The forces of Western Canadian communism are on the rise!
Over the weekend of June 28 and 29, the Revolutionary Communist Party held the sixth annual Communist Summer School in Edmonton, Alberta. This was a tremendous school and was a fantastic sign for the development of the revolutionary communist forces in the Canadian Prairies!
All told, 167 people signed up, a new record for the Edmonton school—almost double from last year!
Amidst skyrocketing cost of living, a federal government preparing to attack the workers to pay for military spending, and the very real possibility of an independence referendum in Alberta, there is an appetite for revolutionary solutions to the crisis that only Marxist theory can provide.
Comrades came not just from Edmonton and Calgary, but from Vancouver, Victoria, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and other cities across the country.
Notably, we also had comrades attending from our brand new group in Regina. These comrades are building and consolidating the foundation for our first cell in Saskatchewan, and this school will prove an invaluable part of that process as they build and develop the work in new territory.
Comrade Holly from Toronto kicked us off with a talk on “Why hasn’t there been a revolution? The need for revolutionary leadership”. She outlined what drives revolution and how we build the leadership needed to lead the working class to victory.
Comrade Laine from Edmonton followed it up with a measured response to the hysteria on the left about the so-called rise of fascism, which outlined the true nature of right-wing populism. We discussed how Marxists fight the forces of reaction, and the importance of a scientific understanding of the state.
Day one wrapped up with Comrade Koral from Montreal giving an excellent breakdown of the philosophy of post-colonialism, and how Marxists fight bigotry and imperialism.
We got things up and running again on day two, with comrade Josie from Edmonton starting us off with a fantastic presentation on the Marxist perspective on art and culture. We discussed how the commodification of art has hollowed out our culture, and how the overthrow of capitalism and the profit motive would make human creativity the driving force in culture for the first time in history.
Comrade Matt from Vancouver followed it up with a session on a vital piece of Western Canadian labour struggle history in Operation Solidarity. This was a mass movement of the B.C. working class in 1983 that fought back against the provincial government’s austerity measures, only to be stabbed in the back by the reformist trade union leadership. Matt went into how the movement developed, how it was betrayed, and what we can do to ensure that such a betrayal never happens again.
The final session of the school saw comrade Rob Lyon talk about the crisis of Canadian Confederation. We learned about the unique ways in which Canadian capitalism developed and the resulting contradictions that now threaten to tear the “True North, Strong & Free” apart at the seams. After this session, the comrades capped off a fantastic weekend with spirited renditions of “The Internationale” and “Bandiera Rossa”.
The mood of the school was fantastic, even at the very end of a weekend packed with information and valuable, important lessons. Comrades in Alberta and from abroad were eagerly discussing the school and the lessons they planned on bringing back to their cells and cities.
This enthusiasm can also be felt in our literature sales. Comrades bought over $3200 worth of Marxist literature, alongside $2275 in merch sales.
All told, this school was a tremendous success. There is a growing layer of workers and youth in the Prairies and across Canada that are sick of the system and want to end it.
Every one of these communists who attended the school must now develop themselves and go out to find more communists who want to build the RCP. Even here in the heartland of Canadian conservatism, the home of Stephen Harper, Danielle Smith, and Mark Carney, we can build a communist stronghold!
