International Day of Solidarity with Palestine
2023-11-29 13:00 - 14:00 (America/Toronto)
When: November 29th, 1 pm
Where: Meet outside Sidney Smith Hall
WHAT TO EXPECT: Participants will march collectively to a predetermined sit-in location. The objective is to amplify Palestinian voices and advocate for change at U of T. To express your support and view our demand list, please refer to this letter.
To stay updated/in the know re: any changes or additional information, please follow @studentsforpalestinetoronto on Instagram.

A Classic Palestinian Film Screening
2023-12-12 18:45 - 20:30 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education and the Socialist Project proudly present Fertile Memory as the next movie shown in our ongoing FilmSocial series.
As a way to shine a light on the current tragedies occurring in Palestine and to explore the history of the decades long occupation we have chosen to screen Fertile Memory. Fertile Memory is the feature debut by Michel Khleifi and the first full length film shot within the occupied West Bank “Green Line”.
In Fertile Memory, Michel Khleifi expertly blends both documentary and dramatic narrative. Released in 1981 and set against the backdrop of Israeli occupation in the West Bank, the film explores the lives of two Palestinian women: Farah, an aging factory worker, and Sahar, a middle class writer. They live quite different lives, but both women are deeply affected by the oppressive Israeli regime and the patriarchal society they live in.
Following the film, there will be an open discussion on the broader context of the film and some of the key questions raised by it.
Register at tickettailor to save your seat.

The role of unions in fighting Israeli apartheid
2024-01-13 14:00 - 16:00
Join Labour for Palestine Canada for panel presentations and discussion with labour activists and organizers from Palestine, Europe, US and Canada on building a worker-led movement against Israeli apartheid.
zoom.us

The Fascist Threat and What it Means for Working Class Politics
2024-02-09 19:00 - 21:30 | Eastminster, 310 Danforth Ave, Toronto, Canada
“We as a left must build a politics of broad, working-class solidarity to defeat fascism either now or farther down the road than we can currently envision.”
Amidst unfolding environmental disaster, ongoing genocide, and a lack of faith in public institutions, fascist and anti-democratic movements continue to gain political ground, both at home and abroad. How can working class movements respond to these fundamental threats? How can we build a real alternative that can challenge the dominant politics of division and distrust?
To speak to this pressing topic, The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is thrilled to host Adolph Reed Jr. for his re-scheduled special guest lecture, THE FASCIST THREAT: What it Means for Working Class Politics.
Adolph Reed Jr. has been involved in working class politics for half a century. He is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the editor and author of several books on the relationship between class and racism. His writing and opinion pieces have appeared in academic journals and popular magazines including The Progressive, The Village Voice, The New Republic, The Nation, Dissent, and nonsite.org. His latest book are The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives, and No Politics but Class Politics (Eris Press, 2023), co-authored with Walter Benn Michaels. Both books will be available for sale at the event.
Facebook event | Instagram

The Fall and Rise of American Finance
2024-02-10 14:00 - 16:00
Public event at The People’s Forum featuring authors Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno.
It is today all but taken for granted by critical political economists – and by political figures from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders – that finance is parasitic on industry. Financialization, in this view, amounts to financial institutions capturing the state, hollowing out the “real” economy, and thereby hastening the decline of capitalism. But Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno pose a bold challenge to this hypothesis in their new book, The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock. Surveying the last century of capitalist development, they insist that, despite the costs to workers and the middle class, financialization has boosted competitiveness and strengthened capital – all with the support of an ever stronger and more authoritarian state. This has culminated since the 2008 crisis in a new economic regime – “a new finance capital” – marked by unprecedented concentration and centralization in the hands of the “Big Three” asset management firms (BlackRock, Vanguard, Fidelity).

