Socialist Party of Canada (WSM)

Not to be confused with Socialist Party of Canada.
Socialist Party of Canada
Leader none/membership conference
Founded 1931 (1931)
Preceded by Socialist Party of Canada
Headquarters Victoria, BC
Newspaper Western Socialist (1933-1980), Socialist Fulcrum (1968-1984), Socialisme Mondial (1973-1980), Imagine (2002-)
Ideology Impossibilism
Socialism
Classical Marxism
Anti-Leninism
International affiliation World Socialist Movement
Colours Red
Website
www.worldsocialism.org/canada/

The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) was founded in June 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba by several former members of the Socialist Party of Canada. These included George Armstrong and Jim Milne, author of a history of the party and its predecessor. While Jim Brownrigg claimed continuity with the original party, this claim was disputed by various members of both the original party and the new party (Harry Morrison, Isaac Rab, Jack McDonald, Bill Pritchard, R. M. Roddy) . The new party adopted the policies of the Socialist Party of Great Britain which rejected Leninism, social democracy and trade unionism in favour of a belief in "revolutionary Marxism and democratic revolution".

History

As the fractured groups of the left coalesced to form the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), the Socialist Party did not make great headway. The Winnipeg-based Socialist Party of Canada remained outside of the CCF (and its successor, the New Democratic Party), rejecting its evolutionary socialist approach as being "reformist". While the Socialist Party of Canada (British Columbia) (which was founded in 1932 by Ernest Winch independently of the Socialist Party of Canada founded in Winnipeg)[1] joined and eventually merged with the CCF to form the British Columbia CCF. The Socialist Party of Canada remained independent of the broader socialist movement, and spread its message by holding town hall meetings, open air rallies, and distributing literature at farmers markets and street corners.

In October 1933, the party launched the New Western Socialist Journal, a periodical, to help bring publicity to the party. The first two issues criticized the CCF and the Communist Party of Canada for allegedly compromising with capitalism. The SPC never found a reason to change its attitude towards the two parties.

World War II

During World War II, the SPC campaigned against the war, stating that working class blood should not be shed. During the war, while the Communist Party was outlawed, the SPC continued to hold anti-war demonstrations and rallies. The party was investigated by the Government of Canada, but was never taken as a serious threat.

1939 was the year when The Western Socialist, the journal of the Socialist Party of Canada, moved to Boston and became a joint organ of the SPC and the [ World Socialist Party of the United States ]. ... There were enough active Local Boston comrades to assure getting out a publication on a consistent basis (which they did from 1939 until 1980).[2]

The Socialist Party continued to publish socialist manifesto leaflets through the years. When funds permitted, it ran candidates in elections. In the late 1970s, the head office was moved from Winnipeg to Victoria, British Columbia. The membership of the Socialist Party continued to decline, and the party admits that it never managed to live up to the "success and glamour" of the old party. The party has not wavered from the original policies that it adopted seventy years ago.

Election results by year

General elections

Year Candidates Votes Popular vote
1935 federal election 1 251 0.01%
1958 federal election 2 1,113 0.02%

By-election May 29, 1961

Candidate District Votes Popular vote Place
Don Poirier Esquimalt—Saanich 131 0.47% 5 of 5

Present activity

The Socialist Party promotes a post-capitalist socialist society. It seeks to achieve this by distributing socialist material around the world and raising class consciousness. The party believes that socialism must be implemented everywhere at the same time in order to work.

The bulk of current party members are in British Columbia and Ontario. It publishes a journal, Imagine, and distributes the literature of the Socialist Party of Great Britain.

The Socialist Party of Canada is a member of the World Socialist Movement along with its "companion parties", the Socialist Party of Great Britain, World Socialist Party (New Zealand), and World Socialist Party of the United States.

Publications

See also

References

  1. ↑ Socialist History Project
  2. ↑ Rab, Karla, Role-Modeling Socialist Behavior
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