"We should get our comrades to understand that the twofold basic task of the leading bodies of the Communist Party is to know conditions and to master policy; the former means knowing the world and the latter changing the world." -Mao Zedong, 1941, Reform our Study
[From the Toronto Star.] OTTAWA—Canadians who don’t vote actually believe in democracy — they just don’t believe politics or politicians … Continue reading Does not voting make you an indifferent citizen — or an idealist?
From the Central Committee, Revolutionary Initiative (Canada)
29 March 2011
With the upcoming Federal Elections in Canada, this document offers an assessment by the Central Committee of Revolutionary Initiative on the question of elections in the current international context and given the level of self-organization of the proletariat in Canada. It is organized into five main sections:
Continue reading “Expose the electoral circus and build the revolutionary forces”
Should we Participate in Bourgeois Parliaments?It is with the utmost contempt—and the utmost levity—that the German “Left” Communists reply to this question in the negative. Their arguments? In the passage quoted above we read:
“… All reversion to parliamentary forms of struggle, which have become historically and politically obsolete, must be emphatically rejected” [[__ Rjc: Could be incomplete here; check __]]
This is said with ridiculous pretentiousness, and is patently wrong. “Reversion” to parliamentarianism, forsooth! Perhaps there is already a Soviet republic in Germany? It does not look like it! How, then, can one speak of “reversion”? Is this not an empty phrase?
Parliamentarianism has become “historically obsolete”. That is true in the propaganda sense. However, everybody knows that this is still a far cry from overcoming it in practice. Capitalism could have been declared—and with full justice—to be “historically obsolete” many decades ago, but that does not at all remove the need for a very long and very persistent struggle on the basis of capitalism. Parliamentarianism is “historically obsolete” from the standpoint of world history, i.e., the era of bourgeois parliamentarianism is over, and the era of the proletarian dictatorship has begun. That is incontestable. But world history is counted in decades. Ten or twenty years earlier or later makes no difference when measured with the yardstick of world history; from the standpoint of world history it is a trifle that cannot be considered even approximately. But for that very reason, it is a glaring theoretical error to apply the yardstick of world history to practical politics. Continue reading “On Elections: An Excerpt from Lenin’s Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder”
[From Call For A New Class Struggle in Canada:]
Boycott the Elections! is a slogan that is anything but passive. Driven by the forces of the militant proletariat, led by activists working for revolution and for the destruction of the exploitative capitalist system, this slogan is a call to fight
against apathy and indifference, and against what will be an inevitable defeat otherwise.
This slogan is a call for unity among the proletariat, whether they be young, old, unemployed, immigrant or refugee.
This slogan is a call to unite with the most militant layers among the Native nations who refuse to recognize the Canadian Parliament, except than to be the organizer of their own oppression. This slogan when carried forward by the most conscious forces among the proletariat, can offer the proletariat a real political perspective: the actions of the revolutionary proletariat to transform society. This action must be first and foremost the expression of the rejection of bourgeois politics in a conscious and unified way. By organizing actions, through meetings and protests, through the massive distribution and publication of leaflets and newspapers throughout the country, these revolutionary actions
represent a real threat to the apparatus of domination of the bourgeoisie. They reveal and expose to the eyes of many the deeply unfair nature of this system ruled by a tiny minority.
There will be those that will criticize us who boycott by saying that we are playing the game of the rightists. Some forces on the left often use this argument: “One can try to rebalance bourgeois parliamentarism by calling for proportional representation”. In either case, whether it be twoheaded or three-headed, it remains the party of the bourgeoisie. What really matters is that in all cases, the same interests prevail, both in government and in opposition. Regardless of parliamentary representation, the nature of Parliament itself remains the same.
[Party of the Committees to Support Resistance – for Communism (CARC) is associated with the (new) Italian Communist Party. While upholding what they call Revolutionary Protracted People’s War, their strategy is very different from the Protracted People’s War strategy articulated by the RCP Canada or other pro-PPW Parties in imperialist countries.]
Recently we wrote a letter to Alastair Reith, a comrade from New Zealand, in which we talked about the participation of our Party in the bourgeois political struggle, and particularly in the elections, quoting a thesis of the Second Congress of CARC Party (October 2009). Our explanation, anyway, was defective. Here we complete it indicating which is the most important aspect that, here in Italy and in this phase makes the participation in the bourgeois political struggle and particularly in the elections a revolutionary mean.
As the matter regards an issue debated in the international communist movement, we spread this communication widely.
As regards our line to break into the bourgeois political struggle, our position is very different from any other M-L or M-L-M party that agrees in participating in the elections and generally in the bourgeois political struggle, but does not carry out the Revolutionary Protracted People’s War (RPPW) for establishing socialism
Mike Ely of Kasama Project has an article giving an overview of Communist electoral tactics here. It makes it quite … Continue reading On Elections: Kasama Project
[Updated Feb 16, 2012 to include an excerpt from Six Lines of Demarcation – ed] We’re running with a theme! … Continue reading On elections: RI’s take (so far)