Lessons from Law and Labour
2024-02-13 12:00 - 14:00
Join Labour for Palestine & ACEP-CAPE for Palestine for a webinar featuring South Africa’s High Commissioner to Canada Riaz Moe Shaik; former UN Special Rapporteur Dr. Michael Lynk, and Dr. Katherine Nastovski on international solidarity, labor activism, and civil society resistance for the Palestinian liberation movement.
Our esteemed speakers will cover a range of topics to empower us in our activism. Professor Lynk will share what is going on in Gaza and Palestine right now, drawing on his decades of expertise in labour and Palestine as a lawyer, academic, and Special Rapporteur.
Dr. Nastovski will discuss labour activism for Palestine then and now; what’s worked in the past, what’s changed, and how we can move forward in this moment in time.
The High Commissioner will speak on the ongoing ICJ case against Israel, providing an overview of what’s unfolded in the courts, and how we can apply it to our own labour activism.

IAW 2024: March for Palestine
2024-03-01 - 2024-03-31
This year, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) comes weeks after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dealt apartheid Israel a historic defeat by finding that Israel is plausibly perpetrating genocide against the 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. This decision triggers legal responsibilities for all states to end all complicity and to prevent genocide. Though the World Court has ordered Israel to stop all genocidal acts, including the killing and harming of Palestinians, apartheid Israel continues to massacre Palestinian civilians, destroy infrastructure, including the last functioning hospitals, and aggravate the encroaching famine and the spread of infectious diseases among Palestinians in Gaza, openly defying the Court’s orders.
With effective grassroots campaigning, we can build people power to end this genocide and dismantle its root causes – Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.
Join us by building campaign milestones or mobilizing for new campaigns! This IAW let’s not just educate about Israeli apartheid! Let’s escalate BDS campaigning in all fields and take meaningful steps towards supporting the ongoing Palestinian struggle to dismantle it.

International Women’s Day Toronto 2024
2024-03-02 11:00 - 15:00 | OISE, 252 Bloor St. West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V6, Canada
No One Is Free, Until We’re All Free!
Rally: 11:00 am at OISE Auditorium (252 Bloor St. W)
March: 1:00 pm just outside OISE
Organized by Women Working With Immigrant Women and the IWD Toronto Organizing Committee.

Keep Cops Off Our Pickets
2024-03-25 12:00 - 13:30
Rank-and-file members of CUPE 3903 in collaboration with Scholar Strike Canada and No Pride in Policing Canada are organizing a rally to combat the policing of our picket lines!
When: March 25th, 12pm
Where: Sentinel Rd, York University

The Fall and Rise of American Finance
2024-04-27 19:00 - 21:00 | CSI Annex, 720 Bathurst St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2R4, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is proud to present the Toronto launch of the new book from Scott Aquanno and Steve Maher: The Fall and Rise of American Finance: From J.P. Morgan to Blackrock (Verso. 2024).
Today, it is all but taken for granted that finance is parasitic on industry. Financialization, in this view, amounts to financial institutions capturing the state, hollowing out the “real” economy, and hastening the decline of capitalism. Stephen Maher and Scott Aquanno challenge these arguments in their new book. They insist that, despite the costs to workers and the middle class over the last decades, financialization has boosted competitiveness and strengthened capital – all with the support of an ever stronger and more authoritarian state.
All are warmly invited to join us for the Toronto launch of this insightful and timely book. As global left and progressive forces search for ways to meaningfully confront the ever-evolving capitalism of today, works such as The Fall and Rise of American Finance are a vital tool in understanding the shifting economic landscape we face.
All are welcome to stay following the end of the evening’s program for light refreshments. Copies of the book will also be available for purchase.

Stop the Privatization of Our Healthcare
2024-05-30 12:00 - 14:00
Tell the Ford government to stop the privatization of our healthcare
The goal is to hold a very large protest and march in Toronto starting at Nathan Phillips Square and going to the Ontario Legislature which will be in session with Members of Provincial Parliament there from across Ontario. For those regions that are too far to bus in to Toronto to join the event culminating at the Ontario Legislature, there will be a few large regional events as follows.
Gather at noon at the south side of Nathan Phillips Square across from the Sheraton, 123 Queen St. W. We will march to the Ontario Legislature at Queen’s Park.

