NDP fat cats find new life with protests
Lawrence Martin --Southam News--National post--Jan. 26,2001
Federal New Democrats have decided that for Quebec City's Summit of the Americas in April they'll move in en masse -- all 13 of them -- to protest.
They'll bunk down in Winnebagos. This will come as relief to a British Columbia commentator who tartly observed recently that the problem with the New Democrats is that they've all become fat cats. Cashmere wearers who live off the conference circuit, tasting good wines. The likes of Ed 'pass the Chablis' Broadbent, Bob 'tasseled-loafers' Rae and Alexa 'silk-stockings' McDonough.
But for Quebec City, what's left of the left won't be flying in on private jets. And even if they wished to stay in luxury suites, they won't be doing it in la belle capitale. Six months ago, Ottawa rented up all available hotel space in a fifty mile radius of the city. This, says the NDP, to limit the chance of blockbuster demonstrations that have plagued other such elite-meets of the past three years.
For the New Democrats, Quebec will mark a significant turn in strategy. In the last election, McDonough, fixated on health care, bored the brains out of everyone with her one-note campaign. It showed in the results.
Now -- better a few years late than never -- she's cottoned on to the fact that the real issue for the left is corporate globalization and the savage capitalism that allegedly results. The NDP will now target, she announced Thursday, the greed merchants who make up the new international ruling class and governments, like Ottawa's, which support them.
Interestingly, the NDP leader conceded that for too long her troops have been sipping champagne and wearing pinstripes. "The NDP used to be the party of protest and we have become more comfortable in our parliamentary positions." Now, she said, it's time to get activist again. One MP was quite taken by her change of attitude. "I came out of the meeting really pumped," said Pat Martin, a Winnipeger who leans toward the calling of a leadership convention. "Alexa showed a side of her I haven't seen in a long time."
Svend Robinson, the party's best fire and brimstoner, will be the lead bugler in the anti-globalization charge. The problem with the g-word is that it is too vague to get many excited. But the NDP feels it can tie the rising corporatist tides to issues like a two-tier health system and the vulnerability of Canada's energy resources.
What the corporatists are actually saying, Martin pointed out, is that there is a surplus of democracy in the world that is interfering with the flow of capital and that it must be circumvented. "It's as outrageous as that."
With its new tack, the NDP hopes to reconnect with youth who have been in the vanguard of the anti-corporate movement. McDonough's biggest weakness has been in failing to reach out to the various forces of social justice in the country: Those led by Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, Matthew Coon Come, Buzz Hargrove, Naomi Klein and the like. All these forces live in separate tents. Hence the marginalization of the NDP and hence the movement to form a new party of the left that will bring them under the same umbrella.
Those like long-time activist Judy Rebick are pushing for a reformation of the left that will establish "a new party for a new democracy in Canada." To begin the 21st century, a new radical youth, she wrote in the Ottawa Citizen, is rekindling the power-to-the-people movement of the 1960s. "Left-wing political parties that don't understand the sea-change in politics coming in on the wave of anti-globalization will be doomed to irrelevance."
This weekend, there is symbolism that is heavy with portent. Globalization's elite are having their annual summit in Davos, Switzerland. But the opposition is such that the tranquil Alpine resort has been turned into an armed camp. Barbed wire runs through Davos. In Porto Alegre, Brazil, meanwhile, the first World Social Forum has quietly opened to promote values that run directly counter to Davos. Delegates from more than 100 countries are present. Many of them will be at Quebec City in April.
The movement against savage capitalism represents the NDP's best hope. Improved health care was an issue cornered by Canadian political parties. But on borderless jungle capitalism, the NDP stands alone. If the movement against it continues to gain legs, and if the old workers' party can bring together some of its factions, the New Democrats, who made the right call this week, could well rise from the ashes. |
