Toronto — A new socialist movement may be taking shape in Canada as Socialists Debate New Anti-War, Anti-Imperialist Movement
That was the unmistakable message emerging from the “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed” conference in Toronto, where hundreds of activists, socialists, anti-war organizers, trade unionists, students, Indigenous rights supporters, Palestine solidarity activists and former NDP members gathered for a day-long discussion on how to build a fighting alternative to capitalism, imperialism and militarism.
The conference brought together close to 400 participants in person and online, according to organizers, and marked a significant step forward for the network that first came together around the attempted NDP leadership campaign of anti-imperialist author and activist Yves Engler. Engler’s campaign, which organizers say raised approximately $200,000 and mobilized thousands of volunteers before being blocked by the NDP’s vetting process, has now evolved into a broader effort to build a socialist organization outside the narrow limits of parliamentary reformism.
The name of the gathering was taken from the campaign’s 28-page policy document, Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed: Onward to a Socialist Future, which was developed collectively by dozens of volunteers, researchers and activists during the NDP leadership race. The document has since become the central political reference point for the emerging movement.
Jasmine Peardon frames the day: from blocked campaign to socialist movement
Jasmine Peardon, one of the central organizers and facilitators of the conference, opened the day by situating the gathering in the aftermath of the Yves Engler for NDP leader campaign. She explained that the campaign had brought together activists from different socialist, anti-war, anti-imperialist and ecological traditions around a shared policy document, Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed: Onward to a Socialist Future. More than 45 volunteer activists and researchers, she said, helped write the 28-page platform through a democratic and non-hierarchical process. “There was no hierarchy, no credential checking,” Peardon said. “It was a very democratic process where the best idea wins.”
For Peardon, the blocked Engler campaign revealed both the limits of the NDP and the potential for a broader socialist movement in Canada. She argued that Engler’s exclusion, followed by the rejection of Bianca Mugyenyi’s leadership bid, exposed an undemocratic vetting process and showed that anti-imperialism remains one of the sharpest dividing lines in Canadian politics. “Clearly, anti-imperialism is the last taboo in Canadian politics,” she told participants.
Peardon framed the conference not as a symbolic gathering, but as a practical attempt to turn campaign momentum into lasting organization. She asked participants to think concretely about the movement’s next steps, strategic interventions, alliances, priorities and internal structure. While acknowledging that some participants still saw value in pressuring the NDP and others believed a new party was needed, she emphasized that everyone in the room had rejected the idea that the left’s role should be limited to managing capitalism. “None of us are here to give up and say this is as good as it gets,” Peardon said. “We’re here to propose and develop alternatives.”
A movement born from exclusion
The conference began by tracing its origins to the Yves Engler for NDP leader campaign. Many participants had supported Engler not because they believed the NDP was likely to become a socialist party, but because they saw his candidacy as a way to expose the limits of Canada’s social-democratic establishment and inject anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist politics into a leadership race otherwise dominated by safe, acceptable candidates.
Engler’s campaign was ultimately blocked by the NDP. Organizers said he was banned from leadership events, had police called on him, and was prevented from appearing on the ballot. Bianca Mugyenyi, who also attempted to enter the race after Engler’s exclusion, was likewise rejected by the party, with critics accusing the NDP of using an undemocratic vetting process to keep anti-imperialist and socialist candidates away from the membership.
For many in the room, this confirmed what they had long suspected: the NDP is not a viable vehicle for socialism, especially when it comes to foreign policy, Palestine, NATO and Canadian imperialism.
“Anti-imperialism is the last taboo in Canadian politics,” one organizer said, arguing that the NDP’s rejection of Engler and Mugyenyi was not simply procedural, but political.
The conference was not, however, limited to denunciations of the NDP. A recurring strategic tension ran through the entire day: should socialists continue working inside the NDP to pressure its new leadership and recruit from its left wing, or should they decisively break and build an independent socialist organization or party?
