- Contents
- Crisis of the Canadas: The Present Stage
- The Preliminary Report of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism, M.J. Sago
- What Is Equality of the Two Nations?, Jacques-Yvan Morin
- For a New Pact of Confederation, Nelson Clarke
- Historical Notes
- Canadian Communists and the French-Canadian Nation
- Note and Comment
- The Obstinate Reality
- and Couchiching 1965
- Economic Problems of Confederation, Alfred Dubuc
- The Last Words of Louis Riel, Adapted by John Robert Colombo
- Jacob Penner: 1880-1965
- Questions In Dispute, Stanley Ryerson
- Documents
- Constitutional Proposals for a Free State of Quebec and a New Pact Between the Two Nations, Parti Socialiste du Quebec
- A New Constitution for Canada, Communist Party of Canada
- Books in Review
- Canada and Imperialism by Norman Penlington
- The State of Quebec by Peter Debarats
- The Quebec Revolution by Hugh Bingham Myers
- Two Nations One Country by Nelson Clarke
- Quebec States Her Case by Frank Scott and Michael Oliver
- Une Politique sociale au Lieu d'une Politique bourgeoise, P.C.C. (Que.)
Among Books Received
AMONG BOOKS RECEIVED
Inclusion in this list does not preclude review in a subsequent issue,
Marxism & Existentialism by Walter Odajnyk, Anchor Books, Doubleday Canada Ltd., 221 pp. $0.95.
An A.B.C. of Color by W. E. B. Du Bois, Seven Seas Publishers, Berlin, $1.25.
Black Thunder by Arna Bontemps, Seven Seas Publishers, Berlin, $1.25.
The Shocking History of Advertising by E. S. Turner, Penguin, $1.25.
Penguin Survey of Business & Industry 1965 ed. by Rex Malik, $0.95.
Penguin Survey of the Social Sciences—1965 ed. by Julius Gould, $0.95.
Die Wissenschaftliche Definition by Gyorgy Tamas, Studia Philosophical 5, Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
England in the 20th Century by David Thomson, Pelican History of England: 9, 1965, 304 pp. $1.25.
The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916 by Alistair Home, 1964, 364 pp. $1.25.
The Real World of Democracy by C. B. Macpherson, The Massey Lectures, 4th Series, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1965, 67 pp., $1.25.
Existentialism and Alienation in American Literature by Sidney Finkelstein, New World Paperback. International Publishers, N.Y. 320 pp., cloth $6.95, paper $2.70.
Limited War in the Nuclear Age by Morton H. Halperin, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. N.Y. 191 pp., $3.65 paper; $5.95 cloth.
Dreiser by W. A. Swanberg, Saunders of Toronto Ltd., 140 pp., $11.95.
Einstein by B. Kuznetsov, Progress Publishers, Moscow, 1965, 377 pp., cloth $2.00.
Electronic Computers by S. H. Hollingdale & G. C. Tootill, Pelican Original, 336 pp., 1965, $1.65.
The Freedom of Art by Honor Arundel, Lawrence & Wishart, 1965, 104 pp., $1.75.
Teaching About Communism in American Public Schools by Annette Zehnan. Published for American Institute of Marxist Studies by Humanities Press, N.Y., 74 pp. $2.40.
The Crisis of India by Ronald Segal, Penguin.$1.25.
Dark Strangers, A Study of West Indians in London by Sheila Patterson, $1.35.
Marxism and Democracy, ed. by Herbert Aptheker, Humanities Press, Inc. N.Y., $4.20.
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Quebec States Her Caseed. by Frank Scott and Michael OliverUne Politique Sociale Au Lieu d'Une Politique Bourgeoise
UNE POLITIQUE SOCIALE AU LIEU DUNE POLITIQUE BOURGEOISIE Le Parti Communiste Canadien, Comite du Quebec. Progress Books, Toronto, October 1964, $0.25.
THE DIFFICULTY with books about Canada is that they are out of date as soon as they are published. This is the first problem that confronts one in leafing through the pages of Quebec States Her Case. The second is that this particular book, subtitled "Speeches and articles from Quebec in the years of unrest," necessarily reflects the bias of its editors in the selection of items.
In the choice of material there is a predilection for André Laurendeau, editor of Le Devoir and co-chairman of the Royal Commission on Bilingualism and Biculturalism. He is the only contributor who merits five items in the small volume. Most of the others get a single appearance.
However, the book marks an advance compared with some others published recently on the same subject. Thus we have the article by André Major which appeared in the March-April 1963 issue of Liberté. Major is now associated with a number of others publishing the magazine Parti Pris which enjoys great influence among young French Canadians who seek a thorough-going revolution in the national and social life of Quebec.
