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Over
sixty people crowded into the Free Times Cafe in Toronto's historic
garment district on the evening of April 29 to celebrate International
Workers' Day with Socialist Action, the Ontario Coalition Against
Poverty, the Free the Cuba
Five Committee, the Toronto
Haiti Action
Committee and the NDP Socialist Caucus. Top quality live music and
theatre performances, greetings, speeches and a raffle made for a
memorable, quick-paced celebration.
The event capped Socialist Action’s fourth annual
educational conference held in Toronto, April 27-29. The three day
gathering, “Socialism 2007: Canadian Imperialism and its
Discontents", drew participants from Halifax, Montreal and across southern Ontario. It featured panels,
debates, discussions and displays on a range of compelling issues,
including: the myth of Canada as peacekeeper, the nature of
imperialism, the relationship of feminism and socialism, Venezuela’s challenge
to the Empire, Palestine and the boycott of the Israeli apartheid state,
and the present situation of the Quebec sovereignty movement.
Highlights were the Friday evening session on the U.S.
war/quagmire in Iraq,
and the Saturday night panel on “Imperialism and Eco-catastrophe”, both
of which featured special guest speaker from San Francisco, Jeff Mackler, national
secretary of Socialist Action (US).
The weekend was so lively, informative and stimulating
that it inspired three new participants to ask to join Socialist Action /
Ligue pour l'Action Socialiste, and several others to subscribe to SA
monthly newspaper.
What lies ahead?
The following excerpts from the SA message to the May
Day Celebration suggest some pressing priorities.
“...The
burning issue of our times, literally, is climate change due to global
warming. The escalating environmental crisis exposes the utter
incompatibility of capitalism with the survival of life on Earth. The
refusal of global big business and its governments to comply even with
the pathetic emission reduction targets of the Kyoto Accord, with its scandalous mechanism
for selling carbon credits, constitute an unfolding tragedy of epic
proportions. The Katrina-New Orleans debacle, which showed who suffers
first and most under racist, sexist, capitalist class rule, is likely to
be repeated many fold, from Tierra del Fuego to Baffin Island – and it is
sure to trigger a massive and widespread radicalization that only
socialists can lead towards a progressive solution. The struggle against
the cause of climate change – corporate power and greed -- is already
beginning to intersect with a rising tide of rejection of the neo-liberal
agenda of global big business.
“...In Quebec, the Union des Forces Progressiste
and Option Citoyenne united in February 2006 to form Quebec Solidaire.
Although not an explicitly socialist party, its pro-sovereignty and
anti-neo-liberal policies have attracted Labour support, and help to
advance the idea of building a labour-based workers’ party that fights
for an independent and socialist Quebec. The QS received close to 4% of the
votes in the recent Quebec
provincial election, up to 29% and 26% in two Montreal ridings. The decline of the PQ, the
rise of the ADQ, and the election of a Liberal minority government
signifies massive disaffection with the political status quo. It also
reveals the continuing strength of nationalist aspirations amongst the
Quebecois.
“It is premature to propose an NDP-Quebec Solidarity
alliance at the federal level. But the idea of a joint struggle for
government by the workers’ organizations of Quebec and English Canada is important. In the meantime,
and at the upcoming federal election, the best available option to
advance the idea of working class independence from the capitalist
parties remains the fight for an NDP federal government.
“...In the Ontario provincial election set for October
10, SA will campaign for an NDP government and fight for a Workers’
Agenda of democratic, defensive and transitional demands. We will urge a
YES vote in the referendum on electoral reform in favour of the
Mixed-Member Proportional Representation proposal on the ballot. At
the same time we will explain our preference for Direct P.R., and for a
1% (instead of 3%) threshold for party representation. That is the
best route both for gender parity in the legislature, and to ensure that
every vote cast will be effective.”
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