Basing ourselves on the concrete analysis of the concrete situation presented in the previous section, we’ll try in this section to look at the nature of a principal contradiction, the leading role it plays with regard to the other contradictions, the application of these principles to Canada, and some erroneous ideas on these questions still current in the Marxist-Leninist movement.
What is a principal contradiction?
Mao Tsetung has shown us that:
There are many contradictions in the process of development of a complex thing, and one of them is necessarily the principal contradiction whose existence and development determine or influence the existence of the other contradictions.
The principal contradiction in a society is the one which plays a determining role in the development of all the other contradictions which occupy a secondary, subordinate position. There is always only one principal contradiction which plays a key role; it is in this sense that Mao said that once it is discovered, “all other problems are easily solved.”
Class struggle is the motive force of history (in class society). The principal contradiction is the one that plays the leading role in the class struggle in a country at a particular time. It opposes two antagonistic political and social forces. Thus to determine what the principal contradiction is in society, we have to discover which one influence over-determines the other contradictions in society.
The development of the struggle between the two aspects of the principal contradiction will determine or influence the development of the secondary contradictions. This implies also that the resolution of the principal contradiction is the key to the resolution of the other contradictions.
A correct position on the principal contradiction is thus the central element to the definition of a scientific strategy. An error on this question will have serious consequences for the future of the working class movement and that of the communist party.
In Canada today, the fundamental antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat can be seen in the daily clashes between the two irreconcilable enemies. The intensification of the repressive political and economic measures by the bourgeoisie on one hand and the multitude of legal and illegal strikes with the strengthening resistance of the proletariat on the other, are concrete manifestations of this antagonism.
Is there anything in the concrete conditions in Canada today that would lead us to believe that this fundamental contradiction is not also, at the present time, the principal contradiction? We think not. It is the Canadian imperialist bourgeoisie, not some lackey class or foreign aggressors which controls the state and uses it to exploit and oppress workers in Canada, and people abroad where it exports capital. For the proletariat to become the ruling class, for the Canadian people to rid themselves of American imperialism and keep the two superpowers at bay, and for the Quebec nation to end its national oppression and exercise its right to self-determination, this is the class which must be dislodged from power.
It is the struggle between these two great forces – the Canadian bourgeoisie and the Canadian proletariat – which has determined, in the main, the past of our country, and still determines its present and future development. The proletariat, under the leadership of the Party will engage in a revolutionary struggle for seizure of power and socialism. The class struggle in Canada has clearly reached a point where the key to the resolution of the secondary contradictions is the dictatorship of the proletariat; that is to say socialist revolution.
Herein lies the key to determining the principal contradiction: its leading role vis-a-vis the other major contradictions. We cannot examine the principal contradiction in isolation for, by definition, this contradiction is principal in regards to the secondary contradictions which it influences or determines. An examination of the major secondary contradictions in Canada reveals how the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat determines or influences their development. Following such an analysis, we will see what characterizes two current incorrect positions on the principal contradiction is precisely the failure to establish the leading role of the principal contradiction, and thus, the failure to take into account Marxist dialectics or concrete reality.
We present here only an analysis of the major secondary contradictions – the two which are of decisive importance to the revolution. A more comprehensive look at other secondary contradictions will have to await a deeper study of Canadian society.
The contradiction between the Canadian people and the two superpowers, in particular American imperialism is the most important secondary contradiction because it is the most likely to bring about a change in the principal contradiction. This change can occur in certain particular conditions: For example, a military invasion by one or even both of the two superpowers could occur during a world war, or when the superpowers see their interests threatened by the possibility of the overthrow of the Canadian bourgeoisie by the proletariat.
At present, as a country of the second world in the US sphere of influence, Canada has to face above all the attempts of the US to maintain, strengthen and reinforce its hegemony at all levels. The US exports a third of its capital to Canada; until recently, total American capital was about the same in Europe as it was in Canada. Politically, the US is always trying to interfere in Canada’s internal affairs: the recent visit and speeches by Secretary of Defense Schlesinger is the latest example. Schlesinger’s statements about Canada’s defense policy showed that US imperialism is still determined to dictate its military policy to the Canadian government.
