How Can the Left Unite?
by Julius
February 3, 2021
左翼应怎样团结起来？——来自加拿大的经验
巴里韦斯雷德
by Barry Weisleder
The question that forms the title of this article is perhaps one of the most frequently asked of me and leftist activists. Because I don’t want to torture readers with suspense, I’m going to let the cat out of the bag right now and say that YES, the left can unite in direct action, and that common actions pave the way to long term political unity. But questions still remain. Why is the left divided, and how can existing divisions be overcome?
本文标题中的问题是我与左翼活动者最常被问到的问题。因为我不想吊读者的胃口，所以我现在就让这只猫从包里走出来说，是的，左翼可以在直接行动中团结起来，而且共同的行动为长期的政治团结铺平了道路。但问题依然存在。为什么左翼会分裂，及如何超越现有的分裂？
The existing left emerged organically from concrete conditions. To understand those circumstances, some background is needed. This is the 104th year since the triumph of the first successful workers’ revolution, the Russian Revolution of 1917. It changed the political landscape globally, and altered the left irrevocably. But we need to go back in time just a bit farther.
现在的左翼有机出现于具有条件下。要理解这些情况，就需要介绍一些背景。现在（2021年）是第一次成功的工人革命——1917年的俄国十月革命以来第104年了。十月革命改变了全球的政治格局，并不可逆转地改变了左翼。但我们还要再往前追溯一段时间。
The socialist revolution, for the first time in class-divided society, brings the majority of humanity to power. It requires a workers’ party and a workers’ state to lead the transition and to overcome the resistance of the hitherto privileged, powerful and ruthless minority. The transition to workers’ power cannot be achieved spontaneously or in a de-centralized fashion owing to the centralized nature of existing minority class rule. In addition, the uneven development of nations, and the de-synchronized nature of class conflict worldwide, impose the need for greater solidarity and stronger political organization of the dispossessed than ever before.
在阶级对立的社会中，社会主义革命第一次让绝大多数人获得了权力。需要一个工人政党和一个工人国家来领导向社会主义的过渡，打败迄今为止享有特权的、强大的和残酷的少数人的抵抗。由于少数人阶级统治的集中性，因此向工人政权的过渡不可能以自发的或非集中化的方式来实现。此外，各国的不平衡发展和世界范围内阶级冲突的不同步，要求被剥削者相比过去要更加团结，要有更强大的政治组织。
Fundamental differences over questions of party and state led to the first major split in the workers’ movement, the split between Marxism and anarchism. For anarchists, individual self-expression takes priority over the collective discipline necessary to expropriate the expropriators. Individualism takes priority over the need to create a workers’ state to overcome the resistance of the rich, and to affect the transition from generalized poverty to generalized freedom from want.
关于政党和国家问题的根本分歧导致了工人运动中的第一次主要分裂，即马克思主义和无政府主义之间的分裂。对无政府主义者而言，个人的自我表达优先于没收剥夺者所必需的集体纪律。个人主义要优先于为打败富人的抵抗，实现从普遍的贫困到普遍消除贫困的过渡而建立工人国家的需要。
The second major split in the workers’ movement occurred over reformism. Revolutionary socialists have always been in the forefront of the fight for reforms. That is evident in the Communist Manifesto of 1848. In it you can see demands such as End child labour and Tax the rich. Reformism, however, is the doctrine of a gradual transition to socialism relying on an accumulation of reforms. It fosters illusions in the neutrality of the capitalist state as the vehicle for reform. Thus, it subordinates workers (those who subscribe to this illusion) to the preservation of the system and its state. Gradualism or ‘evolutionary socialism’ as Edward Bernstein called it, combined with huge party and labour union bureaucracies, transformed the Socialist (Second) International into a pro-capitalist party that capitulated to national chauvinism and imperialist war.
工人运动中的第二次主要分裂是由于改良主义。革命社会主义者一直站在争取改良的斗争的最前沿。1848年的《共产党宣言》已表达得很明确了。在《宣言》中可看到诸如取消儿童劳动和向财富征税的要求。然而，改良主义是一种通过累积的改良来缓慢向社会主义过渡的教义。改良主义散布一种幻想，即中立的资本主义国家可以作为争取改良的工具。因此改良主义使工人（沉溺于这种幻想的人）服从于维护体制及其国家。爱德华伯恩斯坦所称的渐进主义或“进化社会主义”，配合以庞大的党和工会的官僚机构，将社会党（第二）国际转变为亲资本主义政党，屈服于民族沙文主义与帝国主义战争。
The split in the Second International over the treacherous programme and practice of social democratic reformism, led to the formation of an internationalist, anti-war left wing at the Zimmerwald Conference in September 1915. Following the Russian Revolution, this political regroupment of the left led to the foundation in 1919 of the Communist (Third) International.
第二国际内由奸诈的纲领和社会民主主义的改良主义实践而形成的分裂，促使在1915年的齐美瓦尔德会议上形成了一支国际主义的、反战的左翼。俄国革命之后，左翼的这一重组导致了1919年共产（第三）国际的成立。
In Canada, the Communist Party was formed in 1921. Its founding convention took place in secret, in a barn near Guelph. Many of its initial members came from the left wing of the reformist Socialist Party of Canada and the Social Democratic Party of Canada.
