NDP Turns Slightly Left
By Barry Weisleder
A split on the upper deck of the New Democratic Party bureaucracy led to a win for film-maker Avi Lewis over MP Heather McPherson. Lewis captured the leadership on the first ballot with 56 per cent of the 70,934 votes cast. The emergent new majority testified to the weakness of the party establishment – the officials chiefly responsible for the electoral disaster in April 2025. The federal tally reduced the NDP to 7 seats (now 6, soon to be 5). With the loss of party status in Parliament, the NDP was instantly deprived of scores of paid staff positions and state subsidies. The party remains saddled with a $13 million debt.
Under these conditions, the left social democratic forces of Lewis also captured the top three positions on the party’s federal executive: President, Vice-President and Secretary-Treasurer. No longer impeded by the erstwhile powerful right wing, Lewis will have few excuses to fail to advance his campaign promises. They include calling for a chain of publicly-owned grocery stores, a network of public telecom providers, postal banking, a public pharmaceutical manufacturer and a federal house-building agency, plus slightly higher taxation of the top one per cent.
But none of this should be confused with socialism – a planned economy under workers’ control. Absent that, the ploy is an old, rather vain endeavor to fix capitalism, rather than abolish it.
Inside the convention hall, policy debate was really quite limited. The leaders of both factions strived to avoid controversy. With few exceptions, the only resolutions to see any daylight were of the milquetoast brand. Systematically excluded were proposals for deep structural change to foster democratic debate, genuine accountability, and to conduct elections without willful obstruction by secret, non-elected ‘vetting’ committees. This exclusion occurred despite widespread campaigning for change across the country, backed by multiple endorsements for reform motions that local affiliates submitted. Even efforts merely to criticize weak proposals at a CON mic were stymied by moves to “call the question” (i.e. to end debate) by overzealous youth delegates. More and quicker votes offer no remedy when almost all the offerings elevated to the top of each of the seven subject categories are just so much detritus. Occasionally, a Socialist Caucus member would break through the morass – such as when SC candidate for President, Jasmine Peardon, at a CON mic, ridiculed the claim that Justin Trudeau led a “feminist” foreign policy that should be restored. SC contender for BC rep, former New Westminster labour council president Stephen Crozier, seized the opportunity to call for an end to the billionaire class.
Decades of stifling top-down control, replete with summary punishment for non-conformists, especially pro-Palestinian campaigners, embittered the convention. A majority of the 1,519 registered delegates were eager to remove the severe party administration headed by National Director Lucy Watson.
A dozen Socialist Caucus candidates for executive got caught in a squeeze play between the two established slates, Avi’s team versus Heather’s. Few ‘progressives’ were inclined to vote SC and risk the perpetuation of the cruel status quo enforced by the right wing. All were well aware of the exclusion of anti-imperialist author Yves Engler from the leadership race, and the blocking of Bianca Mugyenyi (the first Black woman to run for NDP leader since Rosemary Brown in 1975). They knew about the expulsion of Yves from the party, followed by the cancelation of this writer’s credential just 30 minutes after the fee for it was paid online.
In this tense atmosphere it was unsurprising that Watson directed the Winnipeg Convention Center security staff to deny the SC a space to set up a display table, or even to distribute leaflets and raise the banner bearing the slogan “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed – Onwards to a Socialist Future!” Notwithstanding the party’s onerous debt, Watson found sufficient funds to hire Winnipeg city police to remove Yves from the building – an effort deflected by the militant intervention of several delegates. Socialists persisted, rather innovatively, to display an array of booklets, leaflets, policy statements, T-shirts and buttons in an open suitcase on the mezzanine second floor. Hundreds of delegates visited the unusual showcase, purchasing over $900 in materials. Nearly one hundred folks signed up to join the Socialist Caucus. The “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed” (CCbF) policy manual was in constant hot demand.
Socialists co-hosted two rallies outdoors at the main entrance to the Convention Center – one to demand I.C.E. out of Canada, another to urge the NDP to take a stronger position against the U.S./Zionist war on Iran, and the blockade of revolutionary Cuba.
Two social events, featuring professional musicians, an amusing skit, free snacks, and short speeches, took place under the banner of the CCbF, at the renowned Rudy’s Eat and Drink. Most importantly, socialists built a cross-country team, anchored by a superb organizing committee in Winnipeg, that worked tirelessly, with great spirit and good humour. In the course of the three-day convention, participants witnessed the emergence of a layer of young activists who represent the future of the insurgent movement.
Questions do remain. Now that Avi Lewis is the federal leader, what will he do to erase the party’s deep democratic deficit? During the leadership race, he was exceptionally quiet on this point, as were most of the other contestants. They tended to support each other, but not the victims of political exclusion. Will Lewis abolish, or radically change the vetting process for NDP candidates on all levels. At the very least, will he fire the incorrigible Lucy Watson?
The Socialist campaign of Yves Engler attracted hundreds of young people who are anti-capitalist, even revolutionary socialist.
Avi Lewis’ campaign, on the other hand, attracted young people who are radicalized on single issues, such as the fight against racism, sexism, pollution and war. Those radicalized young people seek broader social change, but may not yet understand that the entire capitalist state structure and economic system must be eradicated -- root and branch. The temporary arrival of many young workers to a rather arthritic NDP offers fertile ground for socialist ideas and action, both in and around the NDP. It amounts to a hopeful opening for revolutionaries.
At the Convention’s end, while most participants streamed homeward, dozens of socialists gathered for a de-brief session. Their consensus was two-fold: 1. It is necessary to hold Avi’s feet to the fire, inside the party, while counteracting right wing attacks on him in the corporate media. 2. In this moment of broad disillusionment and disaffection with global capitalism, a key task is to collaborate with anti-capitalist forces outside the NDP.
To discuss next steps forward, including the launch of a new cross-country Socialist Movement, the SC and CCbF will host an in-person and on-line conference on Sunday, May 24 at the Workers Action Centre in Toronto. Join us!