How Can We Not be Pessimistic?

It’s no secret that younger generations are increasingly pessimistic about the future. The rising cost of living, climate change, and budget cuts to health care and education are some of the reasons. Young people often must decide between going to school, racking up tens of thousands of dollars of debt, or entering the workforce immediately, […]

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Public Health Care: born out of struggle

Sixty years ago, North America’s first socialist government, in the heart of the Canadian prairies, Saskatchewan, enacted one of the demands outlined in its manifesto: a free, public health care system. This new program was enacted on July 1, 1962. However, this was not without a struggle, as on the first day of its enactment, […]

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Liberals’ Budget: for Bay Street, Not Workers

The Liberal government’s 2022 budget is a budget for Bay Street, not for working-class Canadians. It’s full of incentives and subsidies for big business, including fossil fuel companies and private developers. It has a housing program that will leave thousands without homes, and a weak and slowly implemented dental program that won’t cover everyone. The […]

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Poison Drugs Emergency

After six years of BC’s public health emergency due to poison drugs things are much worse. The health emergency was declared following 474 deaths in 2015, yet in 2021 there were at least 2,232 drug fatalities. In contrast, there were 1,522 COVID deaths for all of 2021. After six years deaths are nearly five times […]

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$37,909 For Hand Surgery

Rob Rooke is a member of Socialist Alternative in the US. This is the tale of a US worker. It reminds us how important public health is and why the push from Conservatives, some greedy doctors and big business to privatize Canada’s health needs to be resisted. In fact, public health needs to be expanded […]

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Killer Gasoline

Lead is a well-known poison. Its harmful effects have been known for 2,000 years.  Dioscorides wrote that “Lead makes the mind give way.” Yet 100 years ago, car manufacturers and oil companies started a mass lead poisoning. Researchers at General Motors found that by adding a lead compound, tetraethyl lead (TEL), several problems with internal […]

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2021: Age of Disorder, Year 2

Danny Byrne is a member of ISA’s International Executive. From beginning to end, 2021 was a year of perfect storm for world capitalism. This rotten and decadent system has rarely, if ever before, faced such deep simultaneous crises on so many fronts. It has never been more over-ripe for replacement, and the 2020s are only […]

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BC’s Ongoing Ambulance Crisis

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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