First Published:1976
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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The following is the text of the speech delivered by Comrade Hardial Bains, on March 7, 1976, in Toronto, at a mass meeting called to oppose racist attacks. The text has been edited by the author for publication.
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Comrades and friends,
The racist attacks of the Canadian state have always been directed against those national minorities which come from oppressed nations, whose states are weak and are under subjugation of the superpowers and whose people are waging a struggle to end national oppression and to overthrow the rule of colonialism, imperialism and their native agents.
For instance, why should the state be so worried about the East Indians? The East Indian community in Canada is one of the smallest communities. The people of East Indian origin resident here comprise a population of approximately 100,000 which at this time is fewer than most of the national minority communities in this country. Nonetheless, ever since the arrival of the first East Indian immigrants to Canada around the turn of the century, 1902, the Canadian state, first the British colonial state and now the present U.S. imperialist dominated state, has launched one racist attack after the other against the East Indian community in an attempt to get the East Indians deported out of Canada en masse.
An example of their, attempt to get rid of the entire East Indian community is the Commission set up by the colonial state of British Columbia in 1906. Its mission was to investigate whether or not the people of East Indian origin resident in British Columbia lived under “hygenic” conditions, were employed and could bear the climate in Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia. The results of this commission showed that not only were the East Indians able to bear the climate, but they were amongst the most hygenic and hardworking in the community. In fact, at that time, not a single East Indian depended on the state for his welfare and large property owners were to be found in Vancouver among East Indians.
In spite of the findings of the Commission, the colonial state attempted to get all the East Indians deported to British Honduras, under the hoax that the climate in British Honduras, being sub-tropical, would suit the East Indians much better than the climate in British Columbia. The colonial state was even willing to give the East Indians a certain amount of money to move, as well as pay for their transportation. The state organised a delegation to visit British Honduras to investigate the suitability of the climate. Representatives of the East Indian community were part of the investigative committee. The investigation showed that the areas to which the East Indians were to be deported were uninhabitable and the majority of the delegation reported that to the community. In spite of this, a minority of the delegation, led by a police agent named Hopkinson, reported that the climate was excellent.
Such attempts to deport the entire East Indian community carried on until around 1913-1914, when confrontations took place between the East Indian community and the police due to the assassination of some Indian leaders by police spies. The East Indians took action against the police, and against the police agents within the East Indian community, to the extent that the police agent Hopkinson was shot dead in the Vancouver court house, etc.
The point of relating this story is to show that 1. the fight between the Canadian state and the East Indian community goes back to the time of the arrival of the East Indian immigrants here, and 2. to show that it is a fight between the Canadian state and the entire East Indian community – that is, people of East Indian origin resident here.
There are certain individuals and groups who are trying to mystify the issue of the racist attacks by the Canadian state against certain communities. These individuals suggest that the state is not attacking the community as a whole, but is attacking some individuals who are “causing trouble”. These opportunists are referring to some progressive people within the East Indian community and accuse the progressive people of provoking the attacks against them by the police. The issue, however, is not a matter of whether somebody is progressive or politically backward. The issue is one of all national minority communities against the state. Except for a tiny minority, a tiny minority amongst East Indians which has actually sold out to the Canadian state and has offered its services as lackeys of the Canadian state against the East Indians, the entire Indian community is attacked by the state. In fact, in spite of the belly-crawling of the traitors to the community, they also face the same discrimination and persecution but they attempt to escape it by rendering their services to the reactionary state against the East Indians.
Right from the turn of the century, the state took the entire East Indian community as its enemy and the entire East Indian community with the exception of a few traitors responded in like kind. It is this same struggle which has re-emerged since 1970-71. For instance, in 1971, in Quesnel, B.C., the police inspired some racist attacks against the East Indians resident there in order to raise the hysteria that it was Canadians perpetrating these attacks, that Canadians are racists and do not want the East Indians living there. Especially since June 1971 this propaganda has been intensified by official circles. Besides the East Indians, the state is also attacking the Pakistanis as well as the people of various other nationalities.
