PARTY RED~BAITS CANADIAN "TROTSKYISTS"
By Catherine Scott
TORONTO, March 11 -- The New Democratic party, which was founded in 1961 with the support of the trade-union movement. and with high hopes-for its early development as an effective political weapon for the Canadian working class, is moving steadily to the right and losing its popular image as a dynamic organization capable of taking stands on important issues,
The expulsion of ten young socialists from the Ontario section of the party marks a further step in the narrowing of its base, According to the February 24 Globe and Mail, Toronto's morning paper, "By confirming the expulsion of ten young radicals -- committed to total public ownership of major industry -- the council turned decisively toward moderate economic and social planning that leaves room for both public and private enterprise,"
While the youth were expelled on the organizational grounds of belonging to the Young Socialist Alliance, this comment from the daily press points up the political issues involved. The youth were described in the Daily Star of February 24 as "Trotskyite-Marxists -followers of basic Communist philosophy who reject the form it has taken in the Soviet Union,"
One of the defendants, Allan Engler, told the press, "The expel-~ led youth were active in the struggle within the New Democratic party to adopt a socialist program of opposition to the present Canadian military alliance commitments, public ownership of major industry and support of the colonial revolution throughout the world,"
The Daily Star continues, “Undaunted by their exclusion from the
ranks of the NDP, they are now publishing a four page monthly tabloid, Young Socialist Forum, which supports the NDP unconditionally and calls for a socialist program for the party."
On Canada's west coast, the British Columbia seotion of the . party expelled eight young people and suspended three more in a similar witcoh-hunt situation a year and a half ago, Since then the leadership have publicly red-baited one of the party's members in the British Columbia provincial legislature, Cedric Cox, for going to Cuba. In a subsequent election he was defeated by a narrow margin,
Cox, the chairman of the Vancouver chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee visited Cuba as a guest of the Cuban government and subsequently made a tour through Canada and parts of the United States for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee to report on his experiences.
Now the British Columbia NDP is considering proscribing member-~ ship in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee just a short time after a provincial convention which passed a resolution supporting the Cuban people and opposing the American blockade. This points up clearly the contradiction between the sentiments of the rank and file of the party who are sympathetic to Cuba and the leadership who are threatening expulsion for those who work to publicize the achievements of the Cuban Revolution.
Meanwhile in Quebec NDP insensitivity, and in fact outright ‘hostility, to the nationalist aspirations of the French Canadian people (see World Outlook December 27) has resulted in a serious drop in their vote in two recent by-elections. In one riding the NDP percentage of the total vote cast declined from 12.0% to 6.6% and in the other from 11.4% to 3.9%. Unfortunately the Parti Socialiste du Quebec did not urge its supporters to work in the election,
The NDP members of parliament meanwhile continue to alienate the French population by objecting to an increase in French language radio service, criticizing the Royal Commission on Biculturalism “for dividing Canada into two languages and two cultures," etc.
In Saskatchewan, where the NDP is in power, the proposal by the privately owned Canadian Pacific Railways PoPR] and the government= owned Canadian National Railways [CNR] to abandon some 1,400 miles of branch lines in the province because they are unprofitable, confronts the government with a very serious problem, The cuts would directly affect 67,000 people. Four hundred and twenty-six grain elevators, handling close to fifty million bushels of grain annually, would be affected, The communities involved could only.be sustained by a road construction program that would bring a tremendous financial load to bear on the province,
The NDP government arranged a conference where local delegates met CNR and CPR officials. The conference demanded a Board of Inquiry to study the impact of the proposals and asked the government to pro-
vide an information program tq publicize the effect of the cuts,
When the railways claimed the abandonment would improve their financial position by $5,300,000 annually, the minister of industry, Hon. Russ Brown replied, "Any such claim by the railroads must be balanced against the effect such proposed branch abandonment would have on the social and economic well-being of the Saskatchewan people,
While the NDP opposes scrapping these lines it fails to advance the one real solution -- nationalization of the GPR and the unification of the two systems,
Certain members of the NDP leadership have been flirting with the idea of climbing directly on the bandwagon of capitalism through merger with the Liberal party. This has met with favorable publicity in the daily papers.
A merger would of course signify the total demise of the party as a working-class formation. The more conscious elements in the leadership have rejected the proposal, However, it is a logical extension of their whole rightward policy. For socialists in the “NDP who want to convert the NDP into an effective working-class party, the proposed move poses again and more sharply the dangers of the policios of the present leadership,
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CONTINENTAL CONGRESS TO BE HELD IN MONTREAL
TORONTO -- The second