Young Communist candidate fighting for fundamental change in BC Election

Special to RY

Tyson Strandlund is the Communist Party of BC’s candidate in the upcoming election in Esquimalt-Metchosin, British Columbia. The riding is located close to Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Tyson is also the organizer of the Young Communist League – Victoria club. He is a student at University of Victoria and a musician. He has organised students around the demand for free universal post-secondary education, such as during last November's pan-Canadian student rallies. Tyson is Métis, and is a fierce advocate of decolonisation and the rights of Indigenous peoples.

A closer look at young Communists in the federal election

Special to RY

Rebel Youth takes a closer look at four of the seven young Communists in the federal election, their ridings and why they're running. All are members of the Young Communist League and running for the Communist Party of Canada.

Hochelaga, Marianne Breton Fontaine

Hochelaga is a poor riding in the east of Montreal including the Olympic stadium. Once a working class area home to the famous Quebec folk singer La Bolduc, the area was hit hard by deindustrialization and factory closings. It has been held by the Bloc and, most recently, the NDP and provincially Quebec Solidaire is a serious contender.

Young Communist candidates demanding fundamental change

Special to RY

7 members of the Young Communist League of Canada are currently running in the federal election. Here RY looks at these candidates for the Communist Party of Canada who are demanding fundamental change.

The deceptive Tory retreat on the elections bill, and the corporate media's sleeping pill

Yesterday the Conservative Party announced changes to their reactionary elections legislation. Here Darrell Rankin, leader of the CPC Manitoba, calls for continued mobilization and action in a message to Manitoba activists. This note has been edited.

By Darrell Rankin,
Special to Rebel Youth

We need to challenge the media spin that the Tory amendments address our real concerns.

I've looked at the amendments. The Tories are trying to appear they are listening.

But they are still mutilating the principle of one-person, one vote. They have backed down on allowing the winning party to appoint officials who count the ballots. (This may have come back to bite them in 2015.) But the main problem is not fixed.

Perhaps hundreds of thousands of Canadians will still be disenfranchised, most of them people who do not support the parties of big business -- Aboriginal people, women and seniors, the poor and disabled, youth and students.

Protests demand Fix or scrap "Fair Elections Act”

A member of the YCL being arrested at a
recent anti-Harper protest action in Vancouver

 Canadian Federation of Students

Canadians rallied at over 25 Conservative MP offices today to oppose the government’s proposed changes to election law and tell their MPs to “Let People Vote!”

Citizens delivered an 80,000-strong petition that opposes the unnecessarily strict voter ID requirements that could stop hundreds of thousands from voting in the next election, and calls for election fraud investigators to be given the power to compel political operatives to testify.

The “Let People Vote!” national day of action was supported and facilitated by Leadnow.ca, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Federation of Students.

Stop US-style voter suppression becoming Canadian law

This statement was produced by the group Lead Now which is circulating a petition against the reforms described below.

The Harper Conservatives are trying to rush their 242-page election law through Parliament with minimal debate and no expert testimony, despite major flaws that would have lasting consequences for our democracy.

It boils down to this: instead of giving the people who investigate election fraud the power to compel testimony - the key power Elections Canada has needed to get to the bottom of the robocall scandal - this new election law would make it harder for young people, Aboriginal people and low-income people to vote.

Incredibly, the misleadingly named “Fair Election Law” would even make it illegal for Elections Canada to promote voting.

Cuba: Socialism and Democracy

Chevy Philips,
Rebel Youth Magazine

Rebel Youth originally published this article in our Summer 2009 print edition. We are reprinting it today given its continued validity.

Despite his supposed agenda for change, even President Obama has stuck to the same, tired line – the trade and travel embargo aimed at Cuba will stay until "democratic elections" are held on the island.

In fact, little has changed for half a century when it comes to the behaviour of the US towards Cuba -- behaviour repeatedly condemned and declared illegal by the United Nations, European Union and numerous other international bodies.

Consequently, the widespread belief that the "Castro regime" and a "communist dictatorship" continues to stifle "freedom and democracy" in Cuba persists in the popular imagination (at least in Canada and especially the United States).

Mutti's future?

Congradulations to the Venezuelan People

Rebel Youth reprints this People's Voice Editorial and sends our best wishes to the Communist Youth of Venezuela and the youth of the PSUV.

     The October 7 election in Venezuela was a major victory for President Hugo Chavez, for working people and the poor in that country, and for the global movements for democracy, national liberation, social justice, peace, and revolutionary change. The "Great Patriotic Pole" (GPP) coalition which includes Chavez's PSUV, the Communist Party of Venezuela and other left forces won 54.4% of the popular vote, to 45% for the right-wing Democratic Unity candidate Henrique Apriles Radonski.

     This success was achieved under difficult circumstances for the Bolivarian Revolution, which faces complex challenges at a time of global capitalist crisis. The GPP was confronted not only by united domestic capital, but also by Yanqui imperialism and the world-wide corporate media. Absurdly posing as defenders of social justice, this counter-revolutionary alliance also engaged in vicious tactics, predicting that the outcome would be "razor thin" in hopes of provoking post-election violence.

     In the end, there was a record turnout and eight million Venezuelans cast their ballots for President Chavez, giving him a strong mandate for another six-year term. But already, capitalist media pundits in Canada are calling on Chavez to yield to the demands of his opponents. When was the last time these hypocrites ordered the dictatorial Stephen Harper to pay attention to the 61% of Canadians who voted against his destructive far-right policies?

     Despite such background noise, the outcome will strengthen progress towards socialism in Venezuela. The Bolivarian Revolution remains a bulwark of Latin America's rejection of domination by Washington, towards policies which put the interests of the people ahead of the greed of big capital. We congratulate the people of Venezuela for standing firm against the threats of imperialism!

