About the CPC
The Communist Party of Canada was founded in 1921. We have a proud, 100-year history of fighting for a socialist future for Canada. We are a small party with big ideas. The Communist Party is a registered Federal political party, and we have successfully campaigned for that democratic right, and pushed forward the legal rules on political parties in Canada. But the Communist Party is a very different type of organization from the other political parties in Canada and is active in much more than elections.
For socialism and democracy
The Communist Party is dedicated to the cause of socialism. As we say in our programme (agreement with which is the basis of membership in the Party) the achievement of socialism, based on working class power in Canada and internationally, will mark a real advance towards true democracy – the rule of the people, by the people and for the people.
For the working class and the people
Our constituency is the working class and all the people exploited and oppressed by big business. We stand alongside Indigenous people, women, students, social and environmental activists, seniors, farmers, and many others engaged in progressive struggle across Canada.
As our programme says: “the Communist Party of Canada is a party of the working class, all who labour by hand and brain. In our policies, campaigns, and broad struggle, the Communist Party has no interests separate and apart from those of the working class as a whole.”
A revolutionary outlook
In all this work, the Communist Party is guided by the revolutionary perspective of Marxism-Leninism. These ideas are expressed in our programme, and reflected in our constitution. We seeks to unite, within a single party, all who fight for socialism on this revolutionary basis.
Workers and oppressed peoples of all countries, unite!
The Communist Party of Canada also upholds the time-honoured and tested principle of working-class internationalism. We develop fraternal ties with Communist and Workers’ Parties of other countries for the victory of the common aims of the working class.
A voluntary organization
The organizational principles and daily work of the Communist Party of Canada flows from our party’s political aims.
We are a voluntary organization. The Communist Party of Canada brings together like-minded people and works to unite in its ranks the most politically advanced and active members of the people, who are prepared to work for the achievement of working class state power and the building of a socialist Canada.
In our view, to guide the working class to the achievement of these aims, and to lead the people’s struggle, firm ideological, political and organizational unity is required. It also demands continuous organized activity of its members in close contact with the people’s struggles.
Party democracy
We describe the organizational principle that ensures this as “democratic centralism.”
As our Constitution says, “Democratic centralism combines the maximum of democratic discussion and participation of the membership in Party life, with the self-imposed obligation to carry out majority decisions and execution of these decisions by an elected centralized leadership capable of leading the entire Party. It includes full discussion by the entire membership of the policies necessary to advance the aims of the Party’s program. Decisions as to what these policies must be are made by majority vote which are then binding on all members. This enables the Party to act as a united whole in all conditions of the struggle.”
The Parti Communist du Quebec (PCQ-PCC) is a distinct entity within the Communist Party of Canada, having complete control of its own policies and structures in Quebec.
This enables the Party to act as a united whole. These principles are outlined in more detail in our constitution.
Join the Communist Party!
In fighting for fundamental change, the Communists express the ideals of vast numbers of Canadians who aspire to a new, humane social order free from exploitation and oppression.
In this sense we cherish and promote the highest quality of the working class – devotion to the liberating socialist cause, the cause of human freedom and happiness. We seek to cultivate this humanist ethic among the working people.
Since the founding of the Communist Party of Canada in 1921, Canadian communists have held high the banner of peace, Canadian independence, democracy and socialism. They have always stood with the struggles of the workers and farmers for a better life, often providing leadership for those struggles. Today we are ninety five years stronger as a Party — still growing, developing, active and relevant.