Alternative News

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

Oshawa Could be the Engine of a Green New Deal in Canada

Details: Published on Wednesday, 04 March 2020 02:58; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2013 ... March 4, 2020
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Oshawa Could be the Engine of a Green New Deal in Canada

Jon Milton

It was an event that had happened countless times before. General Motors had been producing cars in Oshawa for over 100 years, and the plant had been at the centre of car production in Canada. This time, though, was different. Workers at the plant crowded around the pickup truck and photographed it as it left the line. This one was the last one. The plant was closing.

Rebecca Keetch had been working at the GM plant since 2006. Workers at the plant, she tells Briarpatch, are some of the best in the business. The "fantastic skilled workforce has launched vehicles in record time," and has consistently "exceeded [GM’s] expectations." At its height, the facility in Oshawa employed between 17,000 and 22,000 workers, Keetch says. As that last truck rolled down the line, that number was down to 2,500. By the end of 2020, it will be 300.

When GM announced that the plant would be closing in 2018, the...

Wet'suwet'en Fundraising Concert with Luke Wallace - March 25

Details: Published on Tuesday, 03 March 2020 20:30; Written by editor

Wet'suwet'en Fundraising Concert with Luke Wallace - March 25 r1 ...

People power is winning

Details: Published on Tuesday, 03 March 2020 12:58; Written by editor

Friends,

Last week, Teck Resources cancelled it’s Frontier mine because people-powered organizing has made it clear that climate action needs to be a top government priority. This weekend, the Canadian and BC governments were finally forced to the table to meet with Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs. Again, it was because people power made it happen.

These negotiations should have started years ago, and while they’re important, it’s clear they’re just one step on a long road to actually honouring Wet’suwet’en law and governance systems.1 That’s why, this is a moment to keep the pressure up.

Tomorrow, students across the country will walk out of their classes and stand in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en Hereditary Chiefs and land defenders. They are asking for supporters of all generations to stand with them. See the full list of actions taking place across the country in the description of this Facebook event.

Despite this weekend’s negotiations, industry and government are digging in their heels and claiming that the Coastal GasLink pipeline must be built. It’s clear that this pipeline does not have Indigenous consent and it cannot move ahead.

That’s why, we’re following the lead of...

From Fossil Capitalism to Energy Democracy?

Details: Published on Tuesday, 03 March 2020 01:40; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2012 ... March 3, 2020
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From Fossil Capitalism to Energy Democracy?:
The struggle for hegemony in an era of climate crisis

William K. Carroll

As the 21st Century’s second decade opens, the increasingly severe symptoms of climate change comprise a pivot in the struggle for hegemony, globally and within national formations. With the highest per capital carbon emissions among the G20 states, Canada is a climate laggard and, in some respects, a first-world petro-state (Nikiforuk 2010), organized as a regime of obstruction (the title of an edited collection to be published this May, Carroll 2020d). Building on hegemonic relations installed during successive eras of capitalism, this regime is constituted through modalities of power that protect revenue streams issuing from carbon extraction, processing and transport while bolstering popular support for an accumulation strategy in which fossil capital figures as a leading fraction. The regime incorporates a panoply of hegemonic practices at different scales, reaching into civil and political society, and into Indigenous communities whose land claims and worldviews challenge state-mandated property rights.

This article draws upon a six-year collaborative investigation,...

Workers on US farms victimized for denouncing contract labour abuses and seeking union recognition

Details: Published on Monday, 02 March 2020 05:24; Written by editor

Workers on US farms victimized for denouncing contract labour abuses and seeking union recognition r1

How Socialists Can Govern

Details: Published on Monday, 02 March 2020 01:26; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2011 ... March 2, 2020
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How Socialists Can Govern

Bill Fletcher Jr.

Bernie Sanders’s presidential primary run in 2016 saw 13 million people vote for a democratic socialist. Two years later, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s underdog, grassroots-driven victory against one of Congress’s most powerful Democrats shook the political establishment. Combined with the election of Donald Trump, these two campaigns reignited interest in something many on the left had shied away from for the better part of a century: electoral power.

