Protesters flying a DSA flag during the George Floyd protests in Austin, Texas. Photo from Flickr. The subject of democratic socialism just won’t go away. It emerged most famously in Canada in the Regina Manifesto, the programme adopted at the 1933 founding convention of the CCF, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation.
Continue readingAuthor: Robert Hackett
Canadian Dimension: What the Anjali insurgency tells us about today’s NDP
BC NDP leadership candidate Anjali Appadurai speaks during a news conference in downtown Vancouver, October 19, 2022. Photo from www.anjaliforbc.ca. “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” –George Santayana On October 19, the BC New Democratic Party exercised the “nuclear” option of disqualifying long-time climate
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Pie in the sky: a history of the Ontario Waffle
Waffle leaders James Laxer and Mel Watkins in 1972. Photo courtesy Toronto Public Library. The following essay by Robert Hackett appeared in the October-November 1980 edition of Canadian Dimension. It is the first chapter in a comprehensive history of the Waffle, the movement within the NDP that produced the Manifesto
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Opening Up to Media Democracy
In January 2008, Canadian Dimension published a theme issue on Big Media highlighting the need for progressives to organize a movement to “break the monopolies” and democratize communication policy. Articles addressed why media reform should be a democratic priority in light of struggles over fair and affordable access to the
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