12. A red army to confront and defeat the enemy

The second tool that the proletariat needs in order to wage the revolutionary struggle against the bourgeoisie is a revolutionary army—a red army—that will not only be able to confront reactionary violence that the bourgeoisie will unleash against us, but also to impose social, political and economic transformations on the forces that will try to prevent it from doing so.

A revolutionary army is not an adventurous group motivated by individual goals that are different than those of the revolution. It is essentially an active body of people, distinct from the party but which is under its control, who perform military tasks decided by the party. Activists within the party can be soldiers of the army, but every soldier is not necessarily a member of the party.

Depending on the situation and following the different steps the revolution will take in Canada, the revolutionary army will be called upon to accomplish numerous and various tasks. Whatever they may be, they will all concur in strengthening revolution and/or weakening the enemy.

Even though the revolutionary army is under the leadership of the party, it exists on its own basis. It must assume its own growth, basing itself on the principle of self-sufficiency. The expansion of the army staff and of its equipment has to be fully assumed by the military itself. Throughout all of the revolutionary process, from its very inception to the final battle, the revolutionary army prepares itself to confront and defeat the enemy and its institutions. It works constantly in improving its might. Investigation is one way to do so. This provides intelligence concerning the adversary. Accumulation of its forces is also very important. Another key aspect is the acquisition of skills at warfare through practice.

At first, the work and the actions of the army are meant to support the work of the party. They can also, but less importantly, serve to directly weaken the enemy. At the beginning, the army’s main purpose is to protect the party and also to foster its military capability. Its work and actions must be linked to the vast political campaigns undertaken by the party. The army participates in those campaigns through armed propaganda actions carefully chosen. Such actions are followed up by agitation and propaganda lead by the party.

By assuring its secrecy, the revolutionary army must find a way to link itself to the masses from the very beginning of its existence. It will support the movement of the masses that will have been developed under the party’s leadership, against the discipline imposed by the bourgeois state. This is the only way the army will be able to gain the recognition of the masses and to deeply link itself to them and rely on their support.

Even if the actions of the revolutionary army are of limited reach, they will demonstrate to the masses that it is possible to confront the bourgeoisie and deal blows to it. They will show the masses the way to go. They will show them that there exists a well organized force, earnest in taking up action against the enemy.

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Table of contents

1. Our plan of action to make revolution
2. Our ideology is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
3. Capitalism: a system of exploitation, misery and destruction
4. The battle of two big adversaries
5. The bourgeoisie, a powerful class to eliminate
6. The exploited proletariat, spearhead of the socialist revolution
7. Against national oppression! Against nationalism and chauvinism! Fight for absolute equality for all nations and languages!
8. Women of the proletariat: left behind for a long time, now at the forefront!
9. Our goal: Communism
10. The path of revolution in Canada: Protracted People’s War
11. Build the revolutionary communist party of the Canadian proletariat!
12. A red army to confront and defeat the enemy
13. Unleash the fury of the masses as a mighty force for the revolution
14. Make a step towards proletarian revolution!