The Anachronism of "Representative Democracy" and the Immediate Need for Democratic Renewal

- Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) -

We are pleased to inform you that this year the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) is celebrating the 35th anniversary of its founding. This year the Party has also embarked on the third five-year plan of its Historic Initiative so that in this defining moment for the peoples of the world, consciousness plays its decisive role. Considering that bringing the role of consciousness into play will create the subjective conditions to open society's path to progress, CPC(M-L) is going all out to mobilize the Canadian working class and people to find a way out of the crisis on a basis that favours their interests, not those of the international financial oligarchy. In this regard, the sharpest class struggle is taking place on the question of what kind of democracy and system should be established in every country according to each people's needs, concrete reality and thought material. 

We are striving to create the kind of party which can intervene in the present situation in a manner that puts the working class at the head of a nation-building project so that it vests sovereignty in the people. It must end the block to the progress of society posed by those who have usurped power and rule in the interest of a tiny minority. Our Party firmly believes that every effort must be devoted to enable the people at every level of society, in every endeavour, to participate in providing the problems they face with solutions in a manner which favours them. 

In the opinion of CPC(M-L), the work for the democratic renewal of the political process to get rid of the Anglo-American imposition of the system called representative democracy is crucial. Today, more than ever before, this system is being used to marginalize the peoples, not only depriving them of political power but of any access to a political process which would permit them to have a say in the decisions made in their name. This anachronistic and reactionary system permits the most degenerate and backward elements in the society to take decisions which deepen the all-sided crisis, block society's progress and pose an ever greater danger of fascism and war. In this regard, we are not merely dealing with an intensification of the anti-social offensive as a result of the neo-liberal agenda. We are also seeing the transformation of the state, from social democratic arrangements in the service of monopoly capital as existed in the post-war period, to fascist arrangements in the service of the most reactionary sections of monopoly capital.

The U.S. imperialist chieftain George W. Bush used the occasion of his inauguration as a fraudulently elected president for a second term to threaten the world with more terrible consequences if the peoples refuse to elect governments on the basis of this system. On the basis of fraudulent elections, we are witnessing new measures to negate the people's right to self-determination, which means their very right to be. Meanwhile, public institutions -- from the parliaments, courts, armed forces and public service to political parties, trade unions, cultural, social and educational institutions and even charities -- are being turned into appendages of the state which defend monopoly right. This is also accompanied by massive disinformation. For example, the U.S. imperialists' self-serving argument applied to the fraudulent elections held in Iraq was as follows:

Saddam Hussein = dictatorship = occupation
U.S. occupation = elections = democracy

Canada uses the same irrational argument to justify its interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries in the name of the "responsibility to protect" and "human security." 

This shows that today it does not matter which question is taken up, the bourgeoisie cannot find a solution. It activates the anti-human factor/anti-consciousness and for its own vainglory has embarked on a brutal path of destroying everything humankind has achieved in the past. In this regard, one of the salient features of the system of representative democracy is to criminalize all the problems arising from differences in ideology, politics, culture and social forms. Far from such problems of life being dealt with, they are made the target of law and order and thus turned into permanent problems. This form of democracy has become so anachronistic that there is no possibility for the working class and broad masses of the people to defend their interests within it. The only recourse the working class and people have is to overthrow it and replace it with a democracy that is consistent with the demand of the people to govern themselves and exercise control over their lives.

In the opinion of CPC(M-L), the right of each people to determine the kind of system they want is not merely a political point. For us to have proletarian internationalism, to create one human race, the precondition is the development of the thinking of all people within their own national conditions. This is the first step to seizing power, the kind of power which is the result of the claim of the oppressed class and peoples for definite aims. By intervening in the real life struggles of the people with the aim of empowering them, we learn and gain the confidence to go from one level of struggle to the next. This is what safeguards the revolutionary interest and ensures that we remain revolutionary Marxist-Leninists, as the people demand of us. 

Our hearts throb with the throbbing of the hearts of millions upon millions of workers. It is this which gives us our ideology, which tells us what is truth and what is falsehood, and on this basis we advance. We are not wrong when we put real life as the basis of our development and Marxism-Leninism as our guide. On this basis we identify with those who have taken up the task to carry out everything consciously and with a plan.

Within this context, it is of utmost importance to deal with the role of wrecking and disinformation which is used to deprive the people of their ability to think, find their bearings and set their own agenda.

The Wrecking of Public Opinion

However else public opinion is defined, it must at least be spoken of in terms of what is public and what is opinion. Opinion refers to the views held about issues based on personal judgment. These views can be the expression of a general assessment, evaluation or conclusions drawn from the investigation of facts. Public refers to the concerns or relations of the people as a whole. Society has developed to a stage where it is necessary for the various needs of the people to be provided for socially and not individually: there is the need for public health, education, culture, etc. There is also a need for an enlightened society, fit for all its members, with a healthy natural and social environment. 

