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Canada’s transformation under neoliberalism
Neoliberalism represented a multi-faceted, deliberate, global strategy by elites to turn the whole ship around. A generation later, it is sobering to consider how successful that strategy has been. As Jim Stanford explains, it has clearly empowered and enriched corporations and those who own them, and put workers on the defensive everywhere.
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Documenting the fight for decriminalization in the sex workers’ rights movement
Sex workers have for too long been seen as something less than fully human, our work seen as unskilled, as a “high-risk lifestyle” rather than a job. Our fight for decriminalization is but one aspect of the sex workers’ rights movement. The other, more complex component is our fight against stigma and the silence that we are encouraged to maintain around our work.
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Precarious workers or satisfied customers? A fine line for giant retailers
A Walmart Christmas could have easily been written by Dickens. The stresses and difficulties faced by Walmart workers during the holidays is overwhelming. Overwork, a climate of fear and barely-organized chaos make for taxing shifts at work. Low wages, insufficient hours and inadequate benefits stretch budgets and make it harder to find holiday joy at home.
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Exiting the Vampire Castle
In this pointed polemic, Mark Fisher accuses “neo-anarchists” and those in the “Vampire Castle” for toxic navel-gazing on the Left.
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Listen to Chomsky’s Montréal discussion period
Listen to the discussion period from Noam Chomsky’s Montréal lecture in Oct. 2013, a discussion that touches upon the reality of growing police repression in Montréal under the municipal law P-6 that bans free protest, to a clear denunciation of the pending Quebec secularist charter.
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Organized Labour and New Social Media
It is fair to say that Canadians are increasingly using New Social Media for personal and professional networking. But what does this mean for organized labour?
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The Temps
This abuse of temporary workers, in the name of good business, has perhaps been the most insidious and effective corporate move against workers over the last two decades. North American corporations have succeeded in seriously undermining unity among labour where it counts most, on the shop floor. If workers are to restore a better work environment for themselves, and be stronger in the fight against managers for a fair portion of the fruits of our economy, then the abuse of temporary labour must be eliminated.
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Skilled Labour
If wages were truly determined by skills, abilities, and knowledge, than we got seriously robbed by the company.
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The Titanic and Justice Denied
The media did a commendable job of commemorating the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, yet in the plethora of reporting, no mention was made of the responsibilities of the ship owners to its numerous employees and others on the doomed ship.
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Does the Right to Strike Still Exist?
Some things never change. Another summer is upon us, and children are enjoying their break from school; the baseball season is well under way; and the Conservative government is continuing its attack on working people. Last summer, as you may recall, the then newly-elected Conservative government responded with a heavy-hand to three labour disputes: one at Canada Post and two at Air Canada. In all three of these instances, the government sought to eliminate the right to free and fair collective bargaining and the right to strike.