Alternative News

Member Login

Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.

Our leadership search continues, with some big updates!

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 April 2021 20:00; Written by editor

Iron & Earth r1

Paov --

We’d like to update you on our leadership transition journey!

We have an amazing new National Chapter Director that we’re excited to introduce you to next week. Until then, we want to share some important news about our Executive Director & CEO leadership search: we have extended the call for applications to February 14 and increased the compensation packages.

After conducting the first phase of outreach and speaking with several impressive candidates, we have received signals that in order to fill these dynamic positions, more incentive and outreach is required.

So, we have updated the compensation and position descriptions and extended the deadline for applications. In making this decision, our main goal has remained unchanged: to find two new leaders to join our team and serve this community’s work - a mission that is more important than ever in these unprecedented times.

Please check out the updated postings for both...

Google Workers Launch New Union

Details: Published on Wednesday, 13 January 2021 02:56; Written by editor

Google Workers Launch New Union

Alphabet Workers Union

On January 4th, workers at Google and other Alphabet companies announced the creation of the Alphabet Workers Union with support from the Communications Workers of America (CWA) – the first of its kind in the company’s history. It will be the first union open to all employees and contractors at any Alphabet company, with dues-paying members, an elected board of directors, and paid organizing staff.

“This union builds upon years of courageous organizing by Google workers,” said Nicki Anselmo, Program Manager. “From fighting the ‘real names’ policy, to opposing Project Maven, to protesting the egregious, multi-million dollar payouts that have been given...

How Socialists Resist Rightist Coups: Lessons from the Early Communist International

Details: Published on Tuesday, 12 January 2021 04:32; Written by editor

How Socialists Resist Rightist Coups: Lessons from the Early Communist International

John Riddell

Parliaments and elections are no guarantee of democratic rights and fair treatment for working people. Capitalist forces displeased with an electoral outcome are all too likely to take direct action to impose their will, whether by financial manipulations, economic blockades, or military coups.

Even apparently stable parliamentary regimes in dominant countries can be challenged in this way. So it was that a military revolt brought down the French Fourth Republic in 1958 and, in 2020-21, Donald Trump mounted a campaign including an apparent coup attempt aiming to overturn the outcome of the US presidential election.

Socialists are challenged...

This. Is. Awful.

Details: Published on Monday, 11 January 2021 06:26; Written by editor

A, Máxima is still short of the legal funds she needs to save her home from a mining company -- will you help her today?

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$89 now Donate another amount

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

Here's the email I sent to you yesterday, with more information:

One brave grandmother in Peru is facing down a mining Goliath. She’s been threatened, beaten, and had her home destroyed -- all because she won’t sell her land for an open-pit mine.

Can you help cover her legal fees?

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Long March to Peasant Unity in India

Details: Published on Monday, 11 January 2021 01:34; Written by editor

Long March to Peasant Unity in India

Ranjini Basu

The unprecedented unity among peasant organizations is not a sudden development. It has been built over several struggles, which have expanded the base of the peasant movement and snowballed into the massive protests against the new farm laws.

The talks between farmers’ organizations and the Union government over the controversial pieces of legislation governing agricultural marketing have reached a stalemate. The government is willing to consider a written assurance to continue with the Minimum Support Prices (MSP) mechanism, and amendments relating to the registration of private traders, imposition of cess (tax) on marketing outside APMC mandis (markets), legal recourse for dispute...

This. Is. Awful.

Details: Published on Sunday, 10 January 2021 04:10; Written by editor

One brave grandmother in Peru is facing down a mining Goliath. She’s been threatened, beaten, and had her home destroyed -- all because she won’t sell her land for an open-pit mine.

Can you help cover her legal fees?

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$89 now Donate another amount

A brave grandmother in Peru has stared down the biggest gold mining company in the world for more than 10 years, refusing to give up her land.

But Máxima Acuña faces her biggest challenge yet -- a judge's ruling where she could lose everything -- and she’s asking for our help.

Newmont Mining has tried every trick in the book to get Máxima out of the way -- she’s been beaten, threatened, even had part...

