getfiscal
getfiscal
Mike Nelson here.
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-Background-
Quebec solidaire is a leftist political party that competes in Quebec provincial elections. In the 2008 election, it won a single seat in the 125 seat National Assembly, with 3.78% of the national vote. The seat was won by Amir Khadir, a doctor in Montreal's plateau, who asks as a spokesperson for the party. The other spokesperson, Francoise David, received 32% in her riding of Gouin and came second. Unlike other parties in Canada, leadership of the party is collective.
Support for Quebec solidaire is volatile and it has polled between 5% to 13% over the past few months. Much of their support is concentrated in young and working class francophone parts of Montreal, meaning that despite Quebec's first-past-the-post model they might win a few seats next time (perhaps up to 4). Despite being a minor party, QS has been influential among debates on the activist left, especially because most activist political groups (except anarchists and Maoists) are under its umbrella.
QS started as a merged between the UFP and Option Citoyenne. The UFP was a left regroupment party itself, although limited to "mainstream" left parties such as an expelled provincial section of Canada's social-democratic party the NDP, the Communist Party of Quebec and a few other groups. Option Citoyenne was a feminist alterglobalization coalition interested in building a party to the left of the nominally social-democratic Parti Quebecois, and included feminist leaders like Francoise David.
After the 2003 defeat of the pro-austerity Parti Quebecois government by Liberal leader Jean Charest, scholars, activists and artists came together to draw up a statement called "For a solidaristic Quebec " that called for a new national force that could fight for a democratic left politics. The result of this call was the fusion of various elements into the new party Quebec solidaire.
A number of new elements came into the party, such as an explicitly ecosocialist faction, a faction dedicated to "degrowth" policies and collectives from every Trotskyist group. QS also drew in people from the peace movement - despite being a provincial party, it takes an explicit stand against Canadian imperialism and has policies against war and Israeli apartheid. The MNA Amir Khadir, for example, once threw his shoes at a portrait of President Bush at a media event.
-Policies-
Quebec solidaire's platform has a number of different goals. An obvious goal is to substantially expand the welfare state and to resist austerity measures. Another is to build new rights around guarantees for public services - making post-secondary education free, making public transit free, expanding health coverage and so on. A major area of policy is a comprehensive ecosocialist program to change urban structure and reduce pollution. Another innovative area of policy is a call for taxes on non-democratic forms of economic organization - higher taxes on corporations, lower taxes and more grants for cooperatives.
Recently, the party has been working on a vision statement and policy regarding the system question, or the medium term vision of the political and economic structure of Quebec society. The model the party has settled on so far is one where the state and cooperative institutions control most of the economy, in a fairly pluralistic economy based largely on a market framework but not dominated by corporate power. QS is now programmatically committed to going "beyond capitalism." One reason why the party doesn't endorse something specific like participatory planning is that a lot of people Quebec (following France) are curious about the "social economy" and the possibility of cooperatives to network and federate, rather than state-led growth under a single logic. This has been criticized by the left in the party as "petty-bourgeois" and reflective of the fact that many QS members are public sector functionaries.
-Nationalism-
The Quebec francophone left largely supports some form of independence for Quebec from Canada. The party is officially committed to both sovereignty and independence, which reflects a tense debate over particular terms given nuances. For example, some see sovereignty within the umbrella of Canada as possible, with a federal framework. Others see independence as meaning Quebec controls all the levers of its own society. Some groups within QS are opposed to sovereignty, seeing it as a right of Quebec that it simply should not exercise, preferring unity within a socialist Canada.
Quebec solidaire's model for building independence is referred to as a "country of projects" - meaning that Quebecers should be united around particular national concerns and policies for the future rather than a reactive nationalism based on exclusions. Part of this project involves trying to gain independence through developing popular constituent assemblies that determine the future constitution of Quebec, which would then be ratified by the people. This is largely the opposite of the PQ's strategy, which was to hold referenda on whether or not negotiations with Canada should be opened. Most of Quebec is tired of referenda (there have been two specifically dealing with independence) and this is seen as a new option by some QS members.
