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The Canadian Left Debates Its Future

Various
Publisher:  Canadian Dimension, Winnipeg, Canada
Date Written:  01/06/1979
Year Published:  1979  
Pages:  11pp  
Resource Type:  Article

A debate on left strategies which collects wide-ranging responses from a variety of sources to Canadian Dimension's special issue on Eurocommunism, compiled in the hope that this exchange will advance the level of discussion and provoke still further debate in the ranks of the Canadian left.

Abstract: 
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Published in Canadian Dimension, Volume 13, Number 8 - June 1979

Excerpts:

Over the Christmas season, one of our members had occasion to be in New York City and while there visited the offices of the MONTHLY REVIEW a fellow socialist publication. On one of the walls of the MR hangs a statement originally written by a founder of that publication back in the late 1940's. We reproduce this sobering statement below, as much a reminder to ourselves as a comment to inform future discussions on this subject in DIMENSION.

"Agitation based on information brings lasting converts to socialism: agitation based on exhortation does not.
This simple fact is perhaps the chief defect of left propaganda in the United States. Truth is on our side. It is the job of the socialist propagandist to present the truth in the clearest and most persuasive form. It seems a pity to have to point out at this late date that jargon and name-calling neither clarify nor persuade. The use of left 'shorthand' such as fascist beast' and 'running dog of imperialism' may be the easiest way out for the over worked left writer, but it makes no sense to those readers who are not already in the charmed left circle.
Yet the truth is so overwhelmingly on our side that we can understate the case with far greater effect than is gained by the over-statement of which so many left writers are guilty. What is the need for exaggeration or distortion when the facts shout our story so convincingly?"

We have looked carefully at this country, and despite the general crisis of capitalism, we have seen no significant signs, on the surface or in the depths of things, to indicate any imminent revolution. Rather, the general mood would seem to be one in which the values of social democracy themselves have not yet become fully rooted, let alone those of a truly egalitarian society in which the privileges of wealth have been removed. Capitalism has been outstandingly successful over the years in inculcating its system of values and beliefs, so the vast majority of people take them as natural and universal rather than the values and beliefs of a specific ruling class.

We cannot accept closed, elitist parties that proclaim their independence from other parties, but blindly follow their lead and act according to their priorities; that treat the works of Marx and Lenin as biblical texts; that hide party history from new members by re-writing once or twice each generation and censoring what members can write and talk about, and where and with whom they can write and talk. This kind of organizational tyranny has no place in the party we envision.

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