This is good for the socialist soul.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
Co-Operative Commonwealth Federation
Programme
Adopted at First National Convention Held at Regina,
Saskatchewan, July, 1933.
The Regina Manifesto
The CCF is a federation of organizations whose purpose is
the establishment in Canada of a Co-operative
Commonwealth in which the principle regulating
production, distribution and exchange will be the supplying
of human needs and not the making of profits.
We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its
inherent injustice and
inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and
exploitation of one
class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning
will supersede
unregulated private enterprise and competition, and in which
genuine democratic
self-government, based upon economic equality will be possible.
The present order
is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by
chaotic waste and
instability; and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass
of the people to
poverty and insecurity. Power has become more and more
concentrated into the
hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and
industrialists and to their
predatory interests the majority are habitually sacrificed. When
private profit is the
main stimulus to economic effort, our society oscillates between
periods of feverish
prosperity in which the main benefits go to speculators and
profiteers, and of
catastrophic depression, in which the common man's normal state
of insecurity and
hardship is accentuated. We believe that these evils can be
removed only in a
planned and socialized economy in which our natural resources and
principal means
of production and distribution are owned, controlled and operated
by the people.
The new social order at which we aim is not one in which
individuality will be crushed
out by a system of regimentation. Nor shall we interfere with
cultural rights of racial
or religious minorities. What we seek is a proper collective
organization of our
economic resources such as will make possible a much greater
degree of leisure
and a much richer individual life for every citizen.
This social and economic transformation can be brought about by
political action,
through the election of a government inspired by the ideal of a
Co-operative
Commonwealth and supported by a majority of the people. We do not
believe in
change by violence. We consider that both the old parties in
Canada are the
instruments of capitalist interests and cannot serve as agents of
social
reconstruction, and that whatever the superficial differences
between them, they are
bound to carry on government in accordance with the dictates of
the big business
interests who finance them. The CCF aims at political power in
order to put an end to
this capitalist domination of our political life. It is a
democratic movement, a
federation of farmer, labour and socialist organizations,
financed by its own
members and seeking to achieve its ends solely by constitutional
methods. It appeals
for support to all who believe that the time has come for a
far-reaching
reconstruction of our economic and political institutions and who
are willing to work
together for the carrying out of the following policies:
1. Planning
The establishment of a planned, socialized economic order, in
order to make
possible the most efficient development of the national
resources and the most
equitable distribution of the national income.
The first step in this direction will be setting up of a National
Planning Commission
consisting of a small body of economists, engineers and
statisticians assisted by an
appropriate technical staff.
The task of the Commission will be to plan for the production,
distribution and
exchange of all goods and services necessary to the efficient
functioning of the
economy; to co-ordinate the activities of the socialized
industries; to provide for a
satisfactory balance between the producing and consuming power;
and to carry on
continuous research into all branches of the national economy in
order to acquire the
detailed information necessary to efficient planning.
The Commission will be responsible to the Cabinet and will work
in co-operation
with the Managing Boards of the Socialized Industries.
It is now certain that in every industrial country some form of
planning will replace
the disintegrating capitalist system. The C.C.F. will provide
that in Canada the
planning shall be done, not by a small group of capitalist
magnates in their own
interests, but by public servants acting in the public interest
and responsible to the
people as a whole.
2. Socialization Of Finance
Socialization of all financial machinery--banking currency,
credit, and insurance, to
make possible the effective control of currency, credit and
prices, and the supplying
of new productive equipment for socially desirable
purposes
Planning by itself will be of little use if the public authority
has not the power to carry
its plans into effect. Such power will require the control of
finance and of all those
vital industries and services, which, if they remain in private
hands, can be used to
thwart or corrupt the will of the public authority. Control of
finance is the first step in
the control of the whole economy. The chartered banks must be
socialized and
removed from the control of private profit-seeking interests; and
the national
banking system thus established must have at its head a Central
Bank to control the
flow of credit and the general price level, and to regulate
foreign exchange
operations. A National Investment Board must also be set up,
working in
co-operation with the socialized banking system to mobilize and
direct the unused
surpluses of production for socially desired purposes as
determined by the Planning
Commission.
Insurance Companies, which provide one of the main channels for
the investment of
individual savings and which, under their present competitive
organization, charge
needlessly high premiums for the social services that they
render, must also be
socialized.
