Monday, March 21, 2016

Ed Broadbent and the Promise of Canadian Socialism


--Ed Broadbent (centre), with David Lewis (left), and Sanley Knowles (right)

Over the past few weeks, many have been celebrating Ed Broadbent's 80th birthday by reflecting on his venerable legacy. Some of these tributes have come from his own Broadbent Institute, and some from world-renowned scholars like Charles Taylor. People have emphasized his political longevity, his personal kindness, his passion, and the effect he's had on our society and democracy. Some, like Luke Savage, have honed on how Broadbent--especially the young Broadbent--was an ardent champion of a democracy beyond the ballot box:


Ultimately, while many have lauded Ed's life as a social democrat, I feel his most poignant legacy is his democratic socialism, which was centred less on reforming capitalism to improve it, but enacting reforms as means to building a socialist society north of the 49th parallel. This was a consistent value-statement of Broadbent, at least until the early 1980s.

Broadbent, for instance, looked at unions, public control, and socialism as essential to democracy. He suggested socialism must be won in a two-front battle, whereby labour pushed for increasing power over capitalists in the workplace and the NDP pushed for laws that undermined the anti-democratic rights of property. The result would be the supersession of liberal democracy, leading to “the eventual passing of a law which will remove all rights of control from those who own companies or who own shares in companies.”

This was all part of what Broadbent deemed a socialist citizenship, which included recognizing unions as a fundamental aspect of citizenship within the realm of the workplace:

"Just as a native in a modern nation is not required to decide whether or not to become a citizen of a country so too in a place of work, men should not be required to show cause for the formation of a union. It should be an automatic right, i.e., no stipulated minimum support should be required before a union local can be formed. Unions should exist where working people exist, just as citizens exist where nations exist"

Indeed, Broadbent was a proud socialist. Even as the neo-liberal consensus was growing in the 1980s, he was adamant that socialism continue to be the NDP's raison d'ĂȘtre:

"Whatever happens, we must retain our socialist faith and use this to inspire the creation of a better Canada. We believe in equality not because it’s popular. We believe in liberty not because it’s a winner. We believe in social ownership not because of the polls. We believe in these because they are right, we must never forget it"

Much more could said about Ed, but what's important is that the NDP had a leader within many Canadians' lifetimes who was a proud democratic socialist with a vision of a post capitalist Canada. Over the years, he has moderated his views, arguing now that social democrats in the NDP vein seek to build a fairer capitalism more than anything else. But as history unfolds, I believe his lasting legacy--along with the legacies of other leaders like David Lewis and Tommy Douglas--will be as voices prophetically crying out into the wilderness, presaging a post-capitalist age which will come, even if we have yet to see its glint over the horizon.

Happy Birthday, Ed. Here's to plenty more, so that we can see a socialist Canada, together.

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