Precarity U

Details: Published on Sunday, 10 January 2021 00:32; Written by editor

Precarity U

“Precarity U” is a documentary film presented by the United Steel Workers (USW, Local 1998) as part of an awareness campaign on it’s Casual Unit employees at the University of Toronto. Local 1998 is currently in bargaining with the University of Toronto. Members tell their stories of working under contracts with no guarantee of hours of work, no paid sick days, and no benefits – the reality, good and bad, of working on casual contracts.

r0

Forward to a friend: this link

r39
powered by phpList

Key moments in 2021

Details: Published on Saturday, 09 January 2021 03:24; Written by editor

Key moments in 2021 r1

PBI-Canada begins to plan for the COP26 climate summit in Scotland this November … Read more...

2021 will see the 10th anniversary of the Guiding Principles and the 7th session on a Binding Treaty … Read more...

...

Council This Week

Details: Published on Friday, 08 January 2021 12:02; Written by editor

Council This Week r1 ...

How we respond to threats against democracy

Details: Published on Friday, 08 January 2021 09:32; Written by editor

How we respond to threats against democracy r1 ...

Attempted coup in the US

Details: Published on Friday, 08 January 2021 06:12; Written by editor

Trump loyalists just attempted a coup on live television.

Demand that corporations immediately stop donating to the leaders behind the attack on US democracy.

Sign the petition

We all watched in horror as Trump loyalists in Washington, DC broke into the US Capitol building to stop Congress from certifying the results of the US presidential election.

But the truth is, the disturbing scene that played out at the US Capitol has been four years in the making.

Since taking office, Trump and his cronies in the US Republican party have fanned the flames of racism and xenophobia to make themselves more powerful. And some of the world’s biggest corporations have helped them do it.

Multinational corporations including Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have donated millions of dollars to the Republican politicians who instigated the attack on US democracy.

Tell Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to stop bankrolling hate, and condemn the attempted coup.

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be inaugurated on Jan 20th. Make no...

COVID-19 Crisis Situation In Ontario: Deadliest Day of the Pandemic

Details: Published on Friday, 08 January 2021 03:54; Written by editor

COVID-19 Crisis Situation In Ontario: Deadliest Day of the Pandemic

Ontario Health Coalition

January 7th is the deadliest day of the pandemic so far, 89 people died in the last 24-hour period. By every measure the situation is critical, and there can be no question remaining that stronger measures are needed to control the devastation the virus is wreaking. At the same time, stronger supports for people who are the most impacted need to be an integral part of the strategy.

Hospitals

Public hospitals, which continue to make superhuman efforts to fill gaps, provide vital leadership and support across the health system, and keep hospital services open at the same time,...
Read more: COVID-19 Crisis Situation In Ontario: Deadliest Day of the Pandemic

Im blue da ba dee da ba daa

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 January 2021 15:08; Written by editor

I’m blue da ba dee da ba daa r1 ...

Left Coast Events Bulletin is retiring

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 January 2021 14:14; Written by editor

Hello wonderful activist friends,
After countless years (I think it all started around 2000?) I’m retiring the weekly Left Coast Events Bulletin. A big thanks to Chris Cook and Gorilla Radio for airing it at CFUV all these many years.
The world has changed … when I started the project email was a brand new thing, most people were still getting their activist event information from posters on bulletin boards. All these years later we’re all plugged in and event bulletins are plentiful, depending on our area of focus we can meet with people all over the world to learn and share and strategize and activate.
Now, Covid is shining a bright light on the horrors of animal exploitation and I’m now fully focussed on animal activism. Interestingly I find that working to liberate our animal cousins, and build a compassionate vegan world, offers much hope and optimism in these dark times.
Honestly until Covid I didn’t know that Flu, and HIV, and Sars, and Mers, and now Covid, and most other infectious diseases only exist because of our exploitation of animals and their environment. Now, after the virus has been injected into many many innocent...

Riots at the Capitol

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 January 2021 12:46; Written by editor

r1 We denounce white supremacy and its manifestation in all its forms. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌‌

r33

Dear friend,

The violent riots which unfolded yesterday at the Capitol were a deeply concerning display of white supremacy in action.

On the day that Georgia elected its first ever Black Senator and Jewish Senator, rioters barged into the Capitol bearing racist symbols such as the Confederate flag, an Auschwitz hoodie, and nooses.

This was not an isolated incident. White supremacy in this country is systemic and being fueled by many in power. For years, we’ve watched Donald Trump—alongside other politicians—fan the flames of hatred that emboldened rioters to incite yesterday’s violence and take hold of a democratic institution by force.

Witnessing this violence, even from afar, was scary. And yet the police didn’t seem to see the rioters as a threat. Instead of standing in their way, the police opened the gates. There is footage of officers taking selfies with violent white domestic terrorists while they freely roam the halls of our nation’s Capital. It is impossible not to see the clear double standard in police response, when disproportionate use of force...