American cultural and ideological influence on the Canadian people is also quite strong. Imperialist propaganda from the US freely penetrates our country through a myriad of ways.
Let’s not forget, moreover, that American “international” unions control over half the unionized workers in Canada.
Finally, it is certain that attempts by US imperialism to intensify its control and gain more influence in Canada will increase as it loses its strongholds elsewhere in the world.
Even if we cannot compare the Soviet presence in Canada to that of the US, it would be wrong to underestimate the other superpower – the more dangerous one on a world scale. For Soviet social-imperialism continually tries to step into the spheres of influence of its American rival. As Enver Hoxha explained, we have to fight both superpowers with equal firmness:
As long as the imperialist United States and the revisionist Soviet Union are two imperialist superpowers and come out with a common counterrevolutionary strategy, it is impossible for the struggle of the people against them not to merge into a common trend. You cannot rely on one imperialism to oppose the other. (Report Submitted to the Sixth Congress of the Party of Labor of Albania).
The USSR is trying to penetrate the Canadian market in many ways: agreements made with BC Hydro to sell below the cost of production, federal government credits of $500 million to the new Tsars, an important increase of commercial exchange between the two countries in the last few years, etc. At the same time, the Soviet fishing fleets violate Canadian territory in order to reap large harvests in our waters. The Soviets also have used electronic spying devices against Canada. Moreover its hegemonic activities could gain a certain amount of support in the working class thanks to the activity of the revisionist (which should not be underestimated).
At the present time, the increasing rivalry of the two superpowers is the breeding ground of a new world war. This weighs heavily on the Canadian people for our country is richly endowed with raw material of all sorts (energy) and is also a food basket of the world. Canada, too, is situated between the two superpowers.
For all these reasons both superpowers would like to control the country. Thus even if Europe were to be the principal theater of a possible war between the two superpowers, Canada would not be spared. Moreover, Canada has practically no autonomous military defense capacity.
The threat and oppression the two superpowers – especially the US – pose for the Canadian people, then, is quite enormous.
We’ll see below how only the proletariat can lead the Canadian people against these enemies.
There exist two nations in Canada: the English-Canadian nation and the Quebec nation.[1] It is the fundamental right of each nation to decide its own future, up to and including the right to political separation (the right to form an independent state). Quebec has always been deprived of the right to self-determination; it is an oppressed nation.
The negation of its right to self-determination is the essential basis of Quebec’s national oppression, an oppression which takes many forms: strong threats against the French language and Quebec culture; inferior work conditions and wages for workers; more limited access to higher education, etc.
The oppression of the Quebec nation is essentially the work of the Canadian bourgeoisie, in whose interest it is to perpetuate the inequalities between the two nations, in order to divide the working class and the Canadian people and to exploit even more Quebec workers. We have to understand this simple truth – the old tactic of divide and rule – in order to oppose the politics of national division of the bourgeoisie, with the politics of national equality put forward by the conscious proletariat.
We must affirm at all times the fundamental right of the Quebec nation to self-determination, up to and including free separation. This implies that the oppressed nation must have the right to freely choose either union with the other nation (which can take many forms according to concrete conditions for example, regional autonomy) or separation. Communists must struggle relentlessly against all forms of national oppression for the right to self-determination of the Quebec nation – right now.
But while a nation must choose between union and complete separation, communists have to take a position and convince the people to make the choice which will best contribute to the revolutionary struggle of the proletariat for the emancipation of the whole working class and the entire people. Therefore, in Canada, at this time, we do not struggle in favour of the separation of Quebec. Separation would weaken the cause of the proletariat (of all and each of its parts) in dividing it in the face of the Canadian bourgeoisie, our principal enemy. Separation would also weaken our people against the hegemonic aims of the two superpowers. But our opposition to separation has nothing to do with the bourgeoisie’s opposition to it. The bourgeoisie’s “national unity” is based on inequality, on the oppression of Quebec. Communists struggle for the unity of the proletariat, a unity which can only be based on the equality of nations and never on the subordination of one nation to another. We combat all divisions of the proletariat of the two nations in applying the teachings of Lenin, who underlined the tasks of socialists of each nation.