3. Social Ownership
Socialization (Dominion, Provincial or Municipal) of
transportation, communications,
electric power and all other industries and services essential to
social planning, and
their operation under the general direction of the Planning
Commission by
competent managements freed from day to day political
interference.
Public utilities must be operated for the public benefit and, not
for the private profit
of a small group of owners or financial manipulators. Our natural
resources must
be developed by the same methods. Such a programme means the
continuance
and extension of the public ownership enterprises in which most
governments in
Canada have already gone some distance. Only by such public
ownership, operated
on a planned economy, can our main industries be saved from the
wasteful
competition of the ruinous overdevelopment and
over-capitalization which are the
inevitable outcome of capitalism. Only in a regime of public
ownership and
operation will the full benefits accruing from centralized
control and mass
production be passed on to the consuming public.
Transportation, communications and electric power must come first
in a list of
industries to be socialized. Others, such as mining, pulp and
paper and the
distribution of milk, bread, coal and gasoline, in which
exploitation, waste, or
financial malpractices are particularly prominent must next be
brought under social
ownership and operation.
In restoring to the community its natural resources and in taking
over industrial
enterprises from private into public control we do not propose
any policy of outright
confiscation. What we desire is the most stable and equitable
transition to the
Cooperative Commonwealth. It is impossible to decide the policies
to be followed in
particular cases in an uncertain future, but we insist upon
certain broad principles.
The welfare of the community must take supremacy over the claims
of private
wealth. In times of war, human life has been conscripted. Should
economic
circumstances call for it, conscription of wealth would be more
justifiable. We
recognize the need for compensation in the case of individuals
and institutions which
must receive adequate maintenance during the transitional period
before the planned
economy becomes fully operative. But a CCF government will not
play the role of
rescuing bankrupt private concerns for the benefit of promoters
and of stock and
bond holders. It will not pile up a deadweight burden of
unremunerative debt which
represents claims upon the public treasury of a functionless
owner class.
The management of publicly owned enterprises will be vested in
boards who will be
appointed for their competence in the industry and will conduct
each particular
enterprise on efficient economic lines. The machinery of
management may well vary
from industry to industry, but the rigidity of Civil Service
rules should be avoided and
likewise the evils of the patronage system as exemplified in so
many departments
of the Government today.
Workers in these public industries must be free to organize in
trade unions and must
be given the right to participate in the management of the
industry.
4. Agriculture
Security of tenure for the farmer upon his farm on conditions to
be laid down by
individual provinces; insurance against unavoidable crop
failure; removal of the
tariff burden from the operations of agriculture; encouragement
of producers' and
consumers' cooperatives; the restoration and maintenance of
an equitable
relationship between prices of agricultural products and those of
other commodities
and services; and improving the efficiency of export trade in
farm products.
The security of tenure for the farmer upon his farm which is
imperilled by the
present disastrous situation of the whole industry, together with
adequate social
insurance, ought to be guaranteed under equitable conditions.
The prosperity of agriculture, the greatest Canadian industry,
depends upon a rising
volume of purchasing power of the masses in Canada for all farm
goods consumed
at home, and upon the maintenance of large scale exports of the
stable
commodities at satisfactory prices or equitable commodity
exchange.
The intense depression in agriculture today is a consequence of
the general world
crisis caused by the normal workings of the capitalistic system
resulting in: (1)
Economic nationalism expressing itself in tariff barriers and
other restrictions of
world trade; (2) The decreased purchasing power of unemployed and
under-employed workers and of the Canadian people in general; (3)
The exploitation
of both primary producers and consumers by monopolistic
corporations who
absorb a great proportion of the selling price of farm products.
(This last is true, for
example, of the distribution of milk and dairy products, the
packing industry, and
milling.)
The immediate cause of agricultural depression is the
catastrophic fall in the world
prices of foodstuffs as compared with other prices, this fall
being due in large
measure to the deflation of currency and credit. To counteract
the worst effect of this,
the internal price level should be raised so that the farmers'
purchasing power may
be restored.
We propose therefore:
1.The improvement of the position of the farmer by the increase
of the
purchasing power made possible by the social control of the
financial system.
