LEAP Manifesto: of Indigenous the Time Is Now Peoples PAGE 5
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The NDP’s betrayal LEAP Manifesto: of Indigenous the time is now peoples PAGE 5 PAGES 4-5 Original art by Julie Flett $2 | No 601 | February 2018 | socialist.ca e live in an age of political sis beyond any in human history. Our Labour leader in the UK, and the as- right and left, the NDP has decided to Clear and unrepentant support from polarization. political and business leaders respond tounding campaign by Bernie Sand- stake its claim to the political centre. the NDP for the ideas in the manifesto Capitalism is pushing to this crisis by selling more weapons ers in the last US election show that There is no better way to become ir- could provide a pole of attraction to Wmore people into poverty to the combatants. there is an appetite for unapologeti- relevant in the current context. The millions looking for an alternative to while making the rich even richer. A The racist far-right, emboldened cally socialist ideas. Recent polling in decision to call for a balanced budget war, poverty, racism and environmen- recent Oxfam report found that 82% by the election of Donald Trump, is the US found that a majority of people in the last federal election pushed the tal destruction. of the wealth created in 2017 went to on the streets in North America and under 30 now reject capitalism, and party to the right of the Liberals. It The German revolutionary Rosa the top 1% of the population. is achieving electoral gains across more than 40 percent would prefer was an abysmal failure. Luxemburg, while observing the The climate is in crisis – and the re- Europe. socialism. And the NDP is once again in growing polarization in Europe in sponse from our political leaders is to The stakes could not be higher. A The victorious Fight for $15 cam- danger of being outflanked to the left 1916, said that humanity faced a build more pipelines and to find new better world is needed – and fast. paign in Ontario proves that even in by the Liberals. Yet they fiddle with choice: “either transition to Socialism places to drill for fossil fuels when we Yet in all that bleakness, there are Canada, we can push for real change strategies to woo disaffected Tories or regression into Barbarism.” really need to be eliminating their use. seeds of hope and calls for real change that helps millions – and win. rather than pose a real alternative. We are in a strikingly similar situa- We are in a cycle of endless war are being picked up by millions. The Unfortunately, at a time of polar- How do we make real change here? tion right now. We need to fight for a that has created a global refugee cri- election of Jeremy Corbyn as the ization, when ideas are shifting to the The Leap Manifesto is a good start. socialist future! Reproductive Québec solidaire and the NDP justice: NDP by Chantal Sundaram lurches to or nearly 20 years, progres- sives, social democrats and anti-capitalists have struggled the right Fto build a viable electoral left in Quebec. In the last decade, this has by Valerie Lannon borne fruit with the founding of Qué- bec solidaire, and its growth in the The federal NDP has taken National Assembly, the popular vote, issue with the Trudeau govern- and in social movements. ment’s decision to tie funding On issues from climate change to for summer jobs to respect for neoliberalism and austerity, Québec reproductive rights. Groups and solidaire has a more radical program businesses applying for funds and platform than the NDP either for summer job creation need federally or in any province. But it to confirm in writing that they also grew out of the remnants of the support the Charter of Rights Quebec provincial NDP, and had a and Freedoms, which includes lot of crossover with what produced reproductive choice. Quebec’s Orange Crush that helped What could be less con- propel the NDP into opposition troversial? But instead of federally. supporting women when their What caused a collapse of that movement has received new support was not the niqab debate. In life in response to the election the 2015 campaign, the Liberals were of Donald Trump and all he rep- more steadfast and clear on the right resents, the NDP moves to the to wear the niqab than the NDP, and right on the all-important issue did very well in Quebec. It was the of reproductive freedom. Liberals’ outflanking of the NDP to NDP Quebec: putting electoralism above solidarity. The Liberal move came in re- the left on balanced budgets, public sponse to approval last year by spending, and austerity – issues that promises nothing but mutual harm to communities, forming a party with to create a “Quebec Inc” that would two MPs for tens of thousands run deep in Quebec. the left in both Quebec and English no roots on the eve of an election mimic the corporatist, neoliberal, pro- of dollars in grants to anti-abor- Québec solidaire has worked Canada in the big picture. is a spectacularly bad idea. Not to pipeline and socially unjust policies tion groups and in some cases dilligently to fill the vacuum left by The goal is apparently to mention playing the old and false card tolerated and even implemented by for camps that discriminated a Parti québécois no longer able to provide Quebec with a progressive that the Quebecois are more racist (by the NDP when it has held power, but against the 2LGBTQ community. even mask as a party of the left with “federalist” option. But who is the a party that is itself very white in its rather as a means to gain independence NDP’s Nathan Cullen stated its turn to a racist identity politics audience? Even those on the left provincial make-up) and need to be from those federal policies. “I think the way the government and to Quebec bosses like Pierre- who are lukewarm on independence rescued by the NDP. Any attempt When Thomas Mulcair was federal has handled this conversation Karl Peladeau. support self-determination – which to play an anti-Islamophobia stance leader, he argued for the NDP to run hasn’t been very respectful And in building this alternative explains support for Jack Layton, against Québec solidaire will be candidates provincially in Quebec. At of many of the faith commu- within the Quebec context, QS has an opponent of the Clarity Act, and unproductive, as QS opposes the PQ this moment, the link with the federal nities in this country.” In this made every attempt to be solidaristic why Jagmeet Singh is getting a more Charter of Values and the Liberals’ party is unclear: Fortin has been argument, the NDP joined Tory with the left in English Canada. It favourable reaction in Quebec than Bill 62 on the niqab. quoted as saying the only links are the leader Andrew Scheer. is not an accident that QS adopted many predicted, as he too supports The newly elected leader of NDP- name and some progressive ideas, and There was immediate shock orange as its party colour. And it has Quebec’s right to choose. Quebec, Raphaël Fortin, was quoted that no federal members are involved. and opposition to Cullen on carried that colour not only at the While they say they want to reach as saying, “What distinguishes us is They have even adopted purple to social media, and NDP leader ballot box but in the streets, to make political “orphans” the only audience that Quebec solidaire has made a turn avoid confusion with QS’s orange. Jagmeet Singh responded with a left electoral option relevant to this version of the NDP-Quebec is towards independence in the merger Everything about this move is a confirmation of the party’s those who want change but don’t see likely to reach will not be relevant with Option nationale.” While Option confusing at best, and paternalistic at pro-choice position. Cullen it reflected in mainstream politics. to the movements that fuel social nationale may have some different worst. For those on the committed left eventually backpedaled. change in Quebec today. And if they positions from QS on the specifics in Quebec, it risks further undermining The Liberals outflanked the Mutual harm do succeed in reaching some of the of independence, it was a smaller the hard-won trust of non-federalist NDP on the left, and Cullen This is why it is so unfortunate to 35 per cent of people who don’t vote, party with many other social goals in progressives for the federal NDP, and exposed the party’s shameful see the NDP try to relaunch itself they will be steering them away from common with QS. squandering not only what’s left of effort to be “electable”. We in Quebec to run candidates in the those very social movements, which The other decision QS made this the Layton legacy in Quebec but the must keep the NDP account- October 2018 provincial election. It will do a disservice to any progressive year, to reject all notion of an alliance profile that Singh could now bring. able on even the most basic is unlikely to have a great electoral voters they may attract. with the PQ, shows that it does not And above all, it puts electoralism parts of its policies. impact, but it is a strategy that If the goal is to woo immigrant see independence as a goal in itself before solidarity. 2017 – A year of climate justice betrayals in BC by Lisa Descary Unfortunately, the new Envi- The Site C Dam Betrayal never have been started.