We Need Social Housing
2024-06-15 11:30 - 13:00 | Allan Gardens, 160 Gerard St E, Toronto, ON, Canada
For nearly a year and a half, 230 Fightback has been working to prevent the owners of the land at 214-230 Sherbourne, KingSett Capital, from building a luxury condo and we have pressed for social housing that meets the needs of the community to be created instead.
KingSett is now ready to sell the site to the City but is holding out for a price that will cover the costs of speculating on the property. We are calling on City Hall to increase the pressure on KingSett to sell by taking a no business as usual approach with the developer. In the meantime, the site sits empty in the middle of a housing crisis, which is a shame and a disgrace.
Dundas and Sherbourne is in the heart of the Downtown East and Mayor Olivia Chow and the rest of City Council have to understand what a disaster it would be for the local community if expensive luxury housing were built there. They also need to appreciate how great the need is for social housing in the immediate area.

Pelicula | Israelism
2024-06-23 14:00 - 16:00
A powerful 2023 documentary “Israelism,” directed by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen. This eye-opening film follows two young American Jews as they travel to Israel, confronting challenging truths that transform their perspectives and spark a movement to redefine their community’s relationship with Israel. Featuring interviews with leading academics and activists, “Israelism” sheds light on overlooked narratives in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Despite controversy and attempts at censorship, this award-winning documentary continues to inspire important conversations about justice, identity, and truth.
Tickets: $10ea, Students: $5ea.
Venue: Back Lane Studio, 9 Neepawa Ave, Toronto.

From Genocide in Gaza to Decolonizing Palestine
2024-07-04 19:00 - 21:00 | Friends House, 60 Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1C7, Canada
Toward A Democratic State For All Between the River And The Sea
JULY 4, 7PM
FRIENDS’ HOUSE, 60 LOWTHER AVE.
Also on zoom!
While our attention and hearts are focused on Gaza, civil society cannot abandon the wider fight for Palestinian rights and a better future for everyone between the River and the Sea.
Jeff Halper is a Jewish Israeli-American peace activist and author, co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and a founding member of the Palestinian-led One Democratic State Campaign.
SPONSORS:
Science for Peace, Socialist Project, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace.
ENDORSERS:
Independent Jewish Voices, Jewish Faculty Network, United Jewish Peoples’ Order, Action for Palestine, Canada Palestine Mental Health Network, Palestine Network – Shining Waters Region (United Church of Canada).
REGISTER: Zoom | In person.

Transforming the City: Municipal Politics, Socialist Strategy, and Organizing to Win
2024-09-03 19:00 - 21:00 | CSI Annex, 720 Bathurst St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2R4, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is pleased to be presenting “Transforming the City,” a discussion of municipal politics, socialist strategy, and organizing to win.
From unprecedented Palestine solidarity actions and struggles against police violence to massive climate strikes and marches against healthcare privatization, recent years have seen a growing number of people taking to the streets, causing Toronto to re-emerge as a site of popular struggle.
The buildings, roads, and sidewalks of the city itself are what’s seen in news coverage and by those on the ground, but what of the institutions and municipalities that often go less noticed? What makes city hall different from provincial or federal governments, and does this change how we organize for transformational change? How should the socialist movement relate to electoral politics at the municipal level?
All are welcome to join us as we discuss these topics and many others that have often tripped up and confounded socialist activists throughout the years.
Speakers:

Jonathan Rosenblum is a Seattle-based union and community organizer, and the author of Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the Revival of the Labor Movement (Beacon Press, 2017). He worked as a community organizer for Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and has a forthcoming book on the 10-year Seattle experience of Marxist political struggle inside the modern-day capitalist state (OR Books, to be published in 2025). More about him and his work can be found at jonathanrosenblum.org.
Shelagh Pizey-Allen is the executive director of TTCriders, a membership based organization of transit users.
Steven Tufts is an Associate Professor of Geography in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change at York University. His recent research focuses on the links among organized labour,urban economic development, and populism.

