Revolutionary Youth and Students Conference: Open Letter from the PCR-RCP Canada

On the occasion of this 2nd conference and on behalf of all the supporters of the Parti Communiste Révolutionnaire - Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP) in Canada, we extend a red salute to the work accomplished over the course of the last few months, especially in mobilizing new forces and forming, within the student milieu, a movement of a new type —a movement that aims to unify the revolutionary forces. We hope this movement will multiply from one end of the country to the other. We recognize that efforts to build such an organization are in the earliest of stages, yet it is already a great achievement to begin tackling this task!

In this spirit and on this occasion of the 2nd Conference of the Revolutionary Youth and Students, comrades of the PCR-RCP submit the following analyses —however summary!— to the attention of all participants. We hope these analyses will enrich the discussions in the different workshops and unify comrades on a common understanding of the political context in which this conference undertakes its work.

–> Read the whole letter.

Second National Conference of Revolutionary Youth! ... PCR - MER

Ottawa, June 15-16, 2013

How can students in Québec turn the massive student strike of 2012 into a revolutionary situation? How can students elsewhere mobilize their own struggles against reactionary student associations, the bourgeoisie, and their state? How can students put themselves in the service of the broader working class?

These questions, among others, will be discussed at the Second National Conference of Revolutionary Youth and Students to be held June 15-16, 2013 in Ottawa. Here, we will consolidate the gains achieved since the first “Seize the Time! Blaze a Revolutionary Path” conference. Here we will reaffirm our resolve to fight for Communism.

–> Details and registration form here.

Second National Conference of Revolutionary Youth and Students

HERE IS THE REGISTRATION FORM!!!
Seize the Time! It’s right to rebel!
Ottawa, June 15-16, 2013

Just over a year ago, in February 2012, students in Quebec walked out of their classrooms and began their mass student strike, which raged throughout the province for over six months. The strike against tuition fee hikes, an austerity measure proposed by the former Liberal government, ushered in the so-called “Maple Spring.” A whole generation of students radicalized, spurring mass economic and social disruption. The strike against tuition fee hikes became a radical questioning of the current social order, and perhaps even a questioning of capitalism itself.

There is no doubt that the students in Quebec inspired radical activists across Canada: the students of Quebec were able to bring the government to its knees not only by winning victories in classrooms and boardrooms, but in the streets as well. An evaluation of the victory of the strike, of the tactics and forms of struggle which pushed the bounds of bourgeois legality, is a task that radicals and revolutionaries must grapple with in the coming years. Fearing the worst, the government responded with draconian enforcement of the law, even making new special laws to clamp down on political dissent. The ruling classes know that they can throw a carrot to the masses by calling for an election. Unfortunately, a lot of good intentions and militancy was lost in the trap of electoral politics.

Not even a year has passed since the Parti Quebecois rode into power on the backs of the student struggle, promising the students they would reverse the fees increase if voted in. Today, Marois is intent on squeezing money out of students through incremental tuition fees increases. And indeed, the draconian laws are still in place: on March 22, an anniversary march for the strike was kettled and its participants arrested before the march even began. Liberal or Parti Quebecois, the Quebec bourgeoisie is still afraid of the militancy shown by the students during the long strike of 2012.

Students in English Canada face problems similar to those faced by students in Quebec. Throughout the rest of Canada tuition fees climb, and class sizes grow. Ontario students now have the highest tuition fees in the country, and are simultaneously burdened with the lowest per-capita government funding for education in Canada. Students finish their undergraduate degrees with an average of $28,000 in debt. Corporate investments in universities increase, undermining what meager democracy previously existed on campuses. Education continues to be entirely in the service of the Canadian bourgeoisie, and is used to produce obedient workers and loyal managers rather than being at the service of the liberation of the working class. And yet, despite the dire situation faced by all Canadian students, students in the rest of Canada did not engage in mass actions like the students of Quebec did. In part, this was due to the misdirection of organizations like the Canadian Federation of Students and the Canadian Alliance of Student Associations, who while eager to play a solidarity role to the strike in Quebec, were totally unwilling to bring that militancy to their home provinces.

