The
Regina Manifesto was the programme of the
Co-operative Commonwealth FederationThe Co-operative Commonwealth Federation was a Canadian political party founded in 1932 in Calgary, Alberta, by a number of socialist, farm, co-operative and labour groups, and the League for Social Reconstruction...
and was adopted at the first national convention of the CCF held in
Regina, SaskatchewanRegina is the capital of Saskatchewan, Canada. The city is the second largest in the province , and is a cultural and commercial metropole for both southern Saskatchewan and adjacent areas in the neighbouring American states of North Dakota and Montana...
in 1933. The primary goal of the "Regina Manifesto" was to eradicate the system of
capitalismCapitalism is an economic and social system in which the means of production are privately controlled; labor, goods and capital are traded in a market; profits are distributed to owners or invested in technologies and industries; and wages are paid to labor...
and replace it with a planned economy of
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
.
http://www.saskndp.com/documents/manifest.pdf The CCF was a democratic socialist party founded in 1932 by farmers, workers and socialist groups against the backdrop of the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
.
Tommy DouglasThomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, PC, CC, SOM was a Scottish-born Baptist minister who became a prominent Canadian social democratic politician....
led the CCF, born of ideas central in the "Regina Manifesto," to form the first socialistic government in North America on June 15, 1944.
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=ArchivedFeatures&Params=A258
The Manifesto was largely written by members of the
League for Social ReconstructionThe League for Social Reconstruction was a circle of Canadian socialist intellectuals formed in 1931 by academics advocating radical social and economic reforms and political education....
, particularly
Frank UnderhillFrank Hawkins Underhill, OC was a Canadian historian, social critic and political thinker.He was educated at the University of Toronto and Oxford University where he was a member of the Fabian Society...
and F.R. Scott, and called for "
a planned and socialized economy in which our natural resources and principal means of production and distribution are owned, controlled and operated by the people". Specifically it called for the
nationalizationNationalization, also spelled nationalisation, is the act of taking an industry or assets into the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to private assets, but may also mean assets owned by lower levels of government, such as municipalities, being state...
of transportation, communications, electrical power and other services. It called for a
planned economyA planned economy or directed economy is an economic system in which the state or workers' councils manage the economy. It is an economic system in which the central government makes all decisions on the production and consumption of goods and services...
and a national banking system that would be "removed from the control of private profit-seeking interests." It advocated for the ability to organize in
trade unionA trade union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas, such as working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts with employers...
s and called for a National Labour Code "to secure for the worker maximum income and leisure, insurance covering illness, accident, old age, and unemployment." The Regina Manifesto proposed social service programs such as
publicly-funded health carePublicly-funded health care is a form of health care financing designed to meet the cost of all or most health care needs from a publicly managed fund. Usually this is under some form of democratic accountability, the right of access to which are set down in rules applying to the whole population...
, supported peace, promoted co-operative enterprises and vowed that "
No C.C.F. Government will rest content until it has eradicated capitalism and put into operation the full programme of socialized planning which will lead to the establishment in Canada of the Cooperative Commonwealth."
The Regina Manifesto remained the CCF's official programme until 1956 when, in the face of the strong
anti-communistAnti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism, especially Marxism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the growing popularity of the communist movement, and took on many forms during the 20th century....
sentiment of the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
, it was replaced by the more moderate
Winnipeg DeclarationThe Winnipeg Declaration was the programme adopted by the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in Canada to replace the Regina Manifesto...
which substituted Keynsianism for socialist remedies.
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