Democracy Will Prevail

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 January 2021 09:04; Written by editor

A child holding a sign sits on the shoulders of a young woman

Overnight we have watched astonishing scenes as hundreds of thugs incited by a criminal president invaded a country’s legislative chambers and caused mayhem and death in an effort to overturn the result of a democratic election.

As we know, this was not anywhere. It happened in Washington, D.C., the capital of one of the world’s oldest democracies, the United States. Until four years ago I suspect few at the Open Society Foundations would have expected to use such words of condemnation about America. Founded to promote human rights and justice around the world, Open Society has never been blind to the mote in America’s own eye—a society with its brutal share of racial injustice and economic exclusion—but we, like so many, had counted on the authority of America’s democratic process to provide a way forward.

And it will again, as on the same day as mob violence in Washington, an African American pastor from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s old church, was elected to the U.S. Senate from Georgia. The Reverend Raphael Warnock is the first African American Democrat ever elected to the Senate from a state of the old Southern Confederacy. And together with Jon Ossoff, the other senator elected yesterday, he will give incoming President Biden the narrowest of Senate majorities.

The violent attempt to overturn an election is not erased, however, by such a contrasting moment of democratic triumph. America’s moral leadership has been seared by the flames of what happened yesterday.

Ban Trump permanently

Details: Published on Thursday, 07 January 2021 08:34; Written by editor

Yesterday far-right extremists stormed the US Capitol, and now four people are dead. Trump used social media to incite this horrific incident. Facebook and Twitter have temporarily suspended Trump's account -- let's call on the platforms to ban Trump permanently!

Sign the petition

Yesterday violent far-right extremists stormed the US Capitol, and now four people are dead because of it.

This was an attempted coup in action, and Trump inspired it. He fanned the flames by tweeting about the "fraudulent" election and for his supporters to "stay strong".

Twitter temporarily suspended Trump's account for 12 hours, and Facebook for 2 weeks. But after yesterday's horror, the platforms must ban him permanently:

Click to tell Twitter and Facebook to ban Trump permanently -- then share this call across social media

Help Us Build a Career Portal - and win $100!

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 April 2021 20:00; Written by editor

Iron & Earth r1

Paov --

This year, we've seen just how vulnerable the oil and gas sector is. Meanwhile, the green economy is growing fast. That's why Iron & Earth is excited to announce we are building an online platform to help workers find better opportunities for their skills. The Climate Career Portal will offer personalized job postings, training and mentorship opportunities, and career planning, all in one place.

Tell us what functionality is the most important to you and you could win a $100 giftcard from Amazon!

TAKE SURVEY

The Portal is being designed specifically so that we can meet the needs of energy workers as effectively and quickly as possible, for as many workers as possible.

This platform will feature things like:

A career planner Read more: Help Us Build a Career Portal - and win $100!

India Can Already Afford a Welfare State: It Just Needs to Tax Its Wealthiest Citizens

Details: Published on Wednesday, 06 January 2021 00:50; Written by editor

India Can Already Afford a Welfare State:
It Just Needs to Tax Its Wealthiest Citizens

Prabhat Patnaik

It is often believed that the ability to pass on property to one’s progeny is an essential element of capitalism, without which the capitalists’ incentives will dry up and the system will lose its dynamism. Nothing could be further from the truth; the acquisition of property through inheritance is, in fact, contrary to the bourgeois justification for acquiring the capitalist property.

This justification is built on the claim that the capitalists have some special quality that is rare, whose employment makes the nation prosperous and for which they must be rewarded. But there...

Failure to Protect Essential Prisoner Workers Undermines Public Safety

Details: Published on Tuesday, 05 January 2021 03:10; Written by editor

Failure to Protect Essential Prisoner Workers Undermines Public Safety

Jordan House and Asaf Rashid

The COVID-19 pandemic is spreading through federal prisons. As of December 30, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) has reported 1093 positive cases and three deaths among federal prisoners. The outbreaks show no sign of slowing down anytime soon.

Prisoners and advocates have called for action to combat the spread and keep prisoners and surrounding communities safe, including demands for decarceration and the placement of prisoners as a priority group for receiving COVID-19 vaccines. But prisoners are not only experiencing the pandemic as incarcerated people, they are also essential workers facing many of the same health...