But what is electoral power? Many political theorists distinguish between "state power" and "governing power." The "state" -- as described here -- is not simply a series of apparatuses but instead the representation of the balance of class forces, with a hegemonic bloc -- made up of institutions like the police, Congress, and the Federal Reserve -- looking out for the long-term interests of the dominant class -- in our case, the 1 per cent. There are different fractions in the 1 per cent with interests that sometimes diverge. They might receive differing degrees of support from the state and sometimes...

Re. Apple

Details: Published on Sunday, 01 March 2020 08:02; Written by editor

We’re in the headlines after we stunned everyone at Apple’s big shareholder meeting this week!

Thanks to your signing, sharing and emailing your pension and investment funds, we got FOUR TIMES as many votes for human rights at the annual meeting than in any previous year.

newspaper headlines that read apple investor vote sounds warning over china app takedowns apple shareholders call for human rights transparency and apple survives shareholder revolt over free speech from the new york times financial times and telegraph

It was an unforgettable day for Tibetan-American activist Sonamtso and SumOfUs’ very own Vicky. I couldn’t make the trip to California, so I stayed glued to my phone for updates!

Sonamtso and Vicky after the AGM. Watch video on Facebook or on YouTube.

Armed with our 130,000 strong petition -- signed by SumOfUs members like you -- the intrepid pair made their way to the Steve Jobs Auditorium at Apple HQ, California.

Sonamtso was excited and nervous. It was up to her to make a speech to persuade Apple’s board to take action on free expression. She...

Rights Against the Machines

Details: Published on Sunday, 01 March 2020 05:28; Written by editor

LeftStreamed — Recorded in Toronto, 26 February 2020

Rights Against the Machines:
Organizing Food Courier Work in Toronto and Bologna

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers is leading a drive to unionize Foodora bike and car couriers in Toronto – the first case of these food courier workers to unionize in Canada that is currently before the Ontario Labour Relations Board. In Bologna, Italy, the Riders Union Bologna (RUB), representing food delivery workers in that city, has recently met with some degree of success. This panel discussion explores the experiences of both campaigns in an effort to learn more about how unionizing can transform working conditions within the context of a rapidly emerging platform capitalism.

Introductions by Tim Bartkiw and Bryan Evans. Presentations by:

Marco Marrone (Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Venice)
Iván Ostos (Bike Courier, Foodora)
Liisa Schofield (Lead Organizer, Canadian Union of Postal Workers)

Click here to view presentation

Share on Facebook

LeftStreamed YouTube channel

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( LeftStreamed Production ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Produced by the LeftStreamed Collective. Viewers are encouraged to
distribute widely. Comments on the video and suggestions...

Of human rights & rail blockades

Details: Published on Wednesday, 18 November 2020 13:22; Written by editor

Contesting Bill 168

Details: Published on Saturday, 29 February 2020 06:34; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2010 ... February 29, 2020
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Contesting Bill 168:
Controversial Antisemitism Bill Passes Second Reading in Ontario

Independent Jewish Voices

Independent Jewish Voices Canada is deeply dismayed and concerned with the Ontario Government’s decision to unanimously approve Bill 168, the Combating Antisemitism Act, on its second reading at Queen’s Park yesterday. The Bill seeks to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) flawed and controversial definition of antisemitism.

Bill 168 was approved on second reading by a vote of 55-0, and now goes to the standing committee on justice policy for review and public input before a final vote. Particularly concerning is that not one NDP MPP voted against the Bill, representing a serious betrayal of the party’s commitments toward human rights and progressive values in Ontario. Conspicuously absent were nearly the entire Ontario NDP caucus, including party leader Andrea Horwath, and anti-racism critic Laura Mae Lindo. In a bizarre move, NDP MPP John Vanthof spoke to concerns around the impact on freedom of expression that Bill 168 represents, but then voted in favour of the Bill.

