Question for Canadian comrades.

[Art Vandelay]

I was wondering if some Canadian comrades knowledgeable on the political landscape in Canada could answer a few questions. I was unsure where to put this, so sorry if it is in the wrong section.

1) Have the NDP taken a stance on the recent protests in Quebec?

2) Do the NDP have a left wing?

3) Have any Canadian anti-capitalists attempted entryism into the NDP?

4) What are the biggest unions in canada? And do the NDP, despite claiming to be democratic socialists, have any frictions with them?

And before I get the question, no I am not contemplating entryism into the NDP :laugh:.

Edit:

5) What is the history of the NDP when in power provincially? Any anti-labor actions which could be used to discredit them as a viable option for the working class?

[Salyut]

3) Have any Canadian anti-capitalists attempted entryism into the NDP?

There has been a long history of Trot groups doing the entryism thing with the NDP. Tho I'll let a comrade of that tendency give a historical low down on that - just ain't my particular forte. :cool:

[Lynx]

2) Do the NDP have a left wing?
I believe they do, but they have been effectively silenced. They are discouraged from even calling themselves socialist.

[Art Vandelay]

I believe they do, but they have been effectively silenced. They are discouraged from even calling themselves socialist.

Could this left wing, even be considered socialist from a revolutionary standpoint?

[Prairie Fire]

1.) In practical terms, the NDP has done nothing to help the Quebec students,and nothing to oppose the Charest governments crack-down. I think that Mulcair is intentionally being silent on the issue, to try maintain an appearance simultaneously of being both for and against the student uprising, depending on the preferences of the beholder.

2.) Technically every Trotskyist in the country (except the Spartacus League,) is in the NDP's orbit, and the NDP has it's own Troskyist IMT-affiliated wing called "Fightback".
In places like Edmonton, the NDYA and Fightback used to be synonimous with one another (not so much anymore).

Persynally, I've always thought that the whole concept of enryism is laughable, the modus operandi of people so useless at organizing that they latch on to the social-democrats and call themselves a "mass movement". If Entryism is a valid tactic, if a bourgeois party can be turned into it's antithesis, then why stop at the social-dems?
Why doesn't the IMT infiltrate the Conservative party?

3.) See above.

4.) Most of the Unions in the country (or at least their leadership) gravititate towards the NDP. It's not that the NDP has "frictions" with the Unions, but it does consistently sell them out.

5.) In power, they are a bourgeois party that discredits themselves to the point that all of their power base makes a sharp shift to the right.

[genstrike]

1) Have the NDP taken a stance on the recent protests in Quebec?

Not really. There was a tiny peep from a couple Quebec MPs, but apart from that, the federal NDP has been silent.

Of course, provincial NDP governments in Manitoba and Nova Scotia charge much higher tuition fees than in Quebec (in fact, even higher than the Quebec government is proposing), and are in the process of raising tuition fees. The Manitoba NDP recently passed some crummy tuition fee legislation which was opposed by the student unions.


2) Do the NDP have a left wing?What do you mean by left-wing, and how big are you talking about?

The last thing which could be called a left wing (not anti-capitalist) of the NDP of any appreciable size or weight was the NPI, which wrapped up when Jack Layton was elected leader.


3) Have any Canadian anti-capitalists attempted entryism into the NDP?Yes, but they always get smacked down by the brass.

Fightback/IMT is still at it, as is Barry Weisleder's Socialist Caucus. Whenever they have even a tiny victory, the party brass finds some way to overrule it (redoing the ONDY election, pulling Weisleder's nomination, etc)

The only time they managed to take over a provincial section was in New Brunswick, briefly, where they promptly shot themselves in the foot. See this paper for the juicy details: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/lh/article/view/24904/23098

Quite frankly, I find NDP entryists to be opportunistic and dishonest. And usually incredibly annoying to boot.


4) What are the biggest unions in canada? And do the NDP, despite claiming to be democratic socialists, have any frictions with them?CUPE is the biggest union in Canada, with about 600,000 members.

Because of the history of the Canadian labour movement, most unions are "Internationals" - that is, American unions with a Canadian appendage. This has been a point of contention, as over the years a lot of Canadian workers have been upset with their internationals, and some, like the CAW, have split off.

The NDP and the labour bureaucracy are so joined at the hip that it is very rare for there to be any friction. With few exceptions (CUPW being an example), the labour bureaucracy is almost completely co-opted by the NDP. Also, the CAW took up the banner of strategic voting in the past decade or so, which caused some friction, however that's likely on the way out with their proposed merger with the CEP and the fact that strategic voting makes even less sense when the NDP has overtaken the Liberals and is running neck and neck with the Conservatives federally.

I've seen local labour leaders do some pretty shameful dirty work for the NDP.


