The application of the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions in Canada involves developing a political line and building an organization capable of implementing it. The means of achieving these objectives is through the creation of a communist party, the principal task of Canadian Marxist-Leninists at present. It is the working class that makes revolution, but its success depends on the degree of organization it possesses and this organization finds its highest expression in a communist party capable of providing leadership in the struggle. A communist party can best analyze scientifically the political economy of the country, investigate the situation of workers and learn from their experiences, and formulate a program that reflects the aspirations of the working class as a whole. Only a communist party can provide the sustained commitment of professional revolutionaries carrying out systematic propaganda and agitation in order to build a united proletariat conscious of and for itself. Only a communist party can maintain the security precautions necessary to enable it to continue its work in spite of state repression, and – when conditions are right – to employ this organizational discipline to provide military leadership for the proletariat in its armed struggle for state power. Finally, only a communist party can consolidate the dictatorship of the proletariat and lead socialist construction through to the establishment of communism.
A communist party existed in this country at one time in the form of the Communist Party of Canada. This organization, in spite of its many shortcomings, provided Marxist-Leninist leadership in the struggles of the Canadian proletariat. The development of revisionism within the CP, however, has resulted in its degeneration into a counter-revolutionary organization. Without a party the working class today stands ideologically and politically disarmed.
Canadian workers have of course continued to resist the exploitation of labour under capitalism. In the face of production speed-ups, unemployment, unsatisfactory work conditions, cutbacks in social services, and continuing cycles of inflation and recession, they have organized innumerable strikes and demonstrations in defense of their interests. This militance has demonstrated the fundamental strength of the proletariat, a strength which when concentrated as a single force is capable of revolutionizing society. Without revolutionary leadership, though, worker resistance has tended to be spontaneous rather than class conscious and as such has been confined to economic more than to political objectives. The absence of a communist party has left the proletariat dominated by bourgeois ideology which has succeeded in dividing it by race, sex, industry, and region, and in channeling its struggles into reformism.
The defeat of bourgeois ideology within the working class and the development of revolutionary leadership which effectively demonstrates the necessity of eliminating capitalism altogether can be achieved only by arming the proletariat ideologically and politically through the creation of a new communist party. Building such a party will enable the working class 1) to link its immediate struggles to the ultimate objectives of socialism and communism through a revolutionary strategy, and 2) to wage more successfully its immediate struggles because it will be armed with a revolutionary perspective. Understanding who are friends and who are enemies, linking up each struggle with all others, understanding the underlying strengths and weaknesses of both the bourgeois and its own forces, the working class will achieve greater victories in its short-term struggles. For these short and long term reasons, party building is the principal task of Marxists-Leninists in Canada.