A newsboy holds up a newspaper with a banner headline reporting the invoking of the Conflict Measures Act on Oct. 16, 1970, following the kidnapping of British diplomat James Cross and Québec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte by the FLQ. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Peter Bregg

The FLQ’s October 1970 Manifesto, delivered 50 years in the past this month, is among the finest ever written polemical items in Canadian historical past. It stands someplace within the literary pantheon with the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation’s Regina Manifesto, Refus International and some different texts.

Such a press release could appear puzzling provided that it was launched shortly after the kidnapping of James Cross, the British commerce commissioner, in October 1970 in Montréal, quickly adopted by the kidnapping and homicide of Pierre Laporte, Québec’s labour minister.

Nonetheless, a cautious studying of the manifesto reveals why it struck a chord amongst many French-speaking Quebecers. 4 parts may be underscored which might be widespread to nearly all nice political speeches in historical past:

Setting

Dialectic of anger and hope

Personalization of the problems

Empowerment

Announcer Gaétan Montreuil reads the manifesto on CBC. Courtesy of YouTube.

The setting

The setting during which a doc is delivered to the general public is at all times necessary. The printed of the FLQ manifesto is not any exception.

Listed among the many seven calls for for Cross’s launch, the manifesto was learn on French CBC on Oct. Eight by announcer Gaétan Montreuil.

The distinction was stark between Montreuil’s impeccable co-called “worldwide” French, his uninteresting and flat tone of voice, his tailor-made go well with and the manifesto’s use of joual (colloquial Canadian French) and really crude pictures.

In a manner, the CBC’s setting elevated the manifesto. It clothed it in respectable garment.

Robert Charlebois is seen after being inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Corridor of Fame in Toronto in March 2010.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Younger

In 1968, playwright Michel Tremblay brought about an outrage when he let actors use joual. In 1969, rock singer Robert Charlebois infected younger crowds together with his songs in joual.

The printed of the FLQ Manifesto had an identical impression. For the primary time, working-class viewers have been listening to themselves represented on nationwide tv.

Anger and hope

The manifesto employed some coarse language. It was vulgar, prejudiced and accusatory.

It said that the FLQ wished to purge Québec “of the clique of voracious sharks, the patronizing ‘massive bosses’ and their henchmen who’ve made Québec their non-public looking floor for reasonable labour and unscrupulous exploitation.”

Utilizing the extremely efficient rhetorical device of reiteration, the manifesto underscored how folks in Québec have been fed up.

“We’ve had our fill,” repeats the manifesto many instances. Quebecers had had “their fill” of abuses, lies and contempt.

Anger, as we all know, is probably probably the most highly effective emotion driving mobilization. “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore,” famously shouts Howard Beale within the 1976 movie Community. In 1970, many Quebecers have been “mad as hell.”

Nonetheless, having detailed Quebecers’ frustration, the FLQ manifesto ended on a hopeful observe:

“Our wrestle can solely be victorious. An awakening folks can’t be saved in distress and contempt for lengthy.”

Someday quickly, concluded the FLQ, Quebecers will be capable of reside in “a free society, working by itself and for itself, a society open to the world.” Having lived for therefore lengthy in darkness, they might see the sunshine.

Personalization

The FLQ manifesto didn’t describe the scenario within the summary. Quite the opposite, it personalised the problems.

It talked about particular strikes and working-class struggles. It spoke of the employees at Ayers, Seven-Up, Victoria Precision, Dupont, Domtar, the blue-collar employees in Laval and Montréal, the milk producers, the law enforcement officials, the fishermen of the Gaspé, the employees of the North Shore, the miners, the welfare recipients, Montréal taxi drivers, and so on. And it addressed folks by their title.

It talked about “Mr. Bergeron of Visitation Avenue” and “Mr. Legendre of Laval,” who didn’t earn an honest residing and didn’t “be happy in our nation of Québec.”

It talked about “Mr. Tremblay of Panet Avenue” and “Mr. Cloutier, who works in building in St. Jérôme” and always felt betrayed by corrupt politicians.

It talked about “Mrs. Lemay of St. Hyacinthe,” who couldn’t “pay for little journeys to Florida just like the rotten judges and parliamentarians do with our cash.”

By making the problems private, the FLQ manifesto felt actual. It appeared that the oppression of working-class francophones was not one thing its authors had merely examine in books.

Empowerment

The FLQ manifesto known as for a revolution. However this revolution was to not be led by ringleaders and avant-garde activists.

The primary line of the FLQ manifesto is unambiguous on this regard: “The Entrance de libération du Québec is neither the Messiah nor a modern-day Robin Hood.”

If Quebecers have been to take management of their future, they must stand up from the place they have been. They must rely at the beginning on themselves.

The manifesto ends with a transparent rallying cry to all Quebecers:

“Manufacturing unit employees, miners and loggers; service-industry employees, lecturers, college students and the unemployed, take again what belongs to you, your jobs, your willpower and your liberty …. Don’t watch for some miracle group. Make your individual revolution in your neighbourhoods, in your locations of labor. When you don’t do it yourselves, different technocratic usurpers and so forth will substitute the handful of cigar people who smoke we now know, and the whole lot should be carried out over once more. Solely you’ll be able to construct a free society.”

Actions converse louder than phrases

After the FLQ manifesto was broadcast on Oct. 8, 1970, French-speaking Quebecers felt uplifted. It expressed lots of their considerations.

However on Oct. 17, when Laporte was discovered lifeless within the trunk of a automotive, murdered in chilly blood by his FLQ kidnappers, the FLQ manifesto took an altogether completely different which means. It was now not a good, hopeful and empowering doc that Quebecers might relate to.

The physique of Pierre Laporte, with Premier Robert Bourassa and his spouse kneeling earlier than it, lies in state on Oct. 20, 1970 within the Montréal courthouse.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

The truth that the FLQ cell that assassinated Laporte was not the identical one which composed the manifesto didn’t matter. Each have been in solidarity.

They need to have recognized that actions converse louder than phrases.

Jean-Philippe Warren doesn’t work for, seek the advice of, personal shares in or obtain funding from any firm or group that may profit from this text, and has disclosed no related affiliations past their tutorial appointment.