Last year’s “Green Paper” isolated as targets for attack people from the West Indies as well as various other countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. The propaganda of the state goes so far as to blame small national minorities such as the Filipinos for various economic problems and they have declared certain sections of immigrants particularly dangerous to the state.
So, why are the East Indians under attack? India is one of the most populous countries in Asia subjugated by imperialism and social-imperialism. It is a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The Indian nation is under foreign subjugation and is very weak. The ruling classes in India have sold out to foreign imperialism, social-imperialism and internal reaction. One of the reasons why East Indians are persecuted by the state is because of India’s status, being one of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial countries whose state is subjugated by social-imperialism and imperialism.
India is part of the Indian sub-continent, part of south Asia. The Indian sub-continent is one of the most populous regions in the entire world. This vast population has, over the past hundred years, been brought into vigorous anti-colonial and anti-feudal struggle. When the East Indian people emigrate to countries like Canada, they bring with them irreconcilable, uncompromising anti-colonial, anti-feudal ideas. The Canadian state, however, is deathly scared of the people from South Asia who are involved in this revolutionary storm and instead welcomes the lackeys of feudalism and colonialism to the extent that representatives of the worst kinds such as the advocates of Hare Krishna and others, are given official receptions by the state and its officials at various levels.
All levels of government in Canada, from the federal to the local city government, are very aware that if the revolutionary struggles on the Indian sub-continent against colonialism and feudalism are successful, imperialism will also suffer a world-wide defeat. For this reason as well, the Canadian state has been singling out for attack those national minorities in Canada from regions in which revolutionary struggle is going on.
Another reason for persecution of national minorities in Canada is that the state decides to take over the property of a particular national minority. The persecution of the Dukhobours in British Columbia provides a good example. Throughout the 1960’s almost every day massive propaganda was carried out against the Dukhobours. Stories were told about how bad the Dukhobours were and how strange they acted that as a sign of protest they even took off all their clothes. Why was this propaganda done against the Dukhobours? Because the Dukhobours, who originally came from Russia to escape religious persecution in the time of the tsars, were extremely hardworking people who with their own blood and sweat opened up a significant section of the interior of B.C. – the Kootenays. They built an excellent civilisation there, built up their homes, their agricultural production and farms, etc. But in the 1960’s the U.S. imperialists and their agents decided they wanted this area for themselves. In order to get the developed land, they had to get the Dukhobours who opened up the area for cultivation in the first place, out of there. So they consciously set about causing trouble for the Dukhobours by passing laws which contradicted their traditional way of life. When the Dukhobours protested and resisted these laws, they were carted off from the homes and transported to the B.C. penetentiaries. This is how the Canadian state perpetrated genocide against a small national minority as recently as the 1960’s.
Political persecution of people who come from oppressed nations and are waging struggles to liberate their homelands dates back to the treatment meted out to the Irish people who were waging an anti-colonial struggle, the persecution of Quebecois within Canada itself because they are also waging a national liberation struggle and of Arab people who are fighting against imperialist sponsored Zionist aggression in the Middle East. The example of political persecution of Ukrainians and people from Russia who brought with them Bolthevik.ideology and political line is an important one.
This activity on the part of the Canadian state became very clear after the Second World War when every fascist and reactionary force found refuge in Canada. During the 1950’s, the most reactionary and backward forces were even called “freedom fighters”. At the present time, when the Canadian state attacks various national minorities, one has to pay attention to what is going on on the world scale and in Canada itself.
For instance the Canadian state also attacks certain sections of the work force and brings in a group of labourers to open up certain sections of the country, to provide cheap labour or to create competition amongst the labourers already present in a particular region. The large-scale immigration which took place as of 1967 was designed to depress the wages of the workers, create a pool of labourers with no social or political rights who would be forced to sell their labour power at whatever price the capitalists were willing to pay.
