- William Kashtan
William Kashtan (1909-1993) became
general secretary of theCommunist Party of Canada in January 1965, several months following the death ofLeslie Morris . The delay in his assuming the position was due to the opposition ofTim Buck to his appointment.Kashtan never succeeded in winning election to theCanadian House of Commons , and retired in 1988. He was an orthodox, pro-Moscow Communist and consistently supported theSoviet Union through various shifts in policy at the Kremlin. Kashtan opposedEurocommunism in the 1970s when many other Communist Parties in the west embraced it.In 1970, Kashtan spoke out against the
Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) group inQuebec , describing it as a terrorist organization and claiming that its methods were not consistent with genuine revolutionary behaviour.In 1971 he asked
James Gareth Endicott to resign as president of theCanadian Peace Congress accusing him of having anti-Soviet and pro-China views.Kashtan retired as party leader in 1988 and was replaced by
George Hewison . In the early 1990s, following thecollapse of the Soviet Union , Hewison and his supporters attempted to move the Communist Party away fromMarxism-Leninism in light of the failure of Soviet-style Communism. Kashtan came out of retirement to fight the changes.
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