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

The Politics of Ecosocialism

Details: Published on Monday, 26 August 2019 02:20; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1883 ... August 26, 2019
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The Politics of Ecosocialism

Ian Angus is interviewed by Rebel News, a critical source of news and debate centred in Ireland. Ian Angus is an ecosocialist activist and the editor of Climate and Capitalism.

Rebel: The term ecosocialism is in widespread use now. Do you think it’s important that revolutionary socialists identify themselves as ecosocialists and what do you believe is the chief difference between ecosocialism and previous radical left traditions?

Ian Angus (IA): Marx and Engels were deeply concerned about capitalism’s destruction of the natural world, including river and urban pollution, and the degradation of the soil that all life depends on. For them, the word ‘socialism’ included those concerns and the need to overcome them. But in the 20th Century, most socialist organizations treated such matters as secondary, if they addressed them at all. Some even viewed massively destructive projects such as damming major rivers and plowing virgin soils as progressive in some sense.

So for many of us, defining ourselves as ecosocialists is a way of distinguishing our socialism from such environmental...

I've got to be honest with you

Details: Published on Sunday, 25 August 2019 04:26; Written by editor

A, I just want to make sure you saw my urgent appeal.

Right now, SumOfUs is under a massive attack from hackers -- and we think far-right extremists who hate our work are behind it.

The SumOfUs security team is working around the clock to keep our website up, but we need a rapid injection of funds to strengthen our security systems.

Please, can you make an urgent donation to help us stand strong against our attackers?

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

Donate CA$93 now Donate CA$140 now Read more: I've got to be honest with you

PBI on the front lines!

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

Electric Vehicle Production is Possible in Oshawa

Details: Published on Sunday, 25 August 2019 00:50; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1882 ... August 25, 2019
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Electric Vehicle Production is Possible in Oshawa

Green Jobs Oshawa

Green Jobs Oshawa distributed this leaflet at the Unifor Constitutional Convention on Wednesday, August 21. It calls for government action to establish electric vehicle production in Oshawa, under public ownership.

Oshawa could be the manufacturing centre for battery electric vans and other vehicles, anchored by production for Canada Post and other federal, provincial, and municipal government bodies. This can happen, it needs to happen -- and with enough political pressure from workers, the community, and environmental activists, we can make it happen. Maintaining vehicle manufacturing in Oshawa will meet three critically important goals.

1. Jobs

GM’s decision to end vehicle production in Oshawa means the loss of over 5,000 direct jobs of GM and supplier company workers. The loss to the community is far worse -- over 20,000 jobs.

Even with a massive campaign, Unifor was only able to secure a promise from GM to use part of the Oshawa plant to produce after-market parts. If GM delivers on this latest promise it...

An invitation to make history

Details: Published on Friday, 23 August 2019 07:14; Written by editor

Dear friends,

This was the hottest summer ever recorded. June was the hottest June, and July was the hottest month ever. Countries from Cuba to France to Togo and Vietnam experienced their hottest days to date.

The news can be almost as sapping as the heat. But, it’s more important than ever to remain hopeful, especially with less than 2 months until your critical federal election in Canada. That’s why today, I’m inviting you to join the world’s first all ages climate strike this September. Check out our map to find an event near you.

Over the last year, I have been immeasurably grateful for the leadership coming from some of the youngest activists on the planet, who’ve mobilized in historic numbers over the last year to walk out of their schools and strike for the climate.

Now, after a year, they’ve done something new — they’ve asked adults to join them.

The September strike will demonstrate two invaluable principles. Firstly, that solving the climate crisis will involve disrupting business as usual. We should consider joining this walkout as a statement that we’re committed to disruptive, transformative change.

Second, that we elders need to...

I've got to be honest with you

Details: Published on Friday, 23 August 2019 03:42; Written by editor

SumOfUs is under attack -- we suspect far-right hackers.

Chances are, the attackers think they can intimidate us. But they’re wrong -- we’re not backing down.

Can you make an urgent donation to protect our work?

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

Donate CA$93 now Donate CA$140 now Donate CA$186 now Donate another amount

SumOfUs is under attack! We don’t know who’s behind it -- but we suspect right-wing extremists.

They’re repeatedly trying to break our...