Everywhere, austerity is still being pursued and forcibly implemented by the agents of the big bourgeoisie and their government stooges. The economic and social conditions of the most exploited masses continue to deteriorate. In Canada 1.4 million people continue to be unemployed. Youth unemployment remains a flashpoint at over 14% (a conservative estimate of the real number). And while even the chief economist of the IMF now refers to austerity as a “brake” on economic recovery and growth, the Conservative government under Stephen Harper is as determined as ever to cut social spending and provide more tax cuts to the wealthy corporations and rich people, who hoard their riches and watch the people go desperate and hungry. Capital expands at the expense of the working class.

With all this in mind, the questions for us are: How can students in Quebec turn the massive student strike of 2012 into a revolutionary situation? How can students elsewhere mobilize their own struggles against reactionary student associations, the bourgeoisie, and their state? How can students put themselves in the service of the broader working class?

The student and youth activists are not going to sit idly by as capitalists continue on their path of destruction for the benefit of a small minority. We call on all radical activists in high schools, colleges, and university campuses to make their school a site of anti-capitalist agitation. We call on all radical left and far-left activists to work with the PCR-RCP in building an independent and combative revolutionary student movement, to make a break with tired old student unionism, at this second national conference to be held June 15-16, 2013 in Ottawa. Here, we will consolidate the gains achieved since the first “Seize the Time! Blaze a Revolutionary Path” conference of the revolutionary student and youth activists. Here we will reaffirm our resolve to fight for Communism.

If you’re interested in helping us build this movement, get in touch with your local revolutionary student movement chapter, whether it is the Marxist Students’ Association, or a campus anti-capitalist committee. Contact conference@mer-rsm.com for more information.

PCR.- Denounce the RCMP Merry-Go-Round!

Denounce the RCMP Merry-Go-Round!
The PCR-RCP condemns the maneuvers and harassment of the federal police!

Wednesday, February 27, an alleged Revolutionary Communist Party sympathiser had his home searched for almost ten hours by police led by the RCMP and its dubious “Integrated National Security Team.”

The RCMP claimed this was concerning the commission of supposed acts of terrorism, specifically the 2010 attack on offices of the Canadian Armed Forces in Trois-Rivières, which was claimed by a group acting under the name “Initiative de résistance internationaliste” (“Internationalist Resistance Inititative”).

At the same time, another raid was taking place at the offices of the Association étudiante du cégep Lionel-Groulx (Lionel-Groulx College Student Association) in Sainte-Thérèse north of Montréal, where the RCMP seized most of the material necessary for the association’s day-to-day activities.

The RCMP claims to have carried out similar raids in Saguenay and in the Saint-Hubert neighbourhood in Longueuil, but refuses to disclose the identity of the people in question.

One day beforehand, on February 26, a student from Sherbrooke who was also in touch with PCR-RCP Canada supporters was intercepted by police at L’Ange-Gardien. At the time, he was on a bus with a group of students from his area on their way to Montreal to attend a demonstration; he was brought to the RCMP’s headquarters in Westmount where he was held for several hours. In this case, as in all the others, no charges were laid.

The RCMP is up to its old tricks once again. It seems clear that the RCMP periodically wants to remind the Quebecois people (which has a tendency to “royally” not give a crap about this reactionary police force) that they are there in order to be then able to go fishing for information in areas that they have been interested in for years.

The investigators from the “integrated team” are shamelessly seeking media attention to let the activist scenes know how desperately clueless they are. Her royal majesty’s investigators have been looking for the big bad wolf for years, and they think they have spotted its den in all the activist scenes.

Of course, politics being politics, the RCMP takes advantage of its annual expeditions to put together its files, to map out the activist scenes and collect loads of computer material and documentation.

But what have they gotten out of this?

• Big banners that have walked the 400 steps in our streets!
• Beautiful red flags!
• Documents that provide hundreds of reasons to fight against capitalism!
• Documents that provide hundreds of examples of popular struggles here and abroad!
• Documents that provide hundreds of examples of courageous and inspirational actions and demonstrations!

The Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada) denounces these RCMP raids, along with any and all police activities currently being carried out against activists and their organizations, especially against revolutionary organizations struggling against the power of the big capitalists.

The PCR-RCP supports all activists who serve the people through their actions, their devotion and generosity, and their engagement on behalf of those oppressed by bourgeois society.
 

The PCR-RCP invites all activists to continue their good work in ongoing struggles, and to not let the police distract them from pursuing their objectives.

PCR.- Website for Revolutionary Students

http://saisislemoment.blogspot.ca/

This website was launched to serve as a forum for discussion and debate among student revolutionaries, as per the resolution passed as the First National Conference of Revolutionary Youth and Students initiated by the PCR-RCP in December of 2012. There, various revolutionary student organisations can post content ranging from position pieces, updates on campaigns, strategies, and whatever else. Revolutionary students should feel free to comment and debate what is posted. This forum will also serve as a basis of organisation for the next Conference of Revolutionary Youth and Students, which is to be held in Ottawa in June of 2013.

New content will be added fairly frequently, and while there may be some lag in translations, most of the content here will be bilingual as well.

If your student organisation would like to participate in the Seize the Time effort, please email: seizethetime2012@yahoo.ca.

PCR.- PCR-RCP Anniversary Party

 

Comrades, come rally!

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party (Canada). As a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist party, the PCR-RCP is committed to smashing capitalism through protracted people’s war and building true proletarian power through socialism. For more information on the program of the PCR-RCP, please visit http://pcr-rcp.ca/en/en/programme/

In order to celebrate the struggles and victories of the PCR-RCP throughout the past six years, we will be hosting a bar-night in the spirit of solidarity. Whether you are a supporter of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, or you’d like to learn more about the party, or you just want have a fun Friday night with good comrades, please join us this coming Friday January 25th in the basement of the Royal Oak (161 Laurier East, Ottawa), starting at 9 pm.

Until then, lal salaam!

PCR.- No to Political Repression! Free Our Comrades!

The four comrades who were arrested after the anti-capitalist May 1st demonstration in 2011 will undergo their preliminary inquiry on December 10th at the Montréal courthouse. The judge will determine which legal steps will be taken after this, once it is determined whether there is sufficient evidence for holding a trial.

Recall that on June 29th, 2011, the Anti-Gang unit of the Montréal Police’s Organized Crime Division raided the homes of and arrested four political activists they suspected of being part of the Revolutionary Communist Party (PCR-RCP Canada), in connection with an incident that occurred at the May 1st demonstration organized by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence (CLAC Montréal). Police officers were allegedly injured when protesters opposed a provocative attempt to arrest one of the Partisan’s photographers, who was apparently shouting anti-police slogans too loudly.

The four comrades are facing serious criminal charges, including “assault with a weapon,” “assaulting a police officer,” “obstruction of justice” and “possession of a weapon with intent to cause harm.” Two of them were arrested again during subsequent demonstrations for alleged “breach of condition.”

The operation that led to the arrest of the four comrades was supervised by an investigator from the Service de Police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM, Montréal’s municipal police force), who is also part of the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, along with representatives from the Québec Provincial Police (SQ), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS).

For nearly two months, the Maison Norman Bethune —a bookstore supported by the PCR-RCP Canada— had been under constant surveillance by the police. Harassment also continued after the arrests, with a dozen activists suspected —rightly or wrongly— of being revolutionary communists were visited by the SPVM, the RCMP and CSIS, both at home and at their workplaces.

The arrest of the four comrades forced the SPVM to disclose the existence of its now-infamous GAMMA squad (GAMMA stands for “Guet des activités et des mouvements marginaux et anarchistes”, or “Surveillance of the activities of marginal and anarchist movements”). The objective of this political squad is to harass and monitor revolutionary and anti-capitalist networks. The establishment of this squad generated a wave of condemnations across the country. Several groups and individuals have signed a public statement against political profiling. On December 16, 2011, more than 175 people took part in a solidarity event in Montréal to raise funds to helping the May 1st defendants prepare for their trial.

