This article was published in the latest issue of Socialist Alternative’s magazine. Since then, further strikes have erupted including ILWU at BC’s ports and 27 Metro stores around Toronto. Over the last thirty years, academics and pundits have written off the working class, arguing that it has changed or disappeared. The last few years has […]
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Oliver Twist, desperately hungry in the workhouse, famously asked for “some more” thin gruel. Mr. Bumble is outraged and berates Oliver for his impertinence. Fast forward to 2023 Ontario, land of the business fat cats, auto makers Volkswagen (VW) and Stellantis, who do not request “more,” they demand billions in subsidies, or else. Not a […]
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Written by Socialist Alternative members in solidarity on the picket line. On Wednesday, July 19, the leadership of International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) changed their position on their legal strike multiple times. In the morning they announced they were suspending the strike, after restarting it the day before, only to announce a few […]
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Written by Socialist Alternative members in solidarity on the picket line. What was Won? The longshore strike on BC’s coast is over. After 12 days of solid action, on the morning of Thursday, July 13, The International Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada (ILWU) and the employers, the BCMEA, announced they had reached a tentative agreement […]
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Blaine Higgs, the Premier of New Brunswick since 2018, has recently found himself at the centre of multiple controversies. These include but are not limited to his attacks on the LGBTQ community, the status of French language, limitations on abortion access, and a halt on land acknowledgments. His positions on many of these issues are hardly […]
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Written by Socialist Alternative members in solidarity on the picket line. Workers in Canada have the right to strike. But if a strike is effective, the bosses go bleating to the government demanding they impose back-to-work legislation. This is what is happening with the ILWU strike. The employers’ representatives have walked away from bargaining three […]
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Julie Walton is a member of Socialist Alternative (England, Wales & Scotland). DP Canada is one of the major port companies refusing to negotiate with the ILWU in BC. They are owned by DP World, a Dubai based company that made profits before taxes, etc of $5 billion in 20022. In March of that year, […]
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In the media industry, there’s an old saying: “if it bleeds, it leads.” Sometimes the blood is real and gory, sometimes it’s a metaphor where the story in question involves drama, suspense, conflict or death, and, of course, “human interest.” The story gets top billing — the lead news story. And often it will displace […]
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Olivia Chow, former NDP MP and city councillor, is Toronto’s new mayor, the first “progressive” or left-of-centre elected since David Miller back in 2003. While issues around affordable housing, the exploding cost of living and the city’s ballooning financial deficit are worse now than they were back then, Chow’s victory marks a clear response to […]
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Written by Socialist Alternative members in solidarity on the picket line. At 8 am on Saturday, July 1, BC’s ports went quiet as longshore workers (ILWU) started their strike. They had voted 99.24 percent in favour of action, a powerful statement of intent. 7,400 workers are on strike. The previous contract had expired on March […]
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