(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

In a letter to the National Capital Commission, the Communist Party of Canada has voiced strong objections to plans by far-right forces to erect an anti-communist monument on the grounds of the National Capital Region in Ottawa.

     The letter from CPC leader Miguel Figueroa expresses "our strong opposition to the proposal to erect a `Monument to the Victims of Totalitarian Communism' which was considered by the Board of Directors of the National Capital Commission at its September 10, 2009 meeting." He calls on the Board to reconsider its decision to grant approval for this proposal.

     "In our considered view, the monument would constitute an unjust attack on the pride Canadian Communists feel for our pioneering contributions to Canada since 1921, such as fighting against fascism, organizing industrial workers into unions, initiating the movements to win Unemployment Insurance, public healthcare and other social programs, campaigning for peace and disarmament, fighting for the full national rights of Aboriginal peoples and Quebec, and in defending Canada's sovereignty.

     "This proposal smacks of the type of vicious anti-communism which plagued our country (among others) during much of the latter half of the last century. As you are no doubt aware, that sordid period of our history was marked by crude, unsubstantiated and unjust slanders and attacks on progressive-minded Canadians, and resulted in a wave of mass hysteria and witch-hunts, social ostracism, and great hardships, including imprisonment, for many of its victims. Most importantly, it had a ferocious `chilling effect' on public discourse and sharply curtailed the freedom of expression and associated democratic rights of all Canadians. McCarthyism was ultimately relegated to the dustbin of history, and that is where it should remain.

     "The sponsors of this proposal, `Tribute to Liberty with Founding Partners the Open Book Group', are well aware of the highly-charged political nature of said `monument'. They note that their proposal's `commemorative theme remains not entirely compatible with the NCC's policy for commemorations that mark national events or individuals. However, the international significance of the proposed subject is gaining considerable profile and support from various foreign governments...'. Indeed, they admit that it has `significant high-level political support', and this is confirmed by recent press reports indicating that Mr. Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have given their active support and encouragement to this defamatory initiative.

     "Given the political implications of this proposal - implications which go far beyond the National Capital Region, or Canada as a whole, for that matter - we feel it only proper and necessary to point out the wider international context of this particular project. In Europe, there is a concerted campaign to whip up a renewed atmosphere of anti-communism. This past July, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) adopted a resolution that equated fascism and communism - a most disgraceful attempt to rewrite the history of the 20th century.

     "In several European countries, anti-democratic attacks have recently been launched against Communist parties and affiliated organizations. In the Czech Republic, there was an attempt to ban the KSM, the communist youth league, on such spurious grounds that the Czech Supreme Court ultimately had to overturn the prohibition. Similar politically-inspired attacks have taken place in Hungary, Latvia, Ukraine and elsewhere, without any legal or justifiable basis in any of these instances.

     "It is equally noteworthy in this regard, that one of the leading conspirators behind the coup in Honduras (which seized power from the democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya), recently tried to `justify' the coup d'état on the grounds that it was a `necessary step' to arrest the spread of left and socialist ideas and movements across Latin America.

     "This nefarious campaign has no evidentiary basis in any violations of the law, nor on historical truth or accuracy; rather, it is intended to once again intimidate and isolate progressive parties and movements and poison the free contention of ideas in these societies. The authors of the NCC monument proposal are no less `fast and loose' with historical truth, when they claim that the monument in question would `honour the 100 million lives lost under Communist regimes'. This is a monstrous lie, as demonstrated in numerous objective historical studies. The 20 million Soviet citizens who perished during World War II, for example, died at the hands of the Nazi invasion, and in defending their national sovereignty, not at the hands of `Communist regimes'. This is a crude attempt to turn history on its head.

     "We fully understand why the Board of Directors had reservations about the name for this monument. The monument would also defame the many accomplishments of socialist and communist parties around the world. The NCC needs to reflect on how this will be viewed in the People's Republic of China, for instance. Or in Cuba. Or in South Africa and India, where Communist parties form or have formed part of the ruling governments.

     "In conclusion, our Party wishes to restate our fervent opposition to this monument proposal and calls on the Board of the NCC to reverse its decision and deny approval as soon as possible, before this process is allowed is permitted to  advance any further."