Breakthrough for Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB) in local elections

By the PTB international department

In Belgium's municipal and provincial elections held on 14 October 2012, the Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB) made a strong showing and affirmed itself as an emerging Left force in the whole country. The PTB's electoral list “PTB+” obtained a total of 31 municipal councilors, 17 district councilors (in the city districts of Antwerp) and 4 provincial councilors, for a total of 52 local seats in 12 municipalities, 7 city districts and 2 provinces. Previously, the PTB's total number of local seats stood at 15, in just 8 municipalities.

The party's objective was to maintain the existing 15 seats, and to obtain a first seat ever in three major cities: Antwerp, Liège and Brussels (in the municipality of Molenbeek). But based on a dynamic grassroots campaign, focusing on social issues – housing, health care, cleanliness, mobility, education, jobs, taxes – voters gave the PTB much more than it had hoped for.

Party chairman Peter Mertens will be accompanied by three more PTB councilors in the city council of Antwerp, with a score of 8%, while the PTB also gets 17 seats in the various Antwerp district councils. In Liège, the party obtains two seats on the city council (one of them for Party spokesman Raoul Hedebouw), with a score of 6.5%, while in Seraing and Herstal, industrial municipalities surrounding Liège, the PTB obtains 5 and 4 seats (both 14%), making it the second biggest party. In Seraing, a member of the Communist Party of Wallonia-Brussels got elected on the PTB+ list. In Brussels, not only has a first seat ever for the PTB been won in Molenbeek, but also a second one in the municipality of Schaerbeek.

The party was able to maintain its seat in the city of La Louvière, and also maintains its 6 councilors (with 22% of the vote, becoming the second biggest party) in the industrial municipality of Zelzate, near Gent. In                   Genk, the party triples its number of seats from 1 to 3 (with 8.8% of the vote). Also unexepectedly, a first seat has been won in Charleroi, Mons and Flémalle. In St-Nicolas (Liège) et St-Gilles (Brussels) the PTB+                   got more than 3% of the vote, while in several cities (Gent, Mechelen, Leuven and Namur) its score was close to 3%.

In Liège, PTB spokesman Raoul Hedebouw said that “we have felt, among the population, the need for a genuine party of the Left, in words and in deeds”. And at the victory party in Antwerp, Party chairman Peter Mertens said: “Finally, there will be a party in Antwerp that will wage a social opposition, a strong opposition facing the future mayor Bart De Wever”, who made huge inroads in Antwerp and elsewhere with his rightist Flemish nationalist party NVA. “We now have to transform our election victory into a strong organization that can put pressure from the bottom up. Our challenge now is to build a Left alternative and wage a militant opposition.”

Bart De Wever wants to use the progress of his party to advance his plan to split up Belgium after the federal, regional and European elections of 2014. The current federal government, led by social-democrat Elio Di Rupo, will pursue and intensify its policy of harsh austerity measures. In order to counter both dangers as firmly as possible, a strong social opposition from the Left will be necessary, from the local up to the national level. The Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB) aims to work closely with trade unions and other social movements to take up this challenge, keeping true to its slogan of “People, not profit”.

Quebec election: people give no clear mandate to any party

The election rally of Quebec Solidaire

J. Boyden

A shorter version of the article will be published in the upcoming issue of People`s Voice newspaper

Quebec voters headed to the polls on Sept. 4th for a historic election, coming after a series of major storms of popular discontent had swept the province --  outrage over corruption scandals and opposition against the Liberal government’s austerity budgets, which exploded during last spring’s student strike. But the final results saw no party come out with a clear mandate, as the Liberals, including party leader Jean Charest, went down to defeat while voters granted a slim minority government to the Parti Québécois (PQ) led by Pauline Marois.

The PQ has already announced that its first act will be to cancel the tuition fee hike and abolish repressive law 78, which effectively criminalized the student strikers.  Positively, their party platform also called to abolish tuition increases until 2018, eliminate the health tax, reconsider additional fees for Hydro Quebec usage, increase taxes and fees on natural resource exploitation, expand daycare spaces, and enact Employment Insurance reforms by repatriating EI to Quebec.

Marois’ PQ, however, is nine seats short of a majority to implement this agenda, sitting at 54 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs).  The outgoing Liberals held on to 50 seats in the 125-member National Assembly while François Legault’s new ultra-right and populist Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) expanded from 9 to 19 seats. The progressive Quebec Solidaire (QS) party also increased its seat count to two MNAs and is expected to again have a bigger presence in the National Assembly beyond its small numbers.

Voter turnout

Speaking to People’s Voice about the analysis of the Quebec vote break-down which will be published in the next issue of the Communist Party of Quebec’s newspaper Clarté, editor Robert Luxley drew attention to voter participation and the strong mobilization by right-wing forces during the election.

At almost 75 per cent, turn-out in the election broke all recent records of votes in the last ten years, approaching levels similar to the 1998 election (following the second referendum on Quebec’s independence).

Law & Order

On the one hand, as leaked Liberal strategy documents confirmed shortly before the election was called, Charest pursued a cavalier approach of provocation and intransigence towards the student strike for months, hoping to create the basis of for a campaign of fear where they represented law and order, and stability.

On the eve of calling the election the Liberal message shifted to one of blackmail, threatening voters with a political and economic catastrophe if the PQ won and called another referendum.

In the squeeze

On the other hand, unable to avoid convening a commission on corruption scandals due to public outrage, Charest effectively set the timeline for the election when his government convened that commission and established its schedule.  In the end the Liberal’s were squeezed by the student protests – conditions which also favored the PQ.

The pressure from the people’s forces, unleashed as the student struggle broadened into a popular movement, pushed the PQ into adopting a progressive-sounding agenda, to avoid losing votes.  Without the student mobilizations it is probable that the PQ platform would have more accurately reflected their true political identity, a nationalist party of small and large-scale business and not a left party.

