NDPers who oppose capitalism should support our campaign

I’m in BC next week to discuss the Failure of Social Democracy: NDP militarism and imperialism and protest the NDP leadership debate. Left supporters of Avi Lewis should back our ongoing push to challenge the NDP brass and capitalism.

Two weeks ago, the NDP’s unelected three person vetting committee rejected Bianca Mugyenyi’s candidacy. Despite supporters pledging the funds required for her to participate in the race, the secretive party body wouldn’t let Mugyenyi in. A month earlier they excluded me from the race. By doing so, the NDP rejected a substantial campaign with a comprehensive platform crafted by 45 activists and researchers titled “Capitalism can’t be fixed — onwards to a socialist future.”

As per its title and proposals, the platform rejects traditional social democracy. It doesn’t just call to “tax the rich” but to “abolish billionaires” by expropriating their illegitimately derived assets. It is immoral for individuals to control the social labour of large numbers.

Additionally, you can’t have democracy when some have billions of dollars and others little. Real democracy requires economic democracy that includes social ownership — at a community, provincial, national or international level — and workplace democracy.

As part of the campaign’s willingness to directly challenge capital, we’ve called on the government to declare a national housing emergency and use the powers to turn Real Estate Investment Trust housing units into coops. We’ve also promoted shutting down the tar sands and pursuing Land Back.

In another break from the social democratic tradition, the campaign opposes Canadian imperialism. The platform calls to “Stop Carney’s Militarization Project” and withdraw from NATO and the Five Eyes Intelligence-Sharing Apparatus. It also calls for “Immediate dissolution of the North American Defense Agreement (NORAD) and expulsion of all foreign military bases and surveillance installations.” It offers a detailed a way to end Canadian support for the genocidal Jewish supremacist state.

With Mark Carney indifferent to Trump’s bid to suffocate Cuba, “welcoming” the kidnapping of Venezuela’s president and supporting the US drive towards war on Iran, critical foreign policy ideas couldn’t be more relevant. As Carneycontinues to enable Israeli genocide and lawlessness and pursues the largest increase in military spending in 75 years, there’s no more pertinent time to debate these policies on the left.

Committed to our ideas, with funds on hand and many motivated activists, we aren’t accepting my and Bianca’s undemocratic exclusion. We will be protesting at the NDP debate in Vancouver on Thursday. Additionally, the co-lead of the campaign’s policy platform committee, Jasmine Peardon, is running to be president of the NDP. She’ll be offering an alternative to the current leadership’s exclusionary outlook and will be using her campaign to promote the platform she helped create. We also plan to host parallel events at the NDP convention in Winnipeg at the end of March and a conference in late May.

Socialists and internationalists of all stripes should back these efforts, including those backing Avi Lewis in the NDP leadership race. With the membership registrations cutoff date past, Lewis’ ability to win the race has already largely been determined.

Our campaign has forced Lewis and others to take more bold positions and if you want a Lewis led NDP to pursue even a small part of what he’s campaigned on he needs to be pushed. More than that, the NDP brass must be further discredited. The backroom party decision makers will seek to stimy any leftward shift and need to be put further on the back foot.

To get an NDP leader to promote a robust social democracy requires a force inside and outside of the party challenging capitalism. If you hope to have the party criticize Carney’s pro-empire foreign policy you need a force challenging NDP militarism and imperialism.

Beginning on Monday I’ll be speaking in Victoria, Powell River, Surrey, Burnaby and Kelowna on the Failure of Social Democracy: NDP militarism and imperialism

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