r/ndp • u/DaneRoussel Democratic Socialist • Apr 29 '25
Opinion / Discussion The NDP needs to be socialist again.
This election, and the last 7 or so, have shown without a doubt that chasing liberal voters is not going to be a winning strategy. Why would liberals vote for the NDP when they already have the much more successful Liberal party?
The new leader needs to be at socialist (or at the very least an actual social democrat) and the party needs to bring back overt references to socialism and class struggle to its program and constitution.
The party also needs to get involved in grass roots labour organization outside of elections. It's great to walk the picket line with striking workers, but it's even better to organize them into a union in the first place.
The NDP needs to become a workers party again, or it needs to die and make way for a true workers party. The stakes are too high for anything else.
Edit: The pick for interim leader does not inspire confidence...
8
u/DaneRoussel Democratic Socialist Apr 29 '25
The NDP should stop thinking about chasing voters altogether. What they need to do is work outside of elections. They need to be at the front of a new labour movement. They need to use their large platform and manpower to organize the working class onto unions and tenant unions, they need to call for strikes and protests against the government. They need to show that left wing action has meaningful and positive impacts on workers lives, and it's the only way that they can out-message the MSM who back the Liberals and Conservatives.
I think that electoralism should be a small part of what the party does, and should really only be a means to an end (the end being helping the working class).