在加拿大，共产党成立于1921年。其成立大会是在一个圭尔夫附近的一个谷仓秘密召开的。加拿大共产党的许多初始成员来自改良主义的加拿大社会党和加拿大社会民主党的左翼。
The Russian Revolution was besieged by hostile imperialist armies. It suffered enormously from its isolation and economic backwardness. A bureaucratic party elite, represented by Joseph Stalin, seized control. It curtailed workers’ democracy, crushed socialist opposition and adopted a new programme that over-adapted to capitalist rule outside the USSR. The perspective of world revolution was replaced with the false utopia of ‘socialism in one country’. Permanent revolution (that is, the need for a workers’-led revolution to lead the social transformation, especially in the poor countries) was supplanted by the old, discredited Menshevik notion of revolution by stages. The ‘stages theory’ relies on an alliance with the liberal or nationalist bourgeoisie. Under Stalin, socialist democracy was replaced by bureaucratic tyranny, accompanied by elite privilege, false propaganda, show trials, torture and the assassination of political opponents.
俄国革命被敌对的帝国主义军队包围。由于被孤立和经济落后，俄国革命损失巨大。以约瑟夫斯大林为首的官僚主义党精英控制获得了控制权。他们削减工人民主，镇压社会主义反对派，采纳了新纲领以迎合苏联外部的资本主义秩序。世界革命的观点被“一国社会主义”的虚假乌托邦所取代。不断革命论（指需要工人领导的革命来引领社会变革，尤其是在落后国家中）被陈旧的不可信的孟什维克阶段革命论概念所取代。“阶段革命论”依赖同自由主义者或民族资产阶级的联盟。在斯大林的统治下，伴随着精英特权、虚假宣传、走过场的审判、酷刑、暗杀政治对手，社会主义民主被官僚独裁所取代。
The divide in the Stalinist-dominated C.I. gave rise to the International Left Opposition in 1930, and the formation of the Fourth International in 1938. Leon Trotsky, a co-leader with Lenin of the Russian Revolution, played a leading role in the preservation of revolutionary Marxism, and its further development. Trotsky’s analysis of the phenomena of Stalinism and of fascism in the 20th century was particularly significant. The Fourth International began as a small movement of educational groups in a few countries. In the 1960s, it attracted thousands of young militants, spread to all continents, and became a more substantial force in a number of countries, including France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Sri Lanka and Philippines. Its ideas are very influential in Latin America and Europe today.
斯大林主义主导的共产国际的分裂，促使20世纪30年代国际左翼反对派发展起来，并导致1938年第四国际成立。与列宁共同领导俄国革命的列夫·托洛茨基在维护并进一步发展革命马克思主义的进程中发挥了领导作用。托洛茨基对20世纪斯大林主义和法西斯主义现象的分析尤为重要。第四国际最初是在少数国家中的教育团体构成的小型运动。在20世纪60年代，第四国际吸引了成千上万名青年战士，传播到各大洲，并在包括法国、意大利、葡萄牙、西班牙、墨西哥、巴西、斯里兰卡和菲律宾等很多国家成为更强大的力量。今天，第四国际的理念在拉美和欧洲非常有影响力。
The revolutionary continuity of the Fourth International in Canada starts with the Canadian branch of the Communist League of America in the 1930s. It proceeds through the Revolutionary Workers’ Party in the 1940s, and the League for Socialist Action in the 1960s and 70s.
第四国际在加拿大的革命连续性开始于20世纪30年代美国共产主义者同盟的加拿大分支。接下来还经历了20世纪40年代的革命工人党，和60—70年代的社会主义行动同盟。
During the cold war, at the height of McCarthyism (in the late 1940s), the F.I. suffered splits which reflected the pressure of the capitalist ideological offensive. One current that split away from the FI developed the theory that the USSR had become capitalist, state capitalist. That designation meant that in any conflict between the USSR and US imperialism, workers should take neither side. This ‘third camp’ position was extended to China, North Korea, Vietnam and Cuba. Instead of defending the workers’ states against imperialism, including defence of the relatively healthy workers’ state and revolutionary leadership in Cuba, the third campists stood aside. Instead of calling for political revolution to replace the Stalinist dictators with socialist democracy in the Soviet Union and China, the ‘third camp’ proponents abstained from the struggle. Objectively speaking, this stance supports the imperialist-dominated status quo. The SWP in Britain and the International Socialists in Canada belong to this current. On policy towards Cuba, they are counter-revolutionary.
冷战期间，在麦卡锡主义的巅峰时期（20世纪40年代后期），由于资本主义意识形态进攻的压力，第四国际发生分裂。从第四国际中分裂出来的一个派别发展了一种理论，认为苏联已成为资本主义，国家资本主义。这种定义意味着在苏联与美帝国主义的任何冲突中，工人都不应支持任何一方。这种“第三阵营”立场还把对苏联的态度拓展到了中国、北朝鲜、越南和古巴。第三阵营分子没有去保卫工人国家以反对帝国主义，包括保卫古巴这一相对健康的工人国家及其革命领导人，而是站在一边旁观。第三阵营论的拥护者没有号召发起政治革命，以社会主义民主来取代苏联、中国的斯大林主义独裁者，而是逃避这种斗争。客观讲，这种立场支持帝国主义统治的现状。英国社会主义工人党和加拿大的国际社会主义者社（International Socialists）属于这一流派。他们关于古巴的立场是反革命的。
Another split from the F.I., which occurred in the 1950s, bent the stick in the other direction. It attributed revolutionary qualities to Stalinism and its derivative currents such as Maoism, Titoism, Ho Chi Minh, Enver Hoxa, Kim Il Sung, etc. This current abandoned the idea of political revolution to establish socialist democracy in the deformed workers’ states. A group called Workers’ World Party in the US represents this tendency. A group with similar views, Fire This Time, operates in Vancouver.