Public opinion refers to the general feelings, attitudes and views expressed especially in respect to decision-making in the body politic. What is the relation of personal judgments (opinions) and public opinion in the polity? Is public opinion the summation of all individual and personal opinions? How does this work? Minimally, it stands in opposition to what is detrimental to the public. Public is the opposite of private. Those concerns relating to the people as a whole or to the general interests of a society are opposed to the narrow, secretive and private concerns of those who have usurped power, using royal prerogative, impunity and privilege. The general interests would be those that affect the whole of society, for example, issues of war and peace, the environment, poverty, etc. Individuals and collectives need to be able to harmonize their conflicting interests with the general interests of society. For this, there is a need for people to assemble, speak, take stands, etc., all of which are public needs. Public rights must be guaranteed through public law that allows for governance of the people by the people and for the people in opposition to the claims of the cliques of narrow self-interest, big business and their supporters, who are today's wreckers. Also, what is known, all the achievements and results of class struggle and struggles for production and scientific experimentation (including culture) belongs to and is of the public, as are all the experiences gained by the people participating politically, etc. Public opinion is connected to the right to conscience and enlightenment.

The very existence of public opinion and the right to conscience is under threat from the wrecking activities of Bush and others who direct their wrecking at anything public. Wrecking is directed at all the personalities of enlightenment and the achievements of the natural and social sciences. Wrecking is also directed at the legacies and traditions of the people in resisting oppression and fighting for democracy and independence.

Disinformation is the weapon used by the wreckers. The purpose of disinformation is to destroy public opinion, and thereby leave all the public treasures vulnerable to the onslaught of the wreckers. An atmosphere of medievalism is created to replace public opinion. Wrecking takes place in order to prevent new content from being provided with a new form that would unleash an energy that would be an advantage to the people. If this energy, the result of the productive power of the people, is expropriated in service of the usurpers, the new content produced will not have its appropriate form. The energy as collective intelligence must be used to create these new forms. Otherwise, this energy is a destructive force used against new content. This content, in other words, must be in-formed. The people who are the essence of this new content require this information, an aspect of public life. Wrecking takes aim, destroying form and content with disinformation, the destruction of the informing energy. Just as modern science was developed first against creationism, etc., this disinformation must be rejected, i.e., public opinion must be created that overcomes the medieval atmosphere of the wreckers. A modern and enlightened public opinion is needed, and then there will be raised in clear relief the power of the disinforming wreckers on the one hand and the power expressed in world public opinion on the other.

The Negation of Direct Experience

Direct experience involves the active participation in or exposure to events, things or phenomena. Direct experience results in knowledge and skills due to the involvement in what happens. An awareness is created from this involvement and contact and from the resulting knowledge. This awareness is of the past and the result of what has happened. It is awareness of a beginning and end. And because direct experience is an objective phenomenon, this beginning and end, past and present, exists as part of an integral whole. Calling experience direct emphasizes that it exists in itself, and that it actually exists means that it can be indicated with accuracy and precision. But this indication or naming is not the concrete content of the experience itself. 

Direct experience exists on the basis of its immediate inter-connections, without somebody or something intervening, and no mediation or intervention can alter the fact of its existence. Based on the way people produce and reproduce what's needed for life, they enter into definite relations with one another and with nature. They produce food, clothing, shelter, etc. They also produce social relations, society, etc. Needs for all these things are also produced, along with the continuous creation of new needs. By engaging in class struggle and struggles for production, culture and scientific experimentation, people directly experience their conditions of life and can take up problems for solution. Direct experience in this sense is connected to the underlying relations locally, nationally and internationally.

Direct experience is based on definite interconnections with nature and society and this is expressed by people's interests and passions. Interests and passions are expressed by individuals and their collectives in relation to nature and society. All of this really exists and because it is reality it is social and natural matter. All of these connections are reflected on the human brain and all of this creates awareness. In other words, the consciousness we have of all these connections and changes also exists objectively, and because of this existence, direct experience becomes the basis of transforming consciousness into matter and matter into consciousness. 

Public opinion is developed on the basis of direct experience of individuals in their collectives and society in general. Public opinion pertains especially to the polity and questions of decision-making. Public opinion is the expression given to the general attitude and feeling around particular issues of concern. Issues of general concern stand in relation to the interests of individuals, collectives and society, all of which are filled with contradictions. Within the polity the conflict among all the interests is expressed as the conflict of the popular will and the legal will.

The negation of direct experience is based on the destruction of public opinion. The negation of direct historical experience includes annihilation of consciousness that objectively exists in the form of laws, governance, political wisdom, common sense. This negation is directed against a consciousness of past and present.

