Socialist Party of Canada
The Socialist Party of Canada was formed in 1904 when the Socialist Party of British Columbia merged with the Canadian Socialist League. The party had a revolutionary Marxist orientation and saw attempts to reform capitalism as counterproductive to the goal of overturning the capitalist system entirely and replacing it with a socialist model.The Socialist Party was strongest in British Columbia and elected members to the province's legislature.
In 1907, a moderate faction of the SPC split off to form the Social Democratic Party of British Columbia which, in 1911, became the Social Democratic Party of Canada and the two parties were bitter rivals for several years.
As a result of the Russian Revolution and the Winnipeg General Strike a number of its supporters became attracted to Bolshevism and the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky. Those who rejected Leninism moved towards an evolutionary or gradualist socialist position and in 1920, a split occured when many of the party's membership left to join the Federated Labour Party of Canada, a party formed by the British Columbia Federation of Labour and other joined Labour and Independent Labour Parties that were forming throughout the country. (see Labour Party)
In 1921 most of the Marxist members were lost to the formation of the Workers Party which was the legal wing of the new Communist Party of Canada and in 1925 the Socialist Party formally disbanded with many of its members joining the Independent Labour Party.
See socialism, Marxism
Referenced By
BC NDP | BC New Democratic Party | Canadian political parties | Labour Party of Canada | List of political parties in Canada | New Democratic Party of British Columbia | Social Democratic Party of Canada | Socialist Party of Canada (new) | World Socialist Movement
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