Revolutionary Workers Party Dissolves (1951-52)

In 1951, Ross Dowson submitted a document entitled "The CCF, Our Tasks and Perspectives," to the convention of the Revolutionary Workers Party. It said:

It is no longer sufficient for our party to have merely a CCF orientation, the fundamental orientation of our party since 1946. The question of entry — the dissolution of the independent party and the integration of its forces knit together as a fraction in the CCF — stands posed before us.

The resolution was adopted, and the organization began a three-year period of "deep entry" in the CCF. The decision was reported in this brief item in Labor Challenge, April 1952

RWP Dissolution

In a release to the press, which we have been somewhat delayed in publishing, under the name of its national committee, the Revolutionary Workers Party of Canada has announced its dissolution. The RWP was formed in 1946 at the close of World War II. A highlight of its activities were the inspiring mayoralty campaigns conducted by its Toronto Branch. In one election the RWP candidate won more than 23,700 votes. Since its inception the RWP has given its support to the CCF as the political expression of the Canadian working class.

The NC statement read in part; “In the past seven years revolutionary socialists organized as an independent force in the Revolutionary Workers Party have done pioneer and yeoman service for the cause of Marxism in this country. In the unions, in the shops, wherever they were, the party’s forces have played a vital role in giv­ing clarity to the anti-war as­pirations of the people, in fight­ing for a socialist policy against the treachery of Stalinism and the trap of reformist concilia­tion with capitalism.”

On behalf of the members of the party-now-dissolved and its friends and sympathizers, the national committee statement expressed confidence that “we will continue the struggle to which we are dedicated, not with less but with ever-increas­ing vigor through whatever forms that it takes :.. The fight goes on and will only end with the establishment of a socialist  Canada in a socialist world

Copyright South Branch Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
www.socialisthistory.ca  ▪