Major's article firmly declares that "Marxism gave us a method of understanding human reality, and a more precise and accurate insight into the world... No longer will we go along with concessions to Capital, with expedient alliances that put us on the side of the oppressors, with mere exchange of views, or with any form of conciliation. We have made our choice of sides."
Parti Pris (literally "position taken") was thus a natural title for their journal. In its September 1964 edition, incidentally there is a further development of the major theses in "Manifesto 1964-65," the full text of which appears in English translation in Viewpoint Vol. 2. No. 1, January 1965, the information and discussion bulletin of the Communist Party.
Since the appearance of the uncompromisingly socialist Parti Pris, Révolution Québécoise has come forward. They are a breakaway from the liberal-democratic Cité Libre magazine, and declare themselves to be Marxist and Leninist in outlook. Another important new journal is Socialisme 65. The Scott-Oliver book did not and perhaps could not keep pace with all these expressions of the New Left in Quebec. They do carry an article on the PSQ position. Of historic interest is the flaming manifesto of the terrorist Front de Libération Québécois (FLQ).
There are contributions by Jean Lesage, Marcel Chaput, Gérard Pelletier (also a contributor favored by the editors, no doubt for his moderate views), René Lévesque, Jean Marchand (former head of the Confederation of National Trade Unions) and others.
Despite the Communist Party's long history of outstanding contributions to the struggle for French-Canadian equality and liberation (one has only to mention Stanley Ryerson's pioneer historical work on French Canada) the editors have seen fit to exclude even the barest mention of the party's existence.
To correct this evident bias it should be noted that in addition to many public statements, articles in the newspaper Combat, Canadian Tribune, The Marxist Quarterly and public appearances before various commissions, the views of the Communist Party are ably outlined in a modest new pamphlet Une Politique Sociale au lieu d'une Politique Bourgeoise.
A subtitle explains that the pamphlet seeks "a minimum common program for a front of all movements of the left in Quebec."
A welcome analysis of the various class forces at work in Quebec and forming the background of the erupting separatist and socialist movements, the policies of the Lesage government, and those of the Union Nationale and the Créditistes are contained in the pamphlet.
It declares that in order to carry through the task of uniting the left on a minimum program, it is necessary to recognize that
The industrial working class in French Canada is not only the most numerous class today, but constitutes an absolute majority of the adult population. If the workers decide to unite their forces to present a political alternative to the bourgeois parties, they would receive great electoral support from the farmers, students, women, teachers, and many small business men, as well as many nationalists who are seeking social justice.
Only the working class can become the solid, necessary core in a coalition of the popular, democratic and national forces. An end to raiding inside the labor movement is a critical condition for the unity of the working class, if there is to be unity in political action in the wider arena. Jean Gregoire
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BOOKS IN REVIEW 95
In addressing those who seek socialism, the pamphlet declares: "We Communists believe that the final solution to all the problems of exploitation of the workers and farmers by monopoly; of one nation by another; of women by men; for the conquest of unemployment, war and sickness, is socialism -- the common ownership of the means of production.
"But we do not believe that we must confine ourselves simply to ultimate aims... we believe that in the course of a determined struggle and greater unity to obtain (such) great reforms the people will themselves come to the conclusion that it is necessary not simply to take political power out of the hands of the monopolies, but to change the system as well."
The call for a great national and democratic coalition around a minimum program would include the two central trade union bodies, the Union of Catholic Farmers, the students and teachers organizations, the democratic nationalists who seek social justice. In the first place it would include the socialist groups, like the NDP, the PSQ, those who follow the separatist-socialist school around Partis Pris, the followers of Révolution Québécoise and those of Socialisme 65 -- not excluding the Communist Party.
The Communist Party advances three central points as a basis for discussion of such a minimum program:
1. An end to national inequality as expressed in the BNA Art. The right to self-determination for French and English Canada. The guaranteeing of the democratic right to language and culture for all ethnic groups.
2. Breaking the control of monopoly in industry and agriculture. Public democratic control of automation and export of power. Nationalization of key industries controlled by the U.S., like pulp and paper, the mining industry and nationalization of the Bell Telephone. Trade with all socialist and newly-independent countries and Latin America. An overall new economic policy.
3. Make French Canada a powerful voice for world peace and universal disarmament by demanding the dismantlement of all nuclear bases in Quebec and converting Canada into a denuclearized zone. An independent foreign policy based on peaceful coexistence with socialist countries.
