BY MICHEL PRAIRIE
MONTREAL - "I really liked being called dangerous," said high school student and Young Socialist member Peter Duck, 16. Duck was commenting on a talk on building the Young Socialists given to a Vancouver Regional Socialist Educational Conference held February 15-16. A similar conference was held a week later in Montreal February 22-23.

The main theme of both conferences was "The struggle for Quebec independence and the socialist revolution in Canada - building a party of communist workers and an organization of revolutionary youth." Classes on the Russian and Cuban revolutions, the fight for women's liberation, and other topics were jointly prepared and presented by veterans of the communist movement and members of the Young Socialists.

Some 120 workers and youth - including more than 40 who were under 27 years old - participated in the two conferences jointly organized by the Communist League (CL) and the Young Socialists (YS) in Canada. Participants came from six cities in Canada, and several cities in the United States. A majority of the participants were members of unions, such as the United Steelworkers of America (USWA), International Association of Machinists (IAM), the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), and others.

Canada is an imperialist country
The opening political talk was given by YS leader Patricia O'Beirne in Vancouver and Communist League leader Michel Dugré in Montreal.

"To understand what's happening in the world today, including here in Canada, we need to start from the economic depression of world capitalism and the drive of imperialism towards war," said Dugré.

He explained the sharpening conflict in Europe between the imperialist powers, with Washington taking the lead, and the workers states - Russia and the other countries where capitalism has been abolished. Despite half a century of brutal Stalinist domination, and the "market-oriented" policies of the governments that came to power following the crumbling of the Stalinist regimes across Eastern Europe in the 1990s, imperialism is nowhere close to reclaiming that portion of the world for capitalist exploitation.

"We fight to build a party of communist workers capable of leading a socialist revolution during our lifetime, here in Canada and internationally," explained O'Beirne in Vancouver.

Canada is an imperialist country, she explained, and its rulers have the same aim as their rivals. They exploit and oppress workers and farmers here and across Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. And they use whatever means are necessary for doing so, including force and violence.

This was recently illustrated by the way Ottawa put a sharp halt to its public inquiry into the scandal triggered by revelations that Canadian troops had tortured and executed unarmed civilians in Somalia during the imperialist occupation there a few years ago.

"The Somalia scandal did not and will not stop Ottawa from using its army around the world," O'Beirne stressed. "Canada was the main force campaigning for an imperialist intervention in Zaire last fall and it is the main imperialist force of occupation in Haiti today - with hundreds of soldiers, cops and `civil' advisers."

This talk and a related class in Montreal "gave me examples of why Canada is an imperialist country," said Kevin Austin from Woodstock, Ontario. He bought copies of New International no. 10 containing the article "Imperialism's march toward fascism and war," and of Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism by Bolshevik leader V.I. Lenin. At the end of the conference, Austin asked to join the YS in Toronto.

The fight for Quebec independence
"I'm here to learn about politics and social movements in Canada," said Autumn Knowlton from Tacoma, Washington, who decided to join the Seattle YS at the Vancouver conference.

"It's exciting to hear about Canadian politics, like the struggles of Native peoples and the Quebecois," added Samantha Kern, a YS member from Spokane, Washington.

Following the narrow defeat of the Quebec referendum on sovereignty in October 1995, Jean Francois Brousseau, 19, left the bourgeois nationalist Parti Quebecois youth organization and began to look for other answers, including reading speeches by Cuban revolutionary leader Ernesto Che Guevara. "I came here because I felt isolated in my ideas," said the Quebecois youth, who is a Teamsters union member and maintenance worker at Mirabel airport near Montreal. After the referendum "I didn't think it was possible anymore to win independence for Quebec in this `democratic' system."

"Quebecois are an oppressed nation," said O'Beirne in her talk. "Their fight for Quebec independence is of strategic importance for all workers in Canada.

"It's a basic struggle for justice and equality, a struggle against the systematic discrimination Quebecois face on the basis of their language, French. For example, a disproportionate number of the poorest cities in Canada are located in Quebec, despite the fact that it is the second most industrialized province in the country.

"Only by supporting unconditionally the fight for Quebec independence," she continued, "will working people in this country be able to overcome the divisions between those of us who are Quebecois and those who are not - divisions that Canada's capitalist rulers imposed on us following the defeat of the bourgeois democratic revolution of 1837-38, and have worked since then to deepen a divide and rule strategy to maintain their class rule."

In answer to a question, O'Beirne explained, "Canada's rulers won't let Quebec become independent without sending in their army as they did in 1970. The fight for Quebec independence has mobilized hundreds of thousands of youth and workers in the past and will do so in the future. It is a threat to the very survival of the state through which Canada's capitalist rulers maintain their class domination. It will not be won at the ballot box, but in the streets.

"Victory in this struggle can only be assured by a working- class leadership," she concluded. "This is what the Communist League and Young Socialists are building today."

YS is a school for communism
YS leaders Mick O'Donnell in Vancouver and Vicky Mercier in Montreal gave the talk on "Building a revolutionary working-class youth organization, building the Young Socialists." Both are members of the IAM in Montreal.