Voter break-down

While the higher voter participation no doubt included many new young voters, who also turned to Quebec Solidaire and helped double the popular vote of QS, another large component of high participation came from ridings where the CAQ won.  Often these were in places where the populist ADQ had made gains in the past.

The Liberal’s received 31.2% and the CAQ 27% of the popular vote, eating into the PQ, which received 31.95%, while QS won just over 6%. Thus the division of the right helps explain the victory of the PQ.

Liberal vote

Although the Liberal’s received basically the same total number of votes as the last election (only 5,000 votes less), it was their lowest percentage of the popular vote since Confederation because of the high participation of the people in the election. The Liberals won seats in Quebec City and the regions, but the lions-share of their seats came from Greater Montreal, the Gatineau-Hull area, and the Eastern Townships -- not surprising given that they were the only Federalist party in the election.

An opinion poll conducted by Le Devoir suggested the primary reason Liberal voters chose that party was to voice opposition to the PQ and support Canadian unity, as well as economic stability – rather than the actual values of the party.

National question still burns

Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper responded to the Quebec election by concluding the vote suggested debate about the national question should now be shut-down. This stiffening of democratic discussion about Quebec’s future is unlikely to happen, however, given the reactionary framework that federalism imposes, as well as continued chauvinism from the corporate media and some Anglophones.

As a case in point, the PQ election victory celebrations were tragically interrupted when a man attempted to set fire to the theatre venue and shot two people, killing a stagehand. As he was arrested he yelled incoherently about the how the English-speakers are now “waking-up.”

The attack was “an isolated act of madness, but it was nevertheless triggered by the socio-political [context]” the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste said in a statement, calling on the English-language corporate media to tone-down their rhetoric which has labeled soveriegntist voices during the election “Franco-supremacist,” “intolerant,” “anglophobes,” “close-minded idiots,” who “despise minorities” etc.  Comments on some English-language newspaper websites, expressed regret that the gun man was not successful to “kill the bitch”, and other hate speech.

QS makes gains

At the election rally of Quebec Solidaire, held not far from the PQ’s event, newly elected MNA Françoise David congratulated Marois on her election as the first women premier and vowed to work together on any policy the PQ might advance in support of women’s rights, the environment, labour, and other social issues. 

It is more likely however that the PQ will now try to find an excuse to shift away from its election promises and form an alliance with the right. Another election is almost certain well before four years – which has also lead the NDP to officially drop its plan to build a provincial party, good news for QS.

David will now join QS MNA Amir Khadir in Quebec City, meaning that both of QS’s spokespeople will be in the National Assembly, representing back-to-back ridings in urban Montreal. An evaluation of the election by Quebec’s voter-reform coalition suggested that under a Mixed-Member Proportional system, QS would hold 8 seats.  While the actual result is perhaps not as much as that party wished, QS made still important gains and finished second place in at least three other Montreal ridings. 

Marianne Breton Fontaine, the leader of the Young Communist League of Quebec, doubled the popular vote for QS in the riding of Acadie, coming in with almost 2,500 votes and 8%. 

In an upcoming article we will look at the response of labour and people`s movements to the election.

Quebec heads to crucial vote

Marianne Breton Fontaine, leader of the
Young Communist League of Quebec,
is running for Quebec Solidaire

A shorter version of this article by J. Boyden will be published in the September issue of People's Voice newspaper.

As Québec approaches a crucial election on September 4, the majority of students have decided to halt their long‑lasting strike mobilization that helped trigger the vote.

     About 60,000 students remain on strike according to the militant student union la CLASSE (as of Aug. 21). Most strike votes saw long and intense debates about strategy and tactics. On most campuses, between twenty and forty per cent of students supported continued strike action.  The student's are expected to come back to the question after the election.

     In explaining the vote, the CLASSE pointed to the intense pressure faced by students. Repressive Bill 78 is now Law 12, which bans any kind of strike action (even symbolic) imposing harsh fines both on students, their unions, teachers, and post‑secondary institutions that don't obey the law. Many schools told students that if they voted for a continued strike everyone would receive a failing grade for the semester.

And it seems that this threat is now very real. The 60,000 students who have voted to continue the strike may have their session canceled.

Election battle in full swing

     There is also concern that continued strike action might backfire and actually help the Charest Liberals' "law and order" platform. Polls indicate the Liberals' major challenge is from the pro‑business Parti Québécois (PQ) headed by Pauline Marois. In third place is Francois Legault's ultra‑right Coalition for Québec's Future (CAQ). The main idea of that party is to put the national question on hold for ten years, and create an alliance of the right to attack labour, social movements, environmentalists and Quebec's social programmes in general.  (You can read more about these political parties on RY blog here).

     The big parties have tried to focus on economic development with Plan Nord, and the continued debate about secularism and "reasonable accommodation" (with Quebec culture and immigration) and corruption. But the pressure of the spring's massive popular student struggle refuses to go away.

QS stands out

     The progressive party most strongly identified with the cause of the students, labour and social movements is Québec Solidaire (QS). As one of its star ideas, QS would "eliminate all fees charged to students and their parents when attending any public or parapublic institutions from preschool to university" as part of social project for a progressive and more democratic Quebec.  In election debate, QS was the only party to wear the Red Square symbol of the students.

     Led by co‑spokespeople Dr. Amir Khadir (its one MNA, elected provincially in the Motnreal riding of Mercier) and feminist activist Francoise David, QS hopes to pick up seats in the vote and elect a strong block in the National Assembly. Québec Solidaire is the party with the most women candidates (62 female and 62 male; only 28.1% of all candidates in this election are women), and the party's website lists fourteen candidates who are trade unionists.

Time to stand-up!

