By WILLIAM ROSS ; + WINNIPEG — The focal point OI the 1975 NDP convention was the leadership race. The hoopla, ie TV coverage, the organiza- on of convention sessions, the in the corridors — all fo- David Lewis as party leader. | It was generally taken. for i Stanted that the election of. Ed _*toadbent, the candidate of the " ca “establishment” was a cer- | bay: But the results of the first | *allot shook the so-called ex- | Perts. Broadbent received only 4 ae votes (33%) of the 1,618 A oe Rosemary Brown, the MLA ie B.C. came a close second 4 413 votes, followed by Ny- | 4.2m and Harney. In the suc- ne ballots she continued to th On to second place and on € 4th and final count polled 658 Votes to Broadbent’s 948 — | (40.99%) | The Surprising show of strength aa Jamaican-born MLA who entered the leadership con- | St as a relative unknown came » ,°-mM a number of groupings at = Convention. As a woman and of Outspoken on the question €qual rights, she had the en- Cissed on who would replace. No new policies advanced Which way ahead for the NDP? thusiastic support of many of the women delevates. ; She got the votes of those at the convention who wanted the NDP to be identified as a party for_socialism. Of all‘ the leader- ° ship candidates Rosemary Brown was most explicit as to her con- cept of what a socialist party should be, to wit: “I am dedicat- ed not to patching up or reform- ing the old system, but to chang- ing it,. . . I would like to see the party very clearly as a SO- cialist party with a complete commitment to build a socialist society . . . The capitalist sys- tem is characterized above all by the exploitation’ and ’-alienation of labor’. .. The true: liberation of women is only possible under socialism.” (Si i Her support also-came from young NDP’ers who were look- ing for bolder and more militant leadership from the: party. ‘Her nomination for leader was ‘seconded by a delegate from the B.C. Federation of. Labor, indi- cating some support from trade union ranks from-those protest- ing the vote by the NDP in par- liament forcing the’ West coast longshoremen bdck’.to work as well as from those! who are crit- i July 26th — 22nd year of Moncada ~ ~— To Years later. I$ vivid. their anniversary. GREETINGS TO CUBA : c,lwenty-two years ago on July 26, “Uban patriots led by Fidel C Lak peal te tacks, they set the stage for the successful revolution six ‘Teday Cuba stands as an example in Mong the developing countries everywhere. Its_ strength Srows yeat by year. The stark contrast between life in so-— Slalist Cuba, the pride and determination of her people and Lag in other Latin American nations still under, foreign con- et Internationally, Cuba's prestige grows rapidly.. The. dis- Stedited OAS economic blockade imposed against \ Sellapsed and Cuba's position and example continue. to in- SPire millions of people in their struggle for freedom. \ or Ber on Canadians greet the people of socialist ‘Cuba a7 SS eee 1953 when a group of astro attacked Moncada bar- Latin’ America and ainst- Cuba has ical of NDP leaders who, in the _ words of one delegate, are still flirting with price and wage con- trols. The vote for Rosemary Brown also expressed dissatisfaction on the part of many within the NDP with the anti-democratic stance of party leaders and elected rep- resentatives vis a vis the mem- bership and convention deci- sions. In her opinion, the leader of the party must be committed to the collective decision mak- ‘| that a large number of people Shortly after the vote Rose- mary Brown exclaimed: “We came second! And that means in the party are ready to take a strong stand on issues — to make this party a clear social- ist alternative to the other parties. That was my message. 1 think we have managed a shift in direction of the party. ‘| really think we started some- thing at this convention — |! won.” pe ing within the party, must be accountable to the membership and “policy debated, voted on and accepted at convention must be the policy of the elected rep- resentatives too.” Rosemary Brown’s_ support thus embraced a wide swath of varied opinion among the dele- gates and within the party. It wasn’t a united and crystallized opinion but it made itself felt on * the floor of the convention. What is more, this opinion grew and- became stronger as the conven- tion proceeded. : The downgarding of policy dis- cussion at the convention, the ‘manipulation of which resolu- tions would reach the floor for debate, the watering down of _ NDP policy adopted at previous conventions in resolutions sub- mitted by the resolutions com- mittee and the Federal Council (quite a few of such resolutions were referred back as_ inade- quate), the statement by Ed Broadbent. to the delegates that if he were. Prime Minister he ‘ would have ordered the long- - shoremen back to work in the national interest ‘because “there are times when the right to strike | has to be sacrificed for the great- ed good” — all contributed. to the increased support Rosemary Brown was able to pick up by the time the vote for leader took place. No New Policies Policy-wise, however, the con- vention broke no new ground. There were no new radical