News and views from SA Canada A big opportunity for the Socialist Left
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Jagmeet Singh’s election as federal party leader is, at least in part, the re venge of the NDP top brass and the lib eral media establishment. They never forgave the party and labour union ranks for forcing the leadership review that ultimately deposed Tom Mulcair following his disastrous 2015 election campaign. Enormous resources were marshaled to portray Brampton, On tario, MPP Singh as “an outsider” and a “fresh face” with a cool, hipster image who can challenge Justin Trudeau for “middle-class” allegiances.
But what’s in it, concretely, for the working class? What does it mean for the vast majority of Canadians who are the victims of capitalist austerity, growing inequality, and environmental chaos?
While barely over half of the eligible party members voted, Singh’s first bal lot victory inclines many to think that he embodies meaningful racial and gen erational change. So, it will be crucial to hold him accountable, to insist that he Harper-lite regimen. This should include public ownership of the energy sector, and attention to the much-ignored issues of for eign policy: BDS and justice for Palestine, getting Canada out of NATO, and reducing the military budget, which Trudeau just in creased by a whopping 70 per cent.
Illusions in Singh may soon be dashed. This is a time of social upheaval, from indigenous Cale donia, to Catalonia in the Spanish state. Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders showed that the open road is to the left, not the centre. Thus, now is the time to fight for a Workers’ Agenda, for socialism, inside the only mass, labourbased political party in North America.
The NDP Socialist Caucus recognizes the huge opportunity and the heavy re sponsibility to unite all anti-capitalists and social justice fighters inside and outside the NDP. We invite Niki Ashton MP, her supporters, and all leftist back ers of the other candidates, to come major working-class institutions, orga nizing from the bottom-up.
The Socialist Caucus national con ference—to be held Saturday, Dec. 2 at the University of Toronto’s Wood sworth College Residence—may be a turning point.
Together, we can unite the left and build on the momentum that caused the NDP leadership candidates to tack to the left. The working class needs socialist solutions to the crisis of capi talism and to counteract the rise of the alt-right.
We can, and we will, advance social ist policies. More democratic debate. Socialist candidates for federal NDP ex ecutive. Direct action against capitalist austerity.
Get ready for the NDP Federal Conven tion, Feb. 16-18, 2018, in Ottawa. Stoke your ideas and your energy. Register now for the NDP Socialist Caucus con ference in Toronto on Saturday, Dec. 2. Please visit: www.ndpsocialists.ca. E-mail: [email protected]. Phone: 647-986-1917. n