Socialist Alternative recently examined the idea that Doug Ford had become the friend of labour after his government increased the minimum wage and proposed that delivery workers should be allowed to use washrooms at locations they deliver to and that workers should have the right to “disconnect from work” (not answer the phone, reply to […]
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Defund the Coastal GasLink Pipeline! On a cold grey December 21, sixty people rallied outside the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch on 1st Avenue and Commercial Drive in Vancouver. All of Canada’s major banks invest heavily in the oil and gas sector; RBC leads the pack in pushing climate change. It owns 8 percent […]
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No to Corporate Profiteering Socialist Alternative Canada joins organizations across Canada and the US in calling for the big banks to divest from the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline. Supporters and allies of the Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs have called for the December 20th Week of Action to #DefundCoastalGasLink. In 2020, 27 banks from around the world […]
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James McCabe is a member of the Socialist Party (ISA in Ireland). Amazon has announced it will establish a Data Centre in Calgary, news much welcomed by politicians as a job creator and sign of a tech future for Calgary. No reality check of the huge use of electricity or water, both issues in Calgary. […]
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Real “boldness” is the struggle for socialism! Québec’s nationalist broad-left party, Québec Solidaire, presents its new electoral platform as “bold” and “realistic.” The party will target the middle classes with an anti-CAQ (Coalition Avenir Quebec, the current right-wing party in power under Francois Legault) platform focused on environmentalism and supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). […]
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The emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID highlights the ongoing failings of governments around the world to tackle this pandemic. Vaccine hoarding by rich countries, companies putting profit before human need, governments failing to do outreach to hard-to-reach and hesitant communities and people have all contributed to this ongoing misery. The COVID pandemic drags […]
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Some people have been fooled into thinking that recent policy announcements by the Conservative government of Doug Ford have made him an advocate for working-class interests. Ontarians have seen a slew of announcements this fall about temp workers, gig workers, injured workers, being able to “disconnect from work” and the minimum wage. Ford is obviously […]
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The BC government announced a guaranteed minimum number of employer-paid sick days for most workers; there are exclusions. The Worker Solidarity Network, the BC Federation of Labour, and other allied groups, including Socialist Alternative, called for 10 paid sick days per year for all workers, as a minimum standard required to ensure the health and […]
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New Brunswick’s public sector general strike has come to an end. A majority of CUPE locals voted last week for a contract that will see a 2 percent pay raise each year of the five-year agreement. On top of this, workers will receive a 25 cent per hour wage increase per year. Crucially, casual workers […]
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Paramedics face crises everyday as a basic part of their job. In British Columbia, they are also facing entirely avoidable crises of understaffing, low pay, and burnout. All of this was cruelly exposed in the summer heat dome, with soaring distress calls, long waits for ambulances and unnecessary deaths. It wasn’t always this way. BC’s […]
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