Leader: Miguel
Figueroa
Web
Site: www.communist-party.ca
Platform: Election
2004 Platform.
The party's extensive Program (which
explains the party's ideology and goals) is also available
online.
Candidates: The
party's list of candidates is
here. As of May 27, 2004, the party had nominated candidates
in almost 10% of Canada's ridings.
The
Party: The Communist
Party of Canada ("CPC") web site says that
the CPC was formed in 1921. The party platform says that
the "...aim of the Communist Party of Canada is
to establish a socialist and, ultimately, a communist
society in Canada." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
The
Party's Views on Society: The
CPC argues that the current economic system, the means
of production (i.e., "capital") are predominantly
privately owned (i.e., "capitalists"). It argues
that human labour is the source of all
material wealth. It argues that capitalists receive profits
and accumulate capital by "exploiting" workers.
A "worker" is anyone who makes a living by
trading his/her own mental or physical labour for money.
What
does the CPC regard as exploitation? The answer, quite simply,
is: keeping a profit. Owing largely to Joseph Pierre Proudhon's
1840 essay "What
is Property?", which preceded and informed Marx
and Engels' 1848 Communist
Manifesto, communism ultimately believes that every
penny received in exchange for a widget (e.g., a
car, a bushel of wheat, a house) should be distributed back
to the labourers, whose labour resulted in the production
of the widget. To communists, for a person to hire employees,
do no work himself except hiring the workers and selling
their product, and then keep some of the proceeds from the
sale (i.e., a "profit"), is wrong. In other words,
at its core, communism is founded on the idea that everyone
should labour for a living, and that the cost of
goods must always equal the cost of producing them: zero
profit.
The CPC explains that
in "...a socialist Canada, the principal means of producing
and distributing wealth will be the common property
of society as a whole." Thus, again, those who used
to make money by employing the capital that they owned will
be forced to work for a living.
The
zero profit idea is an important part - but nonetheless only
a part - of the communist view on the political and social
scene. The CPC views capitalists and workers as being in
a constant tug of war:
"The
basic conflict between capital and labour is inherent to
the capitalist system. The capitalists, who control the
main means of production, employ wage-workers only so long
as their labour produces profits for them. They hold down
wages to the lowest possible level so as to squeeze greater
profits out of the exploitation of the workers. The workers
fight to maintain and increase their wages, improve their
living and working conditions, and extend their economic,
social and political rights. This is the heart of
the class struggle under capitalism which affects the whole
of society, and which at a certain stage impels
the working class to revolutionary struggle aimed at changing
the social system itself."
In other words, the CPC
says that capitalists want lower wages and higher profits,
whereas workers want higher wages and lower profits. This
tug of war, claims the CPC (and communism in general) ultimately
explodes, with the workers resorting to a revolution to overthrow
capitalism and all it entails.
The CPC's Mission: The main thrust of the CPC is against what
it calls "finance capital":
"Finance
capital, the fusion of bank and industrial capital,
has become the dominant form of capital in Canada. Finance
capital – both Canadian and foreign-based – controls
giant transnational companies and banks which operate around
the world increasingly in disregard of national interests..." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
The CPC opposes the merging
of finance capital with government: it calls that merger "state-monopoly
capitalism". Examples of state-monopoly capitalism
NOTE: What the
CPC calls "state-monopoly capitalism" is what
Benito Mussolini called: fascism or corporativism.
More recently, it has been called the "third
way". Fascism is not a form of communism and
it is not a form of capitalism. It is an economic system
in which productive capital is privately owned, but in
which government regulates production, wages, prices, etc..
It is the same system installed not only by Mussolini but
by Adolf Hitler. Arguably, the CPC is correct about the
current economic model in Canada. By any honest measure,
Canada employs a fascist (though not nationalist or racist)
economic model, and has done so increasingly since the
1930s. So called "public-private partnerships" ("P-3s")
- e.g., in some of the Ottawa hospital projects currently
underway - typify fascism/corporatism/the third way.
The CPC argues that "state-monopoly
capitalism":
"...undermines
the basis of traditional bourgeois democracy. The subordination
of the state to the interests of finance capital erodes
the already limited role of elected government bodies,
federal, provincial and local. Big business openly intervenes
in the electoral process on its own behalf, and also indirectly
through a network of pro-corporate institutes and think
tanks. It uses its control of mass media to influence the
ideas and attitudes of the people, and to blatantly influence
election results. It corrupts the democratic process through
the buying of politicians and officials. It tramples on
the political right of the Canadian people to exercise
any meaningful choice, thereby promoting widespread public
alienation and cynicism about the electoral process." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
The CPC platform does
not indicate the extent to which all other interested parties,
such as labour unions, use the same means to manipulate public
opinion.
The CPC explains - quite
believably - the current use of government:
"The
government, while seemingly independent of specific corporate
interests, has become predominantly the political instrument
of a small group comprising the top monopoly capitalists
for exercising control over the rest of society. Finance
capital uses the state to provide orders, capital and subsidies,
and to secure foreign markets and investments. Monopoly
capital supports the expansion of the state sector – both
services and enterprises – when that serves its interests,
and at other times it uses the state to cut back and privatize.
The state is also used to redistribute income and wealth
in favour of monopoly interests through the tax system,
and through legislation to drive down wages and weaken
the trade union movement." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
The CPC argues that the
influence of internationally-organized businesses are so
strong that domestic policy is actually being decided by
foreign business interests:
"Canadian
finance capital is today largely interlocked with U.S.
transnationals, and international finance capital in general...Important
decisions on investment policy, technological change, plant
closures and layoffs are made outside our borders. No sector
of Canada's economy is free from U.S. and other transnational
influence." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
That said, the CPC is
not against globalism, they are just against global capitalism:
"Communists
are internationalists, and hold that the fundamental
interests of working people throughout the world are one. The
struggle to advance the interests of the working class
and people of Canada, and to defend its sovereignty, is
inseparable from working class internationalism – the
solidarity of the working class of all countries in
cooperation against imperialist rule and for a world
at peace." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
Thus, the CPC concludes
that capitalism, not globalism per
se, is "the enemy":
"The
struggle against U.S. domination and for genuine Canadian
independence and an independent foreign policy is part
of the worldwide struggle against capitalist globalization,
imperialist aggression and war.
The
fight for democracy and sovereignty is a necessary and
integral component of the Canadian revolutionary process.
This requires a concerted struggle against the main enemy of
the Canadian people – finance capital,
both Canadian and international." (from Program
of the Communist Party of Canada).
Noteworthy Achievement: CPC
leader Miguel Figueroa has successfully challenged various
aspects of Canada's patently anti-competition Elections
Act as unconstitutional. Under earlier incarnations of
that act, the government of Canada could seize all assets
of a registered federal political party that failed to
run at least 50 candidates in a federal general election.
The CPC was successful at trial in having several sections
of the Elections Act declared unconstitutional (including
the 50 candidate rule, and seizure provisions). The CPC
prevailed in an appeal from the Ontario Court of Appeal's decision,
to the Supreme Court of Canada in December of 2002. The court's
decision was rendered in June of 2003 and the offending
provisions of the Elections Act cease to be of any force
or effect in June of 2004 (the court gave the government
one year to make the Elections Act comply with the constitution.
The CPC continues to fight the government of Canada, which
is attempting to create other hurdles in the Election Act
designed to prevent new political parties from getting
a foot-hold. For more information see the Institute for
Research on Public Policy's analysis of
the impact of the Supreme Court of Canada's decision. To
read the CPC's submissions to the Standing Committee on
Procedure and House Affairs concerning proposed amendments
to the Election Act, click
here.
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