Want to change the world? Join Socialist Action today!

Socialist Action Canada

Socialist Action Canada | Ligue pour L'Action Socialiste

Category: Labour

LifeLabs couriers and mailroom clerks reach tentative agreement with employer

by

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.

Singh Sells Out for Liberal Sunny Ways

by

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

by

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

by

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.

The Red Review — Class Struggle or Just a “Con”voy?

by

In this episode of The Red Review, brought to you by Socialist Action, Emily and Daniel take you on a deep dive into the anti-mandate convoy? Is this a working-class movement or a eugenecist and reactionary movement led by the petit-bourgoiesie? What fueled the anti-mandate convoy, and what role did mainstream coverage of China's zero-covid strategy play? We end with a discussion about who ought to respond to the convoy — the police or labour?

The far-right’s dangerous political momentum

by

As state power is reluctantly and belatedly deployed against the far-right’s laughably named Freedom Convoy, it’s time for the political left in Canada to ask itself some very serious questions. How could a gaggle of white supremacists manage to capture the political momentum and undertake “the biggest protest organized by the Canadian far-right since the 1930s”?

Code Red — Alberta’s Ambulance Shortage

by

The Province of Alberta, led by Kenney’s United Conservative Party (UCP), faces an ambulance shortage. Articles in 2019, well before the pandemic of Covid-19, described a sharp increase in code reds, where no ambulance is available to respond to a call. With increased rates of infection impacting both the number of healthcare workers isolating at home and the number of calls for ambulances coming in, the crisis of ambulance coverage in Alberta surpassed any reasonable notion of a tipping point. The existing system isn’t failing — it’s failed.

The Ontario NDP and the Art of Political Manipulation

by

By postponing the Ontario New Democratic Party Convention (for nearly a year) to occur just four months prior to the Ontario provincial election, party officials tipped the scales to minimize criticism of its policy and Leader.  And leaving nothing to chance, they ensured that dozens of submitted resolutions calling for democratic and socialist policies were ranked low on subject priority lists so as to never see the light of day.  Milquetoast motions that did get debated (February 4-6, 2022) mostly garnered over 95 per cent approval.  The 1,100-plus registered delegates endured a long parade of NDP and Labour bureaucrats who repeated arguments at the virtual PRO mic, ad nauseum.  But don't think that this was a convention of calm consensus.  Up to a quarter of the gathering, representing thousands of rank and file members of the only mass, labour-based, working class party in North America, frequently challenged bureaucratic rules and pro-capitalist policies.

Press NDP to Fight for a Workers’ Agenda in 2022

by

After nearly four years of the most regressive, incompetent and corrupt Ontario government in decades, opinion polls show the Doug Ford Conservatives leading, and the New Democratic Party mired in third place, well behind the Liberals, on the eve of the June 2 provincial election.

How is this possible?  Only exceptionally weak NDP policy and leadership can account for this disturbing situation.  It’s certainly not a function of popular satisfaction with the status quo.

Toronto Anti-Convoy Protest Shows the Way Forward

by

While the anti-mandate siege in Ottawa continued, Torontonians learned of a similar convoy set for the weekend of February 5, 2022. We anticipated thousands of people would converge in Toronto to spread a eugenicist message — that saving the lives of the most vulnerable from Covid-19 is not worth any concession of individual liberties. But frustrated and over-stressed healthcare workers decided to take a stand.

Emergency Town Hall on Omicron Crisis: Workers’ on the Frontline

by

On Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 7p.m. over 300 front-line workers from coast to coast joined a Zoom Conference in response to the Omicron crisis. The conference host, Justice for Workers Organization, was overwhelmed by the participation and passion of frontline workers from variety of sectors, including health, education, transportation, agriculture and newly emerging freelance/ gig workers.  The conference included special guest Ontario New Democratic Party (ONDP) Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) Peggy Sattler from London West, guest speaker Dr. Naheed Dosani, and observers from the Migrant Rights Network, along with Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL). 

LEFT UNITY RISES IN THE B.C. NDP

by

The British Columbia New Democratic Party (BC NDP) Convention, held online December 11-12, met against a backdrop of capitalist catastrophes that are more frequent, more severe and cause greater waves of devastation in their wake. The convention of the labour-based party, originally scheduled for November 17-19, was postponed due to the torrential, record-breaking deluge that swept southern BC.

The downpours tore up roads, railway tracks, took out bridges, caused the collapse of buildings and mountainsides, overflowed dykes, flooded the best agricultural land in Canada, destroyed homes, killed tens of thousands of farm animals, and killed countless wild animals. The agricultural destruction is causing continued food shortages in BC.

A heat wave in June set a global record in which parts of BC were hotter than Death Valley.

The Red Review — Oct. and Nov. 2021 Recapped

by

In this episode of The Red Review, brought to you by Socialist Action, Emily and Daniel discuss major developments across the Canadian State and provide an important update on the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Featuring catastrophic flooding in BC, RCMP invasion of Wet'suwet'en (again), COP26, Climate Action Tracker, 'Facebook' for Palestinians, criminalization of Palestinian human rights groups, Fairy Creek blockade, and striking CUPE workers in New Brunswick.

The Red Review – New Brunswick CUPE Workers on Strike FT. Mackenzie Thomason Provincial Leader of the NDP

by

In this bonus episode of The Red Review, brought to you by Socialist Action, Emily and Daniel interview Mackenzie Thomason, bus driver, CUPE 1253 member, and recently acclaimed leader of the New Brunswick NDP. Mackenzie talks picket line vibes, community support, demands of striking workers, taking on the Irving empire, government ban on land acknowledgements, and a surging New Brunswick NDP that puts people first, not profit!