Socialist Party of Canada

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The Socialist Party of Canada (SPC) was a political party that existed from 1904 to 1925, led by E. T. Kingsley. It published the newspaper, Western Clarion.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> SPC members were elected as MLAs in BC, Alberta and Manitoba, prior to 1930.

History

Establishment

The Socialist Party of Canada was founded at the Socialist Party of British Columbia's fourth annual convention on December 30–31, 1904. Delegates at the convention were urged to consider organizing the nucleus of a federal party, noting the acceptance of the platform with socialist parties and organizations in other provinces. Socialist organizations quickly approved the party formation, and the new party executive met for the first time on February 19, 1905.<ref name="Newell">Template:Cite book</ref>

The party, which had a revolutionary Marxist orientation, called for the overturn of the capitalist system through militant political action. Given this goal, compromise through trade unionism and limited political reforms was rejected.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Party manifesto and membership

The party's manifesto, which went through five editions by 1920, was its most influential and widely read publication.<ref>Newell, 93. </ref> The manifesto traced the history of class struggle and the exploitation of labour, concluding that:

Out of these conditions has arisen the Socialist Party of Canada, the nucleus of the revolt of the slaves of Canada against capitalism. Its policy is to educate the slaves of Canada to an understanding of their position and organize them for concerted political action, to the end that they may wrest the powers of State from the hands of capital, and use them to strip the master class of its property rights in the means of production and to make these the collective property of the producers.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The SPC platform similarly called for socialization of the means of production:

Therefore, we call upon all workers to organise under the banner of the Socialist Party of Canada with the object of conquering the public powers, for the purpose of setting up and enforcing the economic program of the working class as follows:

1. The transformation, as rapidly as possible, of capitalist property in the means of wealth production (natural resources, factories, mills, railroads, etc.) into the collective property of the working class.

2. The organisation and management of industry by the working class.

3. The establishment, as speedily as possible, of production for use instead of production for profit.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The SPC was structured as a network of local organizations, each conducting education and propaganda in their respective communities.<ref name=":0" /> Provincial-level executives coordinated these activities in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, Manitoba, and the Maritimes.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":0" /> The governing Dominion Executive Committee was headquartered in British Columbia and consisted almost entirely of BC residents.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref>

Although a national convention was never held, E.T. Kingsley was regarded as the movement's leader until about 1912. The foremost exponent of Impossibilism, Kingsley called for a social revolution to redistribute wealth through political organization, education, and propaganda.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

While the party's platform was Marxist, its membership was diverse. Besides Marxists, there were social democrats, militant trade unionists, and left-leaning federations of Ukrainians, Finns, Letts, and Jews.<ref>Newell, 47–52.</ref> Ultimately, the varying factions did not coalesce and schisms occurred, including such breakaway formations as the Social Democratic Party of Canada and the Socialist Party of North America.<ref>Newell, 105–115.</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Nevertheless, the SPC was Canada's third largest political party until the outbreak of the First World War.<ref>Newell, 182.</ref> It also enjoyed some success at the provincial electoral level, with SPC deputies and elected members sponsoring legislation that addressed health, safety and other worker concerns.<ref>Robin, Radical Politics and Canadian Labour, 98–99.</ref>  

Provincial electoral participation

The SPC was strongest in British Columbia where it won seats in the province's legislature from 1903 to 1912.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In the provincial election of 1907, the SPC garnered over 5,000 votes.<ref name=Robin101>Robin, Radical Politics and Canadian Labour, pg. 101.</ref> The apex was the 1909 election, when it collected more than 11,000 votes — about 22 percent of the total votes cast in the seats contested<ref name=Robin101 /> and 11 percent overall. The SPC elected two in 1909 – James Hurst Hawthornthwaite and Parker Williams.

During the 1903–1912 period, the leadership of the Vancouver Trades and Labor Council<ref>Template:Cite archive</ref> consisted of committed SPC members who also played a role in stymying efforts to establish a rival labour party.<ref name=Robin101 /> However, the party went into decline after disappointing federal election results in 1911 and the resignation of provincial house leader Hawthornthwaite, over his involvement in land speculation. The one SPC MLA elected in the 1912 election, Parker Williams, defected to the Liberal Party in 1914.<ref>Robin, Radical Politics and Canadian Labour, pp. 101–102.</ref>

In 1909, SPC member Charlie O'Brien was elected to the Alberta legislature.<ref>McKay, Reasoning Otherwise, pp. 167–68.</ref> A speech on socialism he gave in the Legislature was transcribed and published as The Proletarian in Politics (1910).<ref>O'Brien, C.M. (Charles Macnamara) (1910). The Proletarian in Politics. Vancouver: Socialist Party of Canada. OCLC 1083877116</ref> In the 1913 election, incumbent SPC MLA Charlie O'Brien and SPC members Alf Budden (author of "The Slave of the Farm"), Joe Knight, H.R. Burge, and Thomas Smith ran as candidates, all unsuccessfully.<ref>A Century of Democracy, Alberta Centennial series, p. 55-61</ref> In the 1917 Alberta provincial campaign, Joe Knight, J. Reid, G. Paton, S.R. Keeling and H. Thomas ran as SPC candidates. None of them were elected.<ref>Milne, History of the Socialist Party of Canada. https://www.worldsocialism.org/canada/historym.pdf</ref>

In Manitoba, the Manitoba branch of the SPC was initially a rival to Winnipeg's reform labour groups. It may also have been responsible for the defeat of centrist labour candidate Fred Dixon in the election of 1910. The resulting backlash from trade unions weakened the SPC for years.<ref>Robin, Radical Politics and Canadian Labour, p. 110.</ref> In 1920, SPC activist George Armstrong was elected by Winnipeg voters to serve in the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. However, he was defeated in 1922 due in part to opposition from Communist Party politicians.