Film: Love and Justice
2024-09-11 19:00 - 21:00 | Royal Cinema, 608 College St, Toronto, ON, Canada
Casa Salvador Allende Toronto (CASAT) commemorates the 51st anniversary of the Chilean coup on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, at 7:00 PM at the Royal Theatre with a special screening of Love and Justice: In The Footsteps of Beethoven’s Rebel Opera. This 83-minute documentary by Kerry Candaele, filmed in Valparaíso, Chile, weaves together Beethoven’s Fidelio with the story of composer Jorge Peña Hen, who was executed during the 1973 coup. The film, a poetic tribute to the victims, will be followed by a discussion with the filmmaker, who will be a special guest at the screening.
Purchase Tickets

March Against Racism
2024-09-15 13:00 - 15:00 | Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen St W, Toronto, ON, M5H 2N2, Canada
At this crucial moment, their voices will be invaluable to our collective call for action and change. Right now, we’re witnessing a disturbing trend in anti-immigrant sentiment. Just this week, provincial politicians across the country have scapegoated refugee claimants to distract from their own failures.
Prime Minister Trudeau promised a regularization program for migrants. Instead of ensuring more rights for migrants, the federal government is adding fuel to the fire of growing anti-migrant sentiment with its policies; it has capped study permits, barred most study permit holders from bringing their families, limited permanent residency, slashed work permits, refused to renew permits for graduated international students, imposed visas on Mexico, and increased visa denials. These actions betray the promises made and undermine the rights of migrants across the country.
Now is the time to take action against migrant exclusion and push for permanent resident status for all.
As Parliament returns next week, it’s crucial that we show up on the street in the thousands.
Date: Sunday, September 15
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: City Hall (corner of Queen and Bay)

Grassy Narrows River Run 2024
2024-09-18 12:00 - 15:00
On September 18th, 2024 we invite you to walk with Grassy Narrows youth and community members to show that we are with them on their path to achieve mercury justice and freedom!
Grassy Narrows people are powerful leaders in the movement for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice. They have shown that together we can fight for justice against all odds and make real gains. But so much is still needed to right the wrong of mercury poisoning in Grassy Narrows.
RSVP here to say that you will show up in solidarity and walk with them in their fight for justice. RSVP is intended to help us plan for the day but is not mandatory to attend the event. Grange Park, Toronto, 12pm.

100% Tariffs on China’s EVs
2024-09-19 19:00 - 20:00
The Liberal government recently imposed a 100 percent tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles. What’s at stake in this move? Is this simply another attempt to cozy up to America’s new cold war against China? Is it an attempt to gain support from autoworkers in the leadup to the next federal election? EVs may not be the only answer to the climate catastrophe we face today, but are they part of the solution? Join us for this special webinar on Canada-China relations and the environment.
Sam Gindin is co-author (with the late Leo Panitch) of The Making of Global Capitalism (Verso) and the former research director of the Canadian Auto Workers from 1974-2000. He currently works with the Socialist Project in Toronto.
Elizabeth May is the co-leader of the Green Party and represents the Vancouver Island riding of Saanich-Gulf Islands on the territory of the W̱SÁNEĆ Nation. She has worked as a lawyer and government policy advisor and was the executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada for 17 years.

South Africa’s 2024 Elections
2024-09-24 14:30 - 16:00
South Africa’s 2024 elections, which saw the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lose its governing majority for the first time since independence 30 years ago, represents a milestone in the long trajectory of South Africa’s post-apartheid democratic transition. Yet its implications for popular participation and new paths forward remain contradictory and uncertain.
Dale McKinley assesses the ANC’s political-ideological and electoral journey since 1994, and explores what the results of the 2024 elections and subsequent formation of a ‘Government of National Unity’ tell us about both South Africa and the ANC. Is South Africa at a new point of transition – or are we likely to see more of the same uneven and disappointing liberation movement leadership? McKinley reflects on the new Government of National Unity and identifies emerging challenges for South Africa’s popular sector.
Dale McKinley holds a PhD in International Political Economy/African Studies from UNC Chapel Hill, and is a long-time political activist who has been involved in social movement, community and liberation organisations and struggles in Southern Africa for four decades.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2024, 2:30 PM EST
VERNEY ROOM, SOUTH ROSS 638 – DEPARTMENT OF POLITICS, York University

