in on a crusade against vaccines during the pandemic, filling the party with weirdos like the ‘semen retention warrior’. Pierre Poilievre welcomed back the right with open arms; he visited truckers in Ottawa and ‘axe the taxers’ on the NS-NB border.

And now PP is leading the racist and anti-democratic foreign interference campaign on behalf of the section of the bourgeoisie that wants ‘protectionism’ and the majority of the ruling class that demands militarism.

Some conservative parties are navigating relatively well for their purposes. The somewhat teflon Doug Ford and François Legault both owned significant monopolies before entering politics. Both have at times silenced far-right elements in their parties for the sake of appearances. We have seen that large labour struggles can hurt their popularity, as was the case of CUPE school workers or the historic Common Front. 

But other conservatives drift further right like in New Brunswick and Alberta. If one puts the superstructure first, they might say regional differences between prairie people, maritimers, and the rest of the country are the cause of reaction. Are they just folksy, rural, and culturally conservative, or is there an economic base? 

Alberta started with company towns, big monopolies in mining and large ranchers, before the economy moved onto the even more monopolised oil and gas industry. New Brunswick is run by Irving’s massive vertical and horizontal monopolies and McCain’s huge grasp on agriculture. 

Are the transphobic policies or ‘protectionist’ advocacy in a hyper-reactionary conspiratorial manifestation including jingoistic anti-immigration or francophobic narratives coming out of New Brunswick and Alberta fueled purely by hate among working-class people or is it more likely it is the furthest expression of one section of bourgeois propaganda. The originally extractive and export-heavy economies of east and west can sometimes come into conflict with the ‘liberal’ financial ‘cosmopolitan’ banking hubs of Toronto and Montreal. 

The long-ruling federal Liberal party has been humiliated by a by-election defeat to the Tories in a stronghold. There are calls inside and outside the party for a leadership race to replace Trudeau; like Biden to the south he may have just been around too long.

The Liberals’ left-wing credentials have been hurt from their policy of hurting Palestine in their lockstep support of Israel. There is a growing unpopularity of war in Ukraine, although some of this distaste is coming from reaction. Although we might agree with some of the sentiment behind a ‘Fuck Trudeau’ sticker on a hard hat at work, we may want to ask why? 

We can see examples of collaboration between the state, the labour unions, and large monopolies. We also see elements of parasitism and decay like bribed corrupt labour unions or their officials; from the International Trade Union Confederation and the Qatar world cup all the way to brother Smokey, former leader of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union. 

We know the Liberals and NDP have a base of support on ‘the right’ in the labour movement, but there can also be conservative union leadership like in the building trades. But having conservative or even corrupt union leadership doesn’t stop the unions from being made up of workers or going on strike. 

Only in the case of the Christian Labour Association of Canada can we say a union is totally captured by capital. But even in the case of the CLAC, its reactionary role doesn’t change the fact that some of its members are part of the working class.

We know as young communists that in the end, even if there are individuals who claim to represent the working class that are corrupt, it is not the working class itself that is ‘captured’ or ‘imperialist’ or ‘settler-colonialist’. As the former general secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions George Mavrikos said, “the relation between capitalists and workers is not only limited to the relation between the individual capitalist and the workers he exploits. It’s a relation between classes. Capitalists as a whole exploit the unpaid product of the labor of the working class which has a social character.”

We need to fight for a political strategy put forth by the unions independent of the big three parties. And we must fight for the interests of the youth of the working class and the class as a whole.

The interests of the working class do not align with the ‘green new deal’ some unions call for. Just as right-learning workers are being caught up in the ideological mysticism around the fight against the carbon tax, some workers but especially students and middle strata like professionals and intellectuals are caught in the reverse. Many members of the middle strata and students have idealist and metaphysical understandings about what is to be done with the natural world and pollution. 

The green new deal, like the ‘Leap Manifesto’ before it, shares many ideas with the Ecofiscal Commission that featured right wing politicians like Preston Manning and Jean Charest as well as many oil, gas, and finance executives and board members. It was the Ecofiscal Commission that first championed the ‘cap and trade’ and a tax on ‘carbon’.

