League for Socialist Action (Canada)
Encyclopedia
The International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada, the Workers Party of Canada, Socialist Policy Group, Socialist Workers League, Revolutionary Workers Party and the League for Socialist Action were successive Trotskyist organisations in Canada.
. Maurice Spector
, editor of the Communist Party newspaper The Worker, had been a Canadian delegate to the 1928 Comintern
Congress in Moscow
when he and American James Cannon
inadvertently came across the suppressed platform of Trotsky's Left Opposition
. Spector was won over to Trotsky's position and returned to Canada determined to build support for Trotsky in the party. He and his supporters were expelled 1928 and, with American Trotskyists, formed the Communist League of America
and then a Canadian section called the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada in 1932. Jack MacDonald, the expelled National Secretary of the Communist Party, joined. The Canadian Trotskyist movement went through a number of splits and reincarnations through the 1930s. In 1934, the group became the Workers Party of Canada, which published a monthly newspaper, The Vanguard. It became a fortnightly paper in 1935. The Workers Party also published a twice-monthly Ukrainian
newspaper, Labor News, and a youth magazine called first October Youth and then Young Militant.
The party had serious disputes over the Trotskyist movement's orientation to the new social democratic
party in Canada, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
(CCF). In 1937, a majority of the Workers Party voted to join the CCF. They did so as the Socialist Policy Group, and published the newspaper Socialist Action. They were soon expelled from the CCF. They reunited with the faction that had opposed CCF work, and formed the Socialist Workers League in 1939 with Earle Birney
as the principal leader as Macdonald and Spector had both dropped out of the movement.
during World War II
and their anti-war polemics which resulted in the group's publication being banned. The day after war was declared in 1939, SWL member Frank Watson became the first person arrested under the Defence of Canada Regulations
when he denounced the war at a street corner meeting at Bloor and Brunswick in Toronto. Birney dropped out by 1942, according to Dowson because of his support for the war, and the group became inactive. It was relaunched in 1946 as the Revolutionary Workers Party (RWP), Canadian Section of the Fourth International
, under the leadership of Ross Dowson
. The foundations of the party had been laid two years earlier, in 1944, when Canadian supporters of the Fourth International met in Montreal
for their first national convention. Dowson ran for mayor of Toronto
as an open Trotskyist at the end of the war and won over 20% of the vote.
In 1952, the RWP ceased its public activities, including the publication of Labour Challenge, and its members began to practice entrism in the CCF. The next year, the section split reflecting the international split in the Fourth International between the International Committee of the Fourth International
(ICFI) and the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI). The majority of the RWP, including Ross Dowson, backed James P. Cannon
and the International Committee, while a minority, including Dowson's brother Murray and his brother-in-law Joe Rosenthal (who had left the Canadian section to form the Committee for the Socialist Regroupment of Canada in sympathy with Bert Cochran
's split from the American SWP), sided with Pablo
and the International Secretariat.
Members of the former RWP (whose National Committee did not dissolve and whose branches continued to hold meetings) had difficulty working within the CCF. Dowson's application for CCF membership was rejected while other ex-RWP members and their sympathisers found themselves facing persecution within the CCF.
In 1955, following the expulsion of 15 supporters from the CCF, the Toronto group reconstituted itself as the Socialist Education League (SEL), pledging itself to support the election of the CCF and with the goal of supporting the growth of the CCF's left wing. To this end, they resumed publication of a regular periodical, Workers Vanguard. Meanwhile the Vancouver branch, which had developed some disagreements with its Toronto co-thinkers, became an independent organization, the Socialist Information Centre (SIC).
under the name Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière. A youth wing, the Young Socialists, was also established in 1964; its branch in Quebec was known as the Ligue des Jeunes Socialistes.
Members of the LSA were involved in the Waffle
movement of the CCF's successor party, the New Democratic Party
(NDP), from 1969 until the expulsion of the Waffle from the NDP in 1972. The LSA decided to remain in the NDP.
In the early 1970s, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI, which was the result of a 1963 reconciliation between the ISFI and the ICFI) was riven by an international faction fight. The majority and leadership supported the USFI faction associated with the Socialist Workers Party (United States)
.
Supporters of Ernest Mandel
, many of whom were active in the student movement, coalseced at the 1973 convention of the LSA as the Revolutionary Communist Tendency, a minority tendency that ultimately left the LSA to join the Revolutionary Marxist Group
which supported Mandel internationally. Amongst its leadership, Alain Beiner, Ruth Bullock, Al Cappe, Joan Newbigging, John Riddell, Ernie Tate
and Art Young
were signatories of the 1973 Declaration of the Leninist Trotskyist Tendency, supporting the SWP position in the USFI. In 1976, Bullock, Riddell, Tate and Young were among the signatories of a document, "The Verdict", supporting the SWP leadership against allegations made by Gerry Healey.
