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International Socialists (Canada)The International Socialists is a Canadian Trotskyist organisation. It is part of the International Socialist Tendency, the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) international. The group publishes an English-language fortnightly paper, Socialist Worker, a French-language monthly, Rsistance, and an annual theoretical journal Marxism. The organization also holds an annual Marxism conference every spring in Toronto, modelled on the much larger Marxism conference of the British SWP. The IS is estimated to have anywhere between 300 and 600 members. Early History The initial cadre were members of the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada (better known as the Waffle), which had been forced to leave the social democratic New Democratic Party in 1972. A group of students at York University in Toronto formed a Marxist study group, and came into contact with left-Shachtmanites in the International Socialists (USA), an American group founded by Hal Draper. After the collapse of the Waffle in late 1974, the group organized itself as the Independent Socialists in February 1975, soon renaming themselves the International Socialists, and began publishing a paper called Workers Action. In later years, this paper was renamed Socialist Worker. Through a process of faction fights and splits in its first two years, followers of Tony Cliff's theories gained control of the organization. A similar process occurred in the US group during this period. During the 1980s, the IS was heavily involved in women's struggles, playing an important role in mobilizing support for a woman's right to choose in Canada. In 1985-6, the IS faced a crisis of factionalism the led to the division of the largest branch, located in Toronto. For many years the two leading individuals in the IS were academics Abbie Bakan and David McNally. Bakan and McNally had been together since the 1970s but divorced in the mid-1980s. Subsequently, a dispute ensued between a majority faction led by McNally and minority faction led by Bakan and her new partner, Paul Kellogg. Ostensibly, the fight was due to political differences over whether the IS should orient towards the student movement, as McNally urged, or maintain an orientation towards industrial disputes as Bakan and Kellogg maintained. The crisis caused leading members of the Socialist Workers Party in the UK to write an open letter of concern, urging the unity of the Toronto branch. During the initial period of resolution, Kellogg and Bakan left the Toronto branch and moved to Kingston, Ontario where Bakan had obtained a teaching position. The 1990s The IS grew during the mid-1990s, especially in Ontario during the "Days of Action", a series of one day general strikes between late 1995 and 1998 against the ruling Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, led by Premier Mike Harris. During this period of growth, publication of the Socialist Worker - the organization's paper - became fortnightly rather than monthly. The unexpected and rapid growth of the organization during this period led to a split in the IS in 1996. The struggle within the organization had resumed in November 1994. Bakan and Kellogg moved back to Toronto in the early 1990s built support among leading cadre in the organization. After a period of co-editing, Kellogg eventually replaced McNally as editor of Socialist Worker. McNally and his supporters became increasingly marginalised and increasingly critical of the direction of the IS and of Bakan in particular. The conflict reached a climax when McNally proposed a slate for the organization's main body, the steering committee, which would have added David Camfield to the body and removed Bakan. McNally's slate was defeated at the IS's national convention and he soon resigned from the steering committee. He and Camfield subsequently formed the Political Reorientation Faction (PRF) in January, 1996. The PRF produced a document rejecting the International Socialist Tendency's analysis of an upswing in class struggle during the mid-1990s, and the Leninist conception of the party. Within weeks, McNally, Camfield and several dozen supporters left the IS to form the New Socialist Group prompting criticism from the IS majority for quitting rather than engaging in a proper political debate. The departing minority, however, argued that their position in the IS had become untenable and that their right to debate and organize were not tolerated by the majority. Recent history The IS has participated in several important campaigns since the rise of the anti-capitalist movement following the Seattle Protests of late 1999. The IS participated in the large Quebec City Summit of the Americas protests in Quebec City, in April 2001 and, were also present in the smaller G8 Protests in Calgary, Alberta in June 2002. Leading up to the March 2003 Iraq War, Canada's Liberal Party Prime Minister, Jean Chrtien, continually avoided revealing his government's position on the war -- it was later disclosed by the right-wing National Post newspaper, that upwards of 800 Canadian troops were on call for operations in Iraq. This status was called off in mid-February 2003, when Chretien announced to Parliament that the Canadian government would not support the war. His announcement came on February 18, three days after the largest anti-war protests in Canadian (and world) history. The IS played a role in organizing the Canadian anti-war movement, through unions, student organizations