Where is the NDP Going?
By Harold Lavender
During the New Democratic Party’s (NDP) past years of stagnation some anticipated it would fade into oblivion or warned the NDP needed to turn to the left or die.
However, quite the opposite has happened. The NDP has turned to the right (somewhat ambiguously federally but quite starkly in BC) and this spring demonstrated that it remained a presence on the political scene from Ottawa to British Columbia (where it doubled its share of the popular vote to 42 percent in May’s election).
What does the continuing presence of the NDP tell us about the state of electoral politics in the Canadian state and, more broadly speaking, the current level of class struggle and relationship of class forces?
These questions are not pressing to immediate struggles, although a strengthened NDP could have more capacity to contain and channel broad-based struggle. Nor is it relevant to the radical anti-capitalist milieu whose issues and struggles are very different.
However, if we are oriented to what is going on in the political culture at large, the evolution of the NDP poses an ongoing question and problem.
It is easy enough to say no to the NDP and write off supporting it as a dead end. But unless the NDP leadership is challenged by credible alternatives it can continue its present course largely unscathed. How can alternatives embodying a real Left Turn be developed over time?
The Two Faces of Jack Layton
Jack Layton has brought a new and more stylish brand of leadership to the NDP. But does style equal substance?
Many wished to believe or were misled into believing that Layton represented a welcome turn to the left. Others were far more skeptical.
The issue is not fully resolved but signs such as ‘the NDP federal budget’ suggest that the party is clearly not moving to the left. Instead the NDP is, perhaps with more skill than in the recent past, aiming in opportunist ways to become a bigger player in shaping events.
The federal NDP has dropped all talk of becoming a government in favour of electing more NDP Members of Parliament (MPs) in Ottawa. This perspective would enhance the NDP’s bargaining power especially in minority government situations. The recent federal budget is a prime example. The NDP in effect became a parliamentary pressure group, slightly shifting the Liberal’s agenda in exchange for supporting the budget.
The old rhetoric wasn’t very credible. But is the new approach an improvement?
The NDP doesn’t pose a sharp enough alternative and the level of class polarization and struggle is far too muted to challenge the Liberals for government.
More particularly the NDP’s horizons have always been limited by its insensitivity to Quebec’s national aspirations and its consequent lack of any presence in Quebec. Initially Layton showed signs of wanting to change this but soon got very cold feet. Instead the NDP reverted to its focus on a strong central government in Ottawa. NDP MPs and provincial premiers have joined in the chorus warning against the renewed separatist threat and allying with the Bloc Quebecois (BQ), despite the fact it has policies and a social base similar to the NDP.
Instead, the NDP has made a clear choice to appeal to Canadian nationalist and left liberal voters in an effort to convince voters to elect more NDP MPs in the next federal election. NDP strategists are seeking to capitalize on widespread discontent with the Liberal government’s pro-corporate face, lack of funding for badly needed social programs from childcare to housing, and pro-Washington policies.
However, it is notable that even these progressive messages are pitched in a safe, non-threatening way – speaking of a better “balanced” approach to the budget, for example. Signs of the NDP’s continued trajectory to the right, in other words, are still very evident under Layton’s leadership.
The NDP Solution
Rather than moving towards being a committed oppositional force in Parliament, the federal NDP appears to be positioning itself as a power broker to negotiate some modest reforms from above.
It’s a strategy that has already won them points, and with surpluses accumulating in Ottawa it’s hard to deny that choices are possible and modest reforms can be won.
But the NDP’s leverage in parliament is largely dependent on holding the balance of power. This is why electoral reform is high on Jack Layton’s agenda, even if provincial NDP parties may be quite lukewarm to the idea of proportional representation. Bringing in a form of proportional representation would clearly benefit the federal NDP, which has consistently been under-represented in Ottawa, and dovetails perfectly with the ‘elect more NDP MPPs’ strategy.
A fairer proportional electoral system would increase the likelihood of minority governments, especially with other factors already eroding the Liberal Party’s base of support.