pro- grams enunciated. The resolu- tions adopted — less than a third of those submitted by clubs and constituency organizations — basically reaffirmed existing policies. The emphasis at this convention was on the organiza- tional preparations for the 1978 federal elections. The next con- -yention of the party will adopt an election platform for-that oc- casiom The NDP remains a par- - liamentary-oriented party con- cerned with building up an elec- toral machine. Policy discussions in between elections get little at- tention. According to the new leader, ‘Ed Broadbent, the main goal of the party now is the creation of a national economic develop- ment plan as the NDP answer \ , ROSEMARY BROWN to corporate power in this coun- try, such a plan to be the basis - of the party’s election platform in 1978. The resolution on multi- national corporations submitted by the Federal Council and adopted by the convention sheds some light on the party’s ap- proach to economic development. It calls for “an integrated prior- ity program to counteract irre- sponsible multi-national corpor- ate power and to build alternate institutions run by and for the Canadian people.” — . The objectives of such a pro- gram would be to “reduce the presence” of the multi-national ‘ corporations, ‘‘controlling impor- tant decision-making” by their subsidiaries here, “providing al- ternatives” to the inputs they now cffer, but nevertheless still permitting “potentially very beneficial subsidiaries to con- tinue to be established, under tight supervision.” - An Empty Slogan? The only way Canadians can counteract the corporate power of the multi-nationals is by bringing them under public own- ership. How else can the Cana- - dian people assume control of their economy and implement a national plan of economic devel- opment? But this is not project- ed in the resolution. Unless this is done, Ed Broadbent’s call to “Break Corporate Power,” like David Lewis’s theme of “The Corporate Ripoff,” remains an empty slogan. Another example of the orien- tation by the NDP leadership is contained in the resolution on “The Economy,” a composite re- solution submitted by the Fed- eral Council. It starts off by de- claring that the “Canadian eco- nomy has been plagued by years of bad management.” Is it a mat- ter of bad management or is it the contradictions of the capital- ist system which have brought about the crisis? No Urgency Reflected Nowhere in the above resolu- tion or in any of the resolutions which came before the conven- tion is there any reference to the economic crisis. The word “crisis” wasn’t mentioned once by any of the NDP leaders. No wonder that the convention re- flected no urgency, no call to ac- tion to cope with unemployment, deteriorating living standards, profiteering, the effects of the recession now. Yes, there were references to the need for in- ED BROADBENT creased purchasing power, a housing program, old age secur- ity and the like, but only as part of -legislation that an NDP gov- ernment would implement when: elected. What are the jobless, the victims of inflation and recession supposed to do until then? On the question of policy, it is of some significance that an NDP convention could take place in July of 1975 without a single resolution appearing on the floor or a single reference by the party leadership regarding such vital matters as nuclear disarmament, strengthening detente, the Mid- dle East crisis or Canada’s par- ticipation in NATO and NORAD. Resolutions on these questions had been submitted, by some NDP clubs, unions and constitu- ency committees but, they re-- mained in the resolution book. There was no basic change in the composition of the elected party vice-presidents or members of the Federal Council. Those elected were all on the slates - circulated by the leadership. The right wing remains in control of the party. It remains to be seen what im- . pact the convention and the leadership contest will have on the NDP organizations and mem- bership. across the country in While labor unions affili- ated with the NDP were eligi- ble to send 1,014 delegates to the Winnipeg convention, only 312 registered, or less than one-third. This meant that only 23°, of registered delegates came from trade unions at this convention, as compared with 33°, in the 1971 convention. There were 72 delegates from central la- bor bodies. the next period of time. Inter- viewed following his election as leader, Ed Broadbent dismissed any suggestion that the leadership contest had revealed any signifi- cant differences within the par- ty. Rosemary Brown, on the oth- er hand, declared that she con- sidered her vote, to be a victory for her views that the NDP “has moved far too far to the center and must disentangle itself from the left-wing of liberalism and become socialist once again. I am sure that he (Ed Broadbent) © got the message.” Evidently, he didn’t. The point . is, did the membership get the message? THE PACIFIC TRIBUNE IS B.C.'S ONLY WEEKLY LABOR PAPER SUBSCRIBE TODAY! Clip and Mail to No. 3 Mez., 193 E. Hastings, Van. 4 Enclosed: ..... S6-1 yrs... $3.50-6 mos. ee ry ee ce ary PACIFIC TRIBUNE—AUGUST 1, 1975—Page 3