Good afternoon, comrades and friends. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been waiting 58 years for this conference! Allow me to explain.
When I joined the NDP in 1968, the party was 7 years old. It was born in a merger of the CCF and the Canadian Labour Congress. Many saw it as a step towards independent working class politics. Sadly, by the mid-1970s, the best days of the NDP were already in the rear-view mirror.
Do you remember the fight for Medicare? The battle for Employment Insurance. The demand that Canada quit NATO and NORAD. Opposition to the war in Vietnam. The vote of a majority of NDP MPs against Pierre Trudeau’s invocation of the War Measures Act. Past those milestones, however, it was mostly down hill. Stepen Lewis ordered the left-nationalist Waffle Movement to disband or leave the NDP. David Lewis propped up the Liberal minority government in exchange for PetroCanada. Lewis served the state by asking 56,000 striking railroad workers to obey back-to-work legislation in 1973.
And who can forget the treacherous Social Contract of Ontario NDP Premier Bob Rae? Or leader Tom Mulcair’s pledge to deliver a balanced federal budget, teetering on a heap of social cutbacks? Mulcair’s betrayal blew away Jack Layton’s Orange Wave. In case ‘You don’t know Jack’, he was the affable leader who super-centralized the party. His policies were driven by opinion polls. He instituted the infamous top-down ‘vetting’ of candidates. Jagmeet Singh sealed the deal by voting for Justin’s war budgets, his subsidies to Big Oil and Gas, and by blocking pro-Palestinian candidates. His corporate slim-fast diet reduced the party to 7 seats – now down to 5. It shrank the NDP to single-digit popular support. So, if you are wondering how the NDP sank to the depths of conducting a bogus leadership race that excluded not one, but two, anti-imperialist, Eco-socialist candidates, it was no accident.
It was the outcome of decades of political retreat, and a deep descent into authoritarian governance — with a little help from “Lucifer” Watson. The ensuing crisis of leadership in the NDP produced two results: 1. The election of a slightly left of centre social democrat, Avi Lewis. And 2. The emergence of ‘Capitalism Can’t be Fixed’, a bold new Socialist Movement, populated by the biggest crowd of anti-capitalists since the Waffle. (You may applaud now.)
How did the new Socialist Movement take shape? It began with a phone call. Jagmeet Singh’s resignation triggered a leadership race. In the NDP’s weakened state, a huge space opened up for socialist politics – bigger than anything seen by the NDP Socialist Caucus since its formation in 1998, 28 years ago. As you know, politics abhors a vacuum. Who would fill the void to the left of the NDP? I called Yves Engler, Canada’s foremost anti-imperialist author and campaigner. I asked him to be the Socialist Caucus leadership candidate. His first response was “No way, Jose”. But he kindly agreed to give it some thought. So, I called him a week later. To my delight, Yves said Yes. The time is right, we agreed. An insurgent campaign could gain real traction.
Thousands joined the effort. Donations poured into our coffers — weeks before the official start of the contest. From the beginning, the NDP election CEO, Eric Hebert, withheld information and played games with the rules. So, with no obligation to direct funds to the party prior to vetting, we decided to hold back. It was a wise decision. The rejection of Yves’ candidacy by the secret, non-elected, vetting committee was proof. The same happened to Bianca’s bid. She was rejected on grossly sexist grounds — derided as a “proxy”. Bianca is the first Black woman to seek the NDP leadership since Rosemary Brown in 1975. So, what did the approved contestants say about the two undemocratic exclusions? Not much!
At the federal convention in Winnipeg the ‘Capitalism Can’t be Fixed’ campaign was a cause celebre. One hundred people signed up to join the Socialist Caucus. Delegates snapped up copies of our iconic Policy book, and spent $900 for buttons, T-shirts and other literature. Lucifer called the cops but failed to get them to arrest and remove Yves from the Convention Centre, or to dispose of the SC display suitcase. She did revoke my delegate credential. It was just one more exclusion, topped by the termination of Yves’ party membership. Avi Lewis, you should formally reverse those decisions, right now!
