Archives
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Amazon Is a 21st-Century Digital Chain Gang
When Amazon announced plans to locate a $5-billion, 50,000-employee complex as its second headquarters somewhere in North America, state governments and municipalities fell over themselves offering billions of dollars in tax abatements and corporate subsidies to secure the prize. Keep reading »
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The Geopolitics of the Kurds and the case of Rojava
How does the military cooperation of the Kurds in Rojava and Northern Syria with the USA, Russia and other forces affect their standing in the larger Syrian context? Keep reading »
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Fragmentation in Toronto’s Hotel Sector
The intensity of the current conflict between UNITE HERE and its trusteeship of Local 75 and Unifor’s formation of a new local of hospitality workers (condemned by most of the labour movement as a raid) makes critical self-reflection and discussion especially difficult. In this essay, Steven Tufts attempts to put this clash into perspective and offers ways forward that point to a unity beyond the current polarizing divisions in the sector. Keep reading »
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BDS Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Norwegian parliamentarian Bjørnar Moxnes has officially nominated the BDS movement for Palestinian rights for a Nobel Peace Prize. He did so with the support of his party, the progressive Rødt (Red) Party, explaining why BDS “should be supported without reservation by all democratically-minded people and states.” Keep reading »
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At the Interstices of Race, Class and Imperialism: A. Sivanandan (1923-2018)
Ambalavaner Sivanandan, who has died aged 94 in London on 3 January 2018, was an organic intellectual working at the interstices of race, class and imperialism in the movements in which he was unconditionally immersed. A skillful essayist and gripping orator, he chiselled powerful idioms and imagery which travelled across his writing, and from his speeches to his writing, and back again. His prose was crafted not so much to be read quietly, as recited aloud. Keep reading »
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Red and Green: The Ecosocialist Perspective
The contemporary international political economy is marked by a great contradiction. On a planet characterized by finite resources, the economy is predicated upon an absurd and irrational logic of infinite expansion and accumulation. With its fossil fuel based operations continually spewing carbon into the earth’s atmosphere, the capitalist system’s productivist obsession with profit has brought humanity to the brink of an abyss. Keep reading »
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Afrin and the Rojava Revolution
The dark clouds of 21st-century fascism are once again hanging over the heads of the people of northern Syria. As if the inhabitants of the region often referred to as … Keep reading »
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Don’t Let a Union Split Tear the Labour Movement Apart
Dear Canadian union sisters and brothers: There’s a lot to admire about your labour movement. With community organizing, creative street heat, and militant strikes, you’ve just scored the biggest win … Keep reading »
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The Time of Finance
The global financial crisis has done next to nothing to change the convictions of mainstream economists. But the widespread lament over their willful blindness seems misplaced: there was never a realistic possibility that the economics profession would voluntarily break with the methodological sophistication and statistical formalism at the heart of its identity. Keep reading »
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Crisis in the Canadian Labour Movement
A crisis has suddenly erupted within the Canadian labour movement, falling along old divisions of the movement’s archaic organizational structure, and assisted by the lack of any strategic focus or … Keep reading »
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After Carillion: The Struggle to Democratize Social Services
Carillion’s failure has been compared to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, but what the Lehman case shows is that you can engage in behaviour that puts millions out of work, and destroys the hopes of a generation, and not pay any price, or significantly change your behaviour. Keep reading »
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Lula’s Witch Trial: Who Are The TRF4?
Some are calling it the Coup’s endgame, others the “final battle” for Brazil’s next decade. Former President Lula, who held office from 2003-2011 has twice the support of his nearest … Keep reading »