Dear Friends:
The outcome of the October 14th election spells great danger to working people if Big Business is successful in driving the country to the right, and into the lethal embrace of a Tory majority.
Already in the grips of a deepening structural recession that has cost hundreds of thousands of workers their jobs, and cut the real wages and living standards of millions more, Canada would be unrecognizable after another four years of economic and social reconstructive surgery under a Harper majority.
Deep integration with the US war machine would complete Canada’s transition from international peace-keeper to global war-maker and militarist under US command. Paralleling this transition in our foreign policy, the attack on domestic dissent, civil liberties, democratic rights, and labour rights inside the country would also dramatically increase. Harper’s law and order agenda will result in new (probably private) prisons and skyrocketing incarceration rates under promised new mandatory minimum sentences. The new prisons will be full of the young, the poor, women, Aboriginals, migrants, racialized minorities, and those who dissent.
A Tory majority will re-open abortion laws and equality rights legislation, and rescind the right to strike and curtail the right to organize and collective bargaining in bigger parts of the public sector.
The Tory recipe for getting out of the recession is more corporate tax cuts, lower corporate tax rates, the elimination of regulations and restrictions on capital, and the reduction of workers’ wages and rights. Implemented, this Tory recipe will strip Canada of its remaining industrial and manufacturing base, and drive down wages and living standards in the race to the bottom. It will sell off Canada’s natural resources, force farmers off the land, and kill any future for our youth. And it will destroy universal social programs such as Medicare and public pensions, gut Employment Insurance, and privatize public assets like Canada Post.
And as sure as night follows day, it will be accompanied by a war on the poor and on labour, just as Mike Harris, Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and Brian Mulroney each began their reign of terror with vicious attacks on the working class and the poor.
It’s also likely to include military-style attacks on Aboriginal peoples fighting for a just settlement of hundreds of outstanding land claims, and redress for acts of genocide including residential schools and horrific economic and social conditions in which Aboriginals are forced to live, on and off reserves.
That’s what’s in store if the Tories secure a majority on October 14th. But it doesn’t have to be this way!
Dump the Tories! Block the Right!
There is clear collusion between the media and the Tory election machine aimed to convince working people that a Tory majority is inevitable, that the Tory machine is unstoppable. But that’s a lie.
There’s no doubt the impoverished Liberal campaign is helping the Tories, just as their actions in the last Parliament enabled the Tory agenda.
But the majority of voters don’t support the Tories. Mobilized and organized by the activity of labour, the democratic movements, and by the campaigning of all those political forces opposed to the neo-liberal agenda and an extreme-right Tory government, working people can dump the Tories and block the right.
There is a vast appetite among working people for real and progressive change, expressed in the dramatic increase in public opposition to the dirty war in Afghanistan, and revealed in the public’s dramatic response to the efforts of the networks and the parties in Parliament to keep Elizabeth May out of the Leaders’ debate. The public mood is for more democracy, not less; and for real change, not reaction.
The Communist Party’s Campaign: A New Direction for Canada
The Communist Party is campaigning for a new direction that puts people’s needs ahead of corporate greed, for new policies and a new government that:
- Stops and reverses de-industrialization, by expanding our manufacturing and industrial base, creating permanent, full-time, unionized jobs in all sectors, and raising the living standards of all working people, especially the most exploited and under-paid;
- defends and strengthens Canadian sovereignty by getting out of NAFTA and adopting a multi-lateral ‘fair trade’ policy;
- protects and expands universal quality Medicare, education, and social programs
- establishes a new people’s energy policy, by capping fuel and power prices, taxing windfall profits of the oil monopolies, and nationalizing oil & gas and other natural resources;
- makes a decisive break with U.S. imperialism, militarism and aggression around the world, by withdrawing our forces from Afghanistan and Haiti, and charting a new independent Canadian foreign policy of peace and disarmament;
- expands labour and democratic rights, by scrapping C-36 and the other “anti-terrorism” laws, introducing proportional representation, and guaranteeing workers’ rights to organize and to strike; and
- works for a new, equal and voluntary partnership between Quebec, Aboriginal Peoples and English-speaking Canada, based on recognition of the right to national self-determination, up to and including the right to secession, in a new Constitution.
Our Party is contesting selected seats in major cities across Canada to advance a ‘people’s alternative’ program that can begin to overcome the devastation wrought by neo-liberal policies and governments over the past three decades.
Working people need the kinds of coalitions inside Parliament that currently exist outside its walls. A People’s Coalition of progressive forces, including Communists, NDPers, and progressive Greens, as well as trade unionists, peace and environmental activists, representatives of the women’s and students’ movements – these are the forces that are needed in Parliament to achieve real and progressive change, and to block the right.
Every vote for the Communist Party is an unmistakable demand for real and progressive change in Canada – a clear message for new policies that put people before profits, and put peace, disarmament, jobs, democracy and sovereignty at the head of the agenda.
We urgently need your support
We are a small party, but we have big ideas. Ideas that the Liberals and Tories want to suppress in this campaign. Ideas that the NDP no longer campaigns for.
Those voters who see less and less difference between the parties in Parliament, are seeing the corporate agenda rolling out – and over – the opposition parties. But now, with the threat of a Tory majority, it is vital for the opposition to become stronger – not weaker. Now is the time for clear and audacious policy alternatives, for bold ideas, for fighting candidates, and for parties with a progressive and unambiguous vision.
Wherever Communists have been elected, past and present, they have effectively exposed and opposed the corporate agenda, fought for alternative policies and a new direction, and worked for the broadest unity inside and outside elected office.
Our 25 candidates, campaigning across Canada and in Quebec, are fighting for a different kind of Canada, for broad unity against neo-liberal policies and the corporate domination of Canada. In the long run, we are fighting for fundamental change that can end corporate control altogether, and open the door to socialism and working class power in Canada.
For the Communist Party, another world is not only possible – it is urgent.
Please help us!
We aim to raise $65,000 to support our campaign and our 25 fighting candidates.
Your contribution can make a huge difference in this election campaign:
- a $400 contribution will cost you $100 after the tax rebate, which you will collectwhen you file your income tax in March 2009
- a $300 contribution will cost you $75
- a $200 contribution will cost you $50
- a $100 contribution will cost you $25
We know that we can count on you to be generous, in spite of the fact that times are tough for working people, because you know that the Communist Party’s policies and campaign are vital to the defence of 60 years of working class struggle, of peace, jobs, democracy, sovereignty and universal social programs.
Whatever the amount you can donate, big or small, it will help the Communist Party’s fight for new policies and a new direction. If you can help financially, please send a check to:
290A Danforth Avenue
Toronto, ON M4K 1N6
If you can volunteer, please fill out this form. We have more work than we can handle, and your help can make the difference in each of our campaigns.
In closing, please accept our appreciation for your contribution to the Communist Party’s campaign. We couldn’t do it without your support!
For Peace and Progress,
Miguel Figueroa, Leader