Sept. 15, 2023 | by Susan Rosenthal In late July, 3,700 workers organized in Unifor Local 414 struck Metro grocery stores across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) for five weeks. Did they win or lose? Unifor’s press release crowed, “Metro…
par Barry Weisleder | Secrétaire fédéral de l'Action socialiste SA/LAS Canada a 26 ans. Mais SA/LAS n'est pas apparue soudainement. Elle n'a pas surgi de la tête de Zeus. Elle a émergé organiquement à partir de conditions concrètes. Pour comprendre…
Read More L’histoire et la pratique de Socialist Action/Ligue pour l’Action Socialiste Canada
Par Barry Weisleder, secrétaire fédéral Socialist Action Canada/Ligue pour l'Action socialiste Ce jour-là, le 26 juillet 2023, des millions de personnes ont célébré la Journée de la rébellion à Cuba. Il y a soixante-dix ans, Fidel Castro a dirigé l'expédition…
Read More Malheurs du Milieu de l’été : Climat, Guerre et Itinérance
Incorporant des écrits d'Ernest Mandel et Robbie Mahood, édités par Barry Weisleder pour une présentation le 4 mai 2022 L'oppression nationale et le racisme sont des caractéristiques fondamentales des États capitalistes dans le monde d'aujourd'hui. Dans peu d'entre eux, la…
by Barry Weisleder | Socialist Action Canada On this day, July 26, 2023 millions celebrated Rebellion Day in Cuba. Seventy years ago, Fidel Castro led the Granma expedition that launched the Cuban Revolution. Socialist Action is a member of the…
July 11, 2023 | by Barry Weisleder, Federal Secretary | Socialist Action First, I warmly welcome all the new and returning members of the SA Central Committee, and other party bodies elected at the June 11 SA convention. Together we will…
Read More Wild Fires, a Troubling Mutiny, and Class Struggle Politics
by Barry Weisleder | Socialist Action Canada Among the 102 candidates in the June 26 Toronto mayor by-election, former city councilor and MP Olivia Chow is certainly not the worst. Among the establishment contenders, she appears slightly to the left…
Read More Olivia Chow, a vote for mediocrity, evasion and capitalist rule
"Kill a worker, Go to Jail" is the chant that expresses the demand of the labour movement to hold accountable bosses who subject their employees to unsafe, even fatal working conditions. On average, three people per day die in a…
Read More Day of Mourning for Workers Who Died on the Job near Toronto City Hall
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.
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…
By Jeff Mackler Friday, March 31, 2023 What the corporate media ban from their coverage of the unfolding and ever massive French protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to add two years to the French retirement age, from 62 to…
Read More Mass French strikes and mobilizations challenge Macron’s pension reform
Hundreds gathered in front of the Ontario Legislature on March 30 to protest the decision of the Ontario Conservative government to cut healthcare coverage for people without health insurance. Doctors, nurses, massage therapists and undocumented health care users and providers…
Read More Hundreds protest Ontario Tory Cut to Health Coverage
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…
Read More Carleton University Workers Strike against Poverty Wages and for Quality of Education
Discontent with the capitalist status quo is spreading rapidly. At the forefront are mobilizations in France against President Emanuel Macron's reform of the country's retirement law. Under Socialist Party President Francois Mitterrand and up to the 1990s the legal retirement age with full pension was 60 years. Since then, right wing governments have pushed it up to 62 years. Macron announced a move to raise it to 65 years, but backed down. He now proposes age 64. Mass action involving strikes and demonstrations, one day at a time, usually once or twice a week, have followed the parliamentary calendar. More militant sectors in the union movement have been calling for renewable strikes from one day to the next, towards a general strike.
Canada’s 100 highest-paid corporate executives made an average of $14.3 million in 2021, exceeding the previous record of $11.8 million set three years earlier. By January 3, the average CEO on that list made $58,800, the amount an average Canadian worker earns in an entire year, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
As opposition to it grows, it appears that the very legislation enacted by the Conservative government to limit the rights of unions is creating an unprecedented level of solidarity among them.
Fifty-five thousand education support workers, members of CUPE Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, took mass strike action, labelled illegal, on Friday, November 4th after the Ontario Conservative government of Premier Doug Ford passed Bill 28.
We were 30 minutes away from a call for a general strike. 30 minutes. RankandFile leaked it, and militants with exec positions in large unions confirmed — at 10 a.m. on Monday, November the 7th, multiple large unions with the backing of the Ontario Federation of Labour and the Canadian Labour Congress were going to announce a general strike. This is the story of how we got to that point. Hosts Emily and Daniel recount that events that led this labour movement to precipice of historic mass job action — the OSBCU strike, Bill 28, and OPSEU solidarity wildcat actions. They are joined by Julius Arscott, a three-term OPSEU SEFPO Executive Board Member and 2021 candidate for President of the Canadian Labour Congress, who shares what happened behind the scenes and why a general strike is closer than in a very long time.
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.
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.
