Quebec Solidaire's Communist Manifesto

There's an interesting news piece making the rounds of the French media which unfortunately hasn't crossed over to the English side of the media.

A Quebec City reporter for the Journal de Quebec got around to reading a Quebec Solidaire document written a while back, that outlined its vision of a 'new' Quebec.

Since then, the story has been picked up by various media outlets and Mario Dumont did a piece on it on his daily news and interview show. If you understand French, you can watch the seven-minute piece here, on YouTube

The French language document (not available in English,) entitled "Cahier de perspectives- Pour une société solidaire et écologique" can be downloaded  HERE

Now every time I describe Quebec Solidaire and it's chief cook and bottle washer, Amir Khadir as 'communist,' I get a slew of comments from the indignant, accusing me of slander and yellow journalism. (it should be libel, not slander. Perhaps Todd our resident language expert, can set them straight!)

Because Khadir and his family are long time communists and the Communist Party of Quebec is an integral part of Quebec solidaire, I find it difficult to understand why all the objections to the label. After all if the shoe fits....

By the way, just last week, Jafar, Amir's father, was out campaigning for Fidel Castro and mugged for a television news camera framed by an inspiring portrait of Che Guevara. 

It may pain the Quebec Solidarniks (wow, I've coined a new phrase!) to be outed, but the Cahier de perspectives is the smoking gun that will convince even the most ardent skeptic that the QS is exactly what I, other bloggers and journalists have been calling them - a communist inspired party.

The aforementioned document, is nothing less than a modern re-hash of the Communist Manifesto and I'm a bit surprised that no commentator has yet made the connection, since the document borrows quite heavily from Comrades Marx and Engels.

Marx & Engels-  Inspiration for Quebec Solidarniks

Now to the Solidarniks who complain that there's nothing wrong with being a communist, I can only say that there's nothing wrong with being a member of the Flat-Earth Society, or just a plain idiot for that matter, but at least idiots bear no personal responsibility over their reduced mental acuity and as such, their propensity to be gullible.
A modern-day Communist however, is a willing stooge, one who fully ignores the historical reality of a failed ideology and continues to support a discredited, destructive and fatally-flawed model, that country after country around the world has abandoned.
There is no excuse for being a communist other than mindless self-deception, which unlike idiocy is a conscientious choice.

Now before I offer highlights of the 'Cahier de perspectives,' it is useful to review the ten principles of the Communist Manifesto, written over 150 years ago. I shall grant readers leave to draw their own conclusions as to how much of influence that treatise had on the Solidarniks who drafted the 'Cahier de perspectives' 

The 10 principles of the Communist Manifesto 

1. The expropriation of landed property and the use of rent from land to cover state expenditure;
2. A high and progressively graded income-tax;
3. An abolition of the right of inheritance;
4. The confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels;
5. The centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by the establishment of a state bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly;
6. The centralization of transport in the hands of the state;
7. An increase in the state ownership of factories and instruments of production, and the redistribution and amelioration of agricultural land on a general plan;
8. Universal obligation to work and creation of labour armies especially for agriculture;
9. The unification of agricultural with industrial labour, and the gradual abolition of the differences between town and country;
10. The public education of all children. Abolition of factory labour for children in its present form. Unification of education with economic production.

(Note; the yellow highlighted parts below are in my estimation, directly lifted from the Communist Manifesto.)

Gentle reader, all I can say to prepare you for what comes, is to be prepared to laugh out loud..

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And so let's begin with the preamble of the document, which pretty much says it all.

STATEMENT ON THE ECONOMY (page 2)

"...The capitalist economic system is based on infinite growth which is a source of social inequality, in addition to being non-sustainable in the long term. This is an expropriation of the future by short-sighted interests. Based on competition and laissez-faire, rather than solidarity, capitalism excludes not only the collective control and democratic process, but also the more equitable distribution of the  collectively-produced wealth..."

See where we're headed?

The rest of the document contains a mixture of propositions and philosophical dissertations. Here is a selection of my favourites.

STATEMENT ON PRIVATE OWNERSHIP OF BUSINESS (page 3) 

"...These proposals seek to determine how we want to maintain a  private element in our economy, and under what conditions. It also asks us to consider the integration of new types of economies. Finally, if we opt for the elimination of the private sector, we must determine how we see to the gradual implementation, management and socialization of the economy..."

PROPOSITION 1.1.1.c (page 3)

Excessive or unwanted  economic growth should be limited by;

1. Regulation (or)
2. Reversing  economic growth (or)

It is proposed to replace the Gross Nationa Product (GNP) with Gross Naional Happiness Index which includes unpaid work...

PROPOSITION 1.1.1.A (page 3)

1. Allow private ownership of business under strict limits  (or)
2. Center the economy around small and medium business and either nationalize or turn  large business into cooperatives  (or)
3. Convert all business' to cooperatives.(or)
4. Socialize the economy by converting business to cooperatives and by the nationalization of strategic sectors

STATEMENT ON PRIVATE CAPITAL (page 5)  

"The financial sector has become the dominant pillar of the contemporary capitalist economy. The proposals in this section are intended to limit, regulate or even eliminate the influence of private financial capital in Quebec..."