Nationalism is part of a narrative thread in Quebec leftism centered on becoming "masters in our own house." This idea of mastery over Quebec society reflects itself in the broader platform of the party, especially in areas where the Quebec population sees this as a natural fit, such as energy policy.
-Strategy-
The mainstream of strategy for Quebec solidaire is essentially social-democratic: Elect more QS MNAs and you'll get more socialist policies and therefore a more socialist society. Only a small minority of the party disputes this basic vision of progress. Yet the party acknowledges that it needs to be active in social movements and public protests in order to advance its agenda, and it does so to some degree.
One group, the International Marxist Tendency (TMI-Quebec) has focused on trying to build up the labour credentials of the party. Unlike the federal NDP, which is officially linked to the Canadian Labour Congress, there is no official party of labour in Quebec. TMI hopes that it can fuse the leadership of the labour unions with an activist QS in order to build the base of a credible national party. One criticism of this strategy is that it overvalues official endorsements and seems reflective of the "affiliation" strategy that mattered more when labour unions could easily direct member's votes. Moreover, unions have traditionally supported the Parti Quebecois because of its mild social-democratic values, and some would be unwilling to gamble. Still, unions have played a role in QS's limited electoral success, with the major union in Montreal endorsing QS.
Like other left regroupment parties across the West, Quebec solidaire faces questions about how to relate to parties with capitalist platforms. The bulk of the party would probably be fine with government coalitions with other parties to achieve particular goals. Francoise David even said once, early on, that her main goal was to change from the outside how the Parti Quebecois functions. Some QS members oppose any coalitions, especially the various Trotskyist sections. One section, the International Socialists, is skeptical that QS could ever win power, but wants to work within the party in order to win members over to more radical tactics such as councilism.
-Analysis-
Like other Western left regroupment parties, Quebec solidaire needs to thoroughly debate its position relative to long-standing questions such as reformism and the state. Presently, Quebec solidaire is essentially organized as a neo-reformist party that simply seeks to recommit to left-social-democracy in the prior absence of such an organized force in Quebec. However, this might fail to understand why social-democracy collapsed in the first place, and why any activist party will face the same pitfalls in the future. At the same time, important successes have been won in countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia based on neo-reformist projects that seek to merge parliamentary power with social movements.
Another lesson from history seems to be that socialist governments face a crisis where they must either continuously move beyond old relations in order to challenge the organized power of capital and its state, or simply collapse under the weight of such power. The narrative pushed by most of the Quebec solidaire - even collectives like TMI-Quebec - tends to be one of a largely peaceful march into the National Assembly followed by socialism. In fact, the party is even officially committed to pacifism as a founding principle. What happens if the party becomes powerful enough that it commands political power, and the capitalists and their state fights back? This is part of why it is problematic to consider a socialist party simply like other parties except with slightly different aims.
Another issue is that the party contains radically different viewpoints which would come to a head in any situation where the party faced intense criticism. The party, for example, put out a number of press kits focusing on "myths" of the party - myths such as being "communists" or "a gang of granolas." Well, hundreds of members of Quebec solidaire would self-identify as communists, and certainly some wouldn't be opposed to being seen as a "gang of granolas." So there is already a lot of narrative control by the top leadership being imposed, which would sharpen in the presence of power, and become possibly nearly absolute in a coalition situation with a bourgeois government.
Still, Quebec solidaire seems useful in that it concentrates together a number of tendencies and allows for debate on issues such as the state and practical reforms to the economy. It collects together the broad activist left largely within a single home and provides a pole of resistance for voters to turn to if they are looking for a left option. Beyond this, there is a certain sense in which neo-reformism must be confronted with arguments rather than simple segregation and lecturing from afar - by committing to working together, activists can show they are willing to bridge differences in pursuit of particular goals.
