The Waffle

The Waffle (officially known as the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada after 1972) was a wing of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It later transformed into an independent political party, with little electoral success before it permanently disbanded in the mid-1970s. It was generally a New Left youth movement and espoused solidarity with the Quebec sovereignty movement.

Formation

Template:Unreferenced section The group formed in 1969. Its leaders were university professors Mel Watkins and James Laxer. It issued a Manifesto for an Independent Socialist Canada and, with support in the NDP caucus and membership, worked to push the party leftward. The Waffle supported the nationalization of Canadian industries to take them out of the hands of American interests. The group was endorsed by the New Democratic Youth. The Waffle manifesto stated, "A socialist society must be one in which there is democratic control of all institutions, which have a major effect on men's lives and where there is equal opportunity for creative non-exploitative self-development. It is now time to go beyond the welfare state." According to the manifesto, "The New Democratic Party must provide leadership in the struggle to extend working men's influence into every area of industrial decision-making.... By bringing men together primarily as buyers and sellers of each other, by enshrining profitability and material gain in place of humanity and spiritual growth, capitalism has always been inherently alienating. Today, sheer size combined with modern technology further exaggerates man's sense of insignificance and impotence. A socialist transformation of society will return to man his sense of humanity, to replace his sense of being a commodity. But a socialist democracy implies man's control of his immediate environment as well, and in any strategy for building socialism, community democracy is as vital as the struggle for electoral success."

Origins of the Waffle name

The name was meant ironically; one story, quoted in historian Desmond Morton's book The New Democrats, has the name originating during the drafting of the group's manifesto when, at one point, Ed Broadbent said "that if they had to choose between waffling to the left and waffling to the right, they waffle to the left."<ref name="Morton92">Morton (1986), p. 92.</ref> "The Waffle Manifesto" was the published headline of Jean Howarth's editorial piece in The Globe and Mail on September 6, 1969.<ref name="Horwarth"> Template:Cite news</ref> Howarth heard about the waffle line from Hugh Winsor, who also worked at The Globe and Mail, and was also a co-signer of the manifesto.<ref name="smith 579">Smith (1989), p. 579.</ref> When Laxer and other members of the group read the headline, they adopted it.<ref name="smith 579"/>

Another possible origin for the name comes from a film-clip excerpt from a CBC documentary on the NDP, taken during a meeting of the group some months prior to the October 1969 NDP Winnipeg convention.<ref name="Waffle meeting 1969"> Template:Cite web</ref> According to the film excerpt, the Waffle term appears to have originated with Jim Laxer when he stated, "in terms of the proposed manifesto, that if it doesn't talk about nationalization of key industries, it becomes a 'waffle document.'"<ref name="Waffle meeting 1969"/> The term "waffle" was picked up by subsequent speakers in the discussion.<ref name="Waffle meeting 1969"/>

1971 Ottawa leadership convention

The 1971 NDP leadership convention was a battleground between the party establishment and the Waffle. About 2,000 people, out of the NDP's approximately 90,000 membership, were members of the Waffle in 1971.<ref>Avakumovic, pp. 231, 237</ref> The Waffle tried to get as many of their supporters onto the party's governing bodies, but were rebuked by the large bloc of rank-and-file union voters at the convention.<ref name="Goldblatt">Template:Cite news </ref> Carol Gudmundson — of the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Waffle — ran unsuccessfully for the party presidency.<ref name="Goldblatt"/> She was up against former Ontario NDP leader Donald C. MacDonald and lost to him during the April 23rd vote.<ref name="Goldblatt"/> University of Toronto professor Mel Watkins lost his vice-president position, but managed to get elected to the party's federal council.<ref name="Goldblatt"/> The campaign for leader of the NDP pitted David Lewis against James Laxer. Through the strong support of the labour unions, Lewis succeeded in defeating Laxer on the fourth round of voting on April 24.<ref name="tough row">Template:Cite news </ref> Laxer won approximately 37 percent of the final ballot vote, and established that the Waffle had some strength in the party and were no longer a small fringe group.<ref name="tough row"/>

The Waffle's demise in Ontario

During the leadership convention, the Waffle was described in the press as a "party within a party."<ref name="tough row"/> One of the last hurrahs for the Waffle came during the October 1971 Ontario provincial election. The Waffle's Ontario chairman, Steve Penner, was Ontario NDP candidate for MPP from the Dovercourt riding.<ref name="Star 1971-10-19">Template:Cite news</ref> Despite the public infighting between Penner and Ontario NDP leader Stephen Lewis (son of national NDP leader David Lewis), Penner lost by only 55 votes.<ref name="Star 1971-10-22">Template:Cite news</ref> The Waffle considered this a success, because in the 1967 election, the NDP candidate lost by over 1,400 votes.<ref name="Star 1971-10-22"/>

Lewis remained hostile; in 1972, he described the Waffle as "an encumbrance around my neck".<ref name="Hoy 1972-06-26">Template:Cite news</ref> Then at the NDP's Provincial Council on 24 June, Lewis obtained a resolution ordering the Waffle to disband or else leave the NDP.<ref name="Hoy 1972-06-26"/> Debate on the motion lasted for three hours, with labour leaders leading the charge to expel the Waffle.<ref name="Hoy 1972-06-26"/> Finally, the council approved the anti-Waffle motion 217 to 86, thereby ending months of public feuding.<ref name="Hoy 1972-06-26"/>

Independent party: end of the road

Some members of the Waffle remained New Democrats; however, Laxer and Watkins accepted Lewis's ultimatum and quit the NDP in 1972. They continued the Waffle under the name the Movement for an Independent Socialist Canada, but it was still commonly referred to as the Waffle. The group existed until the Canadian federal election in 1974, when it unsuccessfully ran candidates for Parliament in the federal election. Laxer ran in the York West electoral district in Toronto, placing fourth in a field of seven with 673 votes and only 1.26 percent of the popular vote.<ref name="1974 Election Results">Template:Cite web</ref>

Effect on NDP youth movement

The dispute over the Waffle led to the disbanding of the Ontario NDP's youth wing in 1972, which was not revived until 1988. The federal NDP also disbanded the New Brunswick NDP for a period in late 1971 after a local Waffle group gained control of it.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

Many of its leaders eventually came back into the party and held important positions within it, which also shaped many of the NDP's policies in the 1980s through to the early 21st century.<ref name="Watkins 40-years later"> Template:Cite journal </ref>

See also

• New Politics Initiative
• Leap Manifesto
• National Party of Canada (1979)
• Militant tendency, a similar group within the UK Labour Party

References and notes

References

• Template:Cite book
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External links

• The Waffle Manifesto
• Origins of the International Socialists, an offshoot of the Waffle