Doly Begum joining the Liberals exposes the No Difference Party. Coming days after the Ontario NDP deputy leader moderated a contentious federal leadership debate highlights how the party brass dedicates more energy excluding eco-socialists than ecocidal capitalists.
Yesterday, Begum announced she would run for the Liberals federally in an upcoming Scarborough by-election. Losing a longstanding MPP is a major blow to Ontario NDP leader Marit Styles. But her deputy joining Mark Carney’s Liberals also shines a spotlight on the federal party’s rightist, anti-activist orientation.
On January 14, Begum co-moderated a major federal NDP leadership debate in Toronto. It was a contentious event with 30 rallying in the rain to protest my exclusion from the leadership race.
In response to the expected protest the NDP locked down the Toronto Metropolitan University building, threatened to search bags for signs of dissent and revoked my registration for the event. All the while they had a Carney Liberal moderate the affair.
To curtail criticism of the exclusion of an anti-imperialist campaign from the race, the organizers kept the debate location secret until less than 48 hours beforehand. They also created a “Debate Conduct Policy” with “Entry Conditions” stating, “If someone participates in a demonstration related to this event outside of this event, entry will not be permitted. Organizers further reserve the right to:
- “Refuse entry to any individual who they believe will disrupt the event for any reason. Organizers do not have to disclose their reason.
- “Remove any individual whose conduct disrupts the event
- “Conduct reasonable bag or item checks.”
Additionally, the organizers sent me a long email rescinding my registration and asking me “not to attend, as we will not permit your entry.” An hour before the debate was to start they had already locked all the doors to the university building, forcing attendees to knock on a door to be allowed in. There were more than a dozen NDP staffers/volunteers who acted as some type of security at the front entrance and in front of the lecture hall (despite the tight security 30 minutes into rallying I slipped into the building and was able to get up to debate floor.)
Nonetheless, the NDP’s unelected three-person vetting committee subsequently doubled down on its exclusion of the activist left from the leadership race. Last week they barred Bianca Mugyenyi from running, decisively rejecting our eco-socialist, anti-imperialist, platform. The secret backroom decision makers clearly fear these ideas and willingness to challenge authority.
Worse, while they exclude anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism, they embrace pro-corporate and empire politics. As I previously noted, the party brass would likely have allowed Steven Guilbeault to join the leadership race, which was raised by a number of commentators, after he resigned as minister over Carney’s climate criminality. The NDP leader before Jagmeet Singh was a long time Liberal — Thomas Mulcair was a minister in Jean Charest’s Quebec Liberal government for years before jumping to the NDP.
Doly Begum joining Carney’s crowd is just the latest proof that insiders running the NDP want a party that is barely different from the Liberals. They do not want a party that challenges the status quo, questions capitalism and imperialism or is actually committed to combatting the climate crisis.
Lesson learned. Again.
Please take a minute to email the NDP Federal Council to demand they overturn the odious decision to reject Bianca’s candidacy.
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