PROPOSITION 1.1.2.A (page 3)

1. Regulate interest rates and financial charges
2. Create a government owned bank
3. Convert all business' to cooperatives.
4. Nationalize all the banks

PROPOSITION 1.2.1.A (page 7)

It's proposed that we nationalize the following;

1. Natural resources (forests and mines)
2. Green energy
3. Hydrocarbons (Oil and Gas)
4. Public Transport
5. Large industries like aluminum, pulp and paper manufacturing
6. Telecommunications (Internet and telephone)
7. Recycling industries 

STATEMENT ON PERSONAL WEALTH (page 9)  

"..In addition, a tax reform on the transmission financial assets by inheritance would limit the ability of the wealthiest to transfer their wealth from one generation to another and thus continually reproduce their privileges.

PROPOSITION 1.2.2.A (page 9)

1. Increase the number of tax brackets from 3 to 10.
2. Enforce strong anti-tax evasion measures,
3. Limit the right to inherit money except for the home, furniture and personal items.
4. Nationalize all the banks

STATEMENT ON OVER-CONSUMPTION (page 10)  

"....To discourage the unnecessary consumption of pollutants and / or  of sexist stereotype products, it is proposed to introduce forms of taxation aimed at promoting behaviour corresponding to the values ​​of Quebec Solidaire.

PROPOSITION 1.2.2.c (page 10)

1. Abolish the provincial sales tax
2. Impose taxes on luxury items
3. Impose taxes on products that are a nuisance to the environment
4. Impose taxes on sexist products (topless bars, cosmetics)
   

ECOSOCIALISM (page 11)

"...In its logic of infinite production of goods and the promotion of consumerism, the capitalist system is intrinsically environmentally harmful and destructive..."

PROPOSITION 2.1.3.B (page 15)

1. Limit the use of cars, particularly in urban areas.
2. Encourage people to adopt eco-friendly driving habits.
3. Introduce a transportation tax on food and goods  to encourage local shopping
4. Increase gas taxes and introduce road tolls
   

OR:

1. Over a period of ten years, ban personal car ownership by way of a series of measures including restricting car access downtown and increasing the cost of vehicles.
2. Over a period of ten years ban the transport of goods by any truck that is not a hybrid or totally electric.
3. Ban the building of anymore freeways

STATEMENT ON OVER-CONSUMPTION (page 20)  

"One consequence of over-consumption that characterizes our society is the increasing production of  residual material  too often considered and treated as waste. We should organize ourselves collectively and gradually to move towards a society that does not produce garbage."

 PROPOSITION 2.3.4 A (page 20)

1. Establish production quotas to prevent overproduction. 
2. Phase out the big shopping centres and return to local shopping.
3. Require manufacturers to take back their containers for reuse or recycling.   
4. Establish standards to minimize packaging and replace them with more   environmentally friendly packaging. 
5. Require manufacturers to guarantee the durability to their products, to extend the guarantee and to design products that are more easily repaired. 
6. Encourage the installation of thrift stores, eco-centers and other local depots for the exchange and reuse of materials and consumer goods of all kinds

STATEMENT ON FULL  EMPLOYMENT  (page 23)  

"Many  proposals supporting a policy of full employment is related to the policy of the reduction of part time employment and the profound transformation of the economy with a view to overcoming capitalism and suppression of wage labour.

PROPOSITION 3.1.1 A (page 23)

1. Expansion of public service employment in the areas of social services, construction and maintenance of the infrastructure, clean environment and key sectors of the industry.
2. Creating an active and effective employment policy that includes retraining and continuing education programs, voluntary, free and funded by business and government, with financial support including relocation allowances for workers who want employment in another region.
3. Reduction of working time.
4. Require the Central Bank to give priority to employment and not to fighting inflation

PROPOSITION 3.1.1 5 (page 25)

1. Increase minimum wage to $10.66 an hour (for 40 hours work-week)  (OR)
2. Base minimum wage on 60% of the median Quebec salary ($12.05)          (OR)
3.  Make minimum wage 50% higher than the poverty line ($15.99)

STATEMENT ON FULL  EMPLOYMENT  (page 25)   

Capitalism is characterized by a profound power imbalance between employees and employers. This situation is intolerable in a democratic society...

PROPOSITION 3.2.2D (page 27)

1. Strengthen penalties for anti-union practices.
2. Ensure that workers have access to information on the economic health of the company by opening the books. 
3. Grant all workers an annual day off  for training in trade unionism, labour standards and union organization.  Introduce into the high school curriculum, courses on the history of the labour movement and trade unionism.

PROPOSITION 3.3.1D (page 29)

1. Immediately reduce the work week to 35 hours and gradually reduce it to 32 hours without loss of pay, without increasing the workload or forced overtime, to be offset by increased hiring. 
   OR 
2. Reduce the workweek to 32 hours without loss of pay.
   OR
3. Reduce the work week to 32 hours without loss of pay with the alternative possibility of extending holidays. In the business that are cooperatives this should be a voluntary measure, but still with minimum requirements to avoid voluntary overwork.

And of course this wouldn't be a real communist manifesto without a demand that May Day become a national holiday!

The entire document is a childlike description of a Utopian society that cannot exist in the real world.
I have much to critique but will turn it over to the Commentors to have their say. Go to it!

As for the Solidarniks who continue to hide the truth from the public about the political leanings of the QS, I would ask them to consider the advice that Karl Marx offered in the face of critics who had the audacity to call out communists;

"It is high time that Communists should openly, in the face of the whole world, publish their views, their aims, their tendencies, and meet this nursery tale of the spectre of communism with a manifesto of the party itself.

To everyone, have a great weekend!