PV Vancouver Bureau
Meeting in Vancouver over the July 5-6 weekend, delegates from Communist Party clubs across British Columbia held the Party’s 45th BC convention. Delegates elected a new provincial committee, including Robert Crooks as leader.
Originally from Manitoba, Crooks has been a political organizer on the west coast since late 2023. During that time, he has been active in the Cuba solidarity movement and in community struggles. He was a Communist Party candidate in the Victoria region in both the recent federal election and the provincial election in October 2024.
The outgoing provincial leader, Kimball Cariou, was elected as one of a new five-member BC executive, along with three other comrades who are active in trade unions and other people’s movements.
The convention debated and amended two key documents – a political resolution which analyzes the impact of the economic and social crisis facing the working class and Indigenous peoples of BC, and an organizational report outlining the Party’s plans to build on membership growth over the last several years. Reflecting a major change in membership demographics, most of the delegates were in their 20s to 40s, with only two of 15 members of the new provincial committee over the age of 45.
The political report focuses mainly on the BC situation, especially the failure of the NDP government of Premier David Eby to follow up on some gains achieved by the labour and social movements after the defeat of the former right-wing Liberals in 2017. The trend in recent years has been to halt any real progress on major issues – housing, childcare, social assistance, etc. – as the Eby government yields to pressures from big capital, especially real estate developer interests and the natural resource extraction and export sector. Even the province’s powerful public sector trade unions face an uphill battle in upcoming bargaining over new collective agreements,
One particularly alarming aspect of this trend is the rapid move away from the previous timid steps timid steps towards reconciliation and cooperation with First Nations in the province. Similar to the shifts by the new Liberal federal government, measures by the NDP here to implement the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples have been shelved since the declaration of the US tariff war.
Communist Party clubs are increasingly involved and visible in struggles around these and many other issues. Look for Party tables and displays this summer and fall, including at Pride festivals, the People’s Voice Walk-A-Thon on August 24 at Bear Creek Park in Surrey, Labour Day celebrations, and Main Street Car-Free Day in Vancouver.
Support working-class media!
If you found this article useful, please consider donating to People’s Voice or purchasing a subscription so that you get every issue of Canada’s leading socialist publication delivered to your door or inbox!
