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Socialist Action Canada

Socialist Action Canada | Ligue pour L'Action Socialiste

Year: 2022

Vote NDP in Ontario – Without Illusions

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In the lead-up to the June 2 provincial election, Conservative and Liberal leaders are scrambling to align with public opinion by professing ‘progressive’ policies.  Tory Premier Doug Ford hopes voters will forget he spent years attacking workers’ rights, broke a teachers’ strike early in 2020, privatized nursing homes and grossly mishandled the pandemic.  Claims by Liberal leader Steven Del Duca that he will hike funding for healthcare and education are belied by his record as a cabinet minister in the Kathleen Wynne government which watched hospital services and schools deteriorate drastically, and sold off Ontario Hydro for a pittance.

The History of Wildcat Strikes

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The continued “maturation” of late-stage capitalism saw multiple societal trends intersect violently in the 2020s. The Covid-19 pandemic intersected with real-time climate collapse and ongoing state violence against Indigenous, black, and other racialized people, which triggered spontaneous mass mobilisations against these multiple oppressions. That spontaneous display of anger towards the status quo spilled over into the labour movement as well. With decades of neoliberal austerity and outsourcing, union representation in Canada has fallen to only 30%. At the same time, the pandemic killed off and disabled a record number of workers and forced even more into early retirement. Workers now wield more economic leverage while being less organised than earlier periods of labour struggle. This combination of material factors built up to “The Great Resignation,” where individual workers eschew any company loyalty to take advantage of a labour shortage to maximise individual gains. But bubbling under the surface of this hyper-individualised approach to bargaining with the bosses is a resurgence in strike action of multiple flavours. Unions in multiple sectors struck for safer work conditions, better pay, an end to two-tiered contracts, and more. Yet many non-unionised workers, particularly front-line workers, also stood up and collectively struck in illegal job actions known as wildcat strikes. Given historic levels of worker upheaval and societal crisis combined with low levels of union representation, it is imperative to understand the wildcat strike as a tactic. By looking at important wildcat strikes in North American history, from the Pullman strike of 1894 to the 2020 wildcat of Albertan healthcare workers, we will highlight important lessons for the labour movement going forward

May Day 2022 — Reds and Labour Take to the Streets En Masse in Toronto

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On Sunday, May 1, 2022 Socialist Action spokesperson Daniel Tarade addressed hundreds of workers and allies at Toronto City Hall Square.  J.P. Hornick, the newly elected president of OPSEU/SEFPO, along with representatives of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the Toronto and York Region Labour Council, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, an Indigenous activist and several socialist organizations also took the microphone. 

Signal Operators Walk Off Job at Union Station Rail Corridor!

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96 signal operators with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) will walk off the job at midnight on Tuesday, Apr. 19. These workers operate and maintain the complicated system of tracks and switches around Toronto Union Station.

I won't cross their picket line and undoubtedly, other workers will also refuse.

In times of inflation and crisis, these workers are fighting for a fair contract. It's a fight that all workers benefit from, and we need to support them in this job action.

Liberal Budget soothes Bay Street, disses Singh

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Ottawa’s promise to “Build Back Better” is gonzo.  In its place are billions more in military spending, billions more in subsidies for Big Oil and Gas, and a fake social housing agenda.  Liberal Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland forecasts a lower deficit, which means a return to austerity -- even as working people struggle to cope with an ongoing pandemic, record-high inflation, and unfolding climate catastrophe.

Privatization: The Vampire of Public Service

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The word "Vampire" may seem harsh or macabre when speaking about economic issues, but when looking at privatization objectively, it becomes clear how striking the similarities are. Both feed off systems that are not their own, stealing what isn't theirs to grow fat and powerful. Both lie to lull you into a false sense of security, making their targets vulnerable and too passive to resist them. If privatization is a Vampire then austerity is the scent of blood that draws the predator in. In Newfoundland and Labrador, Canadians are facing another round of cruel and needless austerity.

Royal Bank draws protest against Coastal Gas Link pipeline on April 7, 2022

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Opponents of pipeline construction that violates unceded Indigenous land rights demonstrated across the Canadian state on April 7, 2022.  The gathering of nearly one hundred at Toronto's Simcoe Park, next to CBC headquarters and opposite the Metro Convention Centre, included dozens of delegates from the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union convention then underway.

Palestine Land Day Rally in Toronto on April 2, 2022

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Palestine Land Day was marked in Toronto by a rally at Land Back (Yonge-Dundas) Square on April 2, 2022.  About eighty participants chanted in English and Arabic, and applauded speakers who demanded an end to Zionist apartheid and the occupation of Indigenous lands, from Turtle Island to Palestine.  At the end of the 90 minute gathering a Socialist Action spokesperson addressed the crowd, calling for an end to Canadian state and big business complicity with Zionism.  SA's predecessor organizations opposed the creation of the colonial settler state by the United Nations (pushed by the USA, Britain, France, Canada and the USSR) in 1948.  SA supports the struggle for a Single Democratic, Secular state.  "From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!"

LifeLabs couriers and mailroom clerks reach tentative agreement with employer

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Toronto – After nearly two weeks on strike, the bargaining team representing roughly 160 LifeLabs couriers and mailroom clerks in the GTA has reached a tentative agreement with the employer.

If a majority of the 160 OPSEU/SEFPO Local 5119 members vote to accept the tentative agreement, the strike will be over. The vote will take place electronically on Saturday, March 26, and the workers will soon be sent the voting information.

Build a United, Broad, Democratic Anti-War Coalition in Canada!  

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In the face of the big push for war from Canada's rulers, we renew the call for mass mobilization against the imperialist powers.  No war but the class war!  

While the NDP continues to avoid challenging the burgeoning military budget, which will surely grow in the confidence and-supply deal struck between the federal Liberals and the NDP, the task of opposing military conflict and escalation falls to the militant grassroots in both the workers' movement and other struggles for liberation.  

In March in Toronto, multiple rallies focused on our own ruling class as perpetrators of great violence and destruction.  

Singh Sells Out for Liberal Sunny Ways

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NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh found a way to avoid a federal election, and to gain a vague promise of health service reforms – likely at the cost of huge increases in military spending.  The Liberal-NDP deal paves the way for Justin Trudeau to stay in power until 2025, at least.  That goes to serve capitalist political ‘stability’ in the relentless march to climate catastrophe, growing social inequality and the horrors of inter-imperialist war.

Blockchain and Cryptocurrency – A Hypercapitalist Nightmare

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The technology of blockchain continues to gain in popularity. It’s been advertised as disruptive, even revolutionary. Proponents believe it will change the world economy for the better, making it a more fair and equitable place. From the rooftops they shout, “Decentralization! Immutability!”

But is the hype all it’s cracked up to be? Is this a fad destined to fizzle? Or, even worse, is the blockchain push just a smokescreen for something much more sinister?

Socialist Action Address to the Rally Against the Far-Right, Christie Park, Toronto, March 5, 2022

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Responding to the call of Toronto Rise-Up, some seventy people, including members of at least four socialist parties, held a rally at the Toronto intersection of Christie and Bloor Streets to “take back (public) space” from far-right organizations.  The latter recently led the anti-vax, anti-Covid-mandate, so-called Freedom Convoy that blockaded border crossings and occupied downtown Ottawa for nearly three weeks.