News and views from SA Canada NDP Ontario election campaign draws internal fire Change starts with joining the fight!
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election in Ontario will be history. During the cam paign an unusual controversy arose within the labourbased political party membership, which is the subject of this commentary.
Some long-time New Democrats, suddenly on May 23, issued a critique of Andrea Horwath’s provincial election campaign.
Now, there’s nothing wrong with constructive criti cism of one’s own party, even in the midst of its des perate efforts to woo voters.
But I have to wonder: What were those 34 pro gressive voices saying before the writ was dropped? Where were those activists one year ago when Hor wath backed the Liberal minority government when it was still fresh from gas plant, e-health, and ORNGE scandals?
And just what were those activists doing during the past decade when Socialist Caucus militants and other concerned New Democrats spoke repeatedly at party conventions in opposition to leadership poli cies that favour corporate bail-outs, tax incentives to business, state funding of Catholic separate schools, the estrangement of the labour movement, and the abandonment of public auto insurance and Ontario Hydro?
Where were they when Andrea Horwath, Gilles Bis son, and the ONDP Election Planning Committee pre vented socialists from being NDP candidates in the 2011 Ontario election?
No doubt, the current Ontario NDP electoral cam paign is the worst since Bob Rae vainly defended his odious Social Contract in 1995. Gerry Caplan is right to complain that the platform has “No coherent theme, no memorable policies, nothing to deal with the great concerns of New Democrats everywhere.”
Horwath ditched the provincial pension plan she HAD previously touted. She proposes a measly in crease in the corporate tax rate, a new ministry of “Savings and Accountability” to cut $600 million a year (shades of Rob Ford’s anti-gravy train mythol ogy), and is silent on poverty and growing social in equality.
But what do Caplan, and Michelle Landsberg, Judy Rebick, Cathy Crowe, Winnie Ng and the others pro pose? Abstain? Vote Liberal?
Have they forgotten that Liberals act like Tories in government? That the Liberals suspended the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike for tens of thousands of education workers? That the Liber als kept millions without decent housing, affordable post-secondary education, liveable welfare rates, an adequate minimum wage, AND good public transit, and subjected everyone to a deteriorating and in creasingly toxic environment.
Conservative Leader Tim Hudak aims to cut 100,000 jobs and cripple unions. He says aloud what other capitalist politicians think. Workers and allied folks need to stop the corporate agenda. We need to stop Hudak, but also stop Kathleen Wynne (and her Drum mond Report austerity policies).
So, what should be done? Supporting either one of Bay Street’s two main political parties is no solution.
On June 12, vote NDP. It remains a labour party, de spite its present leadership and right-wing populist campaign. Demand that the NDP fight for a Workers’ Agenda, and strive to form a Workers’ Government, in the interest of the vast majority of the people of Ontario.
Join the Socialist Caucus. Together, let’s turn the NDP sharply to the left. n of the population, and police repres sion. We believe that defence of the CUPW and home mail delivery, with sufficient broad backing and mass ac tion tactics, could be the key to remov ing the unpopular Harper government. 3) Working with the environmental movement to oppose Line 9, to oppose new pipeline construction, to demand a rapid shift to green energy genera tion through public ownership and workers’ control of the resource sec tor, and to support indigenous peoples’ struggles for self-government and pro tection of the environment. 4) Stepping up efforts to build, to gether with others, a cross-union, class-struggle tendency in the labour movement. At the Peoples’ Social Fo rum in Ottawa, Aug. 21-24, where it is expected that 20,000 people will at tend demonstrations and forums, SA/ LAS will host a workshop on questions of strategy and tactics for the workers’ movement. Labour activists may gath er at the Social Forum to launch a radi cal cross-union left opposition, which SA aims to actively build. 5) Intervening in the Toronto munici pal election, leading up to the vote on Oct. 27. Armed with the new SA book let “Dump Rob Ford, For a Labour City Hall,” our aim is to shift the focus from the bizarre antics of Mayor Rob Ford towards a serious political discussion on the need for a Workers’ Agenda. We want particularly to engage grassroots labour and NDP activists in such a dis cussion. — B.W.