An example of labourers brought in to fulfill a particular purpose were the immigrants brought into certain parts of B.C. and Saskatchewan to dispossess the Native people resident in those areas. As an example of this, East Indian workers were brought in because the Native people were not willing to work for six days a week under the worst possible conditions. By bringing in the East Indian workers who were forced to work the six-day week, they created a problem between the East Indian workers and the Native Indian workers, in order to dispossess the Native people. In Saskatchewan, in certain areas, the people were displaced by Tibetan people abducted from China via India. At the present time there is a move to bring in South Korean workers into parts of Alberta and other places. These are just a few examples to show how the workers from Asia are brought here to provide cheap labour, open up certain areas, (for example. Chinese labourers laid the railway tracks) depress the wages of the workers and then incite the local workers against the immigrant workers and create social conflicts.
Another reason for the importation of immigrant labour is that it is extremely profitable to bring in skilled labour trained in their country of origin. These immigrants are brought here so that native labourers do not have to be trained. This holds especially true for craft workers and technicians of various sorts. It is cheaper for the Canadian state to import skilled labour than to train masses of native skilled labourers. It is no accident that lately the state is paying attention to importing skilled workers who are largely educated and trained from Asia, Africa and Latin America.
So, when we look at the race question we have to look at the world situation as well as the situation within Canada itself. We have to look at who are the people who are being racially discriminated against and who is racially discriminating against them. The same individuals and groups who claim that it is not whole communities that are singled out for attack, but various progressive political people who cause trouble and provoke the police, are also trying to create a mystery as to the solution to the problem. According to them, racism is inherent in the capitalist system, so all we have to do is get rid of the capitalist system.
Whereas it is true that racism is inherent in the capitalist system, this is a truism and we are not talking about just any kind of racism or about capitalism of an ordinary kind. Although as an abstraction it is true to say that racism is an inherent part of the capitalist system; it is not true in terms of the actual conditions, that is in conditions in which capitalism is at the stage of monopoly capitalism and the state is in the service of the big boureoisie the big capitalists. Under these, the present conditions, the state consciously organises discrimination and persecution of definite sections of the society, The “Green Paper” is an excellent example of this type of discrimination and persecution in which actual rules and regulations are put forward by the state describing how it is going to discriminate against people from such and such a country or such and such a nationality. So the racism of today is not an ordinary kind of racism.
Those people who are saying that racism is inherent in the capitalist system, are not talking about Canada but are putting forward an abstraction. As for the solution they are putting forward for dealing with the racist attacks: according to them if the people of the national minorities participate in social revolution, i.e. fight for socialism, racism will be eliminated.
Now, it is just fine if the national minorities fight for socialism and they certainly are not opposed to the fight for socialism, but what does this mean today when the state is organising attacks against various sections of the people? How should the people respond to these attacks? Should they follow these opportunists advocating the “fight for socialism” and say, “As far as we are concerned, today we will let ourselves be dashed to the ground by the racists and hope that one day socialism will emerge.”
It is very important to put forward correct guidelines as to how the national minorities should respond to these racist attacks. The national minorities are upholding the following line: “If you are going to throw a stone at my house, I will reply with a bigger stone and it does not matter whether socialism comes into being or not as a result of it” as opposed to the line which says, “well, we won’t throw a stone and we will wait until socialism comes.”
This line, comrades and friends, is part of the devious propaganda of the state. It is promoted through the trotskyists who are the traditional agents of the state. The trotskyists are fascists. Recent history of various struggles in Canada has shown that no sooner had the revolutionary struggle developed than a sect of counter-revolutionaries appear on the scene with “left” sounding slogans. This was the case with the Native People’s Caravan where the trotskyists did their best to liquidate the struggle. This was also the case with the struggle of the East Indians where the trotskyists failed miserably. This is also the case of the black people’s struggle and quite significantly, it is trotskyists who are carrying out crusades on behalf of the state against ANEQ in Quebec.
To elaborate: last year in Vancouver, right at the time when the East Indian community was picking up arms to oppose the attacks of the racists and that the East Indian community was becoming unified against the attacks of the state, the trotskyists came there to say that East Indians do not know what class struggle is and that the East Indians were organising the East Indian community on the basis of race. According to them, the problem is not one of race, but one of classes and the East Indian community should fight for socialism.