FilmSocial Presents: BURN!
2024-09-25 19:00 - 21:00 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education and the Socialist Project presents Burn! as the next film in our ongoing FilmSocial series.
Set in the mid 1800s, Marlon Brando plays British mercenary Sir William Walker. He is sent by Britain to the fictional Caribbean island of Queimada. Queimada is a colony of Portugal and Britain is looking to break their control over sugar production on the island. Walker’s mission is to instigate a slave revolt against the Portuguese government under the leadership of dock worker, José Dolores. The uprising is successful, but the rebels reject the new government when it allies itself with the Antilles Royal Sugar Company and Walker must return to put down the rebellion.
Burn! is a 1969 historical drama film directed by Gillo Pontecorvo (The Battle of Algiers). It is the second film in our special series exploring the topic of imperialism. Burn! is set in the time of great historical transformation. When the world was transitioning from colonies, directly controlled by imperial countries, to independent nation-states open to free-trade. The people are promised freedom with their new state, but it quickly becomes clear capitalism cannot live up to its ideals.
The film will be followed by a short presentation and general discussion on the politics and implications of the film’s subject today.
Please note that Burn! is rated R and features violence and some nudity.

Rebuilding Cities and Citizens
2024-10-02 10:00 - 11:30
In Vienna after WWI and Berlin after WWII, the provision of mass housing not only was a response to a dire social need but also served as a key lever for building variants of socialism and liberalism. Zooming into the interplay between political ideologies and the production of space, this book shows that ideologies, understood as political beliefs that underpin everyday life, are never simply ‘written’ into space but that their meaning is made and re-made, negotiated and contested, and sometimes cunningly subverted in and through space.
How people live was – and continues to be – a profoundly political question that involves negotiations of, and decisions on, norms and ideals of citizenship, freedom, equality, property, democracy, gender, and family life – negotiations and decisions that come with legacies that shape the present. What these legacies are in light of the current return of the housing question as a social and ecological question will be the focus of the presentation.
Margaret Haderer holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Toronto. Currently, she works at TU Wien at the Institute of Spatial Planning. The politics underpinning the built environment as well as the latter’s transformation towards greater sustainability are her two key research foci.
Sponsored by: Department of Politics Seminar Series Graduate Diploma in European Studies The City Institute at York University.

FilmSocial Presents: La Llarona
2024-10-30 19:00 - 21:00 | Eyesore Cinema, 1176 Bloor Street, Toronto, Ontario, M6H1N1, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education and the Socialist Project present La Llorona as the next film in our ongoing FilmSocial series.
La Llorona (Guatemala, 2019.) is the modern re-imagining of the Mexican and Central American folktale about a vengeful ghost who roams near bodies of water mourning her dead children whom she killed after discovering her unfaithful husband. Director and screenwriter Jayro Bustamante places the legend inside contemporary Guatemala at a particularly turbulent time. Retired Guatemalan general Enrique Monteverde is being tried for orchestrating a brutal genocide against native Mayans in the 1980s. Now elderly and ailing he lives comfortably with his wife, daughter, and granddaughter, but is haunted by his past.
This is the third film in our special series exploring the topic of imperialism. Jayro Bustamante uses La Llorona as a way to explore Guatemala’s violent and racist history. The ramifications of the Spanish colonization of Guatemala is still felt today in its race and class struggles. The movie is based on the real events surrounding the presidency of José Efraín Ríos Montt from 1982 to 1983 where he oversaw one of the bloodiest periods in the Guatemalan Civil War. Efraín Ríos Montt was convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013 for the systematic massacre of indigenous communities under the guise of fighting communist insurgents. The verdict was overturned days later.
The film will be followed by a short presentation and general discussion on the politics and implications of the film’s subject today.

