Alternative News
Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.
A Green New Deal for Public Transport
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- Published on Saturday, 19 December 2020 02:02
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A Green New Deal for Public Transport
Hayley Richardson
As the US confronts the twin crises of climate and the coronavirus, each disproportionately harming Black and brown Americans, it’s time for a reckoning over our failed federal transportation policies. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the necessary time frame outlined by scientists, we must make public transit a viable option for the majority of Americans. This will provide the greatest benefits to Black and brown riders, who have shouldered the burden of caring for our society throughout the pandemic, while continuing to take transit in large numbers.
Transit agencies’ budgets across the country have been decimated by COVID-19, and providing...
Updates & year-end appeal
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- Published on Friday, 18 December 2020 13:06
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Help us find field brigadistas for PBI’s frontline projects accompanying human rights defenders
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PBI releases new 14-minute documentary on police executions, social justice and the human right to water in Nairobi
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Council This Week
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- Published on Friday, 18 December 2020 12:02
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The Farmers Fight Is Our fight!
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- Published on Friday, 18 December 2020 04:32
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The Farmers’ Fight Is Our fight!
New Trade Union Initiative – Secretariat
The New Trade Union Initiative supports and stands in solidarity with the on-going farmer’s struggle, including the call for Bharat Bandh by the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee and other platforms of farmers’ unions. The lack of willingness to find a fair and just solution to the demands of the farmers by the government is symptomatic of the tone deaf government that we have come to be used to under the BJP.
The three farm laws: the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020, The Farmer (Empowerment and Protection), the Agreement of Price Assurance...
Canada, the U.S. and Mexico walk into a bar
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- Published on Thursday, 17 December 2020 15:50
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We're fighting for the rights of young people in Alberta
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- Published on Thursday, 17 December 2020 12:54
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Hi Friend,
This year, the Alberta government broke its promise to young adults raised in government care.
In January, the government passed a law reducing the age until which young adults raised in government care could receive financial and emotional benefits to help them transition to independence. The cut off age was reduced from 24 to 22.
One of the young people affected by this change, A.C. (whose identity is protected by a publication ban), brought forward a challenge to this law.
I appeared in court on behalf of the BCCLA to support this challenge. As an intervener in this case, we argued that this broken promise violated the Charter rights of young people. We argued that the government has a responsibility to protect A.C.’s life, liberty and security of person, and removing these benefits shirks that responsibility.
Watch the video below, where I explain what’s at stake in this case:
When someone’s rights are violated, they deserve justice. Not everyone...
Read more: We're fighting for the rights of young people in Alberta
Get your donation doubled!
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- Published on Thursday, 17 December 2020 09:18
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I hope you'll take a moment to read my note to you and give your first $3.50 contribution, or perhaps a little more
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- Published on Thursday, 17 December 2020 08:52
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PAOV -
This is the last year I get to write my annual fundraising letter for 350.org. I’m stepping back from my duties — I’ve had my last board meeting, and as the year ends even my volunteer job as ‘senior advisor’ transitions to emeritus status.
It’s always hard to leave behind an institution one helped found, but the time is right: the people now doing most of the work at 350.org need the space to assert their own identities, become public figures in their own right. And to plan new campaigns. I’m very proud of our work together fighting pipelines, divesting trillions of dollars from fossil fuel, and standing up to banks — but there are other battles ahead that need new ideas.
And those battles will need resources. From the South Pacific to South America, from the Arctic to Australia, from London and Paris to DC and New York, 350.org remains the essential global grassroots climate campaign. We have people scattered across the planet — 150 or so hardy souls, most of them young, together catalyzing a vast volunteer base to take on the entire fossil fuel industry. It might...