     Their campaign slogan roughly translates as 'stand up.' The QS platform advocates many immediate demands that are similar to the policies of the Communist Party of Canada, including:

• Create a universal public drug insurance plan and "Pharma-Québec", a public pharmaceutical acquisition and production centre, and stopping privatization of health care;

• Amend anti‑scab legislation to prevent all indirect use of employees by the employer involved in a labour dispute as well as the use of production by alleged volunteers, and ban both lockouts and recourse to injunctions against picketing;

• Plant‑closure legislation, including financial penalties, forced payment of pensions, and the nationalization of solvent companies converting them to workers' cooperatives.

• Opposition to the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement;

• Reinforce and re‑establish a progressive tax system, with exceptions for the lowest income brackets, and introducing tax brackets for corporations, as well as reducing tax incentives and eliminating tax loop‑holes.

• Nationalize the strategic resources for which Québec has extraction and exploitation technical expertise, especially certain raw materials and energy‑related resources.

• Electoral reform including mixed‑member proportional representation.

     Broad but consistent emphasis is put on social justice and equity issues. The QS platform calls to create 40,000 new childcare spaces, shifting private facilities into the public sector, and expanding the hours during which childcare centres operate, to support parents working in non‑standard jobs.

     QS calls for the Québec National Assembly to pass and apply, without conditions, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

     The platform proposes 50,000 new universally accessible social housing units (public, cooperative, or communal), a guaranteed minimum income starting at $12,000 a year, and a universal Québec pension plan.

     A Québec Solidaire government would advocate reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% compared to 1990 levels by 2020 and by 95% by 2050. Proposals in this direction include nationalizing wind power, expanding public transit and electrifying transit, banning the exploration and production of fossil fuels (oil, shale gas) and working towards the abandonment of fossil energy consumption by 2030.

     The party calls for a food sovereignty policy that will favour sustainable development of resources, and protect access to clean water as a social right.

Star candidates
   
    The party has attracted some controversy throughout the campaign. Former Federal Bloc leader Gilles Ducept launched into a vicious personal attack at co-leader Amir Khadir early in the campaign.  Corporate media commentators have also seized on the fact that in downtown Montreal the roster of QS candidates includes long-time Queer activist Manon Masse, whose poster was not air-brushed to obscure her facial hair.

   In the north of Montreal, anti-police brutality campaigner Will Prosper is also running for QS, who has attracted attention beyond Quebec for his outspoken criticism of racial profiling and the police murder of unarmed Honduran-Quebec youth Fredy Villanueva.

   Other star candidates in Montreal include Alexandre Leduc in Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, a former student activist and organizer with the FTQ trade union central, and leftist anti-poverty activist and Chilean-Quebeker Andrés Fontecilla who is runing in Laurier-Dorion.

QS, the PCQ and the future of Quebec

    Like the Communist Party, the QS calls to strengthen enforcement of the Charter of the French Language (Loi 101) in all work environments, countering the current direction of increasing exceptions to this law that have allowed a growing number of workplace orders to be again given in English.

     QS has a somewhat concurrent but different emphasis and vision from the CPC when it comes to the question of Québec's future.  The relationship between the two parties goes back to the ancestor of QS, the Union of Progressive Forces (UFP). The UFP was formed following the major anti-globalization protests in Quebec City, as a coalition of several left groups including the PCQ.

     In the long-term, QS calls for a society that moves 'beyond capitalism.'  While this ambiguous phrase is not prominent on the QS website, the campaign is talking about the current experience of Bolivia, Venezuela and Latin America in general as an example of social transformation for Quebec.

    In its interventions about this question, the Communist Party of Quebec (PCQ) has similarly called for QS to develop further towards a united front of labour and social movements around the most advanced and broad left-progressive basis of unity possible -- ie. a democratic, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist platform, rather than socialism.  The clear orientation of the PCQ is towards socialism and it supports QS as the most helpful within the current context.

   As a founding member of the UFP and QS, the PCQ's approach is also not the same as so-called "enterism" where a radical left group (especially a Trotskist grouping) will join a social democratic political party in order to split that formation and win a large pro-socialist organization. The PCQ views QS in a very different strategic framework of a united front at the present juncture, based on its evaluation of the class struggle in Quebec.

Quebec independence

     The Communist Party of Quebec also has a long history of defending Québec's right, as a nation in Canada, to sovereignty and self‑determination, up to and including the right of separation. (You can read the programme of the Communist Party here). The PCQ proposes a new equal partnership of the Aboriginal peoples, Québec and English-speaking Canada in a confederal republic, with a new constitution enshrining the right to sovereignty.

     Like the PCQ, Quebec Solidaire also rejects the status‑quo of federalism and proposes a strategy that is more or less complimentary: an elected constituent assembly to be convened so that Québec would democratically decide its own future and draft a new constitution:

Québec solidaire recognizes the Quebecers’ right to choose its institutions and its political status. [...] The Constituent Assembly will: be elected by universal franchise, made up of an equal number of women and men and representative of tendencies, different socio-economic backgrounds, and the cultural diversity present in Québec society; conduct a far-reaching, participatory democratic process to consult the population of Québec on: the values, rights, and principles upon which community life should be based; the political status of Québec; the definition of its institutions; heir delegated powers, responsibilities, and resources; develop, from the outcome of the consultation, one or more proposals which will be put to the population in a referendum.

     However, like the majority of the left in Québec (but not the PCQ), QS sees the process of sovereignty as a road to independence. It's platform makes it clear that "Throughout the process, Québec solidaire will advocate for creating a sovereign Quebec state, without assuming what the outcome of the debates will be."

    The line between these two formulations -- summarized by leader Amir Khadir in a phrase that translates as "[QS thinks] indepedance is necessary, but [the result of the process we propose will] not necessarily [be] independence" -- may seem very thin or academic to out-of-province political observers. But within Quebec, this issue is explosive. The fact that QS claims to be a pro-sovereignty party and yet also wants to initiate a process that might not lead to separation (and instead a fundamentally different yet united relationship with Canada) has resulted in polemical denunciations from other nationalist forces like L'Aut' Journal.