How to Unionize Your Workplace
2024-11-02 10:00 - 2024-11-03 16:00
Having problems at work and are not sure what to do? Have you heard about unions and want to know how to get started? Do you lack the confidence to talk to your coworkers about forming a union? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then the How to Unionize Your Workplace course is for you!
Over two days participants will learn what it takes to go from zero organization at work to a functioning committee of coworkers that can take on the boss and win! Together we will learn and practice the ideas, methods, and skills necessary to build power at work. The course will also feature a general discussion of unions: strengths and weaknesses, potential and limits, and why organizing at work should still matter for those who want a better world.
When: November 2-3 (mid-morning until late afternoon)
Breakfast and lunch to be provided.
Where: Toronto, ON (Downtown – venue TBA)
How much: free/PWYC
Who: Anyone curious about how to organize at work!
Registration deadline: Friday October 4.
Please note that we are currently asking potential participants to register their interest. Space for this pilot version of the course will be limited and selections may be made to ensure a diversity of backgrounds and experience.
If you have questions or you’re unsure if this course is right for you, we’d be happy to answer any questions via info@leopanitchschool.ca

The Truth About the ’37 Oshawa GM Strike
2024-12-05 19:00 - 21:00
How did autoworkers at the GM plant in Oshawa in 1937 beat a rabidly anti-union government, a hostile press, and the world’s largest corporation? The conventional wisdom popularized by academic Irving Abella has obscured the truth about the ’37 strike for 50 years. Abella claimed the international UAW was a hindrance, not a help. He downplayed the role of both reds and rank and file workers. And Abella completely ignored the role of women strikers, stewards and bargainers.
Tony Leah reveals what actually took place at the Oshawa GM plant in 1937 through the voices and actions of rank-and-file workers and shop-floor activists that have been covered up for decades. We need to study the lessons of the ’37 strike; it can provide a guidepost for workers today who are striving to revive a fighting labour movement that can win.
Tony Leah is a long-time union activist with experience in bargaining, shop-floor representation, labour education, and political mobilization. A maintenance and construction welder with GM, Oshawa for nearly 40 years, he has held many positions at Local 222 and with the national union. He holds an MA in Labour Studies (2023) from McMaster University and lives in Toronto.
Oshawa Book Launch
Thursday, December 5, 2024 from 7-9 pm
44 Bond St. E., Oshawa
(This building was built by the union and was the UAW/CAW Union Hall from 1951 to 1990.)

Climate Change is a Class Issue
2025-01-14 18:00 - 19:30
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is honoured to host Sarah Glynn and John Clarke to launch their book Climate Change is a Class Issue as the first installment in the school’s brand new webinar series!
The capitalist system, which sees everything in terms of profit, is exploiting the planet to destruction with the same ruthless logic that it exploits workers. The threat from climate change, and from capitalism’s treatment of the planet as an infinite resource, is so large that our societies seem afraid to confront it; but when we understand that this threat comes from the same capitalist forces that dominate our everyday lives, the way forward becomes clear. The fight against the system that is destroying our planet, is the same as the fight against the system that is producing ever more mind-boggling inequalities.
This small book – or booklet – is addressed, primarily, to a working-class audience because most books on climate change ignore working-class concerns; because the working class will be affected first and worst, despite being least responsible; and because the people most responsible for climate change are too vested in the current system to countenance significant disruption, while the combined power of the working class is the force that can bring the world to its senses.
All are welcome to join us for this special online book launch as we hear from the authors and discuss the pressing issues raised by the book. A free e-book is available now via climateandclass.net.

Framing Resistance: Palestine to Toronto
2025-01-31 12:00 - 2025-02-28 18:00
Photography Exhibition and Fundraiser. A tribute to independent media working for Palestine.
See this exhibition honouring independent media – photographers, video artists, journalists, artists – who’ve been tirelessly dedicated to covering the Palestinian solidarity movement, in Toronto and Palestine. It’s a fundraiser for CPFQ – Support the Children of Palestine – so come and buy a piece to commemorate this historic moment!
Pamenar Cafe
307 Augusta Ave (in Kensington Market)
Jan 31 – Feb 28
Instagram poster.