Amazon Workers Are Organizing a Global Struggle
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- Published on Thursday, 17 December 2020 01:24
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Amazon Workers Are Organizing a Global Struggle
Natasha Lennard
In recent weeks, dizzying statistics have circulated on social media about Amazon’s pandemic-era boom and the obscene wealth accrued by its CEO, and Earth’s richest man, Jeff Bezos. The company reported revenue of $96.1-billion just last quarter, which, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, means Bezos could personally pay Amazon’s 876,000 workers a bonus of $105,000 each – and would still be as filthy rich as he was prior to the pandemic. Warehouse workers in the US and UK, who have been forced into perilous proximity while dealing with the surge in orders, have been offered a $300 holiday...
How do we Fix Long-Term Care?
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- Published on Wednesday, 16 December 2020 10:32
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Bayer's court case against beekeepers
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- Published on Wednesday, 16 December 2020 06:24
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A,
Bayer is trying to take away our right to protest against its bee-killing pesticides.
Activists are fighting back in court -- but they’re running out of funds to pay the lawyers, so they've asked for your help, A.
Can I add your name to those standing up to stop Bayer's attack on democracy?
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Donate CA$89 nowDonate another amount
Thanks for all that you do,
Christian and the team at SumOfUs
Here's the email I sent yesterday:
Bayer is hellbent on shutting down peaceful protests of beekeepers.
So a group of activists is taking Bayer to court.
Will you chip in CA$90 to stop Bayer's attack on our democracy?
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Elliot Page here
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- Published on Thursday, 22 April 2021 20:00
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r33
Hi friend,
It's Elliot Page here. You might know me from the movie Juno or the Netflix show Umbrella Academy.
Today, I’m writing to share with you why I’m supporting Stand.earth, and I’m asking you to join me.
GIVE A (DOUBLED) GIFTLast year I co-directed a documentary about the impacts of environmental racism. Our film, “There’s Something in the Water”, is a terrifying look at ecological disasters in Indigenous and Black communities in my home province of Nova Scotia in Canada.
Toxic industries, pollution, and climate change disproportionately affect Black and Indigenous people. These communities who have no say in industrial mega projects are the ones who suffer the most.
We need to talk about this more. And we need to work together to stop it.
This is why I care so much about the work that the...
Friedrich Engels Thinking on Science in These Times
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- Published on Wednesday, 16 December 2020 03:44
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Friedrich Engels’ Thinking on Science in These Times
Prabir Purkayastha
Reflecting on the contributions of Friedrich Engels (1820 – 1895) on his bicentenary brings three issues to mind. The first issue is, how do we read his writings today? A lot of his writings were polemics against defenders of the existing order, or those proposing theories that ran counter to Marx and Engels’ views on the struggles of the working class for a new and just society. To understand this point, we have to consider what Engels was writing against, as those figures, such as Eugen Dühring, live on only because of Engels’ Anti-Dühring. The second problem is the...
Read more: Friedrich Engels Thinking on Science in These Times
An update: lawsuit against the RCMP Commissioner and RCMP spying
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- Published on Tuesday, 15 December 2020 13:54
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Dear Friend,
Last month, we announced that we are suing RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki to demand answers about RCMP spying on Indigenous land defenders and climate organizations.
In 2014, we filed a complaint against the RCMP for spying on climate organizations and Indigenous nations opposed to the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline project.
In 2017, after we filed our complaint, the civilian watchdog Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC), completed an interim report. This interim report was then forwarded to the RCMP Commissioner. The RCMP Commissioner needed to respond for the CRCC to prepare a final report. She sat on this report for over three years.
Today, the CRCC released its final report into RCMP spying that we have been waiting six years for.
The CRCC report details countless examples of RCMP monitoring and spying on individuals who were opposed to pipeline projects.
The RCMP collected and retained opinions expressed by individuals online, and created secret profiles on organizers. They...
Read more: An update: lawsuit against the RCMP Commissioner and RCMP spying
Bayer's court case against beekeepers
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- Published on Tuesday, 15 December 2020 04:18
- Written by editor
Bayer is hellbent on shutting down peaceful protests of beekeepers.
So a group of activists is taking Bayer to court.
