Now that another year of pandemic is behind us, it is time to reflect, and to replenish our resources. Inspiring are the first signs of a revival of the workers’ movement, including new union-organizing efforts, and the many young workers who are joining the revolutionary socialist movement. The aim of this New Year’s Fund Appeal is to raise over $5,000 between now and February 28, 2022, to enable Socialist Action to rise to the challenges ahead. We seek to enlist your support for our efforts to build a larger, more effective, non-sectarian, socialist working class party.
It is no small irony that the opportunity to build a better future stems from a stunning global health crisis. As evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace explains, it springs from the bowels of the capitalist mode of production. Toxic, high intensity agribusiness practices put profit before public safety. A hyper debt-laden capitalist market once again plunged the world into a Great Recession. That was long before COVID-19 took hold. Capitalist politicians claim to care about people — even as they buy oil pipelines, trample the rights of Indigenous people, and sell weapons of mass destruction. Inequality surges. Vile demagogues stoke fears. They intensify racism, sexism and homophobia. They promote authoritarian rule (Trump was not the only example). They wage wars of imperialist plunder. Human civilization is at risk. Now the choice is Socialism or Extinction. If we are to survive, revolutionary change is urgent. But it won’t happen spontaneously; it won’t happen without firm revolutionary leadership.
Socialist Action doesn’t have a magic blueprint for change. But we do stand proudly on 170 years of global political experience and sound principles. The first principle is workers’ self-organization and mass mobilization, independent of the capitalist parties and their state. Another is unity in action, via the workers’ united front tactic.
Over many years, SA demonstrated in practice its commitment to these ideas. SA led the way in demanding proper PPE in all work places, paid sick leave, full-time employment with a big pay raise for personal care workers, and the nationalization of the for-profit, private Long Term Care corporations. SA pushed for a Green New Deal based on a planned economy under workers’ and community control, starting with restitution for Indigenous people who continue to suffer corporate plunder of their ancestral lands. Uniquely, we called on environmentalists in the Green Party and in the labour-based New Democratic Party to unite and form a Revolutionary Eco-socialist party. SA vigorously advances the cause of socialism and democracy by building the Workers’ Action Movement in unions, and the Socialist Caucus in the NDP. WAM and the SC had a major positive impact at labour and NDP conventions in 2021. We are dedicated activists in the Canadian Network for Cuba, the Toronto Venezuela Solidarity Coalition, and in campaigns for the Palestinian people, including the Canadian Coalition for Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment. We actively oppose the imperialist Cold War against China. SA is a partner in the No Fighter Jets campaign, in support of the pro-Indigenous Land Back movement, in Queer Ontario, the No Pride in Police Coalition, feminist campaigns for equal pay and to end to sexist violence. SA is at the forefront of efforts to De-fund, Disarm and Disband the Police, and works in tandem with the Vancouver Socialist Unity Assembly, ACORN, OCAP, and the Labour May Day Committee. SA defends free speech against those who would curtail it by conflating Anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. We join with many others in confronting racism, sexism, homophobia and fascism, as we did on December 18 to stop a gathering of genocide deniers and anti-vaxxers at X University in Toronto.
What will SA do with the money that you generously donate? We will strengthen SA social media platforms. Tens of thousands of people visited www.socialistaction.ca this year. Higher visibility will enable us to build new branches across the Canadian state, publish more booklets, create more banners, flags and placards, and field candidates in a municipal election united front in the Fall of 2022.
Are we in a hurry? Frankly, yes! Time is short to save humanity and nature from capitalist catastrophe. But with your help, there is a much better chance of survival – even to make a better world. What do you say?
Donate to Socialist Action now!
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