Different approaches are needed to counter today’s containment strategies. Governments are less likely to be moved by displays of our potential power. Huge rallies and days of action are an essential part of building movements and campaigns, but this is a period when ongoing social action and indefinite strikes will be needed to turn back attacks and win our demands.

Throughout Doug Ford’s provincial political career, there has been one constant: an unmatched love for policies concerning alcohol. The Ontario premier’s only conception of his voter base is that of people whose main priority is alcohol. Ford’s obsession with freeing up the market for booze sales is not only dangerous, but also insulting to the average Ontarian.

One could spend much time and effort dissecting Poilievre’s 20-year parliamentary track record and conclude, correctly, that he offers nothing to workers and cannot be trusted, but this does nothing to explain the populist strategy he is pursuing and why it appears to be succeeding, as it did recently in the European Union elections.

Much like “essential workers” during the pandemic, federal public servants have discovered that they are simultaneously too valuable to continue working from home, yet not worth enough to negotiate with. As Taylor Noakes reports, by mandating public servants to return to the office, the feds have needlessly picked a fight with a national workforce exceeding 270,000 people.

The Amazon organizing model poses three tests for labour and the left. Can traditional unionism bring power to Amazon workers and if not, what kind of trade unionism might? Can the struggle at Amazon contribute to transforming the labour movement? And are unions adequate to confronting modern capitalism or do they need to be supplemented by other forms of organization?

The number of workers forming unions by National Labor Relations Board-supervised elections is growing, but it’s still far too slow to change the balance of power at the heart of the economy. As labour scholar Kim Moody writes, the collective awareness and coordinated use of positional power offers a powerful alternative route—and an additional organizing tool.

Renowned legal scholar Harry Glasbeek unpacks how law has been used to ensure that workers’ aspirations are kept in check. In this excerpt from his new book, Law at Work, he uncovers how the legal system, through its structures and mechanisms, protects capitalists by legitimizing and reinforcing the exploitation of workers.

York administration has made a bad situation worse. Faculty, staff and students are exhausted by management’s growing infringement on the academic freedom of faculty members, attacks on collegial governance, and the lack of adequate public funding and respect from governments. This broad assault against education and public services must end.

The 2024 budget does not get us anywhere near the kind of public leadership that we need. But the increase to capital gains taxes is an important, if minor, reversal of tax cuts that increased the wealth and power of the richest families at the expense of everyone else. That increase needs to be defended against the vested interests that will refuse any challenge to their power.

More and more ECEs and care givers are leaving the sector in search of better paid work. Current early childhood education students are uncertain about their futures. Many are opting out of pursuing a career in this field altogether. Indeed, the province could be short 8,500 ECEs by 2026. Ontario needs to do better and pay its ECEs and child care workers a decent wage.