Vanessa Beeley, a British journalist known for her outspoken views on Syria, spoke to a gathering of more than 100 persons in Montreal December 10, 2019.
A meeting planned the day before at University of Montreal was cancelled after a successful campaign by anti-Assad forces to bar her from speaking.
For me, attending Beeley’s talk was a question of principle: to oppose an attempt to shut down debate on an issue that has divided the left.
Comrade Cory D. spoke for Socialist Action Canada to about 350 people at a rally held in Toronto on January 4 to protest the U.S. assassination, in Iraq, of Iran military commander Qasem Soleimani. See the attached video and photos.
About ten members of SA, with red flags, were joined by members of several other leftist groups and representatives of unions and the NDP. Beaches-East York NDP MPP Rima Berns-McGown also addressed the crowd. A tiny counter-demo of Trump supporters failed to disrupt the anti-war protest as they were held off by rally marshals and police, across the street from the U.S. Consulate on University Avenue.
CP24, NOW magazine and other mainstream media interviewed Corey, Garv T. and others.
Organizers announced plans for a protest to be held on Saturday, January 11, from 12 to 2 p.m. In the event of a full-scale war, people are urged to rally at the same location on that day, or the next day, at 5 p.m.
No War with Iran! Drop the Sanctions! All U.S., Canadian, EU and allied troops Out of the Middle East! Canada Out of NATO! End all investment and trade with Saudi Arabia and Israel! Imperialist Hands Off Iran!
Here is the link to the video and below the Pix from facebook
Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste joins with Bolivian former president Evo Morales, recently ousted in a military coup, and a broad section of public opinion to call for the immediate release of journalist Carlos Conjeo and artist Leonel Jurado, detained by the Bolivian military. Conjeo and Jurado were postering to publicize an event of solidarity with workers at the Senkata oil refinery, nine of whom were killed by the military as they were striking to protest the coup against the legitimate MAS government.
Both Conjeo and Jurado have been charged with sedition. These bogus charges are being used as part of the massive repression unleashed by the coup plotters against the workers and indigenous people of Bolivia, a coup backed by the Trudeau government, in alliance with the dictators and right wing authoritarian governments of the so -called Lima Group.
Socialist Action/LAS demands the immediate release of Conjeo, Jurado and all the other political prisoners illegally detained by the police and military agents of the illegitimate coup government. Further, SA/LAS refuses to recognize impunity for the crimes committed by the Bolivian coup government, the military and the police, and will fight for the trial and imprisonment of all those who have participated in the killing, torture and unlawful detention of the Bolivian people. Justice will be done.
SA/LAS calls upon all citizens, and the international left, to raise their voices against the imprisonment of Conjeo and Jurado, and further asks that the embassy and consular staff of Bolivia be contacted demanding the immediate release of all political prisoners, the ending of the repression, and the abrogation of the illegally decreed law of impunity.
Free the Political Prisoners. Stop the Repression. No Impunity for crimes against Bolivian workers, indigenous people and young people fighting for their democratic rights.
Once again the Post Office in France, backed up by the forces of the French state, is attempting to victimize those who fight for workers and their union rights.
Gael Quirante, a leader of the Postal Section 92 workers in the Paris region, has just been sentenced to 3 months jail sentence suspended, 5 years probation, and fined almost 2,000 Euros in total, for his actions in leading a successful year-long strike against La Poste management.
The decision of the court, which took just 15 minutes to deliberate, after hearing more than 6 hours of legal argument, is designed to discourage labour unionists like Gael who won’t back down, and who refuse to be bullied.
This ruling takes on added importance as the mass struggle against the French government’s attacks on workers’ pensions enters its third week and is experiencing a growing wave of support and mobilization. The French state intends to use trials against labour unionists like Gael to try to dampen enthusiasm for the most massive outpouring of workers’ and social justice militancy since 1995.
Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste calls upon all workers and union members to help defend Gael Quirante by contacting the French Embassy or the nearest consular office and demanding the following:
No Sentences, No Fines, No Repression against Gael Quirante. Drop All the Charges Now!
Quirante and his lawyer immediately launched an appeal, which stays the sentences and fines until after the new trial. International solidarity can help put an end to the repression of Gael and to attacks on all unionists victimized for fighting for their rights, and for those of their co-workers.
Twenty-five thousand Chicago teachers, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers Local 1, AFL-CIO, returned to work on October 31 following a divided vote of the Chicago Teachers Union’s (CTU) 700-member Delegate Assembly (DA) to end the union’s 11-day strike. The vote to accept the five-year tentative contract was 60 percent in favor and 40 percent opposed. Despite the DA’s “tentative” settlement approval and its authorization to return to work immediately, the union’s rank-and-file will also vote on the contract on November 20, the date when the Chicago Board of Education is expected to approve a final settlement term recommended by the Board’s negotiating team, headed by Mayor Lori Lightfoot, wherein five make-up days are to be proposed for approval.
The school district’s 7,500 non-teaching staff of custodians, special education assistants and school aides represented by SEIU Local 73, which supported the striking teachers, voted to accept their separate contract on October 31.
