The Labor-Progressive Party in Crisis, 1956–1957

Abstract

The Labor-Progressive Party in Crisis, 1956–1957 Karen Levine (bio) Keywords Labor-Progressive Party, Canadian Communism, 1956, Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev, 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Tim Buck, J.B. Salsberg, Norman Penner, Gui Caron, Anti-Semitism, Stanley B. Ryerson Mots-clés Parti ouvrier-progressiste, communisme canadien, 1956, Joseph Staline, Nikita Khrouchtchev. 20e congrès du Parti communiste de l'Union soviétique, Tim Buck, J.B. Salsberg, Norman Penner, Gui Caron, antisémitisme, Stanley B. Ryerson On 19 April 1957, 110 delegates from across the country gathered in Toronto to participate in the 6th National Convention of the Labor-Progressive Party (lpp), Canada's major Communist organization. On the heels of the most intense and damaging crisis in the party's history, this convention was deemed highly significant. It was the culmination of twelve months of acute and acrimonious ideological and political struggle. The conflict divided both the leadership and the membership, involving a thorough re-examination and questioning of the strategy, philosophy, structure, and, ultimately, the very existence of the lpp. Several major issues shaped the debate at the convention. Of major controversy were the questions of the relationship of the lpp to the international Communist movement in general, and to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (cpsu) in particular; the role of the party in relation to the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (ccf), the trade-union movement, and other "progressive" forces in the country; and the theory and practice of inner-party democracy. In the eyes of the majority of the delegates, however, one question was of overwhelming significance: that of the need for a Marxist-Leninist party in Canada. Around these very basic issues, two distinctly antagonistic positions crystallized. [End Page 161] A minority grouping, led by J. B. Salsberg, a long-standing leader of the party and one of its most able spokesmen, had decided that the lpp, "with its long history of dogmatism, subservience to the cpsu, sectarianism and isolation from the masses," was no longer an adequate tool with which to build socialism in Canada.1 On this basis, Salsberg and his supporters advocated the dissolution of the lpp and a "socialist realignment" of progressive forces throughout the country. This stand could be characterized as essentially social democratic. The large majority of delegates, however, stood behind the position held by the national leader, Tim Buck, and most prominently defended by Leslie Morris, who would become leader in 1961. To them, Salsberg's proposals represented "rank opportunism," "defeatism," and, worst of all, "revisionism" – an attempt to water down Marxism-Leninism in an effort to achieve "bourgeois respectability."2 Buck and his followers were prepared to admit that Soviet precepts had been followed too closely in the past, that inner-party democracy suffered in the process, and that the lpp was insufficiently flexible in its policies. Certain changes and corrections would have to be made. For the majority, however, such errors did not bring the basic principles of Marxism-Leninism into question. In its essence, the political line of the party had been correct. Proletarian internationalism, democratic centralism, and the dictatorship of the proletariat remained valid and necessary concepts. And most importantly, the need for a Communist party in Canada was indisputable; the lpp was that party and was still the vanguard of the Canadian working class. While attempting to rid the party of its dogmatic and sectarian tendencies, those aligned with Buck felt that the primary task at hand was to defeat the "revisionists" and "liquidationists."3 Yet not all delegates fit neatly into either group. Besides those affiliated with Salsberg, two other minority positions were discernible at the convention, one advocating the need for change, the other more hardened in its position. A small cluster gathered around Norman Penner, Edna Ryerson, and Charles Sims, all leading members in the party.4 This group was more critical [End Page 162] of the lpp's past record than were the majority and advocated more far-reaching changes. Seeing "left-sectarianism" as the main danger in the party, they felt that to transform itself the lpp would have to alter its whole approach to politics...