Watkins explains the Waffle alternative, January 1972 -- Daily LIFT #120

Watkins explains the Waffle alternative, January 1972 -- Daily LIFT #120

Report in the "Pro Tem" student newspaper from the Glendon campus of York University on a meeting held by the Waffle, the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, at which one of the Waffle's leaders Mel Watkins spoke.

This was after the 1971 NDP leadership convention at which the Waffle stunned the party establishment when its candidate for leader, James Laxer, did far better than expected. Laxer is on the left in the photo and Watkins on the right.

Just a few months after this article was published the Waffle was expelled from the party at the behest of the Lewis family leadership clique and their allies in June, 1972. It was a stunning act of political cowardice that has had ramifications on the NDP's dictatorial political culture to this day.

Further readings: Fifty years later it is time to acknowledge the Waffle was wrong

On the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of the Waffle