Some participants argued that the NDP still contains thousands of radicalizing members, particularly after the election of Avi Lewis as leader and Matthew Green as party president. Others insisted that the party’s record of excluding anti-imperialist voices, supporting militarized foreign policy and containing socialist energies makes continued engagement a dead end.
By the end of the day, there appeared to be broad agreement that the emerging “Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed” formation should be independent of the NDP, even if some members continue to engage with NDP spaces tactically or individually.
Clayton Thomas-Müller: Bill C-5, Land Back and the militarized extraction economy
The first major speaker was Clayton Thomas-Müller, a Cree author, organizer and land defender from Treaty 6 territory. He opened with a song and a recognition of the Indigenous territories on which the conference was taking place before launching into a sweeping critique of settler colonialism, resource extraction, militarization and the Carney government’s economic agenda.
Thomas-Müller focused heavily on Bill C-5, which he described as a legislative tool for fast-tracking infrastructure and resource extraction projects in the name of the “national interest.” He warned that this framework would be used to accelerate mining, pipelines, LNG infrastructure, port expansion and Arctic militarization while overriding Indigenous rights and consultation obligations.
“You can’t fast-track the Canadian Constitution,” he said, pointing to Section 35 rights and arguing that Indigenous peoples are not stakeholders, but rights holders.
Thomas-Müller described the federal government’s Indigenous loan guarantees and resource-sharing frameworks as attempts to buy off impoverished First Nations governments that have been systematically starved of resources. He warned that the resulting projects are being presented as economic development or clean energy while actually serving mining companies, fossil fuel exporters, NATO-aligned infrastructure and military supply chains.
A major focus of his remarks was the Port of Churchill in Manitoba, which he described as central to the Carney government’s Arctic and military strategy. He linked the port expansion, icebreakers, pipelines, LNG terminals, critical minerals and the Ring of Fire to a broader geopolitical project tied to Europe, NATO and the military-industrial complex.
“These minerals in the Ring of Fire are destined for the military-industrial complex and the war machine,” he argued.
Thomas-Müller also criticized Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, saying that despite the positive symbolism of Indigenous leadership, Kinew’s government is closely aligned with the mining sector and with resource development plans that threaten Indigenous lands.
His core message to the conference was that socialists, workers, climate activists and anti-war organizers must unite with Indigenous land defenders if they want to build a movement capable of confronting capitalism and colonialism. He called for breaking down movement silos and building “the biggest social movement” possible.
Ghada Sasa: Palestine, abolition and disparticipation
Palestinian scholar and organizer Ghada Sasa delivered one of the most powerful speeches of the morning, grounding her politics in her own family history of exile, dispossession and statelessness.
Sasa described her mother’s roots in the occupied West Bank and her father’s family’s expulsion from Palestine in 1948. She spoke about growing up Palestinian in Canada, learning to assert her identity despite social pressure, and becoming active in Palestine solidarity organizing during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza.
She traced her political evolution through campus divestment campaigns, academic boycott efforts, direct action and her time as a graduate student representative on the McMaster University Board of Governors. That experience, she said, convinced her that institutions are not neutral spaces waiting to be reformed, but structures designed to reproduce power.
“That was the precise moment that I became an abolitionist,” she said of her time on the board. “Brown and Black faces in high places weren’t going to save us.”
Sasa argued that the Palestine solidarity movement has shown the limits of institutional reform, particularly in universities, political parties and public institutions that speak the language of equity and inclusion while maintaining material ties to colonial violence.
She also defended direct action as a more effective form of political intervention than symbolic protest. She described actions against real estate events selling properties in illegal Israeli settlements and the challenge to Ontario’s ban on keffiyehs at Queen’s Park.
Sasa introduced the concept of “disparticipation,” drawing from Palestinian revolutionary thought, arguing that activists must delegitimize compromised institutions rather than simply seek inclusion within them. She said that Palestinian political parties, Canadian universities and progressive electoral parties have often normalized colonial frameworks by accepting the terms of the system.
Her conclusion was direct: leftists in Canada should abandon settler-colonial electoral politics and build national and international movements rooted in Indigenous sovereignty, Palestinian liberation, anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism.
