Dealing with sellout social democrats

[genstrike]

So, I have a bit of an interesting problem here.

The backstory: I live in a province that is governed by the NDP, which is one of those social democratic parties that isn't even very social democratic anymore. The government announced a few months back that they were planning to raise tuition, so I have been working on a group which is kind of a subcommittee of the students union. Last week we had a day of action, where students in my city gathered for a rally and a sit-in at the provincial legislature, and students in another city fax-bombed some government offices.

So, our working group had our first post-day of action meeting, and we invited people from the other university in the city. While we were going over what we did at the day of action, we got to the fax bomb. One guy interrupted to make the point that we shouldn't be doing these fax bombs because they waste paper and hurt the environment. I thought he had a bit of a point, but I completely disagreed, especially considering the number of posters and signs we made from paper, and that the government should be using recycled paper when possible and it isn't our fault if they don't, but I saw where he was coming from. It is important to note that this guy is very active in the NDP, and was a candidate in both the last provincial and federal elections.

Anyways, after the meeting I was talking to another guy I know who is a member of the NDP but hates his party. He said that he got a call from some staffer in the party telling him to get the students to stop faxing them. Personally, I think this shows that the faxes are having some impact if it's pissing them off that much.

This immediately made me think of the meeting earlier. I'm wondering if this guy really cares about the environment, or, in my opinion more likely, got the same phone call and is acting as a "double agent" for the party, essentially betraying the students. This is especially concerning because I heard he was planning to run for President of his student union, and while it would be nice to see someone halfway competent in that position, I would be very concerned if we had someone who takes orders from the governing party who we are fighting and not the students running the show over there.

I'm wondering if I should talk to this guy, confront him, or call him out or something. It would be especially awkward as there are other people of NDPish tendencies on the committee, and this guy might be trusted more by those people. And I don't want to just go around spreading rumours. Or, everyone might think I'm paranoid because I don't really have any hard evidence. And there is a possibility that I really am paranoid.

Any advice?

[Sand Castle]

You have every right to be suspicious of this guy. Get him alone and just have a talk with him.

[The Garbage Disposal Unit]

The best approach to social democrats, in my experience, is outflanking them. Organize more effectively, talk about addressing root causes, and stress that upping the ante is the best way to make change. For an example specific to tuition fees here in Canada, look to the ASSE in Quebec, and show the link between aggressive tactics, explicit anti-capitalism, etc. and Quebec students' success in securing tuition fee freezes, etc.
Nobody gives a fuck about boring N-Dippers when someone is offering a better, more relevant, and more active solution.

[Revy]

My best advice: Start a party!
The only "socialist" parties in Canada that take part in elections seem to be Stalinist parties. Besides that there doesn't seem to be any active non-Stalinist socialist groups. There is a socialist faction of the NDP apparently, but they look like a lost cause to me.

[MarxSchmarx]

It's important to distinguish between "Social Democracy", electoral opportunism, and parliamentary tactics. Existing social democrats are more electoral opportunists with a bleeding heart. As you note, that's well and good up to a point, so long as it doesn't coopt the working class.

Social Democracy, as a gradualist, parliamentary transition to socialism probably failed not because their vision was inadequate, but because they expected change to come from the top down. And to some extent it was successful in creating the welfare state, which goes along with the defeat of fascism as the great triumph of our class in the 20th century.

However, it couldn't go further because the capitalist state apparatus, in particular the bureacracy and judiciary, need to ultimately serve the interests of the capitalists, and can only be pushed so far to establish socialism.

Parliamentary tactics have their place in the class struggle. The key is to recognize that they are merely a component in a panoply of tools, and to not expect more from this method than can be delivered. Giving them this concession usually works for me.

[Charles Xavier]

The Communist Party of Canada is pretty active in Manitoba. They participate in a lot of the Lower Tuition campaigns. The NDP are just like any other party once they are in power they are the party of surrendering position after position for political opportunism. I bet they got a nice donation from this assholic move.

The social Democrats always have two wings to them. Right now in Canada the asshole wing is in command. Big Business couldn't be any happier with all three names on the ballot theirs.

These are the same assholes who expanded the plead to make Winnipeg the Call Centre capital of Canada. Until of course they found India and the Philippines.


My best advice: Start a party!
The only "socialist" parties in Canada that take part in elections seem to be Stalinist parties. Besides that there doesn't seem to be any active non-Stalinist socialist groups. There is a socialist faction of the NDP apparently, but they look like a lost cause to me.


Yes that sounds very easy and practical. :|

There are already parties fighting against tuition in Manitoba.

So whats the solution? Well first of all do not alienate these NDPers, which would cause more harm than good. Just put it to them like this, We need to fight tuition increases, we cannot accept sitting on our hands, we must stand, the only alternative is rolling over and dying. Big Business is ruling today, not the NDP, they are only their representatives. To prevent this student leader from being a lacky for the NDP, students need to be mobilized to force him to follow the will of the students, propagate and agitate, create militant leaflets and posters demanding action.