Modern Communism and the Political Legacy of Hardial Bains - Part 5: The Struggle Against the Consequences of Mao Zedong Thought

Although the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) declared in 1970 that it was based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, it never actually adopted the organizational methods of Mao Zedong, nor did it adopt Mao Zedong Thought in opposition to Marxism-Leninism. Where there appeared to be contradictions between Mao Zedong Thought and Leninism, the Party stuck with Leninism, assuming that the differences arose from the peculiarities of a peasant revolution. As a result, the Party's formal break with Mao Zedong Thought during the period from 1977 to 1982 did not result in confusion within the Party, nor did it lead to a split.

When CPC(M-L) was founded, it adopted the methods of work developed by The Internationalists. Those methods of work were based on openness and opposition to dogmatism and sectarianism. However, Mao Zedong Thought also had an extensive influence on the members and supporters of CPC(M-L) and, despite the formal break with Mao Zedong Thought, those negative tendencies of Maoism, especially its dogmatic and sectarian spirit and its emphasis on leadership through individuals, persisted and took several years to root out.

The Fourth Congress, held in 1982, adopted a program of eradicating these features of Maoism from the Party. However, there were still those who did not want to organize and professionalize the work of the Party. They preferred to stand on the sidelines of the movement and criticize it from the position of being the "most correct". They paid lip service to the leadership of Hardial Bains and praised him as a great leader, in the same spirit as the Maoist cult of the individual, but refused to actually take up the work assigned to them, leaving Hardial Bains to do it for them.

Hardial Bains understood that the struggle against these tendencies within the communist movement could not succeed without a mass movement for communism in Canada. At the same time, the conditions for the creation of such a movement did not exist. In fact, the opposite was the case; with the election of Mikhail Gorbachov as leader of the Soviet Union in 1985 the world was poised for an unprecedented attack on communism by the combined forces of the United States and the Soviet Union and all of their allies. The main task facing the communist parties around the world was to survive such an assault. Hardial Bains analyzed that for CPC(M-L) to survive it had to find a political niche for itself, a position which it could occupy and from which it could not be dislodged. He reasoned that the communist movement was, itself, a product of the Movement for Enlightenment and could continue to exist only where such a movement flourished. So, beginning in 1985, CPC(M-L) spearheaded a new movement for enlightenment, a movement for a new style of journalism and a new style of politics which would raise the prestige of the progressive people and provide them with the ideological weapons they needed to combat the anti-communist onslaught.

The Fifth Congress, which was held in 1987, endorsed this program to build a movement for enlightenment. In keeping with CPC(M-L)'s overall analysis that the world had entered a new period in which no force could continue to act in the old way, the entire work of the Party was reorganized from bottom to top. A new style of revolutionary journalism was developed and the struggle against sectarianism and dogmatism within the Party was raised to a higher level, in accordance with the requirements of the new situation. However, there were some who had developed a comfort level with the old ways in which they viewed themselves as totally correct and looked to Hardial Bains to solve every problem, taking no responsibility for the work or even thinking for themselves. Such individuals resisted every attempt of CPC(M-L) to renew and transform itself into a modern communist party, but despite this resistance, the Party moved forward.

The period between the Fifth and Sixth Congresses was a period of revolutionization of the relations within CPC(M-L).The struggle to eliminate the negative consequences of Mao Zedong Thought led to the strengthening of the collective leadership of the Party and the development of an atmosphere of calmness and respect. Hardial Bains took over responsibility for the work of the Organizational Secretary in addition to his duties as First Secretary of the Central Committee, and travelled back and forth across the country consulting, educating and training the comrades at the local levels. So, by the time of the Sixth Congress in 1993 a situation existed in which, for the first time, Hardial Bains' position was not in the minority within the Central Committee and the anti-Marxist tendencies, the main goal of which was the liquidation of CPC(M-L), stood on the verge of total defeat.