Book launch: Against the People
2025-02-18 19:00 - 21:00 | CSI Annex, 720 Bathurst St, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 2R4, Canada
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is thrilled to host the official launch of the new book Against the People: How Ford Nation is Dismantling Ontario, with editors Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli.
The election of the Doug Ford–led Progressive Conservatives unleashed an aggressive and undisguised market fundamentalism. Ford’s government has taken the assault against the social welfare state, labour and environmental protections to new and unprecedented heights. Maintaining a permanent era of austerity has not only steadily reduced the public sector as a proportion of the provincial economy but has also reduced the social protections available to Ontarians.
Against the People is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth look into the devastating policies of the Ford government across a wide range of public policy issues: from health care, municipal, education and judicial restructuring, to economics, arts, labour, environmental, housing and Indigenous lands. Written by on-the-ground experts and focused on the Progressive Conservatives since coming to power in 2018, this book showcases the politics of dismantling a province.
The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is pleased to be hosting this launch event with the support of the book’s publisher, Fernwood Publishing, and the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Also featuring the following authors to speak to the issues raised in their respective chapters:

Chris Chandler – Schools for Sale
Katherine Nastovski – Unequal Ontario
William Paul – Riding the Gravy Train
Venai Raniga – Manufacturing a Fiscal Crisis
Maria Rio – Why Are People in Ontario Hungry?
Mark Winfield – Locking in Unsustainable Development

Lessons from the US Labor Party for Working-Class Politics Today
2025-02-20 20:00 - 22:00
Following the Democratic Party’s 2024 loss – made possible by the Democrats’ longer-term abandonment of their working-class base in favor of “moderate” wealthy suburbanites and Wall Street financiers – it’s worth returning to the experience of the US Labor Party in the 1990s.
The limits of that effort are well know; most obviously, there’s no Labor Party today. But it is equally clear that failing to develop a working-class alternative to the Democratic Party will only result in workers continuing to drift into the arms of an ascendent right-wing MAGA politics. A new approach to labor left politics is desperately needed.
That’s what this event tries to begin to think through by asking: What lessons can be learned from an earlier effort to organize an independent labor party? What did it take to launch the US Labor Party in 1996? How can that effort inform current work to build a serious, working-class alternative to the two corporate parties?
Panelists:

Carl Rosen, General President, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. Former participant in the Labor Party organizing efforts.
Katherine Isaac, coordinator Campaign for Postal Banking at the American Postal Workers Union. Former Secretary-Treasurer of the Labor Party.
Howard Botwinick, Associate Professor of Economics at SUNY Cortland, former Vice Chair of the New York Labor Party.
Mark Dudzic, longtime union activist and former national organizer of the Labor Party, and current chair of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer Healthcare.

Sponsored by DSA National Labor Commission, Socialist Register, Rank & File Project, UAW Region 9A, United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America.

CONTROL AT WORK in the Age of AI
2025-03-01 19:00 - 21:00 | Trinity-St. Paul, 427 Bloor St W, Toronto, ON, M5S 1X7, Canada
You are warmly invited to join us for the 2025 edition of the Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education’s annual winter lecture! We are overjoyed to be welcoming Nicole Aschoff to deliver this year’s lecture. This event marks the third edition of the school’s annual winter lecture, held in the memory of the late Leo Panitch.
Artificial intelligence will bring the final destruction of good jobs. Soon all jobs will be subject to elimination or degradation! Or so we are told. This technologically determinist vision, while pervasive, ignores the power of working people to shape the future.
What exactly is artificial intelligence? And how is it being used to restructure work? More importantly, how can ordinary people fight for, and win, control in the workplace?
This wide-ranging discussion will examine the modern landscape of work, drawing on the lessons from the past to better prepare for the struggles over automation and artificial intelligence ahead.
When – Saturday March 1 – Doors: 7:15pm, Start: 7:30pm.
Where – Gymnasium, Trinity St. Paul’s United Church, Toronto.
How – Register for free via tickettailor.
