A new reformist political party has appeared in Quebec this winter. The North American leftist press is already hard at work promoting it. The following article is what the Internationalist Workers Group had to say about this prospect last August.

The exercise of power by various “left wing” administrations around the world inevitably creates a great deal of dissatisfaction and disaffection among the ranks of those who formerly supported them with their hopes and their illusions. This is logical, since for those people for whom the left is nothing more than a system of values, a world view independent of the social relations on which this world is based, it might seem confusing to see yesterday’s progressive opposition parties becoming the parties that promote and impose austerity and cuts once they are in power. This dissatisfaction creates the conditions for a reassessment of the true nature of reformism, as well as parliamentary democracy as one of the forms of political organization that the capitalist system uses to perpetuate its domination. In these circumstances, the ruling class historically favours the emergence of new left “alternatives” so as to regain and consolidate the loyalty of the masses to the electoral process. For this salvaging operation to work, our exploiters can always count on opportunistic and careerist elements, more often than not associated or linked to some form of “opposition to the regime”. These elements will drape themselves in different flags, in accordance with the political needs of the moment or the necessities of personal ambition. But, these rejuvenating forces of parliamentary illusion will always find at their side (or riding their coattails would be more accurate) those forces which give them a stronger left veneer and occasionally provide an already well-oiled apparatus, through which they will be able to operate more rapidly. We’re speaking here of different Trotskyist or Stalinist organizations, as well as libertarian or anti-globalization groups.

Thus, following the implementation of the Hartz IV programme on the “reform” of the labour market, the drastic fall in popularity of the SPD-Green coalition government in Germany led to the appearance of the Wahlaternative Arbeit und Sociale Gerechtigkeit (WASG), i.e.: The Electoral Alternative for Jobs and Social Justice. The WASG was founded by SPD dissidents, union bureaucrats, elements from ATTAC and many German Trotskyist groups. It summarily refused the electoral alliance proposed to them by the ultra-Stalinists of the MLPD and chose instead to hook up with the reformed Stalinists of the PDS who still hold elected positions in the states of the ex-East Germany. The new union of the WASG and the PDS has just been confirmed through the creation of the Linkspartei, the Left Party. One of the party’s prominent leaders is Oskar Lafontaine, one of Gerhard Schröder ex-finance ministers and a former important leader of the SPD. Once president of Saarland, he made his mark by introducing an extremely repressive law denying the press the right to criticize the government and by hunting down immigrants. But the workhorse of the party is the PDS, which includes the ex-leaders of the Stasi, who try to impose Hartz IV in every region where it’s in government. That says a lot about the quality of this alternative and its will to govern with a sense of social justice. However, the new Linkspartei is credited with more than 10 percent of the intended vote in certain polls and thus seems to be succeeding in its mission of filling the cracks in the machinery of the ruling class’ parliamentary mystification.

In Great Britain as well, a new coalition is attempting to regroup to the left of the grand institution of British imperialism that is Tony Blair’s Labour Party. Heir apparent to the unfortunate experience of the defunct Socialist Alliance (SA - a coalition of the myriad of Trotskyist groups), RESPECT (as in Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community and Trade-unionism) has just achieved a modest electoral breakthrough, with the election last May of George Galloway in the largely Muslim populated London constituency of Bethnal Green and Bow. The Socialist Workers Party (SWP, the father figure to the Canadian International Socialists and, until recently, the American ISO) had abandoned the majority of its Trotskyist rivals in the SA, just in time to profit from Galloway’s expulsion from the Labour Party and build the classical popular front (i.e.: a coalition of different classes) that is RESPECT. If the main force behind RESPECT is in fact the SWP, its de facto leadership is in the hands of the careerist and demagogue Galloway, to whom the SWP gradually concedes the meagre fig leaf of its “socialist” political platform. Dumped on the wayside is their principle that a socialist member of parliament receives no more than an average workers wage (George likes travel, grandiose houses and nice objects. Hasn’t he declared: “I need 150,000 pounds a year”?). Also forgotten is the principled right to abortion (George is a Catholic and you certainly don’t want to shock the clerics in the mosques). Lastly, the open border policy is abandoned (because they need to give themselves airs of respectable realism). As in any popular front, the “left” toils for the bourgeoisie. The most recent pill the British SWP had to swallow was the performance given by their representative Galloway on the popular TV show Newsnight on July 7th. Affirming that it was useless to discuss with people suspected of having perpetrated that day’s attacks, our great reformist concluded that they simply needed to be shot. Galloway’s words were uttered in a climate of hysteria and panic that was officially sanctioned and encouraged by the state. Two weeks later, on July 22nd, the police would follow the advice of this reformist and shoot worker Jean Charles de Menezes with 7 bullets to the head and 1 in the shoulder at the Stockwell Underground Station in London. As opportunism is a reformist trademark, it’s not surprising to see that RESPECT and Galloway are now screaming bloody scandal and are demanding a public inquiry into this affair. With such political flair, the children of the prophet Trotsky and the political schemer Galloway just might have a future in restoring the British bourgeois institutions. Consequently, the fear mongering fed by Blair, could well lead to community tensions capable of supplying them with a small electoral base.