另一次脱离第四国际的分裂发生于20世纪50年代，这支分裂出的流派使棍子朝另一边小夜曲。他们将革命品质归于斯大林主义及其派生流派，如毛主义、铁托主义、胡志明、恩维尔·霍查、金日成等。这个派别放弃了在畸形工人国家中发起政治革命以建立社会主义民主制的理念。美国一个叫工人世界党的组织可代表这一倾向。温哥华有一个与之立场相似的组织“此刻之火”（Fire This Time）[1]。
The Fourth International divided in 1953, but it re-united in 1961 on the basis of recognition of the Cuban socialist revolution and its historic significance. But some Marxist groups rejected Trotskyist reunification on the grounds of a different assessment of the Cuban revolution, of the Vietnamese revolution, of black nationalism in the USA, of feminism and the new student movement. Those groups travelled to political outer space, to be joined by some others later. They all began their journey to never-never land by denying the new revolutionary political realities. This led them to ultra-left sectarian positions. One of them called on the multi-millions in the broad anti-war movement to demand “All Indochina Must Go Communist”, rather than the principled, defensive slogan “U.S. Out Now”. The ultra-left posture fostered an abstentionist practice, which begat internal cultism, artificial self-generated campaigns, undemocratic mini-dictatorial regimes, conspiracy theories, and a morbid preoccupation with attacking the sects closest politically to their own particular deformations. The most egregious examples of this phenomenon are the Trotskyist League (IST) and the Bolshevik Tendency. Another such group is known as the World Socialist Web Site or as the Socialist Equality Party. It refuses to intervene in mass working class parties, and it promotes conspiracy theories, such as the crank notion that leaders of the American SWP orchestrated the assassination of Leon Trotsky in 1940. Frankly, all those groups deserve one another. Unfortunately, they sometimes harass our press sellers and folks who come to our events. Our norm is that we do not spend any time whatsoever arguing with such cranks who foul the air with absurd accusations and divert us from our pressing tasks.
第四国际在1953年分裂，但1961年时，在承认古巴社会主义革命及其历史意义的基础上，重新统一起来。但由于在古巴革命、越南革命、美国黑人民族主义、女性主义、新学生运动等问题上有不同评价，一些马克思主义组织拒绝托洛茨基主义的重新统一。这些组织前往政治外层空间，后来也开始有其他一些成员加入。他们都通过否定新的革命现实来开始踏向未知之地的旅程。这促使他们持极左宗派立场。他们中有一支在数百万人的广泛反战运动中呼吁“所有印度支那人都必须成为共产主义者”（“All Indochina Must Go Communist”），而不是原则性的保卫性口号“美国立刻滚出去”（“U.S. Out Now”）。极左姿态培养了一种弃权主义实践，这种实践产生出人为自我制造运动、不民主的小型独裁组织作风、阴谋论，及病态地全神贯注于攻击在政治上与他们自己那极为变态的团体最接近的流派。这种现象最极端的例子就是托洛茨基主义同盟（国际斯巴达克斯主义倾向）（Trotskyist League（iSt））和布尔什维克倾向（Bolshevik Tendency）。[2]另一个组织叫“世界社会主义网”或“社会主义平等党”。该组织拒绝参与到群众性工人政党中，并提倡阴谋论，如提出美国社会主义工人党领导人在1940年策划暗杀托洛茨基的古怪想法。坦率讲，所有这些组织对其他组织而言都值得存在。不幸的是，他们有时会骚扰我们的出版物销售人员和我们活动的参加者。我们的规则是，不管什么情况，都绝不花时间与这些古怪暴躁之人争吵，这些古怪暴躁之人以荒誔的罪名污蔑我们，并要使我们脱离自己紧迫的任务。
Sadly, some leftists over-react to the sterile brew of sectarianism by abandoning revolutionary theory and organization altogether. They throw out the baby with the bathwater. They stumble backwards to reformism. This is what happened to the New Socialists, a group that originated in an anti-Leninist split from the I.S. over 25 years ago. The NS converged with the left-reformist Socialist Project, led by Leo Panitch (who sadly just passed away), Sam Gindin and Greg Albo. As the name implies, the Project does not favour the formation of a party. It is a network of academics and radicals. It has a sectarian attitude towards the NDP, a passive stance towards the labour bureaucracy, and has no ongoing political intervention into the social justice movements. The SP believes in reforming the capitalist state from within, although ironically, it is abstentionist on the electoral front.
