01) COMMUNIST PARTY OF CANADA ELECTS FIRST WOMAN LEADER
For the first time in the history of the Communist Party of Canada, a woman has been elected as its top leader. Liz Rowley was elected by the CPC's Central Committee, which met in Toronto on the Jan. 30-31 weekend. The long-time Ontario provincial leader, she takes over the federal position following the resignation of Miguel Figueroa, who stepped down due to health reasons after serving in this office for 23 years.
The CC expressed its deepest appreciation to Miguel Figueroa for his many contributions to the work of the Communist Party and the people's movements going back to 1977, when he joined the CPC as a student activist at Dawson College in Montreal. During the years 1978-1985, he was the party's Greater Vancouver organizer. In that capacity, he played an important role in building the annual "End the Arms Race" demonstrations which brought tens of thousands into the streets for nuclear disarmament, and also in strengthening COPE, the broad left-centre municipal reform alliance based on the labour movement, community groups, Communists, NDPers and many other progressives. After that, he served from 1986 to 1992 as Atlantic region Party leader, based in Halifax, where he chaired the Union Organizing Drive Committee which ultimately brought over 800 part-time sessional professors and teaching assistants at Dalhousie University into CUPE. Starting in the late 1980s, he was a key figure in the struggle to prevent an attempt by some of its elected leaders to liquidate the CPC. This successful resistance was followed by the Party's 30th Central Convention in December 1992, which elected Figueroa as leader. Just months later, draconian amendments to the Election Act were adopted by Parliament, effectively banning the Communist Party of Canada and making it nearly impossible for smaller parties to engage in federal elections. Miguel Figueroa was the key public spokesperson for the ten-year campaign to repeal this undemocratic legislation, which was overturned by the Supreme Court's historic 2003 ruling in the case of Figueroa v. Attorney-General of Canada. Over his 23 years as CPC leader, Figueroa led the Communist Party through eight federal election campaigns, touring and speaking across the country. He was also a prominent figure at the annual International Meeting of Communist and Workers' Parties, representing the CPC at many of these gatherings.
Announcing his resignation, Figueroa told the CC that he intends to remain active in the Party, taking on other assignments and responsibilities. The upcoming 38th Central Convention of the CPC will feature a tribute to Miguel Figueroa as a highlight of the weekend's agenda.
Liz Rowley is well-known across Canada for her many years of activity in the Communist Party and in a wide range of people's movements. She joined the CPC in the late 1960s, and was the Party's youngest candidate in the 1972 federal election, in the university-based riding of Edmonton Strathcona. She has been a Party organizer and leader in Ontario since 1975, and a member of the CEC since 1978. Living in Hamilton during the 1980s, she was deeply involved in many struggles by the trade union movement to defend jobs, living standards, labour rights, women's equality, social programs and Canadian sovereignty, all of which became the target of a vicious neoliberal assault against working people. Moving to Toronto to work as the Ontario leader of the Party, she became a powerful grassroots spokesperson in the "Days of Action" fightback against brutal cutbacks imposed starting in 1995 by the Mike Harris Tories, and was elected a Public School Trustee in East York. Liz Rowley has been an outspoken participant in many important battles for the rights and interests of working people in Ontario, around such issues as defence of public education, affordable vehicle insurance, the fight against plant closures, and much more. She has been a prominent spokesperson of the CPC's electoral campaigns, and for the Party's call for a broad People's Coalition to open the door to fundamental progressive change in Canada. Along with Miguel Figueroa, she was instrumental in the membership struggle to block the liquidation of the CPC during the difficult years before its 30th Central Convention.
Over the coming few months, Liz Rowley will be meeting with CPC members across the country, attending provincial Nominating Conventions which will elect delegates to the 38th Central Convention. People's Voice will keep readers informed about upcoming public events where Rowley will speak.
(The above article is from the February 15-29, 2016, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading socialist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)