The regular rigmarole regarding the relationship of young people to federal politics has returned, but the idea that a party or two could specifically attract those votes through becoming more radicalized never seems to enter the equation. At least the Communist Party have remained on message – even if their name won’t help them get beyond the farthest fringest of voter appeal, the current incarnation of the frontrunners started off with the acronym CCRAP, not to mention a legacy of more flawed rebrandings than a 21st century department store. Johan Boyden’s name is on the ballot in the Toronto Centre riding as its Communist envoy, taking over from Dan Goldstick – the philosophy professor who earned a grand total of 848 votes for running in most federal elections between 1974 and 2004. Goldstick is now acting as his 25-year-old protégé’s campaign manager, after Boyden made his first run as a candidate in Davenport last time around. The notoriously disparate Toronto Centre riding, which extends from Rosedale to Regent Park, has supplied him with a higher profile platform, even as MP Bill Graham has bolstered his electoral devotion during his run as Foreign Affairs Minister. Boyden has found plenty of outlets for his activism around the globe, but the opportunity to impact the system on home turf is one he relishes. A few questions and answers with Johan Boyden are below, and y’all can weigh in with comments afterward.
How did you become a member of the Communist Party? I connected as a student activist in the peace movement, in between the periods of the imperialist intervention in Kosovo and the war in Iraq. Growing up in Prince George, B.C., I witnessed first-hand the effects of softwood lumber and globalization issues. The land is incredibly resource rich, yet all you see are boarded-up store fronts and acute poverty among First Nations. The first time I saw my dad’s workplace was amidst picket-line support in the winter. When I was 14 I was walking door-to-door with my mother, collecting signatures to save our local elementary school from cuts. I wouldn’t call my parents activists, but I certainly fit that description by high school. I gravitated toward anti-globalization activists, got involved with my student union, helped defend a gay pride proclamation, volunteered for the Labour Council, the Green Party, and the NDP. All sorts of stuff. But the more active I became, the more I saw the root cause of what I was rallying against was capitalism. Three years ago, I joined the Communist Party when I opted to make a commitment to fighting for fundamental change, leading towards a socialist Canada.
Are you now entering a career of getting your name on ballots? I’ll definitely run for office as often as possible. I’ll also continue to organize demos, write letters and do picket line support. Politics is not a career for me. It’s impossible to separate the petitions, letter writing, community meetings, strikes and marches on the street from what happens in Parliament. Running in this election is also a battle of ideas: Raising the burning issues that wouldn’t get discussed otherwise. Like campaigning to have corporate taxes raised and corporate loopholes closed, or the role of Canada in NATO, NAFTA, NORAD – the NDP has taken major steps backward in its own policy. They’re also silent regarding Canada’s imperialist role in Haiti. We’ve been consistently pushing these issues – Peace, Jobs, Democracy, Sovereignty – for a long time. Communists elected at any level of government make a big difference because we work on the basis of uniting and fighting the dominant agenda, which is the corporate agenda. People’s struggles have been advanced by us. The need for someone willing to fight back isn’t going to go away anytime soon.
In such an economically diverse riding, what have the different debate settings been like? For the all-candidates meeting in St. James Town, there were questions from working class people, reflecting the fact that most of us are getting the short end of the stick. In the process, there were a lot of lies, misrepresentations and untruths from the big business parties. Bill Graham claimed the economy was in great shape. At the subsequent debate I held up a Globe and Mail article specifically debunking that myth, and he became pretty quiet at that point. We got very strong applause from outlining our policies, though, especially when it came to raising minimum wage to $12 an hour. At the 519 Centre, I sparred with Graham over tuition fees and slammed the Liberal 50/50 Plan – which is a tremendously inadequate proposal. Then, in the St. Lawrence Market debate, I found myself fighting just to get my opening and closing statements across, since I was excluded from the podium altogether. At the end, the moderator let the Liberals talk over time while cutting my mic early. Fortunately, I’ve developed a louder voice after years of shouting at rallies and on picket lines.
From a Communist Party perspective, does it matter if the Conservatives take over from the Liberals? It would be out of the frying pan and into the fire. The Tories have done this "extreme makeover", and big business has opened up their pocket books to pay for it. The real reason we’re in an election is that the corporate forces crave a majority – the minority government gave out concessions like childcare. But even a Tory minority would take giant backward leaps, and exacerbate conflicts with the Quebec and Aboriginal nations. A Harper majority would trash Canada. Stephen Harper is simply the face of George W. Bush in this contest. How should we respond? With another minority government containing a strong progressive block. The "Think Twice" coalition, who are urging strategic voting – which is an inherently anti-democratic concept – are playing with fire. Last time around, strategic voting burned the left in more ways than it helped. Plus, the NDP refusing to campaign against the Conservative Party in this election is a huge disgrace.
