Our power is moving the CBC

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Published on Thursday, 18 July 2019 18:08

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Friends,

Yesterday, was one of the most powerful days of action I have ever seen.

Thousands of people took action to demand that the CBC host a leaders’ debate on climate change and a Green New Deal during October’s election. But don’t just take my word for it, see for yourself:

It was clear to me yesterday that communities across the country feel the urgency of a climate emergency because they are living the impacts of the climate crisis. Many of the people who took action used bold visuals to symbolically bring climate impacts to the doorstep of the CBC. Here are some of the stories that touched me the most:

• In Edmonton, hundreds turned out in a thunderstorm, many wearing dust masks similar to those thousands of people had to don during periods of extreme wildfire smoke.
• In Ottawa, a massive crowd stacked sandbags in front of the CBC studio, spelling out “Climate Emergency.” Just weeks ago, sandbags like these were sold out everywhere in the Ottawa area because people were filling them in...

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BC's information laws need an overhaul

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Published on Thursday, 18 July 2019 12:06

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The time for information rights reform is here!

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Mt. Polley

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Published on Thursday, 18 July 2019 11:56

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A,

It’s been almost five years since Imperial Metals’ Mount Polley Mine spilled 25 million cubic metres of toxic waste into Quesnel Lake, one of the deepest lakes in the world. The lake is home to abundant fish and supplies drinking water to local communities.

The clock is ticking: the federal government has until August 4th, 2019, to charge Imperial Metals. That’s why we need to turn up the heat now and force Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Fisheries Minister Jonathan Wilkinson’s hands.

Already, over 51,000 SumOfUs members like you have signed our powerful petition calling for charges against the mining giant.

Will you help us get to 70,000 to force the hand of Trudeau and Wilkinson to finally do the right thing and charge Imperial Metals?

Thanks for all you do,

Angus, Amelia and the team at SumOfUs

Canada’s Auditor General released an alarming report urging Trudeau’s government to do a better job to sanction mining companies when they fail to protect Canadian waters and fish.

Now is the time to tell the federal government not to let Imperial Metals off the hook for the massive Mount Polley mine waste spill. Enforce the Fisheries Act now!

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Reclaiming Blackfoot culture

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Published on Thursday, 18 July 2019 09:02

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BDS in the face of Israeli Apartheid

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Published on Thursday, 18 July 2019 05:36

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1863 ... July 18, 2019
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BDS in the face of Israeli Apartheid

Palestinian BDS National Committee

On July 9th, Palestinians marked with a mix of alarm and hope the 14th anniversary of the BDS Call (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions), launched by Palestinian society in 2005 in pursuit of freedom, justice and equality.

The growth of our popular resistance and the global, Palestinian-led BDS movement give us hope at a time when Israel’s far-right regime is intensifying its system of apartheid and crimes against our people, in open partnership with the anti-Palestinian Trump Administration, and with the complicity of the European Union and despotic Arab regimes.

Israel’s ongoing Nakba against the Palestinian people is most brutally manifested in its illegal siege and repeated massacres that have reduced Gaza into an uninhabitable ghetto, causing unspeakable suffering to its two million Palestinians.

It is also evidenced in its continued denial of the internationally recognized right of return for millions of Palestinian refugees, its gradual ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians, particularly in Jerusalem, and its adoption of the so-called Jewish Nation-State...

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On the Democratic Character of Socialist Revolution

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Published on Wednesday, 17 July 2019 03:46

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1862 ... July 17, 2019
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On the Democratic Character of Socialist Revolution

John Riddell

Under the headline "Why Kautsky was right," Eric Blanc wrote:

"Leninists for decades have hinged their strategy on the need for an insurrection to overthrow the entire parliamentary state and to place all power into the hands of workers’ councils."

When I read these words, my mind went back to a day 40 years earlier when this formulation was hurled at me by members of Canada’s security police. They used it as justification for their illegal disruption and harassment directed against me and fellow members of the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL).

To be sure, Eric Blanc is a firm defender of the legality and legitimacy of socialist groups, including those who draw inspiration from the 1917 Russian revolution and the writings of V.I. Lenin. He will also be the first to agree that the hundreds of political groups worldwide that draw inspiration from Lenin represent a broad gamut of political strategies, including a great many that accept his thesis as a preference that,...

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Which side is CBC on?

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Published on Tuesday, 16 July 2019 09:40

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Paov,

The CBC has to make an important decision. They can choose to listen to tens of thousands of people across the country and commit to hosting a leaders’ debate on climate change in October’s election. Or, they can refuse and ensure another election where climate takes a backseat to every other issue. That’s exactly what Big Oil and its political allies want.

Which is why it’s up to us to make sure the CBC chooses correctly. Tomorrow, take action with communities across Canada to demand that the CBC host a climate debate.

