TheNDPLeadershipConvention! ExpectationsandReality!

DonCurrie,EditorFocusOnSocialism,ChairCPS
March24,2012

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CanadiansforPeace&Socialism www.FocusOnSocialism.ca Box168SlocanBCV0G2C0 Canada 12503552669 The new Canada that many Canadians hoped might emerge at the NDP leadership convention requires more than a new leader and an image change for the NDP caucus. A new peoples vision of Canada is required. The global capitalist depression has caused millionstoquestiontheviabilityofcapitalismitself. Thomas Mulcair, the new leader of the NDP won the NDP leadership without enunciating whatthatnewNDPvisionshouldbe.Failuretodothatinthemidstofaglobalcrisiswasa mistake. Mulcair did not challenge Prime Minister Stephen Harpers vision of the futureof CanadaproclaimedatDavosSwitzerlandlastyear. 1 Thatwasanopportunitylost. Propelled by a mass movement among Canadian urban and rural voters who reject Prime Minister Harpers support for NATO wars and finance capitalist dominance over the state andParliament,theNDPmaybepoisedtowinpowerinthenextfederalelection. Such is the growing dissatisfaction among Canadian workers and farmers the NDP is positionedtowinthenextelectionevenifitretainsitscurrentreformistpolicies. If that happens the federal government will change from Conservative to NDP but the fundamental conditions of life of the unemployed, working class and farm families will remainthesamebecausetheprofitsystemwillnothavechanged. ThesolidsupportfortheNDPofamajorityofCanadiansvotersofurbanandruralCanadais notassuredjustbecausetheNDPoppositionspeaksupintheHouseofCommonsonbehalf ofhardworkingCanadianfamilies.Thatisnotaprogramtochangethecountry.Thatisan elementaryduty.Thatroleisnecessaryandminimal.Butitisnotenough!

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Appealing for labour and farm votes as a kinder gentler variant of the Liberals or ConservativesisacommitmenttochangetheguardatOttawa,nottochangethecapitalist systeminCanadaorevenitsworstfeatures. TheNDPleadershipcandidatesevadeddiscussingthecapitalistsystemanditscurrentstate ofcrisisandpredationonCanadaanditspeople. Canada is a G7 NATO monopoly capitalist state. By definition that means 21st Century imperialism.PrimeMinisterHarperseekstocynicallydetachhisgovernmentfromthecrimes ofthesystemheupholdsandpromotes.TheHarperConservativespromoteanimperialist foreignpolicyofsupportforUSNATOIsraeliwarswhichmaybreakoutintheMiddleEastat anymoment. The Harper Government is the advocate and promoter of a single energy resource based economy dominated by big private domestic and foreign investors and profiteers. The Harper Government promotes free trade deals with despotic regimes. The Conservative Governmenthasnoplanstoovercomeunemployment,povertyandracisminCanada. The Conservatives have abandoned the vision of Canada as an integrated, allsided industrialized technologically advanced manufacturing and industrialized 21st century country.PrimeMinisterHarperisopposedtosuchaneconomicplanbecausetheonlywayit can be realized in practice is under a new socialist government. The NDP long ago abandonedsocialism. The Harper Conservatives subordinate the great potential for Canada to one purpose, the saleofenergyandothernaturalresourcecommodities,combinedwithbillionsspentonthe militarization of theeconomy to participatein US sponsored NATOwars. That is what the NDPcandidatesevadedspeakingabout. NotoneofthecandidatesarticulatedavisionofCanadaasapeaceful,independentstate, renouncing war and utilizing its own resources and the immense creative abilities of its peopletobuildanentirelynewkindofCanada,asocialistCanada. That could not realistically be expected. However something short of that, that would openly challenge the dominance of monopoly capital over all of Canadian domestic and foreignpolicycouldhaveandshouldhavebeendiscussed. TheNDPCaucusgoesbacktoParliamentonMondayMarch26thwithoutadeclaredpolicy on the vital issues peace and war, and independent planned economic development. The
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NDP will limit its role to advocating a reform program to alleviate the worst economic hardshipsfacedbymillionsofCanadians.Intheabsenceofagreatindependentlabourparty ofsocialismoftheirown,theworkersandfarmerswillunderstandablysupportsuchefforts. Thomas Mulcair has mused about leading the NDP to a rightofcentre position in ParliamentaryelectoralpoliticswhichincapitalistCanadameansinpracticeawayfromthe influenceoforganizedlabourandtheworkingclassandworkingfarmers. Mulcair seeks be to a kinder gentler manager of Canada rather than the architect of changingit. Within the narrow boundaries of social reformist class collaborationist politics the just concluded NDP Convention upheld the view that image trumps substance. Using that measure to determine the outcome of the leadership convention, the NDP has moved furthertotheright. Tobepopular,theNDPestablishmentwantedthatoutcome.Thatmakesthetaskoflabour, peaceanddemocraticactivistsmoredifficult. Playingthemediagamethatpersonalitiestrumpsubstance,theleadershipcandidatesand theirmanagerssquanderedtheopportunitytospeakovertheheadsofthemediapundits directly to the Canadian people pledging to fight for a foreign policy of peace and a domesticpolicyofplannedeconomicdevelopment. All of the leadership candidates, with a national audience watching, muted their open support of the extraparliamentary and militant mass opposition arising on picket lines, in studentdemonstrations,amongfarmers,FirstNationsandthe20%livingbelowthepoverty line. The NDP cannot confine the mass movements of the people to Parliamentary politics and simplycapitalizeonitinthenextelection. There is a discernible movement among voters for a change in capitalist Parliamentary politicsthatwillnotbedeniedandmaynotgototheNDPifitcontinuestomoveright. Theprogressive,awareandresponsibleleftmustgivevoicetothatmilitantmovementand theopportunityitpresentstoclearlyarticulateaworkingclasssocialistprogramthatopenly challengesstatemonopolycapital.

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