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Why Should You Climate Strike on Friday, Sept. 27?
EnvironmentA year ago, inspired by Greta Thunberg, young people around the world began ‘climate-striking’ — walking out of school for a few hours on Fridays to demand action against global warming. In March, when 1.4 million kids around the world walked out of school, they asked for adults to join them next time. That next time is Sept. 20 (in Canada and a few other countries on Sept. 27) and it is shaping up to be the biggest day of climate action in the planet’s history.
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Economic Sanctions: War by Another Name
Latin America and the CaribbeanOur real national security threat is the erosion of democracy and morality within our borders when we cage refugee children from Central America, terrorizing them and violating their human rights. We have a history of undermining and overturning democratically elected governments (Iran in 1953, Chile in 1973). Yet we hypocritically demonize other governments for endangering our national security.
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“Yes to life, no to mining”
Latin America and the CaribbeanOn June 22, we attended Oaxaca’s first ever “Guelaguetza” against mining, in the municipality of San Martín de los Cansecos. Various communities from the Valles Centrales in Oaxaca joined together to commemorate the state’s annual “Rebellion Against Mining Day” and to reaffirm “¡Sí a la vida, no a la minería!” (Yes to life, no to mining!)
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We may have a livable planet, or we may have unlimited growth. We cannot have both.
EnvironmentWe need to decide what we value more: a healthy planet in which our natural bounty is harnessed to protect the ecosphere and sustain a livable home for all, or the sale of that bounty to the highest bidder, and the destruction of our collective ecosystem in the name of economic development. Both of these choices have consequences. Only one of them leads to a better future for the rest of humanity.
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Government inaction on anti-Palestinian charity reflects Canada’s racist power structure
Canadian PoliticsWe are beginning to hear more about the varieties of racism that plague our country. With a federal election around the corner, those among us who strive for a just peace in Israel-Palestine can raise this issue with our local candidates. At your doorstep, in your community, and at local candidates’ debates, ask them if they support the ongoing charitable status of JNF Canada. Ask them if they think Palestinian lives matter.
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The United Auto Workers and the Big Three Automakers: A Tale of Corruption
LabourWhat follows is a somewhat complex tale of what happens when a labor union, structured to be unaccountable to the rank-and-file membership, embraces a system of labor-management cooperation rather than a class-conscious understanding that workers and their employers are adversaries with fundamentally opposed goals and desires. Unfortunately, what is true of the UAW is true for many US labor unions.
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In the fight against eco-fascism, we need to politicize nature
EnvironmentAs the devastating effects of the climate crisis continue to be felt around the globe, global warming and its ecological consequences are now being used by fascists to justify acts of racist murder. This extreme and violent reaction to the existential problem of our time, otherwise known as eco-fascism, is apparent in the manifesto written by the El Paso shooter who murdered 22 people and injured 24 others in early August.
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There’s Only One Antidote for Climate Despair—Climate Revolt
EnvironmentThe lesson here is not that any one strategy is particularly efficacious. It’s that collective action is the surest antidote to solitary despair. This is something that Americans have largely forgotten. When I asked Clare Farrell, another founding XR organizer, how she managed to keep afloat despite the ever-rising tide of apocalyptic news, she answered by recalling an early XR slogan: “Hope dies, action begins.”
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Ecosocialism and a Just Transition
EnvironmentIt is thus necessarily intertwined with the class struggle, while intersecting with struggles over social reproduction, racial capitalism, and militarism and imperialism – all of which question the very foundations of capitalism. If we are to save our children’s world, we will have to be more revolutionary than at any time in human history.
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Why a wealth tax must be part of any plan to end income inequality in Canada
Canadian PoliticsIf members of the billionaire class support a wealth tax on the grounds that it numbs adversarial attitudes towards wealthy elites—and slows the pace of growing inequality so that the rich can carry on their businesses as usual—is it likely, on its own, to be an effective way of serving the long-term interests of poor and working people?
