It's always a difficult position to decide whether to stay and fight for reform or to jump ship and work on something new. In the UK, Labour has had three key moments in recent history that would seem, to this Canadian observer, to warrant jumping ship. First, Tony Blair's third way and Iraq, Second, the purging of Jeremy Corbyn based on obvious lies and, subsequently the purging of left-leaning Jews. Third, Starmer's rise to the leadership based on outright lies, his rise to the Premiership similarly based on outright lies, and his actions that clearly demonstrate his hatred for the working class and those who are vulnerable to the whims of a capitalist society. Here in Canada, those who consider themselves socialist have a similar conundrum with the New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada's allegedly social democratic party. No doubt they've done some good things such as: six decades ago forcing a Liberal minority government to introduce medicare, Canada's single payer, universal health care system (minus pharamacare and dental care); last year forcing another minority Liberal government to introduce a watered down version of a limited, single payer, pharmacare and dental care. We still have a mix of public and private delivery of all. However, the NDP having become the official opposition party federally in the early 20teens and poised to take government in the 2015 election, chose an ex-Liberal politician to be there leader who promptly promised not to raise taxes and to balance the budget (austerity for the masses in everyone's book). That, coupled with Canadians' desire to rid the country of the far-right Conservatives, caused a stampede of NDPers to vote Liberal. They have been the only party to call what is happening in Palestine "genocide", but they (federally and provincially) still give the boot to candidates who openly criticize Israel or Zionism or support Palestine. Where the NDP has formed government provincially, they have governed largely like small "l" liberals or like what we used to call "Red Tories". As with Labour in the UK, I don't see any realistic chance of reforming the NDP into a really progressive, left-wing party, let alone into a socialist party. Time to leave a ship that, if it is not sinking, is headed in the wrong direction.
It's always a difficult position to decide whether to stay and fight for reform or to jump ship and work on something new. In the UK, Labour has had three key moments in recent history that would seem, to this Canadian observer, to warrant jumping ship. First, Tony Blair's third way and Iraq, Second, the purging of Jeremy Corbyn based on obvious lies and, subsequently the purging of left-leaning Jews. Third, Starmer's rise to the leadership based on outright lies, his rise to the Premiership similarly based on outright lies, and his actions that clearly demonstrate his hatred for the working class and those who are vulnerable to the whims of a capitalist society. Here in Canada, those who consider themselves socialist have a similar conundrum with the New Democratic Party (NDP), Canada's allegedly social democratic party. No doubt they've done some good things such as: six decades ago forcing a Liberal minority government to introduce medicare, Canada's single payer, universal health care system (minus pharamacare and dental care); last year forcing another minority Liberal government to introduce a watered down version of a limited, single payer, pharmacare and dental care. We still have a mix of public and private delivery of all. However, the NDP having become the official opposition party federally in the early 20teens and poised to take government in the 2015 election, chose an ex-Liberal politician to be there leader who promptly promised not to raise taxes and to balance the budget (austerity for the masses in everyone's book). That, coupled with Canadians' desire to rid the country of the far-right Conservatives, caused a stampede of NDPers to vote Liberal. They have been the only party to call what is happening in Palestine "genocide", but they (federally and provincially) still give the boot to candidates who openly criticize Israel or Zionism or support Palestine. Where the NDP has formed government provincially, they have governed largely like small "l" liberals or like what we used to call "Red Tories". As with Labour in the UK, I don't see any realistic chance of reforming the NDP into a really progressive, left-wing party, let alone into a socialist party. Time to leave a ship that, if it is not sinking, is headed in the wrong direction.