The last few months have seen an upsurge in struggles of the oppressed nationalities the likes of which has not been seen for a long time. One fight has hardly begun when another one erupts.
On September 16 a large rally was held in one of New Brunswick’s Acadian regions. 2000 people attended to show their solidarity with the mainly Acadian families evicted from Kouchibouguac Park. This was another landmark in the Acadians’ constant battle for their national rights.
Hundreds of miles away, in the town of Penetanguishene, Franco-Ontarians set up a parallel French school in early September without any government subsidies, relying on volunteer teachers and donations from the Franco-Ontarian community. This militant move shows that they will take all necessary measures to ensure their children en education in their language.
Recently the Black community in Toronto widely mobilized against racist police brutality.
Lastly, on October 20, Mohawk Indians on the Kahnawake (Caughnawaga) reserve were enraged by the brutal murder of their brother David Cross by the Quebec Provincial Police.
These battles breaking out in every part of our country reflect the great strength of the oppressed nationalities, who all have a common adversary – the Canadian capitalist class. It is the capitalists who deny them their national rights, their right to their lands, their languages, and their democratic rights.
Canada is a veritable prisonhouse of nationalities. Eight million Canadians, one-third of our population, must live with national oppression, with discrimination because they speak French, with racism because they are Inuit, Indian, Metis, Black or Chinese.
National oppression cannot be tolerated. Our Party, just as the League before it, takes up the demands of oppressed peoples and is active in the struggle for their rights.
The WCP thus works to channel the great fighting potential of the oppressed nationalities and the struggles of the Canadian working class into one single movement.
The WCP’s recently published program gives special attention to defending the rights of nationalities, particularly in chapter 4: “Canada is a prison of nationalities.”
The series of articles we are publishing here supplement this part of the program, with the aim of deepening our understanding of the development of our country’s different nationalities and the present-day manifestations of their oppression.
The following articles deal with different aspects of the national question in Canada.
One article exposes the various theories, all of them equally chauvinist, presently used by the ruling class to justify national oppression.
In the second we deal with how socialism is the only system that guarantees the complete equality of nationalities and the end of their oppression.
Lastly, we have a collection of articles outlining the development of the oppressed nationalities and how their oppression manifests itself today.