Win With J.B. Salsberg...and Robert Laxer! -- Leftist TBT

This week's Leftist Throwback Thursday has a personal connection! 

Joe Salsberg was a towering figure in Ontario and Toronto politics in the 30's through to the 50's. Elected first as a Toronto Alderman, Salsberg became Ontario's first Communist MPP in 1943 when he won in the riding of St. Andrew which represented the part of downtown Toronto that included Spadina, Kensington Market and much of the city's Jewish community. 

At the time the Canadian Communist Party was known as the Labor-Progressive Party or LPP. 

Salsberg was an immensely popular figure in his day, fought for important civil rights and economic justice changes and legislation, and held the riding until 1955 when he lost primarily due to the rising wave of McCarthyist anti-Communist hysteria. Two years later he quit the party after the Khrushchev revelations about Stalin and his concerns about what he saw as antisemitism in the USSR. 

If you are interested in the life-and-times of Salsberg and in the politics of the time, an excellent biography of Salsberg written by Gerald Tulchinsky was released in 2013.

Perhaps my favourite Salsberg story stems from his time as an Alderman. He was regularly taunted by other members of council as nothing more than a dupe or tool of Stalin's. In response he once quipped "You're right. I got a telegram from Joe Stalin this morning ordering me to ask for a park for Ward 4"! Touche. 

If you look closely at the fine print of the election card above (from one of the post-war campaigns) you will see "Issued by Robert Laxer, Official Agent for J.B. Salsberg". That Robert Laxer is my grandfather, a noted political activist and writer in his own right. He too was a member of the LPP and was dedicated a Communist until 1956, after which he left the party as well. He had a profound influence on my life and my youngest son is named after him. 

See also: Till the World is Bright (In Memory of the Rosenbergs) - A Poem by Edna May Quentin Laxer

Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and the Spartacus League: Leftist TBT

In June of 1916, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht were imprisoned by the Imperial German authorities for their steadfast opposition to World War I.

They had split from the Social Democratic Party, which capitulated to nationalism and backed the war and the German war effort, and they had formed the Spartacus League in January of 1916.

50 years later East Germany released a stamp set to commemorate them and their bravery.

Both went on to participate in the founding of the Communist Party of Germany on December 30, 1918. A mere fortnight later both were murdered by the authorities after an abortive uprising.

Karl Liebknecht's final cry for a better tomorrow, written on the very day of his death, still rings out today, despite all the detours, defeats, setbacks and disillusionments of the last hundred years.

It is never too late to write the future!

For a Socialist America! - Leftist #TBT

While ironically at the very time socialism as a "mainstream" political idea has been on the decline in Canadian political discourse -- with the NDP dropping the word from its constitution and its very vocabulary -- it has seen something of a renaissance in the United States of late.

The election of socialist (although not Socialist Party) Kshama Sawant in Seattle had and is having a serious impact on political discourse both in the city and more broadly.

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders, who openly describes himself as a socialist, is making a bid for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party -- a bid that the mainstream media cannot ignore.

Today, for Leftist Throwback Thursday we look at the 1936 platform of the Socialist Party of America.

The party was founded in 1901 and reached the heights of its popular support with the Presidential candidacies of Eugene V. Debs and Norman Thomas in the early 20th Century.

The 1936 platform is notable both for its economic radicalism, its ideas like a 30 hour work week and its emphasis on union and civil rights.

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Alberta's CCF - A Planned Future for the Farmer, Fisherman & Worker! Leftist TBT

With the NDP in Alberta, to the surprise of basically everyone, possibly on the path to an historic victory or historic gains in the provincial election on Tuesday, today's Leftist Throwback Thursday looks at a CCF election flyer from Edmonton!

This leaflet, for a post-war federal candidate, shows the CCF's emphasis on economic planning, security and justice and reflects it strongly socialist ideology at the time.

Despite the humorous fear-mongering of some right wingers, however, sadly the Alberta NDP of today (as well, of course, as its sister parties across Canada and nationally) are nowhere near this radical -- but their election would, never-the-less, reflect a real shift in the politcal leanings and traditions of what has long been seen as a bastion of conservatism.