The proletariat (and socialists, ed. note) must demand freedom of political separation for the colonies and nations oppressed by “their own” nation. Otherwise, the internationalism of the proletariat would be nothing but empty words, neither confidence nor class solidarity would be possible between the workers of the oppressed and the oppressor nations.
On the other hand, the socialists of the oppressed nations must, in particular, defend and implement the full and unconditional unity, including organisational unity of the workers of the oppressed nation and those of the oppressor nation. (Lenin, Socialist Revolution and Self-Determination, Vol. 22).
In Canada Marxist-Leninists must understand the practical importance of this principle. In struggling against all manifestations of the oppression of the Quebec nation, Canadian communists must nevertheless make distinctions between the different forms of bourgeois nationalism in order to better combat them – Anglo-Canadian chauvinism on the one hand, and Quebecois narrow nationalism on the other, which is reaction to national oppression.
We have to ceaselessly struggle against the big nation chauvinism. All the bourgeois parties – including the so-called “socialists” of the NDP – deny the right of the Quebec nation to self-determination. There are some particularly fanatical forces which continuously try to intensify the oppression of the Quebec nation. (Consider the attitudes of ex-Mayor Jones of Moncton, now a federal MP.)
We must also combat the narrow nationalism in the oppressed nation. The Parti Quebecois, a bourgeois nationalist and anti-worker party, is not the consistent defender of the Quebec nation. It must be combatted for what it is: a bourgeois nationalist party which serves class interests rather than national ones.
The Quebec nation is an important reserve of the proletarian revolution. The struggle for the right of self-determination of the Quebec nation, which constitutes 1/4 of the population of the country, must be an integral part of the Canadian proletarian revolution.
Even an embryonic analysis of the secondary contradictions must include the other forms of national oppression existing in our country: among others, the native peoples, as well as those francophone minorities living outside of Quebec, Acadians and Metis.
We must study these questions in order to scientifically define the socio-economic situation of these groups and their specific political rights. Only on this basis can we link the struggle of these groups against their oppression to the struggle of the proletariat for its emancipation, for the emancipation of all the oppressed and exploited.
Now that we have a basic understanding of the nature of the two major secondary contradictions, let us examine more carefully the leading role of the principal contradiction in their development.
The struggle for national independence forms an integral part of the proletarian revolution. Herein lies the link which unites this contradiction (between the Canadian people and the superpowers) to the principal contradiction, the link which shows the leading role of the principal contradiction. The strengthening of Canadian national independence and its firm opposition to the hegemonic aims and belligerent designs of the superpowers, especially the US, cannot occur without the mobilization of the proletariat and all the people.
The fact that Canada is a second world country subject to the interference of the two superpowers, especially the US, is reflected in the two tendencies within the bourgeoisie. One tendency wants to assert the country’s economic and political independence while the other is willing to bow (even capitulate) to US imperialism. Particularly because of the international situation, the first tendency tends to be asserting itself more and more. But this does not rule out the possibility that in war-time the whole Canadian monopoly bourgeoisie will capitulate to the US.
Left on its own, the Canadian bourgeoisie will probably side with US imperialism in a new world war. By its very nature as a decadent and reactionary class, the monopolist bourgeoisie will, if it ever does oppose hegemonism and imperialist war, at best do so in an inconsistent manner. Its tendency towards capitulation will always be strong. Stalin characterized well the attitude of the bourgeoisie vis-a-vis national independence and defined the role of communists:
Formerly, the bourgeoisie stood at the head of the nation; it committed itself to the nation’s rights and independence and placed it ’above everything’. Now, there is not a trace of this same ’national principle’. Now, the bourgeoisie sells the rights and independence of the nation for dollars. The banner of national independence has been castaway. There is no doubt that you, the representatives of the communist and democratic parties must pick it up again and carry high if you are patriots of your country, if you want to be the leading force of your nation. For no else can carry that banner.” (Cited in Proletariat, No. 10, 1975. Our translation)
Our task is to develop a united front of the Canadian people for the defense of the national independence of the country against the two superpowers, and in particular against the danger of war. We have to undertake right now the struggle against the political and economic interference of the two superpowers.
