Here’s an interesting article which illustrates the contradiction at the heart of left-centre parties like the NDP which draw much of their support from unions and social movements. The party leaders and officials rely on their supporters for canvassing and fund-raising during elections, but don’t trust them with control over the party’s policy and direction between elections.
Particularly after an election loss, they’ll acknowledge the need for more membership involvement, as consummate NDP insider Brian Topp does here. But the greater involvement of the ranks invariably gives rise to more sweeping demands for change than the leadership can tolerate for fear it will compromise the party’s election chances in an economic and political system dominated by the corporations. This is the essence of the contradiction. Sometimes these tensions erupt into open conflict, typically during periods when there is a depression, war, or other generalized crisis of capitalism which provokes mass protest in the streets - protest that inevitably finds its way into the left-centre parties. The Waffle uprising in the NDP, cited in the article, developed against the backdrop of the Vietnam war. The contemporary Corbyn and Sanders movements are a response to austerity and the inability of the Labour Party, DP, and European left-centre parties to defend historic working class gains against the coordinated corporate-led assault to roll them back and to even become complicit in it. The evident dissatisfaction of party activists with the poor performance of the NDP in the recent federal election, coupled with the inspiring examples of dissent in the two major English-speaking parties with which they identify, suggest that conditions may be ripe for the similar development of a mass left wing in the NDP. Much will likely depend on whether a credible leader with the stature of Sanders and Corbyn steps forward to radically challenge the party leadership and becomes a rallying point for activists inside and outside the NDP. These are early days, but to date there has been no indication that a serious challenge to the Mulcair leadership is in the offing. http://rabble.ca/news/2016/02/putting-democracy-back-ndp _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
