News and views from SA Canada Canada’s Jeremy Corbin: Sid Ryan

Scan page 11

Officially, the contest began in July to replace federal leader Tom Mulcair. Mulcair lost a confidence vote of delegates at the NDP convention in April 2016 follow­ ing his “no deficit” economic austerity campaign that cost the party one million votes and 60 per cent of its federal seats in October 2015.

So far, no candidates have registered to run for Lead­ er. The vote by members is set to occur in October 2017.

Early in the fall of 2016, an array of labour and NDP leftists launched an attractive, poignant public web­ site. Its purpose is to promote a socialist platform for the NDP, and to urge former Ontario Federation of La­ bour President Sid Ryan to run for NDP Leader.

The website www.sidrayanforndp.ca closely reflects the views of Ryan, although it is not authorized by him. Visits to the site number over 10,000. In addition to policy statements on 17 key issues, the display is replete with quotes and videos that demonstrate, be­ yond any doubt, that should Ryan decide to toss his hat into the ring, he would stand firmly and proudly on that platform.

NDP Members of Parliament rumoured to be can­ didates, Charlie Angus, Niki Ashton, and Peter Julian, plus Ontario MPP Jagmeet Singh, have shied away from making known their views on major policy is­ sues. In stark contrast is Sid Ryan, lifelong socialist, five-time candidate for the NDP provincially and fed­ erally, and an avid admirer of socialist leader of the (Above) Sid Ryan.

British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn twice defeated the Tony Blair-led, right-wing Labour estab­ lishment.

The NDP, under now-interim leader Mulcair, cur­ rently languishes at 13 per cent in opinion polls. But the public appetite for a socialist alternative is evident in massive support for climate justice measures, for indigenous people’s resistance to pipeline construc­ tion, boycott of Israeli apartheid, opposition to the privatization of Hydro One in Ontario, hostility to international corporate trade deals like the TPP and CETA, to price-gouging by big Telecoms and big Phar­ ma, and to weapons sales to repressive regimes like Saudi Arabia.

A candidate for NDP Leader who articulates these views, who projects a political battle for good jobs, steeply progressive taxation, a Social Investment Bank, public ownership and economic democracy will attract thousands to the party, and potentially will draw millions into the fight for a government in the interest of the working class.

To join this effort, go to www.sidryanforndp.ca. En­ dorse the platform. Volunteer to help the cause in any way you can. n entrants such as Wind and Mobilicity, but things are obviously getting back to normal.

It’s hard, if not impossible, to look at these key metrics and come to any conclusion other than Ca­ nadian wireless carriers are some of the most profit­ able around based on unmatched monthly revenues, which are coming directly out of consumers’ pockets.”

It took two years of campaigning, nearly 50,000 people speaking out, multiple policy submissions to the CRTC, and scores of media appearances to per­ suade the CRTC to impose the new conditions on the telecommunications giants.

But it begs the question: if internet and telephone service are a social right, and if the industry is an oli­ gopoly in Canada, and if the dominant players oper­ ate in a systematically anti-social manner, gouging their internet and cable TV customers, why not just nationalize the Big Telecoms?

Why not direct the industry to serve the interests of the vast majority, under the control of its workers and the communities they serve, and plough the prof­ its back into vital public services? n A lifelong revolutionary socialist, culinary ex­ pert and folk music devotee, Harry Paine, who only a few months ago joined Socialist Action in Winnipeg, lost his struggle with pancreatic cancer on Dec. 30, 2016. See obituary in the next edition of Socialist Action.

----- pull-quotes -----

In Memoriam: Harry Paine 1933-2016