Kelowna WUF opening comment
This is an old document written before the WUF was an existing organization under its original name “Red Front” back in April 2024. It is a crude analysis of class struggle in Canada, what classes are revolutionary and reactionary (in the understanding of the RF at the time), and a call to build a workers communist party under the principles of Marxism Leninism Maoism. This document was never able to be published, and was revised last in February 2025, when the WUF was in existence. The last section added was one on the Lumpenproletariat, as the WUF was aiding in local “mutual aid” to help unhoused people. We have since broken with a lot of these ideas and have developed much further under the leadership of the Workers United Front. This is being published to demonstrate our growth and our humble beginnings in struggling through understanding class struggle in Canada.
(Above: logo used by RF)
In the year 2024, in Canada, it is necessary to have an analysis of the conditions of social class in this country. Any good revolutionary movement that wishes to gain popular support must have a correct class analysis of their society. Our party, the Workers Unity Party, wishes to communicate what the classes of Canadian society are and their role in a revolution, which is the ultimate aim of the party.
The Bourgeois Ruling Class
Who is the ruling class of this country? Who controls the means of production? Since Canada is a neoliberal capitalist society, those who rule the country are obscured, hidden. We are told that the people, the workers have a say in how the society is run, but this is nowhere to be seen. The people get the privilege to vote once every few years for prime minister of the country and that is it. That is the extent of politics that the masses are allowed to be involved in. the masses, in reality, have no say in how capitalism dictates their everyday life, they have no say in their workplaces, and students, little to no say in schools. This makes it clear that there has to be some ruling class, if it is not the masses themselves who lead.
The ruling class of this country is the bourgeoisie, as it is in any capitalist country. These are the people who own the private property and means of production, the means to which things are made for profit. This class is a miniscule fraction of the entire population of the country, but holds the highest concentration of political power. These people are the CEOs of the major corporations in this country such as Loblaws, Suncor Energy, Telus, Rogers, BMO, etc., etc. they are not connected to the plight of the average person, for they have millions and billions of dollars protecting them. They profit off of the exploitation of the working class and the destruction of the environment, of indigenous land. They are able to sway politicians, for example Pierre Poilievre, who rants on and on about Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax, but has no comment on the obscene wealth of a few, has no comment on Loblaws breaking record profits while people can’t afford housing, food, electricity, clean water. Poilievre and his party in fact are lobbied by Loblaws to keep their mouths shut about corporations and their profits. There is of course lobbying being done on both parties by major donors, but the sake of this argument is to expose Poilievre as simply another politician being controlled by the bourgeoisie and not some “man of the people” that conservatives and their media would have us believe. Thus, the rulers of this country are not politicians or the people who elect them, but the bourgeoisie, the capitalist class. All politicians of all parties are to maintain this economic system, keeping the bourgeoisie at the top. This class is the primary enemy that our party wishes to overcome in the revolution. They have the most to lose when revolution comes and are the enemies of the revolutionary classes and the party.
The Petty Bourgeoisie
There is a small class in this country that acts as a buffer between the bourgeoisie and the working class and that is the petty bourgeoisie. This is the class of those who own small businesses, those who work for themselves. They own means of production but also perform labour. This is a class that has been shrinking ever since the industrial revolution of the 19th century, when capitalism was concentrating the many classes of feudal society into either the bourgeoisie or the proletariat, the working class. The petty bourgeoisie is at the largest risk of falling into the proletariat due to capital being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, the formation of monopolies. Small businesses cannot compete with already established and politically powerful corporations.
The small shop owner has the potential to be revolutionary, if they realize that the system itself is working against them, and that the only way forward is to join the proletariat in revolution. This is very unlikely, however. The ideology that most of the petty bourgeoisie embraces is one of competition, of an idealized version of capitalism, where there are no monopolies or mega-corporations, where it is all small businesses competing against each other. This is a utopian wish, for the outcome of all competition is that one must win. One has to eat the other in order to survive, the company must grow. Thus, capitalism was always predestined to lead to monopoly, to the concentration of capital. The small shop owner faces a constant uphill battle in this system, and as a result has a lot to gain from revolution, from the overthrow of capitalism. The vast majority of them, however, fall into reactionary politics, not revolutionary politics.
The Proletariat
The proletariat, the class who does not own any means of production and has to sell their labour power to an employer, is the revolutionary class. This class constitutes the vast majority of the Canadian population. The proletariat, however, has changed a great deal from when original communist works were written, especially in western countries. The proletariat in the west has changed from producers and factory workers to service workers. Most of the Canadian proletariat, especially the youth, works in retail and food jobs. This is different from the times of Marx, Engels, Lenin, the early labour movement and the Bolsheviki, where the majority of the proletariat worked in giant factories and mills, where workers rights were non-existent. In the time since then, capital has moved abroad to all corners of the Earth in search of more easily exploitable labour in the third world, whilst the once mighty industries of the United States and Canada rust away.
Although the western proletariat has shifted from manufacturing jobs and hard labour into service jobs, this does not change the fact that service workers are still being exploited, they are still the proletariat, the revolutionary class.
The Lumpen Proletariat is a small but growing sub-section of the proletariat. The lumpen proletariat is made up of those who do not have work, who are unhoused, and who have to resort to petty crime to sustain their lives. They are plagued by the growing drug pandemic that the bourgeois rulers of this country seem to have no way to fix. This class is the most downtrodden of the classes in this country. They may be a powerful ally in the revolutionary struggle, their interests align with that of the wider proletariat of seizing the means of production and abolishing the bourgeois private property. The party must be responsible for reintegrating these people, who have been abused and separated from wider society, into the party and fighting for the betterment of their lives.
In the current conditions of Canadian society, the life of the average worker is getting harder and harder as the system marches ever closer to another economic crisis. More and more people are falling into homelessness, more and more people are numbing their pains with drugs and alcohol, turning them into abusive and unpleasant people. The class struggle is being waged as we speak and the ruling class, the bourgeoisie is winning by a long shot. What must the proletariat do? It is simple. In the time we have before the crisis shocks society to its core, we must build a party of the masses. We mustn’t build a cult or a self destructive terrorist cell, but a party of the masses. The party must be responsible for serving the masses during times of strife and financial difficulty. The party must educate the masses along the lines of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and must refute and put to rest all arguments which divide people among racial and sexual lines. The party must be held accountable by the masses, the masses must be able to criticize the party whenever it makes a wrong decision or analysis so that the party can correct itself and move forwards with a correct analysis. Lastly, the party must have an armed wing in order to defend the masses from police, military, and other elements such as right wing paramilitaries.
The road ahead is long and treacherous but it must be traveled. The building of a party cannot come any sooner, as the masses are divided by the illegitimate political parties that don’t care of their interests. Our enemies are clear; the bourgeoisie, the landlords, the minority of the population that holds the greatest wealth, and all those who defend them and their power. Our allies are in the proletariat, the lumpenproletariat, and the revolutionary section of the petty bourgeoisie.
Workers United Front Kelowna 
Leave a comment