https://socialistaction.org/2016/06/05/ndp-convention-mulcair-is-out-change-is-in/
NDP convention: Mulcair is out, change is in
/ 1 hour ago
May 2016 Mulcair 2
By BARRY WEISLEDER
— EDMONTON, Alberta — The stunning defeat of Leader Tom Mulcair, and
the launch of a cross-country discussion of the Leap Manifesto, signals
a shift in the relationship of forces in Canada’s New Democratic Party.
The right-wing forces of the party and the union bureaucracy are now on
the defensive. The “progressive,” soft-left is ascendant. Will the left
seize this golden opportunity to fight for an anti-capitalist agenda and
make North America’s only mass, union-based political party a weapon in
the fight against austerity and climate catastrophe?
As over 1700 delegates gathered in Edmonton, Alberta, for the April 8-10
NDP federal convention, two things were evident. Firstly, it was clear
that Mulcair, who led the disastrous election campaign in which the
party lost a million votes and 60 per cent of its parliamentary seats
last October, did not enjoy the confidence of a large majority.
Secondly, anti-pipeline sentiment was pervasive, at least outside of the
Alberta delegation, and the appetite for action against catastrophic
climate change would prevail.
The conflict over carbon-based energy came to a head when Alberta NDP
Premier Rachel Notley made a provocative gamble. She went on television
the night before the convention to demand that a west-to-east pipeline
be built, with the help of the federal government. That put Mulcair, who
had been wavering, after initially supporting the Pipeline East, in an
impossible position. He continued to waver, and was mostly absent from
the convention floor, thus sealing his fate.
Former Ontario NDP Leader and UN diplomat Stephen Lewis delivered the
coup de grace with an electrifying speech on Saturday night. Lewis
topped Notley by persuasively arguing that an extensive transition to
green energy would be the greatest job creator on earth.
But few, outside of the NDP Socialist Caucus, predicted Mulcair’s
precipitous fall. When delegates voted 52 per cent on Sunday morning in
favour of launching a leadership race to replace the former Quebec
Liberal cabinet minister, the convention and the country were stunned.
Party honchos and bourgeois pundits forecasted that Mulcair would get
over 70 per cent support, which they insisted would be enough for him to
stay on as Leader. No one saw the 48 per cent sinker ball coming. But
the signs were there.
After the Socialist Caucus launched a national campaign for Leadership
Review in late October, a number of prominent NDP leftist figures called
for change at the top. Ontario MPP Cheri DiNovo and Sid Ryan, former
president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, led the way. NDP
electoral district association presidents and local labour council
officials added their voices. Then 37 prominent Quebec NDP activists
issued an open letter calling for change in the party’s direction. On
the other hand, five heads of unions publicly backed Mulcair. And the
mass media weighed in, mostly on his side. The party staff commandeered
huge resources to conduct highly manipulated telephone town halls, and
to host scores of events to promote “fighter” Mulcair all across the
country.
But that was countered by the president of the Canadian Labour Congress,
Hassan Yussuff, who predicted that Mulcair would be defeated. In fact,
on the eve of the vote, leaders of CUPE and UNIFOR “released” their
delegates from a pledge to support Mulcair. This came after the
274-strong Labour Caucus, which met on Saturday morning, took no
position on the issue. In the words of Bob Dylan, “It doesn’t take a
weatherman to know which way the wind is blow’in.”
The convention showed Mulcair the door, but asked him to pause at the
exit—to stay on as parliamentary Leader until a race to replace him can
be orchestrated. That contest will culminate in a one-member-one-vote
election, and a policy convention, to be held 18 months to two years
from now.
Delegates also voted about 60 per cent in favour of conducting a
grassroots discussion of the environmental and social justice proposals
in the Leap Manifesto. Toronto Star columnist Tom Walkom describes the
document as “middle of the road.” Journalist and former NDP star
candidate Linda McQuaig asks, “What’s with all the ruckus over the Leap
Manifesto? … Reports of its scariness have been greatly exaggerated; its
call for a transition from fossil fuels to green energy is solidly based
in science and widely accepted.”
This begs the question: why have the capitalist media and bourgeois
politicians been pouring abuse on the Manifesto, and on NDPers who
backed it and who voted to dump Mulcair?
The reason is simple: they fear that the party right wing will lose
control of the apparatus. They worry that the left will gravitate
towards radical socialist politics that call into question, not only
capitalist austerity, but the system itself. The ouster of
“balanced-budget at-all-costs” Mulcair, and the warm welcome accorded
Leap’s critique of growing inequality, job precariousness, and
environmental plunder greatly disturb the Canadian Establishment.
