First Published: Canadian Revolution No. 6, October 1976
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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The time has come to undertake a serious evaluation of the usefulness of continuing to publish Canadian Revolution. To do this, we require some clear and specific information from the people who read and use CR, because it is not clear to us what use the Journal is now serving in the Canadian Marxist-Leninist movement.
We on the collective in Toronto have published CR for close to a year and one-half – beginning during a historical period when Marxist-Leninists in English Canada were isolated from each other in small groups, barely aware of each other’s existence or political activities. At the same time, the positions of the developing Marxist-Leninist groups in Quebec were generally unavailable to them.
CR played an important role in breaking through the barrier of isolation in providing a forum for exchange of positions and debate among Marxist-Leninists, and in providing translations of important documents from Quebec.
Our impression is that Marxist-Leninists in English Canada study CR seriously and use it in study groups. But as for direct involvement, a study of the six issues will clearly show that the level of contributions from English Canada (outside Toronto) is insufficient to sustain debate in the movement. In addition, the various parts of the Quebec movement have consolidated into two leading groups (Canadian Communist League (ML) and In Struggle/En Lutte) who now distribute their material in both languages and have a presence throughout both nations.
It is also our impression that the theoretical preoccupations of most Canadian Marxist-Leninists are with issues raised by the two Quebec-based groups and development of the Marxist-Leninist movement in Canada is taking place primarily through individuals and groups undertaking direct struggle and organizational ties with one or the other of these groups – not with preparing positions for publication in CR.
What are the implications of these developments on the future of the Journal? Between now and the publication of issue 7 we wish to evaluate whether the Journal is still serving a useful purpose. To do so we need detailed information from readers throughout the country on certain questions:
–what is the role of an independent Journal in the current Canadian situation?
–to what extent is the Journal used; how do people use it; what role does it play locally?
–to what extent does the Journal develop struggle nationally?
–in what ways do people see themselves using it in the future to contribute to debate within the movement?
Responses should focus on changes within the Marxist-Leninist movement in Canada since CR began publication. (For our part, we cannot even tentatively propose a schedule of contents for future issues as publication decisions continue to be made somewhat spontaneously based on what material is available at the time. Even short-term planning is continually frustrated by numerous cases of articles being promised, issue after issue, but never arriving, or being withdrawn.)
However, we don’t want people to simply tell us we’re doing a good job and promise once again to send in articles. We want people to address the above questions seriously in light of their needs and those of the Marxist-Leninist movement as a whole, as the responses will be an important factor in our decision on CR’s future. Because of the importance of CR’s supporters being able to evaluate different views on this question themselves, we plan to print all responses to our call in the seventh issue of CR (unless people indicate they do not want their response to be public) along with our overall evaluation.
A formal debate within the collective has yet to take place on the future of CR (although positions are being put forward – see letters section of this issue) as response from the readers of CR is vital to provide a proper perspective for this debate. We hope that Marxist-Leninists throughout Canada will address this question immediately and send us their responses as soon as possible.