This control must be directed towards the increase of
employment as laid
down elsewhere and towards raising the prices of farm
commodities by
appropriate credit and foreign policies.
2.Whilst the family farm is the accepted basis for agricultural
production in
Canada the position of the farmer may be much improved by:
(a) The
extension of consumers' cooperatives for the purchase of
farm supplies and
domestic requirements; and (b) The extension of cooperative
institutions for
the processing and marketing of farm products.
Both of the foregoing to have suitable state encouragement
and assistance.
3.The adoption of a planned system of agricultural development
based upon
scientific soil surveys directed towards better land
utilization, and a scientific
policy of agricultural development for the whole of Canada.
4.The substitution for the present system of foreign trade, of
a system of import
boards to improve the efficiency of overseas marketing, to
control prices,
and to integrate the foreign trade policy with the
requirements of the national
economic plan.
5. External Trade
The regulation in accordance with the National plan of external
trade through import
and export boards
Canada is dependent on external sources of supply for many of her
essential
requirements of raw materials and manufactured products. These
she can obtain
only by large exports of the goods she is best fitted to produce.
The strangling of
our export trade by insane protectionist policies must be brought
to an end. But the
old controversies between free traders and protectionists are now
largely obsolete.
In a world of nationally organized economies Canada must organize
the buying and
selling of her main imports and exports under public boards, and
take steps to
regulate the flow of less important commodities by a system of
licenses. By so doing
she will be enabled to make the best trade agreements possible
with foreign
countries, put a stop to the exploitation of both primary
producer and ultimate
consumer, make possible the coordination of internal processing,
transportation
and marketing of farm products, and facilitate the establishment
of stable prices for
such export commodities.
6. Co-Operative Institutions
The encouragement by the public authority of both producers'
and consumers'
cooperative institutions
In agriculture, as already mentioned, the primary producer can
receive a larger net
revenue through cooperative organization of purchases and
marketing. Similarly in
retail distribution of staple commodities such as milk, there is
room for development
both of public municipal operation and of consumers'
cooperatives, and such
cooperative organization can be extended into wholesale
distribution and into
manufacturing. Cooperative enterprises should be assisted by the
state through
appropriate legislation and through the provision of adequate
credit facilities.
7. Labour Code
A National Labour Code to secure for the worker maximum income
and leisure,
insurance covering accident, old age, and unemployment, freedom
of association
and effective participation in the management of his industry or
profession
The spectre of poverty and insecurity which still haunts every
worker, though
technological developments have made possible a high standard of
living for
everyone, is a disgrace which must be removed from our
civilization. The
community must organize its resources to effect progressive
reduction of the hours
of work in accordance with technological development and to
provide a constantly
rising standard of life to everyone who is willing to work. A
labour code must be
developed which will include state regulation of all wages, equal
reward and equal
opportunity of advancement for equal services, irrespective of
sex; measures to
guarantee the right to work or the right to maintenance through
stabilization of
employment and through unemployment insurance; social insurance
to protect
workers and their families against the hazards of sickness,
death, industrial accident
and old age; limitation of hours of work and protection of health
and safety in
industry. Both wages and insurance benefits should be varied in
accordance with
family needs.
In addition workers must be guaranteed the undisputed right to
freedom of
association, and should be encouraged and assisted by the state
to organize
themselves in trade unions. By means of collective agreements and
participation in
works councils, the workers can achieve fair working rules and
share in the control
of industry and profession; and their organizations will be
indispensable elements in
a system of genuine industrial democracy.
The labour code should be uniform throughout the country. But the
achievement of
this end is difficult so long as jurisdiction over labour
legislation under the B.N.A. Act
is mainly in the hands of the provinces. It is urgently
necessary, therefore, that the
B.N.A. Act be amended to make such a national labour code
possible.
8. Socialized Health Services Publicly organized health,
hospital and medical services
With the advance of medical science the maintenance of a healthy
population has
become a function for which every civilized community should
undertake
responsibility. Health services should be made at least as freely
available as are
educational services today. But under a system which is still
mainly one of private
enterprise the costs of proper medical care, such as the
wealthier members of
society can easily afford, are at present prohibitive for great
masses of the people.
A properly organized system of public health services including
medical and dental
care, which would stress the prevention rather than the cure of
illness should be
extended to all our people in both rural and urban areas. This is
an enterprise in
which Dominion, Provincial and Municipal authorities, as well as
the medical and
dental professions can cooperate.