And before I get the question, no I am not contemplating entryism into the NDP :laugh:.Good.


5) What is the history of the NDP when in power provincially? Any anti-labor actions which could be used to discredit them as a viable option for the working class?Every time the NDP gets in power provincially, they try to be "responsible" managers of capitalism. The most famous example is the Bob Rae government's "Social Contract" which was an attack on public sector workers and their collective bargaining rights. But there's a fair bit of anti-labour crap in other provinces too, and I'm expecting that to increase as the NDP will be forced to administer austerity on the workers they govern.

[Welshy]

Could this left wing, even be considered socialist from a revolutionary standpoint?

If you consider the IMT to be revolutionary, then yes. But they have this weird thing for Chavez and are pretty terminally dedicated to entryism.

[Lynx]

Could this left wing, even be considered socialist from a revolutionary standpoint?
No. Social democratic policies only, which are unlikely to ever see the light of day.

[blake 3:17]

1) Some NDP MPs have attended the protests, but I believe they have been warned against attending by the Party tops. Mulcair was a cabinet minister in the Charest government before leaving the Liberal Party to join the NDP. He also flirted with the Conservative Party.
I believe the only party which has unconditionally supported the Quebec student movement is Quebec Solidaire. One of the "kernel" organization for QS was the PDS, which had been the NDP-Q but left the party when it adopted a pro-sovereignty position on Quebec independence.

2) There's the Socialist Caucus, which is led by Socialist Action, an affiliate of the Fourth International. I am supporter of the other USFI current in Canada, which is not very active. Some are NDP members, but it's not a focus. Most of us are in favour of a break with the NDP, and focus on other projects.

3) The League for Socialist Action was probably the most significant revolutionary group in the NDP and that was in the 50s, 60s and early 70s. A small group maintained a presence in the NDP, but I believe they are all deceased. The affiliate of Labour Militant practiced entryism, and there's a group called Fightback affiliated to the IMT who are in the NDP now. Supporters of the CWI have left the party, and are involved in a fringe party led by a non-revolutionary splinter faction from the NDP.

The biggest left bloc in the party was the Waffle led by Jim Laxer and Mel Watkins. A bit of history here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Waffle

4) The biggest unions in Canada are the CAW, CEP, and CUPE. The CAW had very public fallings out with the NDP, starting in Ontario in the early 90s. They backed a couple of Left independents. I don't know a whole lot about the CEP. CUPE has stayed basically on good terms with the NDP, though that varies between different locals and regions. The CAW is very centralized organizationally, while CUPE is fairly decentralized with locals having quite a lot more autonomy. The most loyal union backers of the NDP are the Steelworkers. The most leftwing national union, CUPW, has historically operated quite independent of the NDP, informed in part by a kind of radical syndicalism and friendly relationships with the Communist Party and militant social movement organizations. There are some unions which have informal connections to the Liberal Party, backing Liberals in particular ridings or elections.

5) The NDP government in Ontario was a disaster. They imposed the so called "Social Contract" which violated a large number of collective agreements in the public sector. The only significant private sector union to support the public sector unions in this fight was the CAW. A number of smaller independent unions collapsed around that time, so I'm not sure if they even existed at that time. Others here might know more about BC, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. In the late 90s, leftists in Saskatchewan tried to start a new party but it fizzled.

I usually vote NDP, but not always. I worked on a couple of NDP election campaigns, but stopped when the federal party came out in favour of mandatory minimum sentences for youth convicted of gun related crimes.

Hope this helps.

[Salyut]

In the late 90s, leftists in Saskatchewan tried to start a new party but it fizzled.

Got any more details on this?


Persynally, I've always thought that the whole concept of enryism is laughable, the modus operandi of people so useless at organizing that they latch on to the social-democrats and call themselves a "mass movement". If Entryism is a valid tactic, if a bourgeois party can be turned into it's antithesis, then why stop at the social-dems?
Why doesn't the IMT infiltrate the Conservative party?

I am SO asking this if I run into IMTers again.:lol:

[Lynx]

If there were a shift to the left amongst the Canadian public, they wouldn't be running to the Conservatives. The task of betraying Canada's working class would fall to the NDP.

[blake 3:17]

Got any more details on this?

Apparently the group became the Green Party of Saskatchewan. This is a piece from 2000 from one of its founders. http://www.johnwarnock.ca/formingtheNGA.html

[agnixie]

There has been a long history of Trot groups doing the entryism thing with the NDP. Tho I'll let a comrade of that tendency give a historical low down on that - just ain't my particular forte. :cool:

Also much of the Quebec NDP seats involved entryism to some degree; many of the communist party branches didn't even bother running candidates last federal elections in Montreal from what I vaguely recall.

And what the others said. They're not a revolutionary party.