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Running for the NDP in Scarborough in 2000...and striking a pose with Howard Hampton! Leftist TBT

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This week's Leftist Throwback Thursday is, I must admit, a totally personal one!

Pictured is a (much) younger (and lighter) me with then ONDP leader Howard Hampton at an NDP campaign office during the 2000 federal election campaign.

I was running in Scarborough-Agincourt under the Alexa McDonough led party at the time, but Howard stopped by the Scarborough Centre campaign office and I happened to be there. NDP activist Maureen Telford took the photo and, as was the custom for many still at the time (in the dark ages), mailed me a copy!

I was running against the anti-choice, anti-LGBT rights Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis who, sadly, has now brought his views to Toronto City Council after winning a seat in the last council election in 2014.  (You can read about his views in a piece I wrote for rabble).

It was a Chretien Liberal sweep over Stockwell Day...and I came a distant fourth.

Still proud I ran though -- in what were darker and harder days for a more principled party.

1946's "Canada on the Threshold of a New Era" - A Speech by Tim Buck

In 1946 Tim Buck, who we have featured before, gave a speech in Toronto that the Labour-Progressive Party, as the Communist Party was called at the time, republished as a leaflet.

The leaflet is interesting for a couple of reasons.

First, it shows how the party was tailoring its message as the Cold War began to dawn and relations between the former World War II allies began to turn dangerously confrontational. This was a time when the LPP had reached the height of its electoral success on all three levels of government, which was to ebb dramatically as it came under relentless attack over the coming years.

Second, the leaflet has some really terrific illustrations! While the illustrator is not named, you can still enjoy their propaganda work!

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AFL-CIO SIU CLC Union Ship-in-a-bottle! Leftist Throwback Thursday

While very few people would know this about me, including good friends,  I am a huge fan of naval art, memorabilia and history. Likely no naval "swag" has greater appeal then those tremendous labours of love, the amateur ship-in-a-bottle.

One day while combing through a Goodwill outlet I chanced upon not only a wonderful ship-in-a-bottle, but one with a labour union pedigree! A ship-in-a-bottle done by someone who was a member of the Seafarers International Union, which is an umbrella union for several smaller labor groups of mariners.

They were clearly a Canadian member as well, as the label on the bottle has not only the AFL-CIO on it, but the CLC as well.

It is an amazing piece of folk art.

Nixon Drinks Canada Dry (with a special appearance by Phil Ochs!) - Leftist Throwback Thursday

We have already done one "Leftist Throwback Thursday" look at the Waffle movement of the late 60's & early 70's.

Today we look at a piece of ephemera from the Waffle -- that quintessential piece of political swag -- the political button.

The Waffle was a radical socialist movement that also embraced Canadian nationalism and opposed American imperialism broadly as well as what it saw as American economic imperialism in Canada.

The button's slogan, in that context, rather speaks for itself!

As an added bonus...here is Phil Ochs reminding us all just what a schmuck Richard Nixon was.

The Socialist Christian League - Leftist Throwback Thursday

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In an era when Christian politics, especially in North America, is so often identified with the right and the evangelical movement, it is easy to forget how significant a force Christian socialism has been in the history of socialism, exemplified by such figures as Tommy Douglas 

Here we see an outline of the "Basis" for the Socialist Christian League of the United Kingdom in the 1950's as well as its membership application. In part it says that the League "rejects the present Capitalist disorder as fundamentally anti-Christian and strives for the creation of an international Socialist order".

Sentiments like these can be seen more recently, as for example when Venezuelan Socialist leader Hugo Chavez said " Capitalism is the way of the devil and exploitation. If you really want to look at things through the eyes of Jesus Christ—who I think was the first socialist—only socialism can really create a genuine society."

The Socialist Christian League ultimately merged with another group to become the Christian Socialist Movement. The thinker most closely associated with it is R.H. Tawney. 

Miller goes to Metro 1994 - Leftist Throwback Thursday

In 1994 David Miller, future Mayor of Toronto, was elected for the first time as the Metro level council member for the west end neighbourhood of High Park.

These were the four pages of the main brochure that he used during that campaign.

