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Socialist Action Canada

Socialist Action Canada | Ligue pour L'Action Socialiste

Category: Canada

Radical Vancouver Politics — The Birth of Vote Socialist

Radical Vancouver Politics — The Birth of Vote Socialist

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On May 1st, 2022, a new united front electoral alliance launched in Vancouver. With demands to defund the Vancouver Police Department, build public housing, and to tax big corporations, Vote Socialist ran a five month whirlwind of a campaign that netted its three candidates — Sean Orr for city council, Dr. Karina Zeidler for school board, and Andrea Pinochet-Escudero for park board — a combined 45,000 votes. This is the story of how Vote Socialist came to be.

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Socialist Action | Looking back at 2022, and Going Forward in Struggle

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Socialist Action is a growing revolutionary workers’ party that puts a great emphasis on political education. At the same time, SA is an activist organization. It has many practical accomplishments to its credit, including achievements in local elections, in building a fighting left wing inside mass working class organizations, and in promoting international solidarity. From Iran to Haiti, from Britain to Ontario, 2022 has been a year of revolt against austerity, authoritarianism, and repression.

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New Brunswick Artists in Survival Mode

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If you were a New Brunswick artist would you be able to eat well and drive a functional car? Would you be able afford day care for your children or receive a pension? Would you be able to establish a viable business based on selling your art? Probably, the answer to all of the above, and more, is No. According to Future First, a report of the Premier's task force released last year, artists in NB face economic insecurity with job instability, low income and a limited regulatory framework. The report was debated by dozens of artists at a contemporary arts conference in Saint John, NB in late October 2022, titled "Future Possible." It was, perhaps, the first opportunity for artists to confer in person about the report which was released last year.

Socialist Digest: School Support Staff Rock the Casbah in Ontario

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On the domestic landscape, the biggest development in November 2022 was the two-day walkout by CUPE-Ontario education support workers. They defied a law that pre-emptively banned strike action. CUPE and allies, including OPSEU, forced the Thug Ford Conservative government to rescind Bill 28 and its use of the notwithstanding clause to violate the federal Charter of Rights. CUPE school workers still do not have a deal to enable them to rise above poverty wages. But everyone knows that Ontario was, as Socialist Action labour leader Julius Arscott put it, 30 minutes away from a general strike. The struggle continues!

RBC CEO Dave McKay awarded Climate Villain of the Year Award at Recent Toronto Demonstration

RBC CEO Dave McKay given Climate Villain of the Year Award at Recent Toronto Demonstration

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Knock knock, who's there? Climate villain of the year. On Thursday, climate activists from the University of Toronto, Banking on a Better Future, Climate Justice TO, and Stand.Earth participated in a demonstration to disrupt the Ivey Business School's presentation to RBC CEO Dave McKay with the 'Business Leader of the Year Award' Demonstrators presented McKay with an award of their own, the highly disdained 'Climate Villain of the Year Award,' which the RBC executive won in near won hands down. The Royal Bank of Canada has profited from climate chaos to the tune of more than $263 billion dollars in fossil fuel investment, including the Coastal GasLink pipeline project that is currently being constructed on the unseeded sacred Indigenous territory of the Wet'suwet'en people.

Municipal Socialist Alliance Canada

Municipal Socialist Alliance Candidates Earn More Than 14,000 Votes Combined Across Ontario in 2022 Elections

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The fledgling Municipal Socialist Alliance exceeded most expectations by garnering 14,870 votes across Ontario, despite getting almost zero coverage in the commercial mass media, amid a very low voter turnout to boot (about 29 percent in Toronto). Official Municipal Socialist Alliance candidates ran for city council, school board, and, in one city, for the office of mayor.

Socialist Action March Along with 20,000+ union members for Toronto's 150th Labour Day Parade

Socialist Action Members March with 20,000+ union members for Toronto’s 150th Labour Day Parade

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Last Monday, Socialist Action took part in the 150th Labour Day Parade. Organized by the Toronto and York Region Labour Council. Socialist Action was joined by members of the Municipal Socialist Alliance and over 20,000 union members from both the public and private sectors. Comrades and allies marched from Queen and University to the entrance of the CNE. Chanting, singing, waving flags and banners, and even posing for pictures along the way.

Interviews With TSSA Strikers

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Nearly 200 members of OPSEU Local 546 are on strike against the Technical Standards and Safety Authority in Ontario.  These front line workers inspect elevators, ski lifts, food trucks and amusement park rides.  They check fuel-burning equipment, boilers and pressure vessels, as well as gas stations, propane dispensing stations and nuclear power plants.  They are on strike because the TSSA, an agency that works at arms length from the provincial government, has been trying to make do with fewer safety inspectors, less regular inspections and less accountability.  The workers need and deserve a wage catch-up.

Municipal Socialist Alliance Presents Candidate for Mayor of Guelph

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Danny Drew is a non-binary activist running to be mayor of Guelph. Born and raised in Oshawa, they moved to attend the University of Guelph in 2009, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Danny worked in a wide range of jobs, always encouraging co-workers to exercise their rights and push for unionization. Currently seeking to win rights for thousands of workers via reclassification, they’ve supported many striking workers on picket lines.

Alternative to Pandemic-Era Housing Crisis

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Whether a couple is planning to settle down or a family is seeking a place to raise kids in the province, they are sure to feel the heat in the Canadian housing market. The question:  'How did we get here?' often leads to inconclusive answers and simply pointing a finger at the easiest target. The predatory nature of housing market big players means they have no interest in addressing the needs of the people.  For them, housing is a commodity designed to make shareholders happy.  Actually, the housing market is doing very well to meet its mandates - funneling wealth upwards.

BC Govt Workers Strike for Wage Catch-Up

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Some 1,000 British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) workers went on strike chiefly to obtain a cost of living allowance (COLA) to match inflation. More than 86,000 members of the BCGEU work in both the public and private sectors across the west coast province. The bargaining committee for the public sector component, representing 33,000 members, gave a 72 hour strike notice on August 15 after months of unsuccessful bargaining.

New Brunswick NDP Goes Forward

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Efforts to rebuild the New Brunswick New Democratic Party as a socialist, labour-based, working class party made considerable progress at a convention held at the Lions Club Community Centre in Moncton, July 22-24, 2022. It was the first NB NDP convention in five years.  It attracted over thirty delegates, both in-person and online, plus several observers.  In the struggle to organize and convene the gathering, the NDP Socialist Caucus played a leading role, spear-heading efforts to overcome resistance by the provincial NDP leader who resigned rather than comply with the party’s decision to proceed.

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