Will the Canadian left turn up the heat, and work to set the agenda for
fundamental change? Well, that would require quite a break in practice —
an end to navel gazing by leftists outside the NDP, and an end to
nit-picking and juvenile name-calling by some inside the labour-based party.
The answer will come soon as local forums and discussions get underway.
The openness to such debates has rarely been so great. The convention in
Edmonton, despite its rigged policy priorities process, and dubious
guest speakers (like John Ashworth, one of the most right-wing members
of Jeremy Corbyn’s British Labour Party leftist Shadow Cabinet), was
nonetheless the most open NDP convention in decades.
A proliferation of independent issue campaigns and candidates greeted
delegates at registration. This included CUPW members for postal
banking, folks who want to abolish the monarchy, and proponents of
proportional representation in parliament. One group, with scissors in
hand, snipped hundreds of credential-holding lanyards embossed with
Mulcair’s name and replaced them with plain ribbons. Soon a huge pile of
discarded lanyards accumulated on the Shaw Communications Centre carpet,
while a tray heaped high with Tom Mulcair buttons sat ignored on the
registration counter.
Party officials provided the Socialist Caucus a venue for its meetings,
along with a display table in the hallway—after refusing SC requests for
three months. The socialists faced no hassle from officials when they
unfurled a huge banner “For Democracy and Socialism Back in the NDP” in
the main corridor, and even on the convention floor. Likewise, the SC
had no problem distributing nearly 900 copies of its full-colour, glossy
magazine Turn Left, nor any difficulty collecting over $850 in donations
and revenue from sales of literature and buttons at its highly visible
campaign depot.
For the first time, the meetings of the NDP socialists were listed in
the official Delegate Kit, and the group name was spelled with capitals
“S” and “C.” Six meetings of the caucus took place, all well attended.
Over 70 people signed up to join the SC, which worked cooperatively and
successfully with Momentum—the NDP’s left alternative to austerity—with
RENEW the PARTY, and New Democrats for the Leap Manifesto. A joint
lunchtime meeting of supporters of Leap and the SC brought together
about 60 delegates, chaired by this writer, to discuss floor tactics for
the Sunday morning environment issues debate.
Momentum and Socialist Caucus co-hosted a very popular and enjoyable pub
night.
In the weeks leading up to the convention, the SC gained wide media
attention. This included in-depth interviews on CBC Radio’s As It
Happens, CTV’s Power Play Panel, CPAC (3 times), the Globe and Mail,
National Post, Le Devoir, TVA and Radio Canada in Quebec, Huffington
Post, three talk radio shows (in Montreal, Calgary and London, Ontario),
680 News, several references in the Toronto Star, the Toronto Sun, the
Hill Times, plus an Op-Ed by this writer published in the Ottawa Citizen.
At the same time, venomous attacks by National Post writers and by
former senior NDP staffers Gerry Caplan and Robin Sears appeared. They
claimed the SC has little influence—before Mulcair was defeated, before
the Leap discussion was launched, and before various socialist policies
won significant support in policy workshops.
Jointly with Momentum, the SC ran 16 candidates for party executive and
federal council posts. Vote results, ranging from 5.2% to 15%, revealed
a significant hard-core radical left base. It also indicated that, while
the broad membership wants change, it is not yet convinced of the need
for a Marxist programme. But the SC will continue to make the case for
revolutionary change.
That was the essence of my presidential candidate speech to the
convention, which elicited rounds of applause. Toronto’s Marit Stiles,
who was elected NDP president, and Montrealer Elaine Michaud, who ran
second, refused to say whether they wanted a Leadership Review, and only
vaguely indicated that they favoured some kind of “reform” and “renewal.”
Delegates demonstrated significant support for socialist policies on
Palestine and BDS, favouring the need to dedicate 80% of convention time
to discussion of resolutions (as opposed to less than 32 per cent
presently), to establish public Pharmacare, and to institute steeply
progressive taxation. These issues were featured in the 4 Ps Petition
circulated by the SC during the summer of 2015, signed by hundreds of
party members. The SC attracted over 30 per cent delegates’ support for
an early bid to amend the convention agenda. This was later attempted by
the sizable Quebec delegation.
The Persons Living with disAbilities Caucus won an important change that
will benefit all members. It requires that resolutions and proposed
constitution amendments be posted and circulated weeks before a
convention, not just days in advance. The convention also adopted a more
open and accountable candidate vetting process. This gain was in
response to the outrage provoked by decisions of the federal office to
block or rescind several potential NDP candidates in 2015 who expressed
pro-Palestinian views.