Dowson and his supporters, meanwhile, found themselves reduced to a minority within the LSA due to criticism of Dowson's sympathy with Canadian economic nationalism. They left the LSA in 1974 to form the "Socialist League
" which became known as the "Forward Group" after the name of its publication.
In 1977, supporters of the Revolutionary Marxist Group and a separate Quebec organization, the Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire, united with the League for Socialist Action and the Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière to form the Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire
which became the new Canadian section of the USFI.
Origins
The Canadian Trotskyist movement originated in the late 1920s as the left faction within the Communist Party of CanadaCommunist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada is a communist political party in Canada. Although is it currently a minor or small political party without representation in the Federal Parliament or in provincial legislatures, historically the Party has elected representatives in Federal Parliament, Ontario...
. Maurice Spector
Maurice Spector
Maurice Spector was the Chairman of the Communist Party of Canada for much of the 1920s and an early follower of Leon Trotsky after his split from the Communist International....
, editor of the Communist Party newspaper The Worker, had been a Canadian delegate to the 1928 Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
Congress in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
when he and American James Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
inadvertently came across the suppressed platform of Trotsky's Left Opposition
Left Opposition
The Left Opposition was a faction within the Bolshevik Party from 1923 to 1927, headed de facto by Leon Trotsky. The Left Opposition formed as part of the power struggle within the party leadership that began with the Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin's illness and intensified with his death in January...
. Spector was won over to Trotsky's position and returned to Canada determined to build support for Trotsky in the party. He and his supporters were expelled 1928 and, with American Trotskyists, formed the Communist League of America
Communist League of America
The Communist League of America was founded by James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman and Martin Abern late in 1928 after their expulsion from the Communist Party USA for Trotskyism. The CLA was the United States section of Leon Trotsky's International Left Opposition and initially positioned itself as...
and then a Canadian section called the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada in 1932. Jack MacDonald, the expelled National Secretary of the Communist Party, joined. The Canadian Trotskyist movement went through a number of splits and reincarnations through the 1930s. In 1934, the group became the Workers Party of Canada, which published a monthly newspaper, The Vanguard. It became a fortnightly paper in 1935. The Workers Party also published a twice-monthly Ukrainian
Ukrainian Canadian
A Ukrainian Canadian is a person of Ukrainian descent or origin who was born in or immigrated to Canada. In 2006, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons residing in Canada of Ukrainian origin, making them Canada's ninth largest ethnic group; and giving Canada the world's third-largest...
newspaper, Labor News, and a youth magazine called first October Youth and then Young Militant.
The party had serious disputes over the Trotskyist movement's orientation to the new social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
party in Canada, the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation
The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
(CCF). In 1937, a majority of the Workers Party voted to join the CCF. They did so as the Socialist Policy Group, and published the newspaper Socialist Action. They were soon expelled from the CCF. They reunited with the faction that had opposed CCF work, and formed the Socialist Workers League in 1939 with Earle Birney
Earle Birney
Earle Alfred Birney, OC, FRSC was a distinguished Canadian poet and novelist, who twice won the Governor General's Award, Canada's top literary honor, for his poetry.-Life:...
as the principal leader as Macdonald and Spector had both dropped out of the movement.
Revolutionary Workers Party
The SWL was forced underground due to the implementation of the War Measures ActWar Measures Act
The War Measures Act was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers in the event of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended"...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and their anti-war polemics which resulted in the group's publication being banned. The day after war was declared in 1939, SWL member Frank Watson became the first person arrested under the Defence of Canada Regulations
Defence of Canada Regulations
The Defence of Canada Regulations were a set of emergency measures implemented under the War Measures Act a week before Canada's entry into World War II in the fall of 1939....
when he denounced the war at a street corner meeting at Bloor and Brunswick in Toronto. Birney dropped out by 1942, according to Dowson because of his support for the war, and the group became inactive. It was relaunched in 1946 as the Revolutionary Workers Party (RWP), Canadian Section of the Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
, under the leadership of Ross Dowson
Ross Dowson
Ross Jewitt Dowson was a Canadian Trotskyist political figure.-Early life:Dowson joined the Trotskyist movement as a teenager during the Great Depression. The Canadian Trotskyist movement collapsed at the beginning of World War II as leaders such as Jack MacDonald, Maurice Spector and Earle Birney...
. The foundations of the party had been laid two years earlier, in 1944, when Canadian supporters of the Fourth International met in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
for their first national convention. Dowson ran for mayor of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
as an open Trotskyist at the end of the war and won over 20% of the vote.
In 1952, the RWP ceased its public activities, including the publication of Labour Challenge, and its members began to practice entrism in the CCF. The next year, the section split reflecting the international split in the Fourth International between the International Committee of the Fourth International
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site and another linked to the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.-Foundation:The International...
