The Workers' Communist Party (french: Parti communiste ouvrier) was a Canadian

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

, founded in 1975 under the name Communist (Marxist–Leninist) League of Canada (''Ligue communiste (marxiste-léniniste) du Canada''). The party followed a

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

political program and was part of the broader

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...

movement. For several years it published a weekly newspaper, ''The Forge'' (''La Forge''). The party was strongest in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

, but alienated many of Quebec's young progressives because it declined to support independence for Quebec, although it did support Quebec's right to self-determination. The most prominent former member of the Workers' Communist Party is Gilles Duceppe, former leader of the

Bloc Québécois The Bloc Québécois (BQ; , "Québécois people, Quebecer Voting bloc, Bloc") is a list of federal political parties in Canada, federal political party in Canada devoted to Quebec nationalism and the promotion of Quebec sovereignty movement, Que ...

and former Leader of the Official Opposition in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada (french: Chambre des communes du Canada) is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The House of Common ...

. Duceppe called his membership "a mistake" based on a search for "absolute answers" during his youth.

Judy Darcy Judy Darcy (born 1950) is a Canadian health care advocate, trade unionist, and former politician. Darcy was the first Minister of Mental Health and Addictions of British Columbia. She was the fourth National President of the Canadian Union of Pu ...

was active in the party before joining the

New Democratic Party The New Democratic Party (NDP; french: Nouveau Parti démocratique, NPD) is a federal political party in Canada. Widely described as social democratic,The party is widely described as social democratic: * * * * * * * * * * * * t ...

. She later became a trade union leader and a cabinet minister in British Columbia. The Workers' Communist Party nominated 30 candidates in the

1980 Canadian federal election The 1980 Canadian federal election was held on February 18, 1980, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 32nd Parliament of Canada. It was called when the minority Progressive Conservative government led by Prime Minister Joe ...

and 33 in the

1981 Quebec general election The 1981 Quebec general election was held on April 13, 1981, to elect members of the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec, Canada. The incumbent ''Parti Québécois'', led by Premier René Lévesque, won re-election, defeating the Quebec L ...

; the party achieved its best result in the latter, receiving 4,956 votes, or 0.14% of the provincial total.

References

Notes

Citations

* . * . * * * * * * \ * * * Marcel Simard (producer). ''Il était une fois... le Québec rouge''. 2003. 53 minutes, Les Productions virage. [view onlin
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/small> Communist parties in Canada Anti-revisionist organizations Stalinist parties Maoist organizations in Canada Far-left politics in Canada Defunct Maoist parties {{Canada-party-stub