‘Capitalism Can’t be Fixed’ awakened a giant. We are here today to launch a new Socialist Movement – a structured movement, not something amorphous. The draft Statement of Unity presents a clear vision. We are committed to socialism, that is, public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy, under workers’ and Indigenous control. Since socialism in one country alone is not sustainable, anti-imperialist internationalism is a vital element of our vision for global freedom. The major parties cater to climate criminals, financial elites and war profiteers. We aim to work alongside anti-capitalist, social justice and anti-imperialist fighters, including those in the ranks of the NDP and other organizations. We aim to establish working committees of volunteers drawn from all across the country.
A steering committee, made up of the chairs of the working committees, will coordinate the movement’s activity in areas including campaigns, political education, and fund raising. This is how to foster the development of democratic, participatory structures and collective leadership – from the ground up, not from the top down. We are heading towards a founding convention of the Socialist Movement, if possible, this year. When ready, the movement will become a political party that can choose to run candidates at all levels, while being an insurgent force on the streets and in work places, committed to the abolition of capitalism and the establishment of a cooperative commonwealth.
In discussing Strategy and Pathways Forward let’s consider the distinction between strategy and tactics. This question has bedevilled the workers’ movement for over 160 years. The great leaders of our class, including Marx, Engels, Lenin, Trotsky, Rosa Luxembourg, Klara Zetkin, Antonio Gramsci and Fidel Castro, devoted much attention to it. Leon Trotsky explained that strategy refers to long-term goals, while tactics are the immediate actions and methods used to achieve them. He said that revolutionary strategy is a system of actions that lead the proletariat to the conquest of power. Tactics are subordinate to strategy.
Revolutionary strategy is predicated on working class political independence from capitalist parties and the capitalist state. It excludes Lesser-Evil politics. Urging a vote for a Liberal candidate, supposedly to defeat a more right wing Conservative candidate, is an example of ‘lesser evilism’. In the USA, a vote for the Democratic Party is another pitfall of ‘lesser-evilism.’ The various bourgeois parties are equally the instruments of corporate rule. To support any one of them is to foster illusions in the capitalist class and in the capitalist system itself.
But what about supporting the NDP when it props up a Liberal minority government and backs Liberal eco-toxic, pro-war budgets? Hitherto, the NDP has been a party based on ties to labour unions. Those ties are now weakening. But they did make the NDP a working class party, despite its pro-capitalist program. The tactic of support, therefore, is ‘critical support’. As Lenin famously said, “1% support. 99% criticism.” Critical support is designed to expose the treacherous NDP leaders and to fight for socialist policies independently. It’s like backing a union against the bosses; it’s like walking the picket line with workers on strike, regardless differences with any union leader.
The ideas of ‘critical support’ and the united front are designed to win the masses to a revolutionary Workers’ Agenda. Without a conscious majority of the working class taking charge of society, sustainable transformative change is not possible. What is the pathway forward to win a majority for class struggle politics? Campaign-building! A campaign is an organized course of action to achieve a goal. The goal may be to stop a pipeline, to halt health care cuts, to freeze rents, to end the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, to remove Canada from NATO and Norad, and to keep imperialist hands-off Cuba, Venezuela and Iran. Two ideas for potential campaigns come to mind.
One is a protest against the Global Investments Summit in downtown Toronto in September. A counter-conference could be added. Another idea is that the Socialist Movement present a few candidates in the municipal elections in Ontario, BC, and other provinces. It could be a dry run for a federal campaign — an opportunity to take our Capitalism Can’t be Fixed policy book to a wider local audience – in an arena where the NDP does not run. One of our very biggest tasks is to organize a Convention to launch the Socialist Movement as a new fighting organization. Why now? Because capitalism can’t be fixed. The world is in peril. There is no turning back the clock of history from giant monopoly control to the rule of small proprietors. Long ago, social democracy abandoned the terrain of system change. So, who you gonna call? System busters!
To be agitators and organizers of urgently needed revolutionary change, we must establish a solid membership and financial base, build a network of local branches, update the Policy book and draft a constitution. The new organization will combine cross-country solidarity in action enriched by regional autonomy.
Any way you look at it, this is an historic and refreshing departure from years of walking on a treadmill. No doubt it will be the most challenging, innovative and inspiring thing we’ve ever done. I can’t wait to get started. How about you?