(ICFI) and the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI). The majority of the RWP, including Ross Dowson, backed James P. Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
and the International Committee, while a minority, including Dowson's brother Murray and his brother-in-law Joe Rosenthal (who had left the Canadian section to form the Committee for the Socialist Regroupment of Canada in sympathy with Bert Cochran
Bert Cochran
Bert Cochran was an American Communist politician and author.Cochran was born in Poland in 1913 and came to the US at an early age. His birth name was Alexander Goldfarb. In the 1930s, Cochran attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he was recruited to the Trotskyist movement by Max...
's split from the American SWP), sided with Pablo
Michel Pablo
Michel Pablo was the pseudonym of Michalis N. Raptis , a Trotskyist leader of Greek origin.- Early activism :...
and the International Secretariat.
Members of the former RWP (whose National Committee did not dissolve and whose branches continued to hold meetings) had difficulty working within the CCF. Dowson's application for CCF membership was rejected while other ex-RWP members and their sympathisers found themselves facing persecution within the CCF.
In 1955, following the expulsion of 15 supporters from the CCF, the Toronto group reconstituted itself as the Socialist Education League (SEL), pledging itself to support the election of the CCF and with the goal of supporting the growth of the CCF's left wing. To this end, they resumed publication of a regular periodical, Workers Vanguard. Meanwhile the Vancouver branch, which had developed some disagreements with its Toronto co-thinkers, became an independent organization, the Socialist Information Centre (SIC).
League for Socialist Action
In 1961, the SEL and SIC merged and became the League for Socialist Action (LSA), with branches in Toronto and Vancouver. The LSA marked the resumption of open Trotskyist activities in Canada after almost a decade of underground work. In 1964, a branch was established in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
under the name Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière. A youth wing, the Young Socialists, was also established in 1964; its branch in Quebec was known as the Ligue des Jeunes Socialistes.
Members of the LSA were involved in the Waffle
The Waffle
The Waffle was a radical wing of Canada's New Democratic Party in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s...
movement of the CCF's successor party, the New Democratic Party
New Democratic Party
The New Democratic Party , commonly referred to as the NDP, is a federal social-democratic political party in Canada. The interim leader of the NDP is Nycole Turmel who was appointed to the position due to the illness of Jack Layton, who died on August 22, 2011. The provincial wings of the NDP in...
(NDP), from 1969 until the expulsion of the Waffle from the NDP in 1972. The LSA decided to remain in the NDP.
In the early 1970s, the United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI, which was the result of a 1963 reconciliation between the ISFI and the ICFI) was riven by an international faction fight. The majority and leadership supported the USFI faction associated with the Socialist Workers Party (United States)
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
.
Supporters of Ernest Mandel
Ernest Mandel
Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter , was a revolutionary Marxist theorist.-Life:...
, many of whom were active in the student movement, coalseced at the 1973 convention of the LSA as the Revolutionary Communist Tendency, a minority tendency that ultimately left the LSA to join the Revolutionary Marxist Group
Revolutionary Marxist Group (Canada)
The Revolutionary Marxist Group was a Trotskyist political organization in Canada in the 1970s. Though not a registered political party it did field small numbers of candidates in several elections....
which supported Mandel internationally. Amongst its leadership, Alain Beiner, Ruth Bullock, Al Cappe, Joan Newbigging, John Riddell, Ernie Tate
Ernie Tate
Ernest Tate, known as Ernie Tate, is a long-standing supporter of the reunified Fourth International, based in Canada.Born in Northern Ireland, Tate was recruited by Ross Dowson into the Canadian section of the Fourth International...
and Art Young
Art Young
Arthur "Art" Young was an American cartoonist and writer. He is most famous for his socialist cartoons, especially those drawn for the left wing political magazine The Masses between 1911 and 1917.-Early Years:...
were signatories of the 1973 Declaration of the Leninist Trotskyist Tendency, supporting the SWP position in the USFI. In 1976, Bullock, Riddell, Tate and Young were among the signatories of a document, "The Verdict", supporting the SWP leadership against allegations made by Gerry Healey.
Dowson and his supporters, meanwhile, found themselves reduced to a minority within the LSA due to criticism of Dowson's sympathy with Canadian economic nationalism. They left the LSA in 1974 to form the "Socialist League
Socialist League (Canada)
The Socialist League was a Canadian Trotskyist group formed in 1974 by Ross Dowson and approximately twenty other former members of the League for Socialist Action after their faction was defeated at the 1973 LSA national convention. Dowson had previously been the leader of the LSA...
" which became known as the "Forward Group" after the name of its publication.
In 1977, supporters of the Revolutionary Marxist Group and a separate Quebec organization, the Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire, united with the League for Socialist Action and the Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière to form the Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire
Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire
The Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire was a Canadian Trostkyist party formed on August 8, 1977 by the fusion of the Revolutionary Marxist Group and its Quebec counterpart, the Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnarie with the League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière...
which became the new Canadian section of the USFI.