On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 07:25 PM, abraham Weizfeld PhD wrote: > > Some clarification about the Waffle, is that it was not expelled, it quit > to form the Movement for an Independent Canada, which dropped socialism as > an orientation and vapourized in the short term.
Abraham and I were both in the USec FI's League for Socialist Action (LSA) which was engaged in long term entry work in the NDP and actively involved in the Waffle. When the NDP provincial council in Ontario, where the Waffle was heavily concentrated, passed a resolution in 1972 that the faction disband or leave the party (a euphemism for expulsion) the main Waffle leaders Jim Laxer and Mel Watkins fell victim to a common illusion on the left that the substantial part of the NDP base which was sympathetic, including many trade unionists, would follow them into the political wilderness. Abraham has forgotten that the organization they created did have a socialist orientation. It was called the Movement for an Independent and Socialist Canada (MISC). As he notes, it quickly "vapourized". But so did the "stay and fight" caucus which the LSA tried to organize. Some of us saw no prospects for continued entry in the absence of the Waffle and chose instead to leave the League. We joined with a number of other Waffle leaders who were attracted, as we were, to the European wing of the FI associated with Tariq Ali and Ernest Mandel to form the Revolutionary Marxist Group (RMG). It proved equally short-lived. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#40172): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/40172 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/117257520/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