The Liberals have been able to dominate politics by maintaining a strong base in Quebec. But in the wake of revelations from the Gomery Inquiry, Liberal support has tumbled – perhaps long term. If the Bloc Quebecois can consolidate its hold in Quebec, it will become more difficult for the Liberals to win majority governments.
However, even taking these factors into consideration, if the NDP is going to play the minority government game, it is going to need to broaden its appeal to win the required seats or, in the case of proportional representation, a higher percentage of the electoral vote.
Calculated Policy
The challenge for an increasingly right-leaning NDP is how to differentiate itself from the other neoliberal parties. The NDP leadership has attempted to do this on issues of economic and foreign policy in carefully chosen ways.
George W. Bush is enormously unpopular in Canada. The NDP went with the tide of public opinion and correctly opposed the war in Iraq and Canada’s participation. Similarly, the NDP emphasized Canadian sovereignty and focused much attention against Canada’s participation in Star Wars, the US’s projected missile defense system.
But the NDP has shied away from challenging the comfortable assumptions of left liberals and the myths of a benign independent Canadian foreign policy and peace-keeping role.
The NDP has not clearly spoken out in defense of immigrant and refugee rights and Native sovereignty, or against the border control and the government’s national security agenda. It has been invisible in opposition to Canada’s criminal role in ousting former Haitian President Aristide and installing a murderous new regime. Similarly on Afghanistan. And it voted for a budget that contained massive multi-billion dollar increases in military spending. This was not an oversight. It was a clear choice and it should raise alarm bells among the Left.
Following the Trend
Jack Layton’s effort to mimic Tony Blair’s war of civilization versus terrorism should not come as a total shock.
Despite zigs and zags caused by the complexities of Canadian politics, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) / NDP have reflected the international evolution of social democracy.
Social democratic parties were initially clearly identified with the working class and the idea of socialism. During World War I, however, social democratic parties embraced a social patriotic course, aligning themselves with their own country’s war aims. This produced a split. Forces backing the Russian Revolution formed the Communist International.
Since that time, Social Democrats have been reformists committed to evolutionary change through electoral means – not revolution. As reforms were won, social democratic parties became identified with the growth of the welfare state and Keynesian economics (the use of government spending as an economic stimulus particularly to counter economic depressions).
Today, these reforms are being eroded and, in many cases, completely reversed. Since the end of the Cold War, global capitalism has gone on a prolonged ideological, political and economic counter-offensive to reverse working class and popular gains.
In the new neoliberal era, social democracy has lost any further reformist impulse and slid into a rather tired and passive defense of the existing status quo.
The idea of ‘New Labour’ is an attempt to reverse this trend, except not in the way socialists might hope. Under this vision, social democrats have embraced the new capitalist order and market-based reforms including privatization.
Tony Blair, leader of Britain’s Labour Party, epitomizes this trend. In office Blair has pursued policies to make British capitalism more internationally competitive, while promised social reforms have lagged behind.
NDP Provincial Governments
The ideas of ‘New Labour’ have taken hold in Canada and have clearly played a role in shaping NDP policy, particularly in provinces where the NDP have formed the government.
The track record of the Manitoba and Saskatchewan NDP governments are pretty clear and the BC NDP under Carole James is fervently trying to emulate this trend to the right.
James’ predecessor, Glen Clark, had won the 1996 election by using populist and anti-establishment rhetoric. However the government ended in disaster, alienating most of its supporters, introducing ‘welfare reform,’ attacking the poor and failing to placate capital interests which, sensing blood, went for the kill.
This time around, in the election that was held earlier this year, the ‘New NDP’ sought to pose itself as the centrist alternative to Gordon Campbell’s extremism. Was this just crass electoralism magnified under a first-past-the-post system? Or did it constitute a surrender to the business agenda as outlined in a Left Turn leaflet supporting Will Offley’s candidacy in Vancouver Hastings?
