The Potential Power of Mass Action for Gig Workers

The gig economy presents a significant opportunity for capitalists to counteract the decline in the rate of profit. In response to the profitability decline since 1997, which was exacerbated by the COVID pandemic, capitalists aim to increase the intensity of work and tighten labour discipline to extract more surplus value from workers. Gig work capitalists take advantage of workers' job precariousness, and they enjoy the absence of unions, which enables them to heighten this trend. The clear solution to this exploitative relationship is public ownership of the platform, which after all is a means of production similar to the machinery in a car factory. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to develop a political strategy and a set of tactics with transitional demands that will unite gig workers themselves, unite them with other workers, and together resist the capitalist offensive.

Federal Public Service Workers Prepare to Strike: Refusing to Pay for the Inflation They Didn’t Cause

Over 124,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and around 35,000 Union of Taxation Employees are now in a legal strike position. Though some of them are designated "essential", PSAC says that over 100,000 staff could still…

Carleton University Workers Strike against Poverty Wages and for Quality of Education

Education workers at Carleton University are set to commence strike action on March 27 in an effort to reach a fair deal with the University. CUPE Local 4600 President Noreen Cauley-Le Fevre states that despite months of negotiations, the University…

Jobless Youth In Ontario: Canaries in Coal mine?

The rate of Ontario youth unemployment rivals those of the European Union and the U.S. Rust Belt states. So says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternativesin its recent report, “The Young and the Jobless”. Joblessness among people aged 15 to 24…