Quebec solidaire is a leftist political party that competes in Quebec provincial elections. In the 2008 election, it won a single seat in the 125 seat National Assembly, with 3.78% of the national vote. The seat was won by Amir Khadir, a doctor in Montreal's plateau, who asks as a spokesperson for the party. The other spokesperson, Francoise David, received 32% in her riding of Gouin and came second. Unlike other parties in Canada, leadership of the party is collective.
Support for Quebec solidaire is volatile and it has polled between 5% to 13% over the past few months. Much of their support is concentrated in young and working class francophone parts of Montreal, meaning that despite Quebec's first-past-the-post model they might win a few seats next time (perhaps up to 4). Despite being a minor party, QS has been influential among debates on the activist left, especially because most activist political groups (except anarchists and Maoists) are under its umbrella.
QS started as a merged between the UFP and Option Citoyenne. The UFP was a left regroupment party itself, although limited to "mainstream" left parties such as an expelled provincial section of Canada's social-democratic party the NDP, the Communist Party of Quebec and a few other groups. Option Citoyenne was a feminist alterglobalization coalition interested in building a party to the left of the nominally social-democratic Parti Quebecois, and included feminist leaders like Francoise David.
After the 2003 defeat of the pro-austerity Parti Quebecois government by Liberal leader Jean Charest, scholars, activists and artists came together to draw up a statement called "For a solidaristic Quebec " that called for a new national force that could fight for a democratic left politics. The result of this call was the fusion of various elements into the new party Quebec solidaire.
A number of new elements came into the party, such as an explicitly ecosocialist faction, a faction dedicated to "degrowth" policies and collectives from every Trotskyist group. QS also drew in people from the peace movement - despite being a provincial party, it takes an explicit stand against Canadian imperialism and has policies against war and Israeli apartheid. The MNA Amir Khadir, for example, once threw his shoes at a portrait of President Bush at a media event.
-Policies-
Quebec solidaire's platform has a number of different goals. An obvious goal is to substantially expand the welfare state and to resist austerity measures. Another is to build new rights around guarantees for public services - making post-secondary education free, making public transit free, expanding health coverage and so on. A major area of policy is a comprehensive ecosocialist program to change urban structure and reduce pollution. Another innovative area of policy is a call for taxes on non-democratic forms of economic organization - higher taxes on corporations, lower taxes and more grants for cooperatives.
Recently, the party has been working on a vision statement and policy regarding the system question, or the medium term vision of the political and economic structure of Quebec society. The model the party has settled on so far is one where the state and cooperative institutions control most of the economy, in a fairly pluralistic economy based largely on a market framework but not dominated by corporate power. QS is now programmatically committed to going "beyond capitalism." One reason why the party doesn't endorse something specific like participatory planning is that a lot of people Quebec (following France) are curious about the "social economy" and the possibility of cooperatives to network and federate, rather than state-led growth under a single logic. This has been criticized by the left in the party as "petty-bourgeois" and reflective of the fact that many QS members are public sector functionaries.
-Nationalism-
The Quebec francophone left largely supports some form of independence for Quebec from Canada. The party is officially committed to both sovereignty and independence, which reflects a tense debate over particular terms given nuances. For example, some see sovereignty within the umbrella of Canada as possible, with a federal framework. Others see independence as meaning Quebec controls all the levers of its own society. Some groups within QS are opposed to sovereignty, seeing it as a right of Quebec that it simply should not exercise, preferring unity within a socialist Canada.
Quebec solidaire's model for building independence is referred to as a "country of projects" - meaning that Quebecers should be united around particular national concerns and policies for the future rather than a reactive nationalism based on exclusions. Part of this project involves trying to gain independence through developing popular constituent assemblies that determine the future constitution of Quebec, which would then be ratified by the people. This is largely the opposite of the PQ's strategy, which was to hold referenda on whether or not negotiations with Canada should be opened. Most of Quebec is tired of referenda (there have been two specifically dealing with independence) and this is seen as a new option by some QS members.