Only in this way will our people be prepared for the danger of world war. And only the proletariat can play the leading role in this united front. A sufficiently united strong and organised proletariat could lead the people in a united front for national independence against the imperialist war to force the bourgeoisie to stay out of the war. Thus the development of the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie determines the position of the Canadian people in relation to a war between the two superpowers.
On the other hand, the development of the revolutionary situation in Canada is certain to evoke concern in the superpower camp. American imperialism in particular could not tolerate the creation of a socialist state on its borders and the subsequent loss of its hegemony over Canada. This means that the development of the principal contradiction could incite an invasion by one or both of the super powers. This would mean the changing of the principal contradiction.
Finally history has shown that it is only in a socialist society that people can be truly self-reliant, develop a national economy and defend the independence of the country. Only through socialism can Canada gain, consolidate and maintain a real economic and political independence from the two superpowers.
In all the cases mentioned, then, it is clear that the principal contradiction influences or determines the development of the contradiction between the Canadian people and the two superpowers, particularly US imperialism. The same goes for the Quebec national question.
National oppression of the Quebec people is essentially the doing of the ruling Canadian bourgeoisie, the class that maintains this oppression, and above all, refuses to grant Quebec the democratic right to self-determination. In this way, it divides the Canadian proletariat in order to better exploit the Quebec workers. The struggle for the resolution of the principal contradiction determines the resolution of this secondary contradiction, for only the struggle of the entire Canadian proletariat, a proletariat conscious of the need for unity and of its class interests, could counter the bourgeoisie’s policy of national division and its attempts to accentuate the contradictions between the two nations.
What’s more, national oppression can only be eliminated with the overthrow of the Canadian bourgeoisie by the proletariat. For the monopoly bourgeoisie, which firmly holds power, puts its exploitative class interests above all else and limits as much as possible democratic rights. The right to self-determination, including the right to secede, for over a quarter of the Canadian people is a democratic achievement of a magnitude totally unacceptable to the bourgeoisie; it would resort to the most brutal oppression to oppose it.
The contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat is therefore determining in the development of the national question. As Stalin formulated it:
The tragedy of the multi-national bourgeois state lies in that it cannot resolve these contradictions, that every attempt on its part to “equalize” the nations and to ”protect” the national minorities, while preserving private property and class inequality, usually ends in another failure, in a further aggravation of national conflicts. (The Immediate Tasks of the Party in the National Question, Vol. 5)
We also affirm that the elimination of the national oppression of the Quebec people is a part of the historic mission of the Canadian proletariat.
The resolution of the principal contradiction by socialist revolution opens the road to the complete resolution of the national question.
To recognize that society evolves and develops through class struggle is to recognize that the overall picture of class contradiction is not fixed, that contradictions are changed and displaced. Inevitably this also holds true for the principal contradiction. In fact, changes and developments in contradictions continually transform the situation in a society, in the whole world. Internal factors, as well as changes in the international situation (especially in the era of imperialism) could make it possible for an important secondary contradiction, at a given moment, to become principal.
The changing of the principal antagonism, the appearance of a new principal contradiction is a major political event, an event that could not go unnoticed, one that would determine the passing to a new stage in the process of development of society. Once we have defined the essential socio-economic and political characteristics of a country and the enemies of the revolution, it is possible to perceive and even to foresee the change of the principal contradiction.
The experience of the Chinese revolution, summed up in the works of Mao Tsetung, provides us with a valuable guide in understanding the problem of a change in the principal contradiction. In On Contradiction, Mao establishes that this change usually takes place after a foreign imperialist aggression or armed intervention to help domestic reaction. Another possibility that we can mention is a fascist coup d’etat. All these possibilities for change of the principal contradiction are characterized by the fact that they produce a certain, more or less abrupt change in the control of state power (who exercises power and against whom). There is thus a close link between the two questions of the principal contradiction and the holding of state power. The reason that the principal contradiction cannot go by unnoticed is because it shows itself, in one way or another, in the state.
For an example of this phenomenon, we can look at the Nazi aggression in France during World War II. At that time, the principal contradiction in France between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat changed; it became one which opposed the French people to the Nazi invaders and a handful of traitors represented by the Vichy government.