A further example of how these trotskyists arrive on the scene and spread their mystifications in the service of the state took place on February 8, when a Comrade from UNITA spoke here in Toronto in support of his people’s struggle. These same trotskyists came to the meeting to disrupt it, were forcibly stopped from entering the meeting hall and then spread their line that the struggle at the meeting was between blacks and whites. These particular trotskyists were from the West Indian community, and they were ejected by the Marxist-Leninists. The Marxist-Leninists took action against these trotskyist jackals and have no beef whatsoever with the West Indian community. But according to these jackals, the issue was one between blacks and whites. When the East Indians were defending themselves against the attacks of the state, the trotskyists were talking about class struggle in order to smash up the unity of the East Indian community. But when the Marxist-Leninists were opposing the treacherous activities of the revisionists, trotskyists and others for their shameless support of Soviet social-imperialism, then they raised the issue of struggle between “black and white” in order to smash up the struggle against Soviet social-imperialism and cause dissension in the revolutionary ranks.
Comrades and friends, when we organised the East Indian community, we did not give a slogan for the general arming of the populace or anything. It was a call to the East Indian community to defend itself. If it requires fists, one should use fists; if it requires sticks, one should use sticks; and if guns are required, one should use guns. It is interesting that to further create mystery on this straightforward issue, in Toronto they formed a so-called committee against repression comprising every kind of reactionary and a list of 15 or 20 organisations. One of the clauses in their founding statement is that everyone should have the right to defend himself and wear arms. The issue is not of the right to wear arms, the issue is one of actually defending yourself when you are attacked. Where have these trotskyists defended any community?
One of their kind is running amuck nowadays, advertised as the person who is the biggest security risk to the Canadian state. But in December of 1975, this very same state pardoned him, precisely so he could run amuck and advocate all these opportunist lines. If a person is such a security risk to the state, why would the state pardon him? Even the most minor supporters of CPC(M-L) are deported if they are caught by the state, to the extent that a majority of the 25 CPC(M-L) supporters who have been deported were only minor supporters.
Another example of the manner in which these trotskyists attempt to confuse every issue in order to liquidate the actual struggles of the people was provided recently by a renegade to the struggle of the Native people. He came out with the slogan “Support us but don’t lead us”. As far as CPC(M-L) is concerned, it fully supports the Native People’s struggle, the struggle for the restoration of their hereditary rights and all the just demands which the Native people put forward. CPC(M-L) supports these and considers them entirely just. As far as the question of leading goes, do the Native people need leading? As far as CPC(M-L) is concerned the Native people do not need leading. So why is this hoax generated by this trotskyist?
It is because this individual first latched himself onto CPC(M-L) for a few months and lived off CPC(M-L). So we proposed to him that if he was going to pretend to be a member of CPC(M-L), he had better present CPC(M-L)’s line. As a result, this individual is now running amuck with his slogan “Support us but don’t lead us”.
Who gives this slogan? Judd Buchanan gives this slogan. Every step of the way, the Canadian state goes to the Native people and says, we will give you as much money as you want but don’t be led by CPC(M-L). Go to anyone you like, but make sure you don’t build solidarity with the Canadian working class.
When, through organisations of the Party across the country, we organised the historic, march on Parliament September 30, 1975, we showed in concrete terms to the Canadian state that the Canadian workers are not racist and that the Native people’s struggle is not isolated from the struggle of the Canadian workers, but is in fact their struggle, for the struggle of the Canadian workers and the Native people is against the same enemy. Every opportunist dog ran around the country saying that CPC(M-L) was behind this and dished out the exact same kind of nonsense that the Canadian state is dishing out.
So comrades and friends, when these opportunists go to the national minority communities and raise these side line issues such as “the issue is class struggle”, “the issue is to fight for socialism”, the issue is “support us but don’t lead us”, they are doing a timely service to the state. These slogans serve only to divert the struggles of the people of Asian, African and Latin American origin; the basic masses of the native people from hitting the main enemy – the Canadian state and its forces. This shows us that in terms of opposing racism, in terms of how to fight against racism, one must have a very clear view as to who are our friends and who are our enemies.
