Federal NDP's Pact With Satan Implodes
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- Published on Thursday, 26 May 2016 04:30
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1261 .... May 26, 2016
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Federal NDP's Pact With Satan Implodes
J. F. Conway
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No CCF Government will rest content until
it has eradicated capitalism and put into
operation the full programme of socialized
planning which will lead to the establishment
in Canada of the Co-operative Commonwealth.
--- Regina Manifesto, 1933
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The years of compromise and moderation were about to bear fruit in 2015. In 1933 the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) proudly declared itself a socialist party dedicated to the eradication of capitalism and building a socialist economy and society. Voices of moderation within the party appealed to the party's rank-and-file to be more pragmatic, less ideologically pure. A sustained attack by the capitalist press joined the chorus from outside the party. These voices became more... urgent as the CCF achieved some electoral success, most importantly the 1944 victory in Saskatchewan. The capitalist press now combined the usual nasty red-baiting with sage advice to the CCF about not being too dangerously radical. The road to victory in Ottawa required a softening of the party's language, a moderation of its hard program, and friendly assurances to business to overcome capital's fears. M. J. Coldwell, J. S. Wordsworth's successor as national leader, bitterly complained the Regina Manifesto was “a millstone around the neck of the party.” It had to go. In 1956 it was replaced by the moderate Winnipeg Declaration.
As the years went by, the language of the party, and its programs, became increasingly moderate: no more talk of socialism, public ownership of resources and industry, nationalization. Each failure to advance electorally was met with yet more moderation... and so it went. This pact with Satan progressed as the party traded pieces of its socialist soul for the elusive promise of electoral victory. In the end all that was left was a commitment to moderate social democracy, the welfare state, and the use of a cautiously interventionist state to win incremental advances in social and economic justice. In private, and at party conventions, the word socialism was still uttered from time to time, usually to defend the strategy of socialism by stealth from the party's left.