令人遗憾的是，一些左翼人士对宗派主义的无价值酝酿产生了过度反应，进而全盘否定革命理论和组织。他们将婴儿与洗澡水一起倒掉。他们倒退到改良主义。这就是发生在“新社会主义者社”（New Socialists）身上的事情，新社会主义者社起源于25年前从国际社会主义者社分裂出的反列宁主义派别。新社会主义者社与由里奥·潘尼奇（Leo Panitch，不幸的是刚刚去世）、山姆·金丁（Sam Gindin）与格雷格·阿尔博（Greg Albo）领导的左翼改良主义的社会主义方案社（Socialist Project）合并。如同名称所暗示的那样，方案社并不主张组织一个党。它是一个由学者和激进分子组成的网络。它对新民主党持宗派主义态度，对劳工官僚机构持消极立场，没有在政治上持久参与到社会公正运动中。社会主义方案社主张从内部改革资本主义国家，尽管具有讽刺意味的是，它在选举上是弃权主义者。
Another group on the scene is Fightback (IMT). When it was present in the NDP, it refused to build a united NDP left wing, such as the Socialist Caucus. Fightback devotes most of its energy to forming student groups on university campuses. Fightback is Canadian chauvinist on the Quebec national question. It is hostile to Palestinian self-determination and it opposes the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign aimed at the Zionist apartheid state. In third world countries, sections of the IMT join populist-capitalist parties, like the ruling PPP in Pakistan and the PRD in Mexico.
只一个相应组织是反击社（Fightback，国际马克思主义趋势加拿大支部）。在新民主党内，反击社拒绝组建一个统一的新民主党左翼，如社会主义骨干会议（Socialist Caucus）。反击将大部分精力都花在了在大学中组建学生团体上。在魁北克民族问题上，反击社是加拿大沙文主义者。它反对巴勒斯坦人自决，并反对针对犹太复国主义的种族隔离国家的全球抵制、撤资和制裁运动。在第三世界国家，国际马克思主义趋势的支部参加民粹主义的资本家政党，如巴基斯坦执政的人民党和墨西哥的民主革命党。
The main US Trotskyist party for 45 years, the SWP, degenerated in the late 70s and 1980s. It broke with Permanent Revolution and in 1983 it expelled its Trotskyist cadres. This cult, led by Jack Barnes, defends the Zionist state and gave back-handed support to Donald Trump as a vector of populist discontent. The Communist League is the SWP affiliate in Canada, with a branch only in Montreal.
作为45年期间美国主要托派政党的社会主义工人党在70—80年代退化了。这时它同不断革命论决裂，并于1983年开除了党内的托派干部。由杰克巴恩斯领导的这一偶像崇拜团体保卫犹太复国主义国家，并向唐纳德特朗普提供反手支持，称其为民粹主义不满的载体。加拿大共产主义者同盟是美国社会主义工人党在加拿大的附庸，仅在蒙特利尔有分支。
And what about the grand-daddy of the radical left, the Communist Party, from which we trace our origins? The CP is reformist and Canadian nationalist to the core. It strives for a multi-class or ‘popular front’ government. The popular front, as opposed to the united front, subordinates workers’ parties to capitalist parties in the pursuit of power. In Canada, the popular front would include the “progressive wing” of the Liberal Party. It incorporates the mistaken view, also held by CPC-ML, that Canada is a colony of American imperialism, not an imperialist power in its own right. The CP supported the power bid by the alliance of the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois in December 2008. The CP is a sclerotic shell of its storied past. It is both unwilling and unable to account for, much less to break with the sad legacy of Stalinist sexism, homophobia, treachery and political repression.
那么激进左翼的祖父，也是我们可追溯的起源，加拿大共产党如何呢？加拿大共产党是改良主义政党，且以加拿大民族主义为其核心。加共争取建立多阶级的或“人民阵线”政府。与联合阵线相反，人民阵线在追求权力的进程中促使工人政党服从于资本家政党。在加拿大，人民阵线包括自由党的“进步一翼”。它还持一种错误观点，即加拿大是美帝国主义的殖民地，而非自己就是一个帝国主义大国，加拿大共产党（马列主义）持相同的立场。加共在2008年11月大选中支持由自由党、新民主党和魁北克集团的联盟所提出的强力名单。加共是其传奇过往的僵化外壳。加共既不愿也无法解释自己的过往，更何况与斯大林主义的性别歧视、同性恋恐惧症和政治压迫的悲惨遗产决裂了。
As you can see, the English Canadian left is littered with much political detritus. The Quebec left has its own similar story. The divisions on the left are rooted in history and are based in strategic, programmatic and operational differences. Still, some left activists say “Why can’t those differences be put aside, for the sake of unity?” But the real question is: “How long would an unprincipled unity last?” The truth is this: If all the existing forces of the radical left were to combine suddenly, with all their differences intact, the result would be as unstable as nitro-glycerine. At the first controversy, such an unprincipled amalgam would explode into an array of fragments, further demoralizing everyone within its blast radius.
如诸位所见，加拿大英语地区的左翼如凌乱的政治碎屑。魁北克左翼有自己的故事。左翼的支离破碎植根于历史，基于战略、纲领和工作方法的分歧。不过，一些左翼活动者会说：“为什么不能为了统一，将分歧抛在一边？”但真正的问题是：“无原则的统一能维持多久？”真相是：如果激进左翼中所有现存的力量立即合并，并完整保有他们之间的分歧，结果就会像硝基甘油一样不稳定。在第一轮论战中，这无原则的汞合金就会炸成碎片，并进一步上爆炸半径内的所有人消沉。
But, knowing all this, why can’t the various groups recognize reality and arrive at a principled unity? One reason is the relatively low level of class struggle in this society. A higher level of class struggle would rapidly put many theories to the test. It would help to separate fact from fiction. It would separate correct ideas from wrong-headed ones. That remains the music of the future. Unfortunately, socialists are compelled to work under existing conditions, not under those we might choose. We cannot afford to wait until conditions are more to our liking – that is, if we really want to influence conditions in a revolutionary direction, and ultimately to win.
