[mobglob-discuss] BC NDP: "Loyal Enough to Fight for Change"

[Chris Shaw]

Dear Ms Barsallo:

Your passionate defense of the BC NDP fails to address some fundamental 
reasons why some of us will never suport the return of the NDP as the 
alternative to the Liberals, regardless of the grotesque abuses of the 
latter.

First, the NDP initiated the Olympic Bid along with the corporate special 
interests of  BC, and Joy McPhail and Jenny Kwan continued to support or at 
least acquiesce to the Bid, along with Mike Harcourt, even after it was long 
clear that it was merely a corporate-style Enron scam.  Further, until the 
NDP can explain the links between Ken Georgetti and Tony Tennessy with Jack 
Poole and David Podmore on the same board of directors (Concert Properties) 
all serving the same corporate agenda, they do NOT deserve the support of 
progressives or working people.  Yes, the building trades unions are in dire 
straights, but the answer to their troubles does not lie in letting the 
other unions take the brunt of the Liberal assault by allowing Campbell 
(choose either one) to gain re-election by acquiring the Olympics.

Next, where was the NDP when the RAV line was being rammed through Vancouver 
City Council?  What role did Councilor Stevenson, a former NDP minister,  
play in ensuring that the RAV proposal succeeded?  Today we learned that the 
RAV will be a P3 project?  Is support for a P3, translated as 
pro-privatization, now NDP policy?

One can perhaps forgive the arrogance and lack of transparency of the 
previous NDP government.  What is of more concern is the current lack of 
real, vs. lip service, opposition to the corporate agenda.  It is one thing 
to say that you oppose it, but actions speak louder than words. Support for 
the Olympic Bid- a pure run on the treasury by the private sector-, support 
for the RAV line (the same) suggests that the NDP has no role to play in 
opposing the Liberal-corporate take-over of BC.  You either oppose this or 
you don't...there is no honest position that allows the NDP to position 
itself with Jack Poole on the Olympics while opposing Gordon Campbell in 
other areas.

Until the NDP reverts to its roots as a real progressive party of people 
before special interests, until it acts to safeguard the interests of 
ordinary people, until it reject some of the same special interests that 
also support the Liberals, it will not have my support.

I believe that I am not alone in these sentiments.




Christopher A. Shaw, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Research Pavilion
828 W. 10th Ave.
Vancouver, British Columbia
Canada, V5Z 1L8
tel: 604-875-4111 (ext. 68375)
Fax: 604-875-4376
e-mail: csshawlab at hotmail.com





>From: "Alan Ward" <arward at interchange.ubc.ca>
>Reply-To: mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca
>To: <Undisclosed-Recipient:;>
>Subject: [mobglob-discuss] BC NDP:  "Loyal Enough to Fight for Change"
>Date: Thu, 22 May 2003 20:59:03 -0700
>
>BC NDP:
>
>LOYAL ENOUGH TO FIGHT FOR CHANGE
>
>     - by Alicia Barsallo,
>       2001 candidate NDP Vancouver-Kingsway
>
>EFFORTS ARE BEING MADE to form an electoral coalition
>to fill the political vacuum left by the defeat of the NDP
>in the 2001 provincial elections.  It is not yet clear whether
>such a coalition will be able to really serve the
>grassroots movements of this province.  But whether the
>coalition does or not, the big player here is the NDP,
>still the party of most of organized labour and
>of a sizeable number of community people.
>
>WHAT THE NDP DOES OR DOES NOT DO will to a great extent
>decide in 2005 the fate of the people of this province.
>This presents us with an enormous responsibility.
>
>WILL THE NDP REVIVE ITSELF AS A FULLY RENEWED
>AND CREDIBLE ALTERNATIVE that can conquer the spirits of
>most voters in the province?
>
>LET'S HOPE SO, as it is only through an NDP majority government
>that we will stop the BC Liberals, and, as a province, we cannot
>afford another five years of BC Liberal pillage.
>
>BECOMING A FULLY RENEWED AND CREDIBLE ELECTORAL
>OPTION requires renewed politics and more open structures.  We need
>to show that we are once again the right party to fight for
>justice and community, in the face of corporate globalization.
>
>BECOMING A FULLY RENEWED and credible electoral option
>requires hanging on less tightly to our traditional
>centrist stance to open the way for some badly-needed
>linkage to community activists.  After all, is this not what makes
>the idea of a coalition attractive -- the prospect of freedom to
>construct and to boldly move towards the goal of defeating
>the corporate right?
>
>THE BC NDP, WITH ITS SOLID GOVERNMENT RECORD in the
>areas of public ownership, health care and education, can
>give now what it would take a new coalition years to give:
>a down-to-earth perspective to appeal to the more conservative BC public
>combined with an approach bold enough to forge active links with
>the myriad activists who have been saying NO to the BC Liberals
>in dozens of rallies, through recall campaigns, and on the picket line.
>
>THE BC NDP IS RIGHT TO RAISE ITS VOICE IN PROTEST when
>schools are closed and hospital services are privatized, but unless its
>voice
>is also heard when a union fights on, nearly alone, or when the civil 
>rights
>of residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside are violated by police...
>there will be the feeling that we need something else.
>
>A NEW COALITION SEEMS ATTRACTIVE BECAUSE of the promise
>that it will stand with the people on the ground at every level without the
>stiffling pressures associated with organized political parties.  Whether 
>or
>not
>this would be the case,
>the NDP needs to become a model of openness and inclusion.
>
>WE NEED TO RESPECT AND EMPOWER our own grassroots to
>ensure our survival as a true mass electoral alternative to
>pro-corporate government.
>
>WE NEED TO ENHANCE THE SEMI-AUTONOMY of
>our NDP constituencies to become relevant to our communities' struggles.
>
>WE NEED TO REGAIN LOST TRUST through significantly increased internal
>democracy.
>
>WE NEED TO REMOVE OBSTACLES to recruitment.
>
>WE NEED TO RESPECT our NDP constituencies and allow them
>to take care of their own money and their own books.
>
>WE NEED TO REALIZE THAT "HOW we elect the leader" could be as
>important as "WHO becomes the leader."  A party like the NDP, with roots
>in BC's rich history of struggle for rights and equality,
>must recognize the place that one member one vote has earned
>for itself at this point in the public imagination.
>
>WE MUST ELECT OUR LEADER IN A WAY that stirs those politically involved
>and in a way that involves the house spouse isolated in his kitchen
>and the immigrant who hesitates to participate.
>
>THERE IS NO BETTER LOYALTY TO THE NDP RIGHT NOW
>than to take seriously the questions that face yet another important 
>meeting
>of Provincial Council this Saturday May 24th.  How these questions are 
>dealt
>with
>may affect our very survival.
>
>THERE IS NO BETTER SERVICE TO THE NDP by those serving it as members of
>its governing bodies than to promote and enable the passionate and
>enlightened discussion of a clear vision.
>
>_______________________________________________
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>mobglob-discuss at lists.resist.ca
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