Canadas Vampire Pension Plan

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 August 2019 03:12; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1881 ... August 22, 2019
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Canada’s ‘Vampire’ Pension Plan:
How the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board feeds on some futures to secure others

James K. Rowe and Alexis Shotwell

Wet’suwet’en people have never ceded their land through treaty; like many Indigenous people they continue to practice relations of responsibility with the places and beings that give them life, including protecting them from ecological devastation. In January 2019, the RCMP raided Wet’suwet’en territories to end their blockade of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is meant to transport fracked gas from northern British Columbia to the west coast. Images of heavily armed RCMP forcibly removing and arresting land protectors in service of a planet-destroying fuel source was a stark reminder of how colonialism still reigns, even in an age of putative reconciliation. Immediately following the RCMP’s invasion, fierce protests powered by Indigenous people and settler allies sprung up across the country demonstrating solidarity with Wet’suwet’en land and water-protectors. Images of these solidarity events gesture toward real decolonization: honouring Indigenous law and governance over their lands.

Many of us who participated in...

It's vacation time, baby

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 August 2019 03:02; Written by editor

It's vacation time, baby r1 ...

Screwed by Rogers, Telus, and Bell

Details: Published on Wednesday, 21 August 2019 14:14; Written by editor

OpenMedia r1

Paov,

People in Canada pay some of the highest cell phone rates in the world for subpar service—all thanks to the Big Three companies that control the market: Bell, Telus, and Rogers.1

Even worse, the Big Three defied a direct order from the Canadian government by announcing new plans that offer even less data for more money than they were charging before.2

...

protect our water from Nestlé

Details: Published on Wednesday, 21 August 2019 05:12; Written by editor

As local communities start water-restrictions during a very dry summer, Nestlé continues to pump millions of litres everyday -- on an expired permit.

Nestlé's re-applying for a permit any day now and we need your help to show the Ontario government that Ontario's water isn't for sale to satisfy Nestlé's greed.

Will you join the almost 12,000 people who have already called on Ontario to protect our water from Nestlé's greed?

Thanks for all you do,

Amelia, Angus and the team at SumOfUs

Nestlé’s been pumping billions of litres of water for the last three years from a small community in Ontario -- without a permit.

Now, it’s finally applying for a new permit and we need your help to protect Ontario’s water from Nestlé’s greed.

Sign the petition

4.7 million litres of fresh water...

A Nightmare of Homelessness: A Knapsack Full of Dreams

Details: Published on Wednesday, 21 August 2019 02:22; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1880 ... August 21, 2019
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A Nightmare of Homelessness: A Knapsack Full of Dreams

John Clarke

Cathy Crowe’s book A Knapsack Full of Dreams: Memoirs of a Street Nurse comes out of decades of witnessing and challenging a growing blight of destitution and poverty in Toronto that has developed with the advance of the neoliberal agenda. In writing this review, I should make clear that I have known Cathy for a good part of that time, and in my years as an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) have dealt with her as an ally, tackling the same issues and confronting the same injustices. We have worked in different organizations and sometimes taken significantly different approaches, but a sense of common purpose has always existed. Doubtless, my appraisal of her book will reflect this.

Cathy’s role and focus are very much reflected in the term by which she describes herself, that of Street Nurse. As she mentions, this label stuck after "a homeless man across the street yelled out in a jovial manner, ‘Hey, Street Nurse’" (p.125)....

Want a better cell phone deal?

Details: Published on Tuesday, 20 August 2019 09:54; Written by editor

OpenMedia r1

...

SEA Events August 20

Details: Published on Tuesday, 20 August 2019 08:48; Written by editor

SEA Events August 20 r1 ...

Correction: Budget Consultation Report

Details: Published on Tuesday, 20 August 2019 08:30; Written by editor

NationBuilder r1

My apologies for the inaccurate title in the email this morning. This email is about the recently released budget consultation not the Red Women Rising report, which we helped promote in March. -Omar Chu, Communications and Outreach Assistant

Report Now Available! Red Women Rising

Details: Published on Tuesday, 20 August 2019 08:04; Written by editor

NationBuilder r1

Every year, the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services receives input from British Columbians on issues affecting them and what the priorities should be for the next budget. The BC Poverty Reduction Coalition wrote a submission to the all-party committee pushing for the substantial investment needed for an effective poverty reduction plan. The Committee's final report includes 106 recommendations for the next provincial budget and provides a summary...