and community activist organizations. Leading IS members remain involved in some of the larger anti-war groups across the country, notably in Toronto. The International Socialists have also been involved in Project Threadbare, a campaign to defend Muslims and South Asians against the Canadian government's post-9/11 national security policy. This policy has been controversial. ISers and others believe that it is prone to abuse by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The IS and other individuals stopped working in Project Threadbare in the spring of 2004 following the occupation of an MPs office by a small group falsely claiming to be Project Threadbare (read statements: Aftermath of Sgro Occupation, Founding and Organizing Members Leave Threadbare). Political Stances Unlike much of the mainstream left in Canada, the International Socialists oppose Left Nationalism, which argues that Canada is a neo-colony of the United States. The IS maintains that Canada is a leading capitalist country with an independent ruling class that carries out its own independent acts of imperialism. At the same time, members of the IS, including members of its steering committee, were also members of the left nationalist Council of Canadians as recently as 2002. The group supports international socialism and Qubcois and First Nations struggles for self-determination, up to and including independence. In Quebec, the IS does not, however, support the separatist Parti Qubcois. Because there is no provincial New Democratic Party in Qubec, the IS is involved in Union des forces progressistes, a coalition of the Parti communiste du Qubec, the Parti de la dmocratie socialiste (formerly the Quebec NDP) and Gauche socialiste, the Quebec section of the Fourth International. The International Socialists argue for critical support of the New Democratic Party - Canada's labour party - on the federal and provincial levels. In 2003, members of the IS worked on Joe Comartin's NDP leadership campaign despite the fact that ISers generally do not join the NDP. Criticism Despite claiming to be in favour of rank-and-file militancy in unions, the IS has been criticized by other left groups. These groups allege that the IS has failed to attempt to build labour oppositions in unions where they have a limited presence, such as the United Steel Workers of America. Further, they claim that the IS prefers instead to cleave to the existing union leadership in order to obtain resources for various projects. The IS is viewed with hostility by other groups on the left. Some in the NDP view the IS as a parasitical formation that attempts to recruit its members by feigning support for the NDP. Other groups and individual leftists are critical of the IS's orientation toward movements, claiming that, in Toronto, it tries to take over groups and dominates them in an undemocratic manner. According to some Palestinian rights activists, including supporters of Solidarity with Palistinian Human Rights (SPHR) at York University, the Toronto branch of SPHR does not have public meetings, and recruits only individuals who are friendly with the IS or do not challenge its dominance. Allegedly, if they do question the IS's role in the organization, they are quickly frozen out. The IS has also had a controversial role in the peace movement in Toronto due to its dominant position in the Toronto Coalition Against the War. The June 30th Committee organized an anti-war march through Toronto's business district on June 30, 2004, the day designated for US transfer of power to the Iraqi transitional government. The Toronto Coalition Against the War had initially planned to only hold a protest outside of the United States consulate in Toronto, and the June 30th group planned to have its march at the end of the protest. It is alleged that when the IS learned of the group's plan, they announced that they would have their own march at the same time, going north from the protest while the other demo headed south. This resulted in a bizarre scene of competing organizers urging protesters to go in opposite directions. According to an account in Toronto's Now Magazine, written by someone who is allegedly unsympathetic to the IS, "the final advertised event is a march through the financial district. But unless participants are privy to activist gossip, many don't know that a faction of the International Socialists within the TCSW has decided to organize a competing march northwards. Organizers try to tell people about the confusion while an ISer barks competing directions on the mike. Many protestors stand around looking from one line of marchers to the other," http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2004-07-08/news_story3.php. Similarly, in November 2004, the IS led coalition announced an "emergency rally" against the US offensive in Fallujah to be held at the exact same time as a previously announced action by OCAP. Groups such as the International Bolshevik Tendency, the Spartacists, and various anarchists describe the IS as left social democrats who are insincere about militancy and revolution. A competing group, Socialist Action, says "The International Socialists abstain from campaigns where they perceive they cannot play a dominant role and recruit directly to their organization. To the very minor extent that IS militants are involved in the labour movement, they over-adapt to sections of the union bureaucracy." http://www.geocities.com/socialist_action/socialistcanada.html External links
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