It appears that the latter is more likely. “The BC New Democrats want to shed their confrontational past and form an unprecedented alliance with the province’s business community,” James was quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying during a meeting of the Coalition of BC Businesses. She said traditional NDP social values can work with and support the values of entrepreneurism and risk-taking that can help drive “economic innovation and job creation.”
Even the Right appeared confused by this ‘New NDP.’ Economist Jason Clemens, director of fiscal studies at the Fraser Institute, was quoted in the Georgian Straight as saying that the NDP platform’s spending commitments were “rather small” and that the NDP’s pledge to spend an additional $75 million on health care was “not material” in comparison to the overall health budget. Clemens said the NDP appeared to have the Liberals’ “tax policy in this election campaign.”
It wasn’t a misquote. Throughout the election campaign, the BC NDP continued to align itself with capitalist interests and refused to even oppose some of the most onerous actions of the Campbell government. “There will be things that the Liberals have done we may not be able to undo. There may be agreements in place such as the BC Rail deal that we would not be able to bring back into government…because of the cost,” NDP candidate Vaughan Palmer was quoted as saying in the Vancouver Sun. “Ditto for all those (8,000) health care jobs being contracted out to private companies…We are not talking about going back four years and putting back programs and services.”
Given this stance, it was hardly surprising to those on the Left when the NDP also took pains to distance itself from labour. Despite the millions of dollars and staff resources that the BC Federation of Labour ploughed into a parallel anti-Liberal “Count Me In” campaign pitched to union members and its vocal support for the NDP, the party distanced itself from labour. In a symbolic nomination, Gregor Robertson, a Happy Place Juice businessman, defeated former CUPE President Judy Darcy.
By the time election day rolled around in BC on May 17, 2005, it was clear that the NDP party offered little to progressive voters. Its rebound was driven, not by any love for the NDP, but basic if not developed anti-liberal sentiments. The neoliberal offensive in BC has scored major successes and inflicted defeats on the working class and social movements. However the defeat has not been total and the ideology of privatization, two-tier health-care and reduced benefits and rights have not been fully accepted. This sentiment enabled the NDP to recoup its losses while emphasizing to the ruling class it would be a safe choice.
Building a ‘New Left’
The best way to get beyond the NDP is through the building of strong movements and mass-based struggle. Mass consciousness can change rapidly in moments of intense struggle and self-organization.
Unfortunately, despite the hopefulness that many experienced during the height of the global justice movement, at the moment we are experiencing a downturn of struggles of unknown duration.
Very different approaches are possible.
Some call for working within the NDP in order to transform it. NDP membership has risen under Jack Layton and many members are not hardened social democrats. However, this has not led to a new direction and is widely viewed on the socialist left as an exercise in futility.
Many socialists and labour movement activists have argued the working class needs to have its own independent class-based parties. Talk of a new labour party has withered, however, and the New Politics Initiative dissolved and returned to the NDP fold. Thus the option of either critical support to the NDP or hold your nose and vote NDP remains. This has been a longstanding approach on the Left but is it really viable, even in the short-term?
Substantial sections of the radical Left, not surprisingly given what exists, reject any engagement in elections and existing state politics. The politics of direct action and anti-capitalist resistance are emphasized. There is a vast and growing partly generational gulf between this outlook and the large numbers who at least passively still turn to the NDP.
Another possibility is to promote a socialist alternative in a wide variety of arenas. This was the approach of Left Turn, which sought without being electoralist to use the election as a platform to promote struggle and challenge the notion that there is no alternative. To this end, Left Turn elaborated a series of measures designed to meet human need and confront capital.
While in my view the NDP is incapable of becoming a vehicle for a renewed or new left, there is nevertheless not a single tactic or panacea to build a new left. However, it is important not just to resist but to create an alternative socialist political project based on working class politics, radical democracy and the support of social movements. We will not hear the last of the NDP until it is replaced by something fundamentally better.
