Canadian Communists returned to their roots on the Feb. 2-4 weekend, gathering near the University of Toronto for their 35th Central Convention. The event took place at the Steelworkers Hall, right across from '24 Cecil Street,' the building which was home to the Communist Party of Canada for decades.

In his keynote address to over sixty delegates and alternates from across the country, CPC leader Miguel Figueroa paid tribute to 'that great building, which was bugged by the RCMP and later firebombed by fascists and entirely rebuilt.' While the building was stolen from the Party during its internal crisis of 1990-92, Figueroa said, 'the Communist Party itself survived, and here we are, fifteen years later, celebrating our 85th anniversary... Life itself has proven wrong those dispirited souls who abandoned their revolutionary perspective, who thought that socialism was dead, that Marxism was dead. Well, it's not dead - it's alive and well, and growing in Cuba, in Venezuela, in the anti-imperialist wave sweeping through Latin America and other parts of the world today!'

Presented on behalf of the party's outgoing Central Executive Committee, Figueroa's keynote went on to address urgent issues which have been at the centre of Canadian politics recently.

Referring to Prime Minister's sudden interest in the environment, Figueroa recalled Stephen Harper's 2002 speech attacking the Kyoto Accord as a 'socialist scheme to suck money out of wealth-producing nations.' Nobody should be fooled by Harper's 'death-bed conversion to green politics,' Figueroa warned.

The CPC leader called for full support for the March 17 anti-war actions around the world, and condemned the twin processes of capitalist globalisation and militarism which have 'accelerated the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few at the direct expense of the great majority of humanity.'

Figueroa took aim at the growing assault on democratic and civil rights, such as the 'no fly list' and the secretive jailing of 'security certificate' suspects. 'The fight to defend democratic rights today,' he said, is 'our imperative task as part of the strategic struggle for socialism.'

One issue which took a new form recently was the Parliamentary debate over Québec's status. 'There were elements of both significance and farce in this bizarre drama,' said Figueroa. He noted the significance of the fact that almost 140 years after Confederation, Parliament was finally forced to concede that Québec and its people constitute a nation within Canada.

On the other hand, he pointed out, 'the bourgeois federalist parties spared no effort to... negate any of the rights associated with Québec's national status' such as the right to self-determination. Since the Parliamentary vote does not change the Constitution, Figueroa stated, the Communist Party continues to demand an elected Constituent Assembly to draft a new Constitution, based on an equal and voluntary partnership of the Aboriginal peoples, Quebec and English-speaking Canada.

Turning to the next federal election, Figueroa noted that twelve months of Tory rule have confirmed the CPC's view that the Harper Conservatives must be decisively defeated at the polls. The Communist Party will run about 25 candidates, campaigning for a 'people's alternative' to big business policies and for fundamental economic and political change.

But the primary struggle, said Figueroa, 'will continue to be in the workplaces, and in the streets and communities of this country - in other words in the arena of extra-parliamentary struggle.' Noting that workers are prepared to fight, he called for stronger efforts to energize the labour movement to play the leading role in a broadly-based fightback against neoliberal and pro-war policies.

Much of the debate following Figueroa's keynote centred on the Draft Resolution circulated by the party's Central Committee last October. Dozens of delegates spoke to the wide-ranging resolution, which presented an overview of the international situation and the Canadian scene, as well as a review of the Communist Party's plans for the coming period.

Prior to the Convention, party clubs and provincial meetings held detailed discussions of the Resolution, submitting over thirty amendments to clarify and update the document. Most of those amendments were adopted in the course of the debate. Delegates also adopted a detailed Plan of Work for the party, and a series of special action resolutions on topics ranging from the 'no fly list' to the Tory attack on the Canadian Wheat Board.

A highlight of the Convention was guest speaker Barbara Jackman, lawyer for the three 'security certificate' prisoners at Millhaven Penitentiary in Kingston, Ontario. Jackman gave a blistering analysis of this racialized process, noting that 27 of the 31 security certificates issued since 1992 have targetted men from the Palestinian, Kurdish, Sikh, Tamil, Arab and Muslim communities.

As Jackman pointed out, evidence in these cases is presented in secret, to one of a mainly white group of judges with little knowledge of the targetted communities. One crucial failing of the process, she stressed, is the low standard for decisions; the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and cabinet ministers making accusations are required to present 'reasonable grounds to believe' that someone presents a security danger, not the higher 'probable grounds' standard used in other court procedures. As a result, Jackman said, 'we lose all our cases.' She concluded by describing the appalling conditions under which the three men are being detained. Following Jackman's speech, the delegates passed a special resolution condemning 'security certificates' and calling for fair trials for the detainees.

A second guest speaker, Ali Mallah of the Canadian Peace Alliance (and also a vice-president of the Canadian Arab Federation) brought greetings and thanked the Communist Party for its ongoing participation in the anti-war movements across Canada.

Speaking at a crowded evening celebration, Ernesto Senti, the Cuban Ambassador to Canada, brought warm greetings from the Communist Party of Cuba, and welcome news of comrade Fidel Castro's good progress towards the recovery of his health. He was followed by Communist Party USA co-chair Jarvis Tyner, who brought down the house with a powerful attack on the ultra-right Bush administration and the growing working class upsurge which dealt the Republicans a stinging defeat in November. CPUSA Illinois district leader John Bachtell spoke the following afternoon to the convention delegates, recalling some of the shared history of the two parties andtheir common struggles today for peace and social justice.

Delegates wrapped up the Central Convention on Feb. 4 with the election of a new 25-member Central Committee which is notable both for its strong working class composition and its broad diversity. About a dozen members of the leadership are active trade unionists. The number of women CC members increased to 36% (9 out of 25), and the CC also includes communist activists from the Aboriginal nations, the growing Latino communities across Canada, the Young Communist League, and the LGBT movements.

Miguel Figueroa, who has led the party since 1993, was re-elected to his post, together with a Central Executive Committee which includes three provincial party leaders (George Gidora from BC, Darrell Rankin from Manitoba, and Liz Rowley from Ontario), PV Editor Kimball Cariou, Hamilton labour activist and PV business manager Sam Hammond, and Pierre Fontaine, a well-known figure in the Quebec health unions.

From People's Voice