Continue...
Read more: Contesting Bill 168

Antarctica is too hot

Details: Published on Saturday, 29 February 2020 03:46; Written by editor

Hi A,

The heatwave in Antarctica has broken all records. It’s a terrifying taste of what’s to come if we don’t act now.

It’s time to pull the plug on the fossil fuel industry driving climate change.

And we’ve got a plan to do it. Together, we can force banks to stop financing climate chaos. But we can’t fund this plan without your help.

Can you chip in a special weekly gift to take on the big banks funding climate change?

Donate CA$1 weekly now Donate CA$3 weekly now Donate...

White Supremacists at Legislature, Youth calling for support

Details: Published on Friday, 28 February 2020 23:46; Written by editor

...

Mitsubishi

Details: Published on Friday, 28 February 2020 04:16; Written by editor

Mitsubishi Corporation is trying to build a dirty new coal plant in a Vietnamese community that’s still recovering from industrial disaster.

Mitsubishi’s partners have walked out. Tell Mitsubishi to abandon this dirty new coal plant now.

Sign the petition

In Ha Tinh province, Vietnam, fishermen have already fought off one company which poisoned their coastline. Now they're fighting back against another: Mitsubishi Corporation.

Japan’s largest trading company is making a last ditch effort to secure finance for a big, dirty new coal plant called Vung Ang 2.

The site Mitsubishi has chosen is very same location as the infamous Formosa Steel Plant disaster in 2016, which wiped out the local fishing industry and poisoned 200km of pristine coastline with cyanide.

The local community has taken on powerful companies like Mitsubishi before and right now the company is keenly away of the controversy this project is causing. The future of the...

Canada Lays Bare the Lie it Calls "Reconciliation"

Details: Published on Friday, 28 February 2020 04:10; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2009 ... February 28, 2020
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Canada Lays Bare the Lie it Calls "Reconciliation"

Canada and British Columbia send police to arrest Wet’suwet’en leadership opposing pipeline construction on their land.

Corvin Russell

The Canadian state today is in the throes of a historic crisis of its own making, as it stands off against the Wet’suwet’en Nation, an Indigenous nation in northern British Columbia (BC) that is blocking construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline through their land (called the Yintah). The CGL pipeline would bring fracked gas from northwestern British Columbia to a planned LNG Canada liquid natural gas terminal on the BC coast at Kitimat that is to be built by an international fossil fuel consortium. Condensate, a byproduct of the fracking, will also be used as diluent needed to send tar sands oil through another planned pipeline, the TransMountain Expansion pipeline.

On February 5, after Canada and BC would not concede on any point, talks with the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs broke down, and the following day, heavily armed RCMP were sent in. Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs and their supporters were...

Say it ain't sooooooooooooo ... (this mine is a heartbreaker)

Details: Published on Thursday, 27 February 2020 07:02; Written by editor

Say it ain't sooooooooooooo ... (this mine is a heartbreaker) r1 ...

New danger for uncontacted tribes. Act now!

Details: Published on Wednesday, 26 February 2020 12:42; Written by editor

Please HELP reverse this appointment

Dear friend,

Brazil’s far-right President Bolsonaro is pushing hard to steal indigenous lands and open them up to mining and ranching. If he succeeds, many tribes are likely to be wiped out. His latest move is to appoint a fundamentalist evangelical missionary, Ricardo Lopes Dias, to head the federal department in charge of protecting uncontacted tribes’ territories.

Mr Lopes worked for years with the New Tribes Mission, one of the most extreme missionary organizations. He spent ten years evangelizing tribes in the Javari Valley, home to more uncontacted tribes than anywhere else on Earth. The indigenous organization there has strongly denounced his appointment.

If this move isn’t challenged, Brazil’s long-standing policy to protect uncontacted tribes from forced contact will probably be reversed. Entire tribes could be wiped out by genocidal violence and by diseases like flu and measles to which they have little resistance.