They explained that, as an international organization, the YS recognizes the need to overthrow capitalism and fight for socialism.

"Under the impact of the capitalist crisis," said Mercier, "young people radicalize in the world today. The YS in Canada is a product of this process. We participate in picket lines to support strikes, as well as demonstrations and meetings in support of women's rights, against government cuts in education and healthcare, and in opposition to racist cop brutality. In September 1995, we were six, mainly in Montreal. Now, we have 27 members in three functioning chapters in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver," she added.

"The YS is a school for communism," explained O'Donnell in Vancouver. "We look for political direction from the Communist League and we share the same political program. At the same time, we organize independently of the party. We decide on our own campaigns and activities on a weekly basis, and we elect our own leaders. This is part of learning to be disciplined professional revolutionists.

"Youth rebel against what they see in capitalist society. But the YS is the only organization that challenges young fighters to study the history of working class battles - the Russian revolution, the forging of the industrial unions in the 1930s, and the struggle of women and oppressed nationalities for their liberation - so that they can effectively fight for a new society."

Mercier compared the YS to the guerrilla column led in Bolivia in 1966-67 by Che Guevara who carried 300-400 books in their backpacks. The YS puts a great emphasis on organizing classes and selling Pathfinder books, as well as the Militant and Perspectiva Mundial. "Bringing our socialist ideas into the struggles that erupt today is our most important contribution," she stressed.

She also described how "the YS has made The Changing Face of U.S. Politics: Working-Class Politics and the Trade Unions by Jack Barnes our handbook. This book explains lessons on the building of the communist movement during the last 20 years, the decisive weight of the industrial working class, and how a proletarian party can be built today." The three YS chapters have initiated weekly public classes on the book with Communist League branches.

The communist movement in Canada has responded to the development of the YS in Quebec and in France, where a chapter was formed last September, by launching the biggest effort ever of its French-language publication program. This effort is focused at the present time on the translation of The Changing Face of U.S. Politics and includes YS members in Montreal and Paris.

Despite the progress they made over the last 18 months in Canada, explained Mercier, "the YS doesn't have a national structure. In Canada, as in other countries, the capitalists maintain their domination through their state, their army and their police. We too need a centralized, cross-country organization. This will require consciously fighting to overcome the national and regional divisions fostered by the capitalist rulers in this country."

A first step was taken last October when the elected leaders of the three chapters met in Toronto and mandated the executive committee of the Montreal chapter to lead the work of the YS nationally.

"The next concrete steps toward building a national organization," said O'Donnell, "will be a national seven- week fund drive for CAN$2,000, our participation in the international Militant subscription campaign, and the building of the upcoming second national convention of the YS in Atlanta."

Recruiting a new generation
John Steele, a Machinists union member at Ford Electronics near Toronto and a member of the Central Committee of the CL, gave the final talk on "Working-class politics and the trade unions: forging a communist party of industrial workers today" in Montreal and Vancouver.

Today, he said, three-quarters of the CL members work in industry and are members of industrial unions. As the YS has grown, many of its members have joined the party. A quarter of the membership of the CL is now less than 27 years old; a majority of the young members joined during the last year.

In January, the Communist League Central Committee and the Young Socialists agreed to establishment joint CL-YS units - or fractions - in the unions that can work to bring communist ideas to co-workers and engage in political activities. Today, almost half of the joint fraction members are in the YS.

"This," said Steele, "is the biggest opportunity and challenge before the communist movement in Canada today. After a decade and a half of continuous retreat of the labor movement under the employers' assault, it has now become possible for veteran communists to work side by side with young fighters in the struggle to use union power to defend all working people and get rid of the capitalist system itself."

At this stage of the class struggle and of the construction of the communist movement, the Communist League leader explained, "our goal is to build branches with several joint fractions of two or three members per plant, with weekly plant gate sales of the Militant and Pathfinder books at these factories, to reinforce the political work of the fractions in getting Pathfinder books into the hands of co-workers." Steele and others at the conference reported on the modest increase in sales of Pathfinder titles to workers on the job over the past several months.

Participants at the two conferences discussed a class struggle perspective for the unions. Steele counterposed this to the class-collaborationist course advanced by all wings of the trade union officialdom. Steele pointed to the example during the recent mass protests against the anti- union austerity drive of the Conservative Party government in Ontario, as well as in face of the drive by the Liberal government in Ottawa, the New Democratic Party (NDP) government in British Columbia, and the Canadian Airline bosses to force airline workers to take a pay cut.

"Genuine working-class political action that is independent of the government, courts, and political parties of the employers has nothing to do with the dead-end perspective of massive concessions to the bosses and their governments, or with getting out the vote for the NDP or the Parti Quebecois," Steele explained.

In addition to the two participants who asked to join the YS, one YS member in Montreal decided to join the Communist League. Initial contributions for the Militant fund drive of CAN$2,268 were pledged or raised from conference participants from Canada and US$500 from U.S. participants. The YS national fund drive also raised CAN$1,338 in contributions and pledges. Participants bought 30 books.

Mick O'Donnell in Montreal and John Steele in Toronto contributed to this article.  
 
 
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