Nationalism is part of a narrative thread in Quebec leftism centered on becoming "masters in our own house." This idea of mastery over Quebec society reflects itself in the broader platform of the party, especially in areas where the Quebec population sees this as a natural fit, such as energy policy.
-Strategy-
The mainstream of strategy for Quebec solidaire is essentially social-democratic: Elect more QS MNAs and you'll get more socialist policies and therefore a more socialist society. Only a small minority of the party disputes this basic vision of progress. Yet the party acknowledges that it needs to be active in social movements and public protests in order to advance its agenda, and it does so to some degree.
One group, the International Marxist Tendency (TMI-Quebec) has focused on trying to build up the labour credentials of the party. Unlike the federal NDP, which is officially linked to the Canadian Labour Congress, there is no official party of labour in Quebec. TMI hopes that it can fuse the leadership of the labour unions with an activist QS in order to build the base of a credible national party. One criticism of this strategy is that it overvalues official endorsements and seems reflective of the "affiliation" strategy that mattered more when labour unions could easily direct member's votes. Moreover, unions have traditionally supported the Parti Quebecois because of its mild social-democratic values, and some would be unwilling to gamble. Still, unions have played a role in QS's limited electoral success, with the major union in Montreal endorsing QS.
Like other left regroupment parties across the West, Quebec solidaire faces questions about how to relate to parties with capitalist platforms. The bulk of the party would probably be fine with government coalitions with other parties to achieve particular goals. Francoise David even said once, early on, that her main goal was to change from the outside how the Parti Quebecois functions. Some QS members oppose any coalitions, especially the various Trotskyist sections. One section, the International Socialists, is skeptical that QS could ever win power, but wants to work within the party in order to win members over to more radical tactics such as councilism.
-Analysis-
Like other Western left regroupment parties, Quebec solidaire needs to thoroughly debate its position relative to long-standing questions such as reformism and the state. Presently, Quebec solidaire is essentially organized as a neo-reformist party that simply seeks to recommit to left-social-democracy in the prior absence of such an organized force in Quebec. However, this might fail to understand why social-democracy collapsed in the first place, and why any activist party will face the same pitfalls in the future. At the same time, important successes have been won in countries such as Venezuela and Bolivia based on neo-reformist projects that seek to merge parliamentary power with social movements.
Another lesson from history seems to be that socialist governments face a crisis where they must either continuously move beyond old relations in order to challenge the organized power of capital and its state, or simply collapse under the weight of such power. The narrative pushed by most of the Quebec solidaire - even collectives like TMI-Quebec - tends to be one of a largely peaceful march into the National Assembly followed by socialism. In fact, the party is even officially committed to pacifism as a founding principle. What happens if the party becomes powerful enough that it commands political power, and the capitalists and their state fights back? This is part of why it is problematic to consider a socialist party simply like other parties except with slightly different aims.
Another issue is that the party contains radically different viewpoints which would come to a head in any situation where the party faced intense criticism. The party, for example, put out a number of press kits focusing on "myths" of the party - myths such as being "communists" or "a gang of granolas." Well, hundreds of members of Quebec solidaire would self-identify as communists, and certainly some wouldn't be opposed to being seen as a "gang of granolas." So there is already a lot of narrative control by the top leadership being imposed, which would sharpen in the presence of power, and become possibly nearly absolute in a coalition situation with a bourgeois government.
Still, Quebec solidaire seems useful in that it concentrates together a number of tendencies and allows for debate on issues such as the state and practical reforms to the economy. It collects together the broad activist left largely within a single home and provides a pole of resistance for voters to turn to if they are looking for a left option. Beyond this, there is a certain sense in which neo-reformism must be confronted with arguments rather than simple segregation and lecturing from afar - by committing to working together, activists can show they are willing to bridge differences in pursuit of particular goals.