Jean Martin
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-- This OCR was prepared by Kathleen Moore in August 2014 for the legal research purposes of Habeas Corpus Canada. --
Two Nations, One Country by Nelson Clarke
Current Studies of Quebec
TWO NATIONS, ONE COUNTRY by Nelson Clarke, Progress Books, Toronto, a pamphlet, $0.05.
WHAT DO French Canadians want? Is Quebec really going to leave Confederation? These are the questions which open this modest tract by a leading spokesman of the Communist Party. It sets out the Communist proposals for a democratic solution of the crisis of Confederation.
Such a solution hinges on the necessity of facing up to the fact that Quebec is the homeland of a nation -- not simply a province like each of the other nine political units in the country.
Another set of facts shows that Canada as a whole is dominated by huge American and Canadian monopolies, only a tiny fraction of this vast corporate wealth being in French-Canadian hands. Less than 20 per cent of Quebec's industry is controlled by French Canadians. Personal income per head of population in Quebec is still 27 per cent below that of Ontario. Some 40 per cent of unemployment in Canada is in Quebec. French Canadians would like to decide for themselves on their own flag, the wars they will fight in, the language they can speak on the job as well as in the neighborhood.
The author writes, in reply to this imposing list of shortcomings suffered under Confederation:
We will have to recognize the right of French Canadians to run their own affairs, including their right to separate from us if they so decide.
However to accept separation as inevitable would be wrong. Such separation would make the two parted nations weaker and more easily susceptible to U.S. domination, writes Clarke. The answer lies in working out a new, completely voluntary partnership based on full equality of the two nations, English and French.
This will mean scrapping of the BNA Act, and the writing of a new Constitution.
The best way to write such a new constitution would be by the election of a special constituent assembly in which the people of French and English Canada would be equally represented and in which, through a process of negotiation and discussion they would reach agreement on the best way to organize the government of the country.
The suggestion is made that parliament consist of two houses -- one elected on the basis of population and the other made up equally of members from English and French Canada.
The pamphlet spells out many other details, dealing with the powers of the respective governments of both nations and outlines a democratic people's path towards solution of the crisis of Confederation.
S.Y.D.
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-- This OCR was prepared by Kathleen Moore in August 2014 for the legal research purposes of Habeas Corpus Canada. --
The Quebec Revolution by Hugh Bingham Myers
Current Studies of Quebec
THE QUEBEC REVOLUTION by Hugh Bingham Myers, Harvest House, Montreal, 109 pp., cloth $4.00, paper $2.00.
THIS IS ONE of the French-Canadian Renaissance Series in English, which includes volumes like The True Face of Duplessis by Pierre Laporte, The Impertinences of Brother Anonymous by Père Jérôme and The Nationalization of Electric Power by Paul Sauriol. Appearing originally in French and published by either Les Editions de l*Homme or Les Editions du Joury Harvest House is performing a unique service to non-French-speaking Canada in providing the English editions.
The book is based mainly on newspaper accounts and reports of the events of 1958 up to and including 1963. The author dates the start of the "revolution" as 1959 with the death of Somebody -- the late and unlamented Maurice Duplessis. His sole incursion into the "pre-revolutionary" years is restricted to 1958, which necessarily limits his ability to portray fully the significance of events today. The revolution per se is defined as "a reaction against the Establishment," one that goes beyond separatism to a declaration of war against the established French-Canadian, Quebec order of things.
The year-by-year chronicle is a useful, although eclectic, summary of the main features of contemporary life in Quebec, clearly of informative value to the non-reader of the French press. However it does fall short of providing a sufficiently deep-going account of the turbulent developments in Quebec, the complex social movements at work, the possible direction of events there, and in particular the solutions being urged by the labor and socialist movements.
The author's personal bias in favor of André Laurendeau, co-chairman of the Royal Commission on Biculturalism, and his uncritical approach to this latter body contribute to the inadequacy of the book.
One would have hoped that in a book entitled The Quebec Revolution some further words about the work of actual practising social revolutionaries would be forthcoming -- but scant attention is paid the role of labor and the people in toppling Duplessis from power. Also one notes the absence of significant commentary on the heroism of those devoted thousands of ordinary people -- including many who were neither English nor French-Canadian, but Quebec citizens all -- who did so much throughout the '30s, '40s and '50s to prepare the ground for the great movements now under way in Quebec.
It would not have been amiss to have mentioned the trailblazing writings, speeches and activities of Marxists and members of the Communist Party, those who gathered the great petitions against the Padlock Law, the sweeping labor struggles (only barely dealt with) -- and the current attitude of labor and socialist spokesmen. Surely, a volume dealing with just this aspect of the problem is indicated.
M. Frank
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-- This OCR was prepared by Kathleen Moore in August 2014 for the legal research purposes of Habeas Corpus Canada. --