但了解以上内容后，为什么各个团体不会认清现实并达成原则性统一？原因之一是社会的阶级斗争水平还相对较低。较高的阶级斗争水平会迅速将众多理论付诸考验。这将有助于区分现实与小说，区别正确的理念和错误的理念。但这还只是未来的音乐。不幸的是，社会主义者被迫在现有条件下，而非在我们可选择的条件下工作。我们不能一直去等待条件更符合我们的喜好时——即如果我们真的想在革命指导下影响条件并最终获胜的话。
Furthermore, we know that class struggle is ongoing and global, and that revolution is an outcome of that ongoing process. Socialists strive to advance the class struggle where we live and work, and to mobilize support for workers’ struggles, and especially for revolutionary breakthroughs, wherever they do occur. So, given that the overall level of class struggle is relatively low, and given that the left is fragmented, what is the best way, under present circumstances, to test theory in practice and to magnify the impact of the actually existing left? In our view, the best way forward is offered by the united front tactic. The united front entails unity in action, chiefly of working class organizations. It is a limited form of unity in which the participants can agree on one issue, on one cause. It does not require agreement on a full program; it does not require merger into one party, nor the adoption of a grand strategy for revolutionary change. The united front approach fosters the test of common practice and a common dialog involving diverse participants. It lays the basis, albeit on a small scale, for the advent of pluralism, for mutual respect, and for the very socialist democracy of the future that will replace capitalist rule.
此外，我们知道阶级斗争正在全球进行，且革命正是这一进程的结果。社会主义者努力推动我们所生活的地区的阶级斗争并开展工作，动员起来支持工人的斗争，尤其是为了革命性突破，无论是突破发生在哪里。所以，鉴于阶级斗争的水平还相对较低，左翼支离破碎，那么在当下的环境下，在实践中检验理论，并扩大现存左翼的影响的最佳方式是什么呢？在我们看来，联合阵线策略是前进的最佳方式。联合阵线意味着工人阶级组织主要在行动中团结起来。这是一种参与者可以同意在某一议题或某一原因上联合起来的有限形式。联合阵线不需要达成全面的纲领；不需要合并为一个党，也不需要都接受争取革命性变革的雄伟战略。联合阵线方法推动不同实践的检验，并培育其中不同参与者间的共同对话。尽管规模还小，但它会为多元主义、互相尊重的出现，为在未来以典型的社会主义民主替代资本主义统治奠定基础。
That is the approach of Socialist Action – Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste in the Canadian state. SA is a democratic centralist organization that stands on a revolutionary socialist programme. A central pillar of it is socialist democracy and the united front perspective.
这就是加拿大社会主义行动党（英语）—社会主义行动同盟（法语）（Socialist Action – Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste）的方法。社会主义行动党是持革命社会主义纲领的民主集中制组织。其核心支柱是社会主义民主和联合阵线立场。
From where did SA come? Fast forward from the convention in a barn in 1921. The League for Socialist Action fused with the Revolutionary Marxist Group and the Quebec-based Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire in 1977 to form the Revolutionary Workers’ League. The RWL made some big errors in its first four years. It adopted an extreme “turn to industry” tactic. It pressed its white-collar worker members to quit their jobs, go to work in factories, and passively observe. The RWL became intolerant of dissent. It shrank to a tiny rump. Emerging from the ruins of the RWL were the Socialist Workers’ Collective, and the Alliance for Socialist Action, which joined Socialist Challenge in English Canada. Socialist Challenge linked up with Gauche socialiste in Quebec. But the SC and the Gs drew the wrong lessons from the experience of the RWL. Most of their leaders blamed Leninism for the fall of the RWL and the radical left in Canada, instead of blaming the decline in the class struggle that occurred in the 1980s. They blamed the strategy of revolutionary party building, instead of blaming get-rich-quick schemes. Then the SC-Gs expelled the proponents of party building still in its ranks. They wanted instead to build a loose network, not a revolutionary workers’ party. These ex-Trotskyists of the SC-Gs expelled Elizabeth and me in 1993. Why? Because we insisted that the policies democratically adopted at convention should be implemented, and that members should pay dues, attend meetings and sell our press.
