Spring 2012 $2 Voix Du Caucus Socialiste NPD Printemps 2012
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Turn Left Voice of the NDP Socialist Caucus Spring 2012 $2 Voix du caucus socialiste NPD Printemps 2012 www.ndpsocialists.ca WORKERS AGAINST THE CRISIS Inside: Socialist Caucus Supports Niki Ashton for Leader INSIDE 03 Why I Support the NDP Socialist Caucus 06 Yasin Kaya 04 From the Editor: There is Nothing “Radical” About Socialism Sean Cain 05 The Way Forward on Aboriginal Issues Eric Kupka 08 06 Resolving the NDP Deficit Barry Weisleder 07 Le Nouveau Parti Démocratique Doit Résoudre son Déficit Démocratique ! Barry Weisleder 08 Niki Ashton: The Best Choice for More Democracy in the NDP 10 NDP Socialist Caucus Steering Committee 10 Canadian Banks Deliver a Debt Sentence John Orrett 12 Medium Rare – Quebec’s More Independent Media as a Key Component of the Orange Wave Hans Modlich 14 Socialist Caucus Resolutions for Ontario NDP Convention 12 16 Defection to Liberals Highlights NDP Dilemma Elizabeth Byce 17 Droits De Scolarité – Le Mouvement Étudient a Raison Jean Trudelle 18 How the 1% Screw the Rest of Us – a Review of The Trouble with Billionaires, by Linda McQuaig and Neil Brooks John Orrett and Barry Weisleder 02 Turn Left Why I Support the NDP Socialist Caucus Turkish-Canadian political activist an egalitarian it does not fully represent our class Yasin Kaya talks about why he joined and free society. interests. This is because its leadership the NDP, and why the Socialist Caucus This is true for is a privileged bureaucracy. The is so important for making the party a the working class leadership has petty interests, which it vehicle for the working class everywhere. sees as ultimately compatible with the And interests of the capitalist bosses. And something they manipulate the party’s working was active in the students’ and labour immediately class base, contrary to the interests of movements in Turkey until I migrated became more the working class. Ito Toronto in 2009 to pursue a Ph.D. clear: In Canada, I joined the Socialist Caucus in the Department of Political Science at there is still a because I want to fight for the working York University. workers’ party, the NDP. Yes, I know class - especially at this critical moment I knew that interpreting the that the NDP is not a revolutionary in the global capitalist crisis. I want world should go hand in hand with the party. But it is the party of a class that is to be a part of the struggle to return struggle to change it. So I immediately revolutionary. the NDP to its roots: working class began to look for ways to engage in I can’t emphasize enough that I politics. I am here to participate in the progressive political action in Canada. did not join the NDP because I regard its transformation of the NDP to be a true Politics is by definition a collective policies as the lesser evil. What can be working class party. endeavour. As with any collective worse than initially supporting a NATO “You’re a dreamer,” some say. effort, political action demands a clearly intervention in Afghanistan, or voting in “The NDP is not reform-able.” But the defined objective, as well as a strategy favour of NATO bombing of Libya? bureaucrats “reformed” it towards the and tactics crafted for achieving that I joined the NDP because it is right. They took the NDP away from goal. a party built by the workers. It still has its roots as a working class party. Why With these things in mind, a working class base. It is organically can’t we reverse this crime against I educated myself about Canadian tied to the union movement. In this working people? Of course we can. politics. One thing was clear from the sense, it is radically different than the I joined the NDP Socialist outset: the working class is the only Conservatives, Liberals or the Greens. It Caucus to democratize the party and to political force that can lead humanity is not another bourgeois party dressed fight for socialist policies. If not now, to put an end to exploitation and the in orange. when? Join us! n many forms of oppression, and establish The NDP is our party. But Photo: Wurz (Flickr.com) Turn Left 03 Turn Left Published by the NDP Socialist Caucus Editorial Board: Cover Image by Lalo Alcaraz www.ndpsocialists.ca Elizabeth Byce (www.laloalcaraz.com) Ross Ashley Produced by union labour Editor and Designer: Sean Cain Barry Weisleder [email protected] John Orrett www.ndpsocialists.ca There is Nothing “Radical” About Socialism By Sean Cain extremism, look no further than global, Really? The last decade has corporate capitalism. Billions around meant nothing but increasing inequality, The brilliant the world don’t have access to basic wage decline, evaporating pensions, German playwright needs like clean drinking water, housing global conflict, and the increased