First Published: People’s Canada Daily News, Vol. 2, No. 9 November 3, 1972
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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According to the results based on 98.3% of the polls reporting (60,309 out of 61,336), the monopoly capitalist parties and individuals supporting capitalism received 99.9% of the votes cast. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of Quebec (Marxist-Leninist) and the Partisan Organisation (Vancouver) received 1% of the votes (9621). The monopoly capitalist vote of 9,544,414 was divided into various political parties as follows:
The Liberal Party – 39% (3,679,021)
The Progressive Conservatives – 35% (3,357,094)
The New Democratic Party – 18% (1,696,301)
The Social Credit Party – 7% (708,310)
The “Communist” Party of Canada – .066% (6513)
“Independent” capitalists – .9% (close to 97,000)
All the seats in Parliament were captured by the capitalist candidates: The Liberal Party – 108, The Progressive Conservatives – 109, the New Democratic Party – 30, the Social Credit Party – 15 and the Independents – 2, thus dividing all the seats among themselves. Inspite of capturing all the seats, the monopoly capitalist class is having difficulty in forming a government. There is vicious in-fighting in the monopoly capitalist camp and they are incapable of sorting out contradictions among themselves.
While the contradictions are growing in the monopoly capitalist camp and many of these contradictions are irreconcilable, they still have monopoly control on parliament and 74% of the eligible voters (9,554,035 out of a total of 12,909,179) overwhelmingly supported the monopoly capitalist candidates.
The existence and growth of contradictions in the capitalist camp is nothing new. These have existed since 1867 and before. The election results do not indicate any significant developments on this front. What is new, however, is that for the first time in the history of Confederation, an anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist slate of candidates has polled over .1% of the votes, thus showing without a shadow of doubt that there is a revolutionary and communist sentiment among the working people of Canada and Quebec. This trend is new and for this reason it is reflected only by a very small mber of votes. But this trend is the only trend with a future and it will deepen and broaden in the months and years to come.
All the capitalist parties and “independent” candidates, were after votes. They did anything to get elected. The most shameless among this lot were the so-called socialists of the New Democratic Party and the so-called communists of the “Communist” Party of Canada. They changed their platforms to suit the voters. In places where there is a vigorous progressive sentiment they attempted to give a so-called revolutionary position and they reversed this in places where reaction was strong. In Wellington riding (Guelph), the revisionist candidate, Gareth Blythe, mimicked the CPC(ML) programme to confuse and mislead the progressive and democratic people and to get votes for himself.
All the proletarian candidates were running in the elections to seek a revolution. They were not seeking votes at the cost of their principles and they did not hide their views nor opportunistically change them. The main motive for running in the elections for the proletarian candidates was to serve the people. The broad masses of the working people respected the communist candidates for upholding principles. Many workers came forward to say: WE ADMIRE YOUR COURAGE!, while they loathed and hated the capitalist candidates. They were extremely hostile to the evasive answers and tactics of the capitalists and many workers came forward to denounce them: WE CONSIDER YOU HYPOCRITES!
The holy alliance of the “left” sat on their backsides gesticulating, waving their flimsy arms and actively coaxing people NOT TO WORK FOR THE COMMUNISTS and NOT TO VOTE FOR THEM! They had reasons, of course, to assist the monopoly capitalist class. The elections have proven that the holy alliance of the “left” is an alliance of hardened reactionaries and that whenever there is class struggle they will take the side of the enemy. The election results show that wherever there was some holy alliance in a riding, the communists received less votes and wherever there was no holy alliance, the communists received more votes. Before the elections, the holy alliance was quite cocky and they were convinced that CPC(ML)-CPQ(ML) and the Partisans will get no votes at all. Now when the elections are over. the holy alliance is quite “surprised”. lnspite of their opposition and dirty work, our comrades received votes. The basic sentiment of the masses cannot be diverted by the counter-revolutionary activities of the holy alliance of the “left”.
The vote for the monopoly capitalist candidates is not indicative of what the masses of the people desire. The large majority of voters voted for the monopoly capitalist candidates because there were no other candidates. They had the choice of either voting for the monopoly capitalists or not voting at all. The level of the masses is not advanced enough that they can take the second road. More importantly, a trend is growing whereby people are increasingly in favour of either voting for the communists or not voting at all. In many places where the social democrats (NDP) have confused the people, the working people voted for the NDP, not because it is a capitalist party but because it is putting on “socialist” airs.
