Fightback (Canada)
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| National sections |
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Fightback (Canada) Socialist Appeal (United Kingdom) |
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Fourth International Revolutionary Communist Party Revolutionary Socialist League Militant tendency Committee for a Workers' International |
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Fightback and La Riposte are the English and French language publications of the Canadian section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), a global Trotskyist organisation. Supporters of the magazines are active within the New Democratic Party.[1] In Quebec, where the NDP is not active provincially, IMT Quebec, is a recognised collective of Québec solidaire. In English Canada the tendency is organized around the journal Fightback; in Quebec, the organization publishes and sells La Riposte.
The IMT follows in the organizational tradition of Ted Grant, founder of the Militant tendency in Britain[2] which practised Entryism inside the British Labour Party in the 1970s and 80s.[3]
Politics
Fightback and La Riposte campaign for the adoption by the New Democratic Party of a comprehensive socialist platform, arguing for the need to nationalise the major industries and banks that control the Canadian economy.[4]
The IMT stand for a socialist Quebec voluntarily united with a socialist Canada in a Pan-American federation as the only solution to the Quebec national question. The newspaper defends the democratic right of the Quebec people to self-determination up to and including independence, but argues that independence under capitalism would be detrimental to the working class in both Quebec and the rest of Canada.[5][6] Leading IMT theorists Ted Grant and Alan Woods have defended this position, claiming it is based on Vladimir Lenin's approach the national question in Russia.[7] The Spartacist League has criticized this, arguing that it is a distortion of Lenin's position and that Quebec independence would further the goal of socialism by removing national antagonisms amongst the working class.[1]
The National Post has accused Fightback of promoting the same "Hardline Communism" which led to the death of millions in the Eastern Bloc[8] However Fightback has repeatedly criticized the political model of the Soviet Union and agrees with Leon Trotsky's analysis that it was a degenerated workers' state and that the "Stalinist bureaucracy" were a counter-revolutionary force that only came to power by purging the Old Bolsheviks who led the October Revolution.[9]
Activities
The IMT in Canada started publishing L'Humanité in 1999 as its English language publication. In 2004, the name was changed to Fightback. In 2009, the IMT in Quebec started publishing La Riposte.[10]
The IMT is involved in the campaign to defend the Bolivarian Revolution against United States intervention (the Hands Off Venezuela campaign).[11]
In May 2012, Farshad Azadian of Fightback initiated an open letter to the Canadian Federation of Students supporting the 2012 Quebec student protests and appeared on Sun News Network defending the student strike.[12]
The organization has a 13 point program of demands.[13][14]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Canada: Reformists and the Quebec National Question". Worker's Vanguard. September 25, 2009.
- ↑ "In Memory of Ted Grant 1913 - 2006". Fightback. July 20, 2007.
- ↑ "Ted Grant (obituary)". Daily Telegraph. July 27, 2006. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
- ↑ "2006 NDP Federal Convention: Activist, socialist NDP needed". Fightback. September 2006.
- ↑ Bergman, Joel (May 2009). "Whose sovereignty is it anyway?". Fightback.
- ↑ Lyon, Rob (November 2005). "Pour un Québec lucide -- A warning to the working class". Fightback.
- ↑ Grant, Ted; Woods, Alan (February 25, 2000). "Marxism and the National Question". In Defence of Marxism.
- ↑ Libin, Kevin (July 5, 2009). "Cross of the sickle: Ottawa plans monument to communism's victims". National Post.
- ↑ Benson, Julian (January 2007). "Communist Party of Canada 2007 Congress: A Trotskyist analysis for Young Communist League members". Fightback.
- ↑ "International Marxist Tendency in Québec Launches La Riposte". In Defence of Marxism. 2009-06-09. Retrieved 2012-04-16.
- ↑ "Successful Hands Off Venezuela meetings in France". Hands Off Venezuela. 2004-11-05. Retrieved 2009-06-08.
- ↑ Student solidarity, Sun News Network (Jerry Agar interview with Farshad Azadian), May 21, 2012 17:16
- ↑ "Our Programdate=February 28, 2006". Fightback.
- ↑ "Notre Programme". La Riposte. May 11, 2012.