INTERNATIONAL readers [interested] by the recent visit of the Canadian Prime Minister, Mr. Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, will be stimulated by this brisk little pamphlet.*
Based on a resolution adopted at the 1966 convention of the League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvriere (LSA/LSO), the Canadian Trotskyists, [it] expounds a Marxist analysis and develops a socialist perspective on the phenomenon of Quebec separatism.
The pamphlet points out the economic depression of the French speaking sections of the Canadian population (per-capita income two-thirds of the Canadian average), with unemployment higher and educational facilities inferior compared to the rest of Canada.
But it is one specific feature which marks out the problems of the Quebecois: that is LANGUAGE; all of the problems of employment, education, etc., are sharpened by the fact that the society imposing these problems is English-speaking.
[After analysing] the various nationalist parties in Quebec and the class and sectional interests they stand for, the pamphlet points out their impotence and then goes on to isolate as the only force which can take Quebec forward: the Quebecois [working] class, which is strong, militant and organised.
On the question of separatism itself, the pamphlet restates the socialist principle that Quebec should have the right to self-determination, but points out that the demand for separation is almost solely restricted to the petit-bourgeoisie and that its implementation would not advance the interests of the workers in any way.
The real perspective for French Canadian workers is that of building a Labour Party, which, basing itself on their militancy and strength, could go forward to fight for their demands: for a better standard of life and for the right to their own language and culture. However, the pamphlet proffers no illusions that policies similar to the present reformist ones of the New Democratic Party, in English speaking Canada, could achieve anything. The only path for a labour Party would be the revolutionary one of breaking the tentacles of the English-speaking monopolies which are at present strangling the life, cultural and economic, of French [Canada].
[It] is an excellent little pamphlet which, in its economy of language, clear presentation of ideas, and bold design puts much of the British left's literature to shame. Vive le Quebec Libre!
* VIVE LE QUEBEC LIBRE, Vanguard Publications, Toronto, Canada, available from Pioneer Book Service, 8, Toynbee St., London E.1., 2/- [post] paid.