“We must focus on abolishing the three major oppressive systems of capitalism, white supremacy and patriarchy,” she said, while also calling for an end to the Western separation between society and nature.
Tamara Lorincz: NATO, nuclear danger and the war economy
Peace activist and scholar Tamara Lorincz warned that the world is “dangerously teetering on the precipice of a global nuclear war” and accused NATO countries of preparing for global conflict by increasing military spending, expanding arms production and escalating confrontation with Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and other states resisting Western dominance.
Lorincz denounced Canada’s commitment to NATO spending targets, warning that the push toward 5% of GDP for military spending would represent an enormous transfer of public wealth into war and austerity. She linked this to cuts to social programs, the militarization of the Arctic, and the proposed NATO-linked Defense, Resilience and Security Bank.
She described the NATO bank as a mechanism to pool capital for arms manufacturers and scale up weapons production, warning that Canada is positioning itself as a key player in this new war economy.
Lorincz also called attention to NATO’s upcoming summit and urged participants to organize against it, calling for Canada to leave NATO and abolish the alliance.
“We cannot have sovereign foreign policy, domestic policy and control over our budget if we do not get out of NATO,” she said.
She also urged mobilization against CANSEC, the major arms fair in Ottawa, and a NATO critical minerals conference in Toronto, arguing that mining and extraction are increasingly being shaped by military objectives.
Her speech connected anti-war politics to climate justice, arguing that military spending and weapons production are not separate from ecological collapse but central to it.
Dimitri Lascaris: Resistance must impose costs
Lawyer, journalist and former Green Party of Canada leadership candidate Dimitri Lascaris joined the conference online and delivered a speech focused on what he has learned from reporting across West Asia during the genocide in Gaza and the wider regional conflict.
Lascaris described traveling repeatedly to Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Iran, witnessing protests, destruction, military attacks and resistance movements. He said he is repeatedly drawn back to the region because he finds there “the greatest inspiration and hope” in the scale of resistance to oppression.
His central argument was that effective resistance is never risk-free. He said that elites do not care about petitions, statements of condemnation or peaceful protests that do not disrupt their lives. What they care about, he argued, are costs.
“What they care about is costs imposed upon them and disruption to their own peace of mind,” Lascaris said.
He pointed to direct action against military-industrial facilities, protests at politicians’ homes, disruptions of speeches and large-scale boycotts as examples of tactics that impose political and economic costs. He also defended the effectiveness of Yves Engler’s disruptions of Canadian politicians, arguing that the reason Engler has faced repression is precisely because his actions have been effective.
Lascaris said he remains committed to nonviolence, but warned participants not to confuse nonviolence with passivity.
“You will know that your resistance is effective only when they come after you,” he said.
The remark provoked later debate. Some speakers agreed with the need for disruptive action, while others argued that a mass movement must also offer low-risk points of entry for people who are not ready or able to face arrest, job loss or state repression.
Breakout sessions: building a fighting socialist movement
After the first panel, participants broke into in-person and online discussion groups to answer a practical question: what should be done in the next three months to bring more people into a visible anti-capitalist, anti-war and internationalist response to the current political moment?
The report-backs showed broad agreement on several priorities
Many groups called for local “cells,” chapters or collectives rooted in specific communities and local struggles. These would allow people to organize around concrete issues such as housing, data centers, transit, workplace struggles, local environmental fights, Palestine solidarity, Indigenous land defense and municipal politics while linking those struggles to a broader anti-capitalist analysis.
Several groups emphasized the need to reach young people, especially working-class youth, students at technical colleges, and teenagers. Participants argued that young people have the most at stake in the future and are often more open to disruptive politics and anti-capitalist analysis.
Others stressed the need to reach workers outside traditional left-wing spaces, including construction workers, manufacturing workers, logistics workers and people at job sites. One group proposed early-morning leafleting at work sites and unionized workplaces.