Tell Trudeau to reject this deal

Details: Published on Wednesday, 26 February 2020 09:18; Written by editor

Friends,

By now you’re well aware that Justin Trudeau made a huge mistake supporting police raids on Wet’suwet’en solidarity blockades earlier this week. But, you might not know that he’s on the verge of making another one.

Right now, Trudeau and his Minister of International Trade, Mary Ng, are deciding whether or not they should loan upward of a billion dollars of public money to build the Coastal GasLink pipeline. We can’t let that happen.

Add your name to the petition telling Trudeau, Ng and Export Development Canada to reject the loan.

If we can get 5000 more signatures today, I will personally deliver this petition directly to Export Development Canada’s offices in Ottawa.

Let’s make sure our message is heard loud and clear: no public money for Coastal GasLink. Sign the petition.

Politicians across the country are paying attention to people-power right now. The strength of our movement was enough to convince Teck Resources to abandon its Frontier project earlier this week. It’s clear that communities across the country are ready...

Were winning big

Details: Published on Wednesday, 26 February 2020 06:28; Written by editor

Protesters with Indigenous Climate Action at December’s UN Climate Talks knew Teck mine would be a climate catastrophe. No more! Photo: Allan Lissner

Keeping it in the ground: We’re celebrating some major wins against the fossil fuel industry from around the world over the past week.

In Canada’s tar sands region, the largest ever proposed open-pit mine has been shelved, thanks to people power. The company, Teck Resources, said itself that uncertainty over climate policy and protest in Canada convinced them to pull out. Historic resistance has come from Indigenous Climate Action, 350 Canada and many other groups: they’re pushing for the fallout to make space for a Green New Deal.

In the Philippines, a new ban on all new coal-fired power station projects in the province of Antique has passed after years of anti-coal protests in the region. The provincial board said the ban was because...

#WetsuwetenStrong

Details: Published on Wednesday, 26 February 2020 05:00; Written by editor

The RCMP still remain on Wet’suwet’en territory despite “offering” to leave.

Tell Trudeau out means out and to meet with Wet’suwet’en chiefs and stop the Coastal GasLink pipeline.

Send an email

Three weeks after the RCMP violently raided Wet’suwet’en territory for Coastal GasLink’s fracked gas pipeline, the Prime Minister still won’t call off police presence on Wet’suwet’en territory.

The Wet’suwet’en have their rights and lands to protect, and yet Trudeau is stubbornly protecting Coastal GasLink. It’s time Trudeau took reconciliation seriously and met with the Wet’suwet’en -- without the presence of police with assault rifles.

Thousands of land defenders have taken to the streets, the rails, and investor offices - pushing the Canadian state to recognize Wet’suwet’en sovereignty. Trudeau is putting corporate interests before Indigenous rights. He needs to hear now that there is overwhelming support for the Wet’suwet’en.

The Tyendinaga Mohawk community and allies have been holding a rail blockade on their territory for over two weeks in solidarity with Wet’suwet’en, and...

Far Right Vigilantes Attack Land Defenders and Organized Workers

Details: Published on Wednesday, 26 February 2020 03:04; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 2008 ... February 26, 2020
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Far Right Vigilantes Attack Land Defenders and Organized Workers:
"Rule of Law" and Class Violence

Jeff Shantz

Fascism is bare knuckle capitalism. A key element of fascist mobilizations is a fighting street force. Vigilantes ready and willing to attacked organized members of the working class, exploited, and oppressed. With fascism on the rise across many of the so-called Western liberal democracies, including Canada, we can see horrible manifestations of far Right vigilantism. And we can see how it is legitimated by mainstream conservatives, including elected members of governments. The street fighting groups are key parts of fascists terror to break resistance of the exploited and oppressed. And they operate with the approval of the formal parliamentary party wings.

In the Canadian context we can see troubling manifestations of this far Right vigilantism moving specifically and openly to break the crucial struggles of the current moment -- the Wet’suwet’en land defense, and solidarity actions, asserting Wet’suwet’en sovereignty against an invasion by RCMP in the service of the Coastal GasLink pipeline and the Unifor pickets of...

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