In other countries also, the governmental problems of the traditional left create the conditions for the recomposition and renewal of the reformist forces. In France, the “anarcho-syndicalist” José Bové has made his ambitions for no less than the Presidency of the Republic known. These ambitions could very well be supported by certain Trotskist factions and a good part of the anti-globalizationers. In Scotland, the Scottish Socialist Party, the result of a coalition of Trotskist groups and a few discontents that had quit the Scottish Labour Party as well as the Scottish National Party, was able to get six members elected to the Scottish Parliament in 2003, on a nationalist and reformist platform. However, the clash of personal ambitions between two of its leaders, Tommy Sheridan and Alan McCombes, and the very nasty and public internal war that resulted from it led to a sharp fall of electoral support in the May elections. In Italy, Rifondazione Comunista (RC), led by Fausto Bertinotti (the coalition of forces that had attempted to maintain the old ICP, as well as various Trotskist and anti-globalization outfits), had for a time distanced itself from the Olive Coalition (OC) of the former President of the European Union, Romano Prodi, when he was in government and was imposing austerity measures. Since then, RC had refined its image of a radical but responsible left. But, at its most recent Conference in March 2005, Rifondazione has decided to once again support the OC, going so far as to express an interest in participating in eventual ministerial responsibilities. The perspective of a possible defeat for the Berlusconi administration and the lure of power have overcome the radical pretensions of the Party. It is probable that its future ministers will soon be passing “Berluscinist” laws, without Berluscini. Left academics will then have the opportunity of justifying the unjustifiable with the acrobatics of the strange dialectic that is characteristic of the petty-bourgeois intelligentsia in these situations.

And it is also this “strange dialectic” that still inspires the apologists of the founding party of modern neo-reformism and the model for the different parties and politicians mentioned above, the Workers’ Party of Brazil (PT). The party of the trade-union bureaucrat Lula, founded in 1980, was also a result of a deal between various social-democratic, trade-union and Trotskist currents, united around the aura of Lula. Presently at the helm of the state, the PT governs against the workers. It is the accomplice to the continuous murder of landless peasants, it imprisons the homeless, it slashes pensions and social programs, it leads an important imperialist state in the interest of the imperialists and it expels its few parliamentarians who timidly dare raise their voice against “the abandonment of its social mission”. ⁽¹⁾ As if the PT’s mission had ever been anything other than serving as capital’s left wing; being the political force that in the parliamentary changeover would be called upon to repress the working class when the right wing had been completely discredited by the exercise of power. This model that inspires all modern reformists is now shrouded in a murky scandal of cronyism and corruption. The PT had perfected a system by which it would offer a “mensalao”, (a monthly premium) of 10 500 euros to opposition party parliamentarians in return for their support for Lula’s political projects. Quite a model there...

Meanwhile, back in Quebec...

The same conditions that have led to a renewal of the bourgeois left in Europe and Latin America are creating the same phenomenon in Quebec. A very long process of trial and error, of negotiations and of merger have already led a certain number of groups and individuals to coalesce in the Union of Progressive Forces (UFP), a reformist and pro-independence party with perhaps a few thousand members. The UFP is formed by the two “Communist” Parties of Quebec (Voix du Peuple and Clarté - a new split between an ultra-separatist nationalist faction and a more hesitant nationalist one), by the Trotskists Gauche Socialiste and the International Socialists (IS), by the ex-Parti de la Démocratie Socialiste of the former FLQ militant Paul Rose, by anti-globalization people, “libertarians” and by a shrinking number of disappointed Parti Québécois (PQ) militants. While the PQ was still in power, the UFP had hopes of making a small breakthrough, a hope entertained by the relatively solid result of Paul Cliché who had won 24.16% of the vote and placed third in a by-election in the trendy and ultra-nationalist riding of Mercier.