社会主义行动党从哪里来呢？这可以向前追溯到1921年的谷仓会议。1977年，社会主义行动同盟与革命马克思主义小组及基于魁北克的革命马克思主义小组（Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire）合并，组建了革命工人同盟。革命工人同盟在其成立的头四年犯了一些重大错误。它接受了极端的“转入工业”策略，强迫白领工人成员辞去自己的工作，去工厂中工作，并消极地观察。革命工人同盟内不容异见。它萎缩成了微小的残余。在革命工人同盟的废墟中出现了社会主义工人集体（Socialist Workers’ Collective）和社会主义行动联盟（Alliance for Socialist Action），他们参加了加拿大英语区的社会主义挑战社（Socialist Challenge）。社会主义挑战社与魁北克的社会主义左翼（Gauche socialiste）相联系。但社会主义挑战社与社会主义左翼从革命工人同盟的经验中得出了错误的教训。他们的多数领导人都将革命工人同盟和加拿大激进左翼的失败归咎于列宁主义，而不是80年代阶级斗争的减少。他们谴责革命党建设的战略，而不是谴责快速致富的计谋。之后社会主义挑战社—社会主义左翼开除了仍然坚持建党思想的成员。他们想建立一个宽松的网络，而非革命的工人政党。这些社会主义挑战社—社会主义左翼中的前托派于1993年开除了伊丽莎白和我。为什么？因为我们坚持应实现成立大会上所采纳的政治民主，且成员应支付党费、参加会议并销售我们的出版物。
A handful of comrades joined us. Together we founded Socialist Action in Canada in 1994. Socialist Action-USA, which arose from expulsions from the American SWP a decade earlier, supported our efforts generously. To this day, we write for and circulate the same monthly newspaper. We appealed the expulsions that occurred in Canada to the World Congress of the Fourth International in 1995. The F.I. voted to designate SA Canada “a group of partisans of the F.I. that is invited to participate in the meetings and activities of the F.I., with the agreement of Gauche socialiste.” But the Gs subsequently did not agree. It blocked our participation in the world movement for 26 years. We are remedying that situation now, working with comrades in several countries, inside and outside the F.I., as part of the Platform for a Revolutionary Workers’ International. Meanwhile, the Gs has disappear from the political landscape.
只有少数同志加入了我们。我们一起于1994年建立了加拿大社会主义行动党。可追溯到十年前被美国社会主义工人党开除的部分成员所组成的美国社会主义行动党慷慨地支援了我们的努力。迄今为止，我们都一直编写和颁发同一份月报[3]。1995年第四国际的世界代表大会上，我们就发生在加拿大的开除事件提出了上诉。第四国际投票认定加拿大社会主义行动党为“由第四国际拥护者的组织，在魁北克社会主义左翼同意的前提下，可以受邀参加第四国际的会议与活动”。但社会主义左翼随即表示不同意，并在随后的26年里一直阻止我们参加第四国际的世界运动。我们现在仍在纠正这种状况，同由一些国家的第四国际内外的同志所组成的争取革命的国际倾向（TRI）一起工作。同时，社会主义左翼从政治格局中消失了。
SA is actively involved in a variety of political campaigns and in a number of social movements, including for indigenous rights, for an end to poverty, for feminism and ecology, and in opposition to racism, homophobia and fascism. We act in solidarity with revolutionary Cuba, defend self-determination for Venezuela, and support movements of anti-imperialist resistance in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Haiti. We have initiated and led broadly supported actions in solidarity with Venezuela and the Palestinian people. The united front approach permeates everything we do.
加拿大社会主义行动党积极参与各种政治活动和许多社会运动，包括争取原住民权利、消除贫困、争取女性主义与生态主义，及反对种族主义、同性恋恐惧症和法西斯主义。我们声援革命的古巴，保卫委内瑞拉的自决，支持巴勒斯坦、伊拉克、阿富汗和海地的反帝国主义抵抗运动。我们发起并领导了声援委内瑞拉和巴勒斯坦人民的广泛支援行动。联合阵线方法渗入到我们所做的每一件事情当中。
Our primary orientation is to the working class, and to its labour and political institutions. Unlike the rest of the Canadian left, SA is not just present in mass working class organizations — we are actively involved in building a class struggle left wing opposition in the unions and inside the labour-based NDP. Other groups on the left either abstain from the NDP arena, or adapt to the treacherous policies of the NDP leaders by embracing reformism and supporting reformist leaders almost uncritically. Neither course is the way forward. SA practices participation in the struggle for socialist policies and for a Workers’ Agenda. This is explained in our booklets “Prospects for Socialism in Canada” and “Vote NDP, Fight for Socialist Policies, Build the NDP Socialist Caucus”. In other words, we are for ‘conflictual participation’, not for political submission, not for cheerleading, and not for abstention, in relation to the NDP.
我们工作的主要方向是劳动阶级及其劳工与政治机构。与其他加拿大左翼不同，社会主义行动党不仅出现群众性劳动阶级组织中——我们还积极在工会和以劳工为基础的新民主党内建立一支阶级斗争左翼反对派。其他左翼团体要么不参加新民主党，要么不加批判地拥护改良主义和支持改良主义领导人，来适应新民主党领导人的阴险政策。两者都不是前进道路。社会主义行动党参与争取社会主义政策和工人议程的斗争。我们在《加拿大社会主义的前景》和《投票支持新民主党，为社会主义政策而战斗，建立新民主党的社会主义骨干会议》这两本小册子中解释了这点。换句话说，我们与新民主党联系，是为了“冲突性参与”，而不是为了政治屈服，不是为了做拉拉队，不是为了弃权。
What has SA accomplished? Quite a lot for a small party. We played a very visible role in the Days of Action in Ontario, the general strikes in ten cities, especially in Toronto in October 1996, against the Conservative Mike Harris government. Elizabeth co-chaired the rally of a quarter million that stretched from the Ontario Legislature to Front Street, and introduced Billy Bragg who sang his song Power in the Union to the vast crowd. We built international solidarity, defended workers’ strikes and public services, opposed imperialist wars, and confronted racists and fascists. We successfully fought for anti-war and socialist policies in the NDP. The Socialist Caucus, which we lead, in 2006 won the NDP to demand Canada Out of Afghanistan. The SC initiated and won the leadership review in 2015 that led to the removal of neo-liberal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair. SC comrades have been elected NDP district association president, even won NDP candidate nominations. One of our members came very close to winning a seat in the BC provincial election in 2020. One of our members is the current interim leader of the NDP in New Brunswick. SA members have won election to the OPSEU provincial executive, running on an explicitly class struggle platform. We are partisans of the Workers’ Action Movement. WAM is a class struggle caucus in a number of unions. It seeks to end concessions bargaining, 2-tier wages, and aims to replace the bureaucratic leaders with union democracy, from the bottom up. WAM candidates for the top offices in the Ontario Federation of Labour won 36 per cent of the votes cast at the OFL Convention in November 2019. Like the Socialist Caucus in the NDP, WAM embodies the united front approach. It brings together Marxists, anarchists, left social democrats and others who want to put the movement back into Labour.