These are regressive ideas being pushed by the ‘left’. As young communists, we know that to be progressive means to unite the proletariat in action for universalist victories, raise class consciousness, converge the mass struggles against the class enemy, and build proletarian internationalism.  

The bourgeois green new deal is just another avenue to search for new investments for their over-accumulated capital. We can see the former businessmen premiers of Ontario and Quebec hand out hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks to large monopolies to build electric car batteries. Surely Doug and François could run for the federal NDP as environmentally conscious keynesians who are bringing unionised value-added manufacturing jobs back. 

The new foreign investment with a healthy dose of public funds wants cheap labour. In the face of the tendency of the rate of profit to fall, the large monopolies want to increase the rate of exploitation. The increase in constant capital by investing in new industrial production will make the bourgeois seek to cut the variable capital. When capitalists cut wages too quickly, they can run into a crisis of underconsumption in the circulation of capital. Therefore it is likely that similar trends of two-tier contracts will continue, where young workers don’t receive full-time work and don’t get the same compensation like a livable and defined-benefits pension. 

The ruling class and big business want to assimilate young people into their ideology. The political expressions of the bourgeois and the mainstream media corrupt the youth with idealist and metaphysical individualism, like postmodernism with a hyper focus on individual diversity.  By postmodernism we refer to features of bourgeois ideology that can be distrustful of comprehensive theory and skeptical of science. In postmodernism’s moderate form, it can fail to see the forest for the trees, and in its extreme form, it fails to see the objective reality of the trees at all in its relativism.

Ideas are promoted that scientific or technological advances could make a ‘technocracy’ and we could have a ‘woke’ capitalism. The youth can be wrongly taught about ‘victims of communism’ and the Orwellian socialist state. The bourgeois will try to contrast their falsification of history with a future capitalism that resolves the superstructural problems without altering the economic base. 

This is all to say the bourgeois want the workers to do their work for them and demand for corporate rule in the name of individual freedoms. The radical petty-bourgeois, professionals and intellectuals love to get lost in such a pursuit, ‘struggling’ for their ideology of desire, demanding a new capitalism of seduction. 

The Struggle for Progress

It is our role as young communists to ruthlessly combat the ideology of the ruling class wherever and whenever it appears. We know that reaction can come from the ‘left’ just as well as the right. But we need to avoid isolating ourselves. We need to have a constructive style of work that looks to build the broadest movement united in action against the large monopolies and imperialism.

Therefore, we as young communists, as part of our agitation-propaganda, need to put forward the call for positive reforms, not only critiques of the system, while never shying away from advocating for the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and the creation of the dictatorship of the proletariat. One example is our demand for value-added ‘socially beneficial’ production like manufacturing trains. 

Industrial production such as building trains with the democratic input from labour also creates spinoff jobs not only in parts and transportation and logistics, but also other sectors of the economy that come with it, from safety and regulation to the more indirect service industry. An expansion in rail could also benefit workers by connecting the country’s economy east-west instead of north-south and culturally could help ease the pain of commuters or even vacationers. 

For young workers, an expansion of ‘socially beneficial’ industrial jobs means a life with a future and a future in the organised class struggle. We understand this is only a reform and only under the dictatorship of the proletariat can workers democratically plan the economy. But such a reform could benefit both immediate demands for decent jobs and the long-term demands of our class interests by creating industrial workers, the grave diggers of capital.

We want this strategy for ‘socially beneficial’ value added jobs to be put forward by the unions. Student and labour unions need independent analysis and political demands from those put forth by the NDP or Liberals. Of course these unions can welcome the support of NDP or Liberals, but it should be on the unions’ terms, with the unions’ demands, not out of unwavering loyalty to the NDP by the ‘left’ or Liberals on the right. 

In the end, what we know for sure is that the working class continues to organise its struggle with the large monopolies. Since our convention, private sector unions Unifor and CSN have undertaken historic union drives against Amazon. We applaud their work and no matter the result, we know young workers are cutting their teeth in this important fight against the dangerous monopoly Amazon. 

