Challenges and contradictions: The NDP in power

The breakthrough success of the federal NDP, especially in Quebec, poses challenges for the party and for everyone serious about fighting the austerity agenda. Here, RITCH WHYMAN looks at the record of the NDP in provincial government to reveal the limitations of social democracy.

“We aim to replace the present capitalist system, with its inherent injustice and inhumanity, by a social order from which the domination and exploitation of one class by another will be eliminated, in which economic planning will supersede unregulated private enterprise and competition, and in which genuine democratic self-government, based upon economic equality will be possible.

“The present order is marked by glaring inequalities of wealth and opportunity, by chaotic waste and instability; and in an age of plenty it condemns the great mass of the people to poverty and insecurity. Power has become … concentrated into the hands of a small irresponsible minority of financiers and industrialists….

“When private profit is the main stimulus to economic effort, our society oscillates between periods of feverish prosperity … and of catastrophic depression, in which the common man’s normal state of insecurity and hardship is accentuated. We believe that these evils can be removed only in a planned and socialized economy in which our natural resources and principal means of production and distribution are owned, controlled and operated by the people….

“Nor shall we interfere with cultural rights of racial or religious minorities. What we seek is a proper collective organization of our economic resources such as will make possible a much greater degree of leisure and a much richer individual life for every citizen.”

These words were written over 80 years ago, but they couldn’t be more applicable today. They come from the founding statement of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, the precursor to today’s NDP. The Regina Manifesto and the founding of the CCF held out great promise for tens of thousands of socialists, working-class activists and farmers who were fighting for a future without capitalism.

With the recent success of the NDP in the federal election, hopes again have been raised that the party can play a role in fighting the right and building a socialist agenda.

Unfortunately, because the NDP believes that capitalist profits are the source of economic justice—not its opposite—the NDP in office has time and again subordinated the interests of workers to the interests of restoring capitalism to profit.

This explains why, despite the wishes and hopes of the rank-and-file base and those who vote NDP, the party in power has never sought to put into practice the words of the Regina Manifesto.

At the federal level, the NDP has formed the Official Opposition for the first time in its history and is closer than ever to winning parliamentary power. But the experience of NDP-led provincial governments shows us the limitations of the NDP parliamentary project.

NDP in power

The most well known example of the NDP betraying its promise to be a party for workers and the poor came in Ontario in the 1990s. The NDP swept to power under leader Bob Rae. In its first years in office, it did indeed adopt legislation that was helpful to the workers’ movement, implementing anti-scab legislation and raising welfare rates.

But when the economy fell into recession, the NDP saw no other alternative than to attack the very people that had elected it. By accepting the logic of capitalism, the NDP made deep cuts to the public sector, enacting the infamous “social contract” which undermined the right to collective bargaining and forced cuts on public sector workers. It instituted a program of welfare cops, thereby criminalizing those on social assistance; it increased tuition fees and eliminated student grants, ushering in an era of unprecedented student debt; it cut health care funding and quickly reneged on its promise to implement public auto insurance.

As then-Premier Bob Rae put it clearly in 1994: “the choice isn’t between capitalism and socialism. The question is what kind of capitalism do we want to have.”

Of course, Rae has now moved on to be the leader of the federal Liberals, and many have argued that he was never a “real social democrat” in the fist place. Unfortunately, however, Rae wasn’t the only NDP premier who attacked working people and the poor in order to balance the budget and defend business interests.

In Saskatchewan and British Columbia, NDP provincial governments behaved similarly. Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow said: “We can no longer have small slices out of programs or readjustments. We are talking about—if I may be gruesome about it—amputations of programs.”

In the 1990s, when the federal government downloaded massive cuts in social spending to the provinces, instead of resisting, NDP provincial governments administered the cuts provincially. In every case—British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Ontario—these attacks led to disappointment, the demobilization of its supporters and a corresponding resurgence of the provincial right-wing parties.

Some have argued that the crisis of the 1990s was an anomaly and that the NDP in bygone eras had governed more progressively. But history shows that even prior to the 1990s, provincial NDP governments, including the CCF in Saskatchewan, have turned on workers when the economy experienced crisis and business demanded cuts.

Strike wave

For example, in the 1970s there was a massive strike wave across Canada that saw workers fighting back against attacks and going on the offensive. At the time, millions saw the NDP as the electoral expression of this resistance. On this wave of working-class militancy, the NDP was propelled into office in three provinces. Yet in 1974 the BC NDP helped smash a wave of wildcat strikes in the lumber industry, by imposing a contract on the lumber workers. In 1975 the NDP introduced back-to-work legislation against striking pulp and paper workers.

So confident was the NDP in these anti-union actions, it called a snap election over the issue after only three years in office; the openly anti-union Social Credit Party trounced it. By giving credence to anti-union rhetoric, the NDP built the forces of the right.

This wasn’t the first time, nor last, the NDP in power smashed strikes by enacting back-to-work legislation. As far back as 1954, in Saskatchewan under Tommy Douglas, the CCF/NDP attacked electrical workers and ordered them back to work. In Manitoba the NDP under Premier Ed Schreyer ordered striking workers at Flyer Industries back to work, and in the 1974 election the Manitoba NDP called for wage controls.

Today the NDP in Nova Scotia is cutting education budgets and hasn’t lifted a finger to change labour laws despite promises to do so. In Manitoba the NDP proudly touts its record of cuts as “fiscal responsibility.”

Corporate Canada

How is it possible that a party that set out to “replace the capitalist system” has ended up defending capitalism and playing the role of nursing an ailing system back to health?

The basis of the NDP leadership and bureaucracy is that power lies in electing a majority to parliament. But once in office it becomes clear that, under capitalism, power doesn’t lie in parliament. Instead real power lies in the boardrooms of corporate Canada. They call the shots. And because the NDP believes that economic justice is predicated on healthy, profitable capitalism, it is keen to implement measures that will bolster profit and allow the government to implement reforms.

This explains why the NDP is more consistent in its efforts to appease business than in its efforts to implement significant changes that will improve the well-being of working people. It explains why today’s federal NDP has attempted to reach out to leaders of corporate Canada to make sure they know an NDP opposition won’t destabilize profits for the rich. In fact, in their federal election platform, the NDP did not challenge the billions in military spending and promised to keep corporate taxes lower than in the United States.

Capitalism

The NDP has been described as a capitalist workers’ party in which the base aspires for a more just and fair society, but where these aspirations are limited by the leadership’s acceptance of capitalism and all its inherent logic. This limitation means that the NDP does not strive to “replace the capitalist system” but rather to administer it. And because elections are seen as the highest form of politics, the NDP does not seek to mobilize the rank and file of the working class outside of elections.

Having a working-class electoral alternative to the openly pro-business parties of the Liberals and Tories is incredibly important in elections.

The NDP embodies the aspirations of working-class people for a better world, and it is this sentiment that socialists relate to when calling for a tactical vote for the NDP in elections, and when working alongside NDP activists in the social justice movements. But as history has shown, capitalism cannot be challenged simply through voting. Capitalism must be challenged outside elections by a mobilized working class.

And to realize the strength of the working class, we need an organization of socialists committed to building in workplaces, communities, and campuses—not for elections but for overthrowing capitalism.