Per-Åke Westerlund is a member of Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (ISA in Sweden). This article deals with the second wave in Europe but in Canada, too, government failings have pushed new COVID cases to the highest level ever. Germany is experiencing a “very serious rise,” Czechia faces an “enormous surge” while Spain needs “drastic measures” while countries […]
Continue Reading
The Ford government in Ontario, using the COVID-19 crisis as an excuse, has launched an attack on the principle of union seniority as it pertains to the hiring of new teachers. The seniority principle, often simplified to “last in, first out” has been incorporated into the language of union collective agreements going back to the […]
Continue Reading
Conor Payne is a member of the Socialist Party (ISA in Ireland). Reject false choice between ‘economy’ and public health The last days saw the development of an open split between the Fianna Fáil / Fine Gael / Green Party coalition government and the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) which has offered public health […]
Continue Reading
Among the many failings of our economic and political realities revealed by COVID-19, the most visible one is the fact that the pandemic is accentuating all the pre-existing inequalities. In fact, it has a much more devastating impact on oppressed sections of society who are already in fragile financial positions and living off precarious jobs. […]
Continue Reading
Capitalism turned the coronavirus into a huge disaster. COVID-19 was not an inevitable and unavoidable pandemic; capitalism made it more likely that a virus would cross to humans and did not prepare for that. Once the virus was known to be infecting humans the response was inadequate. Almost everything capitalism did and is doing made […]
Continue Reading
Several private clinics in Toronto are now offering COVID-19 testing, as the second wave sweeps over a poorly prepared province. The cost per test varies from $50 to $400. The rationale being played by the corporate heads of companies offering testing is that they are providing a critical service in a time of need, citing […]
Continue Reading
Including Growing Second Wave and New Closures Even now, nine months since reports of COVID-9 emerged Canada still does not have enough PPE or test kits and tracing is weak. For months, Canadians have been held in the grip of an unprecedented pandemic that has left few people untouched. Canada failed to protect workers and […]
Continue Reading
Sonja Grusch is a member of Sozialistische LinksPartei (ISA in Austria). This article is based on an introductory speech at the ISA Virtual Marxist University in July 2020. The background to the discussion and to the period we are in is the deep structural crisis of capitalism, that is the world recession, triggered and accelerated […]
Continue Reading
After a pause due to COVID restrictions, Socialist Alternative has produced a new 20-page bumper issue. For Socialist Reconstruction Canada “Reopens” to Uncertain Future For Climate and Jobs The Pandemic for Women’s Oppression The Dire State of Canadian Youth Police: A Tool of the Capitalist State Against Indigenous Peoples Capitalism Made COVID Disaster Kenny’s Attack […]
Continue Reading
Written by a shop steward in a pharmaceutical company and member of Linkse Socialistiche Partij / Parti Socialiste de Lutte (ISA in Belgium). The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are made worse by the contradictions in the capitalist production system, but it is also a factor that exacerbates the same contradictions. The tools that are […]
Continue Reading