     More than in previous campaigns, QS sometimes comes close to putting independence as an objective in itself, which is the approach of the Parti Québécois -- demanding seperation not as a way to social progress (which is the QS' stated policy) but as a means to an end. The platform says QS "will set in motion from the day it takes office a constituent assembly process" and in the televised debates, Françoise David tried to put the leader of the PQ on the spot, asking her when a referendum would take place. QS is clear, she said, that the ball will be set into motion within their first year.

     But is that the main priority task? The PCQ positively views the continued split of the nationalist camp away from the big business PQ and behind a sort of people's agenda of social demands. Placing greater emphasis on such struggle will help develop class consciousnesses that could convince people to understand the national project in a different framework of class solidarity and unity.

    While agreeing that the sovereignty of Quebec is a fundamental question that must be addressed and solved, the PCQ puts much greater immediate priority on uniting all the people of Quebec to confront and reverse the "class war" being waged by the capitalists against the people.  The PCQ also points out the serious danger to both Québec and English-speaking Canada from US imperialism that comes with the path of recognizing sovereignty through Independence, and instead calls for an equal and voluntary partnership of the working class and its allies in both Québec and English‑speaking Canada, united in the struggle for social transformation against our common enemy -- big business.

    Despite this difference, the choice for those looking for a strong left party is clear. (The QS program is available in English here.)


Option nationale

     Another party presenting a left-sounding platform is Option nationale (ON), which currently holds one seat in the Quebec National Assembly. ON is a dissident split from the PQ, and likely believes that PQ is on the edge of break-up -- which could be true if that party fails again to win another election. ON broke from the PQ in order to advance a more immediate and assertive trajectory towards Quebec independence than the PQ is currently prepared to take, and waits in the wings to succeed as the true party of separation.

     ON's platform is arguably a cheap copy and paste job from Quebec Solidaire, hoping to attract young voters who are pro-independence. The party is calling for nationalization of natural resources, free education (from kindergarten to PhD), abolition of nuclear energy in Quebec, a moratorium on shale gas operations, Pharma Quebec (a new crown corporation which will aim to reduce pharmaceutical costs in Quebec), construction of a monorail electric suspended between cities, and implementation of proportional representation in Quebec.

     ON's generally progressive rhetoric most likely reflects an opportunist sentiment. The main social basis of support for a "fast-lane" strategy of independence is from left-leaning voters.  While ON advocates for a pro-independence coalition government, it has vigorously attacked QS at the same time for its strategy stating that "All political programmes corresponding with the interests of Quebec will never be fully realized in the Canadian context. For us, independence is not maybe necessary, it is essential."

    This has left more than a few political observers wondering that if the ruling class had wanted to invent a rival party to split the QS vote, could they have done better? In fact, ON is headed by Jean-Martin Aussant a former PQ Member of the National Assembly (MNA) who is worked as a vice-president of Morgan Stanley Capital International in London, England. As an PQ MNA, Aussant was finance critic  -- a difficult position from which to jump into "left field."

Restrictions on "Third Parties"

     Québec`s election law severely restricts interventions by organizations not officially registered as so-called "third parties." The Liberals have demanded investigation of student groups. One blogger has been forced to take down her site because it was critical of the ruling party, and a labour union central has removed videos critical of the Liberals.

     The Communist Party of Québec (PCQ) is also in this position. The PCQ has issued a statement critically examining the flaws of strategic voting and the connection between electoral struggle and struggle on the streets.

     Marianne Breton Fontaine, who ran for the Communist Party of Canada in the last federal election, is a candidate under the Québec Solidaire banner in Acadie. This riding is currently held by the Liberal Minister of Culture who waded into the student struggle last spring, accusing a famous soft‑spoken Québec storyteller of endorsing "violence and terrorism" by wearing the red square.

Looming election challenge in Quebec

Yaba daba doo! says one caption of this photo on the internet, which pictures Quebec Premier Jean Charest 

By Johan Boyden, Montreal
An earlier version of this article appeared in People's Voice Newspaper.

The community of Trois Pistoles along the northern banks of the St. Lawrence river is known for its picturesque beauty and historic links to Basque whalers, who travelled there hundreds of years ago from Spain.

Now it has become a symbol of the pre‑election polarization and fear‑mongering going on in Québec.

An ecological festival in the town, put on by community activists including some who have been fighting high‑risk shale gas development in the region, wanted to invite student leaders to speak at their event.

A storm of controversy erupted. Mayor Jean‑Pierre Rioux met with organizers and threatened to withdraw all funding. "Around here, people think that [student leader] Gabriel Nadeau‑Dubois is [...] like Maurice `Mom' Boucher" one festival organizer said.

Mom Boucher is, of course, the convicted rapist, drug dealer and murderer who leads the Montreal Hells Angels.

Québec's governing Liberal Party is expected to announce a provincial election, likely on September 4th (just before the return of the anti‑corruption commission that has implicated the party with Mafia kick‑backs through the construction industry).


While the province has been shaken by months of student protest that have witnessed a strong public outpouring of support for the students, particularly in working class Montreal communities, Québec elections are not held on the basis of proportional representation.

Instead, the riding system, divided along regional, economic and national lines, can craftily distort public opinion. Not to mention that elections are a multi‑million dollar horse race today.

Even though they have a nationalist wing, the Liberals are the only clearly federalist party on the political map. Going into the race they are "guaranteed" almost all the ridings in Montreal's West Island, where the Anglo minority will not consider a party leaning towards independence (or any other forms of sovereignty that could be guaranteed in a new democratic Constitution).

Of course, the unexpected can happen ‑ like the turn to the NDP by Québec voters in the last federal election. But that phenomenon was much more about a strategy to block the Harper Tories than a re‑evaluation of the national question.


