Whither the NDP? Bold Re-boot or Insider-Run Leadership Race
by Tom Baker
Tommy Douglas is carried to the convention platform on the shoulders of supporters after the announcement was made that he had won the NDP leadership in 1961. (Associated Press)
In the aftermath of a crushing electoral defeat, the federal New Democratic Party again finds itself facing an existentialist crisis. Over the past four decades, provincial and federal wings of the party have adopted policies that have replaced most seemingly progressive aspects of social democracy with rampant third-wave neo-liberalism. This political degeneration comes to a head at this extraordinary historical moment.
The electoral decimation of its caucus of MPs, and the loss of official party status, objectively disenfranchises the working class and increasingly marginalized sectors of the population. The risk to working people is particularly acute in the context of Carney’s social spending cuts to fund “investment” in the private sector, tax reductions for the wealthy, military expansion and fossil fuel growth.
While party insiders blame, with some justification, “strategic voting” for Liberals, the fact remains that the NDP leadership failed to differentiate itself from either of the two major big-business parties. The Supply and Confidence accord, while attaining some small and belated health care reforms, blurred the understanding of traditional NDP supporters of what class the Liberal party actually represents. Perhaps more significantly, the Conservatives essentially “ate our lunch” with their inflation-affordability, fake “pro-worker” narrative. The NDP campaign did not speak to class inequality, and it failed to highlight the uber-concentration of wealth -- both of which are fully inherent in the capitalist system, as enforced by its twin parties of corporate rule in the Canadian state. What the NDP federal leader had to offer was simply not attractive to working class people. Consequently, those voters largely shunned the NDP.
The upcoming NDP leadership race is a battle for the 'soul' of the party. The current third-wave/consultant-driven approach is taking the NDP further away from any organic connection to social movements and grass roots labour. It was these insiders’ brand of politics that brought us to the low point where it is now necessary to begin anew. In that light, socialists demand a leadership contest that furnishes an opportunity for engagement by all members and potential supporters in a transparent decision-making process designed to re-build the NDP as a democratic, community-based, genuine working class party.
Martin Lukacs, editor of The Breach, has made the case that the “NDP insiders are trying to fix the leadership race for an establishment candidate by organizing a short, rigged race that locks in the status quo.” The Globe and Mail reported on its interview of four party insiders (three professional consultants, and the perennial chief of staff). They are pushing for a short, fund raising-type, dispersed, heavily region-weighted election scheme (instead of one-member, one-vote), with a super-high candidate registration fee. Such a manipulative set-up is intended to exclude “non-serious” candidates. It presumably would deny party members any real opportunity to come together, to debate, organize and rebuild.
Lukacs continues: “The stakes are existential: an uninspiring, moderate and establishment-friendly leader could cement the party’s long term irrelevance. The NDP needs someone with a political vision markedly different from the Liberals, a commitment to democratizing the party, and the ability to connect with Canada’s social movements and a multi-racial working class.” An openly socialist, mass action-oriented, grass roots candidate could upset the corrupt, orchestrated apple cart, which is why such a candidate is urgently needed to step forward now.
As Adam King wrote for The Maple’s "Class Struggle": ”Many on the left are disillusioned with the NDP, or abandoned it long ago. But the fact remains, labour and the left need a vehicle to meaningfully intervene in the electoral arena in the here and now to improve the lives of working people. Traditionally, this has been done through a labour, socialist or social democratic party. Whether we do this through the NDP or not, rebuilding our political capacity is unavoidable.”
Notwithstanding the devastating outcome, the NDP attracted close to 1.2 million votes. It forms provincial governments in two western provinces, and is the Official Opposition in several others. It is unique in that it is the only mass party in North America with historic, structural ties to the union movement. It is no surprise that numerous internal political battles occur within it. The social base of the party contrasts sharply with the petty bourgeois outlook of the NDP bureaucracy that undemocratically sets the rules, decides policy, and routinely runs rough shod over district associations, affiliated unions and federations of labour, along with equity seeking groups within the party.
The NDP’s socialist renewal and the road to class power lies in the collective determination of workers, youths, seniors, women and all of the oppressed to rally behind a new, radical democratic socialist movement. Radical indigenous, anti-poverty and climate justice movements, along with the NDP grassroots, can together assemble a growing global momentum for a cooperative commonwealth. Advancing radical change in Canada would help to transform the world -- a task that is more urgent than ever.