For too long the Canadian state has generated discussion here that it is the Canadian people who are racist. For instance, the January issue of a Metis newspaper (Newbreed, the journal of the Saskatchewan Metis Association) publishes a “debate” between one person who says that the Canadian people are racist and another who says they are not. According to the former, if the Canadian people were not racist, they would not vote to put the Trudeau government into power. Furthermore, according to this person, it is good to have the “Green Paper” on immigration, but unfortunately it is 400 years too late because all 250 million Americans should be deported to Europe where they came from. And this argument is advanced under the hoax of supporting the Native people’s struggle!
Let me present a further example which has come to the forefront recently, to prove the thesis that none of these issues being advanced by the opportunists are the real issue but the real issue is that the Canadian state is serving definite interests by picking certain sections of the people to attack. Throughout 1975 and during 1976, sinsiter and rabid propaganda has been and is being carried out against the Arabs and especially against the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It is repeatedly said that the PLO is a terrorist organisation, that the Arabs are going to bring terrorism into Canada and that this or that action should be taken against the PLO. Under this hoax, the houses of the Arab national minority resident in Montreal and across the country are being attacked.
Why is this? Which person of Arab origin in Canada has ever committed terrorist acts? Even though an individual or groups of individuals commit certain terrorist acts, does it prove that the Arabs are terrorists? The issue here is not one of Arabs being terrorists, the issue is that the Canadian state through this smokescreen of Arabs being “terrorists”, is serving the imperialist-Zionist occupation of Palestine and aggression against Arab states. It is crystal clear that the state is serving U.S. imperialism and Zionism when it carries on reactionary propaganda against the Arabs, persecution and harassment of Arabs and whip up support for imperialist-Zionist aggression in the Middle East.
Alongside the Arabs who are being attacked under the hoax that they are terrorist, the state is also attacking CPC(M-L) for being terrorist. At the same time as they attacked the homes of Arab people, they attacked the headquarters of the Norman Bethune Institute in Montreal. What were they looking for? Amongst other things, explosives and subversive material. As far as explosives go, it is the police who carry explosives and they did not find any at the Norman Bethune Institute. As far as subversive material goes, they did not come to find that either, because we literally chase people around in the streets to give them our material (laughter).
If they were not looking for subversive material, or explosives, what were they up to? The answer to this was provided on February 16th at a meeting at Laval University in Quebec City. A revisionist concocted the rumour that when the police attacked NBI, they found Molotov cocktails. Neither the police nor the bourgeois press had announced such a finding, but it was the revisionists who started the propaganda that there were explosives at NBI. The revisionists exposed the motive of the police attack on NBI. Police did not attack NBI and other places for the purposes of finding anything except inner-party information and their own planted bombs in order to carry the propaganda that the CPC(M-L) is “terrorist”. This was their motive and revisionists are such collaborators of the reactionary forces that they bend over backwards to provide them a service. However, the police and the revisionists had a tough time because they did not succeed in planting a bomb on our premises. Furthermore, the police were very upset that they did not find anything at NBI, which is a cover-up because they were looking for something they themselves tried to plant.
Furthermore, in the last week of January in Vancouver, on the CBC programme called Hourglass, it was announced that Hardial Bains is a terrorist. So why is it they call the Arabs terrorists, CPC(M-L) terrorist, and myself terrorist? So, the issue cannot simply be that “racism is inherent in capitalism”, but that the state has definite sections of the people as targets of attack.
As far as the East Indian community is concerned, it is aroused and a large number of people amongst those opposing the attacks against the community are also communists. At this time, opportunists only want to use the good situation which exists in the Canadian East Indian community for their own ends. A similar struggle is taking place within India itself. On one side you find the opportunists of various hues promoting Jaya Prakash Narayan, a traditional historical enemy of the Indian people who has never yet done anything pro-Indian, and on the other side you have Mrs. Gandhi. Due to the existence of the East Indian Defence Committee here and of the Hindustani Ghadar Party (Marxist-Leninist), they have not keen able to float propaganda in favour of Jaya Prakash Narayan here and this enrages them.
The Canadian state and their opportunist agents try to create all kinds of issues in order to attack various communities. For instance, they tried to float some propaganda about how the West Indian community here was harbouring some devious cult which had its roots in New York City and Trinidad. Against the Filipinos they tried to concoct an issue to the effect that the Filipinos send too much money home.