Many commentators say the outcome hangs on ten or maybe just six ridings where the Liberals won by a whisker ‑ sometimes by a lead of one percent and less than a hundred votes. The Minister of Education has said she will not seek re‑election, no doubt expecting she would lose.

One hope of the Liberals is that the ultra‑right Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) party will to cut into the votes of the pro‑corporate Parti Québécois (PQ). The CAQ's big idea is to put aside the "divisive" national question for several years and unite the right (federalist and nationalist alike, under a populist framework) to attack labour and social programmes -- an approach which has shown to be a clear "basis of unity" for cooperation with the Liberal government's anti-people attacks in the National Assembly.


Because of their links to the Quebec nationalist movement, the CAQ also pose little threat to the Liberal's voting base who view them with hesitancy. As if to confirm suspicions, the CAQ booted a right-wing businessman from its candidate list after he said the Quebec nationalist movement was racist against immigrants. 

The big Liberal guns are, therefore, turning to take aim at the PQ. One black-and-white attack ad -- already viral -- presents the leader of that party in slow motion, banging on a casserole, although Pauline Marois has officially put away her red square.

Some compare this ballot choice to the frying pan and the fire. The Communist Party of Québec is supporting the left-coalition party Québec Solidaire.

Low voter turnout will also help the Liberals, who are counting on their "law and order" or "strong leadership in a crisis" message.
Even the government`s own arms‑length Human Rights and Youth Rights Commission recently condemned the special law forcing the return of students to class this month, saying it was a violation of the fundamental freedoms safeguarded by the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms. But Law 78 was always an election strategy, and there is a real danger it may bear fruit.

Which brings us back to communities like Trois Pistoles, where the militant CLASSE student union is compared to organized crime.

The CLASSE has been running a tour across Québec promoting their manifesto for democracy (see page 6), and weaving together the struggles of the people within the framework of defeating the Liberals. On July 22, CLASSE organized another mass demonstration, estimated at between 30,000 and 80,000 in size. (That same day, police arrested the two spokespeople of a student mobilization in Ottawa, including a member of the Young Communist League.)

The Liberals have asked the Director General of elections to investigate the students in case they are making election expenses.

The other two student federations have targeted specific ridings, basically advocating for the PQ. The past‑president of the college student federation will be a PQ candidate.

The election will be a challenge for the people's movements. There is a need to continue the mobilization in the streets while not falling into the "anti‑politics" trap of pretending the vote does not exist. Whatever the outcome, it should not be seen as a blank cheque for any party. This was the message delivered at a summer BBQ discussion organized by the Young Communist League of Québec (LJC‑Q) in late July.

The meeting heard a report‑back on a very successful ten campus tour in Ontario by Québec student activists including the leader of the LJC‑Q, Marianne Breton Fontaine, organized by the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS) Ontario. People chuckled when they learnt the National Post had labelled the tour a vector of the Québec protest "virus."

The tour was a concrete expression of solidarity by the CFS towards the Québec students. About a thousand students came out in total between Ottawa and Windsor.

Breton Fontaine will also be a candidate for Québec Solidaire in the Montreal riding of Acadie.

In addition to its own platform (which includes the elimination of tuition fees, public pharmacare, nationalization of energy, pay equity, and other demands) Québec Solidaire has responded to a call for a united front against the Liberals with their own two‑point proposal for an alliance: proportional representation and, basically, the abolition of the last austerity budget. Since this is also, on paper, the existing policy of the PQ, it could be the basis for a coalition or accord, but this is just speculation and the PQ have, so far, ignored the offer.

The Greek election: an intense manipulation of the people

Rebel Youth presents this graphic on the latest Greek elections to illustrate the percentage of the votes but also to show how the supposed clear dividing line 'for or against the memorandum' is actually a misleading dichotomy (in this case placing the ultra-right and the KKE together).

The CC of the KKE met on 18th June 2012 and discussed the first assessment of the results of the elections on the 17th of June as well as the developments after the elections. The position of the CC will be discussed in the Party Base Organisations, the organizations of KNE, in meetings with supporters, friends and people who work alongside the party in order to gather opinions and suggestions. The CC will conclude its assessment after gathering the views, the suggestions, the observations regarding both elections (May-June) which will also set the immediate tasks of the party.

Why don`t the Communists just link forces with the Radical Left Coalition?

Members and friends of the 'party that forgot to die' (see below) at a public meeting of the KKE


J. Boyden

The political assessment of the Communist Party of Greece (which we posted here today) deserves some introduction for our readers in Canada. Afterall, as Greece heads towards Sunday elections, all eyes seem to suddenly be turned to the volatile situation in the Hellenic Republic.

UPDATE: View the election results in graphic form and read the assessment of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece.

Progressive-minded people in Canada are optimistic. After years of hard struggle with countless general strikes and mass rallies, maybe these elections will hand a victory to political parties that identify with the left? Maybe they will demonstrate a different direction from austerity and economic crisis to the world?

There is also a certain renewed anxiety in the voices of the ruling class.  “We cannot have a Greek election determining the future of the global economy. That’s not fair to anybody,” Canadian Prime Minister Steven Harper said recently. Today, Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney referenced Greece and the European situation to warn of more mass unemployment and 'recession` over here.

For the working people of the world, and the capitalist class, it seems the stakes are high.

In this context over the year and especially the past month, a bit of a fluster has blown-up among some voices about the best strategy for the Greek people. Rebel Youth (and People`s Voice newspaper) have a long record of reporting the news and analysis of the Greek Communist Youth, as well as the Communist Party of Greece, the KKE. But now, many left-minded intellectuals in Canada are also discovering the alphabet soup of Greek political party acronyms and especially the KKE and the self-titled Coalition of the Radical Left or SYRIZA.

The SYRIZA coalition, whose name is a pun on 'to the roots', is lead by the Synaspismós party.  Synaspismós also grew out of a coalition founded by the KKE many years ago, but from which the Communists quit in the early 1990s.