Check out our action map to find an event near you.

Can’t make it or don’t see an event in your community?

Donate to Our Time to help us keep up the pressure after tomorrow’s action.

Things are really coming together for the day of action tomorrow. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to hear from organizers across the country who spent their weekend painting banners, stenciling signs, and finalizing their plans for the action in their community.

We need all hands on deck for this moment. Winning a climate...

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Challenge government secrecy

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Published on Monday, 15 July 2019 09:26

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Stop secret spying

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Greece: 39 Months at City Plaza for Refugees Ends

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Published on Monday, 15 July 2019 04:16

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1861 ... July 15, 2019
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Greece: 39 Months at City Plaza for Refugees Ends

Economic and Political Refugee Solidarity Initiative

On July 10th, 2019, the keys of squatted City Plaza, Athens, Greece, were handed back to the former employees of the hotel, to whom the mobile equipment in the building belongs. All refugees living at City Plaza have been moved to safe housing within the city.

On 22 April 2016, the Economic and Political Refugee Solidarity Initiative squatted the empty City Plaza building with a two-fold goal: to create, on the one hand, a space of safety and dignity in which to house refugees in the centre of the city and, on the other, to create a centre of struggle against racism, borders, and social exclusion; for the freedom of movement and for the right to stay.

The decision to squat was taken at a critical political juncture. On 18th March 2016, one month before the squat opened, the EU-Turkey deal to restrict the movement of refugees to Europe was signed. It was the deal that marked the...

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Stir It Up: From Whitman to Marx w/George Elliot Clarke

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Published on Sunday, 14 July 2019 04:18

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LeftStreamed — Recorded in Toronto, 5 May 2018

Stir It Up: From Whitman to Marx w/George Elliot Clarke

George Elliott Clarke reads his poems:

1. Spirituals
2. Whitman Compiles His Leaves
3. On Queen Victoria, By Karl Marx
4. Paul Robeson Salutes the USSR
5. Damn

George Elliott Clarke is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016-2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known largely for its use of a vast range of literary and artistic traditions, its lush physicality and its bold political substance. One of Canada’s most illustrious poets, Clarke is also known for chronicling the experience and history of the Black Canadian communities of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, creating a cultural geography that he has coined ‘Africadia’.

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Imagine an election where climate matters

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Published on Saturday, 13 July 2019 12:56

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Friends,

Take a minute to close your eyes and imagine this.

It’s three weeks before our federal election and all of the federal party leaders are in a CBC studio lined up behind podiums for Canada’s first leaders’ debate on climate change. Each one of them forced to defend their plan for tackling the climate crisis and their party position on a Green New Deal.

It might feel out of reach but the thing is -- it’s 100% possible. And making it happen will mean getting all hands on deck for a mass moment on July 17th.

We need you on board to help demand that the CBC host a leaders' climate debate. Check out our map and look for an action in your community.

If you decide to take action, we will support you every step of the way to set you up for success.

A leaders’ debate on climate change would mark a historic moment. It would be an indication that Canada is finally taking the climate emergency seriously.

As proven by the hundreds of Green...

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We need 4,021 signatures

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Published on Saturday, 13 July 2019 07:12

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Tell Saputo to clean up their act

A,

In just a few short weeks, we're heading to the biggest meeting of the year for Canadian dairy giant Saputo to pressure executives to take food waste seriously.

Already over 20,000 members like you have signed our powerful petition. And when we walk in, we want to have 25,000 signatures to hand directly to the CEO in front of the biggest investors in the company in the multi-billion dollar corporation.

And we know pressure like this works. When we sent out the original petition, we also targeted frozen food giant McCains, and within weeks it had publicly published its 50% food waste reduction commitment on its website. With your help, we can force Saputo to lower its food waste too!

Will you help us get to 25,000 signatures to up the pressure on executives to stop food waste at Saputo?

Thanks for all that you do,
Amelia, Angus and the team at SumOfUs

Food processors like Saputo are most responsible food waste in Canada.

It’s time these food giants to clean up...

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HBOs Chernobyl

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Published on Friday, 12 July 2019 06:32

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~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( Oats for Breakfast ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Socialist Project podcast ... No. 22 ... July 12, 2019
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HBO’s Chernobyl

Lina Nasr, Brent Toye, and Olena Lyubchenko offer their takes on the recent HBO miniseries Chernobyl. They talk about the political commentary the series is trying to offer, the fact that historical inaccuracies were a major part of telling a story whose ostensible purpose was to highlight the importance of the truth, and why liberal centrism is not necessarily an objective standpoint from which to look at the world.

Listen to podcast

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R&F.ca Weekly Update

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Published on Friday, 12 July 2019 04:02

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