In the public sector, we must note that CUPW is currently in negotiations with Canada Post.  These are the first negotiations led by Jan Simpson, the first black woman to head a pan-Canadian union, who was elected just after the last postal workers’ strike. 

We must be ready to give our total support to CUPW, like any labour cause against the boss. But CUPW is of particular importance for us because of the fight for public services. To paraphrase Lozovsky, trade unions need to demand a public monopoly on social services in the face of an economic crisis. 

We should also note the CUPW takes an industrial approach to organising with Gig Workers United, cleaners at sorting plants, and private sector logistics and parcel delivery workers. And in the struggle against monopoly capital like Amazon’s attempts to replace Canada Post CUPW takes a militant approach. CUPW grieved on behalf of Amazon workers over their unsafe conditions during the pandemic. CUPW took action both over the safety of the workers they don’t even collect dues from and over the state-monopoly partnership during the pandemic when the federal government outsourced the freight of personal safety equipment to Amazon.

There are also the more superstructural aspects why we should support CUPW, like their history of militancy including support of the Action Caucus within the Canadian Labour Congress, their fight for major reforms like maternity leave that put leaders like J-C Parrot in jail, the revival of the ‘Delivering Community Power’ campaign, and support for socialist Cuba. 

Since our Central Convention, a member of our Central Committee participated in the pan-Canadian CUPW solidarity brigade to Cuba. We continue to share membership in the Canadian Network on Cuba with the CUPW.   

As young communists, although we may face more ultra-leftism in the student and youth organisations, the greater danger for our class comes from right opportunism. In a vulgar sense, we can say that if there is a horseshoe theory, it connects idealist identity politics on one end to idealist libertarian or corporatist views on the other. It’s all bourgeois ideology, not the working-class struggle ideology of Marxism-Leninism. From petty-bourgeois adventurism to labour aristocracy reformism, these are both ideologies of desire grasping at a capitalism of seduction in its moribund and decaying phase. 

With regards to the national question, we enthusiastically concur with the 20th Congress of the Parti communiste du Québec that “to conceal its egoistic class objectives and promote their realization, state monopoly capitalism in Quebec instrumentalizes the national question, making it a transcendental rather than an immanent issue. This is one of the elements that enables it to hold the upper hand by obscuring the capital-labour confrontation through the nationalism-federalism axis.”. 

The large monopolies continue to dispossess Indigenous peoples from their land with the help of the state for the raw resources that the ruling class seeks as a new place to invest in. The large monopolies will try to co-opt Indigenous communities and their leaders. However, as the crisis of capitalism deepens, Indigenous struggles for land continue to be flashpoints for the working class and democratic rights struggles. 

Overall, the trend of attacks on democratic rights has continued since the Convention. 

Destruction of the environment is also a symptom of a system that lives off the exploitation of workers. In its moribund stage when history no longer needs capitalism, it becomes more repressive, vile and parasitic. As we know, there cannot be a permanent return to a more dynamic phase of capitalism. 

As the economy becomes more parasitic, the ruling class tries its best in combating the tendency of the rate of profit to fall. Inevitably, imperialism and the over-accumulation of capital leads to war and reaction. In the superstructural sense of putting workers in their place and weakening class struggle, reaction serves a purpose. But too in the economy, the bourgeoisie has a need to deal with the deepening crisis that is not a result of mismanagement or this or that specific policy of a corporation or state. 

The harsh symptoms of imperialism are not evil or malevolent as idealism would have it, they are inherent to the system. A system of the capitalist mode of production that is in its final stage, a system that, no matter how powerful it may appear, is clearly showing signs of cracks that are not just being observed by materialists like us young communists.

We must be careful of an animal in a corner lashing out, but at the same time work hard because dying capitalism is giving birth to socialism. There is no guarantee that we see socialism in our lifetime, but we need to be as serious and professional as we can be. Discipline and resolve are our mantras, both in case things happen in our lifetimes but also to create an organisational culture and standard for future YCL-LJC fighters in case revolution doesn’t happen in our lifetimes. Most of all we need for what Danton called for – ‘de l’audace, encore de l’audace, toujours de l’audace’! 

For a Life with a Future!

For Socialism in our Lifetime!