Imagine a Free Palestine

Details: Published on Tuesday, 20 August 2019 03:04; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1879 ... August 20, 2019
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Imagine a Free Palestine

Justin Podur

I wrote Siegebreakers because I can’t liberate Gaza or Palestine, but I can dream about it. I wanted it to be a proximate dream, a dream of the next step from now, not a distant dream that depends on too many unpredictable things going right. I wanted to write about how just a few things going right could change the whole thing -- to show, through fiction, the real fragility of the apartheid system that always seems so invincible.

Gaza is besieged. Its children are systematically malnourished. Its economy has been under an active program of what scholar Sara Roy called "de-development" for decades. Israeli drones watch everything that happens. Israeli towers guard the wall that surrounds the enclave on three sides. On the side facing the sea, Israeli gunboats shoot at its fishers. At their own discretion, Israeli warplanes and artillery drop bombs where they please, always with the most convincing of pretexts. Sometimes they are solemnly warned by other Western politicians to ensure their bombs are...

German Unions and the Climate Crisis

Details: Published on Monday, 19 August 2019 02:34; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1878 ... August 19, 2019
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German Unions and the Climate Crisis

Mark Bergfeld

If the summer holidays interrupted the school walkouts, the teenager-led Fridays for Future movement hasn’t let up its fight to save the planet. Ever since the start of the movement, leaders like Sweden’s Greta Thunberg and Germany’s Luisa Neubauer have worked to build broader social ties than previous generations of environmental activists, including with organized labor. In this spirit, September 20 will see the beginning of the "Earth Strike," a planned week-long general strike around the world to stop production and draw political attention to the climate emergency.

The need to "save jobs" has historically been counterposed to the call to shut down harmful industries. Yet the sheer scale of the catastrophe we face has focused minds on the need to overcome the divide between green and labor activism. In particular, the mainstreaming of the demand for "climate justice" -- arguing that the poor, vulnerable, and exploited shouldn’t be the ones paying for the transition to a green carbon-neutral economy -- has shown that saving the...

Kashmir, Solidarity and the Canadian State

Details: Published on Sunday, 18 August 2019 07:26; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin ... No. 1877 ... August 18, 2019
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Kashmir, Solidarity and the Canadian State

In his essay, "India’s Kashmir Crackdown Poses Risk of War," John Riddell argues that India unilaterally revoked the autonomy of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, flooding the region with troops, imposing a curfew, and shutting down all communications, and imposing direct rule by New Delhi, India’s Hindu nationalist government, under the leadership of Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), radically increased the dangers of regional war. The Indian left immediately denounced the measures and called Jammu and Kashmir occupied territories (further drawing parallels to Occupied Palestine). In turn, this raised questions of international solidarity for the anti-war movement, and in Canada the demands to be placed on the Canadian state. Here Richard Fidler and John continue to discuss the Indian intervention into Kashmir and solidarity responses in Canada.

I agree entirely that Kashmir deserves our solidarity in the face of the Indian government’s repression and denial of its constitutional rights. However, I think we should be specific about what is meant by defense of Kashmir’s self-determination. In this...

The Global Climate Strike on September 20th!

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

We will get our answers

Details: Published on Saturday, 17 August 2019 07:04; Written by editor

r1 Dear friends,

Last week, we delivered close to 50,000 signatures from people across Canada who are demanding a leaders’ debate on the climate crisis. This number included signatures collected by our friends in Our Time hubs across the country, Leadnow, and North 99.

There is a tremendous amount of power on our side but the CBC is still dodging their responsibility to deliver on a leaders’ climate debate. That’s why we have a plan to make sure that no matter what, we get the answers we need. On October 7th, the day of the official English language debate, we’re taking action. Will you join in?

We are in a climate emergency. And there is an urgent need to ensure that climate is front and center during the federal election.

It's up to us to ensure that every political hopeful in this country knows that we are expecting bold and ambitious climate leadership. That's why we also have a plan to support a massive youth-led mobilization on September 27th. It's expected to be the largest global mobilization on climate to ever take place. We will...

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