Category: Social Movements
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Radicalism and Disability Struggles: The Political Life of ET Kingsley
On 15 October 1890, Eugene T. Kingsley’s life changed dramatically and irrevocably. The political trajectory of the North American working class would change as well, even if Kingsley was not … Keep reading »
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The Class Struggle Against the Pandemic
Kevin Courtney, joint General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), summed it up when he said, the best response to the Tory pandemic disaster is to join a union … Keep reading »
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On ‘Rioting’ and State Violence
The uprising that emerged following the murder of George Floyd reignited debates about violence both in the media and among activists and scholars of social movements. Under pressure to distinguish … Keep reading »
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US Election: What Could it Mean for Canada and the Canadian Left?
The US election is about much more than Trump, and it provides some food for thought for Canadian socialists. Keep reading »
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United Front or Bust
People lie. People cheat. People steal. Some get punished. Some wind up taking the punishment for someone else. That’s the way of this wicked world. But a wise man once … Keep reading »
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The Scarlet Standard: Episode 1 – The Christie Pits Riot
In this inaugural episode we discuss the legacy of the Christie Pits Riot of August 1933. As the largest riot in Toronto’s history, this event stands as a watershed moment in Canadian-Jewish history, and should be regarded as a great act of anti-fascist resistance. Today, echoes of this history can be seen in rising tides of fascist violence, the bizarre relationship between Canadian police and Nazism, and the courageous efforts of protesters in the Black Lives Matter Movement. Listen to audio »
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Augmenting the Left: Challenging the Right, Reimagining Transformation
The ongoing wave of action for the defunding and abolition of armed police has provoked a familiar yet unresolved series of questions for the left. Momentous though the movement may … Keep reading »
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The Left in Belarus Is Fighting to Put Social Demands at the Heart of the Protests
The protests in Belarus have widely been painted as a pro-Western “color revolution” or “Minsk Maidan,” ignoring the deeper reasons for popular discontent with president Alexander Lukashenko. Keep reading »
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Political Struggle in the Time of Covid
The film explores the possibilities for socialist change in the pandemic situation. Emergency economic measures demonstrate for example that the “unaffordable” is actually not and the temporary can be made … Watch video »
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Racism, Class Solidarity and Systemic Change
To usher in systemic change, the left faces the challenge of not only reconciling racial inequities with class solidarity, but also avoiding two strategic errors of the past that have consigned the left to cooptation or irrelevance. Keep reading »
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All of Us Began with Marta Harnecker
During an interview, then-Bolivia Vice-President Álvaro García Linera and Spanish state parliamentarian Pablo Iglesias were exchanging ideas on classic texts and their own initiation into politics when the Spanish activist … Keep reading »
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The Politics of the Mask
Today we face the paradox of states simultaneously criminalizing masks, and mandating them because of COVID-19. In this interview, social theorist AK Thompson explores the history of masks in protests and why rioting is politically effective. Keep reading »