However, another force has come forward in recent months. Citizens’ Option (OC) regroups more than 2,000 “children” as its main leader Françoise David likes to call her members. You won’t be surprised we call her Auntie... But there is nothing very funny about Madam David. She and her sidekick François Saillant share a common past in the Marxist-Leninist Organization of Canada In Struggle!, a relatively large “anti-revisionist” formation that dissolved in the early 80s. Needless to say it has been some time since David, Saillant and many others in their entourage have experienced their “Bad-Godesberg”. ⁽²⁾ For years, the men and women who lead this outfit have led careers as spokespeople to the state “on behalf of the destitute”. They are the ones that are called upon whenever our exploiters are in need of a loyal and responsible opposition during public affairs programs, in the papers or as contributors to parliamentary consultations. They were never elected by the people they claim to represent. They officiate by reason of there state-financed function. They are undoubtedly designated by their equally subsidized peers, but their importance is entirely determined by the recognition of the state. They are what the Americans so aptly describe as “poverty pimps”.

As leader and main spokesperson, Madam David has greatly benefited from her role as ex-president of the Quebec Women’s Federation. While at the helm of that organization, she organized an important publicity stunt, the Bread and Roses March. During this highly publicized campaign, she had 600 women marching very long distances to their final destination in Quebec City. From a tribune she was sharing with then Premier Jacques Parizeau, she announced a series of “gains” (trivial, to say the least), all arranged beforehand with the state. Later, in autumn 2000, she organized a so-called World Women’s March of which I can write that it was the only demonstration in which I have participated in Quebec, where the “security squads” physically attempted to ban distribution of any literature not previously approved by Madam David and her team of feminist censors. That outrageous behaviour was probably a holdover of the dark years, that for a long time she wanted us to forget, when she was a leader of a Stalinist organization. That Stalinist episode was followed by a brief and not very glorious trade-union foray, before she would reinvent herself as the living incarnation of Quebec feminism: a left feminist but of the realistic type. So let’s examine just what the nature and substance of this left is.

During the October 1995 Referendum, Françoise, the brand new heroine of social causes came to the rescue of nationalist leader and corporate lawyer Lucien Bouchard, after his infamous racist speech on birthrates: “We are one of the white races...”. After her intervention, the media would hush up the affair. The Bread and Roses drama queen had deemed Bouchard’s speech to be benign. Later on, during the Quebec Summit of spring 2001, she denounced the “violence” of the demonstrators after they had been barred from a large part of the city and while they were being shot at with tear gas grenades and plastic bullets. But, because of her friends in high places, her cunning false modesty and her blanket coverage by the media, this ambitious politician, like a phoenix always manages to rise from her own ashes.

After that, in order to make her ambitions known and define what she intended to make of OC, she published a book. In this book she produces a critique of today’s reality which sometime rings true when she states the obvious. But you don’t need to be brilliant to recognize the bleakness of the situation... In fact, she limits her critique to certain excesses of capitalism without taking on the system itself. As an able opportunist, she reduces and consciously trivializes the substance and scope of the market in the capitalist dynamic, thus for her the critique of ”unbridled capitalism does not mean to abolish free enterprise, create a new product, open a restaurant or own a farm!” Everything is a question of dialogue for her. What’s needed is an exchange on universal values that will impose themselves gradually. At the beginning of her book she wrote that we should seriously think about what we should do for the people of Murdochville that have been harshly affected by the closure of the Noranda smelter. Those readers that have the patience to read through the whole array of sickly sweet stupidities, vague promises and false hopes contained in the book, will have a lot of difficulty understanding just what the author is suggesting to the Murdochville workers, because in fact, just like any other politician, she doesn’t have anything to say about it.

At the basis of this book’s conception of the renewal of the left, there is a very old idea, that of social harmony, of tripartism, of “concertation” and class collaboration. The OC theoreticians have invented nothing. They that claim that Marx is outdated have only repackaged the work of another “theoretician”. Indeed, all this promotion of social dialogue, all this dissimulation of the life and death struggle between antagonistic classes, all this dodging of the cruel reality of imperialism in the hope of propping up the anti-classist and nationalistic anti-globalization movement finds it origins in the Catholic background of our repentant Maoists. In 1891, Pope Leo XIII was not preaching otherwise in his Encyclical Rerum Novarum: “Employer, be good to your employee! Employee, respect your employer!” And please don’t forget small commerce and farms...That’s the renewal and modernization of the Quebec left put forth by David, Saillant and Company.

