Editing Tim Buck (section)

== Retirement and death ==
Buck retired as general secretary of the Communist Party of Canada in 1962 but remained in the largely ceremonial position of party chairman until his death in 1973. There was controversy within the party when a posthumous version of his memoirs was published in 1977 by NC Press based on interviews conducted for the [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]] in 1965. In ''Yours in the Struggle: Reminiscences of Tim Buck,'' the former party leader criticized [[Nikita Khrushchev]] and was somewhat defensive of Stalin, although not departing from the international Communist movement's current perspective.

The main concerns of the party was the claim that the publishers were trying to frame Buck in a pro-[[Maoist]] manner, in regards to the [[Sino-Soviet Split]] where the party had sided with the [[Soviet Union]], and that the loose recordings were in a position to be easily misinterpreted. Those within the [[Central Committee]] responsible for its publication were punished for "grave violation of [[democratic centralism]]".<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/canada/socialisthistory/Docs/CPC/YoursIn-79.htm The CPC Condemns Publication of Tim Buck's Reminiscences], [[Communist Party of Canada]], 1977, [[Marxists Internet Archive]]</ref> Earlier in 1975, Progress Books published ''[https://archive.org/details/TimBuckConscienceCanada Tim Buck — A Conscience for Canada]'' by Oscar Ryan, which is considered to be the party-approved biography. In it, Buck was quoted as saying "for a time I gave the appearance of defending Stalin. I didn't defend what he had done; the fact is, nobody could defend the things that Khrushchev revealed."

Canadian Trotskyist Ian Angus also criticized ''Yours in Struggle'' with regards to accusations that Buck had stated misinformation with regards to the purging of alternate voices during his early rise in the party.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/canada/socialisthistory/Docs/History/TimBuckReview.htm Yours in the Struggle: Reminiscences of Tim Buck – Reviewed by Ian Angus], May 1979,  [[Marxists Internet Archive]]</ref> He continued this criticism with his 1981 book ''Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada'', which analyzed the formation and rise of the party, but felt that Tim Buck had betrayed it by promoting himself and a strongly pro-Soviet line.<ref>[http://www.marxists.org/history/canada/socialisthistory/Publications/pubs.htm Announcing the Second Edition of Canadian Bolsheviks: The Early Years of the Communist Party of Canada By Ian Angus], [[Marxists Internet Archive]]</ref>

Buck died in [[Cuernavaca]], [[Mexico]], on March 11, 1973, at age 82.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 14, 1973 |title=Tim Buck, 82, Former Leader Of Canadian Communists, Dies |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/03/14/archives/tim-buck-82-former-leader-of-canadian-communists-dies-a-stormy.html |access-date=July 8, 2022 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>