9. B.N.A. Act
The amendment of the Canadian Constitution, without infringing
upon racial or
religious minority rights or upon legitimate provincial claims to
autonomy, so as to
give the Dominion Government adequate powers to deal
effectively with urgent
economic problems which are essentially national in scope; the
abolition of the
Canadian Senate
We propose that the necessary amendments to the B.N.A. Act shall
be obtained as
speedily as required, safeguards being inserted to ensure that
the existing rights of
racial and religious minorities shall not be changed without
their own consent. What
is chiefly needed today is the placing in the hands of the
national government of
more power to control national economic development. In a rapidly
changing
economic environment our political constitution must be
reasonably flexible. The
present division of powers between Dominion and Provinces
reflects the conditions
of a pioneer, mainly agricultural, community in 1867. Our
constitution must be
brought into line with the increasing industrialization of the
country and the
consequent centralization of economic and financial power--which
has taken place in
the last two generations. The principle laid down in the Quebec
Resolution of the
Fathers of Confederation should be applied to the conditions of
1933, that "there be
a general government charged with matters of common interest to
the whole
country and local governments for each of the provinces charged
with the control of
local matters to their respective sections".
The Canadian Senate, which was originally created to protect
provincial rights, but
has failed even in this function, has developed into a bulwark of
capitalist interests,
as is illustrated by the large number of company directorships
held by its aged
members. In its peculiar composition of a fixed number of members
appointed for
life it is one of the most reactionary assemblies in the
civilized world. It is a standing
obstacle to all progressive legislation, and the only permanently
satisfactory method
of dealing with the constitutional difficulties it creates is to
abolish it.
10. External Relations
A Foreign Policy designed to obtain international economic
cooperation and to
promote disarmament and world peace
Canada has a vital interest in world peace. We propose,
therefore, to do everything
in our power to advance the idea of international cooperation as
represented by the
League of Nations and the International Labour Organization. We
would extend our
diplomatic machinery for keeping in touch with the main centres
of world interest.
But we believe that genuine international cooperation is
incompatible with the
capitalist regime which is in force in most countries, and that
strenuous efforts are
needed to rescue the League from its present condition of being
mainly a League of
capitalist Great Powers. We stand resolutely against all
participation in imperialist
wars. Within the British Commonwealth, Canada must maintain her
autonomy as a
completely self-governing nation. We must resist all attempts to
build up a new
economic British Empire in place of the old political one, since
such attempts readily
lend themselves to the purposes of capitalist exploitation and
may easily lead to
further world wars. Canada must refuse to be entangled in any
more wars fought to
make the world safe for capitalism.
11. Taxation And Public Finance
A new taxation policy designed not only to raise public revenues
but also to lessen
the glaring inequalities of income and to provide funds for
social services and the
socialization of industry; the cessation of the debt-creating
system of Public Finance
In the type of economy that we envisage, the need for taxation,
as we now
understand it, will have largely disappeared. It will
nevertheless be essential during
the, transition period, to use the taxing powers, along with the
other methods
proposed elsewhere, as a means of providing for the socialization
of industry, and
for extending the benefits of increased Social Services.
At present capitalist governments in Canada raise a large
proportion of their
revenues from such levies as customs duties and sales taxes, the
main burden of
which falls upon the masses. In place of such taxes upon articles
of general
consumption, we propose a drastic extension of income,
corporation and
inheritance taxes, steeply graduated according to ability to pay.
Full publicity must be
given to income tax payments and our tax collection system must
be brought up to
the English standard of efficiency.
We also believe in the necessity for an immediate revision of the
basis of Dominion
and Provincial sources of revenues, so as to produce a
coordinated and equitable
system of taxation throughout Canada.
An inevitable effect of the capitalist system is the debt
creating character of public
financing. All public debts have enormously increased, and the
fixed interest
charges paid thereon now amount to the largest single item of
so-called
uncontrollable public expenditures. The CCF proposes that in
future no public
financing shall be permitted which facilitates the perpetuation
of the parasitic
interest-receiving class; that capital shall be provided through
the medium of the
National Investment Board and free from perpetual interest
charges.