The importance of labor was raised repeatedly, but with caution. Some participants argued that the movement should prioritize rank-and-file workers rather than relying on union leadership, which they described as often co-opted, bureaucratic or tied to imperialist industries.
Several groups also called for outreach to faith communities, tenant associations, disability justice organizations, LGBTQ+ groups, migrant rights groups, environmental justice campaigns, Indigenous organizations and Palestine solidarity networks.
There was also strong support for producing accessible materials: pamphlets, posters, videos, podcasts, social media campaigns, buttons, stickers, t-shirts and clear messaging that can reach beyond already politicized circles.
One theme came up repeatedly: the movement should not merely “piggyback” on existing struggles, but genuinely join them. Participants said credibility would come from showing up consistently, listening, helping with practical tasks, building trust and avoiding sectarian arrogance.
“We need to ask communities: what do you want?” one participant said.
Kevin MacKay: making socialism popular again
Kevin MacKay, a social science professor at Mohawk College and author on ecological collapse and political transformation, offered a strategic framework for building democratic ecosocialism.
MacKay argued that oligarchic neoliberal capitalism is at the root of the interconnected crises facing humanity: ecological collapse, war, inequality, genocide and the breakdown of democratic life. He said Canada needs not reform, but a radical transformation toward democratic ecosocialism.
He emphasized that socialists must build power capable of overcoming the resistance of the oligarchic class. Unlike reformists, he argued, socialists understand that when movements meaningfully challenge power, the ruling class will strike back.
But MacKay also warned against building a movement that only speaks to those already willing to take high-risk action. He said the movement must provide multiple levels of engagement, including accessible, low-risk entry points for people who are curious, newly politicized or not yet ready for confrontation with the state.
He also argued that socialism must be rehabilitated in public discourse. People need to understand not only what socialists oppose, but what kind of society they want to build: one based on democracy, equality, ecological balance, public ownership, human rights, freedom and life in harmony with natural systems.
“Why the hell do we let the right own that word?” he asked, referring to freedom. “The left is about freedom for everybody.”
MacKay also argued for deep relationships rather than superficial coalitions. He said activists should attend other groups’ events not to dominate the stage, but to serve food, clean up, put away chairs and prove they are there for the long haul.
On the NDP question, MacKay took a both-and position. He argued that building an independent socialist movement and pressuring the NDP are not necessarily contradictory. If the NDP moves left, the movement can shape it. If it does not, the movement can become the foundation for a new party.
Yves Engler: a carnival against capitalism
Yves Engler’s speech reflected both the success of his blocked leadership campaign and the strategic uncertainty facing the new movement.
Engler said he remains torn on the path forward. On one hand, he argued that the scale of wealth inequality, ecological destruction, war, militarism and Indigenous dispossession makes it impossible to support ordinary NDP reformism. He sharply criticized Avi Lewis for failing to oppose the NATO bank, failing to clearly defend the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples when tested, and reappointing Heather McPherson as foreign affairs critic.
On the other hand, Engler acknowledged that Lewis is a step forward from Jagmeet Singh, Thomas Mulcair or a hypothetical Heather McPherson leadership. He said Lewis’s support for public options, public housing and Matthew Green’s appointment are concrete improvements.
Engler argued that the anti-capitalist campaign had already shaped the NDP leadership race, even from outside the ballot. He said the Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed platform, the critique of the vetting process and the pressure placed on the party’s leadership all contributed to shifts inside the NDP.
Still, Engler’s main focus was on what comes next. He proposed two concrete priorities.
First, he called for a “carnival against capitalism” in Toronto on September 14 and 15, when Mark Carney is expected to host a major global investment summit bringing together top CEOs, investors and business leaders. Engler argued that socialists cannot allow such a gathering of global capitalists to take place in Canada’s largest city without a visible anti-capitalist response.
Second, he called for fundraising to hire a part-time coordinator to sustain the movement’s organizing work. He said the campaign cannot rely indefinitely on volunteer exhaustion and needs a base of monthly sustainers.
Engler argued that despite being blocked, smeared and attacked, the campaign had survived and grown.
