NDP’s Moral Morass

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Location: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, U of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West. Co-sponsored by: Socialist Action / Ligue pour l’Action socialiste – Canadian state, Thursday, May 20: 7 p.m. Palestine, Afghanistan and Haiti: Occupation and 1 p.m. Combatting the Corporate Agenda – Jobs, Pensions and Poverty 2 p.m. Closed session for SA members and invited guests. SA/LAS Convention. Tickets: $20 in advance for weekend; $30 at door for wkend; $5 per session (or For more information: www.socialistaction-canada.blogspot.com (416) 535-8779, I based New Democratic Party. Federal t was a tough winter for the labourLeader Jack Layton is bravely battling prostate cancer (we wish him a full and speedy recovery). Without missing a beat, he kept hammering the Harper To­ ries over more billions of dollars in give­ aways to the giant banks and big pollut­ ers, drawing special attention to the $2.8 billion in profit over a three month span reported by the Royal Bank and the TD Bank in early March.

But the federal party and the Ontario NDP had less success with important pol­ icy issues like Palestine, the public fund­ ing of Catholic schools, and upholding the ONDP constitution.

Confusion and contradiction reign amongst NDP federal MP s and in the Ontario NDP legislative caucus. When a motion was presented by a Conserva­ tive MP in the House of Commons to condemn Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW, March 1-7) and to try to stifle debate on Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people, NDP House Leader Libby Davies opposed it. But right wing NDP MP s Judy Wacylycia-Leis, Pat Martin and Pe­ Vale Inco Workers (continued from page 2: “Repression continues in Honduras”)

Vale operations from the sandy shores of Lake Erie to the north­ eastern wilderness of Labrador, are setting a powerful example of solidarity and determination to resist the kind of concessions that have devastated workers’ collec­ tive agreements in manufacturing and natural resource industries.

The dispute in Sudbury, where the USW represents about 3000 employees, is nearly as long as the 8 ½ month strike by 11,700 work­ ers in 1978-79, which holds the ter Stoffer, supported it. Layton tried to skate around it. But the NDP’s continuing participation in the so-called Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat AntiSemitism, which equates anti-Zionism with anti-semitism and wants to ban criticism of Israel, really speaks volumes. When a Tory motion against IAW came before the Ontario legislature, ONDP Leader Andrea Horwath denounced it as “divisive” and “unhelpful”—just after NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo had spoken for it. While Horwath took no action against DiNovo, the Leader did stifle another member of her Ontario caucus. She or­ dered MPP Michael Prue to pull out of a public hearing on the topic of Ontario funding of Catholic separate schools on March 12 in Toronto.

The event was sponsored by the NDP Socialist Caucus and attract­ ed close to 100 participants to a University of Toronto auditori­ um. Prue agreed back in Decem­ ber to address the hearing, which the NDP socialists organized to promote rank-and-file input into record for most worker-days lost in Canadian history.

Management has generated much bad blood since Vale bought Inco for $19.4 billion (U.S.) in 2006. Workers filed 4,900 griev­ ances in the three years prior to the walkout. This marathon strike, the use of scabs in a hard core union town, the company’s gross arrogance, and the sheer value of the industry all serve to drive home the point: it is high time to nationalize Vale Inco, without any compensation to the biggest shareholders, and operate it un­ der workers’ and community con­ trol. n the official policy review on school fund­ ing mandated by the ONDP convention in March 2009. The Socialist Caucus calls for an end to public funding of religious and private schools. So does the federal NDP, as a result of an SC resolution de­ bated and adopted at the party federal convention in 2004. Horwath’s interfer­ ence did not sit well with party members. Neither does what came next. The ONDP Executive proposed in March to postpone the Ontario NDP convention for a year, citing cost and effort that it thinks should be devoted to the provincial elec­ tion in 2011. However, several problems arise. The ONDP constitution requires a provincial party convention every two years, not three. An election scheduled by law to occur nearly 20 months from Resistance Friday, May 21:

Saturday, May 22: 10 a.m. Marx versus Malthus 4 p.m. Women’s Liberation Today 7 p.m. World Economic Disorder and the G8/G20 Summits Sunday, May 23: 11 a.m. Civil rights under attack – Fight back!

PWYC)

[email protected] Eco-socialism or Extinction Socialist Action – USA, and the Socialist Unity League (LUS) – Mexico 4 p.m. Dialectical Materialism – a philosophy for radical change 7 p.m. From Copenhagen to Mexico City – the World at the Brink

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Socialism 2010: Socialism or Barbarism / An International Educational Conference, May 20-23