What’s next? The key tasks facing the party left include:
1.Promote and advance the discussion on the Leap Manifesto.
2.Emphasize the need for public ownership and democratic control of Big
Oil and Gas, and the entire energy sector.
3.Demand justice for indigenous peoples. Economic restitution is the
basis for moral reconciliation. Resource corporations and the government
must pay.
4.Explore running a socialist candidate for NDP Leader, or support
someone like MP Nikki Ashton, Linda McQuaig, or Avi Lewis. Defeat MP
Nathan Cullen who argued for a coalition with the Liberal Party in 2011,
and who favours fossil fuels and more resource extraction projects
provided a “social license” is obtained from First Nations.
The dethronement of Mulcair occurred less than two years after Ken
Georgetti was deposed as reigning Canadian Labour Congress President.
Two incumbents forced out of top positions by a major body of working
class delegates in Canada is unprecedented. It is a reflection of the
keen appetite for change. It is testament to the resurgence of socialist
ideas in Britain, in the USA, and beyond. It is also a sign of things to
come in Canada.
Socialist Caucus presidential candidate’s speech to NDP Convention
My name is Barry Weisleder. I am a union organizer and a proud socialist
— working to put socialism back in the NDP.
It’s time for a Democratic Revolution in Canada and the NDP.
We want proportional representation in Parliament and membership control
of the message this party takes to the electorate. Our fight is for the
working class, not what Liberals call the “middle class”.)
The NDP should stop apologizing for being a labour party. Working people
make the country run. Workers should run the country. With real wages
frozen for 30 years, and deep in debt, workers need a raise. A minimum
wage of $18/hour would be a good start. We need homes, not bombs. We
need trains in Canada, not tanks shipped to Saudi Arabia. We need
schools and hospitals on the ground, not CF18s in the air. The NDP
should fight to make the polluters pay, to build renewable power, not
pipelines. Let’s uphold indigenous people’s rights, not condone
corporate blight. We demand fair trade, not CETA and the TPPA.
Now’s the time for public and democratic control of the economy.
That’s the way to provide useful, well-paid employment for laid-off oil
workers, for farmers and fisherfolk suffering from the effects of
climate change, for youths and minorities stuck in McJobs, facing a
precarious future. Isn’t it crazy to rely on monopoly control by giant
banks, greedy telecoms, big pharma, agribusiness and WalMart, and to
expect anything other than de-skilling, speed-up, growing inequality,
social decay, and racist police violence?
Our struggle is not for a ‘balanced’ budget. It’s for a Workers’ Budget
that puts people before profits. Yes, we will balance the budget – on
the back of Conrad Black, on the family fortunes of Thomson and Irving,
the Westons, Pattison, Desmarais, Richardson, McCain, Munk, Stronach,
Peladeau, and all the non-elected barons of Bay Street.
By taxing their off-shore billions, and by conscripting their trillions
in fixed assets, an NDP government will have no trouble leading the
transition to a green and democratic economy, and setting an example
that just might save civilization on Earth.
As President of the party I will work to ensure that NDP election
campaigns reflect members’ priorities.)
By devoting 80% of convention time to policy debate we can reason
together. I will oppose any move to rescind or block a candidate
nomination for reasons of political difference within the frame of our
principles. Candidates who have the courage to stand up for
Palestinians, and oppose the Zionist apartheid state and NATO, should be
praised, not punished.
NDP conventions must be more accessible to workers, women and the poor.
Lower registration fees, and bigger subsidies for travel should be the
rule. I see the NDP as the party of labour and social justice movements
in the streets, not just in Parliament.)
I will push the party to invite more unions and community organizations
to affiliate. More of the money raised should go to EDAs for year-round
local organizing and direct participation in the class struggle. The
huge economic barriers to run for NDP Leader should be removed.
Many hard working party supporters gave millions of dollars for a
campaign they hoped would offer a real alternative to austerity and
inequality. Now they want their money back. Much more discussion is
needed at the local level about NDP aims and policies.
Members want real in-put, instead of dinner time donation calls, instead
of seeing the resources of the party used to lobby members to give the
Leader one more chance, instead of telephone ‘town halls’ where tough
questions are filtered out.
Why am I running for President? To give members a voice, to give
delegates a choice, to keep hope alive. At a time when the NDP is at 11%
in the polls, when more NDP supporters say they’d vote for the Liberals
than the current NDP leader, we need a change of direction. We need to
go back to the future – to the working class roots of the party.
Together we can put democracy and socialism back in the NDP, and build
the cooperative commonwealth in our time.
Photo: Tom Mulcair
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June 5, 2016 in Canada. Tags: Mulcair, NDP
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