That break was not a light decision.

The communist change in strategy came about during a moment of intense debate over ideology, strategy and fundamental questions -- is a communist party necessary in the post-Soviet world? What is it`s role? Who should it work with? What should the left`s attitude be to the new European Union? The conclusions of Synaspismós were, more or less, opportunist and they put a bitter energy into attacking the conclusions of KKE.

For Synaspismós, a Leninist-style communist party was not just a bad idea -- it was a profoundly wrong and anti-democratic direction. The Soviet experience had been a profound failure; their view of socialism was, more or less, social democracy. Synaspismos drew up political alliances on the 'left' on the basis of being pro-European Union. The ideological framework of imperialism was now outdated, they said. Not surprisingly, the stance of Synaspismós towards NATO was not so clear or consistent either.

To most on the left here in Canada, however, it seemed an abstract debate. Some saw it mainly as particular to that country. If people were aware of the Greek political scene, they knew that main social democratic party was PASOK, with whom the Canadian New Democratic Party shared common membership in the Socialist International.  The bad guys were New Democracy, who were like the Conservative Party of Canada. And the really bad guys were LAOS, the ultra-right or fascists.

Nobody batted and eyelid (other than a few voices like the YCL) when the president of the NDP, Brian Topp, traveled to Greece for a conference of the Socialist International last summer and reported back through a Globe and Mail editorial that guys with PASOK were doing a darn good job managing a little country that got itself into a real big mess.

Now, this summer, things look very different.

Canada seems, much more clearly, to be linked hand-in-hand with Greece and Europe in the macabre international dance of global capitalism. In Greece, PASOK is politically discredited. It pursued what are now obvious pro-monopoly capitalist policies that helped further kick that country into social, political and economic crisis. SYRIZA has basically replaced PASOK in the polls. SYRIZA made its strongest showing ever in elections last month.

So did the ultra-right and fascists, re-branded as the Golden Dawn party.

Perhaps it is forgivable that in this context of rising fascist forces in Greece, the spectators on the bleachers over here are starting to cheer for a team effort. Some voices in Canada have even gone as far issuing instructions to the KKE about how to proceed -- and why they should join forces again with SYRIZA to form a government. Never mind that, at least in the latest round of elections, this is numerically impossible given the total seats the two parties have in the Parliament of the Hellenes.

Although not a Canadian, the psychoanalyst and self-professed Marxist Slavoj Žižek is growing in popularity among many progressive thinkers at English-speaking and French-language universities in Quebec and the rest of Canada. His recent comments about this topic speaking at a recent SYRIZA event have been quoted fairly widely:

''Your pseudo-radical critics'' he told the audience, ''are telling you that the situation is not yet right for the true social change. That if you take power now, you will just help the system, making it more efficient. This is, if I understand it correctly, what KKE, which is basically the party of the people who are still alive because they forgot to die, are telling you.''

These comments are particularly nasty given how many hundreds of thousands of Greek Communists have been assassinated, executed, massacred, raped, mutated and tortured, over the past century fighting against fascism and for democracy in that country. (Žižek is, of course, notorious for these kind of cheap anti-communist shots -- he also likes to target the Communist Party of Cuba -- but that deserves another article).

How do the Greek communists respond to all this?

Why don`t they want to go in with SYRIZA and 'take power,' as Žižek challenges?

The KKE`s view comes from their assesment of the current juncture and what role SYRIZA is playing. In an interview just after the last Greek election, the head of KKE`s International department told a Turkish newspaper that:

The result demonstrates that [the ruling class] are seeking to make an effort to give the two-party system a face-lift. [...] The bourgeois class, in order to maintain its power seeks to get rid of or give secondary roles to the most worn-out parties and political figures. It is preparing a restructuring of the political scene, due to the political damage the basic bourgeois parties have suffered, the social-democratic PASOK and the conservative New Democracy. There is an attempt to form a centre-right pole around New Democracy and a centre-left pole around the social-democratic SYRIZA. [...] SYRIZA has been chosen by a part of the bourgeoisie which sees it as the basic force in a government that will do the “dirty work” of the capitalist crisis, that will manage a possible bankruptcy.

As if to confirm this picture, last Wednesday the President of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, presented a 'letter of credentials' to an official from the US embassy and met with ambassadors and diplomats from the G20 member states at a ceremonial meeting.

The leader of the Radical Left re-stated his parties opposition to the Greek bail-out or Memorandum. Yet he also indicated SYRIZA`s support for the European Union (EU) and the Euro. He even went as far as calling for Turkey to join the EU and took the time, in front of this particular audience, to denounce the socialist experience of the USSR.

As the KKE`s newspaper Rizospastis put it:

The meeting of SYRIZA’s President with the ambassadors of the G20 countries gave us a reminder of the recent past, specifically it reminds us of the former [PASOK] Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou [...] The same slogans regarding “a new multi-facetted peaceful foreign policy”, the same references to “international initiatives for the democratization of the system of international relations” and the need to “upgrade the role of the UN.” And at the same time, no mention of NATO [...] Mr Tsipras’ silence concerning the continuing intervention against Syria was astounding. [...] As if the use of US [Air and Naval] base at Souda [in Crete] is not part of the plans regarding this intervention, and the use more generally of the ports, the airspace, and the sea of our country. [...] But Mr Tsipras did not omit to mention that he would play a leading role in a “nuclear-free Middle East”, pointing to Iran’s nuclear programme, which is in any case the pretext which will be used by the USA and Israel to justify a possible military attack against Iran, a new war. Not a word about the nuclear weapons Israel already possesses!

What reveals SYRIZA`s political positioning in the class struggle, the Greek communists say, is that parties demands. And it is not just that SYRIZA is soft on peace and NATO, but also that the coalition is fully committed to Greek membership of the EU and the single currency.