“They failed,” he said of those who tried to crush the campaign. “There is anti-imperialism. There is anti-colonialism. There is anti-capitalism. There’s a lot of support for these ideas. Let’s keep going.”
Barry Weisleder: toward a structured socialist organization
Barry Weisleder, chair of the NDP Socialist Caucus and co-campaign manager of Engler’s leadership bid, offered the clearest argument for turning the movement into a formal socialist organization and eventually a political party.
He began by situating the moment in a long history of NDP retreat. Weisleder traced the party’s decline from its early ties to the labor movement and past opposition to NATO and war, through the suppression of the Waffle movement, the Bob Rae government’s social contract, Jack Layton’s centralization of the party, Thomas Mulcair’s balanced-budget politics and Jagmeet Singh’s support for Liberal budgets and pro-war policies.
For Weisleder, the exclusion of Engler and Mugyenyi was not an aberration, but the result of decades of political retreat and authoritarian party governance.
He argued that Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed has now awakened the largest anti-capitalist current in Canada since the Waffle.
“We are here today to launch a new socialist movement,” he said. “A structured movement, not something amorphous.”
Weisleder outlined a vision of a movement based on public ownership of the commanding heights of the economy under workers’ and Indigenous control, anti-imperialist internationalism and working-class political independence.
He proposed working committees across the country, a steering committee made up of committee chairs, local branches, fundraising structures, policy development, political education, campaigns and a founding convention. Eventually, he said, the movement should become a political party capable of running candidates while remaining active in the streets and workplaces.
He also proposed two immediate campaigns: the September mobilization against Carney’s global investment summit and a limited number of municipal election campaigns in cities where the NDP does not officially run candidates.
Kshama Sawant: beware the gatekeepers
Former Seattle city councillor Kshama Sawant, joining online, delivered a forceful warning against what she called “gatekeeperism” on the left.
Sawant argued that the problem is not that working-class people fail to understand the need for struggle. In her view, millions of workers, especially young people, already understand that capitalism is failing them. The real problem is leadership.
She described gatekeepers as politicians, NGO leaders and union officials who appear progressive but function to contain and demobilize working-class struggle. She sharply criticized progressive Democrats in the United States, including Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani, arguing that they ultimately serve to keep workers tied to the Democratic Party rather than building an independent working-class alternative.
She drew parallels to Canada, warning against giving too much credit to progressive-sounding leaders who refuse to break from the institutions of capitalism and imperialism.
Sawant emphasized that reforms are not won through backroom deals, insider relationships or polite lobbying. They are won through class struggle. She cited her own experience in Seattle, where she and Socialist Alternative helped win a major minimum wage victory by using elected office as a platform for mass mobilization rather than compromise with the Democratic establishment.
Her conclusion was that revolutionary socialists must lead campaigns for concrete reforms while openly building toward socialism, public ownership and international working-class power.
The statement of unity debate
The second round of breakout discussions focused on a draft statement of unity for the emerging movement. Participants were asked what would make the document a stronger basis for an outward-facing organization and what concrete next steps should flow from it.
The debate revealed real differences over tone, language, audience and political clarity.
Some groups argued that the statement should be shorter, simpler, more visual and more accessible to people who are not already socialists. They warned against too much jargon, too much NDP history and too many dense theoretical terms. Words like imperialism, commanding heights and ecosocialism should either be explained clearly or used more carefully.
Others argued that terms like imperialism, colonialism, capitalism and socialism should not be watered down. They said the document should serve not just as a recruitment tool, but as a pedagogical document that helps people understand the historical and structural forces they are fighting.
There was also debate over how much emphasis should be placed on the NDP. Some groups wanted the NDP removed or minimized, arguing that a new movement should not define itself by its relationship to the party. Others said the history of the campaign and the NDP’s exclusions are important to explain how the movement emerged.
Several participants called for stronger references to workers, labor, Indigenous sovereignty, environmental destruction, the natural world, animals, youth, digital workers, social media and the transition from capitalism to socialism.