World War I and its aftermath

File:SPC-Communist-Manifesto-1918.jpg
Cover of a Socialist Party of Canada pamphlet published during World War I due to the federal government's ban of the US publisher, Charles H. Kerr & Co.

The SPC paid a heavy price for its opposition to Canadian entry into the world war including harassment and intimidation from government authorities.<ref>Newell, 125-26</ref> Individual members were also targeted, including Ginger Goodwin, who died at the hands of police in 1918 while evading conscription.

In the fall of 1918 Western Clarion was banned by the federal government.<ref name="Liberty">R.W.H., "'Liberty and Peace' in Canada,' The Socialist Standard [London], vol. 15, whole number 177 (May 1919) pg. 77.</ref> On January 11, 1919, a new publication called The Red Flag was launched by the SPC to work around the proscription of its predecessor.<ref name="Liberty" /> The first issue noted the state's interference with the postal service and its censorship of party correspondence:

The official organ has been suppressed... Leaflets mailed have been confiscated and complaints ignored. Almost every letter which arrives at this office bears unmistakable signs of having been opened, though no censorship mark to that effect is on them. All such letters are unduly delayed, being some four, five and six weeks in the mails before delivery....

Moreover, letters and parcels which we have dispatched have failed to reach their destination. The mail of individual party members also suffers from the same despicable secret censorship. Our protests and complaints to heads of departments result only in officially equivocal and evasive replies.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The ban was lifted in 1920.

In the wake of the Russian Revolution and the Winnipeg General Strike, a number of the SPC's supporters became attracted to Bolshevism and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky. Others gravitated toward an evolutionary or gradualist socialist position.

SPC members, notably George Armstrong and William Pritchard, were among the strike leaders put on trial following the Winnipeg confrontation.<ref>McKay, Reasoning Otherwise, pp. 505–17.</ref>

In 1919, SPC members, including Pritchard, were instrumental in founding One Big Union in Canada.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1920, a split occurred when many of the party's members left to join the Federated Labour Party, which had been formed by the British Columbia Federation of Labour.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Others joined the labour and independent labour parties that were being formed across the country.<ref>Newell, 188-93.</ref>

In 1921, most of the Marxist SPC members left to join the Workers Party, which was the public face of the nascent Communist Party of Canada.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 1925, the Socialist Party of Canada formally disbanded.<ref>Newell, 193-95.</ref> Many of the remaining members joined the Independent Labour Party.

Federal election results from 1904 to 1926

General elections

None elected.

Year SPC Candidates Votes Popular vote
1904 federal election 3 1,794 0.18%
1908 federal election 5 6,071 0.52%
1911 federal election 6 4,574 0.35%
1921 federal election 1 3,094 0.10%
1925 federal election 1 1,888 0.06%
1926 federal election 1 672 0.02%

SPC Publications

  • Socialism, Revolution and Internationalism. Gabriel Deville. 1893/1907.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Also published in the SPC's Red Flag series, no. 1.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
  • Platform 1904 (Weinrich, Social Protest from the Left in Canada 1870–1970 A Bibliography. no. 346)
  • Toronto municipal elections 1906, Manifesto 1906 (Weinrich, Social Protest from the Left in Canada 1870–1970 A Bibliography. no. 367)
  • Manifesto Toronto municipal elections 1907 1907 (Weinrich 386)
  • Ontario provincial elections June 8, 1908, Manifesto of Toronto local. 1906 (Weinrich 404)
  • Manifesto Toronto municipal elections Jam. 1 1909 1909 (Weinrich 421)
  • Manifesto of the Socialist Party of Canada. 1st edition, 1910.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 4th edition, 1916.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 5th edition, 1920.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Constitution and Bylaws of the Socialist Party of Canada. 1910.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • The Proletarian in Politics-- – the Socialist position as defended by C.M. O'Brien, MLA in the Alberta Legislature. Charlie O'Brien. 1910.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • The Struggle for Existence. Gerald Desmond. 1911.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Socialism and Unionism. Donald G. McKenzie. 1911.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • What is Socialism? W. E. Hardenburg. 1912.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • The Way to Power. J. B. Osborne. 1913.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Wage Worker and Farmer. J. Pilkington. 1914.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • The Slave of the Farm. Alf Budden. 1910? and 1914/1918.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Budden, The Slave of The Farm [1910?], https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.81403/1. Western Clarion advertized copies of "The Slave of The Farm" in 1910. https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.N_00510_190905/262</ref>
  • Economic Causes of War. Peter T. Leckie, reprinted from The Western Clarion, March–November, 1920.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Declaration of principles c1920 (Weinrich 872)
  • Platform and constitution, and brief sketch of the evolution of society 1920 (Weinrich 874)
  • Manifesto and declaration of principles, municipal campaign 1932 (Vancouver) 1932 (Weinrich 1472)
  • The industrial union – the revolutionary weapon c1934 (Weinrich 1661)
  • The Socialist manifesto (Winnipeg) 1944 (Weinrich 2820)
  • series of leaflets – The socialist (no. 1); The capitalist (no. 2); The worker (no. 3); Class struggle (no. 4); Depression (no. 5); Politics (no. 6); Wages (no. 7); World worth while (no. 8); Charity (no. 9); 1952; reissued 1958–59 (Weinrich 3653–3662)
  • Free! The best of everything you may want, need or desire... (Victoria) 1963 (Weinrich 4385)

Bibliography

Footnotes

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