社会主义行动党获得了什么成就呢？我们召集了很多小型聚会。我们在安大略“行动日”、十市总罢工，尤其是在1996年反对迈克哈里斯的保守党政府的多伦多罢工中扮演了很重要的角色。伊丽莎白与其他人共同主持了从安大略省议会到省前街（Front Street）的25万人集会，并让比利·布拉格（Billy Bragg）[4]在人山人海中演唱了他的歌曲《力量在工会之中》（Power in the Union）。我们建立了国际团结，保卫工人罢工和公共服务，反对帝国主义战争，并与种族主义者和法西斯主义者对抗。我们在新民主党内成功争取了反战和社会主义政策。我们领导的社会主义骨干会议在2006年成功促使新民主党提出了从阿富汗撤军的要求。社会主义干部会议在2015年的领导人评论中获胜，最终导致新民主党罢免了新自由主义的领导人汤姆·穆凯尔（Tom Mulcair）。社会主义干部会议的同志当选为新民主党地区协调会议主席，甚至还赢得了新民主党的候选人提名。我们一位成员差点在2020年卑诗省议会选举中赢得席位。我们一位成员是现在新民主党在新不伦瑞克省的临时领导人。社会主义行动党成员以明确的阶级斗争纲领赢得了安大略省公共服务雇员工会（OPSEU）的省级行政部门的选举。我们是工人行动运动（Workers’ Action Movement）的参与者。工人行动运动是一些工会中的一个阶级斗争干部会议。它力求结束让步式谈判、两级工资制，并旨在以自下而上的工会民主来替代官僚主义领导层。在2019年11月的安大略省劳工联合会代表大会中，工人行动运动的候选人在安大略省劳工联合会的高层部门选举中赢得36%的选票。与社会主义干部会议在新民主党中类似，工人行动运动也体现了联合阵线的方法。它集合了马克思主义者、无政府主义者、左翼社会民主主义者和其他希望把运动重新回归劳工的人。
Here are a few more examples of our application of the united front tactic.
In the absence of an official parade of unions on September 7, SA hosted a rally to mark Labour Day in Toronto. Reps of several unions, social justice groups and leftist parties spoke. At a similar rally in Montreal, the local sponsor, Fightback, would not allow the Socialist Action spokesperson to speak, while in Toronto we invited that group and all others to speak to the crowd.
以下是我们应用联合阵线策略的更多例子。
9月7日，在没有工会正式游行的情况下，社会主义行动党在多伦多举行了纪念劳动节的集会。[5]几个工会、社会公正团体和左翼政党的代表在集会上演讲。在蒙特利尔的一次类似集会上，发起者反击社不许社会主义行动党的发言人演讲，而在多伦多我们邀请了反击社和其他团体在众人面前演讲。
In early October, SA initiated a diverse and successful rally called Peel Against Racism. It protested racism inside the Peel school board, and police murders of innocent people of colour in Mississauga. Earlier, in Peel, we held a public rally for Free Mass Transit, endorsed by Climate Justice Peel, TTC Riders and the Socialist Project.
在10月初，社会主义行动党发起一场名为“皮尔反种族主义”（Peel Against Racism）的多元且成功的集会。这次集会是为了抗议皮尔学校董事会内的种族主义，并抗议警察在密西沙加市（Mississauga）杀害无辜的有色人种人士。早些时候，我们在皮尔举行了一场争取公共交通免费的公共集会，得到了“气候公正皮尔”（Climate Justice Peel）、“公车乘客”（TTC Riders）和社会主义方案社的认可。
We work with other groups in the Labour May Day Committee, which held a successful online event in 2020 and is currently planning one for May 2021.
我们同五一劳动节委员会（Labour May Day Committee）中的其他团体合作，该委员会在2020年成功举行了一次线上活动，且现在正在计划在2021年举行同样的活动。
In January SA hosted a rally outside a Long Term Care facility in Scarborough called Tendercare where scores of seniors have died. Four TV networks reported our call for Nationalization of private, for-profit Long Term Care corporations.
2021年1月，社会主义行动党在斯卡伯勒区（Scarborough）有数十名老人死亡的“长期护理”（Long Term Care）场所外举行集会，呼吁悉心照料。四个电视网络报道了我们将私有的和为了利润的长期护理公司国有化的呼吁。
Our candidate in the Ward 22 city by-election, Corey David, reinforced the SA call for a socialist coalition in the 2022 municipal elections – across Canada!