We propose that all Public Works, as directed by the Planning
Commission, shall be
financed by the issuance of credit, as suggested, based upon the
National Wealth of
Canada.
12. Freedom
Freedom of speech and assembly for all; repeal of Section 98 of
the Criminal Code;
amendment of the Immigration Act to prevent the present
inhuman policy of
deportation; equal treatment before the law of all residents of
Canada irrespective of
race, nationality or religious or political
beliefs
In recent years, Canada has seen an alarming growth of Fascist
tendencies among
all governmental authorities. The most elementary rights of
freedom of speech and
assembly have been arbitrarily denied to workers and to all whose
political and
social views do not meet with the approval of those in power. The
lawless and brutal
conduct of the police in certain centres in preventing public
meetings and in dealing
with political prisoners must cease. Section 98 of the Criminal
Code which has been
used as a weapon of political oppression by a panic-stricken
capitalist government,
must be wiped off the statute book and those who have been
imprisoned under it
must be released. An end must be put to the inhuman practice of
deporting
immigrants who were brought to this country by immigration
propaganda and
now, through no fault of their own, find themselves victims of an
executive
department against whom there is no appeal to the courts of the
land. We stand for
full economic, political and religious liberty for all.
13. Social Justice
The establishment of a commission composed of psychiatrists,
psychologists,
socially minded jurists and social workers, to deal with all
matters pertaining to
crime and punishment and the general administration of law, in
order to humanize
the law and to bring it into harmony with the needs of
the people
While the removal of economic inequality will do much to overcome
the most glaring
injustices in the treatment of those who come into conflict with
the law, our present
archaic system must be changed and brought into accordance with a
modern
concept of human relationships. The new system must not be based
as is the
present one, upon vengeance and fear, but upon an understanding
of human
behaviour. For this reason its planning and control cannot be
left in the hands of
those steeped in the outworn legal tradition; and therefore it is
proposed that there
shall be established a national commission composed of
psychiatrists,
psychologists, socially minded jurists and social workers whose
duty it shall be to
devise a system of prevention and correction consistent with
other features of the
new social order.
14. An Emergency Programme
The assumption by the Dominion Government of direct
responsibility for dealing
with the present critical unemployment situation and for
tendering suitable work or
adequate maintenance; the adoption of measures to relieve the
extremity of the
crisis such as a programme of public spending on housing, and
other enterprises
that will increase the real wealth of Canada, to be financed by
the issue of credit
based on the national wealth
The extent of unemployment and the widespread suffering which it
has caused,
creates a situation with which provincial and municipal
governments have long been
unable to cope and forces upon the Dominion government direct
responsibility for
dealing with the crisis as the only authority with financial
resources adequate to meet
the situation. Unemployed workers must be secured in the tenure
of their homes, and
the scale and methods of relief, at present altogether
inadequate, must be such as to
preserve decent human standards of living.
It is recognized that even after a Cooperative Commonwealth
Federation
Government has come into power, a certain period of time must
elapse before the
planned economy can be fully worked out. During this brief
transitional period, we
propose to provide work and purchasing power to those now
unemployed by a
far-reaching programme of public expenditure on housing, slum
clearance,
hospitals, libraries, schools, community halls, parks,
recreational projects,
reforestation, rural electrification, the elimination of grade
crossings, and other
similar projects in both town and country. This programme, which
would be
financed by the issuance of credit based on the national wealth,
would serve the
double purpose of creating employment and meeting recognized
social needs. Any
steps which the government takes, under this emergency programme,
which may
assist private business, must include guarantees of adequate
wages and reasonable
hours of work, and must be designed to further the advance
towards the complete
Cooperative Commonwealth.
Emergency measures, however, are of only temporary value, for the
present
depression is a sign of the mortal sickness of the whole
capitalist system, and this
sickness cannot be cured by the application of salves. These
leave untouched the
cancer which is eating at the heart of our society, namely, the
economic system in
which our natural resources and our principal means of production
and distribution
are owned, controlled and operated for the private profit of a
small proportion of
our population.
No C.C.F. Government will rest content until it has eradicated
capitalism and Put into
operation the full programme of socialized planning which will
lead to the
establishment in Canada of the Cooperative Commonwealth.
From Leo Zakuta's "A Protest Movement Becalmed: A Study of Change
in the CCF," Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1964