The Metro level, at the time, was a council that had members from across all of Toronto's districts and that was to oversee metro-wide services and programs, while the "cities" at the lower level, like North York, Toronto, Etobicoke, etc., had their own Mayors and councils. These were all amalgamated into the "Mega City" under Mike Harris in 1997.

Miller had run previously for Metro and lost. He also ran for the NDP federally in 1993 and came in a distant fourth. It was a time when social democratic fortunes in Ontario were at an all-time low due to the widespread unpopularity of the provincial NDP Bob Rae government.

This made Miller's victory in 1994, over two right wing candidates including future Harris and

Harper "star" Tony Clement, a small positive in a time of many reversals for Toronto NDPers.

Miller went on, of course, to be Mayor in 2003. Ultimately he ran a fairly centrist administration and he quit the NDP in 2007. Many of his administration's accomplishments, such as they were, were undone by the Rob Ford administration that followed him.

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Laxer, Lewis and Watkins sitting in a tree!: Leftist Throwback Thursday

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Drawn in 1972, this hilarious political cartoon by Montreal's "Aislin" (Terry Mosher). perfectly captures the divide that had been reached in 1972 between the leadership of the NDP and the party's radical leftist wing popularly known as the Waffle.

James Laxer and Mel Watkins (commonly acknowledged as the Waffle's leaders) and both Stephen and David Lewis sit on separate branches of a tree that are growing in opposite directions. Both are trying to cut the other wing loose. Laxer wears a button that reads "Workers of the World Give Us a Call" while David Lewis holds a book titled "Quotations of Chairman Gallup"! 

In the end, of course, the Lewis wing won out and in June, 1972 the Waffle was ordered to dissolve or leave the party. The effect, positive or negative, that this had on the party and whether or not this move was necessary or marked the beginning of the party's centralization of power in the hands of its leaders and poll driven strategists, is still debated by leftists in Canada to this day. 

For my take on the expulsion of the Waffle, written on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, (and, full disclosure, James Laxer is my father!) click here: On the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of the Waffle   

Leftist Throwback Thursday: 1963's Four Canadians Who Saw Cuba

Published in 1963 by the Canadian branch of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, this 31 page booklet sought to present what they saw as the reality of the Cuban Revolution to the Canadian people and to counter what they felt was its unfair portrayal by the mainstream media.

The booklet aimed to give first-hand accounts from a cross-section of society, including a school principal, NDP MLA, a university student and a trade unionist and journalist.

One notable fact about it is that all four were active New Democrats at the time. The MLA, obviously,  but also the other three, one of whom was on the ONDP's Provincial Council, another the VP of the York East NDP and the third the co-editor of the Prairie New Democrat, a party paper that was published in Manitoba and Saskatchewan at the time.

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Leftist Throwback Thursday: Public Power 2003...featuring a much younger me!

Back in 2003 a younger ( and much younger looking) incarnation of me ran provincially for the ONDP in Scarborough. This was my campaign bookmark. (As I side note I always suggest campaign bookmarks for any campaign as they are both very easy to drop into apartment slot style mailboxes and people keep them as...you know...bookmarks!)

The ONDP under Howard Hampton. as you can see below (click on photos to enlarge), ran on a platform centred around higher wages, lower tuition, rent freezes, public education, utilities and health care, $10 a day child care and lowering transit fares. Relative to just a few short years later, not a bad social democratic platform.

The ONDP was, however, squeezed out by the Liberals as people sought to reject the Harris years and the Liberals, of course, have been in power ever since.

Leftist Throwback Thursday: I.W.W. Songs of the Workers

Instead of the conservative motto, 'A fair day's wage for a fair day's work' we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, 'Abolition of the wage system' 

- Preamble of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)

Published in Chicago, July, 1956 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the IWW, Songs of the Workers was a 64 page booklet of songs and poems that reflected the IWW's goals of revolutionary industrial unionism and that paid moving tribute to martyrs of the American labour movement like Joe Hill, Wesley Everest and Frank Little.

It contained classics that are still sung today, like Solidarity Forever, The Red Flag and The International as well as numerous others less familiar today.

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