All the examples I have presented today clearly point out that this racism should not be considered ordinary racism. It is not a matter of some social problems between people from different backgrounds; it is not a cultural phenomenon. It is a straight forward problem of the state attacking a section of the people. This is what I am presenting to you and hope you will think about it very seriously. Those people who are attacked can only defend themselves by organising themselves into their own organisations on the basis of revolutionary struggle. This means they should not confine their struggle to the commissions on human rights and all the other committees the state is floating to make sure that the people do not have any defence against the racist attacks.
The bourgeoisie presents two faces: one is humanitarian and very kind, and the other is the opposite. Anyone who has had experience with the police is aware of how they send two policemen to interrogate you: one seemingly very friendly and helpful and the other very short tempered and nasty. These are literally the two faces of the Canadian capitalist state.
On one hand it is talking about equality, elimination of racism and at the same time it is organising racist attacks against the national minority people. We cannot be fooled by their humanitarian propaganda and what we should do is organise ourselves on the basis of our own struggle against our main enemy, the state. If we do that, then we will become part and parcel of the Canadian workers’ struggle against the same enemy, the same state, and nobody should have the right to ask for the support of somebody else if they are not willing to fight against the same state themselves.
When we talk about the unity of the people of the world, we are talking about revolutionary unity: unity which is built in struggle against our main enemies by shedding our own sweat and blood. In Quebec, during the last five years we saw some charlatans come forward to establish “solidarity committees” in support of Quebec workers. Imagine having Quebec workers establish solidarity committees in support of Quebec workers. The fact is that the national minorities in Canada and the Canadian working class can unite with one another against their common enemy. We do come from different national backgrounds, marked by very different historical imprint of our nations, but these differences are the basis of our unity not disunity. As an Indian, I have very much in common with the Canadian workers because I have the imprint of the anti-colonial, anti-feudal struggle and the aspirations of the Canadian workers can never be against the anti-colonial, anti-feudal struggles. So the differences are not to have disunity, but unity.
For example, when the state attacked the national minority people through the “Green Paper” in 1975, some people tried to suggest that, “Well, we don’t have to worry, it is just the immigrants which are being attacked”. CPC(M-L) pointed out that these attacks against the national minorities were just a dress rehearsal to attack everyone and within 6-7 months, (from February 3, 1975 when the “Green Paper” was issued, to October 13, 1975 when Bill C-73 was introduced to Parliament) they attacked the entire working class.
This shows that by fighting against the “Green Paper” and the attacks of the’state against the national minorities, we are part of all the Canadian workers fighting against Bill C-73. On the other hand, if it is just a matter of issuing some statements and making some declarations, then anyone can have any kind of solidarity they want. There are people who want to build that kind of solidarity. But as far as we are concerned the people of various nationalities resident in Canada, we are not in solidarity with the Canadian working class. The only difference is that the state discriminates against us on the basis of our national origin as well.
It is interesting that according to the opportunists, because I am an Indian I have no rights whatsoever. It is they, the so-called “genuine Marxist-Leninists” who, for several years now have been complaining bitterly: “What is an Indian, who is not even a Canadian citizen doing as Chairman of CPC(M-L)?” So the fact that the state is persecuting myself and not granting citizenship is used to further attack myself and the communist movement as well. It shows the lengths these “genuine Marxist-Leninists” will go in order to cause confusion in the communist movement and attack those who are attacked by the state. This shows how these voole are the agents of the Canadian state.
A nice Party the Communist Party would be if it were to put the citizenship of its members as the criteria for deciding whether they are communists or not. It is the state which every day announces that if you are a progressive, if you are a communist, you cannot come to Canada, and if you do you cannot be granted citizenship. These opportunists tell us exactly the same thing as the state – you should have no political, social or other rights in Canada. It is interesting that this line is promoted by the so-called “genuine Marxist-Leninists” because one of the fundamental principles of Marxism-Leninism is proletarian internationalism. Marx gave the slogan: “Workers of all countries, unite!”