UPDATE: Read post-election analysis and more about the support SYRIZA recieved from sections of the capitalist class.

The SYRIZA strategy around the EU is outlined in more detail here by Kenny Coyle, who writes:

On May 10, when Tsipras was first attempting to put a government coalition together, he sent a letter to European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso. He wrote: "We need to re-examine the whole framework of existing strategy if the threat to social stability and cohesion in Greece, and the stability of the whole eurozone, is not to be threatened. "The common future of European peoples is threatened by those catastrophic choices. We deeply believe that this crisis is European, and therefore the solution lies at a European level." Tsipras's approach takes as one of its fundamental concerns stability of the eurozone and removes the initiative from the hands of a mobilised and militant Greek people only to file it in the in-tray of the Eurocrats.

It also holds that Greece will never get the boot from that happy family, and therefore EU membership is a bargaining chip to renegotiate the deal. Time will show if that is the case -- but the Greek communists think there is a strong case that they are dangerously wrong.

In the view of the KKE, any government formed after the Sunday elections out of the current balance of forces will not only fail to halt the deterioration of the situation for working people, but will actually be forced to escalate the attack; instead, the people must take the matter into his own hands, the KKE says, outlining a programme for social transformation as we reprinted here and summarized below.

• for the immediate future, organize the struggle of the workers, the poor farmers, the lower-middle popular strata against the anti-people measures which will be taken by the government (whether centre-right or centre-left);

• through this struggle, forces will be liberated from bourgeois ideology and a social alliance will be formed that will pose the question of power.

• disengagement from the EU and unilateral cancellation of the debt; 

• socialization of the concentrated means of production, the people’s producer cooperatives, nationwide planning;

• full utilization of the production potential of the country, with working class and people’s control which will operate from the bottom up

The KKE sees the election as an important opportunity to broadcast this message of a comprehensive political proposal highlighting the need for working class-people’s power and economy. Having elected members of parliament on the inside also strengthens that process.

What about the allegations that the communists in Greece are a bunch of narrow-minded sectarians? To this the KKE replies:

How is it possible for the KKE to rally hundreds of thousands of people in Greece, with the line of class struggle, if the party is sectarian? How is it possible, for example, for the All-workers’ Militant Front (PAME) to rally dozens of first-level trade unions, sectoral federations, and labour centres which represent hundreds of thousands of workers?

We should note here that PAME, as the class-oriented pole in the labour and trade union movement rallies 8 sectoral federations, 13 labour centres, hundreds of first-level and sectoral unions, with 850,000 members. In addition, PAME also operates in trade unions where the class-oriented forces are not in the majority. [...]

How is it possible for the Panhellenic Anti-monopoly rally of the self-employed (PASEVE) to organize thousands of self-employed people, who understand the need to come into conflict with the monopolies? How is it possible for thousands of poor farmers, through their farmer’s associations and their committees, to be inspired by the struggle of the All-farmers Militant Rally (PASY) against the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy? How is it possible for women and thousands of students, who belong to the working class and popular strata to enter the struggle in the framework of the demands and the initiatives of the Federation of Greek Women (OGE) and the Students’ Front of Struggle (MAS)? The members and cadres of the KKE play a leading role in all these socio-political organizations without hiding their identity.

Many of these arguments are repeated and elaborated in an article by the KKE here as well as an article we posted here.

Some, if not most, of the enthusiasm about the KKE joining hands with a left formation like SYRIZA comes from honest misunderstanding and unfamiliarity with the circumstances in Greece. Although those who do it no doubt have lots of fun, plotting the future of the revolution in various countries from the safety of an urban coffee shop in Canada, or blogging it from your basement, runs the risk that your conclusions most likely will not be grounded in the objective political reality, hundreds of thousands of miles away.

This is just one reason why the YCL strives to go in the direction of working class internationalism. While reserving our own opinion, we listen very closely to the view point of comrades around the world about the situation in their own countries.  And by expressing solidarity, it is in the sense of being united in a global struggle -- as Marx said, 'workers of the world unite!'

Other voices that critique the KKE, however, are no doubt grinding an ideological axe. In this, they are not just against that far away party, but are also trying to call out the views of the communist movement in Canada on the revolutionary process, no matter the many differences between of our situations (and therefore conclusions). But perhaps it is no surprise that those particular voices are deeply taken by SYRIZA, a force that the Greek communists see as, more or less, opportunists and renegades of socialism.

Struggle shifts to outside parliament

Commentary by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

The May 2nd federal election gave Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party an absolute majority in the new Parliament. But to do it they had to hide their real agenda, and spend millions in payoffs and promises they may never deliver. They haven’t convinced a majority of Canadians to privatize medicare and social programs, and they haven’t sold Canadians on their sky-high military spending, the wars in Afghanistan and Libya, or their war on civil, democratic and labour rights. The outcome did not reflect a political swing to the right among voters, and Harper has no real mandate to impose his reactionary agenda on the working class and the peoples of Canada.

In fact, the Conservatives garnered less than 40% of votes cast, and only 24.3% support among all registered voters. There was no seismic shift to the Conservatives; rather, the Tory majority came about primarily due to vote-splitting between the Liberals and the social democratic NDP in key ridings, especially in Southern Ontario and British Columbia.

On the Jan. 27 Federal Budget - People's Voice commentary

January 28, 2009


The political mindset has changed in Ottawa since last fall, but not nearly as much as most analysts of the Jan. 27 federal budget suggest.

This is not surprising, since Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's "budget consultations" were conducted almost exclusively with big business and right-wing think tanks. As the global economic crisis deepens, this budget prioritizes bail-outs for the banks and other lenders, and tax hand-outs to business, while ignoring the urgent needs of workers and the unemployed – further proof that the Harper minority government remains a trusted tool of the ruling class and a bitter enemy of working people across Canada. More than ever, a massive struggle by the working class and other democratic forces is needed to drive the Tories out of office.