The so-called “Communist” Party of Canada and the Trotskyite League for Socialist Action have become the public relations groups and the image makers for the NDP. They are the main spokesmen of the social democrats among the working people. While the NDP and its entire leadership (more particularly, David Lewis) make loud noises that they are thorough-going capitalists and anti-communists, the revisionists and trotskyites run around confusing the people that the NDP is the “only working class party”.
Another important factor responsible for the voters supporting the monopoly capitalist parties has been the lack of participation of the masses in political struggles. The holy alliance has been always successful in converting struggles into reformist and economist struggles and they have been keeping these at that level. There has not been any objective discussion on certain basic problems among the masses. These elections were the first time that the masses were presented with the Communist Manifesto which they could think about and participate in discussions and debates about its salient features. The revisionists and the trotskyites disengage the masses from discussion of the basic issues and when the crisis comes the masses remain confused and take the side of the capitalist class. Revisionists and the trotskyites are the greatest mystifiers – far more advanced in this skill than even the Nazis and the fascists.
Our over-all assessment of the elections is as follows:
The revisionist party, which has been in existence for over 50 years, has prepared counter-revolutionary public opinion that to take a revolutionary position is to be an adventurist. They have been going to the masses with extremely reformist and capitalist platforms and this has confused the working people about the nature of communism. The rise of modern Soviet revisionism has also discouraged lots of broad masses from joining the communists.
Of all the factors responsible for voters supporting the monopoly capitalist parties, the decisive one has been the lack of an experienced and mature Communist Party which is based on Marxism-Leninism and proletarian internationalism. Our Party is very young and immature in many ways. Inspite of our shortcomings and weaknesses, the masses of working people came forward to support us, which goes to prove the correctness of our analysis. The elections have brought home once again the necessity of consolidating and building the Party. The holy alliance of the “left” is opposed to the existence of a genuinely proletarian and a genuinely Marxist-Leninist party. They engage in splittist and anarchist activities but our Party is overcoming these counter-revolutionaries, maturing in struggle against the liquidators and is fast developing into a Party which the masses will support.
It is our firm conviction that the Liberal Party will steadily disintegrate in many areas. It is a party in decline and the monopoly capitalist class distrusts it. The fact that the TORONTO STAR shifted its loyalty from the Liberals to the Conservatives means that it is the Progressive Conservatives who are becoming increasingly the spokesmen of the American imperialist branch plants as well as the champions of developing goods and services for the U.S. imperialist plants in the U.S. itself. The Progressive Conservative Party is attracting the most reactionary sections of the society and will rally around itself these elements in the defence of the “free world”. It is only the Progressive Conservatives who have clear-cut reactionary politics which will win them definite backing from the foreign imperialists.
The New Democratic Party and the Revisionist Party will become increasingly capitalistic, opportunistic and anti-working class in order to get respectability and the blessings of the monopoly capitalist class. More and more honest elements will leave them and join our Party.
The communist seed has been sown deep among the masses. Large scale distribution of the Communist Manifesto has achieved this. The fact that 9,621 voters came forward to vote for CPC(ML)-CPQ(ML) and the Partisan Organisation (Vancouver), concretely shows that there is a basic sentiment for communism among the masses. The revisionist party is on the run. The New Democrats have no future. Our Party is not a small group any more and it has emerged as the national party of the proletariat. The working masses are looking towards it for guidance and leadership.
There has been stalemate and stagnation in the Canadian political scene for a long time due to the class collaborationsit politics of the revisionist party and the social democrats. The masses of workers were forced to choose between a capitalist party or a sham socialist party. As a result we have a steady pool of disenchanted voters alongside the Liberal, Conservative and the New Democratic vote. Due to our participation in the elections and the emergence of the Marxist-Leninist political line, this situation is bound to change. It is our analysis that further polarizatioc will take place and the stalemate and stagnation will change into its opposite. Three forces will grow: The traditional capitalist parties and their vote and this will rally around the Progressive Conservative Party; The traditional social democratic vote and it will rally around the New Democratic Party, and the emerging communist vote and this will rally around CPC(ML). It is quite possible that the Liberal Party will go into steady decline, social democracy will become increasingly bankrupt and more and more workers will take the communist road.
The class war has begun. The broad masses have given the Marxist-Leninists approval to begin their work. It is up to the genuine Marxist-Leninists now to unite closely with one another and escalate work among the masses. There is an absolute need for a daily working class newspaper. There is an absolute need for workers schools. There is an absolute need to heighten our vigilance against revisionism and dogmatism.
The ratio of .1% (Better Fewer but Better) on one side and the 99.9% (temporary and transitional and extremely vacillating support) on the other side is bound to change for the better. The dialectic is going to turn into its opposite.
LET US MAKE SURE IT DOES HAPPEN