A brief look at the Socialist Party of Canada, part of the World Socialist Movement. We disagree with their electoralism and reproduce this text for reference.
The Impossibilists: A Brief Profile of the Socialist Party of Canada
Formed in January 1905, the Socialist Party of Canada's anti- reformist, anti-statist revolutionary platform led to ideological disputes with rival socialist groups and even arguments within the Party itself over what it stood for.
Peter E Newell's absorbing and thorough account of the life and times of the Socialist Party of Canada charts the Party's pre-history in the 1890s, when the availability of translations of the works of Marx and Engels fuelled the radicalism of such figures as Daniel De Leon. It also covers the early years of the twentieth century when, with the merger of like-minded Provincial socialist parties, the SPC was founded. In the present day the party remains a beacon for socialists worldwide for its refusal to compromise its passions and beliefs.
Comments
Enjoyable!
Enjoyable!
Not the most exciting read
Not the most exciting read but of particular interest in it's treatment of the early origins and influence of the SPC and it's members involvement with the 'One Big Union' and the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
This positive aspect of the
This positive aspect of the Socialist Party of Canada members activity in the 'One Big Union' gets a short revisit in the current Socialist Standard here; https://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2010s/2019/no-1375-march-2019/the-one-big-union/ . It avoids any contrast with the historically comparable approach of the USA based Socialist Labor Party of the same period and I have to say fails in it's effort to favourably compare the SPGB's own current collective approach to the 'economic class struggle' with that of the the early SPC but makes some other valid points.
For clarity, WSM companion
For clarity, WSM companion parties, including the SPGB and the SPC reject syndicalism and reject conflating trade union struggle with political struggle.