But Canada is neither subject to foreign aggression, nor to armed intervention. As we have shown earlier, the Canadian monopolist bourgeoisie is the ruling class, the class that controls the state and the economic development of the country. Moreover, the bourgeoisie has not resorted to fascism to safeguard its power.
A change in internal factors or in the world situation, however, could bring about the change of the principal contradiction. An example of this would be the invasion of Canada by one or both superpowers; an aggression which necessarily would change the principal contradiction in the country.
Two incorrect positions on the principal contradiction are presently being put forward in Canada. The first position defines as principal the contradiction between US imperialism and the Canadian people; the other defines the principal contradiction in Canada as that which opposes the Canadian bourgeoisie, allied to US imperialism on the one hand, and the Canadian proletariat on the other hand. (This position is put forward by the comrades of En Lutte!.) We present the following analysis to help clarify this crucially important question within the young Marxist-Leninist movement in our country. For there are many Marxist-Leninists who agree with the positions we criticize. But they are also put forward by out-and-out counter-revolutionary forces like the “CPC(ML)”.
These two positions have several things in common. First of all, they underestimate the role of the Canadian bourgeoisie as an enemy of the proletariat. They are also based on a lack of understanding of Canada as a second world imperialist country; those who put forward these two positions blur the difference between the relationship of an imperialist country of the second world, like Canada, to the superpowers and the relationship of a colonized country to a colonizing power. Moreover, these two positions objectively lead to an underestimation of the danger Soviet social-imperialism poses to the Canadian revolution. These two analyses are both objectively right deviations, since they divert the revolutionary movement from its strategic goal (overthrowing the bourgeoisie’s class domination): one seizes on the “wrong link” in the chain while the other tries to grab “two links” at the same time.
As we have already explained, Canada is neither a colony of the USA, nor a Third World country. It is an independent imperialist country, whose ruling class, the Canadian monopolist bourgeoisie, controls its political and economic life. It is a country subjected to domination in many forms by American imperialism; it is, in other words, a second world country.
To a large extent, the first erroneous position we mentioned (imperialism vs. the people) has already been discredited in the Marxist-Leninist movement; we offer the previous chapter as additional proof of its invalidity. Let us examine in a little more detail the second position, which pits the proletariat against the Canadian bourgeoisie and US imperialism in a single contradiction.
This position confuses the relationship between US imperialism and both the Canadian bourgeoisie and the Canadian people.
First let us look at the principal aspect of this contradiction. By lumping together the Canadian and the American bourgeoisies in the same aspect of the principal contradiction, this position makes the mistake of trying to fuse two imperialist bourgeoisies: This boils down to saying that there is an identity of interests between the two ruling classes – negating, objectively, the imperialist nature of the Canadian bourgeoisie.
This idea resembles the theory of ultra-imperialism, put forward by the revisionist Kautsky who argued that contradictions or rivalry between different imperialist countries could be replaced by peaceful alliances.
Lenin refuted this, maintaining that given the very nature of imperialism, two imperialist bourgeoisies will always, in essence, compete – whatever the form of their relationship. Canada’s relation to the US is no exception to this rule.
The Canadian bourgeoisie has links with US imperialism that are in general similar to those a ruling class of any second world country would have with a superpower. By definition, then, this is an unequal alliance – all the more unequal because Canada is not a strong second world country as, say, France or West Germany. But nonetheless there exists struggle between the Canadian bourgeoisie and US imperialism.
They are not two parts of a dominant class, but two distinct imperialist bourgeoisies.
Because the two-bourgeoisies-vs.-the proletariat analysis does not distinguish between the two ruling classes in terms of their imperialist nature and their belonging to the first and second worlds it ends up somewhat eclectically giving economic power to one bourgeoisie and political power to the other. This is accomplished by combining two into one; the so-called “Canadian and American capitalist class”. But it is not only wrong to say that the Canadian economy is controlled by US imperialism; it is also anti-Marxist to separate the economy from politics in this way.
