|
The International Socialists is a Canadian Trotskyist organisation. It is part of the International Socialist Tendency, the British Socialist Workers Party's international. It publishes an English-language fortnightly paper, Socialist Worker, a French-language monthly, Résistance, and an annual theoretical journal Marxism. The organization also holds an annual Marxism conference every spring in Toronto, modelled on the much larger Marxism conference of the British Socialist Workers Party. The organization is estimated to have anywhere between 300 and 600 members.
Early History
The initial cadre were members of the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada (better known as the Waffle) which had been forced to leave the social democratic New Democratic Party in 1972. A group of students at York University formed a Marxist study group and came into contact with left-Shachtmanites in the American group, the International Socialists, founded by Hal Draper.
In February 1975, after the collapse of the Waffle a few months earlier, the group organized itself as the Independent Socialists, soon renaming themselves the International Socialists, and began publishing a paper called Workers Action. In later years this paper was renamed Socialist Worker. Through a process of faction fights and splits in its first two years followers of Tony Cliff's theories gained control of the organization (a similar process occurred in the US group during this period).
During the 1980s, the IS was heavily involved in women's struggles, playing an important role in mobilizing support for a woman's right to choose in Canada.
In 1985-6, the IS faced a crisis of factionalism surrounding the division of the largest branch, located in Toronto. The crisis caused leading members of the SWP to write an open letter of concern, urging the unity of the Toronto branch. Eventually, some left the IS.
The 1990s
The IS grew during the mid-1990s, especially in Ontario during the Days of Action, a series of one day general strikes between late 1995 and 1998 against the ruling Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Premier Mike Harris. During this period of growth, publication of the Socialist Worker - the organization's paper - became fortnightly rather than monthly.
The unexpected and rapid growth of the organization during this period led to a split in the IS in 1996. A struggle within the organization had already begun in November 1994, led by a founding member and well-known academic, David McNally. He formed the Political Reorientation Faction in January, 1996, which produced a document rejecting the IS Tendency's analysis of an upswing in class struggle during the mid-1990s, and the Leninist conception of the party. McNally and others eventually left the IS to form the New Socialist Group
Recent history
The IS has participated in several important campaigns since the rise of the anti-capitalist movement following the Seattle Protests of late 1999. The IS participated in the large FTAA protests in Quebec City, in April 2001 and were also present in the smaller G8 Protests in Calgary, Alberta in June 2002.
Leading up to the March 2003 Iraq War, Canada's Liberal Party Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, continually avoided his government's position on the war - it was later revealed by the right-wing National Post, that upwards of eight hundred Canadian troops were on call for operations in Iraq, only to be called off in mid-February 2003, when Chretien announced to Parliament that he would not support the war. His announcement came on February 18, three days after the largest anti-war protests in Canadian (and world) history.
The IS played a role in organizing the Canadian anti-war movement, through unions, student organizations and community activist organizations. Leading IS members remain involved in some of the larger anti-war groups across the country, notably in Toronto.
The International Socialists have also been involved in Project Threadbare, a campaign to defend the Muslims and South Asians against the Canadian government's post-9/11 national security policy which has been highly controversial and clearly prone to abuse by the RCMP and CSIS. The IS and other individuals stopped working in Project Threadbare in the spring of 2004 following the occupation of an MPs office by a small group falsely claiming to be Project Threadbare (read statements: Aftermath of Sgro Occupation (http://www.flora.org/nowar/forum/4512), Founding and Organizing Members Leave Threadbare (http://www.flora.org/nowar/forum/4517)).
Political Stances
Unlike much of the mainstream left in Canada, the International Socialists oppose Left Nationalism, which argues that Canada is a neo-colony of the United States. The IS maintains that Canada is a leading capitalist country with an independent ruling class which carries out its own independent acts of imperialism. Regardless, members of the IS, including members of its steering committee, were also members of the left nationalist Council of Canadians as recently as 2002.
The group supports international socialism and Quebecois and First Nations struggles for self-determination, up to and including independence. In Quebec, the IS does not support the Parti Quebecois. Because there is no provincial NDP in Quebec, the IS is involved in Union des forces progressistes, a coalition of the Parti Communiste de Quebec, the old NDP and Gauche socialiste, the Quebec section of the Fourth International.
The International Socialists argue for critical support of the New Democratic Party - Canada's labour party - on the federal and provincial levels. In 2003, members of the IS worked on Joe Comartin's NDP leadership campaign despite the fact that ISers generally do not join the NDP.
Criticism
Despite claiming to be in favour of rank-and-file militancy in unions the IS has been criticised by other left groups who allege it has failed to attempt to build labour oppositions in unions where they have a limited presence such as the United Steel Workers of America preferring instead to cleave to the existing union leadership in order to obtain resources for various projects.
The IS is viewed with hostility by many other groups on the left. Many in the NDP view the IS as a parasitical formation which attempts to recruit its members by feigning support for the NDP. Other groups and individual leftists are critical of the IS' orientation towards movements claiming that in Toronto it tries to take over groups and dominates them in an undemocratic manner. According to some Palestinian rights activists, including supporters of Solidarity with Palistinian Human Rights (SPHR) at York University, the Toronto branch of SPHR does not have public meetings and recruits only individuals who are friendly with the IS or do not challenge its dominance. Allegedly, if they do question the IS' role in the organization they are quickly frozen out. The IS has also had a controversial role in the peace movement in Toronto due to its dominant position in the Toronto Coalition Against the War. Another group made up of supporters of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty organized an anti-war march through Toronto's business district on June 30 2004, the day designated for US transfer of power to the Iraqi transitional government. The Toronto Coalition Against the War had initially planned to only hold a protest outside of the United States consulate in Toronto and the June 30th group planned to have its march at the end of the protest. When the IS learned of the groups plan, they announced that they would have their own march at the same time going north from the protest (while the other demo headed south). This resulted in a bizarre scene of competing organizers urging protesters to go in opposite directions. According to an account in Toronto's Now Magazine "the final advertised event is a march through the financial district. But unless participants are privy to activist gossip, many don't know that a faction of the International Socialists within the TCSW has decided to organize a competing march northwards. Organizers try to tell people about the confusion while an ISer barks competing directions on the mike. Many protestors stand around looking from one line of marchers to the other,"[1] (http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-07-08/news_story3.php). Similarly, in November 2004, the IS led coalition announced an "emergency rally" against the US offensive in Fallujah to be held at the exact same time as a previously announced action by OCAP.
Groups such as the International Bolshevik Tendency, the Spartacist League and various anarchists describe the IS as left social democrats who are insincere about militancy and revolution. A competing group, Socialist Action, says of them "The International Socialists abstain from campaigns where they perceive they cannot play a dominant role and recruit directly to their organization. To the very minor extent that I.S. militants are involved in the labour movement, they over-adapt to sections of the union bureaucracy."[2] (http://www.geocities.com/socialist_action/socialistcanada.html)
External links
|