我们在第22区市议会补选中的候选人科里·戴维(Corey David)，加强了社会主义行动党在2022年市政选举中建立社会主义联盟的呼吁——遍及整个加拿大!
In British Columbia, SA is a founding partner in the Vancouver Unity Assembly.
在不列颠哥伦比亚省，社会主义行动党是温哥华团结会议（Vancouver Unity Assembly）的创始成员。
And as already mentioned, the exemplary leftist alliances, the Socialist Caucus and WAM, show the way forward, right in the heart of the workers’ movement.
且如前面已提到的，示范性的左翼分子联盟——社会主义干部会议和工人行动运动在工人运动的中心展示了前进的道路。
SA has introduced socialist ideas to thousands through our Rebel Films, our weekly webcasts, our popular website and YouTube channel, public forums, May Day celebrations, concerts, study groups, and our annual Trotsky School in the Fall.
社会主义行动党通过反叛电影（Rebel Films）、每周网络直播、受欢迎的网站和YouTube频道、公共论坛、五一节庆祝活动、音乐会、学习小组，及我们每年秋季的托洛茨基学校等，向成千上万人介绍了社会主义理念。
Our membership is growing across the country, tripling in size in the past three years. We host a monthly Pan-Canadian Zoom conference call. Each June we hold a cross-country educational conference, and a convention for members to decide matters of policy, tactics, general orientation, budget, and to elect party leaders.
我们在全国的人数都在增长，在过去三年里我们的规模增加了三倍。我们每月举行一次泛加拿大Zoom会议。每年6月我们会主持一场野外教育会议，并召开全国代表大会，以决定政策、策略、总体方向、预算等问题，并选举党的领导人。
Members pay monthly dues, sell SA newspapers (in non-pandemic conditions) and attend online meetings on a regular basis. New members pass through a provisional membership period of three months to determine their suitability for full member status. Racism, sexism, homophobia and harassment are incompatible with membership in SA. We practice democracy in discussion and unity in action. All members, including leaders, are duty bound to carry out the adopted policies of the organization – unlike labour and NDP leaders who routinely disregard convention decisions in favour of their personal positions and individual career interests.
成员每月交党费，出售社会主义行动党的报纸（在没有疫情的情况下）并定期参加在线会议。新成员要经过三个月的临时党员资格后，才能确定其是否能获得正式党员资格。种族主义、性别歧视、仇视同性恋和性骚扰与社会主义行动党的党员要求不合。我们民主讨论，团结行动。包括领导人在内的所有成员都有义务执行本组织所采纳的政策——不像劳工和新民主党领导人那样通常为了支持他们个人的立场与个人的事业利益而无视代表大会的决定。
We practice what we preach, and we preach what we practice. That enables us to shine a bright beacon of hope in a dark, tormented and cynical world. Education is indispensable for those who want to gain a better understanding of the world, which is why we place such a great emphasis on it.
我们言行一致。这让我们能在一个黑暗的、痛苦的、自私的世界中闪耀希望的明灯。对那些想要更好地理解世界的人来说，教育必不可少，这是我们要重视教育的原因。
Socialist Action is an organization for those who want to change the world. SA is for people who want to replace the tyranny of capitalist minority rule with the immensely creative potential of a democratic, cooperative commonwealth.
社会主义行动党是那些想要改变世界的人的组织。社会主义行动党是那些想用民主的、合作的共同财富的巨大创造潜力来替代资本主义少数人统治暴政的人准备的。
Membership in SA is not a right. It is a privilege for those willing to dedicate themselves to that goal, and to make the sacrifices necessary to advance the process to achieve it. No workers’ strike, certainly no social revolution, is won without great effort. But with effort comes knowledge, skills, comradeship, solidarity, and the satisfaction of knowing that one’s life is linked to the greatest possible purpose – total human emancipation.
社会主义行动党的党员身份不是一种权利。对于那些愿意献身于党的目标，并愿意作出必要的牺牲来实现目标的人，这个身份是一种特权。不付出努力，就不能让工人罢工获胜，当然也不能让社会革命成功。但与努力相伴而来的是知识、技能、同志情、团结，及知晓个人的生命与最伟大的可能目标——全人类的解放——相联系的满足感。
https://socialistaction.ca/2021/02/03/why-cant-the-left-unite/
全称争取社会公正的此刻之火运动（The Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice），成立于2003年10月，机关报为《此刻之火》。 ↑
国际斯巴达克斯主义倾向现在的正式名称是“国际共产主义同盟（第四国际主义者）”，该国际起源于美国社会主义工人党内的“革命倾向”，1964年革命倾向因违反纪律被社会主义工人党开除；托洛茨基主义倾向为其加拿大支部。布尔什维克倾向源自国际斯巴达克斯主义倾向内的一个派别，1985年成为独立组织，该组织同新西兰、德国的几个组织联合为“国际布尔什维克倾向”。这两个国际皆以极左宗派式攻击其他托派组织而闻名。 ↑
指《社会主义报》——译者按。 ↑
比利·布拉格（Billy Bragg）是英国演员与歌手，本名为史蒂芬·威廉·布拉格（Stephen William Bragg），出演过《莫里斯之舞》《摇滚世代》等影片，支持社会主义思想。《力量在工会之中》可点此欣赏：https://search.bilibili.com/all?keyword=Billy%20Bragg%20%20Power%20in%20the%20Union ↑
加拿大和美国的劳动节是9月的第一个周一。 ↑