The December 10 preliminary inquiry and the trial that will eventually follow will provide an excellent opportunity to sheding light on the political activities of the Montréal police, including the harassment in which they engage against communist and revolutionary activists. SPVM representatives will especially have to explain their provocation at the May 1st, 2011 demonstration. It appears from the written testimony of some cops involved in the altercation that they were sent unprepared to arrest our photographer and even that they seemed to have absolutely no idea of the reasons for his arrest.

In an interview he gave to La Presse newspaper, the head of SPVM specialized investigations team Jacques Robinette explained why they set up the GAMMA squad: “We are no longer able to control the demonstrations. There is popular uprising and provocation, including assault and harm against police officers, in all demonstrations.” We can expect these outbursts and uprisings to expand and multiply, as the crisis brings more and more people to resist and radicalize.

In fact, despite the unprecedented repression with which it was confronted, the glorious red spring from Québec students has shown that nothing can stop the march of the oppressed when they mobilize to win their liberation. On the judicial front, this is also what the trial of the May 1st, 2011 defendants will show!

PCR.- Revolutionary Students ‘Seize the Time’ at First Conference

December 1st and 2nd, 2012, saw the first conference of revolutionary youth and students convened in Toronto. Initiated by the Revolutionary Communist Party and titled, “Seize the Time; Blaze a Revolutionary Path,” the conference brought together revolutionary students from Ottawa, Toronto, Guelph, Montréal, Sainte-Thérèse, Québec City and Rimouski —as well as comrades from New York and Boston— to discuss perspectives for revolutionary student organizing both in Québec and English Canada.

The need for revolutionary action by proletarian youth and students was emphasized in light of the unrelenting attacks globally against the working class —attacks which are disproportionately targeted at proletarian youth— was emphasized.

Comrades gathered also discussed the lessons to be gleaned from the heroic student strike in Québec: especially, that a revolutionary politics and revolutionary programme must be the leading force in such a movement, and that a struggle for reforms can produce only reforms, not the revolution we need. For the maintenance of these revolutionary politics, it was also noted that revolutionary student activists must maintain a separation and independence from the established student federations, which, according to their very nature, can only ever be reformist.

Comrades discussed and adopted a number of proposals for action over the coming months, including (but not limited to): the formation of local groups of revolutionary students in the high schools, CEGEPs, colleges and universities they attend (with a goal of forming a truly national Revolutionary Student Movement); a commitment to take action in support of the right to self-determination for First Nations, Metis and Inuit people; support for comrades waging peoples’ wars in India, the Philippines, Turkey and Afghanistan as well as a plan to take action during the international Week to support the Peoples’ War in India; and a planned walk-out on May 1, 2013 by students to join the revolutionary May Day activities in their cities.

Comrades also resolved to hold another such conference in six months’ time, to be held in Ottawa. This conference will have the goal of reviewing the experiences of revolutionary students in organizing, systematizing a plan of action based on that experience and consolidating the unity of revolutionary students across Canada.

For more information on how to implement these proposals in your own locality, and to arrange attendance at this second Conference of Revolutionary Youth and Students, contact the revolutionary students at seizethetime2012@yahoo.com

The Partisan salutes the revolutionary students for making this important first step in establishing a Revolutionary Student Movement and will be closely following their progress in the months to come.

PCR.- Seize The Time! Blaze a Revolutionary Path!

 1st National Conference of the Students and Youth: December 2012, Toronto, Canada

Parti communiste révolutionnaire – Revolutionary Communist Party (Canada)

Seize the Time! Blaze a Revolutionary Path!, a conference hosted by the PCR-RCP, will take place on the first weekend of December. Our ultimate aim is to unite the revolutionary students and proletarian youth in building a militant force of young people capable of intervening in and advancing the proletarian class struggle in Canada. The current social and economic conditions are very ripe for and demand the building of a coordinated front that will organize and mobilize revolutionary students and proletarian youth on the basis of anti-capitalism, anti-imperialism, and revolutionary politics.

Since it is intended to be small and somewhat private, and so far has been arranged on an invite-only basis, anyone interested in participating should contact seizethetime2012@yahoo.ca for specific details.

A small brochure of the event’s focus is available here. http://pcr-rcp.ca/en/en/