When Canada had not one, but two official communist parties

Nathan Vanderklippe gets a half page in today’s paper to spin Yellow Peril scare stories. I found his point of departure intriguing. We begin in 1971, with the arrest of a couple of Black Revolutionary Party operatives in Iowa. They are linked to Canada and hence to a member of the Chinese consulate at the time. Ergo, China has been undermining our democracy for over fifty years! What is never mentioned is the context of that alleged political interference fifty years ago. That was a time when both communist Russia and communist China were supporting different communist movements around the world. They were bitter rivals. The Black Revolutionary Party was affiliated with the American Communist Workers Movement, and was started by a group of former Black Panthers in Iowa. This was at a time when the Black Panthers were being actively hassled out of existence by the US government. “Hassled out of existence” up to and including cold-blooded murder. They enjoyed the support of both the ACWM and the Canadian Communist Party (Marxist Leninist edition). The Communist Party of Canada was the other Canadian communist party. Yup, back in the day, Canada had rival communist parties! One was backed by China, the other by Russia. Any support China may have given to the Black Revolutionary Party would have been intended to subvert Russian influence, not the US or Canadian government. Fast forward fifty years, and neither Russia or China are communist. No, they are most assuredly capitalist. Capitalism definitively won the game that was playing out in the 60s and 70s. But there are those who still want to fan the flames of “the commie threat.” It’s a useful tool for the cheerleaders of Empire. Fall in line behind Uncle Sam in the garden or risk being destroyed by the vicious beasts in the jungle.