Despite much discussion about ‘lessons learned,’ there have been few efforts at actually adapting our social protection systems in the pandemic’s wake, writes researcher Chris Webb. There has been alarmingly limited recognition that our income support systems remain ill-equipped to deal with both the changing world of work and future crises.

Histories of internationalism are often dominated by European accounts, from volunteers in the Spanish Civil War to foreign fighters in the French resistance. But there exists a growing literature on those anti-colonial internationalists who challenged empire at home and abroad. In this vein, an important new book sheds light on a group of Canadian volunteers involved in the armed struggle against apartheid South Africa.

The history of those ordinary Canadians who fought against apartheid has tragically been lost, and those who decried Mandela as a communist terrorist elevated as humanitarian heroes in his passing. Canadian Dimension collective member Chris Webb unpacks the hidden history of Canada’s anti-apartheid movement.

Mark Perelman’s argument can be summed up as follows: Sport is inseparable from the global games industry, which has its beginnings in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Nazis did not appropriate the Olympics, rather the nature of sport is congruent with Nazi ideology and laid the foundations for the Second World War with its nationalist bravado, saluting of the flag and so on.

It’s been left unsaid for a while, but some of the trends that characterize work in the mainstream media have proliferated in Left media where a large amount of work is done for little or no wages.

With Ontario’s senior population projected to double in the next 16 years, senior care is big business and numerous companies are cashing in at the expense of both workers and clients.

Against a background of snow-capped mountains, surrounded by drilling rigs and refineries a gas-masked Josh Fox strums a slow banjo tune. This fittingly apocalyptic visual transitions into a truly terrifying but remarkable story of corporate greed, negligence and the concentration of power.

Twenty-eight years ago the Atlacatl battalion – a U.S. trained and financed squad of Salvadoran soldiers – entered El Mozote and told men, women, and children they were guilty of supporting guerillas and communism. They proceeded to kill every last person and razed the village to the ground. What makes the massacre at El Mozote all the more tragic is the media war and cover up it spurred. The largest massacre in Latin America remains, to most, largely unknown and its victims have been exiled to the rubbish bin of history.

In this installment, Chris Webb debates the political capacity of Twitter, Facebook and open-source software but warns “this technology has a dark side…tech-empires are still in the hands of the privileged few”. And in Soderbergh’s film, Che, the director ultimately reinforces the commodity of “Che”, disregarding political context and cinematic creativity.

Everything labour across Canada. Festivals of “workers as artists” are happening across the country this May and we have the only national calendar of Mayworks events. From Vancouver Island to Ottawa, head out to a film screening, art-exhibit, May Day march, or workshop and help support worker creativity.