The future of a career and the uncertainties of an option

So there are two movements that hope to constitute the new left alternative in Quebec. But sycophants in quest of saviours need not despair. We are dealing with responsible politicians here that have already announced that they will soon merge their organizations at any cost so as to create a single new provincial political party. It’s of no importance that OC still has no clear constitutional position (all the nationalistic manoeuvres of Saillant and David have not yet produced one), while the UFP is hard line separatist. It’s also of no importance that the leftists of the UFP use a more radical rhetoric than the one that pleases the OC modernizers. It’s already been decided that the future party will be “left of centre” as has admitted Résistance, the publication of the Trotskyist IS, that even so is still happy to cross the Rubicon for the hundredth time and support the initiative. The path towards the construction of the party is already blazed and its milestones marked on the calendar. While the founding congress shall be held on the first weekend of February 2006, the policy conference will only be held months later (!) and the discussion on the crucial question of strategy (the alliances) will only be held on the eve of the next elections. Now, the whole erection of this house of cards is built upon its alliances. Clearly, everything will depend on the PQ’s joker because they hold the trump card.

If the careerists David and Saillant had joined the UFP or had worked in coalition with it while the PQ was still in power, it’s not impossible that they could have made one or two local electoral breakthroughs, which would have permitted them to establish a basis for the future. Indeed, an electoral alternative can only constitute itself if it occasionally wins elections. The PQ was then largely discredited by years of cuts and austerity. However, it has since revived itself and regained some credit by the convergence of four important factors. Firstly, the Adscam scandal, even though it’s the responsibility of the federal Liberal Party, has for now completely discredited the forces claiming the mantle of the federalist status quo in Quebec. Secondly, the governing provincial Liberal Party has also rapidly discredited itself by the fact, that contrary to the PQ, it hasn’t tried to associate itself with the trade unions to facilitate the passage of its anti-social policies and has thusly exposed itself to their wrath. Thirdly, the “unexpected” leadership race in the PQ, kicked off by the surprise resignation of Bernard Landry, offers this party an important media opportunity which it exploits relatively well, by putting forth younger politicians that are less associated with the havoc of the preceding PQ administration. Finally, and probably most important, the unions now relate more openly than ever to the PQ rather than to the new left. They have convinced the PQ to grant them a place of preference by the recognition of their political club “Syndicalistes et progressistes pour un Québec libre” (SPQL) within the structures of the party. At its most recent congress, Monique Richard, the ex-president of the CSQ (the main teachers union) was elected president of the party and Pierre Dubuc, the leader of SPQL is now a candidate for the leadership. Even if he has no chance of winning, Dubuc will help to raise “the left profile” of the party during the campaign; and that’s his mission.

In this context, it seems clear that the PQ (unless an improbable self destruction takes place during the renewal of its leadership) will easily regain power at the next elections and that leaves little hope for victory of the new left party in any Quebec ridings. The old project of a new left party would then once again be put off because it’s nothing more than a feeble substitute, a currently useless rival to the real nationalist, left of centre party that is the PQ. Of course the new party can always hope that the Liberals will reform the electoral law according it proportional representation, permitting it to access the National Assembly by the back door. But such a reform is not on the horizon. The new party could also envision a tactical alliance with the PQ where it would negotiate a few ridings in exchange for its support everywhere else. Madam David has already acknowledged her interest in such a possibility when she declared that she had no wish to become “Quebec’s Ralph Nader and contribute to the defeat of the PQ.” Moreover we can not exclude a pure and simple entry of the new party (in whole or in part) into the PQ. David has also declared: “We are all intelligent and strategic people. When the elections come, we’ll see what we have to say to the PQ.” The prospect of a third referendum on sovereignty would without a doubt offer her a pretext that she would absolutely not hesitate to use. She could also argue that the new reality of the SPQL could possibly permit her to radicalize the party. In this case, we can bet that the thirty pieces of silver would be accompanied by a cabinet post and a safe riding. Boulerice is starting to get old and unpredictable in Sainte-Marie-Saint-Jacques...Of course, this option would be rejected by certain leftist elements (it would be imprudent to predict that they would all do so), but it would destroy for some time the possibility of a new social-democratic rival to the PQ. As long as the latter can maintain its function of social control and parliamentary alternation, there is no urgency. But, be it outside or inside the PQ, no good will come from the political manoeuvres of the careerists and leftists. In Quebec, as everywhere else in the world, liberation will not result from a reform of the terms of our exploitation, but by the overthrow of the profit system itself.

(1) It is noteworthy that the expelled PT parliamentarians, Jaoa Fontes, Heloisa Helena, Luciana Genro and Baba, all of them Trotskists (while other Trotskists shut up and stay in the PT, including at the ministerial level), have not done better than to repeat the unfortunate experience of the PT and form a new party that is just as reformist as the original, the Party of Socialism and Liberty. Trotskism has never been interested in assessing historical experience.

(2) The 1959 congress during which the Socialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) abandoned all references to Marxism.