Another variation of this position goes so far as to say that the Canadian state is shared between US imperialism and the Canadian bourgeoisie. This theory negates the Marxist-Leninist principles on the nature of the state which is the instrument of domination of one class over another. State control cannot be shared between two bourgeoisies. This doesn’t negate the fact however, that under the present conditions in Canada, American imperialism, especially because of its economic power, can influence the Canadian state; it nevertheless rests in the hands of the Canadian bourgeoisie.
Let’s tackle another angle of the error: the secondary aspect. The bourgeoisie is in antagonistic contradiction to the proletariat. This contradiction can only be resolved through socialist revolution and the setting up of a state of the dictatorship of the proletariat. When foreign imperialism oppresses a country, it enters into an antagonistic contradiction not only with the proletariat, but also with all the classes, strata and social groups of people (except for a handful of agents and traitors to the nation). This contradiction will be resolved through different methods according to the particular case: through revolutionary national war (or struggle for national liberation) and the establishment of a New Democratic state, in the case of colonial or semi-colonial domination by imperialism; through anti-fascist national war and the establishment of a people’s democratic state in the case of fascist aggression and occupation.
We can’t oppose US imperialism as an aspect or part of an aspect of a contradiction to only the Canadian proletariat. US imperialism, as a foreign superpower is opposed to the entire Canadian people which is composed of other social classes and strata, besides the proletariat. To try to oppose American imperialism to the proletariat rather than to the people reflects a poor understanding not only of the nature of a superpower, but also of Marxist dialectics.
Mao, in On Contradiction, shows how “the scientific reflection of the identity in real transformations is Marxist dialectics.” The identity or unity of aspects of the contradictions consists in the double fact that 1) “one of the two aspects of the contradiction is the condition for the existence of the other”; and that 2) “in given conditions each of the two contradictory aspects transforms itself into its opposite.”
This principle can be seen clearly if we take the example of the contradiction between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Here the unity of the two aspects is clearly established: 1) the exploitation of the proletariat is the condition for the existence of the bourgeoisie, 2) through revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, the latter can eliminate exploitation and overthrow the domination of the bourgeoisie in its own country.
But it is impossible to establish unity between US imperialism and the Canadian proletariat. In trying do to this, it becomes clear that this unity exists more between American imperialism and the entire Canadian people. 1) The oppression and exploitation of the Canadian people, (not only the proletariat) is the condition for the existence of American imperialism in Canada. 2) Through the action of the entire people, foreign Imperialism can be eliminated in a given country.
In fact, to counter the threat and control of the two superpowers in Canada, we have to get the whole Canadian people to oppose the foreign enemies. It is in the interests of the whole people, except for a handful of agents and traitors, to fight against the two superpowers; it is only the proletariat which has an interest to struggle to the end for the overthrow of the bourgeoisie and the setting up of the dictatorship of the proletariat. As part of the Canadian people, the proletariat is in antagonistic contradiction to the two superpowers – in fact, it is the most consistent fighter against hegemonism.
Therefore there are two related but distinct contradictions; one between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, and the other between the Canadian people and the two superpowers, particularly American imperialism.
What is missing in the position of “US imperialism and Canadian bourgeoisie Canadian proletariat” is an understanding of the specific character of the contradiction, of how the general oppression of the peoples of the world by imperialism affects the Canadian people in particular.
In the case of Canada, a second world country, foreign imperialist oppression by the superpowers, particularly US imperialism, is of an antagonistic nature and must be resolved through the struggle of the people to preserve and reinforce Canada’s national independence in the economic, political, military and ideological cultural spheres. As we have shown, this struggle against the political hegemony of the two superpowers – mainly the US, but also the USSR – is an integral part of the proletarian revolution in Canada.
The analysis of the most important contradictions of Canadian society permits us to conclude that the socialist revolution in Canada is confronted by three very strong enemies, the Canadian bourgeoisie, the principal enemy, and the two superpowers, US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. In order to defeat these adversaries, we must have a revolutionary strategy for Canada, a plan of war which will lay out the road to the victory of the proletariat and of socialism. The Canadian proletariat, armed with a Marxist-Leninist communist party, will rally the popular masses around it and defeat all its enemies – as powerful as they are and build a socialist society in our country.
[1] “A national is an historically evolved, stable community of language, territory, economic life and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture.” Stalin, Marxism and the National Question.