And this is one country in which people like myself have been blatantly, deliberately discriminated against. In terms of my own case, I was told way back in 1964 that I would never get citizenship because I was a security risk. One individual has even launched the slogan “Banish CPC(M-L)”.
What has to be firmly grasped about these sort of people is that they intend to create maximum ideological confusion, disarm the people ideologically and create a situation so that whenever the state launches vicious attacks against any section of the people, the people are incapable of resisting and launching an offensive against the state.
Comrades and friends, as far as the national minority people are concerned, we are Canadian workers, we are being singled out for attack by the state and we are fighting back and we will fight back as part of the Canadian workers, not in isolation, not in the manner the opportunists would like, which is that the Canadian workers should come and support us while we ourselves do no fighting. Unity can only be revolutionary unity, fighting unity, unity which is built by shedding one’s blood. There is no other kind of unity. All other kinds of so-called unity are straightforward liberal, Christian, charitable unity and that is no good for us.
The fascists have three trade marks: 1. They are racists, anti-communists and anti-working class. 2. They are the greatest mystifiers. 3. They use reactionary violence in order to achieve their aims. This reactionary violence is open terrorist dictatorship of the bourgeoisie against the people.
Today the line is drawn. On one side is the state. The state is racist, anti-communist and anti-working class and is the greatest mystifier. The state also uses reactionary violence wherever it suits it to serve its interests. Workers are fighting back against the state. In between the class struggle between workers and the bourgeoisie, are the conciliators and liquidators of class struggle. They bear many masks. Some bear the mask that Canada is “bourgeois democracy”, at least not open terrorist dictatorship of the Hitler type.
What is to be gained by this propaganda? Liquidation of class struggle. As far as we are concerned, it is clear that the state uses open terrorist violence wherever and whenever it is needed. The behaviour of the state on the picket line, the passage of Bill C-73 etc. are examples. But the deployment ofthe army against the nation of. Quebec in October, 1970 was an excellent example of open terrorism against the people.
The opportunists by advancing the slogan of “bourgeois democracy”, are conciliating class struggle and are not preparing, the workers for class struggle and its intensification as open terrorist attacks increase but are calling upon workers to give up class struggle and wait until “open terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary sections of monopoly capital” comes into being. The say, it is not in existence at this time, then why worry?! Besides advocating pacifism in the face of reactionary attacks, the opportunists are also underestimating the influence of ideological and political propaganda which the bourgeoisie carries on for fascism.
Within a matter of a year, the Canadian state has mystified everything about the causes of the current economic crisis and the question of immigrant workers as well as having carried out extensive racist, anti-working class and anti-communist propaganda. When the East Indians defended themselves, they did not just oppose the attacks of the reactionary state in terms of physical violence but they also carried out extensive propaganda against racist anti-working class and anti-communist theories of the state. They blamed the state and not the workers for racist attacks. They blamed the U.S. imperialists and the Canadian monopoly capitalist system and not the workers and immigrants as the cause of the economic crisis. They clarified several important issues. The opportunists do not wish to do that. Nay more, they carry on the same propaganda as the state masked under “left” phrases.
Comrades and friends, as far as CPC(M-L) is concerned, as far as the East Indian community is concerned and all the organisations who participated in organising this meeting are concerned, we will fight anyone who attacks us. We will fight through revolutionary struggle and it is in the course of waging this revolutionary struggle that we will get united.
In conclusion, comrades and friends, the racism we are talking about is the racism of the state. It is summed up through the precise rules and regulations of the state which are used against definite sections of the society. The racism we are talking about is not racism of some traditional and cultural differences. In order to deal with the present day racists, we must approach them with true revolutionary vigour and not get bogged down appealing to their charitable institutions and various commissions. Thee people should remain vigilant because all sorts of people will come up to them and say “Don’t fight, we will set up a commission to look into the matter.” These commissions are nothing but capitulation to the enemy in mind and their aim is to elimate the people’s struggle. As far as the suggestions of various people that the Canadian workers should unite, comrades and friends, we are already united in revolutionary struggle! Thank you (Applause)