One group argued that Indigenous sovereignty should not be treated as an add-on, but as a central organizing principle of any anti-capitalist movement in Canada.
Another group raised concerns about digital security, criticizing the use of Gmail and other corporate platforms by a movement opposed to capitalist data extraction and surveillance.
A number of participants suggested that the statement be reorganized around a simple structure: mission, vision, principles and objectives.
Fundraising, committees and next steps
As the conference moved toward its conclusion, organizers made a practical appeal for monthly sustainers. They argued that the movement needs money to maintain basic infrastructure, hire coordination support, organize future events, produce materials and move toward a founding convention.
Participants pledged monthly donations ranging from $10 to $25, along with larger one-time donations.
Barbara Waldron then outlined the committee structure needed to carry the movement forward. Proposed areas of work included fundraising, outreach, political campaigns, regional organizing, events, education, communications and preparations for a future launch or convention.
The message was clear: the conference was not intended to be a one-day discussion, but the beginning of an organized process.
“Something like 350 people joined us today,” Waldron said. “Well, there are 350 workers. Who’s going to do it?”
Bianca Mugyenyi: from despair to organization
The conference closed with remarks from Bianca Mugyenyi, who played a central role in the Engler campaign, her own attempted NDP leadership bid and the organization of the conference.
Mugyenyi thanked the many organizers, translators, facilitators, tech volunteers, cooks, billeting hosts, poster teams and participants who made the event possible. She framed the day as a signal that explicitly anti-capitalist politics are not marginal, but waiting for organized expression.
“This is not just another weekend event,” she said. “It’s a signal.”
Mugyenyi argued that one of the crises of the present moment is a crisis of political cowardice. People are told to lower their expectations, be realistic and accept what is possible within capitalism. But those limits, she said, have a death toll.
She also emphasized that the movement does not yet have every question answered, and that this is not a weakness. Serious political work requires trust, democratic process, accountability and the ability to hold disagreement without collapsing.
“We can’t fake democracy by rushing decisions that require trust and clarity,” she said.
Mugyenyi called on participants to volunteer, join committees, become sustainers, attend weekly sessions, help organize the September counter-summit and bring others into the movement.
Her closing message was one of disciplined hope: capitalism is powerful, but it rests on the labor, consent and division of the people it exploits. If those people organize, she argued, the system is far weaker than it appears.
A new socialist pole in Canadian politics?
The Capitalism Can’t Be Fixed conference did not resolve every strategic question facing the Canadian left. It did not decide definitively whether the emerging movement will become a political party, a coalition, a network, a cadre organization, a mass movement or some combination of these. It did not settle the debate over the NDP, electoral politics, revolutionary strategy, or how to balance accessibility with ideological clarity.
But it did accomplish something important: it brought hundreds of people together around a shared anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist and anti-war orientation at a time when mainstream Canadian politics is moving rapidly toward militarization, austerity and support for Western imperial power.
The conference revealed a base of activists hungry for something more confrontational than social democracy, more internationalist than Canadian nationalism, more structurally radical than NGO liberalism, and more organized than loose protest networks.
It also showed that the Engler campaign, far from disappearing after being blocked by the NDP, has become the seedbed for a broader political project. Whether that project becomes a new party, a national socialist movement, a network of local chapters or a force capable of intervening in labor, anti-war, Indigenous, ecological and municipal struggles remains to be seen.
What is clear is that the people gathered in Toronto do not intend to return to politics as usual.
They left with proposals for a September “Carnival Against Capitalism,” a possible founding convention, working committees, local chapters, a revised unity statement, a funding drive and a renewed commitment to organizing against NATO, capitalism, colonialism, militarism and ecological collapse.
The conference ended with music, fundraising, committee appeals, and finally a rendition of “The Internationale.”
For a movement still in formation, the symbolism was unmistakable: the campaign may have begun inside a blocked NDP leadership race, but it now appears to be moving toward something much larger.
Capitalism, the participants insisted, cannot be fixed. Their next task is to decide what they are prepared to build in its place.
