The word "ties" has been lately misused by Republicans, who claimed that there were "ties" between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. Let's not stretch the poor word "ties" to the breaking point.
The New Democratic Party was founded by the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation and the Canadian Labor Congress. In contrast, the Democratic Party was founded by slave masters and Indian haters.
The New Democratic Party is a political party, with individual members who pay dues and affiliated members (predominantly trade unions but also farm groups, co-operatives, women's organizations, etc.) that pay per capita fees (twenty cents per member per month as of January 1, 1985, payable to the Federal Party). Its leader is selected by ballots cast by party members, with 25% of the votes allocated among affiliated members by the party constitution (see "Constitution of the New Democratic Party of Canada, As amended by the Federal Convention, Toronto 2003," <http://action.web.ca/home/ndpnpd/en_ndpnews.shtml?x=14124&AA_EX_Session=815fd5d4c87163a7398ad97e2b2ce5c3>). The Democratic Party leader is selected, however, neither by votes of rank-and-file activists nor block votes of trade unions. The proliferation of primaries has made Democratic Party Conventions irrelevant, except as shows for the general public.
In short, the Democratic Party isn't exactly a political party -- it's like a collection of candidate-centered fund-raising machines, connected with 527s and other non-profits which are also fund-raising machines that occasionally double as top-down mobilization machines. Therefore, working-class Americans -- directly or indirectly through unions and non-profits -- can choose to volunteer for goals set by the owners and managers of fund-raising machines, but they cannot change them or set new ones, nor do they control the strategies and tactics determined by the owners and managers of fund-raising machines. Working for the Democratic Party is not a little like working for a corporation, except that, when you work for a corporation, you probably get paid better and, if you don't, at least you can try to get unionized and bargain collectively. -- Yoshie
* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * OSU-GESO: <http://www.osu-geso.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>