Will NDP Socialist Caucus run a candidate for Leader?
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NDP socialists are looking for a left-wing alternative to Brian Topp, the backroom strategist who announced his candidacy for the federal party leadership. In June, at the NDP federal convention in Vancouver, Topp expressed his support for the stillborn Liberal-NDP coalition that took shape two winters ago. NDP leftists strongly reject coalition or merger with the businessbacked Liberal Party.
Romeo Saganash, the Cree leader and MP from northern Quebec, declared his candidacy in mid-September. He didn’t outline his platform, but his candidacy may already have had the salutory effect of crippling the leadership bid of Thomas Mulcair, a Montreal area MP who jumped from the Quebec Liberal Party cabinet to the NDP in 2006. Sadly, leftist Vancouver East MP Libby Davies has ruled out a run for the job.
The NDP Socialist Caucus, the cross-country, organized left wing of the labour-based New Democratic Party, will host a conference on Nov. 26 in Toronto to decide its position on the federal NDP leadership race.
The Socialist Caucus, which played a significant role in preventing removal of the term “socialist” from the party constitution at the June 2011 federal convention in Vancouver, is concerned that putative candidates for leader, like Winnipeg- MP Pat Martin, advocate a merger of the NDP with the big business-backed Liberal Party, and seek to steer the NDP on a policy course further to the right.
The SC opposes suggestions that the party weaken its ties to the union movement. Socialists seek to increase and strengthen the labour character of the party, and to win it to the fight for a Workers’ Agenda—counter to the corporate agenda, and against the mounting anti-worker “austerity” measures being imposed at all levels.
At the Nov. 26 SC conference, members may decide to run a candidate for Leader, or to support one of the candidates already running for the post. SC policy resolutions, publications, forums, and candidates for party executive positions at the Federal NDP convention (March 23-24 in Toronto) and at the Ontario NDP convention (April 12-15, 2012) will also be on the agenda at the Nov. 26 SC gathering. n For more information, please telephone: (416) 5358779, e-mail: [email protected]. Visit the website: www.ndpsocialists.ca.
ocrats on March 12, 2010 at OISE U of Toronto, was organized by the NDP Socialist Caucus and was held when the party was openly reviewing its position on the question and seeking public in-put.
Most recently, the Preamble to the federal NDP Constitution, which still includes the word “socialist” after a bitter, highly publicized struggle at the federal convention, has disappeared entirely from the federal party website. 3) CREDO invites New Democrats to spread the word about this campaign for accountability and party democracy via e-mail, phone calls, websites, and Facebook. It invites everyone to attend an open public meeting, at a time and place to be announced, featuring a panel of activists who will speak to the incidents mentioned above.
For the latest news, contact: [email protected]. 4) NDP members will exercise the right to appeal the party brass decision to rescind the Thornhill nomination, and continue to seek accountability and justice in this matter at the next Ontario NDP Provincial Council meeting on Nov. 19,—indeed, all the way to the April 12-15, 2012, Ontario NDP Convention. n