The CPC (M-L) held a congress in March 1973, with 57 delegates and alternates from 17 local groups. Fraternal delegates from Maoist groups in Ireland, Great Britain, and the United States were also present. A new Central Committee of 21 members was elected, and it was decided to move the party headquarters from Toronto to Montreal.
By that time, the party was publishing two periodicals. One was Mass Line, a theoretical organ. The other was People’s Canada Daily Newsy edited by Hardinal Bain, the party chairman, and consisting mainly of news items from the New China News Agency.[109]
The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) ran candidates in 101 constituencies in the 1974 federal election, receiving a total of 16,281 votes, or 0.17 percent of the total. Peter Regenstreif wrote that “Compared with the CPC, they were especially visible in the province of Quebec, where they were nominated in 38 of the 74 constituencies while the CPC was nominated in only 14.”[110]
When the Albanians broke with the Chinese, the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) sided with the Albanians. Although it continued to publish People’s Canada Daily News, the material in that publication by 1978 came mainly from broadcasts of Radio Tirana, instead of from the New China News Agency.[111]
In 1980 the membership of the CPC (M-L) was estimated as being somewhere between 500 and 2,000. Its national headquarters was still in Montreal, but “It also has a headquarters in Toronto and maintains contact points in 23 other Canadian cities.” In May 1979 it held a “consultative conference” in Toronto, attended by 1,500 people, including a delegation from the Albanian Party of Labor.
The party also participated in the 1979 federal election, using the name Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada, to differentiate it clearly from the pro-Soviet Communist Party of Canada, putting up 139 candidates compared with 69 for the pro-Soviet Party. Its nominees got 1,386 votes, more than the pro-Soviet party, although no CPC (M-L) candidate got more than 200 votes. “Its election campaign was conducted under the slogan ‘Make the Rich Pay!’ and its program, more militant than that of the CPC, included the abolition of Parliament and the establishment of a centralist workers’ and small farmers’ government. It would also grant self-determination to Quebec and ‘expropriate monopoly capital and imperialist property without any compensation.’”[112]
In 1980, the CPC (M-L) also fielded candidates in the federal election. They received 14,717 votes for the 30 nominees. It was noted by Alan Whitehorn that this was “the most of any Marxist-Leninist party and a slight increase over its previous showing,” and amounted to 0.13 percent of the total vote.[113]
The party condemned “U.S. imperialism” and both Soviet and Chinese “social imperialism.” In August 1979, Bain led a delegation of the CPC (M-L) that visited Albania.[114] He again visited Albania, this time for three months, in the summer of 1980. On the other hand, an Albanian delegation attended a rally in 1980 celebrating the tenth anniversary of the founding of the CPC (M-L).[115]
The Workers Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) Of Canada
As the CPC (M-L) joined the Albanian camp, those Maoists who still remained loyal to the Chinese party and government formed their own organization. In August 1977 the New China News Agency announced that the Central Committee (CC) of the Canadian Communist League (Marxist-Leninist) had sent a message to the CC of the Chinese party, “expressing warm congratulations on the historic decisions taken during its third plenary session.” The agency also noted that the periodical of the League, Forge, had commented, “This plenary session of the Central Committee, the first to be held since Chairman Mao’s death holds great historic importance for the party and the Chinese people. It is with great joy that we hail these historic resolutions of the Central Committee of the CCP by welcoming these resolutions. With tremendous enthusiasm the Chinese people showed that the party and its wise leader Hua Kuo-feng have the confidence and steadfast support of the masses.”[116]
At a congress held in Quebec in September 1979, the Canadian Communist League was transformed into the Workers Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) of Canada. That congress elected a new Central Committee, which chose Roger Rashi as Chairman of the organization and Ian Anderson, Vice Chairman.
David Davies noted that “The WCP has contact points in thirteen cities across Canada, and distributes publications through Norman Bethune bookstores in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. It is currently conducting a fund-raising campaign and claims to have attained more than three quarters of its stated goal of Canadian $100,000. Its domestic orientation emphasizes combining a working class movement with oppressed nationalities in Canada, and it is active in recruiting native Black and French-speaking Canadians”.
Davies also noted that “The WCP upholds the three worlds theory, condemns Soviet influence in Vietnam, and strongly supports the beleaguered Pol Pot forces in Kampuchea as an obstacle to Soviet imperialism in Southeast Asia. At the end of December 1978, Roger Rashi led a delegation … to Phhnom Penh.”[117] In late 1979, a delegation of the party also visited China.
Although the WCP “opposes electoral politics in general,” it did run 30 candidates in the 1980 federal election. At that time its membership was estimated at 1,500 and its paper, Forge, had a circulation of 12,000.
Alan Whitehorn commented, concerning the Workers Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) attitude on Canada’s international posture in 1980, that “The imperialist superpowers are portrayed as the greatest dangers to world peace. American imperialism is deemed the most dangerous threat to Canada, whereas the USSR is considered more bellicose. … The party calls for Canada’s withdrawal from NATO and North American defense system and a world united front against imperialist hegemonism. In such a front the Third World is to be the main force.”[118]
The Marxist-Leninist Organization of Canada in Struggle
Finally, note must be taken of the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Canada In Struggle! This group, which was largely centered in Quebec and led by Charles Gignon, was reported to have “hundreds of organized members and organized sympathizers.”
We have no information as when this group—which never went so far as to declare itself a “party"—was established. However, in the aftermath of the death of Mao, it declared its opposition to his successors. Reportedly, “For a number of years In Struggle! consistently supported revolutionary struggle against imperialism and took an advanced position in the struggle against the three worlds theory’ which would effectively outlaw revolution in countries like Canada. … In Struggle! correctly stressed the international character of the proletarian revolution and called for the struggle to create a new international.”
This group sought to find bridges between Maoism and the Albanian dissidence. Although they said that Hoxha’s theories were “a positive contribution in the struggle against revisionism,” they sought “to disassociate themselves with his reactionary conclusions (Mao was never a Marxist-Leninist, ad nauseam).”
109
Ivan Avakumovic, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1974, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., pages 294—295.
110
Peter Regenstreif, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1975, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif, pages 475—476.
111
Desmond J. Fitzgerald, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1979, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., page 321.
112
Foregoing from David Davies, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1980, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., page 329.
113
Alan Whitehorn, in Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, 1981, Hoover Institution, Stanford, Calif., page 44.