Will you chip in CA$90 to stop Bayer's attack on our democracy?
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Donate CA$89 nowDonate another amount
A,
A group of brave activists has been fighting Bayer in court to defend our right to protest, but they're running out of money fast.
And the stakes couldn’t be higher: if Bayer wins, it could shut down protests and call the police any time that peaceful beekeepers want to protest against its toxic pesticides. Other corporations could follow suit. It's a nightmare for free speech.
But the battle is not over -- with your help, Bayer could still lose.
If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:
Child Emergency: Souls in ICE
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- Published on Tuesday, 15 December 2020 02:52
- Written by editor
Judith Deutsch
Reeling from the US election, I hope that the first order of business is reuniting families and restoring children in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody to their parents. A society that can locate possible ice on the moon, whose drones can locate a teenager in Yemen for targeted assassination, can surely use DNA, and compassionate and persistent outreach to find thousands of parents?
These have been years of reeling about the treatment of children: Madeline Albright’s justifying the killing of half-million Iraqi children, Obama’s paying the Mexican government to keep refugee children from the US border at the exact time of the...
Ecosocialist Solstice Artivists Showcase & Block Party
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- Published on Monday, 14 December 2020 15:42
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Read more: Ecosocialist Solstice Artivists Showcase & Block Party
Our 2020 highlights!
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- Published on Monday, 14 December 2020 08:06
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Hi Friend,
If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that defending civil liberties and human rights is imperative.
Our supporters care about many different issues. Whether it’s ending police harms or protecting our democratic rights - we’ve likely secured victories in an issue you care deeply about. Thank you so much for supporting our work this year, and helping us secure victories for our collective rights and wellbeing.
Read on for the BCCLA’s highlights of 2020 – crowdsourced from our team passionately fighting in the courts, advocating for meaningful law reform, and advancing public legal education.
Read our 20 highlights of 2020!Flattening the COVID Curve: Equality not Enforcement
We supported nationwide efforts to protect the rights of the most oppressed during the pandemic to ensure no one was left behind,...
New Vehicle Production Announced at GM Oshawa
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- Published on Monday, 14 December 2020 03:20
- Written by editor
New Vehicle Production Announced at GM Oshawa
Green Jobs Oshawa (GJO) is a project that began in late 2019 in a struggle against the closure of the historic GM Oshawa assembly complex, where the workers are organized into Unifor Local 222. Workers from the main assembly and supplier plants, retirees, activists from other unions in the Durham region and elsewhere, and environmentalists came together to build a movement that pointed in several exciting new directions to address plant closures.
Green Jobs Oshawa challenged – and continues to challenge – the limited perspectives of the Unifor national leadership. GJO argued for nationalization of the plant, conversion of the facility to produce environmentally-friendly electric fleet vehicles for governments, and integration of the complex with a future of democratic planning, sustainable...
Left Coast Events - December 17th - 23rd
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- Published on Sunday, 13 December 2020 14:18
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CUBA: United Action Plan and Timeline to Defeat the Blockade in 2021!
Resolutions: This Action Plan continues to organize and mobilize our forces and allies to pass anti-sanctions, pro-normalization Resolutions in city and state elected bodies, as well Labor Councils, faith-based, and other representative and mass organizations.
- 17th day of each month: We support the initiative of the Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba and growing participation in solidarity actions taking place on the 17th of each month against the U.S. blockade on Cuba, organized by the Canadian Network on Cuba
- December 27, 2020: Solidarity Caravan Against the US Anti-Cuba Blockade. Last Sunday of every month.
- January 3, 2021: The date new U.S. Congress convenes. There may be activities called by our allies and others around this time that we will want to support and participate in with information, signs, literature,...
More Articles...
- We made it through 2020
- Charmin
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- Council This Week
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- Breaking: Trudeau announces $15 billion for climate action but remains silent on TMX
- My favourite part of 2020
- A Country Is Entitled to Refuse to Repay a Debt
