First Published: The Forge, Vol. 2, No. 15, August 19, 1977
Transcription, Editing and Markup: Malcolm and Paul Saba
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The Regina Marxist-Leninist Collective has rallied to the CCL(ML). This is the result of the struggle for unity that has proceeded between the two groups over the last months. Through an intense period of debate, study and the struggle against opportunism, unity was achieved on the main questions of ideological and political line that face revolutionaries in Canada today.
Recognizing the fundamentally correct nature of the League’s line, the militants of the RMLC have now joined the ranks of the CCL(ML) in order to continue the struggle for the creation of a genuine Marxist-Leninist communist party in Canada.
The RMLC was a communist group that has been active in Saskatchewan for some time. It carried out a number of activities, including the organization of meetings on International Women’s Day and the first of May, the first communist meetings to be held in the prairies in more than twenty years. The RMLC had also begun doing communist work in the working class and published a number of political line statements.
Recently the RMLC published a self criticism that dealt in particular with the origins of the group (see Forge no. 13) Many of its members had orginally been active in the Saskatchewan Waffle movement. As the self criticism points out, the Waffle, which originated as a left social democratic split from the NDP and has increasingly adopted a revisionist line, has nothing in common with a communist group.
In the course of struggle and learning from the experiences of the communist movement in the rest of the country some members of the Waffle left this organization, repudiated their opportunism and went on to begin communist work with the RMLC.
After its creation the RMLC struggled against the opportunism of the Waffle and against other opportunist and counter-revolutionary groups that are present in the region.
In a statement published at the time of its rallying to the League (available at Norman Bethune bookstores) comments on the correct and principled attitude that the League adopted with them throughout the process of struggle for unity, and the firmness of the League in the fight against opportunism.
This text also criticizes In Struggles’ opportunist manoeuvres on the unity question. It denounces In Struggles’ methods for realizing unity through avoiding the struggle over ideological and political line. The RMLC firmly opposed In Struggles’ opportunist line on unity and called for the boycott of its bankrupt “second unity conference” in 1977, a conference doomed to failure.
The rallying of the RMLC to the League is a severe blow to all those like In Struggle who believe that the only road to unity is through opportunist conciliation and compromise.
The rallying of the RMLC to the League is a step forward in the struggle to unify Marxist-Leninists in Canada and thus a step on the road towards the creation of the party.
The effects will be felt immediately. It will signify a big leap forward for communist work locally, as the experience of the League, the use of The Forge newspaper, etc. will raise the agitational, propaganda and organizational activities of communists in Saskatchewan to a new level.
For the League this also means the expansion of our work into a new area of the country and a development of our capacity to analyse and synthesize the situation of class struggle in Canada.
This is progress for the League and it will continue to develop and widen its revolutionary work.