Civil Death: Infamy and the Assault on the Inviolability of Direct Experience

Direct experience, whether of an individual, collective or society, involves participation in activities or events resulting in knowledge and skills. The awareness of this involvement, and the sum of things that have happened along with past acts, affects, etc., is taken as an integral whole. It is the connections of everybody with everything else and the sharing and caring that humans are capable of that makes direct experience not simply part of reality but inviolable. The direct experience of actual historical circumstance is inviolable because in spite of all mediating factors this experience is simultaneously connected to and dependant on everything else in its own time and space. 

Wrecking exists by negating direct experience. A claim is made by those who have usurped power by force that direct experience whether growing out of the class struggles or out of the struggles for production and scientific experimentation is not the basis for knowledge of reality. In this way there can be no common awareness of all of the achievements in these areas. In fact, direct experience is not considered part of reality. This suggests reality is merely the opinions and wishes of those who have usurped power by force. They impose their views as abstraction, independent of the concrete content of reality. 

This is the heart of Bush's second term and explains the program being pursued by the United States at home and abroad, by the British and other powers of Old Europe, by Canada and other countries referred to by Winston Churchill as the "fraternal association of English-speaking peoples" when he launched the Cold War. For example, Bush's inaugural address, full of references to the medieval Crusades in the name of "freedom as an eternal right," presents the future as one of every form of infamy and slavery. The heart of his attack centres on the inviolability of direct experience. He attacks the historical experience of the world's people and throws out all the knowledge they have of how the world operates. He says all the world needs is his abstract notion of freedom as an "eternal right."

The reason everyone has these rights, according to Bush, is because they are created in the image of an abstraction by an abstraction, his god. They have these rights as long as they accept their direction from the "author of life" (authority) which is put forward to smash all of the self-consciousness and consciousness that comes from all of the struggles and achievements of the peoples of the world. This absolute negation of historical direct experience is given by Bush as the claim that his form of justice always has been, is and will always be the same. Paraphrasing from Abraham Lincoln, he states that those who are opposed to his freedom (slavery) must be deprived of their freedom. A further expression of "you are with us or with the terrorists," Bush is not merely acting the hypocrite speaking fine words while carrying out reactionary policies, nor is he simply trying to deceive the people with further lies. Bush is putting forward his theological medieval worldview under modern conditions rooted in the law of slavery and its policy of infamy. 

The U.S. Constitution, which emerged from the enlightenment movement of the 18th century, promoted the role for conscience within the domain of public opinion as the basis for governance to avert tyranny. White men of property were for the most part the ones to benefit. Still, the authors of the Constitution saw a particular need for destroying the power of medievalism and clericalism by removing the power of government to infame its citizens. 

The use of infamy by political or religious authorities was a central aspect of feudal rule. By means of infamy, the state could strip people of their legal personality and humanity. Those infamed were subjected to all the tortures and debasements allowed to the condition known as Capitio Dimunitio , or civil death. This was the position of chattel slaves. Today, under the sway of the wrecking of the bourgeoisie, the use of infamy by the government authorities is reintroduced in full form. It has become the basis to enact laws governing all spheres of life. This is the case within the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries of the so-called civilized world. It is the basis of attempts by these countries to reform the United Nations and establish the so-called New World Order in which they and they alone usurp the decision-making power internationally. With civil death as a condition of life for growing numbers of the people, in the United States public opinion is under full attack, as is the Constitution that was supposed to guarantee it within a republican form of government. Meanwhile, the reactionaries who have usurped power by force in the U.S. seek to impose the same onto the countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean which refuse to cooperate with the U.S. dictate. The law of slavery begins to gain among those who have usurped power by force. The weapons of reaction in their wrecking activities include ignorance (against science, enlightenment), incompetence (against validity in law and science, against the skills and intelligence needed for civilization), intolerance (racism, exceptionalism, eurocentrism, metaphysics of Indian hating), infamy (civil death and law of slavery) and impunity (rule by dictate, privilege, prerogative).

It is thus important to recognize that today our work to create a bulwark of humanity which can defeat the dangers of fascism and war by opening our societies' paths to progress requires the work of the communists to elaborate modern communism and develop the enlightenment movement against the wrecking of public opinion and the negation of direct experience.

The immediate need is to involve the working class and people in providing themselves with a political theory which places the people at the centre stage of development. A political process based on this theory would facilitate the people governing themselves. Now is the time to replace the brutal system of representative democracy under whose aegis all the public institutions of our societies are being transformed into appendages of a fascist state. A form of democracy is needed which is consistent with the interests of the working class and peoples to govern themselves and exercise control over their lives.