Where do you think the younger demographics in Toronto stand in the political system? Generally speaking, young people are more progressive than the older generations, perhaps because of being told they can expect to make less than their parents. At the same time, a great many are also completely tuned out when it comes to the election. This is a reflection of how alienated they are – with one in six kids living below the poverty line, and youth unemployment sitting at no lower than 11 per cent since the mid-’70s. The so-called "good life" is over for the majority of the population of Canada. The ability of youth to own their own homes, to purchase goods and services and to reach the living standards of those who came before them is gone. Since they’re increasingly cynical about the political choices before them, is it any wonder the Communist Party supports lowering the voting age to 16? And is it any wonder that in the last student vote conducted in Ontario, six per cent favoured the Communists? I view voting like signing a petition. A Communist vote sends a strong message. Not voting only helps boost big business.
3 responses so far ↓
Darwin O'Connor // January 18, 2006 at 2:48 pm
How do you feel about the Marxist-Leninist Party? What are the key differences between you?
Do you think you could get more accomplished from the Socialist Caucus of the NDP, without having the problems of splitting the vote that you mention above?
Johan Boyden // January 22, 2006 at 9:10 pm
Good question, but it is very hard to give a quick answer, Darwin — the best thing to do is to visit their website. The TV ad they ran had the following script:
“In this election, the ML is calling on the workers, women and youth to be very active [??] in creating a future for themselves.” They state only the organized working class can stop Fascism and war – “which is coming.” Quote: “We are calling on Canadian workers, women and children to oppose annexation and vest sovereignty in themselves. There is an alternative… and it is very important that we fight for that alternative.”
What exactly is that alternative? Socialism? An anti-imperialist shift away from capitalism and towards socialism, like Venezuela? This is vague.
We present a broad and detailed platform dealing with the real flesh-and-blood issues, from raising corporate taxes and the minimum wage, to child care and violence against women, to Canada getting out of NAFTA and NORAD, nationalizing oil and gas, a 30 hour work week, etc. This comes from our connections to mass-movements and the trade union movement across the country. We also clearly state that building a broad, strong and powerful alliance of progressive forces would be help push Canada away from the current direction and towards a socialist Canada. Socialism is the alternative to capitalism.
Here is the history.
Our party is the “original” Communist Party in Canada basing itself on a Marxist-Leninist perspective. Founded in 1921, we played the leading role building industrial unions in Canada, fighting for the rights of the unemployed during the Depression, opposing fascism internationally; the party whose members were victimized by McCarthyism, etc.
The M-L or CPC(M-L) was not split-off from the CPC, beginning in 1970 as a Maoist organization supporting the Cultural Revolution. After Mao’s death, it shifted allegiance to Albania. During this period, they attacked what they called “Soviet social-imperialism” with an even greater ferocity than it opposed U.S. imperialism, and resorted on numerous occasions to violent confrontations with other left and democratic organizations — our Party was the main target. This often led to their complete isolation in mass movements.
After the overturn of the Soviet Union, the CPC(M-L) radically transformed their line. They dropped references to “socialism,” “revolution” or even the “working class” or class issues like unemployment, etc. They rarely if ever employed any class analysis in discussing the international situation or the political economy of Canada. Instead, they advanced populist slogans criticizing the Canadian State as unrepresentative and anti-democratic, but failing to expose its true class essence. In place of the current political system, they advanced bizarre electoral and structural alternatives, such as proposing that a popular referendum be held to allow Canadians to choose between capitalism and socialism.
More recently, the CPC(M-L) has returned to more open advocacy of socialist ideology, although still retaining some of the ultra-leftist and right-populist baggage. In some specific areas, they now support policies closer to our own.
We do not preclude the possibility for greater dialogue and cooperation between the CPC and the CPC(M-L) in the future, although there are still differences. It is especially important that all communists and socialists across Canada strengthen their unity in action. Such unity can only proceed on the basis of open dialogue, and tolerance for differences–both past and present.
Johan Boyden // January 22, 2006 at 9:21 pm
For the record, the Communist Party will not “split the left vote” at the expense of the NDP in any riding this election. Our vote will be too small. People vote for communists when the level of struggle is higher than today.
Re: NDP Socialist Caucus
I think the various attempts such as the Waffle and the New Politics Initiative to break the strangle-hold of right social democrats prove the ineffectiveness of such a plan. A distasteful element about these schemes are that you don’t present your full agenda from day one – you win positions by being sneaky. That isn’t too appealing and will probably come back to bite you in the ass.
The right-wing agenda in the NDP was very clear in this election with that party scandalously refusing to attack the Tories and then backsliding on so many issues – health care, crime… that proposal to lower the age at which you are charged for possessing a fire-arm is outrageous and has been condemned by members of the black community. It is true that many left NDPer – not just James Laxer – are unhappy with their parties policy. Communists and these NDPers can work together on a short-term agenda. And so can many other people, who are not affiliated with any particular party.
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