Bertolt Brecht once or education, according to even the dominance of a tiny group of banking said that capitalists World Bank. The number of people and corporate elites who play by their were the ultimate who will die this year from starvation own rules. radicals. and malnutrition is over nine million, an If the NDP really does have to That is because increase since the 2008 economic crash. “modernize” to reflect “new realities,” during the past And now, the financial criminals wouldn’t that mean putting forth 200 years, the 1% of the wealthiest and who helped engineer the greatest policies like public ownership of our most powerful people, along with the economic catastrophe since the Great oil industry, reducing the workweek politicians they buy, the media they fund Depression and were bailed out by with no loss in pay to create jobs, and and the state institutions they control, taxpayers, apparently want even more creating a guaranteed annual income helped create a world of spectacular of this radicalism in the form of further for all Canadians? inequality, poverty and injustice. tax cuts, deregulation and attacks on Maybe those media pundits Yet today, intellectuals refer to the rights of working people. have a point, because if we’re really those who want to build an alternative At the same time, governments serious about avoiding further financial society based on democracy and in Canada and the media continue to upheaval, then the NDP should fairness as militant, radical thinkers who play the same game. I can’t count how propose placing our banks under social dream up unrealistic fantasies. Much of many times pundits have commented on ownership and democratic control. the time, the Left is only too willing to the NDP leadership race and our party’s Banking and finance should be a public follow along, sometimes even referring apparent “outdated” values, saying we service, not the personal casinos of the to themselves as “radicals” who are need to “modernize” our ideals for “new 1%. proud of being out of the ordinary. realities.” Again, this has absolutely It’s time we put an end to nothing to do with “radicalism.” this nonsense. Like other policies put forth by There is nothing – socialists around the world, it is absolutely nothing – that is a practical, sensible solution to “radical” or “extremist” about the severe failures of modern socialist democracy. The values capitalism. we hold dear, including the “If the NDP really does It’s time for the NDP to creation of a free and classless have to “modernize” to reflect call out the real extremists in society and an economy that “new realities,” wouldn’t that the corporate head oces on is environmentally sustainable mean putting forth policies like Bay Street and their fanatical, and democratically-controlled narrow-minded capitalism and by workers and communities, public ownership of our banks propose common sense, socialist are those which are shared by and the oil industry, reducing alternatives that put working millions of people in Canada and the workweek with no loss in people first. an overwhelming majority of the pay to create real jobs, and Because our society simply world’s population. can’t afford to give any more Bertolt was spot creating a guaranteed annual power to unrealistic, pie-in-the- on, because if you want real income for all? sky, out-of-touch radicals. n 04 Turn Left The Way Forward on Aboriginal Issues Eric Kupka Photo: Mary Kosta lthough Québec MP Romeo Saganash received little atten- Ation as candidate for leader of the federal NDP, and even less after he dropped out of the race, he deserves special mention for being the first Ab- original to have ever sought the leader- ship of a mainstream federal political party in Canada. He inspired Aborigi- nals across the country by holding out, however briefly, the historic prospect of an Aboriginal Leader of the Official Opposition. But just as Mr. Sanagash embarked on his historic campaign, we were bluntly reminded of the true situ- ation of many Aboriginals today. The remote northern Ontario reserve of Attawapiskat, just across the James Bay Aboriginal culture was also seriously sacred to Aboriginal people, who saw from Mr. Saganash’s riding, drew national undermined by the economic system the whole earth as a spiritual realm to be attention with stories of families living in that Europeans established in North treated with care and respect. flimsy wooden shacks with no electricity America. This is particularly true in the It is little wonder that, accord- or running water, with a winter of -20°C area of property rights and land use, ing to the Royal Commission, Aboriginals temperatures looming. The situation was where Aboriginal concepts clashed with were seen as an “impediment to prog- dire enough that the Red Cross became those of their colonizers.